Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

"T he only good thing is that the Ferrells were both snoops, not field agents," I said as we walked down State Street. Rose had pulled my coat out of the dryer and it was warm and dry and I was happy about that, at least. She was still frosty, but she'd stopped yelling at me, so progress. "It's very doubtful that they're killing people. Each other, maybe, but not others."

"Oh." Rose stopped and looked up at me. "Maybe not. I forgot to tell you the latest. Louise is back in town, and so is the vet."

I frowned at her. "Who?"

She sighed. "Try to keep up, Max. Louise, the scarlet woman who was sleeping with Lionel, thus incurring Dottie's wrath and starting the divorce proceedings. I told you all about this. Then Louise dumped Lionel for the town vet, Alfie, and they ran off to Peru. Remember?"

"Not really." There was a lot going on in this town, but I guess that was what happened when more than two people gathered together in a semblance of civilization.

"Well, she and the vet are back but not together. Dottie is undoubtedly not happy and may possibly decide to solve her problem with her knife. She calls Louise ‘Lousie' if that comes up in conversation. Don't get confused." She frowned at me. "Louise is movie-star gorgeous with a killer body. If you start flirting with her, I'm going to stick my tongue down Rowan's throat."

I shook my head. "Either of the new people a killer?"

"Not Alfie, the vet. He's kind of ineffective, and I don't think he was one of your players. He's probably broke now. Louise can do that to a man. But now that I know more about Rocky Start, it's very possible Louise did wet work. If looks could kill, hers would. And she can certainly warp men, although overall, I don't think that's hard for her to do. The bar for that is pretty low when you look like Louise. But I don't see why she'd kill Melissa unless she was hired to do it."

"Does she still take assignments?"

"I have no idea."

"Can you ask?" I said, trying not to sound exasperated. You wanted to be involved. A little help here, Rose.

"Max, she'd be more likely to talk to you. I think she sees women as background, an audience to envy her, not actually people." Rose started walking again. "I thought snoops and agents and players were all the same thing. Have I been using the terms wrong?"

"‘Players' is the overarching term," I explained. "Snoops are a subset. The Ferrells worked for the NSA, snooping on people. They usually aren't trained in interrogation, either side of the table. Asking or being asked. In fact, they're the type of people who don't like to deal with people face to face. Goes with the job requirements. They prefer the electronic world between them and any human communication."

Rose nodded. "Dottie definitely isn't a people person. Lionel isn't either, really, unless he's trying to get laid, and then it's just kind of sad. You think it's good that they're snoops?"

"Yeah. They'll have tells, emotions they weren't trained to suppress when questioned."

Rose stopped again and looked at me. "You were trained to suppress your emotions?"

"If I'm being interrogated," I said. "Or tortured."

"Suddenly, everything becomes clear," she said and walked on.

Rocky Start has two post offices, directly across from each other on State Street. Why? Because there is an official Rocky Start, North Carolina, and an official Rocky Start, Tennessee. Because the United States Postal Service is a branch of the United States government, which also has an army and a marine corps; and a navy and a coast guard. Get my drift?

According to Rose, every morning the Ferrells flipped a coin and the loser had to deliver the mail on both their routes while the winner manned the office in their respective state. Of course, that was when they were cohabitating. Again, according to Rose, Dottie had kicked Lionel out of their apartment when she found out about Louise, and he was sleeping in the back room of his post office. And now there were days where nothing got delivered. Not that anyone was going to complain to either of them.

The North Carolina branch was Dottie's domain. I paused outside the door and looked to Rose. "Cover me. I'm going in."

"Oh, yeah," she said, but I noticed she went in behind me. Human shield, that's me.

Dottie glared at us as we entered her post office. She was perched on a high swivel seat, just this little lady in a postal uniform until you looked at her eyes and the set of her jaw and realized her cap of dark hair did not move. Dottie didn't move much either; she was pretty much angry tension personified. She'd been watching us through the window, and now she had a great field of fire, although I didn't spot any obvious weapons. Pike had mentioned her specialty was blades, so I planned on keeping my distance, although knives can be thrown.

"I've got no boots for you, Reddy," she said.

She was still ticked her husband had crossed the street two weeks ago and picked up the boots Herc had shipped from Amazon to this town. Talk about holding a grudge. I could just imagine what she was putting Lionel through.

Rose came around me to engage with the enemy in her own way, giving her a Cheery Boost smile.

It was wasted on Dottie, who scowled back.

"Cheery Boost not working today?" I said, low and close to her ear.

Rose ignored me and tried again. Big smile. "How ya doin', Dottie?"

"What do you want?" Dottie said, still unBoosted.

I stepped forward. "Have you picked up anything that might give me a lead on Merriweather's killer?"

"Lionel told you," she snarled. "CCTV has nothing."

"What about phone calls? Emails? Smoke signals?"

Rose made a small noise of distress, but if her Cheery Boost didn't work, there was no point in being nice about things.

"Get lost," Dottie snapped.

"How long have you been copying Herc on all your intel?"

Dottie wasn't able to control the look that crossed her face, a mixture of surprise and anger. Told you: a snoop.

"Why would I do that?"

A question in response to a question is almost always a sign of evading the answer the person doesn't want to give. An innocent person would immediately deny. She wasn't anywhere near as good as Rowan Masters at keeping secrets.

"It's either you or Lionel," I said, "and I don't see Herc having the patience to deal with Lionel."

"What Max is trying to say," Rose said, as she stepped in front of me, "is that Herc only works with the most competent people." She smiled at Dottie. "Which, of course, is you."

"I don't report to him," Dottie said, which was another evasion.

I said, "But you copy him on?—"

She cut me off. "He can dip into our feeds whenever he wants. It's part of the reciprocal deal that gives us access to the NSA database." She pointed across the street to Lionel's office. "You don't think Herc gave us the SCIF with no strings attached, do you? Those things are expensive."

Which meant whatever Dottie or Lionel saw or heard, Herc saw and heard.

"So he knew about Ozzie dying when it happened," I said. He'd pretended he didn't when I'd called him two weeks ago. Why? That was a question for another day. But it also explained why Ozzie had limited the scope of the Ferrells' surveillance. He hadn't wanted Herc to have too much access to Rocky Start. It was a bargain with the devil, the devil being Herc.

"If he was paying attention." Dottie shrugged. "Herc is a busy man."

"He lied," I said.

"He's Herc," Dottie said, which pretty much covered the lying and a lot of other nefarious activities for which Herc was known. She looked at Rose. "How's your search going?"

Rose blinked at her. "What search?"

"The money?" Dottie said. "The gold?"

I frowned at her, not happy that gold had cropped up again. "What gold?"

Dottie shrugged. "The old rumor that Pike and Oz took some treasure from the Russians in Afghanistan."

"I was not aware of that rumor," Rose said, brightly. "You really do know everything, Dottie."

"Where'd you hear that?" I demanded.

Dottie tried to look innocent. "I don't remember. Around."

"Bullshit." It would be easy to assume that this gold talk was referring to the cash that Oz and Pike had appropriated from the failed Stinger buy-back mission with the story morphing into more of a legend over the years and people making it more dramatic. But now two people had specifically mentioned gold. That wasn't good.

Dottie shrugged. "You're right. Probably nothing to the rumor." I wondered if my tells were as bad as hers when I lied.

I decided to go on the offensive. "You were working with Serena."

I felt Rose stiffen beside me, but Dottie just frowned. "What?"

"Someone tipped Serena off about the thermal imaging drone we were using," I said. "I don't see why she would just randomly put a sniper on the roof of Oddities covered by a thermal blanket. You tipped her off."

"Bullshit, yourself," Dottie said, sounding a little nervous now. "Get out of here."

Rose took a step forward, all the Cheery gone. "Serena almost killed Poppy," she said, her voice as sharp as ice. She could have cut somebody with the edge there. "Is that what you wanted?"

" No ," Dottie said, clearly appalled.

"Do you want Max and Luke to catch whoever killed Melissa? Who will probably kill again? Are you on our side, Dottie ?"

"Yes," Dottie said, almost scrambling to get away from Rose. "I would never have put Poppy in danger, Rose, you know that."

"But you did," Rose said, cold as winter. "You helped Serena, who cut Poppy until she bled onto our floor, you helped ?—"

" I didn't know. " Dottie's face twisted, not aloof anymore. "I didn't help Serena. I didn't even know who she was. I would never have done that to Poppy."

"I believe you," Rose said softly. "I know you wouldn't do that."

I was surprised at how quickly Rose was able to change emotional gears. She'd make a good interrogator.

Dottie sat down, relieved but still shaken.

"But we need to know everything to stop this killer," Rose said, still soft. "And the only person who knows everything in this town is you."

Dottie's lips twitched, and I think she almost smiled.

"So please tell Max whatever he needs to know. I don't want anybody else here in Rocky Start to suffer the way Poppy did. Please, Dottie."

Dottie nodded. "I didn't know about Serena," she told Rose. "I swear to God I would never have put those kids in danger." Then she looked at me and said, "What do you want?"

"You were working for Serena. Are you working for Herc?"

"I told you. No. And no, I was not working for Serena, either."

"You're a liar, Dottie."

Dottie's face twisted and her hand shot under her blue postal shirt and pulled out a throwing knife.

I had my pistol out before she could draw her arm back to throw.

Rose stepped between us. " What the hell? Stop that right now , both of you. Idiots. " When neither of us moved, she said, "Are you both insane ? " She looked at Dottie. "Drop that knife." Then she looked at me. "Point that damn gun somewhere else."

Dottie lowered her knife arm and I pointed my gun at the floor. Stalemate.

Rose looked at Dottie. " What did you do? Because I'm starting to think?—"

"I didn't help Serena," Dottie said, really nervous now. "It was Norman."

"You betrayed us to Norman?" Rose was stunned.

"I didn't know they were going to take Poppy," Dottie said. "I swear, I swear on my life , I would never have helped them do that. Norman told me he just wanted to break into Oddities while everyone was at Ozzie's funeral. To look for something that Ozzie owed him. It was Norman ." She said the name with loathing. "He couldn't see his nose."

I disagreed. "He saw well enough to kill a Russian who'd broken into Oddities."

Dottie blinked at me, surprised. "I didn't know about that. Norman was pissed over Oz leaving him nothing in the will. I figured he just wanted to grab something to make himself feel better. And he paid me. Divorce isn't cheap and . . . . I would never have put Poppy in danger, Rose. I swear."

Rose wasn't done. "What else, Dottie? We've had a murder and there's a new guy in town, and that's two more mysteries than we need. If you know anything that'll help Max on this, tell him. I don't want anything else happening to Poppy, and I want to believe that you don't, either."

Dottie nodded. "I looked hard at the footage from the night Melissa was killed. Double-checked because Lionel is an idiot. There were people on the street, but they weren't doing anything suspicious. Harvey Ware and Bea Handler had a big fight in front of the Wok Inn, but that's average for them. Geoffrey Nice left but he headed toward Bearton and was back before midnight. Coral Schmidt and Pike went for a walk down by the river. Sid Quill was drunk when he left the Wok, but that's nothing new, either. It was all the usual stuff. Nobody went into Melissa's through the front. They must have used the back door."

"How drunk was Sid?" I asked.

Dottie shrugged. "I don't know. Not blind drunk. Why? He a suspect?"

"Everyone's a suspect," I said, which sounded lame even to me. But yeah, Sid was a suspect. In fact, I was starting to think Sid was our prime suspect. That autopsy had been too damn sloppy to be serious.

Rose let her breath out. "If Max needs to, can he please look at the footage again?"

Dottie looked at me, sullen again. "Knock yourself out."

"Work me up a dossier on this Rowan Masters," I ordered her.

"The guy in the fancy truck?" she asked.

"Yeah. Find out why he's here."

Dottie nodded, happy to be off the hook. "Yeah, sure."

I was about to issue Dottie a dire warning when the door opened behind us.

"Well, hello," Dottie said to Rowan as he walked in, looking magazine-like. She asked Rose. "This the new guy with the truck?"

"Yes," Rose said. "He's a journalist. Dottie, this is Rowan Masters. Rowan, this is Dottie Ferrell."

Rowan smiled at her, the whole shiny teeth and pretty face bit, and Dottie perked up. But his eyes did a quick dance to the side as he noted me holstering my gun.

"I hear you're the person to talk to if I want the story on the town," Rowan said to Dottie.

Dottie perked down. "Can't think why," she said flatly.

Confident I was leaving Rowan in dangerous hands, I jerked my head toward the door. "We're done here, Rose."

"Don't leave on my account," Rowan said to Rose.

"We're leaving on mine," I said, but he ignored me to move closer to Rose, and I began to hope there was a serial killer in town after all.

"I'll be at the Wok Inn tonight. I do hope I'll see you there." He smiled one of those come-and-get-it smiles smooth guys use to get women.

"I'm standing right here," I said.

"Yes, you are," Rowan said. "And you have a gun."

"And now we're leaving," I said, crowding Rose toward the door. I gestured to Dottie. "Just so you know, she can cut you."

The last thing I heard as I shut the door behind us was the cackle of Dottie's laughter.