A Flicker of Doubt - Tim Myers [33]
He accepted it at face value. “Any chance you could get that coffee to go? We’ve got a lot to talk about it and I’m not sure this is the right place for it”
“Sure thing,” I said, standing up and sipping the coffee. Millie let me take her mugs with me, as long as I brought them back by the next morning so they could be washed and put into circulation again. “You want to go to my apartment or your office?”
“Let’s go to my office,” he said. “There’s something there I want to show you.”
We walked upstairs together, but I stopped at my apartment door before we got to his office. “I’ll just be a second.”
I went in, moved the deposit pouch from under my arm to under the couch, then retrieved Markum’s lease. The deposit would have been better off in the bank, or even in somebody’s safe, but my hiding place under the couch would be fine until I could take it in the morning. I’d made a mistake with a deposit when I’d first taken over At Wick’s End by leaving it in my truck, but that had never happened again. I’d learned that particular lesson all too well.
I tucked the lease in my back pocket and walked down the hall to Markum’s office. The travel posters on the walls had changed since I’d been there last. For a man who spent so much of his time in exotic locales, he never seemed to grow tired of the vistas of faraway lands.
I took the lease out and slid it across the desk toward him.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Didn’t you get Cragg’s letter? Everyone else in the building got one.”
“Oh, you mean the one about the lease?” He edged the document back across the desk toward me with the butt of his pen. “Are you sure you want to renew my option here? I know how some of the folks at River’s Edge feel about my presence.”
“Just sign it, Markum. I’m having enough trouble with Heather and Sanora. I don’t need any from you.”
He smiled as he uncapped his pen, then signed his name with a flourish. I took the lease back, folded it and stuck it back in my pocket. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, what did you find out?”
Chapter 9
“There’s really no easy way to tell you this,” Markum said. “I found out who Becka was seeing.”
“It was Hank Klein, the newspaper guy,” I said flatly.
Markum sat up in his chair. “Now how in creation did you come up with that? It took me most of the day to figure it out, and I had to call in half a dozen favors to do it.”
I felt guilty about not sharing what I’d discovered, but there was nothing I could do about it now. “It was sheer dumb luck,” I admitted. “I heard him talking this morning when I dropped in to get a newspaper. It clicked that his voice was the one on Becka’s answering machine.”
Markum nodded. “I fed better about it, then. We’ve got two sources that are giving us the same answer.”
“We’re not reporters working on a story. I don’t care if we have verification or not”
Markum said, “Harrison, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. I know you’re taking this personally, there’s no way you couldn’t, but don’t let that interfere with what we’re doing. Have you thought about how we’re going to handle the situation once we find out who killed Becka?’
‘That’s easy. We tell Sheriff Morton.”
“Do you honestly think he’s going to believe us? We might not exactly have proof that would stand up in court, do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”
I felt a cold chill sweep through me. “What are you suggesting, that we punish the killer ourselves?’
“It happens more often than you might think,” he said.
I stood up. “I don’t like the way this conversation is heading.”
“It’s something we need to consider, that’s all I’m saying.”
“I don’t have to like it, though, do I?” I walked out of his office, barely acknowledging his good night on my way out. Did he mean what I thought he did? Was Markum suggesting we punish the offender ourselves? It was too much for me to take. I went back to my apartment, added Markum’s lease to the others I had, then I double-dead-bolted my door.
For tonight, I wanted to be alone with my thoughts. Esme herself wouldn’t have been welcome. As