“Yeah, well, we just have to solve it quickly so we can get him off our backs,” Kevin said.
“The key is Forest Duncan. I just know in my gut that he’s got something to do with this. All we need is one little incriminating piece of evidence to allow us to uncover the truth about him,” Sam said.
“What about his alibi?” Wyatt said. “You said he was at home, gaming. I have an idea how we might be able to prove otherwise by checking the servers.”
Sam’s brows rose. “Really? Go for it.”
“I’m on my way to Judge Firth with a warrant for his finances,” Bev said. “I’m going to personally walk it over and make sure we get it right away. I’m also having my crime scene investigators go over the crime scene photos again to look for physical evidence. I know we’ve been over it a million times, but you never know what a set of fresh eyes might find.”
“Here’s his photo that you wanted me to print.” Reese handed Sam an eight-by-eleven piece of paper along with the mail, which he added to the growing stack on his desk.
Bev looked over her shoulder. “What’s that?”
“A photo of Forest Duncan. It’s a long shot, but I just might have a lead that can connect him to Scott Elliott. And if we can do that, then maybe then we can use that connection to get him to talk.”
Chapter Twenty
And just how did Mick get this information?” Jo asked a couple of hours later as they headed toward Nashua in the Tahoe. Jo was a little leery of Mick’s methods of extracting information. Beating information out of a suspect wasn’t exactly admissible in court, but then again, they probably wouldn’t have wanted to admit that they’d used Mick to get to the grandson anyway.
Sam glanced over at her. “Not what you think. Single-malt scotch.”
Jo sat back in the seat, relieved, “Oh. That’s good. So he admitted to stealing the car?”
“No, not him. He said he helped out his friend.”
“And we think this friend was Scott Elliott.”
“Right. And now we need to show Danny Bartles the photos of Elliott and Duncan. Maybe if he thinks he’s being linked with a drug ring, he’ll be scared into telling us something more.”
“Unless he’s the leader.”
“Nah. Mick said the kid was green. He might be on the fringes, but he’s not into anything deep enough.”
“So scaring him will get him to tell us what he knows.”
“That’s the plan.”
Jo opened the bag they’d gotten from Brewed Awakening on the way out of town and pulled out a jelly doughnut. “Want one?”
“No.”
From the backseat, Lucy whined, and Jo twisted around to look at her. “Not you. These aren’t good for you.”
“They aren’t good for you either,” Sam said.
Jo looked down at the doughnut. He had a point. Maybe she’d eat only half. She ripped it in half and took the big section with the jelly and shoved a piece in her mouth.
“How are we gonna tell Bev we came by this information?” she mumbled around the treat.
“We’ll leave Mick out of it. We’ll say we tied Danny Bartles to the stolen car. It was his grandmother’s car, so it’s not a stretch, and besides, the suspicion of him having something to do with it being stolen is in our notes from Tyler’s initial investigation.”
“Yeah, but no one ever followed up on that.”
“That’s not our fault. We were removed from the investigation. We were told not to look any further, so we didn’t. Can’t help it if the Staties didn’t follow up properly.”
“But what if this Bartles guy knows more about Tyler?”
“What if he does?” Sam asked. “We can’t stop that now. Tyler was into something bad, and it’s probably going to come out.”
Jo settled back in her seat, flipped up the plastic tab on the lid of her coffee cup, and took a sip as she looked out the passenger window. The scenery had changed from the mountains and fields of northern New Hampshire to the strip malls and suburban developments of southern New Hampshire.
“Hopefully, we can contain the damage,” Sam said.
“I’m really worried about what’s in that box.”
“If Tyler was working with Thorne, what could possibly be in there?” Sam asked. “Maybe he kept drug-deal records or something. Maybe there’s some evidence that can help us put Thorne away.”
“Or maybe there’s some evidence that makes us look bad. Why would Tyler keep evidence against his own father? Makes more sense that he was building up something against us just in case we discovered what he was up to.”
“I guess there’s no sense in worrying about it. We still haven’t discovered where the box is, and we’re the only ones who know about the key. Who needs to even know there was a box?”
“True, but I’d still feel better if we could get to it first. You never know who’s going to remember Tyler opening a safety deposit box somewhere. Or the two of us asking about one. It just makes me nervous,” Jo said.
Sam didn’t respond, but the way his jaw tightened told Jo that he felt the same way.
“What if Bartles won’t talk?” Jo asked.
“Don’t worry,” Sam said, patting his pocket. “I have an ace up my sleeve.”
* * *
Danny Bartles lived in a run-down apartment building that smelled of cheap curry, bad body odor, and stale beer. Even Lucy wrinkled her nose as Sam and Jo navigated the corridor to his apartment.
They knocked, and after a few minutes, a guy in his mid-twenties with scraggly hair and bloodshot eyes who was holding a bag of frozen corn to his head answered.
“You Danny Bartles?” Sam asked.
“Huh?”
He stared at them through blurry eyes. It must’ve taken him a second to realize that Sam and Jo weren’t his drinking buddies, and once he did, his eyes darkened with suspicion. “Who are you?”
“We have some questions,” Sam said.
Bartles started to shut the door. “I don’t think so.”
Sam put his foot in the door, and Lucy rushed in while Sam pushed the door open. Bartles stumbled back. “Hey, you can’t —!”
Sam put his arm out to steady the man, a smile on his face. “Oh, I’m sorry about that. Didn’t mean to push you. Lucy here gets a little excited whenever we bring her to visit someone.” Sam gestured toward the dog. “Don’t you, girl?”
Lucy practically smiled. Her whole body wagged as if she knew what Sam was up to and she was playing along to put the guy at ease.
“She likes you.” Jo smiled at Bartles, also playing along.
Bartles relaxed. Apparently, he wasn’t one of their smarter suspects. That was good. It would make it easier to get information out of him.
Then his eyes narrowed. “Wait, who are you people?”
“Chief Sam Mason.” Sam showed his badge, and Bartles stiffened. “Don’t worry. You’re not in trouble. We heard you might have important information on a case we’re working up north. We’re not even local, so we have no jurisdiction for anything you might be into down here,” Sam said.
“Um, I don’t really know anything. You’re wasting your time.” Bartles started backing up toward the door, reaching for the knob.
“We’d really appreciate the help. And there’s a substantial reward if it leads to an arrest.”
Bartles stopped at the mention of the reward. Jo glanced at Sam. As far as she knew, there was no reward. But then again, judging by the mismatched furniture, the particleboard bookcase with one shelf hanging down, and the dilapidated state of his apartment, she knew that one hundred bucks would probably be a big reward to this guy. Sam would be happy to pay that out of his pocket if he provided good information.
“Reward?”
“Yup. It’s a bundle too.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Earlier this summer, your grandmother’s car was stolen. You know anything about that?”
Bartles’s eyes darted from Sam to Jo to Lucy, a nervous reaction that Jo took to mean he did know something despite the word that came out of his mouth.
“No.”
“We hear that Scott Elliott had something to do with it,” Sam said.
“Who?”
“I think you know Scott, don’t you?”