Love is Murder

by Kate Bell

  My eyes trailed the park. It was empty except for a couple of stray dogs running across it. The weather was still too cold for kids to be out playing and the melting snow had made a muddy mess. We would have more snow before winter was over. This was just a temporary reprieve from the frozen stuff.

  My eyes landed on a car parked at the far end of the park. It was gray, but I couldn’t tell what model it was.

  “Hey, Alec, what’s that?” I asked, pointing at the car.

  He pulled the binoculars away and looked in the direction I was pointing, then put the binoculars back up and trained them on the car.

  “That, my beautiful, red-haired friend, is a gray Buick,” he said.

  I squealed and he pulled the binoculars away from his eyes again and looked at me. “What are you doing? Do you want someone to know we’re here?”

  “Sorry,” I said. “I just got excited that we had spotted out first perp.”

  He sighed loudly and brought the binoculars back up to his eyes. “Let’s try and keep a low profile.”

  “Let’s also not forget that I was the one that spotted him,” I said, squinting my eyes at the car. “Let me see those binoculars.”

  “No,” he said.

  “They’re mine,” I reminded him.

  “Sure are,” he said, without handing them back.

  “Well, is he in there or not?” I asked.

  “It looks like I can see the back of his head. But he’s not moving,” he said.

  “You think he’s waiting on her?” I asked.

  “Maybe. But I would think since they wanted to keep the affair quiet, that she would have given him a key so he could just slip in.”

  “That makes sense, unless she’s married, too,” I said. “Can I see?”

  Reluctantly, Alec handed over the binoculars. I trained them on the car to see what I could see. There was definitely a person in the car, but after a couple of minutes of watching him, I decided Alec was right in that the guy wasn’t moving. Maybe he had fallen asleep waiting for his girlfriend.

  “No movement,” I finally said.

  “Maybe it’s the wrong guy,” Alec said.

  I handed him the binoculars. “We should take a stroll.”

  --3--

  “We need to be careful,” Alec said, still not moving.

  “He doesn’t know who we are. We’re just two people in love, taking a stroll around the park. Nothing to be suspicious of,” I said.

  “Let’s go,” Alec finally said and we got out of the car.

  Alec took my hand and we headed in the direction of the parked car. My breath came out of my mouth in puffs of white and I pulled my coat closer with my free hand.

  “I wonder where his employer thinks he is?” I asked, glancing in the direction of his girlfriend’s house. “You would think he would be at work at this hour.”

  “Maybe he took the day off,” Alec said.

  “Maybe he got stood up, too,” I said. We were speaking in lowered tones and trying not to look suspicious. Alec was probably doing a better job of it than I was. He had experience, after all, and I kept looking around to see if anyone was watching.

  “Quit looking around like that. It makes you look like you’re up to something,” Alec said.

  “I can’t help it. I don’t want someone sneaking up behind us and surprising us,” I said.

  “No one is going to do that. After all, we’re just lovers out for a stroll,” he said with a smile.

  As we got closer to the car, it looked like the man was leaning over, searching for something. Maybe changing the radio station or maybe he had dropped something on the floor. Only he still wasn’t moving.

  “What do you think he’s doing?” I whispered.

  “We’re about to find out,” Alec whispered back as we approached the car. We walked past and looked into the front seat. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel. When we had completely passed the car, we stopped and Alec looked around. No one was outside on this cold morning. He released my hand and walked over to the driver side of the car, and peered in at the driver.

  “Is he passed out?” I whispered.

  Alec knocked on the window. The driver remained motionless. Alec knocked again. When the driver still didn’t respond, he reached for the door and opened it.

  “Are you okay?” he said to the man. When he didn’t move, Alec reached for his neck, feeling for a pulse. “He’s dead.”

  “What?” I hissed. “What do you mean, dead?”

  I glanced around at all the silent houses.

  Alec reached for his phone and called the police. I stood motionless and stared at the man. His skin was pasty white and drool had slipped from his mouth, freezing in midair. I shuddered and looked away. Finding dead bodies was beginning to happen all too often for my tastes.

  I listened to Alec explain the situation to Stuart South on the phone. I didn’t want to look at the dead man, but my eyes were drawn to him. Maybe he had come to see his girlfriend and waited until her husband left the house, freezing to death in the meantime. No, that made no sense. He would have turned his heater on. But maybe he had had a heart attack while he waited in the cold. I shuddered. This was news that his suspicious wife wasn’t going to be expecting.

  Alec ended his phone call and knelt beside the man. He began taking pictures with his phone, placing it underneath where the man slumped over the steering wheel, then from the side.

  “I bet he had a heart attack,” I said hopefully.

  “Maybe,” Alec said and continued with his picture taking. “I really need to invest in a better camera.”

  “What else could it be?” I asked. I knew it was a dumb question, but I needed to distract my mind. I didn’t think I would ever get used to seeing dead people.

  “Allie, you know as well as I do there’s no way to tell that right now. I don’t see anything obvious yet,” he said. His tone was kind, but I thought it must irritate him when I asked these sorts of things.

  “I know,” I mumbled.

  He reached out and squeezed my hand as I stood next to him. “Why don’t you take my car and go home? I’ll call you when I’m ready to be picked up, or I can have Stuart or George give me a ride home.”

  “No, it’s okay,” I said, lifting my chin. I could be brave. I was an assistant PI, after all. Or at least, I was trying to be one.

  Alec turned back to the man and gently pushed his body back against the seat. His head rolled back and there were deep red marks on his neck. I looked away and steeled myself against the urge to vomit.

  “Well, doesn’t look like a heart attack,” Alec said softly.

  “What is that?” I asked, not looking.

  “Looks like someone strangled him with something,” Alec said. I heard his camera go off and I knew he was taking more pictures.

  “Do you think Sam Bailey will have you assist in the investigation?” I asked, digging the toe of my shoe into a small pile of gray snow on the ground.

  “Maybe,” he said absently.

  We heard sirens approaching and I stepped back from the car. Sam didn’t like me much and would be irritated I was there. There wasn’t any reason for his dislike as far as I could tell, but the chief of police could be a jerk.

  Yancey Tucker was driving the first police cruiser. He parked in front of the victim’s car and got out.

  “Allie,” he said and nodded at me.

  “Hey, Yancey,” I returned without much enthusiasm.

  He went directly over to Alec and peered into the car. Alec explained to him what he knew. Another police car drove up and the fire truck was hot on his heels. In a small town, you usually got the entire police, fire, and EMT crews on emergencies. I retreated to the sidewalk and waited as more police showed up.

  Sam Bailey showed up last, and got out of his cruiser. He turned and looked at me, and adjusted his gun belt, then spit on the ground. “Allie,” he acknowledged.

  “Sam,” I said with a nod. I forced myself to smile. Alec d
idn’t work for him anymore. Even if he didn’t want Alec’s help on the investigation into the man’s murder, it didn’t matter. Alec would get another case somewhere else. I didn’t need to worry about offending Sam, I told myself.

  A gust of wind blew and I pulled my coat tighter. I would have been happier anyplace else but here.

  I looked over at the supposed girlfriend’s house and thought I saw a white lace curtain move. I watched it for a few minutes, but it remained still. I glanced back at Alec’s car and contemplated getting the binoculars. That would be a hard one to explain with all the police around, so I decided against it.

  Alec was speaking to Sam, his face grim. A picture of the wounds on the man’s neck flashed across my mind and I shuddered, trying to push them away. What an awful way to go.

  I took a few steps forward and kept an eye on the house. I was sure it wasn’t my imagination. The curtain had moved.

  After a while an ambulance came, without sirens, closely followed by Brant Olney, the coroner.

  Alec stepped away from the car and came to stand beside me. “It’s cold out here. You should have taken my car and gone home,” he said, putting his hands on my arms and rubbing them up and down. The sky had begun to cloud over, making it even colder than it had been when we first got there. I wished I had worn a knit hat to keep myself warm, but I hadn’t intended on standing out in the cold when I had dressed that morning. My curly red hair was long and thick and helped keep me warm most of the time.

  “I think someone’s home at the house we were going to watch,” I whispered.

  He looked over at it.

  “I swear I saw a curtain move,” I explained.

  “Really?” he said, still watching the house.

  “What did Sam Bailey say?” I asked.

  “He’d like my help,” he said, turning back to me. “As long as I don’t bring you along. It’s a safety issue, you understand.” He gave me a lopsided grin.

  “What?” I gasped. “He can’t dictate to you how you do your business! You don’t work for him!”

  “Relax. I told him that you had come in handy on past investigations, and while I couldn’t guarantee that you wouldn’t assist me at times, I would do my best to make sure you stayed safely out of harm’s way.”

  I put my hands on my hips and jutted my chin out. “Are you serious? A safety issue? Why, I’ll give him a safety issue,” I hissed.

  Alec chuckled. “You are the sensitive one, aren’t you? Don’t worry about it.”

  “Are we going to go have a talk with whoever lives in that house?” I asked, letting my ire go.

  “I think I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling.

  “Shall we then?” I asked.

  “Let’s do,” he said and he held his arm out for me to take.

  Before we could take two steps, the front door to the little white house swung open and a pretty young blond woman stepped out onto the step. She turned and looked in the direction of the ambulance and police cars.

  I turned to Alec.

  “Well, that’s helpful,” he said, and started across the street with me in tow.

  --4--

  The woman stood on her front step watching us approach. I put a smile on my face that I hoped said I was friendly, but not overly friendly. In reality, I probably looked like a grinning idiot. Alec put on his detective face. I really needed to work on that one.

  I took a deep breath when we got to her and let Alec do the talking.

  “Good morning,” Alec addressed her. “I’m Alec Blanchard and this is Allie McSwain. We were wondering if you saw anything unusual going on across the street this morning?”

  The woman looked at him, then to the police cars and back. “What happened?”

  “A man died in his vehicle,” Alec said without emotion. “I didn’t get your name.”

  “Oh?” she said with surprise. “Who?”

  “We haven’t identified him yet,” Alec said, and waited.

  The vehicle was clearly visible and if Spencer Cranston was her lover, she would have recognized it. I searched her face for some trace of recognition or grief. She merely gazed blankly at the gray car.

  “How sad. How did he die?” she asked.

  “It’s still under investigation,” Alec said. “What was your name?”

  “Oh, Jenna Maples. Sorry,” she said, and flashed him a smile.

  “Do you recognize the car across the street, or have you seen it in the neighborhood?” Alec asked.

  She slowly shook her head. “No, I’ve never seen it before. Are you with the police?”

  Alec nodded. “Yes, we’re helping with the investigation. Did you hear anything last night or this morning? Or notice anything unusual?” Alec repeated himself, noticing she hadn’t directly answered his first question. Jenna seemed to have a knack for not answering questions.

  She shook her head again and smiled up at Alec. Jenna was model pretty. She looked to be about 5’10” and had short, curly blond hair and green eyes. She seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t place her. She reminded me of Gina Davis when she had been in Thelma and Louise. I wondered if she had done any modeling, she looked that familiar.

  “I really can’t say as I heard anything. I sleep with a fan on to block out noise. My neighbor has a yappy little dog that drives me crazy. Sorry. I really haven’t noticed anything unusual,” she said. I couldn’t see even a trace of grief on her face. If she had known Spencer Cranston, and especially if they were having an affair, I was sure she wouldn’t be able to hide the shock and grief, no matter how badly she wanted to keep the affair a secret.

  “Have you lived in Sandy Harbor long?” I asked. Although she seemed vaguely familiar, I couldn’t say that I had ever run into her in town, and Sandy Harbor was small enough that I was sure I would have, if she had lived here long.

  “I’ve only lived here for six months,” she said. “I don’t really know many people.”

  “Oh? That must be why you don’t seem familiar to me,” I said, turning on the Southern charm. “I’ve lived in Maine more years than I did my home state of Alabama. That’s where I was born. I moved here after I got married. And you?” I thought I was probably pushing it, but the smile never left Jenna’s lips, nor mine.

  “Business,” she said, but didn’t elaborate.

  A dog started barking then, and we all turned in the direction of her neighbor’s house to the left.

  “See what I mean?” she said and gave a small laugh. “My neighbor must have let him out to do his business. You might ask him if he heard anything over all that noise. He’s a nosey thing. My neighbor, not the dog.”

  “We’ll do that,” Alec said, handing a business card to her. “If you think of anything, will you give me a call?”

  “Sure,” she said and took the card from Alec. She glanced at it and then smiled at him again. “Well, I’ve got to get going. I hope you figure out what happened.”

  “Thank you,” Alec said. “We appreciate your time.”

  Jenna went back into her house and we turned toward the neighbor’s house.

  “That’s weird,” I whispered as we headed down the sidewalk. “If she was having an affair with the dead guy, you would think she would have a pretty strong reaction to hearing he was dead.”

  “Maybe Cranston’s wife was just being paranoid,” Alec suggested. “She didn’t have any real concrete evidence. She wanted me to find some.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” I agreed. “I didn’t get a good look at the dead guy, but Jenna’s a lot younger than forty-three, and do IT geeks really get girlfriend’s that beautiful?”

  Alec smirked. “Maybe he wasn’t that geeky.”

  “It’s just common sense,” I assured him. I felt like I had a knack for putting things together. Maybe I could hire myself out as an ace detective in my spare time.

  The neighbor’s house looked just like Jenna’s, except it was painted a light tan and had white trim.
The door was painted bright green and looked out of place with the rest of the dull coloring of the house. The beige curtains at the window moved as we walked up the path to the front door. Alec knocked and the dog in the back yard went from sounding slightly bored to barking rabidly.

  “Wow, that could really get annoying,” I said, trying to be heard above the noise.

  “You’d need a fan that sounded like a jet plane to drown that out,” Alec said, raising his voice.

  When there was no response at the front door, Alec knocked again. At the sound, the dog became more frenzied in his barking and I wondered if it might have a heart attack.

  The green door slowly opened a crack and I had to turn my head to the side to get a look at who was peeking out. I saw large eyeglass lenses and a nose and not much else.

  “Hello?” Alec asked. “Sir?”

  I didn’t know how Alec could tell it was a sir from the open crack.

  The door opened a little farther.

  “Yes?” a soft voice answered.

  “Sir, I’m Alec Blanchard and this is Allie McSwain. We’re working with the police. Can we have a moment of your time?”

  The door opened wider and the man looked from Alec to me and back. He appeared to be middle-aged and only stood about five feet tall. He had a swath of black hair around the sides of his head, but the top was bare. His glasses had the biggest lenses I had ever seen and they were what we had called Coke bottle glasses when I was in school.

  “Yes?” he repeated.

  “Sir, can you tell us if you heard anything unusual early this morning? Or possibly in the middle of the night?” Alec asked, raising his voice to be heard over the barking dog.

  “No, I didn’t hear anything,” the man said, glancing at the police and ambulance surrounding the gray car across the street. His face was a frightening pale white and it made me think he might not be well. His eyes went to the scene across the street again. “What happened over there?”

  “There’s been a death,” Alec said, raising his voice again. “We were wondering if you had seen or heard anything unusual.”

  “Eh?” he said, holding a hand behind his ear like I had seen old time actors do in black and white movies to indicate they were hard of hearing.