by Jessica Beck
“You didn’t believe that, did you?” I asked him.
“No, I’ve been a cop long enough to know when someone is trying to hide something from me. I just don’t know what it is yet, but I will. What did you two discover?”
“Well, Officer Farley was a little more candid with us than Chief Willson was with you,” I said. “Should you tell it, or should I?” I asked Grace.
“Go ahead. I’m sure that you’ll do a fine job,” Grace said.
“I don’t care who tells me, as long as someone does.” Jake hesitated, and then he interrupted himself as he looked at me. “Suzanne, why do you keep glancing back here? Do I have something in my teeth?”
“I’m just checking to see if anyone is following us,” I admitted.
“Why would they do that?” Grace asked me.
“I could have sworn that someone was watching us as we left the station,” I admitted. “Don’t mind me. I’m probably just being paranoid.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Sometimes being paranoid can keep you alive during a murder investigation,” Jake said as he glanced backward as well.
“Nobody’s back there,” I said, feeling a little silly for bringing it up in the first place.
“Not at the moment, but that’s constantly subject to change, so keep checking periodically,” Jake said. “Go on. Tell me about Officer Farley.”
“She kept stressing that Alex told her he was going to be a changed man when he got to April Springs. At first I thought it might be in his love life, but then she told me that half the cops on the force had a problem with him.”
“Did she happen to say why?”
“I was about to ask her that when you and the chief showed up,” I said.
“Sorry about that. I just didn’t see any reason to keep asking him questions when I knew that he was just going to lie to me.”
“Why were you late? The police chief was with us a full minute before you showed up,” I asked him as I took a random turn and then pulled over, waiting to see if someone might go past us.
“You caught that, did you? I told Chief Willson that I had to make a quick phone call and that my cellphone battery was dead. As soon as he was gone, I called time and temperature while I took a cursory look at the man’s desk.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Nothing,” he admitted. “It was worth a try, though.”
“No doubt.” When no one passed after a reasonable amount of time, I turned the Jeep around as I asked, “Where should we go now? Should we head back to April Springs, since the police station was a dead end?”
“I still want to talk to Officer Durant,” Jake said, “but he’s not getting off duty for another two hours. I’m pretty sure that the chief wouldn’t approve of me speaking directly to him, but that’s not really a concern of mine after the way he just tried to snow me. Do you two mind hanging around town until then?”
“It’s fine by me. How about you, Grace?”
“My calendar is wide open for the rest of the day. What should we do while we’re waiting, though?”
“I thought we might all have another run at the suspects you spoke with yesterday,” Jake admitted. “Would you two mind if I tagged along?”
“No, that’s okay with us, right, Grace?”
“At this point I don’t see what it could hurt,” she admitted.
“Then let’s go have a chat with your suspects. Who should we tackle first: Shannon Wright, Maisie Fleming, or Deke Marsh?” I asked so I’d know where to drive.
“Don’t ask me. I’m just along for the ride,” Jake said from the back. “You two decide.”
“Let’s tackle Deke first,” Grace suggested. “He wasn’t very forthcoming with us when we talked to him before, but maybe he will be now that we have Jake with us. Is that okay with you, Suzanne?”
“Deke it is. Do you think there’s the slightest chance that he’s back at that bar where we found him last time?” I asked.
“It’s as good a place as any,” Grace said as I drove there. “Maybe he uses the place as his office.”
Once we arrived in the parking lot and got out of the Jeep, I told Jake, “Deke got out of prison a month ago, and Maisie Fleming told us that he’s been hanging around the apartment complex where Alex lived before he took the job in April Springs. He was supposed to be in jail for three years, but we never heard why. Evidently the judge overturned his sentence because of something the DA did during the trial. I wonder what he did.”
“You won’t have to wonder for long. I can find out in thirty seconds,” he said as he reached for his phone. I looked at Grace, who just shrugged. We usually didn’t have those kinds of resources available to us, so why not use them when we did? After a quick conversation, Jake hung up, frowning. “Grant told me that he was in for assault, but he would have gotten out sooner if he’d kept his nose clean. He has a bit of a temper, though, and he got in a few fights inside.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked him. “You don’t look very happy.”
“I understand that Simpson has been looking for me,” Jake said.
“Does he know that you’re here?” I asked him.
“No, and Grant’s not going to volunteer the information. We should be fine.”
I wasn’t quite so sure of that myself, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it, so I decided to drop it for the moment. “There’s one more thing you should know about him. He told us that Alex had reformed recently, or at least was trying to. That’s why he arrested Deke. He was trying to turn over a new leaf.”
Jake’s expression clouded. “He was probably lying.” I knew my husband hated when anyone impugned the reputation of a law enforcement officer, especially one who wasn’t around to defend himself anymore.
“He could be, but don’t forget what Officer Farley said. She told us that half the force hated Alex, and she implied that it was more than a personality conflict.”
“I’m still not going to believe a bunch of hearsay until I have some cold, hard facts.”
“Even if it’s coming from another cop?” Grace asked softly. I tried to warn her off from that particular line of questioning, but evidently she had missed all of my signals.
“Even then. Let’s go talk to this guy,” Jake said as he strode off toward the bar’s entrance.
“Grace, just drop it, okay?” I whispered as we followed him.
“Suzanne, he has to at least consider the possibility that some of the cops on the Granite Meadows force are doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”
“He’ll consider it, but we don’t need to swat him on the nose with it, okay?”
Grace looked at me for a moment before she spoke again. “You’re awfully protective of him, aren’t you?”
“Hey, that’s not fair. I look out for you all of the time, too,” I said.
“Like that?”
“Grace, I love you both,” I said.
“Equally?” she asked me softly.
“Sorry, but no. Jake’s first, and then there’s Momma, but you’re solidly in third, so at least that’s something.” I wasn’t about to lie to her, not about something that important.
Grace let out a breath of air and smiled. “That sounds about right to me. It’s natural for you to defend your husband, and I’d be a little bit worried about you if you didn’t, but you’ve got to let me keep pushing him if I think it’s important. If you can’t do that, I might as well go back home and let you two work on this case together without me.”
“Nobody wants you to do that,” I said hastily.
“That’s fine, then.” We both looked up to see Jake hurry into the bar ahead of us. Where did he think he was going in such a rush? After all, we’d met Deke Marsh once. We already knew what he looked like.
I hurried up to go in after Jake so I could steer him to the man we wanted to speak with.
To my surprise, Jake was already approaching the convict’s table. How could he have possibly known what Deke looked like?
Before too long, I was going to have to ask him just that.
“You’re Deke Marsh, aren’t you?” Jake asked him as he loomed over the crook’s table.
Deke wasn’t all that pleased to see him, or us either, for that matter. Without answering Jake’s question, Deke looked directly at us when he spoke. “I talked to you both before, so this is what I get in return? You go out and find a cop to come here and try to intimidate me?”
“I never identified myself as a police officer,” Jake said.
“You didn’t have to. I see you didn’t have any problem finding me when you walked in, either, did you?”
Jake just shrugged. “Tell me about Alex Tyler.”
“He was a heck of a fine fellow,” Deke said, his voice heavy with sarcasm.
“This will go a lot smoother if you keep your lip to yourself,” Jake answered. His voice had gotten softer, but somehow it was more intimidating as well. How did he do that? And more importantly, could he teach me? I sort of doubted it.
That attitude coming from a cop and from a donutmaker was clearly two different things.
Deke just shrugged. “Tyler arrested me, I got three long, my lawyer got me out on a technicality because of something the DA did, and now I’m out, just another law-abiding citizen.”
“I wonder if that’s true,” Jake said evenly. “You’ve got to be supporting yourself somehow, and I don’t see you as the type to have a regular job. How long will it take me to uncover your real source of income if I start digging?”
Deke thought about that for a moment before he spoke again. When he did, there was a certain air of resignation in his voice. “What do you want to know?”
“Who would want to kill Alex Tyler?” Jake asked.
It was one heck of a lead question.
“Take your pick. I’ve got a few friends he put away, but you need to look on both sides of the law, if you know what I mean.”
“Are you talking about another cop?” Jake asked. It was clear in his voice that he wasn’t going to stand for any nonsense. I had a hunch that the next thing Deke Marsh told us would probably be true.
But what he said next nearly floored me.
Chapter 16
“It goes higher than that. Try the police chief himself,” Deke said.
Jake shook his head. “Come on, get real. Are you honestly trying to tell me that Chief Willson was in on Alex Tyler’s murder?”
“Hey, don’t take my word for it. The man had his hand out to look the other way when he was the deputy chief, and he hasn’t pulled it back in empty-handed since he took over.”
“I’m still waiting for proof,” Jake said.
“If you can crack Craig Durant, he’ll tell you that I’m not lying.”
“Alex’s ex-partner?” I asked.
“One and the same. Durant didn’t take too well to Alex trying to reform, either. I heard him threaten the man once myself.”
“I can’t imagine any cop being stupid or careless enough to say or do anything incriminating in front of you,” Jake said.
“They didn’t know that I was standing nearby,” Deke said with a shrug. “That’s not all, though. I heard Durant tell Alex that if he tried to do anything about stopping what had been going on, he’d pay for it. Then Durant said that the chief would put him on a solo patrol shift at midnight in the worst part of town, and nobody would answer if he called in for backup. That shook Alex up pretty good from what I could see.”
“What did he say in response?” Grace asked, caught up in this new revelation as well.
Deke shrugged again. “Beats me. I didn’t hang around to find out. I knew if they found out I’d been listening to their little conversation, it was not going to end well for me, so I took off.”
“When did all of this supposedly happen?” Jake asked.
“Three days before Tyler took the job in April Springs,” the criminal said. “That’s it. I’m tapped. I don’t have anything else for you.”
Jake stared hard at him before he answered. “I’m not ready to concede that just yet. We’ll see you around, Deke.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” the crook said as Jake, Grace, and I walked out into the late-afternoon light. The sky was gray, heavy with snow; at least that’s how it looked to me. Maybe I was just a little paranoid about us getting enough accumulation to matter.
“Wow, that was quite a different conversation than the one we had with him,” Grace said. Before I could ask my question, Grace asked it for me. “How did you even know that was Deke Marsh? We never pointed him out to you.”
“Did you see the way he nursed that drink? He had his forearm around it, as though he were guarding it from being taken. That’s a jailhouse move if ever there was one. I took a shot the second I saw that.”
“Good to know,” Grace said. “I’m sorry that it looks as though the police chief here might be involved.”
“We don’t know that!” Jake lashed out at her.
“Take it easy, big guy. We’re on the same team, remember?” Grace asked softly.
After a few moments, Jake let a deep breath out. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have overreacted. I’ve just seen too many cops accused of doing things they never would have dreamed of doing. It can ruin a career if it’s not true.”
“And if it is?” I asked him as we approached my Jeep.
“Then they deserve whatever punishment they get, just like everybody else.” Wow, some things really were just that black and white in my husband’s mind.
“How do we find out if Deke Marsh was telling us the truth, though?” Grace asked.
“I’ll ask around—discreetly, of course—but I have a hunch that if that man’s lips are moving, he’s probably lying. Let’s move on to your next suspect.” Jake glanced at his watch, and then he added, “We’ve got another hour before Durant is due back at the station.”
“Then let’s go tackle the ice queen,” I said. “Honestly, I want to see what Shannon Wright makes of you.”
Jake smiled a little, something I was glad to see that he was still capable of doing, even if he was in his full investigative mode. “I’ll be nothing but charming; I promise.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that for an instant,” I said, doing my best not to grin.
Grace was not equally restrained. Her smile was broad as she said, “She’s a real piece of work. I can’t wait to see this, either.”
“She can’t be as bad as the two of you are implying,” Jake said.
“We’ll see soon enough. We’re here,” I said as I parked the Jeep and we got out.
It was time for Round Two with the queen of mean.
“Hello, there,” Shannon said when we knocked on her door. “My, aren’t you a tall, handsome fellow.” I could swear she was almost purring from the moment she saw Jake. I had to admit that I did not like the way she looked at him. While I’m not typically all that jealous, I was still a little uneasy about the way she focused so intently on my husband. It was as though Grace and I weren’t even there. I’d wondered about the appeal she’d had for Alex Tyler, but that question had been answered now. When she turned her full attention on a man, it was almost radiant.
“Ms. Wright?” Jake asked.
“Please, call me Shannon,” she said. “And you are?”
“This is my husband, Jake,” I said, just to be sure that she knew I was standing there. From her lack of eye contact with Grace or me, I hadn’t been quite sure.
Still ignoring me, she offered her hand to Jake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
He shook it curtly, even though it was pretty clear that she’d been trying to hold onto it a little longer. “I’d invite you in, but the place is a mess.”
I glanced behind her and saw that the apartment was immaculate, and I had a hunch that if Jake had been alone, the invitation would have been issued quickly enough.
“I’m sure that it’s fine. We’re here about your ex-husband,” Jake said as he glanced at Grace and me.
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br /> “As I told your wife, I don’t know anything about what happened to him,” Shannon said. “I’m sorry you wasted a trip coming here.”
“That’s fine. We were already in town to coordinate with the Granite Meadows police department,” Jake said, giving his voice that tone of authority he used so well. If I didn’t know better, I would have believed him myself, but calling what we were doing with the local police cooperation was beyond any stretch of the imagination.
Hopefully Shannon wouldn’t know that.
“It’s all such a shock,” Shannon said. “To think that someone would murder poor Alex.”
“Where were you the day he was murdered? Is there any chance that you might have seen him?” Jake asked.
Shannon looked as though she’d been shocked by an exposed electrical wire when he’d asked her for an alibi. “Surely you don’t think that I could have had anything to do with it.”
“When a former spouse is murdered, we always look at the ex first,” Jake explained calmly. “If you’ll just tell us where you were, we can take your name off our list and be on our way.”
“I was here all day, alone, I’m afraid,” Shannon said after a momentary hesitation. Was she really a little hurt that Jake had asked her for her whereabouts, or was she just acting?
“Did you have any contact with anyone like a delivery man, a mailman, anyone?” I asked.
She glanced over at me for a split second and frowned, and I had to wonder if it was because I’d dared ask her a question myself or that I’d had the audacity to marry Jake.
“No one,” she said, as if she were shooing away a pesky gnat. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.” Almost wistfully, she looked at Jake another full moment, and then she started to close her door.
“I have one more question,” Grace asked, but it was too late. The door was already shutting.
“Sorry, but I really must go,” Shannon answered as it shut completely, and we were faced with a closed door.