Mason nodded. “It was. Surprised me. A cop will lock his doors even in the middle of nowhere.”

“The evidence team hasn’t found Denny’s cell phone yet,” Hawes said.

“We noticed it wasn’t on him this morning.”

“I have a request in to his cellular carrier for the last activity on his phone. They say this is the last location they have for the whereabouts of the phone.”

“Someone took it,” Mason stated the obvious. “And removed the battery or turned it off. It’s probably at the bottom of the ocean by now.”

“I agree. So far someone has covered their tracks. We haven’t found anything that indicates how they arrived at the cabin or how they left. There’s no soft dirt with tire tracks.” Frustration furrowed her forehead for a brief second. “What can you tell me about the argument in the bar last night?”

“The five of us were at a table in Pete’s Bar. We’d ordered a couple pitchers of beer but they hadn’t come yet. No one had drunk anything at that point,” he added, meeting her gaze. “Three guys came in and one of them spotted Denny. He came over to the table and started mouthing off about a dent he claimed Denny had put in his truck on a previous visit. Denny denied that’d he’d done it, but the guy was getting pissed and his friend looked ready to start throwing some punches.”

“Could you recognize them?”

Mason closed his eyes, clearly visualizing the three men in their twenties. All wore caps, heavy boots, and thick jackets. Facial scruff. One was a dirty blond and the other two had dark hair. “Absolutely.”

“What happened next?”

“Everyone at the table had stood as the argument heated. I stepped between Denny and the main guy and told him I’d buy him and his friends a pitcher of beer if they’d leave us alone for the evening and take it up the next day. They backed off, and I gave the bartender twenty bucks to keep them supplied for a while.”

“Pretty lame that a twenty quieted them down.”

“I thought so,” said Mason. “Made me think he didn’t believe it’d been Denny who’d done it but felt the need to spout off about it when he spotted him.”

“How often did Denny visit his cabin? Did the locals know him?”

Mason shrugged. “Dunno. In the office it seemed like he went to the coast pretty frequently. The bartender greeted him by name last night. I’d say people who live here know him.”

“Did Denny dent his accuser’s truck?” Her straightforward manner had relaxed him a bit.

She’s looking for answers. Doing her job. It was an attitude he understood.

“He told us he hadn’t. He’d parked next to the guy’s truck when he was in town last month. That day the guy had blown up when he spotted the dent and immediately turned on Denny. Denny told him then that he hadn’t done it but could tell the guy didn’t believe him.”

“Were the three men drunk last night?”

“I could smell beer on the one I spoke to, but I wouldn’t call them drunk. They’d had enough to be cocky assholes.”

“Sometimes reaching that level doesn’t take much,” Hawes agreed. She wrote on her notepad and the vehicle grew silent.

“When did you last see Denny?”

“It was about one thirty in the morning when I got to my room. Denny and I had sat in the kitchen alone and talked while the other guys went straight to bed.”

Hawes nodded. Mason knew she’d already interviewed some of the men and would be looking for consistency across all the detectives’ stories. “I told the other guys we’d just talked about fishing and the cabin. That wasn’t true.”

She lifted an eyebrow as she waited for him to continue, her pen hovering over her notepad.

“He wanted to ask me about my ex-wife.”

Her lips twitched and the eyebrow rose higher.

“His ex-wife had approached him about giving their relationship another try. Both Denny and I are divorced, and he wanted to know what I would have done if my ex had said the same to me.” A flush warmed his face. “I’m with someone else now, but I would have considered it if Robin had asked to get back together years ago. She was the one who struggled with being married to a cop and had to break loose—not me. Denny’s been divorced as long as I’d known him, and I’ve never known his ex, Cindy. I wasn’t in a place to tell him what to do.”

“It depends on the two of them,” Nora added. “Every relationship is unique because the people are unique.”

Mason agreed. “He turned her down, but I think he was having second thoughts and worried he’d answered without thinking it through. He’s had some other relationships, but they didn’t last. He wanted to know—” He stopped speaking, suddenly embarrassed.

“Know what?” Hawes asked when Mason didn’t continue.

“He wanted to know how Ava and I were making it work. He seemed to think we’d found some secret.” He gave a half shrug. “I told him we talk about everything and always keep the communication open.” He shifted in his seat. He’d gone from feeling like a target to talking about his most personal relationship. He didn’t talk to strangers about this sort of stuff. Hell, Ray was his closest friend and he only got to see the surface.

Ava had opened Mason’s eyes. He’d believed he had a solid if slightly boring life, and he was good with that. But during a kidnapping case, she’d been immersed in his life and job. She’d infused oxygen into his simple existence. Once their case was over, he’d discovered he didn’t want to go back to his life without her.