From Here to Paternity

'And if he has the wits to stay sheriff, he must know you're telling the truth.'

'Rave on,' Jane said. 'So why is he bothering with me?'

'Because he's at a dead end.'

'Are you suggesting that I should be encouraged by this?'

'Not encouraged, but it does mean there isn't any evidence that we don't know about that's helping him any. So we are just as well equipped to figure this out as he is.'

'And just as motivated,' Jane added sourly.

'Okay, so we can assume that either both deaths have to do with the whole Tsar/Holnagrad thing or they don't.'

'That's a big help.'

'Jane, it gives us a structure for analyzing what we know.'

'If you say so.'

'All right. Let's assume first that it does have to do with the Tsar business. Which certainly seems likely, since one death was the person promoting Bill Smith as the heir, and the other death was Bill himself.'

'Okay, I see where you're going now,' Jane said. 'Who are the people involved in any way? Pro or con?'

'Right. There are the two victims, of course. There's Pete, and we've already talked about him pretty thoroughly. There's Stu Gortner, who is really the one with the greatest motivation to get rid of the competition for his candidate.'

'Wait — go back to Pete. What would this fight he got into with HawkHunter have to do with it?'

'Hold it, Jane. Don't sidetrack me yet. We're just laying out the groundwork for how we're going to think about this.'

'So we're thinking about how we're going to think? You wouldn't like to offer to run a couple states and several major corporations in your spare time, would you?'

Shelley ignored that remark. 'So — we have Bill, Doris, Pete, and Stu as interested parties. Now we have to add Joanna. Don't make faces like that. Joanna's very much a concerned party. Suppose Doris had made some kind of grand announcement to the press about Bill being the rightful Tsar. On Bill's behalf as well as her own, that would have a real impact on her life.'

'Okay, I'll give you that.'

'We've also got to consider Lucky. He's the president of the Society and had both Doris and Stu trying to get him on their sides. Maybe he is quietly involved with one or the other of them.'

'But that could be true of practically anyone in the Society.'

'Yes, but the rest of them don't appear to have much of anything at stake. Stu sees his candidate as his way to fame and fortune. Same with Pete. Doris saw it as a private coup. Even Lucky, who seems to care deeply about the Society, may feel that the group itself could either triumph or dissolve in the publicity a 'new Tsar' would generate.'

'I notice you're not mentioning Tenny.'

'No. Except that Tenny didn't want her uncle bothered with it, I can't see a motive for her. Even if she did have a motive to knock off Doris to protect Bill, she'd hardly hurt Bill. So there are the suspects if it has to do with the Holnagrad Society.'

'What else could it logically have to do with?'

'The sale of the resort, for one thing.'

'You suspect Paul!'

'Jane, quit being silly.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Since the two deaths occurred so close together and right now, I think we have to assume that something in particular precipitated them. Nobody around here is a drooling maniac, so you have an otherwise normal person who has to do something terrible immediately for some reason.'

'To keep the sale from going through, maybe,' Jane said, nodding. 'Or to make sure it does go through. The great problem is Doris. I can't imagine that there's any way that Doris's death would make the slightest difference either way.'

'Unless Doris's death was suicide.'

'Come on!'

'I know it seems absurd, but it is possible. Jane, we don't know anything whatsoever of her background. For all we know, she could have lived half her life in mental institutions. It's not likely, but it could be that the humiliation of that debate drove her over the edge. On the other hand, we know absolutely that Bill's death was a murder. So let's deal with him for a minute. A handful of people had a stake in the sale of the resort. Joanna again — Bill's death allows her to avoid Florida.'

'It also makes her a widow.'

Shelley shrugged. 'Maybe she wanted to be a widow. A rich widow. Just because she crochets the ugliest afghans west of the Piedmont doesn't mean she might not have simply snapped and said to herself, 'I can't stand another day with this man!' Wives have felt that way before. And Pete has any number of possible motives here, too. Bill and Joanna have no children. He and Tenny are their logical heirs. That makes them both suspects.'

'But Joanna's still alive. And she's sure to inherit everything.'

'According to Tenny, I remind you. Even if she does inherit everything, either Pete or Tenny might have thought they could put something over on her that they couldn't put over on Bill, who could apparently hang onto his money extraordinarily well.'

'Are we still just thinking about thinking, or may I speculate?'

'Not yet. If the sale of the resort is the reason for Bill's death, we also have to consider HawkHunter.'

'Oh, good. I like him as a suspect.'

'Jane!'

'I didn't mean that quite as smart-alecky as it sounded. Sorry. But he is the sort of person who thrives on rousing people's emotions. A catalyst type. Maybe not directly responsible, but the person who makes other people act. Like goading Pete into punching him. Maybe he goaded Pete into killing his uncle. Think about him for a minute while I refill our coffee.'

'No more for me, thanks.'

When Jane got back, Shelley was deep in thought. 'I don't know about HawkHunter. I see what you mean about goading people, but what about a motive of his own?'

'He's a fanatic,' Jane said.

'But lots of people are fanatics about one thing or another. That doesn't make them murderers.'

'What I meant is, this sale touched on his fanaticism. The tribal graves up on the hill. He could have really believed that the graves were safe from desecration only as long as Bill owned the land, because Bill respected the tribe — oops. I just proved he wouldn't murder Bill, didn't I? No, let me think. Bill was set on selling the land. Maybe HawkHunter learned from Joanna's friends in the tribe that she probably wouldn't want to sell out and leave if Bill died first. How's that?'

Shelley shook her head. 'It's still just a matter of time. Joanna won't live forever. Someday the land will be sold. If not now, then later.'

'But it might have been time he needed. Maybe he felt that if he only had another six months or whatever, he could prove the graves were up there. Or prove there was something illegal about the original land grant.'

Shelley nodded, but without enthusiasm. 'I guess that's possible.'

The phone rang. 'Hi, Mel,' Jane said after she'd answered it.

'Are we going to dinner and the big dance? Or is it canceled because of Bill's death?'

'Oh, I'm sure Joanna has insisted that it not be canceled. Have you managed to learn anything more?'

'A few useless bits and pieces. We'll talk about it at dinner, okay? Can you be ready in fifteen minutes?'

'Sure,' she said, glancing in a nearby mirror at her nap-crumpled hair and thinking, No way!

'Say, Janey, I hate to mention this, but I'm starting to wonder if this thin air is doing something to Mike's brain. When he came in this afternoon, he suddenly burst into laughter for no reason at all, then wouldn't explain it.'