Dust Up with the Detective

by Danica Winters

  Tiffany glared at him. “What in the hell are you doing here?”

  “Thought I’d come for a visit. Catch up. A lot’s changed in the last few days with Robert’s death and all.”

  Anger sparked in her eyes, and she opened her mouth to speak but held back.

  He was getting a reaction. Good. Truth could be found in moments when emotions reigned.

  “Did you really think you would get away with it?”

  Her face contorted with rage. “I didn’t shoot Robert.”

  “If you didn’t do it, why haven’t you come forward? You had to have known we were looking for you. Instead you ran. I’m sure you can understand why we have you sitting in cuffs right now.”

  “I didn’t want to get caught up in all of Robert’s crap. I’m so tired of it.”

  “Well, lucky for you, Robert’s affairs are now yours.”

  Tiffany cringed. “I don’t want nothing of his.”

  “Other than the money you took out of the bank last week, you mean?”

  “I took the money because I was leaving his sorry behind. What does that have to do with anything?” Tiffany raised her chin in indignation.

  “Nothing, but it sure is strange that you wipe out the bank accounts, then disappear just around the time your husband was murdered. Don’t you think?”

  “Look, I took the money, but I didn’t kill your brother. We had our problems, but I never wanted him dead.”

  “Did you want to threaten my partner, Deputy West, and her family?”

  “Deputy West? You mean Blake?”

  “You on a first-name basis?”

  Tiffany rolled her eyes, the movement almost adolescent and in direct contrast to the wrinkles that surrounded her lips. “I’ve met her a few times.”

  “And?” He motioned for her to continue.

  “She’s been up to Robert’s and my place, breaking up fights. I ain’t got no problem with her. If anything, she’s saved me from spending a few nights in jail over the years. I wouldn’t want nothing bad to happen to her. Don’t she have a kid?”

  Jeremy nodded.

  He wasn’t positive, but from the way she spoke and the way her body seemed to relax, he guessed she was telling the truth. But just because she didn’t have something to do with the threat on Blake didn’t mean she didn’t have a hand in Robert’s murder.

  “You guys like to fight? You and Robert?”

  “You know how it has been between him and I. Nothing ever changed.”

  “So you killed him?”

  “I told you, Jeremy, I didn’t kill your stupid brother,” she said, looking him square in the eye. “There were days where I hated his guts, but I ain’t stupid.”

  “What do you mean by that, Tiffany?”

  She snorted. “Everybody in this whole damn county knows about me and your brother. We had some good fights over the years.” She paused and looked away. She gave a reminiscent chuckle. “It’s what made us us, you know?”

  One thing he knew well was couples fighting. His parents had done it for so long that he still had nightmares of some of their fights from his childhood. It must have been the same for Robert, but unlike him, Robert had chosen to perpetuate the unhealthy cycle their parents had taught them.

  If things worked out with Blake, they couldn’t be like the rest of his family. It would be hard, but he couldn’t let their relationship fall down the path his brother had taken.

  “Do you know if Todd bought a gun in the weeks before Robert’s death?”

  Tiffany’s face darkened as she nodded. “He bought it off the mayor, and then he got the dang thing stolen. I kept telling him to shut up about that gun, but he never listened... But I’m telling you, I don’t have nothing to do with what’s going on.”

  He nodded. “Why did Todd O’Brien have your car?”

  Her cheeks turned ruddy, and a thin sheen of sweat developed on her forehead as she bit her lip. She ran her hands down the legs of her pants, drying them.

  “Tell me the truth, Tiffany. That’s the only way you are going to get anywhere here.”

  “Todd and I are friends.” The redness in her cheeks darkened.

  “How good of friends?” He knew the answer, but he had to have her admission.

  She looked away. “We been dating on and off for a while now. ’Bout six months maybe.”

  “Did Todd have something to do with Robert’s death? Had Robert found out about you two?”

  “Robert knew. I moved out of our house about a month ago. The last time Blake was up I said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and got the hell out of there. Todd ain’t no peach, but he’s better than that brother of yours. All Robert ever cared about was that stinking mine.”

  “Would you say you hated Robert?”

  She didn’t look at him. “If you knew your brother like I did, you woulda hated him, too.”

  In their adult lives, he and his brother hadn’t been close, but he hadn’t hated Robert. Yet it wasn’t hard to imagine how Tiffany could have gotten there.

  “Did you want to get back at him for the way he treated you by having Todd force him off his land?”

  Her eyes flew to his. “How in the hell do you know that?”

  It was as good as an admission. She’d been in on Robert’s buyout. “What about the tax lien? Was that part of your or Todd’s doing?”

  “I didn’t have nothing to do with that. That was all Todd’s idea. If he wouldn’t have been such an idiot, we could have found another way, but he was cash poor. Stupid man got mixed up in something he shoulda never been messing with.”

  “How’s that?”

  Tiffany rubbed her hands on her legs again, leaving behind a line of sweat. “He shoulda never got wrapped up with the mayor and his wife. Those two are nothing more than money-hungry vipers. I told him. And look where it got him—a one-room suite in the ICU.”

  Todd would be lucky if he ever left that hospital, but Jeremy said nothing.

  “If you want to know who murdered my husband, look to them. Those two will stop at nothing to get what they want.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Those two have been using Todd as the front man to scoop up land around the Foreman Mine for years. If you look at the map, Todd’s name is on most of the land that makes up the ravine that the Foreman Mine sits on.”

  “Why do they have him buying up the land?”

  Tiffany gave him an are-you-really-that-ignorant kind of look. “They have a lot of irons in the fire. Because of their company and the fact that John holds an office, it would blow back on them if they were ever caught buying up county foreclosures. So they set it up, and Todd signs his name on the dotted lines. He gets one hell of a kickback.”

  “Why do they want all this land?”

  Tiffany sighed like he was a pain in her butt. “Robert’s mine has been doing good. His claim sits right in the middle of a major source of copper ore. It could be worth millions, or more, depending on their buyer.”

  “What do you mean, depending on their buyer? Aren’t they trying to get a mine in there?”

  Tiffany shook her head. “Their company is going through hard times. Tartarus Environmental Investments has been putting out money hand over fist to get the mineral rights to the area along the vein. Right now they couldn’t afford to get a bulldozer, let alone the money it would take to put in a full-scale mine.”

  “So they’re putting the land together to sell?”

  Tiffany nodded. “And it hinges on Robert’s claim. The Japanese buyers won’t make a move until the parcel is complete and they have open mineral rights. Judith was desperate. She was afraid that if they didn’t act quick, the buyers would walk. She couldn’t wait for the tax lien to go to auction. Normally that would have worked, but Robert ha
d started to look for a lawyer. He wanted to take them down. He was threatening them. Hell, he even threatened Todd.”

  “So Robert knew that your friends were all working together to take his land?”

  Tiffany looked down at her hands, like all of a sudden she felt bad for her role in stripping his brother of his land, but it didn’t lessen the fact that, in a way, she’d had a hand in Robert’s death. Everyone who had been involved with the mayor and his wife had had a hand in his brother’s murder, but the only one he could arrest was the one who had pulled the trigger.

  “I didn’t want things to go down like this. I hated Robert, but I never wanted him dead. It was all Judith’s idea. They had to save their business. They couldn’t risk a lawsuit or the political ramifications that would happen if their dealings came to light. If Robert had acted, the buyers would have certainly backed out of the deal.”

  He thought about the phone call they had overheard at Ms. Davy’s house. No wonder she had been in a rush for them to leave. She’d been trying to save a deal years in the making...a deal that, if it had fallen through, would have ruined her and her husband’s company.

  It all made sense, but there was only one sure way to know if Tiffany was telling the truth about the mayor and his wife. “Can I see your hands?”

  Tiffany frowned. “Why?”

  He thought back to the fingerprint the techs had pulled from the murder weapon. The techs had determined the person who’d fired the gun that killed Robert had a scar on his or her index finger. Now he needed to see Tiffany’s.

  “Just let me see them.”

  Tiffany stuck out her hands. Her fingernails were short and had dirt stuck underneath. He turned her hands over. Her index fingers were unmarred. She wasn’t their killer.

  “Can you sign your name for me?” he asked, pulling a pen from his pocket and handing it to her.

  She took the pen.

  “Right there on the magazine is fine,” he said, pointing toward Good Housekeeping.

  She signed with her right hand. This meant she hadn’t left the note at Blake’s house, because whoever had written it was left-handed, according to Casper.

  He didn’t have the killer...but he had the one who would help him break the case.

  “Thanks,” he said, taking his pen back and slipping it in his pocket. “How well do you know Ms. Davy?”

  Tiffany shrugged. “We used to be friends. Real good friends, up until lately. We never should have mixed business and friendship.”

  “Do you know if Judith has a scar?”

  “A scar?”

  “On her hand or fingers possibly?”

  Tiffany sat back against the couch as she thought for a moment. “She’s a smart woman, likes to get involved and to know how their money is being spent. A few years ago she was up at the mines. There was an accident with some of the explosives, nothing major, but she had to have stitches.”

  Jeremy’s skin tingled as it always did when he was close to catching his suspect. Judith Davy knew explosives...and probably just the right amount to collapse the mouth of a mine.

  “If what you’re saying is true, then you are going to need protective custody. Your life may be in danger.”

  “Why do you think I had to leave?” Tiffany scoffed. “You can’t mess with people like the mayor and his wife and not expect to get hurt.”

  Jeremy had everything he needed. He had his probable cause. All they needed now was to take Judith Davy into custody and get her prints. Once they matched, they had their killer.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The evening air had taken on a cold edge, the kind that promised snow was just over the horizon. Blake had always loved this time of year, the end of an era, the start of a world masked with white and waiting for the rebirth that would come in the spring. More than anything it promised a refreshing change.

  The lights were on in the shop that sat just at the end of Judith Davy’s driveway. As they neared she could make out a brand-new Mercedes and Mayor Engelman’s Land Rover, complete with vanity plates that read NMBR1. She snickered. His reign as number one was about to be over. In a matter of minutes, he would be married to a woman cuffed and stuffed in the back of a squad car.

  Hopefully if the district attorney dug deep into this case, they would be able to finish pulling the legal threads that would also put John Engelman in the hot seat, but knowing him, he probably had his lawyer on speed dial. Then again, even people like Engelman screwed up. If they didn’t, she and Jeremy wouldn’t have been rolling up their driveway with an arrest warrant.

  Jeremy stepped out of the car carrying the warrant the judge had given him before she even had it in Park.

  “Hey, wait up,” she called after him. “We don’t know how she’s going to respond here, so you need to be careful.”

  He stopped and waited for her to catch up. “I doubt she’s going to do anything stupid. She has her posse here. The only thing we need to worry about is doing things right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look,” he said, pointing to the Mercedes. “Who drives a Mercedes AMG S65 in this state? That car right there costs more than two hundred thousand dollars brand-new.”

  She stared at the car. It was pretty, but who needed a car that cost more than some houses?

  “That has to be their lawyer,” Jeremy said. “No doubt the judge who signed off on the arrest warrant was the same man who gave the mayor and his wife a call to let them know we were on our way. The call to their lawyer was probably the first one they made as soon as they found out.”

  The made their way up to the house and its hand-carved door. They didn’t have to knock.

  The door swung open, and Mayor Engelman stood waiting, his arms crossed over his chest and an angry look on his face. “As soon as this is over, your asses won’t be able to get a job at Dairy Queen.”

  Jeremy smiled at the threat. “It’s okay, Mr. Mayor. I never liked ice cream anyway.”

  The mayor’s cheeks reddened, and his lips tightened with rage. “You stupid son of a—”

  “Stop.” Judith Davy stepped to the mayor’s side and put her hand on his arm. “Everything will be fine. Won’t it, Mr. Deschamps?” She turned to the gray-haired man who walked beside her.

  Mr. Deschamps made his way over to them and looked them up and down. “If the investigation is anything like these two Barney Fifes, I think we’ll have you out of jail and free and clear of all charges in a matter of days, Ms. Davy.”

  “Being charged with murder isn’t quite like getting a speeding ticket,” Blake said, unable to keep quiet any longer. “The press and the DA are going to have a field day with this. There’s nothing the public likes better than the guilty—especially the indulgent overentitled snobs of the world—getting what they deserve.”

  “And what exactly is it that you think I deserve, little pig?” Ms. Davy sneered.

  “Not only did you murder my friend’s brother—you threatened my family.” Blake stepped closer so she could look straight into the woman’s eyes. “No one will ever get away with hurting the people I love. Not you. Not your husband.”

  “Oh, honey, did you hear that?” Ms. Davy said with a patronizing smirk. “Isn’t her little threat cute?”

  “May I please see your hands, Ms. Davy?” Jeremy asked.

  She looked to her lawyer, who gave an acknowledging tip of the head. She stuck out her hands. On the index finger of her left hand was a long, jagged scar.

  “Would you please step outside, Ms. Davy, and put your hands on the wall?” Jeremy asked, but the tone in his voice made it clear it was an order.

  She followed his orders. “Frisk away. This will be the one and only time you’ll ever get to touch me.”

  Jeremy ran his hands over the woman’s body, looking for hidden weapo
ns, but she was clear. He slipped the cuffs on her.

  As they made their way back to the car, Judith turned back to her husband and the lawyer. “I’ll see you in a few days. There’s bail money in the safe.”

  Mr. Engelman nodded, but he turned away from his wife like he knew that this was something they would fight, but it was one thing his wife would never walk away from.

  This time, their greed had gone too far.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Things with the mayor would only get worse, but at least they had the person responsible for Robert’s death behind bars. Even so, Blake’s heart was heavy. Everything was over...including her time with Jeremy. The back door leading to his parents’ patio opened and Jeremy walked out carrying two pints.

  “Want a beer?” he asked, lifting one of the cups.

  “Sure, thanks,” she said, forcing a small smile as he handed it to her.

  Her mother and Megan were out in the backyard with Jeremy’s parents. They were all sitting around a fire pit, laughing and joking as they roasted marshmallows. She should have felt happy, surrounded by the people she cared about, but she couldn’t let go of her uneasy sadness.

  “I bet you’re relieved. Sounds like Captain Prather’s going to reinstate you once the investigation clears.”

  She nodded, thumbing the edge of the cold glass. “Yeah, but I’m still going to have to deal with the mayor.”

  “Until the next election.”

  “A lot can happen between now and then,” she said, then took a long pull from the hops-flavored beer.

  “He can’t fire you. Not without the threat of a lawsuit anyway.”

  Jeremy was right, but it didn’t make her feel any better. The weight of politics and the repercussions of this investigation would hang over her until the end of her career, at least if she continued working in Butte.

  She turned to him as he sat down next to her. The late-evening sun caught the bits of red and amber in his hair and made him look even more handsome, but his eyes were filled with concern and a heaviness she hadn’t seen in them before.