Chapter 5 – The Final Suspect

"Well that was fun," Audrey grumbled sarcastically as they climbed back into the safety of the truck cab. While dealing with the drunken old men arguing in front of the bar, the skies had quite suddenly opened up and drenched them all in frigid rain. It hadn't bothered Nathan much, but Audrey was shivering madly. The moment his key was in the ignition, she cranked his heaters as high as they'd go.

"They were a bit more drunk than usual," Nathan remarked conversationally, but he was fighting a smile. Not being able to feel the cold autumn storm, he'd found it amusing to watch Audrey try and look intimidating as she yelled at the old men to break it up, all the while looking rather like a drowned rat. She was less than pleased with him at that point.

"Your heaters are slow," she complained, pulling his coat tighter around her body.

"We'll head back to the station and you can warm up there," he said, turning onto the road.

Audrey suddenly sat up, all signs of irritation gone. "Wait, that last Halter suspect's house is on our way back. We should stop while we're here."

"If you say so, Nancy Drew," he said, shaking his head but flipping on his truck's turn signal and veering onto the residential road they needed. He had come to the conclusion long ago that no matter how much effort he put into the act, he would probably never fully understand his partner. Her slightly bi-polar switch from being sulky to being eager was practically a non-item in the long list of strange things about her. Even if he was pretty sure that the best idea would be to get them both inside before they got hypothermia, he knew she wouldn't just back down now that she was on track.

Squinting through the rain to read the house numbers, he finally found the one they were looking for and pulled into the driveway. They both jumped out and almost jogged up to the porch to take shelter beneath the small awning. Nathan reached over Audrey's head to knock at the door and they waited in anticipation for a response. There was no noise from inside; no lights behind the curtained windows.

"Think they're gone?" Audrey asked. Without waiting for an answer, she stepped off the porch and stood on her toes to peer through a crack in the curtains. "It's all dark in here," she shouted over the sound of the storm.

"Avoiding us?" Nathan offered, walking around to the other side of the porch to peek in through another window. The dining room he was looking into was immaculately clean and completely dark.

"Let's check with the neighbours," Audrey said, nodding in the direction of the next house over. There were lights glowing in these windows and a car in the driveway. They cut across the lawns and mounted the front steps, Audrey hammering expectantly on the door.

After a moment of rustling sounds and a high-pitched barking, the door opened a bit to reveal an older woman in a cardigan. "Nathan?" she asked, clearly confused. "What brings you up here in this weather?"

"Mrs. Tanner," Nathan responded, quickly casting a glance at the house number and feeling dumb for not having recognized it.

"You know each other?" Audrey asked, glancing up at her partner.

"Mrs. Tanner was my high school English teacher," Nathan admitted awkwardly.

"Bright kid, he was," Mrs. Tanner said with an affectionate smile. "A real knack for writing, he had. I remember a short story he wrote for my class, must have been only fifteen at the time. Was one of the best things I've ever read in all my years teaching. Got it from his mother, he did. Jane always was a creative soul. Lord knows his father isn't."

Nathan was refusing to meet anyone's gaze, his hands deep in his pockets. It might just have been his body's natural reaction to the cold it couldn't feel, but Audrey could have sworn that his cheeks were red. "Anyway, Mrs. T, we're actually here about your neighbours," he said, gesturing over his shoulder at the darkened house.

"Right," Audrey said. She could tell that he didn't want to reminisce anymore, but she stored the information away for a later date. This was the first time she'd really heard mention about Nathan's mother, and it had sparked a sudden curiosity in her. But right now they were working a case. "Do you happen to know where they are? We need to ask them a few questions."

"The Cartwrights?" Mrs. Tanner asked, her forehead furrowing. "Ireland by now, I'd imagine. The poor things are taking a vacation. I'm watching the house for them while they're gone. Watering the plants and bringing in the paper, things like that."

Audrey and Nathan exchanged quick glances. "When did they leave?" Nathan asked, and underneath his neutral tone there was a hint of suspicion.

"Just yesterday," Mrs. Tanner answered, looking more and more confused with each new second. "They've been having all this trouble with their daughter being sick, but then they came to me this weekend and said they'd gotten their financial issues fixed and they were going to take a vacation to help everyone relax from all the stress, and would I watch the house for them. Why? Nothing's happened to them, has it?"

"No, we just wanted to talk to them," Audrey said smoothly. "Thank you so much for your help, Mrs. Tanner. If we have any more questions, we'll be in touch." Mrs. Tanner nodded, still looking concerned, and she watched as the two detectives raced back across the yards into the old blue truck.

"Well that's suspicious," Nathan remarked blandly as he turned the truck on and backed them out into the road.

"You mean that they suddenly had no more financial trouble and abruptly left the country on the same day that their insurance agent died?" Audrey said acerbically. "Yeah, that's just a little bit more than suspicious."

"You think they could have done it then? Take out the insurance agent who denied their daughter's insurance help to save her, I mean?" Nathan asked, glancing sideways at her as he manoeuvred the truck back onto Main Street.

"It definitely sounds like the most convincing motive we've heard so far," Audrey said grimly. "In my experience, most people will go to crazy measures for their kids. And the fact that they fled the country the same day really doesn't help their case much. Problem is that we'll need rock-solid proof before we can have them dragged back state-side."

Nathan snorted. "Too bad we're short on any proof, density aside."

"Then let's find some," Audrey said pointedly and smiled. It seemed that the thrill of the case had driven all of her annoyance over their cold and wet conditions from her mind. Although judging by the way she'd done up the zipper and rolled the sleeves to accommodate her hands, he seriously doubted he'd be getting his coat back any time soon. If I get sick, she's bringing me soup…

Ten minutes later they were back inside their office, Audrey running searches on their suspect list while Nathan wrote up the incident report for the argument at the Bucket. They had only been at it for a few minutes when the Chief ambled in, hefting a black briefcase and clearing his throat loudly.

Nathan glanced up for a split second and smirked. "The briefcase is a nice touch," he said dryly. "Makes you look professional."

The Chief shot him a withering look and laid the case on Audrey's desk. "Belonged to your vic, Halter," he said, ignoring the son who was now pointedly ignoring him. "Someone found it outside a building about a block up from where he got hit, looked like it got dropped. Just got out of forensics, they didn't find much. Thought you might want to see if you can make anything of it."

"Thanks, Chief," Audrey said and the older man gave her a short nod and left. The moment he was gone, Nathan looked up from his report curiously. "Let's see what our guy was carrying, shall we?"

As Audrey flipped the latches, Nathan came around to stand behind her. When she lifted the lid, they both just stared at the contents. Stacks of forms and paperwork were held together with paperclips. There were a few loose pens with chewed caps and a carelessly torn bag had littered lozenges across everything else. There was a small plastic sack containing a now soggy-looking sandwich. And that was basically it.

"Well that was anticlimactic," Nathan drawled, flipping half-heartedly through a set of blank paperwork.

"Wait, here's his wallet," Audrey said, picking up the folded scrap of leather that had been hidden beneath the papers. She opened it and grimaced. "Wow, this wallet's in sad shape." The leather was soft and worn thin in several places, and a few of the card slots were torn. There were seven wrinkled dollars, a Maine driver's license with a very unflattering picture, and a credit card with the numbers worn completely off. The only other contents were a half dozen business cards reading 'Jeffery Michael Halter' and a faded photograph of a clearly much younger Delilah the dog.

"Awh, look at the puppy," Audrey cooed and her partner matched her teasing smirk with a grin of his own.

"So we can be sure that if he had anything worth stealing, it's already been taken," Nathan continued critically. "What are the odds that it's a coincidence our guy's briefcase was found a block from where he died?"

"Even outside of Haven, those are slim chances," Audrey replied to the rhetorical question. "So what, someone tries to rob him on his way to work?"

"And a block later he just so happens to stumble in front of a car," Nathan finished sceptically.

"Maybe he was pushed, and when the robber realized he didn't have anything, he ditched the evidence," Audrey suggested. "Or maybe, for some reason, Halter ditched it himself. To deliver something to someone, or as a clue."

Nathan groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face. "Wouldn't it be nice to get a case that makes sense?"

Audrey snorted. "Nathan, hate to break it to you, but you're in the wrong line of work."