“We know it’s Theodore Walters.”
“Call him Theo. He hated being called Theodore. When he was born his brother had been the one to name him and his brother was obsessed with Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
“You knew him.”
“We went to school together. Mom and his mom were close friends, so before school we used to spend time together. For a long time he was my best friend.”
“I’m going to need a list of people who were close to him, Mare, and it sounds like you’re going to be one of the best people to put it together.”
“Darren can help with that. If anyone noticed something happened at the announcement last night it’s him, but I won’t be able to do anything until it’s a little later.” She sighed. “Do you think someone used the pie to poison him?”
“I won’t know until Theo’s been autopsied.” Alex sighed. “I hate doing this, but I do need your keys, Mare. I have to check to make sure he hasn’t been into your shop.”
“Last night I checked to make sure everything was locked, so the only way anyone would have been able to get in was if they copied my keys, which is unlikely.” She passed her keys to him. “Or they broke in, but I think that would be a lot more obvious.”
“You’re right about that, but do you know who owned the shop before you did?”
“As far as I know it was Mrs Rosen’s cafe. She gave it up about three years after left for New York and I was surprised to see someone hadn’t taken it over when I got back, because I thought they would have done. It’s one of the best places to have anything like that, which was why I jumped at the chance of buying it, although I remember hearing stories about why I shouldn’t. Even Hannah told me the place was bad luck.”
“Mrs Rosen sold it to the Walters. I looked into the details about this when I was accusing you of murder. The Walters ended up not using it for anything, because of a death that happened when they were in the process of turning it into a cafe again.”
“Theo’s older brother. When I last talked to Theo he said it was suicide.”
“After that no one wanted to buy it, until you came home. They thought it was bad luck someone had committed suicide here - and it was when I looked into the history of the place I found that wasn’t the only death.”
Mary-Ann nodded. “A couple happened when Mrs Rosen owned the place, and I think that’s probably why she sold it. It wasn’t as though she was young. I don’t know a lot of details about them.”
“Both of those deaths are cold cases… as is the death of Steven Walters.”
“It wasn’t suicide?”
“It was suspicious. It could have been suicide, but there was no note, which makes it more unlikely.” Mary-Ann looked up at Alex. “I didn’t want to have to tell you about all of this, but it might be important in the future.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “Do whatever you want in the shop? You were with me last night so you know exactly what happened.”
“I do, which is a good thing, otherwise I think you were be one of the suspects.”
“Thanks for that.” She sipped her coffee. “I can’t believe both Steve and Theo are gone. Mrs Walters is going to be devastated.”
***
Mrs Walters clung to Mary-Ann’s hand. “Thank you for coming with the Detective Inspector, Mare.”
“I had to. Theo would have wanted someone her to support you.”
“Did you see him last night? He said it was important he was there for your announcement.”
“We talked. We were planning on going out for coffee.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do you know why he was there?”
“No, I don’t. Theo had been living in his own place ever since Steven died, because this house is full of memories, and I can understand why he made the choice. His father and I stayed here for the memories. Now both my sons are dead.” Mrs Walters shook her head. “I’m going to need to call Anne. She’s in New York, at college.”
“How is she?”
“Lonely, I think, although she doesn’t want to admit it. She wants me to believe she’s fine.”
“I can talk to her when she comes back if you want. I know what it’s like to be in New York.”
“If you could that would be wonderful.”
“Anne and I were friends too.”
“I remember. Anne always looked up to you. That’s part of the reason she decided to go to the city for college. When she told me I wanted to argue with her, but then I realised she was old enough to make her own mistakes. One of the things Mom taught me was not to treat my children differently to each other. I did my best not to.”
“When was the last time you saw Theo?”
“Last week. We go out for coffee every week, just to check in with each other, so I know who he’s been spending more time with recently. I can create a list if that would help.”
“It would.” Mary-Ann smiled. “I’m sure I probably saw them all last night, but it was such a blur, and there were so many people.”
“Good. I really wanted you to do well when you bought the old cafe, especially as it hadn’t worked out for us.”
“What did you buy it for?”
“I wanted to open a cafe myself. Steven was going to help me with it, because it was going to be a family business, only…” Mrs Walters shook her head. “Everyone said it was suicide, apart from the police. They all believed he’d killed himself and I knew that was wrong. He never would have ended his own life, but there was nothing I could do, and the police can only do so much. They did their best at the time, and I know if there had been any clues at all they would have found who killed my son. Now Theo’s dead.” She bit her lip. “I hate to do this to you, Mare, but I would really appreciate it if you could find out who killed Theo for me, because I can’t quite believe any would have done that to him.”
Chapter 4
“Do you think there’s a connection between Steven’s death and Theo’s?”
“Until I get the autopsy results through I have no way of knowing.” Alex looked at her. “I thought you weren’t going to get involved in another murder case after the last one.”
“Mrs Walters asked me to help.”
There was a long silence. “You could have said no.”
“I could have done, but Theo was my friend.” Mary-Ann sighed. “I can’t walk away from this, even though I’d like to.” She shrugged. “I’m trying to remember what happened when I spoke to Theo last night. He was with a small group of people I didn’t know anywhere near as well as him, although I did know them.”
“You were born here, Mare, so I think you probably know everyone.”
“Probably.” She lifted her phone to her ear. “Darren?”
“Do I want to know why you’re ringing me?”
“Nope, but I’m going to tell you anyway.”
“Who was it?”
“Theo.”
“No.”
“Yes, it was, and I’m going to find out who it was.”
“He can’t be.” Darren made a sound and it was easy for Mary-Ann to see him shaking his head in disbelief. “Not Theo.”
“I need you to help me work out who on your list was with Theo. Last night is such a blur…” She breathed a deep sigh. “We need to find out who killed Theo. I have a feeling his death might be connected to Steven’s, but if it isn’t…”
“You can’t find both murderers.”
“Watch me.”
“Mary-Ann…”
“People told me before I bought that place it was full of bad luck and I might just change that if I find out who killed Steven. Even if it doesn’t he deserves someone to try to find out the truth, so his mom can have some closure.”
“I will be over in twenty minutes. Alex still has the list, doesn’t he?”
“Of course he does. I’m hoping he’ll be nice enough to get me a copy of Steven’s file too.” She looked at Alex, who raised an eyebrow. “Steven wasn’t someone I would have called a friend, b
ut I know his death did affect Theo, and if it is connected…” She sighed. “I hate this. Even if Mrs Walters hadn’t asked me to get involved I would still be doing my best to solve this one, because it’s Theo.” She shook her head. “I’m beginning to hate Green Springs.”
“I’ll be over soon and we can talk things through. I want to find who killed Theo just as much as you do, because he was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and I can’t imagine who would be willing to kill him.”
She couldn’t help laughing. “I remember saying exactly the same thing about Kevin when he died. All I can do now is hope Theo’s parents had nothing to do with this, because that is the last thing I need right now.”
“It won’t be the Walters. That’s something I’m certain of.”
***
Darren didn’t knock. He knew he didn’t have to. Mary-Ann glanced over at him as she read through Steven’s file. It was easy for her to see why the police had called it a suspicious death, rather than a suicide, and she realised why there was a problem with her investigating so many murders. She was beginning to think like them. “Alex left your notebook with me. He’s gone back to the station to hurry them up with the autopsy. We need to know if Theo’s death is connected to Steven’s.”
“I never thought Steven would have ended his own life. The last time I saw him we had a long conversation about what he was up to with the old Rosen cafe and he was excited about what was going to happen next. I don’t think I’d ever heard him sound so positive about anything. He left with Theo, both of them talking about their plans for the cafe, and the next thing I heard he’d been found hanging in the cafe.”
“From what I can see here asphyxiation was definitely the cause of death, but the police couldn’t be certain if it was the rope he was hanging with that was used or something else. As there was no note they didn’t think it was a suicide, although it’s not impossible for it to have been, because not everyone leaves a note.” She brushed a hand through her hair. “According to the witness statements Theo didn’t think it was suicide either.”
“Do you think he was investigating his brother’s death?”
“Theo wouldn’t have been that stupid. I can see him hiring a P.I. to look into it all, but he wouldn’t have got involved, because he knew how dangerous that could be. It would have been easy enough for whoever killed Steven to kill him too.”
“One of the things we could do is go by Theo’s and see if we can find anything useful.”
“The police are there. If Alex finds anything he’ll tell me.”
“Good.” Darren sat down at the table, pulling the notebook closer. “Theo’s been spending a lot of time with Luke recently.”
“Our Luke?”
“Yes, our Luke.” He smiled. “I didn’t see Luke last night, which was unusual.”
“He contacted me and said he’d been asked to work. I saved him a slice of pie.” Mary-Ann sighed. “Luke’s going to find this hard to deal with.”
“Every death is hard to deal with. It’s not like Green Springs to be this bad.”
“No, it’s not, but I guess everywhere has to deal with things like this at times. I wish it wasn’t happen, though, and I really wish I wasn’t finding myself in the middle of this again, but it’s Theo.” Mary-Ann looked back down at Steven’s file. I can’t quite believe he’s really dead, and so soon after Kevin.”
“I’m sorry, Mare.”
“There’s nothing either of us can do about this, is there?” She sighed. “I’m going to find Theo’s killer and then I’m going on holiday. Hannah can looked after the shop.”
***
“Theo hired a P.I. to look into Steven’s death.” Mary-Ann nodded. “You were right about that.”
“I knew Theo. He would never have got involved in something when he didn’t have all the details.”
“Unfortunately the P.I. went missing a couple of weeks ago. Theo hasn’t heard from him. I’m going to look into it, because I know the P.I. Theo hired, and he definitely isn’t the sort of person to go missing when he’s in the middle of the case.”
“You think that might be connected.”
“Anything might be connected, Mare.” Alex sighed. “Right now all I have is theories and I don’t like theories. I like to be certain of things.”
“Tell me your theories. They might help to connect some of the dots at least.”
“I’ll tell you when I get back to yours. I don’t want to have this conversation over the phone.”
“There’s something more to this, isn’t there?”
“Yes, there is, and that’s why it would be better to talk face to face.”
“Meet me at the shop. I need to do something today, otherwise I’m not going to have anything to sell tomorrow, and you did say I’d be okay to use the kitchen.”
“The door was locked. Theo hadn’t gone in there and I don’t think anyone else had either. I still got them to dust for prints, just in case.”
“Does that mean I’m going to have loads of finger print dust to deal with again?”
“No, because I made the clean up after themselves.” Alex laughed. “I’ll see you at the shop, okay?”
***
Mary-Ann was onto her third batch of pies when Alex walked through the back door. “Sorry I took so long. I was checking into something.”
“What were you checking into?”
“The two other deaths that happened.”
“Are they all linked?”
“From what I read in the reports the P.I. had been sending Kevin it seems like they were, which is interesting.”
“How is it interesting?”
“We never found any connection between them. I’ve been through all three of the files and there was nothing that makes me think the same person was involved. Normally serial killers had a method of killing that stays the same each time.”
“Maybe the link wasn’t that they were killed by the same person, but that they were being killed for a specific reason.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Let’s say there are three people who all want someone else dead, for whatever reason. As those three people know it’s likely someone will know if they kill the person they want dead they ask someone else to do it. They share the job of killing the people they each hate, but they don’t do it the same way and they try not to spend too much time around each other. I checked into the other two deaths and I knew both the people who were killed. They had no link to Steven. Steven didn’t know them.”
“How did you?”
“Mom was a social butterfly before she became ill. I’m certain she knew everyone in Green Springs and it was easier for me to drag her around with me everywhere. She did the same thing to Hannah, until Hannah put her foot down when we were both ten. Even though I didn’t enjoy it all the time I liked getting to know people in Green Springs, so I went with her, which meant I spent a lot of time with people from different groups. We might only live in a small town, but the children here, when they became teenagers, still split off the way they do in all good high school films. I was one of the few people who could flit between groups. I knew everyone. Steven was in one group. Phil was in another. George wasn’t in a group, because he was George, but it was the same thing. None of them had anything in common with the others.”
“So George was a loner?”
“A loner and a bookworm. We had that in common. I was one of the few people he could talk to about books. Other people just looked at him like he was weird when he mentioned the latest fantasy novel coming out.”
“Steven?”
“He was one of the skaters. I never saw him without his board and a couple of times he almost got in confiscated for riding it down the halls. The teachers like him too much to actually take it from him and he knew that, which was why he kept doing it.”
“Phil?”
“One of the stoners. At school he smoked a lot, until he realised how badly it was affecting him. I remember him t
elling me he was quitting, but we didn’t see each other after high school, so I don’t know if he managed to stick to that or not. I was dealing with Mom. When I heard he’d died I was sad and I hoped it wasn’t the weed that killed him.”
“There was a long time between the three deaths.”
“Maybe that was done for a reason.”
“To make it impossible to link them.”
“At least until the P.I. stumbled across something unexpected. I don’t know what it could have been, but I’m certain that could have led to his death, and after he went missing it would have been far too easy for Theo to tell the wrong person his suspicions.”
“In that case I need to go to the P.I.’s place and see if I can find anything on the case. I need to know what he found, how he found it, and whether I can use it. Are you going to be okay here?”
“As far as I know you’re the only person who knows I’m here. I’ll be fine.” She smiled. “Thank you for caring enough to make certain, though.”
“You’re welcome.”
Chapter 5
Mary-Ann’s phone rang. She stared down at her floury hands and sighed. She pressed the button to answer it and then turned it on to speaker. “Hello?”
“It’s me.”
“Hello, me.” She shook her head. “What have you found?”
“No one’s reported the P.I. missing, which isn’t a surprise. He didn’t have family. I went to his place, because I happen to know where it is, and there was no sign of him, so I checked the doors to see if I could get in.”
“Is that legal, Alex?”
“Checking the doors isn’t illegal. For me breaking in isn’t even illegal, as I’m doing it for the right reasons. Knowing he’s been missing for two weeks means I have to check this up. Theo’s emails were getting more and more worried. He did try to file a missing person’s report, but he didn’t know enough about the P.I. to be able to complete it. Fortunately I did find it in one of the places we leave incomplete forms, for those just in case moments. Having that meant I was doing the right thing.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 65
