“What’d you do when you left the valley?”
“Joined the army.”
“You out now?” He nodded. “How long?”
At least the tedious conversation passed the time while they waited. “Seven years.”
“And you live up in the mountains?”
He nodded. “Run a few businesses with a couple of guys I served with. Was the knife the murder weapon?”
With his eyes still on the vineyard, he felt more than saw Carter’s focus. “Who says he was murdered?”
“I’d prefer not to play this game, Detective. If you don’t want to tell me whether the knife was the murder weapon, then say so. But no need to pretend this isn’t a homicide investigation.”
Carter grumbled a short string of words Monk didn’t catch before answering. “The knife was found at the scene. The ME is still deciding if the wounds were self-inflicted.”
He locked eyes with Carter. Monk had once sat on a rock on the side of a mountain looking through the scope of his rifle for fourteen hours without moving. The detective wasn’t about to win this staring contest.
Three minutes passed before Carter shifted his gaze on a huff. “That’s a fucked-up skill to have,” he muttered.
Monk fought a grin. “Jealous?”
Carter wagged his head, then crossed his arms. “Maybe a little. You learn that in the army?”
“It’s not a course they teach, but yeah. I don’t use it that often, though.”
Carter chuckled. “But for Helia, you will?”
“She’s not involved in this at all. You know it. Jess knows it. I know it,” he said. “I get that you have a job to do. And it’s cliché for me to point out that time you spend focused on her is time you’re wasting not focused on the killer. So what do you need to clear her and move on?”
“The letter is an issue. It implies they had a conflict.”
“Or,” Monk said, “it’s the ramblings of a desperate man unwilling to accept a woman doesn’t want him. Of the two scenarios, mine seems more plausible.”
“Justin Flannery showed no evidence of desperation in any other part of his life.”
“And Helia shows homicidal tendencies?” Monk countered. Helia’s voice filtered through the din as she and Jess headed their way. “Get the CCTV, clear her, and move on.”
“You the detective now?”
“I get it, I irritate you. But it’s obvious the Shaw family respects you, which means you have integrity and intelligence. I want you to clear her because the hairs on my neck arestanding on end, and I think there’s more going on here than just Flannery’s death.”
Carter straightened. “The hell? What do you know?”
Jess called out a hello to someone, her voice close.
“I don’t know anything. But I don’t like that two men Helia dated have both been sniffing around her again and now one is dead.”
“Two?” Carter asked, but Monk didn’t have a chance to answer before Helia and Jess exited the kitchen.
“The rest of the set,” Jess said, holding up a sealed box she must have unfolded from her backpack. “There are six total, five here.”
“You sure the set isn’t larger?” Carter asked.
“They’re stored in a leather carrier that has six individual pouches. One is empty, the other five are in here,” Jess replied. Monk gave her credit for keeping her tone even as Carter questioned her skill.
“Can we download the CCTV footage?” Carter asked Helia with a nod to the main building.
