He pulled the stocking cap off and raked his fingers through his hair. His voice was tired. “What am I supposed to say? I work for Pete. Not the Port Scuttlebutt gossip tag team.”
“Blake…” Shelby warned, a hand on his arm. “You’ve obviously had a long day and a cold drive home. Don’t take it out on Tuck.”
“Sorry. You’re right. I have had a long day. And you just got out of the hospital this morning. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“Don’t change the subject.” She took his hand and tugged him toward the dining room. “Sit at the table. I’ll get you a cup of hot coffee. Your hands are freezing.”
“Sounds good.”
Tucker and Alice stayed rooted to the spot until Blake turned around and smiled. “Come on, guys. Don’t just stand there. It’s not everyday you’re invited to participate in a murder investigation.”
“Let me guess. Do we have to be deputized and sworn to secrecy first?”
Alice playfully slapped the back of her hand against Tucker’s chest. “Don’t be silly. We’re their friends. They trust us.”
“Yeah, what she said.” Blake shot them a grin. “I’ll trust you even more if I can have a sandwich. I’m starving.”
“Coming right up, babe,” Shelby called from the kitchen. “Is chicken and pepper jack okay?”
“Better than okay. It’s great.”
Alice went to help Shelby make sandwiches for them all and slice the pan of brownies she’d baked earlier. The men could hear them chatting while they worked, the rattle of dishes and cutlery and the clanging of the refrigerator door being opened and shut a half dozen times.
Tucker sat across from Blake, leaning back on the chair legs, hands clasped behind his head. “This detective work seems to be taking a lot out of you. You look sort of haggard.”
“Gee, thanks. I feel haggard.” He glanced toward the kitchen and the humor left his voice. “Shelby’s attacker served time for killing his own friend.”
“Oh man.”
“Yeah. He’s an ex-con. I don’t know if he murdered Sadie, although right now he looks good for it, but I do know he put my wife in the hospital with a concussion. You know how that makes me feel? I was right there in the next room and I couldn’t do anything to stop him. I could have lost her, Tuck.” He rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. “This man is out there. I have to find him. Soon. Before he hurts someone else.”
“Do you think the girls are in danger?” Tucker dropped his front chair legs to the floor. “I can stick around when you’re gone. Make sure they’re safe.”
“I appreciate that, but I doubt he’ll come here. He’s hiding out somewhere, maybe staying with a friend in a cabin.”
“So you got a lead on him?”
Blake leaned forward, lowering his voice. “His name is Dalton Guthrie. He was Heath Flintlock’s cellmate until Heath was released last April. Apparently, Guthrie was released a few weeks before Sadie went missing.”
Tucker frowned. “Are you sure? Remember when Heath showed up at Luanne’s shortly after you came back to town? He was eating lunch at the café with a short stocky guy. Didn’t he introduce that guy as his ex-cellmate?”
“Yeah, you’re right. That was definitely not Guthrie. Do you remember his name?”
“Bart something. I think it started with an L.”
“Could it be Linder?”
Tucker slapped his hand down on the tabletop. “That’s it! Bart Linder.”
“Well, apparently Heath had two different cellmates during his stay at Marquette Branch and they’re all connected. Sadie’s friend told me Guthrie was working for a construction company before he went to prison. When he got out he got hired by another one. Linder Construction.”
His friend gave a low whistle. “So now you need to find Heath.”
“That’s the plan.”
“What’s the plan, Gun?” Shelby set a platter of sandwiches and a stack of plates on the table. She stood back, hands on her narrow hips and eager expectation in her eyes. “You aren’t out here conniving to go off on your own, are you? Double Barrel Investigations requires two barrels. You and me.”
“I got you, babe!” Alice sang, swaying to her own beat and spinning around before setting the loaded plate of brownies down. Tucker reached out and caught it before it toppled to the floor. She grinned. “Whoops.”
“Real smooth, Cher,” he said and pulled her onto his lap, continuing the song.
Alice was as pink as a strawberry daiquiri but she joined her voice with his on the last phrase in perfect harmony. “I got you, babe.”
Shelby and Blake whooped and clapped, and laughter ensued until they noticed Oliver Booth glaring at them from the doorway. He leaned on his walker, grey hair sticking straight up on one side of his head and his glasses sitting crookedly on the bridge of his nose.
Alice jumped up so fast she almost tipped Tucker’s chair over with him in it.
“What in tarnation is going on around here? Can’t a man rest in peace without hippy singin’ waking him up?”
“You’re too young to be resting in peace, Mr. Booth. And that song ought to be right up your alley. I bet you were one of those longhaired, flower power teens from the sixties. Am I right? Come on over and join us. You still enjoy laughter, don’t you?” Shelby moved to pull a chair out for him and nudged him toward it.
He eyed the brownies and sandwiches and slowly settled into the chair, still grumbling. “I don’t see anything funny about this situation, but I am hungry.”
Alice moved his walker out of the way. “Dad, you know the doctor said…”
“Pass me those brownies and keep the doctor out of this. Getting woke up from a sound sleep by raucous laughter is much worse for an old man than a little cholesterol.”
“Fine. But only one.” She slid one on to a plate and placed it in front of him.
He licked his lips. “You know, a cup of coffee would go great with this. Now what did I miss? I’m guessing you’ve been discussing Sadie Dugan’s murder investigation. I want in.”
Blake was sure Oliver Booth had been listening to their chatter long before the singing started. He cleared his throat and glanced around at the rest of them before setting down his half-eaten sandwich. “I appreciate your interest, Mr. Booth, but…”
“Oh, quit your excuses. I know you were discussing it with these two,” he said, indicating his daughter and Tucker with a jerk of his chin, “so you can darn well clue me in. I’ve lived here forever and I just might know something you young people don’t. Besides, I’m stuck in this house, I’m bored, and I’m a seasoned sailor.”
“Excuse me?”
“Loose lips sink ships. Right? Well, I get it. Seriously.”
“I can vouch for that,” Alice said pinching off a bite of her sandwich. She slanted him a look of annoyance. “Look how long he kept his underhanded dealings with Farley secret from my mom and me.”
Shelby put up her hands. “Enough. I call for a temporary truce.”
“I concur,” Blake said. “Now if everyone will raise their right hand and repeat after me, I’ll make it official and you can be my deputies.”
Everyone laughed except Oliver, who had raised his hand eager for a badge of his own. Alice passed him another brownie. “I could still use that cup of coffee,” he said, peering over his bifocals at his daughter.
Alice rolled her eyes and went to get another cup from the kitchen.
Blake told them what he’d learned in Houghton and how Heath Flintlock’s name came up in the process. “Shel, remember that pickup pulling onto the highway when we were turning down Dugan’s road the other day? Metallic red with black bumpers and sidesteps and a mesh tailgate?”
“I remember a red pickup. The rest of those details... not so much.”
He grinned. “Well, it stuck in my head and after reading the file Ashley Rockford had on Heath, I think maybe it was him. His last known address puts his place right down the road from Dugan.”
“I
guess I need to step up my observation skills. How does that info connect with the random sighting of a red pickup?”
“It’s not an observation as much as a gut feeling. Your observation skills are terrific, babe. Look how you found that ring when everyone else, including me, just saw a grave under a woodpile.” He winked at her.
She lowered her voice to a whisper as though the others weren’t two feet away. “I thought we weren’t going to share that information yet.”
“Sorry. I forgot to tell you this after we got home from the hospital this morning, but the lead detective on the case ordered me to hand the ring over to them by this afternoon. I dropped it off on my way home.”
“How did they even know we had it?”
“I told them.” He shrugged. “It may not be admissible in court but it could help them start looking for the actual murderer instead of railroading Pete.”
Oliver Booth washed the last of his brownie down with a gulp from the coffee Alice poured him. He crossed his arms over his plaid robe and sniffed. “The cops in these parts are known for dragging their feet when it comes to backwoods crime. I doubt their help will be worth a dime. You might want to share this piece of information with us.”
“What he said,” Tucker agreed, looping his arm along the back of Alice’s chair. “My dad will probably be calling me for an update tonight.”
“Keep this to yourself for now, Skeleton. I don’t want anyone mentioning it to Pete before I do. I called him on my way home and he said he’d be working until at least six. Hopefully, Shelby and I can have a word with him before he goes home for the day.” He glanced at his watch. “That gives us a little time to hash over all the facts so far.”
Shelby, excited to finally share how she’d found the engagement ring by the burial site, relayed the entire story, not even omitting the part where Blake fed Pete’s dog, Jake, half a package of hotdogs.
Alice gave a short burst of laughter. “So that’s where they disappeared. I should have known. He asked for snacks. I didn’t know he meant for a dog.”
“And you think this ring was Sadie’s?” Oliver’s bushy brows met in the middle. “That she was engaged to some yahoo ex-con?”
“The same ex-con who put my wife in the hospital.”
“I’m surprised it took her this long to get herself killed. Or that Pete didn’t do the job himself.”
“What are you saying?” Shelby asked.
Oliver ran his forefinger back and forth across his lips before answering. “I knew them when they first moved to town years ago. Not well, but I spoke with them a few times. Sadie wasn’t a content woman; she was a time bomb ready to go off. There was talk in town. A few angry wives who thought she was a little too free and easy around their men.”
“Dad?”
“Me?” He guffawed. “Nah. Wasn’t interested. I had your mother. She was all the woman I could handle. I heard there was one fellow though who got tangled up with her, but it could’ve just been Port Scuttlebutt gossip.” He slanted Tucker a weighty look.
Blake swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and picked up his coffee mug. “She divorced Pete, but she relied on him and he still helped her out whenever she asked. Ashley Rockford thought it was strange too, the way she called Pete for every little thing even after all the years they’ve been separated. On the other hand, she also thought Sadie was gullible and lonely enough that this guy, Guthrie, could manipulate her to quit her job and leave a ten-year-old friendship behind.”
“Maybe she had one of them split personalities.”
“Or she was the one doing the manipulating,” Shelby countered.
Blake reached out and stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Exactly. I know you want to believe Sadie was a sweet middle-aged woman who innocently stumbled into something and got herself killed, but we don’t know that. Sometimes murder victims aren’t so innocent. Sometimes they’re participating in another crime and things just go horribly wrong.”
“Which could be what happened,” Alice said, “since there was a bundle of cash hidden in Sadie’s dresser drawer and Guthrie went back for it.”
Tucker reached for the carafe of coffee and refilled his cup. “So Sadie met this guy when she went to the prison to speak with Heath. What if she continued to correspond with Guthrie to test him out, until she knew if she could trust him and use him in whatever heist she had planned?”
“Heist?” Blake snorted a laugh. “Guthrie a patsy and Sadie a mastermind? I don’t think so. If Heath and Bart are involved, it probably means they’re back dealing marijuana. That would explain the cash.”
“But it doesn’t explain why Sadie would have anything to do with drug dealing. She worked for a law firm, for heaven’s sake. I can’t see her getting involved in criminal activities, even for a man.” Shelby pressed fingers against her temples, a slight frown between her eyes.
Blake sighed and scooted back his chair. “Frankly, neither can I. But she was tangled up with these guys in some way and we have to figure out how and why.”
<<>>
By the time Blake and Shelby put on their coats and went down to the boathouse to speak with Pete, he was already packing up for the night. The floor was swept, his tools neatly put away, and he was pulling on his coat when Blake opened the door.
“Hey Pete.” He shook the man’s hand. “Sorry to detain you when you’re on your way out, but we’d really like to update you on our progress.”
Pete, shoulders hunched as though the winter chill had already penetrated from the briefly opened door, gave a short nod. “Alright, but I’ve only got a few minutes. I’m meeting someone at Luanne’s for dinner at six-thirty.”
“No problem,” Blake said. “I’ll be brief.”
Pete pulled a sawhorse away from the wall. “Have a seat, Ma’am.”
“Thank you.” Shelby rested a hip atop the two-by-four, her gloved hands pushed deep into the pockets of her parka. She waited for Blake to guide the conversation. He was expert at getting information out of people and she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize learning the truth.
Blake glanced around, taking in all the changes. “At the rate you’re going, Pete, this place will be finished before the case is solved.”
“I have a couple things on backorder but other than that everything’s right on schedule.” He took off his work cap and replaced it with a stocking cap from his coat pocket, then pushed his hands in the pockets of his work pants and waited.
“As you know, I went into Houghton today. I spoke with some of the people at the law firm where Sadie worked. It turns out she also did pro bono work on the side. She’d been doing that for quite some time.”
Pete’s gaze narrowed. “Pro bono. No wonder she never had any money. As many hours as she worked I figured she’d have a fat bank account, but she was always broke. When we were married she had a hard time staying on a budget, so I considered it par for the course.”
“Did Sadie ever mention the name Dalton Guthrie?”
“I don’t think so. Is that the fellow she worked for?”
“So you’ve never heard the name?” Blake’s steady gaze was like a surgical probe. If Pete was lying he would reveal it soon enough. He slipped the mug shot Ashley Rockford had given him from the breast pocket of his jacket. “Maybe you saw him with Sadie at some point. He’s a big guy, over six-feet tall, broad through the shoulders and chest. About two hundred and forty pounds of solid muscle. Does he look familiar?”
“I never saw Sadie with any man. Whenever I went to the house she was leaving for work or was already gone. We really didn’t talk much, except on the telephone. What’s this about?” His eyes widened. “Wait a minute. Is he the one? Did he kill my wife?”
Shelby noted the change in tone and sudden possessive pronoun. Pete still clung to the remnant of his marriage like an old rabbit foot keychain. The magic may have faded, but throw it away completely? Never! He wasn’t ready for that. She kept quiet, watching her husband work.
“Not that I can remember.”
Blake had taken a photo of Sadie’s engagement ring before delivering it to the police. He pulled out his cellphone and showed Pete the picture. “Did you ever see Sadie wearing this ring?”
“I don’t think so.” He squinted down at the small screen. “Is that an engagement ring?”
“Yes.”
“But who…? She never said anything to me.”
“When was the very last time you saw Sadie in person?”
He didn’t answer right away, but stared at a point across the room, his jaw clenching and unclenching. “She dropped by one afternoon without calling first. Said she had something to tell me. But she didn’t even get out of the car. When my girlfriend came outside on the porch, Sadie didn’t wait for an introduction. She put it in reverse, hit the gas and was gone.”
“And this was?”
“Eight days before Jake found her.”
“Forensics say she was in the ground for at least five. That puts your last meeting only a day or two before she was murdered.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Pete’s chin jerked up. “I’ve thought about it every day since she was found. Was there something I could have done? Did she stop by to tell me she was in danger? That someone was stalking her or threatening her in some way?” He shook his head, misery clouding his eyes. “I’ll never know. She may have needed my help and I was too busy moving on to care.”
Shelby stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm. “You’ve been divorced for years, Pete. Whether you admit it or not, both of you had already moved on. You can’t blame yourself.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” he said, his words softer now. “When you love someone like I loved Sadie, it never goes away completely. There’s a part of me that will always belong to her. You know what I mean?”
Shelby let her gaze settle on her husband for a moment. She prayed nothing would ever come between them, because she knew with every beat of her heart that she was meant to be with him forever. “I think I do.”
Blake cleared his throat. “Why did Sadie take off so abruptly? Had she met your friend before?”
Much Ado About Murder (Double Barrel Mysteries) Page 9