CHAPTER THREE
“What are you looking at?” Andy Baker asked May. She pointed more closely.
“It looks as if there’s something stuck in his mouth. Right at the back of his throat. You can actually see the bulge in his windpipe. I was wondering, could he have choked, somehow?”
“You’re right,” Andy said. “There is something there.”
May stepped back to let him examine it more closely. The wind from the lake tugged at her hair. It was cool and fresh. It smelled of pine and clean air. Again she thought how strange and wrong it was that this man was lying here, after having drowned in these pristine waters.
A few locals were already standing and watching, keeping well back from the crime scene tape. May saw a couple of dog walkers, a jogger who was doing stretches against a wooden bench while staring down at the lake, and also a couple of uniformed staff who looked to have walked over from the hotel’s premises.
Andy crouched down by the body and gently opened the victim’s lips wider.
He moved the body’s head to one side. Then he drew a sharp breath as he saw what was stuck in the dead man’s mouth.
“It’s a piece of paper,” he said, sounding intrigued.
May squatted next to him, peering closer.
Andy took out a pair of tweezers and gently teased the paper out of the dead man’s mouth. He opened it with his gloved hands.
“It’s a five-dollar bill,” he said in even more incredulous tones.
“Crumpled up in his throat?” May asked. This was totally confusing and not what she’d expected at all.
“Yes.” Andy’s voice was hard. “I’m sorry to say but this adds to the weight of proof that this was an intentional crime.” He sighed and added in a low voice, for May’s ears only, “I suspected it from the moment I saw this had taken place near this damned hotel, and that someone related to the hotel was the victim.”
May knew that this confirmed all their worst suspicions.
Something like this could not have happened by chance. This crumpled bill must have been placed in his mouth by the killer. And that meant, without a doubt, that this was murder.
Sheriff Jack hurried over with an evidence bag, and Andy placed the bill carefully inside.
“We’ll move the body now, and I’ll take it in for examination,” Andy said. “The postmortem should be completed by tomorrow at the latest.”
“I hope it will provide more insight,” Jack said. “The bill has been in the water for a long time, but there might be some forensic evidence to be found.”
“I’ll do my best,” Andy promised.
“What do you think the five-dollar bill means?” Owen asked. He had taken off his scuba gear and was wearing blue jeans and a turtleneck top.
“I don’t know what it means, but it confirms that we need to prioritize the investigation,” Jack said.
The three of them stepped away, leaving the photographer to take pictures of the body. They moved into a huddle.
“Whoever put it there wanted us to find it. They wanted to send us a message,” May said.
Andy’s words had also reminded her that there was a huge amount of controversy surrounding this hotel. She glanced uneasily behind her, looking at its multistory facade. Was this a message about the hotel?
“Any guesses at what they’re trying to say?” Owen asked, as if reading her mind.
May realized she had no idea. But she was suspicious, now, that the hotel was somehow providing the motive for this man’s death. After all, this was the hotel’s architect, murdered outside the hotel, in the area where the well-loved pier was due to be demolished. There could be different reasons, and she knew that Danny’s private life must be examined closely, but for her the location of this crime was already a red flag.
“We need to look at every avenue and every motive, but we must keep in mind that there are a lot of people who didn’t want this built,” Jack said. It was clear to May that they were all thinking along the same lines.
“I hate to say it, but the hotel is already the subject of a lot of conflict,” May said. “I know we’ve been getting so many complaints and so much negative feedback.”
Jack nodded. “You don’t know the half of it.” He glanced at Owen.
“I’ve been handling the complaints,” Owen said. “I’ve recorded every single one in writing, and graded them with red being the most serious, orange being more minor, and yellow still needing follow-up. And so far, they have filled a big file box.”
“A lot of people are very angry about the project,” Jack agreed.
“It’s not just local people. People throughout Tamarack County have been making complaints,” Owen said.
“So if the hotel was the reason for this crime, then we have a huge pool of potential suspects,” May said. “This could be any one of a large number of people.”
“That doesn’t make it any easier,” Jack said.
At that moment, they were interrupted by a shout from behind them.
“Hello there! Good morning!” a woman’s voice called.
May turned to see a dark-haired woman approaching from the direction of the hotel. She was wearing a navy business suit and had her hair neatly tied back.
She was wearing high-heeled shoes that were sinking into the soft grass as she walked, slowing her down.
May hurried to meet her.