by Cindy Bell
“That would be pretty illogical.” Walt eyed her for a moment. “It’s hard to commit a crime when you’re advertising your intentions.”
“I know, it was a joke, Walt, sorry.” Jo frowned. “No, they don’t wear different badges, but in some circumstances they can be fairly easy to spot if you know what you’re looking for. There’s an easy tell if a cop is on the take. Nicer watches, nicer suits, new shoes. Most police officers, even detectives wear the same pair of shoes for years. If you see a cop with shiny shoes and a nice watch, he’s more than likely on the take.”
“That can’t be true.” Walt frowned. “Why would anyone be that obvious? Wouldn’t they take precautions to hide it?”
“You can’t prove anything with watches and shoes. Plus, if a cop is on the take he’s not that bright to begin with. It never ends well.” Jo shrugged.
“She’s right about that. It usually blows up in the end.” Samantha tapped a few more keys on the keyboard as she sorted through search results. “But in this case, we may be looking at a much more systemic problem.”
“Could be a very touchy situation. I think we need to find out more about this Hank Greer. I can help with that.” Jo smiled as she glanced between the two of them.
“Wait a minute here, we’re talking about a top cop, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go anywhere near him.” Walt locked eyes with her.
“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t go near him. I’ll just take a look around when he’s not home.”
“You seem a little eager to do this.” Walt placed his hand over hers. “Perhaps you should evaluate why that is.”
“Oh, I know exactly why that is. If Greer is a crooked cop, then I want to make sure he is taken down.”
“Okay, let’s just slow down.” Samantha looked up from the computer. “I think I figured out what these symbols mean. There’s a small property investment company in town, Sunny River Property Investments. It has these same symbols on its website.” She turned the computer around to show them. “I think maybe this money came from that company.”
“One of the workers was having art time?” Jo raised an eyebrow.
“No, I think maybe Colin drew the symbols on here. Maybe to denote where the money came from, maybe because he was bored waiting for a meeting. I have no idea why, but I think we should pay a visit to the investment company and see what we can find out.”
“Sounds good.” Walt nodded. “Let me look into the company a bit first, you two eat.” He took over Samantha’s computer and began looking for information on the company. “If it’s as small and local as you say it should be fairly simple to get information on the company’s—” He stopped short, then tapped a few keys. “Well, this is unusual.”
“What is it?” Samantha peered across the top of the computer at him.
“I can barely find anything out about the company. For a business like that I would expect to find advertising and other basic company information at the least. Their website barely has any information on it.”
“I think it’s safe to say that if they don’t offer much information about their company online, either they have a really bad marketing department or, they have something to hide.” Jo finished the last bite of her food then pushed her plate aside. “We need to find out what it is.”
“We’re back to paying a visit. Walt, would you join me?” Samantha asked.
“Sure. I’m quite curious about this now and I doubt I’ll be able to rest until I find out more about it. Jo, are you going to come along?”
“No, I don’t think so. I have a few things to do in the garden. I’m sure that you two can handle this. But let me know if you hear from Eddy, okay?”
“Sure.” Walt studied her closely. “You’re not going to do anything reckless, are you?”
“Like break into an investment company?” Jo smiled sweetly. “Of course not, Walt. I’m reformed, remember?” She patted his shoulder. “No need to worry.”
He watched as she headed for the door.
“Be careful, Jo.”
“Always.” She winked at him over her shoulder, then disappeared.
“Walt, don’t worry, I’m sure she’s just going to do some weeding.” Samantha cleared the plates.
“I’m not sure about that. Not at all.” Walt offered a grim frown. “So, how are we going to find out more about Sunny River?”
“Simple. Mr. and Mrs. Balin will want to invest in some property.” Samantha bit into her bottom lip. “Do you think they will want to see a cash deposit?”
“Cash deposit?”
“Don’t some investment places want some cash up front, like a deposit, before they look for investments for you. Since we can’t use our real names, we can’t use a check to do it, we’ll need some cash.” She finished washing the dishes then turned to look at him. “I don’t have it. Money is tight for me right now.”
“We should be okay.” Walt nodded. “If they do require something, which I doubt they will, we can always delay them.”
“Good.” Samantha slung her purse over her shoulder.
“We need to take another look at your budget if you’re so tight. You should be putting money away.” Walt stood up from the table.
“Yes, I know, but there was this sale.”
“We’ve talked about this, Samantha.” He smiled. “You’re supposed to call me, remember?”
“I remember.” Samantha sighed as she stepped out the door, then waited for him to join her. “But sometimes I don’t want to remember.”
“It always feels better to have a nest egg than to have a new blouse.”
“Give me some credit, it was shoes.” She grinned as she locked the door.
“Oh shoes, that makes it better.” Walt rolled his eyes. “I know you too well for that, Samantha. What was it really?” He followed her towards her car.
“Okay, I might have made a few too many donations this month. It’s just that people always have a cause, and what good is money if it’s not doing some kind of good?” She unlocked the doors to her car and settled in the driver’s seat.
“You’re a good person, Sam.” Walt buckled himself in beside her. “But you have to take care of you first.”
“I’ll work on it.” She flashed a smile at him. “Shall we invest in some property, honey?”
“Absolutely, darling.”
Chapter 10
Eddy sat outside the police station for a few minutes as he decided whether to go in. He was experiencing an incredible amount of conflict. With his history as a police officer, he knew how important it was for Detective Brunner to get the information that he needed. However, it was his freedom on the line, and he knew that he’d already done things that pushed the line of legal, not the least of which was keeping that one-hundred-dollar bill. When he finally climbed out of the car, his mind was still on the option of fleeing. But he noticed Detective Brunner in the lobby of the police station. He was a good man, and a good detective, there was no reason to suspect that he was corrupt. However, Eddy had seen great men taken down by greed. It started out small, but it snowballed fast. Was Detective Brunner one of those men?
Eddy was about to find out, because Detective Brunner spotted him, and pulled open the door.
“Eddy, thanks for coming in.” Detective Brunner held the door open for him.
“Sure.” Eddy stepped inside, then followed the detective down a hallway to a small office in the back of the station. Unlike an interrogation room, it had windows, and a desk. It felt more formal than he expected. Silently, he sat down across from the detective. If he’d learned anything while wearing a badge it was to keep his mouth shut when he might be in trouble.
“Wow, this whole thing is a mess.” Detective Brunner shook his head. “Try explaining to the police commissioner that someone was murdered at a party full of police officers. Trust me, it did not go well.”
“Sounds like a difficult situation.” Eddy shifted in his chair.
“Yes, I would say that it was. Which is
where you come in.” He sat back in his chair and eyed Eddy with a half-smile. “Isn’t it just my luck that one of the best men to ever wear the badge just happened to be at this party, too?”
“Hank Greer?” Eddy raised an eyebrow. “What does he have to do with me?”
“No, not Hank Greer.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’m talking about you, Eddy. You were there the entire time, weren’t you?”
“Me?” He chuckled. “Wow, you must really be desperate for information. Yes, I was there most of the time.”
“Most of the time? Where else were you?” His eyes, hawk-like, remained fixated on Eddy.
“Like I told you before I was outside waiting to meet Colin, but he never turned up.” He returned his gaze, just as steadily. “I was not in the hotel for some time. I did not go back in until the evacuation began.”
“Okay, let me get this straight.” The detective moved his pencil across the pad of paper in front of him, but Eddy could tell that he hadn’t actually written anything down, he’d just drawn a line. Was that an indication that he was about to cross one? “When you saw everyone running out of the hotel, you thought it was a good idea to go back inside? Even though you were aware that the police officers wanted the building cleared?”
“Yes.” He frowned. “I thought someone might need my help. I thought, my friend might need my help. You wear a badge, you know that the urge to help in a crisis doesn’t just turn off.”
“So, you went back in, to see if you could help?” He nodded. “But that still doesn’t explain why you were outside in the first place.”
Eddy stared hard at the man across from him. He knew that he had to make a decision now. He knew that Samantha would be asked the same question, and he imagined that she would answer honestly. So, the truth would come out eventually. If he refused to tell the truth now, then he might be faced with even more trouble later. But the important question remained. Could he trust Brunner? He was about to find out.
“I went outside to meet with Colin. He instructed me to wait ten minutes, then meet him in front of the hotel. I waited the ten minutes, then I went out to meet him in front of the hotel.” Eddy folded his hands across his slightly rounded stomach.
“Did he tell you why he wanted you to meet him outside the hotel?” He studied him intently.
“As I mentioned before, Colin was involved in something, that may or may not have to do with the police. He said we couldn’t discuss it there, with so many people around, so he wanted to speak to me privately.”
“And did Colin ever meet you?” He made another note on the paper. This time, it looked like he was actually writing something. It occurred to him that Brunner might be trying to build a timeline. If that was the case, then they may not have been able to pin down the time of Colin’s death.
“No, he didn’t. It was approximately thirty minutes after we arranged to meet outside that everyone began to run out of the hotel.” He eyed the paper. “So, it was approximately forty minutes after I’d last seen Colin. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for a murder and to cover your tracks.”
“It left enough, apparently.” He looked up from the paper and met Eddy’s eyes. “Thank you for working with me on this. You may very well be the last person that saw Colin alive.”
“That’s not possible.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Why not?” Detective Brunner’s tone became sharper.
“Because, I am not the one who killed him. The person who killed my friend, is the last person that saw him alive. Not me.”
“I see.” He cleared his throat.
“Sorry, Detective Brunner, your usual tactics are not going to work on me.”
“I guess you have experience on your side.” He set his pencil down.
“I have innocence on my side. I had nothing to do with Colin’s death, and the more time you spend trying to pin this on me, investigating me, the less likely it will be that you solve this crime.” He tapped his fingertip on the desk and looked into his eyes. “That is experience talking. It might be a good idea for you to listen.”
“Maybe in all of that experience you discovered for yourself that when you have a difficult witness, it usually means they know more than what they’re telling you.” He laid his hands flat on the table. “You’re not telling me everything, Eddy, and that means I need to keep my focus on you. If you’d like me to move on to a new suspect, then you should be more forthcoming. If Colin was really your friend, why wouldn’t you want to tell me everything? That’s what has me concerned, Eddy.”
“Colin was my friend.” Eddy stood up from his chair, though was careful not to appear threatening. “Don’t question that. My friend, Colin, stumbled on to something that got him killed. He felt as if I was the only one that he could turn to. What does that tell you, Detective?”
“It tells me that you think I might be a crooked cop.” Detective Brunner gazed up at him. “And I’m disappointed by that.”
“Then prove me wrong.” He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out the small flash drive. He placed it on the desk between them. “Think hard about whether you want to look at the information on here, because once you do, you’re not going to be able to back out.”
“What’s on it?” He picked it up and turned it between his fingertips.
“What Colin wanted to tell me, what I know about this.”
“I’ll take a look at it.” The detective kept his gaze on him. “But I still need to talk to Samantha.”
“Feel free.” He shrugged.
“Eddy, I don’t think I need to tell you that you need to be careful.” He tapped the drive lightly against the desk. “If you know the same things Colin did, you could be in danger as well.”
“I’m touched that you’re so concerned.” He narrowed his eyes. “You just do your job and find out what happened to my friend, who was a very good cop. All right?”
“I will.” Detective Brunner stood up from the table and offered his hand. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Good.” Eddy gave his hand a firm shake. “Watch your back, Detective.”
“You too.”
Eddy turned and left the office. Even as he approached his car he wondered if someone might rush him from behind and place him in handcuffs. Despite his lack of alibi, Detective Brunner hadn’t seemed that suspicious of him. Was that because he trusted Eddy, or was it because he knew who the real killer was?
Chapter 11
Jo ran her palm down along the snug, black shirt she wore. It matched the skin-tight, black pants she wore. Her long, dark hair was pulled back and tightly braided. One glance in the mirror told her she was prepared. One more check of the tools hidden on her belt assured her that she had everything she needed. As she left her villa she pulled a black baseball cap down low over her face. She walked away from her car in the driveway, then cut through the field between the lake and the parking lot. Even if she was spotted, no one would be able to recognize who she was. Once she was out of Sage Gardens she boarded a bus, careful to keep her face turned away from the camera in the corner. Twenty minutes later she stepped off the bus in a vastly different neighborhood.
Sage Gardens was situated in a suburban area, with a mixture of lower middle-class and middle-class families surrounding the retirement village. But the neighborhood she’d traveled to was filled with large houses stacked to the brim with all kinds of goodies that would be easy to fence. However, she ignored that lure. As a very skilled cat burglar she had committed her fair share of crimes, but only for the purpose of survival. Now she’d turned over a new leaf, and though she still felt a thrill as she made her way towards her target, her only goal was to help Eddy solve his friend’s murder.
Jo lingered outside the gate that surrounded the large house. She was quite familiar with the gates of these types of neighborhoods. Sure, it looked like they were there for the sake of security, but they actually served very little purpose, other than to make the owner feel more important. They all wanted to be kings and quee
ns of their castles.
The house itself was not difficult to access. A good guard dog would have made it much more of a challenge. Although there were plenty of cameras, they weren’t motion censored and pointed at stationary spots around the outside of the house. Glass sliding doors faced the pool on the rear patio. She knew she’d found her way in when she spotted them. They were the most vulnerable doors that she worked with. Most people forgot to lock them, or if they did, the locks were easily picked. Many times, they weren’t alarmed, or if they were the alarm was often turned off, due to heavy traffic going in and out of those doors. She noticed that there was an alarm connected to them, but the red light that would signal it was active was turned off. However, the door itself was locked, at least she thought it was when she gave it a tug. But it moved just a little too much to be locked. She noticed a bar in the tracks of the door and rolled her eyes. She pulled a long, thin, silver tool out and slid it between the door and the house. Once it was underneath the door, it took a sharp shove to knock the bar out of place. As it rolled across the tiled floor beyond the door, she worried that it might draw the attention of someone inside.
There was no car in the driveway, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a maid or someone else in the house. She allowed a few minutes to slide by. When there was no sign of movement inside, she shifted her focus to the door again. Now that the bar was out of the way it easily slid open. She braced herself for the possibility of an alarm going off, but was greeted with silence. The interior of the house was spacious, well-kept, and not as well-decorated as she expected. Greer had money, but he didn’t advertise it as much as those in his position would.
As Jo walked along the halls she noticed pictures that lined the walls. Most of them were of a boy, from infancy to adulthood. She guessed they were of the son Eddy had mentioned. Greer was in some of the pictures with him, but there was no evidence of a wife or mother. She guessed that Greer was divorced and he’d done his best to wipe the memory of his former spouse from his house. Was it once theirs? She glanced around again, but didn’t notice any hint of a feminine influence. Maybe he became crooked after their divorce. Maybe that was the impetus that had set him off the path of honesty.
