Cozy Creek

by K M Morgan

  With such an inauspicious setup, it was no surprise when Gary lashed out.

  “What are you questioning me for?” Gary snapped.

  Crumple kept an even keel. When dealing with such a hothead, fighting fire with fire would only result in everyone getting burnt. Besides, the detective was a firm believer that cooler heads prevailed. “We just have a few questions for you. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.”

  Gary tried a different tactic to get the sleuths off his back. “I’m trying to mourn here.”

  What he failed to realize was that by being so evasive, he was only prolonging the questioning.

  “We’ll keep it short,” Crumple replied.

  Gary threw up his hands in frustration. “I don’t even know what you want from me.”

  “I want to know where you were between seven and eight o’clock last night,” Crumple said.

  Daisy preferred to ease her way into a question like that, but the detective had opted to take a different route, one that had sent off a warning flare of suspicion in Gary’s mind.

  “Wait a minute. You don’t think I am a suspect, do you?” Gary asked.

  “We have to consider all possibilities,” Crumple replied.

  If Gary had been worked up before, he was completely bent out of shape right then. “How could I be a suspect? I have no motive.”

  Daisy floated a theory. “Your father was unfaithful to your mother, which was a sore spot that happened to have been brought up again in the throes of his mayoral campaign. People don’t like having old wounds reopened.”

  “My mother and I have put all that behind us.”

  Gary tried to act like that was all water that had long ago passed under the Mitchell family bridge, but his tense body language contradicted the words that came out of his mouth.

  Daisy pressed him. “Have you?”

  “Yes. That affair happened a long time ago.”

  “You mean when you were younger and more impressionable?”

  Gary shot Daisy a glare. “You’re twisting my words around.”

  “Fine. Here are some words that can’t be twisted. The affair may have happened a long time ago, but it had been brought up again quite recently and in a very public fashion,” Daisy said.

  “Stop trying to incite me,” Gary replied.

  “I’m just stating the facts. For example, you are clearly very close to your mother. Not to mention defensive of her.”

  “Yeah. So? There’s no shame in that.”

  “Of course there isn’t. It’s very admirable—under normal circumstances. But in these circumstances, you can see how your protectiveness of your mother would cast suspicion over you,” Daisy explained.

  Gary played dumb. “No. You are making connections that aren’t there. I didn’t do anything to my father.”

  Crumple had hung back while Daisy had greased the investigative wheels, but the detective was now ready to pounce.

  “Prove it,” Detective Crumple said. “Where were you between seven and eight o’clock last night?”

  “I was here,” Gary replied.

  “Doing what?”

  “Watching television.”

  “What show?”

  “The Trivia Gauntlet,” Gary replied.

  The Trivia Gauntlet was a game show where contestants answered trivia questions while simultaneously trying to weave through an obstacle course. While it provided a half hour of mindless entertainment, it did not provide Gary with the alibi that he thought it did.

  Daisy jumped in. “There’s a problem with that story.”

  Gary’s forehead wrinkled. “What are you talking about?”

  “The Trivia Gauntlet airs between six-thirty and seven. The detective asked where you were between seven and eight.”

  Gary was quick to add a qualifier to his story. “I had taped that episode and was just getting around to watching it.”

  That explanation didn’t sit right with Daisy. “You taped an episode of The Trivia Gauntlet?”

  Gary became very defensive. “Yes. Don’t judge me.”

  Daisy did just that. She couldn’t help it. Gary’s story just came across as highly peculiar. Daisy didn’t know a single person, young or old, who taped that show. Truth be told, she barely knew a soul who watched the program at all. In her experience, it was the kind of background noise that a person put on when they were preparing dinner or when there was absolutely nothing else on television. Daisy’s personal experience aside, there was a more definitive way to determine if Gary was telling the truth.

  Daisy nudged her head towards Gary’s television. “If you taped the show, pull it up for us.”

  Gary squirmed as he turned to his digital video recorder. “I deleted the episode after I watched it.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded.

  “Isn’t that a convenient explanation?” Daisy asked.

  “It’s the truth,” Gary replied.

  Crumple tackled a different angle. “What were you doing at six-thirty that you needed to tape the show in the first place?”

  “I was coming back from the gym,” Gary replied.

  The detective scratched his head. “There are sure a lot of loose ends in your story.”

  Gary disagreed. “I have answered all of your questions.”

  Crumple still wasn’t convinced. “Is there anyone who can verify any of this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Where you here alone?” Crumple asked.

  Gary hesitated in answering.

  As the conversation fell silent, Crumple became impatient. “Answer the question.”

  Gary untied his tongue. “Yes, I was. But I’m telling you the truth.”

  “You say that but have no one to verify it.”

  “Why would I make up a story so banal?”

  Gary thought that he had made a good point, but Daisy had an answer for him.

  “Maybe because it is so banal,” Daisy replied. “You probably figured that an explanation like that would let you fly under the radar.”

  Gary fired back. “You’re just speculating now.”

  Daisy didn’t back down. “You’re not giving us much choice. Like you said, you don’t have anyone to verify your story.”

  Gary thought he had done enough to get the sleuths off of his back. “I answered your questions. There’s nothing else I can do.”

  Crumple disagreed. “That’s not true. There is one more thing.”

  “What’s that?” Gary asked.

  Crumple issued a warning. “Don’t go leaving town on us.”

  Chapter Nine

  While Gary’s story did not exonerate him, it also didn’t incriminate him. Staring down a brick wall of resistance from Gary, Daisy and Crumple decided to speak with the next suspect on their list.

  Adam’s former mistress, Hailey Bennett, had been mentioned a number of times already during this investigation. It was time to get her story.

  That led Daisy and Crumple to Cozy Manor Apartments, which was one of the biggest misnomers in history. The apartments were neither cozy nor manors. The apartment complex was in serious need of renovations. Unfortunately, judging by the state of the grounds, it was pretty clear that the slumlord who owned the place had zero interest in fixing it up.

  Upon seeing the state of disrepair that the outside of the building was in, Daisy shuddered to think about what the inside of the apartments looked like. As Crumple gave Hailey’s front door a set of knocks, it was debatable whether the sleuths would get to find out.

  Hailey did not answer the door, prompting the detective to knock again. Thankfully, his second attempt yielded better results.

  Hailey’s raspy voice responded from inside her apartment, but she did not open up the door for Daisy and Crumple.

  “I’m not interested in giving an interview,” Hailey said.

  Crumple cleared up the confusion. “We’re not reporters. This is the police. Open the door.”

  There
was a brief pause before Hailey finally cracked her front door open slightly and peeked into the hallway. Hailey looked a little rougher around the edges than when Daisy had last seen her. Her long brown hair was in desperate need of a brushing, her face had a puffy redness to it, and she was still wearing the same pair of jeans and green V-neck T-shirt from the night before.

  Crumple held his police badge out. Hailey stared it down, trying to determine if it was real or not. When she was finally satisfied with the validity of Crumple’s credentials, she turned her focus to Crumple himself.

  “What do you want?” Hailey asked.

  “We would like to talk to you inside,” Crumple said.

  Hailey did not look interested in inviting Crumple and Daisy into her place. “I’d prefer to do it right here.”

  That aroused suspicion in Crumple. “Why?”

  “I’m just more comfortable doing it here,” Hailey said.

  That wasn’t a good enough answer for Crumple. “Are you hiding something?”

  “No.”

  “Then let us in.”

  Hailey saw the resolve in the detective’s eyes and realized that it would do no good to keep arguing. She took a deep breath then opened her door up all the way.

  When Hailey led Crumple and Daisy into her pig sty of a living room, Daisy knew exactly why Hailey had been so reticent to let them in. There was still the possibility that Hailey was trying to hide something from them, but it would take a forensics team to find it, because the entire place was a wreck.

  Hailey paired her interest in thrift-store furniture with a complete disinterest in picking up after herself. The ashtray on her secondhand coffee table was full, while the wine bottles that were strewn about her apartment were empty. Her place reeked of cigarette smoke and desperation.

  Daisy didn’t know how someone could live like this. She certainly never could. Then again, the idea of ever having an affair with someone was completely foreign to Daisy as well. The same could not be said about Hailey.

  Adam’s disheveled former mistress was as impatient as could be.

  “What’s this about?” Hailey asked.

  “The murder of Adam Mitchell,” Crumple said.

  Hailey’s bloodshot eyes widened. “Someone killed him?”

  Crumple stared her down as he tried to read her body language. “You didn’t know?”

  She shook her head. “No. This is all news to me.” She took a deep breath. “It’s a crazy world we live in.”

  “It sure is,” Crumple replied.

  Hailey’s forehead wrinkled. “I’m confused. What do you want with me?”

  “We have to ask you some questions.”

  “About what?”

  Daisy groaned. “Are you really going to make me say it? I saw you arguing with Leah Mitchell last night at Chow’s.”

  Hailey tried to downplay what Daisy had seen. “I wouldn’t say we were arguing.”

  Daisy called her out. “I would. The question is, what were you arguing about?”

  Crumple and Daisy already knew the answer to that one. Daisy had just asked that question to see if Hailey would be truthful with them or if they could catch her in a lie.

  Hailey was dismissive once again. “It’s not worth worrying about.”

  Daisy stared her down long and hard, hoping to intimidate Hailey.

  Instead, Hailey took more evasive action. “Trust me, it’s not a big deal.”

  Daisy couldn’t have disagreed more. “It seemed like a big deal to me.”

  Crumple demanded details. “Tell us the truth. What were you arguing about?”

  Hailey didn’t hesitate to point the finger of blame. “Leah was the one who was upset with me.”

  “That’s not what she said,” Daisy replied.

  “Of course it isn’t,” Hailey said. “That woman hates me.”

  Hailey was doing a poor job of painting herself as a victim.

  Daisy scoffed. “Can you blame Leah? You had an affair with her husband.”

  “Yeah, ten years ago. I thought I had put all of that behind me a long time ago,” Hailey replied.

  “Was that what you were fighting about? That such old wounds had been reopened after all this time?”

  “Like I told you, the affair happened a long time ago. I have moved on.”

  Hailey mistakenly assumed that her answers would keep her out of the line of fire. Instead, they were doing just the opposite.

  Daisy pointed out the error in Hailey’s line of thinking. “Every time you say that, it just builds a stronger case against you.”

  A blank stare came to Hailey’s face. “What are you talking about?”

  “If you truly had moved on from your affair with Adam, the idea of having your sordid past dredged up again must have been like having to relive a nightmare,” Daisy said.

  Crumple added to Daisy’s point. “On top of that, you still haven’t answered the question. What were you arguing about at the restaurant last night?”

  Hailey didn’t want to respond, no less admit that Daisy had been right. That being said, Daisy wasn’t about to let Hailey remain quiet.

  “You were upset that your name was being dragged through the mud after all this time, weren’t you?” Daisy asked.

  Hailey opened her mouth but didn’t answer Daisy’s question. Instead, Hailey opted to address another matter entirely.

  “I didn’t do anything,” Hailey replied.

  Daisy ignored Hailey’s random statement and fired another question at her. “When you rushed out of the restaurant in a huff last night, where did you go?”

  “I came back here,” Hailey replied.

  Crumple had an accusation of his own for Hailey. “Did you happen to stop at Adam Mitchell’s house on the way home?”

  “No.”

  “Do you have anyone who can verify that?”

  “I don’t need anyone to verify it,” Hailey replied. “It’s the truth.”

  Crumple folded his arms. “So you were mad enough to argue with Leah in the restaurant but not angry enough to drive over to Adam’s place and take your frustrations out on him?”

  “I came home and drank off my frustration,” Hailey replied.

  “Speaking of drinking, it looks like you’ve been hitting the bottle a lot recently.”

  “There’s nothing illegal about having a drink every now and then.”

  Crumple scanned the room. “This looks like now, then, and everywhere in between.”

  Hailey’s frustrations boiled over. “That’s none of your business.”

  “Speaking of business, how are things going for you at work?”

  Hailey answered quickly and dismissively. “Fine.”

  Crumple scoffed. “Hailey, who do you think you’re kidding? You don’t think I did my research before coming over here? I know that Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy Elementary School fired you when the news of your affair broke.”

  Hailey didn’t deny that fact, but she did try to paint her employment status in a more favorable light.

  “I had previously decided that I was going to leave the school at the end of the year anyway, so being dismissed wasn’t as big of a blow as you’d think,” Hailey replied.

  What a convenient explanation. Unfortunately, it rang false, not just to Daisy, but to the detective as well.

  “Really?” Crumple asked.

  Hailey nodded.

  “What are you doing for work? Or are you even working?” Crumple said.

  “I have been helping out at my friend’s daycare center.”

  “In that case, shouldn’t you be there right now? It’s two o’clock on a Wednesday.”

  “It’s my day off.”

  Crumple stared her down. “Uh-huh.”

  “If you don’t believe me, I’ll give you my friend’s number. She’ll confirm that.”

  “I’m sure she will. Unfortunately, it doesn’t change the fact that you have no one to verify where you were last night at the time of the murder,” Crumple said.


  “For the last time, I didn’t do anything,” Hailey replied.

  “Spare us,” Crumple said. “Until you have a way to back your claims up, your alibi doesn’t mean anything to us.”

  Upon further questioning, Hailey wasn’t able to provide any proof of her innocence. On the flip side, Daisy and Crumple weren’t able to prove her guilt, either.

  After finally hitting a verbal stalemate, the investigators decided to leave Hailey’s apartment.

  Chapter Ten

  With Daisy and Crumple’s interview of Hailey complete, they had covered all aspects of Adam’s personal life, but they had yet to scratch the surface of his professional life. That was about to change. Amazingly enough, professionally speaking, there were just as many people who had a reason to want Adam dead. Take Vikki Allen, Adam’s recently fired campaign manager, for example.

  Ms. Allen was the next unlucky soul to receive a visit from the investigators. Yet it was Daisy and Crumple who were in for a surprise when the detective’s car turned right on Cardinal Road, and they spotted Vikki kissing a familiar man on her front porch.

  Gary Mitchell had been in a hurry to get the investigators off his back when Daisy and Crumple had questioned him previously. Suddenly, after seeing Gary and Vikki kissing, the sleuths had a slew of new questions for Gary.

  There were a number of different approaches that Daisy and Crumple could take. There was the more aggressive option of storming up to Vikki and Gary in an attempt to put them in an awkward position. Daisy had tried that before and wasn’t particularly interested in doing it again. That kind of bull rush led to tempers flaring and answers becoming harder to come by.

  Instead, the sleuths decided to hang back and wait for Vikki and Gary to go their separate ways, which they did a short time later. After Gary had given Vikki another kiss, she went back inside her house while he walked back to his car that was parked in her driveway.

  That was when Daisy and Crumple made their move.

  “Funny running into you again,” Detective Crumple said.