“I was honestly surprised that Sloan was okay with bringing you in. But as we’ve discussed, he doesn’t seem to entirely trust his own people. Logan suggested he’s afraid that one of his deputies might have—inadvertently or not—shared information. There’s also the possibility that someone in town instigated whatever it is going on, and I suppose it could be over the gold.”
“From what I understand, that shipment was about a hundred pounds of mined gold, but at about fifty dollars a gram...someone could consider it enough to kill for. But we’re talking about millions today. Trey Hardy was dead before the gold was stolen, so what would Sage have meant by this—if she was writing to Hardy?”
“I don’t know,” Jane said. “I just don’t. Trey Hardy might have suspected something about what was going to happen. And even though he wasn’t a killer, he might have been condemned to death once he stood before the circuit court. He was a gentleman outlaw, so he might’ve been ready to tell what he knew, to see that people weren’t killed.”
Logan remarked, “Maybe Hardy’s legend made too much of him being a good guy. Jesse James, for instance, comes out looking like Robin Hood, but if you were the one being robbed by him it probably wasn’t so great.”
Jane shrugged. “I don’t know. I want to think of Hardy as being a good guy.”
“Well, legends are based on real men and women, and none of us is all saint or sinner. I’ll leave you two to your reading. I’m going to go into the county station and see if they can give us anything from forensics. I’ll keep in touch.”
“Where should I start?” Kelsey asked Jane.
“I’ll keep going with this. Why don’t you go through the old newspaper clippings and see if there’s anything new you can discover.”
*
Valerie Mystro stood by the car staring at Sloan. She appeared completely bewildered. She batted her lashes and played the betrayed heroine to the hilt.
“I don’t understand why you’re here, Sloan, why you’d be waiting for someone who simply wanted to be friendly and bring a basket of goodies to the hospital. Everything that’s happened is terrible, but your fixation on the theater is ridiculous! Yes, I went to the hospital. Jimmy Hough was a nice kid, although Caleb was obnoxious to everyone—insulting Alice and me when he wasn’t trying to pick us up or bribe us to have sex. I thought I was doing something good!”
“Valerie, this is one of the two busiest days of the year for the theater—but you had time to drive out to the hospital?” Sloan demanded.
“I felt bad! Caleb was murdered—and those two almost died, as well. Give me a little credit here, will you? Sloan, you think it all has to do with the theater because of the skull. Don’t forget, I’m the one who found the skull and was nearly scared out of ten years by it!”
“Why didn’t you stay at the hospital?” Sloan asked.
“The guard frightened me! I was just going to drop off the basket, ask Jimmy and his mom how they were doing and rush back before anyone knew I was gone. But the way he barked at me and asked what I was doing—well, I just turned around and left.”
“Let me see the basket.”
“You got a search warrant?”
“You don’t want to let me see the basket?”
“Sure, you can see the basket—if you ask nicely. I watch TV. I know I could make you get a search warrant!”
He rolled his eyes. “All right, all right!”
She leaned into the driver’s window to lift the basket off the passenger seat. It was a little straw basket with a bow and a card that said “Feel Better Soon.” She handed it to Sloan; he went through the contents and found cookies and candy.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt a little foolish as he handed it back. “Valerie, I’m sorry. But it looks suspicious for you to leave when you’re supposed to be playing your role for the town, and more suspicious when you run out because a guard wants to know who you are and what you’re doing when you’re visiting people who barely escaped attempted murder.”
“Sloan, I was just trying to be friendly, like I said. And,” she added, “even though he was a total prick—and probably because it looked good—Caleb Hough donated to the Theater Restoration Fund. I wanted to make sure his wife continued to do so.”
Sloan was silent for a minute.
“Sloan, please—can I get back to town before they notice I’m gone?”
He walked away from the car. “Okay. But do me a favor. Be a friend by not going anywhere near the Hough family right now, okay?”
“You’re being paranoid, and you need to be out there finding out who really did this, not persecuting good citizens!” Valerie said angrily.
“Trust me, I’m trying,” he said as he turned away.
*
“I’m learning about gold mining. It wasn’t found on the surface or in the streams here. It was an accidental discovery when they were expecting to find silver. But once they came across the gold vein, they created a processing station right by the mine, and they used fire and chemicals to melt the gold and mold it into bars. While the gold was being processed, it was protected by Pinkerton guards,” Kelsey told Jane.