by Dani Pettrey
Kayden leaned against the counter, her knee showing through the threadbare portion of her jeans. “You teach at Brody’s?”
“Taught—until I started carrying climbing supplies in the shop.”
Kayden’s beautiful brown eyes narrowed. “Are you saying . . . ?”
“Brody fired me before I could blink.” Natalie scooted the box of brochures to the side and rested her arms on the granite counter, picking up a pen lying there and twirling it between her fingers.
“Wow. That’s harsh.”
“Brody’s all about loyalty. When he decides you’re being loyal to him, he’ll do anything for you. If he thinks your loyalty has swayed, he’ll turn on you without a second thought.”
“What about Conrad?” Jake asked, his curiosity piqued.
“What about him?”
“He started buying his supplies from you. Wouldn’t Brody consider that disloyal?”
“I imagine he did, but it was just chalk.”
She was right, it hardly seemed enough to kill over, though maybe his intention hadn’t been to kill. Maybe it’d been a form of payback gone terribly wrong. “Don’t suppose he’d try to teach Conrad and you a lesson?”
Natalie’s eyes widened. “By tampering with the chalk I sold Conrad?”
Jake nodded.
She was silent a moment. “Nah,” she said, shaking her head. “Brody can be a real jerk, but endangering another climber goes against all he stands for.”
“Anybody else you can think of that could have wanted to mess with Conrad?” Jake asked, wondering if that was the direction they were headed—someone wanting to teach Conrad a lesson. A lesson that had gone horribly wrong.
“Yeah.” Natalie exhaled with a smile. “Try his wife or mistress.”
“Mistress?” Vivienne hadn’t said anything about a mistress, but maybe she didn’t know.
“Patty Tate,” Natalie said.
“As in expert climber, two-time state champion Patty Tate?” Kayden had pointed her out on their last climb. Patty had quite the reputation for being a tough competitor and a fierce athlete.
Natalie tapped the pen against her flattened palm. “That’s the one.”
“How on earth did those two . . . ?” From what Jake knew of them, they seemed like an odd pairing.
“They met over at Brody’s gym a while back. Been going strong ever since.”
“How long is ‘a while back’?” Kayden asked.
Natalie shrugged. “At least a couple of years.”
“Years?” Kayden said.
“Did Vivienne know?” Jake asked, wanting to know if she’d purposely withheld pertinent information or if she was still in the dark about the affair.
“Oh, she knows.”
“You sound very confident.”
“Because I saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“Patty and Vivienne having it out a couple months back.”
So Vivienne did know. Interesting omission on her part. “Having it out, how exactly?” he asked.
“Vivienne’s a shrewd woman, I’m pretty sure she’d known for a while but let it go.”
“How could a woman let something like that go?” Kayden asked.
“They’ve been married a long time. Maybe she was invested, maybe she figured it’d be a passing fling, or maybe she’d grown too used to the lifestyle. Who knows.”
“What would have made her change her mind? I mean, why have it out with Patty if she’d known for a while?” Something had to spark the change.
“Because Conrad stopped being discreet. He brought Patty to the Spring Festival. Vivienne showed up, and if it weren’t for Conrad’s intervention, I think she’d have gouged Patty’s eyes out.”
“I’m pretty sure Patty Tate can hold her own,” Kayden said.
“Regardless, it was loud and ugly and very public.”
“Who’d Conrad leave with?” That was the key to where his ultimate loyalty lay.
“Vivienne.” She smiled but quickly looked away from Jake, staring at her chipped nail polish instead.
“How’d that go over with Patty?” Kayden asked.
Natalie dropped the pen and retrieved a bottle of polish from under the counter. “I saw them together last week, so it must have been okay.” She tapped the bottle against her hand, shaking it up.
Kayden shook her head. “I still can’t picture Conrad Humphries and Patty Tate together.”
“Why?” Jake asked, gathering his evidence bag.
Natalie’s gaze pinned on it for a minute and then quickly shifted back to the bottle of polish. She definitely seemed concerned about the chalk sample she’d given him.
Kayden shrugged. “Patty’s about ten years his junior, an accomplished athlete. She just seems to have her act together. Why she’d be interested in a married man . . . I don’t get it.”
“Definitely not the most likely pair,” Natalie said, opening the polish.
Kayden looked at Jake. “Guess we know who we’re visiting next.”
“If that’s Patty,” Natalie said, using smooth strokes to apply the coral polish, “you’re out of luck. At least until tomorrow.”
Kayden frowned. “Why’s that?”
“She’s at the Mount Marathon race over in Seward.”
So they’d come back to Imnek tomorrow.
Jake extended his hand. “Thanks for your help.”
“No problem.” She offered the hand she hadn’t started polishing and darted a glance at the evidence bag in his hand, her shoulders tensing. She’d been distracted ever since she’d handed over her chalk bag, hesitant to make eye contact. What was bothering her? He couldn’t wait to get the sample to Booth.
10
“Detective Cavanagh.” Vivienne Humphries’ condescending stare settled on Kayden as she stood beside him. “And the climber. How lovely to see you again.”
Vivienne clearly didn’t like her, but knowing what she now did about Patty Tate, she understood the woman’s negative attitude toward female climbers, and in a way she couldn’t blame her. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be betrayed with an affair. Not after growing up with her parents—so faithful and deeply in love.
If she ever were to marry—and she only considered it in moments of pure fantasy—she wanted what her parents had had. She wanted to be married to her best friend, like Cole and Bailey, and Landon and Piper. Gage and Darcy were another story—more sparks and lit fuses—but for them it worked. And for the rest of them, it was highly entertaining to watch.
“What now?” Stuart said with an exasperated sigh as he trudged through Vivienne’s foyer. In his lounge pants, T-shirt, and leather slippers, he looked mighty at home in another man’s house.
Jake took the lead. “We need to ask Mrs. Humphries a few more questions.”
“What more could you possibly need to know?” Vivienne asked.
“The truth about your husband’s relationship with Patty Tate and why you didn’t feel the need to mention it earlier?”
Vivienne opened the door with a sigh. “Come in. Let’s get this over with.”
They settled back in the front room, where they’d sat only hours ago, and Jake started again. “Why didn’t you bring up Ms. Tate when we were here earlier?”
Vivienne crossed her legs, pinning her gaze on Kayden as she answered Jake’s question. “Why do you think?”
She was embarrassed her husband had been having an affair, though the coziness she and Mr. Anderson displayed made Kayden again wonder if they weren’t doing the same.
Jake leaned forward and cleared his throat, bringing Vivienne’s attention back to himself. “Now that we’re aware of the situation, what can you tell us about your husband’s relationship with Ms. Tate?”
“I think fling is a more appropriate word.”
“Fling?” Jake sat back. “I’d hardly call a two-year relationship a fling.”
“Two years?” She chuckled. “That’s absurd. Conrad had his occasional trollops, but they were always gone
before I could blink.”
Stuart shifted, avoiding eye contact.
Vivienne paled. “Stuart?” She cocked her head. “Tell them they’re wrong.”
“I’m sorry, Viv. The detective’s right. Conrad had been seeing her for a while.”
“And you knew?”
“Not the whole time.”
She shifted. “But long enough.” Her eyes narrowed. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Why would you let me find out like this?”
Kayden watched the interchange, curious if they even remembered she and Jake were still present and taking it all in.
“Vivienne, now’s not the time.” Stuart glanced at Jake.
Guess that answered her question.
“Let’s talk about how you found out about the affair,” Jake said.
Stuart’s shoulders stiffened. “I’m sorry, but what does any of this have to do with Conrad’s death?”
“It’s helpful to have an understanding of Mr. Humphries’ relationships at the time of his death.”
“Our relationship was strained, but we were working through it,” Vivienne said.
“To your knowledge, had he ended his relationship with Ms. Tate?”
Vivienne’s teeth clamped. “Would you stop calling it a relationship? I made it very clear that if Conrad wanted to remain in our marriage, he needed to end things with that tramp.”
“And did he?”
“He said he would.” She paused, and her eyes widened. “So if you’re looking for suspects, you should be looking at Patty Tate.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’m sure she wasn’t happy Conrad was ending things, and she’s a climber.”
“Meaning?”
“His chalk was compromised. That’s what you said. Who better to mess with his chalk than another climber?”
“She’s not wrong,” Kayden said as they left the Humphries residence for the second time that day.
“On which count?” Jake asked.
“That another climber was likely involved. Adding Dodecanol to the chalk takes some sort of chemical expertise, but it also takes climbing expertise. The killer would have to know what chalk feels like and how it works, would know how high up Conrad would likely be when his hands got slippery enough to no longer be able to hold on. Only a climber would understand how chalk works over time. If it wasn’t a climber who killed him, then the killer had an accomplice with climbing experience.”
“So we have Stuart Anderson, Brody Patterson, Natalie Adams . . .”
“And we can’t rule out anybody climbing at Brody’s gym the same time as Conrad that day either,” she said.
“We need to figure out what Conrad did first—climb at the gym or buy the chalk. And if he bought the new chalk first, did he use it at the gym that day or save it for his Stoneface climb?”
“According to Vivienne’s timeline it sounds like he went straight to the gym after work, but we’ll need to clarify.”
“Along with establishing what he was doing that hour Vivienne believes he was at work.”
“You don’t think he really was at work?”
Jake shook his head.
“You think he was visiting Patty.”
Jake shrugged. “We’ll have to talk with her to know for certain.”
“If so, that possibility would add a fourth name to our list of people with access to Conrad’s chalk before his climb,” Kayden said. “I hate leaving Imnek without talking to her.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice.”
She sighed. “So what now?”
Jake glanced at his watch. “Let’s drop back by Brody’s, see if we can confirm where Conrad went first the day before his death.”
The parking lot was fuller now that the workday was done. It was a good time for them to be returning. It was the same time, according to Conrad’s wife, that he typically visited the gym. It would give them a feel for who else may have had access to Conrad’s chalk and who he spent his early evenings with.
Jake held the door. and Kayden stepped inside. Jason Gellar, a fellow free climber, was working the front desk as they approached.
Jason glanced up from his work, and his smile faded.
Great. She grimaced. “Hey, Jason.”
“Back to grill Brody some more? Well, you’re out of luck. He’s off for the night.”
Kayden rested her weight against the counter, making herself comfortable. “No matter. You can help us.”
“And why would I want to go and do that?”
“Because a climber is dead.”
“And you actually think Brody had something to do with that?”
“We never said that.”
“No. You just came in here insinuating someone from our gym may have compromised Conrad’s chalk. Please. I thought you knew us better than that.”
Jake stepped forward. “It’s our job to ask the questions.”
Jason rolled his eyes.
“Don’t you care that a climber from this gym is dead?”
“Of course I do. But I wouldn’t go around accusing his friends.”
“Sadly it had to be someone with access to Conrad’s chalk, someone close enough to him to get the murder weapon mixed in his chalk.”
“I have no idea who’d do something like that, but I can tell you, it wasn’t anyone here. We’re family. We watch each others’ backs.” He pinned his gaze on Kayden. “We don’t stab each other in them.”
Man, Brody must have painted an ugly picture of their earlier interaction.
Jake once again stepped forward to shield her from Jason’s ire. “Look, we need to confirm what time Conrad was here the day before his death.”
Jason crossed his arms. “You have a warrant?”
“Are you saying I need one?”
“That’s an affirmative. Brody said not to talk to you or show you a thing without a warrant.”
“Very well. If that’s how he wants to proceed, we’ll be back with a warrant.”
Jason squared his shoulders. “See you then.”
Jake tapped the counter. “Those time logs better be unaltered when we get back, or you’ll be charged with obstruction of justice. Got it?”
“Have a safe trip home,” Jason said with a smug smile that made Kayden really uncomfortable.
“What was that all about?” she said as they exited the gym and headed back for Natalie Adams’ shop. “I thought I knew him, but he just gave me the creeps.”
The night was cool, lower fifties, and clear. The walk would only take a few minutes, but Kayden was thankful for the fresh air. “I’m surprised how hostile they’re being. Don’t they understand it makes them look like they are hiding something?”
“Brody and, clearly, Jason have an attitude.”
“You don’t mess with the climbing community.” She understood the sentiment, but this was murder.
“Bingo.”
“Don’t they care that Conrad’s dead?”
Jake rubbed his forehead. “I’ve seen this play out plenty of times. They believe things should be handled in a certain way.”
“Hopefully, Natalie will continue to be helpful and we can find out what time Conrad was in her shop, then we can compare it with the gym logbooks when we come back with a warrant. I still can’t believe Brody’s insisting on one.”
“Do you think he’s hiding something or just trying to make a point?”
“I don’t know. Everyone we’ve talked to seems suspect to me.”
“That means you’re doing it right.”
“Because I’m ticking everyone off?”
Jake winked. “You got it, darling.”
Natalie Adams’ shop was closed for the night.
“That’s odd.” Kayden tapped the business-hours sign in the front window. “She isn’t supposed to close until nine.”
“Guess she decided to lock up early.”
“Maybe our visit shook her up.”
“She did seem awfully distracted after we t
ook her chalk bag into evidence.”
“You think she’s trying to hide something?”
“She shouldn’t have given me her bag if she was.”
“But clearly she wouldn’t have added the Dodecanol to her own chalk. That would be suicide. If anything, giving us her bag will make her look good. Her chalk, supposedly from the same batch, will come back clean, leading us to assume the Dodecanol was added later.”
“Maybe it was, but it still could have been added by her. She could have split the chalk up, added the Dodecanol to Conrad’s portion, and kept the clean portion for herself.”
“But why kill Conrad? What would her motive be?”
“No idea. We’ll have to dig a little deeper on Natalie Adams and her relationship with Conrad Humphries.”
Jake’s stomach growled. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly.
“It’s well past dinnertime. We should grab a bite before we head home.”
“Got a place in mind?’
“Actually, I do.”
The Roosting Nest was a restaurant and pub the climbers on Imnek frequented. A quaint establishment with fine-grain wood paneling and matching booths lining the perimeter, gold rails accenting the aged oak, and the walls covered with a series of gold-framed mirrors and photographs of locals climbing throughout the state.
Kayden entered first, Jake close behind her. The time spent with Jake, minus the subject matter, had been fabulous. She was sad their day was nearing an end.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She looked over to find Brody at a booth on their right. “Brody,” she greeted him with a smile. No need to let him know his earlier words had stung. Stung, not because she cared what he thought, but because deep inside she feared what he’d said was true.
Brody slid out of the wooden booth and stood. “What are you doing here?”
Suddenly she felt everyone’s gaze shift to her and Jake. He stepped closer.
“Grabbing a bite to eat,” she said.
The scent of juicy hamburgers and crispy battered onion rings filled the room.
Brody linked his arms across his broad chest. “Right,” he drawled.
How did she ever find this man attractive? “I can’t believe you’re insisting we get a warrant.”
“And I can’t believe you’re interrogating your climbing family.”
