Shadow Canyon (A Coyote Wells Mystery Book 2)

by Vickie McKeehan

  “I knew you’d say that. But you shouldn’t ignore the tremendous impact those accidents had on so many people. Aaron Barkley moved on past Lindsay, remarried and had Fleet. Paloma lost her son. Katie lost her husband. Van and Silby lost a father. Toss in the fact that I lost mine as well. And Rima still talks about Hank’s death as if it happened yesterday. That’s real pain, Lando. Pain that’s hung around for three decades. If we’re any good at what we do, we have to find out the truth, right the wrong. I think that’s what Aponivi is referring to.”

  “The truth is you don’t really know what he’s referring to. It could be something that has to do with Mallory, and not Michael Coyote.” He finished his food and tossed the wrapper into a nearby trash can. “You remember Mallory, right? The body you found on the beach.”

  She bumped his shoulder. “No need for sarcasm. I remember it just fine. Did you check out the list I gave you of Mallory’s relationships?”

  “I put them in alphabetical order.”

  “You would.”

  “I’m organized. As of noon today, I’m down to the Os. The woman did have a very active social life. Everyone I’ve talked to so far has an alibi for Sunday night and they check out with airtight efficiency. Frustration is beginning to set in. Right about now I’d even do a war dance if you came up with a vision that even half explained the motive.”

  “I’ll see what I can conjure up. The problem is, nothing I’ve seen makes any sense.”

  “Sometimes murder is like that, no rhyme or reason for it. Maybe Mallory was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Across the street from your house on a Sunday night? Why was she on that stretch of beach? Who had she gone out there to meet? Or was she just out for a walk and someone attacked her?”

  “I still believe her murder has something to do with Louise’s secrets, her strange background. It brings around a motive we haven’t discovered yet.”

  “You’re the expert. I’m just the amateur sleuth sidekick trying to help out and doing a lousy job of it so far.”

  21

  Fifty-eight-year-old Edna Lloyd delivered her flowers rain or shine, February through November. She could often be seen pulling a red, all-terrain wagon behind her that she used to make her rounds up and down Water Street.

  She was particularly fond of hydrangeas, but she also grew gerbera daisies and peonies year-round in the greenhouse she’d built herself. A widow who’d found a way to make a few extra bucks on the side, she didn’t sell her flowers, but she wouldn’t turn down a donation or two if you wanted to pay her for the lovely bouquets she delivered to the businesses along her route.

  Gemma had to admit Edna was a welcome sight. Each morning, Monday through Friday, between eleven o’clock and noon, she could count on Edna showing up with florist-quality buds in hand to brighten up the shop.

  This day, Gemma had Edna’s favorite chocolate on hand so that when she opened the door, Gemma patted a stool. “Hop up here for a sec and get off your feet. I whipped up a batch of fresh dark chocolate, strawberry crèmes just for you.”

  “Oh, my. You are too good to me, even better than Marissa.”

  “How so?”

  Edna scooted up to the counter. “Marissa was always a reminder that the both of us had lost so much. My husband died young and left me alone after moving me here. Marissa and I had quite a bit in common. We’d sit for hours reminiscing. I allowed her to talk about Jean-Luc and she had no problem listening to me go on about my Henry. I’d come in here some days really down, and she never fail to try and cheer me up. But you aren’t sad like Marissa. You’re so young and vibrant with the rest of your life ahead of you. That Lando Bonner is a mighty handsome catch.”

  Gemma’s lips curved. “He is. Do you often deliver flowers to the police station?”

  “I do now that Louise isn’t there.”

  “You didn’t like Louise?”

  “She didn’t like me. Lord, that woman was always screaming, ‘No soliciting, no soliciting.’ She’d call out from behind that big desk of hers using such obscenities it’d make the hair on your head stand on end. In no time at all she’d be yelling, ‘Can’t you read the sign on the door you stupid woman?’ I’d try to tell her that I wasn’t there to solicit anything, but she didn’t want to hear it. I hope she’s suspended for good.”

  Lianne laughed from behind the counter. “That seems to be a very popular sentiment.”

  “I’m trying to talk Lianne into taking her place,” Gemma announced.

  “You are?” Edna said. “Why?”

  “Yeah, why?” Lianne wanted to know. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

  “No way. I just thought you’d be happier. Working for the city, you’d get health benefits.”

  “I already applied for health insurance after watching that commercial on TV. You know, the one with the catchy jingle. I’ve been covered for weeks now. Besides, I don’t want to work for the police department. I like it here.”

  “I have that same health plan,” Edna replied. “I wouldn’t want to work there either, too structured. And I’m not convinced Louise won’t be back sitting at that big ol’ desk tomorrow when I go by there.”

  Gemma had that same fear. She glanced over at Lianne. “I just wanted you to have some stability, more than I could give you. I don’t want you to leave.”

  Lianne smiled. “Good thing because I no longer wake up dreading going to work.”

  “Now see,” Edna began. “That’s the secret to doing what you love. My Henry didn’t make a lot of money, but every morning he got up and went to the Food Mart, where he’d worked hard since he was sixteen. Till the day he died, he loved being assistant manager, a real people person was my Henry.”

  “How’d Henry die?” Lianne asked.

  “Same thing that killed Jean-Luc. Cancer got him.”

  Gemma wanted to get that sad look off Edna’s face and changed the subject. “What do you think happened to Mallory?”

  “You ask me, I’d say that girl finally crossed the wrong person and they didn’t like it,” Edna said, sampling a truffle. “Just like her mother, that one. Always angry, always going on about something or other that wasn’t no business of hers.”

  “You certainly had Mallory pegged.”

  “I ought to. I knowed that girl since she was no bigger than a sprout. Saw her grow up to be a spoiled brat. But I have to say since she up and got killed, this is the most excitement we’ve had around here since that armored car heist back in ’84. It’s the thirty-fourth anniversary, you know. Or maybe it’s the thirty-fifth. Heard the reminder on the news a few weeks ago. I forget which station. This isn’t the first time Louise has gone into overtime dividing the town.” Edna chuckled. “Leave it to that woman to sow bad seeds wherever she goes.”

  “What did you just say about a heist?” Gemma asked.

  “You gettin’ hard of hearing, girl? I said, that Wells Fargo armored car got held up in July right out there on the old logging road thirty-four years ago this month. And they never found the people that done it.”

  Gemma leaned over and gave Edna a huge hug. “Remind me to fix your favorite chocolates more often. In fact, you deserve an entire basket.”

  “I do?”

  Gemma hopped down off the stool. “Lianne, watch the counter for me. I’ll be in my office if anything earth-shattering happens. Edna, if what you just told me is half as important as I think it is, I owe you a lot more than a basket of candy.”

  Gemma closed herself off and for the next hour searched the Internet for any information about the armored car heist. There were varying versions of the daring daylight robbery that went down a few miles outside town before she was ever born.

  She shut down her laptop and couldn’t get to the police station fast enough. She ran past Payce who was the one on duty sitting behind that big ol’ desk.

  “You can’t go back there,” Payce said, blocking her way. “The Chief’s got the mayor flipping out, mad as an
ornery old hornet.”

  “Why?”

  “’Cause Mayor Barkley wants him to take Louise off suspension. The mayor’s not backing him up and last I heard Lando’s not backing down.”

  “Stalemate, huh? We’ll see about that. How long has Fleet been in there?”

  “Almost thirty whole minutes.”

  “Payce, don’t you have to go to the restroom?” She bobbed her head toward the opposite corridor.

  “What?”

  “I said, don’t you have to go pee or something?”

  He grinned, taking the hint. “Okay. Sure. I suppose it won’t hurt none if you bust through the door and put an end to the meeting.”

  Gemma didn’t exactly bust through the door, but she did enter without so much as knocking. “Hey, Fleet, long time no see.”

  Lando sent her a deadly glare and Fleet simply got to his feet. “Gemma, I’m in a closed-door meeting with the mayor. Can’t this wait?”

  “Ah. Sorry. No one was at the front desk so I just marched on back here. You know me. I didn’t think Fleet would mind, seeing as how he may not be in office that much longer.”

  “What? You can’t talk to me like that, Gemma Channing. I’m the mayor.”

  “Fleet, it’s been years since folks around here wondered how your family came into all that money. And you’re such a snob who really gets a charge shoving it in everybody else’s face.”

  “What crawled up your britches today, Gemma?” Fleet taunted.

  “Your total devotion all of a sudden to Louise Rawlins. It stems from what…exactly?”

  Fleet looked confused.

  “Too tough a question for you? How about this? Two months ago you were pushing for Lando to can her ass, now you’re not. How long had you been sleeping with Mallory when she died? Does your wife know about the affair?”

  Fleet dropped back into the chair. “How did you find out?”

  “I didn’t…not exactly anyway. But I knew Mallory and I know Louise. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. You’ve got a serious problem…mayor. Louise knew about your affair with her daughter. That’s what she’s holding over your head, isn’t it? Using it as leverage, getting you to back off?”

  “She threatened to tell Madison about it if I didn’t support her and get her back in to the department before the investigation had wrapped up.”

  Lando aimed his deadly stare onto Fleet. “You’ve always been a tool, someone without an ounce of integrity. But I had no idea you were such a spineless snake when it comes to doing what’s best for Coyote Wells.”

  “Spineless? It isn’t my fault you waited until now to cut her loose. Louise has always been a cancer on this department. She should’ve been gone months ago when I first suggested it.”

  “He has a point,” Gemma said, taking a seat in one of the empty chairs.

  Lando let out a sigh. “Let me ask you something, Mr. Mayor. Did you kill Mallory to keep her quiet about the affair?”

  “No way! I’m no killer.”

  “Then go back to your office, Fleet. We’ll figure out a way to keep you out of trouble with Madison. But I won’t stand by and watch you give in to Louise now. You’re a politician. Figure out how to stall her from going to your wife.”

  “It isn’t just that,” Fleet bemoaned. “Louise says she knows other things about my family. Things that will hurt the people I love.”

  Lando exchanged looks with Gemma. “It’s okay. We think we might know what it is. Just give me forty-eight hours to wrap up this investigation and it’ll all work out.”

  “You have a suspect in mind?”

  “I do, but I’m not at liberty to risk the case by telling you.”

  After Fleet left, Gemma cut her eyes to Lando. “You just told him it would all work out. It won’t work out for him. Over the next few days it’s likely he’ll find out some nasty things about his daddy.”

  “Louise is threatening him anyway so what’s the difference? Fleet doesn’t need to know his world is about to go topsy-turvy until it goes down. That was a risky thing you did just now, storming in here like that.”

  “It was. But aren’t you glad I got you out of that boring meeting?”

  “There is that. What are you doing here anyway?”

  “Edna Lloyd pays attention to the news around town better than we do. Were you aware that there was an armored car heist out on the Interstate near the Lone Coyote cutoff thirty-four years ago this month? It’s the anniversary of the robbery. Apparently it’s been all over the TV. It happened right out there at Dead Man’s Curve.”

  He hooked his thumbs in his jeans. “Wow. With everything else going on, I’d forgotten about that. It’s still an open case. Anytime there’s another armored car heist anywhere in the US, I still get inquiries about it from the FBI.”

  “Lando, it happened before any of us were ever born. Remember that suggestion I had about tracking down any major news stories that occurred the year Louise changed her name? This has to be it. They never caught the people responsible. It’s my vision. The five men wearing ski masks, shooting down two guards. Right a wrong. This is it.”

  “Who says they were all men?”

  “Exactly. I read on the Internet that the robbers actually managed to hijack the Wells Fargo truck and somehow got it off the Interstate and onto the old logging road itself. Once they had it where they wanted it, two cars cut it off, boxed the truck in where the driver couldn’t turn around or back up.”

  Lando had brought up the information on the computer screen and Gemma leaned over his shoulder to read the official report. “There was no way he could make that ninety-degree turn without going over the edge and taking everyone on board down into the canyon.” He turned the screen around so she could see the actual photograph of the crime scene. “The vehicle teetered on the edge for three hours before they towed it to the FBI field office in San Francisco. Two guards dead ended up dead and one wounded.”

  “Gives me chills,” Gemma admitted. “And super weird that it’s almost the exact spot where all the car accidents occurred.”

  “More than weird. Planned out in detail.”

  “What made you promise Fleet that you could have this wrapped up in two days?”

  “Desperation. If we don’t have this figured out by then, Louise will go nuclear.”

  “I only know one way to stop her. Information. That means we go through everything you have on the car accidents and the heist, and find every detail that exists about Deborah Borelli since she popped out of the womb.”

  They didn’t waste time getting started. Gemma let the others know what was happening. “It’s all hands on deck,” she told Lianne. “It’s okay to close up early. We need warm bodies to go through old records, everything in the basement, even if it takes all night.”

  Luke was willing but couldn’t leave the clinic until after five. And Leia was stuck at the restaurant until after the lunch rush. That meant Lianne would be trapped in the windowless basement with Jimmy and Payce, reviewing old files. Zeb would continue with the background audit on Louise while his two recruits, Cody and Jacob, answered calls on patrol.

  While the others dug out every tidbit from the past, Lando spent the afternoon on the phone with the FBI, the fax machine humming with documents spitting from its belly.

  Gemma headed to the library. Her job was to go through microfiche looking for whatever photographs she could find of Louise and Aaron Barkley when they were younger and then compare them to the facial recognition results from the guy in Portland.

  But she knew all the photos in the world wouldn’t do much good if there wasn’t a solid snapshot that told her who was behind those ski masks. A comparison would only work if she got the vision to last longer, a lot longer, at least a duration that followed the thieves until they removed their masks.

  She combed through the library, getting Elnora to assist whenever she couldn’t locate what she needed. Without divulging too much to the librarian and raising
any suspicions, she was able to find a newspaper clipping with a photo of a young female police officer who’d completed her training at the academy. The article went on to say that Louise was an expert marksman and a role model to the community.

  Gemma finished photocopying a few other articles that mentioned Louise’s bravery and how she’d won a Citizen of the Year Award after saving a one-year-old child from a burning house. Which made Gemma wonder, after all the merits Louise had racked up, why had she elected to sit behind a desk?

  On the walk back to the station, Gemma ended up dropping in on Alex Kedderson, the town lawyer. A question had been nagging at her for weeks now and he was the only one who could really give her an answer.

  Alex’s secretary, Helen Chisolm, or maybe she was a paralegal, was packing up for the day. The smartly dressed brunette had already turned off her desktop and was grabbing her purse.

  “I need to talk to Mr. Kedderson. It won’t take but a few minutes.”

  “Sure, go on back, Ms. Channing. He’s putting the finishing touches on a will.”

  “Thanks. You have a great evening.”

  Helen smiled. “You, too. I’ve been meaning to stop by your chocolate shop. Is it possible to get some of those peanut butter swirls your grandmother used to make?”

  “Absolutely. Whatever Gram made, I’m still churning them out.”

  Kedderson sat behind a massive mahogany workstation with a pile of papers stacked on one side. “Well look who decided to pay me a visit. I thought you were still holding a grudge about your grandmother’s will.”

  “Nah. I finally figured out that you were simply following her instructions to the letter. Something I suppose is a plus for you, sticking to ethics and all that.”

  “Then what can I do for you this afternoon?”

  “In all the years you’ve been in practice, has Louise Rawlins ever hired you for any reason?”

  “Why do you want to know that?”

  “Simple curiosity. I mean, Louise’s daughter Mallory got into enough trouble over the years that could have kept the right attorney in the lap of luxury twice over.”