Lawyers, Liars and Lemon Tarts

by A. R. Winters

  “He might do it for fun.”

  Beth shook her head. “If he was blackmailing anyone, he’d be blackmailing the judge—not Lana.”

  “And the judge said that perhaps his secretary knew.”

  “If his secretary knew, and she wanted to blackmail someone, she would probably blackmail the judge. Those people knew Judge O’Connor, and they would know how serious he was about keeping it a secret. They didn’t know Lana, so they wouldn’t know if perhaps she would just say, ‘Sure, go ahead and publish the photos, I don’t care.’”

  “So it would have to be someone who knew Lana well,” I said. “That brings us to Rita.”

  “Who was shocked when she saw the photos. And if she’d known, she would’ve used Lana’s affair to get her fired or demoted—she wouldn’t care about extorting some money out of her. What about Lana’s other friends?”

  “Like Felicity? I think the judge was right, they probably didn’t know. I’d like to think that Lana was smart enough to know who she could trust, and her friends were probably doing well enough in their own careers not to stoop to blackmail. It’d have to be someone whose career wasn’t going too well.”

  Beth and I looked at each other. The same thought had occurred to us both at the same time.

  Chapter 18

  When Beth and I went to see Alice, she was still playing the same game on her smartphone.

  “Alice,” Beth said, “we know you took photos of Lana and Judge O’Connor, and then sent them to her and asked for fifty thousand dollars.”

  Alice put the phone down and looked at us in wide-eyed surprise. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I know you do,” I said. “You knew that Judge O’Connor called Lana once in a while, or she called him. You knew they had appointments to meet. You knew something was going on, and you suspected they were having an affair. So you followed them one day and somehow managed to take these photos.”

  “I—I had no idea those two were having an affair!” said Alice. She pushed her chair back and stood up. “I really should go see if Rita needs anything from me.”

  I crossed my arms. “I know that if we look at your bank accounts, we’ll find a lot of cash deposits. Which is proof that you’re the one who blackmailed Lana.”

  Alice looked from me to Beth. After a few seconds, she said, “I might have deposited the money from somewhere else.”

  “Fifty thousand cash? From where?”

  “A—gift?”

  I shook my head. “Within a few days of Lana being blackmailed? It’s obvious that you were the one who took the photos and sent her the note. The only question now is, why did you kill her?”

  Alice looked from me to Beth. “That’s absurd! I would never kill Lana. I knew she planned to fire me, but I needed her alive so that I could get a good recommendation from her. She was a decent enough person, and I knew she’d help me get a new job. Now she’s dead, and I’m not sure what kind of recommendation Rita’ll give me.”

  “You’ll have a hard time convincing the police of that,” I said. “Now that we can prove you’re the one who blackmailed Lana, it’s just a matter of proving that you’re the one who killed her. Of course she would have let you in that night, because she knows you. All you had to do was say that you left something behind.”

  “Lana stayed back at night because she had an appointment at seven,” Alice reminded us. “Look, I might as well admit it. Yes, I didn’t like Lana. But I had nothing to do with her death. I’d be much happier if Lana was still alive; at least then I’d be sure she’d give me a good recommendation.”

  I frowned. She did have a point. Plus, if Lana was alive and Alice needed money again, she could even try to blackmail Lana once more. “Okay,” I said. “Then why did you blackmail Lana?”

  Alice shrugged. “I knew that Lana was making six figures every year. I barely made fifty grand a year as her assistant, and I work just as hard. It’s not fair!”

  “So once you took those photos,” said Beth, “you saw your opportunity.”

  Alice nodded. “I figured that I had something of value. And Lana might as well pay for that. If she paid me fifty thousand, then I just about doubled my income for the year. Even if she fired me, and I had to take a few months off while I looked for work, I would be okay. Besides, I did her a favor. I could’ve told Rita, or anyone else, instead of keeping it a secret.”

  “You only kept it a secret because she paid you,” I reminded Alice.

  Alice rolled her eyes. “It’s the new economy. You’ve gotta do what it takes to survive.”

  “And does ‘whatever it takes’ also include killing Lana?”

  Alice shook her head and looked at us desperately. “You’ve got to believe me. I never killed Lana. I would never do that. I’ve never owned a gun and I don’t even know how to shoot one. And if I did need to come in after work, I would have used my swipe card. And that would show up in the system.”

  Everything that Alice said kind of made sense.

  Alice seemed irresponsible, superficial, and fickle. I couldn’t imagine her being organized enough to kill Lana. And like she said, she had no real reason to kill Lana.

  “I don’t know what you were really up to that night,” I told Alice, “but I do kind of believe you when you say you didn’t kill Lana. Did you tell anyone else about Lana and the judge?”

  Alice shook her head. “No, I figured I was getting paid to keep it a secret.”

  I nodded. “Okay. Let us know if you think of anything else.”

  Beth and I headed back to the car.

  “I’m not really sure we can trust her,” said Beth.

  “I know. Although I am tempted to believe her. She seems far too immature to actually murder anyone.”

  “You’re right. Although, if we don’t find anything else, we’ll just have to hand over this information to the police and wrap up the case. It’s not ideal, but perhaps we won’t find out anything more.”

  “Well,” I said, “it’s better than nothing. We might not have found the killer, but we’ve found something useful.”

  Chapter 19

  By the time Beth and I got home, we were feeling quite pleased with ourselves for discovering who the blackmailer was. We both tended to believe that there was no way Alice would’ve killed Lana, but of course we couldn’t rule it out completely.

  Riding high on our feelings of victory, we divided up the list of Judge O’Connor’s friends and spent a few minutes calling them up and verifying his alibi. All his friends said that the judge had been with them that night, and Beth and I decided that there was no way the judge could have convinced ten people to lie for him. We could always go around to the clubhouse and ask the waitstaff there if they had seen the judge, but that felt like it might be a waste of time.

  It was almost lunchtime, so I called Felicity and asked if she would meet us for lunch. And when she agreed to, Beth and I headed out to the bistro near her office that she’d mentioned.

  Mosaic Bistro was well lit and airy and served a variety of soups, salads, and pastas. The clientele seemed to be mostly people who worked at the offices nearby, and soft jazz played over the sound system. Beth and I waited for Felicity for only a few minutes, and when she joined us, the three of us ordered salads.

  “So,” said Felicity, “have you found out anything new about Lana’s death? The police are still investigating, aren’t they? Perhaps one of you will find something new.”

  “Actually,” I said, “we did find something.”

  Our salads arrived, and Felicity looked at us curiously. “Like what?”

  “We found out,” I said, “that you didn’t go to the bar the night Lana was killed.”

  Felicity looked away. She ate a few bites of her salad, and then she said, “I didn’t think you guys would take the time to actually go to the bar.”

  “We’re pretty good at our job,” said Beth. “Why would we not go?”

  Felicity shrugged. “I just thought y
ou’d have lots of things to look into.”

  “Of course we went to the bar,” I said. “What we don’t understand is why you’d lie to us.”

  Felicity shrugged. She didn’t seem all that bothered that we’d found out she’d lied. Instead, she took a few more bites of her salad. “Was there anything else you guys wanted to talk to me about? Or just alibi nonsense?”

  “It’s actually quite important.” I forced myself to have a bite of my salad and watched as Felicity devoured her food. “So where were you that night? If you were at home, you could’ve just told us that.”

  Felicity shook her head. “I’ve got an alibi. I was outside, and people saw me. Just not at the bar.”

  “That doesn’t help us,” said Beth. “Where were you?”

  “I can’t tell you,” said Felicity. “I don’t see why I should. You’re not the police. And if this goes to trial, I’ll tell the truth then. But till then, all you need to know is that I have an alibi. I was with people. I’m just not going to bother to tell you where.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why can’t you tell us where you were?”

  “Because it’s private.” Felicity continued to eat her salad, as though she wasn’t really bothered by the fact that we knew she had lied about her alibi. “It’s not really any of your business.”

  “Look, Felicity, we’re investigators. People lie to us all the time. In fact, you’ve already lied to us once about your alibi. So you understand if we can’t just trust you when you say that you’ve got an alibi.”

  Felicity shrugged. She’d almost finished her salad by now. “That’s your problem, not mine. Like I said, I’m happy to tell the cops the truth. I just don’t see why I need to tell you guys.”

  Beth spent a few minutes trying to convince her to tell us her alibi. She told Felicity that we took client confidentiality very seriously, but Felicity didn’t seem to care.

  “All that matters to you guys is that I didn’t kill Lana, and I wasn’t at her office that day.” Felicity finished the last of her salad. “I can promise I’ve got a good alibi, but I can’t help you with anything else.”

  Felicity dabbed her lips with her napkin and stood up to leave.

  “Let me know if you’d like to talk about anything else,” she said. “But I can’t tell you anything more about my alibi.”

  After she left, Beth and I finished our meals in silence and paid the bill. We definitely weren’t happy with the way our meeting had turned out, and I found Felicity’s lying and hesitation to tell us the truth quite suspicious. Thankfully, I had an idea for finding out what she was up to.

  Chapter 20

  We stopped by my apartment briefly. I used the time to log in to my private investigators’ database, and I looked up Felicity’s details.

  There wasn’t anything particularly suspicious about her—she’d had no arrests and no prior convictions. She’d received one speeding ticket in the last five years, and I looked up the registration details of her car. It was a silver Ford, and I wrote down the license plate before Beth and I drove back to her office.

  We waited outside until it was almost six o’clock, and we saw Felicity drive off in her Ford.

  We wasted no time in tailing her car, following her up the streets of Santa Verona until she stopped at an address in North Santa Verona.

  North Santa Verona might be only a few extra minutes away from the city center, but the suburb has a distinctively different vibe from the rest of the town. Although the streets are still wide and tree-lined, the buildings are mostly boxy and impersonal apartments. Rents are cheaper, and crime is a tad higher.

  The apartment building Felicity stopped outside had stairs on the outside and a balcony that ran along the second floor.

  “This isn’t her address,” I said. “Felicity lives closer to the beach. She makes a lot of money as a lawyer, so she probably lives in an expensive condo.”

  We watched as Felicity climbed up the stairs and then knocked at a door on the second floor before stepping inside.

  A few minutes later, Beth and I headed over to the same door and knocked.

  It was opened by a tall, attractive young man with curly brown hair. He was wearing jeans that hung low around his waist, and his tight T-shirt framed the contours of his muscles.

  “Yes?” he said. “Can I help you ladies?”

  “We’re actually looking for Felicity,” I said.

  The man blinked in surprise. “Umm… I’m not sure…”

  I pushed the door open, and before he could stop me, I walked inside.

  The front door opened onto a small living and dining area, with a kitchenette behind it. The living and dining areas were furnished with old furniture that looked like it had seen better days; a large flat-screen TV stood on the media unit in the corner. There was a closed door leading off somewhere, and I assumed it was to the bedroom.

  I walked over to the door and opened it to find a bedroom with a neatly made bed. Felicity sat on a chair next to the bed.

  She didn’t look too pleased to see me. “Did you guys follow me?” she said.

  “We did.” I looked back over my shoulder at the young man and shrugged apologetically. “We’re sorry to barge in like this.”

  The man looked at me, still confused by what was happening. He said, “I guess it’s okay if you’re friends of Felicity’s.”

  I looked back at Felicity. “So, did you guys meet recently?”

  Felicity nodded, then shook her head. “Not really.”

  “It’s just that we’ve been together for almost a month now,” the man volunteered from behind us.

  Felicity glared at him, so he shut up.

  “Why do you have to keep this a secret?” Beth asked. “You guys were together on the day Lana died, right?”

  Felicity shrugged. “Since you’ve found out about us, I might as well admit it. Yes, we were together that night. We even ran into some of Josh’s next-door neighbors, so I’ve got a pretty airtight alibi. Not that it’s any of your business, of course.”

  “You two seem like a really cute couple,” I said. “I don’t understand why you need to be so secretive about it. Just because he lives in North Santa Verona”—I looked around the apartment. It was quite obvious that Josh didn’t make as much money as Felicity—“doesn’t mean you have to be embarrassed about your relationship.”

  “It’s not just that,” said Felicity. “Josh is an assistant at our firm.”

  “But he’s not your assistant, is he?” Beth said. “It’s not supposed to be a problem unless you’re his direct boss—isn’t that the rule these days?”

  “I’m not his boss,” said Felicity. “But it’s not just that. This is all very new.”

  I nodded and made some polite comments about how I hoped things would go well between them. We apologized to Josh and left.

  “Do you really think she’s just being secretive because it’s a new relationship?” said Beth.

  I shook my head. “I think she’s embarrassed to be dating somebody who’s not a high-powered lawyer or executive,” I said. “She knew that Lana was dating the assistant DA, and I’m sure all the other lawyers in her office are dating other lawyers or doctors. She might be embarrassed to be dating an assistant. Though Josh seems like a nice guy.”

  “At least she did have an alibi,” said Beth. “So there’s no way she could have been the one who killed Lana.”

  I nodded. “Perhaps all we’ve got is confirmation that Alice was the blackmailer. We might as well go and see Liam.”

  Chapter 21

  By the time Beth and I arrived at Liam’s place, we were both quite hungry. We’d skipped dinner because we had followed Felicity home, and I couldn’t wait for our conversation to be over so that we could get something to eat.

  Liam seemed to be in a grumpy mood. When we told him we’d discovered that Alice had been blackmailing Lana, he didn’t seem that impressed.

  “I should’ve never trusted that secretary,
” he said. “Maybe she killed Lana.”

  “She doesn’t have an alibi, and we can’t prove anything,” I said. “But I really don’t think she’s the one who killed Lana.”

  “Well, somebody must have killed her! But at least this is something. If you don’t find anything else, we’ll have to go to the cops with this.”

  Beth and I nodded. “I hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said. “But at the least, you wouldn’t be the prime suspect anymore.”

  Liam shook his head. “I’m not sure about that, but it should create reasonable doubt. But even if I escape the charges, I’m not sure I’d be able to go back to my old job. And this case’ll make it so much harder for me to run for political office. This whole thing is a nightmare.”

  I knew that Liam had always wanted to run for office. He wanted to be the mayor of some town, do a good job, and then become a senator, and then maybe later, the president. He had grand ambitions, and this murder had really messed up his plans.

  “How are you going to run for political office,” said Beth, “if you keep cheating on women and dating multiple women all the time?”

  Liam looked at her like she was talking in tongues. “I’m aware that voters don’t like that kind of behavior. That’s why I’m trying to enjoy my time with as many women as I can now. Before I run for office, I’ll find somebody. Someone reasonably attractive, intelligent, and whom I can trust. We’ll get married, and then I’ll be faithful to her for the rest of my life. I’m not going to risk anything stupid—I’m not about to jeopardize my career.”

  “I thought you didn’t believe in true love and fidelity,” I said.

  Liam shook his head. “I’m not sure that I believe in true love. But I believe in commitment, and working together. I know, I come off as someone who’s only interested in himself, but I make it clear to anyone I’m dating that we’re not exclusive. I don’t mislead anyone. I don’t tell them details of my love life, because that would just hurt them, but I’m sure most of the women I dated knew that I wasn’t faithful to them.”