We had reached a stalemate. One that wouldn’t be broken that afternoon. My brother tried strong-arming Tyler a little more in hopes that the suspect would break down, but Tyler remained firm.
That left Joe with little choice. He didn’t have enough to charge Tyler with. So, after much hesitation, my brother let Tyler go with a warning.
Chapter Eight
The last suspect on our list was Gary Newton, Nick’s younger brother. Gary was a muscular man in his mid-thirties with messy brown hair, brown eyes, a square jaw, and a thick mustache. Unlike his brother, who owned a nice, two-story, Spanish-style house, Gary lived in a bachelor-style apartment.
After a few knocks on the front door, Gary invited us into his spare living room furnished with only a TV, a couch, and not a whole lot else—not even a Christmas tree. I felt depressed just standing there. I couldn’t believe that Gary lived here day in and day out.
With such a distinct lack of furnishing in the room, one thing that did stick out was the sheer number of empty beer cans that were strewn around the apartment. By the looks of it, Gary had been busy fighting off sobriety. Apparently, he had done a good job of it. Judging by how red his face was, he had a good beer buzz going.
There were two ways to take that. Either Gary was mourning the death of his brother, or he was trying to chase away the guilt of killing him. The truth remained to be seen.
Joe was determined to get to the bottom of it. I could tell he had a slew of hard-hitting questions. I didn’t think that was the most effective approach this time. Instead, I insisted on taking the lead, trying to gently work my way up to the pressing matters at hand.
“Gary, I’m so sorry about what happened to your brother,” I said.
Gary grimaced. “Not as sorry as I am.”
He then reached for the last remaining beer from the six-pack that was on his coffee table.
“It looks like you’ve been knocking back a fair amount of beer,” I said.
Gary stared me down. “Don’t judge me. You’d do the same if your only brother were murdered.”
What an odd position to be put in, considering that I was standing alongside my brother as Gary said that. Awkwardness aside, I didn’t agree with Gary’s statement. While I prayed that I never lost my brother to such grim circumstances, I would never turn to beer for comfort as Gary had. Gary’s apartment was practically screaming for an intervention. That being said, Joe and I were here about bigger issues, and I wasn’t about to dispute Gary’s point for fear of inciting him.
I gave Gary a sympathetic look. “I’m not judging you.”
Gary sighed. “Good. With Nick gone, I have no family left.”
“Again, I’m really sorry about what happened. I want you to know that we’re going to do everything in our power to bring his killer to justice,” I said.
Gary’s eyes lit up with rage. “I hope they rot in jail.”
“So do I,” I replied. “That being said, do you have any idea who might have done this?”
A name immediately came to Gary’s mind. “You should talk to Lisa Dalton.”
“Why her?” I asked.
“She’s a bad woman. Lisa used my brother to get a promotion. She made him believe that she really loved him. Then, once she got the promotion, she broke his heart,” Gary explained.
My eyes widened. That was certainly a different version of the events than Lisa had told me. Then again, Lisa had been trying to convince me of her innocence. At the same time, I had to remember the source of this alternate version of the story.
Gary wasn’t exactly unbiased, either. He was up for the same promotion as Lisa and felt burned by the fact that his brother had chosen her over him. Just how much that skewed Gary’s viewpoint was yet to be determined.
“That’s a pretty incendiary story,” I said.
“It’s also the truth,” Gary replied.
“According to you,” I said.
“Go talk to her. You’ll see,” Gary insisted.
“We did talk to her,” I replied.
“Then you know exactly what I’m talking about,” Gary said.
“Lisa’s version of the events is a little different,” I replied.
“Of course it is. She’s trying to protect her own hide. See, I told you she was a bad seed. You need to go over to her place and arrest her,” Gary said.
“Not so fast. We’re not done here,” I replied.
“It’s nice of you to come over here to check up on me and all, but I really want to be left alone,” Gary said.
I corrected him. “We didn’t just come over here to check up on you.”
Confusion came to Gary’s face. “What are you talking about?”
My brother had stood by quietly, waiting to see if my approach worked. Joe grew tired of being patient. He spoke up. “Gary, we have some questions for you.”
It was always such a difficult tightrope to walk, making the switch from sympathy to suspicion. At the same time, regardless of how awkward it was, it was also very necessary.
As expected, Gary reacted with shock. “Why would you have a question for me?”
“Gary, calm down,” Joe said.
Gary didn’t heed my brother’s advice. “Wait a minute. You don’t think I could have done this, do you?”
“We have to consider all possibilities,” Joe replied.
Gary was already in an emotionally unstable state to begin with. This new wrinkle in the conversation threatened to bowl him over.
“That’s crazy,” Gary snapped.
Joe tried to reassure him. “Look. If you’re innocent, you have nothing to worry about.”
Gary folded his arms. “I am innocent, and this is ridiculous.”
“You can say that all you want, but we’re not leaving until we get our questions answered. Now, where were you between eleven and midnight last night?” Joe asked.
“I was here,” he said.
“So you weren’t at the office party, then?” Joe wondered.
Gary shook his head. “No. It was over by then.”
“Was there anyone here with you, or were you alone?” Joe asked.
“I can’t believe this,” Gary said. “This is my brother we’re talking about here.”
Joe tried again. “I understand that, but you didn’t answer my question. Were you here alone?”
“You can’t honestly think I might have killed my brother, can you?” Gary asked.
Joe kept hammering away. “Will you just answer the question?”
“Yes, I was alone. But I’d never hurt my brother. I’m offended that you’d even suggest such a thing,” Gary replied.
“Gary, don’t make this any harder than it has to be,” I said. “I know you and Nick didn’t always get along. Take the promotion that Lisa got. Take that promotion you thought you deserved—”
Gary interrupted me. “I did deserve it.”
“Exactly. So it must have really burned you when Lisa got that promotion instead of you,” I said.
Gary tensed up. “I wasn’t angry with Nick about that.”
I scoffed. “You really expect me to believe that?”
Gary nodded. “I was upset with Lisa. She’s the bad seed. She twisted his mind and his heart.”
“You keep pointing the finger of suspicion at Lisa, but there are plenty of things to be suspicious of you about,” Joe argued.
Gary shrugged his shoulders. “How do you figure?”
“The promotion, to start,” Joe said. “But it’s more than that. Nick wasn’t married. He didn’t have any kids. With your parents both dead, you were his family—”
“All the more reason not to want him dead,” Gary argued.
“Except, now that Nick is dead, you’ll get a lot more than a promotion. You stand to inherit his house and his agency. That’s the kind of thing people have been known to kill for,” Joe said.
Gary shook his head. “No. I didn’t do this.”
“You want us to believe you, but you haven’t g
iven us a good reason to,” Joe replied.
“I answered your question. I told you the truth. Now I want you to leave,” Gary snapped.
That was exactly what I was worried about. The conversation had gotten out of hand in a hurry, and there was no way to reel it back in. Even more, with Gary flying off of the handle, Joe knew he wouldn’t be able to get any more information out of him. Like that, the interview was abruptly over.
Chapter Nine
With no other suspects left to question, Joe and I decided that a break was in order. It was easy to get bogged down, to become so hyper-focused that I gave myself a headache. I needed my mind to be sharp. That’s why a little time away could really help.
It was never a bad idea to get some fresh air. I decided to take my sixteen-year-old Labrador retriever, Buster, for a walk. As we strolled down a section of town dotted with retail shops, Buster’s focus was on sniffing fire hydrants. My thoughts, meanwhile, turned to Christmas. Holiday music was playing over loudspeakers, every window display we walked by had a seasonal theme, and there was a man dressed up like Santa Clause ringing a bell asking for donations for a charitable organization.
All of these things typically filled me with cheer. Not this time. My frustrations with this murder investigation had put me in such a dour mood that I couldn’t get into the holiday spirit.
Since even something as inherently joyful as Christmas carols couldn’t distract me from thinking about the case, I decided to stop fighting my own natural urges. If my mind was determined to linger on this case, so be it.
I decided to give it more fodder. After walking back to my car, I drove over to Nick’s house to poke around. I knew that my brother and his forensics team had already gone over the place. That being said, I wanted to look at it myself. In addition, I had Buster with me, not to mention his keen sense of smell.
It was a very slight possibility, but perhaps I would stumble upon something that Joe didn’t notice before. After spending nearly a half hour walking around the front of the house, the backyard, and the sidewalk in front of Nick’s place, I was ready to give up.
Just as I was ready to pack it in and head home, something caught my eye. It was a garbage can that was resting beside Nick’s garage. I never thought I would dig through someone else’s trash, but murder investigations made people do desperate things.
Much to my surprise, as I lifted the lid of the garbage can and began rooting around, I spotted something inside that had the potential to blow this case wide open.
Suddenly, I had stumbled upon a new lead, and I was determined to follow up on it.
Chapter Ten
After deeper investigation had reaffirmed my hunch, Joe and I took a trip to Nick’s advertising agency on Greenly Lane. It was very surprising to see that the place had reopened so quickly after Nick’s murder. If I were in charge, I would have given all the employees the proper time to mourn. That was not the case as we arrived. The place was back to business as usual. That troubled me, but not nearly as much as the surprise that was waiting for Joe and me as we entered Nick’s former office.
The corner office with an ocean view was not vacant, as I had expected. Instead, Gary Newton had already moved his stuff in and was sitting behind Nick’s old mahogany desk. Gary stared out at the ocean, lost in thought.
I pulled his head out of the clouds. “Don’t get too comfortable back there.”
Gary spun his chair around and narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing. I didn’t expect the agency to be open again so quickly. Nor did I think you would have already moved your stuff into your brother’s old office,” I said.
As Nick’s only surviving family member, the ad agency was now Gary’s. He seemed to be relishing his new role.
“The business world stops for no one,” Gary replied.
“Speaking of, we’re here because of some unfinished business,” I said.
“I already answered your questions. I have nothing else to say to you. Now, please leave. I have a business to run,” Gary demanded.
Joe stopped him right there. “Not so fast. You may have nothing to say to us, but we have plenty to say to you.”
“To start, I know you killed your brother,” I said.
Gary scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”
I didn’t waver. “No. Unfortunately, it’s the truth.”
Gary tried to shrug me off. “I’m not going to listen to this.”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” Joe said.
“It turned out it was the beer that did you in,” I added.
Gary gave me a blank stare. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I pulled an evidence bag out of my purse. Inside the bag was an empty beer can.
Gary remained dismissive. “So what? It’s a beer can.”
I corrected him. “It’s not just any beer can. This was found in the garbage can beside your brother’s garage.”
Gary didn’t budge an inch. “And? My brother drank beer.”
I shook my head. “Not this brand. I know for a fact that your brother was a Tiller Light kind of guy. This is a can of Pibst—the brand you drink. There were a whole bunch of Pibst beer cans strewn all over your apartment when we questioned you yesterday.”
Gary held firm with his denial. “That still doesn’t mean anything. Pibst is a very popular brand.”
“I can’t argue with that. Only this particular beer can happens to have your fingerprint on it. The crime lab has already confirmed it,” I said.
Gary’s voice started cracking. “That doesn’t prove I killed Nick. I visited my brother all the time. That could have been an old can that you found in the trash.”
I shook my head once more. “Wrong again. The garbage man had just come to pick up Nick’s trash in the morning on the day he was murdered. Your beer can was the only piece of trash in the garbage can. It was a fresh can of beer that you had just brought over yourself and finished before going inside Nick’s house. You obviously thought the police wouldn’t think twice about seeing an empty beer can in Nick’s garbage, especially after all the effort you made to trash your brother’s place to make it look like his death had been due to a burglary gone wrong. Your assumption was incorrect, though, because it stood out to me immediately.”
Gary went into full denial mode. “No. You have it all wrong.”
I didn’t listen to him. “My guess was that on the drive over to Nick’s house, your nerves got to you. Why wouldn’t they when you were about to kill your own brother? So, in order to give yourself the courage to go through with your plan, you had a beer to take the edge off. Once you finished up the beer, you tossed it in the garbage can, then went inside your brother’s house to kill him.”
“No. I didn’t kill Nick,” Gary replied.
I stared Gary down and soldiered on. “Are you really going to pretend that you didn’t kill your brother? You had the motive, means, and opportunity. On top of that, we have your fingerprint on a beer can found at your brother’s house. You can argue with us all you want, but you’re going down. You did this. Just admit it, Gary. You killed your brother, didn’t you?”
Gary shut down on me. He averted his eyes, desperate not to make eye contact.
I went after him again. “Didn’t you?”
Gary took a deep breath then muttered his reply, “Yes.”
I shot him a glare. “You disgust me.”
A mixture of anguish and rage came to Gary’s face as he tried to explain himself. “Every betrayal in life hurts, but the wounds caused by your family cut the deepest. When Nick and I lost both of our parents in that car accident a decade and a half ago, Nick promised to take care of me, to always be there for me. Yet, there he was, living in his nice house with his posh life, while I was slumming it in some lousy apartment, toiling away at a low-level job. Even so, I remained loyal to him, continuing to work for his agency even though I could have gotten paid more if I
had taken a job at another agency. And how did Nick repay me for my loyalty? By giving the promotion I had been working so hard for to Lisa Dalton—the woman he was having a fling with. Nick passing me up for that promotion was a stab in the back. All I did was return the favor.”
I shook my head. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Unfortunately, Gary wasn’t ashamed in the least. He didn’t realize it yet, but he would be. Gary would have plenty of time to regret what he did when he spent the rest of his life behind bars. What a waste of a life.
As I tried to get over the shock of how this case had ended, my brother handcuffed Gary, read him his rights, then dragged him off to his patrol car. I spent the next half an hour in a fog of disbelief before I realized that it wouldn’t do me any good to keep fixating on something I couldn’t change.
Chapter Eleven
It was always a relief to put a case behind me. With this investigation, that was especially true. Not only had we gotten justice for Nick, but we were also able to put his killer behind bars before this case stretched too deep into the holiday season. That part made me especially happy, mostly because it would have been impossible to ring in the season with joyous cheer if the killer was still at large.
With Gary Newton behind bars, I could cut loose and indulge in some real holiday cheer. Christmas had always been one of my favorite holidays, but this year, it would be even more special.
Getting my holiday spirit back would also allow me to get rid of all this tension that I had been holding onto. Throughout the case, anxiety and stress had quickly been eating me up inside. I wanted it all to fade away as quickly as possible.
My brother wasn’t as quick to switch into a festive mood. He always made a slow transition back to normalcy after closing the book on a case. One thing he did in a hurry was poke his hand into a box of donuts. After he had taken a bite of a chocolate-frosted one, he let out a big sigh.
Sweets, Suspects, and Women Sleuths Cozy Mystery Set Page 48