The Hunt Chronicles: Volume 1 (6 page)

“That’s not
true!”   I shouted.  “You’re not keeping us here because of the
festival and the booked rooms because you don’t have the power to do it
unless-”

“Unless we were
suspects,” Thomas muttered quietly.  “But you said my scenario still held
water.”

“Oh, it does,
Thomas,” I butted in, “but not enough to get us completely off the hook.  Because
we’re suspects, Walter’s here is trying to stop us from leaving, with a little
does of house arrest, like we’re Martha
friggin
Stewart!  He’s not responsible for this week’s festivities.  The inns
are
booked and we are all stuck here like fish in a barrel and there’s a
dead tuna floating belly up in here with us.  Does that cover it,
Chief?”  Walters looked at me with both disdain and admiration. 
Sills was, all of a sudden, in a chatty mood.

Walters’ mood was
definitely shifting.  His face grew red and his frown wide.  “If
you’d rather I put you up at the Gray Bar Inn down at the precinct until we
sort this out.”  I breathed in deeply and put on a frown of my own, but
said nothing.

“Please try to
understand, all of you.”  We listened patiently as the little man spoke
and the big man stood in the doorway.  “This investigation has only been
open a few hours.  At this point, everyone is a suspect.  We still
need to speak with the other staff members; I have all of their names right
here,” he said, tapping his breast pocket.  “Your brother is missing, Ms.
McCune.  He still has some explaining to do as well.  Phone records
will be checked and alibis will be corroborated.  What we have here-”

“What we have here,”
Walters blurted out, cutting off his partner, “is a whole lot a
nothin
! 
I’m staring at six people who
haven’t given me one single clue all morning.  You all slept through the
murder of what was apparently a very loud man, and I’m not buying it for one
damn second!  You people were spread around this house last night, and
Hunt here is the only one who mentioned Donald coming home drunk as a
skunk.  Where is he now? 
None of you know, there’s
a shocker!
  Unless you folks start talking, this investigation
could last a very long time.  This state’s most prominent citizen is dead
and this will be dragged out until someone is held responsible!”  We stood
glowering up at him.  Even I was guilty of withholding information; the
pill and the wet spot on Wilson’s rug. 
I’m sure someone else jotted it
all down in a notepad somewhere
my little voice spoke up, but it didn’t
make me feel any better. 
They are professionals, you know?  If a
retired teacher found it, I’m sure a trained officer did too
. 
The
only difference is you put the pill in your pocket after
you
found it.
 
I suddenly remembered I was concealing evidence in my pocket, and I gulped
hard.

Maddie
was guilty too.  She lied when she said she’d
been in bed all night.  The big man had a point that couldn’t be
ignored.  “Mr. Hunt has my card,” he said flatly and walked out. 
Sills followed.  As they walked, I heard Walters barked that he wanted to
see the coroner’s report
asap
. 
Detective Sills was probably deaf as a doornail by then, but Walters kept
screaming just the same.

I stepped forward
and shut the door.  When I turned around, everyone was looking at me like
five sad puppies.  “Now calm down, everyone,” I said softly, breathing
deeply again.  “Detective Walters seems like a very capable man.  I’m
sure he’ll realize we’re innocent when he speaks to the others.  At least
one of them is bound to be missing an alibi for last night and Walters will get
to the bottom of it.  Now, let’s all just relax and…and…”
and
what? 
The little voice asked. 
Go about your business,
folks.  There is nothing to see here.  Get real
.  A father
was dead.  A friend was dead.  A fixture in McCune Hall was
gone.  What was I supposed to say?  I’m no priest.  “…and do
what you think is best for right now.”

Cheryl and Richard
put an arm around each other and ascended the staircase slowly; their sobs grew
softer as they climbed higher and higher.  Thomas walked with Nona past my
room and down to the end of the hall, where they made a left and disappeared. 
To the right was another staircase, obviously the one Richard used the night
before during his midnight stroll. 
Maddie
headed for her room with one hand over her forehead.  I didn’t know what
to do to be honest.  I glanced at the clock in the dining room.  It was
a little past noon.  I went to my sister’s room, knocked on the door and
started asking questions.

“I’ll be fine,” she
said.  “I’m still in shock, I guess. I always thought this kind of thing
happens in movies and Agatha Christie novels and on the news.  I can’t
believe he’s dead, but I can’t even begin to comprehend something like
murder.  It’s just so…unreal.”  My sister’s stoic state of mind was
giving me the willies.  Even more so was the fact that she hadn’t mentioned
her late night constitutional.  “How are you, Reevan?  I can‘t
believe this happened during the few days you were here.”

“I’m okay.  I
knew him, but not well enough to mourn like you.  I guess I’m feeling a
little bit like an outsider looking in.” 
Maddie
nodded.  I pressed on.  “I know those pills really took you for a
loop, but are you sure you didn’t hear anything last night?”  She looked
up at me from the bed.  Her eyes shone of surprise.  I wasn’t buying
any of it.

“I said no, didn’t
I?”

“Well yeah,” I said,
treading lightly like a fly on one of those meat-eating plants.  “But I
think you’re [
gulp
] lying.” 
Maddie
stood
up very slowly.  She came towards me quietly and then exploded, like a
tornado touching down.

“Are you calling me
a liar?”  I started to shake my head, but to no avail.  She was
already set in motion.  I had to think fast.  “After all I’ve done
for you!  After the vacations here and the trips I took to see you when
got too lonely in that big damn house of yours!  After all the-”

“I looked in on
you,” I said softly.  I did not scream.  I did not bellow.  I
didn’t shout.  It just came out as plainly as the letters look in a book.

“-pain
and…what?
  What did you
say?”  The anger in her eyes melted away.  She looked scared. 
“When?”

“Last
night, after Cheryl woke me up.
 
I headed for my room but then popped my head in here to make sure you were
okay.  You were gone.”  A very long, awkward pause followed. 
“Where were you
Maddie
?”  Her eyes bounced
around the room as if a plausible explanation was printed on the walls.

“Bathroom.”

“Excuse me?”

“I went to the
bathroom, Reevan.  For God’s sake, pills or no pills, when nature calls
you answer or you’re put in an old folk’s home with
the word
incontinent
stamped on your forehead.”  I thought about it long and hard.  It
wasn’t going to fly.

“Bologna.”

“Like hell, it’s
bologna!  Who are you, the piss police?”

“Fine.
  What time did you get out of bed?”

“What?”

“What time?”

“How the hell should
I know?”

“Everybody does it,
Maddie
.  If you get up in the middle of the night, you
can’t help but look at your clock.  What time was it?”  Her eyes
rolled up and her lips started to move.  She was either trying to remember
or trying to stall.

“It was 12:48.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, now I am. 
I looked at the clock when I sat up.  12:48, I’m sure.”

“I checked in on you
around one last night.  You were gone.  I was awake in my room for a
good five or six minutes before I fell back to sleep.  I never heard you
come back in.  I didn’t hear your footsteps or your door close.  What
took you so damn long?”

“I don’t know,
Reevan!  I don’t always remember my stop watch when I use the
crapper!”  She turned away.  She walked over to her bed and sat down
again.  Her chest rose and fell quickly.

“Tell me what you
know,
Maddie
.”

“You don’t want to
know what I know, Reevan.”  I walked over to her and knelt in front of
her.  I grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at me.

“A living, breathing
man died last night because someone else wanted it that way.  It’s not
right,
Maddie
.  Who are you protecting? 
What do you know?”  She tried to shake loose and turn away but I held
on.  “What do you know,
Maddie
?”

“No, I-”

“Damn it, Madeline,
start
talking!
”  After a long pause and fresh tears, she did.

“Richard,” she said,
and it felt like someone dropping a bomb in my gut.  My legs gave way and
I fell backwards onto my rump.

“Richard?  What
about him?” 

“I think Richard
killed his father.”

“I
did
get up
at around a quarter to one to go to the bathroom at the top of the
stairs.  If I use the one down here, it takes forever to stop the water
from running and I can still hear it when I get back. 
Drives
me crazy.

“I was in the
bathroom when I heard you come out and start talking to someone in the
kitchen.  I was still woozy from my pills, and I couldn’t make out who the
other person was.  I guess it was Cheryl, like you said.

“I was in there a
good fifteen or twenty minutes.  What little I ate for dinner came back to
haunt me, but I had to take the pills with food, so I did.  By the time
the nausea passed, I heard you say goodnight to Cheryl, or was it Nona?  Anyway,
I heard you walking down the hall.

“I left the bathroom
and started down the stairs.  Just then, Richard walked by.  I didn’t
think I would make it down the stairs on my own, so I whispered to him. 
He ran up the stairs and helped me down.  When we reached the middle of
the staircase, at least I think it was the middle, I asked him where he was
going so late at night.  He said he needed to speak with his
father.”  She brought the tissue up to her nose and blew.  I held her
hand firmly and urged her to go on.

“Now remember, I’m
not sure how accurate this all is.  I was flying as high as a kite last
night.  I’m pretty sure about the time though, and I’m pretty sure about
almost everything Richard said.  I asked him what he was up to and he said
he needed to speak to his father.  When I asked him why, he said he was
too angry to sleep and he wanted his father to know how upset he was before he
lost all of his nerve.”

“Angry
about what?”

“I think about
Donald and Cheryl.  Richard is one of the most caring people I’ve ever
known in my life, though to his father, he only exists when he’s the only other
person in the house.  Like I told you, Donald and Cheryl go at it with
their Dad at least three times a week.  Donald and his failing restaurant,
Cheryl and that young man she wants to marry.  Richard hated to see them
fight and he hated his father for the way he ran this house.  Outside
those gates, it’s the great land of liberty.  Inside, this is nothing but a
pretty dictatorship.

“So, he said he was
upset and he wanted to give his old man a piece of his mind.  He helped me
down the stairs the rest of the way, led me into bed and shut the door behind
him as he left.  By the time I was back in bed, it was probably close to
1:15 or 1:20.  I was moving pretty slow down those stairs, and Richard’s
story was a little longer than what I just ran through.  Either way, I
must have gotten back in after you already fell asleep.  Satisfied?” 
We sat looking at each other.  What was I to say? 
Sure
Maddie
, I’m
feelin
’ fine. 
You just incriminated a young man who is like family to us.  Thanks for
kicking this day up another notch on the Crap-o-Meter.

“Yes and no.”

“Oh, Reevan…what are
we going to do?  We can’t tell Walters.  He’ll arrest Richard. 
He may have been angry, but he couldn’t have killed his father, right? 
No, he couldn’t have.  What should we do?”  She sobbed into my
shoulder.  I didn’t know what to do, but we couldn’t sit on that much
information forever.  One of the others could have heard
Maddie
and Richard’s conversation the night before. 
Nona was still in the kitchen.  It was only a matter of time before she
remembered and squealed like a stuck pig.

“We will tell
Walters, but not now.  I want to go speak with Richard myself.”

“What if he did it,
Reevan?”

“We can’t think that
way,
Maddie
.  Stay in here for a little while
and calm down.  I’ll go talk to Richard and meet up with you later. 
We’ll get to the bottom of this
Maddie
, I
promise.  And I’m sorry for hurting your feelings before.  I just had
to know the truth.” 
Maddie
nodded and brushed
her tears away.  I got up and headed for the door.

“Where could Donald
be?”  She called out to me.  “I’m worried.”