“You weren’t rebellious,” Ward repeated.
“I was responsible. You feel free to talk to any social worker or cop who ever worked with me. I worked. I educated myself. I supported myself. I was no ‘wild child’ like you say Charley was.”
“But it sound like maybe you lined your own pockets when the opportunity presented itself. Felt free to accept gifts that you didn’t deserve. Took advantage of those who were vulnerable.”
Erin clenched her teeth. “No. I didn’t. I worked hard as a caregiver. I never talked anyone into giving me anything. Sometimes… people would give me gifts. Was I supposed to turn them down? I worked hard.”
“I’m sure you did.”
“If someone gave you a gift, you wouldn’t accept it?”
“It’s called accepting a bribe. No, I wouldn’t.”
“But it’s not accepting a bribe if you’re not a police officer. It’s just someone showing gratitude. And why would you turn it down? Especially if you were struggling to make ends meet. I don’t think it’s fair to expect that.”
“I doubt if you were on the skids.”
Erin shook her head slowly. “You have no idea what it was like for me.”
“I know that now you’re a business owner. You’ve got your own shop. Sounds to me like you managed to make out pretty well.”
“I have all that because my aunt died. I’ve got no one else left in the world, and she didn’t have anyone else to leave it to.”
“Except Charley.”
Erin was taken aback. “Excerpt Charley,” she admitted. “But Clementine didn’t know about Charley. I didn’t know about Charley. No one knew about her.”
“Why wouldn’t your aunt know about her?”
Erin realized that Ward was missing big pieces of the puzzle. She sat back, letting her breath out.
“I really need to get back to my bakery tomorrow. Do you think we could arrange to discuss this some other time? Or over the phone? Or I can email you answers to your questions? I can’t just leave my partner to take care of everything.”
“This is a murder investigation, Miss Price. The first few hours of case are vital. We need to get all the information we can as quickly as we can. Maybe your information won’t have any bearing on the case, but we can’t know that until we hear it. Leave it to us to figure out what is important and what is not.”
“I don’t see how this has anything to do with the murder. What does my Aunt Clementine leaving me the bakery have to do with Charley allegedly killing her boyfriend?”
“I don’t know. I won’t be able to make connections until I have all of the details. Maybe you have motive to set Charley up. Maybe she was threatening to take your inheritance. Maybe the two of you aren’t quite as buddy-buddy as you would like me to think.”
“We’re not buddy-buddy. We just met each other today.”
“I don’t know that. I don’t have any proof of that. I’d like to hear about why you inherited this property and she didn’t.”
Erin closed her eyes and covered them with her palms for a few minutes, trying to rest her head and stay clear.
“Okay. I’ll try to explain it as concisely as I can. Clementine never knew Charley. None of us did. Charley was born after the accident that killed our mother. Our mother was kept on life support in order to carry Charley to term. I don’t think Clementine found out about what had happened to our parents until years later. I don’t know for sure, because the journal is still missing. But she didn’t take either of us in. She might not have ever even known about Charley being born; it took me a long time to get any information out of DFS, and that was years later. Clementine knew that I was still alive… or was last she had heard… so she left everything to me.”
“Did Charley challenge the will?”
“I just met Charley today!”
“So you say.”
“You don’t have any evidence that we ever met before this. I’ve got a business to run. I barely ever leave Bald Eagle Falls for anything other than supply runs.”
Ward looked at Erin for a long time. Erin didn’t crack. There wasn’t anything else for her to say. She didn’t have anything to confess to.
“Do you think your sister killed Bobby Dyson?” Ward asked.
“How would I know? I don’t know anything about her or about him. I didn’t get to town until after he was killed. I’m not Charley’s alibi. She never said anything to me about him. I never heard his name until you arrested her.”
“You’d heard of the Dyson clan, though.”
“I told you that. I had a friend run background…”
“If you had him run background, why didn’t you listen to him when he told you to stay out of it?”
Because Erin always had to test it out for herself. She should have listened to Terry, but she figured he was just being an overprotective boyfriend. She should have listened to Vic, who had grown up hearing about the Dyson clan and had warned Erin not to get involved with them. But Erin figured she was a little bit jealous of Erin meeting her long-lost sister and didn’t want to take the chance of losing her place as Erin’s close friend and confidante.
And Willie… how many times had Terry told her that Willie might not be quite as trustworthy as Erin thought him? She’d heard, not just from Terry, but from others as well, that Willie was suspected of being involved in shady practices. That he would do anything for a buck. That he didn’t care who he worked for, as long as he got his money. Maybe she should have listened to Willie. Maybe he knew more about the Dysons than the others did. Not just rumor and innuendo, but actual first-hand experience.
Erin rubbed her forehead. “I guess I just really wanted to meet my sister. I didn’t see how that could be a problem. It wasn’t like I was getting involved in anything with this Dyson gang. I just wanted to meet my sister.”
“Next time, maybe you should listen.”
Erin sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Maybe next time I will.”
Before Erin left, she was allowed to see Charley. She hadn’t expected Ward to allow it, but he’d looked at his watch and considered the request, and eventually nodded.
“Sure, why not?”
“Really?”
“You’re going to have to wait just a few more minutes. I need to make sure we’re not interrupting the flow of an interrogation. Obviously, we can’t just break in in the middle of something important.”
“Aren’t you the one questioning her?”
“No, I have someone else talking to her right now. We take turns. Have to stay fresh. Questioning a suspect can be exhausting and can take a long time.”
Erin suspected that Charley did not get to take breaks. They would keep questioning her, trying to wear her down and tire her out and break her down until she confessed to what they wanted her to. Erin watched TV. She knew how it worked.
She looked at her watch again, worried that it was going to be hours before she got a chance to see Charley and was able to start on her way home. But it was only twenty minutes before Ward was escorting her to the interview room where Charley was being kept. The police officer interrogating her was pulled out and Erin was allowed to enter. The door closed, sealing them in. Erin felt like they were in an echo chamber. Every sound was too loud. They were bound to be recorded and observed.
“What are you doing here?” Charley demanded.
“I asked if I could see you before I headed for home.”
“That was nice of you. Why?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay, and to make sure you could get ahold of me if you needed to. I don’t know… maybe you don’t care. But if you did want to keep in touch…”
“It would be nice to have a pen pal while I’m in prison?”
Erin gulped. The conversation was certainly not going the way she had expected. “No… I didn’t mean that… I’m hoping this is all just a mistake, and they’re going to let you go, and then we’ll have a chance to get to know each other.”
Charley sh
ook her head. Her eyes were angry. Probably not even at Erin; she was wound up after having to talk to the police for hours on end. Looking more closely, Erin could see lines of fatigue around her eyes, and puffiness that suggested she had concealed bags under her eyes with makeup earlier in the day. If she’d already been sleep-deprived before the arrest, Erin could only imagine how exhausted she must be with several hours of questioning on top of that.
“You seem like a nice person,” Charley said. “But I don’t know you from Adam. You could just be someone the department planted to get my confidence. If you are legit, then I’m sorry. You just got me at a really bad time. Maybe some other time—some other lifetime—we could get to know each other. But for me now… it’s just not going to work.”
Erin nodded. “Okay. Just for the record, I’m sorry this is happening to you, and I’m not a police plant. If you change your mind…” Erin slid a slip of paper across the table to Charley. “That’s my cell number. You can call me if you want to. Otherwise… I guess we just go our separate directions now.”
Charley looked down at the paper. It was a while before she nodded and picked it up.
“Okay, sis. Maybe I’ll call you sometime.”
Chapter Eleven
V
ic was writing up price labels for the display case. She looked over at Erin and caught her yawning again. Vic raised an eyebrow.
“You sure you’re going to be able to manage today?”
Erin had gotten back to Bald Eagle Falls in time to start the early-morning baking at Auntie Clem’s, but she hadn’t actually had more than an hour or two of restless sleep before that. She hadn’t even bothered to put on her pajamas, but had just fallen into bed. She had at least managed to get her shoes off. Orange Blossom had prowled around, walking overtop her on the bed and sniffing at the abundance of unusual smells that clung to Erin, snuffling and sneezing at her.
“I know, I know,” Erin had told him. “I’ll shower in the morning and these clothes go straight into the washing machine. Though her nose wasn’t as sensitive as the cat’s, she could detect a number of the smells from the police station. Her own sweat, smoke from Jack Ward, who had obviously sneaked out for a cigarette at some point before talking to her, leftover fast food dumped into garbage cans, the bodies and bodily fluids of various detainees Erin had been forced to sit with while she was waiting to make her statement. Even if there hadn’t been anyone else there, the furniture itself seemed to have absorbed their odors. Erin had gagged more than once at the foul smells.
Vic had fed the animals in her absence, so they didn’t need to be taken care of, but both Orange Blossom and Marshmallow had seemed to understand that something was going on with Erin and had given her extra attention.
“I’m fine,” Erin told Vic, rubbing her eyes. “I’ll have another coffee and that will keep me going.”
“You’ve had enough coffee to float the Titanic. What you really need is sleep.”
“I don’t think I’d be able to get it now even if I tried. Don’t worry about me. It’s just a day like any other.
Vic carefully filled loaf pans with dough. “So, are you going to tell me how things went? I guess you guys must have gotten on pretty well, to stay out there talking so late.”
“Well… no, not exactly. I’m not sure if I’ll ever hear from her again.”
Vic turned her head to look at Erin, puzzled. “What? But you were out there…”
“I wasn’t so late because we were visiting.” Erin sighed. She wanted to talk it over with someone, but she also didn’t want to have to divulge what had happened. She wasn’t exactly going to be able to keep it from Vic. She knew Vic would keep whatever she said in confidence. “I was there late because I was talking to the police.”
“What?” Vic dropped the spatula she was using to scrape out the bowl.
“I… uh… Charley was arrested, so they were questioning me as a witness.”
“Who’s Charley?”
“Charlotte. My sister. Apparently, that’s what she goes by.”
“She was arrested? Your sister was arrested?”
“Err… yeah.”
“What for?”
Erin swallowed. She pretended to be concentrating on the muffin recipe she was assembling, even though she could have done it in her sleep.
“Murder.”
“Murder? Who?”
“Her boyfriend, one of the Dysons.” Though Vic hadn’t asked, Erin knew what question would be coming next. “Shot.”
Vic’s mouth worked for a few seconds before she managed to get anything out. “Land sakes! She shot her boyfriend?”
“That’s what the police think. I don’t know. I barely met her. I… hope she didn’t.”
“Goodness, I hope not. I can’t believe it, Erin. That’s just crazy! I’m flabbergasted! I don’t know what to say!”
Erin nodded. “That about covers it.”
“What did the police want from you? They didn’t think you had something to do with it?”
“I didn’t,” Erin asserted, “and they’ll know that if they verify my alibi. I was here with you yesterday morning.”
Vic nodded, her eyes wide. “Do you think she did it?”
“I don’t know. They didn’t exactly discuss any of the details with me. I didn’t talk to Charley about it, before or after she was arrested. I’m afraid I wouldn’t want to know the answer.”
“Wow.”
“You’re nice not to say ‘I told you so,’” Erin told Vic. “You all told me not to get involved with her after you found out she was involved with the Dyson clan.”
“Well… yes. We didn’t want you to get involved in anything nasty. But I don’t think any of us imagined that there would be a murder the day you met her. We were thinking more about you being exposed to some disreputable characters. Not… being caught in the middle of a murder investigation.”
Erin looked at the clock. It was just about time to turn the sign to ‘open.’ She looked sideways at Vic and caught her looking back.
“I know,” she said. “But it’s not like it’s the first murder investigation I’ve gotten caught in the middle of.”
Erin was dreading having to tell Terry about her first visit with her half-sister. She didn’t know how she was going to explain how she had ended up at the police station giving a statement about her movements over the previous twenty-four hours. But as it turned out, she didn’t have to bring it up with him.
Terry came into the bakery for a water bottle refill and a visit during the slow part of the afternoon. He took a seat at one of the small cafe tables by the front window. Erin took a deep breath and looked at Vic, not sure about how to proceed. Vic just gave her an encouraging ‘get on with it’ gesture. Not helpful. Erin prepared a pitcher of water and got a doggie biscuit out of the cookie jar on the counter.
She approached him, forcing a smile. “Hi, Terry. How is everything?”
“Everything is quiet here.”
“Good! I know quiet is better in the police business.”
“Things are not so quiet in Moose River; but I gather you already know that.”
Erin’s heart sank. She sat down on the chair across from him. She gave the biscuit to K9. “Uh… yeah. Interesting story.”
“Jack Ward says hi.”
“He seemed like a very competent policeman. I’m sure he’ll have it all sorted out before long.”
“He called the PD to ask about you. Imagine my surprise.”
Erin swallowed. She wished she had brought a glass over for herself. “I didn’t know he was going to call you.”
“Would it have made a difference?”
Erin searched his face. He wasn’t happy, that was clear. His jaw was clenched. His voice was flat and cold.
“I was going to tell you about it later on. Tonight. There wasn’t any point in calling you last night, it was almost time to get up by the time I got back here. I didn’t have the energy to do anything but fall into bed. But i
f I’d known he was going to call you, then yes… I would have called you while we were making preparations this morning. I didn’t think anyone in Bald Eagle Falls was going to know anything about it if I didn’t bring it up.”
“I warned you.”
“But I didn’t do anything, Terry. I was just there. Not even when the murder happened, I wasn’t there until hours later. At Charley’s house, I mean. Not at the crime scene. I was just there to meet my sister.”
“Who I told you was involved in organized crime.”
“Would you have let that stop you from meeting a long-lost relative?”
Terry frowned. He took his time unscrewing the top of his water bottle and topping it up from the provided pitcher. A wave of relief washed over Erin. At least he hadn’t just snapped back an answer without seriously considering it. She waited, giving him time.
“I don’t have a long-lost relative,” Terry said finally. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a sibling I had never met before. But I know that if one of my brothers was in trouble… I would go see him even if I knew he was involved in something shady.”
Erin breathed out a sigh of relief. “I didn’t go there thinking that she was actually involved in anything like a murder. I honestly couldn’t see how going to see her could be dangerous to me.”
Terry opened his mouth to interject, but Erin held up her hand and went on.
“I just wanted to meet her. I wanted to talk to someone I was blood-related to. I haven’t been able to do that since I was eight years old. I haven’t had anyone. I never planned to get involved in anything she was involved in. I never thought anyone would be suspicious of me just for talking to her. Maybe that’s naive, but what were the odds she was going to be arrested for murder the day I met her?”
Terry cracked a smile. “With you…?” he took a sip of his water. “I wouldn’t even want to speculate.”
Erin tried to look aloof, though her face was burning. “I’ve never done anything to actually get myself mixed up in a murder investigation. Except maybe for maybe Adam Plaint’s, and I wasn’t involved, I was just helping the police department with the information I had uncovered. You suspected me in Angela’s death, but even you have to admit I didn’t do anything wrong. It wasn’t like I was holding drugs for someone and got accused of dealing. I didn’t do anything, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or she was.”
Stirring Up Murder Page 7