THANKSGIVING IN PARADISE

by Daley, Kathi

  “Or they could have come to heads over something else,” Kyle pointed out. “He does own a business, and Harriet had been in charge of such tasks as collecting business license fees. Maybe she claimed not to have received his payment when he knew he had paid, so he figured she was lying. We don’t know enough to come to any hard conclusions, but I do agree that the man should be interviewed by someone with a gun. We’ll talk to Roy about him when he checks in with us later.”

  I scooted back to the passenger side of the vehicle and clipped on my seatbelt. “Since we seem to have hit a dead end, how about we hit up a couple of the lunch places where Harriet may have met JM on the day she died. Maybe someone saw her and can tell us who JM is.”

  Kyle started the engine. “Roy was going to look into it, but if he hasn’t had the chance yet, I’m game. I’ll call him and ask him what he has been able to find out so far.”

  A call to Roy confirmed that he had checked four restaurants near the town offices and hoped to check The Antiquery today, but he’d been held up with another case. Kyle assured him that the two of us wanted to grab a sandwich and that we’d ask the staff about Harriet and her lunch with JM while we were there.

  “It feels odd to be heading to The Antiquery. I haven’t eaten there since Jenna and Helen sold the place, but I hear the food is still good, so maybe we’ll grab a bite while we are there. We did just eat all those pastries, so maybe something small, like a sandwich.”

  “We could even order something to go. It would give us a chance to chat with the hostess while we wait for our order.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  While the establishment looked much the same as it had before Jenna decided to sell it two months ago, knowing that I wouldn’t find Jenna in the kitchen made the experience feel a bit different. Jenna had sold to a group of her own employees, which meant that very little had changed on the surface, and most casual customers might not even realize that the restaurant was under different ownership.

  “Kyle; Tj. How are you both?” The hostess, a fortyish woman named Natalie who had worked at The Antiquery for about three years and was part of the group that bought Jenna out, greeted.

  “We’re good. We are actually here for two reasons. The first reason is to grab a sandwich to go, and the other is to ask the employees if anyone remembers Harriet having lunch here on the day the town hall blew up.”

  “She was here. She sat in a booth in the back with a woman I’d never seen before.”

  A woman. That was interesting. For some reason, I was expecting a man. “What did the woman look like?”

  “Short. No more than five feet tall. She was thin, yet fit looking. She had long black hair. Down to her waist, yet it was sort of raggedy and untrimmed. If I had to guess, she grew it out for convenience and not to make a fashion statement.”

  “Do you remember her eye color? What she wore?”

  “Dark eyes. Brown. She wore jeans and heavy boots. She had on a black t-shirt, and she wore something on a gold chain around her neck. I guess it was a necklace of some sort. I didn’t get a good look at it because after she came in, she tucked it under her t-shirt, but it wasn’t a dainty diamond. It was bulky.”

  “Like a medallion of some sort?”

  “Not really. It wasn’t solid like a medallion. It’s hard to describe.”

  “Could you draw it?” I asked.

  Natalie shrugged. “I’m not much of an artist, and I didn’t get a good look at it, but I can try.”

  “Did you notice any other distinguishing features? A tattoo? Scar? That sort of thing.”

  “I did notice that this woman had a long thin scar over her right eye. The scar wasn’t really distracting since it ran along the brow line, but it was noticeable.”

  “Do you know what Harriet and this woman talked about?” I asked.

  Natalie shook her head. “They were quiet, and they stopped talking whenever anyone approached.”

  “Did you notice if the woman carried a package?”

  Natalie furrowed her brow. “No. I don’t remember a package. Or even a purse. Harriet was already here when she arrived. The woman walked in, approached the hostess desk, and asked for Harriet. I waved Ginger over, and she took her to Harriet’s table. I don’t remember that the woman was carrying anything. I’m pretty sure her hands, arms, and back were empty, so no package, purse, or backpack.”

  “Is Ginger working today?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Hang on, and I’ll get her. She is working in the back room.”

  Kyle and I asked Ginger all the same questions we asked Natalie, and she answered with the same responses. She also agreed that the woman didn’t have anything in her hands when she arrived. We confirmed that Harriet paid for the lunch with a credit card and that both women left at the same time, but in different vehicles.

  “Okay, what should we do now?” I asked.

  “I guess we will head back to my place, eat our sandwich, and wait to hear from Roy. Hopefully, he will be able to talk to Kate, and we can eliminate her from the suspect list.”

  Shortly after we returned to Kyle’s, Roy called and asked to come by. Once he arrived, he shared that he’d spoken to Kate and that their conversation had left him feeling even more uncertain than before he’d called her.

  “So what’s going on?” I asked, after Kyle, Roy, and I were gathered around Kyle’s dining table with fresh cups of coffee.

  “As we discussed, I called Kate and told her about the notes Harriet had in her file. I guess I was expecting denial, but instead, she told me that her life before coming to Paradise Lake was none of my business, and it would serve me well to remember that. She was short and impatient during the entire conversation, and after only a brief exchange, she told me that she was needed and had to hang up. And then she did. Just like that. No offer to chat later or to check in. No offer of a timeline for her return to work. Nothing. I could sense that she was stressed.”

  “Her behavior does make her seem guilty,” I said. “Still, I can’t see her blowing up an entire building to keep the fact that she had been arrested in the past from coming out. It’s not like she killed anyone. Assault is a serious charge, but not that serious.”

  Roy shook his head. “I don’t know what was behind her behavior, and I agree that she seems guilty based on her response. Maybe there is more going on than we’ve managed to figure out so far. I don’t want to think she would hurt anyone unless a show of force was absolutely required, and maybe that is naïve, but I agree with you, I can’t see that she had a good enough motive to blow up an entire building. Something feels wrong. If Harriet was the intended victim as we now suspect, why wouldn’t the person who wanted her out of the way simply shoot her? Or stab her? Or do anything other than setting off a huge explosion.”

  “Those are the exact same questions I have asked myself over the course of the past two weeks. I know we have dug into this from a number of different angles, but I still feel like we are missing something.”

  Roy nodded. “I agree. There has to be more to this. Kate wouldn’t do such a thing.”

  “That is the same thing we both thought about Tim.” I reminded Roy about his previous partner, who had turned out to have done exactly what it had looked like he’d done.

  “I do remember what happened with Tim, and I do think we need to move Kate to the top of our suspect list, but I also agree that something feels off about this whole thing,” Kyle said. “There is that one secure file that I found amongst Harriet’s files, and there are the anomalies I noticed in the town’s records. Maybe getting to the bottom of both will help us figure things out. I’ll work on it and see what I can come up with.”

  Roy nodded and thanked us both. I felt so bad for the guy. He not only looked exhausted but totally defeated as well. I wasn’t a huge fan of Kate Baldwin, but for Roy’s sake, I really did hope she’d turn out to be
innocent.

  Chapter 22

  Friday, November 17

  I hadn’t seen Kyle since Wednesday, but we’d spoken on the phone, so I knew that both Doc and Greg had agreed to give the town council a shot. Kyle had put an ad in the paper for a new town clerk/mayor’s secretary and had over twenty applicants reply, most of whom on paper seemed to be fairly qualified. The new town council was set to meet at Bookman’s house next week to go over the applications and make a decision.

  After a ton of man hours tracking down those affected by the blog, it didn’t look as if a single person really stood out as a strong suspect other than Kate, who still wasn’t talking. Add to that the fact that the bomb was said to have cost the person who purchased it a pretty penny, and it really narrowed down the suspect pool to, well, to no one. Besides the cost, the whole thing made no sense. If Harriet was targeted by an individual she hurt in her blog, why on earth would they buy an expensive bomb and plant it in her purse? Why wouldn’t the killer, as we’d all asked multiple times, shoot her, stab her, or even poison her? Killing her in such a very expensive and unmanageable fashion made no sense, no matter how you looked at it.

  There had to be something important that we were missing. Something that made the how make as much sense as the why. We knew that finding the person who did this terrible thing was not going to be easy, so Kyle and I both decided that while we needed to continue to look for answers, we needed to live our lives as well.

  “Okay, listen up,” I said in a loud voice to get the attention of my sixth period class. “As I’m sure you are aware, we are off for fall break next week. All after school sports practices will be canceled as well, so relax and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.”

  Ah freedom, I thought to myself as the girls from my last class filed out into the hallway. An entire week to sleep in, spend time with Kyle, and of course, dig into the investigation that seemed to have everyone stumped. Not that I was necessarily going to have any more luck than Roy and Kyle had had during the course of the week, but at times a fresh pair of eyes and a new perspective could make all the difference.

  I picked up the few items I planned to bring home just in case I decided to work on my lesson plans, which I highly doubted. I loved my job, but with everything else that was going on, I really was pretty excited to switch gears for an entire week.

  “Ms. Jensen, you have a call on line one,” The secretary from the front office said over the intercom.

  “Thank you.” I picked up the line. “Coach Jensen,” I answered.

  “Tj, it’s Gina.”

  “Gina? Oh my god, how is everything? Do you love your new job? Your new home? How is your hottie boyfriend?” Gina Roberts was a total genius who used to teach math at the high school, but after being kidnapped this past summer and reconnecting with an old flame who lived on the east coast, she’d decided to quit her job at Serenity High and take another chance on love.

  “The job is great, and Jeremy and I are doing fantastic. I really do want to catch up with you about all that, but I’m calling for another reason.”

  I frowned. “Oh. What’s on your mind?”

  “I heard about what happened. With Harriet and the town hall.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “It was pretty awful. We still haven’t found out who is behind the whole thing.”

  “Which is why I am calling. I understand that Kyle has been working on gaining access to the town’s files.”

  “He has, and he was having no luck hacking in, but then he managed to hack into Harriet’s personal files, and she had a list of passcodes which he used to get into the town’s files. Why are you asking? Did you hear about Sinful Secrets?”

  “Sinful Secrets?”

  “Never mind. Go on. You were asking about the files?”

  “Yes, well,” Gina paused. She took a moment and then continued. “Is there another landline you can use to call me back? One that isn’t part of a larger system?”

  “I can call you back when I get home,” I offered. “Or if this is really top secret, Kyle has a secure line.”

  “Actually, I’d like to speak to Kyle as well. If you don’t mind calling me back from his secure line, I’ll give you a number to call.”

  “Okay. Hang on.” I opened my desk drawer and took out a piece of paper and a pen. “Okay, go ahead.”

  Gina gave me the number. “When you call, you will hear a double click. Don’t hang up. That will just mean that your call is being rerouted.”

  I frowned. What on earth was going on with Gina? Yes, she did work for a company that dealt with supersecret tech stuff, but the level of security she seemed to be after, combined with her questions about Harriet had me completely stumped.

  I called my dad and told him what was going on. He agreed to pick the girls up from school and to help Gracie get ready for the play if I didn’t get home in time. Once that was arranged, I called Kyle, gave him a brief overview, and let him know I was on my way over. As it turned out, the conversation we were about to have with Gina was even more absurd than any of the scenarios my imagination had come up with during my drive to Kyle’s place.

  “Thanks for going to all the trouble to have a secure discussion with me,” Gina started off.

  “No problem. What’s going on?”

  “I have something to tell you, but you have to promise not to get mad.”

  God, I hated discussions that began like that since the chances were that mad was exactly what I was going to be. “Okay. I promise. What’s up?”

  Gina took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, so you remember last summer when I was working for Bristow, and we were trying to get approval for his development.”

  “Yeah. So? We both know that I was a bit ticked off that you were working for that snake, but I got over it. What does that have to do with this?”

  “Well, you see,” Gina hemmed and hawed. “We sort of needed some information that was unavailable to us that we felt could nudge a few of the holdouts on the committee onto our side. Since the information was not public record, we couldn’t just request it, so I sort of hacked into the town’s records.”

  “You hacked into the town’s records to help Bristow?” I was almost speechless. I’d hated Bristow for trying to blackmail Mayor Harper before he died, and I really couldn’t understand why Gina would have agreed to work for him even if she did need the money, but to break the law for him. Sure, Kyle hacked into stuff all the time, but that was different. He was one of the good guys, and he used his superpower to make the world a better place. “So what does this have to do with Harriet?” I eventually asked.

  “Well, you see when I hacked into the town’s system, I realized that I might very well need to get back into the town’s records at some point in the future, so I created a back door. I figured it would cut down on the amount of time needed to hack back in.”

  “You created a back door to the town’s files?”

  “I did,” Gina admitted. “Actually, I have backdoors into lots of places, but I guess that isn’t the point. The point is that I don’t necessarily want other hackers to use my back door, which if found, they certainly could do, so I set up alarms.”

  “And I set off the alarm when I tried hacking in,” Kyle said.

  “Yes, you did. I figured it was you, and I wasn’t overly concerned. I’d even planned to tell you how to get in, but then you managed to get in yourself. Tj told me that you found the passcode in Harriet’s personal files. Anyway, I realized that I really should close the back door I had created and get out of the system altogether, so I went in to remove the alarms and found that someone else had hacked into the town’s files since I’d last been there.”

  “Someone else?” Kyle asked. “Who?”

  “I don’t know who tried to hack in specifically, but I do know that the person who tried to hack in, did so from a computer housed within the South S
hore office of the Paradise County Sheriff.”

  “DuPont,” I breathed.

  Chapter 23

  “I cannot believe how adorable Gracie and Kari look,” I whispered to Jenna that evening while we watched the school play. Both the Jensen and Elston families had turned out for the event, so it was a group of twenty who all sat together.

  “The little boy who is playing the turkey is so funny,” Grandpa, who was sitting behind me, leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “He keeps tripping over those much too big feet, but he seems to be rolling with it just fine.”

  “I think he might be tripping on purpose for comic effect,” Dennis, who was sitting on Jenna’s other side whispered. “No one can be that clumsy naturally.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Doc, who was sitting in the row behind me, countered. “The look on his face as he starts to fall seems to be unrehearsed to me.”

  “We are almost to Gracie’s lines,” Kyle shushed us.

  “I hope she doesn’t blow it,” Ashley mumbled.

  I held my breath as Gracie said the lines that she had been rehearsing for days. I only let it out when the lines were delivered flawlessly.

  “That’s our girl,” I heard my dad say.

  “She really is very good at speaking clearly so as to be understood,” Rosalie added.

  I glanced at the group gathered around me and smiled. It felt good to be in the center of a large family who cared about each other and the everyday moments of their lives. I was sad that my mom had died early in life, but I was also happy that Ashley and Gracie had been given the opportunity to grow up in a nurturing environment.

  “Doc and I are going for pie,” Grandpa said to Bookman and Helen after the play was over. “Would the two of you like to join us?”

  “Actually, I think we’ll just head home,” Bookman said. “I’m getting a little tired.”

  “Tj? Kyle?” Grandpa asked.

  “The girls are going to the home of one of their classmates for a sleepover. I think that Kyle and I are going to head over to his place. Just so you do not worry, we have Echo.”