Page 113 of All You Want
“You’re saying that she was killed with her own baseball bat?” I decide to test the theory that the real murderer would know it wasn’t the bat that killed Viola.
“No, that’s not how it went down. Viola defended herself with the bat.”
“And you know this how?”
“I saw it go down, Sheriff, and you promised to let me go if I help you find Tami.”
I slap my hands over the steering wheel and huff, “Diana, if you admit to a crime, I have to charge you. I’m only taking you out to help with another crime in progress. It might help you get a lighter sentence, but if you had anything to do with Viola’s murder, why did you refuse to talk?”
“I didn’t want it to be Dillon. The murderer used the blunt end of a pickaxe handle.”
“Are you saying you messed with the evidence to throw suspicion on yourself to protect your nephew?”
“Yes and no,” she says. “I put blood on the axe I borrowed and dropped it in the basement to see who would touch it.”
“This is a very unlikely story, Diana Van Dirk, and if you’re misleading me…” I swerve to miss a fallen tree.
“I’m telling you the truth. It’s my blood on the axe handle, not Viola’s. You can get it tested.”
“You cut yourself?” I glance over at her hands and arms.
“No need. It’s that time of the month.” She chuckles. “So I call Dillon, Al, and Justin down to my room in the basement to share a bong. Before I can say anything, Dillon picks up the axe and shows it to his friends, saying how realistic it is, and asking whether it belonged to Pickaxe Polly. I knew then that Dillon’s not the murderer, because if he were, he wouldn’t have touched it.”
“Did the other two touch it?”
She shakes her head. “They wanted to get to the bong.”
“Very strange way of clearing a suspect. But you’re still not off the hook.”
“I will be if you get the blood on the bat analyzed. You see, Viola landed a couple of blows, and the attacker was holding his nose like it was bleeding.”
I stare at Diana to see if she’s sane. The gleam in her eyes shows she’s not all there. “Anything else you saw?”
“Tami came flying over, upset someone left the door open, and the murderer pushed her onto Viola’s body. I was going to help her, but she started screaming, and then she called you. The murderer disappeared into the tunnel. I then realized I’d be a suspect too if I got blood on me or ran into the murderer, so I jumped into the dumpster and hid there. When the people started coming to take selfies, I was able to get away in the mix-up.”
“This is all entertaining,” I say to her. “But how does this help me find Tami?”
“Oh, that’s easy. While wondering who has a motive to kill Viola, I came across some real dirt. Remember I told you Viola was looking for deeds for me? I paid her for an envelope of family records, and when I looked inside, it was a police report.”
I feel tingles chilling the back of my neck. “A police report of what?”
“A poisoning that happened years ago. It was before your time, Sheriff, but it implicates George King—Tami’s father.”
“Where is it?”
“I’ll trade it for my family’s property deeds,” she says. “You must have impounded Viola’s car and searched her home and her office. She made a mistake and gave me the wrong envelope.”
“We didn’t find anything that looked like property deeds or other records.” I’m not going to tell her that we found a planner with figures and sums. It does suggest Viola was either selling information or blackmailing. “Again, I ask you. What does this have to do with Tami?”
“Well then, if Viola was afraid of wolves, and Tami’s father killed the alpha she-wolf of the pack, then it stands to reason that Justin’s uncles want revenge for the death of their sister. Maybe Tami’s father killed Viola to get the police report from her, or the wolfpack wants it so they can blackmail Tami’s father and one of them killed her so they could take the papers. That would explain the Bigfoot mask they found at the murder scene.”
I stop the truck and stare at her. “I don’t think Tami’s father would kill Viola, so it has to be Justin’s newfound uncles. Tell me where they live.”
“Viola had directions. She told me they wanted her to deliver the goods, but she was too scared to go by herself. Didn’t you search her car?”
“We did, and her GPS history. Wait, let me call Shane.”
I call Shane and ask if he has the results from the blood found on the baseball bat. I also ask him to give me a report of Viola’s GPS history.
