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And an avenue they’d have to explore. If one of the construction crew had sealed the woman inside the wall, she must’ve been dead at the time. Otherwise, she could’ve knocked through the plaster wall with little effort. If she’d been dead, and all signs indicated that was the case, most likely, she’d been murdered. Why else hide her body behind a wall?
Which meant someone had gotten away with murder and could still be living among the good citizens of Eagle Rock.
Drake glanced at his watch. “I need to talk with Frank’s office manager and find out if the employment records had been purged when Frank bought the business from his father-in-law.”
Parker led the engineer and Matson into the next room. Molly hung back, her gaze meeting Drake’s. “You’re taking this personally, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I guess I am.”
“I can’t blame you. I suppose I would as well if I’d been the one to find the body.” Molly kicked at a chunk of plaster. “You think Frank’s office manager can help?”
Drake nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“It’s almost quitting time. You’d better hurry before his office closes. I’ll let the others know you left for the day.”
“Thank you.” He left the lodge, climbed into his truck and raced into Eagle Rock, disregarding the speed limits. His first stop was the sheriff’s office. Hopefully, he’d find Cassie there. She’d planned on spending the day searching the missing persons databases.
As he parked, he glanced at his watch again. Fifteen minutes until five o’clock. That didn’t give him much time. But he knew Cassie would want to be there to question the office manager. She had more right to investigate than he did.
When Drake entered the sheriff’s office, the front desk was empty. “Hello?” he called out.
“Drake?” Cassie’s voice sounded first, and then she appeared in the doorway of an office. “What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t get off until five o’clock?”
“I left early. Are you at a stopping point?”
She nodded. “I was just shutting down for the day.”
“Do you know where Greenway Construction’s office is?”
She nodded. “It’s at the south end of town, several blocks from here. Why?”
“Greenway did the work on the addition twenty years ago, as well as the remodel five years later. Molly and I thought it would be a good idea to see if they kept employee records going that far back. But if we don’t hurry, their shop will be closed before we get there, and we’ll have to wait until morning to ask.”
Cassie pulled the office door shut. “I’m ready. Let’s go.” She followed him out of the sheriff’s office and locked the door behind them.
Drake had left his truck running. Cassie ran for the passenger door while Drake hopped into the driver’s seat. He spun out of the parking lot onto Main Street, heading south.
They were just pulling into the parking lot when a young woman with dark brown hair, wearing jeans and a polo shirt with the Greenway logo on the breast pocket, came out of the office, turned and locked the door.
Cassie was out of her seat before Drake engaged the parking brake. “Tacey, are you closing up shop for the night?”
Tacey smiled a greeting. “Sure am. Gotta get my son to his baseball practice. Is there something you need?”
“Hopefully, you can help us,” Cassie turned to Drake. “By the way, this is Drake, my…boyfriend.”
Drake fought the smile threatening to spread across his face at Cassie’s quickly blurted lie.
Her cheeks flushed a pretty pink, making her freckles stand out. “Do you know if Greenway Construction kept employee records from a couple of jobs they did for the Lucky Lady Lodge fifteen and twenty years ago?”
Tacey shook her head. “I know where every sheet of paper is in that office. I reorganized everything when Frank hired me to replace Margaret Finley when she retired. I purged everything over ten years old, except for blueprints and building permits. If the employee records from fifteen and twenty years ago were in there, they were purged. I don’t know how Margaret kept that office running as efficiently as she did. I couldn’t find anything. She had her own way of filing things. Most of which was in her head.”
Tacey’s face brightened. “If you want to know anything about the projects Greenway constructed, where they were and who worked them, I’d ask Margaret.” Tacey jingled her keys. “Now, I have a little boy waiting for his mama to take him to practice.” She stepped past Cassie and Drake, climbed into her car and drove away.
“Where can we find Margaret Finley?” Drake asked as he climbed into his truck and started the engine.
Cassie settled into the seat beside him and buckled her seatbelt. “Margaret lives in a little house on the last street before you head out of Eagle Rock. Not far from here and next to the graveyard.”
Drake’s brow wrinkled. “That’s a bit creepy.”
