by Cindy Bell
“All right.” Walt rocked back on his heels and nodded. “Good night, Jo.”
“Good night, Walt.” She walked up to her villa and closed the door behind her. She hoped that Walt believed her. More than that, she hoped that she would be able to live up to her own words.
Chapter 13
Bright and early the next morning Jo found Eddy waiting on her doorstep.
“Are Samantha and Walt in place?” Jo asked.
“Samantha is getting ready to keep an eye on Roger’s place and Walt is already sitting on Tony’s house.”
“Great.” Jo nodded. “Well, I guess it’s time to see if we can get Roger to cooperate with us.”
“I thought it would be better if we walked. That way there are no extra cars around Roger’s villa to make it look suspicious.”
“Good idea.”
“Jo, I’m going to ask you something, but I don’t want you to be offended by the question,” Eddy said as they walked towards Roger’s villa.
“All right.” Jo looked over at him. “What is it?”
“Do you think that any of your old friends have realized you live here in Sage Gardens?”
Jo thought about the fact that Drew knew. “Not anyone that we need to be concerned about.”
“That’s a rather evasive answer.” Eddy quirked a brow.
“Well, it was a rather invasive question. I have no idea who might know where I live. I’ve done my best to keep a low profile, but those I knew in the past could find anything that they were looking for, including people.”
“I understand that.” Eddy frowned.
“Then why ask the question?” Jo shrugged. “I don’t know anything more than you know, unless you’re insinuating that I’m in contact with some of these people.”
“I didn’t say that. I asked you not to get offended, remember?”
“Oh right, sorry.” She sighed and paused at the walkway that led up to Roger’s house. “Are we doing this or not?”
“We are,” Eddy said. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Jo.”
“Don’t worry about me, worry about Valda.” Jo walked up towards the front door of Roger’s house. Eddy followed after her. Jo knocked on the door. After a few minutes Roger opened it. He stared at Jo and then at Eddy.
“I wasn’t sure whether to answer. I thought you might have the police with you.”
“I kind of do.” Jo offered a half-smile. “Eddy is retired police.”
“Great.” Roger shook his head. “What do you want from me?”
“The same thing that you want, Roger. We want to solve Valda’s murder.”
Roger stuck his head out the door and looked up and down the street before looking back at Jo.
“Careful what you say.”
“Why?” Jo raised an eyebrow. “Are you expecting someone?”
“No.”
“Well, you might have a few guests soon. We’re going to tell the criminal world that you have the necklace.” Eddy smiled. “Soon, everyone who wants that necklace will be headed for this villa.”
“Are you kidding me?” He stared at Eddy and Jo. “There’s no way I’m going to tell anyone that I have the necklace. They’ll come after me, they’ll slaughter me.”
“Don’t worry, Roger, I’ll be here to protect you.” Jo flashed him a bright smile. “Are you going to let me stay? Because we’ve already exposed you and spread the rumor. So, either you stay here all by yourself, or you stay here with Eddy and me to look out for you. Which is it going to be?”
“All right, all right,” he growled. “I can’t believe you put me in the middle of all of this.”
“Actually you’re the one that did that to yourself, when you stole the necklace in the first place.” Eddy shook his head. “If I were you, and I lost my wife, I’d be willing to do whatever it takes to find her killer.”
“Enough of the guilt trips, will you just get in here?”
Jo surveyed the interior of the villa. She noticed that the place hadn’t changed much since the first time she was there. She casually looked for anything that might be out of place, such as a statue in a new spot, or books on the bookshelf shuffled around. There wasn’t much for her to see. Eddy began checking the windows of the villa.
“We want to make sure that everything is secure so that we don’t have any surprises.”
“Am I supposed to offer you drinks?” Roger frowned as he stood near the entrance of the kitchen. “This is the strangest party I’ve ever hosted.”
“Roger, we’re here to help you, a drink wouldn’t hurt.” Jo smiled.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Once Roger was in the kitchen, Jo grabbed Eddy by the elbow. “Do you have contact with Walt?”
“Yes, he’s texting me his every movement.” Eddy squinted at his phone. “Apparently he just disinfected his phone and is horrified by what came off it.”
“Great.” Jo tried not to laugh. “Any news on Tony?”
“He hasn’t seen any movement.”
Jo’s eyes flicked to the window. Would Drew find out and take the bait?
“And Samantha?”
“She’s got her finger on the pulse of all of the police movement in the area, and she is driving around the block to spot any incoming vehicles or anyone on foot. We should have a good amount of notice before anyone tries to break in.”
“Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.” Jo wrung her hands nervously. “We’re putting Roger in danger.”
“I don’t mind.” Roger returned with two glasses of water. “I just want this to be over.”
Jo took her glass. Eddy took his as well.
“We’re all working towards the same goal then.” Eddy nodded. Jo went to take a sip of her water, but stopped when Eddy gave her a slight shake of his head. Jo nodded. Roger turned on the television and sat down on the couch.
“I’m just going to use the bathroom.” Jo set her glass down.
“Feel free. You can look in the toilet tank and under the rug, you’re not going to find it. I told you I don’t have it.” Roger shrugged.
“I didn’t say you did,” Jo said.
“I’m not stupid. I know that you want to search the place. Go ahead and tear it apart. All you’ll find are boxes waiting to be unpacked and memories of my wife that I can’t even look at.” Roger sniffled. Eddy frowned.
“I’m sorry this must be hard for you.” He sat down beside Roger. “I bet she loved that necklace.”
“Of course she did, it was the only nice thing that I could offer her. I never had anything else. She was the one that had some money. I couldn’t get any good job, I wasn’t actually a good thief, I just did that one job. I would have been a millionaire if I had been able to sell that necklace, but I couldn’t. It was too recognizable and I knew that whoever saw it would know what it was. The one thing I could give her was that necklace. And that’s what got her killed.” He put his head in his hands. “I wish I’d never listened to Tony. If I had just refused to get involved, none of this would have ever happened.”
Jo studied him with sympathy. His story echoed her own feelings about how she got caught up in being a cat burglar. It was easy to get into, and very difficult to escape. If it wasn’t for prison, she might never have found a new life.
“But you didn’t refuse.” Eddy looked over at him. “You went ahead and did whatever Tony told you to do, and you haven’t paid the price for that.”
“Isn’t my wife a price?” Roger looked up at him. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
“Yes.” Jo sighed. “This discussion isn’t going to help matters. It’s just going to distract us.”
“You’re right.” Eddy nodded. “Roger, why don’t you see if you can find us something to watch?” Eddy gestured towards the television. Jo moved closer to Eddy and whispered in his ear.
“I’m going to take a quick look around. Keep Roger distracted.”
“All right, I will, but be careful, Jo. Who knows what he might have hidden in on
e of those boxes.”
“He seems like a run of the mill guy.”
“A run of the mill guy who once had in his possession one of the most expensive pieces of jewelry in this country. That makes him someone who might have a few secrets. Don’t you think?”
“I do.” Jo nodded. She looked over at Roger as he fought with his television.
“I knew they didn’t set up the damn cable right. I told the guy he wasn’t doing it right. He didn’t want to listen. Now it’s going to be ten business days before anyone else will come back out.”
While he griped Jo slipped down the hallway towards the back bedroom. As she walked the heel of her boot got caught on the edge of the carpet. She looked down to see that the carpet was pulled back from the wall. She crouched down beside it and took a closer look. With a finger hooked under the surface of the carpet she tugged it back further from the wall. Tucked far beneath the carpet was a thin envelope. Jo glanced up and back towards the living room to ensure that Roger was still occupied with the television. He had just settled down onto the couch. She pulled the envelope carefully and quietly out from under the carpet. It wasn’t sealed. She opened the envelope. Inside were several hundred dollar bills. There wasn’t a large amount of money, maybe a few thousand, but someone valued it enough to pull back the carpet and hide it underneath.
Was it Roger’s or Valda’s stash or did it belong to both of them? If it was Valda’s stash then maybe she was not only hiding it from robbers, but from her husband. Maybe she wanted to have some ‘run away’ money, which meant she was not as happy as she seemed. Maybe because of Roger’s strange behavior of not allowing her to wear her necklace outside of the house. Maybe there were other issues in the marriage that were hidden beneath the surface, just as the stash of money had been. Jo slid the envelope back under the carpet. She knew that asking Roger about it wouldn’t help anything.
When she stood back up she pushed through the bedroom door. The bed wasn’t made. There were a few boxes in the closet. On one side of the bed a lamp stood bare of any shade. It was clear that Valda hadn’t added her touch to the room just yet. She started inspecting the areas she could see. There was nothing on top of the dresser or on the shelves that drew her interest. When she looked under the bed she noticed that all of Roger’s shoes were lined up nice and neat.
On the other side of the bed all of Valda’s shoes were lined up in the same way. She had taken the time to make sure they had what they needed exactly where she thought it should be, so maybe she wasn’t on the way out the door straight away. Maybe she had gotten wind of Roger’s past and wanted to make sure that they had a back-up plan. Or maybe she simply knew that her husband didn’t have much and she was saving for them.
Jo opened the drawers of the dresser. Inside the top right drawer was a pile of assorted socks. They were neat and tidy as well. It was clear that Valda liked things to be neat and tidy. If she found out about Roger’s past, everything would have gotten very messy. So far the only sign that she might have known was the hidden money. Jo couldn’t be sure if that was even Valda’s money. She sighed and sat down on the end of the bed. There wasn’t much to find in the bedroom, it was another dead end. It seemed this entire case was a series of dead ends. She did her best to refocus. She didn’t think it would take very long for word to get out that Roger had the necklace. Once it did she hoped they would be able to get a lead. Until then, she could question Roger and hope that he told her the truth.
Jo started to walk back into the living room when she noticed Roger’s phone on the kitchen table. She paused and glanced towards him. He was still occupied with Eddy and the television. She picked up his phone and checked to see if it had a password. The screen went straight into recent calls. She skimmed through the numbers on the phone. She noticed that there was one call that came in on the night of the murder at eleven minutes past ten, so around the estimated time of death. She looked at the information and saw that the call lasted three minutes and six seconds. There was no name, only a phone number. She pulled out her phone and quickly dialed the number, both so that it would be saved in her phone, and to see who it belonged to. A voicemail picked up, but it was a recording that only stated the phone number. She hung up and dialed Samantha.
“Nothing yet.” Samantha didn’t even bother to greet her. “I’ve seen a lot of people walking dogs, but no one that looked like a thief.”
“They don’t wear signs around their neck.”
“Okay, I know that.” Samantha cleared her throat. “No need to be rude.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be snappy. Do you think you can find out who a phone number belongs to?”
“It should be fairly simple. What’s the number?”
“I’ll text it to you.” Jo hung up the phone and quickly texted the number to Samantha. Samantha texted back.
Got it. Will update you when I find out.
Jo carefully put the phone back down on the counter. Her suspicion of Roger had waned, but this brought it right back to the surface. Maybe he was at the buffet, but knew exactly what was happening at his villa. Maybe he hired someone to do the job, and they called to let him know that it was done. The money under the carpet could have even been payment to the assassin. It was possible that the murderer ran without looking for the payment because he was spooked by someone or something.
Jo lingered near the kitchen and waited to hear from Samantha. She knew it might take some time for her to find out who the owner of the number was. As the minutes slid by her stomach knotted tighter and tighter. She could only hope that Samantha would find something before she couldn’t hold back any longer and demanded to know the truth from Roger. She kept her eye on the phone screen as she still had her phone on silent. A few minutes later Samantha called. Jo stepped through the kitchen and out the back door before she answered.
“What did you find?”
“I found out that number belongs to our recently liberated friend, Tony.”
“So, Tony and Roger spoke at the time of Valda’s death for about three minutes?” Jo frowned.
“That seems to be the case.”
“All along, they must have planned the whole thing together.”
“That’s one possibility.”
“Well, it’s time I found out the truth.” Jo hung up the phone.
Chapter 14
Now that Jo knew that Roger and Tony had spoken around the time of Valda’s murder she was furious. She stormed back into the villa. Eddy and Roger looked over at her, both startled by the fury in her expression.
“So, did you two plan Valda’s death together? Was it Tony’s idea, or yours?”
Roger bolted up from the couch and glared into Jo’s eyes. “How dare you?”
“How dare I? How dare I figure out that you’ve been lying to us this entire time about something that you never should have kept from us? The only reason why you wouldn’t tell the truth is because you were involved.”
“What are you talking about?” He took an aggressive step towards Jo, which prompted Eddy to move between them.
“Watch it,” Eddy warned.
“I’m talking about the fact that Tony called you at almost the exact time of Valda’s death. That’s what I’m talking about. Tony, the man you stole the necklace with, called you before you ever called the police about your wife’s death. So, why are you lying to us? Why are we here right now doing this sting operation when we have the murderer, at least one of them, right in front of us?”
“I didn’t kill her! I didn’t!” Roger nearly screamed. “You’re wrong. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then tell me. Tell me why Tony called you. Don’t lie to me and say you didn’t speak to him because I have proof that the conversation lasted over three minutes. A lot can be said in three minutes, Roger.”
“That’s not what happened!” Roger groaned. “All right, fine, if you want to know the truth, yes I did talk to Tony. That’s why I went home when I did.”
“Why? What did Tony say?” Jo stared at him.
“He called to taunt me. He called to tell me that he was out of prison, that he had taken the necklace, and that I would pay the price, just like he had to.”
“And you never thought to tell us any of this?”
“What does it matter?” Roger demanded. “I rushed home and Valda was dead. I knew Tony killed her and took the necklace. I still couldn’t tell the police.”
“Did he confess to killing Valda?” Jo stepped towards him. “Did he tell you that on the phone?”
“No, he just said he took the necklace. But when I got home she was dead. So obviously he killed her.”
“Obviously you’ve been lying to us from the very beginning, Roger. I don’t even know why I bothered to help you,” Jo said.
“Don’t get high and mighty with me.” Roger scowled at her. “I told you it was Tony. You were too busy suspecting me to go after the person who really did it.”
“But he didn’t have the necklace, did he Roger? I don’t know what to believe anymore!”
Eddy jumped up. “Take a breath, Jo. We’ll know soon enough. Let’s just let this play out and see where it ends up, all right?”
“All right.” Jo sighed. She slouched down on the couch. It was a waiting game, and she didn’t have the patience for it. She was angry at Roger for lying to her, angry at Drew for being involved, and angry that her past had resurfaced the way it had. She did her best to immerse herself in the television show. She stared at the screen. Her mind felt like it was turning to mush. She wasn’t much for watching television. She much preferred to be in her garden. Outside she heard the loud sound of a motorcycle. All at once the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She jumped to her feet.
“Eddy?” Jo said.
“Samantha just texted me. There’s a motorcycle headed this way.” A second later they heard the noise of the motorcycle at the end of the driveway. Jo walked towards the door. She listened closely. “Walt says no movement at Tony’s and car is still in the driveway.”
