A Flicker of Doubt - Tim Myers [34]
I’d just settled down with a Charlotte MacLeod novel I’d never read when there was a knock on my door. I wasn’t in the mood to see anyone, and I thought about pretending I wasn’t there.
“Harrison? Are you there?”
It was the sheriff. He was one person I couldn’t afford to ignore.
I opened the door. “Come on in.”
He stepped past me, his hat in hand, and said, “Sorry it’s so late, but I need to talk to you about a few things.”
“Did you find anything out about Becka?”
“No, as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to talk about there.” He spun his sheriff’s hat in his hands, a sure sign he was unhappy about something. “First, the woman you asked me about who drowned in Larkspur Lake. They found her fishing boat this morning. Evidently she tripped and fell off. The coroner says she hit her head as she went overboard.”
“Or maybe somebody hit her over the head, then tossed her over the side.”
“Harrison, stop looking for conspiracies and cover- ups everywhere. It was an accident”
“Maybe. What else did you want to talk to me about?”
“We need to discuss the situation with Cyrus.”
That got my attention. “What about him? Is he all right?”
Morton said, “Slow down. He’s fine, as far as I can tell. He wants you to leave him alone.” The words rushed out, and I could tell how much the sheriff hated having to say them.
“Wait a second, let me get this straight. You’re here to give me a message like that? You’ve got to be kidding.”
His glare burned right through me. “Does it look like I’m kidding? If you bother him anymore, he told me to tell you that he’ll press charges for trespassing and stalking and harassment and anything else I can come up with. Harrison, the man’s old and he’s tired. Leave him alone.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Morton, we’ve been friends since I took over this place, at least I thought we were. Runion started sniffing around Cyrus’s land and I went to see him. The first time I was there he wouldn’t come out and face me. When I came back the next time, he had some kind of bodyguard at the door. I don’t get it”
“He doesn’t want to see you, or anyone else. Don’t take it personally, Harrison, the guy’s allowed to be a little eccentric, as old and as rich as he is.”
Morton started for the door, but I stepped in his way. “Did you see him face-to-face? I just want to know that he’s all right”
The sheriff looked annoyed. “No, he called me on the phone. I’m doing this for you as much as I am for .him. He’s serious, Harrison.”
It wasn’t good enough for me, though. “So he picks up the telephone and you hop right over here. He’s got you trained pretty well, doesn’t he?”
I saw Morton’s jaw tighten and realized I’d pushed the sheriff too far with my last comment. He took a few seconds, gathered his calm, then said, “You’ve had a rough couple of days, so I’m going to let that slide.” He headed for the door again, and this time I stepped out of his way. Morton was just about to leave when he turned back to me and said, “Cyrus and my daddy used to be fishing buddies. I’ve known that man my entire life, and you should know that I’d crawl through glass for him.”
“Then you should be as concerned as I am about him,” I said.
“Leave him alone, Harrison.”
Then the sheriff was gone.
I took Morton’s warning seriously, but I wasn’t going to give up on my friend. Cyrus’s behavior couldn’t be passed off as an old man’s eccentricity. He’d been scared about something when I’d visited him, and if Morton wasn’t willing to look into it, I was going to have to add it to my list
I was at Millie’s the next day for breakfast collecting my orange slice muffins, when I saw Markum sitting alone in one corner of the café. It was the earliest I’d ever seen him awake, and I had to make up my mind in a heartbeat how I was going to handle being