Kilt at the Highland Games (21 page)

“He tried to kill Kent Humphrey, Mom.” Beth's voice was anguished. “Just because Kent might have seen him right after he killed Jason Graye.”

Angie looked to Liss for confirmation.

“It looks as if Eldridge, or the defrocked private investigator he hired, did a lot more than burn down your building.”

She listed all the crimes she suspected one or the other of them had committed, ending with the stabbing of Beth and Boxer's friend Kent. By the time she was done, Angie's face, already pale, had lost every vestige of color.

“He was looking for us. That's why all the rest happened. Maybe if we hadn't gone into hiding—”

“If you hadn't hidden, you'd be dead.”

Liss's blunt words snapped Angie out of her guilt trip. More than that, they finally convinced her that she had to talk to the police.

* * *

Edgar Arbuthnot, aka Eliot Underhill, was not impressed by the charges thrown at him by a rural chief of police. He held onto his cocky attitude even when faced with a state police detective. With a laugh, he waived his right to have an attorney present during questioning.

“An innocent man doesn't need a lawyer,” he insisted.

Stupid,
Sherri thought. He had to know Gordon Tandy was investigating a homicide. She felt certain that the prisoner was not as innocent as he claimed, but if he could be persuaded to give evidence against the man who'd employed him, both Eldridge and Arbuthnot would get what they deserved.

She kept her thoughts to herself. She was also careful to stay out of Gordon Tandy's line of sight. He could order her out of the interview room at the county jail if he chose. She did not intend to give him any reason to do so.

“You were hired by one Martin Eldridge?” Gordon asked.

“That's right. He wanted me to find a woman named Anne Howard. I traced her to Moosetookalook.” He didn't say how. Sherri doubted his methods had been entirely within the law.

“I'm surprised you accompanied Eldridge here. Wasn't your job done when you found her?”

“I came at my client's request. Hey—free vacation at a luxury resort hotel. Who's going to pass that up?”

“Where's Eldridge now?”

“No idea. My job for him was finished, and I was on my way home when I was unfortunate enough to be in a traffic accident.”

“You attacked Officer Jennings.”

“Just defending myself.”

Gordon shuffled some papers on the table between them and glanced at a report. “It appears that your registration as a private investigator was revoked some time ago. In fact, you are currently facing prosecution for falsifying information on that registration and the business license that went with it.” Gordon waited a beat, long enough for Arbuthnot's overconfidence to start to slip. “Even if you had been legally licensed in Virginia, there is no reciprocity with the state of Maine.”

Arbuthnot/Underhill answered this with a defiant stare.

“So,” Gordon said, “who set the fire at the bookstore in Moosetookalook? You or Eldridge?”

“Hey, I'm no firebug.”

“Eldridge, then?”

“I didn't
see
him do it, but yeah. Who else would want to torch the place?”

“And yet you stayed on after that incident.”

“Look, here's the thing. I was supposed to be done with the job when I located the woman and her two kids. Eldridge insisted I come with him until he could verify their identities. He wouldn't pay me otherwise. Then, when they turned up missing after the fire, he said he wouldn't shell out the cash unless I found out where they were hiding.”

“I'll bet he was fit to be tied when he heard there were no fatalities.”

Arbuthnot clammed up, too smart to admit that he knew Eldridge had intended for Angie and her children to die in the fire. Confessing to that knowledge would definitely have made his subsequent search for them the act of an accomplice rather than an “innocent” employee.

“Who broke into the post office?” Gordon asked.

“Eldridge.” This time his answer was prompt, if not necessarily truthful.

“Why?”

The prisoner shrugged. “It was because of something I overheard at the coffee house. The Howard woman was in the habit of mailing anniversary cards to this friend of hers. These two women were talking, making it sound like the card was probably already in the mail. It was a long shot, but I . . . that is,
Eldridge
figured that if there was a card, there might also be a return address or postmark. Turned out to be a waste of time to go looking for it. Letters. Bills. Catalogs. Flyers. Not a single envelope the size of a greeting card in the whole damned post office.”

Liss had been right, Sherri thought. Sometimes her guesses were uncannily accurate.

“But you weren't the one who broke in?” Gordon sounded skeptical, as well he should.

Arbuthnot spread his hands wide and tried for a “who, me?” expression on his snub-nosed face. “I'm just telling you what Eldridge told me. He did all the dirty work himself. I just provided him with information.”

“Why did you register at the hotel under an assumed name?”

“Common practice.” His sudden interest in studying his own long, thin fingers gave away the lie in that claim.

“Whose idea was it to break into Jason Graye's house?”

In the long silence that followed Gordon's question, Sherri sat forward in her chair. Arbuthnot had started to sweat. His hair was cut so short that his scalp showed through. She could see the tiny beads of moisture there and on his neck.

“Were you there?” Gordon asked.

“No! Don't go accusing me of murder. You've got no grounds.”

“Oh?”

“I didn't know anything about it until it was all over. I swear it. Eldridge got this wild hair about empty houses in the area. He was sure the Howard woman had to be close by. I don't know why he was so convinced of that. If I'd been her, I'd have been long gone.”

“So Eldridge broke into Graye's house because he was a real estate agent?”

Arbuthnot nodded. “Right. Right. Broke in. Meant to go through the listings. I don't know what happened. I wasn't there.”

“You didn't get rid of the gun?”

“I didn't even know Eldridge
had
a gun.”

“What about a knife?”

“I don't know anything about any weapon.”

“But you knew someone had been murdered. You just said so.”

At the least, he was an accessory after the fact,
Sherri thought.
Maybe before the fact, too.

Arbuthnot was well aware of how shaky his position was. Perspiration dotted his upper lip. “You can't pin that guy's death on me. Or what happened to that kid at the Highland Games, either. I had no idea what Eldridge was up to.”

“You weren't the one who told him he might have been seen leaving the scene of the crime? You were deep in conversation about something at the games. You were seen.”

“He already . . . I mean I was just trying to get my pay. For finding the Howard woman in the first place.”

Gordon's voice was so cold that it made Sherri shiver just to hear it. “Here's what I think happened, Mr. Arbuthnot. You knew your employer had killed Jason Graye. You knew he'd spotted someone who might have seen him that night. Maybe you tried to talk him out of a second murder. Maybe not.”

“I don't know anything about that kid that got stabbed. I'd already checked out of the hotel.”

Gordon shook his head. “You'd paid for two more nights. You and Eldridge both cut your stays short. Nothing to say when you actually left the grounds, though.”

And how, Sherri wondered, had he known Kent was stabbed if he hadn't been there?

The suspect lapsed into sullen silence. Sherri had a hard time containing her disgust for him. He hadn't been bothered by Eldridge's crimes, not even murder. Only now that he'd been caught and implicated was he attempting to distance himself from his client's actions.

“Do you know where Martin Eldridge is now?” Gordon asked for the second time.

The shady PI from Virginia swallowed convulsively and used his sleeve to swipe at his sweaty face. “If I knew, I'd tell you.”

This time Sherri believed him.

Then he lawyered up.

* * *

It was full dark by the time Liss and Angie set out for the Moosetookalook police station. With the aid of flashlights, they followed the path through the trees to Patsy's camp to retrieve Liss's car. The plan was for Boxer to stay with Beth and Bradley while their mother met with Sherri Campbell.

“I don't know about this, Liss,” Angie protested as she opened the passenger-side door. She looked spooked as she swiveled her head, peering into the shadows as if she expected an ax-wielding maniac to leap out at them. “Are you sure it's safe?”

“You need to talk to Sherri in person. What you can tell her will add weight to the case against Eldridge and his flunky. It could mean the difference between keeping them in jail and letting them get out on bail.”

Bail was next to impossible in Maine if the charge was murder, but Liss wasn't sure the police had enough evidence to make that one stick. If they didn't, the crime of arson would have to be enough to keep Eldridge behind bars. Once he was safely locked up, Angie and her children would be out of danger.

Reluctantly, Angie eased herself into the car. “Let's make it quick, then. I don't like leaving Beth and Bradley alone.”

“Trust me. No one is going to figure out where they are. If Beth hadn't shown herself, even Boxer and I wouldn't have found you.”

“Just go,” Angie said.

Liss started the engine and backed carefully off the grassy verge onto the dirt road. At first her headlights were the only illumination. There were no streetlights, and the thick growth of trees reduced to a glimmer the signs of life from other summer camps. The paved road, when they reached it, was almost as deserted. She made good time getting home, but instead of pulling into her own driveway, she parked in the lot behind the municipal building and got out of the car.

The back door led directly into the hallway outside the police station. Unfortunately, it was locked.

“There are no lights on.” Angie, coming up beside her, indicated the window of Sherri's office.

Liss was already pulling out her cell phone. She tried the number for the police department first. There was rarely more than one officer on duty at a time. The usual practice, when that officer was out of the office, was to set the office phone to forward calls to his or her cell. Emergency calls, which went through the county dispatch center, were rerouted the same way.

Sherri picked up on the fourth ring. Liss started talking before her friend had finished identifying herself.

“I'm outside the municipal building with Angie. She's ready to make a statement. Where are you?”

“At the moment? Pulled over to the side of the road so I could answer the phone.” Sherri's voice was dry. “Can you wait for me there? I'm about halfway back from Fallstown. I just sat in on an interview with Edgar Arbuthnot, otherwise known as Eliot Underhill.”

“What about Eldridge?”

“Still out there.”

Liss's heart sank. Damn! She'd been hoping Sherri had both men in custody. Hadn't she said there were two men in Arbuthnot's car?

“Disconnect, Liss,” Sherri said into her ear. “I need to get back on the road.”

“Yes. Okay. Hanging up.”

It was a twenty-minute drive from Fallstown to Moosetookalook. If Sherri was halfway back, they didn't have long to wait. Liss tucked the cell phone away and turned to Angie. “Ten minutes, max. Do you want to sit in the car while we wait?”

Before the other woman could answer, or ask a question Liss didn't want to answer about Martin Eldridge's whereabouts, the back door swung open, nearly slamming into her. Dolores Mayfield barreled through it.

“I thought I heard voices.”

Liss frowned at her. “What are you doing here so late?”

“Just finishing up some paperwork in the library.”

“Without any lights on?”

“The exit signs are enough to keep me from falling down the stairs. I was already on my way out when I heard someone trying the door. Hello, Angie. Long time no see.”

“Dolores.”

An awkward silence fell. Dolores showed no sign of leaving. Given how nosy she was, Liss wasn't surprised.

How much, she wondered, had she overheard from the other side of the door before she made her presence known?

Liss had intended to phone Dan after she talked to Sherri, but her reluctance to say anything in front of the librarian stopped her from doing so. She was a little surprised that he hadn't tried to call her. That note she'd left for him would not have stopped him from worrying about her for long.

Angie broke first, unnerved by the fact that the other two said nothing. “We're waiting for Sherri.”

“Is that right?” The light beside the door revealed a thoughtful expression on Dolores's face. “I wouldn't mind talking to her myself. I want my guns and knives returned to me.”

That was a conversation-stopper.

Liss felt a rush of relief when her cell phone rang. “That's probably Dan,” she said as she moved a little apart to answer it.

But the voice on the other end was that of Jake Murch, and what he said drove the breath right out of her. Liss's fingers clenched hard around the phone. “Say that again,” she whispered.