I nodded, then took a deep breath. “Louise Baker is out of prison.”
Her eyes widened, and her hand lifted to her chest. “Oh dear.”
“I don’t think she’s been advertising the news of her release, but she showed up at the tavern yesterday, stirring up trouble, then ambushed me after work and told me she wants us to work together to bring down Bart Drummond. I saw her again this morning, and she told me she needs help finding a missing toolbox.”
“What on earth for?” she asked in confusion.
“I’m sure there must have been something inside. She said it was padlocked, but she has no idea when it was stolen. Sometime between her arrest and her return to town. She’d hidden it somewhere on her property.”
Thelma gave me a sharp stare. “Are you sure there actually is a toolbox?”
“No.”
She nodded approvingly. “Good. At least you’re bein’ skeptical. Louise Baker has always been a liar, a thief, and a cheat. You can’t trust a word that comes out of that woman’s mouth. If she wants you to do something, you ought to turn and run the other way.”
“She says she has proof that Bart Drummond had someone run Jerry off the road.”
Thelma released a heavy sigh. “I wouldn’t trust that. She knows you want to know, and she’s twisting that to her advantage to get what she wants. That’s what Louise Baker does. Uses people.” She stared me dead in the eye. “Did she actually say, ‘I have proof that Bart Drummond was responsible for Jerry’s death?’”
I thought back to our conversation and realized there had been a whole lot of implying and not much else. “No.”
Sorrow filled her eyes. “See? I know that’s not what you want to hear, but that’s the truth of it.”
I nodded slowly. She was right—it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “There’s something else. She claims she stole Hank’s money.”
She looked at me for a long moment, then burst out laughing. “And I’m the Easter Bunny.”
I gave her a not-so-patient look. A quick glance at Marco revealed his grim expression.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” I asked.
“First, how on earth would she have access to Hank’s money?”
“When I spoke to Bingham back in December, he said he thought that it was Louise who worked for Hank and reported to Bart. That would mean she was near his operation.”
“But it wouldn’t mean she had access,” she scoffed. “Louise was untrustworthy, and Hank’s no fool.” She gave me a look full of pity. “Louise is stringin’ you along, Carly. Danglin’ Jerry. Then Hank. That’s how she works.”
I nodded, feeling like a fool. Maybe Thelma was right. Maybe I was so desperate, I was falling for her schemes.
“I might actually buy that,” Marco said, shifting his weight against the wall, “except Hank’s getting with his old buddies from his drug-runnin’ days. He hasn’t had a thing to do with them for years. Not even after Seth died. Now he’s hosting poker night with his old buddies, and they’re all acting like it’s business as usual. Add to that the way he kicked Carly out of the house for a few weeks so he can deal with some ‘business,’ and I’m thinkin’ it has something to do with Louise. There’s no way all of that would coincidentally happen at once.”
Thelma stared up at him in shock. “Oh dear.” She swiveled to face me. “Are you all right? Do you have a place to stay? I’m sure Greta would let you bunk at her house.”
“She’s stayin’ with me,” Marco said with a little more force than necessary. “Seein’ as how she’s my girlfriend now.”
Thelma clapped her hands together. “Why didn’t you start this conversation with that information?”
“Had I known everyone was so interested in my love life, I would have hired a plane to fly a banner over the county,” I grumbled.
Thelma laughed. “That might not be a bad idea.”
“I’m all for it,” Marco said with a nonchalant shrug.
I rolled my eyes but let a smile slip through.
Marco turned serious. “Hank’s circlin’ the wagons, and so are Lula and Bingham for that matter. After all the shit her mother’s pulled on her, I can understand why Lula would be taking a defensive position. And Bingham . . . we could say he’s protecting his wife and child, and while that may be true, I suspect he also has a personal interest in the outcome. Right before Jerry’s death, we got a lead that Bingham might have information to help put Bart away.”
“That’s nonsense,” Thelma said with a wave of her hand. “He would have used it already.”
I used to think the same, only I wasn’t so sure anymore. The information had come to me under the cover of secrecy from Emily Drummond herself, likely right around the time that Louise had been released from prison. What was the connection?
I had no delusions that Emily was trying to help me. She saw me as a way to get rid of her husband, and I was acceptable collateral damage.
“As for Hank,” Marco continued, “whatever’s going on is related to his old business. I’d stake my badge on it.”
Thelma gave him a solemn look. “Now that I think on it, Hank seemed to have some turnover in his group not long after Louise killed Walter.”
I wrote that in my notebook.
“Did it seem like he lost a lot of money?” Marco asked.
“It’s hard to say,” Thelma said thoughtfully. “Hank and Mary were never ones to throw money around. They were pretty frugal. But I do remember they’d always talked about moving away to Florida or someplace warm after he retired, and that never happened. But Mary got sick not long after Louise shot Walter, so I’m sure she decided to stay for Barbara and Seth, even though I’m sure she would have gotten better healthcare down there. Hank gave up the business nearly ten years ago. Sometime after Louise went away. Seems to me he would have stayed in it if he was havin’ money problems.”
Unless he’d needed the lump sum Bingham had offered to buy the business.
“Do you know if Louise had any friends?” I asked. “Any close family?”
She stared at the wall for several seconds. “She was friendly with Walter’s sister’s girl, but they had a falling-out.” Her eyes lit up. “Her name was Cassie Carpenter. Cassie hung around with Barbara Chalmers too, if I’m remembering right.”
“Wait,” I said. “Louise was friends with Walter’s niece?”
“Walter was a change of life baby,” Thelma said. “So he was twelve years younger than his sister and nearly ten years older than Louise, which made his niece and Louise nearly the same age.”
It took me a moment to take that in. “Wow.”
Marco grimaced, then shifted his weight off his left leg. “Did the falling-out with Cassie occur because of Walter’s murder?”
“Long before,” Thelma said.
“No other friends that you can remember?” I asked.
“Louise wasn’t the friendly type,” Thelma said. “At least not with the womenfolk, if you know what I mean.”