Page 67 of Tessa's Trust

“I told them to keep their distance,” Hank admitted. “It was nice of you to set them up.”

I smiled. “Are things going well?”

“Well, it’s only been a couple of days,” Hank said drily, “but I heard them hypothetically choosing kids’ names the other day. So, I think you might’ve done a good thing.”

Hypothetically. It seemed to be the way a lot of people worked these days. I wondered if I should hypothetically try to plan my life? Our pizza arrived, and we started eating happily. The candles were a nice touch, and I admired them. “I have to ask you, aren’t you worried about Sadie at all?”

Hank shrugged. “Not really. She’s been known to take off before. Considering Jonathan’s with her, I’m really not concerned.” He frowned. “Maybe I should be, but I don’t know, Sadie’s always seemed invincible to me. She’s such a free spirit.”

“Yeah, but she has a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash with her,” I murmured. “That’s dangerous.”

“Oh, I’m sure she stashed that almost instantly. There’s probably a super-secret vault somewhere that nobody can find.” Hank shook his head. “The woman’s brilliant. I mean, she’s invested in properties all over the Pacific Northwest. She flips them and makes tons of money. I think she does it just for fun.”

“I didn’t know that.” Sadie was pretty quiet unless she was in her bar talking to people or running gambling dens, but it made sense. She’d probably earned a lot of money through the years to invest.

I reached for my phone. “Excuse me.” Thinking rapidly, I sent off a quick text to Pierce. I was sure he regretted giving me his number a while back when he was trying to protect Anna, but it was too late now. I asked him if he’d done property searches in the area.

His return text was quick and fiery.

Det. Pierce: Of course, I’ve conducted property searches, as has Sheriff Franco. We have a list, and we’ve checked out each one. Stop bugging me. I’m at a crime scene.

I gulped. Well, that made sense. “From what I can tell, the police searched for property records, at least in the surrounding states. Nobody has found Sadie.”

Hank snorted. “Those are the recorded properties, correct?”

I nodded. “That’s a good point.” I had recently learned, unfortunately, that many properties weren’t recorded. “Yeah, but if she’s such a smart businesswoman, she would’ve recorded, right?” I’d learned that the hard way, as well.

“Maybe. Sadie is more a handshake type of gal, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. I shook her hand. You don’t think she would’ve double-crossed me, do you?”

“Of course not,” Hank shook his head. “Not in a million years. That isn’t Sadie.”

I gulped. “What about this Rudy Brando? He’s supposedly a distant cousin to you.”

“I met him a couple of times. The guy seemed kind of lost and clueless and looking for a family, but he also set my teeth on edge. I can’t explain why.”

I appreciated Hank’s honesty. He seemed to have no problem discussing everything that had gone on. “Who do you think killed him?” I asked straight out.

Hank studied me. “You seem to have the best motive, but I can tell you’re not a killer.”

“You can?” I asked, interested.

“Sure. I read people pretty well. It’s interesting. I think the more time you spend in the outdoors and the real world, the better you are with people. It should be the opposite, but it isn’t.”

Man, my Nana O’Shea would love this guy. “So, you didn’t really get to know Rudy very well?”

“Oh, no. I just met up with him a couple of times. I know he had a few ex-wives, and he didn’t speak very kindly of them.” Hank glanced at the tablecloth. “I figure even if a gal is your ex, you shouldn’t call her names to other people.”

I totally agreed. “Did you know he had a current wife?”

“Oh, yeah. They were getting divorced, though. I guess it hadn’t gone through.” Hank shook his head. “He was an unhappy person, and as far as I could tell, he’d been in trouble before. Maybe it just followed him to Silverville.”

That was my guess, as well, and Franco had mentioned a criminal past. “Yeah, but it just seems odd that both he and Lenny Johnson were found dead in the same place. Did Sadie ever say anything about Lenny to you?” I mostly asked out of curiosity and not a need to solve the crime. I’d promised to try in the contract, and I figured I’d done my job.

“She thought somebody had come into the business to rob it because she was still working it at that time, and that Lenny was inside, staying the night. He often broke into buildings to avoid the cold, so that was her best guess.” Hank finished another piece of pizza. “Other than that, she had no idea and felt pretty terrible that somebody had died in her building.”

I could understand. I definitely needed to have my Nana O’Shea sage the entire place once we figured out who’d killed both Lenny and Rudy. “They were killed in a different way,” I said softly. It was entirely possible there were two different killers.

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