“Where to first?” I asked Herc the next morning once we were underway.
“No ‘Good morning, Herc. How are you today?’”
Something was nagging him for him to put me on the defensive immediately. “Good morning, Herc. How are you today?”
“Better, though I had to drag it out of you. Bad night last night?”
Digging again, only this time disguising it as concern for my mental health. “As a matter of fact, I had an early night last night. All that deal with Carrie Jenkins yesterday took a lot out of me. I know I’m not supposed to get involved in suspects’ lives, but I’ve been away from the life of a homicide detective so long, I’ve forgotten how to maintain my distance.”
“You were great with her. You showed enough concern to gain her trust but remained firm when it came to her making off with all that money until she had legal access to it.”
“I guess. I hope that will we found, along with her letter to Carrie, will be enough for her to establish her legal rights.”
“I got a warrant to try the key we found to determine if it opens a safety deposit box. We don’t need Mrs. Jenkins’s approval to check it out, but she might want to go along with us just to see the contents. She still can’t claim them until the will is probated.”
Why was he being so generous where Carrie was concerned? “Why do you want her there?”
“You aren’t buying my generous spirit?”
“Uh, no. Not on a murder case where she hasn’t been entirely cleared yet.”
He made a face. “So suspicious.”
“Humor me. How will Carrie being there help the investigation?”
He stuffed the rest of a doughnut into his mouth while he drove. “Something she told us about her mother’s books. Even though the house has been out of business for a few years, from what we’ve learned about Janine Foster, I can’t see her burning or otherwise destroying the books. She probably saw them as insurance in case she had money problems at some point.”
“And since Carrie said they were sort of coded, you want her there to decode whatever we might find.”
“Very good. And if we find what I think might be there, we’ll be paying another visit to Daryl Henson later.”
He had me call Carrie and explain what we needed from her and our expectations. Even though she knew she couldn’t take anything with her at this point, she was excited at the chance to see what the box held. First we had to establish the key actually went to a safety deposit box, and then we had to find the right bank. There were three in town.
Our efforts were rewarded at the second stop. Apparently it wasn’t all that unusual for the police to come in with a warrant.
“Do I at least get to examine the contents?” Carrie asked.
“Depends on what we find,” Herc replied noncommittally.
What we found was more than I anticipated. Probably more than Carrie dared hope also.
Herc removed the bills first and did a rough count. “Over fifty thousand, Mrs. Jenkins.”
Carrie stood there open-mouthed. “I had no idea.”
“There’s a lot more,” Herc said. He held up what appeared to be a deed. “This is for a piece of property here in town.”
“She owned more than the condo?” Carrie said, amazed.
Herc held up another document. “More than the property, too. This is for a house over in Naranja. And this appears to be a bond for ten thousand.”
Carrie was now pretty much in shock. Apparently Janine had never shared any of this with her.
Finally, Herc held up a small black notebook that had been on the bottom. Carrie stared at it. “I can’t believe she kept that.”
“Is this what we think it is?” I asked.
She looked to Herc. “May I?”
“That’s why you’re here, if you hadn’t figured that out already,” he told her. “Take a glance at them and tell us what you see.”
Her hand actually shook as she took hold of the notebook. Within seconds, she nodded. “This is her unofficial ledger. She used initials for the clients. Some I recognize but not all.” She flipped through several pages. “She kept track of every dollar that made its way into the house and kept good track of who was owed what, even though she wasn’t paying taxes.”
Herc stuck his face in. “Show us an example of the monthly or weekly take or however she kept track of things.”
Carrie flipped over a page and pointed to what appeared to be some totals. “See, there’s her take on top and the girls’ take under it.”
“What about Daryl Henson? You said yesterday that he got ten percent.”
“You’re looking at one of the early years. He didn’t come into play until maybe three years in.” She turned over another page and pointed to that total. “There. That’s him. His take is indicated by stars, I suppose representing his badge on the police force.”
“How did he receive his take?”
“Always in cash, so there’d be no trail to follow. I never saw her give him the money, although I did see her put it into envelopes.”
Herc kept the notebook, but everything else was returned to the safety deposit box. Herc kept the key.
We drove her back to her motel after that.
“I realize we only found the will yesterday,” I said while we were driving, “but have you had a chance to find someone to help you through the probate process?”
“I made an appointment for this afternoon.” She hesitated a bit. “I’ve been thinking about your allowing me to go back to the condo yesterday and eventually find the will. I wish we didn’t have to go through all this legal mumbo jumbo to establish my rights as her heir, but I understand. And since you had the warrant to open her safe deposit box today, you didn’t have to invite me to come along.”
“True, but it was helpful to have you interpret that notebook.”
She didn’t get out of the car right away when we got to the motel. “Be that as it may, I have something else to tell you. I told you the reasons why Rebecca, Lilith and Henson might have wanted her dead, but I didn’t mention Sara. She might’ve had a good reason too, but I’m only guessing.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Despite the precautions we all took, we all experienced medical issues from time to time. Usually, a little medication took care of them. But Sara contracted something more serious. Enough to be hospitalized. Of course, she had no insurance. Mom paid the doctor and hospital bills, but she made Sara work them off over the next several months.”
“Did Sara resent that?”
“She knew the rules, that she was expected to take care of her own medical problems, but Mom had pretty much forced her to be with this guy who was known for being a bad risk. Sara never should’ve had to put up with him.”
“Did that happen often?”
“More often than it should’ve. But eventually Sara appeared to recover.”
“Appeared?” She was leading us toward something step by step.
“I don’t know anything specific beyond that, but don’t you think it’s strange that she marries a man she claimed at the time was the love of her life and within two years they’re divorced?”
“It happens. Why do you think it’s so suspicious?”
“I was no longer at the house when she left to get married, but in the years leading up to that, when I was there, Sara used to go on and on about wanting to start a family as soon as she found a good man to be the father. But that didn’t happen. Maybe there were good reasons why it didn’t, like they were incompatible.”
I had a vague idea where she was going with this, but whatever it was, it seemed to be built on nothing more than supposition. But at this point in the case, even supposition would still be welcome. “What are you trying to tell us, Carrie?”
“There could’ve been a connection between her earlier illness and the divorce. As long as you’re looking into everyone who worked in the house, you should probably look further into what happened.”
“Is that all?” Herc asked, apparently not impressed with this latest revelation.
“Uh, yes. I thought you’d like to know.”
“Thanks. We’ll check into it,” I told her, attempting to cover Herc’s dismissal of her information.
She dashed from the car after that.
“Did you have to be so abrupt with her?” I said to Herc as soon as she was gone.
“We got what we needed from her yesterday. This today was her attempting to make nice now that we helped her find the will. It happens with persons of interest all the time. She was trying to sound more like a friend now so we’ll continue to keep her in the loop.”
“I’m not a newbie, Herc. I know when I’m being played. There was something there. She’s figured out we only want facts and she didn’t have them all.”
“I know you’re not a newbie, but you have to admit, you sometimes have this mother hen tendency. We can’t afford to let it surface now and send us on a wild goose chase when we still have so many potential suspects.”
He was right, up to a point. But that “mother hen” tendency had frequently gained us information we wouldn’t have gained otherwise. “Are we off to confront Henson next?” I asked, deciding it best to change the subject.
“We have no proof yet that the money was meant for him or that he ever collected it. I need to get a warrant to examine his finances. I doubt he would’ve deposited it directly into his bank, but I’m hoping over time he couldn’t resist the urge to spend some of it.”
“What about his condo?” I asked.
“Possible. That’s one thing I can track, how much he got for his house and how much he paid for the condo.”
“What about other splurges he might’ve allowed himself? It was nearly fifteen years from the time the payoffs first started and when they must’ve dropped off a few years ago. A broad estimate of the money she made over the years based on the cash, deeds and pink slip of her car would suggest she managed to save something like two to four hundred thousand. If he got ten percent, that would be at least twenty thousand.”
“Anticipating results like these, I already set Janet in motion checking Henson’s finances using the same service we did for the Jenkinses and Foster. Tricky, though, if any of his old cronies at the department were to hear about it.”
“So we wait until we see what Janet can find,” I said. “What if she can’t find a trail?”
Herc scowled. “Henson’s no fool. I wouldn’t be surprised if we come up short. But we have to try.”
“Until we get more on Henson, do we return to interview Becky and Lilith?”
“Might as well. Randall first?”
“Randall first.”
This visit to Becky Randall’s work site went less smoothly than the earlier interview. “Look, I’ll be happy to talk to you again, but not during work hours. I got quite a talking-to last time. I really need this job. Couldn’t you come back on my break or my half hour for lunch?”
We agreed to return about an hour later, when she would be eating. Meanwhile, we headed to Lilith Black’s apartment.
“I told you all I knew about Janine on your last visit,” she said.
“From what we’ve been learning,” Herc replied, “you left out a few details. Like Janine Foster threatening to ruin your business if you didn’t join up with her.”
She blew out a huff. “That was typical Janine. Her style was threats and bluff. She was no fool, though. I’m sure she’d done her research and knew when she proposed I join her in the business that I was already doing quite well on my own and didn’t need her. She tried to scare me by suggesting all she had to do was let the building owner know what I was up to and I could be out on my ass as well as hurt the reputation of some of my clients.”
“But she couldn’t?” I asked.
“I learned a few things during my years slaving away for her. That was to check out my environment first and ensure I’ve got my ducks in order. In other words, the building owner is well aware of my business. As long as I keep things cool and don’t embarrass her, I’m fine.”
She’d pretty much put to rest the reasons Carrie had given why Lilith might have murdered Janine, but I wasn’t quite ready to let it drop. “What about your clients? I understand she threatened to expose some of the more prominent ones.”
“Grasping at straws. These are people who know how to keep a low profile. They pay others to maintain it for them. It wasn’t like she could camp out by the door leading up to my apartment and photograph the rich and powerful. I spent big bucks ensuring they could access my services privately.”
I glanced at Herc. He nodded, ready to move on. If Lilith had killed Janine, we had to find a different motive.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t talk when you first arrived,” Becky said when we walked into her break room, “but my job security has been so shaky, I didn’t want to jeopardize it further.”
Herc settled in a chair across from her at the break table. I joined him. “Let’s talk about that job security,” he said. “We understand your job history since leaving the house has been pretty sketchy, thanks to your former employer.”
She twisted her hands. “You heard about that, huh? I used to tell myself it was because I’d been that great an asset for her, she couldn’t afford to lose me. I was kidding myself. She was lazy and desperate. She couldn’t find anyone else to boss around like she did me, and she was no longer attracting clients on her own.”
“Didn’t that frustrate you?”
“Of course. I had so few skills when I left the house, I had to settle for jobs like these until I could prove myself, which I’ve begun to do.”
She’d broached the topic, so I continued. “Which it sounds like you’ve done. We heard you were up for a night manager position.”
“I was. It didn’t happen. I can’t prove it, but I think Janine called my boss and spoiled my chances. But people move around a lot in motel management. I can prove myself to the next person.”
“But she kept you from advancing yourself,” Herc said. “Surely that made you want to have it out with her?”
“I considered. Several times. But when I stopped to think about it, in her own nasty, hurtful way, she did me a favor. I probably never would’ve considered taking classes to better myself if I’d started to work my way up in this motel chain. It’ll take longer, and I won’t be earning as much money for a while, but in the long run, I feel pretty hopeful about my future.”
“Some of the condo occupants saw a woman of your description going toward Mrs. Foster’s condo a few days before the murder,” Herc said, bluffing. “Was that you?”
She returned a sheepish look. “You got me. Yes, I went there to end her pestering me about coming back to work for her once and for all.”
“You said you hadn’t gone to her new condo,” Herc reminded her.
“I was embarrassed to have stooped to her level. I didn’t think it would affect your investigation one way or the other.”
Herc returned a stern expression. “That was our decision to make, not yours, Ms. Randall. We’ve now wasted valuable public time attempting to determine the identity of that person. When was your visit?”
She scratched her cheek as if trying to remember. Most likely, she knew exactly when she’d been there and had been rehearsing this response for when we questioned her earlier response. “It wasn’t the day of the murder. I heard those details on the local TV news. But it was a few days before and a short visit. I did exactly like I just told you, told her not to contact me again.”
“And she was fine with that?” I asked, not convinced the former madam would let things go so easily.
“No, she wasn’t,” Becky replied. “She was the old Janine, threatening one minute, cajoling the next. But since I’d left the house, I’d learned how to stand up for myself. I didn’t let her get me. In fact, I just left.”
Herc and I thanked her for her time and headed out to our own lunch. “I don’t know if we should be feeling relieved to have virtually eliminated two suspects this morning or frustrated that we’re down to only a few,” I said as I speared a cherry tomato on my salad.
“Randall and Elliot still could’ve killed the woman. They had method, since anyone could’ve smothered her with her own pillow, and opportunity. All they had to do was knock on the door or come around back. But we have managed to water down their motives, at least those we were aware of, although there may still be other motives we haven’t uncovered.”
“Aren’t you the optimistic one? I suppose you haven’t written off Carrie or Norman yet either?”
“Not completely, but both are looking less likely. Surely you didn’t think we’d wrap this case in a couple days? Where anyone could’ve picked up that pillow, come and gone unnoticed in that back door and with a victim who’d pissed off so many people over the years?”
“When you put it that way, I wonder if we’ll ever find the murderer,” I said, attempting not to appear too discouraged.
“We’ll get there. If for no other reason, we’ll wear down the suspects enough that the killer will slip up.”
I had my doubts about either Becky or Lilith breaking down and confessing. We’d hit them with the most powerful motives we’d run across, and they’d both readily sloughed off those reasons. “How soon do you think you’ll have access to Henson’s finances?”
“Later this afternoon, I hope. Meanwhile, we’ve got some time. We could confront Sara Gillespie about her divorce.”
“Do we have contact info on the husband? Maybe we should get his side of the story before we talk to her again.”
He checked his phone. “I think Janet sent me that information. Yeah, here it is. Mark Gillespie and a phone number.” He called the number, and after successfully parrying a couple of Gillespie’s reasons for avoiding us, arranged to meet him in half an hour. “Let’s go get his side of the story,” he said once he got off the phone.