Chapter Three
Back at Shady Rest, the sheriff continued his investigation, even as he worried that his main suspect appeared to be on the lam.
As concerned as he was for Clancy, he kept telling himself there was an explanation for her leaving the way she had.
Unfortunately, he knew firsthand that anyone could kill if pushed too far.
Esther was the kind of person who pushed people’s buttons.
She was everything the residents had said about her and more.
He found Vernon in his office. “You said a woman named Sarah Brooks was working last night?” he asked the manager. “She worked with Clancy?”
“The two I believe are friends.”
Max’s first thought hearing that was that Sarah might know where Clancy had gone and why. “I need to speak with her. Can you get her to come in?”
“She’s already here, working,” the manager said.
Max couldn’t hide his surprise. “She worked the night shift and she’s already working again now?”
“We’re short-staffed. She often works extra hours.
We have a couple of part-time people who fill in, but getting help is a real problem here.
” It was a real problem in a lot of places, Max knew.
His wife, Goldie, had trouble with waitstaff at her diner in Dry Gulch.
Clancy used to help out there before she moved to Grass Range.
The manager walked Max to a room set aside for questioning, and called Sarah Brooks, who was working in another part of the building. A few moments after Vernon left, Sarah appeared. According to Vernon, she was in her late twenties, was from the area and been employed since Shady Rest opened.
The woman who came through the door had large brown eyes, chin-length blonde hair and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and cheeks.
“Have a chair,” the sheriff said as he took a seat across from her. Max noticed how nervous she was, much like Vernon had been. Murder did that to people when it hit too close to home, he reminded himself. It didn’t mean they were necessarily hiding anything.
Vernon had said Sarah and Clancy were friends. He hoped so. With Clancy missing, Sarah might have to answer questions he had. But he didn’t want to go there right away. “What can you tell me about your shift last night?” he asked.
She shrugged. “It was like any other shift. I had no idea anything had happened until Vernon called and told me.”
“He told you that Esther had been murdered?” Max asked.
She nodded. “When I came in all the residents were talking about it.”
“But you didn’t hear or see anything last night while on duty that now makes you suspicious of who might have done this?”
“It gets pretty quiet around here after lockdown. Most everyone is asleep or at least in their apartment for the night. There are a few who have trouble sleeping, but they have something to take when that happens.”
“Medication? Who gives that?” he asked.
“We’re a minimum-care facility. A retired local doctor comes when needed,” she said.
“You must be shaken by all this,” he commented, watching her closely.
When she said nothing, he added, “I understand you’re a friend of Clancy Roberts.
” He saw her gaze flick away. “Did you know that she’s apparently left town?
” Surprise registered in those brown eyes.
“Do you have any idea where she might have gone?” Sarah shook her head.
“I would imagine you contacted her after you got the call about the murder.”
The woman’s eyes widened in alarm. It made sense that if they had become friends, Sarah would have let her know. “She didn’t have anything to do with Esther’s death.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“I haven’t talked to her.”
“Have you texted her with the news?”
She said nothing.
“She gave you no indication she was going to leave town?” he asked.
Sarah shook her head.
He wasn’t getting anywhere, so he asked, “Let’s talk about what happened yesterday.
I heard she threatened Esther, saying she would be back to collect the money she was owed.
” It had actually been Vernon who’d told him that.
“Did you let her into the building later last night after her earlier argument with Esther?”
“I didn’t let her in,” Sarah said. “No one entered the facility after hours last night while I was on duty.”
She sounded adamant about that. Still, Max couldn’t shake the feeling that this woman knew something. He suspected it had something to do with Clancy and felt sick at the thought. “But you know why Clancy left town.”
“I didn’t know she’d left, but she’s been planning on leaving before her birthday. She’s talked about going to Billings. I just figured she’d finally decided to do it.”
“You don’t think the timing is suspect?” he asked.
“Not really.”
Sarah was clearly going to protect her friend.
If she knew something, she wasn’t talking.
His gut instinct told him that Clancy had come back to the rest home last night to have it out with Esther.
But he sensed Sarah was telling the truth about not letting her into the building.
“Can any of the residents let someone in after hours?”
“You have to have a key.”
“Who else besides you and Vernon have a key?”
“I don’t have a key,” Sarah said quickly. “I have to pick it up from Vernon when I come on duty.” Max had rung the bell to get in this morning. The manager had come out to unlock the door since the place had been locked down according to the sheriff’s orders.
He thanked her and let her get back to work before he headed to the manager’s office again. If Clancy had come back last night and gotten in somehow, then someone must have seen her. So far no one had come forward, though. “Esther have any friends here?” he asked Vernon.
“She didn’t mix well with the other residents.”
“How about enemies?” Max asked and saw right away the list would be lengthy. “Anyone in particular?”
“As I said…”
“Right, Esther didn’t mix well. Okay, how about residents she had trouble with?”
“Hazel Brockman,” Vernon said almost too quickly, then clamped his mouth shut.
“Why did her name come to you so fast? Remember, I’m investigating a murder here. I need to know everything even if it doesn’t seem important.”
The manager sighed. “Hazel and Esther argued a lot. It got physical once before I could break it up.”
“Who else?”
“The usual suspects,” the manager said. “Myrna Larson, Irma Hanson… Truthfully, the list goes on.”
“What was Hazel arguing with her about?” the sheriff asked.
“There’d been complaints about items and money going missing from the apartments. Hazel believed Esther was responsible and accused her of taking an antique watch that had belonged to her father. Esther swore she hadn’t taken it.”
“Did you search her room?”
“I’m not allowed to do that. I told Hazel that she should call the police, but that if she didn’t have any proof…”
“Right,” Max said and rubbed the back of his neck. “What about Irma Hanson?” Irma was the neighbor to the north who’d notified Vernon of the sound she’d heard before midnight.
“Irma accused Esther of taking her wedding ring that went missing along with the twenty dollars her daughter had sent her. The money was in the card from Irma’s daughter when she’d left for lunch, but gone when she got back.
Irma later found her wedding ring on the floor in her bathroom. But not the money.”
“Didn’t residents lock their doors?” the sheriff asked.
“Yes, but if Esther really was the thief everyone thought she was, then she knew how to get in. The locks aren’t very sophisticated and now you can learn all sorts of nefarious things on the internet.”
“The residents didn’t suspect maybe a member of the staff?” he asked, surprised they all seemed to think it was Esther.
Vernon shook his head. “They all liked the staff.”
Max rubbed his neck. When he’d been in Esther’s room, he’d noticed a box full of jewelry and other odds and ends including a watch.
It had appeared that the killer had gone through cabinets in the apartment but hadn’t found whatever they’d been looking for.
Or maybe they had found it after they’d killed her.
That thought gave him an idea. “Can you give me a list of the names of the residents and a list of what they claimed had gone missing?”
* * *
CLANCY DIDN’T KNOW how far she’d walked in the pouring rain. She was soaked to the skin, her old down jacket drenched. Traffic had been sparse to nonexistent. What few vehicles there were had roared past, splashing her with even more water.
Now she was cold and wet and not sure how much farther she could go. She hadn’t seen a house for several miles and regretted leaving the shelter of her car. She’d thought for sure that she could get a ride. Now she was thinking she might have to find a large tree to get under to spend the night.
She heard a vehicle shifting down to make a hill and turned to see headlights through the downpour. It was a truck. Her desperation rising, she stuck out her thumb. The lights grew brighter as the truck came closer and closer, and for a moment she thought it would sweep past her as the others had.
At the sound of the driver hitting his brakes, she almost burst into tears. Someone was finally stopping. She was soaked to the skin and so cold she hadn’t been sure how much longer she could keep walking.
The older-model pickup pulling a horse trailer stopped a few yards past her. With no hesitation she ran after the rig, catching up next to the pickup’s passenger side. As the window came down a couple of inches, a man called out. “Where you headed?”
“Billings,” she yelled back. She couldn’t see his face in the shadowed cab, but he sounded older.
“Not going that far, but you’re welcome to get out of the rain.” He reached over and opened the door.