The Season of Killing by Leigh Mayberry (top romance novels .TXT) 📕

“No, not all the time,” Meghan said. “Most of the time, we’re chasing people driving too fast through town. Or we’re dealing with a domestic issue. Usually, it’s things like stealing airplane gas, shoplifting, or four-wheeler theft.”

“I heard you gave away a nice boat,” Freddie said. “Duane had his eye on it, and you handed it over to Tommy Bartlett.”

“Tommy earned the salvage on the boat. He called in the tip on the murder,” Lester said. “It belongs to Tommy.”

It was a little after seven that Monday night when the three of them left the Kesuk’s house. Meghan felt refreshed and invigorated. The constant snowfall, moderate lazy flakes had usually had a calming and lasting effect. It lost her over the weekend. Death had a way of murdering the Christmas spirit.

Chapter Eighteen

 They went over the list of suspects inside the house and started actively eliminating people that didn’t fit specific parameters. The inventory dropped from sixteen people to nine. That made it a little easier when the three of them discussed the case once they returned to public works after a little slice of home cooking.

Norman Fisher remained at the top of their list. They focused on the reason why someone like Norman, who lived a relatively nonviolent life, suddenly changed his mind.

Jack Boyd, the mouthy one of the group, the one who considered himself the jokester, made Lester bristle. Meghan discounted Boyd as a person who had the fortitude to commit murder. She didn’t think he had the strength to lift a hammer, let alone use it to knock someone on the head. She let Lester keep him on the list. Meghan agreed with Lester’s view that someone like Boyd accepted anything handed to him as long as he didn’t have to work for it. Easy cash to keep his mouth shut wasn’t out of the ordinary for his character.

Christine Singleton professed to watch too many television crime shows. Everything she knew about the law she learned from prime time. That meant colorful quips about talking to people in confident tones. Sometimes when someone wanted to say something, Singleton changed the dialogue by mentioning how nothing Meghan or Lester had regarding evidence had to do with any of her friends. At one point, Meghan distinctly heard Singleton say ‘client’ and not ‘friend.’

 Meghan kept Diana Franks on the list of suspects because her mother was bitter, angry, and broke. Money made people do things they didn’t know was in them before confronted with monetary salvation. What Meghan personally believed, but wouldn’t share with Lester, was a little darker. Linda Franks, Diana’s mother, was a friend of Barbara. It meant somehow, she knew Hilma probably better than most other people in town, perhaps a little better than Freddie. If push came to shove between Diana and her mother, for the sake of the toddler, they might justify stealing money.

“What about Willie Ortega?” Lester said. “He’s kind of the odd one out. He doesn’t have any ties to the community. I think he came here a few years ago for a construction job.”

“Why is he still here?” Meghan asked.

“I think it has to do with Diana,” Eric added.

Meghan put that together. “Is Diana’s kid also Ortega’s?”

“Well, funny when you get around a bunch of people who play bingo all the time. They seem to know a lot about other people. That’s the word on the street.”

“So, maybe they’re working together,” Meghan said.

“I don’t think so,” Lester said. “I can’t see Linda knowing something that big and not telling someone.”

“Not even if it meant a big payday for her grandkid?”

It was as Meghan feared. The reason she didn’t tell Lester Diana made the list was the same reason he wanted to remove her. The matriarch of the family supposedly dictated how her daughter acted.

Lester shook his head. “I think we can rule out George Hudson too.”

Hudson was the simplest of the group. A little older than Norman, a little younger than Matthew Anuun, he made the perfect patsy. He was the kind of Gollum figure or robot that took orders from others and thought peer pressure was acceptable behavior.

“I will agree with that to a fault,” Meghan said. “I think if George did it, then someone told him to do it. He’d have an accomplice. He needs to get his orders from somewhere.”

“I think he’s sweet on Marie Bear,” Lester said. “He stared at Marie the whole time we interviewed them.”

Marie and Lachlan Bear, siblings a year apart, were more like a couple than brother and sister. It wasn’t in any sense of incest, just that they got along better than most friends.

“So maybe Matthew Anuun and Lachlan Bear did it,” Meghan said. “Marie sticks around because I think she’s inseparable with her brother. George stays close to Marie. Matthew strikes me as a little impulsive, but I noticed the minute we went back to interview them, Matthew was the reserved one while Lachlan was the most defensive out of the group.”

“He was the one who paid close attention when we were outside talking to Norman again.”

Eric sat on the sofa listening to the banter, watching Lester and Meghan as they lobbed accusations and suspects at each other.

“Do you think they all did it?” he asked. Playing devil’s advocate happened when there wasn’t anything else to do.

Lester and Meghan looked at him. “In my experience,” Meghan said. “Rarely is there a group mentality when it comes to murder. If I had to go with anything, I’d say at least two people out of the group had something to do with the murder. I think one person had something to do with the fire.”

“Do you think that person is the same person who was involved with the murder?” Eric used his hands to