Walking on Her Grave (Rogue River Novella, Book 4)

by Leigh, Melinda

  “Have you seen Mike Bell lately?”

  “Last week, I think, but I’ll get Katelyn to check for sure. Mike inspected the supports for the new boathouse.” Faye rubbed her arm. “I really thought we’d gotten past the major problems when Walt was arrested. I replaced a few subs, like Alex Rollins. The work was going smoothly. Oh my.” Faye pressed a hand to her chest.

  Seth moved forward. “Faye?”

  “Mama.” Katelyn slid off her perch.

  “I’ll be all right,” Faye wheezed. “I just need my medicine. It’s in my purse.”

  Katelyn rushed out of the office, returning in a few seconds with an orange prescription bottle. She opened it and gave her mother a pill.

  Faye put it under her tongue.

  “Nitroglycerin?” Seth asked. Years ago his father had taken the drug for his heart.

  She nodded. “I guess I can only put off that bypass for so long. I had a minor heart attack last winter.”

  “How did you ever keep that a secret?” he asked.

  Faye laughed. The color slowly returned to her face. “It wasn’t easy. My cardiologist is over an hour away.”

  “Don’t put it off too long.” Seth exhaled. Depending on their location, it could take the EMTs fifteen to thirty minutes to respond to a call, and the ambulance ride to the nearest hospital was forty-five minutes long. “I have no desire to test the portable defibrillator in my trunk.”

  “And I have no desire to be your first test subject.” Faye patted his hand. “But thank you for your concern. Please keep this to yourself. I’m having enough trouble with the resort. As soon as it’s up and running, I can tend to my health.”

  “No problem.” Seth stood.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Katelyn tapped Seth on the shoulder. “I’ll walk you out.”

  For once she looked sincere and worried.

  He followed her down the hall toward the empty reception area. “Your mom is tough.”

  She nodded.

  “When was the last time you saw Mike Bell?” Seth asked.

  “Last week.” Her gaze faltered.

  “Where did you see him?”

  She scanned his face. “Why do you ask?”

  “I have a witness who saw you coming out of Mike’s house before dawn last Friday morning.”

  Katelyn crossed her arms and rubbed her biceps. “Mike and I were seeing each other, but we didn’t want our relationship to be public knowledge.”

  “Why is that?”

  “We were afraid it would look like I was sleeping with him for favors.”

  Which is exactly what Seth had thought when he heard the news. “Were you?”

  Anger colored her cheeks. “Of course not.”

  “I wouldn’t think of Mike as your type,” Seth pointed out.

  Katelyn lifted her chin. Her lips compressed, the tightness wrinkling the porcelain skin around her mouth. “Mike is a nice guy. He’s gainfully employed and, let’s face it, Solitude doesn’t have a very large dating pool.”

  When a woman was as loose with her favors as Katelyn, eventually she ran out of prospects.

  She snorted, an indelicate sound from her china doll face.

  In such a close-knit community, a certain amount of personal drama was unavoidable. A middle-aged and lonely guy like Mike might not let the legal, political, or professional ramifications of his actions get in the way of having a woman like Katelyn in his bed.

  “Have you been with him since last Friday?” he asked.

  “No.” She examined a bright-red, pointy fingernail. “I’ve seen him around town this week, but I haven’t been at his place.”

  If Mike had been willing to dismiss the law to sleep with Katelyn, had he strayed across the line in any other areas? Considering what had happened to Roy, Seth could only hope that Mike hadn’t gotten himself killed.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Carly pulled up in front of the Rollins house. She tensed, remembering her visit the day before. But Seth was with her this time.

  He parked his cruiser at the curb behind her Jeep. He got out of the car and lifted his suit jacket from the passenger seat. Shrugging into it, he joined her on the sidewalk.

  Alex answered the door. He frowned, suspicion tightening his features as his eyes swept from Carly to Seth and back again. “What do you want?” he asked her.

  “Actually, I’m the one who needs to talk to you, Alex.” Seth had interviewed both father and son when Peter had been arrested for selling drugs. “Can we come in?”

  A defeated sigh escaped from Alex’s chest. “I guess.”

  They followed him into the kitchen. Peter was sitting at the table eating a sandwich. Taking their presence in, Peter put down his lunch as if unable to eat.

  Seth didn’t bother trying to create atmosphere, and he didn’t waste words softening anyone up. “Where were you yesterday, Peter?”

  The teen shrank. “I had counseling in the morning and community service in the afternoon. We picked up roadside trash along Route 7.”

  The pressure in Carly’s chest eased. Peter’s alibi was solid.

  “Thanks, Peter. I don’t have any other questions for you.” Seth shifted his gaze to Alex.

  The boy cast his dad a questioning look.

  Alex nodded. “Go on upstairs.”

  Seth waited for Peter’s footsteps on the stairs to fade. “How about you, Alex? Where were you yesterday?”

  “Driving Peter to his appointments. Had some time to kill. Stopped at Walmart. Was here part of the afternoon.” He inclined his head toward Carly. “She was here first thing.”

  “You hear about the fire at O’Rourke’s?”

  “Impossible not to,” Alex said.

  “Can you be more specific about where you were?”

  Alex straightened, as if he was just starting to connect Seth’s line of questioning to the fire. “You can’t think I had anything to do with the fire?”

  “Arson is a possibility.” Seth’s shrug was anything but casual. “Can you account for your whereabouts?”

  “All day?” Alex swallowed. His eyes flattened with opposition.

  Seth nodded. “To start.”

  Alex exhaled hard through his nose and raised his gaze to meet Seth’s head on. Even beaten down by the summer’s events, the carpenter wasn’t the kind of man who would back down from a challenge. “I drove Peter out to Hannon. His counseling appointment was at ten. We left here at nine. I sat in the waiting room. They call me in for the last half hour.” Alex breathed. “Since his community service project was also out in Hannon, there was no point wasting the gas driving back to Solitude. We grabbed hot dogs at the DQ out there. I dropped him off and went to Walmart to get soap.

  Seth made a note. “Got a receipt?”

  “I might. I’d have to check the truck.”

  “Why don’t you do that?” Seth suggested.

  Alex stood and left the room, his movements stiff and awkward with anger. Keys jangled. The front door opened and closed as he left the house and again as he came back in. He threw a crumpled register receipt on the table.

  Seth picked it up. “You checked out at one thirty-two p.m. What time did you pick up Peter?”

  “Five o’clock,” Alex said.

  “What did you do for three and a half hours?”

  Alex shifted in his chair. “I came home.”

  Seth leaned against the doorjamb and stared for a few heartbeats, as if waiting for Alex to confess something.

  “I don’t have a choice about talking to her.” Alex jerked his head at Carly. “But next time you want to interrogate me, I’m calling a lawyer.”

  “Then we’ll be having our next conversation at the county sheriff’s office.”

  Alex met his eyes with a steady, indignant glare. “I have nothing else to say to you.”

  “I’ll be in touch.” Seth pushed off the doorway.

  Carly picked up her
file and followed Seth out of the house.

  “Where are you going?” He removed his suit jacket and tossed it into his car.

  “I have two home visits.”

  Seth’s brows rose.

  “Nothing I can’t handle on my own.” She waited for his response.

  Six months ago he would have launched into an interrogation about her clients. He’d have pressed for names and addresses. But today he simply nodded. “Okay. Call me if you need me. I’d like to stop and see Brianna tonight, if that’s all right.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll bring chicken from Nell’s.” He got into the cruiser and started the engine.

  Climbing into her Jeep, she drove away from the curb. Seth pulled out behind her. Carly glanced back at the Rollins house. The dead landscaping reflected the family’s despair. She didn’t need this animosity between her and Alex Rollins. But there was no way to separate her case from Seth’s. She wished she knew whether Alex and Peter had been swept up in something out of their control or were active players in a dangerous game.

  Entering the Solitude PD, Seth waved to Sheila, who was taking a phone call.

  At ten minutes after five o’clock on a Friday afternoon, he’d expected the chief to still be working, but not Sheila. The county support staff cleared out at five on the dot. There was no money in the budget for overtime.

  “Zane?” he mouthed.

  She nodded and waved him toward the break/interview/supply room. The multipurpose space was the size of a walk-in closet. Seth closed the door behind him.

  Zane was sitting at the scratched table, reports spread out across the Formica.

  Seth took the folding chair opposite the police chief. He glanced at the log sheet from the construction site. “Find anything?”

  Zane looked up from the papers. “The problem is that I know most of these people, and I can’t imagine any of them setting the O’Rourke resort on fire.”

  “Any of them having money trouble?”

  Zane propped his elbows on the table and rubbed his eyes. “Probably all of them, but everyone who was at the site yesterday was an employee, a supplier, or a subcontractor.”

  “All of whom are dependent on the O’Rourkes for their next meal.”

  “It doesn’t make sense for any of them to sabotage the job that’s feeding his family,” Zane agreed.

  Seth ran a finger down the list. “Eric Hearne was at the resort yesterday. When I talked to Katelyn yesterday, she mentioned they’d had a disagreement about an invoice.”

  “If Katelyn mentioned the argument, it was probably more than a minor disagreement. But it might be best if you talk to Eric,” Zane said.

  “Probably.” Seth laughed. Eric had made a play for Stevie, but Carly’s sister only had eyes for Zane. “I’ll be passing the hardware store on my way out to the Taylor farm. I’ll stop and talk to him. Did you know Faye was having heart trouble?”

  Zane’s head snapped up. “No.”

  Seth broke out his notebook and gave Zane a rundown of his discussion with Katelyn and Faye.

  “How the hell could she keep something like that a secret?”

  “She said she uses a cardiologist over an hour away.”

  “She must get her prescriptions filled in fucking Portland,” Zane said.

  “Faye asked that we keep her condition confidential.”

  “Of course.” Zane scratched his chin. "But if she really needs open heart surgery, there’s no way she’ll be able to keep that a secret.”

  “She’s hoping to put it off until the resort is up and running,” Seth said. “But I haven’t gotten to the best part. Guess who was sleeping with Mike?”

  Surprise lifted Zane’s brows. “Who?”

  “Katelyn.”

  Zane froze. “You’re kidding.”

  “No. The gossip came from Everett in sanitation via Patsy, but I confronted Katelyn and she admitted she and Mike were involved in a relationship.”

  “Can you get the time and date she was seen coming out of Mike’s place confirmed by Everett?”

  “Working on it. I stopped at the public works building, but he’d already left. I missed him at home too. His wife said he went fishing. She’s not sure what time he’ll be back. He didn’t answer his cell phone.”

  “He’d probably be out of cell range.”

  “I left messages for him everywhere,” Seth said. “What do you have?”

  “We took fingerprints off Mike’s doorknobs and that wine bottle in the recycling bin. I’ll get Katelyn’s prints and see if we have any matches with prints found at Mike’s house. Did she say when she was last with him?”

  “She said last Thursday night. Left at dawn Friday morning, which is when Everett would have been making his rounds with the recycling collection truck.” Seth moved to his next section of notes. “Since Stevie was tied up with you at the accident, I went to see Alex Rollins. He has no alibi for yesterday afternoon.” He summarized his brief interview with Alex.

  Zane frowned. “He was pretty pissed off on Founder’s Day.”

  “He’s still pretty pissed off.” Seth rubbed at the bandage on his arm. The heat in the tiny conference room made his injury burn.

  “Well shit.” Zane grabbed a fresh sheet of paper. “So far we have Alex Rollins and Eric Hearne as possible arson suspects. Motives for both would be personal. Maybe the arson isn’t related to your drug case.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “What about Mike’s disappearance?”

  “Nobody saw anything. There are no signs of a struggle inside his home. Our two main pieces of evidence are an unlocked back door and a few scratches on the jamb.”

  “Mike couldn’t be involved in the drug ring, could he?”

  “That would be my last guess, but it seems awfully convenient that he was sleeping with Katelyn and performing inspections on the resort.”

  Sheila banged on the door, then opened it. “Alex Rollins is on the phone. He is freaking out.”

  Zane reached for the phone on the table. “Mr. Rollins?” He listened, his frown deepening. “We’ll be right there.”

  “What is it?” Seth asked.

  Zane shoved the papers on the table into a file folder. “Peter is missing.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Carly drove down Alex Rollins’s street and parked her Jeep behind two Solitude PD cruisers and Seth’s county vehicle. The front door stood open. She jumped out of the car and hurried across the lawn as Seth rounded the side of the house.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Looks like Peter went out the window sometime after we left.”

  “But he’s on the second story.”

  “The drainpipe is bent. He probably climbed down.” Seth scratched his arm. “The ground is dry and hard as concrete. No footprints.”

  “But why?”

  “Don’t know yet.” Seth steered her inside. “Zane’s inside. A couple of officers are sweeping the woods.” Seth nodded toward the end of the street, where the forest edged the neighborhood. “Unless he got a friend with a car to pick him up, the wooded area is his next-best option to stay out of sight.”

  Alex Rollins paced the living room, his belligerent attitude swapped for that of a frantic parent. His gaze riveted on Carly. “You two scared him this afternoon, asking him for his whereabouts as if he was a suspect. I get why he was a bastard.” He jerked his thumb at Seth. “But Peter trusts you.” Alex moved toward her.

  Seth stepped between them. “That’s not true and you know it. Peter answered my question and that was the end of it.”

  Alex’s fists clenched at his sides. He met Seth’s gaze, then his eyes shifted to Carly again. Alex deflated. “You’re right. This is all my fault. I can’t control my own kid. Hell, I don’t even know my own kid. He was drinking and using drugs and I had no idea. My wife took his dope and used it herself instead of telling me.” He pressed both hands against his face. �
�The fact is that before O’Rourke let me go, I was hardly home, and when I was here, I didn’t spend much time with Bev or Peter.”

  Alex had given Carly a rough time, but she still felt sorry for him. His son and wife were both in trouble, and he didn’t know how to help them. His life was spinning out of control.

  “When did you see Peter last?” Seth asked.

  “After you left I went upstairs. I was going to ask him if he wanted to talk, but I could hear music playing through the door. The counselor keeps telling me to keep our lines of communication open. I need to have a meaningful conversation with Peter every day. But for crying out loud, we had enough meaningful conversation in that session yesterday to last a week. We were both talked out. And it was the first time I’d heard his stereo on since he came home. It sounded normal, like before all this happened. So I didn’t bother him. Yesterday was rough. I gave him some space. But I should have checked on him.”

  Carly stepped around Seth. “Give yourself a break. No one would have expected a kid to go out a second-story window.”

  Alex’s eyes were lost. “What the fuck is going on in this town?”

  Good question, thought Carly.

  “Alex?” Zane called from the stairwell. “Can you come up here and see if you can figure out what he took with him?”

  Alex, Carly, and Seth trooped up to Peter’s room. Dirty laundry was strewn across the hardwood floor. Rock band posters from the 1980s covered the walls. Apparently Led Zeppelin was making a comeback. Alex checked the closet and dresser drawers. “He took his backpack. Can’t say about clothes. He has jeans, T-shirts, and hoodies. They all look alike.”

  “Can you check the rest of the house?” Zane asked. “And let’s get a list of Peter’s friends. We’ll start calling parents.”

  Zane gathered forces on the front lawn. “It’s eight o’clock. No daylight left. This boy knows the area. Let’s send out a BOLO to the surrounding counties and the state police.” Zane assigned phone calls and tasks. “We’ll try friends’ parents, local hangouts, et cetera. Let’s get on it, people. A lot of bad things have been going down in this town lately. I want this boy found.”