She Who Watches (32 page)

Silver hair attached to part of the skull suggested the body might be that of Alma Sinnott. That and the fact that throughout the search there'd been no sign of anyone other than Owen Sinnott living in the house. They had, however, found a recent Social Security check among some papers in the kitchen. This grave, like Sara's, contained lime, which in this case had helped to decompose the body. Time of death would be hard to pinpoint, although the CSI techs would narrow it down to a best guess depending on the level of decomposition. Mac hated to give up the subsequent death investigation, but there'd be no argument from him. He and Dana already had a full plate and more.

It was after two in the afternoon when Mac and Dana finally got back to the office and dropped off the van. They went inside to meet with Sergeant Bledsoe, handing over an itemized list of the evidence seized for the search warrant and briefing him on their findings in the car's trunk.

Sinnott's move to cut off Sara's fingernails made sense, especially after she'd scratched his face. He probably wanted to make sure they didn't discover any trace evidence under her nails. Sinnott had been smart to cut nails but stupid and careless not to account for all of the trimmings, and beyond stupid to have left damning evidence in the back of his car.

Mac had to spend another half hour typing a witness statement for county investigators who were documenting Philly's shooting. He would submit to a formal interview later, in addition to an eventual grand jury review to see if the shooting was justified. Mac wasn't worried about that; the shooting was clean, and the review was nothing more than a formality at this point. This wasn't Philly's first officer-involved shooting. He'd bounced back OK from the others—that is, if you consider alcoholism and ruined marriages bouncing back.

Mac and Dana would close out the Sinnott case with reports, as it related to Sara Watson. Now that Sinnott was in the morgue, they had time on their side and could tie up loose ends later. His death would be documented by outside investigators, who would also look into the second grave unearthed in the back of the house. Hopefully that would be the last corpse they had to deal with that was associated with Sinnott or his grandmother's home.

Mac thought about taking a nap and coming back to work later, but he decided instead to call it a day and hit it hard again tomorrow. Maybe even take the weekend off. They had their bad guy, and everything now would be a matter of making sure all the paperwork was in order.

With Lucy in tow, Mac dropped off Dana and started for home. He drove on autopilot, parked in his driveway, and went straight to bed.

Unfortunately, Mac couldn't sleep. They had their guy, and Mac should have been happy with that—but something just wasn't adding up. Sinnott was a rapist and a killer with no apparent motive. The place where Sara had been found and the talisman shoved into her mouth just didn't jive with Sinnott's MO. That part of the crime didn't make sense. Add that to the fact that the beaded bag had likely been taken from Sara's collection, and he had a giant puzzle with some of the key pieces missing. He still thought the murder had a revenge feel to it.

Mac punched his pillow. “Unless Sinnott was hired to do the job.” He made a mental note to go over Owen Sinnott's phone records and bank statements when he got to the office—see if there had been a substantial deposit made around five weeks ago. There had to be a direct connection between their killer and Sara, and he intended to find it. On the other hand, would Sinnott even have a bank account? A guy like him would probably deal on a cash-only basis.

MAC AWOKE AROUND SEVEN in the evening to the phone ringing. He decided to let it ring; if it was important, they had his pager number. He didn't want to disturb a trancelike sleep for a sales call. Hearing his recorder pick up, Mac rolled over and closed his eyes. 7:00 p.m. Did he want to get up now and try to get to bed at a normal time, or stay in bed for fourteen hours? While trying to make up his mind, he fell back to sleep.

He woke up at five and was back in the office by six thirty, dictating reports and tying up loose ends. Dana had told him the night before that she'd meet him at the office around seven.

“Morning,” Kevin greeted when he came in.

“Morning, Sarge.” Mac clicked off his recorder to greet his old partner. He'd been dictating for half an hour.

“You get any sleep last night?”

“Too much.” Mac yawned as if to punctuate the statement. “Slept right through the night without getting up. I was beat, still feel beat.”

“Understandably. You and Dana did a great job yesterday, Mac. I wanted to let you know that before the crew gets in. I know the crime lab gave us a big boost, but we wouldn't have a case without the hard work you and Dana put in.”

“Thanks.

Kevin folded his arms and leaned his hip against the desk. “Changing the subject, what's on the agenda for today?”

“First thing is to pay a courtesy call to Scott Watson, the victim's husband. We need to tell him about Sinnott. Then we're going to head back up toward Warm Springs and meet Officer Webb at that Chevron Station near the reservation. I have a few questions on the receipt and want to double check to make sure there are no surveillance tapes.”

“Nothing panned out when the trooper went by?”

“Nope. I just want to make double sure before we close out the lead.”

“It looks as though we have a clean case.” Kevin seemed pleased, and Mac hated to disillusion him.

“I'm not so sure. Even with Sinnott's record, his DNA found on the fingernail, and the scratches in the trunk of his car, this is by no means a slam dunk.” The doubts from the night before crept into Mac's mind. “I still have some concerns, motivation being one. Sinnott's attack on Sara may have been random, but some things aren't adding up.”

“I've been thinking the same thing, Mac.” Dana came around the corner of the cubicle. “I've been trying to come up with an explanation for the beaded bag and stone. It doesn't fit into the equation. Neither does the burial place. Sinnott buried his grandmother in the back yard, and there may be others. So why bury Sara out by the reservation?”

“We don't know for sure that the body is his grandmother,” Mac said.

“No, but the point is, he didn't travel three hours to dump her body.”

“You make a good point, Dana.” Kevin narrowed his eyes.

“You're thinking someone hired him?”

“The thought crossed my mind.” Mac glanced at Dana.

Kevin nodded. “Then we'll want to do some more detailed investigating into who among Sara's friends and family might want to see her dead—maybe we can find someone with a connection to Sinnott. I don't want you to put too much time and resources into it, though.” Kevin turned to Dana. “I was just telling Mac what a great job you two did. Finding that key piece of evidence was a real feather in your cap, Dana. I'm very proud of you both.”

“Thanks, Sarge. We have great mentors.”

Kevin didn't refute the comment. He glanced at his watch.

“Philly and I have a nine o'clock, so I'd better go.”

“Say no more; we're just leaving.” Mac stood and pulled on his suit jacket.

Mac had no doubt the meeting was to discuss Philly's behavior on Thursday night. He was glad he hadn't been the one to kill the guy, but he felt bad for his co-worker. Unfortunately, Philly had some other things to answer for as well. Mac hated to think what might have happened if they'd had to go to court. A good lawyer could have hit on the police brutality and gotten Sinnott some sympathy from the jury or even a few bucks on a lawsuit.

Kevin sighed, no doubt reluctant to have to confront his longtime friend and former partner. “Hey, Mac, Dana. I'll get Sinnott's phone records while you're gone. We'll want to go through them— see who he's calling and who is calling him. Bank records as well.”

“Appreciate that, boss.” Mac gave a wave as he walked out.

On the way to the car, Mac called Nate to see if he wanted to meet them for lunch at Government Camp, and they agreed to hook up around eleven.

Dana made a second call to Scott Watson to let him know they were coming. She let it ring several times. “Hmm. He's either not answering, or he's out. His machine isn't picking up.”

“Maybe he's gone into hiding. I'm sure the press went into a feeding frenzy when they heard about Sinnott.”Thankfully, the OSP public information officer was fielding all the calls so Mac and Dana could remain free to work the case.

“Think we should leave him alone?”

“No. If I were Scott, I'd want details.” Mac kept driving and they arrived at the house ten minutes later.

“Are you planning to go see the senator? I'm sure he'll want the details too.”

“We don't need to. Superintendent Clark is contacting him personally this morning.” Although Mac usually liked to contact the relatives himself, he didn't miss making that particular house call. “To be honest, I don't care if I ever meet up with Grant Stokely again. The senator, too, for that matter.”

Dana smiled. “I know what you mean. But what if one of them hired Sinnott?”

“That's doubtful. What would the motive be?” Both men made him uncomfortable for different reasons. Stokely was just plain condescending, but Senator Wilde's disposition was a little tougher to put a finger on. Mac decided it was because he was a politician.

She shrugged. “Maybe Sara knew some secrets about the senator or Grant. It wouldn't be the first time.”

“True. Essentially, we're back to square one. We can't rule out anyone at this point. And her being buried with her own Indian artifacts may mean we're still looking at Therman Post or someone else on the reservation. As far as that goes, the cousin could have hired a hit, or the aunt.”

Mac pulled his car into the driveway and waited while Dana rang the doorbell. Maybe they'd get lucky and Scott would be home. After a couple of minutes, she opened the storm door and left her business card wedged between the door and frame.

“Let's hit the road, Mac.” Dana climbed back into the car. “He's either not home or doesn't want to talk to us. Either way, I vote we head to Government Camp and check in with Scott later. I really doubt he hired Sinnott, but you're right. We need to look at everyone connected with Sara very carefully.”

After a quick stop at the coffee drive-through, they drove east again. They arrived at the Summit Chevron, on the east side of Mount Hood, in about an hour and fifteen minutes. It was ten thirty, which gave them just enough time to interview the store manager.

Within minutes, they made contact with the store manager and showed him a copy of the receipt they had recovered in the back of Sinnott's car. He confirmed that the receipt was from his store and that he had been working when Sinnott bought the stuff. Mac showed him a photo. He glanced at it and handed it back. “Sorry, I couldn't say whether he was here or not. We get hundreds of people coming through here every day. Heck, I can't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning, let alone who bought a corn dog five weeks ago.”

‘“I can appreciate that. Do you mind if we check the time on your register? We need to make sure we have the right time on the receipt.”

“No problem.”

Mac bought a pack of gum so he could get a receipt from the store's single register. “Right on the money.” Mac compared the time on the receipt to his own watch.

“One more thing, and we'll let you get back to work,” Dana said. “We asked one of our troopers to pick up a surveillance tape if there was one available.”

The manager shook his head. “We've got two of them, but neither one of them is working. Sorry. They stopped working over a year ago, and I haven't replaced them.”

They thanked the manager and started back toward Government Camp.

Nate's police truck was parked outside the Huckleberry Inn restaurant, and Nate was seated in a corner booth.

“Good morning, Mac, Dana.” Nate stood and reached out to shake hands with them.

“Morning, Nate. Have a good drive?” Mac waited for Dana to scoot in and then sat down beside her.

“I was a little early, so I stopped in at your ODOT shops and chatted for a while with the road crews. Several tribal members work up here, so we knew some of the same people.”

“Have you ordered yet?” Mac grabbed a menu.

“Just coffee.”Nate handed them each a menu and then opened his.

“Thanks.” Dana took the menu. “What's good here? I'm starving.”

“Me too.” Mac perused the featured items. “I haven't eaten an actual meal for about twenty-four hours.” He slapped the menu shut. When the waitress came, he ordered biscuits and gravy with eggs, hash browns, and ham.

After ordering their meals, Mac and Dana brought Nate up to speed on the case's latest events. Nate wanted all the details about the forensics process and Sinnott's eventual arrest and death. They talked all through their meal, eventually coming to the end of the tale.

“Now that you have your guy, I don't suppose you want me to follow up with Aaron, right?”

“Who?”

“Denise Galbraith's son. Sara's cousin.”

“Yeah, what did you find out?” Mac drained his coffee cup.

“Not much. Aaron seems like a nice guy. Says he couldn't care less about the beadwork and the stone. That's his mother's thing. He liked Sara, had no problems with her. She had money, but that never got in the way of their friendship.”

“You believe him?” Dana asked.

Nate shrugged. “No reason not to. Besides he has an alibi for the time Sara was killed. He was working at the casino, and his friend, the guy he's staying with, says he's been on the rez for the last three months.”

“Alibis aren't worth much at this point,” Mac said. “Find out if he knows Sinnott or if there's any connection.”