Nailed: An Alex Harris Mystery (The Alex Harris Mysteries Book 8)

by Elaine Macko

  My sister and Marla were at a meeting. I grabbed my bag and told Millie I had a few appointments. My first stop was Delilah Sanjari’s apartment. I parked in front of the bike shop. I could see Mr. Annunzio inside with a customer, so I made my way around to the back. Delilah was just coming down the stairs with what looked like a bag of trash.

  “More questions? Give it up. Let the police figure it out.” Delilah walked to a large trash bin behind the shop. She lifted the heavy lid and tossed the bag in. “Come on up. I got nothing else to do.”

  I followed her upstairs into a very tiny space. There was a small kitchenette directly in front of the door. To the right was a living room with two recliner chairs with a table between them. On the opposite wall was a flat screen TV. There was a window that looked over the front of the bike shop. There was also a door next to the TV, which I assumed led to a bedroom and bathroom. I couldn’t imagine another person living here, but the place was spotless and for just Delilah, I thought it was rather cozy.

  “Have a seat. Can I get you something? Coffee, a glass of water? I don’t have any alcohol. Don’t want to keep any temptations around for my mother, and besides, I’m like my brother. Neither one of us drinks. Or drank, I guess I should say for him. When you grow up with an alcoholic parent, it turns you off liquor, let me tell you. Or you become one yourself, I guess, but that didn’t happen with us.”

  For the first time I saw actual sorrow on her face at the mention of her brother.

  “Do you miss him?” I asked.

  Delilah sat down next to me on the other recliner and looked out the window. She turned back to me and her eyes were wet.

  “Yeah, I guess I do. We fought all the time, but that was just us, you know. We were both yellers. He ah, well, he was a good brother. He didn’t have to take care of me, but he did. I don’t know what happened to me. I had a lot of potential when I was in school. I think I just wanted to rebel against my mom, and then it just got out of hand and I never amounted to much. But Victor always helped me out. Yelled every step of the way about it,” Delilah laughed, “but he paid the rent here like clockwork.”

  “Tell me about your relationship with Gary?”

  Delilah gave me a funny look. “Gary? Gary Hachmeister? Why would you want to know about him?”

  “Because he was attacked on Saturday night. It looks like someone tried to kill him.”

  Delilah’s hand went to her heart. “Are you kidding me? What the hell is going on? It’s got to be someone they both work with.”

  “Or someone they both knew really well,” I said.

  It only took a couple of seconds for Delilah’s eyes to grow wide and the yelling to start. “Oh, now you wait a minute. Why on earth would I kill my brother and then go after Gary? I know you think I killed Victor because of the trust, and yeah, I was pretty mad that he was making me take my mother back in. Do you see a place for her around here? Huh? But we would have worked something out. I was already looking into a bigger apartment. I’m sure you can tell I don’t have a lot going on. My brother was worth a lot more to me alive than dead.”

  Delilah burst into tears and I reached out and touched her arm.

  “I’m sorry. I’m trying to find a killer and maybe keep Gary from getting murdered.”

  Delilah sniffled and reached for a tissue from a box on the window ledge. “Do you really think he’s in danger?”

  I shrugged. “Well, someone went to the trouble of killing your brother and taking his key card to Gary’s office. They snuck in there on Saturday night and attacked him. Luckily, there was someone else working in the building and they came running. So, yeah, I think someone wants Gary dead. There’s got to be a connection somewhere. Do you know of anyone who would have a gripe with both your brother and Gary, other than one of the construction workers?”

  “Who knows,” Delilah said. Today she was wearing a pair of baggy brown linen pants and an over-sized blouse. She had on another crocheted vest, this one in autumn tones, and a pair of clogs on her feet. “They were always up to something and it usually was no good. Always had a scheme going on. I had a real crush on Gary when I was younger. We dated a bit but he always had higher aspirations. Liked the ladies with money. That’s why he and Vic went to Rhode Island. Gary followed some rich hottie there, and he and Vic got jobs. They came back here after several years. I know they got into some kind of trouble, but I never asked. By then I was well on my way to being a New-age hippie and Gary had no interest in me at all. Victor met Jenna and then Gary met Gail.”

  Delilah turned her gaze to the window again and then snapped her fingers and looked at me. “You know who might be able to tell you more about Gary? Check with Maddi Wickersham.”

  “Maddi? Are you sure? She didn’t seem like she knew a lot about him.”

  “I don’t know where you heard that, but she had the hots for Gary way back when Jenna first met Victor, but Gary didn’t even notice her. He only had eyes for Jenna. You ask me, he was always in love with Jenna and I think it pissed Maddi off.”

  Chapter 69

  What the heck hell? I tried to remember what Maddi told me about Gary when I asked her about him. Not much. As a matter of fact, now that I thought about it, she seemed to change the subject rather quickly.

  Now, I admit to having a very overactive imagination. Always have had, but where it was taking me right now was into downright crazy land. Could Maddi’s feelings for Gary have been so strong that she harbored resentment, maybe even hate, all these years towards her sister and Gary? Could she have been the one to push Jenna over the cliff and then gone after Gary?

  I pulled my car over to the side of the road. I was headed to Maddi Wickersham’s house but I needed to sort this out first and I couldn’t do it while trying to be a safe driver.

  These thoughts were absurd. Surely Victor would have seen his sister-in-law creeping up on his wife and then pushing her over a cliff. But maybe they did it together. Maybe Victor and Maddi were upset all these years over some hot romance that Jenna and Gary had had. Really? By all accounts Jenna Sanjari was a beautiful, lovely woman, but Gary Hachmeister? He didn’t strike me as a red hot lover some woman wouldn’t be able to forget.

  I gave myself a mental slap. I was losing it. Maddi did not kill her sister, though I still had her firmly on my list of suspects for Victor’s death. And then the connection hit me. Gary must have known somehow that Maddi killed Victor. Maybe he was the person Victor was meeting. Gary must have driven out to the construction site for some reason and witnessed the murder and then started to blackmail her. It sounded plausible. So how did I prove it?

  I pulled back onto the road and in a few minutes I was parked under the large tree in front of the Wickersham home. Maddi and a man I assumed was her husband were out in front packing up their car.

  “Alex, hey. This is my husband, Hal. Hal, this is Alex Harris, the woman I told you about. She’s helping to find Victor’s killer.”

  Hal Wickersham was a nice-looking man in a nerdy sort of way. He was tall and thin, and wore a pair of glasses that made his blue eyes look huge. His graying hair needed a cut or maybe he just liked it long and shaggy. He gave me a firm handshake and then excused himself to go help the girls finish packing.

  “So what’s going on? Are you going someplace?” I asked.

  “We’re taking the girls to see Hal’s parents on Block Island. They rent a house there every year. We thought it would be good to get away and give Moshi a change of scenery. We’ll leave them there for a week and Hal and I will come back on Friday night. So, what brings you here? Do you have some news?” Maddi asked hopefully.

  “Did you hear what happened to Gary?”

  Maddi stopped arranging suitcases and looked at me. “No. What? Is he dead, too? Let’s go inside.”

  I followed her through the garage and we entered into a laundry room and then on into the kitchen. I could hear Hal’s voice upstairs encouraging the girls to get their stuff ready.

  Maddi plac
ed a tea in front of me. It was becoming our routine. I took a sip and then got straight to the point.

  “Did you and Gary have a thing?”

  Maddi focused her smoky eyes on me and then burst out laughing. “Oh, my gosh. How did you know that? Gee, that was ages ago.”

  “So it’s true?”

  “It’s true that I had a crush on the guy for, like, a minute. We even went out a couple of times, but he liked Jenna. She was the pretty one.”

  I thought Maddi was a very attractive woman. Jenna must have been spectacular if she was the pretty one.

  “And then I met Hal and that was that. Gary was more flash and Hal is, well, Hal’s always been a bit of a nerdy kind of guy, but he’s my nerd. It takes a special man to live and thrive in a house full of females. I lucked out.” Maddi smiled and then took a sip of tea.

  It seemed liked I had hit another brick wall and then Hal came into the kitchen with a couple of throw blankets in his arms.

  “What do you think? It can get pretty chilly at night right on the water and I don’t know if my parents will have enough.”

  Maddi reached up and kissed Hal on the mouth.

  “What was that for?” Hal asked as he blushed slightly.

  “Nothing. Just for not being Gary Hachmeister.”

  “Huh?”

  Four young girls came running into the kitchen, each with a backpack. Moshi looked up at me.

  “Tell Kendall I’ll call her when I get home.”

  “Will do. Have a good time.”

  “Go put those in the back of the car and take these blankets, too,” Hal said to the girls while handing the blankets to the oldest.

  “Honey, go with them,” Maddi said to her husband. “They’ll just throw everything in there and smash all the snacks I have for the drive.”

  “Moshi looks happy,” I said.

  “She’ll be fine. She’ll never stop missing her mother, but we’ll be here to help her along the way.”

  I told Maddi I had to go, but would hopefully have some news for her very shortly. And with any luck I would, because that thing in the back of my head that had been eluding me was finally making an entrance.

  Chapter 70

  I needed to talk to Shirley. Or, more importantly, I needed Shirley’s expertise in searching the Internet. I took out my phone and called her cell. She was going to be out for a couple of hours, but I told her what I had in mind and she said to come by later in the afternoon.

  What I should have done next was head back to my office, but instead I hopped on the turnpike and headed to Stamford. As long as I was going to meet Shirley in Westport later on, I thought I’d head to the mall in Stamford. A couple more spins in the washing machine and my bras were going to disintegrate. I enjoy shopping on occasion, but buying bras made me cringe. Trying on clothes is something I don’t enjoy. Trying on bras is pure torture.

  Once in the mall I headed straight for the lingerie department of one of the larger stores. Way back when, bras came in one color: white. White cotton in a few styles. Today, they were a fashion statement in their own right. I have a thing for animal prints so I picked out a few of those and some others in various colors, and took them into the dressing room. The nice thing about playing hooky and shopping during the week was that the store was relatively quiet, and I had the dressing rooms all to myself.

  I tried on eight bras and decided that three were winners. I picked up some new panties to match while I was at it, and then headed over to the hosiery department for some ankle socks. I paid for my purchases, quite pleased that it didn’t take me that long, and headed to a small restaurant in the mall where I could get a salad.

  I was all sandwiched out. An arugula salad and a cup of barley soup sounded like a nice change. The waitress brought over a basket of several kinds of breads with a large cup of butter and placed it along with an iced tea on the table. When she left, I took a sip of the tea and watched people walking by, purchases firmly in hand.

  I couldn’t wait to see whether Shirley managed to find anything out. She seemed to think I was on to something when we talked, and I had to do the mental head slap thing because why didn’t I see it all along? I was just surprised the police hadn’t figured it out, but then I had a bit more information than they did. There was always the chance that I was wrong, but I didn’t think so. It was the only thing that made sense for both crimes.

  The waitress set my order in front of me and refilled my glass with more tea. I ate slowly, savoring the excellent soup, and then moved on to the salad, partaking of a few pieces of bread slathered in butter along the way.

  I looked at my watch. I still had some time before I had to meet Shirley, so I lingered at my table alternating between people-watching and reading a few more chapters on my Kindle. But my mind kept wandering. Would Shirley be able to find what we needed? And if not, how was I going to prove it? If need be, I would tell my theory to John and let the police run with it.

  The good thing about having solved the crime—at least in my head—was that my brother-in-law was off the hook, at least where murder was concerned. I still needed to find out what was up with him, and after I sorted out Victor’s murder, I planned on confronting Michael once and for all.

  I finished off my drink and put my Kindle away. I paid the waitress, gathered up my things and headed out to my car. It was time to finish this thing off and get back to my life.

  Chapter 71

  I got to Shirley’s only to find that she hadn’t arrived home yet. I sat in my car looking at the other houses on the street. It was a lovely neighborhood. If Shirley went ahead with the sun room it would further increase the value of her home, which already had to be up there, considering the surroundings. Of course, having Kate Cavanaugh do the design was contingent upon what Shirley and I would turn up this afternoon. And contingent on what I would find when I questioned my brother-in-law, because if it turned out that he and Kate had been having an affair, the lovely Ms. Cavanaugh was going to have a few broken bones to mend.

  I heard a car and looked in my rearview mirror just as Shirley pulled into her driveway. I got out and followed her into the house.

  “Sorry I’m late. Had to give a client the bad news that his wife is having an affair with his best friend. He knew she was doing it with someone, but this came as a big shock. Sometimes I hate my job. I’d rather help you catch killers, but unfortunately you don’t pay very much.”

  “I seem to be getting quite a reputation. Maybe I can add finding killer to the menu of things my firm offers.”

  “That would be helpful. Okay, so let me get us some tea, because this is going to take some time.”

  Shirley made two cups of tea and we took them into her office. I took a seat opposite her and watched as she started typing.

  “Alex, I can’t believe I totally skimmed over this before. It was pretty much sitting in front of us the entire time.”

  “That’s if I’m right. We don’t know that yet.”

  “What was it that made you think of it?”

  I told Shirley how I came to my latest theory and she nodded.

  “Hey, it’s as good a scenario as we’ve had so far. Let’s see what we can find.” Shirley squinted at the screen. “I think I need to get glasses. I’ve been putting it off, but they come in such nice styles. Maybe I’ll get a couple of pairs and change them up depending on my mood. Okay, here we go.”

  “You found something already?” I said, as I jumped up and walked around the desk.

  Shirley threw up her hands. “Nope. Never mind. Sorry.”

  I sat back down and picked up my cup. “If I’m right, then Gary Hachmeister is in danger. I’ll have to let him know.”

  “If you’re right, he’s been in danger all along. He almost bought the farm Saturday night. It’s just a matter of time. You better call John, too.”

  Shirley continued her search. She stopped typing and I could see her eyes going back and forth across the screen while she read something.
/>   “What is it?” I asked.

  She looked up at me. “It’s them, but the name is wrong.”

  I got up and walked around the desk again, and read through the small article.

  “Well, darn. I was so sure.”

  “Hey, don’t give up. People change their names. Maybe there was an adoption.”

  I sat back down and finished my tea. I went back to the kitchen for a refill. When I got back to the office, Shirley was reading something on the computer screen.

  “Well?”

  “I’m not sure. The two names together are bringing up a lot of hits. I’m looking at Facebook right now to see if any of the pictures match. Hundreds of people with that name, and so far nothing.”

  I shook my head. “This is pointless. If I’m right, then the name has been changed and how are we going to find a connection?”

  I pulled out my iPad and connected to Shirley’s Wi-Fi service. Two people searching were better than one. I plugged the names of the people Shirley had found into Google and started to look through all the links that came up while Shirley continued with her face recognition process. After a good half hour I wasn’t getting anywhere and decided to try something different. I went back to the search engine and this time typed in just one of the names. Again, a lot of stuff came up. How did anyone ever get anything done sorting through all the links? And where did all the stuff on the Internet come from in the first place? A curse and a blessing, I thought. I had a real love/hate relationship with the World Wide Web.

  I took a tea break and then got back to it, and this time something caught my eye. It was an article for one of the town’s local newspapers about a woman starting her own business and making her dream come true. I clicked on the link and waited for the story to load. I read the headline and introduction, and then used my finger to scroll down further where there was a picture. I stared at it for a few moments. I shut my eyes and then opened them and looked again.