“Are you saying that you didn’t try to get back together with her?” Meg asked.
He was quick to shoot down that question. “No.”
Meg folded her arms. “That’s not what Nicole told me.”
Steven threw out an accusation of his own. “She was lying.”
Meg didn’t buy it. “I doubt that.”
“Why?” Steven asked.
“Because she had no reason to lie to me. You on the other hand—”
Steven cut Meg off. “Why would you ask me a question that you already know the answer to?”
“That’s easy. To see if you’d lie to me. Which you did.”
He revised his story. “So at one point, I did want to get back together with her. I’m over it.”
Meg was far from done. “There’s another matter.”
Steven’s forehead wrinkled. “What are you talking about?”
“One of the reasons she broke up with you in the first place. The fact that you have anger management issues,” Meg said.
“No I don’t,” Steven barked.
“I would ask you if you have gotten over those issues, but clearly you haven’t,” Meg said.
Steven managed to calm down briefly as he tried to explain himself. “How do you expect me to react when you come to my place and throw accusations at me?”
Meg had a simple response. “If you’re not guilty you have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not guilty,” Steven snapped.
“We’ll see. Where were you last night between six and seven?” Meg asked.
“I was here.”
“Doing what?”
“Watching baseball,” Steven replied.
“Alone?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Just answer the question,” Connor insisted.
“Yeah. It was me here. Why?” Steven asked.
“Because that means you have no one to verify your story.”
Steven lost his temper. “Are you crazy?”
“It seems like I should be asking you that question,” Connor replied.
“I was here. Why can’t you just take me at my word?”
“I don’t make a habit of taking the word of murder suspects.”
Steven grimaced. “I’m not a murder suspect.”
“Your motive says otherwise.”
“Motive?”
“Your girlfriend broke up with you over anger management issues. Clearly, you haven’t worked those out. On top of that, you have no one to verify your whereabouts at the time of the murder. Trust me. You are very much a suspect,” Connor said.
“I didn’t kill her,” Steven replied.
Connor stared him down. “Give me one reason why I should believe you.”
“Because it’s the truth.”
“I wish you had a way of proving that.”
“Guess what? You don’t have a way of proving I did anything wrong.”
“Suspicion is not on your side,” Connor said.
“I don’t care. You have nothing on me. And until you do, we’re done here,” Steven replied.
Like that, Steven closed the door, abruptly ending the interview. As much as Connor wanted to pound on the front door until Steven opened up again, he knew that he didn’t have any hard evidence against Steven at the moment. That left Meg and Connor with little choice but to leave.
Chapter Thirteen
Interviewing Steven had proven to be more unpleasant than Meg had expected. But when Connor got a call over his police radio notifying him that a deputy had tracked Kristin Zeller down and had detained her, Meg had a feeling that a whole new set of emotional fireworks were about to go off. Connor drove out to Route 15, where his deputy was holding Kristin for questioning.
Meg was glad that she had convinced Connor to put out that all-points bulletin for Kristin. The former receptionist was being held at a gas station that was located on the outskirts of town. In Meg’s mind, Kristin had clearly been trying to make a break for it. What other excuse was there for Kristin to be all the way out here? Meg had a feeling that she wouldn’t have to wait long to find out.
Before the investigators could get to their questions, Kristin had a few choice words of her own.
“What’s the big idea holding me like this? You can’t arrest me when I didn’t do anything wrong,” Kristin snapped.
Kristin was seriously hot and bothered. If the sleuths were going to get any information out of her, they would need to find a way to calm her down.
Connor very calmly explained the situation to her. “You haven’t been arrested. You have been detained.”
“Does that mean I’m free to go?” Kristin asked.
Connor shook his head. “No. It means we need you to answer some questions for us.”
“I already answered your questions. What more could you possibly want to know?”
She had meant that rhetorically, but Connor opted to take her statement literally.
“I want to know what you were doing trying to leave town during the middle of a murder investigation,” Connor replied.
She refuted his point. “I wasn’t leaving town. I was just taking a drive—”
Connor interrupted her. “Out of town.”
Kristin fired back at him. “There’s nothing wrong with getting some air and trying to clear my head.”
“You can do that while staying in town. When you leave town shortly after your old boss was murdered, it just makes you look guilty,” Connor said.
“If I really had something to hide, do you think I would draw attention to myself by skipping town?”
Connor set her straight. “Suspects do it all the time.”
“Will you please stop calling me a suspect? There’s a reason I wasn’t worried about whether I was making myself look guilty,” Kristin said. “Because I’m innocent.”
Connor narrowed his eyes. “We have reason to doubt that.”
A blank look came to her face. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“We’re talking about the attraction you have to Paul Miller,” Connor said.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Attraction?”
“Paul told us you have a serious thing for him. Are you going to pretend that isn’t the case?”
She scoffed. “Paul sure knows how to flatter himself.”
“That isn’t his take—”
Kristin interrupted the detective. “Of course it isn’t. Paul is an egomaniac. The man thinks he’s the center of the universe.”
“So you never made a pass at him?” Connor asked.
“No.”
Connor stared deep into her eyes. “You realize that it’s your story against his.”
Kristin tried to cloud Paul in suspicion. “Ask yourself why he would tell you a story like that.”
Connor had a very simple answer. “Because if you were really that into him, you could have killed his girlfriend to clear the path for you to date him.”
She denied that accusation. “No. Paul was so desperate to point the finger of suspicion at me so it would distract you from how guilty he looks.”
Connor folded his arms. “For your information, the doctor denies having any relationship problems with Nicole.”
“Of course. Don’t you see what’s going on here? He will do anything to keep the suspicion off of himself.”
Kristin kept becoming more and more worked up.
In response, Connor stayed completely calm and fired another question at her. “Do you have any proof that Nicole and Paul were having relationship problems?”
“A woman can tell these things.”
That wasn’t a convincing-enough answer for Connor. “Do you have anything more than just a gut feeling?”
“It’s more than a feeling. It’s the truth,” Kristin said.
Initially, Meg had been happy to let Connor take the lead during this interview. As the detective’s questions began yielding diminishing returns, Meg grew eager to try things her way.<
br />
“Kristin. You’ve spent a lot of time chastising Paul for trying to point the blame elsewhere, but you are doing the exact same thing,” Meg said.
Kristin became very defensive. “I already told you that I didn’t have anything to do with Nicole’s death.”
Meg folded her arms. “It’s a shame that you don’t have any proof of that.”
Kristin didn’t back down. “You don’t have proof that I did anything wrong, either.”
“You have to admit, things don’t look good for you.”
“They probably don’t, but it doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t do anything. And since you have nothing on me, I’m done talking to you.”
Connor and Meg hated to admit it, but despite all the suspicions they had about Kristin, they couldn’t make her talk. The detective could have brought her back to the police station, but with no physical evidence incriminating her and no confession, he wouldn’t be able to hold her for more than a day or two.
It pained him to do it, but Connor eventually decided to let Kristin go. Before he did, he warned her that if she tried to leave town again during this investigation, he wouldn’t hesitate to put her behind bars. Just to be sure Kristin actually went home, Connor followed Kristin’s car the entire way and watched her go back inside her townhome.
Chapter Fourteen
With Kristin back inside her house, Meg and Connor headed out to question the next suspect on their list. Whether he wanted to or not, Nicole’s ex-patient Justin Webster was about to get a visit from the investigators. As Meg and Connor arrived at 1921 Oak Avenue, they realized that sometimes timing truly was everything.
Connor’s sedan pulled into Justin’s driveway just as the suspect was walking out to his car. What wonderful luck. If they had pulled up to his place even a few moments later, he could have driven off to parts unknown. Granted, Meg always had a locator spell handy if she needed it, but it was a delicate dance to pull it off when in the company of Connor.
With Justin already outside, the sleuths got out of their car and immediately went to work. Justin was a twenty-nine-year-old scrawny man with bad acne, scraggly hair, and no fashion sense whatsoever.
“Going somewhere, Mr. Webster?” Connor asked.
Justin had no interest in conversation. “That’s none of your business.”
Connor pulled out his police badge. “Actually, that’s very much my business.”
Justin stopped dead in his tracks as he looked at the badge.
“Police? I think you’ve got the wrong person,” Justin replied.
Connor snickered. “That’s what all the suspects say.”
Justin didn’t flinch. “Seriously. The Newmans and their barking dogs live next door.”
Justin had things all wrong. Did he really believe the investigators were there about some barking dogs? If so, he was in for a rude awakening.
Connor set him straight. “We’re not here about the Newmans.”
Justin scrunched his nose. “What are you here about, then?”
“Nicole Conway.”
Justin was unfazed by the mention of his former therapist’s name. “What about her?”
“Are you saying you didn’t know she was murdered?”
Justin shook his head. “No.”
“I’m afraid she was,” Connor said.
Justin got a solemn look on his face. “That’s awful.”
Before Justin had the chance to put his guard up, Connor kept the conversation moving.
“Mr. Webster, we need to ask you some questions,” Connor said.
Justin still seemed to be at a complete loss. “Me? But why?”
Connor stared him down. “We’re the ones asking the questions here.”
Justin made another effort to deflect. “This must be a big mistake.”
Connor held firm. “I didn’t believe you the first time you said it, and I really don’t believe you now.”
Justin shrugged his shoulders. “What do you want from me?”
Meg stepped forward. “To start, where were you just going?”
“Out to have lunch,” Justin replied.
Meg gave him a critical look. “Uh-huh.”
“Why would I lie to you about going out to lunch?” Justin asked.
“You’d be surprised about what suspects lie about.”
Justin was growing increasingly aggravated. “Don’t call me a suspect.”
Meg maintained a level head. “Justin, where were you last night?”
Justin had a feeling about where Meg was going with her questions.
He jumped on the defensive. “Look. I didn’t even know that Nicole was dead. I definitely didn’t kill her.”
Justin’s grip on his emotions was slipping.
Meg turned up the heat to see if she could push him over the edge. “That wasn’t what I asked you. Now why don’t you answer the question?”
Justin’s eyes darted away from Meg, only to end up catching Connor staring at him.
“We’re waiting,” Connor said.
Realizing there was no avoiding the question, Justin took a deep breath then replied. “I was playing video games.”
“Here?” Connor asked.
He nodded.
“Alone?” Connor asked.
“What does that matter?”
“That was a yes or no question.”
“I just told you I stayed home and played video games all night,” Justin said. “I didn’t kill Dr. Conway.”
Connor remained on point. “The problem is, if you were alone, there’s no one who can verify that you did actually stay here all night playing video games.”
“This is ridiculous,” Justin barked.
Connor was calm but firm with his reply. “Mr. Webster. Watch your tone.”
“This is crazy. Why would you even accuse me of something like this?”
There was a wild look in Justin’s eyes. He had been quick to call Meg and Connor nuts for even considering him to be a suspect in this case, but as the conversation progressed, he was the one who looked increasingly unhinged.
“Mr. Webster, we haven’t accused you of anything. We just asked you a simple question, which you have refused to answer,” Connor replied.
Justin became fidgety as he continued to raise the volume of his voice. “Because your question is ridiculous. I had no reason to want her dead.”
Meg fired right back at him. “From what we hear, you were obsessed with her.”
Justin averted his eyes. “Did Dr. Miller tell you that? Because that guy is a piece of work.”
“Actually, Dr. Conway’s receptionist told us. Apparently, you scared her one day when you came into the office ranting and raving,” Connor said.
“She’s misrepresenting the truth,” Justin insisted.
“What is the truth, then?” Meg asked.
Justin took a moment to formulate his response.
Meg got tired of waiting for an answer. “Justin—”
“I admit it. I love Nicole,” Justin said. “There’s no crime in that.”
Meg had a different take on the situation. “Only she didn’t feel the same way about you.”
Justin continued to paint himself in an innocent light. “When you love someone, you don’t want anything bad to happen to them. You definitely don’t kill them.”
Meg disagreed. “I don’t know. Crazy things can happen when love goes wrong.”
“No—”
Connor interrupted Justin. “Yes. Especially when the woman you love cut you off. Not even as a boyfriend, but as a patient. Nicole didn’t want anything to do with you.”
A troubled look came to Justin’s face. He looked like he was ready to explode. “Why are you saying that?”
“Because it’s the truth.”
“Stop saying that,” Justin replied.
Connor ignored Justin’s request. “Nicole’s receptionist told us how obsessed you were. How you couldn’t believe that the doctor didn’t want to see you anymore. That
must have really burned you. After all, you were crazy about Nicole. The question is, were you crazy enough to kill her?”
Justin shook his head and made another impassioned defense of himself. “No. I loved her. You don’t kill people you love.”
Connor kept pushing. “Even when they love someone else? You couldn’t have her, so maybe you didn’t want anyone else to have her, either.”
Justin was vehement with his denial. “No—”
“Give us a reason to believe you,” Connor said.
Justin took a few steps back, looking like he was eager to head back inside his house.
“Where are you going?” Connor asked.
Justin continued moving back towards his front door. “I’m done talking to you.”
Meg’s forehead wrinkled. “I thought you were going out to lunch.”
Justin reached his front doorstep. “I just changed my mind. Get off my lawn.”
“Mr. Webster, we’re not done here,” Connor said.
“You may not be done here, but I am,” Justin replied. “Unless you can provide any evidence that I did anything wrong, I have nothing else to say to you.”
Justin then headed back inside his house, leaving Meg and Connor standing in the driveway with a decision to make. Connor could have easily pounded on Justin’s door and demanded that he come back outside, but that wouldn’t change the fact that he didn’t have any proof pointing to Justin’s guilt. Knowing that there was still another suspect left to question, Connor begrudgingly decided not to force the issue with Justin right then.
Chapter Fifteen
Meg said a little prayer to herself before she and Connor arrived at Rebecca Tate’s house. By that point, the investigators were in desperate need of a break. Unfortunately, they didn’t get one. After a series of knocks, Rebecca didn’t answer her front door. When the investigators also didn’t see a car in her driveway, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t home.
The next logical step was to make a stop at her workplace. That meant paying Enchanted Gifts a visit. The tourist-trap gift shop was on Main Street and sold T-shirts, keychains, magnets, and a whole slew of kitschy novelty items.
Witch Cozy Mystery Nine Book Set Page 51