by Kathi Daley
“I wonder why Prattle killed Mrs. Willoby,” I murmured.
“I would guess the argument they were engaged in was financial in nature. If you remember, it was actually Mrs. Willoby who owned the cannery that the developer wanted to buy, and as we learned earlier, she opposed the sale, while her husband supported it. It seems from what I have been able to find out that Prattle was a partner in the company that wanted to develop the area, and the purchase of the old cannery was critical to their plan. In the end, everyone involved in the new development, including Prattle, made millions.”
Wow, that was quite a story, but it did make sense. “I don’t suppose there is a way to officially clear Jeremiah’s name?”
“Probably not,” George answered. “We don’t have physical proof of what happened and a good lawyer would argue that after all this time Toby’s memories were distorted. But that doesn’t mean that you and Jack can’t print the truth. If the daughter agrees, of course.”
“I’ll talk to Jack about it and then we’ll talk to Gracie. And thanks, George. You somehow managed to accomplish the impossible.”
George chuckled. “You know I just aim to help.”
Chapter 14
While I most definitely considered the call from George a high note in the day, all it took was a two-minute conversation from someone who’d had a better offer and had decided not to come for a visit this month to ruin it.
“I know you are upset that your mother changed her mind about coming to the island, but you really didn’t want her to come in the first place,” Jack pointed out, after I’d slammed things around the office for a good twenty minutes, which I was sure was getting on his nerves.
“I know. And I guess part of me is relieved that she isn’t coming. But mostly I’m just angry that, while she pretends to show interest in my life, she never really follows through with her shallow gestures to prove it.” I glanced at Jack. “The last time I saw her was a year or so before I moved to Gull Island, and that was only because I went to LA to see her. She was never really going to make the effort to come east to visit me. You would think the woman would be curious about the life her only child has made for herself.”
Jack put his arms around me and pulled me close. “I know. And I’m sorry. If you want, we can go to LA to visit her.”
I pulled away slightly. “No. It’s her turn to come to me. If she won’t, I guess we will just continue not to have a relationship.” I stood on tiptoe and kissed Jack on the lips. “I’m sorry for being so grizzly. I’m over it and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Let’s finish up here and then head home. Maybe we can pick up Chinese food and watch a movie.”
Jack kissed the top of my head. “Sounds good to me.”
I returned my attention to the ad copy I was formatting. “I wonder if Rick was able to find out if it was Jolene’s Vette that Gina was driving the night she died. If she did pick up the fibers from the carpet, I bet there is still blood residue, even if it isn’t clearly visible.”
“He’s had most of the day to work on it. I guess we can call him,” Jack said.
I glanced at the clock. It was almost five. Rick would most likely be finishing up for the day. “Yeah. Let’s call him. I really would love to get this mystery solved one way or another.”
A call to Rick netted me a few answers if not a full solution to the mystery. The fibers under Gina’s cuff did match the carpet in Jolene’s Corvette and they did find small traces of blood on the floor in the passenger compartment. At this point Rick was operating under the assumption that Gina had used her key and the passcode to the alarm system to borrow the car while Jolene was away and most likely took the vehicle to wherever she went on the night she died. We still didn’t know who she met up with, who killed her, or who returned the car to Jolene’s garage. Rick had pretty much ruled out Jolene herself because she was able to come up with a ticket stub for her flight to Hawaii, which she had taken the morning of the day Gina was last seen, but beyond that he didn’t seem to have a clue.
“I invited Rick and Vikki to dinner,” I said to Jack after I hung up the cell. “We each have our own cars here, so I thought I’d run to the market and pick up fixings for spaghetti while you finish up here.”
“Sounds good,” Jack replied. “I should be done in thirty minutes.”
“Rick said he’d be home around six thirty, so I’ll just meet you at home.”
The first drops of rain from the storm that had come rolling back in from the sea hit my windshield as I drove to the market. I watched the wiper blades go back and forth as I tried to work out in my head what might have happened to Gina on her last night. I knew Rick was operating under the assumption that she had borrowed the Vette after Jolene left for Hawaii without her knowledge or permission. She had parked it in her garage, which was why Ryan and the neighbors hadn’t remembered seeing it. After fighting with Ryan, she had been upset and driven it to a friend’s, or perhaps a boyfriend’s. At some point afterward, she had been killed and then transported in the car to the marsh, where her body was dumped. The killer had then returned the car to Jolene’s garage, and she had never even known the car was missing, so she had never reported it to the police. The theory made sense. Sort of. Assuming that Gina had deactivated the alarm when she took the car, and the alarm had been activated when Jolene returned home, the killer must have known the alarm code. In my mind, that eliminated a lot of suspects. I couldn’t think of another explanation, unless…
I turned my car around and headed toward Rick’s office. Hopefully, he was still there.
“I think I have another explanation as to what might have occurred on the night Gina died,” I said after barging in through the front door of the sheriff’s office.
“I’m listening.”
“I first learned that Gina and Jolene were friends while speaking to Tina. She told me that after Gina and Ryan broke up, Gina needed someone else to handle the repairs on the properties her broker listed, so she had been looking around. Apparently, a woman named Nancy who went to Gina’s gym told her that her girlfriend Jolene owned her own construction company and might be willing to help her out, after which she introduced them. Tina also told me that Gina and Jolene had similar personalities and began hanging out together on a personal basis. We have since learned that Jolene lent her Corvette to Gina after Gina’s car went on the fritz. We also know that Gina returned the car to Jolene before she left on her trip. Yet, based on the carpet fibers on Gina’s clothes and the traces of blood on the floor, it appears that despite returning the car to Jolene, Gina was in the proximity of the vehicle on the night she died. We are assuming that she borrowed the car again without Jolene’s knowledge after she left for her trip, and then used it to go somewhere after her fight with Ryan.”
“Yes.” Rick nodded. “That all sounds right.”
“What if Gina didn’t borrow the car again? What if someone else with access to the Corvette picked Gina up, took her somewhere, killed her, dumped her body, and then returned the car to the garage?”
Rick frowned. “Okay. Who and why?”
“Tina said that Gina and Jolene had really hit it off. Jolene even lent a very expensive car to Gina when hers went on the fritz. Based on this information, combined with the information provided to me by Tina about the two spending time together, I would be willing to speculate that Gina and Jolene were more than just casual friends. Nancy, the woman who introduced Gina to Jolene, referred to Jolene as her girlfriend.”
Rick raised a brow. “You think that the term girlfriend was literal? As in lover?”
“What if it was? What if Nancy and Jolene were involved in an intimate relationship and then Gina came along, and suddenly, Gina becomes the main person in Jolene’s life? She may or may not have been a sexual partner, but it does seem that the two connected on a deep level of some sort. When you looked into Jolene’s travel plans, did you find out whether she traveled to Hawaii alone?”
“Yes,” Rick answered “When I
spoke to her, she mentioned that originally it was going to be a couple’s trip, but she had recently split from her significant other. She decided to go alone anyway. At the time, I just assumed the significant other was a guy and didn’t ask for details.”
“So what if Jolene had planned to go to Hawaii with Nancy but after meeting Gina had decided to break up with Nancy?”
“So Nancy is angry, and once Jolene leaves, she begins to stew over things, and she borrows Jolene’s Vette and heads to Gina’s place. Maybe she just tells her she wants to hang out or something, but in the end she kills her.”
I nodded.
“The timeline does fit,” Rick said. “Gina returned the Vette to Jolene on January 7. Jolene left for Hawaii on the morning of January 8. Ryan fought with Gina on the night of January 8, which was the last time anyone saw her until her body was found in the marsh on January 12.” Rick paused for a moment. “Do you happen to know this Nancy’s last name?”
“Tina didn’t say. I guess you can check with Jolene.”
“I think I will.” Rick looked at the clock. “Rain check on dinner?”
“Absolutely. Call me later, whether you are able to confirm the theory or not.”
Chapter 15
Wednesday, January 16
By the time Rick had tracked Jolene down, explained our latest theory, and convinced her to share with him Nancy’s contact information, then tracked Nancy down and got her to confess, it was late into the evening. He did text me to let me know that my suggestion had been spot on, but that we would need to get together to discuss the matter the following day. It was now the following day, and I was anxious to hear what he had to say, but I didn’t want to go banging on his door before seven a.m., so I contented myself with walking Kizzy and waiting for our local deputy to emerge from the cabin he shared with my best friend. Luckily for my sanity, Vikki texted to let me known that Rick was up and in the shower and that Jack and I should come by at eight o’clock for breakfast and a debriefing.
“So Nancy actually killed Gina,” I said after Jack and I had arrived at Vikki and Rick’s cabin and she had served us coffee.
“She did,” Rick confirmed. “And I have to say, your theory hit it right on the head. I’m not sure how you came to the conclusion you did. To be honest, Nancy Mallery wasn’t even on my radar.”
“She really wasn’t on mine either. I just started thinking about the car and the sequence of events that would need to occur for Gina to have borrowed it and the killer to have returned it without leaving behind any evidence, and I realized that the scenario we’d been looking at was too complicated. It occurred to me that maybe someone other than Gina borrowed the car, and that led me to Nancy. So she confessed?”
“After a heartfelt plea by Jolene and a lot of persuasion by me.”
“What exactly happened?” I asked as I stirred milk into my coffee.
We’d all gathered around the table with our coffee and a breakfast casserole that Vikki had made to listen to Rick’s story.
“First of all, you were right about Nancy and Jolene. They were lovers until Gina came along and made Jolene see that she and Nancy weren’t really as well suited as she had previously believed. From statements by both Nancy and Jolene, Gina had mentioned to Nancy that she was looking for someone to do the repairs on the homes listed by her boss after she broke up with Ryan, who had previously performed that service, and Nancy had introduced her to Jolene. The two women hit it off and became good friends. According to Jolene, her relationship with Gina was still evolving, and she couldn’t be certain how it would have ended up, but she had hoped they were heading toward one of the intimate sort. What she did know for certain was that her friendship with Gina had helped her to see that what she had with Nancy was bland in comparison, so she decided to break things off with her. Jolene admitted that Nancy had not taken it well, but in her wildest dreams she had never considered that she would hurt Gina. Even after Nancy confessed to killing Gina, I could see that Jolene was still having a hard time believing the whole thing.”
“So why did Nancy use Jolene’s car to kill Gina?” I asked.
“Hang on,” Rick said. “I’m getting to that. It seems Nancy and Jolene had been living together in a house owned by Jolene. After Jolene decided she wanted to end things, she asked Nancy to move out. Nancy claimed she needed time to look for a place, so Jolene told Nancy she could stay in the house until she returned from her trip in three weeks. Nancy had access to Jolene’s car keys, which she left in a basket in the kitchen, and she, of course, had the house alarm code, so after drinking most of Jolene’s expensive whiskey in an attempt to sooth her battered heart, she decided to take the Vette for a spin. Nancy told me that she’d chosen to take Jolene’s car rather than her own because she’d been hurt that Jolene had lent the car to Gina but had never allowed Nancy to drive it, even though she’d asked. Nancy said that she wasn’t sure why she went to Gina’s. She was angry with Jolene and she’d been drinking, so she wasn’t thinking clearly. When she pulled up in front of Gina’s house, the lights were on, so she went up to the front door. Gina answered, and Nancy could see that she’d been crying. The two started talking, and probably because they were both very drunk and extremely angry, they unwisely decided to go for a spin. Nancy said they ended up at the beach, which in her mind provided the perfect romantic setting. Nancy said she made a move on Gina, who rejected her quite strongly. Nancy was angry and hurt, so she grabbed Gina, wrestled her to the sand, and strangled her. She didn’t even remember doing it. Nancy told me that one minute she was talking to Gina and the next she was dead. She said she panicked, put her in the passenger seat of the car, drove her to the marsh, and dumped her there. She then went back to Jolene’s, parked the car in the garage, packed her stuff, and left.”
“Wait,” I said. “What about the boots and the blanket that were found in Ryan’s garage? Where do those fit in?”
“Nancy had no idea. She confessed to killing Gina, but she said she didn’t set Ryan up and she had no idea where the boots and blanket with Gina’s blood on it came from.”
I frowned. “Oh, that can’t be right. It is just too absurd. Who other than Gina’s killer would have a motive for framing Ryan for her murder?”
“After Gina’s death but before Ryan’s arrest, who had custody of Hannah?” Vikki asked.
“Ryan did,” Rick answered.
“And the parents have her now,” Vikki stated.
Rick nodded. “You think that Gina’s parents framed Ryan?”
“I think that they might have. The blanket and boots that were found in Ryan’s garage had Gina’s blood on them. Who other than the killer would have a blanket and boots with Gina’s blood on it?” I asked.
“The people who beat her as a child,” Vikki answered.
The room fell silent. Vikki had made a very good point, although I doubted that Gina’s parents would have items with Gina’s blood on them all these years later. Still, I supposed it was a possible explanation, even if it was somewhat improbable. It took someone with a pretty messed-up psychology to beat a child, so perhaps they had saved trophies from the beatings as well. I had read about serial killers who saved bloody ropes and soiled bedding, so I supposed keeping bloody boots and a bloody blanket wouldn’t be unheard of.
“So where does the neighbor fit in?” Jack said. “He seemed to get it right. Ryan did admit to visiting Gina on the night she died at about the time that the neighbor reported that he had, so I doubt he was simply making the whole thing up.”
“One of the first things I did after Alex presented this case to us was speak to Donald Drummond,” Rick said. “He confirmed that he had seen Ryan coming and going from Gina’s house on the night she died but hadn’t wanted to get involved. A few months after Gina’s body was found, her father showed up to clean out her home, and while he was there, the two got to talking. During the course of that conversation, Gina’s father shared with Drummond that it was so very wrong that the man who ki
lled his daughter was raising his grandchild. Drummond felt bad for the man and decided to tell the detective investigating the case what he’d seen. At the time, he still wasn’t convinced that Ryan had killed Gina, only that he had been at her home, but he figured it was up to the detective to figure the rest of it out.”
“So maybe once Gina’s dad knew that Drummond had gotten the ball rolling he planted the boots and the blanket in Ryan’s garage,” I said. “Although it seems pretty risky for Gina’s father to plant boots that belonged to him.” I looked at Rick. “Is there a way we can link the blanket and boots to Gina’s dad?”
Rick nodded. “Perhaps. When the items were found in Ryan’s garage, they were tested for DNA. A match was found between the blood on the blanket and Gina’s blood, but there were also skin cells found on the blanket that did not match either Gina or Ryan’s DNA and were never identified. If we had something with Gina’s father’s DNA on it, we could compare the two.”
“Sounds like it might be worth our time to riffle through the man’s trash in search of an empty soda can.” I glanced at Jack.
He nodded. “It’s been a while since I’ve rummaged through garbage cans while following a lead, but I’m in.”
Rick frowned. “As an officer of the law, I should caution you against doing such a thing, but I honestly don’t know if I can get a warrant to collect the man’s DNA based on nothing more than a theory, so instead of warning you not to trespass on the man’s property, I am simply going to inform you that I will be in my office all morning and therefore will have no way of knowing how you all plan to spend your time once you leave here.”