Remote Consequences (18 page)

"Well, he's always been a real jerk in my opinion, but I'm not sure it is a reason to frame him for murder. Although if the mayor himself killed my father…maybe someone is trying to shout it to the world. Hey, look here—this is who killed Caden Brooks."

His theory wasn't without merit, but it still all seemed a little juvenile somehow. "I'm sorry, Colin. I know all this must be hard for you. When my parents died it was a simple traffic accident. I cannot imagine all this complicated stuff going along with it. I'm just sorry that you have to go through this."

He reached out and ran a finger across my jawbone. And I gave my cornbread a healthy squeeze. "So, what now? Can you send the fingerprint evidence to Ty?"

"No. I'd rather not."

I shook my head, surprised by his answer. "But I thought we were going to take down whoever did this to me."

"My friend who ran the evidence might lose his job if he had to explain that he'd run the test outside the system and had given me confidential information. I'd rather work this my own way, if you don't mind."

I shrugged. "I guess so. Boy, the list of suspicious characters grows daily around here." I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table and surveying the multitude of empty boxes.
Maybe I should stop eating now.
I checked with my bulging stomach, and it agreed.

"We need to start from the beginning and try to line up all the players."

"The beginning? You mean from when I found your father's body?"

"No, I mean from the night he died."

Gulp.

What I'm afraid to hear I'd better say first myself. –Irish Proverb

The next morning Ty arrived to escort me to my appointment with Randall Jamison. I'd had a good night's sleep courtesy of the long chat I'd had with Colin, a scrumptious pancake breakfast courtesy of Ms. Lanier and Paget, and a long, hot shower courtesy of the City of Millbrook's water supply.

I greeted him with a grin as I met him on the porch and followed him down to his truck. He watched me inquisitively as he hurried to open the door for me then helped to hoist me up into the tall seat. Since I was in such a jovial mood, I didn't argue.

"I can't believe you're driving a truck. What happened to your Camaro?" I asked.

"Oh…" He paused as if thinking back with fond memories. "I switched to trucks a while back. More practical."

"Practical?" I gave him a dubious look. "Since when have you ever been practical?"

We remained silent for a time after that.

"What's going on with you? You seem unbelievably happy today."

I turned to observe his face. It was etched with worry. Dark circles under his eyes and downturned lips completed the picture.

"No, Ty. Just feeling better than I have in days."

He seemed to consider my words before he spoke again. "You seem strange. Not your usual…self."

I laughed. Ty shot me a sideways glance.

"I'm just ready to get this over with," I explained.

He reached over and turned the air up a notch. "You don't seem worried. You seem unbelievably calm for someone who is out on bond."

"Ty, you don't believe I had anything to do with this case other than that I found Caden Brooks' body and reported it, do you?"

"No."

"Thank you, Ty."

"For what?"

"Just…thank you for being here for me. For saving Paget. I never—" My voice failed for a moment.

He gave a quick nod and turned up the air another notch.

I changed the subject to something less emotional. "You're about to freeze me out of here. What are you so hot under the collar about?"

He didn't answer, but he turned the air back down again. "I just think the mayor and the captain are in on this whole thing together. I got to thinking about it. And I remember that, shortly before Caden Brooks disappeared, there had been a rumor that he was planning to run against the mayor and that the Mills would rather die than to let the Brooks rule this town."

Everyone knew that the Brooks and the Mills had once been the best of friends but had now been enemies for longer than they'd ever been friends. I wasn't sure exactly why, but I guess it didn't matter. What mattered was what happened that night.

"So, who all knew that Caden was going to run against him?"

"Well, not many—I'd guess. As far as the town knew, it was just a rumor. Caden went missing and the rumor died down."

I considered this a minute. "Why do you think the captain is in on it—well, other than these ridiculous charges that have been filed against me?"

Ty turned into a small parking lot outside a ranch-style home just off Grandview Road. A modest brass nameplate marked the door to announce that this was the office of Randall Jamison, attorney at law.

I waited for Ty's response.

He cut the engine and turned to face me. "Look, I'm not sure how involved in all this you should get, Mand. I don't want to see you or Paget get hurt."

The mention of Paget threw me for a little bit of a loop. What did she have to do with this?

"Ty, I'm already involved, wouldn't you say?"

He exhaled loudly. "Yes. You're involved."

I reached over and placed my hand atop his. The skin was warm, and I almost pulled back when a tingle shot up my arm at the contact. If he noticed the tingle, he didn't let on.

Instead, he flipped his hand over and held mine in his palm. "Mandy, Captain Owens and Mayor Mills have been tight for years. Owens moved here after you left town, and it is well known that Mills brought him in just for the job. Apparently they were old college buddies. They run this town inside and out. If the mayor is involved in something, the captain knows about it. And if the mayor's family was involved, the captain sure as hell will find a way to get them out of it. Whatever it takes, this will not fall on the mayor's head."

I squeezed his hand. "Okay, I don't necessarily trust the captain, but I don't see how that involves Paget."

"Well, I'm not sure that it involves Paget, but I know that she has been hanging out with Adam Owens a lot lately, and if there's one thing the captain protects more vigorously than the mayor, it is his son."

Adam Owens. Paget's new friend and day tender. The boy she was gaga over.

I pulled my hand away. I knew what it was like to get involved with the wrong guy. I was looking at him right now. Still had him in my life despite all the years and miles I'd put between us. When all was said and done, Ty was the reason I'd distanced myself from Millbrook.

"Should I be worried about this Adam Owens kid?"

Ty shook his head. "No, Mand. I don't think the kid would do anything to hurt Paget. He seems like a good kid. I just mean…well, if the captain wanted to make trouble for you, he could see that Paget was taken from your custody. Sent away to a foster parent or something like that. If he's trying to dig up dirt that you're irresponsible or an unfit guardian. Some kind of crap like that."

My brain did cartwheels and my heart raced to catch up. "Do you think he would do something like that?" A touch of panic set in. I hadn't even begun to think about anything like that happening. I had never thought of someone trying to take Paget away from me. I'd been the one trying to figure out who else could care for her. Guilt shot through me.

"I don't know, Mand. I was hoping Randall could give us some advice here."

"Isn't that what we're doing here?"

Ty nodded. "Yep, and I think it is my fault for not jumping on your report from minute one. He and the mayor had too much time to clean up the mess before we got involved."

"What do you mean? You don't actually think the captain tampered with the crime scene, do you?"

Ty's cell phone chirped in his pocket, and he ignored my question to retrieve it and check the display. "C'mon. Randall is waiting on us."

I didn't like that he'd avoided my question. But I followed him up to the office door and allowed him to hold the door for me.

I'd only been in this office once before. When Aunt Patty had come in to sign some paperwork after my parents' death. The head of a six-point deer stared down at me from the receptionist's desk and it gave me a weird set of chills. I'd never been into hunting, but most of the men in town lived by it. I always hated seeing the deer mounts, but you got used to it when you grew up around here. Of course, I'd been gone for years, and we didn't exactly have taxidermied animal heads hanging around the campus at UAB.

The receptionist silently motioned for us to enter the double wooden doors to our left, and I followed Ty.

"Well, look at you, little Mandy Murrin. You're all grown up and how lovely you are…" A booming, bear-sized voice greeted me as I entered a den of wildlife gone crazy. Randall Jamison, avid hunter, lived and worked in a still-life zoo. It was creepy. I couldn't imagine walking in here at night. It would be like the scene of a horror movie to me.

I stayed close to Ty. I may have been raised in the South, but that didn't mean that all the customs and traditions fit in my life.

Randall was dressed in khaki slacks and a Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail collared shirt in emerald green. His eyes were a warm brown, and he smelled of a soft hint of cigar smoke.

I reached out to shake his hand, and he grabbed it, pulling me into a warm embrace from which I thought I might choke.

"You are just beautiful, Mandy. Your father would be so proud of you. I understand that you are just weeks away from completing your medical degree. Is that right?"

I tried to nod, but he had me pinned under his substantial arm, and I was worried that if I nodded that I might wedge my head farther into his embrace, thus cutting off my air supply entirely. I just mumbled something like an "uh-huh" from underneath.

Randall finally released me and I took a couple of slow, deep breaths.

Randall continued to stare at me for a moment as if lost in time. "You look so much like your mother. I really loved your folks. I…" His steady, confident voice seemed to shake a little. I watched his face go through a series of emotions and then settle back into a soft smile. "I know they'd be proud as hell of you, girl. I try to check in on little Paget now and then. She's growing like a weed that one. Just as beautiful as you, too."

I returned his smile. "Yes, thank you, sir."

He waved his hand in the air. "Oh, sir schmir. Call me Randy."

I chanced a glance at Ty, and he was looking down at his boots, which were crisscrossed at the ankle.

"Well, I appreciate your help, Randy."

He sat down behind his tall, gleaming wood desk. It looked like it was built here in this room. It was way too large to have been brought in through the door. I cast a furtive glance at the door and caught sight of a fox watching me. And I wasn't referring to Ty, who kept staring down at his boots as if they were the most entertaining thing in the room.

I returned my attention to Randall.

"So, first things first…this drummed-up charge about you filing a false police report is pure nonsense. Mandy, it is just a tactic that the captain is using to buy the mayor some more time to come up with a legal defense of his own."

"But why would accusing me of filing a false report help the mayor?"

"Well, if the mayor's attorney can prove that you didn't really find the body in his home, then he can use the defense that if he'd been involved with the death that he never would have planted the body in his own office. In other words, he wouldn't have implicated himself."

"Right. Right. But haven't they done an autopsy yet? Can't they see that the body was frozen?" I leaned forward as I thought through the evidence at hand.

"You would think. Only, the entire case has been mismanaged since the get-go."

We both turned to look at Ty, and he was still studying his boots as if there would be an exam at the end of the hour.

"You see, when the body was picked up from the mayor's office, it was taken to the local mortuary, Ride-Outs. They froze the body in their crypt and waited for the forensics team from Birmingham to come in and take custody of the victim."

"Ahh…" I was so exasperated by this news. "If they re-froze the body, it would be impossible to tell what condition the body was in when it was found."

He nodded, cleared his throat, and then continued. "After that, the autopsy was handled by an outside, independent medical examiner at the request of the chief of police. He wanted this entire thing handled privately due the case's sensitive nature."

"Sensitive nature? You mean the fact that the mayor had his butt on the line?" I crossed my arms, frustration mounting inside me.

"Yes. You know how these politicians are. And the Brooks family is huge in state government. When the body was found and identified, they demanded the independent examination. The thing is…the forensic evidence contamination had already occurred."

"What was the cause of death?"

"Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Now, despite the forensic evidence issues, they were able to determine that the blow to the head was most likely caused by a golf club. But seeing as how the mayor's house is located on the Sugar Pines course along with dozens of other residents, it is not exactly open and shut."

"Kind of like a swing and a miss, huh?"

The men stared at me. Had I said that out loud? Maybe that was a baseball metaphor anyway.

"They've searched both Mills' residences and haven't found any golf bags with missing clubs, but we are looking at a decade-old crime here. I doubt the murder weapon will be found anyway. And, of course, the freezer was never recovered, so that evidence is lost as well."

"Do you think there is a chance that the mayor could get away with this entire thing?"

Randall continued, "It is always a possibility, Mandy. Politics is huge in this state. But when it comes to the battle between the Brooks and the Mills, anything can happen."

"Why don't they go back to the beginning and trace the events of the night that Caden Brooks went missing?"

"They are, Mandy, but it is all a bunch of supposition. No one seems to know what happened that night and if they do—they aren't talking." Ty finally chimed in on the conversation. I guessed that he'd finally lost interest in his boots.