He stopped at her desk.
Whiskey jumped up, stood stiff legged, ears pricked, on the alert.
Pierce slowly turned his head to look at him, but before Liv could command Whiskey to stay, Whiskey trotted over to be petted, which the security head did before returning his attention to Liv.
“Good afternoon,” she said, standing to meet him.
He nodded brusquely and handed her a brown accordion folder. “The preliminary report for the first twenty-four-hour period,” he said by way of explanation and stood at ease.
“Please have a seat, Mr. Pierce.”
A.K. Pierce sat down, feet planted on the floor, forearms resting on his knees.
“Ted?”
Ted lifted an eyebrow and sat.
Liv untied the closure and pulled out several copies of the report. She handed one to Ted. It was clear and detailed, with color-enhanced graphs and charts.
She was impressed. The trustees should be pleased. On the surface of this report she would be inclined to hire his firm on a regular basis. She wished she had the funds to keep them year-round.
“Excellent,” she said. “I must say you and your men and women covered a lot of ground.”
“Any time you have a crowd of this size—we estimated upward of a thousand—you invariably attract pickpockets and petty thieves, underage drinking, standard drugs, mainly marijuana. Some rowdiness. All in all it was a pretty standard night—except for the murder.”
Liv winced. Except for the murder. That was pretty major.
“I don’t think my crew, or any crew, could have prevented it, unless maybe by chance.”
“Why is that?”
He hesitated. “I’ve already discussed this with your sheriff.”
“I realize, and I don’t expect you to divulge any classified information. However, I would like your professional assessment.”
She saw Ted cover a grin behind his hand.
“I told the sheriff that I was contracted to perform certain duties for the town, and since Bayside Security was hired by you, I was bound by that contract to apprise you of certain information.”
Liv nodded seriously, though in the back of her mind she was thinking of what Chaz Bristow would think of the conversation. Each sentence more formal than the last. But formality worked for her, and evidently it worked for A.K. Pierce, too.
“I identified your Santa.”
Liv forgot about Chaz.
Ted scooted his chair closer.
“At the crime scene,” he clarified. “I didn’t see him before he was found. Didn’t know he was here until he was dead. But I knew him—well, was acquainted with him. He’s an area private investigator.”
Liv tried to keep her mouth from dropping open.
“Moonlighting for Christmas money?” Ted asked.
Pierce switched his attention from Liv to Ted. “Possibly. He’s not, shall we say, the best nor the most efficient investigator. He may be tight for cash. I don’t keep tabs on most of these guys; the fringe PIs, who spy on spouses, search for missing relatives whether they want to be found or not, and chase money, two-bit stuff.
“Phil Cosgrove was one of them. His cases were hit or miss with a lot of miss. And we don’t necessarily work the same circuit, if you know what I mean.”
At least now they knew his full name. Cosgrove. Phil Cosgrove. “Working as a Santa at Trim a Tree seems like an odd choice of jobs even if he were strapped for money,” Liv said.
“I agree. It would be more likely, as I told Bill Gunnison, that he’d been hired to keep an eye on someone. Maybe they caught on to him and decided to eliminate the problem.”
“So you’ve ruled out robbery?” She had, but she could always hope.
“It hasn’t been ruled out, but at this juncture, it’s unlikely. From what we saw initially, though I wasn’t in on the official CSI, it didn’t appear to be robbery. It’s possible Cosgrove interrupted the thief before he got that far.”
“Do you think that’s what happened?”
“Possibly.”
“But not probably,” Liv said.
Pierce shook his head slowly. “I think Cosgrove got too close to whatever he was looking for. He wasn’t very smart. He might have tipped his hand.”
“Do the police know who hired him?” Ted asked.
“Not yet, as far as I know.”
“Someone who wanted to watch Grace. Her husband?” Liv asked.
“That would be the most obvious conclusion but not necessarily the right one. Cosgrove could have been investigating anyone who frequented the store, or one of the nearby stores.”
Liv’s mind began to race. Penny, Miriam Krause, BeBe—
“Or a regular customer.”
Did Grace have any regular customers?
“Actually the Santa gig gave Phil a reason to hang around town without being conspicuously out of place. It might not have had anything to do with the store itself. Or as your assistant here said, he could have just been moonlighting.”
“How did you show up so quickly? I mean, I’m glad you did, but I was surprised.”
“I just happened to be standing by when the sheriff got the call, and he asked me to ride shotgun.”
“Did they find the murder weapon?”
“That’s classified.”
“His throat was cut.”
A.K. Pierce’s eyes opened marginally wider. “I’m not a cop. I’m not privy to classified information.”
“But it had to be a knife or something like that.”
“I’m not at liberty to say.” He shot her a smile that was so fleeting, Liv was sure she had imagined it. “Bill said you would try to pump me for information.”
“I—”
Pierce’s back straightened a millimeter. “I know my job, Ms. Montgomery. Don’t bother trying.”
Chagrined, Liv didn’t even bother to deny the accusation. She’d have to find out more from Bill, who wasn’t nearly as good at keeping his mouth shut as A.K. Pierce.
“So . . . in your experience, if this doesn’t look like a robbery gone bad, was it a random act, or was Phil Cosgrove killed because of what he was, or at least might have been, investigating?”
“As far as the investigation goes, it could be any of those situations. Then again, it might have been something else entirely.”
“Like what?”
“Name something. People get killed every day over things most of us wouldn’t think twice about.”
Liv sighed. “So I don’t guess that we can ensure that it won’t happen again.”
“Ma’am, you put enough people together in a small space and you’re bound to have trouble. It’s just the nature of the beast. People get drunk, get angry, get stupid, do stupid things. Do god-awful things. Best thing you can do is to be prepared for it. Which you did by hiring Bayside Security.
“You read my report. All in all it was a successful night. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have assignments to detail.” He reached across the desk and shook her hand. His hand was big, with fingers that could crush hers if he’d wanted. Fortunately, he just smiled and let go.
“Ms. Montgomery.” He let Ted show him out.
“Well, that was one smooth sales pitch,” Ted said when he returned.
“I know. He made it sound like if we hadn’t hired Bayside Security, there would have been riots in the street, drunken orgies on every corner, and Celebration Bay would become a den of drug-addicted thieves.” Liv slumped in her chair. “They did do a great job, but I wish he could have managed to stop just one killer.”
“There is that.” Ted sat down and crossed one foot over his knee. “A private investigator. Who would have thought it?”
“That puts a whole new spin on things, doesn’t it?”
Chapter Ten
The meeting room was packed by the time Liv and Ted arrived for the mayor’s hastily called gathering. They’d waited on purpose so they wouldn’t have to answer the same questions over and over again. People in Celebra
tion Bay had already begun to turn to Liv to solve not only event problems but town problems in general.
Murder was definitely problematic—not to mention tragic, Liv thought as she and Ted walked down the hallway to the meeting room. And she had a moment of contrition.
“What?” Ted asked. “Did you forget something?”
“Yeah. Actually I did.”
“I’ll run back and get it.”
“Not that kind. I’ve just been so busy doing triage that I hadn’t thought that there’s someone somewhere mourning the death of a loved one.”
“Yeah, but save it for after the meeting. You’ll need your total attention to avert a panic.”
“You think they’ll panic?”
“We can hear them all the way down the hall. They’re ready to blow. You can’t have a murder on Main Street without everyone’s life being thrown into confusion and fear.”
Liv knew that was true. And the “trustees and a few businesspeople” who attended sounded like an angry lynch mob.
Liv adjusted the strap on her computer case. Ted opened the door and they stepped into bedlam.
There must have been twenty in all. Just a sampling of the local business and community leaders. The noise didn’t diminish as she and Ted entered, just switched its focus to one individual. Liv.
She nodded and started to take her normal seat in the first row, where a projector had been set up for her presentation. She didn’t make it two feet before she was engulfed by questions.
“Liv, do they know who killed that man?”
“What’s going to happen to TAT?”
“You shouldn’t have let them move in. I knew they’d be trouble from the get-go.”
“And where was that expensive security service that we hired?”
“Yeah.”
“Big waste of town funds, if you ask me.”
“And where are the Thornsbys? They’re probably ashamed to show their faces in town.”
“Well, they should be.”
“Roger Newland shoulda never sold out to Clarence Thornsby.”
“That oily son of a—”
“Ain’t Clarence’s fault.”
“Well, whose fault is it then?”
Once again everyone looked at Liv.
Liv turned to Ted. “They don’t think it’s my fault, do they?”
“Not likely. They’re looking to you to solve the situation.”
“They can’t.”
“Before you came, when something went wrong, it just went wrong and we either muddled through or things came to a screeching halt. You actually fix things. It didn’t take much to convince them you could do it again.”
Fortunately, the mayor came in and the crowd redirected their barrage of questions at him. He held up one hand for quiet, which everyone ignored. Under his other arm was a copy of the report Liv had shot over to his office just an hour ago. She wondered if he’d had time to read it.
He was followed closely by Janine Tudor, who had been the event coordinator before Liv. It had been a volunteer position, and she’d been way out of her abilities. That didn’t stop her from blaming Liv for taking her job.
She was one of those tall, lettuce-and-rice-cakes-thin women who had their hair streaked and their nails done and who bought their clothes in a town larger than Celebration Bay and called it sophistication. She’d gone back to selling real estate with some success. But what she held over the mayor was anybody’s guess.
“Maybe she’ll be on the hot seat for a change,” Liv said. “She did broker the Thornsbys’ lease renewal on the store.”
Ted smiled a Cheshire-cat grin. “Wouldn’t that be lovely?”
The mayor took his place at the podium on the raised dais at the front of the meeting room. Janine sat in one of the empty chairs that formed a row across the dais.
Janine had no official reason for being there, but she was like a bad penny: no one could figure out how to lose her.
“Wonder what Janine’s up to tonight,” Liv mused with little interest. She and Ted both knew that whatever it was, it would be designed to make Liv look bad.
Mayor Worley lifted the gavel from the podium and whacked it several times. The trustees emerged from the pack like sinners at a revival meeting and took their places in the other chairs on the dais.
Roscoe Jackson, owner of the local general store; Rufus Cobb from Cobb’s B and B; and Jeremiah Atkins, banker and landlord, sat side by side in three chairs. Janine sat in the fourth. One chair and one trustee were missing. Chaz Bristow, unwilling trustee and uninterested bystander, had once again failed to make an appearance.
The rest of the invited guests settled into seats behind Liv and Ted. Liv didn’t like having her back to the others. Hard to read your crowd or be persuasive when you couldn’t look them in the eye.
“The meeting will come to order,” the mayor said.
Everyone settled down, more or less.
“I’ve asked all of you to attend this trustee meeting to apprise you of our current situation. As you know, there was an unfortunate incident during the tree lighting ceremony last night. I’m sure you all have questions.”
“If you can answer them,” said Quincy Hinks, owner of the Bookworm.
“We’ll answer what we can. I’ve asked the sheriff to come a little later, and he may have some answers that I don’t have. But before we do any of that, I’ve asked Liv Montgomery to give an update on last night’s activities.”
“You find the killer yet, Liv?” came a voice from the crowd.
Liv’s face heated. They weren’t being fair. She hadn’t found the last one. It was rather the other way around.
She thought the mayor would intervene. If there was ever a time to wield his gavel, it was now. But he remained mute; he just joined the others and looked at her.
“I have a question.” Janine’s voice broke through the charged silence.
The mayor jumped as if she’d goosed him. “Why yes, Janine. The chair recognizes Janine Tudor.”
Janine stood. Nodded to Mayor Worley and turned to Liv. “What I and I’m sure a lot of others would like to know, is what that security service Liv just had to have was doing while someone was murdering that poor man.” She paused to touch her hand to her chest. “It could have been any of us.”
“Yeah.”
“I’d like to know that, too.”
“We’d all like to know.”
The mayor banged on the podium.
“That’s actually a good question,” Liv said. “Mr. Mayor, if I may.” As she started to stand, she caught sight of the door opening and a man sauntering in. Oh great. The editor of the Celebration Clarion had deigned to make an appearance and just in time to hear her make her most officious speech. Liv gritted her teeth.
Chaz grinned at her and slid into a seat behind hers. She slowly turned her head. “Why are you sitting down here instead of up there?” she said under her breath.
“Better view.” Chaz Bristow gave her the blandest look she’d seen on a face since she’d last seen him. She was sure he did it on purpose. “Come on, Manhattan, give ’em your old party of the first part.”
Liv gave him a bland look of her own and turned around. He might kid her about the way she talked, but it worked. On most people. Certainly not on Chaz Bristow, probably because he’d gotten used to using only a smidgeon of his brain.
All eyes turned to Liv.
She’d asked herself the same questions as they had, and she’d prepared the answer. “Bayside Security was hired to patrol the streets, supervise the crowds, ensure orderly behavior, and investigate suspicious activities.”
“What about the murder?” asked Jeremiah.
“Phil Cosgrove died inside the store, outside the normal jurisdiction of the security team.”
“Party of the second part . . .” mumbled Chaz.
Liv cleared her throat. “They saw nothing suspicious as far as I’ve been told. I’m sure they are cooperating with Bill Gunnison in the inves
tigation.”
“I think we paid a lot of money for nothing,” Janine said.
“Like she paid for that dress she’s wearing,” Chaz mumbled.
Liv shot Chaz a stern look. “As I was saying, the security service did exactly what they were paid to do: keep the peace and protect the tourists in public places. I have here the initial report from A.K. Pierce, the head of Bayside Security.”
She plugged her laptop into the projector and the first page of the security report appeared on the screen behind the trustees. They all twisted around to see it.
“As you can see here, twenty guards, ten in plainclothes, were stationed in five areas. On foot, in radio contact, patrolling solo unless backup was required. And backup was never more than two minutes away.
“That left the controlling of traffic, including streets and parking lots, to the county police force.” She forwarded to the next page. “The blue represents the police, and the red, Bayside Security. As you can see, all areas where crowd control was needed were covered at all times.
“In this next view, you’ll see the preliminary statistics of crime thwarted or miscreants apprehended in a safe and quiet way.” She brought up Pierce’s chart. “As you can see, as compared to last year’s incident report, there were fewer fights, fewer pickpockets, fewer falls and accidents. All in all, they did a very good job.”
“That is impressive,” said Jeremiah.
“Yes, and I didn’t notice any major skirmishes like we had last year with those kids and beer and fireworks.” Dolly Hunnicutt smiled at Liv from her seat next to her husband, Fred.
Janine’s mouth tightened. “But still some thief was allowed to enter one of our stores and commit a tragic crime and no one noticed. All of our stores are at risk.”
Liv took a breath and stepped out on a limb. “Even the most assiduous patrol can’t always prevent a determined criminal.”
“Determined? You mean it was premeditated?” asked Rufus Cobb, chewing on his mustache. “I need to be assured of the safety of my guests.”
Silent Knife (A Celebration Bay Mystery) Page 11