CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Look here,” May said to Owen excitedly. They were sitting side by side in the car, in the parking lot outside Rushway River Lodge, using her laptop to log into the police information databases.
She couldn’t believe what the search had just uncovered.
Madeline Reed was Bert Reed’s younger sister.
“His sister!” Owen said incredulously.
Immediately, May messaged Sheriff Jack to tell him about this bombshell.
As she keyed in the words, May felt a sense of unreality. Someone was targeting Reed Leisure. There was absolutely no doubt about it. And they’d gone to the lengths of following Madeline Reed all the way here to where she was staying. This wasn’t just a crime inflicted on random people at the hotel, but rather people involved with the hotel business.
“Reed couldn’t have done it himself. He wouldn’t have been able to in terms of timing,” May said. “He was at the Mount Amethyst hotel in meetings.”
“Could he have arranged both their deaths?” Owen asked. “A rich guy like that could have hired an assassin.”
“Yes, we can’t rule that out. But he’d need a motive, and apart from the insurance policy there isn’t a clear motive. At any rate, not yet. So if the sister was somehow covered by that policy, then yes. But otherwise, no.”
“My gut feel is no,” Owen agreed.
“I say the same. I don’t think Bert Reed knew about this when we met him,” May said. “I think if we focus too hard on him, we might overlook important motives that other people have.”
“Agreed,” Owen said.
“I wonder how he’ll feel when he hears,” May said.
“Surely he’ll be devastated if he finds out his sister has been killed? He’ll want to help us if he can. After all, she was his sister,” Owen said.
“I wonder what their relationship is like, though. Why was she in a totally different lodge? Are they friendly? Are they estranged? Why not stay at the same place as him? Or at his hotel?” May wondered. “He might have an alibi for the crime but it doesn’t necessarily mean they were close.”
“There is something going on here. There has to be a reason she was targeted. What is this family hiding?” Owen asked.
May looked up as Sheriff Jack walked out and headed for their car. He was shaking his head, looking as perturbed as May felt.
“This has to be related to the hotel chain somehow, May. Do you think Bert Reed knew his sister was likely to be targeted? As he’s the closest next of kin, one of us has to go and tell him the news. If he doesn’t know it already, of course, because who knows what motives are at play here?”
“We were thinking the same,” May agreed.
“I’m wondering what the best way of telling Reed will be.”
May considered the possibilities.
“He’s just seen me and Owen. It didn’t go well, and I don’t think we’ll be the best choice to go back again.”
Sheriff Jack nodded.
“I will go and break the news to him, and take one of our other officers with me. And I’ll observe his reaction carefully.”
“Thank you,” May said. “I hope you’ll pick something up from him.”
Sheriff Jack turned and headed for his own car.
“Where are we going to go in the meantime?” Owen asked.
“I have an idea,” May said. “I want to go and speak to those lawyers that Bert Reed threatened us with. Perhaps they can tell us more about what the family’s been involved with.”
*
It was four-thirty p.m. when May and Owen pulled up outside the head office of Devonshire, Clark and Bissett. The head office was located in Meadowtown in Tamarack County, a place May knew fairly well.
She walked in, and was glad to see the person she remembered was still at the reception desk. Small-town life strikes again, she thought. This connection could possibly prove useful. It was, in fact, one of the reasons she’d decided to come here.
“Hello, Christa,” she greeted the brown-haired, blue-eyed woman who’d been in her class for most of school.
“May Moore! Good to see you!” Christa smiled. “I heard you were promoted recently?”
May nodded, thinking that sometimes, in a small-town setting, it was nice the way word got around.
“That’s right. I’m county deputy now.”
“That’s seriously great. I’m super-impressed. And are you here on business today?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Who are you here to see?”