My thoughts flashed to Liv’s damaged car. Again, I wondered what Jenny might have done to impress Kevin. “Is there more you’re not saying?”
“No, no, why?” Her voice cracked.
“The car. You’re sure you weren’t involved in vandalizing the car? The police found the paint and dirty towels in our back alleyway.”
She tugged her fake ring on and off her finger. “They did?”
“Yes.” I studied her reaction. “If you know more and you’re not saying anything to protect Kevin, you could be making things very bad for yourself. It’s imperative that you tell Chief Meyers everything you know.”
“Okay.”
“Good. Let me point you in the right direction.” I ducked behind the bar to give Garrett Kevin’s drink order. “I’m taking Jenny to the police station. Be back shortly.”
He gave me a serious nod.
I pushed Jenny out the door before she had a change of heart or before Kevin spotted us. Fortunately his face was glowing from the blue light of his phone as we left. Not only did I want Jenny to tell the chief everything she’d told me, but I wanted her as far away from Kevin as possible. If he was the killer, what would stop him from doing it again?
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
I ESCORTED JENNY TO CHIEF Meyers’s office. The wooden hand-carved POLIZEI sign had an inch of snow resting on the top, making it resemble a movie set. While the entrance to the village police station might have been charming, the façade immediately fell away once we stepped inside. An old oak countertop, circa 1980, served as a greeting station. There were a handful of desks and a small holding area. A police officer typed away on a computer attached to a bulky monitor that could have been the same age as the desk.
“Can I help you?”
“Is Chief Meyers around?” I asked, peering over the officer to see into the open area behind him.
“She stepped out for a minute. She should be back in five. Can I help you, or do you want to wait?” He nodded to a threadbare green couch.
“It’s about the murder investigation, so we’ll wait.” I pulled Jenny over to the couch and poured her a cup of water from the water cooler.
“I think this is a sign. The chief isn’t here. I should go.” She chomped on her pinky finger like it was a juicy brat. “I should go back to Kev before he figures out what I’m doing.”
“Why would he figure out what you’re doing?” I tried to exude calmness for her.
“Probably someone will tell him, or he’ll suspect it.” Her voice had a whiny tone. “I told him I was going to help you with the beers and then I just disappeared. He’s not an idiot.”
I begged to differ with her on that assessment, but I kept my mouth shut.
“Jenny, this is the right thing to do. You know that, at your core.” I placed my hand on her knee.
She squished the paper cup and splashed water on her jeans.
Chief Meyers burst through the door. Her fur-lined hood was coated in snow. She stomped her boots on the mat before tromping inside.
Thank goodness. I wasn’t sure I could have convinced Jenny to hang out much longer.
“Sloan.” The chief acknowledged me with a two-finger salute.
I stood up. “Jenny shared some information that might be pertinent to your investigation, so we thought it would be best to come find you right away.”
“Excellent. Follow me.” The chief waved Jenny toward the back.
Jenny didn’t budge from the couch.
“Do you want to tell me right here?” Chief Meyers shook snow from her coat and folded her arms across her chest.
“No.” Jenny peered out the window. “Kev might come by and see me talking to you.”
“All the more reason to talk in private.” The chief lifted the hinge on the countertop and waited for Jenny to follow her. Jenny gave me a look of trepidation.
“I’ll wait.” I sat down again and leafed through a tourist brochure that touted the abundance of winter offerings from cross-country skiing on Nordic trails to downhill skiing and snowboarding at Stevens Pass and Mission Ridge, sleigh rides, dogsledding, and moonlit snowshoeing tours. There was never a reason to stay cooped up inside during the colder months. That was only scratching the surface; indoor options abounded as well, including a rotation of live music almost every night of the week at a variety of restaurants and pubs in town, a nutcracker hunt, wine tasting, theater performances, and art shows.
Was I putting Jenny in danger by encouraging her to talk to the police? I thought about it for a moment. Chief Meyers was astute. If Kevin was a suspect in Lily’s murder, and if this information led to his arrest or another round of questioning, the chief would take Jenny’s safety into account. I also wasn’t convinced that Jenny hadn’t been involved in vandalizing Lily’s car. Every time I had mentioned the damage, her response had been less than convincing. Jenny knew more than she was saying, that much I was sure of.
She emerged about a half hour later. Her cheeks were streaked with tears. Her skin ashen.
“How did it go?” I asked.
“Fine.” Jenny brushed her wrist under her nose and sniffled.
Chief Meyers hadn’t come up front with her. “Are you free to go? Did the chief say anything about Kevin?”
Jenny sniffed again. “No. She said not to say anything. They’re going to question him again, but she told me to act normal.” She yanked the glittery ring off her finger and clutched it in one hand.
“Can you do that?” I trusted the chief’s tactics, but Jenny was a mess.
She chewed her pinky. “I think so.”
“Sloan,” Chief Meyers called from her desk. “Can I have a quick word?” Her coat was propped on the back of a faded rust-colored chair. Melting snow pooled on the floor.
“I’m going to head back to the pub,” Jenny said with a false sense of confidence. “I’ll tell Kev that I wasn’t feeling well and needed a quick walk. He knew that I was a little hungover this morning, I think he’ll believe me.”
“Okay. Be careful,” I cautioned.
She wiped her nose and left. I walked to the back of the dated police station. There were three scratched oak desks, each with an ancient computer on it. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead. The main police headquarters were located outside of the village. This office was mainly used as a holding spot for tourists who imbibed too much during one of the many festivals.
“Well, what do you think?” I asked Chief Meyers, who was finishing typing notes into her computer.
“It’s troubling.” She didn’t elaborate.
“Is it safe for Jenny to be around him right now?”
She scowled. “Sloan, give me more credit than that. I wouldn’t feed her to the wolves.”
“I know.”
“I could use your help, though.” Watching her type was painful. She used her two index fingers to bang out each word. I wanted to jump in and offer my transcription services.
“You bet. Name it.”
“Could you tell Mel and Swagger—who in their right mind names their kid Swagger?” She made a grunting sound.
I shrugged. “Not me.”
“Anyway, could you ask them both to stop by this afternoon? I don’t want to raise suspicion around Kevin. I’d like him to feel comfortable, if you know what I mean.” Her lip turned up.
Did that mean she considered him the top suspect?
“If you can casually ask them to come over to the station, one at a time, then I don’t need to stir things up at the bar or send one of my officers over.”
“Will do.”
“Excellent. And keep an eye on Kevin, would you?” She dismissed me by returning to pounding on the keyboard.
“Sure.” I left the station feeling more confused. Obviously, Meyers had to have Kevin on her suspect list, but she couldn’t be convinced if she was letting him walk around the village free. Or maybe she didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him yet. Either way, the thought of keeping an eye on a potential
murderer was less than appealing.
At Nitro the vibe was subdued. Sunday afternoons often had a lazy quality. Guests sipped pints slowly, staving off the return of the workweek with a golden amber or hazy IPA. Kevin and Jenny were both on their phones. There was no outward indication that Kevin thought anything was amiss. I stopped at Mel and Swagger’s table.
“How is everything this afternoon?” I noted their empty beer glasses. “Can I get you a refresher?”
“No thanks,” Mel replied. “We are going to close our tab and walk around the village. I need a break.” She glared at Kevin and Jenny.
I leaned over to pick up their glasses. “On that note, Chief Meyers asked me to have you both stop by the police station. She has a couple follow-up questions for you.”
“Oh, really.” Mel kept her gaze on Kevin. “No problem. We’ll do that right now, won’t we, Swag?”
“Yeah, okay.” Swagger reached into his wallet and handed me a platinum credit card.
“I’ll go get your bill settled,” I said stacking their glasses. They weren’t making any attempts to mask their disgust with Kevin. The situation was becoming more bizarre by the moment. I took the glasses to the bar and ran Swagger’s credit card. Did they know more that they weren’t saying?
“You’re all set.” I returned with Swagger’s receipt. Part of me wanted to press them on why they’d had such a change of heart about Kevin, but I knew that Chief Meyers wanted to talk to them ASAP. If whatever they told her would lead us closer to Kevin’s arrest, that would be fine by me.
As they stood up to leave, Taylor came over to the table. “Is this free?”
Mel put on her coat. “Yeah, go for it.”
“Let me wipe it down for you,” I said to Taylor. “Can I get you a beer while I’m at it?”
“How about a pint of your red?”
“You got it.” I grabbed a wet towel and asked Kat to pour a pint of red.
Taylor waited for me to clean the table before he sat down. He shrugged off his parka and thick work gloves. Kat delivered his frothy pint. “Need anything else?”
“This is fine.” He looked around the tasting room. “No police action today?”
“Nope.” Had Chief Meyers talked to him about Liv’s true identity? I wanted to ask him, yet didn’t want to overstep my role. I would feel terrible if I interfered with the investigation.
“Did you hear about Lily?” He ran a finger along the rim of the pint glass. His fingernails were black with grease.
Since he brought it up, I figured it was fair game to see what he might have to say. “No, what?” I wasn’t sure if the slip of the name was intentional or not.
“That’s her real name,” Taylor continued. “Remember that first night when I said that she looked familiar?”
I nodded. He hadn’t mentioned anything to me about recognizing Lily until later. But if memory served me correctly, he had definitely mentioned that she looked like someone he knew.
“That’s why. I went to high school with her. I found my old yearbook in a plastic tub in the garage. She looked totally different then. Her hair, her style, her name, but her face was the same. I wish I had realized it before she was killed.”
Another odd coincidence.
“Did you know her in high school?”
“Nah, not really. We hung out a few times, but we had different groups of friends. You know how that goes.” His fingers left grease marks on the rim of the glass. Motor oil would definitely throw off the flavor profile of our hoppy red ale.
“Do you think she recognized you?”
He took a big drink of the beer. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
“She was acting so strange the night she was killed. She kept saying very cryptic things.”
“Like what?”
I wasn’t going to share everything Lily had said to me, especially now that he was admitting he had known her. “I don’t remember the specifics. It’s more that she seemed scared.”
“What’s there to be scared of in Leavenworth? Lederhosen?” He smirked and gulped the beer. “Did she say something about me?”
Was it my imagination, or were the veins in his forehead bulging?
“If she said something about me, I deserve to know.” He swirled his pint glass like it was a fine wine. “Whatever she said was a lie. That’s what I remember about her—she lied.”
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
“WHAT DID LILY LIE ABOUT?” I asked Taylor.
“Never mind. Forget I said anything.” He chugged the rest of his beer, reached for his well-worn leather wallet, and slapped a ten-dollar bill on the table. “I’m late. Thanks for the pint.”
With that, he took off. The subject of Lily had hit a nerve. He was the one who had brought up the topic, though.
I felt defeated. Every new detail that surfaced sent me in a different direction.
“Why the long face?” Garrett asked.
“I’m starting to feel like I’m crazy,” I admitted, filling him on the latest developments.
“You should go take a break. Or better yet, take the rest of the day off. It’s slow. It’s Sunday. You’ve been working all weekend, and you were up late writing the offer with April, and your friend Sally is coming from Seattle tonight, right? Why don’t you take off?”
“Thanks.” I wasn’t sure that spending the rest of the afternoon by myself would be helpful. Alex wouldn’t be home again. Mac had asked last night if it was okay to take Alex to dinner at his parents’ house and spend the night with him. I couldn’t refuse. Alex adored Otto and Ursula, and they him. I hadn’t uttered a word about the strain between us right now. I didn’t want to tear him away from his grandparents. Not unless there ended up being a reason to sever ties. Plus, if I was being honest, it was going to be much easier to talk to Sally without anyone else around.
“That really means no thanks, doesn’t it?” Garrett scowled. “As in emphasis on the no.”
I tried to laugh. “And to think I pride myself on my poker face.”
“Poker face, you wish.” Garrett winked.
“Hey, I’ve worked for years on this.” I relaxed my jaw and allowed my eyes to focus on a photo on the far wall in an attempt to make my face as stoic as possible.
“Not bad.” Garrett clapped. “I still think you should take a break.”
“I feel like taking breaks is the only thing I’ve done for the past few days. Taking breaks to ask questions and follow up on hunches. I’m obsessed, aren’t I?” I fought back a wave of emotion.
“No. Everyone is distracted by the investigation. As we should be.” His face reflected his concern. “If we weren’t upset by the fact that one of our guests was brutally murdered, I would be worried. Really worried.”
“Fair point, but honestly sitting around by myself is only going to make things worse.”
“Then go for it.”
“Go for what?”
“Dive into the investigation. You said that Taylor told you he went to high school with Lily. Why don’t you go to the library and do some research? As you know, the internet is spotty in here. Plus it will be good for you to get away from the pub for a while. You can probably find out a ton of information. They’re so young that their entire yearbook might be online.”
“That’s a good idea.”
He brushed off his shoulders. “I’ve been known to have a good idea every now and then.”
“You’re sure you don’t mind?”
“Sloan, not only do I not mind, but if you don’t get out of here, I’m going to fire you.”
“That sounds like an empty threat.”
“True. But I’m serious. Go. Take the rest of the afternoon. And I don’t want to see your face around here tomorrow, either.”
“Sally’s only here until early afternoon anyway. You know how crazy the train schedule is.” Leavenworth had one daily arrival from Seattle and one daily departure to Seattle. The fact that we had train service at all made locals happy.
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, emphasis on afternoon. Or maybe even not at all. Kat and I will cover breakfast. I’m thinking cold cereal and bagels, which means I don’t want to see you here before the crack of dawn. Got it?” Garrett pursed his lips and pointed to the door.
The library was less than a quarter-mile walk from Nitro, just across Highway 2. White stucco with a pink and gold German mural and carved archway formed the first floor. The second story was constructed from slatted wood, stained chocolate brown with multiple balconies. Icicle lights hung from the sloped roofline. The library and city hall shared the building. The entrance to city hall was to the left so I turned right to enter the library and made my way to a bank of public computers near the circulation desk.
Before I started my search, I jotted down everything I knew about Lily. Her name, her approximate age, the fact that she had lived in Spokane, and that I learned from Taylor that they went to high school together. I intended to plug his information in as well. I opened a browser and typed in Lily Palmer.
The first results returned were for Lily Palmers on the East Coast. I had to scroll for a while before I found a Lily Palmer in Washington State. It was worth the effort. I couldn’t believe the number of articles that popped up from ten years ago.
The headline read TRAGEDY AT FISH LAKE, CHENEY, WASHINGTON.
I read on:
The body of high school senior Chloe Downey was recovered from Fish Lake yesterday morning, putting an end to the weeklong search. Downey’s friend, Lily Palmer, reported her missing on April 5. Police and volunteers have been searching Spokane neighborhoods and nearby outdoor sites without any leads. Toxicology reports show Downey’s blood-alcohol level at .08%. Foul play is not suspected. The family asks for privacy at this time and for donations to be made to Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital.
I exhaled and leaned away from the computer. How horrifically sad. My thoughts immediately went to Alex. I couldn’t fathom what I would do if something happened to him, or imagine him losing a friend so young.
Poor Lily. I wondered if she and Chloe had been close. And had Taylor known Chloe, too? From the tone of the first article, it sounded as if her death had impacted the entire town. Much like it would here in the village if something like that occurred.
Without a Brew Page 14
