Page 29 of Half Baked

“I’d never seen him before, but some of the backwoods people don’t hang around town.”

“Was he a backwoods person?”

“I don’t know.”

“Take a guess.”

“He seemed to know the lay of the land. But like I said, I’d never seen him before…and I never saw him after.”

“That you remember,” Noah said dryly.

Bergan grimaced in acknowledgment as he shrugged.

“You must remembersomethingabout him that would help me find him.”

Bergan’s eyes widened again. “He said he’d kill me and whoever I told if I ever talked. He meant it. He knew my wife and kids’ schedules, from baseball to dance classes to when my wife took her lunch break. He said that if I talked he’d kill every one of them and make sure they suffered. He killed Andrea Baker, and it was brutal.” His gaze turned to me, and his eyes went glassy. “You look a lot like her. I’d hate for you to end up like the woman I saw on that classroom floor.”

I gasped.

“That’s enough of that,” Noah grunted, looking about ready to pounce on the older man.

“I didn’t know Andrea Baker personally,” Bergan said with a sigh, “but I’d heard of her. Everyone loved her.” He paused, then sighed again. “Look. I wish I could have proven the skinny man had something to do with her murder, but I had to think about the town’s safety.”

“You mean your family,” Noah said bluntly.

Bergan’s eyes hardened. “I would do anything—anything—to protect my family.” His gaze lowered. “Wouldn’tyou?”

Noah’s hand clenched at his side, but his face remained neutral. “Give me something to follow. Some kind of lead. You knowsomething. Otherwise you wouldn’t have burned the file.”

Bergan’s jaw set, and I was sure he was about to tell Noah to go to hell. Instead, he lifted his chin and held Noah’s gaze. “Andrea was holding a gold necklace when she was found. We were sure she’d pulled it off of whoever had killed her.”

“No one ever mentioned a gold necklace,” I said in shock.

“That’s because we never made it public.”

“Did it have an eagle on it?” I asked, the eagle comment suddenly clicking into place.

Bergan’s eyes widened. “How did you know? Only three of us know that.”

“You told me yesterday,” I said bluntly.

Bergan looked like he was going to be sick. “Shit. I’m getting worse.”

“Lucky for you, the women playing bingo down the hall don’t give a rat’s ass about your ramblings,” Noah said. “Who else knows about the necklace?”

“Only three of us and the other two are dead.”

Noah’s brow rose in question.

Bergan waved a hand in dismissal. “Natural causes. After my visit from the guy, I made the necklace and a few other things disappear.”

“And no one noticed?” Noah asked.

“Sure, months later. We attributed it to carelessness.”

“Where’s the evidence now?”

“I burned it all with the file.”

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