Sheriff. Laura Scott

      When he’d finished, she and Thunder accompanied him to the SUV.

      Silence thickened as the vehicle rolled along the highway. Julianne had hoped to avoid rehashing the past, but it seemed there wasn’t much else to discuss.

      “Did you ever find out what happened to Lilly Ramos?” she finally asked, bringing up the one subject that had started the rift in their relationship.

      Brody’s expression hardened, and he shook his head. “No. I’ve kept her on our list of missing persons, but everyone else in this town believes she up and ran away.”

      Julianne scowled. “You know as well as I do that Lilly wouldn’t have run away without telling me. We were best friends, Brody. The four of us—me, you, Nate and Lilly. We double-dated all the time. What possible reason did she have to take off without leaving so much as a note?”

      Brody blew out his breath in a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. Lilly disappeared six months before graduation, and I’m confident Nate didn’t go back to his old ways until I left him here alone, to join the army, which was eight months after we graduated.”

      Julianne didn’t necessarily agree. “You really think that Nate returned to his life of crime because you weren’t here to keep him on the straight and narrow?”

      “Yeah, I do.” Brody’s blunt tone contained a hard edge.

      “So you think Nate’s crimes are your fault.” Couldn’t he see how wrong that was?

      “Not exactly,” he reluctantly admitted. “He chose to hang out with the old crowd. Partially because I wasn’t here. But maybe because he wanted easy money, too.”

      She could easily believe that—Nate Otwell had always seemed to prefer looking for quicker ways to make a buck, rather than working hard to get what he wanted. Hadn’t she warned Lilly that Nate might not be as nice as he seemed?

      But Lilly hadn’t listened, claiming she loved him. Then she disappeared. Brody believed Lilly’s parents when they claimed their daughter had researched Houston on her computer, that she’d run away rather than telling Nate they were through. But Julianne still thought that Nate had something to do with Lilly’s disappearance. Either their friend had found out something about Nate and had run off, or she’d told him they were over, and Nate didn’t like it, finding a way to shut her up for good.

      No point rehashing the past, she told herself sternly. Right now, she needed to stay focused on finding Otwell. And the gunman.

      The Broke Spoke Motel was a completely run-down establishment sitting right off to the east of the highway. Julianne had no problem believing that the injured gunman had been able to get a room without anyone asking any questions. It appeared the motel catered to a rough crowd.

      The vacancy sign in the window was lit up, and Julianne was grateful she had a better place to stay. Not that the Clover Inn was a four-star motel by any means, but this place barely ranked one star.

      And even that was being kind.

      She slid out of the passenger seat and went around to open the back to let Thunder out. After snapping on his leash, she rounded the vehicle to join Brady.

      “What do you have?” she asked, noticing the evidence bag in his hand.

      “I stopped by the jail to get one of Nate’s T-shirts,” Brody explained. “I know you have that bit of cloth from the gunman, but I’m hoping Thunder can prove that Nate and the assailant are together.”

      “Good idea.” Julianne had the bag with the bit of cloth Thunder had brought back after chasing the gunman. She opened the bag and held it out for Thunder.

      “Find, Thunder. Find.”

      Thunder buried his snout in the bag for a moment, then wheeled around to put his nose to the ground. Julianne let her partner take the lead as he followed a trail toward the line of motel rooms that only he could see. Or smell.

      Thunder sniffed along the base of the motel room doors, coming to an abrupt stop at room number six. He walked back and forth, jerked his head to the side, scratched at the ground then sat down on his rump right in front of the door.