by Kathi Daley
“It is true that we pull a lot of prints with no matches,” Mike agreed. “Some states require prints to be provided when getting a driver’s license, but Montana is not one of them.” He took a sip of his wine. “The reality is that given the fact that Colton and Star both sold used and antique furniture, it seems likely they had a lot of the same customers; however, it is unlikely that most customers had any reason to leave a print on a huge painting that was hanging on a wall unless they were the one to take it down from the wall. I really think that print could be important, so I told Frank to increase the search parameters.”
“If the person who took the painting off the wall was looking for something, which seems likely, maybe we will find that it is that same person who is responsible for both murders,” Bree said.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” Mike said. “Even though the secret compartment in the desk that Tess and I found was empty, that doesn’t mean that something wasn’t in there at one point, or that someone didn’t have reason to believe that whoever owned the desk before it was sold didn’t leave something there.”
“Like what?” Bree asked.
“I have no idea,” Tony said, “but perhaps there was a land deed that showed property lines to be other than are currently believed or a birth certificate that showed someone’s ancestry was not what they’d been told. Or perhaps there were bonds of some sort in the desk or stock certificates that could be worth millions.”
“Or proof of a crime or perhaps proof of an inheritance, such as a never-found last will and testament,” I added.
“Let’s face it,” Mike said. “The concept of hidden documents provides a range of motives. If any such documents ever existed and were once hidden in the desk’s compartment, we need to find them, although it will be doubly hard to find them because we don’t even know what we are looking for.”
“Did you ever get into Colton’s safe? The one we found in his office at the furniture store?” I asked.
“I did,” Mike answered. “There was money and some files pertaining to items he’d recently purchased, but nothing that jumped out as a motive.”
“What about the desk?” I asked. “Was the paperwork for the desk inside the safe?”
“It was not,” Mike answered. “Star might have had it, or it could be stashed with whatever might have been found in the desk.”
“What do we know about the previous owner of the desk?” I asked.
Tony jumped in. “The desk was purchased from the estate of a man named Graham Beaumont. Mr. Beaumont died this past summer, and his estate was divided between his surviving children, who seemed to only be interested in the cash, because the man’s home, his vehicles, and the furnishings, books, and household items in the home were all either sold at auction or in the estate sale.” Tony took a breath and then continued. “Mr. Beaumont was in his nineties and had lived on the estate for about thirty years. Before that, he lived and worked on a ranch just south of Wolf Creek.”
“Do we know when he purchased the desk or whom he purchased it from?” I asked.
“I was unable to find proof of where the desk came from, but I suspect it might have come to Montana through Graham’s wife, Annalise, who was born and raised in Washington, DC. She met Graham while he was attending college in Baltimore. From what I could find, Annalise came from money, and I believe that it was her money that allowed Graham to purchase the estate he retired to.”
“So if the desk was from Colonial times, whatever was hidden in the desk could have been put there just prior to the man’s death or more than two hundred years ago,” Bree said.
“Theoretically, yes,” Tony agreed.
“Did you ever get hold of the woman whose number you identified early on?” Bree asked Tony. “I’ve forgotten her name.”
“Celia Bronson,” Tony answered. “And yes, I was able to track her down. She heard about the desk and was interested in obtaining it for her own collection. She said she spoke to Star initially, but after she died, she contacted Colton, which is why there were calls from her to both of them.”
“We found the desk in Colton’s barn, so we know she didn’t purchase it from him. Did you feel there was any reason to suspect that she might have killed two people in her effort to obtain the desk?” I asked.
“Not at all,” Tony answered. “The woman did seem very interested in buying the desk, but I didn’t pick up the obsessive killer vibe from her.”
“So, what now?” Bree asked.
“I have one other lead that may or may not turn out to be relevant,” I added. “I spoke to Jillian from the pharmacy today, and she told me that she was in Star’s shop when a man dressed in a suit came in and kicked her out.” I went on to describe exactly what had occurred.
“Tall with dark hair does tend to be a common variable,” Mike agreed. “But that still isn’t enough. A lot of men are tall with dark hair.”
“I never did see the face of the man who shot Star, but Jillian seemed to get a pretty good look at the one who came to Star’s store. You’ll want to talk to her personally to see if you can home in on some distinguishing features.”
“Is it possible that there is more than one thing going on here?” Tony asked.
“What do you mean?” Mike asked in return.
“We know that Star had been digging around in her past and that she inadvertently found herself mixed up with Grant Tucker and whatever occurred at the time of her mother’s death. We have speculated that her digging around into the past of a man who clearly wants to disappear could be what got her killed, and it does seem as if the man who came to see her in the shop before her death had features similar to the man who warned us off as well as the man who pulled Mike aside at the restaurant more than a year ago. But even if we assume that the one who stopped in at the antique store to speak to Star is the same one who showed up at my house to warn me off and is also the same one who pulled Mike aside at the restaurant to warn him off, that doesn’t mean he is the person who shot both Star and Colton.”
“Wait,” Bree said. “Are you saying that while the man who visited Star at the antique store may be the same person who was running interference for your dad all along, that doesn’t mean he is the one who shot her?”
“Exactly,” Tony confirmed. “It seems feasible that Star could have been shot by the man who seems to be running interference for Mike and Tess’s dad, but why would this person shoot Colton?”
“So you think that the fact that Star was looking into her past is nothing more than a coincidence and had nothing to do with her death?” I clarified.
“Perhaps,” Tony answered.
“That would be just too bizarre,” Bree said.
“I agree,” Mike said. “Until we find the killer, we can’t know for certain what the motive for the deaths might have been, but I’ve had Tony do a thorough investigation into Colton’s last days, and he found no evidence that Colton knew anything about our father or Star’s past, so it seems unlikely that her past had anything to do with the murders.”
We fell into silence. Eventually, Tony said, “Dinner is ready. We can talk while we eat, but it seems to me that the answer to everything most likely will be found in some documents that might have been hidden in the desk. That is the only thing that makes any sense to me at this point.”
Chapter 14
Friday, December 20
It came to me in the middle of the night, the idea that perhaps Star had stashed the documents she and Colton had found in the safest place she could think of, her safety deposit box. I knew she had one because that was where she’d told me she’d stashed the envelope with the information about her parents that Sam Denton had compiled and left for her with a friend. When I’d asked Mike about it early on, he’d said that he would need a court order to get into the box, but that was two weeks ago, so chances were he’d made progress on that front. I’d need to ask him about it when I saw him today.
In the meantime, I had a very long day to prepare
for. I had my usual mail route to complete, and then I was going to meet Tony at the opening of the carnival, which was set up the day before. The sky was dark, and snow was falling gently. The high temperatures were forecast to be in the mid-twenties for both today and tomorrow, with nighttime lows in the single digits. I didn’t think anyone would show up for the outdoor rides that were scheduled to be open from three to nine p.m. today and from ten a.m. to nine p.m. tomorrow and Sunday.
“Be sure to wear lots of layers,” Tony counseled as he handed me a cup of coffee.
“I have a bag with extra hats, gloves, sweaters, and socks too. I’ll leave it in the truck, along with my heavy boots and my extra jacket in case the one I wear for work today gets too wet. This whole Christmas carnival idea was nuts.”
“I agree. Your mom agrees. The entire Christmas on Main committee agrees, but the event planner signed the contract, so even though she is no longer in the picture, the town is on the hook for it.” Tony looked out the window. I followed his gaze. It seemed as if the snow was coming down harder.
“Hopefully, the committee plans to bring the craft and food vendors inside,” I said.
“When I spoke to your mother yesterday, she indicated as much.”
Tony handed me a muffin and an apple for my drive into town.
“I should go,” I said. “I’ll text you later, so we can figure out a place to meet up.”
“Maybe you should leave Tilly with me today. You won’t have anything to do with her after work if you take her.”
I knew Tony was right, but I was going to miss having my copilot today. I could drop her at my cabin after work, but all the other animals were here at Tony’s, so she’d be alone while we were at the carnival. In the long run, she really would be better off hanging back here with the others today.
I decided to start my route in the middle so I could talk to Mike about the safety deposit box first thing. Thankfully, when I arrived at his office, he was there and didn’t seem all that busy.
“After you and Bree left last night, I got to thinking about the safety deposit box Star told me she had, where she stored the envelope I delivered to her. I wondered if perhaps items from the secret drawer in the desk might be in there as well.”
“I actually thought of that too and was able to finally get permission to get into it. The bank manager and I opened it before the bank opened.”
“And?”
“And it was empty. The manager checked the log, and it showed that Star accessed the box earlier on the day she died.”
I narrowed my gaze. “She must have emptied it, but why?”
Mike slowly shook his head. “I have no idea, but the fact that she emptied her box hours before she was killed seems significant to me.”
“I agree. And we know that she closed her shop on the day she died as well. It looks like she felt she needed to take care of whatever was in the file.”
“But why right then?”
“Maybe the guy who came to see her when Jillian was in the store threatened to harm her if she didn’t turn over the information she received that related to her parents. Maybe she decided that it was in her own best interest to turn the envelope over to him, so she went to the bank to get it, although I have no idea why she would have moved whatever stuff might have been hidden in the desk.”
“Maybe there never was anything in the desk after all, and even if there was something, maybe she hadn’t put it in her safety deposit box,” Mike said.
“I guess that could be, but she told me that she put the envelope I delivered to her in the box, so we can at least assume she took that out when she went to the box the day she died. If nothing else, I feel like we should figure out what happened to it.”
“If Star did retrieve the packet to give to someone who was threatening her, whatever was in it is most likely long gone,” Mike pointed out.
“Well, that’s frustrating.”
“It is,” Mike agreed. “I guess at this point, all we can do is try to think like Star to figure out where she would have put important papers if she didn’t, in fact, turned them over to someone who might have been threatening her.”
That was a question that would haunt me all day as I went about my route. I really, really wanted to find the envelope that Denton had gathered about Dad, and I also felt that if there had been something hidden in the back of the desk, something that someone was after, that was most likely the motive for both Star and Colton’s deaths. Of course, even if there had been documents and they had been hidden away, I had no idea where to look for them that we hadn’t already looked. Star had died a week before Colton, so it made sense that if he knew where the documents were hidden and how to get to them, he would have retrieved them at some point during that week. He must have known that Star’s belongings would be inspected with a fine-tooth comb during the investigation into her murder, so it made sense to me that he would have retrieved anything that existed and then hidden them somewhere he felt was secure.
I thought about his house, his workroom, and his furniture store. It made the most sense to me that he would hide something important in his house, where he could keep a close eye on it. But where? Mike, Bree, Tony, and I had looked all over the place. Mike and Bree had searched Colton’s home office, but perhaps they’d missed something. I needed to get my route done, but this was important, too, so I headed toward Mike’s office once again.
“So, what do you think?” I asked after I explained my logic to Mike.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a second look.”
“I would help you, but I’m already behind on my route, and this is a Friday, so I want to get everything delivered before the businesses begin closing for the weekend, and Bree is working as well. Perhaps Tony can help you.”
“I’ll call him.”
I had to admit that it almost killed me to bow out of the hunt, but I did have a responsibility to deliver the mail in a timely manner, and it was a responsibility I took seriously. Mike picked up the phone and called Tony while I was still there. They agreed to meet at Colton’s place, and I went back out into the snow to complete my route. Sometimes doing the responsible thing was no fun at all. If it had been any day other than a Friday, I might have taken the risk of not finishing in time and delivered the things I hadn’t gotten to with the next day’s mail. But this was a weekend, and there was a lot of holiday mail, so I knew a late delivery would not go over well with my customers.
By the time I wrapped up my route with Sisters’ Diner, I was wet and cold and pretty grumpy. Neither Mike nor Tony had called me or returned the calls I’d made to them. I wasn’t at all happy about being excluded.
“Hey, Aunt Ruthie,” I said, setting a pile of mail on the counter. The restaurant was closed by now, but Ruthie was still on the premises cleaning up. “Is Mom over at the carnival?”
“She is. They went ahead and opened it despite the weather. I suppose there are folks in town who will show up, no matter the cold and snow. It isn’t windy at least, so that helps. But according to my weather app, the storm that is south of us is heading in this direction now. From my calculations, it should be here by midnight. I doubt the carnival will be able to operate tomorrow.”
“Is it supposed to dump a lot of snow on us?” I asked.
“Several feet. If we get too much too fast, it won’t be only the carnival that will be impacted but the entire event. If the roads are closed, the tourists from the neighboring towns won’t be able to get here, and if they can’t get here, the whole thing really will be a bust.”
“I’m sure Mom is at the end of her rope.”
“And how,” Ruthie agreed. “If you are headed over to the carnival to help out, you might want to tread lightly. I’m afraid your mom has been snapping at everyone today.”
“Thanks for the warning. I’m going to change out of my uniform and then head over. You haven’t seen or heard from either Mike or Tony this afternoon, have you?”
She shook her head. �
��No. Neither came in or called.”
“They were working on something together, but they aren’t answering my calls. I’m starting to get a little bit worried.”
“The storm is messing with the cell reception. I’m sure they’re fine. You might want to check with Bree to see if she’s heard from Mike.” Ruthie glanced at the clock. “She is probably still at the bookstore.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll head in that direction.”
Bree’s store was closed, but like Ruthie, she was still there, cleaning up before leaving for the day. I knocked on the door, and she let me in.
“Hey, Tess. Where’s Tilly?”
“At Tony’s with the rest of the animals. We are supposed to meet up and head over to the carnival, but I haven’t heard from him all afternoon.”
She frowned. “Yeah, Mike hasn’t returned my text either. I hope everything is okay.”
“I’m sure it is. They were heading over to Colton’s house to take another look around his home office. I wouldn’t think that would take all that long, but maybe they found what they were looking for and followed up on it. I think I might take a run over to Colton’s to see if they are still there. Do you want to come with me?”
“I do. Just give me a minute to lock everything up.”
Chapter 15
When Bree and I arrived at Colton’s house, we found both Mike’s cruiser and Tony’s truck in the drive. The house was dark, with the exception of a single light at the back.
“I can’t believe they are still here,” I said. “They were supposed to meet up with each other hours ago.”
Bree opened the passenger door to my Jeep; I’d offered to drive. I unclipped my seat belt and got out as well.
“I hope everything is okay,” Bree said.
“I’m sure it is, but keep your eyes open just in case.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. I took the lead, and she fell in behind me. When we arrived at the front door, I opened it and called out, “Mike! Tony!”