“Are you going to make me say it?”
He checked the time on his phone. “Nine minutes, Missy.”
“You bought the engagement ring two months ago,” Missy said, remembering the ring she wore on her finger as well. “Nobody waits that long to propose. Something happened after you bought the ring. Or should I say, someone happened after you bought the ring?”
Grant’s jaw locked.
Missy nodded. “It must have been awful. The woman you just bought a ring for betrayed you with her ex-husband. I can’t even imagine.”
“It was a moment of weakness,” Grant said. “We all have them.”
Missy knew there was a lot more to the story, but she was running out of time with Grant—and with the police. They were coming for her.
The net was closing in.
“But you didn’t return the ring,” Missy said. “And that’s what’s telling.”
“I loved her.” Grant looked down, emotions almost overcoming him. “God, I loved her so much.”
“You kept the ring. You were willing to forgive her.” Missy was building up steam now. She felt like she was onto something. “But you’re also a man. You’re not some high school kid who doesn’t know any better, harping on his first crush. You were willing to forgive if she showed she could be faithful. If she showed you she’d never do it again. You were willing to take a chance.”
He nodded sadly.
“But only if she broke it off, once and for all, with Roger.” Missy knew she was reaching here, but there was no point in half-measures now. “That’s why you held onto the ring. You wanted to see if she’d be faithful. If your love could work. But she had to cut ties with Roger. All ties. Am I right?”
He nodded again.
“So you asked—no, demanded—that Roger divest his ownership in the tea room. You expected Tonya to be faithful, but you also weren’t an idiot. You knew if they continued to see each other and work together there would be a chance, always a chance.”
“I told her he had to go,” Grant said. “Right away. But they were building toward the opening. It wasn’t a good time to shake things up when they were just trying to get going.”
“She promised you she’d work out a deal with him after?”
“Yes.” Grant checked the time on his phone again, but he didn’t announce how many minutes he had. “We were working on trust. I didn’t want to throw everything I had with her away. It was just a momentary lapse.”
Missy nodded. “I’m so sorry, Grant.”
His eyes were welling up, but he didn’t cry. He just locked his jaw in place and held in the great wave of emotion building inside.
“She told him he had to go, didn’t she?”
“I think so…” Grant said.
“Yes or no, Grant?”
“She told me she did, on the night before the opening. At that point, everything was in motion so it was finally okay.”
“So she did.”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever confront Roger?”
He looked away. “Yes.”
She nodded. “Were you going to propose?”
Grant thought about it a long time. “I was holding her infidelity over her head. I told her I needed to know she’d never do it again. I told her about the ring and how I was close to taking it back. She begged and pleaded and apologized for what she’d done. I held it over her head.”
Missy waited.
“But I think I knew all along I was going to propose. I just loved her too darned much.”
“Did she tell Roger everything?”
“No, she didn’t.” Grant smirked. “But I did. I told him I was going to marry her and that she wasn’t going to work with him anymore.”
Missy smiled sadly as Grant grew thoughtful.
“Thanks, Grant,” Missy said. “I guessed that this had happened, but I wasn’t sure. Now I’m convinced it was Roger.”
Grant halved the distance between them. “Missy, I already told the cops everything. They know all this.”
It felt like the whole world was crashing down around her.
Missy had been so excited. Everything Grant had just shared with her led her to believe that Roger had killed Tonya. He had multiple reasons to murder her. She’d cut him out of her personal life, deciding to marry Grant instead of rekindling what she and Roger had had before. And she’d cut him out of her professional life, deciding to grow a business without his money. By killing her, Roger got his personal revenge for being spited again and he protected his investment.
It all made sense.
But for some reason, the police didn’t think it was Roger. They were dead-set on arresting her. Missy couldn’t believe they’d be so narrow-minded, especially when Roger had at least twice the motive she did.
“Thanks, Grant,” she said. “I’ll figure out a way to convince them.”
“How?” He stepped closer again. Now he was within arm’s reach. “How are you going to do that? I tried telling them, but they obviously don’t believe it.”
“I’ll figure something out,” Missy said.
Grant surprised her with a hug. Missy tensed as he wrapped his arms around her, doubt creeping up in the back of her mind. She wondered for a moment whether Grant had poisoned Tonya.
But then he let her go and smiled. “I hope you get him, Missy. I think he killed my Tonya.”
Then Grant turned and went back inside.
Chapter Eighteen
Missy’s phone was buzzing non-stop. The first number that came up was Detective Bryant’s. She didn’t answer. The next number was Tyler’s. She ignored that also.
Her next stop was Castleton, right in the middle of the lion’s den. But she had no choice. She had to confront Roger, though she had no idea what she was going to say.
She assumed the police had questioned him, using the same information that Grant had just shared. But obviously nothing had come of it. So what was she going to do? How could she succeed where they, two trained detectives had failed? The doubt was nearly paralyzing as she got out of her truck, her whole body feeling sluggish. She had no plan, literally no idea how to trap Roger or get him to confess.
Roger’s business was located in a complex not unlike Grant’s. She consulted the registry in the lobby, discovering that the office she wanted was on the fifth and top floor. Missy walked to the elevators. It was a little after four now, and already people were beginning to leave work for the day. A bunch of employees exited the elevator, all of them headed for the parking lot. Once it had cleared, Missy got in.
As the elevator slowly ascended, the gears whirring and churning, Missy racked her brain to think of something. Of anything. There had to be some angle she could take. The bell dinged as she passed each floor.
“Come on, Missy. Think.”
She closed her eyes and blocked out the mechanical sounds of the elevator. She had to think of something, or she was going to jail and then probably to prison. It didn’t matter that all the evidence against her was circumstantial. From the stories Tyler had shared with her, people had been convicted on much less. And, ultimately, it was looking like Tonya had been poisoned through her tea and Missy had given her a cup, preparing it where nobody else could see her.
The elevator dinged when it reached the fifth floor. The doors opened. And Missy still hadn’t thought of anything.
Two men dressed in suits had their backs to her, both of them talking to Roger of all people. His eyes lit up when he looked over their shoulders and saw her standing in the elevator. The scared part of her wanted to just stay in the box, let the doors close, and jump in her truck. She could just leave. Just run. Go someplace far away and contact Tyler later. He would come. Who cared where they lived? They could be happy anywhere, she knew that for sure. They loved each other desperately. They had dated in high school, separated freshman year of college, but had never stopped thinking about each other over the course of two decades. Tyler had married another woman, but still he’d com
e back to Grove City for her.
Roger was watching her, mistrust filling his eyes. The doors began to close.
But Missy didn’t let them. She stuck her hand out, tripping the sensors and forcing the doors open again. She stepped into the lobby. There was a receptionist sitting at a large desk behind Roger, the woman watching her with curiosity. Missy was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, clearly she wasn’t here for a meeting.
Roger turned his attention back to the two men in suits. “Thank you both for your time. I appreciate your interest, and we’ll be in touch.”
“When can we expect to hear from you?” the shorter man said, leaning forward eagerly.
Roger looked over at her. “Very soon. I want to move quickly on this. Thank you.”
They pumped Roger’s hand enthusiastically, but his passion for whatever their deal might have been was extremely muted. As soon as they’d boarded the elevator and the doors had closed, Roger turned to the receptionist.
“Sarah, would you please contact the police and inform them that Missy DeMeanor is here?”
The woman’s eyes went wide with a mixture of fear and excitement. Missy figured her days behind the desk were mostly uneventful, so she was probably relishing this infrequent break in her dull routine.
Missy decided to bluff. “Yes, Sarah, would you call them? I think they’ll want to hear what I have to say to Roger.”
The powerful vice-president, the man that earned half a million dollars a year, stared hard at her for a long, withering moment. But Missy didn’t budge or blink. It was a total bluff, but she had no choice.
Finally Roger broke into a smile. “Never mind, Sarah. Let me see if I can help this poor, deranged woman out.”
Sarah watched them, wide-eyed, as Roger swiped a badge and opened the glass door for her. Missy went in first, then followed him down a long, carpeted hallway. The office was humming, and everybody turned to look at the woman dressed very casually that was following Roger back to his office. They were probably wondering if she was a girlfriend or family.
Roger’s office was a corner suite with its own liquor cabinet and bathroom. He closed the door and sat behind his ornate desk, which was covered in paperwork and very official-looking documents.
“Let’s be clear on one thing,” Roger said. “I’m only meeting with you right now because there’s a remote possibility you’ve thought of something that could get the board of health off our back. I need the place to reopen.”
“Then you shouldn’t have poisoned Tonya,” Missy said.
He shook his head. “I’ll give you five minutes, then I’m calling security and the police.”
“Tonya picked Grant, and you couldn’t stand that.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He spoke with such conviction, that Missy doubted herself even more. “She told you you had to sell your interest in the tea room. She was cutting you out.”
“Did you notice those two men in the lobby?” He smirked. “I’ve been talking to them about buying my interest for the last month.”
Missy’s heart sank. He might have been lying, but she had no way of proving that. Either it was the truth, or Roger already had his story worked out.
“She settled on Grant. Not you. You wanted to get back together with her. She broke your heart twice.”
He tipped his head back and laughed. “You should write fiction, Missy. You’re good at it. The truth is, I got her drunk one night and took advantage of her. I didn’t want to get back with Tonya. Been there, done that. I just wanted one last romp.”
Missy’s entire theory of the case was beginning to crumble. “You expect me to believe you were talking to those two guys over the last month? Why would you sell your interest in the tea room to them, before the store even opened?”
He leaned forward. “To make a profit, why else?” He shook his head. “The closer we got to the launch, the less sure I was about everything. Like always, Tonya was trying to do too much. Running her consulting firm while opening a second business? I could see how she wasn’t putting enough time in to Do Re Tea. And your friend? No offense, Missy, but she doesn’t have a clue. I found out the hard way I’d made a mistake, so I started hedging my bets a month ago.”
Missy shook her head. He was either a convincing liar, or worse: he was telling the truth. If he’d already planned on selling his share, then he would have had no problem with Tonya’s edict to get out of the business.
“I was on the Tonya merry-go-round once,” Roger said. “I knew she was a good businesswoman but I also knew I didn’t want to be with her again.”
Missy’s phone buzzed with a text.
Roger rose. “Now you can walk out of here, or I can have you taken out.”
Missy stood on weak legs. As Roger led her out of the office, she read the text she’d just received from Tyler.
The police found something.
Chapter Nineteen
Missy got off the elevator. Still shell-shocked from her meeting with Roger, Missy didn’t even notice that Evanski and Bryant were waiting outside as she stepped out of the lobby, until they were practically on top of her.
“Melissa DeMeanor,” Bryant said formally, “we’re placing you under arrest for the murder of Tonya…”
Missy heard but didn’t register the rest of the words. In the back of her mind, she realized what was happening as they led her to the cruiser and put her in the back seat. She felt the cold sting of steel on her wrists. But other than that, she sat dazed as they drove to the police station.
They processed her. This included a mug shot and fingerprints and forms, and finally they led her into a grey, rectangular room with a grey, rectangular table and four grey chairs. Missy sat miserably in one. She knew without having to be told she would get one phone call, but in that moment she didn’t even want to talk to Tyler.
She knew it was over. Now that they’d arrested her, they’d throw everything they had at her as opposed to admitting they made a mistake.
Missy hung her head, trying to think of what to do next. But nothing came to her.
After what felt like an hour, the door to the holding room opened. Bryant and Evanski entered and sat opposite Missy. Bryant had a notebook out, while Evanski’s hands were empty.
“Missy, you do understand why you’re here, correct?” Bryant asked.
She nodded.
“I need you to respond verbally, because we’re recording—”
“Yes.”
Bryant put the note pad in front of him and flipped to a clean page, while Evanski’s cold, dead eyes never left her.
“Missy, you haven’t cooperated with us since this whole thing started,” Bryant said, like he felt bad for her. “But it’s not too late. If you help us out, if you help us understand what happened and why you did it, then things will go better for you. Do you believe me, Missy?”
“No.” She looked him dead in the eye. “I don’t believe you. I’m innocent. There’s a killer out there you’re letting get away with murder.”
“Why’d you have Tonya’s sorority pin?” Evanski asked.
Missy’s stomach suddenly weighed about a thousand pounds. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Evanski gave her a look. “Come on, Missy. This act isn’t working. Now answer the question. Why did you have the pin in your house?”
“I didn’t have her pin. If you found it there, you must have put it there.” Missy couldn’t believe what was happening. “Or you’re just pretending you found it there to get me to admit to something I didn’t do.”
“So you keep saying,” Evanski said. “But you were the one that got Tonya the cup of tea that killed her. You clearly despised the woman. She stole your best friend. It should have been you opening the tea room with Noreen, not her.”
“Listen to what you’re suggesting,” Missy said. “You’re saying I poisoned Tonya and then took her sorority pin and left it somewhere in my house? Why on Earth would I do
that?”
Evanski and Bryant didn’t answer.
Missy couldn’t stand it anymore. “I didn’t give Tonya a toxin!”
The detectives looked at each other and smiled. It was an absolutely chilling smile, like whatever she’d said had just sealed her fate.
“Could you repeat that?” Bryant asked.
“I said I didn’t poison Tonya.”
He shook his head. “That’s not what you said. You didn’t say poison.”
Missy was confused. Hadn’t she said poison? Or was it toxin? She couldn’t remember. “Poison, toxin, same difference to me.”
Bryant smiled. “Missy, it’s over now. You need to own up to this. If you do, we can help you.”
“I didn’t poison her.”
“You said toxin,” Evanski said.
She didn’t understand. “What difference does that word make?”
The skin around Bryant’s eyes hardened. “Okay, Missy. If that’s how it’s going to be. But know this: we are not going to help you. Do you understand?”
Missy said nothing.
Bryant sighed. “A poison is an agent that is harmful or lethal to an organism. A toxin is a type of poison. Toxins usually come from other organisms.”
“Okay.” Missy was really confused now.
Evanski said, “We never released the details on what had killed Tonya. So tell me, Missy, how did you know it was a toxin, as opposed to a poison?”
Missy couldn’t believe it. Ever since she’d met Tonya, the only kind of luck she’d experienced was of the bad variety. And now? Now she’d accidentally used the word toxin, which wasn’t even part of her normal vocabulary—
Except her use of the word toxin hadn’t been a case of bad luck.
No…
It was not a word she’d normally use and certainly one she wouldn’t normally substitute for poison. She’d used the word because she’d heard someone else say it recently…as a layperson and decided non-scientist, Missy would have just used the term poison.
Then it came to her.
“I know who killed Tonya,” Missy said, trying to get up. But the cuffs that were chained to the floor prevented her.
Tea Room Toxin: Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mystery #5 (Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries) Page 13