Page 71 of Tessa's Trust

“Fine.” I crossed my arms.

This sucked. Clark and Anna asked a bunch of questions about the chain of evidence for the emails, and Sheriff Franco admitted that he had requested help from the crime lab in Boise as well as a forensic lab in Seattle to trace the messages. I could tell from looking at the top that one came from [email protected]. I didn’t have a yahoo.com email address. The emails were obviously fake.

“Is this all you have, Sheriff?” Clark asked. “Because I could create an email address using your name right now and shoot off a bunch of threats.”

“I’m aware of that,” Franco said. “That’s why I haven’t arrested anybody.”

“What else do you have?” Anna said.

How did they know he had something else? The sheriff lifted an eyebrow.

“Come on, Sheriff,” Clark said calmly. “You wouldn’t have dragged us all over here unless you had more.”

The sheriff rubbed his jaw. “I have more.”

“What is it?” Anna asked.

The sheriff flicked his gaze toward me. “Tessa gave us permission to search Silver Sadie’s anytime we wanted.”

I nodded. “I did. I don’t have anything to hide.”

“Did you or did you not move boxes into the top floor, which should be a residence?” he asked.

“Don’t answer,” Clark said.

I didn’t see why I couldn’t answer. Everybody knew my cousins had brought my belongings over from Timber City. “Hypothetically,” I said, “my family did move my belongings, at least the ones that weren’t ruined, into the residence. Why?”

The sheriff pushed a picture of what looked like several pieces of a contract across the table.

“What is this?” Clark asked.

The papers looked dirty and perhaps slightly burned.

“It’s a contract between Sadie Brando and the now-deceased Lenny Johnson,” the sheriff drawled. “Before he was murdered, Sadie was planning to gift half of Silver Sadie’s to Lenny in exchange for him working the gambling den in the back.”

I gasped. “Are you kidding me?”

The sheriff shook his head. “Yep. Nine months ago. When exactly did you and Sadie start negotiating?”

I bit my lip. “We’ve been hinting at each other for years, but we got serious just a few months ago.” It had taken me that long to figure out if I could make it work and also talk Sadie into it. She’d never told me she planned to sell to Lenny.

“I want a copy of the contract,” Clark said instantly.

“I’ll get you one,” the sheriff agreed.

This was unbelievable. I wanted Silver Sadie’s, but not enough to kill for it. “I didn’t even know Lenny and Sadie were that close.”

“Oh, they’ve been sweethearts since high school. I think it was an on-again, off-again thing through the decades,” the sheriff said.

Sadie didn’t seem like a woman who combined business and pleasure, but what did I know?

“So, your theory is that my client found out that Sadie was going to give up half of her business to Lenny, so she brutally killed him? Before there was even a hint of negotiation between Tessa and Sadie? That’s weak,” Anna muttered.

“Well, it’s stronger than normal when you figure Rudy Brando was killed next. And I have to wonder if Sadie was willing to bring in Lenny as a partner. Perhaps she really did execute that quitclaim deed to her nephew,” the sheriff countered.

“She wouldn’t have taken my money,” I uttered. I had to believe that. I had to believe in Sadie. “We should all be worried that she’s missing.”

“I am,” Sheriff Franco said. “I’m looking everywhere for that woman.”

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