by Cindi Myers
“If he was, that might have given her reason to want him dead.” Travis tapped the screen. “Notice anything else about these pictures?”
“Her hair—it’s dark brown, like mine.”
“I don’t remember when she changed it, but it may have been about the time Andy died,” he said. “We might be able to find pictures in the newspaper archives.”
“The woman Wade Tomlinson saw outside Andy’s office the day he died—that could have been Jan.”
“Maybe so.” He tapped the keys to shut down the computer. “I need to take you home,” he said. “I have to get this down to the station.” He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Sorry we never got around to dinner.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Her smile sent heat curling through his stomach. “I thought dessert was pretty good.”
“Only pretty good?”
“Awfully good.” She kissed him on the mouth, then stood. “Let me know what happens with Jan,” she said.
“I will. I’d like to put an end to this case as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, I hate to think of Jan as a murderer.”
“I’m going to make sure of her guilt before I ask the DA to file charges,” Travis said. “I want to bring Andy’s killer to justice, but I want to be sure we’ve got the right person this time.”
* * *
“IF YOU WANT to discuss security for Pioneer Days, I don’t see why we couldn’t have done so at my office at the museum.” Jan Selkirk swept into the Rayford County Sheriff’s Department on a wave of expensive perfume, a bright blue Questions? Ask Me! button affixed to her blouse.
“What’s with the button?” Gage asked as he escorted her into an interview room.
She glanced down at the four-inch button. “It’s for Pioneer Days. I’m an information helper. We’ll have them stationed throughout town. Anyone who sees this button knows they can approach that person and find out the schedule of activities, or where the restrooms are located or anything else they need to know.”
Travis came into the interview room and closed the door behind him. Jan’s smile faltered. “Why are we in here?” she asked. “Couldn’t we go in your office?”
“I didn’t ask you here to talk about the festival,” Travis said.
Her color paled beneath her makeup. “What is going on, Sheriff?” she asked. “I don’t have time to waste on trivial matters.”
“Oh, I don’t think this is a trivial matter. Sit down.” He motioned to a seat at the conference table, then took the chair across the table for himself.
Jan hesitated, then sat. She glanced up at Gage, who remained standing by the door. “Am I under arrest?” she asked.
“Not at this time. We just want to ask you a few questions. You’re free to go anytime.”
She looked toward the door, as if debating leaving. Travis was gambling that she wouldn’t. “I’m going to record the conversation,” he said, and switched on the recorder that sat at one end of the table. “That’s for your protection, as well as ours.”
“You’re making me very nervous,” she said. “What is this about?”
Travis opened a folder and slid out a stack of photos—three of the pictures taken from Andy Stenson’s computer enlarged to eight-by-ten-inch glossies. He arranged the photos in front of Jan. “Recognize these?”
She stared at the pictures, all the color bleached from her face. “Where did you get these?” she whispered.
“They were on Andy Stenson’s laptop,” Travis said. “You knew they might be there. They’re why you tried so hard to get the laptop away from Brenda. I think you planned to destroy the machine, or maybe just erase the files.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she continued to stare at the photographs, pain reflected in her eyes.
“You were having an affair with Henry Hake,” Travis said. “An affair you didn’t want your husband and the town council to know about. I looked up some council minutes from that time period and you were one of the strongest supporters for Hake’s resort development, urging the council to pass resolutions that would make it easier for him to build his high-altitude luxury homes.”
“I supported the development because it was a good idea. Not because I was sleeping with Henry Hake.” Her voice was stronger, though the fear hadn’t left her eyes.
Travis waited until her eyes met his before he spoke. “Was Andy blackmailing you?” he asked.
“No. Of course not!” She sat back, hands clutching the edge of the table. “You’re thinking if he was I would have a good reason to kill him but I didn’t kill him, I promise.”
“We’re going to subpoena your financial records,” Travis said. “As well as Andy’s bank accounts. They’ll show if you were paying him to keep this quiet.”
She shifted in her chair, hands clenching and unclenching. “All right—yes. He was blackmailing me. He said he wouldn’t tell Barry or anyone else about the affair as long as I paid. He said he needed the money to finish the remodeling on his house. He let Brenda think all the money came from Henry Hake.” She laughed, a hysterical sound. “I suppose in a way that was true, since I had to borrow money from Henry to pay Andy. But I didn’t kill him. I wouldn’t do something like that.”
“A slim woman with dark brown hair was seen outside Andy’s office about the time he died,” Gage said. “We know now that woman wasn’t Lacy—was it you?”
“I didn’t kill him,” she said. “I went there to talk to him—to tell him I couldn’t keep paying him. I told him if he didn’t stop harassing me I would make Henry Hake cancel his contract with Andy.”
“I’m surprised you hadn’t thought of that before,” Travis said.
She made a face. “Henry didn’t really have a say in who represented the development corporation,” she said. “He was the public face of the company, but his business partners—the people behind the scenes—made all the decisions. Henry didn’t think Andy was experienced enough to represent the group, but his objection was overruled.”
“What happened when you went to talk to Andy that day?” Travis asked.
Her mouth tightened. “He laughed at me. He laughed. I didn’t say half of what I wanted to say before he started laughing. He said he wasn’t about to give up his very lucrative ‘side job’ and I’d better focus on finding a way to pay. He said Henry wouldn’t fire him because he knew things about Henry that his business partners wouldn’t want to know.”
“What happened then?” Gage leaned over the table toward her. “Did you attack him in a fit of rage? Stab him in the heart with the letter opener he kept on his desk?”
“No! I ran out of there. I left by the back door so no one would see me. I was crying and I didn’t want to have to make up some excuse if I ran into anyone.”
“So you didn’t see anyone when you were leaving?” Travis asked.
“No. The next day I heard Andy had been murdered and I was terrified. You can’t imagine my relief when I heard Lacy had been arrested.”
Travis tamped down his anger. “You really thought she killed Andy?” he asked.
“I just assumed he had been blackmailing her, too.” Jan sniffed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Andy was getting money from other people in town. Everybody thought he was such a nice young man, but he had a sly streak.”
“Who else do you think he was blackmailing?” Gage asked. “Besides you and possibly Henry Hake?”
“I don’t know.” She straightened, some steel back in her spine. “And I’ve said enough. Too much. I want a lawyer.”
Travis slid back his chair and stood. “Call him. You can wait for him in here.” He and Gage left the room, locking the door behind them.
Outside, at the end of the hallway, the brothers conferred. “What do you think?” Travis asked.
“She admits she was in Andy’s office that day,” Gage said
. “It had to have been only minutes before he died. She’s got a motive, since he was threatening to tell her husband about the affair.”
“I don’t think it’s enough to hold her,” Travis said.
“If we don’t arrest her, she’s liable to leave town and try to disappear,” Gage said. “She’s got money and I bet she’s got a passport.”
“I wish we had more evidence against her.”
“You’re afraid of making the same mistake with her you made with Lacy,” Gage said. “That isn’t going to happen a second time.”
“Let me call the DA, see what he says,” Travis said.
The DA agreed with Travis that they probably didn’t have enough evidence to arrest Jan at this time, but that she was a strong suspect. By this time both Barry Selkirk and the lawyer Jan had hired to represent her had arrived at the police station.
“My client—”
“My wife—”
Travis waved away the attorney and the husband’s protests. “You’re free to go, Jan,” he said. “But I’ll need you to stay close, in case I have more questions.”
“I get it. Don’t leave town.” She stood, gathering her dignity. “Obviously, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of.” She slanted a look at her husband. “But I did not kill Andy Stenson.”
They watched her walk out of the door, flanked by her lawyer and her husband. “Do you believe her?” Gage asked.
“Yeah.” Travis shoved his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched. “Right now, anyway, I do.”
“So what now?”
“I’m going to talk to Henry Hake and I’m going to check out the site of Eagle Mountain Resort. Why don’t you search through Andy’s computer and see if you can find anyone else he was blackmailing?”
“We might end up with a whole town full of suspects,” Gage said.
“The only one I care about is the person who really killed him,” Travis said. “Find him or her and we’ll tie up a whole lot of loose ends.”
* * *
“BLACKMAIL! AND JAN SELKIRK? I just can’t believe it.” Brenda sat between Lacy and Jeanette Milligan on the Milligans’ sofa, a cup of coffee steadied on one knee.
“I was shocked, too,” Lacy said. “I never would have believed Andy would do something like that. I knew he was doing better financially, but he told me you had inherited a little money from a favorite aunt, and that was enough for you to finish the remodeling on your house.”
“I thought the money came from Henry Hake and the other new clients he had.” Brenda sipped her coffee. Her eyes were red and puffy, and Lacy knew she must have been mourning this new revelation about her husband. “I thought I knew him so well,” she said. “And to think all this time he was lying.” Her voice caught on the last word and she bowed her head.
Jeanette pulled her close and handed her several tissues. “Andy was misguided, but he loved you,” she said. “That’s what you have to remember.”
“Mom is right.” Lacy patted Brenda’s hand. “Andy did love you. I never knew him to even look twice at another woman.”
Brenda nodded and raised her head. “To think I’ve worked with Jan all this time and I never knew she cheated on her husband. But I can’t believe she killed Andy over it.”
“I’m shocked, too,” Lacy said. “Of course, I don’t know her well, but the way Andy died—it never struck me as something a woman would do. It was just so...brutal.” She glanced at Brenda. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, it’s okay,” Brenda said. “It was brutal. The trial kind of numbed me to the whole thing, but I agree. It never set well with me when the prosecutor said Andy was killed by a woman. For one thing, he was a young, strong guy. You and Jan Selkirk just aren’t big, physical women. I think Andy could have fought her off easily.”
“I’ve been trying to think if there was anyone else Andy might have been trying to get money from,” Lacy said. “Someone besides Jan who might have had a reason to kill him. There’s Henry Hake, of course. He might not have wanted news of the affair getting out, and he certainly had a lot more money than Jan.”
“I’m sure Travis has already thought of that,” Jeanette said.
“Speaking of Travis.” Brenda sat up straighter and dabbed at her eyes. “I don’t think I was imagining the sparks flying between the two of you yesterday when he picked you up at my house.”
“He canceled dinner with us in favor of a private dinner with Lacy,” Jeanette said. “Though come to think of it, when she came in several hours later, she said she was starved because they had never gotten around to eating.”
“Hmm. I wonder what two people could do for several hours that would make them forget all about food?” Brenda said.
Lacy’s cheeks burned and she refused to look her mother or Brenda in the eye. “Travis and I have gotten close,” she said.
Jeanette covered her ears. “I don’t think I want to hear any more.” She lowered her hands and smiled. “But your father and I think he’s a very nice young man. And it’s good to see you so happy.”
“If anyone deserves it, you do,” Brenda said.
“You deserve to be happy, too,” Lacy said. “I’m so sorry about Andy. It feels as if he died all over again.”
“There’s something else about all this that’s bothering me,” Brenda said.
“What’s that?” Lacy asked.
“Do the police think Jan is the person who ran us off the road in that truck, then burned the truck, and blew up the storage unit while you and Travis were inside?” Brenda asked. “And if she was, who shot Eddie Carstairs? Jan was with me when that happened—and then the two of us were with you.”
Lacy stared at her. “I’ve been so focused on Jan as a suspect in Andy’s murder that I didn’t think of that,” she said.
“If she could kill Andy, she might not hesitate to kill you or anyone else who threatened her,” Jeanette said.
“Yes, but with a big truck?” Brenda asked. “Or a bomb? What does Jan know about trucks or bombs? And then she sets the truck on fire and hikes home cross-country?”
“I don’t know her as well as you do, but I can’t picture her doing any of that,” Lacy said. She put a hand over her stomach, which felt as if she had eaten way too much pie. “I hope Travis isn’t making another mistake.”
“You should call and talk to him,” Brenda said. “Not that you should tell him how to do his job, but maybe he’ll put your mind at ease. He might have an explanation that we haven’t thought of yet.”
“Or maybe he thinks Jan had an accomplice or something,” Lacy said. She slipped her phone from her pocket and tapped in Travis’s cell number. After two rings the call went to voice mail. “Call me when you get a chance,” she said, hesitant to say more—especially with Brenda and her mother listening in.
Brenda set aside her half-empty coffee cup and stood. “Thanks for letting me vent,” she said. “I have to get to work.”
“The museum is open, even with Jan under suspicion?” Jeanette asked.
“Oh, yes. We’re redoing all the displays and adding new ones for Pioneer Days.” She picked up her purse and slung the strap over her shoulder. “It’s coming up quickly, so I’d better get busy.”
“I can help.” Lacy stood, also. “I don’t know the first thing about history, but I can put things where you tell me,” she said. “Consider me your newest volunteer.”
“That’s the best offer I’ve had all day,” Brenda said.
Jeanette rose and walked with them to the door. “If Travis stops by, I’ll let him know you’re at the museum,” she said.
“Mom, you don’t have to be my personal secretary.”
“I know this is a little awkward,” Jeanette said. “After all, you’re not a teenager anymore. But just so we won’t worry, if you’re going to stay out overnight, text and let us know
you’re safe.”
“Umm. Okay.”
Lacy followed Brenda out to her car. “Did your mom just give you permission to spend the night with Travis?” Brenda asked.
“Yes. Talk about awkward!” Lacy rolled her eyes. She could joke about it with Brenda, but she added “look for own apartment” to the top of her to-do list.
* * *
THE BIG IRON gate across Henry Hake’s drive stood wide-open when Travis visited the house later that day. The sheriff parked in the paved circular drive and walked up to the massive oak entry doors. He rang the bell three times, but received no answer. No one answered when he called Henry Hake’s private number, either.
Travis walked around the house, peering in windows, his boots crunching on the heavy layer of bark mulch in the immaculately tended landscape. Hake didn’t strike Travis as the type to want to get his hands dirty, so he imagined an army of gardeners tending the lilacs and creeping juniper. The garage had no windows, so Travis couldn’t tell if a car was parked inside, but the house itself had a deserted look, with no lights showing from within.
He returned to his vehicle and called the office of Hake Development. “This is Rayford County Sheriff Travis Walker,” he told the woman who answered. “I’m out at Henry Hake’s house and he doesn’t appear to be home. It’s important that I reach him.”
“I’ll put you through to Mr. Hake’s administrative assistant,” the woman on the other end of the line said.
Seconds later, the brisk woman Travis had spoken with before answered. Travis introduced himself once more. “It’s very important that I speak with Mr. Hake,” he said.
“You’re from the police, you say?”
“The sheriff’s office, in Rayford County, where Mr. Hake lives. I believe we spoke the other day. I’m at Mr. Hake’s house now and he isn’t home.”
“Yes, I remember speaking with you. I was thinking I should call you later today, if I hadn’t heard from Mr. Hake,” she said.
“What about?” Travis asked.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you where Mr. Hake is right now, because I don’t know. I haven’t heard from him in a couple of days, and I’m starting to get worried.”