Murder in the Arboretum (Cold Creek Book 2)

by Christa Nardi

  I paused trying to gather my thoughts and noticed that Dirk looked a little embarrassed. “Obviously there’s some tension between you. Figure out how to deal with it peaceably. That’s all.” I turned around to gather my bag and Brendon stomped off.

  Dirk hesitated and as I turned back around. I asked, “Dirk, did you know Justin Blake?” It seemed too coincidental for this tension to come up now if it wasn’t related to Blake’s death.

  “Uh, no ma’am. But I do know Mr. Johnson. He’s a good guy and he has helped some of us, finding us odd jobs,” he answered, looking down. “Brendon doesn’t have any business saying stuff about him just because he’s not part of the country club set and works with his hands.” I wondered if that was an issue for him and Brendon aside from this incident.

  “I’m sorry, Dirk. Please let us know if you want to talk to someone,” I said, thinking just how empty that sounded at that moment. I tried to shake off the feeling of helplessness as I gathered my papers. He nodded and walked away.

  I just made it back to my office, when Kim came in, face redder than her hair.

  “Sheridan, did you hear? That idiot Chief arrested Clive Johnson for the murder. That’s ridiculous!” she shouted, her hair bouncing as she spoke, eyes wide, arms waving. Like yesterday, she bristled with tension.

  “Calm down Kim. I agree it is pretty stupid. Brett said the Chief decided that it must be Johnson because he found the body.”

  Shaking my head, I continued, “I saw him there. Either he is one great actor or he was in shock. Do you know Clive Johnson?” I asked.

  “Some, he helped me pick out the plants for my garden when I first moved here. And he is usually the one who handles the various sales over at Horticulture. He’s quiet and all, but I never got any vibes that he was dangerous. I remember once seeing him at an animal rescue event,” she shook her head and looked about to cry.

  “You know this is just like what the Chief did to me in the fall. Clive is just the convenient patsy. We have to do something, Sher.” With that she plopped down in a chair.

  “I agree, but what?” I asked.

  We continued to talk for a few minutes until Joe Janis knocked on my open door. He didn’t seem his usual self.

  “Hi Joe, what’s up?” I asked.

  “Hi Dr. Hendley, Dr. Pennzel. I assume you heard about Clive Johnson. Word is that he is not talking much. He hasn’t asked for an attorney or anything. Clive is a hard worker and though as a reporter I can’t let myself be biased, I just don’t see him for this. You got an opinion or any ideas? I’m not looking for a story here.” He seemed sincere, but I wasn’t sure I trusted him completely.

  “No opinion. He seemed pretty shook up when I talked to him the other day,” I offered. “How do you know him, Joe?” So far in the last hour or so I had found out about three people who knew Clive Johnson while I just met him on Monday.

  “He helps with the drug prevention programs here in the high school. He cares about kids. Now if it ends up Blake is a drug dealer, his efforts are just going to bite him in the butt.” Joe shook his head.

  “Joe, what makes you think Justin was a drug dealer?” I asked. I knew I was scrunching my face in puzzlement, but I couldn’t help it. First Max thought it was a tryst. Now Joe suggested a drug deal. I wondered about what other explanations were floating around.

  “Dr. Hendley, it makes the most sense. Why else would someone from North Shore who’s not a student be here? There was nothing going on this past weekend to draw people from outside Cold Creek,” Joe answered.

  Kim interrupted, “Sher, he needs an attorney. I’m going to call that Martin Cohn and see if he will at least talk to Clive and help him out. I’m not too sure Clive has money for an attorney.”

  With these comments, Kim was out the door on a mission, leaving me with Joe. I wasn’t so sure that Mr. Cohn would take the case, but he was the attorney recommended when Kim was a suspect last fall. It ended up she didn’t need him. I wasn’t even sure that she’d ever met him. Joe and I chatted a few more minutes and then he left.

  I worked on clearing out my email and tried to think of how else we could help Clive. The best way seemed to be by finding out who killed Justin Blake. A first step in that direction would be to figure out why Justin was in the Arboretum at all. According to Joe, there was the possibility of a drug connection.

  I drew myself a diagram of what I knew about relationships with Justin Blake. It was pretty sparse. In fact, so far no one but Jack admitted knowing him. I tried again putting Johnson in the middle. At least this time I ended up with a few links. Kim and Joe certainly believed he was innocent. Dirk seemed to have high regard for the man as well. I added Brendon to my drawing, but I wasn’t sure how or if he fit into the picture. I didn’t have any way to connect Johnson to Justin Blake.

  Chapter 9

  I decided to check in with Nick and see how he was doing. He worked with Johnson so he might have some thoughts on the man. I went to the office and asked Terra to pull up his contact information. At her inquisitive look, I explained I wanted to make sure he was okay and, if need be, make a referral for some post-trauma counseling. She nodded and bought my story.

  As I took the number, it occurred to me that maybe I needed to talk with Jack and find out how he knew Justin. I circled around the department and knocked on Jack’s door. He looked as trendy, but disheveled as usual.

  “Hi Jack. You busy?” I asked with some hesitation. I wasn’t sure how to ask him about Justin.

  “Hi Sheridan. What do you need?” he answered, right to the point. I didn’t usually seek him out so his assumption that I wanted or needed something was right on.

  “I heard you say something about Justin Blake. I was just curious as to how you knew him. Was he ever a student here?” I asked. I was pretty sure he hadn’t been a student here or somebody would have figured that out already. On the other hand, it was a neutral question and Jack had been here for more than 10 years. He would know students going back that far.

  “No, Justin wasn’t interested in college much,” he said with a sigh. “Have a seat, Sheridan,” he added as he sat back down and pointed to a chair stacked with papers. I picked up the papers and handed them to him, then sat down.

  He continued, “Justin is my ex-wife’s nephew. I haven’t had much contact with him in the past four or five years. Somehow, once we got divorced I wasn’t welcome at the family gatherings.” He laughed, but it was hollow. He shook his head.

  “That can be hard, I know,” I answered. After a brief pause, I plunged ahead. “Jack, what was Justin like?”

  “Justin as a kid and teen? He was your typical rich spoiled kid who could do no wrong in his parents’ eyes. Whatever he wanted, he got. When he got in trouble in school, they were right there to bail him out. You remember that case where the kid blamed his own bad behavior on being affluent? That could have been Justin. Back then at least they lived in one of those ritzy, gated communities toward Moneta. Belonged to the country club. Gave Justin a BMW when he turned 16.”

  He shook his head before continuing, “He managed to graduate high school and I would say he had the smarts to have earned that diploma. Unfortunately, he wasn’t one to work at anything. His dad wanted him to come here but Justin wasn’t interested. Last I heard he was taking classes at Central Virginia. I think he was also on probation, but I’m not sure.”

  “Thanks for sharing, Jack. I hate to ask this, but do you have any sense of whether Justin was into drugs back then?” I asked with some hesitation. Drugs hadn’t been mentioned but wouldn’t be surprising for a teen with easy access to money.

  He exhaled and paused before he answered, “Nothing for sure, but, yeah, I could see him going down that road. He certainly had the money to support a habit.”

  He sat forward and shifted his body away from me. I took that as my cue to leave. With another “Thank you,” I took my leave and went back to my office. Max met me at the door.

  “See, Sheridan, I was rig
ht. He was murdered! What do you have to say now?” he exclaimed, quite pleased with himself.

  “Morning, Max. Yes, he was murdered.”

  “Well, you know, Sheridan, it always comes down to passion, like with Adam last fall, or money. Need to cherchez la femme or follow the money. I bet he had a girlfriend and did her wrong! Or maybe he stole her away from some other student and in a fit of jealousy, her other boyfriend killed him,” Max offered, nodding his head for emphasis. “At least it’s not a serial killer!” His eyes were wide and he emphasized his words with his hands moving back and forth.

  “Could be … could be any number of things. Sooner or later the police will figure it out, I’m sure,” I responded. Trying for a change of subject, I asked, “So Max, how are your classes going? Getting ready to wind it all down for the summer?”

  “Oh no, I’ll be working on my research all summer. I found another grant to apply for and I’ll need this data to be competitive. Wesley is doing a great job helping me, and we should finish some of the experiments this summer. He may need to postpone graduation in order to help me though and he isn’t very happy. I don’t understand his problem. Being involved in my research will help him get into grad school. It will be a big stepping stone for him. He should be thanking me for letting him hang around to see this through to the end.”

  Max was very adamant and he spoke rapidly. It was apparent that he truly believed what he was saying. I hoped that Wes had enough gumption to check around before making a decision to not graduate on time. He turned and left abruptly.

  I called the number for Nick and reached him without any trouble. He agreed to meet me outside the Horticulture Building after my seminar. I saw a piece of folded paper on the floor and picked it up. With my class waiting, I didn’t stop to read it. I grabbed my coffee and off I went.

  After the seminar, I dropped my stuff off in my office and ducked out of the building. I walked across the quad to the Science and Technology Building where Horticulture was housed. Nick was waiting for me and definitely looked better today. I noticed that he was of slight build, likely not used to a lot of physical work. That seemed odd for someone who was into Horticulture. We sat down on a nearby bench. Although he wasn’t as distressed as he was the other day, he was still quiet and waited on me to take the lead.

  I asked a few questions and he recounted what had happened. He basically confirmed what Johnson had said yesterday. He talked a little more about how the body freaked him out. When I suggested counseling, he said his parents had already arranged that.

  He shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t know what else to say. I asked him what he thought about Mr. Johnson’s arrest. Nick shook his head and said that he just didn’t believe that Mr. Johnson could hurt anyone. He told me the Chief tried to get him to say that Mr. Johnson planned the morning’s tasks so they’d find the body.

  He shook his head and explained that the spring planting schedule was set about two weeks ago and Johnson wasn’t the one to decide the schedule. He said that the Chief said that just meant Mr. Johnson knew exactly where to put the body so it would be found. We chatted a little more and then I went back to my office.

  As I passed Kim’s office, she let me know that Mr. Cohn was going to go see Clive. After she explained to Mr. Cohn a little about the case, he said that depending on how Clive received him, he might be willing to take the case pro bono. Mr. Cohn also wanted to meet with us to get more character information on Friday. That is, if Clive accepted him as his attorney.

  “Kim, how can we find out why Justin Blake was in the Arboretum over the weekend?” I asked. Character could help if all the evidence was circumstantial, but it sure wasn’t the strongest defense.

  “Uh, Sher, seriously, you’re not playing Nancy Drew again, are you? Brett will just about kill you if you get involved,” she added with a laugh.

  In all honesty, Brett was pretty cool about my full Nancy Drew collection and the collector’s edition of Perry Mason DVDs from all the original shows. But not so much for my getting involved if it put me at risk. He also frequently reminded me that I needed to take a self-defense class.

  “Getting some basic information like if students know if there are any questionable activities going on at night or on weekends shouldn’t be a big deal,” I answered. “I’m not suggesting anything stupid. Just getting some information, not confronting anyone, Kim.”

  “Maybe not intentionally, but we know where asking too many questions can get you or Nancy Drew. Don’t suppose we could pretend we’re sisters and be the Dana Girls?”

  “I’m good with that, but just basic background stuff. Nothing stupid or dangerous, okay?” I conceded with a chuckle.

  She agreed and feeling a little better, we brainstormed some ideas. We decided we could kill two birds with one stone. We could try to find out how students felt with another murder on campus and maybe gather some pertinent information at the same time. In the end we came up with the idea to put a box in each building labeled “Comments and School Climate.”

  We thought about putting a post in the Daily CCC Gazette to invite students to share thoughts about the murder, how they felt about the climate on campus, any concerns they had, and any suggestions they had to improve safety on campus. We decided that sounded neutral and didn’t come right out and ask students to give us specific information about Justin or drugs. In this case we hoped vague translated to non-threatening.

  Kim went on her way and I went back to work. I needed to figure out if we needed to get permission for our idea. I managed to get through most of the email and found the reminder about the College awards ceremony scheduled for next week. I sighed and printed it out. Somehow that reminded me of the folded piece of paper from earlier and I began to look for it. About then my cell rang.

  “Hi Brett!” I answered. I sometimes wondered what people did before caller ID, individual ring tones, or cell phones even.

  “Hi, yourself. I assume you caught the official news about Johnson?” he asked.

  “Yes, and I think the Chief is stupid. Just saying,” I responded.

  “Agreed. I got the details on Johnson’s prior arrest. He assaulted a drug dealer who sold drugs to his daughter. Based on the file, it was the general impression that Clive was remorseful and the jury was sympathetic. His daughter overdosed and was in a coma when he assaulted the guy. Ends up she died after being in that coma for two years. That was when he moved to Cold Creek and took the job in landscaping.”

  “Ahh! That must be what Joe meant when he said that it would be bad for Clive if it ended up that Justin was a drug dealer.” I said this out loud. That inevitably meant I had to share the rest of the conversation with Brett.

  Brett in turn shared that he’d finished up his work in North Shore and visited the morgue such that it is. There were several bruises along Justin Blake’s shoulders, back, and head, but none that would have been fatal. Also none matched any of Johnson’s tools. Gunshot, spot on, was the determined cause of death.

  Time of death was set for some time between Friday night and Sunday night. Brett explained that exposure and temperature shifts accounted for the range. Dr. Wellburn was hesitant to be more specific. He had sent all the tissue samples to the State Police lab but it would be a few days before the results were in. Dr. Wellburn suspected some drug use, at least in the past. He ruled out continued use because Justin was generally in good health.

  I shared our idea of trying to get student comments on the situation and our hope that someone might just give us information or a lead. Surprisingly, Brett was onboard and offered to clear it with Chief Pfeiffe. I agreed to contact the College administration and get permission to put the notice in the Daily CCC Gazette.

  I asked Brett if it was possible that Justin’s murder was a case of a drug deal gone bad. He said there was no evidence for or against. That seemed a bit cryptic to me, like maybe he was hedging, but then maybe he hadn’t formed an opinion.

  With the reminder of the awards cer
emony in front of me, I reminded him that this was coming up as well. After grousing a bit about having to deal with Max, he told me he had to meet with the Chief and Dr. Wellburn again. He agreed to grab something for dinner and meet me at the house.

  When we hung up, I finally opened the note. It said “Don’t Get Involved!” and wasn’t signed. I immediately felt sure whoever it was had heard Kim and I talking about Nancy Drew and trying to clear Clive. I put it off to the side of my desk and mentally dismissed it.

  Before I left for the day, I stopped by to see Terra and Ali. Terra echoed Joe’s sentiments on Johnson’s innocence. Ali just nodded and agreed. I asked Ali if she and Hirsch had decided where they were going to eat. I was gratified to see I was not the only one who blushed easily.

  She mentioned the same restaurant we’d be going to so Kim could meet her computer match. This wasn’t too surprising. After all there weren’t all that many nice restaurants close by. Tired, I took leave and went home. I decided to take the note with me and show it to Brett. It probably was nothing, but he’d have a good idea if it was relevant to the investigation. One thing for sure, Clive Johnson hadn’t written that note.

  Home before Brett, I took Charlie for a quick walk. I felt bad that I hadn’t taken her for a run yet this week and gave her an extra dog biscuit to appease my guilt. Brett arrived before we returned from our walk and had the table set and dinner on the table when we came in. We ate a quiet dinner. While we had dessert most of the conversation centered on the murder.

  “The tissue samples sent out haven’t come back yet. Dr. Wellburn elaborated a bit more in the written report. He found some skin cells under Blake’s nails as well as some other possible defensive bruising. There’s no way to know when the skin cells are from mind you. They could be from a fight last month. But he has documented all the bruises. Doc says Blake was in pretty good shape physically, so whoever beat him up was strong or there was more than one person,” Brett explained. I remembered the tools and asked if Dr. Wellburn commented any more on them.