Ghostly Graveyard (Zoe Donovan Cozy Mystery Book 17) (13 page)

I picked the kids up from school and dropped them at the house, then decided maybe it was time for me to have another chat with Lesserman. I didn’t like the guy, but I was interested in what, if anything, he’d managed to discover, as well as whether he’d found Duncan’s car. I couldn’t believe I actually missed Salinger, but I did. I hoped his cruise wasn’t going to be a long one. I was pretty sure he was halfway to nowhere when I’d spoken to him.

“Hey, Janice. I’ve come to speak to the beast. Is he around?”

“Salinger is still on vacation. I don’t expect him back for another week.”

“Actually,” I clarified, “that wasn’t the beast I was referring to. I’ve come to speak to Lesserman.”

“I’m afraid he isn’t here either. I expect him back in a couple of hours if you want to check back. Fair warning, though: he still thinks you’re a prime suspect in Duncan Wright’s murder. I know there have been several people who have vouched for you, including me, but his mind seems to be made up.”

“What a waste.” I sighed. “If he thinks I’m the killer I doubt he’s looking very hard for the person who actually did it.”

“Yeah, I suppose that’s true to a point, but I will say he’s actually been working on the case.”

“Can you at least tell me if he’s recovered Duncan’s car?”

Janice hesitated.

“Come on. You know I didn’t do it, and you know I have the best shot at solving this in Salinger’s absence.”

“No car,” Janice said. “They didn’t find it at the scene and they didn’t find it anywhere else either. Lesserman thinks maybe Duncan arrived at the graveyard with someone who used the car to leave the scene of the murder after he was killed.”

I frowned. “Based on the account of a source, the car was still there for some time after Duncan was most likely murdered.”

Janice shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s just what Lesserman came up with. How reliable is your source?”

“Not very,” I admitted.

“If you talk to Lesserman please don’t bring up the car thing. He’ll most likely assume I told you about the car and I don’t want to lose my job.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell. Do you know if Lesserman has searched the mine site?”

“I know he was up there, but I don’t think he found anything. Not that he tells me every single detail, but the guy hates to type, so he has me handle the daily reports on his progress that he’s sending to the main office.”

I realized Lesserman’s laziness might work out well for me if I could keep Janice talking.

“When I was up there I saw the yellow caution tape wrapped around the trailer. I also noticed the interior of the trailer was trashed. Do you happen to know if that happened before Lesserman found it, or did he trash it himself, looking for clues?”

“It was already trashed. His notes indicate it was obvious that someone was there looking for something.”

“Did he speculate whether he thought they found what they were looking for?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Do you have any reason to believe Lesserman might go up to the mine site this afternoon?”

“You’re going to go snoop,” Janice accused me.

“Not snoop. Just look around.”

“Looking around is snooping, but no, I don’t think he’ll be up at the mine site today. I think he figures he’s learned as much as he can about what may or may not have happened from the site.”

I smiled my friendliest smile. “I know it’s your job to keep things confidential. And I do appreciate your sharing information with me. I promise I won’t mention any part of our conversation to Deputy Clueless.”

Janice tried not to smile, but I could see she was fighting the urge.

“I do have one more tiny little question and then I promise I’ll leave you alone.”

“What?” Janice asked warily.

“Do you know if Lesserman has any pages that might come from a very old letter in evidence?”

Janice frowned. “A letter?”

“I found the first page of a letter Duncan had that was written over a hundred years ago. It seems there were additional pages I didn’t find. I thought they might have been on his person when he was murdered.”

Janice logged onto her computer, then pulled up a file. She squinted her eyes as she considered the information in front of her. “I don’t see a mention of a letter or any other type of correspondence.”

“Okay, thanks. Have a wonderful rest of your day.”

I left the sheriff’s office and headed toward the mine. I remembered Ethan expressing interest in looking around there, but I had a busy evening and didn’t want to waste time tracking him down. Besides, I didn’t plan to spend a lot of time up there myself. If Lesserman was done with the place, I reasoned, there couldn’t be any harm in my looking at the interior of the trailer. I sort of doubted I’d find anything, but it couldn’t hurt to look for myself.

I should have turned around and headed home the minute I saw the car parked behind the trailer. I didn’t recognize the vehicle, but if there was someone else at the mine chances were they were up to no good. Of course, my totally illogical Zoe logic allowed me to convince myself that the car must belong to someone else who was curious about what Duncan had been doing up here on the hill.

After I parked I looked around. I didn’t see anyone, so I decided to look in the trailer and then head home. A quick glance through the open doorway gave evidence to the fact that no one had been by to clean up the mess that had been left by the prowler. I noticed broken glass on the floor, so I took Charlie back to wait in the car. No use risking an injury to his little paws.

I didn’t really know what I was looking for, but I guess I figured when I saw it I would recognize it. I sort of hoped to find the missing page or pages to the letter, but even I realized that was asking for a lot. Duncan was an unpopular man who seemed to have made a lot of enemies. Maybe I’d find evidence of someone sending him threatening letters. But the only thing I found that seemed important at all was a stack of keno cards from a casino two states away. I sort of doubted it was relevant to the current case, but it did seem to lend support to the fact that Duncan had a gambling problem.

The man sure had accumulated a lot of junk considering he’d only been in the area for three weeks. And when had he had time to go to the casino? I supposed it was a short flight, but it seemed like quite an extravagance to travel that distance for an overnight trip. I didn’t know much about gambling addictions, but I supposed a true addict would do what he needed to do to get his fix.

I stood in the center of the trailer and looked around. I’d really hoped to find something a bit more relevant. Of course Duncan had hidden the letter and other items I’d found, so the chances of him leaving anything important in the trailer had been slim to none. I was about to give up and go home when I heard a noise behind me. I turned to find a man standing in the doorway.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“I told you when we spoke before. Sometimes I do research for the sheriff’s office. That’s what I’m doing now. Research. That still doesn’t tell me what you’re doing here. You know this is a crime scene.”

“You here by yourself?” the man asked.

I thought of Charlie. “No, I’m here with my partner.”

The man looked around. “Don’t see no partner.”

“He’s up in the mine.” I needed to gain control of this situation and fast. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. This is private property.”

The man glared at me. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m looking for the gold mine, and I’m willing to bet that’s what you’re really doing here as well.”

I frowned. “What gold mine? The old mine has been dried up for years.”

“Not according to Duncan. He said he had a map to a gold mine. When I realized he was staying up here I figured this was where he found the gold.”

I paused as I tried to make sense of what Gus was telling me. “The mine Duncan was referring to wasn’t an actual gold mine,” I explained. “He just used the term to indicate that he believed he was coming into some money.”

“Yeah, he tried telling me that story too,” Gus growled. “He thought he’d convince me that the fortune he was after was in the old cemetery. He even got me to go to the cemetery to look for it. He said once he found what he was looking for he would have plenty of money to pay me and everyone else back. But when we got to the cemetery and followed the clues they just led to a tombstone, not a treasure.”

“A tombstone? Do you know which tombstone?”

“I was too mad to ask.”

“So you killed him,” I realized.

“The man had been stringing me along for months. I should have killed him, but I didn’t. Still, I might need to kill you if I don’t want everyone finding out about the gold mine.”

“There is no gold mine,” I shouted.

How dumb was this guy? When I noticed he had a gun I realized that wasn’t the most important question of the moment.

“Look, I don’t want the gold. Honest. My husband is a zillionaire. I don’t need the money.”

The man grinned. A really sick, crooked-tooth grin that, combined with his thin, pale face, made him look like a real monster.

“Nice try, but you aren’t going anywhere.”

“Are you going to shoot me?”

“No. I have a better idea.”

Once I realized Gus’s better idea involved my being locked in a dark, airtight room that had been used as a safe when the old mine was operational, I found myself wishing he’d just shot me. The idea of slowly suffocating to death in an airless chamber terrified me more than I could say. I began to sob as I heard the man’s car pull away. There was no way anyone was going to find me before the oxygen in my tomb ran out.

I needed to try to calm down. To stop hyperventilating. I was using the available air at twice the necessary rate. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t realize how dark it was and tried to think calming thoughts. The party the following night with all my friends and family. I really had been looking forward to that. And my romantic trip with Zak. He was going to be devastated. And Charlie. He wouldn’t understand why I’d left him in the car and never come back.

I wiped the tears that were steaming down my face with the back of my hand. Thinking of those I loved and would leave behind was too painful. It would be better not to think at all. I tried to shut off my mind and shallow my breath. I’d read somewhere that yogis could live for days with very little air. Maybe someone would find me if I could hang on for days rather than hours.

I’m not sure how much time passed. There was no way to gauge the minutes as they turned to hours. I felt myself begin to drift off as my breath became labored. I was on the verge of giving in to the darkness when I heard cars pulling up outside. I tried to yell, but I didn’t have the strength.

I closed my eyes and began to sob when I heard the shots. I was sure that, once again, Zak had come to my rescue, but this time he’d gotten himself killed for his efforts. I’d thought Gus had left, but he must have returned. If Zak was dead I didn’t want to live. Part of me wanted to give in to the urge to gasp the last of the air, but I thought of those who would mourn me. I used the last of my strength to pound on the door.

I began to black out as I heard a noise on the other side of the door. I looked up as a loud explosion accompanied the opening of the door. I took a deep breath and began to sob when the last person I expected to see crashing into the room appeared. He ran forward and gathered me in his arms. He carried me out into the fresh air.

“What are you doing here?” I sobbed.

“I couldn’t very well let anything happen to my lucky charm, now could I?”

“I bet you were surprised to see Salinger’s face when he came crashing through the door,” Levi joked later that evening, after everyone had gathered to finish preparing for the party.

“I couldn’t have been any more surprised if it was the Loch Ness monster that came to rescue me.”

“It was actually really sweet of him to cut his cruise short and fly home,” Ellie added.

“It
was
sweet and I’m very grateful. I even invited him to the party tomorrow when I was finished sobbing, but he thought that might be pushing the friendship thing a little far.”

“How did he know where to find you?” Ellie asked.

“I told Janice I wanted to check out the old mine and she mentioned it to Salinger when he showed up at the office. I’m glad he realized I’d made a mess of things and came after me right away. If he hadn’t I wouldn’t have made it out alive.”

I stood on tiptoe to string orange lights around the banister. We already had white lights there, but Zak had decided we needed orange as well. To be honest, I think his last-minute decorating frenzy is his way of dealing with the fact that I almost died. Again. He was pretty upset I’d gone out to the mine without telling him what I was doing, and I’d had to promise like a million times that from now on I’d bring him with me whenever I went sleuthing.

Of course, if he had been with me, he wouldn’t have had a gun, so we would most likely both have ended up in the airless room. With two of us breathing we would have lasted half the time and would most likely both be dead. I decided not to point that out, however, because he probably realized that, and my little near-death experience really had shaken him up.