Art of Deception

by Brenda Donelan

  “But why do you need tenure if you’re doing a good job? And why can’t they fire you after you have tenure if you’re not doing your job?” Hector inquired.

  “Because professors should be able to express a variety of views, some of which may be very unpopular with students, colleagues, administrators, tax payers, and so on. If we don’t have protection from being fired, then we lose our academic freedom to present information that may not be widely accepted or politically popular at the moment. We need to be able to discuss issues fully without being afraid of being fired because someone didn’t like that their own personal views weren’t being touted as the one and only way.”

  “I didn’t realize it was so cutthroat,” Hector said with a smirk.

  “Oh, it’s very competitive on college campuses. And I’m told Midwestern State University is one of the better places to teach.” Marlee though back to discussions she had with professors who had taught elsewhere and now found MSU to be a breath of fresh air.

  “But now it’s time to put this crap away and move onto our plan to talk to Rita Thayer. Are you ready?” Marlee asked.

  “No time like the present.”

  On the way over to Thayer’s house, Marlee placed a call to Conrad. “I need you to meet me. I have some information about your urn that you probably don’t want anyone else to know.” They agreed to meet at the Dockside restaurant out at Richmond Lake where no one would see them. It was twelve miles outside of Elmwood and would get Conrad out of the house for at least half an hour, allowing Marlee and Hector time to confront Rita.

  After Marlee refused to discuss what she knew about the urn, Conrad begrudgingly agreed to meet with her at 7:30 p.m. “He’s going to be furious when he gets there, and I don’t show up,” Marlee said with a giggle.

  They sat in Hector’s parked vehicle on the outskirts of the Summerset housing area, waiting for Conrad’s car to pass. Once they were sure he had left the area, they drove up to the Thayer residence.

  Rita answered the door in her usual maid uniform. This time something was different. Very different. Her usually expressionless face showed outright contempt at the pair standing on the front step. “What do you want?” Rita slurred, her eyes unable to hold focus. She held a highball glass in her hand filled nearly full with an amber liquid.

  Marlee and Hector didn’t wait for an invitation. They burst past Rita into the foyer. “We know it was you who called the police about Bridget taking the urn into my house!” Marlee shouted.

  Rita spun around to face them, falling against the now-closed front door. “I’m not telling you anything. After your visit here earlier, Conrad decided he no longer needs a maid. I have until tomorrow to get out of his house.” She clanked a front tooth on the glass of alcohol as she took a mighty swig. “I knew that bastard would try to get me out of here sooner or later!”

  “He fired you?” Hector asked. “Where will you go?”

  “Good question. First he takes my urn, then he takes my part of the company, now he’s kicking me out of his house. I don’t have any money or anywhere to go.” Rita wailed as she slid down the door into a seated position. Again, she gulped down more of her drink.

  “Rita, let’s get you off the floor. Come on. Hector will make you some coffee while we chat,” Marlee said, grabbing Rita’s arm and struggling to lift the woman to her feet. Hector nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. With Marlee’s help, Rita stumbled to the sitting room and fell into a chair.

  “Before we talk about anything else, I just want you to know that we can help you find another job and a place to live, okay?” Marlee reassured Rita, although she was none too sure that she could or even wanted to find Rita employment and a home.

  Rita nodded, but whether she fully comprehended the offer was not clear. What was clear was that Rita had been drinking heavily, probably for several hours.

  “How did you know Bridget had the urn?” Marlee asked as Hector entered the room with a full coffee pot, three mugs, and an opened bag of chips.

  “I overheard Conrad talking to someone on the phone. I figured out he was up to a scheme to get the insurance money for the urn and keep it too. When he wasn’t around, I searched through his computer files and found out he’d been threatening Bridget. Conrad always thought he was the computer genius in the family, but I know quite a bit myself.” Rita managed a half-smile as she sat upright and reached for a handful of chips.

  “Why did you call the police and report Bridget?” Hector asked.

  “Because my brother swindled me out of everything I had and then framed me for embezzlement. It was payback time. I thought Bridget would tell the cops everything, and they would arrest Conrad. Then he’d know what it was like to be destitute and have a felony conviction.”

  “But Bridget didn’t know it was Conrad who was threatening her. She didn’t tell the cops anything about being coerced into stealing the urn because she was afraid for the safety of her family. Especially after her financial status was destroyed,” Marlee said.

  “How did you know it was me that called in the tip to the PD?” Rita asked.

  Marlee and Hector exchanged knowing looks. There was no need to bring Bettina’s name into it if they didn’t have to.

  “That’s not really important, Rita,” Hector said in a no-nonsense tone which implied he would not be revisiting the question.

  “Who was helping Conrad with his scheme? You said you overheard him discussing it on the phone with someone.” Marlee said, anxious to find out the identity of Conrad Thayer’s co-conspirator.

  “I don’t know,” Rita mumbled, starting to wind down from her drunken binge. They likely only had a few minutes left before Rita passed out.

  “Who do you suspect it is?” Marlee pressed on, hoping to get a name or some identifying information before Rita Thayer conked out completely.

  Rita mumbled something unintelligible and then she blacked out. The remaining chips fell out of her hand and her head slumped to the side. There would be no more questions or answers tonight.

  “Crap! We were so close to finding out everything,” Marlee was furious that they came within a hair of finding out the last piece of the puzzle.

  “Let’s get out of here before Conrad comes home. We can come back early tomorrow morning and talk to her. She might not be as cooperative when she’s sober, but we can put some pressure on her to give us the name of the person she suspects.” Hector grabbed their coats from the arm of the love seat and they walked toward the front door.

  “You know, this would be an ideal time to snoop around. We were invited in after all,” Marlee pointed out.

  “We were not actually invited in. Do you want Conrad to come home and catch us rifling through his belongings?” Hector asked. “Besides, he could be back here within ten minutes.”

  “Yeah, let’s get out of here.” With a backward glance to make sure Rita was still slumped in a chair, they walked to the foyer and let themselves out.

  “Now what?” Hector asked.

  “Supper?” Marlee suggested.

  “Yep.” Hector agreed. He drove them to Arthur’s Pizza in the middle of town. It was a place known for cold beer, deep dish pizza, and an occasional fist fight when patrons drank too much of the cold beer. Arthur’s was also known for its drive-thru window, a popular option for those who wanted pizza by the slice rather than the whole pie.

  They settled in with a pitcher of Bud Light and two frosty glasses while they waited for their pizza. The dining area was nearly empty even though it was only 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night.

  “Well, Rita was tanked. I wonder where she’ll go tomorrow.” Marlee said.

  “I overheard you say you’d help her find a place to stay and a job,” Hector said with a grin. “Is she moving into your spare room?”

  “Um, I didn’t really mean that. I was just trying to get on her good side to get information from her,” Marlee admitted. “But that’ll be a good excuse to go back tomorrow morning.”

  M
arlee’s phone rang and she fished it out of her coat pocket on the third ring. It was Conrad Thayer, and he was none too happy about being stood up at Richmond Lake outside of town.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. Thayer. An emergency situation developed, and I had to deal with it. I totally forgot all about our meeting. Please accept my apology,” Marlee said in a soothing tone.

  Hector laughed out loud as he listened to Marlee attempt to placate the eccentric man. He poured himself another glass of beer, clearly enjoying himself.

  “Wow, he was mad. I can’t wait until we can confront him with everything we know. I’m really going to enjoy seeing him hauled off to jail,” Marlee said after finishing her call.

  “But you sounded so sincere as you apologized profusely to him.”

  “That’s called acting.” Marlee grinned and took a sip of beer, relishing the cold fizz.

  “If Conrad is the main player in the scam and Rita was trying to thwart his plan and get him in trouble, then all we need to do is figure out who’s working with Conrad,” Hector said.

  “I think Abby is a strong contender. But so are Sean Yellow Tail and his employee, Derek Geppert,” Marlee said. “Then there’s always the chance Conrad is working with someone we don’t know.”

  “Or that he’s working with more than one person on the scheme,” suggested Hector.

  “Tomorrow we talk to Rita again to see who she thinks is working with her brother. Maybe we even confront Conrad while we’re there. Then we can go check out the urn at the evidence locker.” Marlee looked forward to the next day because she thought it would finally bring about the truth of the whole matter. Then she would turn over all of the information to Bridget’s attorney in hopes of getting the charges dropped.

  “Big day tomorrow,” Hector agreed. They bantered back and forth about the case, their jobs, and every other thing they could think to discuss as they enjoyed their vegetarian hand-tossed pizza with bacon.

  On the drive home, Hector turned to Marlee and said, “I’m leaving tomorrow night. By then I need an answer.”

  Marlee smiled at him. “You don’t need to wait until tomorrow. I can tell you right now. I choose you.”

  “What?” asked Hector as he quickly swerved around a pile of snow on the edge of the street, causing the Styrofoam container of leftover pizza to slide across the dash.

  “You heard me.”

  This is the most demeaning and humiliating thing I’ve ever had to wear!

  Chapter 26

  The next morning Marlee awoke before Hector and was showered, dressed, and preparing breakfast by the time he rolled out.

  “Good morning!” she called out in exaggerated cheerfulness. She hated overly peppy people in the morning when she first got up and assumed others felt the same way. She was wrong.

  Hector grabbed her and twirled around the kitchen. “Good morning!” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Oh my God! You’re a morning person,” Marlee accused.

  “Sure am. I love mornings. This must be a fluke that you’re up earlier than me.” Hector was all smiles as he chatted and poured a cup of coffee.

  “So you’re a cheerful morning person?” Marlee grimaced as she thought about her future with a guy with this type of personality defect.

  “What’s not to be cheerful about? It’s a new day and the possibilities are endless,” he said as he popped bread into the toaster. “And as an added bonus, I have a girlfriend.”

  Marlee smiled in spite of herself. She was pleased with her decision, but she didn’t relish telling Vince. The coward in her wanted to write him a letter or send an email, but the nice person buried within knew this was a conversation she needed to have with him face to face.

  After breakfast, Hector called his friend at the Sheriff’s Office who allowed him into the evidence locker a few days earlier. The deputy was on duty and agreed to let Hector and Marlee come look at the urn as long as they came in right away. The staff there then was busy dealing with the usual fallout from a Saturday night, so Marlee and Hector would have a good chance of getting in and out of the Sheriff’s Office before anyone could question them.

  Hector breezed through the shower and was ready to leave the house in seven minutes. “Wow, you win the award for getting ready in a hurry.” Marlee was impressed and thought she could learn how to shave some time off her routine from him.

  “Join me next time. I’ll share my tips on taking a quick shower,” he teased.

  “It’s doubtful that having me in there will speed anything up.” The laughter and joking continued until they reached the Sheriff’s Office.

  Hector’s contact, Deputy Riley, met them inside and escorted them to the basement. He failed to mention that the deputy was a beautiful dark-haired woman with a curvy figure. How the hell did he meet her? Marlee thought as she stared at the forty-ish woman with jealousy.

  The deputy showed them to the evidence locker and allowed them to look at the urn. Hector was right. It was ugly. They weren’t able to touch it, but that wasn’t a big deal since neither of them knew anything about art anyway. After a couple of minutes, Marlee and Hector looked at each other and nodded. That was enough looking at the urn.

  “Thanks, Trish,” Hector said with a wide grin toward the deputy. “I owe you one.”

  “I’ll remember that,” Deputy Trish Riley said with an equally wide smile. Was it Marlee’s imagination, or were there sparks flying between her boyfriend and the attractive deputy?

  “What the hell was that?” Marlee shouted when she and Hector were back in the SUV.

  “What?”

  “You know what. ‘I owe you one, Trish’ Marlee said, in a deep voice with a smarmy smile. Her impression of Hector was far from accurate, but he deduced what she was doing.

  “Uh oh, somebody’s jealous,” Hector smiled, enjoying being on the other end of the jealousy situation for once. He’d put up with Marlee’s inability to make a decision between him and Vince for months and was now savoring Marlee being placed in a similar position. Marlee’s follow-up questions were answered with a shrug, an “I don’t know,” and “we’re just friends.”

  Marlee dropped the topic on their way to the Thayer house. She was still stewing over the flirting between Hector and the female deputy that went on right in front of her. This conversation wasn’t over. Not by a long shot!

  The doorbell rang repeatedly as Hector and Marlee stood on the front step, in constant motion to keep the biting January wind from cutting through them. The temperature was in the teens, which wasn’t bad for Elmwood, but the wind chill made it feel twenty degrees colder.

  Conrad suddenly appeared at the door, looking hungover as hell. He wore silk, animal print pajamas and a floor-length red silk robe that was open in the front. “We were supposed to meet last night, Ms. McCabe. I’m afraid you’re twelve hours late and in the wrong location.” He started to close the door, but Marlee stuck out her foot to block the door closure.

  “That’s partly why we’re here. I wanted to apologize in person and explain what happened.”

  Conrad’s ego won out. He loved it when people were in a subservient position. Pulling the door completely open, he motioned them in with a sweeping flourish of his arm. “I’d offer you coffee, but I’m afraid I’m without maid service for the time being.”

  “Oh?” Hector and Marlee chorused.

  “Rita left without saying a word to me. She just left a note,” Conrad grumbled, pulling a folded piece of yellow legal paper from his robe pocket.

  Marlee reached for the note and unfolded it. Three words were written in large, block letters: FUCK YOU CONRAD!

  “As you can see, my dear sister has a way with words,” Conrad said as he led them to the sitting room. On a side table near a chair, sat a bloody Mary, minus the celery stalk. “Care for a little hair of the dog?” asked the eccentric man as he glanced at his libation.

  “No thanks,” Hector said and Marlee shook her head.

  “Where did Rit
a go?” Hector asked, careful not to alert Conrad to the conversation they had with Rita the previous night.

  “How would I know? She just packed her bags and left in the night. I still need to check around the house to see if she took anything. A few priceless collectibles no doubt found their way into her luggage.” Conrad sank into the wing-backed chair and sipped his drink. He rubbed his temple with his left hand, either to ease his hangover or deal with the upheaval of Rita’s departure.

  “Well, when you fired her where did you think she would go?” Marlee decided to go for broke and confront Conrad with the information Rita shared with them.

  “Fired her? Ha!” Conrad snorted. “What gave you that idea?”

  “We came here last night, and Rita told us you fired her and she had to leave today,” Marlee said, realizing she would now have to back track on her excuse for missing her meeting with Conrad the night before.

  “That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t fire Rita. I need her. I’m lost without her already, and she’s only been gone a few hours,” Conrad said in a mournful tone.

  “Why would she tell us that?” Hector asked.

  “I don’t know. I guess she was already planning to leave but didn’t want you to know why. By the way, were you over here last night instead of meeting me out at the lake?” Conrad glared at Marlee, finally stumbling upon her lie.

  “Yes, it was a scheduling conflict,” Hector interrupted, making sure Marlee didn’t divulge the whole conversation with Rita. This was not the time to share everything she’d told them about Conrad and his illegal schemes.

  “I’m so mad at Rita! That selfish bitch!” Conrad spat. “Why would she just leave me like this?”

  “We should be on our way. Sorry to hear Rita took off,” Marlee said, as she and Hector strode toward the door. “If it’s any consolation, she probably has a huge hangover this morning. She was really drunk last night when we were here.”