“I took the liberty of moving your car down closer to us. Didn’t think you’d mind all that much. And since you left your keys and wallet out in the kitchen, why I thought you were all but requesting me to get your car.”
“Thanks. Have any trouble finding it?”
“One of my officers spotted it around an hour ago. Gave me a call and told me where it was parked.”
“I do apologize again for breaking into this place. And again thank you for holding off sending a bullet into my head.”
“As I said before, there’s still plenty of time. But right now the only thing I am thinking of is to getting some eggs and toast into my belly. Go get your stuff from out of your car so you can get yourself all prettied up like a good city boy.”
As Derek began walking out of Straus’s office, he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. A quick check of the caller ID told him that the call was from a 518 area code number.
“Derek Cole.”
“Mr. Cole, this is Amanda from the Hertz car rental office in the Albany airport. I got a message from another Hertz team member about a note that was left for you when you picked up your rental?”
“Yes,” Derek said. “Do you know who left the note?”
“I wrote the note for you. I received a phone call a little after ten last night. The man on the phone just said he was a friend of yours and to write a note welcoming you to Albany. I’m sorry, but I don’t know the man’s name.”
“Can you tell me what his voice sounded like?” Derek asked, hoping for some clue.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Cole. I really don’t recall the man’s voice. Will you be needing anything further, Mr. Cole?”
“Any way to trace the call through your system?”
“Again, I’m sorry, Mr. Cole. We really have no way to trace any incoming calls. We do appreciate your loyalty with Hertz, and if you should need anything regarding your current rental, please don’t hesitate to call. Have a great day!”
Ralph heard enough of the conversation to know that Derek received no information about who left the note for him. While knowing would have made his case less of a mystery, Ralph could tell that the mystery surrounding the note was bothering Derek much more than it was bothering him.
Ten minutes after getting the call from Hertz, Derek and Ralph climbed into Derek’s rental car and headed out for breakfast.
“Now, I know I told you this diner is but four miles away. And that is the truth of the matter. However, I’m gonna ask you to add some miles to that and drive around a bit.”
“Something you need to see or do?”
“If you are going to be my freelance assistant on this case, you need to get a lay of the landscape. I’d like to start by showing you where our third victim, Roger Fay lived.”
“Sounds fine to me.”
As Derek backed out of the crushed stone driveway of Straus’s lodge, he took notice of the large maple tree wrapped with police tape almost directly across from the driveway.
“I take it that something fatal happened at that tree?” Derek asked as he stopped his car near the tree.
“Yup. As far as we can tell, that there tree is where Roger Fay was killed. Looks like old Roger had a knife plunged straight through his neck. Damn knife went a few inches deep into the tree itself. Lots of strength to do that.”
“Then his body was dragged into the lodge?”
“More likely it was carried. There are no drag marks, just a whole bunch of blood splatters. Like the blood had fallen from a few feet above the ground. We found Roger all dead and pretty close to naked on the floor next to them other doctors.”
“Naked?” Derek asked.
“Folks who saw Roger walking that day said he was wearing some cowboy type of hat and black boots. All of them items were taken off by what I assume to be the killer.”
“Did you know him?”
“Probably met him a time or two. My officers tell me that I had, but I don’t recall. I know he was some type of a writer who lived up here year round. Just killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we reckon.”
The route to Roger Fay’s home included a short time spent on New York State Route 8. When Derek’s car reached the intersection of Route 8, Ralph spoke.
“This is Route 8. Our Doctor Straus was seen turning right out of here and speeding down that a way,” Ralph said pointing to his right. “Ain’t no use us heading that way and following him, as I’m sure you’d agree, so take a left here.”
As Derek turned his car onto Route 8, he asked Ralph why he hadn’t seen a car parked near the lodge last night, though Ralph was obviously there.
“I do like to be close to my work. But mostly I stayed at the lodge last night because the state police didn’t want me to. They thought I’d sully up the scene. But I figured since I am the man in charge that I’d go ahead and do what I damn well pleased. I had one of my officers bring my car back to my house yesterday afternoon. I figured that if Alexander or anyone else involved in this here crime had to get back inside the lodge that they’d be more likely to do so if they thought there was no one around. Turns out the only person who showed up was some freelancer.”
The route to Roger Fay’s home was just under a mile away from the maple tree across from Straus’s lodge. Derek turned off Route 8 and onto a road that followed the shore line of Piseco Lake and then circled back towards the direction of the lodge. When they reached the trailer park that Roger Fay called home, Ralph had Derek pull his car over to the side of road in front of Roger’s double-wide but suggested that they not do any outside investigation.
“Ain’t nothing we gonna learn by traipsing around his old trailer. State police wasted a whole lot of time looking for any clue that connected Roger to Straus and came up with a handful of nothing. I just wanted you to start piecing together the events and time frame of our murder. Go ahead and drive straight for a bit. This ain’t the way to the diner still, but I want to show you something that I find very peculiar down the road a stretch.”
Derek continued driving down the road as his mind began retracing the timeline of the murders. He tried to imagine what Roger Fay had seen or done to get himself pinned to a tree. His imagination failed him again.
It was just over two miles past Roger Fay’s home when Ralph told Derek to pull over to the side of the recently paved road and onto the hard-packed dirt shoulder. Without saying a word, Ralph opened up his door, pulled himself out, and started walking across the road. Derek followed quickly behind.