Birthdays Can Be Deadly

by Cindy Bell

“Well, you keep trying to convince Samantha of that, and let me know how it works out,” Walt chuckled. “I've never met a more stubborn woman.”

  “I just hope she isn't being more stubborn than smart about this,” Eddy said with concern. He tugged his hat down lower on his head and sighed. “I'll have to keep an eye on things.”

  “Just don't get caught,” Walt warned.

  “I'll do my best,” Eddy laughed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Samantha burst through the door of her villa, still annoyed with Eddy for the way he had spoken to her. She'd dealt with enough cops in her time to know when one was on a power trip. She closed the door behind her and walked over to her computer. She needed to find a reason for Frank to be out of his villa that evening. She searched for local events that she thought might interest him. Then she picked up her phone. She blocked her number from appearing on caller ID and dialed Frank's number. He picked up after two rings.

  “This is Frank,” he said.

  “This is your lucky day, Frank,” Samantha said in a slightly higher pitch than her normal voice. She made sure that she sounded very excited. “You've won two free tickets to a concert tonight.”

  “A concert?” he asked skeptically. “I didn't enter any contest.”

  “Are you a new resident of Sage Gardens?” Samantha asked cheerfully.

  “Well yes,” Frank replied.

  “All new residents of Sage Gardens are entered into our contest. It's our way of helping new residents to get to know the area,” Samantha explained. “Your tickets are completely free, but you have to be at the concert by seven tonight, or you will not get the free tickets.”

  “That's pretty short notice,” Frank said with annoyance.

  “Sorry, we had some technical issues and had been calling the previous resident's old number,” Samantha explained swiftly. She had learned how to make up a good story in a short amount of time when investigating crimes for her articles.

  “Oh?” Frank sighed. “Well, I guess it would be good for me to get out. Can you give me the address?”

  “Sure,” Samantha agreed and rattled off the address of one of the concerts that was taking place in town that night. She knew that by the time Frank got there and realized that there were no free tickets, Jo would be done searching his villa for the bottle of wine and the poison.

  “All right, before seven, right?” he asked again.

  “Yes, before seven. Don't be late,” Samantha warned.

  “I'll be there,” Frank said, then he hung up the phone. Samantha hung up her phone and sighed with relief. She had been fairly certain that he wasn't going to believe her a few times during their conversation, but it seemed as if he had bought it in the end. She sent a text to Jo's phone.

  Can we get together around 7?

  Within seconds she received a text in response.

  Sounds good.

  Samantha smiled and then set her phone down on the table. She decided to spend the rest of her afternoon going through the articles she had written about Jo.

  Samantha got so lost in the articles that she didn't realize it was nearly seven o'clock until her phone rang. She glanced at the clock and then snatched up the phone.

  “Jo?” she asked.

  “No,” a voice replied. When Samantha recognized it, her heart skipped a beat. “It's Frank,” he said. Samantha began to panic. Had he figured out that she was the one who had called him?

  “Hi, Frank,” she said carefully.

  “Listen Samantha, I won two free tickets to a concert tonight. I was wondering if you might like to go along,” Frank offered. “We'd have to leave in a few minutes though.”

  “Oh, I'm sorry, Frank, I can't tonight,” Samantha stumbled out quickly. “I'm not feeling very well.”

  “All right then, I hope you feel better soon,” Frank said before hanging up the phone. Samantha was startled by the call, but she was glad that Frank was actually planning on going to the concert.

  She stepped out of her villa and locked the door behind her. She made her way slowly towards Frank's villa. Her slow movement paid off, as she was able to see him get in his car. She ducked behind a tree as he drove out of Sage Gardens. Samantha texted Jo a quick message.

  Dinner is ready

  Jo didn't answer right away. As the minutes ticked by, Samantha began to wonder if she was coming at all. She was starting to think that Eddy had been right and she had misjudged Jo. When it seemed like she wasn't coming she began to peek in Frank's windows.

  “Thinking of a career change?” Jo asked from just behind her. Samantha nearly jumped out of her skin.

  “I wasn't sure if you were coming,” Samantha admitted.

  “I'm here, aren't I?” Jo asked. She smoothed down the black turtle neck that she was wearing. “Any ideas where the wine bottle might be?” she asked.

  “Maybe in the trashcan under the sink,” Samantha replied.

  “All right, let's get to it,” Jo said with a nod. Her expression was impassive. She reached up to the edge of the black knit cap she was wearing and pulled it down. It covered her whole face aside from cut outs for her eyes and mouth.

  “Are you sure that you can pull this off?” Samantha asked nervously as she looked into Jo's eyes. The deep nearly black spheres gazed back at Samantha with impatience.

  “You know me so well, what do you think?” she asked.

  Samantha smiled a little as she recalled the article she had just read over. Jo never made a mistake. That was why she was never caught.

  “Jo, why did you turn yourself in?” Samantha suddenly asked her.

  “You want to talk about that now?” Jo asked with disbelief.

  “I'm just wondering,” Samantha mumbled.

  “Please, back off,” Jo said sharply. Then she disappeared around the side of the villa. Once she was gone, Samantha ducked behind the next villa. She didn't want to be seen loitering. Her heart was racing. She wondered if Jo would make it out okay. She wondered what it meant to be encouraging a crime, and whether her morals were really as bad as Eddy had implied they might be. She didn't have much time to worry, as within five minutes Jo was walking casually back towards her. Her hands were empty.

  “Couldn't you get in?” Samantha asked with disappointment.

  “Yes, I got in,” Jo replied. “Now, just start walking.”

  “Was it there?” Samantha asked breathlessly as she fell into step beside Jo. She matched Jo's casual pace.

  “It was,” Jo replied.

  “Well, where is it?” Samantha asked impatiently.

  “Would you please be quiet?” Jo demanded and shot a glare in her direction. “Do you want all of Sage Gardens to know what just happened?”

  “Sorry,” Samantha said darkly. She wanted to say more than that, but she knew that Jo had just gone out on a limb to help them, when she didn't have to.

  “Let's go to your place,” Jo said. “I'll give you the bottle there. I couldn’t find any poison.”

  “No, not mine,” Samantha said fearfully. She wasn't sure that she would handle the bottle correctly to preserve the evidence. “Let's take it to Eddy's place.”

  “Are you insane?” Jo asked sharply. “I will do no such thing.”

  “Don't worry, Eddy isn't going to give you a hard time,” Samantha assured her. “He's just going to take care of the bottle so he can turn it in as evidence.”

  “I agreed to steal it, I didn't agree to turn it over to a cop,” Jo snarled in return. “Unbelievable. Was all of this a set up? Was it your way of getting revenge on me?”

  “No, of course not,” Samantha shook her head quickly. “It's not like that at all. Eddy still has connections at the police department so he's hoping to turn the wine bottle over to the police in order to find out if it had poison in it and then prove that Frank was the one who poisoned James.”

  “I don't know,” Jo said hesitantly.

  “We're already here,” Samantha said as she paused in front of Eddy's villa. Eddy open
ed the door and stepped outside. Walt was just behind him. Both men stared at Jo. Jo shifted uncomfortably. She felt very exposed, especially with so many people gathered in one place.

  “Let's get inside before someone notices the crowd,” she said with a sigh. “We don't want to attract any attention.”

  Eddy watched her closely as he held open the door for both women to step inside. Once the door was shut behind them, he cleared his throat.

  “Was it there?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Jo replied without looking in his direction. She pulled the wine bottle out of an inside pocket in her jacket and handed it over to him.

  “What about the poison,” Eddy asked.

  “I couldn’t find any,” Jo said.

  “Maybe he hid it,” Eddy suggested.

  “I'll just be going,” Jo said and started to walk towards the door. Before she could reach the handle Eddy had his hand on her wrist. Jo gasped and looked over at him fearfully.

  “Eddy, stop!” Samantha snapped out.

  “I just wanted to say thank you,” Eddy said as he met Jo's eyes. “It's nice to know that you still have it in you, to break into someone's home and steal from them.”

  “Seriously?” Jo shook his hand off her wrist. “This is the last time I help. I mean it, Sam,” she said and stormed out of the villa.

  “What was that?” Samantha demanded as she turned on Eddy.

  “If she had really changed, she wouldn't have broken in,” Eddy pointed out. He dropped the wine bottle into a plastic bag.

  “Eddy, you're being ridiculous. She did this for us,” Samantha said. “To help us solve a possible murder.”

  “I don't have time to argue about it right now, Samantha. I'm going to run this over to my contact. He's meeting me for dinner,” he gestured to the door. “You two can find your own way out, I assume.”

  Then he brushed past them without the slightest hesitation.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Eddy had observed the entire break in. Watching Jo work had made him feel such a strong urge to stop her and arrest her that it was hard for him to keep quiet. Luckily, neither woman had noticed him. At least he didn't think they did. He just couldn't stop seeing Jo shimmy in through the window and disappear into the darkness of the villa. She had a certain grace that he had never actually witnessed before. But to him it was anything but beautiful. It was criminal. As he drove to the diner where he was meeting his friend he tried to focus on the fact that hopefully soon Frank would be in jail, rather than Jo's actions. He parked in the diner parking lot and hurried inside. His friend was waiting for him at the table, with a plate of food already in front of him.

  “You're late,” he said as Eddy sat down across from him.

  “Sorry,” Eddy said. “It doesn't look like you waited for me.”

  “There's more coming,” he shrugged. Eddy swept his gaze over Vincent Dank. He was one of the worst detectives that Eddy had ever known. Eddy had taken him under his wing when he was a young detective and attempted to train him, but it didn't make much difference in the long run. All that mattered was that he was a connection that Eddy could use.

  “I have the evidence,” Eddy said and placed the bag with the wine bottle on the table. Dank regarded it for a moment and then looked up at Eddy.

  “I'm telling you right now, Eddy, without a confession your suspect is going to get away with this murder,” Dank said as he brushed a napkin across his lips. “You've got no evidence to connect him to the crime.”

  “But the bottle of wine,” Eddy pressed, his eyes wide. “Can’t you do something with it?” Eddy asked hopefully but he knew that the chance of it being used as evidence in James’ murder was close to zero. He had hoped that Dank might run some tests and use it to investigate more. The waitress set down a plate of food in front of Eddy that Eddy hadn't even ordered. She knew him well enough to know what he liked.

  “Maybe, if it could have been entered into evidence. But since you and your friends broke in and took it out of the man's house, there's no way for you to prove that it's the same bottle of wine that he gave to James as a gift. Meaning, you could have planted it if you wanted to. I can’t even use it to justify looking into the case further,” he raised an eyebrow. “I know you meant well, but that's why you have to follow procedure, Eddy.”

  “I know, I know,” Eddy sighed and ran his palm along his face. That was one of the biggest problems he had with his captains when he was a detective. They always wanted the details, and he never took the time to follow the proper steps. “So, I guess it's a total loss,” he said morosely.

  “No, not necessarily,” Dank said and pointed to his plate. “Are you going to eat that?” he asked. Eddy glanced down at his uneaten french fries. He pushed the plate across the table to Dank.

  “Go for it,” he said. “Now, what were you saying about the murder?”

  “Like I said, all you need is a confession, right?” he shrugged and chomped down on a french fry. “You believe he's guilty. This guy isn't exactly a career criminal. Just get him to admit to it. You're one of the best interrogators I know, Eddy,” he chuckled a little before taking a sip of his soda.

  “Thanks,” Eddy nodded respectfully. His mind was already churning about the idea of interrogating Frank. “But I don't think that I'll be able to get him into a police station.”

  “You're a legend, Eddy, you don't need a police station,” Dank said. He tapped his fingertip lightly on the side of his forehead. “Think outside the box.”

  His words ruffled Eddy, as they were the same words that Samantha had spoken to him recently.

  “Is that a thing now?” he asked. “Is everybody supposed to think outside the box?”

  “Well,” Dank chomped down on another fry. “I guess it depends on the box.”

  Eddy smiled a little at that. “I guess you're right about that,” he said with a nod. “Enjoy your meal, Dank. Thanks for the information,” he said as he stood up from the table.

  “Sorry I couldn't be more help,” Dank said through a mouthful of french fry.

  “You were plenty of help,” Eddy assured him. He tossed a twenty down to cover their meals and then walked out of the restaurant. As he drove back towards Sage Gardens he thought about what Dank had said. If their only hope really was to get Frank to confess, then there were a few ways that he could make that happen. But he wasn't going to be able to do it alone.

  ***

  “Hello?” Samantha answered her phone, knowing that it was Eddy calling.

  “Sam, we need to meet. See if you can get Walt to join us,” Eddy said without greeting her.

  “Okay, is there good news?” she asked hopefully. “Is your friend going to arrest Frank?”

  “Not just yet,” Eddy replied. “Let's meet at your place, okay?”

  “Okay,” Samantha agreed with a little more worry in her voice. When she hung up the phone she dialed Walt. He answered on the second ring.

  “Walter speaking,” he said.

  “Walt, it's Samantha. I just got a call from Eddy and he wants us all to meet at my place,” Samantha explained swiftly.

  “Is Frank getting arrested?” Walt asked.

  “Doesn't sound like it,” Samantha replied with disappointment. “Let's just see what Eddy has to say when he gets here.”

  “All right,” Walt replied. “I'll be there in a few minutes.”

  Samantha hung up her phone and then went about tidying up the few things that were a mess in her kitchen. She knew any kind of disorder would drive Walt nuts. She opened the fridge to see what she could offer them to drink. As she was rummaging around she heard a voice that made her skin crawl.

  “Got any beer?” Frank asked from a few feet behind her.

  Samantha slowly stood up and turned to face Frank. “What are you doing in my house?” she asked him, her voice strangled with fear.

  “What am I doing in your house?” Frank asked with a low chuckle. “Well, let's see, Samantha, maybe I should have asked you t
hat, when you broke into my house and stole from me.”

  “What are you talking about?” Samantha asked innocently. “Did someone break into your villa?”

  “Oh yes, plead ignorance,” he shook his head and stepped further into the kitchen. “Doesn't matter if you want to pretend you have no idea what I'm talking about. I know it was you. You're the only one who would have thought about the wine bottle in my trashcan. What I don't understand is why you would steal my trash?” he asked dismissively.

  “I didn't steal any trash from you,” Samantha said crossly. “Maybe it got stuck behind that malfunctioning waste bin of yours.”

  “Ha, sure,” Frank nodded and leaned back against the counter beside her. “Only, I know that you broke in or made someone else do it. I know that you stole from me, so all of this nonsense is pointless. Don't you think?”

  “I don't have a clue what you're rambling on about, Frank. To be honest I'm not comfortable with you being in my house, especially with the way you are talking. I think you should leave, before I have to call security,” Samantha warned him.

  “Oh?” he laughed again. “Please do. Let's call security and let them know that you broke into my villa. I'm sure that they would be very interested in that.”

  Samantha shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't sure if he had any real proof that they had broken into his villa. But if he did and she called security, then they would be in a lot of trouble.

  “Just go, Frank,” she said sternly.

  “I'm not going anywhere,” Frank said in return. His eyes were shining with an emotion that Samantha couldn't quite grasp. It was something between dominance and drunkenness. She felt her stomach twist as she wondered exactly what he intended to do to her. “I want to know why you were in my house,” he bit out each word as he leaned close to her.

  “I wasn't,” she sputtered out.

  “You must have been,” he argued. “Because when I left the house, the wine bottle was in the trash. When I came back, it was gone. Does that make sense to you, Samantha?”