While I talked to my dad on my cell phone, I wandered around to the back of the house, away from the big ears of the police.
“I’ll meet you at the station,” Dad said immediately. “We’ll straighten this whole thing out.”
“He thinks I’m guilty,” I whispered.
“No, he doesn’t, sweetheart,” he assured me. “He’s not a stupid man. Just tell him the truth and you’ll be out of there in no time.”
After ending the call, I gripped the old porch railing and stared out at the water. The waves were calmer along this part of the shore, due to the wide arc of land that swept around to the south to create the so-called cove that gave our town its name.
I smiled at Dad’s promise to straighten this whole thing out. I knew he couldn’t really do anything, but it was a relief that someone who loved me would be nearby in case something bad happened. As I walked back to the front of the house, my unsettling thoughts were interrupted by a quiet conversation I could hear taking place near the front door.
“Not a good idea, Tom.” It was the police chief talking. “Just leave her truck here.”
“It won’t be safe out here overnight,” Tommy said.
“She should’ve thought of that before . . .”
I didn’t catch the last part of the chief’s comment but I had a feeling it wasn’t complimentary.
“I’ve known her my whole life, Chief. I’ll follow her to the station. There won’t be any problems.” I appreciated Tommy’s vote of confidence.
“You know her well enough to vouch for her?” the chief asked sharply.
Tommy hesitated, then said, “I would trust her with my life.”
Hot tears sprang to my eyes, a rare occurrence. I’d always known Tommy was a good friend, but hearing him defend me to his boss, especially with everything that was going on, meant a lot.
It also meant something to know that the chief of police didn’t trust me to drive my own car to the station. That made me so angry, I wanted to spit nails. But I would just have to live with his attitude. Thor was new in town. He didn’t know me. Didn’t know who to trust and who to suspect. I could only hope that he was good enough at his job to learn quickly.
I wiped my eyes and sniffled once, composing myself before coming into view. Another patrol car had arrived and two more cops I recognized were scanning the yard in front of the house.
“Get your keys, Shannon,” Tommy said casually. “I’ll follow you to the station.”
“Okay.” I gave the chief a prickly look as I passed him. He raised that one eyebrow again, and even though I couldn’t see him as I walked down the steps, I knew his gaze never steered away from me.
When I reached the walkway, I turned to look up at him and cursed silently. Damn it, why did he have to be so compelling? It was disconcerting to distrust him so much and feel this attraction to him at the same time.
I would be smart to ignore his appeal and concentrate on the fact that he considered me a murder suspect, someone who would flee the scene to avoid his cop questions.
The two officers who had just arrived were preparing to dust the front stair rail and doorway for fingerprints. Jensen asked them to also survey the neighbors and take note of anything unusual while they waited for the county coroner to arrive. Tommy and the chief followed me back to the station in their SUVs.
Fifteen minutes later, we all pulled into the parking lot of the Lighthouse Cove Police Station. I saw my uncle Pete’s truck and figured he was here, too. I was happy to have all the support I could get. I just hoped they hadn’t stopped at the pub first to start a new betting pool.
? ? ?
“I’d like to go over it from the beginning again,” Chief Jensen said as he flipped a page in his notepad. “What were you doing out at the Boyers’ house on a Sunday afternoon?”
It was the fourth or maybe fifth time the chief had posed the same question over the past two hours. Was he trying to get me to flub my answers? He’d also been called out of the conference room twice, something that unnerved me because I was stuck waiting and wondering what would happen next. Maybe he was getting reports from the crime scene or stories from other witnesses, whoever they might be. Maybe he’d found the real killer. So what was I still doing here?
The last time he’d left the interrogation room, I had asked him to please send my father and uncle home. It was no use having them hang around and wait for me. I would fill them in on things once I got home. If I was ever allowed to go home.
I gazed at the chief and tried to appear patient and helpful—if you ignored my clenched teeth. “As I already told you, I got a call from Mr. Boyer, who asked me to swing by and check to see if there was water running somewhere in the house. He said he was still in San Francisco and couldn’t get here for a while.”
“And he heard about the running water from a neighbor.”
“That’s what he told me.”
Jensen skimmed a few pages of his notepad. “We’ve talked to all the neighbors and nobody claims to have called the owners.”
I frowned at him, confused. This was the first time I’d heard that. “But that’s what Stan told me. Why would he lie? He said that one of his neighbors called him. You should track him down and ask him the same question. Or maybe your guys missed one of the neighbors. You might want to follow up with them.”
He ignored my useful suggestions as he scanned his notes. “Did Mr. Boyer reach you on your home phone or your cell?”
“My cell phone.” My cell phone! I quickly rummaged through my purse and pulled it out, feeling victorious. I slid my finger across the screen and handed it to him. “See? Here’s my list of recent phone calls.”
He stared at the screen for a long moment and I wanted to snatch it back from him. Was I showing him too much? Was he memorizing the names of the other people I’d talked to recently? But then he tapped the Boyers’ icon and it took him to another screen that listed whether the call had been incoming or outgoing, the time and date of the call, and how long it lasted.
He took his time studying the info screen, then wrote the details down on his notepad. He handed the phone back to me and I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “So that proves it, right?”
“There’s still the matter of that death threat on the beach.”
Could he see the steam coming out of my ears? How many times did I have to explain myself? “I’ve already gone over that with you,” I said carefully. “What else do you want to know?”
“You must’ve been pretty angry to resort to threatening him with murder.”
“Haven’t you ever been that furious with someone?”
“No.”
I scoffed. “I don’t believe you.”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m a sworn officer of the law. We never lie.”
I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh.
“You don’t believe me?”
“No,” I said, still laughing.
He pursed his lips and watched me without saying anything. It was so unnerving, I wanted to shake him. But then I spotted what might’ve been a twinkle in his eye. So maybe he was kidding around with me? I hoped so, but, darn, the man had a devastating poker face.
“Where were we?” I asked.
“Were you angry?”
“Oh yes.” I paused, wondering how much I should say and decided to go with the honest truth. “I was very angry. I was furious. And scared. He was a big, vicious jerk. He expected me to fall into his arms because he bought me dinner? I can buy my own damn dinner, thanks.”
“I’m sure you can.”
“You bet I can. He tore my best blouse and I still have black-and-blue marks where he grabbed me. If you don’t believe me, just ask any of the dozens of witnesses who were on the pier when he attacked me. I feared for my life in that moment and I don’t have a single regret about kicking him in the . . . you know. Not that I actually kicked him there, but nobody believes me when I deny it and, besides, a bunch of people won the pool at the pub, so I don’t want to bum them out, but . . . Oh, never mind.”
I could see him biting his cheeks. To keep from laughing? I hoped so, even if he was laughing at me. I didn’t care. I couldn’t have the new police chief annoyed with me, especially since I’d been dumb enough to threaten someone who later was murdered.
He kept on taking notes, and when he finally looked up, his expression was placid. “Tell me about that pink pipe wrench left at the scene.”
I sighed. “It’s mine, obviously. Nobody else uses pink tools but me, and everyone in town knows it.”
“Why pink?”
Because I’m a girl, I wanted to say, but refrained from stating the obvious. “When I was little, my dad used to take my sister and me to work with him. I guess the construction guys thought it was cute, because they started bringing us little pink tool sets and things. Hard hats, goggles, tool belts—all pink. When I got older, Dad continued the tradition, so I’ve got pink everything. Power drills, sockets, hard hat, even a big rolling tool chest. You name it. I’ve got plenty of regular tools, too, but the pink ones are just as sturdy and the guys don’t tend to walk away with them.”
“No, I don’t suppose they would.”
“I told you I keep a set of my tools on-site.”
“You mentioned it.”
“So, I figure whoever was after Jerry just grabbed the heaviest thing he could find.”
“That’s one theory.” He smiled.
“Well, it’s a damn good one. Do you think I’d be stupid enough to use my own pink wrench as a weapon and then leave it at the scene?”
He sat back in his chair and folded his muscular arms across his impressive chest. “I think you’re far from stupid, Ms. Hammer. But I’ve got a job to do. A cold-blooded murder to solve. I’m trying to get a complete picture of what occurred in that basement so that a murderer doesn’t go free. I don’t like murder happening in my town.”
“It’s my town, too,” I grumbled. “I’ve never heard of a murder happening here before.”
“Until now.”
We stared at each other for several long seconds, until I blinked and looked away. I hated losing a staring contest, but I was getting a little freaked-out. Was he going to throw me in a cell? He wouldn’t, would he? Didn’t he know I was a completely trustworthy, lifelong resident of this town? I belonged to the Rotary Club. My company was accredited by the Better Business Bureau. I paid my bills on time and I didn’t go around killing people as a general rule. But he wouldn’t know that about me.
I reached for the small paper cup of water and took a quick sip to soothe my parched throat. “How long have you been living in Lighthouse Cove?”
He gazed at me without answering. Was I not supposed to ask him questions? I wasn’t under arrest, right? So we could have a pleasant conversation, couldn’t we? I gave him an encouraging smile.
Finally he gave in. “I moved here two months ago, right after Chief Raymond retired.”
“I’ve seen you around town. But obviously we’ve never met.”
“Guess you’ve managed to stay out of trouble until now.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. I leaned forward and clutched the edge of the table with both hands. “I’m not in trouble, Chief Jensen. Just because I was a good citizen and reported finding Jerry’s dead body doesn’t mean I killed him. I’m worried that while we’re sitting around twiddling our thumbs, the real killer’s running loose around town.”
“Twiddling our thumbs?” he said quietly.
“Metaphorically speaking.” Discomfited, I waved off the comment and sat back in the chair. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do.” He closed his notebook. “Believe me, I’m not twiddling my thumbs, Ms. Hammer. I’ve got my entire workforce making calls or out in the field, checking into every aspect of this case. We will find the person who killed Mr. Saxton.”
“Good. Because it’s not me.”
The door opened and I recognized Sally, a longtime member of the police force, standing there. “Hey, Shannon.”
I waved.
She turned to Chief Jensen. “Chief, can I see you out here for a minute?”
For the third time, Jensen left the room. Ten minutes passed and I was getting more nervous by the second. I stood and paced, feeling like a jailbird.
But after another minute of circling the room, I realized I was wasting my time. Rather than worry and complain, I needed to sit down and figure out for myself who in the world had killed Jerry Saxton.
The problem was, all the circumstantial evidence pointed directly at me. My biggest fear was that Chief Jensen would take the lazy way out and arrest me without delving any deeper.
Frankly, he looked like the furthest thing from lazy, but that didn’t matter. He obviously considered me a person of interest, so how was I supposed to convince him that I wasn’t? There was only one way. I knew I hadn’t killed Jerry, so it was up to me to figure out who had.
When I met with the girls last Friday, Marigold had suggested that there might be another woman out there who had suffered from Jerry’s cruelty. And Penny Wells, the loan agent at the bank, didn’t like him, either. Were there others? Maybe one of those women had wanted revenge. Or maybe one of them had a husband or a father who was angry enough to do the job for her.
It wouldn’t be too hard to find some answers. Between my girlfriends and me, we knew most of the people in town. We would just have to ask the right ones the right questions. Not that I was anxious to accuse anyone else of being a murderer, but at least I could deflect the chief’s focus from me. Now if only I could escape this interrogation room and get started.
Another five minutes passed and I was considering my chances of making a run for it, when the chief strolled back in, as casual as could be.
“Look, Chief Jensen, I—”
“You’re free to go, Ms. Hammer.”
I blinked in surprise. “What? Why?”
He showed the barest hint of a grin. “Did you want to stick around?”
“No, it’s just that—”
“We could tidy up one of the cells for you.”
“No, but thanks. I’m happy to leave, but I’m a little confused. What happened? Did you find the killer? Did someone confess?”
“Not yet,” he said. “Now, you ought to get going before I change my mind.”
“Jeez.” I scowled as I grabbed my purse off the back of the chair. “I’m going.”
Before I could make it out the door, he said, “And don’t leave town.”
I turned and glared at him. “Seriously? I was born here, I live here, and I work here. I have friends and family here, so I’m not going anywhere. And, by the way, I’m not guilty of whatever you think I did.”
He actually smiled at me. “That was sort of a joke. I don’t actually think you’ll take off.”
I tried to cool my jets. “So that was what—cop humor?”
“Something like that.” His smile broadened and it was a sight worth waiting for.
“Oo-kay then.” I gave a little wave. “I’ll see you around.”
“No doubt.”
I walked out and took a deep breath of freedom. When I saw Tommy kibitzing with another cop by the front counter, I grabbed his arm. “Walk me to my car.”
“Huh? What?”
I dragged him outside, and when we got to my car, I turned on him. “What’s going on? Why did he let me go? Did you find the killer?”
“Slow down, Shan,” Tommy said. “You know I can’t tell you anything.”
“I just spent more than two hours being grilled by that guy. Besides, you owe me, Tommy.”
He looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, sorry about that. When I heard what you did to that guy on the beach, I was damn proud of you. But I probably should’ve kept my mouth shut.”
I couldn’t disagree. But to be fair to Tommy, Thor had admitted he’d already heard the story from someone else. “Just tell me what’s going on. I have a right to know and I won’t get anything out of your irascible boss.”
“He’s cool, right? Did you know he surfs?”
My eyes widened in mock amazement. “That’s so awesome, Tommy.”
He laughed. “I know you don’t care. But I gotta tell you, it’s great to have a regular guy in charge after all those years with old stick-up-his-butt Raymond.”
“I’m glad you’re happy,” I said, and meant it. “But can you just tell me why he let me go?” I wanted to know whether to keep looking over my shoulder or not.
Tommy glanced around the parking lot, as if someone might be eavesdropping. Finally, he whispered, “The coroner just called with his preliminary report. He thinks the body’s been lying there in that basement since around nine o’clock last night. You’ve got an alibi for that time frame. Lizzie told us you were at her house from six until about midnight.”
“We had dinner and then watched a movie,” I said, remembering how the girls had teased me about my big Saturday-night plans with Lizzie and Hal and the kids.
But Lizzie was one of my best friends. Why would Jensen believe her? I asked Tommy that very thing.
He looked embarrassed. “He wasn’t inclined to believe Lizzie, but then Hal corroborated the story.”
Oh, fine. It figured Jensen would put more faith in Hal’s story than Lizzie’s. But, then, I probably would, too. “So that’s it? That’s why he let me go?”
“Well.” Tommy wore that same pained expression as he scanned the parking lot again. It was fully dark now and clouds were rolling in. It looked like it might rain. Tommy leaned closer. “We also found out that Mr. Boyer wasn’t calling you from San Francisco like he told you. He made that phone call from Sweet River. He was shacked up at the Cliff Hotel with someone who wasn’t Mrs. Boyer.”
“Whoa.” Sweet River was south of here, about fifteen miles down the highway. Stan Boyer could’ve made the drive there and back with plenty of time to spare. But why? “So, what are you saying? Is Stan a suspect?”
Why would Stan Boyer kill Jerry Saxton? And in his own house?
Tommy scowled at me. “Damn it, Shannon, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“My lips are sealed, Tommy. I swear.” I stretched up and kissed his cheek. “Thanks. You’re a peach.”
“Just stay out of trouble, kiddo.”