Shane held up a hand. “It’s a little more complicated than that. The pickup is a beater John Atkinson keeps down in his barn on his old ranch.”

“Let me guess, he told you he keeps the key in the ignition?” Russell demanded sarcastically.

“On the floorboard. He swears he hasn’t used the truck in months and didn’t know it was missing until this morning when he happened down that way and found it in the ditch with a flat tire.”

“And you believe him?”

“I do. The pickup reeked of alcohol. If John had tried to run someone off the road in it, seems kind of dumb of him to just leave it in a ditch right beside the road since it didn’t take five minutes to trace the truck back to him.”

Russell swore. “You’re telling me you think some drunk kids borrowed the truck for a joy ride?”

“Looks that way.”

“Bet Dulcie didn’t see it that way,” Russell said, narrowing his eyes at his brother.

Shane sighed. “Nope. She thinks someone is trying to scare her off this investigation she’s doing of Laura Beaumont’s murder. She even asked to see the file.”

“Did you let her?”

“You know better than that on an unsolved case.” He shook his head. “I did go dig the file out of cold-case storage. Brutal murder. The woman was stabbed thirteen times.”

“A crime of passion?”

“She did have some men friends, apparently.”

“John Atkinson?” Russell saw that his brother wanted to deny it, but couldn’t.

“He was questioned. He had an alibi for the time of the murder. He was with his wife.”

“Midge.” Russell thought about his visit to the Atkinsons. Now their reactions made a hell of a lot more sense. “Did you ever think that Dulcie might know what she’s talking about? That the killer is still around?”

“I’m not arguing that. I just don’t believe that’s what was going on last night, given the evidence.”

Russell wanted to argue further, but he could see it would be a waste of breath. That and the fact that Shane Corbett was a damned good law-enforcement officer who’d been a Texas Ranger and was now a local deputy with a hell of a lot of experience.

Not that even the best weren’t taken in on occasion by a clever criminal. But this criminal didn’t sound clever. Laura’s killer sounded like someone who’d lost control. Or maybe never had much control.

“Just tell me this,” he said to his brother. “Was Ben Carpenter one of the other men who were questioned during the murder investigation?”

Shane seemed surprised. “No, should he have been?”

“Maybe.” Russell saw that his brother was chewing on his cheek and realized there was more, something Shane was debating whether or not to tell him.

“What else did you find in the file? I know there’s more.”