Ruth’s lips pinched together for a moment. “Yes, I know and I didn’t approve. Rosa deserves someone who doesn’t play around like that. Like that police officer.” The woman tapped her finger against her chin. “Or is he a detective?”

  “Who?” Shelly’s interest was sparked.

  “I think he is a detective. He’s a good-looking man,” Ruth explained.

  “Detective Walton?” Juliet asked. “Andrew Walton?”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Ruth’s face brightened.

  “The detective was out here interviewing the workers here at the barn,” Shelly said. “You saw him talking to Rosa?”

  “Yes, when the investigation was going on.” Ruth waved her hand in the air. “But I saw them together before the robbery took place. I hoped they were dating.”

  Shelly noticed the disappointment on Juliet’s face. She knew her friend thought Andrew was cute and was developing an interest in him. “Where did you see them?”

  “Right here. Outside. On the side of the barn. Rosa never works that late in the day so I thought maybe they had been skiing together or something.”

  “Was it at night?” Shelly asked.

  “Yes. I saw them standing next to the building under the side roof lights. I was on the slope finishing my ski run and as I went by, I spotted them.”

  “What were they doing?” Juliet asked.

  “I went by fairly quickly,” Ruth said. “They were talking. Rosa looked like she was pointing to the back of the building. Maybe she was pointing out her car to him? I don’t know. I remember thinking Rosa didn’t look happy. She looked concerned about something.”

  “When was this?” Juliet asked.

  “Oh, a couple of days before the robbery happened,” Ruth said.

  Shelly felt a tiny wave of anxiety buzz over her skin. “Have you ever seen them together at any other time?”

  Ruth shook her head. “Just that night and when the interviews were taking place.”

  “Did you ask Rosa if she was on a date with Detective Walton?” Juliet asked.

  “No.” Ruth gave a quick laugh. “I didn’t want her to think I was spying on her.”

  Juliet and Shelly exchanged a look … each one thinking the same thing. It might be a good idea to talk to Rosa Perkins again.

  19

  Shelly and Juliet entered the third pub in Paxton Park and finally hit pay dirt. Rosa Perkins sat on the stool next to a high-top table talking with an older man about sports while she enjoyed a glass of wine.

  “There she is.” Juliet’s voice carried a triumphant tone. “I’ve seen her on some Wednesday nights out with friends. It seems to be a ritual of theirs. I knew we’d find her in one of these bars.”

  Shelly walked over and greeted Rosa just as the older man was walking away. “How are you? Are you meeting friends?”

  “Yeah, I’m supposed to be,” the attractive brunette said. “Two girls I’ve known since high school. The car is giving them trouble. I don’t know if they’ll make it or not.”

  “How about we substitute for them for a little while?” Juliet gestured to the chairs around the table asking to join the young woman.

  “Oh sure. Have a seat. You can protect me from the men who think a woman alone can’t wait to talk to them.” Rosa smiled. “I know most people just want to chat, but some ignore the message that I’m not interested in them and then they get testy when I don’t fawn over them.” Looking down at her glass, she said, “Sort of like Grant was.”

  “Grant would get angry with you?” Shelly asked.

  “I guess you could call it that.” Rosa sipped from her drink. “He’d come by my desk sometimes when Shannon wasn’t around and flirt with me. I had work to do and didn’t want him bothering me. He’d get defensive and annoyed and almost challenging. I didn’t like being around him when he got like that. He’d try to blow it off as him only joking. I didn’t believe his claim. Grant had an edge to him that wasn’t all that attractive.”

  “Did he finally get the message you weren’t interested in him?” Shelly asked.

  Rosa said, “He knew I wasn’t interested in him, but that didn’t stop him from being a pain. It almost made it worse. Like he wanted to bother me because I shot down his advances. Grant could be difficult. My heart would sink when I saw him approaching. I didn’t want to deal with him.”

  “You know the detective?” Juliet asked. “Andrew Walton.”

  Rosa looked blank for a few seconds and then her face brightened. “Yeah. He was interviewing us at the barn after the crime. You know him, right? He’s working on the case, trying to figure out what happened.”

  “Right,” Juliet said. “That’s him. I understand you and Detective Walton were outside the barn offices a few nights before the murders.”

  Rosa blinked a couple of times. “He came by because I called the police station.”

  Shelly’s expression showed surprise. “Did you? What was wrong?”

  “I came back to the resort to meet a friend for a late dinner. I park in the barn lot when I come back to go to the pub or one of the restaurants then I walk over to meet my friends. I parked and was going to cut through to the pub by walking past the barn.” Rosa sipped from her glass. “I saw someone looking through the windows at the back of the building. It scared me so I hurried back to my car and called the police.”

  “Why didn’t you call resort security?” Juliet asked.

  “I didn’t even think of it.” Rosa’s face looked blank.

  “What happened after you called?” Shelly asked.

  “That detective came by,” Rosa said. “He told me he was on his way home when he heard the call. He was close to the resort so he came over to see what was wrong.”

  “Did he see the person who was looking in the windows?”

  “No. When we walked up the walkway, the guy was gone.” Rosa looked disappointed.

  “You didn’t recognize the man?”

  “I didn’t get a good look at him. His back was to me. His face was pressed against the window,” Rosa told them.

  “Was there enough light to see anything about him?” Shelly questioned. “His build? His height? Heavy? Skinny? Anything?”

  “I told the detective the guy was medium build. He had a hat on so I couldn’t see his hair. Something about him made me think he was late twenties or early thirties. Maybe his posture? The way he held himself? Anyway, I didn’t see his face.”

  “What was he wearing?” Shelly asked.

  “His hat was pulled down. Probably jeans. Work boots.” Rosa’s eyes narrowed. “He must have money or his girlfriend does because he was wearing one of those expensive wool jackets. I think it was black. There are wings on the arm patch and on the buttons. You know what brand I’m talking about? I can’t think of the name.”

  “Winter Wings,” Juliet said.

  “That’s it,” Rosa smiled. “Super expensive. The guy must have been a resort guest. No one who works there could afford a jacket like that. Unless they saved up for a year.”

  “What was the guy doing?” Shelly asked.

  “He had his face pressed against the window glass,” Rosa said. “Why would he be looking into the barn?”

  “What room was he looking into?” Shelly asked.

  “The back offices.” Rosa reached for some peanuts from the bowl in the center of the table.

  A shot of adrenaline raced through Shelly’s body. “This happened when?”

  “A couple of days before the break-in,” Rosa said and then her eyes grew wide. “Oh, no. Do you think that was the guy who broke in?” The young woman’s hand moved to her throat and she swayed a little on her stool. “Could I have seen the killer?”

  “Can you think of anything else about his appearance?” Juliet asked.

  “No. I don’t think so. I didn’t get very close to him.”

  “What made you call the police? Couldn’t he have been a resort worker?” Shelly asked.

  “No. He wasn’t a resort worker. I’d bet my money on that.” Rosa shook her head. “He didn’t dress like a resort worker. I got the impression he was probably a visitor.”

  “Had you ever seen him before or after that night?” Juliet asked.

  “I sure don’t think so,” Rosa said slowly.

  “What did Detective Walton say?”

  “He didn’t say a whole lot. He asked me a million questions. He seemed annoyed that I didn’t see the guy leave, that I didn’t see which way he went.”

  “What about footprints?” Shelly asked. “There were probably footprints in the snow?”

  Rosa said, “There were footprints in the snow under the window, but you couldn’t make out what kind of shoes or boots they were. They were all messed up like he kicked the snow around. There were some vague footprints going from the building to the walkway, but you couldn’t tell which way he went because there are a ton of footprints on that walkway. So many people go back and forth there all day long.”

  “Did the guy remind you of anyone?” Juliet asked.

  “Not really. I see a million guys at the resort every day. After a while, they all blend together,” Rosa said.

  “So he had a medium build?” Shelly asked.

  “It seemed like it, but he had on a wool jacket. Without it, he could have been slim.”

  “But not heavy?”

  “Definitely not heavy,” Rosa said with confidence.

  “Tall?”

  “Not short. Definitely on the tall side. Maybe five foot, eleven inches? Maybe six feet?”

  “Glasses?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How about facial hair?” Shelly prodded.

  “I couldn’t really see his face. His back was towards me.” With each question she couldn’t answer, Rosa’s confidence slipped away.

  “What about a car?” Juliet asked. “Did you notice a car in the parking lot?”

  Again Rosa shook her head. “There were cars in the lot. I don’t know if any of them belonged to this guy.”

  “But you didn’t see him come down the walk, go into the lot, and drive away?” Shelly questioned.

  “Absolutely not. I would have recognized the jacket.” Rosa pushed at her bangs.

  “Did he know you saw him looking in the window?” Shelly asked.

  Rosa’s breath caught in her throat. “I don’t know,” she said in a whisper. Leaning closer, she asked with a shaky voice, “If he saw me, do you think I’m in danger?”

  A flutter of nervousness danced around in Shelly’s stomach. “He probably didn’t notice you.” While she said the words, Shelly wondered if Rosa’s reflection might have shown in the window. “Like you said, lots of people walk along that sidewalk.”

  Rosa stared at Shelly. “Not at that time of evening. I was the only one.”

  “Did anything about him seem familiar to you?” Juliet asked.

  Rosa’s head tilted to the side as she thought. “He sort of made me think of the detective.” She gave a chuckle. “But that would be impossible. He couldn’t be in two places at once.”

  At last, Rosa’s friends showed up and after about fifteen minutes, Shelly and Juliet left the pub and headed to their car.

  “The man at the window reminded Rosa of Andrew Walton, huh?” Shelly narrowed her eyes at her friend.

  “She said he couldn’t be in two places at the same time,” Juliet said.

  “That’s right, he couldn’t be. But he could have been at the window, noticed someone coming up the hill from the parking lot, and when she turned back towards the lot, he took off,” Shelly said. “He wasn’t in two places. Suppose Detective Walton was at the window, left when Rosa came by, then went to his car, drove around, heard the police call and decided to go back to meet Rosa.”

  “Oh, no,” Juliet almost shouted. “He wanted to talk to Rosa to figure out what she saw so he hustled back to the barn. He needed to figure out if he was safe or not.”

  “It probably wasn’t Andrew Walton at the window,” Shelly suggested. “But it might have been someone who resembles Andrew in some way.”

  Juliet sighed. “Whoever it was, he must have been casing the place. Preparing to break-in. Getting a good look around before the actual robbery was set in motion. I really hope it wasn’t Andrew.”

  “If only there had been security cameras facing the back of the building,” Shelly said with a dejected tone.

  If only.

  20

  Shelly stood in the hallway of the police station waiting outside of Jay’s office when the door opened and Andrew Walton and Jay emerged.

  “I’ll be right back, Shelly,” Jay said as she hurried away carrying a folder. “Have a seat in my office.”

  Andrew paused to talk to the young woman. “How are things going?”

  “Slow on my end.” Shelly gave the detective a disheartened look.

  “It’s not so great here either.” Andrew leaned against the wall. “It’s like wading through molasses trying to make any connections. Everything is coming up empty.”

  “Things have to turn around soon.” Shelly forced a smile.

  “When I came here I naively thought there would be little crime in a resort town and anything that came up would be solved quickly,” Andrew said and grunted. “How wrong you can be.”

  “There are a lot of people who come and go here,” Shelly said. “Tourists, adventure-seekers, the winter and summer sports enthusiasts. We’ve got the townspeople, the rural citizens, even some survivalists and preppers on the other side of the mountain. There are a lot of different people who make the area their home and a lot of different people who come here temporarily. It’s really kind of a nightmare scenario for law enforcement.”

  The corners of Andrew’s mouth turned up. “I should have talked to you before I accepted the job in Paxton Park.”

  “I heard you talked to Rosa Perkins recently,” Shelly said.

  Andrew’s face was blank until realization dawned on him. “Oh, yeah. Rosa Perkins. Dark hair. In her mid-twenties? Works at the barn in the front office.” He nodded. “I interviewed her. Didn’t you talk to her, too?”

  “I did. I’m referring to a few nights before the murders. She called in about a possible intruder outside the barn.”

  Andrew stood straight and glanced into Jay’s office. “Want to sit? My back is giving me trouble.”

  The two took chairs in front of Jay’s desk with Andrew facing the entryway.

  Shelly said, “Rosa used the barn’s lot to park in. She was meeting a friend at one of the resort restaurants. You met her in the parking lot to investigate her call.”

  “That’s right. She reported seeing a man peering into the barn’s offices through the windows at the back of the place.”

  “Did you see him?”

  Andrew shook his head. “He was gone. If he was ever there at all.”

  Shelly’s eyebrow raised. “You think Rosa was mistaken?”

  “Who knows? It was dark, lots of shadows. There aren’t a lot of lights along that section of the walkway and at that time of night, there would be hardly anyone around there.”

  “So you think all she saw was a shadow? What about footprints?”

  “There were a ton of footprints in the snow,” Andrew said. “The workers move around there all day long. People walk on those sidewalks all day long.”

  “Were there footprints near the building? Below the window?”

  Andrew said, “There were hints of footprints around that spot, but they could have been there earlier. There wasn’t anything to go on. Maybe some tourist walked by, wondered what the building was, looked in the windows, and left. A nosy, but innocent action. The woman spotted him and panicked.”

  “It doesn’t sound like she panicked,” Shelly said. “But she was concerned someone might be about to break into the building and did the right thing by calling the police.” Shelly kept her eyes on Andrew’s face. “How come a detective answered a call like that?”

  A look of annoyance or something else moved fleetingly over Andrew’s face. “I was in the area, driving by. I heard the call and offered to take it. I figured it would take all of fifteen minutes.”

  “And then the break-in occurred two days later,” Shelly pointed out. “Do you think the two events were related?”

  “It seems unlikely,” Andrew said.

  “Why does it?”

  “Would a potential robber be so obvious? Would someone plotting to steal a safe be hanging around at that time of evening? It would be smarter to do reconnaissance late at night. Come at 2am. Pretty sure there would be limited chance to run into someone behind the barn at that time of night.”

  “Maybe the robber … and murderer … isn’t very smart,” Shelly said. She had the idea that Andrew wasn’t taking the matter seriously enough.

  “Maybe.” Andrew let out a breath. “Listen. Calls come in all the time. Ninety-nine percent of them are false alarms.”

  “Rosa told me the guy was wearing a very expensive jacket,” Shelly said.

  “She told me that.” Andrew gave a nod. “There are plenty of wealthy guys at the resort. Take a walk-through the lodge. Count up how many people are wearing expensive jackets.” The detective was pointing out to Shelly that someone wearing an expensive jacket at a popular ski resort was not a great clue and led to basically nothing.

  “I know what you’re getting at. At a place like this, an expensive jacket is a dime a dozen. Still, it’s something,” Shelly said. “Were there any other clues to the person’s identity?”

  “Nothing. A big fat zero.” Andrew sighed. “I can’t agree that anyone was even there that night.”

  “I asked Rosa if the man seemed familiar in any way,” Shelly said. “She told me the person’s build and movements resembled someone she’d recently met.”

  The detective cocked his head. “Who did she mean?”

  “You,” Shelly said.

  Not many people would have noticed, but Shelly spotted a muscle twitch at the edge of Andrew’s jaw.

  “Most of the time, Andrew is as cool as a cucumber,” Shelly told Juliet as they sat in front of the fire on Shelly’s comfortable sofa with Justice curled up in between them. “But his jaw tightened when I told him Rosa said the person peering in the barn windows looked like him.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14