Iris Avenue (14 page)

“None of that,” she said.

She wiped her eyes, cleared her throat, and got back to work.

When Patrick and Maggie came over the ridge top on the long rutted driveway that led from Hollyhock Ridge to Hanna’s farm, the truck slid sideways on a combination of slush, ice, and new fallen snow. The lights were on in the farmhouse and in Hannah’s office in the barn.

“The dogs aren’t coming to greet us,” Maggie said. “Where are the dogs?”

They could hear the kennel dogs barking and Hannah’s animal control truck was in the driveway. As they bounced and slid down the final yards to the farmhouse, Maggie had her seat belt off and door open before the truck came to a full stop.

“Hannah!” she yelled as she ran up the wheelchair ramp to the side door that led into the kitchen.

She flung open the storm door, opened the door into the kitchen, and yelled again. There was no response. The lights were on in the kitchen.

Maggie checked all the rooms on the first floor except Sam’s office, which was always locked up tighter than Fort Knox. She ran upstairs and checked all those rooms as well. No Hannah. There was a cellar under the house that you could access via a door outside, and Maggie’s intention as she left the house was to go there. Instead, when she exited the house she heard the kennel dogs barking their heads off.

When Maggie got to the barn, she found Patrick in the barn office with Hannah. Maggie grabbed Hannah in a quick bear hug. They both started to cry and then laughed at each other for crying.

Banjo was having a barking contest with the pit bulls in the kennels, although Banjo sounded more like “Olp! Olp! Olp!” and the inmates sounded more like “we want to kill you and eat you!” Pretty soon Banjo began to howl and the pit bulls began to howl along with him. It was an eerie, lonesome sound. Patrick yelled at them to shut up.

“Let them do it,” Hannah said. “They’re all going to die tomorrow, anyway.”

Hannah started to cry again and Maggie hugged her again. Patrick carefully took the tazer out of Hannah’s hand, switched it off, and laid it on the desktop.

“What are you doing out here?” Maggie asked her as she let go.

Hannah dried her eyes on her pajama shirt and told them what had happened. Patrick went out to look for footprints, taking Hannah’s flashlight  and taser with him.

“I could kick you for coming out here without your cell phone,” Maggie said.

“I know, it was really stupid. What in the world are you two doing out here so early?”

“I woke up worrying about you and called.”

“What time was that?”

“Around four.”

Hannah looked up at the ceiling and shook her head.

“What?” Maggie asked her.

“Nothing,” Hannah said, wiping new tears away. “Looks like I’m going to start going to church with you and your mom.”

“What brought that on?” Maggie asked. “And where are Jax and Wally?”

“They ran off after something, probably a deer. Fat lot of help they are.”

“Did you see the person?”

“Briefly. I don’t think it was Brian. This guy was clean shaven. I don’t think I’d know him again if I saw him.”

“When you didn’t answer, I thought maybe one of the inmates got you.”

“It was probably some lost hiker or hunter. I probably scared him more than he scared me.”

“I can stay out here with you from now on.”

“I heard from Sam.”

“And?”

“He says he’s coming home this week.”

Maggie struggled to suppress all the mean things she wanted to say.

“I know,” Hannah said. “You don’t have to say anything.”

Patrick came back with Banjo right on his heels.

“The snow has covered up the footprints,” he said. “There’s no one in any of the outbuildings. Whoever it was is long gone.”

“She doesn’t think it was Brian,” Maggie said.

“Whoever it was just missed being a pit bull breakfast,” Hannah said. “Come on in and get some coffee. It’s the least I can do.”

When Scott got to work at eight o’clock, Sarah Albright was waiting out front in a county car. She was scowling, her brow furrowed and her mouth turned down at the corners. Scott greeted her, let her in, then turned on the lights and turned up the heat. He took off his coat and set his thermos and bag of warm muffins on his desk before seating himself across from her.

“What can I do for you, Sarah?”

“You can tell me what’s going on with the federal investigation you’re involved with, and what Ray’s murder has to do with it.”

“I don’t know that Ray’s murder has anything to do with a federal investigation. Why do you think it does?”

“Because the bureau just jerked the case out from under me, that’s why.”

“You’re always so busy, why would you mind?”

“Because I know there’s something big going on and I want in on it. If there’s an important case brewing in my jurisdiction, I want a piece of the action and some credit when it all goes down.”

“Don’t you still have friends at the bureau? Why ask me?”

“Because I know you’re cooperating with them and I want in.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I know it and you know it. So do me a favor and introduce me to the agent and tell him or her that I’m exactly who they need to have involved.”

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do. The next time I see a real live FBI agent I’ll tell him or her all about you.”

“Look, Scott, I know we got off to a rocky start. I haven’t always taken your feelings into account when we collaborated in the past. I’m working very hard to honor our professional relationship, while keeping appropriate boundaries and respecting your right to disagree with me. Can’t we work together as a team to solve this problem?”

“You’re saying all the right things, Sarah, and I can tell you’ve been paying attention in class, but you have to practice what you preach. I said if I see any FBI agents I’ll tell them about you, and then it’s up to them. That’s all I can do.”

Scott could see she was really pissed off and frustrated, but she was hamstrung. Now that she’d realized, due to an intervention on the part of her supervisor, that insults and intimidation were not an appropriate communication style in every situation, she had to struggle against her urge to let everyone have it when they didn’t immediately jump when she said they should.

“Do you want to get some breakfast?” she asked.

Scott gestured at his coffee and muffins.

“I’m all set. Thanks for stopping by.”

“You want to know what we found in Ray’s post mortem, don’t you?” she asked.

This was a more effective sweetener and Scott was tempted.

“I do want to know, but I’ve got nothing to trade for the information.”

She stood up to leave, and Scott thought that meant she was going to refuse to share what she knew in order to punish him. Right before she got to the door she turned.

“He was killed upriver about twenty miles, next to an old fishing shack down behind the Roadhouse; there was blood on the river bank there. Looks like whoever killed him hid in a drainpipe set in the side of the hill. Our killer was an amateur; he left cigarette butts all over the place. He must have slipped up behind Ray, slit his throat, and pushed him in the river. The water level is so high right now his body slid over two dams before he was caught in that beaver dam. His Harley is still parked at the Roadhouse, but no one reported him missing. They all thought Ray was off on a bender somewhere.”

“Any leads on the killer?”

“We sent the cigarette butts over to the state lab for DNA analysis before the feds intervened. You know as well as I do it takes months to get those back.”

“Autopsy done?”

“Done, but not filed. Unofficially I got confirmation he was hopped up on speed or meth. Big sharp knife made a cut so deep he was dead before he hit the water.”

“You think he was meeting Brian?”

“It’s a possibility. You tell your fed buddies I have some good insights into the whole situation. I’d be a real asset to their investigation.”

“If I see one, I will.”

“Right.”

Sarah left Scott in deep thought. If Brian killed Ray, why wouldn’t Brian use his Harley to get as far away from there as possible? Why come all the way to Rose Hill to steal Maggie’s car? Was there something else Brian wanted to do before he left? And if so, what was so important that he would risk being arrested in order to stay and finish it? Scott hoped it wasn’t to take revenge on his wife or his brother, or whomever Brian blamed for his current predicament.

Malcolm Behr came in and Scott poured him a cup of coffee.

“How goes the beaver dam business?” Scott asked him.

“The feds won’t let us touch it,” Malcolm said. “Meanwhile, that warm front is almost here, and the guy that owns the fields on either side is threatening to break it up himself.”

“What did the Corps of Engineers say about the dams between here and there?”

“That they should have been replaced thirty years ago.”

“That’s no surprise.”

“I’ve got all my volunteers on call twenty-four seven, and the Corps has put a monitor on the water level. If that thing breaks up we may have a disaster on our hands.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Keep your radio handy,” Malcolm said. “If something happens we’ll need to evacuate Lotus Avenue immediately; maybe Marigold as well.”

“Does the mayor know?”

“He’s excited about it; he wants a hydroelectric dam, and he thinks if the old ones break we’ll get one.”

“Do you think the Little Bear is big enough to support that?”

“I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the mayor broke up the beaver dam himself just to find out.”

Jamie entered the kitchen so quietly Ava didn’t notice his presence until she turned around. She jumped, startled.

“Jamie,” she said. “You scared me.”

“Sorry,” he said. “Bad habit.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m feeling kind of jumpy.”

“One of our agents is coming today to work the front desk,” he said. “Her story is she’s researching her ancestry through the city records and is willing to work the front desk to pay for her stay.”

“That’s clever,” Ava said, summoning up a vestige of a smile for him, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Will she be wearing a false nose and a wig?”

“I think it will help,” Jamie said, ignoring her question. “I know you’re worried about your aunt. Theresa’s one of the best people I have and she can help with the kids. Do you have a room for her?”

“Yes,” Ava said. “I’m telling anyone who calls that I’m fully booked even though I have vacancies. No sense in endangering my guests as well as my family. You can fill up every room with agents for all I care. The more the merrier.”

“I know this is difficult, Ava, but it will all be worth it. We have to gather enough evidence and enough people willing to testify in order to ensure Mrs. Wells and her accomplices go to prison for a long time. You’re a key witness to this investigation. Without you I’m not sure we could succeed.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, what does Lily Crawford have to do with Mrs. Wells? I saw her out at Lily’s farm a few weeks ago when I took the kids sledding. I just recently remembered where it was I’d seen her. How is Lily involved in this?”

“I can’t answer that, Ava.”

“I’ll ask her myself, then.”

Jamie shrugged.

Ava slammed the sheet pan she was drying down on the counter and was gratified to see him jump.

“Lily is someone I trusted,” Ava said. “I’ve known her all my life. Now I don’t know who I can trust. You expect me to tell you everything and trust you with all our lives, but you won’t tell me anything!”

“I’m sorry. I know this is horrible for you. I can tell you this: you are as safe at Lily Crawford’s house as you are here.”

“Which may mean not at all.”

Jamie smiled at her and Ava turned her back on him. When she turned back around he was gone. Ava rubbed her aching, cast-covered wrist and wondered if she had damaged it. She called Doc Machalvie and he told her to come right over.

“It looks fine,” he said, while looking at the x-ray.

“When can you take it off?” she asked him.

“Three more weeks,” he said. “We have to be sure it’s fully healed.”

“It makes everything harder to do,” she said. “Plus I have to wrap it in plastic every time I take a shower or wash dishes. It’s probably covered in germs, and I hate exposing the baby to that.”

“How is the little fella?”

“Delia’s got him today. He’s doing really well. He’s getting some teeth, so that’s making him cross, but other than that he’s great.”

“Bring him over to see me next week,” Doc said. “Now that he’s fully recovered from his respiratory infection we need to get his immunizations up-to-date.”

Ava stood and gathered her things in preparation to leave.

“You heard Brian escaped,” she said.

Doc hesitated, as if he was deliberating over saying something. Then hugged her and kissed her on the forehead.

“Don’t you worry,” Doc said. “They’ll catch him.”

The young woman who showed up with the story about researching her ancestors was a credible actress. If she hadn’t known it was all a lie, Ava would have believed everything she said. Ava reflected that she needed to start assuming everyone she met might be pretending to be someone they were not, and that everything that was said could be a lie.

Ava took Theresa up to her room, where she left her suitcases, and then took her back downstairs to show her how things were done at the front desk.

“You’re welcome to use the computer and the phone,” Ava said. “We won’t be taking any more reservations for awhile so you don’t need to know how to do that. Tell anyone who calls that we’re booked up through May, but take their information if they want to be on a cancellation call list.”

“You should mark your reservation book to match that information,” Theresa said. “Right now it shows vacancies.”

“Then that can be your first duty,” Ava said sweetly, but her voice had an edge to it.

“Aren’t you worried about losing money by turning away customers?” Theresa asked.

“I’m more worried about them being murdered by a psychopathic drug pusher,” Ava responded, and the woman didn’t even pretend not to understand.

“I’m so sorry about all this,” Theresa said under her breath, and looked at Ava with real pity in her eyes.

“Make yourself at home,” Ava said as she walked away. “There’s coffee in the kitchen and spare ammo in the linen closet.”

Maggie was determined to stick to Hannah like glue the rest of the day, although Hannah insisted she was fine. Patrick went back home to get some sleep and Maggie hung out in Hannah’s kitchen while her friend showered and dressed for the day. Afterward they spent some time exercising the inmates.

“I’m ashamed of myself for using these dogs as a weapon,” Hannah said. “Letting them kill a person would’ve been worse than making them fight each other.”

“I’d have done the same thing,” Maggie said.

“That doesn’t make it right,” Hannah said. “I gotta tell you, I don’t know how many more executions I can take.”

“You did everything you could to rehabilitate them,” Maggie said. “You could never trust them. It would be like leaving loaded guns lying around.”

“I know that, and yet who are we to decide it’s time for them to die? The yahoos who trained them to fight will get off with a fine and very little jail time. These dogs got the death penalty.”

“It’s all backwards.”

“I know I say this every month, but I think I may hang it up. I don’t think I can keep doing this.”

“Then who will save the dogs that can be rehabilitated? Who will do the foster placements? Who will relocate the ground hogs, possums, and raccoons? What about the feral cat project? That’s going to be a huge undertaking and you’ll finally have help. What about the no kill shelter? That’s always been your dream; you can’t give up now.”

“It’s not even the euthanasia that’s so awful, although it is. The vets who do it are good people, and they do it humanely. It’s how quiet the kennel is afterward. That quiet does me in.”

Maggie hugged Hannah with one arm and they left the barn.

Hannah showed Maggie how to plow the driveway using a blade attached to the four-wheeler.

“I want one of these!” Maggie shouted as she took her first turn and scraped the driveway down to mud.

“Not so deep,” Hannah called out. “I’d like to keep the gravel, if you don’t mind.”

When she was through Maggie hosed off the four-wheeler, dried it with some rags kept for that purpose, and returned it to the shed. When she entered the house she found Hannah taking clothes out of the dryer in the kitchen.

“What’s next? Should we go look for the dogs?” Maggie asked her.