There spoke the little kid afraid of being abandoned again. Evie reached over and pulled her pigtail. “I doubt it. Does Jax strike you as a ranch type?”
Loretta brightened and picked up speed. “He couldn’t wear suits on a ranch. Let’s fix him a peach cobbler so he won’t even think about it.”
Life should be so simple. When they reached the Victorian and biked up the drive, they found R&R on the wide, covered porch, munching peaches from the basket Evie had left there earlier. They were taking apart a mechanical contraption as they ate.
“New job?” Evie climbed the stairs and warily regarded the oily mess.
“You’d better find us real jobs soon or we’ll end up as mechanics,” Reuben answered grimly. “Everyone wants their mowers fixed. We can do that, but it’s way below our pay grade.”
“Snobs. You should be hobnobbing with Jax’s California contact, the Conan Oswin person. Sounds like he makes a living at spying.” She bit into a peach and contemplated the problem. “Wonder if Swenson’s opponents would be interested in whatever dirt you dig up on him?”
“Dirty work.” Roark wrinkled his large nose. “Maybe we not cut out for detecting.”
“Is finding out what happened to Jax’s dad dirty work and beneath your pay grade?”
“No, that’s fine, but we can’t charge him. If we could get paid for finding Pendleton’s killer, now that would be sweet.” Reuben yanked an oily part from a motor and grimaced at it.
Evie beamed. “Look for someone who knew Clancy was allergic to cats. The city is bound to create a reward once they realize he didn’t commit suicide.”
Roark started to complain. Reuben glared at him. “Beats bombing people, dude. Broaden your horizons.”
Since they were broadening their horizons simply by venturing from their man cave, Evie left them to it. Inside, she nearly stumbled over a carton of fliers. Loretta pounced on the box. “For Miss Ward! Can I take them around to businesses?”
Evie studied the tasteful headshot of the dress designer and her promise to return justice and equality to city hall, with testaments from employees. Her campaign manager knew what he was doing.
Was it safe to let a kid go alone? She wished she knew more about parenting. It wasn’t as if Mavis had paid attention to where Evie was or what she was doing. But then, no one would want to kidnap her. “Do you have a friend who can go around with you? Safer and more fun that way. I’ll offer a treat at the ice cream shop for helping.”
Loretta immediately began texting contacts. The kid adapted quickly.
Evie’s phone rang, and she almost jumped. People seldom called her. She smiled at Jax’s name appearing on the screen. Wandering back to the kitchen, she answered it. “Does DNA qualify as evidence that you’re an heir?”
Obviously having read Ariel’s message, Jax snorted. “How much is umpteen acres of desert worth? I’ll ask Conan. He’s been keeping an eye on that area for his own reasons. Maybe he’ll be interested.”
“Pretty smart of Ariel to track it down, though.” Evie studied the refrigerator for leftovers needing to be used up. The locusts never left any. Oh well. The allowance from Loretta’s trust was more money than she’d ever seen. She knew how to shop. “I wonder where the tax money is coming from?”
“My wild guess is that someone is leasing some portion for oil wells, cattle, whatever. Maybe illegal pot farms pay rent. Ariel is good with financial info. I’ll leave her to track that down. I have email in here from Conan with the timeline for Pendleton’s death. Like city hall here, his office closed for lunch. Unlike city hall, they leave no receptionist, just hang an Out to Lunch sign and lock up. The secretaries say Pendleton was on the phone when they left. They were celebrating someone’s engagement and got back late, after one.”
“All the secretaries, even Donna?”
“Donna had to run to the bank first. The bank verified she was there about a quarter after noon. She arrived at lunch around twelve-thirty. The lot of them returned to the office before one-thirty. They didn’t check on Pendleton until someone tried to call his office around two.”
“Which was when the screaming started,” Evie guessed. “We left the bank before noon, stopped at the drive-in nearby before noon, and were eating it on the lake about the time Donna went to the bank. How did she get there if Teddy was following us in her truck?”
“Walked. Not the same bank. Lunch place in walking distance too. Cops don’t know about us being followed, so they didn’t ask who had her truck.”
Evie sat on a kitchen stool and spun it around. “We probably lost the truck sometime before one, maybe as early as twelve-thirty, hard to tell. Teddy had time to go back and do the deed before everyone returned. Maybe Donna sneaked back during the party. Or a stranger walked in off the street. Can we assume the shot would have been heard if the secretaries were in the front office?”
“Gun was only a.22 caliber, they had the audio system playing, and the secretaries were a bit drunk and loud. So I’m gonna leave the timeline open from after he spoke to the bank until two.”
“Tricky.” Evie spun her stool harder. “Did they trace the gun?”
“No registration and Pendleton didn’t have a license.” Jax was practically growling at her interrogation.
If he wouldn’t communicate on his own, she’d pull it out of him. “I take it no one saw him at lunch.”
“Right. His office phone light was lit when they left. They assumed he was on a business call. He only uses his cell for personal. They locked the front when they left, but there’s a rear door. They didn’t check it since Pendleton could watch that hall from his desk. Office is covered in fingerprints, none of them out of place.”
“They’re tracing his phone calls?”