There was only one way to find out. As Joe and I reached the squad car, Tyler looked just as livid as ever.
Sigh.
So much for catching a break. Joe and I would have to do things the hard way.
“Let me out of here,” Tyler demanded.
It was a bold request for Tyler to make, considering he had no leverage whatsoever.
Joe made no bones about what he expected from Tyler. “Answer our questions and we will.”
Tyler groaned. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“Where were you between eleven and midnight last night?”
“I was at home.”
“Alone?”
“What does that matter?”
“It matters a great deal,” Joe said.
“But I already told you, I was here drinking a few beers, watching sports highlights,” Tyler replied.
Joe went right after him again, not deviating in the least. “I’m going to ask you one more time, were you here alone?”
Tyler gritted his teeth. “Yes.”
“That means you have no one to corroborate your story,” Joe said.
“It’s not a story. It’s the truth,” Tyler snapped.
“According to you,” Joe said.
I said my piece. “You told us you were at home, drinking and watching sports highlights, but that was the night of the holiday office party. Why were you home so early?”
“It was a lame party,” Tyler replied.
“Or maybe you left early because you had a huge fight with Lisa,” I suggested.
“No—”
I cut him off right there. “Tyler, I know you and Lisa got into a fight at the party. Just as I know you and Lisa were in the middle of a fight as we arrived here today. Lying won’t do you any favors.”
“I didn’t lie. It was a lame party even before we got into a fight,” Tyler said.
“Yet another story that you can’t confirm,” I replied.
“You want the truth? I just told you. I had nothing to do with Nick’s death,” Tyler said.
Joe folded his arms. “I’d really like to believe that.”
“You say that, yet you keep hammering me with these questions,” Tyler replied.
“I’m just doing my job. Besides, these fights you’ve been having aren’t helping your case any,” Joe said.
“Haven’t you been listening to me? I didn’t do anything,” Tyler snapped.
“Then you should have no problem answering our questions. For example, what have you and Lisa been fighting about?” Joe asked.
It was a sly move on my brother’s part. He already knew the answer to that, but he wanted to hear how Tyler would reply. More specifically, if the suspect would lie to him.
Tyler’s reaction did not inspire confidence. He remained quiet and seemed to be in no hurry to answer. As the silence turned awkward, my brother’s patience wore thin.
“Tongue-tied?” Joe wondered.
Tyler shook his head. “No.”
“Then answer me.”
“The arguments I have been having with Lisa have had nothing to do with Nick’s death.”
“If that’s true, then there’s no reason for you not to answer my question.”
“So what, my right to privacy isn’t a good enough reason for you?” Tyler snapped.
For a man who supposedly had nothing to hide, Tyler was sure evasive.
I tried to nail down an answer from him. “Knock it off. We know Lisa was cheating on you with Nick. The fact that they were sleeping with each other couldn’t be more relevant considering that Nick was just murdered.”
“Only I didn’t do anything,” Tyler replied.
Joe fired right back at him. “You keep saying that, but you have no way to prove it. One thing that’s easy to prove is the fact that you had a serious motive for wanting Nick dead.”
Tyler refuted my brother’s point. “That’s not true.”
Joe scoffed. “Really? You honestly expect me to believe that?”
Tyler nodded. “Lisa wanted me back. Why would I have gone to the trouble of killing Nick when Lisa ultimately ended up choosing me over him?”
“Because the damage had already been done. By the time Lisa came crawling back to you, your heart had been broken,” I argued.
Tyler vehemently shook his head. “No.”
“You say that, but Lisa just got done telling us that you decided not to take her back. The only reason you would have turned her away was if you were holding a grudge—one that all stemmed back to Nick’s actions,” I said.
Tyler remained argumentative. “I’m not a killer. I was at home watching sports highlights at the time of the murder. That’s the truth.”
Joe stepped in again. “Like I said, I’d love to believe you, but you haven’t given me any reason to.”
Tyler didn’t budge an inch. “You wanted me to answer your questions. I did. I have told you everything I know.”
We had reached a stalemate. One that wouldn’t be broken that afternoon. My brother tried strong-arming Tyler a little more in hopes that the suspect would break down, but Tyler remained firm.
That left Joe with little choice. He didn’t have enough to charge Tyler with. So, after much hesitation, my brother let Tyler go with a warning.
Chapter Eight
The last suspect on our list was Gary Newton, Nick’s younger brother. Gary was a muscular man in his mid-thirties with messy brown hair, brown eyes, a square jaw, and a thick mustache. Unlike his brother, who owned a nice, two-story, Spanish-style house, Gary lived in a bachelor-style apartment.
After a few knocks on the front door, Gary invited us into his spare living room furnished with only a TV, a couch, and not a whole lot else—not even a Christmas tree. I felt depressed just standing there. I couldn’t believe that Gary lived here day in and day out.
With such a distinct lack of furnishing in the room, one thing that did stick out was the sheer number of empty beer cans that were strewn around the apartment. By the looks of it, Gary had been busy fighting off sobriety. Apparently, he had done a good job of it. Judging by how red his face was, he had a good beer buzz going.
There were two ways to take that. Either Gary was mourning the death of his brother, or he was trying to chase away the guilt of killing him. The truth remained to be seen.
Joe was determined to get to the bottom of it. I could tell he had a slew of hard-hitting questions. I didn’t think that was the most effective approach this time. Instead, I insisted on taking the lead, trying to gently work my way up to the pressing matters at hand.
“Gary, I’m so sorry about what happened to your brother,” I said.
Gary grimaced. “Not as sorry as I am.”
He then reached for the last remaining beer from the six-pack that was on his coffee table.
“It looks like you’ve been knocking back a fair amount of beer,” I said.
Gary stared me down. “Don’t judge me. You’d do the same if your only brother were murdered.”
What an odd position to be put in, considering that I was standing alongside my brother as Gary said that. Awkwardness aside, I didn’t agree with Gary’s statement. While I prayed that I never lost my brother to such grim circumstances, I would never turn to beer for comfort as Gary had. Gary’s apartment was practically screaming for an intervention. That being said, Joe and I were here about bigger issues, and I wasn’t about to dispute Gary’s point for fear of inciting him.
I gave Gary a sympathetic look. “I’m not judging you.”
Gary sighed. “Good. With Nick gone, I have no family left.”
“Again, I’m really sorry about what happened. I want you to know that we’re going to do everything in our power to bring his killer to justice,” I said.
Gary’s eyes lit up with rage. “I hope they rot in jail.”
“So do I,” I replied. “That being said, do you have any idea who might have done this?”
A name immediately came to Gary’s mind. “You should talk
to Lisa Dalton.”
“Why her?” I asked.
“She’s a bad woman. Lisa used my brother to get a promotion. She made him believe that she really loved him. Then, once she got the promotion, she broke his heart,” Gary explained.
My eyes widened. That was certainly a different version of the events than Lisa had told me. Then again, Lisa had been trying to convince me of her innocence. At the same time, I had to remember the source of this alternate version of the story.
Gary wasn’t exactly unbiased, either. He was up for the same promotion as Lisa and felt burned by the fact that his brother had chosen her over him. Just how much that skewed Gary’s viewpoint was yet to be determined.
“That’s a pretty incendiary story,” I said.
“It’s also the truth,” Gary replied.
“According to you,” I said.
“Go talk to her. You’ll see,” Gary insisted.
“We did talk to her,” I replied.
“Then you know exactly what I’m talking about,” Gary said.
“Lisa’s version of the events is a little different,” I replied.
“Of course it is. She’s trying to protect her own hide. See, I told you she was a bad seed. You need to go over to her place and arrest her,” Gary said.
“Not so fast. We’re not done here,” I replied.
“It’s nice of you to come over here to check up on me and all, but I really want to be left alone,” Gary said.
I corrected him. “We didn’t just come over here to check up on you.”
Confusion came to Gary’s face. “What are you talking about?”
My brother had stood by quietly, waiting to see if my approach worked. Joe grew tired of being patient. He spoke up. “Gary, we have some questions for you.”
It was always such a difficult tightrope to walk, making the switch from sympathy to suspicion. At the same time, regardless of how awkward it was, it was also very necessary.
As expected, Gary reacted with shock. “Why would you have a question for me?”
“Gary, calm down,” Joe said.
Gary didn’t heed my brother’s advice. “Wait a minute. You don’t think I could have done this, do you?”
“We have to consider all possibilities,” Joe replied.
Gary was already in an emotionally unstable state to begin with. This new wrinkle in the conversation threatened to bowl him over.
“That’s crazy,” Gary snapped.
Joe tried to reassure him. “Look. If you’re innocent, you have nothing to worry about.”
Gary folded his arms. “I am innocent, and this is ridiculous.”
“You can say that all you want, but we’re not leaving until we get our questions answered. Now, where were you between eleven and midnight last night?” Joe asked.
“I was here,” he said.
“So you weren’t at the office party, then?” Joe wondered.
Gary shook his head. “No. It was over by then.”
“Was there anyone here with you, or were you alone?” Joe asked.
“I can’t believe this,” Gary said. “This is my brother we’re talking about here.”
Joe tried again. “I understand that, but you didn’t answer my question. Were you here alone?”
“You can’t honestly think I might have killed my brother, can you?” Gary asked.
Joe kept hammering away. “Will you just answer the question?”
“Yes, I was alone. But I’d never hurt my brother. I’m offended that you’d even suggest such a thing,” Gary replied.
“Gary, don’t make this any harder than it has to be,” I said. “I know you and Nick didn’t always get along. Take the promotion that Lisa got. Take that promotion you thought you deserved—”
Gary interrupted me. “I did deserve it.”
“Exactly. So it must have really burned you when Lisa got that promotion instead of you,” I said.
Gary tensed up. “I wasn’t angry with Nick about that.”
I scoffed. “You really expect me to believe that?”
Gary nodded. “I was upset with Lisa. She’s the bad seed. She twisted his mind and his heart.”
“You keep pointing the finger of suspicion at Lisa, but there are plenty of things to be suspicious of you about,” Joe argued.
Gary shrugged his shoulders. “How do you figure?”
“The promotion, to start,” Joe said. “But it’s more than that. Nick wasn’t married. He didn’t have any kids. With your parents both dead, you were his family—”
“All the more reason not to want him dead,” Gary argued.
“Except, now that Nick is dead, you’ll get a lot more than a promotion. You stand to inherit his house and his agency. That’s the kind of thing people have been known to kill for,” Joe said.
Gary shook his head. “No. I didn’t do this.”
“You want us to believe you, but you haven’t given us a good reason to,” Joe replied.
“I answered your question. I told you the truth. Now I want you to leave,” Gary snapped.
That was exactly what I was worried about. The conversation had gotten out of hand in a hurry, and there was no way to reel it back in. Even more, with Gary flying off of the handle, Joe knew he wouldn’t be able to get any more information out of him. Like that, the interview was abruptly over.
Chapter Nine
With no other suspects left to question, Joe and I decided that a break was in order. It was easy to get bogged down, to become so hyper-focused that I gave myself a headache. I needed my mind to be sharp. That’s why a little time away could really help.
It was never a bad idea to get some fresh air. I decided to take my sixteen-year-old Labrador retriever, Buster, for a walk. As we strolled down a section of town dotted with retail shops, Buster’s focus was on sniffing fire hydrants. My thoughts, meanwhile, turned to Christmas. Holiday music was playing over loudspeakers, every window display we walked by had a seasonal theme, and there was a man dressed up like Santa Clause ringing a bell asking for donations for a charitable organization.
All of these things typically filled me with cheer. Not this time. My frustrations with this murder investigation had put me in such a dour mood that I couldn’t get into the holiday spirit.
Since even something as inherently joyful as Christmas carols couldn’t distract me from thinking about the case, I decided to stop fighting my own natural urges. If my mind was determined to linger on this case, so be it.
I decided to give it more fodder. After walking back to my car, I drove over to Nick’s house to poke around. I knew that my brother and his forensics team had already gone over the place. That being said, I wanted to look at it myself. In addition, I had Buster with me, not to mention his keen sense of smell.
It was a very slight possibility, but perhaps I would stumble upon something that Joe didn’t notice before. After spending nearly a half hour walking around the front of the house, the backyard, and the sidewalk in front of Nick’s place, I was ready to give up.
Just as I was ready to pack it in and head home, something caught my eye. It was a garbage can that was resting beside Nick’s garage. I never thought I would dig through someone else’s trash, but murder investigations made people do desperate things.
Much to my surprise, as I lifted the lid of the garbage can and began rooting around, I spotted something inside that had the potential to blow this case wide open.
Suddenly, I had stumbled upon a new lead, and I was determined to follow up on it.
Chapter Ten
After deeper investigation had reaffirmed my hunch, Joe and I took a trip to Nick’s advertising agency on Greenly Lane. It was very surprising to see that the place had reopened so quickly after Nick’s murder. If I were in charge, I would have given all the employees the proper time to mourn. That was not the case as we arrived. The place was back to business as usual. That troubled me, but not nearly as much as the surprise that was waiting for Joe and me as we entered Ni
ck’s former office.
The corner office with an ocean view was not vacant, as I had expected. Instead, Gary Newton had already moved his stuff in and was sitting behind Nick’s old mahogany desk. Gary stared out at the ocean, lost in thought.
I pulled his head out of the clouds. “Don’t get too comfortable back there.”
Gary spun his chair around and narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing. I didn’t expect the agency to be open again so quickly. Nor did I think you would have already moved your stuff into your brother’s old office,” I said.
As Nick’s only surviving family member, the ad agency was now Gary’s. He seemed to be relishing his new role.
“The business world stops for no one,” Gary replied.
“Speaking of, we’re here because of some unfinished business,” I said.
“I already answered your questions. I have nothing else to say to you. Now, please leave. I have a business to run,” Gary demanded.
Joe stopped him right there. “Not so fast. You may have nothing to say to us, but we have plenty to say to you.”
“To start, I know you killed your brother,” I said.
Gary scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”
I didn’t waver. “No. Unfortunately, it’s the truth.”
Gary tried to shrug me off. “I’m not going to listen to this.”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” Joe said.
“It turned out it was the beer that did you in,” I added.
Gary gave me a blank stare. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I pulled an evidence bag out of my purse. Inside the bag was an empty beer can.
Gary remained dismissive. “So what? It’s a beer can.”
I corrected him. “It’s not just any beer can. This was found in the garbage can beside your brother’s garage.”
Gary didn’t budge an inch. “And? My brother drank beer.”
I shook my head. “Not this brand. I know for a fact that your brother was a Tiller Light kind of guy. This is a can of Pibst—the brand you drink. There were a whole bunch of Pibst beer cans strewn all over your apartment when we questioned you yesterday.”
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