Killing Time

by Leslie Kelly

  “You never picked it up?”

  Mick shook his head. “Never touched the thing.”

  Lyons leaned over the desk, appearing out of the corner so fast Mick hadn’t even noticed. “So someone else took the gun out of this office while you were showing Ms. Lamb the property?”

  Someone. Sophie. That was the name they wanted him to give. Not that he was going to do it. “A number of people were in and out of the office that day.”

  The man persisted. “Including your sister.”

  “I don’t recall.” He blessed his reputation as being Mr. Cool. Considering the number of times he’d gotten angry recently, he was lucky he didn’t let his temper rise with these guys.

  Lyons frowned. “She already admitted she was here that day.”

  “So why’d you ask me?” Mick shot back.

  Lyons stepped away and Willis took over again. “Does your sister have a temper? Like you?”

  Mick chuckled. “Me? I don’t have much of a temper. As most of the town will tell you, I’m a lover not a fighter.” His voice continued just the right amount of self-deprecation and charm.

  Willis merely tilted his head, looking confused. “Well, that’s interesting, considering the incident at your college.”

  Damn.

  “That was a fluke.”

  “And at the Mainline Tavern last week. A few people said you were looking for trouble.”

  Damn again.

  Mick leaned back in his chair, giving them both a rueful, man-to-man look. “Look, both of those occasions involved woman trouble, and I never laid a hand on anybody. It was me being mad at myself for being a stupid sucker.”

  They shared a look, one every man on earth knew and had worn in his life. They understood that much. Mick relaxed a bit.

  “And you say neither you nor Ms. Lamb touched the gun?”

  Mick nodded. “That’s correct. Louise was the only one who touched it, so I assume the only fingerprints on it would be hers…and the killer’s. Have you already gotten Louise’s fingerprints to compare them?”

  The detectives exchanged a look. Mick sensed the men were annoyed with one another. “We, uh, will be obtaining Ms. Flanagan’s information shortly. She’s been sequestered with the victim’s brother, helping him through his grief.”

  Louise and Pastor Bob? He almost laughed, thinking the officers were mistaken. Then he remembered that day on the street when Louise had told him how the pastor was helping her. Maybe helping her by giving her someone else to focus her attention on, once she’d gotten her ridiculous crush on Mick out of the way?

  It wasn’t out of the question. Louise was a nice, honest young woman. Pastor Bob was only in his forties, and had probably been lonely since the death of his wife. He could think of worse matches.

  “So,” Mick continued, “as soon as you rule out Louise’s prints, and focus on whomever else’s are on that gun, you’ll be able to eliminate other suspects. Including my sister. Right?”

  Lyons responded. “We’re not free to discuss the details of the case, Mr. Winchester.”

  Mick was ready to tell him to stuff the details of the case when they all heard the ring of a cell phone. Lyons answered and spoke quietly, then listened for several long moments. Willis leaned forward in his chair, and Mick had the feeling this phone call was important.

  As Lyons finished his call, a smile appeared on his dour face. That was the first one Mick had seen today. After he’d disconnected, he looked at his partner. “It’s in.”

  “And?”

  “It’s a match.”

  AS SOON AS Caro heard from Hildy that Sophie Winchester had been taken into custody for questioning in the death of Miss Hester, she raced home to Mick’s house. It was late Saturday morning, and the cast and crew were preparing for the second-to-last elimination episode. A big one. Not that she cared. She’d been out of the trailer thirty seconds after Hildy had come in, not even telling anyone she was leaving.

  When she arrived, she saw a black sports car in Mick’s driveway. Inside, she followed the sound of voices to the rec room and found Mick involved in a discussion with his cousin, Jared, and Jared’s wife, Gwen. Mick saw her, stood and gave her a quick hard kiss. “You heard.”

  She nodded, then extended a big thermos. “Hildy sent this.”

  “Hildy’s coffee,” Jared murmured.

  Gwen, a pretty woman with waist-length blond hair, laughed lightly. “I think we’re going to need it.”

  Caro sat down and asked Mick for an update.

  “She hasn’t been charged. Daniel called and said they took her in for questioning. She’s at the State Police substation in Margate. He’s there now, with Sophie’s lawyer and my parents.”

  Caro had a basic understanding of the law because of all the cop shows she’d watched over the years. “They have to charge her or let her go, right?”

  “They can hold her for twenty-four hours. Then, if they don’t charge her, yes, they’ll have to let her go.”

  Caro nodded, relieved the police didn’t have enough evidence to charge Sophie with a crime. Yet. “So what happens now?”

  Mick looked at his cousin. “Jared was just about to fill us in on some details about the victim.”

  Gwen, who’d been in the kitchen getting cups for the coffee, returned in time to overhear. “Please tell me there’s another suspect somewhere. I hate to think of Sophie in that place.”

  Jared leaned forward on the sofa, dropping his elbows on his knees, staring at Mick. His brow furrowed, his dark eyes grew intense. “Miss Hester has a very secretive past. She disappeared for a long time during her early twenties. When she came back to her family, she was using the name Esmerelda Devane.”

  Esmerelda? That wasn’t a name she’d picture for the woman.

  Mick also looked puzzled, tilting his head. “Something about that name sounds familiar.”

  “Apparently Esmerelda was her middle name. She was married briefly to someone named Devane out in California,” Jared explained. “I have my investigator looking into those missing years. But until we know more, we have to look at other options.”

  “Local options,” Gwen said, looking thoughtful.

  Mick nodded. “Jared’s not the only one with friends. An old friend of mine works as a clerk in the Margate substation.” He cast a quick glance at Caro, but she didn’t so much as flinch, despite being certain Mick was referring to a former girlfriend.

  He continued. “She says the notes found with the gun mention a woman’s name. And they set up a time and place for a meeting.”

  “Was Esmerelda the name? Maybe Miss Hester was being blackmailed,” Caro said.

  He shook his head. “No, the name was Victoria Lynn. And my friend tells me the reason Sophie’s being questioned is because a note with the same name, found in another part of the house, has both Sophie’s and Miss Hester’s fingerprints on it.”

  Caro sucked in a shocked breath. That was pretty damning.

  “How’d they get Sophie’s fingerprints?” Jared asked, looking surprised. “I know Daniel wouldn’t have let her give them voluntarily, and they didn’t bring her in until this morning.”

  Gwen had the answer. “She told me months ago she took a fingerprinting class to be sure she could get the details right in her books. Every student was fingerprinted for practice.”

  “And the police could have subpoenaed those prints,” Mick said, shaking his head in disgust. “Too bad Sophie was such a detail-oriented writer.”

  This was looking worse and worse for Sophie. Caro didn’t know her that well, she’d only met her a few times, but she still had trouble believing the woman could hurt a fly, no matter what she did in her imagination. But, if it were anyone else, she’d at least be wondering because of the evidence mounting up against her.

  “Have they matched her prints to the gun?” Caro asked.

  Mick shook his head. “No, they haven’t, according to my source. So far, the victim’s are the only prints they’ve officia
lly identified on the gun.”

  “Interesting,” Jared mused. Then he furrowed his brow, sitting back in the chair and rubbing the corners of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. Gwen watched him, as did Mick. They seemed familiar with this deep-thinking mode. Caro fell silent, too, interested in the criminologist’s viewpoint.

  Finally Jared murmured, “How do you know Louise left the gun in your office that day?”

  Caro and Mick exchanged a look. Obviously Mick had filled his cousin in on the entire story before her arrival. “You told her to drop it,” she said.

  “I heard a thump.”

  Then they both looked at Jared, who was shaking his head, looking disgusted with himself. “Don’t you see? There’s another explanation. There’s another way someone could have gotten hold of that gun.”

  He paused, and Caro couldn’t help inserting a little mental Columbo music during the heavy pause. “Louise never dropped the gun,” he finally concluded.

  Mick and Caro looked at each other again, both trying hard to remember every detail of that day in his office. Finally, Mick nodded slowly. “You could be right. She might not have. In which case, we need to find out what happened to it after she left.”

  Gwen cleared her throat and everyone turned their attention toward her. “I’ve heard rumors that Louise and Pastor Bob are an item. Is it possible Miss Hester didn’t approve, and Louise, um, wanted her out of the way?”

  That was one of Caro’s first thoughts. But the two men in the room looked doubtful. “You don’t know Louise,” Jared said, dismissing the idea.

  Mick appeared to agree. “If she was going to commit murder, I’m sure she would have done in her rotten hooligan little brothers sometime over the years.”

  Caro and Gwen exchanged a look, neither convinced.

  “I’m going to try to do some more background checking on Esmerelda Devane,” Jared said. He stood and reached out a hand to Gwen.

  His wife nodded, a determined look on her face. “Drop me off downtown on your way home,” she told Jared. “I have a feeling the rumor mill in Derryville might come in handy.” She looked at Mick. “If there’s any secret to be found about Miss Hester I’ll hear about it at the Hair and There Salon.”

  Her husband ran his fingers through a long strand of her golden-blond hair. “Don’t you dare let Pammy Morrison lay one finger on your hair.”

  Gwen laughed softly and looked at Caro. “She’s been after me to get a bob.”

  Jared visibly shuddered.

  “While you two are at that,” Mick said, “I’m going to talk to Louise.”

  Caro instantly rose to her feet. “Not alone you’re not.”

  “You don’t have to come.”

  “Oh, yes, I do. The last time you were alone with that woman, she held a gun on you. And no matter what you say about how nice she is, I still think she’s nutty. So I’m coming along.”

  He gave her one of those devastatingly sexy smiles, which made her relax in spite of the circumstances. “To protect my body?”

  More to protect her own heart, since Caro couldn’t imagine what she’d do if anything happened to Mick. But now wasn’t the time or place to admit such a thing. So she merely smirked. “Damn right. And you’d better get used to it.”

  AS MICK AND CAROLINE drove over to the church to track down Louise, Mick couldn’t stop running the details over in his mind. Sophie in jail. Unbelievable. A murder in Derryville. Also unbelievable.

  And those names. Something about those names…

  “What are you thinking?” Caroline asked.

  He glanced over to see her staring at him with tender concern. “Just going through it all in my mind. There’s something there. Something I’m missing.”

  “Do you really think Louise will be honest about what happened?” Caro asked.

  Mick nodded. “Look, it’s just as impossible for me to believe that Louise had anything to do with this as it is for me to think of Sophie as a murderer.”

  “Okay. If you’re sure,” she said.

  He heard the doubtful tone in her voice and wasn’t surprised. And yet even with those doubts about Louise, she’d wanted to come along. To protect him.

  “Mick, you do understand that with Sophie being taken into custody, this changes things.”

  His hands tightened on the steering wheel. She didn’t even have to say what she meant. “You’re talking about the show. The press.”

  “Yes. When the word gets out—”

  “The studio won’t be so scared of slander, because now it’s official that she’s a suspect.”

  He looked over at Caroline. She nodded, watching him with wide eyes, waiting for his reaction. He honestly didn’t know how to react. In one moment, the woman was ready to face down a possible murderess to protect him. In the next, she’d admitted that her company might engage in a smear campaign against his sister.

  “That puts you in a tough position,” he murmured, wanting to know what she was feeling. “What are you going to do?”

  What would she do, if it came down to it? Would she leave Sophie out there, free for the cast and crew of Killing Time to crucify in upcoming television interviews? Or would she take a stand?

  “I don’t know,” she finally said, shaking her head as she stared out the window. “I honestly don’t know.”

  A stab of disappointment raced through him. He didn’t know what he’d expected. Maybe for Caroline to say she’d walk out, quit her job, stick to her principles?

  And stay with him.

  Before they had time to discuss it further, they reached the church and parked outside the pastor’s residence. “Let me do the talking, okay?” he said as they got out of the car.

  She nodded, still quiet after their conversation. A conversation they’d have to continue later.

  Louise answered the door within a few moments of their knock. “Mick!” She stepped out, threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “How sweet of you to drop by. Bob will be so glad.” Then she turned to Caroline and gave her a pleasant, if sheepish, smile.

  Louise looked different. Though weary, her face was pretty and soft, with a hint of makeup that he’d never seen her wear before. She also wore a dress instead of her usual overalls.

  Somehow, she fit very well in the church residence. All the rumors about her relationship with Pastor Bob seemed to be true.

  “Louise, can you talk to us for a few minutes?”

  She looked confused, then shrugged and nodded. “Yes, of course, but can we step outside? Bob’s lying down. He’s having such a hard time dealing with this.”

  Of course he would be. Mick couldn’t even imagine losing his sister. To death. Or to prison.

  They stepped onto the porch, and Mick wondered exactly how to broach the topic. But he didn’t have to. Caro charged right in. “Louise, have the police questioned you about the gun yet?”

  So much for letting him do the talking.

  Louise’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “The gun? What gun?”

  Mick cast a stern look at Caroline. She winced, and bit her lip. “The gun used to kill Miss Hester,” Mick explained. “It appears it was the one you brought to my office…that day.”

  Every bit of color drained out of Louise Flanagan’s face. She went as pale as a bowl of Ed’s tasteless grits down at the diner.

  Right then and there, Mick knew without a doubt that she’d had nothing to do with the murder, not that he’d ever thought she had. But there was no way she could feign such shock.

  Caroline also seemed to notice Louise’s distress. She put her hand on the other woman’s shoulder and grabbed her arm, lending support. Knowing Louise probably had sixty pounds on Caroline, he grabbed the other arm.

  “You didn’t know?” Caroline asked.

  Louise just shook her head. “Bob…what will I say to Bob?”

  She looked dazed, and Mick hadn’t even gotten to the most important part yet.

  “I can’t believe the police haven’t
questioned you yet,” Caro said, sounding confused.

  “They tried calling yesterday, but I’d gone out.”

  Yesterday. After they’d questioned Mick in his office. Christ, the cops hadn’t even confirmed the story of the gun with the woman who’d been carrying it! They’d just accepted Caro’s and Mick’s statements as fact.

  Now it was time to get the real facts. “What did you do with the gun that day?”

  She blinked a few times, looked back and forth between Mick and Caroline. She suddenly seemed less dazed, but now a puzzled frown pulled at her brow. Finally she explained. “I came right here to the church. I wanted to see Pastor Bob, to talk to him, but he wasn’t in.” She looked at Caro. “We were just friends then, and he was the nicest man I knew. I figured he’d understand.”

  “But he wasn’t here?” Caro prompted.

  “Right. I was standing in the reception area with some others. We all heard Sophie,” she glanced at Mick, the color returning to her face, “your sister, arguing with Miss Hester. Then she left. And I waited until Miss Hester was alone, so I could ask her about Pastor Bob.”

  Mick was beginning to understand what Louise was telling them. He almost knew what she was going to say before she said it. “You were alone with Miss Hester?”

  Louise nodded, tears rising in her eyes. “I was so embarrassed, Mick, so horribly embarrassed. Miss Hester made me realize it wasn’t a good idea to tell Pastor Bob what a fool I’d been. She offered to help.”

  Of course she did. And Mick suddenly knew exactly how Pastor Bob’s sister had offered to help. Louise’s words confirmed it.

  “Miss Hester took the gun.”

  JACEY HAD BEEN LOOKING for Caro all afternoon, but couldn’t find her. She needed to talk to the woman, needed to get her alone to try to find out how the heck she’d pulled off the miracle of getting Jacey’s job back.

  She knew damn well Renauld hadn’t done it out of the goodness of his heart. He’d acted that way, of course, when he and Caro had called Jacey to the production trailer and told her she’d been rehired. But Jacey had known Caro was responsible.

  She was thankful. But also unhappy with the one stipulation: that she stay away from Digg.