Hadley glanced at Flynn, but he was busy writing notes. MacAuley continued. “The HR director described her as reliable, skilled, no problems with anyone she worked with.” He shot the chief a meaningful glance. “At home, she kept their financial records real neat, like you’d expect. There might have been money stress-most of those fancy SUVs and stuff were less’n a year old, and they didn’t have very much in checking or savings, according to her most recent statement, which is the only one I could find. There were some receipts for winnings and expenses from several casinos in an accordion file marked TAXES, so the gambling was not a one-off. There’s a single mortgage on the house, payments current. The only thing that I flagged was his life insurance policy. It was underwritten by his employer to the tune of a cool half mil.”
Hadley couldn’t help it; she whistled.
“That’s a helluva lot for a construction worker with no dependents,” the chief said.
“Judging by the tax returns I saw, he was the big earner, not her. Which means if he was about to pull the plug on the relationship, she’d be pretty much left out in the cold, as far as money went.” He made a gesture toward the chief. “You know, your first thought mighta been the right one.”
“Murder-suicide?”
“Could be the reason McNabb hasn’t turned up yet is that she did him somewhere else and hid the body.”
“Then came back home to top herself? Maybe.”
“I disagree. I think we’re going to find the husband.” Eric crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his chair back. “I think he did her.”
The chief raised his eyebrows. “Based on…?”
“I can’t see her killing herself. She’s got relationship problems, and job problems, but let’s face it, there was obviously a lot of marital property to go around even if they did split up. And how hard can it be for a good bookkeeper to find employment?” Eric let his chair drop to the floor again. “I’m betting they had a roaring fight, he did her, and then dropped her in the pool.”
The chief dropped the folder back onto the table. “We can all agree that finding Wyler McNabb is the top priority. Once we’ve got him, we’ll be able to pin this thing down.” He glanced around the squad room. “Any other questions? No? Okay, then. Lyle, Eric, with me.”
Hadley glanced at Flynn, and then toward McCrea, who was following the chief and MacAuley out the door.
Flynn paused in the act of tucking his notebook away. “What?”
“She was a veteran.”
“Yeah?”
She dropped her voice. “Eric was awfully insistent on her death being a homicide. Do you think it’s a warning sign? Like he couldn’t stand the idea that another veteran might have killed herself?”
“She might not have.” Flynn collected his hat and handed Hadley hers. “Sure, it looks a lot like suicide, but she’s got a missing husband who likes to throw money around like rice at a wedding. An Escalade. A plasma-screen TV. An in-ground swimming pool, for chrissakes.”
She couldn’t stop her grin. He sounded so outraged. “Flynn, I had an in-ground pool in California.”
He stood to one side and let her precede him out the squad room door. “It makes sense out there. Here, where you can only use it a few months out of the year?” He shook his head. “It’s just a big concrete sign that reads Money means nothing to me. They could have stapled twenties on the front of the house and sent the same message. At least that way, they wouldn’t have had to keep the thing clean and chlorinated.”
They walked down the hall side by side. Money means nothing to me. She bit her lip.
“What?” He opened the station house door.
Hadley zipped her jacket against the cool breeze. “What do you mean, what?”
“You thought of something. You always bite your lip like that when you’re thinking.” Flynn clattered down the steps toward the parking lot, a small smile on his face.
She forced herself not to bite her lip again as she followed him. “Of all the stuff they have at the McNabbs’ house, what do you think cost the most?”
“The pool.”
“Really? More than the cars?”
“Yeah. You have to dig them out crazy deep and wide, and surround them with layers and layers of crushed gravel and stuff to keep them from cracking when everything freezes. It’s a huge job.”
She paused by her cruiser. “I wonder… Eric and MacAuley didn’t turn up a note.”
He looked at her intently. “No.”
“Maybe where she did it was her note. She kills herself in the most expensive, wasteful thing they own.”
“What’s her message? F-you?”
“No.” Hadley opened the car door and tossed her lid and notebook in. “‘Money means nothing to me.’”
Hadley had been on patrol for three hours when she got the call to respond to army personnel trying to get into the McNabb house.
“Are you sure?” she asked Harlene.
The dispatcher’s voice was tart. “That’s what the neighbor said. If you go over there in your unit, you can find out for yourself.”
Hadley was extra polite when she signed off. She was pretty sure Harlene liked her, but Hadley’s position as low man on the totem pole meant she got the least amount of slack.
Quentan Nichols, she thought. Back for another shot at love. Boy, was he in for an unpleasant surprise. The surprise, however, was on Hadley, when she pulled in behind an anonymous government-issued car and found a tall white woman standing in the front yard, talking on a cell phone.
The woman hung up as Hadley opened the driver’s side door. She was dressed in a green suit instead of those blurry camouflage outfits soldiers wore, with a lot of ribbons and stuff pinned to a jacket that must have been tailored but still didn’t fit quite right. Hadley, whose uniforms came in any size as long as it was men’s, recognized the look.
“Ma’am? Can I help you?”
A flicker at the corner of the garage. Hadley twitched toward the movement, then relaxed when she saw another army guy coming toward them. This one was in urban camo, like Nichols had been, but was younger and lighter-skinned. He was also carrying a sidearm.
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Arlene Seelye.” The woman stepped toward her. She was older than Hadley had thought at first, midforties at least. “I’m looking for Mary McNabb, also known as Tally McNabb.”
“You’re military police?”
Colonel Seelye nodded. “Specialist McNabb is absent without leave. We’re here to return her to her battalion.”
Hadley tried not to let that little piece of info rock her back. AWOL? They had all been working on the assumption that McNabb was quit of the army. The chief needed to be in on this. “Can you wait here a moment, ma’am? I’ve got to report back to my dispatcher and tell her what’s going on.”
Colonel Seelye cut her eyes toward the small houses flanking the McNabb place. “Observant neighbors.”
“It’s a small town, ma’am. We try to look out for each other.” Hadley walked back to her unit with the cop strut she had picked up from watching Deputy Chief MacAuley-not too fast, not too slow. Owning the situation. Inside, she raised Harlene and let her know what was going on.
“Hold on a sec,” Harlene said. “The chief’s just calling in.” Hadley’s line went dead. She looked through the windshield at the two MPs. They had turned toward the house, so their backs were toward her. She wondered what they were saying to each other.
“Hadley?”
“Yeah. I mean, here.”
“The chief is on his way. He wants to talk to ’em, so don’t let ’em leave before he gets there.”
Hadley almost asked how she was supposed to accomplish that, but she knew what Harlene would say. Think of something! “Will do,” she said. “Knox out.”