He laughed because he actually followed her description. He swallowed the two Tylenol with a drink of orange soda. She sipped at a grape one for herself. “Sum it up for me please, Evie.”
“Joe has a bad encounter with Frank Ash, he’s not molested, but it’s too close. His dad learns what happened. Frank Ash goes missing. The son, horrified, thinks the father killed him. The father, knowing he did not, thinks the son did. Classic impasse, each scared witless that the other one is the culprit. Hence the counseling the father seeks for the son, and the son’s willingness to stay mum about that weekly counseling to protect the father.”
Gabriel nodded. “Thanks. If only the doctor had been willing to give us that summary when we sat down with him, we could have enjoyed lunch and pondered the next two obvious questions.”
“And those are . . . ?”
“Who did kill Frank Ash, and does that have any bearing on what happened to the Florist family? And back to the top we go. What did happen to the Florist family?”
She didn’t answer right away, but she finally said, “Their disappearance probably had nothing to do with Frank Ash.”
Gabriel reached over and tapped her soda bottle with his. “But what a tangle we will have to unravel to prove that fact. You need a new crime wall, Evie. We have to solve who killed Frank Ash.”
She shook her head. “Only if I get stuck on other ideas will I go down that rabbit hole. I’d rather prove they hit a deer.”
“You’ve already disproved that.”
“They could have hauled the animal with them, stopped for repairs somewhere, been carjacked, or truck-jacked, to be more accurate—”
“Evie . . .”
Big sigh. “Fine. If unraveling the Florist case means first solving the Frank Ash case, we’ll go there. But think about it, Gabriel. Two boys who admitted to being molested, the working assumption was someone in one of their families likely killed Ash. That gives you . . . what, about ten names as candidates, going out to their cousins? Unless one of those ten names also had a problem with the Florist family, we’ve already reached a dead end. It doesn’t matter which of the ten people killed Frank Ash. It doesn’t help solve the Florist case. It’s an unrelated crime.”
Gabriel reluctantly agreed. “We just had lunch and a fascinating interview and insight into the Florist family’s internal workings, and it has nothing at all to do with their disappearance.”
Evie raised her soda in agreement. “It was a great idea on my part. But zip for payout.” She shifted in the seat and got out her sunglasses. “I think we could solve the Frank Ash murder, but no matter what name you put on it from the candidate pool, that doesn’t do anything for the Florist family. And regarding their disappearance, we’re still talking murder?”
“It fits what evidence we’ve got.”
“Okay. Say a vigilante-type kills Frank Ash for molesting a boy. He doesn’t then kill a deputy and his family. It goes entirely against type. Unless you think Scott Florist knew what was going on with the boys and did nothing about it?”
“He was a straight cop,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “If he even suspected something, he’d be all over that.”
“So . . .” Evie shrugged. “We have unrelated crimes. Which is what Ann told us yesterday. A pedophile who likes young boys is murdered. A pedophile who likes young girls dies in a hunting accident. And the Florist family disappears. Three years, different victim sets, different MOs. All unrelated events.”
Gabriel sighed. “I’m simply tired of thinking about it right now.”
Evie smiled. “Want to stop and see a movie on the way back to Carin?”
“Don’t tempt me. Technically I’m on duty until six p.m.—not that I ever get to not be sheriff and ignore the calls.”
“Whereas I’m actually on vacation—no one will care if I go see a movie when we get back.”
“Don’t rub it in,” Gabriel suggested, amused.
Evie laughed.
“Tell me another joke or two.” He wanted something other than this case to think about, and Evie providing reasons to laugh suited him just fine.
Evie settled back in her seat and spun out her first joke. They passed the time sharing humorous stories and reasons for a chuckle or two.
Gabriel let himself relax. Paul was right, Evie can shift the weight of the day to the side and embrace laughter with ease. It was one more thing to admire about her, and he was grateful he was on the receiving end of that today.
ELEVEN
Evie Blackwell
Evie slid the package of Oreos down the table to Ann, passing them right under the Nerf football being tossed from Gabriel to Paul with an occasional lob to Gabriel’s dad, Caleb. The guys “thought better” while in motion, or so they claimed. The dinner with the Thane family had been relaxing, and for Grace’s sake no one had talked work. But now they had regrouped at the post office to end the evening.
It was coming up on eight p.m. Wednesday night, late enough that Evie was mentally following longer strands of ideas, growing less cautious about which of them she decided to share with the group. The Florist case had turned into a concrete wall. Painful. “Review for me again, what did we learn today?” she asked over the minor din.
Gabriel answered as he caught the football from Paul, shot it over to Caleb. “Father and son spent two years tying themselves into knots over the fear the other had been involved in Frank Ash’s murder. The discovery of the body at the truck stop seems to have relieved that stress. Scott hadn’t done it, and given where the body was found, he no longer thought his son, Joe, could have done it. So knowing he had a relationship to rebuild with his son, he suggested they go camping for a few days. That fact itself is useful to know. Up until now, we thought the camping trip had been planned further in advance. Turns out the decision to go camping was made that week. So there’s even less opportunity for someone to hear about it, and come up with a plan to harm to the family.”
Evie nodded. “Good point.”
Paul hustled over to catch a bad throw, added, “We also know cash was being squirreled away for the last two years.” The ball sailed back to Caleb. “Which makes sense now we know Scott thought for those two years that his son had killed Ash. They were making contingency plans to leave town rather than let their son be questioned by the police should that day ever come.”
“You’ve earned another hat tip for finding proof,” Evie remarked. Ann was right—Paul was good at finances.
“It was a challenge,” Paul said with a smile. “Susan hid it well. To retire the house debt early, they were making double mortgage payments up until two years before their disappearance. Their checkbook still records the double payment, but the mortgage loan itself was only credited for a single payment. Susan was withdrawing half of it as cash—easy enough with her bank job. Over two years, Susan pulled twenty-eight thousand out of their accounts. If she got that creative, she probably found another couple of opportunities to slip cash out without being obvious. So, say they had pulled out forty thousand in cash. Who knows where they had that money stored? Most likely it was in the house safe, but it didn’t hold any cash when the police opened it.”
“They could have been killed by someone who wanted the money,” Caleb suggested. “Put a gun on the boy, ask the dad what the safe combination is. That would work.”
Gabriel was shaking his head. “No sign of violence at the house,” he replied, “and that requires someone to know what Susan had been doing. It took our financial guru here to identify the withdrawals twelve years later.”
“Also, anyone reconciling the bank cash drawer at the end of the day would see the regular withdrawals to cash each month,” Paul said.
“Any co-worker could see it,” Ann agreed, “but wouldn’t they assume it was cash for that month? They wouldn’t have reason to add up twenty to forty thousand piling up.”
“True. It would have to be someone Scott would trust to see inside the house safe, see the money was there,” Gabri
el said.
“It’s family then,” Evie said.
Gabriel looked over at her with a frown.
“What?” Evie protested. “It’s the obvious answer to who would be around when Scott opened the safe—family, someone he wouldn’t think to worry about. Did a Florist family member have serious money problems, then all of a sudden get themselves out of debt? With no signs of violence at the house, it’s gotta be somebody who can get next to the Florist family without raising any flags, and who better than an extended family member who needs the money that’s sitting right there?”
Those who knew the Florists didn’t want to go there, but Evie realized it was the obvious answer. This could have been a family thing—most murders were. Someone wanted that cash and took it.
“No one comes to mind,” Caleb said slowly, “but we’ll think on it, Evie. If family came into that kind of money, it’s going to leave a trail.”
“What about the doctor?” Ann asked.
Evie glanced her way, interested. “Keep going.”
“You’ve got to figure Scott at least had dropped hints he would protect Joe if it came to that. The doctor maybe figures the family’s making plans to leave. The family’s paying his fees in cash—no checks to him are in the records. He would have reason to suspect they’re putting money in the mattress in preparation. And,” she said, holding up her Oreo cookie, “one person who did know about the camping trip is the doctor.”
Evie smiled. “I do like this thread.”
“What does he have to gain from harming the Florist family other than money?” Gabriel asked.
“It might be enough,” Ann replied. “If his own marriage was in trouble, or he needed bailing out of a financial problem. It’s worth another look at our doc.”
“It’s worth a closer look,” Caleb said. “I like it if only because it’s not someone from this county.” He threw the football back to Paul, who in a single motion caught it and shot it over to Gabriel.
Evie ducked and held up her cookie in protest when Gabriel considered sending the ball her way. She wasn’t giving up an Oreo to play ball. She decided to lay yet another possibility on the table. “The Florist family disappears. Their bodies are not found. In twelve years of searching, no one has turned up even a trace of their remains, their belongings, or their vehicles. Or the possible forty thousand in cash. At some point it means they aren’t out there to find. So let’s assume for a moment that they’re still alive.”
Paul stopped mid-throw. “A big assumption.”
“Add to that an even bigger assumption—they left of their own volition. No criminal intervention, no bad guy shows up. The family told their friends they’d meet them at the campground for three days of camping, and then deliberately they don’t arrive that weekend.”
“They intentionally disappear . . .”
Evie nodded. “We’ve only got the doctor’s word that everything was settling down that week after the discovery of Frank Ash’s body. I agree it doesn’t seem likely the son was involved, given where the body was found, and the shooting itself—three scattered shots from a .22 doesn’t sound like a cop. But maybe something else was in the mix that week that they didn’t tell the doctor.” Evie pointed at Ann. “You’re the storyteller, Ann. They’re alive, and they disappeared by their own choice. Run with that narrative. Where does it go?”
Ann leaned back in her chair, thought for a long moment, then slowly nodded. “The family packs to go camping, leaves their home, takes the cash, and deliberately abandons their lives. For now we’ll grant they had good reason to do so, tied to the convoluted mess they thought about each other related to the Ash murder. Maybe they ran to avoid an interview, to keep someone from falling under suspicion as a person of interest, to keep someone out of jail. Whatever the reason, it was serious enough to compel this drastic action. The fact the body was found could be the trigger. They’d been making contingency plans for a couple of years, things like the cash. Maybe they had time to prepare last details, maybe it’s a rush job on the fly to get away, but the decision is made.
“To establish a new life elsewhere, they’d need new IDs, new jobs. A way to settle in somewhere, blend in. But in the initial days, it’s narrower than that. They need a destination that can be reached overnight—the manhunt to locate them will be swift and frantic once they’re reported missing, and their faces will be all over state and national news, social media. They won’t be able to travel past, say, eight a.m. Friday without taking a huge risk, unless they change their appearances in radical ways and split up. Better to hunker down and wait out the media storm. And it’s going to be weeks or months before they’re out of range for a possible news story with their photos.”
Ann paused, and Evie put in, “Given how smooth and error-free this seems to have gone, I think they had time to prepare those details. To plan how to disappear, and with two years to prepare, what would they be doing during that time?”
“Accumulating cash,” Ann said, ticking the items off on her fingers. “Arranging new IDs. Getting copies of school records and doctors’ immunization records. Making preventative visits to the dentist and eye doctor. Securing at least three months of prescriptions they regularly take. Seeing family and friends . . . and while they can’t say goodbye, they do see them a final time. Probably securing a new firearm or two. They would need new phones; they couldn’t use their current ones anymore. New computers too—they can’t touch an existing account or online profile. And they can’t make it obvious they took stuff with them that wouldn’t be unusual to pack for a camping trip. The dad would probably be researching the trip and destination, planning the travel, with the mom handling their clothes and food. My guess is the son wouldn’t be in the loop until they were on the road and leaving town. They couldn’t risk telling him they’re leaving for good. He might slip up, tell a friend or a relative,” Ann finished.
“So, what on that list did the three of them actually do?” Evie asked. “There should be evidence if they were taking these kinds of steps.”
“Forty thousand is sizable,” Gabriel observed, “but it only gets them a year or two, even with careful planning. But since they left behind every asset they had—bank accounts, retirement funds, life-insurance policies, the home and land—that tells me they didn’t run. They even left their pets behind. Given they were hauling a camper, if they were leaving for good, they could easily have taken the pets along too.”
“Not if they were planning to travel far and fast, didn’t want that complication. Not if they were getting on a plane to somewhere like Alaska,” Evie speculated.
Paul smiled, and Evie realized she now had the family leaving town abruptly, leaving behind everything they owned, and catching a plane to Alaska. It was a bit of a stretch even for her.
But Caleb gave her some credit for even that far-out possibility. “Makes sense, Evie, in that it explains why the family or their vehicles haven’t surfaced somewhere. Knowing Scott Florist, though, I sure don’t think it sounds like something he would do.”
“It would mean Susan left her mother, who was fighting cancer,” Gabriel pointed out. “Scott walked away from a job he was good at, left behind numerous family members. Joe would have had to be trusted not to give anything away in order to keep them hidden. Given all that, wouldn’t they have waited for the evidence to develop, to confirm there was a good enough reason they needed to leave? They ran too early for all they were giving up.”
“A very good point,” Evie conceded.
“What if Scott Florist covered up the murder of Frank Ash?” Ann asked. “Hadn’t shot him, but moved his body, disposed of it behind the truck stop, that kind of thing? The father thinks he’s protecting his son by corrupting the crime scene. Would they maybe have run in that situation? The nice thing about the truck-stop location is that the land behind it is state land. It changes who investigates the murder.”
“Okay . . .” Caleb nodded slowly. “I buy that as possible. Scott learns what hap
pened to Joe, goes out to confront Frank Ash, finds him dead of three gun shots, fears his son killed him, so he moves the body to try to protect his son. I could see Scott doing that.”
“If either Scott or Joe murdered Frank Ash,” Gabriel said, “they had a good reason to run. But short of that, even if Scott moved the body, why take off? He knew about evidence collection, so he’s not going to make an obvious mistake. Wait a few days before taking off, but only if the evidence points in your direction. It doesn’t make any sense to go before then. They stayed put for two years after Frank Ash disappeared, and then they leave when his body is discovered, but before any evidence is analyzed? Just doesn’t add up. No, Scott would wait it out. And Susan would insist they wait because of her mother. They would go camping, get out of easy reach, keep their ear to the ground on details of the investigation, and leave only if there was cause.”
“What were the dates on the Ash autopsy, the bullet comparison at the lab, those sorts of results?” Ann asked.
Evie looked it up in the files they had brought over on the Frank Ash case. “The autopsy was . . . the Monday after the Florist family disappeared. A look at the recovered slugs happened Tuesday but didn’t generate a match in the database. There’s nothing in the notes, the investigation, to raise an issue. You’re right, Gabriel, why leave before the evidence is analyzed? If you did want to take precautions, why not say you’re going on a vacation, then keep an eye on things. Come back if everything looks fine, or keep going only if there’s a question. Why run first? They were about to be free of this.”
Gabriel nodded. “Say they took off, thinking the Frank Ash investigation would incriminate one of them. They ran before the evidence had been analyzed. A couple of weeks pass, there’s nothing that points to them. The Frank Ash case went nowhere. Why not come back to town with a plausible story, return to their lives? ‘We went camping, and Scott got sick and gave it to me, so we took another week to recover before driving home.’ Keep it vague but consistent, and just return to their lives.” Gabriel looked around the little group, saw a couple of nods to that scenario.
Traces of Guilt Page 23
