Liz Parsons agreed to meet them at her condo in a half hour. She was just finishing up a client meeting in St. Paul, and that was the soonest she could get there.
“I’m curious what more you could possibly want to know from me,” she began once they’d entered her domain.
“Mainly follow-up, Liz,” Marla told her. “To make sure we understood what you told us.”
“Plus, we’ve learned a few more things about your relationship with the deceased since then we want to clarify,” Rex said.
“Do tell,” Liz replied. “This should be interesting.”
“You told us you knew Eloise Wallace from way back. How far back and in what capacity?” Marla asked.
“Is that important? Like I said, it was ages ago.”
“Humor us,” Rex said.
“We were in college together.”
Was Liz deliberately trying to remain obtuse? “Together as in the same school, the same classes or the same room?” Marla asked.
Liz took her time answering. “We were roommates our sophomore year.”
“How did you get along?” Rex asked.
“You know how it is,” she replied. “Sometimes it clicks with roomies, and sometimes you have to try harder to get along. Eloise and I were in that second category. She borrowed my things without asking. Not just clothes. My cosmetics. My books. My boyfriends.” Her volume dropped off with that last one.
“What did you do about it?” Marla asked.
“At first, I confronted her. She either denied having taken whatever it was or came up with some lame excuse, like she thought I’d given her my permission to use it. As time went by, and the denials and excuses continued, I stopped confronting her directly. Those personal items I really didn’t want her to touch I hid. Although I couldn’t do that with boyfriends.”
“And she helped herself to someone you really cared about?” Marla guessed.
Liz bowed her head. “Yes. After that, I put in for a room transfer.”
“How did that go?” Marla asked, still having to drag it out of her.
“She found out. One of her friends worked in the housing office and told her. She confronted me about it and said I was making her look bad to other students. Can you imagine? Me. Even then, I came clean with her and told her why I wanted out of there. She had the gall to deny any of those incidents happened, and since there were no other witnesses, she more or less got away with it. I kept my distance from her the rest of the time I was at school.”
“Thank you. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Liz looked away from them. “I didn’t want you to think I carried those feelings against her all these years.”
“So it would look like you had a motive to kill her?” Rex asked.
“Well, yes.”
“That brings us to the near present,” Marla said. “To four months ago when you ran into her again after all these years. Or had you seen her again prior to that meeting?”
“Didn’t see her, although I did hear about her a few times.”
“You told us that initially you didn’t want to join the pickleball team but changed your mind when you decided she might be able to help finance your venture into fashion design. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you need her financing when you already had over a million in the bank?” Marla asked.
“You … you checked my bank account?”
“Of course. You didn’t think we would?” Rex asked.
“Well, no. I didn’t kill her. I thought that would be obvious to you, too, and you would have already dismissed me as a suspect.”
“We’re not quite there yet,” Marla replied. “Please, answer my question.”
Liz puckered her lips while she patted her legs with her hands. Seeking a credible reason why she was still with the team? “Okay, I’ll tell you the truth. It just doesn’t make me sound very nice.”
“Just give us the truth.”
“That day I ran into her, all those memories from thirty-some years ago came flooding back, the smugness, the fake interest, the ego. I tried to dismiss my feelings and remind myself I was better than that, better than her. She kept going on about how successful she was and how much my consulting business could benefit from her brilliant mind. I was so ready to get out of there and never see her again.
“At some point, I must have mentioned I lived at Rambling Meadows, which is when she invited me to join her pickleball team. My first thought was to turn her down point-blank, but then I realized she’d only invited me because she wanted to play on our courts. Once again, she was using me. Three decades of putting all her abuses behind me suddenly disappeared, and it was like I was back in college again. Only this time I wanted to get the better of her. So I joined the team to get the inside scoop on who Eloise now was so I could make her life as miserable as she once made mine.”
She stopped and held her upturned palms out surrender-style. “That’s why I joined the team. Not very high-minded, but some wound deep within me that I thought had healed years before reared its ugly head.”
Not what Marla was expecting to hear, but it made a certain amount of convoluted sense. “So?” she asked. “Did you succeed?”
Liz thought about it. “In a way,” she replied. “It soon became clear that I wasn’t the only one who had issues with the woman. Her ex was there because he owed her money, a debt she never failed to mention along with criticizing his play as her partner. Her ex-partner who she’d bought out years before under what I learned had been a very acrimonious relationship was still hanging around for reasons I couldn’t understand. Her accountant was always bringing up financial issues that should have been left at work. And you witnessed that final blowup on the court, Marla, even after she’d been fired two weeks before. And finally, there was her assistant, who she was constantly chiding.
“All I had to do was insinuate myself with each of them to stir the pot. And since you’ve interviewed all of them at least once, you already know even that wasn’t necessary. Hate, the need for revenge and fear were already festering beneath the surface with all of them. But I never, believe me, realized one of them would kill her.”
“That’s it?” Rex said, unconvinced. “You hung out with the team for several weeks just to get back at a woman who took advantage of you over thirty years ago?”
“Yes. Haven’t you ever put up with someone who has injured you just to find some sort of cosmic justice for yourself?”
Marla fought her impulse to gaze at Rex. Liz had unknowingly touched upon the bond that brought him into this investigative partnership.
Rex didn’t respond.
“Anyway, that’s my story,” Liz said with finality.
“How long were you planning to stay with the team?” she asked.
Liz sat back and tilted her head to the side. “I hadn’t decided yet, even though every Saturday I came home vowing they’d seen the last of me. The friction you witnessed on the court Saturday, Marla, was par for the course. They may not have gotten along with each other, but the soul-grinding put-downs she dished out to everyone were the one thing that bound them together.”
“Can we assume the team is over now that the self-appointed captain is dead?” Rex asked.
“I guess so, although I haven’t heard anything official. No one really liked the game or, well, liked playing on that team with her. I know I’m done, which means they won’t have access to the Rambling Meadows courts.”
“What about your fashion line?” Marla asked, not having forgotten Liz’s original story. “You’ve had money in the bank for some time. Instead, you’ve continued to work as a consultant.”
“You don’t let anything get past you,” Liz told her. “I told you about my hopes of designing fashions just to explain why I remained on the team.”
“I’m disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing an example of your work,” Marla replied.
“Really? It’s not like I haven’t thought about it, but I guess I, uh, have been afraid to try.”
“You? You don’t strike me as being afraid of anything, Liz,” Marla said. “You have a diverse background, which includes well over a decade as a buyer for women’s clothing. You know what the market wants, even if that was a few years back.”
“If I did try my hand at design, would you be willing to look at my work and critique it?” she asked timidly.
“If you don’t turn out to be the killer, yes, I’d be happy to,” Marla told her.
Liz broke into smiles. “Then get ready to analyze. You’ve inspired me.”