“No.” Dina looked at her pointedly, green eyes like jade knife blades. “You were thinking better. ” She turned back to the road ahead. “I could remind you about all the pain you’ve gone through as a result of the choices you’ve made-a lost husband, and I’ll bet you lose a lot of sleep over Ren-but what would be the point except to defend my own choices. My life is my life, yours is yours. End of discussion.”
Jewell offered, “It feels to me like I’m not the one you’re trying to convince.”
“Look, I like what I do, and what I do requires a particular kind of life. I need to be able to be gone at a moment’s notice without worrying about who I’m leaving behind, even if it’s only a cat.”
They were quiet as they approached the bridge over the Copper River.
“I had a snake once, a constrictor,” Dina said in a softer tone. “I got it because if I needed to be gone, I could feed it a mouse and it would be fine for several days.”
“What happened?”
“I found that I was coming home to a creature I didn’t particularly like, I couldn’t talk to, felt cold to my touch, and that I got a rise out of only when it wanted something from me. I realized the snake was just like my ex-husband.”
She turned to Jewell and gave a little shrug. They laughed as they crossed the bridge and entered Bodine.
Ned Hodder’s office was empty and locked. In the window was a permanent sign giving a number to call if anyone needed assistance. Jewell punched in the number on her cell phone. Ned answered. The signal was weak, his voice choppy.
“Constable Hodder.”
Jewell told him where they were and that they needed to talk.
“I’m south of town on the lake, checking on a possible break-in at a summer cottage. But everything looks fine to me. So wait right there. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”
True to his word, he swung his Cherokee onto Harbor Avenue a quarter hour later and opened his office. He walked to his desk, where a cheap wire-bound notebook lay open. He quickly closed it and slipped it into the top desk drawer. Besides his own chair, which was an old wooden affair on wheels that squeaked whenever they rolled, there was only one other chair available. “Wait here.” He went through the metal door at his back.
Dina walked around the desk and looked at the drawer where Ned had stowed his notebook. “What was that he put away so quickly? From the guilty look on his face, you’d have thought it was drugs.”
“Poetry, probably.”
A surprised smile appeared on Dina’s lips. “Your constable writes poetry? Is he any good?”
“I don’t know. He never lets anybody see it. He thinks we don’t know but everybody does.”
“That’s kind of sweet.”
“He’s a sweet guy.”
Dina sat on the edge of the desk. “Known him long?”
“All my life. We even dated in high school.”
“Didn’t work out?”
“After graduation we went our own ways. I met my husband, Ned met his wife.”
“He’s married?”
“A widower.”
Dina shook her head. “A sweet guy who writes poetry and is available. What’s wrong with this picture?”
Ned returned with a folding chair. He waited until the women were seated, then sat down himself. He crossed his arms on his desktop and leaned toward Jewell, his big brown eyes full of interest.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
Jewell glanced at Dina who nodded her approval that they proceed.
“We have an idea about how all the horrible things that have been happening here might be connected. Max’s death, the girl in the lake, Stuart Gullickson.”
Ned sat back with a puzzled look on his face. “Connected? All those things? This I gotta hear.”
“I need a promise from you first.”
He shrugged. “Run it by me and we’ll see.”
“Charlie’s involved, but she doesn’t want to talk to the police.”
“Charlie’s okay? Thank God.”
“We want to keep her out of it as long as we can.”
Ned opened his hands, as if accepting the deal. “That’s fine by me, but this is really way outside my jurisdiction.” His eyes swung from Jewell to Dina. “Why are you telling me? What is it you think I can do?”
Dina said, “You know the investigator. Talk to him, let him know the facts, point him in the right direction.”
Ned rubbed a finger across his lips in contemplation. “I can try. So that’s the whole deal? I pass the word along to Terry Olafsson but keep Charlie out of it.”
“That’s the deal.”
“You have my word.” He leaned forward again, his face full of anticipation. “Talk to me.”
Jewell told him what Charlie and Ren had related: Stuart seeing the body in the river; the late-night search along the shoreline of Superior; the encounter with the mystery boat; and Charlie’s experience at the trailer when the men killed her father.
Ned interrupted. “But it was Stuart who saw the body, not Charlie or Ren?”
“That’s right.”
“How do you know anything was really there-that it wasn’t just a trick of the light or something?”
“Because the body showed up in the harbor here the next day.”
“ A body did. That doesn’t mean it had anything to do with whatever it was that Stuart, who I’m sure was stoned out of his head, may or may not have seen.”
“It comes together when you connect all the dots,” Dina said.
“Okay.” He raised his hands to slow things down a little. “Suppose the kids did see a body in the river- the body, why would anyone want them dead for that?”
“Because the river is the key,” Dina replied.
Ned looked confused.
Jewell stepped in to help. “They don’t want anyone to know that the girl’s body came down the river, Ned, because that would point directly to them.”
“Directly to who?” he said with a note of exasperation. “There’s no one on the river. Outside town, there’s almost no way to get to the river except along the trail or farther up at the Copper River Club.” As he said those last words, an understanding seemed to dawn in him, and he looked concerned. “You’re not saying…what? Some rich guys killed that girl and dumped her in the river?”
Jewell said, “The connection’s not through money, Ned. The dead girl was living at Providence House.”
“In Marquette?”
“That’s right. Delmar Bell works at Providence House.”
“So?”
“Who’s his best friend, Ned?”
“Calvin Stokely.” Ned’s eyebrows met for a few moments as he put together the information and the insinuation. “Jesus, you’re not saying Bell and Stokely did this, are you?”
“All I’m saying at this point is that the only connection we’ve found so far between the girl, Bodine, and the Copper River runs through Delmar and Calvin.”
“Why would they do something like this?”
“We’re not accusing them of anything at this point,” Dina said, “but the circumstantial connections are certainly there, and at the moment that’s all we have. So maybe it’s time to start asking this Bell and Stokely some questions.”
“Olafsson seemed to think the girl’s death might have been suicide,” Ned argued.
Jewell shook her head. “We’ve spent the day talking to people who knew her, Ned. It wasn’t suicide.”
He locked his hands behind his head, as if his skull were too full now and he was afraid it would split open. “Del and Calvin. Those two have always been creepy. But I can’t just walk up to Olafsson and say, ‘Take a look at these guys. They’re creepy.’ ”
