"Good question. Maybe if we ever get the information from Verizon, we’ll find out if there was something else on there the killer might not want anyone to know about." Sam ate a fry.
"What if the killer wanted to hide the fact that she had that appointment or hide any calls or texts between her and Richard? They might not have realized she used an online app to schedule the appointment or that we could get her phone information from her cell phone carrier."
"Lots of people don’t know about that. Doesn’t help us narrow things down."
Jo turned back facing the bar and picked at her beer label some more. It had gotten nice and soggy and peeled off easily. "Sure do have a lot of things to puzzle over. There’s the meeting with Richard."
"And there’s Tara seeing Lynn with Noah right around the same time."
"And Noah and Amber were both acting sketchy about where they were the night of Lynn’s death."
"And Lynn borrowed Tara’s bra?" Sam scrunched up his face and looked at Jo. "Do girls do that? And why would she want a fancy bra if she wasn’t having a fling with Noah?"
Jo had never had a girlfriend that she was close enough to to borrow a bra from. "Some girls borrow each other’s clothes all the time. I guess bras would be no exception. But Lynn might not have borrowed it because of Noah. Maybe there was someone else."
"True. And let’s not forget Derek saw someone at Noah’s tent that night. Could have been Noah sneaking out to meet Lynn."
"Or Amber." Jo leaned over the bar and fished behind it for another ketchup bottle, which she found exactly where she knew Billie kept it. She twisted off the cap and smacked the bottom until a blob oozed out onto the side of the french fry basket.
"Julie was the one that said she saw Lynn going to the antiques store, but Lynn never went there. Why would Julie say that?"
"Maybe Lynn just told her that’s where she was going and Julie assumed. Lynn would’ve had to head in that direction, and if she didn’t want anyone to know about the meeting with Richard, then she probably just told them she was going to the antiques store."
"Something doesn’t add up. Why wouldn’t Noah know that Lynn was meeting Richard for the financing? We need to talk to Noah. My guess is he’s smack dab in the center of this."
Jo crunched down on a lukewarm ketchup-covered fry. "He does benefit directly from Lynn’s death with getting the extra shares of the stock."
"Maybe the financing would have diluted his stock," Sam said. "They would have had to give Richard some shares in the company. Maybe Lynn did tell Noah about it. Maybe he didn’t want it. He might really have been meeting Lynn that day and lied about it to cover up that he knew she was seeking financing."
"Seems like he had a good motive, but there might be more to the story, and we need to talk to Lynn’s friends again, because Noah’s not the only one in that group that’s telling lies."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sam drove out to the campground first thing the next morning. The early-morning sun filtered through the leaves, giving the air a golden glow. Just beyond the campground, the river gurgled. Sam battled a swarm of black flies as he approached the campsite.
On the picnic table, Tara was preparing lunches. Jars of peanut butter and jelly sat on the table along with the six waterproof lunch sacks. Something about that bugged Sam. Their friend was dead, and they were going about business as usual. Didn’t seem right.
Derek, who was backing out of his tent with a backpack, looked around at him quizzically. Tara stopped spreading jelly.
Julie finished spraying her arm with the bug spray and tossed the can to Sam, who spritzed himself.
Noah turned from the makeshift clothesline where he was taking down some pants. "Chief Mason? Have you found who… who did that to Lynn?"
"Not yet. But I have some interesting news." They’d all gathered closer to the picnic table, and Sam put his foot up on the bench, resting his arm on his knee and bending forward slightly.
"Seems that Lynn had seen an investor in town. She was trying to get more funding for the company. Did you all know that?" Sam studied the faces. They all seemed surprised. Thing was, he knew that at least a few of them were accomplished liars, and he couldn’t tell if they had already known and were covering, or if they were truly surprised.
"She never said anything to me, but we didn’t normally discuss company finances. I was just a programmer," Julie said. "Was that the appointment she had?"
Sam nodded then turned to Tara. "What about you? You’re the CFO, aren’t you?"
Tara shrugged, slowly screwing the top back on the peanut butter. "I didn’t know anything about it. You mean she saw someone here in town?"
Sam nodded then turned his gaze on Noah. Amber stepped a little closer to Noah, glancing up at him uncertainly. "What about you, Noah? You guys owned the company together. Surely she would’ve discussed this with you?"
"She didn’t. That can’t be true. I’m sure she would have told me." Noah did look confused, but he could be an accomplished liar.
Sam slid his foot off the bench and stood. "Lynn getting financing could cause a problem, right?"
"Why would it cause a problem?" Noah asked quickly. His posture turned defensive. "We needed money. Nobody’s made that a secret. And what does this have to do with her death, anyway? Why are you acting like you suspect us? We’re her friends—none of us did it."
Sam wasn’t anywhere near sure of that, but it was never good to tip your hand. He simply nodded slightly then looked at Noah. "Maybe it would be better if we talked further over there." He jerked his head toward the Tahoe.
Noah’s eyes darted around to the others, then he broke from the pack and headed toward the Tahoe.
They leaned against the front of the car, Sam placing himself so that he could see Noah as well as the others at the campground. He didn’t know who was lying, and he wanted to see their reactions to him taking Noah out and talking to him privately. If one of them had something to hide, they might show it in their actions.
"Does Amber know you were getting back together with Lynn?" Sam asked.
"What?" Noah’s face scrunched up. "I wasn’t getting back together with Lynn." He glanced back at the crowd nervously.
Amber was watching them, practically craning her neck to be able to overhear. Tara had gone back to making sandwiches. Derek and Jason were sitting at the table, and Julie was stuffing the bug spray into her backpack.
"Really? One of your friends over there saw you in a compromising position with her in the alley in town the day she was killed," Sam said.
"What? Who said that? That’s crazy! I was in O’Malley’s pub with Derek and Josh."
"So you said. But Derek and Josh were playing pool and can’t swear that you were actually in the pub the whole time."
Noah pushed his hands through his sandy-colored hair. "I was there. Why would I meet with Lynn? We broke up a long time ago."
"Really?" Sam said. "That’s funny, because Derek says he saw someone sneaking around your tent the night Lynn was killed. Amber seemed a little uncertain when she verified you had been in the tent all night."
Noah’s eyes shifted to the left, his jaw tightening.
Sam continued. "So when someone else said they saw you with Lynn in the alley, and given the fact that you are benefiting from her death by getting all the shares of the company, I figured you must’ve known she was going for financing. Then I figured maybe getting financing was a double-edged sword for you. It would water down your shares, but your company needed it to survive. Then again, if Lynn was out of the way and you owned all the shares, the watering down might not be so bad."