Death Changes Everything (8 page)

“I like your priorities. Call me when you get back. It’ll give Bea and me time to pull a team together.”

“I’ll be there.” Jake slid the phone back into his pocket. He needed to talk to Roger Hill. He hated to intrude on his grief, but he didn’t have the luxury of time. He just hoped Hill was on board with his ambitions.

9

Steven Hill was laid to rest at Our Lady of Eternal Hope Cemetery on Saturday morning, a week after he’d been shot to death. Matt had been released from the hospital Friday afternoon and had planned to attend, but Captain Danning forbade him to do any work on the case until the doctor signed off on it. Since Jake would be there with Emma, Matt had asked him to observe the mourners and report back to him.

Roger and Della Hill had arrived in Casper late Thursday night. Their daughter, Pam Young, had picked them up at the airport and briefed them on the funeral arrangements. At the church, the family gathered in a small room off the sanctuary and joined the assemblage shortly before the start of Mass.

As they waited for the service to begin, Jake scanned the crowd and Emma read the simple pre-printed program that gave the order of service. None of the trappings of wealth were evident in the timeless funeral Mass. The Hills had amassed a considerable fortune, but it was not in their nature to flaunt their wealth.

Jake recognized many of the faces around him. Casper’s elite had turned out in force to show their respect for the Hills. The fashionable country club set mixed with old moneyed families that had lived in Steven Hill’s neighborhood for generations. Civic leaders and politicians from both parties were well represented.

As the priest performed the Mass, Jake watched the family. The Hills were not Catholic, but Maddie was. When they married, Steven had agreed to raise their children in the church. As a surprise for his wife, Steven had been baptized into the church at his son’s confirmation.

Jake wondered if Steven’s conversion ever caused friction between him and his father. At the time, Roger had been serving as Stake President, a highly respected role in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It had set tongues wagging when Roger quietly stepped down, but with no ongoing fuel to fan the flames, the gossips had moved on to more interesting topics.

Jake had never noticed a rift within the family. Steven had continued to work in the family business, learning it from the ground level. Roger had entrusted more and more of the work to his son before turning over the reins completely. He made a mental note to look into who would be stepping into Steven’s chair at Hill Energy.

Jake and Emma followed the small number of mourners who joined the family for the graveside service. Jake scanned the faces of those who remained. A young woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties, stood apart from the others. Her blonde hair was pulled back and she wore a navy blue jacket too heavy for the late October day.

She was a strikingly beautiful woman, but it was the look of resentment that caught Jake’s attention. She was standing opposite the Hills and seemed to be directing her hostility toward them. Jake nudged Emma and pointed out the young woman. As Emma looked up, the woman turned away and walked past the church back to the parking lot.

“Who was that?” whispered Emma.

“I was hoping you might know her.”

“She didn’t look familiar. Was there something wrong?”

“She was looking daggers at the Hill family. I should go after her.”

As Jake left to find the girl, the priest began to speak, performing the short ritual. The peace was shattered by the sound of screeching tires. Heads turned as a white Camaro with black stripes peeled out of the lot, causing two other drivers to slam on their brakes to avoid a collision.

The priest kept praying, but by the restless movements among the mourners, only the family was paying attention. Jake returned, shaking his head. He and Emma stayed after the service, waiting until the crowd had moved away. As Emma spoke with Maddie and Melody, Roger pulled Jake aside.

“Appreciate you coming, Jake.” When they were out of earshot, he continued. “I want you to find my son’s killer.”

Jake was surprised by the intensity in the old man’s voice. “The police are doing everything they can, Roger.”

“The police couldn’t find a monkey at a banana convention.”

“That’s a little harsh. Look, I know the detective who’s heading up the investigation. He’s the best.”

“I don’t care if he’s Sherlock Holmes!” Roger looked to see if anyone was listening to them. When he was satisfied, he lowered his voice and continued. “I want you to light a fire under them. Do your own investigation. Talk to everybody. People will tell you things they won’t tell the police.”

“I’ll help any way I can, Roger, but…”

“No buts! This is my son. No man should have to bury his own child. Whoever did this to him is going to answer to me.” Hill’s face turned an alarming shade of red and his breath came in short bursts. “Find him for me, Jake.”

In all the years he’d known Roger, Jake had never seen him angry, let alone shaking with rage. Then again, he’d never had a provocation like this. He asked himself how he would feel if their positions were reversed. “Let me talk to Emma. I’ll need to do some re-arranging of my cases…”

“Forget your other cases, Jake. I’ll make it up to you financially, just promise me you’ll find my son’s killer.”

“I can only promise I’ll do my best. I can’t promise I’ll succeed.”

“Your best has always been good enough for me.”

***

When Matt was discharged from the hospital, Kristy insisted he say at her place until he was strong enough to go home. “How am I supposed to take care of you at your place? You have nothing. At my place, I’ve got a comfortable sofa to sleep on. At your place, I’d be camped out on the floor.”

Matt had seen the logic in Kristy’s argument and he liked the idea of spending more time with her, so he’d given in without much of a fight. His body was weaker than he wanted to admit, but the doctor had assured him he would be as strong as ever in a few weeks. For now, it was just good to be out of the antiseptic environment of the hospital.

Jake and Emma picked up a pizza after leaving the funeral and headed to Kristy’s. Matt listened intently to the story of the young woman and her splashy exit. He pestered Jake for details and jotted down notes.

He was less pleased with Roger Hill’s proposal to hire Jake to look into his son’s murder. “Have you lost your mind? You’re a lawyer, not a detective. You and Emma had a little success with that cold case, but this is different, Jake. If you get too close, there’s nothing to stop the killer from making you the next victim.”

“I understand the danger, Matt. Ordinarily I’d leave it to the police, but this isn’t an ordinary situation.”

“Because Hill’s rich?”

“Because he’s a good man. I respect him and he asked me to find his son’s killer. Besides, you’re out of commission.”

“I’ll be back at work in a couple of days.”

“Weeks.” Kristy corrected him.

“Be honest, Matt. Is Morty Brugnick ready to lead a murder investigation?” Jake’s point hit home. Casper was a small police force and there was only one other detective on the force. Brugnick was a good man, but he was young and green. “Why don’t you just listen to my proposition? Even Emma thinks it’s a good idea.”

“Emma likes playing detective.”

“That doesn’t mean I want Jake getting hurt in the process,” said Emma. “I think it’s a good plan.”

“Fine. Tell me.”

“We’ll form a partnership, pool resources, and share information. By working together, we’ll be better positioned to track down the killer.”

“What kind of partnership?”

“There are resources the police have that I don’t. With Roger giving me authority to act on his behalf, there will be resources open to me that would take you a court order to get to.”

“And we’ve seen that people will talk to us, who wouldn’t exactly open up to the police,” added Emma.

“I’ll run it by the Captain. I hate the idea, but we have to do something. If we wait until I can get back out there, the killer’s gonna have a big head start on us.”

Captain Danning didn’t like the idea either when Matt spoke with him, but when Jake made it clear he was determined to undertake the investigation with or without the police, Danning eventually agreed that it would be best if they worked together. After some grumbling from the City Attorney, the Chief signed off on it and the partnership lurched into action.

***

“We’ll go over everything we know and see where that leads us.” Jake, Emma and Grace were assembled in Kristy’s spacious living room, listening to Matt outline their plan of attack. “Let’s start with the burglary.”

“Do we know they’re connected?” asked Kristy. She was standing next to a large white dry-erase board Jake had bought with a credit card Roger had given him to cover expenses. Marker poised, she was looking expectantly at Matt.

“I don’t like coincidence. Until we know they’re not, we should assume they are.” He looked around the table where they were assembled and as heads nodded, Kristy wrote
Burglary
onto the board. “We know they had a code. We don’t know how they got it. We know they only took items of good value that were small and easy to carry.”

“They?” asked Grace. “Do we know there was more than one person?”

“Good point, Grace. We don’t know how many people are involved.”

“Someone at the alarm company would have to be involved,” noted Jake. “Someone had to re-activate that code.”

“Morty’s looking into that.”

“Has anything showed up in pawn shops?” asked Emma.

Matt shook his head. “We sent out the pictures the Hills gave us. We’re also keeping an eye on Internet sales sites, but there are so many places to sell these days it’s hard to keep track of them all.”

“They could sell it on the streets, too,” said Jake. “By the time the item surfaces, it may have changed hands two or three times.”

“Other than coincidence,” said Emma, with a nod to Matt, “I can’t see why anyone would break into Roger’s house then go after Steven. I don’t see the connection.”

“Hill Energy,” said Grace.

“That’s my theory too,” agreed Matt. “Jake suggested maybe a disgruntled employee. With oil prices tanking, a lotta guys who were making six figure incomes are hitting the bricks with nothing but unemployment to live on.”

“We were just talking about that at Greeters,” said Kristy. “Businesses don’t want to hire them because they know the minute oil and gas comes back, they can’t compete with those salaries.” She wrote
Hill Energy
on the board with a question mark.

“What did the ballistics’ report say, Matt?” asked Jake, once they’d agreed they had exhausted what they knew about the burglary.

“There were three shots fired. One hit the wall above the bookcase that was standing beside the door.” Matt sketched a rough outline of the murder scene for them. “The next two hit Hill in the back. One went clean through his left lung and lodged in the closet door, which means it would have been open at the time. The third shot was fatal. They removed it from his heart during the autopsy.”

“Could they guess the height of the shooter by the angle of the shots?” asked Jake.

“Not enough distance between Hill and the shooter to say with any accuracy. They think the shooter was standing just inside the door. The odd man out is the shot into the wall.”

“Could Steven have fired it? Maybe in self-defense?” asked Emma.

“And then turned his back on the shooter? Not likely.”

“But the shots were all from the same gun?”

“That’s what they tell me.”

“That makes no sense at all,” said Emma.

“Unless they weren’t fired at the same time,” observed Grace. “Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that everything that happened at a scene, happened at the same time.”

“But that would mean that the gun…” Emma began.

“Belonged to Steven Hill,” Grace finished.

Matt looked at Jake and smiled. “She’s good. I hope she doesn’t ever want my job or I’m in trouble.” He turned to Grace. “You are absolutely right. Remember, Steven Hill was in Cheyenne on business and came home to discover the break-in at his parents’ house. While he was down south, he bought a Glock 19 and a box of 9 mm ammunition.”

“Was he afraid of someone?” asked Grace.

“That’s something we need to find out.” Kristy wrote the question on the board.

“If he bought the gun in Cheyenne, it wouldn’t have left much time for him to shoot a hole in the wall, then be shot with his own gun.” Grace frowned. “Didn’t anyone hear the shots?”

“Not according to the police report. Officer Altrez had a team canvass the neighborhood that afternoon.”

“Wouldn’t you expect people to have heard them? How much noise would the shots have made?”

“It’s not a quiet gun,” mused Jake, “but it was a cold morning. People would have been inside with the windows closed, listening to the ‘Pokes game or watching TV. The nearest neighbors, maybe, but a few houses down, probably wouldn’t have carried that far.”

“Where’s the gun?” asked Kristy, writing her question on the board as she said it.