River Road (14 page)

“Try to focus, damn it.”

“I’m focusing on whoever just arrived.” She went to the window and watched a black luxury sedan glide to a halt in front of the house. A familiar figure climbed out. He had a computer case in one hand. “It’s Nolan Kelly. Got to go. I’ll call you later.”

“Wait,” Mason ordered. “Do not hang up on me. Why were you trying to get hold of me?”

“
Please
do not hang up on me,” she said.

“Lucy, I swear—”

Lucy went out into the hall and started down the stairs.

“I came here today to get a better idea of how much stuff I’m going to have to pack up before I put the house on the market,” she said. She reached the foot of the stairs and walked quickly toward the front door. “First, you should know that although Aunt Sara rarely threw anything away, she was a very orderly person. She did not just toss things into the closets or drawers.

“What are you getting at?” Mason said.

“I spent my first night in town here at the house. I opened a few closets and drawers. Everything inside was neatly arranged in typical Sara style. But today the clothes and the storage boxes look like someone went through them in a hurry.”

“You’re saying you think someone searched the house?” Mason’s voice went dangerously flat.

“Yes. It must have happened last night while we were at the winery party.”

“What the hell would the intruder be looking for?”

“I have no idea. All I can tell you is that it doesn’t look like anything was stolen. I’ll get back to you when I finish talking to Nolan.”

She ended the call before Mason could order her not to hang up again. Nolan was crossing the porch, preparing to ring the bell. She opened the front door.

“Hi, Lucy.” Nolan’s smile was warm and friendly, but it did not quite cancel out the slight sheen of anxiety in his eyes. “I thought we could take a look at some comps.”

“Come on in, Nolan,” she said. “We can talk in the kitchen.”

M
ason clipped the phone to his belt and moved out from behind the counter. He went down an aisle framed by ranks of gleaming nails and screws on one side and an assortment of plumbing fixtures on the opposite side, heading for the front door.

“Got to go, Deke,” he called over his shoulder.

Deke emerged from the back room. “Where the hell are you off to in such a damn rush?”

“Sara’s house. Lucy says she thinks someone searched the place last night.”

“Son of a—” Deke stopped. He looked more puzzled than alarmed. “Why would anyone do that?”

“An interesting question, in light of the theory that the Scorecard Rapist may have had an accomplice who would now have some concerns about a reopened investigation.”

“Damn.”

“Exactly.” Mason opened the door. “All I know is that I don’t want Lucy alone with anyone who is even remotely connected to this case, and right now she’s alone with Nolan Kelly.”

“Kelly’s a realtor. All he’ll want is the listing.”

“Let me rephrase that. I don’t want Lucy alone with anyone who was at the party at the Harper Ranch thirteen years ago. Kelly was there that night. He was one of the regulars in Brinker’s circle.”

Mason went through the doorway into the warm sunlight. He didn’t realize that Joe had followed him until he was halfway down the street. He looked down at the dog trotting close at his heels.

“You want to come along?” he said. “Fine. But don’t go for Kelly’s throat unless I give the okay. Understood?”

Joe looked at him briefly as if to say,
Give me a break. I know my job.

A middle-aged woman came toward them on the sidewalk. She had a small, fluffy white dog on a pink leash. Her eyes widened in horror when she spotted Joe. She snatched up her little dog and tucked it under her arm out of harm’s way.

Safe on its high perch, the small dog yapped at Joe, who paid no attention.

“Summer River has a leash ordinance,” the woman announced to Mason. “All dogs in town are supposed to be on a leash.”

She pointed to a nearby sign emblazoned with the silhouette of a dog on a leash.

Mason glanced at the sign and then jerked a thumb at Joe. “Take it up with him.”

He kept walking. Joe paced at his heels. When they reached the small parking lot, Mason opened the rear door of his car. Joe jumped up onto the backseat and sat.

“Try not to embarrass me like that again,” Mason said. “If we get arrested for violating the leash law, I’m not going to take the fall for you.”

Joe appeared unconcerned. He sat at attention, ears pricked, gaze focused on the view through the windshield. He was on duty, riding shotgun in the rear seat.

Mason shut the door, went around to the other side of the car and got behind the wheel. He was pulling out of the parking lot and turning onto Main Street when he saw the familiar figure entering Fletcher Hardware.

It was hard to imagine Warner Colfax engaging in a little DIY home-repair work. Odds were Colfax intended to try to apply pressure to Deke.

“Good luck to him, is all I can say,” Mason remarked to Joe.

If anyone in town could handle Warner Colfax, it was Deke.

It was still early. The daily tourist rush was not due to start for another few hours. The light traffic enabled Mason to make good time through town. He made even better time once he was on the road that would take him to Sara’s house.

Ten minutes later, he turned onto the narrow lane that cut through the old apple orchard. The Gravensteins had not been picked that summer because Sara and Mary were gone. The apples hung heavily from the trees.

There was a long black car parked in the drive next to Lucy’s compact. If Nolan Kelly had intended any harm to Lucy, it seemed unlikely he would leave his vehicle parked in front of her house. Still, like a lot of other people these days, Nolan wanted something from Lucy.

Mason shut down the engine, got out and opened the rear door for Joe. They went up the front steps together. Mason hit the doorbell, but he did not wait for Lucy to respond. When he tried the knob, he discovered that the door was open, so he let himself into the front hall.

“Lucy?” He resisted the urge to add,
“I’m home.”

“We’re in the kitchen,” she called.

She sounded fine. Mason told himself to relax. He had overreacted. It occurred to him that he had developed a disturbing tendency to do that a lot when it came to Lucy.

He went into the kitchen, Joe at his heels. Lucy and Nolan were at the table, huddled around a computer. There was a photo of a house on the screen.

Nolan managed a smile, but he did not look pleased by the interruption.

“Hello, Mason,” Lucy said. She gave him a severe stick-to-my-script look. “Nolan is showing me some listings for other, similar houses in the area so that I can get an idea of the value of this place.”

“I told you, the house is nice, but it’s not nearly as valuable as the land,” Mason said. He pulled out a chair, turned it back to front and straddled the seat. He folded his arms on the back of the chair. “But I’m sure Nolan has already explained that to you.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did explain that to Lucy.” Nolan’s jaw was clenched, but he managed to keep the smile going. “The property will certainly appeal to someone who wants to establish his own winery.”

“I hate to think of all those lovely old apple trees being destroyed,” Lucy said, “but I’m not a fanatic about saving the Gravensteins like Sara was.” She smiled. “After all, I like wine, too.”

“Glad to hear that,” Nolan said. “Because I’ve got just the buyer for you.”

“The thing is, my father insists that the house should be given a bit of a face-lift in order to get the best possible price.”

“I agree the house is a fine example of the Craftsmanship style,” Nolan said patiently. “I’m just trying to point out that you don’t need to sink a lot of money into it before you put it on the market.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning anything major,” Lucy said. “I don’t have a lot of cash to pour into the house. I appreciate your time, Nolan. I’ll think about these numbers and get back to you when I’ve made some decisions.”

Nolan hesitated. but the salesman in him must have concluded that it would not be wise to press for the listing.

“Excellent,” he said. He shut down the computer, got to his feet and took out a small silver case. “Here’s my card. Call me if you have any questions, night or day.”

“Thanks.” Lucy gave him a warm smile. She rose. “I’ll see you to the door.”

“Thanks.”

Mason watched the two of them walk across the kitchen and go into the hall. He got out of the chair and followed at a leisurely pace. Lucy glanced back and shot him a warning look. He widened his hands and gave her a polite I’m-not-trying-to-interfere look in return. He was behaving himself.

He stopped in the kitchen doorway and propped one shoulder against the jamb. He watched Nolan glance uneasily into the living room.

“Hard to believe Brinker’s body was in that fireplace all these years,” Nolan said.

“I don’t think there’s any need to mention that in the listing,” Lucy said smoothly.

“No, no, of course not,” Nolan said quickly. “But talk about weird. I don’t suppose you have any idea why your aunt, uh, did that?”

“She must have had her reasons,” Lucy said.

Nolan winced. “A lot of people may have had reasons to get rid of Brinker.”

“Really?” Lucy said.

Mason had to hand it to her. She did innocent very well.

Nolan tightened his grip on the handle of the computer case. “He’d smile at you one minute, as if you were his best friend in the world, and the next minute he would stick a knife in your back. It’s not hard to believe that he was the Scorecard Rapist. I don’t even want to think about what this town would have been like if he had hung around any longer than he did that summer. He was smart, he was rich and he was a total sociopath.”

“A real bad combination,” Mason said.

Nolan nodded grimly. “A lot of folks were damned relieved when he disappeared. If you ask me, Sara did everyone a favor by getting rid of him.”

Lucy cleared her throat gently. “As I recall, you were part of the crowd that hung around him that summer.”

“Yeah.” Nolan grimaced. “I was thrilled at first. But the big thing you learned sooner or later about Tristan Brinker was that there was always a price to pay for the privilege of being on his A-list.”

Nolan did not wait for a response. He opened the door and let himself out onto the front porch. Lucy waited until she heard the big car start up in the drive before she turned around and looked at Mason.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.

“I’m thinking that if Kelly is so happy to know that Brinker has been dead all this time, why does he seem so nervous?”

“Maybe it’s just about the listing. After all, there’s a big commission at stake, and he’s not the only real estate agent in town.”

“Maybe,” Mason said. “But I think there’s more to it than a commission.”

“Something about the way he looked around the house when he got here bothered me, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Think he might have been the person who searched the house last night?”

“I have no idea.”

“You’re absolutely sure someone tossed the place?”

“Positive,” Lucy said. “Whoever it was tried to be neat and orderly about the job, but I could tell that someone had gone through the closets and drawers and the desk. The question is, what was the intruder looking for? And why search for it now? The house has been sitting here, unoccupied, ever since Sara’s death. There was plenty of opportunity for someone to break in and steal something.”

“Obviously, the discovery of the body triggered the search.”

“Yes.”

“Lots of questions here.” Mason straightened away from the doorframe. “We need to start finding some answers. How do you feel about doing a little genealogical research?”

“What’s the name of the family?”

“Brinker.”

J
effrey Brinker and I were on top of the financial world back in those days,” Warner said. “Oh, we were still small compared to the big outfits, but we were the smartest guys in the business, and we knew it. Brinker had a way with the clients. My job was to assess the markets and pick the investments. I always did the math before making a buy, but when decision time came, I went with my gut. My instincts were damn near infallible. Jeffrey and I were making money hand over fist.”

Deke kept silent. He eased his rear down onto the stool that he kept behind the counter and watched Colfax contemplate a display of screwdrivers.

He had been surprised to see Colfax come through the front door almost immediately after Mason left. For reasons that were not yet entirely clear, Warner had started talking about the past as if they were longtime friends. That was about as far from reality as it was possible to get. In Deke’s world, a man made a few extra bucks by deploying multiple times to war zones. If he survived, he came home and bought the local hardware store. In Colfax’s world, a man played the markets, got rich and founded a boutique winery.

Deke was pretty sure that the only thing he and Warner had in common was their age.

Colfax was carrying on about the legendary accuracy of his apparently golden gut, but Deke had learned to trust his own gut a long time ago. It hadn’t come in handy for making money, but it had kept him alive in some nasty situations. It was telling him now that there were only two possible explanations for Colfax’s visit this morning. Either Warner wanted information or else he intended to try to apply some pressure. Probably both.

One thing about conversations like this, Deke thought: The best thing to do was just listen.

“But what good does it do to build an empire unless you can pass it on down to future generations?” Warner asked the screwdriver display. “Brinker and I were both cursed when it came to our sons. His died an early death. Mine turned out to be soft and weak.”

Deke shrugged, trying for noncommittal. There was no good answer, even if he had wanted to supply one.

“I used to envy Brinker, you know,” Warner said. “My boy was soft right from the start. I admit I have to bear some of the blame for the way he turned out. I was busy building Colfax in those days. I left Quinn to his mother to raise, and she turned him into a weak-willed mama’s boy with no spine.”

Deke said nothing.

“I had some hope when he married Jillian a few years ago. That girl had spirit and ambition. I knew she was marrying him for his money, but I figured the least Quinn could do was give me a grandson I could raise up to take over the reins of Colfax Inc. But he can’t even manage that much. Jillian has never gotten pregnant.”

Maybe Jillian wasn’t interested in getting pregnant, Deke thought. But he didn’t say it.

“Brinker’s boy, Tristan, on the other hand, was whip-smart, and he had his old man’s guts.” Colfax made a fist. “A little reckless, maybe, but that’s a good quality in a man, don’t you think?”

“Don’t know about that,” Deke said, judging it was time to say a few words to keep the conversation going. “The kid ended up dead.”

“Murdered, you mean.”

“Yeah, well, dead is dead.”

“Brinker’s son would have been a man’s man if he had lived.”

More likely a serial rapist or possibly a serial killer,
Deke thought.

“Do you know, I was damn glad when he and Quinn became friends that summer?” Warner continued. “I hoped some of Brinker’s nerve and ambition would rub off on Quinn. But as usual, Quinn played the follower.”

Deke folded his arms. “I wouldn’t say that Brinker’s boy was a leader. More like a first-class bastard. As far as I could tell, no one, except maybe his father, was sorry when he vanished.”

“Strong men are feared, not loved. They don’t have friends, they have rivals. They have people who take orders from them. They make their own rules.”

“That works until you need someone you can trust to watch your back.”

Warner snorted. “You don’t have a clue about what it takes to be a success, do you? All you’ve ever done in life is spend enough time in the military to make sure you got your pension, and then you came back to Summer River to open a hardware store. Never mind. That’s not important. It sure as hell isn’t why I came here this morning.”

Deke glanced at his watch. “Speaking of the store, I’ve got to open it in a few minutes. Mind telling me what this is all about?”

Warner’s jaw tightened. Anger heated his eyes. He was not accustomed to having other people hustle him along. But he managed to keep himself under control.

“By now you know that the Sheridan woman got my sister’s shares of Colfax Inc.,” he said.

“Heard something about that.”

Warner snorted. “Of course you did. The whole town is talking about it. Your nephew Mason appears to have attached himself to her.”

Deke stilled, took a breath and let it out halfway, the way he did before he took the kill shot.

“What are you saying, Colfax?” he asked. “Are you implying that Mason is seeing Lucy because he wants to get his hands on those shares?”

Warner blinked a couple times. He went very still, too, but it was a deer-in-the-headlights kind of stillness. He stared at Deke for an instant before he recovered his nerve. He even managed a chuckle, but it was a little shaky.

“Take it easy, Deke,” he said. “No offense intended. But we both know there’s a lot of money involved here. Those shares that Lucy inherited represent a controlling interest in Colfax Inc. A man would have to be a fool not to be aware that she could be a very wealthy woman if she decides to sell those shares.”

“So?”

“So I’m offering to buy the shares,” Warner said evenly. “Lucy can name her own price.”

“Expect she knows that.”

“Make sure Mason knows it. If he really has feelings for Lucy, he can do her a favor by encouraging her to sell.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to sell.”

Warner’s mouth thinned. He shook his head. “That would be a poor decision.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No.” Warner exhaled heavily. “Just some good advice. You see, Deke, things are going to get real messy, real soon. Certain members of my family think I’ve gotten soft in my old age. They think I can’t protect myself and everything I’ve built. They’re wrong. Lucy Sheridan is swimming in the shark tank. If she doesn’t sell those shares as soon as possible, she’s going to find herself in the middle of a feeding frenzy. We both know she isn’t one of the sharks. That makes her the prey.”

“Sure appreciate the helpful advice, Colfax. I’ll give you some in return.”

“What’s that?”

“Couple of minutes ago, you made it clear you didn’t think friends were of much use.”

Warner shrugged. “I’ve got all the friends I want, and I wouldn’t trust any of them any farther than I can spit.”

“Something you should keep in mind. Lucy also has friends here in Summer River. Unlike you, she can trust them.”

He didn’t have to spell it out. Warner got the message.

“Have it your way,” he said. “But my advice is the same. As long as Lucy is holding those shares, she’s asking for trouble. If she has any sense, she’ll take the money and run. Tell her I said that.”

“I’ll tell her.”

Warner nodded. He walked to the front door and stopped, one hand on the knob. “You know, it’s kind of ironic, when you think about it.”

“What is?” Deke asked.

“Brinker and I gave our sons all the advantages a man can give his boy—money, a good education, the right social connections and the opportunity to inherit a business worth millions. But you’re the one who raised up a boy to be a real man. Everyone around here knows you don’t mess with Mason Fletcher. Son of a bitch, Deke, I can’t think of the last time I envied anyone, but I envy you.”