Colorado Bodyguard by Cindi Myers

with him today?”
    Sophie shook her head. “I’ve never met her. But he seemed to be alone.”
    â€œWe’ll try to track him down and question him.”
    â€œMaybe he’ll know something that will help us find Lauren. But part of me is afraid to hope.”
    â€œHang in there,” he said. “We’re getting more pieces of the puzzle all the time. All we have to do is put them together the right way to give us the picture we need.”
    â€œWhat have you discovered?” She half turned in her seat to face him.
    â€œWe went back to the hotel and talked to both clerks and the maintenance man. They identified one of the men who visited Lauren at the hotel as a guy who runs a local fish shop, Alan Milbanks.”
    â€œA fish shop?” She wrinkled her nose. “What was Lauren doing with him?”
    â€œHe’s suspected of dealing drugs out of the shop, though local police haven’t been able to gather enough evidence to convict him.”
    â€œLauren did not take drugs.”
    â€œYou sure about that? It’s not unusual for people with mental illness to self-medicate.”
    â€œShe wouldn’t do that. She had her prescribed medications and she was very good about taking them. She hardly ever even drinks alcohol.”
    He nodded and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “I’m wondering if her meeting with this guy had anything to do with the big story she was working on.”
    â€œThat’s probably it.” Excitement made her jittery. “Did you talk to him? What did he say?”
    â€œHe says he doesn’t know her and the clerk is lying. But he didn’t convince me. We’re working on getting a warrant to bring him in for questioning.”
    â€œWas someone with him when he met Lauren?” she asked. “You said ‘men.’”
    â€œThat’s another interesting thing we learned. The man Marlee saw Lauren with wasn’t Alan Milbanks.”
    â€œThen who was it?”
    â€œShe identified him as Phil Starling.”
    Her breath caught in her throat. “So you knew he was in town already? When were you going to tell me?”
    â€œI would have told you tonight at dinner, if you hadn’t run into him yourself first.”
    â€œHave you talked to him? Do you know where he’s staying?”
    â€œNegative on both of those, but we’ve got people working on tracking him down.”
    She sat back, letting this information sink in as they passed fields of head-high cornstalks and lots lined with combines and corn trailers, awaiting harvest. “Maybe Richard Prentice doesn’t have anything to do with Lauren’s disappearance at all,” she said, thinking out loud. “Maybe Phil is the one behind it. It makes more sense, really. Didn’t I read somewhere that most violent crimes are committed by people the victims know?”
    â€œThat’s generally true,” he said. “But Lauren supposedly knew Prentice, too.”
    â€œNot as well as she knew Phil. They were married for almost seven years.”
    â€œWe’ll see what he has to say for himself. Meanwhile, did you think of anything else that would help us? Did you remember anything Lauren said to you about this big story?”
    She shook her head. “I’ve racked my brain, but all she said was that she had a big story that was going to prove to the station how valuable she was to them. She wouldn’t give me any details.”
    â€œWe’re going to keep working on this. We’ll find her.”
    â€œThank you.” She faced forward in the seat once more. “And I’m sorry about the things I said earlier, about you not doing your job.”
    â€œBelieve me, I’ve heard worse. Now how about that dinner? I know a great Thai place. Or if you like Mexican...”
    â€œBefore we do that, I want to see Lauren’s car.”
    â€œHer car?”
    â€œYes. You said