Whole Lotta Trouble

by Stephanie Bond

  “You met him this week, when you received the manuscript that you lo—er, I mean that is missing?”

  She nodded. “Y-yesterday.”

  He pursed his lips. “I can see why you’re upset—you were probably one of the last people to see him alive.”

  The breath froze in her lungs. “I’m sure that’s not true,” she croaked.

  He pulled a notebook from his pocket. “Do you know how to reach Mr. Cooper?”

  She heaved what was supposed to be a cleansing sigh. “It’s complicated…the man is a paranoid recluse. If I want to talk to him, I have to call and leave a message with his secretary, then he calls back from a random pay phone and arranges a time and a place to meet.”

  His eyebrows rose. “O-kay.”

  “He’s certifiable,” she agreed.

  “How did he and Jerry Key get along?”

  She shrugged. “Fine. In fact, Jerry seemed to be the only person Gaylord trusted. Jerry and my boss, Ron, who’s on vacation.”

  He made a few notes. “Anyone else you would suggest that we talk to?”

  She shook her head. “I’m sure Jerry’s assistant and coworkers can be more helpful.”

  He nodded and put away the notebook. “Right. I’m sure the detectives will cover all the bases. Don’t be surprised if they contact you, since you saw him yesterday.”

  The phone rang and she glanced at it, not wanting to answer in case it was Felicia or Jané. But it would be worse, she realized, if the machine kicked on and they left a message. “Tallie, remember, don’t tell your cop friend that we were the ones who took that picture of Jerry….”

  “Excuse me,” she said, then dove for the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Tallie, it’s Mom.”

  And, as usual, her timing was impeccable. “Hi, Mom. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is fine here. I called your office to see if you’d received my package, and Norah told me that you’d called in sick.”

  “Oh, just a little cold,” she said, then coughed to give her claim some validity. She glanced across the room to find Keith watching her with a little smile and sipping his coffee as if he belonged in her kitchen. She frowned and straightened. “And I received the parcel pick-up slip, but I haven’t had a chance to get to the post office.”

  “Oh,” Merrilyn Blankenship said, disappointment clear in her voice.

  Tallie closed her eyes briefly. “But if I go into the office later, I’ll try to stop.”

  “That would be nice,” her mother said. “Now, have you called Sheila’s son?”

  She glanced up, and when Keith grinned at her, her face flamed. “Um, Mom, this isn’t a good time.”

  “Do you have morning company?”

  Tallie rolled her eyes. “Morning company” was her mother’s code for a guy sleeping over. “It’s not like that.”

  “I didn’t realize you had a special friend,” her mother continued, “or I would have told Sheila to tell her son that you were…involved. Is it that handsome boss of yours?”

  “No, Mom. It isn’t Ron; it isn’t anyone, okay?” Keith was now laughing. She shot daggers at him. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  “Okay. Bye.”

  She hung up the phone and sighed.

  Keith was rinsing his coffee cup. “I can guess the gist of that conversation.”

  “God, I hope not.”

  He grinned and wiped his hands on a towel, then folded it just as nice as you please and put it back on the counter. “I need to get going. Will you be okay?”

  She nodded and followed him to the door, with a myriad of emotions pulling at her—gratitude for his presence and guilt for deceiving him. But in the back of her mind she kept telling herself that the killer would be caught, and no one needed to know that she, Felicia, and Jané had ever been in the hotel room.

  At the door he turned. “I’m sorry about your business associate. Even if you don’t know someone well, their death can still affect you.”

  He had no idea. She was suddenly antsy for him to leave.

  A small smile lifted his mouth. “I guess I’ll see you the next time you’re in trouble.”

  She conjured up a matching smile. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope I don’t see you any time soon.”

  He put on his hat and winked. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope you do.”

  As he walked away, Tallie wondered which one of them would get their wish.

  Chapter 20

  Halfway to her office, Tallie realized that she’d forgotten the parcel pick-up slip to retrieve the package her mother had sent her. Somehow in the midst of the lost manuscript worth millions and Jerry Key’s murder, the package had slipped her mind.

  She had tried to call Felicia after Keith had left, but she’d gotten Felicia’s voice mail. And she didn’t feel right talking to Jané without Felicia…the moody woman made her nervous, and she had a feeling that if given the chance, Jané would join one of them to gang up on the other.

  Not that that would ever happen—she and Felicia were fast friends and would never betray each other.

  Her thoughts slid to the unease nudging her conscience this morning regarding Felicia hurting Jerry. If Felicia had returned to the room and done something to the man, he had deserved it.

  Although stabbing someone while they were in restraints did smack of mental instability. Was it possible that Jerry had driven Felicia over the edge? Her friend was a pillar of strength, but occasionally even pillars shook.

  When Tallie walked into the editorial department of Parkbench, it was close to 11:00 A.M., and the noise level was definitely higher than usual. Jerry Key’s name rode on the air in a swirl of conversation so titillating it practically pulsated.

  “You decided to come in,” Norah said as Tallie approached.

  Tallie nodded. “My heat came back on and it seemed like a day I should be here.”

  “Just so you know, Kara has called for you, like, a dozen times. Said you were supposed to drop off Gaylord Cooper’s manuscript to her last night.” Norah frowned. “I thought you were editing Mr. Cooper’s book.”

  “Change in plans,” Tallie said wryly, although technically, now that Jerry was out of the picture…

  She winced at her own train of thought. Besides, chances were good that the manuscript would come back to her once Ron got wind of what was afoot, or when Kara made a mess of things.

  Considering, of course, that she located the manuscript. “Thanks, Norah. I’ll call her this afternoon.”

  Norah’s chin dipped. “What did you think of the picture?”

  “Oh…it’s…pretty wild.”

  “Yeah. And to think he was here, alive and well, just yesterday.”

  “Yeah.”

  Norah leaned in. “So, who do you think did it?”

  Tallie’s throat squeezed. “I wouldn’t have any idea, Norah.”

  “There’s a theory going around.”

  Her breath came faster. “What…what’s the theory?”

  Norah looked all around, as if she might be overheard. “Everyone thinks it’s a serial killer.”

  Tallie’s shoulders dropped in relief at the ridiculousness of the statement. “Well, I’m sure the police are on it.”

  “The police are in Saundra’s office right now.”

  Tallie felt her eyes go wide. “What? Why?”

  Her assistant shrugged. “I don’t know, but I assume it has something to do with Jerry Key.”

  They were onto her. She broke out in an instant sweat.

  “Tallie, are you okay?”

  She nodded woodenly, but she couldn’t speak. She simply gestured to her office, walked inside, and closed the door. Moving like an automaton, she shrugged out of her second-best coat and hung it behind her door, then walked to her desk and picked up the phone to dial Felicia’s number. Her hand shook violently, and she considered getting sick into her garbage can. Before her body could oblige, there was a knock on her door. When she loo
ked up, her worst fear was confirmed…Saundra Pellum stood in the doorway with two suited gentlemen behind her. Neither of them looked as accommodating as Keith Wages.

  “Tallie, I need a few minutes of your time,” Saundra said.

  Tallie replaced the phone unsteadily and clasped her hands in her lap beneath her desk. She sensed she should stand, but she didn’t trust her legs. “S-sure, Saundra. What can I do for you?”

  Saundra waved in the two men and closed the door behind them. “These are Detectives Riley and McKinley. Gentlemen, this is Tallie Blankenship, one of my editors.”

  They each murmured a greeting and she nodded, unable to speak. Her teeth were literally chattering.

  Saundra stepped forward, and if possible, her expression grew even more stern. “Tallie, we have a little…issue, and the detectives would like to talk to you.”

  Tallie blinked, now unable to even nod.

  Saundra’s mouth tightened. “It seems that Ron is missing.”

  Tallie opened her mouth to confess, then squinted. “Excuse me?”

  “Ron didn’t make it to his parents’ house in Maine. They contacted me this morning, and have already filed a missing person report.”

  She shook her head, trying to make sense of what Saundra was saying—at the moment, the rush of relief that she wasn’t being arrested was overriding every other sensation. “Maybe Ron simply made another stop first.”

  “His rental car was found abandoned,” Detective Riley said.

  “On the highway?” Tallie asked, suddenly fearful.

  “In Hoboken,” Riley said.

  Across the river? “But Ron lives in Greenwich.”

  “Precisely,” Detective McKinley said. “When was the last time you heard from Mr. Springer?”

  She touched her head, trying to remember, then looked at Saundra. “It was the day we were in the boardroom watching Kara’s segment on CNN—was that Wednesday?” It seemed like a year ago.

  Saundra nodded. “Did Ron call you?”

  “Yes, but we really didn’t talk. The reception on his cell phone was bad, his voice kept going in and out. He mentioned Gaylord Cooper, so I think he was just checking in to see if things were going okay.”

  “Gaylord Cooper is one of Ron’s authors,” Saundra explained.

  “What time was the call?” Riley asked.

  “Around one-thirty.”

  “Did Mr. Springer say where he was, or where he was headed?”

  She thought a moment, replaying the broken conversation in her head. “No.”

  “Ms. Blankenship, do you know if Mr. Springer was involved with anyone—a woman…or a man?”

  She squirmed. “No. Ron was a very private person.”

  “Ms. Pellum says that Ron hasn’t been himself lately. How did he seem to you the last few weeks that he was here?”

  “Preoccupied,” she said. “Distracted.”

  “Do you know why?”

  “No. Like I said, Ron was very private.”

  “We understand that he worked with Jerry Key,” McKinley said.

  At the sudden veer in the conversation, her pulse skyrocketed. “Y-yes.”

  “Do you know the extent of their relationship?”

  Tallie frowned. “Ron and Jerry? What are you getting at?”

  “Did Mr. Springer like Mr. Key?”

  “I’ve never heard Ron say anything bad about Jerry, just that Jerry had a reputation.”

  “A reputation for what?”

  Tallie shrugged carefully. “For being difficult, arrogant.”

  “A playboy?”

  “I guess that too.”

  “Do you know if Mr. Springer had any…fetishes?”

  “Fetishes?” she asked, incredulous.

  “You know…leather, whips and chains?”

  She stared, and it began to dawn on her that they were trying to connect Ron’s disappearance with Jerry’s murder. “Did I mention that Ron was a private person?”

  “Is that a ‘no’?”

  “Yes, that’s a ‘no.’ If Ron had fetishes, he didn’t talk about them.”

  “Do you know if the two men ever disagreed about anything?”

  “Not to my knowledge. I believe that Gaylord Cooper was the only author they had in common, and Jerry seemed to be respectful of the working relationship that Ron had with Mr. Cooper. From what I saw, Jerry was very hands-off and let Ron take care of everything where Mr. Cooper was concerned.”

  McKinley grunted. “I understand that Jerry Key was here yesterday to see you, Ms. Blankenship.”

  The moment of truth…or untruth. She squeezed her hands together in her lap until they hurt. “That’s right. Ron asked me to look after Mr. Cooper while he was away. Jerry met me and Mr. Cooper here for the delivery of a manuscript.”

  “How did Mr. Key behave?”

  She lifted her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, did he seem normal?”

  Tallie unclenched her hands and lifted them. “It was the first time I’d met Mr. Key, so I’m not really in a position to know how he was normally.”

  “Ms. Pellum said that your meeting didn’t go well.”

  Tallie’s gaze flew to Saundra, whose expression remained stoic. “Actually, that’s not true. I was under the impression that the meeting went very well.”

  “But after the meeting, Jerry requested that his author be handled by another editor,” Riley said.

  She wet her lips. “Yes.”

  “So the two of you must not have hit it off.”

  She swallowed and tried to affect a casual tone. “Apparently Mr. Key decided he preferred an editor he perceived to have better skills in…marketing.” She flicked her gaze to Saundra to see if the woman understood. From the quirk of her mouth, she did.

  “So would you say that Jerry Key was a likable person, Ms. Blankenship?” Riley asked.

  “I really couldn’t say—”

  “Just your general perception,” McKinley cut in with a shrug. “What did you think of the guy, having just met him?”

  She considered both of the men and Saundra, and realized that she could help paint a picture of Jerry Key as a man who had many enemies. “The truth? I thought that Jerry seemed like the kind of guy who would stab you in the back.”

  McKinley nodded thoughtfully. “Interesting choice of words, considering that’s almost exactly what happened to Mr. Key.”

  A hot flush climbed her neck, then her face. “Will that be all?”

  Riley gave her a flat little smile. “Can you tell us what time Mr. Key left yesterday?”

  She shrugged. “Between nine and nine-thirty, I think.” Don’t ask me if I saw him again, she prayed. Don’t ask…

  “Just one more thing, Ms. Blankenship.”

  She held her breath.

  “Can you think of anything else that might help us to locate Mr. Springer?”

  Tallie exhaled and shook her head, then stopped. “Wait…there was one thing.” She pressed her lips together, trying to remember details. “Ron called me to his office Monday to talk about handing over responsibility for Mr. Cooper’s manuscript. As I was leaving, his phone rang and when he answered it, he seemed agitated at the person on the line.”

  “Was it his desk phone or his cell phone?”

  “Desk phone.”

  “Did you hear what he said to the caller?”

  “He said that he was in enough trouble without the person calling him at work.”

  The detectives looked at Saundra. “Trouble?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what he was referring to unless it was his state of mind. Ron was a stellar employee. He requested a leave of absence because he recognized that his emotional problems were affecting his job.”

  Riley looked back to Tallie. “Do you have any idea who he was talking to?”

  “No.”

  “If you hear from Mr. Springer, will you let us know right away?”

  “Of course.” She bit her lip. “Do you really t
hink something happened to Ron?”

  Riley gave her a rueful smile. “We have an unsolved murder and a missing man, and the two people knew each other. If the cases aren’t related, it’s a pretty big coincidence.”

  Tallie sat back in her seat, boneless. Ron? Her Ron? Could he really be involved in Jerry’s murder?

  Chapter 21

  “Bye,” Felicia said, then waited for Tallie and Jané both to hang up before she did. A click sounded, and the light next to the line Tallie was on went out.

  “Felicia,” Jané said, “are you still there?”

  “There” was a relative place, Felicia thought. She was sitting in her chair holding the phone, but her mind had been all but absent from her bodily experiences since this morning. Jerry’s dead…Jerry’s dead…Jerry’s dead…

  “I’m here,” she murmured.

  “Felicia, listen—I’m afraid that Tallie is going to spill her guts to this cop friend of hers.”

  Felicia massaged her temple. She couldn’t take another Imitrex for an hour. “Why do you think that?”

  “Because Tallie’s not like me and you, Felicia. Deep down, she’s still a country girl—naïve enough to think that if we tell the truth, nothing will happen to us.”

  Felicia frowned. “Tallie’s not going to say anything.”

  “Are you sure? How well does she know this cop—is she sleeping with him?”

  “No, he’s like…the son ofher mother’s friend, or something like that.”

  “Oh, great—he’s a bumpkin, too?”

  Anger sparked in Felicia’s stomach. “Tallie’s not a bumpkin—she deserves more credit than that.”

  “Look, all I’m saying is to keep an eye on her—her boyfriend might convince her to tell everything in return for immunity.”

  “But we didn’t kill Jerry, Jané.”

  “And are you so sure about your friend Tallie?”

  Felicia’s stomach bottomed out. “Are you insinuating that Tallie might have done this?”

  Jané made a rueful sound. “Haven’t you wondered how Tallie knew that Jerry would be at the hotel last night?”

  “She said he mentioned it to her in their meeting yesterday morning.”