Paradise Valley Mystery 02-The Heart of Lies

by Debra Burroughs

  “Thanks for helping me talk this thing through,” Ernie said, turning away from the whiteboard.

  “You’re welcome.” Colin paused in the doorway and turned back to face his friend. “I only wish it got us somewhere. Seems like it only brought up more questions.”

  “I don’t know that I’m up to this job, Andrews. It should be you in this office, solving this case. This is your area of expertise, not mine. When are you coming back?”

  “Soon, I hope. I hate being away from Emily and this place.”

  “Have you told her yet?” Ernie shot his friend a mischievous grin.

  “Told her what?” Colin asked, as if he didn’t know what Ernie was talking about.

  “That you love her, knucklehead.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Work a little faster. You can’t expect a great girl like Emily to wait around forever.”

  “I don’t.”

  “You’re not the only buck in town sniffing around that doe.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Just means there are other eligible bachelors in town that would love a chance with Emily.”

  “Like who?”

  “No names,” he replied with raised hands and a cock of his head, “I’m just sayin’.”

  ~*~

  Emily returned home and cautiously entered her house, the uneasy feeling of knowing a stranger had been there that morning settled on her again. She didn’t want to feel this way every time she came into her house. She had to find out who the person was and put an end to this madness.

  She kicked off her flats and pulled her gun from her purse, slinging her handbag over one shoulder. Moving slowly through the house, she listened carefully for any sound of movement, a creak of the old floor or a bump against a wall. She ended up in the kitchen, confident she was alone and set her gun and purse down on the breakfast bar.

  Emily stood before her open refrigerator, and considered making something for lunch. As she pondered her choices, her phone shrilled in her pocket. She jumped. Her nerves were frazzled and raw. Not only was she trying to find Lucas’s killer, and dealing with someone stalking her—but now she wondered if she could trust her boyfriend and her best friend.

  Trust no one.

  “Hello,” Emily answered.

  “Hey, Em. This is Isabel. Everything okay, you don’t sound like yourself.”

  “Sorry, just distracted. What’s up?”

  “I got the results back on Lucas’s fingerprints. Turns out his name wasn’t Lucas Wakefield after all. It was James Belden.”

  “James Belden.” Emily pulled a carton of yogurt out of the refrigerator and shut the door. “What else?” She grabbed a spoon from the drawer and nudged it closed with her hip.

  “I thought I’d get more reaction out of you than that. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Someone broke into my house again this morning, so I’m a bit spooked by it,” Emily shared. She considered filling Isabel in on the note she’d found at the bank, but thought she’d better keep things to herself for now. Trust no one.

  “Did they take anything?” Isabel asked.

  Emily thought she heard sincere concern in Isabel’s voice, but what if it was just part of the act? She couldn’t be sure. Should she tell her about seeing the black sedan speeding off down the alley? She hesitated to divulge too much until she was certain that Isabel could be trusted.

  “No, not that I can tell,” Emily replied. “Enough about me, what else did you learn about Lucas, besides his real name?” Cradling the phone between her shoulder and her jaw, she ripped off the cover to the yogurt and pushed the spoon down into it.

  “He has a record, spent some time in prison for petty theft. He was arrested for fraud a few years back, but he disappeared while out on bail and he never went to trial.”

  “Fraud, huh? That’s no big surprise. Seems like a lot of people are not who they say they are.” She sank down onto a chair at the kitchen table.

  “Are you sure you okay?” Isabel asked. “Like I said before, you don’t sound like yourself.”

  “You know…if he isn’t actually Lucas Wakefield, then his mother couldn’t really be Gloria Wakefield, could she?”

  “I had that same thought. She’s probably still his mother, but if she knew he was going by a different name and she went along with the name change, then she’s probably part of the scheme. Or at least she agreed to go along with it so he could pull it off. Imagine using your mother like that.”

  “We’ll need to find out for sure, won’t we?” Emily said. “I think I’ll drop by the hospital and pay that woman a visit.”

  “I’d come with you, but I’m stuck at work.”

  Another call was beeping through Emily’s phone and she saw it was Maggie. “Sorry, Maggie’s calling. I need to take this call. We’ll talk later?”

  “Sure.”

  “Hello, Maggie?” Emily answered, feeling confident this was one person she could trust.

  “Emily, I’m so glad I caught you. I wondered if you’d go to the hospital with me. Carolyn is runnin’ a fever and had a major episode. Sully rushed her to emergency.”

  “Absolutely—but where’s Josh?”

  “Colin came by and took him to lunch. He said he wanted to talk to him, maybe about the case or somethin’. I tried callin’ him, but he must have his phone off in the restaurant.”

  “I’m at home right now, so I can be there in just a few minutes. Don’t worry, Maggs, I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Emily knew Maggie had had enough stress in her life—she didn’t need to add more.

  CHAPTER 25

  Sully had phoned Maggie to let her know Carolyn had been examined by an ER doctor and moved to the third floor. So, Emily and Maggie took the elevator up and an attendant at the nurse’s station directed them to her room.

  The women rushed to the assigned room and found Sully sitting by his wife’s bed, holding her hand. Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful as she rested.

  Sully turned toward the door, looking like he’d slept in his clothes. He dragged himself to his feet and put a finger to his lips, signaling them to be quiet.

  “She’s sleeping,” Sully whispered, stepping close to his sister. “The doctor got her temp down and he thinks she’ll be fine with some rest. We can’t upset her or get her excited.”

  “How are y’all holdin’ up?” Maggie asked him.

  “Let’s step out in the hallway,” he suggested, looking over his shoulder at his sleeping wife.

  The women nodded in agreement and went out into the hallway.

  “This whole Lucas thing has taken a toll on all of us,” he snarled. His face softened when he looked at Maggie. “Sorry, Sis, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s been hardest on you, most of all.”

  She shook her head and waved off his apology. “No, this is all my fault,” she asserted in a weak and shaky voice. “I’m the one who brought Lucas to Paradise Valley. If I hadn’t met him on that dang datin’ site, none of this would’ve happened.”

  “No, Maggie,” Emily assured her, putting an arm around her shoulder. “This is not your fault. Tell her,” she said, looking at Sully.

  His eyes grew big and his face flushed, as she forced him onto the hot seat.

  “Tell me what?” Maggie asked.

  “No, Em, it’ll just hurt her more,” Sully pleaded, shaking his head.

  “If she knows the truth, I think it’ll help her see him for who he was,” she insisted, “then she can stop blaming herself.”

  Maggie waited with wide, expectant eyes and a straight face, as though she was bracing for the worst.

  “Maggie,” he said, gazing at the floor and then off to the right, pausing as if he was struggling to find the right words to tell her what she needed to know, without divulging the entire truth of his indiscretion.

  “I’m waitin’,” she said coolly, crossing her arms as she tapped her foot.

  He slowly brought his eyes to meet hers. “I hate
to tell you this, Sis, but Lucas told me he only responded to your dating site profile to get to me.”

  “What?” she screamed.

  “Keep your voice down,” Sully ordered, glancing up and down the hallway.

  “What on earth does that mean?” Maggie demanded.

  “Not that he wasn’t attracted to you, but he had this resort scam planned out for months and he needed an in with someone who could influence people in this town to invest in his project. He said he saw the advantages of your being the mayor’s sister, so he chose you. I’m sorry, Maggie. It kills me to have to tell you that.”

  “Y’all knew about this scam and didn’t tell me?” she sputtered.

  “I only knew because that SOB made it a point to tell me so he could blackmail me. It was after he asked you to marry him and after I had already invested in the project that he told me. He said I had to help him or he would ruin you and me both.”

  Maggie seethed as she stepped close to her brother and poked a finger in his chest. “And y’all think this whole mess turned out better than if you’d been honest with me?”

  Sully looked past Maggie to Emily, with a pained look on his face, as if pleading for her help. She shook her head, unwilling to rescue him.

  Emily knew the whole story and she watched him squirm as he attempted to skirt around the truth of his embezzlement. Maybe he didn’t want his sister to know out of shame or maybe it was out of self-preservation. Either way, it was clear he was dancing around the issue, looking for a way out.

  “Emily!” The familiar young Latina nurse approached, holding a large, beige leather purse.

  Sully’s hunched shoulders relaxed, as he had been given a temporary reprieve.

  “We finally found Mrs. Wakefield’s purse,” the nurse said, “but she checked out this morning. We tried calling her, but the phone rings in her purse. So I wondered, since you’re a friend of hers, could you make sure she gets it?”

  “A friend?” Emily mumbled to herself, a bit taken aback by being called the old woman’s friend. “Sure,” Emily agreed. She was happy to jump at the opportunity to go through that woman’s things and find out who she really was. “I’ll track her down and make sure she gets it.”

  “A woman’s whole life really is in our handbags.” The nurse laughed as she handed it over. “That one feels like it has everything in it but the kitchen sink.”

  Emily grabbed it by the handle and her wrist strained under the surprising weight.

  “Thanks, Emily,” the nurse sang as she hurried back to her station.

  Emily tried to control the smile that threatened to break across her lips as she anticipated the opportunity to dig through the woman’s private things. “I need to go,” she announced. “You want to stay here with Sully,” she asked Maggie, “or do you want me to drop you off at home?”

  “Uh, I’m going to be here for quite a while sitting with Carolyn, so you probably want to go with Emily,” Sully quickly suggested.

  Emily understood his desire to end the painful conversation with his sister. He was probably worn out, she assumed, from all the fancy footwork.

  “I’ll go with Em,” Maggie said, stepping toward her brother, standing toe to toe, “but don’t think for one single minute this discussion about Lucas is over, mister.”

  “No, I know you better than that.” Sully sighed and backed toward the door, rolling his eyes as he pushed it open with his back and disappeared into his wife’s room.

  The girls strolled to the elevator and boarded, watching the doors glide shut.

  “What does that woman have in this purse? My gosh, it must weigh fifty pounds,” Emily complained, unzipping the top of it as the elevator floated down.

  “Emily, it’s not nice to be goin’ through her purse. Isn’t that against the law or somethin’?” Maggie frowned, watching Emily open it.

  “I hate to tell you this, Maggs, because you think the best of everyone, but Gloria Wakefield isn’t who you think she is.”

  “What are y’all talkin’ about?”

  Emily did not reply, but a wide grin spread across her face as she pulled out a white handkerchief wrapped around a hard object. The cloth was stuck to the crystal with dried blood. She held the thing out in her palm and peeled back the corners of the hanky.

  Maggie gasped.

  Emily had found the bloody mountain-shaped paperweight. She had found the murder weapon.

  “Oh, my. There’s a gun in here, too,” Emily exclaimed.

  ~*~

  Emily and Maggie drove directly from the hospital to the police station, phoning Colin on the way.

  “I knew you’d figure this case out, Emily,” he commended her. “I’ll call Ernie and let him know you’re on your way to see him. Do you have any idea where Gloria is?”

  “Not yet, but I think I know a way to find her. Just be aware, though, she may not have been the one who put the paperweight in her purse.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “The purse was out of her possession for days. Any one of our suspects could have taken the purse, tucked the paperweight inside, and hid it in an out-of-the-way place in the hospital.”

  “You could be right. Ernie said Mrs. Wakefield was pretty out of it when the paramedics took her away.”

  “And if the ER was busy that night, someone could have snatched the purse and not been noticed.”

  “One of those people might have been Fiona,” he suggested.

  “My thoughts exactly. I wondered why she was hanging around the hospital so much with a woman she barely knew. Maybe she hid the purse somewhere in the hospital and it got moved before she could retrieve it, so she had to stay at the hospital and search for it.”

  “Besides, why would Gloria want to kill her own son?” Colin asked.

  “I don’t know for certain that he was her son.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ll explain when I see you. You need to get off the phone and call Ernie. I’ll call you back in a bit with my plan.”

  “Ay, ay, Captain,” he joked as he hung up.

  “Maggie, I need to drop you at home.”

  “No, I want to come. This sounds like it’s just gettin’ good,” Maggie exclaimed, rubbing her hands together. “Please let me stay, Em...please. I deserve to know.”

  “That would save some time. All right, but you’ll need to stay out of the way, okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Do you have Fiona’s cell phone number?” Emily asked.

  “I do, right here in my phone. Just a second and I’ll have it for ya. See, I can be helpful to y’all.” Maggie smiled as she searched her phone, probably the first time she’d smiled in days.

  “All right, Maggie, don’t get full of yourself now.”

  Maggie turned her phone screen to Emily and Emily punched the numbers into her own phone.

  “Hello?” Fiona answered and Emily swore she heard a hint of suspicion in her voice.

  “Fiona, this is Emily.” Emily worked to keep her own tone casual and upbeat.

  “Hello, Emily. I’m surprised to hear from you.”

  “I was at the hospital earlier and one of the nurses found Gloria’s purse. Isn’t that great?”

  “Yes, Mrs. Wakefield will be thrilled.”

  “The nurse said Gloria had already checked out and you were taking her home.”

  “That’s right. I’ll let her know you have it.”

  “I can drop it by your place, if you like, but it won’t be for a while, I have to go somewhere first. But then I can come by,” Emily offered.

  “Hold on, let me ask Mrs. Wakefield what she wants to do. I’m sure she’ll want to get it back.”

  There was a silent pause for a couple of minutes. Emily put her hand over the phone and whispered to Maggie that she was on hold. Fiona returned to the phone.

  “We’re leaving for the airport shortly. Mrs. Wakefield wants to go home to recuperate in her own bed.”

  “
I don’t blame her. After what she’s been through, she probably wants to get out of here as soon as she can.” Emily tried to act natural and sympathetic, avoiding any sense that either woman was under suspicion.

  Emily wondered how the woman could get a plane ticket and get on the flight without her driver’s license and credit cards that were still in the purse she’d lost. Then she realized Gloria and Lucas must have had someone who provided their fake IDs before and could easily have done it again over the last few days. If Gloria, or whoever she was, got on that plane with a new identity, the authorities may never find her again.

  Perhaps Fiona bought the plane ticket. Maybe she bought two.

  “Like I said, I have to make a stop first, but then I’d be happy to meet you somewhere.”

  “Near the airport?” Fiona asked. “Mrs. Wakefield doesn’t have much time before her flight.”

  “Sure.” Emily realized she only had a short window to catch them. “There’s a Copper Kettle Restaurant not far from the airport. Why don’t I meet you there in an hour, in the parking lot?”

  Emily overheard Fiona whisper to Gloria. “In an hour at the Copper Kettle parking lot near the airport?” Then Fiona came back on the line with Emily. “Yes, that would be fine. We’ll see you in an hour.”

  CHAPTER 26

  Emily and Maggie rushed into Ernie’s office, finding Colin already there, perched on the corner of Ernie’s desk with his arms and ankles crossed. Emily had phoned Colin after speaking to Fiona and had alerted him to the time crunch and shared her plan to ensnare the killer, whichever one it turned out to be.

  “We don’t have much time.” Emily breezed through the door first, carrying both her purse and Gloria’s handbag. “Here’s the murder weapon.” She dug the bloody crystal paperweight out of the older woman’s handbag, still wrapped in a white cotton handkerchief, and she slid it into a plastic evidence bag Ernie held open for her.

  “I guess luck was on our side.” Ernie sealed the bag and marked it with black permanent marker, laying it in a drawer in his desk.