Jayden Roe Mystery 02-The Final Lie

by Lily Campbell

  Dave made a thoughtful noise as he read through Miranda’s file.

  “What is it?” Jay asked, shifting in his seat.

  “Something seems a bit off with all this.”

  Jay had thought the same thing but wanted to see if their reasons were similar. “Oh? How so?”

  Dave shifted closer. “Miranda seems to be a huge target for news gossip storms.” He looked up and Jay nodded, so he moved on. “But that all seems to have gone slightly stale in the last three weeks or so. Her pending legal battle is old news. There was a little bit of hype over Ms. Haraby’s potential involvement, but nothing more since then. That’s what seems off. Why all the crickets? Surely she must have gone somewhere and done something in the last three weeks? And what about Ms. Haraby? You left a note here saying they were meant to finalize things. Surely, if they had, it would have been announced? Or even if they hadn’t, wouldn’t the fact that Miranda was back on the hunt for a lawyer have been newsworthy?”

  Jay nodded again but ensured that his face didn’t look too pleased or impressed. “Well done.”

  Dave’s mouth opened a little at the words, then he slumped back in his seat. “You already knew all of that, didn’t you?”

  “Of course,” Jay flashed him a grin. “You didn’t actually think there’d be no tests, did you?”

  Dave uttered a rueful laugh. “I suppose I should’ve seen it coming.”

  Jay took back the laptop and officially added those questions.

  “So, why Salisbury?” Dave asked as the pilot announced imminent touch down.

  “To answer the questions you just asked and see if Ms. Williams can tell us anything useful.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  They dropped off their bags at the Hampton Inn, and Dave turned to Jay as they prepared to go back out into the city.

  “So, what now, boss?”

  Jay gave him an odd look. “Don’t call me that, okay? You’re more like my apprentice than my employee if we get to the heart of it. Just Jay is fine. Or Mr. Roe if you want to get formal around clients.”

  Dave nodded solemnly, though laughter still danced in his eyes.

  Jay let his gray eyes darken, and the laughter in Dave’s vanished. “We’re going to split up. For now, just move around town listening and asking very careful questions. Under no circumstances do I want the media getting hold of any of this. Do you understand?”

  “Don’t worry.”

  “You’ll be right back to selling cars if they do.”

  Dave winced but nodded again. “I know how to be careful.”

  “Okay. We’ll meet back here tonight and share our view of the feel of this town and whether or not Stella ever got here in the first place. Tomorrow, we can move in on Miranda.”

  Dave nodded again and gave Jay a smile that held a small hint of challenge. “I’ll take east and north, you take south and west?”

  Jay returned the smile, the challenge in his more pronounced. “Sounds good to me.”

  ***

  Jay moved through the unfamiliar streets, chatting with shopkeepers and waiters. After about an hour, he realized that the sort of careful questions one could ask without arousing suspicion or the wrong attention would not work at all within this town. There was a near-constant flow of strangers to this place, visiting the zoo, historical park, and museum. No one would remember one young woman, not unless he became more specific.

  Jayden finished his ninth coffee of the morning and left yet another cafe, empty-handed. He turned down a new street and entered the sort of antique store that Stella had always sought out.

  Like many places of its kind, it was cluttered with things. Old, but expertly restored pieces of furniture, wooden traveling trunks, old metal milk cans, and rows upon rows of cabinets and display cases, all stuffed with an array of trinkets.

  He made his way through the aisle, taking a hidden route toward the counter so as not to disrupt what seemed to be an intense conversation between the owner and a client. Once he was close enough to hear their words clearly, he stopped, his heart quickening.

  “That’s right, over at Ms. Williams’ swanky mansion north of the park,” said the customer.

  “Are you sure, though? It wasn’t just some other man?” asked the owner, looking unconvinced.

  Jay felt his excitement diminish a bit. Idle gossip, while potentially useful for bringing Miranda to heel tomorrow, was not what he had hoped to hear. In the next moment, his heart had missed a beat and then leapt into his throat.

  “I’m telling you, Stan, it was Mr. Haraby. I saw him up close. He even had on that chunky heirloom ring or whatever he calls it.”

  “Well, what on earth is the Gregory Haraby doing here? It can’t be that his daughter’s actually took on Ms. Williams’ case, can it? I mean, his last public statement made it clear that she knew better than to help the guilty.”

  Jay swallowed a rueful chuckle. If Mr. Haraby had indeed said that, then it showed that he didn’t know his daughter at all.

  “What if…” the owner, Stan, began and then let his voice trail off.

  The woman speaking to him perked up at once. “Are you having the same thought I did?”

  Stan frowned, then shook his head. “No way. That’s all just hogwash. People letting their imaginations get the better of them. Miranda did not murder Ms. Haraby.”

  Jayden felt his heart leave his throat and fall past its usual place to settle somewhere in his gut, making the unease there wriggle like a living thing.

  “Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t,” said the woman, unperturbed by his denial. “All I know is that it is a fact that no one has seen either of them in long enough to make people suspicious. Even the legal company Ms. Haraby works for came around asking questions, but it wasn’t Ms. Williams who answered them, was it? It was her personal assistant.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  The woman swelled, her excitement clearly visible now that she was able to deliver what was clearly her most juicy bit of gossip. She leaned forward and lowered her voice in a conspiratorial way. “I think that assistant Lisa, or Lucy, or whatever it was, conspired with Ms. Haraby. I think both of them are dead.”

  Jay felt his hands snap into fists as anger began to boil within. Her dramatically delivered ending held no hint of sympathy. She clearly didn’t care if her words were true. She only cared about causing a sensation.

  “Now, now Sue,” reprimanded Stan, his face becoming severely stern. “You’ll please be keeping that to yourself. You have no facts to back you up and while the tabloids would no doubt have a field day, everyone in this town would cast you out for bringing those damn carrion feeders back with talk of such nonsense.”

  There was a lengthy pause, and Jay tried to calm himself. Getting angry would not help his or Stella’s situation any.

  Stan spoke again with his voice both dismissive and decisive. “No, no. I think it far more likely that Ms. Haraby is indeed working for Ms. Williams, and they’re avoiding the public eye as some ploy to help win the trial. It’d make sense, then, that Ms. Williams' assistant and Ms. Haraby’s father would have cause to communicate. It also explains why he is here. It’s to visit his daughter, not Ms. Williams at all.”

  Jay felt his heart quicken, returning to where it was meant to be, and came out of his hiding place. “I apologize for interrupting,” he said, taking a small amount of vindictive pleasure as Sue jumped a foot in the air. “I couldn’t help but overhear some of your conversation.”

  Stan threw Sue a dirty look. She, in turn, eyed Jayden up and down, suspicion evident in every line of her face. “I’ll bet you couldn’t.”

  Jayden gave her his most winning and humble smile, dipping his head in apology again. “I heard my friend’s name and wondered—”

  “You’re friends with Miranda?” interrupted Sue, all her suspicion vanishing, replaced with a raging curiosity.

  Jay let his eyes widen a bit and shook his head quickly. “No, with Ms. Haraby.” He pulled
out a photo of them together, taken just before his arrest. The woman perused it with great interest, while the man discreetly looked at a ledger. Jay’s quick mind made the jump, and he spoke again. “She said she had come here and—”

  “She spent hours here,” Sue handed back the photo and sighing as if Stella’s interest had been annoying. “She wouldn’t even chat with us. How does a friendly man like you end up friends with the likes of her?”

  Jayden bit back a laugh. Stella wouldn’t gossip with you, you mean.

  “We’ve known each other for many years.”

  Stan interrupted, clearly not liking the speculative look on Sue’s face. “If you’re here for the box she asked me to keep, then you can give me your name and number, sign the ledger, and pay the balance.”

  Jay hid his surprise behind a bright smile. “Yes, that’s it, thank you.”

  The man nodded and handed over the ledger so Jay could sign it. His eyes darted immediately to Stella’s signature and glanced at the corresponding date. It correlated with the meeting Elliot and Joe had heard about. So she had arrived here, early apparently, to have time to wander around the store. But then what?

  He turned back to Sue after signing his name, and Stan brought out a carefully wrapped package. “I heard you wonder at Stella’s safety. Why is that?” Jay questioned.

  She took in his tactful question with a look of glee, and Stan whispered a curse under his breath. “Well, I was here when she was, you see. I saw her leave, and I also saw her get a cab to Ms. Williams' house.”

  Jay let his eyebrows scrunch together. “I fail to see why that would be a concern.”

  “She hasn’t been seen since,” Sue said with the air of one telling a ghost story.

  Jayden chuckled, shattering the tense atmosphere she’d been trying to create. “That sounds like Stella. She tends to get super into her work, totally buries herself in it.”

  Stan huffed a satisfied laugh and threw Sue an I-told-you-so look, before handing over the package and taking Jay’s card.

  Jay left the store and took a cab straight back to the inn. Dave wasn’t back yet, but that was expected. Instead, he unwrapped the parcel and gently opened the fine antique jewelry box. He had expected it to be empty, but inside lay a delicate, gold bracelet. He felt his blood turn to ice as he stared down at the gift he had given her, about a year after his arrest. He hadn’t seen her without it since.

  CHAPTER NINE

  By the time Dave returned, Jay had gotten past the horror seeing the bracelet had given him. Instead, he had thought long and hard about who he could enlist to help test the bracelet for forensic details. The most obvious choice would be to return to Natchitoches and get Natalie to do it, but he felt a wave of foreboding at the idea of getting the police involved. Besides, Hector would probably tell him to take it to the authorities here, as this was their turf if there had been any foul play.

  “You alright, man?” he asked, shutting the door and watching Jay pace. “Did you find something?”

  Jay looked up in time to see his eyes glance away from the jewelry box. He measured the man for a minute then said, “You first, rookie. What did you get?” and resumed his pacing.

  Dave smiled, though it didn’t dim the speculation in his green-blue eyes. “Not much, I’m afraid. I went to the airport and managed to find a taxi driver who remembered Ms. Haraby. He said he’d taken her from the airport to the Hampton Inn, just beyond Tonytank Pond,” Dave said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed nearest the window. “I hadn’t been having any other luck, so I spent the rest of the day going about the place by taxi. Must’ve spoken to at least two dozen different drivers.”

  Jay perked up and stopped pacing, turning to face Dave. The other man seemed taken aback by his sudden intensity but continued his recitation in the same, calm tone.

  “I got lucky on the last one. He remembered Ms. Haraby too. Drove her into town three times, on three separate days.”

  “Wait,” said Jay, realizing what his words meant. “So Stella arrived here at least three days before she was due to meet with Miranda?”

  Dave’s eyes widened fractionally. “You found something that shows she went to the meeting as planned?”

  Jay sat on the other bed, his mind ticking over quickly. “What else did this driver say?”

  Dave shrugged, faint color rising in his cheeks. “Similar to my first words to you about her. He said that the last time he saw her, she asked him to recommend a good antiques store in the area. He told her to go to the—”

  “—the Bronze Rose,” Jay said, his breath leaving him in a big puff.

  Dave’s eyebrows climbed under the fringe of light hair that always seemed in danger of flopping into his eyes. “I think you’d better bring me up to speed on your findings. Who told you about the shop?”

  Jay sighed. “No one. I went there because it’s exactly the sort of place Stella would spend hours in.”

  Dave whistled, impressed. “I suppose it helps to have personal knowledge of your target.”

  Jay gave him a faint smile. “It does. Anyway, it was there that I learned that she took a cab to Ms. Williams' home after leaving the store.”

  Dave stood again, nodding to himself and a satisfied smile spread across his face. “Well, that went far better than I’d expected. I thought we’d both be back here with nothing but frustration.”

  Jay chuckled absently, his mind planning out their next steps. “At least your expectations were realistic.”

  “Why’d you buy a jewelry box?” Dave asked, extending a hand towards it.

  Jay was off the bed lightning fast. He latched his fingers around Dave’s wrist, jerking his hand away from the wooden lid inlaid with the mother of pearl.

  Dave looked at him in alarm, and Jay released him. “Sorry. A good rule for the future though. Don’t touch any physical evidence.”

  Dave glanced back at the box. “Didn’t you touch it?”

  Jay gave him a patient look. “Yes, which is bad enough. Now I know what it is, it stays untouched until I can find someone to look at it.”

  Dave frowned. “I'm not touching it, but if it wasn’t already Stella’s, then why’d you buy it?”

  “It is Stella’s, but only recently. It is what is inside that is the most important, but never mind any of that now. We need to move forward.”

  Dave nodded again and retreated back to sit on his bed. “Go for it, bo… Jay.”

  Jay gave him a half smile then grew serious once more. “First, you need to use the laptop I gave you and log everything you learned today. Did you get any feel for media presence?”

  Dave nodded. “Yeah, there are a few still hanging about, but they seem like the lower ones.

  Jay frowned, thinking of Sue and her wagging tongue. “Tomorrow you’re going to The Bronze Rose with me. I need to talk to the owner, but if I am guessing right, the woman he was talking to today wasn’t a customer.”

  Dave’s eyebrows knitted together and Jay belatedly realized that he hadn’t told him anything at all about Stan or Sue, brushing it off to give orders. Thankfully, his faith in the man was proved again as he made the leap alone.

  “I think I get it. Today you managed to get the box, but you want to take a more direct line now that we’ve established Stella’s arrival here and basic movements. For that, you want to divide and conquer?” His tone sounded questioning at the end, but seeming more in the hopes of confirmation.

  “You got it. Her name is Sue, possibly Susan. I’ll see what I can dig up tonight while you get those files updated with our new finds. I’ve already added my own so feel free to read over them if you want.”

  Dave moved towards the phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Calling in pizza. This seems like the kind of night that will be long and hungry. I intend to eliminate at least one of those.”

  Jay chuckled. “Nothing with sausages.”

  ***

  Jay finally turned away from his screen, rubbin
g his eyes, sore and dry from too many hours staring intently at the information he was finding. Stan and Sue were actually husband and wife, running the store together, although she was often out with her network of gossiping friends.

  He turned to Dave, but found the other man asleep. He was slumped sideways on his bed while his laptop was still glowing beside him.

  Jay glanced at his watch. It was one thirty in the morning. Sighing silently, he removed the extra blanket from his own bed and carefully covered Dave. He then took the laptop and glanced over the notes the man had made.

  A small smile tugged his lips. They were concise and neatly linked. He had also copied all relevant notes into multiple folders if they applied and made a new folder to keep track of the names and other details of all the people he had spoken to today.

  Jay felt his face shift, impressed by the thoroughness. He could only hope that the man’s clear enthusiasm wouldn’t fade when he realized that a steady check might actually be worth that idiotic manager. Yet, he had hinted that money wasn’t really a worry. As their travel expenses were all covered by Jay anyway, for now, a monthly salary wouldn’t be missed.

  Jay carried the laptop over to his bed and propped it beside his own. That last, new folder was actually a very good idea. He had only made notes of the people who had been overtly useful, but this way, if some surprise cropped up, it would be easier to see if it had just been missed and a good lead appeared.

  He saved everything from Dave’s over to his own in the secure digital bunker Joe had recreated for him. It was weird to see all his old cases virtually piled up. All his old wins and learning curves.

  He powered down both devices after the transfer was complete and returned to place it on Dave’s bedside table. He had run so many cases in his life, but he wasn’t sure if he had ever run one with such high stakes. Even Goldstein’s fall didn’t seem so potentially lethal. Then, if he had failed, he would have shouldered the fall almost entirely, taking all the damage. This time, if he failed, Stella would take the fall out far heavier than him.

  Silently, he climbed into his own bed, his eyes falling on the re-wrapped box he had moved to his bedside table. He thought of the bracelet inside and fervently hoped that she was still alive.