“Well, yes, but not right now. We have to talk to Chief Melroy. I’ll see you soon, Beth.”
“Okay, but I want details. Details, Shane. You’ve been holding out on me, you rascal. Oh, how awful of me! I’m sorry, honey. What can I say? I was born nosy. I’m just so glad you’re both safe. I’ll see you soon. Love you!”
“I love you, too, Beth.” Still smiling, she closed the phone and handed it back to Matt.
“I take it she’s okay with four new pieces,” he said, grinning at her.
“Yes, she said that’s fine.”
He parked the truck and shut off the engine.
“I hope this doesn’t take too long,” Shane said. “I have a lot of weaving to do.”
THIRTY-FIVE
Deputy Ralph Melroy sat behind a cluttered, gray-green metal desk that had seen better days. He looked up and smiled when Shane and Matt walked in.
“Hey,” he said, “how’re you two doing this morning?”
“We’re okay,” Matt said. “Is the chief here?”
“Yeah, she’s in her office. Are you here about the new developments in the case?”
Shane and Matt looked at each other.
“New developments?” Shane asked.
Deputy Ralph looked around the office, half-expecting spies to pop out of the woodwork. “Yeah,” he said. “We’re not supposed to say anything, but I figure you two have a right to know, right?”
“Absolutely,” said Matt.
“We found the body early this morning,” the deputy said, leaning closer and lowering his voice, although they were the only three people in sight. “It washed up a couple miles downstream from your property.”
Shane felt a chill shiver through her. “Was it Jordan Ripley?” She sensed Matt’s concerned glance, but she didn’t look at him. All of her focus was on the young man behind the desk.
Deputy Melroy shook his head and grimaced. “Man, it was gross,” he said. “That body’s so torn up you can hardly tell it’s human. The skull’s crushed, the hands ripped and shredded like they went through a meat grinder.”
Matt took Shane’s hand and held it. “So there’s no way to positively identify the body without DNA?”
“Well,” the deputy said, “you can forget visual ID. No sense in putting you through that, Ms. MacKinnon. Dental records aren’t going to help either, since there’s not a tooth left in his head. Fingerprints? Forget about it. There was a ring on his right hand, though. Kind of a miracle, you could say, that it didn’t fall off.”
Shane’s breath caught in her chest; she could barely get the words out. “What kind of ring?”
“Gold,” Ralph said, “with a big blue stone. Some kind of sapphire, Mom said. I mean the chief said.”
Shane let her breath out slowly and felt her whole body relax. As she pictured that ring on Jordan’s hand while he waved his knife in her face, she realized that she hadn’t truly accepted his death as fact until this instant. She’d only given it lip service, hoping that if she tried hard enough to believe it, if she said she believed it, it would be true. Now that she knew for sure, she felt lighter, freer, than she had since the first time he came into her room.
She took a deep breath, feeling the air fill her lungs with freedom. Then she let her breath out slowly and smiled at the young deputy. He’s so sweet, she thought. Young and naive and sweet.
“A star sapphire,” she told him. Her voice was calm and strong. “That’s Jordan’s ring.”
The deputy beamed. “There you go, then,” he said. “You’re our star witness. But we’ll be sending DNA samples off, just to make sure.”
“Of course,” Matt said. He looked at Shane. “We knew it was Jordan,” he said. “We both saw him. He was wearing the green jacket.”
“I know,” she said, “but it’s good to have it confirmed.”
Then she thought of something else and turned back to the deputy. “Did you find the diamond?” she asked him. “It was zipped into the pocket of his jacket. I saw him put it in there.”
Ralph frowned and shook his head. “No,” he said, “there wasn’t any diamond on the body. Just the ring.”
“But he—I mean the body—it had on a dark-green warmup jacket, didn’t it?”
“Well, yeah,” said Ralph, “what was left of it. The clothes were all ripped to shreds. If he had that diamond in the pocket of that jacket, it’s gone.”
He grinned again, like a kid in a candy shop. “Oh, man, if this gets out, there’s gonna be a boatload of folks digging up that creek bed from here to kingdom come, and I’ll be first in line. Even though I know I’d have to turn it in. Sure would be fun to find it, though, wouldn’t it?”
“Don’t bother,” Shane said. “I’m pretty sure I know where it is.”
“You think Doug got it away from Jordan?” Matt asked.
“If he was in good enough shape to get in his Hummer and drive away, maybe he was in good enough shape to take the diamond from Jordan. And even if he wasn’t, don’t you think he’d have stayed around and taken it off Jordan’s body? He wouldn’t just give up and leave without it, not if he could help it.”
“Deputy Melroy—” Matt said.
“Call me Deputy Ralph. Everybody else does.”
“Deputy Ralph. Was there any evidence that somebody messed with the body before you found it? Footprints? Tire tracks?”
Ralph shook his head. “Nope. We didn’t see anything like that, and I was the first officer on the scene.” His chest puffed out with pride.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Shane said. “Doug could have found the body, taken the diamond, and dumped the body back in the water so it floated to where they found it this morning.” Shane said.
“If you say so,” said Ralph. “Oh, hey, there’s something else, too. That RV washed up a few hundred yards downstream from where it started. There was some really weird stuff inside.”
“What kind of stuff?” Matt asked.
“A bunch of high-tech surveillance equipment. Night-vision goggles, bugging devices, stuff like that. And there was some kind of big weaving, a tangled mess of yarn and little bones and stuff, strung on a couple of branches. It was all slashed up, like somebody took a knife to it.”
Shane’s knees went so weak she had to grab Matt’s arm to keep from falling.
“Shane?” Matt said. “What is it?”
She stiffened her knees. She could get through this.
“I had a piece in the gallery window,” she said. “Beth described the man who bought it: tall, dark hair, clipped beard, horn-rim glasses. It was Jordan, Matt. He must have been watching the gallery after that, waiting for me to show up, and then he followed me home. I really did lead him right to my doorstep, and yours, too.”
A shudder went through her as she recalled that first broken bottle outside her kitchen door, the trampled grass at the top of the hill, the deleted phone message, the mysteriously closed paperback, the framed snapshot under her bed. He’d been watching her. He’d been in her house, her bedroom.
But it was all right now. Everything was all right. They were both safe.
Just then Deputy Chief Melroy walked in from the hallway. “Hey, you’re here,” she said. Then she narrowed her eyes at her son. “You haven’t been talking out of school, have you, Ralph?” she asked him.
Deputy Ralph shook his head, glanced at Shane and Matt. “No, ma’am,” he said. “These folks have something they want to tell you about the case. And Ms. MacKinnon here, she saw that gold ring on Ripley’s finger.”
“Did she volunteer that, or did you tell them about the ring first?”
“I volunteered it, Chief Melroy,” Shane put in. She saw Deputy Ralph’s grateful smile from the corner of her eye. Shane didn’t see any point in getting their source of information in trouble with his mother. Besides, what difference did it make to the case? She couldn’t see the harm in helping him out.
The chief looked from Shane to Ralph and back again. Shane was aware of Matt’
s amused gaze, but she kept her face all bland innocence. Finally, Chief Melroy shrugged, apparently giving up an unprofitable line of inquiry.
“You have something to tell me, other than about the ring?” the chief said.
“Yes,” said Shane, and she told her about the strange call her grandmother had received from the man calling himself Doug Galvin.
Chief Melroy listened with rapt attention, taking notes. When they were finished, Shane and Matt turned toward the glass doors just as three men in black suits stepped up onto the porch.
Shane looked at the men and her stomach lurched. “Oh, hell,” she whispered to Matt.
“What?”
“The man in front? That’s Special Agent Winwood, the FBI agent in charge of the fraud case.”
Matt put his arm around her and pulled her close to his side. “Damn. They sure didn’t waste any time getting here.” He turned her away from the door, so they had their backs to the men as they entered the office. “Do you want to sneak out?” he asked her.
Shane clutched her stomach, which was jerking like a fish caught on a hook, but then she shook her head. “No, let’s get it over with,” she said. “It won’t take any less time if they come to the house, so we might as well do it now.”
She gulped a deep breath, then turned to face a tall, sandy-haired, fiftyish man she hadn’t seen in more than five years. Except for a bigger bulge over his narrow black belt and a few more gray hairs, he looked exactly the same.
“Special Agent Winwood?” she said.
The FBI agent glanced at her, then took off his shades and peered closer. “Well, if it isn’t Shannon Malone,” he said. Suspicion filled his hazel eyes. “Who told you we’d be arriving at this time?”
“No one,” she said. “Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence. We came to talk to Chief Melroy. And it’s MacKinnon now,” she said. “Shane MacKinnon.”
“So I’ve heard,” he said. “And this gentleman must be Matthew Brennan.”
Matt nodded. No one offered a hand to shake.
“Well,” the agent said, “isn’t this handy? You weren’t leaving, were you?”
“As a matter of fact—” Matt began, but Winwood cut him off.
“Because we can start the interviews right now.” He turned to Chief Melroy, who was standing by patiently, her arms folded over her chest. “You must be Deputy Chief Melroy,” said Winwood. “I assume you have a couple of rooms ready for us?”
“Of course,” said the chief. “Right this way.” She led them down a fluorescent-lighted hallway with doors on either side and stopped in front of a small, windowless room, painted pale green. Shane glanced at the long table and folding chairs, the refrigerator in the corner. It looked like a lunchroom pressed into service for the impending purpose. She sighed; it was going to be a long day. She thought longingly of her studio and the weaving she was supposed to be doing right now, and then she put it out of her mind.
Over the next several hours, together and separately, Shane and Matt told the FBI everything that had happened. They went over and over the details until Shane thought she’d go crazy if she had tell her story one more time.
THIRTY-SIX
Matt tried his best to be helpful, but these guys were past masters at the art of goading. By the time they were through questioning him, he never wanted to see a black suit again, or hear one more word out of a federal agent’s mouth, ever. Of course he knew that was a vain hope; they’d be around until this thing was cleared up to their satisfaction.
While he was waiting for them to finish questioning Shane, Matt walked outside and to call Jenna and tell her what had happened. He hadn’t got far before she cut in.
“I know, Matt,” Jenna said, “it’s all over the news. Are you all right? How’s Shane?”
“We’re both fine. Shit! Who could’ve— Christ, that little idiot.”
“Oh, thank God. I’ve been so worried. I’ve been trying to call you for hours, but it went straight to voicemail.” She took a breath, then registered what he’d just said. “Idiot? What idiot?”
“Deputy Ralph.”
“Deputy Ralph? You’re kidding, right? Sounds straight out of Mayberry.”
“He is straight out of Mayberry.” Matt ran a hand through his hair, paced the parking lot.
“Matt,” Jenna said, “they would have found out soon enough anyway.”
“I know, but I thought we’d have a day or two before the vultures descended. How bad is it?”
“They’re having a field day. Shane’s face is everywhere. I’ve got it on now, and they’re showing aerial views of her place. What’s that on the next hill? Is that your house?”
He heard her gasp.
“Oh, Matt, it’s gone. It’s all burned up.”
“It’s okay, Jenna, it’s just wood and straw. I can rebuild,” Matt said. “Damn. They have helicopters out there right now?”
“Yes, it’s a live broadcast. Matt, they’re dredging up all the old stuff and adding this on top of it,” Jenna said. “They’re saying it was Jordan who attacked Shane last night, and he was killed in a flash flood. That he faked his suicide five years ago. Is that true? And who’s this other guy they’re talking about, Doug somebody? And is there really a huge diamond?”
Suddenly weary and frustrated, Matt leaned against his truck.
“Matt? Are you still there?” Jenna said. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have thrown all those questions at you at once. That was awful of me. I’m so relieved you and Shane are all right. It must have been horrible.”
“Yeah,” he said, “it was bad, but we’re fine, really. It could have been a whole lot worse.”
“Listen, you should come home, just get away, hide out here for a while. We could turn off the phones, unplug the TV and hunker down together.”
“I’d love to, Sis, but we can’t do that right now. Shane’s still being questioned by the FBI.”
“The FBI is there already? Are they going to question you, too?”
“They’re done with me, at least for now, but I’m sure they’ll want us to stick around for a while.”
“Holy cow, the FBI. They got there fast enough, didn’t they?”
Matt laughed bitterly. “Jenna, that diamond? It’s worth four million bucks. Of course they got here fast.”
There was a long silence on the line; Matt could hear his sister trying to catch her breath. “Hey, are you okay?”
She coughed softly. “I’m okay, just give me a minute to recalibrate my brain. Did you say four million?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Well, at least that’s not on the news yet, so you can be grateful for small favors. When that number gets out, you’ll really be overrun. Are you sure you don’t want to come home for a while? They say Jordan tried to kill you, tried to burn you to death. That knocked me on the floor, Matt. I was about to book a flight when you called.”
He heard the tears in her voice. “Jenna, honey, I’m okay, I really am. I’m not burned, or drowned, or shot, or stabbed. All I’ve got are a few bruises and scrapes. Shane, too. That bastard tried to kill us, but he’s the one who’s dead.”
Jenna took a shaky breath. “Thank God for that,” she said. “Sometimes the good guys win.”
“Yeah, sometimes the good guys win. Listen, Jenna, thanks for the offer, and we’ll take you up on it another time, but this is my home now,” he said. “Here, with Shane.”
After a moment, she said, “So, you two are together?”
He heard the smile in her voice, and he smiled back. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, we are. I love her, and she loves me. When I thought I’d lost her—”
“Don’t think about that, okay? I’m so happy for you,” Jenna said. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
“You’ll love her, Jenna. She’s amazing—smart and sweet and talented and tough. Much tougher than she knows.”
“She’d have to be, to stand up under all that.”
“Like I said, she’s amazin
g. And gorgeous. Did I say gorgeous?”
Jenna laughed. “You didn’t have to. So when do I get to meet her?”
Matt thought about that for a moment, and then he came up with a plan.
When he hung up with Jenna, Matt started making calls to find someone to do a quick fix on Shane’s bridge. Next week he’d make arrangements to have a permanent structure built, whether she wanted one or not. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being stranded for even a day, of not being able to reach her easily.
Forty-five minutes later he was still waiting, pacing the cramped lobby, when Shane finally walked out of the room where Winwood had been questioning her for hours. She looked so exhausted that Matt wanted to pulverize someone. No, not just someone. He knew exactly who he wanted to pulverize, but he sat on his anger, reminding himself over and over that these were the good guys. They were on the same side, even if the feds didn’t act that way a lot of the time.
Just being questioned by these guys made Matt feel guilty, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. He could handle that, but he was worried about Shane. What he’d told Jenna was true, she was tougher than even she knew, but this constant picking at old wounds could get to anyone. He couldn’t stand not knowing what they’d talked about in that room. If Winwood had forced her to go over and over what Jordan had done to her, he’d smash the jerk’s nose for him, fed or not.
He gathered Shane into his arms and held her close. “Are you all right?” he whispered against her hair. He felt her nod next to his chest.
“Yeah,” she said, “I’m okay. Tired, but okay. Take me home, Matt. I want to go home.”
“One minute, Mr. Brennan.”
Special Agent Winwood walked up behind them as Matt was reaching for the door. “She’s exhausted,” Matt said. “I’m taking her home.”
“That’s fine,” said Winwood, “but I need you both to stay close for a while.”
“Right,” Matt said. “Can we go now?”
“Yes. You realize you’ll both have to make yourselves available to testify when this comes to trial.”
Shattered Blue: A Romantic Thriller Page 23