She had a small two-door beater car. Ice popped his first beer before they reached the destination she’d picked. He opened up the conversation asking what she knew about the girl who made the scene in the market parking lot earlier.

“Oh yeah, wasn’t that crazy? People were talking about that all day. Most of them think she ran away from the women’s shelter.”

Women’s shelter. Bingo. Ice had to fight to keep his composure. He had Chevy now.

“Women’s shelter—you mean like for homeless women?” he asked, playing dumb, sipping his beer, acting slightly interested.

She parked the car at the far end of the Stairsteps parking lot. Ice opened a beer and handed it to her.

“No, we have a shelter in town for battered women.” She took a quick drink. “I had a friend who stayed there for a few days. Her husband smacked her around.” She undid her seat belt and moved closer.

Ice did likewise, throwing his arm over her shoulder. She smelled pleasantly of freshly applied floral perfume.

“Strange that the girl would run away from a place that’s supposed to keep her safe,” he said. “It must be close to the market. I didn’t see that she had a car.”

“It’s maybe one and a half or two miles away, over on Oakwood Court. The place also rescues horses. I know the lady who runs it, Bronwyn. She’s nice, has a neat British accent.” She sipped her beer.

His mind whirring on the information about the shelter, Ice chatted, keeping his tone easy, asking her about herself and pretending to listen and care. By the time she’d finished her second beer, he knew he had all he needed and was overwhelmed with a sense of urgency to do some recon at the shelter. There was a second reason for urgency: it was likely the Feds would move the girl now since it was obvious she’d blown her cover.

“You haven’t told me anything about you, Jim. What’s up with you? I want to hear about your travels.” Tami prodded him in the ribs and smiled broadly.

“Um.” Ice forced his thoughts back to Tami. He needed to deal with her directly; she was now a loose end. But first he wanted to know a little about the police force. “I’m thinking that I like Rogue’s Hollow a lot better than many of the places I’ve been,” he said, brushing his lips across her forehead. “Besides you, what else in this place is interesting, exciting?”

She giggled and pulled her head up to look at him, scrunching her face. “This Podunk town? I’m glad I have a job, but there’s nothing to do here.”

“You can always travel. But as far as living, this place is pretty safe, huh? That cop in the market parking lot seemed to be on the ball.”