A's in the Hole

by Wendy Meadows

  “It looked worn,” Olivia said. She squinted her eyes and transported herself back to the bathroom and the horrid vision of the radio star dead on the tiles. The scarf had been frayed at the ends, worn from time rather than the struggle that might’ve ensued. “It was old.”

  “You think the murderer carried it with them or just grabbed it on the way into the bathroom?”

  “There wasn’t anywhere to grab it from,” Olivia replied. “It’s not like Chester Radio TODAY! keeps a closet of props. Not as far as I know.”

  “You’re right,” Jake said. “Honestly, I think the best we can do right now is speak to the sister and hope we can squeeze something out of her.”

  Olivia chewed the inside of her cheek. “I think we can manage that. I have something on her that might make her talk. The whole Hank thing and her discomfort at hiding the relationship.”

  “We’ve got to work fast,” Jake said. “I’ll come by this afternoon to pick you up.” He hung up before she could thank him or say anything else.

  Olivia sank to the floor and rested the back of her head against the wall. Dodger whined and lay down in her lap, squishing to find space for his big Labrador body. She patted his head and took comfort in the warmth and love.

  She’d blown it with Jake and she hadn’t even realized until it was too late.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “T hanks for agreeing to speak with us,” Olivia said, and readjusted on the tiny sofa in the motel room.

  Jake stood rather than sitting next to her and she ignored the sting of that. A week ago it wouldn’t have bothered her, so why should she let it now? They were here to investigate, not canoodle.

  “I didn’t agree,” Violet said, and tossed her long hair back. “I just let you in because of him.” She nodded to Jake. “He was with the police officer the other day.”

  Jake opened his mouth, but Olivia forestalled him. “So you understand this is serious.” The last thing they needed was Jake blowing their cover by being upfront about his connection to the police. “Do you have some time to speak with us?” Olivia asked. “It’s about your sister.”

  “What else would it be about?” Violet sniffed. “Lilac is the center of attention, as always. Lilac’s more important now, in death, than I am as a model.”

  “We know you’re out of money, Violet,” Olivia said. She hit hard and followed up with an equally grievous blow. “And that you’re in a relationship with Hank Abbott, your sister’s ex-husband. Do you care to explain your appearance in Chester at this time?” The last time she’d said it was for Lilac’s radio event.

  Violet paled. She puffed out her lips and said nothing.

  “I think she’s passing out,” Jake whispered.

  “She’s fine.”

  “Seriously, she’s as pale as a sheet.”

  “I didn’t kill her,” Violet erupted, at last. “She was family. And I don’t have that kind of violence in me, or the strength. You can talk all you want about money and Hank, but I didn’t do it and that’s the bottom line.”

  “You realize how bad this looks, though,” Olivia said, and dipped her head forward. “You dating your murdered sister’s ex-husband; the same man who managed her accounts.”

  “And you’re the sole inheritor in the will,” Jake said.

  Olivia restrained her reaction – she hadn’t known that. Perhaps, Jake had only recently found out or he’d forgotten to mention it, but it was an interesting twist to the case. However, if he knew it, then Keane did too and the detective had gone ahead and arrested Van the Man regardless.

  “I didn’t kill her. Besides, they arrested someone else for the murder. That enemy of hers; the colleague.” Violet drew in ragged breaths and huffed them out again.

  They’d definitely gotten under her skin but they couldn’t let that go too far. “Please, Violet, remain calm. We’re not accusing you of anything. We’re just here to ask some questions.”

  Violet swallowed hard.

  “Would you like some water?” Jake asked.

  “Please,” she croaked.

  He hurried through to the kitchenette to fetch it for her.

  “You’re dating Hank,” Olivia said. “Do you want to walk us through how that happened?”

  Violet accepted the glass from Jake and drank deeply. She put it the empty glass down on the coffee table and smacked her lips. “Hank and I started up way after the divorce. I came to see Lilac a few months ago to ask her for financial help,” she said. “I’m not proud of it, but times are tough. Lilac told me to get lost, but Hank helped me. He took me under his wing. He couldn’t afford to pay my rent or anything else, but the friendship and support was all I needed. Over time that blossomed into something more.”

  “And now Lilac is gone and she’s left you her estate,” Olivia said. “Why haven’t you moved in?”

  “We thought it would look bad. That it’d be better if we just sold the place and left Chester behind for good. But Hank thinks that would look bad too. I don’t know. I feel stuck here. I spend all day in this darn hotel room and there’s nothing I can do but wait for the police to finish their investigation.”

  Olivia sighed. “We’re not here to accuse you of anything, Violet. We’re here because we believe the police have put the wrong man behind bars.”

  “You – you’re not with the police?” Violet’s expression darkened.

  “We’re working independently for now,” Jake said. “But we have Chester’s best interests at heart.”

  “Please, Violet, we just want to bring the murderer to justice. If that’s not you, why wouldn’t you help?”

  “I – yeah, okay.” But she didn’t sound too sure. She scuffed her heels on the carpeting, shifted in the armchair – couldn’t sit still. “What do you need to know?”

  “Lilac wrote something in her journal about regrets,” Olivia said. This was their in. If they didn’t get a lead from this conversation they were in deep waters without a life jacket.

  “Regrets,” Violet said. “Okay? And what am I supposed to know about that?”

  “She said that she regretted something that no one knew about, not even Hank. Only one other person knew. Do you have any idea what she might’ve been talking about?” Olivia crossed her fingers in her lap.

  Violet chewed her bottom lip. “Regrets, huh? Maybe that week she wore white pants to college.” She laughed humorlessly. “Just kidding. Wait, let me think about this for a second.”

  Olivia and Jake exchanged a glance. If she had to think about it that didn’t bode well for their investigation. A regret the size Lilac had mentioned would’ve stuck in the mind, surely.

  “I remember Lilac came home one year. She was upset because she’d crashed her car and didn’t want to talk about it. Apparently, some drunk guy drove right into her. She spent days in her old room just crying. Mom and dad were completely supportive, as usual.” Violet rolled her eyes. “She left a week later. Anyway, I just thought it was really weird that she freaked out over the car. She could afford a new one, after all.”

  “You think she regretted that?”

  “It’s the only thing I can think of that she might’ve regretted. It was years ago, though. Why would that have anything to do with her – with the death?”

  “I’m not sure,” Olivia said, but her mind twitched at the new information. Something about it set off alarms. A car crash was pretty serious, sure, and so was losing a car, but to cry about it for a week? Lilac hadn’t let anything get her down, least of all the loss of something she could replace. “Thank you for speaking with us, Violet. I think that’s all we need for now.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  O livia and Jake set up camp at one of the tables in the corner of the chocolate shop. They’d opened their doors that very morning and the As worked behind the counter, happy as could be. Alberta especially, who kept throwing them pleased-as-punch looks whenever she halted beside a table to pour coffee or gossip.

  Albie couldn’t get the ‘Jake a
nd Olivia sitting in a tree’ thing out of her head. Olivia didn’t blame her. It’d been in her thoughts since Jake had called her yesterday, too.

  Even in the busy shop, Olivia couldn’t keep her mind off the case. There were loads of people in Chester, and frankly, it gave Olivia the creeps that a murderer was on the loose among them.

  “All right,” Jake said. He shifted Olivia’s laptop closer to them – they sat on the same side of the table, elbows touching. “We need to find out more about this accident. I’m just not sure how we’re going to do that though. If this happened years ago, there’s no guarantee we’ll find anything on the internet to help us out.”

  “But Lilac was famous in a small town. It’s likely we’ll find something on the Chester Gazette’s website. We should try that first.”

  “Right,” Jake said, and twiddled his fingers above the keys. “May I?”

  “Of course.”

  The investigator typed at a speed Olivia couldn’t replicate if she tried. “Did you take typing classes or somethin’?”

  “No,” he replied. “Just a lot of time spent scouring the net for information and sources. The life of an investigator, I guess. Ah, here’s the website.”

  He opened up the archived article section, then used the search function and typed in Lilac’s name. A page of results popped up. “Sheesh,” Jake said. “She sure was popular. They’ve done twenty articles on her.”

  “Let’s take a look at the older ones listed.”

  Jake moved through them, frowning all the way. “Here’s something,” he said, and clicked on the headline: Radio Show Host in Accident – Station Won’t Pay.

  “Bingo,” Olivia said. Her heart did an excited dance in the center of her chest. It was the closest they’d gotten to a real lead in this case. Gosh, if only they could crack this before it was too late. Van hadn’t been released which meant they had some evidence which linked him to the crime scene.

  Perhaps, meddling in Lilac’s home had made him a suspect. But then, surely Olivia would’ve been a prime suspect too – or considered an accomplice?

  Jake opened the link and they huddled over the laptop to read.

  Lilac Charleston, beloved host at Chester Radio TODAY!, has disappeared from the limelight this past week after a rumored car accident on her way to a family member’s home.

  Details of the crash are limited at this time, but this reporter reached out to the heads at Chester Radio TODAY! and discovered that the station will not be paying for any damages incurred during the accident.

  Lilac is currently off the grid and any attempt to reach her has been rebuffed. The only individual available for comment was Ms. Charleston’s lawyer, Randall Holmes, who believes, “Ms. Charleston needs peace and quiet during this turbulent time.”

  Stay tuned for updates!

  Except there weren’t any updates on that incredibly short article. Apparently, the public had lost interest in Lilac’s crash, probably because she’d returned as chirpy and interesting as ever. Or she’d done something outrageous to take the attention off the crash.

  “Well,” Jake said, and sat back, chair squeaking beneath him. “That doesn’t tell us much.”

  “I don’t know,” Olivia said. “It tells us something, at least.” She pointed at the lawyer’s name. “Randall Holmes. He was clearly involved in whatever happened or has some information about it. It seems to me like he’s our next lead.”

  “Good idea,” Jake replied.

  Olivia wriggled her lips from side-to-side and considered Jake. “You’re sure Van didn’t do this?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Keane might’ve kept some details of the case from me but there wasn’t enough to arrest him. Perhaps they found his fingerprints in her home and he couldn’t explain them, but otherwise, it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

  “Why?”

  “Van didn’t have it in him and there was one witness report that said he was seen shortly before the murder at the opposite end of the building, schmoozing with some of the wives. He’s popular with the ladies.” Jake shrugged. “It’s not that I think he’s innocent, just that I think there isn’t enough evidence for an arrest.”

  Olivia agreed. There was also that gut feeling they’d already discussed. She folded her arms and weighed the options. “All right,” she said. “Then I think speaking to Mr. Holmes is our best bet.”

  “I’ll look him up,” Jake said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  T he lawyer’s office was spacious and accented by crystal decorations – a vase on the mantelpiece, a swirled coffee table which refracted light in a rainbow across the neat, white carpet. It wasn’t what Olivia had expected. In her limited experience, lawyers lived for leather and cigars and cheating good folks out of their money.

  Of course, Olivia’s experience came from old TCM reruns.

  “What may I help you with?” Randall Holmes asked, and interlaced his fingers atop his neat desk calendar. “My secretary indicated this was an urgent meeting. I have another appointment in a half an hour.”

  “Yes, thanks for meeting with us, Mr. Holmes. We’ll try not to take up too much of your time,” Olivia replied, and smiled at him.

  The elderly gentleman, tufty white hair stuck up above either ear, didn’t return the grin.

  Olivia’s slid off her face like oil off water. “Well, we’re here today to talk about one of your clients; Miss Lilac Charleston.”

  Holmes pursed his lips. “Oh.”

  Apparently, Lilac hadn’t made a good impression on him either. “We’re investigating her murder in a personal capacity.”

  “You realize investigating a murder in a personal capacity is a crime?” The lawyer asked.

  Olivia barely managed to keep the shock hidden. Boy, this man was out there. He didn’t pull punches and she could respect that. She’d always been more of a ‘say it how it was’ person. What if he didn’t want to speak to them about Lilac, though? He was their only lead left.

  “I’m a private investigator,” Jake said. “And I’ve worked with the police on this case. I often turn to Olivia for inside information since she’s well-versed in this type of investigation.”

  “Right,” Holmes said. He lifted his Cartier watch and eyed the golden face. “I think that’s all the time I have for shenanigans.”

  “Please,” Olivia said. “Please. We think the police have arrested the wrong man.”

  Holmes froze. His bushy eyebrows knit together. “What?”

  Olivia spilled the beans about their investigation to him; the journal and their suspicions about her regrets. “You’re the only lead we have. We’re only investigating this because this is Chester, this is our town, and there’s a murderer on the loose.”

  “That’s the police’s task,” Holmes replied.

  They were stumped at that. It was the same thing Olivia had told herself over and over again. No matter how good her track record was, it didn’t matter. She shouldn’t have been investigating these cases in the first place. She was a chocolatier for heaven’s sake.

  But she did investigate them because whether Keane wanted to admit it or not, he needed her help – she’d done exactly that the last three times, possibly because she wasn’t bound by the same protocol as him.

  Jake sighed. “We just want to talk about Lilac’s car accident, Mr. Holmes. That’s all.”

  Silence filtered through the room. The air conditioning unit hummed in the corner and kept the climate temperate. Something tickled the back of Olivia’s mind but she ignored it, and kept herself in the moment instead.

  “You’re doing this for Chester,” Randall said. He scratched his clipped gray beard. “I’ve heard about you, Miss Cloud. I’ve read the articles in the newspaper.”

  “Articles? What articles?”

  “About you; our amateur sleuth.”

  “Oh goodness,” Olivia said, and blushed. She hadn’t even known they existed or that anyone cared about her little investigations.

  “You have a go
od track record with this type of thing, it seems. And I’m impressed you didn’t lie about your intentions here, so yes, I will talk to you about Lilac’s little accident.” Holmes sniffed. “Not so little as it turned out.”

  “There was substantial damage?” Olivia asked.

  “Yes,” Holmes replied. “Lilac wasn’t to blame for the accident, according to the information I received, but she had reason to hide what happened from everyone in Chester.”

  “Why?”

  Holmes grunted – a reluctant exhalation. “The car which crashed into Lilac’s contained two people. The driver was placed in the hospital in a coma after the accident. The passenger was killed.”

  Jake shuddered. Olivia gasped.

  “Yes, it was traumatic for Lilac, especially since she wasn’t in the wrong. You can imagine what would’ve happened in Chester if word had gotten out that the favorite radio show host, Chester’s darling, had been involved in something like that.”

  “People would’ve assumed the worst,” Olivia said. She’d already witnessed the vicious gossip circle – or was it a vine – which ran through the center of her store and connected everyone and everything in the town.

  “They would’ve whispered about Lilac. Little rumors which would’ve seeded and took flower and eventually Lilac would’ve become a pariah.” Holmes stroked his moustache. “But, of course Lilac couldn’t afford that level of bad publicity.”

  “So she hid it,” Olivia said.

  “That’s correct. She wasn’t to blame. All she lost was her car and, for a while, her cheery disposition,” Holmes said.

  “What happened to the man in a coma?” Jake asked. Of course, he was on task. Olivia had been so shocked she’d thought only of the repercussions for Lilac.

  “I’m not sure. I believe he recovered and if he did, he would’ve been held responsible for driving under the influence and the death of the passenger,” Holmes said.