by Mary Kennedy
Someone who speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese. A little red flag went up in my head. Why is that important? As hard as I tried, I couldn’t bring the answer into focus.
* * *
“I want you to take it easy for the rest of the day,” Ali said later, collecting the soup bowls and carrying them to the sink. She’d offered the Harper sisters dessert and coffee, but they said they had to be on their way. They were headed to an outdoor food festival at the Riverwalk this afternoon and were looking forward to sampling the goodies.
“Yes, Mother,” I teased Ali.
“I mean it,” Ali said, her eyes flashing. She looked around the apartment. “The whole break-in is baffling. There’s nothing here to steal, so that means it was personal.”
“I’m afraid so,” I admitted. “Noah said the same thing.”
“He must be worried out of his mind.” Ali forced some cinnamon tea on me. It was a new item she planned to feature in the shop. It had a spicy aroma and was delicious with a bit of honey added. I held the cup with both hands, inhaling the tantalizing scent, feeling oddly comforted.
“He is. He’s coming over later today, and I think he wants me out of the investigation.” I waited a beat. “He can say whatever he wants, but I’m in for the long haul.”
“Do you think the attack last night was related to Chico’s death?” She curled up on the wicker sofa next to me, her eyes thoughtful.
“I think it must have been,” I said guardedly. “But it won’t happen again. Noah is having the locks changed on the front door, and we’ll be safe and sound.” I didn’t want to alarm Ali, but I wondered if it really was safe to stay in the apartment. Sara, our investigative reporter friend, had offered us the use of her extra bedroom, but I felt it was important to stay where we were. If someone was really out to find us, we weren’t safe anywhere. I’d rather be on home turf if we were facing another attack.
Ali went down to the shop to help Dana, and I stayed on the sofa with a throw over my legs. I made a few notes about the case. I hadn’t considered Gina as a suspect before, but I wondered if it was time to take another look.
Suddenly I remembered the raised voices Minerva and Rose heard the night of the murder. Chico was arguing with a woman, and the sisters heard either Spanish or Portuguese. I’d originally thought Lisa Ortez was the woman arguing with Chico in the studio on the night he was killed, and later considered Amber. But what if it was Gina?
What would her motive be? Could she have been in love with Chico and found out that he was seeing Jennifer Walton? Or did she have another reason to be angry with Chico?
When Noah arrived a couple of hours later, Ali ushered him upstairs with a smile. “Your gentleman caller,” she said, grinning.
Noah was carrying a bunch of bright yellow tulips, my favorite flower. “For you,” he said, swooping down and kissing me on the cheek. Ali hurried to put them in a vase filled with water and then disappeared back to the shop.
“They’re beautiful,” I said, burying my face in them. “I’m surprised you remembered how much I love yellow tulips.”
“I remember everything about you, Taylor,” he said, his gray eyes locked on mine. He pulled a chair over next to the couch. “Okay, start from the beginning and tell me what happened. I already talked to Sam, and the techs didn’t get anything. No trace evidence, no fingerprints. Whoever attacked you was good.”
“I know,” I said ruefully. “It was a blitz attack. I was sound asleep, and suddenly, there she was.”
“She?” His eyebrows inched upward in surprise.
“Did I say she?” I asked, flustered. “I don’t know why I said that. It was impossible to tell if it was a man or woman.” I quickly filled him in on the details of the attack.
“Go back to the bedroom,” Noah said quietly. I must have looked puzzled because he said, “Just bear with me, I want to try something. Let your mind go back to the bedroom. You’re sound asleep and something wakes you up. What was it?”
“I guess it must have been the sound of the pot falling off the kitchen counter. I figured it might be the cats because they weren’t in bed with me.” I hesitated. Something felt off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I remembered being startled out of a sound sleep. The sound of the pan dropping on the floor came a few seconds later.
“What’s wrong, Taylor? Don’t overthink it. Just let the memories come to the surface.”
I shook my head to clear it. These pain pills had stalled my brain, I decided. “Something woke me up—”
“You said it was the sound of a pan falling off the kitchen counter.”
“Something happened before that,” I amended. “Another sound. I just can’t place it.”
“Yes you can,” Noah said gently. “Close your eyes and take a minute. Take a deep breath and imagine yourself back in the darkened room.”
I closed my eyes and tried to visualize the scene. I was lying in bed, and a little frisson of fear went through me. I’d been sound asleep and then I’d heard a sneeze. “Someone sneezed!” I said, my eyes flying wide open. “That was what woke me up. Someone sneezed in the kitchen.”
Noah smiled. “You see, you remember more than you think you do.”
I nodded. The sneeze didn’t seem significant, but maybe more details would come back to me. The ER doc had told me that I had a mild concussion and that some memory loss was to be expected. He predicted that the memories would return in a day or two.
“What’s new with the investigation?” I asked a few minutes later. Noah had been flipping through his notebook and frowning.
“Nothing as dramatic as what happened to you, but I did come up with a few facts,” he said. “Did you ever suspect that Gina Santiago had violent tendencies?”
“Gina? She’s a member of the Dream Club.” I remembered Minerva telling me about Gina’s proficiency in Krav Maga. “I can’t imagine her hurting a fly.”
“That’s not what the records show,” Noah said confidently. “Her ex-husband took out an order of protection on her.”
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting this.” I blinked. Gina was experienced in martial arts, was about my height, and had shown a propensity for violence. Could I have been on the wrong track all along? Was Gina the prime suspect? I still didn’t know why she’d want to kill Chico.
“There’s more,” Noah went on. “Gina knew that Jennifer and Chico were involved, and she was furious. She hinted that there’d be ‘payback’ for his actions. The word on the street is that Gina had a longtime crush on Chico, and I don’t know if he encouraged her or not. Maybe it was all in her head, or maybe he really was having an affair with her, but in any case, she could be a woman scorned.”
“Hell hath no fury,” I said quietly. So Gina had a crush on Chico? And Noah had found out about it? I knew that Noah had sources everywhere. His diligence had paid off.
“Exactly.” I told Noah about the Krav Maga classes and he scribbled a note. “This moves her up the list, I think.” When I mentioned she spoke Portuguese and Spanish, he put a little star next to her name.
“I need to rethink everything I believed up to this point,” I said.
Noah left shortly afterward, and I was helping out in the shop when Amber Locke strolled in. I hadn’t seen Amber since that dinner at the Walton estate, and I wondered what had prompted her visit. Somehow I didn’t think she was here because she had a sudden craving for retro candy.
“Taylor,” she said, taking both my hands in hers. “How are you? I heard about someone breaking into your apartment. That’s just awful.”
“I’m fine,” I said, gently pulling my hands away. There was something a bit unsettling about the woman’s cool, unflinching gaze. I felt her eyes boring into mine like a drill, and I wondered what she was up to. “How did you find out about the break-in?”
She smiled. “The councilman likes to look out for his c
onstituents,” she said smugly. “We have ears everywhere.”
Ears everywhere? That sounded pretty intrusive. “He asked me to stop by and see how you were doing,” she went on. Her tone was patently false, and I felt a touch of annoyance. If she was going to succeed in politics, she was going to have to learn to lie more convincingly.
“Well, that’s very kind of him, but as you can see, I’m all right,” I assured her. “Would you like some candy?”
“There’s quite a selection,” Amber said, staring at the display counter without any real interest. “It’s very colorful.” She seemed distracted and was checking out the shop, glancing at the stairs that led to the second floor.
“Why not some peppermint chocolates?” I asked innocently. “Denise loves them.”
“Denise?” She gave a puzzled smile.
“Denise from the councilman’s office.”
“Oh,” she said softly, “yes, she does. I’ll take a pound.” I was sure Walton had told her I’d visited the office, but I knew she’d never admit it.
I scooped out the candies and watched as Amber fumbled for some singles in her bag. A small inhaler was nestled next to her change purse. “Do you have asthma?” I asked solicitously.
“What? Oh, the inhaler. No, I have allergies,” she said, just as Barney and Scout walked toward us, tails held high. They like to wander around the shop and greet the customers. “You have cats!” she said in dismay. “I can’t stand to be around them. My throat closes up and I become severely congested.” She gave a delicate sneeze and thrust the money at me. “Please hurry with the candy, I have to leave immediately.”
“Of course,” I said soothingly. “Sorry about the cats. I brush them every day but the dander gets in the air. When people are really allergic, it’s hard to escape it.”
“Yes, yes, I know,” she said, grabbing the bag of candy. She sneezed again, zipped her purse shut, and headed for the door. “Glad you’re okay, I’ll be sure to tell the councilman.”
“What was that all about?” Ali said, the moment Amber was out the door.
“That was a woman who’s allergic to cats.” Ali continued to stare at me, but I didn’t offer any other explanation. Gina, Jennifer, Thomas, and Amber. They all had a motive for killing Chico, but did they have the means and the opportunity? I had some serious thinking to do.
35
“I don’t understand,” Ali said later that afternoon. “How did Amber know about the break-in? It couldn’t have made the papers so fast, could it?”
“I don’t know. She said that Councilman Walton ‘has ears everywhere,’ whatever that means.”
“It sounds kind of sinister,” Ali said. “Almost threatening.”
“I agree.” I didn’t tell Ali about Amber sneezing. It could have been entirely a coincidence that the intruder had sneezed in the kitchen.
Noah called just after three. “Feeling okay?” Ever since I’d been bopped on the head, Noah felt obliged to inquire about my health.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “What’s up?”
“There’s an interesting development,” he said. I recognized the excitement in his voice. “Not exactly a break in the case, but it’s moving in a different direction.” I could hear the sound of paper rustling as he flipped through his notes. “Does the name Nick Hayden mean anything to you?”
“No, should it?” I mouthed the name to Ali, who shook her head.
“Nick Hayden is a grad student from England doing a teaching assistantship at the university. I found out that he’s one of the few people in Savannah who has access to potassium cyanide.” Potassium cyanide. The chemical that killed Chico. “His boss is doing a big research study on it. It’s not easy to buy the stuff, you know. The cops got an anonymous tip that Nick ordered a batch of it from a lab outside town. They ran a computer search of recent sales and his name came up.”
“But what does Nick Hayden have to do with Chico?”
“Maybe nothing,” Noah admitted. “The cops tried to talk to him, but he’d already left the country, headed back to the UK. And Nick’s boss is away at his cabin in Maine for a month, and there’s no way to get in touch with him. “
“So it’s a dead end?” Nick Hayden, Nick Hayden, why was that name familiar to me?
“Not necessarily. I was hoping we could link him to someone involved in the case, but so far, I’m drawing a blank.” He paused. “Taylor, I’m just passing along this information because I promised to keep you in the loop. I don’t want you doing any more investigating, remember?”
“I remember,” I said, my mind racing. “I’ll stay on the sidelines and let you do the heavy lifting.”
“I wish I could believe you,” he said after a moment. I smiled to myself. I knew how to pick up on the trail of Nick Hayden if I could just get one more piece of information out of Noah.
“This lab,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Is it Atkins Pharmaceutical in Charleston?”
“No, it’s Northern Georgia Tech Supplies, right outside of town. Why?”
“I was just curious. Someone had mentioned Atkins to me, that’s all.” Nothing like throwing a little red herring in Noah’s path. “So what’s the next step?” I asked.
“The trail is cold for the moment, unless the police can figure out how to find Nick Hayden. Or figure out who he is.”
I grinned. Things were moving in a totally different direction than I’d anticipated, and it was exciting. We ended the conversation a few minutes later, and I grabbed my purse. “Going out on an errand,” I called to Ali, who was cooking a pan of Kahlúa brownies. “Can I borrow your car? I’ll be back soon.”
“Yes, of course, but be careful,” she said, adding a hefty swig of Kahlúa to the mixing bowl.
“I always am.” I grabbed Ali’s car keys and a map. I was fairly certain I could get to Northern Georgia before they closed for the day. It was barely four o’clock and it looked like it was only a few miles outside town. And I was pretty sure I knew who Nick Hayden was and how he played into all this. Nick Hayden was Amber’s boyfriend, the young man standing next to her in the campaign brochure on Denise’s desk in Walton’s office. Things were falling into place, and all I needed now was proof. It was just a matter of connecting the dots.
The guy behind the counter at the tech company had a good memory, it seems. When I asked him about a recent sale of potassium cyanide to the university for Nick Hayden, he remembered it.
“You must have a steel trap mind,” I joked.
“Nah, I sat through my daughter’s piano recital that day and she played Hayden. That’s why the name stuck in my head when he called it in,” he said with a grin. He brought up the shipment on the computer and glanced at the entry. “But he didn’t pick it up,” he said. My hopes crashed but then he added, “Someone else did. It looks like it was a cash sale, and we don’t get too many of those.”
“Really?” I couldn’t believe my luck. “Do you have a signed invoice?” He flipped open a ledger and passed it across the counter to me.
“Here it is, two weeks ago. It’s really hard to read the signature, though.”
The signature looked like a chicken scrawl; it was indecipherable. “Someone has really bad handwriting,” I muttered.
“Yeah.” He laughed. “But my friend Joe said she sure was a pretty girl, though.”
“Joe?”
“The other guy who works the front counter. She told him she worked with Nick at the university. Anyway she had strawberry blond hair and was really a looker.” He glanced at his watch. “Joe will be here in an hour or so if you want to talk to him.”
Amber Locke. It had to be. “I can’t wait,” I said, “but could you do me a favor? Could you ask him if she looked like this and give me a call?” I pulled the brochure from Walton’s office out of my purse and scribbled my name and phone number on the front. Amber Locke wa
s smiling out at me.
The moment I was out the door, I pulled out my cell and called Sam Stiles at the station house. This was the kind of news that couldn’t wait. After being put on hold for a full three minutes, a dispatcher told me that Sam was out investigating a homicide and would return my call later that day. I thanked her and jumped back in the car, eager to get home. I thought of calling Noah, but that would mean explaining how I’d happened to go to Northern Georgia. I powered back toward town; there would be plenty of time to tell Noah tonight.
* * *
Ali called me when I was ten minutes away from home. “Taylor, thank God I got you,” Ali said, her voice racing over the wire. “The most awful thing has happened.” I pulled over to the shoulder and turned off the ignition.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my pulse hammering. “Are you okay?”
“I’m all right, but Gina Santiago is dead. Someone killed her late last night.”
“Gina Santiago?” I hadn’t seen this one coming. “What happened to her?” I thought of Chico’s fiery-haired assistant, so vibrant and full of life. I felt a guilty pang remembering that I’d recently considered her a likely suspect in Chico’s murder.
“One of her relatives found her this morning. She didn’t show up at a family breakfast, and she didn’t answer her phone.” Her voice wobbled a little. “Poor Gina. First Chico and now this.”
“I’m coming right home. I can be there in a few minutes,” I said soothingly.
“There’s no need to rush,” Ali said. “I gave Dana the rest of the day off, and I’m closing the shop. I’m too rattled to think straight. I just finished talking to the members of the Dream Club. Everyone is so upset.”
“It’s very sad,” I agreed. And baffling. Who would want to kill Gina?
“I’m heading over to Gina’s apartment with Dorien and Lucinda right now,” Ali went on. “There’s probably not much we can do, but I want to talk to Gina’s aunt and her niece. They’re the ones who called it in, and they’re still at her apartment. Sam Stiles is over there, taking their statement.” Sam Stiles. That was the homicide she was rushing to. “The whole thing is tragic, and the least we can do is show our support. I feel so helpless,” Ali went on.
