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Appleton stole my copy of Tom Sawyer so he could decode Drake’s enigma. It only followed that whoever killed him knew he had found the answer to the riddle. Bingo. That was why the punk kids were on the pass; they hadn’t solved the riddle, they took the answer from Appleton. Damn, I really wanted to see Renfield hang, and it wasn’t going to happen. Now I had the why and the who, but I still had no proof it was the kids.
My brilliant deductive reasoning ended when Fred dropped a stick at my feet. At least I thought it had been brilliant, though I’m sure Deputy White would compare it to a night-light — dim and dull. I threw the stick back in the water then headed toward the parking lot. It wasn’t two minutes later I felt Fred trying to put the stick in my hand.
“No, Fred!” I said a little too loud. “We need to get on home and do some research on those kids. I don’t even know their names.”
He had a limited vocabulary, so I doubt he understood what I’d said, but he did know the word NO, and dropped the stick.
***
Fred was still pouting when we got home. I wasn’t sure if it was because he thought I’d yelled at him, or he was mad that I’d cut his swim too short. Whatever it was, he wanted to let me know he didn’t like it. I ignored him and let him stay outside to sulk while I went in to boot my computer.
It didn’t take long to get the names of the punk kids. A search with the keywords ‘missing’ and ‘Park County’ returned an article on the search underway on Mosquito Pass for a Je
I couldn’t wait to share my knowledge with someone and gave Bo
When she didn’t pick up, I called her cell phone. “Did you hear the news, Jake?” she asked before I could tell her about my fortuitous research. “They found those kids in a mine on Mosquito Pass.”
“Are they okay?”
“No. They’re—”
My phone beeped and cut her off momentarily. “Hold on, Bon. It’s the Park County Sheriff calling. I better get it.”
CHAPTER NINE
“Don’t say a word to them until you talk to a lawyer, Bo
I knew better than to interrupt Margot by suggesting a lawyer wasn’t necessary, especially one like Harvey Goldstein, Denver’s finest. Margot was a major pain in my neck last year when she and Bo
Margot had married well and didn’t mind spending on anything that would make her look younger. Bo
Bo
Other than being too sweet for my taste, I knew there was nothing wrong with her coffee that a little bourbon wouldn’t fix. I tried to stop the argument that was sure to follow. “Whoa, you two. White only wants a statement. He just called to let me know they found the bodies and thank me for telling him about the transmission fluid. He said they would have missed it otherwise.”
Margot looked at me with swollen eyelids. “Transmission fluid?”
I hesitated answering, wondering if she had been crying. Had they been arguing before I arrived? Then I saw the scars and realized it must have been from her latest elective surgery.
Bo
“Except I didn’t take into account a power-steering pump,” I said, cutting back into the conversation.
Both sisters sat their drinks down at the same time and looked at me, four gray-blue eyes wondering what I had just said.
“I’m pretty sure the early Datsuns didn’t have power-steering, so it never occurred to me that it was the pump that was leaking. Someone must have added it. Anyway, those pumps use a fluid that looks exactly like transmission fluid.”
Margot looked a
“I was getting to it, Margot. White said they found the Datsun in a pit half a mile from the mine. That’s when they decided to check out all the mines in the area. The kids were in the one where we saw the footprints in the snow. The old rotten floor gave out on them, and they fell fifty feet straight down.”
Margot didn’t wait for me to continue and put away her compact. Evidently, she was satisfied with what she had seen in the mirror, or maybe it had cracked and she didn’t want us to know. “All the more reason you need a lawyer, Bo
Bo
“I still think it’s a trick. They’ll find out you were in that guy’s house sooner or later. You should let them know before they find out. That’s why you need a lawyer.”
“You told her we went into Appleton’s cabin?” I asked, raising my voice.
Bo
I took a deep breath and cleared my throat to get their attention. “We don’t even know if the burglary White mentioned was Appleton’s. Nor do we know if they suspect murder. Are you forgetting they said Appleton killed himself? Why incriminate ourselves and make them think otherwise?”
“Because Bo
“Because everyone’s listening,” Bo
I hadn’t seen Bo
“I’ll get it, Jake,” Margot said when I opened my empty wallet in front of her while trying to extract a credit card. “And I promise not to call Harvey — for now.”