Scene of the Crime: Who Killed Shelly Sinclair?

by Carla Cassidy

  “Buck wired every window and door. I told Mom that the owner of the property wanted it done to protect his investment.”

  “And she bought it?”

  “Hook, line and sinker. Have you had a chance to look at the knife that was found last night?”

  Whatever emotion he thought he’d seen in her eyes was gone and the cool, professional Sheriff Bradford was back in control.

  He told her about the knife being from Jimmy’s Place and that he’d found no fingerprints or any evidence that it had ever been used for anything. The blade and handle had come up clean and appeared new.

  He then told her about the information Josh had shared with him about Neil Sampson. “But it doesn’t make sense that he’d kill Shelly because he was afraid of her telling somebody and yet he didn’t try to kill Savannah,” Olivia said thoughtfully.

  “You’d have to know the two sisters. Savannah was always shy and quiet. She didn’t have many friends of her own. Neil might have known human nature enough to recognize that Savannah would rather keep it a secret than make any kind of a scene. Shelly, on the other hand, was a much bigger personality. She was a wild card and he might have worried about her...if something happened between them at all.”

  “There are a lot of ifs in this whole investigation. Maybe we can work in two interviews this afternoon and talk to both Mac and the councilman.”

  “I’m ready to get started whenever you are,” he replied.

  “Then let’s do it,” she said and grabbed her purse.

  Oh, he’d love to do it. He’d love to take her home to the bed where she’d slept the night before and have her naked and willing. He’d love to sweep everything off her desk and do it right now.

  Instead, they’d spend the afternoon talking to a man with a bad temper and another man whose ambition might have led to murder.

  Mac Sinclair lived in a modest ranch house on the east side of town. His wife, Sheila, opened the door when Olivia knocked. “Sheriff... Daniel...what are you doing here?” Sheila was a small woman with mousy brown hair and shoulders that appeared to be permanently slumped in defeat. Her pale blue eyes held a wealth of anxiety.

  “We need to talk to Mac,” Daniel said.

  Sheila’s eyes widened. “He’s working right now. Can you come back at another time? He really doesn’t like to be disturbed when he’s working.” She wrung her hands and turned to glance behind her, as if afraid her husband might suddenly appear.

  “Working or not, we need to talk to him now,” Olivia said firmly.

  “He’s in the garage. That’s his workshop.” With obvious reluctance, Sheila opened the door to allow them into a spotlessly clean living room.

  They followed her into an equally clean kitchen and she pointed to a door. “He’s out there,” she said, but didn’t open the door to announce them.

  Mac must have one hell of a temper, Olivia thought. It was obvious Sheila was fearful of him. There was definitely no accounting for love that would keep a woman with the man she feared. Although in her years of working, Olivia had seen plenty of domestic abuse and women who, far too often, chose to stay with their abusers.

  She glanced over at Daniel and thought of their initial conversation when he’d come barreling into the office. She hadn’t expected his anger, an anger born in the fact that he cared about her.

  But caring wasn’t loving and loving wasn’t commitment, she reminded herself. She needed to finish her job here and then escape from Daniel before he got any more deeply into her heart.

  Thankfully, he hadn’t questioned her story about her marriage and immediate pregnancy. Blessedly, he hadn’t asked Lily for her precise birth date. She needed to finish up here before she made a mistake that could give away the truth about Lily’s parentage.

  With that notion in her head, she knocked on the garage door and then opened it. “Mac Sinclair, it’s Sheriff Bradford and Deputy Carson,” she said.

  She and Daniel stepped down to the garage floor. Mac sat at a huge industrial desk surrounded by shelving units that held computer parts and equipment. He frowned as he looked up from a laptop that sat on the desk before him.

  He shoved back from the desk, a frown furrowing his brow. “I’d ask what this is about, but I know you’re re-investigating Shelly’s murder. I don’t know why you’re wasting your time here to talk to me—we all know who is responsible. We’ve finally started to heal from this, and here you are to pick the scabs off old wounds.”

  Mac obviously didn’t have a problem speaking his mind. “The investigation at the time of Shelly’s murder was done by a dirty cop who rushed to judgment and did a shoddy job,” Olivia said. “That’s not the way I run things.”

  Olivia had pegged Mac as a bully, and she wanted him to know without question that she was the new sheriff in town and he wasn’t about to bully her. “Now, do you have a couple of chairs where we can sit and talk to you or would you prefer to come down to the station?”

  Nobody ever chose to go to the station. She and Daniel stood patiently as Mac got up from his chair, grabbed a couple of folding chairs that leaned against a wall and then opened them.

  He was a big man with broad shoulders and hands. It would be easy for him to strangle his sister in a fit of rage and then carry her body to toss it into the nearby lagoon.

  “I hear you aren’t a big fan of Bo McBride,” Olivia said as she and Daniel sat in the chairs and Mac returned to his spot behind the desk.

  “Never was. Shelly was too good for him. I told her over and over again that she’d hooked her star to a loser,” Mac said. He raked a hand through his thick black hair. “Shelly was smart enough she could have gotten out of this crappy town and made something of herself, but Bo killed her before she got a chance.”

  “Why would he kill her?” Olivia asked.

  Mac shrugged. “Maybe that was the night she finally decided to take my advice and break up with him, and he went nuts.”

  “Where were you on the night of your sister’s murder?” Olivia asked.

  Mac stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Am I a suspect? Seriously?” His eyes simmered with a barely suppressed anger.

  “At this point everyone is a suspect,” Daniel said. “So, where were you?”

  “I was at home...in bed. I mean at my parents’ home.”

  “The one you and Savannah just sold,” Daniel said.

  “That’s right.”

  “You were pretty old to still be living at home with your parents,” Olivia observed.

  “So were Shelly and Savannah,” he retorted. “We all were trying to save up money and our parents supported us in the decision to live at home and sock away money. I was trying to get my computer repair business off the ground, Savannah was saving up to open a fine dining restaurant and Shelly was just hoarding her money for whatever she decided to do in the future.”

  “Did you know that on most nights Shelly and Bo met at the bench by the lagoon to spend a little time together before Shelly worked her night shift at The Pirate’s Inn?” Daniel asked.

  “Everyone in town knew that. You can’t really believe I killed my own sister.” Mac’s hand on the top of the desk clenched into a fist. “I only wanted what was best for her and that wasn’t Bo.”

  “Maybe it was an accident. Maybe you met her down by the bench to try to get her to break up with Bo and she refused and your anger got the best of you,” Daniel said.

  “I’ve heard you have anger control issues,” Olivia added, aware that she was baiting the bear.

  Mac slammed his fist down on the desk. “You’re right, and stupid makes me angry and it’s stupid that you are even here talking to me about this. If you believe I killed Shelly, then arrest me, otherwise get the hell out of here and leave me alone. I’ve got more important things to do with my time.”

&n
bsp; “He’s some piece of work,” Olivia said once they were back in her car. “He probably beats his wife every Saturday night just for the fun of it.”

  “He is a mean bastard,” Daniel agreed. “He’s always been a bully and possessed a hair-trigger temper, but that doesn’t mean he killed Shelly.”

  “But nothing has taken him off the list of suspects, either.” Olivia fought against a wave of frustration. “I guess it’s time to talk to the illustrious Neil Sampson and see what he has to offer.”

  Nothing. Neil was arrogant and openly talked about his brief dating of Savannah, but indicated she had wanted to have sex with him as much as he had with her. He denied having anything to do with Shelly and didn’t remember what he had been doing or who he might have been with on the night that Shelly was killed.

  It was just after four when they returned to the station. Daniel went to check in with the task force team while Olivia closed herself off in her office to write up reports.

  She was determined that even if they didn’t solve Shelly’s murder before her time in Lost Lagoon ended, the next sheriff would find the files as complete and detailed as possible.

  Besides, working on reports kept her mind off Daniel. He’d been so kind to her the night before. He’d tucked her into bed and the gentle kiss he’d delivered to her forehead had made her want to pull him into the bed with her.

  Shock and trauma, that was all it had been. She’d been frightened and it was only natural that she’d want somebody to hold her.

  The problem was she didn’t just want anyone to hold her, she’d wanted Daniel, specifically. If she were smart she’d completely distance herself from him, but he’d now appointed himself her personal bodyguard and the truth was he was the only person in the department she trusted implicitly.

  After five, he knocked on her door and came into the office. “Time for all good sheriffs to go home for the day and spend their evening with their family,” he said. “By the way, you never told me if Lily enjoyed her mozzarella sticks last night.”

  Olivia laughed. “She definitely enjoyed them. She asked me when I got home this morning when I’d have to work at night again and she could have more mozzarella sticks.” She grabbed her purse and stood. “And, yes, you’re right. It’s time for me to go home and for you to knock off work for the night.”

  They walked out of the building together. Daniel dropped his hand to the butt of his gun, letting her know he was taking his bodyguard duty very seriously.

  She was definitely comforted knowing somebody had her back. Even though she hadn’t come into the station until noon and it was only a little after five now, she was eager to get home and kiss her mom, hug her daughter and forget about men with bad tempers and a case with no leading suspects.

  She didn’t want to think about steak knives or an attack in the parking lot. Tomorrow she would be Sheriff Bradford again, but tonight she just wanted to be Olivia, Rose’s loving daughter and mother to beautiful little Lily.

  She was vaguely surprised when she pulled into the driveway at her house and Daniel parked just behind her and got out of his car. She exited her car and stood by the driver door until he joined her.

  “Did you forget something?” she asked.

  “No, I just figured I’d see a lady to her door,” he replied.

  “I’m not a lady, I’m your boss,” she retorted with a smile.

  “I have a terrible confession to make,” he said as they reached her small front porch.

  She pulled her house key from her purse and looked at him cautiously. “A confession?”

  He nodded. “I have to confess that from the moment my new boss showed up, I’ve wanted to kiss her.”

  “You kissed me last night on the forehead.” Warmth filled her cheeks as she thought of that tender kiss.

  “That’s not the kind of kiss I’m thinking about,” he replied and took a step closer to her.

  She was playing with fire and she knew it but was unable to help herself. “Then what kind of kiss have you been thinking about?” she asked, her heartbeat speeding up.

  “This kind.” He pulled her into his arms and slanted his lips down to hers.

  Memories cascaded through her head as she parted her lips to allow him to deepen the kiss. Laughter as they’d nearly tripped over each other in their eagerness to undress. White hot desire had stolen the laughter as they’d fallen onto the hotel bed.

  Those memories fell away as the here and now intruded and the fiery heat she tasted in his lips snapped her back to the present. His tongue twirled with hers, creating a flame of want in the pit of her stomach.

  She wanted to fall against him, meld her body with his until she didn’t know where she began and he ended. Her overwhelming desire for him and the fact that they were out in the open on her porch was what forced her to break the kiss and step back from him.

  She turned quickly and put her key in the door lock. “Good night, Daniel,” she said without turning around.

  “Good night, Olivia.”

  She escaped into the house and immediately punched the code into the keypad to unarm the alarm. Then, with fingers shaking, she reset the alarm.

  “Mommy, you’re home,” Lily came rushing toward her, and Olivia picked her daughter up in her arms and squeezed her tight, a wealth of emotion rising up the back of her throat.

  “Is everything all right, dear?” Rose asked as she eyed her daughter.

  “Fine, everything is just fine,” Olivia assured her with a forced smile. “I’m just glad to be home and I’m ready to spend the evening with the two most important people in my life.”

  But everything wasn’t fine. She had a killer after her and she was head over heels for the man who was Lily’s father, a man who didn’t even know he had a daughter.

  She recognized now that she would walk away from Lost Lagoon with a broken heart...if the killer didn’t succeed and she was able to walk away at all.

  Chapter Eight

  For the last week things had gotten weird. Daniel sat at his desk and stared toward the closed office door. He and Olivia had continued to work together each day and he’d followed her to and from the station, but she’d definitely been distant and a different kind of tension had sprung up between them.

  It had been the kiss. It had been hot and sweet and had left him wanting so much more. It had also obviously been a big mistake, creating an awkwardness between them that he now both hated and regretted.

  The problem wasn’t that she hadn’t responded to the kiss. She had. She’d responded with a fiery desire to match his. They just hadn’t talked about it the next day or any day since.

  They’d spent the week talking to people, checking out alibis and interviewing Jimmy Tambor about the knife that had been found. Jimmy had nothing to offer them. The knives were not only served with a variety of meals, but also kept in a silverware container where the diners could just grab one if needed.

  Dead ends. Daniel stared down at the list of names on his desk. It was a short list of potential suspects. At the top was Eric Baptiste, who had become friends with Shelly just before her death. Second on the list was Mac Sinclair. Shelly wouldn’t have been afraid to meet her brother at the bench by the swamp in the middle of the night.

  Last on the list was Neil Sampson, a long shot but given his brief relationship with Savannah Sinclair and the fact that Shelly had mentioned she had a sticky situation on her hands, he had made the list. Bo wasn’t listed as a suspect, but he wasn’t completely cleared, either. It was just a gut instinct that both Daniel and Olivia shared that he was innocent.

  Frustration welled up inside Daniel. It was possible the person who had murdered Shelly wasn’t even on the damned list. To further the insult of the stymied investigation into Shelly’s death was the fact that they had not gotten any closer to finding th
e person who had delivered the trashed dog or had attacked Olivia.

  He looked up to see Deputy Emma Carpenter knocking on Olivia’s door. She entered and closed the door behind her. For the past six mornings, Olivia had been calling in the deputies one by one for interviews.

  Daniel had no idea what kind of timeline Olivia had here in Lost Lagoon. He did know that when she finished her internal investigation into any corruption left in the department, then a special election would be held for a new sheriff and she would return to her home in Natchez.

  It was as if for the past week she’d been working especially hard on the internal investigation and not as much on the Sinclair case. It was as if she was suddenly eager to put Lost Lagoon...and him behind her.

  He shouldn’t have kissed her. But she’d looked so darned kissable, and he’d been unable to stop himself from following through on his need to taste her sweet lips again.

  He stared back down at his desk, surprised to realize how much he would miss her. He’d grown accustomed to her face being the first one he saw each morning and most evenings the last one he saw before heading home.

  Josh rolled his chair over to Daniel’s desk. “You know, I’ve been thinking,” he began.

  “There’s a novel thing,” Daniel replied.

  “Very funny. Actually, I’ve been thinking about our suspects in the Sinclair case and the missing engagement ring.”

  “What about it?” Daniel looked at his friend and fellow worker curiously.

  “I’m just trying to figure out who would have a motive to take the ring off her finger. I don’t see Neil Sampson having any motive. Mac definitely jumps to the top of the list. He hated Bo and he hated his sister’s relationship with him. As far as Eric, maybe it’s possible he was in love with Shelly and tried to get her to break up with Bo and when she refused, he killed her and took the ring.”

  “Sheriff Bradford and I have had the same kind of thoughts,” Daniel agreed. “Taking the ring was definitely personal. I suppose it’s also possible that Shelly broke up with Bo that night and gave him back the ring.”