Chapter 5 #2
“Winnie and Glen showed up first,” Josh said, nodding toward their friend.
“Larry and Diane, right after. They like to help in the kitchen. Keith and Tracy showed up just a few minutes after it happened, and Cat, too. She arrived about then. We were expecting Leo and Shelly, as well as Lindsay, but I haven’t heard from them. Maybe they overslept or something.”
“What about Marnie? Isn’t she coming?” Glen asked. “Wait, was she at the party last night? I don’t even remember.”
“She was there but had to leave early. She had work this morning, a meeting at the station. She said she’d try and stop by if it ended in time.”
Marnie was an anchor on the local television station’s morning show. It meant she mostly went to bed at eight and was up by three to be on the air by five. She often joked that she had the hours of an insomniac toddler.
“I have a feeling she’ll be here soon, but in a more official capacity,” Josh said. “This is definitely going to make the news. Not many shootings in our little town.”
The door to the office swung open, and Rachel stepped back inside. Her eyes were still red and swollen, her cheeks damp from recent tears.
“I gave my statement,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “It’s someone else’s turn. I’m going to make the strongest pot of coffee in history, and then I’m going to the hospital. Has anyone called Tyler’s folks?”
“I can do that,” Glen replied. “I’ll call them now.”
Glen stepped into the kitchen as Finn appeared in the doorway, motioning to Tate.
“Let’s do your statement next,” he said. “Josh, then we’ll do yours. I know you’re anxious to get to the hospital.”
“I can do mine now,” Josh argued. “Get it over with.”
“I think Rachel needs you right now,” Finn said. “Tate’s won’t take long. You’ll be able to go be with Tyler very soon.”
Josh expelled a noisy breath but didn’t argue, instead striding into the kitchen to see about Rachel.
“You okay to talk?” Finn asked.
“Sure,” Tate replied. “I’m good. Yes, let’s get this done.”
They settled on the small sofa under the window. Finn made a few notes in a notebook before holding up his phone.
“I’m going to record this. Any objections? It just makes it easier later for me to refer back.”
“No problem. I’m not sure that I’m going to be any help, to be honest. It all happened before I arrived.”
“How about we start at the party last night?” Finn suggested. “You were there, right? Who else was there?”
“Yes, pretty much the whole gang from school was.”
It was then that Tate realized that Finn hadn’t been there last night. He’d gone to school with Tate’s older brother Zack, but later moved out of town. He was still friends with Rachel and Josh, though.
Finn must have noticed Tate’s expression because he chuckled and shook his head.
“Relax. I was invited, but I ended up having to work. Several of my deputies have the stomach flu. There are no hard feelings anywhere. It’s all good. Except for the fact that they might have infected everyone at the station, and we might all be sick soon.”
Now that Finn had mentioned illness, Tate noticed that the man was rather pale with a line of sweat at his brow. The sheriff might be sicker than he thought.
“I’ll cross my fingers for you.”
“I usually have good luck with viruses, but a man never knows when his luck will run out. Anyway, you were saying who attended last night.”
“Right.” Tate thought back to the night before.
“Obviously, Josh and Rachel. Lindsay was there, along with Leo and Shelly. Tyler, of course. Also, Winnie and Glen, Keith and Tracy, Larry and Diane. Marnie. Cat. Then their neighbors, Bert and Lucy. The parents, too, plus a few cousins, aunts, and uncles. That’s all I remember, but there could have been others. ”
“What can you tell me about Josh’s run-in with his business partner Leo?”
It wasn’t a surprise that Finn was asking about that confrontation. Had Rachel told him, or had it already hit the gossip mill?
“They argued. It got loud, but I didn’t hear most of it.”
“Did Leo threaten Josh?”
“Yes,” Tate admitted. “But he didn’t say he was going to try and kill him or anything.”
“What were his exact words? Do you remember?”
“He said that Josh would be sorry.”
Which could mean anything. Leo could be a jerk, but was he a killer? Tate would be shocked if Leo were responsible for this incident.
“You’re going to talk to Leo?” Tate asked. “He was supposed to be here this morning.”
“And he’s not here,” Finn replied. “I’m going to need to talk to him and also ask him where he was during the shooting. You were in the car, correct?”
“Yes, on my way here.”
Tate answered a few more questions before they were finished. He stood to leave but hesitated for a moment.
“What are you thinking, Finn? Was someone trying to hurt Josh? Or was it Tyler?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Finn confessed.
“I’m going to have to go down the two separate paths until I can rule out one.
I do wonder about Tyler because he doesn’t even live here.
Who would want to hurt him? But he does visit often enough that he knows people, and they would be aware he was in town. ”
“He usually stays with his parents,” Tate pointed out. “He was only staying here because his mom and dad are renovating the house. Plus, he was wearing Josh’s clothes since the airline lost his luggage.”
“You think the shooter was aiming for Josh then?”
“I have no idea. It’s easy to see why Josh thinks he was the target. If they meant to hurt Tyler, it had to be someone close enough that would know he was here this morning.”
“And you don’t want to think that one of your friends did this,” Finn replied knowingly. “I get it. I don’t want to think that either, but someone pulled the trigger this morning. I don’t think it was a warning shot.”
Too many questions, and few answers.
It didn’t matter what had been intended, to be honest. Tyler was in the hospital fighting for his life. Was he the victim? Or had he just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, wearing the wrong sweatshirt?
If that was the case, then Josh might still be in danger.