What on earth was this all about? Jane wondered. Were all these people somehow connected with Gregory Smith? At least in Doris's mind they must have been. The references must have to do with documents, but what kind of documents? The list would surely mean something to somebody who knew how to translate it.
Satisfied that she'd tidied up the file, Jane slipped everything back into the folder and put it on the counter between the kitchen and the dining area. She must remember to give it to Lucky so that it could go to someone to whom it would mean something. She poured herself a cup of coffee, took it back to the living room, and stretched out on one of the sofas to skim through her new copy of I, HawkHunter.
That was where Shelley found her an hour later, sound asleep with the book over her face like a tent.
Chapter 16
"Jane, wake up. The sheriff wants to talk to you," Shelley hissed.
Jane sat up, angry with herself for falling asleep and feeling so fuddled. "Give me a minute to slap myself awake," she said, tearing toward the bathroom, where she slapped some cold water on her face and brushed her teeth fiercely, thinking at least her gums and cheeks would be awake and they were both fairly close to her brain.
As it turned out, she didn't need any special wits for this interview. The sheriff asked her the same things he'd already asked before. Did she know Doris or Bill before coming here? Was she a member of the group that was meeting here? Why did she go to Mrs. Schmidtheiser's cabin? Why did she head toward the snowman? This was a new one and it made Jane laugh, which the sheriff clearly found a distasteful reaction. "I wasn't 'heading' for anything! It was the first time I ever skied and I had absolutely no control over where I ended up! Do you really imagine I'd have risked running into a tree or something by heading for the woods?"
"I couldn't say. I just couldn't say, ma'am. But it sure is odd that there's two bodies and somebody who says she never knew the people before found both of them, don't you think?"
This was at least the third time he'd made this observation. The first time it had surprised her, the second time it irritated her, but this time — in her own temporary "home" and with her daughter in the next room — it made her furious.
"Are you making an accusation?" she said coldly.
"No, ma'am. Nosiree. Just sayin' as how it's odd."
She stood up and walked to the door of the cabin. "It was unpleasant and unfortunate. And I find this conversation to be even more so. I've told you everything I know. And I've told it to you several times. If you have in mind asking me the same questions again, you'll have to ask them of my lawyer. Frankly, I'm tired of this. Get out of here."
"Now, don't go gettin' all riled up—"
"Get out!"
He put his hands up. "Okay, okay, I'm going." He backed out the door, making vaguely apologetic noises, but Jane cut them off by slamming the door as soon as he was outside. She leaned back against it, shaking.
Shelley looked at her admiringly. "Wow! I've never seen you do anything like that. I'm really impressed!"
"You're rubbing off on me, I guess. That ignorant, nasty-minded hick! How dare he—"
"Now calm down. He's gone."
A few minutes and a restorative cup of coffee and cigarette later, Shelley ventured to reopen the subject. "You see what this means, don't you?"
"I have no idea," Jane said.
"Look, the people here are bright and much more sophisticated than they like to let on. They wouldn't have anybody as sheriff who really is as much of a rube as he acts like. So he must be smarter than he seems."
"He'd have to be!"
"And if he has the wits to stay sheriff, he must know you're telling the truth."
"Rave on," Jane said. "So why is he bothering with me?"
"Because he's at a dead end."
"Are you suggesting that I should be encouraged by this?"
"Not encouraged, but it does mean there isn't any evidence that we don't know about that's helping him any. So we are just as well equipped to figure this out as he is."
"And just as motivated," Jane added sourly.
"Okay, so we can assume that either both deaths have to do with the whole Tsar/Holnagrad thing or they don't."
"That's a big help."
"Jane, it gives us a structure for analyzing what we know."
"If you say so."
"All right. Let's assume first that it does have to do with the Tsar business. Which certainly seems likely, since one death was the person promoting Bill Smith as the heir, and the other death was Bill himself."
"Okay, I see where you're going now," Jane said. "Who are the people involved in any way? Pro or con?"
"Right. There are the two victims, of course. There's Pete, and we've already talked about him pretty thoroughly. There's Stu Gortner, who is really the one with the greatest motivation to get rid of the competition for his candidate."
"Wait — go back to Pete. What would this fight he got into with HawkHunter have to do with it?"
"Hold it, Jane. Don't sidetrack me yet. We're just laying out the groundwork for how we're going to think about this."
"So we're thinking about how we're going to think? You wouldn't like to offer to run a couple states and several major corporations in your spare time, would you?"
Shelley ignored that remark. "So — we have Bill, Doris, Pete, and Stu as interested parties. Now we have to add Joanna. Don't make faces like that. Joanna's very much a concerned party. Suppose Doris had made some kind of grand announcement to the press about Bill being the rightful Tsar. On Bill's behalf as well as her own, that would have a real impact on her life."
"Okay, I'll give you that."
"We've also got to consider Lucky. He's the president of the Society and had both Doris and Stu trying to get him on their sides. Maybe he is quietly involved with one or the other of them."
"But that could be true of practically anyone in the Society."
"Yes, but the rest of them don't appear to have much of anything at stake. Stu sees his candidate as his way to fame and fortune. Same with Pete. Doris saw it as a private coup. Even Lucky, who seems to care deeply about the Society, may feel that the group itself could either triumph or dissolve in the publicity a 'new Tsar' would generate."
"I notice you're not mentioning Tenny."
"No. Except that Tenny didn't want her uncle bothered with it, I can't see a motive for her. Even if she did have a motive to knock off Doris to protect Bill, she'd hardly hurt Bill. So there are the suspects if it has to do with the Holnagrad Society."
"What else could it logically have to do with?"
"The sale of the resort, for one thing."
"You suspect Paul!"