Debts and Debtors: (A Geeks and Things Cozy Mystery Novella #3) (Geeks and Things Cozy Mysteries)

by Sarah Biglow

  “I understand how debt collection works, Kal.”

  She felt color warm her cheeks. “Well, it sounds like Thomas got fed up with the debt collecting life because he was forgiving loans for people who have property in strategic locations that really mess with building plans.”

  “That certainly establishes a motive and would also explain why Mr. Mackland was looming around the scene the other day.”

  “And why he came after me,” she added.

  “Right.”

  The conversation died when a middle-aged man in a faded blue suit appeared in their peripheral vision carrying a briefcase. He stopped momentarily at the front desk before approaching Chris’s desk.

  “I’m here for Savannah Chase,” he said.

  “She’s in the interrogation room. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

  Kalina craned her neck to follow the attorney’s path into the room. “Why’d you arrest Savannah?”

  “Mr. Mackland isn’t the only one with a motive.”

  He disappeared without another word. She waited until he closed the door to the interrogation room before she flipped the switch on the monitor. She tuned out the pleasantries and turned to the computer in front of her. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought to check property records before but it would be easy enough to see who held the title to the Chase home. A quick search revealed what Chris likely already knew—Savannah owned the home and had been transferred the deed about six months after she married Thomas. The dead man’s name drew Kalina’s attention back to the interview.

  “We found a receipt in your home for thirty thousand dollars. You said before that Thomas didn’t have that kind of money.”

  Savannah glanced at her attorney and then said, “No. I mean we weren’t poor by any means but that kind of lump sum would have been noticed in our joint account. Believe me; I keep an eye on it.”

  “I’m sure you do.”

  “You come from a fairly wealthy background yourself, don’t you, Mrs. Chase?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Your relatives were well off and you received a pretty hefty inheritance a few years ago.”

  “So?”

  “We traced the money transfer that was sent to Carlisle Premiere Developments. The money originated in your account.”

  “Then maybe Thomas accessed it without me knowing.”

  “You are the only name on the account and we called the bank. You are the only person who could have authorized a transfer out of the account. Why did you want Thomas to take the debt collection job?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Mrs. Chase, you need to stop lying now. You authorized the payment so Thomas could buy the debt collection package. He didn’t seem the type to get into the business of shaking people down. So the pressure had to come from somewhere else. Like you.”

  Kalina pulled herself away from the questioning when she felt a presence behind her. She turned slowly to find Jimmy standing off to one side.

  “Did you know their house was in the middle of the building zone?” Kalina asked.

  “It’s all making sense now. Huh.”

  “I’m assuming Chris knows that. And that she owns the house outright.”

  The color drained from Jimmy’s cheeks and he started for the interrogation room.

  “Uh, Jimmy, you might want to pick up that stuff on the printer first,” Kalina said after hitting print on the land records and the building plans.

  He gave her a nervous smile and headed into the room, appearing on the monitor moments later.

  “Sir, I thought you should see these,” Jimmy said and handed over the information.

  Chris took the printouts and flipped through them. Kalina waited with baited breath for him to act. It wasn’t that she wanted Savannah to be guilty but everything was pointing that way. Then again, maybe Blake was right and she’d gone into her marriage to Thomas with ulterior motives. Chris set the papers down in front of him and turned to Jimmy before standing up.

  “Detective, what are you doing?” Jimmy’s face failed to mask his confusion.

  “This is your information, Jimmy. I think you should question our witness about what you found.”

  Kalina smiled as Chris stepped back and let Jimmy sit down. Jimmy would become a good cop one way or another and it made her a little proud to know she had a hand in it. Jimmy licked his lips and clasped his hands in front of him on the table.

  “Well … Mrs. Chase we’ve found records that show your home is in the middle of the development zone.”

  “What information is that?” her attorney asked.

  Jimmy slid the printout of the zoning plan across the table and waited while the lawyer looked it over.

  “And we also found out that you own the home outright. We have the land records that show Mr. Chase transferred the deed to you two years ago.” He slid the second page across the table.

  “Is there a question, Officer?”

  “Well, it just seems suspicious that your husband would work for the people who are trying to buy out the rest of that area and then end up dead. I mean I suppose with him gone, there’s no one to protest when you sell the house. I mean, if it were me, that’s what I’d do.”

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” Savannah said quietly.

  “But you know who did. And we think you had knowledge of it beforehand. If you tell us everything you know, we’ll talk to the prosecutor about being lenient,” Chris said from his spot by the door.

  Even over a monitor, Kalina could see the color drain from Savannah’s cheeks. Her shoulders hunched and she suddenly looked very frail. Her attorney looked between Jimmy and Chris and then loudly cleared his throat.

  “I’d like a minute to speak with my client.”

  “Of course,” Chris said.

  He and Jimmy left the room and shut the door behind them. Kalina tried to look as if she hadn’t been eavesdropping but Chris fixed her with a half-smile.

  “Thank you for that information,” he said.

  “That was all Jimmy.”

  Jimmy opened his mouth to contradict her but stopped and blushed. “Just trying to do my job.”

  “Either way, I think she’s going to confess.”

  “You think she’ll identify Mackland as being involved? I wouldn’t put it past him to kill Thomas if he was really going against the company’s orders,” Kalina said.

  “I’m pretty sure whatever she tells us will be enough to get a warrant for his arrest.”

  She nodded and silence settled between the three of them. Kalina caught glimpses of Savannah huddled in with her attorney. She glanced around the station, suddenly wondering what had become of her sister.

  “I think your sister went outside,” Jimmy offered, as if reading her thoughts.

  “Thanks. I should go check on her. I think she’s been taking this whole thing personally. She did always have a flair for the dramatic.”

  The door to the interrogation room opened behind them and Savannah’s attorney appeared, motioning for them to come back in. Kalina bit her lip, torn between hearing Savannah’s confession and checking on Jillian. If she was quick she might be able to do both. On a hunch, she headed out the front of the building. Jillian sat on a bench to the right of the entrance.

  “Hey,” Kalina said and sat down beside her.

  “What’s going on?”

  “It looks like Savannah was involved in what happened to Thomas. I think she might be confessing.”

  “But she’s not a killer.”

  “They think someone else killed him but she might have details about who that is. I’m sorry that you got dragged into all this.”

  Jillian let out a bitter laugh. “Don’t apologize. She was my friend. She came to me and I let her into my home, offered her support.”

  “People change. And they do things for all kinds of reasons. Neither of us knows what was going on in her life or her marriage to prompt her agreeing to let someone murder her husband.�
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  “I want to know why she did it.”

  Kalina offered a hand to her sister. “Come on. We can watch from the bull pen. I think you need some closure as much as Thomas.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The sisters walked back inside hand in hand. It appeared they hadn’t missed much at all. Jimmy was just settling into another chair beside Chris. Savannah’s cheeks were flushed and she kneaded her hands together nervously.

  Chris leaned back in his chair. “So what has your client decided?”

  “I’ll tell you what I know.” She sat up a little straighter and licked her lips. “A couple months back, the head of the development company came around our neighborhood and offered to buy a bunch of people out so they could build the condos. Thomas said no like most everyone else. I wasn’t home when they came by the first time so I didn’t know how much was being offered.”

  “I’m guessing it was a pretty nice sum.”

  “More than the house was worth. Thomas got it appraised every couple of years. He says it’s out of habit. It was in his family for three generations. His grandfather built it maybe seventy years ago. He took full ownership around the time he married his first wife. When we married he put the deed in my name.”

  “Why did he do that?” Chris asked.

  “He said that, since life is so short, he didn’t want me to be without a place to live if something were to happen to him.” Tears spilled down Savannah’s cheeks. She let them fall, hands still clasped in front of her.

  “What happened next?” Chris prompted.

  Savannah took a shaky breath. “The developer sent a man to try to convince us to sell.”

  “This man?” Chris held his phone out.

  Kalina couldn’t see what he was showing her but she had to assume he’d managed to snap a picture of Victor Mackland.

  “Yes, that’s him.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I don’t know … I guess they thought if we went along with it, other people might follow suit. But Thomas was still against selling. When the man came by again, he offered Thomas the opportunity to work for them and in exchange they’d pay him anything he wanted for the house. I told him he should take the job, work for a little while and then we’d cash out. They wanted thirty thousand dollars for the debt package. We didn’t have that kind of money.”

  “Not jointly. You had it in your inheritance.”

  “I told Thomas we could use my money but it meant he had to take the job and do what they said.”

  “Did you know he was going to die?” Jimmy interrupted.

  Savannah shook her head. “No, I swear. Last week Thomas came home and told me that he was done working for them and he’d been forgiving loans. I don’t know how but maybe Mr. Mackland was following him because they found out. Mr. Mackland contacted me and said we needed to keep Thomas in line. He said he’d handle it. He was just supposed to talk to Thomas. Scare him a little bit.”

  “And instead he ends up dead.”

  “I swear I really was going to report him missing when I came in. I lied about when I’d seen him last but I really was worried.”

  “What did you get out of this, besides being able to sell the property without him objecting?”

  “They were going to pay me three times what the house was worth. I could go anywhere; do anything I wanted with that money. I’m not proud of it but it’s the truth.”

  Chris drummed his fingers on the metal table for a beat and then leaned back again. “We didn’t find any prints in the house when we searched after the break-in. Were you involved?”

  Back in the bull pen Jillian shook her head, tears of her own shining in her eyes. Kalina kept a firm grip on her sister’s hand the whole time but she could still feel Jillian’s hand trembling in her own.

  “I just don’t understand. She had money.”

  “Sometimes people get greedy, Jill. And maybe she felt she had no other choice. I’ve met Mr. Mackland, remember.”

  Back in the interrogation room, Savannah let out a slow breath. “On Thanksgiving night I got a text from Mr. Mackland telling me to meet him at my house. He said we needed to make it look like someone broke in. I don’t know why since I thought that would lead the police to look into what Thomas was doing but I didn’t argue. I trashed the place myself. I thought I’d gotten rid of the bank transfer receipt but obviously not.”

  “So Mr. Mackland orchestrated everything.”

  “Yes. That’s right.”

  “Would you be willing to sign an affidavit to that effect so we can arrest him?”

  “She’ll do whatever you need,” her attorney said before Savannah could protest.

  “Thank you, Counselor. Sit tight and we’ll be back.”

  Chris stood up and Jimmy followed him out of the room, leaving the door ajar. Kalina let go of her sister’s hand and closed the distance between her and Chris.

  “So what happens now?”

  “We draft the affidavit, she signs it and we get a warrant for this guy’s arrest.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Right now, yeah, that’s it.”

  “What will happen to Savannah?” Jillian asked.

  “That’s up to the prosecutor. She’s a cooperating witness so that helps her. She may not face any jail time but I can’t say for sure.”

  Kalina put a hand on Jillian’s arm in the hopes of getting her sister out of Chris’s way. He didn’t have the time to waste talking to them. Not when a killer was still on the loose.

  “Come on, Jill. Let’s go home and let them do their jobs. There’s nothing else we can do here.”

  Jillian nodded mutely and started for the front of the building. Before Kalina got two steps, Chris’s hand wrapped around her wrist, arresting her momentum.

  “Can you come by tonight? There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

  “Sure.”

  “Good. I’ll see you later.” He kissed her on the lips.

  The gesture made her cheeks warm—not just because it was a sudden moment of passion—and she had to pull away to catch her breath.

  “Get this guy.”

  “I promise.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The parking lot seemed oddly empty as they walked out into the afternoon air. Kalina started for her car—intent on following her sister home to make sure she didn’t have a nervous breakdown at the revelation that her close friend was capable of selling out her spouse for money—but stopped when she noted her back tires were slashed.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she groaned.

  “Do you think that Mr. Mackland did this?” Jillian said from behind her.

  “Who else would try to keep me from leaving?” She pulled out her phone and hit Chris’s name on speed dial.

  It rang once before he answered. “Forget something?”

  “No, someone slashed my tires.”

  “And by someone you mean our murder suspect?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come back in and we’ll file a report.

  “No, I’ll catch a ride home with Jillian. You need to focus on catching this guy for the bigger crime. My car will survive.”

  “I’d feel better if you filed a report.”

  “I promise I’ll do that as soon as you have the guy in custody.”

  “Fine.”

  “Oh, it’s just a hunch but you should try looking for this creep at the developer’s main office. It’s the address on the business card he gave me the other day.”

  “Will do.”

  She ended the call. Jillian shifted from foot to foot, waiting for something else to happen. Kalina flashed her sister a smile. “Come on, you should go home. Spend some time with Dan and AJ. After all, I gave him the weekend off so you could hang out as a family.”

  “You talked to Dan didn’t you?” her sister said as they walked side by side to her car.

  “Maybe.”

  Together they checked to ensure that her car was intact before climbing in and making the short jo
urney to Jillian’s place. Jillian put the car in park and cut the engine but didn’t move from her spot behind the wheel.

  “You’re going to be okay,” Kalina said and patted her sister’s hand.

  “I know. It’s really selfish of me to even feel betrayed or hurt. I’m worried about what’s going to happen to Savannah.’

  “You heard Chris. The prosecutor will likely give her a deal. She might not even see any jail time.”

  “She’s ruined here though. She can’t stay. Everyone is going to know what happened.”

  “I sort of got the feeling she didn’t want to stay here anyway.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “Jill, I’m sorry this happened. It’s never easy finding out the people we thought we knew and could trust aren’t the people we thought they were.”

  “I guess we’re all learning that the hard way.”

  “Yeah. Come on, let’s go inside. I think we could both use a drink.”

  “It’s the middle of the day.”

  “It’s a weekend and it’s been one hell of a couple days. We deserve it.”

  They both climbed out and headed up the front steps. Jillian dug her key out of her purse. “I’ll get the glasses.”

  Kalina kicked off her shoes upon entering the house and headed straight for the living room. Daniel and AJ were nowhere to be seen. Just as Jillian returned with a bottle of white and two glasses, footsteps thundered down the stairs and AJ appeared.

  “Hey, what’s going on? I thought we were supposed to be doing this whole family time thing this weekend.”

  “Your aunt solved the case,” Jillian said, growing misty eyed.

  “Not really. Well, maybe I helped a little.”

  “Stop being modest, Aunt K. You probably cracked the case wide open.” He settled on the couch between them—taking up far more space than a teenage boy should be able to—and fiddled with the cork from the wine bottle. “So what happened?”

  “I don’t really think—” Jillian began.