Chapter 15

“Is there any chance that you’ll tell me what he said to you just now?” I asked as the sheriff got in and buckled up his seat belt.

“Christy, can I at least start the car before you start hounding me?” he asked.

“Sure. That’s fine. Go right ahead.”

“Thank you,” he said.

I waited until he started the police cruiser, wheeled it around, and headed down the drive. As a matter of fact, I even waited until he was back on the road toward Noble Point before I spoke again. “What did he say?” I asked again.

“I knew that it was too good to be true,” he said. “I shouldn’t share information about an active police investigation with you. You know that, don’t you?”

“I won’t tell anyone if you won’t,” I said with a grin.

The sheriff just shook his head. “I wouldn’t even tell you now if Stick hadn’t told me that it would be all right to share it with you. Honest to goodness, I think he’s more afraid of you than he is of me. Why is that, do you suppose?”

“I have no idea,” I said. “All I did was try to talk to him.”

“I think you just answered my question,” Sheriff Kent said.

“Was that the note Jan found that you showed him? It was, wasn’t it?”

“It was indeed,” the sheriff said.

“Did he admit to writing the threat?”

“No,” the sheriff said as he drove. He handled the police cruiser with confidence, as though he were ready and prepared for any contingency, and I didn’t doubt that he was. “As a matter of fact, he denied it vehemently until I told him that we had video surveillance footage of him grabbing the receipt out of the grocery store after Silas dropped it.”

“Is that true?” I asked.

“We don’t fabricate evidence,” he said sternly.

It didn’t exactly answer my question, but I was in no position to pursue that angle any further. “What did he say when you told him that?”

“He finally admitted it after that,” Sheriff Kent said.

“Did he tell you what it was that he wanted from Silas?” I asked.

“He did. It appears that Stick witnessed Silas selling moonshine out of the back of his truck, and so Stick threatened him with exposure if Silas didn’t share some of the profits with him.”

“Do you believe him?” I asked. I’d heard liquor being associated with Silas by more than one of my suspects, so I had a hunch that it was true.

“I do. We’d been hearing rumors about Silas’s side business for a few months now, but we never had any solid proof. After we discovered the bodies, I ordered two of my men to sweep the farm, and they found his still near a spring on the back of his land. It appeared that Silas was having a little trouble making ends meet lately, so he resorted to producing a little liquor on the farm to fatten up his bottom line.”

“Could that be why he was murdered?” I asked, seizing instantly on the possibility. “Was he encroaching on someone else’s territory?”

“Christy, he didn’t butt heads with Al Capone,” the sheriff said. “From the size of his equipment, I’d say that he couldn’t produce more than a gallon of the stuff a week. That’s hardly enough to get anyone else’s attention. As a motive for murder, it just doesn’t cut it.”

I was a little disappointed that the case couldn’t be wrapped up right then and there, but I trusted the sheriff’s judgment. I had one other thought, though. “What if Stick thought his capacity was much larger? If he’s running liquor himself, he wouldn’t want any competition at all.”

“Contrary to what you might believe, making white lightning isn’t for the lazy man,” the sheriff said. “Stick wanted a cut of the action, but he wasn’t willing to do any work to get it. Besides, he couldn’t have killed Silas or Summer.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because he got into Silas’s liquor right after he threatened him with that note. He had time to steal Silas’s inventory and drive to Boone, where he proceeded to drink way too much of it and get himself locked up in jail there for being drunk and disorderly. I called it in to the sheriff there, and he confirmed it. Silas would have noticed that hay before he went to bed, so it had to have been stacked after he’d called it a day. I learned early on that the man was a creature of habit, and he never failed to make his rounds before he could rest for the night. Whoever did it struck well after dark.”

“I just can’t believe that Stick is innocent.” I’d convinced myself that he’d been behind it all.

“Well, I’d go a long way from saying that he’s innocent of anything, but I’m fairly certain that he didn’t kill Silas and Summer.”

“Then I’ll mark him off my list,” I said glumly. If the sheriff was satisfied, and it sounded as though he had every reason to be, then I’d have to accept it as well.

“Who does that leave you now?” the sheriff asked a little too casually for my taste as he pulled up in front of his niece’s house, which just happened to be my home as well.

I decided on the spot that I had nothing to lose by sharing with him. After all, the only stake I had in solving these murders was freeing Summer to Move On. If I could help the police trap a killer in the process, so much the better. “I marked Jan Billings off my list earlier today, and from what she told me, so did you.”

He nodded. “Hey, I’m just glad that I beat you to one of my suspects before you could get there and question her yourself.” He was in a better mood than he’d been in before, and I had to wonder if it had something to do with narrowing his investigation’s focus as well.

“I only have two names left on my list,” I said candidly. “Jack Baron and Bud Lake.”

The sheriff nodded. “You want to know something? I might have been a little too hard on you earlier.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked, honestly curious about his change of heart toward me.

“Both of those names are still viable in my book as well.”

“Do you have anyone else that you’re looking at?” I asked.

“Let’s just say that I’m still investigating all of my leads and leave it at that.”

“Okay, we can say that,” I said as I started to get out of the police car. I felt a little conspicuous sitting there while our neighbors could see me there. I couldn’t imagine the stories that some of them were already making up to spread around town.

“Hang on a second,” he said, and I hesitated for a moment. “Christy, you couldn’t do me a favor, could you?”

“You know that I can’t promise you anything until I know what it is,” I said.

“Dial back your investigation for the next twelve to twenty-four hours. There’s a good chance this will all be over by then.”

That was a pretty big bombshell he’d just dropped. “Would you mind telling me more about what’s going on?”

“I would if I could,” he said with a loud sigh. “Unfortunately, I can’t share anything just yet. What do you say? Will you do that for me?”

I thought about what it might mean to my investigation, and to Summer’s spirit, if I cooperated. What if the sheriff was wrong and he was going after the wrong man? Then again, if he was after the real killer and I tipped his hand somehow, would I ever be able to forgive myself if I was the cause of a murderer going free? I decided that ultimately I couldn’t handle that kind of guilt. “I promise that I won’t go actively looking for anyone until this time tomorrow, but if someone comes looking for me, I won’t run away in the other direction.”

“Christy, if one of your suspects comes after you at this point, that’s exactly what you should do. You should run as far and as fast as you can, and make sure that you aren’t caught.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” I said. It never left my mind that I was playing a dangerous game trying to track down a killer. I knew that whoever I was after had no compunction about killing again, and there was nothing more dangerous than a trapped animal. Still, it didn’t hurt to be reminded of it every now and then. “I’ll stop what I’m doing for now. Would you do me a favor in return?”

“If I can,” he said a little uneasily.

“Just tell me how it turns out, one way or the other,” I said.

“I can do that. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I should be the one thanking you, actually.”

“For the information?” he asked as I closed the door.

“That, and the ride back home.”

“I’ll be in touch,” he said, and then Sheriff Kent drove away.

I’d meant what I’d said, but when those twenty-four hours was up, if he hadn’t made an arrest by then, I was going back after a killer.

Where was Marybeth? I’d been expecting to find her back at the house, and I’d been kind of surprised to see that she wasn’t there. A sudden thought hit me. Had she gone back to Stick’s place looking for me? While the sheriff didn’t believe that Stick Oakhurst was a killer, that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t hurt Marybeth if he felt threatened by her. I could suddenly imagine her lying on the ground helpless with Stick standing over her, and my hands were shaking as I called her cellphone.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.” At least that particular fear had been alleviated. “Where are you?”

Instead of answering, I heard a horn blow nearby, and I looked up to see my roommate and best friend grinning at me as she got out of her car. “I thought Uncle Adam would never leave. What were you two talking about so earnestly just now?”

“He’s asked me to back off for a day,” I said.

“He shouldn’t have done that,” Marybeth said as she dug her cellphone out of her purse. “We’ll just see about that.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I told him that I would.”

Marybeth looked at me with her mouth agape. “You what?”

“He made a reasonable request, and I agreed to it,” I repeated.

“Girl, we need to get you inside, because you must have a fever to agree to something like that.”

“I’m perfectly fine,” I said. “By the way, Stick Oakhurst didn’t do it.”

“How do you know that?”

“The sheriff just told me,” I said.

Marybeth nodded. “Now I get it. You traded him your obedience for some information.”

“I wouldn’t put it quite that way,” I said, offended by the implication that I’d sold out too cheaply.

“Okay, it’s not the perfect word for the situation, but that’s what it boils down to, isn’t it? As far as I’m concerned, it was worth the cost. That just leaves us with two names on our list; the men who fought over the Bentley farm. Do you have any idea which one did it?”

I didn’t have to even hesitate before I replied. “They both look guilty to me, but I seriously doubt that they acted together. I just hope that your uncle solves this case soon. The only thing I care about at this point is that the killer pays for what he did.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Marybeth said. “So, what are we going to do in the meantime? I don’t picture either one of us as the type of gal who just sits around and waits for news.”

“No, that’s not our speed at all, is it?” I looked at my watch, and I saw that if I hurried, I could reopen Memories and Dreams for the last twenty minutes of my normal hours, but I just didn’t feel that it was worth the hassle. Tracking down alibis and uncovering clues was hard business, and I wasn’t afraid to admit that I was worn out. “We could order some Chinese food and watch another movie,” I suggested.

“Now you’re talking,” Marybeth said. “Should we invite Lincoln over, too?”

I considered it, but in the end, I suggested, “Let’s just make it Ladies’ Night, shall we?”

“That sounds perfect to me,” she said.

It might be nice to have an actual night off.

But of course, Fate had other plans for me later that evening.

I just didn’t know it yet.