“They were white and purple chrysanthemums.”
“Did you notice anything more about the woman?”
“She still looked rich,” Violet answered, suddenly having some doubts about her helpfulness.
“What kind of car was she driving?”
She hesitated, her smiled turning into a slight frown. “It was still black. I should have looked at her license plate, darn it. Why didn’t I write that down?”
Leo gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, you’ve been a big help. If she comes back, maybe you can get the license plate? Thank you for the tip.”
“I knew you’d want to know.” She was back, her faith restored. The charming detective had woven his magic once again.
He excused himself and headed back to the front door of the White’s house. He didn’t know how Kale would react at seeing him again but he couldn’t let it go. Feelings had to be put aside when they were investigating a potential homicide.
“What do you want now?” Kale’s irritation was obvious. Leo got his answer pretty quickly.
“I’m sorry to bother you again so soon. Do you still have the bunch of flowers that was left on your stoop yesterday?”
Kale looked at him like he was nuts, but still managed to answer. “Yes. Let me guess, they’re stolen too? You want to arrest me for theft?”
Leo took the swipe, he figured he probably deserved it – even though he was just doing his job. “Did it come with a card?”
“See for yourself.” Kale stood back from the door to let him in. The bunch of white and purple chrysanthemums were still in their cardboard florist vase sitting on the sideboard.
Leo searched for a card or any other clue about who the woman was that left them. It seemed strange to have her arguing with Renee one day and then bringing sympathy flowers only days later. Whatever their relationship, it had to be one of love/hate.
A small florist card rested amongst the flowers. Leo pulled it out, silently praying there was a name:
I’m sorry for your loss. – Megan
He felt like scrunching up the card and throwing it as far as he could. Megan. There had to be thousands of women in Scribe with that name. It was just another dead end.
“Why are you so interested in those flowers?” Kale asked while he waited for the detective to leave.
Leo ignored the question, asking one of his own instead. “Do you know who the Megan is that sent these?”
“I don’t know a Megan. I figured she must have been a friend of Renee’s. Why? What’s going on?”
“The woman who delivered these flowers was seen arguing with your wife a few days ago. I don’t know if she’s connected to our investigation, but she might be,” Leo explained, wishing he had asked Amelia to come in too. She might have been some help. “Can you think of any reason why Renee would be arguing with someone?”
Kale thought about it, at least giving it a moment to roll around in his mind before answering. He appeared to have calmed down somewhat. “No idea.”
“Did she have any enemies?”
“None that I know of.” Kale flopped down on the sofa, deflated and defeated. “I guess I didn’t know my wife like I thought I did. I don’t know, maybe I worked too much. Maybe I pushed her away, didn’t talk to her like I should have.”
“We all get busy with our day to day lives,” Leo tried to comfort him. He felt awkward standing there, like he was imposing on a private moment as Kale had his emotional rollercoaster ride. “I’m sure she loved you very much, she didn’t want you to know some things she wasn’t proud of.”
“I should have been the one she confided in. What kind of a husband was I if I didn’t even know she was about to lose her job?”
Leo placed a hand on his shoulder. “Women are tricky creatures. It’s probably best you don’t try and work them out.”
Kale let out a laugh, turning it into a sigh. “I suppose you’re right. Are you married?”
“No. No-one is willing to take me on.”
“Smart man, it’s not worth the heartache.”
Leo stayed as long as he needed to know Kale would be alright left alone. He offered to call relatives but Mr. White wouldn’t hear of it. He assured the detective he would be okay.
Returning to the car, Amelia was awaiting the news eagerly. She had seen the male bonding through the window when she checked on why Leo was taking so long. She had decided against interrupting them.
Leo filled her in on the flowers and let her know it was another dead end.
“Whoever this Megan is she must have been feeling guilty about their argument,” Amelia said. “Why else would she bring flowers?”
“She might have been a friend of Renee’s. Friends argue and then make up all the time, right?”
Amelia never had any close friends to argue with. From what she had observed from the women at work though, he was probably right. “Did Kale know her?”
“Nope.”
“Shouldn’t he have known her friends?”
Leo nodded. “I would think so. It leaves us back at square one.”
“What are we going to do now?” Amelia asked, waiting for him to fire up the car and drive somewhere. They couldn’t sit outside the White’s house all day. At the very least, Violet from over the road would be watching their every move.
The detective had no idea, he was at a loss. He went over the case in his mind, trying to find a loose end they hadn’t tied up yet. He was grasping, trying to think of anyone they hadn’t spoken with or followed up on. Nothing.
Before he could confess to Amelia, the front door of the house opened and Kale walked out, locking it behind him. He seemed to have recovered from his meltdown, walking confidently to his car parked in the driveway.
Leo rolled down his window, calling out. “Mr. White, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I remembered I have an appointment at the hospital, I’ve got to go.” He waved him away as he unlocked his car.
“Why’s he going to the hospital?” Amelia asked Leo, prompting him to ask more questions.
“Are you alright?” He called out, as discreetly as possible from down the drive.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“He’s probably donating blood,” Amelia muttered, putting it together. “To help his Hemochromatosis.”
Leo nodded. He was still concerned about the mental state of the man, he didn’t want him doing anything silly. He pushed on, even though it was none of his business. “Are you going to donate blood?”
Kale stopped and faced him. “No, why would I do that? I hate needles. I have to sign off on Renee’s body so it can be moved to the funeral home. If you must know.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Mr. White climbed into his car and drove off without another word. Leo felt embarrassed pushing him like that when it was clearly something heart wrenching he had to do. When he looked at Amelia, her mouth was agape in a perfect O.
“What? I didn’t know that’s what he was doing,” he said defensively, believing she thought he was heartless.
“No, not that,” she argued, trying to get her mouth to form words and sentences again. “He’s not donating blood.”
“So?”
“He doesn’t have Hemochromatosis,” Amelia muttered, waiting for the impact of those few words to sink in.
Leo finally got it. Kale White didn’t have the genetic disease. Neither did his wife. But Jordan did. One of his parents wasn’t really his parent. And it was clear which one wasn’t.
“Kale isn’t Jordan’s father,” Leo replied, now just as stunned and entirely understanding her reaction. “The M.E. said Jordan had to get the disease from his father because his mother didn’t have the gene. I don’t believe it.”
“I wonder if he knows?” Amelia knew she could find out with just one question aimed at Kale but he had left. It would also be a difficult question to ask and they had harangued him enough for one day. It wasn’t like you could normally just walk up to a person and ask
them whether they fathered their child.
“If he does, then he still considers himself his father. I saw how he reacted to Jordan’s disappearance and then murder, he felt the pain like any dad would.” Leo remembered Kale’s reaction, how he had broken down in tears in the police station when he was told the news that they found Jordan’s body. The tears were real, every minute of his grief was that of a father grieving for his son. There was no doubt about it in his mind.
“How can we find out?” Amelia asked, thinking it would be better to have some kind of proof rather than just her word. She wouldn’t be able to explain why she knew with such conviction.
“We take a drive downtown,” Leo answered, firing up the car. He now had a loose end and he was going to follow it until it unraveled.
* * *
Amelia knew that if she was responsible for archiving the records in the Department of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, she would have a job for life. There were so many individual records and pieces of paper that it would take her a lifetime to turn them into electronic databases. It was probably why they were yet to adopt technology for all the old records. Only entries from the last two years were online. Something they had painstakingly realized.
Leo had flashed his badge to get access to the records, he told the carefree lady gatekeeper he needed to look for a birth certificate and she had happily opened the door for him. Of course, his winning smile and friendly wink didn’t go astray either.
“I can’t believe you get anything you like because of your charm,” Amelia said as she rifled through documents. It was supposed to be in date order but they didn’t seem to treat it as a hard and fast rule, more a light suggestion. They also couldn’t remember Jordan’s exact date of birth so they had to check the entire year.
“It’s not because of my charm,” he defended. “People just like helping the police.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure. So why do you give them that smile?”
“What smile?”
“You know the one,” she teased. “You show all your teeth and then nod your head a little. It does the trick every time.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Leo said, like he was scandalized she could even think such a thing. “But I’m surprised you noticed.”
“Yeah, well, you got me to agree to help you somehow too,” she confessed, grinning.
“Why, Miss Landau, I never-”
She held up her hand to stop him, back to business again. “I’ve found it. Jordan John White was born July 7th.”
Leo rushed around the desk to look over her shoulder. “His mother is listed as Renee Beverley White, his father as Kale Bernard White.”
They slouched, it wasn’t what they were expecting. Amelia spoke first. “Maybe we were wrong.”
“Perhaps.” He slumped back into his own seat. “I really thought we might be onto something.”
Amelia wrinkled her nose. “Is it wrong to be kind of sad that Jordan’s father is the man that raised him and thought he was his father for five years?”
“Yes, but I’m right there with you too.”
“My theories keep sucking, I should just keep my mouth shut.”
Leo shook his head. “No, your theories are what we need. I like the way you think outside of the box. Keep them coming.”
It still didn’t make her feel any better. She wasn’t any help to the investigation unless she was hearing the truth from people. They needed to find someone to talk to so she could get back into the game. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
“Thanks, you’re sweet,” she replied, racking her brain for something helpful to offer. She suddenly realized he was giving her that damn smile. “You’re doing it again, stop it.”
“What? I’m just looking at you,” he protested, yet still didn’t remove the smirk.
She pulled up the birth certificate, placing it right in front of her face so she couldn’t see him. Amelia didn’t want him to see the stupid grin she couldn’t get off her face.
He got the hint. “I’m going to call the M.E. and see if there is any chance the gene could be recessive and not in either of Jordan’s parents.”
“That sounds helpful.” She started replacing the papers into the drawers and files that they had been pulled from.
She listened into the conversation Leo was having with the medical examiner, only hearing one side of it. She couldn’t make out by his facial expressions alone whether the news was good or bad. But then again, she didn’t know what would be the good news – Kale being Jordan’s father or not. It was doing her head in just thinking about it.
Finally, Leo ended the call and turned to her. “Jordan’s father had to have been a carrier of the Hemochromatosis gene.”
“Maybe Kale doesn’t know?”
“The gene can be recessive and the symptoms can skip a generation, but he would still have the gene.”
“How do you test for it?”
“A blood test would do it, according to the M.E.,” Leo shrugged. “But chances are he would have to have some idea he had it. If he didn’t have symptoms, one of his parents would have.”
Amelia wondered whether her parents could have hidden the disease from her growing up. She doubted it. Perhaps for a period of time, but not forever. Especially considering her special ability.
Leo continued. “The symptoms of the disease can be virtually non-existent but only when it’s treated right. If Kale does have it and he’s not regularly making blood donations, then the iron would be building up in his body, making him ill.”
“How ill?” Amelia asked, trying to recall if she would consider Kale to be sickly. He seemed sad and crestfallen, but he was also grieving the loss of his son and wife. There was nothing to say his demeanor was anything other than grieving.
“Kale would be feeling tired and lethargic before getting seriously ill with the iron overdose. His organs would eventually shut down as his blood grew thicker and unable to function,” Leo explained, parroting the M.E. and everything she had begrudgingly explained to him.
Hemochromatosis was apparently a common disease with an estimated one million people in the United States alone suffering the genetic disease. Because it was so common, it was widely treated and understood. Unlike some other, rarer diseases that gave a much worse diagnosis to its victims.
“I don’t think Kale fits that description,” Amelia concluded. She wished she could just ask him, it would have been so much easier than trying to work it out for themselves. One little question, one little lie, and she would know it all.
“I agree. Jordan’s birth certificate has to be wrong. You can put anything down on it and nobody checks. It’s not like you have to prove paternity before signing the form.”
“Renee might not even have known.”
Leo nodded. “Perhaps not.”
The thought of Renee not knowing who her child’s real biological father was left them in silence. They didn’t know the woman well while she was alive but she was certainly painting them a picture after she died.
Leo regretted not speaking with the woman sooner, she could have answered so much while she still had a voice to speak with. Perhaps she would have confided in him what mess she had found herself in if he had built her trust more. Regrets pained his heart, leaving only wishes to turn back time and do things differently. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty.
“Leo? Are you okay?” Amelia asked after seeing his demeanor grow so serious it worried her.
“Yeah, fine.” He shook it off. “I think we need to find the one person that Renee would have trusted with some of her secrets.”
“Who’s that?”
“Mama bear.”
CHAPTER 14
Amelia sat in the plush lounge suite and tried to focus on the woman seated across from her. Rita Armitage’s eyes were red raw, no doubt from crying. Her hair needed a brush and her clothes had seen better days. Her overweight frame shook with a sneeze before she could compose herself to
speak again.
“My daughter was my angel,” she wept. “I still can’t believe she’s gone. Do you know when the coroner will release her body so I can bury her?”
“I think Kale is taking care of that today,” Leo answered, having at least one piece of information he could give her. “I’m sorry I have to ask you some questions, but I’m doing it all for Renee.”
“I knew she was going through unbearable grief with Jordan gone, but I never expected her to do this. Now I’m going through the same thing she was – now I’ve lost a child.”
Amelia felt sorry for her. She was right, if Renee did kill herself then she just compounded her own mother’s grief. It was a sad cycle. One too late to fix.
“You didn’t see her suicide coming?” Leo asked carefully, trying not to accuse the woman of missing the signs. Most of the time there weren’t any, not to the untrained eye anyway.
Rita flooded with a new wave of tears as the sobs racked her body. “I should have spent more time with her. I should have stayed with her even when she told me to go home. I shouldn’t have trusted Kale to look after my baby. What kind of a mother am I?”
“I can assure you, Mrs. Armitage, none of this is your fault.” He wanted to tell her about the suspected murder of Renee White but he knew he couldn’t. There wasn’t enough evidence – yet. Plus, he also didn’t know whether she would take the news as good or not. “What can you tell me about Renee’s life over the last few months?”
“What does it matter? She’s gone, you can’t change that.”
“We need it for our investigation surrounding Jordan.” We need it for our investigation surrounding Renee’s murder, Amelia heard. She tried not to notice or give away the lie.
Rita wiped at her tears, taking a deep breath and trying to regain her composure. “They were your typical family. Renee and Kale both worked hard to keep a roof over their heads. Jordan went to prep school every day, he really enjoyed his school. They did the best they could, just like we’re all trying to do.”
Liar Page 14
