Spud walked down the steps to the front door and opened it to find Macey Greene, the detective in charge of his mother’s murder investigation. She was flanked by a man and woman he didn’t recognize. All three smiled pleasantly, which was unnerving.

Then Macey said, “Hello, Peter. You got a minute?”

CHAPTER 42

Spud invited the three people into his house before it dawned on him that he had a choice. Macey had interviewed him on three different occasions last spring, all taking place at the police station. It wasn’t until after he let the three in that it occurred to Spud that they didn’t seem the least bit surprised to find him at his mother’s house.

Macey introduced the people with her as Niki and Max. Spud didn’t catch their last names, but did catch that Niki was a detective from Minneapolis and Max was from Grand Rapids. Hearing the name Grand Rapids nearly caused Spud’s heart to stop.

He offered them seats in the front parlor, but Macey declined.

“You have the day off?” Macey asked instead.

“The day off?”

“From work.”

“Oh… yeah,” Spud said. “It’s been kind of slow lately.”

“Really?” Macey turned her back to Spud and pretended to examine a porcelain figurine of a little Dutch boy on one of the shelves. “That’s curious, because I just talked to your boss, and he said that he’s busier than ever.”

“You talked…”

“Yeah, and he was more than a bit disappointed that you haven’t been there for a while. He said you stopped showing up some time ago.”

“Oh… well, I… didn’t want to say anything, but yeah, I quit. It was getting too cold to do that stuff.”

Macey turned to face Spud. “Why did you lie to me, Peter?”

“I just… I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want you to think I’m a quitter.”

“Is it better that I think you’re a liar?”

Spud looked at the floor, unable to maintain eye contact with Macey.

Again, Macey turned her attention away from Spud as she slowly walked around the parlor. “So, where have you been keeping yourself,” Macey asked, “now that you aren’t working?”

“You know… just hanging around… taking care of my mother’s affairs. That kind of thing.”

“Hanging around here—in the Twin Cities?”

“Um… yeah. For the most part.”

“For the most part?”

“Pretty much.”

“Other than when you are pretty much here, where might one find you?”

“Nowhere, I guess. Just around.”

“So you haven’t been spending any time… say… up in the Grand Rapids area?”

Spud shot a short glance at Max, who remained stone-faced.

“Grand Rapids?”

“Yeah.” Macey again stopped moving, and looked at Spud. “You’ve been there before, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve been there.”

“So, when was the last time you were there?”

“Why?” Spud again looked at Max, hoping to glean some hint of what they knew. He kept his eyes on Max for all of a second before turning his gaze back to the floor. “What’s Grand Rapids got to do with anything?” When no one answered his question, Spud continued. “There’s a casino up that way. I go there sometimes.”