CHAPTER TWELVE
“You didn’t hear it from me,” Mrs. Galopodis said softly, “but there were rumblings about an alleged affair between Mayor Sloan and a young woman a few years ago.”
I looked behind me to make sure Mama was not within ear’s reach of the ladies’ table, then I leaned in closer. “Rumblings?” I asked quietly.
“Oh, yes. It was quite the gossip. Everyone knew about it. Even poor Eleni. I felt so sorry for her.” Mrs. Galopodis tsked. “Politicians! They’re all the same.”
“They’re good liars,” one of the women said.
“Dogs,” another added. “Every one of them.”
“The mayor must have used his influence to make sure the story fizzled out,” Mrs. Galopodis continued, “and God knows what he told Eleni. She seems to have let it go, but we never forgot.”
“I didn’t vote for him,” the woman sitting across from her commented.
“Neither did I,” said another.
“Yet he keeps getting reelected,” Mrs. Galopodis said. “Athena, I know someone who can tell you more. She used to work as a secretary at Mr. Sloan’s law practice, but now she has a higher role inside his campaign headquarters. If you want to talk to her, I’ll give her a heads-up that you might be stopping by.”
“Thank you,” I said. “That would be very helpful.”
“Wonderful. Her name is Rosemary Dalsaurus. She’s a very good friend of mine.”
The woman across from her grumbled, “She was my friend first.”
“I’ve known her since grade school,” another said.
“Ladies, please.” Mrs. Galopodis redirected their attention. “Rosemary is a brilliant woman. Did you know that Mayor Sloan’s campaign wasn’t gaining traction until they started using that slogan . . . Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“ ‘Keep Sequoia Small’?”
“That’s the one,” she replied. “My friend Rosemary was the one who came up with that slogan, but did she get the credit for it? Of course not. Just another reason to despise that man. I hope you get to the bottom of his deception.”
I was saved from explaining to Maia and Selene what Mrs. Galopodis wanted by my mother’s arrival with my food. My sisters were on to a new topic anyway, so I was able to eat in peace.
Nicholas and I arrived at the garden center at nine o’clock, where my dad was waiting with a project for Nicholas. I left the two conferring and headed back to the office to catch up on some accounting work that I was reluctant to let Delphi handle.
My sister came in for coffee a little while later, plunked down in a chair opposite the desk, and flipped through a magazine while her drink cooled. She was dressed that day in a magenta romper with a bright-pink, sheer scarf draped around her shoulders. Her dark, curly hair was pulled back in a scrunchie. She hummed cheerfully, blissfully unaware of my irritation.
I stared at her for a moment before clearing my throat, which finally caught her attention.
She looked up at me cluelessly. “Do you need something?”
“Yes, Delphi. You never told me about your reading with Abby and her mom.”
She set the magazine in her lap and blew on her coffee.
“Well?” I asked. “What happened?”
Instead of responding like a normal human being, Delphi gave me a sly smile and sipped her drink.
“What?” I asked again.
“I may have seen something.”
“Then why won’t you tell me?”
“Because you don’t believe in my abilities. What was it you said last week? I have a twenty-five percent success rate?”
“Delphi, will you please just tell me what you saw?”
“Yes. If you tell me that you believe in me.”
I breathed in deeply and blew out a long sigh.
“No,” she said. “No sighs. No eye-rolls.”
“Okay, Delphi. Last week your visions helped me catch a killer and may have saved my life, and even though it may have been a coincidence, I’m inclined to believe you now.”
“Thank you.” Delphi touched her fingertips to her heart. “That really means a lot to me, and I’m glad my visions saved your life.”
“May have saved my life,” I corrected.
She moved the chair closer to my desk and leaned over. “I saw Abby being followed by someone,” she told me. “There was a dark-blue aura attached to her while I did the reading, and in her coffee grounds I saw the letters M and S.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I have no idea.”
“What did Abby say about it?”
Delphi leaned back. “I didn’t tell Abby about it. That’s what you told me to do. You specifically told me not to mention anything to Abby.”
I huffed emphatically. “Then how are we supposed to know what those letters mean?”
“Why are you getting upset with me? I just followed your instructions. Jeesh.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “M and S. Could that be Mayor Sloan?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“He was wearing a dark-blue suit yesterday at the fair. Could that be the dark-blue aura? Is Abby being followed by Mayor Sloan?”
“I don’t know, Thenie. I’ve never met him, but if that’s what you think it could mean, then trust your inner guide.”
“Delphi,” my dad said, sticking his head through the doorway, “I could use you up front.”
“Be right there, Pops.” Delphi pointed her finger at me. “Remember what I said. Trust your inner guide.”
“Delphi, what does that even mean?”
She gave me a frown before slipping out the door.
There was a strange knot in my stomach as my sister left me alone in the office. Normally, I could chalk her visions and coffee-grounds readings up to coincidence, but Delphi’s latest vision seemed too coincidental, and that worried me.
Case called right then, the sound of his voice calming my nerves. “Just checking in,” he said. “Have you recovered from the fair?”
“I’m a little embarrassed, but feeling better.”
“Will you be joining Abby and me at the office today?” he asked.
“I’ll be able to leave Spencer’s at noon.”
“Perfect,” Case said. “We can get some lunch together.”
“Listen to this,” I said. “I got a tip from someone at the diner. She said a friend of hers used to be the mayor’s secretary and now works at his campaign headquarters. This woman might be able to tell us whether the mayor was having an affair with Carly. What do you think?”
“It’s worth checking out. We need to set up a time to talk to the mayor anyway. Do you want to grab something to eat at the food trucks and then head over there?”
“Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll contact Lila and let her know we’re coming, then I’ll meet you at the office at noon.”
* * *
Shortly before noon, I told my dad I was leaving and headed down Greene Street to the detective agency. Upstairs, I found Abby working on my computer in my office.
“Hi!” she said brightly. “I was just doing a little internet sleuthing on Donald Blackburn.”
“Learn anything interesting?”
“He’s spent a boatload of money advertising his riverboat casino,” Abby said. “He’s all over social media, too, bragging about his son, Danny. There was no mention of Carly’s death.”
Case came into the doorway and leaned against the frame. “I’ve worked up a list of questions for him. That is, if we can catch him at the casino. Are we still on for eight o’clock?”
“I forgot to tell you, I have to close at the garden center. How about eight thirty?”
“Let’s do it,” Abby said.
Before Case and I left, I filled Abby in on Mrs. Galapodis’s information and told her where we were headed. “We’re having lunch first in the plaza across the street. Do you want to come along?”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to do a video call with my staff,” she said. “I’ll grab something to eat later. You can fill me in this evening.”
We left the office and headed across the street to the plaza, where several food trucks were parked. The sun was blazing in the sky, and I could see the heat waves rising from the food trucks. We decided to forego our regular slices of hot pizza for a couple of cold cut sandwiches and ice water from the deli just below our office.
We sat side by side on a park bench and ate our sandwiches, enjoying a lovely summer breeze under an awning of giant maple and oak trees around us. But even though it was peaceful without the summer tourists swarming the sidewalks, and Case’s presence was comforting, I could still feel the knot in my stomach from Delphi’s prediction. I contemplated telling Case about it, but I knew how he felt about my sister’s abilities, so I left it alone.
“Did you talk to Lila?” Case asked.
“I did. She won’t be at campaign headquarters, though, because she’s working at the mayor’s tent at the fair this afternoon. But she said Rosemary Dalsaurus would be expecting us.”
We finished our sandwiches, drank our water, then headed north up Greene Street for three blocks until we came to the Thomas, Harper, and Sloan Law Offices building. We entered a short hallway with a door into the law office. There was another door to the back of the building, where the mayor’s campaign headquarters were.
Opening the second door, we stepped into a room filled with people of all ages seated at long tables, some of them on the phone, some folding flyers, some stuffing envelopes. In the corner a television displayed the local news at a low volume. At the back of the room were several offices, the middle office being the largest and presumably Mayor Sloan’s.
A woman who seemed to be overseeing the activity walked toward us. “Can I help you?”
“We’re looking for Rosemary Dalsaurus,” I said.
“I’m Rosemary.” She appeared to be in her fifties, a plump woman with short wavy brown hair and a dimpled smile. She was wearing a pair of black pants with a white blouse that had a Mayor Sloan campaign button on it.
“I’m Athena Spencer,” I said. “This is Case Donnelly. We’re investigating Carly Blackburn’s death. Mrs. Galopodis said you might be able to help us.”
At the mention of Mrs. Galopodis, Rosemary glanced around, saw several workers watching curiously, and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t talk to you.”
“Why not?” I asked in surprise.
She answered in a firm tone, loud enough for others to hear, “The mayor made it very clear that we were not to talk to you.”
I glanced at Case in surprise. “That’s not what he told us,” I said to her.
She looked over her shoulder at the workers, then stepped in closer. She pointed to the door and said under her breath, “Meet me on the plaza in fifteen minutes.”
We thanked her quietly and headed straight back to the plaza, where we took a seat on a park bench and waited. Five minutes later I spotted Rosemary on the opposite side of Greene. She crossed the street and walked up to a food vender, so we headed toward her.
She paid for an iced tea and moved away from the truck. “I can’t stay long,” she said and took a drink from the straw.
“That’s okay,” Case said. “We’ll keep our questions brief.”
“I hope you understand the reason for my actions at the office,” Rosemary explained. “Before Charles left this morning, he made it very clear that we were not allowed to talk to any visitors.”
“Do you know why?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I didn’t know why at first, but when Stella Galopodis called, I figured it out. He doesn’t want us talking to you.”
“Then why did you agree to meet us?” I questioned further.
“Because I trust Stella, and I want to know what really happened to Carly Blackburn. But please, make it quick. I don’t want anyone to suspect I came out here to meet with you.”
“I understand.” I took out my iPad and opened a new file. “We’ve heard that the mayor and Carly Blackburn were having an affair. Can you corroborate that?”
Rosemary glanced around, then said quietly, “I’ve never seen anything, And I want to be perfectly clear that I have never witnessed Charles and Carly being intimate, but I was working late one night, and I overheard Carly say she was going to expose him.”
“Expose him of what?” Case asked. “An affair?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she give a reason why she would do that?” I asked.
“No. I didn’t stay long enough to hear the rest.”
“Do you think Eleni suspected that anything was going on?” I asked.
“I have no idea.”
“Do you know why Carly was hired as the campaign manager?” Case asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but Carly did seem to know a lot of people. And she was a good manager. But I don’t think she was completely honest with Charles about what she was up to.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“A few weeks before Carly’s death,” Rosemary replied, “she started receiving strange envelopes in the mail. Some were addressed to Carly with a return address from a Unified Construction Company. And some were sent to a CB Development Company, LLC, attention Carly.”
Rosemary glanced around again, as though afraid someone was spying on her. “I’m embarrassed to say this, but I looked up the companies on the internet. I couldn’t find anything on CB Development, but Unified Construction was the same company used by Samson Malls.”
“Why is that important?” Case asked.
“Because Samson Malls is one of the companies that Mayor Sloan is campaigning against. He stopped their mega-mall from opening across the interstate. And right around that time is when the threats started against the mayor. That’s when he hired security.”
I typed it in and added a question: Why was Carly receiving mail from a company the mayor had banned? Case waited until I had finished, then asked,
Case waited until I had finished, then asked, “What made you think to investigate these companies?”
Rosemary shrugged. “I’m a curious person. Carly had never received anything at the office, not even a greeting card, so it made me wonder what she was up to.”
“Did you find any connections to Carly in your research?” Case asked.
“No. Nothing.” Rosemary’s cell phone rang, and she pulled it out of her purse to answer it, turning away from us. She talked quietly into the phone, then slid it back into her purse. “I have to go. The mayor is back.”
“Can I just ask one more thing before you go?” I asked.
Rosemary slid her purse over her shoulder and stood. “Go ahead.”
“What do you think Carly was up to?”
“I’m not sure.” She breathed in deeply, squinting up at the bright blue sky, then blew out and said, “But I have to say this. You can tell when a woman likes a man. You know what I’m saying? Like you and your partner. There’s natural chemistry there.”
I felt my cheeks turn pink. I wanted to ask her how she’d drawn that conclusion, but Case moved the conversation along. “What does that have to do with Carly?” he asked.
“It was obvious to me that she really didn’t care for Charles,” Rosemary answered. “She didn’t show any signs that she was attracted to him, and yet the rumor about them persisted. And I’ll leave you with that.”
“Thank you for talking to us,” I told her. “You’ve been a big help.”
“Just keep my name out of your investigation,” she whispered. “I like my job.”
As she scurried away, I noticed Case watching her with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m just wondering why the mayor would tell us he was giving us full access and then tell his employees they were not to talk to us.”
“He’s a politician,” I said. “He tells people what they want to hear.”
“I get that, but what is he afraid of?”
“Questions about his relationship with Carly?” I asked.
“All he has to do is deny any allegations,” Case said. “Sloan’s a lawyer. He should be able to handle our questions.”
“Maybe he’s nervous about the fact that he was backstage before the show.”
“Then he could say he was there to see his wife.” Case shook his head. “There’s something suspicious about his behavior. If he has nothing to hide, why wouldn’t he want to talk to us?”
“Somehow, we’re going to have to get him to cooperate. Why don’t we head back to the campaign headquarters right now and confront him?”
“Let’s give Rosemary a chance to get back first.”
We took our time returning to the law office, and once again we went through the second door into the big back room. But when we scanned the room, we saw neither the mayor nor his security guard.
I saw Rosemary and walked over to her. “Is the mayor in the building?”
“I’m afraid he just left,” she said. “He had to go to a meeting.”
“Is Lila here?” I asked.
“She went with Charles.”
Case handed her a business card. “Would you give this to the mayor and tell him we’ll be in contact?”
As we left the building and headed back down Greene Street, I said, “I have a strong hunch that Mayor Sloan is not going to take our call.”
“I agree. What if I phone the mayor’s office and set up an appointment with his secretary under a different name?”
“We tried that in our last case,” I said. “It didn’t go over well.”
Case put his arm around me as we walked down the street. “How would Abby Knight handle it?”
I thought for a minute. “She’d catch him off guard.”
“Exactly. What if we were to approach him as he left his office, say, at his car?”
“We’d have to do a stakeout,” I said. “And that takes time.”
“True.”
“Maybe we could catch him at the fair, surrounded by people. He wouldn’t be able to avoid us there.”
Case removed his arm from my shoulder as we approached our building and opened the door to the stairwell. We stepped into our office and were met by a distraught Abby.
“Jillian is being charged with murder. The police just brought her back to town.”