Minnie Crockwell - Will Travel for Trouble 02 - Trouble at Sunny Lake (8 page)

“Do you really think Sean could have killed your brother?”

Scott shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe
I
did it.” He smiled at me then, a thin-lipped smile over cold eyes. I jumped up.

“I don’t know what to think,” I said. I started to turn away.

“Hey, you’re not going to tell the cops all this, are you?” He had risen and approached me. As usual, I backed up. Why would I never learn with this guy?

“I don’t know,” I said. “If they interview me again, I might have to. I don’t lie very well.”

I turned and trotted down the hill and hopped into my RV.

I think you should leave this park, Minerva. This place is not as sunny as the name would have us believe.

“No kidding! Did you get a sense of whether he killed his brother or not?”

I cannot see into his thoughts, Minerva. Only yours. I do not know. I feel he can be dangerous though, and I am not sure it is necessarily from his battle experiences.

“What then?”

If his brother was truly a bad man, then why might not Scott be? If they were born into the same family, raised by the same parents, who is to say that both men were not created from the same mold?

“There’s only one person I can think of to ask, and that’s Sean since he knows them both.”

My phone rang just then, and I answered it.

“Minnie?” A strange male voice pronounced my name.

“Yes?”
 

“It’s Josh Wilson, you know, the deputy?”

“Oh, Deputy Wilson. Yes. What can I do for you?” So odd that he would call right now when I was brimming with information that the authorities really should have. I kept my mouth shut though.

“Well, I was wondering if you wanted to have some dinner tonight.”

“What?” I didn’t screech…exactly.

“Dinner?”

“Me?” Suddenly, I felt old enough to be his mother although I was, in fact, only five years older.

“Yes, you. I could pick you up since I know where you live.” He chuckled. “About 6 o’clock?”

“Okay,” I said meekly. “I’ll see you then.” I looked down at the phone in my hand.

You seem surprised at his interest, Minerva. I am not.

“Well,
I
am. I’m not even sure why I said yes.”

I suspect because you would like to go to dinner with the handsome Deputy Wilson.

I laughed nervously. “I think I was taken aback more than anything. He seems like a nice man anyway. Maybe he knows more about the case.”

I suspect he does not know quite as much as you do. Will you discuss your findings with him?

“I have no idea. It’s not really my place, is it? I don’t know who killed Jason Strait. It sounds like it could have been anyone.”

With the exception of the handsome Deputy Wilson, of course.

Chapter Five

Josh picked me up in a dark SUV and took me to a restaurant on the other side of the lake that served a wonderful salad. We sat out on the deck and enjoyed the lake as the sun set, sending a golden streak across the water. Thankfully, I couldn’t see the cliffs from here.
 

I had dressed casually in slacks and a print cotton top, hoping that no one would take me for Josh’s mother. Out of uniform, he was just as good looking in jeans and a light-blue cotton shirt.
 

“How was the rest of your day yesterday?” he asked. “Not too stressful, I hope.”

“You might face that kind of thing more than I do, but I’ll admit I
was
pretty stressed out.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. He gave me a charming white-toothed smile.
 

Although I knew Ben was usually with me, I hoped he was distracted by something else. Maybe he had stayed near the RV and not accompanied us. I did know he could control that if he wanted. If and when the day came that I fell in love with a living person, I wasn’t sure what we would do. I didn’t think I could bear to lose Ben.

While I wanted to blurt out all the information I’d learned that day, I held back. The police hardly needed an interfering amateur sleuth/busybody offering up tidbits of misleading information.

“So, how long have you been a deputy?” I asked over my salad.

“Oh, about two years. I was in the Army before that, in Afghanistan.”

I stopped short of rolling my eyes, but my heart pounded. I stared at him. Surely not!

“Oh, really?” I said more as a stalling technique while I played with and discarded a million questions.

“Yeah,” he said, offering nothing further. He asked me questions about traveling, the RV, my boring life in general, and it was fully ten minutes before I could steer the conversation back to Afghanistan.

“So, Afghanistan, huh?”

“Yeah, I don’t talk about it much though.” If he wanted me to take the hint, too bad. I pondered how best to ask him if he had known Sean before yesterday, or if he knew Scott. He hadn’t mentioned he knew Jason, so maybe this was all a coincidence. Plenty of men and women had spent time in Afghanistan.

“Someone told me that Sean was in Afghanistan? You know? The guy who works in the Sunny Lake RV Park office?”

Josh nodded and sipped his water. “Yes. I’ve known Sean for years.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that!” I exclaimed. “You didn’t seem like you knew each other when you and Deputy Kline were interviewing him.”

“Sam Kline knows him too. Sam’s son was killed in Afghanistan. They were in the same unit. In fact, we were all in the same unit.”

My heart pounded in my ears. All of them? Josh, Scott, Sean, Deputy Kline’s son, and the victim, Jason Strait?
 

“Did you know the victim, Jason Strait?”

Josh shifted his eyes toward the lake. “Yup. I’m not surprised he ended up dead at the bottom of a cliff. If anyone had it coming to him, it was Jason Strait.”

I choked down the lettuce in my mouth, and tried not to look as shocked as I felt at the dispassionate tone in his words.
 

“Because?”

“He was bad through and through. Got a lot of people killed, including Kline’s son, Steve. Steve and I had been friends since we were kids. We did everything together.”

I swallowed a large swig of water. All of a sudden, it seemed like everyone had a motive for pushing Jason Strait off a cliff.
 

Ben, are you here?

I hesitate to let you know as you are engaged in dining with a possible suitor, but yes, I am here. I have not liked the situations in which you place yourself, Minerva, and I sought to watch over you without giving you discomfort.

Hardly a suitor, Ben! But I’m glad you’re here. I’m in way over my head. This is like some Agatha Christie novel come to life.
 

I do not understand your reference, my dear. Who is Agatha Christie?

I’ll explain later.

“How odd that you both responded to the call,” I mused.

“Not really. Jim Kline and I both work for the county marine enforcement division. We’ve only got two regular deputies in the division, so that’s why we responded. We’ll turn it over to the investigators though. You saw them yesterday. Two guys in plain clothes.”

“Right now, we’re looking for Jason’s brother, Scott, if only to notify him,” Josh continued. “He came back from Afghanistan a lot angrier than when he went over. Well, he’d been deployed more times than some, so maybe that was it.”

This was my chance to do right, and I couldn’t force the words from my mouth. Was I hindering an investigation if I knew something and didn’t tell?

I do not know your laws, Minerva, but I would hazard a guess that it will not go well for you if you know the whereabouts of someone wanted by the authorities, and you do not speak up.

You’re right, Ben.

I looked up to see Josh smiling and waving a hand in front of my eyes.
 

“Hello? I thought you’d gone off somewhere. You looked like you were having a private conversation there.”

“Well, maybe. As it happens, I
do
know where Jason’s brother is. Scott Strait is staying in one of the cabins at Sunny Lake RV Park.”

Josh’s eyes rounded then hardened. “Where?” he barked.
 

The nice man I’d been having dinner with suddenly transformed into a cold, determined police officer, and I caught my breath.

“Where is he?” he repeated. “Did Sean know he was there?”

I shook my head quickly. “No, I don’t think so. Scott didn’t want anyone to know he was staying in the cabin.”

Josh pulled his cell phone from his belt as if to make a call and then he paused and stared at me.

“If you knew he was there, why didn’t you say something yesterday when I asked if you knew Jason Strait?”

“I didn’t know you were looking for Scott. I didn’t even know his name until this morning.”

He dropped his eyes to his phone as if he was thinking.
 

“I’m sorry,” I said ineffectually. “I probably could have told you on the phone this morning or at the beginning of dinner. I’m not sure why I didn’t.”

He looked up at me again, seemingly lost in thought. I would have expected him to call the authorities by now or at least rush me out of the restaurant to return to the park and find Scott, but he made no movement.

“Yes, you probably should have. Now that we know Scott was in the area, he is probably the prime suspect.”

I blinked.
 

“Just like that?”

“Well, there’s no love lost between the brothers.”

I couldn’t help myself. I blurted. I often blurted.

“It doesn’t sound like there’s any love lost among any of you.”

He threw me a quick narrow-eyed look. Apparently, he didn’t blurt words out without forethought because he stared at me for a moment. His lips curved into a slow smile, and his face relaxed into the expression I had seen from him yesterday as he leaned over my car.

He nodded. “You’re right about that. I suppose we could all be suspects, couldn’t we?”

Ah! Apparently, he can read your mind as well,
Ben said lightly.
I note that he has a certain charm. I hear your heartbeat quicken at his smile.

Ben! My heart? You can hear my heartbeat? Well, if it’s beating fast, it’s because all of a sudden, I don’t trust this guy. I don’t trust anyone right now. Shoot! I think they all lined up and stabbed poor ole hated Jason one by one.

I do not understand your reference, my dear. Stabbed?

Agatha Christie. You’d love her mystery novels.

Josh leaned in. “Hey, I was only kidding,” he said. “Thought I lost you there for a minute. You spaced out.”

I focused on him and smiled. “Oh, no, sorry. I’m here. I was just having random thoughts.”

“About?”

“Agatha Christie.” I blurted again. And gave him a cheesy grin.

“So, you think we
all
did it?” He grinned.

My cheeks heated. Ooops! He did know the reference.
 

“I’ve read a few mysteries in my time,” he explained. “I love the old classics.”

I nodded, embarrassed to be caught speculating so wildly.

“Is there a reason you haven’t whisked me out of here to go confront or arrest Scott?” I put up a hand as if to stop him though he didn’t appear to be in a hurry to leave. “Not that I want you to. Honestly, he asked me not to mention that he was staying in the cabin. That’s before I even found the body or knew that he was Jason’s brother. He’s not a very likeable guy, but I don’t know whether that’s due to his experiences in the war or whether that’s just the way he is.”

“I understand,” Josh said. “I’m not accusing you of withholding information. You’re the one person who didn’t know Jason in all of this.”
 

He shook his head and pushed his plate away.
 

“Neither one of the Strait brothers is very likeable. And that was before the war. They both had problems in school, getting into fights with each other, with other guys. Jason thought he owned every girl he dated. Scott could never even get a date because Jason stole all the girls just to do it. Just before our last deployment, Scott managed to get himself a girlfriend, but Jason went after her. The girl realized they were both kind of nuts and walked off on the whole thing. Scott never forgave Jason.”

 
It sounded like Scott good reason to hate his brother. But murder?

Josh signaled for the check.
 

“Well, I’d better get over to the RV park to find Scott. I’ll just talk to him tonight. We don’t really have probable cause to arrest him right now.”

I pulled my wallet from my purse. Somehow, it seemed appropriate that I pay my own way.

“No, no,” Josh said when he saw me. “This is a date, even though it seems to have turned into a police interview. I’m paying.”

I smiled and stowed my wallet.