Lenses, Lust, and Murder: A Crystal Coast Case (Crystal Coast Cases Book 2)

by A M Ialacci

  “Except that he has no alibi.”

  “Until he gives us the name of this ‘friend’ in Newport, he doesn’t.”

  “Do you think he was at the Cape?” Allie asked.

  “No doubt about it,” Charlie said. “Ready to see if Vi is home?”

  “Can you call her?” Allie looked at her watch. “I need to head into Morehead on an errand.”

  “I sure can. Anything you need help with?” Charlie asked.

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “All right. Take your time. I’ll give you a call later.”

  “Thanks, Charlie,” she said and left for the parking lot.

  Allie drove through downtown Morehead City and continued west on 70 toward the more recent additions to the city. The bank was located near what locals called “the mall,” and was really just a Belk department store, a Best Buy, and a Hallmark store. She pulled in, patted her pocket to make sure she had the key, and entered the bank. It was mostly empty and she approached a teller.

  “How can I help you today?”

  “I have a safe deposit box,” Allie said, producing the key.

  “All right, I’ll get someone to help you with that,” the teller said.

  Soon, a woman in a gray suit approached her from the office side of the bank. “How can I help you today?”

  Allie repeated her request, and the woman gestured for her to follow. Allie had expected to be asked to verify her identity or ownership of the box, but no one did. I guess if I have the key, it’s all good, she thought. Still, I should ask about the lease.

  They entered the safe deposit box room and the woman asked the number, which Allie read off the key. She produced a key and asked Allie to put hers in, as well. The woman turned the keys and pulled the box out and onto the table nearby. “I’ll leave you to it,” she said and left.

  Allie lifted the lid on the box and stepped back. There were stacks of hundred-dollar bills. She counted a stack quickly and calculated that there was $500,000 in the safe deposit box.

  What in the hell?

  She stared at it for a few moments, returning the stack she had counted. Then she closed the lid. I need to find out where this money came from before I do anything else.

  She summoned the woman from the hallway, who came in, replaced the box, and closed the door. “Is there anything else I can help you with?” she asked.

  “Um, the lease on this box?” Allie asked.

  “It’s paid through the end of 2020,” she said. “No need to worry.”

  Allie struggled to keep her emotions in check. Dad anticipated not being around to pay the lease? Needed to hide the money? Or did he stash it here for some other reason? What in the world is happening?

  “All right. Thank you very much for your help,” she said and smiled.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Hey, kiddo,” Charlie said when Allie answered her phone. “Are you done with your errand? Darius called and said the results are in.”

  “Oh, wonderful. Yes, I’m done,” she said. “I’ll head back over the bridge. Be there in ten.” The new high-rise bridge that bypassed Beaufort altogether made it a little more difficult to get to the county buildings, but not by much. And it afforded a different, yet spectacular view of the marshes on the Sound side and the expansive Intracoastal Waterway. She pulled into the lot at the county morgue and hustled inside. Charlie was waiting for her in the lobby, along with Nick Cruz.

  “Cruz,” Allie said. “Great, the gang is all here.”

  “Darius wants to meet us in the morgue. Is that all right?” Charlie asked.

  Allie nodded. “Yep, that’s fine. I think I have a cough drop in my purse.”

  “A cough drop?” Cruz asked.

  “To hide the smell,” Allie said. “Works like a charm.”

  “Oh right,” Cruz said. “I’ve heard of that one, but it doesn’t really work.”

  “I might have an extra if you’d like to try it,” she offered.

  “Nah, I’m good,” Cruz said.

  “Suit yourself.” She shrugged.

  “Shall we head in?” Charlie asked.

  Allie nodded and led the way. She knocked on the door after pushing it open. “Hello, Darius!”

  “Allie! Are Charlie and Agent Cruz with you?” he called from somewhere further in the cavernous room.

  “We’re all here,” Charlie said.

  Darius came around the corner in scrubs, a hat and a mask shoved down around his neck. “Glad you could join me down here.”

  “What ya got?” Charlie asked.

  “Come on over.” Darius gestured. Harriet Brennan was laid out on a gurney with a sheet up to her shoulders. Allie could see the dark, fresh stitches at the very tips of the Y incision used to remove her organs and assess her internal injuries. Her head wound had been cleaned, and her strawberry-blonde hair lay in waves around her head.

  “All right, the blow to her head resulted in a diffuse brain injury which was the cause of death. Lots of blood loss right there.” He pointed to her left temple. “If you look closely at the wound, you will see the sharp angles that match the shape of the large bolts on the hatch handles of the door to the gallery in the watch house. Her temple came into contact with one of those at great force, and if I was a gambling man, I’d say it wasn’t from a fall. She was shoved. Hard.”

  Allie leaned in. The hexagonal bolts on the entry door to the lighthouse gallery could have fit like a puzzle piece.

  “So she’s facing that door, and her left temple hits the bolt on the handle near the upper left of the doorway,” Cruz said. “That’s where the luminol showed the largest amount of blood. Allie, may I?”

  “May you what?” she asked.

  Cruz gestured for her to turn around. “Charlie, be the doorway.”

  Charlie repositioned himself to face Allie.

  “I’m the killer, and I surprise Harriet here from behind, shoving her into the doorway.” Cruz gently pushed Allie who tilted the left side of her face to avoid hitting Charlie head on. “And her left temple smacks into the bolt.”

  “That seems to fit,” Charlie said, reaching out to stabilize Allie.

  “May even be a right-handed killer if the shove came from the right,” Cruz posited.

  “If I may continue,” Darius said, with a cocked eyebrow.

  “Of course,” Cruz said, smiling.

  “I believe after that, she was stabbed twice in the lower abdomen.” Here, Darius moved the sheet over to show them the wounds.

  The investigators exchanged quick glances. This was new information.

  “It’s a bit difficult to tell what kind of knife was used. It was likely serrated, as there is some torn tissue on the bottom of each wound. Neither of them bled very much—the muscles actually contracted around the wound, which is common.”

  “Any idea on length of the blade?”

  “We’re estimating only due to the damage of the internal organs that it was probably five inches or so, but we can’t be sure.”

  “All right. We’ll need to follow up with our suspects about who has knives, or access to them, and what kind,” Charlie said.

  “She has several broken bones and other damage that occurred post mortem, when I believe she was pushed over the railing of the lighthouse and then dragged to the spot where she was found.”

  “The blood I saw on her skin was her own?” Allie asked.

  “We’re testing it now. Unfortunately, DNA takes weeks. We’re running a blood-type test to narrow it down,” Darius said.

  “If she was surprised, she probably didn’t have much opportunity to defend herself, and unless our killer was super clumsy with the knife, it’s unlikely he left any of his own blood there,” Cruz said.

  “He may have left something else, though,” Darius said. “A few months back.”

  “What?” Charlie asked.

  “Harriet Brennan was pregnant.”

  “What?” All three investigators chimed in unison this time.


  “How far along?” Allie asked.

  “About three months,” Darius said.

  “She must have known by then,” Allie said.

  “Maybe. Not always,” Darius pointed out.

  “We need to speak with Vi Brennan,” Allie said.

  “You think Vi got her pregnant?” Charlie asked.

  “No, silly. But they may have planned this.”

  “Oh, true,” Charlie said.

  “I doubt it, if they were fighting as recently as they were.”

  “Maybe Harriet planned it without Vi,” Allie offered. “We need to find her day planner. I’m sure she would have written something down about this.”

  “Do you think the stab wounds were targeted at her lower abdomen?” Cruz asked Darius.

  “It’s a possibility. It’s rather an odd place to stab someone,” Darius said. “However, if our killer is a hunter, it’s also where you begin dressing a carcass. Or maybe the killer was shorter than Harriet. There are any number of possibilities.”

  “I’m wondering how the attacker got behind her. I’m assuming they were meeting face to face,” Cruz said.

  “Maybe she was waiting and he snuck up on her,” Charlie said.

  “In any case, it was literally overkill,” Allie said. “Whoever it was wanted to be sure she was dead by stabbing her after bashing her head in.”

  “Still doesn’t feel planned, though,” Cruz commented.

  “Right. Why meet her at the top of a lighthouse if you intend to kill her?” Charlie asked.

  “Exactly,” Cruz said.

  “They didn’t want to be seen,” Allie said. “But I think you may be right. This was a last-minute decision.”

  “By someone who was nonetheless prepared,” Charlie said.

  “Anybody who spends time in the National Parks knows that you have to be prepared,” Cruz added.

  “The boy scout motto,” Charlie said.

  “But this was no boy scout,” Allie said.

  Cruz took his leave when they were done at the morgue. They stepped out into the sunshine and Allie chewed up the last bit of her cough drop.

  “Had lunch?” Charlie asked.

  “Nope,” she said.

  “Royal James?” he suggested.

  “A cheeseburger sounds good right about now,” she agreed.

  “Want to walk?”

  “Yes!”

  They strolled leisurely down Turner Street, enjoying the afternoon sunshine and warmth of a Carolina fall. “September is still summer down here, isn’t it?” Allie remarked.

  “Yep,” Charlie said. “I’m guessing it’s a bit different in Chicago?”

  “Slightly.” She laughed. “Hey, can I ask you a hypothetical question?”

  “Shoot,” he said.

  “It’s a… case I’m working on. If someone dies, but leaves a safe deposit box key for someone, and has paid the box lease in advance, and the person who has the key goes to open it up and there’s cash in there, what would you think about that?”

  “What would I think?”

  “Yeah, like, what would your instincts tell you about the person who put the cash in the safe deposit box in the first place,” she said.

  “Um… I guess I’d wonder why. Why not just leave it in a will? It would make me wonder what they were trying to avoid by stashing untraceable cash in a rather secret way.”

  “Why would you guess someone would do that?” She shoved her hands in her pockets. “If you had to guess?”

  “Probably gained illegally is what I would assume. Or they’re trying to evade taxes.”

  Allie nodded. “Okay. That’s sort of what I was thinking too.”

  “Does that help?”

  She nodded again, swallowing against the lump in her throat.

  “So what do you think of the autopsy results?” Charlie asked.

  “It’s kind of a coincidence that we find out she’s pregnant and was stabbed in the abdomen, right?”

  “Yeah, that struck me too.”

  “I just don’t see why he asked her to the top of the lighthouse if he was going to kill her. And why in the world did she go? In heels? It makes no sense.” Allie pulled open the glass door and they found seats at the bar.

  “I forgot to ask Darius if they did a tox screen,” Charlie said, pulling out his phone.

  “Yeah, if she was drugged and carried up there… that would make everything way more confusing,” Allie said.

  Charlie nodded, waiting for Darius to pick up.

  Allie ordered for them both while Charlie spoke to Darius. When he hung up, he said, “Nothing in her system except high levels of folic acid. It was likely she was taking prenatal vitamins.”

  “So she went up there willingly.”

  “Most likely,” Charlie said.

  “We’re looking for a knife, a cell phone, a day planner, the boots, and now the father of Harriet’s baby.”

  “Plenty of unknowns in this case yet,” Charlie agreed. “We need to know who knew about the pregnancy. And we need to start with Vi Brennan.”

  “Cheeseburger first, then Vi,” Allie said.

  “Agreed.” Charlie laughed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Confronted with Harriet’s secret, Vi Brennan pursed her lips, glared at Charlie for a moment, and then sat back and crossed her arms. “Of course, I knew she was pregnant. She was my wife.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us this information?”

  “I didn’t think it was relevant. And it’s private.”

  “In case you didn’t notice, murder victims aren’t afforded much privacy when we are trying to figure out who murdered them,” Charlie was clearly annoyed, and Allie put out a hand to his arm.

  “Vi, we’d like to know a little bit more about how she came to be pregnant. It might have bearing on the case,” Allie said gently.

  “You’d like to know how babies are made?” Vi was riled.

  Allie smiled. “No, we’d like to know how this one was made.”

  Vi sighed and leaned forward, running her hands through her hair. “You may think I’m weak, but I didn’t ask when I found out.”

  “Forgiveness isn’t weak,” Charlie said.

  Vi nodded and looked at the floor. “We were going to raise the baby together.” She stood and began to pace, arms still crossed but now, as if hugging herself. “We had fought. About an affair. I had snooped in her phone, I never should have done it, but I felt like I was losing her. And I found what I went looking for.”

  “Who was it?” Allie asked.

  “I thought at the time it was a woman named Erika. I had no idea who she was, but there she was on her phone, with messages… saying things we should be saying to each other.”

  “What happened then?”

  “I confronted Harriet and we had a nasty fight. I’m not proud. Things were thrown, the neighbors heard us. I never knew I could be that angry. But after a week or so, we made up. Harriet promised to break it off with her.” She shrugged.

  “This still doesn’t explain how she became pregnant,” Charlie said.

  “As I said, I didn’t ask. We decided to make a fresh start and were looking forward to having a baby together.” She turned toward the sliding glass door and wiped at her eyes.

  Charlie looked like he was going to ask more questions, but Allie put her hand on his arm again and shook her head. They weren’t going to get any more from Vi about the pregnancy. She said she didn’t know, and Allie believed her.

  “You maintain that you were here the night of the gala?” Allie asked.

  “Yes, I was.”

  “Her cell phone still hasn’t been found—it’s not here, is it?”

  “No. She wasn’t big on technology, but a cell phone is a necessity these days. I know she had it with her. I had only been home for a minute when she left, but I think I saw her put it in her handbag that night.”

  “She had a handbag?”

  “Yes, it was a red clutch. Matched her dress,” Vi
said.

  “Okay,” Charlie said. “We’ll have to keep an eye out for that, as well.”

  “What kind of phone was it? Did she have a pass lock on it?” Allie asked.

  “It was an iPhone of some sort. She always used her birth year, 1978.”

  Charlie glanced at Allie, who pointed at her watch.

  “I think that’s all we need right now,” Charlie said. There was no response.

  “We’ll show ourselves out,” Allie said. “Thank you, Vi.”

  Vi flapped her hand in their direction but remained staring out the door to the water between her and the lighthouse on the Cape.

  Once they were outside, Charlie looked around. “I think I’m going to get some deputies to knock on doors. See if anybody heard this nasty fight.”

  “And see if anyone can give her an alibi. Anyone who saw her here. Just in case,” Allie added.

  Charlie nodded. “It’s not every day you find out your wife is pregnant with someone else’s child.

  “And just because she said they made up doesn’t mean they did. I mean, Harriet’s stuff was still in a box in the garage,” Allie said. “We forgot to ask about the knife.”

  “I didn’t forget,” Charlie said. “We’ll be back.”

  There was a buzz in the air when they walked into the Visitor Center at Harkers Island. The staff they encountered were agitated and whispering.

  “What’s going on?” Charlie demanded of a volunteer at the desk.

  “Someone’s cell phone is going off in the staff locker room. It keeps ringing, but no one has come to retrieve it,” she said, wide-eyed at the large law enforcement officer barking at her.

  “Let’s go,” Charlie said.

  “Wait,” Allie said. “Do you have a set of bolt cutters anywhere?” she asked the volunteer.

  “I’ll call maintenance to meet you,” she said and grabbed the phone.

  Charlie looked at her.

  “In case it’s locked in a locker,” Allie said, shrugging.

  “Good thinking,” he said.

  They hustled to the staff locker room and heard the peals of an electronic ring tone as soon as they entered the room. It didn’t take long for them to locate the locker with the offending phone, and sure enough, it had a padlock through the latch. The locker was labeled G. CHAN.