Murder Over Mochas

by Caroline Fardig

  “Eww. Abort. Abort. We have what we need,” I said to Ryder, my eyes glued to the tablet.

  On the calendar for Wednesday, I found another entry for a fifteen-minute spot with a doctor who was also not one of Scott’s clients—Dr. Devaux. Not a surprise he’d lied to us about not knowing Scott. I kept looking while Ryder tried to figure out a way to get out of Dr. Grantham’s clutches without being violated.

  Ryder cleared his throat. “I…uh, I need to go. I have an early morning tomorrow. Can’t be late my first week on the job.”

  “Nonsense. You just got here. I’ll call your boss tomorrow morning and tell him I’ve detained you.”

  It was sounding like he needed some help getting away from this woman. I wanted to keep his cover intact, mainly so she wouldn’t find out he was a cop.

  He laughed uneasily. “Tempting, but I’m new, so I don’t want to rock the boat just yet. Maybe we can do this again sometime.”

  “Seth, you’re not going anywhere.”

  Oh, yeah, he needed help. After getting a brilliant idea, I scrounged in the backseat and found a hoodie, which I rolled up into a ball and stuffed as much as I could into the front of my jeans. After stretching my blouse down over it, I found an old elastic band in my purse, which I used to put my hair up in a messy-on-purpose ponytail.

  Hurrying into the restaurant and blowing past the hostess, I spotted Ryder and his date at a cozy booth in the bar.

  Placing one hand on my back, I waddled over there, sticking out my fake belly as far as it would go. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Seth?” I demanded.

  Ryder’s jaw dropped as his eyes zeroed in on my hoodie baby. “Um…I…”

  I turned to Dr. Grantham, who seemed equally shocked. “Hi. I’m Julie Davis. His wife. And you are?”

  She sneered at Ryder. “Leaving. I want a new rep.”

  After she stormed away, I took her vacated seat in the booth. “Hello, hubby.”

  He couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Hey, Julie. Nice timing. The good doctor was getting handsy.”

  Chuckling, I took the elastic band out of my hair and shook out my red curls. “Yeah, it sounded like it was heading that way. I figured my grand entrance wouldn’t totally blow your cover, yet it would still scare her away.”

  He stared at my belly. “What in the world do you have in there?”

  I pulled out the hoodie. “This.”

  “You’re nothing if not resourceful.”

  “That’s me.”

  He threw a couple of bills on the table, and then we headed out.

  I said, “As horrific as that probably was for you, thanks to the information you were able to from Dr. Grantham I believe we’re about to crack this case wide open.”

  “You mean about Scott blackmailing her? Yeah, that changes things.”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe. She’s not the only one he’s blackmailing.”

  We got in the car, and I handed him the tablet. I reached over and tapped the screen to bring up Scott’s meeting with Dr. Grantham. “Check it out. Scott scheduled his blackmailing. Here’s where he met with your girlfriend.”

  “That’s super anal.”

  “No kidding.” I pulled up the next blackmail event. “And here’s where he met with Dr. Devaux. I love how he puts in the notes how much he’s blackmailing them for. See where it says ‘2K’ in the notes on this one? He must’ve only told Devaux to cough up two grand, but he charged your lady friend, who’s a cardiologist, five grand.”

  “Interesting, especially since after Mandi told Dr. Grantham that she’d ‘take care of the problem,’ Scott ended up dead before he could collect his money.”

  I sighed. “Right. I came to the same conclusion.”

  “Which brings us back to making it a priority to find Mandi.”

  “Yes, but now are you beginning to see my point about not being too concerned about her supposed disappearance?”

  “I am.”

  I tapped the screen again, pulling up Scott’s Thursday schedule. “Moving on, here’s another fifteen-minute meeting, this one with Dr. Muniz, one of the doctors Julia, Lizzie, and Blake interviewed this afternoon. The note on this one says ‘3K.’ Lizzie said they got nothing out of their interviewees, but this speaks volumes. That makes an even ten grand in blackmail money.” I got out my phone and shot a quick text to Lizzie to let her know what we’d learned tonight.

  Ryder nodded. “What we have here is a theory, some cryptic notes, and an inadmissible statement from someone who’ll never give the cops the same story. We need actual proof. What would really be helpful is if we could find the photos Scott told Dr. Grantham he had.”

  “It would, but I’ve been through all the photos on his personal phone and this tablet. No luck.”

  “He could have saved them to a hard drive, a flash drive, the cloud…” After thinking for a moment, he said, “Do you think Scott took up this crusade against kickbacks to get back at Mandi for her affair? Or do you think he simply felt strongly about his fellow reps not playing by the rules?”

  “It’s pretty dumb to crusade against kickbacks by way of blackmail.”

  “You said his behavior was irrational, possibly due to drug use, which meant he wasn’t making good decisions.”

  I frowned. “He never made particularly fantastic decisions.”

  “Think about it. Mandi gets the promotion and he doesn’t, so he’s jealous and emasculated and maybe even looking for her to fail. Mandi has to step up her game, because with the promotion comes a bigger responsibility to secure more prescriptions being written for Silver Spruce drugs.”

  I nodded. “That’s when she might have started using illegal tactics to get the job done.”

  “Absolutely. Let’s say Scott finds out her secret—which turns out to be her trainer Jared’s secret as well. Scott decides he wants a piece of the action, too, but…for whatever reason, he doesn’t have the clearance or the budget to give out any swag.”

  “Which is frustrating. His wife is doing better than him at work, and around that time she also starts cheating on him. No doubt he had to be at his boiling point…” I trailed off, almost feeling sorry for Scott.

  Ryder finished my thought. “So he comes up with a way to make a little money on the side and piss her off in the process. You said they have separate bank accounts, and he has no revenue stream now that he’s unemployed. He needs cash. He’s already mad at the company for skipping over him with the promotion and then firing him, so why not take them down while he’s at it? At that point he probably thought he had nothing to lose.”

  A chill ran down my spine. “Until he lost everything.”

  Chapter 21

  When Ryder and I got back to my parents’ house, they had already turned in for the night, so we did the same. I tried my best to persuade him to take the bed in my old room, but ever the long-suffering hero, he insisted on sleeping on the living room couch. After tossing and turning to try to find a comfortable position on the lumpy, aging mattress, I finally became convinced he’d unknowingly made the better choice.

  Once we’d got back to the house, I’d called Pete and told him all about the blackmail we’d uncovered. My new information only made him more apprehensive about me continuing with this investigation, and we ended up getting into a bit of an argument over it. Between worrying over that, my brain working overtime on the investigation, and the uncomfortable bed, I couldn’t sleep.

  I shuffled out to the dark kitchen and opened the refrigerator, excited to find there was one piece of my mother’s heavenly apple pie left. I grabbed the pie pan and a fork and turned to head back to my room.

  “You gonna hog that all for yourself?”

  Startled, I sucked in a gulp of air. My heart pounding, I whirled around toward the living room and hissed, “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

  I saw Ryder’s silhouette sit up from the couch. He chuckled. “Sorry, did I scare you?”

  “Yes,” I grumbled,
grabbing another fork for him and walking his way. I plopped down next to him on the couch and set the pie and forks in front of us on the coffee table. “I take it you can’t sleep, either?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. You know when I get focused on a case I rarely sleep. What’s your excuse?”

  I took a big forkful of pie and mumbled, “Same.”

  “I took Scott’s tablet and began cross-referencing the doctors’ names on his schedule with the other reps’ client lists. Based on that, it looks like Grantham, Devaux, and Muniz are the only ones he’s shaking down for money, so they’re all decent suspects.” He took a bite of pie for himself.

  “Would a doctor bother to kill someone over a few thousand dollars, though?”

  “It’s not just about the money. It’s about information and power. For all we know, this payment he asked for may have been the first of many. If at any point he could prove fraud and decided to turn these doctors in to the feds, it could cost them way more than a little blackmail money.”

  I thought for a moment back to what Scott had said to me before he died. “So would you consider these doctors wealthy and powerful people who Scott had taken some information from?”

  “Sure, you could put it that way.”

  “Could they also be the dangerous people who Scott had had bad business dealings with and who might threaten him and supposedly kidnap Mandi the first time?”

  “They could be. And maybe they’re responsible for Mandi’s disappearance this time, too.”

  Lost in thought, I grabbed the pie pan and dug in as I sank back into the couch.

  Ryder pushed my fork aside and stabbed a big piece of apple. “I thought we were sharing, Julie.”

  I elbowed him out of my way. “Julie is carrying your child, Seth. Would you rob her of food?”

  “No, but I would do it to Juliet the baby-hater.” He snatched the pan out of my hand.

  I rolled my eyes. “Are you going to keep bringing that up? Wait, you haven’t been talking to my mom about it, have you?”

  He shrugged, mouth full of pie. “It might have come up.”

  “In the five minutes you talked to her alone?”

  “Hey, none of us are getting any younger. It’s about time we figured out who we want to be with so we can do what needs to be done before it’s too late.”

  I stared at him. “You’re such a girl. I can hear your biological clock ticking from all the way over here.”

  “It’s called being an adult. You should try it sometime.”

  As light as this conversation seemed on the surface, I was getting a major vibe about the undertone. I said quietly, “You said that we need to figure out who we want to be with. Have you…decided on Maya?”

  Ryder put the now empty pie pan back on the coffee table and turned to me. “Have you decided on Pete?”

  “I asked you first.”

  He let out a breath. “Well, I’ve known Maya for years. We’ve always got along as friends, but lately I feel like things have changed. In a good way. I think I’m really starting to fall for her.”

  I nodded, a swirl of emotions needling at me. On one hand, I was thrilled for him and for Maya. On the other hand, it felt strange to hear those words from him about another woman. “That’s great.”

  His expression serious, he said, “I know it might not be the best time to bring this up, but I can tell you’ve got some sort of reservation about me dating her. I’d like to know what it is. You know us both well. Do you think we’re not right for each other or something?”

  The pie started churning in my stomach. So he did know I wasn’t as excited about him dating Maya as I tried to seem. Damn. I thought I was a better actress than that. And now I had no choice but to ’fess up to the truth about my feelings, because any other way I answered that question could hurt his relationship with Maya.

  “No. I think you’re perfect together. It’s just that…” I blew out a breath. “Sometimes it’s hard to watch someone else move on.”

  “You told me to move on.”

  “I know that. But there’s a tiny part of me that misses…us.”

  There it was. No taking it back now. I looked away, unable to meet his piercing blue eyes after that life-changing revelation. When he took both of my hands, though, I forced myself to look at him.

  “I don’t ever want you to think that what we had together isn’t important to me. I miss us, too.” Giving me a rueful smile, he squeezed my hands. “As amazing as it was at times, you and I both know we could never sustain it.”

  I sighed. “I know that. We’re too volatile. And while that can be fun, it can also be disastrous. As we’ve demonstrated time and time again.”

  He let go of my hands. “Right. So what do we do to fix this? The last thing I want is for things to be weird between us.”

  Shrugging, I replied, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s okay to own the fact that we care for each other even though we’re not meant to be together.”

  “Isn’t that what friends do?”

  “Yeah, I guess it sort of is.”

  “We’re pretty great at this friends thing.”

  I smiled. “I know. You’ve only yelled at me like twice today.”

  Snorting, he replied, “Which you had coming.” His face softened. “Are we good?”

  I nodded and said, “We’re good.” And I really meant it.

  —

  The next morning, Ryder and I met Blake, Lizzie, and Julia bright and early at the Chronicle office.

  Blake said, “Last night Lizzie and I put our heads together, and we decided since you guys were starting to focus more on the doctors that we would start focusing more on Silver Spruce as a company. Since the industry crackdown on kickbacks several years ago, Silver Spruce has been under scrutiny multiple times for non-compliance with the new guidelines.”

  Lizzie put down the enormous breakfast burrito she’d been working on. “Trouble has never been centered around this particular office, but it seems like Silver Spruce generally tends to look the other way when it comes to their employees offering kickbacks.”

  Blake nodded. “We looked into Doug McKay’s background, and he’s squeaky clean. However, he hasn’t been the manager for long—only a couple of months, actually. The manager before him, Jason Brooks, has an impressive list of misdemeanors to his name. Public intoxication, trespassing, resisting arrest, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct. Pretty much good ol’ boy carousing and general douchebaggery, but it shows he’s not shy about breaking the law.”

  “Where are you going with this?” Ryder asked.

  “Brooks got promoted to Midwest regional manager and moved to St. Louis. But I’m thinking he may know about or even be the one who started the kickback scheme. He could tell us how deep this goes.”

  “And he’d willingly offer up this information because…”

  Blake’s eyes got a mischievous sparkle. “Let’s just say he owes me a favor.”

  Ryder did not seem to like this idea, but kept listening.

  “And who knows? He would have been the one to give Mandi the promotion, so he might even be able to offer some insight as to her husband’s downward spiral, or who could have had it in for him at work.”

  I said, “Well, if you can get out of him more than we could get out of that idiot McKay, go for it.”

  Blake nodded. “I’ll get on tracking him down. Now that I’ve told you my good news…” He hesitated and glanced at his wife, who pulled a sympathetic face and stuffed a huge bite of burrito in her mouth. “There’s something I need to mention that you’re not going to like.”

  I sighed. “Go for it. This case couldn’t suck much more than it already does.”

  “Jared Fisher packed himself and his family up and left town. Lizzie and I went by this morning on our way to work to check on him, and their vehicles were gone. I called him, and instead of picking up, he shot back a quick text about taking the family on vacation. When I asked where and for how long, his reply was simp
ly a question mark.”

  “He’s running…but why?” Ryder asked. “Is he scared or guilty?”

  Julia shrugged. “Could be either. Or both.”

  Her mouth full, Lizzie mumbled, “I say scared.”

  Ryder stood. “I say we’re burning daylight. We’re going to go have a chat with Dr. Muniz. You find out what you can from your contact.”

  To try to smooth over his curtness, I said, “Thanks for the help, guys.” I began to follow Ryder out of the room, but Lizzie caught up with me at the door.

  She said, “Your partner didn’t seem too impressed by Blake’s connection to Jason Brooks, which I totally understand. Blake’s got all these shady contacts around town that he uses for his stories. At this point, I’ve quit asking. But I have to admit, a lot of times it comes in handy. You need anything, he has a guy. The point is, shady or not, his sources nearly always pan out. He’ll get you what you need.”

  I smiled. “Ryder doesn’t mind going a little rogue, but don’t forget he is a cop. I think he didn’t want to know too much about the situation in order to have deniability if it gets too shady.”

  —

  Outside the Liberty Minute Clinic where Dr. Muniz worked, Ryder and I were arguing over how we were going to go about questioning him about the blackmail.

  “You had such good luck talking to Dr. Grantham as a sales rep. Let me do that here,” I said.

  He shook his head. “I think a straightforward approach will be best. Tell him what we know and then make him explain his involvement.”

  “Oh, because someone who may be involved with silencing a blackmailer is going to give a cop his life story willingly and without a lawyer. Remember how well our non-interview with Dr. Li went?”

  “Li was a prick.”

  “Maybe this guy is, too. Look, he may be our best lead. Devaux is too wimpy and old to have tried to kill Scott. Grantham is a man-eater, but I didn’t get a murdery vibe from her.”

  He replied, “Well, she admitted to calling Mandi after Scott tried to blackmail her. She could have suggested that Mandi silence him for good.”

  I gave him a skeptical look. “So Mandi’s a hired assassin now?”