Justice in Mystic Grove

by S F Bose

  “Nothing else,” Sam said.

  I grunted. “Definitely disappointing.” I put the Manila envelopes, boat photos, brochures, and photo of Sharon Meagher back into the bag.

  “We can get this to Newmont later,” said Sam.

  “Okay,” I agreed and stowed the briefcase behind my desk.

  “Our interview with Rose O’Ryan is at 2:00 p.m.?”

  I nodded. “Right. She hasn’t called to reschedule so she must be feeling better.”

  “Okay, you take the lead,” he replied.

  “Sure thing,” I agreed.

  ***

  Rose O’Ryan followed me into the conference room and paused. She was 5’4” tall and looked very fit. She wore gray pants, a mauve sweater, and a light jacket. Her eyes were guarded.

  “Where do you want me?” she asked.

  “Wherever you’d like to sit,” I replied with a smile. Rose circled the table and sat in the first chair. She folded her hands on the table and scanned the room. She had a very pale complexion and short black hair.

  “Would you like some coffee or tea?” I offered.

  “No, I’m good,” she replied. I nodded and sat down across from her. I put my cell phone on the table. The voice recorder app was running.

  Sam hurried in.

  “Sorry I’m late. Sam Nolan,” he said extending his hand across the table to Rose. She hesitated for a second and then shook hands

  “Rose O’Ryan,” she replied. She gave him a quick, appraising look.

  Sam sat next to me.

  “Thanks for coming in today, Rose. Some questions came up during the Steven Meagher investigation. We hope you can give us some insights,” I said.

  “I don’t see how, but go ahead and ask your questions,” she replied in a firm voice.

  “Okay. Just for background, you served in the military?” I asked.

  Rose nodded. “Yes, I served in the Marines as a 2nd Lieutenant in Afghanistan. I was a combat logistics specialist and led supply convoys.”

  “When did you leave the military?”

  “In 2010. Honorable discharge,” she replied.

  “And how did you end up in Mystic Grove?”

  “My husband, Eric, grew up in Springfield Corners. I grew up near Fitchburg. After I left the military, we wanted to settle down in a nice small town. We also wanted to be close to our families but not too close,” Rose replied and smiled briefly.

  I smiled. “I understand. And you work at Danvers Realty?”

  “Yes. I'm a buyer's agent for residential real estate.”

  “Do you know Larissa Meagher?” I asked.

  “Larissa works at Danvers too, although we mostly work from home. I can’t say I know her well. But I’ve seen her at team meetings, planning meetings, holiday parties and so on.”

  I nodded. “Did you know Steven Meagher?”

  “In passing. He came with Larissa to the holiday parties. He also spoke during public comments at a couple of the village board meetings.”

  “You're a village trustee?” I asked.

  “Yes for three years now,” Rose replied.

  I locked eyes with her. “Rose, we have evidence that Steven Meagher was blackmailing numerous people in and around Mystic Grove. We found his collection records and your name was listed.”

  Rose stared at me. She didn’t flinch or look surprised. Then she frowned. “Okay, Steven Meagher was blackmailing me but I didn't kill him.”

  “Tell us what happened,” I said.

  Rose took a deep breath and exhaled noisily. “A year and a half ago, I was driving back to Mystic Grove from Madison. I'd been at a girls' night out dinner with friends where I drank a couple of glasses of wine. However, I also ate a full dinner and drank some coffee. When I left Madison, I was more than able to drive. I was getting close to Mystic Grove when I saw police lights flashing behind me. I pulled over and waited. Meagher walked up and told me I'd been driving over the speed limit. He also said I had crossed the centerline a few times. Neither accusation was true and I told him that, He just smiled and said, ‘Whatever I say is the truth.’”

  “Whatever he says is the truth?” I repeated.

  Rose nodded and ran a hand over her eyes. “He was telling me that his word would trump mine if we had a dispute.”

  I nodded. “What happened next?” I asked.

  “He asked for my driver’s license and I gave it to him,” she replied.

  “Was it still light out or dark?” I asked.

  “Dark. He had a pen light and flashed it between my face and my drivers' license. He said I looked familiar. Then he asked if I was on the Mystic Grove Village Board and I said I was a trustee. Meagher said he smelled alcohol on my breath and asked if I'd been drinking. I said I’d had two glasses of wine and a full dinner hours earlier.” Rose paused and shook her head.

  “What happened next?” I asked.

  “Meagher said he could test me with the breathalyzer, but if I failed he'd have to book me as ‘Operating While Intoxicated’. I knew an OWI was serious and I didn’t know what my blood alcohol count would be after drinking several glasses of wine. When he said an OWI would be public information, I was… in shock. The last thing I wanted my family to hear was that the police stopped me for drunk driving. Also, I hoped to run for village president someday. If I got an OWI, it would have ruined everything. At least, that’s how I saw it then.”

  “That’s when he threw you a lifeline?” I asked.

  “Yes, exactly. Meagher said we could work things out. He told me he could make the traffic stop go away. If I agreed to pay him a small amount each month, nobody would ever know. He guaranteed it.”

  “And you agreed,” I said.

  “I thought about it for a minute and asked how much. He said fifty dollars a month. It went up later, but fifty dollars seemed small at the time. I thought about my family and I agreed.”

  “What happened next?” I asked.

  “Meagher returned to his patrol car with my driver's license. Then he came back and gave me my license and a small card. There was a P.O. Box address printed on the card and $50/m written underneath the address. He said I should send cash the first of each month to that address. Then he let me go.”

  “He let you go?” I asked. “After saying you were intoxicated?”

  “I know. It was all a con job, really. I admit that I had a couple of glasses of wine, but I wasn’t drunk. I was tired more than anything else. But he scared me when he said the OWI results would be public.”

  “Do you have a drinking problem?” Sam asked quietly. Rose’s eyes shifted to him and she nodded.

  “I used to. After I left the military there were times when I drank too much. I never got drunk in public, only at home. At the time, I didn’t think of myself as a drunk, but of course I was.”

  “You decided to stop paying, didn’t you?” I asked.

  She looked at me and nodded. “At first, my husband was unhappy about the arrangement, but agreed we should pay Meagher to keep him quiet. However, two things happened. Meagher started increasing the monthly amount. It’s up to seventy-five dollars now. Clearly, he planned to keep increasing the payment.”

  “What was the second thing?” I asked.

  Rose sat back in her chair and smiled. “I stopped drinking completely a year ago. I told my mom, dad, and siblings about my drinking problem and that I had quit. They were so supportive. After talking to Eric, we agreed we would stop paying Meagher.”

  “How did that go?” I asked.

  “Not well. I called him and said I wasn’t paying blackmail anymore. He said the new amount had increased to one hundred dollars a month and I hung up on him. After that, he left angry voicemail messages on our home phone. That’s when I started collecting evidence. I made copies of all the voicemails. Then Meagher started calling in the evenings when we were home. We bought a digital recorder and recorded those conversations. He threatened my family and I threatened him right back. When he called me on my cel
l phone, I recorded those conversations with the voice recorder.”

  “How’d he get your cell phone number?”

  Rose shrugged. “I’m not sure. I never gave it to him. But he may have called Danvers and pretended to be a client. They would have given out my number.”

  “Rose, we heard you had an altercation with Meagher outside the Village Tavern.”

  Rose frowned and then her eyes lit up. “Oh yes, I remember. I ran into Meagher in the parking lot there. He brought up the payment again and said he'd start telling people that I was a drunk. I told him I didn't drink anymore and wasn't paying him another cent. It got heated.”

  “Did he retaliate in any way?” I asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of. Nobody said he’d contacted them.”

  “Why didn’t you bring the recordings to the county sheriff?” Sam asked.

  Rose shrugged. “I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I could trust him. However, if the harassment got worse, going to the sheriff was definitely on the table. Eric and I also discussed calling the FBI because they might be more neutral. But I knew as soon as I did that, it would all be in the public and I might have to testify.”

  “And you didn’t want that,” I said.

  “No. I hoped if Meagher saw I was serious about not paying him, that he’d just give up. All things considered, it wasn’t a lot of money. But he kept calling and wouldn’t give up,” Rose replied.

  “Then what happened?” I asked.

  “At the beginning of May, Meagher called me and said he wanted to talk like adults face to face. I told him we had nothing to discuss. He said if I didn't meet with him, I’d be putting my loved ones at risk. That was the second time he’d threatened my family and I was irate! I told him if he hurt anyone in my family, I’d kill him. He replied that all I had to do was meet with him and talk. I decided then that I’d do it. I planned to finally let him know I had recordings and would use them. When I said I’d meet him in a public place, he suggested the Tipsy Cow. We agreed on 11:00 a.m., but I arrived early and he was late.”

  “How much earlier did you arrive?” asked Sam, leaning forward.

  “About ten minutes, I think,” Rose replied.

  Then it clicked and my mouth dropped open. “You were the woman with the wig, hat, and sunglasses?”

  Rose smiled faintly. “You’re a step ahead of me, aren’t you? Yes, that was me. I didn’t want anyone to recognize me. When Meagher arrived, we sat staring at each other. I wanted him to start talking first. Then the waitress came and took his order. After she left, he brought up the one hundred dollar amount again and said I had to pay it. I told him I refused to pay another cent to him. Then he suggested ninety dollars a month and I said I wouldn’t pay it.”

  “How did he react?” I asked.

  “He was angry. He threatened to tell the Gil Steiner, the village president, and all the trustees. He also said he’d tell everyone at Danvers realty. He didn’t bring up my family again, which was good. If he had, I might have lost control. Anyway, I reiterated that he could tell whoever he wanted to, but I refused to pay.”

  “Then what?”

  “He said we could keep the payment at seventy-five dollars a month. I told him he didn’t get it. I was done. No more payments. No more threats. No more phone calls. Then I warned him if he pressed the issue in any way I'd go to the county sheriff and turn him in for blackmailing me. He laughed and said I didn't have any evidence. That’s when I revealed I had recordings of his voicemail messages and our phone conversations. I assured him I had put them in a very safe place with duplicates elsewhere. He didn’t believe me so I played one of the voicemails on my phone. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He told me to turn it off and reached for my phone. I killed the audio and the waitress walked up with his lunch. After she left, I told him I’d send all of the audio files I had to the county sheriff and the FBI if I ever heard from him again. He didn’t say a word and I walked out and his face was beet red.”

  “What time did you leave?” Sam asked.

  “Around 11:30 p.m.”

  “So you talked for about fifteen minutes,” I said.

  Rose nodded. “That sounds right.”

  “Did you tape the conversation at the Tipsy Cow?” I asked.

  “I did. I added it to a flash drive of all the evidence I have. Meagher never knew I recorded that last conversation.”

  I nodded. “What happened next?”

  “I had parked on the side of the building and sat in my car for a while to calm down. Eric, my husband, stayed home sick that day. I called him to reassure him that I was okay and the meeting had ended. After we hung up, I was about to start the car when I received a call from a client who was interested in making an offer on a house I had shown him. We talked about his offer. After that call ended, I started my car and looked to my left. That’s when I saw Meagher leaving the restaurant.”

  “Did he see you?” Sam asked.

  “No, I’m sure he didn’t. I watched him walk to an old white cargo van,” Rose replied.

  “You were on the side of the building but could still see him?” I asked.

  “Sure. I was parked on the side but I was toward the front of the building, so I had a clear view. Also, there weren’t any cars by his van. I just had to turn in my seat to watch him,” she replied.

  “What did the van look like?” I asked.

  Rose shrugged. “It reminded me of an old company van. It was long and white with two doors in front. Behind the passenger door, there were two more side windows and another door. In the back, there were two smaller windows. I remember seeing rust too.”

  “No name on the side?” Sam asked.

  Rose shook her head. “No.”

  “Okay what happened next?” I asked.

  Rose took a deep breath. “Before Meagher got in, he changed clothes. He took off his jacket, shirt, and tie and pulled a long-sleeved plaid shirt out of the van. He put that on over his white tee shirt and jammed a baseball hat on his head.”

  “Rose, I just want to clarify. When you left the restaurant, you didn’t sit in your car waiting for Meagher, did you?” I asked.

  “Heck no.? Here, you can look at my cell phone and confirm the call I made to Eric. You can also see the number of the man who called me about the house,” Rose replied. She took her cell phone out of her pocket, brought up her call log, and slid the phone across to me.

  I looked at the log and the date. It was the day of the murder. “You had an outgoing call from 11:33 a.m. to 11:44 a.m.”

  “That was to Eric,” Rose replied.

  “Then an incoming call from 11:45 p.m. to 12:14 p.m. Almost half an hour?”

  “Bob Elliott, my client. We talked about an offer he wanted to make on a house I showed him. He planned to low-ball his bid, and I knew he’d lose the house. So I explained why a low offer was a mistake and covered some other options with him. In the end, he agreed to increase his offer. It just took time to explain the problem with his strategy.”

  I nodded, wrote the call information in my notebook, and slid the phone back to her.

  “Okay, so Meagher left the parking lot?”

  “Yes. I watched him get into the van and back it out. He seemed to have trouble. The van backed up and arced back in a semicircle. That’s how I saw the passenger side of the van. Then he drove toward the exit,” Rose replied. “He stopped at the highway and I noticed the right rear tail light was broken. When he turned left onto the highway, I backed out of my space. I hurried to the highway, turned left, and followed Meagher at a distance. I kept my eye on that tail light.”

  “Why did you follow him?” I asked.

  “I'm not sure. Curiosity I guess.”

  “Go on,” I prompted.

  “He took county roads to US-14 and headed west. That’s when I stopped following him. Traffic had thinned out, so I worried he might see me tailing him. I also had things I needed to get done. So I turned around and headed back.”

  �
��Where’d you go?” I asked.

  “Back home. I wanted to check on Eric.”

  I nodded. “What time did you arrive at home?”

  “It was around 1:00 p.m. I talked to Eric about the meeting with Meagher. Then I made him some soup. After that, I did some work on my laptop. I left the house at 3:15 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, I signed in at Trixie’s for my 4:00 p.m. hair appointment. I got a cut and color and didn’t get out until 6:00.p.m.”

  “So your primary alibi is your husband?” asked Sam.

  “Yes. He’ll confirm I was at home from around 1:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Then the people at Trixie’s will have my check-in time.”

  “Your husband might be considered biased,” he observed.

  “Hah! You don’t know Eric,” Rose replied. “He’s a straight arrow. He won’t lie, especially to the police.”

  “Okay let’s move on. Rose, the investigators found a small shamrock earring at the cabin,” I said.

  Rose frowned. “So?”

  “Was it yours?” I asked.

  “No! I was never at any cabin.”

  Sam sat back and frowned. “When you heard Meagher had been killed, why didn’t you call the Mystic Grove police?”

  “And tell them what?” Rose snapped.

  “That Meagher had been blackmailing you and that you saw him that last day,” Sam replied. “That’s valuable information for the police.”

  Rose snorted. “That would have made me a prime suspect. I can guarantee you that I didn’t kill Meagher. So the police would have wasted time with me while the real killer was still out there.”

  “But between your husband and the hair appointment, you have an alibi. Is there some other reason you didn’t talk to the police?” Sam asked.

  “No.” She replied shortly.

  “Rose, it would really help if you talked to Deputy Newmont about this,” I said.

  She shook her head. “It would be a waste of time.”

  “If you don’t go talk to him, we’ll have to share what you’ve told us with Newmont. It would look much better if you told him yourself,” Sam said.