“When is it?”
“Tomorrow at five.”
“I’ll let Andi know.”
“Andi?” He furrowed his brow.
“Andi Hollister. She was friends with Lacey. Your ex-wife had asked Andi to meet her at the airport Tuesday night.”
“Why?”
“Maybe because she was Stephanie Hollister’s sister? You knew her, didn’t you?”
The pilot pinched the bridge of his nose. “The name rang a bell the other night, but I still hadn’t put it together until just now.”
Connections clicked in Will’s mind. “By the way, did any of the women who lived at the Hollister house work your flights?”
Matthews rubbed his nose. “Not that I remember. I was just a copilot back then.”
“Sergeant Kincade, Mrs. Delaney will see you now.”
“Are you flying today?” he asked Matthews.
“Got called in for a commuter run—on my way to the airport now.”
“When will you be back?”
“Late this afternoon. Then I have another short flight.”
“I may want to ask you more questions later today.” Will turned to the secretary. “Thanks.”
“You know the way,” she said.
Will walked down to the end of the hall.
Seated at her desk, Laura looked over her reading glasses and motioned him to a chair. “What can I do for you, Sergeant? Have we discussed this case before?”
He liked the way the DA always cut to the chase. Laura had been the first female district attorney ever elected to the office in Memphis. And she had proven she could do the job.
He chose the leather side chair closest to her desk. “No. I’ve been moved to the Cold Case Unit. It’s my first case.”
She nodded. “Congratulations. I understand that’s a coveted job.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m working on the Stephanie Hollister murder from eighteen years ago. I understand you lived in the house with her.”
The only indication of surprise was a widening of the DA’s eyes. “When did that become a cold case? Jimmy Shelton confessed.”
“I know, but certain evidence has surfaced that bears investigating.”
“What evidence? It better be ironclad. Shelton’s execution has been delayed long enough. People want to see justice served.”
Will couldn’t keep from mentally changing “people” to “voters.” “Justice won’t be served if an innocent man is executed.”
She took off her reading glasses and hooked a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. “Has his lawyer filed an appeal for a stay?”
“He doesn’t have one right now. The public defender who had his case retired.”
She frowned. “I see. And this evidence you mentioned?”
“It’s a letter stating he didn’t kill Stephanie, and that the author has evidence to back up the claim.”
She absorbed the news with little expression. “Do you have the letter with you?”
“No. It was stolen from Jimmy.”
“Okay. Then is this person willing to come forward?”
He leaned forward in the chair. “Unfortunately, she’s dead.”
“Will, you’re not talking about Lacey Wilson, are you?”
He nodded.
She slipped her reading glasses back on. “I thought for a minute you had real evidence. No jury would ever seriously consider anything that poor woman had to say. She was my friend, but she was also depressed and paranoid.”
“How long have you known Lacey?” he said.
“Since we all lived in the house with Stephanie and flew together . . . I guess eighteen or nineteen years. She had a tendency to depression even then.”
“Let’s suppose what she wrote is true,” Will said. “That someone other than Jimmy killed Stephanie. Can you think of anyone in her circle of friends or acquaintances who might have wanted her dead?”
She gave him a look that reminded him of detention.
“Let it go.”
“I can’t.”
“I suppose any number of women who lost their boyfriends to her,” she said with a laugh that was devoid of mirth.
“How about you? Where were you the night she was killed?”
Laura Delaney’s face flamed. “Are you insinuating that I had something to do with her death?”
“No. I just asked where you were.”
“I don’t remember. Probably in the house studying. That was when I was working full-time and trying to go to law school at night.” She pressed her fingertips together. “Stephanie had a restraining order against your cousin, not that it did any good.”
“Do you know why?”
She tapped her chest. “Because of me, after Jimmy hurt her. I’d been begging her for weeks to do something about him, but she didn’t want to get him into trouble with the law. One day I needed her car keys to run to the store, and I walked in on one of their fights. I heard them yelling when I came out of the house, but then it went quiet. When I entered the studio, I understood why.
“Stephanie lay on the floor and Jimmy stood over her, his body weaving back and forth. Maggie was there and she was rooted to the floor. I thought Stephanie was dead. I shoved Jimmy out of the way and felt her pulse.” Laura looked up at Will. “She was alive, so I yelled for Maggie to call 911. That’s when Stephanie groaned and tried to sit up. She insisted that we cancel the call, but it was too late. She refused to press charges. She did get a restraining order later that day.”
Laura shook her head as if to clear it. “It wasn’t the first time he’d hurt her. When he wasn’t drinking, Jimmy was the sweetest guy you’d ever meet. But he was a different person when he was drunk. He had no filters.”
As much as Will hated to admit it, she was right about his cousin. And if Stephanie had been killed from a blow to the head, he wouldn’t argue that Jimmy was innocent of her murder. But his cousin hated guns. He would never have shot her.
Will noted Laura’s answer in his notes. “My aunt said she thinks Stephanie was into something illegal. Do you know what it might have been?”
She stared at him. “You’re kidding.” When he didn’t answer, she pressed her mouth in a thin line and leaned back. “No, I guess you’re not. Look, I realize Jimmy is your cousin, but I hope you won’t try to paint the victim in this case as a criminal.”
“Of course not. I just thought you might know what my aunt was referring to.”
“I don’t, and if the only evidence you have to clear your cousin is something Lacey Wilson wrote . . . well, let me put it this way. If I took this evidence to a judge, he’d laugh me out of his courtroom. If you have nothing else to add to this, I need to get back to work.” She returned to her file.
“Before I go, you seem to know Adam Matthews pretty well. Did any of you fly with him eighteen years ago?”
She looked up from the file, a slight frown lowering her brows. “Uh, yes. We all worked for the same airline. Now, if you’re through . . .” She glanced toward the door.
“Actually, I’m not. I have a couple more questions I’d like to ask you.” Will looked down at his notepad then back up at the DA. “Your husband, Spencer. You met him when you both worked for the airlines?”
Laura scowled. “That’s correct, but I fail to see what that has to do with anything.”
“I’m always looking at connections. Four flight attendants, living in the same house, your husband also was a flight attendant, and he married you, but did he ever date Stephanie? Or the other two women?”
“You’ll have to ask him that.”
“You don’t know?”
She shrugged. “Who my husband dated before we married is of no consequence to me. I landed him.” She smiled at her own joke, then shrugged. “Actually, he dated both of them, Jillian first. She never knew about Spencer and Stephanie. According to Spencer, there wasn’t much to their relationship. After they broke up, they remained friends. Most of the men Stephanie dated remained friends with her
after she moved on to another conquest.”
Will didn’t know if Laura was purposefully showing Stephanie in an unfavorable light or if she wasn’t aware of it. “Do you know where I can find your husband? I’d like to ask him a few questions.”
She checked her watch. “He left here to go to Donovan Jewelers to pick up my diamond bracelet. Jared is an old friend, so they probably went to the coffee shop around the corner.”
Donovan and Delaney. Old money and nouveau riche. Or more aptly, old power and new power, as the Donovans were connected to the old political machine that ran Memphis for years and now Laura was the face of new politics. “Can you give me his cell phone number?”
She hesitated, and then rattled it off. “He doesn’t know any more than I do about Stephanie’s case.”
“I still would like to talk to him.”
“You’re fighting a lost cause,” she said. “And I’m getting behind on my schedule.”
Dismissed, Will stood. “I’m convinced Jimmy didn’t kill Stephanie. I’ll get the evidence and be back.”
“When you do, I’ll take it to the judge. But you don’t have much time.”
He tipped his head.
No one had to tell him he was running out of time. That fact was with him day and night.
13
MADELINE STARR WANTED HIM TO WALK WITH HER? David tilted his head, and for the first time he noticed faint laughter lines around her eyes. So her smile did sometimes go all the way to her deep blue eyes. Maybe this would go better than he expected.
“Walk? Sure.”
He followed her to the reception area, where she told Shawna she’d be back in thirty minutes.
“I like your receptionist. She has good instincts,” he said on the elevator.
“She’s my assistant . . . and much more. I should have listened to her this morning. How about the Riverwalk?”
“Good idea.” The walking trail that wound along the Mississippi River would offer a more relaxed atmosphere than the foot traffic on Front Street.
“Lieutenant Raines, I—”
“Call me David.” He glanced down at her. She didn’t look at all like the last time they’d met, with her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. A couple of strands had slipped out of the band, softening the tough lawyer image he remembered from the courtroom. Then, her hair had been in a tight bun on her neck. She’d represented the man he’d arrested, and she’d been relentless in her questioning.
Today she didn’t seem nearly as tall and formidable, although she probably stood five-eight or nine. And she had a nice build. He’d noticed when he followed her down the hallway.
“David.” She said his name as if trying it out. “If you’ll call me Maggie. It’s what my friends call me, and since you saved me from bodily harm this morning, you move from possible adversary into the friendship category.”
She did remember their last meeting. He’d have to see what he could do to stay out of her enemy camp. “Do you always talk like a lawyer?”
“What?”
“Bodily harm, adversary, friendship category . . .”
Maggie laughed softly. “I suppose I do.”
The timbre of her voice when she laughed quickened his heart. There was something soothing about it.
“Maggie?” he said. “How do you get Maggie from Madeline?”
She gave him a wicked grin. “That information is reserved for really good friends.”
“Okay. I’ll have to see how to get moved to that category.” A brisk south wind blew blossoms from the Bradford pear trees across their path as they walked in silence. It’d probably rain later. He caught a glimpse of the Memphis Queen chugging up the Mississippi, well out of the wake of a barge floating south. He loved the river and the way it energized him. Should come here more often. David’s cell phone rang. “Excuse me,” he said before answering. “Raines.”
“Laura Delaney is not going to be any help with getting a stay for Jimmy.”
He recognized Will’s voice. “How do you know?”
“I just left her office, and she almost laughed me out of it.”
“I’ll pass that on. I’d like to meet with you and Brad this afternoon. Why don’t I join you at the Wilson house?” When Will agreed, David hung up and slipped his phone in his back pocket, rejoining the lawyer. “Sorry about that,” he said.
“That’s fine. It gave me a minute to think.”
“About?” They started walking again.
Maggie cleared her throat and said, “Umm.”
Now she had his curiosity up. “Yeah?”
“I need to apologize for . . .”
She bit her bottom lip, and he liked the way she seemed flummoxed.
“The way I acted this morning.” The words came out in a rush. “While I don’t think Thompson would have actually harmed me, you probably kept both of us from doing and saying things we’d regret.”
“Probably?”
“Yes, probably. Thompson isn’t a complete idiot.” She turned to him. “You still haven’t told me why you were in my office.”
That was more than likely all the thanks he would get from Maggie Starr. He’d take it. “I’m here on behalf of Jimmy Shelton.”
Her blue eyes widened. “Jimmy Shelton. That’s a blast from the past.”
David laughed. “I believe those are the first words you’ve said that don’t sound like a lawyer.”
“Ha-ha. What about him, other than he’s sitting on death row for the murder of Stephanie Hollister?”
“You have a good memory.”
“I suppose. Hard to forget the details of a friend’s murder.”
“How many details do you remember?”
“It’s been so long, I don’t know. Ask me some questions, and we’ll see.”
A jogger approached, and David moved to one side to let him by. “Had Stephanie been acting unusual or nervous?” he asked when they were alone again.
Maggie’s walk slowed. “We hadn’t been friends that long, and I actually knew Andi better. She was such a cute kid.” She glanced up at him. “Now that she’s grown, we’ve become friends on a different level.”
He laughed. “Yeah, she said she knew your softer side. What else can you tell me?”
“I lived in the house because of Laura Delaney—it was Laura Cole then. We were in a couple of classes together, and I was driving back and forth from Senatobia, Mississippi, and looking for a place to live closer to the university when she told me about Stephanie.”
“That’s about an hour away, with traffic.”
“It is. I lived with my parents. Laura introduced me to Stephanie, and my parents came up and met the Hollisters and approved the arrangement.” She glanced up at him. “Can you see that happening today?”
David tried to picture life with his daughter, Alexis, in a few years. “No, but I wish it did.”
They walked on. “Thinking back,” he said, “what was your impression of Stephanie?”
Maggie looked toward the river, a view she never tired of. “Stephanie was beautiful, but I don’t think she knew it.” At first, she had been intimidated by Stephanie’s poise, but after they formed a bond working with the clay, Maggie had discovered a warm heart. “From what I observed, she was looking for something, and she broke a lot of hearts. Jillian said that Stephanie didn’t date any one man very long.”
“How about her relationship with Jimmy Shelton?” David asked.
“It was an on-again-off-again relationship, but in between beaus, she always went back to him. I think she loved him, but he had a lot of problems. Toward the end, she just wanted him gone. We rarely talked about him. In fact, I probably talked to Stephanie more about pottery than anything else.
“She was a very good sculptor, and actually gave me a discount on the rent for helping her in the studio. I remember a day right before she was killed. It was one of the few times we discussed Jimmy. We’d been working a couple of hours, and I asked her to show me how to make the dancing ho
rses . . .”
Stephanie rolled a small piece of clay between her palms. “First I wrap clay around the wire form, then roll out small pieces and build to it,” she said.
“You make it sound easy.” Maggie picked up a coil of wire that Stephanie used to form the armatures. “How do you make them look like they’re prancing?”
Stephanie paused with the piece of clay in her hand, puzzlement on her face. “I never thought about it. I just twist the wires together until it looks like a horse, then I twist them more to get their legs just right.”
“I would hate to see any horse I built.”
“You can do it.” Stephanie tossed her a small pair of needle-nose pliers. “Try it.”
“I don’t want to waste your wire.”
“Don’t worry, I can always reuse it if you mess up.” She continued to smooth clay over the armature.
Maggie cut several lengths of wire. “I haven’t seen Jimmy around lately.”
Stephanie shaped the withers with her thumb. “You won’t. I broke it off with him again.”
“Because of JD?” Maggie asked.
She jerked her gaze to Maggie. “What made you say that?”
“I don’t know . . . I saw you and JD the other day. He seemed very interested in you.”
“No, not because of JD. There’s nothing going on between us.” She leaned closer to Maggie. “At least not after he got back with Jillian. It’s Jimmy’s drinking, which is all the time lately. When he’s drunk, he’s crazy jealous.” Stephanie pinched off another piece of clay and pressed it into the rump. “I’ve actually started seeing someone new. Jared Donovan. He even asked me to marry him.”
Maggie widened her eyes. “That fast? You couldn’t have had more than a date or two.”
“I know. But that’s the way he works—he sees something, or someone, he likes and goes after it. But don’t worry, I didn’t say yes.”
“I’m glad.”
Stephanie smoothed more clay on the horse and turned the sculpture for Maggie to see. “This one is my diamond in the rough. I think it’ll be the best one yet.”
The studio door opened before Maggie could answer, and Jimmy sauntered in.
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