Chest of Secrets Read online

  “I wonder if Logan ever lived here in Sweetfern Harbor,” Phyllis asked.

  “He lived in a small town somewhere, but again I’m not sure where.” Jane leaned back and her face grew sober. “You know, I have a feeling I know very little about my husband before we met.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I know what he’s like now, and we luckily have had a very happy marriage. He tends to wait on me hand and foot, and I have to admit I like that.”

  Brenda grew restless. She wanted to join Mac at the precinct. She was aware that DNA had been preserved and wanted to ask Mac to compare it to Hal Pickard’s and possibly Logan Clark’s DNA, if they had his on record. She had no idea which evidence box held the samples found at the crime scene, but Mac would. If not, it wouldn’t take long to find it.

  Brenda excused herself and stated she had to make a phone call. She stepped outside and called Mac.

  “I’ve thought of that, Brenda, but we’re still looking for that evidence. After all these years, it seems some of the evidence was separated from others or possibly simply lost. We’ll search for it as soon as Bryce and I finish reading this long report.”

  When Brenda came back inside, she apologized to Phyllis and Jenny. “I’m going down to the precinct for a little while.” Her two friends stood simultaneously and stated they would go with her.

  Out again into the sunshine, Jenny spoke first. “Whatever is going on, we want to be a part of it all.” Phyllis agreed. Brenda told them the latest and why she wanted to get down there.

  “I’ll ask the chief for clearance for the two of you, and between us, we should be able to locate scattered evidence.”

  Mac explained that Police Chief Bob Ingram had taken the day off with his family to go to the ocean. After giving them stern warnings, he agreed that all three could go to the evidence room and start their search. He handed them gloves and waited until they put them on before going into the large room.

  “Are all of these unsolved cases?” Phyllis asked.

  “Some have been solved and are marked as such. Unfortunately, there are too many still waiting,” Mac said.

  The women decided on their strategy and began looking for anything marked “Mackey 1982” on envelopes or boxes. Jenny now understood the police were looking for Logan Clark. She mentioned that his wife seemed to be a very nice person. Brenda assured her that Jane wasn’t involved, as far as she knew.

  Logan Clark drove off the main roads onto a county highway. He drew nearer to the forested areas and chose an abandoned logging road to take time to think things out. There was something about Hal Pickard that drew him in as a friend. He often thought that the criminal got a kick out of drumming up petty crimes. Hal was faithful to Logan in that he managed to shield him from getting caught with any evidence. Logan was very good at assessing situations and then paving the way for Hal to take what he wanted without being seen. Several times, Hal made mistakes, but Logan was always given an escape route, and he appreciated Hal’s allegiance to him.

  When Hal went into the Mackey home without telling Logan ahead of time, Logan felt the man had made a mistake, since he could be careless without a good plan. He knew he was in his debt.

  The abandoned Queen Anne structure sat at the edge of the city limits of Sweetfern Harbor. A few yards from where the summerhouse was eventually built, he had dug into the ground after a rain had softened the earth and buried the treasures. The police were getting too close to Hal, and Logan took it upon himself to take the evidence from the shabby apartment Hal lived in. If he hadn’t, Hal would have become one of the lifers in prison. At first, Hal was furious when he discovered someone had stolen his loot. Logan never told him what he had done to save him. He knew Hal would force him to dig the chest up and give the valuables back to him. He told himself he did it to save his friend.

  Hal got over it eventually. He enjoyed his return to outsmarting the cops, most of the time. That incident taught Logan a lot. For the first time, he realized how close he had come to being charged with a serious crime. The cops were getting desperate. They looked for anything at all to charge the two men for murder and robbery. One cop was overheard stating that a crime like that had to have taken more than one person. Logan was the second person they focused on.

  The night he buried the chest had stuck in his mind day and night for years. Once he’d come to know and love Jane, he’d almost spilled the beans to her. When he told her he knew of a buried chest somewhere that held valuables, he felt relief that she wasn’t as interested in the subject as he thought she would be. He supposed that if one grew up with wealth, a chest of valuables didn’t mean as much. After that, he watched himself and never mentioned it again. She never asked him about it, either.

  Annette Pickard came to his mind as he sat there on the abandoned logging road. Several people had talked about the book she was writing after she left the gathering room one night at the bed and breakfast. The reservationist had served them their drinks and casually mentioned that Annette told her the book was based on some facts but was written as fiction.

  When Jane asked about the theme of the book, Allie had told her she understood it was about a murder that happened somewhere, but she didn’t know where. Logan then decided to find out if Annette was related to Hal. He had hoped to find a time when she wasn’t in the inn so he could steal the manuscript and read it. As it turned out, Annette Pickard rarely left her room except to go downstairs to eat.

  Chapter 7

  Final Guests

  The police were coming up empty-handed in their search for Logan Clark. His wife had not heard from him, and she worried something terrible had prevented him from arriving home as planned. She regretted she hadn’t asked him about the sudden business emergency. Perhaps it was connected to his failure to contact her again. She repeated her concerns to Detective Rivers and later with Brenda when alone in the bed and breakfast.

  “I’m really worried, Brenda. It’s not like him to not contact me. I know the police are looking for him, and my greatest hope is that they will find him.”

  Brenda bit her tongue to hold back the real explanation for why the cops searched for her husband. Instead, she reassured her guest that things would end well. She asked Jane about her design business, trying to divert attention from her worries.

  “My chef complains about an over-abundance of pots and pans in the kitchen. I think you could give us some good pointers on how to be more efficient. She boxed up and stored some of them, but still feels the kitchen is inefficient.”

  “I’d be happy to take a look. Even in our smaller kitchens, most of us supply the cabinets with more than we actually need.”

  Brenda told her she would introduce her to Anna between meal preparations. “Whatever the two of you come up with is fine with me.” Jane was happy for the distraction. If she successfully reorganized the Sheffield Bed and Breakfast kitchen, she could use the project as a future reference in Sweetfern Harbor. When she met Anna, the chef happily accepted her help.

  Annette Pickard glanced at her watch. Four hours remained before time to check out. She tired of her mother’s phone interruptions. The day would arrive when Mattie Pickard, or whoever’s last name she now held, would get the shock of her life. Annette set her phone on mute and bent to her work. Once she checked out of the bed and breakfast, she had one important trip to take before returning to Pennsylvania. Annette decided to take her mother’s calls after she got home to prevent her from visiting in person. If everything worked out, and she expected positive results, then she would enjoy a new lifestyle someplace far away. Her meddling and complaining mother would be out of her life forever.

  Allie smiled at the author when she came downstairs for her last lunch at the bed and breakfast. “How is your book coming along? I hope you’ve had the peace and quiet you hoped for.”

  “It has served me well,” Annette said. “I wonder if I could take a box lunch to my room? It may be too late to order but it would save me some time.”


  “Of course. I’ll tell Anna right away and bring it up to you.” Allie asked about her choices and Annette thanked her.

  Back in the room, she paced slowly back and forth. She stopped at the window that overlooked the new construction. At first she paid little attention to the conversation that flowed one evening around the dinner table. It was mentioned that something had been brought up from the ground where the new home was under construction. Later, she heard it was a small metal chest that may have held valuables of some sort. It was after that that Logan Clark began prying into her private business. Much later it dawned on her that his name was very familiar to her, but she didn’t let on to him what she recalled. It was safer to ignore him. The day she reported him to Brenda Rivers was the day she thought she was done with his harassment. Instead, she shivered even now thinking how vulnerable she’d made herself the morning he followed her to the beach. Her relief when the housekeeper and her husband appeared made her very thankful for their intervention.

  When Brenda dug deeper into the cubby hole of the cold case room, she felt a legal envelope and pulled it out. Only the date 1982 was written on it. She waved it to Phyllis and Jenny. The three looked inside and saw fingerprint results of Hal Pickard and a separate one for Logan Clark. One separate sheet showed DNA results for both men.

  They went up to Mac’s office and Brenda laid it on his desk. “Where did you find this?”

  “It was in a separate cubby hole an aisle over from the larger one that has the Mackey name on it. For some reason it was by itself and stuck in the back of the bin.” Brenda smiled at him. “We opened it and found the information you’ve been hoping for.”

  Mac and Bryce held admiration in their eyes, but only briefly. “We’ll have to arrest Logan Clark when we find him,” Bryce said. Mac cautioned him to make sure everything matched and then to proceed from there. Bryce hurried to the next room where the recent findings were. Jenny followed him. The others waited until the young detective returned. “We have matches on the objects in the chest. Both Hal Pickard’s and Logan Clark’s fingerprints and DNA match.”

  “It proves Logan was in on the crime with Hal,” Brenda said.

  “It proves he handled the objects, but nothing from the crime scene indicates he was there at the time of the killings,” Mac said.

  The two bantered back and forth and Brenda realized if Logan’s DNA was found in the Mackey house, it wouldn’t be unusual since he worked inside the home at times. “Are you sure he didn’t leave evidence at the crime scene?”

  Mac shook his head. “I’ve looked over it all with a fine-toothed comb and nothing at the scene indicated he was there.”

  Thoughts and possibilities raced through everyone’s mind as they all sat in silence for a few minutes. “The crimes took place in the upstairs sitting room. There was no evidence showing Logan was on the second floor at any time,” Bryce said. “His inside work was concentrated mainly around the kitchen area.”

  “Then how did his prints get on the artifacts from the chest?” Phyllis asked.

  “I think he handled them later after the crime was committed. I also feel sure he was the one who left the note in the chest,” Brenda said. “We should have the answer back from the handwriting expert by tomorrow morning. I don’t think he really thought anyone would find the buried chest in his lifetime.”

  “I don’t understand why they buried it all,” Jenny said. “Why not pawn it off for money?”

  “Sweetfern Harbor is a small town, and it would be hard to get by with that. They may have buried it with the intent to dig it up again at a later date.” Mac rubbed his chin. “After the case had gone cold, I think their intent was to take the valuables somewhere far from here and turn them in for cash. The fact is that Hal Pickard continued his crime spree and ended up in jail again and again. Logan Clark appears to have disappeared from the radar after the murders.”

  “That must have been when he met Jane and turned his life around,” Phyllis said. All agreed they had the strongest scenarios to date.

  The fugitive had crossed state lines when he checked into Sheffield Bed and Breakfast. Bringing in the FBI proved relevant now. Every agency in the Eastern United States was on alert. Yet Logan Clark evaded them all. Logan was a thinker. He knew he had to gather supplies to last a while before every law agency emerged on his trail. He turned around and went back to the small gas station and store that sold everything a camper or hunter would need. He paid in cash and then left. He drove on rugged roads further into the mountains. In the next two hours, he passed a couple who hiked a trail in the distance. He had to go deeper in. When he came to a small clearing hidden in the trees, he parked and looked around him. The binoculars he kept in the glove compartment came in handy for the first time since Jane gave them to him three years ago. They were a stocking gift at Christmas. He moved them slowly around the entire perimeter of the clearing. Only a few small animals scurried nearby.

  The remnants of a burned out campfire remained in the middle of the meadow. He had no intentions of starting a fire for any reason. Everything he bought to eat could be eaten without the necessity of cooking. He wished he had his revolver but had given that up long ago when he turned from petty crimes to a better life. The only weapon available to him now was the short, thick tree branch that fit snugly in his vehicle. By nightfall he’d curled up in the backseat and tried to think again. He would never survive long by living a rugged life. He began to wish he had kept driving along state and county roads. Canada wasn’t that far away, and if he left the first thing in the morning, he may avoid the law if any were looking for him. Something in Detective Rivers’ face told him he knew he had a connection with the Mackey murders. He didn’t doubt that when they discovered he’d suddenly left the bed and breakfast, the hunt for him would be on.

  Logan counted on Jane to continue to believe in him.

  Allie Williams waited for the chef to box Annette’s lunch. Anna hummed softly and Allie became curious.

  “Why are you so happy today, Anna?”

  A pink tint crept into her face. “It’s the last lunch for most of the guests until the next run.”

  “Ha,” Allie said. “There’s something else going on with you. What’s the big secret?”

  The chef shrugged her shoulders and hurried to complete the lunch. “It’s ready for Miss Pickard when you are.”

  “Uh huh,” Allie said. She vowed to get to the bottom of things before her shift at the front desk finished. Right now she had to take care of Brenda’s request. She knocked on the writer’s door.

  Annette took the box and cold drink then thanked Allie. She started to close the door when Allie stopped her with her words.

  “I know you have a lot of work to get done before you leave, Annette, but this book of yours has really piqued my imagination. Do you have any excerpts that I could read?”

  “Not really,” Annette said. “I’ll have to allow my publisher to go through it as usual. It should be out on the shelves in a month or less.”

  Her tone of voice left no room for more inquiries. Allie had no choice other than to leave her to her tasks. When Brenda came into the front foyer, Allie told her of her failed attempts to get anything out of Annette regarding her novel. “I understand, Allie. She is definitely closed-mouthed about it. I suppose if she told too much about its content, no one would buy the finished piece.”

  “And by the way, Brenda, our chef is unusually happy today. She was even singing in the kitchen.”

  Brenda’s eyebrows shot up. “That is unusual for her. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her singing voice. Did you ask her why she was so happy?” Allie confirmed that she did and received only a brush off from the chef. Brenda’s smile widened. “I’m going to make a call to my dad and invite him over for dinner. I’ll get something out of him yet.”

  “Do you think Anna’s so happy because he finally proposed to her?” Allie’s eyes danced.

  “I have a strong feeling something went on last
night. They had a big date and he was dressed to the hilt. If I can’t get it out of him, I’m sure Phyllis will manage.”

  “Let me know what you find out. I’m very curious. If he did ask her to marry him, we have celebrations to plan.” Allie’s mind ran away with artistic decorating ideas for an engagement party and wedding.

  “If they married, he wouldn’t have to sneak in visits through the back door with her,” Brenda said. Both women laughed. “I don’t know why he doesn’t just come through the front entrance when he wants to see her.”

  Tim Sheffield’s step was lighter. The woman he came to love had said yes. He agreed with Anna to wait to announce the event. They wanted to enjoy the moment a while longer before his daughter and friends started going overboard with party planning. When Brenda’s mother passed away, he never thought about finding a new love. After all of these years, Anna had come into his life in an unexpected way. Tim had reluctantly visited his daughter when she inherited the bed and breakfast from his brother. He had hoped to sway her to a career that held promise. Running a small hotel wasn’t something he approved of at first. But the more he observed Brenda at work, the more he realized she was truly happy for the first time in a long while.

  He sold his home in Michigan and moved to Sweetfern Harbor at her urging. He believed it had been in his cards all along to make the decision. If he hadn’t, he would have remained morose and sad, living his life alone.

  At ten minutes before three that afternoon, Annette Pickard descended the staircase. Allie called Michael who retrieved her bags at the top of the stairs for her. She carried a briefcase and her laptop. Allie asked her if she had enjoyed her stay and Annette told her it was just what she needed. While the reservationist entered data into the computer, Jane Clark appeared in the hallway.