Page 57 of Every Deadly Suspicion

He made a sound that Hanna thought was a chuckle. “You’re way off track.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Marcus rubbed Scott the wrong way since high school. That’s just Marcus. He’s always been soft.”

“If he didn’t kill your brother, who do you think did?”

“Someone at the airfield, it has to be.”

An SUV pulled up; Hanna saw Grover in the driver’s seat.

“I got to go.” Chase turned his back on her and made his way to the passenger side. Limping, using the cane, but navigating okay.

Hanna watched him. He’d lost his right eye and part of his left leg, but after his brother died, he’d still been cleared to drive. Rumor was that Everett had paid people off to get Chase his license back. Hanna never put much stock in rumors. In her lifetime, she could count on the fingers of one hand how many times she’d seen Chase out and about, so she figured he didn’t drive much.

A thought occurred to Hanna. Chase and her father were the only two people who knew what exactly happened that night thirty-five years ago at Beecher’s Mine cabin. Chase always claimed he had no idea what had happened to Mandy’s parents. As the story went, he was doused with acid first and then woke up in intensive care.

“Chief, Chief.”

Hanna turned, her train of thought derailed by Jock. He’d calmed down but was still visibly angry. She forgot Chase and listened to Jock’s complaints and concerns. He was angry with Carver but didn’t want to press charges.

“It would help us if you do press charges, Jock.”

“Sorry, Chief, I can’t. Yeah, he did start things with his big mouth, but others had the choice to walk away, and they didn’t. I think I will ban him from the bar, though.”

“Your choice.”

Hanna returned to chief mode and shut out the daughter of Joe Keyes. Something she hoped she could still do when he was residing in her home.

CHAPTER 30

AFTER THE COFFEE SHOP,Nathan and Manny split up. Manny went back to the office to work on the list of Chevy Tahoes registered in the area. Nathan spent most of the day retracing their steps with Jane Haskell. He traveled to Twain Harte and reinterviewed everyone he could. He got lucky and reached the first victim’s landlord, who had not been around when they did their first canvass.

“I was shocked to hear what happened to Jane,” the woman said. “She’d been scammed before online, gave the scammer a lot of money. She was lonely, I tried to set her up with a friend, but she was a sucker for an interesting online profile, I guess.”

“She told you about the prior scam?”

“Grudgingly. She was embarrassed. I thought she’d learned her lesson then,” she said. “Poor gal thought she was being romanced by Orlando Bloom. She got behind two months on the rent. Had to take on a second job. You’re saying she was mixed up with a scammer again?”

“It looks that way.”

The landlord shook her head. “She never said a word to me about being involved with someone online again. Maybe she was afraid I’d remind her of what happened before.”

Nathan nodded, thinking she could have felt a little ashamed, or maybe the scammer told her not to say anything. They had so little to go on, he was getting frustrated.

“This whole online dating thing is risky,” he commented to Manny on the phone. He’d called to give him an update as Nathan was heading back to Sonora and the second victim’s address.

“A person can say anything, pretend to be anything online. People should meet and date the old-fashioned way.”

“Bars and pickup joints?” Manny asked.

“No, church, school, the community. In person at least.”

“True. It’s easier to hide behind the computer for some people. Especially whack jobs who want to victimize others.”

“Yeah, and sad that people are so lonely they’ll believe scammers and send money to perfect strangers.”

Busy at her desk, Hanna got the call late in the afternoon that Joe would be brought to her house the next day.

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