Free Rose Hill by Pamela Grandstaff Page B

professional and attractive in a blazer, turtleneck, and form fitting pants. She looked Scott up and down and shook her head. He had on jeans, work boots, and a sweatshirt.
    “I’ve heard of casual Friday,” she said. “But isn’t today Monday?”
    Scott was embarrassed, but did not defend himself. This was supposed to be a day off for him, and he had slept very little since Theo’s murder. He showed her the card and photo, and explained whom everyone pictured was and what had happened. He expected her to be impressed, ask pertinent questions, and take some notes.
    “It’s probably just a prank,” she said instead. “Some people have a sick sense of humor.”
    “But it’s postmarked Saturday,” Scott insisted. “Before he was murdered.”
    “We’ll look into it,” Sarah said, tossing it into her briefcase. “Anything else?”
    He showed her the sales contract for the glass factory, explained who Trick was, and suggested he might be upset to know he was being cheated out of his percentage of the deal.
    “Anything else?” was all she said.
    He told her there was still no sign of Willy Neff or his truck, and handed her a copy of the man’s mug shot, which he had dug out of the files.
    “Willy has no family,” he told her. “As far as I know Theo was his only friend, if you could even call it that. Theo employed him and bullied him is more the truth.”
    Scott felt like he was back working as a lowly deputy, presenting his findings to the chief for inspection and approval. Everything he’d carefully put in plastic bags, Sarah carelessly tossed into her briefcase.
    He waited to see if she was going to be equally generous with what she knew. He couldn’t demand she share anything with him and he didn’t know exactly what his position was in this conversation. Was he a peer, or a peon?
    Sarah removed a report from a file folder and went over the highlights of what was found at Theo’s.
    “Tig is still exploring the hard drive of Theo’s PC,” she said, as if Scott knew who Tig was, “and J.T. is still going through his paper files.”
    Scott nodded. He did know who J.T. was. He was one of the deputies who followed him out to Theo’s; the one who woke Scott up on Theo’s porch after they searched the dead man’s home. Scott really hoped J.T. hadn’t told Sarah about that.
    “Lots of prescription narcotics,” she recited, going down the list, “all from a Dr. Machalvie. Practices here in town, I suppose?”
    Scott nodded yes.
    “He also had a small quantity of marijuana and cocaine on hand, but it looks like personal use rather than distribution; and this, between the nightstand and his bed.”
    She showed him photos of both sides of the gold coin, enlarged to show detail. It had Greek lettering on it, a profile of a man’s face on one side, and a seated figure on the other side, holding out a winged creature. Sarah instructed him to take the photos around and see if anyone recognized the coin. She said she was going to see Dr. Machalvie, and she’d like to meet Scott afterward for lunch to touch base. Scott agreed to meet her at the diner.
    Clearly, he had his marching orders, but he chose to do something else instead. As soon as Sarah left, Scott took the photocopy of the threat card and photo out from under the copier and put it in a clean folder. He then went through the old files until he found a case folder for Brad’s death. Because the county had taken over the case, the file was not very full, but there were some handwritten notes and newspaper clippings.
    An hour later, he had finished studying the documents and had a list of questions written in his notebook. He put everything together in a file and tucked it under his arm.
    As he left the station, Scott saw Maggie’s brother Patrick crossing Rose Hill Avenue, going from his Uncle Curtis’s service station, where he worked during the day, to his Uncle Ian’s bar, the Rose and Thorn, where he worked every evening.
    Patrick