by Diane Capri
I looked at him for a long moment. He was definitely agitated, but I believed his story. “Why did you contact me?”
“Because I know you don’t think June killed Brittany, and I’m afraid they’re going to charge her with murder.”
“Why do you think that?”
But his attention had been drawn by something over my shoulder. His eyes widened, and he turned and ran.
“Simon!”
I twisted around to see what he’d been looking at, but there was nothing there. Shadows. I squinted harder. Moving shadows. I walked toward the trees, pulling the pepper spray out of my pocket on the way.
When I reached the clump of trees, I didn’t find anyone lying in wait to jump out at me. Only air and leaves and fairy lights. I turned to go back to the hotel, when I noticed a cigarette butt glowing on the path. I crouched and picked it up. The end was still smoldering, and the oddly sweet smell of smoke filled my nostrils.
Chapter 20
For the rest of the night, I thought about what Simon had told me and the possibility someone had been watching us. Simon had definitely been scared of something. There was more to this tale than he let on. I believed he hadn’t killed Brittany. He’d been straightforward about that much. But I suspected he knew what she and Tyler were up to.
He must have known Brittany’s business was in trouble. He’d most likely have discussed it with Brittany, because her financials records showed the problems existed for months. A year is a long time to not know a business Simon had invested heavily in was experiencing money trouble.
When I returned to my suite, I had secured the chain lock on my door and put the steel rod in place on the balcony door. I didn’t sleep with the lights on, but I’d been tempted. Whoever had been watching us was probably there because of Simon. But after Simon talked with Brittany in the maze, she’d ended up dead. Killers tended to repeat the same methods, especially when those methods had been successful. If our watcher tonight was the same guy who killed Brittany, he might come after me next.
I’d tried texting and calling the number Simon had used to contact me, but got nowhere. Maybe it had been a disposable phone, and he’d already tossed it away. I wanted to talk to June. She could convince Simon to talk to the sheriff.
In the morning, I called Lois to see if she could get someone to cover the desk for me.
“You’re making a habit of this, Andi. If you’re not careful, Samuel will get the idea that the Park doesn’t even need one concierge, let alone two,” she warned, and I feared she was right. Samuel wasn’t all that keen about me to start with. Giving him more excuses to get rid of me was a bad idea for sure.
“I won’t be gone long, Lois. I need to find June. It’s important,” I replied.
She paused for what seemed like a full minute before she said, “Whatever June needs, the hotel will provide. I told you that before. June is one of us.”
I nodded, although she couldn’t see me. “June needs a good lawyer, and it looks like she’s got one. Pricey, too. Paige Weaver from Frontenac City. You know her?”
“Yes. We know her too well,” Lois said without further explanation. “Take all the time you need, Andi, but you’d be wise to get back as soon as you can.”
She hung up before I could say anything more. I looked at the phone as if it might speak on its own. I said, “Well, that was cryptic.”
I snagged a golf cart outside the pro shop, and by nine o’clock, I was standing on June’s doorstep, knocking. At first, I worried she wouldn’t answer—I assumed she was home since her pink tricycle was parked out front—but then I heard the sound of a lock being turned, and she opened the door.
“Hey, June. We need to talk about Simon.”
Her hand fluttered at her neck. “I’m not sure I know—”
“I talked to him last night. I know you two are engaged. Congratulations.” I gestured to her left hand. “I saw your ring the other day before you tried to hide it with your gloves.”
She opened the door, and I went inside.
“Is he here?” I asked, peeking into the kitchen.
“No. He didn’t come back last night. I’ve been worried.” Her hands were shaking. “You said you saw him?”
“Yeah, about nine. He told me about your engagement. He also confirmed that he’d seen Brittany in the maze shortly before she died.”
She grabbed my arm. “He didn’t kill her.”
“Someone did. Do you know what she was involved in that might have induced someone to kill her?”
She frowned. “No, why would I? We aren’t…weren’t friends anymore. I didn’t realize she was involved in anything like that. Something illegal?”
“Simon never mentioned anything about a guy named Tyler or Ackerman Biosystems?”
“No. Never.” She shook her head.
“Have you talked to Tracy Hamlin recently?”
“Certainly not. That woman is horrid. I haven’t talked to her since she came to my shop and called me a…a slut after she found out about Simon and me.”
The conversation I’d had with Reggie and JC about June scratching up a car with gardening sheers over on the mainland popped into my head. I wondered whether that car had belonged to Tracy Hamlin. Before I could ask, there was a knock at the door.
I looked at June. “Are you expecting anyone?”
“No. I wasn’t expecting you, either.” She opened the door, and my stomach did a couple of flips and flops.
Sheriff Jackson stood on the stoop, along with two of his deputies. His eyes widened first, and then he scowled when he spotted me standing behind June.
“Hello, Sheriff,” June said politely.
He held up a tri-folded paper. “June, I have a warrant to search your premises.” He handed it to her. “If you will step outside while my deputies conduct the search, please.”
She looked at me, and I grabbed hold of her arm and steered her outside. I took the warrant from her and looked it over. “It says they are authorized to search all the rooms in your house.”
“What are they looking for?”
I glanced at the sheriff. “I think they’re looking for plant seeds or leaves from plants like foxglove, oleander, and hemlock.”
Her eyes widened. “Is that how Brittany died? She was poisoned?”
I nodded.
Once the deputies had their instructions, Sheriff Jackson stepped outside. “May I have a word with you?” He continued to walk down the lawn to the sidewalk.
I followed him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Consoling a friend,” I said. “There’s no law against that, is there?”
“Andi, I told you to stay out of this.”
“No, actually you told me not to do anything dangerous.” I put my hand on my hip as if I was making some kind of point. He kept looking steadily at me until I broke. “Okay. I came to talk to her about Simon Gervais.”
He didn’t even blink. It was like looking at solid granite. Mount Rushmore was softer than this guy.
I took a deep breath and told him the rest, all at once. “Simon came to me. Last night. He said he’d seen Brittany in the maze that day. They’d arranged to meet there to talk about selling his part of the business to her. She got angry, threw the pink gloves at him—which were June’s, by the way. He had bought them for her—and then he left.”
He let out a long sigh and looked up at the sky. “This just gets better and better.”
“They’re engaged. June and Simon. That’s why he wanted to divest himself of any interest in Brittany’s business. I told Simon to call you, but before I could press the matter, he ran off like he was scared. I think possibly because he saw someone watching us.”
He slow-blinked at me and shook his head.
Which was starting to piss me off. “You’re looking at me like this is my fault. Simon called me, not the other way around. I didn’t kill Brittany. I’m not secretly engaged to June. I’m not involved in something possibly ille
gal concerning plant DNA. I can’t help it if people are…are weird.”
“Weird?” His lips twitched upward.
“You’re pressuring me,” I huffed. “That was the first word that popped into my head.”
He said, “I’m just standing here, doing my job.”
“Which is the problem.” I threw up my hands. “Your gaze is very intense. I imagine that’s how you got elected, by glaring at everyone until they voted for you.”
“Yes, that’s exactly how it happened.” He chuckled.
I inhaled deeply to calm my fluttering stomach. “June didn’t kill Brittany. I’m sure of it.”
One of the deputies stuck his head out of the door. “Sheriff. You need to come see this.”
We made brief eye contact, and then the sheriff was striding up the lawn to the house. I followed in his wake. As he entered the house, June frowned at his retreating back and then looked toward me. “What’s going on?”
I touched her shoulder on my way past. I followed him to the back of the house and into a workroom attached to the kitchen. There was a sturdy table lined up underneath a wide window. On top were several pots, bags of soil, plant food, a trowel, a few long sticks, plastic ties, and a black-and-white granite mortar and pestle. Next to the mortar was a foxglove plant, and its pretty purple flowers had missing petals. This was what everyone had gathered around.
The sheriff took out his phone and pulled up a photo. He lowered the phone next to the mortar, and then he nodded to the deputy. He gestured to the plants and all the tools on the table. “Bag and tag it. All of it.”
When he turned and saw me, he glowered. “You can’t be in here.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room.
“What was in the mortar?”
“Crushed seeds.”
“Foxglove seeds?” I asked, my guts churning.
“That’s what it looks like. We’ll have it tested to be sure.”
We went out into the living room. “She might have crushed up the seeds, but June didn’t have any opportunity to poison Brittany. They were not friendly. The only time they saw each other was at events like the Flower Festival. And that type of poison doesn’t act that fast. It can take weeks, months even in low doses.”
“June visited Brittany last month,” he said.
My mouth fell open. “What? How do you know that?”
“A witness saw June in Brittany’s house.”
“Who’s the witness?”
“Andi…”
“Just tell me.” I knew he didn’t have to tell me anything, but I hoped he would, knowing how important it was to me and to the Park.
“Tracy Hamlin.”
I shook my head. “Tracy hates June. She’d say anything to get June in trouble.”
“If that’s true, I’ll find out,” he said, his voice softening a little. “But I have to follow the law and the evidence, Andi. Wherever it leads. You know that.”
I nodded. “I know.”
I went outside and stood beside June to support her through what was coming next.
The sheriff stepped outside the house. “June Biddle, I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of Brittany Gervais.”
June gaped. “What? No. That’s impossible… I didn’t kill her.” She looked at me, pleading. “Andi, help me.”
I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “I will. Just go with Sheriff Jackson for now. We will get it all sorted out, I promise.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks, and I had to swallow down my emotions, which were boiling to the surface. I wouldn’t be any good to June or the Park if I lost my composure.
The sheriff took her arm and turned her so both her hands were behind her back. He placed handcuffs around her wrists. The final click of the metal lock sent a shiver down my back. As he read her Miranda rights, I walked beside June down to the sheriff’s vehicle.
Neighbors had come out of their houses to watch. A car that had been driving by stopped in the middle of the street to gawk. Rumors would be flying through the town within seconds, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop them.
“I’ll call Paige for you.”
She nodded, her bottom lip quivering. “My birds?”
“I’ll get Daisy to look after them, okay?”
“Okay.”
The sheriff opened the back door and helped June into the seat. He shut the door and sighed. “You know I didn’t want to do this.”
“I know.” I set my hand onto his bare forearm. He always had his shirt sleeves rolled up. “Will she be gone long?”
“Can’t guarantee the judge will grant bail. She doesn’t have a record and isn’t a flight risk, so possibly. She won’t see the judge till tomorrow, though.”
“Okay. I’ll call Paige and get the ball rolling.”
He gave me a final sharp nod and then jumped into the vehicle. I watched him drive away as a lump formed in my throat. This was not how I expected any of this to go. June and Lois had asked for my help, and I felt like I’d failed them. I could only imagine how Samuel would take it all. And Ginny. She would be terribly upset because, well, that’s how Ginny was. Softhearted and emotional about everyone she loved. And we all loved June.
Chapter 21
Since I had to talk to Daisy about taking care of June’s birds, I stopped in at the pet hotel to enjoy some cat therapy before I returned to the Park to tell Lois the bad news. I needed to rub my face against Scout and Jem’s fur and inhale their comforting kitty scent. Stroking them always made the three of us feel calmer.
When I walked into the kennel, Daisy looked up from feeding a carrot to a very hairy guinea pig and said, “You look like someone died. Again.”
“The sheriff arrested June Biddle. I was there.”
She stood. “Damn. That totally sucks.”
“Yes, it totally does.” I leaned on the counter. “Could you take care of her birds for a bit? She took them home a couple of days ago. I’ll get you the house keys.”
“Yeah, of course. I sold her those two kooky birds.”
“Thanks. I know she’ll appreciate it.”
“We stick together, us villagers.”
I nodded and pointed down the corridor to the pet hotel suites. “I’m just gonna…”
“Sure. They’ll be so happy to see you.”
When I opened the door to the suite and stepped inside, Scout had been lazing on the cat tree. Her eyes widened, and she sat up and meowed loudly. Jem, who had been inside one of the huts on the floor, crawled out and started to purr. I sat on the floor, and my two babies jumped onto my lap and rubbed against me.
For the next half hour, I was in perfect peace and harmony. The whole world fell away, and I didn’t think about anything but how their purrs vibrated against my skin and the way their fur felt against my hands.
The moment I stepped into the Park Hotel and started to cross the lobby, every staff member’s head turned my way. They had heard about June’s arrest. Lois met me halfway, grabbed my arm, and herded me into her office.
“How bad is it?” she asked.
“There is evidence against her. It’s mostly circumstantial. She had means and opportunity. And today, they found what they think was the murder weapon in her house. The arrest isn’t airtight. But there’s enough for a jury to convict her.” I sat in one of the chairs. “I don’t think they have a good motive, although they don’t need one legally. But most juries won’t convict for murder unless they feel the defendant had a strong motive.”
Although…
The prosecution could probably paint a solid motive in June’s relationship with Simon Gervais. Not because June had stolen her best friend’s husband. But because Brittany couldn’t buy him out, so he was still tied to her business, and it was failing fast. He’d be saddled with his share of the debt, and maybe Brittany’s share, too, depending on the legal issues. Simon wanted to be completely free to marry June. If Brittany died, Simon would have been able to sell the business and maybe even make some money on
the sale.
It was all too plausible.
Lois paced the room. “I can’t believe it. June wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
I didn’t say that everyone was capable of violence under the right conditions. Love, hate, jealousy, greed, revenge—these were powerful emotions and could be strong motives for murder.
“How can we help her?” Lois asked.
“I already called her lawyer.”
Lois gave me a stern look. “You’re a lawyer.”
“I’m not licensed to practice in Michigan. And even in California, I wasn’t a criminal defense attorney,” I reminded her.
“I know,” she sighed. “It’s just I know you’d do your best. This other lawyer…”
“Paige Weaver.” I figured she’d be dogged and fierce and competent, or Sheriff Jackson would never have recommended her to me. Or have dated her. “I’m sure she’ll be a good lawyer for June.”
“She’d better be, or I’ll have something to say about it.”
I grabbed Lois’s hand. “It will be okay. June didn’t kill Brittany. I feel as sure of that as you do. The truth will come out. It always does in the end.”
I returned to my suite to do some more digging. I grabbed an apple from my refrigerator and settled down on the sofa with my laptop open and ready to go. First I searched Tracy Hamlin Michigan. A lot of pages came up with links for Tracy Hamlin the R&B singer. I scrolled over all of that. On the third page, I spotted a tiny mention of a student named Tracy Hamlin graduating from Michigan State University.
I clicked on the link. It took me to an alum page with pictures. I scrolled down and found Tracy’s picture. She’d graduated with a degree in business. I kept scrolling through more pictures of other alumni. The pages were separated by the individual colleges and departments under the university umbrella. I took a chance and clicked on the College of Science alumni page and rolled past all the photos. I was just about to give up, when on the fourth page under the letter M, I found a picture of Tyler Montgomery.
So that was how they’d met. Tyler had been in college with Tracy, Brittany’s sister. Which meant that was most likely how Tyler and Brittany knew each other, too. Now I just had to figure out what Tyler and Brittany were doing together all these years later.
