Donna reached for more sunscreen and tossed it at Tessa. “You’re turning red already.” The tube bounced on the sun deck.
Tessa shifted to sit and then slathered on the cream. “I wish I would’ve gotten the Italian skin.” She burned like all of the Irish family members.
Donna never burned and instead turned a lovely tan shade. I, on the other hand, didn’t burn like Tess or tan like Donna. I was a mixture in that my body got mostly tan and my face burned, so I had to be careful in the sun. With my brunette hair and odd gray with a hint of green eyes, I didn’t look like anybody in the family. “I’m not sure what heritage my real father, the mailman, had,” I said. It was an old family joke.
Tessa chuckled. “That’s funny, but you look just like our great, great grandmother. I found a bunch of old pictures at mom and dad’s, and I keep forgetting to bring it to you. She had brown hair and gray eyes, too.”
Huh. I hadn’t known that. My face started to tingle so I held out my hand and caught the sunscreen when Tessa threw it. I was relaxed and feeling much better about everything, so my mind started to work again. “When you were dating Danny, did you know a guy named Rich? One who has a tattoo on his arm and rides motorcycles? Maybe is into some sort of beer business?”
Tessa finished rubbing sunscreen into her legs. “You mean his cousin Rich? Tall guy, good looking, quiet?”
“Yeah. What’s his deal?” I slathered my face with the cream.
She kicked her legs in front of her and stretched her neck. “He always seemed like a jerk to me. He runs training for militia groups planning for the end of days.”
I coughed. “Like those survive-a-zombie-apocalypse weekends?” I’d seen a couple online.
“No. More serious stuff that involves real weapons. Most of the attendees are fat dentists who roll around on the ground during the weekends and pretend they can take Rambo.”
I perked up. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. His business is located east of Spokane past the airport in Washington, and they train in the Idaho mountains. Danny worked for him to make a little extra money before getting in trouble and leaving. By getting in trouble, I mean hitting me and taking my car. Asshat.” She crossed herself. “May he rest in hell.”
I snorted. “I wonder if they were training the Lordes? Or the new members of the Lordes?” It was a connection between Aiden and Danny, but I didn’t see Aiden needing help rolling around a mountain or learning to shoot a gun. But he did have a bunch of new members, so who knew? “What’s the name of the business?”
“I can’t remember,” Tessa said. “Something about militia strategy and training or something like that. I really didn’t pay a lot of attention.”
Okay. “What about Rich’s last name?”
Tessa thought about it. “Pucci, even though they’re distant cousins.”
It was a start. I rubbed excess sunscreen down my pinkening arms. “Was he dating Krissy Walker when you were seeing Danny?”
Tess pushed a curl away from her face. “You know, they were dating back then. Yeah. Danny and I saw them at Vassallo’s bar one night when we were still getting along, and it seemed kind of like a first date situation? It was a little awkward, and they didn’t invite us to sit with them. Are they still dating?”
My mind spun with the possibilities. “Definitely.” All right. Guns, militia, training…now we were getting somewhere. I needed to figure out a way to speak with Kelsey without her sister around.
“Stay out of my case,” Tessa said, turning onto her back. “Why don’t you take some time off and relax?”
“I don’t know how,” I admitted. “But I’ll try.”
And I did. We spent most of the day on the boat with good food and drinks until Tessa had to go to work. My sisters dropped me off at my dock, and I wove leisurely up the trail to the guest cottage, happily warm and slightly sunburned. My brain had relaxed almost all day, so ideas started coming at me faster than I expected. I needed to somehow diagram the situation like Nick had taught me to do with an earlier case.
I had an old bulletin board in the garage, and I hurried out to tug it free of a bunch of boxes I hadn’t bothered to unpack from law school. It was old and scratched and nowhere near as cool as the magnetic whiteboard Nick used for trial. I lugged it inside and looked for a free wall. After scoping out my entire cottage, I could only find one big enough.
My laundry room led from the garage to the path through the living room to the kitchen. One side held the washer and dryer along with a small counter, while the other wall was bare. I’d always thought the owner had meant to put in a full counter, possible sink, and some cupboards there because there was definitely room, but this had never happened. So right now, I just dumped my shoes there when I was tired. It was the perfect wall.
It took me some time, but after finding a hammer and nails, I secured the board across the entire wall. Yeah, it was a big board. Then I took the case file and put up pictures. One of Danny Pucci in the middle with Tessa on one side and Aiden the other, a blank box with Saber’s name next to him. I connected Danny and Aiden both to Rich and to the Lordes and the militia training group.
I took a step back and studied the board before plastering pictures of Krissy and Kelsey on the board along with connections. I had to print out pictures from Facebook for them, but it worked.
My phone buzzed as I was studying my handiwork, and I answered it absently. “Hello.”
“Hi, Angel. Sorry I didn’t call earlier. It’s been a day,” Aiden said.
The sound of his voice warmed me to my slightly sunburnt toes. “No kidding. I’m on leave apparently.” I leaned back against the washing machine.
He was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry about that?”
