“Not personally. I knew Rich and his family because they’re locals. She was from Juneau, and I saw her around town with Rich. He was just devastated when she disappeared. He’s never really recovered.”
I grunted an ascent. “Did you ever hear any rumors about her disappearance?”
Kent stroked his beard, his bushy eyebrows drawing down over the bridge of his long nose. “There were the usual things: Rich killed her. She ran away. Normal stuff, you know?”
I nodded.
“Truthfully, I never thought she ran away or that Rich killed her, but I don’t have another explanation for how she ended up dead. Though now that she’s been found in Walter’s wall, well…” He shrugged.
My eyes narrowed. “What? Do you know something about Walter?”
“Walter is…” Kent trailed off and looked away in thought. “He’s calculating. Always looking for more ways to make the almighty dollar. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone paid him to let them tear a hole in his wall and look the other way. Now, did he know what was in the wall?” Again, Kent shrugged. “Can’tsay.” He wagged a finger. “But I can tell you he would absolutely take a bribe.”
A woman with a school-age child in tow walked up behind me to get in line, cutting off any opportunity I had to ask more questions.
Kent held out my receipt. “Watch yourself, Luke. This is dangerous business, and you might be better off just letting Oscar handle things.”
I knew that, but it didn’t mean I would heed his warning. One quick conversation with Kent had yielded new insights into Walter Shuman’s character. Insights I doubted Ozzie had, because he was focused on leads and not on the rumor mill.
“I’ll keep my head on a swivel.” Taking my receipt, I gave a quick wave and left.
Back at the soon-to-be café, I gave Kado his screws and got back to work, hoping the rest of the day went quickly. There were only a couple of hours left. I wanted to go talk to Toren.
