Dead Ends (Main Street Mysteries Book 2) (12 page)

Hotel Lux was, in a word, lux. Once there, the only time you'd have to go outside would be to ski.

Yet another High Country activity, like shooting, that AnnaLise had never taken up, though this one she regretted. Living in Wisconsin or the mountains of North Carolina, it was practically a sin not to take advantage of the winter sports that drew others there.

The journalist resolved to put it on her bucket list. Though at age twenty-eight, the bucket was more pink plastic sand-pail.

But it was autumn, not winter, that AnnaLise loved most in the High Country. The bright red sugar maples punctuating the greens – soon to be yellows and oranges – of the oaks, chestnuts and –

‘And again I ask,’ Joy snarled, pulling AnnaLise's attention away from the vista outside the office window. ‘Someone shot out Tanja Rosewood's tire?’

Joy had been finishing up a fitness training session with a sixty-something female ‘half-back’ – someone who retired to Florida to escape northern winters only to come halfway back when the heat got oppressive in June – when AnnaLise arrived.

Since the older woman's biceps put hers to shame, AnnaLise willingly retreated to Joy's office to wait. Her friend joined her a few minutes later, sinking comfortably into the desk chair and reaching for a pack of Marlboros.

Once Joy was settled, AnnaLise had filled her in on recent developments, though apparently not as completely as said friend would like.

AnnaLise sighed in response to the repeated question. ‘All I know is that Chuck told me Earl at the garage found a rifle slug in a front tire.’ And that Remington, Hornady and UltraMax were ammunition, not tire, manufacturers.

‘Well,’ Joy sent a smoke ring into the air, ‘unless the bears have armed themselves, I think that means somebody shot out her tire.’

‘Fine,’ AnnaLise said, holding up her hands, ‘I'll stipulate that a human being fired the gun. Most likely a hunting accident.’

‘Except it's bow season,’ Joy pointed out. ‘Besides, the town outlawed hunters of
any
kind on Sutherton Mountain years ago, supposedly because they tended to cut down unsuspecting visitors right along with the deer.’

There was that. And a theory the thinning of the tourist-herd wasn't necessarily accidental. ‘Be that as it may, poachers know no season.’ AnnaLise was sipping a Honeydew Melon, Pineapple and Lemongrass Juice Smoothie, a nice counter to the toxic fumes floating across the desk from the physical trainer's cigarette.

‘More so in the woods around the lake than here on the mountain, I would think.’ Joy tapped the ash from her cancer-stick onto a piece of aluminum foil molded into a makeshift ashtray. ‘Especially with the police range nearby. Chuck and his troops hear gunfire that's not theirs, they might come looking.’

The gun range. ‘Daisy and I heard what sounded like a shot from there as we drove up the mountain on Monday.’

‘What time?’

‘Five, five-thirty?’

‘Then it didn't come from the range. It's only open nine to one on weekdays. Is it possible you heard the shot that took out the woman's tire?’

‘I suppose so.’ AnnaLise was trying to recall the circumstances. ‘It was as we were off-roading on Daisy's shortcut. Given the way things echo up there, I suppose it could have come from above us.’

‘Are we talking about the dead end that leads to the bridge?’

‘Not much of a dead end, by my definition,’ AnnaLise sniffed.

‘Don't be such a grump,’ Joy said. ‘We're getting somewhere here.’

By way of a dead-end road. ‘If you're right, Tanja Rosewood's car went off the road just moments before Daisy and I nearly got killed ourselves.’

‘What?’ Joy's smoke was out and, though AnnaLise would have liked to believe her friend was more concerned about the answer to her question than getting the next one lighted, soon there was evidence to the contrary.

‘You'd have no way of knowing,’ AnnaLise said, ‘but my car stalled crossways on the approach to the bridge Monday. We nearly went over the cliff and the car was totaled.’

‘Damn. Who hit you?’ Creature comforts taken care of, Joy actually looked concerned.

‘Well, no one, as it turned out. I don't remember much, but according to Daisy and Joshua Eames, when his truck came up behind me just after I got the Spyder started, I must have panicked and hit the gas, sending us into the rock wall.’

‘I thought you almost went over into the gorge.’ Joy sounded disappointed. ‘The wall is on the mountain side of the road.’

‘We must have bounced back across, because when the car came to rest, it was right on the edge. Luckily, Josh warned us, or Daisy would have climbed out of her side of the car, right into the gorge.’ AnnaLise gave a shiver. With Tanja Rosewood's plunge off the road, their own near-miss seemed even scarier. And AnnaLise and Daisy, even luckier.

Joy seemed to mull that over. ‘And this happened within minutes of the Rosewood woman's car going over.’

‘If it was a shot I heard,
and
the one that blew out her tire.’

‘Did it sound like a deer rifle or . . .’ AnnaLise could feel Joy reading the expressions on her old friend's face. ‘I don't even know why I ask, as much as you like guns. I wasn't even born here and I'm probably a better shot than you are.’

‘Don't pat yourself on the back,’ AnnaLise said. ‘There are toddlers in Sutherton who could say the same. My father just never got around to teaching – ’

Joy opened her mouth to say something, but AnnaLise held up two hands to stop her. ‘I know, I know. Yet another sad result of growing up fatherless.’

‘Actually, that's not what I was going to say, smartie. I was going to ask what happened after your accident – how you got out of the car and when the Rosewood car was discovered. There could only have been an hour or maybe two of daylight left at that point.’

‘Like I said, Josh arrived and warned us to stay put, then called nine-one-one. They were there within minutes, thankfully. It was Earl Lawling, the guy who came with the wrecker to tow my poor Spyder away, who spotted the Porsche. Good thing, too, because Chuck says that, with leaves falling, followed by the snow and summer floods, it might never have been found.’

‘Earl?’ Joy repeated. ‘Didn't you also say he's the one who discovered the slug in the tire?’

‘So what?’ AnnaLise asked. ‘You think he was up there with his tow truck taking pot shots at cars, only to point out the Porsche so he could ultimately indict himself by discovering that a bullet blew out the tire and then reporting it to the police?’

‘First of all,’ Joy said, ignoring what
some
might call sarcasm or, at least, facetiousness, ‘it's damn lucky there was a slug for him to find. With a high-powered rifle, which is what you'd need to take out a tire even if your Mrs Rosewood was taking it slow like I advised her to, you'd be more likely to have a through-and-through. The thing must have hit the rim, which means it'll be so badly damaged they won't be able to tell anything but caliber. Maybe.’

AnnaLise squinted at her friend. ‘And you know this how?’

‘I read.’ Joy puffed out another smoke ring and leaned forward earnestly in her chair. ‘But back to this Earl, maybe he's one of those freaks who gets off on being important. You remember that movie about the firefighter who torched buildings so he could be a hero?’

AnnaLise didn't answer.

‘What? I finally stumped the movie expert?’

‘
Backdraft
, starring Kurt Russell and Billy Baldwin,’ AnnaLise said, ‘but you've got the motive wrong.’

Joy waited. ‘Well?’ she said finally.

AnnaLise looked up, startled. ‘What?’

‘What was the motive?’

‘You know what?’ AnnaLise met Joy's gaze. ‘I honestly have no idea.’

Seventeen

AnnaLise steered her mother's Chrysler away from Hotel Lux and down the mountain toward the Sutherton Bridge. Although she was trying to keep her mind on the drive, purposely choosing the route that Tanja Rosewood had used to descend, AnnaLise kept returning to one thing.

Joshua Eames.

If the sound Daisy and she had heard was the gunshot that took out the Porsche's tire, Tanja went over the cliff only a few minutes before AnnaLise had accidentally hit her Spyder's accelerator.

From that moment onward, she'd been blocking the road. No other vehicles had come or gone –
could
have come or gone – with the exception of Josh's truck. Had he seen or heard what had happened to Tanja? Or, much worse, had he been responsible for it?

If so, why? As Joy had asked about the movie
Backdraft
– what was the motive? Tanja certainly–

AnnaLise stepped hard on the brake, slowing the Chrysler to the point of crawling as she rounded a blind curve. In front of her lay the bridge and, just before the concrete span started, the place where the Porsche had apparently sailed off the road. The spot was nothing more than a patch of dirt and gravel – more worn down from use than intentionally created, though it wasn't big enough to get a car of any size fully out of the road.

Not that it stopped people, as evidenced by the minivan now being parked with its butt sticking out. Before the wheels had stopped moving, occupants of the vehicle spilled out with cameras.

‘Stand over there, Sarah,’ a man said, pointing to the edge.

Just the thought of being that close to the edge made AnnaLise white-knuckled and she used her death grip to steer past the group and onto the bridge. At least driving down, she was on the mountain side of the road, not hanging out over nothing. Or, more precisely, the gorge that had swallowed Tanja's car.

By the time AnnaLise and the Chrysler reached the end of the bridge – and to the place where the Spyder had met its own end – her right foot was shaking so badly she was afraid to touch it to the gas pedal. Happily, the downgrade made that unnecessary, and the brake was considerably more forgiving. And reassuring.

Coasting down now and relaxing some, she tried to think. No matter how much a troublemaker Joshua Eames had been when he was younger, he seemed to have his act together now. Worked for his dad, had a respectable girlfriend, even planned to go to college.

While Tanja may not have been thrilled about her daughter's relationship with someone she would no doubt consider ‘a townie,’ she'd allowed Suze to come to school here and was an intelligent enough woman to know that a relationship in the freshman year of college would likely die a natural death, even without parental interference.

So what would Josh have had to fear from Suzanne's mother? It didn't make sense.

Now on the lower half of the mountain, AnnaLise caught up with an SUV pulling a trailer laden with boxes. Most likely more summer folk, moving back to their homes in other parts of the south for the winter.

Gradually the mountain and the lake would start to feel deserted, leaving the locals to enjoy their town as the weather turned crisper. Before you knew it, the signs would be up, warning people not to drive on the mountain without snow tires, chains or four-wheel drive vehicles. In fact, AnnaLise should talk to Daisy about outfitting the Chrysler for the winter. It was the least AnnaLise should do, given she was driving her mother's –

Damn.

She'd gone up to talk to Joy about the Sutherton website and had completely forgotten to raise the subject. Maybe she deserved the look her friend had given her when she'd spaced out while they were talking about the movie.

The SUV turned out onto the highway at the high entrance, but AnnaLise continued on the smaller streets to Main Street, not wanting to pass the garage where her Spyder sat looking not unlike the arachnid that Fred Eames had stomped into the sidewalk in front of their own garage.

Passing Mama's, which looked like it was hopping for lunch, AnnaLise turned right onto Second Street, pulling up to the curb in front of their apartment door. The black pick-up was parked on the other side of the garage. Now was as good a time as any to talk to Joshua Eames for the second time that day.

‘Josh?’ she called.

Mr Eames stuck his head out of the garage, holding a power drill. ‘Not here. Will I do?’

‘Of course,’ AnnaLise said. ‘Hope that drill is battery-operated or you're going to need a long extension cord.’

‘It is. Though by tomorrow night, you'll have electricity in here, even if it's not run everywhere Daisy needs it yet.’

‘Scotty is coming?’ AnnaLise practically clapped her hands.

Scotty the Electrician was notoriously tough to pin down. In fact, if Josh wanted to make ‘back-pocket’ money, maybe he should consider an apprenticeship with the company instead of college.

Assuming he wasn't a cold-blooded killer.

‘Says they'll be here tomorrow in the a.m.,’ Mr Eames said, ‘though that's what Scotty told me nearly a week ago. And they've been holding me up nearly a month on a job down Church Street. We've gotten as far as we can on both without the wiring run.’

‘That's certainly not fair to you.’

‘No, ma'am, it's not. Especially given people don't take kindly to paying for jobs that aren't finished. But don't you worry, I'm taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. In the meantime, I'm tidying up so Scotty's slugs won't have another excuse not to put in an honest day's work.’

‘Is Josh coming back?’ AnnaLise asked.

‘I'm not sure,’ Mr Eames said, settling the drill into its case and carefully snapping it closed. He seemed embarrassed. ‘Josh, he . . . uh, he had to go see the chief.’

AnnaLise felt her own blood go cold. ‘Chuck asked him to come in?’

‘No, no,’ shaking his head. ‘Josh just said he'd been thinking about something and he'd feel better if he went to the police and got it off his chest.’

‘He didn't tell you what it was that was bothering him?’ By now AnnaLise was following Eames as he went back and forth to his truck, emptying the garage of framing materials and tools.

Eames stopped. ‘Josh is twenty now and doesn't exactly think I need to know everything that goes on in his head.’ Eames turned away from the bed of his truck to face AnnaLise. ‘Probably your mama has had a similar experience with you.’