Her Grave Secrets (Rogue River Novella Book 3) (3 page)

Good point.
Stevie had been slightly jealous that her sister currently lived a few steps from her mother, but constantly being in the presence of her mother’s incredible baking and cooking would take a truckload of willpower. Stevie’s tiny apartment in town, with its half-size refrigerator, suited her just fine.

“I’ve had four phone calls since yesterday afternoon,” said Patsy, sipping at her coffee. “The first told me she’d heard it might be Roy’s body that was found down by the river, and the other three let me know it’s confirmed.”

Small Town Rule #6: Skip Western Union; the neighbors are faster.

“What are they saying is the cause of death?” Stevie licked the sugar off her thumb.

Patsy shrugged and brushed her long curly hair over one shoulder.

“Tell me. I need to know what misconceptions to correct.”

Her mother stared into her coffee. “One person said it was suicide. That he’d shot himself in the head. Another said he’d been fishing and was hit by a falling tree.” She glanced up at Stevie with questions in her eyes. “Which one is right?”

“Neither,” answered Stevie, silently fuming at the gossipmongers in town. Everyone knew her parents and Roy had been tight. What made these people want to call and discuss the gory details when they knew they hadn’t been confirmed? “Roy didn’t commit suicide. He did have two bullet holes in his skull. It’s a bit difficult to shoot yourself twice in the back of the head.”

“Stevie!” Her mother looked away.

“Sorry.” She bit her tongue for being so matter-of-fact with the details. “I have to consider those things when studying a crime scene. He was hit by a tree, but the medical examiner says that happened after he was dead.”

“So he was murdered?” Patsy whispered, her eyes wide. “Who would hurt him? I don’t understand. And when do they think this happened?” She took a deep breath. “I knew he wouldn’t leave town without saying goodbye. I’d known all along that something was very wrong.”

“His absence didn’t make sense,” agreed Stevie.

“Your father was concerned about him. He mentioned it in the May journal.”

Stevie nodded, remembering that Zane had held on to her father’s last journal because he had concerns about some of the subjects it dealt with—one of them being Roy’s behavior. “I’m glad Zane finally found that one to give to you.”

Wise brown eyes held Stevie’s gaze. “I know Zane purposefully held on to it longer.”

Stevie blushed and took another bite of beignet.

“I assumed Zane read everything before handing the journals over to me. He’s a cop to the core and
had
to step into Bill’s shoes. Plus, what better way to get insight into your father’s concerns than to read his journals?” Her mother gave her an understanding smile. “Bill had mentioned that Roy was taking a lot of time off and didn’t have good explanations for why. He let it slide because Roy was his closest friend and figured he’d eventually tell him the reasons. He brought it up to me several times.”

“He did? You already knew something was up with Roy?” Stevie’s mental alarm went off. “What did he say to you?”

“No more than that. He could tell Roy was struggling with something. Bill wasn’t one to pry.”

Stevie’s shoulders drooped. “Whatever it was may have gotten him killed. Did you know anything about Roy’s finances?”

“He asked your father for a raise after the beginning of the year. Bill gave him a small one; he wanted to do more, but it just wasn’t in the budget. Roy always said he’d work through retirement because he didn’t know what else he’d do with himself. He claimed he was afraid he’d be bored, but I knew there were financial concerns.”

“Did you know there’s a brand-new boat and pair of WaveRunners in Roy’s shed?” Stevie pressed her lips together, watching her mother closely.

Patsy jerked her coffee cup, slopping coffee onto the counter. She turned and grabbed a cloth before she spoke. Stevie watched surprise and then concern wrinkle her mother’s forehead. “There’s no way,” Patsy said flatly. “They can’t be his.”

“Why are you so certain?”

Patsy wiped at the spilled-coffee spot for the third time, not looking Stevie in the eye. “Because we loaned him money in January. He’d gotten into a tight spot with his mortgage.”

Dread shot through her spine. Roy had been in serious financial trouble. “You’ve always lectured us kids to not loan money to friends. That’s what banks are for.”

“He’d gone to the bank. He had nowhere else to turn,” Patsy whispered. “Bill knew we’d probably never see the money again. We didn’t care. We had some to spare, and he seemed so desperate.” She looked ready to cry.

“Is this why you weren’t more vocal about his disappearance in May? You thought he’d run away because of financial issues?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“I’m sorry too.” Calmer eyes looked at Stevie. “Now find the bastard who shot him and make him pay.”

At his desk Zane read the e-mail from the medical examiner. And then read it again.

Patsy was right.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and he waited for Stevie to push open his door. He knew the sound of her steps. She walked with attitude and purpose. The admin, Sheila, strolled like she was window-shopping, Kenny moved silently and always surprised the crap out of Zane, while Carter sounded like he was tripping over his own feet.

Stevie came through his half-open door.

How will she take this news?

Their gazes met. “What’s wrong?” they asked each other simultaneously.

“You first,” Stevie said, shoving her hands into her pockets and planting her feet. “Mine can wait a minute.”

Zane stood and came around the desk. Her eyes widened as she took in his expression, and she glanced back at the door, checking for observers. Zane didn’t give a hoot who saw them right now. He put his hands on her shoulders, struggling to figure out how to communicate what he’d just learned from the ME.

“You know how we asked the medical examiner to test the tissue samples he’d kept from your father’s autopsy?”

She nodded, a jerky tense movement.

“They found a compound nearly identical to C-22.”

He felt her deflate under his hands. “What?” Her voice cracked. “Now? They didn’t find it until now?”

“Your father’s death wasn’t the least bit suspicious. Everything pointed to a heart attack, and Hank treated it as such. He had to run special tests to find this compound in your father’s system.”

Stevie wrenched out of his hands and turned away. She walked over to a picture of Bill Taylor on the wall and stopped, reaching out with a tentative finger to touch the image of her father in his police chief uniform. Zane and Roy were also in the photo, taken three years ago at a small office party for Sheila’s fiftieth birthday. “My mother was right,” she said softly. “She knew his death came too early.”

Zane didn’t know what to say. Patsy often made unusual predictions or comments, and people in town took them very seriously. When she’d asked Zane to take another look at Bill’s death, he’d believed she was making the request out of grief and denial. He wanted Stevie to turn around but knew she wasn’t ready, so Zane settled for studying her long curly ponytail. It quivered slightly as she spoke, and he ached to tuck the one loose tendril behind her ear.

“Someone gave him the drug,” Stevie stated. “There’s no way he took it deliberately. My father never drank anything stronger than beer and that drug’s reputation is its fantastic high. He wouldn’t be interested in that. Someone gave it to him to kill him.”

“Now, Stevie, let’s not—”

“Don’t ever ‘Now, Stevie’ me.” She spun around, fire in her eyes. Her gaze so closely resembled Bill’s that Zane caught his breath. “He was murdered. And we’ve wasted over two months of investigation because we made assumptions.”

“We haven’t been wasting time.
Not at all.
We’ve tried for months to trace the manufacturing site of the C-22. We simply didn’t know that investigation would be related to your father’s death. This has been our department priority since the end of May when Hunter died from the drug.” He wanted to pull her close and comfort her, but she had a “stand back” signal on her forehead. Against every instinct, he stayed put.

She turned away and paced around his desk. “We need to look harder. I could have done more to try to find the source of the C-22. We need to interview Loretta again. Perhaps she’s been holding something back. Since her drug-dealing husband died, maybe she decided she’ll just live like nothing ever happened.”

“Stevie—”

“I’m sure Loretta or her son Russ must know more. Hell, his dad was dealing the C-22. Kids listen and watch their parents when they don’t know it.” She paced another circle, cracking her knuckles and staring at the floor. “Kids always know more than they tell us.”

“Stevie!”

She stopped and looked at Zane. “What?”

“
Slow down
.”
Zane held up his hands. “We’re on top of the investigation. Loretta and Russ have talked to us until they were blue in the face. This report from the medical examiner gives us a new direction to explore, and we’ll do that
after
we carefully study all the angles.”

Stevie stood frozen, blinking rapidly.

To hell with it.

He strode to her and pulled her roughly into him. She wiggled in his arms. “Hold still,” he ordered. “You just found out your father was murdered. Let me hold you.” He felt her soften as she exhaled and buried her face in his shoulder.

“I don’t know what to think,” she whispered.

“You don’t need to know what to think. This is one hell of a shock. Let’s let it sink in first.”

“Oh, my God. How will I tell my mother?” Her words were muffled in his shirt. “This is going to kill her. I just spent an hour with her talking about Roy’s death. That absolutely tore her up.”

Zane tightened his arms around her. “I think Patsy suspected that Bill was murdered. That’s why she asked me to take another look at it. This isn’t going to be easy for her, but I think she’s better prepared then you were.”

Stevie lifted her head and wiped at her nose. “She already knew Roy had money problems. She and Dad loaned him money last winter.”

“Aw, shit.”

“Exactly. And I thought she was going to fall over when I mentioned all the new equipment in Roy’s shed. She wondered if it doesn’t belong to him.” Stevie sounded hopeful.

Zane doubted it. If Roy had been storing a boat for someone, whoever it was would have come looking for it by now. “I put in requests for his banking and credit card records. We’ll start looking for a money trail.”

“Do you think he had anything to do with my father’s death?” she whispered.

“I don’t know, honey.” Zane squeezed tighter, praying Roy hadn’t hurt Bill. “I don’t know.”

Sheila peeked around Zane’s office door and fluttered bright-green eyelids at him. “Seth Harding from Rogue County Sheriff’s Office is here and would like a few minutes of your time.”

“Absolutely.”

She vanished and Zane tried to remove some of the mess on his desk, but the stacks of files on the corners simply grew taller. He closed his e-mail, where he’d opened some of the photos Hank had sent from Roy’s autopsy. Zane glanced at his watch. He had a call with the medical examiner in a few minutes.

Seth knocked twice on the open door and stepped in. Zane came around his desk to shake his hand. He hadn’t seen the drug task force investigator in a few weeks. He’d been at the last family dinner at Patsy’s house, where Zane had noticed that Seth and Stevie’s sister, Carly, appeared to be tentatively putting their marriage back together. Carly had recently been physically assaulted by the father of one of her child welfare charges, and Seth’s intervention had kept the man from killing her.

“Seth. How’s Carly doing? Her shoulder back to normal?”

The investigator winced and frowned. “Yeah, pains her occasionally, but I’d say she’s fully recovered.”

“Sorry, should I not bring it up?”

“It’s not the shoulder. Or the assault.” Seth paused. “It’s the risks of her job that continue to bug me. You should know how it goes.” Seth’s gaze begged for a little commiseration.

Zane grinned. “They’re Taylor women. What’d you expect? I can’t stop Stevie from being a cop any more than you can keep Carly from helping kids who need it.”

“I get that. It still makes me stress when she’s making home visits. Some of those places are really remote. But she’s got a sharp head on her shoulders, I keep telling myself that, and I’m trying to learn to have faith in her judgment.”

“That’s good to hear. You and Carly belong together. I didn’t like watching you two go your separate ways.” Zane waved at a chair and went back to his own, taking a seat to give Seth all his attention and bring the conversation around to business. “I assume you’re here because you were notified about the drugs in Bill’s system.”

Seth looked grim. “He was my father-in-law. It was bad enough when I’d thought he’d had a heart attack, but now to consider that he’s possibly been murdered? I’m sick over the news. Does Patsy know yet?”

“I’m waiting on a final report from Hank. Stevie wanted to rush right over there, but I asked her to wait until I had it.”