The Wages of Cin (Cin Fin-Lathen Mysteries Book 4)

by Alexie Aaron

  “It happens,” Harry said. “I’ve been dumped, so has Alex. Us guys…” he stopped, realizing what he had started to say.

  I laughed. “No, that’s okay. It’s nice being one of the guys for a change.”

  “Do you want me to give you the ‘there’s a lot of fish in the sea’ talk?”

  “I don’t want to date fish.”

  It was Harry’s turn to laugh. “Do you want me to fix you up? There’s a hot professor over at the college…”

  “No, I’ll get back out there on my own, thank you.”

  “There’s always the internet…”

  “Oh no, that’s a last resort.” She sighed. “But not impossible. I hear those matchmaking sites are gaining ground.”

  “I was just teasing,” Harry said. “You’ve already got too many admirers.”

  “You’re kind to say that. Let’s table this discussion. It’s al…”

  The doorbell rang, cutting me off. Buslowski stood outside. I opened the door and smiled. “Welcome to our abode.”

  He looked at me funny as he checked me out. He was in detective mode. “What’s going on?”

  “You asked for this meeting,” I said, closing the door after him. “How about we use the kitchen counter, so we can spread out and nosh while we exchange data?”

  “Nosh? As long as I don’t have to eat any of those confabs,” he said loudly.

  “I heard that!” Harry said from the kitchen. “Cin, you big mouth.”

  Dave smiled, proud he had pushed a button. I tried to avoid his eyes. Buslowski knew something was up. He probably thought I was just holding back information though. At least I hoped so. All I needed was his feigned concern about my sudden ill-fated love life.

  “Can I fix you a drink?”

  “I’m driving.”

  “You can stay in the guest room if you overdo it,” I suggested.

  He looked at me suspiciously. “Why are you being so nice?”

  “I don’t know. Just go with it.”

  “I’ll have a beer,” he said.

  “One beer coming up.”

  Harry handed each of us a copy of last evening’s report. I sipped my drink while I read it silently.

  I arrived with Alex Lathen at Tom Richards’s home in Palm Beach, Florida at 7:30. The guard asked our names and asked us to present IDs. I suspected it was because we arrived in my Jeep, but I applauded the security measure. The guard waved us through, and we had the valet park the car. The Richards house is a two-story home built in 1950 and renovated twice, the last time two years ago. Alex and I split up. Tom asked me to come to his office, and no sooner did we get settled, when Toby called and alerted us to Cin’s arrival.

  Tom left to collect Cin. I took the opportunity to look through the unlocked drawers of his office. I managed to complete my task and sit down before I heard him return with Cin.

  I skimmed over the meeting, as I had been there, and picked up his narrative after he left the room.

  I left the room and decided to concentrate my efforts on the younger members of the suspect list. It was only natural that I would be chatting up the females, so I interviewed the lead guitar player of the band Manuel’s fiancée Debby Jones and her best friend Nancy Adams. I suspected these were the young women that Cin had labeled as the coke girls. Both girls were overly friendly and high. The only negative actions they displayed were their open hostility for Cin. “Who the fuck is that?” Debby asked me. I told her that she was Sidney Stoneridge’s date. Her response was, “That’s not what I heard. I heard that she was Elijah’s new slag.” I didn’t act surprised and didn’t press, and soon the whole story came out about how Elijah had been talking to Manuel about how much he likes the redhead. It was quite a surprise when Sidney showed up with Cin on his arm. Evidently, Sidney had gone through chemo and was on the mend and on the make, according to Nancy. She said that he’d been chatting up Elijah’s ex, Caroline.

  I remembered his comment about mistaking Caroline for Mandy. Was this the exchange Nancy saw or was it another conversation? If Nancy was right, I had fallen in love with a guy that was just starting to break hearts. I took a long drink of my Manhattan before I continued.

  The mysterious Gareth Goodbody walked into the party. Meyer met him at the door, and the two of them joked around for a while. Meyer offered to introduce him to Alex, his temporary replacement. Gareth declined and excused himself with the excuse that he needed to talk to Tom. Meyer was a little put out, but the arrival of Susan Richards seemed to brighten him up. The two fell into conversation. I watched Susan making the rounds, and she was well received by every guest. The coke girls were a bit intimidated but had nothing but nice things to say about the older woman. She had worked her way to Sidney when Tom arrived back with Cin.

  I excused myself from the coke girls and decided to see if I could locate Gareth. I found him coming out of Tom’s office. I nodded a greeting as I continued down the hall to the restroom. I waited a while and turned around to see what he had been up to in the office. Everything looked more or less like the way it was when Cin and I were there, except a few of the books in bookcase on the wall had toppled over. The carpet in front of the case looked like it had been vacuumed in a sweeping arc. It was then I figured out that I had found a secret door. I didn’t know how to open it, but I made a note and quickly left the office to keep an eye out for Gareth.

  I rounded the corner and stopped. Gareth was standing just out of sight watching Cin and Elijah. They appeared to be arguing. Cin left and moved down the hall. Caroline Broadhurst pulled her into the library, which seem to animate Gareth. He passed by me, heading in the direction of Tom’s office. I stealthily followed him and saw how he opened the secret door. He disappeared into the wall.*

  I looked for the * at the bottom of the page and read:

  * Bookcase secret door accesses secret passage that leads to Susan’s library.

  So I put one and one together and got Gareth listening in on Caroline’s and my conversation. But why?

  I waited for Gareth and was surprised when he walked into the office later with Tom Richards. I excused myself, and I left. Meyer, the drummer, and Alex were in an animated conversation, so I decided to join them, hopefully to learn more about the one-name drummer. Alex was questioning him about one of the songs. He felt he had misunderstood when he was to come in. “On the recording, it’s a count of eight,” he explained.

  “No, dude, it’s a count of sixteen. Gareth screws it up all the time. It’s probably wrong on the recording because it’s Gareth on the recording.”

  “That explains it. It just seemed too early,” Alex said.

  It was then we heard Mandy.

  “You have no freaking idea what it’s like to be me!” she yelled. “Poor little rocker baby, no one takes my music seriously.”

  She got up and ran headlong into Cin. Fortunately, the waiter Toby was behind Cin or she no doubt would have ended up on the floor.

  “Thank you. I’ve got this,” Cin told the waiter after he indicated he would step in. “Mandy, why don’t we go check out Susan’s library?”

  Mandy asked, “Who the fuck are you?”

  “A friend. A friend who cares,” Cin told her and added, “I’m Alex’s mom.”

  Mandy looked over at Alex, and he nodded and smiled.

  “Shit, he’s alright. Okay, but it’s philistines like Stoneridge that get my goat.”

  Cin and Mandy left.

  Sidney got up and walked outside. I excused myself and went to follow him but was waylaid by Gareth.

  “I hear you’re a private dick.”

  “I’m a consultant. Elijah and Tom hired my partner and me to look into the accidents and ‘bad luck’ that the band’s been experiencing.

  “Who’s your partner?”

  “Cin, the tall redhead, maybe you’ve seen her?”

  “I’ve seen her. Nice looking woman. Elijah’s rather smitten.”

  “Elijah hired us. Cin won’t cross the line with
a client. Between you and me, I think she likes the sound engineer.”

  “Stoneridge? He’s a dying man. Steer her clear of him, dude. He’s going through his bucket list. I’ve seen the list, and perhaps, she’s already been crossed off.”

  “He seemed like a decent guy,” I said.

  “He’s got a past, kind of moody, like Meyer. But Meyer has reason to be.”

  “Whoa, you’ve got to explain that.”

  “Meyer’s a closeted gay.”

  “Why stay in the closet?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s his business, you know.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t be spreading any rumors. Not professional.”

  Gareth patted me on the back. “That’s good to know. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a few people to connect with.”

  He left, and I went in search of Meyer. There were a few people I spied going upstairs to the bedrooms. I decided to follow them in case that was where Meyer had disappeared to.

  I didn’t find Meyer, just some couples hooking up. That’s when the radio went off. I didn’t hear the screaming until I got outside. Sounded like an electric guitar wailing.

  When I arrived, Cin was on the ground, trying to comfort a hysterical Mandy. Elijah arrived and carried Mandy off.

  Cin got up off the sand and started to protect the scene. “I think we need to stop anyone else from destroying the scene,” she said.

  I backed her up and suggested we split up. I pulled out my cell to call 911. I told Cin, “We’re in Palm Beach, which means the Ken dolls. I’m going to call Buslowski. It’s his county.”

  “Good thinking. They’re going to fight for jurisdiction, but we need the best on this. That means Buslowski,” she told me.

  Harry described the arrival of the cops and Buslowski, and I paid attention to the little details of who arrived and when. I looked over the procedure that Buslowski followed for protecting Caroline’s body and took note of how impressed Harry was with the detective’s handling of the crime scene. I skipped the part where Harry escorted me to the house and continued to read what followed after Harry returned.

  “Harry, you stay here,” Buslowski said. “I’ve got to notify the family.”

  “That would be Elijah Broadhurst, he’s the ex-husband, and Mandy Broadhurst.”

  “Where can I find them?” he asked.

  “Elijah took his daughter up to the house. Ask Tom Richards when you get there. He’ll know.”

  “Harry, this is a very detailed and complete report,” Buslowski said, interrupting my reading. I decided to leave the rest for later in order to listen to his observations.

  “I guess it’s my turn,” he said. He took a long pull of his beer and reached over and patted the top of my hand. “Cin, I want you to know that I didn’t mean to pry, but I just can’t help myself. When you left, I mined Harry for information and got the name of the guy you were dating. I took it and ran him through the system. That’s when I came up with a report on a Sidney Stoneridge who was arrested after he torched an RV. Before that, he stalked the owner and his family. I looked further and found this was the same recreational vehicle that had been in an accident that killed his mother. He was sentenced to five years but only served one and was released on parole.”

  “You dated a jailbird,” Harry teased.

  “Dated?” Buslowski asked.

  “Past tense, Cin got dumped this afternoon.”

  I looked at Harry and couldn’t believe he said what he just said and to Buslowski. I finished my drink and popped a maraschino cherry in my mouth to keep me from cussing.

  “Sorry to hear that. The guy’s out of his freaking mind, and a jail bird. You could do a lot better,” Buslowski counseled.

  He went on to report on Karen’s murder and produced a copy of the investigator on the scene’s report.

  “Were there any other suspects?” I asked, still smarting from Harry’s betrayal.

  “The locals thought they had their man, so they didn’t look any further.”

  “That’s shoddy police work,” I said.

  “That’s the way it is sometimes. The judge agreed, and Elijah was acquitted.” Buslowski set a few papers aside and picked up a handful. “Now for the rest of the band. Manuel is wanted for having sex with an underage girl.”

  “Pedophile?” I asked.

  “Not exactly, he was eighteen and she was fifteen, and it was in Connecticut. He confessed and was given a warning. Meyer has form for assault which, after researching the arrests, seemed to me like he was more the receiver than the doer of the violence. A couple of bar fights. Gareth was picked up for underage drinking and shoplifting when he was a kid.”

  “Sounds like kind of run-of-the-mill stuff,” Harry said.

  “They are still crimes. Were you aware of any of them when the band was performing?” he asked me.

  “Nope.”

  “Yes, it was before social media took off. All this stuff was neatly hidden. The manager must have had to pay out to keep a few of these incidents unreported by the press.”

  “Tom Richards seems devoted to the band members,” I observed. Buslowski smiled and picked up a sheet of paper. “Don’t tell me Tom’s got form.”

  “No, he’s squeaky clean. It’s Susan who’s got a violent streak.”

  “Not that kind lady?” Harry said. “She reminds me of a classy Sunday school teacher I had in my youth.”

  “I thought she was pretty savvy and balanced,” I said.

  “She was picked up for assault on a number of occasions,” he said, handing me the sheet. There it was in black and white. Susan Richards had form for hitting her hair stylist, punching a rival when she was in a beauty pageant, and striking a police officer who pulled her over for speeding. I passed it to Harry.

  He read it with his mouth hanging open.

  “Dave, was this everything?” I asked.

  “Everything that was charged. There were other complaints, but the victims never pressed charges. Could be that money was exchanged. Her parents were wealthy people. The house they live in is her childhood home.”

  “I suspected Tom didn’t earn that much off of the bands he managed. He’s a sweetheart, and I bet he hands out more than he earns,” I guessed.

  “That’s the idea I got when I interviewed him,” Buslowski reported.

  “Phew! So you weren’t exaggerating,” I said as I fixed myself another drink. I didn’t bother to measure the whiskey; I wanted the familiar numbing effects to push away the odd way I was feeling.

  “I never exaggerate. I leave that to Harry,” he teased.

  “Okay, about last night…”

  “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation,” Buslowski said.

  “Since when?” I said.

  “Since you became a suspect. You know that most of the guests suspect you offed the woman for Elijah.”

  I sat back. It was my turn to have my mouth hang open. “Do I give that bad an impression?”

  “I’m not the only one privy to the internet, Cin. You’ve got form in England.”

  “I was never arrested!”

  “Only because the officer in charge spoke up for you.”

  “It seems the rumor mill has been working overtime to jade my reputation,” I said, putting my head down on the counter.

  Buslowski patted me on the back. “Come on, Cin, I don’t believe you offed her. I think you’re the only one who didn’t know that you were Elijah’s new girlfriend.”

  “Great,” was all I said. I sat up, but only to down the rest of my drink.

  “Whoa, Cin, that’s not going to help,” Harry said. “Quick, before you get drunk, tell us who you think didn’t do it.”

  “Oh, yeah. I took the information I learned from Mandy about the bouncing red ball and figured that it was the killer. When I got to her, the killer was still there. Sidney and Manuel were with me when I first heard Mandy’s screams.”

  Buslowski seemed pleased. “Who else was with you?”

>   “The coke sisters. I think Manuel’s fiancée was getting ready to beat me up.”

  “Of course, Mandy could have killed her mother,” Buslowski pointed out.

  “My gut says no. I don’t get the kill vibe from either father or daughter,” I stressed. “How about you, Harry?”

  “Dave, I’m going to have to agree with Cin.”

  “So that leaves Meyer, Gareth, Tom and Susan Richards,” Buslowski said.

  “Interesting. Damn, Elijah and Mandy are staying with the Richardses,” I said.

  “I insisted that the Broadhursts not leave Palm Beach County,” Buslowski informed me and Harry.

  “Could they stay here?” Harry asked.

  “No!” I said, waving my hands in front of me. “Those two can afford a hotel room; they don’t need to be in my house.”

  “You’re in danger too if Mandy is. It would be easier to watch the both of you in one place,” Dave said.

  “Wait, I’ve got an idea,” Harry said.

  “Go on,” Buslowski said.

  “Have Cin move in with them at the Richards beach house.”

  “Are you trying to get me killed?” I asked Harry.

  Harry took his time answering. “You would be able to keep your eye on the Richardses and keep Mandy safe,” he reasoned. “Buslowski could have a few Kens within screaming distance.”

  “Wait, what are Kens?” Buslowski asked.

  I turned to him and explained, “The Palm Beach patrol officers look like Ken dolls - you know, Barbie and Ken?”

  “I know Barbies, I raised a daughter. I can see the resemblance. So you call any Palm Beach cops Ken?”

  “If they’re male. I suspect there aren’t any females on patrol,” I commented.

  “What do you call my guys?”

  Harry started to say something, but I got to him in time. I removed Harry from the kitchen with my hand over his big mouth.

  Chapter Twelve

  I served Dave another helping of Harry’s casserole. We were still brainstorming. I made it very clear that I didn’t want to bunk in at the Richardses'. “Couldn’t you collect their passports and release the Broadhursts?”

  He nodded. “I already did.”