Chapter Thirty-Four #2
“émilie didn’t know. Rockton didn’t pass to the corporate entity until after émilie and her husband had stepped back. The corporation’s business interests deal largely with illegal enterprises, so each arm is thoroughly boxed.”
“Each arm doesn’t know about the others … or about the company in charge.”
“Even I wasn’t supposed to know, but the trail was there and of course I followed it. Information is knowledge, and knowledge is power. Which came in handy when they attempted to shut down Rockton and leave all the staff without compensation.”
I remember that Phil took over that conversation—a private one—and then we were all paid. I’d thought that whatever he used for blackmail was about Rockton itself and its past misdeeds. Apparently not.
Dalton skipped the chat with Phil in favor of looking after Rory, knowing that the baby’s presence wouldn’t help the conversation. Some people are distracted by the siren call of tiny humans. Others are distracted by the urge to flee the vicinity before someone asks them to change a diaper.
After talking to Phil, I head straight for our chalet. I message émilie, saying it’s urgent. Then I tell Dalton everything. Fortunately, the baby is asleep at that point, or she’d hear Daddy say a whole lotta very bad words.
“So this Rutherford guy works for—” Dalton has begun when a banging at the door cuts him short.
I hurry over, expecting trouble, only to find Arturo on our front steps.
“This is it,” he says. “I have had enough, and I want to speak to whoever is in charge of this place.”
“That would be us,” Dalton says, his voice a low growl as he walks over, holding Rory.
“I mean the people you work for. Your bosses.”
“That would be us.”
“For fuck’s sake. Really? No wonder you can’t handle one simple issue. The people in charge are younger than me and busy looking after a baby. You need to start disclosing that, because if I had any idea what kind of amateur hour—”
“If you have another human-resources problem,” I say, “take it up with Phil. We’re busy.”
“Playing house. I can see that. While Muriel just keeps breaking the rules, and no one gives a shit.”
“Muriel will be leaving soon.”
“Oh, she already left. Traipsed off into the forest a few minutes ago.”
“Into the forest?” I turn to Dalton, who’s already cursing under his breath. I look back at Arturo. “We’ll handle this.”
“You better!” he shouts as I start to close the door. Then I stop. “Wait right there. You need to show us where you last saw her.”
Dalton will go with Arturo while I take Rory and speak to the person who was supposed to be escorting Muriel back to her solitary-confinement apartment.
“You asked April?” I whisper to Dalton as I pull on my boots.
Dalton throws up his hands. “We’re a little short-handed.
Will and Yolanda are getting some sleep.
Kenny is guarding Gretchen. Kendra and Gunnar are on patrol.
I was figuring out who I could put on Muriel-duty when I ran into April coming back from taking dinner to Kenny and Gretchen, and she volunteered. ”
We encounter April before we even reach town. She’s marching toward our chalet, her mouth set in a firm line, her shoulders tense. I murmur to Dalton, and he takes Arturo down another path while I catch up with April.
“Muriel evaded me,” she says, her eyes brimming with humiliation.
“Are you okay?” I say. “Did she hurt you?”
“Did she club me on the head and flee? That would be less embarrassing.”
“What happened?” I bounce Rory, the baby fussing from being woken mid-nap.
“I was guarding the apartment when she asked to retrieve herbs from the greenhouse. She’d grown lemongrass at the restaurant’s request, and Arturo wouldn’t know where to find it.
She’d promised it to the restaurant by tomorrow.
I followed her to the greenhouse, where she found the herbs, which were—as she said—not with the others.
I watched her harvest them and then, like a gullible fool, I escorted her to the kitchen. ”
“That wasn’t gullible or foolish. It sounds like a legitimate request.”
Another tightening of April’s lips. “A legitimate excuse. She asked me to wait at the kitchen door. Being escorted in there would seem odd, and she didn’t want everyone gossiping. I decided to allow it.”
“Ah. She ducked out the other door.”
“I was not aware there was another door. Which isn’t a defense. Only last month I read a mystery where the suspect escapes through the bathroom window, and I rolled my eyes at the thought that any police officer wouldn’t have checked for a window.”
“You’re not the police officer in the family,” I say gently.
“But I agreed to guard Muriel, and I should not have done so if I could not do it correctly.”
I want to hug her. I know better, so I only pat her arm. “It’s fine. Everyone’s exhausted and being pulled twenty different ways. This is a minor hiccup. There’s no place for Muriel to go.”
“If you need Storm to track her, a very brief walk would be acceptable but not ideal.”
“We’ll be fine without her help. The only thing I need you to do is take this one.” I bounce Rory.
“You may not wish me to do that, as I have proven myself a poor guardian.”
“Nah. You’re fine. But if she makes some excuse for popping into the Roc, don’t let her get away with it. She only wants to sneak a little coffee liqueur for her milk.”
She stares at me and then shakes her head. “You have a very strange sense of humor, Casey.”
“It runs in the family.”
I hand over Rory, and then take off. I’ve only gone about twenty steps when I spot Arturo and Dalton at the edge of the forest. The northeast edge. In the exact direction of Muriel’s little clearing. Seriously? At least that’ll make this easy.
“Casey!” a voice calls.
I look to see Tish, Kendra’s girlfriend, who works in the kitchen. She runs over, her long curls bouncing, her full cheeks red from the exertion.
“Something happened,” she says. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but I thought you should know.”
“Were you working in the kitchen?”
She nods.
“And Muriel came in?” I say.
“Yes. Your sister followed afterwards, asking where she was. She was alarmed. Dr. Butler, I mean, and that seemed odd. Nothing ruffles her feathers. I figured there’s a medical reason—and that’s why she was urgently looking for Muriel—so I was concerned.
I said Muriel had hurried out the back door. ”
I open my mouth, about to say it’s fine, we know what’s going on, but before I can, Tish continues, “I figured it was none of my business, so I went back to work. I was deboning fish, and I’d left my knife right there on the butcher’s block.
It was gone. Then someone said they thought Muriel took it. ”
“They thought Muriel took the boning knife?”
She nods. “I didn’t like the sounds of that. So I came to find you.”
I don’t like the sounds of it either. Not at all.