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“I’ll bring it to the station this afternoon,” Pete said.
“Thank you.”
She thanked the family for their time, then left with Marcy.
“What are you thinking?” Marcy asked when they climbed back into her Bronco.
Kara wasn’t used to a partner—not working a case like this. She primarily worked alone, and she didn’t have a complete thought formed in her head.
“Ashley is seventeen, correct?”
“Yes. Why?” asked Marcy.
Generally, law enforcement could talk to minors without parental consent—and because Ashley wasn’t a suspect, Kara didn’t see an issue with it. The issue was that the sheriff had promised their dad that he could be present during any questioning.
The sheriff—not the FBI. Kara didn’t want to make things difficult for Marcy after the FBI left, and she didn’t necessarily want the sheriff interfering if he thought Pete should be present. So she deflected Marcy’s question and asked, “What do you know about this group, IP?”
“Typical environmental activist group,” Marcy said. “Some of their members get out of line—vandalism, trespassing, things like that—but I can’t see any of them being violent.”
“Matt said in the briefing that IP had been investigated for threats made to West End.”
“True, and two of their members were arrested and fined, got probation—community service—for vandalizing one of the West End docks last summer. Since then, they’ve been pretty much well-behaved, other than general protesting and whatnot. Really, I think they’re harmless.”
Kara knew Matt planned to interview the two vandals. Being on probation helped because, as a term of their probation, they were required to cooperate with any police investigation.
“What are you thinking?” Marcy continued.
“I’m trying to see a bigger picture,” Kara said, leaving it at that. Kara didn’t have a uniform, and while she was in law enforcement, she was also an outsider in this community. Someone who would be gone in days or weeks, at the most. She was pretty certain she could get Ashley to talk about IP and anyone she might be concerned about—but not with anyone in authority present.
“Let’s hit Madelyn Jeffries and see what she has to add.”
4
The Jeffries vacation home was larger in every way than most primary homes—soaring A-frame roof, broad picture windows, a front door you could drive a truck through. But at the same time, it blended in beautifully among the trees, almost invisible even in its vastness. As soon as Kara started up the front steps, she realized the expansive deck had one of the best unobstructed views of the ocean that she’d yet seen. She’d bet a month’s pay there was a hot tub around back with that same view, something big and relaxing. Oh, yep, Kara could be happy here. She didn’t need the big house—one room would suffice—but she would kill to have a place on the water.
“Madelyn Jeffries is twenty-nine,” Marcy said as they approached the door. “Married to Pierce Jeffries, the deceased.”
“The notes I have say you talked to her Friday night?”
“No, the sheriff notified her on Friday night. Tom Redfield and I went to follow up with her Saturday morning, to ask why she’d decided not to go on the sunset cruise.”
“And?”
Marcy shrugged. “I didn’t buy her answer. That she wasn’t feeling well. Might not mean she’s involved in anything illegal, but she’s probably inheriting his money, and word is he’s worth tens of millions. I’m sure there’s a will. He has three kids, none of whom were happy he married a younger woman. Two of his kids are older than she is.”
“Is that motive for murder? Kill their daddy because they don’t like their new mommy?”
“No, but maybe Mrs. Jeffries killed her husband for his money.”
“And eight other people?”
Sure, it was possible, and Kara had seen enough shit in her thirty years to know it could happen, but did Madelyn have the knowledge to make a bomb? To obtain the C-4, know where to place the device to cause maximum damage, be calm enough to walk her husband to the boat, then leave in an Uber?
It would take someone extremely cold to do that.
Or she could have hired someone, but there would be a trail. Unless she had a young lover, maybe a former Navy SEAL like Kara’s colleague Michael Harris, who could make and plant a bomb and would ostensibly know where to steal C-4.
A place to look, but there were a lot easier ways to kill someone than bombing a boat.
