“What about his keys?” I asked. “And his wallet?”
“I beg your pardon?” he said, glancing back.
“His keys and wallet were missing,” I said. “Did you take them?”
“Good heavens, no,” he said. “What do you take me for, a petty thief?”
He sounded more offended than when he thought I was accusing him of murder.
“Besides, only an idiot would steal Gordon’s wallet,” he said. “‘Who steals my purse steals trash,’ and all that.”
“He didn’t carry a lot of money?”
“If they outlawed plastic Gordon would starve,” Endicott said.
“The keys are a different matter,” I said. “He had some valuable stuff in the shop. I know; I’ve been there.”
“Well, yes,” Endicott said. “I suppose if you’re after the stuff in the shop, his keys would be worth stealing. But not to me. I still had my own key to the shop, though I doubt if Gordon remembered that.”
“Wouldn’t he have changed the locks when you sold him your part of the shop?” I said.
“Any normal person would have. Not Gordon,” Endicott said. His words were starting to come out in short, staccato bursts. “Too cheap and too lazy. I hung onto the key just after the sale. In case he ever tried anything really devious. Like trying to fake my signature on something. And I never got rid of it—the key.”
We were both slowing down now. Endicott stopped suddenly, put the box down, and squatted by it, panting. I dumped my box on the ground beside his. What had he bought, anyway? I didn’t recall selling him anything this heavy. Had he shoplifted Rob’s discarded barbell set while I wasn’t looking?
He was still avoiding my eyes. I studied his face, what I could see of it, and tried to decide if he was telling the truth. I had thought he was only resting, but after panting for a few minutes, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a set of keys, and stood up, bracing himself against the side of a parked SUV.
“Lend it to me,” I said, holding out my hand.
He glanced up, startled, and clutched his key ring to his stomach.
“Just the shop key,” I said. “I’ll bring it back in a few days.”
“But—I haven’t got it right now,” he said.
Light dawned.
“No, you gave it to Arnold Schmidt, didn’t you. To keep him from telling Chief Burke that he saw you coming out of the barn just before he found Gordon dead,” I said.
“How did you know that?” Endicott asked, looking genuinely puzzled, and perhaps slightly fearful.
“So if you didn’t kill Gordon and take his keys and wallet, who did? If you can tell me something useful, maybe I won’t have to tell Chief Burke all about this.”
He looked as if he was thinking, hard. But his face didn’t have the look of someone desperately trying to invent something that would save him. More the look of someone who was trying to convince himself he had to do something he didn’t really want to do.
“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” he began.
“You already have,” I said. “Tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything for sure,” he said. “It’s only a vague suspicion.”
“I’ll take a vague suspicion if that’s all you’ve got,” I said.
“Well … when I came in, I saw Carol leaving.”
“Gordon’s wife?”
“They were separated,” Endicott said. “And if Carol had had her way, they’d have been divorced a year or two ago.”
Which meant they’d split up about the same time Endicott and Gordon had stopped being partners. Was that only a coincidence?”
“Was it an amicable separation?” I asked, even though I thought I knew the answer.
“Amicable,” Endicott snapped. “Hell, no. You’ve never seen anything so vicious. He fought her over everything—the house, the shop, the bank accounts. And she kept trying to convince the judge that he was hiding assets from her.”
Now that he’d made up his mind to talk, I wasn’t sure I could stop him if I wanted to. Not that I did, of course.
“And was he?” I said. “Hiding assets?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Endicott said. “He tried to pull a few stunts like that when we broke up the partnership. And I wasn’t going after every penny I could get, the way Carol was. I just wanted to get clear of him as fast as possible. She was really holding his feet to the fire. Not that I blame her. The things that woman put up with! He started fooling around on her before the honeymoon was over—can you believe that?”