Lie Catchers (19 page)

Parker led Liv away, but not before she saw the bottle of pills on Tilly’s desk, open, lying on its side, long white capsules spilling out, pointing to the body on the floor. As Parker sat Liv down in Robert Halley’s office, she said, “Did Tilly commit suicide over what was in the ledgers?”

“We don’t know if this is a suicide, Liv. True, we don’t see marks on her body, but we didn’t find a note, either.”

Halley, white-faced so his fish-thick lips glowed red, paced behind his desk. “Dammit, I should have checked on her when I came in this morning.” The secretary sobbed unceasingly in the main office. After Parker locked Tilly’s door and Ivor and Nilson went off to corral and question witnesses, he took Liv’s hand. “You okay here? Want me to have someone take you home? I could call my dad.”

Liv shook her head. “I’ll stay. I can help.”

“No, I—”

She closed her eyes as dates tumbled into her consciousness, each one begging to be valued and sorted like kindergartners competing for the attention of their teacher. When Liv gasped and opened her eyes, Parker kneeled next to her chair, his expression full of concern.

“What’s wrong, Liv? Are you going to be sick?”

Pinching the skin on her forehead and closing her eyes, Liv said, “No. No. I have to think. This is all wrong. Tilly. She…she…we…I.”

“I’m calling your mother,” Parker said, rising.

Liv grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back to his knees. “No. Take me back to her office so I can think about Tilly.”

“You’re in shock, Liv. It won’t do any good to see her.”

She stood up, abruptly, flicking away tears and startling Parker so much that he teetered on his knees before he rose. “I have to get these things out. The stuff in my head.” She covered her ears with her hands to stop the throbbing. “I have all these dates. They’re important, I think. But I have to go to Tilly’s office to get them out. Paper. A pencil.” Liv zeroed in on Parker’s eyes. “Help me. Please.”

Parker’s expression showed alarm, but Liv shook his concern away. “Now,” she demanded, as she thought of her mother’s surprising idea Liv could have been a lawyer. “We go in Tilly’s office together. I can help you with dates.”

“Dates?”

All of a sudden her kindergarten of dates lined up perfectly in her mind and her consciousness gave an audible sigh. Good. She’d been able to order events instead of spewing a tsunami of rambling detail to poor, unsuspecting Parker.

“Yes. I’m good with dates. You need me.” She took a breath and wiped away tears, steeling herself for a second sight of Tilly’s still form lying on the floor. Taking Parker’s hand, she added, “And I need you.”

****

Fuck protocol.
Parker walked with Liv to the door of Tilly’s office, feeling the stares of Halley and his secretary. Liv seemed to be talking nonsense, but she was in some kind of zone that gave him hope, for the first time. And she said she needed him, words that, in the passionate way she said them, extended way beyond today. He was about to turn to Liv and ask her about her concept of forever when Ivor and Nilson rushed over.

The chief planted himself in the open doorway and said, “No one enters the office until I’ve had a good look around.” He cleared his throat. “Tilly might have been here all night. Her ‘do not disturb’ sign was up when the receptionist arrived at six a.m., and she knows better than to bother Tilly when she’s got the sign on her door. Night security says she could have come in any time without him seeing her. Only a morning shift this time of the year, so no employees were around. She’s got a key and she can disarm the security system in her office without the guard knowing because it’s an old system without tracking technology. She could have had a light on in her office, but because her window faces the water, security wouldn’t know it was on.”

“Hasn’t been dead long; no rigidity,” Nilson said, angling his head to view the body.

“Why on the floor like this?” Parker asked.

Ivor looked at the body and its distance from the office exit. “Going for the door, maybe. Going for help? Changed her mind?”

“Going for help,” Liv said, firmly as she gazed at Tilly’s body. “She didn’t kill herself.”

The three men stared at her. Ivor asked, “And you know this because…?”

“On October 18
th
a rainy Friday at exactly 9 p.m. in my store, Tilly told me she was never going to work in her office at night again in her life.”

Liv gazed at Tilly’s window wall, where she had an expansive view of the marina and Wrangell Narrows. “She described this office at night as horrid. In the daytime she could twirl around in her chair for a look at the Narrows, and the skylight she made them put up there…” she pointed, “…brightened the room most of the work day. But at night, she was a prisoner in this room, a canned fish, the stink overwhelming.”

Parker nodded. “She told me she hated the smell of the cannery.”

“Dissatisfied with her job. Cause for suicide?” asked Ivor.

“On November 3
th
at noon in my apartment, Tilly explained she’d failed at her friendship with me because she went to bed with Tuck before I’d made up my mind about my own feelings for Tuck.”

“Despondent and ashamed. More reasons for suicide,” said Nilson.

“She figured out my friendship with her was a sham. I take blame for that. But I do not believe she committed suicide and I’m convinced she came to this office last night against her will.”

“The ledger. The accounts. Something about our meeting with her this morning,” Parker said.

Liv nodded.

“Another support for the suicide,” Ivor said.

Shaking her head, Liv said, “I couldn’t sleep last night, so by 5:00 a.m., I decided what the hell, why not do some writing instead of stare at the ceiling. I didn’t turn on my desk lamp because it’s cozy at my desk that way, my lighted screen and me.” Parker squeezed her hand. “Tuck walked up the stairs to his apartment at 5:30 a.m. It was dark outside and raining hard, but his porch light was on so I could see it was Tuck. When he opened the door, he hesitated and turned toward my window, but I’d quickly shut my computer so it couldn’t reveal my face. I’m pretty sure he didn’t catch me looking.”

“You think that’s evidence he had a part in this?” Nilson pointed to Tilly’s body.

She looked out the window. “I’ve been watching Tuck’s comings and goings for two years. The only time he ever came home that time in the morning was last year, February 6
th
, at 6:00 to be precise. If you wish, I could write down all the dates and times of his comings and goings…the ones I witnessed from my desk.”

“Jesus,” Ivor said.

Nilson frowned. “Impossible.”

Liv turned to Parker. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help sooner. I didn’t…I couldn’t…I’m not used to...” She hunched her shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

Parker moved his eyes from Tilly’s body to the pills then back to Liv. “We’ve got to get you out of town. Now.”

“I’m all right,” she assured him as she settled in front of the Halley’s computer. “Bob will stay with me. Go.” When Parker wouldn’t leave, she said, “I need to concentrate on dumping these dates out of my head in a semblance of order.” She paused. “You do what you have to. I’m fine here.”

“You seem…” he hesitated, “…you seem unhinged.”

“I am, and I’ll stay that way unless I get this,” she pointed to her head with a whirling gesture, “on paper.” Liv sat at Bob’s computer, hands poised over the keyboard. “I need time. Go.”

Parker walked to Tilly’s office where crime scene tape was draped across the closed door. Ivor stood with his arms crossed, guarding the door. Nilson ranged nearby, stiff with tension.

“What’s up?” Parker asked.

“I’ve explained to SA Nilson this is my scene in my jurisdiction. I work it first,” Ivor said.

Nilson frowned. “The crime is related to a Federal investigation.”

“We don’t know that, yet,” Ivor answered. “I’m used to working the grid alone and quietly so I can think and I don’t miss anything. Once I’m finished, you guys can have at it.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’ll compromise the scene,” said Nilson, his face ruddy with frustration.

Parker held up his hand to Nilson. “You and I will re-interview witnesses while Ivor works the room. Give us the high sign when we can come in, Ivor.” He glanced into Halley’s office to see Liv typing steadily, her expression a study of concentration.

By noon, Liv was printing copies, Nilson had a notebook full of witness comments and Ivor allowed the coroner to take away Tilly’s body. Parker surveyed Tilly’s office one last time, saddened by her fake palm tree standing sentinel and something tropical puffing from the plug-in air-fresheners. The room was bright and didn’t smell fishy at all. He shook his head at a life lost in a place carefully ordered for shutting out ugliness. “She didn’t kill herself,” Parker mumbled, closing Tilly’s door and re-hanging crime scene tape over the front of it. “Liv’s right.”

Bob Halley sat at his desk, shoulders hunched, devoid of energy after cancelling the day shift and sending all of his office employees home. Parker said, “We need to talk to you.” He gestured for Ivor, Nilson, and Liv to sit in chairs circled around Halley’s desk. “Let’s discuss the ledgers.”

“I trusted Tilly. You’re telling me I shouldn’t have?”

“We have a theory we can’t test out until you show us accounts from the years before Tilly worked for you.”

Halley rose from his chair and walked to a file cabinet behind his desk. “How many years back?”

“Depends. You said the cannery can process more fish today than ever before.”

“Correct. Machines even more advanced than the Iron Chink make the gutting, cleaning and cutting easier than ever, costing us fewer man-hours. Plus we’ve got a growing demand for fish in the U.S. including flash-frozen cutlets for sushi. And, of course, we’ve learned how to maximize the pet food market.”

“But you also said that fish aren’t as plentiful in some years as they are in others.”

“Yes.”

“We’ve decided to focus on ice sales to fishermen.”

Halley hands stilled on the top of the cabinet.

“
Cash
ice sales,” Nilson added.

“Tilly was your accountant for ten years. We’ll take the ledgers for ten years previous to her employment.”

After Halley piled old ledgers in front of Parker, Ivor held up a black object. “What the hell is that?” Halley asked.

Ivor foisted the thing in Halley’s direction. “It’s a bug. I found it under Tilly’s desk.”

“You think I listen in on my employees? Jesus Christ. What do you take me for? I have no idea how that thing got there.”

Parker stood to get a better look at the device.

“One of yours?” Ivor asked with an edge in his voice.

“We did not tap Tilly Grant’s office. I recognize the device and we do use them, but we didn’t place that one.” Parker glanced at Nilson.

“We’d get creamed for using an illegal wire-tap,” Nilson said. “Can’t help that the stuff we use is the same brand civilians can get a hold of.”

“Better take a good look at Tilly’s apartment, Ivor. Who in the hell would be listening in on Tilly?” Parker turned to Bob Halley. “Susanna?”

Halley’s face went rigid with worry. “What about her? You think she was taping Tilly because of Everett?”

Parker said, “Maybe. Maybe not. You have to step in, sir. She won’t talk to us, but we know she’s hiding something. We must use your influence on her.”

He went back to the rummaging. “Mine field,” he grumbled.

“She doesn’t respond to scare tactics, but maybe if you dangle a sizeable amount of money in front of her, she’ll tell us what we need to know.”

With a bewildered expression, Halley spoke to the inside of the file cabinet. “How did she get so hard?” Then he turned to Parker, “Christ, you want me to blackmail my own daughter?”

Parker squinted at him. “Two people have died, Halley. We’ll use whatever means we can to find out why.” He cleared his throat. “Today. We need you to squeeze that information out of her today.”

Shoulders sunken, Halley sat down in his chair, his thick lips moving, but no words emerging. Parker stood, wrote a phone number on a business card and handed it to Halley. “The women in this town are holding back information we need, Halley. We’re starting with your daughter.”

****

Panic seized Liv as soon as she walked out the cannery door. Tilly was dead, surely not by her own hand, and someone had been listening in on her friend’s conversations. One or more killers were on the loose.
And I’ve picked this moment to announce to the world I’m a freak?
Parker tugged at her coat, which she held tightly over her arm. “Liv, it’s raining. Put on your coat.”

As she wrapped her coat around her, she glanced at Ivor, his puzzled expression unsettling.
Even my brother thinks I’m nuts.
Nilson squinted at her, as if calculating when she’d rip her clothes off and go running down the cannery ramp naked. “I remember dates.” She’d meant to say the words with confidence, but her voice delivered them too quietly. Embarrassed. Unsure.

Parker stepped aside, letting Ivor take her arm for a brisk walk to The Smiling Coho. But when they got to her front door, the quiet group shuffled about, uncertain about what to do next.

Who gets to handle crazy Liv?
“I’m not sure all my dates are right,” she muttered. “I could go over them with you guys.”

She caught SA Nilson starting an eye roll. Ivor seemed confused. Parker let out an ‘I get the short straw’ sigh and said to the men, “Ivor, I know you’re heading over to Tilly’s apartment and want time alone to search it. Alert us when we can have a look. Nilson, grab some lunch on your way back to the office. Report Tilly’s death to the boss and start on the ledgers. Since Liv isn’t sure of her dates, for now, let’s not tell Oldshack about them.” He patted the paper he’d tucked inside his coat. “Liv and I will check out her facts, then I’ll get my dad to stay with her before I come to the office.”

Better buy a plane ticket, Liv. This town will know you’re an idiot savant before the day is out.
She unlocked the door and stomped up to her apartment, shoving the door open. When she lifted off her coat, she was shocked to find her sweater and jeans soaked.
Dear God, they’re right. I am nuts.