Page 104 of Always Be an Us

All in all, I leave them comfortably and head out to begin my day.

I first drive toward the hotel to make sure construction is continuing as planned. The PI, Frederick, arrived yesterday and dusted off the area for whatever prints he could find. He also spent most of the day walking around looking for clues.

I'm wondering if it's too early for him to have something for me, when I get a call.

"Hello," I answer.

"Hey, bud." It's the elderly cop, Officer Jensen. "Hope you’re having a good morning. I just wanted to let you know that we’ve solved the case about what happened with your office."

"What do you mean?"

"We caught the culprit. His name is Nate Huntley. Ring a bell"

"No. Should it?"

"Nate has been in the pound a few times for petty theft. One of your men saw him around the area looking fishy, and I took him in for questioning. Got him to slip up and eventually he admitted to everything."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You can come down here and see for yourself."

"I’m on my way." I drift into the shoulder of the road and then make a U back towards the center of town.

Nate Huntley turns out to be a short, dark-haired man with beady eyes and gritty stubble who fidgets in his seat and twitches like an addict.

"He got ants on his ass or something?" I ask the officer as we enter the cold, grey interrogation room. It smells faintly of cigarettes.

"Or something," The officer responds wryly.

Nate looks up as we walk in.

"I heard you were the one who broke into my office," I ask as I stand over him.

"Yeah?" He responds antagonistically. "And what about it?"

"Why did you do it?"

"He said he needed money and thought you would have some cash there." The officer answers. "Once he realized nothing was there, he got pissed and trashed the whole place."

"Ah. Is that why you wrecked the wheel loader too?"

There's a flicker of a pause before he answers, "Yeah. That one was for a friend. You have no right coming into town and looking down on us poorer folk, doing whatever you want."

It almost sounds convincing. Almost. But there's a little twitch and eye flicker when he speaks that makes me doubt it. I try again.

"So what did you do with the transmission?" I ask. "After you took it out?"

"I sold it for some cash," he says, grinning, far too happy about his crime.

Except I doubt now that he even committed the crime.

The transmission wasn't missing from the machines, only damaged.

He would know that if he actually damaged it. But he didn't. Which means he's taking credit for a crime he never committed.

Why?

I have no clue, but something strange is definitely going on.

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