by Raven Snow
Frank didn’t respond at first. After a moment, he turned in his chair. “What pervy videos?”
Craig’s eyes widened marginally at the question, like he was only now realizing what he had just said. He shook his head. “Never mind,” he said. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“You’re the one who brought it up. What videos?” insisted Frank.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Craig said again, louder this time. “I’m not going to speak poorly of the dead. It wouldn’t be right. Forget I said anything.”
“Well, no, this is a new piece of information you’re giving me here.” It didn’t sound like Frank was going to let this one go. That suited Rowen just fine, but it was making Craig squirm. “You didn’t say it like it was speculation. You said it like you saw these videos yourself. What did you see?”
“Just b-roll footage.” Craig was trying harder than ever to make it sound like it was no big deal. “He had some takes he shouldn’t have held on to, you know. Shots up women’s skirts and stuff. The sort of thing interns hang on to.”
“Hey,” said Benji, apparently taking some offense at being labeled the sort of person who would do something like that.
Frank started to spin back around in his chair but couldn’t. He’d been rather blasé and uninterested in all of Rowen’s past dealings with him, but he couldn’t seem to shake whatever it was he was feeling now. He started to speak then glanced at Rowen and Rose, as if trying to gauge whether or not he wanted to get into this with them right there. “Do you know where he kept these videos?”
Craig tried an unconvincing laugh. “Why? You want to look at some of them?”
“No, you idiot,” Frank snapped. “This is serious. If he had footage of people, that… That’s something the wrong person might kill you over, isn’t it? Especially if he tried to blackmail someone with it, and I liked Jerry, but I don’t think he was the sort of person who was above blackmailing someone. You need to go to the cops with that.”
“I already told them,” Craig blurted.
“No, you didn’t,” Rose shot back, stepping into the conversation. She glanced over to Rowen after she had said it, like she wasn’t sure it was something she should have come right out with. Rowen didn’t say anything. There was nothing she could do now that it was out there. “I talk to Ben about the case all the time. One of the working theories is that his plan to blackmail someone backfired. We’re actively looking for that footage or anyone who has ever seen the footage.”
“I thought I told them.” Craig turned back to his work then stood abruptly. “I can’t get anything done like this. I’m just gonna come in early tomorrow.” He began to gather up his things.
Frank leaned forward in his chair, his eyebrows drawn together. He looked at Rose who, apparently, had even more to say. “You would have been questioned about a lot of that explicitly. You didn’t say anything. You couldn’t have said anything.”
Craig dropped his work bag. He leaned down, fumbled with it, and hurried right out the door, slamming into it to open it. “That was awkward,” said Benji, looking thoroughly confused. “Wasn’t that awkward?”
Rowen looked at Rose. “That’s our murderer,” she said, with no small amount of confidence.
“What?” Frank stood. “You’re just going to let him walk out of here?”
“I guess we should follow him?” asked Rose, already getting out her phone, probably to call Ben.
Frank nodded. “What if he makes a run for it?” He rushed out into the hallway. “Craig!” he shouted, sounding alarmed. With the door open, Rowen could hear the sounds of footsteps on tile. Frank was right. They had spooked him. Rowen jumped to her feet as well, not waiting to make sure everyone else did the same.
He couldn’t get away, could he? A tech geek like that? A life on the run didn’t suit him. Then again, he probably had the smarts to flee the country if he really felt threatened. Rowen swore under her breath as she tore out of the room and down the hall, hot on Frank’s heels. She really should have tried to hold off on confronting him. At least this was entirely her fault and not Ben’s.
There were so many twists and turns in the Channel 2 hallways. Rowen rounded one corner only to plow right into Frank. He barely avoided falling over. “Which way did he go?” she demanded.
“I don’t know!” Frank snapped back at her. “There are exits both ways. You go that way!” Frank took off in the opposite direction. “Split up!” Rowen shouted behind her, assuming the others were following her. There were so many different ways to go in this building. He could literally be anywhere.
At least she had taken a hallway she recognized. This was the way she had come in led by Benji in the past. She retraced her steps, moving as quickly as she could. If nothing else, if she could find the exit and go into the parking lot, maybe she could stop him from getting to his car. He had a head start, though. He was bound to get there before her.
Rowen hadn’t quite rounded the corner before she heard it. Heavy breathing. She went around the next corner and there he was, struggling with a jog toward the exit. Being a classic tech geek also meant he was a bit out of shape. That was her good luck. Her footsteps must have made some noise, because Craig glanced over his shoulder, saw she was closing in on him, and started pumping his legs as fast as he was able. Rowen tried to do the same. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in the best of shape herself. Geez, this job involved a lot more running than she had been prepared for. She really needed to start hitting the gym.
Craig turned another corner, but Rowen was right behind him. There was one of the exit signs blinking at the end of the hall, and he pulled out a key fob. Even if Rowen caught up with him when he paused to open his car door, she wasn’t sure that would do her much good. He might not be a huge guy, but he was big enough to fight her off long enough to make his getaway. He had been big enough to push Jerry from a ledge and to drag his body to an open grave. Rowen didn’t really like her chances if she caught up with him and she was alone.
As it turned out she didn’t need to worry. Someone shot from a connecting hallway before the exit sign, and Rowen saw Benji come flying around the corner right into Craig’s path. He launched himself right at him, screeching some unintelligible war cry as they both went tumbling to the floor. Rowen caught up while they fought. She did her best to help, but wasn’t sure where to grab. The two guys were a mass of flailing limbs.
“Over here!” Rowen shouted, hoping someone was near enough to hear. Willow and Frank should be somewhere. As if on cue, Frank came running around the corner of an adjacent hallway. He was still some ways off, but Rowen raised her arms to flag him down. At that same moment, Benji was shoved onto her. Rowen gave a yelp as she was pinned to the floor. By the time she had managed to drag herself out from under Benji, Craig was out the door. Rowen got to her feet, sprinted to the door, threw it open and stopped.
“You all right, man?” asked Eric, looking down at a collapsed Craig. It seemed he had come out of the building at full tilt only to crash into Rowen’s fairly well-built husband.
“Get him! He’s the murderer!” Rowen shouted. She needn’t have.
Craig looked as if he had given up. Police were pulling into the parking lot, but Eric reached down and took his keys for good measure. “I know you’re consulting with the police, but I don’t think you have jurisdiction to run down criminals.”
“It just sort of happened,” said Rowen, still breathless after the chase. Frank came jogging out of the building next. Between him and Eric, she felt like they had Craig under control until the police could take over, so Rowen headed back inside to check on Benji.
Willow was already kneeling beside him, fussing over a bloody nose. “Seriously? You just tackled him. So brave.”
Rose was standing over the two. She looked up when Rowen reentered. “Did you get him?”
“Yep, we got him.” She frowned at her cousins. “No thanks to you two. Where were you guys at the end there?”
“C
alling Ben,” said Rose, holding up her phone. “How do you think the police got here so fast?”
Rowen supposed that was a good excuse. The police had gotten here in record time. “And you?” she asked Willow.
Willow gave a helpless shrug. “I’m wearing heels.” She smiled down at Benji. “Besides, you had it under control.”
“I really didn’t,” Benji said quietly, wincing when she touched his cheek.
Willow gave another shrug. “Well, either way, it all worked out in the end. Just like it always does.”
Epilogue
Things had, more or less, worked out. Craig confessed. As Rowen had suspected, he really hadn’t meant to murder Jerry. He was a mess confessing, she heard. He had it bad for Julia Martinez. He had it bad for a lot of women, acutally, and thought he was their white knight or something. Rowen supposed she should count herself lucky he hadn’t interfered in her life more.
Jerry had mentioned Julia’s affair to Craig, jokingly. Craig had refused to believe him. He’d been so angry and adamant Jerry was a liar, Jerry had just shown him the tape. From there, he had followed the blackmail scam and posed as someone interested in a trade as a ruse. He’d confronted Jerry in the park. Things had gotten out of hand after that. Craig had done his best to hide the evidence after the fact, but there was only so much he could do. It hadn’t been premeditated. He’d had no time to plan for any of this.
Rowen pitied the guy, but at the same time she was glad he had been brought to justice, and she was happy for Ben. The forum had come and gone. While the people of Lainswich weren’t thrilled with him, they all agreed that he was good at his job. Another murderer had been caught on his watch, after all. Only time would tell how long Ben would remain in their good graces. For now, he and Rose seemed happy enough.
Also happy was Willow. She and Benji made an odd couple to be sure, but somehow, they fit together. Rowen approved. She felt a bit sorry for Benji, but she hoped they lasted. He seemed a good bit sweeter than the usual riffraff Willow dated.
Everything was looking up. Rowen’s only regret was how utterly they had dropped the ball on Seraphina’s investigation. They were sitting in the back of Odds & Ends, getting an earful about it now. Eric sat across from her, dutifully nodding as Seraphina went on and on about how Rowen had gotten him to more or less confess to the affair and hadn’t even had the foresight to bring a recorder of some sort. Eric tried to point out that it was illegal to record someone without their knowledge in this state and would have been inadmissible in court, but Seraphina ignored all of that and kept on ranting about how good help was so hard to find in this town.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to demand a refund,” Seraphina said, throwing her hands up after she was finished ranting. “I don’t need the money back, you see. It’s just the principle of the thing.”
“It’s not like you paid us in full.” Rowen had had more than enough of this woman. “The contract you signed said--”
“It’s fine,” Eric said interrupting her. “Mrs. Hawthorne here can have the refund. We don’t need the money either. Like she said, it’s just the principle of the thing.”
Seraphina did raise an eyebrow at that. She probably hadn’t guessed Eric had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth much as she had. This was Eric’s business. She probably should have let the matter go, let him do what he wanted. She couldn’t. “Seraphina, the principle of the thing is that you’re a-”
“Excuse me.” Aunt Lydia opened the door to the back room, wearing a smile. “I couldn’t help but overhear. Sounds like things aren’t going very well in here.”
“Aunt Lydia, now isn’t really a good time.”
“Yes, yes.” Lydia waved a hand dismissing all that. “I thought I might be able to help, actually. You see, that Darren Hawthorne fellow and I had a fling… Oh, what was it? Well, the last time was three months ago, at any rate.”
“Aunt Lydia!” Rowen stared, unsure of what to say. They all stared. Seraphina was the first one to speak, staying remarkably collected.
“And you would be willing to testify to that?” asked Seraphina.
“Oh, I can do you one better. I have it on-”
“In love letters,” Rowen blurted, cutting her off. “She has it in love letters.” Rowen hoped that was the case. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t.
Seraphina raised an eyebrow. “And you wouldn’t mind…”
Aunt Lydia gave Seraphina a perfectly pleasant smile. “Anything to help my niece here. I can’t stand all their hard work going to waste.”
“Splendid.” Seraphina gathered her things and stood. She left with Aunt Lydia, leaving Rowen gaping at the door after them.
“Case closed.”