Mattie didn’t like the idea of Cole going on a man-eating lion hunt in the mountains when his daughters needed him. Sophie and Angela should come first. But Glenna’s hazel eyes lit with anticipation.
“Having a vet on the hunt would be perfect,” she said. “I’d like to sedate the cat instead of killing it, and a vet could help. I’ll come to your meeting.”
The thought of Cole riding into harm’s way made Mattie’s stomach drop. She would lobby against it, but she supposed the final decision would be up to Cole. The best she could hope for would be for him to decline the mission, but she doubted that would be the case. If it meant saving the life of an animal, whether it was wise or not, choosing to stand aside wouldn’t be the Cole Walker way.
EIGHTEEN
Mattie drove by the Big Sky Motel on her way to the station, noticed the Cadillac’s absence, and wondered where Zach Irving and Ben Underwood had gone. Had they headed back to California, or were they going forward with their fishing trip? Stella would know, and she made a mental note to find out.
Sheriff McCoy’s Jeep was already parked in the lot at the station, as was Stella’s Honda. Mattie unloaded Robo and went inside, but as soon as she entered, Stella came from her office and headed toward McCoy’s, beckoning for Mattie to join her.
Stella spoke softly. “The sheriff has Nate Fletcher’s parents here in his office. I want you to hear what they have to say.”
“All right.” Mattie followed Stella through McCoy’s office door.
Bent with grief, Tom and Helen Fletcher looked like they hadn’t slept for days. Sheriff McCoy had settled them into visitors’ chairs, cups of coffee placed on the desk in front of them. Helen hunched forward in her chair, her arms wrapped around her middle, while Tom sat with knees splayed, elbows propped on his thighs as if holding him up. Their eyes were reddened, lids swollen.
Stella and McCoy took their seats, while Mattie and Robo lingered in the doorway. Tom Fletcher stood and offered his chair, but Mattie told him she’d rather stand. He sighed heavily as he sank back into his seat, the weight of the world on his bent shoulders.
McCoy cleared his throat. “Mr. Fletcher, would you repeat what you’ve told me for Detective LoSasso?”
Tom nodded and set his gaze on Stella. “We knew we needed to come talk to you in person, because we know how it is in small communities.”
“How’s that, Mr. Fletcher?”
“Nate was the outsider here. Hometown folks get the benefit of the doubt.”
Stella frowned. “I can assure you that’s not how we’re running our investigation.”
“The sheriff has already assured me of that. But still, it’s important for us to be here.”
“I’m sure that’s true. And it’s important for us to hear what you have to say.”
Tom leaned forward. “There’d been something eating away at Nate for the past few months. He’s never been the kind who would talk openly about his troubles, but when we spoke on the phone, I could tell he was unhappy.”
Stella nodded, apparently waiting while he collected his thoughts.
“He quit calling me and his mother. If we wanted to touch base, it was up to one of us to reach out.” Tom looked at his wife. “A few months ago, he told Helen that things weren’t going well at home and he was considering leaving Kasey. When she asked him why … Well, you tell them, honey.”
This came as a surprise. Everything she and Stella had gleaned from Kasey and her family suggested that the two had been happily married.
Helen picked up the story. “Nate said Kasey had expectations that he couldn’t fulfill. That seemed to be all he wanted to say about it, and I gathered it was a private matter so I shouldn’t probe.” A slight tinge of pink colored her pale cheeks, and she brushed a strand of dark hair shot with gray back from her face.
Helen choked up, so Tom continued. “A couple months ago, Nate asked to borrow money. Quite a large sum, in fact. I asked why he needed so much, and he said the original loan for starting his business had come due and he hadn’t generated enough income to cover it. That didn’t seem right to me, so I asked if I could view his financials before making a commitment.”
There’d been a hint that Nate and Kasey had been dealing with financial trouble, but this bit of news provided confirmation. Mattie wondered if the couple was deeper in debt than she’d thought.
Tom braced his elbows on his knees, hanging his head in utter desolation. “In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t done that. Nate got his feathers ruffled, and it took some explaining to make him understand that his mother and I wanted to help, but we needed to be assured that his business could pay back the loan eventually.”
Helen interjected, placing her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Tom has a lot more business experience than Nate. He’s managed his own insurance company for over thirty years.”
“It’s made a living for us, but we don’t have large sums of money on hand to loan out.” Tom placed his hand on hers. “When Nate was a child, we covered him with a generous life insurance policy, in part to be used to borrow against if he needed college money or start-up money for a business. I suggested we look into borrowing against the policy if he was interested.”
“What’s the death benefit on that policy?” Stella asked.
Tom raised a brow. “I was getting to that. Half a million dollars.”
Mattie was blown away.
“That’s a large amount for someone so young,” Stella said.
Tom shrugged. “It’s our business. It’s what we believe in.”
“Did Nate go ahead and use the policy to borrow the money?”
“No, we didn’t get around to that. I explained the details to him, and he said he’d talk it over with Kasey and get back to me. That’s as far as it went.”
Helen looked at Stella. “Shortly after we spoke to you yesterday, Kasey called to ask about filing a claim on the policy for the death benefit. We packed up our car and headed down here to talk to the authorities.”
Mattie figured she knew why they had, and she guessed Stella did too, but the detective was waiting for them to say more. When they didn’t, Stella offered a prompt. “What did Kasey say when she called you?”
Lines of concern on Tom’s face added to those already etched by grief. “I told Kasey we’d need to have a copy of Nate’s death certificate before I could file a claim for her.”
Tom took a moment to struggle with tears that brimmed in his eyes. “And then I explained that in cases of homicide, the company would probably launch an investigation before paying. That upset her, and I was worried that she needed the money right away to pay back the bank. I thought we should help her with it if we could. But when I asked, I found out that Kasey’s dad, Doyle Redman, is the one who loaned Nate start-up money years ago. There was no bank involved. Then she said that Nate owed money for gambling debt and he’d been unable to pay back her father. I had no idea—” Tom’s voice broke and trailed off.
Helen reached for her husband’s hand. “We had no idea about any of this. The loan, the gambling. None of it.”
Nate’s parents were obviously devastated, and Mattie’s heart went out to them. But she also felt a sense of irritation. Why was this the first time anyone had mentioned the bit about gambling debt to law enforcement? Kasey had had plenty of opportunities to tell either her or Stella about it. Who did Nate owe gambling money to? And why hadn’t Kasey shared this piece of the puzzle with the police?
“What did Kasey tell you about the gambling debt?” Stella asked.
“She said he’d been to Vegas and racked up debt on all their credit cards,” Tom said. “I remembered Nate telling me that he’d been driving from California to Nebraska a lot and was tired of it, but I was shocked to learn he had a gambling problem. And once I promised Kasey I’d get back to her about the life insurance, she couldn’t get off the phone fast enough. Then Helen and I started talking, and we got worried.”
Repetitive trips from California to Nebraska—to Mattie, that meant drug running.
“Did Nate say why he was making these trips back and forth across the country?” Stella asked.
“He said it was for his business. Supplies and working to get clients. In hindsight, I have to wonder about that.” Tom paused while his gaze shifted between Stella and the sheriff. Mattie wondered exactly what he was thinking. He’d brought up some hard information with serious consequences that implicated Kasey.
Stella leaned forward, placing her elbows against her legs in a posture that matched Tom’s, although unlike his downtrodden body language, her energy fairly snapped between them. “Is Kasey the only beneficiary on the insurance policy?”
Tom nodded. “I suggested that Nate make the change shortly after he married. In those days, it seemed like he’d found the love of his life.”
“Kasey is our daughter-in-law, and we’ve always thought she was a sweet girl.” The pain caused by thinking anything different was evident on Helen’s face. “If it turns out that she has nothing to do with Nate’s murder, it would be devastating to let her know we’ve even brought it up. I hope you can understand our position.”
“We handle these things carefully, Mrs. Fletcher,” McCoy said. “It’s a theory that should be examined, and you can be assured that we’ll proceed with discretion.”
Tom cleared his throat. “The Redmans are important people in Timber Creek.”
“Like Detective LoSasso said, that won’t influence our investigation,” McCoy told him.
But Mattie knew that statement wasn’t necessarily true. Status had an impact on judgments no matter where people lived or in what profession they were involved. Even the local judge sometimes seemed to sign search warrants based on family connections.
“We’re dedicated to finding your son’s killer,” Stella said. “Do you have any other concerns you’d like to discuss?”
As Tom shook his head, he looked at his wife. “I think that’s all.”
“Will you be staying in Timber Creek?”
“At least for a few days. We need to see Kasey and help her with arrangements for our son’s funeral.” Helen’s cheeks were flushed with stress. “It’s hard to explain, but Kasey was our son’s choice, and we’ve loved her as if she were one of our own. It’s a terrible thing to harbor such an evil suspicion about someone you love. What if we’re wrong? We don’t want to color her life with such a horrible accusation.”
Mattie thought these two were perhaps among the wisest people she’d ever encountered. Even in the face of their own grief, they were weighing their words and striving to protect another from unwarranted suspicion.
Stella retrieved her card from her pants pocket. “You can call me to talk anytime, day or night. And let us have your contact information in case we need to get in touch.”
After the Fletchers gave Stella their cell phone numbers, the meeting broke up. Mattie opened the door she’d been standing beside, asking Robo to heel as she stepped back out of the way.
On his way out, Tom made eye contact before glancing down at her dog. “I admire the work you do. And he’s a beauty.”
“Robo’s responsible for finding the bulk of the evidence we have in your son’s case,” McCoy said.
Tom’s gaze conveyed intense sincerity. “Thank you for that.”
“We’ll stay on it.” And as Tom reached to pet her dog’s head, Mattie was quick to prompt Robo. “It’s okay, Robo. Say hello.”
Robo stood and wagged his tail. Most people didn’t seem to realize how dangerous it was to reach out toward a strange dog, especially a protective one like hers. But good genetics and years of training paid off. Take a dog with a friendly personality, add socialization and behavioral training as a puppy, and then top it off with months and months of continuous training in police work and obedience, and here was the result. This type of police dog earned back every one of the thousands of dollars spent to acquire him. Mattie never took having such a valuable asset for granted.
Tom stroked Robo’s head and then escorted his wife through the lobby to leave. McCoy held the door for them as he said goodbye.
“That’s the best motive we’ve got, at least in Nate’s case,” Stella muttered under her breath to Mattie.
“Wives have killed for less,” she replied. “So evidently Nate’s been stopping in Vegas, and he told his wife he was in Nebraska when he wasn’t. Things between them aren’t as rosy as she’s led us to believe.”
“It’s time I pulled her in and talked to her here at the station,” Stella said.
Mattie nodded. “The insurance money works as a motive for Nate, but what about Wilson?”
“Maybe there was some kind of a love triangle gone bad. Right now, I’m skeptical about any of the information we’ve learned from Kasey Redman.”
“Cross-country trips could mean drug running, but you know who else is from California?” Mattie eyed Stella.
“Zach Irving and Ben Underwood. And right now they’re supposedly on a fishing trip up in the mountains north of town with our first victim’s brother-in-law.”
“Do we know that for sure?”
Stella nodded. “Their car’s parked out at the Redman Ranch. Spotted it there early this morning.”
McCoy came back through the lobby to join them. “Let’s take a thirty-minute break and then meet in the briefing room before Glenna Dalton and Dr. Walker arrive. We need to plan how we’re going to keep our promise to proceed with the utmost care when what we really need to do is bring in the victim’s wife and sweat her.”