We excused all tomorrow’s departures from their jobs. Another twenty percent of our workforce just didn’t show up. And yet everyone expects to be able to buy coffee at the bakery or lunch from the canteen. They expect their trash to be picked up and their toilets to be emptied, but you can be damned sure that the people in charge of those jobs aren’t showing up to work.
Also, while I’m doing my interviews, someone has the brilliant idea that no one should need to pay for anything this last week. In theory, we’d be fine with that. But it would need to be instituted with care, because we still need to get through the shutdown. This person went around claiming Phil and Dalton declared everything free, and the result was chaos. People grabbing stuff from the general store just because they could, and then more people grabbing stuff because they feared the store would run out.
What does this have to do with interviewing Marissa? Well, first, I can’t find her. I’m told she was reassigned after the Red Lion closed, but the people at the canteen, where she’s supposed to be working, haven’t seen her. I’m tracking her down when the “Everything is free!” run on the general store begins, and then spills over to the canteen, and that’s where it definitely needs to be halted or our cleanup crew is going to be very hungry. I can imagine the council’s response if we said we needed a couple of extra days to go hunting. They’d tell us we can eat after we leave.
Once the looting is stopped, the town detective—me—needs to find who started it. That’s two hours of work while Anders and Dalton are busy trying to ask—Anders—and intimidate—Dalton—residents into returning what they took.
The perpetrator turns out to be someone I barely know, a resident who arrived six months ago and hasn’t caused any trouble. He’s caused trouble now, though. Seems that was intentional. Not that he wanted free goods. He just realized that the first two flights out were full of difficult residents and decided to become one in hopes of earning a seat. Instead, I move him to the last flight and warn that if he does anything else, he’ll be held behind on the cleanup crew. Someone needs to empty all the toilets into the sewage holes one last time.
I finish that and head to report in to Phil and Dalton. I’m halfway across town when a voice hails me, and I inwardly cringe. If I’ve been looking for Marissa, I’ve been avoiding someone else. Someone who has been trying to get my attention.
“Hey, Gloria,” I say as I turn. “How are you doing?”
“Do you have a moment to talk?” she says.
“I’m actually in the middle of something. Can we chat later?”
Her face droops with disappointment, but she nods and murmurs, “Sure.”
“If you have anything new to tell me about Jolene, I’d appreciate it,” I say. “But if you’re hoping I can tell you anything more, I’m afraid I can’t.”
“It isn’t that.”
I slow my pace. “Isn’t about Jolene?”
“In a way? Tangentially?” She swallows and her gaze darts around. “I’d rather talk about it in private.”
“Sure,” I say. I glance at my watch. “If it’s urgent, let’s do that now. This can wait.”
She chews her lips, considering. Then she gives a decisive shake of her head. “It’s not urgent. Just come speak to me later.”
“Are you sure?”
She nods. “I have a few errands to run, but I’ll be home after dinner.”
THIRTY-ONE
The rest of the afternoon passes in a blur. It’s only when I’m in the station, waiting for Dalton to be ready to eat dinner, that I finally have time to go back through my evidence from Jolene’s death.
Disappeared two evenings ago. The last definite sighting we have is when Ted spotted her talking to Marissa.
Nothing in Jolene’s apartment proves she did—or did not—return that evening. If she returned, there’s nothing to suggest she was forcibly removed, which would be tricky given that her building is close to the center of town.
She’s known for not wanting to venture into the forest. That means she wasn’t waylaid there while out for a stroll. Yet a dislike for the forest wouldn’t preclude her from going in for a reason, such as the kind of meeting that got Conrad buried in his shallow grave.
Either way, it’s more likely she went into the forest voluntarily, rather than being dragged there, and the only reason for her to go in is to meet her killer.
No, stop there. The person Conrad went to meet—Brandon—tried to kill him. That does not mean Jolene’s killer was whoever she went to meet. Also, I must remember that Jolene knew how Brandon lured Conrad to his near death. No anonymous note would do. This would be from someone she trusted. Or allegedly from someone she trusted.
Jolene goes into the forest. She meets someone. That person or another knocks her over the head, following Brandon’s playbook, and then continues following it by burying her alive. Unlike Brandon, her killer succeeds.
Here’s where I don’t like my theory. A mental chafe says this isn’t adding up.
Brandon did not intend to bury Conrad alive. He intended to kill and then bury him. While he claims to have thought Conrad was dead, he may have just not wanted to admit a crueler truth: that when the head injuries failed, he couldn’t bring himself to finish the job and decided to just bury Conrad and let nature take its course.
It’s clear that the premature burial was either an accident or a panicked attempt to finish a botched job. So why copycat the attempt? It’s not as if someone heard what happened and said, “Great idea!” It’s not as if they hoped to frame Brandon either, with the guy in jail at the time. Burying someone alive isn’t quick or efficient.
Slow and torturous could be the point. But why then dig up the body and cut her throat postmortem?
I’m missing something here. I’m sitting at the desk, staring at my notes, when it hits. I’m missing evidence. I haven’t looked at what Sebastian and Petra found at the dig site. While Dalton had initially been helping them, he’d had to go tend to another matter before they finished.
Earlier, I’d seen Sebastian in passing, and he’d made an offhand comment about something being “weird, huh?” but we’d been pulled into our separate chaos vortexes before I could pursue it.
I’m out of the chair so fast that Storm looks up with a startled grunt. I give her a distracted pat as I pass, and she pads out of the station behind me. I’m barely off the front steps when Dalton appears.
“Dinner?” he says.
“Er…”
“Not dinner.”
“If you’re hungry, go on without me,” I say as I head for the lockup. “If you’re not, I could use your help. I totally forgot to look through what Sebastian and Petra found.”
Anders put the evidence in the lockup—a secure building that mostly serves as a gun locker. Dalton unlocks the door as I flick on the lantern. Normally, I’d take the evidence back to the station, but I don’t dare do that when I’m technically not investigating a murder.
The bag is right on top of the “Killer” sign. A clear baggie, with three items inside, each within yet another bag.