Drake, p.8
Drake, page 8
Molly’s gaze met Drake’s. “I haven’t decided. It’s part of the lodge’s history. I’d love to know what it was used for, but a body being discovered in it might be too creepy for our clientele. We hope to attract families.” She shrugged. “I guess, to be determined.”
Molly turned to Frank Matson. “Greenway Construction was one of the contractors who did some work during the addition twenty years ago and the remodel fifteen years ago. Did you keep records of the employees who worked the jobs?”
Frank shook his head. “You’ll have to talk to Margaret Keller, my office manager. I didn’t own the company back then. It belonged to my father-in-law. I bought him out when he retired twelve years ago. I doubt the employee records go back that far. I only keep mine for ten years and then purge. I’m almost sure those records were part of my ten-year purge.” He frowned. “Do you think one of my father-in-law’s guys sealed the woman in the stone room?”
Molly’s gaze met Drake’s. “Someone put her there and then covered the door with plaster. It had to have happened during one of the construction phases. The lodge was continuously operational otherwise. Someone would’ve noticed work being done in one of the rooms. It was just a thought.”
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.”
Cassie hiked her eyebrows up and gave him a look. “Creepier than finding a body in a hidden room in the lodge?”
“Maybe not.” He drove to the last street at the end of Eagle Rock and stopped in front of the house next to the graveyard.
A woman with white hair sat on the porch snapping green beans. Her eyebrows rose up her forehead. “Cassie Douglas, have you come to arrest me for the illegal cannabis I’m growing in a flowerpot on my back porch?”
“Margaret,” Cassie said, shaking her head, “I didn’t hear that.”
The older woman chuckled. “Just kidding. I have a brown thumb. That cannabis plant died last summer because I didn’t water it enough. I can’t grow anything. I had to buy these green beans at the farmer’s market.” She smiled at Drake. “Did you bring me a present?”
Cassie laughed. “Margaret, you’re incorrigible.”
“That one of those words you picked up in law school?” She snorted. “When are you going back to finish your degree and get your license to practice?”
“I haven’t yet decided.”
“I’m waiting to commit some petty crime so you can represent me in court. Gotta support my peeps, don’t I?” She patted the chair beside her. “Come sit. Haven’t had a good chat with you since margarita night at the Blue Moose.”
Cassie climbed the porch steps and dropped into the chair. “Margaret, this is Drake Morgan, former Navy SEAL, currently working with Molly McKinnon at the Lucky Lady Lodge.”
“Oh.” Margaret’s eyes widened. “Are you the one who found the body?”
“That would be me.” Drake joined the women on the porch and held out his hand to Margaret. “Nice to meet you.”
She rubbed her hand on the side of her jeans before taking his hand in a firm grip. “The pleasure is all mine. I can assure you.”
“We stopped by the Greenway office just a minute ago and spoke with Tacey. She sent us to you.”
Margaret snorted. “Can’t she find anything since she reorganized the office?”
Cassie smiled. “We’re trying to identify employees of Greenway who worked on projects at the Lucky Lady Lodge fifteen and twenty years ago.”
“You think one of our employees might have left that body in the wall?” Margaret’s eyes grew wider, and then she nodded thoughtfully. “It would make sense. They hadn’t done any other upgrades or updates to the building since then.” She snapped a bean into the bowl in front of her. “What do you want to know?”
“Who were your guys skilled with drywall installation?” Drake asked. “It takes skill to do it right.”
Margaret nodded and then shook her head. “Yes and no. It doesn’t take any skill to hang it, but it takes skill to float it and make it seamless.” She grinned. “Earl Hensley. He was Greenway’s best drywall guy.”
“Was?” Drake questioned.
Cassie responded. “He’s now Eagle Rock’s best mechanic. I didn’t know he hung drywall.”
Margaret snapped another bean into the bowl. “He and Frank had a falling out about the time Earl’s older brother had a heart attack, died and left his auto repair shop to Earl.” Margaret frowned. “I can’t picture Earl killing anyone and hiding the body behind a wall. He’s one of the nicest men I know. I’d have had him if he’d shown the least bit of interest.”
Drake chuckled, and Cassie blushed.
“He never married.” Margaret tilted her head to the side. “I always imagined some woman broke his heart. Maybe she did, and he stuffed her in the wall.” The old woman shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him. He might be working late. He usually does.”
Drake met Cassie’s gaze.
Margaret smiled. “I guess you’ll be going. Thanks for stopping by and keeping me company for a few short minutes. Next time, stay a while and bring margaritas.”
“You’re on.” Cassie bent to hug the woman. “Stay ornery. It suits you.”
“Damn right, it does. Arthur Greenway understood me. We worked well together for over thirty years. Never had the same connection with Frank. Fortunately, I saved my pennies, invested in the stock market and retired with enough money to keep me in margaritas for a long time.” She reached for Cassie’s hand. “I hope you find out who she was and give her family some peace. And then nail the bastard who did that to her.”
Cassie nodded solemnly. “That’s the plan.”
“And while you’re at it, bring pretty Penny home where she belongs,” Margaret said.
Cassie responded with a nod, her eyes glassy, swimming with tears.
Drake slipped an arm around her and led her back to the truck. He opened the door for her and helped her into the passenger seat.
His heart squeezed hard in his chest at the sadness in her eyes. Her friend Penny meant a lot to her. He wished he could help her in the search to find her.
“Which way?” he asked as he slipped behind the steering wheel and backed out of the driveway onto the road.
Cassie swallowed hard before she answered. After she gave him directions to Earl’s auto repair shop, she sat back in her seat and stared out the front windshield.
“I stopped asking why a few weeks in as a sheriff’s deputy,” Cassie said softly. “Why are people so mean to each other? Why would someone kill another person? Why would someone want to harm an innocent child? Why would a person torture a dog?”
A single tear slipped down her cheek.
She wiped the tear away, her jaw hardening. “Asking why doesn’t fix broken people. It doesn’t make them nicer. Sometimes, I think I’m becoming too jaded and starting to think there is no goodness in this world.” A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Then a handsome SEAL comes to the rescue of a stranger, making sure she’s not harmed by one of those crazy people I don’t understand. And an old woman invites me to her house for company and margaritas.” She shot a watery smile toward Drake. “And my faith in humankind is renewed until the next dumbass does something heinous.”
Drake reached across the console and took her hand in his. “I’ve had moments like that, more often than I care to admit. I can’t dwell on those. Not when the sun keeps coming up in the morning, giving me a brand-new shot at a better day.”
Cassie squeezed his hand. “You’re all right, Drake Morgan. Look at us philosophizing, and we haven’t even had any alcohol.”
Drake laughed as he turned onto the street where Earl’s auto repair shop stood, surrounded by several vehicles in various stages of assembly or disassembly.
Three large overhead doors graced the shop. Two were closed; one was wide open.
Drake parked in front of the shop and pushed his door open. As he stepped down, a scream echoed inside the open bay door, and a plump, gray-haired woman burst from the shadowy interior.
Chapter 8
Cassie dropped down from the truck and ran toward the screaming woman. She collapsed against her, sobbing wildly.
“Take a deep breath,” Cassie said.
The woman sucked in a shaky breath then burst into tears again, pointing toward the shop.
“I’ll check it out,” Drake said.
“Do you have a gun?” Cassie asked softly, mouthing the words more than saying them out loud.
He nodded, reached into his truck, pulled a Glock out of the glove box and hurried toward the open bay door. He approached from the side, easing into the shadows.
Cassie’s heart lodged in her throat when he disappeared into the building. She didn’t breathe until he reappeared less than a minute later, his face grim, his lips pressed together in a tight line.
He walked toward her and the sobbing woman, then passed them, continuing to the truck. He pulled his cell phone out of the console and placed a call. “This is Drake Morgan. I’m at Earl Hensley’s auto repair shop. Earl Hensley is dead, crushed beneath an auto lift.”
Cassie gasped, and the woman in her arms sobbed louder.
Drake ended the call and joined Cassie.
“Let me,” he said.
Cassie untangled the woman’s arms from around her neck and turned her toward Drake. He handed her his gun and pulled the woman into his arms.
Cassie went into the auto repair shop, dreading what she’d find yet having to see for herself.
Just as Drake had reported to Marnie, the 911 dispatcher, Earl Hensley was dead, crushed beneath an auto lift with a full-sized SUV balanced on the rails. His eyes were wide open, as was his mouth as if he’d screamed in pain.
Cassie’s stomach roiled. She turned and hurried out of the shop.
The wail of sirens sounded from the fire station as a fire truck and ambulance made their way toward them.
Within the next five minutes, the road filled with a fire truck, ambulance, the sheriff’s vehicle and an array of personal vehicles driven by various volunteer firefighters and paramedics.
Sheriff Barron insisted on leaving the body until the state crime lab could get someone out there to process the scene. Though having a lift fall on Earl could have been an accident, he insisted on processing it as a homicide.
“Rather have a little overkill than miss evidence that could convict a killer,” the sheriff said.
The sobbing woman was someone visiting relatives in Eagle Rock. Hers was the SUV on the rack. It was supposed to have been ready for pickup at five o’clock. When she’d arrived, she found Earl just as Drake and Cassie had. Crushed. Dead.
Representatives from the state crime lab arrived an hour and a half later.
The sheriff told Cassie that she and Drake could leave. She had to work the next day, and they didn’t have anyone to fill in if she couldn’t.
Tired and disheartened, she left with Drake, riding in silence until he pulled into the parking lot at the Blue Moose Tavern.
“I don’t think I could eat a thing,” she said. “But I’ll sit with you while you grab a bite.” The image of Earl squished beneath the lift could not be unseen.
Drake shifted into park and turned toward her, taking her hand in his. “I thought we’d get something light to eat and something strong to drink.”
“I could go for that,” she said.
He released her hand and climbed out of the truck. She didn’t wait for him to come around to open her door. It was silly to sit there when they could both get inside sooner. She joined him at the front of the truck and slipped her hand inside his. By now, she didn’t give a damn who saw her. She wanted the comfort holding his hand brought. It wasn’t like it made them a thing.
Abby saw them as they entered and hurried over to the hostess. “I’ll seat them in my area.”
The hostess nodded and handed her the menus.
Abby showed them to a booth half hidden near the back of the restaurant. She set the menus on the table in front of them and grimaced. “I heard about what happened. Can I get you both a whiskey neat?”
“Make it a double,” Cassie said.
“Same,” Drake added.
Abby nodded and hurried away to get their drinks.
Cassie sat staring at the menu without seeing it. Earl’s eyes were forever etched in her mind.
“Do you think someone killed him?” Cassie whispered.
Drake nodded. “Those lifts are safety rated. They don’t fall.”
“Someone had to have lowered it onto Earl,” Cassie said. “But who?”
He didn’t want to say it but felt he had to. “He had to incapacitate Earl first. The lift would’ve gone down slowly.”
Abby arrived with the whiskey and set it on the table in front of them. “What can I get you two to eat?” she asked.
Drake ordered a chicken salad with an extra plate and fork. “We’ll start there. If we’re still hungry, we can order something else.”
Abby nodded and hurried away to fill the order.
Cassie shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever be hungry again.”
Drake reached across the table and took her hands in his. “The memory will fade.”
