As she scribbled on the pad, she listed out the names of the people who were involved with Lynn, then drew lines radiating out from each one and listed out her various suspicions.
Noah was right in the center. He’d been involved intimately with Lynn. They’d started the company together, and she’d even left her controlling shares to him in her will. Yet he’d neglected to mention that each time they’d asked about motive. The way Jo saw it, that gave him two motives to kill her. One if he was still carrying a torch for her and jealous of her fooling around with other guys, the other to get control of the company.
Oddly enough, she had a sneaking suspicion that Amber was also lying about something. But why? Amber was very possessive when it came to Noah. Maybe she was jealous of the previous relationship. What if Amber wanted to get rid of Lynn to make sure Noah didn’t get back together with her?
And where was Lynn’s phone?
Jo doodled on the pad. She thought about Dupont and his incessant threats. She thought about Kevin and his trip to Lago. She thought about the dog, Lucy, and she thought about Tyler’s shooting. When her thoughts turned around to the suspects on the paper again, she realized that finding Lynn Palmer’s killer might be the least of her worries.
Chapter Sixteen
Sam liked his office at the police station because the solid oak door shut out all the noise. He could think better when it was quiet. Even though the office wasn’t fancy, it had everything he needed. His doublewide mission oak partners’ desk was big enough for laying out all his files. His chair was old but leaned back easily. He even liked the familiar squeak it made when he shifted position.
But his favorite part was the windows. They were ten feet tall and rounded at the tops. Facing north, they framed a majestic view of the mountains. Looking out of these windows, he could watch over the town. He could see the pedestrians going about their business. In summer, it was crowded with the tourists in colorful tee shirts and shorts that flocked to the area for fishing, hiking, and kayaking. In winter, they came for snowmobiling, skiing, and snowshoeing, adorned in ski suits and wool hats.
Right now, though, he didn’t have much time for window gazing. He’d gone to visit Lynn Palmer’s parents first thing. Talking to parents of a murder victim was always draining, and this morning had been no exception. At least he felt that he’d left them with a little bit of comfort, assuring them that he would seek justice for Lynn.
He hadn’t gotten any new information from them other than the name of her lawyer, which they already knew, but he felt better that he could say he’d gotten the name from them. They’d also told him who her cell phone carrier was. Since her phone was still missing, Sam would have to get a court order for whatever records they had on their server. Of course, that could take forever, so it was better if they could find the phone and get the information from it.
On the way back to the office, he’d had to make a side trip. Bullwinkle, the town moose, had caused a ruckus down by Paugus River, which had in turn caused a fender bender when a startled tourist had been watching Bullwinkle and not the road.
Sam had spent a good part of the early morning there sorting things out. Bullwinkle was famous around town, with many of the locals claiming they could recognize him by the shape of his antlers. He even had his own Facebook page where people posted pictures of him when he was sighted around town.
Sam didn’t think it was actually the same moose, but he played along. In his mind, frequent sightings meant the moose population was healthy, and that was a good thing. Too much of the local wildlife was dwindling in size because of people like Thorne who were decimating the woods that animals lived in and turning them into hotels and golf courses.
Jo and Kevin had been busy that morning, too, with the usual neighbor squabbles, lost pets, and an old man with Alzheimer’s who wandered away from home. Thankfully, someone had discovered him walking down Main Street in his pajamas and taken him into the diner for breakfast while waiting for Jo to pick him up and deliver him safely to his family.
Sam didn’t like that the routine calls had delayed his investigation of the murder, but what could he do? Someone had to keep up the police work in the town. If they weren’t so shorthanded, he would’ve had another officer to send out.
He’d had Reese call Noah and Amber in to give their statements after lunch. He wanted to talk to Noah first, seeing as he was the one with the biggest reason to want Lynn dead.
He figured Amber for the weak link. She was closest to Noah and might know more than she was letting on. Depending on what he learned from them, he’d decide on who to talk to next and what questions to ask. Maybe he’d get lucky and one of them would confess. Either way, the theory of it being Jesse wasn’t going to hold water.
On the desk in front of him was a crumpled receipt from the gas station. Jesse had paid with a credit card, the time clearly stamped 2:23 a.m. By Sam’s estimation, the campground was ten minutes from the gas station. There was no way Jesse could have killed Lynn between 2:15 and 2:45 if he was at the gas station at 2:23. The killer had shoved her body into the river, and that must’ve taken some time.
Since they’d been out on calls all morning, Reese had rounded up sandwiches at the deli, and Sam was just finishing up his ham and Swiss. Reese had ordered it with spicy mustard just the way he liked it.
A soft tap sounded at the door.
"Come in."
Kevin poked his head in. "Reese said you wanted to see me?"
Sam gestured at the chair and Kevin came in and shut the door.
"You know we’re shorthanded." Why did Sam feel like he was being a traitor to Tyler? He was going to have to hire someone sometime. He was pretty sure Tyler would’ve understood.
Kevin nodded.
"So I was wondering if you wanted to come on full time. We’d be happy to have you."
Kevin was silent for a minute. He wasn’t exactly jumping at the opportunity. The relief that washed over Sam made him realize he didn’t really want Kevin to move up to full time. But who would turn down a full-time gig?
"Thanks. I appreciate your confidence in me." Kevin leaned forward in his chair and looked down at his feet, scrubbing his chin. "But the truth is I’m not really looking to go full time."
Sam frowned. "Oh. Okay. Well, I just wanted to offer it to you first."
"It’s appreciated. I mean, I can do extra hours and filling in in the interim."
"Okay. Good."
There was an awkward silence, and then Kevin said, "Are we done?"
"Yeah. Oh. Maybe you can head out to the campsite. We can’t find the victim’s cell phone, and I’m thinking it might’ve been dropped near where her clothes were found or on the beach. I poked around a little bit there yesterday but didn’t do a thorough search. Maybe you could look more closely."
Kevin was halfway to the door. He shot over his shoulder, "Will do."
As he opened the door, Jo was standing outside. They did an awkward little shuffle in the doorway, and then she poked her head in and said, "You ready, chief? Noah Brickey is here for his statement."
Chapter Seventeen
Noah Brickey sat ramrod straight in the uncomfortable wooden chair. They put their suspects in that chair on purpose because one leg was shorter than the rest and it wobbled slightly, keeping the suspect off-balance.
Sam was behind his desk, leaning casually back in his chair, hands clasped loosely in front of him. Jo was in another chair, angled so that she could watch Noah. She had a notepad in her lap on which she was tapping the eraser end of her pencil at an annoying rate. Tap. Tap. Tap. Like water torture.