by Jessica Beck
“How did you know?”
“You just sound as though you’ve had a little help dealing with the issue,” Momma assured her.
“Yes, we get three free psych consults a year, so I thought I’d take advantage of our insurance. Dr. Jefferson is amazing! In less than an hour, he rooted out the heart of my problems, and with his help, I’m going to overcome them. I just know it!”
It appeared that Megan had shifted her focus from Harley to her new shrink with relative ease. This woman clearly needed romance in her life, even if it was just in her own mind. I knew plenty of women who adored romance novels and led perfectly normal, happily married or single lives. I just couldn’t be sure that Megan was necessarily one of them. “When was the last time you saw Harley?” I asked her.
“When he rejected me,” she admitted.
“And not after?” Momma asked.
“No, that was it. The last time I saw him, he was laughing at me.”
“Megan, if you don’t mind us asking, where were you this morning? Have you been at work all day?” I asked.
“Yes, I’ve been here at my desk since I punched in. Why do you ask?”
I ignored her question. “You start at nine, don’t you?”
“Yes, and I work until five, with thirty minutes for lunch. I always spend it here, reading.” Even though mysteries weren’t her forte, she finally got it. “Suzanne, you’re asking me for an alibi, aren’t you?”
I could have denied it, but why bother? “I don’t have much choice. Some folks overheard your exchange with Harley,” I said. “Naturally you’d be a suspect.”
“Are you both working for the police now?” she asked, raising her voice as she looked from Momma to me.
“No, but we’re often in close consultation with them,” I replied, which was true enough. I consulted with my husband on a daily basis, from what we’d have for dinner to the movie we might watch afterward. That might not have been what she meant, but I couldn’t help that, could I?
“Like I said, I’ve been here all day,” she said.
“With no breaks?” I asked her.
“I have one at ten thirty every morning, but it’s only ten minutes, so I didn’t have time to go from here to City Hall, kill Harley, and make it back on time.” She looked down at her desk to compose herself, and then she added, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a client coming in three minutes, and I need to print out some paperwork before she arrives.”
I touched Momma’s arm, and we stood. “Thanks for your time.”
Megan didn’t even respond.
Once we were outside of the hospital, Momma said, “It appears that Megan has a solid alibi for the time of the murder.”
“Do you think so? I was actually thinking that her story means that she’s still a viable suspect,” I replied.
“How so? She said she was here the entire time.”
“Momma, we can’t just take her word for it. How can we know how long her break really was? No one is around her office to see when she comes and goes, so we don’t know. For all we know, she could have been gone for half an hour, which would have been plenty of time to find Harley, kill him, and then get back here before anyone even realized that she was even gone.”
Momma frowned. “If that’s the case, then how can we possibly find the truth?”
“I’ll call Jake and tell him what we just learned. He can pull the hospital’s security video and see if Megan’s story holds water.”
“Does he often do what you ask him to, I mean in his official capacity?”
“Not necessarily, but when it comes to his investigations, he’s not too proud to take help from anyone who can help him catch a killer.”
“This is all rather more difficult than it seems, isn’t it?” she asked me.
“It takes a certain mindset, that’s all.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Suzanne.”
“Maybe not. I just do the best I can, stumbling along until I find the one clue that leads me to the truth.”
“It’s a great deal more complicated than that, and we both know it.” Momma glanced at her watch. “We’ve got some time to kill before we speak with Curtis Daniels. What should we do in the meantime?”
“Let’s go over there anyway and see if we can catch him by surprise.”
“Is that wise?” she asked me.
“Who knows? All I know is that the quicker we figure out what really happened to Harley, the better I’ll sleep at night.”
“Then by all means, let’s go.”
Chapter 10
“Dot, what are you doing here?” Curtis Daniels asked as Momma and I walked into his outer office. He was at his secretary’s desk taking her to task over something she’d done, and the man was clearly upset about whatever it was. “I’ll be with you in a second,” he said. “Wendy, this is simply unacceptable. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” his secretary said as she rubbed her hands raw from the stress of being upbraided. She was clearly not happy about the scolding, especially in front of us.
For some reason that satisfied Curtis, and as he turned to us, he said, “I told you earlier, I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“I think you’ll want to hear this, Curtis,” Momma said brusquely.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but I just lost my partner. I don’t have time for your games today. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
“Very well,” Momma said. “If that’s your attitude, I’m donating the land you’ve been after to the Natural Conservancy Brotherhood this afternoon. I could use the tax write-off more than what you’ve been willing to pay me for it, and as you said, you have enough to deal with right now without me meddling in your business.”
“Hang on. Don’t be so hasty. I’m sure that I can carve out a few minutes for you.”
“Mr. Daniels, you asked me to remind you that you have a meeting with the Charlotte attorneys in ten minutes,” the secretary reminded him.
“This won’t take long,” he said. “Hello, Suzanne. If you’d like to wait out here, I’m sure that Wendy would be happy to get you something to drink.”
“Actually, I thought I’d tag along with Momma,” I said as I smiled.
He looked uncertainly at my mother, who nodded her approval. Seeing that he wasn’t going to win that battle, Curtis immediately became the gracious host. “Of course. Let’s go into my office.”
Once we were inside and the door was closed, Curtis sat behind his massive desk and faced us. “Now, what’s this nonsense about donating that land? It’s much too valuable to give it to the tree huggers, Dot, and you know it.”
“I happen to like their cause,” Momma said.
“Then why are you here?” he asked her pointedly. Evidently the gloves were now off.
“I may still be interested in selling the land to you, but it’s conditional.”
“Upon what?” he asked her, never giving me a second look. I didn’t blame him. Momma was clearly in charge of this meeting, no matter what the topic might be.
“You have to answer a few questions for us before I’ll even consider your offer,” she said.
Curtis pushed away from his desk and leaned back in his chair. “It can’t be that easy. I don’t get it. What’s the catch?”
“Only that you answer truthfully, fully, and to the best of your ability,” Momma said.
“It sounds as though you’re asking me to testify,” Curtis said with a partial smile.
“Take it as you will. I need your word, Curtis.”
“Fine. If it’s that important to you, I’ll answer you if I can.”
“Where were you in your progress to dissolve the company when Harley was murdered?”
Curtis didn’t answer immediately, and I wondered if we were going to get
a true answer, no matter what he’d just promised my mother. “We were in the final stages,” he admitted. “We were just waiting for the final audit so I’d know what it was costing me to buy him out. I suppose it’s no big secret that we weren’t happy with each other anymore. That blasted woman started getting into his head, and she was slowly ruining him, if you ask me.”
“Are you referring to Amber North?” I asked him. So much for me being the silent witness to the proceedings.
“Yes, of course. Who else? She thought I was taking advantage of Harley, when in truth, I was bending over backwards to make our partnership work.”
I doubted the veracity of what he was saying, but he was convincing nonetheless. I knew my mother could hold her own doing business with him, but I also realized that he would have eaten me alive if I’d come there alone.
“What happens now?” she asked softly.
“Who knows? That’s why the attorneys are coming in. They’re going to help me straighten this mess out.”
“Did you have a surviving partnership clause in your contract, by any chance?” Momma asked him.
“It’s a great deal more complicated than that, Dot.”
“Answer the question, Curtis,” Momma said icily.
“Yes and no,” he finally admitted.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning it’s not that easy to explain. There were riders and conditions that I can’t remember, thus the attorney visit.”
“But ultimately, you gain control of the company, and probably Harley’s share of the business as well.”
“Don’t you think I know that I have to be a suspect in his murder?” Curtis asked as he stood and began pacing behind his desk. “Your husband has already been to see me,” he added as he pointed to me.
“You can’t blame him. He’s just doing his job,” I said. “Did you happen to provide him with an alibi when you spoke?”
“Ask him yourself,” Curtis snapped at me.
Momma frowned. “I thought you were going to cooperate.”
He shrugged, and after a moment, he said, “I happened to be in Union Square all morning looking at some of our holdings.”
“Why were you doing that?” Momma asked him.
“We were going to have to liquidate several properties we owned jointly in order to pay Harley for his half of the business.”
“Something you are no longer required to do,” Momma said.
“Don’t read too much into it, Dot.”
“Can anyone verify you were there?” I asked him.
“No one was with me the entire time, if that’s what you’re asking me. Right now I feel as though I can’t turn around without someone taking note of it, but I have a question for you two. You’re both friends with the mayor, who happened to work in the office where Harley’s body was found. Why isn’t anyone asking him these questions?”
I wasn’t about to tell him that George was missing.
That didn’t stop Momma, though. “As soon as he is found, I’m certain that he’ll have a reasonable explanation.”
I wanted to cover my head in my hands. Momma had just revealed something that might end up being extremely incriminating about George, and what was worse, she’d told it to one of our main suspects.
“He’s missing? And you’re here grilling me? Why would he run, Dot, if he didn’t have anything to do with Harley’s murder, which just happened to take place in his chair at his desk in his office with his letter opener?”
“He’ll be duly questioned soon enough,” Momma said, “but right now, we’re here speaking with you.”
Curtis frowned a moment before he spoke again. “You know what? I don’t want that land after all. By the time I’m free to buy it when the legalities of this mess are all straightened out, you’ll have disposed of it anyway, so go ahead and donate it to the tree-huggers for all I care. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with the attorneys to prepare for.”
The dismissal was clear.
Momma and I did the only thing that we could do; we stood up and left.
My mother waited out on the sidewalk before she said, “Suzanne, I can’t believe that I just did that. I didn’t think. I just blurted out the fact that George was missing, and it shifted the focus of the entire conversation away from where we wanted it to be. I’m so sorry.”
“It happens,” I said, trying to stay calm about her lapse in judgment.
“Not to me, it doesn’t. Can you ever forgive me?”
“Don’t worry about it, Momma. Curtis was bound to find out sooner or later.”
“Perhaps, but I had no right to be the one who told him.”
“Let’s not worry about that right now, Momma,” I said as we made our way to my Jeep. Ordinarily she refused to ride in it on principle, but since this was my investigation, I hadn’t given her a choice. “Do you mind if I take you home now?” Before she could voice her regrets again, I added, “It’s got nothing to do with what happened in there. I just need to catch up with Grace and tell her what we discovered.”
“And recount my error to her as well, no doubt.”
“It’s part of it, Momma, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Grace and I have slipped up plenty in the past ourselves.”
“Honestly?” Momma asked me hopefully.
“You have no idea. I’d tell you, but I couldn’t stand the embarrassment.”
“That makes me feel somewhat better,” she said.
“Why wouldn’t it?” I asked her with a grin. “In the end, we’re all just amateurs doing our best to track down killers. As a whole, I think we do a pretty good job of it.”
“So then, does that mean that you’re not firing me?” she asked me timidly as I dropped her off at her front door.
“No, you get two more strikes before that happens,” I answered. I hadn’t wanted the news of George’s absence to get out, but I knew that sooner or later, the entire town of April Springs would find out that he was gone. It was really just a matter of bad timing more than anything else, and I wasn’t about to chastise my mother about it. Why would I? She was doing a pretty good job of that herself.
Once she was inside, I headed the Jeep toward Grace’s house.
It was time to tell her what we’d learned, no matter how little it felt like at the moment.
Chapter 11
“Come on inside, Suzanne. It’s freezing out here,” Grace said as she greeted me at her front door. I didn’t think it was all that cold, but then again, Grace had a tendency to be warm blooded at times. “Did you have any luck with your interviews?”
“A little,” I said, and then I brought her up to speed on what Momma and I had learned.
“So,” she said after I finished, “we now have alibis for all of our suspects, as sketchy as they are. One of them has to be lying to us.”
“At least one, but that’s not the only possibility,” I said.
“I’m listening.”
“We may not have even found the real killer yet.”
“Do you think there’s another suspect somewhere out there?” Grace asked me as she took my jacket and hung it up by the door.
“If there is, we’ll have to keep our eyes and ears open. I’ve been trying to call George on his cellphone all day, but it goes straight to voicemail. Where could he have gone?”
“I don’t see any possible way that he killed Harley, no matter how much of a pain the man was to him.”
“I don’t either, Grace,” I said hastily. “But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to hear what he has to say about what happened in his office today. With Gabby gone too, it’s kind of a troubling trend.”
“That’s one mystery solved, at least. She’s back in town,” Grace said with a smile.
“What? How do you know that?”
“I got bored waiting around here
for you, so I decided to take a walk through the park to clear my head. I figured maybe I’d get some insights into our investigation, and the worst-case scenario was that I got a little exercise. While I was out, I decided to stroll over to Gabby’s, and I got there just as she was taking the sign off her door.”
“Where had she been?” I asked. I’d driven right past ReNEWed on my way to Grace’s, but I must have been so preoccupied with the investigation that I hadn’t even noticed the sign announcing Gabby’s absence was gone. Some detective I was turning out to be.
“She said that she decided on the spur of the moment to close the shop and take a drive,” Grace said. “At least that’s what she told me. Suzanne, she was shocked when I told her that Harley had been murdered in George’s office this morning. There’s no way she could have faked that reaction.”
“We never really considered her a suspect, so it’s not all that surprising,” I said.
“With Gabby, I figured that we couldn’t rule her out, even if she didn’t have a connection with Harley. Her first response to the news was a little troubling, though.”
“How did she react?”
“Before I even told her that George was missing, she asked how he was taking the news.”
I thought about it a moment before I spoke. “That’s not that odd. After all, the man’s office is a crime scene. That’s enough to upset anyone.”
“Sure it is, but then she added, ‘This isn’t going to look good for him,’ and that’s before I even said anything about him taking off.”
“Why does everyone keep sharing that news?” I asked, a little peeved that Grace had repeated something we were trying to keep under wraps, just as Momma had done earlier.
“Hey, don’t bite my head off,” Grace said as she held her palms up in a motion to calm me down. “I figured that for most folks in town, it was already common knowledge.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Momma told Curtis, and now you’ve said something to Gabby. I’m afraid that George is going to be tried and convicted by the public before he even gets a chance to explain himself.”