“You can say that again,” Sam said.
“I wonder about Scott Elliott’s friends,” Jo said. “Maybe we should tackle it from that angle. If he was involved in the drug ring and the murders, maybe one of his friends was too.”
“Well, we do need a new angle and new lead,” Sam agreed.
Kevin’s hand hovered over his pocket. He seemed hesitant. “Yeah, maybe —”
“Hello? Anyone home?”
Harry Woolston appeared in the doorway. “I saw the light on and thought I’d come in and see what you were up to. Figured you might be going over the case.”
“Yeah. Come on in.” Sam motioned Harry into the office. Lucy broke from her spot in the corner and trotted over to Harry. He bent down to pet her. “Late night, huh, girl?”
Lucy wagged her tail in response.
Harry looked at Sam and Jo. “So what have you got? Maybe I can help. You know, I was a pretty good detective in my time.”
Sam and Jo exchanged a glance. “We’re not coming up with anything on our own, so maybe you can.”
“Great!” Harry stood next to Jo. “So I see you … ahhh ... ahhh ... achoo!”
Harry doubled over with the force of his sneeze, grabbing onto the desk and knocking the pile of mail onto the floor.
“So you are allergic to Lucy,” Sam said.
“No. He didn’t sneeze when he was near Lucy.” Jo pointed to the orange hairs on her jeans. “It must be the cat hair from the cat from my porch. She was rubbing against my leg earlier.”
Harry pulled a linen hanky from his breast pocket and blew his nose loudly. “That’s right. Doc says I’m pretty allergic to cat dander. Glad I’m not allergic to Lucy, though.”
Sam bent to pick up the mail.
Harry knelt to help him, his knees creaking and popping. “Dang stuff piles up when you don’t tend to it. Why, when me and the missus go to Florida, sometimes they don’t stop the mail in time. When we get home, we have a whole pile of it. Never gets to us in Florida.”
Sam stood, looking at the letter in his hand. “Wait a minute. The mail.” He spun around to face Harry. “You sneezed in here the other day.”
“Yeah, so?”
Sam closed his eyes, picturing who had been in the lobby that morning. Wyatt, Reese, Harry, Kevin, and Alvin Ray, the postman. Harry had come in between Wyatt and Alvin. “Does Wyatt have a cat?”
They all looked at each other. Kevin spoke first. “I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. He mentioned he liked having Lucy around and was thinking it might be nice to have a pet. The way he was talking, it sounded as if he didn’t have any type of pet.”
“I thought so,” Sam said. “What about Alvin Ray, the postman? Anyone know about him? Harry?”
Harry shook his head. “I don’t know. Why are you asking?”
“You sneezed the other day when you were next to Alvin and Wyatt. Lucy was there too. I thought it was because you were allergic to her. But you never sneezed around her before, and you didn’t sneeze around her just now.”
“I’m fine around dogs. I’m allergic to cat dander,” Harry said. “But Jo has a cat. That’s why I just sneezed. What’s my sneezing got to do with anything?”
Jo shook her head. “I wasn’t in the lobby with you guys. I was in the squad room. I remember hearing you all blabbing while I was waiting for you to come in so we could get to work. Besides, the stray cat didn’t rub against me that day. He only started coming up on the porch a couple of days ago.”
“Reese doesn’t have a cat. Sam doesn’t have a cat. So if it’s not Lucy or Wyatt, then it has to be Alvin Ray who made you sneeze. He must have a cat.”
Harry knit his brow. “Okay. Still don’t see why that’s important, but I don’t know about that. That guy is so meticulous about his uniforms. Did you ever notice they are always perfectly pressed? He takes great pride in the way he looks.”
“Why does he wear those grungy old sneakers, then?” Kevin asked.
“Sneakers? He usually wears dress shoes. They’re always polished to a spit shine,” Harry said.
“Not the other day. His sneakers squeaked on the marble in the lobby. That noise sets my teeth on edge.” Kevin looked down at his own feet, and his eyes narrowed. “Unless something was wrong with his regular shoes. Mine were ruined from the pigeon droppings in the mill where we found Dupont’s body. That stuff doesn’t come off, and it eats away at the shine.”
Sam held up the mail. “And Alvin Ray delivers mail to every house in town. That explains why Scott Elliott didn’t have mail at his house.”
“I’m not following you on that one,” Jo said.
“We thought maybe the fact that the trash hadn’t been picked up at Elliott’s house pointed to Forest Duncan because he didn’t bother to pick up the trash. But that wasn’t it at all. If Alvin Ray is the killer, he’d have known there was no reason to deliver mail to Scott Elliott’s place because he was already dead.”
“Well, it does seem like a lot of things point to Alvin,” Harry said. “But what’s this business about a cat?”
“Forensics found a cat hair in the gun used to kill Dupont.” Sam grabbed his keys. “We need to get over to Alvin Ray’s to see if he has a cat. If he does, we need a sample of the hair.”
They followed Sam out of the office, Sam giving instructions as they walked toward the front door. “Kevin, you take a separate car. Jo and I will go in and talk to Alvin. You wait around back in case he makes a run for it.”
“What about me?” Harry asked. Sam turned to face him. “Harry, I need you to stay here and watch Lucy. This could get dangerous. And Lucy hates cats. I don’t want her running around and getting hurt out there.”
Harry’s face fell in disappointment. “What? I can help.”
“Not this time, Harry,” Sam called over his shoulder as he rushed out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Now remember, whatever happens, we need this guy alive so he can testify against Thorne if he’s involved,” Sam said as they pulled up in front of Alvin Ray’s modest Cape Cod.
Jo had looked up the address en route. Kevin had parked on the street behind the house so Alvin wouldn’t get spooked by two cars. The plan was for Kevin to cut through the yard of the adjacent house to provide backup if needed. They hoped to verify Alvin had a cat and secure a hair sample as unobtrusively as possible. Sam figured that would be easy. Cats shed all the time. All he had to do was pet the damn thing, and he’d have a sample. Then if it matched the one found in the gun, they’d pull Alvin into the station, hopefully for good.
“It doesn’t look like he has much drug money,” Jo said. The white house and black shutters were freshly painted. Colorful flowers spilled out of flower beds along the front. Not a blade of grass was out of place. It was kept nice but still didn’t have anything that exuded money.
“Looks can be deceiving. Let’s pretend this is a friendly call and hope he falls for it. We only need to see if he has a cat. If we can match the hair to the one found inside the gun, we’ll have substantial proof to pull him in.”
Sam grabbed the brass door knocker and tapped it against the red front door. After a few seconds, the door cracked, and Alvin Ray peered out.
He frowned when he recognized who was standing on his doorstep. “What is it?”
“We just have a few questions,” Sam said.
Alvin looked uncertain. “It’s kind of late.”
“I apologize for that, but we’re working overtime on the Dupont case. It’s pretty important that we find the mayor’s killer,” Sam said.
“And you think I can help with that?”
“Why don’t you let us in, and we’ll talk about it?” Sam didn’t like the way Alvin was acting. Was it because he was guilty, or was he just nervous about the cops showing up at his door? Whatever the reason, it made Sam tense.
“I was just on my way out,” Alvin said.
“Really? Where to?” Jo asked.
“Dinner. So if you can come back tomorrow ...”