No One Else to Kill (Jim West Series) (19 page)

I’ve seen many a solid alibi go down the drain before, but
I tended to agree with him that the
Bettes
were
innocent.

I nodded.
 
“Discover
any remote connections that the staff might have had with them?”

“Nope,” he said.

“I’ve talked to a couple of the employees, too, and I
can’t see them involved either.”

“Which takes us back to our original suspects, and other
than a couple parking tickets, they all appear squeaky clean.”

“Have any of them admitted leaving the shooting range, or
been identified by the others as leaving the range for a few minutes about the
same time someone shot Cross?”

“All of them went in and out of that building that housed
the range.
One to make a call, one to receive one, one to
look for a different rifle sight, and so on.
It’s almost like they are
clouding the whole thing on purpose.”

I thought about what he said for a few seconds.
 
Unless Cross had done something very bad to
all of them, I couldn’t believe they were all in this together.

“Have you determined the value of the company?” I asked.

“A lot based on my standards, and people have been killed
for a lot less.
 
Mrs.
Schutte
would receive the most on paper, but as a minority owner of the company she’s
done well. The disruption to the business, if not the total breakup would be
bad for them all, including her.
 
I mean
if you’re making a hundred dollars a week and have the potential to do that for
a year or two, why throw that away for a quick thousand?”

“I get your point.
 
Plus, I can’t see Geri lifting her up and maneuvering that rope around
her neck.”

“I can’t either,” he said.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, not really expecting an
answer.

“They’re going to leave tomorrow.
 
A couple of them have already talked to a
lawyer, someone’s brother.
 
They know we
can’t keep them much longer. We’re doing another round of interviews here this
time.
 
Maybe we can shake something
out.
 
That’s why I wanted you to come to
the station, too.
 
I’d like them to think
we also put you through the ringer.”

“I take it that you’d like me to see what they might be
saying when they get back to the lodge.”

He nodded.

“They’ve already locked me out. They aren’t talking to
me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.
 
No doubt one, two, or more of them know for
sure that I’m not the killer, but they’ve created an atmosphere among the group
that I’m the likely suspect.
 
That or
they already suspect me talking to you about them.”

“Damn.
 
Well, still,
do what you can.
 
We need to wrap this up
in the next day or two or it’ll become very difficult.”

I knew that everyone’s departure out of not only the local
jurisdiction, but out of state, would severely hamper the authorities’ ability
to resolve the two murders.

“Is there anyone in the hunting group that you believe you
can eliminate as a suspect?”

“No,” he said shaking his head. “They all have given each
other an alibi for the first killing and none of them admit to knowing anything
that can help us on the second.”

“How about, Geri,
Mrs
Schutte
?
 
Were you
able to verify that she might have taken the medication?”

“No, but even if we did, we wouldn’t know if she took it
before or after Randi’s death.”

“That’s true. Guess you can’t arrest them all and see what
shakes out.”

“Not unless I’d like to change careers shortly
thereafter.”

“I know,” I said.
 
“Look, I’ll do what I can, but I’m just a civilian now. I’m retired and
I don’t know these people. I don’t think they like me or trust me, so don’t get
your hopes up.”

He grinned, “Aren’t you curious?”

“Sure I am.
 
I’m
also a bit irritated because I had started to like Randi, and I thought Benson
was a nice enough guy.”

“I’ve heard some interesting things about you, Jim.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear.”

“I don’t, but I’ll be honest with you. We need some help
with this one, and I’m not too proud to ask for it.”

I didn’t know who he had talked to or what he had read in
a file somewhere, but I imagined if he looked hard enough he would find more
than a few people in law enforcement who considered me a nuisance or worse.
Since my retirement from the Air Force, fate had sent me down a journey I would
never have chosen for myself.

We talked for a few more minutes before young Brent walked
me back through the maze to the exit.

 
Starbucks sat on a corner next to a gas
station and a hardware store not far from the Sheriff’s offices.
 
My presence doubled the customer total, and I
had no trouble finding a table I liked.

I hadn’t planned on having a one person pity party; I just
knew I was agitated.
 
What in the world
had happened to me in the past five years?
 
I had been happily married and a content career officer and special
agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
 
The divorce had come out of the blue, and my
world had spun out of control.

My goal of living a peaceful life post-divorce and getting
things back in order hadn’t happened.
 
My
initial hope that my ex would come to her senses and want me back had dwindled
away to a mere fantasy. Worse yet, since my departure from what had been
reality to me pre-divorce, I had found myself in a hostile world where way too
often I’d been forced to confront evil and danger. It’s not that I didn’t have
to face similar threats in the service, but back then I was in control with a
lot of resources behind me. I felt like someone else pulled my strings now and
I had completely lost control.

I knew what had started my introspection. Detective
Bruno’s remark that he had checked into me and implied he knew me.
 
Since my so called retirement I had heard
that before, too many times.
 
What he had
heard about me wasn’t really me, at least not in my eyes, and I should know,
right?
 
He had heard about the Jim West
whom fate had seized way too often lately. Once she had him, Fate had
repeatedly tossed that Jim West into the arena where, like a gladiator, he had
to fight his way out or die.

I wanted to be left alone.
 
I felt like I had finally evolved to the point where I wanted a serious
relationship with a woman. The last few years, my emotional baggage had ruined
any potential with the few women I had met, and there weren’t a whole lot of
them in Clovis anyway. I had met a few, I thought, who held some potential, but
they lived nowhere near Clovis.
 
Maybe
that explained why they still held potential.

A car shot down the road in front of the coffee shop and
distracted me.
 
A small, blue Mazda, but
its driver, not the car, caught my eye. It looked like Bev from the lodge.
 
The sight brought me back to the
present.
 
I wondered if she lived around
here, where she might be going, and if she would be working later today at the
lodge.

I finished my coffee and left Starbucks.
 
I needed to toughen up a little. Bruno’s
remark shouldn’t have bothered me so much, and I had to admit that I had
allowed myself to become a little melodramatic.
 
I hadn’t been tossed into any so called arena on this trip.
 
I could try to assist Bruno a little before I
left, but despite my personal curiosity, this was his problem to solve, not
mine.

I aimed my car toward the lodge, down the same road that
Bev had taken a few minutes earlier. Clouds covered the sky and made the
afternoon gloomy. It looked like we were in for more rain, but for the moment,
whatever precipitation was out there held off.
 
I knew snow had fallen lightly in this area about ten days ago, and
while it might be nice to see, I didn’t want to have to drive through it
tomorrow when I returned home.

About half way back to the lodge, I drove up and over a
small rise in the road.
 
As I started
down the other side, I saw that the road leveled off a few hundred yards in
front of me, and, at that spot, the road seemed to turn from grey to black. It
took me a brief second to remember the puddles I had driven through on my way
into town.
 
I took my foot off the gas
and tapped my brakes.

I hit the puddle at what I thought would be a safe speed
and was therefore surprised when the puddle still tried to take my steering
away from me.
 
With a little difficulty,
I kept the car in my lane and reached the safety of the dry road.
 
The puddle was actually a fast moving stream
of water running across this low spot in the road.
 
Somewhere up higher in the mountains the rain
must have been heavy.

At the same time that I fought the steering, I noticed a
blue car off to my right half hidden in the bushes. Once past the water in the
road, I braked and pulled off onto the dirt and grass that made up the shoulder
to the road.
 
I left my flashers on and
climbed out of my car to check out the blue car.
 
It looked a lot like the one Bev had driven
out of town.

Approaching it, I could see the tracks that the car had
made in the soft, wet ground.
 
They led
right back to the point where the water ran across the road. Up close I could
see that there didn’t appear to be much damage to the car. What I didn’t see
was the driver. I looked around and didn’t see anyone, but the thick forest
blocked most of my vision away from the road.

I looked into the driver’s side window but didn’t see
anything. I wondered if this was even the same car I had seen Bev drive, or for
that matter, if Bev was actually the driver of that car.

A snap of a nearby twig caught my attention. I looked up
and saw Bev walk into view.

“My hero,” she said. “Have you come to rescue me?”

“Of course,” I smiled. “Are you okay?”

“Nothing hurt but my car.
 
It’s stuck, and I think the right front wheel may be bent.”

“Want me to try to rock it while you try to back it out?”

“No, I’ve already called Simon.”

“Simon?”

“He works at a towing service.
 
He also has the apartment down from mine.”

“Okay, I’ll wait here with you until he arrives.”

“I have a better idea,” she said.

“What’s that?”

“I’ll leave my car here for Simon, and you can give me a
ride to the lodge.
 
That’s where you’re
going, right?”

“Yeah, but won’t you need to be here?”

“No, he already told me if I got a ride before he showed
up just to leave the keys under the passenger floor mat.”

“Well then, let’s go.”

“Love the car,” she said as she climbed in. “Put the top
down, please.”

“Might rain.”

“Then we’ll put it back up.”

I couldn’t argue with her logic. “It’ll be a bit nippy.”

“Good.”

I turned the heater on full blast to try to compensate for
the cool air that blew in on us. It helped, and I had to admit the car is
always much more fun with the top down.
 
I looked over at Bev.
 
She had
tilted the seat back further and was stretched out, eyes close, breathing in
the fresh air.
 
Her left leg stretched
out straight and her right leg bent at the knee.
 
Her conservative, nearly knee length, black
dress rode up dangerously high.
 
I willed
my focus back to the road ahead of us.
 
It wasn’t easy.

“What time are you supposed to be at work?” I asked.

One eye opened and peered at me.
“When I
get there - no hurry.
 
Hmm… this
is nice. On a warm sunny day, you’ll have to take me on a long drive.” She
closed her eye again, but suddenly opened both. “I almost forgot. I can’t
believe it. How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay.”

“You found her last night.
 
That must have been awful.”

“It was.”