'Why do you have to take up anything!' shouted Quill. 'Especially now, when I need you and Meg to be relatively sane and even-tempered.'
'Somethin' happen?' said Doreen alertly.
'Yes.' Quill took several deliberate breaths. She knew Doreen to be absolutely trustworthy in every area but her brief and violent enthusiasms. Well-pretty trustworthy. On the other hand, she didn't have a lot of choice. Someone had to search for clues, and she didn't have the time. 'John's back.'
'Ayuh,' said Doreen. 'I haven't had a chance to tell Meg. But Mrs. Hallenbeck knows.'
'That one!'
'It was an accident.' Quill briefly recapped her conversation with John, leaving out the personal details, but including the sudden invasion of Mrs. Hallenbeck's and her intention to investigate.
'Sheriff is after 'em,' said Doreen. 'We don't have much time for this here investigating.'
'No, that's one of the reasons why I was furious about the evangelist. All those management courses I take, Doreen, I'm supposed to put you on probation for stuff like this. And here I am trusting you with something that's vitally important. It's John's life we're talking about here. I mean, they don't execute people anymore in this state - but another prison sentence? We have to do something.'
'Even if he had killed that Mavis...' Doreen began darkly.
'Well, he didn't,' said Quill, 'and what we have to do is look for that bolt. The one from Harland Peterson's tractor. There's no way it could have fallen into the river, Doreen - and I know Myles and his men didn't pick it up at the scene. So the killer's got it. Motives for Baumer are piling up. I want you to pay particular attention to his room when you look.'
'You got it. I'll search the whole dang Inn.'
'If you find it, be sure not to pick it up with your bare hands,' warned Quill. 'There may be fingerprints. Use your work gloves and put it into a Baggie or something. And, Doreen?'
'Yes'm.'
'There's really no need to mention this to the sheriff, or Deputy Davey, or any of the patrol guys.'
'You don't want them to find out? I thought we were helpin' them.'
'Well, we are; it's just that some people might think it was interfering with an official investigation or something.' A ware that her management training courses were stem in the admonition to at all times maintain an executive demeanor and that she was, perhaps, being a bit tentative where direct and aggressive behaviors were what led to Maintaining Control of Employees, Quill folded her hands on her desk and said briskly, 'Then you'll report back to me the instant you discover something essential. It isn't worth it to waste time coming to me with nonessential information, like Keith Baumer's swiped towels, or something. Come to me when you discover facts that will help us get this investigation over.'
'Like the instant I do?' asked Doreen, her eyes on the window behind Quill's desk.
Quill, nettled by the inattention to her best executive style, snapped, 'Immediately.'
'Like, 'essential' is when the sheriff gets back?'
'Myles?' Quill shook her head. 'Now, that's what I mean by essential versus nonessential, Doreen. Myles is a person who's nonessential to our investigation. The discovery of the bolt that clears John, that's essential to the investigation.'
'Got it,' said Doreen.
Quill began to recover her increasingly elusive sense of being in charge. She'd tackle Tom Peterson first; the prayer breakfast would be breaking up in a few minutes, and she could ask him to stay behind for an extra cup of coffee. Then the Hemlock Diner and Marge and Betty Hall. Then on to the Marriott, where Baumer had presumably settled after his expressed displeasure with the comforts offered by the Inn, and finally, Baumer himself.
She, John, and Doreen would have the case wrapped up and solved in no time.
On the way back to the prayer breakfast, Quill ventured a whistle. It stopped in mid-trill at the sight of a familiar broad back in trooper gray at the front desk. So that's who Doreen had seen out the window.
'Myles?'
He turned, frowning. 'Sarah.'
'Sarah' was not good. The last time Myles had called her Sarah was early on in their relationship when he'd been contacted by the SoHo precinct station about a misunderstanding over a large number of parking tickets she'd forgotten to pay when she left Manhattan to move to Hemlock Falls. She had lent her car for a few weeks to a fellow artist who was down on his uppers, and between explaining that no, they weren't involved any longer and yes, it was pretty typical of Simon to pull stuff like that, it took a few days before she went back to being Quill.
'Your note said you wouldn't be back until tomorrow.'
'I got lucky. Forensics owed me a favor or two, and the autopsy on Mavis was done early this morning. I was on my way back to the station when Davey radioed the complaint to me. What's going on, Quill?'
'Complaint?' Quill craned her neck around Myles's height and pulled a face at Dina, who rolled her eyes expressively.
Myles flipped his notepad open-just for effect, since she'd never known him to forget a thing. 'Christian terrorism?'
'That Baumer! Dina! I thought he checked out.'
'Nope. Sorry, Quill. He made a lot of phone calls, though.' Quill groaned.
'What's been going on?'
