by Ella White
“Can’t argue with that logic,” Vickie agreed. “I just find it hard to believe that such a confident man would do something like this.”
Kate scoffed. “Are you kidding? That’s exactly why he would be the murderer.”
Vickie couldn’t help but notice how much more talkative she was compared to when they first met. “How so?”
“You heard the book reading last night. The killer in the novel is a rich, powerful man who thinks he’s superior to the ‘normal people’ around him. He kills the victim just to prove he can!”
“I guess you would know,” Rachel conceded. “You helped Mr. Bell write the novel after all.”
“He constantly used me as a soundboard for his ideas,” Kate muttered under her breath. “Some of his ideas are actually mine. He would just never admit it.”
Rachel rubbed her chin in thought. She remembered James telling her about how Annabelle Chambers wanted to sue Harrison Bell for using her ideas but not giving her credit. It would seem this was a common thing he did.
“Sounds like he never had his own ideas,” Rachel commiserated.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Harrison has plenty of good ideas,” Kate retracted. “Just not enough to make a good book.”
“Well, I hope the killer is found soon,” Rachel commented. “Whether that’s Mr. Bell or not. This person needs to be brought to justice.”
“Do you have any evidence that points to someone other than him?” Kate inquired.
Well, James had told her the police had found traces of tea on the garden shear handle, but Rachel suddenly felt like she should keep that a secret. She didn’t want to get in trouble with the police for revealing that kind of information about an ongoing investigation.
“No. Nothing yet.”
“It would seem that it’s only circumstantial evidence that points towards Harrison Bell,” Vickie deduced. “Multiple possible motives, knowledge about the murder…but nothing seems to point definitively to him.”
Kate let out a long sigh. “Well, whatever the case, his arrest couldn’t have come at a better time.”
“That’s not a very nice thing to say about your employer,” Vickie reprimanded.
“I guess not, but when he doesn’t treat me very well, it’s hard to not feel that way.” Kate finished off her tea. “What I meant was, it’s nice to have a break. I’m an aspiring writer myself, so it’s nice to finally have time to write for myself.”
“I take it you don’t get much free time for that?” Rachel presumed. “Since you’re always so busy with your assistant work for Mr. Bell?”
“Exactly! This is my opportunity to work on my own mystery novel!” Kate’s watch suddenly beeped, and she looked down at it. “I’ve got to go. I promised myself I would get more writing done tonight.”
She took out some cash to pay for her beverage before giving Tyler one last pet and waving goodbye to the women. Once she was gone, Vickie and Rachel stared at each other. Both of them had slack jaws as this new information washed over them.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Rachel questioned.
“We never considered Kate to be a suspect before,” Vickie recalled. “If Harrison Bell is innocent, which I am believing more and more to be the case, then Kate could very well be Anthony’s killer… It seems she would benefit the most from having Harrison Bell out of the way.”
“So she can have time to write her own book,” Rachel agreed. “But why doesn’t she just quit?”
“That’s a good question,” her mother stated. “But I can’t shake off the idea that it could be Matthew Bae. We need a way to distinguish between the two.”
“We need forensic evidence.” Rachel sighed loudly. “So…either way, Anthony died by complete coincidence. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I can’t think of a reason he would have been killed other than that.” Vickie walked over and gave her daughter a tight hug. “I’m so sorry, Rachel.”
The young woman took several breaths as she tried to keep her tears inside. “I’m okay…or I will be. I need to figure out who did this first.”
“And we will,” Vickie said, determination in her tone. She glanced around. “But right now, I have to finish cleaning up this place for tomorrow.”
“Let me give you a hand.”
Vickie tackled the mess from the espresso machine incident while Rachel went around and wiped down the tables. Once she was finished, she placed all the chairs with the cushioned seats on the tabletops so Vickie could mop the floor. Tyler decided the head of the mop was an intruder in his territory, so he kept swatting at it with is paws as Vickie swept it back and forth, cleaning up coffee spills from under the tables. Rachel finished cleaning up the last of the coffee pots and putting the last dishes in the washer before putting down a bowl of food and water for Tyler’s dinner.
Of course, he had to dispatch this white trespasser before he could enjoy his meal!
Chapter 8
The next morning, Vickie woke up with an epiphany. She immediately jumped up, showered and got dressed. Thomas had no idea what had gotten her so excited, nor did he really want to. His wife was a fairly logical person, but sometimes she did crazy things. He wasn’t concerned though. Vickie was the most intelligent person he knew, although she never flaunted it, so he knew she wasn’t going to do something dangerous.
Vickie drove over to the Sip and Read Café earlier than she normally did in order to get the place ready for another day. Once she was sure the place was running smoothly (again with the help of the ever-supportive Kimberly), she gave her daughter a call and told her to meet her at the shop. Once Rachel arrived, Vickie explained her plan to her and Kimberly.
“You want me to meet with Kate and Matthew again?” Rachel repeated.
“Yes. I’m sure we’ve missed something,” Vickie stated. “We’ve kept thinking about who would have wanted to kill Anthony and blame it on Harrison Bell, who would’ve benefitted the most from his conviction, that sort of thing. But we’ve only spoken to both of them in planned interviews.”
“So what?” Kimberly asked. “What difference does that make?”
“It means that whoever murdered Anthony was able to prepare their answers to our questions,” the older woman continued. “Or at least prepare for predictable questions. But what if something unpredictable happened?”
“You want to try and catch them off guard?” Rachel concluded.
“Exactly, and I think I know exactly how to do it,” she announced. “But I’m going to need your help…and I’ll need to call in a favor from a friend.”
After Vickie described her entire plan to the two women and made the call to her friend, she asked Rachel to request that both Matthew and Kate meet her at the café again. It was pretty easy to get them to come back; Kate wanted to come to hear more about the case, and Matthew seemed eager to meet with Rachel again.
Only about half an hour passed before the two arrived. Kate came in first, followed shortly by Matthew, and they stared at each other for several minutes.
“What are you doing here?” Matthew interrogated.
“Rachel asked me to come to speak to her about her story,” Kate replied. “Why are you here?”
“Same reason.” The disappointment was clear in his tone. “I thought I was the only one talking to Rachel.”
“I asked you both to come,” Rachel interrupted, putting two hands up between them to prevent a fight breaking out. “I wanted to talk to both of you at once. Saves time that way.”
“Anything you need, Rach,” Matthew said, and she suppressed a shudder at the nickname. “Shall we sit?”
Kate was already sitting at a table, placing her bag on the ground beside her, causing it to open slightly. She stared at the man, barely disguising the snarl on her face due to his presence. Rachel sat down opposite both of them and pulled out her notepad again.
“Thanks for meeting me again on such short notice. These questions are simpl
er than last time, so this shouldn’t take long.”
“Maybe we can grab some real breakfast after this?” Matthew suggested, and Kate coughed into her hand. His head snapped to her. “What?”
“Nothing,” she replied, waving her hand. “Really.”
Matthew looked dubious, but he turned his attention back to Rachel. “So what do you say?”
“Let’s do the interviews first.” She really didn’t want to continue down that line of conversation, if her tone was anything to go by. Sadly, Matthew didn’t seem to catch on, and he continued to stare at her with lowered eyelids. “First question is for Kate. This is purely hypothetical, but what would happen to you if Harrison Bell does go to jail for the murder?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it much,” she replied, fidgeting with the sleeve of her once again flamboyant dress. This one had cherry blossoms on it. “I would be out of a job, of course.”
“Surely you could get another one?”
“I guess, but I’m not sure I would want to.” Kate’s eyes started sparkling with glee. “Like I told you yesterday, I’d have more time to work on my own book.”
“You’re a writer too?” Matthew interrupted her.
“Yes. I write my own mystery novels, although I haven’t been published yet.” Kate cleared her throat before continuing. “Anyway, being out of a job would give me time to try out new artistic opportunities. Of course, I’m not trying to say I want Mr. Bell to be guilty. I hope he does go free.”
Vickie cocked an eyebrow at her from her spot at the front cash register. Kate seemed awfully eager to jump to her own writing. Vickie wondered if she really wouldn’t mind if Harrison stayed in custody.
Rachel turned to the young man. “Now, Matthew—”
“I told you to call me Matt.”
“Being Mr. Bell’s number one fan, what would happen to you if your idol remains in prison?” She purposely ignored his statement. “Surely a murderer is not the kind of person you should be looking up to, let alone trying to emulate?”
Matthew straightened his shoulders and raised his chin. “It would be a horrible injustice to put such a brilliant man in jail, but justice must be served.”
“But what would you do if it actually happened?”
“I’d never thought of that.” He paused to think, although he didn’t look very thoughtful. “I could probably step in and take over his writing. There’s no reason I couldn’t use his name as a pseudo name, right?”
“I’m not sure that’s legal,” Kate interjected. “I think that’s fraud.”
“I guess so, but I could still be a successor to his writing,” Matthew persisted. “I could even go around as his look-alike.”
Vickie had to cough to stifle her laugh. He really thought his writing was comparable to Harrison Bell’s? She recalled reading some of his work on Harrison’s blog, and she stepped over to the trashcan in case she started to feel nauseous again.
Rachel wrote down a few pieces of nonsense, knowing that her mother was taking the real notes of the conversation, and continued.
“Kate, I’ve been wondering something since we last talked,” she informed her. “Mr. Bell kept you very busy, to the point where it was leaving you with little time to even eat or sleep.”
“That’s right. That’s why I never had time to write.”
“If the working conditions were so bad, why didn’t you just quit?” Rachel inquired. “It even sounds like you feel you could do well enough on your own without his employment.”
“Ah, well, you know.” Kate didn’t seem to have anticipated this question, and her cheeks flushed. “He was a tough boss, true, but…you know, I guess he always had his ways of convincing me to stick around.”
Considering this was the first time had Kate stumbled on one of her explanations, Vickie realized they had hit a sensitive topic. There must be something more than what Kate was telling them. Vickie dropped one of their mugs, causing it to shatter to the ground, but she didn’t mind paying to replace it. It was the signal to Rachel that she should not press too hard, or else Kate might start to become suspicious. Thankfully Rachel got the message loud and clear.
Rachel was about to ask a question when she spotted Tyler digging through Kate’s bag. The owner of the purse didn’t seem to have noticed, so Rachel kept quiet, both so Tyler could go through the bag and so the cat wouldn’t startle Matthew again. She needed the man to not panic this time.
The journalist turned back to Matthew. “Matt, you said you think you could replace Mr. Bell as a writer? Why do you think that?”
“I presume you’ve read some of the passages I’ve posted on his blog?” Rachel nodded, and he resumed. “It’s not bad, huh? I’m a good writer, and I’ve studied Mr. Bell’s writing style for years. I’ve followed his work so closely, I could write it for myself in my sleep. I even look like him! I could easily step in and no one would miss him.”
Rachel stared at him, wondering how in the world he could think he looked even remotely like Harrison Bell. While Harrison was a tall and dark man, Matthew was short and pale. Matthew was as skinny as a sapling, while Harrison had taken advantage of the money he made from his book and gained weight from not needing to do hard labor. Harrison’s hair was black while Matthew’s was brown, with the gray streak being the only similarity between the two of them. There wasn’t a good enough costume or enough stage makeup to make Matthew pass for the famous author.
She didn’t say anything to this effect, however, as she spotted Tyler dashing from Kate’s bag and over to the front counter where Vickie was standing. He dropped something on the table. When Vickie saw it, she immediately covered it with her hands and hid it in her pocket before Rachel got a look at it.
Vickie rang the cash register three times, a signal that Rachel needed the interview to end. She needed to show Rachel what Tyler had just brought her.
Noting the cash register signal, Kimberly headed back to the employees’ lounge, ready to do her part of the plan. Moments later, right on schedule, the front phone rang. Vickie quickly picked it up before anyone else could.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Vickie, this is Susan Miles,” Kimberly said on the other end of the line, playing along just in case someone could overhear them.
“Hello, Chief. How are you?” Vickie asked. She turned her eyes to Rachel’s table. “What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to let you and your daughter know that we’re closing in on Anthony’s murderer,” Kimberly said. “We’ve found new evidence and a possible witness.”
“A possible witness?” Vickie replied, louder than necessary to make sure Kate and Matthew heard. “Who is it?”
“You know Amy Blacker?”
“Of course. She’s the manager at the bookstore where Anthony worked.” Although they were only hearing half the conversation, both Kate and Matthew had intrigued expressions on their faces. “She saw something?”
“She thinks she may have seen the killer leaving the scene of the crime.” Kimberly sounded like she was having a blast playing the role of the chief of police. “We’re just waiting for a sketch artist to come from the town over, and then we plan to release the drawing to the media.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Vickie replied. “Thanks for letting us know.”
“Just giving you and your daughter a hand. I’ll speak with you later.”
Kimberly instantly hung up the phone, exactly as Vickie would have expected Susan Miles to do. She wondered if Kimberly had met Susan before, since she was able to portray her perfectly. Of course it may not have done anything useful, but Vickie wanted to be sure they were playing their roles perfectly.
Vickie headed over to Rachel’s table, where both Kate and Matthew were looking a little concerned.
“Was that the chief of police, Mom?” Rachel inquired.
“It was. She wanted to let us know they might have a lead on the murderer.”
“Really?” Matthew said.
; “She said that Amy Blacker thinks she saw the killer leave the scene,” Vickie explained. “They’re going to have to speak with a sketch artist so they can get a profile to put in the paper and on the news.”
“And then they’ll be able to catch the person who killed Anthony,” Rachel said enthusiastically. “Excellent!”
“Sorry, Rachel, but I think we should continue our conversation later,” Kate said suddenly as she grabbed her purse from the ground and launched out of the café.
Matthew watched her go, surprise evident on his face, but he turned back to Rachel. “So, is this a good time for us to catch that breakfast?”
“Sorry, Matthew, not now,” Rachel responded. “Maybe you should go check on Mr. Bell?”
“Yeah, I guess. Call me later!”
Matthew left the shop more slowly, but once he was out the door, he dashed to his car and sped off. Rachel watched to make sure he had left before going back to her mother. Kimberly also returned to the front of the shop and smiled at them.
“Did it work?” she asked. “Was I a convincing Susan Miles?”
“You were perfect,” Vickie congratulated her. “They thought you were her.”
“You got a bit frantic when Tyler came over,” Rachel noticed. “What did he grab?”
“From Kate’s bag?”
“I’m not sure,” Vickie admitted.
“Who do you think did it?”
“I don’t know, but we have a way to find out. I need to call Amy.” Vickie went back to the phone and dialed Amy’s number. She didn’t have to wait long before she picked up. “Hello, Amy.”
“Hiya, Vickie!” Amy responded eagerly. “Did it work?”
“I think so. The killer’s headed right for your bookshop.”
“All right! I’m already here, so I’ll clear the place out so no one gets hurt.”
“Good. Can you make up some excuse?”
“I’ll say I need to prepare for our next mystery book club meeting or something.”