A Killer Column

by Casey Mayes

  “So, I can keep doing easy puzzles?”

  “As long as there is a healthy mix with harder ones,” she said. “I’ll keep your first submission here, and we’ll go with that one next time. We both need to find a balance here, Savannah.”

  Kelsey was making sense, and she had given some real ground, so it was time for me to be a little more gracious than I’d been so far. “I’m more than happy to work with you until we do,” I said.

  After I hung up, Zach asked, “What was that all about?”

  “Apparently I was wrong about Kelsey,” I said. “She apologized after reading my snippet. We might just be able to work things out after all.”

  “Some harmony in your work might not be a bad thing,” Zach said.

  Jenny stood and clapped her hands. “Now that we’ve settled all that, why don’t we go get these cameras Zach keeps raving about?”

  “I’m ready,” he said.

  As we walked out and locked the front door, I glanced over to see if Charlie was still standing guard, but he was nowhere to be seen. That could explain how the stranger had slipped onto Jenny’s porch to make his deposit without Charlie seeing him. Apparently the man wasn’t there every minute of every day, which was actually something of a relief.

  As we walked to Zach’s rental car, I had a sudden thought. “We should go next door.”

  “Why?”

  “Jenny has a neighbor who likes to watch what’s happening on the street, especially over here. Maybe he’s seen something.”

  Jenny said, “Trust me, Charlie keeps me apprised of all the neighborhood happenings, like who’s walking their dog and who doesn’t mow their lawn often enough.”

  “Maybe Savannah’s right,” Zach said. “It wouldn’t hurt to talk with him before we go.”

  I pretended to clean out my ears. “Did I actually hear you say that?”

  “Hey, I admit it all the time when you’re right.”

  “Rarely,” I said with a smile.

  Jenny put a hand on Zach’s arm. “Maybe Savannah and I should talk to him without you.”

  “Why? I’ll be civil.”

  Jenny looked at him. “I know you think so, but there’s a lot of cop left in you, no matter how the circumstances may have changed. You’re likely to scare the poor man half to death. Why don’t you wait in the car? We can handle Charlie ourselves.”

  “Okay,” Zach said grudgingly, “but if you need help, remember, I’m just a shout away.”

  As we walked up Charlie’s front steps, I said, “You handled that quite well. Almost as good as I could have.”

  “I get paid to make people see my point of view, remember? I didn’t want to say anything so direct to Zach, but he can be intimidating, whether he knows it or not.”

  “You don’t have to tell me, I married the guy.” As we glanced up toward Charlie’s house, I thought I saw the curtains move on the second floor. “Do you think he’ll come out?”

  “With just us out here? I’d have to believe so. We’re not nearly as imposing as your husband.”

  “No, our talents lie in other directions. Should I let you do the talking?”

  Jenny thought about that for a moment or two, and then she nodded. “It might be for the best. Do you mind?”

  “Of course not, but I’m not promising I won’t jump in if I think of something.”

  She laughed, a sound I missed when we were apart. “Savannah, you wouldn’t be you if you did.”

  Jenny barely had to knock on the front door before Charlie threw it open. “I happened to glance out the window, and I saw you coming. Is there something I can do for you, Jennifer, I mean Jenny?”

  “I’ve told you a thousand times, Charlie, it’s Jenny.”

  “I know. I’m trying, really I am.”

  “There are only three men in the world who have ever called me Jennifer, but I’ll let it slide.”

  “Who are the other two?” Charlie asked, clearly interested in her answer.

  She started to tell him, I could see it in her eyes, and then she waved her hand in the air. “It’s not important. What really matters is whether you’ve seen someone leave something by my front door lately.”

  “The UPS man came by two days ago,” Charlie volunteered. “Didn’t you get the package he left?”

  “Yes, it was an autographed book I ordered from Poisoned Pen in Arizona,” she admitted. “Have you seen anyone else hanging around the place?”

  “No, no one who didn’t belong,” he said. “I’m assuming you don’t mean your friend here, or the man staying with you now.”

  He hadn’t missed that much. “I’m Savannah Stone,” I said as I offered my hand, “and that man is my husband, Zach.”

  Did Charlie seem a little relieved to know that Zach was with me? I couldn’t really tell, and I’d been looking for a reaction.

  “Sorry, I forgot to introduce you,” Jenny said.

  “You work too hard,” Charlie said.

  “How could you possibly know that?” I asked.

  “I see lights coming on late at night when she gets home,” he explained. Realizing how that must have sounded, he quickly added, “My TV room faces Jenny’s front porch. I can’t help noticing when the lights come on.”

  “It’s fine, Charlie. If you see something odd, would you do me a favor and call me? You’ve got my cell phone number, don’t you?”

  “I don’t think so,” he said.

  She reached into her pocket, pulled out a business card, and then scrawled her number on the back of it. “There you go.”

  I added, “But just call if it’s suspicious.”

  Jenny must have realized what she might be letting herself in for. “That’s right. You know me, I’m working all of the time.”

  “Don’t worry about a thing. You can trust me. I’ll be your eyes here,” he said. Inside, we could hear his telephone ringing.

  “We should be going,” I said.

  Charlie answered quickly, “It’s fine. The machine can get it.”

  Jenny said, “We do really need to be going. Thanks, Charlie.”

  “What are neighbors for?” he asked.

  As we were leaving, I said, “That was odd.”

  “Charlie’s a bit of an acquired taste,” Jenny said. “But he’s not that bad once you get to know him.”

  “I’m not talking about his behavior,” I said. “He kept calling you Jennifer. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”

  “Of course I noticed. He’s been doing it since I first moved in. It’s just his way.”

  “Who are the other two men who call you Jennifer?”

  She frowned, and then said, “I should learn when to keep my mouth shut, shouldn’t I?”

  “It wouldn’t be a bad trait for a lawyer to have,” I admitted. “Who are they?”

  “You’ve met one of them,” she said. “Shawn always used to call me Jennifer before we broke up.”

  “And who was the other man?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said abruptly. “It didn’t end well.”

  “All the more reason to tell me,” I said.

  “If you must know, it’s another lawyer from the firm. We dated a few times just before I went out with Shawn, but nothing ever developed between us. He wasn’t exactly thrilled when I turned him down.”

  “I need to meet this man.”

  “Honestly, Savannah, just let it go.”

  “I can’t do that, and you know it,” I said as we got in Zach’s car, an oversized SUV.

  “What are you two talking about?”

  Jenny started to tell him when I beat her to it. “There are three men in her life who call her Jennifer, but she doesn’t think that it’s significant, even given the notes she’s been getting.”

  “It could be the most important clue we’ve gotten so far. I need names,” Zach said as he took out the small notebook he always carried with him.

  “I really don’t think any of them are involved.”

  �
��Be that as it may, we’re not going anywhere until I get those names.”

  She sighed, and then finally said, “Shawn Murphy’s one of them, Charlie’s another, and Mason Glade is the third.”

  Zach nodded. “I know the first two, at least indirectly. Who’s the last one you mentioned?”

  “He’s from the office. He’s a partner in the firm where I work.”

  “A man she used to date,” I added.

  “I was getting around to that,” she admitted.

  “It’s so much more efficient this way though, isn’t it?”

  Zach frowned, and then instead of starting the car, he opened his door and said, “I’ll be right back.”

  Before either one of us could stop him, he started up Charlie’s steps. I wondered if the man would even open the door when my husband approached, but he did. After a brief conversation, Zach came back, scowling about something.

  “He had a cake in the oven,” Zach said. “I’ll have to speak with him later.”

  Jenny put a hand on his arm. “Zach, trust me. He’s harmless.”

  “He could be,” my husband said. “But seven women thought the same thing about the Slasher, and look where it got them, all on slabs at the morgue.”

  “Fine, I won’t try to stop you, but in the meantime, can we go get these security cameras so we can get on with our lives?” I asked.

  “We’re on our way,” Zach said as he started the car and drove off.

  I wasn’t sure which side of the argument I agreed with, and no one asked. Until I had more evidence, I was going to assume that everyone we talked to was up to something. It might not be the healthiest way to look at the world, but it was the only way I was going to find a killer and now, a stalker, too.

  “WHERE EXACTLY IS IT THAT WE ARE GOING, ZACH?” Jenny asked as we drove into Raleigh.

  “I know a place where we can get what we need.”

  Jenny’s voice made it clear that she was skeptical about his selection as she looked out the window. “I usually don’t go to this section of town.”

  “You’re with me,” he said. “You’ll be fine. I can’t find what we need on Edenton Street, you know?”

  “Trust him,” I told Jenny. “He knows what he’s doing.”

  Jenny nodded. “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

  Zach glanced at me and said, “Thanks for that vote of confidence.”

  “It isn’t misplaced, is it?”

  He laughed. “Savannah, have I ever gotten you into so much trouble I couldn’t get you out of it again?”

  I took longer to think about it than he clearly would have preferred, but I finally replied, “No, but you have to admit that we’ve had some close calls in the past.”

  “Think about it. How many times was it because of me, and how many times were you the reason we were in the jam in the first place?”

  “What can I say; I like life to be interesting.”

  Zach parked the car in front of an older building on the outskirts of town, a dark redbrick façade with high windows and no real signage out front.

  “Where exactly are we?” Jenny asked.

  “If you have to ask, you won’t ever know.” He turned off the engine and handed the keys to me.

  “What are these for?”

  “You put them in the ignition,” he said with a grin, “and they make the car go.”

  I gently slapped his arm. “Why are you giving them to me?”

  “It might be better if I go in alone. If the three of us walk in together, we’re going to pay double what this guy is going to charge if it’s just me.”

  I looked at the building, and then at Jenny. “I’m going to leave it up to you.”

  She said softly, “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather wait out here.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do.” I turned to my husband and added, “Be careful.”

  “It’s not dangerous. I promise.”

  I kissed him on the cheek anyway, and he disappeared into the building after ringing a buzzer and waiting for a full minute to be let inside. I didn’t like the look of the place, but I had to trust that Zach knew what he was doing. Otherwise I would never be able to sleep at night.

  While we waited, I asked Jenny, “So, what else have you been up to since we got together the last time? Any scandalous stories you feel like sharing?”

  “No, I lead a pretty quiet life these days. You have more excitement than I do, I’ll bet.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I asked as I looked around outside. “I mostly sit around the cottage making puzzles and trying to keep up with my garden. I’ve put raised beds in, and we’re growing all kinds of things, but it’s not exactly front-page news.”

  “I don’t know, it sounds pretty exciting to me—” Jenny broke off what she was saying, and then grabbed my shoulder and said, “Duck.”

  I didn’t even ask why as I slumped down in the front seat. “Why are we hiding?” I whispered.

  “Do you remember Mason Glade, that partner I told you about from my firm just now?”

  “The one you used to date?”

  Jenny pointed to a man walking out of the building my husband had just entered. There were two heavy bags in his hands, and he wore a nice suit and shoes that gleamed from their shine as he walked away from our car.

  “That’s him,” she said. “It’s Mason.”

  I started to open my door, and Jenny protested, “Where do you think you are going?”

  “I’m going to follow him,” I said. “I figured that much would be obvious.”

  “Savannah, get back in here,” she called out, but it was too late. I wanted to catch Mason before he had a chance to get away, and a second later, I heard Jenny’s door shut behind me.

  “If he sees me, I have no idea what I’m going to say,” Jenny said as we trailed the partner from her firm.

  “We have as much right to be here as he does,” I said. “We don’t owe him any explanations.”

  “You don’t know Mason. He’ll demand to know.”

  “Then we’ll tell him you were showing a friend from out of town the big city,” I said. From the way Mason hurried down the street, I had a feeling we weren’t going to have to tell him anything. A herd of buffaloes could be following him and I doubted that he’d notice.

  He turned the corner, and Jenny put a hand on my arm. “Hold back a second.”

  “We’ll lose him if we do,” I answered, pulling free from her. As we turned the corner, my worst fears were confirmed. Mason was nowhere in sight.

  “Where did he go?” Jenny asked as we both looked wildly around.

  “Maybe he wasn’t as oblivious as we thought he was,” I said. “He must have spotted us following him and ditched us the first chance he got.”

  “I can’t see Mason being able to do that, even if he noticed us, which I doubt.”

  “Well, he’s not here, is he?”

  Jenny shook her head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to lose him.”

  “It’s okay. I would love to know what he bought in there, though.”

  I turned around and headed back to the shop.

  Jenny asked, “Are we going back to the car?”

  “No, ma’am. We’re going into the shop and asking the owner what Mason bought from him.”

  She looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “And what makes you think he’ll tell us?”

  “We won’t know unless we ask,” I said.

  Back in front of the shop, I looked for the buzzer that my husband had used to summon someone to the door. My finger was poised above it when, much to my surprise, the door opened.

  It was Zach, and he had a bag that matched the pair we’d seen Mason carrying out of the shop.

  “I thought you two were going to wait in the car?” Zach asked us.

  “We were, but then we saw Jenny’s ex-boyfriend and fellow law partner walk out of the shop with two bags like those.”

  Zach shook his head. “Don’t tell me. You decided to foll
ow him.”

  I admitted as much. “We lost him, though. That’s why we need to get inside. We have to ask the owner what he just sold Mason.”

  “You can’t do that,” Zach said.

  “Why not? What would it hurt?”

  “You haven’t met Skinny Tony,” Zach said. “Not only would he not tell you what you want to know, but he could take it personally. Besides, it’s not important.”

  “What do you mean, it’s not important,” I said. “This could have something to do with Jenny. We need to know what he just bought.”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Tony won’t tell you, but I can. I saw him bag it all up.”

  “Well, don’t keep me waiting. What did he buy?” I asked.

  Zach looked around, and then said, “First we get into the car, then we start driving, and after that, we’ll have plenty of time to talk.”

  I looked around, too. There were several men on the street, dressed in scruffy clothes and most of them needing a shave. “You’re not worried, are you?”

  “Savannah, there are times when calculated risks make sense, and times when it’s just stupid to make yourself a target.”

  “I’m convinced,” Jenny said as she hurried into the back of the rental car.

  “Coming?” Zach asked.

  “You know I am,” I said.

  As we drove away, I noticed a few of the men watching us. Had they been paying such a close vigil while Jenny and I had been trailing Mason? I’d broken one of my husband’s cardinal rules. I hadn’t been aware of my surroundings at all times, and the people around me. If I was going to insist on investigating Derrick’s murder I was going to have to do better.

  The tension in Zach’s shoulders eased considerably once we were on our way. He glanced at Jenny in the rearview mirror and asked, “What kind of work does Mason do for your firm?”

  “Mostly he works our corporate accounts,” she said.

  “No divorce cases?”

  “No, nothing like that. We’re more of a boutique firm. We don’t handle anything that could be considered even a little bit lurid.”

  Zach shook his head. “Then it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Why? Don’t keep us in suspense. What did he buy?”

  Zach studied Jenny for another few seconds, and then said, “He got some long-range listening devices. They’d be perfect for eavesdropping, but I don’t know why he’d need it if he’s just practicing corporate law.”