Words of Wisdom

by D E Dennis

  “Oh, you’re going to do it,” he said menacingly. “Especially when you hear what I have to say. Come by the house tomorrow morning. Nine o’clock,” he demanded. “We’re ending this once and for all.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Silence.

  “Hello?” I said. “What does that mean?”

  “What? I...I thought I saw—” He cleared his throat. “Never mind. Tomorrow. Nine o’clock. Be here.”

  Click.

  The line went dead.

  IF ARNIE PICKED UP on how distracted I was during dinner, he made no mention of it. We found ourselves cuddling in bed a little while later.

  I glanced at the clock.

  “It’s getting late,” I said softly. “I have to get going.”

  “What?” he said blearily. He was half asleep. “No, don’t go.” He sat up and the blankets fell down, revealing his bare chest. “Stay the night.”

  I smiled. “I can’t. I have to meet someone early tomorrow.” I kicked off the covers and stood up. “Next time.”

  “Are you sure? There’s an excellent chance I’m making pancakes tomorrow. You don’t want to miss that.”

  I leaned across the bed and captured his lips. “You know you’re playing dirty getting the pancakes involved,” I said when we broke apart.

  He grinned. “I’ll do what I have to do.”

  I laughed. “I really do have to go. But how about next weekend?”

  He nodded and we kissed again.

  It probably wasn’t a good idea to make plans to meet a murderer, but I had been hoping for another opportunity to get close to Tad Breyfogle and push all the right emotional buttons. I knew the how. I knew the why. Now, I just needed a confession, and tomorrow morning I would get one.

  I WAS RIFE WITH NERVOUS tension when the guards buzzed me into Calm Meadows. I stuck my hand in my bag for the fifth time and felt around until my fingers brushed against the Taser and personal alarm. I had to keep making sure they were still there in case, should the impossible happen and they vanish into thin air or something.

  I sucked in a shaky breath, slowly blew it out, and steeled myself. I’ve been attacked by killers before and I wasn’t eager to let it happen again. However, I wasn’t going to back down.

  I’m getting that confession.

  It was the last thought that passed through my head, before I turned and pulled into the Breyfogles’ drive.

  I slammed on the brakes. A police car blocking my path.

  I switched off the engine and climbed out. On my way up the lawn, I passed by another squad car and an ambulance.

  Ollie and Gwen were standing on the porch. They looked up when I approached and I could see Gwen was pale and stricken.

  “What happened?” I asked, stopping short of the front steps.

  Gwen sniffed. “It’s Dad. He...he...” She buried her face in her hands, not able to continue.

  “He’s dead,” Ollie said bluntly. His face looked like it had been carved out of stone. “He committed suicide. We found him this morning.”

  Entry Six

  “I’M...” Goodness, what do I say? “I’m sorry for your loss,” I finished lamely.

  They didn’t respond.

  “Mari?”

  My head snapped up. “Arnie?” I cursed under my breath. Of course, he’s here.

  “What are you doing here?” He rushed down the steps to face me.

  “Um...”

  His face morphed into a heavy mask of disapproval when it came to him. “This was the meeting you had to make.” He balled his fists. “You promised to stay out of this, Mari!”

  “I did!” I replied. I planted my hands on my hips, suddenly on the defensive. “He called me. Tad Breyfogle told me to come here this morning, nine on the dot. He said he had something to tell me that was going to end this whole mess once and for all.”

  Arnie suddenly switched into detective mode. “He did?” Arnie’s eyes narrowed as he thought. He reached out and grabbed my hand, tugging me along. “Come with me.”

  I let him lead me through the house and up the stairs. “It’s a crime scene,” he said to me. “So you can’t touch anything, but there’s something I want you to see.”

  He pushed opened the door to the study and we walked in. My eyes scanned the room and fell on the body of Mayor Tad Breyfogle, slumped over his desk.

  “Detective Davis,” Kindler hissed. She was standing next to the body. “Have you brought a date to a crime scene?”

  “Of course not,” Arnie replied. He gestured at me. “The deceased called Amari yesterday. She was one of the last people to speak to him before he committed suicide.”

  “Is that so?” she replied. “What did he say to you, Miss Moon?”

  I wasn’t looking at her. I was hardly listening. One foot, then another, drawing me into the study. I found myself next to Tad’s body. His arm was hanging down and a small pistol was resting on the floor inches from his fingertips. “He said he had something to tell me,” I said woodenly. I glanced to my right, out the large windows overlooking the driveway. “He said, he was going to end this whole mess.”

  She nodded, lips pursed. “I see. This must have been what he was referring to.” She pointed at the laptop screen. A document was pulled up and a message had been typed.

  Cringing, I stepped closer to the body and leaned over him to read.

  “Dear Gwen and Ollie―”

  I paused, sniffing the air. “What’s that smell?” I turned to Kindler. “Do you smell that?”

  She frowned. “That would be the dead body, Miss Moon.” She jabbed her finger at the screen. “Get on with it.”

  I kissed my teeth, but went back to reading all the same.

  “Dear Gwen and Ollie,

  I can no longer bear the shame and guilt of what I’ve done. It was me who set the fire and burned down Best Foot Forward with your mother inside. I have been having an affair with a woman named Sophia Bell for the last few months. She convinced me that the only way for us to be together without harming our reputations was for Veronica to die.

  She came up with a plan of using the recent spate of arsons to cover our crime. It was all her idea but it was I who committed the deed. I killed your mother, my wife, and I can’t live with it anymore. I leave everything, the house and money, to you both and I pray that one day you can forgive me for what I’ve done.

  I love you,

  Tad Breyfogle.”

  You could hear a pin drop. Arnie, Kindler, and the members of the crime scene investigation unit, had all fallen silent while I read the suicide note.

  I straightened and stepped away from the desk.

  “You were right, Mari,” Arnie said. “Tad Breyfogle was responsible for the fire and Sophia Bell was his accomplice.” He glanced at the body, shaking his head. “I’m sorry it came to this, but at least we can put this case to bed...and focus on finding the real arsonist.”

  I chewed on my lips, lost in thought. Arnie came around the desk and gently pulled me away from the body.

  “I think you’ve seen enough.” He stroked my chin. “Sorry I didn’t listen to you.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for, Davis,” Kindler snapped. “You were following procedure.”

  “But now we can put all this behind us,” he went on like she hadn’t spoken, “and Veronica Breyfogle will get justice. A squad car is on the way to pick up Sophia Bell, now.”

  I was looking back and forth from Tad and the laptop. Trying to understand. “Arnie...” I began. “This is all wrong. It makes no sense.”

  He blinked at me. “What? What doesn’t make sense?”

  I waved my hand at the scene. “Tad Breyfogle committing suicide. It makes no sense. Why would he call me and tell me to meet him if he was planning to kill himself?”

  Kindler closed her notebook. “He must have called you to confess, but like the note says the guilt got the better of him and he couldn’t stand it any longer.”

  I shook my head
. “But he was so angry. Indignant about my accusations. He was yelling at me. He was pissed that I spoke to Sophia―”

  “You spoke to Sophia Bell?!” Arnie and Kindler shouted at the same time.

  “That’s not the point!” I snapped. “He was pissed that I spoke to Sophia and upset her. He was mad that people suspected him of killing his wife and pissed that people were avoiding him. He said he was going to tell me something that would make me take back what I said about Veronica and admit I was a fake.”

  “That’s what he said?” Arnie asked, sharing a look with Kindler.

  “Yes. He was the furthest from contrite or remorseful a person could be.”

  Arnie rubbed his chin, pondering. “It does seem odd...”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Kindler growled. She stomped around the desk and joined our little huddle. “We are on the second floor. The windows were locked tight and the cook confirms she had to use her key to get in this morning, when she brought the mayor’s breakfast. We have a dead man in a locked room with a clearly written suicide note and only one set of fingerprints on the gun. This is an open-and-shut suicide. Your little phone call doesn’t dispute the facts.”

  “Why would a suicidal man make plans to meet someone, if he was just going to kill himself?” I pressed.

  But Kindler wasn’t backing down. “When did he call you?”

  “A little bit after noon.”

  She smirked. “See. He made that call to you hours before he killed himself and a lot can happen in several hours. His intention when he called was to lure you here and spin you a web of lies, but after some thought, he realized he was just digging himself deeper and deeper. He wanted it to stop. His note says so.”

  I frowned. “A typed note on a laptop says so? How do you know he actually wrote it?”

  “Once again,” she said through gritted teeth. “The door was locked. He−was−alone.”

  I snorted. “But you also said the chef had a key. I’m betting that the other two people who live in this house do as well.”

  Her nostrils flared. “They weren’t home at the time. He committed suicide sometime between nine and ten o’clock No one else was in the house which is why it took so long to discover the body. No one heard the gunshot.”

  That threw me for a moment. I looked away from her, focusing on the desk again. I stepped toward it and leaned over it, trying to figure out what was nagging at me.

  “I’ve had it,” Kindler shouted. “Get her out of here.”

  A uniformed officer moved in on me, but suddenly found Arnie in his path. He scrambled back where he belonged and Arnie turned to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “You need to go, babe.”

  I straightened. “Was the laptop cover up when you got here? Was he found just like this?” I demanded.

  Kindler sputtered, “I said to get―”

  “Yes,” Arnie cut in. “Why?”

  I stepped around him. “Because if the laptop was open when he killed himself why are there no traces of blood on the screen, but there is a tiny spot of it on the back cover.” I pointed and the entire room leaned in. “Could it be that the laptop was closed when he was killed, a speck of blood splashed on it. Then someone else opened it, booted it up, and typed out that note?”

  Kindler’s jaw was working but no intelligible sounds were coming out. “I...he...”

  I couldn’t resist smirking at her befuddlement and her face twisted when she saw it. “I said get out!” she roared. “Now!”

  I calmly marched to the door. “Goodbye, baby,” I said to Arnie. “Call me later.”

  Arnie just watched me go, while Kindler began berating the crime scene team for missing the spot of blood.

  I KNOCKED ON KALI’S door and let myself in. She was sitting up in bed reading a book. She put it down and removed her reading glasses when I entered.

  “Hey, what’s up?” she asked.

  “Tad Breyfogle is dead.”

  “What?” she cried, eyes bugging out.

  “And I think he was murdered.”

  Her jaw dropped.

  I went in and sat on the edge of her bed. “He asked me to come by his house this morning. He said he was going to tell me something that would make me take everything back. When I arrived, the cops were all over the place.”

  “Someone killed him?” she gasped.

  “I’m pretty sure, although it wasn’t meant to look that way. There was a typed suicide note supposedly written by Tad Breyfogle, it said he set the fire and killed his wife and her employees with the help of Sophia Bell.”

  Kali took off her glasses and stuck the end piece in her mouth, chewing on it. “But if he was killed...then is the suicide note a fake?”

  I nodded. “I think it was typed after he was murdered by the killer.”

  “But what does that mean?” Kali probed. “If the note/confession was written by someone else then could they be framing him for the fire? Was he innocent?”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t think that’s it. I’ve thought about it the whole way over here. I announced to the entire town the other day that I suspected the mayor was responsible for Veronica’s death and the deaths of her employees. What if someone was watching and they realized Veronica Breyfogle was not a victim of the arsonist like they thought. They believed she was murdered by her own husband. Then when Sophia Bell steps in with a false alibi, they fly into a rage thinking he’s going to get away with what he had done.

  “He definitely wasn’t remorseful,” I continued, “his phone call to me was proof of that, so when the killer confronts him, he just keeps spinning lies and denials. The murderer then kills him, puts his hand on the gun so that his fingerprints will be on it, and then writes the confession themselves.”

  Kali gasped. “Who would...who could do all of that? Why?”

  “Three other people live in that house,” I said grimly. “Three people who would have had access to the key to lock the study behind them. Three people who would have had a motive to kill the man who murdered Veronica Breyfogle.” I sighed. “Chef Tatiana and Gwen and Oliver Breyfogle.”

  “You think they would murder their own father?” she said. “Or the chef would risk the death penalty over her boss?”

  I shivered. “You haven’t met Ollie or Gwen. Gwen’s a few ounces short of a full bottle and Ollie seemed to hate his father.”

  “Gwen sounds creepy for sure but still,” Kali protested. “And from what you said about the wake, it didn’t seem like Ollie liked his mother either.”

  I reluctantly inclined my head. “Ollie was disturbingly callous about his mother’s death, but when he spoke of his father he was truly angry. It pissed him off that his father was sneaking around and I didn’t need my empath abilities to see that. His mother dying is one thing, but her being murdered by a man he seemed to despise was another. He might have wanted his father to pay, once and for all. For all the pain he’s caused.”

  Kali nodded slowly. “And Gwen Breyfogle?”

  “Just because Ollie didn’t like his parents, doesn’t mean Gwen felt the same way. Her father resented her remember? She might have sensed his disapproval and clung to her mother in the face of it. Then he kills her, she snaps.” I grabbed her arm as memory struck me. “She also told me that her father wouldn’t give her money to open up a perfume business.”

  “So?”

  “So,” I continued, “in the fake suicide note, there was a line saying Tad wanted his children to inherit everything.”

  She hummed. “She gets back at her father, avenges her mother, and gets the money she needs for her business in one fell swoop.” She frowned. “But what about the chef?”

  “Chef Tatiana used to be homeless. The fabulous life she lives now was all due to Veronica Breyfogle’s kindness. She gave her a chance when no one else would. That kind of thing inspires loyalty.” I pulled my legs up on the bed and sat cross-legged. “She’s also violently religious.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Whe
n I told her I was a psychic, she called me a devil woman and chased me from the kitchen with a knife.”

  “You didn’t tell me about that!” Kali cried.

  “She didn’t hurt me,” I said. “There’s was no reason to worry you.” Her scowl told me how she felt about that explanation.

  “I’m sorry.” I tried again. “I should have told you.”

  “Yes, you should have,” she said firmly, “because that’s messed up. If she pulled a knife on you for being a psychic, what would she do to a homicidal adulterer that murdered someone she cared about, along with five innocent people?”

  “I’m guessing she doesn’t bake them a cake.”

  Kali shook her head. “Mari, I don’t like this. This is getting too dangerous.”

  “Actually, I think it might finally be over. Almost anyway,” I said. “Kindler’s the worst, but she’s a decent detective and a stickler for procedure. She won’t ignore the blood spot being on the back cover and I’m sure she’ll come to the same conclusion I did. When she realizes the killer has to be someone with a key to the study, she and Arnie will interrogate Gwen, Ollie, and Tatiana until one of them breaks.” I sighed. “The rest they can handle from here. I did my part. I made sure Veronica’s real killer was known. I wished he hadn’t been killed as a result, but I couldn’t have prevented that. It’s over for me. I’m getting back to my life.”

  Kali smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. I’m even happier because you actually mean it this time.”

  I chuckled. “Hey, Kali...” I began, smile melting away. “Have you heard from Paxon?”

  She blinked at me. “No. Why?”

  “He came by yesterday and―”

  “He’s in town?” She flipped over and snagged her phone off the bedside table. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

  “No, don’t!” I snatched her phone out of her hand.

  She looked at me incredulously. “What was that for?”

  “You...” I groaned. Why had I brought this up? Kali wasn’t going to let it rest now. “You can’t call him.”

  “Why?” She drew the word out like she was talking to a crazy person.