Triple Threat

by Alexis Koetting

  “And how long after she took the coke was that? Does it say?” Jeffers asked.

  “Um …” There was a rustle of papers. “The autopsy report says it was likely the cocaine was in her system for about a half hour. Stomach contents were negligible, so that’s another factor.”

  “And I’m sure the dancing didn’t help,” I said. “Since cocaine reduces the flow of oxygen to the heart, her heart would have already been working overtime.”

  “Yep.”

  I shook my head and closed my eyes. I didn’t know what Avril looked like, but I pictured a young girl with some of Vince’s features. Only softer. I imagined her excitement at getting to hang out with her older brother’s university friends. How she probably wanted to impress them and appear more mature than she was. And how wanting so badly to fit into their world robbed her of ever reaching a similar place in her own.

  “Does it say where the coke came from?” Jeffers asked. “I’m guessing someone at the party?”

  More shuffling of papers. “Kid named Alan Macie.”

  Jeffers and I shot each other a look. I hadn’t thought it possible for Macie’s past to get any murkier.

  “And there were never any charges laid?” I asked. “Possession or something?”

  “Not according to this.”

  “But a girl died!”

  “Looks to me like he paid a fine and that’s it.”

  “Wow.”

  “Don’t forget, this was twenty-some-odd years ago. Laws are different now.”

  “I get that, but still.”

  Jeffers and Shawn exchanged a bit more shop talk before signing off.

  “We need to talk to Leduc,” Jeffers said when he’d hung up.

  “You got that right,” I said.

  Jeffers started the car and I could see him resist the urge to turn on the siren. I knew he was anxious for movement on this case, but even he could not justify a mad dash through the streets of the city just because he wanted to talk to someone. Even if this someone possibly held the key that would blow the investigation wide open.

  I knew Leduc had a prep period three and would likely be in his office or the studio. We buzzed through to the secretary, identified ourselves, and were let into the school with no questions.

  “Security sure is different from when I was in school,” Jeffers said, commenting on the locked-door policy. “By the time Aden starts kindergarten it’ll be retinal scans and thumbprints.”

  “You may not be too far off the mark,” Principal Harvey said from the top of the stairs.

  Jeffers finished his ascent and the two men shook hands.

  “I heard you buzz through,” Harvey said. “Figured I’d meet you. Does your being here mean there’ve been some developments?” He spoke in a whisper even though there was no one close enough to hear us.

  “We do have some new information and—” Jeffers explained.

  “New information?” Harvey asked. “Well, I hope I can be of help although I don’t think I know any more than I’ve already told you.” He made a move toward his office.

  “We’re actually here to talk to Mr. Leduc,” Jeffers said.

  The principal stopped in his tracks. “You think Vince had something to do with this?”

  “There are just a few questions we’re hoping he can help us with.”

  “I understand. Of course. But—”

  “Is Vince in his office?” I asked. The question seemed to throw him off balance and he fumbled for an answer. “Mr. Harvey?”

  “I saw him last in the cafeteria,” he managed finally.

  “Thank you,” Jeffers said. “We can take it from here,” he added when it looked as if the principal would join us.

  “Yes,” Harvey nodded. “Yes, of course.”

  Harvey followed us down the corridor with his gaze, becoming more and more of a Hitchcockian silhouette the further we got from him.

  We met Leduc running up the steps just as we turned the corner into the stairwell.

  “Bella!” he said, skidding to a halt. I could almost hear the screech of his sneakers. “And … Dick Deadeye,” he said, shifting his cellophane-wrapped sandwich and chocolate milk into one hand so he could shake Jeffers’ hand with the other. “I’m so sorry, I’ve forgotten your name,” he said with a smile.

  “Detective Sergeant Jeffers.”

  “I must have missed that part last time,” Vince said, still smiling.

  “Is there somewhere we can talk?”

  Vince shot a look to me.

  “Jeffers is investigating Al’s death,” I explained.

  “Is there somewhere private we can go?” Jeffers asked.

  “I was heading outside to one of the picnic tables. Still a little chilly, but the sun is nice and every little bit of vitamin D helps.” His smile never faltered. “If that’s all right, Detective?”

  “Lead the way.”

  “You don’t mind if I eat?” Vince asked when we’d settled around one of the dozen or so picnic tables in the back courtyard of the school. There were a few students smoking at a table a few down from us, but neither Jeffers nor Leduc seemed to mind their presence. He tore open the wrapping without waiting for Jeffers’ response.

  “Mr. Leduc, I’d like to ask you a few questions about the night your sister died.”

  Vince coughed on his egg salad and spit it into a napkin. When he looked up, his smile had gone. I was surprised Jeffers had launched right in without any gentle lead up, but given that the meetings between the two men seemed to evolve into a virtual pissing contest, I really shouldn’t have been.

  “Detective … Jeffers, is it? I really don’t see how my sister figures in here.”

  “Don’t you? Your sister died of an overdose on drugs she got from Al Macie—”

  “I’m well aware how my sister died—”

  “You and Al had been best friends up to that point—”

  “I don’t know how digging up the past—”

  “Your sister died at the hand of your best friend and he just walked away. Paid a piddly little fine and got on with his life. Meanwhile—”

  “I don’t like where this is headed, Detective! If you—”

  “—you’ve been tracking Al for years. Plotting your revenge. Waiting for the right moment to exact retribution on the man who killed your sister by—”

  “—think I had anything to do with Al’s death, you are sorely mistaken! I made peace with what happened to Avril long ago. It was an accident. I had no reason to—”

  “—killing him!”

  “—kill him!”

  The smokers stared as the crescendo reached its climax.

  “Guys, would you mind heading inside?” I asked in my best teacher voice.

  “But we—”

  “Now, please!” Jeffers said, flashing his badge but never taking his eyes off Leduc. “Let’s try this again,” he said, when the students had gone. His voice calm, his manner relaxed.

  Leduc held his gaze for another few seconds before inhaling deeply and easing his shoulders down. “Of course,” he said.

  “Can you tell me about the night Avril died?”

  Jeffers had changed tactics completely. He asked the question this time around with sympathetic undertones and in a way that encouraged a civilized dialogue rather than a shouting match.

  “Avril came to visit. She’d just graduated high school. I usually went home for the summer, but Al and I had gotten work doing Shakespeare in the park so she came out. We were very close. And she loved Al.” He smiled at the memory. “She knew Al was gay but that didn’t matter. She had her crush and that was that.”

  “What about the drugs?”

  “Al had … a guy. He usually had a pretty good stock of weed, but every now and then he’d get something else. For a party or something.”

  “Like cocaine.”

  “Mostly shrooms, or hash, or something like that, but yeah, sometimes coke.”

  “Did Al do a lot of drugs?”

&nbs
p; “Not really. Like I said, we’d smoke a bit during the week, but the other stuff … that was just usually for a special occasion or something.”

  “So, take me to the party.”

  “It was at this guy’s place. A friend of the girl I was dating. We didn’t really know the guy, but we wanted to show Avril a good time and we had nothing better to do.”

  “And Al brought cocaine to the party?”

  Vince nodded. “It was just supposed to be for us. Avril wasn’t even supposed to know about it, but she walked in on us and … I don’t know … I guess she wanted to impress Al or something.” He hesitated. “We fought.”

  “Who’s ‘we’?”

  “Al and I. Avril and I. I didn’t want her taking anything. She’d already had a couple of drinks. Al didn’t see the harm in just a little and Avril wanted to try it.”

  “And what happened?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Jeffers waited. Vince went on. “Things got heated and I left.”

  “You left?” I asked. “The room? The party?”

  “The party. I found my girlfriend and we left.” My jaw dropped involuntarily. “Yes, Bella. The last time I saw Avril, we fought. I left my eighteen-year-old sister in the hands of my best friend and a half hour later she was dead.”

  Chapter 19

  “He’s lying. This is all part of his obsession. This fantasy he’s created. And now he’s made up this whole history! And for what purpose? To what end? Al is dead and he’s still competing! Still trying to look like the better man by corrupting his memory. His reputation. Are you kidding me?” Glynn was fit to be tied. He paced the length of his living room. “What?” he said, looking at me and Jeffers. “You can’t honestly tell me you believe him?”

  “It all checks out,” Jeffers said.

  “Well, he must have—”

  “Glynn—”

  “You have no idea the lengths he’ll go to. He—”

  “Glynn!”

  Glynn held Jeffers’ gaze, defiant, then sank into the sofa with his head in his hands. “Why wouldn’t he have told me?” he asked quietly.

  “I don’t know,” I said gently. “Maybe he was ashamed. Maybe it was part of a private penance …”

  “It doesn’t make any sense. Al and I never kept secrets.”

  My mind flashed to Powell Avery and the dalliance he and Al had been involved in for years. Even if, as Powell had said, Al and Glynn had had an arrangement, now was certainly not the time to broach that topic.

  “Okay,” Glynn said, drying his eyes and shaking off the revelation, “so what does this mean? It gives Vince motive, right? Revenge. Premeditated. Why haven’t you arrested him?”

  “He has an alibi for the morning in question,” Jeffers told Inspector Morris. We’d gone right to the police station following our visit to Glynn. “He says he was working out at White Oaks. I’m going to head over there later to check it out.”

  Morris gave a single nod. He was one of the most physically unimposing men I’d ever met, but the power in even his smallest gestures was palpable. He sat with his elbows propped up on his desk. His hands were clasped in front of him with his index fingers extended and resting against his lips. “You’ll need access to their security footage?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Morris took a slip of paper from his desk, filled out several sections, signed it, and handed it to Jeffers. I didn’t know what it said, but I guessed it was whatever was required to get the ball rolling on a search warrant of sorts.

  “And Penner?”

  Jeffers brought Morris up to speed on our interview with Jayne Evans. As was his way, Morris’ expression never changed all the while Jeffers told the story nor when he had finished.

  “I was waiting for the school day to finish before heading over. It’s my next stop.”

  “How do you plan on speaking with them?”

  “I’m sorry, sir?”

  “Armin Penner and his children? You’ve said Armin Penner is a very controlling man. And, from what I gather, the younger son has followed suit with regard to his siblings. I doubt you will ever get the answers you need to further this investigation unless you find a way to speak with them individually and without each being influenced by another. So I ask again, how do you plan on speaking with them?”

  “I …”

  “I trust you’ll figure it out, Detective. And quickly.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Jeffers caught my eye and we rose to go.

  “Detective Jeffers, we have two parties with very plausible reasons for wishing Al Macie harm. If Vincent Leduc’s alibi is confirmed, we’ll have one. You’ve got a busy evening ahead of you. I suggest you get moving.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  We reached the door at the same time a manila envelope was slid underneath. This was followed by several smaller envelopes and, finally, a post card. Morris watched the parade of mail and rolled his eyes. Jeffers looked at Morris with a questioning eyebrow.

  “Poor boy upset my chocolate milk once when he delivered the mail,” Morris explained, coming out from behind his desk and collecting the small pile from the floor. “Been afraid to come in ever since. You’re surprised, Ms. James?” he asked in response to the look of amazement I had directed at him before catching myself. “I am a human being with weaknesses like any other,” he said, shuffling the envelopes, “My sweet tooth being the biggest.”

  “Of course, sir,” I said, feeling the beginning heat of a blush on my cheeks.

  He opened the door for us and returned to his desk without another word. We’d only managed a few steps before Morris appeared in his doorway, summoning us back in.

  “You too, Ms. James,” he called when I didn’t immediately follow. “It’s information Detective Jeffers will likely share with you anyway.” From his tone I had no way of knowing whether he condoned the truth of this or had, perhaps, just resigned himself to the inevitability. Regardless, I hurried into the office before he had a chance to change his mind.

  He handed Jeffers the manila envelope. “This just arrived.”

  “It’s the forensics report on Macie,” Jeffers said to me. “Seems to confirm everything we already surmised,” he said, scanning the documents and nodding. Then he smiled and read, “‘Tape liftings taken from the deceased show evidence of conspicuous foreign fibres on the victim’s hands and under the fingernails. Greenish-blue viscose and polyester fibres were apparent. Fibres are not consistent with the victim’s garments nor any material he may have had contact with in his home. Matching fibres were present in tape liftings taken from the school. Further analysis is pending.’”

  He blurted out a few other findings but finished the report in silence.

  “The killer was at the school. We knew that already,” I said when Jeffers had finished.

  “Yes, we did, Samuel. And now we know he was wearing aquamarine.”

  In the time it took us to leave Morris’ office and get into Jeffers’ car, there had been an explosion of aquamarine. It was the new black. And it was everywhere.

  “There’s another one,” I said, pointing to a woman on the street with an aquamarine scarf wrapped around her neck. “That’s five people since we left the station!”

  “It’s one of the trendy new colours,” Jeffers said.

  “This is more than a trend,” I said. “This is … an epidemic.” Jeffers laughed. “Look at his tie,” I yelled, as we passed two men waiting at a crosswalk. “That’s six, Jeffers. Six people and we’ve been in the car for what? Eight minutes? How am I just noticing it now?”

  “Because now it’s the colour of murder. It’s how your mind works, Samuel. You can’t help it. That’s why you’re here.”

  “Are you saying I can’t help being drawn to the underworld?”

  “An underworld with a pretty aquamarine sky,” Jeffers said with a wink.

  We pulled into the Penners’ driveway. Corney was sanding paint off one of the window boxes. He smiled when he saw us.

/>   “Detective,” he said, coming off his ladder to shake Jeffers’ hand. “If you’re here to see Da, I’m afraid it’s a wasted trip. He’s gone off to see about some tractor parts. Don’t expect him back for an hour or two.”

  “That’s too bad,” Jeffers said, feigning disappointment. As much as we needed to speak with Armin Penner, his absence solved the problem of getting time alone with both Leland and Ellie. “Since we’re here, is your sister around?” he asked, as if the idea just occurred to him.

  “Ellie’s up in her room,” Corney said then caught himself. “She’s already spoken to you though.”

  “Yes, she’s been most helpful. But sometimes shock can cause witnesses to leave out certain details. So we like to follow up with them after a period of time to review their statements. Give them a chance to fill in anything they might have missed.” Corney was nodding, but I wasn’t sure he was convinced. “Shouldn’t take long,” Jeffers added with a smile.

  “El’s only seventeen. Shouldn’t my dad be here?”

  “It’s not necessary for something like this. She’s not under arrest. We’re just following up.”

  “I don’t think Da would—”

  “It’s fine, Corney,” Ellie said, appearing at an upstairs window. “Ms. James?”

  “Hi, Ellie,” I said.

  “I didn’t know you were police.”

  “I’m not. I’m just helping Detective Jeffers. Would you like to come down or should we—”

  “Come up.”

  Corney let us in the front door and led the way up a carpeted staircase. Ellie stuck her head out of the door to her room and gave Corney a look. He retreated with an indignant sigh.

  “I thought we were going to speak with Leland first,” I whispered.

  “Made more sense to start with the girl—she being the prime witness and all. Didn’t want Corney asking more questions. I think it will be better this way. Armin doesn’t seem to be as overprotective of his boys. Best to take full advantage of his absence.”

  “You can sit there, if you like,” Ellie said when we’d entered her room. She indicated a window seat upholstered with cream and lilac flowers.

  The room was large and very girly. Most of the decor was cream in base and accented by various shades of purple and pink. A dressing table sat to the left of the door as you came in; a stool with a cushion that matched the window seat was tucked neatly underneath. A chest of drawers stood against the far wall of the room. It boasted the very popular distressed finish that you’d find in a Pottery Barn catalogue, but I could see this was the real thing. This was a piece passed down through generations, as was the silver jewellery box with bevelled glass that sat atop it. There was also a white teddy bear holding a pink heart, and a framed photo of Adele.