Death Waxed Over - Tim Myers [55]
“I wish I knew,” I said. “You haven’t seen Pearly around, have you?”
“No, I haven’t seen him since he left.”
“I haven’t either, so why does he keep harassing me about it?”
The sheriff was outside waiting impatiently for me, his arms crossed over his chest.
I cut him off before he had the chance to say a word. “Listen, I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but Pearly’s not here.”
He snapped, “So I won’t need a warrant to search your apartment?”
“Be my guest. Come on up, I’ll show you around myself.”
He followed me upstairs, and as we climbed the steps, I said, “I swear to you, I don’t know where he is.”
Morton just grunted. I unlocked my apartment door and he brushed past me. “You normally leave tools laying around on the furniture?” he said as looked down at the hammer perched on the end table by the entry.
I’d been using it to hang pictures and had forgotten to return it to Pearly’s workbench. “Absolutely. There’s a chain saw on the bed, and I’ve got a router sitting in my bathtub.”
He ignored my jibe and started looking around. It didn’t take him long to search the apartment, it wasn’t that big a space. The only place he even hesitated at was the ladder-bars in my closet that led up to the roof. “What’s that?”
I wasn’t all that excited about sharing the place with him, but I didn’t have much choice. “It’s the roof access. It’s there for maintenance.”
“Let’s go,” he said.
I started out of the closet when he called me back. “Not out there. We’re going up.”
I shook my head, but led him up the rungs to the roof. It had been my sanctuary, my peace in the world, and the sheriff was violating it. I’d considered telling him it was off-limits, but doing that would only make him that much more determined to go up there. There was a chance once he saw Pearly wasn’t up there, he’d drop his crazy notion that I was hiding him.
I climbed up ahead of him and undid the hatch. After I stepped out onto the flat roof, Morton was there two seconds behind me. His gaze took in my storage bin, but since it was too small to hide Pearly, he didn’t say anything about it.
“Listen, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this to yourself. I come up here sometimes when I want to get away from the world.”
He looked at me and shook his head. “Who am I going to tell?”
I followed him around the perimeter of the rooftop, but neither one of us said another word until we ended back up at the scuttle.
“It’s like I told you; he’s not here.”
“This is a big building, Harrison. There are lots of places to hide.”
“Sheriff, why would he run from you? You’re not going to arrest him, are you?”
“If I could get my hands on him, I might. That newspaper article has brought me nothing but grief.” I couldn’t imagine the kind of pressure being applied on him. The Gunpowder Gazette had burned him at the stake for letting Pearly get away. It made what they’d done to me look like a love fest.
“I know it looks bad, but Pearly didn’t kill her.”
He waited until we were back in my apartment before he said, “If he’s so innocent, then why is he hiding?”
“As far as I know, he’s still in the mountains. What makes you think he’s anywhere near River’s Edge?”
Morton stormed out of my apartment and said, “I got a report he was spotted out here last night from a reliable source. He hasn’t gone far, you can believe that.”
“Have you checked his place? Most likely he doesn’t know you’re looking for him. You can’t accuse Pearly of avoiding you if he’s not aware you’re after him.”
Morton said, “We’re keeping an eye on his house, but he’s too smart to go back there. Besides, there are a lot more places to hide here, and he’s been working this complex since Belle took over. Don’t worry, I’ll find him.”
We walked back down the stairs, and I was surprised the sheriff hadn’t insisted on checking out the other offices while we’d been up there. Markum had a nice space, as did Gary Cragg and a few other folks.
My answer came when we went outside.
There were three squad cars parked in front of River