She Who Watches (33 page)

“Sure. I'll run the name past Therman too.”

“Did you get that list from Therman?” Mac asked.

“I did, but no red flags there. I'll check again, though, to see if anyone knows Sinnott.”

At twelve thirty, Mac announced that they needed to get back to work.

“Anything else I can do to help?” Nate asked.

“Yeah. Find out who might have hired Sinnott.” Mac grinned.

“The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Sinnott didn't act alone.”

“I have to agree.”Nate reached over and grabbed the check when the server approached.

“Oh, no you don't.” Mac tried to grab the check out of Nate's hand.

“Don't worry, I'll get my money's worth out of you when you come out to the farm.” Nate went to the counter to pay the tab.

Mac and Dana walked out into the sunshine, and Nate followed them out a few moments later. “Hey guys. I got something for you. Hang on a sec.”

Leaning into the cab of his truck, he pulled a brown grocery sack from the passenger seat and handed it to Mac. “I wrapped it myself.” He grinned.

Mac reached in and pulled out a thick animal fur hat. “Let me guess; it's the badger hide.” Mac slipped the hat over his head. “How do I look?”

“Like a nut.” Dana laughed.

“Oh, I think he could pass for Daniel Boone. Besides, it'll keep your head warm. You're right, though. It is a badger, but not
the
badger. I haven't finished tanning that hide yet. This one is from my place.”

“Thank you, Nate.” Mac admired the sturdy stitching.

“This is for you, Dana. My wife made it.” Nate handed her a beautiful blue and white beaded necklace.

“Oh, my goodness, she made this for me?”

“Yes, wear it in good health. I told my wife you had blond hair and blue eyes. She thought you would enjoy these colors.”

“It's gorgeous, thank you.” Dana gave him a hug and slipped the beaded necklace into the pocket of her jacket.

He laughed. “You're welcome. Shelly said you should come out to the farm with Mac. She'll show you how to bead.”

“I just might do that.”

Nate took a step back. “I guess I better get back to my side of the mountain and get to work. Good to see you both again.”

“I sure like that guy,” Mac said as he folded himself into the Crown Vic.

“Me too. Wish he worked for our department. Are you really going to go to his place and drive a tractor?”

“You bet I am. I may just quit this job and become a farmer. You never know.”

“Yeah, Antonio McAllister, the farmer. That'll be the day.”

Mac laughed right along with her. The job could be exhausting and maddening, but he loved it. And right now, he wanted nothing more than to figure out who had hired Sinnott to kill Sara.

MAC AND DANA WERE DISAPPOINTED and relieved when their call to Kevin resulted in both of them taking the rest of Saturday and Sunday off to rest and regroup. They'd been working nonstop and Kevin insisted they take a much-needed break.

Mac had mixed feelings, but he didn't argue the point. He took Lucy out and did some walking down in Vancouver's riverfront park. On Sunday, he went to church with Nana and took her and Dana to lunch. Once home, he caught a Mariners game, played catch with Lucy, and napped. By Monday, he felt refreshed and ready to tackle the case again.

The first item on their agenda was to talk to Scott Watson to let him know about Owen Sinnot. They called early to catch him before he left for the office. He seemed reluctant, but finally agreed to wait for them.

“Come in.” Scott opened the door for them and stepped back to let them in. “I thought you'd be by yesterday. Saw on the news that you caught the guy who killed Sara.”

“We tried to call,” Dana said, “but you didn't answer.”

He nodded. “I had to run to the office. I was there most of the afternoon trying to get caught up.” He closed the door behind them. “Have a seat. Um—I can't tell you how much I appreciate all you've done. You guys are good, I'll give you that.”

“Thank you, but it's not over yet.”

He frowned. “Why's that?”

“We still have to make sure everything checks out,” Mac said. “But, yes, it looks like we have the man who killed Sara.”

Scott sank onto the sofa. “I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am to have this case closed.”

Mac kept his gaze on Scott. “It may not be as simple as that.”

“What do you mean?” Scott's eyes widened.

“We're not sure Own Sinnott was acting on his own. We think Owen may have been working for or with someone.”

Scott frowned. “You're saying someone hired him to kill Sara?”

“Possibly. We have a photo of Mr. Sinnott.” He nodded toward Dana, who was already taking it out of her briefcase. Mac handed the mug shot to Scott. “Do you recognize him?”

After studying it for a moment, he said, “I can't say for sure, but he may have done some work for our firm. I don't see how that's possible. I make it a point not to hire felons—especially guys like him.”

“But you've seen him before?”

“I think so.”

Mac took the picture back. “Could you check your personnel files?”

Scott shook his head. “He wouldn't have worked for us directly, but he might have been hired by one of our contractors.”

“We'll want to talk to whoever hired him.”

“I'll look into it and try to get you a name.”

“Thanks.” Mac would do some checking on his own.

“I can't believe this.” Scott stared down at his hands. “You try to protect your family from scum like this and . . .” He brought both hands up to cover his face and then drove them through his hair.

Genuine shock or overacting? Mac couldn't be sure. “We're having to work the investigation from scratch, and I wonder if you'd be willing to take another polygraph for us.”

He jerked to his feet. “Another one? No. I already went through that. They told me it wasn't accurate because of the antidepressant I'm on. Nothing has changed.” He paced to the kitchen and back. “I didn't kill Sara, and I didn't have her killed. I loved her.”

“No one is saying you didn't.” Mac stood.

“You guys have been on my case since day one.” He turned to face them. “Well, no more. If you want to talk to me, you do it through my attorney. I've had it. You catch the guy who killed her, and even that isn't good enough for you.” He strode to the door and opened it. “Now get out.”

“We'll be in touch,” Mac said as he and Dana stepped outside. The door slammed shut behind them.

“Whew.” Mac glanced back at the house. “We hit a sore spot.”

They got into the car and Mac started down the driveway before Dana responded. “I could be wrong, Mac, but I don't think his anger was a sign of guilt.”

“Why?” Mac didn't blame the guy for being upset. Truth be told, he might have reacted in a similar way.

“He was fine with us until you mentioned the polygraph. He even told us he thought he'd seen Sinnott before. If he was the one who hired the hit, I doubt he'd have given us that information.”

“Maybe.”

“At least we have a possible connection between Sinnott and Sara.”

“Let's get back to the office and have a closer look at Sinnott's records. Kevin should have them by now.”

THIRTY-ONE

O
n the way back to the office, Dana's cell rang. “Detective Bennett.”

“Dana, this is Claire Montgomery, Sara's cousin.”

“Yes, Claire.” She glanced over at Mac. “How can I help you?”

“I just spoke to Scott, and he's terribly upset. He didn't have anything to do with Sara's death. You have to believe him.”

“I'm sorry, but we really can't rule anyone out at this point.”

“I understand. It's just that . . . if you want someone with motive, you should look at Grant Stokely. Sara hated him, and he felt the same way about her.”

Dana fumbled around for a pen, and Mac handed over his along with a pad from his jacket pocket. “I'm interested. Tell me what you know.”

Maybe he didn't exactly hate her, but he didn't like the idea of “her appearing in public with my father.”

“Why not?”

“B-because of her other family and her political views.”

“Her political views?” Dana asked for clarification. “I'm not seeing a motive for murder.”

“Grant has great aspirations. He'd like to run for office. Sara didn't like him, and she knew something about him that could have ruined any chance he had of running for office.”

Dana questioned that but prodded Claire for more.

“It goes deeper than that, though,” Claire went on. “Grant wanted to date her, and I think she went out with him once before she married Scott, but . . . I'm not sure—she never would say, but I think he may have used that date-rape drug on her.”

“If that's true, why wouldn't she go to the police?” Dana was reeling with all this late information that Claire had mysteriously withheld earlier. “And why didn't you say something to us sooner?”

“It's complicated. Grant's father is very wealthy. He and my father are good friends. Grant's dad got him the job. She couldn't very well say anything, or Stokely would have cut his financial support. And she didn't really have any proof. I told her to at least tell Dad, but she wouldn't and told me not to tell either.”

“Why didn't you tell us this sooner?” Dana repeated.

“You told me to think about any enemies she might have. I didn't remember about Grant until the other day. Grant was in Salem when Sara disappeared, but if he hired that Sinnott guy . . .Anyway, he's the one you should be looking at, not Scott.”

“All right.” Dana jotted down the rest of the information. “Thanks for the call. We'll follow up on it.”

“Thank you.”

“What was that all about?” Mac asked when she closed her phone.

“Claire thinks we should look more closely at Grant Stokely.”

She relayed the rest of the conversation.

“Interesting.”

Dana smiled. “I thought you might say that. Let's set up an appointment with Grant for tomorrow. We need to check this out.”

“I have a better idea. Why don't we take a run to Salem right now? The phone records can wait.” Mac grinned. “Or better yet, let's call Kevin and see if he can assign someone else to that detail.”

“Now you're thinking.” Dana called and placed the speaker on so they could both talk to their sergeant. Dana related her conversation with Claire.

“We thought we should follow up on Stokely right away and maybe tackle the phone records and bank statement when we get back. Unless someone there can do it.”

“I'm for you going to Salem,” Kevin said. “I'll get Russ on Sinnott's phone and bank records. I'll run Stokely's name through our Law Enforcement Data System and Equifax records and see if I can come up with anything on criminal associates or credit history problems.”

“The FBI didn't find anything,” Mac said. “I read through all their profiles. Except for a few traffic violations, the family and friends are all clean. But it's been five weeks, so it wouldn't hurt to check again.” Fortunately, the feds had gotten baseline prints and DNA samples from most of the players as well, so a lot of the groundwork was done.

“I doubt we'll find anything, but you never know. I don't think the senator would keep him around if he weren't clean.”

“Anything else?” Kevin asked.

“We asked Nate to follow through on the people connected with the casino and with Aaron Galbraith—he's Sara's cousin—who lives on the reservation. We're focusing mostly on finding any kind of connection any of them had with Sinnott. I hope that was OK. I probably should have asked you first.”

“That's fine, Mac. In fact, it's more than OK. Philly will be out for a few weeks, so we can use all the help we can get.”

“Good. My thinking is that he'll get farther and faster than us.” Mac maneuvered them onto the I-5 freeway and pointed the Crown Vic toward Salem. Traffic was heavy and Mac moved into the left lane.

“Sarge, one more thing.” Dana thumbed through an open file she'd pulled from her briefcase. “I didn't see any mention in the FBI files about Aaron Galbraith. I can't believe they missed that part of the family. We should run his name through LEDS and the Portland Police Data System too.”

“I'll do that. Want me to give the agents a call? Maybe they inadvertently left out some stuff.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Sarge.” Dana raised an eyebrow at Mac. “Heck of a thing to leave out.”

“I agree,” Kevin said. “You two be careful out there.”

He hung up, and Mac initiated the siren and lights. They reached the outskirts of Salem in forty minutes. Kevin called just as they exited on Hawthorne. “I talked to Lauden. He says you should have the report on the Galbraiths. He and Miller talked to Denise and her son. They had alibis for the time Sara disappeared, so they didn't follow up—no reason to.”

“That's it?”

“You have to remember that at the time, they didn't have a body or that Indian beadwork.”

“True. So why don't we have the paperwork?” Dana asked.

“Lauden said he'd check into it. It's probably a clerical error. Not that it will be much help, but he's faxing over the information.”

“Did you find anything on Stokely?” Mac asked.

“Just what you might suspect. He was a straight-A student, class president in his senior year, and he has a father with money and pull. His father and Senator Wilde are friends. Just one thing you need to know, though. He has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.”

Mac promised to call Kevin as soon as they finished their interview with Grant Stokely.