Nothing to Lose (J.P. Beaumont #25)(44)

“So let’s go back to when Chris went missing,” I said, changing the focus of the conversation. “I’ve been working on a timeline. The weekend before Chris disappeared, he and Nitza spent Saturday night together. The next day when Nitza woke up, she was ill so he took her home. When she was still sick on Monday, that’s when her mother must have stumbled onto what might really be going on and had—”

“Nitza take that home pregnancy test,” Penny supplied.

I nodded. “When the results came in, all hell broke loose. Nitza went to Chris’s place, thinking he’d come home after work. When he didn’t, she came here to you.”

“And never saw Chris again,” Penny said.

“Exactly,” I agreed.

Wally had been quiet during most of this conversation, but now he spoke up. “I’ve always thought Roger had something to do with that boy’s disappearance,” he asserted.

His comment caught my attention and Penny’s, too. She was clearly surprised.

“You did?” she asked. “How come you never mentioned it?”

“I don’t always say everything I’m thinking,” he replied. “Besides, things between you and Eileen and between Nitza and her folks were already complicated enough. I didn’t see any reason to heap more fuel on the fire.”

I had made no mention of Harriet Raines or the human remains, and it sounded as though Walter was still sold on the idea that Chris had simply taken off.

“Mr. Olmstead,” I asked, “what makes you think Roger Adams might be involved in Chris’s disappearance?”

“Please call me Wally,” he said. “As for Chris? I’ve always suspected Roger paid the kid off, telling him to get lost and stay that way.”

“You think Roger bribed Chris to leave town?”

Wally nodded. “I do indeed. From what Nitza has told us, at the time Chris was barely scraping by and trying to save up enough money to go back to Ohio for a visit. For someone like that, it wouldn’t take much money to make him feel like he’d stumbled into a gold mine. As little as a thousand bucks or so would have done the trick, and Roger always made it a point to let me know that he kept a pile of cash handy, either in his wallet or in the safe in his den.”

“I never knew anything about that either,” Penny said. “How come you did?” She sounded more than slightly put out.

“Because he told me so,” Wally replied. “Why bother you? We both know that Roger Adams is nothing but a blowhard and a braggart. Back when we used to hang out with them from time to time, Roger always rubbed my nose in the fact that he was the big-deal attorney, raking in the dough, while I was nothing more than a dirt-poor schoolteacher. I always regarded those kinds of comments as coming from a bad case of brother-in-law one-upmanship. Once Nitza came to live with us and we ended up cutting off all communication with him, it was no great loss.”

“You’re saying that you haven’t maintained any contact with him and his new wife?” I asked.

Wally shook his head emphatically. “Not at all! I was appalled that Roger wouldn’t let Nitza come visit her mother while she was in the hospital let alone not allow her to attend the funeral. I wouldn’t cross the street to spit on that man’s shoes.”

“Back to the money question,” I put in. “You’re saying you believe Roger Adams kept enough loose cash around, either on his person or at the house, that he could have tossed a thousand bucks or two in Chris Danielson’s lap at the drop of a hat?”

“No question,” Wally declared. “Roger’s grandfather was well-to-do in the twenties and then lost it all when banks went bust during the Great Depression. As a result Roger’s dad grew up dirt poor and so did Roger. That’s why he swore he’d never let himself end up in the same kind of fix, and that’s why he always kept a bundle of cash on hand. It’s also why he was always investing in real estate. He said that way if things went bust, he wouldn’t be left high and dry.”

“I still think you should have told me something about all this,” Penny interjected.

Wally might have believed that keeping his thoughts and suspicions about his ex-brother-in-law to himself all these years had been a wise move, but I had a feeling that once I left the house, Penny was going to give him hell about it.

“You told me earlier that you don’t really have any contact with Roger and Shelley, but you’re aware he’s ill now.”

Wally and Penny both nodded in unison.

“Nitza told us Helen had been in touch,” Penny explained.

“Helen?” I asked.

“Helen Sinclair,” Penny answered. “She’s been Roger’s secretary for as long as I can remember. She dropped by Nitza’s place a week or so ago to deliver the news. She was hoping Nitza would agree to come visit, but that’s not going to happen. Nitza told me she has no intention of doing so, and I don’t blame her. Yes, Wally and I helped her once the baby came along, but Roger had far more wherewithal than we did, and he never lifted a finger. As far as I’m concerned, regardless of what’s going on with Roger right now, Nitza doesn’t owe that man a damned thing!”

From all I’d heard about Roger Adams to this point, I wholeheartedly agreed. In terms of my investigation into Chris’s disappearance, I was now willing to move Roger’s name up the ladder of my suspect chart from person of interest to prime suspect. As far as I could tell, he was the only person with a strong motive for having Chris Danielson out of the picture.