“Yes, we certainly do,” I agreed. His name is Christopher James Danielson. He’s twelve years old and a hell of a nice kid!
“So Roger handed the money over to Chris in person?” I asked.
“As far as I know,” Shelley replied with a shrug.
“Did Chris give Roger any hints about what his intentions were—about what he planned to do with the money or where he was going?”
“If he did, Roger never mentioned it, at least not to me. As far as I know, once Chris had the money, he was supposed to leave town, and he did. My understanding was that he intended to go visit some of his relatives in Ohio.”
That sounded plausible enough, except I was pretty sure Chris had never left the state of Alaska. With ten thousand bucks in his pocket, he could have purchased a vehicle, but in a post-9/11 world and without a valid passport, he wouldn’t have been able to drive through Canada to reach the Lower Forty-eight. As for leaving by air? With a driver’s license, he could possibly have boarded a plane for U.S. destinations, but had he?
I noted in my mental to-do list to ask Todd if a passport had ever been issued in the name of Christopher Danielson. But my bottom line remained unchanged. I was relatively sure Chris had never set foot outside Alaska, because he’d been murdered and left lying dead along the shoreline of Eklutna Lake. My problem now centered on the fact that Roger Adams, one of the last people to have seen Chris alive, no longer knew up from down. And even if he was arrested and charged with murder, Roger was in no condition to aid in his own defense. There was no way he could be tried, convicted, or held accountable for any crime at all, to say nothing of murder.
In other words, I had just run smack-dab into a dead end.
“I should probably let you get back to your day,” I told Shelley, rising to my feet. “You’ve been most helpful. I trust you’ll forgive me for just barging in the way I did.”
“You’re forgiven,” she said with a smile. “In fact, I’m grateful you stopped by. If you hadn’t, I might never have known that Rog had discovered where I was keeping the key. From now on I’ll have to find another hiding spot.”
I couldn’t help hoping that at some time in the not-so-distant future I wouldn’t end up in the same situation as Roger Adams—in such bad mental shape that Mel would find herself compelled to hold me prisoner in my own home.
Shelley rose to walk me as far as the door. I was out on the porch when almost as an afterthought she asked, “Why all this interest in finding Chris Danielson now? Is Danitza the person who hired you?”
I found it interesting that Shelley wanted to know who had sent me snooping around and asking questions, but the identity of the person who hired me was none of her business.
“I’m working on behalf of Chris’s other grandmother, the one who lives in Ohio.”
“Well,” she said, “I wish you the best of luck on that score.”
I stood on the porch for a moment after the door closed behind me. Nothing about the interview had turned out the way I’d expected. Instead of despising Roger Adams, I now found myself feeling sorry for him. As for Shelley Hollander Loveday Adams? She had coveted another woman’s husband, and now that she had him, she seemed to be getting just what she deserved. As they say, sometimes karma is a bitch.
Chapter 19
“It’s about damned time,” Twink muttered impatiently as I clambered into the Travelall beside her. “Did you happen to use the facilities while you were in there?”
“No, I didn’t,” I told her.
“Well, I need to pee like crazy,” she said, “and we’re not going anywhere else until I have a pit stop, understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I told her, but the truth was, now that she mentioned it, I needed a pit stop, too.
Twink drove straight to a McDonald’s, where we both used the facilities without buying anything. I felt guilty about that, but after the superior burgers we’d had at Zig’s Place earlier, neither of us was the least bit hungry. Not only that, whatever McDonald’s had on offer would have been a real letdown in comparison.
There had been a line for the ladies’ restroom, so I beat Twink back to the Travelall.
“Where to now?” she asked when she finally showed up.
After my conversation with Shelley Adams, the ground had shifted, and so had my game plan. Roger Adams as he was now wouldn’t have the mental or physical capacity to pull off a homicide, but twelve years ago he probably would have. Regardless of whether he was ever charged or convicted, I wanted the matter settled in my own mind once and for all, for myself as well as for Jared and Danitza.