"Did you kill Wally?" I jumped to the heart of the matter.
He grinned. "What, no small talk first?"
"Did you kill Wally?" I repeated.
"No. I didn't kill him." Riley gave me a look I couldn't decipher.
"You expect me to believe that?"
There was a flash of irritability in his eyes. "Yes. I do. I didn't kill Wally. I told you already. I was drinking at the Cornhole."
"No, you weren't. And when you start out by lying to me, it makes me think you're lying about everything else."
Riley folded his arms across his chest, but didn't say a word.
I pressed on. "What case are you working on?"
He closed himself off. "I don't have to tell you about that. PI/client privilege."
"You told Soo Jin that you were at the crime scene because it was germane to your case. So what was it? What kind of case puts you at the scene of Wally's murder?"
"I wasn't drinking socially at the Cornhole. I was following someone."
I studied him. "Okay…that part might be true."
"Why don't you believe me?" His jaw tightened.
"Like I said before, because unless you are dressed head to toe in black and gold or your name is Hawkeye, you'd get the crap beat out of you. And dressed like you said you were, you stood out like crazy in a place like that. The locals don't want outsiders there…"
"…unless you are buying them three rounds of drinks," he finished. "On a tab. For the whole bar."
That would work. I deflated a little. Iowans weren't cheap, but they did appreciate a bargain. If the state motto wasn't Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain, it would be Free Drinks Taste Better.
"Honestly, Wrath," Riley teased. "You'd think I hadn't been in the CIA for years."
"Who were you following?" I tried again.
"Someone I'm investigating. I merely was at the right place at the right time. When I came outside, Soo Jin was standing in a dumpster. I went over and lied to her so that I could see what was going on."
I sighed heavily. "You do know that that sounds ridiculous, right?"
He nodded. "I'd feel the same way as you do. I just wish you trusted me a little more."
That stung. Okay, so Riley had been a jerk to me on occasion. But I should at least try to give him the benefit of the doubt. And yet I still wasn't one hundred percent sure he didn't do it or was involved.
"You didn't see who killed him?" I asked.
"Nope." He folded his arms over his chest.
"Hilly and Wally had gone there for a drink. Did you see them in the bar?"
"Nope." Riley started to frown. He was shutting down.
I raised my voice. "You know, that's really annoying. Are you going to say anything other than nope?"
"Nope."
I digested all of this. With a start, I realized that someone was missing. I got up and walked down the hall to the bedroom with Riley following. No one was in there or the attached bathroom. But the window was open, and the curtain was fluttering in the breeze.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"You let her get away!" I said as I stuck my head out the window.
Tracks in the dirt below disappeared onto the driveway.
"She did a runner, eh?" Riley was too smug for my comfort.
"Happens a lot to you, I'd imagine," I said as I grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the living room. "Where did she go?"
He shrugged. "She was staying here and nowhere else that I knew of."
I'd really wanted to grill Bitsy. And now she was gone. "Why was Bitsy here? She has no reason to be here. So why does she show up when Wally's here?" And by here, I meant dead in a dumpster.
Riley shrugged. "She just said she was passing through. I didn't ask her for details. We were kind of busy."
"I'll bet. Some private dick you are. You don't even ask obvious questions," I snapped.
That seemed to sting more than my jibe about women running out on him.
I continued my line of questioning. "Did she say anything about why she was here during all that not talking?"
"Fine," he grimaced. "She said she was here to apologize to you."
"That's ridiculous. And I don't believe it."
He shrugged again. "That's what she said. I'm not lying about that."
Bitsy wanted to apologize? Well, that would blow my hopes of nailing her for Wally's murder. Or was she lying to Riley? I thought about these things as I drove home and got ready for bed.
I was out of the house early the next morning. Rex was in the shower. I should've stayed and talked to him, but I needed to see the dumpster site again, and I knew this was a good time to do it.
The Cornhole lot was once again empty as I pulled around back to the dumpster. Imagining I was Hilly, I pretended to come out the back door, luring Wally to the dumpster. I pictured the stabbing and her lifting the diminutive Chechen up and over the side of the bin.
Then I went through it all again from Riley's perspective. Only this time, Riley and Hilly were in it together. Because if she and Riley had done it together, she'd also use the excuse that Ron and Ivan had killed Wally.
I pictured Bitsy next, coming across Wally in the parking lot. In this scenario, Hilly either had to know that Bitsy was here to kill Wally and simply helped a colleague out, or Bitsy did it on her own. But that wouldn't explain Hilly making up the witness statement.
Had she done so because she knew she'd been the last to be seen with him? Was that what she meant at the troop meeting? That she should've seen this coming? She made up seeing Ron and Ivan, only later to discover that Bitsy had killed Wally?
My brain was running in circles, and I was no closer to solving this than I'd hoped. There was one thing. The knife was missing. What would either woman or Riley do with the knife? I looked at the cornfield. It was against our training to discard a weapon so carelessly. But maybe the killer threw it into the field.
I spent at least an hour combing the corn, about three feet in on all sides. No weapon. I'd probably wasted my time since Sheriff Carnack would no doubt have searched the fields also. Would it matter anyway? After all, Bitsy, Hilly, or Riley would've worn gloves or cleaned the handle, wiping away any prints.
If I were the killer, what would I do? I would take the weapon with me and get rid of it later. But then again, Hilly called it in. Even though she wasn't here when the sheriff arrived, she might have worried about getting caught. So would Riley, who'd been there when it happened.
Okay, working from that scenario, the killer stabbed Wally, dumped him in the dumpster, and then had only minutes to get rid of the knife. It wasn't in the cornfield. The back of the building was flat. There wasn't anywhere to hide a knife. That left the dumpster.
Forensics had been all over it. Or had they? I walked around it, looking for seams or anywhere to hide a weapon. And then it occurred to me.
Dropping to the gravel, I used my phone to take pictures underneath the bin. I couldn't see the underside, so I used the phone's camera to cover the entire area.
Bingo. I called the sheriff, then Rex.
"That looks like the right size," Rex said, taking the knife from the sheriff.
Both men were wearing gloves. It took all three of us to tip the dumpster over to get to the knife, which had been shoved partially into a rusted-out seam.
He bagged it then handed the bag to the sheriff. "Better have it tested for prints. Maybe get it to Soo Jin first so she can determine if it's the right size."
Sheriff Carnack took off his hat and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. "It doesn't seem to have been there very long, but this is the kind of place where anyone could've stashed a knife at any time."
He turned to me. "Merry, I'm going to have to keep those men a little longer. Now that we have physical evidence…"
"I know. And that's fine."
Carnack nodded. "That lawyer you hired is really good. She's working for release based on some information she has."
&nb
sp; I said nothing. Rex knew of my being their alibi, but the sheriff didn't. For some reason I couldn't explain, I didn't want him to know just yet.
Rex gave me a curious look, but said nothing.
"Well, it was nice of you to find Mrs. Monaghan for those two." The sheriff replaced his cap. "I'd better get on with it." And with that, he left.
Rex watched him go. "Why didn't you tell him you're their alibi?"
I shrugged. "Something in my mind told me not to. I've got to stop by the county jail and see how they're doing."
Rex smiled. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were soft on those two."
"I guess I am," I admitted. "They were kind to me back in Chechnya. And I feel a little responsible for them since I know they didn't kill Wally."
"We really need to find Riley, Hilly, and Bitsy," Rex said. "I'll stop by Riley's on my way back. Maybe I'll find both of them there."
"Good luck," I said.
He walked to his squad car. "Nice work on finding the knife. And thanks for calling us instead of taking it upon yourself to deal with it."
"I'm not that bad," I grumped.
"No." His eyes twinkled. "You're not that bad."
While Rex was off to find Riley and Bitsy, I needed to get to the county jail before the troop's meeting with Dr. Wulf. I kind of wanted to be there to see the look on her face when Betty broke out the storyboard on the life of Mr. Fancy Pants. But I had no idea how long this would take, and I didn't want to rush things in case the guys remembered some intel they'd forgotten to tell me before.
Kelly could handle it. And the girls really liked Dr. Wulf. I had more important things to do. Mr. Fancy Pants was in good hands.
"I need to see the guys," I said to Deputy Grimes, who was reading a hefty book on Richard Nixon. How did he read so quickly? And why Nixon? Maybe he needed to cleanse his palate after the steamy romance and space horror.
"They're in the lounge. They have visitors." He hit the buzzer. "First door on the left before the cells."
The twins must be visiting. I didn't realize I could meet the men in the lounge, but then again, how else would Jane Monaghan get their statements? I also hadn't noticed the lounge when I'd been buzzed in before. But there it was, with a big sign that said Lounge.
"Merry!" Ron and Ivan were sitting at a table, but they weren't alone. Inez and Betty were sitting with them.
"Girls! What are you doing here?"
"Visiting, duh." Inez rolled her eyes.
"These are your goblins!" Ron crowed.
"Girl Scouts," I said evenly. "And why are they here?"
Betty shrugged. "Hilly told us they were here."
"Yeah." Inez slammed her fist into the palm of her other hand. "We're going to bust them out!"
I stayed standing. "No, you're not. Why did Hilly send you? And how did the deputy let you guys alone with two strange men?"
"We told them we were their sisters." Betty tapped her chin. "I was kinda surprised that deputy bought it and sent us in here."
Inez nodded. "He was reading a book. It had a cranky man on the cover."
I was torn between heading out to the lobby to cuss out Deputy Grimes and herding the girls out of here.
"Hilly wouldn't have sent you to bust these guys out. Why are you really here?"
The girls looked at each other. I wondered if they'd thought that far into their plan.
"I'm doing a paper on Chechnya," Betty said at last.
"It's summer," I said. "And you're in the fourth grade."
Betty's eyebrows went up. "Not buying it, huh?"
Inez suggested, "My church sent us to see if they were okay and to offer them dictionaries."
"Sanctuary," Betty corrected.
Inez nodded. "Yeah. That one."
I closed my eyes and then opened them again. Nope. They were still here. "Seriously? Your church sent two ten-year-olds, by themselves, to deal with possible terrorists?"
"I like these goblins!" Ron smiled.
"Girl Scouts," I corrected, never taking my eyes off the girls. "I liked it better when you said you were going to bust them out."
"Okay." Betty turned back to the men. "Here's the plan. Around midnight, I ride up to the window, on a horse…"
"Cookie the horse." Inez nodded.
"Right. I ride up on Cookie, tie a rope around the bars, and hightail it out of the parking lot. That tears out the bars, and you can escape!"
"You've been watching Westerns again, haven't you?" I asked.
Although, if anyone could pull this off, it would be Betty. We'd just come back from a Civil War reenactment, where Betty ran guerilla ops.
"Why don't we just use the cannon?" Inez referred to the cannon the girls had bought for that reenactment—using my credit card.
"Because that would kill them." Betty rolled her eyes. "Besides, I need to get more powder. My brother noticed some"—she did finger quotes in the air—"inconsistencies on his credit card, so I have to be more careful."
Ron interrupted, "But if we break out, we have to run away!"
Ivan nodded. "We want to marry Randi and Ronni!"
The girls' mouths dropped open. "Rex's sisters? The taxidermy twins?"
Ivan sat forward eagerly. "You know them?"
Inez shrugged. "Everybody knows them. They do cool stuff with dead animals."
Betty held up a finger. "New plan. We break you out, then give you new identities."
Inez smiled. "I think I can forge a couple of drivers' licenses."
"Then you can stay here and marry the twins." Betty slapped the table and looked at me in triumph.
"It's not that easy." I sat down. "I mean, Jane is definitely going to get you off…I mean, get you released. But then we have a whole new problem. Specifically, immigration. The authorities might know you are here. I don't know much about this kind of thing, but I think they'd probably arrest you or send you back."
The men looked upset at this news. Betty and Inez murmured to each other, heads together.
I wondered aloud, "Why did you tell Jane you were in the States?"
"Wally got us in on tourist visas." Ivan looked totally miserable.
Ron, never one for brilliant ideas, had one. "What if we ask for religious asylum? From little girl's church?"
I don't know what surprised me more, that he knew what that was or that he came up with an idea.
"I know nothing about that," I repeated.
"You just say you are being prosecuted in Chechnya." Ivan smiled.
"Persecuted." I was getting tired of correcting these guys. They were as bad as the ten-year-olds.
"Right. That. And we demand religious asylum!" Ron added.
I sighed. "Okay…but you'll have to say what religion you are and why you are being persecuted back home."
Ivan cocked his head to the right. "Which religion do you think would work best?"
"Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster," Betty suggested.
I ignored her. "I don't remember you guys ever even mentioning religion back in Chechnya."
"Russian Orthodox," Betty offered again. "My grandpa is Russian Orthodox."
"That might work…" My brain configured. "After all, most Chechens are Muslim. But then they'd just ask you why you wouldn't move to Russia."
Ivan thought about this. "We cannot do that. We blew up a gas station in Minsk only four weeks ago."
I stared at him. "Why did you blow up a gas station in Minsk? That's not in Russia. It's in Belarus."
Ron and Ivan looked at each other, then shrugged at me. "It is okay. There was nobody there, and it was abandoned," Ivan said.
"Let's not tell Jane about that." I rubbed my temples.
"Did you use C4?" Betty asked.
Ron said, "No. Cannot tell you. Is secret."
That meant that Wally had handed these guys explosives and said go blow something up. Of course they didn't know what they were using.
Ivan patted my arm. "Mrs. Monaghan said we would be free soon. You
just have to make statement."
Ron jumped up in the air, waving his arms. "Then we can marry twins! You get us rings yet?"
"I am not buying rings for you," I said. "When do you see your lawyer next?"
Ivan squinted at the wall clock. "In one hour."
"Great. I'm going to escort the girls out of here. You make sure she calls me, okay?"
The men agreed, and I marched the girls out to the lobby. Deputy Grimes was back to reading the romance novel. I'm sure it was better than a tome on Richard Nixon.
"I need to talk to you." I marched up to the counter. "You let these little girls in to see the prisoners. What were you thinking?"
The man slowly marked his page with a bookmark, closed it, and then gave me his attention. "What now?"
"The girls." I pointed at them as if they were props. "You let ten-year-old girls into the visitor's lounge, alone, with two suspects from a murder investigation."
The deputy followed my finger to Betty and Inez. His eyes flickered slightly with the recognition that he might get in trouble for this.
"Oh. Sorry about that." Then he picked up his book again.
"Sheriff Carnack is going to hear about this," I threatened as I escorted the girls out the door. Deputy Grimes didn't even look up.
"You're kind of making a big deal out of nothing." Betty folded her arms over her chest, refusing to budge from the sidewalk.
"Look, Betty, we're going to need to have a long talk. You've been participating in some dangerous activities this summer. I think we need to tone things down." I included Inez. "What you two did today was really reckless."
Inez shrugged. "Hilly said they weren't dangerous."
Of course not. Because Hilly knew they didn't kill Wally.
Betty nodded. "And she would know."
"Well, considering that Hilly is…um…who she is, she's not the best person to give that advice right now."
"Hilly is totally awesome. And I think she's innocent!" Betty shouted. Apparently, I'd touched a nerve.
"Until further notice, you are not to get involved." My voice was strained. "No visiting those men."
"Why not?" Inez asked. "They're going to be your brothers-in-law."
Macho Man Murder Page 13