A Whole Latte Murder

by Caroline Fardig

  I tottered over to the couch and collapsed onto it. “No. But you’re probably not going to like what I have been doing.”

  He sat down next to me. “Try me.”

  “You have to promise to hear me out before you lecture me.”

  He smiled. “Don’t I always?”

  I launched into an explanation of what all I’d done today, apologizing for not telling him what was going on when we’d spoken on the phone earlier. He frowned more and more as I told the story, but at least he didn’t interrupt.

  When I was finished, he groaned. “Jules, I thought you were done with this. Jack’s been arrested, and I’m sure the police have leads on Amelia’s killer. It’s over.”

  “It’s not over, because Kira is still nowhere to be found. And Jack could very well be innocent. Wouldn’t you hate for the wrong guy to go down for Chelsea’s murder?”

  “Yes, but a lot of things point to him being a bad guy. I don’t understand why you’re so hell-bent on helping him.”

  “For me, it’s not about Jack. It’s about helping Mallory. She deserves to know the truth, even if it isn’t what she wants to hear.”

  He grinned at me. “Did you read that one in a fortune cookie?”

  I gave him a playful shove. “Pete, come and help us. Sleuthing is always more fun with you.”

  “Really? You think so?”

  “Of course.”

  He thought about it for a moment. “Well, I guess it would be a good way for me to keep an eye on you and make sure you’re not overdoing it.” He pulled the hem of my skirt up to look at my knee.

  I knew he wasn’t making a move, but it still sent a thrill through me, so I covered my true feelings by protesting, “Dude, boundaries.”

  “Get over yourself. I’m only checking your knee, which is the size of a grapefruit, by the way. You haven’t iced it all day, have you?”

  “No,” I admitted.

  Shaking his head, Pete went to the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later with an ice pack and two containers of chicken Caesar salad from Java Jive.

  I was touched. “You got me dinner? You didn’t even know if I’d be back in time.”

  He shrugged and handed me a salad. “I was hoping.”

  “Thank you.” I opened the container and took a big bite of the salad. I was starving.

  Sitting down next to me, he put his container on the coffee table and turned to me. “You know, I…uh…I kind of like coming home and not being alone. It’s nice to have some company.”

  I nodded, buying myself some time to swallow. “Yeah, it is nice. I really appreciate you letting me stay with you while I heal. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve nearly eaten it on my crutches today. Trying to get up and down my stairs would be suicide.” I gave him a punch on his good arm. “But I know having me here isn’t always all fun and games. I’m sure I’ll be back to normal very soon so I can get out of your hair. A few more days, tops.”

  Looking down and rubbing his forehead, he said nervously, “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  I froze, another forkful of salad halfway to my mouth. Pete was acting strangely. Even though he’d just said some nice things, I began to wonder if he didn’t actually want me staying with him. I knew I could be grating sometimes. He was still clinging to some guilt about my accident, so he would never flat out ask me to leave. I felt like I needed to offer him an out.

  I put my fork down. “You know, I’m sure I could stay with Mallory or someone if you’re getting tired of—”

  He snapped his head up. “No, absolutely not. I was…I was thinking maybe…you know, maybe we could make your staying here more…permanent.”

  “Permanent? Like move in?”

  Since I’d moved to Nashville, Pete had never passed up an opportunity to offer for me to stay with him, whether it was when I had to have my carpet replaced, or when Ryder insisted I needed babysitting, or whatever random drama I had going. He’d never seriously brought up a permanent arrangement, though.

  “Yeah. Why not? I have a second bedroom.”

  Pete’s second “bedroom” was a bed-less room packed to the gills with old junk. You’d never have known it from looking at the rest of his house, but Pete was a hoarder. He kept everything from his childhood, including toys, awards, and even old homework. And when his dad passed away, Pete also acquired a bunch of his dad’s old stuff, which he wouldn’t part with, either. Strangely enough, he even had some of my old childhood mementos I’d tried to throw out when I made the move to Nashville. It would take a year to clean out that bedroom so I could move in.

  He continued his sales pitch. “Your apartment is a shit box. You hate living around college kids. We get along just fine. It’s the perfect arrangement.”

  Sure. Right up until in a moment of weakness we decided to hop into bed together too soon, ruining our friendship and any chance we had of turning our relationship into something more. Or what if Pete started dating someone else? I wasn’t sure I wanted a front-row seat to that. I hated to say no, because he looked so hopeful, but I was too scared to say yes.

  “Um…You kind of came out of nowhere at me there. Can I think about it?”

  “Sure,” he said, happily digging into his salad.

  Whew. Crisis averted. For now.

  —

  Pete and I arrived at Mallory’s a little while later. I immediately got swooped on by Maya and Mallory, both rapid-firing questions at me about what happened during my undercover operation and subsequent disappearance. After Pete made me sit down and put my foot up, he sat next to me to make sure I stayed put. I told them all about the egg clinic and that Kira was indeed a donor there. Then I launched into my story of how Ryder accosted me and insisted on me leaving the premises.

  I finished with, “And by the way, I have an appointment to get groped by Dr. Micah tonight at eight. Maybe while I have him distracted one of you can search his office.”

  Pete stared at me. “You’re playing this all the way aren’t you? You don’t have to go through with it, you know.”

  Maya waved off his concern. “It’s just a blood test and a pelvic exam. He’s a real-deal doctor if he makes his living harvesting eggs. It’s not like he runs his business out of the back of a van.”

  Pete still seemed aghast, so I added, “Don’t worry. I’m going to suddenly get cold feet about the whole thing before any real groping starts.”

  Maya continued, “Besides, this is our best lead so far, albeit only if Kira is mixed up in Chelsea’s murder. The mobile phone we found in the safe wasn’t too helpful. The only texts on it are for meeting times in vague locations, and the last text was from nearly two weeks ago. No names of any kind were used in the texts. No contacts entered. No photos. No GPS capability, because it’s a piece of shit prepaid burner. There were a few calls on the log, but no voicemails. There were only two phone numbers ever used by that mobile, and they both belong to burner phones. We have no way of knowing if one of the numbers was to Jack’s mobile the police confiscated from their search here. Total dead end. Pardon the pun.”

  Mallory sat on an overstuffed chair, picking at an invisible spot on the fabric, her brows knit in consternation. “Juliet, when did you say your hacker friend would be here to look at the laptop?”

  I gave her an encouraging smile. “Soon. Mal, we’ll figure this out. I’m sure of it.”

  She didn’t move her eyes from her fixed stare. She spoke so quietly it was difficult to hear her. “Jack’s been in jail for twenty-four hours now. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”

  “I can,” Pete said. “I won’t lie to you, Mallory. It’s not good.”

  She let out a sob, and I elbowed Pete in the ribs, murmuring, “We’re trying to make her feel better, not worse.”

  Pete said to her, “He’s not been arraigned yet, right?”

  “Monday morning,” she whispered.

  “That means he gets to stay downtown instead of being shipped to county. Trust me, d
owntown lockup is a picnic compared to that place.” His brown eyes became troubled, as they often did when he talked about his brief stint in jail.

  I patted him on the back, and he looked over at me, giving me a half-smile.

  The doorbell rang, and Mallory hopped up to get it, wiping her eyes as she went. Trevor came in, seeming somewhat apprehensive until his gaze landed on Pete and me.

  “Hey, Trevor, thanks for doing this,” I said.

  He nodded. I hated that he wasn’t a hundred percent on board, but we needed him.

  I made the introductions, and Maya showed Trevor to the kitchen table, where she’d put the laptop. She gave him some instructions, and he sat down and got to work. Maya came back in the living room and sank down into a chair.

  She frowned. “Aside from the computer, we have little to no evidence, good or bad. The phone is worthless. A well-to-do doctor having ten grand in cash in his safe means nothing. I’ve gone through these receipts and notes a dozen times, and the only thing cryptic enough to make me think it could possibly help us is this credit card bill with ‘A 2 24 K 3 03’ written at the top. Do we have any idea what this means?”

  “A combination or key code for something?” I said.

  Mallory said, “There’s nothing around the house with that type of code. Our security system is a three-digit code, and our safe is a four-digit code. All numbers. I guess it could be for something at the university.”

  Maya asked, “Do you have keys for his office there?”

  “Yes, he keeps a spare set in the kitchen.”

  “We should probably have a look there tomorrow morning.”

  Pete picked up the paper and studied the writing. “Could be a username or password.”

  “I tried it on his laptop. Didn’t work. And the browser history on their home computer had been wiped, so I couldn’t go back and try to input it where he’d been,” Maya said.

  Trevor, who was evidently listening from the kitchen, said, “I could probably find the history for you without too much work.”

  “As soon as you get into that laptop,” she replied. She said to us, “I’m hung up on the spaces between the letters and numbers. It’s almost as if they’re separated in a specific way. A username or a password wouldn’t have spaces.”

  Pete said, “Maybe it’s a phone number. Replace the letters with numbers.”

  “Tried that, too,” said Maya. “There are eight numbers if you do it that way. One too many.”

  “They could be times,” I said. “Two-twenty-four and three-oh-three.”

  Maya’s eyes widened. “Or dates. Trevor, are you in that laptop yet?”

  “A few more minutes,” he called.

  She continued, “That still leaves the A and the K.”

  I got an uneasy feeling in my gut. “Well, they could stand for Amelia and Kira.”

  Chapter 33

  Maya said sharply, “What happened to Amelia and Kira on those days—February twenty-fourth, and March third?”

  I looked helplessly at Pete. “I don’t know. When did Amelia go missing? Sunday? That would have been the twenty-seventh, right?”

  “I’m in!” Trevor exclaimed.

  We all got up and rushed over to the kitchen to look over his shoulder.

  Maya said, “Pull up his calendar.”

  Trevor did as instructed. The calendar was blank.

  Maya growled in the back of her throat. “Find another calendar.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Trevor muttered, getting back to work.

  Maya said, “Well, do we know what happened to Kira on the third?”

  Pete scratched his chin. “Last Thursday. It was the day after Chelsea died.” He tapped me on the arm. “She didn’t come into work, because you and I covered her shift that day. We both talked to her on the phone, though, right? I don’t remember anything besides that.”

  I closed my eyes, thinking back. I remembered finally being able to reach her and then…“That was the day someone was yelling at her while we talked on the phone. She said she was terrified.”

  “Good info, but not specific enough to help,” Maya murmured, deep in thought.

  I had the thread, but I was struggling to connect everything. “Wait…that was two days before she went missing. The other date is three days before Amelia went missing.”

  “Right.”

  I snapped my fingers. “Those are the days Brooke said she treated Amelia and Kira at the ER.”

  Mallory, who had been silent the whole time we’d been mulling over our ideas, said quietly, “I think I know why Jack had those dates written down.”

  “Why?” Maya demanded.

  Mallory hung her head. “To delete their medical records. That had to have been what he was doing using my hospital account. But that doesn’t help, either, because if the records are gone, we don’t have any idea what information he was getting rid of or why.”

  Trevor piped up, “The records probably aren’t completely gone. If they were in a database and got deleted, there might be something I can do to find them.”

  Maya’s eyes began to sparkle. “Let’s do this. The computer he used is in the office.”

  We all trooped into Mallory’s home office. Of course I was limping behind, but so was Mallory.

  Before we went in, I placed my hand on her arm. “I know this is starting to look bad for Jack, but we’re going to figure it out. There’s more to what’s going on, and we’re going to keep digging until we find it.”

  She put her hand over mine as a tear slipped out of her eye. “Thank you. Your friends are the best. I could never have done this alone.”

  It didn’t take long for Trevor to find what we needed. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, obviously pleased with himself. “There are your deleted records. You see, I had to hack in as an admin and find the audit log, then from there, I was able to—”

  Maya was so thrilled, she planted a big kiss on Trevor’s cheek. “I don’t care as long as we’re in.”

  He blushed furiously, no doubt enjoying the attention from beautiful Maya.

  She studied the computer screen for a minute. “What is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome?” she asked.

  Mallory replied, “OHSS is a condition that can be caused by taking fertility medication. Hormone treatments stimulate egg production. If the medication used is too strong, it can overstimulate the ovaries, which can be painful. The ovaries fill with fluid and swell, and in some severe cases the fluid can get into the abdominal cavity and cause all kinds of complications.”

  Maya gestured to the computer screen. “It says here that’s what both Amelia and Kira were treated for in the ER.”

  Pete scrunched up his forehead. “I don’t get it. Does that mean those two were taking fertility medication? Were they trying to get pregnant?”

  Maya shook her head. “No. Connect the dots. You’re given fertility medication when you donate eggs. Juliet found Kira’s name in Genesis’s computer system. The girls were egg donors. They both developed OHSS and had it treated in the ER, but for some reason Jack didn’t want their diagnoses on file anywhere.” She turned to Mallory. “Does he work for Genesis?”

  Mallory shook her head. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. He’s never said a word about them. And I take care of the finances around here, so I know he’s never received any kind of payment from them.”

  “Maybe that’s where the cash in his safe came from,” Maya said.

  Everything was beginning to click into place for me. “One other thing—Brooke tried to look up both girls’ medical records to compare them, but Jack had already gotten in and deleted them. I overheard her tell Ryder about it on Sunday, and the next day she was attacked.” I turned to Maya. “What time was she attacked?”

  “Around four or five A.M., I think.”

  I smiled. “Then it wasn’t Jack, because he was with us at Reservoir Park.”

  Mallory breathed an audible sigh of relief.

  Maya looked at
her watch. “It’s nearly eight. Let’s divide up some tasks. Juliet and I will go to her appointment at Genesis. While she’s getting her exam, I’ll sneak in and go through their files. Mallory and Pete, you go and try to speak with Jack. With what we know now, you might be able to get him to talk. Trevor, you keep drilling into that laptop. Let’s go.”

  We all returned to the living room and started gathering our things.

  Pete pulled me aside. His face was etched with concern. “Jules, I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I think it’s too dangerous for you to go back to that egg clinic. Amelia is dead and Kira went mysteriously missing after they got this OHSS thing, and then Brooke was attacked after she started digging into it. Granted, that still doesn’t explain what happened to Chelsea, but the clinic has got to be the connection everyone’s been missing all along.”

  “I know, but don’t worry. The doctor I’m seeing has no idea I’m a phony. Besides, Maya will be there, so if anything starts to feel off, I can scream bloody murder and she’ll have my back. The office isn’t that big.”

  He frowned. “I’d rather not let it get to the bloody murder stage.”

  I gave him a playful slap on the arm. “Oh, stop.”

  “What if I go with you?”

  “For a pelvic exam?” I wrinkled my nose. “I think it would tip our hand if I brought an audience along for that.”

  He wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed a kiss to my cheek. He whispered in my ear, “Please be careful. Promise me.”

  “I will.”

  On her way past us, Maya said, “Play kissy-face later. We have a job to do.”

  Pete didn’t move. He murmured, “She’s a drill sergeant, but with Mary Poppins’s voice. I don’t know whether to salute her or break into song.”

  Leaning back from him, I chuckled quietly. “See you later.”

  —

  Maya drove us over to the Genesis Building, rattling instructions as she went. “If Dr. Egghead locks the front office door, try to unlock it for me, but only if you can do it without him seeing you. I can pick my way in, but I’d prefer not to. After he takes you to the exam room, I’ll slip in. Make sure he does not leave your sight. If he does, call me immediately. It shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes to get what I need, but keep him talking as long as you can without arousing suspicion. Can you do this?”