Broken Vows Mystery 01-For Better, for Murder

by Lisa Bork

  “About twenty-five thousand.”

  “Is that all?”

  The man held out his ticket and check to the clerk. “Isn’t that enough?”

  I gave him an apologetic smile. “You’re right. It’s more than enough. Too much in fact.”

  On my walk back to work, I did a little window shopping, still in need of gifts for Cory, Isabelle, Jack, and my goddaughter Cassidy. Each year I closed the shop between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Cory would head home to spend the week with his parents and married brother. Erica and I usually spent Christmas Day with Isabelle’s family, but I had a feeling Erica would not get her furlough this year after her recent escapades.

  I wouldn’t press the issue with the psych center. The last thing I wanted was for her to lose her spot there. We were very lucky they’d held a room for her this time with so many on the waiting list, especially since she didn’t appear to be an immediate threat to herself at present. Sometimes I wondered what would become of her if the state refused to accept her as a patient any longer. Then, other days, I wondered why she couldn’t just snap out of her bipolar disorder. I knew this was impossible, but still I hoped.

  Cory swung his feet off my desk and turned off SPEED-TV when I entered my office. “Did you see the police blotter in the town newspaper?”

  “No.”

  “It’s all about you. Dead body found in sports car boutique on Main Street. Woman abducted from funeral home and dragged behind car for blocks. Home intruder escapes police detection.”

  I grabbed the paper and read the blotter. Cory was right. It was all about me. “I guess I should start campaigning against crime.”

  Cory stood and brushed the wrinkles out of the tails of his dress shirt. “Good. Then Ray will have his D.A.R.E. campaign, and you’ll have your own campaign.” He headed toward the door, pulling his ski jacket off the coatrack without breaking step. “I’m going down to the sub shop. You want anything?”

  “Tuna, please.”

  He waved and seconds later a blast of cold air let me know he’d left the building.

  My phone rang. I crossed my fingers, hoping it was someone in search of a nice red Ferrari, an old Magnum P.I. fan, perhaps. Instead, it was the woman who ran estate sales, Sarah Nelson.

  I explained my need to clear out Dad’s house. She agreed to pick up the key from me later in the day to start arranging and pricing items right away.

  “Oh, and Sarah, I left a message for your husband this morning, too.”

  “He’s on a job. He’ll be home around three. Can I help you?”

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I heard he was on the same bowling team as Tim Lapham. I was curious who else bowled on that team.”

  “No problem.” She reeled off the six names Celeste had provided plus a Peter Davis.

  “Who’s Peter Davis?”

  “He worked in Tim’s office.”

  “Was he Tim’s partner?”

  “Tim didn’t have a partner. As a matter of fact, his whole business is a little up in the air right now. Peter may buy it from the estate.”

  “So they only had seven guys on the bowling team?”

  “Oh, no, eight. Who’d I forget? Oh, Brennan Rowe.”

  I shook my head because I couldn’t believe my ears. “Brennan Rowe bowls?”

  “He’s got almost a three hundred average. Only Tim bowled better.”

  Bowling did not fit the image I had created for Brennan. “So your husband must know Brennan Rowe fairly well?”

  “Yes and no. Tim invited him to be on the team a few years ago. They all got along okay, but then Brennan hired my husband and his brother to repaint the trim on the garage that houses his car collection. They had an accident and broke a window with a ladder, setting off his alarm. Brennan was so mad that he threatened to withhold payment for the job.”

  So Brennan Rowe had a temper and was vengeful. Interesting.

  I thanked Sarah Nelson and hung up. Cory carried a bag full of subs, chips, and iced tea into my office and set it in front of me.

  “I had them put lettuce and tomato on your sub, just the way you like it.”

  “Perfect.”

  We unwrapped the subs and ate in companionable silence. When we finished, Cory crunched up the garbage and bagged it. “I’ll take this right outside. We don’t want mice.”

  “Noooo, definitely not. Thanks.”

  My conversation with Sarah Nelson plagued me, especially learning Tim’s relationship with Brennan Rowe. As his bowling buddy, Tim might have been more inclined to vote against Mr. Hughes’ proposed grocery store if he’d known his friend Brennan wanted the lot for an office complex. But since the vote went in Brennan’s favor, he’d have no reason to kill Tim, unless he needed to cover up something else. I had no idea what that might be.

  Or did I?

  Cory came back in the office and flopped onto the chair. He realized I was staring at him and wiped nervously at his mouth. “Do I have food on my face?”

  “No. I have a question for you.”

  “Okay.” His knee started to bob up and down.

  “You know Brennan Rowe.”

  He froze. “Sort of.” His tone held caution. “I’ve serviced his car.”

  “Is he gay?”

  Cory burst out laughing.

  “Is he?”

  “Oh, you’re serious. Sorry. Well, let’s see. He’s really hot, unmarried, and completely off the radar screen of all the single women in this town. What do you think, Jo?”

  I gasped. “No. I flirted with him.”

  “Girl, you need to get your radar fixed. He’s so not into you.”

  I buried my face in my hands. “Oh, my God, I’m such a loser. I should have dated more guys before I married Ray. Maybe I wouldn’t be so naïve.” I took a deep breath. “Is he openly gay?”

  “He’s like me. We don’t flaunt it, but we’re not hiding it, either.” Cory leaned forward and patted my hand. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. I think it’s nice that you take people at face value.”

  Cory’s words brought me some comfort. “Have you ever dated Brennan Rowe?”

  “No. I’m not sure who he dates, Jo. He keeps it all close to the vest, but then he is in construction. It’s not exactly an environment to fly the pride flag.”

  “Could he have been dating Tim Lapham?”

  Cory’s eyes widened. “There’s an idea. I don’t know. I guess anything is possible.”

  “Can you ask him the next time you see him?”

  “No, Jo, I can’t ask him. That’s not a guy thing to do. You ask him.”

  “All right, I will.” I didn’t quite know how or where to broach the subject, but I would figure it out. Brennan Rowe was still on my suspect list. Actually, he was the whole list. I hoped Ray’s list was longer and didn’t include Erica and me. I was still hoping he would pin everything on an out-of-towner.

  In the meantime, I would go over to Talbots and buy Erica a scarf to match my new one. It would afford me the thrill of seeing Celeste again. I wished I’d thought to ask Erica if she’d known about the affair between Celeste and Dad. I couldn’t believe she’d keep it from me.

  I stepped through the slush piled at the curb of Main Street and jaywalked to the door of Talbots. Celeste was dressing a mannequin in the window and gave me another of her wary looks as I opened the door. I skipped the greetings and got right to the point. I didn’t want to be in her space any more than she wanted me there.

  “Erica loved my scarf. Is there any chance you have another?”

  Celeste jumped down from the platform under the window. “I do. I have pink like yours or a white one. Which do you prefer?” She held them up.

  I couldn’t decide. I liked them both.

  “Take the pink. Erica’s color is pink.” Celeste headed for the cash register with me trailing meekly behind. In truth, she made all my clothing selections.

  “I heard you got the missing DeLorean back.” She cut the tags from the sc
arf and wrapped it in tissue paper.

  “Yes.” I didn’t care to elaborate. Celeste probably knew more about the whole thing than I did, anyway.

  “What’s the latest on Tim Lapham’s murder? Has Ray got a suspect?”

  I watched as she slipped the scarf into a bag and held out my credit card. “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “It’s funny how the rumors fly around. I heard again this morning that you were a suspect.”

  “I told you, Celeste. I was pointing, Tim was pointing, and I bumped him.” Why did I even lower myself to talk to this woman?

  Celeste waved her hand. “Not that. One of Walter’s deputies told his mother about more evidence.”

  I thought about the knife sheath planted in the garage and the money from my apartment. But Ray didn’t know the knife sheath came from my purse. He thought the Beak had dropped it on the floor of my car, and he still seemed to think the money came from the convenience store robberies. Or did he? “Maybe I’m a suspect because Tim was found in my showroom.”

  “I heard it had something to do with Tim’s appointment book. The initials J.A. were written on his calendar for seven o’clock the night he was killed. Did you have a date with him that night?” Celeste glanced at me out of the corner of her eye as though she already knew my answer.

  A lump formed in my throat. I could scarcely choke out the word “No.”

  Celeste handed me the bag and my credit card. “That’s so weird.”

  I tried to be nonchalant. “Was this appointment book in his office?”

  “No, they found it in his car that they recovered from the woods.”

  Ray had never asked me about this book. It seemed like an awfully important fact for him to ignore. In fact, the appointment book with the knife sheath, the money, and my alleged fight with Tim over zoning was enough to arrest me on suspicion of murder, I had no doubt. Yet, here I was walking free. Maybe Ray did have another suspect in mind. But who?

  Celeste continued and answered the question for me. “I think they ought to be looking at Tim’s partner.”

  “Tim didn’t have a partner. He owned the accounting practice by himself. One of his associates is looking to buy it now.”

  Celeste gave me a condescending look. I remembered her asking me about Tim’s partner the night of the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. “Not that kind of partner, Jolene. His boyfriend kind of partner.”

  I tried not to let my expression give anything away. “What do you mean?”

  She shook her head and her expression changed to pitying. “I know you dated him, but he was into boys, not girls. He had a boyfriend. That’s why he left Becky. They just didn’t spread it around.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I suspected for some time, but Becky finally told my sister Chrissy her suspicions a couple days ago.”

  “Did she know the name of his boyfriend?”

  “No, but looking back, I’m sure it’s that guy that used to come to bowling with him. They were always touching each other in more than friendly ways.”

  Of course. Brennan Rowe.

  I debated most of the night whether to call Ray to ask him about my status as an official suspect. To tell the truth, I was too afraid because I knew I was guilty of obstruction of justice by not telling him about the knife sheath in the first place. But mostly I was afraid to have him confirm that he doubted me. If my own husband didn’t know I was innocent, forget about a jury of my peers.

  The rest of the night I tried to make a case against Brennan Rowe. Had he murdered Tim and tried to place the blame on me? I couldn’t figure out a motive unless they had broken up and Brennan didn’t take rejection well. I wondered if Ray had made all these connections, but didn’t dare call him to find that out either. I figured if anyone knew, he did.

  I unlocked the showroom at 9:45 a.m. Cory strolled in at one minute before ten and entered my office to hang his coat on the stand. “I feel like donuts. Talk me out of them. I have to run three hours at the gym to burn off the calories from one.”

  All my fears must have shown on my face because he reached for my hand as soon as he turned around. “What? What is it? Did somebody die?”

  I held onto his fingers as though they might keep me from drowning in my fears. Then the whole story poured out of me. Cory never interrupted, not even once, but his fingers did tighten around mine a bit when I mentioned the notation in Tim’s appointment calendar.

  When I ran out of words, he released my hand and leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling. “Let’s think about this, Jo. Someone planted evidence in your house. Maybe they planted the notation in the date book as well. How hard would it be to jot your initials in the book?”

  “Not very.”

  “It had to be the killer.”

  I left his words suspended in the air because he was right. It had to be.

  “Do we have any irate—and murderously insane—customers that I don’t know about?”

  “Mr. Oliver is the angriest customer we’ve ever had and everything occurred before he got mad at me.” His demands seemed trivial now in light of a potential jail sentence for murder.

  “You have any enemies I don’t know about?”

  “No. The only people in my life are you, Erica, Isabelle and her family—and Ray.”

  Cory picked up my hand and toyed with my ring finger which still bore the slightest indentation from the wedding ring I’d worn until the day I left Ray. Well, maybe it was the day after when I found the signed divorce papers here on my desk.

  He shook his head as though dazed. “Let’s go over it one more time. The only people who knew the alarm code for the shop were you, me, Erica and Ray. Correct?”

  “As far as I know.”

  He released my hand. “Call Erica right now and ask her one more time if she gave the code to anyone, ever.”

  Tommye answered the phone at the nurse’s desk and agreed to summon Erica to the phone. I waited for five minutes with the anxiety growing in the pit of my stomach. Finally Erica’s breathless voice came on the line.

  “No, I never gave the code to anyone, not even Sam.”

  “Are you sure? None of your friends, boyfriends, fellow patients, no one?”

  She huffed into the phone, sending static over the line. “Jolene, what good would it do them?”

  “All right, but when you brought back the car, it looked detailed. Who spiffed it up?”

  She was silent so long I thought she’d hung up. “Sam’s brother and Theo. They looked over the engine and everything. They want to open up their own garage.”

  “Is that why you took the car?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then tell me exactly why you did, Erica. I’m in a lot of trouble here.”

  “Theo wanted to drive it. I let him as part of the payment for your gift.”

  “What’s the gift?”

  “It’s very special and it’s a surprise. But I swear it has nothing else to do with the car, or any other car for that matter.”

  “Erica, are you sure Sam and your friends didn’t rob the convenience stores?”

  Again, silence filled the line. “I’m sure about Sam and his brother’s friend. I’m not sure about Theo or Sam’s brother.”

  “What’s his friend’s name?”

  “Mikey.”

  Why did that name sound familiar? “Are you talking about Mikey Burnbaum, Walter’s son? The one in the room next door to you?”

  “Yes.”

  I tried to connect the dots and ended up with a big question mark. “Who did you bring to my apartment with you the first time? I saw four dishes on the table.”

  “Sam, Theo, and Theo’s girlfriend Abigail. She went with us to the casino.”

  I wrote all the names down and pushed the paper toward Cory. He picked it up to read while I finished my conversation.

  “Erica, is there anything else you haven’t told me?”

  “Just one thing. I heard the voice again last ni
ght.”

  I sighed. This would not be helpful. “What voice?”

  “The one that damned you and said you would pay. I heard him again in the hallway last night.”

  “Did you look to see who it was?”

  “I looked. He was gone.”

  Gone or never even there. So hard to know for sure when it came to Erica. “Okay, thanks. Let me talk to Tommye again, please.”

  I heard the scratch and fumble as she handed the phone to Tommye.

  “Erica says she’s hearing voices again. Is she heavily medicated?”

  “No, she’s been doing really well, Wheels. She’s a little paranoid, but the doctors were optimistic that she did so well on the outside last week. They took it as a sign of improvement in her condition.”

  I could barely hear Tommye’s next words. “She did tell me about the voice last night.”

  “What time was that?”

  “I had just said good night to Mikey’s father who was here visitin’. It must have been around nine.”

  “Nine? I thought visiting hours were over at eight.”

  “We let the chief come and go as he pleases. He works odd hours.”

  Could Walter be the voice? “Any chance the chief was there the night of Friday, December 1 at the time Erica first heard the voice?”

  Tommye must have had the same thought because she didn’t express any surprise at my question. “I would have to go downstairs and check the logbook that the guard keeps. I can’t do that until someone comes to relieve me for my break. Let me call you back.”

  I thanked her and hung up, then filled Cory in on the conversation. He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on my desk. “So we know Brennan Rowe and Tim had a relationship that no one in town knew about.”

  “No one except Celeste.”

  Cory pointed his finger at me. “Celeste. Did your dad tell her the alarm code?”

  “I asked her. She said no.”

  “Maybe she lied. She knew about Tim’s partner. Maybe she was blackmailing him.”

  I swiveled my chair from side to side, tapping my knees against the side of my desk. “I can’t picture her carting Tim’s stiff body in here alone. She’s fit, but she’s not muscular. Besides, she might break a nail.”