A Timely Vision

“I had lunch with an old friend of mine who’s down here with the SBI,” Kevin said. “He’s working on both cases. They know it was a .22-caliber pistol that killed Wild Johnny. The bullet was still in his head. They’re working on the DNA material they have, Johnny’s, and the evidence they found with him. He had a calendar open on the desk. He met with Miss Elizabeth the day before he died.”

I took in the information. “Or at least he was supposed to meet with her. We’ll never know if he did or not.”

“I’m afraid evidence doesn’t work like that. The SBI will assume they met. A natural assumption after that would be that she went to the Blue Whale and shot him. Obviously, he trusted whoever killed him. He let her in his room and didn’t look around to see what she was doing. Miss Elizabeth fits that profile.”

“And she’s not here to defend herself.”

“Yeah. That makes her the perfect suspect. Everyone likes a closed case.”

I took a deep breath. I hadn’t known Kevin long, but I trusted him. I needed someone to hear what I suspected about Chief Michaels. “There’s something else. I can’t tell anyone else about this. I hope I can trust you with it.”

“What is it?”

Strangely, I felt better that he didn’t try to convince me to trust him. Maybe that doesn’t make much sense, but I don’t like people who try too hard. “It’s about something that happened last night at the séance.” I told him about Nancy and the note I found next to her desk. I explained about Silas Butler, minus the folklore, and kept to the facts from the sheriff’s report. “I called the phone number this morning. It belongs to a nursing home in Kitty Hawk. Tim told me he took the chief out to a senior care center last week.”

Kevin nodded as he stared off at the horizon. “So you think Chief Michaels is hiding the man he reportedly killed thirty years ago?”

“You see why I can’t say anything to Gramps or anyone else from Duck. No one would take it seriously. But something is wrong. And it seems like a big coincidence to me that it’s happening at the same time as all of this with Silas’s sisters.”

“I don’t know the chief well, but I trust him,” Kevin said. “There may be a reasonable explanation for it.”

“I feel the same way, but I need to know what that explanation is. But what do I do now?”

“I guess you investigate. We’ll drive down to Kitty Hawk and pay Silas Butler our respects.”

“We? You mean you’re willing to go with me?”

“A deal is a deal, although I haven’t seen much painting going on.” He grinned at me. “I’ll trust that you’re good for it. When can you go?”

We agreed to meet about five to drive to the nursing home. I also told him what Luke said about Miss Mildred being judged incompetent. “It might be for the best right now,” he said. “As awful as it seems, at least she’s safe where she is. Someone went to a lot of trouble to set her up so she could take the fall for her sister’s murder. That same person might not like it if he or she feels their plan isn’t working.”

I hadn’t considered that. “You mean they might try something else?”

“I don’t know. I was in law enforcement a long time, Dae. I suspect everyone of everything.”

I considered what Luke had asked me earlier about Miss Mildred. “Why are you helping me try to prove she’s not guilty if you’re so suspicious?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I just need some cheap labor.”

I was looking into his eyes when he said it, and I could see something there, something deeper than his joking words. “Thanks for listening to me about the chief. I’m glad you’re on my side.”

He smirked. “Looks like Luke is on your side too. How was lunch?”

“Different. Probably not something either of us would do again.”

“I bet you’ll be surprised.” He got to his feet. “I’ll pick you up over here at five. Do you have a tape recorder?”

I thought fast. “Nancy does. I’ll borrow hers. Do you think I should bring a camera too?”

“Whatever we can do to prove Miss Mildred is innocent, Dae. Believe me, we have a long way to go.”

Chapter 13

I ended up borrowing Nancy’s MP3 player to record what was said at Sea Oats Senior Care. It was small and could hide easily in my pocket. I also borrowed her camera since the pictures my cell phone took were always blurry.

Nancy didn’t comment on my spy-gear requests. She was still basking in praise from the chief after finding his message—the message I kept wishing he’d call and tell me about. I wondered if we’d meet him at the nursing home when we went to see Silas Butler. I hoped not.

When I got back to Missing Pieces, Gramps was manning the front; there was no sign of Mary Lou. I decided to ask him if he’d heard from the chief. “Was I supposed to?” he responded. “Has something else come up, Dae?”