Chapter sixteen

Karen had been nursing her glass of beer for an hour at the Happy Harbor, letting it grow warm and fl at.

Sometimes she thought about Addy, other times about nothing at all. For the first time she didn’t know what to do, which unsettled her. In the army she simply followed orders but used her brain to make decisions regarding those orders. In civilian life, she still followed orders, but she had much more leeway to carry them out. She had to report her latest findings, but she didn’t want to.

She had known Addy and Tommy so long they were her family, even if Addy didn’t choose to view them that way. Karen could no more suspect them than she could her own mother.

But what had Tommy meant by keeping Vinson a secret? She couldn’t interrogate Tommy. She needed to talk to Addy, find out what he meant. But what about Addy’s behavior that day and her appearance of guilt? Was Karen missing something?

“If you don’t pick your chin up off my bar soon I’m going to lose every customer in the joint.” Dee-Dee swiped a bar towel across the surface, placing a coaster under Karen’s glass. “And keep the damn glass on a coaster, will ya? It’s bad enough the men put cigarette burns on the counter.”

Karen gazed at Dee-Dee as she sucked on her cigarette butt, letting the ashes drift to the floor. “Didn’t you give those up for Euell Gibbons?”

Dee-Dee snorted. “She kindly mentioned the cigarette smell to me. Of course, that was after the sex. But damn, she was awesome in bed.”

“Please, spare me the details.”

“What bug crawled up your ass tonight?”

“Aw, nothing.” Karen wished she could talk to someone.

“It’s Addy, isn’t it?”

“What makes you say that?” Karen squinted at her through the smoke.

“Damn, woman. You ain’t been right since she got back in town. You’ve been in love with her since the first lungfish crawled onto land. What did she do? Give you the same old song about how you broke her heart? Well, you did, hon. Being cheated on is tough to get over.”

“Jesus, Dee-Dee. We’ve been through that a million times. You know how bad I feel about it. I’ve been punished enough. For Christ’s sake, it’s been over six years. Why can’t she move on?”

Dee-Dee shrugged. “Addy’s stuck in the past. She hasn’t had it easy since she was a kid, what with her folks gone and now her grandma. On top of all that, she’s got to be responsible for Tommy.”

God, Karen hadn’t considered that. If Addy was somehow mixed up in this, what would happen to Tommy? If Addy was mixed up in this. No wonder she didn’t want Tommy to talk to anyone.

Hopefully, Tommy was confused and neither he nor Addy had anything to do with Vinson’s murder, but her gut told her otherwise. Yet she couldn’t let them down.

The sun had just broken the edge of the horizon the next morning when Liberty strolled through the woods on the path that led to the inlet. Halfway there, she turned left on a diagonal route that she had discovered on her first hike. Within moments, she spotted the two men who stood out like cockroaches on a white linoleum floor.

“Cheatham, Grassley,” she acknowledged.

“Agent McDonald,” the husky blond, Agent Cheatham, said.

“What’ve you got?”

“Here.” She handed him a small packet. “Water samples from the area. They need to be analyzed. And I may have a suspect. The brother, Tommy Cooper.”

“Huh?” Grassley asked.

“Exactly.” Liberty leaned closer. “A little more time and I’ll crack that nut. He’s got something to do with this, and I’m just the agent to find out. Boys, take it to the bank. I’ll have this case solved in no time—Cooper’s our man.”

Cheatham peeked at Grassley and shrugged. “Uh, whatever, McDonald. We’re dropping by the Cooper house later. We’re interviewing all the residents, including the brother. After that, we cross the inlet to talk to the Gripps.”

“It’s your time to waste, but I think the Gripps are a dead end. The Cooper girl is protecting her brother. I can smell it. The guy whacked the reporter in a fit of psychotic rage and then flew the coop.” Liberty guffawed at her own joke.

“Well, we still have to talk to everybody in the area. We’ll drop by the Coopers’ in a little bit.”

“Suit yourselves.” Liberty turned to go. “But the girl is mine. Once I cozy up to her, I’ll clip her brother’s wings.”

“I told the police already. I was working at the library that day,” Fern haughtily informed the husky FBI agent. “You can ask anyone there. What audacity to even question my integrity. Why, anyone informed on the subject, such as I am, could tell you that most murders are committed by young white males, typically loners. Are you married, Agent Cheatham?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Do you live alone?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“See? You could be the murderer and no one would ever suspect. In fact, it would be the perfect cover—you investigating a crime that you committed. Ooh, I read a mystery like that. Who wrote it? I think I have the book upstairs—”

“Miss Bush,” Agent Cheatham said, “I believe we have everything we need. Thanks for your help. If we have any further questions, we’ll be in touch.”

“You do that, Agent. I once attended a dinner and interactive murder mystery in Elkridge and solved the crime right away. I can help if you like.”

“Thank you again, Miss Bush, we’ll let you know.” Agent Cheatham rose from his chair and motioned his partner and Addy to the hallway.

Addy indicated the next door down from Fern’s. “This is Mr. Velasquez’s room.”

Agent Cheatham tapped on the door. “Mr. Velasquez? FBI.”

They waited several moments, but heard no sound from within.

“I told him you would be talking to him, but maybe he didn’t understand. He could be out in the garden working.”

“Do you have a key to the room?” Agent Cheatham asked.

“Yes.” Addy hesitated. “But I don’t like to go invade my tenants’ privacy without their permission.”

The door handle turned easily in Cheatham’s hand. Without waiting for Addy’s permission, he stuck his head into the room.

“Um, is this legal?” Addy asked.

Cheatham glared at her. “Let’s see if he’s outside, then.”

They checked the front and back of the house, but Chauncey wasn’t in sight.

“That’s really odd,” Addy said. “He was here a little while ago.”

“We’ll come back another time.” Cheatham wrote in a notepad. “Now we’d like to speak to your brother, Ms. Cooper.”

“Tommy?” Addy’s heart thumped roughly. She had feared they would get to this point, but had hoped they might forget.

“Is that a problem?” Grassley stared at her.

“No. It’s just that, well, my brother is handicapped. And he’s easily excitable. I don’t want him to get upset over things he knows nothing about. Can’t you simply ask me the questions? Everybody knows Tommy doesn’t come down out of his tree house, so there’s no reason to question him.” Addy inhaled deeply after speaking in one hurried breath.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be careful,” Cheatham assured her. “We can take Tommy into the local hospital and have a psychiatrist present.”

“No! Absolutely not.” Addy was shaking and couldn’t stop.

She glanced furtively for an escape route.

“Then let us go up and talk to him, Ms. Cooper,” Grassley said. “We’ll be as quick as possible.”

She reluctantly agreed, praying Tommy would remember his promise.

Crowded into the tree house, the two agents hunched over as though they had drunk the “Big” liquid from Alice in Wonderland.

Tommy squeezed into the corner, and Addy sat next to him on the bed, resting her hand on his knee.

“Hello, Tommy,” Cheatham said after they sat at the table.

“Tommy, these men are from the FBI—sort of like the police. They want to ask you a few questions and then they’ll leave you alone. Okay?” Addy petted him, but his body remained tightly coiled.

“Tommy,” Cheatham said, “you know about the reporter who was found down by the inlet last week. We want to find out what you know about it. Did you see anything or anyone that day?”

Tommy turned to Addy and she desperately wanted to help him. Instead she made soothing sounds and spoke softly, telling him everything would be all right.

“Tommy?” Cheatham repeated.

Tommy shook his head and mumbled, “I don’t know.”

He jumped up on his bed and flapped his arms up and down, but Addy climbed up beside him and pulled them to his sides.

“It’s okay, Tommy. No one is going to hurt you. I’m here.”

The two agents stared at each other, and Addy knew they were out of their depth.

“Like I said, ask anybody. Tommy doesn’t leave this house. He doesn’t have any information, and neither do I. Now, please. Can we go back?”

“We’ll leave it for now, Ms. Cooper, but if we need anything else, we’ll call.”

The two agents left and Addy remained seated on the bed, drained from even that brief encounter. If they did return, she didn’t think she could take it. And if she couldn’t, how would Tommy?

“Well?” Liberty asked. She sat on a tree stump in the woods, peeling off the loose bark and casually chewing it.

“You were right,” Cheatham admitted. “The guy’s nuts. It’ll take a shrink to get anything out of him. But he may not be able to help us. We’re going to the Gripps’ as planned. They could have seen something from across the inlet. It’s the only other house visible from the Cooper home.”

“Maybe.” Liberty pulled a wooden thread from between her teeth. “Natural floss. I’ll try to get up there and talk to him one more time. And if I can’t get anything out of him, then it’s the sister’s turn. My nose tells me she’s the bird we’re after.”