THE ACCESS-A-RIDE van pulled up in front of El Rancho restaurant in Evergreen. The skies had finally cleared after a month straight of torrential storms. Lauren Gabriel paused to breathe in the cool mountain air before rolling herself into the restaurant.
Kevin Richardson had been waiting fifteen minutes in the lounge. He slugged back his second tequila shot and enjoyed the crackling fireplace when the hostess led the wheelchair-bound woman to her companion for the evening.
“About time, Detective,” Richardson snipped. “I was about to bail.”
“No, you weren’t,” Detective Gabriel replied. “I just heard you order another tequila shot.”
“Always using those investigative skills, aren’t you, Lauren?”
The waitress set Kevin’s tequila shot down on the table next to him, adjacent to the two emp
