by Gilian Baker
We learned that she had had the key to Connie’s house for years, in case of emergencies. She told us how when she heard the noise coming from their shared wall, she was so flustered that couldn’t remember where she’d put the key.
“The longer she cried out, the harder it was for me to focus.” She looked down at her lap. “It wasn’t until it got dead quiet over there before I found it in the bottom of my jewelry box. Lord knows why I kept it there.”
Gabby jotted down a note. “Did you go into her house once you found the key?”
“Oh, yes. I called the police first. Then I went over as quick as I could. I didn’t know if I could help, but I didn’t want her to think no one was comin’ to help.”
She continued to twist the edge of her ancient cardigan right below the last button hole. She avoided eye contact. Why was she so nervous? Gabby was trying not to make the questions sound like an interrogation. Maybe she hated lawyers.
“Phyllis, we now know Connie was extorting money from some people. Did you ever suspect that?”
The twisting of her sweater intensified. “Why, no, no. We was just neighbors. I don’t know how I would have learned about something like that.” Her eyebrows were raised about as high as they could go, and her face shown with mock surprise. I didn’t like the way this was going at all. It was like a different person inhabited this house.
“Did she have visitors?”
“Oh, no, not at all. She went to work, came home, and that was it. It didn’t seem like she had a social life at all.”
Gabby wasn’t buying her act either. She looked at Phyllis questioningly, willing a truthful answer from her. “Does it surprise you that your neighbor was blackmailing people? From what I understand, you were neighbors for many years. Even if you weren’t friends, you might know something of her personality.”
Phyllis looked like she might hyperventilate. How could she be such a bad liar? And what in the world was going on here? “Umm, well. As I told Jade before, she was strange. She was secretive though I guess it could have just been that she was a private person.”
She looked around at each of us. When she got to me, her eyes pleaded for help. But how could I help? I didn’t understand what she was up to. Even though I’d been defending her innocence, I didn’t really know her at all. Had I been foolish in my complete trust in her? She had means and opportunity, and it was looking like she had motive, though I couldn’t imagine what.
Maybe she was being blackmailed because of something her grandkids had done or… I didn’t know. I caught the looks Gabby and Crystal were giving me out of the corner of my eye. They thought I had been unwise, too. For the first time, I questioned my intuition about Phyllis. Logic and reason said she could have done it. But it still didn’t feel right.
“Go on Phyllis,” prompted Crystal. “Surely you have more to say than that after living beside the woman for several decades.”
Her face red and her hands shaking, I wondered if Phyllis were having a stroke when she spoke. “Well, you saw all them nice things in her house. Guess she coulda used dirty money to buy ‘em. Never understood how she could afford all that was delivered to her.”
Hearing her breathing quicken, I intervened before she keeled over. It was agony to see this old lady in such a state. “Phyllis, it looks like we could use more tea. Perhaps you and I could step into the kitchen and make more.”
She leapt from her chair, “Why, yes. Can’t be a poor hostess.”
I grabbed up the large tray that held the antique tea set, all the while trying to avoid the eyes that were on me. I knew what they were thinking… that this woman was not what I had described at all.
Was Gabby questioning her trust in my powers of observation? If so, she wasn’t the only one.
Once in the kitchen, Phyllis fumbled with the tea bags. Filling the tea kettle at the tap, I hissed, “What has gotten into you today, Phyllis?”
Her hands were still trembling. “I don’t know what you mean, dear.”
Turning off the facet, I faced her. “Oh, yes, you do! You‘re scared out of your wits. Your face is red and blotchy. You’ve twisted your sweater so much that it’s all out of shape.” The look on her face made me back off. “Are you okay? You don’t look well.”
“Oh, I’m fine. Just a little flustered. I’m not used to being interrogated by a lawyer with a cop standing behind her. I feel like a suspect in one of them detective shows.” She gave a little forced laugh.
“Speaking of which, where did that new TV come from? You blew me off when I asked before.”
“Oh, did I? Well, umm, my granddaughter surprised me with it. Mine wasn’t working well, and she thought I should have a new one since I watch so much TV, being alone and all.”
She was doing a fair job of avoiding looking at me. I opened a cabinet to get down more sugar and noticed that her pantry was stuffed with nonperishables. She must have stocked up this week when she went shopping. Moving over to the fridge, I pulled out the half and half. The fridge too was full of fruits and vegetables, and I saw several packages of expensive cuts of meat in the crisper. Taking a deep breath, I pulled open the freezer. Frozen meals, more meat of every variety. I thought she had told me she was on a pension. Maybe she had gotten her check this week and stocked up for the month. Unfortunately, my stomach didn’t agree with me. The familiar feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach was back in spades.
As we walked back into the living room with the tea tray, Gabby and Crystal stopped talking. They had their heads bent together, but when Crystal saw us coming, she stood up straight again behind the chair where Gabby was sitting.
“I’m sorry you went to all that trouble, Phyllis, but I think we’ve gotten what we came for. Though we may want to speak to you again later.”
Relief flooded her face, “Oh, that’s fine, dear. It was no trouble.”
We all stood up and said our polite goodbyes. I let the other two women move out the door while I hung back. “Are you sure you’re okay, Phyllis?” She looked like she had recovered once she knew we were leaving. “Oh, I’m just fine, Jade. You go on now. Your friends will be waiting.”
I couldn’t push my attentions on her further if she wouldn’t level with me, so I gave her a little hug and then walked out to the car where I knew I was about to undergo my own interrogation.
Chapter Fifteen
“Before you start, that is not the woman I met the first time. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.” I slammed the door hard to punctuate my statement.
“Something is troubling her.” Gabby started the engine. “Jade, I hate to say it, but we have to follow up with her. Based on her behavior today, we must put her towards the top of the suspect list.”
I slouched down in my seat. “I know.”
We dropped Crystal off at the sheriff’s station and then went back to Gabby’s office to strategize. What should I do about Phyllis? Should I try to engage her in conversation about her behavior again? What if she was the one we were looking for? I didn’t even want to think about it.
Gabby started a strong pot of coffee, and we set to work. “I know you put a lot of faith in Phyllis, Jade. I’m sorry, but we need to investigate her background. Even though she’s old now, she’s lived a full life and most of us have something we’d rather keep secret about our past. Maybe it’s about her husband or children… not her. But whatever it is, we have to dig deeper. We have to keep our eyes on why we’re doing all this to begin with.”
I hated to admit it, but she was right. I didn’t owe Phyllis anything. I barely knew her. She could’ve poisoned our tea today, for all I knew about her. I chided myself—everyone is not what they seem. I felt like I’d let everyone down, including myself.
Maybe I was too rusty at observation and judging people. Working by myself for the last few years hadn’t given me a chance to work those muscles much. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gabby started looking for another investigator. It would serve me right.
Gabby
continued to write. “So far, our best suspects are Jack Taylor and Phyllis. But I think we should talk to Sophie Billingham again too. She’s the other one that, according to witness statements, was also being blackmailed.”
“Right. Do you want to come with me?”
She looked up from her notes. “No, you’re the investigator.” She put down her pen and smiled at me. “Don’t doubt yourself because you wanted to believe in the trustworthiness of an old woman.”
I sat up on the edge of my chair. “I swear, Gabby, she was completely different today. There was no nervousness or avoidance when we talked before. She was the one who suggested we go into Connie’s house, for goodness' sake.” After thinking about that last statement, I realized it didn’t help her case. She might have wanted a witness to her disbelief of Connie’s lifestyle to make her seem more innocent.
“What I mean is, she was open to talking about her neighbor and was calm and relaxed. We’d a nice chat. I just don’t understand…”
“It could be nothing. Let’s wait and see what happens, okay?” She was smiling, but her tone gave away her disbelief.
We decided she’d have Lucy run background checks on Phyllis, Jack Taylor and Sophie Billingham. We would review the information, and then I’d meet with them again, using the info we’d gathered to prompt them to talk. That should put an end to all the denial or they’d end up being interrogated by the sheriff.
***
Midafternoon the next day, I got a text from Gabby saying the background checks were complete. She asked me to come to her office ASAP to discuss what they’d found. I finished my instructions and dropped off more tasks for Geena in our project management system. If this kept up, I would need to give her a raise. She was taking on a lot more these days with me being out of the office so much. But it wouldn’t last forever. Soon enough I’d be back into my old routine, though that didn’t sound all that appealing, come to think of it. No time to dwell on the direction my life was heading. I had sleuthing to do.
“That was fast.” I stood watching Gabby highlighting passages on a printout from the doorway.
She didn’t even look up. “Not really. We use open source and public record databases as well as other Spidey digital legal catalogues to make searching easy.” She looked up and smiled. “Well, come on in and sit down.”
Before I could stop myself, I burst out, “Do you think you should find another investigator? I mean, one with real experience? I feel like I wasted a lot of our time buying into Phyllis’ innocence. And I know nothing about finding witnesses or legal ways of finding sneaky stuff out about people. And what if we need to go way beyond the current suspect pool? I’m not equipped for all that. Maybe you had too much faith in me.”
“First of all, I asked you to help as the case relates to Liz. Remember what I told you when we started… we only need to come up with other potential suspects. We don’t have to look under every rock to find out who killed Connie. We only need to show Ross there are other contenders who have a much better motive than Liz.”
She pushed her chair back and got up to pour us both a cup of coffee. “Second, I will not, under any circumstances, try this case, if it goes to trial, God forbid. That means you won’t have to do anything an experienced private detective would do.”
She handed me my coffee. “You are an important part of the team. No one cares about Liz more than you, so put all that out of your mind. Now, let’s dig into these.” I guess that conversation was at an end, though I didn’t feel any more confident. Gabby handed me a stack of papers across the desk. We started with Jack Taylor, the supposed note writer.
“Mr. Taylor has been taking five hundred dollars a month out of this checking account at the end of each month for a little over three years. That seems to me like a big red flag. It’s not his mortgage or any other standard bill we can confirm, so what’s it for?”
“Payment to Connie.”
“Perhaps. But now we know the ledgers hold the details of her extortion activities, we may be able to show corresponding patterns between the dates and amounts from the ledgers and the suspects’ accounts. Now, turn the page… you’ll see that he likes the ponies. Or rather, betting on sports teams.”
“Really? He didn’t look like a sports enthusiast.”
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t like to bet on them. Some people get started on a small scale, say in the office football pool, and it grows into an obsession. He may not watch the games except to see the stats and the scores.”
“I guess.” I shrugged.
“Not only does he not want anyone at the firm to know, but he’s also hiding his gambling from his wife. It looks like they aren’t that stable to begin with, so that little tidbit of information might send them to divorce court. By the end of each month, they are overdrawn every time. The only way I can see that he’s keeping it from her is that he handles all the finances. Otherwise she would know something was going on.”
“It looks like she works, too. It seems like they should be solvent. He must be sweating bullets that his wife will discover the issue.”
“That would be my guess. And one way to make that less likely is to get the hush money payments to stop.” Gabby looked at me with her eyebrows raised and did a little Groucho Marx interpretation with them. I had to laugh. It surprised me because she’s usually all business. She must have been feeling great about the possibility of these suspects based on what she had found in the papers in front of her.
“So we know now for sure he has motive. We can assume he has means since hemlock grows everywhere around here. What we don’t have is opportunity. How would he have gotten into Connie’s house? There was no sign of forced entry, and she wasn’t likely to give him a key.”
Darn. The key. I’d been dreading the moment that would come into the conversation. “No, she wouldn’t have. She didn’t even want to give one to Phyllis, but felt it was necessary.”
“We have him for those two, anyway. We need to think outside of the box for the opportunity. For example, could he have taken her keys from her purse at the office and had a duplicate made before she noticed it was gone? Could he have shown up at her house that morning under the ruse of paying her and jimmied the door somehow so he could get back inside later?”
“I guess both are possible, but how are we going to find out how he did it if he doesn’t confess to it?”
“We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. A lot of times things become clear while you’re investigating another angle. Like you have an ‘ah-ha’ moment that leads you in the right direction. But we can’t count him out just because we don’t know how he got in. There’s a lot of different ways he could have done it.”
I nodded my head in agreement. Running my finger down the sheet that outlined his life, it seemed sad that a person’s life could be summed up on a few printed pages.
“Let’s move on.” She flipped that page facedown onto the ‘completed’ stack, licked the tip of her right index finger and used it to flip through a few uninteresting pages.
“We come to Ms. Billingham next. It’s plain to see what she’s hiding.”
I turned the pages Gabby had handed me until I found Sophie Billingham’s name. When I read over the first few lines, I whistled. “How did that go unnoticed?”
“Someone wasn’t paying attention, because I know law firms are diligent about discovering past brushes with the law when they’re vetting new employees. The arrest was many years ago, though.”
“How could that happen? It says she’s a paralegal. She couldn’t hold that job without a clean slate, could she? She’s been at Gallagher and Gallagher for several years.” I flipped a couple more pages. “And it looks like she’s been paying out seven hundred dollars a month for most of that time.” I looked up at Gabby. “How could she afford that much money every month?”
“It’s up to the firm if they hire paralegals with a felony charge, though most don’t. And paralegals make decent money, but it
would be tight. But look at where she lives. She rents a studio apartment in Chesterton, which must be lower rent than it would be in a more prosperous town, like Aspen Falls. Her car is a twelve year-old Honda, so she doesn’t have a car payment. She’s thrifty. That would get old fast, for a woman in her late 30s.”
“I guess she couldn’t leave the firm. I mean, how likely is she to find another job in her field? She got lucky or something to get in there, so she had to stay put, even though Connie was bleeding her dry.”
We had the same issue with Ms. Billingham as we did with Mr. Taylor. Motive, check. Means, check. But opportunity? Like Mr. Taylor, she could’ve gotten the key from Connie at work without her knowing, but that was just speculation.
“Okay, onto Phyllis.” Gabby looked over at me, but I kept myself busy flipping through the pages.
“Yep,” was all I could manage.
“This was tougher to find. First, it was many, many years ago. Second, she used a stage name and third, she used her maiden name for legal purposes.”
“Stage name?”
“If you turn to the next page, you’ll see that Phyllis was a burlesque dancer during her late teens and early adult years.”
Well, that was a shock! I couldn't imagine that scrawny-legged old woman being a stripper!
“Another thing you’ll notice if you turn another page is that she was paying Connie, we suppose, less than the others… only three hundred dollars a month. The same amount, the same time of the month. None of her other checks or bills are for that amount since her townhouse is paid off.”
“She said she was living on her husband’s pension and social security. She never worked outside the home.” I looked up at Gabby, stifling a laugh. “At least, not after she married.”
If it weren’t for the seriousness of the situation, I would have laughed until tears streamed down my face. Phyllis, a stripper. It had been way more of a taboo during those times than it was now. It was hard to believe she’d found a husband, let alone one she seemed to still adore. Comprehension came over me, but I wasn’t willing to share it, at least for now.