Waterfront Weddings (60 page)

Alanna sighed. “That would be too easy.”

“Tell me everything that happened from the moment you hit this property.” Bull pulled a chair over from the kitchen and took out a pen and notebook. Alanna and Jonathan tag-teamed the telling. When they were done, Bull studied Alanna. “Is there anything you aren’t telling me?”

“No.” She spread her hands in front of her. “That’s it. We didn’t see anything worth noting until that man opened the closet.”

“All right.” He closed his notebook and stood. “Then let’s finish searching.”

Jonathan couldn’t believe his ears. “What?”

“I don’t trust you two not to come back, so I’m staying right here while you satisfy yourselves that there’s no secret code.”

Alanna nodded. “I haven’t seen any records from I’m Not Sharing. He was also on a couple boards, but there’s no office. He had to keep those somewhere.”

“Some were at his shop, but not enough to run the business. Let’s start where Mystery Man waited.” Bull let them precede him up the stairs. Alanna looked back as she scurried up. He had an appraising look on his face as he watched her. While it bothered her to be under his scrutiny, maybe he didn’t think she’d committed a crime when she entered the house.

Now to find whatever Mr. Hoffmeister had left.

Mr. Tomkin seemed intent to point a finger at Mr. Hoffmeister, who had pointed the finger right back. They used to be good friends. Maybe it was one more thing her mind had altered with the distance and time.

As she reentered the bedroom, Alanna took in the details. Somewhere Mr. Hoffmeister had kept records. If he was like her clients, finding those documents could be key. Especially if Gerald Tomkin’s allegations were valid. She turned to Detective Bull. “Have you examined Mr. Hoffmeister’s finances?”

He shook his head with a barely audible snort. “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation, especially one where you’re the suspect.”

“It never hurts to ask.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious.” She couldn’t tell him about Tomkin’s allegations. Not without more to back them up.

“Humph.”

Alanna opened the closet doors and started pushing against the back wall. “Financials make short work of determining if something was wrong with his money.”

Jonathan knelt by the floor and pulled up the bed skirt. “Bingo.”

“What?” Detective Bull tucked his notebook in his inside jacket pocket and took a quick step in his direction.

“What guy puts one of these on his bed?” Jonathan thumped the piece of cloth with disgust. “There are file boxes under here. Maybe these have the missing office documents.” Jonathan tugged the first box free.

“Maybe.” Detective Bull pulled a pair of gloves from a pocket and slipped them on. “Let me.”

Jonathan stepped out of the way while Alanna edged closer. She held her breath as Detective Bull eased the lid off the first box. When a stack of ledgers and array of files appeared, the man remained unflappable while Alanna wanted to grab the box and start uncovering the secrets hidden inside.

“Could be promising.” Bull tapped the lid back on. “I’ll take this back to the office.”

Alanna bit back a sharp word—or two—at the thought of whatever the box contained disappearing off the island.

“Sure we can’t glance at it here?” Jonathan spread his hands and grinned. “We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to find that box.”

“You can drag out the other boxes. Here’s a pair of gloves.”

Jonathan slipped them on and knelt down again. “There’s only one more.”

Alanna frowned. Could two boxes be sufficient to contain all the records? Especially since the detective suggested there weren’t many at the shop?

“Feel free to check for yourself.” Jonathan tugged up the skirt and made a sweeping motion. “Maybe my x-ray vision missed something.”

Alanna made a face at his sarcasm. “Trust me, businesses have lots of paper. No matter how small, I usually spend days wading through paper looking for one important fact.”

As Jonathan watched, he knew Lanna wasn’t thinking straight. She kept focusing on what she expected to see. Mr. Hoffmeister was a nice guy, but he wasn’t the world’s most effective businessman. If he were, he’d have a string of fudge shops like the others. Instead, he’d had one that did a good business but hadn’t differentiated from all the other fudge on the island. It wouldn’t surprise Jonathan if the two meager boxes contained everything.

If she’d decided the paperwork would save her and eventually Trevor, she’d misplaced her faith. “We’ve got more places to poke. Maybe we’ll find something there.”

Detective Bull again let them precede him. That action annoyed Jonathan. Why didn’t the man get in front and investigate? He was the detective after all.

“So how long you been with the state police?”

Bull did one of those annoying shoulder slouches that communicated he didn’t care enough to really comment.

“Five years? Ten?”

“Enough.”

“Like the St. Ignace office?”

Bull shrugged again. “It’s fine.”

“Until January?” Jonathan entered the other bedroom and checked under the bed, behind the dresser, and in the closet. Nothing.

“Snow’s not bad.”

“If you’ve got four-wheel drive and a snowmobile.”

“Don’t forget the cross-country skis.”

Alanna studied him, a question in her eyes. He ignored it as he avoided looking at the detective. Something just wasn’t right.

Jonathan stood and looked out the window. Where was the detective’s bike? “How do you plan to get those boxes down to the dock?”

Alanna must have caught the warning, because she slid toward the hallway as Bull stepped to the closet. The man made a perfunctory search.

“Not too worried about it.”

“Didn’t think so. Still, it makes me wonder what you’re doing here. Alone. Wouldn’t you bring someone with you?” Jonathan stepped closer to the man, trying to block his view of Alanna as she slipped into the hallway.

“Not enough manpower.” Sounded plausible, but after the way the chief shadowed him earlier, Jonathan wasn’t sure.

All he knew was he had a clear signal from his gut that he didn’t like the situation. He might not make a living as a detective, but something smelled. As he tried to evaluate the situation, he knew he couldn’t let anything happen to Alanna. If the situation was off, he needed to do everything possible to keep her safe. She meant too much to him to pretend otherwise.

“Where’d Ms. Stone go?” The detective stepped into his space, puffing up as if to make himself look bigger.

Jonathan made a show of looking around. “She’s right here.”

“Nope. Out of the way.”

The thought of going toe-to-toe with a second person wore Jonathan out. Still, he squared himself in front of Bull. He’d pull energy from deep resources to give Alanna time to slip away.

Bull growled. “Move now.”

When Jonathan remained in place, the man shoved him against the door frame. Jonathan fought for his balance then stuck a foot out. He hoped that didn’t count as assaulting an officer as Bull slammed into a wall.

“Bad choice, Covington.”

As a commotion erupted downstairs, Jonathan took his place in the doorway. “It’s nothing personal.”

“You can tell that to the judge.”

“We’ll see.” Fortunately, he knew a good attorney.

Alanna rushed back up the stairs. She’d had her cell phone out, dialing 911, when she’d reached the porch and heard the distinctive crunch of horses’ hooves against the trail. A small taxi had pulled up, and Police Chief Ryan climbed out followed by another man in police uniform.

“Chief Ryan.” Alanna closed her phone. “How did you know to come?”

“Research.”

Yes, the man used an economy of words, but that one word struck Alanna as exceptionally sparse. “Jonathan and Detective Bull are upstairs.”

The young officer shook his head. “He’s a maverick.”

The two uniformed men moved in front of her. As the screen door eased shut, Chief Ryan looked back at her. “Stay here, Ms. Stone.”

While his words sounded good, no way she’d stay in place and let whatever happened take place without helping Jonathan. She slipped off her shoes and then eased the door open. Her feet didn’t make any noise as she crept through the lower rooms to the stairs.

“Bull, what are you doing? I thought we agreed to do this together.” Chief Ryan’s voice left no doubt he expected an immediate answer.

“Chief, I got a tip and followed it. That’s what we do in the state police.”

Alanna slipped around the corner and placed her foot on a stair. It protested as if an entire marching band wanted to pass by. Chief Ryan turned with a frown. “I told you to stay put.”

“Yes, sir.” He hadn’t been around before she left, so he wouldn’t know she’d struggle to obey that instruction, but Jonathan’s snort made it clear he did.

“Someone want to fill me in?” Chief Ryan looked from one to the other. “We got a call but didn’t find the suspect that launched from here.”

“We’ve got his jacket over here, but that’s it.” Bull shrugged. “There’s no indication why he was here or how long. All we know is he didn’t take anything visible with him.” He tapped the boxes. “Do you have transportation?”

“Outside.”

“Good, then these boxes and I can hitchhike along.”

Chief Ryan turned to Jonathan. “You and Miss Stone need a ride, or do you plan to use that tandem bike?”

“We’ll bike down.”

“Okay, so long as you come straight to the station.”

“Yes, sir.”

Chief Ryan looked at Alanna.

“We’ll be there.” She had too many questions she wanted him to answer.

Two hours later, she sat in the police chief ’s overloaded office, feeling like she’d never get an answer since the only talking she got to do was answering his questions.

“Explain again why you thought it was a good idea to invade a murdered man’s home.” Chief Ryan sat on the corner of his industrial desk and knocked the top with his knuckles as he studied Alanna intently.

“We had the key.” The words sounded weak, but she still believed that allowed her actions.

“But Mr. Hoffmeister hadn’t given it to you, correct?”

“Yes.” She rubbed at the pounding in her temples.

“I’m not charging you with breaking and entering right now, since Detective Bull vouches you didn’t take anything. But if you pull a stunt like that again, I will ask the prosecutor to bring every charge against you that has a 20 percent chance of sticking. You leave the investigating to us, or it will be interfering with a police investigation.”

She opened her mouth to respond then shut it. She’d only make matters worse.

Jonathan tugged at her hand. “Let’s head home.”

“All right.” She stood then paused. “You still haven’t said whether you have ideas on who the intruder was.”

“The other one?” She winced at the words. “Maybe the murderer’s looking for something. If that’s the case, you were lucky. Don’t count on being so fortunate next time.”

Alanna followed Jonathan to the door but turned when Chief Ryan cleared his throat.

“Miss Stone, I’ve checked with friends in Grand Rapids. They say you’re quite the tenacious investigator.” He crossed his arms and leaned back. “Let me give you some advice. Stop. Anything you do could actually muddy things up rather than clear you. What if the crucial fact hides in one of those boxes? What if those boxes had gotten destroyed? What if you’d gone through them without Detective Bull? You could have removed anything you didn’t like. Destroyed evidence. Or created the impression that could have happened. They would have sat there a long time undisturbed if you hadn’t taken it upon yourselves to investigate.”

“With all due respect, Chief, don’t forget about the guy we chased away.” Jonathan stared at him. “He was in that room and could have found them as easily as I did.”

“Chances of finding him are slim to none. Officers are watching for him, but you know he’s ditched the coat, cap, and anything else that IDs him.”

And with that, Alanna was no closer to finding the real murderer or clearing Trevor.

J
onathan had to get Alanna out of the City Hall building before she exploded. He could almost watch her mind process what they’d learned and piece it together with what she already knew.