Beverly Connor - The Night Killer

“You have visitors?” said David.

“Mike and Neva are back,” she said.

“Really?” David’s voice brightened. “Tell Neva to get her little butt over here and get to work. We need her.”

Diane relayed the message.

“Tell David I still have a few days left on my vacation,” she said, loud enough for David to hear.

“Yeah, right,” said David. “At least ask her and Mike to join us for dinner.”

Diane did, and the two of them accepted.

“Now, what do you have?” asked Diane.

“His name is William Steven Dugal,” said David. “Isn’t that the guy Andie is dating?” he asked. “You aren’t checking up on him, are you?”

“Yes. And I have good reason,” she said.

“Still, this can get a little dicey. I mean, if it were me. .” he said.

“What else do you have, or are you going to plead this as an ethics violation?” said Diane.

“No, I’m just trying to make sure I know what’s going on. He’s retired navy. I don’t have details yet. However, what flagged his prints was his license. He’s a private detective. Which, I’ll admit, may make your snooping justified,” he said.

Diane went still for a moment. Private detective. What the hell?

“Are you still there?” asked David.

“I recognized his voice earlier today,” said Diane.

“Recognized? You’ve heard him speak before? Where?” asked David.

“In the woods,” said Diane.

She heard David’s surprise. “Damn. He’s the guy you met in the woods? The one who gave you the knife and rain gear? The one you went out of your way to keep Sheriff Conrad from being tempted to railroad?”

“Yes,” said Diane, “the same.”

“You’re sure?” he said.

“I recognized the voice, but if you are asking if I could be mistaken. . of course, there is always a chance. But he has a very distinctive voice,” said Diane.

“I see why you want to investigate him.” David was silent a moment. “And that certainly makes the detective thing interesting, not to mention his interest in Andie.” He sighed. “Well, this could be messy. How are you going to handle it?”

“I don’t know,” said Diane. “Is there a firm involved, or is it self-employment?”

Diane was making an effort to disguise the topic of her conversation as much as possible from Mike and Neva. She didn’t want Andie’s business to become public knowledge, even if the public in question were good friends.

“He has a partner. Apparently they own the agency together. The partner’s name is Louis Ruben. The name of the agency is Peachtree Investigative Services,” said David.

“So he’s in Atlanta,” said Diane.

“Looks like it,” said David.

“Anything else?” asked Diane.

“The Web site says he was a captain when he retired,” said David.

“Is that good?” said Diane. “I know that’s ignorant, but I have no idea how that system works.”

“Yes, I think that’s very good,” said David.

“You think it’s true?” asked Diane.

“I don’t think he could get away with having that on his Web site if it weren’t,” said David.

“Thanks,” said Diane.

“This is strange,” said David.

“I know,” agreed Diane.

“What was he doing in the woods? Not photographing owls, I’ll bet,” David said.

“Probably not,” said Diane.

Diane and David hung up and she turned her attention to Neva and Mike, who looked at her with interest. She smiled at them.

“We’re going to meet in the restaurant about sevenish,” said Diane.

“It’ll be good to see everyone again,” said Neva. “I feel like I’ve been gone a year.”

Diane started to respond, but was interrupted when Andie walked through the doorway-followed by Liam Dugal himself.

Andie’s face was a still mask, but her eyes were moist and Diane could see she was holding back tears.

“Liam would like to speak with you,” she said, her chin held high.

“Very well,” said Diane. She locked gazes with Liam Dugal.

Neva and Mike exchanged glances.

“Andie,” said Neva, “we’re going to hang this in Diane’s other office. Why don’t you come help us?”

Andie nodded and swept out of the room.

Diane watched her go and turned her gaze back to Liam. He had also watched her leave and was still looking at the closed door. Diane gestured to a chair and he turned and sat down slowly, as if testing for some lethal trap she might have installed in the seat.

“What kind of detective work were you doing in the woods the night we met?” said Diane.

He raised his eyebrows. “You recognized me?” he said.

“I heard your voice this morning and recognized it,” she said.

“And you looked up my name on the Internet?”

“I got your fingerprints off the glass you were drinking from,” said Diane. “I didn’t trust that you gave Andie your correct name.” Diane leaned forward, resting her arms on her desk, and glared at him. “You know, Andie is a good, kind, trusting person. Using her to get to. . to get whatever you are after is small and mean.”

At least he had the good grace to wince, thought Diane.

“It wasn’t my intention to use her. That was, uh, a happy accident,” he said.

“Happy accident? Andie didn’t look very happy just now. Did you confess your duplicity to her?”

“I was going to, but she guessed it first. Andie’s very smart. I thought I had sufficiently couched my interest in your recent archaeology acquisition as an interest in Indian artifacts. I also thought I had spread out my questions about you so they wouldn’t arouse her suspicion. However, Andie guessed. She apparently has more suspicion and cleverness than either of us credited her with.”

“Somehow I thought you would be more contrite. You were kind to me in the woods-for which I’m grateful. It led me to expect more self-reproach from you,” she said.

“Did you really expect better of me, or were you afraid I killed the Barres and the Watsons?” he said.

“Did you?” asked Diane.

“No, I did not. I wouldn’t have left such a mess,” he said.

“How do you know what kind of mess was left?” said Diane.

“I know their throats were cut, and that leaves a mess. Look,” he said, moving his chair forward and leaning toward Diane, “in the interest of disclosure, I could have killed them any number of clean ways. In the woods you told me I might be able to overpower you, but you could hurt me in the process. You couldn’t have. It’s not bragging. It’s just a fact. I can kill, but I didn’t. And like you said, I did try to help. And for the record, you made the right decision to refuse it. Not because I would have harmed you, but on general principles.”

“What were you doing in the woods? Why are you interested in a bunch of arrowheads?” asked Diane.

“I’m not interested in the arrowheads. I’m interested in the diaries,” he said, settling back in the chair.

Diane cocked an eyebrow. “Indeed? Had you approached the Barres?” she asked.

“I spoke with them at the Waffle House in Renfrew. I was working up to it. You don’t just start off asking if you can see their grandfather’s diaries,” he said.

“You do if you are an honest person,” she said.

“I couldn’t be honest. I had to be discreet,” he said.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me your story?” said Diane.

“I will, but also for the record, it wasn’t my intention to approach Andie and use her. My intention was to feign an interest in the Indian artifacts in relation to courses I was interested in taking, and see if I could get a look at the diaries. This is a research museum, or so I was told. I was going to speak to the archaeology collections manager. I was going to use what I figured were proper channels. I needed directions to the manager’s office and Andie was there to give them-and she was your assistant. She was charming and helpful and was interested in me. We had instant chemistry. My asking her out wasn’t completely about getting information.”