“Kate.”
She whipped around and found Detective Kilroy approaching from up the block.
As he neared her, he said, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Discreetly, she tucked the note into her pocket and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Just out for a walk,” he said easily.
“You’re out for a walk when you guys have the mayor in custody?”
“He lawyered up,” he explained with a shrug. “But it won’t matter. That’s one murder solved.”
Kate feigned a smile, saying, “Congratulations,” and then unlocked her truck.
“What was that?” he asked, his gaze falling to her pocket.
“Uh, nothing, just a Chinese take-out menu.”
Kilroy narrowed his eyes at her. “Well, don’t throw it away,” he suggested in a way that unnerved her. “You might need it.”
“I have enough menus at home.”
They both knew this wasn’t about Chinese take-out.
He winced, feigned a smile at her and pressed his point, “Some restaurants can be persistent. You might keep getting menus on your windshield until they’re certain they’ve convinced you.”
“Is that right?”
“Just a little friendly advice.”
“That I should order take-out,” she supplied, all the while growing terrified deep down.
He shrugged and said, “Have a nice day,” as he continued on down the sidewalk.
She let out a heavy breath, watching him turn the corner. She quickly settled Josie into her car seat.
When she climbed in behind the steering wheel, her cell began vibrating in her pocket. It was Maxwell, so she answered the call.
“What’s up?”
“I thought you’d be at the inn by now,” he said. “I can get the guys started, just wanted to check in.”
“I need to deal with a few things, but I’ll be over soon.”
After ending the call, she began driving off toward the Municipal Building in the center of town. Wanda was right. There was no clear connection between Bobbie Hamden and Eddie Jackson. If the same person had killed them both, what was the reason? If Joe Swenson had those photos in his possession, then he might know who had taken them. And if Kate could talk to that person, she would get one step closer to finding out the truth.
She rolled to a stop close to the entrance door and glanced in the backseat at Josie. Maybe she should consider Scott’s suggestion and look into hiring a babysitter. Her daughter wasn’t a preemie anymore. She was healthy and happy, and her personality had flourished though she was only a few months old.
Like second nature, Kate lifted Josie out of the car seat and slid her into the carrier, which she strapped to her front this time. She locked up her truck and made her way into the building where she found Joe Swenson’s office after climbing to the second floor.
He was nursing a mug of coffee at his desk as other government workers lumbered through the office as if reluctant to start their day. Lifting his eyes as if sensing that she was staring at him, he said, “Morning, Kate. What brings you to the auditor’s office?”
She sat in the chair across from him and said, “It’s not business related.” His expression shifted, but she continued. “Dean was arrested because of the photos that you threw in the dumpster outside his house.”
“Photos?” he asked, playing dumb.
Has Scott not spoken with him yet?
“I saw you Joe,” she pointed out. “You and that woman you work with dumped a garbage bag in the dumpster outside of Dean’s house. Did you take those photos?”
He set his mug on the desk and clasped his hands together then said, “No.”
“Then how did you have the photos?” When he didn’t answer, she asked, “Who took them? And why was that person following Dean?”
“If you ask me, the killer took them.”
“So you don’t actually know who took the photos?”
“No, they were left in my mailbox after Bobbie was killed.”
“Did they come with a note?”
His eyes widened. “As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Do you have the note?”
“Not with me.”
Kate pulled the handwritten note she had found under her windshield out from her pocket and placed it on the desk. “Does that look like the handwriting?”
Joe studied it for a while, but seemed at a loss. “It might. How am I supposed to know if the same person wrote this?”
“So someone left you photos in your mailbox that incriminated Dean Wentworth,” she said, thinking out loud. “And you never brought them to the police?”
He looked suddenly remorseful. “I didn’t see how he could’ve done it. I felt instinctively that the killer had left the photos, like they were trying to frame Dean, and I wasn’t going to be a pawn in their game.”
“So you gave the photos back to Dean in a very indirect way.”
“That was the plan,” he said. “But somehow your husband got his hands on them.”
It was Kate’s turn to feel remorseful, but she swallowed the lump in her throat and asked, “Why did you wait so long to return them?”
“I thought I could squeeze Dean for some money. I’m not proud of that fact, and if you really must know, it didn’t go well. He refused to pay me...that is until Eddie died. Then he contacted me right away.”
Kate mentally walked through the logic. Maybe Dean had changed his mind for the same reason he had lied to Kate about having known Eddie Jackson. How things looked didn’t always reflect the truth, and if Dean was suddenly caught up in Scott’s suspicion over two murders then Scott would have an easier time arresting him for both.
Leaning forward and speaking in a low tone, she asked, “Did Bobbie know Eddie? Or do you know anyone who knew both of them?”
“That’s what kills me about Dean’s arrest,” he said. “The only person I can think of is Dean.”
Which meant that Kate had to talk to him.
“I’m glad Carly said something at the town hall meeting last night,” he said, changing the subject. “Amelia and that damned bus of hers have been stopping off at my house almost every night. I blast my TV and the radio and shut all the windows and I can still hear her tour guide describing in terrible detail how Bobbie was killed. I can’t stand it. I hope she gets shut down.”
Again, Kate pondered how Amelia had been benefitting from the recent murders. But the notion that Amelia Langley could be behind all of this was outlandish. No one would kill just to add another stop on their murder tour. And yet, Bobbie’s murder as well as the peculiar manner in which Eddie had died didn’t really make sense. They weren’t connected. No one had a real motive to take their lives. The more she thought about it, the more sense it made that Amelia might have orchestrated all of this.
But without proof, she still couldn’t trust the gut feeling that was twisting her stomach into knots.
She thanked him and rose to her feet, cradling Josie against her chest. “Who’s the lady?”
“What?”
“The woman I’ve seen you with?”
He turned pale.
“Joe? You’re obviously involved with her; I’m just curious who she is.”
“Jennifer Baxter,” he said in a whisper. “And she means a lot to me.”
Kate cocked her brow, prompting him to explain his defensiveness.
“I started seeing her before Bonnie was killed. That’s the real reason I didn’t expose the photos to the police. Dean had known. If I fingered Dean, then he would tell Scott that I’d been having an affair and we both know how damning that would be for me.”
Reassuringly, she said, “I know you didn’t kill her, Joe. You don’t have to worry.”
She thanked him for his time and started off, swinging the glass door open, walking down the hallway then down the stairs. The Municipal Building was connected to the precinct where the jails were, so Kate turned the corner in the basement
and found a guard standing post outside the cells.
“I’d like to talk to Dean, if he’s not meeting with his lawyer,” she told him.
The guard seemed agreeable and opened the door for her.
“Kate!” said Dean, wrapping his hands around the bars as soon as she came into view. “Are you here to help me?”
“What were you doing in Bobbie’s house that night?”
He drew in a stiff breath. Suddenly seeming on edge that she didn’t believe he was innocent. “I meet with her sometimes for work, to go over budgets, and to assess new buildings with the planning commission.”
“Did you see anyone outside on your way in or out?”
“No, I don’t think so. It was quiet, but really I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Well, someone took those photos and then got into Bobbie’s house and killed her.”
He thought for a long moment. “I saw Detective Kilroy drive by.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I recognized his vehicle, and as soon as the headlights were out of my eyes, I saw him behind the wheel.”
“Was this on your way in to talk to Bobbie or on your way out?”
“On my way in. I didn’t think anything of it. It wasn’t like his siren was blaring.”
Kate thought long and hard about the detail. Kilroy had been intimidating her, though it was too subtle for her to be absolutely certain. What stumped her was the notion that Kilroy would want Bobbie dead, or Eddie for that matter...unless...
“I have to go,” she said.
“Wait, no,” he protested. “I can’t stand being in here alone.”
“When is your bail hearing?”
“I’m still waiting to hear back from my attorney. It could be days.”
“I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but you’re probably safer in here than anywhere.”
“What?”
“I’ll talk to you later.”
He called out her name as she walked down the aisle, passing the empty jail cells on her way to the door, but she ignored him.
Rock Ridge had been suffering financially, but there was one person who hadn’t been affected.
Did Amelia Langley have Detective Kilroy in her pocket, and if so, what lengths would she go to keep her murder tour alive?
Chapter Ten
Kate sat in her idling truck across the street from Detective Kilroy’s house, a one-story ranch with a shallow front porch and a garage attached to the left side. She checked the clock on the dashboard. It was a little after ten in the morning, which told her Kilroy was likely at the precinct. No one had followed Kate; she was certain, having kept her eye on the rearview mirror as she drove to this neighborhood.
She was cradling Josie in her lap, breastfeeding her daughter as she surveyed the detective’s home.
Josie sputtered and pushed her away so Kate held her daughter against her as she fumbled to lower her t-shirt and fasten her overalls. She then threaded her arms through the baby carrier so that the pouch was in front, and lifted and lowered her daughter in.
Looking every which way, Kate climbed cautiously out of her truck. The neighborhood was sleepy and most of the houses along the block seemed vacant. There were no cars in the driveways.
She grabbed her tool kit from the truck bed and began rifling through for her screwdriver, which she tucked into her pocket, all the while hoping that Kilroy’s house wasn’t outfitted with an alarm system.
As she neared the front door, she noticed a number of locks, two of which were deadbolts. It seemed like overkill and she didn’t want to stand on the porch for anyone to see, so she quickly rounded to the back of the house where she found a door. It had two locks but at least she was beyond view of any prying eyes.
She used her screwdriver to work on the door handle. There were four screws around it, and after what felt like an eternity, she pulled the doorknob from its hole, wedged her hand through, and reached for the deadbolt lock. She had to strain to turn it, but soon the door swung inward and she stepped inside the house.
If Kilroy really was a dirty cop who could be paid to do anything, then there would have to be some record of that payment. She crossed through the living room and noticed a home office, which she entered. It was surprisingly organized and when she reached the desk, she began opening the drawers. She found a number of hanging folders in the bottom drawer and after flipping through the tabs, she discovered an unmarked folder. She sat, setting the filing folder on the desk, and opened it.
There was a stack of receipts inside, or so she thought. She looked at them more closely and realized they were ATM deposit receipts and each contained a snapshot of a check. The image was small, but she squinted her eyes to read the company name and address in the upper left corner.
Over the Moon.
Amelia Langley’s inn.
She began scrutinizing the memo line on the first check image. It was almost too small to read, but she caught the word, ‘percentage’.
Straightening up and gazing out the window, she realized that Amelia had been paying Kilroy a percentage of her earnings on the murder tour, probably in exchange for his help at insuring more murders continued.
But had Kilroy killed Bobbie Hamden himself?
Had he killed Eddie?
Kate was certain that Kilroy hadn’t been at the inn that day. But what if Amelia had someone else on her secret payroll—someone who had been willing to hang out on the second floor of the inn and throw the windowpane on Eddie at the right moment?
Quickly, she grabbed her cellphone and began taking pictures of the deposit slips, hoping the resolution quality would be good enough for Scott to read once she showed him.
She startled at the faint sound of a key scraping into a lock and sprang to her feet, hushing Josie from making gurgling noises.
Kilroy’s voice came from the foyer as he stepped inside. “I have to get back to the precinct.”
“They can live without you for ten minutes,” said a woman, whose voice Kate recognized immediately. It was Amelia.
Frantically, Kate spun this way and that around the office, looking for a place to hide and because of it Josie let out a giggle.
Kate gasped and gently placed her hand over her daughter’s mouth, whispering, “Shhh.” Then she listened hard for whether or not they had heard her.
“I have a lot of paperwork to do at the station,” said Kilroy, which told Kate neither had heard her daughter.
“The case is closed, I thought,” said Amelia. “And it couldn’t have been more perfect. With Dean locked up, the town will have to postpone the vote.”
“That’s our next problem,” said Kilroy. “I need that money coming in.”
“Oh, don’t you worry.”
As Kate listened, their conversation quieted and soon she heard kissing noises that turned hungry.
Were they taking each other’s clothes off in the living room?
She heard their feet shuffling and sensed they might come into view. She cursed that she had left the office door open, and thinking fast, she ducked under the desk, which Josie didn’t at all like.
“Quiet,” she breathed in her daughter’s ear. The last thing Kate needed was to turn into another stop on the murder tour. But Josie wouldn’t stop fussing.
From the living room couch, Kilroy asked, “Did you hear something?”
But Amelia must have pulled him in for a long kiss, because things went quiet again after that.
She had to get out of there, but the couch they were making out on was right beside the back door. Her stomach dropped. If either of them looked at the door, they would see that the doorknob was missing.
Abruptly, Kilroy asked, “Can we trust him?”
“I’m paying him to keep his mouth shut.”
“But for how long?”
Amelia paused, and then said, “The murder tour loses its charm when a death becomes old news. We’ll need him again.”
“You think he did a good job with Eddi
e?”
“It wasn’t ideal,” she admitted.
“No, it wasn’t,” he agreed, sounding a bit put off. “It was a disaster if you ask me. If it wasn’t for Wanda, no one would even think it had been a murder.”
“So he jumped the gun and improvised,” she said easily. “He’s learning.”
“You’ve already had murders at the inn. We needed a new location and he messed that up for us.”
“Oh, calm down and take your pants off,” she ordered.
Who were they talking about? Who had killed Eddie? And if it had gone according to plan, where should he have been killed?
Kate’s heart skipped a beat when her cellphone vibrated. She rushed to grab it, and as soon as she glanced at the screen, she realized it was an incoming text message. Quietly and carefully, she swiped the screen, opening the message, which was from Maxwell.
Carter’s a no show. WTH?
Carter?
The short, young man who wore a baseball cap had been hanging out at the front of the inn at the time Eddie had died. Or had he? Kate had gone inside the lobby. How long had she been in there? Could Carter have slipped in, crossed through the lounge, and jogged up the stairs? Could he have pushed that windowpane onto Eddie and made it back down to his friend by the time Kate had gone outside again?
There came a knock at the front door, and Kilroy immediately asked, “Who’s that?”
“How should I know?” Amelia responded.
Grumbling, Kilroy walked through the living room and into the foyer where he opened the front door.
“I know she’s in here,” said a man. “I followed her.”
“You can’t just barge in here, Carter,” yelled the detective.
“Out of my way.”
Kate heard them scuffling, but Carter must have made it into the living room where Amelia was, because she heard him demand, “Where’s my money?”
“It’s being processed,” said the innkeeper.
“Don’t give me that,” he snapped. “I’ve been waiting a month for Bonnie and now you owe me for Eddie too.”
“You messed the second one up,” asserted Kilroy.
“So you’re not going to pay me?”
“I never said that,” Amelia assured him. “But you’ll have to be patient.”
Mrs. Fix It Mysteries: The Complete 15-Books Cozy Mystery Series Page 121
