Chapter 10

 

 

 

The woman held her hands up in the air. “Please don’t kill me.”

My eyes widened. Did she actually think that I had killed that man?

“Don’t kill you? We don’t want you to kill us,” I said.

Dorothy got even closer to me. “This woman is nuttier than a five-pound fruitcake.”

The woman stared at us and continued to hold her hands up.

“You killed that man, just like you killed the other one at my neighbor’s house,” she said.

“We didn’t kill anyone,” I said.

“I didn’t kill anyone,” Dorothy said, stepping away from me.

“Don’t get close to her, Dorothy,” I said, pointing. Dorothy hurried back over toward me. “We didn’t kill anyone. Right, Dorothy?”

“Right. We didn’t kill anyone,” Dorothy repeated.

“You were at the scene of both murders,” the neighbor said.

“How do I know you didn’t kill the man inside this building?” I gestured.

She gasped as if this was an outrageous accusation. How long would we continue to stare at each other like this? I didn’t know if she was the killer, but I definitely was on guard in case she turned out to be the murderer. It was true though, she had been at the scene of both crimes. I’d seen her go into the office. Where had she been that whole time when Dorothy and I found the body? Had she been cleaning up evidence? I looked her up and down for any sign of blood. Whoever killed the man had to have blood on them.

I didn’t notice anything, but then she wouldn’t let me get too close. She took a couple steps back as if I was really threatening her. The way she was acting was completely insane. We were the ones who should be scared of her, not the other way around. Sirens sounded in the distance and I couldn’t wait until they arrived.

Though I wasn’t looking forward to speaking with Jake about this. Two murders in the past two days? That wouldn’t look good. But at least I wasn’t alone. Dorothy was here this time. Dorothy and I could back each other up. Plus, the neighbor looked just as suspicious as me as far as I was concerned.

Police cars rolled up to the scene with screeching tires, flashing lights, and sirens. Jake was the first one out of his car. He ran toward me. Would he handcuff me this time too?

“Maggie, what’s going on?” Jake asked.

I pointed toward the building behind me. “The man is in there. His office is down the hallway, the first door on the right.”

“Stay here,” he said as he ran for the office door.

Another police car rolled up and I realized it was Jake’s partner Abby Zahn. She climbed out from her black cruiser and headed toward me. Her dead stare was focused on me. Did she always have to look as if she just stepped off the set of a hair care commercial? Her long blonde hair shone in the bright sunshine.

“Oh, great, look who it is,” I said out of the corner of my mouth.

“Well, she does work with Jake,” Dorothy said.

“Whose side are you on anyway?”

Dorothy shrugged. I’d tried to avoid eye contact with Abby, but it wasn’t working. She shouldn’t worry about me. Abby needed to speak with the neighbor before she got away.

“Good afternoon, Maggie,” Abby said.

“I see you’re finally back at work,” I said.

Abby narrowed her eyes. Apparently, that was a sore subject for her. She’d been away since an unfortunate incident when she’d been unable to arrest someone. Fear had paralyzed her, and she’d let the perpetrator slip away. I supposed that was all behind her now. I doubted she would have a problem arresting me.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

Dorothy placed her hands on her hips. “Well, obviously there’s a dead man in the office.”

Abby frowned. “Maggie, I heard this is the second murder that you’ve been involved with in two days.”

Her voice sounded smug, as if she were somehow happy about this.

“Not involved with, stumbled upon,” I corrected.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning and tell me what happened?” Abby said.

I’d rather not tell her what happened. I wanted to wait for Jake to come out. After all, I’d called him, and as far as I was concerned, this was his investigation. Maybe I wasn’t fair to Abby, but I sensed a bit of hostility toward me right now. I didn’t appreciate that either.

“I think you should look to her as a suspect.” I pointed to the neighbor. “She entered the building first. When Dorothy and I came in we didn’t see her. We just found the dead man.”

Abby looked in the direction of my pointing finger. The neighbor was gone. I scanned the area, searching for her. She was nowhere in sight. Where had she gone? Had she gone to speak with another police officer?

“I don’t see a woman anywhere around.” Abby lifted one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

How had the woman got away? Now it looked as if I was just making this up. Thank goodness Jake came back outside. He would believe me. I hoped.

“Maggie, tell me everything that happened,” Jake said.

I smirked at Abby. “Gladly.”

Okay, that was unprofessional, but she’d provoked me.

I started from the beginning, telling him that Dorothy and I had in fact followed the neighbor. He frowned at that but allowed me to continue my story.

“Anyway, the woman wasn’t there when we went into the room and found the man. Then we were just about to leave when she popped up out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, just popped out of nowhere.” Dorothy waved her arms.

“I don’t know what she’d been doing,” I said.

“Then where is she now?” Abby asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know. Maybe the police need to look for her. The fact that she left is highly suspicious. You believe us, right, Jake?” I asked.

“Yes, of course, I believe you, Maggie… and Dorothy,” he said.

Abby scoffed. I wouldn’t say anything about that because after all she did have handcuffs. I didn’t need a repeat of the last incident.

“I think this has to be connected to the other murder. And that means that Brigette has nothing to do with this. I mean, she couldn’t have killed this man if she’s in jail. Plus, I happen to know that he was her lawyer. So maybe somebody had it out for these two people Bridget knows,” I said, feeling kind of proud of my deductions.

“Just one problem with that.” Abby crossed her arms in front of her slim waist.

Oh, great. What now?

“Remember, Maggie? Brigette got out of jail this morning,” Jake said.

Oh yes, how easily I’d forgotten. That threw a kink in my theory.

“I suppose that does change things. But as you can see Brigette wasn’t here.” I waved my arm.

“Maybe Mrs. Whitmore was here and you just didn’t see her,” Abby said.

A hint of delight filled Abby’s voice. I knew she enjoyed proving me wrong. She’d better relish this moment because it wouldn’t last long. I’d show Abby my extraordinary private detective skills.

“Then why was the neighbor here?” I crossed my arms in front of me and raised an eyebrow in amused satisfaction.

“She might have had an appointment with the lawyer,” Abby said.

Apparently Abby had an answer for everything.

“Unlikely,” Dorothy said under her breath.

“I just don’t understand why she would’ve taken off.” I pushed the hair out my eyes.

“I suppose she was just scared and wanted to get away. We know where she lives so we'll head over there right now,” Jake said.

Of course, I wasn’t satisfied with this because something didn’t add up and I wasn’t about to give up on finding the killer.

“We’ll search the area around here and then if I have any other questions I’ll make sure to call you,” Jake said. “I’ll see you at seven tonight.”

Abby rolled her eyes. The least she could do was act a bit professional right now. I couldn’t help but feel Jake was telling me that I should leave. Was it because of Abby?

The police officer lifted the crime scene tape and allowed Dorothy and I to duck underneath. When we reached the car Dorothy and I immediately slipped inside. In one way it felt good to be away from the murder scene, but in another I still had unanswered questions.

“I’d love to take a look around more in there,” I said.

“Well, there’s a fat chance of that happening,” Dorothy said. “With all these cops around here, we won’t be able to get anywhere near that place.”

“I know, but that won’t stop me from doing other things.”

“Like what?” she asked.

I started the engine. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it, but I know I’ll come up with something.”

“I know you will,” she said, grabbing her bag and pulling out a peppermint candy. “I don’t even know if these peppermints will help with the stress of what just happened. It’s too much for a tiny peppermint to take on.”

“I think you might be right, Dorothy,” I said.

As I pointed the car in the direction of the office, I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel. “I wish I had paid more attention to the surroundings, but everything was just so crazy that it was almost impossible to see everything. I didn’t have time to look for clues.”

“It’s understandable not to look for clues after discovering a dead body,” Dorothy said, moving the candy around in her mouth.

“Did you notice anything at all?” I asked.

“Nothing that comes to mind right now, but maybe when I’ve had some time to calm down.” She clacked the knitting needles against each other.

“Yes, maybe things will come to us later,” I said. “Any reason why you’re knitting socks, Dorothy?”

“For people who need socks,” she said.

“Oh… well, that makes sense,” I said.

A short time later Dorothy and I arrived at the office and headed back inside.

Sitting at my desk, I tapped my fingers against the blank yellow legal pad. “I guess I just don’t know what to do with myself.”

“Well, you’d better find something because you’re making me nervous,” Dorothy said.

“Since there have been two murders now I suppose I should go back to the first murder victim, Luke Padgett. I have to find out as much as I can about him.”

“Good luck with that.” Dorothy studied her half-complete sock.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said. “I think if I find out more about him and then more about the attorney Adam Boles, I’ll be able to understand if the cases are related.”

“The only way they’re related is that they both knew Brigette,” Dorothy said.

“Yes, and she was released from jail, so that doesn’t rule her out as a suspect.” I typed away at my keyboard, trying to find out more information about Luke. “Oh, look here. He was much younger than Brigette, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, she’s a… what do you call it? A tiger?” Dorothy frowned.

I chuckled. “A cougar, Dorothy. Remember? We discussed this.”

“I knew it was one of those animals,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I was close enough.”

I shook my head and went back to my computer screen.

“Oh, look, I found social media pages for him,” I said, pointing to the screen.

“What, like that MySpace?”

I giggled. “No, like Facebook. You know, you have a Twitter account, remember? You signed up for it.”

“Yes, I need to tweet more often. I keep forgetting my password,” she said around a sigh. “I still know how to do my text though.”

“Yes, you’re very good with the LOLs,” I said. “I should go speak with Luke’s friends, right?”

“Is it too soon?” Dorothy peered at me over the top of her tortoiseshell eyeglasses.

“Well, I’m investigating his murder. I would think they would want me to figure this out, right?”

“Yes, friends would definitely want that. When do we go?” Dorothy peered at the sock again.

“I have to track them down first,” I said.

“Well, what are you waiting on?” Dorothy asked.

I went back to the keyboard and tried getting information on a few friends who had most recently posted on his Facebook page.

“What do you think the victims have in common?” I asked.

“I told you. Brigette,” Dorothy said matter-of-factly.

“Yes, but anything else?”

“Nothing that’s obvious.”

“I need to find out more about Mr. Boles too.”

“Don’t ask Jake because I have a feeling he won’t share any information with you,” Dorothy said.

“Yes, he’s funny like that,” I said around a sigh. “Since I know the first victim’s name, I guess that’s my only clue.”

“Not much of a start,” Dorothy said as she stretched more yarn from the ball.