Page 42 of Only One More Lie

“Missing money?” Andi’s voice lilted with curiosity.

“Yeah, I asked him about it. He said they couldn’t definitively pin the loss on Caleb, but he was their number one suspect.”

“When did they discover the missing money?” Duke asked. “And where was it missing from?”

“A few days before they died. They had a cash box in their office.”

Duke’s eyebrows shot up. The timing was definitely incriminating. He couldn’t deny that.

“Did your brother confront him?” Duke studied Tim’s face, interested in getting his take on the situation. The way his jaw tightened and his cheeks remained red indicated he was still angry.

“No, they didn’t. Not as far as I know. I think they wanted more information first, but they hadn’t found it before they died.”

Andi stared at Tim, appearing ready to start another cross examination. “Did you tell the police all of this?”

Tim didn’t bother to hide his frown. “No, at the time it didn’t seem like a big deal, I suppose. I assumed this killer was someonenotaffiliated with the camp. But since then, I’ve started to wonder if Calvin and Mary were killed for some other reason and their murders were set up to look as if the DecemberDismemberer had struck. Maybe that psycho had nothing to do with this at all, and it was just a copycat crime.”

Duke knew that could be a possibility. But there were some holes in that theory. “If that’s the case, no one else was found dead on that date. So either his streak was broken or?—”

“Or the victim wasn’t discovered . . . or maybe this guy died.” Tim shrugged. “Who knows?”

Duke supposed any of those options could be correct. He didn’t think they were, however.

“Does anybody know if Caleb had an alibi during the time of the murders?” Andi asked.

“I looked into that myself.” Tim’s gaze darkened. “It turns out he was patrolling one of our UTV trails. We do that every day to make sure they’re safe.”

“Where does this trail run?” Duke asked.

“On the backside of the property. The police didn’t find any tire tracks leading to the barn, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t park a UTV somewhere, walk through the forest to my brother’s cabin, and lure Calvin and Mary to the barn.”

Tim had clearly thought everything through.

Duke had to admit the man’s theory did have some plausibility. He and Andi would need to talk to Caleb again.

“What about Pepper?” Andi asked. “Any idea what happened to her or who would want to hurt her?”

His expression remained solemn. “Not really. She was kind of annoying and had a strong personality. But I never heard anyone say they didn’t like her. I have no idea who would have wanted to kill her.”

Just then, a yell sounded in the distance.

They all rose from the table and rushed out the door to see what was happening.

Four or five people scrambled toward UTVs parked near the lodge. They jumped into the seats and sped into the forest.

Something else had happened, Duke realized. Something bad.

Did this event tie in with the case? That was the question.

CHAPTER 19

Andi, Duke, and Tim darted from Juniper’s house toward the commotion in the distance.

They paused when they reached Juniper. She and Tundra stood outside the lodge, and Juniper wrung her hands with a worried look on her face.

“Juniper?” Tim started. “What happened?”

She seemed to snap out of her shock as she turned to them. “Darren was fishing with four of our guests when the ice broke and one of the guests fell through.”