A Cup of Death

by K. J. Emrick

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right, even if he does dress like an old man,” he relented. “It’s still quite a big coincidence if you ask me.”

  Miranda chuckled and turned back to the police station door. “Know what I think? I think you and Jack are both jealous of the new guy.”

  “I am not!” he retorted. “Well, not much. Jack might be jealous of that scrawny egghead wannabe writer. Sure. But me? No, sir, not me.”

  He kept going on and on like that while Miranda walked into the building and through the department, trailing along at her heels. She smiled at the officers who acknowledged her and ignored Kyle’s whining as best she could. At a small-town police department like Moonlight Bay they didn’t mind friends of the officers coming in. Everyone here knew her and knew about her relationship with Jack. It gave her a lot more leeway than the average woman off the street.

  She was just about to ask one of the uniformed officers where Jack was, when she saw him coming down the hallway looking as furious as she ever had seen him. When he saw her there, the anger in his eyes dimmed.

  “You have the greatest sense of timing that I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Tell me, were your ears ringing just now?”

  “My ears?” she asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Because we were just talking about you.” He hugged her close and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. He whispered in her ear, “Is Kyle with you?”

  “Yes,” she whispered back. “He’s watching over me.”

  “Good, because I need you to do something for me.”

  “I don’t understand.” She studied his expression again, wondering what his interview with Braydon Wise had brought up to make him this mad. “What’s going on, Jack?”

  “If you’re up for it,” he said, “I need you to sit down in the interview room with Braydon Wise. He’s telling me that he won’t speak to anyone except you. I’ve been at the man for all of five minutes now and I’m very sure that I’ve gotten all I’m going to get. He’s completely clammed up. So, if you and our mutual friend wouldn’t mind going in there?”

  Their mutual friend—Kyle—was eager to jump into the investigation. “Let’s do it. You be good cop, I’ll be bad cop.”

  Miranda thought that might be the silliest idea she had ever heard. When she glanced back over her shoulder, Kyle had donned a pair of mirrored sunglasses and a cigarette was dangling out of his lips. It wasn’t lit. Kyle had never smoked. Then again, he’d never been a hard-boiled, nineteen-eighties TV detective, either.

  “I guess we’re ready,” she told Jack. “How’s the interview with Josh Bates going?”

  Jack shook his head. “He’s been sleeping most of the night. The uniformed guys have been watching him. I’m going to wake him up and take a go at him while you’re talking to Braydon. We can meet up out here after and compare notes. I’ll have an officer right outside the door if you need him.”

  “Sounds good. Well. Here we go.”

  The interview room was a bare space with gray walls. A wooden table stood in the middle, bolted to the floor with angle brackets. There were four chairs around it, two to both sides, and Braydon Wise waited in one of them. His hands were cuffed through a metal ring screwed into the top of the table.

  Even though he was the one being restrained in a police station, he smiled at her. “There you are. I knew you’d come if I asked you to. Just can’t keep from putting your nose into things, can you? I represent far too big a riddle for you to ignore.”

  Kyle snorted. “Egotistical man, isn’t he?”

  “You certainly are sure of yourself,” Miranda said to Braydon. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about what’s going to happen to you? I mean, you tried to kill me, and I told Jack all about everything you confessed to.”

  “Oh, really?” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Hmm. Interesting. What exactly is it that you think I confessed to?”

  “Mister Wise, you were right there with me. You know exactly what you said.”

  “Do I? Well, then please. Enlighten me.”

  “You said…” Miranda stumbled over the end of that thought. What had he actually said? She searched her memory, suddenly unsure.

  You just can’t leave well enough alone, can you?

  If I hadn’t gotten that fool Janice Peniston to shut up, she would have talked us both into a jail cell.

  Ever since that fool Josh Bates went to find you at Ragged Rest you’ve been butting in. He kicked the hornet’s nest and put everything we built in danger.

  I wanted you to keep your nose out of my business. I’m going to see to it that you never poke around in my business again!

  Miranda stared at him as his smile got wider. All that time in Jack’s house, when she’d been trying to stall him, Braydon Wise had talked about his business without saying much of anything at all. Certainly nothing of substance. He’d threatened her without actually making a threat. He’d danced around everything and never once said something that she could point to as a confession of wrongdoing. Not in a court of law.

  What she knew, and what she could prove, were two very different things.

  Why, that slippery little rat. After everything, he honestly thought that he was going to walk away clean. Well. Not if she could help it.

  “You still tried to kill me,” she pointed out.

  He spread his hands as wide as his restraints would let him. “There is that… although I suppose it’s all a matter of interpretation. You see it one way, I see it another. I was only there to talk to you and you seem to have… blown it all out of proportion. I’m so sorry if I frightened you.”

  She didn’t miss his little reference to the ghostly blast that had kept him from hurting her. He was hiding his fright well, but every once in a while, she saw his eyes dart about, looking for something that he couldn’t see, worried that some supernatural force was going to attack him from the shadows.

  Speaking of ghosts.

  Kyle lunged forward now, slamming his fist down silently on the tabletop. Braydon’s denials had touched a nerve with him. Of course, it would have been more impressive if they hadn’t gone straight through.

  “What a cheeky liar!” he shouted angrily. “Give me the word, Miranda, and I’ll blast him again with my ghostly powers.”

  As much as she might want to see that, she doubted that having Kyle show off his newfound ability in the middle of a police station would go over well. Could he do it, even? Back at Jack’s house she had gotten the distinct impression that what Kyle had done was pure fluke. He seemed as surprised by it as she was.

  Maybe later, when they were alone, she could have him try it on something. Like a sofa cushion or a beer bottle. If he was going to use that force to protect her, it would be nice to know that he could call upon it when he needed to.

  In the meantime, she needed to push Braydon Wise into admitting he was involved in this whole matter. He had admitted to knowing her Aunt Connie, but not to knowing anything about her disappearance. He had admitted to having an affair with Leon Peniston’s wife, but not to killing him. He had admitted to working with Josh Bates, but not to committing any crimes.

  Jack made this look so easy. Whenever he interviewed a suspect they usually broke down and confessed everything from murder to pocketing bubble gum from the local milk bar. How would he do this? What would he say to Braydon Wise to make him confess?

  He would start with something he could prove. That’s what he would do.

  “You broke down Jack’s front door,” she said, knowing he couldn’t weasel out of that one. “You want to try talking your way out of that?”

  “Ah, yes. That was a bad decision on my part. I’m afraid I have no excuse and am perfectly prepared to accept my punishment for damaging someone else’s property.” He gave her a wink and settled back in his chair. “You see, Miss Wylder? You’ve got absolutely nothing on me. A minor crime, and an obvious bias against me.”

  Once again, she was stumped.

  “Come on, Miranda
,” Kyle almost begged. “Let me scream until his ears freeze and break off like icicles. Um. I think that’s how my new thing works, anyway. Want to find out?”

  “We’re not done yet,” Miranda said, both to Kyle and to Braydon. “I know what you did. You think you’re smarter than everyone around you, Mister Wise. I know your type. I’ve seen it before many times. But, I know what you did, and Jack and I are going to prove it.”

  “Oh?” he said, one eyebrow cocking up. He seemed amused. “And what is it that you know I’ve done, Miss Wylder?”

  She decided it was time to put her cards on the table and see how far it got her. “You killed Leon Peniston, that’s what.”

  “Did I now?” he said, amusement in his eyes.

  “Yes, you did, but worse than that, you had a hand in my Aunt Connie’s disappearance.”

  He actually laughed at her.

  That was not the reaction that she was expecting.

  “What’s so funny? My aunt is missing, and now after all this time I find out she might be dead, and you think that’s a laughing matter?”

  He cleared his throat and held up one hand, rattling the handcuffs as he did. “I’m sorry, Miss Wylder. I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just, you’re so darned serious about this. It’s almost cute. You think you can prove that I killed Leon Peniston based on… what? The fact that you saw me leave the diner with a coffee cup, and then later found a cup in the garbage with something inside? Let’s assume you find my prints on the cup. In fact, let me tell you right now it was the same cup. I will give you that, Miss Wylder. You’ve broken me, and I will confess that I threw a perfectly good coffee cup in the garbage.”

  Miranda’s heart rose in her chest. Finally, she was getting somewhere!

  “Now,” he continued, “prove there was poison in that cup when I took it from the diner, and it isn’t just something it picked up from being tossed in that dumpster. Then, connect the poison to me. Hmm?”

  Her heart sank again. Once more, he’d confessed to nothing at all.

  Braydon watched her for a moment. He was a very skilled liar. No matter what she had to say, he had an excuse, an explanation, a twist of the truth ready for her.

  Looking at it from the perspective he offered, their case seemed pretty thin.

  “And as for your aunt,” he continued, “well, you’ve got absolutely nothing that ties me to your aunt’s disappearance. Of course, I was living here at the time, and I knew her. How could I not? Moonlight Bay is such a small town and was much smaller back then. Everyone knows everyone here. If that was the basis for you to accuse me of something, well, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Again.”

  Kyle tried to slam his fists down on the table but of course they went straight through once again. “We can’t just let this man go! Not after everything he’s done to you, Miranda! We can’t let his lies keep him from going to prison where he belongs.”

  “I know,” she answered him.

  Braydon’s eyes got momentarily wider as they looked left, and then right, searching for whomever she was talking to. He knew she wasn’t speaking to him. He knew there was something else going on here even if he was doing his level best to hide it. “You know what, Miss Wylder? Hmm? What is it that you think you know?”

  She smiled at his discomfort. That could be the chink in his armor that she needed. “Well, since you asked me so nicely,” she said, mimicking his exact words from yesterday at the diner, “this is what I know. You have an excuse for everything, but you’re forgetting one thing. Josh Bates. He’s willing to testify against you. He told me as much. Apparently, he knew my aunt very well when he was younger. He’s been acting very strangely ever since I met him, and I think it’s because he’s having a crisis of conscience with whatever happened to Connie. I think he wants to make it right. He wants to tell us everything.”

  “Ah, I see.” Braydon nodded his head several times. “You know, I think you’re right. I think Josh Bates was mixed up in whatever happened to your aunt all those years ago. I think he does want to make amends.”

  “He’ll tell us everything,” she insisted. “That includes everything you’ve done. I’m guessing that would be very bad for you, now wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes, quite possibly so. Mmm-hmm.”

  He didn’t seem upset by it. “Doesn’t that bother you?”

  “Why should it?” He set his palms flat against the table, fingers spread. “You know, I understand you have Bates in custody right now, right here in this building. Have you gotten anything from him yet?”

  Miranda shifted in her seat, trying to keep from giving away too much. “I can’t discuss ongoing investigations.” There. That sounded professional, didn’t it?

  “Ah, of course not, Miss Wylder. Although, I think the reason you can’t tell me what Josh Bates has said about me, is because Josh Bates hasn’t said anything at all about me. Ah, yes. I don’t think you’ll get too much out of old Josh Bates. No, I don’t think he’s going to say very much at all. What time is it?”

  “What? Why do you want to know what time it is?”

  “There’s no clocks in here, Miss Wylder. It’s a simple question. I’m just asking for the time.”

  “It’s eleven-thirteen,” she told him, checking her watch. “So?”

  He leaned back into his chair again. “It’s just good to know.”

  That seemed to be all he was going to say. He seemed perfectly content to sit there with his hands restrained by that metal ring in the table, letting the silence do all the talking for him.

  Well, Miranda wasn’t going to have it. “What did you have Jack call me in here for?” she demanded. “All you’ve done so far is lie and skip around the truth like a kid playing hopscotch. Why even bother?”

  “Ah. I see you are the brains in the relationship, after all.” His smile formed deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “You’re right, of course. I didn’t want to talk to you about any of these silly investigations you and your boyfriend are trying to tie me into. No. I simply wanted to ask you a question.”

  “Oh, really. And what question was that?”

  “Do you think I can get your autograph?”

  Kyle swung at the man’s smug face, in a backhanded gesture that would have been the mother of all slaps if he had been flesh and blood. “I’ll give you an autograph!” he shouted angrily. “Take this, and that, and some of this, and some of this too! I’ll autograph your face with my fists!”

  Braydon flinched, and his smile slipped. He’d felt the slightest sensation of something touching him, to be sure. He just didn’t know what. Miranda could tell it frightened him.

  Good, she thought. Let him be scared.

  “I don’t think we have anything left to say, Mister Wise. I’m quite done listening to you bend the truth around in knots.” She went and knocked on the door to the room, waiting for the officer stationed outside to open it for her. “I’ll say goodbye to you now. I doubt I’ll see you again before they take you to jail.”

  As the door closed again behind her, she heard Braydon saying softly, “Oh, we’ll meet again, Miss Wylder. You’ll see. Very soon.”

  “You should’ve let me blast him with another scream,” Kyle lamented. “This time I would have frozen his extremities off one at a time.”

  They were far enough down the hallway that no one could hear them now. “I don’t know what freezing his arms and legs off will accomplish, Kyle.”

  “I said his extremities. There’s some things a man can’t live without.”

  She tried not to let that mental image take shape in her head. “Let’s just find Jack and find out what information he got from Josh Bates, okay? I can’t wait to wipe that smirk off Braydon’s face!”

  Not two steps later Jack came around the corner, from the back of the station where the holding cells were located. The look on his face told her immediately that something was wrong.

  “Jack?” she said. “What is it?”

  Kyle floated right up next to
her. “It’s nothing good, I’ll bet.”

  Jack swallowed and ran a hand through his short hair. “It’s not good,” he said, unknowingly echoing Kyle’s words. “It’s Josh Bates.”

  “Josh Bates?” Miranda braced herself for the worst. “What about him?”

  “He’s dead, Miranda. We’ve been back there trying to do CPR all this time with no response from him. The paramedics are on their way, but… he’s dead. This time, he’s really dead.”

  Chapter 10

  “Dead?” she asked, incredulous. “But he can’t be dead, Jack, we were just talking to him last night.”

  “And,” Jack added, “my guys were speaking with him after he got here. Then he drifted off to sleep and he just never woke up.”

  “I don’t believe this,” Miranda said gravely. “How could something like this happen?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Jack told her, “but I have a theory. Remember how off he was acting yesterday? All mopey and weird? My guys say he was worse before he fell asleep. He kept mumbling and ranting, saying he was sorry but never saying what for. He never really woke up after he fell asleep, like I said, but he kept muttering until his heart finally gave out just a few minutes ago. All I could make out was just one word.”

  “What word?” Miranda asked.

  “Sink.”

  Kyle threw his hands into the air. “What in the world is that supposed to mean? Sink? What sink? Whose sink?”

  They were still standing in the hallway, as other officers began running around in a controlled kind of panic, hurrying to follow whatever procedures were in place for when a suspect died in their custody. She and Jack could talk here, but Miranda still couldn’t acknowledge Kyle’s presence. His point was a good one, though.

  “Do you know what that meant?” she asked Jack. “Sink. You think he meant, like, kitchen sink?”

  “I have no idea.” Jack blew out a breath and leaned against the wall. “It was poison, Miranda. It had to be. He has all the signs.”

  Miranda processed that. “The coffee cup! The one from the diner yesterday, with the poison in it. He must have drunk it before your guys took him into custody. We thought that cup was for Leon, but it couldn’t have been. Leon never showed up at the diner. It must have been for Bates.”