The Devil's Puzzle (34 page)

After another twenty minutes passed, I walked to the end of the block and around the corner. I could see Jesse talking with several state police. The mayor was there, as were Glad and several more of the town’s leading citizens. If there still was any danger, I decided, Jesse wouldn’t allow them to be there. And since there wasn’t any danger, I walked the rest of the way to city hall.

“False alarm,” Jesse said when he saw me. “The state’s bomb squad just came out and gave us the all clear.”

“What happened?”

“Someone said they would blow up city hall,” the mayor said.

“Did you get the call?” I asked him.

“Not me. Glad.”

I turned and saw Glad walk up behind me. “Why would someone call you?” I asked.

Glad clutched at the top button of her light pink suit. “I was in the building, at the historical society office. You know I’m the president.”

“I do.”

“I was getting together a presentation for the unveiling of the statue and I noticed that some of our artifacts were missing. Nothing valuable, just a few pieces. I came out to speak to the mayor.”

“You were working in city hall on a Sunday?”

“Yes, I was. I have a lot to do to keep things running smoothly. After that atrocious article came out in the paper, it will be that much harder,” she sniffed. “I couldn’t find the mayor, so I was going back into the office, and the phone rang. A voice, a muffled voice, said there was a bomb in the building and everyone should get out or someone would be hurt.”

“Man or woman?”

“I was so frightened, I couldn’t tell.”

“You should get home,” I said. “And maybe call your sister to see where she was today.”

“It wasn’t my sister.” Her voice hardened. “She only threatened to blow up city hall once in her life, and that was twenty years ago.”

“Still, she did make the threat once.”

“It was because the powers that be at the time were trying to pass an ordinance that would have limited the number of pets a person could have in their home. It would have meant Mary would have had to get rid of her cats. She didn’t actually intend to blow the place up. She was making a point.”

“You could say the same thing about whoever called today.”

I left Glad to be offended by my insinuation and went over to Jesse, who was talking to the mayor.

“What were you doing at city hall?” Jesse asked, his voice all business.

“I have to get signatures to get on the ballot for the next primary,” he said. “It’s never too early to worry about reelection.”

“Did you hear the call?” Jesse asked.

“No. I was coming out of the men’s room when Glad came running out into the hallway in hysterics. She said something about a bomb and that we had to run. So I went office to office making sure the place was empty. It’s a good thing this happened on a weekend, because I think we were the only people in the building.”

“And that’s all you know?” Jesse asked.

“I want publicity. This isn’t publicity. This is a disaster.” The mayor looked around. “We have three days, Chief. Three days until the anniversary celebration. I can’t have this kind of thing hitting the papers and scaring off tourists.”

“I know that.”

“Solve it or shut it down,” he said. Then he patted Jesse hard on the back and headed back into city hall.

Jesse let out a grunt. “This doesn’t even make any sense, Nell. Why would someone pull such a stupid prank? Assuming it was a prank.”

“There wasn’t a bomb,” I said, “so what else could it be?”

“A diversion.”

“That doesn’t sound good. That means something worse is about to happen.” I could see Greg signaling for Jesse, so I waved him over. “I think one of your detectives may be about to tell you what’s next.”

Greg ran over to Jesse and whispered in his ear. It was police business, I understood that, but I probably would hear about it anyway, so I waited until Greg was done.

“Jitters,” Jesse said to me, and then took off into the police station.

CHAPTER 54

I
ran down the block and around the corner to Jitters, but somehow Jesse had gotten there before me.

“Back entrance of the police station,” he said. “I can cut through the alley.”

“What’s going on?”

“The state police were able to trace the call that came in on Glad’s phone. It looks like it came from here.”

“Someone in here called in a threat?”

We looked around. The usual customers—students, moms with strollers, folks looking for a good cup of coffee. Maggie was sitting with Natalie on the purple couch. No one in the place looked the type to make a threat against city hall.

“But if you could make the trip from city hall to here this quickly . . .” I started.

“Then so could anyone else,” Jesse finished my thought.

“Or maybe it was a completely innocent call,” I said. “A coincidence. And Glad could be lying about the threat.”

“Always a possibility.” Jesse looked around.

I went behind the counter to talk to Carrie, with Jesse close behind. “Did anyone make a call from your landline just before we got word of the bomb scare?” I asked.

“Not that I know of,” she said. “It’s been really busy, so I guess someone could have.”

“But you didn’t use it?” Jesse asked.

She shook her head.

“And you didn’t notice anyone hovering near the phone?”

“Half the town comes in here,” she said. “I leave my cell phone next to the cash register, but the landline sort of moves around. It’s cordless, so it tends to be left on the counter or even on a chair. I don’t really pay attention. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” I turned back to Jesse. “What now?”

“Another dead end,” he said. “I just start investigating one thing and something else happens. I can barely keep up with the manpower I have.”

“Maybe that’s the point. Maybe Winston’s killer is just giving you busywork to keep you distracted.”

“And unable to follow up on the evidence from Winston’s death.” Jesse nodded. “It makes sense. New crimes are more of a priority than a cold case. And I have limited staff.”

“And when you think about it, no real damage was done to anything around town. No personal property, all stuff belonging to the town. And it was nothing that couldn’t be cleaned up or easily replaced.”

“Except Molly was hurt.”

“Maybe it wasn’t the same person,” I offered. “Or maybe she knows something she doesn’t even realize she knows.”

“Or there was something in those letters . . .”

“I guess we should find Molly,” I said, “before she finds out who the killer is the hard way.”

“I’m going to get in the car and patrol the streets,” Jesse said.

“I’ll check a few places and see what I can find out.”

He took my hand. “If someone is trying to keep us from solving Winston’s murder, then I want you to remember it’s someone who is capable of killing another human being. I need to know you’re going to be careful.”

“Is this going to be a speech about staying out of police business, because—”

“No.” He smiled a little. “This is a speech about how lucky I am to have you in my life, and how I don’t want to lose you.”

“Aren’t you smart to have learned that now, instead of forty years from now, like Ed did with Eleanor?”

“I have no idea what that means, but yes, I am.”

“I’ll explain later,” I told him.

“Hopefully we’ll get a lot of things explained soon.” He kissed me and headed out toward his car.

I agreed with Jesse about the killer being out there, potentially ready to commit another murder. But I wasn’t sure I shared his optimism about finding explanations soon. Answers in this case always seemed just out of my grasp, and I could feel my chest tighten at the thought of what might be next.

CHAPTER 55

I
walked across the street to Someday Quilts trying to piece together what I knew. The vandalism in the library, at the church, or in the cemetery didn’t require any special knowledge of the town. And as far as stealing an old paper from the newspaper office, anyone in Archers Rest could walk in and get access. In a town like ours, people usually aren’t on guard.

There wasn’t a single event that pointed to, or eliminated, anyone in town. Even hitting Molly over the head didn’t offer any special clues. She was small and young, and she was walking an unfamiliar street. It would be easy to watch her, to sneak up from behind and hit her. And as bad as it had initially looked, it hadn’t been a strong hit. Anyone could have struck a blow like that.

“What are you staring at me for?” Eleanor asked as I stood by the door looking at her.

“I’m actually looking for Molly.”

“She hasn’t been in here. Is she up to something?”

“She’s trying to track down Winston’s murderer.”

“What is it with you young people? You have all the things I had as a girl, plus the Internet and television and computer games. And still you spend your time chasing after killers.”

“Natural curiosity, I guess.”

“Natural stubbornness is more like it.”

“I inherited that.”

She smiled. “I suppose you did.”

“Which is why I’m never going to stop bugging you about what happened thirty-five years ago.”

“I’m finding that out.”

“So you should tell me.”

She looked around. There were no customers to help, no bolts to be restocked, no fabric to be cut. She sighed. “I want you to be proud of me, Nell.”

“I am proud of you, Grandma. I won’t stop being proud of you if you tell me what’s bothering you.”

Her eyes welled with tears. She was silent for a moment, and when she spoke she was almost whispering. “Okay. But I just want to ask you one thing. I want you to call Jesse. I think you should both hear this.”

Jesse arrived ten minutes later—with Molly in tow.

“I found her trying to walk back to your house by following the river.”

“I just wanted to see if it were possible to walk from town to Eleanor’s house without being seen,” Molly said.

“It is,” I said. “What does that prove?”

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “But I did see a woman from the back. She was running along the riverbank. Long gray hair, like that woman . . .”

“Mary,” I jumped in. “It had to be.”

“So I found a suspect,” Molly said, a triumphant tone in her voice.

“I knew if I just kept at it . . .”

“You need to stop, Molly. You tried to break into the bank,” I pointed out. “Even I’m not that nutty.”

“On Friday I asked to see the records of Grace’s accounts. Even though they were closed decades ago, they still wouldn’t show them to me.”

“The bank has been owned by a new company since the mid-eighties,” Jesse said. “They probably don’t even have the records.”

“Besides, you could get jail time for breaking into a bank,” I pointed out.