Chapter 12
12
W hen Arthur shouted the words, you’re back on, Buddy wanted to break out into the moonwalk, a dance move he didn’t too often admit to being able to do. But instead, he ran outside and did a back flip. It seemed manlier.
But it was then tainted by the realization that Keith Jones and his girlfriend, Ronda Young, were missing, and a man had been murdered.
Buddy ran a hand through his hair before putting on his fireman’s hat. He followed his buddies Kent and Rex into what was left of Keith’s home. They knew the fire had been set in the bedroom. They knew gasoline had been used on the body and bed, which is why it had been difficult to ID the body. The only other thing they knew was that Archer had been arrested and convicted of bank robbery before it was overturned on a technicality.
And the money was still missing.
Buddy stepped into what used to be the kitchen. A smile tugged on his lips when he saw Kaelie. “Hey,” he said.
She nodded, handing something to a young man he’d seen in the office, though he hadn’t a clue to who he was. “How does it feel to be back?”
“Mixed emotions,” he said, planting his hands on his hips and scanning the room. As an arson specialist, their job had been to assess the fire.
They’d done that. But Kaelie decided having them around to help in her investigation might give her stronger leads. He wasn’t so sure about that, but he was happy to do his part. “Anything you want us to look for besides the murder weapon?” The autopsy report showed that Archer had been shot in the head at point-blank range. The bones in his shoulder showed a possible stab wound, and in his hand was a possible entrance and exit wound that could have been caused by another gunshot.
“That would be the needle in a haystack,” she said, fingering her long ponytail.
“So, basically, we’re just waiting for something to prick our asses.”
“What?” she asked, scrunching her nose.
“My mother would say that all the time when my dad would use that quote. Of course, we always had to remind her that hay was prickly, so it didn’t make sense.”
Kaelie laughed. The sweet sound cut through the rubble and eased the lingering knot in his stomach. “I do have something interesting to show you that Louis found.”
“Who is Louis?”
She pointed to the kid she’d been talking to a minute ago, who was now following Rex around like an eager little pup. “He started in my department three months ago. He’s been treated like shit by Edwin the entire time.”
“What about the person you took over for?”
“He left two months before my time with the Air Force was up. Edwin was in charge, and he thought he’d be handed the job.” She tapped her finger on the tablet in her hands.
“That’s a shit show to walk into.”
She nodded, holding out the tablet. “The last person we can find that saw Keith or his girlfriend was the same grocery clerk that saw you.”
“When?”
“The morning after you beat the shit out of Keith.”
“I did no such thing.” He rubbed his jaw, remembering Keith’s nasty right hook. “I got two punches in, at best.”
She shook her head. “Here’s the interesting part.” She used her thumb and forefinger to enlarge the image on the screen. “Look here.”
Holding the tablet, his hands trembled. “That’s Duncan’s gas can.”
“And that’s Ronda filling it at the grocery store gas pump, the day after your party.”
“Shit,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “You think they killed Archer?”
“It’s the strongest theory, but here’s the kicker.”
Buddy almost didn’t want to know. He had yet to wrap his brain around the idea that Keith might still be alive.
“The day of your party, Ronda emptied her bank accounts to the tune of three hundred grand.”
“That’s a lot of money, and I can’t think of a logical reason to do that unless she had a big purchase or something,” Buddy said. The most money he’d ever taken out was five grand to pay cash for his first truck when he’d been eighteen years old.
“In today’s world of PayPal and Venmo, what would be the point in carrying around that much cash? Most places these days don’t even want to deal with it, preferring credit.”
“This is a crazy thought, but has anyone looked at the court transcripts from Archer’s trial and subsequent acquittal?”
“I’ve got one of my clerks combing through the documents,” Kaelie said as she adjusted her hard hat. “I’ve also got a call into the lawyer who defended him and the assistant district attorney who prosecuted. Not to mention Darius and my buddy, Gunner, are doing their own brand of digging.”
“We got a bullet,” Kent called from the bedroom.
“That would be the prick in our asses,” Kaelie said with a smile.
“My mom is going to like you.” The words whooshed out of his mouth before his brain had a chance to comprehend how she might take that sentiment. It had been two days, and here he was wanting to take her back home to meet the family.
She arched a brow.
“I just meant that?—”
She squeezed his biceps. “Let’s get through this case and then maybe,” she said, waggling her finger, “we can talk about whatever this is, but I’m not up for meeting your mother anytime soon.”
“She’s coming down in two weeks, so it might be sooner rather than later.”
Kaelie let out an audible gasp.
God, he wanted to yank her in his arms and kiss those pouty lips.
Later. Definitely later.
He followed her into the bedroom, where Kent held up a small charred bullet in a pair of tweezers before dropping it into an evidence bag. “Looks like a forty-five.”
“I know Keith owned a couple of guns,” Rex said. “I’ve seen him at the range more than once.”
“I own five guns.” Buddy had been a gun nut his entire life. He loved going to the range and hunting. The feel of the metal in his hands was almost as intoxicating as hosing down a blaze burning toward the sky. Not that he ever really wanted to have to put out a fire at this point in his life, but it was what he signed on for. “Being a gun owner doesn’t mean anything.”
“You’re defending Keith?” Kent asked with a raised brow.
“Not defending, but I was just accused of something based on only one piece of the puzzle, and it didn’t feel very good, so I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“You’re a better man than me,” Rex said. “I’d be jumping on the judgmental bandwagon.”
“Even though I think Keith is a dick, I don’t want to believe he could murder anyone in cold blood, especially his own brother.” Buddy shivered. His sisters meant the world to him, and no matter how mad he’d gotten at them, or they at him, it only lasted five minutes. Even when Buddy and Kelly had burned down half the backyard, his siblings didn’t think the worst of him. He didn’t want to think the worst of a brother-in-arms.
“So, where is he?” Kent asked the obvious.
Kaelie’s phone rang. “It’s Darius.” She tapped the speaker button. “Hey, Darius. I’ve got you on speaker with Buddy, Kent, Rex, and my assistant.”
“Hey, everyone. I’m going to skip the formalities and get right to the point.”
“Works for us,” Kaelie said.
Buddy folded his arms across his chest and cocked his head. If you wanted to find someone, Darius was your man. Best the business had to offer.
“I was able to trace some of the funds from overseas back to two local banks. One was Keith’s girlfriend.”
“Guess Keith doesn’t deserve the benefit of my doubt,” Buddy muttered. His mother had always told him that his trusting soul was his biggest strength.
And his strongest weakness.
“No, I’d say he doesn’t,” Darius’ voice bellowed over the speaker. “And it gets weirder.”
“How weird?” Buddy asked.
“An hour ago, the offshore account transferred three hundred grand into an LLC. Guess whose name is registered as the LLC?”
“How about you just tell us,” Kaelie said.
“Edwin Gladstone.”
“Jesus,” Buddy muttered.
“Darius, do you have anything else on Edwin for me?” Kaelie asked, her tone remaining professional, but tight.
“I’m pinging his phone, and it seems he is on the move, heading toward the interstate, I would guess.”
“Thanks, Darius. What about Keith?”
“I don’t have a whereabouts for him, yet. But don’t you worry your pretty little head. I’ll find him.”
“All right. Can you send me the coordinates? I want to cut Edwin off at the pass so I can buy myself some time to get the necessary paperwork together to haul his sorry ass in.”
“Done,” Darius said. “Talk soon.”
“Hey, Louis, any word from our clerk?” Kaelie tucked her phone and tablet into her bag.
“I’m texting her now.”
“Holy shit,” Kaelie said.
“What now?” Buddy asked.
“Darius just texted, and an Archer Jones just got off a plane and passed through customs and guess where he was coming from?” Kaelie asked, shaking her head, her lips pulling down into a frown.
“The Caribbean,” Kent, Rex, and Buddy all said in unison. Of course, Archer was dead, so it had to be Keith. But why the hell was he risking coming back into the States?
“Our clerk had a long chat with the ADA that tried the bank robbery,” Louis interjected.
“And what did he have to say?” Buddy asked, his mind churning over all the details, and the picture it painted wasn’t pretty. But there were more questions than answers.
“He always believed Archer’s brother had Archer hide the money, but he never had any proof. When the case was overturned, the DA’s office hired a PI, but Archer gave him the slip about an hour north of here.” Louis rolled his forefinger over his cell. “It was Keith who pushed hard to have the case overturned.”
“Is the PI still around?” Kaelie asked, her gaze darting between the phone and Buddy.
“I’m not sure,” Louis said.
“I’ll get Darius to find him,” Kaelie said with a strained voice. “I need to talk to him and find out exactly what he knows.”
“There is more, ma’am,” Louis said.
“Keep talking.” Buddy liked this kid, and he would bet he’d become a great investigator under the direction of Kaelie. One of the things Buddy found most intriguing about Kaelie, and how she handled this case, had been her willingness to use all resources available, never letting her own ego get in the way.
Even the way she handled Edwin in the office hadn’t been about ego, but about setting a tone that everyone needed to be a team player.
“It seems someone beat the crap out of Ronda,” Louis said. “She was found in a hotel room just twenty minutes ago when she failed to check out. She was just admitted to the hospital. Locals are with her now. Our clerk says she called to get a medical status, and the nurse said Ronda was still unconscious but stable.”
“Fuck.” Kaelie dug her hands into her purse. “Louis, get down there and find out what the hell is going on. You get any flack, tell them to call me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Buddy scratched the back of his head. “This seems like quite the elaborate plan. One that was years in the making but fell apart somewhere in the execution.”
“Unless all of this was part of the plan,” Kaelie said. “Think about it. The brother gets out of prison and comes for his money, but Keith isn’t going to part with it.”
“All right, but where does the girlfriend fit into all this?” Rex asked, though Buddy suspected everyone had formed the same opinion on that.
“She’s his alibi, right, but she fucked that up, so either he beat her up or Edwin did,” Kaelie said. “Do we know how close Keith and Edwin were?”
Buddy shook his head. “I never saw them together.”
“I have,” Rex said. “Only once, recently. I thought it was weird when I saw them at Michael’s when I was picking up pizza for the kids. They were nose to nose, having a heated discussion. I honestly didn’t think anything of it. Keith pissed off a lot of people, and I don’t know Edwin from Adam.”
“We need to know if there is a bigger connection between Edwin and the Jones brothers. Did they grow up near each other? College? Anything.”
“Shit,” Buddy muttered. “They both went to Ohio State, didn’t they?”
“I know for sure Keith did,” Rex said. “He bragged about it nonstop.”
“I think I saw that in Edwin’s records,” Kaelie said as she dug through her bag and pulled out her phone. “I’ll have the clerk check on that.”
Buddy leaned against the burned-out countertop. It shifted slightly, so he stood tall and stared into Kaelie’s bourbon eyes. They held the gaze for a long moment. “Let’s say that Keith did indeed keep the money for his brother and never had any intention of sharing it. So, when Archer was acquitted, it was the perfect time to kill him and to set me up to take a murder rap,” Buddy said, swallowing the bile that sucker punched the back of his throat.
“I think you were collateral damage and an easy mark, considering your history with him,” Rex stated the obvious, but it didn’t make Buddy feel any better, especially because he had been so effortlessly goaded into the fight by Keith.
“We need to focus on the connections with Ronda and Edwin,” Kaelie said. “How do you boys feel about helping me comb through a shit ton of paperwork while I go get what I need to pick up Edwin?”
“I’m in,” Rex said.
“Me too, and I bet Arthur will be more than happy to help,” Kent added.
“Honestly, I’d rather stick with you.” Buddy had no idea if she’d allow it, and he’d respect her decision and help out in whatever capacity she needed.
“I’m good with that,” she said. “But we’ll need to start in my office.”
Buddy nodded. He’d taken the arson detail because he liked solving things. He sure as shit was going to like doing it more with Kaelie.