Dark Secrets and Dead Reckoning, A Red Pine Falls Cozy Mystery (Red Pine Falls Cozy Mysteries Book 3)

by Angela C Blackmoore

  “What happened?” Abby asked, stepping out of the booth next to John.

  John had pulled his phone out by that time and was just about to dial a number, but he paused. “It means someone’s been shot,” he said, then walked off, putting the phone to his ears.

  The three ladies looked at each other with deep concern etched on their faces. Abby was just about to head back to the booth when she felt a tug on her sleeve. Susan Clawson was standing there, looking very nervous as her eyes flicked from Abby’s toward where John was talking animatedly on his phone.

  “Can I talk to you, Abby?” Susan asked. “I think I need to talk to you. To warn you about something.” Her eyes once again moved to follow John.

  Abby felt a chill race through her, but she nodded. She moved to follow Susan as the bank manager went the opposite direction from where John was talking animatedly on his phone.

  “Oh, jackrabbits,” Becky said softly.

  “What was that, dear?” Hazel said, standing next to Becky and looking just as concerned.

  “Looks like Hurricane Abby is at it again.”

  Chapter 12

  Abby let Susan lead them out into the park walkways in silence. She could tell the woman was distraught about something and looked to be trying to collect her thoughts before she began. They passed several benches and tables before Susan finally made a decision, and led them to an out-of-the-way picnic table.

  “What can I do for you, Susan?” Abby prompted, reaching out and taking the conflicted woman’s hand in her own.

  “I…listen, it’s not what you can do for me, but if I should say something at all. Promise me that you won’t tell anyone I told you this.” Susan stopped, then looked around herself as if expecting spies to be hiding in the grass. “I could lose my job if anyone ever found out.”

  Abby leaned forward, suddenly afraid for her friend. She didn’t think Susan was in physical danger, but the woman obviously felt conflicted and vulnerable. “I promise, as long as whatever it is isn’t illegal or could get someone hurt. I won’t tell anyone.”

  Susan shook her head.” It won’t hurt someone, or at least I hope it won’t, but it involves that man you were just talking to at Becky’s booth. He was the one that came in with the other two men and asked me about Frank. They have some accounts with Red Pine Falls Mutual, and he said there were some,” Susan held up her hands, making air quotes, “irregularities.”

  “What kind of irregularities?” Abby asked, not liking where this was all headed. Coupled with how the Sheriff had spoken to John at Becky’s booth, Abby was becoming more and more certain her suspicions were right. There was a part of her that wasn’t happy to hear about that because John has proven to be charming and friendly company. He’d also saved her life.

  “He didn’t say,” Susan continued. “But I started to do some digging into all the accounts Frank touched right before he was let go. Those idiots at corporate didn’t shut off his access until the HR team came out to fire him in person. They should have, because from what I could tell, Frank made off with a sizeable amount of funds.”

  Abby frowned. “Wouldn’t the bank have been able to tell if money disappeared?”

  “You would think so, but it took me days to find it even though I knew who’s ID to look for,” Susan said tiredly. “Frank, for whatever else he was, was an expert at shifting funds between large numbers of accounts. By the time everything cleared, he’d shifted the funds he wanted off shore and into untraceable places. I still don’t know the extent, but I found enough to know he’s in very deep trouble.”

  “I would hope so,” Abby said. “I’m sure the bank will find and prosecute him-“

  Abby trailed off when Susan began to shake her head. “No, it’s not the bank he needs to be worried about. It’s the accounts he took the money from. I went back, and he’s had his hands on the accounts he took money from for a long time. Years.” Susan leaned forward, suddenly whispering. “Abby, I think Frank was laundering money while he was the manager here. I think he knew he was going to be found out, and he decided to take these people’s money and run.”

  Abby went cold. “And you wanted to warn me that John was one of those people?”

  Susan nodded slowly, staring into Abby’s eyes. “Yes. The Troutdale accounts are some of the oldest ones, but there are others, too. Actually, John’s name didn’t appear on them until about seven years ago. Before that, it was under someone named Terry. But these weren’t the only people that came looking. The day after I talked to Sheriff Pearson, two more people came in, asking after Frank. A man named Wallace Jones and a woman. They were very rough looking, and they scared me a lot more than Mr. Troutdale did.”

  “Did they look like bikers?” Abby asked.

  “Yes,” Susan said, “The woman even started to threaten me if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to know. I had to tell them I was about to trigger the silent alarm before they would leave. Afterward, I looked up the accounts they were talking about. They were also some of the ones that Frank had manipulated. I think Frank stole millions from these people.”

  Abby whistled, and Susan just nodded, both of them with a serious look on their faces as they let the situation sink in. “This isn’t good. John said he was here for elk hunting, but he probably knows that Frank took off out of town and is hiding out in the forest. Oh, God,” Abby said, suddenly putting her hands over her face. “He’s probably here hunting Frank along with the bikers. At least they don’t get along.”

  Susan looked at Abby quizzically. “What makes you say that?”

  Abby pursed her lips and shrugged. “Well, I was at the Food Emporium yesterday and saw them interact. I won’t go into the specifics, but I don’t think they like each other at all.” Abby snapped her fingers. “When you were looking at the Troutdale accounts and the one’s the bikers were asking about, did you see any money go back and forth between them?”

  “I wasn’t really looking for that specifically, but I didn’t see transactions recently,” Susan said, pulling out her phone and making a note on it. “I can look for that, though. I was just about to send in all of the records to corporate, so I won’t have a lot of time to look.”

  “Do that, and let me know?” Abby said. “I’m betting they have, but I also bet it’s been a while. Did you tell the Sheriff about all of this?”

  Susan shook her head as she got up from the picnic table. “Not yet. I wanted to talk to my corporate office and update them before the Sheriff. I just saw you talking to John and didn’t want you to be caught by surprise in case things get…dangerous.”

  Abby stood as well and walked around the table, giving Susan a hug. “Thank you, Susan. I appreciate it. Honestly, I kind of suspected something anyway, but your information just confirms it. I’ll be careful, and I won’t tell anyone.”

  Susan smiled and nodded, then hurried off. Abby watched her leave, smiling at the too-serious way the woman looked around as if someone were going to leap out of the bushes at her. After Susan had moved out of site, Abby walked back to Becky’s booth and mulled over everything that had happened recently.

  Could John be with the mob? He had been nothing but polite to her, but it was clear the Sheriff was keeping an eye on him, and Susan had confirmed yet more reasons for her to be wary of the handsome man. Still, he had saved her from the bikers, and when he’d talked to her at McGradys, he had been a gentlemen. Despite all the facts to the contrary, she secretly hoped he wasn’t the mobster she thought he was.

  When she got back to the booth, Becky was nowhere to be found, but Hazel was handing out pie slices and taking money like a champ.

  “Where is Becky?” Abby asked as Hazel handed another slice of pie to an eager, young teenager.

  “Oh, she forgot something back at her storage and went to go get it. She was nervous at first, but I told her I had this just fine,” Hazel said and winked. “This isn’t the first bake sale I’ve ever done.”

  Abby laughed and moved around Hazel to giv
e Cheerio a scratch while the dog thumped his tail energetically on the ground. “I’ll help with the ice cream and whipped topping if you get the slices ready,” Abby said just before her phone rang.

  “Hello, Becky! Did you forget something else?” Abby said brightly.

  “Abby! You have to get over here right away,” Becky said with a note of desperation in her voice. “That rotten skunk is back, and it’s got me trapped in the storage shed!”

  “Oh, jackrabbits,” Abby said and raced for her car.

  Chapter 13

  When Abby drove up to Becky’s Café, she saw all of the workers out on the front lawn talking among themselves and looking around the side of the building toward the back parking lot. Instead of pulling directly back there, Abby wisely parked on the street and moved toward where the men and women were clustered.

  “What’s going on,” Abby said, looking around for Mr. Capshaw but not seeing him. Instead, one of the older men cleared his throat and pointed. “There’s a skunk back there where the dumpster is and we need access,” The man then shrugged, looking around helplessly. “We called the boss, but he’s still about an hour away. He’s coming though. I’m sure he’ll do something about it.”

  Abby scoffed and shook her head, then tiptoed down the driveway to peek around the corner. Waiting was for wimps. Sure enough, there was a skunk that looked decidedly familiar waddling around in the parking lot. Every once in a while it would go to the closed door of the large storage shed and sniff at it before resuming its patrol. Taking her phone out, Abby dialed Becky.

  “I can’t believe our skunk is back,” Abby said, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice. “What do you think is drawing it here? Maybe it likes your cooking. Have you picked out a name for it?”

  “Abby! Stop making fun of me,” Becky whined. “Seriously, you’ve got to do something.”

  Abby chuckled, but nodded and looked around the corner again. The skunk had moved back toward the storage room door and seemed to be content with laying down in front of it. “I’ll try, but he seems to be fascinated with you, or something in there. He’s right in front of the door.”

  “I don’t know but please think of something,” Becky replied. There’s not much room in here because we moved a lot of the stoves and cookers in out of the weather and this was the next best place for them. I’m practically sitting on one of the burners.”

  Abby laughed silently but nodded. “Okay, just hold your horses. I’ll think of something.” Abby began casting around, wondering if throwing rocks would be a good idea or not. With the skunk right outside of the door and with Becky not able to escape, Abby figured there was a fifty-fifty chance of it spraying and making Becky’s life even more miserable than it already was.

  Then her eyes finally came to rest on a green hose connected to a water outlet half-hidden by a large bush. She went over to it and fished out the head. “Becky, give me a few minutes. I think I have an idea, but I’m going to have to turn off the phone and put it in my pocket. I can’t do this with only one hand.”

  “Okay, but make it quick,” Becky pleaded, and then went silent as Abby hung up. She reached over and turned the small green handle, listening to the water began to run through the hose and then splatter onto the concrete.

  Looking once more around the corner, she slipped her thumb over the end of the hose, narrowing the spray for a brief moment and sending a squirt of water arching in the direction of the skunk. She only wanted to do it for a second to see how the skunk would react and watched as the small spray of water came smattering down several feet from the skunk.

  The small animal jumped up and spun toward the noise, wiggling its little pink nose in the direction of the sound. Its tail was up, but it didn’t look quite alarmed enough to do anything that all of them would regret. Abby ducked back around the corner and thought furiously.

  Clearly, the skunk was defensive, but how would she get it out of there without angering it enough to spray? She looked up into the sky at the overcast skies. It wouldn’t just spray every time water came down from the sky, right? If she did it enough, it should get uncomfortable and go to find its burrow or den, or wherever skunks lived.

  She stepped back from the corner, but kept it between her and the skunk, then began flicking water over the corner of the roof and in the general direction of the small animal. She didn’t just send a stream toward where it was but flicked it back and forth slightly in hopes of emulating a drizzle. After a few moments of this, she peeked around the corner once again.

  The skunk was moving. It looked agitated at the water that was occasionally hitting it, but since there was no specific target to defend against, its tail was down and it didn’t look like it was going to spray. Praying that she was on the right track, Abby began to direct the water a little more toward it, watching the gentle rain first get it moving, and then send it hurrying off toward the tree line at the back of the lot.

  Finally, the little black and white creature disappeared into the undergrowth and out of site. Abby kept spraying for a few moments longer, making sure the skunk had indeed, gone away before dropping the hose and moving toward the closed door of the storage shed.

  Quietly approaching the door, she suddenly yanked it open and peeked inside “Peekaboo!” she said loudly, watching as Becky jumped and gasped, holding her hand up to her chest.

  “Oh, Lord!” Becky yelped. “Don’t do that again, Abby! Did you chase it away?” She asked before looking cautiously out of the door and around as if the skunk might be clinging to the roof.

  Abby nodded happily and gestured toward the now-empty parking lot. “Yes, indeed. You are now skunk free! I’ll send you a bill later.”

  Becky shook her head and swatted at Abby’s arm. “Technically, I’m your boss, and you are supposed to come to my rescue free of charge.”

  Abby laughed. “Why didn’t you just call Gabe? I’m sure he would have come down and gotten rid of your pest for you. He did a great job last time.”

  Becky paused as her face suddenly became serious. “I did, or at least I tried to,” Becky said, her voice stricken. “Oh, Abby. I almost forgot. They said that Gabe hasn’t come back from the forest and they can’t reach him. They were just getting ready to send out search teams for him!”

  Abby’s blood ran cold. Missing? Gabe was missing? She didn’t even realize she’d begun moving before she was in the rental car and speeding away from Becky’s café toward the ranger station.

  Chapter 14

  “What do you mean, he’s been missing since yesterday,” Abby said with her hands placed squarely on the desk as she looked intently at the younger man.

  Ben, one of the park rangers that worked with Gabe, was sitting down with several maps spread in front of him. He had been pouring worriedly over them when Abby had entered the building. Abby hadn’t liked the look of it one bit when she’d marched up and began demanding answers.

  “I’m sorry, Abby,” Ben half-stuttered. “He was supposed to check in with us last night but didn’t. When we didn’t hear anything from him this morning, we started doing quick sweeps for him in his last known reported area. Julia and Conner are both out right now, but so far, we haven’t found anything.”

  The hole that had begun to swallow Abby became wider, and she could feel a slight panic beginning to creep over her. Missing. Lost. Dead. Those words kept rolling through her mind, and she was doing everything in her power to mentally shout them down. “When did you report this to the sheriff? Is he on his way out here?”

  The long pause didn’t do anything to hearten Abby, and when Ben spoke, there was a small drop of sweat slowly making its way down his forehead. “Uh. We…I just tried to call him about an hour ago, but I didn’t get an answer.”

  Abby blinked as her anger increased. Had they only called an hour ago? It was already almost eleven in the morning. If something had happened to Gabe, he’d been out overnight, and the weather was on the colder side when the sun went down. She was just about t
o rail at Ben for not trying hard enough when she remembered that the Sheriff was out dealing with some sort of death at the bar out of town. “Ben, I was over at the farmer’s market and the Sheriff got a call. Something happened out at the Hole-In-The-Wall bar. I think someone was shot or something.”

  Ben’s eyes widened, and he looked like he was just about to say a bad word but stopped himself. Instead, he clenched his lips shut and looked down at the maps. “That’s not good, Abby. Not good at all. Gabe won’t take precedence over that.” He stood, and pulled up one of the big area maps. It was all gibberish to Abby, but he pointed at one of the spots indicated with a red circle. “He was last in this area, but that’s a lot of backcountry, and there’s not a lot of people out there this time of year.”

  “Who can call a search, Ben?” Abby asked a note of desperation slipping into her voice.

  “Well,” He said, reaching up and scratching his hair. “The Sheriff usually does. We’ve always organized it through him.”

  “So you don’t have any way to call a search in an emergency?” Abby asked, “You’re a forest ranger! You’ve got to have something!”

  She could tell she was making Ben even more nervous and knew it wasn’t helping, but she could feel her nerves fraying even as she stood there looking at the panicking park ranger.

  Finally after staring at the map for far too long, Ben looked up. “I think we should call Mayor Tomlin,” Ben said. “If he doesn’t have a way to get ahold of people, I’ll eat my shoes.”

  Abby nodded and watched as Ben picked up the phone and dialed. While she waited, Abby kept remembering the last time she’d seen Gabe. How he’d held her when she’d leaned against him. The way his hands felt on hers, or the way his smile brightened her day. The way his lips felt. The only problem was that instead of a warm, happy feeling she just felt terror eating away at her stomach.