Debra Burroughs - Paradise Valley 06 - The Harbor of Lies

by Debra Burroughs

  “Where are my manners?” She rose to her feet and went to the sideboard. “Can I get anyone else a cup of tea?”

  “Now, Ella,” Chief Taylor said, “you know we didn’t come heyah for tea. If you know something that could help us solve this murder, now’s the time to tell us. We’re going to find out sooner or later. Ben Kinney is dead, Ella. Whatever you tell us can’t hurt him now.”

  She spun away from the tea service, tears welling in her eyes. “Of course I know he’s dead,” she cried, almost shouting. “No need to remind me of that, Alvin.” She returned to the sofa, without her cup of tea, and sank down onto the cushions.

  “We need to search Ben’s room again,” the chief said.

  “Why?” Her eyes were brimming and a tiny line formed between her brows.

  Colin glanced around the living room, seeing stacks of CDs lined up on one shelf of a cherry-wood bookcase. “And if we don’t find what we’re looking for there, we’ll need to search the whole house.” Maybe Ben had hidden his incriminating CD in one of those cases.

  She drew a deep breath before replying. “I don’t mind you searching Ben’s room again, but you’ll need a warrant before I let you search everywhere else. You’ll shoo my guests away for sure, tearing up my whole house.”

  “Last time we were here we found Ben’s driver’s license and passport,” Chief Taylor paused and looked Ella in the eye, “so we know his name wasn’t really Ben Kinney. If you knew him since he was a boy, we’re pretty sure you also knew that wasn’t his real name. Am I right?”

  She nodded reluctantly, not saying a word.

  “We know he wasn’t really a minister either,” Colin said, “but yet you somehow wrangled him a job at the church. Why?”

  She pinched her lips tightly together.

  “Come on, Miss Ella. Spill.”

  Ella set her gaze on Chief Taylor. A few tears trickled down her cheeks and she wiped them away with her hands. “I can’t.”

  Why was she holding back? Did she have something to do with his murder?

  “Or won’t.” Colin shot out of his chair. “Mayor or not, you can’t withhold information. Did you have something to do with his death?”

  Why else would she be so cagey with her answers?

  “Come on, Detective.” The chief motioned for him to sit down.

  Colin did as he was asked. “Answer the question.”

  “Now, calm down,” the chief continued. “I’m sure Ella wants us to find Ben’s killer. Don’t you?”

  “Of course, I do. He was the son of a very dear old friend.”

  “Holy cow, Ella. Why didn’t you say so?” the chief asked.

  Her old friend’s son? Now it made sense. She had known him since he was a boy. He had grown up and gone off to find his own life. But why wouldn’t she want to help them find his killer?

  “I know this looks bad, but he was like a son to me. You have to understand, I didn’t want to say anything because I’m the mayor and I was…harboring a fugitive from the FBI.” She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders quaking as she cried. “He was in trouble—bad trouble—how could I not help him?”

  “We understand, Ella,” the chief said sympathetically, “but still…”

  “Oh, Alvin, I had to help him.” She turned her attention to Colin. “Wouldn’t you do just about anything to protect someone you love?”

  Thinking of Emily and his folks, Colin could relate. He nodded as he sat back down in the chair. “I’m curious though, how did Ben pull off being a minister all these months?”

  Ella gave him a weak smile. “He was raised in church. He had years of Sunday school, memorizing scripture verses and hearing Bible stories when he was a kid. He was such a sweet boy. Too bad he changed when he went out on his own, when he moved to the big city. But he’s always been good with people, so it wasn’t hard for him to fake it.”

  “Didn’t Pastor Jansen ask for references or anything?” Colin asked.

  “He did,” Ella answered with a small nod. “But I insisted he hire Ben, give him a chance at least, and if it didn’t work out after a few of months, he could look for someone else.”

  “He hired him on your word alone?” Chief Taylor asked.

  “Well, that and…” she bit her bottom lip, “the fact that I told him I would block his request for a building permit to add on to the church if he didn’t do it. I know that was wrong, but I had to do whatever I could. You understand, don’t you, Alvin?”

  Chapter 12

  Had Miss Ella, and her dear friend, known what crimes Ben had been involved in? That the FBI had offered him witness protection in exchange for his testimony? Had Ben shared with her that he was hiding out from people who wanted him dead?

  “What exactly did Ben tell you?” Colin asked.

  “That he had gotten himself into a bit of trouble down in New York and he needed to lay low for a while. He didn’t want anyone from his past life knowing where he was or they might put him in jail.”

  “Not that someone would kill him if they knew where he was?” Chief Taylor asked.

  “Oh, dear God, no,” Ella gasped. “Nothing like that. Why? How much trouble was he in?”

  “A lot,” the chief replied. “It’s hard to believe he didn’t tell you all about it.”

  “I guess he didn’t want to worry me.” Sadness filled her eyes as she lifted her gaze to the chief. “Do you think that’s what happened, that they found him and killed him?”

  “Maybe.”

  Colin took another look at the CDs on the bookshelf. “We really need to search your place for any evidence that could help us find whoever might have killed him.” The CD had to be here or at Ben’s office. If someone from New York tracked him to this town, it wouldn’t be long before they figured out where Ben had been living and came looking for it, which could put Ella and her guests in danger too.

  “Like I said before,” Ella went on, “I can’t afford to have you scaring away my guests, but if you’re careful and quiet, I guess it couldn’t hurt. Are you looking for something in particular? Maybe I could help.”

  “Well, there is a—” the chief began.

  Colin cut the chief a sideways glance, interrupting him before he gave everything away. “Yes, there is a chance he might have made some notes. You know, something that could give us some clues.”

  “Oh yes.” Chief Taylor cleared his throat. “Notes and stuff. We’ll comb through the main living areas on this floor, and then Ben’s bedroom again, before we disturb any of the guest rooms.”

  Ella stood. “I’ll stick around to make sure you don’t drive away any of my folks.”

  Colin eyed the stack of CDs again. “I’ll start with this bookcase, if that’s okay with you, Chief.”

  He nodded his approval. “If you’ll stand outside of the room, Ella, that’d be a big help.”

  She planted herself back on the sofa and crossed her arms. “How about I just wait right here? Then I’ll follow you up to Ben’s bedroom.”

  Chief Taylor glared at her as he considered it. “All right, but you stay put.” He moved to the sideboard and went through it, then rummaged through drawers in the side tables, and anywhere else that made sense to look, while Colin opened every one of the CD cases, which could easily have been fifty or sixty.

  Colin glanced over his shoulder, finding Ella watching with interest as they rifled through her things.

  The whistle of a teakettle sounded from the kitchen. “I almost forgot,” she said, “I put a fresh pot on the stove to boil right before you arrived. Anyone else like a cup of tea?”

  Both men shook their heads.

  She rose and hurried to the kitchen.

  As soon as she was away from the sofa, Colin pulled up the cushions and poked around in the crevices, hoping to find that Ben had hidden the missing CD there and she was covering for him, but there was nothing but crumbs. “Why don’t we search his bedroom?”

  Chief Taylor pushed a cabinet drawer shut. “We’ll need t
o get the key from Ella.”

  She appeared in the doorway to the dining room, a steaming cup of tea with matching saucer in her hands. “Someone call my name?”

  “We’re headed up to Ben’s room. Can you let us in, please?” Chief Taylor offered a polite smile.

  She crossed the room with her tea and headed for the foyer. The men followed her up the stairs and down the hall, anxiously waiting as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

  After they had entered, Ella settled on the edge of the bed, her cup nervously rattling against the saucer. She took a sip and watched as they searched through all of Ben’s belongings again.

  “Ella, we need you to stand outside the doorway, please.” Chief Taylor motioned with his hand toward the door. “We have to tear this bed apart.”

  “Oh, Alvin, why on earth?” She slowly ran her free hand over the quilted bedspread that looked like a family heirloom.

  “Sorry, Ella.”

  She stood and set her cup and saucer on the nightstand. “At least let me fold the quilt. I made it myself years ago, and I don’t want to find it in a heap on the floor.”

  After she removed it, the men pulled the rest of the bedding off, shook the pillow out of its case, raised the mattress off the box spring and checked between them. Colin got down on the floor and checked under the bed with a small flashlight. Something glinted off the underside of the box spring.

  “Help me lift this off, Chief.” Colin pushed the mattress to the side and they raised the box spring again.

  Once it was upright, it was clear that there was a slit in the bottom of it. Colin reached inside and felt around, but nothing except a copy of a men’s magazine was in there. If Ben had previously hidden the CD there, it was gone now.

  “Are we done heyah, Detective?” the chief asked.

  Colin nodded, disappointed they hadn’t found what they’d come for. Then, his gaze moved to Ella as she stood in the doorway. “Sorry, ma’am.”

  “Let’s put this bed back together,” Chief Taylor ordered.

  Colin raised his eyebrows at the chief. “What about the other rooms?”

  The chief glanced over at Ella with questioning eyes, as if hoping for her approval without the search warrant.

  “Oh, I guess it would be all right, once you’re finished putting that bed back together. My guests are all out of their rooms at the moment, so make it quick before they return. And you can’t leave anything disturbed, or I swear they’ll check out in a New York minute and it’ll be your fault, Alvin.”

  Colin and the chief restacked the mattress and box spring, then moved through the other guest rooms quickly but thoroughly, doing as the mayor had asked. They saved her room for last, but their search turned up nothing.

  Then Colin had an idea. “Are there any computers in the house?” Maybe Ben left it hidden in the D drive.

  “Yes, down in my little office off the kitchen, but what on earth would you want—”

  Colin skidded past her and down the stairs, with Chief Taylor not far behind. When he reached the desktop computer, he popped the drive open expectantly. It was empty.

  He slammed a fist on the desk. “Damn!” He was so sure he was right.

  “Watch your language, young man,” Ella chastised as she stood in the doorway. “If I knew what you were looking for, maybe I could help.”

  “Sorry, but we can’t discuss an ongoing investigation.” The chief pitched Colin a look and tilted his head toward the door. “I guess we should be shoving off now.”

  They said their good-byes and marched to the police car.

  “Let’s hope Emily had better luck with Ben’s secretary,” the chief muttered as they climbed in.

  Whitley. “Shoot!” Colin slammed the palm of his hand on the dashboard.

  A wide-eyed Chief Taylor jumped in his seat. “What the heck?”

  “The church. Why didn’t I think of it sooner? Maybe it’s in Ben’s computer at the church.”

  “All right, all right. Calm down now. That’s easy enough to check into. Sheesh, you big-city types can get so worked up.”

  As they drove away from the bed and breakfast, Colin phoned Emily, anxious to know how her meeting went with Whitley. She told him she would be waiting for him at the police station and she’d tell him everything then.

  ~*~

  Emily sat waiting in the small reception area and stood when Colin and the chief arrived.

  “Let’s head on back to my office.” Chief Taylor led the way, and they followed him through the secure door, down the hall and into his office, taking seats around the chief’s desk.

  “Whitley was pretty closed off at first,” Emily began, “but eventually I got her to open up.” There was no need to tell them how she had left the poor girl in tears. “She said she had overheard Eric Malone, the manager at the inn, on the phone one night.”

  Colin’s brow twisted in confusion. “How did she happen to overhear him at the inn?”

  “She had been working part-time as a night clerk,” Emily explained. “He said something that sounded like heroin, and he mentioned his boat business.”

  “Boat business?” Colin asked.

  The chief leaned back in his squeaky chair and linked his hands behind his head. “He has himself a beauty of a trawler—you should see it. He runs short cruises between Rock Harbor and Boston. And then there’s the fishing trips he offers the boat for, too, taking tourists out on the bay.”

  Colin leaned forward in his seat, resting an elbow on his knee. “Heroin? Boats?”

  The chief bolted upright, his hands flying down hard to his desk. “You think he’s the one bringing the drugs into town?”

  “Now, Chief,” Emily cautioned, raising a hand toward him, “Whitley said she overheard him through a mostly closed door, so she may have been mistaken. We can’t jump to conclusions because he could have just been talking to a friend about his boat business, couldn’t he?”

  “Perhaps,” the chief replied, mulling over the possibility, “but it sounds pretty fishy.” He snorted. “No pun intended.”

  Colin glowered at him before turning his attention back to Emily. “What else did she say?”

  “She said she had told Ben what she’d overheard. That was a day or two before he turned up dead. The poor thing is blaming herself for confiding in him. She thinks she got him killed.”

  “Maybe she did,” the chief mused. “Sounds like she may have stumbled onto our drug source, and if that’s the case, she could be in danger too.”

  “That’s why she begged me not to tell anyone she told me,” Emily said. “So you can’t bring her name into this, in any way.” She glanced from the chief to Colin, seeking their consent.

  Chief Taylor nodded, but Colin was another story. “If you find the killer, Chief, she’ll likely be called on to testify at the trial.”

  Emily straightened in her seat. “Not if we can gather enough evidence to prove his guilt without her testimony.”

  “True enough.” Colin seemed to agree, gazing at Emily before turning to the chief. “So you’d better use us while you can, to help you get that evidence.”

  The chief cocked his head quizzically. “While I can?”

  “You’ve only got us for one more day,” Emily reminded him. “We’re getting married on Saturday.”

  Colin reached over and took Emily’s hand. “That’s right, and then we’re off on our honeymoon.” He raised his eyebrows to her with a roguish grin.

  Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of it.

  “Oh, gotcha,” Chief Taylor replied with a nod.

  “Wait. I almost forgot.” Emily pulled a small notepad out of her pocket. She glanced down at her notes. “Eric Malone has two men working on his boat, Whitley said.”

  “Her brother’s one of them, right?” the chief asked.

  “Yes, Caleb Donovan. But I saw the other guy he has working for him, a man named Rosco. He was arguing with Malone at the inn, and he looked like a pretty shady character. Do you
know him, Chief?”

  “Oh, I’ve seen him around. I only know him by his first name, like you said, Rosco. If we can get a last name, I’ll do a background check.”

  “Already on it.” Emily peered down at her notes again. “Try Ciminella. That’s what Whitley gave me.”

  “If this is about drug runners,” Colin reasoned, “then it’s entirely possible it had nothing to do with thugs from New York hunting for Ben Kingston.”

  “But we can’t be sure of that. We need more proof,” Emily said. “Chief, you’d better ask for a search warrant for that boat. Then test it for any traces of drugs. Do you have a drug-sniffing dog around here?”

  “No, but I’m sure I could have one brought over from Bangor. But if I’m to get another search warrant, I’ll need more justification than what you’ve given me. And even if I could get one, it’ll take a while. Remember,” his gaze went to Colin, “the judges are over in Ellsworth, and it’s getting late.”

  “Ellsworth? Where the heck is that?” Emily asked.

  “Half an hour away,” Colin responded.

  “I’ve got an idea.” The chief’s face lit up and he jumped out of his chair. “Maybe we can get Whitley to cozy up to Eric Malone and see what she can find out for us.”

  “Absolutely not.” Emily shook her head vehemently, considering what Whitley had told her about their date. “You can’t ask her to put herself in danger. She’s a civilian with no experience at this kind of thing.”

  The chief cast her a questioning frown. “You got a better idea?”

  Emily looked over at Colin, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Maggie?”

  “Who’s Maggie?” the chief asked. “Code name for a secret weapon?”

  “No,” Colin replied with a shake of his head, ignoring the chief’s question, “that’s not a good idea. She’s a civilian too.”

  “Yes, but she can handle herself. You know she’s helped me on a number of cases, and I wouldn’t be asking her to do anything dangerous, just smile, swivel her hips, and get chummy with Mr. Malone.”

  “Who’s Maggie?” Chief Taylor asked again.

  Emily turned back to the chief. “One of my friends that came for the wedding. The stunning blonde.”