seat on the corner of Jimmy’s desk. “That Prius had a previous owner. You’ll never believe who bought it and drove it off the lot first.”
“Jocelyn Williams,” Lando provided.
Dale cocked a brow. “Okay, how did you know that?”
“I pulled the registration before heading to Derrick’s.”
“You might’ve clued me in because it seems strange to me that the babysitter for the Copelands receives a generous gift from the very person she suspected as being a killer. Ask yourself this, was the car a payoff for stopping the rumors?”
Gemma joined the men, carrying a tray with four cups of coffee on it. “That would mean Laura Leigh was blackmailing Jocelyn. Which is a great reason for Jocelyn to want her dead.”
Lando took one of the mugs, lifted a hip to sit on one of the desks. “Now see, that’s one of the reasons we make a good team. Because at first, I thought Laura Leigh might’ve legitimately bought the car from Jocelyn. Pickings are slim around here when it comes to finding a quality used car. But now, it seems obvious. The Prius was less than a year old when Laura Leigh had her accident. If it was a payoff, then we need to prove it.”
“I bet Derrick would know,” Gemma suggested.
“Probably. But the next time we see Derrick, he’ll have an attorney sitting next to him.”
Gemma shook her head. “Not necessarily. If you were to offer him a deal, down the road of course, he might just save himself and put the blame all on Jocelyn. Even if he does work for her, he could cut ten years off his prison sentence if he testifies against her.”
“If it comes to that, we’d have to get creative. And right now, we still need proof that Ben got in touch with Daniel Albrecht because Daniel had key information about Jocelyn.”
Jimmy let out a sigh as he glanced through several pages of Ben’s notes. The information was starting to run together. “Maybe someone else could give it a try. A second set of eyes might help. I swear all this stuff is blurring together.” He was about to snap the book closed when one line leaped off the same page he’d been staring at for hours.
“Wait. Look at this. Here. Wasn’t Daniel Albrecht from Pleasanton? This is why I couldn’t find the name. It’s not here. All Ben has listed was the phone number with a 9-1-5 area code. Isn’t that the area code for Pleasanton?”
Lando bobbed his head as he punched in the number listed in Ben’s notes and listened as the call went unanswered. But when it went to voicemail, for the first time, Lando heard Albrecht’s voice. His lips curved at the message. He hit the speaker button, so everyone else could hear it, too. “I’ll be damned. Ben Zurcher, you old dog. Postmaster or not, you should’ve been an investigative reporter.”
Gemma folded her arms over her chest. “Now, we need to figure out what Albrecht had on Jocelyn. It had to be something big. Otherwise, why would the guy drive four hundred miles up here just to meet with Ben?”
Lando turned to Jimmy. “How many sets of fingerprints did we get out of Ben’s house?”
“Maybe half a dozen. Most belonged to Ben.”
“But not all. Call the lab. See if Daniel’s prints were found at Ben’s house.”
“You think Daniel stayed with Ben while he was here?”
“Yeah, I do. Not only that, I think the two men were lured out to meet their killers—Ben at the mercantile on Sunday night during the storm, then Daniel later on when Ben failed to return home. Somebody got him to drive out to Trask land.”
“Why would he do that, though?” Gemma wondered. “Why would he fall for that kind of story when he knew—or at least suspected—he might be in danger? Especially if Ben didn’t return to the house?”
“Before we assume anything, we need to know if any of those prints belonged to Daniel.”
“I’ll get on it,” Jimmy said, getting to his feet. “I’ll even ask the lab about Daniel’s cell phone and see if we can get a clearer triangulation on his phone, see who he talked to during his final hours.”
“Ordinarily, I’d say leave it till morning,” Lando began. “But we don’t know who Jocelyn is targeting next. At this point, she could go after anyone.”
19
That night after supper, Lando helped with the dishes while Gemma filled out her insurance claim forms for the water damage from the night of the storm. To