A Spirited Gift

I could tell the chief was under a lot of stress. He always was when he had to work with Sheriff Tuck Riley. Sheriff Riley had taken Gramps’s place when he’d retired. While Gramps and Chief Michaels had a great working relationship, Sheriff Riley and Chief Michaels liked to play “who’s the biggest fish.”

“Mayor Dae O’Donnell!” Sheriff Riley joined us. He was a tall, stocky man with a full head of brown hair and brown eyes that narrowed when he looked at people, as though he was always trying to figure out what they were guilty of. “I was hoping to run into you while I was out this way. How are you? I hope your house made it through the storm in one piece. How’s old Horace getting along? Still taking people out on his fishing boat? You know, I don’t get enough time to fish nowadays. If I did, Horace would be the one I’d want to take me out.”

Sheriff Riley always made pleasant conversation, and his smile was friendly. It was his eyes that I didn’t trust. I’d heard too many bad things about him. He’d worked with Gramps but never as a high-ranking officer. Gramps hadn’t trusted him.

“It’s good to see you too, Sheriff,” I said, giving him my hand and my big mayor’s smile. “I’m sorry you had to come in on this.”

“I admit I was surprised to hear there was a murder out here in little Duck. Once I knew, I had to come out. Ronnie doesn’t have all the resources he needs to handle something like this by himself. We don’t want to call in the SBI for every little thing, do we? We can handle this locally just fine.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“What’s the powwow back here about? Trouble with the soup?” Sheriff Riley laughed and nodded at Kevin. “Smells good, whatever it is, Brickman. Can’t wait for lunch.”

“I was just discussing the program with the mayor,” Chief Michaels said, hitching up his pants. “I thought it would be good for her to know what’s going on.”

Sheriff Riley nodded. “Yep. That probably would be good—if she wasn’t as much of a suspect as the other mayors here. Not that I mean any disrespect by that, Dae.”

“No, of course not.”

“Maybe it would be best for her to write down where she was in the hotel at the time Mayor Foxx was killed. And what she was doing, of course.”

It was one thing for Chief Michaels to call me on the carpet for coaching suspects—it was another if I was going to be one of those suspects.

“You both realize that everyone was in the lobby at the time Sandi was killed, right?” I asked. “Everyone except Sandi and the killer. Obviously Sandi can’t tell us what happened, and I doubt the killer is going to say he or she wasn’t in the lobby with everyone else. Maybe you should ask everyone who they saw around them at the time. That might make more sense.”

Sheriff Riley laughed. “That’s a good idea. I wish I’d thought of that. Ronnie, let’s ask that when we interview each person. And since Dae brought it up, let’s ask her first. Who was around you in the lobby during the storm, Mayor?”

Chapter 25

I thought back to the storm raging around us. “Kevin was there and Nancy Boidyn, our town clerk. I saw Althea Hinson and Barbara. They were with me.”

“Maybe we could cut through the chatter and get to the heart of it,” Chief Michaels said abruptly. “Did you see Matthew Wright?”

“No. Not until later. But there were a lot of people here. I couldn’t see everyone.”

“Thank you, Mayor,” Chief Michaels said, scribbling my words into his notebook. “That’s really all we need to know.”

I was dismissed after the chief reminded me not to “help” the other suspects. I wondered if Matthew Wright had arrived yet. He was bound to realize that he was the prime suspect. I was pretty sure the rest of the questioning was just to say they’d done it.

I went over to where Kevin was laying out dough for yeast rolls. I knew he’d been listening to the whole thing. “What do you think?”

“I’d hate to be Matthew Wright.”

His hands moved quickly and efficiently through the motions of making rolls of dough the right size then covering them with melted butter. He put the trays of rolls into the oven to rise and closed the door.

“Could I talk to you for a minute?” I asked. “I know you’re busy—”

“Sure.” He gave directions to his assistants after he washed his hands. “Let’s go in the bridal suite. I don’t think anyone’s in there.”

He was right—it had to be the only empty place at the inn. He sat down in one of the old-fashioned white chairs and waited for me to start. I paced a few times, realizing that this was probably the first place Rafe had haunted me—I just hadn’t seen him.

Finally I said, “I need your help.”

“You didn’t murder Sandi Foxx, did you?”

“No! Of course not.”

He relaxed in the chair. “Okay. What do you need?”

I couldn’t look at him as I explained about my father. I told him how I’d found out where he worked and how I’d hung out there a few times. I told him about the wreck and about finding Danny by the trash bin and letting him stay in Missing Pieces.