by A M Ialacci
“Explain.”
Cleo told Will exactly what she had seen and heard pass between Maeve and Nicholas.
“Sounds like threats were made on both sides,” Will said. “We should probably talk to hunters until we know this was more than an accident, though.”
“I think the hunters can wait. We need to follow up on this,” Cleo persisted. “Don’t forget that the man carved an ‘M’ or a ‘W’ into his arm before he died. Either could point to her.”
He sighed. “All right. You’ve piqued my curiosity. Let’s go.”
They pulled up outside the white cottage and knocked on the door. An older woman with pale red hair answered the door. “Can I help you?” she asked.
“We are looking for Maeve Witten. Is she home?”
“No, she’s out getting…medications for my fibromyalgia. But come in, please,” she urged.
“Thank you, and your name, ma’am?”
“Harriet Carter. I’m Maeve’s roommate. Please have a seat.” She gestured toward a plush couch covered in a natural brown material. Light streamed through the windows, and Cleo was amazed at how large the small space seemed. The patchouli incense was a little too heavy, though.
“Do you expect Maeve home soon?” Will asked as Harriet tucked her bare feet under her on a white plush chair opposite them.
“She just left. Maybe an hour or so,” Harriet said.
“Do you know if she knew Nicholas Stubbs?”
“Oh, I was so sad to hear about Nicholas. I went to high school with him. We were sweethearts once upon a time. But that was ages ago,” Harriet said, looking out the window.
“Did Maeve know him?”
“I think she knew of him, but I don’t think she had ever met him. Why do you ask?”
“We were told that they were seen conversing yesterday. I wanted to follow up with her to verify that.”
“Oh, that can’t be right. She would have told me.” Harriet frowned.
Cleo started to say something, but Will stood. “All right then. We’ll get out of your way. Thank you so much, and please let Maeve know we will be back sometime soon.”
“I’ll be sure to do that. Thank you for stopping by!” She waved to them from the doorway as they got into the Mini.
“I know what I saw and heard,” Cleo grumbled.
“Sounds like Maeve isn’t telling Harriet the whole truth. I wonder why,” Will said.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Will’s cell phone rang, and he dug it out from his utility belt and answered it.
“He’s there right now? Okay, we’ll be there shortly.”
“Where will we be?” Cleo asked.
“Back to the station. Nicholas Stubbs may have had a brother we didn’t know about.”
When they came into the station, Cleo followed Will to his desk. Seated in the chair next to it was the man she had seen outside the station the previous day. He flashed a smile at her that made her insides turn to goo, and she felt her cheeks flush. Bad boy, indeed, she thought.
“Mr. Stubbs?”
“That’s me.”
“Do you have some ID?”
The man produced a driver’s license and handed it to Will. “James Stubbs. Arizona, huh? You’re a long way from home.”
“Jimmy, please. Well, I just learned that I had a brother. So… I had to come meet him. Except I was too late.”
“When did you arrive in town?”
“Just yesterday, but I had to find a place to stay and learn my way around.”
Cleo thought he seemed to know his way around when she had seen him, but maybe he was telling the truth.
“And do you have some proof that you are related to Nicholas?”
Jimmy pulled two folded pieces of paper from his back pocket and handed it to Will. “That’s my birth certificate and his birth certificate. They were in my mom’s things. I found them when she died two weeks ago.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Will said, looking Jimmy in the eye.
“Thanks, man.”
“Still, these aren’t exactly proof.”
“You can’t tell me what happened to my brother?”
“No, I’m sorry. Not until we verify everything.”
“What if I give you a DNA sample?”
Will considered it. “There’d be a form you’d have to sign, but we might be able to help if the DNA came back as a match. It would take a couple of weeks, though.”
Jimmy’s face fell at that. “Well, okay then. Whatever you need me to sign, I’ll sign. Family is family.”
Will stood and retrieved the form he needed from a bank of file cabinets along the outside wall of the office. “Sign that for me, and I’ll get a kit from the back.”
Jimmy signed the form and flashed Cleo another killer smile. When Will returned, Cleo could see him clenching his jaw again. He swabbed the inside of Jimmy’s mouth, replaced the swab in the kit, and put it in a plastic bag. “That’s it. Do you want to give a cell phone number where we can reach you?”
Jimmy gave him the information and nodded to Cleo before heading out the door.
“I saw that guy yesterday, right outside this building. He looked like he had his bearings pretty straight to me,” Cleo offered.
“Yeah, something not quite right there. Still, he volunteered his DNA…”
Cleo shrugged. “I guess we’ll see, huh?”
“Yep.” Will sighed. “I’m pretty much done for the day. You want to drop me at home? Then maybe we can go see Shelley and Travis again tonight after they’re all settled in for the evening.”
Cleo nodded. “I’m at your disposal.”
“Damn right you are. You ‘won,’ my ass.” Will chuckled as they left the station.
Cleo and Will stood on the front porch of 241 Chestnut Street. The door opened, and Shelley Mills tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear as she stepped back to allow them in. Introductions were made, and Cleo and Will each took seats in the armchairs facing the couch where Travis and Shelley sat.
“Travis, I’m sure Shelley told you that we’re looking into the death of Nicholas Stubbs.”
“Yeah, crazy thing, huh?” Travis said, smoothing his pants with his hands.
“We’re trying to determine if it was an accidental shooting or murder, and we’re just asking questions of anyone who knew him.”
“Of course. Ask away.”
“Do you hunt, Mr. Brenner?”
“I have, sure. I’m not real active with it anymore.” Travis leaned back and crossed one leg over the other.
“Crossbow or rifle?”
“I’ve done both, but I don’t own a rifle.”
“You own a crossbow?”
Travis glanced at Shelley then back to Will. “I do. It’s in our storage unit. My storage unit. Pretty much everything I had in my apartment before I moved in with Shelley.”
“Have you used it at all lately?”
“No. It probably has a layer of dust on it in there.”
“And where is the storage unit located?”
Travis gave the name and location of the storage unit, and when asked, unhooked the key from his keyring so that Will could verify his statement.
“Can I ask why you’re not asking Shelley any questions?” Travis asked.
“We’ve already spoken with her,” Will said.
Travis looked at Shelley and she shrugged and looked at the floor.
“Can I ask why you’re speaking with us? I barely knew the guy,” Travis said, smoothing his pants again.
Will looked Travis in the eye. “Rumor says that you were upset about the time that Nicholas was spending with Shelley.”
Color rose to Travis’s cheeks. “I wasn’t upset. She was working. At work. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“You deny that you were jealous of Nicholas in any way.” Will’s gaze remained steady.
“Of course, I deny it. Shelley is mine, and everyone knows it. Only an idiot would hit on her.”
> “Did you think Nicholas was an idiot?” Will asked.
“Oh, come on. Are you trying to get me to admit to something?” Travis was getting louder.
“Just trying to get to the truth,” Will said.
“I am telling you the truth. I didn’t have a problem with the guy, okay? And I was here all night,” he said, looking at Shelley. “She can vouch for me.” He leaned back again.
Shelley cleared her throat. “Yes, he was here all night,” she said, looking at the floor.
“All right then. I guess that’s it for now,” Will said, standing, and Cleo took her cue. They shook hands all around and made for the door. When Will and Cleo were on the doorstep, they turned back to say goodbye, and Travis stuck a finger under the collar of his turtleneck to scratch his collarbone. Cleo nudged Will when she saw the green and yellow patches just below the top of his collar.
“What happened to your neck there, Travis?” Will asked.
“Oh, this?” Travis asked, placing a hand on top of the collar.
“Yes, there, on your left side.” When Travis didn’t immediately respond, Will asked, “Can I see that for a minute, Travis?”
Travis hesitated again, and then with a sigh, he pulled the collar down with his fingertips, revealing a set of nasty bruises in a vertical pattern along Travis’s windpipe.
Will whistled. “How’d you get those, Travis?”
Travis said nothing.
“Travis?” Will repeated.
Finally, Travis responded. “You know, unless you are going to charge me with something, I think I’ve said all I’m going to say right now. Have a good evening, folks.” With that, he shut the door on Will and Cleo, who looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
“Still thinking accident there, Officer?” Cleo asked.
Will sighed and said nothing.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After Cleo had dropped Will off with a plan to pick him up in the morning, she came home and settled into the recliner for the evening. With no laptop and no camera, she was a little at a loss, but she realized she could access her photos from the crime scene on the cloud on her phone and decided to study them in detail. It was cumbersome, because she had to zoom in on each photo and then drag it around the screen to see the different areas, but she didn’t have an alternative. When she got to the photos of the area surrounding the body, something in the background caught her eye. Although she was new to the area, she had a general idea of the flora and fauna that grew there. She could recognize the types of trees by the shape of their leaves and even knew which berries were poisonous and which were okay to eat. Cleo could swear she recognized the leaves on a few of the plants in the photos from her college days, though.
“One way to find out,” Cleo said. “Ollie, want to go for a ride?” Why not take the dog? He’d been cooped up all day, and that way, it was very unlikely a crazed rapist could sneak up on her in the woods. He was a hound, for Christ’s sake. This was his role in life.
She dug around the junk drawer for a flashlight and prayed that it worked. Her hands closed around a plastic cylinder, and when she pulled the flashlight out of the drawer and clicked it on, it worked like a charm.
“All right, Ollie. Let’s go,” she said, attaching his leash. “Bye Fat Ass!” she sang to the cat as they left.
She parked in about the same spot as the night she last saw Nicholas. She was careful to shut her door quietly just in case the killer who had watched her then was still watching her now. Cleo and Ollie made quicker time to the scene of the crime, because Ollie’s instincts were kicking into high gear. Nose to the ground, he seemed to know just where they were headed. And in a few minutes, they came to the clearing that Cleo recognized from the other night. Ollie growled a bit until she shushed him, but she was wary. She located the tree on which Nicholas had propped himself and tried not to see the stained ground around it. She was much more interested in the plants behind the tree. Cleo approached them cautiously, looking around to make sure no one was there ready to jump out at her. She knelt down to get a better look and shone the flashlight directly on the leaves.
Yep, that was pot all right. In fact, the plants were in pots so they could be moved quickly, she guessed. Someone was using this spot as a clandestine growing operation. No one had noticed them here. Until now. But maybe Nicholas had noticed? Was that why he was here that night?
Cleo pinched one of the leaves off and stuck it in her pocket. She might need it to corroborate her theory later.
“I got what I needed here, Ollie. Let’s head back to the car,” she said and let him lead the way.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Will was grumpy when Cleo picked him up the next morning.
“I brought you some coffee,” she offered as he settled into the passenger seat. “I don’t know how you like it, so I just got black. But I have sugar, too, if you need it.”
“Why are you being nice?”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “I’m a very nice person.”
Will almost spilled the coffee he laughed so hard. Cleo gave him side-eye, but he wasn’t paying attention.
“Next time, you can get your own coffee,” she mumbled.
“Thank you, Cleo, for the coffee. I can drink it black. It was very thoughtful,” he said, likely realizing he had hurt her feelings. “Do you know where you’re going?”
“I looked it up,” she said.
“Good. Do you think it’ll be there?”
“His crossbow? Not sure. He seemed pretty confident it was there.”
“Possibly calling our bluff?” Will ventured.
“I guess we’ll see.”
They pulled into the storage unit complex about ten minutes later, and Will got out to flash his badge at the attendant so that he could let them in the motorized gate. Once inside, they found the unit. Will turned the key in the lock and pulled the door up. As Travis had described, it was filled with what you might typically find in a bachelor’s apartment. A crappy set of pots and pans, a used couch and chair, a floor lamp that was slightly bent in the middle, a cheap rug that was rolled up and propped in the corner. There was a bag of mismatched golf clubs and a bookshelf with sagging shelves. A pressboard desk and old-fashioned dresser rounded out the ensemble. What was missing was a crossbow.
“Do you see it anywhere?” Will asked, pawing through some office supplies in a banker’s box.
“No,” Cleo said, getting on her hands and knees to look under the couch.
Will put his hands on his hips and gave the unit one more glance over.
“It’s not here,” Cleo said. “What does that mean?”
“It means that Mr. Brenner wasn’t telling the truth.”
“Well, we kinda figured that out when he wouldn’t tell us where he got the bruises,” Cleo said, standing.
“Yes, that was…interesting.” Will stroked his chin.
Cleo noticed that Will got quiet when he was thinking really hard about something.
“Whatcha thinking?” she asked.
“Nothing I can share with you, unfortunately,” he said.
“Why not?” she asked, hurt again.
“Because at the end of the day, you are a civilian, and there are just certain things I can’t divulge.”
“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Fancy pants.”
Will looked down. “What about my pants makes them fancy?” He smirked.
She rolled her eyes again. “Idiot. Let’s go.”
“I thought you were a very nice person?” Will asked, following her to the Mini.
“I lied,” she said and revved the engine.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Cleo dropped Will at the station as directed with few words between them. As she checked her rear-view before pulling back out into the street, she remembered with a sinking feeling that she still had to wrangle with the insurance company to replace her stolen goods, and then actually order replacements. Would a new camera ever feel as good in her hands a
s her old Canon?
Arriving at home, she left her coat on as she passed from the front door to the back to let Oliver out.
“I told you there was something wrong with that man,” Imani said, walking her way from the rose bushes she had been pruning.
“Will?” Cleo asked, still running through their earlier conversation in her head. His dismissal of her as a mere ‘civilian’ was still smarting.
“I was talking about Nicholas Stubbs.” Imani cocked an eyebrow.
“So, it was his fault he got murdered?” Cleo asked, irritated.
“Oh, are they saying murder now?”
“Not officially, no.” Cleo blushed.
“Hey, where you been, anyway?”
“Uh… well… I’ve been helping Will Truman out a bit.”
“Officer Will Truman? From the police department?” Imani put a hand on her hip. “The one who fished you out of a ditch?”
“How many Will Trumans are there in a town this size? Yes, Officer Will Truman!” Cleo snapped.
“Okay, all right,” Imani said, holding out her hands. “What are you helping him with?”
“I’m not really allowed to tell you much, but I went to the crime scene the other night. Where Nicholas was…found.”
“What the hell did you do that for?”
“I take pictures for a living, remember? For the newspaper and anyone else who will pay me.”
“Ah. You were a voyeur for hire”
“No. Well, sort of. But what you told me about this curse, this behavior that happens every year? Penny at the paper told me her father was killed when she was young, and Peter Sanders’s daughter was killed in an accident. There’s been a string of kidnappings, rapes…”
“I know all this. I told you this.”
“That’s what I’m saying, Imani. I came here to escape, to hide out a bit while I could get my life back together. But I didn’t realize there was a damn purge every year!” Cleo was pacing now.
“Going to the scene of a killing was…”
