by Jennie Marts
Edna pushed her empty plate back and rubbed her hands together. “Now you’re talking. Tell me where to start. You want me to dust your phone for fingerprints?”
Maggie shook her head. Was she kidding? With Edna, it was hard to tell. “Of course not. The person sent me the message electronically. The only fingerprints that will be on it would be mine and Jeremy’s. And every person in this room who’s touched the phone.”
“Good thinking,” Edna said, not to be deterred by Maggie’s comments. “How about I do some interrogating? Got anyone I can question?”
“Actually, that’s not the worst idea. The police can try to track down who the call came from, but I can’t imagine it’s going to be that simple. No one would be dumb enough to send a message like that from their own phone.” Maggie licked a dollop of white frosting from her thumb. “But I was thinking we could start digging into all the players. We can Google Jim and Charlotte and Skyler. And that nerdy Leonard guy. Even Jeremy. We can look up their past jobs, where they went to school, check out their Facebooks, see what they’re tweeting. We need to see if we can find any kind of connection between them that might help us figure out who had the most to gain by Jim’s death.”
“Good idea, Mom. We can all help.” Drew reached across Maggie and pulled another roll from the pan. “I’ll bring my laptop and iPad out here for you guys while Piper and I look stuff up on our phones.”
“I’ll clean up in here and then use your PC in the office to search,” Chad offered.
Did Chad just offer to clean up the kitchen? Who was this guy and what had he done with her ex-husband? The one who thought the dishwasher was run by estrogen.
They made quick work of setting up a command central in the kitchen. After Drew found a power-bar extension cord, they plugged in laptops, iPads, and Cassie’s Kindle Fire. Cassie made a list of things to check out and assigned each person a specific area to check into.
Maggie unearthed a big poster board with one of the boy’s old school projects on the back and taped it onto the wall of the dining area. She listed each of the names across the top: Jim, Charlotte, Leonard, Skyler, and Jeremy. Then she instructed the group to fill in information they found under each name.
By this time, Dylan had woken up, eaten a roll, and brought down a packet of multi-colored markers to use on the poster board. He and Chad retreated to Maggie’s office to use her home computer.
The noise of the kitchen settled into a quiet hum as each person clicked and tapped, tracking down electronic rabbit holes as they dug for information. Motion stopped each time someone got up to fill in information on the poster board, each using that piece to either delete their path or to continue to search for another related thread of information.
Maggie saw that Sunny had listed Charlotte’s graduation date from Coronado High School in Colorado Springs. She Googled their online yearbook for that year and began to search the classmates and class pictures.
Bingo! She couldn’t believe it. Maggie waved the group over and pointed to a picture of a blond-haired boy with braces and a bad haircut. “Look at this. In the senior pictures of Charlotte’s graduating class is a picture of Skyler Humphries. They went to high school together.”
“Nice work, Mags,” Sunny said. “But there were hundreds of kids in that school. Just because they were in the same class doesn’t prove they knew each other.”
“No, but this does.” Piper turned her iPad to show the group the grainy black-and-white photograph of Charlotte and Skyler standing next to each other, each with a hand on a beaker of white liquid in front of them. The caption below the picture read: “Chemistry Club takes award in State Finals.”
The doorbell rang, and Maggie heard Dylan yell he would get it. “So, now we know for sure that Charlotte and Skyler knew each other from high school. But, if they were so close, why didn’t she go to work for SkyVision? Why work for Jeremy?”
“Unless,” Sunny answered, “she was a plant all along, and she’s only been working there to spy on the competition and feed SkyVision their new technology. But how can we prove if she’s being loyal to Jeremy or still connected to Skyler?”
“That’s a great question. We’ve been working on that ourselves.” Officer McCarthy stood in the doorway of the kitchen, surveying the command post and the poster full of colored notes. “But if I had known you all were going to do our work for us, we could have all gone out for coffee.”
“And donuts.” Edna had been in the living room on the phone, so she squeezed past Mac and stepped into the kitchen. “I know cops really like donuts.”
Mac sighed. “I think a lot of people really like donuts, Miss Allen. As far as I know, cops do not have the market cornered on donut eating.”
Maggie pointed to the pan of rolls on the counter. “We don’t have donuts, but Edna makes an amazing cinnamon roll. Have a seat, and I’ll bring you one. How do you like your coffee?”
“Black. And I don’t want to perpetuate the cliché of cops and donuts, but a cinnamon roll sounds great.” Mac winked at Maggie, then crossed the room and scanned the notes they had printed on the board. “You guys do pretty good work. You dug up some things even my guys didn’t find. I can see why you’re looking into Jeremy’s alibi and his competition, but why are you digging up info on this Leonard guy? What does he have to do with anything?”
Maggie handed Mac a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. He took an empty seat at the kitchen table and listened intently as the Page Turners filled him in on their adventures at Comic Con and Maggie and Jeremy’s visit to the Travel Inn.
“Thank you for the roll. It lived up to its claim of amazing.” Mac smiled at Edna, then scraped the last bite of roll onto his fork and scooped it into his mouth. “It sounds like you all have been pretty busy. I have to admit, I’m impressed with your work here. And I would have paid money to see you in those costumes.”
“I’ve got pictures,” Piper said.
“You do?” Maggie turned to the younger girl. “When did you take pictures?”
Piper shrugged. “All afternoon. I had my phone and there were so many crazy things at the conference, I took a bunch of pictures. I took this great one of you and Aunt Cassie at lunch.”
Mac dug a business card out of his front pocket and passed it to Piper. “Can you email me all the photos?” He smiled up at Maggie. “I would like to see a picture of you in this Lara Croft outfit. But on a more professional note, I can have my guys look the pictures over and see if they can find anything in the background or pick up anything suspicious from the photos.”
“Like a picture of Leonard,” Maggie said. “I don’t know how long he was up there, but Jeremy and I saw him right after we ate lunch. He was wearing a Superman costume.”
Mac scribbled some notes on a small notebook he pulled from his pocket. “You never know what you might have got a shot of by accident.” He motioned to the poster board. “Mind if I copy down some of this stuff you found?”
“Knock yourself out.” Maggie took a marker from the table and added the Chemistry Club connection to the list under Charlotte and Skyler’s names.
Mac wrote the last piece down. “That’s actually a really interesting bit of information. We’re waiting for the tox screen on the poison that killed our victim, but with a bit of a chemistry background, it’s pretty easy to create an array of poisons that could be used to kill someone.”
“Oh, poo.” Edna poured herself another cup of coffee. “I don’t know chemistry from biology, but I could make a poison to kill someone. Take a cup of bleach, pour in some rat poison and a little 409 and voila, you’re dead.”
Mac nodded. “Well, sure, anyone could make a cup of poison. But no one would drink it. To make something to put into someone’s drink that is odorless and tasteless, that takes some skill. And remind me never to have coffee at your house.” He shook his head and muttered, “And a little 409.”
“I’ll have you know that I make excellent coffee. You’re welcome to stop by anytime
and have a cup whenever you need help discussing a case,” said Edna. “And I have another piece of information to add to the board.”
“What information?” Maggie asked. “You weren’t even online. I heard you in the living room talking on the phone.”
“You have your ways of finding stuff and I have mine.” Edna tapped Mac on the shoulder and pointed to his notebook. “You might want to write this down, Mac. I saw Piper post that Leonard listed his hometown as Greeley, Colorado, on his Facebook page. That’s a pretty small town and just a few hours from here. I remembered that I took a water aerobics class with a gal from there, which by the way, water aerobics is really good for your joints if you’re interested. Anyway, I called her and asked her if she knew the family. Well, she didn’t know them personally, but she knew where the family lived, and she used to play bridge with a gal named Agnes who lived on the same street. I used to play bridge fairly often, but one of the gals in our foursome kicked the bucket and we just couldn’t find anyone to replace her. So I called Agnes, and wouldn’t you know, she’d lived on that street for years and used to babysit Leonard and his sister.”
Maggie smacked her forehead with her hand. “Do you have a cup of that bleach poison lying around? I might need a sip. For the love of all that is holy, could you please get to the point?”
Edna huffed. “Just hold your cotton-pickin’ horses. I’m getting to it. So Agnes, who seems like just a delightful woman, by the way.” She raised her eyebrows at Maggie, daring her to say something. Maggie dropped her head to the table in an exaggerated smack.
Edna continued, ignoring her friend’s theatrics. “So, Agnes said that earlier this winter, around the holidays, Leonard was home and talking about a woman that he was seeing. He told his mother, who then told Agnes, how much he liked this woman and thought they had a real future. He seemed quite enamored with her.” Edna paused for effect. “She said that he brought her home one weekend, and Agnes described her as a blonde who showed off way too many of her curvy assets and looked a bit like a hussy to her.”
Well, that described Charlotte all right. Maggie picked up a red marker and added “Dated the hussy, Charlotte” to their information board under Leonard’s name. “So, she must have dated Leonard before she started seeing Jim.”
“It sounds to me like this woman gets around,” Mac said.
Edna tapped his notebook. “It sounds to me like you need to talk to her again and see just how many of these men she has had relations with. And you know what I mean by relations.”
Mac rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know what you mean. And you might be right. Not about the relations business, but I think I will talk to her again. It sounds like she might know a little more than she’s been letting on.” He looked at Maggie. “But if she’s dated half the single guys at Jeremy’s company, what makes you so sure she hasn’t had relations with the boss himself?”
Great question. Maggie gulped. “Because he told me he didn’t.”
Mac’s gaze was unrelenting, and Maggie felt sorry for those he had in the interrogating room. “And you trust him?” he asked.
Trust him? Why did he have to use that word? Did she trust him? Depended on which day you asked her. Or which hour. Or minute. She returned Mac’s stare. “I believe him. And besides, we already know that Charlotte is a liar. She lied about the alibi and being with Jeremy in the motel.”
Mac tapped his fingers on the table. “That one has me stumped. I was going to send a guy out to verify that story, but I think I’ll go out to the Travel Inn myself and speak to this Scooter fellow.”
Maggie tapped the poster board. “And now we know she also has another strong connection with Jeremy’s competition. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was the one who sent me that text.”
“Have you run a trace on that text yet? Do we know who sent it?” Edna asked.
Mac shook his head at her. “I don’t know who this ‘we’ is. But my guy ran it down and we don’t know who it’s from. It was sent from a burner phone.”
“What’s a burner phone?” Sunny asked.
“It’s like a pay-as-you-go phone,” Edna answered. “Anyone can buy one and pay to put minutes on it but there’s no contract, so they stay anonymous.”
Sunny raised her eyebrows at Edna. “How do you know what a burner phone is?”
Edna shrugged. “What? I watch Castle. Someone’s always using a burner phone on that show.”
“She’s actually right.” Mac stood, shoving his notebook back into his pocket. “Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I need to get back to work. Thanks for the cinnamon roll and the coffee. They were delicious.” He looked directly at Maggie. “You have my number. Let me know if you get another text or if you feel threatened in any way. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Maggie swallowed and nodded her head, the heat level in his gaze causing her mouth to go dry and her palms to sweat.
He held her with his look for a moment longer. “I’ll show myself out. You ladies stay out of trouble.” He pointed at Edna. “Especially you.” Then he was gone.
The book club stared at each other for a moment, speechless in his absence. Then Cassie picked up a napkin and fanned herself. “Is it warm in here?”
“Holy testosterone,” Sunny said, turning to Maggie. “That man is hot with a capital H! And he is totally into you.”
Maggie waved her away and turned back to the poster board. “I don’t need him to be into me. I need him to figure out who killed Jim Edwards. And I need it not to have been Jeremy.” She picked up a marker and snapped the cap off. “There was one more piece of information that I discovered in my internet search.”
“Why didn’t you tell Mac?” Sunny asked.
“Because it wouldn’t have helped Jeremy.” Still holding the marker, Maggie placed it under Jeremy’s column and wrote, “Graduated college with a degree in Computer Engineering and a minor in Chemistry.”
Chapter Fifteen
The doorbell rang, and Maggie checked her image in the mirror hanging from her bedroom closet door. She had picked a long blue dress to wear on her date with Jeremy tonight. The dress was strapless and showed off her tanned shoulders. The flowing fabric hugged her slim figure, and the V-necked bodice draped low across her chest and clung seductively to her breasts.
She had picked a simple pair of silver sandals that accented her denim-colored toenail polish. A blue amethyst pendant on a silver chain hung around her neck and dipped into her cleavage. Thanks to good genes and a great push-up bra, Charlotte was not the only one who had a great pair of assets.
Maggie loved the excited feeling of butterflies in her stomach she still got when she knew she was going to see Jeremy. She adored the smile that crossed his face when he saw her, and thrilled that his smile was just for her. She loved the way he seemed to drink her in with his eyes. He made her feel beautiful and special.
Now, if only she could get the idea of him in a white lab coat mixing up a beaker of deadly poison for his employee out of her mind, she would feel so much better about this date.
She stepped into the hall and ran into Chad coming out of Dylan’s bedroom.
Chad looked her up and down, making no disguise of his approval of her outfit. “Wow! You look good enough to eat. Hot date with Nerdville tonight?”
Maggie sighed. “Yes, I have a date with Jeremy tonight. I heard the doorbell, so I assume he’s downstairs waiting.”
Chad stepped back. “Don’t let me hold you back.” He didn’t step completely out of the way, standing just close enough that Maggie had to brush past him on her way downstairs. He ran his hand down her back as she passed him. “Have a fun time.”
A shiver ran down Maggie’s spine as she walked down the stairs. What kind of game was Chad playing? Why was he giving her compliments and touching her back? She now knew not to trust him. That guy always had an angle.
All thoughts of Chad left her mind as she saw Jeremy standing in her living room.
He wore expensi
ve jeans, black dress shoes, and a slim black button-up shirt. He held a bouquet of three purple long-stemmed calla lilies tied in a white satiny ribbon. The smile she had been hoping for was absent from his face, replaced with a look of wonder instead.
Jeremy shook his head as she approached him. He picked up her hand and laid a kiss on the inside of her palm, then looked deeply into her eyes. “Maggie, you take my breath away. You look stunning.”
Oh. My.
Maggie swallowed at the emotion threatening to spill from her. Tears filled her eyes and those butterflies were doing insane loop-de-loops in her stomach. A tiny finger of fear crept in as she realized how much she was falling for this man.
This man who brought her purple calla lilies instead of roses. She had told him once that calla lilies were her favorite flowers. That she loved the elegance of them. And he had listened and remembered.
His words made her feel like a treasure. Like she was adored. She thought of Chad’s comment on her looking good enough to eat. Being described as “stunning” beat a comparison to an entrée any day.
She reached up to hug him, breathing in the intoxicating scent of his aftershave.
A wave of desire ran down her spine as he whispered in her ear. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too.” Maggie looked into his eyes and saw her own feelings reflected there. “It’s been a long week.”
Maggie took the flowers into the kitchen in search of a vase. This week had seemed long. She hadn’t seen Jeremy since he dropped her off after Comic Con. They had spoken on the phone, but her days had been filled with work and Dylan’s two soccer games. Jeremy was caught up in his own busy schedule and hadn’t been able to get away to attend either of the games.
Chad had gone with her, and though she was glad for Dylan that his dad was at his games, she was still uneasy about the kids depending too much on their dad’s presence. She didn’t want to see her sons get hurt again.
She had to give Chad credit for attending the games and spending more time with the boys since he’d been back. He did seem different. Could a midlife affair with a Hooters waitress who took all his money and then ditched him have taught him to appreciate the life he had before? The one he had so carelessly thrown away?