Witch Hunt

I didn’t bother to call or text Todd, figuring I’d just show up and hope he was there. And luck was finally with me when I arrived outside Luck o’ the Irish a few minutes later. His delivery guy had just shown up. I followed him in through the open side door.

Todd looked surprised when he saw me coming. He gave me an uncertain smile. I’m sure after my lukewarm response yesterday, he didn’t know what to expect. “Hey, Vi. I didn’t know you were coming by.”

“Yeah, I didn’t either. Can we talk?”

He glanced at the delivery guy unloading the beer, and said, “Just leave the slip on the bar.”

The guy nodded, and Todd led me out back to his office. “Want anything?” he asked.

I shook my head. He perched on the edge of his desk, motioning me toward the chair. I stayed standing.

“What’s going on?” he asked finally. Todd hated silence. He always tried to fill it.

But I wanted him to sweat a bit. I took my time answering. “When were you going to tell me Carla Fernandez was going to invest in your next bar?” I asked.

He hadn’t seen that coming. He opened his mouth, closed it again, then said, “Vi. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to make sure it was really happening. And then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t.”

“It still seems like a big thing to leave out of conversations with your girlfriend, no?” I continued.

Todd shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sorry.”

“You’ve been sorry a lot lately,” I said. “Why wouldn’t you tell me, Todd?”

He shoved off the desk and walked around the room in a little circle. “I don’t know, Vi. Because I knew she wasn’t your favorite person. And like I said, I didn’t believe it was going to happen. By the time I did believe it, the rug got pulled out a couple days later.” He shrugged. “Then I was back to square one anyway.”

“Why did she pull out?”

“I don’t know. She just said she didn’t have as much liquid cash as she thought.”

I thought of Andrew and Rain and botched financials. “And she told you last weekend?”

“And?” I asked. I hadn’t seen him much over the weekend, come to think of it. He’d worked both nights. We’d spent some time together Sunday, lunch and a movie, and he’d been distracted. But I was used to it lately, so I hadn’t thought twice about it.

“And I was upset. I’ve been waiting for this, Vi. You know that. But on Monday I got a call from a guy.”

“Yeah. He said he was interested in backing me and did I want to meet. I asked him where he’d heard about me and he said, around town.”

“And it was for real?” I asked skeptically.

“Yeah, it was for real. It’s a guy named Chad Woodley. Turns out he and Carla had this rival investment thing going on. He’d gotten wind of our deal—and then our no-deal—and took advantage of it.”

I studied him. He looked earnest, like he really wanted me to believe him. “You know this looks bad, right?” I said.

“What do you mean?”

I ticked off points on my fingers. “Carla was backing you. You’ve been wanting this for years and were finally going to get it. Then she bailed on you this weekend. On Monday evening—when you lied about the bar being busy and you being here—she winds up dead.”

Todd looked like I’d just punched him in the stomach with a particularly violent fist. “Violet. Seriously, you can’t—why would you even say that?”

“I’m telling you how it looks,” I said, spreading my arms. “Especially from my perspective. You were absent Monday and you lied about it.”

“I told you. I was at that meeting with the investor and I couldn’t tell anyone. Not even you. He said if I did, there would be no deal.” He came over and tried to put his arms around me, but I stepped away.

“So you left and no one knew where you went. And if the police asked you about this investor, you wouldn’t tell them either? Because once the cops start digging into the financials, I’m sure they’ll be all over this idea that she stiffed you. And you weren’t accounted for when she died.”

“Vi. Not gonna happen. I promise.”

“It happened to me!”

“Believe me, they’ll be more interested in Andrew,” Todd said.

“If he hadn’t been here when she got killed, with witnesses, maybe.”

Todd shook his head slowly. “They’ll just assume he had someone do it. Once they find out about recent circumstances.”

I frowned. “What, you mean that she wanted him out of the business?”

“That, and that she’d broken up with him.”

“Broken up . . .” I stared at Todd as it slowly dawned on me. “No. No way.”

Todd nodded. “Yeah. They were having an affair.”

Now I sank down onto the chair. “You’re kidding.”

“Wish I was. This was their rendezvous most days.”

I remember Ginny saying Andrew and Carla had a lot of business meetings here. “You’re kidding.”

“I just told you I’m not. He was here Monday all mopey. She wasn’t only breaking up with him, she wanted him out of the business. If he didn’t go quietly, she was going to tell Natalie. And that fool? He was only concerned with her breaking up with him.” Todd laughed, a sharp, quick sound. “He actually told me he loved her.”