Roadkill

by Cheryl Bradshaw

  I had every intention of responding until Ford made eye contact, signaling me to leave it alone, to let Seth go. I didn’t want to, but the detective was right, so I did. Seth walked out the front door, letting it slam behind him.

  I poured myself a cup of coffee and rejoined Ford at the table. “I understand what Seth’s going through. I wasn’t as close as I could have been with my sister lately, but I thought I knew her better.”

  “It’s like I told Mr. Granger; we aren’t certain of anything yet. Take Jonas, for example. He has two bullet wounds—one in the chest, one in the head. Now, I could take a guess and say he shot himself in the chest intending to end his life, and when that didn’t work, he tried a second time, and shot himself in the head. Doesn’t seem logical, though. Does it?”

  “I thought the same thing when I found him. Do you have any other theories?”

  He took another gulp of coffee and leaned toward me. “You’re the ME. Do you?”

  I did.

  “There are only two possibilities, aren’t there? Either he committed suicide like the note suggests, or he was murdered. If my sister was sleeping with Jonas and decided she was overwhelmed with guilt and left to start a new life without either of them, it doesn’t explain where the bag full of money you found in her car came from. And why move to Colorado when she had me in Utah? It’s extreme. Too extreme. She could have sought refuge at my place and explained what happened. If she was in a jam, she knew I would be there for her. Sure, Jonas said he ran her off the road like a jealous maniac. I met him yesterday, and he fits the jealous-maniac type. But I still don’t believe he committed suicide.”

  Ford finished the rest of his coffee and set the empty mug down. “Detective Whitaker of the LVMPD has agreed to work with me on this. We’re sending over everything we have. In return, they’ll share with us what they know on their end.”

  I nodded. “What do you have so far?”

  “Not much. We’re still waiting on the forensics results from the scene of the crash to come back. They’ve ordered a search warrant for Mr. Parr’s house and one for your brother in law’s.”

  “I figured they would.”

  He wagged a finger at me. “You’ve had plenty of time to snoop around this place, and I assume you did. What did you find in the house? Anything I should know about?”

  I smiled. “What makes you think I found anything?”

  “Did you, or didn’t you?”

  “There were several slinky cocktail dresses hidden inside one of her suitcases in the closet. Seth had never seen them before, which means she didn’t wear them around him. I still can’t believe they belonged to her, though they were the right size. I mean, I’ve never seen her dress that way.”

  “Your brother-in-law is a trucker a few days a week, and she was here alone. You ever consider maybe she had a different life with the neighbor like he’s alleged, a secret one that no one knew about? I’ve found in cases like this that sometimes people want an escape from routine, from who they are—somewhere they can be someone different. Vegas is the perfect place.”

  “Who knows? It’s getting so surreal, I’d almost believe anything is possible at this point.”

  “So, skimpy dresses. Suppose it wouldn’t hurt to do DNA testing on them. Anything else?”

  “There was a piece of jewelry inside one of the dresses. A tennis bracelet. I showed it to Seth, and he said that he thought I’d bought it for her—that’s what she told him. But I didn’t. Then, about a week ago, Seth found a business card for a jeweler in Juliette’s car. I’m thinking that’s where the bracelet came from.”

  “Can I see it?”

  I nodded, walked to the bedroom, and retrieved it for him. “It looks a lot more expensive than they can afford, and I don’t think she would have bought something this extravagant for herself. I believe it was a gift.”

  “What kind of money does Seth make?”

  I shrugged. “In the seventies, I think. Definitely less than a hundred thousand a year.”

  “And your sister?”

  “She didn’t work.”

  I grabbed both coffee cups and rinsed them in the sink. Ford rose from the table. “I think we’re on to something here. What happened to your sister and your niece still troubles me, even now after Mr. Parr’s pathetic explanation. I don’t feel the resolve I usually do when these things happen.”

  “I feel the same way, like there are far more things we don’t know than things we do.”

  He walked over to me, took my hand in his, and looked me in the eye. “I’m sorry for all you’re going through.”

  I felt the tears coming. There was nothing I could do to stop them now.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he said. “I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but it will be.”

  It wouldn’t be, though. No matter what we uncovered moving forward, I’d still lost my sister and my niece. For as much as I wanted to believe Nora was out there somewhere, still alive, in my experience, the odds weren’t in my favor.

  “Will you give me the name of the jeweler?” he asked.

  “If I do, can I come with you?”

  He crossed the room and opened the front door, then turned back and stared at me. “Just give me the name. I can let you know what I find out.”

  “I don’t want to know what you find out, I want to be there—hear it for myself.”

  I knew what he was thinking. He thought he would get more information if he went alone. I waited for the “no” to come, and then he said, “Okay, fine. Let’s get going then.”

  CHAPTER 31

  I had no reason to believe Jonas’s note wasn’t legitimate, but there were little things I couldn’t reconcile in my mind. Where did the money come from that the police found in Juliette’s car? Who gave it to her? If she’d been having an affair with Jonas, was he the one who gave her the tennis bracelet? I needed it to all make sense. And right now, it didn’t.

  I changed into something a bit more sophisticated, piled on enough makeup to conceal my puffy eyes, and met Ford at the car. Minutes later, we walked through the doors of Strand Jewelry. On first glance, I realized it was much different than I’d imagined. It was decadent, glamorous, and three floors high. Every woman’s dream. It felt almost like I could look over and catch Audrey Hepburn perusing through cases of diamonds, had she still been alive.

  Six women milled around the main-level sales floor. All of them were dressed in ivory and wore their hair in tight, neat buns. We approached a pint-sized woman who stood behind a counter where women’s wedding rings were on display. Her eyes glimmered then dulled when Ford asked to speak to the manager. She disappeared into a back room and reappeared a few minutes later with a silver-haired man who looked to be in his sixties. He wore a dark suit, a cream dress shirt, and large diamond-stud earrings.

  He approached us and stuck his hand out. “Hello, I’m Gerald. You wanted to see me?”

  Ford nodded. “There’s something I’d like to discuss with you. Is there a room where we could speak privately?”

  He ushered us into a side office and grabbed two bottles of sparkling water, a gesture meant to woo his new potential customers. He sat across from us at the table, laced his fingers together, and grinned. “What can I do for the two of you today? Celebrating a special occasion, perhaps?”

  I reached into my pocket, retrieved the piece of jewelry, and held it out in my hand. “Do you sell this bracelet?”

  Gerald leaned in for a closer look. “May I?”

  I handed it to him. He studied it for a moment. “It’s a fine piece, but it’s not ours.”

  I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of disappointment. “I was hoping you would recognize it.”

  “Why do you think the bracelet came from here?”

  “I found it in my sister’s things, and she had your business card in her car.”

  “Why don’t you just ask your sister where she got it?”

  I bit my lip.

  Keep it togethe
r.

  “I can’t ask her. She’s dead.”

  His eyes widened. “Oh. I’m sorry to hear it.”

  “There are three floors to this building,” Ford said. “Are they all for the jewelry business?”

  Gerald nodded. “We sell new jewelry on the main level, resale items on the second, and the third is for repairs.”

  “When you say resale, do you mean consignment?”

  “Oh no. I mean we purchase high-end pieces from our customers and resell them.”

  I flipped through my phone, found a photo of Juliette, and showed it to him. “Have you ever bought or sold jewelry to this woman?”

  Gerald glanced at the photo, trying to act casual when he saw her face, even though his reaction gave him away. He had seen her before. Ford seemed to pick up on it too.

  “I ... let’s see,” Gerald said. “She may have been in here before. We don’t discuss our clients.”

  Ford gestured to me. “Like Miss Hart said, there’s no need to protect her privacy anymore.”

  “Even so, there’s not much I can tell you.”

  Ford tossed his badge onto the desk. “What about now?”

  Gerald leaned back in his chair, repeatedly tapping a finger to his lips. He was nervous. I wondered why.

  He looked at me. “What was your sister’s name?”

  “Juliette Granger.”

  “Wait a minute.” The look on his face indicated he’d just made a connection between her name and the photo. “Is she the woman who was in the horrific car accident—the one they lifted out of the canyon yesterday?”

  “She is,” Ford said.

  “When I saw her picture on TV, I thought she looked familiar. I just knew I’d seen her before.”

  “So have you done business with her or not?”

  He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I really shouldn’t tell you anything, even if she’s no longer alive. It’s ... well ... it’s just for the best. I don’t know how I can help. I already told you the bracelet isn’t one of ours.”

  I leaned in, fed him even more information. “My sister may have been murdered, okay? So whatever or whomever you’re protecting, it’s not worth it.”

  He froze for a moment and then rushed to the office door and closed it before returning to the table. “What do you mean—murdered?”

  “We need to know if she ever bought or sold anything from you,” Ford said. “If you tell me what I want to know, right here and now, I won’t have to walk you out of here in front of all your employees and continue this conversation elsewhere.”

  Gerald took a long breath in. “All right. Fine. I met with her several days ago. She brought in a handful of pieces and said she was interested in selling them. They were impressive. Very high-end.”

  “Did she tell you where they came from or why she wanted to get rid of them?”

  “We don’t ask personal questions. I do recall her saying she had far too much jewelry and didn’t need it all anymore. Some of the pieces she brought in were newer, meaning they were only made in the last year or two. The fact she wanted to get rid of them so soon surprised me.”

  “What did she sell to you?”

  He pressed a button on a keyboard in front of him. The computer screen lit up. He typed in her name and pulled up an invoice. “She brought in a Cartier watch, several pairs of earrings, a few necklaces, and a bracelet.”

  “How much did you pay her?”

  “According to this invoice, we gave her a check for sixty-eight thousand dollars.”

  Ford and I exchanged glances. We now knew where the money in the backpack came from, but not who gave her the jewelry in the first place.

  “And you’re sure she never mentioned the name of the person who gave the jewelry to her or where she got it?”

  He shook his head.

  “I’d like to believe you,” Ford said.

  “You can,” Gerald said. “I didn’t say anything before because I meant it when I said we value the privacy of our customers. When you showed me your badge ... well ... that’s different, isn’t it?”

  We thanked him for his time, and Ford provided Gerald with his business card in case there were any additional details he remembered later.

  On our way out, Gerald said, “Hold on a moment. There’s one more thing I should say, especially after what you just shared with me.”

  We turned.

  “What is it?” Ford asked.

  “When your sister was here, I could tell she was going through a hard time.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “She seemed worried and nervous, though she never said why. Her phone rang once, and she practically leapt out of the chair she was sitting in. I asked her if everything was okay, and she started crying. I handed her a tissue, she thanked me, and then she took the check I made out to her and left. I remember thinking she must have been going through a divorce. Whether I was right or wrong, whatever was going on in her life that day, she was definitely on edge.”

  CHAPTER 32

  “I went to the jewelry store.” I paused, waiting for a reply. Seth didn’t offer one, but I could hear him breathing. He was angry. “Did you hear me?”

  “Yep, I heard you.”

  “Well? Do you want to know what I found out?”

  “I thought we were supposed to go together. You went behind my back.”

  “I wanted to go together. You left, and I wasn’t sure when you’d be back, so I went with Ford. We’re just trying to get information.”

  I heard a click, and the phone line went dead. I dialed his number again. He didn’t answer. I hit the redial button one more time, and though he didn’t speak, I could tell he’d answered this time. “Seth, don’t hang up. Listen to me, okay?”

  “You said you wanted to go with me, meaning we would go together.”

  “I wasn’t sure if you’d go at all. I wasn’t even sure you wanted to anymore.”

  “If you could have had a speck of patience, you would have found out.”

  “I couldn’t sit around thinking about what happened. It was making me crazy. I needed to get out of the house and do something productive, same as you.”

  “I don’t care. You should have waited. Maybe the idea of us staying at the house together wasn’t a good one. I think I need to be alone.”

  “Okay, fine. Do you want to know what I found out or not?”

  There was another long pause. “I guess.”

  “Meet me at the house in thirty minutes.”

  “I can’t. I’m working on a few things.”

  “What things?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Tell me what the jeweler said.”

  I told him. When I finished, he said, “Well, isn’t that fantastic? I guess what Jonas said is true, then. He probably gave the bracelet to her, and all the other items she sold.”

  “The jeweler said she received a call while she was there. She seemed scared. Did Jonas have a temper?”

  “Don’t think so, but it’s possible, I guess. He’s not who I thought he was, so who knows what the guy was really like.”

  “I’m just wondering if she may have tried to end the relationship, and he turned violent.”

  “She’s dead, and he was there when it happened, so who knows?”

  He sounded defeated and numb, like he didn’t care about anything anymore. It worried me. “When will you be home?”

  “Soon,” he said.

  And the call ended.

  CHAPTER 33

  On the drive home, I pressed Ford for information. “I want to know who called my sister when she was at the jewelry store. The manager gave us the date and the approximate time. You should look up her phone records and find out.”

  “Already done. I contacted a friend at the phone company. She emailed me everything about an hour ago.”

  “And?”

  “Jonas Parr’s phone records show nothing significant. Most of his calls were to his wife and his friends. There’s nothing out of the ordinary.”r />
  “How many times did he call Juliette?”

  “Zero.”

  “They allegedly had an affair, and you’re telling me he made no calls to her. Not a single one. Wouldn’t you consider that out of the ordinary?”

  “If they were keeping their love affair a secret, maybe they made a rule not to call each other. They lived on the same street, and they were both married. It’s not like one of them couldn’t have walked over when they needed to talk.”

  “What about my sister’s phone records? Did you check them too?”

  “I did, and I discovered the same thing. If they were seeing each other, they did a damn good job of keeping it quiet.”

  CHAPTER 34

  Seth couldn’t remember the last time he’d sat in a bar alone. Five years? More? With a wife and a daughter at home, and the fact he wasn’t as young as he used to be, it just wasn’t something he cared to do, and he’d never been much of a drinker. But today he drank.

  As he knocked back his fourth beer, he wondered how many more it would take to detach from life all together. So far it wasn’t working. He considered leaving, buying a twelve-pack at the store, and finishing in the privacy of his own home, but he assumed Raine would be there, and he didn’t need her telling him what he should or shouldn’t be doing.

  It was clear she was still looking for answers. He wasn’t. Over the last couple of hours he’d accepted Jonas and Juliette had been keeping an affair from him, and that Juliette had lost her life because of it. He was no longer interested in hearing anything more about what transpired between them. All he wanted to know was what happened to his daughter. For now, Raine could stay and help him with the funeral arrangements if she wanted. Then she needed to be gone.

  The thought of a funeral for a daughter with no body to bury was hard to imagine. How could he mourn? How could he grieve? What did he have to live for now when everything he cared for in life had been taken from him?