by Lois Winston
“It’s only natural,” he echoed in that eerily flat tone. And just the touch of a sardonic smile. His sang-froid act was putting my nerves on edge and I found myself wishing I could wrap my hands around another frosty Corona.
“Well, yes,” I faltered. “Of course it’s natural. I’m not just being nosy, if that’s what you’re hinting at. The sooner I find the real killer, the sooner you can eliminate Lark as a suspect. It should be pretty obvious to you by now that she had nothing to do with it.”
The words spilled out in one rush of breath, and I felt a little ripple of anger spreading through my body. Who was Rafe Martino to tell me what to do and who I could or couldn’t talk to?
I wondered which “potential witness” he was referring to. Was it Lenore Cooper, the disgruntled ex-wife, or Kathryn Sinclair, the angry mother? They were the top two on my suspect list, even if they weren’t on the Cypress Grove PD’s radar screen yet. If I didn’t hunt for the real killer, who would? As far as Rafe was concerned, it seemed to be “case closed.”
“Did it ever occur to you that might be compromising an ongoing investigation?” His voice was low and calm, and he didn’t seem to be the tiniest bit upset by my outburst. He took a long swig of lemonade and looked at me. “Doesn’t that bother you? To think that you might do or say something that would interfere with police business and make our job a lot harder?”
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. The air between us hummed with tension. Why was he criticizing me for doing was a little free-lance detective work?
I felt a surge of heat rise to my face and my voice lifted a little. “I wasn’t interfering with anything. I have every right to ask questions,” I began but he cut me off, and a flicker of something cold went through his eyes.
“And you went to his memorial service. We were there too, you know.” He leaned forward, his eyes never leaving my face.
“You were there?” Too late I remembered that cops often went to victim’s funerals because often the perpetrator was dumb enough to show up. “I didn’t see any of Cypress Grove’s finest at the service.”
“We were there undercover. We tried to blend.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” I felt chastised. And moronic. “Then you saw me talking to Kathryn Sinclair, “ I said without thinking. I regretted it the moment the words were out of my mouth.
“Yes, we did. It looked like the two of you were pretty chummy.” He paused, looking at his hands for a moment. “Would you care to tell me what the conversation was about? Had you known her before the service?”
“No,” I said quickly. “I never met her before she came up to me in the garden.” I neglected to say that Ted Rollins had tipped me off that she’d been making waves about the Guru and his dangerous “therapies.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Her daughter,” I said slowly. “Her daughter, Sarah, was a client of Guru Sanjay. Well, not exactly a client. She went to one of those encounter groups his organization runs and she had a bad experience there.”
Rafe nodded. “Go on.” I had the feeling he already knew all this and he was testing me. But why? I had no idea what his agenda was and it was making me uncomfortable. Like all shrinks, I like to be the one in control, the one asking questions. Rafe Martino was upsetting the natural order of things and I found it unsettling.
“Kathryn was unhappy with the way her daughter was treated. It sounded as though she was bullied and eventually,” I paused, trying to be precise, “she had to be hospitalized. Her experience at the encounter group hurt her psychologically and actually damaged her health. It sounded like reckless behavior on the part of Sanjay’s organization, and I was surprised to hear about it.” I bit my lower lip, wondering what Rafe was thinking.
“Did you ever wonder why she was telling you all this?”
I gave a careless shrug. “No, I didn’t even think about it. She knew he’d been a guest on my show and I suppose she thought that I would find it interesting. And as a psychologist, I could understand how destructive the whole experience had been for Sarah..” I paused. “I think she just wanted someone to talk to. You know, to vent.”
“So you’re saying she was angry with him?”
“Venting isn’t exactly the same as anger, it’s more like letting off steam,” I sidestepped neatly. A quick lesson from Psych 101.
“And it never occurred to you to tell me about this?”
He was beginning to remind me of Agent Leroy Gibbs, on NCIS.
I struggled for a light touch. “Hey, I’m a talk show psychologist, remember? I listen to people’s problems all day long. Most of them are calling to complain about someone in their lives, so I wasn’t too surprised when Kathryn told me about her daughter and the encounter group. She was just one more person with a gripe, that’s all. It happens all the time. “
“Yes, but the people they’re complaining about don’t usually end up dead, do they?”
Touché. “In your professional opinion,” he said, barely containing a smirk, “would you say that Kathryn Sinclair was mentally unbalanced or potentially violent? Could she be delusional?”
“What! No, of course not,” I said hurriedly. Why was he slapping her with a medical diagnosis? Was he on a fishing expedition or did he really have some cold hard facts that made her a viable suspect? “She’s none of those things. She’s just a mother who was upset over the way her daughter was treated.” I hesitated, trying to choose my words carefully. I had the feeling that he was mentally ticking away everything I told him, even without Opie and his ever-present notebook.
Rafe shot me a wry look that told me he guessed I was uncomfortable by the line of questioning. “Go on.” I had the feeling he was keeping his voice deliberately even, trying to lull me into a false sense of security.
“I don’t know why she chose to confide in me, but she did. Maybe she’d heard me on the radio. Sometimes it gives people the idea of a connection, even though they’re total strangers to me.” I shook my head. “I know it sounds strange, but that’s the only explanation I can think of.”
“Interesting,” Martino said. He finished his lemonade and slowly stood up. Every move he made was relaxed, fluid and he walked with an air of easy confidence. Very sexy. “I’ll be back in touch with you, we may want to take a deposition.”
“A deposition?” So he really considered Kathryn Sinclair a suspect? I suddenly felt uneasy, as though I had ratted her out, all on the basis of a brief interaction at the memorial service. “About my conversation with Kathryn, you mean?”
He didn’t answer and I found myself trotting along behind him like Pugsley pursuing his chew toy. My confidence was wilting like one of the soy burgers burgers heating on the grill. I decided I better say something, fast, both to maintain my dignity and set the record straight.
“I hope you didn’t get the wrong impression from what I told you about Kathryn Sinclair. She was upset, that’s all, and people say things that are out of character when they’re under stress.” I wanted to sound professional and just a touch conciliatory but would he buy it?
I heard a little noise in the kitchen and suspected Mom was peeking around the door to spy on us, but I didn’t dare turn to look. The fact is, I couldn’t take my eyes off Rafe. There was something wildly attractive about the broad shoulders, the chiseled features, the flashing dark eyes. I could sense my earlier annoyance with him starting to soft shoe towards the shadows and my heart melted a little.
Then he frosted me with a look that killed the warm little buzz building up in my veins and stilled the pitter-patter in my heart. Rafe had his cop face on, and he was back to cop-speak.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm. “I’ll be sure to remember that the next time I’m interviewing a felon. Nothing like a little nugget of advice from a talk show shrink to keep me on track.”
Ouch.
He handed me the empty lemonade glass and my traitorous skin tingled a little when I felt the touch of
his warm fingers. I blanked on a snappy retort and he turned to face me as he opened the door. “Oh, and that deposition I told you about? The one I may need you to fill out, down at the station?”
“Yes?”
“Just to clarify things, it’s not about Kathryn Sinclair.” He paused. “I’m going to be asking you some questions about Lark Merriweather.” He hesitated for a moment, his hand on the knob. “Oh, and in the future? Leave the investigating to us, Nancy Drew. Okay?”
And then he was gone.
FIFTEEN
When Lark showed up at the condo a few minutes later, Mom was nearly swooning from her all-too-brief encounter with Detective Martino.
“Maggie, you never warned me how good-looking he is,” she gushed, spooning salads onto our dinner plates. The veggie sausage from the grill was a little overdone, but still edible with a hefty dollop of Lark’s home-made salsa spooned on top. “Can you imagine? I opened the door and nearly fainted. That young man could have a quite a film career if he ever decides to leave police work. He’s drop-dead gorgeous.”
“I don’t think a film career is in the cards for him, Mom. I think he’s pretty invested in his detective work. Maybe even obsessively so.” I thought ruefully about Rafe and his dedication to the Cypress Grove PD. The thought of him ditching it all for a movie career was about as likely as Horatio Caine flashing his badge to cadge a free donut and coffee at the Krispy Kreme in north Miami.
Some things are inviolate.
“Well, so was Dennis Farina, and look what happened to him. One moment he’s a cop in Chicago and the next thing you know, he’s a movie star. All because he was a technical advisor on a film set and Michael Mann noticed he had acting potential.”
Mom is an expert on Hollywood trivia and loves to recount stories of people making-it-against-all-odds in the film trade. I’m sure she thinks that it’s not too late for the Hollywood gods to smile on her someday.
We were eating dinner on the tiny balcony and I could see that Lark was more than a little unnerved to hear about Rafe’s surprise visit. She barely touched the vegetarian version of a key lime pie I’d whipped up earlier that day. It’s laced with fresh lime juice along with vegan cream cheese and it’s usually a big hit with her.
“But what did he want, exactly?” Lark lowered her voice to a near whisper as if Rafe was lurking somewhere in the magnolia bushes under the balcony or had planted a bug in the salt shaker. “Why did he show up here at the condo?”
I shrugged. “Um, I’m not really not sure,” I hedged. Later, I mouthed. I glanced over at Mom, raised my eyebrows a fraction of an inch and Lark got the message. We’d talk privately after dinner when we took Pugsley for his evening stroll.
We finished our coffee and as always, Mom pivoted the spotlight back to herself. The talk turned to WYME and I could see Mom was angling for another guest-host spot on my show. She said she planned to spend a few more days in Cypress Grove and I wondered if she was staying with us out of concern for Lark or if she hoped to revive her flagging acting career.
Doing a radio talk show on WYME is certainly the bottom rung of the show business ladder, but Mom believes in trying every avenue to further her career. Holding on by her fake, French manicured fingernails if necessary. Anything it takes to “get her name out her name out there,” as she calls it.
She is nothing if not persistent and I admire that quality in her. I wondered if she’d told Edgar about her latest gig and if he’d encouraged her to bug Vera Mae for another chance. Or maybe I was reading too much into it, and she had just enjoyed being on the air with me.
Right after dinner, Lark and I took Pugsley out for his walk. Pugsley is a big fan of evening walks and has developed a cute trick of tugging his leash off the doorknob and dragging it across the rug until we hook it to his collar. Then he runs in manic circles until we rouse ourselves from the sofa and head outside with him. It’s obvious who’s the master and who’s the slave in this relationship.
Lark was uncharacteristically quiet as we started out, and I was lost in thought. We live on a leafy street in a quiet, residential neighborhood that’s canopied by banyan trees. Except for our low-rise condo building, the only other commercial enterprise is the Seabreeze Inn next door. With its pale lemon exterior and glossy white gingerbread trim, the big Victorian looks more like a private house than a B and B.
Only a discreet, hand-painted sign made from white birch announces that guests are welcome. When the Inn is full, Ted simply brings the sign inside. It’s all very casual, and he has the same guests stay with him year after year. After the disaster with Sanjay, I doubt he’d ever be willing to host another conference.
I glanced up at the wide veranda to see if Ted might be outside chatting with the guests, but the porch was empty, the hanging baskets of ferns swaying in the gentle evening breeze. I suddenly remembered those audience evaluations Ted had shown me. Had Rafe stopped by to pick up them up the morning of Sanjay’s memorial service?
I made a mental note to ask Ted the next time I saw him. Of course, I had my own copy of the threatening evaluation tucked away in my underwear drawer. I had copied it impulsively and had no idea what I was going to do with the information, but just had a gut feeling it might come in handy.
Was it simply a negative evaluation written by a disgruntled conference-goer or was it something more sinister? A note from the murderer? But why would anyone who was planning a murder want to advertise the fact? Was it written by a man or a woman? Presumably the police would analyze it, and that would be one of the first things they might try to determine.
I didn’t dare tell Rafe Martino that I had made my own copy. He might accuse me of tampering with evidence.
I was a little rattled by the idea that Rafe and company had attended Sanjay’s memorial service and that I’d been watched so closely. I hadn’t even noticed, I thought ruefully. I’d played down my conversation with Kathryn Sinclair, when I spoke with Rafe and I wasn’t sure why. Was I biding my time because I was too caught up in my own investigation? Did Rafe really have any justification for telling me to back off?
I was still smarting from the crack about Nancy Drew.
I didn’t really think Kathryn Sinclair had murdered Sanjay, but I didn’t like the idea that Lark was still the number one suspect. I was mulling this over when Lark broke into my thoughts.
“There are a couple of things you don’t know about me,” she began. She tossed me a nervous glance, and her blue eyes clouded with an emotion I couldn’t quite place. Doubt? Apprehension? Her voice wobbled a little and she bit her lower lip, scuffing her flipflops on the packed oyster shell pavement. We were standing by a banyan tree, which Pugsley was sniffing with such intensity you’d think he was looking for work as a K-9 bomb-detecting dog.
I decided to cut to the chase. “Look, if you’re talking about the brawl in the bar in Indiana? I already know about it, Lark. But I’d be interested in hearing your side of it. If you want to tell me, that is. It’s entirely up to you.”
Lark let her breath out in a slow puff of air. “I was going to tell you the truth right away, Maggie and then things just got crazy. You know how you just put things off and then you can never find the right time to say something?”
“Yes, I’ve done that myself.” I felt a tug at the leash. Pugsley had finally decided there weren’t any nuclear explosives tucked between the lush leaves of the banyan tree and now he was ready to head on down the street. Pugsley is a creature of habit and insists on making his appointed rounds, going down the same streets in the same order and stopping at various points of interest.
“The whole incident in the bar, it’s not what you think,” she said, stealing a quick look at me.
I raised my eyebrows. “Terroristic threats? Felony assault? They say you nearly killed the guy.”
“He had it coming, believe me,” she blurted out. She slapped her hand over her mouth in a girlish gesture and gave a rueful smile. “I know that’s a terrible thing to say, but
he really did, Maggie. There’s more to the story than meets the eye.”
“There usually is.” I plastered a nonchalant look on my face. I was still having trouble imagining Lark as a crazed woman attacking a guy in a bar and wondered what possible explanation there could be. Temporary insanity? Hormonal imbalance? There was no way to reconcile violent behavior with this gentle soul walking beside me.
“Okay, here’s what happened.” She took a deep breath. “The guy I attacked? He wasn’t just some jerk in a bar who made a pass at me. I knew the guy. He’d been dating my sister and he nearly destroyed her.”
I widened my eyes. This added a new dimension to the story.
Lark’s voice quivered with emotion. “She was so messed up, I practically had to do an intervention with her. When I saw him there, laughing and having a few beers with his friends, I just lost it, that’s all. I thought about all the pain he had caused, and I guess I just went ballistic. I can barely remember what happened. It was like a red haze in front of my eyes, and then it was all over and he was just lying there.” She shivered a little at the memory and wrapped her thin arms around herself.
I shook my head, confused. “You were angry with him because of something he did to your sister? Did any of this come out at the trial?”
“Not really. But it’s probably why I was allowed to plea-bargain to a lesser charge. The jury wasn’t allowed to hear about his past offenses, and my sister’s record was sealed because she was a juvie. But you know how it is in a small Indiana town, everyone knew who he was and what he was.”
“And what was he?”
“The guy was the local drug dealer. Scum of the earth.” Lark’s tiny hands were clenched into fists and her mouth had tightened into a thin line.
I raised my eyebrows. Nick hadn’t told me this part of the story. “How long was your sister mixed up with him?”
“Nearly a year. I can’t explain it. She’s a smart girl, but she just made some really dumb mistakes with men.” Lark shook her head as if she shared my bewilderment.
