by Kate Bell
“Got it. What time?”
“I’ll be by in about thirty minutes if that’s okay. We can pick up coffee on the way.”
“Sounds good,” I said, and we said our goodbyes.
I hurried and put on a sweatshirt and jeans. I had never been to a golf course, but judging by what I saw on those horribly boring golf tournaments on television, casual would be fine. Besides, it was cold outside, and I wasn’t going to freeze my tail off for Bob Payne.
I dried my hair as quickly as I could and put on makeup with one eye on the clock. I should have told him to pick me up in an hour, but I didn’t want him to get annoyed and go without me. I wasn’t a high maintenance woman, but it did take me a few minutes to put makeup on. And no way was he going to see me without it.
***
“Okay, so, how are you going to put it to him?” I asked Alec. “Are you just going to jump in and spill the beans about us knowing about him dating Diana in high school?”
He chuckled. “You are far too eager.”
We parked at the golf course and got out. The wind had started up, and I was glad I had grabbed a coat.
“I know, but someone needs to pay for Diana’s murder,” I said, moving closer to him. I was hoping his body would block some of the wind. Romantic, I know.
“Somebody will pay for Diana’s murder,” he assured me.
“Did you find anything on Diana’s phone?” I asked.
“No. I asked Dick Bowen for her password for voicemail and he happily gave it to me. I also asked him about the charges on the credit card and he denied knowing anything about them,” he answered.
“That Dick Bowen is an awfully happy man, if you ask me,” I said.
He laughed. “That he is.”
The Coastal Dunes golf course was small and completely do-it-yourself. There was no country club or caddies or even golf carts unless you brought one yourself. But nobody ever did. That would have seemed pretentious in this town.
“Well, one thing I have to say for him,” I said as my boots sunk into the soft grass. I hoped I wouldn’t get into trouble for not having the correct footwear for the golf course. “He’s dedicated to the sport to play in this weather.” The wind kicked up, and I wrapped my jacket tighter around myself. The sky was overcast again. It had rained in the middle of the night and the air had a cold bite to it.
“They’re called golf nuts. But they’re really just nuts,” he said. He looked over at me. “You can go back to the car if you want. Where it’s nice and cozy.”
He had a sly grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye.
“No way.”
I could see Bob on the first tee. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. It was nearly nine. Bob swung his golf club and hit the ball. I don’t know golf lingo so I can’t sound cool talking about it, but it went really far.
“Wow,” I said.
“He’s quite the golfer,” Alec said.
Just as Bob picked up his golf bag to follow after his ball, Alec called to him. “Bob!”
Bob stopped and turned toward us. His mouth started moving, and while I couldn’t hear him, I’m pretty sure he was swearing. He stood and waited for us to get to him. It would have been nice if he had made the effort and come towards us because water from the wet grass was starting to soak into my boots. I should have worn my galoshes.
“What now?” he asked when we got to him. His jaw was set, and he looked like he wanted to give Alec a piece of his mind.
“Good morning, Mr. Payne,” Alec said, ignoring his question. “How are you this lovely morning?”
“How did you know I was here?” Bob asked suspiciously.
“I have my ways,” he answered. “Mr. Payne, I had a few more questions regarding the murder of Diana Bowen. It will only take a few moments of your time. I’m sure you understand how important it is to cooperate.”
Bob sighed loudly. “I told you all there is to know. I don’t know why you’re wasting your time.”
I glanced at Alec and he already had his notebook and pen out. How did he do that so fast? It’s like they were a part of his hands and they automatically appeared whenever he went to question someone.
“I had a question about our last conversation,” he said, looking down at his notebook. “You said you only knew Diana on a very casual, business basis. However, we’ve been informed that you dated Diana when you were both in the tenth grade.”
Alec looked up at him and waited for Bob’s reaction.
“What?” Was all Bob could manage. His face went several shades whiter.
“You dated in tenth grade?” Alec repeated.
“I… I,” he said.
“It seems like a relatively easy question,” I said.
Bob’s head swung in my direction and he looked at me as if I had just appeared out of nowhere. “Who are you, anyway? Why are you asking me questions?”
“Did you just now notice me?” I asked. “Really?”
Bob’s upper lip curled in disgust. “Some people aren’t worth noticing.”
I gasped, and Alec put his hand on my arm before I could say something I might regret. Bob wasn’t a very nice person, I decided.
“We were just wondering why you didn’t happen to mention that fact, Mr. Payne,” Alec said, sounding very professional.
“It seemed irrelevant,” Bob spat out. It seemed our mayor might have had a bit of a temper.
“It doesn’t seem irrelevant to me,” Alec said and waited.
“All right. Fine. Yes, we dated in tenth grade. That was over twenty years ago. What difference does it make?” Bob said with a tremble in his voice.
“What difference it makes, is that you lied about your relationship,” I said, feeling a little self-righteous. How dare he say I wasn’t worth noticing?
Alec stood and waited for his answer.
Bob looked from me to Alec. “It just didn’t seem important.”
“You know, Bob, I envy your dedication to the game of golf, coming out in this kind of weather. But it’s a little chilly for me and I really need a straight answer or we can move this interview to the police station.”
I looked at Alec. Now he was getting down to business, calling him Bob, and everything.
Bob huffed air out through his mouth. “Fine. Diana and I dated in the tenth grade. A couple of months ago I stopped in at the Olde Maine Tavern for a drink. She happened to be there. She’d had a few too many drinks. She sat beside me and started reminiscing about old times. She said she was lonely and asked if I was interested in getting something started. I told her I was happily married and had no interest.” He shrugged as if that said it all.
It didn’t. “And?” Alec said.
“And from then on, she called or texted me almost every day. Said she wouldn’t be denied. I was her first boyfriend, you know? I guess you could say she was still hung up on me.”
“I’m sure she thought you were so unforgettable,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Bob narrowed his eyes at me. “Look, she was crazy. She said she was going to tell my wife if I didn’t have an affair with her. She said she would tell her we were already having an affair. She was a piece of work. I don’t know what happened to the sweet girl I knew so many years ago. This Diana that was murdered was someone entirely different.”
I looked at Alec. I could tell the wheels were spinning in his head, but he wasn’t giving anything away. “Do you have any of those texts?”
“No, I deleted them. I didn’t want my wife to see them,” he said.
“Why would your wife have believed her over you?” I asked. “It seems odd to me that she would believe a stranger over her own husband.”
Bob regarded me in silence for a moment. I thought at that moment there was a good chance he might explode.
“She wouldn’t. But I didn’t want Diana filling her head with lies. Diana could seem so normal. So professional. But underneath it all, she was nuts. I didn’t want to deal with her at all and I didn’t want my wife to h
ave to deal with her, either.”
As much as I didn’t want to believe it, he seemed to be telling the truth.
“We also heard you were only there for the last five minutes of your daughter’s recital. And that you might have had a little to drink by the time you got there,” I said. I couldn’t help it. I had to know what his reaction would be to that question.
Bob’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. Now he turned bright red.
“That’s a lie! I was there for the whole thing!” he insisted.
Alec gave me a look.
“All right. We’ll be in touch. Have a good game,” he said to Bob and turned around and headed back to his car.
I trotted to catch up to him. When we were out of earshot, I asked him, “What’s next? Why didn’t you ask him more questions?”
“We’ll see what’s next,” Alec said.
“We’ll see? Why aren’t you going to arrest him?” I asked.
He held my door open for me and I got into the car. He went around to the driver’s side and got in and started the engine. The heat felt good on my cold cheeks.
“We can’t arrest someone for being threatened with blackmail.”
“But he has more motive than anyone else. He’s the killer. I just know it. Did you see that temper?”
“Having a bad temper doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “We need more proof before arresting anyone. I don’t think you needed to throw in that bit about the recital and his drinking.”
I shrugged. “Sorry, it just popped out of my mouth.”
“I see,” he said without looking at me.
“Maybe he really was having an affair with her. I just can’t see Diana trying to blackmail him for not having an affair with her. It doesn’t make sense,” I said.
He shrugged. “It’s hard to say at this point. Crazier things have happened.”
“There’s something I need to tell you,” I said. He glanced at me and I continued. “The day Diana died, she left a message on my voicemail. She said she wanted me to get to the bazaar early because she needed to talk to me. She said she didn’t want to talk to Lucy because she didn’t want to upset her.”
“Any idea what it was about?” he asked.
“None. We weren’t close. We were just acquaintances. I’ve racked my brain over it and can’t figure it out. She didn’t sound scared or worried. I just don’t get it.”
“That’s interesting. Maybe something will come to you,” he said.
I leaned back in my seat. If I were in charge, Bob or Dick would be in jail.
Chapter Nineteen
“Do you think there was any chance at all that Diana was trying to blackmail Bob?” Alec asked me on the way back to my house.
“I don’t know for sure, but she didn’t seem the type,” I said, thinking about how much I knew about Diana. She had been nice, even if she was loud and pushy. She had been on the PTA and always volunteered for anything and everything. Would she really have blackmailed him? “I can’t imagine anyone thinking Bob was such a great catch that they had to make him have an affair with them. You know?”
“Sometimes people lead hidden lives. You’d be surprised at the lives some people live,” he said.
“I think he has to be lying. He obviously has a drinking problem to have been drinking in the middle of the day and then to show up for only the last five minutes of his daughter’s recital,” I concluded.
“It was a Saturday. His day off. Lots of people drink in the afternoon on their day off. It doesn’t mean they have a drinking problem or that they murdered anyone,” he said.
“Why are you defending him?” I asked, turning toward him. “I thought the police are always suspicious of everyone?”
He chuckled. “Well, I guess that does come with the territory. But you can’t convict someone on the basis of them drinking a little and missing their kid’s recital.”
“What about her husband? That guy didn’t seem to care that much about her death. My money’s on either Bob or her husband, almost ex-husband. I mean, who leaves their wife because they want to dance?”
He laughed again. “I agree, that’s a flimsy excuse.”
“You bet it is,” I said, reaching toward the dashboard and turning up the heat.
“What about Ellen Allen? I thought your money was on her, too,” he asked.
“Her, too. Were there any marks on Diana’s body?”
He grinned. “Now you’re starting to sound like a real detective. But no, there were none. Whoever did it got her to eat the poison apple, and she did it without a fight. Not to mention, she had to have ingested more of the poison in the days leading up to her death.”
“Did you find out anything about security cameras at the church?” I asked.
“There weren’t any,” he said.
“What? Nearly everyone has security cameras these days.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s an old church in a small town. Lots of people are slow to change their ways and the pastor at the church is one of them.”
I sighed. “That’s disappointing. A security camera may have told the whole tale of what happened.”
“It is,” he agreed. “I wish every public place had cameras.”
“Really? Aren’t you afraid of big brother?” I asked. When I was in school, we read George Orwell’s 1984 and the discussion about it had gone on for weeks. It had been everyone’s fear that the government would watch and control our lives.
“Aren’t we already there? Everyone has cell phones. Anyone could take your picture or video you without your knowledge. Having security camera videos can help solve crimes. People worry about things that are already here and not really having much effect us.”
“I guess you’re right,” I said.
“I’ll have to solve this murder without cameras.”
I frowned. “What an awful person, whoever it was that did this. I can’t imagine killing someone.”
“There are lots of dark people in the world,” he said as he turned down my street.
“I bet you’ve seen a lot,” I said, turning toward him.
“Yes, I have. Law enforcement always does.”
“You said that lots of people lead double lives. So tell me, what are your deep dark secrets?” I asked. I hoped he would finally open up.
A frown moved across his face. “I don’t have any.”
I waited for a few seconds, wondering if he would change his mind and say something else, but he didn’t. I hoped it was true, but something told me otherwise.
Chapter Twenty
“What are you going to have?” Alec asked me. We were at The Porterhouse Steak restaurant looking over our menus. It was a casual dining atmosphere and more my style. It was nice to dress up once in a while, but if I had my druthers, I would rather stick to steakhouses and cafés.
“Well, I’m feeling a little pressure to order a porterhouse steak since we’re at The Porterhouse Steak restaurant,” I said and giggled. I was trying for cute but was probably coming off as dorky. I didn’t care. I was just thrilled to be out of the house and having dinner with Alec again.
“Sounds like a good choice. I think I’m going to be a rebel and order a T-Bone,” he said. “Because that’s the kind of guy I am.”
“I like that, you little rebel, you,” I said. We were officially on our second date. I didn’t count the first or second time we ate out as dates because the first one we were discussing Henry Hoffer’s murder. The second one was also unofficial because we were simply keeping one another company while we ate.
The waitress came and took our orders. I had settled on fried shrimp and a petite sirloin. I could be a rebel, too. The waitress left, and I looked at Alec and was just about to ask him how the investigation was going when Bob Payne’s mother, Mary Payne, approached our table. We both turned toward her.
“Detective,” she greeted, nodding at him. Then she turned toward me. “Allie.” She swayed a little and reached a hand out to grab the edge of
our table to steady herself.
“How are you, Mary?” I asked, giving her a big smile. Mary may have been the former high school principal, but it was common knowledge that she liked to drink during her off hours. I wondered if, now that she had a lot of free time, she was doing a lot of it.
She gave me a slow smile and tottered a little as she stood there. “I’m fine.” I could smell alcohol from where I sat. I glanced over at Alec and gave him a look.
She turned to Alec. “Detective, I know you’re new in town, and I know you’re just trying to do your job, but it would be a good idea if you laid off my son.”
“Oh?” Alec said and then glanced at me.
“If you want to know what I think, I think you are barking up the wrong tree. You need to look for the real killer. It’s probably someone that didn’t like that woman much.”
She slurred some of her words and I hoped she was not driving.
“I see,” Alec said. “Well, there may be some confusion as to what’s going on. I’ve only questioned him a couple of times, in a very casual manner. We’re still fact-finding at this point.” The set of his jaw told me he was ready to spring into detective mode at any moment.
“Oh, I know how you cops work,” Mary said and swayed a little. “You try to confuse people. Ask them the same questions over and over, but in a little different way so it trips them up. That way you can arrest an innocent man just so you can say you solved the case. Well let me tell you, Mr. Fancy Detective, you don’t know what you’re talking about. My son did nothing wrong!”
Alec and I glanced at one another. Mary was clearly not in her right mind at that moment. Her normally perfectly coifed gray hair was usually done in a semi-beehive, but tonight those bees had left the hive because it was listing to the left.
“I assure you, Mrs. Payne, every conversation I have had with your son or with anyone else regarding this case has been strictly professional and confidential. We want to find the real killer and get them off the streets, not put an innocent person behind bars.”
I wanted to help Alec out somehow, but I wasn’t sure how to do it without upsetting Mary. I didn’t want her to become belligerent right there in the restaurant. We might end up with a complete meltdown on our hands.