Feather From a Stranger

by Marianne Schlegelmilch

  Knowing that he had been negligent in providing Sassy with the wrong deposit slips and not wanting to implicate Sassy and her brother, Steve told Dan that in all fairness to he and Ellie, he did not want to continue their business relationship under this now overwhelming aura of mistrust.

  “Looks like I screwed things up pretty bad, here,” Steve had told Dan.

  “Screwed up isn't the word for it,” Dan had fired back.

  “Look, Dan, there isn't much I can do to undo what's happened…” Steve had begun, before Dan angrily cut him off.

  “You mean undo the damage to my reputation and the near destruction of my business—my livelihood—my means of supporting my family?” Dan had yelled.

  Steve said that he would consider the deviated funds and the lost revenues in total as his share of the business and pay Dan and Ellie an additional $20,000 for the loss of their credibility with their customers. He also signed over his complete ownership of the business to Dan once both men had consulted with their lawyers and determined that no hidden problems were likely to occur, considering that the two men had settled their differences amicably.

  “I'm, sorry it had to end this way, Dan,” Steve had said as he walked out the door. “I hope you'll consider this fair settlement once you've had time to think it over.”

  Both men agreed that any pursuit of criminal wrongdoing would be the sole responsibility of Dan and Ellie, should they want to pursue that avenue and if they were able to find who had stolen their inventory.

  “Don't worry about the law, Bitten. I'll take care of cleaning this up from my end,” Dan had told him. “Let's just say it didn't work out between us.”

  Dan and Ellie, in view of Steve, Sassy, and Adam's departure from the company, had decided to report the lost inventory as theft to their insurance company, and to re-structure the company under their own name. With none of the original players except themselves now involved in the business, they were sure that the likelihood of further theft was nil.

  In fairness to Steve, Dan had offered to pay for a formal audit of the company to ensure that Steve received his fair share of the business. “I'm willing to pay for an audit to make sure you don't decide later that this hasn't been handled fairly…” Dan had said.

  But in the end, they agreed that the arrangement they had forged stood on its own merit.

  Out of concern for Sassy, Steve had offered her a job with a new company he was going to form in Oregon, which Sassy accepted eagerly with the understanding that Steve would move down there first and come back for her. Meanwhile, Adam had left during the heart of the re-organization and had told his sister that he was now working for a construction conglomerate based in Canada.

  A registered letter delivered to Sassy two months later broke the news that Steve was not coming back for her and that he was sorry, but plans had changed and she should try to find a way to move on. It read:

  Dear Amanda,

  I never meant to mislead you, but after being away and rethinking everything, including our relationship, I think it best for myself, and everyone to cut all of my old ties and start over. I know it will be a shock to hear this, but I am confident that you are strong enough to find a way through this and move on. Please forgive me if I hurt you. I know you always knew that what we had would never last forever, so remember the good times and may happiness be your future.

  Steve

  By now, Adam had already started his job in Canada, which caused him to be away from home more often than not. Although he kept a room at his sister's place, he also kept an apartment in the north end of Palmer, which left Sassy essentially unaware of much of his comings and goings, except for his regular bi-monthly visits to have her do his laundry.

  Dan Williams had re-named his own business and made Ellie his partner, putting her in charge of the books. When his brother, Doug, started dating Sassy, he made it clear that she was welcome in the bunk-house with him or even into the family home with him, but that Doug should refrain from discussing any aspects of the business with her. He never spoke to Doug about Steve Bitten or what had happened between them, and Doug, out of gratitude for Dan's understanding about Sassy, never asked.

  Sassy had long maintained a small riding stable. By increasing the number of horses she boarded and the lessons she provided, she was able to generate enough income to maintain her current lifestyle, especially with the occasional support that Adam provided in rent.

  During the long intervals when Adam was not needed at his construction job, he helped her around the stable, but lately, his drinking had become a pretty big issue between them, and he had recently moved into his apartment full time. There had been a couple of instances where he had gotten into fights around the Valley, and Sassy soon began hearing more and more rumors of his growing reputation as a chronic drinker.

  Sassy knew as well as anyone else who had lived in the Valley for any length of time that when Adam drank, he could be hell on wheels. Adam had no longer moved out of Sassy's place than she convinced him to move back in again, saying she needed his help around the stable. At least, now, she figured, she would be able to keep a closer eye on him.

  After waiting six months for Steve to, as Sassy told her friends, “Come to his senses,” she had begun dating a stream of local men until meeting Doug at the dance at the Palmer Depot, after which the two had become a couple.

  Although Sassy found it difficult to keep her relationship with Doug separate in her mind from what had happened with Steve and Doug's brother, she managed to shield her feelings from Doug. Secretly, she blamed Dan for Steve leaving. After all, if Dan had tried harder to make Steve feel better about what had happened, then Steve might not have left her. As for Adam, well, everyone knew that Adam was not trustworthy except for Sassy, who turned a blind eye to most all of his faults. Sassy had been taking care of Adam ever since they had run away from their parents when she was fifteen and Adam was thirteen. No drunken father kicking around her beat-down step-mother was going to keep her from finding a better life, and for Amanda Carlson, that meant saving Adam, too. The fact that her father killed himself shortly after they ran away did little to change their future.

  Once, after starting her relationship with Doug, she had overheard Dan ask Doug to join the business with him. She imagined it might have made Steve want to come back if Doug had been in charge of his old duties instead of Dan, but in any case, as long as Dan was in control, Steve was not going to come back, and Doug had already said more than once that he wouldn't consider giving up his fishing business. He would though, he told his brother, become a silent investor, and as far as Sassy knew, he had followed up on that commitment. It pleased her to know that Doug was now part owner of the business. Although she preferred life with Steve, Doug was a pretty good second choice.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Re-tracing

  That Night

  THE DECISION TO MOVE HIS THINGS INTO THE BUNKHOUSE HAD BEEN AN easy one for Doug. He was more comfortable here than at Sassy's place, and he wanted to keep an eye on Ellie and Anna. He also planned to help Ellie with the business and the homestead until she could get back on her feet again.

  Thor liked it better here, too, and could roam the property without having to be penned up like he did at Sassy's. Thor was good for Anna, too, and most mornings he could be found curled up next to her bed.

  The phone was ringing when he walked through the door into Ellie's kitchen. Since no one was around, he answered it.

  “Ken Tandry here, Doug. You're just the person I wanted to talk to. You're gonna need to come down here right away. I'm gonna need to talk to Ellie about this, too, but last time we talked, she told me to just route everything through you because she was going to end up doing the same thing anyway. She said she knew you would keep her posted and help do what was right.”

  “Ellie's right about that, for sure,” Doug said. “She's got plenty on her mind right now. What's going on?”

  “I'd rather talk to you in per
son. There's some information about the evidence you showed us the other day that you're probably going to want to know.”

  “I'll be right there,” Doug answered, grabbing his coat off the hook behind the door and heading straight for his truck.

  Puzzled by the urgency in Tandry's voice, he wasted no time driving the five miles down to the old Glenn Highway and then twelve more into Palmer. Ken Tandry saw him drive up and waved him into his office immediately. He handed Doug a two-page document.

  “This is the forensics report on the wire cutters, the metal shavings, and the paper diagram found at Dan's house. As you will see, there were several sets of prints on both the paper and the wire cutters. In addition to finding Dan's own prints, and even Anna's, they found two other sets on both the diagram and the cutters,” Tandry told him as Doug looked over the report.

  “Although most of them were smudged, they were able to lift a part of one print and a couple of another set from the cutters. That was in addition to your own, for which we already have a reasonable explanation.”

  Ken Tandry sat back in his chair and drew in a deep breath.

  “We have already ruled you out as a suspect, as I told you earlier. That leaves two other people, the two whose prints we found on these cutters, as possible suspects now.”

  Doug leaned forward in his chair, too, as both men faced each other squarely.

  “You might be interested to know that the other two sets of prints belong to Adam and Amanda Carlson. We had a set of both of them on file from a previous situation with a theft at her residence a few years ago.”

  Doug stood halfway up before sitting back down.

  “But the wire cutters were right there in our room and Sassy was there with me the whole time…” He stopped to think for a moment before continuing, “except…except for when I left to go into the cabin to say hi to Ellie and Anna.”

  “How long were you gone?” Tandry asked.

  “Ten, maybe fifteen minutes, max,” Doug answered. “Sassy went to the bunkhouse to drop off her things and then met me in the house. We didn't stay long and headed back to the bunkhouse for the night. Before we went to bed, we hauled the trailer out in front of the hangar and left it for A.C.

  Dan and Anna were working by the plane when we got there and had just finished up by the time we left the trailer out in front of the hangar. Everyone knew that A.C. would be coming by sometime before Dan left in the morning to pick it up.”

  Both men sat in silence for several minutes before Doug remembered something that at the time seemed innocuous.

  “Thor woke me up growling about three a.m. the night before Dan left. I figured Adam had come by to pick up the trailer, especially since it was gone in the morning. Thor's used to Adam and so I don't think he would normally have barked at him, but in the morning—and I didn't think anything about it until now—in the morning when I got up, the trailer was gone and so was Dan. I expected that, but what seemed unusual was that there was a large patch of ice outside that I slipped on. Normally, it's pretty dry there because of the large overhang from the roof, so it seemed unusual to find the ice built up there.”

  Doug looked at Tandry before continuing; “the hangar is about one hundred feet from the barn and about two hundred feet from the house. It would have been easy for someone to move around out there if they were quiet and they wouldn't be easily detected. And, you know, you would think the motion lights Dan has on the hangar would have alerted me to someone being out there, although he has the sensitivity set low because of all the moose that come through at night.”

  Doug stared out the window, deep in thought.

  “One more thing, Doug,” Tandry said, leaning forward in his chair.

  “What's that?” Doug said.

  “The metal shavings that were found on the ground outside the hangar… they match the rudder cable on Dan's plane, and forensics were able to determine that they had not come from the normal wear and tear of the rudder. To put it simply, the ends of those pieces were cleanly broken and not frayed, as one would expect under normal wear.”

  Doug felt numb as he walked to his truck. About thirty minutes later he found himself turning into Ellie's driveway without even remembering driving there. Sassy? Cutting the cable? No way, he thought. He had only been away from her for fifteen minutes the night before Dan's plane crash. He had found her lying in bed, naked, relaxed and longing, when he joined her, after stopping to lock Thor in the barn. Certainly not Sassy. She would have no reason that he could think of to want to see Dan dead. She probably found the wire cutters lying on the bed and threw them on the chair or something.

  Before walking into the bunkhouse, something told Doug to check the wires to the motion light. Cut! Cut and with the ends taped with a piece of duct tape to the back of the fixture so that no dangling wires would give evidence that the light had been disturbed. He called Tandry immediately and was told the investigating officer had already noted the situation with the light and apologized for having forgotten to mention it to Doug. Doug felt the chill of knowing he was standing in the steps of whoever had murdered his brother.

  Doug walked into the bunkhouse, his mind racing. He couldn't remember a time when he had ever even heard Sassy say a bad word about Dan or Ellie, even when the partnership between Dan and Steve was falling apart. If anything, Sassy seemed rather detached from Dan and Ellie, rarely asking about them and never really displaying any type of regard for them or their lifestyle.

  No. It couldn't have been Sassy. She had her faults, but in the two years they had been together, Doug had never sensed a menacing side to her, at least not one that would make her capable of murder. It was true that Sassy could be detached and self-centered, but she had always been there for him when he needed her. Why then, though, had Steve Bitten warned him about her that day in his plane when they had been searching for Dan. He remembered Steve's words, “There's a side to Sassy that you don't know about. Be careful.”

  Doug felt a gnawing pit in his stomach as he pulled off his hat and wiped the beads of sweat from his brow. The anxiety he was feeling was unnerving. He consciously tried to stop the intrusive thoughts. When he couldn't, he punched the all-to-familiar number into his cell phone and listened for someone to stop the ring at the other end.

  “Hello,” Sassy's familiar voice drawled into the phone.

  “Sassy…Baby…I was just thinking about you and wanted to call,” Doug said in his best effort to sound nonchalant.

  Suddenly he was rambling about the weather, the drive, anything and everything but the murder case surrounding his brother, and barely giving Sassy a chance to do more than utter the occasional, “Uh huh…”

  “Oh, Dougy,” Sassy yawned, tiring of the conversation. “I sure hope you get tired of that lonely old bunkhouse and come home soon. You sound like that place is getting to you.”

  “I will,” he said too quickly. “Maybe it is…you know…getting to me. Talk to you later, Babe.”

  Doug felt empty. Hearing Sassy's voice had done nothing but revive his usual boredom with her predictably shallow conversation. Sassy was her usual self, and there was nothing in her voice or in the conversation that was in any way different from the hundreds of other conversations he had engaged in with her since they first met.

  Why, then was he feeling troubled? There hadn't been anything sinister or unusual in her demeanor tonight. Not one sign. Was it the thought of finding the wire cutters under her clothes that was troubling him? Doug had to admit to himself that it made perfect sense that her fingerprints would be on the tool used to cut the rudder wire on Dan's plane, especially if they were on the bed when she got there and had done as he suspected and just moved them. She had probably forgotten all about them once she started piling clothes on top of them.

  Sassy was notorious for her lack of neatness and order, usually letting several weeks of laundry pile up before scooping everything up and running to the Laundromat when she ran out of things to wear. He had even been thinkin
g about buying her a washer and dryer this Christmas just so things would be a little neater around her house.

  Besides, there was another set of prints on those cutters, and those prints were much more difficult to explain—Adam's. Why would Adam's prints be on the wire cutters and how did they get from Adam into the bunkhouse? For the moment, Doug put away any more thoughts about Sassy and the wire cutters as he walked over to Ellie's cabin for dinner.

  Anna greeted him at the door, swinging it open for him and holding it until he walked through. Thor bounded out past him, heading to the yard.

  “Hi Uncle Doug,” she said as he bent down to allow her to throw her arms around his neck and kiss his cheek.

  It was a relief to see Anna doing so well. Ellie, on the other hand, was rail thin and drawn, with none of the sparkle in her eyes that used to warm everyone who came near. Doug hugged her, too, and gave her a brotherly peck on the cheek.

  “Doug, I hope you don't mind some company for dinner tonight. Sarah is in Palmer tending to some business, but our friend Mara had some trouble with her vehicle and is going to be here for another day or two,” Ellie said as she took his coat. “She said to go ahead and start, that she might be a little late.”

  The three, Anna, Ellie, and Doug, were halfway through dinner when a tired-looking Mara walked in to join them at the table. With a slight smile of acknowledgment towards Doug she squeezed Anna lightly on the shoulder before sitting down. Turning to Ellie she said, “I just got off the phone with the mechanic at Mountain Motors. He said that there was a hole in my coolant line and that there was also water in the gas tank.”

  Doug put his fork down and listened intently.