Thirty-One and a Half Regrets
Page 55

“If she lived out here alone, she might have.”
“No, I’m not talking about that. I’m wondering if someone was after her…if maybe she was murdered.”
He slid out, still on his back, and looked up at me. “When you told me about your birth mother, you said she died under mysterious circumstances.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Good memory. She died in a car accident. Her car ran off the road and into a tree. According to my aunt, the brake lines looked like they’d been cut, but the Henryetta Police messed up the investigation.”
He grimaced. “They do have a reputation.” He moved back under the bed. “Can you hand me a towel or a piece of cloth?”
I grabbed one of the long-sleeve T-shirts he’d packed for me and handed it to him. When he re-emerged and stood, he was holding the gun wrapped in my shirt.
“Who do you think killed her?” he asked softly. “Something in your voice tells me you have an idea.”
“Momma. I think Momma killed her. They had argument and then Dora crashed on her way home.”
“When this Crocker mess is behind us, I’ll help reopen the investigation, okay?”
I was surprised how much that meant to me. “Thank you.”
“Come downstairs and I’ll show you what I’ve been working on.”
Muffy and I followed him to the office. He put the still-wrapped gun in the drawer of the office desk and motioned for me to come around and join him. He gestured to the spread-out papers. “Like I said, I’ve suspected for a while now that there’s a leak somewhere in either the police or sheriff’s office. What I didn’t tell you is that it’s tied to Crocker, and I’m certain it started long before his arrest. In fact, as far as Crocker and his men were concerned, his arrest should have never happened. They had a source who clued them in on any ongoing investigations and helped keep the heat off them. And in the cases that did make it to trial, witnesses suddenly changed their testimony or disappeared.” Mason leaned against the desk. “Crocker could have used his informant to find you yesterday, but we can’t be sure since the Henryetta safe house is so well known.”
“Why would a deputy or police officer give them information?”
“Money. We estimated that before his arrest, Crocker was the third biggest industry in Fenton County. He actually had some legit businesses that hired a lot of county residents, many of whom have since lost their jobs.”
“I’ve heard a lot of people think he’s innocent.”
“There are two sides to Daniel Crocker. His public persona as the guy who sponsored Little League teams and donated money to church raffles, and the very dark side of him that a lot of people chose to ignore or disbelieve.”
No wonder so many people thought he was framed.
“Guys like Crocker don’t get as far as they do without help, and I’m sure he’s supplemented the income of more than one law enforcement official. But I think this goes deeper than some guy on patrol giving Crocker’s guys a head’s-up. I think a high-level official is involved, and I’m determined to find out who.”
I remembered our conversation after I was arrested for obstruction of justice for investigating Bruce Wayne’s case when I was a juror. I had asked Mason why he was an assistant district attorney. He told me that he wanted to make the world a better place and put the bad guys away. And, for some reason, the fact that he’d started this investigation before he ever knew Crocker had it out for me was even more admirable. He really did believe in fighting for justice.
“What Crocker didn’t count on was that the state police would start their own investigation without him learning about it. The state police also suspected that Crocker had inside help, which is one of the many reasons they didn’t clue the Henryetta Police Department in on the bust.”
“But Weston’s Garage is in Henryetta city limits. Why investigate the sheriff’s office? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the source to be in the local police department?”
“We thought so, but then a few interesting cases popped up before his arrest—some break-ins and an assault. They all occurred outside of city limits, which would implicate the sheriff’s office. When I made that connection, I reached out to Jeff. I’d been investigating the cases on my own, but Jeff is as eager to find the source as I am, especially if he can pin it on the Henryetta police. There’s no love lost between the two departments. We’ve been meeting regularly to discuss our individual findings.”
“I had no idea.”
“No one does. Or so we thought until last night.”
“The break-in at your office.”
He nodded. “We’ve kept this between the two of us, so no one should have even known this investigation existed. I kept most of the files in a safe at home, but I had a few at the office. They were missing after the break-in. Along with your files.”
“I don’t understand. Were they after the investigation files or mine?”
“Or both?” he asked. “Or was one a cover for the other? We don’t know—at least not yet.”
I sat down heavily on the desk chair.
“I’ve been going through these cases one by one, trying to find a connection and I just haven’t yet. Both law enforcement agencies are involved at this point.”
“Could there be a leak on both sides?”
“Or maybe somewhere else? Like I said, no one knew about this investigation other than Jeff and me. We didn’t even tell the sheriff or the DA. It wasn’t out of suspicion, more a the less people who know the better decision.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “We planned to take our findings to both men.”