It was dark inside, but I found a flashlight on the counter and flipped it on to search the one-room cabin.
While it had still been a pit, Lula had at least tried to keep the place picked up. Louise, on the other hand, had made a mess. Papers were scattered all over the kitchen table, but most of them were receipts. A few were pages she’d ripped out from a notebook and crumpled into balls. I set the gun down on the table and unwrapped one of the papers, surprised to see it was a letter addressed to Lula. It didn’t take more than a few sentences to figure out she wasn’t asking for a reconciliation. Instead, Louise had blasted her daughter for turning her back on her. The words “ungrateful,” describing Lula, and “sacrifice,” describing Louise, had been used liberally. Several more wadded-up papers were different versions of the same thing. I’d spent nearly five minutes searching the place, finding nothing helpful, when I heard a car engine approaching.
I rushed over to the table to grab the gun and crept to the door. There was only one way in and out. If Louise had come back, I was in big trouble. But a quick glimpse around the door showed that it was Hank.
I stepped into the opening, and he shouted out his open window, “What the hell is taking so long?”
“Louise left, so I decided to take a look around. I’m almost done.” I sure wasn’t leaving until I checked out the loft.
I set down the gun again and made my way up to the loft, where I checked out the boxes and things piled at the back. There wasn’t any sign of a black toolbox, not that I’d expected to find it so easily. Still, it would have seemed irresponsible not to take a peek.
I climbed back down, put the flashlight back where I’d found it, and picked up the gun, carrying it out to Hank’s car and getting into the passenger seat.
“Find anything?” he asked.
“I guess it depends on how you define finding something. I got a photo of the guy who threatened me. He’s in some kind of weird relationship with Louise.” I turned on the camera and showed him one of the photos.
He took the camera and squinted at it.
“I can make it bigger.”
“I didn’t bring my damn readers.”
I took the camera and zoomed in on the man’s face before handing it back to him.
“That’s Derek. Derek Carpenter.”
Relief that Barb wasn’t the third person hit me so hard, it took me a moment to put two and two together.
“Wait.” I sat up straighter. I’d seen this man’s name in my internet search a couple days before. “Big Joe’s son?”
His eye twitched. “One and the same.”
I sat back in my seat. “How?”
He put the car in reverse, then took off down the long driveway to the county road. “I don’t know, but I need to pay a visit to Big Joe, and you can’t be anywhere around when I do.”
“Before you do that, let’s talk about what they said.” I closed my eyes and focused on the memory. “They were in the cabin when I got there, and he was shouting at her. He told her she was out of control. Then something along the lines of ‘she’s stirring up shit like you want her to.’” I opened my eyes. “I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but she wasn’t yelling.”
“Who’s the ‘she’ that’s stirrin’ up shit?”
“Marco thinks that Louise never really expected me to help her. He thinks her plan was to get me to start digging and flush things out for her. That phrase makes it sound like Marco could have been right.”
His lips pursed. “Agreed.”
“He also said they were no closer to finding the gold than when they first started.”
His jaw clenched. “What else?”
He turned onto the county road, heading toward the highway.
“Louise wasn’t happy he’d killed ‘him.’” I used air quotes around him. “The guy said it got ‘her’ motivated.”
Hank looked like he was ready to throttle someone.
“Then the guy said he’d had to go because he knew too much. I’m presuming he was talking about Jerry. Louise said no, that she could have worked her wiles on him. That disgusted Derek, and he reminded her that he was old, and she countered by saying his father is old, which only disgusted him more. Then she kissed him and sent him on his way.”
He was silent for a moment. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“Bottom line: Derek Carpenter killed Jerry, partially to get me motivated.” My voice broke. “And partially because Jerry knew too much about something.”
“What would he know too much about?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “I thought the guy who came to see me did it because Bart was trying to warn me off, but it sounds like Louise was trying to light a fire under me. Except, to do what? Dig up more dirt on Bart? And what does Jerry have to do with any of it?” Then it hit me. “Louise went to see Bart about a week ago. Right around the time that Jerry was killed.”
“What was she doin’ visitin’ Drummond?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know. But what if Jerry heard or saw something he wasn’t supposed to? And they killed him, thinking I’d presume it was Bart. And Derek dropped by Marco’s house that morning to make sure I got that very impression.”
“What could Jerry have seen?” Hank asked.
I ran through the possibilities, then gasped. “Emily.”
“Emily was doin’ something? Why would Louise care?”
“No. Emily came to Max’s apartment a couple of days go and brought me a box with Jerry’s things, but I forgot all about it. It’s still in Max’s apartment.” I turned to look at him, my mind racing. “Hank, she made a big deal about giving me the contents of that box. She said Jerry would want me to have it….What if what he found out is in that file box?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” He glanced at me pointedly, his eyes steely and determined. “We’re going to get that box.”
Chapter Thirty
I put Hank’s gun back in the glove compartment and then checked my phone. The text to Marco still hadn’t gone through, not that I was surprised.
“You’re sure you saw Wyatt talkin’ to Derek behind the garage?” Hank asked.
“Yeah.” I hadn’t fully processed the implications of that until now. “Do you think he’s working with Louise?”
He grunted. “We need to ask him what he’s up to.”
“You really think he’s going to tell us the truth?” I scoffed. “That man dodges questions like a fast-footed kid in a dodgeball game. Where does Franklin come into this?”
“He’s friends with Derek.”
“What? No. Franklin comes into the tavern all the time with his friends, and Derek has never once been with them.”
“I don’t know if they’re still friends, but they were close back in school. Their fathers are cousins.”
“It’s hard to believe he’s working with Derek and Louise, but the truck crash was pretty suspicious. Still, why would he claim that a black truck had run him off the road? Doesn’t seem like that would be in Derek’s best interest.”