Chapter 24 #2
“I think, because of your relationship with Nancy, you knew the two dead guys found on my property, right? Both of them?” she asked.
“And you know of Sam too, I presume, the most recently released inmate as well. So I’m not sure how that works for you guys down here, but it’s definitely suspect up in my corner.
But, of course, we’re just random people from some hick town, as you mentioned, right, Daniel? ”
Detective Davis’s frown moved off her and onto Daniel. “You knew the two dead men?”
When Daniel refused to reply, Doreen snorted. “I think he did because Nancy knew them too. Plus, Daniel knew my late husband, Mathew, the previous owner of this house,” she clarified.
“Yeah, hardly the deceased persons in question,” Daniel snapped.
“You didn’t know the two dead guys found there?
Really?” As she read out the first name, Pete Singer, she watched Daniel’s expression change.
“Pete is Nancy’s brother. You didn’t think I knew about that?
Butch and Pete and Sam were all cellmates.
And what about Sam, your wannabe girlfriend’s special friend? ”
He stared at her and shook his head. “No she’s not.”
“Yes,” Nick confirmed, backing her up. “Nancy is Sam’s girlfriend and is also Pete Singer’s sister, all documented by the prison’s visitor logs.
Whether Sam and Nancy still have an ongoing relationship, I don’t know.
But that’s her connection to this place at this time, knowing both dead guys found here, aside from the fact that she worked here too. ”
Doreen smiled. “By the way, Daniel, the money Mathew stashed in this house is now safe and sound in my bank account.”
“You found it?” Daniel asked, looking at her with an incredulous expression. “It was supposed to be really well-hidden.”
“Yes, but this was my house for a long time,” she reminded him, still working to stay calm. “I certainly know the locations of the safes and the hidden storage places Mathew liked to use.”
He glared at her. “That doesn’t mean you know about all of it.”
“Maybe you should tell me about that.”
“No, because then …” He stopped and looked around at the other people nearby. “Fine, whatever.”
“Yeah, but you can’t get it now,” she taunted him. “We’ll make sure you and your prison buddies don’t have access to this house ever again. However, should we find you have any keys to Mathew’s house on your person, that would completely change things.”
He stiffened and his hands immediately went to his pockets.
Mack grabbed his hand and pulled a set of keys from them, as Detective Davis glared at Daniel in disgust.
Daniel shrugged. “Bags full of cash are here,” he muttered, “and she told me that they were hers.”
“Do you mean it was hers, or do you mean it was supposedly owed to her? Really?” Detective Davis looked pissed as hell. “You believed that?”
“I wanted to believe it, yeah, and, if it’s cash, … nobody would know.”
“That’s true. Nobody would know, and, Daniel, you are in some big trouble here,” Mack confirmed. “However, as Doreen already shared, we took all those bags full of cash to the bank, as Doreen’s legal inheritance from Mathew’s estate.”
Daniel stared at him in shock, then his shoulders slumped, and he nodded. “Fine, so no point in looking for them.”
“No, there isn’t. So, what happened to the dead guy in the garden, Pete Singer?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” he muttered, with a shake of his head.
Doreen snorted. “Funny, Daniel. Captain Hawkins shared with us that Butch used his own gun and killed Pete, who was Nancy’s brother. So did you know the dead guy in the apartment suite, Butch Weldon?” Doreen asked.
He stared at her and shrugged.
She knew that look meant he was about to lie again, so she asked him, “You do know about him.”
“No, I don’t.”
Meanwhile, Mack was lining up Daniel’s keys to the ones Doreen handed over to him to compare. When he found an exact match, he held it up for everybody to see.
Doreen nodded. “Funny that you now have a copy of the newest key to get into Mathew’s house, where we had two murders on the same property,” she shared, still watching him.
“The first murder happened before we even arrived in town. We drove from Kelowna, Detective Davis, but Daniel here didn’t search for Pete Singer’s murderer nor for Butch Weldon’s murderer.
Daniel was pretty quick to try and pin both of those on us. ”
“You’re the ones living here.” Daniel spat.
“Not living. Just taking a week or so to clear out the property so it can be sold. Yet you’re the one with a new key to the main house.”
He glared at her and stated, “I didn’t kill Pete. I didn’t kill Butch.”
“But you didn’t come here alone though, did you, that visit before we arrived and hindered your treasure hunt?
” He paled and she nodded. “I figured as much. The neighbors saw a couple around the unoccupied house, and it wasn’t us, so …
it had to be somebody. At first I thought it was Singer and Nancy.
Now I think it was you, Daniel, and Nancy. Am I right?”
Detective Davis pulled out his handcuffs, and, flipping Daniel around, he muttered, “I don’t know yet who is behind Butch’s murder, but you’ve already admitted enough that you are in trouble.” Then he read him his rights.
“I suspect he’s covering his own criminality or covering Nancy’s or both,” Doreen suggested.
“You don’t know anything,” Daniel yelled. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Except break into Mathew’s property and look for something to steal,” she noted, “all while you were on duty.”
“I wasn’t on duty.”
“You cased this property while you were on duty.”
He flushed at that. “Fine, okay, so I’ll get a slap on the hand.”
“Whenever you and Nancy trespassed on my property, did you leave her here by herself at times?”
Daniel’s face seemed to pale.
Doreen nodded. “Because somebody surprised Pete on the property. I seriously doubt that Nancy killed her brother. Ballistics prove Butch killed Pete, which probably brought the wrath of Nancy down on Butch, but we’re awaiting evidence on that.
I’m also concerned about Sam’s whereabouts, since all three—Pete, Butch, Sam—wanted to hunt for treasure, didn’t they, Daniel?
Just like you, all on the word of Nancy, right?
Your potential girlfriend? All four of them, plus you of course, were already casing the joint, ready to enter Mathew’s home with Nancy’s key, to right a wrong, to find treasure.
He stared at her and shook his head. “No way.”
“You mean you hope there’s no way because if it happened at the same time you were here, whether you knew it or not, you brought with you someone to commit murder. You’re up to your neck in this as an accomplice to both murders.”
At that, he paled and shook his head frantically. “I didn’t have anything to do with it, nothing. … I didn’t.”
She looked over at Mack, who fully knew what would happen now. “Sounds to me as if you need to tell us exactly who you came here with.”
“No way,” he repeated. “You’re not pinning that on me.”
“I want to know about the second murder.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” he snapped. “I had nothing to do with either murder.”