Cash made a face. “That was because of the curls and the makeup. I mean, wouldn’t her boss know about her involvement with the writing group? When I showed him the pic, and he could read the byline, shouldn’t he have said: hey, this is your group, Kaylee, or something like that? That would have been natural. His reaction was fishy. Maybe he knew how bad her relationship with her father really was. Maybe he suspects she killed her father and he’s covering for her.”
“Those are a lot of maybes,” Vicky said. “You didn’t even tell him what you were investigating. He might not have known about Goodridge’s death. After all, he was quite busy. Let’s get in and go down to the station.”
They got back into the car. Kaylee sat in the back seat with her arms crossed over her chest and her face turned to the side window, a clear demonstration of anger.
Vicky looked back at her. “Could you turn on your phone and see if your stepmother called you?”
Kaylee looked at her. “Why?”
“Could you just do it?”
Kaylee sighed, opened her purse and pulled out her phone. She turned it on and waited, looking down on the screen. Then she began to swipe. “Some friends sent me messages. But there’s no call from my stepmother. I bet she’s celebrating that she has all of Dad’s money now.”
“Your stepmother,” Cash said with an angry look in the rear-view mirror, “was very upset when she heard the news. If she didn’t call you, she’s probably in bed because she collapsed again.”
Kaylee made a ridiculing sound. “My stepmother collapsed? She’s as strong as an ox. Nothing can faze her.”
“I was there when she fainted,” Cash said tightly.
“Oscar-worthy performance,” Kaylee said in a vicious tone. “She just shows you what she wants you to see. When my father was around, she was also nice and sweet and considerate. But when the two of us were together, she was a real bitch. She even bruised my arm.”
Kaylee rolled up her sleeve to show her shoulder to Vicky.
Vicky didn’t really see anything, but she was strapped in her seat belt and couldn’t lean in closer.
Kaylee said, “She didn’t call me because she was hoping I wouldn’t know a thing yet when you arrived to talk to me and I’d freak out and look stupid. She likes that.”
She stared out of the window again, her young face tight with anger.
Cash glanced at Vicky. Vicky pretended not to notice. She bet Kaylee was watching them from the corner of her eye, searching for signs that they were joining forces against her, choosing her stepmother’s side. If they wanted to get any kind of useful information from this girl, they had to watch their step.
At the station Cash took Kaylee in, shepherding her like a guard. Kaylee carried her purse in front of her as if it was an assault weapon.
Inside the deputy behind the reception desk called out a greeting.
Cash said, “Please take fingerprints from this young lady.”
“Why do I have to give prints?” Kaylee asked.
“Exclusion prints,” Cash said. “We can then check that you’re not involved.”
“It sounds fishy to me,” Kaylee said, “Like you’re framing me.” But she went with the deputy anyway, leaving her purse on the reception desk.
Cash glanced at Vicky. “What do you think about her claim her stepmother didn’t call her?”
Vicky shrugged. “Maybe Gunhild didn’t feel up to it. Maybe she even knew Kaylee wasn’t allowed to take messages or calls while working at the computer café and she wanted to wait until she was sure Kaylee would be able to answer the phone. Although we don’t even know if Gunhild knew where Kaylee was working after she left the house to live on her own, right?”
Cash grunted. He reached for the purse on the desk and extracted the phone.
“What are you doing?” Vicky asked.
“I want to see whether she told us the truth.” He swiped across the screen.
“Can you just do that?” Vicky asked with a nervous wriggle in her stomach. “What if you make some kind of procedural mistake and the whole case is blown?”
Cash frowned as he studied the screen. “No incoming calls this morning. But she might have deleted it when she handled the phone during the drive over here. I should have taken it off her right away to see for myself. What’s this? A message. Explosive little piece this morning, well done. So other people seem to think Kaylee wrote the installment that was posted under Trevor’s name. I already thought it was too clever for Trevor.”
Vicky hmm-ed. Claire had claimed it had a feminine vibe to it. Was there some truth in that suggestion?
Had Kaylee and Trevor maybe worked on their pieces together?
Had Kaylee written a hate-fueled piece about a murder envisioning her father as the victim, and had Trevor then decided to send it in as his own work?
A door banged and Cash put the phone back quickly. The deputy brought out Kaylee who was grumbling. She said to Cash, “I’m cooperating. You’ll take that into account, right?”
Cash gestured to her. “Into the interrogation room now. Bring your things. You too, Vicky.”
Vicky hitched a brow at his tone. She wasn’t his deputy. But she did want to know how the interrogation would pan out. She smiled at Kaylee. “Better do it.”
Cash told the deputy to get them all some coffee.
“Make it tea for me,” Kaylee said. “Some fruity flavor if you have some.”
Her tone seemed casual again, almost cheerful. Had she pulled herself together on the way over?
In the interrogation room Cash asked Kaylee to sit down at the other end of the table. He gestured to Vicky to sit by his side. It was odd as earlier when she had been here she had sat with the accused and now she was suddenly sitting with the police. As if she was Cash’s right hand.
If Michael found out about this, he would certainly conclude there was something to the rumors about Cash and her dating.
Kaylee leaned back in her chair, her eyes wide and innocent. “What do you want to know, Sheriff? You already know that I fell out with my father and even left the house, that he cut off my allowance and I had to work in some pesky job at that computer café. If I still have that job now.”
Cash ignored the jab and looked down at the notepad in front of him. “Where do you live now that you’ve left home?”
“At the B&B.”
“With Marjorie?” Vicky asked. She was one of her mother’s best friends. “Isn’t the B&B pricey compared to other places?”
Kaylee shook her head. “I’m helping with chores so I can stay almost for free. Marjorie feels sorry for me. She told me she never liked Gunhild either.”
“And why would that be?” Cash asked. “Does Marjorie even know your stepmother?”
“She does know that Gunhild got Sam fired as gardener. While his wife is ill and needs his support.”
“I thought your father fired Sam because he suspected him of theft?”
“Gunhild said that from the upstairs window she saw Sam walking to the house while he should have been mowing the lawn. Dad believed her and fired Sam. But I don’t think Sam took the money from the golf bag. He didn’t even know it was there. I think Gunhild took it.”
Vicky was puzzled by the suggestion. “Why would your stepmother take your father’s money?”
“She didn’t have a dime of her own. And he didn’t give her anything either. He checked all the expenses. Groceries, clothes. She could never go out and have a good time without him knowing about it. If she stole it, I can’t blame her. She only wanted some money to spend without Dad bugging her about it. But I do hate her for blaming Sam for it. He’s a nice guy, and she had no right to accuse him, get him fired.”
Vicky frowned. The whole missing money episode seemed to be more complicated than first assumed. Who had taken the money from the golf bag and why?
Had Sam really just been a convenient scapegoat?
Earlier Michael had s
aid he was going to see Sam. Would he have learned something useful? She had to ask him as soon as she left the station.
“So you’re staying with Marjorie who lets you do chores because she also blames your stepmother for Sam’s dismissal,” Cash said pensively. “And did your father try to contact you there to patch things up?”
“Are you crazy? Of course not. He’s waiting for me to crawl back home. He was …”
Kaylee swallowed a moment, then seemed to feed on her anger again. “As he had cut off my allowance, he figured I would be completely helpless and would have to come back soon. He was just waiting for that. But I was determined to make it this time.”
“This time?” Cash pounced. “So there has been another time?”
“Yes, he turned me out all of the time to see if I came back. Earlier I did. But this time it was different. I have friends here who support me. I don’t need him anymore.”
Kaylee leaned her elbows on the table.
Cash studied her. “And now that he’s dead, do you get money?”
Kaylee’s face flushed. “What are you saying?” she screeched. “That I shot my father for money? That I killed him for a few lousy bucks?”
“Considering your father’s fortune, it will hardly be a few lousy bucks,” Cash said tightly. “You wanted freedom, financially or otherwise, and that makes a good motive for murder.”
“And how about Gunhild? She also wanted freedom. Why can’t she have killed him?” Kaylee leaned on the table. “Why can’t she have waited for him to shoot him? Have you asked her where she was at the time of the murder? I bet you haven’t. You’re just in love with her pretty face.”
Cash rose to his feet. “I’m the sheriff,” he said in a carefully controlled tone. “You’d better watch what you’re saying. Or I can at least charge you with insulting an officer of the law.”
“You came to get me at work, in front of my class of students, my boss, you got me fired, treated me like a criminal. Soon everybody in Glen Cove will be talking about it. And you think I should like you?” Kaylee almost screamed.
“I don’t care whether you like me or not. I’m just telling you to watch what you’re saying. I’m in charge here. I determine whether you get out again or not.”
Cash let the words hang a moment. “I can keep you here for involvement in your father’s murder.”
“You’re insane,” Kaylee spat. Tears filled her eyes. “You lock me up then, but it’s unfair. I did nothing wrong.”
There was a knock at the door. The deputy put his head round it. “Can I talk to you for a moment, Sheriff?” His tone was serious, his expression worried.
Cash rose and went out the door with him. The door stayed ajar.
Kaylee said with a provocative stare, “Do you also think I’m involved?”
Vicky leaned back. “I don’t know. I’ve hardly heard any facts. Besides, it doesn’t really matter what I think. I’m not a member of the police force here in Glen Cove.”
“Right, so why are you here anyway?”
“I can give you a tip,” Vicky said softly. “Don’t try to undermine Cash’s authority. He takes it badly, and you might indeed be spending the night in a cell.”
“I did nothing wrong. He has got nothing on me.”
The door opened again, and Cash came back in. He sat down and studied Kaylee with a tight expression. “I asked my deputy to call a lawyer for you. I want him to be present before we go any further.”
Vicky looked at Cash. “I thought you just wanted to know a few things. I didn’t know this was any official …”
Cash raised a hand to stop her. “I didn’t intend this to be official; I mean, I didn’t take Kaylee in as a suspect, but more of a witness or in any case a party whose testimony I wanted. My main suspect is under lock and key as you know. But the deputy just informed me about fingerprints on the gun we found in the shed this morning.”
He looked at Kaylee. “Your fingerprints are on that gun.”
Vicky gasped.
Kaylee stared at him like she didn’t understand. “What?”
“The gun we found in the shed at your father’s house this morning. It was probably used to shoot him. The caliber is right for the bullets found in the body. Ballistics will determine the rest, but for now we’re assuming it’s the murder weapon. We got prints off it. And we just discovered your fingerprints are on that gun.”
Chapter Ten
Vicky was surprised as she had assumed the gun would have been cleaned. She had envisioned that the killer had cleaned it and used gloves while handling it to shoot Goodridge so that the gun would contain no prints at all. She had been so sure when she had asked Michael how anybody else’s prints could have ended up on the gun.
Now that Kaylee’s prints were on it, did that mean she was the killer?
Kaylee tried a disbelieving laugh. It sounded insincere in the deep silence. “I don’t know how to handle a gun. Honestly. I couldn’t shoot anyone. Let alone … my own father.”
Cash said, “Fingerprints don’t lie. You handled the gun.”
“So maybe I took it out of the drawer in the study once and held it in my hands. But I didn’t fire it.”
“You took it out of the drawer in the study? The gun was in your home?”
“I don’t know what gun you have here now but we only had one gun in the house. It belonged to my father, and it was in the drawer in his study.”
“The newspaper piece mentioned the point-of-view character taking the gun from a drawer,” Vicky supplied to Cash.
Cash took notes and said to Kaylee, “I’ll have to check if your father had a permit for the gun. And why did you hold it in your hands?”
“I was just interested in it.”
Cash looked up. “Just like that?”
Kaylee shrugged. “Dad always told me to stay away from it because it was dangerous. But I’m not a baby anymore. I just wanted to hold it in my hands and see how heavy it was.”
“And how hard to handle?” Cash asked. “Did you fire it?”
Kaylee shook her head. But her cheeks were fiery red.
Cash sighed. “Anyway, your prints are on the gun and as soon as ballistics confirms it was the murder weapon, you’re in deep trouble. You’ll have to stay here for the moment.”
“But you just said you had somebody else locked up. Can you just lock everybody up?” Kaylee’s voice pitched.
Cash said, “You could be an accomplice. I want to have a look at phone calls you made and received, at emails, at the pattern of your phone, I mean, locations where you’ve been while it was on. Maybe it was on this morning when you went out to the cliffs to shoot your father?”
“NO!” Kaylee jumped to her feet. Her chair crashed to the floor. “You’re just accusing me without any evidence. I didn’t shoot him. I didn’t want him to die.”
The door flew open, and a deputy rushed in, alarmed by the sound of the falling chair.
He rounded the table and grabbed Kaylee, pulling her arms behind her back.
“You’re hurting me!” the girl screamed. There were tears in her eyes again.
Cash got up slowly. “Lock her up for the time being. When the lawyer’s here, we’ll try again.”
“You’ve got this all wrong,” Kaylee wailed. “I didn't do it.”
The deputy pulled her out of the room.
Cash said to Vicky, “I didn’t tell her all I know now. Hers weren’t the only fingerprints on the gun. There were others too. From Trevor Jenkins. They must be in this together.”
Vicky exhaled slowly. “If that’s true, it’s terrible. Two such young people, killers, maybe to be locked up for the rest of their lives?”
Cash rubbed his forehead. “I know. I’m not too happy with this either. But I have to work with what I’ve got. And right now I’ve only got this.”
Vicky nodded. “I understand.” She patted his arm. “You’re just doing your job.”
“Yeah, well,” Cash said, “sometimes I feel like it’s a lousy job to do.”
The deputy came back, saying in an urgent tone, “I pulled the girl along to be locked up, Sheriff, and then the suspect in the other cell heard her voice.”
“Trevor Jenkins,” Cash said, and the deputy nodded. “He started calling out that he wanted to talk to her and that he had never meant to get her involved. That it was all his fault and we should let her go again.”
Cash held his gaze. “And?”
The deputy continued, “The girl started to curse at him saying he had known it was dangerous and he should never have tried. That he should have left town when he still could.”
Cash hitched a brow. “What on earth does she mean by that?”
“No idea. But I locked her up and I’ll write down what they both said. We might be able to use it later on.”
Cash frowned. “Those cells are close together. Can they communicate?”
“I suppose so.”
“We can’t leave her there. Get her out again, ASAP. I don’t want her testimony to be ruined. Where’s that lawyer?”
The deputy rushed off again, and Cash looked at Vicky. “We need to find out what both of them knew about the other’s plans. If they made a scheme together and what each part in it was.”
Vicky nodded. “You have to be extra careful because they are so young. A mistake could have terrible consequences.”
Cash looked at her, with tiredness in his eyes. “You don’t have to tell me that.”
He took a deep breath. “We never got our coffee. I need some. You?”
Without waiting for an answer he walked out of the interrogation room into the reception area. At the coffee maker he filled two mugs.
Vicky stood thinking. Trevor had responded oddly this morning when he had been confronted with Goodridge’s death. Kaylee had also acted like she was hiding something. But did that imply they were involved in the murder?
Were they covering for each other?
Could they be played against each other to get to the truth?
Cash handed her the mug. The coffee sent a delicious soothing scent into Vicky’s nostrils. She breathed deep.
“To my office,” Cash said, waving her along.
Written into the Grave Page 10