Читать книгу Montana Lawman - Allison Leigh - Страница 11

“S ue, are you sure that report on the treads hasn’t come back from the Feds yet?”

“Good morning to you, too.” Sue Gerhardt was the dispatcher and, Holt knew, the glue that held the small department together. “And, no, it hasn’t. I called the FBI folks yesterday afternoon to follow up on it, too.”

Here was a woman who was completely aboveboard. Helpful. Intelligent. “Anyone ever tell you you’re the perfect woman, Sue?”

“Sure, my husband. How do you think he’s managed to keep me for forty years?”

Holt smiled and headed for the coffeepot, giving a brief wave to Dave through his boss’s glass-windowed office as he went. Dave nodded, his attention obviously taken with the phone call he was on.

“Anything interesting come in overnight?”

“Other than a call from a shelter in Whitehorn that some deputy from down here had been there last night nosing around, asking questions? Not a thing.” Sue’s sixty-two-year-old eyes were sharp. “Don’t suppose you want to share, do you?”

“Sue, I’d share my heart with you if I still had one.” He headed over to his desk by the window that overlooked the library.

Sue laughed. “Yeah, you’re a heartless California boy, all right. I’m onto you, Holt Tanner. Big bad cop, my big toe. Did your little foray into Whitehorn have anything to do with the rumor going around that Harriet had helped some woman escape an abusive husband?”

Not in the way Sue might think, Holt thought. He’d been there because of Molly. But Sue didn’t know that. She was thinking about Lenny. Lenny Hostetler had been plenty angry with Harriet Martel for helping his wife and kids escape their life with him. Maybe even angry enough to cause her harm. But so far they hadn’t been able to locate the guy.

The Boston PD had even put a tail on Darla Hostetler and her family just in case Lenny had the nerve to seek out his ex-wife, but it had been weeks, and the Boston folks were starting to squawk. Lenny hadn’t shown his nose in Massachusetts, and maybe he never would. He’d had plenty of other women on the side, women who had been contacted for information regarding Lenny. Women who had been willing enough to help, given the way things always ended when it came to Lenny—badly. Unfortunately again, none of them had been able to provide much help in finding the guy.