Page 24 of K-9 in Pursuit

“She was really pretty,” Krista said. “And smart. And outgoing. It was easy for her to flirt and talk to anyone.”

“I heard she liked older guys,” he said.

“Like you?” Leann asked. “Yeah, I guess she did.”

“Did she ever date any of them?” he asked.

“Did she ever date you?” Leann countered.

“No.”

“She wanted to. Date you, that is.”

“She didn’t confide in us,” Krista said.

“Why are you so interested?” Leann asked.

“I want to know who killed her. It wasn’t me, so who was it?”

“Maybe it was some serial killer who goes around strangling young women.” Leann shuddered, though he detected no fear in her voice.

“She talked about an older guy back in Richmond,” he said. “Someone she was involved with?”

“Oh, she told you about him, too?” Leann smirked. “She was probably trying to make you jealous. She only ever brought up that guy when she wanted to lure some other man in. Like—‘another older guy likes me, so you should, too.’”

“Any guy in particular she talked to about the Richmond man?” he asked.

Leann waved away the question. “Just guys she’d flirt with in lift lines or in the cafeteria. Tourists. No one in particular.”

“Do you remember any details about any of them? Names, or where they were from?”

“No! I didn’t care, so I didn’t pay attention.”

Right. He tried another approach. “Sharee didn’t tell me much about the Richmond guy, but I got the impression they broke up a long time ago.”

“Her parents broke them up, but she told me they were still in touch.”

“She told me they were going to get back together, but I thought maybe she made that part up,” Krista said.

“Did she ever talk about meeting up with him anywhere around here?” Brian asked.

“No,” Leann said. Krista shook her head.

“Was there anyone she was afraid of?” Brian asked. “Anyone she tried to avoid?”

“You sound like the cops,” Leann said. “They already asked us all this stuff.”

“What did you tell them?”

She blew out a breath, lifting the strands of hair that escaped from beneath her helmet. “I don’t think Sharee was afraid of anything. She was always pulling stunts nobody else would dare—she raced Darrell Cooperman down Double Trees in that gnarly terrain up top. Darrell is the top racer on the high school team, but she beat him.”

Being beaten in an informal race hardly seemed a motive for murder. They were almost to the top of the lift now, the lift shack visible ahead. “Do either of you have any theories about what happened to her?” he asked.

“They said she was strangled, right?” Krista asked.

“That’s what I heard,” he said.

Leann bit her lip. “You don’t think it was, well, sexual, do you? I mean, some people supposedly like that kind of thing, being choked while they’re doing it.”