“So far, a successful morning,” Rex said. “Kinda frightening what happens when you pit one suspect against another.”
“It will be interesting to see if they come up with even more damning information once they have overnight to think about it,” Marla replied.
“Back in the day, I saw that happen more than once with witnesses and suspects. They’d take away the feeling that we didn’t suspect them. That they were working with us to nail the lawbreaker. And in so doing, they’d unload even more the next time we interviewed them, sometimes even at their own expense.”
“Have you ever interviewed two suspects together?” she asked.
“No, but the occasion never arose. It would be risky, if we did it. They could both clam up and we’d get nowhere.”
“But isn’t that what we’ve seen so far from Grace and Brecken?” she said. “They’ve come close to telling a little more about the other and then they’ve hung back. If we could break one, maybe the other would feel compelled to one-up them.”
A few beats went by while he considered what she proposed they do. “Okay,” he said finally. “Let’s give it a try. We can always separate them if the interview is going nowhere or do follow-up interviews with each.”
They met within the hour at Grace’s house. Brecken had offered the use of his landscaping office, but Grace’s house offered more privacy.
Brecken greeted his hostess formally and took a seat across the room from where she sat until Rex asked them to sit closer together.
“Uh, sure,” Brecken said. “Grace and I know each other from way back.”
“Let’s start there,” Marla said. “You touched on that in your first interview. Please, each of you tell us a little more about how you know each other. Why don’t you start, Grace?”
Grace had been staring at her hands. Now she gazed directly at Marla and Rex. “We both grew up in this area and were in high school together, although Brecken is a few years older. I left town for a number of years and didn’t see him again until about nine years ago. That was a chance meeting at a local nursery, where he happened to mention both he and Eloise were on the job market again due to being laid off by their current employer. After that, after I hired Eloise, I saw him every so often when he’d be in the office or at a few social gatherings. I haven’t seen him as much since I sold Essy, other than more recently when we both wound up on Eloise’s pickleball team.”
“How about you, Mr. Wallace? Is that a good summary of how you know each other?” Rex asked him.
Brecken didn’t exchange looks with Grace but instead replied immediately. “Yes. I can’t add anything.”
They’d been expecting this. Time to throw them off. Marla took the lead. “It makes sense that you’d stop by to see your wife while you were still married, but you’ve been divorced for six years, Mr. Wallace. Yet we’ve heard you continued to drop by after that. What was the draw then?”
Brecken shot a brief glance in Grace’s direction but quickly returned his gaze to Marla. He shrugged. “I don’t know. Nothing in particular. I guess I got in the habit of dropping by every so often when I was still married to Eloise. Besides, they make pretty good coffee. Free coffee.” He chuckled, attempting to dismiss the question.
Rex took his turn. “On those occasions when you ‘dropped by,’ who did you speak with?”
Another shoulder roll. “I don’t recall specifically.”
“Your ex?” Rex asked.
“Yeah, on occasion. We still had mutual business to discuss even after our divorce.”
“And when you didn’t have business to discuss with her?”
“Sometimes Nell, sometimes Grace. Why these questions? How are they related to Eloise’s murder?”
“We’re following up on points that didn’t make much sense to us once we reviewed our earlier interview findings,” Marla said. “The fact that you continued to stop by the office after your divorce sticks out to us. Getting a free cup of coffee doesn’t explain it. There had to be a reason. That’s all we’re after.”
“I already told you,” Brecken said evenly, without adding anything further.
Marla continued to press, refusing to let Brecken wave off his visits. Letitia would sometimes embroider on the truth to convince a suspect to say more. She’d give it a try. “From what we’ve learned from others in the office, most of those visits involved Grace. In her office with the door closed,” she said. “Do you and Grace have a closer relationship than you’ve let on?”
Brecken rose. “How dare you insinuate—”
“Just answer the question, Mr. Wallace.”
Grace placed a hand on Brecken’s forearm. “It’s okay, Breck. Don’t feel you have to protect my honor.” She switched her attention to Marla and Rex. “Brecken and I have developed a strong friendship over the years. Eloise picked up on it and made our lives miserable even after the divorce.”
Finally! Marla hadn’t been sure they’d ever get an admission out of either of them. “Are you telling us you’ve been lovers?” she asked. Personal, prying questions like that had arisen enough times in her Carruthers scripts that she was able to ask this one now without cringing at her own audacity.
“That’s none of their business, Gracie,” Brecken said, although he did retake his seat.
“Actually, it is,” Rex replied. “Neither of you has been completely honest with us about your relationship. That makes us question everything else you’ve told us.” He didn’t add that the two of them being lovers upped their motives for murdering Eloise.
Grace took over for Brecken, whose indignation was still quite noticeable with his red face. “Breck and I were friends in high school. We didn’t date, but I hung out with his group of friends until he graduated. We stayed in touch after I left town. We renewed our friendship after Eloise came to work for me. We were just friends for a few years, while he and Eloise were still married. We each had our problems with her, which we shared with each other. We came close to crossing the line before the divorce but held back because we didn’t want to make things worse for Breck.
“Eloise was okay with the divorce, but her ego couldn’t accept the idea that he loved another woman. In the months just prior to the official split, she caught us together, not making love, but we were engaged in a deep, personal discussion. She threatened to make things more difficult for Breck. He’d already moved out of their house, but she wanted more alimony. She really didn’t deserve any because she was making more money than he was at the time; I knew, because I was the one paying her.
“Within the year after the divorce, Eloise won the lottery. Up until then, she had been slowly taking over the company, and like I told you yesterday, I let her. She was smarter than me on the business end. She used some of her newfound wealth to buy her partnership. At least Breck was relieved from paying alimony from then on. But becoming my partner wasn’t enough for her. In her eyes, I’d taken her man, even though she’d lost him long before that, so she set out to take Essy from me. She invested what remained of her lottery money and within a couple years was able to buy me out.
“Breck and I have continued to keep our relationship quiet. We’ve been together but not openly. She made it clear she could do us more harm if we made it public.”
They’d found the mother lode. Or at least a huge vein.
“What further harm could she do to you at that point?” Rex asked.
Grace opened her mouth to reply but stopped and looked at Brecken. “She was threatening Breck at that point. I assumed she’d try to wreck his business. His landscaping company was finally gaining more clients. Essy is about information. There was no telling how she could use fake information to hurt him.”
“Is that true, Mr. Wallace?” Marla asked.
He blinked like his mind had been elsewhere until the question was directed at him. “Uh, yeah. Eloise could be very vengeful. Since she mostly got away with it, it was wise not to tangle with her.”
Interesting how he let Grace do the talking and didn’t add much even though he had been the one his ex bullied.
Rex must’ve been thinking the same thing, because he asked another question. “How does what you both just told us about the victim’s vindictiveness mesh with her giving you a loan just six months ago? She gave it to you, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she did,” Brecken replied. “But it came with strings. I told you how the deal was that I’d join the pickleball team and if I left before I’d paid back the loan, the remainder of the loan plus a twenty-five-percent cancellation fee were due immediately. But her control didn’t end there. She acted like she owned my business, forever putting down the various jobs we did around town. Even badmouthing my company to potential clients.”
Brecken addressed the question this time rather than talking around it. But what a sick situation between the two former spouses. Marla had yet another question for him. “Your wife bought out Ms. Adamson four years ago. So why did you continue to stop by the Essy office even when Ms. Adamson was no longer there?”
“I’ve already answered that question,” Brecken replied.
“Yes, but that was before we learned you and Ms. Adamson are lovers,” Marla said. “Let’s have one more try at it now that we know about your relationship.”
Grace and Brecken exchanged looks. “My visits weren’t as frequent as when Grace was there. In fact, I did it mainly for Grace. It’s been difficult for her to let go of the company she built from nothing. I hardly spoke to Eloise at those times. Instead, it was mainly Nell I checked in with. Once Grace was out of there, Eloise turned the bulk of her ire on Nell. More recently until her wife’s death, Nell struggled to stay on top of her work while she and Katharine dealt with her health. Grace didn’t feel comfortable going there, so I took it upon myself to do it for her.”
“What about Tanner and Chloe?” Marla went on. “Were you compelled to check in with them as well?”
“It’s only been recently that Tanner complained about Eloise and felt comfortable sharing his concerns with me.”
Had he deliberately not mentioned Chloe? “And Chloe?” Marla pursued.
“I spoke with her on occasion. She was and still is Eloise’s strongest supporter. Grace and I have been concerned about Eloise’s influence over her. She’s so young and easily manipulated.”
Rex didn’t let that comment rest. “Interesting that you would describe Ms. Reardon that way, since others have suggested the naivete is an act.”
“Tanner is jealous of Chloe since she appears to have taken his place as Eloise’s main supporter. Of course he’d portray her that way. And Nell? Chloe has been trying to lighten some of her workload while Nell has been dealing with Katharine’s health. It’s understandable Nell might feel Chloe was invading her space,” Brecken said.
Both explanations made a certain amount of sense. And Brecken jumped into his reply without hesitation. But did they ring true? Something they’d need to discuss later.
“Okay, we’ve been more than candid with you, but the fact that you’re still talking to the two of us tells me you’re no closer to finding Eloise’s killer than you were when we first met. Perhaps a call to the Maple Knolls chief of police or even my state senator will speed things along,” Brecken said, his tone becoming more belligerent.
No point responding to his taunt. “I think we’re done here for now,” Rex said. “Thank you both for meeting with us.”
“We got a little more than we knew going in,” Marla said once they had left the house.
“Thanks to Grace,” Rex replied. “If we’d left it up to Brecken, we’d be no further ahead than we were going in. He clearly didn’t want to say any more than he had before. And why? Because there definitely was and is a relationship between the two of them. He hasn’t been lying, but he’s been holding back information we need to get further with this case.”
“I still can’t get past the fact he’s been dropping by the Essy office every so often long after his divorce and then after Grace sold the business to Eloise.”
“You don’t buy his reasons?” he asked.
“Not so much that I don’t buy them, I just suspect there’s more there he’s not telling us. He may not be telling Grace, either, or she might have broken in to augment his response.”
“Any idea how we can get him to tell us?”
“It wasn’t until we asked why he continued to visit Essy even after Grace was no longer there that he gave up any information. So we have to find more evidence to throw at him about those visits. We’ve gone back to Tanner and Nell but not Chloe. Knowing now that she’s not that naive, we should talk to her again about her time as an intern and then as Eloise’s assistant. Maybe she’ll reveal something we can use to trip him up.”
“Good plan, but first, let’s take a break. I need to process all we’ve learned this morning,” Rex said.