A Killer Column mbtn-2

by Casey Mayes

  “You’re talking to me like a lawyer,” Zach said. “Stop it.”

  She grinned at him. “Sorry, I can’t help myself.” Jenny turned and looked at me. “So, what does it have in it?”

  “I haven’t had a chance to even crack it open yet,” I admitted.

  “Don’t tell me you were waiting for me, because I’m not going to buy it,” Zach said.

  “Let’s just say that the opportunity hadn’t presented itself yet.”

  I opened the planner, and Zach said, “Skip to the last day of his life. I want to see who his last appointment was with.”

  I did as he asked, and then said, “It’s not important.”

  “Sure it is. That could easily be the name of the killer.”

  Jenny shook her head. “Zach, isn’t it obvious that Savannah’s name is probably the last one written there?”

  “Oh, of course,” he said. “I didn’t consider that. Savannah, did he have any appointments later that evening? Is anybody down for dinner?”

  I scanned the page. “No, I don’t see anything.” I looked at one of the many sticky notes protruding from the book. “Hang on a second. Here’s something interesting.”

  I looked at the note and saw that Derrick had dated it for the day of his murder. It was so last-minute that he hadn’t even taken the time to record it in his planner, but it was there nonetheless.

  From the look of things, Derrick had a late appointment with Sylvia Peters. I wonder if keeping it had killed him.

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “I saw Sylvia when she left Derrick at the hotel, and she practically threatened him with bodily harm. Why would he agree to meet her later? Derrick was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid.”

  “Maybe she had something else to offer,” Jenny said.

  “You’ve seen Sylvia. I doubt Derrick would succumb to her charms, even if he didn’t already have a wife and a mistress.”

  “Ew w w, thanks for that visual. That’s not what I meant. Could she have threatened him with something to keep her column syndicated? Do you think she’d be capable of it?”

  I thought about it, and then nodded. “She’s got a dark edge to her, there’s no doubt about it. I’m not sure she’d kill him, though.”

  “Think about it,” Zach said. “You told me yourself that Derrick threatened every one of his clients with the noncompete agreements he forced you all to sign. If Sylvia couldn’t work anywhere else, and Derrick was firing her, it was like he was holding a gun to her head.”

  “Then we need to talk to Sylvia and see if she actually kept that appointment,” I said.

  “Hang on a second,” Zach said. “There’s no reason to jump to conclusions until we’ve looked through the rest of the planner. There could be a dozen clues here about who might have killed Derrick.”

  “Okay, fine, be the logical one.”

  He took the planner from me and started leafing through it. “How did he ever get anything done with all of these notes attached?”

  “It must have worked for him,” Jenny said.

  “Well, I don’t know how we’re going to keep it all straight and still return it in some kind of order later.”

  “Would a copy of it help?” Jenny asked.

  “Absolutely. Do you know any copy centers open at night?”

  “I’ve got one in my office.”

  Zach said, “I’m sure you do, but I don’t want to go back into town just to copy this thing.”

  “No, the office in my spare bedroom. I can make a copy for you in ten minutes.”

  “That’s a deal. Can you set the exposure to a darker level? Some of these notes were done in pencil, and they’re starting to smudge.”

  “Leave it to me,” Jenny said as she took the planner and disappeared back into one of her spare bedrooms.

  “She’s really excited about this,” I said.

  “I suppose it can be fun, if you’re not the one in the sights of the investigating detective.”

  “Do you think Murphy honestly believes I killed Derrick?”

  Zach sighed as he stretched. “Savannah, he’s playing this one close to the vest, and I don’t blame him. It’s got to be tough having another cop looking over his shoulder all of the time.”

  I looked at my husband a moment before speaking. “That’s how you think of yourself, isn’t it?”

  “What, as a cop? I was one for a long time.”

  “You want to take the Asheville job, don’t you?”

  He shook his head as he stared out the window. “I told you, I haven’t figured out what I want to do yet, and I’m just not ready to discuss it.”

  I walked over to him and hugged him. “Sometimes I forget how much what you used to do is still a part of you.” Suddenly I knew the right thing to say. “Zach, do whatever you think is right about the job offer. You have my blessing either way.”

  He pulled back from the hug and frowned at me.

  “What did I say?” I asked.

  “Savannah, we’ll make this decision together, and we’ll both live with the consequences. I’m not going to shoulder it alone. Do you understand?”

  “Of course I do. I was just trying to help.”

  “Well, you’re not, at least not by giving in. I need us to hammer this out together. We’re a team, remember?”

  “Got it.”

  I noticed that Jenny had come out of the bedroom. “If this is a bad time, I can give you two some privacy.”

  I was about to answer when Zach beat me to it. “Everything’s fine. That was fast.”

  “I believe in getting the best, and my copier is no exception.”

  Zach took the original, while Jenny handed the copied pages to me. I saw that the penciled notations were now crisper than they’d been on the original documents.

  “Hang on a second, this one stuck to my copy.” I looked at the lime green note and saw in printed block letters, THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING.

  “Did you see where this was in the planner?” I asked.

  “No, I didn’t even notice it as I was making copies,” Jenny said. After she and Zach read it, she asked, “Was he threatening someone?”

  “Maybe,” Zach said. “Or somebody was threatening him.” He scratched his chin, and then added, “But I have to admit, I have no idea what it means.”

  “What should we do now?”

  “Before we start digging into all of this, we need to figure out how to get it back to Kelsey without her knowing we had it.”

  “That’s going to be tough,” I said. “She knows it’s gone, so I can’t exactly slip it back under the cushion of her chair.”

  “No, but you could leave it at the desk for her.”

  Jenny asked, “Wouldn’t she ask who dropped it off? We don’t want to implicate Savannah in the theft.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll find someone to do it for us.”

  “How are you going to do that?” I asked.

  He grinned at us both. “Leave that to me.”

  I started flipping through the pages Jenny had copied for us. “A lot of these notes are for Kelsey.”

  Zach scanned as well, as Jenny asked, “Are they orders?”

  “Most of them. There are a couple he hadn’t delivered yet stuck to the back of the planner,” Zach said. “Here’s something odd. Jenny, did you happen to tear one of the notes while you were making the copies?”

  “No, I’m sure of it. Why?”

  “This one says, ‘Fire,’ but the rest of it is missing.”

  “That’s no mystery,” I explained. “He fired Brady and Sylvia after I got there for my meeting, so it could have easily been for one, or even both of them.”

  “True,” Zach said as he kept looking at the planner. “He had to be a tough man to work for.”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” I said.

  Zach grinned at me. “I’m not talking about you. How do you think Kelsey managed to put up with it?”

  “She wasn’t with him very lon
g,” I said. “Who knows how long she would have lasted.”

  “Well, she certainly ended up all right, didn’t she?”

  “What do you mean?” Jenny asked.

  “I keep thinking about who had something concrete to gain by his death, not just having a contract saved.”

  “Hey, it’s a bigger deal than you think. Losing your source of income and not being able to get another job for five years is huge.”

  “So is murder,” Zach said. “But we shouldn’t forget that Cary is the one who really benefits. I’m sure Kelsey wasn’t expecting to take over for him, and I doubt Sylvia or Brady knew their firings would be canceled with his murder. What could Mindi have gained? She lost her meal ticket. That leaves Cary.”

  “There are more reasons for murder than money,” I said. “Love is another factor.”

  Jenny nodded. “If Derrick was dumping Mindi, she had a motive.”

  He countered, “And if he was dumping Cary for Mindi, she’d have an emotional and financial motive to want to see him dead, too.”

  “So, are you saying we forget all about the others and focus on Cary Duncan?”

  He shook his head as he walked to the window. “No, we still need to see if Sylvia actually met with Derrick after you left, but you have to admit, Cary has some good reasons to want Derrick dead. It makes her the prime suspect, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Hey,” I said, “as long as it’s not me, I’m fine with it. Jenny?”

  “It’s something to consider,” she said. “I don’t want us to forget Frank Lassiter. He lost a great deal of money, and while he wasn’t going to get any of it back, he could have killed Derrick as a way of getting revenge.”

  Zach threw his hands into the air. “That’s the problem with this situation. We have reasons to suspect everyone who ever came into Derrick Duncan’s life, but that’s not getting us any closer to finding the killer.”

  I nodded. “I know it’s frustrating, not being able to officially question our suspects or check out alibis, but we have to do whatever we can to figure this out.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice.” He looked at us in turn, and then asked, “Do either of you masterminds have an idea how we can start eliminating suspects?”

  Jenny just shrugged, but I had an idea. “Why don’t we use the same approach we tried on Frank Lassiter?”

  “Tell him we’re on his side?” Zach asked. “That was a tough sale, remember?”

  “No offense,” I said, “but you have a way of intimidating people and not realizing it. Why don’t you let me try?”

  “On your own? Out of the question,” he snapped. “Besides, you’re the one who aggravated him the first time we spoke.”

  “Zach, it’s my neck on the line. Let me handle this my way.”

  “I could go with her when she talks to them,” Jenny volunteered.

  “You need to keep a low profile with the police, remember?”

  She picked up the planner. “They couldn’t even find this, could they? I don’t think you’re getting a fair shake. I’m in, all the way.”

  “Great,” I said.

  Zach just scowled. “What am I supposed to be doing in the meantime while you two are out interrogating witnesses?”

  “Sweetheart, there are other ways you can help.” I hugged him, which he resisted at first, but then allowed. After I pulled away, I added, “You can find out who Jenny’s stalker is. That’s as important to us as finding Derrick’s killer.”

  “I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” he said.

  “Give us one day. We’ll brace our suspects tomorrow and try to enlist them openly in our cause. If any of them refuse, we’ll keep them on our suspect list, but who knows, someone might volunteer some information just to get us off their backs.”

  “Will you both at least be careful?”

  “I promise we will,” I said, just as the front doorbell rang.

  ARE YOU EXPECTING ANYONE?” ZACH ASKED AS HE MOVED toward the door.

  “Not really. Why?” Jenny asked as her face went pale. “Do you think it’s my stalker?”

  “If it is, he picked the wrong night to show himself,” Zach replied. I moved toward him, and he said, “Savannah, you and Jenny need to wait for me in the back bedroom.”

  “No,” we both said as the doorbell rang again.

  “Stop arguing and do it.”

  Jenny started to move, but I stood fast. “I’m not going. Now, are you going to answer the door, or should I?”

  “Woman, you’re pushing me too far.”

  “Then answer the door.”

  I wasn’t sure who was there, but I wasn’t about to let my husband face them alone.

  I certainly wasn’t expecting the visitor we got.

  Detective Murphy was standing there when Zach carefully opened the door, and from the grim look on his face, he wasn’t there to bring us good news.

  Chapter 16

  “DETECTIVE,” ZACH SAID, AS I TRIED TO HIDE THE PLANNER and the copy Jenny had made from him.

  “We need to talk,” Murphy said.

  “Come on in.”

  Zach moved aside, and I gathered everything together and looked around for a place to put it. Jenny was watching me, and it appeared that she was going to try to provide me with a diversion so I could accomplish it.

  “Hello, Shawn,” she said as she moved toward him.

  “Hello,” he said. “I don’t mean to be rude, but this doesn’t concern you. Maybe you’d like to take a walk around the block while we chat.”

  “I’m fine right here, but thanks for asking. It’s been a while since you’ve been here, hasn’t it?”

  He glanced around. “I guess so.” He must have spotted the opened teddy bear on the dining room table. “What are you doing, a teddy bear autopsy?”

  “It’s from my stalker,” she said, blurting it out. “He’s getting bolder every minute, since you haven’t been able to catch him.”

  The shocked look on his face was all I needed to hide the planner and the copy under a newspaper. What was she doing? He was one of our three suspects, and now she was confiding in him?

  “Talk to me.”

  Jenny looked over at me, and then she said, “We’re handling it.”

  Murphy walked toward her, and from the look in his eyes, it was clear that he’d forgotten Zach and I were even there. “Jennifer, this is no time to try to be brave.”

  “Shawn, I’ve asked for help, remember? And yet he keeps coming after me. What’s it going to take to stop him? Does he have to actually assault me, or do something even worse?”

  There was a look of pure frustration on his face. “I can’t keep an officer on you around the clock. Give me something to work with, and I might be able to help.”

  “We have suspects,” Jenny said, and it was all I could do not to put my hand over her mouth. What was she thinking? Did she really expect Shawn Murphy to help us, especially when he could be her stalker?

  “Who do you think might have done it?”

  Zach said, “We haven’t narrowed it down that much yet to give you any names.”

  “Bull. You have a list, don’t you?”

  Jenny said, “We can do better than that. We have pictures.”

  She handed him the folder, and I wondered what she was doing. “That’s the wrong one,” I said as I tried to grab it. Had she forgotten that Murphy’s photograph was there as well?

  The detective was too quick for me, though. He snatched it away, and then looked at the photographs. When he got to his own, he looked at her with a puzzled expression. “What’s this?”

  “You’re on our list,” Jenny said, not afraid to meet his gaze.

  “Jennifer, you’ve got to be kidding.”

  “There you go, you just added to the case against you. Every note and reference to me calls me Jennifer, just like you used to do.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t really think I’d do this to you, do you?”

 
“You have to admit that you took it hard when we broke up,” she maintained.

  “Sure, it stung, but I’ve moved on. I’ve even got a new girlfriend now.”

  “You do?”

  He nodded as he reached into his back pocket. I saw Zach’s hand go to his jacket, and the move wasn’t lost on Murphy, either.

  “Take it easy. I’m just getting my wallet out,” the detective said.

  He gingerly removed it, and then showed Jenny a photo of him with another woman.

  Jenny looked at it, and then said, “This is Nancy Waters.”

  “Do you know her?” I asked.

  “She’s one of the police dispatchers.”

  Murphy shrugged. “I figured she’d know something about cops, so it might make things a little easier. We started dating two weeks after you and I broke up.”

  “Why haven’t I heard anything about it?” Jenny asked.

  “Hey, Raleigh’s not exactly Mayberry,” he said. “It would probably amaze you to learn about some of the things that go on.” He tapped the folder. “I’ll keep this, if you don’t mind.”

  “We were going to show it to some of the premium toy stores around town,” Zach said. “Someone might recognize one of them.”

  “It’s worth a shot. May I take the bear as well?”

  Zach looked at Jenny, who nodded slightly. “Fine.”

  “Good enough. I’ll start looking into this tomorrow.”

  “Detective,” I said. “You never said what brought you here in the first place. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

  “What makes you ask that?” he said as he stared intently at me.

  “It’s pretty clear that you didn’t drop in for a social call. When Zach answered the door, I saw that look on your face. Something bad happened tonight, didn’t it?”

  “I’m afraid it did,” he admitted. “Someone tried to kill Kelsey Hatcher this evening.”

  “WHAT HAPPENED?” ZACH ASKED.

  “She was walking to a restaurant and someone shoved her from a crowd into traffic. If the guy beside her hadn’t noticed, she would have been hit dead-on by a bus.”

  “Did anyone see who shoved her?” I asked.