A Finder's Fee (21 page)

The land where Duck Municipal Park had been, where Maggie had lived and died, was changing again. The park would still be there, but it would be smaller as it shared space with the town hall.

I felt her staring there, through me.

“It’s like the seashore changing each morn,” she said, a wistful note in her voice. “The land will be different again in another hundred years.”

“It will.” I could feel her melancholy. “Life goes on.”

“Without me.” She sighed.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked.

“It’s probably only the vapors.” Maggie cheered up right away. “Who could feel sad when gazing upon a grand-looking fellow like yourself?”

Kevin cleared his throat. “Dae, I assume you spoke with Horace last night. Everything must be okay.”

“Only at my instigation,” Maggie answered. “The lass is good-hearted, Kevin, but a mite shy and awkward. They had a long talk and came to an understanding. She knows now that he could never have killed Lightning Joe. What an odd name. I wonder what he did to deserve it.”

“Maggie, could I speak to Dae, please?”

“What? Oh, certainly, Kevin. Anything for
you
.” She gave him a big kiss as he drove.

“Do we have any news about the boyfriend’s grave yet?” Kevin glanced at me as I shook my head to clear it. “Dae?”

“Sorry. What were we talking about?” I felt like I’d been asleep. It was scary. Where had I gone? Usually, I could hear the conversation.

“You confronted your grandfather and everything is okay between you.”

“Yes. I kind of felt like an idiot being suspicious of him.”

He stared at me when we stopped for a red light. “Are you okay? Do you need help with Maggie?”

I smiled and leaned across the seat to kiss him, making sure he knew it was me and not Maggie. I didn’t want him to worry. “I’m fine. I’m waiting to hear from the historical society. It always takes them a while to get information.”

He pulled me close and said, “I don’t like what’s happening with you and Maggie, Dae. You have to put an end to it soon.”

“I know. It can’t be much longer.”

We parked in a lot near the courthouse and Kevin’s flower distributor. The jail was right next door to the courthouse.

“I’m going over to pick up my flowers. Call me if you decide to leave the jail right away and go to the courthouse before I get back.” He kissed me again. His eyes were intent on mine. “I know you don’t want to ask for help on this, Dae, but you might need someone else before this is over. Don’t let it go on too long.”

I
got out of the pickup and went up the stairs to the jail
entrance. I was surprised to see Laura Wilson sitting on a bench outside the door. Her eyes were red from crying, and her expression was one of hopelessness.

“Dae. I didn’t expect to see you here today. Is Randal’s lawyer here with you?”

“No. I needed to talk to him about a few things that have come up. Is everything okay?”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Randal has mild emphysema. Probably from all those cigarettes he smoked when he was a kid. He had to be taken to the infirmary last night because he had a hard time breathing. I’ve all but begged him to let me talk to the bail bondsman and get him out of here. I don’t care what anyone thinks. He should be home now.”

Laura started crying again, and I put my arm around her. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this. I wish I had better news, but there are more questions than answers right now.”

“I appreciate your help, Dae. I know it must be hard on you with all the fuss Randal has made for the last year while he’s run for mayor. I don’t know what got into him in the first place. He’s been happy on the council. I don’t know why he didn’t stay there, old fool.”

“It’s been hard for both of us. I never intended for the race to get so hostile. There are some people contributing money to my campaign who don’t seem to know when enough is enough.”

She patted my arm. “Not from Duck, huh? Well, don’t worry about it. I’d say your title as mayor is safe with all this going on. Not that I’m at all sure Randal could beat you. People in Duck love you, Dae. We’ve all seen you grow up. I would’ve voted for you, if it wasn’t for my husband running too.”

A guard came out and told us we could see Mad Dog in the infirmary. He wasn’t sure about me, since I wasn’t family, strictly speaking, but Laura said I could go in, and he held the door for us.

It always seems like government facilities have such long hallways. There never appear to be enough doors for the floor space. We walked and walked until we finally reached the yellow infirmary door. The guard unlocked it for us and held it open.

“I can’t give you more than ten minutes.”

Laura thanked him, and we walked into a large room that contained several men in hospital beds. She located Mad Dog like she had radar to find him. We both walked quickly to his side.

He was hooked up to different equipment with a needle and an IV bag on each side.

“Laura. I’m so glad to see you.”

I thought he was going to cry too, but he held it back, sniffling a few times and lips quivering, no matter how hard he pressed them together.

She hugged him and didn’t mind that she cried. “Will you let me take you home now? I don’t care if you’re prideful. You don’t belong here. You need your own doctor.”

Mad Dog fixed on me. “Let’s hear what my heroine has to say. If it’s bad news, I might as well get used to life behind bars.”

There was no point getting his hopes up with promises I didn’t know if I could keep. “I have two questions that might be important.”

“All right. Ask.”

“First, why didn’t you stay at the hospital after you were hurt in that last race? I put my hands on your race car. I know how badly you were hurt. Why didn’t you get treatment?”

He smiled a little. “You’ll have to chalk that up to being young and stupid. You’re right. My leg was torn up. I had to wrap it with old shirts and tape to keep it from bleeding. I wanted to get back out there. I told them that all the way to the hospital in the ambulance. They wouldn’t listen.”

Laura smoothed his hair. “And now they’re holding it against you, saying you weren’t hurt that badly. The DA said you were capable of killing Joe and burying the car.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right. I wasn’t even capable of getting back to the track that night. Besides, if I was gonna bury Joe in a car, it damn sure would’ve been his and not mine.”

Laura laughed and kissed him. “That sounds more like you. That’s why they called you Mad Dog.”

“And the woman you were thinking about when the car was flipping over, the woman you thought Joe might try to take away from you. Who was that?”

“My God!” Randal caught his breath. “You could see all
that
from laying hands on number twelve? Dae, you are a talented young woman—more than I ever dreamed possible. You should take that talent to Vegas and get rich.”

“Nice try. It doesn’t work like that.”

“And we’re glad it doesn’t.” Laura squeezed my hand.

“The woman?” I reminded Mad Dog.

“Just so you know,” he smiled slyly, “this was way before I met you, Laura. Her name was Rosie. Her father drove down from Virginia every weekend to race. He was good but he was older. At least what we thought was older—probably forty. It doesn’t seem so old now. Amos is older than that.”

He stared off into the room for a moment, probably thinking about those days. “Rosie was beautiful. She wore these tight short-shorts all the time. She knew everything about cars, even helped her dad work on his. At that point in my life, she was like a goddess.”

“I think that will do,” Laura complained. “I am standing right here.”

“Sorry, dear. Childish memories.” He took her hand but focused on me. “Rosie never belonged to any of us. We all wanted her, but none of us were ever quite good enough, not even Joe.”

“I guess I can cross that off my list as far as a motive for you to kill Joe.”

“I think so. Have you found anything else?”

I told him about hitting a dead end researching Joe’s wife. I also told him about my vision with Joe and the deputy.

“Those sheriff’s deputies hated us.” His forehead furrowed. “Probably with good reason. We raced up and down every road we came to, didn’t care that we were endangering people’s lives. We were out of control, egged on by our fans. We thought no one could touch us.”

“Was there anyone in particular who gave you a hard time?” I didn’t tell him about the badge I’d found. I didn’t think it would serve any useful function.

“No one that I can think of—except maybe Horace, because he was always bucking to be sheriff. He had to be better than anyone else. Ronnie kind of let us slide. So did a few of the other deputies. If Joe had a problem with any of them more than another, I didn’t know about it.”

“I’m sorry.” I hated to let them down. “That’s all I have.”

“Don’t apologize,” Laura said. “If Randal had been minding his driving instead of thinking about that little hussy, you might have a clear answer today.”

Mad Dog chuckled. “Oh, come on, dear, you know I’ve never looked at another woman since we met. You’re the only woman in my mind now.”

“If that’s the truth, then let me take you home. The people who loved you before this started still love you. The rest, who cares? You need to sleep in your own bed tonight.”

He kissed her. “All right, Laura. Set it up. I’ll come home for as long as I can.”

The guard came to get us. Laura jumped on her phone as soon as we got out of the jail. “I’m sorry to be so rude, Dae. If I don’t get this process started, Randal will still spend tonight here.”

“Don’t worry. I’m meeting Kevin Brickman at the courthouse anyway. I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.”

“Thank you.” The lawyer must have picked up at the other end. She started talking to him about getting Mad Dog released, and I walked quickly down the stairs to the sidewalk.

I took out my cell phone to let Kevin know where I was going, but he was waiting on the sidewalk when I got there.

“Good timing.” I shut down my phone. “Did they have the flowers?”

“Not as many as I ordered but we’ll make do. How’s Mad Dog doing?”

I told him about Mad Dog’s health problem and that he’d finally agreed to let Laura arrange for bail. “I’m sure it will be better for him to be home.”

“No doubt. That’s a powerful amount of pride that can make a man stay in jail when he doesn’t have to be there.”

“I really hope I’m right and he’s innocent. After seeing him this way, I’d like to get to know him better. I always saw him as an old pain in the butt, especially for the last year. He’s really a nice, funny man.”

“They say situations like this bring out either the best or the worst in a person. I guess you’re seeing him at his best.”

We walked up another large flight of stairs to get to the courthouse. We had to go through a metal detector. Luckily Kevin had left his gun home that day. I knew he carried one sometimes.

We followed the signs to the register of deeds office. A tiny man with a face like a cherub told us it would cost ten dollars for each copy of a marriage license or death certificate. I produced my twenty dollars and wrote down Joe’s name for his marriage license and Blackie Rogers’s name for the death certificate.

The tiny man disappeared behind a mountain of shelves with thousands of files on them. I’d expected to get an electronic copy, but apparently most of the certificates weren’t in the computer as yet. He had to make a paper copy of them.

“Do you think Blackie was his real name?” Kevin asked.

“I don’t know. It was listed with the sheriff’s office that way. I think it must be.”

We stood around and waited about twenty minutes before the man behind the counter returned. Both of the certificates were neatly folded and put into register of deeds envelopes.

He smiled. “Is that all?”

“Yes, thanks.” I was surprised and pleased by his friendly attitude.

“You’re that woman from Duck, aren’t you?” He squinted at me. “The woman who found the dead man in the car. Are you doing research for a book or something?”

“No. Just personal. Thanks.”

I walked quickly out the door and Kevin was right behind me.

“You’ve become famous overnight. Maybe you should run for governor or something. You may never be this famous again.”

“Very funny. I’m not even sure about being mayor again, much less governor. They’d want me to live in Raleigh all the time if I were governor.”

“Maybe you could move the state capital to Duck.” He put his arm around me as we reached the bottom of the stairs again. “That would be something.”

“Never mind.” I ripped open the envelope the clerk had given me. “Well, it looks like Mad Dog was wrong about his fantasy woman only being a fantasy to all the drivers.” I explained about the gorgeous woman who hung out at the track with a winning combination of tight shorts and a way with a ratchet.

“Joe Walsh made Barbara Rose Carpenter his bride two days before he died.”

“Sounds like yet another reason for murder to me. That couldn’t have been popular with all those other girls.”

“And Gramps was right.” I kept reading. “Blackie Rogers is dead. He had plenty of time to kill Joe—he’s only been dead for twelve years.”

“That makes all the difference.”

I sighed. “How will we know if Blackie killed Joe? How do you prove a dead person is guilty?”

“With the amount of time that’s gone by on this, it may come down to a process of elimination. At least we can put him on the bottom of the list until we question the others or find corroborating evidence that continues to show us that he could be a principal in the event.”

“I love it when you speak law enforcement.” I laughed. “In other words, we have to hope we can find something he left behind that will give him away. Or I touch something else that gives us another clue.”

“Facts, Dae. Police officers all over the world rely on facts, even for cold cases this old. They have since before you and I were born. We can figure this out by following the trail of bread crumbs.”

“You’re right.” I was actually happy to hear him say this. It wasn’t easy touching things that still held the death throes of another human being. “Should we stop after lunch and still see Wally Newcastle?”

“It can’t hurt.”

We stopped at one of the few restaurants still open in Kitty Hawk and had huge bowls of chili with homemade oyster crackers. We ate outside on the patio even though the wind was cold.

I loved Kitty Hawk with its tall sand dunes standing guard like mountains over the town. Gramps brought me here for the first time when I was about five. We climbed the dunes and visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial. I remembered being fascinated by the whole idea that people could fly with nothing more than a kite.

Now people came from all over the country to take big, multicolored kites and jump off the dunes with them, hurling themselves into the air currents.

Not me. I’ve always been more at home in and on the water. I’ve never tried jumping off of anything that high, or getting in a plane. At least water cradles you when you’re in it. There’s not much support to air.

Kevin laughed at my feelings about the air. He’d flown many times and even used hang gliders. He’d never surfed though, and I could laugh at him for that.

Wally Newcastle’s son, Miller, met us at the front door to their recreational rental shop, Away We Go. He told us that his father was confined to a wheelchair but still worked every day.

It was a large store with high ceilings. Various types of boats, hang gliders and other outdoor equipment hung from the ceiling above us. It wasn’t very busy at this time of year, but Miller said they still did well enough to keep the place open.