A Waffle Death, page 15
“Is there anything on that computer that someone might want? Or want to destroy? In particular, anything to do with this case?”
“No. I don’t have anything to do with this case on my computer. And you just heard what valuable stuff I have on it—my financial records and recipes. Not… I don’t know what you’re looking for. Pictures of me and Brandon together? I don’t even know what you think you’re going to find on it.”
“Well, I was hoping to find evidence of whether you were in touch with Brandon or not. But if someone stole it, I would think that it has more than that on it. Something that this case hinges on.”
“There isn’t anything on my computer to do with Brandon.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Why would there be? If I was threatening to kill Brandon, or whatever it is you’re implying, why would I have it on my work computer?”
“Does anyone else have access to what’s on that computer?”
“No!”
“Victoria, maybe?”
Erin looked over at Vic and shook her head. “She doesn’t have my password. I’m the only one who touches the financial files and who sets up the advertising and everything. Vic bakes and works the till. She doesn’t run the business.”
Vic nodded her agreement. “And happy as a hound dog with two tails that I don’t have to do all of that stuff,” she affirmed.
Wilmot’s mouth twitched.
“If it isn’t anything to do with Brandon, then can you think of anyone else who would want your computer for any reason? Someone who is upset with you and might have targeted you? Someone who you told you have something on your computer and they want it? Anything?”
“No. It was just a crappy old computer, Sheriff. Nothing fancy on it. It wasn’t a system you could have used for gaming or anything like that. Anyone who needed a computer wouldn’t go after a dinosaur like that. They’d want the latest and greatest with lots of memory and a fast graphics card and all that. That one could barely keep up with putting together text and graphics for a flyer.”
He smiled. “Maybe I should look into insurance fraud, then. Maybe you’re angling to get a new one.”
“I wouldn’t go through all of this rigmarole for that. I’d just go out and buy one. Take this one home to do email or family history stuff.”
He nodded at this.
“And you don’t have any clue who might have broken in? You didn’t see anyone hanging around the last few days? Smell someone’s cologne when you came into the store after the break-in? See that something was moved or taken that might have been connected with someone you know?”
“No… I don’t think so.”
His mention of cologne got her thinking. Had there been a trace of a scent as she had entered Auntie Clem’s to turn the light on? Any smells were quickly wiped out by other people moving in and out of the kitchen and by the smells of the batters and baking bread that soon permeated the bakery. Had there been a smell when she had entered The Book Nook? It was all so fleeting, she couldn’t be sure. Her other senses had quickly been overwhelmed and she had forgotten anything else.
“Do you know anything about Brandon’s manuscript?”
Erin looked up from her muffins, frowning at Wilmot’s question. “Brandon’s manuscript? What about it?”
“Did he show it to you? Email you a copy?”
“No.”
“You haven’t seen it.”
“No. I can’t see why I would have wanted to.”
“Maybe so that you could see what he had written about you. How he had portrayed you. The only reason I can think about that he would have come to Bald Eagle Falls is to talk to you.”
Erin was baffled as to what other reason he would have had to be there. But whatever it was, it had nothing to do with her.
“I don’t care what he wrote in his book. I don’t even care if it got a big New York literary deal. So what? It’s not about me. If I’m in it, he’d have to spice it up to make it anything interesting. Because nobody cares about the girl who crashed on his couch.”
“There was more to it than that, from what you said.”
“In your mind, maybe. But that’s all it ever was to him. Or to me. Somewhere to live while I found something else.”
“It is missing.”
“What’s missing?”
“His manuscript.”
“Because he didn’t have it on him? He wouldn’t carry it around with him, would he? It’s not like a phone.”
“We’ve been in contact with the authorities in Maine. They’ve searched his apartment there and have his computer. If he had a hard copy, he must have brought it with him.”
“Why would he?”
“To show the person who was in it.”
“Well, he didn’t. I never saw him or his manuscript.”
“Until he was dead.”
“What?” Erin asked in irritation.
“You didn’t see him until he was dead. If I am to believe you. You did see him. At least twice.”
“Okay.” Erin rolled her eyes. “Not alive. So he obviously couldn’t show it to me when he was dead.”
“Unless it was on his body when you found it.”
“Again, why would he be carrying it around?”
“Again—to show you.”
“I had no idea he was in town until I found him there. I had no way of knowing he was in The Book Nook.”
“We’ll see if your email history bears that out.”
Erin put trays of muffins in the oven and turned to look at him, wiping her hands on a towel. “My email? My computer was just stolen.”
“Yes. But your email is still available in the cloud. Like you and Miss Victoria were just saying.”
Erin rolled her eyes and shrugged. She didn’t think there was any way for him to get access to it. And if there was, she’d already done what she could to eliminate any trail. He could look all he liked and not be able to prove her wrong.
“How do you know there even was a manuscript?” Erin asked. “Had anyone seen it? Brandon didn’t exactly tell the truth all the time, you know.”
Wilmot considered this, his eyes rolling upward. “Well, that is something I can inquire about. I’m sure someone must have seen it. He wouldn’t get a book deal without someone reading the manuscript, right?”
“How do you know he had a book deal?”
“That’s what he told everyone.”
Erin nodded. “But did anyone see this book deal? Talk to his agent? To the publisher? It could all just be made up out of thin air.”
CHAPTER 30
Erin didn’t feel up to making supper after a long day at Auntie Clem’s. She hadn’t realized how much energy the burglary and seemingly endless questions by Sheriff Wilmot would take out of her. She also knew that Terry would be getting off work and didn’t want to be home with him, tiptoeing awkwardly around each other, trying to decide if she was still obligated to make supper for him, or if she wanted to have him messing around in the kitchen without her. There really wasn’t a winning answer.
Sooner or later things would have to either settle down with Terry or come to a head. She hoped that things would work out, but she recognized that she wasn’t putting much effort into it, waiting to see what he would do and how he felt. He was the one who had decided she was not trustworthy. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She figured he should be the one making the first move.
A meal at the restaurant seemed like the best bet. Erin decided she was in the mood for Chinese and avoided the family restaurant, which was Terry’s favorite. If he decided to go out to dinner too, in order to avoid her and having to make his own meal, she didn’t want to run into him there.
Erin only had to wait for a few minutes to be seated and was given an empty booth in the back. Too close to the kitchen to be considered a prime spot, but she was happy to be out of the way and have some relative privacy instead of being at one of the round tables out in the open.
She was perusing the menu, deciding what she wanted to order since she was there by herself and usually ordered a combination of meals to share with Terry, when she was interrupted.
“Miss Erin…?”
She looked up from her menu. “Oh, Dave. Hey, how are you?”
“Good.” He looked around. “Are you here by yourself?”
“Yes.” Erin hesitated a moment, then motioned to the opposite bench seat. “Do you want to join me?”
“Oh, I don’t want to interrupt anything. You look like you wanted some alone time.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll have plenty of that when I go home tonight.” That sounded pretty pathetic. “Well, except for the cat and the rabbit, of course.” She laughed. That sounded even more pathetic.
“I thought…” He trailed off and took the seat that she had indicated. Maybe deciding that it was better not to dig into her personal affairs.
“That I would be with Officer Piper?” Erin suggested.
He nodded, getting red around his throat.
“Well, we’re not exactly seeing eye to eye right now. So I’m… taking a bit of a break.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. Is that because of… the investigation? Brandon Quayle, I mean?”
“Yes. I can’t thank the guy enough for dying on my watch. Why did he have to come here and screw everything up for me?”
“Are you getting a lot of flak from the police department? They think you had something to do with it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think they believe I did it, but they have to follow the evidence and show that I didn’t do it and someone else did. It’s very annoying. I want them to be finished with their investigation and not bother me about it anymore. I didn’t kill him, and I think it’s highly unlikely that anyone would kill a person and then call the police about it. And then hide the body. And then call the police about it again…”
Dave chuckled. “That does seem like a bit of a stretch,” he agreed.
“But cops don’t like coincidences. They want answers to all of their questions and… I can’t give them the answers to everything.”
“Yeah. If you could, you probably would be the killer. They’re the ones who always have the best alibis, aren’t they?”
“On TV, maybe. Not in real life. Not in my experience.”
And she’d had way too much experience in Bald Eagle Falls. Maybe she should have stayed in Maine and never accepted her inheritance from Clementine. Alton Summers would probably have eventually found Erin’s half-sister, Charley, and given it to her instead. If Erin hadn’t come to Bald Eagle Falls, she wouldn’t have gotten involved in that first murder. She wouldn’t have been a suspect. She wouldn’t have discovered all of the stuff she did later about her family and what really happened to her parents. She wouldn’t have had to worry about drug cartels or kidnappers or cooking contests gone bad. She could have just kept living the way that she had in Maine. Nothing would have changed.
“Do you want to order together?” Dave asked, indicating the menu Erin held in her hands but was not focused on. “It’s kind of fun to order a few dishes and have a bit of everything.”
“Yeah. That’s what we usually do. What do you like?”
Erin managed to bring her focus back to the meal and, for a few minutes, she and Dave were occupied with seeing what they both liked best and wanted to share. After giving their order to the waitress, they both sat back, quiet and trying to think of a conversational topic.
“I was sorry to hear about your break-in today,” Dave offered. “Did they catch whoever did it?”
“No.” Erin shook her head. “And I doubt they ever will. It isn’t like he left fingerprints or DNA all over the place or that the police even care about catching him. Sheriff Wilmot kept saying that I needed to cooperate with his questioning so that they could find my computer and get it back to me, but… I don’t think they will put too much effort into trying. It isn’t even like it’s valuable. I just got the cheapest machine that I could when I was starting off. It isn’t fast enough to do anything special. Not like gaming or anything that takes a special graphics card. Or speakers. I don’t think it even had speakers.”
“Usually they have a built-in speaker, even if you don’t have an external sound system.”
Erin nodded. “So okay, it probably had sound. But I don’t see why anyone would want that computer. Or why they would target me.”
“I guess the police have been asking you a lot of questions about Brandon?”
Erin nodded. “But it’s been years since I saw the guy; it’s not like I knew anything about this tell-all memoir he was working on. Or had a deal for, if you’re to believe anything he said to anyone else. And you shouldn’t.”
Dave laughed. “Not the most honest guy?”
“No. You could never believe anything coming out of Brandon’s mouth. He told a lot of whoppers.”
“I’ve known people like that. It can be pretty disconcerting when you realize that none of the stuff they’re telling you is the truth.”
“Yeah. I kind of start from the position of not trusting anyone, and then if you prove that you are trustworthy, that’s great. If not, I’m not disappointed, at least.”
“Smart… but maybe a little dysfunctional.”
“That’s me.”
When the waitress brought their order, Dave leaned forward to dish up some of each item onto his plate. “So,” he said conspiratorially, “Was Brandon ever involved in anything criminal? Or was he just a liar?”
“Oh…” Erin dished up some General Tso’s chicken. “He wasn’t just a liar.” She thought about the drugs. The abuse. Other things that he did if he thought he could get away with it. There had been run-ins with the police, but Brandon could be very charming and talk his way out of just about anything. He was one of those guys, Erin thought, who would have chatted amiably with a cop while he had a body in the trunk of the car or apparently snoozing in the passenger seat next to him. A guy like Dahmer, who kept escaping by the skin of his teeth because he was so skilled at talking himself out of trouble.
But criminal? He hadn’t been a serial killer like Dahmer. Just a guy who did whatever he could get away with. Who served himself and his own interests without concern for anyone else.
CHAPTER 31
Erin poked at her food, thinking about how much she wanted to tell Dave. She couldn’t talk to Terry about anything that had happened back then. He was already upset that she hadn’t told him about her previous relationship with Brandon, and he was all mixed up in the investigation. They were barely speaking to each other, aside from a few polite comments as they got breakfast ready or navigated around each other at the house, pretending there wasn’t any awkwardness.
She could talk to Vic. Vic even had some relevant experience, with her relationship with Crazy Theresa, and having lived on the street for a short time in Bald Eagle Falls. She understood it better than most people in Bald Eagle Falls. But she also talked to Willie, and Erin wasn’t sure she wanted Willie to know about anything. Who knew what kind of reaction he might have to her stories? He had gone hunting for Crazy Theresa, even if he wasn’t the one who had killed her. It was too late for him to go after Brandon, but who knows what else he might do. And she didn’t want him looking at her differently, as Terry now did.
Dave was safe. He had only been in Bald Eagle Falls for a little longer than Erin had been, so he wasn’t woven into the fabric of the town like those who had been born and raised there. He wasn’t necessarily connected to any of the branches of the grapevine. He had always seemed to her to be a bit of a loner. He didn’t hang out with a bunch of other people. Didn’t go drinking with the boys after work. He was just a nice guy living a quiet life in quiet little Bald Eagle Falls. He had a steady job at The Book Nook, which was enough to support himself. He was lucky, when she thought about the inadequately housed poor living in and around Bald Eagle Falls. He didn’t have half a dozen mouths to feed and have to be constantly worried that he would be kicked out and have to find somewhere new to live. He made enough to rent an apartment somewhere, get internet, and entertain himself with cable or streaming video service.
“How long have you been in Bald Eagle Falls now?” she asked.
Dave slurped a noodle and wiped his face, laughing at himself. “Just over two years. A bit longer than you. I think I’d been here about three months before you moved in.”
“And you moved here because of your aunt? Is that right?” Erin tried to remember any details of his arrival and what people had told her about him.
“Aunt Jane. Yes, it’s been nice to be able to spend time with her. She’s kind of cut off from everyone else.”
Erin had heard about his Aunt Jane once or twice, but couldn’t remember the woman’s last name. She was a bit of a recluse. It was good that he’d been able to move close to her and be allowed into her life. At least she wouldn’t be completely alone when she died, with nobody to look after her affairs.
“Where did you come from?”
“I’ve been all over.” He shrugged. “Mostly north.”
“Me too.” Erin cut up more chicken with the side of her fork. It was a bit tough, and she might need to resort to a knife instead. “Mostly in the north. I tell people Maine because that’s where I spent the most time the last few years before moving here, but it wasn’t the only place I lived. It’s just easier. When you tell people you come from ‘all over,’ they don’t know what to say. How to ask after your people or find out what you were doing when you were living there. There’s no reference point.”
Dave gave a nod. “People like a reference point. Something to anchor to.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
She and Dave actually had a lot in common. Both were quiet people, tending toward being alone, arriving in Bald Eagle Falls around the same time, after a semi-nomadic life in the northern states. Working practically next door to each other. It was surprising that she hadn’t eaten a meal or had a one-on-one conversation with Dave before. But it was probably because of Terry. It wasn’t proper to approach a woman who was seeing someone else. Even for just a casual conversation.
