Chapter 18 #2
He nodded. “Fine, then Kim Barnes, I’m arresting you for trespassing onto a crime scene and attempted murder. I’m sure I’ll figure out some others on the way to the sheriff’s department.”
I untied her from the counter as Carter recited her rights.
Kim paled as he talked but her jaw was firmly locked.
And I suspected Ida Belle was right. The initial shock had passed and common sense had finally returned to the building.
My guess was Kim’s mouth would remain clamped shut until her attorney arrived.
As Carter was hauling her out, a white minivan pulled up. I looked over at Mildred, who shook her head, looking as bewildered as I was. Then I caught sight of the Uber sticker on the window and groaned as Calahan jumped out of the van, still wearing a hospital gown.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Carter said.
“Sorry. Cassidy just called and told me he pulled a runner. I didn’t think he’d turn up here though.”
The Uber driver must have enjoyed Calahan as much as the rest of us because he hadn’t even gotten the door closed before the driver floored it, spinning the tires on the gravel, before finally taking off without so much as a backward glance.
Calahan stomped over to us, glaring as he approached.
“Why are you in a hospital gown?” Carter asked.
“Because I was in the hospital, you moron,” Calahan said.
“They don’t steal your clothes at the hospital,” Carter said. “Did you leave without being discharged?”
“That’s none of your business!”
“It’s my business if you were under a doctor’s care and haven’t been discharged. You can’t be on the job. And quite frankly, you can’t be on the job when you’re not properly clothed either. Didn’t they have a larger size?”
“They’re one size fits all.”
Gertie rolled her eyes. “Well, your all is hanging out the back. Please do us a favor and grab the bottom of that thing. The breeze is picking up and we’re not interested in seeing more.”
Calahan pointed a finger at Carter. “I told you to close this case this morning, and instead, I find you here wasting taxpayer’s money. I’m putting all of this in my report.”
“Feel free,” Carter said. “But I’m not here investigating. I’m here arresting someone for trespassing and attempted murder. Call came in shots were fired and here we are.”
Calahan blinked and looked at all of us, finally resting on Mildred, who nodded.
“The motion sensor went off,” she said. “These ladies were kind enough to bring me out here to check on things and they caught Kim breaking into Eleanor’s cabin.
Then she tried to kill Fortune and stole my sister’s boat trying to get away.
Lucky for us, Fortune caught her before she managed to or we might have never known who it was. ”
Calahan looked taken aback, and I could see the wheels spinning in his mind, trying to figure out how to reroute this to be a problem for us again. Finally, he narrowed his eyes at me.
“You went into a crime scene?”
“Nope. I went around a crime scene. Kim was the one inside and she won’t say why.
But since it was a good enough reason for her to take a shot at me, I’m guessing you’ll want to figure it out.
And since it was Eleanor’s cabin, I’m going to say it’s probably related to her death. But what do I know?”
“You’re not supposed to know anything,” he said. “And my report will clearly state that you’re interfering with a police investigation. Carter will go down for this. Just like I figured.”
I threw my hands in the air. “I’m not involved with anything but helping my client out. And I hardly think charges can be pressed against me for taking down an intruder who tried to kill me. Good luck making that one stick.”
“If you’ll excuse me,” Carter said, “I need to get this woman booked. Calahan, you’re welcome to hang out here and resecure the crime scene if you’d like. Or I can send a deputy to do it. Your choice.”
“I’m not doing construction work like some handyman. I’m not your employee.”
“Got that right. I would never hire someone as inept as you.”
Carter pulled Kim toward his truck. “Let’s go. Apparently, I get to add boat theft to your charges. They just keep piling up.”
“You’re not going to arrest your girlfriend?” Calahan demanded.
“For what?” Carter asked.
“Trespassing on a crime scene.”
“She already said she wasn’t in the cabin.”
“But she’s on the property.”
“My property,” Mildred said and took a step forward, hands on her hips.
“And I’ve heard about enough from you. Are you telling me I have no right to be here?
Because I’ve got a good friend down at the Picayune.
I’m happy to give her a call and tell her the state police have forbidden me access to my own property.
I think it’s because you have a problem with disabled people. ”
Calahan blanched and his jaw dropped. “I didn’t say anything like that,” he said, putting his hands up.
But it was too late. Mildred was full-on mad.
She took another step forward and poked her finger at him. “Then you show up here, in front of me and these other women, downright indecent. I’ll have you up on sexual predator charges before I’m done.”
Calahan took a fearful step back and his foot slammed into one of the rocks lining the parking area. He struggled to maintain his balance, flapping his arms like a bird, but finally lost the battle and fell over backward and crashed onto the ground.
“Good. God,” Gertie said, covering her eyes. “Now we’ve seen it all. I’m not a fan.”
Mildred turned her head. “I’m going to need therapy.”
Ida Belle grimaced, her eyes clenched shut. “Maybe an eye bleaching.”
I just grinned. “Well, it confirms some things I already knew. So Mildred, let’s go lock up and get you back home. I think we all need a detox—maybe with some sweet tea and one of those pies, assuming I’m okay to drip on your kitchen floor.”
Ida Belle whirled around, eyes still closed, and stalked back to the office. “Maybe some whiskey in that tea. Good Lord, it’s barely noon and I’m ready to call it a day.”
Gertie nodded and followed. “Heck, I’m the racy one and even I was offended.”
Carter blew the horn on his truck and leaned out the window. “You got five seconds to get your naked butt off the ground, covered, and in the truck, or I’m leaving and sending a deputy here to arrest you and take a report from your victims.”
Calahan jumped up and hurried to the truck, holding the gown from behind. I was still laughing when they drove away.
“Poor Carter,” Ida Belle said, shaking her head. “Having Calahan’s bare butt on his seats…he’s going to have to reupholster.”
Mildred started laughing, then choking, then fell into a chair on the front porch. “Oh my God. I haven’t laughed this hard in—well, ever. Is this what your work is like all the time?”
“Thank God no!” Ida Belle said. “I’m a fan of catching the bad guys, and exposing and embarrassing fools, but not when I have to see business I don’t want to see. I’m not going to eat hot dogs for a month at least.”
“Vienna sausage,” Gertie said, and Mildred started laughing all over again.
We all sat and laughed until we were gasping for air. When we finally came back to sanity, Mildred gave me a serious look.
“What was Kim doing in Eleanor’s cabin?” she asked. “Surely she wasn’t looking for the drugs.”
I shook my head. “Kim’s in cahoots with Zion, and I’m sure she already knows Carter found the drugs in his possession.”
“Then it begs the question, what could be worth the risk?” Ida Belle said.
“There wasn’t anything valuable to speak of in her cabin,” Mildred said.
“Kim doesn’t need money,” I said. “I think we have to assume she was looking for something for Zion. She claimed she just learned how to shoot a gun yesterday. Who do you think taught her?”
“But what could she possibly be looking for?” Mildred asked. “It’s not like the cabin was Eleanor’s real home. It’s just where she stayed when we were holding a retreat.”
I nodded. “Did Eleanor have any other visitors while you were holding the retreat—anyone you didn’t know?”
Mildred frowned, considering, then finally shook her head. “If she did, I didn’t see them.”
“What about packages? Did she receive anything with a return address you didn’t recognize?”
“I don’t think so—wait. There was an envelope. It came FedEx, which is unusual. That’s why I remember it. Return address was New Orleans but there was no name. I guess I figured it was probably legal stuff although looking back, the name of the firm was usually on documents they sent.”
“Is that envelope in Eleanor’s office?”
“Let’s check.”
We headed inside and combed Eleanor’s office top to bottom, even checking under the rug and couch and the underside of the desk, just in case it was hidden there.
“Does Kim have a key to the office and know the security code?” Ida Belle asked.
“Sure, all three of us do…did.”
“But she didn’t come in the office to look or you would have gotten a notice that the system was disarmed,” Ida Belle said. “Which means whatever she’s looking for was so important that she didn’t think Eleanor would have hidden it in her office.”
“But she could have accessed Eleanor’s cabin when she was teaching class,” Mildred said.
“Maybe she didn’t know about the envelope until after Eleanor’s death,” I said.
“If that envelope contained information that Zion didn’t want anyone to know then why didn’t the forensics team find it?” Mildred asked.
“It must be well hidden,” I said.
“But we searched Kim and the boat,” Ida Belle said. “There’s nothing there.”
“Maybe we interrupted her,” Gertie said. “We were talking on the way up the path. She might have heard us and bailed before she found what she was looking for.”
“Or maybe it was no longer there,” Ida Belle said.
“Could it be at your house?” I asked Mildred.
“I mean, it’s possible if it’s hidden, but I dug through all the paperwork pretty good, looking for all the trust documents and the legal stuff to do with the retreat, bank statements, all of it. I never came across it anywhere.”
I nodded. Instinct told me that envelope was important and also that it had never left the retreat, but there was only one way to be sure.
“We have to check Eleanor’s cabin,” I said. “I know it’s a crime scene and blah, blah, blah but I think the chances of Calahan returning are slim to none at this point. And it’s small. We can go through the entire thing before Calahan could even get dressed and drive back.”
I looked at Mildred. “But it’s your call. It’s against the law, and I’m not going to make you part of that unless you’re okay with it.”
“Good Lord, what are you waiting for?” she said. “I want this whole mess cleared up and put to bed. I can’t live with all this uncertainty.”
I nodded.
“If you don’t mind,” Mildred said, “I’ll hold down the fort here.”
“It’s better that way,” I said. “Then you have plausible deniability if a deputy shows up to seal the scene again and we get caught. You can and should claim you had no idea what we were up to.”
“I’ll keep watch,” Mildred said. “If anyone shows, I’ll text you. You’ll have time to clear out before anyone gets there.”
We practically jogged back to Eleanor’s cabin, Gertie huffing as we went, but there wasn’t one word of complaint. We donned gloves and headed inside.
“I doubt anything would be in the living room as I’m told the sauna people used it as a sort of lounge,” Gertie said.
“I agree,” I said. “Let’s start in the bedroom. If we don’t find anything, then we’ll check the rest of the rooms just to be certain. It won’t be somewhere obvious or the cops would have found it.”
Ida Belle nodded and crouched down, checking the planks on the floor.
Gertie started checking under furniture and tapping the walls while I climbed on the dresser and removed the air vent.
The vent was clear and the furniture revealed nothing.
I was just about to suggest we head to another room when Ida Belle peered up from the other side of the bed.
“I think I have something here. There’s a piece of flooring just under the bed that’s loose. Pass me a screwdriver.”
I handed her the screwdriver and crouched down as she worked up a plank of the flooring and pulled it away.
“It’s definitely a hiding place,” I said.
“But it’s empty,” Gertie said.
“There’s a screw here,” Ida Belle said. “It was meant to hold the plank down but it’s just sitting loose next to the foot of the bedframe.”
“Maybe Kim did find the envelope,” I said.
“Then where is it?” Gertie asked.
“Maybe she chunked it in the woods,” I said. “Running with it would have slowed her down. She might have figured she could come back for it, or worse case, it’s paper, right?”
Ida Belle nodded. “Storms would have eventually disintegrated it.”
She pulled out her phone and dialed. “Walter, get Scooter to mind the store. I need you to bring Rambo out to Mildred’s cabins. Yes, now. You think I’m calling to schedule an appointment?”
She disconnected and shook her head. “No sense of urgency with that man.”
“To be fair, he doesn’t know we’re on the trail of a potential killer,” Gertie said.
Ida Belle stared. “To be fair, when are we not?”