A Murderous Misconception

by Lorraine Bartlett

  After she sent the email, Katie grabbed a peppermint from her desk jar and ground it between her molars. She’d asked Janey to help out to save herself some time, not so she’d have to go along behind her and smooth ruffled feathers.

  She called Janey’s cell, got no answer, and left a voice mail asking for a return call at Janey’s earliest convenience.

  A ping alerted her to incoming mail. She scrolled to the top and saw that the message was from Sue.

  “What a lovely idea!” Sue’s enthusiasm oozed from the computer screen. “I do have a new turmeric truffle recipe I’d like to test out. I’ll make up a batch and bring them for everyone to try. Have an awesome day! Toodles!”

  Toodles?

  Katie reached for another peppermint.

  Rather than returning Katie’s call, half an hour later Janey decided to “pop in.”

  “I was here to see Vance when I got your message, so I decided to drop by and say hello.” Janey sat, took off her sunglasses, and crossed her long legs. “While I’m here, we can discuss what’s going on with the party planning.”

  “That’s why I called you,” Katie explained. “I got an email from Sue Sweeney, who was upset because she thought we were requiring her to provide refreshments for the party.”

  Janey shook her head. “Oh, that’s ridiculous. She can be so all-fired quick to jump to conclusions sometimes. But, as the wonderful Dolly Parton once said, ‘I don’t kiss nobody’s butt.’ And I’m not kissing up to Sue because she misunderstood what I said.”

  Taking her third peppermint of the day from the jar, Katie said, “I smoothed everything over with her. I simply wanted to make sure all the merchants realize the food is being catered and that we aren’t expecting anything from them except for them to show up and have a good time.”

  “Fine. I’ll have Izzy send out an email or something,” Janey said with a wave of her hand.

  “Actually, I’d prefer for you to take care of it.” She wondered if she should be venturing into this territory, but given the day she was having, she might as well. “I don’t think Izzy is up to doing much today.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with her?” Janey leaned forward, placing her hand on her chest. “Is she sick?”

  Katie blew out a breath. “I had to go by Matt Brady’s office this morning, and I found Izzy in tears. It seems she and VJ have broken up.”

  Gaping at her, Janey asked, “Why? They’re perfect for each other!”

  “I think your high opinion of Izzy—and her relationship with VJ—might be part of the problem. Izzy told me they broke up because you like her too much.”

  Janey deflated back into the chair. “Oh, my gosh. I never meant to cause VJ to break poor little Izzy’s heart. What am I gonna do?”

  “Maybe you should talk with VJ and ask what happened.” Katie shrugged. “It could be that there was something else about Izzy that he didn’t like—or maybe he even found someone else—and used your feelings about her as an excuse to break up.”

  “My VJ would never cheat on a girl he was dating,” Janey said in umbrage, drawing herself back up in the chair.

  Yeah, that’s what I thought about Andy. “I’m not saying he did. But he might’ve become interested in someone else, realized he didn’t care for Izzy as much as he thought and broke up. All I’m saying is that you can’t know what’s going on between two people involved in a relationship and perhaps you should ask your son what’s going on before you try to convince him to get back together with Izzy.”

  Janey frowned. “So you’re saying there might be more to this than Izzy is saying?”

  “Exactly,” Katie said. “It could just be that the relationship has run its course. They’re only kids after all.”

  “That’s true,” Janey said sadly and stood. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it, and I’ll go find VJ. I’m guessing this entire thing with Izzy is a silly misunderstanding—like Sue thinking she was being required to bring food for the party!”

  With a nod, Katie said, “You’re probably right.” She actually doubted Janey was right. How often are breakups caused by “silly” misunderstandings? Because all misunderstandings come from a grain of truth, right?

  She sighed. Who knows? Maybe it was a silly misunderstanding. She really needed to stop looking at every relationship through the lens of her breakup with Andy.

  “I’ll talk to you later,” Janey promised and headed out the door.

  Feeling a need for more caffeine was in order, Katie got up and went into the vendors’ lounge for some coffee. She was glad to find the room empty because she didn’t feel like chatting with anyone else at the moment.

  Katie returned to her office and closed the door. Sitting back at her desk, she looked at the queue of unanswered emails and decided she didn’t want to deal with them at the moment, either. She sipped her coffee and clicked on her favorite social media account. The little bell in the top right corner heralded twenty-four notifications, but she wasn’t interested in those. She was interested in Matt Brady and whether or not he and Erikka were more involved than he’d led her to believe.

  Starting with Erikka’s page, she quickly realized she was simply covering the same ground she’d already worn a path through—the sonogram, the selfies, the photos with her sister and the rest of their family, the photos of her with her friends. Not a single photograph of her with Matt Brady.

  But, then, if Matt was right in his assertion that he knew Erikka was in love with some other guy and was simply waiting for him to come around, would Erikka have had photographs of anyone she was dating on her page? That wouldn’t make sense if she really was waiting for Andy to realize she was the one for him.

  And what about the photos Matt had taken of Erikka? Was that when they’d started “hooking up?” How conniving was this woman if she was sleeping with a photographer hired—at least, Katie assumed he was hired—to take sexy photos of her for another man? The man she professed to love. It made Katie wonder just how many sets of those bedroom photos were floating around?

  Maybe Matt’s page would yield more information. His page was, naturally, filled with his work—landscapes, portraits, and action shots. He also had taken selfies with several beautiful women, many of whom were kissing his cheek or hanging on his shoulder. Erikka wasn’t among them.

  Katie wondered if, again, Erikka had asked Matt not to post anything indicative of their sexual relationship in an attempt not to drive away Andy. Had Andy known Erikka was sleeping with other men at the same time they were having an affair? The thought made Katie nauseous. She and Andy had always used protection—and she was particularly glad of that now—but the thought of even having kissed Andy given what she now knew made her sick.

  Scrolling down, she found photographs of an adorable baby boy. In one photo, a woman was holding the baby. It was Erryn—Erikka’s sister. Matt had tagged Erryn in the post, so Katie clicked the name to go to Erryn’s page. It was apparent she wasn’t going to find anything helpful on Matt’s page.

  Although she’d been through Erryn’s page almost as many times as she’d been through Erikka’s, Katie still thought there might be something yet to be found…some clue as to who might’ve wanted to harm Erikka. Surely, she’d been overlooking something.

  Erryn hadn’t posted since her sister died, so there was no new information. But maybe there was something here—not necessarily something Erryn was hiding, but something that would help lead Katie to the truth. But what?

  There was the sonogram. Old news. There was a party photograph. Wait—someone there at the far right, almost out of the frame, looked familiar. His back was to the person taking the photograph, but—

  And then, Erryn’s page was gone. In its place was an error message.

  What? No! There was something familiar about that guy! I need to enlarge that photo.

  She tried again to access Erryn’s page and again received the error message. Having a sneaking suspicion she’d just been blocked, Katie went back to Matt
Brady’s page. She scrolled down to the photos of Erryn’s baby but could no longer see that Erryn had been tagged in the post.

  Erryn had blocked her…and at the very moment she’d found something she could possibly use. Why? Katie knew it was impossible for Erryn to know that she’d been looking at her page then—wasn’t it? She thought about what Ray said about surveillance and shivered.

  When her phone rang, she started. Looking at the screen, she saw it was Seth.

  “Seth, hi.”

  “Are you all right?” he asked. “You sound out of breath.”

  “I’m fine. I was…um…engrossed in my work, and your call startled me, that’s all,” she said.

  “Okay. I’m calling to let you know that Jim Trammel can see us in his office on Monday morning at nine. I’m sorry he couldn’t see us today, but he doesn’t keep weekend hours. However,” Seth continued, “should you need him this weekend, he’ll be available to help.”

  “Why should I...?” She trailed off. “Oh. You mean, if I get arrested, I can call him, and he’ll come to the police station?”

  “Right.” Seth’s voice had a resignation to it that was hard for Katie to hear. He thought her getting arrested was a very real possibility. “I don’t believe that will happen, given the fact that the searches turned up nothing substantial, but call me if it does. I can get to you quicker than Trammel can, and I’ll contact him en route.”

  Katie’s breath caught in her throat. “Okay.”

  Just what did Seth think Schuler and Spence had on her? She voiced the question.

  “Nothing, just a gut feeling.”

  “Can you take something for it?” she asked, not at all amused.

  “Honey, I wish I could.”

  Chapter 20

  As if things weren’t going swimmingly enough already, Andy showed up at Katie’s door. Giving him an exaggerated blink, she asked, “What are you doing here?”

  He held up a bag. “I figured you probably hadn’t taken time for lunch, so I brought you a calzone.” She’d opened her mouth to protest, but he hurried on. “And I brought the information you asked me to get from my staff.”

  She nodded toward the vacant chair. “Fine.”

  Andy entered the office, closed the door, and took a seat. He placed the bag in front of her. “I included plenty of napkins.”

  “Thanks.” She had to force the word between her tightly clamped lips. Seeing Andy was the last thing she needed that day. But, admittedly, she wanted to know what he’d learned from his staff about Erikka. And she was hungry. She opened the bag and took out the calzone. After all, it didn’t deserve to be tossed in the garbage. It hadn’t cheated on her. “So, what did you find out?”

  Suddenly remembering Ray’s warning about the listening devices, she quickly stood and said, “Wait! I can’t eat this yet. I didn’t power walk the Square this morning.”

  “Can’t you do that after work?” Andy asked.

  “I could. But I’d rather we do it now…together. It’ll be good for both of us.”

  He gestured toward the calzone. “But your lunch will get cold.”

  “If it does, I’ll pop it in the microwave when I get back,” she said. “You know, you burn more calories if you exercise prior to eating than you do if you try to burn those calories after.” She opened her desk drawer, placed her phone inside, and locked the desk. “See? I’m even leaving my phone here, so there will be no distractions. Want me to put yours in there, too?”

  Looking at her as if she’d lost her mind, Andy said, “No. What if there’s an emergency?”

  “We’ll be walking on the Square. Anyone who’d be looking for us in case of an emergency could simply look out and see us. But here.” She grabbed a notepad. “I’ll leave a note on the door.”

  “If it’ll make you happy…” Andy handed over his phone, but his gaze remained puzzled.

  Katie tried to hide her relief as she locked his phone in the desk drawer with hers. If the police were somehow listening in on her phone calls, they were likely listening in on Andy’s as well. Leaving her office and foregoing carrying their phones, they were less likely to have their conversation overheard. She wondered again if she should tell Andy the real reason she’d been adamant about leaving the office and the phones, but she could hear Ray in her head: Let Andy worry about Andy.

  As they stepped onto the tarmac, Katie looked all around before taking a step. She spotted a black van parked near Nona’s quilt shop. Could it be a surveillance van?

  “Why are you acting so weird?” Andy asked.

  “Why shouldn’t I be?” she fired back. “Or have you forgotten what happened yesterday?” She jerked her head toward the door. “Let’s walk inside. It’s a little chilly out here.”

  “Want me to grab you a jacket? I have an extra one in Angelo’s.”

  “No. I’d rather walk inside—let the vendors see me. I like for them to feel I’m looking out for them.” Okay, so that was a hypocritical comment. She was looking out for herself because that really could be a surveillance van parked in front of Nona’s. And, knowing Nona, she was helping them out.

  As they walked back in, Andy gently touched her shoulder. She flinched.

  “Is that it?” he asked. “Are you afraid to be alone with me? You know I’d never hurt you, Sunshine.”

  Had he emphasized you, or was that just my imagination?

  “I’m not afraid to be alone with you, Andy. My nerves are on edge—that’s all.” She reentered the building’s lobby. “Come on. Let’s walk and talk. What information did your staff have to offer?”

  “Apparently, Erikka had a lot of friends who did favors for her,” he said.

  “Men friends?” Katie asked as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

  He shrugged. “That’s the impression I got. But everybody liked Erikka. Even Schuler got her out of a speeding ticket once. And, hey, shouldn’t that create some sort of conflict of interest and jeopardize the case—Schuler doing favors for the victim?”

  “Back when he was in uniform, Schuler issued me a warning instead of a speeding ticket, too, but then I was only doing three miles over the limit. Now he’s treating me as if I’m Lizzie Borden. I think you’ll lose if you try to take that argument to court.” She stopped walking and looked at him squarely. “Why are you so concerned about having the case thrown out on some sort of technicality? We need to be focused on alternative suspects.”

  “I know, but I don’t want to ignore any weapons we might have in our arsenal,” Andy said.

  “Did your guys say anything else?” Katie asked as they rounded the southwest corner of the balcony that overlooked the main showroom.

  “Only that it was funny how differently most of the men acted toward Erikka when they came in alone as opposed to when they came in with their wives.” He gave her a half-smile. “But that didn’t seem that suspicious to me.”

  Katie bit her tongue to keep from saying, No, it wouldn’t, would it?

  After Andy went back to work, Katie reheated the calzone in the vendors’ lounge microwave. It smelled delicious, and it was tasty, but she didn’t have much of an appetite. Picking at the crust, she wondered about those men who acted differently toward Erikka when their wives were present. If Erikka would cheat with Andy when at one point she’d professed to being Katie’s friend, would she also cheat with a married man? If so, could the situation have turned deadly when the man’s wife found out? It had been horrible enough for Katie to learn Andy had cheated on her, and they didn’t share a home or children. She decided to ask Roger what he might know the next time she saw him. She hesitated to ask Andy to speak with any of his staff again. In fact, because of his infidelity, she wanted to put as much distance between the two of them as possible.

  She’d taken the uneaten calzone to the vendors’ lounge wastebasket and was returning to her office when she saw John Healy heading her way. “Hi, John.”

  “Hey, Katie. I’ve finished the last of the little jobs in
your new apartment.” He grinned. “That cat of yours is a real charmer.”

  “I have two, but you probably didn’t see Della. She’s a bit of a scaredy-cat. She runs and hides whenever we have visitors.” She jerked her head toward the door. “Could we walk over and take a look at the apartment together? I’ll bring my checkbook so I can pay your remaining balance, and you can tell me anything in particular you think I might need to know.”

  “Sounds great.” He walked over and held open the door.

  “Did you know Erikka Wiley?” Katie asked Healy as they made their way to Tealicious.

  “The girl who was killed the other day?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  He shrugged. “I saw her at Angelo’s a few times, and Roger speaks highly of her, but I didn’t really know her.”

  “Did she ever come by the apartment to speak with Roger while you were working?” Katie asked.

  “Not that I recall.” He was squinting, but then his brows rose. “Oh. I imagine you’re asking because of the police search.”

  “Yeah. I mean, I never knew of Erikka going there—or to Artisans Alley, either, for that matter—so I can’t imagine why Detective Schuler insisted on searching those places.” Of course, Katie knew it was because they were places where she had access, and she was considered a prime suspect, but she figured Healy had to know that, too. And, if he didn’t, she didn’t want to be the one to point that out to him.

  He gave her shoulder a reassuring pat. “I don’t know, either, but I’m sure everything will be all right. From what little I know of Erikka, the girl was a free spirit. She might’ve gone anywhere and done anything. I’m guessing the Sheriff’s Office knows that, too, and that’s why they’re so overwhelmed.”

  “Maybe so,” Katie hedged. “But they targeted my office and residences. You know, I’m learning things about Erikka that I never knew when she was alive.”

  “Ah, that’s the way with all of us, isn’t it?” He gave a half-hearted smile. “We have so many facets to our lives that few people actually know our real selves.”