Stratagem

by Robin Caroll

  “Wait—cameras?”

  Tim nodded. “Yes, they installed cameras in the halls and common areas. It was one of the ways they monitored the game.”

  Brandon stared at his partner. Why were they just now learning there were cameras in place? He turned back to Tim. “And the cameras were running all the time?”

  “I guess. I mean, they told me and Emmi that they would monitor the game with the cameras. We were able to watch on Wednesday afternoon, so I guess they ran the rest of the time too.”

  “Were the cameras recording video or just set to watch live?”

  Tim shrugged. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask them.”

  Oh, they would. That was a certainty.

  THIRTEEN

  “Grayson.” Pam stood in the doorway.

  He closed his Bible and motioned her out onto the back deck. “What’s up?”

  She sat in one of the patio chairs and set her laptop on the table. “I finally got the video cleaned up enough to get a still shot of what Emmi put in Anna Belle’s room.”

  “Good.” But Pam’s expression said otherwise. “Okay, not good?”

  Pam shook her head.

  Grayson sighed. “Just show me then.” How much worse could it be than it already was?

  She opened the laptop and turned it to him.

  He leaned forward and stared at the image. His blood chilled as he realized what he looked at. Oh, it could get so much worse.

  Even though Emmi’s hand clutched the brochure and curved it, Pam had enhanced the photo enough that it was plain to see it was a Scheduled Maternity pamphlet she held. An appointment card was paper-clipped to the top, with a date written in. The date Grayson had learned the importance of when he reviewed Anna Belle’s medical records. The date just months before she’d filed for divorce.

  The day she’d aborted their baby and Grayson hadn’t even known she was pregnant.

  Yes, it was so much worse than he could have imagined. Immediately, all those emotions he’d never gotten to release came back. Back with a vengeance that nearly choked him.

  “Grayson, I’m so sorry.” Pam’s soft tone nearly ripped the rest of his emotions bare. Her sympathy … pity…

  “Well, that explains why she called me.”

  “Why?”

  “She would’ve assumed I knew and I put it there.”

  Pam shook her head. “But you weren’t there. She didn’t know it was a game.”

  Yet Grayson knew. In the deep pit of his gut, he knew that Anna Belle knew he’d learned about the abortion. “Pam, Anna Belle might’ve been many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. She was actually very smart. Almost scary smart, considering. After Wednesday night’s episodes, then Thursday morning’s … I’m betting when she saw the pamphlet, she figured out it was a game.”

  Pam frowned.

  He didn’t let her speak. “Come on, Pam. Anna Belle knew what I do for a living. She knew I used psychological profiling to push people to their limits, exposing their weaknesses and using them against them. It wouldn’t be hard for her to figure out that the weekend was one big game.” He shook his head. “I should’ve thought of that and adjusted. I told Colton it was a bad idea to accept the job.”

  “You and me both, but he was determined.” Pam let out a sigh. “Okay, so she figured it out. Now what?”

  “Going back to the video. How did Emmi Dubois know?” None of this made sense. Then again, it hadn’t made sense for Anna Belle to have had an abortion. It was the regret that he would forever have to live with: he hadn’t confronted her when he found out. He hadn’t for a multitude of reasons, the primary one being he was raw at knowing, but also because he was bound by the ethical parameters of his job’s confidentiality clause. Nothing about the situation was easy.

  “I don’t know how she knew.”

  Neither did he. “What was the point of putting it in Anna Belle’s room? To torment her?” He ran a hand through his hair. None of this made sense.

  Pam shrugged, but Grayson didn’t miss the look in her eyes. “Tell me you’ve got a theory or something.”

  “More like jumbled ideas, really.”

  “Let me hear them, because right now, I’ve got nothing.” Nothing but raw emotions that wouldn’t do him a bit of good at the moment.

  She hesitated, then nodded. “Okay. First theory is that Emmi knew what Anna Belle had done because her husband told her.”

  Grayson opened his mouth, but Pam held up her hand. “No, you asked to hear my theories and ideas, so you need to just listen.”

  She was right. He nodded.

  “As I was saying, Emmi and Tim really had reconciled, and he confessed everything. For argument’s sake, let’s say that he knew about the abortion and was bitter, but when he and Emmi reconciled, he told her.”

  “Why on earth would he be bitter about it?” Grayson couldn’t stop from blurting out the question.

  Pam’s stare leveled him. “Because maybe the baby was his.”

  That stole the breath from his lungs. Of course over the last several weeks he’d considered every possible reason for Anna Belle to have done something so awful, and sure, he’d briefly entertained the thought that the baby wasn’t his, but to just say it out loud…. Wow, the pain scratched open all the new scabs.

  “I’m sorry, Grayson, but it is a possibility.”

  “I know.” He knew all too well, but that didn’t make the news any easier to accept. “If it was, that might make sense, at least to Anna Belle, why she didn’t tell me she was pregnant.”

  Pam nodded. “And it would have made Tim angry. I mean, I assume, but on the other hand, what if he didn’t want children?” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and studied Grayson for a long moment. “What about Anna Belle? Did she want children?”

  He considered his answer. “I would have initially said yes, but now, knowing what I know, I don’t think so. I think she would have thought a baby would be more of a hindrance to her career.” Saying that aloud really clawed at the ache in his chest. How had he not seen what was plain before him? Had he ignored everything that put Anna Belle in a negative light? Had he been that naive?

  Well, he’d not known his wife was having an ongoing affair for months until she told him, so yeah, he must’ve been that naive. Gullible.

  “Hey, stop.” Pam laid her hand on his. “I can see the wheels turning. You can’t take the blame for any of this.”

  “She was my wife, Pam. My wife. How did I not know she was having an affair? How did I miss the signs of pregnancy? And the abortion? Despite my feelings of it in and of itself, that’s a medical procedure complete with anesthesia and recovery. I was home that night, and I can remember nothing that stands out about it. How does that happen?”

  She squeezed his hand. “I don’t know, I really don’t, but what I do know is that you loved your wife. Every day countless people are fooled by their spouses cheating on them. I’m sure you’re not the first man not to notice every little thing with his wife.” She released his hand and sat back in the patio chair. “You need to stop beating yourself up over this, Grayson. Had you known, maybe you could’ve stopped the abortion. Maybe.” She pointed at him. “Either way, Anna Belle made her decision, which included not telling you. What she did and why, that’s on her, not you, and I won’t sit here and let you beat yourself up over something you have no control over.”

  Maybe. “I didn’t even know our marriage was in trouble, Pam. I mean, Anna Belle was irritated with me for not staying in private practice, but I just couldn’t. After that kid I was treating killed himself, I just couldn’t.”

  “Of course not. That’s completely understandable.”

  “Anna Belle knew how much time I spent in prayer over that. How I wrestled with what I should do. She hated me working as a consultant with the police department. I mean, hated it, thought being a civil servant was beneath me. But I enjoyed the work. I liked helping the police by creating profiles.”

  “I know
, and you did great work. I’ve heard.”

  Grayson shook his head. “Anna Belle said it was an embarrassment for me to work there. I think she was more in love with the doctor title than with me.”

  Pam’s silence spoke loudly.

  “Even so, I didn’t notice how her unhappiness in my career choices were affecting our marriage.” He shook his head, remembering all the arguments they’d had. “She hated that I wasn’t bringing in my normal income. Anna Belle wasn’t one to accept cutting back graciously.”

  “Do you hear yourself, Grayson?”

  He stared at Pam. “What?”

  “You’re making excuses for her behavior. I’m sorry, but it’s making me sick to my stomach.” She bolted upright in the chair. “It’s self-centered women like that who give the rest of us females a bad name. You’re a good man, Grayson Thibodeaux, and Anna Belle was an idiot. I don’t know why she was such a ladder climber, and I really don’t care. There’s no acceptable excuse for cheating on your spouse. None. Plain and simple, it’s wrong. She was wrong.” Pam narrowed her eyes and pointed at him again. “Anna Belle was wrong. She did you wrong.”

  “Yes, but—”

  Pam shook her head. “No. There’s no buts or anything. She was wrong. She mistreated you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I realize you loved her and she was your wife, but honestly, Grayson, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. Every single thing I know about her and that I learned during the creation of the game, she was one of the most unlikable people I’ve ever come across. She was a liar, a cheater…. She stole clients from coworkers and took credit for work that was theirs. And the worst of it? She didn’t care. Not one thing I heard said about her or learned or saw ever indicated she gave two cents about anything that didn’t benefit her directly.” Pam leaned back in the chair again. “That includes her marriage and her husband, and if you believe otherwise, you’re only deluding yourself and aren’t the brilliant man I know you to be. So snap out of it.”

  He wanted to argue, should argue. But he knew everything Pam had said was the truth. A little harsh in the delivery, but the truth.

  Grayson closed his eyes and lifted his face toward the sky, letting the late-afternoon sun warm him. He sent up a silent prayer of gratitude for his friend who spoke the truth to him in love, but also for strength to carry him in his weakness and doubt sure to come over the course of the next several days … weeks.

  He let out his breath in a huff and focused on Pam. “So, in your theory, if the baby was Tim’s, and Anna Belle didn’t want a baby…”

  Pam smiled and gave a little nod. “Maybe she told him, thinking he’d be on board with the abortion, but he wasn’t. He was angry but realized he couldn’t stop her. Maybe that was part of what broke them up. Then, when he and his wife reconciled, he admitted that Anna Belle had gotten pregnant and had an abortion. That would be how she knew.”

  Logical. “So why put the pamphlet in her room?”

  “There’s no way Emmi Dubois wanted Anna Belle to be promoted. I’m surprised she didn’t throw a fit to have her fired, but that could’ve caused trouble for her husband. The next best thing would be to set Anna Belle up to fail. Putting that in there would be one way to really rattle her. Get her off her game.”

  Grayson nodded. “That’s psychologically accurate.”

  “Don’t forget Emmi Dubois is in the medical field. She would know about behavior and such.”

  True.

  “Want to hear my other possible scenario?”

  He smiled. “Of course.”

  Pam smiled back. “Maybe Tim didn’t tell Emmi. Let’s say Tim didn’t even know Anna Belle was pregnant.”

  Grayson nodded. Seemed to be Anna Belle’s method. Typical Anna Belle—she’d avoid a situation if she couldn’t be sure of the outcome being in her favor.

  “So when they got the medical records, Tim found out. Just like you did.” Pam crossed her legs in the chair, looking more like a teen than the late-twenties that she was. “He was, as you were, devastated.”

  “I’m not sure I like being lumped in together with him.”

  Pam wagged her finger. “For whatever reason, you and he both loved Anna Belle. You both were intimate with her. Who’s to say that he wouldn’t have been as happy with a child with her as you would’ve been?”

  Ouch. The reality hurt, even though it was right on target. Grayson nodded. “Touché.”

  “Let’s say he confronted her, demanded to know if the baby was his, blah blah blah. Emmi would be furious over all of this when she found out. Maybe in pillow talk he accidentally let it slip out because he was so hurt over what she did.”

  That, Grayson could totally understand.

  “Either way, Emmi would be furious and terrified she was going to lose her hold on her husband again.”

  “So why put the pamphlet in her room then?”

  “Because she hoped Anna Belle would think that it was Tim. If Tim and Anna Belle had an argument about it and it was over, putting that in her room would set Anna Belle off again. She would hate that Tim would bring it up again. Now, during the game she wasn’t aware she was playing but knew she was in a competition for a promotion. And you and I both know that Anna Belle took her career more seriously than she took anything else.”

  So true.

  “Grayson, I’ve looked at the scenarios and timelines until I’m blue in the face—”

  “Which clashes with your hair, by the way.” He smiled, trying to relax the tension that suddenly felt suffocating, even though they were outside with the cool breeze circling the patio.

  Pam snorted. “I’m sure. As I was saying, the one person in that house when Anna Belle died who had the most reason to want her out of the way was Emmi Dubois.”

  “Or Tim.”

  Pam nodded. “Or Tim. Both probably had access to Anna Belle’s medical records about her allergy. Everyone knew about her addiction to those energy drinks.” She waved her hand toward the computer. “We have proof that Emmi, for whatever reason, was trying to sabotage Anna Belle one way or another. How much further would she go, knowing what she knew and feeling as betrayed by Anna Belle as she did?”

  “Enough to put cherry juice in her energy drink? I don’t know if she would’ve gone that far.” Grayson stared at the still shot on the computer screen again. “I don’t have a psych profile on her, which doesn’t help with this line of thinking.”

  “No, but that image says she was desperate. Just how desperate is what we don’t know.” Pam uncrossed her legs and sat up. “There might be a way to find out.”

  Now he was intrigued. “What?”

  “You could talk to her.”

  Grayson blew out a burst of air and shook his head. “Are you serious?”

  “Hear me out.”

  “This better be good.” Only because it was Pam was he even willing to listen to the nonsense.

  “You can get anybody talking, but you’re in a unique position to get Emmi to open up to you.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Come on, Gray, don’t play dumb. Your wife was having an affair with her husband. You can play up how you both were so wronged. Even better, you can let her think she has a leg up on you because she managed to keep her husband while Anna Belle divorced you.”

  He wanted to discount what she said, but his training and experience wouldn’t let him.

  Pam nodded. “You could probably pull a lot of information out of her without her even realizing it.”

  “I just don’t know if I want to go down this road. Brandon and his partner might see it as me interfering in their investigation.”

  “Oh, I’m sure his partner would, but you know she’s ready to slap the cuffs on you for Anna Belle’s murder. You are in the unique position to get information to help yourself, and I think you’d be stupid if you don’t use that.”

  He wrapped his mind around all of that. “I can’t just call her out of the blue. She’d be suspicious. I’m sure she’s
pretty smart in her own right.” He pointed at the computer screen. “She did figure that out and use it.”

  “Good point.” Pam pinched her bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger, a true sign her mind was running overtime.

  “And, if what we’re saying without saying is true and she’s involved with Anna Belle’s death, there’s no telling what lengths she’ll go to in order to protect herself.”

  Pam let out a sigh and shut the laptop. “Maybe we just wait and see what the police investigation comes up with. Any chance you think Brandon might tell you where they are in the investigation?”

  “I don’t know. I detected he felt really uncomfortable with Danielle’s going right at me, but I don’t know what evidence they’re looking at.”

  “Well, we know it doesn’t lead to you, because you’re innocent.”

  “I am, and surely appreciate your loyalty, but we know that innocent people can be, and many are, arrested and even found guilty for crimes they’re later exonerated for.”

  “I know, and that’s what scares me about this. Especially with that cop gunning for you. Excuse the pun.”

  Grayson didn’t say anything because he couldn’t. He sent up another silent prayer. This time for the truth to be revealed.

  FOURTEEN

  “So after you walked through the house on Wednesday, then what happened?” Danielle eased Tim Dubois back to his statement.

  “I signed the paperwork Colton gave me stating we had gone over the plan. Anna Belle’s ex-husband left, and we got ready for our employees to arrive.”

  “About what time did Mr. Thibodeaux leave?” Danielle asked.

  “I didn’t really look at my watch, but it was before noon because Emmi and I had sandwiches delivered since we couldn’t leave the house while we were waiting on the deliveries.”

  “Deliveries of what?” Brandon asked.

  “The food. One of the tasks the game had that night was for Anna Belle to have to cook dinner for everyone.” Tim smiled, almost to himself. “Anna Belle didn’t know how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, much less the crawfish étouffée she was scheduled to make.”