“Go on,” Greg urged.
“Paul got all flirty with Ellen and Ellen ate it up. She got herself a big old crush on Paul. Paul couldn’t keep his eyes off Ellen and Ellen couldn’t keep her eyes off Paul. It was so obvious. Dad tested Paul by mentioning they should get together and do something, just to see if Paul took the bait.” He shook his head. “Now how funny is that? Here was this rich pompous guy who couldn’t stand the likes of us. But Paul immediately suggested dinner with the whole family, his treat. Of course, he worked it to where he was seated next to Ellen. I was sitting next to her and at one point, I noticed Paul had his hand in Ellen’s lap. Right there at the table. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Then what happened?” Greg pressed when Little Roger went silent.
“At some point, Paul and Ellen must’ve exchanged phone numbers, because the next day he phoned Ellen to see if she could help him pass out some investment brochures at some event in the park. Ellen wanted to go so bad she couldn’t see straight. But of course, Paul was much older ... and married. So, Ellen came to me and begged me to drive her over and keep it secret from our parents.” He rolled his eyes. “I did it. I took her there and dropped her off. After parking where she couldn’t see my vehicle, I walked back and hid behind some bushes and watched them. There weren’t any brochures and she climbed in the car with him and they smooched and smooched and smooched. It was turning my stomach, so I called her on her phone and told her I had to come get her right away because Dad wanted her back at the house. Then I went and got her and took her home.”
“Don’t stop,” Greg pushed.
He shrugged. “It was like I thought. They had a thing for each other, even though he was old enough to have been her father, was married, and ran in the upper crust social circles. I called Dad outside and told him what happened. It was shortly after that when Mrs. Jensen found out about Paul having an affair with Felicia Winslow. Mrs. Jensen raided his secret condo and had movers take everything to Twice Blessed. This meant Paul no longer had his furnished love nest. At the same time, he was cooling his jets with the Winslow girl because he was getting all hot and bothered by Ellen. Apparently, Paul was calling Ellen all the time and buttering her up. Dad overheard a few of their calls. Instead of telling Ellen to forget about seeing Paul, like he should have, Mom and Dad cooked up a get-rich-quick scheme.” He shook his head and went silent.
“Tell me about the plan,” Greg insisted.
“Dammit,” Little Roger bellowed and pounded his fist against the table. “It was all so stupid. Dad got it in his head that Ellen could lure Paul into that hotel room. He hid a camera in there. The plan was to film Paul going after Ellen and confront Paul with the video. In exchange for destroying the evidence and not going to the police, Dad was going to demand one million in hush money.” Little Roger looked at us. “Dad thought he could use Ellen to get us a cool million and then my parents would be rolling in dough ... you know, Roland N. Doe.” He sighed. “There wasn’t any blonde who came in. Mom was the one who reserved that room ... lucky number seven as she thought of it. At the time, we didn’t even know Felicia had blonde hair. Mom was just picturing Ellen’s hair.”
“So how did he con Ellen into going along with the plan?” I asked.
“That was my stupid part. Mom provided me with a key because Ellen had confided in me that Paul wanted to take her out on a date. It was so easy. I told her I had a key because I was going to take my girlfriend there the next weekend. I gave it to her and told her to knock herself out. She didn’t have a clue that it was a setup. All she wanted was to be with Paul.”
The insides of my mouth were bleeding from chewing on them. I found it disgusting that Roger and Darlene were willing to pimp their daughter out for money, even for a million. Thank goodness Ellen was a willing participant, though too young to legally consent.
“What happened next?” Greg asked.
“Ellen told Paul about having a meeting place. I couldn’t believe he agreed to go to that filthy motel. I thought for sure he’d tell her no way was he going there, either by completely declining or taking her somewhere else. Of course, now we know he was having a world of financial problems — his bank accounts were frozen, and his credit cards had been cutoff.” He let out a maniacal laugh. “Funny, I don’t think Paul could’ve paid Dad a dime to keep his mouth shut.” He paused as if fully absorbing the situation. “Anyway, Ellen begged me to drop her off at the hotel and so we sneaked out of the house.” He chuckled. “That’s funny too. Mom and Dad knew exactly where she was going. And stupid me, I took her there. Ellen was never with Paul in your car. Paul was already there when I dropped her off.”
“Oh really,” I muttered, realizing this explained why the room was so quiet when I first arrived. I must’ve been getting snacks when Little Roger delivered Ellen and missed her arrival to the room. It also explained why Liam missed her entry too, since he was helping me get my snack.
“Yeah, I believe Ellen had already provided him with the key and, after Molly kicked him out, I have a feeling he was living there.” He laughed again. “Well, he may have been laying low because the FBI and SEC were starting to really crawl up his butt.”
“Then what?” Greg asked.
“Dad was parked down the street from The Bliss Hotel, just sitting in his car and watching.” Little Roger looked at me. “He said you were entertaining. He watched you pull in, move around the parking lot a couple of times, and then get your own room next to them. He knew all along that Greg wasn’t inside and he thought it was funnier than hell when you came over here asking about Greg cheating on you. He was ribbing you about Greg being an old dog. Of course, at the time, we didn’t know Paul was dead inside. You certainly didn’t mention it.”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t bring myself to say it at the time.” Once again, I wondered what Greg saw in Roger. How dare that asshole let me believe Greg was cheating when he knew all along it was Paul in that room ... and with his underage daughter, of all people.
He nodded and then continued. “My instructions with Dad were to give them some time in the room to make sure Paul was in the bed with Ellen. Dad told me to tell Ellen to offer Paul a drink, the red one in the mini fridge. He’d put a dose of something in it and it was supposed to be enough for Paul to pass out before he had sex with Ellen. Even though Ellen wanted to have sex with Paul, Dad was only wanting to get some provocative pictures of them together. He wasn’t totally pimping Ellen out ... he just wanted enough to bribe Paul. I told Ellen it had the effect of making sex more enjoyable for men ... and men only. She’s naive enough to have bought it and agreed to tempt Paul with it. Unfortunately, Paul didn’t like the taste of it and so the sex stuff happened anyway.” He frowned, clearly repulsed by his sister in bed with an older man. “Anyway, Dad called me and told me to phone Ellen and let her know he was on the warpath because she hadn’t made curfew. I told her I was coming to get her right away. Of course, by then, I had already pulled up next to Dad and we had coordinated everything. I zoomed up to the door and Ellen ran out, still dressing as fast as she could and calling back to Paul that she’d had a nice time and couldn’t wait to see him again. I zipped her back home, where she found Dad gone and thought he was out looking for her. She ran to her room and jumped in bed while I waited for him to get home.”
“What happened next?” Greg encouraged.
Little Roger swallowed hard. “Mom had given Dad a second key. So, he quietly unlocked the door, burst in the room and confronted Paul who was still in his birthday suit. He demanded money to keep his mouth shut. Dad said he took the camera, warning him he had the evidence and if the money wasn’t wired to his account the next day, he’d take the video to the police. Then he left and came home. I was still up when he came in a short time later and his clothes weren’t bloody.” Little Roger shrugged. “I have no idea what happened after that. Someone came in later and killed him. But I know it wasn’t anyone in my family.”
“Someone came in with
a key though,” I pointed out. “And with a murder weapon in hand.”
“I know, but I don’t see how.” He paused. “That’s really all I know. Honest,” he said looking in Greg’s eyes.
Greg nodded. “When were your parents coming home?” Their beer run had been more than an hour from when we arrived.
Little Roger called them, and they didn’t answer. He left a voice mail, and we waited another hour, but still no Roger and Darlene. “They’re avoiding us,” I told Greg. “Let’s just go home.”
“Tell them we’re going to talk to them, or I’ll have the police do it. It’ll be their choice,” Greg warned on our way out.
Once we were in the car, Greg frowned at me. “Look, Roger’s not the most upstanding person in the world, but can you spare me right now?”
My smile was thin. “I’ll give you a pass this once. But you know they’re hiding something. Otherwise, they would’ve been home long ago.”
He nodded. “Yes, they are. The question is what?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
(Monday)
Greg had driven my car to work, and I’d borrowed my mom’s car to take Ava to school. Once I had returned home, my sleepless nights had caught up with me and, laying down on the bed, I’d fallen asleep. The next thing I knew, my phone was vibrating to the point it almost fell from the nightstand. Rolling over, eyes squinted, I patted around until I found the device. “What?” I answered, seeing that it was P.I. Marshall.
“Well hello to you too,” he responded.
“Okay, hello,” I humored him.
“That’s better,” he said. “Listen, I’ve got some news.”
Pushing up in the bed and leaning against the headboard with a pillow against my back, I worked at wiping the grit from my eyes. “Okay, what now?” I asked, bracing myself.
“I wanted to let you know the test came back. The murder weapon wasn’t the tire iron. Not a single mark matched any of the blunt force trauma suffered by the victim. It means someone showed up with their own murder weapon and, after using it, they went into Greg’s car and got his tire iron and placed it under the bed.”
“Hmm, a different murder weapon,” I pondered. “But why switch it out?”
“The only thing I can think of would be they went there with the intent to kill Paul and had their own weapon. After they did kill him, maybe they saw your car there and used your husband’s fob that would’ve been inside Paul’s room to open his trunk. Then they grabbed up his tire iron and hid it under the bed, thinking it might implicate you.”
“If you’re correct, then the killer recognized my car.” I paused. “But I was parked behind an eighteen-wheeler.”
“Perhaps they recognized both vehicles,” he suggested. “Let’s not forget, Paul was there in Greg’s car. How did the killer know that? Ordinarily I’d say Molly would’ve known, but since she’d kicked Paul out of the house, I don’t see how she would’ve been privy to Paul driving your husband to the airport. And even if she did, how would she have known Paul was at that motel?”
“That’s true,” I conceded. “So, what was used to kill him?”
“Not sure. They have the object narrowed down to a couple of options. By any chance, did Greg have a golf club in the trunk?”
“No, he was a racquetball fan, not golf.” I paused for a moment. “You know, Felicia Winslow said something about her parents playing golf.”
“Hmm,” he muttered. “I wonder if her father or mother found out about Paul screwing their daughter and took things into their own hands.”
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” I agreed.
“Me either,” he muttered. “Even so Emily, don’t be surprised if the police search your house, looking for something they can take in for comparison.”
“Thanks for the heads up,” I acknowledged.
For the next several minutes, I filled him in on nine and Greg's visit to Felicia Winslow and Little Roger. “I think Little Roger’s parents avoided coming home while we were there because they’re hiding something.”
“Do you want me to go talk to them?”
“No. Greg says they’ll only clam up if the police or a private eye come around. He’s going to swing by there when he gets off work.”
“Okay, it's your call, Emily,” P.I. Marshall said. “Why don’t I go talk to Mr. and Mrs. Winslow? Ask them about a golf club.”
“Good idea,” I concurred. “One of them could be hiding something.”
“Yeah, like murder,” he replied.
◆◆◆
As soon as I was off the phone with P.I. Marshall, I put in a call to Molly. “What do you want?” she began immediately, obviously knowing it was me from caller ID.
“I wanted to say that I was sorry about what you must be going through.” Though I never particularly liked Molly and hated Paul, I did have sympathy for her, plus I thought she might be hiding something.
“Of all the nerve,” she bellowed. “You’re the one who pulverized his face into oblivion. How can you be sorry? How can you help me?”
“Molly, please, Ava feels sorry for Sarah and wants to send flowers to his service.”
“Paul is going to be cremated and there isn’t going to be a service. Besides, there wasn’t anything left of Paul to have a service over. You made sure of that when you crushed his skull in.”
“I didn’t do it, Molly. I thought it was Greg in that room.” I argued. “I was going around and asking everyone who they thought Greg might have been cheating on me with.”
“You didn’t mention it to me,” she argued. “All you did was come over here and throw accusations around about Paul watching your daughter bathe. I think you were so pissed off about it that you lured him to that hotel and killed him. And you know what else I think?” She paused. “I think you found out about Felicia Winslow when you were at Twice Blessed and you tried to frame her as being the one in that room with Paul.” She grunted. “Your little scheme backfired though, didn’t it? The detectives saw right through your lies. I hope you rot in hell.” Click.
◆◆◆
Hours after my conversation with Molly, I had picked up Ava from school and we had begun putting a puzzle together. Pieces were scattered everywhere, taking up the entire dining table. While she was deep in concentration, I was on edge, waiting for either Greg to come home from speaking with Roger and Darlene, or for the police to pound on the door.
The doorbell rang, causing me to jump. Looking through the peephole, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Molly and Sarah on the other side.
“Molly?” I asked questioningly when I opened the door, looking down to see Sarah’s little face with red-rimmed eyes.
Ava came running to the door and threw her arms around Sarah. “Sarah, I’m so sorry about your dad.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said in barely a whisper, her little face looking at the floor.
“I’m sorry about how I behaved earlier. Of course, you didn’t kill Paul. Please accept my apologies,” Molly pleaded. “I blame everything on stress. The last few days have been hard and I’m simply not thinking straight.”
“Yes, of course, I understand completely. Please come in.” I waved a hand for her to enter.
“I’ve put a box of items together that I know Paul would’ve wanted Greg to have. I wasn’t sure you’d let me come inside after my terrible behavior. Let me retrieve it for you.”
“How thoughtful,” I said, hardly believing her change of heart.
“Would you mind getting Sarah something to drink? She’s complained all the way over here about her throat being super dry.”
“Certainly, come with me.” I led Sarah to the kitchen. “What would you like?”
“Do you have any milk?” she asked.
“Yes, we do.” I poured her and Ava a glass and had them sit at the table to drink it. “Let me see if your mom needs any help.” I made my way back to the entry to find Molly in the living room, placing a box on the couch.
“Sorry, I didn’t know
where you’d want this.”
“That’s fine. What is it?” I asked curiously.
“It’s just a bunch of stuff that I’ll have no need for. A few books, Paul’s watch and his money clip. I threw in his racquetball equipment and some of his gym shirts.” She paused. “It isn’t much. But he would be pleased to know Greg had them.”
“Well thank you. I’m sure Greg will appreciate it very much.” Truthfully, I was skeptical about her gift, feeling like she was delivering a live rattlesnake. And I wasn’t sure Greg would want anything to remind him of Paul’s encounter with our daughter.
She barely tarried, not even giving Sarah time to finish her milk. “I have some other deliveries. We need to get going.”
“Well thank you again.” Ava and I walked them to the door. “Let me know if you need anything.”
As soon as she left, I was in that box, trying to figure out what she’d dropped off. It was exactly as she described ... a few books, Paul’s expensive Rolex watch, his David Yurman forged carbon money clip, some high-end racquetball equipment and several of his pullover shirts. I was perplexed and felt like I was missing something. And though I went through it twice, I couldn’t figure it out.
◆◆◆
It was late in the afternoon and Ava and I had gone back to our puzzle when Greg finally came in through the garage entrance. “How are my two favorite girls in the whole world?” he asked, kissing both of us on the tops of our heads. His breath smelled of beer. No doubt he and Roger had thrown back a few. Thankfully, he wasn’t slurring or stumbling and appeared capable of driving. But still it worried me.
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