HELL'S HALF ACRE a gripping murder mystery full of twists (Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 2) by JACKIE ELLIOTT (classic literature books .txt) 📗

Andi said, “Let me put it this way. If Ricky hadn’t been operating the Smoke Room, don’t you think he would still be alive and well and smoking dope in Dennis’s basement?”

Jim shook his head. “Uh, no. You’ll have to do better than that, Andi. These are conspiracy theories at best. A more plausible explanation would be Ricky dealing illegal drugs through the Smoke Room and stepping on someone’s toes.”

“Then why not just beat him up? Why spirit him away and kill him in the bush? Drug dealers don’t usually plan elaborate crimes, do they?”

Jim didn’t answer.

Andi carried on. “I think Sandra’s right to be concerned about Dennis. And I also think there’s a connection between Ricky Havers and Jade Thompson. Or Summer Thompson.”

“Wait here.” Jim left the office and went into a small storage room. He came out carrying a cardboard box. He set it down on the table and looked at Andi.

“Now, I’m not saying I agree with you — yet. I think you have a lot of theory and not enough evidence — hardly any, in fact. But I know you have good intuition for a story, and I know you read people well. I’m inclined to think the simplest explanation is usually the best. Ricky pissed off another drug dealer. They dragged him off and for whatever reason, he ended up in the woods, and because Charlie Rollins is an idiot, nobody found him until now. But—” he held up his hand to stop Andi interrupting — “but . . . I did some digging. I checked in Dad’s archives to see if there were any stories linking Summer Thompson and Dennis Havers. And I also did a search on Art Whilley and Daniel Ellis.”

Andi’s eyes widened. “The company documents! You snooped,” she said accusingly.

“I supervised,” Jim said calmly. “I’m your supervisor and it’s my job to supervise you and your . . . er . . . source documents. Did Sandra give them to you?”

Andi nodded. “I thought she must have persuaded some friend in the RCMP to do a search or something. I didn’t know how to use them — if I could use them without getting her into trouble. Or me.”

“Or us,” Jim said. “Well, thankfully, you exercised good judgment. You’ve benefited from excellent supervision. Now, let’s see if we can approach this from another direction.”

He pointed to the box. “Let’s go through this and get everything relevant up on that wall. Ready?”

They worked until Jim’s eyes hurt and they had filled the wall with a visual timeline of Ricky Havers’ disappearance. They’d made connections between persons of interest and identified gaps in their knowledge and questions that needed answering. They had a list of people to interview.

But it still looked chaotic to Jim. He grabbed a blank piece of paper and a marker pen and scribbled down five words. Then he held it up for Andi to see.

“We have to answer these questions before we can write anything,” Jim said.

Andi read aloud, “Who, what, why, when, where.” She gestured to the wall. “The ‘who’ part of this is somebody up here, I’m certain. The ‘what’? What killed Ricky? Only the police and forensics can answer that.”

Jim shook his head. “No, you’re confusing the ‘what’ with the method of killing. I’m thinking more about the connection between the ‘what’ and ‘why’. What was the motivation? Why Ricky? What motivates people to kill?”

Andi held her hands up and counted off her fingers, “Love, sex, money, power, anger, revenge.”

Jim nodded. “And why Ricky? Because of drug dealing? Then it would be money and power. But we know they left the cash in the register at the Smoke Room, and as far as we know, the inventory was left alone as well. Also, why not kill him on the spot? Why take him? And — this is the one question which bugs me — why did Ricky end up at the chapel site, a few kilometres away? If someone wanted him dead, why dump him in Coffin Cove?”

“It’s remote,” Andi pointed out. “It’s not a well-known trail, and it’s on private land.” She guessed where Jim was going with this but was playing devil’s advocate.

“Exactly. It’s hard to get to. The person or persons would risk being seen. I know it’s just the Daggs and one neighbour up there, but there’s plenty of old logging roads around here and lots of places in the bush to dump a body. Including mineshafts. If a body was dumped down a mineshaft, it would never be found.”

“And that also brings us to ‘when’,” Andi said. “Surely if a body was dumped months ago, there would be nothing left. What about bears? Cougars? So Ricky was either killed recently, or his body was kept somewhere and then left at the chapel.”

Jim nodded. “Either way, I believe the chapel is significant. And another thing, Andi — I think it blows up your theory about Dennis having anything to do with Ricky’s death. Why leave his body right here in Coffin Cove?”

Andi nodded. “I guess so. I still think Dennis is connected, but maybe it’s got something to do with his past? Someone getting to Ricky because of some shady deal that went wrong. Leaving Dennis or someone else a message?”

“Possible, for sure. But I think the location is the key. So I’m starting there.” Jim rubbed his eyes and looked down the list. “I’ll take Clara Bell,” he said. “She’s eccentric, but she liked my father, so she’ll probably talk to me. She knows local history and the entire area. And first thing tomorrow, I’ll have a coffee with Charlie Rollins. See if I can pry something out of him. But he’s waiting for a pension, so I doubt he’ll confess anything.”

“OK. I’ll take Katie Dagg. I couldn’t get near her today, but I’ll try again. I’m curious why she took a