Merciless

11

Yells of outrage and flailing arms greeted me when I entered tribal police headquarters.

Verline’s family members were attacking Rollie with their fists and their voices.

Several tribal cops stepped in to stop it, but there were five Dupris women and three cops. Bad odds.

So I jumped into the fray. I kept my back to Rollie, figuring he wouldn’t take a swing at me. But someone did land two blows to my head in rapid succession, directly on my ear. The immediate burst of pain caused me to lose my balance.

That pissed me off.

And it didn’t seem like the officers intended to restrain anyone, so I did.

Grabbing a zip tie from my pocket, I snatched somebody’s arm midblow. I jerked the wrist; the body attached lurched forward. I saw a surprised look on Maureen Dupris’s face a split second before I spun her around, immobilized her hands, and shoved her to her knees.

Another zip tie, another flailing arm, and I put Carline in the same position as her sister.

Nita glared at me as Officer Orson restrained her. I faced the other women I didn’t know; I assumed they were more of Nita’s daughters. “You will back off right now, or I will throw all of you in jail for attempted assault on a federal officer, understand?”

The women aimed defiant looks at me.

Nita sneered, “Try it.”

Without breaking eye contact with Nita, I said, “Officer Orson, cuff her.”

Protests rang out around me, but I ignored them.

Once Nita was cuffed, I stepped back. “Put her in interview room one.”

“What about him?” Officer Ferguson asked of Rollie.

“Put him in interview room two.”

“You can’t just leave us out here like this,” Maureen complained.

“I can put you in a holding cell, if you’d rather,” I offered.

“We need to be with our mother. She’s grieving. She’s… not thinking straight.”

I suspected Nita was the one who had sucker punched me. “Her grief hasn’t seemed to affect her aim, so she stays in cuffs until she calms down.” I looked at each one of them in turn. “We’ll interview you separately, so make yourselves comfy on that bench.”

I’d left my purse in my pickup. So much for popping a couple of Excedrin to stave off a headache. I was rubbing the spot between my eyes when Turnbull blocked my path.

His gaze roamed over my face and stopped at my reddened ear. “You always seem to end up in the line of fire.”

“Story of my life. I don’t suppose you’ve got any aspirin?”

“I’ll track some down.” Turnbull threw a look over his shoulder. “The tribal police chief is insisting on sitting in during the interviews.”

I groaned. “More jurisdictional bullshit?”

“Yeah. And without you thinking I’m sexist, I believe the best division of labor is for you to question the Dupris family and I’ll question Rondeaux.”

There was more to it than that. “And we don’t want anyone questioning whether I was impartial with Rollie, since I have a personal relationship with him.”

“Exactly. But I want to observe your sessions and I want you present when I talk to Rollie. Okay?”

“Fine.”

Turnbull opened the door to interview room one.

Nita Dupris stood beside the window. She turned and bestowed another lovely look of hatred upon me.

Tribal Police Chief Looks Twice entered after us, followed by Officer Ferguson and Carsten.

She raised a blond brow at me. “Is it necessary to keep her cuffed?”

I looked at Nita. “Do you plan on taking another swing at me?”

She shook her head.

I signaled to Officer Orson to remove the cuffs. On his way out the door I said, “Would you keep an eye on the daughters?”

We sat around the conference table. I inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly and silently. “Miz Dupris, this is not a formal interview. You are not being charged with anything. Do you understand?”

A fuck-you look, but no response.

“I will need a verbal confirmation from you that you understand why you’re here.”

“Fine. I know why I’m here. Get on with the questions.”

“Did your daughter Verline live with you permanently?”

“No. She’s been livin’ with Rollie Rondeaux for the last three years. But she and her babies had been staying with me.”

“For how long?”

“About five days.”

“Was she in your residence for the majority of those five days?”

“No. She took off the morning of the third day, and she ain’t been back.”

“And this didn’t concern you?”

She shrugged. “Verline… well, she’s young. She’s got two little ones and an old man who don’t care about her or them babies. She needs a break once in a while. She hangs out with her friends a few days and then she comes back.”

“Who are her friends?”

“She don’t tell me.”

“Where does she go?”

Her lips flattened. “She don’t tell me that neither.”

“What’s the longest you remember her being gone?”

“Five or six days.”

“Do you have any idea where she spent those days?”

“Nope.”

“So you weren’t concerned when you hadn’t heard from her?”

Nita shook her head.

“She doesn’t even call you to check on her children when she takes these breaks?”

“Not usually. She knows they’re better off with me than with Rollie.” Nita leaned closer. “I ain’t gonna let that old man have them. He ain’t any more a father to them than the police chief is. And now they’re all I’ll have left of my baby girl-” Her voice broke.

Carsten poured her a glass of water and spoke in low, comforting tones.

When she’d settled, I resumed the questions. “Had Verline mentioned any threats against her?”

“Only the ones from Rollie. He said he’d throw her ass in the street if she got knocked up again.”

That sounded like a Rollie bluff.

“Rollie also said that he’d kill her if he ever found out she was fucking around on him. He’d kill her and not lose a wink of sleep over it. I heard him say that one time when they were fighting on the phone.”

No mistaking that as a bluff.

“Did she owe anyone money?”

Nita frowned. “I don’t know.”

“Had she been accused of taking something that didn’t belong to her?”

“I don’t know. Why does that matter?”

Because her hand had been chopped off like a thief’s. “Was she involved in any illegal activity? Like selling drugs?” I sensed Carsten’s displeasure with the question, but she didn’t object.

“Verline didn’t do drugs, and she stayed far away from people that sell them and do them.”

I asked a couple more questions, but it was becoming apparent Nita was just a babysitter, not Verline’s confidante.

“Can you think of anything else that might help us?” I asked.

“That sly bastard Rollie Rondeaux had something to do with her getting killed. Even if he didn’t do it, he somehow made it happen. He wanted to be rid of her. And he knows I will fight him tooth and nail on getting permanent guardianship. I’ve done it with my boys’ kids, and I’ll do it for Verline’s babies, too.”

“Thank you, Miz Dupris. We’ll be in touch.”

I scribbled in my notebook as Carsten walked out and brought in the next family member.

The interviews with the sisters were short. None of them had seen Verline during the missing days, but all of them were convinced Rollie Rondeaux had killed her. None could offer proof, but they all believed it.

The last sister to come in was Doreen. She asked if her answers would be confidential, and I had a glimmer of hope that she could provide new information. When I asked if she had any idea where Verline might’ve spent those missing three days, she said most likely with Junior Rondeaux.

There was our first lead.

Shay, Carsten, and Officer Ferguson left to escort the Dupris family out of the station, leaving me with the tribal police chief. I said, “No love lost between the Dupris family and Rondeaux family?”

“Ain’t just the Dupris family that takes issues with Rondeaux.”

I shut my notebook before I met the police chief’s eyes. “You’ve known Rollie Rondeaux a long time. You’ve been a cop on this reservation for years. Do you think Rollie could’ve done that to Verline?”

Tribal Police Chief Looks Twice fidgeted. Then he sighed again. “I honestly don’t know. But I do know we’ve been making the man wait for over an hour. I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t left.”

The five of us paused outside the other interview room. Turnbull handed me three aspirins and a bottle of water before leading the way inside.

Rollie was hunkered down in his chair and appeared to be sleeping. But as soon as we gathered around the table, he looked up.

His red-rimmed eyes made my heart hurt.

“Thanks for waiting, Mr. Rondeaux,” Carsten said.

“I don’t suppose you can tell me anything Verline’s family said about me, hey.”

“Afraid not,” Turnbull said brusquely. “So let’s get started. When was the last time you saw Verline?”

“Five days ago.”

“And was everything all right between you?”

Rollie shook his head, and the braids by his temples swayed.

“Care to elaborate?” Turnbull asked curtly.

No response, which annoyed Turnbull.

“It’s okay, Mr. Rondeaux,” Carsten said softly. “Take your time.”

Finally, Rollie said, “We had a big fight. Same old, same old. She’s young, I’m not. She wanted more than just bein’ my live-in, and I wasn’t about to put a ring on her finger.”

“What happened after the fight?”

“Again, same old, same old. She packed a bag, shoved the kids in the car, and took off for her mom’s place.”

Shay tapped his pen on his pad of paper. “How often did that happen?”

Rollie scratched his chin. “I reckon once every two or three months. First time it’s happened since she had the last baby. But that didn’t change the way she acted. Verline don’t call, she stays away until she works her mad off. By that time she’s sick of stayin’ with her mom, so she comes back to me.”

“Were you ever worried when you didn’t hear from her?”

“Worried to the point I file a missing-persons report? Nope.”

“Didn’t it bother you when she took off with your kids and dumped them at her mom’s house?”

“Course it bothered me. Nothin’ I could do about it. She wasn’t gonna listen to me. She was young. And as she pointed out, I ain’t got no claim on her.”

“Did you have any idea what she was doing and who she was doing it with when she disappeared for a few days?”

Rollie went very still. “I heard rumors. Never confirmed or denied.”

“Would any of those rumors ever cause you to become violent with Verline?”

“Huh-uh.”

“How would you describe your relationship with the two children you and Verline have together?”

“No different than the relationships I’ve had with my other kids. They’re both babies. Attached to her teat. Alls they care about is her. They don’t need me for nothin’.”

I got the impression that that didn’t particularly bother him.

Turnbull wrote in his notebook. “You didn’t want more kids? Were you mad that she got pregnant?”

“Having more babies at my age wasn’t something I wanted. It was something Verline did.”

“So you didn’t threaten her?”

“Nope.”

“Do you know anyone else who might’ve threatened her?”

Rollie just stared at him.

Tension thickened the air.

After a minute or so, Shay prompted, “Mr. Rondeaux?”

“I have many enemies, Agent Turnbull. But none have been so bold as to threaten my family, let alone act on it. But perhaps that’s what this is about, eh? To prove a point to me?”

Why hadn’t I thought of revenge on Rollie as a motive for killing Verline? Rollie was well connected, but that didn’t translate into well liked. Plenty of folks would love to see his intricate web of favors dismantled. What better way to do that than to put him under police suspicion that he’d killed his estranged lover?

When Rollie’s gaze connected with mine, I saw nothing in his eyes. My stomach roiled, and my heart nearly stopped. I’d existed in that black vortex for years, and I recognized that blank look in him; I saw it in my own eyes in the mirror after I’d snuffed a life. And for the first time, I realized that my friend… might be guilty of murder. Or more than one murder.

“What about your son?”

“Which son?” Rollie asked Turnbull, tearing his gaze away from mine.

“Junior. He lived with you and Verline for a while. Why did you kick him out?”

He said, “My prerogative,” and nothing else.

For the next four questions, Rollie gave one word answers.

I knew he was done cooperating, the chief knew he was done cooperating, but Turnbull didn’t stop-until Carsten interrupted.

“Thanks for coming in and answering the agents’ questions, Mr. Rondeaux. But I believe that will be sufficient for today. It’s been a tiring day for you; I can’t imagine you’ll get much sleep, but you should go home and try. Someone from Victim Services will be in touch in the next few days. We’re sorry for your loss.”

Rollie nodded. It took him a beat or two to push out of his chair, again reminding me how old he’d started to look. Carsten escorted him out. Chief Looks Twice and Officer Ferguson followed.

Shay’s voice was cutting. “Did you see how he shuffled out of here like an old man? Trying to leave the impression that he’s harmless and helpless?”

I kept my mouth shut. Shay wasn’t asking for a response. Just thinking out loud. I was more than a little confused. More than a little heartsick. I wanted to go home and try to put this day behind me. I interrupted his muttering. “Are we done here, Agent Turnbull?”

He aimed a cool gaze at me. “You are, I suppose.”

“What do you have to do?”

“Paperwork on another case. Might as well finish while I’m here.”

I stood. “Are we in the Rapid City office tomorrow? Or here?”

“Rapid City. Unless you hear otherwise.”

“See you.” I found my coat in the employee breakroom, although I had no recollection of putting it there.

I popped the collar around my ears when the wind sideswiped me. Huge snowflakes swirled, the effect strangely magical set against the black backdrop of the night sky and the foggy beams from the parking lot lights. I was so entranced by the sight that I didn’t notice the hooded figure lounging against the SUV next to my truck until I reached the driver’s-side door.

My hand automatically went to my holster. People always ask me why I leave my coat unbuttoned: I’d rather be cold than have buttons keep me from immediate access to my gun. “If you’re armed, drop it. Slowly. Hands in the air.”

My voice startled him and he leaped back, throwing his arms above his head. “Jesus, you scared the crap outta me.”

“Who is that?”

“Junior.”

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah. And shee, why you always pointin’ a gun at me, hey?”

“Why you always sneakin’ up on me, hey?” I held my stance. “Why are you lurking in the parking lot?”

“Waitin’ for you.”

“Didn’t you tell me you’d be dead if Saro caught you here?” I snapped.

“I… can I put my damn hands down?”

I nodded, keeping my gun on him. “Why were you waiting for me?”

“I wanted to ask you about… Verline.” Junior lowered his hood, and I saw misery etched on his face.

I had a bad feeling about this.

He tilted his head toward the sky and closed his eyes. Snowflakes landed on his cheeks and melted immediately, sliding down his face like tears. “I can’t believe she’s dead.”

I let my gun fall to my side. “When was the last time you saw her?”

“Four days ago.”

“Where?”

“My place. She’d been staying with me since she’d left Rollie. We were trying to figure out what to do.”

Oh no. He wasn’t insinuating…? Because that would be a total clusterfuck. “What do you mean, what to do?”

Junior looked at me then with such an expression of desolation that my breath caught. “I loved her. She loved me. We… were together, but I wanted it to be more. She did, too, I think. Although I know she still wanted to be with Rollie.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. “How long has this been going on?”

“Started after she found out she was pregnant, less than two months after she had Taj. Rollie didn’t want nothin’ to do with the first baby, and she knew it’d be more of the same with the second. She hid the pregnancy from him as long as she could. Then when Rollie found out? He stopped going home. She needed someone she could count on.” He glanced at the ground. “That was me. I took her to the hospital when she went into labor a month early, and I was with her in the delivery room. Those boys are more mine than his. I, at least, wanted them. And her.”

Despite my reluctance to dig deeper into this bizarre love triangle, I knew I didn’t have a choice, given what Nita had said about Rollie threatening to kill Verline if he found out she was cheating on him. “Did Rollie know you and Verline had feelings for each other? Is that why he kicked you out?”

His head snapped up. “No. He was pissed about me working for Saro. Pissed when he found out I’d been seeing Arlette Shooting Star. But the only reason I did that-”

“Was so he didn’t figure out you and Verline were sleeping together.”

He nodded. “I also wanted to poke Rollie, about me being friends with Arlette. When he let me move in with him two years ago, he was such a dick about who I could and couldn’t hang out with. Entire families on the rez were off limits. Such old-fashioned bullshit, the grudges he kept.”

“Did Rollie know about you and Verline?”

“I don’t know!”

I called bullshit on that. Rollie was too astute not to see what was right in front of him. “Any idea what Rollie would do if he found out?”

“He’d probably kill her.”

We both froze.

Junior didn’t retract the statement. He continued to stare at me with some weird kind of childish hope I’d assure him that his father couldn’t possibly have murdered Verline.

But I couldn’t assure him because he’d just given me exactly what I hadn’t wanted: Rollie’s motive for murder. This insight from Rollie’s son would convince Turnbull of Rollie’s guilt. It’d definitely give him a reason to bring Rollie in for an official interrogation. And knowing Shay like I did, he’d do it tonight. Hammer away at Rollie until the wee small hours.

Rollie needed time to grieve.

Or did he need time to come up with an alibi?

I stilled. Where had that thought come from? As much as I’d like to deny it, the logical side of my brain insisted I consider Rollie a suspect in Verline’s murder.

I had to do my job. I shoved my gun back in the holster. “You need to listen to me very carefully. I’m a federal officer. What you just told me is crucial information on a homicide case. I cannot ignore it. I cannot pass this on to my supervisor as secondhand information. You will have to come in, either to the FBI office in Rapid City, or here to the tribal police station, and answer a few questions.”

He started to back off, and I regretted putting my gun away. “I can’t. I told you what Saro would do to me.”

“Saro’s power is negligible. Mine is not. I can issue a warrant on you. I can actually arrest you for obstruction of justice if you don’t cooperate.” I kept edging closer to him. “Remember one very important thing, Junior. You didn’t tell me this information because we’re friends.” I did question whether Junior had told me this because he wanted to put the screws to his old man.

“But-”

“You told me because you want justice for Verline as much as I do. If you loved her, you wouldn’t hesitate. In fact, if you really loved her, you would follow me back into the station right now so I could take your statement.”

He pulled his hood over his head. “Lemme think about it, okay?”

“I’ll give you twenty-four hours. If I don’t see you or hear from you before then, I’m bringing out the big guns.”

He nodded and slipped into the darkness.