door was locked, and through the window saw Doc’s pickup truck coming up the dirt lane. He had gone into town as usual that morning, telling her he had best get out of her way and let her bake.
Now she let out a breath of relief. “Doc’s here. I’ve got to go.”
“Okay. Call me tonight!” Maggie said as they hung up.
Candy walked out the door and stood on the back porch, her hands slipped into the back pockets of her jeans, as Doc pulled up and called out to her with the engine idling. “Have you heard?”
She nodded. “I’ve heard.”
He motioned her toward the truck. “Get your things and come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the police station. We’re gonna look in on Ray and see if he’s all right.”
Candy nodded, ran back into the house to get her purse and keys, closed the door behind her, and climbed into the cab beside Doc. He pulled the gearshift into reverse and wheeled the truck around.
“Whoever heard of such a thing?” he muttered as he drove back down the lane. “Arresting Ray Hutchins! A kinder, gentler soul doesn’t exist on this planet. He must be frantic right about now. We’ve got to give him some moral support.”
It took less than ten minutes to drive to the Cape Willington Police Department, which was located about half a mile outside of town in a relatively new one-story brick building on Route 196, also known locally as Loop Road. The village’s police station had relocated there about ten years ago, after abandoning a cramped old wooden building at the far end of Main Street, which it had operated out of for the better part of a century.
Doc parked in the front lot, and he and Candy pushed silently through the wood-and-glass door and presented themselves at the information desk.
“We’d like to see Ray Hutchins,” Doc announced to the stout woman behind the desk. She was nicely dressed, in a blouse, skirt, and silk scarf. “I believe you have him in custody in connection with the Sapphire Vine murder.”
“Oh, hi, Doc,” the woman said, looking up and pushing her glasses up on her nose. “I thought that was you. Haven’t seen you for a while.”
“Hi, Carol. How’re things going?”
“Oh, you know — Phil’s lumbago is kicking up again and the wagon needs new tires. But other than that, as good as can be expected, what with all that’s happened today. So, you’re here to see Ray, huh? You’re not family, are you?”
Doc shook his head. “Don’t think he has much of a family. We’re just here to lend moral support.”
“Moral support. Okay, I see.” Carol picked up a pen and nodded as she looked down at a sheet in front of her. She tapped at the sheet for a few moments with the pen, then looked back up. “Well, Doc, that’s a real nice gesture, and I’d sure like to let you in to see him, and he’d probably be real glad to see you. But I don’t think it’s gonna happen today. He’s still in booking, and after that they’re gonna take him up to the county jail in Machias. We don’t retain prisoners here, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“We don’t have jail cells, Doc. We’ve got a secure area in back where we bring prisoners in to book them, but then they’re taken to Machias or Bangor for incarceration.”
“Oh.” Doc’s jaw tightened. He hadn’t been aware of that. “No chance of seeing him before you ship him out?”
Carol glanced up at the clock, then back down at the sheet in front of her, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. We just don’t have the facility for such a thing, especially with a prisoner like Ray. There’s the issue of personal safety, you know.”
“Who’s personal safety? Ours?”
“Sure. Look, Doc, it’s crazy around here right now. Why don’t you wait until all the booking and paperwork are done and then check on Ray tomorrow up in Machias. You should be able to get in to see him then.”
Doc didn’t seem to like that answer. He looked as though he were about to burst wide open, so Candy put a restraining hand on his shoulder. To Carol, she said pleadingly, “Isn’t there any way we could see him today? We could wait around for a while, see what happens.”
Carol pursed her lips. “I’d sure like to help you out, Candy, Doc, sure would, but it’s just not in my power, you know. We got ourselves a murder investigation going on here. Everyone’s real serious about it, being the rare event it is. Even got some detectives coming over from Augusta. Yup, it’s real serious all right. We’ve got to do things by the book. You can understand that, can’t you?” She gave them a tight smile that seemed to plead for their cooperation. “Try it tomorrow, okay? Up in Machias?”
Doc let out a long, painful sigh of resignation. “Okay, Carol. Listen, do me a favor then, will ya? If you see Ray, tell him we were here, and tell him we’ll see him in the morning.”
“I’ll do that, Doc, Candy. Good to see you both.” Back outside, Doc was still steaming as he climbed into the truck. “I can’t believe they won’t let us in to see him.”
“Poor Ray,” Candy said as she slid in beside him. “He must be terrified in there.”
“I still can’t believe they arrested him. Anyone who knows Ray knows he could never have done anything like that. Someone’s just making a huge mistake.”
“Do you have any idea why they arrested him?” Candy asked as Doc started up the truck.
“Not yet, but I know where we can find out.”
“The diner?”
Doc nodded emphatically. “The diner.”
They drove back into town and parked on Main Street. As Candy climbed out of the truck, she felt a strange sensation go through her. She stopped on the sidewalk and twisted around, her gaze roaming up and down the street. She wasn’t sure what she expected to see in this town she had grown so accustomed to, but she was surprised to find that everything was essentially business as usual. Folks strolled about, gazing into shop windows, hurrying to or from work, snacking on ice cream, or chatting on cell phones. People were laughing. It all seemed so odd after what had happened over the past few days — that two people who had lived here, in this town, two people they all had known, had talked to (and in the case of Sapphire, frequently made fun of), people who had been alive and probably walked down this very street just a few days ago, were now gone, dead, one murdered not far from this very spot, the other dead after a suspicious plunge from a seaside cliff. And Sapphire’s murderer still might be running loose around town! But despite that, everything seemed to be normal. And somehow that just didn’t seem right to her.
Once they entered Duffy’s Main Street Diner, however, Candy realized that things in town were not quite business as usual. The place was abuzz, and all the talk was about Sapphire Vine. Had she still been alive, she would have been mighty proud to have been the main topic of conversation.
“Hey, Doc!” someone yelled from a corner booth and waved at them.
“There they are.” Doc pointed the way. “Hi, Juanita,” he called out to the waitress behind the counter.
“Hey, Doc. Hey, Candy. You both having the usual?”
Doc nodded. “We’ll be with the boys.”
“Got it.”
Finn, Artie, and Bumpy had staked out their usual place in the horseshoe-shaped corner booth, from which they could watch the comings and goings in the diner as well as the activity on the street outside. Finn scratched at his salt-and-pepper beard as he chewed on a toothpick, while Artie made notes on the ever-present clipboard and Bumpy eyed a handful of leftover fries on Artie’s pushed-back plate. Doc greeted them as he slid into the booth on one side. Candy slid in on the other side, next to Bumpy.
Finn gave them a wink, Artie looked up and nodded, and Bumpy raised a couple of fingers in greeting. “Hey, Doc. Hey, Candy. Where’ve you two been? We were expecting you half an hour ago.”
“We stopped over at the police station to talk to Ray,” Doc explained, “but they wouldn’t let us see him.”
“I’m not surprised,” Finn said knowingly. “Booking and all. Plus he’s a murder suspect. They have to be careful how they handle these things.”
Doc shifted restlessly. “So they said, though I can’t imagine why they’d arrest him in the first place. Damn foolish, if you ask me.”
“They must’ve had a reason,” Bumpy said, giving into temptation and filching a French fry from Artie’s plate.
