Page 119 of Wood Riddance
Richard?“Huh?”
“Richard is left-handed. At least I think he is. A few weeks ago, he was lecturing me in my office. He was swinging his keys around with his left hand. I woke up to pee, and when I got back in bed, it popped into my head.” She was wide awake and vibrating.
“That’s a lot for four a.m. Come here.” I opened my arms.
Without argument, she settled back into me.
Stroking her hair, I tucked her in close. “Please rest. We’ll deal with all of this in the morning. Let’s not jump to any conclusions yet.”
She nodded, nuzzling up against me. “You’re right. It could never be him. I’ll call Parker in a couple of hours and see what she thinks.”
* * *
Early the next morning, Adele and I headed into the office, hell-bent on digging up more details. Parker had given us a list of names. There were eleven people at camp the day of Henri’s accident. Some were easily eliminated, either because we knew they were right-handed or because they were miles away operating a crane that day.
That allowed us to narrow down the suspect pool considerably. Thankfully, Ellen, the comptroller who had worked for Gagnon for thirty years, knew everything about everyone.
Her nephew Nate had been out there that day, but he was right-handed. Alex had been a baseball star in high school, so we were able to confirm he was also a righty after a quick google search.
Parker had raised our suspicions about Richard when we’d spoken this morning. She claimed that she’d never been able to fully eliminate him from her list.
Thankfully, he was in the office today. He had come in for a meeting with Henri to discuss the roads ahead of cutting season. Adele had joined them, hoping she’d witness him taking notes. Unfortunately, he hadn’t even brought a notebook with him.
“I have one more idea,” she said while we were in her office strategizing. “I’ll have Ellen text me when he’s leaving.”
When the notification came through near the end of the day, Adele grabbed a tennis ball from He-Man’s overflowing basket of toys and signaled for the dog and I to follow her. Obediently, I trailed as she headed toward the parking lot, her long legs eating up the pavement. He-Man trotted happily next to her, head up, tongue out, and eyes on the ball in her hand.
“Hey, Richard,” she called.
In response, Richard spun, wearing a scowl on his face.
Without warning, she threw the yellow tennis ball at him, and on instinct, he reached up and caught it. With his left hand.
He-Man scurried to him, barking and protesting and demanding the man relinquish his ball. Richard glowered at the dog in return.
This guy was definitely not an animal lover.
“What do you want, Adele?” he asked. His tone wasn’t rude, but he was clearly annoyed.
“When you pulled in this morning, I noticed that you have a headlight out.” She pointed to the bright blue Tacoma he was standing next to. “If you drive into one of the bays, I’ll swap it out for you really quick. Wouldn’t want you to be unsafe on these country roads after dark.”
He tilted his head and frowned at her, tossing the tennis ball in the air a few times, which only irritated He-Man more.
“It’ll only take me ten minutes,” she added, plastering on a smile.
“No need. I’ve got an appointment at Thompson’s in a few days. I’ll have them replace it when they change my oil.”
She went stiff for a moment, but quickly let out a breath and affected a casual stance again. “You sure? Wouldn’t want you to get a ticket between now and then. You know Chief Souza is a stickler. Let me fix it for you.”
He pinned her with a sharp glare, his eyes practically murderous. Over a fucking headlight.
Dammit. This many really could be dangerous.
“No,” Richard growled.
Feigning a calm I knew she didn’t feel, Adele gave an exaggerated shrug. “Okay. thought I’d offer.”
She turned around and snapped her fingers, and He-Man scampered to her.
