Wilson reports to Sheriff Ericsson first thing Monday morning. He says, “The lighthouse volunteer locked up and left at 4:30, like we heard he was supposed to. The gift shop was still open when he left. There was only one car in the parking lot. He remembered it was a white SUV. Sounds like he saw Martha’s car. I asked if he had seen anyone suspicious hanging around. He said he was inside the lighthouse keeper’s house all afternoon, and wouldn’t have seen anyone suspicious, if they were hanging around near the gift shop. He did say some men were there trimming a tree that afternoon. The tree had been damaged in a wind storm. He believed the men were removing a big limb broken by the wind. It needed to be removed before it fell and hit the gift shop. The tree trimmers and the broken limb were gone when he left.”
The sheriff ponders Deputy Wilson’s report for a few moments, then says, “Now we know Martha didn’t lock up before 4:30. She could have locked up anytime between 4:30 and 5:00 if she had no customers. It still leaves the possibility that Lafleur killed her after 4:30 and before 5:00. Did the lighthouse volunteer know the name of the tree trimming business? There are several in the area.”
“He saw the tree trimmers outside a window. He said he didn’t see the name on their truck. I can find out. It’ll only take a few calls,” replies Wilson.
“Don’t bother, I’ll have Sue make the calls. Now we know the tree trimmers were gone before Martha left. I think that eliminates them as suspects. Go to the bank when it opens this morning and talk to the tellers. See if you can determine if Lafleur might have been working on Saturday afternoon even if the bank wasn’t open. Maybe he had to sign in and sign out. What did Lafleur tell you he was doing before he went to the restaurant?”
“He said he went fishing and returned to the harbor about 4:00. I confirmed his story with Harrison Cook, the Harbormaster.”
“That still leaves him plenty of time to get to the gift shop by 4:30. Double check with the tellers anyway.. I’ll divide up the three sex offenders between you and Towner. We’ll start by having you two have casual conversations with them. Knowing they are likely suspects, they could leave the area if they fear they’ll be accused of murdering Martha,” says the sheriff.
Wilson returns before lunch and reports on his conversations with the bank tellers. He says, “The tellers said no one was working on Saturday afternoon. When I asked one if Lafleur could have been working Saturday afternoon she said no, she knew he had been fishing. He stopped by her house to return an edge trimmer he had borrowed and gave her a walleye he caught that afternoon. She remembered what time he left her house. It was 4:45. He told her he wanted to get to the Black River Bar and Grill by a little after 5:00 to meet Martha for dinner. She remembered the time because she looked at her watch to see if he had enough time to make it.”
“Damn, that means Lafleur didn’t have enough time to leave the teller’s house, go to the gift shop, kill Martha, and get to the restaurant when he did. I was hoping this was going to be easy. Good thing I resisted bringing Lafleur in and sweating him for a confession. Mary Jane Bloom would have a field day finding out I grilled an innocent man, especially the new Assistant Manager of the bank. She’d have made him out to be Martha's poor grieving boyfriend. Well we have the three sex offenders left. We’d better get one of them for the crime.”
“Yes, Sir,” says Wilson.
“Here’s my plan,” says the sheriff, “Wilson you take two and Towner you take the other one. Start with Wilson’s standard approach. Connect with them casually if you can. Discuss anything else at first and then get around to the case. See if you learn anything. I’ll give you a couple of days. You’re more likely to learn something useful if you don’t rush things. We’ll have to continue to take the heat from the mayor and the Weekly Journal, but we can’t afford to mess this up. Got it?”
“Yes, Sir,” both deputies answer.
The following Monday the Sheriff goes on road patrol all day avoiding the phone calls he knows are coming to his office. He makes a loop through the county passing through two crossroad villages. The two villages cling to life, desperate to avoid fading into ghost towns or disappearing completely. Most of the stores and houses from the glory days of the lumbering boom are now vacant or gone. Driving slowly, he waves at anyone he sees in each village. Their waves back giving him confidence his presence is appreciated. He has lunch at the Dinner Pail on the west side of the county. He enjoys his favorite pecan pie for dessert. The owner comes to his table and tells him it’s good to see him. He asks the sheriff how the Crawford case is going in a sympathetic voice. The sheriff forces a smile and tells him it’s proceeding faster than he expected.
The sheriff stops in his office before going home. Sue greets him and says, “I hope you had a good day. Mine’s been stressful. The phone has been ringing all day. I had calls from the librarian, the gift shop owner and the head of Helping Hands. They all wanted me to remind you how wonderful Martha Crawford was and how much her volunteering will be missed. Each one then asked if you are close to solving the case. I told each of them your investigation is proceeding well, and told them not to start any rumors. The mayor called again. He didn’t like it when I said you weren’t available. I told him you would call him Tomorrow. I hope that’s alright.”
“I’ll call him in the morning. Thanks for handling things today, Sue. I knew I could count on you. Maybe tomorrow will be better.”
“Sir, it’ll depend a lot on what Mary Jane Bloom’s column says. I wish she’d talk about something else. Maybe she enjoys getting everyone all fired up.”
‘I’m sure she enjoys finding fault with how I do my job, or at least trying to make people think I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not going to think about it tonight. In the morning I want reports from Wilson and Towner. Let’s hope they made some progress. I’m going home.”
After he leaves, Sue thinks, ‘For once he’s not acting like a bull in a china shop. Maybe he’s learning. I hope. Training him has been a pain. I’m getting too old to babysit sheriffs.’ She picks up her purse and leaves for the day.
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