by Casey Mayes
“Can I be there, too?”
“Yes, but it’s best if you don’t say anything.”
I looked over at my husband to see if he was serious. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Normally I would never dream of asking you to do that, Savannah, and you know it, but I want your reactions to his answers.”
“Does he even know I’m your wife?”
Zach hesitated a long time before he answered. “I’m not planning on telling him, and you shouldn’t, either.”
“Let me get this straight. You want me to lie to him?”
“Of course not,” he said as I pulled up into an empty parking spot on Edenton Street. “Just don’t volunteer any information.”
“I suppose I can do that,” I said.
Before I opened my door, I reached into the backseat and grabbed a clipboard I stowed there when I wanted to work on a puzzle.
“What’s that for?” Zach asked.
“Camouflage. People think you’re official if you keep your mouth shut and carry a clipboard around.”
“Where did you learn that?”
“I read it in a mystery novel, if you must know, but it sounds like it could be true, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose it’s worth a shot,” Zach said.
We got out of the car and walked over to a large marble memorial that sported a bronze woman on top. “Where is he?”
“He said he’d be by the small cannons,” Zach said.
“They’re over this way,” I said as I took a left.
“How do you know that?”
“I came here right after Derrick fired me, remember?”
“I thought you said you went to the museum.”
I pointed across the street. “That’s where I ended up.”
We found a pair of small cannons where I remembered them, and there was a heavyset older man in a three-piece suit waiting there, glancing at his watch.
My husband approached him, and I took a few steps back. Zach identified himself, and the man said in a gravelly voice, “I’m Lassiter.”
He looked at me, obviously expecting me to provide my name, but I just stood there, nodded, and then glanced down at my clipboard, as if there was something there more fascinating than a puzzle that was only partially completed.
“Before we get started, I need to know a few things,” Zach said.
“Fire away. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“When was the last time you saw Derrick Duncan alive?” Zach asked.
“In Richmond, the day before he was killed,” Lassiter said. “And I can prove it.”
I couldn’t help myself. I’d promised Zach to keep quiet, but the gear between my mouth and my brain clearly weren’t working. “How could you possibly prove that?”
“There were witnesses,” the man said. “Who are you, anyway?”
“An associate who sometimes forgets herself,” my husband replied. “She does make a good point, though.”
“I’ve got witnesses,” Lassiter said, starting to get aggravated with both of us.
“You have witnesses who saw you together the day before he was murdered, but that doesn’t prove that you didn’t see him again later,” Zach said, and I smiled slightly. He’d gotten my point, even if Lassiter hadn’t.
“He was murdered here, right? I’ve never been to Raleigh before, so it would have been tough for me to kill him.”
“That’s true,” Zach said. “But again, it’s hard to prove that you’ve never been somewhere before, too.”
“What is this? I thought you were going to help me.”
“I can’t do anything until I find out more about you and your situation.”
“I’m not the one anyone should be looking at. There are a boatload of people with more motive and opportunity than I ever had.”
“Would you care to explain?”
“Sure I would. Like I told that detective Murphy, Cary Duncan had five hundred thousand reasons to want the man dead. Derrick told me that she took out a life insurance policy on him six months ago. He said he was worth more to her dead than alive. That’s an odd thing to brag about, wouldn’t you say?”
“Did they have problems?”
“Let me ask you something. Are you married?”
To his credit, he didn’t look at me as he answered. “Sometimes it feels like I have been all my life.”
“Then you know.”
“Know what?” Zach asked a second before I could.
“There’s not a couple I’ve ever known who didn’t want to kill each other at least a dozen times over the course of a marriage, and that includes the ones who get along.”
I was about to answer that when Zach shot me a warning look. “She had to have had more of a reason than that.”
Lassiter raised one eyebrow as he said, “How about a little piece of fluff on the side?”
“Derrick was cheating on his wife?”
“Some gal named Mindi,” Lassiter said with a smile. “That’s not all, though. I happen to know that Cary wasn’t sitting at home being faithful when Duncan was out kicking it up.”
“She was having affairs, too?”
“Oh, yes. Sometimes I wondered why they even bothered to stay married. The worst part of it was, from what I heard around town, she was stepping out with somebody Derrick knew.”
“It wouldn’t be you, would it, Mr. Lassiter?” I asked.
Lassiter looked at me with the same expression that Zach had on his face. It said simply, Have you completely lost your mind?
“Lady, I don’t know who you are, but you’re out of line.”
“Perhaps it would be better if you waited in the car,” Zach said.
“I’ll shut up,” I promised, though all three of us knew there was no chance that was going to ever happen.
“You don’t have to. I’m leaving,” Lassiter said as he started to walk away.
“We’re not finished here,” Zach said.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Listen, if you want to be somebody’s advocate, you might want to try believing them when they’re telling you the truth.”
After he was gone, I prepared myself for a barrage from Zach, but he just shook his head and walked back to the car. I felt worse than I would have if he’d chewed me out.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I caught up with him. “I didn’t mean to push him. I should have kept my mouth shut like I’d promised.”
I couldn’t see Zach’s face, but when he glanced over at me, I could see that he was grinning.
“What are you smiling about?”
He ordered, “Keep walking. You might not realize it, but Lassiter is still watching us. I want him to think that I’m upset with you. It might get us another angle inside, if we play it right.”
“You’re not mad?”
“I’d have been disappointed if you hadn’t started goading him when you did,” Zach admitted. “Savannah, did you honestly think I believed for one second that you could listen to me interview someone without interjecting? Give me a little credit, will you?”
“I’m not sure that’s a compliment,” I said.
“It wasn’t meant to be. I figured you’d make a crack or two, and I wanted to see his reaction to you. I had a feeling that he was indeed having an affair with Cary Duncan, but you disproved that.”
“How so?” I asked as we got back to the car.
“Lassiter’s not all that fond of strong women, if his reaction to you is any indication. Can you imagine him putting up with Cary Duncan? One of the main questions about him was if he were capable of an affair with her, and I’d have to say no at the moment.”
“He could have been acting,” I said.
“Not the way he was looking at you. I’ve got a feeling Lassiter likes women who don’t talk back. That doesn’t mean he’s off the hook, though. If he lost the kind of money we’ve heard he did, that was reason enough to kill Duncan.”
“So why didn’t you ask him about that?”
; “There wasn’t time,” Zach said. “I thought it would take longer for us to make him mad than it did.”
“Then at least I’m sorry about that,” I said.
“Don’t sweat it, Savannah. There are other ways of finding that out. At least we accomplished something.”
“What’s next, then?”
He glanced at his watch, and then said, “I think it’s time we sat down and had a chat with Mindi Mills. She seems to be at the edge of all of this, don’t you think?”
“Why would she kill him? She doesn’t stand to gain by Derrick’s death.”
“Maybe she killed him for another reason,” Zach said.
“True. If he were dumping her, it might give her motive. How do we find that out, though? I shouldn’t have let her go when I had the chance.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. We’ll track her down and talk to her, then see how she reacts to our questions. How does that sound?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“Do I get to participate this time, or am I just going to be a puppet for you again?”
Zach hugged me before we got into the car. “Savannah, my dear sweet wife, you are a great many things, some of them so frustrating I want to howl at the moon, but anyone’s puppet, you are not.”
“Good, at least you admit that. We’re a team, you know.”
“Trust me, I’m well aware of it.”
As I drove back to the Crest Hotel, I kept wondering about all of the people in Duncan’s life who had a reason to want him dead. It made me wonder how a man could alienate himself so thoroughly from the people around him. Had he known how little he’d been loved? Had he even cared? It was hard to believe that he did, knowing the man as I had. He’d aggravated me a thousand times since we began working together, but I’d never disliked him enough to kill him.
It was clear that I was in the minority there, though.
Chapter 12
THE FRONT DESK HAD NO PROBLEM TELLING US THAT Mindi Mills was in room 1918. I would have suspected that Benjamin had something to do with it if they’d known I was the one asking.
“I’m beginning to wonder about the security here,” I said as we rode the elevator upstairs.
“What, with Derrick’s murder and all?”
“Sure, there’s that, too, but they just gave me the room number without a fight.”
“Just count your blessings she’s not staying at the Brunswick.”
“If she was, I’d just find a way to get Benjamin to tell me.”
Zach laughed. “So, apparently the security level is about the same, if you know how to work the system.”
“You’ve got a point.”
As the elevator doors opened, we could hear yelling the second we got off on the nineteenth floor.
“What do you suppose that’s all about?” Zach asked.
“Hang on a second.” We paused in the hallway, and I could make out Cary’s voice, though it was quite a bit louder than it had been the last time we’d spoken.
“That’s Cary Duncan,” I told Zach.
“How’d she get over here that fast?”
I looked at my watch. “We were at the park for nearly an hour. She had plenty of time to ditch Brady and come over here.”
Zach started creeping closer to the bend in the corridor, and I followed. We could start to make out words now, and they were rough ones at that.
“You shrew. How dare you?” That was clearly Cary.
Another woman’s voice, this one nearly an octave higher, replied, “I wouldn’t have been with him if you’d taken care of him better yourself.”
“A harem of women wouldn’t have satisfied that old goat. If you think you’re getting away with this, you are sorely mistaken.”
There was a real sense of outrage in the other woman’s voice as she said, “You’ve got some nerve. You’re the one who killed him. Everyone knows it.”
“Maybe in your feeble little world,” Cary shouted.
The elevator door opened back down the hallway, and two members of Hotel Security got out.
Zach made a decision quickly, and moved toward the battling women before he consulted me. That was fine. If he had a plan to make this work in our favor, I was all for it.
“Cary, Mindi, Hotel Security is on its way,” he said as he reached them. “Unless you both want to go to jail for disturbing the peace, follow my lead.”
Was he kidding? This was his plan?
To my amazement, both women nodded.
As the security pair rounded the corner, Zach said in a loud voice, “I told you that television was too loud before. Thanks for turning it down.”
“No problem,” Mindi said with a rise in inflection.
“We’ll see you later, then,” Zach said as he ushered Mindi into her room and quickly returned to the hallway.
Cary looked dumbfounded as Zach took her arm. “We need to go. We’re late for our meeting.”
“Of course we are,” Cary replied.
“Is there a problem here?” the lead security man asked.
“Just a television turned up a little too loud. Sorry about the commotion.”
One man looked at the other, and it was clear that neither was fooled by Zach’s story, but some kind of silent conversation went on between them, and the older man finally shrugged. “Just tell her to keep it down from now on.”
“It’s taken care of,” Zach said.
After the men left, Cary said, “Not that I’m ungrateful, but how did you happen to be here?”
“We were looking for a friend staying at the hotel,” I lied. “When we heard the commotion, we decided to see what was going on. Zach stepped in so there wouldn’t be any more trouble.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I figured you’d been through enough already,” my husband replied. “I’d hate to give the police another reason to question you.”
Cary shuddered noticeably at that comment. “How right you are. If I can ever repay you, all you need do is ask.”
“I might just take you up on that,” Zach said.
Cary barely looked in my direction as she headed for the elevator herself.
Once she was gone, I asked Zach, “Are you serious? That story honestly worked on everyone?”
He shrugged. “Savannah, Hotel Security just wanted the problem to go away. I found a way to let them ignore it in good conscience, and that was enough for the moment. If Cary and Mindi go at it again, it’s going to be on their heads, not mine.”
“Nice save, Zach.”
“I do what I can.”
He knocked on Mindi’s door, and she answered, cowering behind it as though she was afraid to come out. “Yes?”
“I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself before,” my husband said smoothly. “I’m Zach Stone, and you’ve already met my wife, Savannah. May we come in?”
To my amazement, she nodded and stepped aside. “Of course. Thank you for coming to my rescue. It’s hard to tell how ugly that could have gotten if you hadn’t stepped in when you did. Hi, Savannah. You’ve got quite a husband there.”
“I was glad to help,” Zach said, and I was amazed he didn’t throw in a “Shucks, it was nothing” while he was at it.
I looked around the room and was surprised to see that it was as neat as could be. It was hard to believe that Mindi had been able to stand cohabiting with Derrick after seeing what a slob he could be.
After she closed the door to her modest room, Mindi said, “I’m not afraid to say it; that woman frightens me.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. “She was really blasting away at you.”
“Normally, I hate confrontation,” Mindi said, “but I couldn’t just stand there and listen to her abuse. It’s not called for in polite society.”
Neither is sleeping with another woman’s husband, I said in my head. I wasn’t there to point fingers, though. Zach and I were looking for clues. “Do you believe what you said to her?
”
“What’s that?” Mindi asked, looking slightly confused.
“You told Cary that everyone knows she killed her husband.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Mindi asked. “She’s getting a fat insurance settlement, from what I’ve heard.” Mindi began to whimper softly, and then she added, “She didn’t even love him.”
“And you did,” I said softly, not making it a question, but rather a statement.
“It’s true. I did.”
“Listen, I hate to bring this up, but we need to know. Was there anyone else in Derrick’s life?”
“You mean romantically?” she asked as she looked at me quizzically.
“That’s exactly what I mean,” I said.
“He’d never be unfaithful,” she said. “Derrick loved me.”
“And yet he was still married to Cary,” Zach said. “That must have infuriated you.”
Mindi didn’t rise to the bait. “They had an arrangement. She didn’t care if he slept with me, as long as we were discreet.”
“Did Cary tell you that?” Zach asked.
“No, Derrick did, and I believed him.”
Zach just shook his head, and she asked, “What are you trying to say?”
“If he really loved you, he would have left his wife, wouldn’t he?”
For a split second, Mindi hesitated, and then began crying with such force that I was certain someone from Security would be back.
I tried to calm her down, but she just pointed to the door and shrieked, “Leave this instant.”
We had no choice but to comply, and as Zach and I walked to the elevator, I said, “Smooth, Zach, really smooth.”
“Those tears were a little too convenient, weren’t they?”
I looked at him. “You noticed that pause before she busted loose, too?”
“Hey, I was once a trained detective, remember?”
I shook my head, though I couldn’t hide my smile. “She got out what she wanted to say, and once you started pressuring her, she kind of conveniently fell apart.”
“It didn’t work though, did it?”
“What should we do now, tackle the other writers under Derrick’s thumb, or go after Kelsey Hatcher?”
His stomach rumbled, and Zach asked, “Is there any chance we can get a bite to eat? I saw a hamburger joint on the corner. We wouldn’t even have to drive to it, so we can keep our space in the hotel parking lot.”