“Do you have a ballistics match on her gun?” I enquired.

“Got a warrant to search her house. Jeff and Pete are bringin’ her in, other boys are goin’ through her house. We find the weapon, we’ll run the tests,” Mick answered.

“You said they’re bringing her in?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Mick said to me. “You comin’ down the mountain?”

“Fuck yeah,” Max answered.

I let Max’s belt loop go and muttered, “I’ll go get my purse.”

* * * * *

“I should sue you for wrongful arrest!” Kami shouted from her seat at the table beside me.

I drew in a calming breath and Mick, across the table from us, looked at me.

“Kami,” I said softly.

“This is crazy!” she yelled.

“They’re just asking questions, Kami,” I reminded her. “You aren’t arrested.”

She twisted in her seat and glared at me. “Then I’m free to go?”

“Um…” I mumbled, “technically, yes.”

She started to stand, declaring, “Then I’m goin’.”

I reached out and grabbed her hand. “As I explained to you before we came in here, you’re free to go but, if you do, you’ll appear uncooperative and you don’t want that.”

She glared at me and I noticed while she did it that her hand was trembling in mine so I squeezed it.

Then I continued, “Or if you try to leave, you may force Mick’s hand and he’ll have to arrest you on what he thinks he’s got.”

Her hand jerked spasmodically in mine.

“You have nothing to hide, Kami, sit down and take a deep breath,” I advised, giving her hand a small tug.

She held my eyes then she looked at Mick then she sat down and I released her hand.

My gaze went to Mick. “Mick, you can start.”

He nodded and looked at Kami. “All right, Kami, we’ll begin at the beginnin’. What were you doin’ between the hours of one and four last Wednesday mornin’?”

“I wasn’t killin’ Curt,” Kami snapped.

“What were you doin’?” Mick pressed.

“I’d never hurt Curt,” Kami kept snapping.

“Answer his question, Kami,” I urged quietly, she sighed in a harassed way and responded.

“Between one and four in the morning, I was sleepin’. What else would I be doin’?”

“Were you alone?” Mick asked and Kami’s face twisted bitterly.

“Yeah, Mick, I was alone.”

Mick nodded then went on, “Did you buy a gun in Denver ‘bout a month ago?”

Even though I told her that Mick had that on her, Kami’s body jerked before she answered belligerently, “Yeah, so?”

“Why?” Mick queried.

“I don’t know. Shauna and I were in Denver havin’ a girls weekend. We drove by this shop, saw they had a shootin’ range, Shauna got a wild hair and we went in. Dad taught Max and me how to shoot, we used to go up to the land and do it all the time. I forgot I was good at it and we had fun. After we took turns at the range, Shauna mentioned she noticed I was good at it too and she convinced me to buy a gun.”

My eyes, on Kami, slid to Mick to see he was nodding. But I was wondering why on earth Shauna would, first, get a wild hair to go to a shooting range and, second, after she did that, convince her friend to buy a gun. I wasn’t a mountain woman therefore I didn’t know what they spent their fun time doing but that seemed strange.

I just hoped Mick was wondering the same thing.

“You recently borrowed on your house,” Mick informed Kami.

She nodded and asked curtly, “So what?”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” Mick continued.

“Yeah, I remember how much I borrowed, Mickey,” Kami snapped.

“It went in and out of your account in a few days,” Mick told her and Kami’s eyes narrowed.

“So, you’re lookin’ into my accounts too?”

“Kami, you’re a suspect in a double homicide,” Mick said quietly.

She sucked in breath, her narrowed eyes went wide, she sat back in her chair and I bit my lip. Mick had asked me not to mention that to her and as a favor I didn’t.

“Double?” Kami breathed, clearly astonished at this news, something Mick couldn’t miss which I hoped made my favor to Mick pay off for Kami.

“Curtis Dodd and Marco Fitzgibbon,” Mick stated.

“Who’s Marco Fitzgibbon?” Kami asked.

“The PI Curt hired to find out who was threatening his and Bitsy’s lives,” Mick answered.

Kami went stock-still then she enquired softly, “Curt got death threats?” Mick nodded and Kami went on, “Bitsy too?”

“Yeah, Kami,” Mick told her.

“Shit,” Kami whispered.

“The money, Kami,” Mick prompted.

She shook her head then looked at me. “Is this confidential?”

“I’m sorry?”

“This interview, will this be made public or anything?” she asked.

“Why?” Mick butted in.

“Because I promised I wouldn’t say anything,” Kami told him.

“About what?” Mick queried.

“About the money, I promised I wouldn’t say anything,” Kami replied.

I leaned toward her. She hadn’t shared this part with me fully, we didn’t have the time, what she had said was that it was all innocent.

“Kami,” I caught her attention, “if you had a reason to borrow that money then you need to tell Mick what it was. He’s trying to remove you from the suspect list. You need to give him all the information he needs to help him do that.”

Kami looked at me and for the first time I saw she was uncertain. “But I promised.”

I leaned closer and touched her arm. “You’re being questioned for a double homicide. I think whoever you promised will understand. If something else is going on here, we need to ask Mick to leave so we can confer.”

Her eyes held mine for long moments then she looked at Mick. “It was for Shauna.”

This surprised me. Shauna again.

My gaze also went to Mick.

“Shauna?” he asked.

“Yeah, she’s…” Kami paused, pulling her hand through her hair, her eyes slid to me then to the side then back to Mick. “She’s in trouble. Money trouble. They were gonna shut off her electric, her water, gas. They already shut off her cable. Her cards are maxed. And she doesn’t have any insurance and she’s pregnant.”