Page 106 of The Newcomer
“Natural causes?”
“No. She was murdered.”
“Well, damn. How about this Declan Rooney? I see he’s got a record. Any idea of his whereabouts?”
“Funny you should ask,” Joe said. “Rooney may have returned to the scene of the crime. I’ve got a witness who spotted someone who looked like him at a Publix right here on Treasure Island, yesterday.”
“That’s interesting,” the deputy said. “You think this witness is reliable?”
“If it was Rooney, he was wearing a baseball cap, so his face wasn’t very visible, but I think we’re going to go back to the store and ask for footage from their security cameras,” Joe said.
“Seems pretty surprising this Rooney character would resurface in a place where he just barely escaped the law the last time around,” the deputy said.
Joe pulled on his jeans and a clean shirt. “I think maybe Rooney left behind something the last time he was here. And he’s just getting around to looking for it.”
His phone beeped and he saw he had an incoming call from Vikki Hill. “Tell me your name again?”
“Warren Davis. Collier County Sheriff’s Office.”
“Okay, Warren. I’ve got to take another call. Text me your contact info, and any other pertinent info you have. I’ll get back to you about Rooney. And thanks for calling.”
Joe disconnected and clicked over to Vikki Hill. “Hey,” he said. “What’s up? Any word from Wingfield?”
“He wants proof that Maya’s with me. Then, he says, he’ll be in touch.”
“Okay, great. Did you call Letty?”
“I did, but she didn’t answer. So I walked over to her unit and knocked on the door. No answer. And her car’s gone too.”
“Dammit. I just left there, not thirty minutes ago. I’ll head back now,” Joe said. He shoved his feet into a pair of flip-flops and grabbed the keys to his truck.
“Okay, don’t panic. Maybe she went to the store or something,” Vikki said. “You haven’t heard from her this morning, right?”
“No.” He was reluctant to admit to the FBI agent that he’d spent the night on a chair outside Letty’s door. “I’ll call my mom. Maybe she sent Letty out on an errand or something. But in the meantime, I just had a call from a sheriff’s deputy in Collier County. That’s south of here, down by the Everglades. Chuck Sheppard’s body was found in a stolen Jeep. Somebody set it up to look like the Jeep had crashed and burned, but the medical examiner found a bullet in his brain.”
“When was this?”
“Some hunters found the remains four days ago, but they think it had been there a few days. They identified the body from fingerprints they recovered from the Jeep.”
“How did they know to call you?”
“Same way you did. They researched his criminal history, saw that we had warrants out up here for him, and for Declan Rooney.”
Vikki Hill let out a long breath. “That’s some coincidence.Sheppard’s killed, and then Rooney turns up—how far away is this Immokalee?”
“Not sure. I think it’s in central South Florida. Maybe two and a half hours from here? Okay, we can talk about this, after I find Letty.”
“Keep me posted,” the FBI agent said.
“HeyMom, have you seen Letty and Maya this morning?”
Ava was sweeping sand from the office floor when her son called. “No. Why?”
“Vikki and I need to talk to her. She’s not in her unit and doesn’t answer her phone. We thought maybe you’d sent her out on an errand or something.”
“I didn’t send her for anything. You sound kind of worried, son. Is something going on that I should know about? It’s not Rooney, is it?”
For a moment he debated not telling her about her ex-boyfriend’s fate. But she had a right to know, didn’t she? And given that Declan Rooney might actually be lurking in the vicinity, they all needed to be on high alert.
