Page 58 of Misdirection

He patted the air with his hand. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m just trying to sort through everything.”

Olive doubted that.

Chief Maier shifted toward her as if switching gears. “Let me try a different angle. Did your father have any enemies?”

She wracked her brain, trying to come up with anyone who may not have seen eye to eye with her dad. The list almost seemed too long, and she didn’t even know where to start.

Jason filled her mind—but not because he was an enemy of her father’s. He came to mind because Olive wished he was here with her right now. He would know what to do. He’d always been her rock.

Even though Olive had promised her father she wouldn’t be in touch with Jason, she wondered if any of that mattered anymore. Maybe she could call him. Ask him to come.

Would he? Or had he moved on? Had he met someone else and forgotten all about her?

It seemed like a good possibility. After all, Jason was not only smart and handsome, but he had just enough kindness to make him extremely likable while still being manly.

Olive had missed him every day since she left.

“Ollie?” Chief Maier continued to stare at her, and she remembered that he’d asked her a question.

She tried to take a sip of her water, but her hands trembled so badly that water sloshed from the mouth of the bottle and onto her blanket.

She gave up and tried to twist the cap back on. But she couldn’t do that either.

Chief Maier took the bottle from her and put the cap back on it before placing it on the seat between them.

“Is there anyone you can think of who might have done this?” he asked again.

She cleared her throat, which felt thick and swollen. “There was a guy that came into the church the other day. He wanted the church to give him money to pay his mortgage because he was behind on the payments and about to lose his house. My dad said the man acted high.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What did your dad tell him?”

“From what I understood, Dad explained that he wasn’t authorized to simply give out that amount of money without talking to the benevolence committee first. He also recommended several places where the man might be able to get the help he needed—both financially and for his addiction.”

The chief let out a soft hmm. “How did this man react?”

“He was upset. That’s what my dad said at least. He started saying all kinds of hateful things about the church and how we were selfish and only cared about people who were just like us.” She glanced at her trembling hands in her lap. “My dad sounded pretty upset about it.”

“Do you know the name of this man?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. But I didn’t ask. I didn’t think it was important at the time. But maybe Barb, the secretary, would know.”

“I’ll talk to her.” He shifted. “Anyone else?”

Her mind continued to race back in time. Olive wasn’t supposed to talk about all the places her family had livedpreviously, so it would be hard to give the chief an honest answer. Besides, her dad had changed their names whenever they moved. Their first names always stayed the same, but their last names changed.

She remembered once when she’d been in Texas, she’d heard two men come to the house in the middle of the night. Her dad had argued with them, and it had sounded heated.

When she’d asked her dad about it the next morning, he’d brushed it off and said it was some guys from work who were unhappy about some business practices. Said they were trying to get a group of people together to get their boss fired, and they wanted Dad to be on board.

Dad had also said it was adult stuff, and that Olive shouldn’t worry about it. So that was exactly what she’d tried to do.

But she remembered the next morning her mom had looked so worried.

Only a couple of weeks later they’d ended up moving. Olive hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now looking back . . . maybe there was more to that story than her parents had let on.

If she continued to think back even further, she was sure there would be more people.

But she was still unsure how much to say.

---