The Rake and the Researcher

by Sara Bourgeois

  Had I just imagined he was acting guilty?

  Instead of working in separate offices, Brody set up a conference room so we could all tackle the case together. It was a strange move, in my opinion, given how much time he’d spent sequestered in his office until Ellie arrived.

  Maybe she was the difference. I felt a pang of jealousy that immediately made me feel ashamed. I was not a middle-school kid whose little boyfriend had just decided that he liked my best friend better.

  Still, I couldn’t blame him if he was attracted to Ellie. She was everything I wasn’t. Ellie was tall, blond, and brazen in a way that scared and intrigued men.

  I watched his attentive side come out as he got her everything she needed to do her work. He practically hovered over her. Ugh. There was nothing to do at that point but get the case solved and get out of this town before I ended up hating myself.

  It was time to split up. “I’m going to see if I can find anything about Frankie’s extended family while you guys try to figure out the size of the estate,” I said.

  “How are you going to do that?” Brody asked, and I picked up on a flash of anxiety. Right back to where we started.

  “She doesn’t have any living relatives that we know about but we all know she didn’t just materialize one day. Mrs. Horowitz had a family. She had a mother and father, and I have her deceased husband’s information. I’ll start with a computer database search on her known relatives and then head downstairs to the sealed archives to search the historical records based on what I find. Every life leaves a trail. I’ll find something,” I said and left the room before he could protest further.

  I needed access to the sealed records in the basement, but what Brody didn’t know was that I didn’t need him to give it to me. The State Historical Society could also grant me access. They wouldn’t generally give me a pass to search the protected historical documents over an estate distribution case without a court order, but I’d been in this business long enough to have made friends.

  Calling in favors was my least favorite thing to do, but in this instance, I decided to suck it up. Grant Foster owed me, and he could upgrade my key card from the computer in his office. I wondered if Brody knew he wasn’t the sole gatekeeper to the records hall.

  While I waited to see if Grant would update my archive access, I dug into a more intense database search. Once I could get down in the basement, I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of leads to track down.

  A couple of hours later, my computer pinged to let me know that I had an email. I was ready to tear my hair out because all I had found was a possible distant cousin who had died without children twenty years ago.

  I didn’t care. Grant had updated my card so that I could get into the vaults in the basement, and I intended to hammer my one little lead into the ground. Who knew what I would find if I could go even further back?

  Before I took the elevator down to the underground level, I decided to stop in and see if Ellie and Brody had found anything about Frankie’s assets yet. I also needed to let Ellie know that she now had access to the historical records that had previously been off-limits to us.

  Brody and Ellie were chatting and looking through a thick file folder when I walked into the room. “I’m going to the basement to follow up on my one single solitary lead,” I said and turned to leave the room.

  “Wait, what?” Brody asked, and I stopped.

  “The State Historical Office updated Ellie’s and my key cards so we can access all of Ash Road’s records,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “You can’t go down there alone. It’s dangerous. If you accidentally get locked in the sealed archives, you could suffocate. Someone has to stand outside in case you need help,” he said and stood up.

  “Fine. You can babysit me if you want, but I’m going in.”

  Ellie winked and gave me a thumbs-up behind Brody’s back. I wasn’t sure what she meant.

  Brody was brooding over me outside of the sealed room I was about to enter. I don’t know when he’d decided to go all alpha male on me, but I wasn’t about to let Brody O’Malley push any more of my buttons.

  “Why are you doing this?” he fumed.

  “Doing what? The job I was hired to do?”

  “Going behind my back to get access to the historical records. What you’re looking for isn’t in there. If anyone tampered with Frankie’s records, they’re probably stuffed in a box in an empty office or next to a copy machine, hidden in plain sight.”

  “How do you know that? Is it because that’s what you’d do?” I asked sarcastically. “So you’re saying I should go on a hunt for nondescript boxes lying around in obvious places?”

  “It would be a better use of your time than trying to trace Frankie’s family back to the Civil War and then into modern times again,” he huffed.

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job.”

  “Fine. Go in there. I can give you oxygen for thirty minutes. I’ll wait here.”

  “Fine,” I said and swiped my card over the panel. I won’t lie, I got a rush of smug satisfaction when the door opened.

  Thirty minutes later, I returned to the hallway with nothing. The I told you so look on Brody’s face ate me alive.

  “I’m going to the diner for lunch,” I said as the vault door slammed behind me.

  “I’ll—” Brody started.

  “You’re not invited,” I cut him off and rushed off.

  Back upstairs I found Ellie at my computer furiously typing. “I’m onto something,” she said excitedly.

  “I was going to go to lunch,” I said, “but I can stay.”

  “No, go. This will take me about another hour and I’ll have something for you, but I need to stay in the zone.” She didn’t look up, but I didn’t immediately walk away. “Go. Get out of here, but bring me back a burger and shake.”

  On my way out, I decided to call Sylvie and invite her to lunch. Maybe if I paid for her meal, she’d be willing to gossip about Frankie. Sometimes the best way to get information on someone was to ask the locals, and in a small town, everyone knew everyone else.

  “Sure, I can meet you,” she said happily over the phone. “Will I finally get introduced to this new mystery friend that the town is buzzing over?”

  “Ellie? Yeah, you guys will have to meet another time. Maybe tonight. She’s caught a break in the case and is working through lunch.”

  “Oh, she found something about the Horowitz estate?” Sylvie chirped enthusiastically.

  “Yeah. It’s great news, huh?”

  “It is. Well, I’ll meet you at the diner in just a bit and we can celebrate.”

  Al’s Diner was busier than normal so I had to wait about fifteen minutes for a table. I almost decided to get our food to go so I could get back to work, but then I reasoned that I had nothing better to do.

  A table finally cleared out, and after a busboy cleaned it, I sat down and opened up my menu. I saw that the pot pie was on special and decided that would be a nice change of pace from a burger and fries.

  Maureen, the waitress, came over to take my order. “What’ll it be?” she asked, and I could tell she was a bit frazzled from the rush.

  “The pot pie and Diet Coke.”

  “We sold out of those an hour ago but the cook put a new batch in the oven shortly after. There’ll be fresh ones if you can wait a few extra minutes,” she said. “It comes with a salad so I can bring that out to you with your drink.”

  “I’m killing time anyway, Maureen. I’ll wait for the pie,” I said. “Ranch dressing on the salad. Extra cheese, if you please.”

  “A woman after my own heart,” she said and left me to my waiting.

  Ellie

  Ellie had found a trail that gave her the answers that she and Lara had been looking for, and that meant she could wrap up the Horowitz case and get the heck out of Ash Road. She was ecstatic because she’d turned down a job in Tokyo because Lara was a friend. The discovery she’d just made would mean she could still ta
ke the job in Japan.

  She grabbed her phone and sent a text to the Tokyo client letting him know that she’d take the job after all. Then she stood up and wrote down a few notes on a piece of scratch paper.

  There were two records Ellie needed. The record hall database said they were stored in the basement. She remembered what Brody had said earlier about not going down into the sealed archives alone, but Ellie figured she would be in and out. If she was only running in and out, there wouldn’t be any reason to turn the oxygen on while she grabbed the records.

  Once she was in the basement, Ellie was pleased to find that the doors were like the others she’d worked with in the past. They could be locked open, and she wouldn’t need to turn on the oxygen.

  Ellie flipped the safety latch and pinned the door open. The piece of paper in her hand directed her to exactly where the record she was looking for was supposed to be located.

  She moved quickly to a large metal filing cabinet in the back of the enclosure. From the hallway, you could only see the large stacks of books and records through the glass windows of the archive room but she knew that there were cabinets full of semiprecious documents in the back.

  Just as she pulled the drawer she needed open, Ellie heard a sound that made her blood run cold. The door slammed shut, and she was locked in the archive enclosure. Fear gripped her chest as she remembered that she hadn’t turned the oxygen on when she came into the sealed room.

  How had the door closed? She’d triple-checked to make sure it was locked open.

  She got her answer when she reached the glass windows that looked out to the hallway. They stood there looking at her with eyes full of sorrow and regret. Ellie’s heart leapt with hope; maybe she could convince them to let her out.

  “Please let me out,” Ellie begged as she pounded on the glass. “Please. Whatever is going on, I’ll leave town. I won’t say a word to anyone.” She suddenly thought of her cell phone and pulled it from her pocket. No signal.

  She pounded on the window until her hand went numb. Tears poured down her killer’s face, and for one moment, it looked like they were about to move across the hallway and let her out. But they stopped and turned away.

  “Please,” she said one last time before the oxygen deprivation took hold of her brain. “I want my mommy.”

  Chapter Eight

  Lara

  I looked at my phone when I was halfway done with my pot pie. Sylvie hadn’t shown up for lunch, so I called her.

  “Sorry, babe. I was trying to figure out what to do with this cat.”

  “Cat?”

  “Yeah, I was on the way to Al’s and I found a stray cat. I was hoping someone would take it, but no luck. Should I just leave it? It’s cute but I can tell it’s been neglected.”

  “No, don’t leave it,” I said a little more frantically than I’d intended. “Bring it to the diner.”

  “I can’t meet you for lunch. Stan’s afternoon help didn’t show up. He said I have to come in and work. I’ll keep it in the back of the ice cream shop. Can you come get it?”

  I had no idea what the Magnolia and Willow’s policy on pets was, but I had a huge soft spot for cats. When I was little, my cat Linus was my constant companion. He slept with me every night and would sit on my lap and purr anytime I was sick or sad.

  “Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes,” I said.

  Hopefully, Becca at the inn would let the cat stay if I paid a pet deposit. I couldn’t stomach the thought of leaving it on the street or taking the poor thing to the pound.

  While I was paying the check, a man dressed in mechanic overalls burst through the diner door. “Officer Booth is being airlifted to the hospital in Memphis. She was in the basement of the archive hall responding to a call about a murder and someone bashed her head in,” the man announced to the whole room and then ran back out.

  I went outside and heard the sound of the helicopter taking off close by the diner. It took a moment for the situation to register, but then my stomach did a flip and I thought I was going to throw up on the sidewalk.

  If someone was dead at the archives, it either had to be Ellie or Brody. As I ran toward work, the scenarios kept playing out in my mind. I pulled out my phone and dialed Brody, but he didn’t pick up. Tears stung my eyes. What if he was dead? What if he’d killed Ellie?

  Guilt racked my body. I knew it was her. She’d said before I left that she’d found a breakthrough in the case, and now someone had silenced her. It was all my fault. Ellie wouldn’t have been in Ash Road if I hadn’t begged her for help.t begged her for help.

  Why had this case been so important to me? I should have just left town when I saw what a disaster the Horowitz estate would be to sort out.

  When I got back to the library, I saw dozens of state police cars surrounding the area. There was yellow crime scene tape around the entire library and records building. It would have been impossible for me to get to the basement and see who was dead.

  So, I did the only thing I could think of and stood on the sidewalk crying. Five minutes later, I heard a familiar voice right behind me.

  “Lara, what’s going on?” Brody asked.

  I whirled around to face him and found myself unable to hurtle the accusations I’d been so resolute about moments ago. “Oh my god, Brody, you’re alive,” I said and flung myself into his arms.

  My sobbing intensified as the truth hit me hard. I buried my face in his muscular chest and Brody wrapped his arms tighter around me.

  “What’s going on, Lara?” Brody asked again when my crying subsided a bit. “What happened?”

  “Someone is dead in the archives, and an Officer Booth was called in. She’s being airlifted to a hospital in Memphis because someone attacked her too.” I tried to steady my breathing. “When I left to go to lunch, it was just you and Ellie left behind. That means that Ellie is dead.” My weeping ramped up again in earnest.

  He stroked my hair and I listened to his heart beating in his chest. My brain screamed at me to pull away, but my body melted against him instead.

  “Did you do it?” The question slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. The worst part was, I was still nuzzled against him when I asked.

  Brody jumped back. A look of pure anguish flooded his features, and my heart broke knowing that I’d caused him pain. Still, in the back of my mind, I thought it could all be an act.

  “You really think I killed your friend and tried to kill Officer Booth? That’s who you think I am?”

  “I don’t know what to think,” I said, but the absence of him was a terrible void.

  “What does it say about you that you ran right into the arms of a man you believe is a killer?” he growled. “Maybe you killed her. I went home for lunch. How do I know you’re not some psycho bit—” He cut himself off and turned away from me. Brody took off angrily down the sidewalk, and I’d thought he was leaving. Apparently he’d just been trying to walk off his anger because he got about a block away and came back.

  “I don’t want to fight with you,” he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t kill anyone. I’d never hurt someone, and I don’t really think you did either. We need to stick together.”

  “That’s kind of hard to do when there are files missing that legally prove who inherits the Horowitz estate and now there has been a murder. My friend is probably dead, and you were the last person I saw her with,” I said, but I’d lost all of my venom.

  “They’re going to arrest me, Lara. If I really was the last person who saw her alive, they’re going to pin this on me.”

  “You’re certainly going to be a suspect if no one saw you at home but I don’t think they’re going to arrest you right away. If you didn’t do anything wrong, then you’ve got nothing to worry about,” I said.

  Chapter Nine

  Lara

  “We should go to the police station,” Brody said. “If it’s Ellie, they’re going to need you to make an identification.”

  I fe
lt the blood drain from my face and I suddenly felt the world spinning around me. Brody caught me by the elbows and kept me upright without embracing me again. I took several deep breaths and got myself calm again.

  “I’m sorry. I’m not usually this much of a delicate flower,” I said, and I felt humiliated for swooning.

  “You don’t need to be sorry. This is a pretty traumatic turn of events, and I think you’re doing well considering the circumstances.” Brody said.

  “I don’t have a car.”

  “We could walk, but the station is on the outskirts of town. Or we can take my car. It’s at my house,” he said.

  I thought about the offer for a moment. Did I really believe he was a killer?

  “There’s somewhere I need to go first,” I said, remembering the cat.

  Brody cocked his head to the side and looked at me with one eyebrow raised. “Where?”

  “Sylvie was supposed to meet me for lunch but she didn’t show. It was because she found a cat. She can’t keep it, and I can’t stomach the thought of it going to the pound. So I’m going to take it.”

  “She didn’t show up for your lunch date when the murder was happening?” He seemed skeptical.

  “I don’t think Sylvie killed Ellie. And if we go to the ice cream shop and she has a cat, her story holds.”

  “What are you going to do with a cat? Your temporary home is a bed-and-breakfast, and you’re a nomad,” Brody said.

  “I’m going to keep it in my room at the inn for right now. After that, I’ll figure something out. I can’t just leave it to go to the pound.”

  “Fine,” Brody said and sighed. “Let’s go get the cat. The police probably aren’t going to be ready to talk to you for a while anyway.”

  I’m not sure why the cat was suddenly so important to me, but it most likely had something to do with the loss of my friend. A cat would be a companion while I grieved, and Brody was right; I was a nomad. It was a lonely life.