by K M Morgan
Hope gave her a half smile, nowhere near as confident as Chloe was about the situation.
“Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but there’s only so much you can do,” she reasoned.
“Look, just hang in there,” Chloe insisted.
“That’s easier said than done.”
“I know it doesn’t seem like it, but everything is going to be okay.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ll see to that.”
Hope furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to get you out of this jam,” Chloe said.
“How?”
“By finding the real killer.”
Hope’s jaw dropped. At first, she didn’t know what to say. After catching her breath, she was finally able to formulate a sentence. “Are you sure about this?”
“This isn’t my first choice, but we can’t rely on the police to catch the right person. The only way to prove your innocence is to find the real killer.”
Hope was still in a state of disbelief. “You’d really do that for me?”
“Of course. You’re my friend. I’m not going to just sit around and let you get wrongfully accused of murder.”
“Chloe, you’re more than just a friend. No one has ever done anything like this for me.”
“Well, I’m not doing it alone.”
Hope looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“If I’m going to crack this case, I’m going to need your help.”
“Uh, sure. Of course. What do you need from me?”
“I want you to look up everything you can on all the suspects, and I mean everything. It doesn’t matter how trivial it may seem. Sometimes the smallest details lead to the biggest breaks.”
“Okay. I can do that,” Hope said.
“And pay close attention to social media updates. It’s amazing the dumb things people post on the Internet,” Chloe replied.
Hope laughed. “Isn’t that the truth?”
Chloe took a deep breath. “All right. Time to get to work. Wish me luck.”
“Knock them dead,” Hope said. She then reconsidered her phrasing. “Not literally, of course.”
“No. One of the suspects has already done that.”
Hope gave her friend a look of great admiration and heartfelt gratitude. “Thanks again for doing this.”
“Don’t thank me yet. There’s still plenty of work to be done.”
“Be careful out there,” Hope said.
“As crazy as it is to admit, this is far from my first time doing this.”
“That is pretty insane to think about, Chloe.”
“Even more amazing is how much I’ve gotten out of those self-defense classes I took last year,” Chloe said.
“Well, let’s hope you don’t need them this time around,” Hope insisted.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about sleuthing, it’s that there’s no way to tell what’s going to happen out there,” Chloe said.
***
Before diving into the investigation, Chloe had to get her thoughts straight. Her mind was going in ten different directions. She needed to take a breather in private to refocus. An investigation like this demanded her full attention. Distraction could lead to disaster.
Besides, Victoria Ryan’s combative scorched-earth personality created a lot of enemies. Half a dozen people wanted her dead. The question was, who was the one to kill her? Chloe started to run down the list of suspects in her head.
First, there was Noah Bryant. Noah was a rising star who seemed primed for his big break. He was also Victoria’s latest crush. Noah did not share an affection for her. He was interested in Hope Callahan, instead. Victoria couldn’t take that. The idea of being upstaged by her own assistant was too much for Victoria’s ego to take. When Noah rebuffed Victoria’s advances, she threatened to ruin his career. For a burgeoning star like Noah, the thought of having everything he’d worked so hard for being taken away was terrifying. When people were backed into a corner, they could do some crazy things. Did that include murder?
Ben Harrington was next. Ben was not only a comic, but he was also Victoria’s ex-boyfriend. The rise of Ben’s career had coincided directly with his relationship with Victoria. For a time, it seemed like he was on top of the world. Then, Victoria broke up with him. Now, not only was he still hung up on Victoria, but his career was in dire straits. Seeing Victoria going gaga over Noah Bryant was the last straw for him. Jealousy and heartbreak were a dangerous combination. Were they deadly this time?
Tony Ryan was also on the list. Tony was Victoria’s underachieving son. He’d grown up in her shadow and appeared poised to stay there forever. Victoria and Tony had a rocky relationship at best. It was clear Tony expected favoritism from his mother when it came to his attempts at becoming a star, but if anything, Victoria seemed embarrassed by him. Ironically, Tony’s greatest financial success would be coming from getting his mother’s inheritance, rather than through his own actions. Was it really irony at play, or was this Tony’s plan all along?
Isaac Hunter made the list as well. Of all Victoria’s confrontations from the night before, the one with Isaac might have been the most combative. Isaac had just been fired for stealing money from the club. In Isaac’s mind, his firing was a miscarriage of justice. Given the fact that he had medications to pay for and received no medical benefits while working at the club, he felt his thievery was completely justified. Now that he’d been canned, his livelihood had been taken away. Desperate times often led to desperate measures. Was that the case this time as well?
Leah Manning was next up in Chloe’s mind. Leah was one of Victoria’s former friends, not to mention Ben Harrington’s ex-wife. Victoria’s affair with Ben was what had torn Leah’s marriage apart, only to have Ben be discarded by Victoria later. It was clear Leah was still far from putting the trauma of the situation behind her. Were the emotional scars too much for Leah to bear? Had she killed Victoria to get her revenge?
Finally, there was Andrew Brown. Andrew was Victoria’s business partner. Victoria believed he should get out of her way and be a more silent partner, but Andrew had decided to speak up. He vehemently disagreed with the direction she was taking the club in, and resented how quickly she dismissed his vision of the club. With Victoria alive, Andrew’s role in the business would forever be marginalized. If Victoria was out of the picture, he could finally exert the control over the club that he wanted. Was that enough to kill for?
There were a lot of questions to be answered and not a lot of time to work with. Chloe knew she was in a race against the clock. She had to get a move on. No matter what it took, Chloe had to get to the bottom of this.
Chapter Fourteen
Chloe decided to head to the scene of the crime first to see if she could discover any additional evidence the police may have overlooked. When she arrived at the scene, her plans quickly changed. Imagine her surprise when she spotted Victoria’s son, Tony Ryan, snooping around the parking lot.
Tony sure looked suspicious. She had no idea what he was doing there. The only thing she could think of was that he’d left something incriminating behind and was trying to grab it before someone else found it.
Chloe approached Tony from behind and was successfully able to sneak up on him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
Tony was so startled that he almost jumped right out of his shoes. He whirled around clutching his chest as he tried to catch his breath.
“You scared me half to death. What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?” Tony asked.
“Answer my question first. What are you doing here?” she repeated.
“I could easily ask you the same thing.”
Tony was sure being evasive. It was a simple question. If he was having this much difficulty answering this one, what would he do when Chloe got to the hard questions?
“The difference is, I’m not a suspect in this case,” Chloe
reasoned.
“I shouldn’t be a suspect, either.”
“That’s what all the suspects say.”
“Yeah, but I’m the only suspect who is willing to go out and find the real killer just to make sure that justice is truly served,” Tony argued.
Chloe was critical of his answer. “So, that’s what you’re doing here, trying to scrape up evidence to solve the case?”
“You act like you don’t believe me.”
It was a novel approach. When most suspects got caught rummaging around the scene, they hightailed it away, making themselves look guiltier. Instead, Tony was putting on a sleuthing act to prove his innocence. Either way, Chloe didn’t buy it.
“It just seems awfully curious. Not to mention a convenient excuse, considering I just caught you here,” she explained.
Tony fired back at her. “Oh yeah? What are you doing here?”
“I was coming to see if the police missed any crucial evidence.”
“Why are you getting on my case, then? We’re doing the same thing.”
Chloe shook her head. “No, we’re not. I have an airtight alibi and no motive for wanting your mother dead. I cannot say the same thing about you.”
“How dare you throw accusations at me? I had no reason for wanting her dead. She was my mother.”
“She certainly didn’t act like it. Do you need me to elaborate, or can we leave the nasty details out of this conversation?”
“So she had an interesting way of expressing her love. I would never do something so hateful like killing her,” Tony insisted.
It turned out Tony had a flair for understatement. Victoria Ryan brought all-new meaning to the phrase “tough love.” The woman treated Tony not so much like a son, but rather a burden. She insulted his jokes, cut him from the show, and then told him to get tougher skin instead of giving him the comfort he so desperately wanted.
Chloe knew from past investigations that the more uncomfortable a suspect became, the more likely they were to let information slip out.
She decided to test those waters. “I saw how much she hurt you last night. She knew being a comic meant everything to you, and instead of nurturing your dreams, she just stomped on them. That sounds like motive to me. Now that she’s gone, you get to inherit her stake in the club. You can put yourself back on the schedule. Hey, you can even make yourself the headline act.”
Tony was defiant. “Stop! I loved my mother with all my heart. What you’re accusing me of doing is crazy.”
Chloe pressed on. “Sometimes love makes people do crazy things. Especially when a person’s love isn’t reciprocated by their own mother.”
Tony stepped back. “That’s it. We’re done here.”
Chloe could tell Tony was about to make a break for it. She had to use the only leverage at her disposal.
“Should I tell the police you’ve been sneaking around their crime scene? I’m sure they’d be interested in hearing that,” she said.
Tony stopped dead in his tracks. “What do you want from me?”
“It’s simple. I just want the truth.”
“I already told you—I’m trying to find my mom’s killer.”
Chloe had to hand it to Tony, he was sure sticking to his guns on this one.
“Let’s say I buy that. Who do you think the killer is?” she asked.
Tony didn’t hesitate with his answer. “Isaac Hunter.”
“Why?”
“He’s always had it out for my mom. The man gave her nothing but trouble, blaming her for every problem in his life. She wasn’t paying him enough, she was working him too much, she wasn’t giving him benefits, and she didn’t cut him any breaks. Not only was my mom nice enough to give him a job when no one else would, but she kept him on the staff after his outburst. After all that, he repaid her kindness by stealing from her.”
“Wait a minute—what kind of outburst did he have?” Chloe asked.
“Isaac is bipolar and doesn’t always take his meds. About three months ago, he came in looking completely crazed. He stormed the stage in the middle of someone’s set, stole the microphone from one of the comics, and then started telling some really inappropriate jokes. When the audience heckled him, he lashed out at them and told them off. Finally, security was able to drag him off the stage. I thought Isaac should have been fired, but he pleaded with my mother, and for some reason, she gave him another chance. Isaac Hunter is a wacko, and if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to prove he killed my mother,” Tony declared.
“That’s all very interesting, but none of that proves you’re innocent in this case.”
Tony didn’t like having the blame shifted back on him. This time, nothing was going to keep him from fleeing the scene. “We’re done. I’m out of here.”
Chloe could have darted after him, but not only was Tony a fast runner, but it was clear he wasn’t going to say another word to her. Knowing she had no more leverage to lean on him with, she decided to let him go.
After Tony left the scene, Chloe searched the parking lot, paying close attention to the area around the backstage door. After searching for twenty minutes, she didn’t find anything. She wasn’t sure if that was because there was nothing else to find, because the police had gathered everything, or because Tony had pocketed something incriminating before she’d arrived.
Either way, there was no reason to hang around anymore, not with so many more suspects to interview.
Chapter Fifteen
Chloe’s investigation got off to an interesting start. Then again, she realized that was pretty par for the course when trying to crack a murder case. An investigation like this would never be easy. After all, it wasn’t like the guilty party was going to walk around with a smoking gun.
The conversation didn’t end with Tony Ryan. Her visit to Isaac Hunter started off inauspiciously as well. When Chloe pulled her car onto Isaac’s street, she realized that she had arrived just in time.
Isaac was loading a box into the beat-up sedan that was parked in his driveway. The car was packed to the gills. It looked like everything he owned was in that car. He appeared to be in a hurry to skip town.
There was only one way for Chloe to stop him and get some questions in. She pulled her car into the driveway and parked directly behind his.
Isaac turned to her as she got out of her car. He looked highly annoyed.
Chloe knew she had little time to work with, so she got right to the point.
“Going somewhere?” she asked.
Isaac was less than cooperative. “Yes, and you’re blocking my car. Why don’t you turn right back around and get out of here? I don’t have anything to say to you or anyone else.”
Chloe wasn’t going to let him off that easy. “Where are you headed?”
He remained dismissive. “That’s none of your business.”
“You don’t get to decide that. The detective specifically told all the suspects not to leave town. I’m sure the detective would be interested to hear that you’re disobeying his orders.”
Isaac became combative. “Are you threatening to rat on me?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether you answer my questions.”
Isaac groaned. “What do you want from me?”
“The truth about what happened last night.”
“I already told the detective everything I know. I have nothing more to say.”
“Then why are you in such a hurry to leave town?” Chloe asked.
“There’s no reason for me to stay in this place anymore.”
Chloe had a different take. “Most people would say you’re running because you’re guilty.”
Isaac narrowed his eyes at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know you were fired last night. That you have a shaky alibi for the time of the murder. And that you’re in a hurry to get out of town.”
“I’m leaving town because no one else in the Cape is going to h
ire me. If I go somewhere else where I don’t have a history, I can start out fresh.”
“When you say history, you mean a place where you haven’t had a bipolar outburst where you stormed onstage and antagonized the audience?”
Isaac furrowed his brow. “How did you know about that?”
“Tony Ryan clued me in. You know, he’s convinced that you’re the one who murdered his mother,” Chloe revealed.
Isaac scoffed. “Of course he’d say that.”
“What do you mean, of course?”
“Don’t you see? He’s trying to throw the blame off himself.”
“Maybe you’re doing that too.”
Isaac shook his head. “No. Think about it—Tony had the most to gain from his mother’s murder. With her death, he had an unloving mother out of his hair, and now gets to inherit her business.”
Chloe put the ball back in his court. “You had a motive, too. After all, you were just fired last night.”
“It doesn’t mean I killed her.”
“That would be easier to believe if you didn’t have a history of unpredictable behavior. Who said you didn’t have another outburst last night? Being fired is a traumatic event.”
“I don’t have a history of outbursts. I had one…and that was months ago. Things are different now,” Isaac insisted.
“Oh, really? I overheard your conversation with Victoria last night. You justified stealing from the business because you couldn’t afford to pay for your medications on your hourly wage alone. Were you on your meds last night?” she wondered.
Isaac lashed out. “That doesn’t matter.”
“I think it matters more than you’re willing to admit. Suppose you were out of meds and tried stealing some money to pay for your next prescription. Only, Victoria caught you in the act and fired you. That would leave you with no meds, no job, and a whole lot of anger,” Chloe speculated.
Isaac clenched his fist. “Enough. I don’t have to listen to this.”
By the looks of things, Isaac was about to have another outburst. Chloe didn’t want to be caught in the crosshairs. She took a few steps back. At the same time, she felt like she was on the verge of a breakthrough. She decided to keep pressing, but from a safer distance.
