“We found an account with quite a large sum of money in it. Whatever Renee was making, she wasn’t spending much. Did she ever talk to you about that?” Leo had his pen poised, ready to write.
Zoe had to think it over for a few moments before replying. “No, sorry, she didn’t mention it.” Yes, she did mention it. Amelia immediately perked up, Zoe was hiding something.
“If she was selling drugs to make ends meet, wouldn’t she have been spending the money instead of saving it?” Amelia asked. She directed the question at Leo, hoping Zoe would get the hint and change her mind about lying to the police.
Leo nodded. “It would. That’s why the savings account has me a bit stumped.”
Zoe chewed her bottom lip, refusing to speak. She shifted in her seat, growing uncomfortable with the discussion.
“Me too,” Amelia agreed. She turned to Zoe. “Can you think of any reason why she would be saving? Maybe for Jordan’s future or something?”
“I’m sure that’s it, Jordan’s future,” Zoe quickly replied. However, Amelia heard: That’s not it.
“Like for his college education?”
“Renee wanted her son to go to college.” Renee didn’t care about her son going to college.
Amelia weighed up her options, she could ask the woman every single scenario she could think of for why Renee had a secret stash of money and listen to the lies. Or she could let it go and hope Zoe revealed it herself either in her truth or lies during the conversation. She decided on the latter. If it didn’t happen, then she could ask again later.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Amelia finally said, giving Leo the signal to keep going. They were getting their subtle signals down to a fine art, as if they had been working together for years instead of days.
Feeling good about the questioning, Leo decided it was time to ask the hardest question of them all. “Did you ever suspect Kale wasn’t Jordan’s father?”
Zoe was stunned into silence for a moment. “Do you know he wasn’t? Did Renee tell you that?”
“We have fairly conclusive evidence about it. Renee never said anything.”
The woman started nodding slowly, subconsciously leaning in as if to not be overheard. “I knew Renee had an affair. I suspected as much about Jordan but didn’t dare ask. There was no polite way to ask who fathered your child, you know? Even if we were best friends.”
“Do you know who she had an affair with?” Leo was growing excited, finally feeling like they were getting somewhere. Perhaps not all roads led to a dead end.
“She wouldn’t say. She said he was married too and didn’t want anyone to find out.”
Amelia strained to hear the lie but couldn’t. Zoe Mason was back to telling the truth again. She found it strange the way she could reveal the most intimate details of her best friend, yet money was off limits. It didn’t seem like her priorities were in the right order.
“What made you have doubts about Jordan’s paternity?” Leo continued.
“The kid doesn’t look anything like him, he never has. Ever since he was a baby you could tell. You just got a feeling, you know?” Zoe gestured as she spoke. Her palms were up, Leo noticed, a good sign she was being open and honest.
“Do you think Kale knows?”
She shook her head. “I seriously doubt it. He’s a nice guy and all but completely oblivious to everything that goes on around him. Renee could get away with murder and he wouldn’t have noticed.”
“So they had a good marriage?” Amelia asked, wondering if even the concept of that was possible any more. She couldn’t even have a good de facto relationship, let alone a marriage. Even the thought of being wed to Lane had her shivering with dread.
“They loved each other.” Zoe smiled. “They always got along and Kale let Renee do whatever she wanted. They adored Jordan. They were the perfect family, really.” A sadness seemed to finally overcome Zoe, she shrugged. “It really was a tragedy what happened. It’s always the good guys that suffer, right?”
Leo didn’t like to agree out loud, but he had seen enough in his career to know she was right. They tried to make the bad guys pay at the end of the day, but it was nearly always after the good guys had suffered first.
He moved on, not wanting her to clam up quite yet. “Do you think she was capable of committing suicide?”
Zoe needed a few minutes to think it over and compose herself. “Renee was a lot of things, but she wasn’t suicidal. I work in aged care at Saint Raphael’s, trust me, I know the signs. When I heard the news, it took my breath away. She was strong, she was the last person I would have expected to top themselves.”
For Leo, it was further confirmation that he was right to keep investigating. Not one person had thought Renee White was depressed enough to kill herself. He felt vindicated enough to continue.
“Do you think she didn’t kill herself?” Zoe asked as an afterthought. “Was she murdered?”
“We don’t know,” Leo answered honestly. “We have our suspicions but there is no evidence to the contrary yet.”
“But you’re looking into it? I mean, is that why you’re here? I didn’t kill her, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“No, no, of course not. We thought, as Renee’s best friend, you would know her better than most.”
“We were close,” Zoe admitted. “If she was killed, then I want to nail that bastard to a wall by his balls. Just give me five minutes with him, okay?”
“We’re doing our best,” Leo replied vaguely, not wanting to hear a threat that could be later used in court.
Amelia used the lull in conversation to ask a question of her own. “Zoe, did you often call Renee from an unlisted number?”
“No, I would always use my mobile.”
“Thanks.” Amelia mentally crossed her off the list of people Renee had spoken to so often before her death. So far, there were no claims for the unlisted number.
The sound of Leo’s phone ringing interrupted them. He excused himself and answered after checking the caller ID – it was Bree Rowland.
“Detective Michaels.”
“Leo, you need to get the hell over here right now,” Bree said, not bothering with any pleasantries. She sounded as mad as a raging bull.
“What’s wrong?”
“My house. Now.”
The line went dead. He shook his head in confusion as he put his phone back in his pocket. The women were both looking at him, silently questioning his short phone call.
“We need to get going,” he said, standing. They thanked Zoe for her time and candor and left a business card if she thought of anything else helpful.
All Leo could think of was getting to Bree’s house as soon as possible. In his experience, she didn’t make demands like that without good reason.
CHAPTER 15
Trying to calm Bree Rowland was like trying to fit a hot air balloon back into its packaging when it was still half inflated. In one word: impossible.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t plant this damn thing in my house.” Her nostrils flared as she yelled the accusation at Leo. In her hand she clutched a plastic pouch with a small metallic object in it. “I know it was you, Detective Michaels. Don’t try and deny it.”
“It wasn’t me,” Leo tried to defend himself but it was like having an argument with a two year old toddler. He took a step back from her, trying to give her space to calm down.
She glared at him, her energy quickly running out the longer he denied any knowledge of the metallic object.
Amelia stood by the door, only there at Leo’s insistence she might be of help. Or he needed a witness in case Bree decided to kill him, one reason or the other. She still wasn’t entirely sure what kind of a history Leo and Bree shared, but from the way he had driven straight to her home without checking the address was a good indication it was something intimate. Whatever it was, they seemed to be able to push each other’s buttons.
“I swear, Bree, it wasn’t me,” Leo repeated calmly. “You wan
t to tell me what happened?”
“I swear to God, Leo, if you are lying to me I will personally throw you off the Sheffield Bridge with a cement block attached to your feet. The jail time will be worth it. So worth it.”
“As fun as that sounds, I’m telling the truth.”
Amelia knew for certain he was but she didn’t want to interrupt them to state that fact. Bree’s attention could easily be redirected to her. There was no way she wanted to poke the bear, she wasn’t that stupid.
Unlike Leo. “If you don’t believe me, then fine, I’ll just leave you to it. I don’t need this drama.”
He turned to leave, calling her bluff. She waited until he was at the door before stopping him, just as he had predicted she would. “Fine. But if it wasn’t you, then who was it?”
“I don’t know who bugged your house, Bree. How could I possibly know that?”
“You’re a cop. Who else spies on people?” She challenged him, still holding the plastic pouch and waving it around as she spoke.
“Anyone with an internet connection,” Leo replied, growing equally as frustrated with the conversation. “Just Google spy gear and you’ll get a million hits.”
Bree took a few deep breaths, finally looking away from him. “I have no idea how long this thing has been in my house. It could have been here for ages and someone has heard everything about my private life. My private life, it’s not meant to be public.”
Leo would have loved to have known exactly what someone had overheard and what in particular had caused her to get so upset, but he knew when to keep quiet. “How did you find it?”
“I dropped an earring underneath the lounge and found it when I had to overturn the thing to get it back,” Bree explained, calming down as she turned her attention to something more productive than blind accusations.
“And you immediately thought I had planted the listening device? Way to trust me, Bree.”
“You know I have trust issues. What can I say? Someone was using me and I immediately thought of you,” she said sarcastically, a fake grin crossed her lips.
“How nice of you,” Leo matched her tone before moving on from the bickering. “Are you working on anything that others might be interested in?”
Bree thought it over, running through her current articles for the newspaper. While her pieces were interesting to her and deemed good enough by her editor, they weren’t exactly earth-shatteringly controversial. “I can’t think of anything. One article is on the health department and their funding, another is a feel good piece about an elderly lady giving away her fortune, and another is about child safety in the city parks. Nothing exciting and certainly not directed at any one person in particular.”
“It could be the same person who bugged your phone,” Leo offered, remembering the listening device she had found in her cell a few weeks earlier. Whoever had planted that one was likely to be the same person to bug her home too. Either that or it was a big coincidence.
“If that’s true then the bug could have been here for weeks. I feel so… violated. This is against the law, you need to do something.”
“Let me take a look at it,” Leo said as he held out his hand. He couldn’t help her if she didn’t cooperate. Considering she had destroyed the other bug, he didn’t have much else to go on. She handed it over.
It took Leo only five seconds to recognize the listening device. It was so small it could fit snugly into the palm of a hand and as lightweight as a feather.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Leo threw the bug onto the ground and stomped on it – hard.
“Leo! What are you doing?”
He continued on until the device was in a thousand separate pieces. Even then, he scooped them up and placed them back into the plastic pouch. He headed out the front door, Amelia stepped aside to let him through, speechless herself.
“What is he doing?” Bree asked her, as if she was the one with all the answers. All Amelia could do was shrug.
They stood there until Leo returned – without the device. “I’ve put it in your neighbor’s trash.”
“You had a heart attack when I did that.” Bree’s anger was flaring up again. “And you go destroy evidence without even taking photographs or anything?”
“I had to. We don’t need evidence.”
“Why? How could you possibly know that? You looked at the thing for two seconds.”
Leo stood solemnly, taking her wrath before replying calmly.“I didn’t need to look at it for long. I recognized it. That device was police issued.”
“So it was you!”
“No, I have no idea who placed it there. All I know is that it came from the tech department at the station. Why would the police be investigating you?”
Bree looked indignant, holding her hands on her hips. “Out of both of us, which one is more likely to be able to answer that question?”
Leo shrugged, it was a good point. Still, he knew he wasn’t lying and knew it was impossible trying to convince her of that. When Bree Rowland made her mind up about something, she rarely changed it.
As they stood in their showdown, a muffled alarm sounded. Bree immediately reacted to the noise, finding her handbag on the lounge where she had dropped it when looking for her earring. Amelia noticed she wore a matching pair now, she obviously slipped in the missing one.
“I have to get to court,” she muttered. “I don’t have time for this. Just the thought of being spied on gives me the creeps. I should have kept the dog.”
“Just be careful.”
“Will you tell your colleagues to stop bugging me or I will sue their pants off? I’d love to hear what Judge Wembley has to say about illegally spying on private citizens.”
“Why are you going to court? I thought you said you weren’t involved in anything big.” Leo let the stab at him slide as his curiosity got the better of him.
“I’m not. Blake Turner is being indicted today and I’m covering for one of the other reporters. Apparently her sick kids are more important than reporting the news.” Bree frantically gathered her things and picked up her keys. “I say sleeping with the boss is working for her because she gets a day off while I have to traipse around the town.”
Leo didn’t waste any time. “We’ve got to go. See you at the courts.”
He was out the door before Bree could stop him. “What about my bug?”
“Be more careful about what you say,” he said as he left. He didn’t wait around for the reaction that would surely follow.
* * *
As Leo and Amelia discreetly waited outside the county courthouse, they couldn’t help but notice how many others were gathered there too.
The whole town had been united in the search for Jordan White when he went missing. Everyone had hoped for a happy reunion. So when the police found his body, they all shared in their grieving too. There wasn’t one person in Scribe who Jordan hadn’t touched in some way.
“They might start a lynch mob,” Amelia commented, seeing the high tension amongst the people waiting. “Or shoot him as he walks in.”
“He’ll be wearing a bulletproof vest.”
“Seriously? They really expect someone to shoot him?”
Leo nodded. “It’s been done many times before. Hence the reason it’s protocol to strap the vest onto his chest.”
Amelia shrugged, just another reason to dislike the world and everyone in it. She changed the subject while she could. “So why won’t you help Bree with her bug issue?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t.”
“I think you made it pretty clear.”
Leo smirked, that was what he was aiming for. “If the police are bugging her house, I’m guessing they didn’t just put one in there. I can’t have the police knowing what I’m up to.”
Amelia finally understood, he was worried they were still listening to them even beyond the destruction of the bug. “You’re not going to warn her about more?”
“I’ll slip her a note… eventually.”<
br />
“The longer you leave it, the angrier she’ll be.”
“That’s half the fun of it,” Leo said before nodding at the police vehicle pulling up outside the steps. “He’s arriving. We need to get moving.”
“What are we doing here exactly?” Amelia asked as she tried to keep up with him. Leo was ducking and weaving through the crowd without waiting to make sure she followed. He was on a mission.
They entered the courthouse and went through security as quickly as possible. The guards were trying to clear the way for the prisoner, trying to empty the lines as quickly as possible.
Leo knew the guards from his many times testifying in court, they didn’t check him too hard for any contraband. He left his gun in the car, securely locking it into the safe in the trunk. The piece of metal would have slowed him down.
Down the corridors, Leo continued. He didn’t stop until he reached the men’s bathroom. He charged right on in, holding the door open for Amelia.
“Leo, I can’t go in there.”
“Come on, quick.”
She stared at him, wondering if something had snapped in his brain. Surely his big plan couldn’t involve hanging out in the men’s bathroom all afternoon.
“Amelia, just do as I say, we don’t have much time.”
At least she knew he wasn’t lying. Sighing, and hoping nobody was in there, she took a leap of faith and entered.
The bathroom was just as she expected – a dirtier version of the women’s. Leo entered one of the stalls and called her over. She stood there, staring.
“I like you and all Leo, but seriously, are we really this close?” She half-joked.
“Just get in here.”
She didn’t argue this time, just entered the small stall and watched as the detective locked them in. There was barely room for one person in the stall let alone two. She tried to keep a modest distance between them but it was impossible.
“Stand on the seat,” Leo directed. “We can’t have two sets of feet in here.”
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