Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

My stomach was churning. “He talks about her in the past tense,” I said slowly.

Hope gave her head a little shake as though I’d interrupted her train of thought. “What do you mean?”

“When Marcus or Travis talk about Dani they do the same thing as Tanith Jeffery just did. They talk about her in the present tense. Like she’s not gone.”

“That happens a lot.”

“Not when John’s talking about her.”

That got me her full attention. “Are you sure?”

I nodded.

Hope picked up her cup, realized it was empty and set it down again. I got up and got the coffeepot, pouring a refill for both of us.

“He has an alibi,” she said. “He was with Rebecca. I talked to her myself.”

I added cream and sugar to my cup. I wasn’t sure what to say. Hope was a good detective. It didn’t feel right to pick up the phone and check with Rebecca. I glanced down at Hercules, who looked pointedly toward the backyard. I knew what his vote was.

“Go ahead,” Hope said.

I frowned at her over my coffee. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Call Rebecca.”

“I believe you,” I said.

She pulled a hand through her dark curls. “I appreciate that. Call her anyway. It’s better if you do it than if I do.”

“Murr,” Hercules said at my feet.

Hope smiled. “See? He agrees with me. Call Rebecca.”

I reached for my cell phone on the counter.

“I’ve been thinking about your mother’s journals,” I said when Rebecca answered.

“You’re thinking John might have missed something.”

“Something like that.”

“I’m sorry, dear,” she said. “But I think you’re grasping at straws. That young man was so excited to see those notebooks. He took them and went right back to his motel room. He couldn’t wait to start reading them.” She sighed. “I wish he’d been able to find something that helped in them.”

I put my free hand palm down on the table and swallowed before I spoke again. “John took your mother’s books back to the motel?”

“Yes, but he took very good care of them and he brought them all back.”

“That’s uh, that’s good,” I said.

“Do you want me to bring them over?” Rebecca asked.

Hope was watching me. I couldn’t read anything from her expression.

“No,” I said. “If John didn’t find anything, I don’t think I would.” I thanked her and hung up.

Hope put her head in her hands. “I didn’t ask the right question,” she said. “I asked her if Keller had come to her house to see her mother’s journals. I didn’t ask if he stayed.” She lifted her head and looked at me. “That was stupid.”

“You thought you had it covered.”

“But I didn’t,” she said.

“Where did he get the car?” I asked, dropping one leg and curling the other underneath me. Hercules saw that as a sign to jump up onto my lap.

Hope looked blankly at me. “What car?”

“Dani was hit by a car and then the killer put her body over the side of that embankment. Dani and the two men had two vehicles. On the day of the murder she had one and Travis had the other. Where did John get a vehicle if he ran her down?”

I felt as though my brain at the moment looked like the kids’ game Mouse Trap and all I needed to happen was for all the little pieces to fall into place so the trap would fall down on the killer. On John, because now I was certain that’s what he was. “You know that they had no permission to be on the actual property that was going to be part of the development other than that little piece Ruby owns?”

“Right.”

Hercules nuzzled my hand and I began to stroke his fur. His attention was still on Hope. “I think John was actually on the lakeside property. He alluded to having been there. It’s rough, hilly, boggy-in-places terrain. Could some kind of cut down Jeep or truck have caused the injuries that Dani had?”

“It’s possible,” Hope said. She rubbed at the creases in her forehead. “I’d have to see it to be sure. That still doesn’t answer the questions though; how did John get a vehicle?”

“The big red barn.”

“You mean Hollister’s? The place that sells the vegetables?” I could see the skepticism on her face. I would have felt the same way if not for the conversation I’d had with Maggie and Roma the night Maggie made pizza.

“They have a little under-the-table side business selling old vehicles for off-roading—I’m guessing they’re not licensed, either. I know John knows the place because he brought me a bag of apples from there as a thank-you for all my help.”

Hope got to her feet.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to drive out there and see what I can find.” She pulled her keys out of her pocket.

I stood up as well and set Hercules on the floor. “You’re not going to call Detective Foster?”

“And tell him what? John Keller has a hole in his alibi and we think he’s the killer because the victim’s girlfriend thought there was something off about him?”

“I’m going with you, then,” I said.

“You’re not a detective.”

“And you’re not on this case.”

We stared at each other for a moment. “We’re taking my car. It has four-wheel drive,” Hope finally said.

I grabbed a hoodie and my phone. Hercules followed us. I stopped in the porch and bent down to his level. “You can’t go with us. Stay here.” I wanted to say “No walking though the door” but with Hope standing there I couldn’t. He immediately looked at Hope.

She shrugged. “Does he get carsick?”

“No,” I said, “but on occasion he will try to give directions.”

“What the heck,” she said. “Let him come. Maybe he’ll bring us good luck.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

She nodded. “We’re just a couple of women driving around with our cat, looking for a little piece of land to buy to build a getaway, maybe plant some flowers, make a fire pit, explore the woods in some kind of off-road vehicle.”

I smiled at her. “You’re good.”

She smiled back. “I didn’t get the badge for sending in two box tops and answering a time-limited skill-testing question.”

14

The big red barn was up the road a little from Wisteria Hill. Unlike Roma’s place, which was set back from the road, the barn and the old farmhouse were easy to spot. The farm stand was out by the road with the barn off to the right and the old house on a slight slope of land to the left. Both the old house and the barn had a list to one side, as though they’d gotten tired of standing upright over the years.

Hope pulled in next to a couple of cars. “Look at the pumpkins, check out the squash and apples. Watch. Listen. That’s it.”

“Stay here, please,” I said to Hercules as we got out of the car.

There were a couple of ladder-back chairs by the end of the vegetable stand. Hope walked over to them and tipped her head on one side as though she was trying to picture them arranged somewhere. Gerald Hollister spied her and headed in her direction. I made my way over to the bushel baskets, arranged on a couple of long low tables. Two other women were checking out pumpkins. And I realized I knew the woman waiting on them. Her son was one of the new first-graders added to our Reading Buddies program.

I could get bits and pieces of Hope’s conversation with the old man, and she wasn’t getting anywhere. He offered the two chairs to her for way more than I knew they had to be worth. And when she mentioned she’d heard he might be able to help her with an off-road vehicle he told her flat out whoever had told her that was steering her wrong.

Hope took it all in stride, shrugging and saying it must have been someone else. She pointed at the old barn and asked if Hollister had any more chairs. He told her no—another lie, I was guessing.