by B. T. Lord
“Is it true that you’ve arrested Jace?” he barked at her, his spittle settling on her uniform.
Cammie stood there, nonplussed. She knew how quickly news travelled throughout the town. She’d barely spent her first night with Jace before everyone knew they were an item. But she’d arrested Jace a mere four hours before. The mayor had to have set a record for finding out so fast. If Bill knew, within the hour everyone in Twin Ponds would know. Damn it, she’d hoped to have a little more time to sort out the mystery of Eli’s death without the eyes of the county on her.
“As a matter of fact, I did. He’s in the back asleep –“
“Are you insane?” Bill screeched again. “You’ve got to let him out. Now!”
By this time, Bill had backed her up against one of the filing cabinets. With no place else to go and her temper growing as he continued to barrage her, she tried one more time to hang onto her civility.
“And why do I need to release him?”
Bill stared at her incredulously. “Don’t you know what Friday night is?”
She scoured her brain. With everything that had been going on the last few days, she was lucky she remembered that today was Tuesday. Before she could respond, he provided the answer.
“Friday night is the game against the Snow Owls. Need I remind you what a crucial game this is?”
The Snow Owls were the Night Hawks’ hated rivals. They’d been battling it out for the championships ever since Cammie was a player. The last time they’d played, one of their goons had seriously injured one of the Night Hawks’ players. Friday night was payback time.
“We need Jace. We’ll never win without him.”
Now it was Cammie’s turn to stare at Bill incredulously.
“You’re asking me to release a potential murder suspect so he can play in a hockey game?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Look, I commend you on doing a good job. I watch those cop shows on TV. I know you’ve only got 48 hours to catch a suspect. But don’t you think this is going a bit too far? Christ, aren’t you two engaged or something? Believe me, no one will think the worst of you if you admit you acted a bit hastily and let him go.”
Cammie’s tenuous hold on her temper fell away. She stood up to her five foot eight inch frame, towering over Bill by almost two inches. This time, it was her finger doing the jabbing while Bill backed up.
“I am a trained police officer. I resent your implications. I arrested Jace because the evidence was overwhelming, not because I wanted to look good. I was hired to do a job and I’m doing it. As far as I’m concerned, until I find evidence to the contrary, Jace is going to remain behind bars. The only way I can let him out is if Judge Drury grants him bail and he’s able to post it.”
Bill’s face brightened. “I’ll post it! However much it is!”
“You’ll have to take that up with the judge. Now if you’ll excuse me--”
Bill sputtered. He wasn’t accustomed to not getting his way and he didn’t know what to do.
“I—I’ll have your badge!” he threatened.
“When this investigation is over, I’ll hand deliver it to you in a box with a red bow.”
“But the game--!” he pleaded.
Cammie glared at him. “If you’re so concerned over the damned game Friday night, you take to the ice. But Jace is going nowhere. Not until the court releases him. Until then--” She jabbed his chest with each word for emphasis – “Do. Not. Get. In. My. Way!”
By this time she’d backed Bill to the front door. He tried to stare her down, but she wasn’t budging. She crossed her arms across her chest and stared defiantly back. Finally, conceding he wasn’t going to win this, he pulled himself up and jammed the hood on his head.
“You haven’t heard the last of this. Jace!” he called out. “I’m going to hire you the very best lawyer money can buy. You’ll be out of there within 24 hours.” He looked back at her. “If I were you, I’d think carefully about what you’re doing. By the time everybody finds out you’ve arrested Jace, you won’t even be able to stand for dog catcher.”
“We don’t have a dog catcher.”
“Then I’ll make sure you’re not the first!”
With every ounce of dignity, Bill glared at her one more time, then spun on his heel and stomped out of headquarters. Cammie slammed the door behind him and locked it. Shaking with anger and indignation, she walked back towards the coffee machine, deciding she was going to need a quadruple dose to get through the day.
Bill had always been her biggest supporter; as much as she hated to admit it, his tirade had left her shaken. If he was this upset, there was no telling how the townspeople would react once they found out about Jace’s arrest. Dog catcher notwithstanding, she’d be lucky if she could keep living in Twin Ponds, much less Clarke County. Much less in the State of Maine.
She started to clean up the spilled coffee, but the confrontation with Bill weighed heavily on her mind. Tossing the saturated paper towels in the garbage, she leaned her palms on the table and lowered her head. Once again, she was assailed with doubts. Was she capable of discovering what happened to Eli? Because of her relationship with both the victim and the suspect, was she in over her head on this one? Should she just turn it over to the authorities over in Houlton and wash her hands of it? She’d never been a quitter. But maybe this was one occasion when she should concede that this was an investigation she shouldn’t participate in.
Her pensive mood was abruptly shattered when the whooping of a strident alarm echoed throughout the office.
“Really?” she moaned aloud, knowing very well where the alarm was coming from and who it belonged to.
Standing across the street from the Sheriff’s Department in a brick building that was over a hundred years old was Lars Landry’s Grocery Emporium. It was a fancy name for a tiny store with four aisles that sold screws and caulking next to cereal and potato chips. If Zee’s was Gossip Central, the Emporium ran a close second as a place where people gathered to exchange news, especially since the back of the Emporium also served as the town’s post office.
Lars Landry was a big bear of a man, with a black beard and dark brown hair. He sat behind the counter, his attention glued to a small television he kept next to the register. He lived for crime shows, both fictionalized and reality, and now considered himself an expert in the area of criminal justice.
His obsession led him to be the first and only person in Clarke County to install an expensive burglar alarm system in his store. The citizens were at first intrigued by the touch pad near the back door as Lars calmly and proudly showed how it worked to everyone who asked. The fact that he had the code scotch taped near the register, in Cammie’s mind, defeated the purpose of having the system installed in the first place. However, interest soon soured when the quiet streets of Main Street were jarred at least once a week by the loud, incessant noise of the alarm being tripped off by Lars as he fumbled to type in the correct sequence of numbers. It didn’t help that half the time, panicked by the deafening whooping, he forgot his own code. It took Cammie and her staff to hurry over and type in the code themselves before the town could settle down to a blessed silence.
This morning however, he was in earlier than usual. If Cammie didn’t get over there, the alarm could be ringing for hours. With a headache beginning to build behind her eyes, she threw on her parka, unlocked the front door and jogged across the street. Climbing over a snow mound, she hurried down the alley way that separated the Emporium from Betsy’s Bakery, until she was standing in the back of the store. There, she found Lars muttering under his breath as he tried to remember the number.
“Ah, thank God you’re here,” he sighed with relief as he stepped aside and allowed her to punch the number in.
“What are you doing here at six in the morning?” she asked as the ringing mercifully came to a halt.
“Got an emergency shipment coming in. Ordered extra vanilla fudge ice-cream for you too.”
Being a Twin Ponds native and
experiencing its long, seemingly never ending winters, Lars made it a point of knowing everyone’s comfort food, making sure he had it on hand when those moments of crisis occurred. It was said around town that he’d averted many a violent argument by selling the participants a bag of jelly beans or chocolate bars to calm their tempers. For Cammie, it was vanilla fudge ice cream.
“What with Eli’s demise and Jace bein’ arrested and all, there’s gonna be lots of people lookin’ to ease their convictions with their favorite goodies. If I don’t have ‘em, could be trouble. You got enough on your plate without people going off the deep end cos I don’t have their favorite potato chip, y’know what I’m saying?”
She swallowed hard as she followed him into the store. It was getting downright supernatural how everyone already knew and were discussing Eli’s death and Jace’s arrest.
“What – um – what exactly are people saying?” she asked cautiously.
Lars turned on the lights, then settled his bulk behind the register and immediately put on the television. “It depends on who you ask. Now, some people think Eli brought it on himself. Got all famous. Who knows who he pissed off, y’know? It ain’t like Twin Ponds is inaccessible. Anybody with an ax to grind against him wouldn’t find it too difficult to get here. Then there’s those who think he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then, you got those people who--” He reddened slightly. Cammie crossed her arms and met his embarrassed gaze.
“You might as well tell me, Lars.”
“Well, you know how people like to talk. They’re still trying to figure out that mess with you and Eli. They know there was bad blood between you two for many years. Some people think that maybe you lost your temper and – well – you know –“
She lifted an eyebrow. “These people think I killed Eli?”
“One of those crimes of passion. Happens more than you think. Then there are those people who know how Jace felt about Eli. I mean, Kelley didn’t make it easy. Coming in here all huffy and puffy, acting like he owned the place.” He shook his massive head. “I’d hate to be in your shoes, Sheriff and that’s a fact. Imagine, having your boyfriend suspected of murdering your ex-boyfriend. And then having to arrest him. Can’t be easy. Must have been some mighty incriminating evidence you found. You know, probable cause and all that.”
“So what do you think happened?” he continued, trying his very best to be casual about the question, though Cammie knew he couldn’t wait to hear her answer and share it with his shoppers.
“I’m just starting the investigation,” she answered truthfully. “But I can tell you that I’m going to be thorough and professional and live up to my oath as sheriff, no matter what the end result turns out to be.” She leaned forward. “You got all that?” He nodded vigorously. “Good. Now I’m expecting you to set people straight. It’s going to be hard enough to get to the truth of what happened without people jumping to all kinds of wrong conclusions.”
“You can count on me, Cammie. It’s the least I can do for all the times you’ve bailed me out with the alarm system.”
She turned to leave and almost crashed into Mrs. Nation. The tiny Abenaki woman, seeing the lights on, had come in through the unlocked back door. In height, she came up to Cammie’s chest. On that particular morning, she looked like a miniature Eskimo with her small round face enclosed by a fur trimmed parka and heavy snow boots on.
A look of deep seated anger marred Mrs. Nation’s normally placid face. Before Cammie could ask her what was wrong, the woman pointed her finger at her. “How could you suspect that dear sweet boy of doing such a horrible thing?” she yelled at Cammie. “And him loving you as much as he does! What the hell is the matter with you? Have you no decency?” Cammie sputtered as she backed away from the unexpected attack. “You can’t accuse a man of murder just because he tom-catted on you with another woman. Or was it you that tom catted on him with Mr. Bigshot Hockey star?”
“Jace Northcott would never do that,” came another female voice from behind Mrs. Nation. “Not unless the sheriff drove him to it and she probably did, sleeping with Eli Kelley and now covering it up by blaming his death on that poor boy. After all, she was at Kelley’s place the night he died! How do we know she didn’t kill him?”
“That’s ridiculous!” This time it was a male voice. “I’ve seen what Northcott can do on the ice. He’s lethal when he’s mad. He’s had it in for Eli ever since the man came back to Twin Ponds. The sheriff did the right thing. We pay her to keep us safe, especially from cold blooded murderers!”
Cammie couldn’t believe what was happening. The whole town seemed to be descending on her, as more and more people crowded into the tiny store, vociferously voicing their opinions. It wasn’t long before they were turning on each other, each side convinced they were right. Cammie tried to calm things down, but her presence only appeared to make the situation worse. Just when she thought she’d have to withdraw her weapon and shoot her way out of the Emporium, Lars came to the rescue. She felt a huge paw on the arm of her parka and in the next instant, found herself being shuttled out of the Emporium as quickly as Lars’s bulk could carry her. Without a word, he literally threw her out into the back alley.
“Run!” he mouthed before he slammed the door shut in her face.
She stood there in the freezing morning air, stunned. Then did exactly as he instructed.
She ran.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The next few hours were a nightmare. Just as she’d dreaded, everyone in the county knew of Eli’s death and Jace’s possible complicity. Headquarters soon became overrun with townspeople; most clamoring for the release of Jace; a tiny minority congratulating her on catching the murderer so quickly. As expected, scuffles broke out. It was a repeat of what had happened at Landry’s store, only on a larger scale.
Cammie quickly called in her three reserve deputies and it took all their efforts to keep a tenuous peace. She ordered that anyone who did not have police business to leave the premises at once. Thirty minutes later, headquarters was quiet. To make sure she didn’t have the situation repeat itself, she rotated the deputies standing guard at the front door. Only those with a legitimate reason to enter the police station were allowed in.
Now that order had been restored, she quietly broke the news to Rick and Emmy about Eli’s suicide, swearing them to secrecy. As far as she was concerned, this was one piece of news that did not have to be reported or exploited. She then asked Emmy to track down Eli’s doctor. It took the intrepid dispatcher less than ten minutes to get him on the phone.
It turned out Dr. Hugo Weiss was one of the top oncologists at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. In a hurried, brisk tone, he confirmed Doc’s diagnosis of Stage 4 liver cancer. He also confirmed the prescription of oxycodone that he’d given Eli a week prior to his arrival at Twin Ponds. Cammie was careful not to mention the suicide. When she told him of Eli’s murder, the doctor remained silent for a long moment, then uttered a sigh.
“I am sorry to hear that. Mr. Kelley was a compassionate human being. After he was diagnosed, he spent many an afternoon in the children’s wing of the cancer center, cheering them up, signing autographs, etc. He deserved to die with dignity.”
As Cammie hung up, she felt the pang of regret and grief start to bubble up. Once again she was struck by how little she knew about that side of Eli’s personality. As far as she knew, he’d never shown any particular compassion for anyone, especially children. God, was she next going to hear he’d opened up a shelter for abandoned animals?
She roughly pushed the thought aside and next dialed the Forensics lab to see if the techies had found such a bottle. To her surprise, they told her they’d found the bottle in Eli’s backyard. They were analyzing it now for fingerprints, but weren’t hopeful since it had lain in the snow for hours. When she asked about the serial number on the weapon, she was dismayed to find it had been filed off.
Deep in thought, she hung up. A moment later, Rick poked his head in
her office.
“Has it gotten any better out there?” she asked.
“Not with Jace in prison and the big game on Friday.”
“I can’t believe they want me to bend the rules because of a stupid hockey game.”
“It’s not just the game.” She looked up at him and noticed the sheepish expression on his face. “Some of the people out there are convinced you’re framing Jace to cover up your affair with Eli.”
She raised her hand. “Heard all that already at the Emporium this morning.”
“Emmy and I have been trying our best to convince them how wrong they are, but the Hawks are undefeated so far this season and no one is ready to admit that their captain might be a killer.”
“They want to blame me for Eli’s murder because they don’t want to break the Hawks winning streak?” She rolled her eyes.
“Well, Jace has been scoring most of the game winning goals.”
She scowled at him. “Lovely,” she muttered.
“You played the game, Cammie. You remember how important it was and still is for this town, especially against the Snow Owls.”
She did remember. She also remembered how sweet it was every time they won against their rivals.
“Anyway, that’s not why I came in here. The press is outside. They want a statement.”
Cammie glanced at her watch. Nine am. Not bad. They’d picked up the scent pretty quickly.
“Who’s out there?”
“Local papers for now. The big guns haven’t arrived yet.”
Cammie cringed. It was only a matter of time before the network and large newspapers besieged Twin Ponds. The murder of a famous sports celebrity was too irresistible.
“Tell them I went to Florida.”
Rick chuckled. “Do you want to at least talk to Mac?”
Mac was Douglas MacMunn. He was editor and writer of the Twin Ponds Gazette, a small newspaper that was more advertisements than news.
In the days when she played for the Night Hawks, he’d been overly generous in his praise of her talents, and was a major factor in pushing for her election as Sheriff. The murder of Eli and the arrest of Jace could catapult his tiny paper into the big leagues.