Chapter 14 #2
She nodded. “It is and it isn’t. I get it that we’re up against something we couldn’t have anticipated with these two murders and one bad cop, but we are up for the job,” she declared, smiling at him encouragingly.
He laughed. “We are?”
“Sure,” she declared, grinning. “The whole team is here, the front-line team anyway, plus Nan and the crew back home are all doing a heck of a job.”
With that, her phone rang again. It was Nan.
“Maisie is here,” she began. “She wants to tell you all about it herself.”
Doreen smiled at Mack, and it wasn’t very long before she was telling Maisie what a great job she’d done.
“It was fun. I mean, oh my,” Maisie exclaimed, excited, “to think I talked to a criminal.”
“I’m surprised that the security guard or whoever you were on the phone with let you talk to anyone.”
“The prisoners are allowed phone calls, but I had to find out the name of Butch’s last cellmate first before they would connect me.
I told the guy on the phone that I was a pen pal to many inmates in several prisons and how I might have the name mixed up with another guy in another place, as I kept guessing his name.
Finally the guard got exasperated and told me Jake was the last one to bunk with Butch.
Then a few minutes later he came on the line. ”
“And this Jake was interested in talking to you?” Mack asked.
“He was but not right away. So I told him that I was a lawyer, an activist, looking at people who were wrongfully imprisoned.”
“Ah, now makes more sense,” Mack said.
Doreen nodded. “I was wondering why the prisoners would talk to you.”
“It was your grandmother’s idea,” Maisie admitted reluctantly, as if forced to give Nan the credit.
“Of course it was,” Doreen murmured. “Did Jake say anything else, maybe indicating other people could be involved in this?”
“Just somebody named … Sam. Maybe it was Sam. I told you his name earlier. Sam heard something about the property. Sam and Butch figured they hadn’t been paid properly after doing some jobs for this person in this big fat house, so they were owed some money. So, they would come get it.”
“Did Jake hear about where it was?”
“I don’t think so, but Sam was pretty sure it was there, and apparently he was jealous, thinking Butch would get a huge haul now that he got free, while Sam was still locked up and was missing out on the fun.”
“Sometimes that’s what happens when you go to jail,” Doreen noted.
Maisie laughed. “I might have pointed out something along that line to him myself. I must admit that Jake wasn’t very happy with me by the time I ended the call.
Yet he was hoping we would find his friends.
I didn’t tell him if they were alive or dead because he might have stopped talking to me,” she explained in that birdlike voice of hers.
“True, and you did great. What I’m trying to figure out is how they knew about the house in the first place?”
“Jake didn’t name names, but Sam and Butch both talked about having done a job for some big fat whale.”
“Yeah, that could be Mathew,” she muttered.
Maisie didn’t have anything else to add. When the phone changed hands, and Nan came back on, she added, speaking to Maisie, “Now, Maisie, you’ve done well. I told you that already.”
More conversation went on in the background, and then Nan groaned and told Doreen, “Now you have to talk to Richie. He wants to do something to help too.”
“He might want to,” Doreen noted, “but I’m not sure what he can do now.”
Nan pointed out, “I’m the one who contacted Chester. Maisie contacted the prison, and now Richie needs a job.”
Doreen sighed and asked, “So, does he have any connections down here in the lower mainland?”
“No, I do. I told you that.”
“Right, and did you ever come up with … whatever memory you had regarding Daniel?”
“Only that he’s associated with Mathew. And you know how I feel about Mathew’s friends.”
“Which is hardly fair as technically you could say Daniel was my friend too,” Doreen said gently. “I know it’s easy to hate Mathew and everyone in his world, but it’s not always that way.”
“And sometimes it is,” Nan muttered. “Anyway, I’m sticking to my intuition. I don’t like Daniel. I didn’t like Mathew either, and see how that turned out?”
“And you didn’t find anything more in your research, maybe about Daniel’s family?”
“No, well, maybe you should ask … Let me talk to Richie.”
Then Richie came on the phone, and Doreen began, “Richie, I know that you don’t want to bother your grandson …”
“Oh, I’m happy to bother him,” he stated. “Give me a reason. I’m very happy to.”
She looked over at Mack, who just shrugged as if to say, Whatever. “I’m wondering, since we seem to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a bind down here …”
“Oh, have you ever,” he declared joyfully.
Doreen winced at such unmitigated helpfulness.
She continued. “Could you have Darren discreetly run the details on Detective Daniel Sherwood and see if anything of interest is in his record? I don’t know what Darren may find, and maybe nothing, but we need more than info on Daniel himself.
We need info on Daniel’s family, if possible, without anybody getting caught or in trouble. ”
“Oh, you really don’t like him, do you?” Richie asked her.
“What bothers me is this second man who was killed on the property. Somebody had a key for the garage apartment. I’m wondering if Daniel does, but we’ve certainly let him inside, and he’s been here a lot and could have easily gotten a mole inside.”
Shocked delight filled Richie’s tone. “I’m on it. Don’t you worry. I’m on it.”
And, once again, the phone was handed over to Nan.
“I feel as if I’m the director here,” Nan muttered. “And honestly, sometimes it’s just the crazy house that Rosemoor is.”
Doreen burst into laughter. “Yet, I must say, you’re doing an absolutely wonderful job.”
Nan perked up and declared, “I am, aren’t I? You know, you could hire me full-time to do this for you.”
“The last thing you want,” Doreen replied, feeling a shudder come over her, “is to have any full-time work. You wouldn’t have time to do anything else.”
“You’re right about that,” she muttered. “That sounds absolutely awful.”
Doreen chuckled. “Therefore, we’ll just keep it in the friendly spirit it is.”
“That’s good,” she muttered. “But you need to stop getting into trouble, child. It was supposed to be a holiday for you.”
“Who knew coming down here would get me into trouble?” she muttered. “We’ve just been trying to take care of removing all the contents of the house, but, of course, Mathew had things hidden everywhere, and, as soon as there’s treasure, people are all over it.”
Nan chuckled. “They absolutely are,” she agreed, “so make sure you get the safe deposit boxes sorted too.”
“I think Nick has already gone to deal with Mathew’s probate lawyer to get as much banking information as he can.”
“Good. He should at least be able to open some doors.”
“He should open enough that I can go take a look,” Doreen stated.
“Did you ever go to the bank with Mathew when you two were married?”
“Sure, lots of times. But it’s not as if I was let in on any details. Remember that I was led around more than anything.”
“Tsk-tsk,” Nan muttered. “You could have learned so much about his business.”
“Sure, and what would it have done, except get me killed too?”
After a shocked moment of silence, Nan replied, “Good point.”