A Lonesome Place for Dying, page 25
“What are you going to do now?” she asked after a moment.
Ethan looked toward the water, which that morning seemed truly endless.
“I think I’ll walk for a while,” he said.
* * *
An hour later, circling back to his truck, he noticed the lights on in Breakwater Travel. Sissy McCandless was alone inside. Ethan knocked, wiped his feet, and entered.
“Congratulations are in order,” Sissy said. “Maybe I can sell you on a celebratory cruise? Mazatlán is going on sale next week. If you haven’t been, the beaches are lovely.”
“I just got my job back, not sure I want to take time off just yet.”
“Suit yourself,” Sissy said. “Something else I can help you with?”
“Just wondering what’ll happen to your brother’s house.”
“Well, it’s the family house,” Sissy said. “Seth and Jody didn’t exactly do upkeep. It needs some work.”
“Will you move out there?”
“Eventually, I imagine so. Why?’
“Things worked out pretty well for you,” Ethan said.
“Not following, Chief.”
“The middle kid. The only girl. I can’t imagine what that was like in your family.”
“No, you can’t,” Sissy said. “What’s your point?”
“Your older brother inherits the family business and wrecks it. The younger brother is too ineffectual to do much better. He’s even got one of his couriers living in the house. No separation between work and play for Jody. Soon this woman, Laura Dill, is trying to call the tune. And Jody’s too weak to stop it.”
“It’s just who my brother is,” Sissy said.
“Now you’re running things, you won’t make the same mistake.”
“Running things?”
Ethan put a hand on the counter in a disarming, just-us gesture.
“You helped me find the knife, enough evidence to put Jody away. I don’t doubt he killed Laura.”
“Then what are we talking about?”
“We’re talking about a brilliant woman who watched her family make all the wrong moves, who finally saw her opportunity to take control. A woman who knew what to say to Jody to make him mad enough to kill. Who helped him plan it out, offering the train tickets. This woman even convinced her brother to hire a professional killer, just in case Jody couldn’t go through with the murder.”
“I don’t even know how to respond to such lunacy,” Sissy said. “I run a small business.”
“And you studied graphic design. That receipt was a fake, but it pointed to the dead woman being on the train, just as you wanted it to. Same as the burnt remains of the backpack.”
“You’re reaching, Ethan,” Sissy said.
“Jody could be manipulated into killing Laura. But eliminating Bob Galvin, trying to do the same to Cassie Maxwell—those were cover-up crimes. Someone wanted to make sure they’d never talk.”
“My brother.”
“Jody had cash and evidence buried on his own property. He knew Cassie. No, killing Bob was about concealing who hired him, something Jody would only care about if you drilled that into him. You know what’s funny?”
“I have no idea what you find funny,” Sissy said.
“When Jody confessed, he claimed he only went along with the trip to the cabin because Nazareno threatened him. I thought he was minimizing his involvement. But it’s true, isn’t it? You had Nazareno force him to help.”
“What other crimes do you think I committed?” Sissy asked. “Did I kidnap the Lindbergh baby?”
“Forgery,” Ethan said. “If I looked on that computer back there, I bet I’d find one of those photo design programs.”
“I still dabble, sure.”
“And maybe, saved somewhere in its memory, is a mock-up of the receipt we found beneath Laura Dill’s body. You made that receipt, and made sure it would be found on her body. You led us on a hell of a chase, Sissy.”
“If you want to take a look at my computer, please go ahead,” Sissy said. “But, Chief?”
“Yes?”
She wasn’t looking at him. Instead her gaze rested on the floor, where her kitten sat, sleeping on a quilted cushion.
“If I was as low down and devious as you claim,” Sissy said, “would I really have used my business equipment? I mean, wouldn’t someone smart use a second computer for a thing like that, maybe even a second printer, and a roll of receipt paper different from the kind I use in the store? That’s how someone smart would do things, wouldn’t they?”
A smile of understanding passed over the counter between them. If Ethan had worn a hat, he would have doffed it to Sissy McCandless.
“Not so different from your brothers after all,” he said.
“Don’t be dense, Chief,” Sissy said. “There’s a huge difference. They’re both in prison, and I’m about to open for business.”
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Marcia Markham, Thaisheemarie Fantauzzi Perez, and the entire team at Crooked Lane Books.
Thanks to agent extraordinaire Chris Casuccio at Westwood Creative Artists.
Thanks to Nathan Ripley for the encouragement, and to Brian Thornton and Jim Thomsen for I-5 details.
And finally, thanks to Larry, Patsy, Clint, and John D.
Author Biography
Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest. A Lonesome Place for Dying is his first book featuring Ethan Brand.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by Sam Wiebe
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-63910-777-3
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-63910-778-0
Cover design by Jerry Todd
Printed in the United States.
www.crookedlanebooks.com
Crooked Lane Books
34 West 27th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10001
First Edition: May 2024
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Nolan Chase, A Lonesome Place for Dying
