The note she was holding was one that she believed Sean had left for her in her room at the Fairmount Hotel on the morning Ritter was killed. After their vigorous night of lovemaking she slept in, and King went on duty. When she woke up, she saw the note and did precisely what it asked, even though the request carried some professional risk. After all, she was nothing if not a risk taker. At first she simply thought it bad timing, atrocious timing. Then she wondered what Sean had really been up to that morning. She said nothing back then for a simple reason: It would have ruined her career. Now this new development had thrown an entirely new angle on all of this.
The question was what to do about it.
32
As King and Michelle climbed into Michelle’s Land Cruiser, he looked around in surprise.
“You cleaned out your truck.”
She said nonchalantly, “Oh, I just picked up a few things here and there.”
“Michelle, it’s spotless and it smells good too.”
She wrinkled her nose. “There were some old bananas. I don’t know how they got in here.”
“Did you do it because of the hard time I gave you?”
“Are you kidding? I just, you know, I had some time to kill.”
“I appreciate it anyway.” Something struck him. “What’d you do with all the stuff? You haven’t been home.”
She looked embarrassed. “You probably don’t want to see my room at the inn.”
“No, I probably don’t.”
They got to Bowlington and met Tony Baldwin. With his and the local sheriff’s permission, they looked around Loretta Baldwin’s home.
“What was your mother living on? Social Security?” King asked as he surveyed the nice interior.
“No, she was only sixty-one,” said Tony.
“Did she work?” Tony shook his head as King looked around at the furniture and rugs, the neat little touches here and there. The kitchen had appliances far newer than the house, and a late-model Ford sedan was parked in the garage.
King stared at Tony. “So I give up. Were you supporting her, or did she have a rich relative who died?”
“I’ve got four kids. I barely make ends meet.”
“Let me guess: did she send money to you?” Tony looked uncomfortable.
“Come on, Tony,” said Michelle, “we’re just trying to find out who did this to your mother.”
“Okay, okay, yeah, she had some money. From where, I don’t really know and didn’t really want to ask. When you got a bunch of mouths to feed, you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, right?”
“She ever mention where it might be coming from?” Tony shook his head. King then said, “When was the first time you noticed this flow of money?”
“Not sure. I mean she sent me some cash for the first time years ago.”
“How many years? Think carefully, it’s important.”
“Maybe six or seven or so.”
“When did she stop working at the Fairmount?”
“It closed down pretty soon after Ritter got shot.”
“Had she worked since?”
“Nothing steady and the last few years not at all. She’d done crap work all her life. It was time to take it easy,” he said defensively.
“So your mother never said anything about where the money came from? Any friends or other family she might have spoken to about it?”
“I’m the closest family she has. Friends, I don’t know. She had a real good friend, Oliver Jones, but he’s dead now. She might have told him.”
“Any way we can talk to his family?”
“Didn’t have any. He outlived them all. Died about a year ago.”
“Nothing else you can think of?”
Tony considered this and his expression changed. “Well, last Christmas Mama said something a little strange.”
“What was it?”
“The last five or six years she’d always sent nice presents for the kids. Only last Christmas she didn’t. My little girl, Jewell, she asked her grammy how come she didn’t send any presents, didn’t she love them anymore? You know how kids are. Well, anyway, Mama said something like, ‘Honey, all good things must come to an end,’ something like that.”
Michelle and King shared a significant glance. King said, “I suppose the police have searched the house pretty thoroughly.”
“Top to bottom, didn’t find nothing.”
“No check stubs, deposit slips, old envelopes to show maybe where the money came from?”
“No, nothing like that. Mama didn’t like banks. She dealt in cash only.”
King had strolled to the window and was looking out at the backyard. “Looks like your mother was really into her garden.”
Tony smiled. “She loved flowers. Put a lot of work into it when she could. I’d come up every week and help out. She’d sit out there for hours and just look at her flowers.” Tony started to say something, then paused before asking, “You want to go look at ’em?” King started to shake his head, but Tony quickly added, “See, today’s the day I usually came up to weed. I mean I know she’s not around to see it anymore, but it was important to her.”
Michelle smiled and said in a sympathetic tone, “I love gardens, Tony.” She nudged King.
“Right. I’m into gardens too,” said King without much enthusiasm.
While Tony Baldwin pulled at some weeds in one of the beds, Michelle and King walked around the yard and admired the flowers.
King said, “Loretta’s secret cash flow started shortly after Ritter died.”
“Right. So you’re thinking blackmail?”
He nodded. “Although I’m wondering how Loretta was blackmailing someone simply because she might have seen him or her in the closet.”
“Meaning they might have just come in there for the same reason she did, because they were scared?”
“Only there has to be more to it. Remember when we were looking in the closet, and I said that she had probably squeezed in the back. I thought so because for all she knew some guy might come in with a gun—” He broke off and suddenly looked at her wide-eyed.
“What are you saying? That maybe she did see someone come in with a gun?”
“Or with something. Why else would she have gotten suspicious? I mean there were probably lots of people running around trying to hide.”
“But why a gun?”
“Why not? Some guy trying to stash a gun in a supply closet right after there’s been an assassination makes more sense than trying to hide a pair of glasses or a bundle of cash. A gun is instantly incriminating. It would peg him as part of the assassination plot. Okay, let’s say the guy has a gun on him. He’s afraid to try to go outside with it, because he might get stopped and searched. So when all hell is breaking loose, he runs in and hides it in the closet, not knowing Loretta is in there. He might have planned to stash the gun in the closet all along. He might have intended to retrieve it later, or just let the police find it if it was clean of any incriminating evidence. So he stuffs the gun in between some towels or something and leaves. Loretta comes out from her hiding place and takes it. Maybe she thinks she’ll bring it to the police but then changes her mind and goes down the blackmail highway. Since she works at the hotel, she could probably sneak out an exit no one is covering or else hide the gun and come back to get it later.”
Michelle considered this line of reasoning. “Okay, so she has the gun and she’s seen the guy, and if she doesn’t know who he is, it’s easy enough to find out. She contacts him anonymously, possibly with a picture of the gun and where she was when she saw him, and starts extracting payment. It works, Sean, as well as anything else.”