California Schemin' - Kate George [8]
I checked under the seat. My computer was still there. I turned to Beau.
“They didn’t find the computer, but why slash our tires?”
Beau shrugged. We were stranded until a tow truck could get us out of here. I was mad about losing my camera, but slashing the tires felt personal.
I dialed AAA on my cell, and we sat on a bench overlooking the river waiting for them to arrive. After sitting for an hour, a Nevada County cruiser pulled in behind the truck. A Placer County cruiser drove up a second later and parked behind the first sheriff. Fogel got out of the second vehicle and walked down to where we sat.
“Heard you’re getting a little unwelcome attention.” He looked up at the truck. “Anything missing?”
“My camera. That’s all, except why did they have to slash the tires? Kind of mean.”
“Probably just making sure you couldn’t follow them if you showed while they were doing a B&E on your truck. Nothing personal.”
“Seems like a warning to me.” Beau scowled at Fogel. “Warning us to stay out of it.”
“It feels personal to me. I liked that camera,” I said.
“Did you see anything?” Fogel asked.
“Nope. We were out to dinner.”
“Why didn’t you take your camera with you?” He wasn’t looking at me like I was dumb, so much. More like I was an alien with four eyes or something.
“Didn’t occur to me that they would look for us here.”
Fogel nodded. “I hate to say this, but I have to. You need to be more careful. House got busted into, tires got slashed. Sooner or later they may decide they need to talk to you, and the minute you see someone’s face, you’ll be a liability to them. They take killing women in stride.”
“Did you find out who she is?”
“Not yet. I probably wouldn’t tell you if I did know. You know too much already. I don’t have the manpower to keep an eye on you and find the killer, too, so stay out of trouble.” He went over to talk to the Nevada County Sheriff who was making notes.
“Yes, boss.” I felt like sticking out my tongue or rolling my eyes at him, but I didn’t. The fact that we had two slashed tires was a little too disturbing to make fun of the idea that I was in danger.
A flatbed tow truck came, replaced the flats with a couple of those little donut tires and loaded the truck. He took us to the twenty-four-hour service station which thankfully was also a tire shop. He dumped the truck and took my AAA information before he disappeared. By the time the shop replaced the tires and took my money, it was late. Beau was starving again, so we hit a drive-through and went home.
Beau parked, got out and sat down on the porch steps, looking up into the star filled sky. “You know this means they followed you, don’t you? Someone is watching you.”
“Well, they could have been driving by and recognized the truck.” I didn’t believe that for a minute. I knew they had to be watching. I was all bravado, bolstering myself up so I wouldn’t look scared.
“Bree, I’m sending you home. You witnessed a murder, our home was burgled, and now they’re following you. Who knows what they’ll find on the camera? What if they enlarge one of those photos and see something? I don’t want you to be the next one over the bridge.”
“I gave the disk to Fogel. I don’t think there are any photos on there for them to find.”
“Then they are going to want to ask you what you saw, or, God forbid, they’ll decide they are safer with you permanently off the scene, as in six feet under, not across the country.”
“What are you saying? I have no choice but to go home? What if I don’t want to go home? What if they follow me home?” This was my problem. I wanted to go home until someone told me I had to go home, and then I didn’t want to anymore. I don’t like people telling me what to do.
“Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tell everyone you went home to Virginia. When they say, ‘I thought it was Vermont,’ I’ll say, ‘You must have heard it wrong. I’m from Vermont, Bree’s from Virginia.’ That’ll confuse things. I’ll tell Tom what’s happened, and he can keep an eye on you. And you have all those dogs;