by Dale Mayer
“Convenient, isn’t it?” Vince said. “He hasn’t been here for two years, then somebody murders a woman the minute Reyes arrives.”
“Looks like motive and opportunity to me,” one officer said, his voice snide. “An ex-fiancé who doesn’t like the way the woman he loves acts, then comes back and dishes up the revenge he’d planned for two years.”
It was just too unbelievable. Reyes listened to them outline how he supposedly was angry because she’d broken up with him. And how he had plotted for two years and then took the opportunity to come back into town and kill her.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” he asked in a strangled voice. “I just arrived. It’s pretty damn obvious if I came in and killed her right off the bat. I could have arranged for something from a distance, and you would never have connected me.”
The other officer sent him an assessing gaze.
At that, Reyes said, “And who the hell did you ask? Who would tell you that I was the one most likely to kill her?”
“We didn’t have to ask anyone. She had a napkin in her hand that read Reyes.”
He stared. “Reyes? My name? So, because she’s got something against me, you’re assuming she’s talking to you, a future police officer who might be standing over her dead body?” Even to his ears that sounded more ludicrous than believable. “Maybe she wrote that because I’d know how to find her killer? Maybe she wrote that earlier as a reminder to call and to apologize me for her behavior?”
Both men appeared to take his point, but they shrugged.
“We are here to ask you what you know about her death.”
“No, you aren’t,” Raina said, some of her defiance gone and just a weary sadness in her voice. “You came to accuse him.” She glanced at Reyes. “Let’s go downtown. We’ll get all the details and then figure out what happened on our own,” she snapped.
He looked down at her in surprise. But her gaze was hard and unflinching as she stared at him.
“You and I both know an awful lot of people didn’t like her,” she said in a low voice. “I love my sister, but I have no illusions about who she was.”
He nodded, wrapped an arm around her shoulder and turned to look at Vince. “You coming?”
“Hell yes, I’m coming,” he snapped. “But I think you need to tell your boss where you’re going, and, if she has anybody who can help, she needs to pull them in.”
At that, Raina gasped. “Damn. I’m late for work. I need to tell Annemarie I won’t be in today.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and stepped off to one side and called the garden center.
Reyes half listened to her conversation as she told his mother that she wouldn’t be in until later. Annemarie didn’t appear to be very happy about it, but then she had a very busy store right now, and anybody calling in sick or not making their shift would put her place under stress.
Then his phone rang. It was Ice. In a low voice he explained the problem.
Being typical Ice, she said, “Go to the police station with them. I’ll meet you there.” She hung up.
He smiled and pocketed the phone.
“Who did you just speak to?” one of the officers asked.
“My boss called me,” Reyes said in a calm tone. “Ice. She and Levi own Legendary Security.” When there was a flicker of awareness in the second officer’s eye, Reyes nodded. “Yeah, I’m one of them. But that’s all right. Take me down on a murder charge without even checking out any facts. That’s smart.”
“We didn’t accuse you of anything,” the second officer said. “And we certainly haven’t charged you.”
“Good, because we’ll go through the questioning, and then you’ll charge me or not. Either way I’ll have the lawyers there in no time.” He led the way toward the door. “Can Vince drive on his own, or do you want him in the back of the police car too?”
Both officers hesitated.
Then Vince said, “You’re not being charged. We’re all going to the station together.” He reached out a hand for Raina and led her toward the door, then announced to anybody listening, which at this point was the entire restaurant, “I’m sorry for the bad news everyone, but Reana Woodcroft has been murdered. Of course these officers are trying to do their job, just not with any finesse.”
There were gasps of shock because it was a small town. Both twins were well-known, as were all of Reyes’s family.
One of the men in the back stood and said, “Well, you can bet this lot had nothing to do with it.”
The officer looked at him. “Why is that?”
“Because they’re family,” he said. “All of them together. They’ve been a close family. They might have problems, but they sure don’t need to kill each other.”
The cops looked at each other, back at him again and said, “Unfortunately, when it comes to murder, it’s almost always a friend or a family member who did the deed.”
On that note, they pushed the three outside the restaurant.
“Hey, excuse me.”
Hearing the waitress’s voice, Reyes, at the last moment, remembered they hadn’t paid the bill. He pulled out his wallet, grabbed money and handed it to the waitress. “Sorry,” he said. “It was a great breakfast.”
With the cop nudging him forward, they walked out. Knowing he was the prime suspect, he got in the back of the cruiser and told the other two, “Meet me there.” He sat in the back seat of the police cruiser and buckled up. As the officers got in, he said, “You might want to watch your Ps and Qs from here on in.”
“Yeah? And why is that?” the first cop asked. “You some sort of royalty?”
“No,” Reyes said. “But I’m an innocent man, one who doesn’t take kindly to being treated like he’s a criminal.”
“You know what they say about innocence in this country? It’s not that you’re innocent until proven guilty now. You better prove you’re innocent, or you’re going down for a murder charge.” And he turned on the engine and drove away.
Chapter 6
Raina sat beside Vince on the way to the police station. She was numb. The shock waves just kept hitting her. First, her sister was dead, and Raina couldn’t get her mind wrapped around that. She was bombarded with images of her sister as a young girl, then as an older woman, and all the weird phone calls made from Reana last night. Second, all of that was overlaid with the thought that the police suspected Reyes of having had something to do with her demise.
Under her breath she muttered, “They have to be wrong.”
“They are wrong,” Vince reassured her. “At least the part about Reyes having anything to do with it. I’m so sorry for you though. It’s a hell of a way to find out about your sister.”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I need to see her and make sure it’s her. I don’t want my mother to find out from anyone else. I need to see Mom as soon as I can, but I need to know for sure that it’s Reana—that there’s no chance a mistake has been made.”
“We might arrange that today,” Vince said quietly. “Depends on the detectives and how they handle their investigations. Plus how long they wait until an autopsy is done. In cases of murder, an autopsy is generally done, unless particularly strong religious reasons may fight it. Even then I think the law trumps religion.”
She stared at him and admitted softly, “I hadn’t considered that. I don’t know what to say to my mom about that. I feel like an autopsy would upset her. A violation of her daughter in a way.”
He glanced at her before returning his gaze to the traffic. “You have to consider the cops may have already told her.”
“Have they? I should be with her,” she said in bewilderment. “We only heard ten minutes ago. She can’t be alone after hearing something like that. She’s never been terribly stable, as you know.”
“I know. I’m so sorry. Let’s hope they haven’t notified next of kin yet or that the cops consider you as notified, and that’s sufficient.”
It would never be sufficient. Yet, knowing how devas
tated her mother would be, she realized she’d need to be there with her for most of the day. Hell, it could easily be for the next week. “We also have to tell Annemarie,” she said. And then she turned to look at Vince. “Unless you think she already knows.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know if Reyes called her or not. I know he called his boss. I don’t think he called his mother. But someone at the restaurant might have. This is really a small community when it comes to gossip.”
She gave a broken laugh. “What kind of broken families are we from? The police tell the sister not the mother, and Reyes calls his boss and not his mother or father. You’d think his parents would be the most supportive in a case like this.”
“Do you really think so?” Vince shook his head. “When you think about it, I’m not sure that’s true. Reyes often had trouble with his mom. I know they love each other, but they weren’t close like Ron and his mom were.”
“No, because his mom was too much like Reana,” she said. “I have to wonder if that’s what the attraction was. They say sons marry women like their mothers.”
“I’ve heard that. But, when you don’t have a great relationship with your mother, you’d think you’d avoid that type.”
“True, but I don’t think Reyes thought about that in connection to his relationship with Reana. And, once he got caught up in her, I don’t think he knew how to get out of it. Not until she broke up with him.”
“Interesting.” Vince’s tone was suspiciously neutral. “I always figured you and he would be better together.”
“There never was a him and me,” she said. “Once Reana went after him, he fell—hook, line, and sinker.”
“Until he woke up,” Vince said calmly. “And then he got out.”
“Did he though?” She shook her head, unsure what to believe anymore. “If you listen to the stories my sister told, he two-timed her with somebody else.”
“That’s not what happened,” he said with certainty. “But I’m not the one to tell you about it. Trust Reyes. He’s a good man.”
She studied his profile. “You know him pretty well, don’t you?”
Vince nodded. “We’ve been best buds for a long time,” he said quietly. “I talked to him about Reana. I thought it was a destructive relationship and wanted him to get the hell away from her.”
That was news to Raina. Not only that Vince had recognized how bad the relationship was but that he’d interfered. “I tried to do the same thing with my sister,” she said sadly. “But she just laughed and said Reyes suited her purposes.”
“And that’s the problem,” Vince said. “Everything had to suit Reana’s purposes.”
“Well, she manipulated the wrong person. God, I still can’t believe it,” she added in a hushed whisper.
“I know it’s a little hard to think of somebody so vibrant and so passionate as now being gone.”
“I want to see her,” Raina said again. “I have to see her. I won’t believe it otherwise.”
They pulled into the police department’s parking lot. Vince turned off the engine and focused on her. “Are you okay?”
She turned her gaze on him. “No, of course I’m not okay,” she exclaimed. “My sister has been murdered. My whole world has been tossed upside down.”
He nodded. “Well, let’s go and find out what facts we can, take care of whatever we need to, and then let’s get you home to your mom, so you can tell her, can be with her.”
She slowly shook her head. “I’m not looking forward to that.”
“First off, let’s deal with what’s in front of us.” He opened the driver’s door and walked around to the other side. She was still trying to get out. He held out his hand to her.
She placed hers in it and stood slowly. “They can’t really believe Reyes had anything to do with this, can they?”
Vincent’s face was grim when he said, “It depends on how much contact he’s had with your sister over the last little while. Of course he looks good because of the fight they had at the greenhouses yesterday. Though who told the cops about it, I don’t know.”
“Did anyone?” she asked. “I figured it had more to do with Reana’s note they found in her hand.”
“I hate to say it because your sister is a bit of a bitch, but what if she did that on purpose?”
Raina’s back stiffened. She hated to think anybody would even contemplate such a thing. And then she realized just how much her sister had come to hate Reyes, and Raina had to wonder. “That would only wash if she committed suicide,” she said slowly. “I can’t see her committing suicide.”
“I agree. If she died in a fit of her bad temper, maybe. But most people who commit suicide don’t destroy their own lives so they can destroy somebody else’s. They usually find a way to destroy somebody else’s life without touching theirs. So that goes back to maybe we need to make sure it really is your sister in the morgue.”
“Right.” She quickly picked up the pace. “That’s the first thing I want to do.”
“You have to be prepared for the fact they might not allow you to see her.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think any law will stop a family member from having a chance to confirm that the person they loved is dead.”
“I don’t know,” Vince said. “When it comes to this stuff, the laws don’t seem to make sense or to protect the families.”
They walked inside the station to see Reyes sitting at the front desk, waiting. He looked up, saw them and smiled.
Raina rushed to his side, Vince right behind her. “I figured you’d be in an interrogation room or something.”
“I would be, but Ice and the lawyers were here waiting for me. So that’s been kiboshed,” he said with a smirky grin. “I will be questioned. I’m just waiting for them to find a room we can use.” He pointed at the empty chairs beside him. “Take a seat. It may be a while.”
She looked around. “Where’s your lawyer?”
He pointed behind him.
She saw a tall man in a business suit on the phone. Ice stood near him, also on the phone. Both looked serious but also had that we-mean-business attitude. Raina smiled, having a heartfelt rush of relief that Reyes had somebody to really support him. “I’m so happy they’re here for you,” she said warmly. “I know you had nothing to do with Reana’s death.”
“How can you know that?” His gaze was piercing. “You were there when she smacked me across the face yesterday.”
Raina nodded. “Yes, I was. I have no clue what that was about. And, from the look on your face, neither did you. The trouble is, my sister was all about creating drama. And, in the last two years that you’ve been gone, I’ve barely even heard your name mentioned. I don’t think she was pining for you. I think she was more concerned about you causing trouble when you came back, and she was trying to nip it in the bud—or at least to confuse the issue. But I don’t know why.”
He slowly nodded his head. “That could be.”
She sat down beside him. “But why? What is it that you could do that would cause trouble for her?”
He hesitated, glanced at Vince for any thoughts, didn’t get any, then faced Raina again.
She leaned forward and pressed further. “Tell me, please. It’s well-past time for hiding any of this stuff. If that’s really my sister who’s been murdered, we’ll need to know everything anyway.”
He stretched out his legs, crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back. He studied her for a long moment before asking, “How much do you know about your sister’s sex life?”
She wrinkled her face. “Not much. She talked lots about all kinds of things. Some I didn’t want to hear. Such as, she often commented on how she picked fights with you because the makeups were so passionate.”
He stared at her in surprise. “Is that what she said?”
Raina nodded. “She used to call me an icicle and frozen and cold because I didn’t have her same passionate temperament,” she admitted. “I’m just much more reserved and
calm. And I don’t really want to have my private life publicized the way she wanted to do with hers.”
He stared across the lobby. “How much do you know about why we broke up?”
“Not a clue,” she said. “She told me that she found you in bed with another woman.”
“That’s what she told Ron too,” he said slowly. “But that’s not true.”
Vince nodded, his expression grim.
“I figured it wasn’t because that isn’t who you are,” Raina said to Reyes.
His lips quirked. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
She shrugged. “I knew you a lot better than she did. We’ve been friends since forever, but she wasn’t part of our friend group.”
He nodded, saw Vince nodding too, then seemed to make a sudden decision. “The reason we broke up was because I went to her place one day and found her in bed with someone else.” His voice was low. “And it wasn’t a guy. She was in bed with another woman. And it was obvious what they were doing.”
Raina sat back and stared at him. “What?”
He nodded slowly. “We had words before I walked away. But she got busy telling everybody, to save face, that I was the one who had an affair, not her.”
Raina sagged back in the chair, her mind in complete chaos as she tried to fit that puzzle piece into what she knew about her sister. And it just didn’t work. “Are you sure it was Reana?”
He nodded. “Absolutely. It was at her brownstone. We spoke at the time, but I’ve not spoken to her since then. The first I saw her in two years was when she came into the store yesterday and smacked me across the face. I figured she must be worried I might say something and ruin her reputation.” He shrugged. “I’m totally okay if she was a lesbian, but I wanted honesty from her in terms of our own relationship because, if that’s where she was leaning, then she didn’t belong with me. And something was definitely wrong in our relationship.”
It was too much for Raina. She studied him, looking for any signs of lies or deceit, but there were none. “I don’t know what to say. That’s the last thing I would have thought anybody would have said about my sister. I know she was into experimentation but hadn’t expected that.”