A Merciful Death (Mercy Kilpatrick #1)(19)

“No.”

Mercy silently sighed and changed her line of questioning. “Did anyone visit Ned when you were helping him with wood chopping last Wednesday?”

His forehead wrinkled in concentration. “No. Not that Wednesday.”

“He had a visitor on a different Wednesday?”

“Yes. A few Wednesdays ago. He yelled at someone who’d stopped their truck on the road in front of his house. He told them to ‘f*cking get lost.’”

“They didn’t get out of the vehicle?” Eddie asked.

“No, they took off when he waved the ax and moved closer to their truck.” Toby grinned. “It was funny. He was mad.”

Mercy raised a brow at Truman, who lifted one shoulder.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Truman said. “Could have been tourists or even a bill collector.” He leaned forward and rested his arms on his desk. “Hey, Toby, who did Ned dislike? Who’d he complain about all the time?”

“Leighton Underwood,” Toby said promptly. “And Uncle Sam.”

Mercy assumed he meant the Uncle Sam who was her boss, but she wrote it in her notebook beside Underwood’s name in case Ned had an actual uncle named Sam.

“Who’s Underwood?” she asked Truman.

“I suspect their property lines butt up against each other. I know Leighton lives out in the same general area, but he doesn’t come to town as much as Ned did. Someone else could tell you if there was bad blood between the two of them.”

“Toby, did Ned have anything else on his property that he was real proud of besides his guns?” Mercy asked.

“He was real proud of his food. He always said he had enough stored away to outlast the commies. He liked his garden too. We spent lots of hours working in his garden and building a tall fence to keep out the critters.”

“Those are important,” agreed Mercy. “If you were to go back inside Ned’s house, do you think you would notice if anything was missing?”

Toby sat up straight in his chair. “I don’t want to go back there! He was dead! Don’t make me go back in that house!” His fingers blanched as he clenched his hands. “I don’t want to see his ghost!”

Truman came out from behind his desk and put one hand on Toby’s shoulder in a tight grip. “No one’s going to make you go back.” He looked Mercy square in the eye, daring her to challenge him.

Mercy wasn’t interested in forcing Toby, knowing it would be counterproductive. But she believed he had a good memory and that with the right questions, they could hear more insight into Ned Fahey.

“You know Ned’s not there anymore, right, Toby?” she asked. “They took his body away.”

Toby wouldn’t look up. “Where’d they take him?” he asked slowly.

“They took him to a special doctor who studies dead people. This doctor knows how to look for clues about who killed him,” answered Mercy.

“A medical examiner.” Toby finally looked at her again. “Like on CSI.”

“That’s right. We want to know who did this to Ned. That’s why we’re going back to look for clues at his house. But we won’t know if the killer stole something. I bet you would notice if something was gone.”

Toby had started to shake his head as she talked. “I don’t want to go back.”

Mercy saw Truman’s fingers grip Toby’s shoulder a little tighter. “That’s fine, Toby. But please consider it. We could really use your help to figure out what happened.”

Lucas tapped on the office door and brought in the coffees. “Sheriff Rhodes is back.”

“We’re almost done,” answered Truman. He looked at Eddie and Mercy. “Anything else for Toby?”

“Not now,” said Mercy. “If we have more questions, can we talk with you again, Toby?”

“Yes.”

Truman walked him out of the office.

Eddie leaned close to Mercy. “What do you think?”

“He’s a good witness if we ask the right questions.”

“I agree. I don’t know if he saw anything helpful, though.” Eddie glanced at his notes. “We’ve got Leighton Underwood to follow up on and a random vehicle that stopped by one day. I think we need to talk with more of Ned’s cronies.”

“Ned’s cronies meet at the John Deere place at five a.m.,” said Truman as he reappeared.

“Does Leighton Underwood meet there too?” asked Eddie.

“Occasionally.”

Mercy looked at Eddie, trying to weigh priorities. They needed to stay on Ned’s case because it was fresh, but they had a lot of catching up to do on the other two deaths. She was torn.

“Where can I rent a car?” Eddie asked Truman. “I think we need another set of wheels so we can split up and cover more ground.”

Why didn’t I think of that?

“I can have someone run you back to Bend for a rental if you’d like. That’d save some time,” suggested Truman. At Eddie’s nod he hollered down the hall. “Lucas! Get Gibson back to the station. I’ve got an errand for him.”

Truman looked at Mercy. “What’s your plan?”

“I’d like to talk to Leighton Underwood. Now.”