Not Quite a Murder

by Liz Turner

  “Our attacker?”

  “Maybe. It’s possible Doug struck out at his blackmailer in anger and might have caused a nosebleed. That definitely would explain the random drops of blood we see.” Lily took out a clean swab and lifted some blood from the concrete.

  “Great work, Lily.” Ryan gently touched her elbow. “It all looked the same to me, but you’ve painted a perfect picture of what happened here. Did you learn all that in med school?”

  “Uh…” Lily paused as she tried to think where she’d acquired this particular archive of knowledge. “I don’t remember. I think I picked it up from one of Banks’s forensic books. He lets me borrow a few every week.”

  Ryan raised an eyebrow. “So you read forensic books before going to bed?”

  Lily snorted at how ridiculous that sounded. “I know I sound like a loser, but this stuff fascinates me.”

  “Well, you’re really good at it.” Ryan’s eyes suddenly hardened, and he turned away from her. “You should probably finish that degree of yours and qualify in crime forensics or something…”

  Lily held his gaze for a few seconds, but didn’t comment; this was a conversation for another time. “So if you just whacked someone over the head with a pole or branch, where would you toss the murder weapon?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “Into the lake,” Ryan postulated. “So I guess we don’t have much hope of finding it. There are hundreds of pieces of wood floating around out there.”

  “True. And any useful evidence would probably have washed off.” Lily sighed. “Shall we send forensics up here and head to the hospital?”

  Ryan smiled. “Well, you’ve already done their job for them.”

  Chapter 2

  The Death of Romance

  Lily made Ryan take her home quickly so that she could shower off the morning run and grab a bite to eat.

  While he waited, her grandmother watched him with one eyebrow raised and a frown on her face.

  “I’m onto you, Detective Scott,” Grandma Grace said, sipping her coffee.

  “Onto what?” Ryan asked, his discomfort rising.

  “Never you mind.” Grace narrowed her eyes at him. “But if you break my Lily’s heart, Detective Garcia will have a murder to investigate on his own…”

  “Excuse me, ma’am?” Ryan said, nearly choking on his coffee.

  Lily raced into the room, shoving a piece of toast into her mouth and unknowingly breaking the tense atmosphere. She planted a brisk kiss on her grandmother’s cheek before sprinting out again. “Love you, Grandma,” she called over her shoulder. “Ryan, come on, hurry up!”

  Ryan hastily ran after her, relieved to leave Grandma Grace’s haunting stare.

  “How was coffee with Grandma,” Lily asked as she swept her damp blonde waves into a bun on top of her head.

  “I think she’s onto us,” Ryan admitted worriedly.

  Lily giggled. “I doubt it. Although, nothing seems to pass by without her notice these days. Do you know she counts how many chocolates I eat?” Lily said indignantly.

  “I can believe it,” Ryan laughed. “You look gorgeous, by the way.”

  Lily snorted. “Well, you’d better start looking the other way. Otherwise, Garcia will know what’s going on the second we walk inside that hospital…”

  ***

  And Lily was right. Ryan and Lily entered Doug’s room and found themselves under the hot radar of Garcia’s stare as he surveyed their every move. “What took you so long?” Garcia asked suspiciously.

  “I needed to change and grab my stuff,” Lily said. “You know how Grandma Grace worries. Besides, we found our attack scene.”

  Garcia nodded. “That’s more good news than I have then, I’m afraid.”

  “How is Douglas?” Lily asked, picking up his medical chart and quickly scanning through it.

  “Judging by your reaction to the tests in there, not very good,” Garcia sighed. “He hasn’t woken up again since the lake.”

  Lily did a thorough check, observing which medicine he was receiving intravenously, monitoring his heart rate, and listening to his breathing as the air gurgled through his lungs. “They’ll probably try to induce a coma so that his body can heal and repair while he sleeps, especially if there was any brain damage,” she said, and then frowned upon seeing Douglas’s face begin to twitch.

  He let out a long and painful groan as he tried to raise his pipe-filled hand to his head.

  “Mr. Douglas Radley?” Garcia began.

  “Where am I?” Douglas slurred, his eyes still closed and his voice groggy.

  “You’re safe, Douglas. You’re in the hospital,” Garcia explained gently.

  “Pain…” Douglas cried, his hand rubbing his injured head.

  “I’ll call the nurse. It’s better if there aren’t too many people crowding him while he’s coming around,” Lily said, heading out the door.

  “Uh, Ryan,” Garcia called, “if we’ve got a name, contact the next of kin, please, and get them here.”

  “Will do.” Ryan nodded and stepped out after Lily.

  Ryan was still busy on the phone trying to locate the next of kin when Lily and a nurse ran past. He could hear Doug’s doctor being alerted over the hospital intercom.

  “What happened?” Kendra asked.

  “He said a few words, complained about his pain, and then passed out again,” Garcia said, his face troubled.

  “I think we’re going to need some privacy, detectives,” an annoyed Kendra instructed.

  “Kendra,” Lily appealed to her nurse friend, “he was attacked in the park and left for dead. We need to try to get some answers out of him so we can find whoever did this.”

  “I know that, Lil,” Kendra said, administering an injection into Mr. Radley’s IV, “but right now, Mr. Radley’s life is more important that your detective friends finding answers. Otherwise, you’ll all be back to solving a homicide. You of all people should know that, Lily. Now everyone out! Please!”

  “Okay,” Lily raised her hands in surrender. “Understood. Just please, let us know if he wakes up.”

  Kendra shot Lily a look. “Spoken like a true cop.”

  Lily frowned and backed out of the room, her mind wondering what Kendra meant by that. Lily had met Kendra while they’d been completing their practical hours at the hospital. Kendra had been an enthusiastic and passionate nurse, and Lily a promising med student with a bright future as a doctor. Now, the different courses their lives had taken had somehow placed a rift in their friendship, just as it had between Lily and her boyfriend Nick, before he ended things with her.

  “Excuse me,” an angry voice snarled behind Lily. “What do you mean I can’t see Doug?”

  “Mrs. Radley,” Ryan held his hands up as if to bar the woman from barging into the ICU unit, “your husband is in critical condition and the doctors are enforcing that he rest at the moment.”

  “Don’t you dare call that conniving, spitting serpent of a human being my husband!” the woman yelled, flicking a dyed crimson curl over her shoulder. “The only reason I’m here,” she said through pursed purple lips, “is because that man in there,” she pointed a clawed finger with bright red nails in the direction of Doug’s ward, “was late for his court case with our divorce lawyers this morning!”

  “You’re getting a divorce? Why?” Garcia asked, flipping his notebook open.

  Mrs. Radley’s penciled eyebrows practically shot off her forehead. She crossed her arms and swung her weight onto one hip while her heavily made-up eyes narrowed threateningly at Garcia. “Do you honestly expect me to tell you my business? Who do you think you are?”

  “An officer of the law, ma’am.” Garcia raised his badge. Lily could tell he was annoyed. But as always, he kept his cool. “Your husband was attacked in the early hours of this morning and left for dead. It was a miracle he even survived. I thought Detective Scott made that clear to you over the phone?”

  “He… uh… did…” Mrs. Radley spluttered, her
confidence diminishing at the sight of the badge still hovering in view.

  Garcia held her gaze. “Mrs. Radley, it strikes me as particularly noteworthy that as his wife, you show little to zero concern for your husband as he’s lying in there fighting for his life. If that doesn’t clearly implicate to a jury that you had something to do with his attempted murder, then perhaps your refusal to answer a detective’s questions will.”

  Mrs. Radley’s eyes fluttered in panic. “Now, just you hold off a second, detective. I ain’t guilty of no murder! I’m just a woman after what’s rightfully hers. And that man in there,” her voice suddenly choked with emotion, “stole everything from me!”

  “Why are you getting a divorce?”

  “Our marriage has been over for a decade. I held on because I wasn’t a working woman. But I needed love in my life.” Mrs. Radley gushed, her painted fingers stroking down her chest. “That stingy man refused to give it to me, so I did what any good woman in my shoes would have done…”

  “Let me guess,” Ryan interjected. “You cheated on him.”

  “Cheated is such an ugly word.” Mrs. Radley flicked her hair again. “But, yes. I sought love in other areas and found a man who loves me.”

  “So why so much hatred for your husband?” Lily asked. “It seems like you’re the one who wronged him?”

  Mrs. Radley shifted her weight and strutted her chin out. “I wasn’t aware there was a clause in our marriage contract stating that in the case of infidelity, the guilty partner would forfeit their claim to all shared goods. So I got scammed out of everything!”

  “It’s not really a scam if you’re the unfaithful one,” Garcia pointed out ruthlessly as he flipped to a new page in his notebook. “How did Doug find out about your affair?”

  Mrs. Radley shook her head. “Beats me. I came home one night to a set of divorce papers on my pillow, and when I asked why, he tossed me an envelope of photographs.”

  “What kind of photographs?” Lily asked.

  “Honey, use your imagination.” Mrs. Radley clicked her tongue. “Incriminating ones that proved I was unfaithful, okay?”

  “Where were you between midnight and five this morning?” Garcia asked.

  “Excuse me?” Mrs. Radley folded her arms defensively.

  “Just answer the question, or you’ll be answering it from a cell,” Garcia said.

  Mrs. Radley puffed air through her nose and sucked her teeth, all the while studying how bad Garcia’s bark was in comparison to his bite.

  “All right, have it your way,” Garcia concluded, shrugging. “Ryan?”

  “On it,” Ryan said, whipping his handcuffs from his belt and approaching Mrs. Radley.

  “Okay!” She threw her arms up in defense. “Sorry! Jeez! I was with my daughter, Tasha. She’ll confirm my story, I swear!”

  “Thank you,” Garcia made a note.

  “Mrs. Radley—” Lily attempted.

  “Elise.”

  “Elise—do you know of anyone who might want to harm your husband?”

  “Yeah.” Exasperated, she threw her hands in the air. “I can write you a whole list—from his family members, to his work colleagues!”

  Garcia smirked and handed her a pen and paper. “Please do.”

  Chapter 3

  The Secret Millionaire

  “I brought Chinese!” Ryan announced to Garcia and Lily as he entered the office with a steaming bag from Mr. Chow.

  “Yay!” Lily threw down the file she’d been reading. “You are literally my hero right now.”

  Ryan smiled and started unpacking the various takeout boxes.

  “Ooh! You got all my favorites,“Lily commented, unwrapping her chopsticks.

  “I thought you were against our takeout habits?” Garcia said wryly, one eyebrow raised at Ryan as he wheeled his office chair closer. “Now you’re encouraging them?”

  “No judgment, Filippo,” Ryan said defensively. “It was a seriously early morning and we’ve been powering through ever since then. I figured even I was in need of some carbs to keep going.”

  Lily grinned. “Agreed. What’s wrong, Garcia? Don’t you feel like Chinese?”

  “Oh, I always feel like Chinese,” Garcia said, reaching for the sweet and sour pork. “It’s just surprising, that’s all—how people can change so suddenly.”

  Ryan and Lily locked eyes and then hurriedly lowered them to their food.

  “So, did you guys find anything interesting while I was out?” Ryan asked, desperate to draw attention away from himself and Lily.

  “Yes, actually,” Lily answered quickly. “Garcia had me wade through all of Mr. Radley’s financials. Did you guys know he was a millionaire?”

  “A what?” Garcia nearly choked on his chow mein.

  “A millionaire,” Lily repeated. “He had several investments and policies. His income seemed enormous, but his expenditure was always super low.”

  “I’m not sure this was public knowledge,” Ryan said, scowling. “I mean, if you just look at the quality of his clothes, Doug didn’t exactly scream wealth.”

  “Yeah, but his wife was angry about being done out of her share of their assets, so she must have been aware,” Garcia reasoned while hunting for the dumplings.

  “Doug also had an account in the name of his daughter, Tasha Radley, which amounts to about ten million!” Lily paused to finish chewing her mouthful. “But Tasha was only set to inherit this once she was twenty-five, and there’s no indication that she or Elise had any knowledge of this account.”

  “Where did the money come from then?”

  “I did some digging, and it looks like much of it was inherited after his father’s death six years ago. I googled the family and Doug’s grandfather was hectically involved in the oil industry. The guy was loaded with more money than you can imagine.”

  “You’re loaded with more money than I can imagine,” Garcia pointed out.

  Lily rolled her eyes. “That was my grandfather’s money. I plan to earn my own.”

  “Yeah, but at least you have the option not to.”

  “Are you doing okay, Filippo? I mean, you’re usually the most cheerful of the three of us, but you don’t seem like yourself right now,” Ryan said, studying his old friend’s face.

  “I’m fine,” Garcia snapped. “Just not sleeping too well lately.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” Lily said. “If you want to take an early afternoon off, Ryan and I can finish up here.”

  Garcia shook his head. “No., I’m good to carry on. What else did you discover?”

  “So, the money came down from Doug’s grandfather,” Lily said.

  “Well then, Elise and Tasha must have known about it. I mean, if Google does, everyone does,” Ryan said in between mouthfuls.

  “Not necessarily.” Garcia wiped his mouth with a serviette. “I found their original marriage contract. Millions were definitely not stipulated in Doug’s list of assets.”

  Lily’s face scrunched with disgust. “Do you think he hid the money from his wife when signing their marriage contract?”

  “No, he simply hadn’t inherited it yet,” Garcia explained. “Doug’s father only died five years into their marriage, which was when he inherited it. From there, it seems it was kept secret.”

  “Of course. Yeah, that adds up with his financial records,” Lily said, nodding slowly.

  “Well, I have some interesting news.” Ryan grinned at them. “My trip to Mr. Chow involved a stop at Douglas Radley’s lawyer. He agreed to speak to me more as a friend of Doug’s than as his lawyer. He said Doug is a good guy, and though he’s stingy with his income, he genuinely loves his family.”

  “That explains why Tasha has that giant inheritance fund in her name.”

  “Exactly. But there’s more.” Ryan pulled out a brown envelope. “Doug’s lawyer gave me a copy of his will. Guess who stood to inherit everything upon his death?”

  “Elise Radley.” Garcia slammed his fist on the desk. “I knew I didn’
t trust that woman.”

  “Yup. Elise would take millions if Doug dropped dead,” Ryan confirmed. “Apparently, Doug planned to alter his will after their divorce was finalized.”

  Lily frowned. “That means if Doug died this morning, Elise would be a millionaire?”

  “That’s exactly what it means,” Garcia said.

  “But we have no proof Elise even knows about the millions, let alone the will,” Lily reasoned, eyeing the last Chinese bow tie.

  “You can have it,” Ryan said, gesturing to the bow tie.

  Lily shook her head. “No, you have it. I need to eat healthier, anyway.”

  “But I got the extra one for you…”

  Rolling his eyes, Garcia snatched the last, syrupy bow tie and popped it into his mouth.

  Lily blinked. “Okay, that was cruel!” Lily said.

  Garcia chuckled smugly.

  “Well, at least it put a smile on your face,” Lily retorted tartly, rolling her eyes.

  Garcia stuck out his tongue at her, causing Ryan to laugh heartily. “It’s good to see that again,” he said.

  “Oh, before I forget,” Lily said as she began clearing away takeaway containers, “I found something else interesting in Doug’s financials.”

  “What was it?” Garcia asked, his face growing serious again.

  “Doug was receiving monthly payments of ten-thousand dollars from a man named Knightly—or at least that’s what the bank statement said.”

  “Probably connected to his monthly income from his job,” Ryan pointed out.

  “That’s what I assumed too at first, but I checked Doug’s pay slips and the ten thousand isn’t recorded anywhere.”

  “So, what did you do next?” Garcia asked, amused by how Lily’s detective skills had progressed.

  “I called Doug’s office. I, umm, might have impersonated an officer of the law in the process… But that was the only way they would talk to me!”

  “You what?” Garcia said. “Lily, you signed papers saying you wouldn’t do that anymore!”

  Ryan laughed, shaking his head.

  “Anyway,” Lily continued, “I asked about a Knightly and they said there was a Rob Knightly who worked as Douglas Radley’s business associate.”