Red, White, and Blue Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  Lucy picked up her phone and sighed. “Ed just texted me. He wants to leave early for his dentist appointment.” She turned to me. “Can you catch a ride home with Alec?”

  “Sure,” I said and turned to Alec. “Right?”

  He nodded. “Sure thing.”

  “I guess I’ve got to go back down those stairs.” She sighed and stood up. “All right then, I’ll see you both later. Keep me informed on what’s going on, Allie.”

  “See you,” we both said as she headed out.

  “So?” I asked when she had closed the door behind herself. “What did Roger say?”

  He nodded. “He said his air conditioning was working just fine.”

  I groaned. “Don’t make me drag it out of you. What did he say? What’s going on with the case?”

  He shook his head. “You’re far too nosy for your own good.”

  “I know. You tell me that all the time. Stop stalling.”

  He smiled. “Roger did a background check on Mike Towers back in Omaha. He has a contact there, and he said Mike had been arrested for vandalism to the high school.”

  “Vandalism to the high school? First, he gets into fights at school, and they don’t expel him. Now he’s tearing the high school apart and they still don’t expel him? That’s either the luckiest kid in the world, or he’s got something they want.”

  “What he’s got is football talent,” he reminded me.

  “Of course. I forgot.”

  “That and his father makes donations to their math program.”

  “Math program? What kind of donations? And exactly what do they need them for?” I asked.

  “Mathletes. The kids go to statewide competitions. It’s a big thing.”

  “So, dad is a math whiz? Otherwise, he wouldn’t be donating to their math programs, right?” I asked and took a sip of my coffee. Alec was right. This was wonderful.

  He nodded. “His father works for a computer company and he is a math whiz in his own right. But his son loves athletics, and he’s very good at what he does, too.”

  “So the high school isn’t going to suspend him for both reasons. They don’t want to lose the money that dad donates, and the kid is an excellent athlete,” I surmised.

  He nodded. “Exactly.”

  “That stinks for the kids in that school that are getting beat up by this kid.” I took another long drink of my coffee. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to drink the entire thing all at once.

  “Nope,” he said. “But when he got arrested, it was kind of tough for everybody all the way around. How do you justify keeping a kid like that in school?”

  “How did they justify keeping him in school?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I don’t have an answer for that, I just know that they didn’t expel him.”

  I sighed. “It’s just crazy. What else? Who’s your top suspect?”

  “My top suspect is the boy, for obvious reasons. He’s a troublemaker, he has anger issues, and he couldn’t get along with either of his parents. Mr. Towers might be in trouble if he’s not careful with that kid.”

  “Really?” I said, thinking about this. “I hate for it to be him, but he has gotten himself into an awful lot of trouble and it doesn’t seem to faze him any. Sounds like he isn’t trying to change his ways, or at least, it's not apparent that he’s trying. And since the kid is an athlete, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to have the strength to plunge that knife into her chest and then sprint to the water to clean up.”

  “That’s true, too.”

  “What about Julie Sommers?” I asked. “What about her? There’s something not right with her, either.”

  He nodded. “Funny thing about Julie. She has a bit of a criminal record as well. Seems in her younger days she liked to stalk people.”

  I leaned forward in my seat. “I told you Mr. Winters said she had a record. What do you mean by stalk people? And who did she stalk?”

  “Dave Jones,” he said, sitting back in his chair.

  My mouth dropped open. “Really? And yet he’s coming over to her house now when Anita was here during the summers?”

  He nodded. “That would appear to be the case.”

  “This just gets weirder and weirder by the minute,” I said. “And what exactly did she do to get arrested?”

  “She kept showing up at his house in the middle of the night. She was eighteen, so she was an adult, but he still lived at home and his parents called the police and had her arrested.”

  I sighed. “So Julie had a crush on him back in high school, and Anita dated him back in high school, and now Anita was most likely having an affair with him. And it may have been going on right there in Julie’s house. Either there are a lot of coincidences in this story, or there’s a lot of weirdness.”

  He chuckled. “At this point, I think we’re probably pretty low on coincidences. I’m going to have another talk with Julie and Dave.”

  “Oh, can I come along?” I asked, sitting on the edge of my seat. “I’ll be good. I bet Julie killed Anita because she has always wanted to be with Dave. She just couldn’t take it anymore. Jack had better keep an eye on her or he could be next.”

  “I’m not going to take you with me. And I expect what I said to be kept in the strictest of confidence. I am, after all, under contract with the police department.”

  “You can’t keep things from me,” I protested.

  He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “Oh? I can’t?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You better not. I’m helping you investigate.” I filled him in on what I found out from Dave and he listened, nodding now and then.

  “I suppose another round of interviews for everyone is in order,” he said when I finished.

  I nodded. “Right? I think everybody is lying. Everybody is making things up about their relationship to one another. Maybe they’re all guilty. Maybe that’s why they all say they don’t know anything and didn’t see anything. They‘re all in on it together.” The thought had just occurred to me and at this point, it wouldn’t have surprised me.

  He chuckled. “I doubt it. No way would they all be able to keep their mouths shut. Someone would break under the pressure of a murder investigation and point a finger at the others. Believe me, when two or more people commit a crime, there’s always a weak link and that weak link always breaks and spills everything they know.”

  He had a point. Personally, I thought Julie would be that weak link. She had weak written all over her. I could have been wrong. Maybe she was tough as nails and just appeared to be the weakest person. But I didn’t think so.

  “Well, you’ve got your work cut out for you. You’ve got a bunch of crazy people and you’ve got to sort out which one is crazier than all the others and committed the murder,” I told him.

  There was a part of me that hoped Mike Towers hadn’t killed his mother.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “How about an ice cream?” We were in Alec’s car, headed to my house. After I’d visited and sweated with him for a while at his office, he was taking me home.

  “An ice cream?” I said thoughtfully. “You don’t mean an ice cream down at Zales, do you?”

  “The only place to get really good ice cream around here,” he confirmed. He pulled into the parking lot and we got out of the car.

  Zales was an old-fashioned ice cream parlor on the boardwalk. They had vintage wrought-iron tables and chairs painted white with pink and white striped vinyl cushions on the seats. I don’t know how they had found so many of these little table and chair sets, but they were adorable. The ice cream was made in small batches and they currently had twenty-six flavors in the freezers.

  I stood on tiptoe to look at the ice cream in the back of the freezer. All the ice cream at Zales was made on the premises with fresh ingredients. It was a little pricey, but it was worth every penny.

  “What are you thinking about having?” Alec asked, his eyes on the ice cream at the front of the freezer.

&n
bsp; “I’m thinking about Hawaiian freeze or strawberry delight. They both look delicious.” Hawaiian freeze had pineapple, mangoes, coconut, and tiny pink marshmallows in it. The strawberry delight had fresh strawberries and pastel-colored sprinkles mixed throughout.

  “You can solve your dilemma by getting a scoop of each,” Alec suggested.

  “Not a bad idea. What are you going to get?”

  “I’ve got my eye on vanilla sunrise, and maybe chocolate explosion.”

  “What’s in the vanilla sunrise?”

  “Vanilla bean, vanilla candy chips, and bits of mandarin orange-flavored candy.”

  “That sounds good,” I said, peering at the bucket of ice cream he was looking at.

  “I believe I’m going to get a scoop of each in a waffle cone bowl,” he said looking up at the menu board on the wall “And then maybe I’ll have some chocolate sauce poured over the top.”

  “You’re going all out this afternoon, aren’t you?” I asked.

  He nodded. “When you come to Zales, there’s no other way to do it. Besides that, I suffered in the heat of my office most of the day and this will help me cool off.”

  He had a point about Zales. Go big or go home, was their motto. When the girl behind the counter dressed in a pink and white striped apron came to wait on us, we gave her our orders and Alec paid for it. I turned around and looked for an empty table and found one near a window. We headed to it. As soon as I sat down, my eye caught Mike Towers sitting in the corner at a table by himself. He had an enormous bowl of ice cream on the table in front of himself and he was staring at his phone.

  “Look over there,” I said, nodding in Mike’s direction.

  Alec followed my gaze. “Huh.”

  “I forgot to tell you that Lucy and I ran into him at Henry’s the other morning. He was eating a banana split, and he ran out on the bill. I paid for it, of course, I didn’t want Cynthia to be stuck with the bill. It wasn’t much money, anyway.”

  He looked at me, one eyebrow raised and glanced over at Mike again. He turned back to me. “You wouldn’t think a kid that has all the benefits in life like he does would behave that way.”

  “Right?” I said. “Do you really think he did it?”

  He shrugged and put an enormous scoop of chocolate explosion ice cream in his mouth. He started nodding as he ate it.

  “Good?”

  He held up his thumb and forefinger, making a zero, and nodded. When he swallowed he said, “They make the best ice cream here.”

  “They certainly do,” I said and took a taste of my Hawaiian sunrise. “This is wonderful.”

  “But it's not as good as mine,” he said.

  I shrugged. “Maybe not, but it’s pretty tasty. Now, what do you think? Do you think he did it?”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” he said, glancing at him again. “Keep an eye on him. If he looks like he’s getting ready to leave, let me know.”

  I nodded, and we worked on eating our ice cream. The scoops were enormous, but I wasn’t intimidated. I’d finish it if it was the last thing I did. After this, we could skip dinner entirely. I just wouldn’t tell my kids that I ate ice cream instead of a nutritious dinner.

  When we finally made it to the bottom of the waffle cone bowls, Alec broke his bowl apart and began eating it. “I can’t leave the bowl behind. These are the best waffle cone bowls I’ve ever eaten.”

  “I love the vanilla in them,” I said. The cones tasted similar to what you could get at the grocery store, except that these were so incredibly fresh and the flavor of vanilla was dominant.

  When we finished, I sighed. “I won’t be able to eat again for a while.”

  He chuckled. “It’s only four o’clock. It will be dinner time soon.”

  I laughed. “You’re out of your mind. I’m stuffed. Aren’t you?”

  He nodded. “To tell you the truth, I am.” He glanced over his shoulder again, but Mike was still sitting at the table with most of his ice cream eaten, staring at his phone. “Well, there’s only one thing left to do.”

  Alec got up, and I followed him as he headed over to Mike’s table. When we stopped in front of his table, he looked up from his phone. He grimaced when he realized who we were. “What do you two want?”

  “I know your mother taught you better manners than that,” I said and I sat down in the chair across from him without asking.

  Alec sat next to me. “How are you doing, Mike?”

  He sighed and slammed his phone down on the table. “Great. Just great. Of course, I was doing better until the two of you showed up.”

  “You aren’t very friendly, are you?” I asked him. “How many scoops of ice cream did you get in that thing?” I asked, peering into his bowl. He had bought the biggest waffle cone bowl they carried and must have had at least eight or nine scoops of ice cream in it. I couldn’t imagine eating all of that.

  “What’s it to you?”

  I shrugged and looked at Alec. “What’s it to you?”

  Alec leaned back in his chair. “Mike, what’s going on? Why all the anger? What’s going on in your life that makes you so angry?”

  “What, are you my shrink? What business is it of yours if I’m angry?” He picked up his spoon and shoved a big spoonful of chocolate ice cream into his mouth.

  Alec crossed his legs. “No, I’m not your shrink, but I know that you’ve been through a terribly traumatic experience in losing your mother as you did, and that would be bound to make anyone angry. But you appear to have some anger issues that have nothing to do with your mother’s murder.”

  He snorted and shook his head. “Who cares? Who cares if I have anger issues? It isn’t any of your business.”

  “I care,” Alec said. “Mike, I’m just trying to get to the bottom of who murdered your mother. I need any information you can give me about what happened that night. Or about what happened in the days leading up to her death.”

  He swallowed, and for a minute I thought I saw a hint of emotion, but it was immediately covered by a scowl. “I have no idea what happened to my mother. If I knew, don’t you think I would tell you? I’d do more than tell you, I would do something about it.”

  “The last thing we want is for anybody to act as a vigilante. You have to have some ideas about who did it. What do you think?” Alec asked.

  His face had gone a dark shade of pink. “I think my dad did it. He and my mom hated each other.”

  “Hated? That’s a strong word. Why do you think they hated each other?” Alec asked.

  I was surprised at how calm and smooth Alec was in dealing with Mike. Not that I had ever really seen Alec lose his cool, but there was just something about the way he was expressing his concern for Mike without making it sound phony. It made me proud.

  “My mom was having an affair with that guy. That mailman. I told my dad about it, and he flipped out. He told me she was gonna pay for it, and she did. I should have kept my mouth shut.” His shoulders sagged, and he didn’t make eye contact as he spoke.

  My mouth dropped open, but I shut it before he saw it. That wasn’t what I thought he was going to say. I thought he was going to keep up his tough act and not give us any information.

  “When did that happen?” Alec asked him. He had his notebook and a pen out and was jotting down what Mike was saying.

  “The day he got here. Three days before my mom died.” His voice hitched on the word died. My heart went out to him. He was mean and hateful on the outside, but he was broken up on the inside. He was still just a scared kid.

  “So you told him about the affair? He didn’t know about it?” Alec asked.

  He looked away, but he nodded. “Yeah, I was mad. I couldn’t stand it. That mailman and my mom were laughing all the time and joking about things. He had no right to laugh and joke with my mother.”

  He had a point there. I could just imagine being a teenager and seeing your mother carry on like that with another man. This kid had a right to be angry.

 
“Other than this, did your mother and father have a good marriage?” I asked.

  He looked at me, his brow furrowed. “Are you crazy? They always fought. I can’t remember a time when they didn’t. I told my mother she needed to leave my dad, but she wouldn’t do it. I don’t know why she wouldn’t. It would have been better for everyone.” Now he just sounded sad.

  “Making a move like leaving a marriage is not a decision that you make lightly,” Alec pointed out. “She had to be conflicted about it. Did your father confront your mother when you told him?”

  He nodded. “They had a big blowout that night. But the next day they acted like nothing was going on. I don’t know if she talked him into believing nothing was going on, or he just didn’t care. I don’t know.”

  Or he had decided he was going to pay her back and kill her.

  “I assure you that he did care,” Alec said, scribbling in his notebook again. “Tell me, the night that she died, where were you?”

  He looked up at Alec now. “I was hanging out down at the playground. Most everyone else was out on the beach waiting for the fireworks to start, so I went down there just to hang out and be alone.”

  “And your dad? Where was he?” Alec asked.

  He shook his head. “As far as I know, he was right on the beach near my mom. He claims he didn’t hear a thing, but how could he not? If I’d been there on the beach with her, I would have killed whoever did it. I would have killed them before they got a chance to walk away from her like they did.”

  His face turned red and I could see something else in him. He was angry at himself for not saving his mother’s life.

  Alec looked at him and nodded slowly. “If I were in your shoes, I would do the same thing.”

  I looked at Alec. He was telling the truth.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Where are we headed?” I asked.

  “The Sommers’ house.”

  I nodded. Bill Towers had some explaining to do. Of course he was enraged when Mike had told him about his wife and the mailman. Who wouldn’t be? And he had killed her. He had planned it and waited for the opportunity to kill her. Or maybe he had stewed over the way she had spoken to him that day at the beach and the anger had built up as the day wore on. Then, when no one was looking, he had stabbed her in the chest. Dead before she could get even one scream out.