Skeleton Key

by Jeff LaFerney

  Erika was giggling, which made Clay smile and laugh himself. “Have some pizza, Luke. We ordered plenty.”

  The chief helped himself and then got down to business. “We can’t find anything linking Roberto Gomez to the Lansing train station, but since Logan believes that he saw him there, I think we should go and have a talk, Clay. The longer this case goes, the more questions that pop up.”

  “Just wait ’til you hear what we have to share. We went to visit Dan Duncan. Dan didn’t want to talk, but I read his mind. Luke, what I learned was that Duncan was at the accident scene both before and after the crash. When he was there after the wreck, he specifically tried to find out if Adrian was dead because he claims to have killed two people.”

  “What?” Hopper asked in disbelief.

  “I asked him when he was at the accident scene and what I read from his mind was ‘both before and after I killed two people.’ Without question, he was hiding things and didn’t want to cooperate.”

  “That just doesn’t make sense, Clay.”

  “That’s what we’ve been saying, but he has a motive and opportunity. How he could’ve killed somebody is the troubling question, especially since Adrian seems to think he died from a heart attack.”

  In frustration, Hopper was rubbing his hands over his face and, eventually, with his elbows on the table, hid his face completely in his hands. In Hopper’s mind, Erika was still a suspect of some sorts, so he didn’t want to say too much, but what he was hearing was difficult to digest.

  Their meal together continued without much conversation. Eventually Erika announced it was time for her to get back to the high school to pick up Logan. Chief Hopper suggested that Clay return the next day, Tuesday, and come with him to visit Roberto Gomez. “I’m gonna need to get my window fixed, but I’ll come as soon as I can tomorrow.”

  Clay paid the bill and everyone said his and her farewells. Clay walked Erika to the car, and once he was also seated and buckled in, he grabbed her hand and held it. Erika smiled that beautiful smile of hers and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry we’ve reunited in such trying circumstances, but I’m glad anyway,” Clay said.

  “I’m glad too, Clay. Thank you for being here for me.”

  When they made it back to the school parking lot, Clay leaned over and gave Erika a light kiss on the lips. It felt good. He wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, but he was glad he did it anyway.

  Erika looked to actually be blushing, but with tears misting her eyes just a little, she said, “Thank you.” Then she exited Clay’s car and entered her own to wait for Logan. Clay drove away feeling like a school kid with a crush, but it felt good, so it made him happy for the first time in a long, long time.

  Chapter 19

  When Clay got up the next morning, he had his window replaced, made a stop at a store, and then made his way back to Durand to meet with Chief Hopper. Hopper was all business when Clay arrived, and he wasted no time in leaving for the Depot to have a chat with Roberto Gomez. Clay drove separately because he was planning on stopping to see Erika at the Depot offices when they were done with the interview. He slammed his hand on his steering wheel as he watched Hopper drive across the railroad tracks just before the lights flashed on and the arm lowered. Hopper couldn’t help but laugh as he saw Clay waiting for the train, but he waited for him patiently in the Depot parking lot.

  They found Roberto in a maintenance shed hanging a long-handled track wrench onto a stout metal peg. Roberto gave a questioning look when he saw Hopper, but still gave a friendly greeting. “Hola, Chief. Hola, Clay. Can I help you with something?”

  “We’re here to talk to you, Robbie. Do you have a minute?”

  “Sure, Chief. I just got done tightening some bolts on the tracks. Next, Morty’s rushin’ me to do some brake work on that engine on the wye, but I can talk for a few. Is there a problem?”

  “No, Robbie. We’ve just been doing some investigating, trying to figure out how Adrian Payne’s body ended up buried in that horse cemetery. The medical examiner is looking into the possibility of foul play, but the original conclusion is that Adrian died as a result of the crash. As you know, the body was never found after the train wreck, yet someone buried him sometime later.” Hopper turned to Clay. “Clay here gave us some information suggesting the body was buried near the tracks, and then someone dug up the grave. Since you work here full time, we were wondering if you knew anything about the disappearance, the burial, or the discovery of the body. Clay has a few questions for you.”

  “Okay.” Robbie looked nervously at Clay.

  “Robbie, could you tell us where you were on the night of the train wreck?”

  “Dios, no…No, por favor.” Roberto’s thoughts were begging as well as his eyes. “I was home with Stacy and Anna.”

  “You didn’t go anywhere that evening?”

  “They can’t know I was in Lansing, can they?” Roberto’s hands were shaking and his voice was cracking, but he tried to stay composed. “Not that I recall. It was a long time ago. I know that I was home when the accident happened. We heard the sirens and watched reports on the news. I never left the house.”

  “You seem a little nervous, Robbie. Do you know something that could help us?”

  “I’m gonna go to jail for killing two men. They know. What am I gonna do?” Then he had an idea. “Why are you asking me these questions? Is it because I’m Mexican? You figure because of my race, I must be guilty of something. Is that it? You’re no better than Adrian Payne if that’s what you think.”

  “Did you have some problem with Adrian?” Clay asked.

  “Like that he raped my wife?” Roberto thought. “Yeah, he was always calling me ‘Taco’ and ‘Roburrito’ and making racist comments. He hired me, and then treated me like dirt while he sexually harassed my wife. Yeah, I had a problem with him, but so did everyone else who knew him. He was scum.”

  Hopper joined the conversation. “Relax, Robbie, we’re just asking questions. You’ve proven to be a good man. This isn’t about race; it’s about finding answers to some troubling questions. Let’s just back up a bit. You’ve established that you weren’t anywhere near the Depot during the accident. But did you know that Adrian Payne was on that train?”

  “Everyone at the Depot—practically everyone in general—knew about the convention in East Lansing. Of course Payne would be there, and everyone knew he would be on the train coming back.”

  “Did you know that Logan or Morty would be on the train?”

  “No,” he replied. “After the accident, I heard they were passengers.”

  “Did you hear any talk, or see anything that would lead you to believe that Adrian’s body had been confiscated and set aside to be buried later?”

  “Chief, I was just like everyone else. I didn’t know what happened to Payne. I figured he must not’ve been on the train, or maybe he got off somehow.”

  Clay interjected again. “Robbie, I have one more question for you. Were you in Lansing on the day of the accident?”

  Robbie had his head down, avoiding eye contact with Clay when he lied. “No, I wasn’t.”

  “Logan Payne seems to think that he saw you at the Lansing Depot.”

  “He must be mistaken, Señor. I was at work and then home with my family.”

  “Robbie, we’re still looking to find out what happened that day,” Hopper said. “If you think of anything, please let us know.”

  The men all shook hands and then Hopper led Clay back to his car and told Clay to get in for a minute. “Did you learn anything?”

  “You’re not gonna believe this. He wasn’t being honest with us.”

  “Really?” Hopper said sarcastically. “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m a trained police officer? Course he was hiding something. You have any idea what it is?”

  “Adrian raped Robbie’s wife, Luke. That’s the problem he had with Adrian. And he was in East Lansing. Now he’s worried that he’s going to go to jail for killing t
wo men.”

  “Do you make this stuff up, Clay? Payne raped Stacy Gomez, which would be a good reason to want to kill the guy, and then Robbie admits to killing two men that night? How could all these people have all killed Adrian, yet the coroner and Adrian don’t seem to agree?”

  “I don’t have any idea; I’m just as confused as you are.”

  “Have you asked Erika if she killed her husband? Maybe she did it too! Maybe they all did it together and tricked Adrian into believing they were all innocent.”

  “Erika is innocent, Luke. But as for the others, we’re gonna have to keep digging.”

  ***

  Clay made his way into the Depot, his heart pounding with excitement to see Erika. He entered the building, made his way up the stairs, and turned down the hallway toward her office, but it was empty. When he looked back at Morty’s door to ask where Erika was, he saw there was a meeting going on with Morty, Erika, and an attractive dark-haired woman. He returned to Erika’s office to leave a note asking that she call him when she got a chance. Though it was unnecessary, he jotted down his cell number and wrote that he had an errand to run but to please call him. Before he could leave, he heard, “Skeleton key, Clay. Skeleton key.”

  Clay turned to the picture hanging on the wall. The ghost was talking to him, yet he was thinking, “Wow, you are beautiful, Erika. I never get tired of looking at you.” Eventually he checked himself and decided to talk to Adrian. “Why do you keep talking in riddles and clues? Why can’t you just tell me what happened? Everyone, it seems, wanted you dead, and everyone seems to think he killed you. How about Erika? Or Logan?” he added sarcastically. “Did they kill you too? Do you think maybe you could help me out?”

  “What fun would that be?” he whispered. “I give clues; you solve the mystery…if you can. By the way…ease the pain. Ease the pain.”

  “Why would I want to ease your pain? You cheated on your wife, spent your partner’s money on prostitutes, didn’t care about your son who you physically abused, raped Stacy Gomez, ran people out of business, and gave alcohol to the train engineer, endangering lives just so you could play engineer. You’re stuck in some state between Heaven and Hell, haunting your friends and family, and instead of helping us figure out what happened, you leave indecipherable clues and ask me to ease your pain. You’re priceless, Adrian. No wonder no one cared about you. People were actually happy you were gone. How does that make you feel?”

  “Solve the mystery, and I’ll be on my way to Hell.”

  Clay exited the room in frustration.

  ***

  Marshall Mortonson had asked Erika into his office. His attorney, Toni Nickel, was present when Erika entered and sat down. Toni was an attractive woman in her mid-to-late thirties with long, dark hair and a polished smile. She seemed friendly enough, but Erika was a little leery of the surprise meeting. She felt like she was being ganged up on even before the conversation began. She found herself wishing that Clay was there with her.

  “We have some important issues to deal with now that Adrian’s legally deceased. I asked my attorney to come in to answer questions you might have. Toni Nickel, this is Erika Payne.”

  They shook hands and then Erika smiled and said, “I think we get our hair done at the same place. Your hair is beautiful, by the way. I’ve seen you at the salon and around town a few other times.”

  Erika’s genuine kindness was apparent to Toni, and she decided immediately that she liked her. Within seconds, the attorney had determined that she liked Erika more than the cheating, conniving client she was representing, and certainly more than Erika’s ex-husband, who she had known in a Biblical sense of the word, and had found to be a disgusting human being. She had no idea he was married at the time. “I’ve been looking over the contract that Morty and Adrian put together when they purchased the entire business. As you probably know, you’ve inherited fifty-percent of the business. Morty contractually does not have to share decision-making power with you, but he does have to share profits and losses, including the profits over the last seven years.

  “After perusing the company books, it appears that the business has been somewhat profitable since the time your husband went missing, so Morty is bound contractually to be fair and pay you your share. We’ll have to sort out an accurate number, but Morty is hoping that you will be satisfied with the amount and agree to not sell the business.”

  “I can’t afford to buy you out, Erika, but I want to keep the business. The bank is not willing to loan me what I would need. I’m hoping we can agree to the partnership as it is currently working. I can keep doing what I am doing, and you can continue to work in the office just as before—if you choose to. But we’ll split all financial interests fifty-fifty.”

  Toni suspected that Mortonson wasn’t being honest. She wasn’t an accountant, but from what she had seen of the books thus far, she couldn’t see why Marshall would be so adamant about not wanting Erika to look at the numbers. It made her think that maybe what was written in the books wasn’t exactly the truth. It didn’t appear from the ledgers she had seen that the business was making large amounts of money, yet when she looked into the worth of the business, she learned from the bank that they’d done an appraisal for Marshall less than a year before, and it was determined to be worth about five million dollars. She didn’t know that Marshall was using two different sets of books for her and the bank. She could see how Marshall couldn’t afford to give Erika two and a half million dollars, but she couldn’t comprehend how the business, according to the books in her hands, was making so little profit.

  “Erika,” Marshall continued, “we’ll talk about this again. You can have as much time as you need to think about it, but I wanted you to know that I’d really like to keep the business as it is.” He reached over and grabbed the books from Toni Nickel and then reached into his jacket pocket and unconsciously pulled out his skeleton keys to prepare to lock everything back up.

  Erika noticed the keys and remembered Adrian’s words. “Was he talking about Morty’s keys?” she wondered. “Morty,” she said, “how much is the business currently worth?”

  Marshall nervously stuffed the keys back in his pocket. “Um, I really don’t know, Erika. That’s so hard to say.”

  Toni raised her eyebrows as she glanced at her client. She didn’t say anything, but she already knew that Marshall was lying. The bank had told Morty the same thing they had told his attorney.

  Chapter 20

  Because Erika was in her meeting, Clay headed back to his car, checked the purchase he had stored in the trunk, and started out toward town. He had an errand that he wanted to accomplish. He called the police station and was connected right away with Chief Hopper. He asked Luke a question, waited briefly while the police chief found the answer, and then he wrote down the information. He programmed an address into his Garmin GPS, and headed away from the Depot to an address on South Oak Street.

  When he found the house he was looking for, Clay pulled into the driveway and nervously exited his car, climbed the porch steps, and knocked on the door. There was no answer after the first knock, so he tried again, only harder.

  “All right already!” screamed a voice from inside. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch; I’m coming!”

  Clay’s heart started beating faster. He was beginning to understand how Erika could be afraid of midgets because that’s exactly how he was feeling. “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself” were words that came to his mind—words that Erika herself had spoken to him in the cave. He took a deep breath and waited a few seconds more before the door swung slightly open, but when it did, there was no one there. He began to survey the area inside the doorway, but there didn’t appear to be anyone there.

  “I’m down here, you moron!”

  Sure enough, there he was. He was probably a few inches short of four feet tall. He had curly reddish hair, several crooked teeth that Clay could see as the little guy seemed to be growling at him, and a big purplish bruis
e on his forehead. “Um, excuse me,” Clay said nervously, “I assume you’re Jasper?”

  “No, I’m Barney the Dinosaur. Go away before I bust your knees with a baseball bat!”

  “I’d like a minute of your time, if you don’t mind.”

  “You have somethin’ stuck in your ears, you meathead, or do you just enjoy pain?” he growled angrily. “You want me to hurt you? Stick your head inside the door and I’ll kick you in the teeth.”

  “You’re an angry little midget aren’t you?”

  The door flew open and the crazy little guy jumped right on Clay, knocking him backward off the porch. Clay managed to keep his footing, and then he threw the maniac off his body. Jasper landed on his back on the lawn. Clay pressed his foot on the lunatic’s chest and held him down with his foot.

  “You call me a midget one more time,” the psycho yelled, spit flying from his mouth, “and I’ll be all over you like white on rice! I’m a little person, and I have a name like any other man!”

  Clay looked him in his wild red eyes and said, “Jasper, stop being angry right now, you hear? You will settle down right now and listen to me!”