Cash gestured at his deputy. “Call Baker’s offices. Let me know right away if the key to Gwenda’s apartment is there for me to pick up.”
He refocused on Vicky. “What can I do for you?”
“I actually came uh…” she cleared her throat “…to talk about Mortimer’s predator birds. None of them are missing?”
Cash seemed surprised. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“The newspaper said something about the value of trained predator birds. And Mortimer had just bought a new snowy owl a few weeks ago, Marge told me. Her boys went there to see it. I thought that maybe when you checked out the place for evidence, you had found tracks around the cages? Footprints indicating somebody had walked around there to try and get inside?”
“There were plenty of footprints all right. It had rained hard the other day and there was mud. But Mortimer walked there himself with rubber boots on, my men looked around, the whole technical team that heads out to a murder scene. I guess if the killer left prints, they got trampled later. And that the birds were the target is just talk. People looking for motive. I don’t think anything was stolen. Of course it’s such a pigsty it’s hard to tell.”
“Someone has to take care of the birds now that Mortimer is dead. They can’t get their own food and water.”
“You’re right. I hadn’t thought about that yet.” Cash frowned. “I will have to make a few calls, find out who looked after them when Mortimer was out of town. I guess those birds are not like dogs or cats who accept any temporary keeper, huh, like my deputy?”
Vicky shook her head emphatically. “I heard they can even attack someone they don’t know.”
Cash exhaled. “Great. Another headache.”
“Maybe not.” Vicky hoped she didn’t sound too eager. “Marge Fisher’s husband did take care of the birds on occasion, when Mortimer was away. She told me recently. Kevin grew up with predator birds and knows his stuff. He could do it, just until it’s clear what will happen with the birds. If you OK it, of course. He doesn’t want any trouble with the police, going someplace where he shouldn’t.”
“Smart man,” Cash said pointedly. Then he smiled again. “Thanks. That seems like a sensible solution. You see, we need a female mind around here. Someone who thinks about practical things like feeding abandoned birds instead of all those procedural headaches.”
Vicky felt kind of guilty for her hidden agenda and clutched the purse with the incriminating sheets even tighter. She actually held something that had survived the fire at Perkins’s barn. Whether it was connected with Mortimer’s death or not she should hand it over to the police.
But she had agreed with Marge that she wouldn’t share with Cash right now. Not until they were sure he wasn’t involved somehow.
So there was no way back. She cleared her throat. “Can I see Michael, maybe talk to him for just a few minutes?”
Cash pursed his lips. “No. I want to let him sweat. No visitors unless they’ve got a very good reason.”
Vicky shrugged. She didn’t want to press him, as she didn’t want to draw attention to the exact relationship between Michael and her. She was sort of confused by her attraction to him and the realization he was still hurting over Celine. Maybe Michael would never be able to really care for another woman as long as the old case was unsolved?
“Look…” Cash lifted his hands. “I don’t want to sugarcoat things for you, Vicky. Michael could be in big trouble. He might even be implicated again for Celine’s disappearance. People might conclude he killed her and silenced Mortimer because Mortimer could prove his guilt.”
“Sheriff,” the deputy called from his desk, “Mr. Baker wasn’t there, but I just got off the phone with the secretary. She’ll have the key ready for you any time you care to stop by.”
Cash seemed pleased. “I’d better go check on Gwenda right away then. I’m off,” and to Vicky, “Can I drop you in town?”
“I’m here by car. Marge lent hers to me because I had some other errands to run.”
Cash gave her a suspicious look, but he didn’t ask what those errands had been.
Just as they walked outside, his cell phone began to buzz. He took the call and listened. “Look, Deke…” His tone was threatening. “That’s not an option.”
Vicky tried not to stare at Cash, making it too obvious that she was listening in on his personal call.
“I told you to stop by the station this afternoon.” Cash spoke slowly as if he could barely control his anger. “I asked you, instead of coming out to take you in. Courtesy to Mom. Don’t make me—”
He shot upright. “You are what? At the airport? Now?”
Vicky held her breath.
Cash’s face turned red. “No, you’re not doing that. You can’t force me to…”
He clenched the phone. The veins on his temples stood out. “I don’t care. If you fly out of state, what will people think? What? Of course I don’t think you are involved in the murder. But that’s not the point.”
Vicky strained her ears to catch anything of what Deke was saying on the other end, but failed. Beyond an agitated voice she could make out nothing. But Cash’s remarks said it all.
Deke was not going to show up at the police station this afternoon to make a statement about his possible involvement in Mortimer’s murder. He was flying somewhere.
Intending never to return?
Cash lowered the phone with a gesture as if he was ready to fling it on the ground. “Can you believe that? Deke is flying out to some business meeting. Says there are hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake. Sure, why let one little murder hold you back?”
He banged the roof of his Jeep. “And what about my reputation being at stake, huh? What will people say when they find out attention was drawn to my brother Deke, in a murder investigation, and I let him leave the state?”
He looked at Vicky. “You know what the brat asked me? If I was going to put out an APB on him! The nerve!”
He exhaled slowly. “But Deke never took me seriously. Believes he is the big man in the family, with his mortgages and loans. Doesn’t care that he has to foreclose on local people and drive them out of their homes and businesses that were family-owned for generations. Makes him feel real tough.”
Cash stared down on the phone in disgust, then said, “Oh, never mind. His plane will be up in the air soon. I’ll just have to wait till it pleases Mr. Big Businessman to come back here, so I can question him.”
“If he even comes back.” Vicky glanced at Cash. “What if he is involved in Mortimer’s death and flees to escape arrest?”
“Deke a killer? No way.” Cash waved a dismissive hand. “Look, my brother is a pompous you-know-what who listens too much to his pushy wife. I bet Lilian put him up to this. She thinks it is beneath them for her husband to come to the police station. She underestimates the seriousness of it all and thinks a little time away will take the heat off of things and Deke won’t have to appear for a statement at all. Then her posh friends won’t gossip about it.”
“Instead it will only put the heat on.” Vicky glanced worriedly at Cash. “People will assume Deke is running because he has something to hide. Where there is smoke, there is fire, and that sort of thing. If Lilian did put him up to it, she gave him the worst possible advice.”
“Yeah,