AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hm, good point.”
My eyes flick between the two women. I’m going to be cut out of my own investigation at this point. “Mrs. Ballantine, do you mind if you give us some time alone? I appreciate your… help, but this is official business and I want to keep the facts of the case to a limited audience.”
“Youaredoing business in her shop, McEvoy,” Constance replies.
“At your insistence,” I say.
“I don’t remember having to insist last night when I suggested?—”
Kate places her hand on Constance’s shoulder. “Relax, Con.”
Constance rolls her shoulders back, resetting. Kate must have a magic touch. I never would have expected someone would be able to make Constancedocile.
“Apologies, Sheriff,” Kate says with a smile. “If you need anything else, you know where to find me.”
She retreats back behind the counter and a silence settles over Constance and me.
Well, almost a silence. Constance is clicking her pen like a madwoman. I take another sip of the matcha. I’ll admit, it’s growing on me.
“All right. Let’s try this again,” Constance says. “The bones obviously had been moved. We know that some of them wereanimaland?—”
“The rest were human, right?”
She rolls her eyes. “I mean, upon first glance, that’s what I’d say.”
“If what you’re saying about the shallow grave is true and the skeleton was moved or… assembled… that would mean it could really be motivated by the Fredericksons’ plans for the Wilhelm House,” I say and then thumb my lower lip in thought. “But how did they get the rest of those bones?”
Constance lifts her tea to sip. “Grave robbing?”
“Isn’t that kind of a nineteenth-century kind of thing?” I ask.
She shrugs. “People in duress do strange things.”
Constance is right about that. I’ve seen some pretty wild things during my time on the force. I make a mental note to have some of my guys check out the local cemeteries. It’s not a bad idea if we don’t come up with any good leads on missing persons.
“Not to mention whoever did this works fast,” Constance says. “They only had about, what, fifteen hours to get into the museum and get the pieces without being noticed? I suppose if they had already dug the grave, they’d have more flexibility, but I’m not sure they would have risked being on the property longer than they needed to be.”
“Good point.” The timelineispretty quick.
“I’d be surprised if the Fredericksons’ neighbors would go that far, though. I mean, the Youngs have all those kids and I doubt they’re thinking about their neighbors. And Polly and Hank Shelton…” Constance trails off at the end of her sentence, her gazing going toward the window.
“You think something is off with Polly and Hank Shelton?”
She shakes her head, eyes still glued outside. “Polly and Hank are octogenarians, no way they were able to pull off the speed of the crime.” She jabs her finger toward something outside. “Do you see that?”
I look out the window. Constance is pointing at a luxe black sports car parked in front of the bank across the street.
“The Mustang?” I ask.
“No one drives a Mustang around here,” she says, her tone so grave, I am captivated.
We watch the car a moment longer. The driver side door opens and out emerges Harvey Collins. He looks rather jolly today in his Carhartt and baseball cap as he practically skips into the bank.
“He must do awfully well for a handyman,” I remark.
“Notthatwell,” Constance says. “Besides, didn’t you see his truck out in front of the Fredericksons the other day?”
Now that she mentions it, I do remember seeing the big red jalopy parked in front of the Frederickson house. “Well, surely he doesn’t drive the Mustang to jobs. That wouldn’t make sense, right?”
