Chapter 6 #2
He actually laughed. Well, it was more of a choked snort, but she was still going to put it in the laugh column. “No, you’re not driving my truck. You don’t even know where we’re going.”
“Shotgun then.” She headed for the passenger side instead. “You’ve been to Rory’s gun store?”
“Why’d you call shotgun?” He was getting that baffled note in his voice again, and Charlie hid a tiny grin. “No one else is riding with us. And yeah, I’ve been to Rory’s.”
“What’d you get?”
“Nothing.” He beeped the unlock button on his remote and stomped over to the driver’s door, his boots thumping hard against the ground as if the asphalt surface had done something to offend him. “I was working both times.”
“She had a fire?”
“Explosions.”
Charlie paused in the middle of boosting herself into the passenger seat. “Explosions? Plural?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.” She finished getting inside and pulled the door closed. Reaching for her seat belt, she said, “The more I learn about this town, the more I like it.”
She was rewarded with yet another laugh from him, this one slightly less choked than the last one. I’ll get a belly laugh out of him before we leave this crazy town, she thought, but the thought brought her up short.
“What’s wrong?” Kieran barked.
“Nothing.” She shook off the sense of loss that’d settled over her at the thought of leaving Simpson in her rearview mirror—or, more accurately, the thought of leaving Kieran behind in just a few short days. “Just a weird thought.”
“Please don’t share it.”
A laugh burst out of her, dissolving the last of her melancholy. “You know that just makes me want to share every random thought that passes through my very active brain, right?”
His mutter sounded something like, “Oh, sweet Jesus, no.”
She let the quiet tick by for a solid eight seconds before saying, “My butt itches.”
His agonized groan made her laugh out loud.
***
Since Rory had a customer when she and Kieran walked in, Charlie took the opportunity to explore the store. She wasn’t a huge gun fan, but Rory had the place set up as a sort of mix between a store and museum, with all sorts of weapons, old and new, lining the glass cases.
“Come over here,” Rory called from her stool behind the counter. “Kevin’s the one.”
“I’m the one? What one?” The customer—Kevin, apparently—asked suspiciously. He was a nondescript blond guy in his thirties. Looks like a very Kevin-like Kevin. Charlie made a mental note to share that random thought with Kieran later.
“You’re efficient,” Charlie said approvingly to Rory as she crossed the store to stand in front of Kevin, who took a wary step back.
Kieran took up a position behind and a little to the side of her, and she felt a warm feeling spread through her middle.
She’d expected that having someone else—other than her sisters—with her while investigating would feel claustrophobic and unnecessary, but it wasn’t like that at all.
In fact, if this was what it felt like to have a hot guy at her back, then no wonder her sisters had gone all gaga over their respective men.
She could already tell that having Kieran around could be addictive.
That cozy glow in her middle made her smile extra wide, and Kevin turned an unhealthy shade of greenish pale. “Kevin! So good of you to help us out like this.”
“I’m not…” His eyes darted toward the door, and in her peripheral vision, Charlie saw Kieran shift to block the other man’s escape route. “I–I didn’t… What?”
Ignoring his stammered mumbling, Charlie turned up the wattage on her grin. Surprisingly, Kevin didn’t seem to be reassured. Instead, he looked positively hunted. “So tell us…what’d you think of Cobra?”
Kevin blinked. “Cobra?”
“The former militia leader?” Charlie prompted. “Was he a good guy? Did you like him?”
“Well…yeah, I guess? I mean, I didn’t know him that well?” From the way all his statements were curling up at the end, turning them into questions, Kevin had been taken off guard by the direction her interrogation was going.
“Not that well?” Charlie repeated, keeping a close eye on his sweating face. “Did you just recently join the Freedom Survivors?”
Rory let out a quiet sound that was close enough to a gag to make Charlie glance at her.
“Sorry,” Rory said, looking a little shamefaced. “That name… Lou’s been rubbing off on me.”
“Don’t worry—I’m sure the murder club will get it changed soon enough.” Turning back to Kevin, who looked very confused by that sidebar, Charlie gave him an encouraging nod.
“Yeah, no. Not very recently, I mean. Maybe five years ago.”
Cocking her head, Charlie allowed a small frown to draw her eyebrows together. “But you didn’t know Cobra well? Is the militia that big?”
“We don’t really call ourselves a militia.”
Holding back an eye roll, Charlie limited herself to circling her hand in a let’s-get-on-with-it gesture. “I’m trying to keep Rory from losing her lunch all over that sparkling-clean counter, so let’s just go with ‘militia,’ but your objection is noted. Now, why didn’t you know Cobra well?”
“We weren’t… I mean, I wasn’t really in the inner circle. I only lived out there for six months before I moved to Liverton, so I just saw Cobra at training sessions and potlucks, things like that.”
“I love that the militia has potlucks,” Charlie said, and Kieran cough-choked behind her, a sound she was beginning to recognize as a stifled laugh. “So from your limited encounters with Cobra—and living in the same compound as him for six months—did he seem like a likable guy?”
“I guess?”
Charlie held back a sigh. She appreciated Rory offering a militia witness up on a platter, but she wished Kevin was just a touch more voluble. “Did the other members like him?”
Kevin paused before saying, “Sure.”
Eyeing how his shoulders were scrunched up by his ears as Kevin spat out that obvious lie as if it tasted bitter, Charlie stayed silent and waited him out.
“I mean, some people must’ve liked him, since he was in charge.” His eyes widened at his own words.
“Did you like him?” Before he could say anything, she added, “What little you knew of him?”
“I guess?”
And we’re back to that. Gathering the crumbs of her limited patience, she asked, “Really? Because you don’t sound too enthusiastic about our friend Cobra.
He’s dead, you know. You can tell the truth, and it won’t get back to him.
Or if it does, he won’t have a corporeal body, so you should be safe.
” She decided not to bring up the possibility of poltergeists being real, since that information probably wouldn’t be helpful.
Kevin let out a harsh breath. “Fine. I thought he was an asshole and a bully.”
Charlie perked up. Now things are getting interesting. “Give me some examples.”
“He always punched down.” The words flowed out of him in a rush, as if finally allowing them out was a relief. “Made fun of the new recruits, the weaker guys, even his wife.”
“Anyone stand out in your mind as hating him especially hard?”
Kevin raised his shoulders and then let them drop. “Mostly I stayed out of it. I like the training and the friends I made, but the politics…” He shook his head. “Not my thing.”
“So the inner circle you mentioned earlier, did they all behave like Cobra? Or did any of them stand up to him?” Maybe the murderer had thought he’d been doing a public service of sorts.
“Nah, they were all as bad as Cobra.”
“What about Clint?” Charlie tried to keep her own feelings buttoned up tight, as hard as it was to not let them color her words. He’d kidnapped her sister after all, and Charlie knew how to nurture a solid grudge. “What was he like, before and after he took over?”
“He wasn’t around much until about a year before Cobra took off—uh, disappeared,” he corrected himself since, Charlie assumed, the remains Fifi and Bennett had found pretty much proved that Cobra hadn’t driven himself out of town. “Even after, he’s spent a lot of that time locked up.”
Charlie chewed on that for a few seconds before asking, “How is he leading the militia if he’s been in jail most of the time?”
“His buddies talk to him, get his orders.”
Charlie met Kieran’s gaze, pretty sure he was thinking the same thing. If Clint could run the militia from jail, why couldn’t he arrange for Cobra’s murder while behind bars, as well? “Who are some of his buddies?”
Although he’d been looking more relaxed the longer they talked, at this question, Kevin’s gaze shifted back over to the door again. “I–I don’t know if I should… I mean, if they hear I ratted them out, it won’t go well for me.”
“You’re not ratting them out.” Charlie tried her most soothing smile, but that just made him shuffle uncomfortably.
“I’m not the cops, and I’d never reveal my source.
Besides, it’s not a secret who Clint’s friends with.
I bet I could ask any of the locals hanging out at the coffee shop, and they’d say exactly the same names as you’re about to tell me.
” Too late, she caught her mistake and winced.
“If the coffee shop wasn’t a burned-out shell, that is. ”
The reminder of the arson didn’t seem to settle Kevin’s nerves at all. If anything, his sweating increased.
“Speaking of the coffee shop, any idea who set it on fire?” She purposefully left out the part about being locked inside, trying to make the question sound like idle curiosity. Kevin was already rattled enough.
“No.” Surprisingly, the change of subject seemed to have calmed him down. “Word around town is that it was one of the city people who followed you here.”
“It wasn’t them,” she said. “The five treasure hunters have been cleared, since they were all eating at Levi’s when it happened.”
“Six.”
Turning so she could look at Rory straight on, she repeated, “Six? You sure?”
“Yeah. They’re all outside.” She gestured toward the laptop screen in front of her.
“Huh. Who’s the late arrival, I wonder? Mind if I take a look?” Charlie gestured toward the space next to Rory, who shrugged affirmatively. Boosting herself onto the counter, she slid across the glass top and hopped down on the other side.
“If you don’t need me anymore, I’ll just…” Kevin started to sidle around Kieran to get a clear path to the door.
“No.” Kieran stopped him with one word and a glare.
“Thanks, Kiki.”
“Call me that again, and I’ll let him leave.”
Kevin looked hopeful.
“Sorry.” She sucked in her cheeks to hold back a smile. “Thanks, Kieran.”
His grunt was grumpy, but he didn’t let Kevin leave, so apparently her apology was sufficient.
Ignoring the byplay, Rory was bringing up various camera angles until she paused and pointed at the screen. “There’s one.”
Peering at the figure trying to blend into the shadows between two pine trees, Charlie said, “That’s Dave. He’s hopeless at hiding. He’d really be better off as an accountant or something. Why does he have snow camo on? Does he think we’re in Antarctica?”
“Two.”
“Tassie.”
“Three.”
“Lachlan. He’s not much better at this than Dave. There are a gazillion trees, guys. It shouldn’t be that hard to stay invisible.”
“Four and five.” Rory pointed to two shapes up in the tree branches, fifteen feet off the ground.
“Rhys—he’s always climbing things—and…” Charlie squinted. “Huh. That’s Bones. Can’t believe she got out of her car, much less is sitting up in a tree. Tassie was right. It must be love.”
It took Rory another minute and several different camera views before she pointed to the screen again. “And six.”
“Huh.” Charlie crouched and squinted at the figure, barely visible despite the high quality of the security camera footage. “Can you zoom in?”
“Yes, but we’ll lose resolution, so it doesn’t help much with identification.” Rory made the figure larger, but she was right—it didn’t make it any easier to identify the sixth treasure hunter.
Charlie peered at the screen for another couple moments before looking up and meeting Kieran’s gaze. “Want to go for a stroll in the woods?”
His eyes lit up as the corners of his mouth curled. Charlie felt her breath catch and was glad she was crouched close to the floor, because an excited Kieran was gorgeous enough to make her topple over. “Yes.”
“I’ll just…um, go then,” Kevin mumbled.
“Do you have his cell number and address?” Charlie asked Rory, who gave a short nod.
“You’re good to go then. Thank you for all of your help.
Just write up that list of Clint’s friends and email it to Rory.
If you don’t have a chance to do that before tonight, that’s fine—we’ll just swing by your house later to pick it up, wave it around a bit, talking loudly about how you gave us a list of suspects in Cobra’s murder.
Thanks, Kevin! You’ve been a peach!” The last bit she called out as the door swung closed behind him.
As soon as she’d told him he could leave, he was out of the store like a shot, pausing only to look sick when she mentioned stopping by his house later.
She had a feeling Rory would be getting that email shortly.
Charlie slid over the counter again. “Thanks, Rory. Mind if we run around your property, chasing mystery treasure hunters?”
“Go out the door and turn right. Look northwest about twenty feet, and you’ll see where this camera is mounted on a pole.”
“You’re the best,” Charlie said over her shoulder as she hurried to the exit. Kieran held the door open for her, but Charlie leaned back into the store. “As soon as we solve all these crimes, I’m going to come back in and take my time looking around. You have a fantastic store.”
Rory smiled, just a flash of a beautiful grin before it was gone and she’d settled back into her usual somber expression. “Thank you.”
With a final wave, Charlie was out the door and turning right. Her gaze scanned the area. “Which way is northwest?”
Kieran pointed. “That way. There’s the pole.”
“And the camera is pointing…” She moved in the direction the lens was facing. “There are the trees we saw.”
A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she ran toward it.
“And there’s the sixth treasure hunter.”