“Somebody told us—I can’t remember who it was at the moment—that Ollie visited Lea at work at least once. He came to the back door. Somehow he got the card. Maybe everything will be clear to us eventually.”
Then we could hear rain drumming on the roof. “Let’s get out of here,” Andrea said. “Chad’s gonna be soaked.”
Jack tooted his horn, and Chad came running from behind the pine tree. He jumped into the back with me. “Fine job, Chad,” I said. “We’re glad to have you on our side.”
“What did you find up there?” he asked.
I wasn’t prepared for the question. Did we want to let him in on everything about the case? Could he keep his mouth shut? While I was thinking about this, Andrea turned and said, “We found some money in a box under the trapdoor. I guess that’s where Ollie kept his money. I’m going to let the Marshall County deputies know about this. I have a phone number for one of them, and I’m going to text him right now.”
So she wasn’t going to tell Chad about Lea’s letter, the card of the country club manager, or the gun. I agreed with this. We couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t talk about what had happened today.
Andrea had finished texting. “As I told you before, Chad, everything you do for us is strictly confidential. You aren’t to tell a soul.”
“I understand. I feel like a secret agent. I’m not about to tell anybody anything. Thanks for including me, and if there’s anything else I can do, please let me know. I’m enjoying this. It’s a lot more exciting than the cyber security and computer forensics classes I’m taking.”
“Would you be able to open a safe?” I asked. Then I wondered whether I’d said too much.
“Does it have a digital lock?”
“It’s a very old safe,” Andrea said, “so it has an old-fashioned combination lock. The owner might be able to remember some of the numbers in the combination.”
He looked doubtful. “I’ve never had any experience with one of those, but I’d be willing to give it a try. Why doesn’t the owner just call a locksmith? I think they’d be able to come up with a way to open the safe.”
“It’s a complex situation,” Andrea said “I’ll talk to the owner and see if she wants you to give it a try. We’ll talk about it next weekend. You’ll be back then to work on Lea’s laptop, won’t you?”
“I wouldn’t miss it. This is exciting stuff.”
We were coming to the edge of Martindale now. “How about lunch at the Courthouse Café?” Jack said. “I’m buying.”
“I think it’s early enough that we’ll beat the well-dressed church crowd, so I guess we’ll be okay,” I said.
Andrea looked down, obviously inspecting her jeans. “I was the one who got down on the floor, but maybe I can brush off the dust. A quick trip to the restroom to wash up before sitting down will be in order.”
Jack parked in the lot beside the restaurant, and we dashed in through the rain. I was dying to get home and see what was in Lea’s letter, but a hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy would be a satisfying distraction for now.
CHAPTER NINE
Andrea and I dropped Chad off at his parents’ home with more thanks for a job well done, and we headed on to my house. We’d have coffee and some homemade brownies there. I did get tired of Andrea’s store-bought cookies at times.
“Put the coffee on,” she said. “I’m going to scan the letter, envelope, and Stuart Kerr’s card.”
I was surprised she’d know how to do all that on my computer and printer, but I guess she wanted to have a copy of those things so we could avoid touching the originals more than was necessary.
I went to the sun porch with a tray of coffee and brownies, and Andrea was already there, holding letter-size sheets of paper. “I emailed all this to myself, too, so we’d have backup. I’ll have to turn the originals of all this over to Bill.”
“He’s the good cop?”
“Yes, the friendly one. We’ll have to see him again, because I don’t want to mail this stuff. I just hope we don’t have to see the other one…Paul, I think his name was. They seem to be a matched set, though, so they’ll probably always be together.”
“Okay, read the letter.”
Dear Daddy,
This is the man I told you about, and I think our money problems are over. It will mean making trips to Martindale when I’m back in school, but if it gives us the money we need, it’s worth it. I’m enclosing a few bills to get you through till we can get together next weekend. I’ll explain further then.
I spent the last weekend with Mom, and all she did was bitch. I don’t know why I bother going home. I don’t plan on going any more this summer. I’ll just stay at the apartment. Cindy and I have a good time, and I usually have to work weekends anyway. Cindy doesn’t know anything about this. No one does, so keep everything quiet.
Keep up the good work with AAA, or is it AA? I’m proud of you for turning your life around like this. Maybe before too long we can accumulate enough money to have a bathroom installed for you.
Love ya’
Lea
“She says ‘the man I told you about.’ She must have been talking about Stuart what’s-his-name,” I said. “His card that we found must have been enclosed with the letter.”
“That’s the only explanation I can think of.”
“There’s no date on the letter?”
Andrea looked at one of the papers she was holding. “The letter isn’t dated, but the postmark shows May 23, 2011.” She looked up something on her phone. “That was a Monday. She died July 19 that year.”
“Do you think she was Kerr’s mistress? Or was she blackmailing him?”
“My guess is that it was one or the other. She told her father to keep quiet about the money, so it doesn’t seem to be something legitimate that the whole world could know about.”
“Her mother said she was a floozy. Maybe she was his mistress, and when she got pregnant, he murdered her.”
Andrea’s always a stickler for the facts. “The medical examiner’s report didn’t say anything about pregnancy. And none of this means Stuart Kerr killed her. This is just another piece to try to fit into the puzzle.”
“I think we should definitely add him to our list of suspects. We need to start a chart on the wall, like Sherlock does.”
“I have all that on my computer. Have you ever heard of PowerPoint?”
“I’ve heard of it, but just barely. I figured you had something like that going, but it would be nice to have it where we both could see it at all times. We could put Rick Smith on there, because I think he broke his arm as he was running from the cemetery. Then there’s Henry Weaver, the boyfriend’s father. Remember the photo I pointed out to you, where he was getting chummy with Lea?”
“Yes, I remember, and don’t forget Chester Hubbard.”
“How could I forget Chester, who was always chasing Lea in spite of the fact that he has a wife and two children. Now we have Stuart Kerr. That’s four suspects. Not a lot, is it?”
“No, it isn’t, but remember—this is a cold case. I think we’re going to find it’s harder to come up with the solution for a cold case.”
I had a wicked thought. “Too bad we can’t implicate the former sheriff in Lea’s murder.”
“There isn’t a hint of evidence for that.”
“What do you make of Ruth Freer’s performance at the sheriff’s table when we were at the Garden Room?”
Andrea picked up our cups. “I’ll get more coffee, and then I’ll tell you.” When she returned, “I noticed something was going on when I heard her voice above the babble of the room full of diners. She got louder and louder, and I heard her say something like, ‘If you don’t leave me alone, I’ll create such a scene in here…’ I couldn’t hear the rest.”
“Did you notice she slammed something down on the table before walking away?”
“Definitely. When that happened I thought about Jordan telling us when she was one of Walter Stanley’s deputies that he wou
ld send her to Jack’s jewelry store several times a year to buy his wife a birthday present.”
“That was the first thing I thought of when I heard that sound of something crashing down on the table. How could we not think jewelry? It sounded like jewelry.”
“Same here. You know I don’t like jumping to conclusions, but…”
Of course I knew it, and I was about to say so when we heard someone tapping at my door. I got up and opened it, and at first I didn’t recognize the young man standing there. Then slowly it dawned on me. It was the busboy from the Garden Room, the one we’d met when we had lunch at Tony Calabria’s house. “Come in,” I said, holding the door wide open.
“Thank you.” He was holding an envelope in his hand.
“Adam! How are you?” Andrea said.
“I’m fine.”
Was he here to give us additional information about Lea’s murder, information he didn’t want to divulge in front of the others at lunch? “Would you like some coffee and brownies?”
“I’d love it. I’m here delivering invitations, and I still have yours in the car, Miss Flynn. I’ll get it.” He turned and went back down the stairs.
“Invitations? Maybe something at the Garden Room,” I said.
Andrea got up and started for the kitchen. “I’ll get the coffee.”
I saw him coming back from his car, and I held the door again. “Andrea’s getting coffee. Help yourself to the brownies.”
By this time Andrea was back, and he handed each of us an envelope. “Oh, my gosh! Tony and Miss Freer are getting married!” I said.
“Yes, ma’am. They thought it would be a nice touch if I delivered the invitations by hand. It’ll be a small wedding, outside in the park by the river, as you can see. Then there’s a reception at the house.” He continued munching a brownie.
“This is exciting,” I said. “But how did you find us?” Then I regretted asking that, because everyone but me has a GPS and who knows what other resources these days.
“I have GPS in my car. I hope both of you can come.”
“I feel sure we’ll be able to make it,” Andrea said. “It’s nice on the river at that time of evening, with the sun going down.”
Adam willingly accepted a couple more brownies to take on his way when I insisted. “You may tell them we’ll be there,” I said as he left.
“What do you make of this?” Andrea asked as soon as I shut the door.
“It is rather puzzling that they’d invite us. It’s a small wedding, Adam said, and we don’t know them that well.” I hoped Andrea wasn’t thinking Tony was trying to be friendly so we wouldn’t suspect him of murdering Lea. I didn’t want Tony to be a suspect. Anyone who can cook that well…and I liked him.
“Anyway, we must go. One never knows where these connections may lead.”
Andrea finished her coffee, got up, and went to the window. “Didn’t Ruth tell us she’d been away from Martindale for a few years and only got back a couple of weeks ago?”
“Yes, she did. It’s surprising that she and Tony are suddenly getting married. But maybe they’ve been in touch all along. She didn’t say where she’s been living. Maybe she wasn’t that far away. I’m wondering whether their decision to marry has something to do with the scene in the Garden Room, when Ruth accosted Walter Stanley.”
“I don’t know,” Andrea said, “but the wedding and reception will be a nice break for us, even if we don’t get any useful information about our case.”
“I think it’s safe to guess that Walter Stanley won’t be among the guests, and it’ll be nice to go someplace where we can be sure we won’t run into him.”
#
Andrea arranged for us to meet Bill, the good cop, at the Courthouse Café on Wednesday. It was his day off, so we were hoping his partner wouldn’t be with him. It was going to be awkward enough turning over evidence that we’d taken from a crime scene, but Andrea felt she had to give the Marshall County deputy Lea’s letter and Stuart Kerr’s card.
We arrived a little early and settled down to wait and sip iced tea in a booth. We’d found a place as far away from other patrons as possible. Bill showed up right away and joined us.
“I found a letter from Lea Logan to her father in the cache under the trapdoor, and we took it with us. Since we’re investigating her death, I wanted to make a copy of it before turning it over to you,” Andrea said.
“Understandable,” he said.
“We also found a business card there. It was from Stuart Kerr, who’s the manager of the Martindale Country Club. I think Lea must have sent the card in the letter, and you’ll see why when you read the letter.” She handed him the plastic bag with both items.
“Thanks. We’ll get these checked for fingerprints.”
Andrea took the photocopies from her purse. “If you’d like to read the letter…”
“Yes, please.” He took the sheets and read through them quickly. “I agree. The card must have been in the envelope. This man’s name rings a bell. I think we arrested him for DWI a while back. If so, we’ll have his fingerprints on file.”
“Did you find the money I told you about and the gun?” Andrea asked.
“Yes, we did. Thanks a lot. I hope Paul is finally beginning to see the value of working together on this. He just tends to get a little anxious about jurisdiction at times.”
“We could tell,” I said. “Has the medical examiner determined a cause of death?”
“He says Ollie was shot in the back of the head, so he had to rule out suicide. He determined he was murdered.”
The waitress came and took our orders, and when she’d gone, I asked something I’d been wondering about. “How much money was in that box?”
“It was just over a thousand dollars. We’ve been wondering where Ollie would get that kind of money. Now, after seeing Lea’s letter, it appears she was giving it to him. The question is, how was she getting it?”
“We’ve speculated that she may have been Kerr’s mistress, or she may have been blackmailing him,” Andrea said.
“I don’t suppose it’s likely that he was simply helping her with college expenses through the goodness of his heart,” Bill said.
“We haven’t ruled out anything at this point,” Andrea said. “I wanted to ask you about the gun, though. What kind was it? Was it registered to anyone? From the condition of the skull, I don’t suppose it was possible to tell what kind of gun was used to kill him.”
“It was a Smith and Wesson we found in the burned-out house. A revolver. The serial number had been filed off, so there’s no way of telling who owned it. The hole in the skull was so weathered that it was impossible to tell what made it, according to the medical examiner. Actually, there were two holes. The ME thinks the one on the front of the skull is an exit wound. He said they both looked more like bullet holes than anything else.”
The waitress brought our food, and I waited till she was gone before asking, “Do you know anything about the people that lived in the house that burned? Is it possible that someone who lived there shot Ollie?”
“The medical examiner estimated his time of death at about the time Lea died, which indicates the two murders are related somehow. The family that lived in the burned-out house had moved out many years before that. Paul’s been with the sheriff’s office longer than I have, but they were gone even before he started. The house stood empty all that time.”
We ate and tried to think of more questions to ask. I couldn’t think of anything else, and the other two couldn’t either, so we parted in the parking lot, promising to stay in touch with any new information. “It’s time we updated Jordan on what we’ve been doing,” Andrea said before getting in the car. “Actually, it’s probably past time. Let’s go by the courthouse now and leave the car here.”
Jordan wasn’t in her office, so we went downstairs to our office so Andrea could file the copies of Lea’s letter. She took out the key, but the door was already unlocked. We went in, and at first glance cou
ldn’t find anything out of order. “Who else would have a key to our office?” I asked.
“I have no idea, but someone does. I understood when Jordan gave us the key that no one else had one.”
“Did you forget to lock it when we left the other day?” Silly question. Andrea doesn’t forget things.
“No, I remember locking it.” She went to the file cabinet. “At least the file drawer’s still locked.”
We have a four-drawer file cabinet in our office, but so far, only one drawer is used. We don’t have that many files yet. Fortunately, we can lock the drawers, so if someone was looking for something in our files, they didn’t find it.
“I’d think that whoever was in here would have locked the door on the way out so we wouldn’t know they were here,” I said.
“Unless they wanted us to know we’re vulnerable to their snooping. I’m going to ask Rick to come in and dust for fingerprints. I’ll walk down to his office.”
Our computers were password protected—Andrea had insisted I come up with a complicated one, and I had, which made me feel like some sort of intelligence agent. At least we could figure they hadn’t been able to get into our files on the computers, either.
Andrea was back in minutes with Rick following behind. “I’m not the one who usually does this, but I guess I can handle it.” He began dusting something all around the room. “Whoever was in here may have worn gloves, so this won’t give us any information, but it’s worth a try.”
He finished quickly and went back to his office. I closed the door when he was gone. “For some reason, I don’t trust him,” I said.
“I think it’s because of his country club connection. We don’t know how close he is to the ex-sheriff and his clique. That’s why I turned Lea’s letter over to the Marshall County office rather than here. That’ll be especially interesting, since they may have Stuart Kerr’s prints on file.”
“Wouldn’t those go into a database so that all offices would have access to them?”
“Yes, but like I said, we don’t know how close Rick is to the country club bunch.”
Evil Under the Moon (Moon Mystery Series Book 5) Page 10
