by Casey Mayes
“Sorry. What do you want to talk about?”
There was a pause, and then I heard my husband say, “Let’s talk about Cindy Glass.”
“Let’s not,” Grady said.
“I’m not fooling around here.”
“Move on, Zach.”
After another pause, Zach said, “Okay, fine. We’ll come back to her later. I understand you had a pretty public argument with Hank Tristan the night he was murdered. Would you like to tell me about it?”
“Been spying on me, have you?” the mayor asked.
“It’s in the police report. Everybody knows about it, but I thought you might like to tell me your side of it.”
“Do you honestly think that I could have killed him? You do, don’t you?”
“Grady, I want to believe you, but there’s too much cop in me to turn my back on the fact that a guy you had a public brawl with was murdered not long after, and then a girl you were dating was next. How do you think that looks on you?”
“I’m being threatened, too, remember?” Grady said. His voice was high and shrill, and it sounded to me like he was close to snapping.
“If you didn’t do it, you’re my best resource. Somebody is hovering around the edges of your life and doing some pretty terrible things. You want me to find them, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. You shouldn’t even have to ask.”
“Then help me eliminate you as a suspect so I can go find the real killer.”
The request hung in the air between them, and for a second, I didn’t think Grady was going to answer. After a few more seconds, though, he said, “I’ll tell you whatever I can.”
“What were you and Hank fighting about the night of the ball?”
“He made a crack about my date, if you have to know. He thought it was amusing that I was there with someone’s secretary, and he asked me what it was like slumming with Cindy.”
“So you lost your temper with him?”
I could hear an edge of anger in Grady’s voice as he said, “He was acting like an idiot. I didn’t really know the girl. It was a fix up, a last-minute blind date for the ball when my original date had to cancel. I didn’t know her, but I wasn’t about to stand there and let some drunken fool take shots at her.”
“You’d been drinking too, hadn’t you?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I’m sure that’s in the police report, too. But I didn’t kill him. Two minutes after the argument ended, I’d forgotten all about him.”
“Where were you later that night after the ball?” The question was simple and easy, but I knew that my husband was really asking the mayor of Charlotte for his alibi.
Grady sighed, and then said, “I was with Cindy, okay? My alibi was murdered the night after Hank was killed, before the police had a chance to interview her. I know they thought they were doing me a favor by going easy on me, but if they’d talked to Cindy before she died, I would have had an alibi for the murder.” He took a deep breath, and then added, “I’m not proud of having a one-night stand, but I was drunk, and one thing led to another. She was a sweet girl. Who knows? If we’d had more than one date, something special might have developed between us.”
“No one saw you then, besides her?”
“No one,” Grady said.
“Let’s move on,” Zach said. “Cindy Glass was stabbed in her apartment with the same type of knife someone used on Hank Tristan. Where were you the night she was killed?”
“You don’t think I killed her, do you? Zach, I liked her.”
“I’ve got to ask, and we both know it.”
Grady sighed, and then he said, “I was in Atlanta at a symposium for southern mayors. You can check with the Thorgood; that’s where we stayed.”
I knew my husband would verify the mayor’s alibi, but I wasn’t sure how good it was. After all, Charlotte was just four hours away from Atlanta, so it was possible he made the round-trip to kill Cindy while everyone else was sleeping. It wouldn’t leave him a lot of time to get back to his conference, but it still left a window of opportunity for him to be the murderer, and I knew my husband was as aware of that fact as I was.
“Any chance you took a city-owned car?”
“No, I like to hit the open highway in my truck when I get the chance. Why?”
“Grady, it’s my job to check everything.”
“Davis didn’t ask me any of these questions,” the mayor said a little petulantly.
“I’m not about to comment on someone else’s investigation techniques. This is just how I do it. Is there anything else you want to tell me? Anything that might help me solve this case?”
“If you’re hoping I’ll confess, I’m sorry to say that you’re going to be disappointed.”
“Then how do you explain two murders, both claimed by some nutcase, that touch your life?”
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Grady said.
“Sorry, I don’t believe in them.”
“I don’t know. What can I tell you? The only other thing I can think of is that somebody’s out to get me.”
“Ordinarily I’d say you’re being a little paranoid,” Zach said.
“Hey, even the paranoid are right sometimes.” His voice softened as he added, “Zach, I know you’re just doing your job, but if anybody else finds out that I’m your main suspect, you’re going to destroy my political career.”
“That’s why you should be helping me instead of stonewalling.”
“I said I’d do anything I could. What else do you need?”
“A list of your enemies might help,” Zach said. “If you didn’t do it, I’m willing to guess that someone you know did.”
I heard him stand, and I knew I had to get out of there before they caught me listening in. I ducked down the hallway hoping to find an open door, but I made it all the way to the stairs, and every room was locked. I had no choice. I ran into the stairwell and climbed up to the next landing. I was going to wait five minutes, and then emerge to compare notes with my husband.
As I silently counted down the minutes in my mind, the stairwell door opened. I’d taken two steps down, so I hurried back to my landing.
Below me, I heard Grady say, “Call the second you have something.”
When there was no reply, the mayor added, “You’re not going to tell me anything, are you?”
“A lot of that depends on what I find out,” Zach said.
Grady turned his back without another word and hurried down the stairs. I waited until I heard the door below shut, and then I made my way to the door to our floor.
It was locked from the inside.
I pounded on it for a few minutes, but no one answered. I had no choice but to follow Grady downstairs and make my way back up the elevator.
The only problem was that the mayor was still near the stairwell door when I walked out, and I nearly ran him down.
Chapter 5
“SAVANNAH? WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN THE STAIRWELL? Were you eavesdropping?”
“I was up on the roof,” I said suddenly, hoping that he would believe me.
“Why in the world would you go up there?”
“Sometimes I need to be above everything when I create. Who knows why? Every puzzle is different, and I don’t know what circumstances I’ll need until I realize what I’m doing isn’t working.”
“I figured you did them all on computers,” he said.
“No, I’m an old-fashioned kind of gal. I like the feel of pencil lead on paper, and the way an eraser glides across the page.”
He nodded absently, and I could tell that his thoughts were somewhere else. It was time to nudge him a little.
“Did you and Zach have a productive conversation?”
Grady looked skeptical, and then he said, “Your husband acts tough sometimes, doesn’t he?”
“What makes you think he’s acting?”
That clearly wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “Savannah, do you think I killed those people, too?”
“How could you possibly know that? You were listening in to our conversation, weren’t you?”
“I don’t have to hear my husband’s words to know what he would or wouldn’t say. Besides, I was on the roof, remember?”
“So you said,” Grady answered. He was about to say something else when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the number, and then said, “I’ve got to take this. Excuse me.”
“Certainly,” I said.
He moved away, and I saw his bodyguard trailing after him. A sudden dark thought occurred to me. Had he protested having someone shadow him because it might limit his movements? If he was a killer, having a police chaperone would be the last thing he wanted. It was a possibility that I’d have to discuss with my husband.
Steve Sanders approached, and it was clear that he’d seen me watching the mayor. “He’s some piece of work, isn’t he?”
“What do you mean?”
The officer just shrugged. “I don’t know. Forget I said that. I’m just a little beat.”
“Then why don’t you go home? I’m sure Zach can manage without you.”
“What, and miss out on all of the fun? I don’t think so. There will be plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead.” He must have realized how that sounded. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“Don’t be so sensitive,” I said. “I wasn’t offended.”
“You’re all right by me,” Steve said. “Are you going out?”
“Actually, I’m heading upstairs to talk to my husband. Give us five minutes before you come up, okay?”
He saluted me, and I didn’t care what he thought we were going to do with our time. I didn’t like the way Steve had looked at Grady, and I didn’t want him privy to the conversation I needed to have with my husband.
“I thought you went back to the hotel,” Zach said when I walked into the task force room.
“I never left,” I admitted. “What do you think about the way Grady acted when you questioned him? He sounded pretty defensive to me.”
“You heard us? Were you eavesdropping, Savannah?”
“I kept the door ajar when I left, and I listened from the hallway.”
Storm clouds crossed Zach’s face. “We had a deal. You were supposed to leave the interrogation to me.”
“I didn’t say a word. You didn’t even know I was out there, so don’t try to say that I interfered.”
He frowned for a few seconds. “He could have caught you.”
I bit back the urge to say that he almost did. That wouldn’t do either of us any good. “But he didn’t. It was better than nothing listening in, but I couldn’t see his face. Was he telling you the truth during your interview?”
My husband was a trained investigator, and I knew there wasn’t much he missed, though I was happy to help from time to time. He stretched back in his chair, and for a second, I wasn’t sure it could take the strain. “There were things he wasn’t telling me, but I honestly can’t say yet whether I believe the things he did say. On the face of it, it’s all pretty convenient, isn’t it? His alibi for the first homicide was murdered herself before the police could question her.”
“Atlanta’s close enough to drive back here and kill her, but it didn’t leave him much time if he did it. There are a thousand things that could have gone wrong during that drive. Is Grady that big a risk taker?”
“You know him as well as I do,” Zach said. “He can be foolhardy if it suits him. What I don’t understand is why he’s trying to hide something from me if he’s innocent. All I want to do is help him, but he treated me like I was the enemy during that interview.”
“So, you can’t cross him off your list.”
“Not by a long shot. I have to do a lot more digging before I’m willing to do that.”
“I thought of something else you might want to consider,” I said.
“You know I’m always willing to hear what you have to say.”
“Willing maybe, but not eager.”
“Come on, Savannah, spill it.”
“I ran into Grady downstairs after he left you.”
“Savannah, this is serious. You can’t play games with him.”
I frowned. “I didn’t mean to run into him, but the stupid door to this floor is locked from the stairwell, so I had to use the ground floor exit. I nearly knocked him over when I opened the door.”
“You told us both you had a puzzle to create. How did you explain being in a stairwell the entire time he was talking to me? Come on, tell me. I really want to know.”
“I told him that I was working on the roof for inspiration,” I said.
Zach smiled. “The fact that you’re afraid of heights doesn’t enter into the equation, does it?”
“I doubt Grady knows that.”
“Maybe we should get a room in the hotel closer to the ground.”
“I’m fine as long as there’s steel and glass around me. It’s being out in the open that freaks me out.” My husband, as far as I knew, wasn’t afraid of anything. He’d run into a burning building or gunfire if it meant saving someone, when anyone with any kind of self-preservation instinct at all would run the other way. As for me, there were lots of things I was afraid of, but that usually didn’t keep me from doing what had to be done. I’d once read a definition of courage that called it bravery in the face of fear, and if that were true, I had more than my share.
“Is that what you wanted to tell me, that Grady thinks you’re okay with heights?”
“Of course not. But as he looked over at his bodyguard, I had to wonder if he resented the man’s presence for a reason different from the one he gave us.”
“Such as?”
“If he’s up to no good, maybe having a cop trailing him around the clock is more than just inconvenient. How much do we know about what’s happened to Grady since we left Charlotte? He could have changed in ways we can’t even imagine, and if Grady’s on a killing spree, having a police escort isn’t the greatest thing in the world for him, is it? Should you tell the officer guarding him that maybe he should watch his own back, too?”
Zach reached for his phone as he said, “It doesn’t pay to underestimate that intellect of yours.”
“Maybe I’m just jumping at shadows,” I said.
“An ounce of prevention, and all of that,” Zach said. After being transferred from the switchboard downstairs, I heard him warn the police officer watching Grady without actually saying anything bad about the mayor. It was a fine line he was dancing, and we both knew it, but if it saved someone’s life, it was worth it.
After he hung up, I asked, “Where does that leave us now?”
Zach looked at the piles of papers on the tables. “I’ve got a lot of reading to do. I might be here late tonight.”
“Why don’t I help? Maybe I can find something in there that could point you in the right direction.”
“No offense, Savannah, but I need to ingest this all myself. It’s the only way I can wrap my head around it. You know how I work.”
“I know; read everything, learn everything, then let your subconscious take over.”
“Hey, it’s worked in the past.”
I nodded. “Then you really don’t need me right now, do you?”
“Come on, I always need you,” he said with that crooked smile of his that I cherish.
“You know what I mean. If you don’t mind, then, I’ll head back to the hotel and work on a puzzle.”
“I thought you had a few in the bank,” Zach said.
“I do, but making a puzzle might take my mind off murder, at least for a little while.”
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” he said.
“Don’t be. Whither thou goest, and all of that.” I gave him a quick peck, and then added, “Call me when you need a ride.”
“I’ll have someone here drop me off. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
I smiled brightly. “Don’t worry about me. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“See that you do,” he said.
I left my husband with his head buried in a police file. If I’d stayed, I’d be nothing more than a distraction for him, and he had serious work to do. Not that my job wasn’t important in its own way, but nobody was going to die if I didn’t get my puzzle in on time, whereas he had a great deal more serious things at stake.
As I walked out into the hallway, I found Steve standing there. “You didn’t have to wait out here,” I said. “We’ve been finished for a few minutes.”
“I didn’t want to interrupt anything,” he said with a smile.
“Don’t worry, if we’re canoodling, I’ll leave a tie on the door.”
“That would be greatly appreciated. I’d hate to walk in on the Chief and do something to merit a chewing out. If you don’t mind me saying so, your husband can really drop a hammer on someone if he wants to.”
“I’ve been married to him forever,” I said. “Do you honestly think you’re telling me anything I don’t already know?”
He shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
“Go on in,” I said as I headed for the elevator. I wasn’t sure what Steve could do to help Zach any more than I had, and if that was the case, I knew my husband wouldn’t hesitate getting rid of him as quickly as he’d dispatched me.
THOUGH I’D TOLD ZACH I WANTED TO GET BACK TO THE Belmont so I could create another puzzle, there was somewhere else I wanted to go first. I drove to our old Dilsworth neighborhood on autopilot, amazed by how familiar and yet foreign the drive had become. A few shops had closed along the way, and I saw that new tenants had taken their place. An old oak tree I’d always admired had been taken down, and a sapling put in its place. I had to wonder if an ice storm or a lightning bolt had felled it, or if it had been something more mundane, and man-made. Things change, and life goes on, whether I was there to witness it or not. Seeing that tree gone gave me an irrational fear that the house I’d shared with my husband was gone as well. I wasn’t sure what kind of catastrophe I was imagining, but in my mind, it was total and complete: where our quaint place had once stood, there was now nothing more than overgrown rubble, from what, I couldn’t imagine. The image in my mind was so real that I nearly overlaid it onto the truth when I drove down our street and saw that it hadn’t been touched. That wasn’t exactly true. The trim was now painted robin’s egg blue instead of the moss green I’d preferred, and a few of the bushes in front of the Colonial had been cut back to the point of mutilation, at least in my mind. Still, the house stood just as strong and proud as the day we’d handed the keys over to the Realtor.
