by Lee Hollis
He even had the Desi Arnaz accent to boot.
Except it was Brazilian instead of Cuban, but still, it was close enough.
Sergio turned Hayley around and stared at her with the serious, commanding police chief look he often used to intimidate people. “Did Danny know about the money in the mattress?”
Hayley nodded.
She couldn’t believe it.
She didn’t want to believe it.
Could Danny have killed his own uncle for forty grand?
She couldn’t even entertain the possibility.
But it wasn’t looking too good for him at the moment.
Sergio gripped her shoulders.
“Where is he?”
Hayley shrugged. “I . . . I don’t know. I thought he would be here . . .”
But a part of her knew exactly where her troublesome ex-husband was right now.
Probably hightailing it out of town.
If he wasn’t already across state lines.
Chapter 15
“He’s guilty, Hayley,” Bruce said, stuffing an onion bagel slathered in cream cheese into his mouth, and then wiping a smudge of cheese off the corner of his lip with his tongue. “And the sooner you come to accept it, the easier it will be.”
Danny wasn’t the only one who considered himself a crack detective.
Bruce Linney, too, had come to believe he was as observant and sharp and adept at deductive reasoning as any Arthur Conan Doyle creation.
Hayley let out a sigh behind her desk at the Island Times office and tried to focus on items left to do in her in-box.
“Danny adored his uncle Otis, Bruce,” Hayley said, not entirely comfortable being the lone defender of her ex-husband. “Why would he want to kill him?”
Danny stuffed the rest of his bagel in his mouth. “To get his grubby hands on his uncle’s money! You just don’t want to see the truth. I’m sorry, Hayley. In my experienced view, this is pretty much an easy, open-and-shut case.”
“Stop talking with your mouth full, Bruce. Didn’t your mother ever teach you manners?”
Bruce wiped his mouth with his forearm. “Don’t try changing the subject. You know I’m right.”
Hayley swiveled around in her office chair and glared at him. “You always do this, Bruce. You always go with the obvious theory. That’s why you’re so wrong all the time.”
“Wrong? When am I wrong . . .” Bruce swallowed the last word because he knew he was setting himself up for a humiliating rundown of all the recent local-crime cases where he had pointed his finger at the wrong person.
Hayley was tempted.
She desperately wanted to put him in his place and make him feel small for not considering how she was feeling about the mounting evidence against her ex.
But instead, once again, she found herself rushing to Danny’s defense. “My ex-husband may be a liar and a cheat and a cad, but that doesn’t make him a murderer.”
“But you always said he was terrible with money, and would often borrow from questionable sources, and wind up getting himself in some pretty major debt. What if he got desperate? What if he needed a wad of cash and fast? He knew where he could find forty grand. That much money could fix a lot of problems.”
Hayley felt her whole face flush with rage.
Bruce was being insensitive to how she was feeling and wholly ignorant of how his casual, off-the-cuff deductions were hurting her deeply.
She suddenly lashed out. “What’s your problem, Bruce?”
“Problem. I don’t have a—”
“Are you jealous?”
Bruce scoffed. “Jealous? Jealous of what?”
Hayley stopped herself.
She couldn’t believe what she had just said.
Bruce was still playing catch-up.
He was confused.
She decided to let it go.
And hope what she was implying wouldn’t dawn on him.
“Why would I be jealous of—?”
And then, of course, it dawned on him.
“Are you saying . . . ? Oh, Hayley, really. You think I’m jealous because of you . . . ? That’s . . . that’s crazy . . .”
“I didn’t say me. You said me. All I meant was Danny is handsome and charming and women seem to love him and sometimes other men resent that. I never mentioned me specifically.”
Bruce raised a hand in protest. “You implied it! You did!”
There was an awkward silence.
Hayley was waiting for Bruce to deny he was jealous because of Danny’s relationship with Hayley.
But he didn’t.
He just stood there not knowing what to say.
The tension lingered for a few more uncomfortable moments.
Luckily the door to the office blew open and Sergio walked in with Danny.
“Hey, babe. Miss me?” he said, his megawatt smile on full display.
Bruce sighed and rolled his eyes.
Danny threw his arms around Sergio. “Hey, man, thanks for the ride.”
Sergio kept his arms at his side, refusing to hug Danny back.
“So I guess the Bar Harbor Police Department is now a taxi service,” Bruce said mockingly.
“I didn’t just give him a free ride,” Sergio said, doing a slow burn. “I had Officers Donnie and Earl stationed at the Trenton Bridge to make sure Danny didn’t try leaving, and sure enough, they intercepted him trying to get off the island in his rental car.”
“Danny!” Hayley hollered.
“Everybody calm down. I wasn’t trying to blow town. I was just going shopping at the Bangor Mall to buy some presents for my kids.”
Hayley, Bruce, and Sergio just stared at him.
He wasn’t fooling anyone.
Sensing he had no supporters, Danny rushed up to Sergio and grabbed him by his thick, muscled arms. “Trust me, Sergio. I am not going anywhere until we get to the bottom of my dear uncle’s senseless death. You can trust me. We’re family.”
“Please don’t touch me, Danny,” Sergio said quietly.
Danny continued to grasp Sergio’s rock-hard biceps. “I love you, man. It kills me that you don’t believe me.”
Sergio glared at Danny’s hands gripping his arms. “I’m not going to tell you again. Don’t make me hit you.”
Danny let go and held up his hands, fingers splayed open, defeated. “You’re like impenetrable. Most gay guys love it when I flirt with them.”
“Oh, Danny . . .” Hayley said, shaking her head, embarrassed.
“I’m going to keep an eye on you, Danny,” Sergio said. “So don’t try anything stupid.”
Danny nodded, annoyed that Sergio was immune to his charms.
“If I had the manpower, I’d keep a man posted at your uncle’s shack to make doubly sure you don’t try to go anywhere again.”
Danny smiled. “There’s no need to have an officer tail me. It’s a complete waste of resources. I’m not a flight risk.”
“Shut up, Danny,” Hayley said.
Danny retreated like a chastised boy and stared at his shoes.
“Maybe you could help me out, Hayley,” Sergio said.
“Me? How?”
“Maybe Danny could stay with you. That way you could keep an eye on him.”
Danny perked up again. “That is an excellent idea, Chief !”
“No! Absolutely not! That’s a terrible idea!”
Danny grabbed Hayley’s hands and pulled them toward his chest, resting her fingers upon his heart. “Babe, please. I can’t stay at that shack. What if the killer is lurking around Tremont and attacks me in that remote cabin in the woods where I am all alone and defenseless?”
“That’s the biggest bunch of bull pucky you’ve ever come up with, Danny!” Hayley yelled, not at all willing to go along with this cockamamy plan.
“Hayley’s right! It’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard!” Bruce blurted out.
At least Bruce was in her corner.
But it made her wonder why.
“Please, Hayley, I have nowhere else to go . . .” Danny begged with his big puppy-dog eyes.
“Stop being so melodramatic! You’re not staying with me!” Hayley said before turning to Sergio. “Why can’t he stay with you and Randy?”
This caught Sergio off guard.
His mind raced to come up with a valid excuse.
But he couldn’t and he was starting to panic.
Danny finally came to his rescue.
“I can’t sleep in a strange house. Not after the trauma I’ve just been through. Losing a close relative under such violent and emotionally wrenching circumstances. I need familiarity. I need people around me that I love and trust. I need my kids.”
The kids.
That was his secret weapon.
Hayley had always felt guilty after the divorce keeping the kids in Maine with her while Danny moved to Iowa.
He may have been a lousy husband but he was a loving and devoted father.
And he actually resembled a kind and thoughtful and caring human being whenever he was around Gemma and Dustin.
And he knew in his gut that would get to Hayley.
She was wavering.
And she hated herself for it.
“Please,” Danny said in a quiet and reasonable tone. “It’s just for a few days until they clear me. I’ll be on my best behavior.”
He knew she was going to cave.
But he waited patiently for her to say it out loud.
“Okay,” Hayley whispered.
Danny had to refrain from whooping and hollering.
Hayley wagged a finger at him. “You sleep on the couch.”
“Of course. This is going to be great. Just like old times.”
He gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
“Yes. Old times,” Hayley said, “when we’d have a big fight and I’d make you sleep on the couch.”
Danny was euphoric.
Sergio was relieved.
Bruce was apoplectic but struggled to conceal it.
And Hayley just had a huge sense of dread.
Chapter 16
“I really shouldn’t discuss this, Hayley,” Tori Pearson said as she ushered Hayley inside her small studio apartment that was part of a low-income housing unit situated in a wooded area off the West Street extension on the outskirts of town. “My doctor warned me when I talked about Otis I risked raising my blood pressure and that does nothing to help my diabetes and anxiety issues.”
Tori Pearson was Otis’s ex-wife, a short, stout woman with prematurely graying hair that was chopped off short to make her look like a women’s prison guard.
She was also, like her ex-husband, a slob.
Her packed living quarters was bursting with knickknacks and furniture from Goodwill that was too big for the space.
“How do you like the place?” Tori asked, beaming. “I just got approved to move in a few weeks ago.”
“It looks lovely,” Hayley lied.
Tori led her into the small kitchenette and pointed to some curtains with poodles on them in the tiny window. “Aren’t those curtains adorable? I got them for five dollars at a yard sale last weekend!”
“I love them!” Hayley lied again.
Hayley loved dogs but she could never imagine herself accenting her kitchen with such a gaudy print.
There was a musty odor permeating through out the tiny, stifling apartment.
“I’m thinking of selling my car,” Tori said suddenly, frowning.
“Oh. Okay.”
That was the best Hayley could come up with as a response since the topic had seemed to come out of nowhere.
“My health insurance doesn’t cover the cost of my medications anymore and I’ve already maxed out my credit cards so I need to do something. Otherwise I won’t be able to afford my meds and then I will get sick and die and then where will I be?”
“Well, at least selling your car will give you some cash flow.”
“Not that the damn clunker is worth much, but it’ll get me by for at least a few more months. It hasn’t been easy for me, Hayley,” Tori whined. “With all my health issues and my money problems and the government assistance I receive which doesn’t go very far and then there’s my mother who refuses to help me anymore . . . my own mother . . . I guess you can’t count on anyone . . .”
Hayley wanted to suggest to Tori that perhaps she should consider going out and getting a job but she held her tongue.
“And now my back is acting up,” Tori groaned, her body hunched over. “I have this sharp, constant pain. It’s excruciating. I can hardly move anymore.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear about all you’re going through and the last thing I want to do is take up too much of your time so I’ll get right to the point. I’m here about Otis . . .”
Tori suddenly snapped to attention.
She stood erect, back pain be damned.
There was a frightening flash of anger on her face as all her ailments seemed to miraculously melt away at the mention of her ex-husband.
“Why would I possibly want to talk about that good-for-nothing low-life piece of trash?”
“Well, I’m sure you heard he recently died. I mean, it’s all over town.”
“Of course I heard. I even did a little jig right here in the middle of my living room to celebrate.”
“And that someone murdered him . . . ?”
“Yes! Yes, I read all about it in Bruce Linney’s column. And let me tell you, I will not rest until I find the person responsible for splattering Otis’s brains all over the Ledgelawn Cemetery . . .”
Finally.
A little compassion.
“Because I want to shake that hero’s hand. He’s done the world an immeasurable service.”
Never mind.
“You have no idea what that man put me through, Hayley,” Tori said, stirring herself up into a frenzy. “He ruined my life. When he walked out on me, he left me high and dry. With no way to pay my bills. No way to take care of myself.”
Again.
There was always the job listings section in the Island Times.
Very easy to read.
Hayley organized the page herself.
But that solution seemed a little too daunting for Tori Pearson.
“I was so stricken by him deserting me, I started having unexpected anxiety attacks. All the time. Day and night. I had trouble leaving the house. I was an acrobatic.”
“You mean agoraphobic?”
Sergio may have found his match for all those malapropisms.
“Whatever. You know, I tried working part-time last summer, you know, to at least make a little extra money to pay for my wine I drink every night during Greta Van Susteren. I got a few shifts in a gift shop as a cashier but when I tried to open the register I kept forgetting which button to push. I got so nervous and upset I just walked right out of the shop and never went back.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Tori,” Hayley said, wondering at this point why she was even here indulging this lazy, self-absorbed woman.
“I called Otis,” she said breathlessly. “I was hoping he might take pity on me and send me a few dollars but that bastard didn’t even care. He just said he was broke and couldn’t help me. That bastard left me to fend for myself! I never recovered. And here I am in this ghastly state of despair.”
In a nice studio apartment.
With cable TV.
And poodle curtains.
She really didn’t have too much to complain about.
“You say Otis was broke?”
“Yes. That layabout didn’t even try to get a job in order to help me! Don’t you hate people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and responsibilities?”
The irony of her statement was completely lost on her.
“Well, it turns out Otis did save some money right before he died,” Hayley said.
“I’m sure that was from his illegal moonshine business. He always told me he was going to strike it big wi
th that god-awful booze he cooked up in the backyard.” Tori checked her watch. “Excuse me. It’s time to take my pills.”
She crossed to the kitchen and opened a small plastic container and plucked out four pills.
A white one.
A blue one.
A red one.
And a green one.
Then she filled a glass with some cranberry juice from the refrigerator.
“He kept the cash hidden in a mattress,” Hayley said.
“How much did he have?”
“Forty grand.”
“How much?”
Tori popped the pills into her mouth and chased them down with the juice.
“Forty grand.”
Tori spit out the cranberry juice, spraying it all over her poodle-print curtains.
“How . . . ? Forty grand? Are you serious?”
“So I take it you knew nothing about it.”
“Of course I didn’t! Forty grand? That lying cheat! I’m not surprised he was squirreling money away and not telling me about it. He was always afraid I’d go after him for alimony, but I gave up expecting any kind of support from him years ago even when we were still married.”
“Tori, do you know of anyone, anyone you can remember, who had it out for Otis and might have wanted to do him some harm?”
“You mean besides me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, let me think . . .”
She thought long and hard, her eyes flitting from side to side, her lips pursed.
And then she turned back to Hayley.
“To be honest, I can’t think of anyone. He was a frustrating, irresponsible drunk, but at the end of the day he was still a lovable drunk. As much as I hate to admit it, people enjoyed having him around. He was a great storyteller and boy, could he tell a good dirty joke.”
Hayley smiled, remembering some of those family gatherings when she was still married to Danny when Otis would get sloshed and stand up and start rattling off a slew of jokes that were so blue she had to scoot her two kids out of the room.
“Actually the only person who comes to mind is that good-for-nothing nephew of his. I heard he’s back in town skulking about, figuring out his next scheme . . . You know the one I’m talking about . . . real scummy kind of guy . . .”
Hayley shifted uncomfortably.
Tori glanced at her and then her face fell.