by Sam Cheever
Robb shrugged. “He might give in to her for reasons other than good business. But I’d stake my career on the probability that she was the mastermind behind it. Jonathan was a weak man, but, left to his own devices, I don’t believe he would have done something like that.”
We watched him climb into the expensive sports car and pull out of the lot, sending up a lot less gravel than Karinne had done.
“His impression of Calliente is a bit different from Benson and Cecily’s,” I said.
Hal sighed. “Yeah, I noticed that.”
10
We took a chance that Pam Wickham would be in her room at the Fawn Hotel. A quick call to Arno gave us the permission we needed to speak to her again.
“Just so you know,” Arno said before exiting the call. “I spoke to Pammie Wickham personally. From all evidence, she’s a horrible person and has probably cheated hundreds of people out of money during the course of her involvement in the catering industry. But there’s nothing to suggest she killed Calliente.”
“Does she get the business if he’s dead?” Hal asked.
“Nope. Calliente might have shared her avarice, but he clearly didn’t trust her any further than he could chuck an oversized fruitcake. He apparently left the company to a friend from college, who started the business with him and later sold his share to Calliente with the promise that, if Calliente ever wanted out, he’d sell his share back to him. We’re in the process of locating the guy now. Wickham has more reason to murder that guy than Calliente.”
“Not really,” I said. “A woman scorned and all that. If she found out he was cutting her out of the business, she might have killed him in a fit of passion.”
“Thereby ensuring she had nothing?” I could almost hear Arno shaking his head. “I’m not buying that. Emotions aside, when it comes to ensuring their survival, I find the females of our species more pragmatic than the males.”
“Lis still isn’t talking to you, huh?” I asked.
His response was a sigh. “Let me know what you find out from the exorable Ms. Wickham.”
“Ooh, two five-dollar words in a row,” I teased. “I’m impressed.”
“It seems I have nothing better to do with my personal time right now than crossword puzzles,” he ground out before disconnecting.
Hal and I grinned at each other. I did feel sorry for Arno, but he’d dug his own grave with Lis. He’d just have to put in the time to claw his way out.
The hotel was quieter than the last time we’d visited. Only a few cars sat in the parking lot. We climbed the stairs to Pam Wickham’s room with the sound of the Fawn River creating white noise in the background.
Hal knocked and the door opened under his fist. Throwing me a look, he pulled his gun from the beltless holster clipped to the inside waistband of his jeans and glanced at me. “Stay here,” he instructed in a soft, urgent voice.
I moved to the side, so I could peer through the crack he’d left, watching him check the main room and bath. He moved toward the sliding door to the balcony, which was open about eight inches. Staying behind the drapes, he made sure the balcony was clear, then motioned me inside.
I stepped into the room, realizing that what I’d first assumed was simple messiness was more than that.
The bedside table was empty. The lamp and clock that had been on the table were crushed and broken on the floor next to the bed. The bedspread was yanked off, thrown across the room, and the top sheet seemed to be missing. A water glass lay on the carpet, a dark spot surrounding it, and a nearly empty bottle of whiskey lay next to it. The strong scent of the spilled alcohol made my stomach twist.
In the bathroom, toiletries were all over the floor, the breakable items shattered against the tile as if someone had deliberately thrown them there.
The shower curtain hung crooked, the loops holding it up on one side bent and broken.
The room had been tossed.
I heard the sliding door grinding along its track as Hal came back inside. His handsome face was grim, and he was punching numbers on his phone when I joined him. Catching his eye, I had a hunch that Pam Wickham wouldn’t be needing to find a new job.
My gaze slid to the balcony, and I saw something float above the floor in an errant breeze. That was when I noticed the fabric wrapped around two of the railing balusters near the bottom.
Something was hanging from those balusters, tied there, I was pretty sure, by a rope made of bedsheets.
Hal disconnected.
“Pam Wickham?” I asked.
He nodded. “I checked for a pulse. She’s dead.”
“The ME has pronounced it a suicide,” Arno told us.
My eyes went wide. “Seriously? What about the state of the room?”
Arno kept his expression carefully neutral. “Wickham was legally intoxicated. The other people in the hotel complained about loud music and thumping noises. The speculation is that she went into a rage about Calliente’s death and killed herself.”
“Did anybody investigate?” Hal asked.
“The manager knocked on the door around noon, but by then it was quiet, and she just left, thinking she’d dodged a bullet. My assessment, not the manager’s,” Arno clarified.
“She never called the police?” I made a mental note to recommend to Garland that he get a new manager.
“She did call it in. Sheriff Mulhern himself checked it out, but he didn’t notify the manager he was there, so she went to check it on her own. The sheriff said the room was quiet when he got there around eleven-forty, and a maid told him Wickham had left in her car.”
My surprise must have shown in my expression.
Arno misinterpreted the shock on my face. “He does occasionally do actual police work.”
I snorted out a laugh. “Right. He just happened to be passing by?”
Arno looked embarrassed. “He was…In the area.”
“Why would a maid tell him the woman was gone if she wasn’t?” Hal asked, his expression thoughtful.
Arno shrugged. “She probably saw someone who looked like Wickham. It’s not that unusual of a mistake.”
Hal and I shared a look. Then he asked, “What did the ME find as TOD?”
“Around noon.”
“Nobody saw anything around that time?”
Arno narrowed his gaze on Hal. “What part of suicide are you not getting?”
“You can’t tell me you believe that?” I said. Arno could be difficult and stubborn, but he wasn’t stupid. Far from it.
Angry color filled his face. “Are you a trained cop, Joey?”
I frowned. I hated when he used that against me. Mostly because I knew he was right. “No. But I’m developing instincts.”
I’d give him credit for not laughing at me. But I couldn’t miss the twitching of his lips, so I glared at him. “That woman didn’t kill herself,” I declared. “I’d bet my house on it.”
Hal placed a hand over mine to calm me down. “I agree with Joey. That was not a suicide.”
“Based on what?” Arno asked, his tone cool.
“Based on everything else that’s happened. First, Calliente is killed. Now his partner. And a third employee of Calliente Catering was attacked. That’s a lot of coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidence. Not in a murder investigation. And…” he hesitated as if for effect. “based on the fact that somebody turned that music off. Do you really think Pam Wickham turned the music off and then went to kill herself?”
Arno held Hal’s stare for a long moment, making me think he was going to dig in his heels. But then he sighed. “You might be right. But my hands are tied on this. Sheriff Mulhern wants Wickham’s death tied up in a tidy bow.”
“What if you investigate it anyway?” I asked.
“To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. Mulhern’s a walking temper tantrum lately.”
“Worried about his friend?” Hal asked, a wry smile on his face.
Arno huffed out a laugh. “Among other things. He’s starting to loo
k at running again. He doesn’t want a lot of open cases staining his record.”
“There have been a lot of murders in the area during his first term,” I mumbled.
Arno leaned forward in his chair. “He’s been threatening to cut all outside help in the office,” he told Hal. “This is not the time to rock the boat.”
Hal shook his head. “Do you want me to extricate myself from this?”
“That’s not what I want at all. You have years more experience than the rest of my deputies. I count on your help for this type of thing. But I’m suggesting we might need to keep a lower profile.”
He scanned me a hard look. “Maybe don’t accost the mayor when he goes out for ice cream.”
“Accost him?” I said, brows raised. “He was being very threatening to Karinne. I didn’t want her to end up like the last woman who’d crossed him.”
That woman had ended up dead. We hadn’t been able to prove Robb was behind her death, but in my heart, I still believed he had something to do with it.
“Joey, that’s just the kind of thing that will set Mulhern off. He doesn’t need much of an excuse to cut Hal out of the work. You need to keep your nose out of this. You need to back off.”
I glared at him, hating that he was right. “You want me to just look the other way if Robb’s out of line?”
“Believe it or not, it’s not your job to manage the mayor.”
“Somebody has to do it!”
Arno growled in frustration. “Amity, you’d better get your girlfriend under control.”
Unbelievably, Hal laughed. “You have met her, right?”
Arno shook his head.
“Look,” Hal said. “I get that you’re in a tough spot. But Joey’s right. Robb was clearly threatening Karinne Magness. The woman was visibly shaken.”
“Okay. Next time maybe call me? Or, if you don’t have time to do that, at least use a little discretion. Maybe not unleash the five-foot-four-inch Kraken on him as your first salvo.”
“Ha, ha,” I mumbled.
Hal stood and offered Arno his hand. “I appreciate your support. I love helping out in Deer Hollow. But don’t put your job on the line for me. If I’m cut loose, I can find my own work.”
Arno stood and grabbed Hal’s hand. “It’s the principle of the thing. You’ve done quality work for me. I don’t like that you’re always the first to be blamed when something goes wrong.”
Hal shrugged. “I’m an easy scapegoat. I have thick skin.”
Arno nodded. “Thanks.”
As we were leaving, Arno called out and Hal stopped, turning back.
“If worse comes to worst, I hear you have a booming career as a backup grill cook.”
Hal gave him a long-suffering sigh, no doubt for Arno’s entertainment. “I guess the gossip tree is in full bloom.”
Arno finally smiled. “I know what you’re doing even before you do it.”
“I hope not,” Hal said. “I’d hate to have to explain why we’re going to have pie now, after eating ice cream earlier.”
My pulse picked up with excitement. “Pie?” It was all I could do to keep from cackling with glee.
“Don’t bother trying to explain. You’re dating the carb queen. Just try to leave some pie for the rest of us.”
That last part he’d directed at me. I winked, letting him know there wasn’t a chance I was leaving any pie for him. He was a turd. And if I had to buy five pies from Max, I’d make sure he’d have to go through me to get a slice.
If he thought Lis held a grudge, and she surely did, he was about to realize who the queen of grudges really was.
11
“Are you going to tell me why we’re doing second dessert? I feel like a Hobbit.” Hal threw me a disbelieving look. I hurried to clarify my point. “I’m not complaining, just curious.”
“We’ve been told to lay low on this investigation.”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure how me eating a big slice of banana cream pie had anything to do with laying low.
“We need to talk about the case, and if someone we needed to talk to anyway just happened to stop by the diner…”
It finally fell into place. “Ah. Stealth questioning?”
He shrugged. “You did it so well last night.”
“Who are you hoping to see?”
“Karinne Magness knows more about all this than she’s told us or the police.”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Then there’s this new donor Robb has been courting.”
A single woman from Indianapolis? She’d probably eat late compared to our schedules. And there weren’t that many restaurants in Deer Hollow. None that were open as late as Sonny’s. I frowned. “But you’re assuming she’s still here. If she came for the party, she might be gone already.”
“Except that Arno hasn’t released any of the guests yet. She’s supposed to stay in Deer Hollow until he tells her she can leave.”
“But she’s best buds with the mayor. If she wanted to leave, he’d surely step in on her behalf.”
“It’s possible.”
I watched him closely, noting the relaxed and confident look on his handsome face. “But you don’t think so. Why not?”
“Because I’m pretty sure she’s staying at the Fawn Hotel.” He parked at the curb in front of Sonny’s Diner. A few cars away from his SUV was a smart little sports car that I didn’t think belonged to anyone in Deer Hollow. I would have noticed that car. It probably cost as much as most Deer Hollowans made in a year.
I did remember seeing the car earlier, though. “I saw that car at the Fawn Hotel.”
Coincidence? I didn’t think so.
Hal climbed out and came around to help me down from the big car. He opened the door of the diner and I entered ahead of him. Mayor Robb’s new donor was easy to spot. She sat in a booth in the back, her head down and her silky, white-blonde hair hiding her face. She was stunning. But her body language screamed that she wasn’t looking for attention.
“Do you have a plan?” I asked Hal in a near-whisper.
He waved at Max, pointing to the booth next to our quarry’s.
Max nodded. “I’ll be there in five.”
Placing a hand in the small of my back, Hal led me toward the booth. Fortunately for us, the diner was mostly empty. Besides the woman we were about to disturb and us, there was a guy who looked like he owned the big truck parked across the street and a couple of teens who appeared to be on a date. The teens had their heads together and wouldn’t have noticed us if we’d set firecrackers off in our pants.
The truck driver was on his cell, probably checking in with the family he’d left behind when he hit the road.
Hal stopped next to the woman’s table and she looked up, her clear blue gaze sliding over his tall form like an art connoisseur eyeing a newly discovered Picasso. She smiled, her hands fluttering over the tablet she’d been reading.
Hal gave her his one hundred twenty watt smile, and I’m pretty sure her ligaments all melted on the spot. “You were at Mayor Robb’s party.”
“I was.” She nodded, her perfect skin pinkening as she finally spotted me. I read the extra color as embarrassment for having been caught ogling my boyfriend right in front of me.
I grinned. I couldn’t blame a girl for looking. After all, the Greek deity was a sight to behold.
Hal offered her his hand. “I’m Hal Amity. This is Joey. Are you new to Deer Hollow?”
She shook her head, one slender hand sliding over the electronic device as if she were petting it. “I’m a friend of Martin Robb’s.” She held out a hand, fingers drooping as if she expected him to kiss the back of it. “Tiffany Brooks. It’s a pleasure.”
Hal took the offering, sandwiching it between both of his. “Tiffany. I’m sorry the party didn’t turn out well. Did you know the victim?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “That poor man.” The pretty blue eyes opened again, and she pointed to the other bench in her booth. “Why don�
��t you sit with me.”
“We don’t want to interrupt,” I said, motioning toward her tablet.
In response, she snapped the cover over it. “I hate to eat alone. This makes me feel less pathetic.” Her laugh was light and genuine. “Please.”
We slid into the booth. Tiffany pushed the tablet away as Max arrived with her dinner. It was a large salad with grilled chicken on top.
“What can I get you two?” Max asked.
“Pie?” we both said at once.
“Of course,” she said, grinning.
“Is the pie good here?” Tiffany asked.
“Amazing,” I told her. “It’s well worth the calories.”
Tiffany’s eyes sparkled. “Good to know. I’ll take a slice back to the hotel with me.”
“I hope you found a nice place to stay,” I nudged.
“It’s gorgeous,” she responded. “The view is stunning. I have a view of the river on two sides.”
“You’re on the South end then,” Hal said, nodding. “It is stunning. Did you get the top floor?” He knew full well that Pam Wickham had the second-floor Vista room. But I assumed he was verifying Tiffany’s location.
“First floor. Unfortunately, the top floor was already taken.” She took a dainty bite of salad, chewing carefully before swallowing. “I hope you don’t mind my eating. I’m starving.”
“No, please,” I gave her a grin. “We invaded your space.”
“I’m glad you did. It’s nice to have company.”
“Have you known Martin long?” Hal asked.
Tiffany nodded, swallowing another bite. “Since college. We used to date.” She laughed. “That was a long time ago.”
“So, you’re just friends now?” I asked.
She looked scandalized. “He’s married.”
“Yes, but…” I realized too late how cynical my next words were going to sound. “He and his wife aren’t together anymore.”
She frowned. “I heard what she did. It was all over the papers in Indy.” Shaking her head, she tucked a strand of fine, straight hair behind a perfect ear. “To be honest, it was one of the reasons I decided to come down for the party. Poor Martin’s been a mess about the whole thing.” She dropped her fork into the bowl and made a face. “Unfortunately, I’m thinking he’s in for it again.”
