Smiling, the pastor took her by the elbow and dropped his voice to an intimate level. “How is everything?”
It was pretty obvious Sophia didn’t want him to touch her. She tried to break contact, only to bump up against Rod. That made her step backward to avoid them both. “Fine. And you?”
“I’m hanging in there. I’ve tried to reach you a couple of times, but…I’m not sure you’re getting my messages. You never call back.”
“I’ve been busy.” It was a throwaway statement, spoken with little concern. “Was there anything in particular you wanted?”
He moved in close again. “No. I haven’t seen you at church in a while, that’s all.”
“That’s why you called? To see why I wasn’t at church?”
“I wanted to make sure there aren’t any—” he glanced at Rod and lowered his voice even more “—hard feelings between us that would keep you from worshipping with me on Sundays.”
“I have no interest in worshipping with you, Dick,” she said flatly.
A pained expression yanked his eyebrows together. “Why not? I’ve apologized, Sophia. I don’t know what more I can do.”
“You could quit calling and leave her alone,” Rod said. “That’d be a good start.” He shouldn’t be getting involved in this, but he had no other outlet for the aggression churning inside him. And Rod didn’t like what the pastor’s body language conveyed. Wife or no wife, he’d cheat with Sophia if given half a chance. The mere thought of him sniffing after her bothered Rod. He didn’t want someone like Dick, the married pastor, trying to climb into her bed.
“Excuse me?” Dick said.
Rod rested his hands loosely on his hips. “You heard me.”
Sophia stepped between them. “But, of course, he didn’t mean it. Since what happens in my life is none of his business.”
Emboldened by Sophia’s pointed response, Dick lifted his chin. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Name’s Rod. Rod Guerrero.”
“I’ve heard of you. You’re Bruce Dunlap’s—”
Rod broke in before Dick could grapple too long for the right euphemism. “Bastard. Yes. But you know what they say. You can’t choose your family.”
That left nowhere for Dick to go as far as subtle put-downs went, so he turned his attention back to Sophia. “Are you two…together?”
“No,” she said. “At the moment, I’m even beginning to rethink our friendship.”
Sliding his arm around her shoulders, Rod offered Dick a conspirator’s smile. “Don’t listen to her. She’s got a terrible crush on me. She just doesn’t like to admit it.”
“If only I’d brought my Taser,” she said dryly.
He gave her a visible squeeze. “The handcuffs will be enough for tonight, honey.”
Dick’s confusion grew more apparent. “Aren’t you new in town?”
“I got here a couple days ago.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“And he’ll be leaving as soon as we solve the UDA murders,” Sophia chimed in. “Which reminds me… You haven’t seen Stuart Dunlap, have you?”
“I saw him earlier, pulling out of the Mother Lode Motel,” Dick said. “Why?”
Rod dropped the arm he’d slung around Sophia. “What time was that?”
Dick checked his watch. “Musta been about…two hours ago, around eight-thirty.”
Not too long before Rod had returned from his interviews.
“I know, because I was on my way here and remember thinking I had about an hour and a half to enjoy myself before I had to get home,” Dick added with a weak laugh.
Rod pressed the time display on his phone. “I hate to break it to you, but your curfew’s come and gone.”
“I made it home by ten, but…married life isn’t always easy, you know? Tonight was one of those nights.” He whistled. “So what if my wife’s young. She’s a handful.” He chuckled but there was no real humor in it, and if he was hoping to incite Sophia’s sympathy, it didn’t work.
“Was Stuart alone when you saw him?” she asked.
“Alone and driving like a bat out of hell. He just about crashed into me. And when I honked to let him know I was there, he ignored me. He didn’t seem to care that he could’ve killed us both.”
Because he knew that having Pastor Dick honk at him was the least of his worries if Rod got back to that motel room before he made his getaway.
17
They had fingerprints. Officer Noyes had called to let Sophia know he’d picked up several from the door handle and Rod’s computer. She needed to have those prints analyzed to see who they belonged to, but deep down she wasn’t particularly optimistic that they’d prove it was Stuart who’d trashed Rod’s room. She couldn’t imagine he’d do something like that without wearing gloves. He wasn’t the smartest man she’d ever met, but he wasn’t stupid, either. If she had her guess, the prints belonged to a combination of Rod, Leland and the maid who tidied up during the day.
But she’d gathered what evidence she could, just in case. And they had Dick’s sighting to corroborate their suspicion that it’d been Stuart. In the morning, she’d ask Grant to search for more witnesses and work from there. Not that they’d be able to spend much time on a vandalism case. She had bigger things to worry about. Like the fact that Rod had gone into the safe house fifteen minutes ago and hadn’t come out yet. After he’d dropped her at her car, she’d waited long enough to make sure he wouldn’t realize she planned to follow him and had arrived just in time to see him go in. She’d expected him to come out almost right away, but he hadn’t. And each passing minute wound her nerves a little tighter.
She turned her police radio down so low she could hardly hear it. She was in a poor neighborhood filled with aging tract houses, cracked sidewalks and weed-infested yards. Most of the folks who lived here had their own secrets to hide, so she’d rather they not know there was a cruiser parked on the street. Besides, the radio’s crackling made her even more apprehensive than she already was. Rod hadn’t wanted any backup. He’d claimed he wasn’t used to it and that undercover didn’t usually work that way, which was true. But that didn’t mean he was bulletproof.