by Raven Snow
Chapter Seven
As fate would have it, Peony’s car was already parked in the library parking lot. Willow wasn’t too surprised to see it there. “She has lunch here all the time,” she explained. “They’re way closer than I am.”
“So, what you’re telling me is that Peony should have known about this long before you?” Rowen asked as they headed toward the front entrance.
“Right.” Willow latched on to that excuse. “She definitely should have known. She’s the one who should have told you.”
“Don’t worry, I’m disappointed in both of you equally.” Rowen opened the door for her cousin. “And also Tina a little bit.” Tina knew their line of work. She should have come to them with this information forever ago.
The librarian at the front desk let them right through. She recognized Willow. On their way to the back, Rowen began to rethink assigning blame to Tina. This was a big deal. Rowen couldn’t imagine how she would feel if a man she was dating suddenly got murdered. It had to be a lot to process. It was a wonder she was still able to work.
Rowen’s sympathy quickly dissolved as she heard Tina’s obnoxiously loud laugh from clear across the back room. It sounded like she was taking this all very well. Rowen followed the laughter to a set of tables in back where Tina and Peony were sitting together over some now-empty sub sandwich wrappers. Peony was the first to look up and notice them. She raised her eyebrows. “Hey! Um… What are you doing here?”
“Following a lead,” said Rowen, moving to stand at the head of the table. She looked at Peony as she spoke, trying to gauge her reaction. Did she have even the slightest inkling as to why she was here? Surely she couldn’t be that clueless. “How are you holding up, Tina?” she tried to be sympathetic. People reacted differently to this sort of thing. Tina seemed at ease now, but that didn’t mean she was okay.
Tina stared back at her. “I’m okay,” she said, sounding confused. “Why?”
Rowen was beginning to wonder if Craig had been mistaken. It didn’t seem like Tina had been involved with poor Jerry at all. “I heard you were seeing Jerry? That camera man who died a few days ago? Didn’t the police question you about it?”
“Oh.” Tina winced. “Him. Right.”
“You were dating that Jerry?” asked Peony, looking at Tina with wide eyes. “I thought it was a different Jerry.”
“We broke up forever ago,” said Tina in her own defense. “We weren’t dating when he was murdered or anything. I didn’t think it was a very big deal.”
“How long ago did you break up?” asked Rowen.
“A week or two ago?” Tina ventured with a shrug. “Like I said, ages ago.”
Rowen sighed. That wasn’t all that long ago in the grand scheme of things. Craig could be forgiven for assuming they were still together. “His roommate said that he was with you the night that he died. He said he spent the night. He said he spent the night over at your place a lot.”
“He wasn’t with me,” Tina said, simply. She didn’t sound like she was concocting a lie. It sounded like she was just stating the facts. It wasn’t like Rowen had ever known her to be a liar. A ditz, sure. A liar? Not so much.
“I’m so sorry, Tina.” Peony took Tina’s hand in her own, she gripped them tightly and reassuringly as she looked her friend in the eyes. “That’s terrible. You should have told me.”
“Its fine,” Tina insisted. She seemed to rethink her phrasing. “I’m sorry. That is to say, I’m fine. I feel bad that he died, but we really didn’t date for all that long. We met on this online site. We went out for a few dates, but things never really got serious. He might have told people we really hit it off, but we didn’t.”
“You didn’t like him?” asked Rowen, not casting judgment. She hadn’t known Jerry. She knew Tina, though. She more or less liked Tina. She certainly wasn’t a “bad” person.
“Not really.” Tina sounded like she was reluctant to admit that. “Is it bad to say that about someone who just died?”
“None of us really knew him,” Rowen assured her. “I don’t think anyone is going to judge you here or pass this on. Just tell us what you thought. Maybe it’ll help.”
“In that case, he was sort of a creep.” Tina looked this way and that before lowering her voice. “He was really forward and kinda entitled, you know? Like, he really talked himself up. He bragged about what a big deal he was at work, and you could absolutely tell he was blowing it out of proportion. But he didn’t wait to see if I was actually impressed or buying any of it or anything. He just kept on talking like I was interested, then he expected me to invite him home. He seemed… I dunno. Not sleazy, but… A creep. Yeah, I’m sticking with ‘creep’.”
That was a little difficult to respond to. Rowen hadn’t really expected that. He had seemed like a nerdy sort to her. Not that she could have known, really. It was just the vibe she had gotten. Darren Hawthorne had mentioned that he could come on a little strong. If he had gotten under Tina’s skin, it wasn’t hard to believe he could have annoyed others.
“Sounds like you really dodged a bullet there,” said Willow. Rowen shot her cousin a look. “What?” she asked, making a point to look very innocent. “It’s not like he was actually shot… I mean, I guess he could have been. They haven’t actually released the cause of death yet, have they?”
Rowen reached over and gave her cousin a slap on the arm. “Have at least a little respect.”
“What?” Willow asked again. “Tina got to badmouth him.”
“Yeah, but I had to put up with him,” Tina pointed out. It made Rowen want to retract her sympathy a bit.
She didn’t scold Tina. Instead, she simply pressed on. “When was your last date?”
“Like I said, a couple of weeks ago.”
“Why did you go on more than one date with him?” asked Peony, frowning at her friend. “You can do a lot better than creeps.”
“I dunno,” Tina admitted. “I guess I was just bored. I wanted to go out to eat, and you and Willow were busy with work.
Peony winced at that. “Oh, no. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for that,” said Rowen, trying to get them back on the more pressing subject at hand. “Did he say anything unusual?”
“I’m not sure I really dated him long enough to get a feel for what was ‘usual’ with that guy,” Tina admitted. “And, I mean, he talked a lot. Like, a whole lot. To be honest, I tuned a lot of it out. I tried to focus on my food. It was pretty good. It was a chicken salad sandwich.”
“Oh!” Willow stepped into the conversation. “Did you eat at Patty’s Diner?”
“Yeah,” said Tina. “That was the place.”
“I love them! Their fries are so good.”
“I know, right?”
Rowen snapped her fingers, drawing the attention back to herself. “Do you remember anything at all?” she asked. “Absolutely anything. Was he having any trouble with people at work? Did he get into a fight with his roommate?”
“He never even mentioned he had a roommate,” said Tina. “He made it sound like he lived alone.” She didn’t look surprised to hear that he’d been lying. “The way he talked, you’d think he owned his own mansion out in the countryside.”
“Well, he had a roommate named Craig,” said Rowen.
“Never heard of him.” Tina’s gaze turned thoughtful all of a sudden, like maybe she had just remembered something. “He did mention one thing.”
“What?”
“He talked like he was about to do something… I dunno. Big? I guess?” Tina shook her head. “I dunno. He was sort of vague about it, and I wasn’t really paying attention.”
“Why did it stand out to you?” asked Rowen.
“He wanted me to guess what it was,” said Tina. “He said I would never guess. So, I didn’t guess, of course. He told me he’d uncovered this big story all on his own. I think he was exaggerating, but now? I dunno. He said he had footage of something that was going to shake up Lainswich. Maybe he was
on to something.”
“Did you tell that to the police?” Rowen had a feeling she might be on to something. This was definitely something that should be mentioned to the police.
Tina shook her head. “They didn’t ask me a whole lot once I told them we hadn’t dated for a while. I guess I should probably tell them about that, huh?”
Rowen was deeply troubled by the lack of common sense of some of her cousins and that of the people they hung out with. “Probably.”
Rowen told Tina not to bother calling Ben. She would do that for her, but she didn’t call Ben immediately heading back to the Greensmith offices first. Eric was waiting for her at his desk. “Well?” he prompted. “How did it go.”
Rowen filled her husband in on everything she had found out. She glanced over a lot of it, handing him the tape recorder in case he wanted to go over the specifics of what had been said in more detail. He did. “Do you mind holding off for a second?” she asked. “I need to make a phone call.”
Eric stood to leave with the recorder. “I’ve been sitting around all day waiting for some news. I’m gonna listen to this thing in the other room.” At least he seemed eager to do some mystery solving. It was nice to have him so on-board with this sort of thing lately. It was important to share an interest or two with your spouse. “Are you calling Ben?”
Rowen nodded. “I have an idea.”
Eric raised an eyebrow. He looked wary of this idea of hers, but he couldn’t have been too worried since he headed down the hall and left her to it. “No blackmail,” he called back to her as he left.
Blackmail? What kind of a person did he think she was? Rowen pulled out her cell phone and found Ben in her contact list. She made the call. It took a few rings for him to answer.
“Hello, Rowen.” Ben sounded a little world weary when he answered the phone. Had she really called him that many times to try and get in on this new case of his? She had offered her help a couple of times sure, but it was hardly a daily thing… yet. Maybe he just saw it coming. Maybe he viewed her forcing her way in on this as something inevitable. Maybe he was just trying to stall it. That seemed awfully rude of him.
“Hey, Ben.” Rowen did her best to sound cheerful, even if Ben didn’t sound particularly thrilled to be hearing from her. “How are things going?”
“They’re going.” Ben didn’t sound like he was interested in exchanging pleasantries. “What are you calling with?”
Rowen decided to humor him. “I have some information for you.”
“Oh, yeah?” Ben didn’t sound interested so much as he did mildly annoyed. “And what kind of information is it?”
“It’s just a small thing. It could be a big deal, I’m not sure yet. Maybe it’s nothing, but I have a feeling it’s important.” Rowen wasn’t the best at selling things. “And, if I tell you, I sure would appreciate it if you let me in on the investigation.”
“You can’t keep information from the police, Rowen,” Ben said with a sigh.
He had a good point there. Rowen hadn’t actually stopped to consider how this might sound. She was suddenly glad Eric had gone off into the other room. Maybe this was a little like blackmail. “I’ll tell you anyway,” she assured Ben. “I’m just… you know. I’m prefacing this information with reminders of how helpful I can be. You absolutely need my help on this. Seriously, I even have a whole private investigator thing going now. Well, I mean, Eric does. Either way, you could use us as consultants! We could help, and it would look a whole lot better than me solving this thing on my own and coming to you after the fact.”
“That’s not exactly how it works out.” Ben sighed. He sounded less weary and more annoyed now. That probably wasn’t a step in the right direction. “Just tell me what you know.”
“I talked to Tina,” Rowen began. Holding on to the information any longer seemed like a bad idea. “I found out she was dating Jerry right before he was murdered.”
“Great detective work.” Ben chuckled. He had, undoubtedly, known that for a while now already. He also knew that she was fairly close with Tina.
“Oh, hush, that’s not my information and you know it.” Rowen got to the good part. “She says that Jerry had his hands on some kind of footage or something. It sounds like he had something he thought would make a good news story. He was bragging about it to Tina. He thought it was really going to shake up Lainswich. She thought he was just exaggerating, but-”
“But then he got murdered,” Ben concluded for her, sounding suddenly thoughtful. “Did she have any idea what it was he found?”
“He was vague about it.” It really wasn’t a whole lot to go on, but Rowen still felt confident it was worth investigating. Her instincts told her as much, and her instincts were usually right. “I’m thinking it could be at the place he shared with his coworker or, maybe, stashed away at work. It’s probably digital, so it could be stashed anywhere.”
“It could be,” Ben conceded.
Rowen smiled to herself, relieved to hear he saw things her way in that respect, at least. “Look, you don’t have to formally ask me to help, but I want to anyway. I really do. None of this will go in the paper. You have my word on that.”
“I trust you not to put all of this in that paper of yours.” Ben sighed, like he was disappointed Rowen thought he would assume that of her.
“If you go to where he lived, I’d really like to come,” Rowen continued. “I think I could get a good impression of him as a person if I went and really had time to get a feel of the place.”
For several long seconds, Ben didn’t say anything. He was being oddly cool in his dealings with her tonight. He had been much more distant than usual since this whole case officially began. Rowen was going to have to look into that. “I’ll consider it,” Ben said, finally. “Thanks for coming to me with this. I’ll talk with you later, all right?” Before Rowen could even say goodbye, he had hung up.
Something was definitely up. Rowen slipped her phone into her pocket. “I’m going next door!” she shouted down the hall, in the direction Eric was in, poring over that tape she had given him. A loud, “Shh!” was all she was greeted with. She left him to it and left the investigative offices to go on over to the Inquirer.
Willow was seated at Rose’s old desk. She looked up when the door opened. “Are we going out to investigate again?” she asked, half rising from her seat. Apparently, that had been more exciting than whatever it was she had to do here.
“I’m just here to talk to Rose.” Rowen ignored Willow’s disappointment and headed on past to her old office. She knocked once before letting herself in. It wasn’t like she was going to catch Rose in the middle of anything illicit. That girl had the work ethic of a saint.
Rose looked up from her computer screen when Rowen came in. “Hey.” She smiled. “What’s up? I thought you were done here for today.”
“Yeah.” Rowen closed the door behind herself. “I just wanted to have a word.” She walked to Rose’s desk and took a seat in front of it. “I just got off the phone with Ben.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rose leaned forward a bit, looking especially interested now. “What? Did you have some news for him? Is it something we can publish?”
“Not until they look into it.” Putting the information in a paper might tip off the wrong people. “He’ll probably look into it soon, though. I’m hoping he’ll bring me along if he gives searching the guy’s house another go. That’s why I’m here talking to you, actually. Is Ben…” Rowen trailed off, looking for the right words. “Is he mad at me for some reason?” She wasn’t sure how else to phrase it. He just seemed off when it came to her lately.
Rose raised her eyebrows. “Why? Did he say something to you that made you think he was?”
Rowen shook her head. “It’s not any one specific thing. It’s more just a feeling that I get. It’s not a witchy feeling either. This is a really obvious feeling. It’s like he’s annoyed by me.”
“Oh.” Rose leaned back in her chair. The sheepish look
on her face was telling. “He might be avoiding you.”
“Why?”
“It’s personal.” It looked like Rose wasn’t going to elaborate for a moment there. “I’m not supposed to say anything to anyone, but I guess you’re not going to go gossiping about it. If you tell Eric, make sure he doesn’t say anything to anyone either. Promise?”
“Of course.” Rowen knew better than to tell her family.
“He’s in a little bit of trouble.” Rose lowered her voice. No doubt, she didn’t want Willow to overhear them outside of the office. “That business with his family a while back really put him in a bit of hot water with the town.”
Not so long ago, Ben’s mother had been a suspect in the murders of her siblings. She hadn’t been guilty. The crime had proved itself to be far more complicated than that. Still, she had gotten rid of some evidence and been more than a little difficult to deal with during the proceedings. Ben had used his power as Chief of Police to keep a lid on things for a long time. Not even Rose could approve of her boyfriend’s actions, and he still seemed to be feeling some residual guilt over them. When he had gotten the position, he had gotten it by exposing the previous Chief of Police as a criminal. Lainswich was, understandably, uncomfortable with the recent actions of the current Chief of Police. Julia Martinez had even done one of her exposés on it.
“Did something actually come of that?” asked Rowen. The last she had checked, the town was just upset. The town got upset a lot. They tended to get over things just as often. All things considered, Ben was good at his job. This was his first slip up. Granted, it was a big one.
“He’s being investigated,” said Rose, cringing as she said the word.
“Seriously?” Rowen hadn’t expected that. She wasn’t sure why it hadn’t occurred to her as a possibility.
Rose nodded. “They don’t have an office of internal affairs. The police station is too small. Terricville is investigating.”
“Terricville?” Rowen repeated. Terricville was a neighboring city. They were slightly larger than Lainswich but not by much. They had never had a lot to do with them in the past.