He smirked “If you could.” She raised her left eyebrow, but kept silent.
When she didn’t answer, he asked sarcastically, “Did you lose count?”
Ignoring his comment, she said, “Justin and Mike saved my life. If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t have found out who the stalker was before he killed me. I was bait, very much against their will or wishes, but they were the ones who caught the barracuda before it ate or in my case strangled me. The stalker had murdered seven women that we knew about when he was arrested, in the very act of trying to murder me by the way. But he had killed many more people–twenty seven was the final count, I believe. I didn’t come here for my health, although the weather has been glorious. I don’t have a personal interest in Justin as a boyfriend or a lover, but I do have an interest in finding my friend, a good friend. I also have an interest in helping another good friend, Mike Rainwater, find his partner. However, my intense interest is finding who murdered Jeanette Stewart. I also have an interest in finding out why the gazebo was torched and who did it. I believe that when I find out why, I’ll find out who. Does that answer your question, Lt. Raines?” Her tone of voice was scalding.
“You examined the summer house.”
“I did. I also examined the area surrounding the summer house, the bridge up over the scree and the beach where Jeanette’s body was found.”
“What did you find?”
She shrugged. “The same thing that Greg Barnes found, that the fire had been set with some type of chemical solvent. It was probably cleaning fluid. We also came to the same conclusion and that was that there was no point in setting the fire for insurance purposes. There probably wasn’t $1,500 in replacement value in the whole structure.”
“What were you doing at the scene of Ms. Stewart’s murder?”
“We were recreating the crime.” Suzette answered patiently.
“And?”
“It looked to us like Justin found Jeanette lying dead on the beach. She was a fairly good sized woman and she made a big dent in the wet sand. If you remember, there had been a really high tide that night. The waves actually rolled into the scrub, but by the time Jeanette was found, the tide had begun to recede. The marks indicated that Justin had dropped to his knees. He is a big man, 6'5" and according to Mike he weighs in at about 275 pounds, all of it muscle. The dents made by his knees were deep. We think he dropped to his knees to see if she was alive. Then we think he was hit from behind while leaning over his mother’s body. There was evidence of indentations that could have been caused by his elbows opposite from his knees on the other side of the indentations made by her body. Dry sand had blown into the indentations, but that was easy to brush out. We also found evidence that he was dragged into the scrub, but not through it. I think the killers took him away in a boat. That would be the easiest way to handle a man of that size.”
He shrugged, but didn’t argue with her. “You really think that he didn’t kill her?”
“I know he didn’t kill her. Justin couldn’t, wouldn’t pull a knife on anyone, even a perp he was trying to take down, unless the perp attacked him first. He’s been shot at least twice because he waited to pull his gun until there was no other way of disarming a suspect.”
“His mother was a blackmailer. She could have been blackmailing him.”
“Over what?” Suzette countered. “Good heavens, Lieutenant, you’re guessing. You don’t have an idea who murdered Jeanette so you’re grasping at straws. Jeanette blackmailing Justin. What an unfunny joke! He lived in San Francisco, not here in Brevard County. You’d be better off trying to find out who killed her and who kidnaped him and why!” Her tone made him feel stupid.
His face burned a deeper red. “We are trying to find out who killed Jeanette. We’re also trying to find out who shot Derek Duncan.”
“Well, it wasn’t me. I couldn’t have shot him without a dozen people seeing it. You may think I’m a fool, but I’m not stupid.”
“Then how did a gun registered in your name, with your fingerprints on it, end up putting a bullet in Mr. Duncan?”
“Don’t you mean a gun that had my smudged fingerprints on it?” When he glared at her, she smiled bitterly and said, “I haven’t seen that gun since my divorce. And, of course, since it was my gun, it would have my fingerprints on it. I practiced shooting with it. My ex was really into shooting. We’d go every weekend for target practice. He was really good, much better than I was.”
He began firing questions at her. “You’re sure you haven’t seen it?”
“Absolutely, positively sure!”
“Have you found out who caused the fire?”
“No.”
“And you didn’t shoot Derek?”
“No!”
“Why does Deidre Lin think you did?”
“How should I know?”
“You aren’t being very cooperative.”
“If telling you the truth is being uncooperative, then so be it. I’m not confessing to something I didn’t do, nor am I going to point the finger at anyone until I know for sure who did it.” She looked at the corner of the room, “And, Lieutenant, I will find out who killed Jeanette. More important, I will find out who kidnaped Justin. I will find out who set the gazebo fire and why because they are all aspects of the same puzzle.”
He stared at her for a minute then said, “Okay, that’s all, but if you do discover anything, anything at all, I want to be the first to know about it.”
Suzette smiled grimly, “I would much rather tell you than Chief Miner, but I will probably tell Mike and let him handle it.”
“You’d do better to tell me.” Lt. Raines snarled.
Is he threatening me? For a moment, she wondered if she’d said the bitter thought aloud. Without saying another word, Suzette got up and headed for the door.
“Wait a minute,” Raines said, “I need you to sign your statement.” As she paused with her hand on the door, the printer finished printing her statement. Raines picked it up, glanced through it and handed it to her with a pen. Silently, she read it over, signed it and handed it back to him.
Mike was waiting for her in the foyer. “How did it go?”
“Okay, I guess. Did you get anything?” Suzette looked very unhappy.
“Let’s talk about it in the car.”
As Mike started the engine and pulled out of the parking space, he said, “They don’t know anything. They can’t find any evidence so they’re blaming Justin. It’s just a way of closing the case without investigating.”
“That’s what I thought and said,” Suzette grinned. “Raines wasn’t very happy with me when I said it. So any ideas on what we do next?”
“I’ve been thinking about the crime ring that Mitch was talking about and wondering if it’s connected with Jeanette’s death and disappearance. I think I’ll see what I can find out in a couple of the bars. Maria said she’d get one of her Puerto Rican friends to take me around as an illegal alien from Cuba. She said some of this friends have been asked to go to work, but no one will tell them what the job is. Everyone that’s been approached is either Puerto Rican or Cuban. Some of her friends think maybe it’s a set-up with the INS to get them in trouble so they can be sent back to their country.”
He slammed on the breaks as the light turned red. “I speak Spanish fluently and with a little makeup, I can look much like someone from Puerto Rico or Cuba.”
“Have you talked to Ken Abbot about it?”
Mike shook his head. “You know, I just don’t feel really good about him. I can’t pinpoint anything bad, but I just don’t trust the man. Anyway, I just found out about this today. I’m going to bunk with this friend of Maria’s so no one can trace me back to Cordelia’s house. I’ll probably be gone two or three days.”
Suzette gripped his arm. “Be very careful. This could be really dangerous. You’re going undercover with no back-up.”
“I’ll send word to Maria by one of her friends if I need help. Don’t worry if you d
on’t hear from me for a couple of days. I’ll have to be careful not to blow my cover.” He stopped in front of a second hand store. “I need to get some different clothes. You take the car and go back to Cordelia’s.”
“Okay.” Abruptly, she leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Be careful. I don’t want to lose another good friend.”
“Don’t worry. Maria will know how to contact me,” he said, handing her a paper with a telephone number on it. Then after looking around, he got out of the car. Awkwardly, she slid across the gearshift into the driver’s seat. When she looked around, he was gone.
As she put the car in gear, she said, “I have a really, really bad feeling about this!”
Chapter 19
When she got back to the house, she went looking for Cordelia. She found her petite hostess answering e-mails.
She said, “Cordelia, I would like to search Jeanette’s room and I would like you to help me.”
“Why? The sheriff’s men already went over it.”
“I know but…”
“You don’t know what you’re looking for. You just have a gut feeling that you need to do it, right?”
Suzette laughed softly. “Right. The sheriff’s men probably went over it looking for a motive. I’m wondering if something isn’t missing. Something that could explain why she was out on the beach at 11:30 at night in her slippers and nightgown.”
“Okay, I’ll be glad to help.”
“Cordelia, why do you think she was out there? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
When Cordelia just shrugged her shoulders, Suzette said, “Tell me about the evening before the night she died. I know you and Dorothea went to a séance. What happened before that?”
“Let me think back. A lot has happened since then. After a few minutes, Cordelia said, “There had been a lot of discord for a long time and that night wasn’t any different. Hallie and Dorothea had a big argument.”
“Over what? I didn’t think the galleon had been found then.”
“It hadn’t.”
“Then what were they fighting about?”
Cordelia was silent. “I think it started when Hallie made some scornful comments about Dorothea’s attending the séances. She said something about only the credulous paying out money to contact spirits that didn’t exist. I don’t remember all she said but Dorothea got really angry. Instead of attacking what Hallie had said, she attacked Hallie herself. She called her godless, said that Jeanette had spoiled her so much that she was a useless little mess.
That made Jeanette angry. Jeanette was always angry over something or other. I can’t understand how Jeremy, Julie, and Hallie turned out so differently from either of their parents.”
“I can. They’re more like you,” Suzette said softly.
Cordelia smiled, then continued, “Jeanette had just found out about the kids’ trust funds and she was furious, with me and with them, but Dorothea’s comments reflected on her as a mother so she conveniently forgot her feelings toward Hallie and started in on Derek. That really made Dorothea see red, especially since one is supposed to go to a séance in a calm, pure frame of mind. In the end, Jeanette stomped up to her room, Hallie and Derek each left for different dates, so Dorothea called for the limo and we went to the séance.”
“Okay then, what would have gotten Jeanette to leave her room that late at night, and by herself?”
Cordelia shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t believe she did it without being forced. She was so paranoid about the chiggers and mosquitoes.”
“I’m wondering about something I heard Deidre say about her.”
“That awful girl. I wish she would move out of this house!”
Suzette nodded, then continued, “She said that Jeanette liked to,” she paused, trying to think of a tactful word for snoop, “Find out things about people and then make references to those things. I don’t know if it was blackmail, exactly, but--”
“It was and she did. She used the technique on different people several times when she wanted money. Finally, I told her if she did it again, she’d have to move out.”
“I thought Jeremy gave her an allowance.”
“Oh, he did, but it wasn’t enough. All the money in the world wouldn’t have been enough for Jeanette. But to be very honest, Jeanette enjoyed finding out stuff about people and then hurting them. She had been hurt so she felt like she had the right to hurt others.”
Suzette shook her head. “That’s too bad, both for her and everyone around her.” She looked at her watch. “Mitch is coming over in a few minutes. He wanted to help, if you don’t mind. He thought that between the three of us, we might find something that might give us a clue to Jeanette’s behavior that night.”
When Mitch Scott arrived, Cordelia led the way upstairs. Jeanette’s room was a corner room that faced the ocean and overlooked the burned out gazebo. After they had spent two hours going through Jeanette’s things and finding nothing, Mitch stood at her balcony looking toward the ocean. “Since there is no evidence of a struggle, I’m thinking that Mrs. Stewart left the room under her own power. I think she must have seen something either in the gazebo or on the beach that aroused her curiosity. I think she snuck out so that she could spy on someone or something.”
Suzette had been flat on her stomach, looking under the bed. “I found something that may prove your theory.” She slithered out from under the dust ruffle. She held up a small, black camera case.
“A camera wouldn’t do her much good at night, though,” Mitch protested.
Cordelia said, “She weaseled some sort of expensive camera out of Jeremy for Christmas, but I didn’t pay any attention to what kind of camera it was.”
Suzette pointed to the phone. “Mind if I call Jeremy and find out?”
“If you don’t, I will. I’m afraid I’m too much like Jeanette. When my curiosity gets going, I can’t stop until I find out what or why.”
Suzette dialed Jeremy’s office number. “Hi, Anne. Is Jeremy there?”
“No, he’s not. He’s in court.”
“Blast,” Suzette said, fervently. “When will he be done?”
“It will be late. The jury is deliberating on the Remick case. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I don’t know. Jeremy bought his mother some type of camera for Christmas. The case is here but the camera isn’t. Would you know what kind of camera it was?”
“I’ll say I do! I about went crazy trying to find a camera that had all the specifications that she wanted. It was a night camera that was specially made to take pictures both at night and during the day. All she had to do was flip a switch and the camera would take night pictures or day pictures. We finally had to order it specially built. It cost Jeremy over a thousand dollars and she thought it was much too big. The film was a special order, also.”
“Did it come in a black case?”
“It did.”
“Well, the case we found was only 4 inches by 5 inches by about 3 inches deep.”
“That’s the case. Wasn’t the camera in the case?”
“No, but I don’t want that to go any further because Jeanette might have put it some place special.”
Chapter 20
The next morning, Suzette looked up from her ham and eggs as Hallie waltzed into the room. “You seem happy today.”
“I am! My statistics class is canceled for today. That gives me four hours between classes with nothing to do but enjoy the sunshine.” She helped herself to a toaster waffle and an orange. “Hey, do you want to come to the university with me? We could see if we could find your double. This is the same schedule as the last day I saw her.”
Suzette could feel her heart drop. What if the woman wasn’t a relation? Or even worse, what if she was and didn’t want to have anything to do with her? She shook her head.
Hallie said softly, “If you don’t go, you’ll always wonder about her.”
“I know but what if--”
“She doesn’t like you
?” Hallie whispered.
Suzette nodded.
“Well, why wouldn’t she?” Then she added as if she could read Suzette’s mind, “Just because Sheriff Miner, who is a complete and total idiot doesn’t like you, doesn’t mean that other people don’t. Let’s go see if we can find her. She might not even be a relation but can you afford not to find out?”
“I guess not. I guess the last couple of days have kind of gotten under my skin a bit. I’m not normally a coward.” She smiled, “Sure, I’ll go. I won’t be able to concentrate on this case until I do know.”
They were just leaving the house when Deidre came slithering down the stairs. “Where are you off to, so early?”
“Suz is going to the university with me.” When Deidre raised her eyebrows, Hallie continued, “She’s my show and tell today.”
She stood on the porch until Suzette pulled out of the driveway, then she went into the hall, picked up the phone and dialed. “They’re going to the university,” she said.
“Thank you, I owe you one,” a male voice said.
Without a word, she hung up the receiver, picked up her purse and jogged out to her car. “I’ll just see why ‘he’ wants to know her every move,” she snarled to herself, her jealously making her edgy.
It only took 15 minutes to reach the Cocoa Beach campus of the University of Florida. Hallie pulled into a parking spot. “I usually don’t park here but this is where I was when I saw her. She looked at her watch. “Let’s head over toward the English building, that’s where I lost her when I followed her. I think she may have been a professor since she was wearing a suit and heels both times I saw her.”
“Lead on,” Suzette smiled. “I hope we can find out about her before I have cardiac arrest.”
Hallie began walking quickly toward an old, Spanish style building. “The English building is the oldest building on campus. I’m glad I don’t have any classes in it anymore because it smells like mildew.”
As they started up the front steps, a student pushed open the door. “Good morning, Dr. Austin.”
Sun, Sand and Murder: A Suzette Bishop Mystery (Suzette Bishop Mysteries Book 3) Page 12