Long Range (Joe Pickett Book 20)(40)

“Follow me,” Bloom said to Joe.

As he climbed out, Joe saw Dennis Sun standing on the porch behind the screen. He wore a flowing white puffy shirt, a long scarf, and a battered straw cowboy hat. Behind his left shoulder was an attractive woman with long straight dark hair. She rocked a very young baby in her arms.

Bloom opened the screen door to the porch for Joe and gestured that he should go inside.

“Hello, Mr. Sun. I’m Joe Pickett. I’m with the Game and Fish Department.”

“I remember you,” Sun said without a smile.

“I’m Becky Barber,” the woman said. “Or Becky Barber Sun, if you prefer.”

“My wife,” Sun said. “And my sweet little daughter, Emma.”

“I’m pleased to meet you both,” Joe said.

Becky Barber Sun looked oddly familiar to Joe, although he was sure he hadn’t met her before. She had a square jaw, lush mouth, and wide-spaced hazel eyes. Her skin was white and flawless.

“Let’s go inside,” Becky said to Sun. “It’s a little breezy out here for the baby.”

Sun looked squarely at Joe while he apparently contemplated inviting him inside his home. Then he said, “Please, come join us.”

Joe followed. When Sun gestured toward a hard-backed chair just inside the doorway, Joe removed his hat and placed it crown-down in his lap.

Sun walked behind a large glass coffee table, but didn’t sit down on the couch behind it. Instead, he turned on a small digital video recorder mounted on a tripod and aimed it squarely at Joe. A tiny red light on the face of the device indicated it was recording.

“This is for my protection,” Sun said. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that I don’t trust authority. I hope you understand.”

“Sort of,” Joe replied. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He was very aware of being taped. Joe didn’t object, though. He had nothing to hide and he’d triggered his own digital audio recorder in his breast pocket before climbing into Sun’s SUV with Renaldo Bloom.

Becky moved to an overstuffed chair next to the fireplace. Above her was a movie poster featuring a very familiar raven-haired bombshell actress named Vera Dayton. Joe recognized her from several movies he’d seen in his twenties.

“Is that . . . ?” he asked.

“My mother,” Becky said. “Emma’s grandmother. Dennis and I met on the set of Savage Beauties, where my mom was the star. Mom doesn’t like to be referred to as a grandmother.”

“I have a mother-in-law like that,” Joe said. He’d never heard of Savage Beauties and he hoped she wouldn’t ask him if he’d seen it.

Unfortunately, the exchange reminded him of who awaited him at his house when he went home.

Sun observed the exchange with barely disguised boredom.

Joe looked up at him and said, “I guess you know why I’m here.”

It was a line he’d used countless times to open up conversations with suspects, potential witnesses, and perpetrators he had dead to rights. The opening had led to a litany of results including confessions, lies, and sometimes an open door to crimes Joe knew nothing about and hadn’t associated with the person he’d asked.

Dennis Sun stifled a smile, and said, “Yes, in fact I do. You have no idea what you’re looking for and you’re asking me an open-ended question to see if I’m gullible enough to confess to something about which you have no idea.”

“Dennis, that’s rude,” Becky said to him.

Joe knew that his face had flushed and he’d looked away from Sun.

“Exactly,” Sun said to him. “Your response is a tell. It’s proof that I hit the target.”

“You did,” Joe admitted.

Sun said, “You need to understand that you’re dealing with a man who has spent his entire life observing and manipulating the feelings and reactions of other people, primarily actors, to obtain a certain end. Every look, every facial tic, every emotion can be seen on the face and from the eyes.

“I’ve spent the best years of my life dealing with sharks and deviants in the business—people who love you one minute and then sever your femoral artery with a bowie knife the next. So forgive my caution. If you thought you could come here and bait me into admitting something, you’ve come to the wrong place and you’re dealing with the wrong man.”

“I’m here for a reason,” Joe said. But he felt humiliated.

“Are you here to arrest me for doing something on my own land again?” Sun asked.

“No.”

“Are you here to ask me if I know anything about the shooting of Judge Hewitt’s wife by mistake?” Sun said.

Before Joe could confirm it, Sun said, “Ah. I thought someone might wonder about that. As soon as I heard about it, I suspected I might get a visit from local law enforcement, although to be honest I expected a cop or the local sheriff. After all, it’s well known the judge and I have an adversarial relationship.”

Joe said, “You were overheard saying you’d like to kill him.”

“Heat of the moment,” Sun said with a dismissive wave. “But do you want to know why it wasn’t me?”

“Yes.”

“Because I wouldn’t have missed,” Sun said with a triumphant smile.