The Paper Detective. E. Joan Sims
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crawled under the fluffy down comforter on my bed.
I closed my eyes knowing that sleep was a long way off. There were too many things whizzing through my mind. It took longer than usual for my body heat to warm up the little cocoon between me and my duvet. I shivered and found myself wishing for the warmth of the big fireplace in Bert’s cabin.
With some effort, I managed to put all thoughts of Bert and the time we’d spent together out of my mind and concentrate on the problem at hand. After about an hour of brain work, I decided that something other than the magazine interview and Web page had directed Bert’s would-be killer to the cozy little cabin on the lake. The answer might be somewhere in one of my books, but I really had a hard time accepting that premise. It was far more logical to assume that the dead man really was one of Bert’s enemies. After all, he had spent a lifetime making them.
Before I fell asleep, I decided to go about finding the answer the same way Leonard would: eliminate the obvious before you worry about the unknown.
The next morning, I called Danny to ask some questions about the man his stepfather had shot.
“Miz DeLeon, you know I’m not allowed to tell you anything about a case under investigation.”
“I didn’t ask you who he was, Danny. I asked you if you knew who he was.”
“Well, okay, that’s different,” he sighed. “We ran his fingerprints through the national computer data base. We uncovered his identity late yesterday. More than that I really couldn’t say.”
“Just tell me this much, please,” I begged with my fingers crossed. “Where is he from?”
“Sorry, Miz DeLeon.”
I hung up the phone thinking that if I were still a possible candidate for mother-in-law, Danny might have been more forthcoming. But that was unfair. He was just doing his job. Then it occurred to me that he might have informed law enforcement agencies in neighboring counties of the incident. The Chief of Police in Rowan Springs was Andy Joiner. We had become good friends since I came back here to live. Maybe he would tell me what Danny had found out.
I always enjoyed driving to town. Each time I circled the courthouse square, I was happy that I had come back home again. Everywhere I looked, I saw a familiar smiling face. Rowan Springs was like the Baby Bear’s bowl of porridge, it was just right. It was small enough that you knew almost everyone, but large enough to maintain a semblance of privacy. I loved it.
Andy Joiner had been Chief of Police in Rowan Springs for the last ten years. He was fair and firm and fiercely honest. I trusted him, and his wife liked my books.
Andy’s new office was next to the station house of the fire department. Fire trucks were high on my list of favorite things. Rowan Springs had just bought a new one and I hadn’t seen it yet. Despite the cold weather, the huge garage door was open. Inside, two firemen in heavy sweaters and boots were waxing the big shiny red truck. I stood and watched admiringly as they polished mirrors and chrome fittings until they sparkled.
“You should see your face! That’s the same way Constance looks when we go by Wood’s Jewelry Store and she sees that diamond pendant she wants in the window.”
I turned and smiled at the tall rangy man in khakis.
“Buy it for her, Andy. I’m surprised you didn’t get it for Christmas.”
“You’re looking at the reason Connie didn’t get her pendant.”
“The fire truck? Why?”
He gave me a wry smile and tucked his big hands in his pockets.
“Come on in the office. It’s cold out here.”
Andy held the door open and ushered me inside. The four white walls of his new digs reminded me of the inside of a white plastic ice bucket. A few pieces of cheap chrome office furniture and ugly grey commercial carpet did nothing to warm the place. The run-down office he used to have on the other side of the square had a lot more character.
He sat uncomfortably stiff behind the white Formica table that was his new desk while I sat opposite him in an ugly black vinyl director’s chair. He looked at me from underneath bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows.
“Awful, ain’t it?” he acknowledged.
We looked at each other and laughed heartily. I finally wiped my eyes and answered him.
“I take it Constance didn’t get to decorate?”
“Something like that,” he nodded. “This is the new format for the state. All the new county offices have to follow the same pattern. The powers that be don’t want money spent on anything but the basics.”
“Give it some time, Andy. You’ll warm up the place. And those powers will probably be gone in another three years.”
“I just hope I can hold out until then.”
“What do you mean? Does that have something to do with the new fire truck, too?”
He got up, walked over to the window, and looked out at his town.
“With the fire truck and the new sewer line at Pumpkin Creek and the replacement pump for the water treatment plant. And probably a half dozen other big ticket items the community needs just as bad.”
He leaned back against the window ledge and faced me.
“This is a little town, Paisley, with a small tax base. There’s only so much money to go around. For the last couple of years it’s been touch and go to make the county payroll each month. I turned down my regular pay raise twice just so I wouldn’t have to let one of my men off. I don’t know how long I can keep that up. Connie and the kids deserve to have some of the things they want.”
I didn’t know what to say. The big shiny red fire truck I had so admired lost its luster. I remembered the lean years Cassie and I had spent after Rafe disappeared. It was tough to work hard and still not be able to provide enough for your children.
“Enough of my grousing,” he said. “Did you come to town to see that shiny red monster, or me?”
I smiled. “You, definitely, you. I was hoping you could help me with some information.”
“Unless it’s got something to do with that incident at Bert Atkins’s cabin at the lake a couple of day’s ago, I’ll be glad to help.”
My face said it all. He sat back in his flimsy chrome chair and laughed again.
“Come on, Paisley, you know the drill. I can’t tell you anything until Chief Hall makes a statement. And from what I hear, that won’t be anytime soon. You know Danny Hall. Why don’t you ask him?”
“I did. He won’t tell me anything. I was hoping you…”
“You were hoping I would be unprofessional and spill the beans?”
“Well, yes.” I gave him my sweetest and brightest smile. It didn’t work.
He scowled at me and shook his head.
“Danny Hall is a good man. A bit disappointed in love, I hear. But he’s a good man. And I’m every bit as good as he is. Maybe better, ’cause I’m older and more experienced. I will speculate that the motive was robbery. That’s obvious. Ever since Bert came into all that money and went to live in the woods alone, I’ve been expecting trouble.”
“All that money? What money? Bert’s rich?”
I was stunned.
Andy seemed surprised that I didn’t know.
“Yeah, Bert came into quite a large sum a year or so back. Right after he recovered from the gunshot wound. That’s when he announced he was taking early retirement.” Andy smiled ruefully. “I don’t blame him. I can’t say I wasn’t envious. Still am. Man, what a stroke of luck. Well, maybe I’ll win the lottery, and Connie and I can take the kids and go live in Florida.”