Heads You Lose - Lisa Lutz [29]
CHAPTER 9
Lacey smoked pot only as a sleep aid, but it worked. She crashed for four hours. During that time Paul tried to untangle the fuzzy town conspiracy that he felt certain would eventually surface. He returned home and waited for Lacey to wake up. Lacey woke in a haze, so Paul started with an easy question.
“Lacey, where’s your car?”
Lacey looked at her watch. She was supposed to meet the sheriff in twenty minutes.
“You need to give me a ride,” she said.
As Paul drove Lacey to the new doc’s office, he didn’t even bother asking why her car was left behind. Instead, he focused on more important matters, like Lacey’s upcoming police interrogation.
“Just be cool,” Paul cautioned.
“What does that mean?” Lacey replied.
“That means don’t tell the sheriff that we found the body three days ago and moved it and then went poking around at the second crime scene and then, when it showed up at the third crime scene, removed evidence.”
“Oh that,” said Lacey. “Anything else?”
“You might not want to mention that we’re marijuana growers.”
“I won’t,” Lacey replied. “But for future reference you’re the grower. Not me. I’m retiring.”
Paul had come to see marijuana cultivation as a career. Lacey always saw it as temp work, something you did after all other options were exhausted. Besides, there was no temp agency in Mercer.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself, Lace. We’ll talk more later.”
“Sure. Right after my police interrogation.”
“Who do you think did this?” Lacey asked.
“That’s what I’m trying to sort out,” Sheriff Ed replied.
“Could it be drug-related?”
“Could be any number of things,” Ed said, not showing his cards.
“Or personal. Do you know anyone who had a beef with Hart?” Lacey asked.
“Well, that was one of the questions I was going to ask you.”
“I didn’t know him as well as I thought,” Lacey replied.
“Did you know he was making methamphetamine in his basement?” Sheriff Ed asked.
“No,” Lacey lied. She wasn’t sure whether knowing someone was making meth and not reporting it was a criminal offense.
“Now how did that slip by a smart girl like you?”
“I’ve been asking myself that ever since. How did you know?”
“It’s my job to know what’s going on in this town.”
“Then how come you never arrested him?” Lacey asked.
“He cleared out the basement before I had a chance,” Ed replied. Clearly the question had gotten under his skin. Ed had tried to run Hart out of town for years.
“So somebody snitched on him. Who was it?”
“Sweetheart, that’s classified information.”
“Aha, so there was a snitch. I was just guessing,” Lacey said.
Sheriff Ed looked over the single sheet of legal paper that contained all the information he had on the Hart Drexel murder. He let out a frustrated sigh and tried to take the reins on his runaway interrogation.
“Did Hart owe anybody money?” the sheriff asked.
“He owed me a hundred and fifty bucks,” Lacey replied. “But I wouldn’t kill him over that. Do you think he was sleeping with somebody’s wife?”
The sheriff cleared his throat a few times and turned the question around, “A good investigator doesn’t speculate too soon. Now have you heard rumors about an affair?”
“I think Hart was seeing someone on the side back when we were together.”
“Did you ever confront him?”
“I didn’t make anything of it at the time,” said Lacey.
“Who was it?”
“Don’t know. But he used to come home smelling like some kind of flower. If you can find her, she might know something, but I guess that’s not much to go on.”
“What brought her to mind?”
“I’m just thinking about reasons why one person might kill another. Crimes of passion are the most common, right?”
“People kill each other for all kinds of reasons.”
“Don’t you think it’s suspicious that Doc Holland went missing and then Hart’s body turned up?”
“Doc Holland retired. I’m not sure that I see the connection.”
“I’m just brainstorming here,” Lacey said.