Chapter 30 Mina
Mina
“So, are we welcome here?” Luke asked, standing beside me as I rang the bell at Claire and Ozzie’s the next evening.
I chuckled. “He’s not home yet, so we’re safe.” And even if he were, he might glower for a bit and remind us to mind our own business before relaxing.
Although with what we were here for, it might take a bit longer. Claire texted me a little before closing to ask if Luke and I could come by to talk about some things she found. She also promised dinner as part of the deal.
“Is Claire safe?” Luke shot me a quick look of amusement.
I chuckled again. “He’s given up trying to rein her in.”
The door swung open.
“About time you got here.” Claire reached out and grabbed my hand, hauling me inside.
“Geez, Claire.” I laughed, dodging an excited Pebbles and Betty as she tugged me into her house.
“Sorry. Ozzie’s been ‘unavailable’”—she air-quoted—“all day, and I need to tell someone about what I found.”
“Hey!” Ellis poked his head around the corner from the kitchen. “What am I? Chopped liver?”
“I haven’t told you anything yet, and the only reason you’re learning any of this is because you randomly showed up.” Claire tossed the door closed behind Luke and locked it.
He shrugged. “I brought you food, didn’t I?”
I laughed. “It’s good to see you, Ellis.” It still amazed me that he and Ozzie were brothers. The two men looked alike, but their personalities were vastly different. Where Ozzie was more stoic and serious, Ellis smiled all the time, and his serious side only came out when it was necessary.
“You too.” A small frown creased his brow. “Who’s the dude?” His expression suddenly cleared. “Wait. Are you the boyfriend? Claire said you were seeing someone.”
Luke walked forward, hand outstretched and a friendly smile on his face. “Yes, that’s me. Luke Decker.”
“Ellis Quartermaine.”
“So, what kind of food did you bring?” I stooped to pick up Pebbles. “Claire promised to feed us.”
“Fresh fish.” He tipped his head toward the kitchen. “I was just cleaning it up. I’m gonna fire up the grill.”
“I had spaghetti planned, but Ellis brought enough to feed a small army.” Claire shot an aggrieved look at him.
“Fish is fine with me.” I glanced at Luke, who nodded.
“Awesome. Come talk over here, so I can finish getting it ready to cook.” Ellis stepped back into the kitchen.
Luke and I followed Claire. I set Pebbles on the floor, gave Betty a quick scratch on the ears, then took up residence on a barstool at the island.
“So, what did you find that you couldn’t wait to share?” I propped my elbow on the island and turned to look at my friend.
“Interesting things. It’s actually good Ellis is here. This might pertain to some things he’s heard.” Claire reached for a stack of paperwork and slid it closer.
“Oh?” Ellis twirled a knife between his fingers and looked up with a raised eyebrow.
She nodded. “You told Ozzie you overheard a conversation at the docks about a woman who was asking about property, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, I might have convinced Ozzie to give me the coordinates he got from Toren McCrae, so I could research the area.”
He frowned. “What does that have to do with the woman at the docks? She was asking about waterfront property.”
Claire held up a finger. “I’m getting there.”
Ellis gestured toward her with his knife. “My apologies. Go on.”
“Thank you. So, I looked up the coordinates and found the property records for that patch of wilderness. You’ll never guess what I found.” Claire’s gaze bounced between the three of us.
“Walter owns it?” I asked.
“No. Sarah Cole does.”
“Who’s that?” Ellis asked, pausing as he skinned the first fish.
“She’s the woman who was supposed to inherit a waterfront property from the elderly woman she cared for.
An elderly woman who was also Walter’s aunt.
I think that’s the property Moira was asking about.
And it got me thinking. What if she learned about the other property when she was digging into the waterfront one?
” She held up a finger. “Remember, I found other property sales that had amended deeds that switched the property from Sarah to Walter. Maybe Moira discovered Walter’s misdeeds and he silenced her for it. ”
“Whoa. Yeah, that’s—that’s quite a coincidence.” He went back to skinning the fish.
“That’s what I thought. Now do you see why I couldn’t wait to tell someone?”
“But why would Walter go to the property of someone from whom he stole property?” Luke propped his arms on the counter and leaned forward. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What do we know about Sarah Cole?” Ellis asked.
Claire blinked, then looked between him, Luke, and me. “I don’t know. I haven’t checked.”
“Where’s your laptop?” I got up, turning to look at the dining and living areas.
“It’s in my bag.” She pointed to a chair at the dining table and the large black tote sitting on the seat.
I walked over and fished it out, then handed it to her. She opened it and typed in her password, then got on the internet.
Her hands hesitated over the keyboard. “What do I search for?”
“Maybe just her name?” I suggested. “And put the town in, so we don’t get a Sarah Cole from, like, Iowa.”
“Hopefully, that’ll be enough.” Claire typed the information into the search bar.
A list of sites populated. She clicked on the top one. It was a LinkedIn profile.
“I think this is her.” Claire leaned closer to the screen, reading. “She’s still a home caregiver, but in Anchorage.”
“How much property does she own at those coordinates you got from Toren?” Ellis laid a prepped filet on a plate and reached for another fish. “Is it a small plot of land, or many acres?”
A small frown creased my forehead as I wondered why he would ask such a thing. The thought barely crossed my mind when it dawned on me: home caregivers didn’t make a lot of money. Why would she own a large chunk of land on that sort of salary?
“Good question.” Claire changed tabs and entered a records database. I could tell from her tone she’d had the same thought.
Pebbles, who’d retreated to the rug in the living room, barked, getting up. Betty, not one to be left behind, joined her. A moment later, the two of them took off toward the front door just as the lock turned and it opened.
“Get back, you little heathens.” Ozzie fought his way inside, smiling at the dogs circling his feet. Once he made it in and shut the door, he tossed his keys on the entry table and looked up.
A wariness hovered in his dark eyes. “Hi.”
Smiling, I waved.
He held my gaze but didn’t return my smile before he glanced past me at Claire. “Do I even want to know why everyone’s here?”
“I just brought food.” Ellis waved his knife, even though Ozzie couldn’t see him from where he stood.
But his brother’s words prompted him to walk closer. “Fish?” he asked once he could see everyone.
“Yep.” Ellis smiled. “We got back early, and I figured you’d like some fresh-caught cod that neither you nor Claire had to cook.”
“Works for me.” Ozzie walked up behind Claire to give her a quick kiss. “What are you looking at?” He nodded to her laptop.
“Sarah Cole.”
His eyebrows drew down. “Why are you still looking into my case?” His gaze swung to me. “Is that why you’re here, Mina? I told you all to mind your own business.”
Claire held up a hand. “I asked them to come over. I found something with those coordinates you gave me, and I had to tell someone before it ate me alive. Maybe next time, you should consider answering my calls.”
“I was out of cell range for a good part of the day,” he grumbled.
She grinned and patted his face. “Sure you were.”
“I was,” he protested.
With a chuckle, she pointed at her computer screen. “Do you want to know why I’m looking up Sarah Cole?”
He blew out a breath and leaned against the back of her chair. “Sure. Why are you digging into my case again?”
Claire shot him a quick, murderous look. “When I looked up those coordinates earlier, I found out that the property belongs to Sarah Cole.”
Ozzie straightened, the slightly annoyed look vanishing from his face. “What? You’re sure?”
“Yes. I was about to check the size of the parcel and to see if she owned any other property around the state.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“This is why you need us,” I interjected. “We don’t think like you do.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Just tell me.”
“How does a woman who works as a home health aide own”—Claire paused to scroll down the screen—“five hundred and ten acres of Alaskan forest?”
“What?” Ozzie nudged her hands away from the keyboard so he could look at the record. “Is that all the property you found?”
“I haven’t dug that deeply yet.”
He stepped back and gestured to the laptop. “Dig.”
“Oh, now you want me to get involved?”
“Woman…” Exasperation colored his voice, thicker than before, and he rubbed his hands over his face.
She laughed. “You make it too easy.” Her hands returned to the keyboard.
“It’s been a long day. I spent most of it up in a plane, surveying the area. The forest is too dense to see much. We’re probably going to need to go in on foot.”
“If he hasn’t already spooked and left,” Ellis said.
“Yeah.” Ozzie snorted softly in agreement.
“So, it looks like Ms. Cole has a house in Anchorage… hmm…” The laptop screen moved as Claire scrolled.
“What?” Luke leaned around me, trying to see.
“She also has property near Haines. And more south of Juneau.” She straightened, looking to the side at Ozzie. “They’re not small, either. Haines is fifty acres. South of Juneau, she owns three-hundred-thirty.”
“Is any of it developed?” Ozzie asked.
Claire reached for a pen and flipped over a sheet of paper.
“What are you writing?” I asked.
“The coordinates for the properties listed on the survey reports, so I can look them up on a map.” Once she had them all down, she opened the map app on her laptop and input the first set.
The map zoomed in on an uninhabited stretch of forest.
“Well, that one’s a no on the development front,” I said.
“Yeah.” Claire’s hands moved over the keyboard again. “Let’s look at the next one.” In seconds, a new section of the state appeared. It, too, was forested, but there was a small building visible.
“Hunting cabin?” Ozzie leaned in for a closer look.
“Possibly,” Claire said.
“That’s the one south of Juneau, right?”
She nodded.
He picked up her pen and circled the numbers on the paper, then closed the laptop with one finger. “And now we’re done googling things about Moira Duluth’s case.”
Claire sputtered, but he laid a finger over her lips. “I have other news.” His gaze shifted to his brother, then Luke and me.
I could tell he didn’t like having an audience from the pinch around his eyes, but he forged ahead anyway.
“Riggs okayed me taking a couple of days off for the holiday this weekend. I thought we could fly over to Hoonah and see Christine and Tom,” he said, mentioning some of their friends. “Maybe do some camping and fishing.” He dropped his finger.
A bright smile bloomed on Claire’s face. “That sounds great.”
“Good.” An answering grin turned up the corners of his mouth, but just as quickly, it descended into a mock scowl as he turned to me. “You get to watch our dogs.”
“Ozzie! That’s a bit presumptuous, don’t you think?” Claire said.
I laughed and waved a hand. “It’s fine.” I glanced at Luke. “Maybe we can take them on a hike?”
“Sure.” He glanced down at the dogs, who now sat at Ozzie and Claire’s feet, then looked at me with a frown. “Will they make it on a hike?”
“Probably not,” I said with a chuckle. “Be prepared to carry one, or both.”
“I have a pack you can use that you can put at least one in to carry them. Then your hands are free.” Ellis laid the last filet on the plate.
“I’ll take you up on that,” Luke said.
Ellis nodded once, taking a step back to open the spice cupboard. “I’ll bring it by Mina’s shop tomorrow.” Taking out several bottles, he set them on the counter, then sent a look at his brother from beneath his lashes. “I know you said no more talking about your case, but I have something to add.”
Ozzie’s mouth thinned. “What is it?”
“I talked to a few of the older fishermen who’ve been around a long time.
Flat out asked what they knew about Walter Shuman.
They know who I am and who you are, so it didn’t make sense to beat around the bush.
Anyway, Bob Dietrich remembered seeing Walter arguing with a dark-haired woman around the time Moira went missing. ”
“Could he tell you whether it was Moira?” Ozzie asked.
Ellis picked up a container of dill and sprinkled it over the cod.
“No. He couldn’t even say what they were arguing about.
They were up the hill from the dock, near the parking lot, he said.
All he saw was a dark-haired woman, some wild gesticulating, then she stormed off.
I tried to get him to pin down a better timeline, but he couldn’t.
He only remembers it was that year because it was the same year the Myers Mansion sold. ”
“That’s the property Walter stole out from under Sarah Cole’s nose. It was his aunt’s house.” Pulling the corner of his mouth between his teeth, Ozzie worried the inside of his cheek. “Why would Bob Dietrich remember that detail? What was important about that house?”
Ellis wagged a finger at Ozzie. “Good question. One I thought of too.” He grinned. “See? I could do your job if I wanted.”
Ozzie rolled his eyes. “Sure. Go on.”
I grinned, enjoying their banter.
Chuckling, Ellis set the dill down and picked up the salt. “Bob said developers were sniffing around, wanting to turn it into a fancy hotel when Edna Myers died.”
“Why didn’t they?” Claire asked, a small frown on her face.
Shrugging, Ellis reached for a lemon and sliced it in half. “Bob didn’t know. All he said was the deal fell through, and since then it’s been vacant. Someone pays for upkeep on it. But no one’s lived in it since Edna died.” He squeezed the lemon, dribbling juice over the fish.
“Okay.” Ozzie drummed his fingers on the counter. “I’m not sure how that all relates to Moira’s death, but I’ll look into it.” He rubbed his brow. “I’m still missing an awful lot of pieces to this puzzle. Maybe it’ll help me find one or two.”
“Yeah, hopefully.” Ellis picked up the plate. “Now, let’s fire up the grill. I’m hungry.”