by Kate Collins
He was calling my family greedy? “I’ll give you my answer right now,” I said, halting him before he reached the door. “The deal is dead.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rising, I slid my iPad into my purse, put the strap over my shoulder, and walked past him into the grand foyer.
I heard the French doors slam behind me and only then did I let out my breath. My legs were shaking so hard I thought I’d have to sit on the steps so I didn’t faint, but then I saw Case perched on a barstool and forced myself to keep going across the marble floor toward the bar. It was only when I reached his side that I sagged onto the closest stool and put my face in my hands, so relieved it was over that I wanted to either cry or punch him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, putting his arm around my shoulders.
I jerked away and gave him a glare. “No, I’m not okay, and thanks for deserting me.”
“What you need is a mimosa to calm you down.” He hopped off his stool and went around behind the bar as though he owned it.
I needed to calm down all right. I slid off the stool and marched out of the room, pushing my purse strap back onto my shoulder.
Case caught up with me as I waited for the valet to bring up my car. “Athena, I’m sorry about what happened.”
“Yeah, right.”
“We need to talk.”
I was too upset to speak, so I said nothing. When the car came around, I got behind the wheel and Case slid into the passenger side.
“Let me explain,” he said.
I started the engine. “Go right ahead. I’m dying to hear why the meeting that we were supposed to attend together suddenly became all mine. Oh, wait. I know the answer. Lila showed up.” I put the Toyota in gear and stepped on the gas. “So much for your big show of not wanting me to go up against the Talbot team alone.”
I said nothing as I drove through the open gates, leaving Case to sit in silence and ponder his actions. There was simply no excuse for him to abandon me the moment the sexy heiress stepped into the room. I turned onto the main road, not knowing exactly where I was going. But the fact was that we did need to talk, and I certainly wasn’t going back to the boat and take a chance of being seen with him.
“I’m sorry,” Case finally said. “I made a quick decision and that wasn’t fair to you.”
“You deserted me to go with Lila without even a second thought. Would you have been in such a hurry to leave if one of Sonny’s butlers had offered you a drink?”
He gave me an incredulous glance. “Is that why you’re angry? Because Lila offered me a drink? You wouldn’t be jealous of Lila, would you?”
He caught me so off guard I almost swerved into the oncoming lane. Jealous of Lila? Was that how I was coming across?
“I have a boyfriend, remember? And Lila’s a married woman, in case you’ve forgotten.” I stopped for a traffic light, my head throbbing with tension from the grueling session with Sonny. “You have some nerve making up an excuse for your behavior. I needed you there and you were sitting at their bar sipping a mimosa.”
“Athena,” he said gently, “I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere with Junior Attorney, so when Lila showed up, I decided to make the best of a bad situation and try to get information from her. We needed to question her anyway. And guess what? I got some very useful information. So can we please go somewhere quiet to discuss it? I’m sure you’ve got things to share, too.”
I said nothing for a long moment. Now that my nerves were calming from too much adrenaline in my system, I could see that he was right about Sonny’s attorney. With Thaddeus standing guard, Case wouldn’t have gotten through the conference room door. Maybe he’d made the best decision after all.
“I’m sorry, too,” I said begrudgingly. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You’re right. You wouldn’t have gotten into the meeting.”
“Why don’t we stop somewhere out of town and have lunch? We can discuss everything then. Oh, wait. I forgot. You wanted to take Nick to the Tulip Festival.”
“But so did Selene and Maia, and they wanted to get an early start to beat the crowds, so Nicholas—Nick—went with them. He loves being with them.”
I thought for a moment. “I know a diner about thirty miles east of here where we can talk in private.”
“A diner? After what you went through? Why don’t we go somewhere nice, somewhere we can have an expensive glass of wine and a good meal?”
Before I could even think of a nice restaurant out of town, he added, “My treat.”
“You don’t have any money,” I said.
“Damn. Then you decide.”
“There’s a nice restaurant outside of town in the other direction that should be pretty empty today.”
“Let’s do it.”
I adjusted the rearview mirror and merged onto the interstate. Twenty minutes later I pulled into a Hilton Garden Inn and parked by the restaurant attached to it. We asked for a quiet table at the back and were seated at one tucked well behind the bar area. As I predicted, the restaurant was nearly empty. Only the bar was full.
Feeling unusually hungry, no doubt because of the meeting, I ordered a glass of cabernet and an open-faced roast beef sandwich and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy. Case ordered a ham and sharp cheddar cheese sandwich, fries, and a beer.
While we waited for our food to arrive, I pulled out my iPad and went over my meeting with Sonny. “And guess who else Sonny offered this golden opportunity to? Don Fatsis, who accepted it without ever saying a word to us about it, the fathead. But I’ll come back to him later. Anyway, I couldn’t persuade Sonny to offer the same deal to the other merchants, so I ended the meeting, but not before I got some information from him about the murders.”
“Did you learn why the coroner didn’t do the autopsy?” Case asked, as the waiter delivered our drinks.
“Sonny said he chose not to ask for one because Kirkland assured him there was no need for it. After I pushed him a little, I got Sonny to admit he’d influenced Kirkland’s decision.”
Case raised his hand to give me a high five. “Major victory.”
“Not quite. The only witnesses to his admission besides me were his own employees.”
Case lowered his hand. “Again, Athena, I wish I could’ve been in there with you.”
“Me, too. Anyway, in my mind there’s only one reason for Sonny to sway Kirkland away from doing an autopsy. He didn’t want the truth about his father’s death to get out.”
The waiter chose that moment to deliver our food, and after he gave me an odd look, I had to remind myself to keep my voice down. I was so hungry I took a bite of roast beef before continuing. “When I asked Sonny why he changed his story twice about finding Harry’s body, he changed it again. Now he says that Lila found Harry, not him, but since she’d also found his father, he told the investigators a lie to protect her, fearing that finding both bodies would make her look suspicious.”
“Did you ask why Lila had given two versions of finding the body?”
“Yep. He said finding both bodies had been too much for her fragile mind. Apparently, that caused her to forget how she found Harry’s dead body.”
“Fragile mind?” Case laughed. “Tough as nails would be a better description of Lila. If he’s trying to protect her, why is he sharing such private information with you? Did he think that would make you want to cut a deal with him? Didn’t he realize you would tell others in the Greek community? Or is he trying to create a division in your group by singling out a few for his special offer?”
“That’s why I wanted you there, Case, to ask those kinds of questions. I was so surprised by what he was saying that I couldn’t think of everything.”
“Athena, you didn’t really need me there. You did an excellent job. You got the information you needed.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I did, didn’t I?” I paused for another bite. “I still can’t decide what Sonny’s agenda is. If Lila really is responsible for the deaths of either o
r both men, why is he claiming to protect her while undermining her at the same time?”
“Lila had a different account of Harry’s death.” He paused for a bite of his sandwich, then washed it down with a drink of beer. “She said she was about to leave for her ten-thirty yoga class when Sonny texted her to check on Harry, his reason being that he was tied up in a meeting in his home office. Lila found it odd because he usually holds meetings at their corporate headquarters. But she was on her way downstairs to leave anyway so she gave him the benefit of the doubt and obliged him.
“Here’s where the twist comes in,” he said. “On her way to check on Harry, Lila peeked into her husband’s conference room and no one was there. That was her first clue that something was amiss.”
“Was she certain that Sonny had texted from home?”
“After she’d called the police, lo and behold, there was her husband coming down the staircase dressed for a golf outing. That was when she decided that he’d set her up to find Harry’s body, just like he’d done with his father’s body.”
I smacked my hand on the table. “I knew he wanted me to connect Lila to both deaths. I really don’t understand why she didn’t tell Sonny to go check on his father himself. After all, he was Sonny’s father, just as Harry was his employee, not hers.”
“I asked her, but she was being very manipulative with the information she was sharing with me, implying that he wants the estate to himself.”
“But why would Sonny need to frame Lila for murder? If he wants the estate to himself, all he has to do is divorce her.”
“Unless she has some dirt on him,” Case said.
“That’s a possibility.” I took a moment to enjoy a bite of mashed potatoes and gravy. “On the other hand, if Lila has enough evidence on Sonny, he could go to jail and she’ll get to live in the mansion and enjoy all the perks of being a Talbot.”
“He could still divorce her from jail.”
I sighed. “True again. And he probably would unless, as you say, she has some dirt on him. In fact, given who he is, she’s bound to have something to hold over him. If I were her, I’d be looking over my shoulder.”
“Lila also offered up the information that only her father-in-law, Sonny, and Harry knew the combination to the safe, and that Sonny could have rifled through the safe to make Harry’s murder look like a robbery gone bad.”
I stared at Case in awe. “You really did get some good information from her.”
“I told you so.”
“So she’s pushing Sonny forward as the killer and he’s doing the same to her.”
“Yep. And when I suggested that perhaps someone else had gotten into the office and forced Harry to open the safe, she scoffed. Then she downed her mimosa and said she had to leave for her yoga class.”
“Obviously she wants you to think that Sonny is the killer.”
“It would help to know what the detectives found when they entered the office,” Case said. “If Harry was on the floor, then someone moved the body. I’d like to ask Kirkland, but I highly doubt he’ll see us again.”
“But I know a cop on the police force who I might be able to persuade to give me more details.”
“He’s not one of the cops who searched the boat, is he?”
“Well, yes, he is, but we were friends in high school and I think he has a crush on Delphi, so maybe he’ll talk to me. Also, my sister Maia teaches Lila’s yoga class, so I can check to see if Lila made it to yoga the morning Harry was murdered. It would be pretty cold-blooded of her to kill someone, then show up for yoga.”
“On the other hand, it could help make Lila look innocent.” Case scratched his ear. “After talking to her it was clear that she had a grudge against her father-in-law, so she does have a motive. What we still need is a motive for her to kill Harry.”
I rubbed my temples. “This is getting convoluted, Case. Right now, it seems like Sonny and Lila are pointing fingers at each other and maybe neither one had anything to do with the deaths. Maybe we should focus on our other suspect, Donald Fatsis.”
“Remind me again how he fits into the picture.”
“He owns the art gallery on the block to be demolished”—I lifted my wineglass but set it back down again as a light went on in my head—“and now I understand why Don wanted to be our spokesman for the condo project. He didn’t want anyone to know he was working with Sonny. And get this. My father told me that Fatsis had been dealing privately with old man Talbot right up until his death. So when Talbot Senior canceled the project, Fatsis must have been furious.”
I started thinking out loud. “Knowing that Sonny wanted to go forward with the project, Fatsis might have wanted to get rid of Talbot Senior and befriend Talbot Junior to cut a deal.”
“How does that help us solve Harry Pepper’s murder”—Case itched his stubbly chin—“because my being at the top of the Most Wanted list is getting as old as this beard.”
“If Harry was in charge of Talbot’s affairs, he surely would have known where that signed agreement was. Maybe Fatsis went there after it and ended up fighting with Harry. Fatsis is a huge guy. Poor little Harry wouldn’t have stood a chance against him. And by the way, I like your beard.”
“You do?” He smiled, his gaze meeting mine.
Feeling a blush starting, I quickly switched to the topic at hand. “We have to consider Fatsis a strong suspect in both murders because he knows how to get to Talbot’s suite without being seen, where his office is, and when Harry would’ve been there.”
“Then let’s talk to him next,” Case suggested. “And you know what just hit me? Sonny gave you all that information in a private meeting while Lila was doing the same with me. It could be that they’re in on this together and are playing us.”
“I thought that at first, but there was no way they could’ve known that you would come with me to that meeting.”
“Good point.”
I glanced around as I took a drink of wine and then nearly choked. “Case, look over your right shoulder.”
He turned toward the bar.
“See the white-haired woman in the black dress and strappy red shoes? She’s the one talking to the man in the navy suit sitting on the stool beside her.”
“Talking to him? She’s almost sitting in his lap. Who is she?”
“Marie Odem. She owns the resale shop where the condominium parking lot is supposed to go. Do you remember her from the press conference?”
“Isn’t she the one who threw a fit about Sonny breaking his promise to her?”
“Which he denied doing,” I said. “Yes, that’s Marie, and boy, is she dressed to kill, pardon the pun. She’s the last person I’d have expected to see here, especially at the bar sloppy drunk. She’s practically sliding off her stool.”
I finished my meal and wiped my fingers on my napkin, thinking over what had transpired at the press conference. “Remember Marie yelling to Sonny ‘Don’t think you’ll get away with this. Your father made that mistake.’ That sounded like she was threatening Sonny.”
“With murder?”
“Why not?”
Case glanced over at her again. “Athena, look at her and tell me you believe that scrawny older woman could have caused a smart man like Talbot to drown.”
“She might be scrawny, but she’s wily and she attended those private dinners, too.”
“She’d get further with a lawsuit.”
“Stop being so cynical and just listen. Marie was having an affair with Talbot Senior, with designs on marrying him until she gossiped about it. He found out and made it publicly known that she meant nothing to him, which ended her plans abruptly. That doesn’t mean she couldn’t have gone back one evening to have a glass of wine for old time’s sake.”
“And then did what, watched him take a bath and pushed him under?”
“Yes! And suffocating Harry is something a woman could do, too.”
“I don’t think Marie’s strong enough to smother a man, even a small man
like Harry. He’d fight back. And what would her motive be?”
“Harry might have known she was there the night Talbot Senior died.”
Case leaned closer and said quietly, “Tell you what. Let’s invite Marie over for a drink and see what we can get her to tell us about Harry. Maybe she’ll reveal something.”
“I don’t know if we’ll get anything useful. She’s had a few too many drinks already.”
“Exactly why it’s the perfect time to talk to her. She’s drunk, and there’s no one around to overhear us.”
“But then she’ll see me with you, and it’ll get back to Kevin or someone in my family and I’ll have a mess on my hands.”
“Chicken.”
I took a sip of wine. “I’m okay with that.”
“Come on, Athena, we’ve got a believable story concocted about being distantly related. Just stick to that and we’ll be fine—if she even remembers any of it tomorrow.”
I twisted a lock of my hair. “I can already hear my mother’s fingers on the computer doing an ancestry hunt.”
“You worry too much. I’ll bet there’s a Dimitrius out there somewhere in your family tree.”
“It is a common Greek name. But I still think it’d be better for me to talk to Marie alone. If you insist on having it your way, however, you go invite her over.”
“She doesn’t know me.”
“But she does love to flirt. And you can use your charms on her just like you did on Lila.”
He gave me his dimpled smile. “Promise you won’t get jealous this time?”
“I was not jealous of Lila.” When he smiled again, I said, “Just shut up and go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Marie,” I said, rising from the booth as Case ushered her over, “I’m so glad you could join us.”