A Neighbor's Lie

by Blake Pierce

  “Do you think anyone else noticed?” Chloe asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Let’s just get to the core of it for a second,” Moulton said. “Did you leave that banquet with even the slightest wonder in your head that there might be something going on between them?”

  “It crossed my mind. But then again, I felt like I knew Kim well enough. I didn’t think she’d have it in her to mess around with a married man—especially not the father of the kids she was taking care of.”

  “Any idea where Sandra might have been when you spotted these situations?” Chloe asked.

  “Probably somewhere else on the grounds helping with the Secret Santa games.”

  Chloe and Moulton remained quiet for a moment, both drinking their coffee. Chloe obviously could not read Moulton’s mind, but she had a pretty good idea that they would be speaking to Bill Carver next. She knew he had been questioned by the police mainly because there had been an attractive woman in his house most of the time and the news media couldn’t help but cause most people to automatically assume the worst. But then again, she could recall the little bit of time she had seen him while she and Rhodes had been at their house. He had seemed in shock, sure. But had there been some other underlying emotion, something that had made him seem uneasy?

  The more she thought about it, the more she thought there might have been.

  “Is there anything else you can tell us about Kim?” Moulton asked.

  “Nothing that I haven’t already said. She really was a fine young woman. I think the fact that she left her potential political job in this miserable town in order to take care of kids speaks volumes about her. She was always smiling, always willing to help.”

  “Did she ever mention any boyfriends?” Chloe asked.

  “Not to me, no. But again, we never had any truly deep conversations.”

  Chloe and Moulton shared a glance, to which Moulton nodded. He sipped from his coffee once more before slowly getting to his feet. “Thank you so much for the coffee and the time, Ms. Duplin,” he said.

  “Of course. Not a problem. I hope I was of some help.”

  “All information is some sort of help,” Moulton said.

  Chloe gave Madeline a smile as she also took a final sip of coffee. She and Moulton headed for the exit as one of the two tables that had been occupied started to clear out. They didn’t speak until they were back outside.

  “You think Bill Carver and Kim were sleeping together?” Moulton asked.

  “I think it’s dangerous to assume such a thing. But then again, a woman that would be involved in something like that…it might not take too much more of a leap to end up being involved with someone like Mike Dillinger.”

  “Both of the Carvers are still at home. They’re keeping their kids home from school for a few more days to make sure they’re adapting well. Kim’s funeral was supposed to be this afternoon, but the lack of evidence to help find her killer has the coroner wanting to delay it.”

  “Seems like bad timing to talk to him now.”

  Moulton shrugged. “Or perfect timing. At the risk of seeming like an ass, he’d be vulnerable.”

  “That is an ass-like thing to say,” she said. “But it’s true. I say we go.”

  “I’m glad you said it first,” he said with a sly smile.

  And when he turned away to get into the car, Chloe let out a heavy sigh. That smile and the way he carried himself—if she didn’t get a grip on her little crush soon, she might be in a world of trouble.

  ***

  Chloe wasn’t sure what she had been expecting when they arrived at the Carver house, but it certainly wasn’t what she saw when Bill Carver answered the door. He looked positively haunted. There were dark circles around his eyes and he looked as if he had not slept in quite some time. He looked back and forth between Chloe and Moulton, taking a while to realize that he did indeed know these two people.

  “Agent Fine,” he said distantly. “And…Milton, right?”

  “Moulton,” Agent Moulton corrected. “Mr. Carver, do you have a moment to speak with us?”

  He nodded and invited them in. The house was quiet and somber. Chloe could hear the soft thudding of footsteps somewhere upstairs as Bill led them into the living room.

  “Is everyone home right now?” Moulton asked.

  “Yes,” Bill said. “Sandra is upstairs with the kids. They’ve never been to a funeral before and she’s trying to prep them. They heard us talking about how it is still going to be a few more days and were curious.”

  “That might be for the best,” Chloe said. “Mr. Carver, we need to ask you some very frank questions. Some that might make you quite angry.”

  His shoulders slumped and he looked back and forth between them again. Chloe could read it in his eyes; he knew this would come eventually.

  “We have it on good authority,” Moulton said, “that there have been moments in the recent past where you and Kim were seen together, alone. Most notably at the yacht club. Mr. Carver, I need you to be straight with me. Even if it was just one single time in a moment of weakness, I need to know if there was ever a physical relationship between you and Kim Wielding.”

  What came next was so anticlimactic that Chloe thought she’d heard Bill Carver wrong at first.

  “Twice. About three weeks apart.”

  “Was one of those instances sometime around the Christmas banquet at the yacht club?” Chloe asked.

  Bill nodded.

  “Does your wife now?”

  His mouth turned down, not into a frown but into a look of annoyance. “I think she maybe has a suspicion. She’s never asked and I certainly never told her. I don’t think Kim ever did, either. But ever since she was killed…I think maybe she has an even stronger suspicion.”

  “What was the relationship between the two of you like?” Moulton asked.

  “We were always very friendly. She was working for us for more than a year and a half before anything ever happened. We had a drunken kiss during the Fourth of July last year, which we both profusely apologized for the following week. The first time we slept together was the night of the banquet you mentioned. It was quick and spontaneous—nothing planned. It happened in the employee bathroom at the yacht club’s dance hall. The second time was in February. Here, in the house. In the kitchen.”

  “You seem to be taking it hard for just an occasional sexual relationship,” Chloe said. “Did you care for her in other ways as well?”

  “Yeah. For a while, I really did. She was such a good person, you know. So good that it makes me wish those things had never happened—that we’d never had sex …”

  “On the day she was murdered, you were away on business, correct?” Chloe said. She knew this was correct but wanted to be sure he wasn’t altering his story in any way.

  “Yes. In Chicago. I originally had two more days left but obviously came home early.”

  “And what about a man named Mike Dillinger? Does that name sound familiar? Maybe you heard Kim mention the name in passing?”

  “Not that I can remember.”

  “Mr. Carver,” Moulton said, “do you happen to know if Kim did any drugs?”

  The question seemed to shock him, almost enough to make him seem partially awake. “I don’t think so. If she did, she hid it very well. Of course, I’d be the last person she’d tell since we’d employed her as a nanny.”

  Moulton looked at Chloe and raised an eyebrow. It was yet another way that she could tell that, if given the chance, they’d work well together. They could communicate with all these little non-verbal cues. That raised eyebrow seemed to say: Anything else?

  She answered his eyebrow by saying, “Well, thank you for your time, Mr. Carver. You have my card from before, so I just ask that if you think of anything at all, please contact me.”

  “I will.”

  “And please let your wife know that we’d like to speak with her in the next few days. Maybe sometime after the funeral, though.” />
  A voice from the entryway to the living room spoke up, freezing Chloe’s heart for a moment. “Oh, no need to wait,” Sandra Carver said. “We can talk now.”

  There was a look of disgust on her face, touched with hurt. Her eyes were brimming with tears and her arms were folded. Her eyes looked as if they might literally leap from her face and burrow into Bill Carver’s heart.

  That poor woman just heard everything, Chloe thought.

  “Sandra…” Bill said.

  She just shook her head. “We can talk in the kitchen,” Sandra said, still looking at Bill but speaking to Chloe and Moulton.

  And without waiting to see if either of the agents were following her, Sandra Carver turned her back and walked toward the kitchen. When Chloe and Moulton followed behind her, Chloe could hear the soft but powerful sobs as Bill Carver broke down.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Sandra waited a moment before saying anything. She stood at the kitchen bar, looking at both of the agents as a tired and annoyed look slowly filled her face.

  “Don’t look at me like I’m supposed to be all broken-hearted,” Sandra said. “I never knew for sure until now. But he’s right. I always suspected it. It was the way he looked at her every now and then when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. And I just didn’t question it.”

  “Can I ask why not?” Chloe asked.

  She and Moulton were standing at the kitchen bar while Sandra sat at the table. She shrugged and started to nervously rub her hands together. “Because I don’t think I’ve been all in on this marriage in a few years. He’s a good enough guy—infidelity aside—but we just lost it. I almost don’t blame him for screwing Kim. She was kind, loving, and gorgeous. I knew if I asked him about it, it would cause a fight. And a fight that big might lead to a divorce. And…I don’t know. It’s too messy. Not worth it.”

  “Would you say you two had a hostile relationship after you hired Kim?”

  “No, not really. We just…I don’t know. He slowly threw himself completely into work. He was a good enough dad to the kids and all but he wasn’t really here even when he wasn’t away on work. I lost respect for him after a while. And…Jesus, he even sort of stopped working in bed. He was diagnosed with some sort of erectile dysfunction two years ago. So I lost my desire for him along with my respect. But I guess Kim did it for him. Fixed his ED, I guess.”

  “Did you hear the entire conversation?” Moulton asked.

  “I heard enough.”

  “Can you answer the same questions for us then?”

  “You mean about the drugs? I can’t see Kim doing drugs. I mean, I know everyone had secrets and all that, but Kim and drugs just wouldn’t make sense to me.”

  “And what about Mike Dillinger?”

  “No idea. Never heard that name. But you know, after Agent Fine and her other partner were here, I did start thinking about where you could maybe get some more information. I mean, I’m not thrilled that she fucked my husband behind my back but she still didn’t deserve to die.”

  “And did you come up with something else?” Chloe asked.

  “Maybe. There’s another woman in the neighborhood that works as a part-time nanny. She’s a younger woman. Mid-to-late twenties, I think. She works for the Damiani family. One of the Damiani kids is friends with our middle child, Declan. She and Kim would arrange playdates sometimes. Especially during the summer. They probably spoke at least twice a week. Kim spoke highly of her.”

  “What’s this woman’s name?” Chloe asked.

  “Courtney Vedas. I’m pretty sure she’s working for the Damianis today, actually. I imagine she might even attend Kim’s funeral, though I’m not sure.”

  Chloe nodded as she took all of this in but in the back of her head, there was another track starting to pave itself out. If she suspected that Kim and her husband were messing around, would she be capable of killing?

  It was a long shot, but not one that Chloe was willing to dismiss just yet. She made a mental note to check back in with Sandra Carver in the next day or so. With that, though, she ended their discussion.

  “Mrs. Carver, I’m sorry you had to find out about your husband in such a way,” she said. “Please let us know if you think of anything else. As for now, could we get the Damianis’ address?”

  Without saying anything, Sandra took a small stack of Post-its from a well-organized little basket at the edge of the kitchen counter. She scrawled an address on the top one and handed it to Chloe.

  Sandra walked them to the door, not bothering to look in on her still-sobbing husband in the living room. When Chloe stepped out of the house, she felt as if someone had lifted a huge weight from her shoulders. Not only was she glad to be away from what was sure to be a very tense exchange between Bill and Sandra Carver, but another thought dawned on her.

  Their day had started with a single lead at the yacht club—a lead that had turned into a promising conversation with Bill Carver. And while neither of those had really netted anything substantial other than Bill and Kim’s affair, they had both resulted in a third lead. And considering it was barely past lunch yet, Chloe couldn’t help but feel that they’d manage to wrap this case quickly, just like Director Johnson had been hoping.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  When Courtney Vedas answered the door at the Damiani residence, she was carrying a baby in one arm and hoisting a laundry basket on her hip with the other. She looked out at Chloe and Moulton with a confused look. It was clear that she had not been expecting company, but the appearance of two complete strangers had thrown her off. She was very pretty and toned, her flat stomach showing slightly thanks to the high-cut T-shirt she was wearing.

  “Can I help you?” Courtney asked.

  “We’re Agents Fine and Moulton,” Chloe said. “We just spoke with the Carvers, trying to get some answers regarding the death of Kim Wielding. She suggested we speak with you, as you apparently had a few playdates between these kids,” she said, nodding toward the baby with a smile, “and her own.”

  “Oh…sure, um, come on in,” Courtney said. “But the place is a mess. It usually is on laundry day.”

  “How many kids do you keep?” Chloe asked.

  “There are three of them. This is Amelia,” she said, kissing the baby on the head. “The other two are upstairs, playing Fortnite.”

  She led them into a living room that was clearly the epicenter of laundry day. There were piles of clothes and towels on the sofa and the room’s two recliners.

  “Well, it’s clear that you have your hands full,” Moulton said. “So we’ll make it quick. We know that there were playdates between the older kids where both you and Kim were sort of forced into interacting. How would you describe the relationship?”

  “Friendly, I guess. Kim was never rude or anything, but when she didn’t want to talk or be social, it was always clear on her face, you know?”

  “How many times would you say the two of you spent any significant time together?” Moulton asked.

  Courtney thought about it as she placed baby Amelia into a Pack ’n’ Play against the living room wall. “Ten. Maybe twelve.”

  “Did she ever talk about boyfriends?”

  “Not that I can remember. We did have one conversation about how finding a good man is next to impossible. We used to refer to it as a fairytale.”

  “Did you ever get the feeling that maybe she was in some toxic relationship?” Chloe asked. “Or maybe she was being abused?”

  “No. If any of that is true, she never mentioned it around me.”

  “Do you know if she did drugs?” Chloe asked.

  “Again…it never really came up. The most I know for a fact she ever did was drink wine. She told me a story one time about smoking pot for the first time in high school but that’s it.”

  “Do you know if she had any close friendships with the other neighbors?”

  “I don’t think so. She was really only ever in the neighborhood when she was watching after the Carver kids. Whic
h was a lot.”

  “Well, let’s say Kim was the type to keep secrets,” Chloe said. “If you thought she might have some secret life, is there anyone in the neighborhood or even just good friends with the Carvers that might have been a part of it?”

  “Well, there’s Mr. Hall two streets over—he’s a bachelor at the age of fifty and doesn’t make a secret of having a different woman living with him almost every month. Kim and I joked about how skeevy and gross he is all the time. There’s also the hottie soccer coach from the middle Carver kid’s soccer team but he…”

  “What is it?” Moulton asked.

  “Sorry. Random thought,” Courtney said. “You know…Kim spent a lot of time at the library. She took the kids to this reading group. And one of the Carver kids—I’m not sure which one—was in some Lego group that held meetings there. She went to the library a lot. She’d tell me about conversations she had with one of the librarians.”

  “Do you know which one?”

  “Shelby something…not sure about the last name. I got the sense that they were pretty close. I bet she’d be the person you need to talk to. As I understand it, the women at the library are pretty bad gossips, too.”

  “That’s a huge help,” Chloe said.

  “Is there anything else you can think of?” Moulton asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Courtney said. She started folding a pair of jeans and then looked over to Amelia again. “I have to say, though…this neighborhood. This community. It’s the same as anywhere else just like it. Pretty houses, well-to-do people. It all looks good on the outside, but there’s just…crap under it. Affairs and spousal abuse and tax-cheating. A bunch of fakes, you know?”

  Chloe nodded and said, “Do you think that would include Kim?”

  Courtney seemed to think hard about this for a moment. Chloe was nearly convinced that she was choosing not to answer the question before she responded with: “I’d like to think not…but who the hell can even tell anymore?”