“Same argument as you just gave me. How could they prep the nicotine and have it ready in less than two hours? It’s not possible.”
“So we’re back to the people who had an old grudge against him. Trust me, fifteen minutes with him, and I hated him. Weeks or months and I can see anyone having a motive for murder. He wasn’t easy to deal with.” Marissa held up a finger. She dialed the operator again and tried to page Nicole. She hung up, resignedly knowing that her efforts were futile. Nicole was not going to make this easy for her.
“Care to stroll the store with me to find my wayward employee?” Marissa gave him a tentative smile, not wanting to encourage him too much. She’d given him a “maybe” today; she didn’t want to overdo matters.
“We need to talk to her. I want more information on the screenplay and what her brother said.”
“That’s rather cold.” Marissa looked at him with a new appreciation that he wasn’t all emotions and smiles.
“There’s no confidentiality among relatives other than a spouse. She has to tell us what she knows.”
“Good luck with that. Nicole is like dumping the trash out on the table. You have to pick through what she says to come out with anything of value. It’s a chore to practice listening to her chatter.”
Gavin smiled. “You’d be amazed at what we get that’s supposed to pass for answers. She can’t be much worse than that.”
Marissa walked in silence with him as they searched the various departments of the store, going from the first floor methodically to the second floor merchandise areas to the administrative offices. When she was able to push the thought that they were hunting down a murder suspect’s sister and the likely cause of her overtime budget overrun, she enjoyed the mindless prattle that passed for conversation.
When Marissa pushed open the door to the banquet room, she knew that their time was over for today. Nicole sat on the floor in the corner, legs pulled up tight against her body and crying. She looked up as the pair entered, mascara running, foundation ruined. “I want to be alone.”
“Sorry, Nicole, but the police have some questions for you. I’m going to clock you out at,” Marissa checked her watch, “4 pm. Rhonda will be in soon, and she can cover for you this evening.”
Gavin walked over and helped the woman to her feet. She didn’t speak a word to him, and Marissa was surprised. She could barely get a word in with Nicole, but she’d shut up tighter than a shrink wrap.
“We need to notify Adam that Nicole is leaving with you. He’s supposed to be informed of any police efforts in the building.” Marissa proffered a tissue to Nicole who just stared at it. “For your face?”
Nicole nodded and started smearing the stains across her face. She was about to draw a mustache on herself when Marissa intervened. She pulled a jar of cold cream from her pocket and put a touch on her fingers before applying it to Nicole’s face. She rubbed it around and wiped it off with the tissue Nicole had in her hand. At least, she’d be presentable when the time came to go to the police station.
“Adam’s not here,” she said quietly. “He’s gone already.”
“Ellen?” Marissa thought that dealing with her friend might be preferable to Adam’s moods these days.
Nicole nodded.
Marissa tried to dislodge a bit of cold cream from under her fingernail without much luck. The chunk fell from her hand onto her shoe. Marissa stared at it, lost in thought for a moment. Gavin touched her arm and she jumped.
“Are you okay?” he asked looking more pensive than he had a right to at this point.
“I figured part of it out.” Marissa furrowed her brow, still trying to put the pieces together. She had the outline, but not the killer yet. “The poison. It came from a bottle of Perchance. They encouraged Steve to put some on for the photo shoot just before the announcement on the dais.”
“How do you know this?”
“I smelled it on him when he came downstairs. He hadn’t put any on at lunch. The marketing people thought it would put him in the proper frame of mind to wear it during the shoot. It had to be that. He sprayed out some on his skin. No one else has to touch it or be at risk. People rarely touch other people’s cosmetics. It isn’t done.”
“How many people had access to the cologne? What’s opportunity look like?”
“All of cosmetics. Anyone from the store. Raymond West. Pretty much everyone you already suspect, but Nick couldn’t have done it. No way.”
Nicole piped up. “I could have.”
Marissa shook her head. Out of the frying pan and into interrogation. Was Nicole savvy enough to know that she was setting herself up as a suspect, or was she just offering her usual helpful information?
“Now we really need to find Ellen, and let her know what’s going on. This is the second person we’re taking down to the station today who might have killed Douglas. We need a break soon before we look like idiots.”
Marissa was surprised that Gavin didn’t cuff Nicole, but he merely took her elbow and guided them back the way that they had come. Marissa didn’t see Ellen anywhere, and by the time they arrived back at Marissa’s office, she’d grown concerned, thinking of her own close experience with the killer. Had Ellen known something she should have told? It would certainly explain her evasiveness over the past week, her unwillingness to show her hand to her friend.
Gavin seemed to hone in on her own fears for he parked Nicole in a brown metal folding chair and motioned to Marissa. “Have the operator page Ellen and then we’re going to look around.”
Chapter 20
The pair headed upstairs again, but the security office was empty. No signs of Adam. Ellen’s desk was rummaged through. Papers littered the floors around the filing cabinets, like leaves fallen from a tree. Marissa had no way of knowing what was had been taken from her desk. What had spawned this attack on the room? Her fears grew as Gavin’s face grimaced. If he thought it was bad, then it was probably something she didn’t want to think about.
They started to leave, and Marissa turned back into the room. Ellen had taught her one trick about personal safety when they worked downtown. She went to the side of the desk closest to the wall and slid her hand back in the space. She nearly wept when the cool leather touched her fingertips. Ellen’s purse was still here, tucked into the small space where rip-off artists wouldn’t find it. Ellen wouldn’t have left the store without it.
Marissa paused for a second, thinking how she’d resent someone taking her purse, but in that instant, she damned the consequences. She felt those hands around her throat again and knew what she had to do.
Gavin pulled out his cellphone and hit one button. Marissa guessed that it had to be the police, and most likely Bandarra. Even though she despised him, Bandarra would not be afraid to do what was needed to find Ellen and stop the – Marissa halted. She refused to even think of Ellen as dead. She was too smart for that and too needed.
She hadn’t been paying attention to Gavin’s conversation with Bandarra. It had seemed rude to eavesdrop again, even if her friend was in jeopardy, but something in the policeman’s manner made her perk up her ears. Gavin’s voice was soft and soothing, not at all what she would have expected from an impending manhunt.
“We’ll be expecting you.” Gavin hung up the phone and turned away for a second. Marissa wondered what was going on. He certainly couldn’t behave this way with all of cases he worked. He’d be a mess. He turned to look at her. “Where first?”
Marissa headed for the phone, but Gavin stopped her before she picked up the handset. “Use the phone at the register. Prints.” She nodded and went out to make an all call for Ellen. If management wondered why she needed to speak to so many people today, they hadn’t asked about it yet. She waited by the phone, watching the second tick off on her Chanel watch, a gift from one of the perfume shows she’d attended. No calls and a few minutes passed.
She started back to the Security office, but met Gavin halfway there. He had changed somehow. His jaw was clen
ched, and his eyes focused on the horizon. The hangdog look she’d gotten used to was gone. Funny how little she actually knew about him, despite his best efforts to try to introduce himself to her.
“Where to? Where would Ellen likely be?” Gavin scanned every part of the store from where he stood, but Marissa knew that Ellen’s short stature would make her hard to spot amongst the racks.
“If she’s not here, she’d be on the floor. But she’s not on the floor, or she would have answered the page. She always answers my page, even if it’s just for lunch. So that means she’s gone, been taken or –“ Marissa stopped and rubbed a hand across her throat. “Out there.”
“Are you up for it?” Gavin had already taken four steps in the direction of the parking garage before he’d turned to ask.
Marissa nodded. She felt an emotion surge inside of her that she recognized immediately. She was pissed. She was tired of being the victim here and knew what she had to do. She took off running, despite the heels, and had nearly made it to the doors before Gavin in his surprise caught up to her.
“We need a plan. We just can’t run around outside looking for her. There are hundreds of cars out there.”
“This is the most likely level for her to be on. No way someone is going to lure her or drag her down the escalators or into the elevator. It wouldn’t happen. If she came out this way, it was through these doors and this walkway.”
Gavin nodded and opened the door for her. Chivalrous even in crime solving. She braced herself for the cold November wind that blew through her dress and left her shivering. She threw Ellen’s purse down by a car at the top of the closest row and walked part of the way down the slope.
Marissa started walking slowly down the row, bending over while trying to hold her skirt in place. It was awkward, but she found a rhythm and moved as fast as she could down one side and then back up the other. “You’ll need to look under the cars or around them. Ellen’s not tall enough to be seen with all the SUVs and trucks here.”
Gavin got down on his knees and began moving up the adjacent row. Marissa couldn’t see his head anymore and felt a small twinge of fear shoot up her, but she knew that she wouldn’t stop. Too much was at stake.
She stopped momentarily when a car came up the slope. She looked up long enough to see that that it was Bandarra. She pointed in the direction of Gavin’s row, but didn’t stop. The car moved away, and she continued up the side. She’d just turned the corner to the row leading up to the next level when she saw what looked like a foot under the muffler of a beater.
“Over here,” she shouted, surprised at the strength of her own voice as tears started down her face. Damn it, she wanted to be strong, but she couldn’t help it. Ellen was her friend, and the foot hadn’t moved since she’d been staring at it. She fought the impulse to run up and check Ellen’s pulse, but she knew the police would want to preserve the scene, and she wanted nothing more than to catch whoever had done this.
Gavin came up first, and he slid behind the car and bent down. Within seconds, Marissa heard his voice. “She’s alive. Someone hit her on the back of the head and left her here. She’s cold, but we can warm her back up.” Gavin stood and took off his coat and then his shirt. Marissa allowed herself an instance to check out his muscular and smooth upper body before resuming her concern for her friend. Bandarra did the same but she had no desire to look at him.
With the clothing covering Ellen, Gavin stood again and reached into his pocket for a cellphone. He dialed and demanded an ambulance immediately, identifying himself as police and informing the person on the other end that she was a relative of an officer.
Marissa furrowed her brow. She knew that Ellen had police in the family; she was proud of that, but would Boston officers carry any weight with the local EMTs?
She bit her lip, trying to make sense of that when she heard a sound. She turned to look at Bandarra, who was crying worse than she was. Men still had it easier, because the lasting effects of tears were not visible to anyone walking by, but big tears rolled down his scrunched-up face. What was happening here?
Gavin came back out from behind the car and looked towards Marissa. “Get him a tissue, will you?”
“But what?” Marissa started back to find Ellen’s purse.
“You’d be crying too, if your fiancé was found assaulted out in the cold. Now move.”
Marissa heard the words and moved. Fiancé, had he just said fiancé? Ellen had been hiding something, but Marissa would not have guessed an engagement to Bandarra. Her friend was engaged to the police officer that she’d so publicly trashed. No wonder Ellen hesitated. If – no, when – this was over, she’d throw Ellen a bridal shower. She tried to occupy her mind with the details of the shower as she fumbled through the purse, looking for tissues. Ellen’s bag made hers look tidy. She pulled a handful of papers out of the bag and held them pressed between her palm and the purse, looking for something to pass as a tissue.
She found one lonely piece of Kleenex at the bottom of the bag, bearing lipstick stains in a shade Marissa had never seen Ellen use. She shook the puzzlement out of her eyes. There was so much about Ellen she apparently didn’t know.
She started to push the stack of papers back into the purse, when she stopped. Marissa recognized them as the grape-juiced stain notes she’d found in Steve’s jacket the day of the murder. She wondered why Ellen still had them. She opened them, glanced them over and pushed them one at a time back inside. The last page was a note from Adam, giving Ellen instructions on what to do this week while he was away. Marissa stared, not because the words were important, but the script was. Adam had written that note to Steve.
Chapter 21
Marissa stood there and gawked at the note for a few seconds, her brain spinning around trying to make sense of it. Adam had killed Steve, nearly killed her and had dumped Ellen outside to freeze. The cold was not making it easy to think, and she moved into the wan sunlight. From her vantage point, she could see Gavin standing there in the cold, and she was certain that Bandarra had long since wiped his nose on something, since his sleeves were covering Ellen’s cold body.
Adam was the killer. He certainly had a working knowledge of how to poison someone. Barring Ellen, he was the most likely person to know how to extract nicotine and apply it to a victim. His family had a background in law enforcement, and he’d spent years in security. Some of that knowledge had to wear off.
Marissa tried to figure out the motive. She wanted to keep her mind occupied, trying not to hover over the still unmoving figure of her friend. The first responders had arrived and were performing some unseen routines on Ellen. Gavin appeared worried, but Marissa couldn’t go near. At this distance, she could maintain her hope that everything would work out. If someone told her differently at this point, she knew that she would crumble and likely Adam would get away with this.
She went back again to motive. Raymond West had been certain that the motive was sexual in nature; either Steve had knocked up or infected some girl and been forced to pay the price by them or an unhappy family member. Adam had been grief stricken lately by the death of his sister, who had lived somewhere out west. Marissa knew that she would have to get confirmation from Gavin and the police, but it seemed like a working theory for the moment.
The solution satisfied her, but at the same time, she saw the tissue paper thinness of the entire case. She’d deduced the entire thing from a sheet of paper and a half a note that she’d accidentally destroyed. It wouldn’t stand up in court; she wasn’t even sure that she could get Gavin to listen to her deductions.
Thanking the Heavens for purses, Marissa rummaged around in Ellen’s bag again and pulled out Ellen’s iPhone. Gavin had come up the incline to within a few feet of her and she held up a finger to indicate that he should wait.
She pressed a few numbers, knowing that Ellen’s password was HI50 for the television series, and then quickly dialed a number.
Adam’s voice came on the line, tentative and quiet.
“Yeah?”
Stepping into the wind so that the whistle of air across the mouthpiece muffled her voice some, Marissa gave her best Ellen impression, making the r’s sound more like a’s and adding “er” to the ends of her words. She wouldn’t win any Oscar, but she needed to convince a frightened man that he’d screwed up. “It’s me. I’m tougher than you thought. We need to talk about by the car where you left me. Bring some cold hard cash.” Marissa thought that sounded appropriately threatening as Gavin stood there with his mouth open.
“What the hell are you doing? What was that about?”
“I’m solving this case, here and now.” She had switched back to the crisp consonance of her r’s.
Before Gavin could ask more, she motioned him and Bandarra inside. She hurried both of the shirtless men into her office where Nicole still sat, vacantly staring at the blank wall above Marissa’s desk.
Gavin’s chest, which had looked nice at first glance, was now mottled and reddened from the wind and cold. She assumed that Bandarra’s was the same. Marissa was still struggling to understand how Ellen could go out with him.
She left the unlikely trio there and quickly walked to the men’s department. She gave Sam a friendly wave and without ceremony, stripped two of the mannequins to the waist. She was out of the department before Sam even had a chance to respond.
She gave both men clothes, and from Bandarra’s face, Marissa deduced that Gavin had told him what she’d done. Under the sadness, she detected a bit of frustration and what she hoped was a small amount of grudging respect.
She’d figured that the trip would take Adam about 20 minutes, the average time from any place to any other place in Cincinnati, barring Milford. At the 15 minute mark, she stood up, put on her coat and motioned to the detectives. If Gavin had figured out who was behind the attacks, he hadn’t told her. She didn’t care. In a few minutes, they’d all be on the same page.
She walked over the bridge to the parking garage and waited for the head of security’s arrival. Her police escort stood inside the walkway, out of sight but within earshot of her position. She felt flush and thought again of Ellen’s cold, bluish face. The memory gave her strength as she saw Adam’s SUV pull into a spot.
Love Stinks Page 14