by Jessica Beck
Grace and Jake each set their plates aside as well, and we dug into the photographs together.
Officer Grant sheepishly took another bite of pizza, and then he said, “Sorry, but this is the only dinner break that I’m going to get.”
“Eat up,” I said. “You have our blessing.”
“What exactly are we looking for?” Grace asked.
He smiled at her. “Thanks. I’ve been through all of the photos and I didn’t see anything particularly incriminating, but in my defense, I had to do it quickly. I was kind of hoping that you three might see something that I missed.”
As I roughly sorted the photos and handed them out to Grace and Jake—keeping a pile for myself—I said, “We should all look for any shot that includes Rick first, and any of our suspects second. If Kyle, Denny, or Amanda are captured anywhere on film, we might have some leverage to pry something else out of them.”
I rushed through my stack without success, and then I looked a little closer the next time through. I was about to discard one particular photo when something in one corner caught my eye. “I found Kyle!” I exclaimed, and then, just as quickly, I saw someone else. “He’s talking to someone. Is that Rick?”
Officer Grant took the photo from me, and Jake and Grace looked at it as well.
“I’m not sure,” Stephen said. “It could be him, but I can’t say for sure.”
“What time was it taken?” Grace asked.
“I have no idea,” Officer Grant said. “There’s no time stamp on it. What do you think, Jake?”
“It’s hard to say,” my fiancé said calmly. “Let’s keep looking.”
Grace was the next one to get a jackpot. “Here’s Amanda,” she said as she waved a photo in the air. “It is her, isn’t it?”
We each studied the photo, but the woman in question’s face was partially obscured by a child’s helium balloon. She had a bit of smeared blue and gold paint on her face, but I doubted that it had anything to do with Spirit Night. Was she trying to blend in?
“Here’s another one of Kyle,” Jake said, holding up a photo triumphantly. “He’s wearing makeup this time.”
I looked at the photo and saw that the paint on his face was smudged as well. Whoever was doing the face-painting hadn’t used anything all that permanent. They weren’t the only folks with smudged paint in the photos that I’d seen.
I had a sudden hunch. “Stephen, you told Jake earlier that you found some sheets near where the body was found. Is that right?”
“Among other things,” Officer Grant said. “You know how it is when there’s a fair or anything else going on in the park. Some people don’t think twice about littering when they’d never dream of doing it on a normal day.”
“I agree that it’s unacceptable behavior. My question is, did you look very closely at those sheets?”
“As a matter of fact, I never even saw them myself. Suzanne, there hasn’t been time to do everything I need to do.”
“Do me a favor. Call the officer on duty right now that you trust the most, and have him study those sheets carefully.”
Officer Grant pulled out his radio without argument, which was a good sign. “What’s he supposed to be looking for?”
“Unless I miss my guess, he’ll know it when he finds it,” I said.
Grace and Jake stayed quiet as Officer Grant made the request, and three minutes later, he had his answer. “How did you know?” he asked as he looked at me.
“Know what?” Grace asked.
“One of the sheets had a slit in it,” he said.
“A slit?” I asked.
“Exactly where a knife would go through. There was some blood on the inside of the sheet as well. It had to have been left there when the blade was pulled out of Rick Hastings’ chest.”
“How about the other sheet?” I asked. “Is there anything on it?”
“Hang on. Let me ask.” He looked at me oddly, but he’d just seen enough to know not to question me.
“What are you hoping they find?” Grace asked me.
“Something out of the ordinary,” I replied.
“Like what?” Grace asked.
“Unless I miss my guess, there are traces of blue and gold paint on the inside of the other sheet,” I said softly.
“You’re right on the money again,” the police officer confirmed after he got off the radio. “How did you know that we’d find paint smears?”
“It just seemed logical to me. At least one of the people on our list probably wore the makeup originally in order to blend in, and then they donned a sheet—probably already discarded by someone else—killed Rick, and then pulled the sheet off Rick first and then their own sheet and tried to blend back in with the festivities, hoping to get away before anyone noticed the dead body.”
“Suzanne, there’s only one problem with that. Two of our suspects have smudged makeup,” Jake said softly.
“It might even be three, for all we know,” Grace said. “Remember, we never found any photos of Denny at Spirit Night.”
“That’s because he wasn’t there,” Officer Grant said.
“What do you mean?”
“While I was on the radio, we just got confirmation that he was somewhere else when the murder occurred. I was about to tell you all about it, but I wanted to hear your theory about the two sheets first,” the police officer said.
“How solid is his alibi?” Jake asked him. I had a hunch that he hated being on the sidelines, but there was nothing that could be done about it at the moment.
“Rock solid,” Stephen said.
“Nothing is foolproof. What did he have?”
“Denny was running a red light in Asheville three minutes after the murder,” Officer Grant said. “We put out some inquiries about our suspects, and Denny was the only one who came up. They caught him with a red light camera, and there’s no mistaking him, or his license plate.”
“Then he couldn’t have done it,” Grace said.
“Not a chance,” Officer Grant said.
“That still leaves us with two viable suspects, Kyle Creasy and Amanda Moore,” I said. “If I’m being honest, I kind of want it to be Kyle.”
“Why’s that?” Grace asked.
“I don’t like the way he’s become fixated on Emma,” I said.
“In that case, you’re going to really be unhappy about this,” Jake said as he showed me the photo he’d found of Kyle.
“I already saw that,” I said as I tried to hand it back to him.
“Look who’s almost out of the picture right there,” Jake said as he pointed to a particular spot.
The young woman was stepping out of the camera’s viewpoint, so it was natural that I’d missed her the first time I’d glanced at the photo, but when I took a closer look, I could see without a doubt that it was Emma.
“This guy is a real sociopath,” I said.
“Not necessarily,” Jake said.
“You’re not defending him, are you?”
“Of course not. He’s stalking Emma, and that’s certainly bad enough, but it doesn’t make him a murderer. Don’t forget, Amanda had her own reasons to want to see Rick dead.”
“Who would have ever believed it?” I asked rhetorically. “Apparently Rick Hastings lived most of his adult life on the shady side of the law, but the reason he was murdered was because of some twisted form of love.”
“We still don’t know for sure that either one of them did it,” Officer Grant said as he started collecting the photos.
I held onto the photo Jake had found. “Can I keep this? I need to show it to Emma so she’ll see just how dangerous Kyle is.”
“Sorry, but it’s evidence,” he said sadly.
“May she at least take a picture of it with her cellphone?” Jake asked.
“I probably shouldn’t even allow that,” he said, and then the acting police chief winked at me. “Jake, do you have a second? I’d like your advice about something else. It shouldn’t take more than thirty seconds.”
/> As he turned away, I didn’t need to be hit over the head to get his message. Taking out my cellphone, I snapped three quick pictures of the photo just as Officer Grant turned back to me and grinned as he reached for the photo. “Like I said, I’m sorry that I can’t help, but this is official police business.”
“I understand,” I said with a smile, “and I’ll try not to hold it against you.”
“I’d appreciate that,” he said, and then he collected the photos and the zip drive. “Sorry, but I really do have to run.” Officer Grant was heading for the door when he stopped and looked at me. “One more thing. How did you know that we’d find a slit in one of the sheets?”
“I’d love to say that it was directly due to deductive reasoning, but the truth is that I didn’t know it would be there at all.”
“So then, you got lucky?” he asked me with a smile.
“Hey, I’m never one to discount Lady Fortune when she grins down on me.”
He accepted that with a nod, and then continued his progress outside.
Grace walked him out, and the moment they were outside, I told Jake, “Thanks. I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that myself.”
“I’m sure that you would have come up with it on your own,” Jake said.
“Probably, but I doubt that I would have done it in time. What do you think?”
“We’re making progress,” Jake allowed.
“I’m not talking about the case. Well, at least not directly. How does it feel being on this side of the investigation?”
Jake scowled for a moment before answering. “I have to admit that I’m not all that fond of it, but I assume that I’ll get used to it over time.”
“It will get better. I promise you.”
“I think you’re right, but in the meantime, it’s tough to sit here and just do nothing.”
“Jake, it may look like we’re not getting results, but so far, our investigation has been phenomenally successful.”
“If you say so,” he said.
“Was that what your earlier lead was about?” I asked him. “Did you know about the red light camera all along?”
“No, I didn’t have a clue. That came out of left field. Maybe that’s another reason I’m feeling so frustrated. I’m getting my information second and even third hand. It’s no way to run an investigation.”
“Sometimes it’s the best that we can do, though,” I said.
Grace came back in a minute later with a smile on her face. “That was awfully nice of Stephen, wasn’t it?”
“Providing the food, or the information?” I asked her.
“Why can’t it be both?” she asked in return.
“Truth be told, I’m going to miss him being our chief,” I said. “I have a hunch that Chief Tyler isn’t going to be nearly as cooperative.”
“I thought you two had worked things out?” Grace asked.
“Let’s just say that it felt more like we were declaring a truce. How long that will last, I have no idea. In the meantime, let’s take advantage of the time that we’ve got left before he takes over for good.”
“The handful of hours we have left, at any rate,” Jake said. “We can’t forget that tomorrow at eight AM, we all turn back into pumpkins.”
“Then we’d better get busy solving this murder, hadn’t we?” I asked.
Chapter 21
“So, where do we start?” I asked Jake.
“Let’s have one more chat with our final two suspects. I have a feeling that if we push them each a little harder, one of them is going to crack.”
“Kyle seems particularly on edge to me,” Grace said, “but do you honestly think that Amanda is going to respond to pressure from three civilians?”
Jake grinned. “I’m counting on her still not knowing that I’ve left the force.”
“Are you okay with implying that?” I asked him.
“Suzanne, I agree that it’s a gray area, but what other choice do we have? I’ve never been pulled off of a case before I’ve found the killer, and I don’t want to end things that way.”
“So, this has become important to you, too,” I said.
“Of course it has. Once you and Grace involved me in it, I started to take the murder personally. That’s one of the secrets of my past success. Too many cops become dispassionate over the years and they stop caring on a human level. I never let that happen to me, though I’m the first one to admit that I came close a time or two.” Jake must have known how solemn he sounded, because he clapped his hands together once to dispel the sobriety of the mood and added, “Now, who’s ready to go find Kyle and Amanda?”
“I am,” I said.
“Well, you’re certainly not going anywhere without me,” Grace added.
“Then let’s go.”
As we got into my Jeep, Grace in the back and Jake in the passenger seat up front beside me, I started the engine in the growing darkness as night began to fall in earnest. We were at that time of year where we were losing light in the morning and evening at an alarming rate, and the temperature was definitely starting to drop.
“What are we waiting for?” Jake asked as the Jeep idled in Grace’s driveway.
“Which one do we tackle first?” I asked. “I have to know where we’re going before I can leave.”
“Well, Kyle is closer, so I say we go after him first. Do either one of you have any objections to that?” Jake asked as he glanced at me first, and then Grace.
“One is as good as the other in my book,” Grace said from the back.
“Kyle’s it is, then,” I said, and I started driving.
“When we get there, I want you both to let me handle things,” Jake said as I made my way to Kyle’s place. I knew that he lived in a small guest cottage on the outskirts of town, a small home overgrown and unkempt. It had belonged to a friend of my mother’s once, and I’d visited there when it had been in pristine condition, but the last time I’d been by, I’d noticed that it had been severely run-down.
“I thought we were all doing this together, Jake,” Grace said.
“We are,” he said as he turned slightly to face her. “It’s just that I’ve had experience doing this kind of thing before.”
“So have we,” Grace protested.
“Hey, take it easy. We’re on the same team here,” I said.
“I know that, but I don’t want Jake to forget that we’re all in this together.”
“You’re right. That didn’t come out the way that I’d intended it to. I was wrong, and I apologize,” Jake told Grace.
I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw Grace studying Jake before she ever glanced over at me. “Does he do that very often?”
“What, be wrong?” Jake asked.
Grace dismissed that. “No, lots of folks are wrong more than they realize, or are willing to admit. I’m just not used to someone owning up to it and apologizing.”
“You’ve just been hanging around with the wrong kind of people,” Jake said with a smile.
“Clearly,” she said.
“Okay, then it’s settled. We go together, no matter what,” I said. “All I’ve got is a tire iron for defense. Is that going to be enough?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jake said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I’m armed.”
“You’ve still got a gun? I figured that they’d make you give it back,” I said, surprised that I hadn’t known that Jake was still armed. I knew that he had carried a gun as a state police inspector, but I hadn’t realized that he owned one personally as well.
“Suzanne, it’s perfectly legal for me to carry a weapon. I have a permit and everything. You should know better than anyone that sometimes my past can come back to haunt me. I’ve put too many people away to go around defenseless.”
“I doubt that you’re all that vulnerable even without your gun,” Grace said with a grin.
“I’m not, but I still feel better having it on me, especially in time
s like this.”
“Where do you keep it?” I asked, now curious about it. “I didn’t see a holster.”
“What, do you mean like a cowboy?” Grace asked.
“I’ve got it in a shoulder holster,” Jake said as he pulled his jacket back a little.
Sure enough, there it was. How had I missed it before? I prided myself on my observational skills, but I’d somehow failed to see that Jake had been carrying a weapon all along.
As we neared the run-down cottage, I stopped a hundred feet from the door.
“There it is,” I said as I turned the engine off.
“Let’s go,” Jake said as he put his hand on the door. “If it’s okay with you two, I’d like to try to intimidate him a little.”
“What are you going to do, kick the front door in?” Grace asked with a smile.
“Not a chance, but I am going to see how far I can push him using just words,” Jake answered.
“This ought to be good,” I said.
At that moment, Grace’s cellphone rang. “It’s Stephen,” she said. “Do you mind if I take it?”
“No, go ahead,” Jake answered. “It could be important.”
After a moment of conversation, I heard Grace say, “You guys go on. I need to take this.”
“Is it about the murder case?” I asked her.
“No, it’s more like a crisis of faith. Apparently he feels overwhelmed by everything, and he needs a little pep talk.”
“Then he came to the right gal,” I said with a smile.
“I’d like to think so,” Grace replied.
“We can wait here if you want to be a part of this,” Jake said.
“Thanks, but I really need some privacy to do this properly. Go on. I’ll be fine.”
“If you’re sure,” Jake said, and then he turned to me. “Are you ready?”
“I’m raring to go,” I said.
“Then let’s do this.”
As we approached Kyle’s front door, I saw Jake pull out his handgun and keep it at his side.
“Do you honestly think that you’re going to need that?” I asked him.
“Probably not, but I’d like to have it out and ready, just in case. Is that okay with you?”
“It makes me feel a little safer, in all honesty.”