Page 42 of Wyoming Homecoming


Font Size:  

“Could you look through her things and see if there’s any paper trail that might lead me to the detective she hired?” he asked.

“Would it help you catch the man who did it?”

“I think it very well might,” he replied with confidence.

She managed a smile. “Then I’ll go through them tonight. Do you have a cell phone number?”

“I do.” He gave it to her. “I’ll be in town for at least two or three days. I’m staying at the Starlight Motel, over on Spruce Lane.”

She nodded. “I’ll get on it very soon.” She studied him. “Is he at it again, with some other poor woman?”

“Yes. A rich heiress in Florida. Her brother is apparently his next target, since he’s the only next-of-kin she’s got.” He shook his head. “I’ve never been rich, and never will be. I can’t imagine doing something so hideous to a nice woman and her family just to get money.”

“Neither can I,” Miss Henry replied. “The man is a monster, and he’ll keep on until he really does kill somebody.” Her eyes clouded. “I still think he killed my sister, but I’ll never be able to prove it.”

“With a little luck, I’ll help you prove it,” Cody told her. “The man he’s after lives in my county.” He smiled wistfully. “He’s a little off-center mentally, but he’s a kind, sweet man. I’d hate to see him framed for a crime he didn’t commit just to get him out of the way of a fortune hunter.”

“If I can be of any help, I certainly will,” Miss Henry told him. “I’ll even testify in court if you need me to. A man like that shouldn’t be allowed to get away with murder. It’s very possible that the detective found proof of at least some crime my former boyfriend committed.”

“I don’t doubt it.” He sighed. “I don’t sleep much, so you can text me at two in the morning if you come up with anything.”

Her head cocked and she studied him. “Have you just lost someone?”

He nodded. “My husky. Her name was Anyu and she was my only family. She was just six years old.”

“You poor man,” she said softly. “I lost my Nicky. He was just an alley cat, but I had him for sixteen years. He was so sweet. I grieved for weeks.” She glanced at Cody. “I had to leave him with a neighbor when Bobby came over. That was his name, Bobby Grant, my ex-boyfriend. He hated animals and children. I’d forgotten that.”

Cody was taking notes again. “This may help us. Do you recall anything else?”

“Well, yes. When he started complaining that my sister was jealous of me and planned to have me committed, I told him she’d never do any such thing. He got, well, sort of violent. He backed me into a wall and got right in my face and said he could prove it. He started to leave then. He said if I wanted to spend the rest of my life in a mental institution, that was my business, not his.” She smiled sadly. “Of course I begged him to stay. And it frightened me. I had these little spells where I’d see invisible people, things like that. My sister knew. It wasn’t so far-fetched that she might think along those lines. She wouldn’t have, but he scared me.” She lowered her eyes. “Not long after that, Candy didn’t come home from a date one night. They found her in the river a few days later.” Her eyes closed and she shivered. “Candy was more afraid of drowning than anything else in the world. We never found out who her date was.”

“I can make an educated guess,” Cody said.

“Me, too. I’ll bet Candy went out with him and confronted him with what she and her detective had found out, and he killed her.” She ground her teeth together. “She was always the toughest one of us.” She shook her head. “I’ll never forgive myself for what happened to her. But if you can find anything to pin on that...that...that heartless cheater, I’ll be grateful to you for the rest of my life.”

“I promise you that I’ll do my best,” Cody said, getting to his feet. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Miss Henry.”

“It was my pleasure, Sheriff Banks. If I find anything, I promise I’ll get it right to you.”

“I’ll appreciate that. Sorry to bring up so many bad memories.”

“It isn’t as if I don’t think about it every day. But life goes on,” she added sadly.

He nodded. “Indeed it does.”

HEWENTBACKto the motel. He had supper in a restaurant next door and thought over what Miss Henry had told him. If the detective had found proof that the scoundrel had taken out Miss Henry’s sister, and subsequently killed her, it would help to keep Mr. Whatley out of jail.

Apparently this man had been around the world a couple of times, and he was as slippery as a greased pig. Certainly he’d managed to save himself from a murder charge, although he’d taken off for Florida when Miss Henry mentioned that detective.

He was thinking that the detective, if he could find the person, might be able to tie up a lot of loose ends. He hoped Miss Henry would be able to dig up at least a phone number or a name.

Meanwhile, he was tired and worn out and he went to bed early. The next morning, he had breakfast. There had been no message from Miss Henry, so he decided to see the city detective who’d handled the murder investigation.

The man was out until the next day, but promised to make time to talk to Cody. Since he had a little time free, Cody went to the apartment building where Debby had lived and asked the manager if he might see the apartment, if it was vacant.

By a stroke of luck it was. The older man led the way to it. “Nobody stays in it long,” the manager told him, and laughed. “Can’t imagine why. We did have one tenant who lived here for the better part of two years. She was married, but her husband only spent the odd night here. Odd people. They seemed committed. Both of them were doctors. They worked at the hospital down the road.”

Cody felt his heart stop. “Would one of them have been Deborah Banks?” he asked.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like