Black Star Canyon: The Mystery Novel (Black Star Canyon Mystery Novel Series Book 1)

by C. C. Wall

  “Yes, but, he was telling us that his daughter was missing,” Sue said. “He might have been preoccupied.”

  “There has to be something that links all of this together,” Lukas said. “These can’t be completely random acts of murder, all over town, all at once.” He went to the white board and started making a list. “So, we have Jane Doe…”

  Sue corrected him, “Jane Doheny.”

  “I’m not about to believe that a girl who went missing a decade ago, randomly showed up in our town without aging a day, then gets murdered,” he said.

  Sue cleared her throat. “All right, Jane Doe.”

  “Yes,” Lukas continued. “Jane Doe, roughly eighteen, found dead close to the Kensington house. She was strangled and beaten.”

  “And Jonathan found the body and reported it,” Sue said.

  “He did. Didn’t he?” Lukas said. “Then we found Gus down the road, covered in blood, but the blood wasn’t a match.”

  “No,” Sue said. “And we still don’t know whose blood that was.”

  “Later that day, Jonathan goes into Henry’s Handy Shop to…”

  “Pick up a rifle he had repaired,” Sue said.

  Lukas paced. “A rifle. all right, then that night Henry Goodman meets Elizabeth Kensington at a motel.”

  “The Black Star Canyon Motel,” Sue said. “The night clerk remembered Elizabeth and the room she was in was swept by forensics. They found all sorts of gross stuff, but none of it was from Henry or Elizabeth. The clerk didn’t remember anything out of the ordinary.”

  “So sometime that night, Henry has a heart attack, Michael is strangled, Elizabeth is tortured and then the next morning Henry is found in the same place as Jane Doe, near the Kensington house,” Lukas said. “Then Elizabeth was found outside of the hospital, covered in boils, missing one uterus and almost dead. She wakes up and tells us that a “man” was the one who did this to her.”

  “She knows who Gus is don’t you think?” Sue asked. “If it was Gus that did this to them, she would’ve said, Gus.”

  “Her saying “man” implies that she didn’t know him,” Lukas said. “The problem with Gus is that there is no motive.”

  “We didn’t know she was sleeping with Henry either,” Sue said.

  “True,” Lukas said. “Honestly, everything points to Jonathan. Let’s say he knew about Henry and Elizabeth. He follows Henry from the shop to the motel. He comes in with his rifle, Henry gets freaked out that they got caught, has a heart attack. Then he punishes Elizabeth maybe?”

  “Like put her in a scolding bath or something?” Sue said.

  “Sure,” Lukas said. “Like to clean her. Make her pure. Are the Kensington’s religious?”

  “I don’t know,” Sue said. “Everyone in this town is a ‘Sunday Christian’. Hell, even I am.”

  “So then, maybe Michael knew too much about it and Jonathan went back to take care of him?” Lukas said. “I don’t know why he would dump Henry at the crime scene though. If he had a heart attack, why didn’t he just leave him?”

  “That location is the only thing that links Jane Doe to the other crimes,” Sue said.

  “That and both, Jane and Michael, were strangled and they both recently had sex, right?” Lukas asked.

  “It seems that way,” Sue said. “Does that mean Jonathan had sex with Michael?”

  “It looks that way,” Lukas said. “Unless Jonathan interrupted something. Did Michael have a boyfriend?”

  “That, I have no idea about,” Sue said. “Henry was the only person that we knew, who knew him well. Michael, as far as we can tell, didn’t really socialize with people in Black Star. We can pull his computer from the house but it will take a while to come up with any info.”

  “I guess that’s it then,” Lukas said. “That’s all we got.”

  Sue looked down at the table, “We are forgetting something.”

  “What’s that?” Lukas asked.

  “Chaney,” Sue said. “Sara was murdered and Chaney is missing. We have to make him a suspect, don’t we? At least until we can prove he didn’t do any of these things.”

  Lukas was visibly upset. “Chaney didn’t freaking do this! Sara was crushed. Chaney couldn’t have done that. We have been over it,” Lukas said. He walked over and got another cup of coffee. “Just because your old man beat you…” As soon as he said it he knew he shouldn’t have. “I’m sorry Sue.”

  Sue was holding back tears. “No, it’s all right. I understand why you would go there.” She only half believed that.

  The silence got awkward really fast. It was broken when Sheriff Reagan walked in. “You two all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Lukas said. “We have a break, I think.”

  “I’ve been at the door the whole time. I heard your theory,” Reagan said.

  “What do you think?” Sue asked.

  “I think it’s good, but it’s all speculative,” Reagan said. “You need hard evidence. You need Elizabeth to put her father at the motel, which she probably won’t do, or another witness to Jonathan actually killing someone. He’s the mayor, guys. This has to be air tight or else he will walk and we will all be out of jobs.”

  “I can go down to the hospital and see if I can get anything out of him,” Sue said.

  “I don’t think that would be best,” Reagan said. “Find someone that puts him at a murder. What you guys need to do is find Gus before Chaney does. That should be priority number one.”

  “But, Jonathan could…” Sue said.

  “Jonathan isn’t going anywhere!” Reagan yelled. “Now listen,” he cleared his throat in the hope he could speak softer. “Listen to me, Jonathan is the mayor of a town he loves, his daughter is in the hospital. As long as he doesn’t feel threatened, he won’t go anywhere.”

  “Okay,” Sue said.

  “Seriously. He’s fine tonight.” Reagan patted Sue on the shoulder and then walked out of the room, leaving Sue and Lukas feeling slightly hopeless.

  Lukas broke the silence. “I’m gonna go to Cook’s and watch for Gus or the Driggers boys.” Lukas put on his coat, “Hell, maybe Chaney will show up.”

  “I’m gonna go by the hospital,” Sue said.

  “You heard what Reagan said,” Lukas reminded her.

  “I know, but this can’t happen again. I have to catch him when he slips up. You saw his face today, he looks like someone else already caught him slipping up.” Sue ran out of the room before Lukas could change her mind.

  53 - Opinions

  The smell of expensive cigar smoke filled the air. Morgan Wellington was livid. She absolutely hated it when Eugene would smoke in the house. Morgan tried to locate where the stench was coming from. Her high heel shoes where making the “clack-clack” sound that Eugene detested, as she searched through the vast dwelling that was Wellington Manor.

  “Eugene!” she yelled.

  No one responded.

  Music was playing at the other end of the house. She thought for sure that Eugene would be in his study but it seemed that he was in the dining room. The closer she got to the room the madder she became. When she finally saw Eugene her face turned red.

  “Dammit! What do you think you are doing?” she yelled.

  Eugene smiled. He was ballroom dancing with himself, waiting for her to get there. He swooped over to her and grabbed her into the tornado that was his waltz. He danced her round through the room, regardless of her loud protests.

  “You stop this very minute!” she insisted.

  “Can’t we just be happy, just once, just tonight?” Eugene asked.

  “Not if it means you acting like a fool,” she said.

  “But dear, I wanted to get your opinion on something,” he said.

  This took Morgan by surprise. She couldn’t remember the last time Eugene had asked her for her opinion about anything at all. Ever.

  “I will take your silence as you being speechless that I care at all about what you would have to say,” Eugene said.
/>   “Well… yes,” Morgan said.

  “Ah,” he said, “if I had only known it was that easy to shut you up, I would have asked for your opinion long, long ago.”

  She gave him a dirty look. “Do you want my help or not, my love.” The sarcasm was very thick, as it always was in the Wellington household.

  “I was just wondering what your social calendar looks like for the next few months,” he asked.

  Bewilderment hugged her face. “I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that you have absolutely nothing going on,” he said. “You don’t have housework to do because you have hired people to do everything for you.” He stopped dancing and walked away from her embrace. He went to the record player and turned it off. “I’m also pretty certain that most people, most women, do not like you which is why you never have company over. I am embarrassed by you most of the time so I never have dinner parties or business associates over. You no longer belong to any clubs around town because according to you, people are mean to you. People are mean to you because you flaunt the fact that you have money. Everyone in this town knows that you do not have money but that I have money. That makes you a tad hard to deal with.”

  “If you are just going to insult me…” she said.

  “Oh no dear, I’m not here to insult you. I’m here to fix you. Fix this,” he said.

  “And how do you plan on doing that?” she said, complete with an eye roll.

  “I’m about to do something and the only way I can do it is if you are on board, but most importantly, if you are likable.”

  “I’m listening,” she said. Morgan sat at the head of the table and crossed her arms. She turned her head away from him, as if to demonstrate that she couldn’t be bothered by anything that he had to say.

  “Our beloved Mayor Kensington, has sworn to me that he is going to shoot down any attempt that I make in pushing the Black Star Canyon Enrichment Project forward. If he succeeds, everything I have been working on the last couple years goes down the toilet. That means all that money I was going to make…” he stopped himself. “All the money we were going to make, will disappear.”

  “Sounds awful,” she said, and still wouldn’t even look him in the eye.

  He laughed. “Morgan, Morgan, Morgan.” He took a deep breath and slid his palms across their massive dining room table. “You know that Jonathan’s daughter was abducted and attacked don’t you?”

  “I knew she was in the hospital,” she said.

  “Yes. Well, Jonathan isn’t doing very good and he seems to be having some health problems all his own. His fuse is short. I was going to go after him, guns blazing, but honestly I don’t think I have to. He is self-destructing.”

  “That Francine is a twat anyway,” she added.

  Eugene looked at his wife like she was the pot calling the kettle black. “Yes, a twat, as you so elegantly put it.” He walked over to the end of the table where she sat and leaned down to talk face to face with her. “How would you like to dethrone that twat?”

  Morgan’s interest piqued at the sound of it. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, that I think I’m going to run for mayor of Black Star Canyon,” he said.

  “That is a wonderful idea!” Morgan clapped her hands together in excitement.

  “Its an election year and one more family crisis,” he said, “and I think Jonathan will snap. If he does snap, I want it to happen publicly. I want everyone to know that their beloved mayor is a ranting lunatic, and honestly, Jonathan is making it very easy for me. He attacked me in the hospital today.”

  “Why were you at the hospital?” she asked.

  “I was just delivering some flowers and well wishes for Elizabeth’s speedy recovery,” he said.

  “You don’t give a damn about that poor girl,” Morgan said.

  They both smiled at each other.

  “They don’t know that,” Eugene said. “I just needed to see how close to breaking he is, and boy is he close.”

  “So what do I have to do?” she asked.

  “Quit being so damn annoying,” he said. “I need people to like you if I’m going to be the next mayor of Black Star Canyon.”

  54 - Covering Bases

  Whimpering could be heard as it echoed through the empty hallways of the hospital. Sue knew who it was. She had been hearing that sob a lot the last couple of days. When Sue made it into Elizabeth’s room, she saw that indeed it was Francine who was still crying. Elizabeth didn’t look any better then she did earlier. She couldn’t tell if her condition was worse or if it was just the florescent lights with no sunlight coming in through the window that were making Elizabeth look so bad.

  “How are you two holding up?” Sue asked.

  “Fine,” Jonathan said. He looked straight at Sue, revealing his beaten and battered face that had worsened since her last visit. “Under the circumstances, we are as fine as can be expected.”

  Sue looked concerned about Jonathan’s face. “Are you all right? Besides this, sir.”

  “I’m fine,” Jonathan said sternly.

  “Have you found the monster that did this to our daughter?” Francine asked. She looked Sue up and down then added sarcastically, “deputy?”

  “We have some really strong leads,” Sue said and looked to the floor. “That’s kind of what I needed to talk to you about, Mayor.”

  Jonathan looked up at her and was intrigued. Francine’s eyes grew wide and she said, “You mean, you may have figured out who did this?”

  “Maybe,” Sue said. She looked at her hands and began fidgeting. “Jonathan, can I please have a word with you, in private?”

  “Yes,” Jonathan said, “of course.” He stood up and limped to the door and led Sue into the hallway. His limp had also gotten worse since that morning. He couldn’t go down the hallway too far and he leaned against the wall for support. They could still hear Francine’s cry from room.

  “Okay. We need your help,” Sue said.

  “Absolutely,” Jonathan said. “What can I do?”

  “I don’t know if you heard or not, but we found another body…”

  “Another one?” Jonathan said in shock.

  “We think it may have something to do with your daughter,” Sue said softly.

  “Please,” Jonathan pleaded, “Who is it? What is the connection?”

  “It was Michael, Henry’s nephew, who worked at his shop,” Sue said.

  “He’s dead?” Jonathan said. “Oh my, how does that tie in with Elizabeth?”

  “There are a couple similarities between a few of the crimes that have been happening around here this week,” Sue said. “But, it seems that you may have been the last person to see Michael alive.”

  Jonathan was taken aback. He tried to grin through his bruised face. “What are you talking about?”

  “There is a record of you being there to pick up a gun that Henry was working on for you,” Sue said.

  He was getting irritated, but he was trying not to show it. “And?” he said.

  “We were hoping that you may have some information,” Sue said. “Like, was anyone else there? Was Michael acting strange? Did he say anything about someone coming by?”

  “Not that I remember.” Jonathan tapped his finger on his swollen lip. “Let me think.”

  Jonathan thought hard about that day that he picked up his rifle. He remembered Michael stroking his hand with his finger. He didn’t think that that was anything he needed to mention.

  He closed his eyes and remembered everything about that afternoon. He could remember how the shop smelled and how the rifle felt in his hand. He remembered Michael’s voice.

  “Over here I think there is something that you really like,” Michael said. He took Jonathan by the hand and walked him away from the view of the window. As soon as they were out of sight, Michael shoved him up against the wall and kissed him passionately.

  Jonathan remembered being shocked at that
. He remembered taking Michael by the arms, spinning around and throwing him up against the wall, before kissing him back forcefully. He remembered Michael’s breath on his face and his lips upon his.

  Jonathan recalled what he said to him, “I have missed you so much! Why have you not been returning my calls?”

  Michael answered, “I just wanted you to really miss me. I wanted you to want me.”

  He remembered falling onto the floor while kissing him.

  Sue cleared her throat to bring Jonathan back to the conversation.

  “Oh!” Jonathan gasped, “Sorry. No, I can’t think of anything. He didn’t say anything when I left.”

  Sue looked defeated. “Could you answer one more thing for me?”

  “Sure,” Jonathan said.

  “After you picked up your gun from Henry’s, did you go straight home?” Sue asked.

  “What?” Jonathan looked confused at the question.

  “Did you stop anywhere?” Sue asked. “Did you see anyone?”

  Anger burned in Jonathan’s eyes. He raised his voice, “What are you implying?”

  “Nothing sir, just trying to cover all the bases,” Sue said.

  Jonathan stepped away from the wall and moved closer to Sue and spoke through his teeth. “By accusing me of doing something? The Mayor?”

  She took a step back to make sure there was distance between the two of them. “I’m doing this for your daughter, sir,” she said.

  Jonathan began to yell at her in a whisper, “You think I don’t care about my daughter?” He put his finger on her chest. “Just because you can’t do your job, don’t start accusing the family.”

  He had backed her up against the opposite wall. She was nervous. She had never seen Jonathan like this before. There was a rage in him that seemed unreal to her. If there were any doubts in her mind about his guilt, they had left her at that point. “You know, people who evade questions are usually trying to cover something up,” she said.

  Jonathan had been pushed over the edge. He wasn’t trying to play it cool any longer. He didn’t care who heard him. Not even Francine. “How about you try this? I want your letter of resignation on my desk, first thing tomorrow morning, or else I will come down to the station and fire you myself!” He shoved her up against the wall. “You won’t even be able to get a job as a security guard at a gas station when I’m through with you!”