“You didn’t think you should come down to the police station and tell me that you saw a dead body that somehow slipped away while you weren’t looking? You didn’t think I would understand?”
“Would you have?”
“No way, José. And no way to you, Josie!”
“You know, if Josie doesn’t cooperate with you, you have nothing except a missing television personality,” Sam said flatly.
“I-” Josie started.
“And she’s not going to say anything at all until you agree to listen to every word she says and do whatever she thinks you should,” he continued, refusing to allow Josie to finish her sentence.
“I think…”
“Well, do you agree to that?” Sam asked.
Josie looked up at Chief Rodney. From the expression on his face, she decided it would be stupid to drive even one mile over the speed limit for the rest of the summer.
“Do you agree?” Sam repeated.
“Fine. Fine. But you better have a body or some rock-hard evidence, Miss Pigeon. You better have enough for me to make an arrest and get a conviction.”
Josie grimaced. “Well, I can’t promise anything-”
“Just tell us what you know,” Sam said.
“Not much,” Josie began. “But if you think logically about what I’m saying, I think you’ll realize that I’m right and… that I’m right.”
Chief Rodney sighed long and loud. “I suppose,” he said, saying the words slowly and looking at Sam, “it’s a bit early in the day for a drink.”
“I could get you a cup of coffee and put a dollop of brandy in it,” Sam offered.
“Make it a double dollop and I won’t drag your girlfriend off to jail without hearing the entire story.”
Josie scowled and tried to figure out exactly where to begin.
“Maybe you should start with finding the body,” Sam suggested, heading for the area where liquors were displayed.
“Yes. When did you find the body?”
“It was a few days ago. But I didn’t find it.”
“Just who did find it?”
“My crew. Someone on my crew,” Josie replied.
“You telling me there’s a conspiracy of silence here?” Chief Rodney growled.
“There’s no conspiracy,” Josie answered before realizing that almost half a dozen people keeping the knowledge of a crime from the police was, most likely, exactly that.
Sam seemed to be thinking the same thing as he rushed over with a steaming and alcoholic drink in his hand.
“Start when the body was discovered,” he prompted. “I’m sure the chief will let you tell the story in your own way.”
Apparently the chief would let her do what she pleased as long as Sam kept a steady stream of alcohol and coffee coming his way. So Josie got on with it.
“I didn’t find Courtney. My crew did. She was hidden in the canoe that was hanging from the ceiling in the living room of the house we’re remodeling.”
“When?”
“A few days ago. But the body disappeared that day, too.”
“Let’s start at the beginning again. You-or someone on your crew-discovered Courtney in the canoe hanging from the ceiling. Am I correct in assuming that she was dead?”
“Yes. Of course, yes.” Josie described how Courtney had looked, being sure to mention how her hair had covered part of her forehead-which she now knew to be significant-and went on to explain her interview up near the rafters, how the women had continued to work that afternoon, all acutely aware of the body on high, and how they had decided to meet at Island Contracting’s office for dinner to make a decision about what to do.
“Who suggested leaving the body where it was and heading down to your office?” Chief Rodney asked.
“I think I probably did, but that doesn’t matter,” Josie told him. “Just listen to what I’m going to tell you and you’ll understand.”
“You damn well better be right, Mizz Pigeon.” He sprayed his sarcasm.
Josie continued her story as he wiped his spit off his shirt. “So we went to the office and tried to figure out what to do about Courtney’s body. We did think of calling the police, among other things.” She was fairly sure no one in the store would think much of their decision to freeze Courtney along with most of the island’s bait supply. “But when we returned to the house, the body was gone.”
Chief Rodney grunted, and from the expression on his face, Josie got the impression that keeping his promise not to interrupt was causing him some pain. She continued the tale.
“We knew the body was gone right away. The canoe was on the floor, but the blanket that had been covering her was still there. We… um… we didn’t know what to do.”
Chief Rodney made a sound that could have been a gulp or an expletive.
“So we didn’t do anything. And Bobby Valentine said that Courtney was always going off and doing things and suddenly no one seemed to care that she wasn’t around. So… well… Look, the truth is that I knew you would suspect my crew members if you knew Courtney had been murdered. None of them had any reason to kill her, but some of them are especially vulnerable, so I thought if I figured out who killed her myself, I would tell you about it and… and that would be that.” She glanced at Sam, who was staring intently at the police chief.
“You thought I would arrest Dorothy Evans,” Chief Rodney said flatly.
“I thought it was a good possibility. And so did she. You see, Dottie-”
“Josie, he knows about Dottie’s record,” Sam said. “It’s one of the terms of her release and her parole.”
“Oh. Dottie’s a wonderful person,” Josie assured him.
“I realize that, Miss Pigeon. I realize that.”
“The chief was telling me earlier that he introduced Dottie to one of his officers, a relative, and he asked her out on a date,” Sam explained.
Josie was momentarily diverted. “And she refused, right?”
“Yes. But the Rodney men do not take no for an answer. At least not until it’s been said at least a half-dozen times,” Chief Rodney added with a surprising amount of self-deprecating humor.
“Go on with your story, Josie,” Sam prompted. “What happened next?”
“I guess the next thing that actually happened was that I got a call from Bobby Valentine. But that’s not… I’m leaving out things.”
“Well, we sure don’t want you to do that,” Chief Rodney said as the beeper on his belt began to squawk. “Goddamn. Someone better have a real good reason for bothering me now.” He read the message. “Mind if I use your phone, Sam?”
“Feel free.”
Josie moved over to Sam as the police chief headed to the phone on the checkout counter. “How am I doing?” she asked.
“Frankly, not well. I know more of the whole story than the chief and I have no idea what the hell you’re getting at-or who you think killed Courtney.”
“Sam, I thought you’d figured it out. Howard and Cheryl- well, I suppose only one of them actually killed her, but certainly they were both involved in the coverup and in moving her from place to place… Where’s he going?” she added as the police officer bounded for the front door.
“Got to go. That call was from one of your workers, Miss Pigeon. Seems Bobby Valentine and some man from the neighborhood are trying to kill each other on the lawn in front of the house you’re working on.”
“I still don’t get it,” Sam said, getting into the driver’s seat of his car while Josie plunked herself into the passenger seat.
“What don’t you get?”
“Why Howard and Cheryl? And, more important, how did you figure it out?”
“Think, Sam, from the very beginning of this project, some unknown neighbor was involved. It was someone from the island, a neighbor, who told Courtney about the house-and about Island Contracting.”
“And Howard and Cheryl are those neighbors?”
“Yup, and I’ll bet if we look into it, we’ll find that Howard and Cheryl are the owners of that damn house. I was stupid. I should have insisted on speaking with the owners. I guess the job just fell into our laps and I was so thrilled to be asked to be on television… Funny, I thought I was immune to that sort of thing,” she mused, interrupting herself.