Page 102 of Cougar Point

“Lieutenant Sitzman, this is Ronnie Marsh.” She puts it on speaker.

“Miss Marsh. It is Miss, right?”

Best pick-up line ever. Right up there with “do you come here often” and “you must have fallen down from heaven because you look like an angel.”

She says, “Lieutenant, I need some help and I thought of you. Can you keep something confidential?”

“Sure. I was hoping you’d call. Better yet, maybe you can come by and we’ll discuss this over coffee. Or lunch.”

Ronnie’s tone turns serious. “Sounds nice but I have to ask a favor. Not even your bosses can know. I need to ask you something about Sergeant Lucas.”

SIXTY-SEVEN

The call lasts only a few minutes. Ronnie asks Sitzman about what happened to Lucas’s wife, and the answers are a whole lot more than we had bargained for.

It turns out Mrs. Lucas didn’t just die. The official version of the story is that Joyce Lucas killed herself with a gunshot to the head; but not before killing their daughter, Maisy. Any instinctive sympathy I might have felt for Sergeant Lucas dissipates quickly as I read between the lines of the other things Sitzman has to tell us.

Like the fact Lucas’s wife had a million-dollar life insurance policy, that he had returned to work only a few weeks after the deaths of his wife and kid, and that he had interfered a lot in the investigation while on leave. Sitzman doesn’t come right out and say it, but he heavily implies that Lucas’s ex-partner quit rather than be part of what he thought was a cover-up.

Ten minutes and a promise to go for coffee later, we drive away from the Mom & Pop store.

Ronnie says, “I can’t believe no one said anything about this.”

What I’m having trouble with is why Sheriff Longbow assigned this case to him. I don’t get a bad feeling about Longbow. Or the jail commander, Roberts, for that matter. Ifwe had known what we were just told I would have had a lot of questions.

I say, “I wonder if we can get copies of the murder/suicide investigation?”

Ronnie answers, “Sitzman might be able to access them but it sounds like Lucas was never much more than a suspect. He wasn’t arrested or even suspended without pay. He was put on leave until the investigation was over and he was cleared.”

He was cleared. How in the hell did that happen? Lucas’s eight-year-old daughter was strangled, and his wife was shot with a gun from his lockbox at home. He lived in a cabin in the sticks. No neighbors to hear the gunshot or screaming or fighting. Lucas had taken out the insurance policy on himself and his wife five years earlier. One million dollars would have very high premiums. I have the insurance policy the sheriff office gave me. Twenty-five thousand won’t go a long way but I’ll be dead so it won’t be my money. I’ve made Hayden my executor and everything will be left to him.

“Let’s call Lucas’s old partner, see if he’ll talk to us.”

Sitzman has texted the number for Lucas’s old partner and Ronnie puts the call on speaker. Retired Detective Larry Stroud is sitting in a bar. I can hear darts being played and some occasional raised voices. His voice is a little slurred but he’s willing to talk to us. The first thing I notice is there’s no love lost between him and Lucas.

“So what can I tell you that I haven’t told countless others? No one listens so what’s the point,” Stroud says. “Just let it go and save yourself some sleepless nights. What I did.”

I ask, “Did you know the Marsh family on Cougar Point?”

“You’re not from here, are you?”

I wait.

“Everyone knows them. Jack Marsh is a big shot around here. Does your interest in Lucas have something to do with Jack Marsh?”

Ronnie speaks up. “Victoria Marsh is my mother. She was kidnapped six days ago. Lucas was assigned the case by Sheriff Longbow.”

Stroud is quiet.

“Sergeant Stroud?” I say.

“Retired,” he says. “I wish you hadn’t come to me asking questions about Lucas. I took an early retirement so I wouldn’t have to be involved.”

Ronnie speaks up. “We’re pretty sure Len Thundercloud, Melissa Milligan, and Duke Scanlon are her kidnappers. They sent Mom’s finger to us along with some pictures of her being held captive. Today they sent us her hand.”

Stroud is still silent.

I say, “We heard you were a damn good detective. You don’t get that kind of praise unless you care enough to do a good job. How would you like it if you came to me for help and I said I wanted to keep out of it?”

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