by K. J. Emrick
He couldn’t keep the smile off his face. He knew something was going on, and I’d just handed him a free invitation to come see whatever Kevin wanted to show me.
One way or another, I could tell things were about to get interesting.
***
There was no one at the service window in the police station lobby, but James and I could both hear the shouting going on inside.
“Should we knock?” James asked with a smirk.
“Doubt they’d hear us over that.” I looked at the bell on the shelf at the window, then listened to the voices from inside. Doubt they’d hear the bell, either. Taking out my cell again, I rang Kevin’s number. “We’re here,” I told him when he answered.
“We?” he asked, his voice testy. “Who’s we?”
When he came to the window, his expression darkened. “What’s he doing here?”
“G’day to you, too, Kevin,” James said brightly. “Things sound busy back there. I understand ya got Myles Sinclair under arrest.”
My son’s eyes rolled to me. “Yes. No sense saying different. Not now, anyways.”
“Kevin,” I asked him, “what’s going on?”
He looked from me to James, who still couldn’t keep the smile off his face, then he turned back to me with a little shake of his head. “Mom, this is all mucked up. I need ya to come back here. By yourself,” he stressed.
James started to say something, but I squeezed his hand and thankfully, he left off talking about the rights of the press and the free flow of information. Not that he wasn’t right, maybe, but I could tell from the way Kevin was acting that this was more serious than that.
“Can you wait for me here?” I asked James.
“My pleasure,” he said, planting himself in one of those ugly orange chairs.
Kevin opened the door for me and quickly closed it once I was through. “I really wish you would’a left him behind,” he grumped at me, meaning James.
“He was my ride, Kevin. You said to get here quick. Figured it must’ve been important.”
“It is,” he said, steering me aside, down the hall where James couldn’t see us through the little service window. In front of Senior Sergeant Cutter’s office, he stopped us, and lowered his voice. “Look. Bruce Kay’s made a mess outta this whole thing. He came in yesterday while I was at the Inn having lunch, and he read through the whole file. Everything I’d done. So what does he do? He goes off and decides to make the arrest himself.”
I nodded, seeing where this was going. “He wanted to grab the glory for himself. Wanted to look good in Cutter’s eyes.”
“Too right. Only, we weren’t anywhere near ready to make the arrest. Now Myles is in the interview room and he’s all clammed up and we can’t do anything to him.”
That was bad news, all right. Our visit to talk to Myles had been pushing things as it was, and Kevin and I had both known it, but it had seemed worth the risk. What Kay had done by bringing Myles in before they could actually charge him... that just might end the entire investigation. Now Myles would know everything Kevin did, all the evidence he’d been collecting, and it would give Myles a chance to create alibies and lies for himself.
Fantastic. “Cut from the same cloth as the almighty Senior Sergeant Cutter, isn’t he?” I said in frustration.
“The very same. Both got less sense than an emu.”
“Can’t argue that one, Kevin, but why bring me down? It’s not like I have any authority here.”
He pressed his lips together firmly. “Myles finally said he’d talk.”
“Okay...?”
“He’d talk, only if he got to talk to Dell Powers.”
Oh, snap. “He did what?”
“Look, Bruce Kay’s been in there interrogating Myles for two hours now. Blighter’s got exactly nowhere. I figured that would be it. Myles was gonna ask for a lawyer and then we’d never get close to him again. Then, half hour ago, Myles asks to talk to you. So. I know this is a bit outside of your comfort zone, but do ya think...”
“Do I think I could go talk to him?” I finished for him.
“Right. That. Mom, ya don’t have to do this. Can’t imagine what that little slime wants to say but I gotta believe he’s up to something.”
Out of the interview room came Bruce Kay, bursting through the door with a black expression on his face and his hands curled into fists. He slammed the door closed again. Then his eyes found me.
“Well, Kev,” he said with a sneer. “See ya brought down yer mom anyway.”
“He said that he’d only talk to her,” Kevin argued, his voice already rising to Kay’s bait. “I’m tryin’ to salvage something that very nearly got turned into a pig’s bottom!”
Kay lifted his fist, jabbing a finger out. “Think that’s funny, do ya? Cutter left me in charge, and don’t forget it! I’m doin’ fine! Myles already confessed to bein’ down at Arthur Loren’s house the morning he got attacked, now didn’t he?”
“He told us that already,” I interjected, trying to be the voice of reason. “Yesterday when we went down to see him. You must’ve seen that in the file.”
Bruce Kay is Cutter’s type of cop, sure enough. He’s a big bulge of a man, with broad shoulders and a broader waist and arms as big around as his thick neck. He always kept his scalp shaved bare even though he was trying to grow a mustache that amounted to a scraggly brown caterpillar on his top lip. His eyes were beady and blue and somehow always looked unfocused to me.
Right now those beady little eyes were trying to stare me down.
“Yes, I saw the file, Dell. I saw what yer son was tryin’ to keep from the rest of us! Now that I’ve had a good look see at it I know what needs to be done. Cutter’ll come back to find everythin’ taken right care of, now that I’ve made the arrest!”
“What good’s an arrest,” Kevin asked him levelly, “If we ain’t got the evidence to back it up?!”
“Give off, Kev,” was Kay’s reply. Somehow he managed to make my son’s name sound like an insult. “You and yer mom go have a cuppa, or take a walk, or whatever ya like, while I wrap this up.”
“He said he’d talk,” Kevin pressed, “but only to my mom. What’s it gonna hurt to try?”
“That’s not how we do things here!”
In that instant, I could hear enough of an echo of Cutter in Bruce Kay’s voice that I really just wanted to smack him upside the head.
Kevin’s expression slowly changed. The anger slipped away, replaced by a calculating light in his eye. I know that look. Seen it enough times when Kevin’s tricking a suspect into confessing to their crimes. What is it he’s always saying? Pride can be used against a person same as any weapon.
Leaning up against the wall by one shoulder, he began inspecting his fingernails. “Well, Bruce, if Cutter gets back and we don’t have this closed, guess you’ll just have to take the heat for it.”
That brought Bruce up short. He wanted to play the big shot, solve the whole case, show Cutter that he was a good choice to be next in line for Senior Sergeant. ‘Course, Cutter had a little boy he was grooming to take his place someday, and the last guy to be Cutter’s second in command had gone to prison, but none of that would matter to Kay. Man had stars in his eyes. Couldn’t see the truth that was right in front of him.
Kevin’s words had their desired effect. Bruce looked thoughtfully at the door to the interview room, his brow creasing.
“Come on, Mom,” Kevin said to me, taking my arm and turning us back toward the front entrance. “Bruce says he’s got this under control. Let’s leave him to it.”
We didn’t make it five steps before Kay cleared his throat.
“Fine, Kev. You think your mom can get Myles to talk? I’ll allow it. She ruins this investigation, though, it’s gonna be on your head.”
I snorted. So basically, if me talking to Myles worked, Kay was gonna take credit for the idea. If it didn’t work, then he’d give Kevin the blame.
And this is the state of things in Lake
shore. At least for Cutter’s men.
“Mom.”
Kevin was looking down at me, giving me the chance to decide one way or the other. “Right,” I told him. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Thanks.” He did a really lousy job of hiding his relief.
“Anything to help out the police,” I told him with all the sarcasm I could fit into so few words.
Bruce Kay is gallant enough to hold the door open for me. “Don’t mess this up,” he hissed in my ear.
I doubt I can mess it up any more than he already has. Still, I’m not here to make trouble for Kevin. I’m just here to help.
Inside the same room where Kevin and I had talked just yesterday, Myles Sinclair sat in a brown plastic chair on one side of the metal table, his hands cuffed together through a metal ring under the edge on his side. His usually perfect hair was mussed up, and the brown slacks were a poor match for that blue button-up shirt. It looked like Kay had pulled Myles straight outta bed, making him dress in a hurry.
“Well, well,” he said. “Look who dropped by to see me.”
Looking past my shoulder, Myles motioned to Bruce Kay with his head. “You can rack off now, Officer. Me and Dell have some things to talk about.”
I could tell Kay didn’t like it, but he closed the door anyway, probably still thinking about what my Kevin had told him.
“Now, Dell.” Myles leaned back in the chair as far as his restraints would let him, awkwardly crossing his leg over the other. “Let’s you and me talk.”
“Just like that?” I asked. “You’ve been keeping quiet this whole time and now you suddenly want to chat?’
“Maybe I just don’t like Bruce Kay that much.”
“Nobody likes Bruce Kay that much.” I eased myself into the chair on the other side of the table from him, noticing how it creaked and slouched to one side. “Tell you this. No matter how much I don’t like him, I’d still bend his ear off if it meant keeping myself out of jail. What’s the matter? Couldn’t come up with any good alibis?”
“Innocent men don’t need alibis,” he told me, looking far more at ease than he had a right to.
“If you’re so innocent, why didn’t you just talk to Kay? Why drag me down here?”
“Simple enough,” he said.
I’m glad he thinks it’s simple. I’m still in the dark.
His hands rattled against the handcuffs again, his fingers spreading in a gesture of isn’t-it-obvious. “You’re the only one ‘round here with any sense, Dell. Well, maybe that kid of yours has just a bit, but he’s a cop. Have to be careful what I say around the police in this town.”
“They aren’t all like Cutter,” I said, a little heat in my voice.
His eyebrows arched. “Didn’t say they were. Have something against good old Angus Cutter, do we?”
“Yes,” is all I’m willing to tell him. Long story, and not one I’m willing to tell him. Someday Cutter’ll get what’s coming to him, and I’ll be there to see it.
Good Lord willing, I’ll be the one to serve it to him. On a silver platter.
“Well there ya go, then.”
His smile showed teeth. With his mussed up hair, handcuffed to a chair, he seemed more real then I’d ever seen him look before. I realized that I was seeing another layer to Myles Sinclair. A different side of him, one he never let the world at large see. Maybe it wasn’t the whole picture, but it was enough for me to believe whatever he was going to tell me in this room would be the truth.
“So you trust me,” I prompted, trying to steer him back to the point.
“Sure,” he said, his brown eyes studying me closely. “You’re a smart, attractive woman with a good head on your shoulders.”
I tried not to read too much into a compliment from a man who obviously wanted something from me. Was kind of nice to hear, even so.
“Besides, Dell, you and me have... mutual acquaintances. You’re attracting all the wrong kind of attention. We move in some of the same circles and there’s people out there who hold a grudge, let’s say. Ya might just need someone like me on your side someday. Ya know? Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
“First of all, we don’t move in the same circles.” I pushed my chair back from the table. We were suddenly too close, me and Myles. “And just to be clear, I’ve no desire to scratch your back.”
That smile again. He really was a good looking man.
Not that I was noticing.
“There’s only one circle in Lakeshore,” he said. “It goes around and around, and always ends up in the same place. There’s those inside the circle, and those that stand outside of it. Some folks don’t even see the circle. Don’t know where they stand, in the scheme of things. Dell Powers knows where she stands. That’s what I like about ya. It wouldn’t be so bad if we spent some time together, would it?”
Had to wonder how many girls he’s tried that line on.
Still...
Attracting the wrong kind of attention, he’d said. From people who hold grudges. Last year, when Jess was killed, the ‘Ndrangheta crime family had sent a hitman to kill me and Rosie both. Luck, the good Lord, and timely intervention from both Kevin and Jess’s spirit saved the day, but I knew the ‘Ndrangheta were still out there, and still holding a grudge.
What did it mean, I wondered, that real estate agent Myles Sinclair thought he could protect me from those kind of people?
I started to stand up from my chair. This wasn’t getting me anywhere. “Listen, Myles, as fun as it’s been to sit here and have a chat with you about circles and such, I think maybe I should ask Bruce Kay to come back in—”
“No,” he said quickly, before clearing his throat and trying to act all calm and smooth again. “Now, there’s no need for that. You and me. Let’s talk.”
Planting my backside back in the uncomfortable chair, I made a show of checking my watch. “So talk. Tell me what you know about Arthur Loren being attacked. Convince me that you’re innocent.”
“I am innocent. Doesn’t mean I’m not involved.”
“You mind explaining that to me in English?”
“Heh. Funny girl. Look. You and Kevin were right. I was at Arthur’s place the morning he was attacked. Thing is, he was alive and well when I left. Alive, and breathing, and shouting at me like a madman. Seems he didn’t much like my offer.”
“What offer was that?”
“Well, I can’t give ya all the details, of course.”
“Of course. Might want to give me a bit more than that if you want me to go tell Bruce Kay to let you go.”
“Uh, right. See, I’ve got a big land deal in the works. Big bit of land on the edge of town. Borders up against Gallipoli Lake. My investors are very interested in acquiring this bit of property.”
A land deal? Near Gallipoli Lake? This was the first I’d heard of it. “I take it you stand to earn a lot of money from this deal.”
“Oh, big bickies, to be sure. Thing is my, uh, investors are only interested if they have all the land in the package.”
I was starting to get it. “Arthur’s land is in the middle of the property your investors want, isn’t it?”
“Well, not exactly in the middle,” he said, shifting in his chair, apparently surprised that I already knew about Arthur’s land. “But it’s holding up the deal, it is.”
“And you needed to buy it from him, so you could complete your sale.”
“Exactly. See, knew you was smart.”
“Myles, you realize that just gives you a motive for wanting Arthur dead, right? With Arthur out of the way you could just go ahead with the sale. Who would say different? I doubt anyone in town thinks Arthur owns more than his shovel. At the very least you could’ve picked up his property for a song after he was dead.”
To my surprise, he shook his head. “Thought about that. Uh, not the killing him part. The rest of it. See, I figured Arthur didn’t want to sell that land because he still believed he’d get rich fossicking about looking for gold. Turns ou
t Arthur didn’t want to sell to me because he was keeping the land in his family. For his daughter.”
“His...? Arthur had a family?” Hard to hide my surprise at that.
“See, that’s what I said. Who knew, right? Imagine him, with a wife and a baby. Mind boggling. Anyway, I upped my price a fair bit, but Arthur still wouldn’t sell. Nothing I could do. Now, him out of the way and all, the land will still be in his family and I’m right back to square one. Attacking Arthur woulda done nothing for me. Way I figure it, whoever bonked him on the head had something to gain from him.”
“Like a daughter,” I said, filling in the pieces. “A daughter who wants to get rich selling a tract of land that her father doesn’t want to sell.”
He smiled at me, spreading his hands against the handcuffs again.
“But who’s his daughter?” I asked, as much to myself as to him. “Nobody in town.”
“Didn’t ask,” Myles confessed. “At that point Arthur was a tad upset with me. Came at me with a shovel. Had to beat a hasty retreat. Guessing that’s when you saw me leaving his house.”
“Running from his house,” I corrected, leaving off the bit where it wasn’t actually me who saw him leaving.
“’Course I was running. You’d run too, if a crazy man came at you with a shovel.”
True enough. Be that as it may, I ran through Myles’s explanation in my head. It made sense, and it fit with what I knew about Myles and what I thought I knew about Arthur. He had a daughter? A family?
Holy dooly.
Wait. The woman who checked into my Inn. Denice Aldrich. I already suspected she had been at Arthur’s house, just from the things she had said. Was she the right age to be... probably, yes, but that didn’t mean... or did it?
Myles was watching me, and I wasn’t sure if I liked the look in his eye. At the same time I didn’t exactly mind him looking at me. A lot had changed between us in the last fifteen minutes. Not enough for me to trust him completely, mind you, but he seemed maybe a little more human than he ever had before.
Still, what about the rest of it?
“So he was okay when you left him,” I asked, feeling out of my depth. Kevin would know what super special question to ask in this moment to find that one little clue that everyone was missing.