Cozy Creek

by K M Morgan

  In addition to Rufus’s safety, there was the fact that Chloe needed to get a confession out of the killer. She’d have a hard time getting one, or any leads, if they clammed up with tension.

  Chloe leaned over and gave Rufus a few pets.

  “I’m sorry, little buddy. I’m afraid a murder investigation is no place for a corgi.”

  She then gave him a few treats, said a quick good-bye to her furry little pal, and hit the road.

  ***

  Chloe decided to approach Sasha Irwin next. There was a cloud of mystery around the children’s show host. Chloe had heard Ryan Foster trying to blackmail her at the party with the mention of some reputation-killing photographs, but she didn’t know what was in those photos. It was time to find out.

  When Chloe pulled onto Sasha’s street, she saw that a surprise was waiting for her. Eric Voss, the greasy-haired man that slammed Ryan Foster into a car door outside the party last night, was probably the least likely person that Chloe ever expected to see at Sasha’s door. Yet there he was, having it out with Sasha on her doorstep. What connection did he have with her? It appeared there were a few more mysteries to solve, rather than just who killed Ryan Foster.

  Chloe wanted nothing more than to storm over and get between them. That would do her no good. She had taken the “bull in a china shop” approach with Olivia, with poor results. It would not be wise to make that same mistake twice in a row. Besides, the best thing she had going for her at that moment was the element of surprise.

  Chloe drove by Sasha’s house, then parked on the sidewalk a few houses away. That would give her the chance to be close enough to observe from afar, but not too close to give away the fact that she was snooping. The downside was that Chloe couldn’t get close enough to hear what was being said without blowing her cover.

  For now, she could only really monitor their body language. That ended up saying more than Chloe expected. Eric and Sasha were having a heated conversation. The kind of discussion that most people did their best not to have in public places. On the surface, it appeared to be a conversation that would be better had in the comfort and privacy of Sasha’s home. Then again, Sasha looked determined to get Eric to leave as soon as possible.

  She wasn’t having much luck. Eric was steaming and only became more so as the conversation went on. Chloe had a hunch that she’d want to record this interaction for later use. She pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of the two chewing each other out.

  She was glad she did. At the peak of their argument, something unexpected happened. Sasha slammed her door in Eric’s face.

  Chloe certainly knew what that felt like. She was relieved to see that it had happened to someone else this time. Understandably, Eric did not take the door-slamming well.

  He got piping mad, yelled something at the closed door, and then trudged back to his car, looking like he could punch a hole in a wall if one was readily available. When Eric got back into his sedan, he slammed his hand against his steering wheel, then groaned to burn off some steam.

  As Eric turned on his ignition and started backing out of the driveway, Chloe suddenly found herself with an interesting decision to make. There were two suspects she wanted to question, but she could only choose one to go after right now. By the looks of it, Sasha Irwin would be staying in her house for the time being. Eric Voss, meanwhile, was on the move, and Chloe had no idea where he was headed next.

  In her mind, this was her best chance of tracking him down, so she decided not to let this opportunity slip away. Eric drove down the road, then made a right on Willow Street. Chloe kept a safe distance while tailing him, in hopes that he wouldn’t notice her behind him. The question now became, where was he headed?

  Chapter Eighteen

  After a short stretch on the Mid-Cape Highway, Eric exited, and pulled into the parking lot of McKittrick’s Sports Bar. Chloe had never been happier to see a bar in all her life. She had worried that Eric was headed home, where he could bail on their conversation at any time, and slam his front door in her face if things went south.

  A public place like a coffee shop, restaurant, or bar was an ideal location for questioning a suspect. No one, much less a murder suspect, wanted to make a scene in front of a crowd of people. The prospect of getting pepper-sprayed also drastically went down if Chloe was in the middle of a crowded bar.

  Eric’s weapon of choice when angry was most likely his fists and not a can of pepper spray. Chloe hoped this confrontation wouldn’t come to that. It would be nice to have a civil conversation for a change. Given Eric’s propensity for slamming people into car doors and using his steering wheel as a punching bag, that was highly unlikely. Knowing Eric’s temper, he was an ideal suspect to test a softer approach with.

  Chloe let him head into the bar first. She gave him a couple of minutes to settle in, then made her entrance.

  ***

  Once she was inside, Chloe spotted Eric sitting at the bar. The place was just busy enough that she was confident Eric wouldn’t want to cause a scene. The bar area itself was pretty empty, with most of the patrons opting to sit in a booth and watch the game or stay busy playing billiards.

  Chloe approached the bar, then took a seat at the stool beside Eric. At first, he was too busy nursing his pint of beer to even look at her. It was clear he wanted to keep to himself. Chloe decided to ease into her questioning. She started off nice and slow.

  “Rough day?” she asked.

  Eric laughed.

  Chloe already knew what the answer was to her question, so she was surprised at how much Eric understated the drama that had occurred.

  “You could say that,” Eric replied.

  “It could be worse.”

  Eric glanced at Chloe out the corner of his eyes, but still paid more attention to his drink than to her.

  “Oh yeah? How would you know?”

  “At least you’re not Ryan Foster,” Chloe said.

  That got Eric’s attention. He put his beer down and turned to her. With everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, apparently Chloe’s face had gotten lost in the shuffle. Eric didn’t seem to recognize her from the police lineup. That suited her just fine.

  Eric got short with her. “Who are you, and what do you want?”

  Chloe took out her phone, pulled up the photo of Eric and Sasha arguing, then fired back.

  “I want to know what this is about,” she insisted.

  Eric became outraged. “You were following me?”

  “I’d watch that temper if I were you. Do you really want to cause a scene in the middle of a crowded bar?”

  Eric looked around the place, then simmered down a little.

  “Why were you following me?” he asked.

  “I wasn’t. I was there to talk to Sasha Irwin about some unsavory photos. Is that why you were there too?”

  “How do you know about the pictures?”

  “I know more than you think. Like the fact that you slammed Ryan Foster into a car door last night just hours before he was murdered.”

  Eric narrowed his eyes. “You’re not accusing me of murder, are you?”

  Eric made it hard to use a softer approach. He had a rage that looked ready to blow at any moment.

  Chloe had to try and calm things down a little, so Eric didn’t run out. There were too many questions still unanswered.

  “I’m just a woman with a lot of questions that you happen to have the answers to. Now, why were you at Sasha Irwin’s?”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  An idea came to Chloe. She got up from the bar, then made a motion to the front door. “Fine. I’ll show this photo to the police and let them sort it out with you.”

  Eric groaned. “Stop.”

  Chloe turned around.

  “What do you want to know?” Eric asked.

  “The truth. I know Ryan was trying to blackmail her with some photos. Were you in on it, and then Ryan tried to cut you out at the last minute? Is that
why you threw him into a car door outside the party last night?

  He shook his head. “No. It’s nothing like that.”

  “Then what is it like?”

  Eric hesitated to spill the beans.

  Chloe pressed on. “It’s best just to come clean. If you’re innocent, you have nothing to hide.”

  Eric sighed. “Look, I needed money. The bank was going to take my house. Ryan knew that and came to me at work with a proposal. He said he had a surefire way to make some easy cash. He told me he was tight with someone who worked behind-the-scenes at the horse track, and that he had an inside scoop from one of the trainers. Ryan told me if I bet on Lucky Star in the third race, I’d be guaranteed to win.”

  “You know there’s no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to betting? That’s why it’s called gambling,” Chloe said.

  “I was desperate, all right?”

  “How much did you lose?”

  It pained Eric to admit the amount. “Twenty grand.”

  Chloe’s eyes opened wide. “That’s crazy money. But here’s what I don’t understand. If you didn’t have enough money to pay your mortgage, how did you come up with twenty thousand dollars to bet on a horse race?”

  “I didn’t. That’s the problem.”

  “So you bet money you didn’t have?”

  Eric nodded. “Money that my bookie is coming to collect on.”

  “Let me guess, Ryan lost money he didn’t have either,” Chloe said.

  Eric was caught in a cycle of denial. “It was supposed to be a lock.”

  “Is that how the idea to blackmail Sasha Irwin came up?”

  Eric nodded. “Ryan told me he had these unsavory photos of her from college, and that he could get forty grand out of her to get both of us squared away with the bookie.”

  “It didn’t turn out that way, did it?”

  Eric stared off into the distance, regret weighing heavy on his mind. “No. She kept refusing to pay. The fact is, she still hasn’t paid, and she never will.”

  “So that’s why you are at Sasha’s today. Trying to pick up the blackmailing where Ryan left off.”

  “It doesn’t matter. She never intended to pay anyone a single dime.”

  “I guess the next question is, what are in these photos that you and Ryan thought they’d be worth forty-thousand dollars?” Chloe asked.

  “Ryan told me they were of her doing some hard drugs back in college,” Eric explained.

  That answer only made Chloe more curious. “He told you? So you haven’t actually seen them?”

  “No.”

  “If you haven’t even seen the photos, much less have a copy of them, how did you expect to blackmail Sasha?”

  “She doesn’t know I haven’t seen them. I told her if she gave me the money, no one would ever see them.”

  “You blackmailed her with a bluff?”

  “I tried to, at least. It doesn’t matter now—it didn’t work.”

  “Let me get this straight, you were willing to do all that, yet you expect me to believe you didn’t kill Ryan Foster?” Chloe asked.

  “Look, you wanted the truth. There it is,” Eric replied.

  “I want the whole truth.”

  Eric stepped away from the bar. “I don’t have time for this. I need to come up with a way to get twenty grand, or that bookie is going to kill me.”

  Chloe stared into his eyes. “There’s something you’re not telling me about last night.”

  “You’re crazy. You can sit there like a little know-it-all, but ask yourself this, why would I bother killing Ryan? If anything, I needed him to stay alive. With him dead, I’m sitting here twenty grand short.”

  “Yeah, now. But maybe that wasn’t the original plan. Perhaps you were convinced that the blackmailing would work, so you killed Ryan with the intention of taking all the money. Then you could give twenty to the bookie, and pocket the other twenty for yourself.”

  Eric became defiant. “That’s not true.”

  Chloe didn’t back down. She stared deeper into his eyes. “You say that, but there’s something missing here. After all, desperate times lead to desperate measures.”

  Eric started backing away. “This conversation is over.”

  “Where are you going? You shouldn’t run. It only makes you look guilty.”

  He didn’t heed her warning. Eric high-tailed it to the door, then darted out.

  Chloe stood at the bar and sighed. She had done her best to keep things from getting out of hand. Once again, she failed.

  If she didn’t have more work to do, she would have sat back down at the bar and grab a drink. Instead, she headed back over to Sasha Irwin’s.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chloe couldn’t get over the fact that every answer she received just seemed to lead to more questions. The ultimate solution eluded her, at least for now. If she wasn’t careful, she could drive herself nuts spinning her head around in circles. As she pulled up to Sasha Irwin’s house, it was important to get her focus back.

  Chloe hated confronting people at home. There was such a limited window to work with. Not to mention the suspect had an easy out. Despite her bad past experiences, she couldn’t give up. Besides, maybe things would be different this time.

  Chloe rang the bell, then waited on Sasha’s doorstep impatiently.

  Suddenly Chloe realized that at least one part of Sasha’s alibi was true, she did have a German Shepherd. Chloe could hear the dog barking like crazy as it peered out Sasha’s living room window.

  Fifteen seconds later, Chloe heard Sasha’s voice on the other side of the door.

  “Who is it?” Sasha asked.

  “Chloe Cook, from the party last night.”

  “What do you want?” Sasha wondered.

  “Can you just come out here and talk to me for a second?”

  “I’m not in the mood to talk to anyone. I just want to be left alone.”

  Unfortunately, the soft approach wasn’t working. Chloe would have to play hardball.

  “I have a very interesting picture here that I’d like to discuss with you face-to-face. If you don’t want to do that, maybe I can hand it over to the police,” Chloe said.

  Chloe heard the door unlocking in a hurry. The front door then swung open. Sasha Irwin looked completely bent out of shape. Chloe knew she didn’t have much time. Sasha looked like a volcano that could erupt at any time. What a combustible mix to have to juggle.

  Sasha didn’t waste any time ripping into Chloe. “Are you here to blackmail me too?”

  “No. I’m here to find out who killed Ryan Foster,” Chloe replied.

  “Then you’ve come to the wrong place.”

  “What is the right place then?”

  Sheridan Show me this supposed photo or the conversation is over,” Sasha demanded.

  Sasha had played Chloe’s hand. Chloe was in a bind now. Sasha clearly thought Chloe had one of the notorious photos that Ryan Foster had tried to blackmail her with. When she found out Chloe just had a photo of her and Eric Voss arguing, Chloe would probably have a door slammed in her face in short time.

  Still, Chloe had to make do with what was available. She pulled up the photo on her phone of Sasha and Eric arguing.

  Sasha scoffed the moment she saw it. “Is that all you have? Goodbye.”

  Chloe would have to talk her way back into this conversation. Now was the time to use the gift of gab that worked so well in her sales career.

  “Just because I don’t have the photo of you doing drugs, doesn’t mean it’s not out there. If I turn the picture I have on my phone over to the police and tell them about both Ryan and Eric’s schemes to blackmail you, you’d better believe the police will be searching Ryan’s house top to bottom to find that unsavory photo of you.”

  Sasha was dismissive but didn’t disappear back into her house. “Let them look. Odds are, they won’t find anything.”

  “Do you want to take that chance?”

  Instead of answering Chloe
’s question, Sasha fired back one of her own. “What do you want from me?”

  “I don’t want trouble,” Chloe insisted.

  Sasha folded her arms. “Really? You could have fooled me.”

  “I just want the truth. Nothing more, nothing less. Now I’m going to be honest with you, if you don’t talk to me, I’ll go to the police. Then you’ll just have to answer their questions, and let me tell you, they won’t be as congenial as I am.”

  Sasha groaned. “Fine. Fire away.”

  “Let’s talk blackmail.”

  “That’s a waste of time.”

  “I disagree. That seems like the best use of time. Forty-thousand dollars is a lot of money, even given the fact that your reputation and job would be at stake if those pictures got out.”

  “What I meant is, it’s a waste of time because there are no pictures.”

  Chloe furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?”

  “Everyone thinks I didn’t give Ryan the money because I decided just to kill him instead. The real reason I didn’t give him the forty grand was because I didn’t believe he actually had the photos that he was threatening me with.”

  That was an incredible yarn Sasha was weaving. Would it rip apart at the seams if Chloe started poking holes in it with a few questions?

  “Are you saying he was just bluffing this whole time? That he was trying to blackmail you with smoke and mirrors?”

  “You tell me. He went to all these efforts to blackmail me, yet never once could he produce any actual photos. Not the originals, not a copy, nothing. He kept telling me I wouldn’t get to see the pictures until I gave him the money.”

  Chloe was blown away. “That’s unbelievable.”

  “I know. So imagine my surprise when Eric Voss shows up on my doorstep trying to blackmail me with phantom pictures too.”

  Chloe clarified her statement. “I meant, it’s hard for me to believe your story. Why would Ryan think he could blackmail you without any actual photographs to do it with? More importantly, if you really didn’t believe Ryan had the photos, why did you storm out of the party last night in an absolute panic?”