A Killer Column

by Casey Mayes

  BACK AT JENNY’S, WE WERE BOTH CLEARLY RELIEVED TO find no more flowers or notes by her door, though neither one of us said anything about it. I wasn’t going to just forget about it, but there was really nothing else I could do until Zach got back from Richmond. The second he returned, I planned to dump the entire thing in his lap. Jenny was too important to me—a sister I never had—and I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her if I could help it.

  “Would you like some coffee?” she said as we walked back inside her house.

  “I’d love some sweet tea, if you’ve got it.”

  She smiled at me. “I made a batch day before yesterday.”

  “You are an angel.”

  I got my briefcase and pulled out some of the paper and the pencils that I love. “I feel guilty working here. What are you going to do?”

  “Don’t worry about me, Savannah. I’ve always got a backlog of paperwork on my computer.”

  “You shouldn’t have to do that on your vacation.”

  Jenny laughed. “Trust me, none of this time is going to be counted as vacation. I’m going to be billing my hours the instant I get to work. Do you need anything before I get started?”

  “No, I’m set.”

  “Then I’ll leave you to it.”

  After she disappeared into her office, I started thinking about how brave she was being about her stalker. I wasn’t sure how I’d handle it if I were in her shoes.

  After a few hours, I had a puzzle ready, granted not a very complicated one, but I was satisfied with it. Now all I had left to write was my snippet for the day. Letting my mind wander, I tried to come up with a theme that would justify the simplicity of the puzzle. After a few minutes of pondering different possibilities, I wrote,

  Puzzles can provide us with many more answers than the ones we seek on the grids we love to play. Many times the events in our lives present puzzling challenges to us, and it is only after we see the patterns within them that their solutions become clear. As you work this puzzle, try to bear that in mind, and look for the patterns in the world around you. You might just be astounded by what you find.

  And that was it. I looked at what I’d done, made a few tweaks on the snippet, and then I was ready to send it to Kelsey.

  The only problem was that I didn’t have my fax with me, and I’d purposefully left my computer at home. How on earth could I have known that I would need it?

  Maybe Jenny had one. I walked down the hall and tapped gently on her door. I’d learned when we’d been roommates that if she was engrossed in what she was doing, the small taps wouldn’t interrupt her train of thought, but if she wasn’t deep into something serious, she’d hear me and respond.

  After a moment, I heard her say, “Yes?”

  “Sorry to bother you, but do you have a fax machine by any chance?”

  “Hang on.” Thirty seconds later she opened the door. I could see that she’d been crying, and though she probably would have liked me to ignore it, I couldn’t do it. “You’re really rattled, aren’t you?”

  She nodded. “I’m trying not to let it get to me, but it’s hard.”

  I decided to tell her that I was calling in reinforcements. “We’re telling Zach the second he gets back from Richmond.”

  Jenny shook her head. “Savannah, he’s got enough on his mind getting you out of this murder investigation. I’m sure he doesn’t have time to deal with this.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. He’ll be happy to do it.”

  She started to protest, and then finally nodded. “It would really help my peace of mind if he could help put a stop to this.”

  “Trust me, he’ll find this guy.”

  “I hope you’re right.” She wiped away another errant tear, and then said, “My fax is over here. It’s one of those combination units. I couldn’t live without it.”

  “How does it work?”

  She took the puzzle and snippet from me, and the card Kelsey had given me. “We’ll have this sent in no time.”

  “Excellent,” I said. “What should we do after that? Do you have much more work to do?”

  “I’ve always got something on my plate,” she said. “But there’s nothing that won’t wait. What did you have in mind?”

  I started to say something when we both heard someone pounding on the front door. Jenny dove into her closet and grabbed a tennis racket.

  I asked, “It’s an odd time to want to play, isn’t it?”

  “Hey, I don’t have a baseball bat, so it’s going to have to do. You know how I feel about guns.”

  “Come on, let’s see who’s at the door.”

  We walked out into the hallway together, and the banging on the door continued as we approached.

  Jenny was going into her backswing when I called out, “Who is it?”

  “It’s Zach. The doorbell must be broken. Let me in.”

  Jenny lowered her racket, and I opened the door with relief.

  Zach knew instantly that something was going on. “What happened? Did I miss something?”

  “Someone’s been stalking Jenny,” I blurted out.

  Zach’s brow furrowed as he walked in. “Tell me about it.”

  We sat together on the couch as Jenny recounted what had happened so far, all the way up to the most recent note and roses she’d just gotten.

  When she was finished, Jenny said, “I feel foolish when I lay it out like that.”

  “You shouldn’t. You have every right to worry. I can’t believe Murphy hasn’t done more to catch this guy.”

  “How do you fight something like this?” Jenny said.

  “I have a few ideas. Let me check something first.”

  He walked out the door, looked down at the doorbell, and then retrieved his pocketknife. After a few moments working on it, he pulled out a sliver of wood. “Someone jammed a toothpick into the doorbell so it wouldn’t work. He’s getting more aggressive, isn’t he?”

  “He seems to be,” I said. “Can you do something about it?”

  Zach touched my shoulder lightly. “I can do a lot of things about it. Don’t worry. We’ll get him.”

  “Why do I suddenly feel so relieved?” Jenny asked. “Nothing’s really changed.”

  “You’re wrong. Zach’s on the case now. That makes all the difference in the world.”

  “Jenny’s right, you know,” Zach said. “I haven’t done anything yet.”

  “But you will,” I said. “Don’t sell yourself short. How was your trip to Richmond? Did you learn anything?”

  “As a matter of fact, I did. I had a chance to look into Frank Lassiter’s life a little.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “Their real estate partnership went rotten at exactly the right time for Derrick Duncan, and it’s nearly ruined Lassiter.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Evidently Derrick was even trickier in land development than he was in newspaper syndication. He convinced Lassiter that one of their big deals was a lemon, and Derrick bought him out at twenty cents on the dollar. Funny thing was, two weeks later, Derrick tripled the initial investment and Lassiter was left with next to nothing.”

  “When did that happen?” Jenny asked.

  “The deal closed three days ago,” Zach said.

  “Does Lassiter have an alibi for the time of the murder?”

  Zach smiled at her. “He claims he was on the Outer Banks, but he can’t prove it one way or the other.” The North Carolina Outer Banks was a developed set of islands on the coast that still offered stretches of empty sand dunes and lonely stretches of ocean. It was easy enough to imagine getting lost there.

  “But he could have just as easily been in Raleigh,” I said.

  “Oh, yes. He’s pretty familiar with the place. This is where he got his start, so I’m guessing he’s still got some connections in town.”

  “You need to tell Murphy everything you found out,” Jenny said.

  “We talked on my way back here. He
’s heading to Richmond later today to confirm it all for himself.”

  “At least he’s doing something,” I said.

  “It’s not easy running an investigation when there are so many people who wanted the victim dead,” Zach replied.

  “We’ve got another name to add ourselves,” I said. “Evidently, Derrick was having an affair with Mindi Mills. That’s why she made Murphy’s list.”

  “So then we add her name, and Cary Duncan’s, too. Maybe it would be easier listing the folks who didn’t want to see him come to harm.”

  “Hold that thought,” I said as my telephone rang. “Hello?”

  “Savannah, this is Kelsey Hatcher.”

  “Hi, Kelsey. It’s a nice courtesy, but you don’t have to call to tell me you’ve received a puzzle every time I send one to you.” I could see that it was going to take me a little time to break her in.

  “That’s not why I’m calling. I’m afraid it didn’t work for me.”

  “Hang on a second,” I said, and then covered the mouthpiece of my phone. “Jenny, is your fax working?”

  She nodded. “I use it all the time.”

  I uncovered the mouthpiece again. “Sorry, Kelsey, there must have been a glitch with the phone line. I’ll send it to you again,” I promised, and hung up.

  My phone instantly rang again. Honestly, what more could the woman want? “Yes?”

  “You didn’t let me finish. I received it the first time, but that’s not the problem.”

  “Then what is?”

  In a sharp voice, she said, “There’s no complexity to it. Our buyers have been complaining about your easy puzzles for months. You’ve got to do something a little more challenging, I’m afraid.”

  “I don’t redo puzzles,” I said, taking the warmth out of my voice as well. I’d hoped we would have a longer honeymoon, but if she was going to start being difficult from the start, then I was going to have to follow suit.

  “According to page four of your contract, section seven, subparagraph two, when the syndicator requests a revision or alternate puzzle, you are to comply within twenty-four hours, or risk termination of the contract, with prejudice. I hate to be a stickler about it, but you signed it, did you not?”

  “We both know I did, but Derrick, as much as he fussed at me about doing easier problems, never had the gall to bounce one of my puzzles.”

  “I can’t address the past. Consider this official notice that your puzzle dated with today’s date has been deemed unacceptable. It is up to you to comply with the terms you agreed to, Savannah. Honestly, do we really have to drag the lawyers into this? How hard could it be to make another puzzle?”

  “If you think it’s that easy, by all means, go ahead and do one yourself.”

  “As we both know, that’s not in my area of responsibility. Have a new puzzle to me by this time tomorrow, Savannah.”

  She didn’t even wait for me to say anything else.

  Zach took one look at me and said, “I’ve seen those storm clouds before. Bad news?”

  “Kelsey Hatcher just ordered me to supply her with another puzzle, one more complex, in twenty-four hours, if you can believe that, or she said she was going to cancel my contract and sue me for damages.”

  Jenny shook her head. “I told you to let me look that contract over before you signed it.”

  “Are you kidding me? I would have done anything to see that first puzzle published. I was afraid to show the contract to you. You probably wouldn’t have let me sign it, and then where would I be?”

  “Where are you now?” she asked.

  “In need of a new puzzle, apparently,” I said. “Sorry I can’t work on this with you two, but I’ve got work to do. Work I’ve already done once, if you can believe that.”

  Zach rubbed my shoulder gently. “Sorry, Savannah. It looks like you’re trapped.”

  “I just hope she gets this power trip out of her system. I’m not going to keep doing two puzzles for the price of one for very long.”

  I CREATED THE PUZZLE, THOUGH IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO DO it, and by the time I was finished, I was in no mood to write a cheerful and upbeat snippet.

  I ended up writing,

  Power is a precarious thing. It can build up confidence in some folks even as it destroys common sense in others. When power goes to someone’s head, disaster is a likely result. The wise use power to nudge, not to bludgeon, and realize that there are consequences to most actions.

  I took the snippet into the living room, where I found my husband and my best friend in deep conversation. “Can I read you two something?”

  “Absolutely,” Zach said.

  Jenny nodded as well, so I recited my snippet. After I was finished, I asked, “Did I go too far?”

  Zach frowned as he said, “Not if your goal was to alienate Kelsey Hatcher. If that’s what you were going for, I think you’ve probably succeeded admirably. I know you’re not happy with her orders, but is this the right way to go about protesting?”

  “Do you honestly think she’s going to read it? Even if she does, I’m not all that certain she’s bright enough to realize I’m taking a shot at her.”

  Jenny shrugged. “It’s not actionable as it stands.”

  “Are you saying that I should make it more direct?”

  She shook her head. “I never said that. I’d send it, if I were you. What’s the worst thing that can happen, she makes you write it over? You can always sanitize it then.”

  Zach smiled. “You two must have been a pair of holy terrors in college.”

  “We were angels,” I protested.

  “Unless provoked,” Jenny added.

  “True. All bets were off then.”

  Zach laughed. “I’m just glad I’m on both of your good sides. Savannah, why don’t you go fax that new puzzle? Jenny and I have been brainstorming, and we’ve come up with a new plan of action.”

  “Don’t make me wait to find out,” I said. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Fax first, and then talk,” Zach said.

  I reluctantly agreed, if only to send the new puzzle and snippet in before I lost my nerve. Two could play it that way, and if Kelsey was going to give me grief, I planned to give it right back to her.

  I sent the puzzle, not sure I’d even hear from her. I could sympathize with the editors, and my readers, but I had a lot going on at the moment. I honestly believed that it was important to mix easier puzzles in with the more difficult ones to give first-time folks a chance, but that wasn’t my true rationale at the moment. I’d do better when things settled down, but for now, the puzzles I was submitting would just have to do.

  I wanted to get back to my husband and my best friend and see what the two of them had come up with.

  “It’s taken care of,” I said as I rejoined them.

  “That was quick,” Zach said.

  “I know everyone wants more complex puzzles, and I love this job too much to disappoint them lightly, but I’ve got to focus on this right now. As soon as things settle down, I’ll give everyone some real brainteasers. Now, what do you two evil geniuses have in mind?”

  “We’re going to go buy a little surveillance equipment,” Jenny said.

  “Excellent. Who exactly are we going to spy on?”

  Zach explained, “Jenny’s stalker is getting bolder, and I think that’s going to be his downfall. There’s a place in town where I can get some small cameras, and we’re going to hook them up to Jenny’s DVD player and record what happens. I’ve got a feeling we’ll catch this guy in twenty-four hours.”

  “I hope so,” Jenny said. “This is getting creepier by the minute. I’m really glad you two are staying with me for a while.”

  “We’ll hang around as long as you need us,” I said.

  “At least one of us, anyway,” Zach added.

  “She needs us,” I said. “That takes precedence over everything else.”

  “Not everything,” Zach said. “We still have to go after Derrick’s murderer,
and I’m not going to let myself be distracted completely from that.”

  “Zachary Stone, I thought you didn’t like it when people interfered with police business.”

  My husband grinned at me. “That was when I was on the force. As things stand now, I believe Murphy could use a little nudge, and I’m not afraid to be the one to give it to him.”

  “We’re going to work on both cases,” I said firmly. “They’re equally important.”

  Zach nodded. “Let’s take care of the cameras, and then we’ll start interviewing suspects for Derrick’s murder. It’s going to all work out in the end.”

  I wasn’t sure if he actually believed it or not, but just hearing him say it was enough for me.

  When my telephone rang three minutes later, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

  That didn’t make things any easier when I heard who was on the other end of the line.

  Chapter 7

  “HELLO, KELSEY,” I SAID.

  “Hello, Savannah. There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  Trying to keep my temper in check, I said, “I still don’t think it was necessary. It’s impossible to get new people to try my puzzles if I don’t throw in an easy one every now and then. If they’re all too hard to solve, nobody’s going to want to work them, and then where will we be?”

  There was a pause on the other end, and then she said, “You know what? You’re right.”

  “I’m sorry, there must be something wrong with our connection. What did you just say?”

  “I said you were right, and you heard me the first time. Listen, I’m sorry about the way I acted earlier. I thought I had to do business the way Derrick did, and I might have gotten a little carried away.”

  “Might have?” I asked.

  She laughed fully that time. “Okay, I admit it; I got carried away. The whole thing about power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely has a ring of truth to it, doesn’t it?”

  “It certainly can.”

  “Don’t think for one second that I didn’t realize your little snippet was aimed directly at me. I nearly called you and demanded another puzzle, but then I realized that you were probably right.”