by Nan Sampson
“To Josh? Yes, that’s what she told me. Then she said that after examining it, it wasn’t Josh’s after all.”
Ellie looked up. “Really? Oh, that’s—“
“Great? I suppose it might be, if I actually believed her.” He let that drop, then put his hands on his knees. “After you took a look at the body, then what did you do? Did you touch anything? Move anything?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I turned right around and went back to the truck. Then Charlie showed up, followed by you.”
He scribbled in his notebook then clicked his pen. “Okay. That should do it for now. Oh, one more question – you ever met this Fairweather guy before?”
Ellie shook her head again. “Only a couple of times, since they all got to town. Why?”
“Do you know what sort of fellow he was?”
That was a loaded question. Would telling Gruetzmacher what she really thought just make things worse for Josh? She liked Bill, but the Lord and Lady knew she’d had her share of verbal fencing with the cops both when Lacey had been killed and when her parents had died. She was sick to death of… death. And cops. She paused, pressed her lips together, then sighed. Now was not the time to obfuscate. In the end, it would probably only end up hurting Josh.
“I can only give you my opinion, and I’d only met him twice, but it seems to me that there had to be a whole telephone book of people who would have been happy to see Lincoln Fairweather buy it. He was a nasty piece of work.”
Gruetzmacher watched her cooly. “What makes you say that?”
“He baited people. He treated his associates badly. He was frequently rude, self-serving, arrogant. He was also a phony.”
“What makes you say that?”
Now she had to tread carefully. She had no idea what Charlie had told Gruetzmacher, but the data he’d accessed on Link hadn’t been gotten through means an ordinary person had. “He talked a good game, but you could tell from the way he dressed, the way he acted, that he wasn’t the real deal. Josh is a zealot. I don’t think Link cared about anything but his reputation.”
“Interesting. You gathered all this after meeting him twice.”
“It’s just my opinion. I could be completely off base about him.”
“Seems like yours is the prevailing opinion.” He pocketed the notebook. “Well, I’m sure we’ll be talking again. You let me know if you think of anything else. Don’t you decide what’s important. You think of anything, you call me.”
She stood as well. “I will.”
She walked him to the door, feeling Marg’s eyes on them as she did so. “Bill, about Josh...”
“Unless you’re about to tell me you know where I can find him, I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.”
“But he—“
Gruetzmacher held up his hand. “Marg, just stop. You’re going to say he couldn’t possibly have done it. Maybe and maybe not. Right now, all I’m interested in is evidence. I’ll let that tell me who killed Link Fairweather. Fair enough?”
All she could do was nod.
“See you round, Ellie. Marg.”
With that, he was gone.
By the time she got home at six, she was exhausted. Marg had offered to close up, and Ellie hadn’t argued. She didn’t want to talk or think about Link Fairweather another minute – she’d had enough of him and his murder all afternoon from, every local who walked in her door.
The house was brightly lit when she got home, and a fire crackled in the hearth. She walked in and sighed. She could get used to this.
After hanging up her coat on a peg, she collapsed in the overstuffed chair that was the latest piece of new/old furniture, scrounged from the Great Room at The Birches the last time Arabella redecorated.
Charlie was nowhere to be seen – and since the cabin was basically all one room, it would have been hard to hide. She wondered where he was. Something was cooking in the oven – she could smell the rich aroma – so he couldn’t be far, but she was too tired to get up and go look for him.
The warmth of the room, the enticing smells from the kitchen and the day’s craziness all combined to make her eyes heavy. She drifted for a moment, enjoying the feeling of floating between wakefulness and sleep, then was brought abruptly awake at the sound of a clatter from the kitchen. She started and her eyes flew, her heart pounding.
Charlie was in the kitchen, picking up a spoon he’d dropped on the table. “Sorry. I was trying to be quiet, so I didn’t wake you.”
She was going to argue that she hadn’t been asleep, but it would have been a lie. “How long was I out?”
“About twenty minutes.”
She stood, stretched then ambled over to the table. “Three settings? Is Per coming?”
“Per? No. But we do have a dinner guest of sorts.” He glanced behind him, into the little alcove that held the stove and sink.
Josh Mough stood there, leaning against the stove. He waved a couple of fingers at her. “Hey Ellie.”
Chapter Nine
She didn’t know whether to be relieved or furious. “Joshua Mough. Do you have any idea how many people are looking for you? Your mother is frantic with worry.”
He had the good grace to look sheepish. “I know. I called her a little while ago. I just… I got scared. I didn’t know what to do.”
Charlie continued calmly setting the table. “He’s been hiding out here all day. Spent the morning in the storage shed, keeping the flying squirrels company, and then finally came to the house when it got dark.” He gave Josh a look. “After he’s eaten, and you’ve heard his story, I’m going to borrow your van and drive him into town, so he can tell it again to the Chief.”
He’d carefully avoided saying, ‘turn himself in’. Ellie didn’t think Gruetzmacher had issued a warrant for Josh’s arrest yet, but it wouldn’t be long in the making unless some new clue came to light, clearly incriminating someone else. “Josh, what happened?”
Raising up a hand, he forestalled the conversation. “Let’s eat first. The kid is not only freezing but starving. He hasn’t eaten since dinner last night.”
As anxious as she was to hear what Josh had to say, she acquiesced, sitting down in my designated place. “So what’s for dinner?”
“Nothing as exciting as last night’s culinary masterpiece. Just plain old bachelor fare.” He carried a baking tray to the table and served them each an individual pot pie. Ellie’s was of the vegetarian variety, theirs, good old fashioned chicken.
He sat down and grinned. “God bless TV dinners.”
“Goddess,” she corrected. “Goddess bless TV dinners.”
With a shake of his wild head of curls, he laughed. “Nope. A God came up with these. Only a man would understand the need for flash frozen dinners that any other idiot male could manage to cook.”
Josh lost some of his anxious air. “Hey, watch who you’re calling an idiot male. I’m actually a pretty deft hand in the kitchen.”
On that note, they all relaxed and managed to enjoy the meal. Afterwards, settled in the ‘living room’ with cups of piping hot cider, they settled in to hear Josh’s tale.
“You may not know this,” he began, “but Link and I haven’t really been getting along lately.”
Ellie bit her tongue to quell a snide response. The word “duh” was dying to come out.
“Anyway, he, um, he was trying to get me to do something I didn’t really think was in my best interests. We’d argued about it a good bit, and the last time had gotten pretty nasty. That was the night I got so drunk. The next day, we didn’t even speak to each other. So when I got a text from him, telling me he wanted to meet, to talk, I thought maybe he’d seen how wrong he’d been and wanted to apologize.”
She couldn’t keep her mouth shut, it seemed. “Fat chance.”
Josh shot her a strange look, but Charlie urged him to continue, after giving her chastising glare. “Anyway. The note said to meet him in the north pasture. I thought it was strange, but…”
&
nbsp; “But you wanted to believe he was ready to make peace.” Charlie filled in the silence. “So you went anyway.”
Josh nodded in misery. “It was so freaking dark. I’d walked, following the road so I didn’t have to trek across the fields because I couldn’t find my snow boots before I left the house. I saw the Society’s SUV parked by the gate, then headed across the field. The note said to meet him by the hay rack.”
The fire crackled and popped in the silence. Josh put his face in his hands and his shoulders shook silently.
Ellie put a hand awkwardly on his back. “It’s okay, Josh.” Stupid words, because of course, it wasn’t.
He rubbed his face, wiped away his tears. “He was kneeling there, in front of the trough. Dead.”
Charlie interrupted. “How could you tell?”
Josh swallowed hard. “I… I knelt down next to him. I thought maybe he’d just fallen down. Maybe tripped. Or maybe he was drunk. I felt for a pulse.” He started rocking gently back and forth, stuck his hands between his thighs. “He was so cold, and it was so dark, but I could see the whites of his eyes, staring.”
The warmth of the fire was sucked up by the black hole image of Link kneeling in the snow.
Josh stared into the flames for a moment, then seemed to pull himself together. “I ran back to the house. When I got there, I realized I had blood all over my hands, where I’d touched him. I washed up in the sink, then sat there on the floor for a long time, trying to figure out what to do.”
“Josh, why didn’t you call the police?” Ellie tried to keep her voice as neutral as she could.
Josh groaned. “I was so afraid. I knew they’d think I did it. I was there, after all, and I knew Matt would be itching to tell them about how we’ve been fighting. He’s completely nuts about Link, and he’d love to screw me over. Besides, I’m the only one with a motive.”
“Oh, come on. I can think of half a dozen people who’d love to bash Link over the head.”
“Like who?”
“Like Alphie Mueller for one. Link uncorked a genie’s bottle full of vicious gossip about her.”
“That’s no reason to kill someone.”
Ellie couldn’t believe Josh was so naïve. “Josh, you come from here. You know how people can be when they get an idea in their heads. If people really start to believe that Alphie was involved in some sort of incestuous relationship with her father… well, she might just as well pack up and move to California. No one will ever look at her the same way.”
The young man ran fingers through his mop of blonde hair. “I can’t go to jail, Ellie. My folks need me.”
“What your folks need is for you to go be a happy, productive adult.”
He stared at her. “You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than you think I do,” she reassured him. “I heard the argument you had with Link the other night at the Inn. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but it was hard not to – we were in the room next door.”
Thankfully, Charlie didn’t mention the fact that she’d had her ear pressed against the wall. He cleared his throat. “Josh, did you see anyone else in the pasture that night?”
Josh thought for a moment. “No. It was so freaking dark.” He took a shuddering breath. “Why did he want to meet me out there? That’s what I don’t understand. Why did whoever it was follow me?”
There was little point in making him more miserable, she thought, by pointing out the obvious. She was pretty sure Link was looking to cement his plans for Josh, and that he’d probably brought along something that would force Josh’s hand. She didn’t know what – maybe photographs or a video or something – but it would be something that Link could duplicate and distribute. It would certainly be something that would maximize Josh’s humiliation, and, therefore, his capitulation.
“Josh, are you sure you didn’t see anything else? Maybe take something away with you?” Ellie met Charlie’s eyes over Josh’s bowed head. “Maybe some pictures, or something?”
Josh looked at her, clearly confused. “No. I didn’t find anything like that. I…” He stopped suddenly, an awful look creeping over his features, which looked younger than his years. “But I did touch something else. Oh, God, how could I have forgotten?”
The dismay came off Charlie in waves. He, out of all of them, knew best what the future held for a man who the cops thought was guilty of murder. “What did you forget?”
“There was something next to him, or rather leaning on him. I had to move it to feel for a pulse at his neck.” He covered his face with his hands again, as though he could block the mental image.
Charlie waited a moment, then verbally nudged him. “Josh? What was it?”
“It was a shovel. I remember wondering what Link would have been doing with it – he might ruin his manicure.” His laughter was high-pitched. “The money that man spends on his fingernails…”
The haunted look on Charlie’s face made Ellie’s blood run cold. “Josh, what did you do with the shovel?”
“I… I …I don’t know.” It was clear he was trying to remember. “I think I picked it up, moved it aside.”
“You didn’t accidentally take it away with you when you left?”
Josh was beginning to look frantic. “I don’t know. I can’t remember. I remember Link’s eyes…and that my hand was warm and wet. I… I think I wiped it in the snow.”
“Let’s be very clear. You wiped the shovel in the snow?”
“No, no, my hand. I don’t know what happened to the shovel.”
“Okay. That’s okay, Josh.” Standing up, Charlie glanced at his watch. “We should get this over with. Then hopefully you can go home, get a decent night’s sleep.”
Moments later, bundled against the cold, Josh and Charlie headed out in Ellie’s van, Josh looking lost and hopeless.
When Charlie finally returned, it was well after midnight. As he crawled into bed, Ellie turned over and moved closer to him. It was so odd, sharing her bed with someone, and odder still that she’d actually missed his presence – and at the moment anyway, felt comforted by it. That thought scared her, so she did what she was good at and buried the feelings.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured into her hair. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
“I wasn’t really asleep. Just dozing.”
“I wanted to stay until I knew what Bill planned on doing.” He sighed. “He sent him home tonight, but once the DA rubber stamps the paperwork in the morning, they’ll be indicting him. Bill seems to think he’ll be released on his own recognizance, but might recommend that they hold him in protective custody.”
“Why? Why not let him be at home?”
“Ellie, when the media gets wind of this, they’ll be all over this town like flies on manure. Public sentiment may well convict Josh before he even gets to trial. If some eco-loony gets it in his or her head that Josh should be punished for offing their favorite environmentalist…”
“Good Goddess. Patti and Earl…”
“It’s a God damn mess.” Pressing his palms against his eyes, Charlie gave a groan. “I’m getting a migraine.”
Slipping out of bed, she went downstairs to the bathroom and got a pill out of the medicine cabinet, then came back with it and a glass of water. “Here. Take this, it’ll help. Or wait, you don’t have any heart problems I don’t know about, do you?”
He swallowed the pill with a swig of water, then set the glass on the nightstand. “No, it’s okay, I’ve taken these before. I don’t get migraines often, but I’m not one to suffer through them silently. Thanks.”
She climbed back in bed, but was too keyed up now to sleep. “Do you think they have enough, Charlie?”
“Enough to indict, yes, absolutely. Enough to convict…” He sighed. “I’ve seen juries convict on less.”
“But Bill isn’t going to stop looking, right? He doesn’t really think Josh did it.”
“Ellie, he wouldn’t be asking for an indictment if he didn’t think Josh was guilty.�
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It felt hopeless. Darkness pressed in on her, and she couldn’t get the image of Link’s frozen face out of her head. If there was ever a night she needed a diversion, it was tonight. But she knew better than to ask anything of a person suffering from a migraine – she’d had way too many of them herself.
She waited until she felt fairly certain Charlie was asleep, then slipped back downstairs and, after retrieving a biography of Dorothy Parker from the book case, she flicked on a little lamp and joined Erik on the couch. “It’s you and me tonight, old buddy, just like old times.”
Erik seemed happy about that, dropping his big head on her lap with a doggie sigh. Somehow comforted by that, Ellie cracked open the book and lost herself in the miseries of someone else’s life until, at some point, around the time Parker was being blackballed for her communist leanings, she finally dozed off.
The buzzards had already begun to circle by ten o’clock the following morning. Someone at the coroner’s office had leaked details of Link’s injuries to some unknown member of the press, forcing Sierra Thorsen to publish an official statement on behalf of The Whole Earth Society.
In little more than an hour, droves of SUVs and vans, mini and otherwise, started rolling into town. Arabella Kemp had put up a No Vacancy sign at the bottom of the hill that led to The Birches, designed to at least make the vultures roost for the night in another town, but it didn’t seem to stop them from hovering around Main Street all day long, looking for fresh meat.
They crowded Ellie’s counter and filled her tables, asking for the usual, labor intensive, foo-foo coffee drinks popular at the urban coffee house-chains, and some of her regulars were reticent to run the gauntlet, forcing them to find their coffee elsewhere.
By lunch time, Ellie was seething, and Marg had taken over the register, while Ellie played barista, because Marg was convinced Ellie was going to take a swing at one of them.
It was so busy, in fact, that she had to skip taking Per his lunch, which made her even crabbier. When Chloe Kemp hurried in just after two, Ellie realized it was the first time since the rush had started that there wasn’t someone standing at the counter demanding a half caff, soy something-or-other.