The 9 Lives Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Louise Clark

  "My husband's aunt didn't kill Brittany."

  Patterson sat back. The expression on her face was resigned. Or perhaps disappointed. Christy wasn't sure which.

  "The evidence tells a different story."

  It was Christy's turn to lean forward. "We have new evidence."

  "I'm listening."

  "Another murder and a false alibi."

  The detective sighed. "You're talking about Dr. Peiling's death. We're treating that as an unfortunate accident."

  "Are you?" Quinn asked.

  Patterson turned narrowed eyes on him. "What are you insinuating?"

  "Jacob Peiling's death was in the news and I can't help but wonder why? He was well-known in his field, but he wasn't a household name. He died as the result of an allergic reaction, which isn't a suspicious death, unless somebody fed him something he shouldn't have eaten. I don't think the media would be interested in Jacob Peiling's death unless someone asked someone else to run the story."

  "You're smelling a conspiracy," Patterson said with a faint smile. "I'm not into them."

  "My life is full of them," Christy said with a sigh.

  That brought Patterson's gaze back onto her. "I guess it is," she said after a moment. "So you two think that Jacob Peiling was murdered." She made it a statement, not a question, and she raised her brows to invite comment.

  "According to his friends and students, Jacob Peiling was paranoid about eating food containing peanut oil. He rarely dined out and when he did he only went to restaurants he trusted," Christy said. "He never ate takeout, yet there was a container of takeout food on his desk. Why?"

  Patterson shrugged, though her eyes were watchful. "The food came from one of the restaurants he patronized. It wasn't ordinary takeout from a fast-food joint."

  "He didn't eat at his desk. In fact, he had a standing order that none of his students eat at theirs, either. He thought it was a dirty habit and he wouldn't allow it. Why would he eat takeout food at his desk on the night he died? If the food came from a restaurant he used, why didn't he go to the restaurant to eat?"

  Patterson drew a circle on the tabletop with the thick white mug. "Maybe he had a deadline to meet."

  "Or maybe he had someone to see," Quinn said. "Someone involved in Brittany's death."

  The mug stilled. "That's a stretch, Mr. Armstrong."

  Quinn shook his head. "I don't think so. Roger Day told us that Peiling called him on the afternoon he died. He said he had news about Brittany's death, but he wouldn't reveal a name because he had to check his facts first. He was going to call Day that evening. He didn't."

  "So you think that Jacob Peiling discovered who killed Brittany Day and he was meeting that person in his office later that day. And, when that person brought food to the meeting, he calmly ate it?"

  There was a sneer in Patterson's voice as she ended the sentence. Christy flushed and rushed into speech. "No. We think he found out that the alibi Brittany provided for Aaron DeBolt was false. We also think that he figured out who asked Brittany to give Aaron the alibi and he was shocked. That's why he insisted on checking his facts. He found it difficult to believe the person he'd identified could have done it."

  "So. The deaths of Brittany Day and Jacob Peiling are related."

  "And the motives for both of them turn around the alibi Brittany gave Aaron for the night of Frank's murder."

  Patterson rubbed the scar that ran down one side of her perfectly sculpted face. "Definitely a conspiracy," she said with a grimace.

  "Did Aaron DeBolt have any visitors while he was in jail?" Quinn asked.

  "Some," Patterson said. "Why?"

  "Can you find out who and when?"

  She frowned at Quinn. "Yes. Again, why?"

  "Because I think that if you check, you'll find that Brittany Day was one of his visitors. And that she visited him after she produced the alibi and shortly before she died."

  "And the significance of this is?" Patterson looked annoyed. She was sitting up straight again and the mug was still.

  "Someone on the outside convinced Brittany to give Aaron the alibi he needed in order to have the charges against him dropped. But then Brittany had second thoughts. She went to Aaron to apologize. Or perhaps to warn him that she was changing her statement. That's why she was killed. So she didn't have a chance to retract."

  "We've thought of that," Patterson said slowly. "I checked the visitor list, but I couldn't find any correlation. As far as we're concerned, Brittany Day's affidavit stands."

  "Then you'll need to talk to a rather nasty grad student at EBU by the name of Lorne Cossi," Christy said. "Brittany couldn't have been with Aaron DeBolt on the night Frank was killed, because she was having sex with Cossi across town."

  Chapter 26

  Busting Brittany's credibility with the revelation that she was with Lorne Cossi at the time she claimed to have been with Aaron got Patterson's attention in a big way. It took a bit of effort, but Quinn managed to convince the detective to share the names of Aaron's visitors while he was in the holding facility and when the visits had taken place.

  The information was startling.

  Natalie was a daily visitor—no surprise there. Christy had long known that Natalie was a devoted mother—but the day before Brittany had come forward with the alibi for the night of Frank's murder, she visited Aaron. Furthermore, she hadn't gone to the prison alone. She'd accompanied Natalie on one of her regular visits and had waited until after Natalie and Aaron met, to have her own visit. When her time was up, the two women left the facility together.

  Brittany made a subsequent visit to Aaron two days before she was murdered. According to notes made at the time of the visit, she appeared distressed when she left.

  Cara LaLonde had also visited Aaron while he was incarcerated. She began by visiting regularly, but by the time Brittany was concocting the alibi, Cara's visits had dwindled to only the odd time here and there. One of those visits occurred the day before Brittany's first visit. Another was the day before Brittany died.

  The rest of Aaron's crowd seemed to have abandoned him as soon as he was charged in Frank's death. The only other visitor of importance was Nathan DeBolt who saw his son on the eve of Brittany's murder.

  Christy and Quinn speculated on what this meant as they drove back to Burnaby from the police station. "Brittany must have advised Aaron she wouldn't alibi him when she visited him the second time," Christy said. They were on East Hastings and had a straight run home, but the road was still packed with commuters, all headed in exactly the same direction they were.

  "And Aaron must have told someone on the outside what she planned." Quinn braked hard when a car from the nearby lane abruptly swerved into his.

  "So who?"

  "Cara, Natalie, or Nathan DeBolt," Quinn said. "None of the TAs visited Aaron. And if the other two were like Lorne Cossi, they wouldn't be too willing to help Aaron out of this kind of fix anyway."

  My money is on Nathan. They'd left Stormy in the car while they met with Patterson in the café. He'd been annoyed by that, but had to accept that taking a cat into a restaurant would have destroyed Christy's credibility with the detective. Now he was not going to be left out of the discussion. Nathan has a reputation for being ruthless. Besides, he's pals with Gerry Fisher.

  Since Gerry Fisher had been the worst of Frank's Trustees it wasn't surprising Frank would vote for someone who was Gerry's friend. "Didn't Aaron start dealing drugs because his father cut him off financially, Frank?"

  Yeah. He wanted Aaron to get a job. So he did. Nathan didn't approve of the kind of job he got though. That just made it better to Aaron. He liked pissing his father off.

  "I assume the cat agreed?" Quinn said.

  "He did. Cara LaLonde had a pretty good motive, too. I think she was in love with Aaron and she saw Brittany as a threat to her relationship with him."

  "Given the number of times she visited him in jail, you may be right. But her visits had fallen off recently. I think sh
e may have given up on him," Quinn said. He turned right on Boundary and headed south. "I'm going to try getting home using Holdom. If we stay on Hastings, we'll be here till midnight."

  Traffic eased as they merged east onto the less-traveled street and their speed picked up. "That leaves Natalie," Christy said. "I can see her killing Brittany to ensure Aaron walked away from the charges against him, but why kill her in Ellen's apartment? Ellen is her friend and they've been chummy ever since I came to Vancouver with Frank ten years ago."

  And they were pals long before that.

  "Frank agrees," Christy said, translating for Quinn. "And says that their friendship is long-standing."

  Besides, she's older than Brittany and not as big. It would be difficult for her to overpower Brittany, especially if Brittany was in fear for her life.

  His eyes on the road ahead, Quinn said, "Let's consider Jacob Peiling's death. Someone brought him a dinner from one of the restaurants he usually frequented because he felt safe eating their food. He must have trusted that person because he was willing to eat the takeout meal he or she brought."

  "And that person must have been very familiar with his habits as well, to have known what to add to the food and how to ensure that he couldn't reach his antidote in time," Christy said.

  That leaves out Cara. She didn't know any of the university crowd.

  Christy passed Frank's observation on to Quinn.

  "But it does add Lorne Cossi and potentially the other TAs. They all knew about Peiling's allergy." Quinn said.

  "Don't forget, Lorne had an alibi for the night Peiling died," Christy said.

  "Right, so it could be the woman—Rochelle Dasovic—or the other man, Bradley Neale. We haven't checked on their alibis for the night of Peiling's death."

  "But neither one of them could have killed Brittany, and I believe the two murders were connected," Christy said.

  "Which leaves us with Nathan."

  I'd like it to be DeBolt. He was never one of my favorite people. The voice was wistful.

  Christy didn't bother to pass along Frank's observation. She said instead, "His firm supports Peiling's program, so he'd know the professor."

  "Agreed, and Peiling would be comfortable with him." Quinn tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "He'd also be shocked by the idea of Nathan as a murderer."

  Christy nodded. "Frank says Nathan's ruthless. You'd have to be, I think to sit on one side of a desk and watch a man die of anaphylactic shock on the other."

  "He's got the physical strength to have killed Brittany. He knows Ellen, but she is his wife's friend, so he doesn't have any emotional ties to her. He may also be angry that it's Frank, Ellen's nephew, Aaron is accused of killing. He may think it's fitting that Brittany's death is being blamed on a Jamieson. So, what's his motive for killing Brittany?"

  "He's old money and a power in Vancouver society and politics," Christy said. "Having his only son go to prison as an accessory to murder would destroy everything he's worked for over a lifetime."

  Quinn gunned the engine as the road began a steep climb up Burnaby Mountain. "The question is, how deeply does he value his family's reputation? Enough to kill?"

  * * *

  The re-arrest of Aaron DeBolt as an accessory in the murder of Frank Jamieson was all over the news the next morning and caused a sensation. Only days before, the media had been trumpeting Aaron's release and making a scandal of his false arrest. Now there was an even bigger scandal brewing, one of conspiracy and murder. There wasn't a media outlet in the Lower Mainland that wasn't focused on the arrest. Even the national news programs were picking up the story, since Brittany was from Calgary and her father was a power in the important oil and gas industry.

  Aaron's arrest wasn't the only focus of the stories. The details of Frank's murder were dredged up, including a quick précis of his wild lifestyle with his socialite wife. Pictures of Frank and Christy partying were included, though the focus of the reports this time was the prominent DeBolt family. Secondary stories detailed Natalie DeBolt's rise from Cariboo country girl to the wife of the wealthy Nathan DeBolt and noted that they had been having marital difficulties for some years. Aaron's lifestyle and how it impacted his arrest were also featured. Questions were raised about Aaron's potential involvement in the death of Brittany Day and there was speculation her murder was somehow related to the false alibi she'd given.

  Christy was alerted to the furor by Quinn, who called to warn her. He caught her before she set off to school with Noelle. She was able to warn Noelle that there might be questions about her dad and his death once again, from her classmates, their parents, and perhaps even some of the teachers.

  "And Ms. Shively, too," Noelle had said, so matter-of-fact that she seemed nonchalant.

  Christy agreed. The child services worker was very much on her mind.

  They took the back way to school, using the path through the woods, just in case the press had figured out where Noelle went to school. Christy didn't think they had and she didn't think they would target the school since they hadn't camped out in front of her house, but she believed in taking precautions. Avoiding the building's front entrance was one of them.

  When Christy dropped Noelle at her classroom, her teacher skewered Christy with a disapproving look and said, "The principal would like you to go to her office before you leave, Mrs. Jamieson."

  Noelle opened her eyes wide and said, "Uh-oh, Mom. You're in trouble."

  Christy looked down at her daughter and her heart did a little flip. Noelle's eyes were wide with dismay, but deep in them amusement lurked. She'd seen that look in Frank's eyes many, many times. That twinkle, hiding beneath the solemn expression, was one of the charming behaviors that had drawn her to Frank when she first met him, and which had kept her with him for a long time after their passionate love had been lost. It was the best of Frank, the real Frank beneath the Jamieson heir. And in that moment her daughter reminded Christy so much of her dead husband that she bent down and hugged her fiercely. "You're an imp," she whispered in Noelle's ear, careful that the teacher wouldn't hear.

  Noelle hugged her back and giggled. "Go get her, Mom."

  When Christy straightened both she and Noelle were Jamiesons, ready to deal with the people around them in a polite, composed way. Christy found the principal's office and was advised that the school would not allow the press to harass her daughter. Unlike Noelle's teacher, the principal was sympathetic. She understood that Christy couldn't control the media and that Christy simply wanted her daughter to have a normal school life. They parted on good terms, with the principal promising to phone Christy should any reporters happen to discover that Noelle was attending this particular institution.

  Christy returned home via the wooded path. She spent her walk thinking about the murders, Aaron's re-arrest and what it all meant. By the time she was on her street and almost home, she was pretty sure she knew who had killed Brittany and also Jacob Peiling.

  Quinn was sitting on her porch waiting for her. He smiled as she came up her walk and reached out to take her hands. "Are you still on for this morning?"

  She leaned into him, bending to kiss him before she settled beside him. Yesterday, as they speculated on who was guilty of the two murders, they'd decided to seek out Nathan DeBolt this morning and ask him some of the questions that were still unanswered. "Do you think he'll be willing to talk to us? He must be inundated with reporters."

  "I arranged an interview with him for eleven thirty this morning."

  "Really? He agreed to talk to you? Why?"

  "I got the impression that he was gutted by Aaron's re-arrest. He sounded... bewildered, like he couldn't take it all in. Right now he needs to unburden himself on someone."

  "And that someone is you? Why?"

  Quinn shot her an amused look laced with some cockiness. He slipped his arm around her waist to draw her snug against his body. "My reputation as a journalist who researches his material and is fair and unbiased." He sobered. "He
opened up to me before. It may just be that I'm a name he knows."

  "Where do we meet him?"

  "His house."

  "His house will be surrounded by the media."

  "Yeah, and it's a mansion not far from your old place. It has gates and security guards who are there to ensure we get in and the other guys don't."

  Christy thought about the media scrum that would be going on outside the DeBolt mansion. She remembered how trapped she'd felt when Frank had been labeled an embezzler and the news crews camped outside the Jamieson mansion for days on end. She thought too of the flash of cameras every time she had to cross that barrier, of reporters shoving microphones at her and shouting questions, even if she was safely ensconced in a car.

  And she thought about Joan Shively believing the media reports, whether they were true or not. "I can't go to DeBolt's house."

  Quinn drew away so he could look into her face. He frowned as he reached out to tuck an errant lock of hair behind her ear. "Too many memories?"

  She swallowed and nodded. "But I'm worried that someone might recognize me and speculate that I'm somehow involved in the murders. Or they might just use a photo of us going into the compound and link me to the DeBolts."

  He drew his hand down her cheek in a tender gesture. "It would only be speculation."

  "It was speculation six months ago, when I was supposed to be the reason Frank embezzled from the Trust. Or years before that, when I was labeled a gold-digging, good-time girl who married Frank for his money." She sighed. "Once it's printed, speculation doesn't go away and lots of people think it's fact. Like Joan Shively, the child services woman."

  "And you need to make sure Noelle is safe. I understand," Quinn said gently.

  She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Thank you."

  He hugged her tighter and kissed the top of her head.

  She smiled. "I am so lucky I met you."

  He laughed. "You tried hard enough to avoid me."

  Christy's smile deepened. "So I made a mistake, then changed my mind. Lady's prerogative."

  "Works for me," Quinn said.