Reed Ferguson Mystery Box Set 5

by Renee Pawlish

  I hardly heard her, my mind racing. Willie looked at me.

  “I can tell by the look on your face that you’ve figured out something, but I’m confused.”

  “I’ve been focused on the wrong things,” I said. “This small town,” I waved a hand around, “and all the weirdness…”

  “Reed, what is it?” she asked.

  I suddenly had the last piece of the puzzle.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “The other Madisen was lying to me,” I said, mostly to myself.

  Her brow furrowed. “What?”

  “I thought Jennifer Madisen was lying to me.” I gestured at Smith’s body. “If what he said is true, and he didn’t tell Marcia what happened in that hotel room, then how could Jennifer have known?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not following.”

  “Sheriff Madisen said he knew about the fight in the hotel room in Kansas because Jennifer told him about it. And she knew because Marcia told her,” I said. “But Marcia didn’t remember about the fight, and Smith never told her, or anyone else, about it. If all that’s true, that means either Sheriff Madisen – who’s Marcia’s brother-in-law – was in that hotel room, or Toby Holder, her own brother, was there and told him.”

  “Madisen was involved with Toby Holder in drug smuggling?”

  “It sure looks that way.”

  I growled, and then swore. Earlier today I’d told Madisen all my suspicions of Toby Holder, and Madisen was involved in the whole thing.

  “What?” Willie said.

  I waved a hand in frustration. “Never mind.”

  Sirens sounded in the distance and quickly drew closer. Fast reaction in a small town. In seconds the sirens wailed close by, and we heard vehicles screech to a stop. I moved to the end of the tractor and peered around it. An ambulance and a sheriff’s car were in the parking lot, lights flashing. A man got out of the car and started toward the fence. He crossed under a streetlight and I saw that it was not Sheriff Madisen.

  I grabbed Willie’s arm. “I’ve got to find Madisen and Toby Holder. But if I stay here, I could be tied up all night with questions, so you talk to the deputy. Tell them who you are and what happened, and that I’ve gone out to Sheriff Madisen’s house because I think something’s going on out there.”

  “Don’t you want to tell the deputy what you suspect?”

  I shook my head. “There’s no time. And I don’t have any proof just yet, and then Madisen would know I’m onto him. He’s got everyone in this town fooled. Just tell them to send someone out to his house, and I’ll take it from there.”

  “Oh!” She held up a hand. “What if the deputy’s involved?”

  “If he is, he’s not going to do anything with the paramedics right here.”

  “Okay, I’ll handle it.”

  “Where are the car keys?”

  She handed them to me. “I’ll see if the deputy can give me a ride back to the hotel. Or I’ll walk. It’s not that far.”

  I stood up and helped her to her feet. “Go tell them what’s going on, but raise your hands and be careful.”

  “I can handle it,” she repeated.

  I kissed her hard. “I love you. I’ll check on you in a few minutes.” I squeezed her hand, then ran to the back of the lot. I climbed the fence, worried that the deputy would hear the sound I was making. I dropped down on the other side, then crouched down and listened. Willie called out, and the deputy replied, but I couldn’t understand what he said. I sneaked along to the end of the fence and listened again, then stole up to the back side of the building and peered around the corner. The 4-Runner was sitting in the dark, with no one around it. I hurried down the street to it, quietly eased inside and started it. I swung a U-turn and crawled down the street, but waited until I turned the corner before I flipped on the headlights. Then I glanced in the rearview mirror. No one was following me. I finally breathed a little easier.

  A few minutes later, I passed by the sheriff’s department. The building was quiet, and Sheriff Madisen’s parking space was empty. He wasn’t there, so I headed out of town. Partway there I called Willie.

  “Everything okay?”

  “They’re dealing with Smith now,” she said. “I tried to tell the deputy that you’re heading out to Madisen’s ranch because you think there might be trouble out there, and he looked at me like I’m crazy. Then he said he’d get to me in a few minutes.”

  “It’s okay. Just do what they say, and tell them when you can.”

  “I will.”

  I ended the call, and in fifteen minutes, I neared the Madisen ranch. I shut off my headlights, drove a little farther and parked behind a grove of trees near the road, then took out my binoculars. A single light was on in a front window, but no cars were parked in front of the garage. None of that told me whether Sheriff Madisen or Jennifer was home. A weak light above the garage bathed the front of the house in shadows, but the road was dark.

  I got out, then walked down the road. I climbed the porch steps and listened. I couldn’t hear voices, a TV, or any other noises coming from the house. I rang the bell and waited.

  Silence.

  I tried the knob, and as expected, it turned. I let myself in and strained to hear anything while I let my eyes adjust. Then I looked around. I was standing in a huge foyer with a tile floor and antique armoire near the door. A lamp was on in a large living room to the left of the foyer, but the house was so big, the light from the lamp barely dented the darkness.

  I tiptoed into the living room and glanced around. A large window looked out onto the front porch. I listened, but still heard nothing, so I stole across to a dining area and huge kitchen. But Sheriff Madisen and Jennifer weren’t around, and neither was Marcia.

  The house was massive, and it took me a long time to make my way through the rest of the rooms on the main floor. There were several bedrooms upstairs that I checked – all empty – and then I found the stairs to the basement. Sheriff Madisen had a man cave every bit as big and expensive as Toby Holder’s, and a massive wine cellar full of what I assumed to be pricey bottles of wine. It would’ve taken more than a sheriff’s salary and the measly trust fund to afford all of it.

  I finally returned to the foyer and was about to check the garage when I heard a car come up the road. I froze. Headlights flashed by the front window and disappeared. I hurried over to the edge of the window and peeked out.

  A sedan was pulling into the driveway, very similar to the one that had pushed me off the road. I shifted to the other side of the window where I could see the garage. The door opened, and the sedan pulled inside. The space next to it was empty. A moment later, Jennifer emerged from the car. Had she been following me the other night, or had it been the sheriff? I didn’t have time to think that through because Jennifer was crossing the garage toward the house. If I didn’t leave now, I’d be discovered.

  I left the window and dashed through the dining area to the back door. I opened it and slipped out onto the patio. Just as I was closing the door, Jennifer entered the house. I ran across the porch and hid behind a large post. Lights came on in the kitchen and dining room. I peered around the post. Jennifer puttered around the kitchen, fixing a drink for herself. Then she moved off into the great room. Seconds later, lights came on in that room, and I heard voices. She’d turned on the TV.

  I looked out toward the barn, and saw Sheriff Madisen’s cruiser parked near the porch attached to the barn. Was he at the barn? I crouched down and slipped away from the house. The TV sounds faded away, and the night swallowed me. I stopped by the shed and waited, not relishing the thought of going to the barn. When I did, I’d be completely exposed.

  I gathered up my courage and crept down the dark lane, stepping lightly in the soft dirt. It seemed to take forever to reach the barn. The corral was dark and empty. As I stole toward the fence, I thought I spotted movement on the far side of the building. I dropped to my knees, watched, and listened. A horse neighed, and then all was still and quiet again.<
br />
  After a minute, I saw no one. Then I noticed a sliver of light coming from under the barn doors. I eased up to the fence, tiptoed along it to the side of the barn, then walked along the wall. I reached the far corner and peered around to the small porch on the back of the barn - the same porch where Jennifer had been enjoying her glass of lemonade the other day when I surprised her. Sheriff Madisen’s cruiser was parked near the entrance to the barn. But from the house, I hadn’t been able to see that Toby’s silver truck was next to it. No one was on the porch, but a square of light from the window splashed on the floor.

  I listened for a moment and thought I heard voices. I hopped over the porch railing and sneaked up to the window. I couldn’t see anything, so I tiptoed toward the door. Then the voices became clearer.

  Sheriff Madisen and Toby Holder were in the barn, and they were arguing loudly.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Toby was saying. “I told you, Marcia doesn’t remember anything about that night in Kansas, so she can’t know that you were there. She doesn’t know anything about the smuggling, so why the hell did you go to Denver? All you did was make her suspicious.”

  “I run this show,” Sheriff Madisen replied. “With that private eye poking around, asking questions, he was going to figure things out.”

  “And you think killing my sister would’ve stopped that?”

  “Shut up,” Madisen said. “I’ll handle that Ferguson guy.”

  “Like you did with Paula? She didn’t stay buried, and Eddie saw it on the news. He called me.”

  Eddie. That must be John Smith, I thought.

  “When?” Madisen sounded surprised.

  “Yesterday. He said that he was tired of feeling guilty about what happened here, about Jay’s death, and knowing what we’d done to Paula. He was going to go to the police to tell them everything.”

  I grabbed my Glock, held it in front of me, and peeked into the barn. Madisen was in uniform, but without his hat. He was standing near a stall, with his back to me. The tail of a large horse twitched behind him. Toby was facing Madisen, standing several feet away.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you talked to Eddie?” Madisen’s voice was low and threatening.

  “I was trying to take care of it because I knew you would go after him,” Toby said angrily.

  “You’re right about that,” Madisen snapped. “We should’ve killed him back in Russell, when we had the chance.”

  “It would’ve been taken care of, but you screwed that up.” The sarcasm was clear in Toby’s voice. “You should’ve tied him up better.”

  “And you shouldn’t have been so worried about that damn baby crying.” They didn’t say anything for a moment, and then Madisen let out an audible sigh. “Well, Eddie’s out of the picture now.”

  “Yeah, but what if that detective knows I shot him?”

  “That’s your problem.”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  Madisen laughed maliciously. “Simple. You’re not leaving here.”

  “What?” Toby asked more forcefully.

  “I’ll say that you came out here to tell me what happened at your store, and when I told you I’d have to arrest you, you tried to go for my gun and I shot you.”

  Toby let out another string of curses, then said, “You’re going to let me take the fall?”

  “Of course.”

  Madisen reached for his gun, and I knew I had to act. I stood up and stepped into the barn, the Glock raised.

  “Hold it right there,” I said.

  It was the cliché of clichés, but it worked. Madisen’s hand stopped halfway to his holster. Toby’s jaw dropped.

  “It’s the detective,” Toby said.

  “Raise your hands,” I ordered.

  Both men lifted their hands, and Madisen slowly turned around. I now noticed he had a cut on his forehead. I hadn’t spotted it when I’d seen him before because he’d been wearing a hat.

  “Get that from Marcia?” I asked, gesturing at his head.

  Madisen stared at me for a second, then gave me an oily smile. “She was surprised when I showed up at her house in Denver, and stupid enough to let me in. But when I tried to grab her, she hit me with the lamp.” He gingerly touched the cut. “The little tramp knocked me out. When I woke up, she was gone.”

  “And you came running back here with your tail between your legs,” Toby said.

  Madisen’s eyebrows furrowed and his face turned red.

  “Why’d you try to kidnap her?” I asked.

  “Because she knows too much,” Madisen said.

  “She does not!” Toby said. “She doesn’t remember anything about that night in Kansas.”

  “Even so,” I continued. “When Marcia visited Mayor Holder the other night, why didn’t she tell her father that you’d tried to kidnap her?” I asked Madisen.

  He snickered. “She did, but I told the old man she was lying, and she’s crazy after all these years. He believes whatever I say. I’m his son-in-law and I do a good job in this town. And I take care of anything that goes wrong, anything he doesn’t want people to hear about.”

  I studied him. “Like what?”

  “If his employees get into any kind of mess that’ll create problems in town, or,” he glanced at Toby, “when his kids get into trouble. Which was a lot with you, back in the day.”

  “Until you got me into the drug-smuggling business,” Toby said. “That turned me around.”

  Madisen ignored that and stared at me, furious. “You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that?”

  I smiled. “So I’ve been told.”

  “Because of you stirring things up around town, I’ve had to smooth things over with the mayor,” he said.

  I nodded. “That’s why you were talking to him earlier today.”

  “You were following me?” he asked.

  I grinned. “Yep.”

  Madisen lowered his arms.

  “Hands up,” I said. He complied. “One thing I don’t get,” I continued, mostly to myself. “Why didn’t Marcia tell me what happened in Denver? Why didn’t she just go to the police?”

  “Because she was scared,” a female voice said.

  Marcia Holder came through the door to the pasture. Her hair was disheveled, her lips formed a livid line, and dark circles ringed her eyes. This was a woman on the edge. She held a Beretta in her hand that covered both Madisen and Toby, and she looked as if she knew how to use it.

  I started to talk, but she gestured with the gun at me. “Ever since you visited me, I worried that someone from Sagebrush was going to come for me. Then,” she turned to Madisen, “when my own brother-in-law showed up at my house and tried to kidnap me, I knew I couldn’t trust anyone. Certainly not you.” She pointed to me. “But I had to come back to Sagebrush to find out what was going on, once and for all. I’ve been sleeping in my car, sneaking around, watching you all, trying to figure out what you’re hiding.”

  “What do you know?” Madisen asked her.

  She shook her head sadly. “I knew when Eddie and I ran away that he was leaving Sagebrush for other reasons besides just the baby and me. I just didn’t know exactly what. And I thought my father was involved in Jay Overstrom’s murder. While the baby and I were back home in Sagebrush, I heard father arguing one day with Toby about Jay’s disappearance. And I was pretty sure I’d heard Father’s voice in that hotel room in Kansas, fighting with someone. I’ve managed to use those things against him all these years.

  “Sitting right there in my own bedroom one evening, I finally figured out how I could turn everything I knew about him to my advantage. I went to him and told him that if he’d pay for me to live in Denver, I wouldn’t tell anyone about what happened in Kansas, and about how badly he always treated his family, and about my suspicions that he’d had something to do with Jay’s murder. You know Father, always determined to keep his position and power in this town. He knew that if I told anybody abo
ut how cruel and dishonest he really was, he’d be finished as mayor. He went along with our little deal, and I got to live in Denver and at least be near my daughter. But after a while, I started to worry that he wouldn’t trust me to keep quiet, that he’d think I would tell someone, and that then, he’d try to shut me up for good, or even do something to Gina to keep me quiet. I wouldn’t put any of it past him. So, Ben, when you showed up, I figured he sent you to eliminate me.”

  “But, Marcia – you told me you didn’t remember what happened in Kansas!” Toby snapped.

  She shrugged. “Well, I didn’t, exactly. But Father never believed that. And I sure wasn’t going to try to convince him otherwise.”

  “But your father didn’t go to Kansas,” I said. “He was at a conference in Cleveland.”

  “Wait – I didn’t know about any conference.” She blinked hard a few times as she tried to put the pieces together. “But the voice I heard. If it wasn’t Father, then…” Her voice trailed off. Her eyes went to me, then Ben, and finally to Toby. She narrowed her eyes. “You were in that hotel room?” She was incredulous.

  He nodded. “Father sent us to bring you back. It worked out fine, because we also needed to get Eddie.”

  “All those years Father let me think he was in that hotel room,” she whispered. “He never said a word about it or corrected my mistake.”

  “That’s because he wanted you to fear him,” Madisen said. “If you thought he was willing to come to Kansas to get you, and he’d hurt you in the process, what else might he do to keep you under control?”

  She shook her head slowly. “I did fear him, all these years.”

  “So … did your father murder Jay?” I asked her.

  Toby let out a bitter laugh. “Nah, the old man didn’t do it, but he suspected Ben did.”

  “Shut up!” Madisen barked at Toby. “Your father suspected we might’ve killed Jay, and you know what? He was fine with that. He thought Jay was such a bad influence on you. But he’s the mayor, and he sure can’t have anyone know he covered up a murder. That’s why he was worried about what Marcia knew, and why he paid to keep her quiet.”