by Leonie Gant
“Why me?” I asked mutinously. “I’ve only been there two weeks, I wouldn’t know the property well enough to tell you anything.”
“Maybe, but you were there the night before, from the looks of it Eric was dead within hours of you being there.”
I looked at him suspiciously.
“Please” he grumbled.
“See,” I said graciously, “you only had to ask nicely, and I’m happy to help you.”
“You don’t even try to make things easy do you?” he asked.
“This is me making things easy” I said as we walked to his car. “If I was trying to be difficult there is no way I would be going anywhere with you.”
The car was silent for a while as we drove.
“Is this Ramos’s car?” I asked.
“No” said Griffin, “why?”
“This car is surprisingly clean, I would not have picked it for a male cop’s car.” I said as I twisted around to see if there was a mess in the back seat.
“That is the conversation you want to have?” Griffin asked, looking a little put out as we pulled up to Adele Wesson’s house.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Nothing at all” he said as he got out of the car.
Undoing the seatbelt and opening my own door I looked at him. I swear, they say women are moody and unpredictable but one of these days somebody is going to work out that men are just as bad. I didn’t have a clue most of the time. That being said I was enjoying the view. The man seemed to have no communication skills whatsoever but following him to the house I could see that he still filled out a pair of jeans very nicely. All of a sudden Griffin stopped abruptly. Not having seen him stop, and being a bit distracted by the way those jeans were molded to his legs, I ran into his back and bounced off.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I prayed that the warm sensation that I could feel was the late afternoon sun and not the blush of embarrassment that I knew was crawling up my face. I really hoped he wouldn’t work out what I had been looking at. I peeked up and wanted to groan. From the smile starting to spread across his face, I could tell that he knew exactly where my eyes had been.
“I tripped” I mumbled.
“Uh huh” he said, that grin now spread wide.
“So what am I looking for?” I asked. I wanted to kick myself when I saw the way his eyebrow quirked up, and that knowing smile of his didn’t lessen.
“The walk through” I clarified, “you asked me to help you with the walk through. What exactly is it that I am looking for?”
Griffin paused for a couple of seconds, just to torment me I’m sure of it, and then turned around.
“We need to go through and I want you to tell me if there is anything obviously out of place or catches your eye. I need you to think back to last night and see if there is anything different that will give us an idea of anyone else being in here. We can start with you taking me through what you did this morning when you arrived. Give me a good sense of what happened and what you saw.”
Opening the front door he waved me on ahead.
“Well then” I said, “when I walked in the first thing that I noticed was the silence. This house is not a quiet one, usually there is music on or a television going in the background. This house is small compared to some that I’ve worked in so rooms don’t feel isolated. Eric doesn’t, I mean, he didn’t seem to work. I think he called himself an entrepreneur but I never saw any evidence that he was actually working at anything. Usually when I got here in the morning the coffee machine was going and Adele would be awake. Sometimes she’d be doing yoga in the back yard or if she had been up a while she would have already started work. Adele was always an early riser.”
“Did she have any trouble with sleeping?” Griffin asked.
“I think she did” I replied. “Sometimes when I got here you could see the dark rings under her eyes.”
“You said Adele and Eric slept in different rooms, how bad were the problems in the marriage?” Griffin asked.
“The guy was a jerk” I said. “Adele was the sweetest, kindest person I knew. In my job I cop a lot of abuse and insanity from some of the clients, but Adele was a dream to work for. I personally have no idea why she married Eric. From what I understand she adored her first husband. She’d talk about him sometimes and you could just see how much she loved him. I think when he died she was so wrapped in her grief and loss that she was easy pickings for Eric. Despite the fact she lives very simply the woman is very wealthy. She just doesn’t care about the money. Eric on the other hand really cared about the money.”
“Do you think she was capable of killing him to get rid of him?” Griffin asked.
“No” I answered quickly.
“You seem pretty sure of that” Griffin replied.
“I am, I cannot believe that she is capable of killing anyone,” I said confidently.
“What about you?” Griffin asked.
I looked at him. “Me, you’re going to ask me if I killed him.”
“The man was sexually harassing you in a job you loved. Jobs are scarce these days. You needed the money and you yourself said the marriage was a mess. You would be doing Adele Wesson a favor.”
“Yes, because killing unwanted spouses is just another service I provide for my clients, along with diary scheduling and dry-cleaning runs.” I said sarcastically.
“Okay so if neither you nor Adele Wesson killed Eric.” He peered at me and I returned the look with what I hoped was an expression that told him what I thought of that theory. “Then who else would want to?”
“Take your pick, former staff members of Adele’s, angry husbands, irate fathers, every woman he had ever come across. The man was physically incapable of keeping it in his pants. He was almost a caricature of the worst that women think of men. For the last two weeks he had hassled me constantly. I have never seen a man work so hard to get into the pants of a woman he had absolutely no interest in, outside of irritating his wife. It seemed the more that Adele liked having me working for her, the more effort he put into it. That being said, if he closed his eyes there is no way that he would be able to describe what I looked like.”
“Do you often get that problem?” asked Griffin.
“What problem?” I replied.
“Sexually harassed at work.”
“Like I said Monique gets the difficult jobs and out of those difficult jobs you have the ones that border on painful. I have proved to Monique that I can handle those jobs. I find them challenging and I get paid very well for them. In answer to your question as to whether I was afraid of losing the job here, Monique has a waiting list of clients who she would be happy to pass me to. Last night I was actually considering quitting from this job because I was finding Eric’s attention more insistent than I had anticipated. I assumed he would give up way before now but he was getting more persistent with each rejection.”
“Thought of giving in?” he asked
“No, I can definitely say that I was not interested in giving in to him. The more I knew him, the less attractive he became. He was like a petulant child that wasn’t getting what he wanted. Everything else being equal, he was definitely not my type.”
“Really, so what is your type?” asked Griffin leaning back against a wall.
“I’ll know him when I see him” I said, definitely not wanting to get into this with him.
“Once I’d been through all the rooms and determined nobody was here, I went up to Adele’s bedroom” I said changing the subject hurriedly.
Griffin followed me towards the back of the house where the bedrooms were. Opening the door I was relieved to see the room was relatively untouched by the police. Everything seemed to be in its place, exactly as it always was. The bed was immaculately made and at that I stopped.
“The bed looks wrong” I said.
“Why, what’s wrong with it? Looks like it’s fine to me.”
“Yes, it looks perfect, that’s what’s wrong.
I made this bed yesterday.”
“You made the bed” Griffin said slowly.
“Yes, I made the bed. The housekeeper that Adele has doesn’t live on the property, she comes in about the same time that I do. One of her jobs is making the bed. She didn’t come in yesterday. One of her kids came down with chickenpox and had to stay home from school, so she called and we expected not to see her for a week. Adele is useless at all kinds of housework, especially at the moment when she’s in the middle of writing. Inspiration hits and she forgets everything else. I even have to stop her to eat and take bathroom breaks. With the housekeeper not being here for a week, I helped out yesterday with those things that she would normally do, including making Adele’s bed. That is not the way I made Adele’s bed. I am not that much of a perfectionist, I mean seriously, look at those corners” I marveled.
“They look fine to me” Griffin said, “That’s how I do my corners.”
“I am not critiquing the way the bed was made, I am saying I made it yesterday morning, but not like that. Between then and now someone else made the bed. Why would anyone do that?”
“Good question” said Griffin. “I don’t think the crime scene techs did this room. Might be a good idea to get them back in here to have a look to see if they find something. Anything else look out of place?”
“Not that I can see” I said. “It all looks pretty much the same as it did yesterday when I was in here, other than the bed.”
“I want you to have a look at Eric’s bedroom now” Griffin said.
“No point” I said. “This morning was the first time I went into the bedroom, and that was just because I couldn’t find Adele anywhere else in the house. My instincts were screaming at me that something was very wrong, I wouldn’t have any idea what Eric’s room was supposed to look like.”
“Really, you’ve never been in that room?” Griffin asked.
“Nope, avoided it like the plague” I said cheerfully. “Considering the way Eric had been acting, that was one risk I was not willing to take.”
“Did you see anything this morning that looked out of place?”
“Besides Adele actually having spent the night in his room, no.”
“Okay” said Griffin, “is there anything else that you wish to tell me about that could help with this investigation.”
“You still think I’m keeping something from you?” I asked.
“Not exactly” he said, at least having the good grace to look embarrassed, “just sometimes things will come back to you at the strangest times. I need to know that you will give me that information.”
“I don’t deliberately set out to make your life difficult” I said.
“Yet you do it so well” Griffin said with just a touch of sarcasm.
Chapter Six
As Griffin drove me home I kept going over everything that I had seen during the day. I wasn’t concentrating on the road and when he parked I looked around.
“This isn’t my place” I said. “What are we doing here?”
“Having dinner” Griffin said.
“Having dinner” I repeated, “like a date?”
“Sure, like a date” he said.
“According to my admittedly limited understanding of American courting culture, a date generally involves somebody being asked. I wasn’t asked so I believe this may constitute a kidnapping, not a date.”
Griffin looked at me sourly. “Look, it’s late, I’m booked for dinner with my dad and I don’t have time to take you home and then come back here” he said as he got out of the car.
“Well don’t I just feel special” I grumbled as I followed him.
Standing at the door I almost choked when Griffin knocked.
“You’re knocking at your father’s door” I said scandalized.
“It isn’t my house, I’m not just going to walk in. Don’t tell me, you would.”
“I have keys to my parent’s house. My grandparents once went out to get groceries and came back to find me fast asleep on their couch. They live five hours away from my parent’s home, but I had a free day and wanted to see them.”
“Wasn’t the door locked?” Griffin asked.
“Farm in the middle of nowhere, people who grew up in a simpler time.” I shrugged. “The door was never locked.”
At that point the door opened.
“Hi Dad” said Griffin, “this is Trudie. Trudie this is my dad Lee.”
“You’re early” the man at the door said and then turned around and walked back in the house.
“Early” I repeated, “you could have taken me home.”
“I just wanted to prolong the joy of being in your company” Griffin said sarcastically.
“Careful” I said as I followed the older man into the house with Griffin trailing behind me. “I might just get the idea that you like me.”
Dinner with the Griffin men was an experience that I was not used to. The table was completely silent during the meal, barely interrupted by mumbled requests for the salt. Eyre family meals had a habit of descending into the raucous and at times inappropriate conversation. My parents were strict believers in the fact that the meal was the only time most of the family came together. It was also the only time they had a captive audience in their children. Most of my life lessons throughout childhood had been discussed at the dinner table. I eyed the two of them carefully. Not being distracted by discussion the two men seemed intent on completing their meal as quietly and efficiently as possible. Determined not to be left behind I tackled my own, quite large, plate. The bowl of pasta was simple but delicious. My only issue was it was huge. Unfortunately I had been brought up by my parents to always finish what was on the plate when someone else had cooked for me. I know, really bad advice when it comes to weight control, but my parents were sticklers for being polite when in someone else’s home.
Just as dinner was finishing Griffin’s cell started ringing.
“Excuse me” he said as he left the room, leaving his father and me to uncomfortably eye each other over the table.
“Delicious meal,” I ventured.
He stopped and looked at me shrewdly. I could see he was about to say something but Griffin came back into the room.
“I’m sorry but I have to go. Something has come up on a case I’m working and I have to follow it up now.”
“Eric?” I asked curiously.
“No, another case” Griffin said abruptly. “Dad, can you take Trudie home for me?”
“Sure son” Lee said.
Griffin looked at me as if undecided about what to do next.
“I’ll see you later” he said, turned around and walked out of the house, leaving me with a man that I didn’t know. I looked at Lee.
“Want a beer?” he asked getting up to the refrigerator, grabbing one and opening it in one fluid move.
“No thank you” I said. “Look, I’ll just grab a taxi and head home, don’t worry about a ride.”
“No, no, I’ll just finish the beer and then I’ll drive you home.”
“I’m sorry but I don’t want to get into a car with you if you’ve had a beer” I said cringing with embarrassment.
Lee stopped drinking and looked at me dumbfounded.
I rushed on feeling like an idiot. “I’m not telling you what to do. I got hit by a drunk driver a couple of years ago and since then I have a problem with cars and I have an even bigger problem with alcohol and cars.”
“I’ve only just started it.”
“It doesn’t matter, this is my issue we’re talking about. Even a sip freaks me out. I know it’s not rational and I’m sorry if you’re offended but I think me getting a taxi is a better idea.”
Lee went to turn up the bottle and pour it down the sink.
“No don’t do that, I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I’m just a little nutty when it comes to this issue.”
I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks. I was usually so good at hiding my problems.
“Honey, jus
t sit down” Lee said. “I’m going to pour out the rest of the beer. We are going to sit down and get to know each other, until you feel comfortable again, and then I will take you home.”
“You don’t have to” I protested.
“Geez woman you’re stubborn, just sit down for goodness sake.”
I sat. “My mom calls it being strong willed” I said quietly.
“I’m sure she makes your dad’s life interesting” Lee replied.
“He doesn’t complain” I smiled, “but then my dad is a very smart man.”
“So” said Lee as he settled himself into a well-worn chair. “My boy brings home a woman to meet his father. What I want to know is what are you doing with my son?”
“Just to clarify” I said. “You are starting this conversation by asking me what my intentions are towards your son, your fully grown police officer son.”
Lee barked out a laugh and I could see the response was not a common one as it sounded a bit rusty. “I guess I am. Don’t worry this is as new to me as it is to you. Jake’s never brought a woman home before, so I’m probably going from an old script on this one.”
“Well,” I said. “Since I have met Griffin he has hauled me to the station to be interrogated several times. He has threatened to deport me when I accidentally assaulted him. He bolted when he met my mother and I haven’t seen him in two months. I meet up with him again today and he spends pretty much the entire day scowling at me, and then he kidnaps me and dumps me here. At this point I’ve got to say that if you are concerned for his virtue with me, don’t worry, it is completely safe.”
“That explains the weird mood he’s been in lately” Lee muttered. “Look, I don’t want to interfere with whatever it is that my boy’s doing.”
“But you’re going to aren’t you?”
“Only because I think he’s going to screw this up and I’ve never seen him look at a woman like he looks at you.”
I stared at Lee incredulously. “I don’t know what you think you are seeing, but the expression that he has when he looks at me is generally anger, with some exasperation and a little bit of annoyance. Maybe there’s a flash of attraction every now and then but that is it.”
