by Pamela Tracy
“We know,” Riley started, taking a seat opposite her, “that you contacted me about Candace’s murder. What exactly did you see yesterday?”
Shelley swallowed back hot bile. It rose inside her like a mountain of fear. She couldn’t trust the cops. Yet she had a dozen things she wanted to say. She wanted to tell them that she was almost out of money, that her father was drifting further and further away, that she’d started introducing Ryan as Ryan Brubaker but that he was legally Ryan Wagner and she was terrified that someone would figure out her name wasn’t on the custody papers and take him from her. She wanted to tell them she’d seen her ex-husband standing there in that living room yesterday morning, and that she’d run home, dragging Ryan with her, and sat down on her couch, fumbling with the phone, intending to call.
She wanted to tell them that her ex-husband still had the ability to pull her puppet strings and that he’d killed Candace and had threatened Ryan and seemed to know her every step. She couldn’t answer the cops’ questions honestly because she knew her ex-husband would make her disappear.
It could even happen today.
CHAPTER FIVE
OSCAR COULDN’T DENY that he felt drawn to Shelley. And it made no sense when examining what was stacked against her. There was the packed car, the fact that she’d fled the crime scene and the town. No matter how he looked at it, Shelley Wagner—Brubaker, that was—was more involved in this murder than they originally suspected. Too bad. Oscar had gotten the idea that he could like this kind, determined woman.
Didn’t mean she was completely innocent; he had to remind himself of that.
She was working hard to keep control, and Oscar had the feeling it wouldn’t take much to get her to reveal what she knew. She kept looking past them, through the wide doorway, at the front desk, where the nurse and Ryan were playing some online game on the computer.
Riley placed an audio recording device on the coffee table in front of them. Oscar couldn’t tell where he’d stashed it earlier. “Do you mind if I record this?”
“I do mind.”
Riley didn’t hesitate. “Then I’ll take notes.”
A visitor or two wandered into the piano room, seemed to sense the seriousness of the situation and quickly wandered out.
Shelley, her voice shaky, said, “Look, I got scared yesterday. Maybe I made a few bad decisions, but what’s happening now, you here questioning me, is exactly why I didn’t report the...the body immediately or report it in person.”
Oscar watched Riley regroup and understood exactly what the other cop was doing. They needed Shelley to work with them, not against them. Riley rested his pencil on his notepad, and Oscar used the opportunity to take over.
“Right now, all we want is to know everything you saw yesterday morning. Start with the fifteen minutes before you met up with me.”
She didn’t answer. She sat quiet, but certainly not calm. She perched on the edge of the couch looking poised for flight.
Oscar downplayed the seriousness of her situation by sharing, “I’ve already told Riley what I noticed during the walk.” He cleared his throat, hoping his comment would relax her. “I’ve told him how no one was out, not even Mrs. Simms taking care of the flowers in her front yard. I told him about seeing you, and about a white car that turned the corner.”
For a moment, she was so still, he couldn’t even tell if she was breathing. Then she said, “I’ll tell you what I know, but it’s not much. We were running late. I’d had trouble sleeping because Abigail’s dog woke me up about five. Then the phone rang, and I got upset. That cost us precious time. Fifteen minutes before we encountered you, I was getting Ryan ready for preschool. I tried to hurry him. As we started I didn’t see anyone out.”
Oscar asked, “What got you upset?”
Shelley looked at Riley. “Someone got my number and wanted me to pay back money that Larry took.”
Riley nodded. “Go on.”
“It was hot outside. I was miserable. We walk to preschool. I’m watching my pennies, saving gas. Even if it makes us later, we walk. We’d just made it past the first house.” She looked at Oscar. “The young couple.”
“Candace and Cody,” he supplied.
“We saw you, and Ryan fell in love with your dog. Then he got distracted, and you saw him run up to the big picture window. I followed. That’s when I saw her, lying on the floor. I could tell she was dead.”
“Why didn’t you holler for me?”
Shelley looked like Mona Lisa with her lips pressed together. His sister looked exactly the same when she felt backed into a corner and about to come out fighting. “You were already down the street.” Shelley kept her words quiet, monotone.
“You could have caught me.”
“I didn’t want to upset Ryan.”
Riley took control of the interview. “Ryan saw Candace Livingston?”
“That’s her last name?” Shelley whispered.
“Candace Maria Livingston,” Riley said.
Shelley shook her head. “Poor woman. Yes, Ryan saw her and thought she was sleeping. I don’t think he even noticed the blood.”
“How well did you know her?”
“Not at all. I’d seen her once or twice in the driveway. She’d say hi, and I’d say hi back. Nothing else.”
Riley asked, “You’d never seen inside her living room?”
“No, just yesterday morning when I was looking in. I got away from there as fast as I could. I took care of my son, kept him safe, and I eventually notified the police.”
“It’s the eventually that concerns us,” Oscar said.
Riley added, “Want to tell me why you packed up and left?”
Shelley rolled her eyes. “I’m not staying in the neighborhood. Not only has someone been murdered, but also I’m the one who found her. I’ve got enough on my plate and plenty of reasons not to trust the police. Another reason I called you and didn’t leave my name. I wanted to let you know what I discovered and stay anonymous. Shouldn’t I be given the courtesy of reporting a crime while remaining anonymous?”
“There are ways,” Riley agreed, “to stay anonymous. You didn’t choose that route.”
“I was flustered,” Shelley said.
“What I can’t explain,” Riley mused slowly, “is why you came back.”
“Again, as I told Officer Guzman earlier, I came back because of my dad.”
“Your dad is safe.”
She glanced down the hallway. Nope, Oscar thought, this woman did not truly believe her dad was safe. That meant she didn’t feel that she or Ryan was safe. Oscar needed to find out why. If it wasn’t for the fact that nothing had been taken from Candace’s house—not money, jewelry or electronics—Oscar might think Larry Wagner had something to do with the crime.
Oscar had to act. He was losing this argument. “Ms. Brubaker, Candace was a friend of mine. I’ve known her since she was in kindergarten. She was a good person who never hurt anyone. Anything you can tell us would be appreciated.”
“I can’t tell you any more than I already have,” Shelley whispered.
“Can’t or won’t?” Oscar demanded, ignoring the look of reprimand Riley shot him.
“I didn’t know her,” Shelley protested. “I followed Ryan to the window. He said, ‘She’s asleep.’ I took one look and knew that wasn’t the case. I was terrified. It hasn’t even been six months since my ex-husband took off. You called me Shelley Wagner. You’ve been in town, what, a month? And you already know who I am, so you must know the destruction he left and what I went through, what I’m still going through. I get calls every week from people wanting my story or wanting me to reimburse them for what my husband stole from them. If I had waltzed into the station and reported seeing a dead body, I’d have been on the five o’clock news yesterday. Ryan doesn’t need t
he circus to begin again. He’s just now sleeping through the night.”
“What if your hesitation, your unwillingness to tell us everything you saw, gives the murderer an opportunity to kill again?” Riley queried.
Not the direction Oscar would have taken, but it didn’t seem to faze Shelley Brubaker.
“Maybe it’s the husband,” Shelley responded. This time she didn’t whisper, and Oscar got the idea she’d given the conclusion some thought. “I don’t have much faith in husbands. Have you asked him?”
“I thought you didn’t know the family,” Riley countered.
“I know that the young man managed the store my dad used to manage. My window looks right down on their house. I did see enough of them to realize who they were.”
“Funny thing,” Riley said. “Her husband is out of town and you left town. Were you meeting up with him?”
Oscar almost slid off the chair. For a small-town cop, Riley knew how to unnerve a witness. He was unnerving Oscar. The cop in him should have been prepared. The human in him wasn’t. He’d been watching Shelley for weeks. He knew she wasn’t seeing Cody Livingston. The woman took care of her son and took care of her father. That was about it.
“I don’t even know his name,” Shelley said indignantly.
“You sure packed quickly.”
“Did you see the size of my garage apartment? Everything I own will fit in a laundry basket. Oh, and take a look at what’s in my car,” Shelley offered. “You’ll find what amounts to fifteen minutes of packing up clothes, games and food. I had no intention of putting myself, or my son, in front of the media again. Fat lot of good it did me.”
“You could have done a fat lot of good yesterday,” Riley stated. “We’d have found the body sooner. The first twenty-four hours are the most important. You cost us a few of those hours when you didn’t report what you saw immediately.”
Shelley huffed. It was the wrong reaction. It bothered Riley enough that he tossed out words like subpoena and civic duty and even mentioned that leaving the scene of an accident was a class two misdemeanor.
The last one, Oscar knew, was overkill. There’d been no accident. Candace had been murdered. Then Riley pulled out his cell phone. Oscar watched as his fingers danced over the screen, and suddenly he was swiping through photos.
He was probably going to show Shelley a close-up of Candace Livingston—go for the shock and guilt tactic. Oscar closed his eyes for a moment, steeling himself against the sudden pain in his heart.
Senseless death.
He’d seen way too much of it in Afghanistan. As a cop, he wanted to help people. Yet cops and murderers were uneasy dance partners with one always trying to lead the other.
He wished the case was all his, that he could take over the questioning, demand answers, but he was pretending to be the new kid on the block.
“Here, maybe you need to see this.” Riley turned his cell phone toward Shelley, showing her a photo.
Shelley looked away. Oscar started to protest. This wasn’t the time or place, but her rescue came from a different source.
“Hello, Mr. Vaniper,” Shelley said. The piano player had returned. For a moment, Oscar thought Riley would continue to talk right through “Amazing Grace.” Oscar’d had to “ahem” twice to get Riley’s attention. Riley passed the cell phone to Shelley. She glanced at it, gave it back to Riley and announced that she’d be calling her lawyer.
Oscar saw the tears in her eyes. They barely shimmered, but they were there, and just as an hour earlier, when he’d seen the proof of her grief, he almost interfered. Oscar almost told Riley what he could do with the photo.
“Good,” Riley said. “Have your lawyer meet us at the station. I’m sure you know where that is.”
If looks could kill, Riley would have been a chalk line on the floor, because Shelley was now one very annoyed pregnant woman.
Shelley stood and started to leave, but her cell phone pinged. He watched as she pulled it from her pocket, checked a text or message and then turned pale.
“Everything all right?” he queried, wishing he could get a look at her phone.
“Just a typical day.” The words were typical; the tone was not. An edge that hadn’t been there earlier was present, a terseness.
Whatever she’d read on her phone had changed things. She’d been both angry and wary during the questioning; now she was visibly shaken.
She retrieved Ryan from the front desk, hefting him into her arms and holding him tight. She made it look easy, but the kid had to be heavy.
Oscar took one step toward her. “You need some help?”
She gave him a look that put him in his place. Alongside Riley, he was pond scum. Usually it didn’t bother him. Rarely could a cop arrest a perp without being called worse than pond scum. Shelley’s look, however, bothered him.
Bothered him a lot.
CHAPTER SIX
“SHE’S NOT TELLING us everything.” Riley strode toward his vehicle, Oscar at his heels.
“You’re absolutely right,” Oscar agreed. “She just got a message on her phone and it spooked her.”
“What kind of message?”
Oscar knew Riley was hoping for details. Instead all Oscar could provide was “It was an email or a text, and she didn’t share.”
“I’ll see if I can’t get her to open up,” Riley said. “Usually talking to them at the station works. Doesn’t matter, male or female. It’s all about turf. If that doesn’t help, I’ll get a subpoena, make sure we can legally get to her phone messages. I can’t believe that she packed up her belongings, didn’t inform her landlord, was heading out of town and is unwilling to tell us where or why. Something’s going on. She didn’t act this hinky back when we were dogging her about her husband’s whereabouts.”
Riley got in his vehicle, but before he started the engine, Oscar rapped on the window until the man rolled it down.
“Everything’s happened so fast today. I probably should mention that Shelley Wagner and I have met in the past.”
“Really?” Riley frowned. “Where?”
“Here. I spent a summer with my aunt when I was twelve.”
“Anything I should know about?”
“Not really. Look, for what it’s worth, I think she’s telling the truth about what she saw. It’s what she’s omitting that has me worried.”
Riley just shook his head.
“Why is she omitting anything?” Oscar went on. “Why would she do that? What will it get her?”
It was the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, and Oscar didn’t have an answer. He pressed on. “Call it a gut feeling, and what would her motive be?” Oscar waited, hoping the other man would do a little back-and-forth, share scenarios.
Riley waved Oscar away before starting his vehicle and driving toward the station.
Oscar stood for a moment. He’d overstepped the boundaries set between new cop and seasoned cop. He’d questioned when he should have listened. He’d argued when he should have reasoned. He’d tried to lead when he needed to follow. Going undercover for the FBI meant playing the role, not risking everything because of passion.
He wanted the people who had hurt Candace. Wanted them bad. He hopped on the back of his Harley, gunned the engine and followed Riley’s vehicle. It made no sense to him, this insane feeling he had for Shelley. So what if he’d been watching her with Ryan, watching her idly rub her stomach? She was alone and determined to do right by her children. No, that wasn’t what had him wanting to pull her into his arms and comfort her.
But this wasn’t the time to be empathetic. Catching hardened criminals was part of his day-to-day job with the FBI, and each one had a sob story. Here, in Sarasota Falls, he might run into a hardened criminal—what? Once a year? Maybe. This wasn’t what he wanted, was it?
Still, Oscar hadn’t expected to like Sarasota Falls so much. He hadn’t been crazy about it the few times he’d visited as a kid. There hadn’t been a skate park or an indoor trampoline facility. Now, though, he was interested in other things. Things that had nothing to do with his job. First of all, there was his aunt. What a tough old bird. Oscar wasn’t sure, but he thought that Aunt Bianca was more angry at being ripped off by Wagner than she was hurt. When Oscar had called to say he was coming, she’d laughed, insisting she was fine. When she opened the door to invite him in, she continued to be fine. Now that he was living in one of her guest rooms, she claimed to be more than fine.
She liked his company.
Parking next to Riley, Oscar followed his boss to the station’s entrance and said, “Innocent until proven guilty. I don’t think Shelley Brubaker had anything to do with Candace’s death.”
“Here’s an idea,” Riley offered. “Since it doesn’t appear your Ms. Brubaker is having an affair with Cody Livingston, maybe we should consider that your friend Candace was having an affair with Shelley’s ex-husband. Maybe Larry Wagner—”
Oscar laughed, interrupting the chief. “Candace hasn’t even been married a year. She married her high school sweetheart. Beginning of the school year, they were moving into their first house and talking about which bedroom would be for their someday baby. Not the time to stray.”
“Best time, one last fling. You think you know someone...” Riley entered the station.
Oscar didn’t follow but stood thinking. His first thought was that Candace was smarter than that. But from what he could tell, so was Shelley. And maybe, right now, Riley wasn’t talking about either of them.
Everyone at the precinct was aware that Riley’s wife had left him years ago. According to Lucas, the cop who knew the scoop on everyone and everything and shared all of it, Riley had been gone too much and available too little. It was a common enough problem. Oscar’s last girlfriend had balked when he started training for the FBI. She claimed she’d have been afraid to answer the phone or door should he get a dangerous case. In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have responded with “They’re all dangerous.” It had taken him a whole month after the breakup to realize that since he’d picked the career over her, he must not have loved her enough.