“Thank you.”
I gestured to one of the paintings on the wall.
“Did you get this somewhere in town?” I said.
She laughed and shook her head.
“Come with me and I’ll show you.”
We followed her into a bedroom that doubled as an art studio. The floor was lined with canvas cloth and had splatters of dried paint all over it. A table was set up in the middle of the room and a coffee can sat on top with various sized brushes inside.
“You painted all these?” I said. “Do you have a studio somewhere in town?”
She laughed again.
“I give away most of my art before I have the chance to sell it. Either that or I keep it.”
She took a half-painted picture in her hands and stared at it the way a mother looks upon her newborn.
“My paintings are like children to me. I grow attached to them. It’s hard to give them up at any price.”
“You do this for a living?” I said.
“I live for a living. Art is one way I express that.”
Maddie and I exchanged glances, but she stayed quiet. We walked back out to the living room and sat down on a vintage red sofa. Zoey sat across from us in an oversized purple shoe.
“I wanted to ask you about your relationship with Parker Stanton,” I said.
“What about it?”
“Are you in one?” I said.
She nodded.
“You could say that.”
“For how long?” I said.
She thought about it for a moment.
“On and off for the last few years.”
“Did you know he was involved with Charlotte Halliwell at the same time?” I said.
“He told me they were engaged.”
“Did you see him while they were together?” I said.
“On occasion. Parker and I have known each other for years, long before he committed himself to Charlotte.”
Her candidness shocked me. It wasn’t often that I asked a question and received a straight answer. I couldn’t decide whether I found it refreshing or arrogant.
“So you knew about Charlotte, and you still continued to see him?”
She smiled at me with a look of entitlement on her face.
“That’s right.”
“Was your relationship with him an intimate one?”
“Is there any other kind?”
“If he married Charlotte, do you think he would have continued to see you?”
She reclined back in her chair and took a sip of a drink that sat on a table next to her.
“Care for some iced tea?”
Maddie shook her head. Zoey looked over at Maddie and then back to me.
“Does she ever talk?” she said.
“Not if she can help it,” I said. “Can we get back to my question?”
“Parker takes care of me. He pays for this house and gives me money for anything I need. We have an arrangement.”
I imagined Parker had found the perfect woman in Zoey. No complaints, no restraints, no rules of any kind.
“By arrangement you mean he’s involved with other women and you don’t mind?” I said.
“Should I?” she said. “I get what I want, and he gets what he wants.”
“Do you see other men too?” I said.
“I don’t see why you need to know that.”
I didn’t, but I couldn’t help myself.
Zoey pulled her legs up and sat Indian style in her chair.
“Parker is my soul mate. It doesn’t matter what I do or what he does. We’re bound to each other. I get him. I understand him. I’m sure he cared for Charlotte, but whether or not he loved her, I doubt it. She saw what she wanted in him. Maybe because he showed her what he wanted her to see, a side of himself but not the whole person. With me he had the freedom to be who he wanted.”
“And his other women?” I said. “Do those same rules apply to them?”
“Don’t you feel in today’s society everyone follows a bunch of useless rules? One man and one woman. It’s stuffy and restricted and so blah. Why restrain yourself when you can live a life of complete openness with the freedom to do whatever pleases you.”
“What about physical abuse, does he hit you?”
She flinched and then set her glass down.
“When one person hits another, you see it as a sign of physical abuse, like they intended to cause harm.”
“And you don’t?” I said.
“I view it as a chance to let out pent up frustration. It’s a way to express oneself. When I throw paint against a blank canvas I act out my emotions and that’s how I create my art. I don’t think of it in terms of abuse. I think of it more like––”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Something that makes you free.”
She nodded.
“Have you seen Parker since Charlotte died?”
“We see each other whenever he has time. He comes and goes when he pleases.”
“Has he spoken to you?” I said.
“We talk all the time.”
“About her death I mean.”
“He felt sorry for her I suppose, about what happened, and he’s confused about why you implicated him in her murder. I don’t see what the police want with him. There’s no way he’s guilty.”
“What makes you so sure?” I said.
“He’s not capable of it. Parker is an expressive person, yes, but he’s not the type to end someone’s life. He has too much respect for it. You look at what happened and what do you see––a murdered woman, a victim whose killer must be brought to justice in the name of the law. But there’s a higher law. Would you like to know what I see? A woman set free from this life, given the power to roam the Earth on her own terms. I hardly think you should waste your time feeling sorry for her.”
On that note there was nothing left to say.
“Thank you for time,” I said.
We reached the doorway and Zoey took both of my hands in hers and gazed into my eyes.
“Go your way and embrace life,” she said. “Don’t live in the past. There’s nothing for you there. It can’t heal you. You must find peace within yourself and move forward.”
On the way back to the car Maddie slapped her thigh and laughed.
“Why do I feel like I just returned from a 70’s time warp?”
I raised my middle and pointer fingers and made a sideways V with my hand.
“Peace and love, my sister.”
CHAPTER 40
I leaned back in my chair and kicked my bare feet up on the coffee table. The warmth of the fire adhered to my toes and I rested them there until the heat penetrated so deep I couldn’t stand it any longer. Lord Berkeley slept beside me with one eye open and the other closed, and every once in a while he let out a series of noises and I wondered if he was any closer to catching the kitty cat.
I thought about Maddie’s actions earlier that day and found myself trying not to laugh over it now. It was true what she said at the café. To some degree the case consumed me. But I didn’t care. If I could catch the killer and earn some justice for Charlotte the universe would align again. At least that’s what I told myself, because then I wouldn’t have to admit that I needed to solve it so that all would be right in my world. Right a wrong where I previously failed to do so, like that would make things all better.
The doorknob turned and my front door opened and I reached for my 9 mm semi-automatic.
“You startled me,” I said to Nick.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to.”
Lord Berkeley woke from his slumber. He looked at Nick with weary eyes that said his performance for the evening was postponed until such time when his batteries were recharged. He mustered up enough energy to wag his tail, but didn’t move from the sofa. Nick walked over and gave his belly a good scratch.
“You and Madison stay out of trouble today?”
“I don’t know where to begin,” I said.
He raised an eyebro
w.
“For whatever reason I allowed her to tag along on my adventures in detecting,” I said. “She begged and against my better judgment, I relented.”
He stoked the fire with a few pieces of wood and sat down next to me.
“You said something about that in your text message earlier, but now it sounds like you feel you made the wrong choice.”
“I don’t know. To tell you the truth she added an element of fun to my day,” I said. “I’m sure I needed it. Just don’t ever tell her I said that.”
“And she didn’t cause any trouble?”
“I didn’t say that. When we went back to Bridget’s apartment she was in the parking lot,” I said.
“Bridget was?”
I nodded.
“That’s great. You talked to her then.”
“Maddie ran over and scared her off and Bridget blew out of the place, and then I lost it on Maddie who just wanted to help.”
He draped his arm around me and pulled me over to him.
“I don’t think you need to worry too much about Maddie. She’s a big girl.”
“She barely said two words to me after it happened,” I said.
“That’s a first for her, what about Parker’s other woman?”
“Zoey gave me the impression that he has this alternative lifestyle that only she understands. She thinks they’re soul mates. And according to her, their relationship started before he met Charlotte.”
“If he was with her, why get involved with Charlotte in the first place?”
“So they could live as free spirits,” I said, and I waved my hands back and forth in the air. “Peace and love and happiness, dude.”
Nick looked confused. He picked up my martini glass from the coffee table.
“How many of these have you had?”
“Just the one,” I said, and I took it back. “I’m serious Nick. She knows about the other women and it doesn’t matter. He pays her expenses for her house, her bills, all of it. She doesn’t care about money or possessions or her existence for that matter,” I said. “It’s like the woman could find out tomorrow she was dying and she’d throw a party and celebrate it.”
“And Madison stayed quiet through all that?”
“After what happened at Bridget’s place, she was determined to prove she could behave herself. Otherwise, she would have unleashed on her. I’m quite sure of that,” I said.
“Did she say whether Parker ever hit her?”
“I got the impression she allows Parker to do whatever he wants to her.”
Nick rolled his eyes and went to the kitchen and made himself a drink.
“Parker presents himself as a different person to different people,” I said.
“Like a chameleon.”
I nodded.
“With one woman he’s sweet and sincere and full of charm and with another he wants complete control. I suspect that’s why all the women are so different from each other. Some come from money, some work for it, some hold a place in society, and others don’t. My guess is that with every woman he starts out as the perfect gentlemen and then he feels them out and gets to know them and what they’re like. He learns how to woo them and then he alters himself accordingly. For awhile he’s tolerant until a situation presents itself where he fills to the brim with an uncontrollable rage and then everything he had suppressed over the course of their relationship erupts, and then heaven help them all.”
“That’s quite the theory.”
“And here’s another one,” I said. “Zoey’s jealous of the other women. I could see it in her eyes when she talked to me. For all the free love crap she claimed to have, there’s something else there. I’m sure of it.”
Nick took a couple swallows of his drink and then set it on the table in front of him.
“Do you think she could have killed Charlotte?”
“Maybe,” I said.
“Now what?”
“What’s the chief doing about it on his end?” I said.
“Can I preface my answer by reminding you not to shoot the messenger?”
“That bad?” I said.
“Parker’s alibi checks out. Kristin flew in this afternoon and Parker brought her in himself so she could vouch for his whereabouts at the time of the murder.”
“It doesn’t mean he’s not responsible. Parker has family money. Maybe he hired someone to do his dirty work for him.”
“What about the evidence, have you found anything new?”
He shook his head.
“Well, I’m not about to give up,” I said.
“I would expect no less.”
CHAPTER 41
I sat across the street from Parker’s house and watched and waited. Sooner or later Parker and his flavor of the weekend would emerge and when they did I planned to lure Kristin away somehow so I could get a little one on one time, woman to woman.
I opened my glove box and rifled around for a piece of gum until I found a pack. It contained a single solitary piece. Maddie took care of the rest. I pulled the empty box out of the glove compartment and noticed a shiny piece of metal. I took it out and rubbed my finger across the cold, hard surface. Some people throw salt over their shoulders for luck, but not me. I carried around my grandfather’s old FBI badge. It awakened memories of all the times he taught me to remember who I was––a Monroe, and never to forget it, and it reminded me of my duty to stand as a beacon of hope to others who count on me when they can’t fight the good fight alone.
It was hard for me to believe how long he’d been gone and that he died before seeing me aspire to a field not unlike his own. I wondered what he would think about the world now. So much had changed. And Gabrielle, if he lived to see what happened, maybe he could have saved her before it was too late.
In my boredom I placed a call to Audrey and was grateful when she didn’t answer. Parker’s release was not the best news. I left a message.
A car turned up the road and went to the top of the cul-de-sac and circled around. It crept along the other side of the street with its headlights off and then parked one house away from Parker’s. In the darkness I couldn’t make out the driver, but I recognized the shape of the car. It was him, the man in black. When I ran his plates before they had been fakes. They weren’t even registered. He sat and I sat and neither of us moved.
It took about fifteen minutes for Parker’s garage door to open and for him to back out of the driveway. I crouched down and he reversed into the street and then drove past me. I counted seven Mississippi’s and sat back up. His car stopped at the end of the street which gave me time to catch up, but in that moment I found myself more curious about the identity of the man in black. The note he left should have made me think twice or even three times about approaching him, but it didn’t. I wanted to know who he was and why he left it.
I started my car and positioned one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the holster of my gun. The man in black didn’t move. I flashed my lights on and off. Still no movement. I took a deep breath and put the car into gear and inched forward. He started his car and turned on the headlights. I pulled up alongside and his window descended. I put my window down and we studied each other for a moment. His face was hard and rimpled and depicted a man who had witnessed a lot in his life. I tried to form words but they didn’t come. I took a deep breath in and resolved to get the words out.
“I don’t know what you want with Parker,” I said, “or why you are here or why you left the note you did the other night.”
I scarcely uttered the words before a car turned up the road, one that I identified immediately.
The man in black looked at me and smiled.
“Who are you?” I said.
He made an upward gesture with his head and then stepped on the gas and sped down the street.
The other car pulled beside me.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” Coop said.
“I was just leaving.”
“I’m in charge
of his tail tonight, and I don’t need your help in case you’re wondering.”
“He’s not here at the moment.”
“And how would you know that?” he said.
“You’re in charge of him, you figure it out.”
I put my window back up and breathed a sigh of relief. With Parker long gone, the mystery man out of sight, and Coop assigned to watch over him, I called it a night. Kristin would be in town until the next day and that gave me one last shot to talk with her.
My cell phone rang. The caller ID said unknown. I pressed the answer button and the voice on the other end said, “Stop following me!” Only it wasn’t a man’s voice, it was a woman’s.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” I said. “I’m not following anyone at present.”
“Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Who is this?” I said.
“Don’t act like you don’t know.”
Her voice quivered with instability.
“I’d like to know who I’m speaking to,” I said, “or this conversation is over.”
“Then I have, well, nothing to say.”
She sniffled into the phone a few times.
“Bridget,” I said. “If this is you, all I wanted was to ask you a few questions. That’s it. I’m not the police and I’m not after you.”
I waited.
“If you’re not following me, then who is?”
“Tell me where you are,” I said.
“I don’t know you. Why should I tell you anything?”
“From what your boyfriend told me, you and Charlotte were close. I’m sure her death hasn’t been easy for you. All I’m asking is that you help me get her the justice she deserves. And if someone is following you then you need my help.”
I wanted to get it through to her that she could trust me and that I could help her, but she had no reason to believe me.
“I, I don’t know. I have to go.”
“Wait, Bridget please. Let’s try this, I’ll talk and you listen. You don’t have to say a word if you don’t want to and you can hang up anytime.”
There was no response, but my phone indicated the call was still connected so I persisted.
“A couple weeks ago Charlotte’s sister hired me to look into her death. At first it looked like an accident and then we discovered she was poisoned. After that I had my suspicions and, after I learned you two were close, I wanted to find you and talk to you about what happened to Charlotte. All I wanted to know was if you knew of any reason why someone wanted her dead. I know you’re on the run, and if you need my help––”
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