Dr. Melody opened the door again to her office and returned to her chair. Jack and Detective Hall entered. Melody said, “Jack, you can bring in another chair from the office next door.”
Detective Hall held up his hand to stop Jack. “Don’t worry about me not having a place to sit. The forensic team is here and I need to make this quick.” His gaze focused on Melody. “Can you account for your whereabouts last night?”
“All night?”
“From ten o’clock until this morning when Bryson Wayne arrived at work.”
Melody looked at Jack, who gave her a nod of his head, showing she could answer. Her shoulders dropped a fraction. “That’s easy. I was home with my children. They’re seven and four, so I never leave them unattended.”
Jack spoke up. “Melody has a motion-activated security system that records audio and video of any unusual activity. I’ll get you the contact information of the firm that monitors it.”
“That would be helpful. Thanks.”
Hall looked at all the occupants of the room, one by one. “I have a list of questions I’ll need answers to. This may be unorthodox, but I’d like you four to go somewhere and get a cup of coffee. If Steve and Heather come back with answers to the questions I need to ask, it will save me a great deal of time. I appreciate your cooperation.”
Jack spoke up. “I can’t guarantee they’ll have answers to all the questions you need to ask.”
Hall nodded. “I’ll take what I can get for now. My senior partner’s coming back today, and the more answers I have when he returns, the happier we’ll all be.”
Jack looked at his watch. “I understand.”
Hall cast a hard gaze at Jack until he made eye contact. “I also understand that at the first sign of undue pressure, you’ll advise your client to say nothing without you being present.”
Jack nodded. An agreement formed between the two men that involved everyone in the room. Steve and Heather would get information from Melody. Jack would review it to make sure nothing threw suspicion her way. Finally, if they took care of things today, they could avoid wasting time with a hard-nosed cop used to doing things his way.
Heather lifted her chin. “That website we worked on last night. Are all the forms we need on it?”
Hall nodded. “Everything is there but my signature.”
Steve cleared his throat. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could use coffee and a blueberry muffin.”
Hall turned to leave as Melody stood and said, “I know the perfect place. Two blocks down on the right. The early morning crowd should be gone by now.”
Once outside and past the police tape, Melody suggested they all go in one vehicle, as the coffee shop had limited parking. They came to Heather’s two-month-old Mercedes SUV first, so they pressed it into service as the group’s taxi.
“Nice ride,” said Melody, as Heather left the parking lot. “My kids will soon outgrow our sedan and I can’t decide between the Mercedes and the Lexus.”
“Those were my two top choices,” said Heather. “I believe you’d be happy with either.”
Jack spoke from the back seat. “Heather’s a little pickier than me. As long as I have something to haul a boat in the summer and a camper trailer to the deer lease in the winter, I’m happy.”
Steve turned to face Jack. “Heather told me you’re thinking about getting something electric.”
“That’s for around town, but I hate to get rid of the Camaro.”
Heather looked in her rearview mirror. “He’s holding on with both hands to his passing youth.” At that moment, she looked at her hands on the steering wheel. The first vestiges of blue veins peeked through the skin. At first, she wrote it off to not being in the sun long enough to get a tan. Then the truth hit her. Somehow, she’d soon slide down the far side of thirty and would, in a few short years, hit the milestone used to separate young from old—forty.
“How much farther?” asked Heather to keep from thinking about her imagined status as a spinster.
“Half a block, on the right.”
Though locally owned, the coffee shop patterned itself after the upscale places with an emphasis on baristas in their twenties, foreign names for the cup sizes, and coffees with enough shots of caffeine to make a sloth scale the sheer face of a glacier.
Everyone placed their order without a problem until it was Steve’s turn. “I need a cup of coffee.”
“What size?” asked the young woman with a pierced lip.
“Whatever fits in a mug.”
“We offer estándar, grandé, and muy grandé, unless you want disparó simple or disparó double.”
“Huh?”
Heather came to Steve’s rescue. “Give him a grandé Americana, no room.”
Steve faced the server. “Yeah. Whatever she said. Do you have blueberry muffins?”
Once again, Heather spoke for Steve. “He’ll take the pastelería con frambuesas.”
On the way to their seats, Steve said, “When did we have to leave America to get a cup of coffee and something sweet?”
Heather shook her head. “You’re getting a medium-size cup of black coffee and a pastry with raspberry filling.”
Steve thought for a minute. “The only reason they use a foreign language is so they can charge more.”
Melody joined them and settled in the last bar-height chair.
Steve felt the top of the table. “Isn’t this a little small?”
Heather patted his arm. “It’s intended to be small. More of an international vibe where people sit close together.”
“Ah. Is there anyone near us?”
“No. We’re way in the back.”
“Is that woman bringing us our order?”
“She’ll call us when it’s ready.”
Jack chuckled. Heather gave him a sideways look and brought her gaze to Melody. “Don’t let Steve fool you. It’s a game he plays and Jack’s not above egging him on. They believe places like this gouge the customers so they pretend not to know how to order.”
“They do gouge,” said Jack and Steve together.
Steve carried on. “My coffee cost twice as much as coffee at Denny’s, and they bring a full carafe to the table.”
Heather folded her arms. “Like I said, a silly game played by a couple of overgrown boys.”
Melody showed her first smile of the day. “If you’re trying to get my mind off what happened today, it’s working. Thanks.”
Steve leaned toward Heather, but spoke loud enough for everyone at the table to hear. “She’s caught on to our plan. Soften her up with humor, then grill her with bright lights and the leading questions.”
Jack added, “Bring on the rubber hoses and waterboard. My client has nothing to hide.”
“I believe you,” said Steve in a more serious tone. “We already know you didn’t leave your house last night. Heather hasn’t had a chance yet to tell me what she learned when she arrived and examined the crime scene.”
The employee with the pierced lip shouted out Heather’s name. Jack rose. “Keep your seats while I get the orders. I’ll expect a tip for playing the role of waitress.”
“They’re called servers these days,” said Heather in a correcting voice.
“Don’t forget napkins,” said Steve.
While Jack went to retrieve coffee and pastries for four, Steve spoke to Melody. “We may joke from time to time, but believe me when I say we take homicides seriously.”
Heather added, “Steve has good reason to.”
Melody’s chin went to her chest. “I remember Jack telling Chris how your wife died, and you lost your sight. That happened my second year at the University of Houston College of Optometry. I’m so sorry.”
Steve nodded, but said nothing for a few seconds. “I guess that would stick in the mind of a future optometrist.”
“Our professor spoke with your ophthalmologist and explained to us why your injury can’t be corrected.”
Steve squared his shoulders. “Most doctors I’ve seen add something to what you just said.”
“What’s that?”
“They say something like, ‘Your injury can’t be corrected with today’s technology, but significant advancements are being made every day.’”
Melody kept her gaze locked on Steve. “I think it’s cruel to give patients false hope. If advancements take place, I’ll embrace them. Until then, I treat what’s in front of me with available tools and techniques.”
Jack delivered the orders, and everyone took a sip of their coffee. Steve broke the quiet. “Heather, you’re falling down on your job. You didn’t ask them to cut up my pastry. If I pick this up and try to eat it, I’ll wear half of it out of here.”
“I’ll do it,” said Melody. “I’m used to doing this for my kids.”
“Thanks,” said Steve. “Heather, we need you to tell us what you saw at the crime scene this morning.”
Normally Steve wouldn’t have her give a report in front of a suspect. This was his way of telling her he’d eliminated Melody from that list.
Jack took a notebook and pen from the pocket of his jacket.
Heather gave a step-by-step account starting with the mistrust of the first officer she met, whose name tag read Oliver, to the time she left the building.
“Wow,” said Melody. “That’s detailed.”
By the time Heather finished, Steve had polished off his pastry and done so without a single red drip on his shirt. He lowered his paper cup of coffee. “Give me more detail on the files scattered on the floor of the office in the back of the building.”
“Two standard manila files with white tabs. I couldn’t get close enough to read anything.”
Melody spoke without being prompted. “If they came out of the second drawer, that’s the file cabinet holding all the financial records.”
Steve gave Heather a break from speaking. “Who has access to those files?”
“All eight of the sales staff put in data on the computer, but only two have access to the complete financial records of the retail store. I’m trying to go green and do away with as much paper as possible. Still, there are tax returns and other documents we have to keep hard copies of. As far as who has access, there’s Bryson, the sales manager and Cindy Green, the senior salesperson on the evening shift. Of course, there’s me.”
Steve took in a deep breath. “What about Chris? Did he keep a key to the buildings or the file cabinets?”
“I hired a top-notch attorney when I decided to divorce him. She guided me into protecting all the assets of the company, as well as my personal ones. Until the divorce became final, a neutral third-party CPA controlled the finances. Neither of us had access to company records until everything was final. As for the keys, he said he lost them. Eventually, I got them back, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have made another set.”
“You don’t believe either Bryson or Cindy Green would have given Chris keys to the showroom or file cabinet after the divorce?”
The answer came back swift and sure. “No way. You’ve met Bryson, so you have a good idea of his attitude toward violence. As for Cindy, she was one of the employees Chris tried to get touchy-feely with.”
Steve brought his paper cup with the plastic lid back to his lips, Heather’s cue to ask the next question. “You said you have eight employees working on the retail side. Do any of them stand out in any way?”
“How do you mean?”
“Any disciplinary problems? Do any of them hound you for a pay raise? Malcontents?”
“Nothing like that. They’re all on salary plus commission, and I make sure they can earn significant bonuses for achieving sales goals. Of course, some are more successful than others, but they know they’re bringing home more than they can earn at other stores.” She used her forefinger to outline the lid of her cup. “Believe it or not, Bryson is an excellent interviewer for new employees. He weeds out those who don’t have what it takes to be productive.”
Jack picked up his cup as he stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I have another appointment in a few minutes. I’ll leave you in excellent hands, Melody. Call if you have questions.”
Jack ran his hand over Heather’s shoulders as he left.
Steve stood and unfurled his cane. “Jack forgot he didn’t bring his car.”
Heather looked up as Jack reentered the coffee shop, shaking his head as he walked to their table.
“Forget something?” asked Steve.
“I couldn’t stand to be away from Heather for another second.”
Melody let out a groan. “Don’t believe him.”
“That reminds me,” said Heather. “I need to fill out a report for Hall about this interview.”
“Take me away from this high-priced place,” said Steve. “We need to pump Detective Hall for more information while we still can.”