Dead Woman Crossing by J.R. Adler (books on motivation .txt) 📗

Nicole filled a sippy cup with water and handed it to her granddaughter. “Take a big drink.”

Jessica did as she was told, taking a drink and then another piece of banana. Kimberley was grateful Jessica had always been such a good baby. Nicole poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Kimberley.

“Thanks,” Kimberley said, hoping her mother’s displeasure with her had faded.

Nicole gave a small nod. “David went to bail Wyatt out.”

“That’s good.” Kimberley leaned against the counter.

Nicole pretended to be busy with emptying the used coffee beans from the pot and wiping down the counters, but Kimberley could tell she wanted to say more.

“Did you know about the moonshine?” Kimberley pried.

Nicole stopped what she was doing and looked at Kimberley. “No, of course not.”

“Did David?”

“I don’t think so.”

Kimberley took a sip of coffee. “Did you ask him?”

“No. Why would I do that?” Nicole put a hand on her hip.

“Because it’s illegal. Wouldn’t you want to know if he was involved?”

“I’m not the bad guy here, Kimberley.”

“I didn’t say you were, but neither am I. Yet people seem to forget that.” Kimberley drained the rest of her mug.

“No one thinks you’re the bad guy.”

“Okay, Mom,” she said sarcastically, smoothing out her shirt. “I’ve got to get to work.”

Nicole nodded. “Can I drop Jessica off for you?”

There was a pleading in her voice and eyes, so Kimberley agreed with a nod. She knew her mother wanted as much time with Jessica as she could get, so she decided to throw a bone to sweeten the deal. “Mind picking her up too? I’m sure I’ll be working late.”

Nicole’s eyes lit up. “Of course. I’d love to.”

Kimberley walked over to Jessica and leaned down, planting a kiss on her rosy cheek. “Bye, sweetie. Mommy loves you.”

Jessica giggled. “Love you, Ma-meee,” she sounded out.

“We’ve been working on that,” Nicole said with a wink.

“Good morning, Barb,” Kimberley greeted as she walked into the front area of Custer County Sheriff’s Office. “Can you get me the number for Houston Police Department?”

“Of course. Right away!” Barb said eagerly. Her fingers tapped away on the keyboard.

Kimberley stood there, watching Barb. She couldn’t help but let on a small smile. She had been thoroughly impressed by her.

“Got it!”

“Perfect. Walk with me.”

Barb quickly scribbled down the number and came out from behind her desk, following Kimberley through the set of doors, out onto the deputies’ floor.

Hill, Burns, and Bearfield sat at their desks, each of them working on some aspect of the Hannah Brown case. All eyes were on Kimberley as soon as she entered, as if they thought she had news to deliver. When she didn’t make eye contact with any of them and kept walking, there was an almost audible groan as they got back to work. Everyone wanted to solve this case.

Kimberley entered her office, setting her tote bag on the floor beside her desk. Barbara followed behind.

Kimberley handed Barb her cell phone. “Go ahead and patch me through.”

She quickly punched in the numbers and handed it back to Kimberley with a smile. Kimberley held the phone to her ear as it rang over and over again.

“Houston Police Department, this is Officer Cariello speaking.”

“Hi, Officer Cariello. This is Chief Deputy Kimberley King of Custer County Sheriff’s Office over in Oklahoma. I’m conducting a murder investigation, and I’m trying to get ahold of one of your residents. I’d like some Houston PD assistance locating and making contact with a Tyler Louis, born on May sixteenth, 1991.”

“Is he a suspect?”

“He’s a person of interest.”

“Alright, you said Tyler Louis, May sixteenth, 1991?”

“That’s correct.”

“I’ll have an officer locate Mr. Louis and give you a call back as soon as we know something.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” Kimberley said, ending the call.

Barb smiled. “Well, let me get you some coffee and a snack. You’ll need all the energy and brain power for this case.”

“That’d be great. But why don’t you go ahead and join Sheriff Walker and I in the conference room in say fifteen minutes. Have Burns cover the front desk,” Kimberley said, gathering a stack of files, binders, and notebooks into a box.

Barb’s eyes lit up. “Of course.” She smiled and nearly skipped out of the room.

Kimberley carried the box next door to Sam’s office. He was sitting at his computer, sipping coffee.

“I think it’s time we set up the burn room,” Kimberley said.

She immediately walked away toward the lone conference room that rarely seemed to be in use. It had a long table with chairs all around it, fit for fourteen, six on each side and one on each end. There was a massive dry-erase board on the left wall and a bulletin board on the right wall. Kimberley dropped the box on the table.

“Burn room?” Sam stood in the door frame behind her, holding his cup of coffee.

“If you don’t want a case to run cold, you set up a burn room. It’s a dumb homicide joke, but essentially it’s a place where everyone working the case gathers and where we can lay out what we know and what we don’t know.”

Sam looked out at the deputy floor. Bearfield and Hill were sitting at their desks. “Bear and Hill. Get in here. We’re setting up a burn room,” Sam said.

Bearfield and Hill gave each other a quizzical look, but started packing up their things to join Sam and Kimberley.

Kimberley started pulling everything out of her box, hanging up photos of the crime scene on the bulletin board, writing on the whiteboard.

Kimberley wrote “Hannah” on the board and started writing all the names of people connected to her around it, alongside how those people were connected, forming a type of spiderweb by linking the names with lines.

“What’s that?”

“Her web… that we know of. Who she’s connected to and how those people are connected to one another,” Kimberley explained while she wrote her own name on the board, drawing a single line to Hannah’s name. It was a small connection as they had only met a few times,