A Cup of Death

by K. J. Emrick

  “Well, sure. Everybody has a side job, right? Look, I really don’t know what Braydon does for a living. We never talked about money things. We only ever talked about the endless string of women he brought into our lives.” She glared in Janice’s direction. “You know it’s true, honey. There was an endless string of girls on the side for Braydon. You were just one of many. Build a bridge and get over it.”

  “Don’t call me honey,” Janice sneered.

  “Why not?” Hannah said with a sickly-sweet smile. “We’ve shared the same man. That makes us pretty close, don’t you think?”

  “You need to step off,” Janice told her. “I stole your man away from you. He was happier with me than he ever was with you! You’re the one who needs to get over it.”

  “Oh really?” Hannah retorted, her voice rising again right along with Janice’s. “Then tell me this, honey, where is he? If Braydon is so into you, where is he?”

  It was the same question that Hannah had come seeking Jack to ask earlier today. Apparently neither of them knew what had happened to him.

  It occurred to Miranda that Janice had told them she was going to leave town. There was nothing to keep her here, was what she had said. Except here she still was.

  Interesting.

  Obviously, Janice had been expecting Braydon to come back for her and now he was nowhere to be found. She'd already admitted that she'd broken in here looking for him so she was starting to get desperate. Was there more to this?

  “You're worried,” Miranda said to Janice, “aren't you? You can't find Braydon anywhere and you think he's skipped out on you. It's not just because you're lovers either, is it?”

  The attractive blonde woman turned a decidedly nasty look on Miranda. She brought her fingers up to her lips and mimicked turning a key in a lock, and then throwing it away. She wasn’t talking.

  “That’s all right,” Miranda decided. “We can talk about all of that when we get to the station. When we get there we can also talk about why you broke into my house.”

  Janice’s mouth opened now, when her jaw dropped. “How did you… I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you do. That’s how you were able to describe the inside of Ragged Rest to me. Specifically, how you could describe my bedroom.”

  The nasty look from Janice turned icy. She was caught, and she knew it. Her own ego had gotten in her way.

  “What I’m more interested in is this,” Miranda continued, now that she had succeeded in getting Janice to break her no-talking rule. “How did you get inside my house in the first place? I’m sure I know, and I’m sure it goes to the heart of this whole mystery, but I want to hear you say it.”

  “Oh?” Janice snarked. “The heart of the mystery, hmm? And what is that, exactly?”

  “My aunt’s disappearance.”

  Silence fell in the room again. Miranda had put a few things together, at least. She only hoped that when these two got to the police station, the truth would all come out. Not just bits and pieces of it.

  “Okay ladies,” Jack said. “Get your purses, get your mobiles and whatever else you need, and let’s go. It’s time to wrap this up.”

  Outside the house, they heard the sound of tires sliding on pavement as cars came to a quick stop. Kyle floated out through the wall to see what was going on, and then came right back in. “It’s the cops,” he reported. “The cavalry has arrived.”

  “Perfect timing,” Jack said, despite not hearing Kyle.

  Miranda couldn’t agree more. Soon, she would find out how both of these women fit into Leon Peniston’s murder, and her aunt’s disappearance, and even the attempt on her life. Janice had her part in this, but Hannah did too, and that was another part of the mystery yet to come out.

  Soon enough, everything would be revealed.

  Chapter 14

  Jack was right. This was the most activity the police station had seen in a while. For Moonlight Bay, that was really saying something.

  There had been another closed-door meeting with the Senior Sergeant for Jack just as soon as they got back with their two suspects in tow. While Walt and the other officers made arrangements to get Janice and Hannah in the holding cells, Miranda stood outside in the hall and listened to the raised voices in the Senior Sergeant’s office. Thankfully Josh Bates’ body had already been removed from the building. She almost felt sorry for the man, remembering his ghost at the coffee house.

  Sinking. I’m sinking.

  “They’ve certainly been in there for a bit,” Kyle remarked, floating back and forth in front of the door with its brass “Senior Sergeant” placard on it. It was his version of pacing. “You want me to go in there and check on him, Miranda? Because I will. Just say the word.”

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” she muttered, low enough that no one around them would hear.

  “You never know.” Kyle floated closer to the door, comically putting an ear up close to it even though they could hear everything going on in there just fine. “Maybe he’s stringing your boyfriend up by his toenails right now.”

  “I don’t think people actually do that,” Miranda told him.

  “Of all the things that we’ve seen people do to each other,” he said, “the murders and the thefts and everything else, you really think that someone hanging a person by their toenails is that crazy?”

  She thought about that. “Well. Not when you put it that way.”

  The office door suddenly flew open and the Senior Sergeant stalked past Miranda. His eyes fell across her, once, and then he grabbed his hat and stormed out the front door. Jack was only a few steps behind.

  “Don’t think he’s my biggest fan right now,” he chuckled. “I just got told I’m in charge of this mess until it’s over.”

  “Oh, wow,” Miranda said. “No pressure, I guess?”

  “Wait, it gets better. He said if this goes south, I can start looking for another job.”

  “That heathen!” Kyle said. “He has no appreciation for talent. None whatsoever.”

  Miranda firmly agreed, although ‘heathen’ certainly wasn’t the insult she would have chosen to throw at the Senior Sergeant. “Kyle says you’re too talented to worry about it,” she told Jack.

  “No,” Kyle started to argue, “that is not what I… oh, well. Close enough. Actually, I like the way you said it better.”

  “Talented or not,” Jack said, “there is a lot riding on this one. Not just for me, but for you too, Miranda.”

  “Me? Why me?” She was confused why he would think that. “Did the Senior Sergeant threaten to take my job away from me, too? He can’t stop me from writing books.”

  “Or using those amazing abilities of yours, either,” he added for her. “True. What I meant, is this mystery is personal to you. It means a lot to me, career wise, but it means even more to you because it involves your family.”

  “But wait, I thought we decided this whole case revolved around a love triangle? Didn’t we decide to put the part about my aunt’s disappearance on the back burner to do after we find Leon’s killer?”

  “Well, for one thing there’s no doubt that we have Leon’s killer in custody now. Braydon Wise, Janice Peniston, and Hannah Smith are all here in the station now. We’ll prove who the killer is before the end of the day, I have no doubt.” He took a moment and gave her a quick hug. “For another thing, I think you were right after all. This is all connected to your aunt. Leon’s murder, and Josh Bates, and even all of that mess at the Blue Jay Bed and Breakfast this past weekend. It all ties together, and you and your aunt are at the middle of it.”

  “You think I was right?” She was pleasantly surprised. “What changed your mind?”

  “Honestly, it was something that Kyle said.”

  “Me?” Now it was Kyle’s turn to be surprised. “What in the world did I say?”

  “Right about now,” Jack said with a lopsided grin, “he’s asking what he said, right?”

  Kyle floated back a bit. “
Oh, now see, that’s just creepy. It’s okay when you do it, Miranda, because you can hear me but when Jack figures it out with his cop senses… just creepy.”

  “What was it Kyle said that changed your mind?” Miranda asked Jack.

  “It was all that business about who took the photo of your aunt and Josh Bates. There was someone else there that day. Put that together with how Janice Peniston got into Ragged Rest without breaking in, and that leads me to a very singular conclusion.”

  Miranda brightened as she caught on. “I think I understand. Thank you, Jack.”

  “No worries. You want to sit in on the interviews of Hannah and Janice?”

  “Really? Are you sure I should? You could get into trouble for letting a civilian sit in on the interview.”

  “It hasn’t stopped you before.”

  “I know,” Miranda said, “but those were all exceptions that proved the rule. Plus, your boss wasn’t super mad at you like he is now.”

  “Well, this is the way that I look at it,” he said. “The Senior Sergeant just stormed out of here and left me in charge. Since I’m in charge, I get to make the choices, and I choose to bring you into the interview. Let’s go.”

  She put on her game face and followed him down the hallway. “So who should we start with? Which one of the two women?”

  “That’s easy,” he said, “let’s eliminate the impossible, and then go on to the probable.”

  “That’s right,” Kyle cheered. “How very Sherlock Holmes of you.”

  “I’m glad you agree, Kyle,” Miranda told him, “but if you put that stupid deerstalking cap back on, I swear I’ll find an exorcist who can trap you in a bottle for me to put in my fridge.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” he said, although the look on his face told her that he fully believed she might.

  Jack gave some quick instructions to the officers at the holding cells and soon enough their first interview was set up in a spare office. It wasn’t meant for this sort of thing specifically but there wasn’t a lot of room in the Moonlight Bay Police Department, and Braydon Wise was already back in the actual interview room, handcuffed to the table again, making room for Hannah and Janice in the holding cells at the back.

  Only now, Hannah Smith was sitting with Miranda and Jack in the spare office, in a circle of three chairs.

  “Miss Smith,” Jack said to her once they were settled, “you said that you wanted to cooperate with the police. Do you still feel that way?”

  “Of course, Detective. I have nothing to hide.” She tried for a smile. Her face was much more suited to a frown, and her expression settled somewhere in between.

  “Good,” Jack said to her. “In that case, tell me which one of you had the gun, you or Janice. Let’s start there.”

  “It’s my gun, I told you that already,” Hannah said angrily. “I took it out of the drawer where I keep it when that woman came charging in demanding to know where Braydon was. I didn’t know it was her at first and by the time I recognized her she was already grabbing onto me like a maniac. We’re both lucky it didn’t go off.”

  That was one question off their list. Miranda hoped the rest of it went that easily.

  “You keep the gun for sport or protection?” Jack asked her.

  “As I said earlier I am a member of the Moonlight Bay target shooting club so I’m quite within my rights to keep a firearm. But, yes, of course, it is for protection also if I ever need it.” She laughed drily. “Even in a small town like this there’s things to protect yourself from, Detective.”

  “Don’t I know it,” he agreed, his voice pleasant and friendly. “Tell me, how long have you lived in Moonlight Bay?”

  “That’s easy enough. I’ve lived here all of my life. Braydon too, in case you’re wondering. We were high school sweethearts. It’s been an on-again off-again sort of thing, but we’ve been together more or less all that time.”

  “You mean him and you.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “And several other women?” Jack asked bluntly.

  Hannah dropped the attempt at a smile completely. “Yes. There’s been other women in Braydon’s life during that time, but it’s always been me and him, here in Moonlight Bay. They don’t mean anything to him. Just like Janice doesn’t mean anything to him. She’ll be forgotten by next week, or next month. That’s how it always is. The only one who really understands him is me. I know everything there is to know about Braydon Wise.”

  “Then you know about the bank robbery.”

  A shadow passed over Hannah’s face. “Well, I mean, sure. Braydon was a witness to all of that. It was all over the newspapers. It was big news in this little town.”

  “Yes,” Jack nodded. “We saw the article. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.”

  “Um. Yeah. I guess so.”

  “Right, right,” Jack said, as if that fit right into what he and Miranda had been thinking. Which, of course, it did.

  Miranda picked up the questioning. “We didn’t have the entire article to read. Just parts of it. What was Braydon doing near the bank that day?”

  “He was just, you know, out for a walk. He’d been at my house, you see, and so he was heading home.”

  Jack leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “But if that’s true, then what was he doing in a bank?”

  Hannah stared blankly back at him. “I don’t understand.”

  “Not a hard question,” Jack said. “Why was Braydon Wise at that bank?”

  “I don’t really know, maybe he just needed to withdraw some money, he never actually told me,” Hannah said, her voice trailing off as she realized that didn’t answer anything at all. Braydon Wise had been off by himself, according to Hannah, with no reason to be in a bank. Yet, there he was, inside the building, just in time to witness a robbery.

  Except, maybe there was a reason for him to be there after all.

  “Here’s what I think,” Jack said. “I think that day at the bank was when Braydon suddenly started having enough money to do whatever he wanted. I think that was when he started on a life of crime.”

  “What!” Hannah laughed nervously, but it was a strained sound. “Braydon isn’t a criminal. He’s a good man.”

  “No, he’s a bad guy, Hannah, and you know it. Josh Bates worked for him, you said. Well, Josh Bates was involved in several cases of car theft, and murder, and the attempted murder of a police officer—me. I don’t know what else he was caught up in, but something tells me you do.”

  Hannah slumped in her seat. Jack may not be able to prove what he was saying, but she knew the truth. It was written all over her face. Braydon Wise was a criminal. Right now, sitting in that room across the hall, the only thing he might stand accused of was a broken door, but there was so much more that the man was guilty of. So very, very much.

  “Was it him?” Jack asked Hannah abruptly. “Was it Braydon Wise who killed Josh Bates and Leon Peniston?”

  “No!” Hannah said adamantly. “He did not kill anyone. You can accuse him of all that other stuff, and I won’t deny that all those years ago Braydon might have done something stupid when he thought he needed money to impress a girl like me, but that does not make him a killer. He has standards. He is a man of morals, Detective Travis, and I love him.”

  “Well, sure,” Jack said, scratching his temple with one finger, “being a bank robber doesn’t make him a killer. But, maybe the facts of this case do. Like, the four of you having a late-night meeting at the Dinner Plate, and the fact that Bates was poisoned there, which we know because that was when he started acting strangely. The fact that Braydon snuck a coffee cup away from that table and threw it away outside. And, the fact that the cup had poison in it. That’s right, the results came back from the lab and the poison in that cup is a match for the stuff Josh Bates had in his system. So, I’ll ask you again. Did Braydon Wise kill Josh Bates and Leon Peniston?”

  Jack was taking a big risk. The lab results hadn’t come in yet. There hadn�
�t been time. Hannah didn’t know that, however.

  And she was rising to the bait.

  “Why… why would he want to kill either of those men?”

  Jack spread his hands dramatically. “Leon was Janice’s husband, and since Braydon was having an affair with Janice—sorry to be indelicate—I think it’s pretty easy to see why Braydon could want Leon out of the way. As for Josh Bates, well, I’m guessing he’d become a liability. He was hiding out, pretending to be dead. Braydon couldn’t use him for anything. It was time to cut his losses.”

  “No. No, I’m telling you Braydon isn’t like that.”

  “He was cheating on you,” Miranda pointed out. “That makes him exactly like that. You don’t owe him anything.”

  “I owe him everything,” she argued, tears in her eyes. “But that’s not why I’m saying he didn’t do this. That coffee cup you saw at the table, the one that Braydon took out with him? That wasn’t Josh’s cup. That was mine. Josh stole it from me because he didn’t have money to pay for his own, the cheapskate. So if it was my cup that was poisoned, it certainly wasn’t Braydon who did it, now was it? I’m his life partner. He wouldn’t do that.”

  “Because he was devoted to you?” Miranda asked with more than a little doubt.

  “No. Because he’s had lots of chances to kill me, in private, when no one would connect him to it. Braydon is a smart man, Miss Wylder. Whatever bad things he might be mixed up in, he does them very well, I can promise you that. He knows how not to get caught. He wouldn’t try to kill me in a public space like that. He would say that’s too messy.”

  Miranda looked at Jack, and they smiled. That was the same conclusion they had come to.

  Now it was time for the next step in their interview.

  Jack stood up and walked around the desk to the side of the room. From behind it, he picked up Hannah’s purse. He’d asked nicely at Hannah’s house for her and Janice both to bring their purses to the station with them.