Red, White, and Blue Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “Who is that ahead of us?” I asked, squinting my eyes at a figure running slowly toward us.

  “I have no idea,” he said.

  I kept an eye on the person running in our direction and realized they looked familiar. And if I didn’t know any better, I would think it might be Lucy. Lucy? That was a ridiculous thought. I shook my head. But as we got closer, Alec and I looked at one another and then turned back to look at the other runner.

  “Is that Lucy?”

  He nodded. “It’s Lucy.”

  Before we got to her, she slowed to a walk and appeared to be struggling a bit.

  “Lucy, what are you doing?” I said when we got closer.

  She was panting and held a water bottle in one hand and a stopwatch in the other. “I’m running. This physical fitness stuff is supposed to be good for you and it’s supposed to lengthen your life. So I decided to try it out again.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?” I asked, breathing heavily.

  “Because I didn’t want to slow you down. I know how much running you do and I wanted to do this on my own.”

  “Yeah well, I’m out of the habit, so it’s not like I’m getting a lot done myself,” I said, glancing at Alec.

  She breathed hard and took a swig of her water, and then looked at Alec. “I knew she was looking a little flabby, but I didn’t want to say anything.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re seeing things.”

  Alec chuckled. “You two make quite the pair.”

  “You know what I saw?” Lucy asked, ignoring the comment.

  “No, what did you see?” Alec asked her.

  “I saw Dave Jones getting into some woman’s car. Some woman that wasn’t his wife.”

  “Did you know who it was?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, I wasn’t close enough to see her. I only recognized him because he was standing on the outside of the car and then he went around to the passenger side and got in. It was an older model red SUV. A Chevrolet, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Interesting,” I said.

  “It doesn’t mean anything,” Alec said. “She didn’t see who the woman was. What difference does it make? We’re hunting Anita Towers’ killer, not whoever Dave Jones may or may not be seeing on the side.”

  “Listen to Mr. Logical. It’s interesting that Dave may be seeing someone else. Admit it.” I poked him on the arm.

  Alec shook his head. “It isn’t interesting,” he said.

  “It is interesting when you take into account that Julie Sommers drives an older model red SUV,” I told him.

  Now he looked at me. “Really?”

  I nodded. “She sure does.”

  “That does make it interesting,” he admitted.

  I was very interested in this turn of events. Maybe Julie had killed Anita to get her out of the way and she and Dave had begun the romance she had always wished for when they were in high school.

  Chapter Fifteen

  What we had discovered about Dave Jones, Anita Towers, and Julie Sommers was shocking, to say the least. Had Julie been pining away for Dave all these years? And had she killed her cousin when she realized that she and Dave were quite possibly having an affair? Dave hadn’t admitted that that’s what was going on yet, but I had every reason to believe it was true. I was going to get to the bottom of this if it killed me.

  I made some more of my red, white, and blue cupcakes and tucked two of them into a small plastic container, grabbed a frozen bottle of water from the freezer, and hovered near the living room window watching for Dave. Julie wasn’t the only one I was suspicious of. He had argued with the victim the day she had died. And I was willing to bet everything I had that that was how it happened. He and Julie had gotten together and killed Anita. It made sense to me.

  I glanced at the clock for what must have been the twentieth time this morning and saw that it was nearly noon. Where was he? My cat Dixie rubbed up against my leg and I knelt down and scratched his head just the way he liked it. “What do you think, Dixie? Where is that Dave Jones today?” Dixie didn’t answer but continued rubbing up against my leg. “I knew you wouldn’t know.”

  I straightened up and went to the window again and looked both ways down the street. And then I saw him. He was trudging up the sidewalk to my neighbor’s mailbox, his satchel of mail over his shoulder. It was particularly warm today, and I didn’t know how he managed to carry that heavy sack of mail in this heat. I would have requested a suitcase with wheels on it at the very least.

  When he finished stuffing the letters and circular into my neighbor’s mailbox, I hurried out onto my front porch. “Hello, Dave!” I called.

  He looked up and grinned. “Hi Allie, how are you today?”

  I nodded and headed down my porch steps. “It’s too hot for me today.”

  He nodded and chuckled. “Me too. I can’t wait for fall.”

  “You’re in luck, though. I made you a couple of cupcakes and got a bottle of water for you,” I said walking up to him.

  “Allie, you’re my best customer.” He chuckled again. “I’ll trade you cupcakes and water for the electric bill and a clothing catalog.”

  “It doesn’t seem like a fair exchange,” I said, but I took the mail from him anyway and handed him the cupcakes and bottle of water.

  “I apologize for that. I’ll try to bring you something better tomorrow. And I’ll bring this plastic container back to you, too.”

  “I look forward to getting something better tomorrow. How are you doing, Dave?” I needed a segue way into the things I needed to know, but I didn’t know how to do that without seeming obvious.

  He eyed me and nodded his head. “Okay. How is Alec doing on the investigation into Anita Towers’ death? Has he found her killer yet?”

  I shook my head and put my hands on my hips. “No, he hasn’t found the killer yet. I just can’t understand it. She didn’t even know that many people here in town anymore.”

  He nodded and his gaze turned down the street. Then he looked at me again. “It’s kinda crazy. I have to wonder if her husband may have had something to do with it. She wasn’t happy in her marriage.”

  “Really? Did she tell you that?” He had mentioned this in passing when I’d talked to him before, but he hadn’t acted like he knew anything in particular about it. Exactly what did he know about their marriage, and maybe more importantly, why did he know it?

  He glanced down the street again. “You know how things go. I’d stop by my cousin’s house and we’d all be talking. A few times she mentioned she didn’t want to go home to Omaha because her husband was there. But she didn’t go into a lot of details.”

  “Do you think he’s capable of murder?”

  He shrugged. “I guess that’s the question that needs answering. But Anita, she complained about her husband all the time. He was never there for her, and he worked long hours. When she asked him to do things with her, he refused. It was like he had checked out of the marriage and she seemed so hurt by it.”

  I’d seen evidence of the complaining. To me, it felt like that was a part of her personality. She was just an angry woman, and it wasn’t just their marriage breaking down. Bill had said he was going to see about getting counseling when they got back to Omaha. How much of it was his fault and how much of their marriage problems were hers?

  “I can see were a difficult marriage might make people do desperate things, but why wouldn’t he just divorce her? Why murder? And why do it the way it was done? Right out in the open among so many people. It doesn’t make sense.”

  He seemed taken aback by these questions. He shook his head slowly. “I guess I don’t know the answer to those questions. I mean, they were arguing that day. Or at least, that’s what Julie told me. Maybe it wasn’t premeditated, and he just had had enough and he snapped and killed her.”

  “I guess that’s probably the most likely answer,” I said slowly. But for some reason, I just didn’t buy it. It was crazy, was
n’t it? Unless, of course, if Bill had had a little to drink. Under normal circumstances, I would imagine he would have enough self-control not to do it the way it was done. But if he were drinking, he wouldn’t have had the same self-control he would have had if he had been sober. If Bill was the killer.

  He nodded. “Yeah, that was it. I’m sure that was it. She seemed irritable that day for some reason. Upset about something,”

  I eyed him. “Did she? So you talked to her that day?”

  His eyes went wide and if I wasn’t mistaken his face went pale in spite of the heat. “Well, I just happened to run into her there at the beach. I was there with my wife and I saw her at the store. I asked how she was and she said that her husband was getting on her nerves.”

  There was a small store that sold snacks and convenience items on the way into the beach. But when Anita’s body was found, there was a man that said he’d seen her arguing with someone at the restrooms. A blond-haired someone.

  “So you ran into her at the store?” I said. “And she was upset?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I did. Everyone was there at the beach that day. I swear most of Sandy Harbor was there. The beaches are crowded during the summer anyway, but it was really packed that day. And I ran into her at the store. I needed to pick up a few things while we were there at the beach.”

  “It was crowded,” I agreed. “Tell me, Dave, did you ever argue with her?”

  He looked at me, stunned. “Argue with her? No. Why would I argue with her?.”

  I shrugged. “You know, she just seemed like one of those people that argued a lot. Some people are just that way. I don’t think they even realize that what they’re saying is coming off sounding like an argument, it’s just the way they speak to people.” Something was fishy here and I wanted to know what it was. He had yet to mention that he had dated Anita in high school.

  He smiled, but it looked strained. “Oh yeah, I know people like that. Maybe they’re just under pressure all the time or something,” he said, looking off down the street again. I waited, but he was avoiding answering my question.

  “So Dave, did you ever argue with her?” I crossed my arms in front of myself and waited.

  He looked at me and shook his head. “No, like I just said, I never argued with her. We weren’t that close.”

  He shifted his weight to his other leg and turned away. He looked decidedly uncomfortable. They say you can always tell a liar by their body language. I never paid that much attention to something like that before, but he looked incredibly uncomfortable right then and I knew he was lying.

  I nodded. “Well, Julie happened to mention that you would come over to their house on the weekends and visit with them while Anita was here during the summers.”

  He took a deep breath and now his cheeks turned pink. He nodded. “Oh yeah, I hang out at their house a lot. Not just when Anita was there, but all the time. Me and Jack were close growing up as kids. We’ve always been close.”

  “Growing up in a small town, that doesn’t surprise me,” I said, agreeing. “I had a couple of cousins back in Alabama that I was very close to growing up. I know Anita liked to visit, I guess because of the beaches. I could see that. And Sandy Harbor is such a beautiful little town that I wouldn’t blame her for coming to visit frequently.”

  He shifted uneasily on his feet again and glanced down the street. “Yeah, Sandy Harbor is a beautiful town.”

  “I heard Anita grew up here. I even heard that you might have dated her in high school.” I couldn’t let it go. I had to know.

  He looked at me, frowning. “Yeah, we dated a while in high school. But that was a long time ago. The Anita I knew back then wasn’t the same one that came here to visit.” He shrugged. “I guess we all change.”

  I sighed quietly. No denials, no nervousness. Nothing. That was disappointing.

  “Yeah, I guess we all do, don’t we?”

  “Well, Allie, I certainly do appreciate the cupcakes and the water, but I better get going. I’ve still got a lot of mail to deliver and I’m already running a little behind. Everybody on my route got a lot of mail today.”

  I nodded. “I guess some days must be heavier than others.”

  He smiled. “You have no idea. I really hate the days that the circulars come out. They’re just added weight in my bag.”

  I smiled back at him. Dave was as guilty as guilty could get. His body language, his demeanor, everything about him shouted that he was nervous about the direction our conversation had taken.

  “I bet it does get a lot heavier. Well, Dave, you have a good day. I hope you enjoy those cupcakes.”

  Relief washed over him and he nodded. “Thanks, Allie. I know I’m going to enjoy them. I always do.”

  I watched as he headed down the street and over to my other neighbor’s mailbox and delivered their mail. When he had moved on to the neighbor’s house on the other side of them, he glanced back over his shoulder and gave me a nervous smile. I nodded at him and then turned and went back into the house. I wouldn’t have thought Dave Jones would be a murderer, but there was something decidedly wrong about this situation and his behavior. Now I just needed to figure out why he would want to kill Anita. That was the problem. He had less reason to kill her than anyone else.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Where to next?” Lucy asked me from the driver’s seat.

  “Well, we just bought three gigantic coffees, so that can only mean one thing. We’re going to go see Alec.”

  “Oh good, I love going to visit Alec. How’s he doing on the murder investigation?”

  “That’s what I’m going to go find out,” I said. We had just spent the morning shopping and had eaten lunch at Henry’s. I needed to get home and get some work done, but Alec didn’t answer my phone call earlier so I wanted to check on him. If he went ahead and arrested a killer without telling me, I was going to be disappointed.

  Alec had been rather tightlipped about the investigation for several days, and it bothered me. Not that he had to tell me everything he knew, but like I said, I was nosy and I needed to know. We’d gone through the drive-through at the Cup and Bean and gotten the iced coffees. It was mid-July, and it had been hot and humid for what seemed like weeks now. The iced coffee would hit the spot.

  When we got to Alec’s office we climbed the stairs. Sweat dripped down the sides of my face and I wiped at it with my forearm since my hands were full. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the air conditioning wasn’t working.

  “Couldn’t Alec have chosen an office with an elevator?” Lucy asked from behind me.

  I glanced over my shoulder at her. She was carrying a coffee in one hand with her enormous black handbag slung over her shoulder. The other hand gripped the stair rail as she climbed. Sweat was dripping down her face, and she blew at a drop that hung on the tip of her nose.

  “That would have been an excellent idea,” I said. “But apparently he wanted to make sure I was going to get my exercise in by climbing the stairs.”

  “You and me both,” she said. “I guess it’s good conditioning for running, eh?”

  I nodded without turning around. “That it is.”

  We breezed through the common waiting room for the offices that was still decorated from the 1970s, and I knocked on his door. When no answer came, I tucked a cup of coffee into the crook of my arm and turned the knob, pushing it open a couple of inches. Alec was sitting at his desk and had the telephone receiver pressed to his ear. He waved at me when he saw me.

  We came inside, closing the door behind us, and sat down on the visitors’ chairs in front of his desk.

  “All right, Roger,” he said into the phone. “I appreciate the help.” He hung up and looked at us. “Well, what brings the nosy mavens of Sandy Harbor to my illustrious office?”

  “Nosy mavens?” I looked at him, one eyebrow raised. “Is that what you just called us? Nosy mavens?”

  He nodded. “I just came up with it. Like it?”

  I shook
my head. “No, I don’t like it. Come up with something else.”

  “Lovely, helpful ladies that come to visit me bearing iced coffee then,” he said. “How does that sound?”

  “It works for me,” Lucy said and crossed her legs.

  I set one of the iced coffees on the desk in front of him. “Courtesy of this lovely lady. What’s going on with the air conditioning? It feels like a jungle in here.”

  “The thing is on the fritz and the repairman has been called out. Until then, we’ll sweat.” There was a roll of paper towels on his desk and he pulled a sheet off and pressed it to his brow. He held the roll up to us, and I took it from him and tore off a sheet, then handed it to Lucy. The window was open, but without another open window to pull air in, it wasn’t doing much good. I patted my face with the paper towel.

  “So what’s going on? Was that Roger Freeman from the police department on the phone?” I asked, tucking the paper towel into my purse.

  He chuckled, sitting back in his chair and picked up the iced coffee and took a sip. “Say, this is tasty. What is it?” He took another sip.

  “It’s an iced cherry bomb latte,” I informed him. “Chocolate and cherry and iced coffee. What more could you ask for?”

  “Indeed,” he said and took a long drag on his straw, closing his eyes. “Ah. That is wonderful.” He set the cup on the desk. “Lucy, how’s the running going?”

  She shrugged and looked away. “I intend to go out and run again. Soon.”

  I looked at her. “What do you mean you intend to run again soon? Haven’t you been going in the mornings?”

  She shook her head. “It’s too hot out there. The humidity is too high, and it makes me feel like I’m going to faint.”

  “You might want to wait until we get a little closer to fall,” Alec said. And then he looked at me. “But you and I are going for an early morning run tomorrow. Don’t tell me you’re too tired to get out of bed, either.”

  I shrugged. “Fine. We’ll go for a run.”

  I really did want to get back into the habit of running most mornings. It was just that these days my legs screamed at me every time I tried.