“That’s my plan for first thing in the morning,” said Ryan. “Maybe Derek will know something about these other people.”
“Maybe he’ll know what CDB stands for,” Heather agreed. “I wonder why someone chose to only write their initials on the card. Is it supposed to be romantic? Was it because he didn’t want anyone besides Stephanie to know who he was?”
“You mean that he didn’t want someone else to know he was sending her chocolates?” asked Ryan. “Like a wife or a girlfriend?”
“That’s one possibility. Or maybe he signed his initials as a test. To see if Stephanie would realize who was sending her the candy.”
“Because she has so many admirers, this one wanted to see if she would recognize who he was only by his initials?”
“Maybe,” said Heather. “But if that was his plan, was it also his plan to kill her?”
Ryan reached for a breadstick and offered on to Heather.
"No thanks. My meal sounds delicious, and I don't want to spoil my appetite for it. The entrees should be out soon anyway."
“That’s true, but I’m a sucker for freshly baked bread.”
“It’s fresh?” Heather asked, her resolve weakening. “All right. I’ll have one.”
They smiled as they enjoyed the breadsticks, but then their minds wandered back to the case.
“I wonder if the killer had a specific time he wanted her dead,” Heather mused. “With poison delivered like that you can’t be quite sure when she’d ingest it.”
“Especially with there being five boxes of candy. If there was only one box, you might expect her to eat it sooner. Did the killer think he was the only one sending a chocolate gift?”
“There was an element of risk to his plan too,” said Heather. “What if someone else ate one of the poisoned chocolates?”
“She did live alone, but there’s always a chance that could have happened. She could have offered some candy to one of her dates. Or she might have given candy to her neighbor. They were friends.”
“Did the killer not care if someone else died by mistake,” Heather said, thinking aloud. “Or was he fairly certain that she would be the one to eat it. Do you think the flavors had anything to do with it?”
“Meaning he poisoned her favorite one?”
“All the Nut Nougat candies were missing from all the boxes. Maybe that was her favorite and one that she ate right away.”
“Then, do you think that the deadly box of candy arrived that morning?”
"Maybe." Heather sighed, "There are too many maybes in this case. And the neighbor Sara Chancely said that Stephanie received some of the heart-shaped boxes in the mail. But she couldn't be sure about all of them. One might have been hand delivered."
“But none of the neighbors noticed anyone unusual on the street that day,” said Ryan.
“But does that mean that no one was there? Or that the killer was sneaky?”
"I don't know," said Ryan. "Stephanie Jordan's co-workers weren't much help either. They all knew that she had a lot of admirers and dates, but didn't know any names. They also hadn't heard of anyone who seemed dangerous. Stephanie didn't mention anything like that to them."
“Was there a Perry or a Charlie P. among them?” Heather asked, knowing the answer.
“No,” said Ryan. “And she didn’t date anyone at the office. However, one friend there mentioned that a Russ who used to work there had a crush on her. That put me on the path to find Russ Mindhorn.”
“You know what I think?” asked Heather.
“What?”
“I think we’ve covered everything that’s bothering me about the case right now, and now I’d just like to relax and spend some time with my husband.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said, smiling. “I think I can see our food coming. Should we order a bottle of wine? Or is this a champagne occasion?”
“For Valentine’s Day, let’s go all out.”
“Perfect,” Ryan agreed.
Then, his phone started ringing. They both frowned, knowing that it wouldn’t be good news.
“Shepherd,” he said.
Based on that greeting, she knew that there wasn’t something to worry about at home with Lilly. It had to do something with the case.
Ryan hung up the phone and sighed. “I’m afraid our date night has to be called short. That was Peters. He stopped by the victim’s house to check on something and found a prowler.”
“A prowler?”
"Someone who was peeking in all the windows. He arrested him for trespassing on a crime scene, but he would like backup when the man is questioned."
“I know we have to go, but I was looking forward to this meal with you so much.” Heather put on a brave smile to hide her disappointment. “Well, at least we had some good bread.”
The Second Suitor
“I’m sorry to interrupt your date,” Detective Peters said when he saw them enter the station.
"It's all right," Ryan said. "We want to solve this case as much as anybody, and if you found someone sneaking around the crime scene, it looks like we might have caught a break."
“I’m glad you were there at the right time,” said Heather. “But what brought you to the crime scene so late?”
“I was having trouble writing a poem,” Peters began. “I just couldn’t figure out the right words to impress a certain someone. Did I mention how stressful Valentine’s Day could be?”
“Yes,” said Heather.
“Several times,” Ryan agreed.
"Anyway, since I had writer's block, I decided to focus on the case. I got a funny idea in my head about whether there could have been any other chocolate in the house. I know we searched it with the forensic team, but I started to worry that we didn't check all the trashcans or that something could be hiding in the fridge. I decided to investigate."
"I know we checked all the trashcans," Ryan said. "That can be a good place to find evidence, but there wasn't very much in them this time. I don't remember what was in the fridge."
“It ended up being nothing,” said Peters. “The forensic team did take everything to make sure that nothing else could contain poison. We have a pretty good team here. Maybe I should send them some donuts for the holiday. Or do you think that they wouldn’t realize they were a gift and start to test them for poison?”
“I think we should hear more about the suspect,” said Heather.
"Right," said Peters. "Well, I finished checking the fridge and was sitting in my car for a while, taking some notes and thinking about the case. It turned into an accidental stakeout! Because then I saw a man sneaking around the victim's house. He was peering through all the windows and was about to break the crime scene tape when I stopped him."
“Is he one of the men who sent her candy?” asked Ryan.
“His license says his name is Charles Polk.”
“That’s Charlie P.,” said Heather.
“He hasn’t wanted to say much,” Peters said. “Mostly he keeps mumbling about how stupid what he did was, which I have to agree with.”
“But is he referring to the attempted break-in or to murder?” asked Heather.
“Let’s go ask him,” said Ryan.
He led the way into the interrogation room, and the three of them sat across from the suspect. This suitor looked radically different than Russ Mindhorn. Charlie was tall with tattoos and a leather jacket. His blond hair was streaked with green.
"Charles Polk?" Ryan said. "I'm Detective Shepherd, and this is private investigator Heather Shepherd. I believe you've already met Detective Peters during your exploit tonight."
“It was stupid. So stupid,” Charlie said.
“What were you doing there?” asked Heather.
“I heard she was dead,” said Charlie. “People were even saying that she was murdered. And if that were true, I didn’t want anyone to think I was involved. I didn’t want anyone to try and associate me with the crime. I haven’t always had the best luck with the poli
ce in the past.”
Detective Peters nodded. "I pulled his file. He's been arrested before. Petty theft and joyriding."
“Were there any charges of murder before?” Ryan asked. “Maybe a poisoning?”
"No," Charlie said. "No. I didn't kill anybody. And I didn't have anything to do with Stephanie's death. But I knew that if she were murdered, you'd go looking at the guys in her life, and that included me. I figured with my rap sheet that you'd try and pin this on me."
“We don’t pin things on anyone,” said Ryan. “We arrest guilty people. You were caught trying to break into a crime scene.”
“I just wanted to get back a gift I sent her. I didn’t want my name found in her house. I didn’t want any trouble. You see the irony of it, don’t you? By trying to make sure I didn’t become a suspect, I became a suspect!”
“You don’t seem very upset by her death,” Heather commented.
"Self-preservation," said Charlie. "Stephanie and I had a lot of fun together. But she's gone, and I'm still here. And I need to make sure I don't go to jail for something I didn't do."
“You said you had a lot of fun together,” said Ryan. “Was she your girlfriend?”
“No,” Charlie said. “We both knew it wasn’t like that. I’m not the type of guy that you settle down with. And Stephanie enjoyed all the attention she got from men. She wasn’t going to give that up unless she found someone she thought made it worth it. When neither of us had anything better to do, we’d go dancing or get drinks. But we knew what it was. It wasn’t serious. I wasn’t like some of the guys she saw.”
“How so?” asked Ryan.
“Some of them thought they were soulmates or something. One guy followed me home and tried to fight me. Told me to stay away from his girl. I told him that Stephanie wasn’t anybody’s girl. She did what she wanted.”
“Sounds like he had a temper,” said Peters.
“You don’t happen to know his name, do you?” asked Ryan.
“Yeah, actually. He said it when he was trying to threaten me. Perry Rogers. I just laughed at his threats.”
“When did all this happen?” asked Heather.
“A few weeks ago,” Charlie said, slowly. “You don’t think he could have had something to do with this, could you? I figured enough time passed that Stephanie was okay. She never called me to ask for help. Sometimes she asked me to scare guys off. I guess I can be intimidating.”
“But not to Perry Rogers?” prompted Ryan.
“He’s lucky I didn’t fight him,” Charlie said. “His ego was bigger than his muscles.”
“Mr. Polk, why did you send her the candy?” asked Heather.
“Even if we weren’t serious, I still liked her,” Charlie said. “I thought it would be nice to get her something for Valentine’s Day. And I knew she liked those candy boxes because she liked this Nut Nougat candy that’s only found in them.”
“She really liked that candy?” asked Heather.
“It was her favorite,” said Charlie.
Ryan changed gears and asked. “Do you have any access to cyanide?”
“What? No,” Charlie said. “I don’t know anything about poisons. And I wouldn’t have killed Stephanie. She was great.”
They thanked him for answering their questions and left the interrogation room.
“We’ll still keep him for trying to break into the crime scene,” said Ryan. “Despite what he says, that is suspicious behavior.”
“His fingerprints weren’t found on the candy boxes,” said Peters. “If they were, we would have matched them because he’s in the database because he was arrested before.”
“He probably wiped his prints away if he was committing murder,” Ryan pointed out.
“He did give us some good information though,” said Heather.
"We can look up Perry Rogers," Ryan agreed. "It looks like he's another admirer and a jealous one."
"He also told us about Stephanie Jordan's favorite candy," said Heather. "And if he knew that, then everyone who dated her should know how she liked the Nut Nougat Chocolate. And that makes it the perfect murder weapon."
The Third Suitor
“I can’t believe you talked to a suspect without me,” Amy pouted.
“It wasn’t intentional,” Heather protested. “We got called away from dinner to go talk to him.”
“And you didn’t think to call me?”
"It was late, and I was a bit distracted," said Heather. "Look, I brought some donuts to make it up to you."
“There will come a day when donuts won’t be enough to fix a problem. Luckily, today isn’t that day,” Amy said, accepting a donut and smiling.
“Was Bella’s nice?”
“It was beautiful,” said Heather. “Very romantic and intimate. It was the perfect place for the candlelight dinner I’ve been looking forward to. Unfortunately, I can’t really comment on the food because we got dragged away from there before we could taste it.”
“I’m sorry. That’s not fair.”
“It’s all right,” Heather said. “Ryan and I are going to go there again tonight to make up for it. Eva and Leila have already agreed to babysit again. I think they’re still hoping that Lilly will show them the project she’s been working on.”
“Will you promise me that if you do get called away from the meal again to go question a suspect, you’ll let me know?”
“That better not happen again,” Heather said. “But I promise I will.”
Heather's cell phone rang, and she answered the call from Ryan. After she hung up, she said to her bestie, "I think I can make it up to you. We have a new suspect to question now."
“Which one?”
“Perry Rogers. Based on what Charlie Polk told us yesterday, Ryan was able to track him down.”
“This is the guy you said had a temper?”
“Well, he at least wanted to fight Charlie over Stephanie,” said Heather.
“Sounds like a potential killer to me,” said Amy. “Let’s go see if he is.”
“I want you to know that I know that I don’t have to stay here,” Perry Rogers was saying from the other side of the interrogation table. “I only came in because I want to cooperate with your investigation and help you in any way I can.”
“And we do appreciate that,” Ryan said.
Perry Rogers was a clean-cut young man wearing a button-down shirt. He folded his hands as he waited for them to ask their questions. The four investigators were ready to begin.
“Do you know a Stephanie Jordan?” Detective Peters asked.
“You know that I do,” Perry said. “That’s why I’m here.”
“How did you know her?” asked Heather.
“We were dating,” said Perry. “She was my girl.”
“Were you the only one she was dating?” asked Ryan.
“How dare you!” Perry said, looking his cool, collected manner. “Who said that about her? Stephanie was an angel.”
“We’re not trying to insult you or the victim,” Heather said. “We’re trying to solve a murder case. We need to know if there was anyone else who might have been interested in her romantically or who wanted to hurt her. If there’s no one else who fits these parameters, then you have to admit that you’d become our prime suspect.”
Perry took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "I didn't mean to yell. I shouldn't be your prime suspect. I shouldn't be a suspect at all. I would never do anything to hurt Stephanie."
“But you might do things to hurt other men she might be seeing?” suggested Ryan.
“Who have you been talking to?” asked Perry.
“We heard about how you tried to instigate a fight with Charlie Polk,” Detective Peters said.
“All right, that part is true. He was trying to steal Stephanie away from me. He had that bad boy persona going on. He was trying to impress her. I just wanted him to back off.”
“Was there anyone else that you had to tell to back off?” asked Heather.
&n
bsp; "Look, Stephanie was a very beautiful woman, and she loved to flirt. She couldn't help it. So, yes, sometimes I had to tell people to go away."
“How did Stephanie Jordan feel about all this?” asked Amy.
“She appreciated it,” Perry said. “Of course, she did. She knew what we had was special.”
“Mr. Rogers, did you send Stephanie a box of chocolates?” asked Ryan.
"Yes. It was a Valentine's Day gift. Something for her to snack on during the week until she saw me on the fourteenth."
“Did you hand deliver the gift or mail it?” asked Heather.
“I mailed this one,” Perry explained. “Stephanie liked her own space. She wasn’t ready to move in together. I understood. And she didn’t want me to come over every single day. She was an independent woman. That was part of what I loved about her.”
“What did you mean by this one?” asked Heather.
“I was going to visit her on Valentine’s Day and bring flowers and some more candies. But I mailed that one so she’d know I was thinking about her all the time.”
“All the time?” Amy asked, raising an eyebrow. “Sounds a little obsessive.”
“She was my girlfriend. I’m supposed to think of her all the time,” said Perry. “But what’s with all these questions about the mail?”
“Just trying to reconstruct when packages should have arrived,” said Ryan.
“Mine should have come four days ago,” said Perry. “But I guess you knew that already. You must have found me because of the packaging.”
“We found you because of your attempt at fighting,” said Peters.
“I would have fought a hundred armies for her,” said Perry.
“It was nice of you to bring her so many tokens of love,” said Heather. “Did she have a favorite candy?”
“She liked this Nut Nougat candy that came in the heart-shaped sampler,” said Perry. “If they sold something that was all that flavor, I would have bought it for her.’
“Is that why you decided to poison that flavor?” asked Ryan, trying to push the suspect’s buttons. “Because it was her favorite? And you knew you could hide the taste in that flavor?”
Strawberries & Chocolate & Murder Page 4
