“What happened to Howard?” the man who had first greeted them asked.
“Howard Blanche was stabbed to death and left on display at Maple Hills Park,” Hawk said. “My name is Detective Hawk Bailey, and I’m heading up the investigation. If there is anything you gentlemen could tell me about Howard, it would be appreciated.”
The men exchanged glances. One man, a gentleman with a perfectly round face and a balding head, shrugged. “Never really spoke much to Howard,” he said. “I know he used to head down to the bar down the street just about every night he got off work to wind down. But I didn’t know the man personally.”
The other men seemed to have similar sentiments. “He never spoke to me much,” said one.
“Me either,” said another. “He was the kind of man who kept to himself. Wasn’t really ever that friendly of a guy. I say that, but it’s not like he ever caused a scene or stirred the pot. Like, I mean, he didn’t have any enemies, I guess. Just no friends. Only acquaintances.”
“You know,” said the skinniest of the men. “I always saw him talking with Brittany, the receptionist. They always seemed so serious when they talked. She might know something.”
“I used to see him talking a good bit with Stacey,” said the round man. “That’s the woman who just left.”
“I think we should go talk to Brittany and Stacey,” Nikki suggested, and Hawk nodded in agreement, but not before thanking the men and getting the name of the bar they all agreed he frequented.
They glanced towards the receptionist’s desk where they spotted Stacey speaking with Brittany. Both women looked incredibly flustered and annoyed. “I think they know something their co-workers don’t,” Nikki whispered.
“Same here,” Hawk said.
The two of them headed over to the receptionist desk, and the women glanced up with annoyed faces. “Everything all right?” Nikki asked.
“Just talking about our old buddy, Howard,” Brittany said with distaste. “Sorry to hear he’s dead.”
“No offense, ladies, but you don’t sound that sorry,” Hawk said.
“It’s just a little weird, honestly,” Stacey admitted. “To hear that someone you couldn’t stand is dead and not knowing whether or not to feel sorry for the guy or a little relieved. I don’t mean to sound cold, but Howard was a total nightmare.”
“How so?” Nikki asked.
“I think you could just consult the HR department and get a good idea,” Brittany huffed. “I think I reported him twice.”
“Four times for me,” Stacey said. “But they never did anything because he would always smooth talk his way out of crap.”
“What sort of problems were you ladies having with Mr. Blanche?” Hawk asked.
“Mostly just the sort of stuff that came out of his mouth,” Brittany said. “Just outright vulgar sexism and sexual harassment. He asked me if I had a boob job once and told me he wanted to take a peek.”
“Oh, dear,” Nikki blushed.
“He told Brittany once that the only way I must have managed to get promoted to senior agent was because I must have slept with someone,” Stacey said with a firm frown. “And the only thing that finally got rid of him was when he finally put his hands on me in the breakroom, and thankfully they have a camera in there. He grabbed my breast after I told him to back off.”
“Oh, wow, I’m so sorry you had to deal with that,” Hawk said. “But, correct me if I’m wrong, but your male co-workers all seem to think that Hawk was laid off because of the cutbacks after the tornado.”
“On paper, that’s what it says,” Stacey griped. “The company’s owner and Howard kind of go back. He knew he had to let Howard go after what happened with me, but since I agreed to drop charges if he was fired, well, boss-man pulled one over my eyes. He just laid Howard off so that it wouldn’t ruin his job history. That way if Howard ever started looking for another job, his new boss would just think he got laid off with the other employees who got tanked after the tornado.”
“And you didn’t ever try to do anything about that?” Nikki asked.
“Howard was gone and out of my hair,” Stacey said. “I’m not exactly a big social justice warrior. Plus, the man up top gave me a pretty big bonus to get me to drop it. Howard was gone, and I get two extra weeks of vacation time a year plus a ten percent increase on my commission. I can’t really complain. It worked out in my favor.”
“This version of Howard Blanche is quite a different picture you two ladies are painting compared to what his girlfriend tried to tell us,” Hawk said.
“Girlfriend?” Brittany questioned. “Poor woman. I bet that was pretty miserable.”
Nikki scribbled down her phone number using the sticky notes sitting on Brittany’s desk. She gave a copy to both Stacey and to Nikki. “If you ladies can think of anything else–anything at all that could help–would you mind giving Hawk or me a call?”
The women both shrugged; Nikki was fairly certain that they wouldn’t get any more help from them. They both seemed cruelly relieved to hear that Howard was gone. Brittany was, however, kind enough to give Hawk the phone number to their HR department so that he could confirm everything that Brittany and Stacey had said.
Nikki and Hawk left the agency, agreeing that their next stop was Howard’s old bar hangout down the street.
Chapter Seven
When Nikki and Hawk pulled up outside of the dive bar, she was beginning to get a good picture of the sort of character Howard Blanche really was. The bar looked like a likely hangout for questionable characters, and based on the group of men with the shaved heads and unsavory skull and neo-Nazi tattoos standing outside, she was certain this was not a case of “don’t judge a book by its cover,” as it had been with the insurance agency.
“Maybe you should stay in the car,” Hawk suggested, and Nikki rolled her eyes.
“No, I’m going with you,” she insisted. “You might need backup.”
“Oh, and you’re my backup?” he asked.
“Something tells me a man in uniform is not going to be very welcomed here,” she said.
Hawk nodded and slowly exited the vehicle, Nikki trailing behind. The two of them headed up to the building, and the group of men stared at them. “Looking for something?” the man in the leather jacket asked.
“Looking for information,” Hawk said, “on a Howard Blanche.”
The man scowled. “That creep? Why, what did he do this time?”
“He’s dead,” Hawk said.
“Ha!” the man exclaimed and turned to his friends. “Better go inside, boys. Soon as Misty finds out, she’s likely to buy the whole bar drinks!”
Lovely, Nikki thought with disdain. “I’m guessing you all weren’t particularly close with Mr. Blanche?” Nikki asked.
“Are you kidding?” a shorter man standing behind the leather-jacket gentleman quipped. “How many times have we had to drag that drunk out of here? He was always picking fights in here, and we don’t put up with that.”
“Really?” Nikki asked, letting the sarcasm slip out of her mouth uncontrollably.
“Got something to say to us, sugar?” Leather-jacket asked.
“No,” Hawk answered for her. “So, you’re telling me Mr. Blanche had quite a few enemies here, am I right?”
“He had enemies everywhere,” said the shorter man. “But you ought to go talk to Misty; she’s one of the bartenders here. She could talk your ear off about Blanche.”
“Thank you, gentleman,” Hawk said and led Nikki inside. He whispered to her, “How about we try not to tick off the Nazis?”
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “Hard to imagine what kind of person would want to pick a fight with them.”
They got a few stares when they entered the bar, but the patrons seemed to be mostly elderly men–former military men. They approached the bar, and a young male bartender was waiting for them. He looked at them cautiously and asked, “What can I get for you today?”
“We were hoping you could answer
some questions about a Howard Blanche. We were told a Misty would know a good bit about him?” Nikki asked.
The man rolled his eyes. “He hasn’t been in here in months. Whatever he did, it wasn’t because I over-served him.”
“You’re awfully presumptuous,” Nikki said. “What makes you so certain that he did something?”
“Um, because it’s Howard,” the bartender said. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had to call the cops to come get him? And having the cops around my particular guests is not good for business.”
“So he caused you a lot of trouble?” Hawk asked. “What is your name?”
“Randy,” he said. “And, yeah, Howard caused everyone trouble. The guy was a misanthropist if I’ve ever seen one. He hated everyone, and everyone hated him. He was always just looking for a fight. And ladies would turn around and leave if they saw he was here. Bad for business.”
A young woman appeared from behind a curtain that led to the back of the bar. She crinkled up her nose after seeing an officer standing by the bar. “Everything all right?” she asked.
Randy nodded and waved her over. “This is Misty. She could tell you a lot more about Howard than I could.”
“Please tell me you don’t mean Howard Blanche?” she snarled.
“Must be quite notorious around here,” Nikki said.
“What did he do?” Misty asked.
“As far as we know, nothing. He was found dead in Maple Hills Park this morning,” Hawk said.
Misty smirked slightly. “What a shame,” she said.
“You don’t sound too upset,” Hawk said.
“Should I be?” Misty asked. “Look, the man was a creep. He came in here picking fights, and the women! He would come in here flirting with women, particularly those who were obviously uninterested. He harassed them and called them vulgar names when they turned him down. He even threatened to kill some just because they didn’t want to go home with some random guy who was drunk out of his mind.”
“Don’t forget about that poor girl he chased into the bathroom!” one of the old men down at the end of the bar called.
“What is that about?” Hawk asked Misty.
She rolled her eyes. “We got him before he did anything, but yeah. He grabbed at this woman and forced her into the bathroom. That was the last straw. We told him he wasn’t allowed back, and if he ever came back, we’d call the police. End of story, no more Howard Blanche. He had probably found another bar of patrons to harass. If you ask me, good riddance.”
“Was there ever anyone in particular you can think of who might have had a grudge towards Howard? Maybe someone he really got to?” Hawk asked.
“I’m sure there’s a whole list of them,” Randy said. “The man drove everyone insane. There is not a single person in this bar who won’t cringe at hearing that man’s name. He knew how to make enemies, and he made them easily. You want a list of potential suspects? Try looking at the past five years of our customer base because every single time he entered this bar, he managed to tick somebody off.”
“Yeah,” Misty agreed. “Kind of hard to just narrow it down. I suppose he could have pushed just about anyone over the edge. If you were to ask me, I’d say it was a woman.”
“A woman?” Hawk asked. “Why?”
“Have you not been listening?” Misty asked. “He picked fights with men, of course, but it’s the women he really enjoyed harassing. He used to ask me about my sex life; he would say some of the filthiest things! And it certainly wasn’t just me. He harassed every single female who came into this bar, single or not. Interested or not. Drunk or sober. It didn’t matter. If it was a woman, he was going to hit on her, cuss her out, or just generally make her uncomfortable. The man was a perverted misogynist who thought he was God’s gift to women. Well, he was far from it. I guarantee you it was a woman.”
“Well, thank you for your information,” Hawk said. It didn’t seem like they were getting any specific information from Misty or from Randy; they had only reaffirmed what Hawk and Nikki already knew: Howard was a pervert who loved to harass women. They stepped away from the bar. “What do you think?” Hawk asked as they headed for the exit.
“I think that whatever good that Taylor supposedly found in Howard was either ridiculously deep down or it was completely non-existent,” Nikki said. “I think when you get that warrant to open up Howard’s safe, we should speak to Taylor again. Let her know that we are aware that Howard was not the little angel she made him out to be. Maybe we can get her to open up. I think she might have built up a fantasy for herself.”
“Sounds about right,” Hawk said, opening the door for Nikki.
They headed towards the patrol car, and Hawk’s phone started going off. He answered it as they climbed into their seats. “Hello?” he said. “So he wasn’t strangled? Some sort of allergic reaction to something? Was that how he died? Oh, the stab wounds, of course–I assumed so. Yeah, she’s with me, why? Oh! Oh, okay. Well, then…yes. You can expect us down at the station shortly. Thank you for letting me know.” Hawk hung up the phone and turned his gaze toward Nikki.
“Everything okay, Hawk?” she asked.
“Well, a few things: Those markings around Howard’s neck were not from a strangling. He had some sort of allergic reaction to something. They found that he had injected himself with his epi-pen, though, so that’s not what killed him. He bled to death thanks to the stab wounds,” Hawk said.
“Okay, so maybe someone tried to kill him by giving him something he was allergic to… and when that didn’t work, they resorted to stabbing,” Nikki said. “Okay, so that might help a little. Whoever killed Howard probably knew him well enough to know that he was allergic to something. We can narrow it down to maybe co-workers, friends, and family. Probably not anyone at the bar unless he broadcasted his allergies.”
“Right,” Hawk said. “Now we got to head down to the station.”
“Something else going on, Hawk?” Nikki asked, picking up on his sudden discomfort after the phone call. He clearly knew something that he was hesitant to reveal to her.
“Yeah, actually. They have arrested a potential suspect in Howard Blanche’s murder,” he said wearily.
“Wow! Really? That sure was fast. Who did they arrest?” Nikki asked. Hawk hesitated to respond as he pulled the vehicle out of the parking lot and headed back into town. “Hawk what’s going on? You’re acting weird. Like, weirder than usual. Who did they arrest?”
“That’s the thing,” Hawk said nervously. “They arrested Seth’s girlfriend, Jackie.”
Chapter Eight
Nikki walked with a quick, even pace through the parking lot of the local station, with Hawk right on her heels. She could hardly imagine why the police would have arrested Jackie. What sort of thing had even led the police to her? She wasn’t even from the area as far as Nikki knew. When she entered the station, the local police all seemed to turn towards her, sending her slight fury and confusion. She wanted some answers.
Jackie had yet to be booked. She was sitting on a bench just beyond the reception desk, her left wrist handcuffed to the bench’s arm to keep her put. The woman was wide-eyed as she spoke to an officer who was looming over her.
“Hey, Nikki,” the officer behind the counter attempted to greet her, but she waved him off and marched right up to the bench and to the officer speaking with Jackie.
“Okay, what’s going on here?” Nikki demanded in such a brisk tone that it startled the officer slightly, and he spun around to face her.
Before he could speak, Jackie interrupted. “This is my boyfriend’s mother,” she said. “I know she can probably clear this right up! She can prove I didn’t do a thing.” Jackie appeared absolutely mortified by her current predicament, but she seemed quite confident that Nikki had come to be her rescuer.
“Can you guys give us a minute?” Nikki asked, shooting her gaze towards Hawk and the other officer.
Hawk and the man exchanged glances before hobbling off. N
ikki was sure Hawk would head to speak to the arresting officer to gather information that way, but Nikki wanted to speak to Jackie directly. Slowly, she sat herself down. “Okay, Jackie,” Nikki said. “What happened? Why do the police think you murdered Howard Blanche? Did you even know him?”
Jackie took a deep breath. She seemed frightened and quite flustered. “Because, well, Howard was an old boyfriend.”
“An old boyfriend?” Nikki questioned. “How did you even meet him?”
“I lived here in Maple Hills a few years before I headed back to school,” Jackie said. “Howard and I dated. We met while he was working at that stupid insurance company, and I came in to file a claim. He was so charming, and he seemed really cool to me at the time. But then, well, we kept dating…and the more time I spent with him the more and more he showed his true colors. At first, it was just a sort of control thing.”
“What do you mean?” Nikki questioned.
“Well, he would make me feel guilty for hanging out with my friends. And then he went from just making me feel guilty to telling me that I outright couldn’t spend time with my friends. He said they were bad for me, and he convinced me that was true. Then he started borrowing money from me. Then he went from occasionally borrowing my money to just taking it. Then it got to the point that my checks would go straight to him. And if I ever argued with him or stepped out of line, he would hit me. If he even suspected that I was thinking about breaking up with him, he would threaten to kill me.”
Nikki felt her heart beat rapidly with an interior fury; this Howard Blanche was far from the darling boyfriend Taylor had made him out to be. “Jackie, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you had dealt with something like that. How did you get out?”
“I grabbed whatever I could carry in the middle of the night, and I moved to another city. I left Maple Hills behind me; I became an artist. Not that long ago, I even started taking classes at the college Seth attends. We had a class together, but we never really met officially until he came into the tattoo parlor,” Jackie said. “I asked him out, and we started casually dating. Nothing serious, honestly. But then he told me he was coming home to Maple Hills for Thanksgiving, and I kind of invited myself along. To be honest, I wanted to see what Howard was up to. I wasn’t going to talk to him. I just wanted to see what he had done with himself.”
Turkey Truffle Murder (A Maple Hills Cozy Mystery Book 8) Page 5