Кэти Дэйли - The Secret Of Logan Pond

Well, that was disappointing. It did seem that Paisley had a pretty decent theory. “Do you have any new theories since the last time we spoke? I feel like the case has hit a bit of a wall.”

“I have to admit this investigation isn’t coming together the way I’d hoped. I’ve spoken to most of the neighbors to the right, to the left, and across the street for five houses in each direction, and no one saw anything that will help. I also spoke to the man who lives on the street behind Bobby. They share a back fence. He mentioned a man with a blue cap in the area too, but he didn’t have any more information than that, other than to say he heard the shot too. Unless I can find someone who knows who the man in the blue hat was, I’m not sure that lead will help, but I am continuing my search, and there were a few neighbors who weren’t at home when I was by who I want to catch up with.”

“Did you find anything in Bobby’s phone or bank records?” I asked.

“No. They seem pretty routine. The bank records show his paycheck being deposited, but most weeks, Bobby took most of that out in cash, which I assume he drank and gambled away. There were some cash deposits, which might have resulted from those instances when he actually came away from a poker game a victor. I’m still trying to track down the source of those deposits, but several of them were for more than a grand. As far as outgoing money, there were a few checks for utilities and regular bills, but it did appear he was behind on all his obligations.”

“I guess his being behind with his child support is sort of how this all started,” I said. “If he hadn’t gotten the phone call from his ex-wife telling him to go home before he gambled away all his money, he wouldn’t have come through the door at the exact moment the person with the gun had been standing there waiting to shoot him.”

Cass paused. “You make a good point. I was able to verify that the ex-wife couldn’t have shot him, but I really hadn’t stopped to consider whether she still might have been involved in the whole thing. There were actually three people involved in the sequence of events that ensured that Bobby would die that afternoon. I’m not saying all three were intentionally involved, but it is an angle I hadn’t previously considered.”

“Three people?” I asked, trying to catch up with Cass’s train of thought.

“Bobby was at Jack’s Place where he’d been drinking and looking for a poker game on the day he was shot. If he had found a poker game, he wouldn’t have made it home until hours and hours after he actually did go home. If the person who shot him had already been inside the house when Bobby arrived, which I suspect, it seems unlikely they would have still been there hours and hours later if Bobby hadn’t come home early as he had.”

“So if the ex-wife hadn’t called Bobby and told him to go home, he wouldn’t have gone home when he did and quite possibly wouldn’t have been shot and killed by the intruder. At least not on that particular day.”

“Exactly. And when I spoke to Tamara, she said the reason she called Bobby and told him to go home was because someone she knew was at the bar and had called her to give her a heads up that Bobby was looking for a game.”

“And if that person hadn’t called her, she wouldn’t have called Bobby, who wouldn’t have gone home, and most likely wouldn’t have gotten shot,” I said, finally catching up to where the three people idea Cass was talking about came from. “Are you saying that all three were working together?”

“Not necessarily. And I’m not sure at this point that the goal was even to kill Bobby.” Cass hesitated and then continued. “There are a couple ways to look at this. Say the goal of the person who broke into Bobby’s home actually was to kill him. Say he went to Bobby’s to put a bullet in his head, but he wasn’t there. Maybe at this point, he suspected that Bobby might be at the bar, so he called someone he knew would be at the bar and asked if Bobby was there. Maybe this person confirmed he was at the bar, but the person at the house needed him to be home, so either the person at the bar or the person at the house called Bobby’s ex-wife and convinced her that she should call Bobby and persuade him to go home.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense in a really convoluted sort of way. The person at the bar and the ex-wife might have been unknowing and unwilling accomplices to the killer. You said there were two ways of looking at it.”

“If the person in Bobby’s house was there to steal something and not to kill Bobby, he wouldn’t necessarily have wanted Bobby to come home, but maybe the person who called the ex-wife is actually the one to want him dead, so he called Tamara and set a series of events in motion that would end with Bobby’s death. Of course, it’s just as likely that no one wanted him dead. The person who shot him could simply have been at the house to execute a burglary, but Bobby showed up early, and the burglar shot him when he realized he’d be caught.”

“It seems that unless we can actually establish a motive, it’s going to be hard to nail this down. The list of suspects who would actually want Bobby dead is going to be different from the list of suspects who might simply have known that Bobby was at the bar and used that information to break into his home to steal something. Did Bobby have anything worth stealing?” I asked.

“Not really. The watch Snake was after had some value, but I’m not sure anyone would break into his home in the middle of the day to steal that. His home has been searched, and nothing of real value was found.”

“What if the person who broke in was after something other than an item with a cash value?” I asked.

“Like what?”

“Maybe photos or a letter or something that Bobby could use to hold over someone else.”

“You think Bobby was blackmailing someone?” Cass asked.

“You did say there were cash deposits that couldn’t be verified. Sure, Bobby might have won at poker from time to time and deposited the money into his account, but poker winnings aren’t the only explanation.”

Cass paused. I could see he was thinking about things as a variety of emotions crossed his face. “Someone in the house looking for something related to a blackmail scheme actually makes a lot more sense than someone breaking into the home in the middle of the day to steal valuables from a man who didn’t have any,” Cass admitted.

“When Bobby came home early, the person who broke in was interrupted. Maybe he or she didn’t find what they were looking for. Maybe it’s still there to find.”

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a look around. I’m assuming you want to come along.”

“I do. Do you want to pick me up?”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

Chapter 19

There was still yellow police tape across both the front and back door of Bobby’s home. The crime scene guys had already finished doing their thing with fibers and prints and whatnot, but Cass shared that he had a gut feeling there was something more to find, so hadn’t released the house to the family yet. After Cass gave me gloves, he pulled on his own, and then he let us both in through the front door.

“So, any idea what we’re looking for?” I asked.

“No idea. But if our theory is correct and Bobby had some sort of evidence he was using to blackmail someone, he wouldn’t leave it just lying around. It would most likely be in a safe or perhaps a locked file cabinet. I guess let’s start in the room he used for an office of sorts.”

The room Cass referred to held a desk, bookshelf, file cabinet, sofa, television, and a couple tables. It looked like the room actually served as both an office and a den. Cass started by looking through the file cabinet, so I turned my attention to the desk. The drawers were unlocked, and most held items such as pens, pads of paper, old files, tax statements, and coupons. I didn’t see anything that would be worth killing the guy over.