Payback in Paxton Park, page 8
part #4 of Paxton Park Mystery Series
“Would you mind running through what happened on the morning of the crime?” Jay asked in a soft voice.
Troy’s lips parted and he glanced around the room with a panicked look in his eyes. The women didn’t think he was going to be able to answer, but in a few moments, he cleared his throat and said, “I can do that.” The statement seemed to be more to convince himself that he was able to recount the events of that morning.
“Thank you, Troy,” Jay said. “I know it’s difficult. Take your time. Stop when you need to.”
Troy nodded. “Roberta had to be at work earlier than usual that morning. I heard her alarm go off and she got up to get ready. I fell back to sleep. I was certain I’d set the other alarm for my waking time, but somehow it didn’t go off. Maybe I forgot to set it. Maybe Roberta accidentally turned it off when her alarm went off. We don’t know what happened. Whatever the cause, the result was I overslept.”
“Roberta left the house before you had to be up?” Shelly asked.
“That’s right. When I woke and saw the time, I jumped out of bed and took a quick shower. I grabbed some granola bars and headed out to my car. Snow and ice covered the windshield so I had to clear it before driving away. Finally, I arrived at the barn.” All the wind seemed to disappear from the man’s sails.
“Did things seem off when you arrived?” Jay asked.
“Off?” Troy shifted his gaze to his hands resting in his lap. “You mean like something was wrong?”
“Did something seem wrong?” Jay asked.
“I didn’t think so. Not at first.”
“What happened after you arrived at the barn?” Shelly asked.
“I parked, got out of the car, walked to the front door.” Troy hesitated. “It was snowing. I….”
The three women sat quietly waiting for Troy to go on and in less than a minute of awkward silence, he did. “I went up the walkway to the front. The door was unlocked. I went in. Our bookkeeper, Shannon Flay, is usually there before me, but not that day. She took a sick day. I didn’t know it at the time, but she’d sent me an email telling me she’d be out. Rosa Perkins is our receptionist. She hadn’t yet arrived.”
“Was Rosa due to be in the office?” Jay asked.
“Not that day. That day of the week she comes in an hour and a half later,” Troy said.
“Was anyone else supposed to be there who wasn’t?” Shelly asked.
Troy’s shoulders slumped. “Grant and Benny.”
“Are they usually at work before you get there?” Jay asked.
“Always, yes,” Troy said. “At first, I just thought they were out grooming the slopes or making snow. They get to work early. Sometimes they make a quick coffee, and then head to their work. They’re always outside when I get to the barn.”
“What happened after you went inside?” Jay asked.
Troy’s face lost a bit of its color as a sense of panic washed over him. “I went to the kitchen. I put my lunch in the refrigerator. Then I got my coffee mug from the cabinet and was about to pour myself a cup. There was nearly a full pot on the coffee maker. Benny always made coffee as soon as he got to work.” The man’s chest rose and fell rapidly and he looked far away.
“Did you pour yourself the coffee?” Juliet asked trying to gently bring him back to the conversation.
“What?” Troy blinked. “What did you say?”
“The coffee. You were about to pour yourself a cup of coffee,” Julie prodded him.
“Yes,” Troy said. “I mean no. I didn’t pour the coffee. I heard something. I thought I heard the back door open. At first, I assumed it was Grant or Benny coming back in for something. I listened. I didn’t hear any footsteps so I went out into the hall.”
“What did you see?” Jay asked.
“I didn’t see anything.”
“Did you hear anything?” Jay questioned.
“I didn’t hear anything. It was deathly quiet.” Troy’s mouth opened. “I’m sorry. A poor choice of words.”
“What did you do?” Shelly asked.
“I walked towards my office. I wondered if the back door got left open and the wind might have pushed it shut with a bang,” Troy said. He seemed to brace himself. His voice became whisper-soft. “As I passed my office, I saw them. On the floor.”
“Was anyone else inside the room or in the hall?” Jay asked.
Troy looked at Jay with a blank face. “I didn’t see anyone else.”
“Did you hear a sound like gunshots?” Jay asked.
Troy considered. “No. I thought the door banged shut. That’s the sound I think I heard.”
“Was the door blowing in the wind? Did it open and close while you were in the hall?” Shelly asked.
Troy turned his gaze on the young woman. “I don’t remember. As soon as I saw Grant and Benny, I think I went into shock. That’s what the doctor told me anyway. I was probably in shock.”
“What did you do after you saw the bodies?” Juliet asked.
“I don’t know for sure.” Troy’s eyes glistened with tears. “I remember being outside. It was cold.” The man looked from Juliet to Shelly. “You found me outside, didn’t you?”
“We heard a scream,” Shelly said. “Juliet and I were skiing. We’d just finished a run. We were on the slope close to the barn. We saw you come outside.”
Troy nodded, staring off across the room. “Benny and Grant. Who would shoot them? Why not just steal the stupid safe and get out? Why did he have to kill them?”
“Did you notice anything? Did you see anyone inside the building?” Jay asked. “A quick look? A shadow? Anything?”
“I didn’t see anything,” Troy said in a robotic way.
Shelly recalled Troy had repeated that very same sentence over and over the last time they had come to see him. Troy seemed like a person who had been traumatized by an event and had trouble recalling some of the details of what had happened.
Was Troy impaired by the stress of the situation? Was his brain trying to protect him from his experience? Was someone else in the building? Did Troy maybe get a look at someone?
Shelly sighed.
Was Troy protecting himself by playing the victim of a traumatic event? Could he be protecting someone else? Could Troy have been in on the crime? Did he give someone information about how to get at the safe? Was no one supposed to get hurt? Was the man horrified by the murders of his colleagues because he had something to do with it?
Was Troy a victim of a traumatic event? Or was he only resembling one? Like the two similar cars and the two similar lunchboxes.
Thoughts formed in Shelly’s mind.
Don’t be fooled by the thing that only seems correct. Don’t take things at face-value.
14
After her workday at the diner was over, Shelly biked back into town being careful not to hit any icy patches on the road. Some slush on the side of the street got kicked up now and then by her tires, but riding her bike was always preferable to traveling in a car.
Before sitting down at the police station’s conference room table, Shelly introduced herself to the young woman already seated, Rosa Perkins. Twenty-five-year- old Rosa had long, wavy, almost black hair that tumbled over her shoulders. Her almond-shaped dark eyes showed intelligence and a hint of caution. Jay had finished speaking with Rosa, but she wanted Shelly to talk with the woman in the hopes she might find out things Rosa didn’t want to bring up with a police officer.
“You work at the barn?” Shelly asked. “You’re the receptionist?”
“I work as the receptionist and a clerk. I do a little bit of everything.” Rosa nodded. “I studied business in school. After I graduated, I worked at the resort as an event planner. I want to go back to school to get my master’s degree so I thought I should get as much experience as possible. I asked to be transferred when the barn job opened up. I wanted to get some experience working in the mechanical side of running a resort.”
“How do you like working there?” Shelly asked.
“I like it. The guys can be a little crude. They can be funny, too. I like learning the more technical stuff, running the operations.”
“Do the guys take you serious?”
Rosa said, “Not all of them do. Troy is helpful though. He knows so much about the resort. He gives me things to work on that broaden my knowledge.”
“Shannon Flay works at the barn, too,” Shelly said. “How do you get along with her?”
“Fine. We get along fine.”
Shelly thought she heard an exception in the woman’s voice. “You’re friendly?”
“Yes.”
“Is Shannon friendly with the guys who work there?” Shelly knew her question could be taken in different ways.
“Shannon gets along with everyone,” Rosa said.
“We’ve heard that Shannon has had relationships with some of the men.”
Rosa visibly relaxed. “It’s true. I stay out of it. I pretend I don’t see or hear anything. I think Shannon thinks I’m naïve.”
“Shannon was in a relationship with Grant Norris?” Shelly asked.
“She was, yes.”
“Was the relationship ongoing? Were they together at the time of the crime?”
“No, I think they’d broken up about a month before the murders. Shannon is seeing the new guy, Finny Finelli. She tries to hide it, but she doesn’t do a good enough job.”
“Do you know who broke off the relationship? Was it Grant or Shannon?”
“It was Grant. He had his eye on someone else … the woman who delivers the vehicle parts to the barn. She’s really good-looking.”
Shelly asked, “Who does she work for?”
“Automotive and Machinery Solutions,” Rosa said. “She’s at the barn almost every day dropping off parts and supplies. She started doing the deliveries about two months ago. Before that it was an old guy who brought the parts.”
“Do you know her name?”
“Robby-Ann. I don’t know her last name.”
“Did Grant get along with Finny?” Shelly asked.
Rosa pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Grant liked to boss people around. He wanted Troy’s job. He wanted to be the one in charge. Most of the workers just ignored Grant when he tried to tell them what to do. Finny wasn’t like that. He didn’t listen to Grant’s orders. He often told Grant he was wrong. He did his work the way he thought it should be done.”
“So there could be some tension between them?”
“Grant would sass Finny, call him out sometimes, but Finny ignored him and went about his business.”
Shelly asked, “Was Grant into anything that could have gotten him killed?”
Rosa thought about that, then answered. “I don’t know. Grant could be volatile. I don’t mean in a physical way. Sometimes he was like a buzzing fly. He seemed to want to get under some people’s skin to get a rise out them. He seemed to like drama. Could that get him into trouble? I bet it could under the right circumstances.”
“Did he drink?”
“I’m sure he did, but he didn’t drink on the job,” Rosa said. “At least, I don’t think he did.”
“Drugs?”
“I never saw that. Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it on his own time.” Rosa’s forehead scrunched. “I saw Grant out at a bar one night. His choice of friends didn’t seem that great. They seemed a little scummy, tough guys looking to show off. Not my kind of people. The new guy from the barn, Finny, he was in the bar that night, too. Anyway, Grant was drunk, being loud, fooling around, acting like a jerk being a pest to some women who were there. The bartender called the police. When the officer got there, Grant and his friends were told to leave the place.”
“When was this?”
“Oh, let’s see. A couple of weeks ago?” Rosa told Shelly. “The same officer who kicked them out is working on this case.”
“Officer Landers-Smyth?” Shelly asked.
“Is that the woman I was talking with before you came in? No, not her. It was a man.”
“Dark hair or light hair?”
“Light. Good-looking. A nice build. Slim.”
“Officer Walton,” Shelly said.
“I think I heard someone call him Porter?” Rosa said.
“Yes, that’s him.”
“Grant looked like he wanted to punch the officer when he was told he had to leave the bar.” Rosa leaned forward in her seat. “Thankfully, he had the good sense not to do such a stupid thing. He kind of glared at the officer. I saw Grant say a few things to the cop, but I couldn’t hear anything. The officer gave him a look and Grant backed down. I heard him telling Shannon about it the next morning at work. They didn’t know I could hear them. Grant said the cop gave him a hard time over nothing. He sounded really angry about it.”
After a little more discussion about the incident at the bar, Shelly asked, “No one was at the barn the morning of the robbery and the murders. Troy overslept, Shannon took a sick day, you weren’t there either.”
Rosa sat straight. “Benny and Grant always started work early.”
“Why weren’t you at the barn that day?” Shelly asked, making sure her voice did not carry an accusatory tone.
“I don’t go in until later on that day of the week. I only go in early on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.”
“Did anyone at the barn seem on edge before the crime took place? Was anyone acting nervous or distracted?”
“Shannon was a little grouchier than usual. Sometimes we can talk a little, but she seemed annoyed or something so I left her alone,” Rosa said.
“What about Grant or Benny?”
“They seemed themselves, I think.”
“What about Troy?” Shelly asked. “Did he seem like he had something on his mind?”
“Troy always has things on his mind,” Rosa said. “He has to juggle a ton of things. If there were issues with the ski slopes, he’d be in big trouble with management. If the equipment doesn’t work, then the ski slopes won’t be pristine, and then he’d be in trouble. Everything has to work to make the resort function smoothly. As far as management is concerned, the worst thing is a disappointed or angry guest. Troy’s job is incredibly stressful.”
“Do you think someone from the barn might have been in on the job?”
Rosa took in a long breath. “My first reaction to that would be of course, not. But people can surprise you. I don’t know the people I work with that well. Sure, I know them, we talk, we get along, we work together to make things go well. But really? Who knows what goes on in some people’s heads? Could someone from the barn commit a robbery? Maybe. Could someone from the barn shoot someone to death? Maybe. Do I suspect someone? No, I don’t.”
“Do you have access to the safe?”
Rosa’s eyes popped. “Me? No. Only Troy and Shannon. Well, the accountant in the main office does, too, I guess.”
“I hear the money in the safe wasn’t deposited like it should have been,” Shelly said.
“Shannon does the deposits. She went home sick on Friday before the money was supposed to go to the bank,” Rosa said.
“She was still sick on Monday morning,” Shelly pointed out. “She wasn’t in the office when the robbery took place.”
“That’s right.” Rosa nodded.
“What was wrong with Shannon?”
“She told me on Friday afternoon she had a fever, felt really tired, had a sore throat and a headache. She must have had a touch of the flu. She went home early. I guess she couldn’t shake it off over the weekend.”
“Why didn’t Troy take the money out of the safe and make the deposit at the bank?” Shelly asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Was Troy around on Friday?”
“Except for Shannon leaving work early, things were normal. At least in the front office, they were.”
“Did you see Troy in the afternoon?” Shelly questioned.
“I don’t know. I honestly can’t remember,” Rosa said. “What with everything that happened on Monday, I’ve forgotten much of what went on the Friday before.”
“Do you work on weekends?” Shelly asked.
“No, I don’t. There’s only one person in the front office on Saturdays and Sundays. An older woman. Ruth Benson. She’s handled the weekends for years.”
“How about Troy, or Grant and Benny? Did they work weekends?”
“If something big went wrong, Grant or Benny might have been called in. Other times, they had days off during the week when they had to work any weekend days. I know Troy always drops by on the weekends to make sure everything is okay.”
There was something about the conversation that made Shelly think she wasn’t giving a particular detail enough attention, but try as she might, she couldn’t put her finger on what was picking at her.
“Shannon must be quite upset over Grant’s death. Since she was close to him for a while,” Shelly said.
One of Rosa’s eyebrows went up. “Really? I don’t think Shannon seems broken up over Grant’s murder at all. She’s got a hard edge to her. I don’t think she’s a very caring person.”
15
Shelly and Juliet shared a booth in a popular Paxton Park pub. Some friends played darts, some people stood beside an old-fashioned jukebox, and a few others played pool on the far side of the room. The pub, a gathering spot for locals and tourists, had golden wood walls and a two-story soaring ceiling. The second floor of tables and sofas looked down over the main area of the place. A towering stone fireplace contained a crackling, roaring fire and ceiling fans moved lazily overhead.
“It’s mobbed in here tonight,” Juliet glanced around the large room at the groups of friends and couples eating appetizers and dinners and enjoying drinks from the bar.
“It’s nice to be surrounded by a crowd of happy people,” Shelly said. “It can take our minds off the case.”
“Too bad Jack couldn’t join us tonight.” Juliet raised her wine glass to her lips.
“I know. Jack offered to cover for one of the guides. He wasn’t thrilled to have to do the overnight camping tour, but the other guide has helped Jack out so he stepped in to cover for him.”
