Pepper, the Highlander & the Dead Guy

“Good point,” I admitted. “Ian did surrender that knife right away to you.”

“I’ll give him that, he did, though if I’m to cover every possibility I had to consider it a wise move on his part. One meant to mislead. Like I said, though, lots more suspects to consider so I’ll be asking more questions of everyone. Remember what I taught you about murder Pepper. Anyone can kill for what they believe is the right reason.”

He had me there.

I thought about the torn piece of paper I found at Ian’s and for a moment wasn’t going to tell him since I worried it wouldn’t bode well for Ian. But it might help point my dad at someone else.

“I was at Ian’s last night with Amy for a photo shoot, requested by my agent. I found a torn piece of paper with one word on it, Longforgan, the town where Struthers’s law office is located.”

My dad stuck his hand out the window. “Hand it over.”

“It’s home. I found it on the floor in the hall of a section under construction, which means it was probably stepped on repeatedly. I doubt you can get any prints off it and even if you did it wouldn’t mean much since anyone could have picked it up one or more times. But my guess is that someone there had contact with Struthers. Also, the refuse cans on that floor had already been emptied.”

“You should have called me right away,” my dad reprimanded.

“I planned on it.”

“Not soon enough.”

“Sorry,” I said, thinking I should have called him at least this morning and let him know about it.

“I’ll come by and pick it up later,” he said.

“My fault, Dad, I should have told you last night, the latest this morning.”

“Remember that the next time because there’s bound to be another next time with you.”

He pulled away and he wasn’t far off when he stopped suddenly and backed up. My dad was great at backing up and at a good speed. He was back in front of my truck in no time. I had a feeling I knew what this was about. Mom had called him with the news.

His window slid down, and he yelled, “Love? Love, Pepper? You hardly know the guy.”

“That’s Mom’s conclusion not mine,” I pleaded, holding my hands up as if under arrest.

He shook his finger at me. “You’re not allowed to fall in love with Ian until he’s cleared of this murder without a shadow of doubt hanging over him.”

“I’m not in love with Ian,” I said, though wasn’t sure about that.

“Your mom’s never wrong, never wrong when it comes to recognizing love. Damn, I didn’t think you could turn my hair any whiter. Damn, now you’ve got me cursing. Don’t tell your mom.”

He drove off and I couldn’t help but smile. Damn and hell were light cuss words, but cuss words were cuss words to my mom, and my dad never said a one of them in front of her or his children, well, at least with us he tried not to. That it upset my dad to have said it even though my mom wasn’t here to hear it made me think what a great husband he was. It was smart of him to warn me not to tell her.

I finally got in my truck and slipped the key in the ignition and was about to turn it when my phone rang. I thought to ignore it, but saw it was my agent.

“Fabulous photos, Pepper, absolutely fabulous,” Sylvia said before I could say hello.

I had forgotten Ian had asked my permission last night to send some of the photos to Sylvia this morning, none of the ones of him and me, only the ones appropriate for the book cover.

“I can’t wait to meet Ian, and Willard is pleased to be representing him. He’s already gotten started. Can’t wait for you both to come to the city. Eve will work out the dates with Ian and you and while I love that you stay with me when you’re here, I certainly can’t object to you staying at your boyfriend’s apartment. We can get some good promo out of this. I can see it now… the prepper and the cover model. Oh, I emailed you some papers to look over, but don’t bother there’s more changes I need Eve to make. Just delete them or tear them up if you’ve already printed them out. Can’t wait to see you and Ian. See you soon, Pepper.”

I sat there staring at my cell, realizing that I hadn’t said one word and also realizing what Ian wanted to talk to me about tonight… a stay in the city in his apartment. There was a lot to that that I didn’t want to think about. But there was something else that interested me even more.