Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(18)
“Oh, dear God! He can’t be! Let me see him. Here, my cell works, but most don’t up here.”
She thrust her purse at Kate, then pushed Grant’s hands away to lunge toward the house. Grant shot Kate a panicked look and ran after Nadine. He was afraid he’d handled this wrong. But he—and Paul—had handled other things wrong, too.
*
An hour later, Kate and Grant sat on the front steps. He had his arm around her waist; she leaned gratefully against him, holding his other hand, which was propped on her knee. Through a front window, they could still hear Nadine sobbing.
Kate saw Grant had tears in his eyes. They were both trembling—he, of course, from losing his good friend in that terrible way, she because the carving that had crushed Paul had an Adena artifact on it, one of the two she’d planned to ask him to carve for her. Pure chance, of course, and yet that shook her to her core. It felt like a curse or a warning to her, and she knew better than to upset Grant more by mentioning it.
Soon after Kate had called 911, people had crowded the house. Nadine was so hysterical that Grant had called Pastor Snell. He and his wife, Jeanie, were with Nadine, and her sister was on the way. The paramedics had been standing around since the county coroner had declared Paul deceased and told them not to touch the body in case there had been foul play. And Jace Miller, who had arrived immediately, still looked shell-shocked. He’d asked the medics to stay in case Nadine needed them. Since she’d insisted she had nothing to do with the ransacking of the place, Deputy Miller had put up yellow police tape around the entire house.
“I suppose,” Kate told Grant, “the idea that someone might have robbed the place means it could have been staged to look like an accident when it was really murder. You know, like Paul recognized them, so they had to get rid of him. But since the Ketterings weren’t rich, what could someone have been looking for? Drugs? Guns?”
That thought seemed to really upset Grant. Frowning, he shrugged and shook his head. “Around here, folks have guns of their own and can get drugs easily—sad to say. I wish Gabe was here. Maybe Jace should call in the BCI. Vic Reingold was just here, but he’s gone.”
“Could Paul have owed someone money, and they came looking to collect?”
“Let’s leave that up to the professionals, okay?”
“I’m just thinking aloud. Professional jealousy over his art, which turned into an argument?”
“Kate,” he said, turning her to face him. “Do you have to dissect everything? Let it go. I said, leave it to the experts.”
“I’m trained to ask the what-if questions. And don’t you wonder what happened to your friend, what someone was looking for?”
“Yes, of course I do.”
She almost mentioned that she’d heard Paul and Todd arguing yesterday, but Grant didn’t want to hear any more speculation. Besides, she had no doubt that Todd would have an alibi from being at the mill. Grant was right. This wasn’t some Celtic burial excavation where she could theorize which corpses were honored shamans and which were sacrifices.
Jace Miller came around the corner of the house and walked straight toward them. He stopped, put one foot on the bottom step and leaned his crossed arms on his raised knee. Though no one stood nearby, he kept his voice low.
“Two possibilities until we get the forensic specialists here. One, Paul went off the deep end. Nadine admits they’re in debt, he’s been shook over her medical diagnosis and the house could be foreclosed. So, it’s possible he did the damage inside himself. That could make the tipping of that carving pedestal of his an accident or—well, suicide.”
Grant shook his head. His grip on Kate’s hand and wrist tightened. His voice was shaky. “What about he’d claim a robbery to get insurance money, then the trunk just fell over on him?”
“Nadine says they haven’t kept up on insurance payments, not even for good medical coverage, which she needs since she’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Had Paul told you that, Grant?”
“Yeah. He did. Jace, I don’t think he’d kill himself.”
“I’d go with accident—even murder before that. Nadine insists all three of the carving wheels were stable. From the angle it crushed his skull, either he pulled it down on top of himself or was lying on the floor when someone else pushed it.”
“I can’t fathom anyone would murder Paul,” Grant said.
“Considering any possibility in a situation like this is standard police procedure. I’m going to have to ask you two, since you’re the closest ones we have to eyewitnesses, to give me separate statements on what you observed in the house and when you found him. I’d like to talk to you first, Kate, since you spotted him on the floor before Grant did.”
Grant nodded. “We understand. Anything to help. I’ve lost a good friend, and we’ve lost a talented artist.”
Kate surprised herself by clinging to Grant’s hand as they stood. Then she let go and followed Deputy Miller around the side of the house where he indicated they could talk in the front seat of his squad car.
*
After she’d spent a half hour with Deputy Miller, Kate waited for Grant to be interviewed. Jace Miller seemed understandably nervous to her, but he’d done a thorough job of taking her statement. Remembering Grant’s warnings about not theorizing, she’d tried to stick to the facts.