Every townsperson in Cherry Glen was talking about Wes’s arrest, and they wanted me to share my part in the story. I went from Cherry Glen’s most wanted in the court of public opinion to a sought-after celebrity. Jessa’s Place was not safe for me right now, and I planned to avoid it for the next few days if not the next few weeks. I was as reluctant in my new role as I had been in the last. No matter what he had done, Wes had been my friend. Rumors, I knew from personal experience, did more harm than good.
Even so, having my father released from jail was a relief, and I took him straight home. He said he wanted to take a nap in his own bed before the play that night. When I said he didn’t have to act considering the last twenty-four hours he had had, he replied, “The show must go on.”
After Dad was settled, I paced around, knowing I should try to figure out what my grandmother meant about the heart of the farm, but I was still distracted by the murder.
My nightmare was over. Dad was in the clear. I was in the clear too. I should have felt relieved. But I didn’t. Something about the murder still bothered me. One of those things was: I didn’t know why Wes had committed the crime.
I removed my phone from my pocket again and texted Quinn. “Can I ask you a favor?”
The text came back immediately. “Of course.”
That was all I needed to hear.
A half hour later, I was parking my convertible behind town hall for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. This time, I didn’t plan on going through the front door. I told Huckleberry to stay in the car. The top was down, and I knew he would enjoy the nap in the afternoon sunshine.
I found Quinn by the back door of the hall, right where he’d promised he would be.
He smiled at me. “I could get in so much trouble for this.”
I looked up at him. “Then why are you doing it?”
“Hazel would want me to.”
I nodded.
He opened the door with his passkey, and we went inside. We were already in what I had come to think of as “the linoleum portion” of the old building.
“This way to the jail cell.”
“The jail cell?” I asked.
He smiled. “There is only one in Cherry Glen. We don’t have much crime around here.”
At least the town hadn’t had much crime until recently.
Quinn used his passkey again, and we entered a room with a jail cell in one corner. Wes was in the cell, sitting on a cot. He stared down at his folded hands.
“Can I get some water?” Wes asked. He blinked when he saw it was Quinn and me. “Shi, what are you doing here?” He stood up and came to the cell’s bars.
“I needed to talk to you.”
He hung his head. “I’m sorry, Shi.”
“Did you kill Jefferson Crocker?” I asked. I had to hear his answer, straight from the source.
“I did! But it’s not my fault.”
I stared at him. He’d pulled the trigger. How could it not be his fault?
He must have seen the doubt on my face, because he said, “It’s not my fault because I didn’t know the gun was loaded. Yes, I took the gun from the theater, but it was only to threaten Crocker. I never planned to kill him. I would never point a loaded gun at someone.” He said this like pointing an unloaded gun at someone was okay.
“Wes, why did you threaten him?” I asked.
Wes walked across his cell and sat on the cot.
“Shi, we don’t have much time,” Quinn said.
I nodded so he’d know I had heard him, but all my concentration was on Wes. “Wes, tell me.”
He jumped off the cot. “Because he was double-crossing me. I did so much for him and his wind farm, putting my own reputation on the line, and he owed me.”
An idea dawned on me. “You were the one who convinced the court to throw out the bird report on the wind farm. Hedy said it was someone with environmental connections.”
“I did.” He sat on the cot again.
“But you acted like you didn’t know the report was tampered with when I told you what Hedy said about it.” I shook my head. Of course he would lie. He was a murderer.
“And Crocker offered to pay me handsomely for discrediting the report.” He looked up at me with tears in his eyes. “You have to understand. I’m a park ranger. I make very little money, and my wife is a teacher. Her contract wasn’t renewed for next year due to budget cuts. I have two kids who are just a few short years away from college. I needed the money.”
“But what about the birds you claimed to have loved? What about the environment you promised to protect?” I asked.
He didn’t answer me.
“Geez, man,” Quinn said. “There were other ways you could have approached Crocker without a gun, or you could have at least gotten out of your truck and faced him like a man.”
“Like I told you, I didn’t know the gun was loaded!” Wes exclaimed. “I just wanted to scare him, to show him I meant business.”
I frowned when Quinn mentioned the truck. Something had bothered me from the moment Chief Randy said that Crocker had been shot from above. “If you shot him from the truck, how did the gun end up under the honey booth?”
Quinn’s face flashed red. “I was so shocked and horrified over what I’d done, I threw the gun from the truck. It slid under the booth. I thought about retrieving it, but I didn’t want to be caught standing over the dead body.”
Like I had been, I thought.
“Did you tell the police that?” I asked.
“Yes, but they don’t care, Shiloh. I killed a man. No matter what happens, I have to live with that the rest of my life.”
“There is still the problem of how the bullets got into the gun,” I said.
“I don’t know. I didn’t put them there. In every rehearsal, the guns have been empty.”
My mind reeled. Wes was my friend, but could I say I really knew him at all after all this time? Could I really trust what he said was true?
I thought back to the rehearsal, to the scene when the senate shot the mayor in the role of Julius Caesar. My senses had tingled when I watched it the day before. Because it was impossible in the smoke from the blanks to know who shot which gun.
Quinn put a hand on my arm. “Shiloh, we’ve got to go.”
I nodded and turned to leave.
“Shi!” Wes called out to me.
I faced him again.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was low. “You were always a good friend to me, and I’m sorry I put you and your father through this. Sully was always good to me when we were kids.”
I nodded. I couldn’t think of a word to say.
When Quinn and I were outside the police station again, Quinn said, “The murder is solved. You should be proud of yourself. You were a big help bringing it to the end.”
“I don’t think it’s the real end,” I said. “Wes said he didn’t know the gun was loaded. Someone loaded that gun with the intent to kill Crocker or someone else. I’m thinking it was someone else. Wes didn’t plan to confront Crocker. He was desperate.”
“Don’t you know Wes would say anything to make himself look better?”
“I don’t think he’s lying.”
“Like he wasn’t lying to you for days after the murder?” Quinn folded his arms. “He framed you and your father for murder, Shiloh. You need to remember that you were just moments away from being arrested yourself, and your ill father spent a night in jail because of him.”
“I know but…”
He sighed. “I thought bringing you here would end it, and we could move on.”
“Move on to what?” I asked.
He ignored my questions and asked, “Why aren’t you ready to let this go?”
“Let it go?” I asked. I felt annoyance rising in me.
“Yes. That’s why I let you inside to speak with Wes in the first place. I thought it would convince you the police got their man.”
“Yes, Wes killed Crocker, but…”
Quinn folded his arms. “Nothing changes the fact that he’s the one responsible for Crocker’s death.”
I stared at him. “You’re right, but there’s more going on here. That gun was supposed to be used in the play. The play where Julius Caesar is killed. You see where I’m going with this?”
“The mayor,” Quinn said, his eyes going wide.
“Right. If we know who might want to kill him—the mayor—then we can find the person who started this chain reaction that led to Crocker’s death.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to go to the theater. I need to be there in a half hour to get the box office ready for opening night anyway. Maybe I can steal away a minute and speak to the mayor before the performance. My dad should be there by now. He planned to drive himself.”
“After what he’s been through? He’s a lot tougher than me.”
“Than me too,” I said.
“Be careful, Shiloh. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He broke eye contact. “Hazel has grown very fond of you.”
As much as I liked Hazel, I was disappointed that was his only reason.