“Aha! So anyone could have done it!” Davis said. “You know, if you asked me, I’d suspect Felipe. I don’t know where he came from. He doesn’t even look like he’s American.”
“Now, Davis, that’s no way to talk about him,” Lacey interrupted. “I know you never approved of Tara’s marriage, but Felipe’s a nice guy.”
“Tara’s my niece.” Davis sighed. “I never liked Felipe. It didn’t seem like a very wise marriage to me. The guy’s always broke, and way too arrogant for my liking. Tara was pretty enough to marry some rich guy, and then Lacey and Sara would have had a better life. As it is, none of us could afford treatment for her.”
“Davis!” Lacey looked outraged. “Stop it immediately! That’s no way to talk about Tara’s husband. As for myself and Sara, we don’t need anybody to help us. We’re fine as we are.”
“That’s right,” Sara said. “I may not be able to walk, but I’m no charity case!”
“I didn’t mean to imply-”
“I think you’d all better leave now,” Lacey said. “I don’t think I want to be around you folks anymore. You’re upsetting Sara, you messed up my home, and you’ve definitely upset me.”
Bluebell was about to apologize, when Nolan did it for her. Hastily, he promised to pay for the damage the vase had caused, and apologized to Lacey for the misunderstanding. Excusing himself, he went to the other room, and called the cops.
“They’ll be here in ten minutes,” Nolan said.
Half an hour later, Bluebell and Nolan were driving back to the circus with Joel sitting next to them. The last thing Davis had said before he got into the cop car, was, “Look, believe me or not, just keep an eye on Felipe, okay? Please don’t let him get near my Joel!”
*****
Chapter 9
Trent And The Accounts
“I still feel terrible about poor Lacey and her daughter,” Nolan said. They’d dropped off Joel at Nancy’s, and though she didn’t seem thrilled to see him, she took him into her trailer.
Bluebell watched with a frown as the door shut. What kind of a mother was Nancy? Even now, she didn’t look thrilled at all to have Joel! In fact, Tara seemed to care more - she’d given Joel a big hug when he came back, and told him that she’d been worried sick.
The police had taken in Davis for questioning, and by all accounts, would probably arrest him as soon as he made a confession. Davis, however, had been sticking to his story of CIA assassins.
“You shouldn’t feel bad.” Bluebell focussed on Nolan. “You gave them a pretty generous amount, and helped clean up the broken vase.”
“Yeah, but still.” Nolan shrugged. “You know, I talked to Lacey a while when you were downstairs with the cops and Joel. It’s really sad. Sara has a type of disease that’s treatable, though the costs are far too steep. With proper therapy, she might actually recover one day. Only they can’t afford it. I gave her the number of a friend of mine. His dad is a pretty big surgeon. Maybe together they can arrange something, you know? I was thinking, I could even talk to this NGO I know...”
Bluebell put a hand on his shoulder, and nodded. That was Nolan. He could be hard on those he didn’t like, but when someone was in need, Nolan was always ready to help. Growing up hadn’t been easy on him, and he’d always preferred staying over at Bluebell’s house to being at his own. Now that he was all grown up, he always had a soft spot for those who he considered less fortunate. He’d spent a lot of time in high school and college volunteering at various organizations.
“Did you believe Davis at all?” Bluebell asked now. “About… you know, the CIA?”
Nolan laughed. “No way,” he said. “There’s no way that I’d believe a word of what he said. Are you thinking about it seriously, Bluebell?”
“Well, the killer’s still at large, we have no real motive, and…”
“Of course we have a motive. Nancy and Alex had an affair. Davis is an alcoholic. He was present at the crime scene. He claims he was passed out, but really, who knows? Most likely, he killed Alex out of jealousy, or because he wanted money, or both.”
“So what about Felipe?” Bluebell asked, “You’re sure he had nothing to do with this?”
“Felipe?” Nolan looked surprised.
“Look, Davis may have a wild imagination, but one thing’s for sure, he has firmly maintained that he didn’t kill Alex. Nor does it make sense to me why he’d stick around in the trailer after he knew Tara had seen Alex’s body. No, I think he’s telling the truth, at least about being blackout drunk and being asleep when Alex was murdered.”
“So… what? You think he was asleep and Felipe entered the trailer and killed Alex?”
“I’m not saying that. I’m saying, it makes sense when you consider that in terms of a timeline, there’s only one short period in which Alex could have been killed. In that period, Alex was overheard by Joel, saying that he wouldn’t marry every girl that threw herself at him.”
“So you think…”
“It’s possible isn’t it? Felipe is a hotheaded guy. He has a violent temper. He gets into an argument with Alex and strangles him.”
“Over Tara? Tara swears she didn’t cheat on Felipe,” Nolan said. “I mean, I kind of believe her. Alex is old enough to be her father!”
“Attraction doesn’t depend on age, Nolan,” Bluebell said. “You’ll be surprised how many women my age find older men attractive. Besides, it doesn’t matter what Tara swears, as long as Felipe believes she did cheat on him with Alex.”
Nolan sighed. “I can’t make sense of it.”
“Then, there’s this other thing Davis said. Something about the accounts.”
“I think I could help you with that,” a nervous voice said.
“Trent?” Bluebell looked up with a smile, as the nervous young man approached them. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he gulped nervously.
“I… I thought that I could talk to you,” Trent said. “I heard Mark and Nancy talking to you, and I don’t want to go to the police, so I thought I could talk to you instead. Maybe if I said something that you thought would lead to a clue, you could go talk to them yourself.”
“I’ll help any way I can,” Bluebell promised. “What do you want to tell us?”
“Look, you know Alex used to take care of the accounts, right?” Trent said. “Well, the last three months he hadn’t paid me my wages. All because I ripped a tent. Can you believe that?”
“That’s illegal for sure,” Nolan said. “You should go to a labor office and file a claim, or get a lawyer to sue the circus.”
“Yeah it is,” Trent said. “But when I confronted him, he said that he had the power to do it. I could either go to a lawyer or accept that I’d messed up. If I went to a lawyer, it’d cost me money. So otherwise, unless I could prove how much the tent cost, I would lose that money. Well, I got steamed. One night, I got drunk and I had an idea.” Trent looked really nervous now.
“What is it?” Bluebell asked.
“The thing is… if it’s illegal, if I could get into trouble over this…” Trent hesitated. He gulped.
“Trent, a man is dead,” Bluebell said. “If you have anything the police need to know, speak up.”
“That’s the thing. Alex is dead. Now if Davis has done it, and they’ve caught him, I’m happy. But if Davis didn’t do it like you just said… then maybe what I have will lead to a clue.” Trent wrung his hands. “I don’t know what to do. I was stupid, and I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Shouldn’t have done what?” Bluebell asked, her patience a little thin.
“Shouldn’t have broken into Alex’s office!” Trent said. “I stole one of his account books!”
“And he didn’t notice?”
“I, well, I photocopied it,” Trent said. He took out a bundle of pages from his coat pocket. “See?”
“Wow.” Nolan looked at the mess of pages, and said, “Did you find anything?”
“I found that he’d been doing wage fraud for years,” Trent said
. “This wasn’t something we didn’t suspect, but it was hard to prove, right? The circus earns a lot of money each year, but he pays some of it to an employee that doesn’t even exist! He was probably doing it for the tax breaks!”
“Now that’s something the police will definitely be interested in,” Bluebell said. “Why didn’t you tell them!”
“I thought they’d put me behind bars,” Trent said. “Even now… I’m not sure how to tell them.”
“How do you know the employee doesn’t exist?” Nolan asked.
Trent laughed. “I work here, I know who else works here. Besides, look at how he marked it - Vydirani.”
Nolan went through the papers, and nodded. “He was paying this Vydirani until very recently. He stopped two months ago.”
“That could be related, right?” Trent asked. “I mean… strange payments, and a murder right after they stop?”
“There’s something very fishy about all of this,” Bluebell said. “That much no one will deny.”
“So… do you think it’ll get Davis out?” Trent asked.
“Well it’s definitely something the police should look at,” Nolan said. “Look, don’t worry. I’ll talk to the sheriff’s deputies. They seemed decent enough. They’ll have access to the accounts as part of the murder investigation anyway. So maybe they can just pretend they figured it out themselves.”
“Most likely, they would have figured it out themselves in time,” Bluebell pointed out. “Basically, all you’ve done is point them in that direction a little faster.”
“Right! Right.” Trent looked very relieved. “So I can burn this, and forget all about it. Hopefully, the next owner will give me my backpay.”
“Who’s the next owner anyway?” Nolan asked. “I know Felipe is in charge right now, but he won’t inherit it from Alex, right?”
“Yeah. I guess the police will have to figure out who it is.” Trent nodded. “Not that they’d be inheriting much. They’ll probably sell us out to someone else.”
“Right.” Bluebell seemed lost in thought.
“I mean, the name seems very foreign,” Trent said. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I heard you say Davis had this theory, that it was someone from the CIA?”
“That’s rubbish,” Nolan said, sounding uneasy. “You should forget he said that.”
“But suppose it was?” Trent asked. “I mean… that would explain the whole weird foreign name non-existent employee wouldn’t it? Suppose he was paying someone off, someone he knew from those days? Then suppose he decided to stop and...” Trent pulled a finger across his throat. Suddenly, he grabbed the papers back from Nolan. “Look, Tara’s coming. I don’t want anyone else seeing me with these. Just… tell the police what I’ve found, alright? But don’t tell them what I did, please. I swear, I was just trying to find out a way to collect my wages. I had no idea that Alex was up to his neck in something fishy.”
“Bluebell, we need to talk,” Tara said, striding toward them. Her tone was a little harsh.
“Sure,” Bluebell said, expertly stepping away from Trent, who looked paralyzed with fear. “Why don’t we leave the boys here and go to your trailer?”
“It isn’t my trailer anymore. I’m moving out now that Felipe and I aren’t together,” Tara said. “But sure, why not. It’s right here.”
Compared to Alex’s lavish furnishing, Felipe and Tara had sparse interiors. Just a nook with a wifi router above it, a small 22 inch TV, and a queen size bed. Hastily, Tara put away some books, making space at the nook for herself and Bluebell.
“You’ve got quite a pile of those.” Bluebell smiled. Unable to help herself, she walked over to a cardboard box that was full of old books.
“Thanks,” Tara said. “I’m packing them up.”
“Diverse tastes,” Bluebell said. She picked up a thick book titled The Emperor Of Maladies, and then a copy of The Lord of the Rings. Underneath, there were a pile of books, from a history of the Thuggee tribe of India to a science fiction trilogy.
“My sister’s a great reader.” Tara smiled. “I read everything she likes so that we have stuff to talk about. I see her so seldom, and we’d have nothing in common if it weren’t for books. Do you have any siblings?”
“I’m an only child.” Bluebell smiled. “But I know what you mean. Mom and I have a sort of unofficial book club amongst ourselves. We’re always reading at least one book together each month.”
“Great,” Tara said. “Look, Bluebell, I just wanted to tell you that I really appreciated everything you’ve done. I-”
“Tara!” Felipe exclaimed as he walked in. “What are you doing in here?”
“I told you, I’d come back to pack some of my stuff,” Tara said.
“You’re trying to win me back again,” Felipe said. “It won’t work.”
“Don’t be mean, Felipe. I bought Bluebell with me, didn’t I?”
“Well throw her out!” Felipe exclaimed. “This entire week has been a nightmare. The last thing I need right now is-”
“Can we talk outside?” Tara tugged on his shirtsleeve. “Please?”
Felipe gave her a look, then gave Bluebell a sour look. “Fine,” he said, stalking out of the trailer.
“Give me five minutes,” Tara said. “I’ll talk to him and be right back. Hey, you might as well try reading that book you picked up. If you like it, keep it.”
Bluebell had just sat down to do so, when, from her vantage point, she saw something unusual. The trailer was small enough that each inch of it was visible from her seat at the nook. Under the bed, there lay a scrap of paper with writing scrawled on it.
Despite herself, Bluebell’s natural curiosity won out. She reached under the bed and drew it out. Immediately, the hair on the back of her neck prickled. This was Alex’s handwriting! No mistaking it - she’d just seen the book of accounts, after all.
Felipe
I might as well tell you right now that I won’t be paying up any longer. I thought it appropriate to write to you ins…
The letter had been torn, and this was the only fragment remaining. Bluebell felt her heart began to beat faster and faster as she realized the implications. The police would be interested. The police would be very interested indeed!
*****
Chapter 10
Felipe Is Arrested
“I haven’t done it!” Felipe shouted, as the sheriff moved to arrest him.
“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” The sheriff said firmly, as the handcuffs clicked on. “You have the right to a lawyer…”
“I didn’t do it!” Felipe shouted again. “Davis trapped me somehow. He’s the only one who could have done it!”
Tara stood aside, sobbing quietly into an handkerchief as Nancy and Joel comforted her. The rest of the circus staff were watching open mouthed as Felipe struggled.
“I’m innocent!” Felipe screamed. “I had witnesses! They’ll tell you I was walking the tightrope when Alex died! I couldn’t have done it!”
“Actually, you were alone in your trailer for at least half an hour before the show,” the sheriff said. “You could very definitely have done it. Your alibi is only good for after Alex was already dead.”
“But Davis was in the trailer!” Felipe said.
“Davis has undergone a lie detector test,” the sheriff replied. “He’s telling the truth about being blackout drunk as far as we can tell. Blood reports prove it, too.”
“He’s a liar! He’s a complete liar, officer! Davis’ kid isn’t even his own. Davis is just lying!” Felipe was shoved into the car rather roughly, as he kept trying to break free of the officer’s hold.
Nolan put an arm around Bluebell. “So that’s that,” he said. “Why he did it, we may never know.”
“What did he mean about Joel not being Davis’ son?” Bluebell asked.
Nancy had put her hands around Joel’s ears, as if to prevent him from hearing all that Felipe said. Now that he’d said it, though, a th
ought had clicked in Bluebell’s mind.
How could she not have seen the resemblance before? Joel, with his green eyes and dark hair, looked a lot like Alex. In fact, he looked nothing like Davis. Was he Alex’s son?
Tara was weeping now, while Trent and Mark tried to console her.
“Davis will be released soon,” Nancy said, almost sounding happy. She came up to Bluebell, and shook hands. “I’m so thankful for everything you’ve done. Thanks to you, Davis will be home where he belongs.”
“Sure he will,” Bluebell said. “Nancy, I wanted to ask-”
“But why did they think he did it?” Trent asked eagerly, butting in. “Did they find some new proof? What did Felipe have against Alex?”
Nolan answered, “Felipe thought Alex and Tara were having an affair, you know. He got so angry that he killed him. Plus, the police said that in Czech, Vydirani means blackmail. Alex literally created an extra employee called blackmail. It’s still fraud, of course, but Alex has gone. No one can put him in jail for it.”
“Wait, so they think Felipe was blackmailing Alex?”
“Clearly,” Nolan said. “Alex probably paid up so that the rest of you didn’t find out about him and Tara. When he stopped paying, Felipe killed him.”
“Wow,” Trent said. “That’s crazy. I can’t imagine how twisted you’d have to be to blackmail a man who’s having an affair with your own wife!”
“Twisted all right,” Nolan said. “The media will have a field day with it! But that letter’s proof isn’t it? Alex as good as told Felipe he isn’t going to pay anymore.”
Nancy was gaping at them, looking utterly horrified. “It isn’t true!” she said. “Not a word of it!”
“It isn’t a nice thing to hear,” Nolan said with a sigh. “But it’s definitely true. Bluebell found the letter. Just think, if she hadn’t-”
“No! It can’t be true because Alex would never even touch Tara!” Nancy said. “After all, she’s his daughter!”
Murder At The Circus: A Witch Cozy Mystery (A Bluebell Knopps Cozy Mystery Book 2) Page 5