Chapter 15

Already in a bad mood, Huck sat in his own interrogation room across from FBI Special Agent in Charge Wayne Norrs and Fish and Wildlife Deputy Chief Mert Wright. Aeneas had deserted him and headed toward his dog bed in the corner of Huck's office upstairs. While Huck felt some sort of an affinity with Norrs because he'd seemed like a decent guy during the last case they'd worked together, his back teeth gritted together at facing Mert Wright again.

Norrs was wide and stocky with a bald head and intelligent piercing blue eyes. He had a boxer's face, complete with a nose that had no doubt taken a punch or two during his life. In comparison, Mert Wright was in his midsixties with a beer gut, beady brown eyes, and a bald head.

"I can't believe the clusterfuck you've gotten us into this time, Rivers," Wright snapped.

Huck kept his expression stoic and tried to focus. He could not believe Jason Abbott had called Laurel the night before.

Norrs cut Wright a look. "I don't think it's the captain's fault his mother was found dead at the base of a mountain, Deputy Chief. Maybe go easy."

Wright pushed back in his chair. "Go easy? What are we going to do when the news gets ahold of this?"

"Deal with it," Huck said somberly.

Norrs cleared his throat. "I think I'll take the lead on this. First, Captain Rivers, I have to tell you that we did notify the local sheriff about the identity of the first victim. Sheriff York gave me his word that he'd keep that under wraps."

Huck sighed. "York doesn't like me. I'm sure he'll announce that the vic was my mother."

"No," Norrs said. "He's still feeling the heat from allowing Jason Abbott to escape. He'll keep his mouth shut."

Perhaps he would. Who knew? "Okay."

Norrs sat back. "Captain, when was the last time you spoke with your mother?"

Huck agreed with Norrs taking the lead. "I've never spoken to my mother."

"Never?" Wright asked incredulously, his thin eyebrows lifting into his bald forehead.

"Never," Huck said easily. "Never met the woman. She didn't want to have kids but got pregnant. Agreed to have me and then left me with my dad. He seemed fine with it."

Wright leaned forward, his beady eyes narrowing. "You're telling me you never once in your entire life talked to your mother?"

"Not once," Huck said.

Norrs cocked his head. "Did you ever try to find her? You have enough military and police contacts that you could have most likely tracked her down."

"No, I never tried to find her. She left." As far as Huck was concerned, she hadn't wanted a life with him. "She made her choice, and I wasn't going to hunt her down and ask her why. Some people don't want kids."

Unlike him. He definitely wanted the baby Laurel was carrying, without question. They might have to keep that news under wraps until this case was over, however.

Norrs tapped a pen on the scratched metal table between them. "What about your father? Did he ever talk to her?"

"Not to my knowledge," Huck said. "I think he would've told me had she ever reached out or if he had ever called her. He wasn't big on secrets."

Wright shook his head. "So then she suddenly appears here dead?"

"Imagine my surprise," Huck said dryly. "I have no idea what she was doing here. I don't know where she came from or where she's been the last thirty-two years. Until she turned up murdered, I figured she didn't want to know me."

"Do you care?" Norrs asked.

Huck's chest hitched. "Yeah, I care. It's my job. When somebody's killed in my territory, when they're murdered, it's my job to figure out who did it." Plus, she had been his mother. He'd find out who killed her and put them in prison.

"It's not your job this time," Wright snapped. "You are off the case."

Norrs nodded. "I concur. You can't be involved with this case, Captain Rivers, even though you hadn't seen or heard from Delta Rivers your entire life."

"That's fine," Huck said. "We have enough going on to keep me busy."

"True." Norrs had dark circles under his eyes. Apparently, he had been working around the clock.

Huck cut a look at Wright. "Monty Buckley is more than capable of running the investigation. You didn't need to come in from Seattle. When was the last time you actually investigated a case?" The guy was a paper pusher.

Wright's face turned red. "Watch yourself."

"There wasn't a phone or any identification with the body," Huck said. "Have you been able to trace my mother's movements?"

"You're off the case," Norrs repeated evenly. "Your father must have told you something about your mother."

Huck thought back. "He told me that she was a free spirit who liked to drink beer. That she didn't want to be tied down and definitely didn't want a family."

"How did they meet?" Norrs asked.

Huck didn't have many details. His dad wasn't exactly one to wax on about anything. "I think river rafting. My dad was a guide on weekends to make extra money in the summers, and I believe he said that a group she was in had rented the rafts."

"What group?" Wright asked.

Those kinds of details would have been irrelevant to his father. "I have absolutely no idea," Huck said.

"You're telling me that this woman abandoned you, and yet your father still gave you her name as your middle name? Huck Delta Rivers?" Norrs asked smoothly.

Huck grinned. "I think he figured I might want to take a part of her through life since I wouldn't have her with me. But you should also know that Huck comes from his dog Huckleberry, who died before I was born. So maybe my dad just had trouble thinking up names."

Wright crossed his arms. "Being abandoned like that, you must feel rage or anger toward her."

Huck lifted his shoulders. "Not really. She didn't actually exist in my mind, you know? My dad told me about her, and that was it. She was a fleeting thought." He didn't know how to explain it. "My upbringing was fine, and I wondered once in a while about her, but that's as far as it went. We all make our choices in life, and she made hers."

Norrs leaned forward. "So when she was no longer just a thought, when she showed up in your town, how did that make you feel?"

It was a good question, and Huck could see where Norrs wanted to go with it. "Considering she was dead when I saw her for the first time, it felt weird," Huck admitted.

"It's our understanding that you recognized her immediately," Wright pushed.

Huck nodded. "I did. I'd seen pictures, of course, but it's been more than three decades. She didn't age much." He hadn't really thought about it. "There were definitely wrinkles and some changes, but I recognized her," he said. "Then I figured I was wrong, because why would she be here? If she were here, why didn't she call me or at least try to meet up?"

Norrs took a notebook out of his jacket pocket and started scribbling on the paper. "You're telling us that she did not contact you in any way?"

Huck shook his head. "You can dump my phone. I know you're probably already dumping the office phones. If she called me, we did not connect. I get a lot of spam callers, and if I don't recognize the number, I don't pick up." That was pretty common in law enforcement as far as he knew. "If she'd ever left a message, we'd have something to talk about. But my guess is she didn't call me." Why hadn't she? Yeah, he wished she had called him. He couldn't help but be curious about her.

"How do you know that she didn't try to contact you?" Norrs asked.

Huck shrugged. "Fish and Wildlife has been in the news quite a bit lately in connection with the different serial killer cases in Washington State. If she wanted to get ahold of me, she could've found me easily." He had to wonder what she was doing in town and why she hadn't reached out. Did she still have friends in the vicinity? If so, nobody had ever mentioned that fact to him.

Norrs looked down at his papers. "Where were you the night Delta Rivers was murdered?"

"I was home," Huck said. "Well, after a search of the farming district for a poacher who shot too close to residences."

Wright scratched at a scab on his chin. "You were called in to search for a poacher?"

"Yes," Huck said. "There are several residences over in the farming land. One called in a report that somebody was trying to shoot deer way too close to their house."

"Did you catch the person?" Wright asked.

Huck shook his head. "No. I took the report and searched, but we didn't find anybody. You can check the call-in logs and you can interview the people I spoke with. A nice family named the Martinellis."

Norrs shifted. "Did you find evidence of possible poaching?

"Yes. I spoke with the Martinellis, and somebody definitely shot too close to their house. They hit the siding, in fact. Feel free to talk to them." He cracked his neck. "In addition, I took pictures and documented the scene. You can review the entire case file at your leisure."

"We definitely will," Wright said. "You could've been the poacher, right? I mean, if you wanted to set up an alibi, that's an easy one."

Huck frowned. "I wouldn't shoot close to a house like that."

Wright snorted. "Do you have a burner phone?"

"No."

Wright scratched beneath his left eye. "Okay, Captain. Now we're going to sit here and you're going to recount every minute of your past week."

Norrs nodded. "I think it's necessary, too. What time were you called out by the Martinellis?"

Huck scrubbed both hands down his face. When had he last shaved? "I think it was around midnight, but double-check the call logs for an exact time."

"My assistant is going through all of the records right now," Norrs said. "How long did it take for you to reach the farm?"

"It's a thirty-minute drive from my place, but it was cloudless and very cold that night, which means the roads became iced over, so I might've taken more time. Then I spent at least an hour speaking with them, investigating the damage, and taking notes and pictures." It had been freezing that night, and he'd fitted Aeneas with a heavy coat before taking him out to search.

Wright studied him, obviously looking for a question to ask.

Norrs ignored Huck's boss. "How long did you search the vicinity?"

The guy knew what he was doing. "I searched for a couple of hours at least," Huck said. "The Martinellis have about fifty acres that abut forest land, so it took a while."

Wright frowned. "If they have fifty acres, why the hell would anybody shoot close to their house? Especially so late at night?"

Huck dug deep to keep his temper in check. "Because they were poaching, Deputy Chief. They must've followed a good-sized buck via the moonlight, since it was clear and freezing, and then decided to take a shot too close to the house. Since it was so late, maybe they figured nobody would bother getting out of bed to contact us."

It irritated the hell out of him that anybody would shoot that close to a dwelling. Especially at night. There had been kids sleeping peacefully in their beds. He would keep looking for the poacher. Anybody dumb enough to make that mistake would make another.

Wright threw up both hands. "Did anybody see this huge-assed buck?"

"Just the poacher," Huck said.

"Then why couldn't you or your dog find the shooter?"

Huck shrugged. "Aeneas tracked a scent to a nearby logging road, and my guess is that the shooter had a vehicle there. Dogs can't track vehicles." Although he'd searched the entire area just to make sure.

Norrs nodded. "After you failed to find the poacher, what did you do?"

"I took my dog and headed home to sleep around three in the morning."

Norrs focused on him. "Can anybody confirm your timeline? Exactly when you returned to your home?"

Huck didn't like this at all. "Yes. Special Agent in Charge Laurel Snow can confirm what time I returned home."

Wright's beady eyes gleamed. "So you and the FBI agent are sleeping together. That's a terrible conflict of interest."

"Sometimes our cases cross, but there's no conflict," Huck retorted. "I understand that I need to recuse myself from this case, but you're crazy if you take Laurel off it."

"She's that good?" Wright sneered.

Huck didn't give a crap that the man was his boss. He was about to be punched in the face.

Norrs cocked his head. "As for Teri Bearing's murder, you were out on a call that night across the river from the church where her body was found, right? We have your GPS, Captain."

Huck remained stoic while his body flooded with adrenaline. "Yes. We received a call, an anonymous one, about an elderly man wandering in the snowy forest."

"Did you find him?" Wright asked.

"No." Huck drew in air. "Laurel was with me in bed when the call came in."

Wright picked at a pimple on his chin. "You could've called Fish and Wildlife, gotten back in bed, and then received the call from the office."

Huck didn't have time for this. "I didn't do that. Again, I'm off the case but Laurel should stay on if you want to find this killer." Although he'd rather send her on a vacation somewhere warm, but he knew better. She was dedicated to the point of being obsessive.

Wright scoffed. "Nobody is that good. She can't be."

"You're wrong," Agent Norrs answered for Huck. "Laurel Snow is that good when it comes to catching serial killers. There's a reason she heads the Pacific Northwest Violent Crimes Unit. I'll go speak with her after this interview."

Wright pivoted to face him. "You think she'll tell the truth? That she wouldn't lie for her boyfriend and provide an alibi for two murders ?"

Norrs frowned. "I do think she'd tell the truth, and what is there to lie about? The captain just admitted he was searching the forest, alone with his dog, within the approximate time frame of Delta Rivers being murdered and to searching along the river, with his dog, within the time frame of Teri Bearing's murder. GPS shows that both searches were within a stone's throw of the murdered and scenes."

Well, shit.