As she spoke, her eyes had a hollowness to them, as though she was remembering the past. A shiver ran down my spine, and I fought the temptation to reach out and squeeze her hand. Instead, I said, “Why are you bringing this up now? You should have gone to the police when you were together.”
“He was a rich and powerful man,” said Emma. “I thought he would help me have a better life. I thought he would leave his wife for me. But that never happened. And besides, what would the police say if I went to them? Rich and powerful men get away with things all the time.”
“But still,” I said, “why did you bring this up now? What were you hoping to achieve?”
Emma shook her head and looked down at the table. She was silent for a few seconds, and then she said, “I don’t know. I guess I wanted the world to know what kind of person he was. I should have just gone to the police when I had a chance, but I didn’t. Maybe this is my way of dealing with the past.”
“When was the last time you saw Carl?” I said.
“Even after we broke up, we continued to see each other on and off for two years. I thought that maybe we’d get back together, but now I realize that he was just using me for sex. I was such an idiot.” Emma frowned and refused to meet my eyes. “I wish I’d done things differently in the past. But I can’t change what happened then. I thought that by coming forward with my story, I would make sure the future was different.” She looked up to meet my eyes. “Do you know that he wanted to change domestic abuse laws? He claims it’s not abuse if your partner hits you.”
There was a haunting pain in her eyes that bothered me. If she was lying, she was a hell of an actress.
“What do you do for a living?” I said.
“I’m a waitress,” said Emma. “I work at a small restaurant in New York.”
“And you never saw Carl again until about three years ago?”
Emma nodded. “When I first came out with these allegations, his campaign manager gave me a call and asked me to come and see them. But I wouldn’t. I knew that they would just try to bully me into doing something I didn’t want to.”
“Where were you on the night Carl died?” I said.
“I was in my room all night long, except when I went down to check out the casino. That was probably around nine o’clock. I’m staying at the Waterways.”
I nodded, making a mental note to verify her alibi. Of course, she’d have to be quite brazen to lie about an alibi that could be checked so easily.
“Did you ever meet any of Carl’s family? His ex-wives, sons, his wife, or his stepdaughter?”
Emma shook her head no.
Our steaks arrived, and silence descended upon our table as the three of us began to chomp through our food. In between bites, Ian and I asked Emma how she was finding Vegas, and what else she knew about Carl.
Emma told us that she thought Carl was a horrible human being. She thought he was a bully, and that he had only gotten as far as he did because of his family background, and his corrupt business practices.
“Do you think Carl had a lot of enemies?” I said. “Anyone who would’ve wanted to hurt him?”
Emma laughed shortly. “He was a horrible man, I’m sure he had lots of enemies.”
We had almost finished our steaks, and Ian and I exchanged a glance. So far, we hadn’t actually learned anything useful—other than the fact that Emma didn’t like Carl, something we already knew before the interview.
Ian glanced down toward Emma’s phone and gave me a funny look. I knew what he meant, and I shrugged. Perhaps Nanna was right: if we were going to be investigators, it was probably time to step up our technology game.
Ian said, “Emma, my phone seems to have died and I need to make an urgent call. Can I borrow yours?”
Emma looked at Ian skeptically. “What don’t you borrow Tiffany’s phone?”
I shook my head. “No, I left my phone at home.”
“Please?” Ian looked at Emma pleadingly, his eyes all puppy-like.
But Emma wasn’t swayed by his begging.
“Sorry,” she said. “I never let anyone use my phone, just as a matter of principle. I know you understand.”
Ian and I looked at each other, trying to hide our disappointment. And then, Ian glanced behind me, and his eyes grew wide.
Before I could swivel around to see what Ian was staring at, Nanna appeared beside us.
“Jenny, darling!” Nanna said to Emma. “How lovely to see you again!”
Emma looked at me in confusion, but I was too busy staring at Nanna, my jaw agape.
Nanna walked over till she was behind Ian and said, “Jenny—don’t you remember me? I’m your mother’s good old friend, Gwenda!”
Emma had turned away from me and was busy staring at Nanna. She had her back to her phone, and I knew this was my chance to retrieve the data. Quickly, I reached into my handbag, pulled out the UFED, and placed it on top of her phone.
“You must be mistaken,” said Emma. “I’m not Jenny.”
She made as though to turn around again, and I felt my heart lurch. She was seconds away from noticing the UFED, and she would ask me what that object was and where it came from. Perhaps she would storm out once she realized what was going on.
Suddenly, Nanna reached out and clasped Emma’s face with both her hands, forcing Emma to keep looking straight at her.
“No, Jenny, darling, it’s me, Gwenda! Remember, I used to go over to your house all the time when you were little. You were such a cute little eight-year-old. I remember, one time you came downstairs wearing your mother’s bra stuffed with oranges and said that you were Madonna. You were going to be a pop star, and you starting singing ‘Like a Virgin’ and dancing along to it. What happened? Did you ever get into the music business?”
As Nanna talked, all three of us stared at her in shock. Occasionally, I glanced down at the UFED, which had a tiny light on it, blinking red. As soon as the data was transferred, the light would change to green. The transfer was supposed to take one or two minutes, and I didn’t know if we would be able to distract Emma for all that time.
“You must be mistaken,” Emma said patiently. “My mother never had a friend named Gwenda. And my name’s not Jenny, it’s Emma.”
“Why did you have to change your name?” said Nanna. “Jenny is such a lovely name! Although, I do like the name Emma too. Kids these days, always going around and changing your names.”
“I never changed my name,” said Emma, clearly starting to get a bit annoyed. “My name’s always been Jenny.”
The red light on the UFED was still blinking, and I knew that at any moment, Emma would push Nanna’s hands away and turn around. Quickly, I got out of my chair and walked over to Nanna.
“I’m so sorry, Emma,” I said. “This is my nanna. She gets a little confused sometimes, and the best thing to do is just humor her. I apologize for this, but if you could just talk to her for a few minutes, she’ll be happy to think that she’s met Jenny again, and then she’ll leave us alone.” I turned to Nanna and spoke loudly, enunciating each word. “Nanna, it’s me, Tiffany. Do you remember? You granddaughter.”
Nanna glanced at me briefly. “I don’t know any Tiffany. But this here’s Jenny, my friend’s daughter. Of course, she’s changed her name to Emma now.”
Emma glanced at me, her eyes questioning. I made a circular motion with my hand, and mouthed, “Just go with it.”
Emma nodded and said. “Yes, it’s me, Jenny. It’s good to see you again, Gwenda. How are you?”
Just then, the light on the UFED stopped flashing and turned green.
As Nanna said, “Thank you, dear, I’m perfectly fine,” I headed back to my seat as quickly as I could and slipped the UFED off Emma’s phone and back into my handbag.
Once we were set, I gave Nanna a nod, and she let go of Emma’s face. “My goodness! You’re not Jenny.”
Emma turned to look at me, her eyes confused.
“Yes, Nanna,” I said. “This is my friend
Emma, I’ve been trying to tell you. Did you come here with someone else?”
“Yes, yes,” said Nanna. “There’s my friend Wes. I’d better get back to him. Enjoy your dinner, Tiffany, dear.”
We watched as Nanna walked back to a table near the front, where Wes was waiting for her, a look of disbelief on his face.
“That was odd,” said Emma. “That’s really your nanna?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry about this. She has little episodes sometimes. We’re not sure what brings them on, but we’ve found that the best thing to do is to just go along with it. I really appreciate you not pushing her away.”
Emma shrugged. “That’s okay. She seemed like a sweet old lady.”
Ian and I exchanged a glance. If Emma knew why Nanna had really come over, “sweet old lady” would have been the last words she’d use to describe her.
Chapter Nineteen
As soon as we got home, I connected the UFED file to my computer and copied all the data. We couldn’t get a list of the apps on Emma’s phone, or her browser history, but we did get a list of phone numbers of people that Emma had talked to recently, and her most recent texts.
Nanna showed up soon after we were done copying over all the information, and as I handed the UFED back to her, she said, “Now, wasn’t this a great idea?”
“Technology is helpful,” I admitted. “It was a good idea.”
“You should make me part of your team,” said Nanna. “I was so good at convincing Emma not to turn around.”
“That’s because you behaved like a crazy person,” I said, looking at her doubtfully. “I had no idea you were such a good actress.”
Nanna smiled. “You’ve got to be a good actress to win at poker. And I’m glad you could get all the data.”
“It was great that you came along!” said Ian. “Investigating is so much fun if you do it right. Tiffany, you’re so lucky that Nanna wants to help us out like this.”
“We should always do things like this,” said Nanna.
I looked at Nanna hesitantly, and then Wes and I shared an understanding glance. I didn’t want the new normal to be Nanna going around barging in on my investigations and acting like a senile old person. Although, it had worked out well for us this time.
After Nanna and Wes left, Ian and I looked through all the data we’d obtained.
We started with the texts, but there wasn’t anything too interesting in there—mostly, it was Emma wishing a friend a perfunctory happy birthday, or making plans to meet up. There weren’t any incriminating details in the texts.
When we looked at the list of numbers that Emma had talked to recently, nothing looked too familiar. A few of the numbers were saved under names like “Mom,” “Sally,” and “Wendy.” But the number of the person she’d spoken with most recently was labeled “Boss Lady.”
“That’s odd,” said Ian. “Emma works as a waitress in a restaurant. Why would she need to call her boss so often?”
“Perhaps they’re good friends,” I said.
But Ian was right, something didn’t seem to add up. I did a reverse search on the phone number, but it belonged to an unregistered prepaid phone.
“This gets even better,” I said. “Why is Emma calling a John Doe number so often?”
“We should just dial the number and find out,” said Ian.
“Okay,” I said. “Give me your phone.”
“Why do you need my phone?” said Ian.
“Maybe this person knows my number,” I said. “We can’t be too careful. I don’t want this person not answering the phone, just because they recognize me.”
“That makes sense,” Ian admitted begrudgingly as he handed me his phone.
We held our breath as I dialed the number, and it rang four times. Finally, there was a woman’s voice on the other end. “Who is this?”
“It’s me, Emma,” I said.
“You again?” said the voice. “Did you meet with the investigator?”
“Yes,” I said.
“And you didn’t tell her about me?”
“No. She has no idea.”
“Good,” said the woman. “Now, stop calling me. Our deal is over.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“There’s nothing not to understand. Carl’s dead, so we don’t need you talking about how he was abusive anymore.”
“So you’re not interested in my history with Carl at all?”
“No,” said the voice. “Now all I have to do is beat out Senator Wingrove, and then the nomination is mine.”
I sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, as I realized that I was speaking with Senator Pritchett. “Okay,” I managed to choke out. “I won’t call you again.”
I hung up and stared at Ian. “We need to go and talk to Senator Pritchett again,” I said. “And this time, she’d better tell us the truth.”
Chapter Twenty
“I’ve got an early shift today,” I said to Ian, “so we’ll have to make appointments to talk to them tomorrow.”
I dialed Senator Pritchett’s prepaid phone number, using my phone this time, and once again, she answered with a wary, “Who is this?”
“It’s me, Tiffany Black,” I said.
There was a second of speechlessness, and then Senator Pritchett said, “How did you get this phone number?”
“I can explain that when I see you next time,” I said. “We’d like to talk to you tomorrow.”
Once again, there were a few seconds of silence as Senator Pritchett worked out the fact that I probably knew something I shouldn’t.
“What time?” she said finally.
“How about eleven?”
“Okay,” said Senator Pritchett. “I’ll see you then.”
After that, I called Emma and arranged to meet her at noon at the casino where she was staying. I didn’t even need to tell her what this was about—just that we’d forgotten to ask her a few questions and needed to chat again.
“I understand,” Emma said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
After I was done with the two phone calls, Ian said, “Are we going to talk to Steve the bodyguard tomorrow?”
“We’ll give it a shot,” I said. “But I’m supposed to have an early dinner with Detective Ryan, so we might not have too much time.”
“You’re going on a date with Detective Ryan?” Ian raised one eyebrow. “I thought you were going to take a break from dating.”
“I like him,” I said. “We might as well see where this goes.”
My shift ended in the wee hours of the morning, and I managed to get a good couple of hours’ sleep before I headed out with Ian to see Senator Pritchett again.
This time, Senator Pritchett was alone when we met her in her suite.
“What did you two want to talk about?” said Senator Pritchett warily as she sat down on one of the armchairs, one leg crossed over the other.
She looked less than happy to see us this time. Once again, her makeup was immaculate, and today she was wearing a pale green silk shirt with black slacks.
“We know you’ve been paying Emma Tyrone to talk about her relationship with Carl,” I said.
Senator Pritchett held my gaze for a few long seconds. When it became obvious that I wasn’t bluffing, she looked away.
“All’s fair in love and war,” she said, “and politics is war.”
“What else did you do to harm Carl’s campaign?” I said.
Senator Pritchett looked back at me and shook her head. “I didn’t have to do anything else,” she said. “Carl was his own worst enemy.”
“Did you also pay Danielle?” I asked.
“No, the other women who were talking about him came forward on their own.”
“That’s why Danielle was willing to meet him and get paid off,” I mused, “while Emma refused to meet him. You were already paying her.”
Senator Pritchett shrugged. “I expected more women to come forward as time went by, and really, I didn’t think that Carl was m
y biggest competitor anyway.”
“And now he’s dead,” I said. “He’s not a threat to you at all.”
A flash of annoyance glinted in Senator Pritchett’s eyes. “Are you trying to accuse me of something? Because I have a perfectly good alibi for that night. I was at an event the entire time.”
“Perhaps you hired somebody to do your dirty work for you,” I said. “Carl was poisoned. If somebody mixed weed killer into his coffee for you, you could have the perfect alibi.”
“That’s absurd!” said Senator Pritchett. “I’ve cooperated with you this entire time, but I don’t have to deal with such insane accusations.”
“I’m not sure how insane they are,” I said. I didn’t want to offend her, but perhaps Ian’s tactlessness had rubbed off on me a little. “You paid someone to tarnish Carl’s reputation. When that didn’t work as well as you thought it would, you paid someone to poison him.”
“Listen,” said Senator Pritchett, “no politician worth their salt would ever do anything illegal. Nobody would have to kill Carl to beat him in politics. The man’s a fool, propped up by a good family name and some money. Nobody can say and do the stupid things he does and get away with it for too long.”
In an attempt to calm her ruffled feathers, I pretended to agree with her. “You’re right. Carl was very unpopular with most people.”
Senator Pritchett nodded. “Exactly. And now, are we done with these ridiculous questions?”
Ian and I headed straight over to see Emma, and we found her in her room, like she said she’d be.
In the harsh light of the day, Emma looked more frail and thin than she had seemed in the restaurant the previous night. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and for the first time, I noticed the massive dark circles under her eyes.
“You don’t seem to have slept that well,” I said.
I knew that Emma had been paid by Senator Pritchett, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. There was something about her that reminded me of an injured animal and brought out my protective instincts.
Pesky Politicians in Las Vegas Page 11
