Rooted in Murder

by Emily James

  I filled Russ in, and he waved his hand in a go-ahead motion. He was probably glad we had an excuse for not loading the other two dead trees today.

  “We’ll be there,” I told Tom. “Did the police find anything that could point to who did this?”

  “Unfortunately not. They say there weren’t any signs of forced entry, and they asked Ashley and me a lot of questions about who could have had access to our keys. They’re not optimistic.”

  Not publicly, anyway. Elise had hinted to me afterward that she’d be finding out the name of Mr. Huffman’s other buyer and asking Ashley’s phone company for her records. Because phone records were about a person but not owned by a person, the police could get them without a warrant. If something fishy showed up on the phone records, it would enable Elise to get a warrant for Ashley’s bank accounts to check for strange deposits.

  Either way, the best thing we could do was get the papers signed and then not take our eyes off of them until they were in the hands of Mr. Huffman and his lawyer.

  I climbed into the cab of Russ’ truck, and my phone dinged with a text this time.

  I need you at Daphne’s house immediately, Grady wrote.

  With the car now found, there was nothing that could be so urgent it couldn’t wait until later this afternoon.

  In the middle of something, I wrote back. I can come around 4pm.

  The three dots that indicated Grady was writing a reply rolled on the screen. They stayed there long enough that I wasn’t sure if he planned to write anything more or if he’d started and abandoned the text. I hated how the dots sometimes stayed even when it became clear the other person wasn’t going to send whatever they’d written.

  The sound of a text arriving hit my ears before my eyes could focus on the words.

  They found a credit card belonging to Case Hammond in Lee Mills’ car.

  The hand holding my phone felt disconnected from the rest of my body. There was only one reason for Case’s credit card to be in that car—he’d been in the car and it fell out of his pocket. He hadn’t noticed it.

  And there was only one reason I could think of that Case Hammond would have been in Lee’s car—he’d killed Lee and driven his car to the spot where he pushed it into the lake.

  13

  My text telling Grady that this was actually good news in a way because they wouldn’t be looking at Daphne anymore for Lee’s murder was answered with a curt Get here ASAP.

  I signed all my papers first and arranged for Mr. Huffman to give Russ a ride back to Sugarwood. I drove Russ’ truck, dead sapling and all, to Daphne’s home.

  They must have been watching for me because Grady opened the door as soon as I pulled into the driveway. He still wore his police uniform.

  A tickle formed at the back of my throat. Something wasn’t right.

  I could understand Grady being upset. Someone he thought was his friend hid this from him all this time, even when the police were looking at Daphne. Grady might think Case wouldn’t have admitted the truth even if Daphne had been convicted.

  But Grady was here still in his uniform. He’d either come with the news directly after his shift ended or he’d left during his shift. To bring news that he shouldn’t have shared. As Chief McTavish loved to tell me, this was an open investigation, and the police didn’t share information involving an open investigation with civilians.

  Grady’s gaze hopped from my purple knee-high snow boots to my Uncle Stan’s oversized winter jacket that I wore when working at Sugarwood to my ear muffs. The smirk that crossed his face made me want to slam the door and go back home.

  No, I don’t look professional, you jerk, I wanted to say. You demanded I come right away.

  It almost erased all the goodwill he’d earned as I’d learned more about his childhood.

  I pushed past him and into the warm house. “What’s going on that couldn’t wait?”

  Daphne stood inside the door, near the bottom of the stairs. Neither she nor Grady shushed me. Gina must be at school.

  “I already told you what’s going on,” Grady said.

  Dear Lord, give me patience, I prayed. I didn’t need to be here if there was nothing else to say. I could have stayed and made sure we didn’t hit another snag with the farm purchase.

  Grady hooked his thumbs along his belt. “You weren’t supposed to get Case arrested in place of Daphne. That wasn’t the deal.”

  I slowly pulled off my work gloves and tucked them into my coat pockets. The deal was that I’d defend Daphne. Nowhere in any of our conversations had he said I should defend Daphne as long as it didn’t end up pointing the finger of blame at anyone on his mental list of other people. Besides, it wasn’t like I’d planted Case’s credit card in Lee Mills’ car. I hadn’t been anywhere around the car since they pulled it out of the lake. Chief McTavish made sure of that.

  Case must have been the one who left the threatening note on my car mirror, too. I hadn’t thought about him when I’d talked to Chief McTavish about people who knew I was searching for Lee Mills’ car, but Case had been here when I asked Daphne about it.

  This crime seemed solved. All that was left for me to do was to help them accept it.

  I angled my body toward Grady first, facing him straight-on, professional to professional. “I know it can be hard to find out that someone you trusted lied to you—believe me, I do—but that credit card is pretty condemning evidence, especially if the police check the records and find out the last time it was used was the day of Lee’s murder.” I shifted a little so that I could make eye contact with Daphne. “I think he even left a threatening message for me after I was here last time. He knew I planned to look for Lee’s car. He didn’t want anyone finding it because he knew what they’d find in it.”

  “Case didn’t kill Lee.” Daphne’s voice had the thick quality of someone who’d been crying and couldn’t clear their head. “And we left that note for you together. Or, at least, I told him what to write.”

  All along I’d had a feeling Daphne hadn’t told me the whole truth. Now I was sure. My parents would drop a client who lied to them like this. They’d certainly drop any client who threatened them. Normally I would, too, but that danged favor hung over my head like my own personal storm cloud. “Why wouldn’t you have just told me what was going on? I took the message on my mirror to the police because I thought the car would help clear you.”

  Daphne hung her head.

  Grady pointed to the coat rack. “Finish taking off your stuff. I told her she has to explain it all to you.”

  I left my coat and boots behind and followed them back to a living room I was becoming all too familiar with.

  This time I took the armchair before anyone else could. Based on the way the living room was laid out, it felt like the position of authority, and I’d let my sense of obligation to Grady rule this whole situation for far too long. “I need to know it all this time, or I’m done.” I met Grady’s gaze. “Favor or no favor.”

  The look on his face said he wished pirates and walking the plank were still a thing because he’d love to see me fed to the sharks. But he kept his mouth shut. It seemed like his love for his sister was kryptonite to his pride.

  Daphne grabbed two tissues from a box beside the couch. “I told you most of the truth. Lee and I hooked up that night, and I admitted to him that I was pregnant. He didn’t want me to keep the baby, we argued, and I left.” She swallowed and dabbed the tissues under her nose. “What I didn’t tell you was that I went back.”

  Little black dots swam in my vision. All I could do was pray she wasn’t about to tell me she’d gone back and cracked Lee in the temple. Or that she’d told Case what happened and he went back and killed Lee for her. I’d made a promise, but I didn’t want to defend someone who was guilty, and I’d have to try to convince her to take a plea bargain. Conspiracy to commit murder carried the same penalty as being the one to pull the trigger. Or in this case, make the killing blow.

  Daphne sniffled. �
��I got partway to town and decided I didn’t want my baby to grow up without a dad the way I had. I shouldn’t have stormed off. I should have stayed and talked it through with him. I was sure he’d see it my way if I tried hard enough.”

  A bitter edge had entered her voice. In hindsight, she probably knew better, but she’d been young and scared and desperate.

  “Go on,” I said softly. “It’s better if you tell me everything.”

  Daphne nodded. “I should have told you from the start, but I hadn’t even told Grady. Not until tonight. Case and I agreed we’d never tell anyone.”

  A chill swept over me like I’d stepped out into a sub-zero night without a coat on. No sentence that included we agreed never to tell anyone could possibly lead to something good.

  Beyond that, we were going to have a much bigger problem if they had killed Lee. She’d already told Grady whatever she was about to tell me. He could be forced to testify against her.

  “You let her tell you?” I said. I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice. Or the disappointment.

  Grady’s normally plank-straight posture hunched. “I didn’t know what she was going to say until it was too late. I came over because I wanted her to hear the news about Case from me.”

  Daphne’s gaze bounced between us. “Why is that bad?”

  “We have to make sure no one else knows that I know, okay?” Grady moved around the couch and sat next to her, showing solidarity. “Tell her the rest.”

  Grady seemed to have the same problem with my first name as Chief McTavish, but for different reasons. Using my first name would make us seem like friends. Using my last name gave me a level of respect he wasn’t willing to dole out.

  Daphne pulled her legs up onto the couch to sit cross-legged, the way she had the first night we met. “By the time I walked back…” Her hands shook. She glanced back at Grady. “Why doesn’t it get easier to tell?”

  She took his hand. I had to give him big brother points for the fact that she’d grabbed his hand with the hand that she had the tissues in and he didn’t even flinch.

  Daphne’s knuckles turned white. “Lee was dead by the time I got back. There’s was blood all over his face. His clothes. I panicked. I knew if I called the police, they’d blame me. My DNA was all over his car. We’d had a public fight. I was carrying his baby. And I had no money to hire a real lawyer.”

  The side of me that still doubted my abilities as a lawyer tried to tell me this was game over. That either she or Case or both of them were going to prison for Lee’s murder.

  But the part of me that didn’t know how to quit whispered that this was a partial win. I now knew a very precise time of death. I held on to that part.

  I still hadn’t heard the whole story, but I had a feeling I knew where this was headed now. “So you called Case?”

  “Grady was away. Case was the only other person I trusted. He worked as a dispatcher. I knew he’d know what to do.”

  He should have known to call the police. Then again, I’d been raised by two successful criminal defense attorneys. I’d never had to be afraid I wouldn’t have someone to stick up for me. My parents might not have been the most emotionally supportive people, but they’d proven that, when I really needed them, they would be there.

  Daphne pulled out more tissues with her free hand. It looked like she didn’t plan to continue, like she wanted me to fill in the gaps about what happened next.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, “but I have to hear it all.”

  “We buried Lee in the field, and then I drove Case’s car while he drove Lee’s. Case thought it would be better that way. If anyone recognized Lee’s car and saw a man driving it, they’d assume it was Lee. We pushed the car off a bluff and into the lake to make it look like Lee left town.”

  That was improper disposal of a body at the very least. I wasn’t sure exactly what it would be for dumping a car into the lake, but destruction of evidence for certain. This wasn’t good. Even though they hadn’t killed Lee, they were looking at fines and jail time. Case would lose his job.

  “What do we do now?” Daphne’s voice had a desperate edge to it that I hadn’t heard before, even when she was being questioned by the police. “How do we fix this?”

  I didn’t know if we could fix this. They were guilty, just not of murder.

  And I wasn’t as sure as Daphne was that Case hadn’t killed Lee to protect her. I had a suspicion he loved her now, and he’d loved her then.

  Until I could sort out exactly what had happened, we needed to keep this from getting any worse. “First, I need to text Case and tell him to exercise his right to remain silent. I can represent him, but you both need to sign a waiver. It’s a conflict of interest to represent you both otherwise. And if you two have any sort of feelings for each other, I’d consider a quick wedding. If you’re married, they can’t force you to testify against each other.”

  14

  The look Chief McTavish gave me when Case and I walked out of the station was one that said he’d never be doing me a favor again. I’d basically promised him that Lee Mills’ car would solve this case for him, and then once he found evidence, I’d had to stonewall him.

  I hadn’t allowed Case to say anything, and I’d provided a list of all the other ways Case’s credit card could have gotten into Lee’s car that night. Case could have dropped it there some other time. Lee could have stolen it—he did have a record of theft. Whoever really killed Lee could have stolen it and planted it there to frame Case.

  What I wasn’t able to prevent was Case being put on administrative suspension pending further investigation. That investigation would eventually turn up when Case’s credit card was last active, and half my excuses for how it got there would be wiped away.

  My parents would have called the interview a win. In fact, if I called them and told them about what I’d done, I knew they’d be proud of me. Their praise was so hard to earn that I almost made the call.

  Until I remembered the way I felt sitting across from Chief McTavish and knowing he felt I tricked him. It left me feeling like I had a coating of slime on my skin that wouldn’t wash off.

  Instead, as soon as Case and I parted ways, I called Mark. “I really need takeout tonight.”

  “I’m on my way home. I’ll swing by A Salt & Battery and meet you there.”

  I tried to pretend there hadn’t been a touch of relief in his voice. Tonight had been my night to cook again, and considering I only knew how to cook three dishes, he’d probably been dreading that we were going to be eating soggy spaghetti and meatballs again.

  By the time I got home, Mark had already taken the dogs out for a quick walk and fed them. For all the changes that required some getting used to—like we went through groceries twice as fast and had to do laundry twice as often—the good definitely outweighed the challenges. It was nice to come home and not have to worry about the dogs or about dinner some nights.

  I updated Mark on getting the documents signed, and then silence fell again. I glanced up from my fish and chips. Mark was watching me.

  He reached a hand out toward me. I placed my palm in his.

  “I think I figured it out,” he said. “Why you’re so quiet and down tonight.”

  He couldn’t mean the weird situation with the farm sale. We actually had positive progress in that direction.

  “At first I thought I’d done something you were angry about.” He stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. “But you’re not the kind of person to give the silent treatment when you’re angry.”

  He knew me well enough to know I rarely held anything in. I was more likely to blurt than I was to stew. I was going to get an ulcer if I had to keep going the way I was not telling him about my cases. “I’m not angry. It’s—”

  “Your requirement for client confidentiality.” He flashed me a smile with full dimples. “I figured it out when you told me about the trees and then that you only stayed long enough to sign your spaces on the paperwork. Given
all that’s going on, you wouldn’t have left unless something more important pulled you away.”

  If Mark had been paunchy and bald with acne but still had the same mind, I would have married him. The fact that he was handsome was an added bonus. “In the past, I was either working with the police so we could talk openly or you weren’t involved in the case, and I got permission from my client to share details. This time, we’re working on opposite sides in a way we haven’t been before. I didn’t know how to handle it.”

  It felt like I should have known how to handle this, but I’d grown up with parents who worked together. They’d never had to keep things from each other in the name of confidentiality.

  Mark squeezed my hand. “We all go through it at some point. It’s harder when you’re married.”

  He’d gone through this before with Laura. If I hadn’t had so many issues jumbled up in my mind, I probably would have remembered that sooner. He knew what it was like to have to find the balance with your spouse of sharing an important part of your life without violating your professional responsibilities. “So how do I find the line?”

  He let my hand go and ate another bite. Mark hated it when food got cold. It was one of his endearing quirks. I often took cold pasta from the fridge for a snack. My cooking was actually better the next day.

  “I ask myself if what I want to tell you is public knowledge. I can tell you I went to the site of an accident. I can tell you the police don’t think it was an accident. I can’t tell you the identity of the victims until the police release the names, and I can’t tell you anything they’re going to hold back from the press.”

  The circumstances would be a bit trickier for me. Sometimes clients told me things other people knew that weren’t exactly common knowledge. I’d have to make my best guess and trust that my heart and instincts would work together.

  “I’m representing Case Hammond along with Daphne Scherwin for the murder of Lee Mills,” I blurted.

  Mark’s fork wobbled. “I’d heard a rumor that Case was on suspension. I thought it was just a rumor. He’s a good guy.”