Lawyers, Liars and Lemon Tarts

by A. R. Winters

  I nodded and sank down into the chair opposite him, grateful that at least I’d managed to wrestle the gun away from the woman. “I’m fine. But I have this for you.” I reached into my handbag, pulled out the gun, and handed it over to Ethan. He looked at it and raised one eyebrow.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “A woman decided to accost me in the parking lot. I managed to grab the gun from her, but I couldn’t stop her from getting into her car and driving away.”

  Ethan looked at me, worried. “What’s this about?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you about the case. Client confidentiality and all that.”

  Anger glinted in Ethan’s eyes. “That’s far less important than your safety! Why don’t you tell me what’s going on, then maybe I can help. I don’t want you getting hurt over a silly case.”

  I smiled. It was sweet of him to care, but if I told him what I was looking into, he would say that I was meddling in police business. And he would be right.

  “Why don’t we just say that a woman randomly accosted me in the street?”

  “You’re withholding evidence. I need to know what’s going on.”

  I sighed. “I really can’t tell you all the details yet. It’s nothing serious.”

  Ethan shook his head. “I hope you’re not keeping secrets from me.”

  “Like I said, it’s nothing serious.”

  “It’s serious enough for a woman to randomly draw a gun on you. Let me guess—you’re looking into some kind of homicide, and you’re not the most popular person around right now.”

  I smiled. “When have I ever been the most popular person around?”

  Ethan took a close look at the gun, and then he pulled up something on his computer. I watched as he typed away silently for a few minutes.

  A while later, Ethan got up to make a few phone calls, and though I tried to eavesdrop, he was standing too far away and talking too softly for me to hear what he was saying.

  When he returned, he said, “This gun’s been stolen.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. It was among the items reported missing after the owner had a break-in.”

  “That’s odd. How long ago was the break-in?”

  “About two weeks ago. Why? What happened two weeks ago?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said. I hated lying to Ethan, but I didn’t want to be told not to investigate this case anymore.

  “I’m not a fan of the secret-keeping. I know that you’re not telling me because if you did, I’d tell you not to investigate anymore.”

  I shrugged. “You know my job. I have to do whatever I’ve been hired to do.”

  “No, you don’t. You can close a case, or you can refuse to accept something. Especially something dangerous.”

  I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. Finally, I said, “The person who had this gun might’ve killed someone with it. Have you had any local murders within the past two weeks where you couldn’t find the gun?”

  Ethan frowned. “What murder?”

  Admitting that it was Lana’s murder would be the same as admitting that I was looking into her death, so I said, “I’m not sure.”

  “Well, I’ll check with the other Homicide guys,” Ethan said. “There’s nothing more you can tell me about this case of yours?”

  I shook my head. “Sorry. But the car she drove off in was a black Honda, and the last three numbers of the license plate were seven-three-five.”

  Ethan nodded and typed some more on his computer.

  “It’s a rental,” he said after a few minutes. “From Santa Verona Cheap Car Rentals.”

  I nodded. The car rental place would be closed by now, but I could pay them a visit tomorrow.

  “Can you tell me anything at all about this case?” Ethan said. “What if I promise not to tell you to stop meddling?”

  I smiled, despite myself. “You wouldn’t do that.”

  Ethan grimaced. “Yeah, I guess I can’t do that.”

  I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I hated keeping this a secret from Ethan, but there didn’t seem to be any way around it. Finally, we talked about the weather, and about the unusually low number of tourists this time of the month.

  A little while later, Beth appeared and said, “Ready to get going?”

  I nodded and awkwardly thanked Ethan for his help.

  “It’s my job,” he said gruffly. “And I almost forgot—the woman who owned the gun. One Clarissa Smith, lives up in Nelson Way.”

  I wrote down the woman’s phone number and address, just in case I needed to pay her a visit later on, and then I said goodbye to Ethan and headed out.

  I had just stepped out of the courthouse when I saw a familiar figure in front of me. “Teresa?”

  She turned around and smiled. “Oh, hey, Mindy! What’re you doing here?”

  “Umm…” I didn’t feel like explaining about the attack and the gun, so I said, “Just stopped by to say hello to some cop friends. A lot of us went to high school together. What’re you doing here?”

  “Well, I just noticed that my laptop’s missing. I think it must’ve been stolen a few days ago when I took it with me to a café.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

  Teresa shrugged. “That’s okay, it was rather old anyway. I might as well upgrade now.”

  I nodded. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

  “How’s the case going?”

  “Not bad,” I said. “But I’ll be glad when it’s over.”

  Just then, Beth showed up, ready to drive over to my mom’s house, and Teresa and I said polite goodbyes.

  “Good luck with the case,” said Teresa. “I’m sure it’ll be over soon.”

  Chapter 13

  Beth’s car smelled of lemony goodness, and when we went to my mother’s house, she brought a box of mini lemon tarts with her for dessert.

  It was good to see my mom and Aunt Kira again. They were both in the kitchen, chopping up tomatoes and cucumber for the salad. My mother is a retired middle school teacher with light brown hair and stress-induced wrinkles that have been rapidly fading ever since her retirement. Aunt Kira is ten years older than her, with short, undyed gray hair and a penchant for wearing half-moon reading glasses. The house they live in together, an old, unrenovated place with bathrooms and a kitchen that are more functional than stylish, is a ten-minute drive from the beach.

  I helped myself to a cube of Feta cheese, and then Beth and I set the table. Within a few minutes, we were all at the table, gobbling up the delicious roast chicken and salad, and I filled my mother in on the case.

  “Isn’t that awkward, working for your ex-boyfriend?” asked Aunt Kira. “The last time you talked about him, you mentioned that he kept asking you to get back together with him.”

  “Well, he’s paying me double, so I figured I might as well take the job. And I did tell him that he has to respect me, and that I’m not doing this because I like him—I’m doing it because he’s paying me double. I think he gets it.”

  “Men like him never get it,” said Aunt Kira. “He sounds like the kind of man who thinks every woman is in love with him.”

  “And he’s right surprisingly often,” I said. “It seems like every other woman is interested in him.”

  “I’m sure you can understand why,” said my mother. “After all, you did go out with him.”

  “That’s true,” I said. “He’s good-looking, he’s charming, and he has a good job. I suppose people who don’t know him very well get taken in by his charm. He knows how to be nice to you.”

  Aunt Kira nodded. “Most men don’t really have any idea about how to talk to a woman, let alone flatter her and make her think she’s wonderful. No wonder Liam has an easy time with the ladies.”

  “And he has no ethics about it either,” said Beth. “It’s like he’ll sleep with anyone who’s interested in him.”

  “I guess he’s Neve’s problem to deal with
now,” I said. “As long as he pays me, and I can solve this case. That’s all I need to worry about.”

  “But who would’ve hated Lana enough to kill her?” my mother asked. “Whoever did it must’ve really planned it out. They went to Lana’s office when there would be nobody there but her.”

  Beth and I exchanged a glance. It was something that had bothered me. Whoever had killed Lana had made sure to plan everything out properly, and now that we were investigating, they were intent on getting us out of the way as well. I hadn’t told my mother about the woman with the gun—I didn’t want to worry her too much.

  “So far, the person with the most reason to want to see Lana dead is Winona Flinders,” I said.

  I filled my mother and Aunt Kira in on the details of Justice O’Connor’s affair, and how calm and self-contained Winona had seemed when we’d talked to her.

  “It’s hard to guess how much she’s really letting on,” Beth said. “She could be lying about everything. She has no alibi, and nobody would suspect a popular socialite like her. She could easily have killed Lana.”

  “What about Felicity?” said Aunt Kira. “She doesn’t sound like a very good friend to me. Perhaps she went to visit Lana and the two argued and it was an act of passion when she killed Lana. An act of passion doesn’t have to be a spouse or a boyfriend—it could be a close friend who’s angry with you.”

  I made a face and shrugged. “I really can’t imagine Felicity murdering Lana. Although her alibi didn’t check out. We’ll have to talk to her about what’s going on there.”

  “If you ask me, lying about an alibi is pretty suspicious,” said my mom.

  Beth and I nodded in agreement, and we talked a bit more about the case as we all dug into the chicken and salad.

  Chapter 14

  The next morning, Beth and I were having breakfast—coffee and leftover lemon cupcakes—when my phone rang.

  It was Liam, and he didn’t sound too happy.

  “Someone tried to kill me!” he said. “You need to get down here. Right now.”

  Liam sounded shaken, but for some reason, I couldn’t muster up too much sympathy for him. He had almost gotten me killed, and he was the cause of an awkward rift between me and Ethan. I appreciated that he was paying me double my usual rate, but in some ways, I regretted accepting this case.

  I looked down at my lemon cupcake and said, “We’ll be there in about a half hour. Are you safely indoors?”

  “Half an hour? What’s taking you so long? You do realize that I was almost killed!”

  I rolled my eyes. “Try to stay indoors. Beth and I will be there, and then you can tell us about what happened.”

  I looked at Beth and filled her in on Liam’s message.

  “You think it was the same woman?” said Beth.

  I nodded. “Perhaps she’s got more than one stolen gun.”

  “Well, if she’s got access to a dealer, she won’t have trouble getting more guns.”

  I frowned. This was worrying, but Beth was right. The woman seemed deadly serious about her intentions.

  “I can see why she would want us dead. We might uncover her secret. But what’s Liam got to do with it?”

  “Perhaps she thinks that if she gets him out of the way, we’ll stop investigating.”

  I nodded. “That’s true. Liam getting killed would stop our investigation, because we wouldn’t get paid anymore.”

  “Plus, she probably thinks that if we’re out of the picture, the police investigation will have to stop where it is.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not so sure about the police investigation. But either way, this woman means business.”

  I thought back to my run-in with her yesterday, remembering everything that had happened in slow motion. I tried my best to think of where I had seen this woman, or who her voice sounded like, but I just couldn’t place her.

  Beth and I finished our breakfast in silence, and then we headed over to Liam’s condo, where we found him in a state of agitation.

  “How long does it take you guys to investigate this?” he said, pacing up and down the living room. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. I might get killed over the stupid woman. I should have broken up with her ages ago!”

  “Why don’t you start at the beginning?” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “Tell us exactly what happened.”

  Liam looked at us, his eyes wild and angry. “I don’t even know what good it’ll do this guy to kill me. It’s not like you two will stop investigating just because I’m dead.”

  Beth and I exchanged a glance. If I was being completely honest, I would’ve told Liam that the case would definitely be over if he was dead, but I figured that information wouldn’t put him in the best of moods. Instead, I said, “What happened exactly? Were you shot at?”

  “I go running every morning,” said Liam. “So I had my run this morning, and then I was heading home when a black Honda jumped the curb and tried to run me over. I had to run across the street a couple of times to get rid of him. I’m surprised I even made it in one piece.”

  “Are you sure it was a black Honda?” I said. I really needed to get in touch with the car rental agency.

  “Of course I’m sure! I only wish I’d gotten the guy’s license plate.”

  “Did you manage to see who it was that was trying to run you over?” Beth asked.

  “It was some guy wearing a black hoodie and sunglasses. Anyway, it was hard to see his face properly.” Liam finally stopped pacing and sat down on one of the sofas.

  “Are you sure it was a guy? It might’ve been a woman.”

  Liam shrugged. “Okay, so maybe it was a woman. I’m not sure. Like I said, I couldn’t really make out his face properly.”

  “But I don’t understand why someone would kill you because of Lana’s murder,” I said. “You’re the chief suspect. If you’re dead, the cops’ll start looking at everyone else more seriously.”

  “Maybe the killer thinks that the cops’ll think Liam’s death is unrelated,” suggested Beth. “And that once Liam’s dead, the two of us will stop investigating, too.”

  “That’s possible,” I said.

  “Or maybe,” said Beth, “Liam knows something about this suspect.”

  We both turned to look at Liam, but he held up his hands and said, “What? I’ve already told you everything I know.”

  “Maybe you’ve forgotten something,” I said. “Think.”

  “There’s nothing else,” Liam said. “I’ve told you every single thing I know.”

  I sighed, knowing that was true. “I think it’s better if you stay home for a few days. Just until we sort this all out.”

  “And when will that be?” Liam looked from me to Beth. “I’m already suspended from my job. And now I’ve got crazy people trying to kill me. When does it end?”

  “Beth and I are working on this. I’m sure everything will be sorted out soon.”

  “Isn’t there any way you guys can work any faster?” Liam said. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

  “I can.” The words slipped out before I could stop myself.

  Liam looked at me in surprise. “What does that mean?”

  What it meant was that I thought Liam was a horrible person, and some of his past sins were catching up with him. But I didn’t want to get into a long, drawn-out argument with him, so instead, I said, “Bad things happen all the time. I’m sure you see all kinds of things as assistant DA.”

  He took a moment to let my words sink in, and then he nodded. “Yeah. It’s just that you never think it’ll happen to you.”

  Beth and I asked him a few more questions about where he had been, whether there had been anyone else on the street at that time, and if he’d ever felt like he’d been followed. A few minutes later, it seemed like we’d gotten all the information we could out of Liam.

  We were just about to start heading out when Liam’s phone rang, and the answering machine picked up. After the beep, a woman began
to leave a message.

  “Liam, this is Rita. I’ve thought about what you said, and I don’t think it’s a good idea. It really is over. I’m sorry you’re having a difficult time, but I don’t think we should be in touch.”

  I could feel my jaw dropping all the way to the floor. Of course, now that I thought about it, I really shouldn’t have been that surprised. Rita hated Lana—maybe she thought she would be able to hurt Lana in some way by sleeping with Liam.

  Beth said, “What was that all about?”

  Liam shrugged. “Rita and I had a thing a while back. So? It’s not like Lana was faithful to me either.”

  “Yes,” I said, “but why is she getting in touch with you now? Did you ask her to get back with you?”

  “Yeah.” Liam crossed his arms defensively. “A few days before Lana died, we almost got together again. And then after this whole Lana thing, I thought maybe we could sort of start seeing each other.”

  “That’s interesting,” I said, looking at Liam suspiciously.

  Liam shrugged. “Hey, I’m not a saint. Besides, we’re all adults here.”

  “Sure, we’re adults,” I said. “But why didn’t you tell us about this earlier? Rita is a suspect in the case. She might have been the one trying to kill you.”

  Liam laughed shortly. “Rita wouldn’t try to kill me. Besides, she wouldn’t even bother to kill Lana.”

  “How can you be so sure?” said Beth. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe you’re biased because you slept with her?”

  A brief flicker of suspicion washed over Liam’s eyes, but it was gone after a split second. “No,” he said. “I know Rita well enough. She’s harmless.”

  I rolled my eyes. I hated to have to hear more about Liam’s love life, but I needed to know what was going on between him and Rita.

  “Did Lana know about you and Rita?”

  “No, I’m pretty sure she didn’t.”

  “If Rita hated Lana, and she was sleeping with you to get back at Lana—”

  “She wasn’t sleeping with me to get back at Lana,” said Liam, smirking proudly. “She was sleeping with me because she likes sleeping with me.”