Drizzled with Death(72)

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Hanley was standing over a fallen tree, cutting it into stove-length pieces, when I arrived home. Sawdust covered his lucky plaid shirt like snowfall. I wasn’t looking forward to asking Hanley where he really was on Friday night. Asking him while he was wielding a chain saw was even less appealing. But it had to be done. And besides, Grampa was in the nearby barn kitting out the reindeer in his herd with their seasonal bells. He’d be sure to come running if I started squawking.

Hanley noticed me standing nearby but made me wait fifteen minutes while he finished up. I would have given him grief about it, but I figured calling him a liar was going to be enough punishment. Once the sawdust finally stopped raining down, I stepped up to the task at hand without preamble.

“Jill says you weren’t with her on Friday night, and Connie mentioned you weren’t home either.” There, I’d said it and I lived to tell the story. I did keep one eye on Hanley and the other on the barn.

“You sure are a snoopy little thing, aren’t you?” Hanley used the chain saw like a pointer and gestured in my direction. I was so glad the thing was no longer running, I felt more emboldened than frightened.

“That’s why I’m asking you again where you were and I’m hoping you tell me the truth this time.”

“You’re not my wife. As long as I show up and do the work I say I’ll do, what’s it to you?”

“If my business goes under because it looks like I poisoned people with my syrup, I won’t have any more work for you to do. So I guess it’s more about what it means to you.”

“Syrup making or not, this is still a tree farm, and unless I missed some sort of memo, your grandfather is still in charge of who works on it.” Hanley spat a big gob of something awful within an inch of my favorite work boots.

“Right you are. And my grandfather only hires people he wants to have around. He isn’t a fan of liars or men that cheat on their wives. I’d hate to have to disillusion him about you.” I batted my eyelashes at Hanley and shrugged. From the way he scowled at me and tossed a perfectly good chain saw on the ground like a toddler having a tantrum, I’d say we had come to an understanding.

“I was up at Alanza’s tinkering with my equipment.”

“What does that mean?”

“I was sabotaging my heavy machinery.”

“You were doing what?” How could that be? Sure, he had just mistreated his saw but generally Hanley was meticulous concerning his tools.

“Have you seen the clearing I’ve already done near the storage facility?”

“Yes. I saw it when I was up at Roland’s the other day. It looks ghastly.”

“So you know why I had to do a little damage that would stop the clearing up at Bett’s Knob but would still be easy to fix once I’d managed to get Alanza to change her mind.”

“Why did you sign on to do the work in the first place if you didn’t agree with it?”

“Alanza was one of my biggest clients, just like Lewis Bett before her. If I refused, she would have fired me and given the contract to someone else. With the economy being as bad as it is, I needed the business.” I could see that. At Greener Pastures we were still hiring Hanley whenever we needed him, but someone in different financial circumstances might look on forestry services as a luxury expense.

“If you were up there, did you see Jill and Alanza having a fight?” Maybe he and Jill could still give each other an alibi.

“I heard a bit of a ruckus, but it wasn’t like I was going to investigate. I didn’t want Alanza to know I was there.”

“What made you think you were going to be able to change Alanza’s mind about clearing Bett’s Knob?”

“She had a sweet spot for me.” Hanley widened his stance and patted his oil drum gut. Which was exactly what Tansey had told me.

“Sweet enough that she’d give up her business plans? I doubt it.”

“Maybe not, but I figured if I put her off long enough, the snow would fly and the project would get stalled. I was kind of hoping she would lose interest over the winter and the whole thing would just fizzle.” Or maybe he knew she wasn’t going to be around long enough to order him to complete the work on Bett’s Knob.

“I guess you got your wish then. Alanza’s plans are about as fizzled as they could get.”





Nineteen





I decided rather than enduring the awkwardness of dinner with my family, I would go to the Stack for my evening meal. I hadn’t gotten more than a couple miles down the road when I heard a thumping coming from underneath the car. Praying I’d run over a branch and was dragging it, I pulled over and got out to investigate. Using the little flashlight attached to my key chain to get a better look, I knelt at the back of the car searching for the source of the noise. No branches were caught up in the underpinnings of the vehicle, but there was a piece of metal hanging down that seemed closer to the front of the car. I stood and made my way around to get a better look.