“Only with difficulty,” I said. “Most women would have better taste than to fool around with Gordon. And most men, too.”
“But you see why she’d want the keys,” Endicott said, eagerly. “She’d been trying everything to find out what he’d hidden, and where, and with the keys, she could go into the divorce court fully armed, so to speak.”
“Though she’ll be going into probate court, not divorce,” I said.
“True,” Endicott said, as if this were a new idea.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Wouldn’t he have changed the keys when Carol filed for divorce? How can you be so sure your key still fits?”
“We changed them the first time she filed for divorce, five years ago,” Endicott said. “I was the one who arranged it. As far as I know, he never gave her a copy of the new one. The reconciliation never went that well.”
Which could mean that Gordon had been working on hiding his assets from Carol for five years. No wonder Carol was so upset.
“Could she have killed him?” I asked.
He fell silent. I suspected that he wasn’t agonizing over how to answer my question, only how he could avoid answering it. For whatever reason—friendship, shared suffering, perhaps a hint of romantic attraction—Endicott didn’t want to point the finger at Carol. But the longer he paused, the more loudly I could hear the answer he wasn’t giving. Yes, she could have killed Gordon.
“I’ll talk to her,” I said. “See what she says.”
“Don’t—” he began.
“Mention that you ratted on her,” I said. “I won’t. As it happens, I was already planning to talk to her. It wasn’t exactly a surprise when you mentioned her name. I saw her going in and out of the barn, too, you know.”
Though until I’d talked to Endicott, I had no idea when she’d gone into the barn and thus no idea if she was a valid suspect.
We put the boxes in the back of the SUV and Endicott drove off, a little too fast, as if he was glad to get away from me. I thought for a while, and then pulled out my cell phone to call Chief Burke.
“I’m busy,” he said, when I got him on the phone. “This had better be important.”
“Did you get—”
“I got your message, yes. Was there anything else?”
Got it, and from the stubborn sound of his voice, wasn’t doing a thing about it. I’d been waffling about whether to tell him about Schmidt and Endicott, but if he was going to be mulish …
“I was just wondering if it had occurred to you that whoever has Gordon’s keys might try to use them again,” I said.
“Come again?”
“How do you know that whoever burgled the shop last night wasn’t interrupted before they found what they were looking for or did what they were trying to do?” I said. “And whoever did it still has his other keys—house, car, who knows what.”
“If you’re worried that someone will break in somewhere and steal evidence, you can stop worrying,” the chief said. “We’ve taken measures to secure the premises he owned or rented, and I don’t just mean stringing up a lot of pretty yellow crime scene tape. And if you’re the one who has the keys and you’re angling to find out if it’s safe to use them, it’s not, so do me a favor and snoop someplace else. I hate arresting well-meaning amateurs for interfering in my investigations.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I don’t have Gordon’s keys, and I have no intention of breaking in anywhere. Scout’s honor.”
“Were you ever actually a Girl Scout?” he asked.
“Briefly,” I said. “And it was Dad’s fault I got kicked out.”
“That I can believe,” he said. “Behave yourself.”
With that he hung up.
I felt better. I wasn’t sure whether the chief was telling me the truth, or just what he thought would scare me off, but if Professor Schmidt really was running around with a working key to Gordon’s shop, my conscience was clean. I’d warned the chief. If Endicott was telling the truth, it was probably Carol who’d tried to burgle the shop last night.
I got Carol’s number from directory assistance and tried to call it. No answer. She might be back at the yard sale. And even if she wasn’t, I had a feeling I knew where she’d strike next. And when. Odds were she wouldn’t strike until after dark. And right now, dark felt a long way off. I could hear several voices calling my name, back at the yard sale.
In fact, long before I got back to the yard sale, I heard gunfire from the direction of the house. Cursing Endicott for making me use up so much energy already, I started running back.