Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
How indeed.
Lord, this was a tangled web.
“This detective was interested enough to actually investigate,” Cade continued, “and all three of the kids, the sister, and all of the parents had alibis. It’s just that the two younger kids’ alibis were each other. That said, the investigator was under pressure to close a case that seemed not to merit resources, so he did as his superiors requested and closed the case.”
God, he was good at this.
A sentiment to be shared.
“You’re crazy good at this,” I announced.
Another smile from Cade.
“You should have seen how closely he pegged Ray Andrews,” Delphine noted.
Cade aimed his current smile Delphine’s way before he kept going.
“What’s of note is that Lincoln’s express wishes while he was in prison, the only word they have from any of the three about how their assets were to be distributed, are why that judge ordered the monies to be used for schooling and living expenses. And the only one of them who went to college was the first one. What’s also of note, is that the oldest is being the least contentious of all those vultures. He simply wants an equitable split between the offspring. He’s repeatedly said that was what his mom, dad and uncle-maybe-dad would have wanted. But he’s not hiding his growing fatigue with these proceedings, to the point that I would be surprised if soon, he didn’t withdraw. Further, he hasn’t had much to do with his brother and sister since well before his father was released from prison. When he went to college a year after the deaths, he got stuck in his studies, and essentially, if not officially, broke ties with all of them.”
“How did Dern’s case file look?” Riggs asked.
“It had Lincoln’s mugshot, prints, his written confession, a report that’s precisely three paragraphs long, a lot of pictures of a burned building, a picture of the shotgun, and a copy of a lot more thorough report from the coroner. And that’s it,” Cade informed him.
“So they didn’t test Lincoln for gunshot residue?” Riggs asked.
“Now why would he do that?” Cade asked sarcastically. “He had a confession, and probably a beer and a game to get back to.”
“Does this mean Harry is going to be up to his neck in shit if that gets out?” Riggs pushed.
Cade shook his head. “Harry, being Harry, has already asked Polly to pull the bigger cases Dern worked on to do an audit, so when this gets out, he’s not blindsided. It still could be an issue. The thing he has going for him is the guy confessed and went down without a whimper. Dern definitely should have done more. They don’t even have notes on an interrogation like they didn’t ask the guy that first question. And they certainly didn’t interview anyone else. If there’s a case that’s going to turn over, this would be the one.”
Cade took another sip then asked his own question. “You worried about those footprints?”
“Nadia and I are going to start tramping around ourselves.”
“I’ll help with that, and Jace and Jess aren’t on an assignment, so I know they’ll be on board to help too. If you don’t mind me making suggestions, give us quadrants, but we concentrate around your house, the cabin, the east side of the lake down to where there was evidence of trespassers. If Roosevelt hid something, he was an outdoorsman, I wouldn’t put it past him putting it on the more remote side of the lake. But it’d be better to concentrate our efforts, then expand.”
“Your help would be appreciated. But, Cade, if someone is actually looking for something, they’ve had fifteen years to find whatever it is, and it obviously hasn’t been found,” Riggs noted.
“And Roosevelt Whitaker was a clever thriller writer,” Cade returned. “If there’s something to be found he didn’t want to be found, it’s probably going to take eternity to find it.”
That meant, whoever was looking had to be found.
And if I understood what Riggs and Cade were talking about, that “whoever” had been looking for fifteen years, they hadn’t found it, but they were definitely in to keep looking.
Well.
Damn.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Chartering A Plane
Nadia
“I have a theory,” I announced on our way to Storm’s house after we left the Bohannans.
“Sock it to me,” Riggs invited.
“I sense from what we discussed with Cade, and what you two were talking about, plus what you found this morning, this someone from the Whitaker debacle possibly looking for something, might also be the ‘ghosts’ who chased people off the property. I mean, if whatever it is, is a big deal, like worth money, whoever owns the property actually now owns whatever that is. And before you bought it, whoever it is might not be someone who’s supposed to have whatever it is they’re looking for. This means, they couldn’t exactly have people around while they were looking for it.”