Her boyfriend looked at her with deep concern in his eyes. Meg wasn’t sure what was on his mind, but it was causing him a lot of turmoil. She was just about to ask him what was wrong when he revealed what was on his mind.
“Are you sure you are okay to investigate this case?” Connor asked.
“Yes. Why?” Meg replied.
“I know that was a really hard interview for you to conduct, but you were much too easy on her.”
She defended herself. “So I went with a different approach—”
Connor disagreed. “It was more than that. Don’t get me wrong, I know how hard this job can be sometimes, especially when you are forced into a sticky situation like that. Having said that, you can’t give Vanessa a pass just because she is your friend’s daughter. After all, she’s also a murder suspect.”
“I know that.”
“You sure didn’t act like it when you questioned her.”
Meg stood up for herself. “I still asked her all the relevant questions.”
“In the most softball way possible,” he replied.
“Look, I know you’re worried that I’m overlooking her as a suspect, but I’m not.”
Connor was taking no joy in this conversation. As Meg’s boyfriend, he really wanted to give her a hug right then. But as a detective, there was something that he needed to get off of his chest.
“I wanted Vanessa to have an ironclad alibi as much as you did, but the fact is, she doesn’t. So as difficult as it is for you to picture Vanessa as a killer, you wouldn’t be doing your job if you didn’t consider the possibility that she could be guilty.”
“I know that.”
“The question is, are you prepared to do what’s necessary to solve this case?”
Meg tried to get her boyfriend to come around to her line of thinking. “I know you believe I was soft on Vanessa, but with my lighter approach, I still got plenty of pertinent information.”
Connor would not be thrown off of his point. “That wasn’t what I asked. Don’t avoid the question. We get enough of that from the suspects.”
Meg stared deep into his eyes and made her answer perfectly clear. “If worse came to worse and we found out that Vanessa was the killer, I wouldn’t hesitate to put her behind bars.”
Connor nodded. “Okay.”
“That being said, I don’t think she is the killer.”
“I hope you are right.”
“So do I.” Meg was eager to move on. “Now that we have that settled, there are a number of other suspects to question.”
He stopped her. “Just one more thing first.”
“What’s that?”
Connor took Meg’s hand and pulled her in close. “No matter what is going on in the case, I don’t want you to lose sight of the fact that I love you.”
She gazed back at him. “I love you, too.”
Connor took a deep breath. “I have to admit, it will sure be nice when this case is behind us.”
“I can’t agree more,” Meg said.
Chapter Nine
David Rolston’s restaurant was a short walk away, making it the next logical place for the sleuths to continue their investigation. Only Meg had other plans. Before she put it off any longer, she felt like it was imperative to come up with a reason to excuse herself briefly, giving herself the privacy to cast the locator spell on Bridget Langford.
Luckily, she was able to come up with a good cover story. In an odd bit of timing, before Meg was able to relay her story to Connor, a call came over Connor’s police radio.
“Excuse me a moment,” Connor said.
Go figure. Apparently, Meg hadn’t needed a cover story after all. Since the opening for some privacy had presented itself, Meg made sure to seize it. She knew she didn’t have much time to work with, so she closed her eyes and mustered all the focus she could in order to begin the spell.
As she began to chant, however, she was interrupted. Clearly, she had overestimated how long Connor’s call would take. That was particularly unfortunate, considering the tough position it now put her in.
Connor had a befuddled look on his face as he stared at Meg.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Some verbal gymnastics were in order. As a secret witch, she couldn’t very well tell him the truth. Instead, she was forced into a position that she hated. Namely, lying to her boyfriend. In addition, she wasn’t terribly good at it, either.
At the same time, she saw no other choice in the matter. That was the problem with being stuck between a rock and such a hard place. Even more, she only had a split-second to come up with a lie that didn’t beg following up on.
The last thing she needed was to get caught in her own lie. She had to look no further than the murder suspects she had questioned in the past to see how lies could come back to haunt people.
At that moment, when she needed it the most, luck seemed to smile on her. “It’s this self-help affirmation thing I have been trying out.”
Connor’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
Her statement had stopped him right in his tracks. That was exactly what she had been counting on. She knew that Connor was not a big believer in things like the power of positive thinking, which was ironic, seeing as how a few affirmations could do wonders to turn his generally negative worldview around. Of course, Meg wasn’t about to point that out to him—at least not right then. At that moment, his jaded detective frame of mind played right into Meg’s hand.
Not wanting to get on the wrong side of his girlfriend, Connor abstained from commenting further on the subject. At least not aloud. His eyes sent out a completely different message.
“You don’t have to look at me like I have two heads,” Meg replied.
He was insistent that she had read his facial expression wrong. “I’m not.”
Meg and Connor now found themselves on even stranger ground. For a couple that barely lied to each other, they had both managed to bend the truth during the same conversation. Although, Meg gave her boyfriend a pass because he was doing it not to hurt her feelings.
Meg became playful with Connor. “You should try one of these affirmations.”
He was quick to dismiss her offer. “I’ll pass.”
Meg chuckled. After some much-needed levity had been brought to the conversation, she changed the subject. “So what’s the deal with the call you just got over the radio?”
Connor was relieved to have the subject of affirmations behind him. He relayed the news to Meg. “There has been a hit on the all-points bulletin that I put out on Bridget Langford. A deputy has detained her.”
Excitement came to Meg’s face. Perhaps this was the break they had been looking for.
Chapter Ten
Meg and Connor headed out to a wooded stretch of Enchanted Grove Drive where a blue sedan and a squad car were parked on the side of the road. The investigators parked behind the squad car then were brought up to speed by the goateed male deputy who had detained Bridget.
In a wild twist, it turned out that the all-points bulletin hadn’t just produced a hit on Bridget’s location. It had also brought a salacious scandal to light. Meg listened intently as the deputy revealed the details.
The Enchanted Grove Mini Mart was located a few blocks away. Apparently, Bridget had made a stop there a few minutes ago to pick up a pack of cigarettes. With the all-points bulletin out on Bridget, the long-haired cashier who worked behind the counter had recognized her. As Bridget paid for her smokes and walked back to her car, the cashier noted the make, model, color, and license plate of the vehicle then called the police.
Rushing towards the area, the mustached deputy was able to catch up with the blue sedan. He then proceeded to pull Bridget’s car over and detain her for questioning. The surprise came when the deputy saw that Bridget wasn’t the only one in the car. Of all people, David Rolston was in the passenger seat.
What made David’s presence so scandalous was that he happened to be Richard Dotson’s chief competitor
in the seafood restaurant business. So for Bridget and David to be together made for a very fishy sight. Suddenly, Connor and Meg had a slew of extra questions to ask.
Instead of beginning with Bridget, Connor decided it would be a better move to interview David first. The mustached deputy kept watch of Bridget while Connor dragged David out of the sedan so that he and Meg could question him.
David was a bespectacled, muscular, mustached man in his early forties with a round face and short brown hair. Unlike most murder suspects, who only pretended like they were confused to see the police, David genuinely looked perplexed as to why he was being questioned.
“What is the meaning of this?” he asked.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Connor replied. “I find your choice in women very curious.”
David was defiant. “Who I spend my time with is none of your business.”
Connor disagreed. “It is when the woman you are seeing is engaged to your professional rival.”
David didn’t back down. “You have your facts wrong.”
Meg raised her eyebrows. “Which ones?”
“Richard and Bridget weren’t engaged,” David replied.
“Since when?” Meg asked.
“Since a few days ago when they broke up,” David said.
Connor’s eyebrows rose. “Are you saying that you broke them up?”
David denied any responsibility. “I didn’t do anything. They were having problems long before I came along.”
“What kind of problems?” Connor said.
David replied with a question of his own. “Why don’t you ask Bridget about that?”
Connor held firm. “I’m asking you.”
David was angry and eager to change the subject. “I don’t understand what this has to do with anything. Last time I checked, a police officer can’t just pull someone over without a valid reason.”
“How about murder? Is that a valid enough reason for you?” Connor asked.
David’s eyes widened. “Murder? What are you talking about?”
David acted shocked, but Connor was convinced that it was nothing more than an act.
“I’m talking about the murder of Richard Dotson,” Connor replied.
David’s forehead wrinkled. “Someone killed Richard?”
Connor narrowed his eyes. “Don’t play dumb.”
David shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not playing. I didn’t even know he was dead.”
Meg turned the heat up. “Not only is he dead, but you are a suspect.”
David was quick to declare his innocence. “That’s ridiculous. I would never kill anyone.”
Meg scoffed. “Every suspect says that, yet someone did kill him.”
“It wasn’t me,” David replied.
“Why should we believe you?” Meg asked.
“Because I just told you that I didn’t do it,” David said.
Meg and Connor weren’t in the business of taking the word of murder suspects.
“I meant, what good reason do you have for us to believe you?” Meg asked.
“What do you want from me?” David replied.
Connor knew just what he wanted to ask him. “Where were you last night between ten and eleven o’clock?”
“I was working at my restaurant,” David replied.
“So you weren’t with Bridget, then?”
David shook his head. “No.”
“Was there anyone else at your restaurant who can verify that you were there?”
David nodded. “Yes.”
Connor had a hard time believing that. “Really?”
David didn’t revise his story in the least. “Call my assistant manager. He was going over the nightly receipts with me at the time.”
Wary of David’s story, Connor stepped away and called up the restaurant.
Meg fully expected Connor to return with a fire in his eyes. Instead, when the detective made his way back to Meg and David a few minutes later, he was completely deflated. Against all odds, David’s assistant manager had confirmed his alibi.
There was no denying that Connor was reeling with shock, but with no reason to hold David, the detective had no choice but to send the restaurateur on his way. At the same time, while the restaurateur’s name had been cleared, the same could not be said of Bridget.
Chapter Eleven
Meg had found that people only had two reactions to being cooped up in the backseat of a police car. Either they became very quiet, or they completely lost their minds. By the time Meg and Connor approached the mustached deputy’s car, Bridget Langford had spent nearly half an hour in the backseat. That alone time had done nothing to subdue her thoughts. Instead, she looked like a rabid, caged animal desperate to break free.
The forty-one-year-old former waitress was five-foot-two. She had a trim body, long, wavy black hair, and wide-set eyes. She didn’t hesitate to snap at the investigators.
“You have no right to hold me like this,” Bridget said.
Connor corrected her. “You are a murder suspect. I have every right to hold you for questioning.”
She was offended. “Murder suspect? But I’m not a killer.”
Meg couldn’t help but make a cutting observation. “You’d have a much better time of convincing us of that if you didn’t look like you wanted to bite our heads off.”
Bridget’s tone softened, but her message didn’t. “My emotions are just really raw right now. I mean, it’s so terrible what happened to Richard.”
Meg had a hard time buying Bridget’s complete about-face. “Really? You’re going to try to make a play for sympathy now?”
“I’m not playing. If you were in my position, you’d understand how hard this news has been to grapple with,” Bridget replied.
Meg had a much different opinion. “If I were in your position, I’d be terrified of going to jail.”
Bridget shot Meg a glare. “That’s completely out of line.”
Meg disagreed. “Is it? It has been over twelve hours since Richard’s murder, yet it took an all-points bulletin to track you down. If you were so broken up about Richard, why is this the first we have seen of you? I mean, you were his fiancée, so why weren’t you at his house? Where have you been all this time?”
Bridget’s tongue was tied.
Meg tried to untie it. “What’s the matter? Are you afraid of answering? I would be too if I was caught with my fiancée’s business rival.”
Words continued to escape Bridget.
The same could not be said of Connor. The detective was not shy with his opinions. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Bridget replied.
Connor folded his arms. “I think it’s exactly what it looks like. And let me tell you something. It’s not looking good for you right now.”
Bridget averted her eyes and stared at the ground.
Connor hit her with another question. “Where were you last night between ten and eleven o’clock?”
Bridget looked like she was in no hurry to answer.
Connor tried again. “Were you with David?”
Connor had set a pretty cunning trap. Having just finished their conversation with David, the sleuths knew the answer to that question already. The detective just wanted to see if Bridget would take his bait and get trapped in a lie.
Connor put the pressure on. “I’m only going to ask you one more time. Were you with David?”
“Um…yeah,” Bridget replied.
Connor pounced on that answer. “Why are you lying to us?”
Bridget looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“We know David was at work at the time of the murder. We can’t say the same about you,” Connor replied.
Bridget fell silent once again.
Meg tried to force an answer out of her. “Where were you really last night?”
“And don’t lie this time,” Connor added.
Bridget was as tight-lipped as ever.
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Connor issued a warning to her. “We’re not leaving until we get an answer.”
Even that didn’t elicit a response from Bridget.
Meg tried being more provocative. “Why are you so afraid of answering? Did you have a big argument with Richard last night?”
Bridget gave a quick but firm one-word denial. “No.”
Connor lost his temper and barked at Bridget. “Then where were you last night at the time of the murder?”
Bridget tried to avoid eye contact, but it was no use. She caught sight of Connor’s piercing stare out of the corner of her eye.
“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. Now answer the question.”
Realizing that there was no escape, Bridget finally caved. “I was at my motel.”
Connor raised his eyebrows. “Motel?”
Bridget nodded. “Yeah. The Enchanted Bay Motor Lodge.”
“What were you doing there?”
Bridget clammed up again.
“Bridget—” Connor started saying.
“I have been staying there since Richard and I broke up,” Bridget replied.
Meg inserted herself back into the conversation. “Richard kicked you out of his place, didn’t he?”
Bridget shook her head. “He didn’t kick me out.”
Meg stared long and hard at her.
Bridget elaborated on her point. “Our relationship just wasn’t working out.”
“You mean because he caught you with David?”
Bridget deflected. “You asked me where I was last night. I was at the motel, all right?”
Meg shook her head. “Not all right. If the truth was really as simple as you being in your motel room all night, then why didn’t you just tell us that in the first place?”
“I was worried that if I admitted I was living out of a motel room that it would make me look bad.”
“You were right to worry. It makes you look horrible.”
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