I dragged myself back to the B&B, alternating between feeling ill and feeling helpless. In the kitchen, Delilah and Papa Sal were hard at work on the breakfast dishes. I threw myself onto one of the chairs and thunked my head down on the table.
Finally, Papa Sal said, “Well, are you going to tell us what’s going on with you or not? You ran out of here like a woman possessed.”
Leaving my head on the table, I groaned. “I’m sorry, Papa Sal. I’m sorry, D. This thing with Jason Green has gotten bigger than I realized. Drew is on his way to jail for Jason’s murder. The police have evidence on him. I don’t…I can’t…” What if they came and got me next? Tears started running from my eyes.
Delilah came over and rubbed my back. “Don’t cry, sissy. For all we know, this could all be a big misunderstanding.” Something in her voice made it sound like she didn’t quite believe what she was saying. She sighed. “It’s not worth you worrying about it. He either did it or he didn’t, and the evidence will prove it.”
I sat up straight. “He didn’t do it, Delilah. You know Drew. How can you even think he’d be capable of murder?”
She shrugged. “Well…”
My jaw dropped. “You think he did it!”
“I didn’t say that. But he has been arrested, you know.”
“You’ve never liked Drew. What is your problem?”
“Quit being his friend and open your eyes. Look at the facts, Quinn.”
“What facts? He didn’t kill Jason!”
Papa Sal said, “Girls, it’s been a rough couple of days for all of us. Let’s not take it out on one another, eh?”
Delilah frowned. “Sis, I’m sorry. I just…It’s in the police’s hands now. There’s nothing you can do. Use your energy to make peace with the situation.”
“You’re wrong. There is something I can do. Drew asked me to get him a lawyer.”
“How about that shyster cousin of your mother’s? Deacon…what’s-his-name.”
I brightened. In my agitated state, I’d forgotten a distant relative of ours, Deacon Palmer, was an attorney. Although I didn’t trust him farther than I could throw him, if I needed a sleazebag to get me out of trouble with the law, he’d be the one I’d choose.
Almost forgetting, I added to myself, “Oh, and I need to call Valerie at her shop…”
Delilah said, “Whoa. Valerie—Jason’s wife—is working today? Her husband isn’t even cold yet! She should be catatonic with grief right now, not working.”
I stared at her. “Ooh, you’re right.”
That seemed like suspicious behavior to me. And whether Drew wanted Valerie on our list or not, I was making an executive decision to put her at the top. He’d said her “solid” alibi was that she was “out with some friends.” I didn’t know if I bought that. If I were in her shoes and planning to kill my jerk of a husband, I could come up with plenty of friends who would swear up and down that I was out with them during the time of death.
I grabbed the phone book and headed up the stairs to my room. First, I called and retained the services of Deacon Palmer, Esquire, who unfortunately had an appointment in court this morning and couldn’t make it to the police station to meet with Drew until this afternoon. He was cheap for a lawyer, so I took what I could get. Then I called Valerie’s spice shop, my stomach churning over having to tell her that her brother-in-law had been arrested for the murder of her husband.
She answered, her voice sounding annoyed like usual. “City Market Spice Shop.”
“Um…Valerie?”
“Yes.”
“It’s…Quinn Bellandini.”
There was only silence on the other end.
Mustering my courage, I went on. “I’m sorry to bother you this morning, and I’m so sorry about Jason—”
She cut me off. “Yeah, yeah. Why are you calling?” Not a lot of grieving going on at the City Market Spice Shop this morning, evidently. Delilah was right, and so was I—Valerie’s behavior was unusual and suspicious.
“Drew asked me to call you. He’s, uh…he’s been arrested, and he’d like you to get in touch with his aunt and uncle.”
“What?” she exploded. “When?”
“Only a few minutes ago. The police—”
My phone beeped, and when I looked at the screen, it said call ended. She’d hung up on me, and without so much as a “thank you” or even a “kiss my grits.”
After changing clothes, I got on my aquamarine Vespa and headed toward the police station. I couldn’t just leave Drew hanging until Deacon finally showed up later this afternoon, not knowing whether or not he had representation. Plus, I really needed to find out why he’d gotten arrested—to know whether or not I should be worrying about whether I was going to be picked up as well. When I got there, I marched up to the front desk and asked to see Detective King, hoping our relationship would at least give me the chance to wrangle a meeting with an inmate. In this town, it never hurt to play the good ol’ boy card, even if you were a girl.
Rufus came out to the lobby, and when he saw me, his expression registered surprise. “Quinn. How are you this morning? I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon.”
I smiled. “I’m hanging in there. But I’m concerned about Drew Green’s arrest. Rufus, I know Drew. He could never have done such a thing.”
Rufus’s shoulders slumped. “I knew his arrest would upset you, and I’m truly sorry about that. But I have to follow the evidence where it leads—even if it leads somewhere that isn’t pleasant.”
I knew Rufus wouldn’t have arrested Drew on a whim, although I wouldn’t have put it past his surly partner, Detective Flynn. What really bothered me was that there was evidence pointing to Drew being the killer. There had to be some explanation for it.
“I understand that. Would it be possible for me to speak with Drew? I’ve got a lawyer for him, and I wanted to let him know that…and to see how he’s doing.”
He grimaced. “I feel as though I should caution you against that, Quinn. You’re mixed up in this pretty deep, and you could cast some doubt on your own innocence by having your name on Drew’s visitor log.”
My jaw dropped open. “Are you saying you won’t let me in to see my friend?”
With exaggerated patience, Rufus replied, “No, I’m telling you that a visit isn’t in your best interest. It could be seen as conspiring with the suspect, and you’re on thin enough ice around here as it is.”
I frowned. I needed to talk to Drew. If things had progressed this far, our investigation was critical now, and we barely had come up with a plan of action. “Thank you for your opinion, Rufus, but right now Drew needs a friend a lot more than I need a squeaky clean reputation.”
“I figured you’d say that.” He turned back toward the door. “He’s popular this morning. If you don’t mind waiting, I’ll let you see him. There’s already someone meeting with him at the moment.”
“Who?”
His hand on the doorknob, he shrugged. “I suppose it’ll be no secret when you pass each other in the hallway. Valerie Green.”
“Oh,” I breathed. She must have run over the second we got off the phone if she’d beat me here. I wondered if she’d come to rail against Drew or to support him. “Thank you, Rufus, for letting me see him.”
Rufus smiled at me. “I’m sure he could use a friend right now. But I do want you to be careful around him, and I don’t want you to make your visits here a habit.” With a wave, he disappeared back through the door.
I’d been sitting in the lobby for fifteen minutes when the door Rufus had gone through burst open. A visibly upset Valerie Green stomped into the lobby, took one look at me, snarled, and slammed the front door open, hurrying outside and down the sidewalk. Judging by her demeanor, I was guessing she hadn’t come here to support her brother-in-law. A few moments later, the receptionist informed me that I could go back and speak with Drew.
Blowing out a nervous breath, I entered the inner sanctum of the police station. I’d had way more new and frightening experiences than I would have liked in the past few days. I’d never even seen the inside of a police station before, much less come to visit an actual prisoner. I admonished myself for even thinking of Drew that way. He was still the same Drew he’d always been. He was simply in a bad situation at the moment.
A uniformed officer escorted me to a small room and opened the door for me. Drew sat inside, shackled to a metal table with handcuffs. A lump formed in my throat at the sight of him. His entire face was different—drawn and frightened. But when he saw me, he broke into a smile.
The officer muttered, “You have ten minutes,” and shut the door behind him.
I sat down quickly. “Drew, I’m so sorry you’re in here. I was so worried—”
Drew shook his head. “I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m okay for now. Were you able to find me a lawyer?”
“I did. Deacon Palmer, a distant relative of mine. I came down here to tell you that he’s in court this morning, so he won’t be able to come here to meet with you until this afternoon.”
Anxiety showed in Drew’s face. “He’s cheap, right? I hate to waste money on this, considering I’m innocent.”
I nodded. “You get the family discount. He’ll be cheap, but fierce. Quite a snake, actually.”
“I may need one to get out of this,” he muttered under his breath. Quickly pasting back on a smile, he said, “Quinn, thanks for standing up for me to the police and getting me a lawyer. Your friendship means more than you know.”
“You’re welcome.” I tried to keep my voice from shaking as I asked, “What are you up against, exactly? What evidence do they have?”
Drew blew out a disgusted breath and slumped in his chair. “It’s circumstantial, but still pretty bad. I wish we hadn’t got in that stupid argument. I think that’s the thing that’s going to haunt me the most.”
I sighed. “All brothers fight, right? How can that be enough evidence to arrest you for his murder?”
“When my chef’s knife was found in his back. I’m sure you saw it.”
I breathed, “That was your knife?”
His face darkened. “Don’t look at me like that, Quinn.”
“I’m not. I just…It didn’t occur to me that the knife belonged to anyone specifically. I guess I assumed it belonged to the restaurant.” This information hadn’t made me change my opinion of Drew; it had only thrown me for a loop. I guessed the look on my face didn’t convey that.
“We all use our own personal knives. It’s a chef thing. Anyway, the last time I saw that knife was when I was prepping the next day’s vegetables after closing. Jason stormed into the kitchen and started running his mouth again, so I set the knife down on the counter and went outside to get some air. That’s when he came after me and started beating the living daylights out of me. Once I managed to stun him, I took off. Going back in and cleaning up was the furthest thing from my mind.”
I mulled this over for a moment. “Okay, so the police might have excused a public fight with your brother followed by a pretty major fistfight. But now that they’ve determined that your chef’s knife ended up in his back, how in the world are you going to convince them you’re innocent?” And how was I going to prove I had no part in it?
He sighed. “I can’t do much from here.”
My heart sank as the realization hit me. “So it’s up to me now.”
Hanging his head, Drew said, “I’m sorry, Quinn. I know I promised you I’d do the dangerous stuff and be there for you, but I can’t now. I hate the thought of you going it alone, but—”
I mustered some courage and cut him off. “But nothing. Now that you’ve been arrested, this investigation is more important than ever.” Frowning, I added, “And according to what Rufus just said to me, I don’t think I’m out of the woods yet, either.”
“What did he say?”
“That coming here to conspire with the suspect could ‘cast some doubt’ on my innocence.”
Drew’s eyes grew wide. “Then what are you doing here? Leave!”
“I’m not going to abandon you, Drew. You need someone on your side. Besides, they have no evidence against me.”
“They have no real evidence against me, either, because I didn’t kill my brother. Yet I’m still stuck in here. Quinn, promise me you won’t do anything stupid and land yourself in here, too. You know how the cops reacted when you tried to stop them from arresting me this morning. Like it or not, you’re on their radar. I think Detective King is right. You shouldn’t be here.”
I gave him a reproachful frown. “Well, I’m already here, so let’s use the time we have to come up with a plan to get you out of jail. Okay?”
He seemed so defeated, it was hard to look at his sad face. “I guess.”
“Back to the evidence. Are your fingerprints on the knife?”
“Yes, from when I was using it.”
“And no one else’s are on there?”
“They didn’t tell me if there were.”
“You’re positive that’s all they have on you?”
“Compounded with everything else, it’s enough.” He beckoned for me to lean closer to him and whispered, “There’s more, but they haven’t found this out yet. I’m going to tell you, but I don’t want them hearing us talking about it.”
My stomach churned. I didn’t know if I wanted to hear more.
He continued quietly, “You know how I told you that Green hasn’t been profitable lately?”
I nodded.
“Well, I didn’t exactly tell you the whole story. Since Jason wouldn’t hear of selling the place as a whole, Valerie and I asked him if he would consider buying us out.”
“Oh…” If both of them wanted out, especially Jason’s own wife, I guessed business was even worse than I’d imagined.
“We didn’t expect Jason to have the money to pull it off. What we were trying to do was show him we were serious about getting out from under a dying restaurant before it was too late. But Jason being Jason, he took it as a challenge.”
I held up one finger for him to stop for a moment. I whispered, “Um…you said ‘we didn’t expect’ Jason to have enough money for the buyout. Is Valerie not privy to Jason’s personal finances?”
“Not since they’ve separated.”
My eyes widened, and I said in a normal voice, “I did not know about that.”
No wonder Valerie hadn’t been overly upset about Jason’s passing. If those two hotheads were divorcing, I had no doubt the process was ugly. Any love she’d had for him had to have been long extinguished. Maybe she as the spouse wasn’t such a likely suspect after all if they were splitting up anyway. Then again, why bother divorcing someone when you could just kill him? I thought it best not to voice that idea out loud, though, especially since Drew didn’t take kindly to me bringing Valerie’s name up before.
Drew hissed, “Shh. It’s been a few months since she moved out. She’s living above her spice shop.”
I nodded again, thinking I was right to add her name to our list.
Drew sighed. “Anyway, I don’t know what in the world he was trying to do to raise the money, but I’m pretty sure he was gambling to try to cover part of it. Jason has had problems with gambling addiction over the years. He’ll be fine for a while, then he’ll slip back into it. Problem is, he’s a terrible gambler. He never won, and when he didn’t, he’d come to me for the money. In the midst of our arguing over the restaurant, early last week he had the gall to ask me to loan him five hundred dollars. I told him no, and of course he didn’t like that answer.” He shook his head. “But then he came home with a black eye from his bookie, so I did the brotherly thing and floated him a loan. If his bookie gave him a black eye over five hundred dollars, what might he have done for a larger amount?”
Giving Drew a blank look, I replied quietly, “I don’t know. Break his kneecaps?”
“Or kill him.”
I gasped, then clapped my hand over my mouth.
Drew went on quietly, “Exactly. Problem is, I have no way of knowing whether Jason owed the guy more money or not.”
“I think it’s something worth finding out, though. What’s the bookie’s name?”
“No clue. I never met the guy.”
“Can you think of anyone who might know the bookie?”
“No, unless…CJ McLeod might know. I think he’s got a gambling problem, too. It would be worth it to give him a call.”
Although it seemed like an unpleasant prospect, I needed to meet with both CJ McLeod and the bookie. From Drew’s description, CJ didn’t seem too bright, so it might be easy to get him to spill his guts before he realized what he was doing. Even with my limited skills, I felt confident about getting what I needed out of CJ McLeod. The bookie who dished out a black eye for five hundred dollars, though, would provide more of a challenge.
I nodded. “Looks like I have some work to do.”
The uniformed officer who’d shown me into the room stuck his head back in the door. “Time’s up, you two.”
Drew said, “Thanks for coming, Quinn. But please make this your last visit.”
I smiled. “I make no promises, except that I will get you out of here.”