Fixing the Books, page 5
"Harassed? No, that doesn't sound like something I'd do. Does it, Matt?"
He made a sound that could have been described as a snort. Jody was grinning, though. Until Officer Weixal turned his gaze back on zir. "You told the officers who responded you didn't know who the victim was. Except we've heard otherwise."
"I already told him," Jody said, tipping zir head toward Matt, "I didn't recognize him when I saw him lying there. Not until after the coroner turned him over. I didn't know." Zir eyes darted around as ze said the last and sweat beaded zir forehead.
Jody seemed adamant ze hadn’t know who the victim was at first, and yet, something felt off. Had I had so many people lie to me over the last few months that I suspected it from everyone? I didn't see why Jody would lie to me. Of course, ze wasn't lying to me at the moment. Maybe ze wasn't lying at all, but it certainly felt like ze held something back.
Matt seemed to think so. "We heard Mr. Peterson was in town for more than a week. Are you saying he didn't seek you out earlier than Tuesday?"
"Tuesday is the first time he came into the library." Jody’s voice sounded flat. Maybe ze was tired of answering the same questions. I could understand that after my first meeting with Matt all those months earlier.
"How many times did he make you go over the sequence of events on Tuesday?" I leaned closer to Jody.
Matt cast me a glance and shook his head. He'd apparently been a bit overeager on his first major case up here. That didn't mean I was going to let it go.
Officer Weixal cleared his throat. "I'm supposed to be the one asking the questions."
"Of course," Matt said. "I'll make sure you get my notes when we get to the station."
"Good." He turned back to Jody.
Before he could ask zir more questions, I said, "Braden did tell me earlier he'd seen this guy around town last week, and he didn't seem to be making many friends. He apparently doesn't think much of our little town."
"He always was a snob,” Jody said. “Our town isn't much larger, and he made sure we all knew he was meant for bigger and better. He'd only stuck around because of family loyalty."
"You don't seem to have many positive things to say about a dead man, Mx. O'Dell," Officer Weixal said.
"Why should I?" Jody asked. "He never had a good thing to say about me when he was alive. In fact, he—"
Whatever Jody had been about to say was drowned out by a shout from the other side of the street. There was a loud honking of a horn, or several of them. A man with a bag slung over his shoulder jogged across the street toward us.
"Matthias," the man cried again. "I've been looking all over for you. You give terrible directions."
Matt gave a disbelieving laugh. "I didn't think you were serious about coming to visit, Everett, or I would have been clearer. I thought you were in Oregon."
Everett embraced Matt in a hug. "Not anymore. I'm right here."
"So, you are."
I stared at this strange man who was feeling up Matt in the middle of the street. So that might have been a slight exaggeration. They were still hugging, and it had to have been several minutes already.
Jody nudged me with zir elbow. "Might want to put the green eyes away."
I looked at zir, keeping my voice as low as ze had, though I wasn't sure why. Except Jody wasn't making sense. "My eyes are brown."
Ze stared balefully at me. "You know that isn't what I meant. There's no need to be jealous. I don't think Officer Lindert is even hugging him back."
Jody was right. Matt was doing little more than standing there, looking awkward. I almost felt sorry for him and considered stepping in. Officer Weixal took care of that by stepping forward. "I need to get back to the station."
"I'll give you my notes when I get there." Matt turned back to Everett. "How long's it been?"
"Since you tried arresting me for my father's murder?" Everett asked with a laugh. "Nearly a year. And then you left town."
He wasn’t much taller than me, with shaggy brown hair falling into his brown eyes and around his ears.
"The two had nothing to do with each other. And, anyway, you were already planning to go to Oregon with what's-his-name. I didn’t expect you to be anywhere around here."
My eyes practically darted back and forth between them. I tried to figure out exactly what was going on here. I knew there had been an incident at his former department which had been part of the reason he'd come here to Coalville, but he'd never said much about it.
"Matt's tried to arrest you, too?" I asked. "Seems we have something in common."
Matt tipped his glasses down so he could look over them. "I never tried to arrest you, Lou. I questioned you. They are not the same thing. I'd think you'd have gotten over it."
"Never," I said with a grin.
Matt took his glasses completely off his face and held them by one earpiece. "Everett, this is Lou Carsley. The two of you would get on famously. I really need to keep you apart. Lou, this is Everett McLeod. He's—"
"No way." Jody pushed past me. "The Everett McLeod? The up-and-coming comic book author and artist?"
He glanced toward Jody, the tips of his ears turning red, though that seemed to be his only reaction, even if his gaze didn't quite meet either of ours. "Um, yeah? I mean, I published my first comic earlier this year, and there's a few issues out. I don't know about up and coming, though."
"Then, you haven't been paying attention to the bookish communities on pretty much all the social media platforms. Everyone is talking about you on there. I didn't expect to see you walking down Main Street of Coalville. What brought you here?"
"Uh," he managed to get out, his gaze darting from Jody to me then back to Matt. His expression seemed to scream "help!" even though he didn't say another word.
Matt didn't seem eager to step in. "What do you want from me?" he asked. "I've told you before it's good. I don't know why you don't seem to believe it."
"You would say that. I don't think you know how to be critical, and I've gotten the exact opposite reviews to that effect."
"From who?" Matt demanded. "Someone who's never seen a good storyline in their life, wouldn't know good art if it bit them in the... you know where."
"See? Even when you're trying to be tough, you're too sweet. Kyle made it perfectly clear how worthless my little art project was. At least he waited until we were only one state away to officially dump me. Even if we did argue all the way back here."
"I'm sorry, Everett. The twerp didn't deserve you."
Jody nudged me, but I could barely take my gaze off the two men. Why did it seem there was more under their words? Everett looked like he was in his early twenties, a good ten years younger than me, and I thought Matt was a few years older than me. That wasn't a huge age difference. And Matt was asexual, but that didn't negate having a relationship, or even wanting one. Did he want to be with this guy, and now that he was free...
"We should have him come talk to the book club," Jody said.
Everett glanced over at us. "What book club? I can't see one wanting to discuss a graphic novel. Especially one which features predominantly queer characters. The representation isn't ambiguous, either. It's right there on the page."
"That makes it even better," ze said. "Don't you think so, Lou?"
Everett looked between us, seeming unsure about whatever Jody had planned for him. I still wasn't sure what to make of him. He had just shown up. How long had he been here? Just what was he to Matt?
I said, "Yeah, that does sound like a good idea. We meet on Wednesday nights." I handed him one of my cards. "We're meeting at my house next week." That would be two weeks in a row, which wasn't usual, but we'd moved the last one to discuss Jody's situation. "You can drop by if you like."
After all, what better way to keep an eye on him?
Chapter 9
"Are you sure this is going to be okay?"
My older sister arched an eyebrow. "You're the one who butted in on my delivery route. Now you're asking if it’s a problem?"
"You could just tell me no."
"Because that's ever done any good. Once you set your mind on something, you don't let it go. Though I don't know why you couldn't just go right up to the front doors. He helped you the last time, didn't he?"
"Yeah, and Quin threatened to send his emails with Mayra to the cops if he didn't tell us the truth.” Not that it would have done much good, since they’d already had them and decided to ignore them. Thank goodness Morein wasn’t on this case. “I'm not so sure he'll be happy to see me."
Cailyn shoved a box into my arms. "He will be when he sees you come in with his produce."
I wasn't so sure, but I followed her to the back door of the restaurant. Damon had the door open, ready to receive his delivery. "You didn't send along one of your minions this time?" he asked. I don't think I'd heard that teasing tone in his voice before. He obviously didn't see me behind Cailyn, though I could see his face from here.
"After the last time they broke two eggs, and you came unglued? Figured it was better to do the delivery myself."
"If they hadn't been too busy flirting with my sous chef, it wouldn't have happened. I was reasonably upset."
I couldn't help but snort, and Damon scrunched his brow, his eyes narrowing into the barest slits. "I thought it was just you," he said.
"My younger sibling offered to help since they didn't have any jobs this morning. I believe you've met them."
I leaned out from behind Cailyn, glad for once she was taller than me. "Hey, Damon. How've you been?"
His mouth turned down. "Just fine. No thanks to you. My name got dragged through that mess, and my fiancée left me. Why did you have to go and cause so much trouble? It's not like anyone would miss Mayra."
"How about Samuel Peterson?"
That seemed to throw him for a moment, his head tilting to the side as he narrowed his eyes at me. "What do you want to know about that wanker?"
"So, you did know him? I thought you might, both of you being professional cooks and all."
"Because I know every cook and restaurateur out there. We aren't that close of a community."
"You did know this one," I pointed out, since he'd already confirmed that.
"Unfortunately. What's the wanker gone and done now?"
I stared at him for a long moment, and his jaw seemed to loosen, and his eyes lost the intense glare he’d been aiming my way. "No. He didn't."
I nodded. "He's dead, Damon."
"Which of your friends just stumbled over his body this time?"
I opened my mouth to argue, but I couldn't. Jody discovered the victim, and it had been Deke the last time, but the way Damon phrased it made it seem awfully suspicious. Maybe someone who didn't know Jody would think that. As far as I knew, Damon didn't.
There may be a lot of people in town who didn't know zir, either. If they didn't go to the library regularly, they might not have bothered getting to know a newcomer to town. They probably would have made assumptions and put them down as facts. It's the way this town could be sometimes.
There were good points to it, though those could be overshadowed by the rest.
"Jody didn't kill him," I said. "Ze wouldn't have had any reason to.” He might have been a friend of zir family, but Jody was, I thought, estranged from them. That didn't make Jody any more guilty than anyone else.
"But you think I did?"
"Actually, I thought you knew something about him. Something that might help lead the police to who did kill him."
Damon scoffed. "The police. Right. That's who you're going to give the information to. Not your hacker friend. How many computers has he broken into recently?"
"None that I know of. From what he said, your email wasn't that difficult. If you want to keep things private, you should put better security on it."
Not that I had room to talk. I still hadn't changed my own passwords like Quin suggested. I had these memorized.
"Maybe your boyfriend should learn to keep his eyes on his own screen."
"He’s not..." Damon took the box from Cailyn and stomped into the restaurant before I could finish the sentence. What would Quin think of being called that? He'd probably say it was better than other things. At least Damon didn't misgender him.
Cailyn took the box from me. "You should go back to the van. I'll handle this."
I did just that, even though I hadn't gotten what I came for. This certainly hadn't gone the way I'd hoped. I would just have to find another way to get answers.
A way that wouldn't put me in the middle of everything. Again.
I was playing a game on my phone when Cailyn returned to the van. I didn't do that too often, but Quin introduced me to this one. He'd helped a friend with the coding, and it had a decent backstory for a free mobile game. I'd needed something to do while I waited.
Cailyn shoved a piece of paper at me before she was fully inside. "I was ordered to tell you that's all you're getting. And not to show your face here unless you're going to order the most expensive thing on the menu."
"There's a most expensive? Even the appetizers are more than what I'd spend on a full meal."
Cailyn laughed. "His food is so worth the price. Of course, that's because of our produce."
I saved my game and put my phone away. "You might as well take me home. I can get a few things done there before I have to get to my first job. Sorry I wasted your time."
Cailyn just looked at me. "How was it wasting my time? I would have been here anyway." She pulled out of the parking lot before glancing over at me. "What's going on with you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just worried about Jody."
"You got worried about Deke over the summer, but you didn't get this quiet then."
"I hadn't almost gotten Ross killed then, had I?" I clamped my lips tight together, as if that would do any good now that the words were out.
Cailyn didn't say anything until we were nearly into Coalville. It was only a couple minutes, but it felt like forever. "You weren't responsible for all that. Ross didn't even get hurt. You took down a killer. You should be proud of yourself."
I couldn't help thinking about what could have happened. Whitney had a gun. All I'd had was a screwdriver. So much might have gone wrong. I’d only stayed at Cord's to try to figure out who the actual killer was. It's not like I'd gone after Whitney. Yet I couldn't shake the feeling I had brought it down on us.
Not that Cailyn was the only one who had been trying to talk me out of that belief. It didn't matter what I knew rationally, still a part of my brain said it would have been my fault. Because of me, Eli would have been left to raise that baby on his own. That would have been something I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself for.
I wasn't sure how to explain all the thoughts in my head. So, I looked at the names on the paper. "Did he tell you who these people were?"
"Not really." Cailyn took my change of subject in stride. She'd always been good at rolling with whatever was thrown her way. "Just that they had some connection to that Peterson guy and whatever his previous project was. That's something Damon wouldn't say too much about. I pushed as much as I thought I could. He is among our best customers."
"Thanks for that. I'll have to look them up. I can do that before I have to go work."
Cailyn snickered. "Or you could wait until you see Quin. I hear he's good with a computer."
"I'm guessing Damon had more to say about that when you were in there."
"You'd be right, but probably surprised too. He's been considering seeing if he can hire Quin to do that security you mentioned. He'd probably be willing to pay a good bit. Quin should switch to that line of work. Would make a lot more than working in his cousin's garage. That's never made any sense to me."
"Quin has his reasons." That was all I would say about it. Not my story to tell. My sister was great, and she'd stood up for me and my friends, multiple times over the years. It wasn't my place to tell her anything about someone else unless they'd told me it was fine. And Quin hadn't.
I wasn't sure he wanted people to know he felt so much gratitude to his cousin’s family for taking him in when his own family kicked him out that he'd let it stunt his own future. Especially when that was not the way Quin described his life.
I jumped out of the van and headed up to my house. I had about an hour before I needed to get to my first job of the day. That would give me time to at least look through these names. I wasn't sure I had time to do any searching on them.
I could at least get started. Then, I could send that information to Matt. I could help without truly getting involved.
I greeted Zio and gave him a good petting. Then, I sat at the table and set the list in front of me. The first name on the list was Katerina Lawson. Investor in Tip Top. Former girlfriend/wife of Russell McLeod.
The name sounded awfully familiar, but I wasn't sure why. And which was it? Girlfriend or wife? Why hadn't Damon been more specific?
I set that aside and continued down the list. The next one was the same name I'd just read. Russell McLeod. Owner of McLeod Enterprises. Also, silent partner in production of Simmering with Sam, wanker's former tv show.
I laughed at the fact he'd used that term in writing. It wasn't difficult to tell what Damon thought of someone. There weren't many more notes about Russell McLeod, just that he'd died 11 months earlier.
"Nun on a bun." Zio's head lifted from his place in the corner of the kitchen. "Sorry, boy, I just remembered something. You can go back to sleep."
It looked like I had to go and talk to Matt. It would have to wait, though. I had time to finish reading through the list, but not to track down one stubborn police officer who might know more than he'd told me.
Especially about his new guest.
Chapter 10
I wiped my hands on a rag and finished putting my tools back in the box. There'd been a lot of weatherproofing work today. This last job had included climbing a ladder to patch a few spots that were starting to leak when it rained really hard. And fixing a gutter which had started to come down. It would need to be replaced in the spring, if the snow and ice didn't bring it down completely. The client hadn't wanted to hear that, but I didn't like to lie about that stuff.
