In the Clearing (Tracy Crosswhite #3)(47)

Just after crossing the bridge, she turned left into a parking lot. The park next to it was nothing more than a tiny patch of lawn with a few picnic tables along the river’s edge. She got out and considered a kiosk of concrete and metal that provided a pictorial and written history of the White Salmon River. Apparently, it had been dammed for hydroelectric energy for decades, until the recent push to restore the natural runs of the Chinook salmon and steelhead migrating from the Pacific Ocean to their spawning grounds.

Tracy stepped onto the lawn and approached the river. The water flowed gently here, lapping over the rocks along the shore. Her eyes were again drawn upstream to where the water flowed more forcefully, water that had carried Kimi Kanasket’s body downstream until the outstretched limb of a sunken tree caught her somewhere near this spot.

A car engine and the sound of tires hitting speed bumps drew Tracy’s attention back to the bridge, and she watched a white-and-blue Stoneridge Police SUV slow as it crossed, not the same patrol vehicle that had been following her trail. The driver peered down at her from behind sunglasses. Seemed the officer really was interested in what Tracy was doing.

She didn’t follow the SUV’s progress, turning her gaze back to the river, but she heard the gravel crunching as the car entered the parking lot and came to a stop. The engine shut off, and a car door opened and shut.

“Excuse me?” This officer looked more seasoned than the officer at the library. He was older and heavier, with a head of gray hair and the stern expression of someone officious. The sun glinted off his sunglasses and the gold badge attached to the grommet just above the breast pocket of his beige short-sleeve shirt. “I’m chief of police here in Stoneridge,” he said. “Lionel Devoe.”

There was that name again.

Devoe hooked his thumbs in the belt of his pants, which hung below his gut. “You must be that detective from Seattle who Sheriff Almond said would be in town. I would have appreciated the courtesy of a call to let me know you’d made it.”

“The officer checking up on me in town never gave me the chance to introduce myself,” Tracy said. “I was intending to stop in and visit, but the day got away from me.”

Devoe removed his sunglasses, slid them into his shirt pocket, and stepped to the side so he wasn’t looking directly into the sun. “So what’s of interest to a Seattle police detective here in Stoneridge?”

Tracy knew Jenny had already informed Devoe of her interest. She figured the other officer hadn’t followed her on his own, but likely had been told to do so when he pulled to the curb after he first encountered Tracy in Stoneridge that morning. Through experience she’d learned that sometimes if she stirred the pot, something unexpected bubbled to the surface. “Devoe?” she said. “Where have I heard that name before?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

She snapped her fingers. “Hastey Devoe. Didn’t he have an auto repair shop back in the day?”

“That was my father,” Devoe said, clearly surprised by the question. “That’s a long time ago. Why would you want to know about that?”

“Name just popped up in conversation. I understand that was a special time around here in Stoneridge. I read about a big forty-year celebration coming up.”

“Sheriff said you’re interested in Kimi Kanasket.”

“That’s right. I am.”

“Kimi killed herself,” Devoe said. “Jumped in the river.”

“Yeah, that’s what I read.”

Devoe looked past Tracy to the river, and he seemed to realize why she’d come here. “This is where they found her body.”

“I know. I thought I’d take a look.”

“Why?”

“I just like to see things for myself.”

“So what’s your interest in Kimi Kanasket?”

“Sheriff asked me to take a look at the file and see if there might be anything there.”

“The file?” Devoe sounded more surprised than curious, like someone who’d maybe gone looking for the file and thought it had been destroyed.

“That’s right. Buzz Almond kept a file.”

“So what do you expect to find?”

“I have no expectations. I like to go into these things with an open mind.”

“Well, I think you’ll find that Kimi jumped in the river. Or fell. It was pretty open-and-shut, as I recall.”

“You recall it?”

“Not really, no. Just a general recollection. Talk. You know.”

“I’m assuming you weren’t a police officer back then?”

“No, not back then.”

“What were you doing?”

“Why are you asking, Detective?”

“Just trying to get a handle on the town back then, what people recall it was like. Were you around?”

Devoe smiled again, but now his expression had the unease of a man trying to get out of a conversation. “Like I said, when a fellow law-enforcement officer comes to town, I appreciate a courtesy call.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“You on your way out?”

“I am.”

“Will you be coming back?”

“I don’t know yet. I guess that depends.”

“Depends on what?”