A Murderous Misconception

by Lorraine Bartlett

  The next hour passed in a blur of routine—feeding the cats, taking a shower, trying and failing to eat a piece of toast vetoed by her nerves, dressing in a conservative navy suit, and hurrying down the steps to exit the teashop’s back door.

  Brad caught her eye and gave her a wink and a thumbs-up—he knew where she was going. She tried to smile but was afraid the expression was more of a grimace.

  Seth was waiting in the parking lot. She opened the door and sank into his Mercedes’ buttery leather seat.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  She puffed out her cheeks as she considered her answer.

  “Should I take that as a no?” he persisted.

  “No…maybe…I don’t know.” She gave him a rundown of the previous evening’s events: Ann’s fall, Erryn at the hospital telling Katie that Andy was in love with Erikka, and then stopping by Andy’s house.

  He groaned. “You went to Andy’s house? Why would you do that?”

  “For access to that stupid photograph,” Katie said. “But, guess what? Erryn decided to block him, too.”

  “What makes you think this one particular photograph is the Holy Grail?”

  She sighed. “I don’t really know. Maybe it isn’t. But the glimpse I got of that photo—fleeting though it was—made me think that something about the man in the far-right corner with his back to the photographer was familiar…and, yet, out of place.”

  “The man isn’t even facing the camera?” Seth asked.

  “No, but I could still see a sliver of his profile. I’m telling you—it set off alarm bells.”

  Seth braked for the village’s only traffic light. “Could it be Andy? That would explain your visceral reaction to a photo you merely glimpsed.”

  “No, it definitely wasn’t him. If it had been Andy, then why wouldn’t he have told me so when I asked about the picture?” she asked.

  “Maybe to avoid throwing another log on the fire.” The light changed, and the car eased forward.

  Katie shook her head. “No. He didn’t use that as an excuse to avoid showing me the photo. Erryn blocked him.”

  “Why are you so convinced the man you spotted at the edge of a photograph—someone not even central to the image—is so important? Don’t you think you’re grasping at straws?”

  “Yes. But right now, straws are all I have.”

  He glanced over. “That’s not true. You’ve got me—and we’re going to get you out of this mess.”

  She sure hoped so.

  J. P. Trammel’s sleek office in downtown Rochester was filled with a lot of chrome-and-black furniture. An administrative assistant wearing a gray suit and light-blue tie escorted Katie and Seth to a conference room. She sank into one of the cushy leather chairs at the glass-topped table. The window beyond looked out on the Genesee River not far from the High Falls.

  “If you need anything, I’m Patrick. Mr. Trammel will be with you momentarily. Would either of you like coffee, tea, or water?”

  “I’d like a water please,” Katie said.

  Seth shook his head.

  Patrick returned with a bottle of Perrier and a crystal glass filled with ice, set them in front of Katie, and left the room.

  Katie twisted the cap off the bottle. “I can’t help but wonder how much this will cost me. Am I going to have to mortgage my…everything?”

  Before Seth could offer reassurance, a handsome man in his mid-forties burst into the conference room clutching an expensive-looking leather binder.

  “Seth! Good to see you!”

  Seth stood, and the men shook hands.

  “Good seeing you, Jim. Although, naturally, I wish it were under more pleasant circumstances,” Seth said.

  “Me, too, buddy.” He stretched out a hand to Katie. “J. P. Trammel.”

  “Katie Bonner.”

  They shook.

  “Nice to meet you. Thank you for making time for me.”

  “Not a problem.” He sat at the conference table across from the two of them. “I called the DA’s office a few minutes ago and learned that there is currently no evidence against you whatsoever, Ms. Bonner.”

  Her relief was expelled in a puff of air as she sank back in her seat. “Thank you.” She wasn’t sure if she was addressing Trammel or the almighty.

  Trammel smiled. “Right now, everything Detective Schuler is trying to use against you is pure conjecture. Granted, there wasn’t a lot of evidence at the crime scene—no fingerprints, no DNA, no business card from Artisans Alley lying beneath the body…”

  His attempt at a joke landed flat.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  Pouring the water into the glass, Katie asked, “What were the police looking for when they searched my residences and office?”

  “As you both know, the search warrant was cagey, and the DA’s office isn’t about to share that information with me unless and until you’re charged with a crime.” Trammel spread his hands. “However, it’s promising that no evidence was found.”

  Katie recapped the water, took a drink from the glass, and then looked at Seth, feeling guilty.

  “What?” He knew her too well. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  The thought of her conversation with Ray flooded her mind. He wouldn’t want her to tell Seth and Trammel about the ring. He’d warn her that it was crazy. The ring was gone, he’d say, it’s pointless to bring it up. Why sabotage her credibility with Trammel? Why make Seth think she’d kept such a huge secret from him?

  On the other hand, Seth was her friend. She loved and trusted him like a brother. And if she wound up being charged for Erikka’s murder, Trammel was going to be her attorney. Shouldn’t they know everything she knew?

  “Katie?” Seth prodded.

  “I—I found something.” The words tumbled quickly from her lips. “Before the search. I was doing a walk-through of the apartment over Tealicious, and I spotted something glistening on the windowsill. It was a ring—Erikka’s ring.”

  Seth’s expression darkened. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before now?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  “What did you do with it?” Trammel spoke at the same time as Seth, so she decided to answer his question first. It seemed to be the easier of the two…for now, anyway.

  “Well, Ray Davenport was doing the walk-through with me—you know, he’s experienced in carpentry and…whatever—so when he offered to come along, I said okay.” She shrugged. “I didn’t let on to anyone—well, Ray or John Healy—that I’d found the ring, and I slipped it into the pocket of my jeans.”

  “Where is it now?” Seth asked. “Do you have it?”

  She took another drink of water—a sip, really, because her hands were shaking so badly, she was afraid she’d drop the crystal glass if she didn’t put it back down. “No. When we—Ray and I—got outside, he asked what I’d put in my pocket.”

  “So you told him?” Seth asked. “How do you know he’s not the one who put it there?”

  “Why would Ray try to frame me for Erikka’s murder?” she asked.

  Trammel regained control of the conversation. “Did you tell Ray what you’d found?”

  “Yes. I showed it to him. And he—” She began fidgeting with a button on her jacket’s cuff. “He said I should give it to him for…for safekeeping.”

  Seth shook his head, disappointment furrowing his brow. “And I suppose you did?”

  “Well, sure. I mean, the man is a former homicide detective,” Katie said. “I thought he was trying to help me.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?” Seth demanded. “Why am I only finding out about this now?”

  “I don’t know.” Katie lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s all right.” Trammel’s voice was as warm and soothing as hot cocoa. “Where is the ring now?”

  Katie refused to raise her eyes to either man. No way was she going to look at either of them when she admitted the truth that would infuriate Seth and call her credibility into question
with Trammel. “It’s…gone.”

  “What do you mean it’s gone?” Seth asked.

  “After the search, I asked Ray to give it back to me,” she said. “I wanted to turn it over to the deputies. Ray told me it would look bad for me to have held onto the ring and that I couldn’t take it to them now.” She took a deep breath. “When I insisted he give the ring back, he told me he’d thrown it in the lake.”

  “Did he—a veteran homicide detective—explain to you why he threw away an item that was potential evidence in a murder investigation?” Trammel asked.

  “He said he was looking out for me.” Katie’s voice was barely above a whisper, but she felt sure both men had heard her. Especially when Seth spoke again.

  “Looking out for you or looking out for someone else?”

  Trammel’s good mood had also evaporated. “Walk us through finding that ring again from the beginning and tell us why you didn’t immediately turn it into the deputies—or seek the advice of your attorney.”

  After taking a drink of the cold, bracing water, Katie started at the beginning. “I walked from Artisans Alley to the apartment at Tealicious to do the walk-through.”

  “And Ray Davenport was with you.” Trammel opened the binder, took out a pen and set it on the yellow legal pad.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Was it your idea or his that he accompany you on this walk-through?” Trammel wrote as he spoke.

  “It was Ray’s,” she said. “But I was glad—he knows much more about carpentry and electricity, and—”

  “That’s fine,” Trammel interrupted. “Tell us about your finding the ring and Mr. Davenport’s actions thereafter.”

  “Sure.” She explained that she spotted the ring on a window sill, eased it into her pocket as unobtrusively as possible, talked some more with the contractor, and then she and Ray left the building. “When we got out onto the tarmac, Ray asked me what I’d put in my pocket. I told him I didn’t want to discuss it there, so we returned to my office at Artisans Alley.”

  “And it was there in your office that you showed the ring to Mr. Davenport,” Trammel said.

  “Yes. I took it from my pocket and placed it on the desk between us. He said he guessed the ring wasn’t mine,” she said. “I told him I thought it belonged to Erikka. He asked when she had been in that apartment, and I said I didn’t know if she ever had.”

  “Is that when Mr. Davenport took possession of the ring?” Trammel still didn’t look up from his notepad. Katie could well imagine him to be an intimidating presence in a courtroom.

  “Yes. He said he believed the ring had been planted and that it would be best if he held onto it.” She wracked her brain for more information from their conversation. “I asked him how we’d find out where the ring had come from and why it was in my new apartment, and he said that if it was important, someone would ask about it.” She shrugged. “No one ever asked about that ring specifically, but I’m guessing that’s what Schuler was looking for with the search warrant.”

  “And now the ring has been tossed into the lake.” A thread of anger shot through Seth’s words.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come to you with the ring,” Katie told him.

  “So am I,” he grated.

  “This makes me look really bad, doesn’t it?” she asked.

  Trammel finally looked up from his legal pad. “Actually, Ms. Bonner, this makes Ray Davenport look really bad.”

  Chapter 26

  Despite the sunny day, there was no need for any air conditioning in Seth’s car as they pulled into the city’s mid-morning traffic. The chill emanating from Seth was more than enough to dispel the day’s heat.

  “How do you think our meeting with Mr. Trammel went?” Katie asked.

  “Fine.” His clipped tone and lack of eye contact reinforced his mood.

  “I get it.” Katie placed a hand on his forearm, but he jerked it away. His reaction stung. “I’m sorry. I realize now I should’ve told you about the ring before going into the meeting. I was nervous, and I didn’t—”

  “You should’ve told me about the ring the instant you found it! In fact, you should never have touched the thing. You should’ve called me and waited until I got there. Then I’d have called the police.” He shook his head. “Don’t you realize you could be guilty of concealing evidence and perverting the course of justice?”

  “I didn’t think—”

  “No, you didn’t,” he interrupted. “You’re a grown woman, Katie. When are you going to start thinking for yourself?”

  “I do think for myself,” she protested.

  “Really? Were you thinking for yourself when you let Ray Davenport have that ring?” he asked. “Or were you simply relieved to have a protector—a knight to save your distressed damsel?”

  “Take that back!” she snapped and wished she could take her words back. They made her sound like a child trying to stand up to a playground bully. She took a breath to calm herself. “I trusted Ray because he was an excellent homicide detective.”

  “You trusted Ray because you know the besotted old fool would do anything for you, including cover up a murder.”

  Katie gasped. “You can’t possibly believe I killed Erikka.”

  Seth’s voice softened slightly, but his words were harsher. “No, I don’t doubt you’re innocent. You’re merely a pathetic little girl who wants someone to save her. I thought you were a hell of a lot stronger than that.”

  “I don’t need anyone to save me—I can save myself,” Katie asserted.

  “Ha!”

  Katie refused to accept his lack of faith. She turned to look out the passenger-side window to fume.

  Seth’s silence angered her more than it should have. For the rest of the drive, they both simmered in their own feelings—a foot apart and yet miles away from each other. Katie could only guess at what Seth was thinking, but she couldn’t get past his calling her a pathetic damsel who was looking for a savior.

  Is that what she’d been? The thought horrified her, but looking back, she had to admit she’d been relieved to turn the ring over to Ray—she hadn’t wanted to be caught with the dead woman’s property when Schuler was so blatantly trying to find evidence that it was Katie who killed her. Besides, Ray was an experienced homicide detective. Who better to trust with evidence? How was she to know he’d destroy it? And what reason had he given? He was protecting her.

  Katie prided herself on being a strong woman. Yet, she’d put on blinders when it came to the men in her life. Well…no more!

  Seth took the Lake Ontario State Parkway exit for McKinlay Mill and headed south, driving straight through the village to Victoria Square and pulling up in front of Tealicious. Katie looked across the seat at him, but Seth stared straight ahead.

  Katie got out of the car and bent down to talk to Seth, but he spoke first.

  “Look for my bill in the mail,” he said tersely.

  “Seth!” Katie began, but he reached over to shut the door. The Mercedes tire’s spun in the loose gravel as he took off. He hadn’t even told her goodbye or said to call him if she needed him.

  Katie swallowed. Okay, if that was the way he felt, it was fine with her. She was through being seen as needy. On the other hand, Seth was her attorney and her pseudo big brother. Was their relationship irreparably damaged?

  Guilt and shame vied for prominence within her and despite her new vow for independence, Katie didn’t want to be alone. Looking around the Square, she decided to head to Sassy Sally’s. Nick and Seth had been friends for years. Maybe he could advise her on how to get back in her attorney’s good graces.

  Don was at the reception desk consulting their reservations computer when Katie entered the B and B’s lobby. Greeting her with a smile, he said, “Good morning. How nice you look.”

  “Thanks.” The smile she offered was nowhere near as bright and cheerful as his. “I had a meeting this morning. Is Nick around?”

  “Nope. He’s out, and all our boarders are,
too. I’m blissfully alone.”

  “Oh, okay. I’ll go and let you enjoy your peace and quiet.” She turned, but Don called her back.

  “No, wait. I’m sorry. Nick should be here any minute, and I’ve had all morning to enjoy my solitude. Come into the kitchen, and let’s have a chat.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Positive.” He moved from behind the counter and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll have to forgive me. Sometimes it gets so hectic here with the constant hustle and bustle—people coming and going all the time, chatting in the common areas. Nick thrives on it, but I love it when I get a little break from the chaos.”

  “I can imagine,” Katie said. “You know, I never stopped to consider how little privacy the two of you have living and working here at Sassy Sally’s.”

  “Don’t feel too sorry for us. We do love it.” He led her into the kitchen. “Coffee?”

  “Please.” She sat on a stool at the island.

  Don placed a mug of coffee, a spoon, and two sugar packets in front of her before preparing his own mug and sitting across from her. “You appear to have something on your mind.”

  Katie glumly stirred the sugar into her coffee. “Seth and I had an argument. I think it’s the first time he’s ever been angry with me.” She told him about the meeting with J. P. Trammel. “I’d found—something—” She didn’t want to tell anyone else about the ring. “—that might’ve had some bearing on the investigation, but I didn’t mention it to Seth before the meeting with Trammel. And then…um…I couldn’t produce it for the meeting because I…I lost it.” She also didn’t want to tell Don she gave what might have been an important piece of evidence in the case to Ray, who’d tossed it in the lake.

  “So, Seth is reprimanding you for being irresponsible?” Don asked neutrally.

  “Yeah. And he’s right. I didn’t handle the situation as well as I should have.”