Spirit Lake

by Vickie McKeehan

  She veered off course and headed for Leia’s house instead. “Change of plans. Aunt Leia is our second choice.” She rang the bell there and while she waited, rehydrated the pooches with the water.

  When Leia opened the door, she saw a mess on her little stoop. “What are you doing out here so early? I didn’t know you had time to jog.”

  “I don’t. Mind if I bring the dogs in or should I leave them outside?”

  “Might as well get them in out of the heat.”

  “Thanks. Do you know a Joel Deering?”

  “Right to it, huh? How are you, Leia? How’s Zeb today?”

  “Sorry,” Gemma muttered. “Are you having a good day so far?”

  Leia scoffed at her attempt to make small talk. “Too late for niceties. Who are you looking for again? Joel Deering? I don’t think I know him. But I’m glad you dropped by. I was just going over the last-minute preparations for your shower. You know, the one that’s this Friday night. While you’ve been playing amateur sleuth, Lianne and I have been putting together this awesome party for you. But I made a few errors. Talia Davis is upset because she didn’t get an invite. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t know she cared that much for you.”

  “Neither did I. Why’s she so upset?”

  “Because she’s convinced her new hubby is already cheating on her and it’s making her crazy. At least that’s my theory.”

  “So what do you want me to do about it. Invite Talia myself, personally?”

  “Would you?”

  “Sure. If it will calm the waters, I’ll call her today. Are you sure you don’t know the name Joel Deering?”

  “It sounds vaguely familiar,” Leia mumbled. “Wait. Aren’t the Deerings related to the Wells family? I think Joel might be Sam’s cousin on his mother’s side. Yeah. That’s it. Sam’s mother and Joel’s mother are sisters. Joel bought that estate south of town, that big sucker, the one Sam had foreclosed on right after he took over running the bank.”

  “I’m smelling a deeper conspiracy here.”

  “So why do you want to know about Joel Deering?”

  “Because he’s the guy who made the call to Arlo and lured him out to the lake that morning.”

  Leia made a face. “For Sam to kill him? Sam somehow gets people to do his dirty work for him.”

  “Looks like. Maybe he got Joel to murder Sam. Who knows? Want to help me get Sam’s palm prints?”

  Leia rolled her eyes. “Sure. Why not? I don’t have to be at work until eleven. Let me get my deerstalker Sherlock Holmes hat on first.”

  “Very funny.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Simple. We go to the bank and ask Sam for a loan.”

  “I don’t need a loan.”

  “Neither do I, but Sam won’t know that. How else am I gonna get close enough to him in a public place to get his prints?”

  “Public place? I get it. He’s not gonna try to kill you in his office.”

  “Let’s hope that’s true.”

  But it didn’t quite go the way Gemma had planned, especially since Jimmy was still making a show of dogging Sam. They weren’t even able to get past the eagle-eyed Jimmy in the lobby, who had taken out his cell phone on the spot and ratted her out to Lando.

  Lando had taken care of destroying the rest of the plot. Sitting in his office behind a wall of file folders loaded with Sam’s deception, he wasn’t a happy camper.

  “I can’t believe you went to the bank!” Lando yelled. He turned to his sister with the same angry tone. “What’s worse, you followed her in there, like this was some grand idea.”

  Gemma crossed her arms over her chest. “There’s no need to shout at Leia. As you pointed out, it was all my idea. I did it because Arlo’s phone records came back from his carrier. That late-night call was from a man named Joel Deering. Deering is Sam’s cousin. Deering lured Arlo out there, probably because Arlo found out about Sam’s dirty dealings. That’s the dirt Arlo expected to get from the mysterious caller, confirmation that Sam had committed wire fraud and money laundering. Arlo put more stock into the call coming from a member of Sam’s own family. We had to get Sam’s palm print to either ID the killer or eliminate him for killing Sam. Our next stop planned to be Deering’s mansion south of town.”

  Lando rubbed his forehead where a pain throbbed between his eyes. “What did you two intend to do there? Go through his trash?”

  “As a matter of fact…yes.”

  Lando held up a hand but Gemma plowed right through the stop sign. “Because if the palm print you have doesn’t match Sam, it has to match to Joel.”

  “You didn’t have to go to all that trouble. The lab managed to pull one of Sam’s prints off the wine bottle.”

  “Well, no one told me. You should’ve shared that information.”

  “Like you did the phone records?”

  He had her there.

  “Who knew you’d march into the bank on some false premise. It’s a good thing Jimmy was there to put the skids on that charade. Anyone else and I’d lock them up for interfering with an investigation.”

  “Don’t pull that crap on me. You asked me to get the phone records. As such, I felt I was a duly sworn officer of the court.”

  “To get the phone records, not to sashay into Sam’s office and get his palm prints.”

  “I didn’t sashay anywhere.”

  Leia leaned both hands on the desk. “If you’re done yelling at us, we have work to do on the wedding, if there is one, that is.”

  Before Lando could answer, his phone rang. He spent the next several minutes jotting down notes on a yellow legal pad.

  Gemma eyeballed Leia. A silent code moved between the two women and they decided to hang around to hear this latest development before heading out.

  As soon as Lando ended the call, he stood up, whooping and hollering. “We got a hit on the Jane Doe sketch, the one from thirty years back. A woman down in Shasta Lake thinks it’s the spitting image of her older sister, Catherine⸻Catherine with a C⸻Ritchie, who was thirteen when she left for the movies one summer night and was never seen or heard from again.”

  Gemma high-fived Lando. “We did it! She’s no longer Jane Doe but Catherine Ritchie.”

  “Catherine’s younger sister, Sharon, was just eleven at the time Catherine walked out the door and went missing.”

  “But Shasta Lake is so close.”

  “That’s the tragic part of this cold case. Jurisdictions didn’t communicate much back then, let alone cooperate with each other. Sharon said her parents never even knew that a body had been found in Coyote Wells, just five hours from where Catherine lived.”

  “That’s on Caulfield,” Gemma grumbled. “If our Jane Doe is indeed Catherine, every victim after her is the direct result of his not doing his job.”

  “I’d like to tell him that personally, but I doubt he cares. Now, if you two have wedding preparations you need to take care of, have at it. Just leave the police work to me and everything will be fine.”

  Gemma looped her arm through Leia’s and together they walked out to the street.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Probably. I don’t know how you put up with that man even if he is my brother. I didn’t let him boss me around when I was a kid and I’m not letting him tell me what to do now. If I want to go dig in someone’s garbage, that’s my business.”

  “Anything put out on the curb is considered abandoned and free to search and retrieve.”

  “I hope you didn’t just make that up.”

  “Nope. I saw it on ID. They do it on TV all the time.”

  Leia looked down at her outfit and then inspected Gemma’s. “Are we really dressed to go through trash?”

  “I say we make a quick stop to change into appropriate evidence retrieval attire and get to it.”

  Back home, Gemma pulled on shorts and an old top. The outfit reminded her of Van’s getup from the day before and the hard time she’d given h
im about his taste in old clothes. If only he could see her now in the same kind of worn-out T-shirt.

  She gathered up brown paper sacks and zip-lock bags, black magic markers, and two pairs of rubber gloves.

  After loading up the Volvo with their supplies, she called Radley to come sit with the dogs.

  “We can’t risk taking them with us and them making too much noise. Although they would make excellent lookouts.”

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Radley said, looking over at Leia. “I mean this has Gemma written all over it, but you, you’re usually so level-headed.”

  “Hey, if Lando hadn’t forbidden us to help, I’d agree with that assessment. But the more he tells me to stay away, the more I want to get involved. I see now what motivates Gemma.”

  “You’re both crazy to go there alone. Keep me posted in case I need to bring the dog posse and rescue you two.”

  “You worry too much, Radley,” Gemma said as she double-checked her forensic kit. “Do you think I brought enough zip-lock bags?”

  “There’s thirty to a box. That should be enough. We only need one really good find to seal the deal.”

  The Deering estate sat on a hill overlooking the ocean. A winding road led to a circular driveway with a five-car garage off to the side. The mansion itself looked like an old Steamboat gothic plantation straight out of the Antebellum south. Complete with Corinthian columns and a crowning belvedere, it had four fireplaces and a second-floor balcony that ran the entire length of the house. The property was surrounded by an eight-foot brick wall that hid everything about the place from the roadway. An iron gate prevented anyone from getting onto the grounds. Security cameras covered the entrance and driveway leading to the front door.

  They drove past the gate, running along the wall, surveying the surrounding area and the best place to park the car away from the cameras. “So this is how regular people live?” Gemma muttered. “The Deerings must love their privacy to live out here so far away from everyone.”

  “I guess they’re too good to come into town. I called my mom to tell her I’d be a little late to work. She wanted to know what was going on.”

  “Let me guess. You blabbed.”

  “Not blabbed. But I asked her what she knew about Deering. Mom mentioned that the man is pretty much a recluse these days and has been for years. He has everything delivered, from groceries to landscaping supplies.”

  “Who does he live with? Because someone answered the phone this morning.”

  “Probably the housekeeper.”

  Gemma slowed to a crawl once they were out of range of the camera and shot a U-turn. “The trash cans have to be around here somewhere. And collection is today. I checked.”

  “There,” Leia said, pointing to an open enclosure next to the roadway made from the same color brick that matched the house. “Three bins just sitting there waiting for collection.”

  Gemma parked the car twenty yards down the highway and walked back to the spot, toting the supplies. After slapping on the bright yellow gloves, Gemma opened one of the lids and peered inside. “Slim pickings here. Not much garbage for an estate this size.”

  “Just grab a handful of anything and hope for the best. What are we doing with this stuff after we bag it anyway?”

  “We’re dropping it off at the lab,” Gemma answered, scooping up a soda can before dropping it into a large zip-lock that Leia held open for her. She did the same with a tissue and then a worn Agatha Christie novel someone had tossed away.

  Leia spotted a liquor bottle and reached in to retrieve it. “Glass always collects the best fingerprints.”

  “Good eye,” Gemma said as she opened a larger paper bag so it would fit. When she heard what sounded like a big rig making its way up the hill, she gathered up what they had. “This’ll have to do. That’s the trash truck. Let’s get out of here before we’re spotted.”

  Leia took off at a run and Gemma darted after her. “Thanks for doing this.”

  “Are you kidding? The girl code is always back up your best friend. When do you plan on telling Lando about this?”

  Gemma started the engine and gunned it to get out of there. “In about ten years.”

  “No. Seriously?”

  “I’ll put his name on the request at the lab. After all, we’re dropping the bags off at his direction. At least that’s what I’m telling the clerk when we get there.”

  “You realize he’ll probably be furious.”

  “Probably. But I’m hoping it solves his case for him before the wedding and takes some pressure off. I’m worried we won’t be taking that trip to Maui if he’s still in the middle of hunting a serial killer.”

  “You think he’d cancel the honeymoon?”

  “You know Lando. He wants to solve this thing. And I want that, too.”

  “I see. So you’re doing a noble thing here.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. That’s why I appreciate you coming with me.”

  “No problem. But after this, I’m expecting you to sit back and enjoy your shower. No complaining allowed.”

  “Why would I complain?”

  “Because Mom invited Genevieve.”

  “She did what? Oh, no. No! I don’t want my mother there. She’ll ruin everything. She hates Lando. Why would Lydia do that?”

  “You know Mom. She always tries to play peacemaker.”

  “Peace and Genevieve should never be used in the same sentence.”

  Lydia’s inviting Genevieve to the shower had made Gemma realize a not-so-flattering fact about herself. She was turning out as conniving and manipulative as her mother.

  After dropping Leia off at work, she pulled up at the police station and grabbed the bags of evidence she’d collected and walked straight through the double doors toward Lando’s office.

  “Is he in there?” she asked Dale.

  “Yep. You’re in luck, the FBI guy just left.”

  Sucking in a huge breath for courage, she knocked on the door and went in to face the fire.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Confessing my sins.” She laid out her entire morning, leaving nothing out. When she finished, she saw the disappointment on his face. “I’m sorry. I truly am.”

  “Next time, maybe you and Leia should be more discreet or wear disguises.”

  “What? You already knew?”

  “Yeah. The housekeeper phoned it in and said she saw two women of unsavory origin rifling through their garbage. I explained that once the trash was out for pickup, it was in the public domain and any transient could go through it. I even quoted her the 4th Amendment.”

  “Unsavory origin?”

  “I threw that part in myself. She said you two looked like riffraff of the worst kind.”

  “She did not say that.”

  “Again, I improvised. Look, the minute I told you to butt out, and you walked out of here, I knew you didn’t intend to listen. I saw it in your eyes. Leia’s too. I never could tell her anything and it seems you’re cut from the same mold as she is. It was like I issued you a challenge to go out to the Deering place and snoop.”

  “So…technically, it’s almost like it’s your fault.”

  “Not even close.”

  She slid the brown paper grocery bag toward him and then wiggled her butt onto the edge of his desk. “But my reasoning was that Deering’s palm print might match to the rifle. You need to know one way or the other. Was Arlo’s killer Sam or Deering?”

  “While I appreciate your attention to detail, stop meddling.”

  “I want to take that trip to Maui at the end of the month. I’m afraid you won’t leave this case if it isn’t solved by the wedding.”

  “You think I’d disappoint you like that? No way. That’s why I’ll take the evidence you collected and run with it myself.”

  “Don’t I get points for owning up to my misdeeds?”

  “A few, but not many.” He pulled her in closer for a kiss. “If you keep this up I might have
to make you a reserve officer just to cover all those misdeeds.”

  “Do I get to carry a gun and a badge?”

  “No gun. We’ll negotiate the badge later.”

  “Cool.”

  “There is one catch. The reserve officer has to do parking patrol during all the festivals.”

  “In that scooter thing with three wheels?”

  “Yep.”

  “I don’t know. Do I get a uniform?”

  “Maybe. But you have to pay for it yourself.”

  “Bummer.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “There’s not as many perks to this as I thought there would be. Wait a minute. Does a woman in uniform turn you on? Cause I could definitely make that happen.”

  “I’m picturing that in my head. I think that might work.”

  25

  Gemma spent the rest of the week in panic mode thinking about Genevieve coming to the shower. She’d dreaded it before, but knowing her mother might show up, soured her on the notion of getting gifts and turned her stomach into knots.

  But when Friday night came around, she showed up on time, arriving at Lydia’s house with a knot in her stomach at the prospect of seeing her mother. Wearing a pleated summer dress in teal that flared at the hips, Gemma found the living room packed with women she’d known for most of her life. And when Lydia took her aside, her body tensed and braced for awful news.

  “You can rest easy,” Lydia began. “I heard back from Genevieve this afternoon and she’s decided against making the drive up here.”

  Gemma let out a sigh of relief. For the first time in days, she felt the weight lift from her shoulders. “Thank God for small favors. You should never have made the gesture in the first place without talking to me about it. I’m sorry, Lydia, but it’s true. Something like this isn’t the kind of surprise you hold back. I’m not sure you understand exactly how much Genevieve hates Lando, your son, Lydia. The last time we fought, it was about Lando and about how she reminded me what a huge mistake I’d made to marry him. Then we argued about her not telling me about my father. I had to drag that information out of her and it wasn’t pretty.”