Hippity Hoppity Homicide

by Kathi Daley

  I twisted my lips. “I’m glad someone was having fun. I never want to have the life of someone I love riding on my ability to keep up with a woman who’s clearly a genius again.”

  I laughed as Catherine let out a squeal of delight when she realized Charlie had scooted around close enough for her to grab a fistful of his fur. I winced when she gave it a good hard tug, but Charlie looked like he was in heaven just being touched by his little sidekick. “Do you think the feds have caught up with Claudia?” I asked as Catherine began kicking her legs even harder than before.

  “Not that I’ve heard. She’s probably long gone. She let herself get caught once. My feeling is she’ll be a lot more careful now that she’s finally free.”

  “Do you think our paths will cross again?”

  Zak’s face grew contemplative. I knew he’d been asking himself that same question. “I hope not, but I suppose it’s a possibility. We need to learn to be aware of everyone around us. If Claudia wants to make her way back into our lives for some reason it’ll be hard to avoid her. She can really look like anyone.”

  I thought about the old woman in the bar who’d handed me the envelope and wondered if that had been Claudia. Could she have been in the pool hall when I’d gone there to look for the first set of clues? With her talent as a master of disguise she could have been anywhere and everywhere and I would never have known. As much as I feared Claudia, I was determined not to let her get into my head. It would be too easy to let someone like her turn me into a paranoid individual.

  I ran a finger down Catherine’s arm. She looked to be getting sleepy. I wanted to ask Zak about his research that day and what he’d found, but we’d agreed to put the investigation into Will’s death on the back burner until tomorrow. Salinger was coming for coffee in the morning, so I’d have my answers soon enough. Catherine let out a yawn followed by a hiccup. I could tell she was ready for bed, so I sat up and lifted her into my arms. I carried her into the nursery and gently placed her in the crib. I leaned forward and kissed her dark head before rejoining Zak in the bedroom.

  “I guess I’m pretty tired too,” I said as I laid down on the bed next to him.

  “I’m ready to turn in,” Zak agreed. “I just need a minute to wash up.”

  I removed the extra pillows from the bed and pulled back the comforter. I made sure the fireplace was clicked off and that all the windows were closed and locked. Normally, I’d check on Alex and Scooter, but they were both watching a movie with Levi. Zak came out of the bathroom wearing only a pair of boxers. He’d taken a quick shower and his hair, still damp, curled slightly behind his ears. As tired as I was, I felt my stomach tighten at the sight of his bare chest, hard and defined. Although Zak and I had been together for a number of years, I was as attracted to him now as I’d been the first time he’d come into my bedroom with a bare chest and passion in his eyes.

  He turned off the lights and crawled into the bed beside me. He pulled me into his arms, so I rested on my side with my head on his chest, listening to his strong, steady heartbeat. Had it only been yesterday when I’d truly doubted I’d ever hear that heartbeat again?

  I ran my hands over Zak’s chest as I tried to distract myself from the terror that still lurked at the back of my mind. We’d been through a lot together in the years we’d been a couple, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt quite so vulnerable as I had these past few days. To know at any moment that one mistake could make that one his last was truly more than I’d had time to process. Zak wasn’t only my love. He was my best friend. He was my life. He was the image I saw when I looked in to the future. I didn’t know what I’d do if I ever lost him.

  Zak’s arms tightened around my body as my hand worked itself lower. He pulled me onto his chest and I lowered my lips to his. I began to relax as his kiss deepened, distracting me from my thoughts.

  I knew life didn’t come with guarantees. But I also knew we were each provided with a sequence of moments that made up our lives, ours to spend as we chose. I could spend my moments dwelling on the fear that had been awakened within me. I could let the fear dominate my life until I was but a shell of the person I’d once been. Or I could quell the fear that nagged at the edge of my mind. The choice was mine and mine alone.

  As Zak’s hands caressed my skin, I made a choice to focus on the gentle embrace of the man beneath me.

  Chapter 8

  Wednesday, March 28

  I woke once again to an empty bed. I rolled onto my side and looked at the window at the brilliant sunshine. I smiled. After a long night of lovemaking I felt I had a new lease on life. I rolled out of bed and pulled on my robe. I could hear voices downstairs, so I assumed the rest of the household was up before me. I headed into Catherine’s room to find her crib empty. It seemed she was spending quality time with Daddy this morning. Taking advantage of the free time, I hopped into the shower. I let the hot water roll over my body as the remainder of the tension I’d been holding seemed to melt away. It had been such a difficult couple of days, but now that it was over I willed myself to think happier thoughts. Thoughts of Catherine’s first Easter and the party I’d been planning when Zak was kidnapped. Thoughts of the longer days and warmer weather, which naturally led to thoughts of long, lazy days on the beach with the kids or on the boat with Zak as the sun set on the horizon.

  After I’d shampooed and conditioned my hair I dressed in a pair of jeans and a sunny yellow top. I pulled a white hooded sweatshirt over it because the morning temperature still lingered in the thirties, then finger combed my hair and headed downstairs. When I arrived in the kitchen I found Zak sitting at the table talking to Salinger. Was finding him in my kitchen going to become a regular thing?

  I leaned over and kissed Zak on the lips. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “Alex and Scooter went to school and Levi went to work,” Zak answered. “Ellie had her mommy-and-me class this morning, so she took Catherine along with her and Eli. She was going to wake you to see if you wanted to go too but I told her to let you sleep.”

  I felt a momentary pang of disappointment. Ellie had been going to mommy-and-me gatherings since Eli was six months old and had learned to crawl. Catherine wasn’t quite old enough to care about the various games the moms played with their babies, but she liked seeing everyone, so we’d started tagging along and watching from the sidelines. Watching the mothers interact with their babies had been good for me as well. As much as I loved Catherine and enjoyed spending time with her, being a mother wasn’t something I came by naturally. It helped to see how other mothers dealt with the little challenges that presented themselves throughout the day.

  I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down with the men. Ellie would be home with the babies in less than an hour, so I should make the best use of my time.

  “Salinger just caught me up on what he’s learned and I was about to fill him in on what I found in my research yesterday,” Zak continued.

  “Care to provide the condensed version?” I asked.

  Salinger cleared his throat. “I spoke to Alyssa Colter, who verified that she was with Della Stone all afternoon and into the evening on the day Will was shot. She did say she’d been by Will’s motel room to speak to him earlier in the day. She hoped she could say something to make him reconsider his stance on their relationship, but he wasn’t interested. She also admitted to being angry enough to shoot him, but she insists she didn’t. I spoke to Della’s neighbor, who said there was a lot of noise coming from Della’s house that day. She was aware they’d been drinking, so she assumed they both were at Della’s home at the time the shooting occurred.”

  “So I guess we can take her off the list.” I took a sip of coffee. “Did you speak to Clarissa Holton?”

  “I did,” Salinger answered. “She also admitted to having been hurt and angered by Will’s commitment issues, but she had an alibi. It seems she worked at the church spaghetti feed on Sunday. I verified that with one of the women who volunteered with her.”

>   “And Cleveland Brown?” I asked, bringing up the student Alex had seen arguing with Will prior to his death.

  “Went home for the weekend. His roommate and mother both confirmed that.”

  “So that leaves the brother-in-law who just happened to be in town and the man who blamed him for stealing the spotlight on the project they worked on together,” I said.

  “I still haven’t been able to come up with the name of the man Brady referred to, but I’m working on it. I did speak to the brother-in-law. Strong claims he’s here to ski and that he was on the mountain doing just that on the day Will was shot. Unfortunately, he went skiing alone, so that’s difficult to verify. He used his pass several times that day, but his last run was at three twenty-eight. Will died several hours later, so having been on the mountain isn’t really an alibi.”

  “Did you ask about his activities after skiing?”

  Salinger gave me a look. “This isn’t my first dog-and-pony show.”

  “Of course. I’m sorry. Go on.”

  “Strong said he picked up takeout and ate it in his hotel room while watching a movie on television. I’ve been unable to confirm that because no one seems to have noticed whether he was in his room. I still consider him a suspect, especially because he had nothing but negative things to say about Will and the way he approached the treatment of his sister’s illness.”

  “The thing that doesn’t fit with Strong as the killer is that Will’s wife died years ago. Why would this man come to Ashton Falls so much later and kill his brother-in-law? If Will’s wife had died recently I could maybe buy Strong as the killer, but the time lag doesn’t make sense.”

  Salinger shrugged. “I agree. But coming to Ashton Falls to ski when there are plenty of other places to go doesn’t make sense either. It’s not like we’ve had a great year for snow. The ski areas are struggling to cover the runs. If the only thing Strong was after was a weekend on the slopes why didn’t he go to Aspen, where the skiing’s much better this year?”

  “Good point.” I took another sip of my coffee. “Anything else?”

  “Nothing conclusive.” Salinger looked at Zak. “Unless you have something.”

  “I might,” Zak responded. He shifted in his chair so he could lean over to take a file from the top of the stack he’d placed on the table next to him. “First, I looked at Will’s financial and phone records. The former didn’t suggest anything unusual, but I did notice a check he’d written and then stopped payment on. It was for a large amount, almost forty thousand dollars, so I took a closer look. It seems the check was to pay one of the subcontractors, Trenton Cline, for work done on his home. He’d installed new cabinets in the kitchen. I spoke to Mr. Cline, who’d filed a lawsuit against Will for failure to meet his financial obligation. I looked in to it further and learned Will canceled the check when he found out the cabinets were made of fiberboard covered with hardwood, rather than solid hardwood. According to the statement Will provided to his attorney, he was very clear that he wanted hardwood to be used throughout.” Zak paused and then continued. “I spoke to Mr. Cline. He insists Will ordered cabinets made of alder from a catalog and that the cabinets in the photos were made using a wood overlay. I don’t know who’s wrong and who’s right here. I guess the court would have figured that out. What I do know is that Mr. Cline was about as angry as I’ve ever seen a man. According to him, when Will canceled his check it put his account into the red and a bunch of checks he’d written bounced. He said he’s afraid he might lose his business over it.”

  “That sucks,” I said. “And I understand he’d be angry, but what would he gain from killing Will? If the lawsuit had been heard he eventually might have gotten his money, but now who knows if he ever will?”

  “I don’t disagree with that train of thought,” Zak said, “and I would most likely have let the whole thing go, but I looked into Mr. Cline’s finances and found that fifty thousand dollars had been debited from his account the day after Will died. The money goes back to a hard money lender, so it’s possible Mr. Cline borrowed the money to pay his debts, but the timing bothers me, so I’m looking into it further.”

  “I’ll add him to my suspect list,” Salinger said. “Let me know what you find out.”

  “I will,” Zak answered.

  Salinger’s phone rang and he excused himself to take the call.

  “You look well rested,” Zak said, tucking a lock of my unruly hair behind my ear.

  I smiled. “Very well rested. And a lot more relaxed as well. Are you taking today off?”

  “Yes and no. I don’t plan to go to the Academy today, but I do plan to spend time working in my home office. I’ve been trying to figure out the identity of the man Will was talking about when he told Brady he was meeting a man who held a grudge against him for stealing all the glory on a project they’d worked on together. I have a few ideas, but so far I haven’t narrowed it down as much as I’d like.”

  “Speaking of projects, what about the one you and Will were working on? I know it’s some sort of top secret deal. Could it have gotten Will killed?”

  Zak frowned. “The thought has crossed my mind. Very few people even knew Will and I were working together, so my inclination is to believe his death isn’t related to the project, though I suppose I shouldn’t eliminate any possibility.”

  I got up to refill my coffee cup. “If Claudia’s purpose for showing up at Will’s room was to kidnap you how did she know you were even there? It’s not like the meeting was planned. In fact, it seemed sort of sudden.”

  “I received a text from Will saying we needed to meet. I texted back that I’d come to the motel because you were napping. When I arrived Will jumped right in, telling me he was glad I’d decided to stop by because he had some ideas to run past me. We didn’t really compare notes as to who texted whom first until after we’d ordered the pizza. Will made a comment about hijacking the conversation and wondered why I’d wanted to meet in the first place. I said it hadn’t been my idea to meet, that I’d only texted him in response to his text to me. He insisted that while he was glad I’d stopped by, he hadn’t wanted to invade my family time and had decided to wait to speak to me about his idea until the next day at work. He assured me that he hadn’t been the one to send the text. That was when we realized something odd was going on, but it was just about then that Claudia showed up at the door with the pizza and we never did have the chance to figure it all out.”

  “Have you figured it out now?” I asked.

  “Someone—I’m assuming Claudia—cloned Will’s phone and sent me the text. I have no idea how she knew Will was at the motel or that we’d been working together and meeting there. I suppose she might have been following me for a while. When she can look like anyone it’s pretty much impossible to realize you have a tail.”

  “Yeah, I get that. She’s very good at what she does.”

  I looked up as Salinger walked back into the room. “I have to go. I’ll call you this afternoon to touch base.”

  “Is everything okay?” I asked. He had a worried look on his face.

  “There’s a pileup on the highway. It sounds bad. I may be there a while.”

  ******

  Zak went into his office and I made myself something to eat. By the time I’d finished my breakfast Ellie had returned with the babies. We decided to feed and change them and then head into town, hoping they’d nap in their strollers while we looked for Easter baskets and stuffed bunnies. It was close to lunchtime, so we decided to eat in town as well. It would be nice to have a day out with my best friend without having to think about death, suspects, and murder motives.

  “I found the cutest outfit for Eli to wear on Sunday,” Ellie said after we’d settled into a booth at Rosie’s Café and ordered seafood salads with ice tea to drink. “Levi isn’t a fan of the bunnies on the front. He doesn’t think they’re masculine enough for his son. But I reminded him that the outfit was blue and white and therefore very masculine, and the little white
bunnies were simply a tribute to the holiday. Have you found something special for Catherine?”

  “Not yet. I saw a cute outfit at the boutique on Main, but I never had the opportunity to go back by for a second look. It’s probably gone by now.”

  Ellie shrugged. “Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. We’ll head over there when we’re done here. You know I adore Eli, but it would be fun to have a girl to buy frilly dresses for.”

  “Actually, the outfit I was looking at was denim overalls with a bunny on the butt.”

  “Overalls?” Ellie seemed shocked. “Catherine’s a girl. You should buy a dress for her first Easter. Something frilly, with a ruffle.”

  I frowned. “Really? Ruffles? Seems a bit much for a three-month-old. She’ll probably puke on whatever I get her by noon anyway. Overalls and a onesie seem a lot more practical. And I did say there was a bunny involved. Seems Eastery to me.”

  Ellie rolled her eyes but didn’t comment. I had a feeling a frilly dress was in Catherine’s future whether either of us wanted one or not.

  “By the way,” Ellie said, changing the subject, “I ran into Nancy Dillard at mommy-and-me today. She said to say hi, by the way.” Nancy had worked as a waitress at Rosie’s back when Ellie’s mother owned the restaurant and Ellie worked there. She’d married and had twin boys and was now a full-time mom. “She was having lunch with a friend on Saturday of last week and ran into Will having lunch with a man she didn’t recognize.”

  “I wasn’t aware Nancy knew Will.”

  “Her parents own the motel where he was living while his house was being worked on. It seemed he liked to sit out on the patio near the pool when the weather was nice, even though the pool was closed for the season. She ran into him a number of times when she was visiting her parents and they’d struck up conversations. You know what a math geek Nancy is. I never did understand why she didn’t go to college.”

  Ellie had a point. Nancy definitely had been overqualified to be a waitress, but she’d seemed to like the work and was a very likable woman, so she’d cleaned up when it came to tips.