If she gave the same vibe to the police as I was getting now, the police would have probably suspected the same thing. I could hear my mom’s teaching prompting me to be a little firmer with her. As much as I hated it, this time I agreed. “You don’t want to testify against Clement, but you don’t seem to want to help him, either.”
She glanced at the door that must lead into the office where the clean-up crew was working. “I love Clement. I’ve loved him since I was fifteen years old. But I didn’t know the man who was standing over Gordon.”
Her voice took on a scratchy quality.
This I’d seen before. After a tragedy, human nature seemed to be to vocalize one’s confusion. You heard it anytime the neighbors or family of a murderer were interviewed. I just don’t understand it, they’d say. They’d say it to the police. They’d say it to the press. They’d say it to each other. And what I was coming to realize more and more was that, even when a motive was revealed, they’d keep saying it for the rest of their lives, because none of us liked to think we could be deceived about the character of the people we knew.
Darlene’s chest rose and fell rapidly, and her body had tensed throughout her speech. People couldn’t smell fear, but I could almost feel her fear coming off of her. And I could hear what she hadn’t said. She loved Clement, but she no longer felt safe with him. She no longer trusted that he wouldn’t hurt her or someone else because Gordon had been a long-time friend to them both. If Clement would kill him, seemingly randomly, then he could do the same to anyone.
She felt like I wouldn’t care about that. Defense attorneys didn’t have the best reputations, even in small towns. If we were going to make progress, I had to rectify that.
“Clement made it clear to me that, if he did kill Gordon, he wants to make sure he’s put someplace where he can’t hurt anyone else. I’m going to fulfill his wishes. Since he can’t remember what happened, though, I want to make sure we have all the facts first. Is there anyone else who might have wanted to kill Gordon?”
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth for a moment. “Gordon and his brother hadn’t talked to each other since their mother died. That’s the only person I can think of. And his brother’s the only person I can think of who knew for sure Gordon came here for breakfast every morning.”
9
Considering how my assumptions got me into trouble during Clement’s interview with Chief McTavish, I wasn’t going to make a similar mistake and walk into a meeting with Gordon’s brother without some sense of direction. Besides, not speaking to a sibling didn’t necessarily mean you’d want to murder that sibling. My dad and Uncle Stan were the perfect example. They hadn’t spoken in years, and yet my dad wouldn’t have killed Uncle Stan.
Even though Gordon’s brother looked like my best option for finding someone who might have had a reason to kill Gordon, it was still a long shot, and I needed more information.
I started to dial the number for Hal, the private investigator I’d used to help dig up information during my last case, but stopped before I’d finished entering his number. On that case, I’d been working solo, so I paid Hal myself. This time, I was technically working with Anderson. We hadn’t discussed specifics for invoicing contractors.
I deleted Hal’s number and entered Anderson’s instead. When he answered, I explained what I’d learned so far and asked about the procedure for hiring Hal.
“At first I thought you were going to want me to join you when you met with the victim’s brother.”
I hadn’t gotten that far in my thinking, but it wasn’t a bad idea. Chances were Gordon’s brother was innocent. But chances also were that six separate criminals wouldn’t attempt to kill the same person in the span of a year, and I’d proven those odds wrong. I didn’t take chances anymore.
“I would like you to come along. My dad always felt two lawyers should attend every interview. Extra perspective.”
Anderson sighed. “That’s another reason I need to hire an extra lawyer.”
My rescuer soul wanted to rush in to fill that need, but I caught the words in time. Even if I accepted his partnership offer, I wouldn’t be working cases on guilty clients. He’d still need at least one other lawyer in the firm.
“I can work it into my schedule to join you,” Anderson said, “but we’re on our own for research this week. Hal’s on vacation.”
Talk about inconvenient timing.
I thanked Anderson and told him I’d text him with a couple potential appointment times.
By the time we disconnected, I was back at Sugarwood.
The note tacked to my door told me Mandy had taken my dogs for a walk. I appreciated her thoughtfulness to leave the note. After the events of a few months ago, I’d been extra nervous if I came home and found them gone. Thankfully, Mandy had loaded the app onto my phone that let me track Velma through the GPS in her collar. I clicked over to the app, and it showed Velma out in the sugar bush, exactly where she should be if Mandy had them out for a walk.
I didn’t think I’d made anyone involved in the current case nervous enough to mess with my dogs, but I also didn’t know for sure. If Clement hadn’t killed Gordon, then the real killer could be almost anyone. For all I knew, Darlene had a lover and they’d killed Gordon together.
The thought that perhaps Gordon’s brother and Darlene were having an affair flitted across my mind. Gordon could have found out and threatened to tell Clement. That would be another plausible reason for why Darlene hadn’t wanted to tell me that Gordon and his brother weren’t speaking.
It’s also completely unfounded, my dad’s voice chimed in my head.
Unfounded for now, I thought back.
Though an affair with Gordon’s brother didn’t match up at all for why the brothers stopped speaking after their mom died. I probably was on the wrong track with that idea.
I flipped open my laptop and ran an Internet search for Gordon and Leonard Albright. Darlene hadn’t told me their mother’s name, but looking for both the brothers together should give me something.
The top result was an obituary for a Maryanne Albright. Gordon and Leonard were listed among the family she left behind. It looked like they’d been her only children, and her husband predeceased her. Leonard was married and had given his mother two grandchildren. Maryanne had been another casualty of cancer. It seemed like no one was untouched by it anymore. Even if they hadn’t had it themselves, they had a friend or family member who had.
An obituary wasn’t going to tell me why the woman’s children weren’t speaking anymore. I went back to the results page.
I flipped through the next three pages of results. None of them were pertinent. The only other one that even referenced the right Gordon Albright was a newspaper article about the opening of a new exhibit at the museum.
The picture that went along with it showed Gordon, Clement, and Darlene out front of the museum. Darlene held up an axe, and Clement and Gordon each held the end of one of those long dual-man saws. Since Gordon hadn’t been killed with either an axe or a saw, that article wasn’t helpful either.
I read it over quickly anyway. It did add a little background I hadn’t known about Clement. It turned out he’d gone to university on a full-ride football scholarship. He’d had a few NFL teams interested in him when he graduated, but he turned down a career in sports and instead worked at various large museums across the country until five years ago.
His dad passed away and left him the chainsaw and logging museum, which at the time was nothing more than an extension built on their house. Clement and Darlene, apparently with the help of Gordon, built the museum up into one of the premier logging museums in the country.
I hadn’t realized there were other chainsaw and logging museums in the country.
Unless Clement killed Gordon with premeditation because Gordon was stealing and selling their museum pieces, the article wasn’t that helpful, either. I wrote the idea down just in case the prosecution tried to use it. I’d make sure with Darlene and Clement that nothing had gone missing.
I rubbed at my eyes with the heels of my hands to help them refocus. Another cup of coffee would taste amazing right about now, but I’d discovered that I slept better if I avoided coffee after three in the afternoon. Considering that one of my biggest challenges was convincing my mind to shut down enough at night to allow me to sleep, I didn’t want to mess with what seemed to be working. And I hated decaf. It tasted like chemicals.
I chugged a glass of water instead and returned to my computer.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t used to handling the background checks involved in an investigation myself. My parents had investigators who did this, and I’d worked with Hal or the police here in Fair Haven. I wasn’t sure of all the avenues to chase to see what dark secrets the brothers might have been hiding.
