Page 38 of A Song for the Dead

“Yes.” Jenna sat down. “When a law officer reads you your rights, it’s to protect you, Mr. Stark. This isn’t a witch hunt.”

“We’ve spoken to you about the night you watched Freya Richardson as she worked in the beauty parlor.” Jo’s pen was poised over a legal pad but her face was expressionless. “We need you to expand on what you saw that night.” Her lips offered a small smile. “I know you believe you’ve told us everything about that night, but it’s normal to miss things, so I want to go through it step-by-step and see if you can remember anything we can use to find Freya.”

“I told you everything, I recall.” Stark shrugged.

“Let’s start with inside the pizzeria.” Jo leaned back, twirling the pen in her fingers in a casual way. “You’re sitting there eating your pie and looking into the street. What do you see?”

“Traffic, people moving through town, nothing unusual.” Stark pressed both hands flat on the table, the index finger of the right hand tapping.

“Was Freya cleaning when you arrived, or was that later?” Kane leaned forward in his chair.

“No, Freya was in front of me, collecting a slice.” Stark closed his eyes. “She was saying her truck was in the shop and she was on foot. She told the guy behind the counter she lived on Elm and hated walking home in the dark.” His eyes opened. “I got my pie and took a seat alongside the window. She walked across Main and into the beauty parlor. She must have eaten her slice before she started work because it was ten minutes or so before I saw her inside. She arranged some Halloween decorations in the front window and came back outside to look at them. All the lights were on and she stripped off her jacket and started to clean. She worked hard, sweeping and wiping down, washing floors and the basins. She finished about the same time as I drank my soda. I checked the time and decided to walk to the dispatch bay and see if my truck had been loaded.”

“Did you see anyone else on the sidewalk?” Jo made a few notes.

“Yeah, this time of the year people are out and about taking in the Halloween displays. It’s spookier at night with the mist and all.” Stark shrugged. “I don’t recall anyone specifically, just regular folks, are all.”

“So you followed her for a time?” Kane looked at him and raised one eyebrow in question. “As you were both traveling in the same direction?”

“Yeah, I went to pick up my truck.” Stark blew out a breath. “I already told you all this.”

“You mentioned it wasn’t ready to leave, is that correct?” Kane checked his notes. “So what is it, you picked up the truck or waited for the truck and for how long?”

“Not long, five, maybe ten minutes or so.” Stark’s eyes flashed in annoyance. “What difference does it make?”

Jenna watched the questioning closely. Jo and Kane had jumped on an inconsistency in Stark’s memory. Intrigued, she leaned forward listening intently.

“You mentioned having a midnight delivery, but we’ve made inquiries. There weren’t any late consignments on that night.” Jo had mentioned a fact that Jenna wasn’t aware of. Had Kalo found Stark’s schedule on the net and only recently sent the information?

“You must have misheard me. I often load my truck late at night, so I can leave first thing in the morning.” Stark stared at her. “That’s what happened.”

“You took mail home?” Carter barked a laugh. “I’m sure that’s against the law.”

“They make an exception for a few of us trustworthy guys.” Stark glared at him. “Haven’t you seen mailbags, Agent Carter? They have seals to prevent tampering. Only the receiving office can remove them and each one is recorded. I couldn’t tamper with the US mail even if I wanted to.” He rubbed both hands down his face. “You sayin’ I took something from the mail?”

“No.” Jo stared at him across the table. “It’s the timeline, Mr. Stark. You were seen leaving after Freya set off for home. We know how long it took her to walk home and you could have easily caught up in your truck.” She paused for a beat. “Did you follow her home? It’s obvious to more than one witness you had more than a passing interest in her. Witnesses tell us you didn’t take your eyes off her for a second from the minute she walked out of the pizzeria. Now she’s missing. You didn’t take her anywhere in your van, did you, Mr. Stark?”

“No, I didn’t see her after I walked back to the depot.” Stark had paled significantly. “If you figure I had something to do with her disappearance, then think again. Fingerprint my van if you want. Go ahead and forensically test it, but you won’t find nothing.” He huffed out an angry sigh and glared at them. “I ain’t answering any more questions without a lawyer. I’m not being railroaded into something I didn’t do.”

Nodding to the others, Jenna noted the time and the conclusion of the interview. She looked at Stark. “That will be all for now. Thank you for your cooperation. You’re free to go.” She stood, flashed her card, and opened the door.

“Don’t try and make me your scapegoat. I have rights.” Stark stood and his eyes flashed with malice as he pushed past her and moved quickly along the passageway.

Jenna turned, allowing the door to click shut behind her. “What do you think?”

“I figure he’s using the mail pickup as an alibi.” Carter tossed a toothpick into his mouth. “He drove to her house, parked in the alleyway, and murdered her.” He let out a long sigh. “We’ve been over the statements of all the potential suspects so many times my eyes are crossed. This has to be our guy. Proving it is another thing entirely.”

“He does have a pile of folded mail sacks in the back of his van, I saw them before.” Kane leaned against the wall. “Easy enough to put Freya inside, the other mailbags could cover the body if anyone stopped him. He took her home and somehow got her into the forest for burial.” He looked at Jenna. “Same for Daisy. He had contact with her. We know this for sure. He admitted it. Who looks at a delivery van, especially a postal van? It’s invisible, forgettable. He could park out back of Daisy’s house and no one would see him. It’s like a jungle out there.”

Nodding, Jenna looked at Jo. “Is he capable of murder?”

“Yeah, he has an aggressive streak a mile wide.” Jo collected her things from the desk. “The thing is, all we can do is watch him. There’s not enough evidence against him for an arrest warrant. All we have is circumstantial, at best. Looking at Freya won’t hold up in court for a murder conviction. We’ll need to catch him in the act.”

“Then we’ll watch him.” Kane folded his arms across his chest. “We know where he lives. We’ll go by and install trail cams in the forest. Perfectly legal. If we make sure they watch only the road and forest, they won’t invade his privacy. Ours have motion sensors. If he steps one foot out of his cabin overnight, we’ll all get a notification via our phones.” He smiled. “Then we follow him. He’ll never see us coming.” He looked at Carter. “Will he?”

“No way.” Carter grinned around his toothpick and looked at Jenna. “Use of deadly force, Sheriff?”

It was an order she never ever wanted to give. “I’d prefer to find the other bodies and the motive behind years of murders at Halloween than see him dead.” She looked from Kane to Carter. “I don’t need dead heroes. Use your own judgment if you confront him.”

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