by Curry, Edna
“So what? Clara hired Harry. If anyone asks, Harry was asking questions for Clara. You don’t know what it’s all about. Act dumb.”
Heavy swallowed. “But what if she puts it all together? Maybe we should get rid of her, too.”
“No! Damn it, you’ll just make things worse. Just sit tight and keep quiet.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I. But this has gone too far already. I never wanted anyone to get hurt.”
Heavy sent him a sneer. “You’re such a softie. No wonder you’re an accountant.”
“Yeah, well accountants deal in numbers. And I know more violence will increase our odds of getting caught.”
At that, Heavy looked worried. “Okay, okay, I believe you. I’ll play it your way.”
* * * *
I met my friend Marion for coffee at the Flame Restaurant. Marion was sitting at our usual table in the dining room, a cup of coffee in front of her.
As I walked in, she glanced up restlessly. “There you are. I was just about to go out for a cigarette.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Are you having another nicotine fit?”
Marion flipped back her long black hair, then scowled at me. “It’s not funny, girl.”
“I know it’s not.” I knew she’d tried hard to quit several times without success. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t nice of me to tease her.
I took a chair and gave the hovering waitress the high sign to bring my usual order. She nodded, then headed to the kitchen to turn in my order.
Marion pouted, still upset about my teasing. “I’ll bet most of those legislators who made that smoking ban law didn’t smoke.”
“Since the majority of people don’t smoke any more, I think that is a safe bet.”
“Yeah, well.” Marion shrugged and dropped the subject.
“Did you hear the latest?”
“Latest what?” I asked, warily.
“Carter Manufacturing closed this morning.”
“What? Closed, how? What’s going on? Sam didn’t say anything when I talked to him yesterday.”
The waitress arrived with my coffee and toast, filled our cups, and then retreated.
Marion shrugged. “Apparently it all came up this morning. Everyone was sent home when they arrived at work. Nobody seems to know why. I thought you would know.”
I shook my head, my mind spinning, wondering what could have happened to bring on such a drastic event. Had Helen gotten a court order to break the will? No, that didn’t make sense. She wouldn’t shut down the factory, she’d want it to make money for herself; she didn’t want it closed down.
I drank some coffee, almost burning my mouth on the hot brew. I spread blackberry jam on my toast and bit into it. “I’ll find out as soon as I finish here.”
Marion looked at me doubtfully. “I’ve heard everyone was sent home.”
Their waitress appeared. ‘Is everything okay?”
Marion nodded.
“Will there be anything else?” the waitress asked.
When we both shook our heads, the girl slapped our bills on the table and moved on to the next table.
“If Sam’s not at the factory, I’ll see if I can find him at his house.”
“Okay,” Marion said. “Give me a call when you find out what’s up.”
“If it’s not confidential,” I said automatically.
“How can closing a major business in our area be confidential? It’s affecting the jobs of hundreds of people!” Marion said indignantly.
“True. And the news is already all over town anyway.” I dug out money for a tip, picked up my bill and waved a goodbye to Marion, then hurried toward the checkout.
I drove to the factory. Sam’s car wasn’t there and a stern looking stranger guarded the door, refusing me access.
“Nobody unauthorized gets in or out,” he snapped.
I smiled in as disarming a way as I could, considering the anger seething in my gut. “May I speak to the owner, Sam Carter, please?”
The guard shook his head. “He’s not here today.”
I tried again, trying hard not to show my frustration.
“Why is the factory closed?”
“I’m not authorized to give out information, ma’am.”
Ma’am! I huffed at his comment and strode back to my car. No point in arguing with him. It was obvious he wasn’t going to give me the time of day, let alone answers.
I drove off, deciding to try Sam’s house. When no one answered the door, I went to Sam’s assistant, Sandra’s house.
She answered the door, but barred the entrance. She was obviously upset and still dressed in her usual prim business suit. Her hair was messed up, as though she’d been running frustrated fingers through it.
“What do you want?” she asked with a scowl on her face.
I stood on her porch hoping she wouldn’t slam the door in my face. “I was just at the factory to see Sam and it was closed. Do you know why?”
“Clara ordered an audit.”
“Clara? But she’s dead. How can she order anything?”
“Duh,” Sandra said, uncharacteristically sarcastic. “Apparently, she signed the papers to hire the auditing company a week ago. Today was the scheduled day for it.”
“And no one knew about it?”
Sandra smirked at my ignorance. “Of course not. The whole point of an audit is to take everyone by surprise. They swoop in and take over before anyone has a chance to hide evidence or cover their tracks. Not even Sam knew about it. I was as shocked as he was. I told him I didn’t think he had to honor Clara’s order, since he’s in charge now, but he just shook his head and said he’d do what Clara wanted done. She always could wrap him around her little finger,” Sandra added bitterly, half to herself.
Obviously, Sandra had been jealous of Clara. Was she in love with Sam? I wished there was some way to find out, but knew she’d never tell me. She was much too prim and proper to admit a thing like that. “Where is Sam?” I asked.
She shrugged. “He didn’t tell me anything. I’m guessing, but he probably went to see his lawyer to see where he stands in all of this.” She heaved a sigh. “What a mess.”
“I’m sorry. Did the auditors say how long the factory would be closed?”
“No. I suppose it depends on what they find. I really don’t know anything. And I don’t think I should be telling you stuff, even if Sam did hire you to help him. Ask him.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’ll do that.”
I waved a goodbye as she shut the door. If I can find him, I added to myself as I went back to my car.
So much for help from her. I was not in the mood to look for Sam at his lawyer’s office. That wasn’t a good place for us to talk anyway. Would he contact me to talk about this latest development? I hoped so, but couldn’t be sure. I decided to go home and wait until he did or I could contact him.
* * * *
At home, I let Scamp out for a run, then heated a frozen entrée in the microwave and made some tea. I watched the local news on TV while I ate my quick meal.
There was nothing on the news about the Carter factory closing which wasn’t surprising. Nobody died, so it wasn’t newsworthy. The TV stations here are based in the Twin Cities and our town was too far out for our problems to matter.
I could understand that. I’m sure the news of a couple hundred people suddenly thrust out of work in our little town seemed like small potatoes to those city reporters.
Sam still hadn’t called me and he didn’t answer the phone at his house or his cell phone. I wondered what he was doing, and whether he could do anything at all about the factory closing down. Was he involved in whatever misdeeds they were investigating? Had Clara hired these auditors behind his back? If so, that suggested to me that she had suspected he was involved. Otherwise, why keep it from him?
My stomach in knots of worry, I carried my tea down to my office and caught up on email and phone messages, none of them urgent.
> Paul had gone back on a run early that morning. Later, he’d called to say hello. Darn, I’d missed him. But, he’d promised to call again tonight when he had more time to talk.
The Dobson factory wanted some more background checks of potential employees. I printed out the list and filed it. It could wait until I finished Sam’s case.
And the wife of the last cheating husband I’d followed said she had gotten the pictures I’d sent and thanked me. I’m not sure she was really happy about it though, because she sounded as though she was crying. She probably did love him anyway. Maybe she’d even forgive him and take him back. Did we women ever learn?
Then I remembered Harry’s address book and decided to check out the local numbers he’d had in it. Reverse lookup didn’t give me anything, so I assumed they were cell phone numbers.
I rang one of them, but got no answer. Bill Jones answered the other one. I remembered he was the big guy in charge of production at the Carter factory. Not a friendly guy, either. Whoa. I debated pretending I didn’t recognize his voice, but he’d answered with his name, so I couldn’t do that.
“Um, I found your number in Harry Alders’ phone book. I was just checking it out,” I stammered.
“Who is this?” I answered him tentatively.
”Oh, yeah, the nosy lady PI. Mind your own business. Your snooping around has already cost a lot of people their jobs. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“What? How could I have anything to do with the factory closing?”
“As if you didn’t know, Bitch!” he snapped, then hung up.
Yikes, I thought, closing my phone. Bill blamed me for the factory closing? How could that be? How had his twisted mind come to that conclusion?
More importantly, did Bill’s number in Harry’s address book mean Harry had been investigating him? Was Bill involved in whatever the illegal activities were at the factory? And, did that have something to do with Clara’s death?
I needed to talk to Sheriff Ben. Maybe he’d be willing to exchange some info if I could sweet talk him. It was worth a try.
* * * *
I drove over to Canton.
Ben was just getting out of his car as I pulled up in front of his office. I hurried to catch up with him as he went inside. It’s not easy to keep up with Ben’s long legs.
“Stay out of this, Lacey,” he said for the umpteenth time as we walked back to his office.
“You know I can’t do that, Ben. And I have new info to trade,” I informed him.
He went to the coffee pot at the side counter and poured himself some coffee. “Want some?”
“Sure,” I said, though I knew it was probably hours old.
I took the cup he held out and sat in his visitor’s chair.
“So what have you got?”
“You first, Ben. What did you learn at the factory?”
He shrugged. “Nothing much. Clara must have thought something wasn’t right, so she ordered an audit. Sam didn’t know about it and panicked, calling me for help when he came to work and saw all the strange guys in his parking lot this morning. But then he found out Clara had hired them, so he agreed to do what she wanted.”
“So, the factory is closed for now?”
“Yeah. They kicked everyone including Sam out until they decide if anything illegal is going on.”
“So, what happens then?”
Ben sipped his coffee. “That depends on what they find, I guess. The lawyers will figure it out; unless there’s something they want to file charges about.”
I took a swallow of the stale coffee and made a face. “You make horrible coffee, you know that, Ben?”
“Yeah,” he said with a careless shrug. “Tom makes it better. But he was out earlier, so I had to make it.”
I nodded. “Do you think Clara was killed because she ordered the audit? Maybe made somebody nervous about what the auditors will find?”
Ben rubbed a long finger alongside the crooked bump of his nose.
“I wish I knew, Lacey. It could be, but it doesn’t feel right. For one thing, nobody, even Sam, admits to knowing about the audit ahead of time. So how could it have been the motive for her murder?”
“You’re right. It doesn’t add up to me, either.”
Ben nodded. “None of this makes much sense. It’s like a couple of cases all mixed together. So what info do you have in trade?”
I hesitated, wondering how Ben was going to react to what I’d done. I took a deep breath and just blurted it out.
“I stopped at Jerry’s and snooped in Harry’s wrecked car. I found an address book you missed.”
“What? That’s evidence!”
I grinned in relief. He didn’t look too upset. In fact, he looked more pleased that I had something new than mad at me for finding it.
“Well, your guys missed it. It was wet, but I dried it out with my hair dryer.” I pulled the little notebook out of my pocket and handed it to him. “Bill Jones’ cell phone number is one of the local ones in there. And some numbers for Carter Manufacturing.”
He eagerly took the book, glanced at me, then opened the book.
“Yeah? Harry had Bill’s phone number? I wonder why? I’ll ask him about it.”
I squirmed in my chair.
“I already did. I phoned him, figuring Harry must have been investigating Bill or at least questioning him about something. He got mad at my questions and accused me of being the cause of the factory shutting down.”
“Yeah? You shut the factory down? All by your little old self?” Ben laughed. “How does he figure that?”
I laughed too. At least, it would be funny, if Bill hadn’t been so angry. “Who knows? He’s upset. Maybe he just needed to yell at someone and I was handy.”
He paged through the little book, then glanced up at me with a frown. “Lacey, don’t get in his way. Bill is a big guy with a bad temper. I’ve had to put him in the cooler overnight for more than one bar fight. And don’t forget somebody killed Harry for snooping too much.”
Oh, yeah, I hadn’t forgotten that. Nor was I likely to. I swallowed. “Do you think Bill did that?”
“I wish I knew. I don’t have any evidence to prove he did.”
“Can you check out Bill’s vehicles for damage? If he sideswiped Harry to run him off the road, there should be some scrapes or paint or something, shouldn’t there?”
“Should be. And I’ll check his out. But I’ve checked the vehicles of everyone who’s brought any vehicle in for repairs in the whole area and haven’t found any that match. We’ll keep checking every vehicle of everyone who’s connected to this case in any way. Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. Most of police work is legwork, you know.”
“I know, Ben.” So was mine.
“And whoever it was could have used a different vehicle than the one he or she usually drives.”
“Maybe he did,” I agreed. I stood, tossing my Styrofoam cup into the wastebasket.
“Mind what I said, now, girl.”
I tossed him a dirty look. I really, really hated it when he called me ‘girl,’ and he knew it. But, Ben liked to take liberties like that with me, just because he was my daddy’s friend.
He just stared back at me, clearly wanting to remind me he was the sheriff of this county and could find something to arrest me for if I went too far. Yeah, I knew that, but I didn’t have to like it. I heaved a sigh and nodded. “I’ll be careful. Bye, Ben.”
I could feel the hair on my neck stand up as his eyes stayed on me all the way out. The worst of it was, I’m afraid he might have something to worry about.
I had a feeling this audit was going to make some people more than a little bit nervous about other people finding out what they’d been up to in the past. And who knows what a nervous perp will do next?
Chapter 12
I drove to Sam’s house, but didn’t see his car. In fact, there were no cars on the street at all except a dark blue SUV which pulled into a neighboring house. The vehicle looked familiar.
Where had I seen it before?
Sitting in my car down the street from Sam’s house, I tried phoning him, but Sam didn’t answer either his home phone or his cell. So, I headed back home, figuring he’d call me sooner or later.
As I was about to turn onto the tree-lined, graveled road leading to my house, I noticed the blue SUV in my rear view mirror. Yikes, I had a tail. No way was I heading home now. I’d be alone in the country, at the driver’s mercy.
I sped on past my turnoff, taking the next turn back toward Landers. He followed, but it was a tarred road with little traffic, so I kept it a few miles over the speed limit. He stayed behind me all the way until I pulled into town, zipping around the Flame Restaurant and parking in front of it in full view of everyone sitting in the coffee shop. I was now facing the way I’d come. If he followed me into town, I’d make him.
I grabbed my digital camera, getting it ready in telephoto lens mode to snap quick pictures. I saw him come up to the stoplight, which luckily turned red, allowing me to snap some pictures. He ran the red light, sped straight ahead, over the bridge and into Wisconsin. Damn it! I’d hoped to at least get a license plate number. As he drove past in front of me, I could see the driver was a large person, probably a man, with a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. Or hers?
Not a lot to go on. Who could it be? Why were they following me? What did they want from me or intend to do to me?
This wasn’t making any sense. I couldn’t imagine what I might know that someone wanted to hide. Or was it something they wanted to prevent me from learning? Was he or she the same person who had slashed my tires and drugged Scamp? Left the warning messages? How far would they go? I shuddered. What if it was the same person who’d run Harry off the road? If it was, they didn’t object to killing. Maybe Ben was right and I was in over my head.
I put the camera back into my purse, then went inside the restaurant. It was probably best to stay out of sight for a while in case he came back. I needed some lunch, anyway.
I took a table in the dining room where Marion and I often met for lunch. I didn’t see her today, assuming she’d been there earlier.