Chương 4
“I am not on duty.”
“Nicole, sit down.”
She did, mostly because hearing her first name from him felt more dangerous than the order.
He pushed a mug toward her.
The coffee had been poured before the confrontation. A skin had formed on its surface.
“Your leave ends Monday,” he said.
“I can extend.”
“You can request an extension.”
“I’ll get it.”
“Probably. The commanding general also wants your decision by Friday.”
Nicole looked at him.
Reeves did not need to specify which decision. For six months, she had delayed answering an offer to become deputy commander of a sustainment command headquartered in Washington State. It was the kind of position careers were built toward. It also meant another move, more travel, and at least three years farther from Indiana.
“I haven’t forgotten.”
“You’ve ignored three emails.”
“That is not forgetting.”
“General Wexler thinks it is.”
She looked through the diner windows. Harper’s cruiser was gone. Travis’s pickup had left behind a dark rectangle where it had blocked the sun.
“My mother may lose this place.”
“And you think the Army needs to lose you first?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Reeves lowered his voice. “I came because you asked. I’ll sign a statement about what I saw. But you need to be careful. Cain will claim you used your position to intimidate him.”
“He shoved me.”
“I know.”
“Harper threatened my mother.”
“I know.”
“I stood still.”
“I know that too. The question is what you do next.”
Nicole hated advice when it arrived before she had made a mistake.
She drank the cold coffee anyway.
By three that afternoon, the state investigators had sealed copies of the recording, photographed the evidence folder, and collected witness statements from seven customers. They did not arrest anyone. They did not seize Harper’s badge or search Travis’s office. The absence of immediate punishment disappointed almost everyone in the diner.
Marlowe had been trained by television to expect truth to move faster than paperwork.
Singh explained that her office needed original county records, bank subpoenas, and a review of the property agreements. Harper had authority, allies, and a union contract. Travis had lawyers. The state needed more than a dramatic recording.
“What about my mother?” Nicole asked.
“We can seek a protective order if there is a specific threat.”
“He sent Benton here.”
“We have your mother’s statement. Benton denies pushing her.”
“He was in the building.”
“He says she invited him.”
“The office lock was broken.”
“He says it was already damaged.”
Nicole leaned forward.
Singh closed her notebook.
“This is the part where you decide whether you want me to make you feel better or tell you what we can prove.”
Evelyn stood at the grill pretending not to listen.
Nicole sat back.
“What can we prove?”
“That Sheriff Harper mischaracterized the reported assault. That Cain Development benefited from enforcement actions he may have influenced. That there are conflicting property documents. That Mr. Cain physically contacted you during an encounter in which the sheriff appeared to support him. Those facts justify investigation. They do not yet prove conspiracy.”
“He admitted she signed an agreement.”
“Which means he is likely to produce one.”
Nicole looked at Evelyn.
Her mother turned a burger she had already turned twice.
Singh saw it.
“Mrs. Turner, is there another agreement?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Nicole felt the floor change beneath her.
“Mom.”
Evelyn shut off the grill. “I said no.”
“You said no to what?”
“I did not sign what Travis brought here.”
“That isn’t what she asked.”
Evelyn’s mouth thinned. “There was something years ago. With his father.”
The diner had emptied except for Otis, Marcy, Reeves, Singh, Alvarez, and the two Army drivers eating pie in the rear booth. Nicole heard one of them set down a fork.
“What something?” she asked.
“A letter.”
“What kind of letter?”
“It said the Cain family would have the first chance to buy if I ever sold.”
“When?”
“After your father died.”
Nicole did the arithmetic. Twelve years.
“Why?”
“The roof leaked. The bank wouldn’t extend the line. Walter Cain loaned me thirty thousand dollars.”
“Did you repay it?”
“Every cent.”
“Do you have proof?”
“I had receipts.”
“Had?”
Evelyn looked toward the office.
The folder Benton tried to take.
Nicole’s voice dropped. “Was the letter in there?”
“I don’t know.”
Singh asked Evelyn to describe the document. There had been no purchase price, only a promise that the Cain family would receive notice and an opportunity to match an offer. Evelyn remembered signing before a notary at the old Marlowe Savings branch. The bank had since merged twice.
“That may be a valid right of first refusal,” Singh said. “It may also be expired, satisfied, or limited by language nobody remembers.”
“It’s not the agreement Travis showed me,” Evelyn said.
“What did he show you?”
“A sale contract. My name on the bottom.”
“Your signature?”
“It looked like mine.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
Nicole studied her mother’s face. Evelyn was certain of the forgery. She was less certain about everything that allowed it to look plausible.
Travis had not invented the entire history. He had built his fraud against a frame that already existed.
The distinction would matter to lawyers, judges, banks, and half the town. It mattered to Nicole because she had spent four days believing her mother had told her everything.
“You should have told me,” she said.
Evelyn gave a short, humorless laugh.
“You arrived with a printer, three binders, and a man in Washington calling every hour. There wasn’t much room for me to tell you anything.”
“I asked.”
“You interrogated.”
“I was trying to help.”
“You were trying to win.”
The words found their mark because Nicole could not dismiss them.
Singh closed the folder.
“We’ll locate the original letter.”
May you like
“And if it’s valid?” Evelyn asked.
“Then Mr. Cain may have certain contractual rights. He still doesn’t have the right to forge a sale, manipulate inspections, or send someone to take documents.”
