Fish Fry and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  Cade narrowed his eyes at Kyle. “Why don’t we go downtown and talk this through,” he suggested. “There are too many holes in your story.”

  “Aw, come on, don’t do that to me. I’ve got to get to work. I’ve got three kids to feed. My wife left us last year and I’m their only support. I promise to come and see you when I’m done, but let me work this job,” he pleaded. “It’s not like I’m going to take off with three kids and a big rig.”

  Cade hesitated a moment, then said, “I want to see you at the station as soon as you finish up today. If I have to come looking for you, you’ll regret it.”

  He nodded. “You got it. I promise.”

  We headed back to Cade’s car and got in. Cade backed the car out of the driveway so Kyle could leave.

  “What do you think?” I asked as we watched Kyle climb into the cab of his truck.

  “Lots of holes. I don’t know. We’ll see what he has to say when I talk to him tonight.”

  “That was nice of you to let him go to work,” I said.

  “He’s right. It’s not like he’s going to run with the kids. He’s got ties to the community. Besides, I’m not ready to arrest him, so it would be pretty mean-spirited of me to keep him from working.”

  “That’s true. Let’s go talk to Zack.” Both Kyle and Zack had pointed fingers at one another. It didn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling about their family dynamics.

  He glanced at me. “Yes ma’am.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  When we got to the feed store, there were three customers inside. One was buying three sacks of chicken feed, the second was looking over the saddles, and the last had a little boy in tow who was obsessed with the guinea pigs.

  “Well?” I said to Cade. Zack’s assistant was helping the elderly man that had bought the chicken feed, and Zack was talking to the man in the cowboy hat that was looking at the saddles.

  “Well, I guess we should wait a few minutes,” Cade said. He looked over the store and inhaled deeply. The fire was crackling again and store smelled of leather and feed above the scent of burning wood. “I think this is the first time I’ve been in a feed store.”

  “Seriously? Like, ever?” I asked him.

  He nodded. “I’ve never been an animal person. What about you?”

  “I’ll admit until last week, I had never been in this one, but when I was a kid, my dad took me to one in Boise in search of a blond guinea pig. But there’s something you should know about this place.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, turning to me.

  “They sell fishing equipment.”

  “What?” he said, looking around. “Where?”

  “Walk this way,” I said and led him to the last aisle. Zack waved at me as I passed.

  “How did I not know this?” he asked, looking over the fishing rods.

  “I don’t know. I’m kind of surprised, to tell you the truth. And they’ve got bait. Stinky marshmallows, worms, and ew, live crickets. Gross.”

  He picked up a fishing rod and tried it out. “I usually get my equipment at sporting good stores or online. I’ve been missing out.”

  I sighed. “You poor thing.”

  “They don’t have the really specialized equipment, but this is a decent selection of mid-grade lures, sinkers, and reels. Next time we go fishing, I’m bringing crickets for you.”

  I laughed. “Bring what you want, but no way am I going near crickets.”

  When the customer that had been looking over the saddles left, Zack headed in our direction. “Hey, Rainey,” he said hesitantly.

  “Yup, you got it right,” I said and smiled.

  He smiled at being able to tell me apart from my sister. Or maybe it was because I was with Cade. He looked at him and nodded. “Detective.”

  “Good morning, Zack, can we have a few minutes of your time?” Cade asked.

  Zack stopped smiling. “Sure. We can go into my office if you’d like. Brian can take care of customers by himself for a few minutes.”

  We followed Zack to the back of the store and down a hallway that led to a large room. I glanced around. The room had a small desk against one wall and a table in the middle of it. Zack’s office also served as a break room. There was a microwave and a coffee pot on a counter and a refrigerator in the corner.

  “Why don’t we sit at the table? Can I get either of you some coffee? It’s plain old Joe, but it’s good and hot,” he offered.

  “No, thanks,” Cade said. “I’m fine.”

  “I just had a cup,” I said.

  “Okay, well then, I think I’ll pour myself a cup,” he said and went to the coffee pot on the counter, and took a cup from the cupboard above it. He suddenly seemed nervous.

  When he finished pouring a cup of coffee, he came over and sat across from us.

  “Zack, I don’t want to take up a lot of your time, but can you show me your fishing license?” Cade asked.

  Zack’s brow furrowed. “Fishing license?” he asked, puzzled.

  Cade nodded. “Please.”

  “I think it’s at home. Why would you want to see my fishing license?”

  Cade pulled the license from his pocket and tossed it on the table. “I don’t think it’s at home.”

  I was surprised. Cade suddenly sounded cold. It reminded me of when I first met him and he had questioned me about another murder. Cade could become all business at the drop of a hat.

  Zack’s eyes were on the fishing license. Then he looked up at Cade. “To be honest, I haven’t gone fishing in months. I just assumed it was at home. Where did you find it?”

  “It was in a tackle box that was on Rob’s boat. Care to tell me how it got there?”

  Zack’s face drained of color. “I went fishing with him last summer or early fall, right before he disappeared. I forget exactly what day it was. There was a fish and game warden that came by and asked for our licenses right as we were getting into the boat. I guess I must not have put it back into my wallet after he took a look at it. Why?”

  Cade shrugged slowly. “What about the lawyer you were going to hire to try to get your parents’ money back from Rob? Was it too expensive to hire one? Maybe it was easier to knock him off. I’m not saying it was planned, but maybe you saw your chance while out on the boat fishing and you hit him over the head and pushed him into the water on a whim.”

  Zack’s eyes got big. He opened his mouth to say something and then shut it. He looked at me, pleading with his eyes. I was as shocked at this change in Cade as Zack was. I couldn’t offer him any help.

  “No!” he finally said. “I never harmed Rob. Sure, I thought about getting a lawyer. It was wrong what my parents did, but no way would I kill him over it! And you can ask the game warden. Charlie Cooper. I bet he’ll remember asking us for our licenses. He stood there and talked to us a good fifteen minutes about fishing. Ask him!”

  Cade considered this. “You sure he’ll vouch for you?”

  He nodded furiously. “I’ve got a family. I wouldn’t jeopardize their future by killing my brother. And besides, he was my brother! As mad as I was that he wouldn’t share the money, I would never kill him. You’ve got to believe me.”

  “I hope for your sake that you’re telling the truth,” Cade warned.

  “I am. I really am.” Zack looked at me again, then back at Cade.

  Cade stared him down another minute, then looked at me. “Did you have any questions for him?”

  I was so stunned he asked that I couldn’t come up with a thing.

  He turned back to Zack. “I’ll be around with more questions after I check with Charlie Cooper. If there’s something you can think of that will help catch the killer, I expect you to tell me.”

  He nodded. “I do have something. I think Rob’s wife killed him. When we were fishing, Rob complained about her. He said she was riding him hard about giving her some money to open a nail salon. Rob thought it was ridiculous, and he told her it would be over his dead body. He said that she said she didn�
�t have a problem with that and he better watch his back. You should talk to her.” He nodded his head again for emphasis.

  “He said she told him to watch his back?” Cade asked.

  He nodded again. “Yeah. He laughed it off. I told him he better be careful. He thought it was ridiculous for her to give up a teaching career to do nails. And everyone knows how tight Sarah is with money. She’s greedy. Ever since his body was found, I can’t get that conversation out of my mind. I think Sarah did it.” He licked his lips and glanced at me again.

  “I’ll definitely check into it,” Cade said. “Anything else?”

  He shook his head. “No, but I’m telling you, if anyone did it, it was Sarah. I’ve never trusted her. Ask Kyle. He’ll tell you what she’s like.”

  “Great. Thanks for the info,” Cade said and got to his feet and without another word, headed for the door without waiting for me. I got up and followed him out of the room without saying anything else to Zack.

  “I can’t believe you did that!” I said when we were back in his car. “You play ‘bad cop’ really well!”

  He shrugged. “It’s a gift. You weren’t very helpful in there. You need to at least try to be the good cop.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll work on that. Are we going to talk to Sarah?”

  “She’s at work right now. I don’t want to scare a bunch of little kids.”

  “You’re not that bad, then. Can I come with you when you do talk to her?”

  “No. I shouldn’t have allowed you to come along today. Now, I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll drop you off at home.”

  “That was genius when you turned and asked me if I had anything,” I said and chuckled again. I hated to be mean to Zack. He seemed like a nice guy. But if he had actually killed his brother, I wouldn’t feel bad about it.

  He smiled and started the car.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was two days later when Cade showed up at my front door in his fluorescent orange overalls and a smile on his face.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked when I answered the door. I looked him up and down. I knew what that outfit meant, and it didn’t bring a smile to my face.

  He grinned. “That’s no way to greet the man of your dreams.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “It is when that man shows up in that getup. I know what that means.”

  “Indeed, you do. Let’s go fishing. You owe me a fried fish dinner,” he said and followed me into the house.

  “I told you, I don’t want fish that have nibbled on a dead man,” I said, picking up my coffee cup and taking a sip. It had been two weeks since we had found Rob Zumbro in the lake and I wasn’t ready to go back.

  “You’re so hostile today. And it’s been long enough for the fish to get the dead guy out of their systems. They’ll be nice and fresh and ready to be caught,” he said. “Coffee?”

  “Come on,” I said and headed to the kitchen. I got him a cup out of the cupboard and poured coffee into it.

  “Thanks. If I remember right, today is your day off. Now, if you’ll go with me, we might run into the game warden and see if Zack’s story pans out.” He took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. “Needs sugar and cream.” He went to my refrigerator and helped himself.

  I groaned. “Well, if it will help the case, maybe I can make the sacrifice,” I said. “I’ll change into warmer clothes.”

  “That’s the spirit,” he called after me. “Sometimes sacrifices have to be made in the line of duty.”

  I groaned again. That man was going to be the death of me one day.

  ***

  I was thankful that the day was bright and clear and the wind was almost nonexistent. It helped to keep the cold at bay. I lugged the folding chairs from the trunk of Cade’s car toward the lakeshore. I really didn’t want to step out onto that ice, but I knew it would be pointless to argue with him.

  “What a wonderful day,” he almost sang. “I can just imagine all the tasty fish we’re going to catch.”

  “I don’t want to go out on the ice,” I whined. I was suddenly having flashbacks of that red jacket floating beneath the ice and I didn’t like it.

  “Come on now, we have to be on the ice to go ice fishing,” he said and pulled the tackle box out of the trunk. “Otherwise it’s just called fishing.”

  “I thought we were looking for the game warden. How is he going to find us if we’re out on the ice?” I asked as we lugged the equipment to the bank.

  “He’ll simply walk out onto the ice and ask us for our licenses,” Cade said.

  “But couldn’t we just call the game warden and ask him if he talked to Zack and Rob last fall?”

  He chuckled. “You sure are the reluctant fisherwoman, aren’t you? Where’s your spirit? Let's catch some fish!”

  “You don’t have to be so enthusiastic,” I grumbled. “Did you bring the thermos of coffee? Because I think I’m going to need it.” I had put on two layers beneath my jeans and sweatshirt and my feet were protected with two pairs of wool socks. I wore a heavy coat, wool beanie, and a thick scarf wrapped around my neck. All in all, I wasn’t nearly as cold as I was the first time we went fishing. At least there was that.

  “Wait right here,” he said when we got to the ice and he trotted back to the car, taking out the ice chest. I didn’t think we needed one. It was cold enough without it, but I had packed a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, half an apple pie, and macaroni salad. If nothing else, the ice chest would protect the food from getting anything in it as we lugged it from the car.

  Cade walked out onto the ice and I reluctantly followed him. A hawk flew low overhead, and I reflexively ducked as its shadow passed over us. “Wow,” I said. I couldn’t help but look at the ice as we walked. I didn’t feel any more secure on it than I had the last time. And as much as I would rather not look at it, I couldn’t help myself. I still couldn’t get over being able to see the fish beneath the ice.

  “Relax,” he said and laid the equipment down and then headed back for the rest.

  “Relax,” I mimicked. “You’ll say relax if we find another body.”

  “What’s that? I can’t hear you!” he called over his shoulder.

  I snorted and set up the chairs. If he wasn’t careful, I was going to eat all the apple pie and not share with him.

  “We don’t have to stay all day, do we?” I asked, trying to keep the whine out of my voice.

  Cade returned with the auger. “Depends on how fast we catch fish. You better get going,” he said as he began drilling a hole into the ice.

  I sat in my chair and waited for him to finish and then bait my hook. A pickup drove slowly by on the shore and parked near his car.

  “Is that the game warden?” I asked as I squinted my eyes at the emblem on the door of the truck.

  “It is,” he said. We waited until he got out and made his way over to us.

  “Detective Starkey?” he asked.

  Cade nodded and shook hands with him.

  “Hi Charlie,” I said. I had known Charlie since the second grade when his family had moved to Sparrow from California. He had once been ridiculed for several weeks when he brought an avocado and bean sprout sandwich to school in his lunch box.

  “Hi, Rainey,” he said. “Doing a little fishing?”

  I shrugged. “I guess you could call it that.”

  He chuckled and turned back to Cade. “I take it she’s not a fan.”

  Cade shook his head. “Not even a little bit.”

  He nodded. “I got your message this morning. I thought I’d come out here and say hello and introduce myself.”

  “Wait, you called him? You couldn’t just ask him what you needed to know?” I said to Cade.

  “I told you. We need fish,” he said, then turned back to Charlie. “I know this is a shot in the dark, but do you happen to remember running into Rob and Zack Zumbro late last summer? Zack said you checked their fishing licenses.”

  Charlie thought about it. “I kn
ow I checked them, but I couldn’t tell you exactly when it was. It most likely was late summer. I heard they pulled Rob from this lake a couple of weeks ago. It’s a shame.”

  Cade nodded. “It is. We’re hoping to make an arrest soon.”