by Mayes, Casey
“You’re on to something, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“Come on, don’t hold out on me.”
“I need to sleep on it, and then I have to check a few things out tomorrow.” I knew my husband’s methods. He’d talk when he was ready, and only when he was ready. Otherwise, his internal thought process could short-circuit if he spoke his theories aloud. I understood it completely, and had learned to respect my husband when he was reticent about a case.
“Good enough.” I started gathering my copies and notes.
“You don’t have to do that on my account. I could always crash in the other bedroom.”
“I don’t spend enough time with you as it is. Besides, I’m just spinning my wheels right now.”
“Don’t worry. You always do better in the mornings.”
“We can only hope.”
After we were in bed, I snuggled up close to my husband. “I’m glad you’re with me.”
“Tonight, or all of the time?”
I punched him lightly. “All of the time, and you know it. Can you believe Barton Lane is really my uncle?”
“It’s hard to grasp, isn’t it? How do you think Tom’s going to take it?”
“One thing’s for sure. He’s either going to be thrilled, or he won’t talk to his brother at all. There’s nothing wishy-washy about my uncle.”
“Which one?” Zach asked, and even though it was dark, I could hear the smile in his voice.
“That’s got a nice ring to it.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Zach asked softly.
“What do you mean?”
“He stole from your family, Savannah. I’m sure it was probably everything your grandparents had. Are you going to give him a free ride for doing that?”
“He tried to make amends,” I said.
“Too late to do your grandparents any good, though.”
“Zach, do you think I should turn my back on him because of something he did before I was even born?” While I prided myself on being my own woman, that didn’t mean that I didn’t take my husband’s advice seriously. He was a smart man, and he loved me. I respected him enough to listen to what he had to say, though I didn’t feel bound to follow it. It was a marriage, an equal partnership, at least as far as we were concerned.
“Hang on. I’m not saying that. I’m just not sure you should make it too easy on him.”
“How many hoops should he jump through first? Would seven be too many? Are three not enough? What’s the magic number?”
“Nope, I’m not going to do it,” he said.
“Do what?”
“Let you work out your frustration on me. I know you’re as torn as I am about the whole thing. Let’s table it for now, shall we?”
I realized that he was right. I’d been projecting my ambivalence onto him, and that wasn’t fair for either one of us. “How’d you get so smart?”
“It helps marrying the right person,” he said as he hugged me. “You’ve been training me to be a better man since the day we met. Who knows? Someday you just might succeed.”
“I think we’ve both done pretty well.”
“You bet.”
Soon, I heard my husband snoring softly, but my mind was in too much of a whirlwind to just drift off like that. Zach could turn his thoughts off at night like they were on a switch, but I wasn’t that lucky. How would Uncle Thomas react to his brother? Would they force me to take sides if the two of them clashed? Should I have made it a point to give that money—cash that we could have used—back to a man who was worth millions?
There were just too many questions, and not nearly enough answers.
I didn’t think I’d ever get to sleep, but I must have at some point, because I woke up the next morning groggy from my nightmares. Fortunately I rarely remembered them for long, but in this one, I was being chased by a long line of letters and numbers. They’d formed a perfect line and were holding hands as they chased me through one of my own puzzles.
The image had been enough to jolt me awake.
Zach was still sleeping, so I slipped out of bed and decided to take a shower. The multiple jets helped a little in bringing me fully awake, but I could feel the lack of real sleep, and I knew I’d pay for it through the day. When I’d been in my late teens and early twenties, I’d been able to pull all-nighters writing papers or studying for exams, but the older I got, the more I felt missed minutes of slumber, let alone the hours I’d lost last night.
I wasn’t a coffee drinker by nature, but I loved sweet tea. After my shower, I placed an order just for me; a pitcher of sweet iced tea, and a stack of cinnamon sticks.
I tried to be quiet as I got dressed, but I heard Zach’s voice from under the covers. “You had a rough night, didn’t you?”
“Sorry if I woke you,” I said.
“Which time; now, or when you shouted out the sequences were after you?”
“Oh, no. Did I actually say that out loud?”
“You did. Care to share your nightmare with me?”
I shook my head. “Not before I’ve had something to eat.”
“Savannah, you know it’s just superstition, don’t you? Your bad dreams really won’t come true if you tell them to someone else before you’ve had breakfast.”
“I know it’s irrational, but I won’t do it, so stop asking.” There was a knock at the door, and Zach popped out of the bed like he was on springs.
“Easy, tiger. I ordered some sweet tea to perk me up, and some cinnamon sticks just because I could.”
“Not breakfast for me? I’m starving.”
I laughed and threw a pillow at him as I walked to the door. “I’ll order you something as soon as I answer that.”
“Yes, but will you share with me until mine gets here?”
“We’ll see,” I said.
“WHO IS IT?” I ASKED AS I WALKED TO THE DOOR.
“Sweet tea and cinnamon sticks,” the voice said.
I was surprised when I opened the door to find Garrett standing there. “Wow, I didn’t realize the manager of the hotel delivered room service.”
He smiled at me. “Not normally, no. But I’ve been told you are to receive VIP treatment during the rest of your stay.”
“Funny, I thought I already was.”
As he pushed the tray inside, he said, “No, ma’am. You got Important Person treatment before. The Very was added sometime last night.”
“Trust me, there’s no need to go all out. I’m sure you have other duties to perform around here.”
“Until you check out, that’s not the case. If there’s anything you’d like, all you need to do is ask.”
“Well, for starters, could we have a repeat of yesterday’s breakfast order? My husband’s a little peckish this morning.”
Garrett smiled then retrieved a radio from his pocket. After a whispered conversation, he said, “It’s taken care of.”
“I need to get one of those,” I said with a grin.
“That’s not a bad idea,” the manager said.
Zach came out wearing a bathrobe. “I smell something delicious.” He looked surprised to see that Garrett was still there.
“If you’ll excuse me,” he said.
“Was that really the hotel manager just delivering your breakfast to you?”
“I wouldn’t call it breakfast. It’s more like a snack.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m guessing Barton had a chat with him last night. It appears that our level of service just went up a notch.”
“Where do you go from platinum?”
“That’s what I wanted to know. You have to give Barton credit for one thing. He doesn’t do anything in half-measures.”
Zach reached for a cinnamon stick, and I decided not to smack his hand away. “What about me?”
“I’m sure you’ll be taken care of, too.”
“Then let’s order my breakfast.”
“I took the liberty of ge
tting a repeat of yesterday for you. You don’t have any problem with that, do you?”
“Not unless you expect me to share,” he said with a smile. “I’ve got time to shower.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. I’m guessing this won’t take long.”
“I’ll be quick,” he said.
“In that shower? I’ll believe it when I see it.”
He made it out in time, beating his breakfast by a full thirty seconds. After Garrett brought the food in, he handed me a small radio. “For you.”
“I was just teasing.”
“This will eliminate the need for you to go through the switchboard. It’s set to my frequency. If you need anything, you have only to ask for it, and it will happen.”
“Wow, so it’s a magic radio.”
Zach was ignoring us, diving into his meal.
“You might say that,” Garrett said with a smile.
After Garrett was gone, I helped myself to a glass of tea, and grabbed a stick from Zach’s plate.
“Hey, you’ve got your own.”
“But they aren’t as hot as yours are,” I said.
Zach appeared to think about that, and then he nodded his approval. “Point taken. Are you ready for your breakfast meeting?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Do you really think Lorna’s a murderer?”
“I’m not saying just yet. Push her, and do it hard. I want to see what happens.”
“What if she snaps?”
“Would you feel better knowing that I’ve already covered that? I’ve got a plainclothes detective staking out the restaurant. You’ll be protected the entire time.”
“Don’t I rate getting you?”
“She knows me, Savannah. I’m afraid Lorna won’t open up if she sees me there.”
“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”
“I hope so. It’s not too late to back out, you know.”
I glanced at the clock and realized that Lorna was already on her way. “No, I said I’d do this, and I will.”
“That’s my girl.”
I kissed him, and then I walked out the door.
“Good luck,” he called out.
“Thanks.”
The trip down the elevator was much too fast for my taste this time. I was going to have a rather public conversation with one of our murder suspects, and I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.
“THERE YOU ARE,” LORNA SAID AS I WALKED INTO THE restaurant. “I was beginning to think that you weren’t going to show again.”
“I said I’d be here,” I said.
“I’m glad.”
As I joined her, I scanned the room full of diners, wondering who the plainclothes detective was that Zach had promised me. No one stood out, so I supposed that was a good thing, at least for him, but I could have used the sight of a uniformed officer at the moment.
After we ordered, I said, “You were going to bring me a present today, weren’t you?”
Lorna looked surprised. “Can you believe it? I left it on the counter at home.”
Was she lying, or had it just been an excuse to pick my brain about Zach’s investigation again? If it was, it was going to bite her this time.
“You’ve got to tell me what it is,” I said. “I’m just dying to know.”
“It’s a frame of your first puzzle that ever ran,” she said. “I called the Lenoir Dispatch and they dug a copy out of their archives for me. I hope you like it.”
The first paper my syndicate had sold a puzzle to was indeed a small, independent paper in the city of Lenoir. I’d been as proud of that puzzle as I could be, but I’d forgotten to save one for myself.
“That’s really thoughtful,” I said. “Thank you.”
“It would have been even better if I’d brought it with me,” she said. “I’ll have it messengered over to you today.”
“I’d appreciate that,” I said. “What made you think of doing it?”
“You broke up my relationship with Grady. I owed you something out of gratitude. It was the wake-up call I needed to save me from my bad choices. Grady was exactly the wrong man for me at the wrong time, and I don’t know what would have happened if we’d stayed together.”
“I told you, I didn’t say a word to him about you.”
“I didn’t know that when I had the newspaper framed, though. For whatever reason, splitting with Grady was what saved me.”
Our food arrived, and as we began to eat, I realized that I’d stalled long enough. I had to pressure her, and do it fast, before she walked out.
I finished a bite of my omelet, and then I asked, “Aren’t you going to ask me about Zach’s investigation?”
“You made it pretty clear the last time that you weren’t comfortable discussing it with me,” she said.
“Funny, but I never thought you’d give up that easily.”
She waved her fork in the air. “I thought about what you said, and you were right. It really never was any of my business.”
“You might be surprised.”
“Why is that?”
“Zach still has you on his list of suspects.” I said it as flatly as I could, but Lorna looked at me as though I’d just lost my mind.
“Come on, that’s not amusing at all.”
“It wasn’t meant to be,” I said. “You had a reason to want Cindy and Hank both dead. Zach can’t ignore that just because we’re friends.”
“I told you before. I didn’t kill anyone,” she said loudly enough to attract attention to us. Was one of the folks watching us the cop sent there to protect me? I certainly hoped so.
“You don’t really have an alibi for Hank’s murder though, do you?”
“I have one for Cindy’s,” she said.
“Really? What is it?”
She ignored the question. “If I’m really a suspect, why hasn’t anyone pressed me about an alibi? The two murders are tied together, if the Observer has it right. I couldn’t have killed Hank, because I didn’t kill Cindy.”
“It’s easy enough to say, but can you prove it?”
Lorna threw her napkin down on her plate, though her meal was less than half eaten. “I don’t have to sit here and listen to this. To think I tried to do you a favor.”
“Do yourself one,” I said. “Tell me your alibi, or tell the police.”
“You wouldn’t sic your husband on me, would you?”
“Try me,” I said, trying my best to press her into saying something she didn’t want to tell me.
“I was with Davis Rawles all night, okay?”
That was shocking to hear. I’d known about Lorna and Grady, but I’d never suspected Davis. “Excuse me if I don’t believe you,” I said.
“Believe what you want to.”
“He’s a married man, Lorna.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I’m not proud of myself, and neither is he. Maybe I haven’t changed as much as I thought I had. We were both drinking, and a little harmless flirting went way too far.”
“So, that’s why you didn’t tell the police your alibi.”
“You want to know the truth? They never asked. I figured it was because Davis cleared me, and none of his cops wanted to step on their boss’s toes.”
“Zach’s going to talk to him to confirm your story; you know that, don’t you?”
“What do I care? Let him.” She stood, and loomed over me for a second. Where was my protection? Was she getting ready to strike, even in a crowded dining room? “Savannah, you and I are through. I thought we could really be friends this time but I was wrong.”
“Is that it?” I asked, the relief washing over me.
“What more did you expect, a dramatic drumroll? Good-bye, Savannah.”
“Bye-bye,” I said almost merrily.
I WENT BACK UPSTAIRS TO OUR SUITE. I SUSPECTED ZACH would already be gone, but he was still there, waiting for me.
“I thought you’d be at the station by now,” I said as my husband hugged me tightly.
“I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate. I should have gone downstairs with you.”
“I was protected all the time, remember?”
Zach paused and grinned. “Did you spot her?” “Who are you talking about?”
“The detective I sent.”
All that time, I’d been imagining a big, burly cop, when a woman had been guarding me instead. “No, I didn’t.”
“Then she was doing her job well. What did Lorna say?”
“She claims she was with Davis the night of the murder.”
My husband whistled softly. “That explains why neither one of them volunteered the information. I wonder what Davis’s wife will think when she finds out?”
“Are you going to tell her?” I was surprised by the comment, since my husband was normally the model of discretion.
“Not me, but it’s a small force, and husbands talk to wives. She’ll find out soon enough.”
“You’re going to confirm it with Davis, aren’t you?”
“I have to,” Zach said, “though I’m not looking forward to it. Way to go, Savannah. If this checks out, you’ve just eliminated two suspects with one confession.”
“It wasn’t exactly freely given,” I admitted. “I threatened her with you.”
“However you did it, good work.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Do you mean after I talk to Davis? If it checks out, I’m going to focus on Grady. I was pretty sure he was the killer before, but now I’m almost positive. I just can’t believe one of my closest friends is capable of murder.”
“Are you going to arrest him?”
“That’s the problem. I don’t have enough real evidence yet. But trust me, I’ll get it.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Zach,” I said. “You know the temper Grady has. He could do anything.”
“Trust me, I’ll be careful. What are you going to do in the meantime?”
“Does that mean I can’t come along with you when you corner Grady?”
He laughed. “Not a chance in the world, and you know it.”
I glanced at the clock. “I don’t feel like waiting around for lunch with Sherry. I’m going to call her and see if I can come by early. I didn’t even have a chance to eat my breakfast.”
“Have a good time, and send her my love.”