Witness to Murder

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

  “No, I guess not.” Erin sounded skeptical.

  “Jackie’s right.” Cassidy gave her spoon a lick. “Erin’s the newcomer in our house, so she hasn’t had a chance to get oriented to personalities. There were plenty of times Alicia was pretty cool. She helped me with my calculus homework. Yuck!” She made a face.

  Hallie let the last bite of ice cream slip down her throat. “What about Damon? Did he get angry over her treatment of him?”

  “Not as often as I thought he should,” Erin said.

  Jackie nodded. “He was pretty patient with her.”

  “Damon had his own issues,” Cassidy added. The three women exchanged glances.

  Hallie pushed her empty bowl away. “How so?”

  “He was an absolute freak about being on time,” Jackie said. “When Alicia wanted to rile him, she’d dilly-dally and make them late for something.”

  “Yeah.” Cassidy nodded. “You could set your watch by him showing up on our doorstep every afternoon at four o’clock all sweaty from his run between his apartment and our house. He’d come even if he knew Alicia wasn’t going to be there, trot up onto the porch, and turn around and head back, because that was his route.”

  Brody smiled. “Damon finds comfort in routine, and being punctual shows a person is reliable. He sets a lot of store by that trait from too many let-downs in his life.”

  “So what have we got here? A Head Game Diva matched with a hot-tempered OCD jock? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.” Hallie shot Brody a pointed stare. Let him wiggle out of this one.

  “But not necessarily murder.” Brody wagged a finger at her.

  Jackie nodded. “So you two are on opposite sides of this issue. Makes for an interesting dynamic between coworkers. Or are you two more than that?”

  “Hardly,” Hallie blurted, torches igniting her cheekbones.

  “I don’t think so.” Brody’s answer trampled over the top of hers, and his face lost color.

  The trio of coeds started laughing. “Gotcha!” Erin chortled. “We know way too much about the body language of love to be fooled by mere words.”

  “Don’t make us dig up the old Shakespeare quote about protesting too much.” Cassidy’s dancing azure gaze moved from Hallie to Brody and back again.

  Brody shifted in his chair. “How about answering another question. It’s self-evident that Damon showed up on time at your house from his run yesterday, since he was found there at that time. But did Alicia have any other visitors yesterday afternoon? A source says she did.”

  A source? Hallie glared at him. How could a reporter qualify a note tucked onto a windshield as a legitimate source? Still, it was a good question and a neat dodge away from that romance nonsense.

  The women gave each other blank looks. “We have no idea,” Jackie finally said. “None of us was home.”

  Brody frowned. “Did she ever get other visitors than Damon?”

  Cassidy tapped her lower lip. “Come to think of it, no. I don’t think she had other friends. Her cell phone contact list could fit on one screen. She was a nut about her privacy, refused to open a Facebook or MySpace account. Said such things weren’t secure. Of course, guys were always interested but she froze them out.”

  Hallie wadded her napkin in her fist. “So there were no other men in the picture?”

  “Damon went ballistic if another guy looked at her sideways,” Erin said.

  Hallie shot Brody a gloating glance. He shrugged.

  “The only regular contacts we know about were over the telephone,” Jackie said, face sober. “Mostly about work, but at least once a week she talked to her parents. They never came for a visit, though, and she never went there.”

  “We always dreaded those conversations,” Erin inserted.

  “Why was that?” Brody leaned toward the green-eyed coed.

  Hallie reined in her impatience. Why pursue that line of questioning? If the family never showed up in person, they were irrelevant as suspects in the murder. However, they might have information about the bracelet.

  Jackie snorted. “Well, something made Alicia the way she was. We never could tell if it was her mom or her dad that tweaked her the most, but we could count on her being a candidate for a ride on a broomstick when she got off the phone with them. Usually, we made ourselves scarce until she got over it by the next morning.”

  “You three apparently deserve medals for living with Alicia.” Hallie shook her head. “I know what it’s like, though, needing to keep the peace so you don’t lose a rent-sharing roommate. I’d like to ask an off-topic question now. Do any of you know how Alicia came by the African bracelet she wore?”

  Cassidy blinked at her. “She said she got it from her mother. Why?”

  “It was made by my mother.”

  “How weird is that!” Erin laughed.

  “Really weird,” Hallie agreed. “So Alicia was fond of the bracelet because her mother gave it to her? She must have gotten along with her mom then.”

  “Not necessarily.” Jackie shrugged. “I think in her mind she connected the bracelet with Damon somehow.”

  “That makes no sense.”

  “I know, but a lot of things about Alicia didn’t exactly gel.”

  “Or Damon, either,” Cassidy added.

  Brody stacked the empty throwaway bowls together. “A pair of wounded souls finding what comfort they could in each other. But often inflicting more hurt in their fumbling around for wholeness.”

  “Deep!” Jackie narrowed brown eyes. “Are you sure you’re not one of our profs?”

  The Brody dimple peeked out, his gaze fixed on Hallie. “To my fellow reporter I’m just a humble sportscaster covering dumb jocks playing stupid games.” He winked.

  Hallie bit her lip. The floor might as well open up and swallow her. The trio of cheerleaders burst out laughing. Hallie released a chuckle. If Brody could laugh at himself, she could do the same.

  “Good one,” Erin said as the threesome rose and headed for the door.

  “Thanks for the treat.” Cassidy bobbed her blond ponytail.

  Jackie waved and smirked with one side of her mouth as she followed the others outside.

  Hallie stared after them. “Those women are full of surprises.”

  Brody pinned her with a scowl. “So are you. How come you didn’t mention a stolen birthday present on the drive over here?”

  “You need a bodyguard!”

  Had Brody just shouted at her? Hallie stared at him from the passenger side of the vehicle. She’d barely finished explaining about her early morning incident. If he fumed any harder, steam would erupt out his ears. “You’re mad at me because I was standing there minding my own business and some wild German shepherd jumps on me and grabs my scarf?”

  “The same creep who probably sent you that curtain tie and has information about Alicia’s death.” He shot her a tight-lipped glance. “Maybe he’s the killer, and you’re on his radar. Have you thought about that?”

  Hallie gulped. “Who’s to say Detective Millette’s not right. Maybe he’s just a nut-job playing games with the news reporter?”

  “A kook who’s stalking you is a less threatening possibility?”

  She gazed out the window at passing hotel towers, chain restaurants and glass-faced corporate headquarters buildings. “I guess not.”

  Brody sighed. “Sorry for yelling at you. I was scared.”

  “For me?” Warmth spread around her insides.

  He shot her a long-suffering look. “No, the Easter Bunny. You do that to me a lot.”

  “Scare you? How?”

  “You have a short memory about the neighborhood you visited last night.”

  “Oh, that.” She spread her hands toward him. “I had to do it for Teresa. I couldn’t let another killer escape justice if I could turn him in to the police.”

  “So this Mason killed Teresa and was never convicted?”

  She let her arms drop to her sides. He’d never get it even if she told him ab
out what happened. “Not exactly.” The words escaped in a mumble between clenched teeth.

  Brody pulled into a restaurant parking lot. “Then your reasoning eludes me, but let’s put something more substantial than ice cream in our bellies, while you give me the scoop.”

  “And I suppose you want that report on my model interviews.”

  “Glad you remembered.” His face softened into a teasing grin, and a knot unwound inside Hallie.

  It might not be so bad to let someone else in on her private nightmare. If he passed this test, she might be ready to finish her about-face on this particular jock and admit him to her human being hall of fame. Where else did a guy belong who recently put himself between her and suspicious characters in a bad neighborhood, insured that a murderer he personally cared about turned himself in, and included her in his private investigation, knowing full well she didn’t agree with him about Damon?

  She followed Brody into the restaurant, smiling. A few minutes later, they placed their orders, and he gazed at her expectantly.

  “Nothing about Teresa and Mason until after the meal, or I won’t be able to eat.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Brody listened with furrowed brow while Hallie recounted her conversations with the modeling agent and her clients. “My original assumption about Damon as the manipulative abuser has been reversed,” she admitted when she finished. “Apparently, Alicia filled that role.”

  Brody nodded as he sipped at a cup of post-dinner coffee.

  “But that doesn’t change what I saw or my belief that Damon killed her.” She twirled the straw in her glass of Dr. Pepper. “Abused people can snap and retaliate drastically against the abuser.”

  He set his cup down and draped his arm over the back of the empty chair beside him at their four-person table. What would it feel like if she occupied that chair instead of the one across from him? Hallie shook herself mentally. Where had that thought come from?

  “True enough,” he said. “But you know my reasons for thinking that didn’t happen.”

  “Brody, you’ve got to face facts. There’s no one else with a motive.”

  “There has to be. We haven’t found that person yet, but we’ll keep digging.”

  She rubbed a hand across her forehead. “At least you’re including me in this quest. You’re more stubborn than the ox that used to pull our neighbor’s cart.”

  “You had a neighbor in Wisconsin with an ox?” Brody’s mouth puckered.

  Hallie laughed. “No, the ox is one of the few vivid memories I still have of the Nigerian village where I was born.” Her grin faded. “I suppose I’d better quit putting off the moment of truth. But you’re going to get the abbreviated version about Teresa and Mason.”

  “Whatever you want to tell me.” He leaned forward and planted his elbows on the table.

  She closed her eyes, then popped them open. No, that was inviting bad visions into her head. “As I told you, Teresa got to be my best college friend. For most of a year, we hung out together like a pair of twins. She’d had a tough time in life, a lot of insecurities, but she was really coming out of her shell in college.

  “Then just before summer break, she met this guy who was a local football god. Grew up in the town—big, fanatical following—and went on to college at home where he could keep on being the big fish in the little pond. I never liked him from the first. He’d bought into his fame and become a legend in his own mind. She knew I couldn’t stand him, but Teresa was so flattered he asked her out, she was like a kitten with a new toy. I didn’t have the heart to—” She bit her lip and then expelled a long breath. “I never told her he hit on me first, and I turned him down cold. I thought she’d figure him out on the first date. I should have seen the danger. Maybe she’d still be alive.”

  She stared at her empty plate and fought the lump in her throat. A big hand covered hers. She gazed up into Brody’s gray eyes.

  He met her look, steady and gentle. “Whatever happened was not your fault.”

  “Maybe.” She heaved a sigh. “But I’m still haunted by what might have been. Let me finish my story.” Tucking a rebellious strand of hair behind her ear, she straightened her spine. “I went home for the summer, but Teresa didn’t have the best environment to go back to, so she signed up for summer school. When I returned to school in the fall, she was still my roommate physically, but Mason had taken over her mind and will. She didn’t make a move without his say-so.

  “As if that wasn’t bad enough, I started noticing bruises on her. She’d just laugh about being clumsy, but pretty soon I came to suspect the truth. Mason wasn’t content with abusing her mentally and emotionally, he controlled her with his fists, too. I confronted her, but speaking the truth nearly ended our friendship. I went to the school authorities, but they treated me like a liar. Their favorite son involved in anything unsavory? Never!”

  Something like a growl came from the man across the table.

  Hallie’s lips twisted. “My feelings exactly. Then the worst happened.”

  “He killed her?”

  She met his bleak stare. “He might as well have.” She gurgled a sound between a bitter laugh and a sob. “He broke up with her.”

  “What?” Brody stared.

  “I came back from a weekend at home, walked into my dorm room, and found her in bed…with an empty pill bottle on the floor beside her. Her face was so white and cold.” She choked and planted her forehead on one palm. “To this day, that moment haunts me in my dreams.”

  A low whistle emanated from across the table. “So when you saw Alicia, you thought you’d found another dead victim of abuse, and you were willing to charge the gates of hell to see that justice was served.”

  Hallie raised her head. “You do get it. I didn’t think you would.”

  “I understand. That doesn’t mean I approve. I’d just as soon have your skin stay whole and healthy, thanks very much.”

  A bemused smile quivered on Hallie’s lips. “Not to mention yours.”

  He tilted his head back and laughed. “A secondary consideration, I assure you.”

  Brody took Hallie’s arm as they left the restaurant, and she didn’t pull away. In fact, she leaned toward him, gaze scanning the parking area. “I’m looking, too,” he told her. “No lurking stalkers so far.”

  She smiled up at him and let him escort her to the car. As she settled into her seat, she grimaced. “I suppose we’d better make a stop at the police station with that note.”

  “I’m sure they’ll want to know what’s up.” He started the car. “I hope you’re right, and we’re dealing with a harmless crackpot, but whoever this joker is, he’s bold.”

  “And he may know something about Alicia’s death that would tend to cast doubt on Damon’s guilt.”

  His pulse sped up. “You admit he might not have done it?”

  “That’s not what I said, Mr. Jordan, but I’m willing to hear all the facts. Actually, I’d like to talk to Damon myself.”

  She would ask that. He clicked his tongue. “I suspect the authorities would have a fit if their chief witness interviewed the accused.”

  “It took a lot for me to even suggest the meeting, considering how I feel about Damon, but I suppose you’re right. If he’s so innocent, maybe you can tell me why he says he ran when I walked in.”

  “You scared him.”

  “I scared him?”

  “You’re more intimidating than you know, Hallie Berglund.”

  She snorted. Brody forced himself to grin. No need to let her guess how much he’d wanted to hold more than her arm on the way to the car. Intimidating to this once burned, twice shy guy? In spades!

  At the police station, they waited on a hard bench for a good half an hour before a detective saw them. Not Millette. She was off duty. He took the note into evidence custody and got their statements about the incidents of yesterday and today, then promised Millette would get back to them if she needed anything else from them.

  An h
our and a half later they finally pulled up outside Hallie’s apartment building. She looked over at him. “Thank you for an—ah—interesting evening.”

  “I guess that’s a good way to describe it.”

  Hallie shook her head, and the small bangles on her earrings gave a sassy sway. “I thought the police would be more excited by that note.”

  “Why should they be when they’re convinced they’ve got their man?”

  “I’m on their side, Brody.” The words were said with a concerned light in her eyes. “I wish you’d face facts. I saw him with the murder weapon in his hand.”

  “Which he removed from around Alicia’s neck in hopes that she would breath again.”

  “So he says.” The elegant planes of her face set in stony lines. “For your sake, I wish I could believe that. But I’m with the police—all the evidence points one way.”

  “Then let’s find the truth, and the evidence will take on new meaning.”

  “Ox!”

  “At your service.”

  Her scowl transformed into a half-grin. She waved and stepped out onto the curb. Brody waited until she disappeared into the vestibule of her building. At least she was safely home for tonight.

  Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, he gnawed his lower lip. How much did bodyguards cost these days?

  TEN

  Vince Graham leaned back in his desk chair and twiddled a pen between his fingers. “You want me to call in a favor with my contact at the morgue and find out when Alicia’s parents are coming to claim her body?”

  What was up with the smirk on the guy’s face? Hallie shifted her weight from one leg to the other. “Isn’t that something you’d like to know yourself?”

  “You got me there.” Vince nodded. “It’s just that Brody told me if I ever gave you dangerous information again, he’d personally clean my clock.”

  “He threatened you?” She planted her hands on her hips. “Unbelievable! And what’s dangerous about calling the morgue? Unless they’re doing Frankenstein experiments down there.”