CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
By the time J.D. arrived back at my house, Logan had left. He told us he’d be back in a week or so. I showed J.D. the photo Logan had spotted and explained who the young man was.
“How did we miss that?” she asked.
“We weren’t looking for anything specific,” I said. “And we’d never seen Peter Garrison’s face, so we didn’t recognize him. I think Logan came in with fresh eyes and picked up on something we’d passed over at least twice.”
“We also weren’t expecting Katherine to be sitting with her boyfriend,” said Jock.
“I thought he was having dinner with Katherine’s parents the night of the murders,” said J.D.
“That’s what the Brewsters told me,” I said. “They obviously lied.”
“Why would they do that?”
“That’s what I want to ask them. I didn’t want to call them until you got back.”
“I’d like to know how long he’d been here,” said J.D. “If he was staying with Katherine, the lady who runs the inn would have mentioned it. I think.”
I shook my head. “Mrs. Deen told me that Katherine was by herself. She’d have no reason to lie.”
“I can get my people to check into Peterson’s travel records,” Jock said.
“How long will that take?”
Jock looked at his watch. “At this time of day the only people there would be the night crew. This isn’t important enough for them to run with. It’d probably be sometime tomorrow before we could find out anything.”
I pulled my cell phone from my pocket. “I’ve got a better idea.”
“Deb,” I said when she answered the phone. “I need a favor.”
“So what else is new?”
“Don’t get testy. Are you at home?”
“No. I’m working.”
“Got your laptop there?”
“Of course.”
“How’d you like to do a little sleuthing?”
“Now?”
“Good a time as any.”
“I’m at work. You know, tending bar, that sort of thing.”
“This won’t take a minute.”
“Okay. Tell me what you want. I’ll see what I can do.”
I told her and closed the phone.
“Do you still have the Brewsters’ number?” asked J.D.
“Sure.”
“Give them a call. I can’t wait to hear their reason for lying to you.”
I opened my phone and dialed the number from the address book. A computer generated voice answered. “The number you have dialed has been disconnected at the customer’s request.”
“Disconnected number,” I said, surprised.
“When did you last use that number?” asked J.D.
“Day before yesterday.”
“You think they didn’t pay their bill?”
“No. I saw them yesterday and today the phone is off. Too much of a coincidence. Besides, the recording said it was disconnected at the Brew-sters’s request.”
“Do you have a number for Peterson?” asked J.D.
“No, and I don’t think we ought to be calling him. This is too strange.”
“What then?” asked J.D.
“I’m going back to Charlotte and get in his face.”
My phone rang. Debbie.
“Matt, Doug Peterson left Charlotte on a nonstop flight to Tampa that arrived at five thirty p.m. on the day of the murders. He rented a car and returned it early the next morning. He caught a seven a.m. flight back to Charlotte. The car had a hundred ten miles on it.”
“Full of gas?”
“Yes.”
“Did you think to check his credit cards?”
“I did. No charges for gas. He might have paid cash.”
“Okay. I just need one more little favor.”
“Geez. This better be good.”
“I need to know when the service on this phone number was terminated.” I gave her the number.
“I’ll get back to you.”
“Soon.”
“Right.” She hung up.
I told Jock and J.D. what Debbie had told me.
“The mileage on that car is just about exactly the mileage from Tampa to Cortez and back,” Jock said.
“So he flies in, makes a mad dash for Cortez, boards the boat, kills Katherine, and heads back to Charlotte,” said J.D. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“If his plan had been to kill her with the knife while on the boat, he’d have had to plan to do it publicly,” she said. “He couldn’t have anticipated that the lights would go out and the boat would go aground.”
“Unless he had help,” I said.
“The Asians,” said Jock.
“Then he would have been part of the plan,” I said.
“But why?” asked J.D. “And if he just wanted to kill her, why go to all the trouble to get her to Florida?”
“Maybe,” said Jock, “he was upset by her coming here alone. He could have decided to kill her on the spur of the moment. When did he make the plane reservations?”
“I didn’t think to ask Deb,” I said. “When she calls back I’ll see if she has that information.”
“He would have had to bring the knife with him,” J.D. said. “He didn’t have time to stop and get one between the time he arrived in Tampa and when he got to Cortez. How did he get it through security?”
Jock nodded. “If he was part of a plan, he would have gotten it from his Asian buddies.”
“Why kill Peter Garrison?” I asked.
“Maybe Peter tried to stop Doug from killing Katherine and became collateral damage,” said J.D.
My phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. Deb.
“Matt, the phone service was terminated at the customer’s request at ten this morning.”
“Thanks. Did you happen to note whether Peterson had made advance reservations for his flight?”
“He didn’t. He was a walk-up at both airports. No checked luggage either.”