Page 44 of Found Objects

Two hours later, I was finished with the Thanksgiving bonuses and was making sure everyone’s 401(K) contributions were in for the month when there was a knock on the door. I really wasn’t that surprised to find police officers from White Sulphur Springs on my doorstep.

“Good evening, officers.” I saw Teddy Braun behind them. He was our fish and wildlife guy who had an office in town. I was never really sure what his position was because it changed a bit depending on who was in office, what voters decided on at different times, and who paid his salary. I didn’t think he was a forest ranger, but again, the badge changed from time to time, as well as his hat and uniform. The cards he left at the restaurant had different titles as well, and the logo went from a fish—too small to tell what kind—to a deer, then back to a fish. But he didn’t leave the cards for me, he left them for Dakota just in case she ever needed him.

“Bless his heart,” Kim Rawley, one of my four cooks, always said. “Someone needs to tell him that girl only likes lumberjacks.”

Teddy was young and earnest and had a job, which all the women who worked for me had pointed out to Dakota, but again, she had a thing for lumberjacks, so that wasn’t going to work. If you thought of the exact opposite of a man who cut down trees, you’d get Teddy.

“Mere, you need to have a talk with Teddy,” Desta had ordered me last time he’d been in.

“Not it,” I’d called out. “I refuse to be the one who has to break the game warden’s heart.”

“Is he the game warden?” Paris wanted to know as she joined us.

Both she and Desta were staring at me, perplexed, waiting for an answer.

Again, I had no idea. Because if he was, what was he doing in our tiny town? Shouldn’t he have been in White Sulphur Springs where the rest of the regional offices were? What was he doing in Coille?

But here he was, still early in the morning, not yet ten, giving me a wave. Couldn’t miss him with his red hair, freckles, and sheepish smile.

“Teddy,” I greeted him.

“That’s Officer Theodore Braun, Mr. Baker.”

Goddess help me. “Officer Braun,” I amended quickly.

The policeman in front of me rolled his eyes, and then introduced himself as Officer Reed. His partner was Officer Schiff, and they had a K9 unit that would be arriving shortly, and then later, a cadaver dog coming from Lewisburg. Both would be checking my property.

“We have a warrant.” Reed passed me the piece of paper.

I took it from him, skimming it quickly. “May I ask what you’re looking for?”

Schiff was shaking his head, and Reed grimaced, clearly not about to tell me, at which point Teddy blurted out that they were looking for bodies.

“Really?” I asked, going for wide-eyed surprise.

“Aww hell, Braun,” Schiff grumbled at Teddy.

“It’s just Merritt,” he said, gesturing at me.

Both policemen shot Teddy exasperated looks.

“Whose bodies?” I asked good-naturedly. The thing was, even if they didn’t want to tell me, they would be compelled to do so. No one could keep anything from me, it simply wasn’t possible no matter how hard anyone tried.

“Look, Mr. Baker,” Schiff began, “we know you’ve helped us out a lot in this town, especially with domestic abuse situations and restraining orders, and of course there was the guy cooking meth and that backyard breeding situation with the pit bulls.”

I nodded.

“Seargeant Branson said we should just tell this Tuss Haviland, who was the one who called, that we didn’t find anything, but they spoke to law enforcement in New York who contacted the state police here, so now we have to do our due diligence.”

“Of course.”

They both looked relieved that I wasn’t being a dick about the search.

“This guy, Tuss Haviland, apparently he knows your new neighbors, Abel and Narah Swann,” Schiff said. “We figure this is some problem from when they all lived near each other in New York City, and that this Tuss—weird-ass name if you ask me—has an old score to settle. And though there is, in fact, a record of a private flight in from New York to the Greenbrier Valley Airport yesterday, then back out around two in the morning, there’s no way to verify how many people came and how many left.”

“So you think this Tuss Haviland is having a go at Mr. and Mrs. Swann.”

He nodded. “But we still need to walk around down there where your property and the Swanns’ meet, and bring both dogs with us. Mr. Haviland was adamant that the men who came with him were all buried there.”