Emory walked through the parking lot of the local sheriff’s station with Jeff at his side. “How are we going to play this?”
“Are you seriously asking me how we’re going to lie our way into getting information?” Jeff grinned and threw an arm over Emory’s shoulders. “Welcome to the Dark Side.”
“I’m serious. You know they’re not going to tell us anything. What’s your plan?”
“We’re clerks at the law firm Blair Geister had on retainer, Geralt and McCree.”
“Video game characters?”
Jeff opened the door for Emory. “If it ain’t broke.”
Inside, they approached a woman in uniform at the desk closest to the front door. Jeff smiled at the deputy and flashed his bright green eyes as he glanced at her name tag. “Good afternoon, Deputy Nunley. We need to speak to whoever is in charge of the investigation into Blair Geister’s death.”
The twentyish woman with dark blonde hair wrapped in a loose bun asked, “And who can I say needs this conversation?”
“Jeff and Emory from Geralt and McCree, Ms. Geister’s retained legal counsel. We’re here to get all the details on her death to file with the estate.”
Deputy Nunley half-rolled her blue eyes. “No, you’re not.”
Her assertion smacked the smile from Jeff’s face. Emory wanted to intervene, but deception was his partner’s purview and a sport at which he excelled.
Jeff said, “I can assure you—”
The deputy cut him off. “Sheriff Flynn is handling that case personally, but I happen to know he’s already been contacted – this morning, in fact – by Neal and Reinhardt, Blair Geister’s actual legal counsel. I answered the call myself. Care to try again?”
Perhaps drawn by the deputy’s escalating tone, a sturdy man in uniform sidled up to her desk. “Deputy, what’s happening here?”
“These reporters are trying to get information on Geister.”
“We’re not reporters,” said Jeff. “As I was trying—”
Emory interrupted, stepping in front of him. “The truth is we’re private investigators. We’ve been retained by Ms. Geister’s estate – Ms. Juniper Crane, specifically – to find out what happened to her boss and her colleague, Mr. Tommy Addison.”
The sheriff snorted. “Why didn’t you just say so?”
“We figured you wouldn’t talk to us.”
The sheriff shook his head. “I don’t much care how we get to the bottom of what happened, as long as it’s gotten to. Besides, if Juniper hired you, she must have good reason.”
“Sheriff, how do you know they’re telling the truth?”
The sheriff eyed the PIs up and down before responding to the deputy. “I trust my gut, but go ahead and call Juniper Crane to double-check it.” He cocked his head to the left. “This way, gentlemen.”
Emory and Jeff followed the grey-haired man in the too-small campaign hat to a tiny but tidy office with glass walls. The sheriff waved them to a wooden bench in front of an old metal desk. “Have a seat.”
Emory complied. “Thank you for seeing us.”
Jeff scooted next to his partner. “What can you tell us about the deaths?”
“We thoroughly catalogued the scene around both bodies and found no apparent sign of foul play or…” Sheriff Flynn chuckled. “Haunting. I’m assuming you don’t buy Juniper’s version of events.”
Emory responded, “We think her interpretation of what she saw is inaccurate.”
“Funny you should say that.” The sheriff creaked back in his chair. “Did she tell you she’d been smoking marijuana?”
Emory and Jeff looked at each other, and both answered, “No.”
“Her room reeked of it that night, and we found a bit left in an ashtray on her nightstand. That aside, I do want to believe her, but I’m in the business of facts.”
“And what are the facts?” asked Emory.
The sheriff held up counting fingers as he relayed his facts. “Blair Geister died in her bed sometime between ten p.m. and midnight. Tommy Addison died just after midnight based on the one sure fact from Juniper’s recounting. Doc Riley – he’s the one I called to make the death pronouncement – thinks they both died of a heart attack, but the mere fact that two heart attacks occurred in such proximity – both in time and physical distance – leads me to believe the deaths were not natural. I suppose that’s more of a gut feeling than a fact on my end.”
“I agree, Sheriff,” said Jeff. “That would be too much of a coincidence.”
“Agreed.” Emory scooted forward on the bench so he could tap on the desk. “Assuming their deaths were not natural, did you find any evidence to suggest murder in either case?”
“Well, I don’t see how Tommy’s death could’ve been murder, if you believe even an ounce of Juniper’s eyewitness account. Unless, of course, you think Juniper murdered him and then made up this wild story in hopes of throwing off suspicion. But if true, why would she hire you gentlemen?”
Jeff asked, “What about Blair Geister?”
“She had a look of pain frozen on her face, but the room appeared to be undisturbed.”
Deputy Nunley knocked on the door but didn’t wait for an invitation to open it and pop her head into the office. “Sheriff, you were right,” she muttered, as if the words, “Ms. Crane vouched for them,” would sear her tongue.
“Thank you, Deputy.” As the door closed, the sheriff returned his attention to the PIs. “Why don’t we give the medical examiner a ring?”
Emory noticed the rotary phone on the desk. “Does it have speaker function?”
Sheriff Flynn laughed. “Not on that. That’s just something I picked up at auction. My brother collects them. Old phones and old glass insulators. No, I’m going to video-call her.” The sheriff turned his computer monitor around to allow all three to see, and he contacted the medical examiner.
As soon as the face appeared on the screen, Emory smiled. “You sent the bodies to Knoxville.”
Jeff waved. “Hi Cathy.”
“Emory and Jeff!” Cathy Shaw pulled the surgical mask from her face to reveal a broad grin. “Good to see you guys. What can I help you with?”
Sheriff Flynn tapped his desk. “You all know each other?”
Emory nodded. “Cathy’s an old friend from my days at the TBI.”
“I didn’t know you were with the TBI.”
The sheriff leaned over his desk to push more of his face into view of the camera. “Hi Dr. Shaw.”
“Perfect timing, Sheriff Flynn. I was just finishing up with your cases. Um, did you want to speak in private?”
“That won’t be necessary. These gentlemen are helping me figure things out.”
Emory leaned forward. “Cathy, I’m relieved to know you’re on the case. You can get to the truth. We know they couldn’t both have died from—”
“Myocardial infarction. I’m sorry, but it’s true.”
“Doc Riley was right,” said the sheriff. “They died of natural causes.”
Cathy waved her hands in front of her. “I didn’t say that.”
“Please tell me the heart attacks were induced.” Emory’s words drew a strange look from the sheriff. “Not that I want them to be murders, but I can’t believe in such a big coincidence.”
“I can give you a definite maybe in at least one of the deaths. Now Blair Geister did suffer from hypertension, according to her medical records, so a heart attack in her case is not terribly suspicious. But there was an anomaly.”
“What kind of anomaly?” asked Jeff.
“I almost didn’t notice it. There was just a drop of blood in the right ear that led me to it. Blair Geister had a ruptured eardrum.”
“Could the heart attack have caused it?” asked the sheriff.
“No.”
Emory asked, “Could a heart attack have been induced through the ear somehow?”
“No way I can think of, unless something like potassium chloride were injected through the ear into the auricular artery in the hopes the injection site wouldn’t be found during the autopsy.”
“Did you find elevated potassium in the blood work?” asked Emory.
“Yes, but her physician had her on a low-sodium diet for the hypertension, and the primary ingredient in many salt substitutes is potassium chloride. Again, I didn’t say the rupture was related to her death. Just that it was odd. She might’ve had an ear infection at the time of her heart attack. The ‘definite maybe’ I was referring to was actually in the case of Tommy Addison, where I discovered another anomaly. I found petechia in his eyes.”
“Petechia?” asked the sheriff.
“Burst blood vessels.”
Jeff asked, “Could a heart attack cause that?”
“Not that I’ve seen. It’s commonly a sign of asphyxiation or electrocution.”
“Like touching an exposed TV wire?” Jeff pulled from his pocket a clear bag containing the cord to Juniper’s TV and held it up to the monitor so Cathy could see the exposed wire.
“I didn’t find any burn wounds on his hands, or anywhere for that matter. If not for the witness account and the fact that there are no indications the body was wet at the time of death, I would think he was maybe electrocuted in a bathtub, causing the heart attack.”
The sheriff took the cord from Jeff as Emory returned his attention to Cathy. “You said it could also be caused by asphyxia.”
“If that were the case, I’d expect to see signs of bruising around the nose and mouth, or a blockage in the airway or a chemically induced causative, but I found no evidence of any of that.”
“Still, something had to cause it.”
“I agree, but I can only report on the evidence in hand. If you uncover anything new, let me know. I’d prefer to move the anomalies into the explained column.”
“Thank you, Dr. Shaw.” The sheriff disconnected the call. “Well gentlemen, we have a problem. I can’t believe it, but it appears Juniper Crane lied to us.”
Emory frowned at the sheriff. “I agree that she didn’t see an actual ghost, but I don’t think she intentionally misled us.”
“Were you listening to Dr. Shaw? Signs point to Tommy Addison being electrocuted or asphyxiated. If that’s true, Juniper flat-out lied about how he died and might even be the one responsible.”
“How do you figure that?” asked Jeff.
“Say she electrocuted Tommy while he was taking a bath, dried him off and then dragged him to the hallway. Then she made up that cockamamie story to cover it up.”
Emory asked, “Why?”
“Don’t know yet, but it’s up to us to find out.”
“What about Blair?” asked Jeff. “You think she killed her too?”
“Maybe. Or maybe she died of a heart attack like Cathy said, and then Juniper seized the opportunity. Face it, gentlemen. Unless she can come up with an explanation of what happened that’s based in reality, your client is our number one suspect.”