AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tomasek grunted, not convinced.
Connors looked down at his notes. “From what I see, we’re still left with the two most likely motives: something to do with drugs and his penchant for pissing people off.”
Greta motioned with a hand holding her notepad. “I may have found another possible motive. Late yesterday I talked with a Willis Casinelli, a cook at the Surf’s Up Restaurant in Pacific City. He cropped up on the list because he and Toompas got caught by Fish and Game taking undersized abalone. According to Casinelli, there are spots along the coast that are full of abalone and that are staked out by those working the spots. Given the web suit and tool you found in his trunk, I wonder if Toompas, intentionally or not, had been taking abalone out of what someone thought was his own personal spot.”
“Sounds like a fish story,” Tomasek quipped, confident in his humor.
“No . . . ,” said Connors. “At the price abalone goes for, a hot spot for them could turn into real money.”
“Yeah, but kill someone over abalone?” Tomasek said doubtfully.
“We’re not talking about a bunch of rocket scientists here,” Greta shot back. “People get killed for some pretty stupid reasons, and Toompas and his acquaintances are on the edge of society.”
“The ‘edge of society’? Sounds like it’s straight out of a textbook.” Tomasek sneered. “And this insight is based on your years of experience?”
Greta flushed and tensed for a retort, when Connors gave Tomasek a reproving look. “Greta has a point. We can’t rule out anything yet. With no other hard leads right now, this one needs to be checked out. Greta, since you brought this up, why don’t you look into it further? I’d suggest bringing in Fish and Game. I’ll call their office in Newport to see if they have any information. I expect they’ll put one of their people in touch with you. If it turns out to look plausible, you and the Fish and Game people work on it and let us know anything. If it involves following leads in Lincoln County, don’t worry about checking with us every time.”
“Okay,” she said, overtly mollified. But internally, she wasn’t.
You mean this should keep me busy and out of your hair, thought her evil twin.
Connors had been professional with her, but he and Tomasek seemed to be buddies enough that she suspected Connors was just more diplomatic. However, Connors’s support had the advantage of giving her the okay to be in Lincoln County without signing in every time.
“Back to the two other motives,” Connors continued. “If I can summarize . . . while so far we haven’t come up with any promising leads, the list of people we should interview is still long. The good thing about that is, as we’ve been feeding in new names, the same ones keep cropping up. That probably means the list is close to being complete.”
He looked at the five stapled sheets of names he had given everyone a copy of.
“As I said, we’re starting to get the same names, so there may only be one more update. Those we’ve already questioned are in bold type.”
Tomasek grunted with a sour look. “Okay,” he said in resignation. “I’ll check out the ones within Lincoln City limits.”
Greta perused the list and saw that most of the people in Lincoln City had already been contacted.
Nice of Tomasek to volunteer for the bare minimum, she thought.
Greta kept glancing over the list. There were only four new names in Tillamook County, along with those not yet contacted, including Mr. Pit Bulls.
Connors set his sheets down. “I think we should check these out and hope for something happening. If not, about the only thing left is to start going over all records mentioning Toompas to look for other names or ideas.”
“Go over individual records!” Tomasek snorted in disgust. “That’s what the damn databases are for.”
“If they were complete, yes,” Boylan said. “But we all know not everything gets in formal reports or goes into the databases. In fact, probably not half or even a third of the total information from notes and contacts. That’s why we leave it as the last resort.”
“As I said, I’ll get hold of Lincoln City people on the list,” said Tomasek, “but there are other cases. I don’t know if I can justify time going through individual records and notes on the off chance of finding something on the Toompas case.”
Other cases? Greta thought. Yeah—like Lincoln County is a hotbed of violent crime. Maybe they’re overwhelmed with seagulls flying in drugs.
The cartels were getting ever more inventive.
Connors’s face remained expressionless. “Just do what you can, and we’ll see where we are when we’re finished with the questioning.”
He paused, then said hesitantly, “There’s one more thing. I think we know the intended recipients of the transformer toy and other gift-wrapped items we found in his trunk. Social Services got a hit on Toompas. He has an eight-year-old son. Lives in Neotsu with his mother and stepfather. Toompas and the mother never married. Social Services says that Toompas never paid child support.” Connors appeared embarrassed as he continued. “Toompas’s death has been in the news, but we don’t know for sure whether the mother and son know about it. Greta . . . this is technically my job to see them, but I wondered if you’d be willing to do it.”
Willing? I guess, she thought. Eager? Not a chance. However, I guess it makes sense having a female break it to the ex-girlfriend. One of those sisterhood things.
Connors was clearly nervous that she’d be pissed, either thinking he was dumping this on her or that there was a sex-differential treatment charge lurking.
“I’ll do it,” she said. “Neotsu is on the way north anyway. I think it makes sense. Women will tend to open up to other women more than they would to men. Give me the name and address.”
