No One Else to Kill (Jim West Series) (21 page)

o, wait a minute.
 
I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.
 
I don’t want to go in right now,” she paused
for a few seconds, “but I would like some company.
 
Would you mind walking with me to the firing
range and back?
 
I need to think some
things out, and I’d rather not be wandering out here alone.”

“I’d be happy to,” I said, and I meant it.
 
I didn’t know if it was my own need to avoid
the lodge and the four bullies for a while longer or the opportunity to walk
and talk with Geri.

“Thanks,” she said and started walking.

“Are you more concerned about running into the murderer
out here or the lions, tigers, and bears?” I asked trying to soften the mood.

She grinned, “Actually none of the above.
 
I need someone I can talk to.”

My turn to grin.
I wondered how
much Colt
Bettes
charged per hour.
 
If people
kept wanting
to talk to me, maybe I should consider going professional.

“I don’t mind being a listener, but I’m not sure if I can
be much help to you.”

“That’s okay. I don’t even know if I’m looking for advice,
or if I just need a sounding board. And Jim, that’s your name right? Not
James.”

“Always been a Jim, never been a James.”

“Well Jim, you’re the perfect choice for me right
now.
 
We hardly know each other and by
tomorrow this time we’ll never see each other again.”

“So I take it that your real motive is not to ask me to
sneak away to Paris with you?”

“I’ve got so many issues right now, Jim, believe me you
wouldn’t want me.”

I thought about arguing but didn’t.

“I’m sure the two deaths have been devastating to you
all,” I said.

“It’s like a bad dream. Both are horrendous by themselves.
Together it’s almost unbelievable. My whole world is falling apart.”

“Will you have to dissolve the company?”

“I didn’t think so at first, but now there’s no way to rescue
it.
 
None of us trust each other, the
police are breathing down our necks, there’s going to be the mother of all
audits starting next week, and I just want to crawl in a hole and hide. I also
think I want out of my marriage.”

We walked in silence for a few minutes.
 
I didn’t think she really wanted me to throw
my two cents worth of advice into the conversation.

“Vic is demanding we leave tonight. The rest of us have
already agreed to leave as planned tomorrow morning.
 
He’s leaving regardless what I decide.”

“So is that why he got the rental?”

“Yes.
 
I understand
where he’s coming from; someone has been dying here every day.”

“Then why don’t you leave?”

“Because when he gave me the ultimatum, I realized I
didn’t want to go with him.
 
I don’t want
to go with him anywhere anymore.
 
I’ve
been fooling myself the last couple of years. I don’t love him anymore.”

“Well, then that’s your answer.”

“That’s only one of my answers. But I have to admit,
thinking that I’m going to leave him that I’ve actually made that decision,
does make me feel a little better.
 
You
know, I really don’t imagine he’ll care. I think he’s been seeing someone else
lately anyway.”

She remained quiet for about a minute before speaking
again.
 
“I know he’ll try to soak me in
the divorce.”

“What does he do for a living?”

“He thinks he’s going to be a great author.”

“Has he written anything?”

“Not really, he’s been fooling around with a couple of
ideas for at least two years, but he’s never shared a manuscript with me.
 
I don’t think he has one.”

“Will he be able to go after the money you have sunk in
the business?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure he’ll try.
 
I don’t even know what the company will be
worth now.”

“How about insurance?”

“Oh yes, we had insurance on both Cross and myself. The
insurance is supposed to help in the smooth transition of the company, but now
I don’t know.”

We reached the firing range and made a big arc turning
around.

“I guess when we get back I’ll have to sit down with Mr.
Hardzog
.
 
He may have
some ideas. I just don’t know.”

“Even if everyone goes their own way, you and
Hardzog
still own the business.
 
The cash flow that’s already coming in will
continue to do so, right?”

“For a while, but except for the older clients, most of
the new ones were brought in by the guys.
 
Those clients might go to wherever those guys land a new job.”

“Won’t any of the men stay with you?”

“I don’t know.
 
Harv
might.
 
He’s the
most level headed of the bunch. Maybe when things cool down they all will,” she
said.
 
She didn’t sound like she believed
a word of it.

“Could one of them be the killer?” I asked.

“No.
 
No way.
Besides, didn’t Randi write a confession on the wall before she hung herself?”

“What did they tell you in your interview today?”

“Tell me?
 
Ha! They
didn’t tell me anything.
 
They wanted to
know if I drugged myself, and if so, when I did it.
 
I told them for the millionth time that I
didn’t drug myself.
 
I don’t know how I
got drugged, when I got drugged, or by whom I got drugged. I don’t even know
for sure if I got drugged, although I have to admit I had a very hard time
waking up.”

I believed her.
 
There was no reason not to, and I had already dismissed her in my mind
from being involved in Randi’s death.

“You know,” I said. “Randi didn’t commit suicide.”

“What?” She stopped walking and looked straight into my
eyes.
 
“You aren’t kidding me, are
you?”
 
A sudden fear appeared in her
face.

“No, not me.”
 
I held my palms up in a gesture of
peace.
 
“I happen to know a few things,
but not because I killed anyone.”

The fear faded.
 
“What do you know?”

“Only some things that pretty well prove she was murdered,
but I think Detective Bruno would like to keep that secret for the moment.” He
hadn’t told me to keep it secret, although he might prefer I not tell
anyone.
 
However, if he wanted my help, I
would do it my way.

“Are you a cop?”

“No.
 
Did anyone
have a reason to kill either Cross or Randi?”

“No, that’s just it, I can understand how the suspicion
might be on one of us, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine a motive anyone
might have.”

“Any problems in the office with Randi?”

“Randi was different, but she worked hard and got along
with everyone.
 
Too
good with some.”

I waited for a moment to let her continue, but she didn’t.

“Want to talk about it?”

“I thought Vic might have been having an affair with
Randi.”

“Did you say anything about it?”

“No.”

We walked in silence for a minute. A hawk dove down low in
front of us, and a squirrel shot into a hole in an old tree.

“People have been too quick to say evil things about
Randi.
 
The guys in the office were cruel
in their comments about her. She did have an affair with Aaron about six years
ago. It lasted for a couple of months.
 
When it ended, he started telling the guys things about her, you know,
intimate things.”

“Sounds like an ass.”

“Sometimes, no, most times.
The
guys like him and he works hard, but he’s not a good person. I talked to Cross
about it at the time. I thought we should’ve fired him. It surprised me that
Randi hung around after that.
 
I would
have quit immediately, but she hung in there.”

“Tough kid.”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. Since their breakup,
rumors would fly every time one of the guys went on a business trip with her or
simply drove her home from the office.
 
As far as I know, she had a couple of male friends outside the office
she spent time with, but no one in the office despite the gossip.”

“Then why do you think she and your husband might have
been an item?”

“Just stuff,” she said and left it like that.
 
“How about you, Jim?
Ever been married?”

“Once.”

“Divorced?” She looked at me, and I nodded.
 
“Married long?”

“Twenty years.”

“Wish you were still married?”

“Yes,” I said too quickly. Time to steer the conversation
in another direction, but Geri did it for me.

“That’s my problem.
 
I didn’t get married until late. I was in my mid-thirties.”

“That seems normal now-a-days.”

“It may be, but it’s the reason I haven’t left Vic
earlier.
 
I waited a long time to find
who I thought was Mr. Right, only to find out later I wasn’t a very good judge
of men. If I leave him now, I’m sure I’ll never find another man who would want
me. My hair is turning grey, and as my friends say, our perky days are behind
us.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself.
 
There are a lot of single men our age
wandering this earth.”

“Men, our age as you put it, have a particular attraction
to younger women.”

I didn’t necessarily agree with her, but I waited too long
to give her a good argument.

“Could Nesbitt have killed Cross and
Randi?”

She stopped walking. “Aaron?
 
No.
 
He
looked at Cross as his mentor. He sucked up to Cross, and Cross knew how to
stroke him. I think Aaron believed he would be Cross’ chosen one when the day
ever came that Cross retired.
 
His death
blows Aaron’s dreams apart.
 
He sincerely
took Cross’ death hard.”

“Could he have killed Randi?”

“I don’t know why you’re so interested in this--”

“Aren’t you?”

“Of course--”

“Well?”

“I just don’t like gossiping.
 
Okay, well, I think Aaron liked having Randi
around because he felt superior around her. She was a living, wild game trophy
he could brag about.
 
If he killed her,
he would be getting rid of his grand prize.”

“Who’s your first pick then?”

“You mean as the killer?”

I nodded.

“Like I told you, I can’t see any of them doing it,” she
said.

“Well, if we eliminate you and me, the lodge staff and the
two
Bettes
, we only have five choices.”

“These
Bettes
guys, why is everyone discounting them?”

“They have a solid alibi for the time when Cross was
shot.”
 
I knew alibis, even solid ones,
fell apart now and then, but I wanted to focus on her group for as long as I
could keep her talking.

“We have an alibi, too.”

“It’s a group alibi, the best and worst kind.
 
It’s like saying you were at a large party
with dozens of witnesses.
 
Easy to
verify, but cops know it’s easy to sneak away for five minutes and return, and
no one would take any notice of it.”

“Yeah, they asked me that over and over.
 
People were going back and forth to the van
to get things, and a couple of the guys received calls and went outside to
talk. No one was gone for over a few minutes.”

I stopped and pointed to the window I was now convinced
someone had shot through to kill Cross Benson.

“This is where the killer took his shot. He could have
moved in a little closer.”

Geri stood still staring at the window.
 
“Aren’t you forgetting the window itself?”

“Not if it had been opened and then closed by Randi before
she started screaming.”

Her face paled, “Oh my God.”

“It only took us a couple of minutes to get here from the
firing range.
 
If the shooter brought the
van, he would have been here in seconds.”

“Randi kept saying how sorry she was last night.
 
I had no idea that she meant she had anything
to do with the Cross’ death.
 
She liked
Cross.
 
He was always kind to her.”

“Maybe she never forgave him for not putting a stop to
Aaron’s remarks.”
 
It could be a possible
explanation, I thought.

“But you don’t think she pulled the trigger?” she asked
still staring at the window.

“No.”

Geri shivered.
 
It
had gotten colder out as the sunlight began to fade, but I felt like the cold
hadn’t caused the shiver.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing, I want to return to my room now.”

“Okay.”
 
We walked
the rest of the way without saying anything.

“Thanks for inviting me to walk with you,” I said as we
entered the lodge.

Geri either didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me.
 
I stood in the lobby while she walked away.

“That’s what happens when you expect a little squeeze and
a smooch before the lady is ready for it.”
 
Bev stood there smiling a few paces away.