She needed to meet with Carolyn and, if Marco Pete was in any condition to answer questions, she’d need to talk to him as well. Ella had just reached the tribal vehicle when her cell phone rang. It was Justine. “We’ve processed Tso’s home. We found the cash box from the center, still locked, and a handful of expensive-looking watches and rings that are definitely not his style.” “Anything at all that might link him to the murder?” “We found a letter from Valerie on his kitchen table. No date. It looks like a match to her handwriting and, in it, she wrote that she wanted to get back together with him and that he still meant a lot to her. It’s signed ‘Val.’” “That supports Gilbert’s claim that she’d loaned him money,” Ella said. “Okay, let’s follow that up. Interview Gilbert again when you get back to the station and see what he has to say. He might have overreacted if she was pressuring him, and something like that could have led to a fatal confrontation.” As Ella drove to the hospital, she was glad to see that the haze blanketing the river valley, pollution mostly from the coal power plant, had cleared out because of the breeze.
