Chapter 14

When Trish and Peter left on their trip to the small university town a couple of hundred miles from the mining site, they were going to be looking for Louise. The drive was eight hundred miles from Detroit to the town where Miles had lived. It took the best part of the day. Even in the big fancy sedan Trish furnished.

Peter first found out about the big Lincoln sedan, when he met Trish in the parking lot of his place early in the morning. He stood looking out the window of the apartment building with his clothes for the trip in a larger version of his get away back pack. When she pulled up in the black Lincoln he didn't recognize her. She had to beep for him. He had expected the econobox she usually drove.

"So you are rich. I had a sneaking suspicion that you were?" he asked. He immediately flashed on the socialite parents, and a stern childhood nanny.

"I am not rich at all. I live on a small trust fund. I just have use of the family assets." Trish said.

"Sounds like a nice life," Peter said.

"I'm twenty five years old and still live on an allowance of sorts. I have to ask to borrow the car for god's sake." she said as she pulled from the lot. "Can you imagine doing that?"

"Obviously not or I wouldn't be jealous." Peter replied.

Our plan was to ambush Louise, so we hadn't called ahead, which turned out to be a mistake. "Should we wait for tomorrow to approach her, or should we call now, or maybe just go over and risk it?" Peter asked Trish.

"Call her and ask if we can come over now," she replied.

"Maybe we should call her and Ada and try to arrange a breakfast meeting with both," Peter suggested.

"You tell me what you want to do. We can try any of those options," Trish agreed.

"Let's call Louise first, then check into a motel," Peter suggested.

They stopped for dinner at one of the chain date night restaurants before they checked into the small older motel. Peter expected a hooker to be their neighbor, but it turned out to be a college student, and what was obviously a woman his mother's age at least.

Screwing for a better grade obviously, Peter thought but said nothing.

It was Peter and Trish's first night in a full sized bed. It was a treat. Some things just weren't possible in the cot he owned.

"They spent a lot of time enjoying the larger bed, so they overslept. They had made an appointment to meet Louise early the next morning for breakfast. It was her choice to invite Ada.

Peter and Trish had to skip their showers in order not to be late for the interview. "One of you must be Louise Adair," Peter said to the two women at the table by the window.

"I am Louise Adair, and this is our former business partner Ada Fine," the younger of the woman said. She had a stern look about her, but it appeared to be mixed with a lot of pain, Peter though. Louise looked sad but was attractive in that school girl way.

"It is good that you both could make it this morning. Trish, my associate, and I really appreciate it. Could you bring me up to speed about the last trip home before your uncle's death," Peter asked after the introductions.

"Uncle Miles came home for Christmas and stayed till New Years, then he went back to the mountains," Louise said. "There isn't a lot more to say."

"The shooting took place on a private road which led into the gold camp. Did your uncle say there had been any trouble, no matter how small at the claim?" Peter asked.

"He didn't mention anything," Louise said. "He did have some kind of hush, hush thing going on with Silvia from QE2. I thought they were dating and that it was cute." Louise said.

Immediately Ada jumped in. "It was nothing, they just spent a little time together."

"I know Silvia is your daughter, but she and Uncle Miles were up to something. There were phone calls and whispered conversations that ended when anyone came in the room. That just screams conspiracy," Louise said.

"I'm sure it was just not wanting the crew to know they were sleeping together," Ada said.

"Did Silvia visit you Uncle at the home you shared," Peter asked.

"Who did you say you were with?" Ada asked.

"We are with JustAct. It is an independent legal advocacy group. It is authorized by the Department of Justice to act as an over site group." Trish said in her cold voice.

"Well we are done here I suppose," Peter said laying his card on the table. Call any of those numbers if you have any questions, or just need to talk."

Peter got Trish out of the restaurant before Ada could pull out her phone and take his picture. He had knew it was risky but he had chance. When Ada started asking questions, he decided her daughter might be too much of a risk.

In the car Trish said, "We were about to find out something, why did we leave."

"We are going to have to separate them to find out anything. Their stories are different. Louise thinks something Miles did for, or with Silvia got his ass shot. Ada, who is Silvia's mother, thinks he was just screwing her. So we can figure that if Louise is right, Ada will only obstruct us."

"Okay, I can see that. So what is our next move?" Trish asked.

"We give her till lunch to contact us. If she doesn't you contact her to ask if she would like to talk just the two of you," Peter suggested.

"Deke, this is some serious shit. If one of the people offed Miles they might decide to do one or both of us," She said.

"Yeah, are you having fun yet?" he asked. She actually smiled when she nodded her head.

Since there was no longer a production crew in town to interview, the two of them played Louise like a fish. The calls started in the after noon. First it was Ada. She wanted to talk to Peter alone. He agreed to meet her in the park on the university campus.

He had a feeling that she wanted to interview him. She must likely wants to know what I know about her daughter, he thought.

Trish called Louise after Ada called. Louise agreed to meet her at an upscale restaurant and pub for a drink.

"It's cold on this park bench," Ada said.

"Tends to encourage people to get to the point," Peter replied.

"I suppose so," Ada said.

"Silvia had nothing to do with Miles death," Ada said.

"You know this how?" Peter asked.

"She and I spent the day together," she said. "I told the police the same thing and they were satisfied."

"Did you also give them them the name of an independent party who could verify that?" Peter asked.

"Yes I did," she said.

"Let me guess the camera man," Peter said.

"As a matter of fact yes. She stopped in to see Silvia at my house while we were having lunch so I invited her to stay for a turkey sandwich." Ada said.

"Ada you know that isn't the best alibi, but it's better than none," Peter said. "I'm still going to New York to interview your daughter. If I find out you are covering for her," his voice trailed off when he realized the threat would not help.

"Do you know who did kill Miles Adair?" he asked Ada.

"If I did, I would tell Louise. I want her to bury this theory that Silvia or I had something to do with it," she said.

Peter decided he didn't like Ada, but he couldn't see her as the killer. Still there was the mama grizzly possibility. She would lie and probably go a lot farther if she thought she was protecting her daughter.

Peter felt that it was most likely going to be a messy investigation. All murder investigations got messy. Unless the killer was a psychopath, there were all sorts of crap involved. He wondered how well the killer of Miles Adair had covered his or her tracks.

He walked back to the entrance to the entrance gate of the university where he was able to find a cab. The driver carried him to the motel for five dollars.

It was after midnight when Trish came in. She looked very relaxed. Peter knew the look. He had no idea what it meant since she had been with Louise for the last few hours.

"I was getting worried. What's the word on Louise?" he asked.

"She really wants to help," Trish said. She loved her Uncle. It was like you said according to her. No sex involved just two lonely people living in the same house. He left the house to her."

"Is it valuable?" Peter asked.

"Not really, it is just a small frame house outside of town. Certainly not a motive for her to murder her uncle," Trish said.

"I see. Maybe a jealous boyfriend did it. No, it was not a crime of passion. If one of the people here did it, they had to follow him four hours by car to do it. He or she would have had more than enough time to calm down." Peter said.

"Louise thinks he knew something on Silvia. She is convinced that Silvia is involved somehow." Trish said.

"So what is Louise like," Peter asked.

"I think she is telling the truth," Trish said flatly.

"Then unless something comes up, we will move off Louise. It's time for a road trip?" peter said.

"We are on a road trip now," Trish said being a little irritating.

"Alright, a side road trip," Peter replied with a smile.

They had dressed, or undressed for bed when Trish said, "I slept with her." As usual she used the same voice she used when she ordered pizza.

"I thought so. Like we keep reminding ourselves. We are not cops," Peter said. He fell asleep in Trish's arms.

Peter spent most of the night trying to figure it out. His wild imagination and knowledge of the facts told him that he didn't have enough facts.

He plugged the case file into the DOJ tablet, which he suspected was hardwired to the NSA. The idea was to read the police interview reports on all the participants.

Since Miles had been killed in a rural county after the crime scene investigation the sheriff's office turned the investigation over the State Police. Under the new organization there were regional detective offices. That being the case, Peter planned to move his review after reading the regional file yet again. He needed to determine if there was any reason to meet with the state Agents.

The state people had met Ada and Louise shortly after the shooting. They both started out on the radar because Miles had a .38 revolver which he hadn't tried to use. It appeared that he watched the other car drive up and park. The locals and the state men expected that he knew his killer. Since he didn't know anyone locally, they turned an eye on his partners.

Louise was interviewed and then eliminated. Since she had been with her parents for several days. Her alibi was solid. The investigators liked Ada for about a day, then decide to move on to Silvia. She alibi was the same as her mother's. It wasn't a perfect alibi but the cops couldn't break it.

The other two possibilities were the camera people. One was part of the Alibi for Silvia and Ada. She had been in town waiting for Filming to restart after the holiday. The police hadn't known about her affair with Louise until they ran the names past Louise. Louise immediately admitted to the affair.

According to Louise it was just sex not love. "Miles was cool with it," she said there was no reason for either of us to kill him." At least that was the quote from the report.

The male cameraman was interviewed while he was still in the area. According to him, he was supposed to meet Miles at the cabin in the gold camp. Unlike Miles he pulled a small camper along. His plan was to commute from the camper parked about two miles away on the fire road. The farmer who owned the land where the gold camp stood discovered the body while he was stile on the road. He had a credit car receipt for gas purchased two hundred mile away a half hour before the murder. The camera man genuinely liked Miles and there was no motive of any kind for him to end his life.

The gun used for killing Miles never showed up so the case went cold after a few weeks. There were too many jurisdictions to really do an adequate job. If Miles had been a movie star or had caught the public attention it might have been different. Hell it might be different now that the TV series had been released.

Peter couldn't decide where to go looking for the missing pieces of the puzzle. He needed to talk to the QE2 players. A quick call to New York confirmed that the camera people and the producers were in the field.

"So what now," Trish asked.

"Now we go back to Helen," Peter said. "We need her to do the computer search or Miles and the other' financial records.

When the two of them arrived back in Detroit the work week was almost over. Peter went into the office.

Since he had a stack of files to review he went through them quickly but carefully. Believe it or not the two things are not mutually exclusive. Just doing his job and ignoring the larger context cut the review time in half.

Peter explained to Iva that he was still going to be coming and going for the next couple of weeks, then he cornered Helen to solicit her help with the records check.

"You know the cops did all this, why not just get copies of their reports?" Helen asked.

"I could kiss you," Peter said to Helen.

"Later," she said. "Like after dinner tonight. As a matter of fact. Why don't you pack up your laundry and we can do it after you take me to a nice dinner. Even better we can do it all day tomorrow it is Saturday."

"You don't have to do that," Peter said.

"Hey Trish is younger and prettier, but I'm more useful." she said. "Not to mention more comfortable."

"No comment," Peter said. "I'll take off early and be waiting for you, clothes in hand, after work."

"Good you can use my machines, but tomorrow you are going to have to do the work. I am going to be busy reading the financial information for all the parties," Helen suggested.

"Fair enough," Peter agreed.

They had dinner and then each other. Peter slept very well in Helen's big comfortable bed. Like she had said Helen was like Trish's big sedan, comfortable.

After breakfast Peter retrieved the files from his DOJ furnished pad. It had the heavy encryption programs on it. Even though it was not a national security matter the information came from a huge research project DOJ ran.

Seth had moved Peter's request along through channels probably because he felt needed to make up for almost getting him killed. Peter had bypassed Iva's clear directive that all DOJ requests had to go through her. It was getting pretty clear that the partnership between the two of them was finished.

It also seemed fairly obvious that their days as employer and employee was wearing thin. He expected that if he didn't solve the mystery on the gold claim they were through.

"Well here is your smoking gun. Silvia made cash withdrawal from her business account. She made the five $9500 withdrawals, and one $5000. Even you can figure out that she paid for something more than a manicure," Helen said.

"Maybe she paid for someone to shoot Miles, while she at turkey sandwiches with her mother." Miles suggested. "So I'm going to go over the case notes again. Just to see if anyone picked up on it. Since she had an alibi, even if the people were all connected to her somehow, they might have given up on her as a suspect."

The police did what anyone else would have, they ran the best leads first. They most likely felt that Ada was the better lead. Hell, Peter even thought so.