Page 56 of Edge of Steele
“And if you have something we might question and have to research it, you’re wasting more of our time,” Ryleigh quickly said. “Telling us everything you know will help us eliminate you and turn our efforts in the right direction.”
He didn’t move, the old grandfather clock on the wall ticking down. “Fine. Pauline kept in contact with a woman named Carla Nye. She married the guy Pauline broke up with but didn’t take his name. A Dean Keenan. He’s a big wig in the group in Alabama, where she’s from. He got abusive and Carla ran. Came here to stay with us for a month or so until she could get on her feet.”
Russ shot forward on the cushion. “When was this?”
“She left on Wednesday,” Pauline said. “But she didn’t set a bomb. She was never really one for the group’s cause. She only got involved after she met Dean at a bar.”
So she’d been gone for three days and could still be in the area. But more importantly, she could be involved with the bombing.
Ryleigh needed more details. “Do you know where she went?”
Pauline shook her head hard. “We didn’t want to know. That way if Dean came looking for her, he couldn’t get it out of us.”
“But she’s on foot,” Eckles said. “So I doubt she’s gone far by now.”
Pauline looked at her husband. “Unless she hitched a ride, which she’s been known to do.”
“What about her phone number?” Ryleigh asked, feeling as if she was pouncing like a salivating dog.
“I can give it to you,” Pauline said. “But she buried her phone out in the pasture so it won’t do you any good. She replaced it with one of those prepaid ones. Didn’t give us the number for the new one either.”
“Do you know the location where she buried the old one?” Ryleigh asked, her hope fading.
The couple shook their heads.
“Again, we didn’t want to know,” Eckles said.
“When’s the last time you saw this Keenan guy?” Russ asked.
“Dean?” Pauline shrugged, but cut her gaze to her husband. “It’s been years.”
“I need you both to come into the office,” Russ said. “To file an official statement.”
Pauline nodded. “Does that mean you’re done here and won’t search?”
“Oh no.” Russ stood. “We’ll be searching. Make no mistake. I don’t intend to stop until I find Carla’s buried cell phone and other pieces of evidence you might be hiding.”
13
Russ’s deputy arrived to keep tabs on the couple, and he tasked Ryleigh with searching the spare bedroom where Carla had stayed during her visit. Pauline claimed she didn’t have the energy to clean the space after Carla had departed, but Carla had left the room neat and tidy, and Ryleigh had struck out so far.
She made her way to the deep closet and ran her fingers over the floor in the back. The lip of a board protruded a fraction of an inch above the others. Ryleigh got out a small penknife she kept in her jacket pocket and poked the blade between the boards. A section lifted.
Yes!A secret compartment.
She slid into the closet on her belly and pried it completely open, then focused her flashlight into the hole. A shoebox sat in the small space. Her stomach fluttered with excitement.
Calm down. Record the location.
She snapped both close-up and distance photos for scale. Already wearing gloves, she lifted the box out and took several more snapshots, then carried the box to the bed.
She sat and opened it. Schematics for a bomb lay on the top.
That flutter of excitement turned into a rapid beating of wings.
“Russ!” she yelled. “You’ll want to see this.”
His footfalls pounded down the hallway, but she didn’t wait and dumped the contents onto the bed.
