VALERIE’S PITCH GREW SHARPER AS she continued to speak. “Righteous Kristopher had to turn a city council election into a slanderous campaign. Part of me wants to call a press conference and tell everyone that he was basically blackmailing me. Either I dropped out of the election, or he would release the topless video of me. Can you believe it?”
I shook my head. “It’s too bad that it turned ugly.”
“It didn’t turn ugly. He made it ugly.”
Her polished exterior was showing signs of cracking. “Can I get you a drink? A beer maybe? Hops are a known relaxant,” I offered.
“No. I’m fine. Sorry, was I just yelling? I guess I’m worked up about the situation and on edge because I’m waiting to get a phone call any minute informing me that my picture is plastered on the news from here to Florida. This will make national headlines if it gets out. I guarantee it will go viral.”
“Are you sure? I don’t think you need to worry about that. Leavenworth’s city council seat isn’t exactly headline news.”
“Have you seen the crews around? I’ve been avoiding the Seattle reporters like the plague. You know the old saying ‘All politics is local’?”
I nodded.
“This is a prime example of local political drama. One of the candidates is murdered, and his opponent has a viral video. I can see the headlines now. It’s complete and utter disaster. I’m sure the minute the video is leaked, I’ll become the prime suspect. I wouldn’t be surprised to see national news outlets begin to descend on the village.”
“Since you mentioned it, I have a question about Kristopher’s death.”
“What?”
“I heard from someone in town that they saw you arguing with him after the incident at Der Keller the other night and that you went so far as to threaten to kill him.”
Valerie’s jaw hung open. “Who told you that?” Then under her breath she muttered, “I was so careful.”
“Careful about what?” I wasn’t about to pretend like I hadn’t heard that comment.
She pounded her forehead with the palm of her hand. “It’s not what you think. I can tell from your reaction that now you’re wondering if I did kill him.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” She looked to the ceiling. “It’s true. Kristopher and I got in a fight the night he was killed, and I did say something like, ‘If you share that video publicly, it will be the last thing you do.’ But I didn’t mean the last thing as in murdering him. I meant it in terms of his political career. I was trying to warn him that releasing the video would have unwanted effects on him, too. Digging up old dirt on me certainly wasn’t going to strengthen his righteous image. I was pissed at him, but I didn’t kill him. I have an alibi. I was with my campaign team all night. We had an emergency meeting back at my house to map out a damage-control strategy in case the video did get leaked.”
“So your campaign team knows about the video?”
Valerie gave me an incredulous stare. “Yes, they know about the video. They know about everything. You can never be too prepared when it comes to running a political campaign. We’ve left nothing to chance. We’ve dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t.’ I refused to play dirty, like Kristopher, but that didn’t mean that we were going to lie down and die—we were intending to fight.”
It was hard to get a read on Valerie. She seemed to be contradicting herself. “Your campaign team was at your house the night that Kristopher was killed?”
“Yes. We pulled an all-nighter. Three of my team ended up sleeping on the floor and couch. We never left.”
She was either telling the truth or trying to establish an alibi. Her answer sounded slightly rehearsed.
“Have you spoken with Chief Meyers?”
“Only about twenty times. The chief has interviewed every member of my campaign team. Each of them has confirmed that they were with me the entire night. It would have been impossible for me to kill Kristopher.”
The fact that her loyal campaign volunteers were vouching for her wasn’t exactly a solid alibi in my opinion. They could be lying for her, or she could have snuck out when they fell asleep, killed Kristopher, and returned home unnoticed. That happened in the movies. Why couldn’t it happen in Leavenworth?
“I know that Chief Meyers is doing her job, but I’m getting tired of her recurring questions about my whereabouts when Kristopher was killed. She must have asked me a dozen times exactly what time I fell asleep and who was at my house. We were in crisis mode. I don’t remember when I finally fell asleep, but I know for sure that I didn’t kill him.”
It felt like we were stuck in an endless loop. Valerie continued to insist on her innocence, and I had no idea whether I should believe her or not. At least Chief Meyers was already in the loop. The fact that she had questioned Valerie more than once must have meant she had some suspicions about her story, too.
She glanced at her watch. “Is that the time? I need to go. Thanks for listening and for the advice, Sloan. I’m sorry I’m such a mess at the moment, but I’m sure you can understand how much stress I’m under.”
“Yeah.”
“And you’ll keep this conversation between us?”
“Absolutely.” I opened the door.
Valerie gave me an awkward hug before returning to the bar. I wasn’t sure what to think. She had been insistent that she hadn’t killed Kristopher and gone out of her way to make sure that I knew she had an alibi, yet it seemed like she had the most to gain by killing him. She had basically guaranteed herself a win. Then there was the issue of the video. Was she lying? What if she had killed Kristopher to get the tape? That would have been one way of ensuring the old footage was never released.
I was more confused than ever. Valerie didn’t strike me as a killer, but I had been wrong in the past. And I had learned that people can and will do unexpected and out-of-character things—like murder—when they feel like they don’t have any choices. Had that happened to Valerie? Was she desperate enough for a win and to maintain her reputation?
“Mom?” Alex’s voice made me startle.
“Hey, I didn’t hear you come in,” I said, standing to give him a hug.
“I said Mom, like, three times. You were spacing.”
“Probably true.” I ruffled his hair. “How was the test?”
“Fine.” He tossed his backpack and soccer gear on the floor. “I think I did well.”
“I’m sure you did.”
He looked around the tidy office. “Do you have any snacks? I’m starving.”
“Shocker.” I laughed. “Is there ever a time that you’re not starving?”
“No. But cut me some slack. Coach made us run five miles at practice.”
“I’ll grab something for you in the kitchen and go see if Garrett can take over for Kat in the bar, so we can go over our ideas with you. Remember we’re doing dinner at Oma and Opa’s tonight. Pace yourself on the snacks, rumor has it that Oma is making her Bienenstich cake.”
Alex pretended to wipe drool from the corner of his mouth. “Forget the snack. I’ll save myself for cake.”
“I’ll find you something light.” I left to put a plate of apples, crackers, and cheese together for Alex and see if Kat was free to chat.
Garrett was already at the bar.
“Mind if I steal Kat for a few?” I asked, balancing the plate of snacks for Alex and a bowl of popcorn for the bar.
Garrett reached for the popcorn. “I think it’s a fair trade. Kat for a bowl of your delicious fresh popped corn.”
“Thanks a lot.” Kat curled her lip.
“No, that’s high praise,” Garrett replied. “Sloan’s popcorn is the stuff of legends. I guarantee this entire bowl will be gone by the time you two come back.”
The popcorn had been a hit. I made a mental reminder to order some red-and-white-striped bags to serve it in. We’d been putting it in our wooden pub bowls, but bagging it would allow our customers to take it to go as well.
Kat and I returned to the office, where Alex had turned on my laptop and opened his design program.
“Alex, you remember Kat, right?”
He stood and wiped his palms on his warm-up pants. “Hey, how’s it going?”
Was it my imagination, or had he intentionally tried to make his voice sound deeper?
Kat grinned, revealing her dimples. “Thanks for agreeing to help with this. I’m pretty good at taking photos, but design isn’t really my thing.”
Alex cleared his throat. He squared his shoulders as he spoke. “It’s cool. I’m trying to build my portfolio for college.”
“Do you know where you want to go yet?”
I almost interjected something about the fact that Alex was only a sophomore, but I didn’t want to mortify him. It was apparent from the way he was fidgeting that he had a crush. I couldn’t blame him. Kat was attractive and radiated a natural energy. She was also seven years older than him. The odds of her reciprocating his feelings were nonexistent.
Alex had had a girlfriend, but they had been on-again, off-again for the past few months. Whenever I asked him about how things were going with Carly, he would mumble something noncommittal.
Kat pulled a chair next to the desk and sat down. Alex pointed to the open seat in front of the laptop. “Do you want to sit, Mom?”
“Oh, my gosh, what a gentleman.” Kat’s jaw dropped open as she turned to me. “He’s going to be a heartbreaker, isn’t he?”
Alex’s face flamed with color.
I handed him snacks and ignored Kat’s comment. “No, I’d like to stand. I’ve been sitting too much today.”
He sat and reached for an apple slice. “Do you guys want to show me what you’re thinking so I have some ideas on how to get started?”
Kat pulled out her phone and began scrolling through the photos she had bookmarked. Alex took notes on the laptop. “That’s cool. I like the clean lines on that image. I know that my mom is drawn to a more minimalistic design, and that’s sort of Nitro’s vibe. Is that what you’re thinking for the guest rooms, too?”
“Yeah, for sure.” Kat pointed out another photo on her phone screen. “Kind of like this? I like the rounded corners of this poster, instead of the standard rectangle.”
“That’s easy to do.”
We spent about an hour looking through examples. Alex asked questions about font, branding, and color palettes. I was impressed with his maturity and professionalism. Not many fifteen-year-old boys were as articulate as Alex. I felt a swell of pride watching him in action. At least I had done one thing right.