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“Any idea what that could be?”
Nathan shook his head. “Not yet. Leon isn’t talking, but I spent the morning questioning people in the area and searching for evidence. I do have one witness who saw him soon afterward and might have heard the shots.”
“Credible?”
“I think so. She didn’t see anything significant, but she helped narrow down the time and place.”
“Local person?”
“Sara Hanrahan. She was out walking her dog.”
“I’d sure take anything she says with a big dose of salt.” Clay studied an envelope, then finished riffling through the rest of his mail and slapped the stack against his open palm. “The moment the mailman arrives is the most exciting event of my entire day. Never should have retired.”
“You miss the long hours, late nights, and the paperwork, right?”
Clay waved an arm toward his neatly fenced yard and two-story brick home. “There’s just so much yard work a man can stand. If you ever need any help with a case, give me a call. You might just save a poor old man from insanity.”
“Dora would have your hide if you went back to work.” Nathan grinned. The retired sheriff had been known as tough in his day, but no one in town held a candle to his spouse.
“I’m serious, son. Not to get back on the payroll, you understand. Just to keep this old ticker going.”
Clay’s “ticker” was the main reason Nathan didn’t plan to involve him anytime soon.
Whenever Nathan ran into Dora downtown, she fretted about the increasing frequency of Clay’s episodes of chest pain, and it didn’t take a medical degree to see the grayish pallor of his face or hear his labored breathing.
“Sure thing. And in the meantime, you’ll be at the office at noon Monday?”
“Yeah.” The light of anticipation died in Clay’s eyes. “I’ll be there. But I’d rather be working.”
Nathan watched him head back to his house with a heavy tread and tried to imagine himself facing the change from an active career to full retirement.
Nothing appealed to Nathan more than the unpredictable adrenaline rush of being a cop and the opportunity to make a real difference out on the street.
On the way to his place on Lake Ryan, Nathan called dispatch to let them know he’d be off duty for several hours.
As he turned down his long driveway, he found himself whistling along with the radio and looking forward to his first afternoon off in weeks. Getting out on the boat again would be great—perhaps his last chance this year, before the northern Minnesota weather turned too cold.
But it was more than the prospect of skimming over the crystalline blue waters of Lake Ryan that had him tapping on the steering wheel with impatience as a fat raccoon waddled across the gravel lane in front of his bumper. The moment he turned the last bend and caught sight of Sara’s SUV, his anticipation increased tenfold.
She was leaning against the door of her car, her sunglasses propped on her head and her auburn hair fluttering in the soft lake breezes. Her German shepherd, as always, sat patiently at her side.
She was dressed in a trim navy sweater and boot-cut jeans, but she could have been dressed in tatters and her appeal wouldn’t have been any less.
She pushed away from her vehicle and crossed to his car as he parked at the end of the cement walk leading up to his house.
“Is this where you live? You could house three families in there, and they’d never see each other,” she said dryly, waving toward the house. “I thought we were meeting at some boat dock surrounded by cattails and weeds.”
Stepping out of his car, he rested his forearms on the top of the open door and nodded at the shore, where waves lapped at the rocks. “There’s the dock, and that’s the boat.”
“That’s quite a boat.”
Her tone suggested that she thought he was just another spoiled rich kid who’d grown up needing the biggest toys in town.
“The house once belonged to my great-aunt Grace, but it wasn’t an inheritance. I bought it from the most recent owner, and now I’m remodeling it, step by step. The previous owners let it go to ruin.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Not on the inside.” He flashed her a quick grin. “I need to change clothes, then I’ll be right back. Would you like to come in and see the shambles?”
