thirty-eight

“Why don’t you come inside?” I suggested. “I’d rather not have this conversation in my driveway.”

Detective Brady gave a reluctant nod. “Fine, but I only have a few minutes,” he said.

“Of course,” I said. “I understand.”

I led the way inside to the kitchen. Once everyone was seated and offers of coffee had been politely refused, I sat back in my chair. “So, tell me why you think Jules was behind all of this,” I asked.

“There are several reasons, actually,” Detective Brady answered as he crossed his legs and brushed a spec of lint off of his pant leg. “But I’ll narrow it down to two. First, we have several witnesses who saw an altercation between Ms. Dixon and Ms. Franklin that ended with Ms. Dixon threatening Ms. Franklin. And second, the remains of some of your stolen tapes were found on the grounds of Ms. Dixon’s home. It appears that they’d been burned.”

“Just to clarify, this would be the house she shares with John Cummings?” I asked.

Detective Brady tipped his head in acknowledgement. “Yes; however, I don’t think he’s involved. He wasn’t in residence at the time of the search.”

“Oh, well,” I said nodding, “Then that definitely clears him.”

Detective Brady raised an eyebrow. “Are you being ironic, Ms. Martini?” he asked.

“Technically, I was being sarcastic,” I said, “but I don’t really want to get into a semantic argument with you. Instead, why don’t you just tell me why you think Jules Dixon broke into our house and stole our tapes?”

Detective Brady cocked an eyebrow in my direction. “You really have to ask?” he said. “I would think that as a former detective, you’d be able to figure that out for yourself.”

I smiled. “Consider it an early Christmas gift.”

Detective Brady re-crossed his legs and made sure they were lint free before continuing. “From what I understand, there has been a lot of interest in those tapes. No doubt, Ms. Dixon thought that if she could acquire them, she could sell them. She may have also planned to use them as a leveraging tool.”

“A leveraging tool for what?” I asked.

“Movie roles,” he answered. “I understand that Ms. Dixon was up for a movie role; a role for which Ms. Christina Franklin was also being considered. Ms. Dixon may have believed that having these tapes would give her an edge.”

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, and considered his answer. “So, you think that a woman, who by all accounts is quite well off, would resort to savagely beating a person and leaving them for dead just for the chance to make a little money?” I asked after a moment.

Detective Brady shrugged. “Why do you assume it would be a little money?” he asked.

“Ok, let’s say the tapes are worth a lot of money. There still is the question as to why a woman, who is already well off, would resort to such savagery.”

“You never heard of someone killing for money? Even the rich want to be richer,” he asked with a smirk. “You did say you used to work in New York City, correct? I know there’s been a big push to reduce crime there in recent years, but I can’t image it’s suddenly Mayberry.”

“Oh, no, there’s still plenty of crime. Trust me, I’ve seen more than my fair share of the baser side of humanity, Detective Brady,” I said.

“But you don’t think Jules Dixon is a member of this baser side?”

I shook my head. “I never said that. In fact, I think she is a rather unpleasant woman all together. I can easily picture her doing a lot of despicable things. I’m just not sure that attempted murder is one of them.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to include that observation in my report right under the heading of ‘Woman’s Intuition,’” Detective Brady said. “And, just so I understand your reasoning, despite the fact that we found some of the stolen videos on her property, you don’t think she was behind the theft because…why?”

“Actually, it’s that fact that the videos were found on her property that bothers me,” I said.

Detective Brady frowned. “That’s what bothers you?”

Before I could answer, Nigel gently stepped on my foot. I amended my initial response. “According to your theory, Jules stole our tapes and almost killed someone in the process because the tapes were extremely valuable and because she—for whatever reason—needed the money.”

Detective Brady nodded as if bored.

“Well, I guess my first question would be, if these tapes were so valuable, then why would she burn them?”

Detective Brady rotated his shoulder as if stretching out a sore muscle, before answering. “Maybe she panicked. Realized that we were closing in on her and wanted to destroy the evidence,” he finally offered.

I leaned back against the cushions and stared at him a beat before glancing at Officer Hax. She studiously avoided my gaze. I didn’t blame her. I’d worked with higher-ups like Brady before too.