by Sarah Biglow
“What’s so special about the house?”
She shrugged. “It’s been in the family for a long time. I think my mom wanted to keep it in her side of the family. They had a pretty big knockdown, drag out fight over it right after I got home from school for the semester in June. He insisted on going to the party on the fourth of July. My mother didn’t want to go. She didn’t tell me but I could tell he’d been drinking more often. He wasn’t the same. Always on edge and angry.” Tears shone in her eyes and she tried to blink them away. “I wish she’d just given him the damn house. Maybe then he wouldn’t have insisted on going to the stupid party.”
“So you blamed him for what happened to your mom.” It came out as more of a statement than a question.
“Maybe. I think I resented him for being so obsessed with the house. You know, that’s why he drugged me and had me committed.”
Kalina scratched her head, trying to follow the logic. “To get the house?”
“Yes. There was some legal loophole that said he could get control of the deed if I was declared legally incompetent. But he waited until after I turned 25 so it was legally in my name so he could force feed me whatever drugs he thought would help make his case.” Her tone turned bitter. “He gave me downers so that I spiraled into a massive depression and then he gave me psychotropic pills to make me look manic. He kept giving them to me until one day I just lost it and started hitting him. He called the police and they dragged me off to the psych ward at Salem Hospital. I rotted there for six months before Adam and one of his partners figured out what was going on and got me released.”
“You were able to prove it all?”
“I even tried to sue him but the judge wanted it settled out of court. He never came out and said it, but I think he felt it was just too messy. I got some restitution financially and a restraining order.”
“If you had a restraining order, why did you go to see him and have dinner?”
“I let it lapse about a year ago. Adam thought it might be good to reconcile, or at least try to put the past behind us. He said there was no point in letting it eat away at our happiness.”
Kalina did her best to stifle a bitter laugh of her own. “You know, I think maybe you were drugged this time, too.”
“So you believe me?”
“I found the teacup and the lab is running it. And there was someone else there in the house that night.”
“Someone else? How do you know that?”
It was time to spill the beans. “When I went to get your stuff from the house I ran into your neighbor, Mr. Beech. He was rather chatty. He said that that night, around two, he saw someone show up to the house and then leave a little while later.”
“Who?”
“Adam.”
“No, that can’t be.”
“Mr. Beech wrote down the license plate and Jimmy ran it. It belonged to Adam’s car. I think that’s why Chris wanted to talk to him alone.”
Nadine scooped up the room key and headed for the door. “We have to get there now. I need to know what’s happening!”
“Slow down, Nadine. We can’t do anything.”
“If he tells Detective Harper anything I deserve to know about it. I knew he was keeping something from me. I just didn’t know it was this.”
CHAPTER TEN
Nadine was out the door before Kalina could say anything else. They didn’t have a car so it was going to be a brisk walk to the station. On the way, Kalina checked her phone for any missed calls or texts from AJ. She couldn’t share that particular theory with her friend yet. She needed to process the fact that her boyfriend had been there and might have had something to do with her father’s death. Was he confessing to the crime as they raced to the station? He could have certainly had enough strength and force to push a grown man out a window.
“Come on,” Nadine urged as the station came into view up the street.
Kalina stowed her phone back in her pocket and trailed Nadine through the front doors. Neither of them bothered to acknowledge the officer at the front desk. Jimmy was nowhere in sight and the bull pen was empty. Chris’s desk was still a mess of files and paperwork. Speaking of Chris, she spotted him on the interrogation room monitor sitting across from Adam.
“Your vehicle was seen arriving at the Larrabee residence at two in the morning and leaving at two fifteen. Want to tell me what you were doing back there in the middle of the night?”
“What evidence do you have?”
“An eye witness who recorded your license plate. Now, I’ll ask you again. What were you doing back there?”
Adam let out a breath and unfolded his arms. “I didn’t like how we left things with Nadine’s father. I had a trial the next day but I should have insisted she come stay with me. The stories she told me were unsettling. The last time he was alone with her in that house, he purposely drugged her to get the deed to the house.”
Chris opened one of the files on the table and flipped through what appeared to be court documents. “And you know all of this because of the civil suit Nadine filed against her father.”
“Yes. I was part of the team that worked on her case and got her released from the hospital when it was determined she was not mentally impaired due to a disease.”
“So you went back to give Mr. Larrabee a piece of your mind then?”
“No. I went back to get Nadine to go with me. When I got there she was asleep. I tried to wake her up but she wouldn’t. I assumed he’d drugged her again.”
“So you left her there?”
“I went to confront Edwin.”
Kalina stood transfixed by the conversation. She hadn’t anticipated Adam admitting he’d confronted Mr. Larrabee about what had happened with Nadine. She hadn’t wanted the possibility that he was the killer to be true any more than she wanted that status to fall to her friend.
“He came back for me,” Nadine whispered. “I thought I dreamed that.”
“You remember him showing up?”
“A little, maybe. It honestly felt like a dream. That means the rest wasn’t a dream either.”
Kalina turned to look at her friend. “The rest of what?”
“I thought it was a dream. I went upstairs because I heard voices and loud noises. My father was tied to his office chair. He looked so scared. I think he told me to run but I had to untie him. Whatever else he’d done to me, he didn’t deserve to be tied down. I know what that’s like. Then I stumbled back down to my room. I guess Adam did wake me up.”
“Did you happen to see a clock at any point during that whole thing?”
“No. Why?”
“Well, if you went and untied your father after Adam left then that doesn’t make him a suspect anymore.”
“But it still doesn’t clear me. And why would Adam tie up my father? It was the middle of the night. I know he was drinking again but I don’t think he would have done anything to really hurt me.”
“I don’t know but Chris needs to know what you just told me.”
Nadine worried her lower lip and looked between the door to the interrogation room and the monitor. The conversation had died down. The station was eerily silent when Kalina’s phone sang out the opening bars to “Hooked on Feeling”—AJ’s ringtone.
“Sorry. I need to take this.” She stepped away and watched as Nadine headed for the interrogation room, her shoulders squared and her head held high. “Hey, kiddo. Tell me you got what we need.”
“Took longer than I thought it would but, yeah, I got it. So what’s next?”
Kalina pulled her phone away from her ear to check the time. It was already well after six. “Go wait for me at the shop, around back. I’ll pick you up and I’ll throw in pizza when we’re done.”
“Sweet. Did you find out anything else?”
“I’ll fill you in when I get there.”
“I’ll let Mom know I won’t be home for dinner.”
“I’ll see you soon,” she said and ended the call.
; Nadine appeared on the monitor and took a seat beside Adam. Kalina couldn’t see Chris’s facial expression but, by Adam’s body language, at least one of them wasn’t pleased to see Nadine waltz right in and start talking. She couldn’t really blame them. If anything, it was usually the attorney barging in on the interrogation. She wanted to stay and hear what else was going on in the interrogation room but figuring out if Mr. Larrabee had been pushed or not was of more importance. She was so close to finding out what had really happened and, hopefully, clearing her friend’s name. The deeper she got into the fact, the more convinced she was becoming that Nadine just didn’t have it in her to kill her father, no matter what had transpired between them in the last decade. With one last glance back toward the monitor, she made the trek back to Geeks and Things.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“What took you so long?” AJ exclaimed as she rounded the back of the shop.
She let out a huff and bent over to catch her breath. Sweat glistened on her arms and she could feel beads threatening to spill from her forehead.
“Give me a break, kid. I had to walk from the other side of town. I got here as fast as I could.”
He pointed to a large CPR dummy. “That will work, right?”
“It’s perfect.” She fanned herself with her shirt as she caught her breath. “Where’d you find it?”
“A friend was doing CPR training and lent it to me. I told them I wanted to practice in case I wanted to take the class.”
“You know, should I be worried about this criminal mastermind thing you’ve got going?”
He laughed and grinned from ear to ear. “Just don’t tell Mom.”
Together, they managed to fit the dummy in the backseat of Kalina’s car without it looking suspicious. The sun had begun its descent toward the horizon as she pulled out of the back lot and made her way toward Ocean Front Lane.
“So, what friend is this? Have I met them?” AJ was trying to fill the dead air between them.
“I don’t think so. We hadn’t spoken in a long time. Since high school really. But the minute I saw her and realized she was in trouble, I had to help her.”
“That’s nuts that you would have that connection again after so long.”
“It sounds cliché but it’s true. Your true friends are the ones you don’t see for years and you pick up right where you left off when you see them again. Of course, it doesn’t usually involve murder.”
“So do you think she did it?”
Kalina shook her head as she eased to a stop at stop sign. “I don’t think so. I understand her relationship with her father better now but … even with all of that behind her, she was trying to reconcile with him.”
“What about the other person in the house?’
“Maybe. I am hoping this test will tell us one way or the other if Mr. Larrabee was pushed.”
“Detective Harper is going to be pissed when he finds out.”
“That’s why we aren’t telling him until we’ve done it. Besides, I’m sure he’s got someone doing the same thing in a lab somewhere. We’re just confirming results, really.”
A few minutes later, she pulled up in front of the Larrabee house. She hoped Mr. Beech wasn’t around. She didn’t need him interfering or ratting them out to the police. Despite it being the end of the work day, the streets were mostly empty. That would work in their favor.
“Are you sure we can get in?” AJ asked as he struggled to drag the dummy out the passenger side of the backseat.
“Yes. The front door isn’t locked.”
“And you know this how?”
“I was here earlier with Jimmy and we didn’t lock the front door when we left.”
“Oh. Right.”
Kalina locked the car and helped AJ carry the dummy up the driveway to the front porch. She kept moving, forcing her nephew to keep up so he wouldn’t have time to gawk at the dark stain still on the pavement. She was a little surprised no one had come to clean it up. They paused long enough for AJ to throw the front door open and duck inside. With one last glance over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching, Kalina eased the door shut.
“Up to the third floor,” she instructed.
It was a clumsy affair dragging the dummy up the two flights to the study but they managed it.
“This is a nice house,” AJ said as they stopped outside the study so he could work a kink out of his wrist.
“Yeah. I spent a lot of time here when I was your age.”
AJ wrinkled his nose. “Don’t say it like that. It makes you sound old.”
She swatted his arm. “I am old.”
He rolled his eyes but resumed his grasp around the dummy’s torso so they could maneuver it into the room. The window had been closed. Maybe Jimmy did it when he went back to collect the teacup.
“Put it against the chair,” she said and went to unlatch the window.
“Man this place is kind of a mess,” AJ responded.
“I’m sure people would say the same thing about your room.” She turned back to face him. “So … what’s next?”
He retrieved his phone and fiddled with it for a minute. “Ok, so we just have to simulate someone being pushed, jumping or falling. Seems easy enough.”
“Right. I think I should be the one to do the pushing. Nadine and I are about the same height and build. If I can get the dummy to land the right way then we will know if he was pushed.”
“Got it. I’ll head back downstairs.”
She waited for him to reappear outside before she hefted the dummy over to the window. She turned it so that the dummy was facing her before she gave it a solid shove. It tipped over the windowsill and fell head over feet to the pavement below.
“Uh, Aunt K. I’m guessing the head is supposed to be over this dark spot,” AJ called up.
Kalina leaned out the window to check the final position. The feet were where Mr. Larrabee’s head should be and the dummy had landed face up. “Yeah. That clearly didn’t work. Bring it back up.”
AJ lugged the dummy back up the front porch and appeared in the hallway a few minutes later. She motioned for him to head back out and he groaned before doing as he was told. She waited until he was in position again and turned the dummy to face away from her before giving it a hard shove. It fell straight down but, again, wasn’t in the right position.
“It’s closer,” AJ said.
“But not quite right. It’s still too close to the house. Bring it up again.”
He picked up the dummy roughly by one arm and started dragging it behind him. Kalina leaned farther out the window.
“Be careful with that!”
As she leaned back into the room, a thought occurred to her. If her theory were true then Nadine and Adam would be off the hook for Mr. Larrabee’s death. AJ finally appeared and slumped into the office chair, not taking note of the blood specks on the leather. He set the dummy on the floor and wiped visible beads of sweat from his forehead.
“For a teenage boy you aren’t in very good shape,” Kalina scolded.
“I’m a nerd. Exercise is my kryptonite.” He took several deep breaths before hoisting himself back to his feet. “I’ll head back down.”
“No, stick around up here. I think might have figured it out. And I think I need your help.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Help me lift the dummy so it’s standing on the ledge.”
“Seriously?”
“Just do it.”
They lifted up the dummy and positioned it on the ledge of the window. Kalina looked at her nephew. “On the count of three, let go. One. Two. Three.”
The both let go. Gravity took over and the dummy fell face first onto the pavement in the general spot where Mr. Larrabee had been discovered. AJ let out a low whistle.
“So he jumped.”
“It certainly looks like it. I need to let Chris know.”
“Remember, he’s gonna be pissed at you.”
Kalina smirked. “I’ll
make it up to him.”
AJ gagged. “Gross. I didn’t need to know that.” He wandered over to the desk and started rifling through papers while Kalina pulled out her phone. “Hey, Aunt K. I think you should look at this.”
“Don’t touch it. It could be evidence.”
He pulled his hands away and took a big step away from the desk. “Sorry.”
“Just point to what you found,” she said and walked over to stand beside him.
He indicated a pile of official looking documents with a notary seal at the bottom. She bent down to study the text more closely. “He was giving it back.”
“Giving what back?”
She waved her nephew’s question away. She walked to the other side of where he stood and nudged pages with the side of her phone. A handwritten page fluttered to the floor. She bent down to read it but didn’t touch it.
“Oh, God.”
AJ bent down to read it too and Kalina backed away, hitting ‘Call’ on her phone. It rang twice before someone answered.
“Ellesworth Police Department.”
“Hi, I need to speak with Detective Harper right away.”
There was a pause and then, “He’s in an interrogation right now.”
“I know. But I need to talk to him right away.”
“Who should I say is calling?”
“Kalina. His girlfriend. It’s about the case he’s working. Please, just put him on the line.”
She started to pace as the line went quiet. She could hear vague footsteps echoing on the other end of the line. Hopefully, her pleading had been enough to get the desk officer to summon Chris. Finally, the line clicked as someone picked up.
“Kal? What’s going on?”
“I know what happened in Nadine’s case.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know you’re going to be angry with me but just hear me out. It would be better if you came to the Larrabees’ house. Bring Nadine and Adam, too. They need to know what happened.”