by Diane Capri
Sasha had been casing Steve Bower. Their meeting and their affair hadn’t occurred by chance—it had been orchestrated. From this, it certainly seemed like Steve Bower had been an unlucky mark.
Before I shut down the laptop, another photo file caught my eye. It was labeled “Zhang.” I clicked on it, and several professional-looking photos popped up. There were a few pictures of Steve walking down Main Street. Him going around the corner, him mounting the stairs to Sasha’s apartment. The door opening, Sasha allowing him to enter. There were two other photos obviously taken through the small window of her apartment. Sasha and Steve kissing, a shirtless Sasha straddling Steve on the sofa. The one I was sitting on right now.
And then the last two photos were of me. One of me standing outside of the hotel chatting with Ginny, and the other of me inside my suite, sitting on the sofa with my laptop on my lap and my two cats curled up beside me.
Chapter 33
As I stared at the laptop screen, I tried to arrange all this new information in my mind, like putting together a puzzle. I hated the image that was forming. I wanted Sasha to be innocent in all this, but the truth seemed to be that she was complacent at best, an extortionist at worst.
Had she hired Stan Zhang to take the pictures? It would make sense if everything I’d found was all part of a blackmail package.
I took out my phone and typed in a list in my notes app. It would help me keep things straight when I went to see the sheriff and shared everything I’d found.
1. Sasha Wilkes is Thomas Banks’s sister.
2. She has search information about Steve Bower on her laptop from almost two years ago.
3. She moved to the island shortly after that.
4. She took a job at pub Steve Bower frequented.
5. Had affair with Steve Bower re: emails on server with bowwow69.
6. Got pregnant.
7. Had Steve’s baby.
I could’ve added other inferences, but I didn’t have proof of the fact. The likely scenario was that she and her brother planned the con on Steve Bower. Pretty, sultry Sasha met Steve at a pub, flirted with him, etc., they started an affair, she got pregnant, then after Steve broke it off with her, I imagined the blackmail started by Thomas.
If that was all true, it was horrible for Sasha to purposely get pregnant and blackmail the father into giving her money. She could’ve sued Steve legally for child support. Unless getting pregnant hadn’t been part of the plan.
Not to mention her claiming that Steve Bower killed her brother.
I had enough to take to Sheriff Jackson. It would give him plenty of reason to dig into Steve Bower and his financial records, and into his alibi. He could get proper warrants and enough evidence to prove the case. I took pictures of Sasha’s laptop, open on the emails, and also took a picture of her search history.
My gaze then fell to the wooden baby cradle in the corner of the living room. I just didn’t get why Sasha would do it. Had her brother coerced her into the plan? Why?
After putting her laptop back into her room, I packed a bag with clothes for Sasha, as well as the cute yellow onesie I found inside the cradle. Someone must’ve bought it for her. Thomas maybe? She didn’t seem to have any friends around. Despite what she’d been involved in, I still felt sorry for her. With her brother dead, I didn’t think she had anyone. Steve certainly wasn’t going to be there for her.
I left her apartment and locked up. I would hit the sheriff’s office first and then return to the hospital to drop off Sasha’s things and to tell her what I had done. I didn’t want Sheriff Jackson ambushing her, unprepared, while she was still in the hospital.
At the police station, the front desk was unoccupied, so I dinged the little bell on the counter. Deputy Shawn came out of the back, licking his fingers. He must’ve been having a late supper, as it was past seven o’clock now. My stomach also rumbled, the crackers, sausage, and cheese long forgotten.
“You’re from the Park Hotel,” he said with a slight tip of amusement to his lips.
“Guilty as charged.”
“What can I do for you this evening?”
“I need to talk to Sheriff Jackson.”
“He isn’t here.”
“He isn’t here like last time when he was in his office and didn’t want to be disturbed? Or he really isn’t on the premises?” I motioned toward the closed blinds on the sheriff’s office. From where I stood, I couldn’t tell if there was a light on inside.
“He’s not on the premises,” he said. “Maybe I could help.”
“Nope, it needs to be the sheriff. Do you know where I could find him?”
“No, sorry.” He gave me a smile.
“So, if there was an emergency, you wouldn’t be able to get in touch with him?”
“Is this an emergency?”
Damn it. He had me there. Was this an emergency? The information was really important…but emergency worthy?
“Okay, tell you what, call Sheriff Jackson, tell him Andi Steele has some information about the Banks murder and that he can call me on my cell phone.” I took the pen and paper lying on the counter and wrote down my number, although I was pretty sure he already had it from when I gave him my statement after discovering the body. I slid the number to the deputy and left.
While I waited for his call—and knowing the sheriff, it might take a while—I decided to head back to the hospital and drop off the bag for Sasha. As I walked down Main Street to turn onto Lilac Street, I spotted the Swan Song pub across the street. Maybe I would just dash inside and find out when Sasha worked there and when she left. It would help my case that I was going to present to Sheriff Jackson.
I crossed the street and went inside. The place was in full swing, which didn’t surprise me. It seemed the busiest places on the island were the pubs. Celtic music played, patrons laughed, glasses clinked as harried servers rushed around the room. I weaved my way around full tables and random drinking patrons to the bar to talk to the bartender, who was an older man with long gray hair to match his beard.
He smiled at me when I approached. “What’s your poison, luv?”
“No poison. I was just wondering if you knew Sasha Wilkes.”
His face scrunched up to think, then he shook his head. “Nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“She used to work here, I think. Maybe six months ago?”
“Nope, sorry, luv. No Sasha has ever worked here.”
“Are you sure? Maybe she worked other shifts, or maybe someone else hired her. She has long, curly dark hair, pretty.”
He shook his head again. “I’m the owner and the manager. I do all the hiring. Never hired a Sasha. No girl on staff who looks like that. I’d definitely remember.”
I nodded and left him a five-dollar tip, although I hadn’t ordered a drink. “Okay, thanks.” I left the pub and went out onto Main Street again.
I wasn’t sure what that meant for my working blackmail theory. Sasha and Steve had obviously met somewhere else. But where? It couldn’t have been somewhere random. She’d done her research. The meeting had to have been planned. I supposed I could just directly broach the subject with her.
I headed back to the hospital.
Chapter 34
I passed the golf cart still parked on the side of the road. Thankfully, no one had stolen it. Lois would not be happy if that happened. I should probably do something about it before something did happen to it. I took out my phone and noticed I had a voice mail from my mother. Ugh. I couldn’t deal with that issue at the moment. I called Ginny.
“Where are you? I thought you would’ve been back by now. You’ve been gone like seven hours.”
“I know. It’s a long story. Wondering if you can do me a big favor?”
“Sure.”
“Could you come down to Lilac and,” I peered at the other street sign, “Rose with a gas can? The cart I borrowed kind of ran out of gas.”
Ginny snorted out a laugh.
“It’s not really funny,�
�� I said.
“Yeah, it kind of is.”
“Fine, it is. Can you come bail me out?”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Thanks, Ginny. If I’m not here, I’ll just be at the hospital. I’ll meet you back at the cart.”
“Why are you going to the hospital?” she asked.
“It’s part of that long story that I’ll tell you about later.” I ended the call and continued the walk to the hospital.
When I stepped through the front door and into the lobby, my phone buzzed from my purse. I thought it was maybe Ginny calling me back, or Lois calling to ask me what the heck was going on after getting an angry call from Casey Cushing about the state of the pathetic gift basket I’d dropped off, but it was—surprise, surprise—Sheriff Jackson calling me back in a timely manner.
“This better be good. You better have some real information to give me.”
“Wow, have we really passed the polite greetings and introductions of our relationship and gone straight into the threatening, bullying part already? I thought that would’ve been after at least a month of aggravating each other.”
He sighed loudly and then spoke slowly, with a clipped cadence. I almost smiled at how much I’d gotten under his skin. Okay, who was I kidding? I was grinning like a Cheshire cat with a whole lovely bowl of cream.
“Hello, Ms. Steele. It’s Sheriff Jackson.”
“Hello, Sheriff. Thank you for calling me.”
“What do you have?”
I guess one sentence worth of politeness was all I was going to get out of him. I supposed I should take small victories when they are offered.
“I met a woman named Sasha Wilkes. She’s Thomas Banks’s sister, and she just had a baby. Steve Bower’s baby.” I thought about telling him about Sasha’s claims that Steve killed her brother, but I didn’t have any proof and that was a serious accusation to make about someone, so I decided to just give him the blackmail angle, and he could connect the evidence and build a case as such.
“I’m pretty sure Sasha and her brother Thomas were blackmailing Steve Bower about the affair.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“Hello? Sheriff? Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Did you hear what I just said?”
“Oh yeah, I heard. You’re telling me Steve Bower is involved in the murder of Thomas Banks.”
“Well, technically, I didn’t say that. I’m saying that Steve Bower had an affair with Sasha Wilkes, Thomas Banks’s sister. Where that leads is up to you.”
“Well, I just had a conversation with Steve Bower here at the hotel, and he’s telling me that you’ve been harassing him, and you’ve been unlawfully in his hotel room.”
“What? That’s preposterous.”
“You haven’t been in his hotel room without his permission or knowledge?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. How did he find out? I didn’t think Nancy would tell him the truth, just the backstory we’d created together. “Well, I did go into his room, but I had a complaint that the carpet outside his room was wet. I thought maybe there was a leak inside or something. It had to be checked on.”
“By the concierge? Doesn’t maintenance handle that kind of stuff?”
“Technically, yes, but the maintenance guy wasn’t on site.” I grimaced at the lie. Although I was pretty sure the maintenance guy wasn’t at the hotel when I decided to riffle through Steve’s room, because he wasn’t available to handle installing a new balcony door in my suite.
“Who else’s room did you go into to inspect a possible leak?”
“No one’s.” He didn’t need to know that I also went into Daniel’s room to confirm that his cobalt-blue suit was hanging up in the closet. It was.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the hospital.”
“Stay there. I’m on my way, and we’re going to have a long conversation.”
“Fine. Good. Then you can talk to Sasha Wilkes, and she can tell—”
He ended the call before I could finish.
I slid my phone back into my purse and marched down the corridor to the maternity rooms. I knocked on the closed door to the second room, opened it, and peered inside. “Sasha? It’s just me, Andi.”
But the room was empty.
I walked in and looked around. The bed was neatly made, and there was no sign of her, baby, or her pink backpack. I returned to the reception desk and talked to the nurse there.
“Sasha Wilkes. The woman who just gave birth. Do you know where she is?”
The nurse smiled at me. “She went home.”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Did she leave on her own?” I didn’t know how she could have without me seeing her walking back to her apartment.
“No, she had a friend with her. She came with a baby seat for the baby and helped Sasha carry the little guy out to the car. She said she was taking them to the home by the sea. Isn’t that sweet?”
“Do you remember what this friend looked like?”
The nurse gave me a look, like I was asking her a complicated math problem. “She had blond hair. Smart dresser. Oh, and she walked with a cane.” She gave me another smile and went back to her computer.
My stomach lurched into my throat. There was only one person I knew who looked like that. Only one person I knew who would have an interest in Sasha Wilkes and her baby. Pamela Bower.
Chapter 35
While I waited at the hospital for the sheriff to show up, I texted Ginny to tell her it would be a bit before I could meet her at the cart, then I paced the main lobby, like a captive lion I once saw in the zoo. I’d felt sorry for that animal. I knew it wanted to hunt down all the people who were outside the cage and rip their throats out. Not that I necessarily felt that way about the nurses and patients waiting to be admitted who looked at me like I was a bit off.
I took another sip of the strong hospital coffee I managed to commandeer from one of the staff rooms. I’d been looking for the washroom and stumbled inside. No, that wasn’t true. I went in there purposely to find some caffeine. No one had caught me, so…no big deal.
I couldn’t figure out why Pamela had come to pick up Sasha. How did she even know she was here and that she had the baby? How did she even know who Sasha was? Why would a woman seek out her husband’s mistress and befriend her? I was missing something. There was a piece of the complicated puzzle that I hadn’t yet found or couldn’t see.
The second Sheriff Jackson walked through the sliding glass doors, I pounced on him.
“Sasha’s in danger. What are we going to do?”
He put his hand up as if to ward me away. “First off, how do we know this woman is the victim’s sister? I didn’t find anything about his next of kin.”
“I found an obituary notice for Helen Banks, who was his mother, and it listed Thomas and Sasha as her children. I did a search for a Sasha Banks but didn’t find her anywhere. It was actually purely accidentally that I found her here, living on the island under a different name—Sasha Wilkes.”
He sighed, took off his hat, and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, tell me everything you got.”
I prattled off all the information I had gleaned over the past few days about Sasha and Steve Bower, and my main working theory. Although Pamela’s sudden appearance at the hospital did give my speculation a bit of a spin.
“So, I’m thinking Pamela has either found out about Sasha and the baby and is maybe exacting her revenge, or she’s been in on the whole thing from the start.”
“Do you really think Pamela Bower would hurt this woman and her baby?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. You know her better than I do. I’ve only been on the island for a week. She has kids, so maybe she wouldn’t hurt the little boy, but the woman who was having an affair with her husband? I’m thinking she’s fair game.”
I could tell he was pondering someth
ing by the way he literally chewed on the inside of his cheek. The muscles along his square jaw flexed.
“I’m onto something, aren’t I?”
“Her kids are adopted,” he said. “The word around town was she couldn’t get pregnant, although they tried for a lot of years. Steve supposedly hadn’t wanted to adopt.”
Well, damn, small-town gossip was brutal. I could just imagine what the rumor mill had already concocted about me. Maybe Ginny would fill me in later. Although my nanny always said to me, “Someone’s opinion of you is frankly none of your business.” That might’ve been good advice.
“Do you have a picture of this Sasha Wilkes?”
I took out my phone and showed him a picture I had discreetly taken of her in the golf cart.
His eyes narrowed. “She looks familiar.”
“Does she?” I looked at the photo with renewed interest. “I thought she had worked at the Swan Song pub and that’s where she met Steve, but I went over there, and the owner said he didn’t know her.”
“I’ve seen her before,” he said, “but can’t quite place where.”
“Well, regardless, I still think she’s in danger. We need to find her.”
“I will find her. What you need to do is go back to the hotel and stay there.”
I gave him a look. “After all the evidence I’ve given you? You wouldn’t have a clue without me.”
“Well, since you’re calling me out, I will let you in on a little secret. Steve Bower was already on our suspect list. We managed to trace money going into Thomas’s bank account from the Bowers’ development company. We also found a burner phone in his car that had texts from the victim on them.”
