by Kathi Daley
“If we move the furniture, we’d be able to seat thirty at my place,” Kyle pointed out.
“That’s true. If you want to host, I’ll talk to my dad about it. Will your mom be joining us this year or will she be heading to your uncle’s like she did last year?”
“She’ll be in town. She usually tries to trade off to keep everyone happy.”
I took a sip of the wine the waitress had just dropped off. “It would be fun to have the holiday at the house I still associate with Zachary. You know he actually tried to make a turkey for the two of us one year. He planned to serve it for lunch the day before Thanksgiving, but he ended up burning it, so we had canned chili. He was really upset that his plans didn’t work out, but as far as I’m concerned, it was still a very memorable lunch. He set the table and even used a tablecloth, which I’d never seen him use prior to that lunch or at any point after. The meal itself might not have worked out the way he hoped, but it meant a lot to me that he tried.” I smiled at the memory. “Did I mention that I spoke to Zachary on the night of the explosion?”
Kyle raised a brow. “Spoke to him?”
“He was there in my head when I was unconscious. We played a game of chess and had a good chat.”
Kyle put his hand over mine. “I guess that isn’t surprising. The two of you had a special relationship. It makes sense that your subconscious might seek him out during such a traumatic event.”
I smiled. “I really do miss him. Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about playing chess with him with that handmade set he had in the basement. The one with the little drawer and the chip in the corner. Do you still have it?”
“When I remodeled the house, I cleared out the basement, but I seem to remember the chess set ended up in the attic. We can look for it when we get back. Are you are staying over tonight?”
I nodded. “Dad and Rosalie are going to keep an eye on Ashley and Gracie for a few days so I can be available to nurse you back to health. I would like to stop by the resort to pick up Echo and Trooper on the way back to your place.” Echo was my dog, and Trooper was Kyle’s.
“I like that plan. And I want to thank your dad for picking Trooper up and bringing him out to the resort on Tuesday. The poor guy would have freaked out if no one had shown up to let him out.”
“Dad was happy to help out. Trooper is part of the family.” The conversation paused as the pizza was delivered to our table. Talk about cheesy perfection. While the food was to die for I, couldn’t get the explosion and the subsequent loss of life out of my mind. “I’ve been thinking about the fact that Lloyd was the town council member closest to the bomb. If the bomb had been placed to eliminate one of the individuals in the room, it seems likely in my mind that the bomb was intended for him. He’s a controversial guy who not only wields a lot of power but has as many enemies as supporters.”
Kyle took a bite of his pizza then set it down and took a sip of his water. “It is true that of all the council members, his appointment was the most controversial.” Kyle drummed his fingers on the table. “As a developer, he has angered a lot of folks who want Serenity to keep its small-town feel. Yet he does have supporters amongst those who have benefited from the jobs his developments have created. I’m sure we could come up with a long list of people who hold a grudge against the guy, but I suppose the real question is: would any of those with a grudge actually kill him in such a violent manner?”
I had to agree with Kyle that if any of the town council members had been the target, then the method of elimination had been drastically over the top. “Maybe the bomb wasn’t about a single person. Maybe someone simply wanted to make a statement and wasn’t worried about collateral damage. As crazy as it seems, there are people out there who are simply after the rush.”
“If that is true, it is going to be next to impossible to figure out who did this.”
“Yeah,” I groaned. “A random act of violence would most definitely complicate things.”
Chapter 4
Friday, November 3
“You’re up early,” Kyle said when he joined me in the kitchen the next morning.
I glanced out the window to see that the rain showers of yesterday had given way to snow showers today. “I had a weird dream and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up.”
Kyle poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table with me. “Do you want to talk about your dream?”
I turned slightly. “I dreamt about Zachary. He’s been on my mind more than usual since he is the one I imagined when I was unconscious, and then we talked about him last night. His appearance in my dream is most likely the result of remembering things I haven’t thought about in years, but it felt so real; not at all like a dream.”
“Do you remember the content of the dream?”
I sat back and tried to pull the dream into my consciousness. “It’s pretty fuzzy, but I do remember that Zachary and I were playing chess just like we had when I was unconscious.”
“So do you think that your subconscious mind is using these dreams to tell you something?”
I shrugged. “I’m not really sure. I suppose these visions of Zachary could just be my mind trying to make sense of everything that has happened. I know Zachary is dead and that he isn’t actually speaking to me, but I can’t seem to get him out of my mind. Maybe I just miss him. Maybe playing chess with him represents a simpler time. Maybe deep down, I know something that might be relevant to the case. Maybe Zachary’s presence is simply my subconscious trying to remind me of what it is I need to remember.”
“You asked about the chess set that used to be in the basement. We never did look for it last night. We can look now if you want.”
I shook my head as I poured a second cup of coffee. “I’d like to find the chess set, but it can wait. We talked about the idea that Lloyd might have been the target of the bombing last night, but we got sidetracked talking about a random act of violence. While possible, I really don’t think a random act of violence is what is going on.”
“I agree. We did let ourselves get sidetracked. I spoke to Jeff, and he said that while he didn’t know why the emergency meeting had been called, based on what was said after he arrived, he had the impression that Lloyd was the one to call it. If you add to that the fact that Lloyd was the council member sitting closest to the bomb and that he is undeniably the most controversial councilman, I think taking a closer look at his business dealings might be a good idea.”
“Why would Lloyd call a meeting and then blow himself up?”
“I’m not saying that is what happened, but the more I think about things, if there was a single member of the council who angered someone enough to blow up an entire building, it would be Lloyd. If it turns out his business dealings were not the cause, so much the better, but we really have nothing at this point and looking into his current projects seems like as good a place as any to start.”
“Okay, so what do you want to do?”
“Let’s see if we can get into his house and his office and take a look around. It would make sense that someone would have confiscated his computer by now, but if not, we’ll take that as well. I’m sure his phone was on him and is most likely in a million pieces by this point. I can pull his phone records to see who he spoke to on the day of the blast.”
“Should we call Roy?”
Kyle nodded. “I’ll call him to let him know what we are doing. If he has a concern about our plan, he can let us know.”
“Okay. I’m going to run upstairs and jump in the shower. Maybe we can grab something to eat while we’re out.” I turned and headed toward the stairway. I paused and turned back. “I wonder what happened to Lloyd’s car. I wonder what happened to everyone’s car.”
“Mine was in my driveway when we arrived home from the hospital. I guess someone, maybe Roy, might have had it towed over.”
“So maybe the other
cars in the lot were towed to the homes of their owners as well. We’ll look for Lloyd’s when we check out his house. I’m not sure that locating the vehicles which had been parked in the lot is even important, but maybe one of the vehicles can provide a clue.”
Kyle was on the phone with Roy when I arrived back downstairs. The men seemed to be discussing permits of some sort, so I headed into the other room to check in with Ashley and Gracie. I knew they’d been terrified when they’d learned about the explosion and the fact that Kyle and I had both been taken to the hospital. I could understand their fear. Our mother had been taken to a hospital four and a half years ago and never came back. When I’d learned that I’d been assigned as their guardian, I was even more terrified than they were, but somehow we’d gotten through the crisis and become a family.
“Hey, Gracie, I’m just checking in. How is everything?”
“Everything is good. Cuervo and Snowball got into a fight, but Papa broke it up. He said that Cuervo is missing you. I’m missing you too. When will you be home?”
“In a day or two.” Cuervo was my angsty orange tabby who most definitely was not a fan of change. “Is Snowball okay?”
“She’s fine. Papa is going to have Cuervo sleep with him and Rosalie since you and Echo are both gone.”
“That sounds like a good idea. Cuervo hates to sleep alone, especially when it is cold.”
“You got a package today.”
“A package?” Suddenly, all I could think about was another bomb. “What sort of package?”
“I don’t know. A man brought it to the house.”
“Does Papa know about the package?”
“No, he is over at the stables with Rosalie checking on the new baby colts. The man who brought the package just left it on the porch, but it’s snowing, so I brought it in.”
“Is Grandpa there?” I could feel the panic begin to build. Since we lived at a resort, we had a lot of deliveries, so normally receiving a package was a yawn-worthy event, but with everything that had happened this week, I didn’t want to take any chances.
“Grandpa is in the den. He is watching a movie.”
“Can you put him on the phone, please?”
“Okay. Hang on.”
I listened as Gracie ran down the stairs and across the living room floor. In my mind, I couldn’t help but imagine the innocent looking package blowing up. I held my breath as I waited and listened for the sound of a loud bang. Less than a minute after Gracie went to find him, Grandpa came on the line. I explained about the package and suggested that he might want to check it. I told him to be careful, and he said he would. He continued to talk to me as he headed toward the entry where Gracie had left the box sitting on the table.
“I see it. Hang on while I get my knife to cut the tape.”
“Be careful,” I said again. “It’s probably just something I ordered and forgot about but given what’s happened…”
“I know. Hang on.”
“It’s a box full of cash,” he said a few seconds later.
“Cash? How much cash?”
“I’m not sure. If you want to hang on, I can count it, but it looks like at least several thousand dollars.”
“Is there a note?”
Grandpa took a moment before he answered. I supposed he was looking through the box. “No. Nothing is in the box other than the cash.”
“Okay, I’m going to have Roy come by and pick it up. I don’t know what is going on, but having someone send a box of cash to me is definitely suspicious. Given everything else that is going on, Roy will want to look for prints and other physical evidence. Given the timing, the cash is very likely to be related to the destruction of the town hall in some way.”
“Related how?”
“I have no idea, but it isn’t every day that one receives a box of cash. I think that until this bombing case is wrapped up, we should tell both Ashley and Gracie not to accept the delivery of any packages, or to bring any packages left on the porch inside unless they check with an adult first.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I’ll put the box up until Roy gets here. How’s Kyle doing today?”
“He seems to be hanging in there. I can tell his ribs hurt, but he never complains. He’s talking to Roy right now, and then we are going to head over and check out Lloyd’s place.”
“Do you have new evidence to suggest that he was the target?”
“No. But Jeff told Kyle that he was pretty sure it was Lloyd who’d called the meeting, he was the closest to the blast, and he was the most controversial council member. If there is a scandal to uncover, chances are that it will link back to him.”
After I hung up with Grandpa, I went in search of Kyle, who was just hanging up with Roy. I stopped him and asked him to let me speak to Roy. After I told Roy about the cash, he agreed to head to the resort and pick up it up. Five minutes after he hung up with me, he called me back to let me know that a box had been delivered to Jeff in his hospital room, which had also contained a lot of cash.
“What on earth is going on?” I asked Kyle, as he grabbed a few tools he thought he might need to break into Lloyd’s place.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. I wonder if anyone else received cash.”
“Roy didn’t mention anyone else, but I suppose that others could have boxes waiting for them that they haven’t discovered yet. The fact that both Jeff and I received the cash makes me feel like the deliveries are linked to the explosion. Of course, if that were true, then you and Bookman would receive packages as well. I know you haven’t, but I wonder if he has.”
“Call Helen and ask her.”
I called Helen while Kyle drove us to Lloyd’s. She confirmed that they hadn’t received any packages, but said that she’d keep an eye out. Talk about a crazy twist to this crazy story. When we arrived at Lloyd’s place, I couldn’t help but gasp. His residence was really more of an estate, and what an estate it was. Lloyd had been a developer in the area for a lot of years, and during his career, he’d managed to rake in a lot of money. The three-story home he’d built on the eastern shore of Paradise Lake had been featured in both Architectural Digest and Lakefront Living. Kyle and I didn’t have a key or an alarm code, which would have allowed us to access the home, but the estate was pretty isolated, so surprisingly, Kyle, who’d never been in favor of breaking and entering during past investigations, suggested we take a chance and break in. I kept an eye on the front drive while Kyle found the power source to the house and disabled it, thereby disabling the security system. He then jimmied the lock on the garage door. Once inside, Kyle was able to verify that the generator was not tied into the security system, so he used tools we found in Lloyd’s well-stocked tool room to break into the house through the back door.
“Wow, this place is gorgeous,” I said, as I walked through the house to the back where a wall of windows looked out over the lake. The house was situated on the property to provide a view of either the mountains or the water from pretty much every window.
“Lloyd was very creative with the design, and while in any other circumstance I might take my time and look around, today I just want to find his office and get out of here. Let’s split up.” Kyle suggested. “You look on this floor, and I’ll head upstairs. If you find what we are looking for, give a holler, and I’ll do the same.”
The bottom floor of the home was laid out for entertaining. The entry opened into a great room that, based its size, would have held a hundred guests. The huge gourmet kitchen was separated from the great room by a long counter lined with barstools, and beyond the kitchen was a game room with a pool table and video games. Lloyd was single. As far as I knew, he’d never married nor had children. I had to wonder why he’d wanted such a huge home. I knew there were at least five bedrooms and eight baths, so maybe he used his residence to entertain clients.
“The offic
e is up here,” Kyle called down from upstairs after he’d been searching for a few minutes.
I abandoned my tour and headed toward the staircase. The office, like every other room in the home, was huge. It not only featured a floor to ceiling fireplace, but two of the walls were lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves.
Kyle headed directly to Lloyd’s desk. He’d brought an empty box with him, so rather than looking at every item on the desk and in the drawers, he simply began filling up the box. Once the desk had been emptied, he turned to the file cabinets, but they were locked. Kyle tried the keys on a keyring he had found, but none of them unlocked the cabinets.
“We’ll start with this,” Kyle said, scooping up a stack of files from a tall table behind the desk. “Do you see his laptop?”
“No, but to be honest, I would have thought he’d have a desktop computer in his home office.”
“We’ll probably find his desktop in his office in town. He may have had his laptop with him. Let’s start with what we’ve found. If we feel like we have cause, we can come back and break into the file cabinets.”
“Are we going to break into his office in town?”
Kyle held up the keyring he’d been using to attempt to open the file cabinets. “I’m hoping one of these opens the office, and we won’t have to break in.”
“It is probably alarmed.”
“Maybe, but we may find a way around that. If not, we’ll come up with plan B.”
We tried to get into the office, but the keys we had didn’t work and, unlike the estate, it was located in a public place with a lot of auto and pedestrian traffic. We couldn’t cut the power as we had at Lloyd’s home, so we took the items we’d recovered from this home office, and headed back to Kyle’s house. Kyle called Roy, and he confirmed that Lloyd’s car had been towed to the impound lot. He didn’t know if the crime scene unit had gone through it yet, but said that he would find out and then he’d get back to us. While Kyle had been on the line with Roy, he’d asked if law enforcement personnel had searched Lloyd’s office. Roy answered that Kate had been gathering information relating to each of the victims while he had been working with the crime scene unit in an attempt to nail down the specifics of the blast. She hadn’t come into work yet that day, but when she did, he’d ask her for an update.
