by Casey Mayes
I shrugged. “What can I say? I like to keep things interesting. Now come on; let’s go eat.”
“I know better than to try to argue with you.” He smiled, and then added, “Besides, I’m hungry, too.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
Chapter 16
“I’VE MISSED THIS,” I SAID AS I TOOK ANOTHER BITE OF heavenly pizza.
“There are things to be said for civilization,” Zach agreed as he tackled another slice. There was no way we were going to be able to eat the whole thing, but we were going to give it our best shot.
We were eating at our all-time favorite pizza haunt in Charlotte, Luigi’s on South Tryon near Whitehall on the Southside of town. Try as we had, we had found nothing in our new hometown that even came close to their particular take on New York-style pizza.
After we were finished eating, we grabbed refills of our drinks and decided to discuss the case out in our car. The pizzeria was jammed, as it should be, given the great food they served, and Zach didn’t want anyone to overhear our conversation.
“Oh, man, I need a nap,” Zach said as we walked back to our car.
“We could always head back to the hotel for an hour, if you wanted.”
“I’d love to, but we both know that’s not going to happen. Tell me more about Julia Tristan.”
I’d started to tell him what Hank’s sister had told me, but he’d asked me to wait until we could discuss it without anyone overhearing us.
“Well, the first thing she did was break down and cry,” I admitted. “I told her I was sorry for her loss, and that made her fall apart. It appears that no one else has offered her any sympathy for losing her brother.”
“What else did she say?”
I bit my lower lip, and then I began to tell him what I’d heard. “She has Grady at the top of her suspect list after the fight they had.”
“No surprise, there. A great many people saw that fight. Did she have anything else?”
I’d hesitated telling him about his friend, but I really had no choice. “She said that Davis and Hank were business partners in a land speculation deal that went bad. Evidently Davis lost a lot of money, a great deal more than he could afford to lose. Did you know about that?”
“No, this is the first I’m hearing about it.”
“What are you going to do? Julia thinks Davis and Grady aren’t going to be investigated, because of who they are.”
“We both know better than that. I hope that’s what you told her.”
“Oh, yes, I assured her that no one was going to get a free pass on this. Is it true?”
“About Davis? It could be. He was always looking for ways to double his money. I can see him going into business with Hank. He had a reputation for turning things into gold with every venture he became involved with.”
“So, you’ll talk to him?”
“I’ll talk to him,” Zach said as he added a few notes to the book he always carried with him, whether he was on a case or not. I knew that once a note went in there, it would be explored from all angles until Zach was satisfied with the answer enough to strike it out. It might have seemed arcane to people used to BlackBerries, cell phones, and laptop computers, but it worked for him, and I wasn’t about to suggest he change. He’d been too successful in the past for that to happen.
“Who else did she bring up?”
“The women at the ball, as well as their dates. She thinks there’s a chance that Hank stepped on somebody’s toes when he danced with every willing female at the party.”
“Anybody in particular?” Zach asked.
“You should have seen Julia’s face when Lorna walked toward us. It was as though she’d seen a ghost.”
“Did she say anything?”
“Something like, ‘She was one of them,’ I think. She took off before Lorna had a chance to get to us.”
Zach nodded, and then made another note in his book.
“Seriously? You’re putting Lorna’s name down in your Suspect column?”
“Savannah, she was there that night, and she danced with Hank.”
“From what I’ve heard, Hank danced with a lot of women.”
“She also used to date Grady. That ties her to one suspect and one victim. I’d be a fool not to put her name down just because she’s a friend of yours.”
“She’s not that good of a friend,” I said, “but I still don’t think she’s a killer.”
“You know as well as I do that most killers don’t seem like the type.”
Zach put the car in gear, and I noticed that we were heading in the opposite direction of the police station. “Aren’t you going to go talk to Davis?”
“I can find the chief of police whenever I need to,” Zach said.
“You couldn’t yesterday,” I pointed out.
“That’s true, but we’ve got a better chance of knowing where he is than where Samantha Riggins might be. I want to focus on Cindy Glass’s murder for the moment.”
“But you’re not going to forget about Hank Tristan, are you?”
“There’s not a chance in the world of that happening. We’ll deal with Davis after we’ve had an opportunity to talk with Samantha. I just hope she’s home.”
“If she’s not, you’ll be able to track her down. I have faith in you.”
“It’s nice that at least one of us does,” he said.
“Come on, you know you’re good at what you do without me telling you.”
“I have my moments, but this case has more twists and turns than a mountain highway. I’m not afraid to interview my suspects just because they have power in this town, but the chances are good that I’m going to alienate at least one of my friends before this is over, and I don’t have that many to spare.”
I rubbed his shoulder. “No matter what, I know I can trust you to do the right thing.”
“You bet you can,” he said, adding a small smile. We pulled up in front of an apartment complex in the South End, and I asked, “Are we here already?”
“What can I say? Time flies when we’re together. Besides, that was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Luigi’s. It’s not that far from Samantha Riggins’s place.”
“But not the only reason,” I said.
“Not by a long shot. Lunch was so good, we might have to head back there tomorrow.”
“I’m game if you are,” I said.
We got out of the car and walked up to the complex. It didn’t take long to find Samantha Riggins’s apartment, and I started to knock on the door when Zach stopped me.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“I’m taking the lead in my investigation,” he said. “I shouldn’t have to remind you that you are here as a consultant, and I expect you to let me conduct this interview without interference. Are we clear?”
“If you’re asking me if I understand you, I do. On the other hand, if you want to know if I accept it, you’re out of your mind.”
“Then maybe you should wait in the car. I’m serious, Savannah.”
After a moment’s thought, I asked, “Would it be proper for me to ask a question, if I see a direction you might not see?”
“I suppose that would be all right. Just let me lead the investigation. Okay?”
“Fine,” I said.
I took a step back, and he rapped on the door. After thirty seconds, a tall and thin, very fit blonde in her mid-twenties answered the door. I could tell she was in shape because it was clear she’d just gotten back home from a run.
“Can I help you?” she asked as she toweled off the back of her neck.
“Samantha Riggins?” my husband asked.
“Yes,” she replied, looking a little nervous, which was understandable, given the circumstances.
“I’m working with the police on the Cindy Glass murder,” he said.
She didn’t budge from the door. “I’d like to see some identification, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” he said. I knew he
didn’t have a badge anymore, but he did still carry around his credentials from being the police chief.
She studied the photo ID card for a moment, looked at Zach while ignoring me, and then said, “One minute.”
She ducked back into her apartment, and I could hear the dead bolt slide into place.
“You have a way with women; you know that, don’t you?”
Zach just shrugged without replying. When he was working, he changed into a totally different man, one I had trouble recognizing sometimes. It was almost as if he was slipping on a mask that fit him perfectly, and yet it still managed to change everything about him.
A minute later, the door opened, and Samantha invited us inside.
“Did you call the police to check on me?” Zach asked.
Samantha grinned. “No, I did better than that. I Googled you. Sorry about you getting shot. That must have been awful.”
“It was,” I said, not realizing I’d spoken it aloud.
Zach pointed to me and said, “This is my wife, Savannah.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said as she offered me her hand.
I took it and then I started to ask her about Cindy, when I looked over at my husband. He was frowning slightly, and I knew this was no time to overstep my bounds.
“Nice to meet you, too,” I said, and then I did my best to fade into the background.
Samantha studied us both with a polite glance, and then she asked, “Can I get you something to drink? I’m sorry, but all I’ve got is herbal tea and diet soda.”
“Thanks, but we’re good,” Zach said. “Do you have a minute to talk about Cindy Glass? I understand you two were close.”
“We were like sisters,” Samantha said.
“That’s what we heard,” Zach answered.
Before he could say another word, I said, “We’re sorry for your loss. It must have been terrible for you.”
Samantha’s eyes glazed for a few seconds. “It’s the craziest thing. I picked up the phone this morning and started to call her to see if she’d like to run with me. I didn’t even get her answering machine.”
“Her place has been cleaned out,” I said.
“Man, it didn’t take the vultures long to move in, did it?”
“Actually, it was her boss’s idea,” I said. “I was there yesterday helping him go through her things. Evidently he was designated as her executor.”
“Yeah, Barton’s okay with me. He asked me if I wanted anything of hers, but everything I need of Cindy’s, I have.”
I couldn’t help myself. I asked, “What exactly would that be? A sterling silver chain with a cow pendant, perhaps?”
“No, I mean personal things that were between the two of us, like cards she’s given me over the years, and the silliest hat you’ve ever seen. Things like that.”
“Then you don’t know where the necklace might be?”
Samantha frowned. “Barton asked me the same thing. No, I haven’t seen it. Why, is it important?”
“It’s hard to say at this point,” Zach said. “I’m still gathering information.” Zach studied his notebook for a second, and then he asked her, “What exactly was her relationship with her employer?”
I looked oddly at Zach, trying to figure out where that question had come from. He hadn’t even met Barton Lane. Was he really a suspect? I tried to catch his gaze, but he was staring hard at Samantha.
“She loved him.”
“Was there anything romantic about their relationship?” Zach asked.
I started to say something, but Zach offered me a split-second glare that was enough to shut me up.
“Of course not,” Samantha said. “He was like a father to her, in just about every respect. Cindy’s dad took off when she was a kid, and she focused on Barton, but there wasn’t anything creepy about it. He’s a good guy, and he always looked out for her.”
“Fine,” Zach said as he jotted that down. “Then who was she romantically involved with? Would she tell you?”
“Trust me, Chief, if there was a man in her life, I knew about him from the start.”
“Anyone lately?”
Samantha frowned. “That’s a hard question.”
“It shouldn’t be; not if you two were as close as you claim.”
I didn’t like my husband’s tone of voice at all, but I couldn’t say anything to him at the moment. That didn’t mean I couldn’t rip into him once we were alone again.
“We were close, but there was someone she’d been seeing over the past month that she wouldn’t talk about. He was older, and Cindy didn’t want to admit it to me.”
“How much older?”
“I couldn’t say. The age wasn’t the only thing, though. The guy had a high profile in Charlotte, I know that much.”
“But you don’t know anything more than that?”
Samantha looked as though she wanted to cry, and I wanted to step in and stop my husband from what looked like bullying to me, but I knew if I did, Zach would never let me tag along with him again.
“Hang on a second,” she said, and Samantha got up and went into the other room.
Here was my chance.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed at him.
“I’m conducting an official police investigation,” he said. “What does it look like?”
“Do you have to be so mean?”
He looked genuinely shocked by the question. “I have to be gruff and abrupt to let them know that I’m not kidding around here. Two people have been murdered, and for all we know, someone else is next on this murderer’s list. I don’t have time for niceties.”
“Does it really take all that much more time to be civil?”
“Savannah, let me handle this my way.”
I didn’t say anything in response, and we sat in silence until Samantha walked back into the room carrying a newspaper with her. She held it as if it were the Holy Grail.
“What’s that?” Zach asked, and I noticed his tone was just a little nicer. Truthfully, maybe it was just my imagination, but I liked to think I was making a difference.
“Nine days before she died, I was over at Cindy’s, and I saw her staring at a newspaper.”
“That one in particular?” Zach asked as he leaned forward.
“Let me tell this, okay?” Good for her. I was proud that she had some snap to her words.
“Sorry,” Zach said, though it was pretty clear the apology was tepid at best.
“Anyway, we were having breakfast in her kitchen, and I saw her looking at a photo in the Charlotte Observer. When I asked her about it, she said wistfully, ‘Isn’t he handsome?’
“Which one, I asked her, since there were two photographs on that particular page. In one of them, two men were standing on some kind of platform shaking hands. The other was a headshot of a businessman, at least that’s what he looked like to me from the suit he was wearing. Cindy suddenly looked at me as though she’d said too much, and before I could get a better look, she folded the paper, and threw it in the trash. Cindy is a . . . was a demon at recycling, and she never would have thrown that away if she hadn’t been hiding something.”
“So, you dug it out of her trash?”
“Don’t be disgusting. I bought a paper the second I left her, and I found the photos she was pointing out.”
“May I see that?” Zach asked.
Samantha nodded, and handed him the paper. I looked over his shoulder when he opened it, and I saw something that shook me to the core. The photo of the two men together showed Grady and Davis. The other photo showed Hank Tristan, and was accompanied by a story on a business he was building in Ballantyne.
Zach appeared too focused on the photo of Davis and Grady, so I tapped the headshot of Hank Tristan. He nodded, brushing me off, but I didn’t let it bother me. If I’d pointed it out to him first, he’d give me full credit for the discovery. There wasn’t an ounce of macho pride in my husband. He’d publicly thank a nine-year-old girl if she helped
him solve a case. Results were all Zach cared about, and that was just one more reason why I loved him.
He started to hand the paper back to Samantha when I said, “Hold on a second.”
“What is it?” my husband asked me.
“Let me see that.”
He handed the paper to me, and as I looked at the photo of the two men, I saw another familiar face standing just behind them. I showed it to Zach and pointed it out. “That’s Steve Sanders, isn’t it?”
Zach studied it a second, and then said, “Yeah, but it’s not much of a photo of him.”
“It’s possible though, isn’t it?”
“I suppose. That was a good spot.” He glanced at the paper, and then at Samantha. “May I keep this?”
“If it helps you find out who killed Cindy, you can have everything I own.”
“Just the paper, at least for now,” Zach said, and offered her a gentle smile. Samantha responded to it with a smile of her own, and I wondered if telling my husband to be nicer to his interview subjects had been the best idea, especially when they were prettier, younger, and skinnier than I was.
Zach stood, and to his credit, my dear husband turned to me and asked, “Is there anything else you’d like to ask?”
“No, you covered everything perfectly.”
Samantha led us to the door, and she lingered there as we left. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know. I miss her so much.”
“I’m sure you do,” I said, my heart instantly softening to her. After all, who could blame her for returning one of my husband’s smiles? He was a good-looking guy, after all. “We’ll let you know if we think of anything else.”
As we headed back to the car, I said, “She liked you. You know that, don’t you?”
“What can I say? I’m a likeable guy.”
“Come on, you were a detective once upon a time. You had to notice the way she smiled at you.”
“Savannah, don’t be ridiculous. I’m an old married man. No woman in her twenties is going to be interested in me.”
“And if they were?”
“I’d tell them that my heart belongs to another.” Zach surprised me then by picking me up off my feet and hugging me.
“Put me down, you big lug,” I said, laughing with every word.