Pink Lemonade and Penalties

by Allyssa Mirry

  “This is highly irregular,” Detective Grey said.

  “Look, I’m not going to answer your questions if she’s not there. I want the best people on my brother’s case, and this lady is clearly one of the best. So settle whatever dispute you’re having later and let this consultant help.”

  Lydia tried not to laugh at being called a consultant. She thought the title might be fitting, but she doubted that Leo and Detective Grey would agree.

  The two detectives were looking at one another, clearly trying to have a silent conversation about what to do. Charlie Vector sped up the process by beginning to walk away.

  “Wait,” Leo said. “She can sit in if that will put you more at

  ease.”

  Charlie nodded and returned. He took a seat by the desk.

  “But she’s not going to ask any questions,” Leo reminded Lydia.

  She nodded. She was just happy that she would be able to listen in. Leo took out his notebook and began the interview.

  “Did many people know about your brother’s fishing habits?”

  “Bill wasn’t a great fisherman, but he was always very enthusiastic. And after he got his boat recently, it was almost all he could talk about. He would tell everyone who would listen about his technique and his fishing plans.”

  “When did he get the boat?” Lydia asked.

  Leo shot her an unhappy look but then said, “Yes. When did he get this boat?”

  “Maybe two weeks ago. He apparently got a good deal on it.”

  “So, many people knew about his boat and how he liked to fish,” Leo said. “Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt your brother?”

  Charlie shook his head. “Bill was a great guy.”

  “What about an unhappy client?” Detective Grey suggested. “Or someone from an opposing counsel?”

  “Bill was a divorce lawyer, so I’m sure there were people who were unhappy with the settlements, but he never mentioned anyone who might want to hurt him. Actually, he didn’t talk much about his work. He tried to be respectful of his clients.”

  “What about in his personal life?” Leo asked.

  “I don’t think he had any problems with his friends.” Charlie seemed to think about it. “But, actually, there was someone that he fought with recently.”

  “Who?” Leo asked.

  Lydia leaned forward to hear the answer.

  “The girl he had been seeing. Bill told me that they had a big fight about his vacation. He said that she was acting crazy and he was considering ending things with her. I thought he might have been exaggerating at the time, but maybe he wasn’t. Maybe this girl killed him and plotted out some insane way to do it.”

  Lydia frowned. Charlie Vector must be referring to Amber. After all, she went through to get this case considered a murder, could she be a suspect in it?

  9

  Suspecting Amber

  “Is this some sort of sick joke?”

  Lydia paused mid-chew. She was back in her taffy shop, sampling the latest batch of pink lemonade taffy. She told herself it was quality control and not an inability to say no to her sweets.

  After listening in on Charlie Vector’s questioning, Leo had insisted that Lydia leave the station as soon as it was over. He had not wanted her to get any more involved than she already was and had refused to discuss any theories with her. Lydia had returned to her shop and kept replaying Charlie’s answers in her head as she whipped up taffy to fill her shelves. The only person Charlie seemed to suspect as a murderer was Amber, but that didn’t seem right to Lydia. She was wondering whether there was any merit to this accusation when the accused charged into her shop.

  Amber no longer looked sad. She looked livid.

  “Well, is it?” Amber demanded. “I tell you my concerns about the man I’ve been dating dying and then the police insinuate that I killed him?”

  “Why don’t we discuss this in my office?” Lydia suggested.

  “Why? You don’t want your customers to know how two-faced you are? You don’t want them to know how you tricked me into thinking that you were helping, but were really plotting behind my back?”

  “We can talk about it here,” Lydia said, calmly. “As long as you don’t mind anyone overhearing how you’re now the prime suspect in a murder case.”

  After hearing that, Amber seemed more wary of the customers who were starting to stare at them and listen to their exchange.

  “Fine. I guess we can go to your office. If you really want to,” Amber agreed.

  Lydia led the way, and they entered her office. Again, Amber took Lydia’s chair behind the desk, but this time, Lydia wasn’t surprised. She did refrain from offering Amber any taffy samples from the seashell candy dish on her desk, but Amber would probably have said something disparaging if she did anyway.

  “Now, what’s going on?” Lydia asked.

  “As if you didn’t know. The police hauled me in for questioning and made it sound like they thought I killed Bill,” Amber said angrily. “I thought your aunt said that I was supposed to be getting some rest. Was that part of a plan to try and put me at ease before they accused me of murder? Are you all involved in this? Your aunt’s not some sweet, old lady?”

  “My aunt is very sweet, but I don’t think she’d love being called old. And she wasn’t part of some plot to manipulate you,” Lydia said. “Some new evidence came to light, and the police had to investigate. I heard what it was, but I didn’t know exactly what they were going to do after they spoke to the witness. It makes sense that they wanted to talk to you, though.”

  “They didn’t have to accuse me of killing Bill though, did they?”

  “You didn’t tell them the full story before, did you?” Lydia asked. “About how you and Bill had a big fight shortly before his death?”

  Amber shrugged. “I always fight with the men I’m dating. It keeps things interesting and lets me know if they’ll be able to handle things long-term with me.”

  “But it also makes you look suspicious when it’s right before a murder,” said Lydia. “And it sounded like Bill wanted to break up because of this fight. That could have given you a motive to kill him.”

  “He didn’t tell me that he wanted to break up,” Amber replied. “So, he either told someone that in the heat of the moment or that person is lying.”

  “But you did have a fight?”

  “Yes. It was about his vacation. I didn’t like that he was going to go on a cruise without me. I thought that when I went shopping with him, he might have invited me. But he said that he couldn’t add anyone to his reservation. And I might have said that he was going on this trip so that he could cheat on me and if that was the case I hoped he choked and died. But I didn’t really mean it.” Amber looked nervous for a moment. “You believe me, don’t you?”

  “I do,” Lydia said, looking her straight in the eyes. “I don’t think you would have tried to convince us that Bill was murdered if you were the one who did it. You would have gotten away with murder if you let us keep believing that it was suicide. And I don’t think you would have come to me for help.”

  “If that’s so obvious to you, why don’t the police realize this?”

  “There could be other reasons to explain your behavior. You might have wanted everyone to realize how smart you were and tried to challenge the police to figure out how a murder occurred. Maybe you wanted to show that you could outsmart me since we’ve been business rivals this summer.”

  “I can outsmart you by doing more business than you, which I’m sure I did because ice cream is far superior to icky taffy. But I wouldn’t have to kill anyone to show you up.”

  “I told you that I believe you, Amber.”

  Amber leaned back in the chair and started fidgeting. “But the detectives don’t. What am I supposed to do now? I don’t like being a suspect.”

  “You’ll just have to be patient while we find the real killer. And if you do have any information that could help us figure that out,
we’d appreciate it.”

  “There is one thing,” Amber said, taking out her cell phone and scrolling through it. “It might not be anything, but maybe his job had something to do with his death. He was a divorce lawyer.”

  “You said that you didn’t know much about his cases.”

  “Right. But I was going through our old conversations to see if there was anything that could be helpful and there was one day that he texted me to say he would be a little late for our date because his meeting with a client was going long. It was a female client going through a divorce, so I gave him a hard time. He told me that Julia Levine wanted nothing to do with relationships after her husband and that this was all business. I think I believe him that there was no funny business between them, but I still made him buy me jewelry. This was his most recent client. Maybe she’s involved somehow.”

  Lydia smiled. “That’s very helpful. Did you tell Leo and Detective Grey that?”

  “Not as nicely, and they told me very formally that they were pursuing all possible leads, including former clients. Then, I might have caused a scene and said since I wasn’t arrested, I was leaving.”

  “And then you tried to cause a scene here?”

  Amber shrugged. She nonchalantly grabbed one of the taffy candies from the dish and popped it into her mouth without thinking. As soon as she realized what she did, her eyes widened.

  Grudgingly she admitted, “You know. These aren’t completely terrible.”

  “Thanks,” Lydia said, smiling. Coming from Amber, that actually was a compliment.

  10

  The Divorcee

  “I’m so sorry,” Julia Levine said as she admitted Lydia and Aunt Edie into her house. “I’m not at my best right now.”

  “That’s quite all right, dear,” Aunt Edie said.

  “We appreciate you talking to us,” Lydia seconded.

  After Amber had mentioned that Julia Levine had been the victim’s most recent client, Lydia had sought to track her down. Since Aunt Edie had finished catching up with her friends, she insisted on joining her niece. After all, she told her, she might need backup.

  After meeting Julia Levine at her front door, Lydia didn’t think that she would need any protection. The petite woman was clearly fighting a hangover and didn’t look like she would be fighting anything else.

  Julia led them into the kitchen, where she poured a large mug of coffee for herself. She offered it to the others, but they refused.

  “I’m sorry,” Julia said again. “I’m not feeling that great. I went to Atlantic City with some girl friends to celebrate my divorce. We did an awful lot of partying. I got back last night, and then I got some bad news, so I did a little more drinking. I feel so awful.”

  “Are you hungry?” Aunt Edie asked.

  That wasn’t the first question that Lydia would have asked during this interrogation, but it ended up working. Julia admitted that she was, but she wasn’t sure what she could stomach. Aunt Edie started looking through her cabinets and offered to make some pancakes that could soak up some of the liquor in the woman’s stomach. Julia was very grateful and seemed willing to answer all of their questions without asking any of her own.

  “That’s so nice,” Julia said. “I really appreciate it. I was feeling so good about my divorce being over. Even though I’m pretty sure that my ex was hiding money somewhere. That jerk. I know he had a secret stash somewhere. Still, I felt like I did well with the settlement anyway. And I was free of him. And I was focusing on me. But right when I came home, I heard that my lawyer had been killed.”

  “That’s what we wanted to talk to you about,” Lydia said.

  If Julia Levine had been in Atlantic City as long as she said she was, it would make it very difficult for her to be the killer. She would have had to plant the fishing line before she left and it sounded like Bill Vector had been out on his boat before his final solo voyage. The poisoned line would probably have been revealed on an earlier boating trip if it was there before Julia left on her girls’ vacation.

  “Do you think that your ex-husband might have wanted to hurt your lawyer?”

  “I think he wanted to hurt his own lawyer more than anything,” Julia replied. “His wasn’t as good as mine.”

  “So, you don’t think that he could be the killer?”

  “My ex is a lot of things. Most of them bad. But I don’t see him killing someone out of vengeance because of a lawsuit. Maybe if he thought he could gain something from the death. He likes money, but he wouldn’t do it for emotional reasons.”

  “Do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt Bill Vector?” Lydia asked. “Maybe he mentioned another client?”

  Julia shook her head and then cringed as if it hurt. “He didn’t talk to me about other clients, but he never seemed upset while he was at work. He was a good lawyer. And a good guy. Oh, I just feel so terrible about what happened to him.”

  “But it wasn’t your fault,” Aunt Edie said.

  “No. But I feel a little responsible,” Julia said. “I gave him the boat, and that’s where I heard he was killed.”

  “You gave him the boat?” Lydia asked.

  Julia started to nod but then decided to speak her answer instead. “Technically I sold it to him, but I gave him a really good deal. I didn’t expect to win the boat in the divorce. I don’t go out on the water that much. And Bill Vector had been talking about how he was looking into buying his own boat when we made small talk, so it made sense. I sold it to him and used that money to go to AC.”

  Aunt Edie set the finished pancakes in front of Julia, who began to nibble gratefully at them. Lydia watched her eat and then asked, “Did you know about Bill Vector’s food allergies?”

  “Not exactly,” Julia said in between bites. “He never said anything, but I realized that he never drank the coffee I brought him or any snacks. He only ate or drank what was in his office, and he had things sealed. I figured it was for a medical issue after a while. Does that play into his murder?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lydia admitted. “When you sold him the boat, did he say if he had any plans with it?”

  “He said that he was going to take a group of his friends out on it so he could finally show them his fishing techniques that he talked about. And he said he was excited to go out on the water a lot.”

  “Maybe one of those friends exchanged the fishing line,” Aunt Edie said quietly to Lydia.

  She nodded and then asked Julia, “Do you know who was going to go out on the boat with him?”

  “No. But you should talk to Mel at the marina. I bet he would know things like that. The boat was still being kept where I had it, though I think Bill was going to move it eventually. He didn’t want to be rude.”

  “What do you mean rude?” Lydia asked.

  However, Julia’s eyes were starting to flicker. With food in her, it seems she was tiring out. Julia poked at her pancake sleepily. “I just feel so sad that he’s gone. I was going to recommend him to all my friends with bad husbands.”

  “We should let her get some sleep,” Aunt Edie said.

  Lydia agreed. She left Julia her number in case she thought of anything else but thanked her for directing them toward the correct marina and to Mel.

  Lydia left the house with her aunt, thinking about who could have been on board the boat. If Bill Vector had several friends there, they could have set up the poison trap. She needed to find out who they were so Amber would no longer seem like the prime suspect.

  She was about to voice this to Aunt Edie, but then her aunt changed the conversation topic. “Do you think everything is all right with Leo?”

  “What do you mean? Do you think he found out that we were talking to suspects? I’m doing this to make peace with Amber.”

  “No. It’s not that. I just think he’s been acting strangely since I arrived in town. I know something’s bothering him, but he hasn’t said what. You don’t know why, do you?”

  Lydia clamped her mouth shut. She thoug
ht Aunt Edie should know about the engagement, but she didn’t think she should be the one to tell her. She also didn’t need another reason for Leo to be mad at her when she planned on questioning people at the marina shortly.

  11

  Mel’s Marina

  Lydia and Aunt Edie were quiet as they drove to the marina. Lydia parked nearby and hoped that she could come up with a good reason to get Mel to talk to them. Would he be willing to answer some questions if she used Julia Levine’s name? She wasn’t quite sure.