“Your investigation?”

  Granny pointed to the table. “I’ll give you one clue. It’s not the bacon.”

  Alex looked at the table, at Granny, and finally at me. His eyes were full of confusion. But confusion or not, those eyes. They were something. And the man they were attached to? Well, once upon a time, I would have found a man like that… attractive.

  But that was a long time ago.

  Detective Kramer and I followed Granny over to the Library. Detective Kramer’s black and white state police pickup truck was parked next to Granny’s orange Bronco. And next to Granny’s orange Bronco was an ambulance.

  Detective Kramer opened up a small notepad and looked up. “Doctor Bridges was waiting for me when I arrived. He said Bess wouldn’t let him touch anything until I got there. I did a quick examination of the body, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to fill in some gaps for me.”

  “What kind of gaps?”

  “Just start at the beginning.”

  Detective Kramer grabbed the door and opened it for us and then he followed me inside. Bess was standing over the doctor, arms crossed, like a silent sentinel. Doctor Bridges looked up. “Granny, could you please have Bess move? She’s kind of freaking me out.”

  “There’s not much to tell,” I said to the detective. “I went to bed. Then this morning, I woke up and went down to the bar to brew some coffee. I got a call on my cell and took it.”

  “Who called you?”

  “A newspaper in Spokane. It was about a job.”

  “You work in the newspaper business?”

  “I’m…or rather, I was an investigative reporter for the Portland News Gazette.”

  “Was? Did you quit?”

  “I got fired…yesterday.”

  “Yesterday?” He ran his hand through his hair. “Is that why you came to Hopeless? Because you got fired?”

  “No, I was already on my way to Hopeless for my Granny’s funeral.”

  Detective Kramer’s looked at Granny, then back at me. “Excuse me. Did you say your Granny’s funeral was yesterday?”

  “Yes,” I said, thoroughly enjoying the Detective’s confusion.

  “Ms. Walker, are you perhaps on medications?”

  I smiled. “First of all, it’s Hope. And second, I know it’s crazy. But Granny’s crazy. She wanted to have her funeral before she died. I was on my way to my very much alive Granny’s funeral. I got fired. I showed up at the funeral. I had entirely too much to drink and I fell asleep at some point. This morning I woke up, brewed some coffee, and took a call. After that I walked around the bar and tripped on what I discovered to be Sheriff Kline’s body.”

  “You don’t remember hearing anything?”

  “No. I was pretty out of it. I didn’t wake up until I had a bad dream.”

  “What was the dream about?”

  “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

  “This is a homicide investigation. Everything is my business.”

  “Not that.”

  Detective Kramer rubbed his hand across his chin then went back to the body.

  “Got a verdict, Doc?”

  “Well, obviously I won’t know with absolute certainty until I do the autopsy. But it appears that he died of blunt force trauma to the head.”

  “And is it safe to assume the murder weapon is that broken whiskey bottle next to his head?”

  “That would be my assumption.”

  Detective Kramer circled the body and then was back in my crosshairs. “Ms. Walker.”

  “Hope.”

  “Hope, have you ever walked in your sleep… blacked out… or anything like that?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “How would you characterize your relationship with Sheriff Kline?”

  “Our relationship?”

  “Yes. Was it a good relationship?”

  Granny laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Ed Kline presented my granddaughter with 12-year-old speeding tickets yesterday.”

  “So, you wouldn’t say your relationship was good?”

  “No. It was not good.”

  “Hope, are you planning to leave Hopeless anytime soon?”

  “Yes, on Friday morning. I have a job interview in Spokane.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What do you mean maybe?”

  “Ms. Walker. This is a homicide investigation. You’re not going anywhere until I say you can. And I can’t let you go anywhere until I clear you.”

  “And what’s it going to take to clear me?”

  “Evidence and questions. Lots of questions. In fact, I have one more question for you. You said you were drinking a lot yesterday. What exactly were you drinking?”

  My shoulders slumped and I shook my head. “Whiskey. I was drinking whiskey.”

  Detective Kramer eyed the broken whiskey bottle next to Ed’s dead head. “Like I said, maybe.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I drove to Granny’s and took the longest, hottest shower of my life. I scrubbed and scrubbed, trying to clean away the whiskey, the whiff of death, and my suddenly precarious career.

  Afterword, I pulled on my black jeans and a top, put on my leather jacket, pulled my hair into a ponytail and was ready to go.

  I had to look into the sheriff’s love life for Katie. She was right. Margaret Kline was a nice woman. She didn’t deserve a dead husband. If he was a cheat on top of being a corpse, she didn’t need that getting dragged through the newspapers. And now that Detective Kramer was on the case, I needed to hurry if I was going to protect her.

  I went to the Clap Back Inn on the edge of town. A young skinny man sat behind the front desk, busily typing away on his smartphone. His hair was a messy mop and acne pitted his face. He smiled when he saw me.

  “May I help you?”

  I leaned down to read his name tag. “Irwin, is it?”

  “Yes,” he said proudly.

  “Irwin, I am a reporter for the Portland News Gazette and I’m doing a story on credit card fraud throughout the northwest.”

  “Cool.”

  “No, Irwin. Not cool, not cool at all. Were you aware that the Pacific Northwest economy loses ten billion dollars a year in gross domestic product because of credit card fraud?”

  “Ten billion?”

  “Yes, Irwin. Billion. With a B.”

  “Well, what can we do to stop it?”

  “Now you’re asking the right question, Irwin. And that’s why I’m here. I’m following one of the biggest credit card fraudsters in this area. I’ve been on her trail for the last couple months. Her name is Katherine Klug, but she goes by a number of aliases. Jenny the Jet, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Big Mac and Cheese.”

  “She goes by those names?”

  “And a dozen more. If I told you number twelve, you’d probably poop yourself.”

  His eyes had the level of disgust I was aiming for.

  “Now, Irwin, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with you?”

  “Yeah, a little.”

  “I got a tip from a reliable source that Ms. Klug came through Hopeless last week and that trail has led me here, to the Clap Back Inn. It’s my belief that she stayed here last Wednesday night.”

  Irwin sat up a little straighter. “I was working last Wednesday.”

  “Then I’m talking to the right person. Irwin, I was wondering if you might remember a woman, dark long hair, wore sunglasses. Stayed at least one night.”

  Irwin considered that. “The hotel was pretty full that night, but I do remember somebody like that. I didn’t really look at her.”

  “But she did check in, didn’t she?”

  “Yeah, but like you said. Dark sunglasses and all. Plus, she kept her head down most of the time. Like she didn’t want to be noticed.”

  “Did you find that odd?”

  “At a hotel on the edge of town? Not at all. The owner told me a long time ago, ain’t none of our business.”

  “Do you remember the name she used to check in?”

  He shook his head. “No, sorry.”

  “Do you think you could look it up for me?”

  “That’s the other thing the owner told me. Ain’t none of your business either.”

  “Billion, Irwin. Ten billion dollars.”

  “I’m sorry. I’d get fired for telling you. Plus, it’s hard to imagine she had anything to do with credit card fraud.”

  “Why?”

  “She paid cash for the room.”

  “Irwin, I thought you were supposed to use a credit card to hold a hotel room.”

  A guilty look spread across Irwin’s face. “She might have given me an extra tip to allow her to pay cash.”

  “And, Irwin, did your owner also tell you to accept under the counter ‘tips’ for your discretion?”

  “You’re not going to tell, are you?”

  “Not if you tell me who the woman was.”

  “I don’t understand. If this Katherine Klug is into credit card fraud, why not just use a phony card? Why pay cash?”

  Irwin wasn’t as dumb as he looked. Which meant I needed to go to Plan B. I began to cry. I leaned my forehead on the front desk and cried. When I looked up, Irwin was sincerely freaked out.

  “I wasn’t telling you the truth, Irwin.”

  “You weren’t?”

  “I’m not a reporter. I’m a woman. A woman scorned. My husband, he’s been cheating on me. I followed him to this hotel last Wednesday and I just have to know. You understand, Irwin, don’t you? I have to know who he’s with.”

  “I could get fired.”

  I grabbed Irwin by the collar and pulled him close. “I’m a woman, Irwin. Can you feel me, Irwin?”

  “Am I allowed to feel you?”

  “Oh, Irwin, stop teasing me. I mean, do you know what it’s like to be a woman in love, and then to find out some other woman is trying to take your man?”

  “Well, not exactly.”

  I pulled Irwin so close I thought I might vomit. His breath was hot and gross enough I was worried it might melt my skin. But sometimes a girl’s got to do what she’s got to do.

  “Irwin, don’t you think a woman has a right to know who’s trying to break up her family?”

  Irwin’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down like a yo-yo. “Okay,” he squeaked.

  I released him and backed away. “But honest to God, you can’t tell anybody I did this.”

  I crossed my heart. “I promise, Irwin. And just so you know, I’ll be indebted to you.” Then I winked.

  I thought he was going to faint right then and there. But he managed to pull himself together. He went on his computer and looked something up, then wrote on a small piece of paper. He folded the paper and handed it to me. “If things don’t work out with your husband.”

  “Oh, Irwin. You are my knight in shining armor. And yes, should that day ever come, I’ll know just where to find you.”

  I left the hotel and hustled to my car. I wondered if our mystery woman would use her real name? If she paid with cash, probably not. But sometimes, out of sheer habit, people did dumb things.

  I climbed into my car and opened up the paper. But I was not prepared for the name written on that slip of paper. Not prepared at all.

  When I stopped by Katie’s house, Chris answered the door again. He smiled. “You look different than you did this morning,” he said.

  “It’s a new look I call ‘Shower by, Hope’.”

  He laughed and said, “I’m sorry, Katie’s not here. I took a half day so she could run some errands.”

  “Any idea where she could be?”

  He shrugged. “Grocery store, bank, the usual.”

  I headed back downtown and saw Katie coming out of the bank. I parked and got out.

  “Hey, Katie! What’s going on?”

  She was surprised to see me and the lip got chewed again. Nervous. “Just coming back from the bank.”

  “No, Katie. I mean what’s going on with that lead you wanted me to follow? Is this some kind of joke?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about this.” I handed her the slip of paper. “I went to the hotel and asked about our mystery woman. The young man looked up her name. It’s right here on this piece of paper.”

  Katie grabbed it and opened it up. Her eyes filled with confusion. “I don’t understand. It says Katie Rodgers.”

  “Like I said, is this some kind of a joke?”

  “Wait, you’re saying that the woman who was seeing Ed Kline used my name when she checked in?”

  “You’re saying it wasn’t you?”

  “What? You think I was seeing Sheriff Kline and instead of keeping it a secret, I concocted this elaborate story about me figuring out he was cheating…. just so you could follow up and figure out it was me all along?”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t make much sense,” I agreed. “Do you think Sheriff Kline and his woman were on to you? That they figured out you were suspicious?”

  “So, they met in Hopeless where I could follow them? If they thought I was close to finding them out, why make it easier for me? Wouldn’t you just be more careful at that point?”

  “Yeah, you would. Okay, what if the woman’s name really is Katie Rodgers?”

  Katie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Then what do you think?”

  “I think she used my name on purpose.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “I have no idea!”

  I thought about it a little bit more. It definitely didn’t make sense.

  “I stopped by the Library,” she said. “I heard you met Detective Kramer.”

  “Yeah thanks, you didn’t tell me he was—”

  “Hot? Handsome? Hunky? Yeah, us married folk have to keep that stuff on the down low. Plus, I thought it would be funny if he met the fully hungover and unshowered Hope Walker.”

  “You’re a heckuva friend.”

  She shrugged. “Paybacks and all.”

  “Listen, about what you said earlier… you were right.”

  “I know I was right.”

  “I shouldn’t have stayed away so long.”

  “But you did, Hope. And not just weeks. Or months. Years. Twelve years. How do you explain that?”

  “It was just easier.”

  “It was easier to be by yourself going through the most painful experience of your life than to be with your best friend?”

  “Everything about this place, even you, reminded me of Jimmy. Plus, there was something else.”

  “What?”

  I closed my eyes, the image that had haunted my dreams immediately rushing back. When I opened up my eyes, she was staring at me.

  “Where do you go when you do that?”

  I’d never told anybody where I went. What I saw? What I remembered? Or what really happened. That was the problem.

  “I can’t.”

  She stepped forward and grabbed my arm. “Hope, life is full of hard things. You think I wanted to have boobs that could double as the downhill course on Moose Peak?”

  “They don’t sag that much!”

  She squeezed my arm. “The point is, I know what you went through was hard. But maybe, just maybe, if you’d let me in, I could share that pain with you.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, Hope. You can. Whatever it is. You can.”

  “Can what?” It was a man’s voice and I spun around to find Detective Kramer behind me. When he saw me, his eyebrows raised up and he tilted his head and squinted as if he didn’t quite believe what he saw.

  “Miss Walker? Is that you?”

  “Hope. Remember, it’s Hope.”

  “It’s just you look so different.”

  “It’s called a shower,” said Katie. “Hope takes one every month like clockwork. Consider yourself lucky.” Katie reached past me and held out her hand. “Good to see you again, Detective. How’s the investigation going?”

  He shook Katie’s hand but kept his eyes on me. “It’s just getting started. Actually, I was hoping to find you. Seeing as you worked with the sheriff every day, I was wondering if you could help me work through his routine for the last week.”

  “His routine?”

  “Oftentimes in homicides, there are clues in the days leading up to the event… changes in routine, people, places things. Even the tiniest detail could be the key to unlocking the truth.”

  Katie folded her hand over that tiny slip of paper and shoved it into her front pocket. “I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.” She turned to me. “Raincheck on that other thing, maybe?”

  “Maybe.”

  “And, Ms. Walker. I mean, Hope. Remember, I consider you a person of interest.”

  “You do?”

  His face got red.

  “In this case. A person of interest in this case.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Don’t push it.”

  I went only as far as Granny’s house. The events of the last day were catching up to me and with no job and not much to do, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in years. I went upstairs to my old bedroom. Spent approximately five seconds looking at my old stuff, and then hit the pillow and took what I hoped would be the longest nap of my life.

  And I think it might have been too. I was sleeping as soundly as I had in a very long time.

  That is, until the gunfire woke me up.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  And not just one gunshot. Multiple gunshots.

  All coming from Granny’s backyard.

  I checked my phone. 6:15 pm. Seriously, Granny? was all I could think. I went to the bathroom, splashed cool water on my face, then went downstairs to the backyard.

  I expected to see Granny and Bess shooting clay targets. It was one of their favorite pastimes.

  I had not expected them to be doing it with Hopeless, Idaho’s newest visitor, Detective Alex Kramer.

  “Pull!” Alex yelled. Granny pulled on the trap thrower sunk in the middle of the backyard.

  Three shots rang out in quick succession and the two clay targets exploded. Detective Kramer lowered his shotgun and shook his head.

  “She got me again.”

  Bess beamed with pride.

  “Don’t beat yourself up, Alex. Bess here’s won the city trap shooting contest five out of the last six years.”

 

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