Plain Danger (Military Investigations)

by Debby Giusti

Ignoring the lawyer’s attempt to shove him aside, Tyler looked at Carrie. “We need to discuss the buyers who are interested in your father’s property.”

  “George mentioned a large construction company had talked to my father,” Carrie explained. “He was initially interested but then declined the offer.”

  “Were there other offers?” Tyler looked at the lawyer.

  Gates splayed his fingers. “As I told Carrie, I’m sure a number of local people would be interested in acquiring the property. The home is lovely and has been well maintained. The acreage provides a lovely setting in the midst of the Amish area. Perfect for folks who want a quiet environment to raise their families.”

  “Or change the home into a bed-and-breakfast,” Tyler countered.

  “I’m not following you,” the lawyer said.

  “Isn’t that why the mayor’s wife wants to buy the land?”

  “She’s expressed some interest,” Gates admitted, “but I’m not sure that’s what Carrie wants.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want a business venture to disturb the Amish way of life.”

  “What about a shopping center?” Tyler threw out.

  Gates wrinkled his brow. “You’re imagining things.”

  “Am I? Isn’t that what some folks are interested in doing?”

  “I would never agree to that,” Carrie said. “Anything that would bring more traffic to the area would hurt the Amish neighbors, who have been so helpful to me.”

  She looked at Tyler. “I told George about the fire last night.”

  “Any idea,” Tyler asked, “who might want to burn down the historic home? The fire chief claimed it was arson.”

  Gates tugged on his chin. “Have you found anything more about the soldier who was murdered? Perhaps military personnel are involved.”

  A stab at Tyler for sure. “The investigation is ongoing. Let me know if you hear anything from the townspeople or anyone else who is interested or disgruntled because Ms. York doesn’t want to sell the property.”

  “But she is interested.” George smiled at Carrie. “You need to inform the special agent about your plans.”

  Tyler was confused. He looked at Carrie. “You’re planning to sell?”

  She tilted her head. “At this point, I’m just gathering information.”

  “Someone’s trying to get you to leave town, Carrie. You said yourself that if you do so, they’ve won. That’s not what your father would want.”

  “Right now I’m not sure of anything involving my father. What he wants is not my concern, Tyler. I have to determine what’s best for me.”

  “And the Amish neighbors?”

  “Of course, I’ll take their needs into consideration, as well.”

  Tyler glanced at the lawyer. “Thanks for your time.” He opened the rear door and held it for Carrie, who said goodbye and then hurried to the parking lot.

  “I don’t know why you sound angry,” she said once they had settled into Tyler’s car.

  “I don’t like that guy. He seems to know more than he’s letting on. From the way it looks, he’s probably going to make a nice profit from the sale of your father’s property. We’ll know more once he tells you the names of all those interested.”

  “There’s got to be more involved than just the land.”

  “Add buried treasure to the mix, Carrie, and you have a good motive for murder.”

  “Corporal Fellows or my father?”

  “Maybe both.”

  TEN

  Carrie couldn’t understand Tyler’s bad mood. Maybe he was upset because he hadn’t been able to solve Corporal Fellows’s murder.

  “Have you heard anything more from the local police?” she asked.

  “Not this morning. Let’s stop at the garage first and check on your car. Then we can visit the police department. I’d like to talk to Phillips.”

  The garage wasn’t far. Tyler pulled in front of the shop and killed the engine.

  From the sign on the door, Earl Vogler, the mechanic on duty, was the owner, as well. The beefy man nodded as they stepped from the car. “Be with you folks in a minute.”

  He turned back to the attractive woman in stiletto heels, a low-cut top and a skimpy skirt with whom he had been previously talking. From the sour look on her face, she was evidently upset.

  Earl shrugged his broad shoulders. “I can work on your car first thing tomorrow morning, ma’am, but not before.”

  She pursed her lips. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Actually it’s because the part is still in Atlanta and won’t arrive until close of business today.”

  “Then work late.”

  “Ma’am, my grandsons are playing ball tonight. I want to watch their games.”

  “If that’s the case, I’ll be forced to spread word around town that you’re not a good mechanic.”

  He sighed with frustration. “Mrs. Gates, my garage is the best in town, but you can go to my competition, if you so choose. They won’t be able to get the part any faster than I can.”

  She huffed. “Then I’ll bring my car back in the morning. You can work on it then.”

  “I open at seven-thirty.”

  “I’ll be here at nine-thirty, after my aerobics class at the gym.”

  “It’s first come, first serve. I can’t guarantee my workload by that point, ma’am. It might be afternoon before your car will be ready.”

  She let out a lungful of frustration. “Tomorrow morning then at seven-thirty. I may have my husband drop the car off. You know George Gates, don’t you?”

  “Can’t say that I’ve met Mr. Gates.”

  “Of Gates Law Firm.”

  “I’ll look forward to meeting him tomorrow.”

  She hurried to her car and peeled out of the parking lot, no doubt still frustrated.

  The mechanic shook his head as he approached Tyler and Carrie. “Takes all kinds.”

  “That was George Gates’s wife?” Carrie asked the man.

  “You know him?”

  “He was my father’s lawyer.”

  “Gates does a good job from what I’ve heard, but his wife thinks she’s entitled to special privileges.” He sighed. “Might save me a lot of headaches if she takes her business elsewhere. I have a feeling she’ll never be satisfied with the work I do.”

  He shook his head regretfully. “’Course you’re here about your own car. I looked it over yesterday. It’s good to go except for needing a new tire. My distributor is trying to find a match with your other three. Soon as the new one comes in, I’ll put it on and have the car ready for you. Might be tomorrow or the day following.”

  Carrie looked at Tyler. “Which means I’ll have to beg more rides from you.”

  “Not a problem.” Glancing back at the mechanic, he said, “I heard Mrs. Gates runs a home design business.”

  The mechanic nodded. “She calls it a boutique. Real pricey stuff from what folks have told me. She takes old homes and restores them, then decorates them with the high-end furnishing from her business.”

  “I’m surprised she has many customers in a small town like this,” Tyler said.

  The mechanic smiled. “Don’t let Freemont’s size fool you. We’re got some industry here. The fort brings in a lot of folks, as well. Military retire in the local area. Some of them start their own businesses. The moneyed folks live in the country club community. Big homes with even bigger price tags. Too pricey for my budget.”

  “What about the mayor and his wife? Do they live there?”

  “They have a house in town, but she works in Mrs. Gates’s boutique. There’s talk they might start flipping homes on the side.”

  “Who would do their demo and reconstruction work?”

  “Sorry, I don’t have a clue. The wife and I moved in with her mother after we married. We’ve never had to buy a house.” He nodded to Carrie. “I’ll call you when that tire comes in.”

  “An interesting mix of folks,” Tyler said as they returned to his ca
r. “And they all have something to gain by acquiring your father’s property.”

  “Now I understand why Gates encouraged me to sell. His wife wants to buy the property.”

  “Which means he’s not providing sound advice about your father’s estate. Let’s stop by police headquarters and talk to Phillips. He’ll be interested in what we’ve learned.”

  * * *

  Tyler drove to the Freemont Police Department, hoping they had uncovered more information that could end the case and bring the guilty to justice. If only the information they’d learned at the garage would fit somehow into the mix, or at least provide clues as to who was attacking Carrie.

  The CID had researched Corporal Fellows’s background and found a low-key guy without much history. He had gotten in trouble with a superior once during basic training, but since then he’d kept his nose clean.

  Why he had rented a trailer at the sergeant major’s property was the question Tyler kept asking. Did he have anything to do with the sergeant major’s so-called accidental death?

  Officer Inman had taken the day off, but Phillips ushered them into his cubicle and invited them to sit down and have a cup of coffee. The brew was hearty, and both Tyler and Carrie were eager to share what they had found about Mrs. Gates’s home design business.

  Phillips listened to the information and nodded when Tyler finished talking. “Mrs. Gates’s business is out of my range, for sure, and anyone here in the PD, but she’s attracted folks from as far away as Macon and Columbus.”

  “Do you find it strange that she’s interested in the Harris property when her husband is handling the estate?”

  Phillips took a swig of his coffee, then set the cup on his desk. “Nothing wrong with Mrs. Gates running the business or wanting to buy the property. I don’t like her husband being secretive about the interested buyer, but that would eventually come to light when the property went to sale. Unless, of course, he used a corporation name, and Mrs. Gates didn’t come to the signing.”

  Carrie sighed. “Meaning he’d keep me in the dark or tell me it was an out-of-town venture, which is evidently what my father thought.”

  “I’m not saying there wasn’t an interested buyer from outside the area,” the cop added. “But Gates certainly has a vested interest in his wife buying the property.”

  “Do you know about any construction team that might work for her?”

  “Nelson Quinn is a local real estate agent. He’s flipped a few houses on the side. I heard he sometimes works with Mrs. Gates.”

  “So we’ve got a real estate agent, a designer who stages the homes for sale and a lawyer who handles the paperwork and ensures that every i is dotted and t is crossed.” Tyler ticked off the various people involved on his fingers. “Looks like Gates and his wife have a nice business going.”

  “Which is perfectly legal,” the officer pointed out.

  Carrie tilted her head. “But what if my father initially planned to sell and then changed his mind?”

  “Which sounds like what happened,” Tyler added.

  Phillips rubbed his chin. “Again there’s nothing illegal about him changing his mind.”

  “But,” Carrie said, “what if his accidental death wasn’t an accident?”

  Phillips glanced at Tyler. “That puts a different slant on things.”

  Tyler leaned forward. “You mentioned that a teen found the sergeant major’s body.”

  “That’s right. An Amish kid.” Phillips swiveled his chair to face his computer. He tapped the keyboard and pulled up a file on the monitor. “Here it is. The dispatcher got a 911 call from Matthew Schrock, age fifteen, who discovered the body in a wooded area. The boy had smelled something. Saw turkey vultures overhead and took a closer look.”

  “Where did he find a phone?”

  “Probably the Amish Craft Shoppe. It’s located at the northern corner of Amish Road. They’ve got a pay phone there. As you probably know, the Amish don’t allow phones in their homes, but they sometimes have them in their barns to use them for business purposes. A couple of the dairy farmers sell their milk to larger dairies and communicate by cell phone. Also, they use them for emergencies.”

  “Anything else in the report?”

  Phillips studied his computer screen. “The deceased appeared to have slipped down the hillside to his death. He had a lump on the right side of his head.”

  “Any sign that he’d been in a fight?”

  “‘Abrasions to his face and hands consistent with having fallen through the bramble’ is what the report says.”

  “What about his clothing?”

  “He was wearing a hunting vest, cargo trousers and a plaid fleece shirt. Hiking boots.”

  “A hunting vest? What did it contain?”

  “Hmm?” Phillips pursed his lips as he read the online report. “Seven rounds of ammo in the pockets, .30-30 caliber.”

  “Anyone find a rifle?”

  “The officer on-scene searched the surrounding area, but found nothing else. Emergency rescue retrieved the body and transported it to the morgue.”

  “Was an autopsy done?”

  “It was. Cause of death was trauma to the head and a broken neck.”

  Carrie gasped. “A broken neck? Was the officer who retrieved the body convinced it was an accidental fall?”

  “A good question that we need to answer.” Phillips reached for his phone and tapped in a number. “See if Officer Wittier is available. Tell him I want to talk to him.”

  Disconnecting, he pushed back from his computer. “He’s in the building. Ray’s a good kid with an excellent record in law enforcement. I’m sure he was thorough in his search of the area.”

  Ray Wittier quickly arrived. He was tall and lean but with a softness to his features that made him look young and immature. Tyler guessed him to be midtwenties, although he could have passed for a teenager.

  Phillips quickly filled him in on what they had already discussed.

  “Did you give any thought to a possible homicide?” Carrie asked.

  “No, ma’am. The injury to the body seemed consistent with a fall. That hill’s steep. Lots of leaves. We’d been having rain, so they were slippery. Easy enough for a person, even someone used to wandering the trails in that area, to lose his footing and tumble down that hill. The autopsy revealed a broken neck.”

  “What about his hunting vest?” Tyler pointed to Phillips’s computer. “The report said ammo was found in his pockets. Did you look for a weapon?”

  “I did. I even walked to the top of the ridgeline from where he must have fallen. An area of leaves was disturbed. Looked like he slipped and tried to right himself, then lost his footing and toppled to his death.”

  “Did you see signs of a scuffle?”

  The young cop thought for a moment. “In hindsight, that could have been the case, although I never thought of a struggle at the time.”

  “The Amish boy you talked to—”

  “Matthew Schrock,” Ray volunteered.

  “What did he say?” Tyler asked.

  “Only that he had been walking through the woods and smelled something that had died. He decided to investigate and saw the body.”

  “Did you ask him about a rifle?”

  “No. But at the time, I didn’t think there was any reason to ask the question.”

  “Did Matthew’s father come with you when you retrieved the body?”

  “Yes, sir, along with the teenager.”

  “Did the father give any indication that his boy might have held back information?”

  Ray shook his head. “The Amish are hesitant to call in the police, but we’ve never had a problem with prevarication.” He looked at Phillips. “Wouldn’t you agree, sir?”

  “That’s right. They may not provide as much information as we’d sometimes like, but a lack of honesty is never something we worry about.” Phillips stood. “Thanks for talking to us, Ray.”

  Tyler pointed to Carrie. “Ms. York wants to learn as m
uch as she can about her father’s death. I’m sure you can understand her concern, seeing how Sergeant Major Harris’s death was so tragic.”

  “I am sorry for your loss, ma’am.” Ray turned to Officer Phillips. “Let me know if you need anything else, sir.”

  “Will do, Ray. Thanks for your help.”

  Tyler stood once the younger officer left the room. “We’ll talk to the Amish boy. Do you have an address for him?”

  Phillips checked the computer. “It just says Amish Road. Want me to call Ray back?”

  Tyler held up his hand. “We’ll find the kid. You’ve done enough already.”

  Carrie stood, and they both shook hands with Officer Phillips before they left the headquarters and drove back to the Amish community.

  “We’re going to talk to Matthew?” she asked.

  “Exactly. I want to hear what he saw and compare notes. Isaac and Ruth will surely know how to locate him, but the Amish Craft Shoppe isn’t far from where we intersect Amish Road. If we turn north and ride a couple miles, we’ll find it. Let’s stop there.”

  Carrie smiled. “Might be a good time to get to know the shop owner. He may have known my father. Seems everyone did. I only wish someone could provide more information about his death. I can’t see how a man who had deployed numerous times to the Middle East could trip and fall down a hill to his death.”

  Tyler had to agree. “A lot of people have a little piece of the puzzle of his death. We need to keep searching for the various parts and then try to put them together.”

  “And Corporal Fellows’s death?” Carrie asked. “Will that fit into the puzzle, as well?”

  “We’ll have to wait and see.”

  “I’m running out of time, Tyler.”

  “Because you’re ready to go back to Washington?”

  “Because I need to decide what to do about the land.”

  “Gates can’t force you to make a decision if you’re not ready,” Tyler insisted.

  “But Senator Kingsley needs me back in DC.”

  “You don’t have to go, Carrie.”

  “I do, if I want to keep my job.”

  This was only an investigation, Tyler realized. As much as he wanted Carrie to stay on the property, she needed to return to her job, working for a man who had caused so much pain in Tyler’s life. He had hoped Carrie would see the senator for who he truly was, but she saw what she wanted to see.