The Ghost of Valentine Past

by Anna J. McIntyre

  “Did he share his stories?”

  Kelly shook her head. “No, not really. After JoJo45 told me what CultCurious had asked her about, I asked her the same question about him. Which, now that I think about it, is probably why I think of CultCurious as a guy because JoJo45 referred to him that way. Anyway, according to JoJo45, CultCurious had been an Earthbound Spirits member, but soon became disillusioned with the group. She never said that anything particularly bad had happened to him. He never claimed to lose a bunch of money or anything.”

  “So JoJo45 was a woman?”

  Kelly smiled. “Yeah. I know because during one of our private chats she shared how she was a new grandma.”

  “What was your handle?”

  “Mine? KellyB.”

  Lily stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

  Cellphone in hand, Ian remained seated, silently surfing the Internet. Without looking up he mumbled, “Okay.”

  Lily’s first stop was the chief’s office, but he wasn’t there. Walking down the corridor of the inner offices of the police department, she got a few inquiring glances from staff members, yet no one asked her where she was going or who she was looking for. She found Chief MacDonald in the break room, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

  “Hey, Chief,” Lily greeted when she entered the room.

  “How did you get in here?” he asked.

  “Your security sucks.”

  The chief smiled. “You come to say goodbye?”

  “Not until Joe’s done with Kelly.”

  “He is. Kelly left the interrogation room a few minutes ago.” The chief took a sip of his coffee.

  Lily frowned. “I didn’t see her.”

  “I heard her ask Joe where the bathroom was. She was probably in there.”

  “Were you in the interrogation room with her and Joe?”

  The chief smiled and took another sip.

  “Oh I get it. What’s with you guys? A bunch of voyeurs.”

  The chief laughed.

  “What was all this about? Why are you dragging Kelly down here, when it’s Arlene you should be interviewing?” Lily asked in a whisper.

  “Danielle told you?”

  “Yes, before she left this morning. Told me about Lucas and what he saw.”

  “Damn, it must be insane living at Marlow House.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “You have no idea.”

  “About Arlene, you have to understand, I can’t very well drag her down here based on something Danielle’s dead husband told her.”

  “Does that mean you’re just going to ignore it and harass poor Kelly?”

  “Don’t be dramatic, Lily. No one is harassing Kelly. And your boyfriend—and his sister—did mislead us during the first interviews.”

  “I know. Ian regrets that. But you have to understand, it’s his job.”

  “Yes. And I have my job. I’ve a murder to solve, one that happened under your roof.”

  “Don’t you think I know that? What about Arlene? For goodness sake, she kissed the man who killed Peter Morris!”

  “According to Danielle, he kissed her.”

  “Whatever.” Lily shrugged.

  “Don’t worry, Lily, I’m not ignoring Arlene. For the moment I’m just trying to assemble as much information as I can.”

  “Any word on that Mitcham dude?”

  “No. He still hasn’t shown up.”

  Lily’s phone began to buzz. She looked at it. “It’s Ian; he’s waiting out front with Kelly.”

  “I imagine you want to get out of here, it is Valentine’s Day.”

  “Yeah, Ian had planned something romantic at his house, but it looks like he’ll have a houseguest for another night—thanks to you.”

  “I’m sorry, Lily.”

  “Yeah,” Lily shrugged. “You and Carol Ann doing anything special for Valentine’s Day?”

  “We have a late dinner reservation and a babysitter set up for the kids.”

  “Well, have fun.”

  “You too Lily.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Chief MacDonald remembered a time when investigating a suspect didn’t involve sitting in front of a computer, searching through social media sites. When he first started in law enforcement, the small community he worked for at the time didn’t even have Internet access. While he would normally assign someone from his office to search for information on a person of interest, he felt this particular job was left best to him, considering he was unable to share with his people what he knew about Arlene Horton.

  Focusing his attention on the computer monitor, he reached for his coffee cup and then took a sip. The cold coffee made him cringe. Instead of spitting it out, he reluctantly swallowed and set the mug back onto the desk, shoving it aside.

  Turning his attention back to the search, he clicked one more time, only to find an answer to one of his questions: Did Arlene Horton have a personal grudge against Peter Morris?

  “Damn,” he muttered to the silent room. “That’s a pretty good motive for murder.”

  MacDonald didn’t stop there. He continued the online search, moving next to the chat website that Kelly, Heather, and Carol had used. It was almost 4:00 p.m. on Valentine’s Day when he turned off his monitor and called Brian and Joe into his office.

  “I’ve finished reading through the postings on the cult watch website,” Joe announced when he and Brian entered MacDonald’s office. “Kelly was telling the truth, no back and forth between her handle and CultCurious.” Both Joe and Brian took a seat.

  “I haven’t gotten far in tracking down the identity of CultCurious,” Brian added. “But I created a profile there, chatted it up a bit with a few people—they’re all talking about Morris’ murder. CultCurious hasn’t posted since Wednesday morning.”

  “Did you notice the handle JusticeNow?” Joe asked.

  Brian nodded. “Yes. I was going to mention it. JusticeNow’s story sure sounds like the one Kelly told about her roommate.”

  “Kelly never said anything about her friend’s sister being a member on the forum, and JusticeNow was a pretty active member. I can only think of one reason why Kelly wouldn’t mention it: because she’s JusticeNow,” Joe suggested.

  “You think Kelly created two handles?” Brian asked.

  “Seems all three of us have been surfing the same site.” The chief picked up a stack of papers on his desk and shuffled through them, making two piles.

  “You too?” Joe asked. “I rather thought you’d be heading out early, you don’t normally work on Saturday, and it is Valentine’s Day. Don’t you have something special planned with Carol Ann?”

  “A late dinner. I’ve plenty of time to make it. But first, we need to stop at Marlow House.”

  Brian frowned. “Marlow House? We? As in the three of us?”

  The chief looked at Brian. “I think you should be there.”

  “What’s this about?” Joe asked.

  “I’ve been taking a closer look at Arlene Horton,” the chief explained.

  “Arlene Horton? You talking about Hilton’s girlfriend?” Joe asked.

  The chief nodded. “It appears we didn’t take a close enough look into her background. Of all our suspects—”

  “Arlene is a suspect?” Brian interrupted. “Maybe Hilton’s accomplice.”

  “Of all the persons of interest, Arlene has the most compelling motive,” the chief explained.

  “More compelling than Will Wayne? He believes Morris killed his daughter. I can’t imagine a better motive,” Brian said.

  “What about Kelly? If she had a second handle, then she lied to us about talking with CultCurious on the site. By the back and forth between those two, it’s obvious JusticeNow and CultCurious exchanged private messages.”

  “Let’s put Kelly on the back burner for now,” the chief said. “As for Wayne, I agree his motive trumps Arlene’s, even if Isabella died of natural causes. Because Wayne doesn’t know that,” MacDonald said.

  Joe frowned. “Then why
do you say she has the most compelling motive?”

  “More compelling when you consider she was at the scene of the crime,” the chief explained.

  “True, but Kelly was just across the street, and she initially lied to us about being outside the house around the time of the murder,” Joe reminded him. “And she has a reason to hate Morris.”

  “Perhaps, but I think we need to take a closer look at Arlene Horton.” He then went on to explain Arlene’s motive for killing Morris, while handing each man a stack of the papers.

  “I don’t understand,” Joe muttered. “I checked out Arlene’s background. She’s an only child, grew up in Vancouver, Washington. Her father is the deacon of their church, where she’s an active member.”

  The chief arched his brows. “So?”

  “But her father is a deacon,” Joe repeated.

  Brian rolled his eyes at his partner. “Oh please, Joe, the chief is right. So? You don’t think a church going man can’t have secrets?”

  Joe thumbed through his papers. “This is not exactly a secret,” he muttered. “Not if Arlene posted all this stuff on her Facebook page…which I obviously missed.”

  “In your defense,” the chief said, “those posts are over two years old.”

  Joe tossed the papers on the desk and looked up. “What made you go back that far?”

  “Just a hunch.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, MacDonald told himself.

  Still holding his papers, Brian leaned back in the chair and looked across the desk at MacDonald. “What now?”

  “I obviously want us to talk to her again. But I don’t want to do it down here.”

  “Why not?” Joe asked.

  “For one thing, I’d like a certain element of surprise. At this point, she figures we totally missed her connection to Morris. If we drag her down to the police station, it’ll give her time to second guess what we might ask her. Plus, stopping by and telling her we just need to ask a few questions will seem less threatening. She’ll assume we’re asking her as a witness, not a suspect.”

  “I’d like to hear Hilton’s explanation for withholding his family’s connection to Morris,” Joe added.

  “I also suspect Arlene and Hilton aren’t quite lovers,” the chief added.

  “Why do you say that?” Joe asked.

  “If you’ll look at page three of the conversations I printed out from the forum, I’ve a feeling Arlene and Hilton hooked up on that site. I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but if you read it, my guess, Arlene’s handle is NeedAnswers and Hilton’s is FortuneLost666.”

  Joe retrieved his papers from the desk while Brian shuffled through his, looking for the pages in question. After finding them and reading through the exchange, Brian said, “You know, it really wouldn’t surprise me to find out those two are posing as lovers.”

  “This sure sounds like it could be them,” Joe muttered as he continued to read.

  “Brian, why wouldn’t you be surprised?” the chief asked.

  “Because, when we were called to Marlow House the night of the murder, they were all wearing nightclothes. Arlene was dressed in a floor-length, flannel nightgown, not an inch of skin showing. Not exactly sexy night wear for a romantic weekend with a lover.”

  “Well, it has been cold,” Joe suggested.

  Brian laughed. “Maybe, but I doubt that was the only reason for wearing flannel. Unless, of course, Hilton has some sort of flannel fetish.”

  Joe tossed the papers onto the desk.

  “More I think about it, it makes sense,” Brian added.

  With a sigh, Joe said, “Maybe so, but how did they know Morris was stopping at Marlow House? From all accounts, it was a spur of the moment visit. Morris was already parked outside when he called Chris Johnson and told him he was going to stop over.”

  Brian tossed his papers with Joe’s and stood up. “What we do know is—that fingerprint belongs to Logan Mitcham, and according to what the lab told us today, the blood belonged to Morris. So, it’s a safe bet someone hired Mitcham to kill Morris. According to Wayne, Mitcham offered to set him up with a hit man, and it’s pretty clear the hit man he was talking about was himself.”

  “Maybe Arlene and Hilton did team up together and hired Mitcham to kill Morris; they both had a motive to want the man dead,” Joe said. “But why even bother coming to town? Isn’t that the point of hiring a hit man, to keep a distance between yourself and the crime scene? And why kill Morris under the same roof as the people who paid for the hit? And how in the hell did they time everything, getting Morris to Marlow House?”

  Brian sat back down. “Maybe it was a crime of opportunity. Logan Mitcham is a private detective. He was probably trailing Peter Morris.”

  “What, and this is some colossal coincidence?” Joe asked. “He follows Morris to Marlow House where, three—no four, if you count Chris—people have motives to kill Morris, happen to be staying. Oh, and let’s not forget Kelly Bartley, she also has a motive, and she was just across the street. Our killer conveniently finds a murder weapon waiting for him in the parlor, which he considerately leaves behind so we don’t have to keep searching for it.”

  “Well, now that you put it that way…” Brian slouched back in his chair. “It would sure be a hell of a lot easier if we could track down Logan Mitcham and see what he has to say.”

  “Hopefully, we’ll have him in custody shortly, but in the meantime, we have two people we can talk to.”

  “You know, now that I think about it, if Horton and Hilton really had nothing to do with any of this, wouldn’t they have just left yesterday?” Brian suggested. “Good lord, someone had just been murdered where they’re staying, and the killer is still on the loose.”

  “You have a point,” Joe agreed. “Nothing like spoiling the mood of a romantic weekend than finding a man butchered downstairs.”

  “They probably figured if they left too soon, people would get suspicious, while an innocent person wouldn’t even consider that; they’d just want to get the hell out of Dodge,” Brian speculated.

  “Why hasn’t he called?” David asked, pacing the bedroom he shared with Arlene.

  “I told you, we should just leave. Can we please just leave?” Arlene pleaded.

  “Just because Peter Morris is dead, it doesn’t mean this is over. Earthbound Spirits’ corruption needs to be exposed.”

  “David, don’t you understand, with Peter Morris dead—this changes everything.”

  “Why?”

  “For one thing, don’t you think someone is going to start looking at us?”

  “They haven’t so far. And anyway, we had nothing to do with his murder.”

  “Maybe not, but we sure as hell had a reason to want the man dead!”

  “That’s why we need to keep the appointment,” David insisted. “I bet anything someone from Earthbound Spirits killed him. It’s an inside job. A power play. Who’s next in line with him dead? That faux religious non-profit controls a fortune in assets.”

  Walt lounged on the bed in David and Arlene’s room, watching them argue. It was the first time they’d said anything of interest—anything that remotely alluded to the murder. He continued to listen until Arlene left David to take her shower and dress for wherever they intended to go for dinner.

  Danielle was just entering the front door when Walt appeared in the entry hall. “You’ve been gone all day,” Walt greeted, sounding somewhat annoyed. “Where have you been?”

  Glancing around, Danielle asked in a whisper, “Where is everyone?”

  “Joanne is in the kitchen, Lily is over at Ian’s, I’ve no idea where Heather is—I just know she isn’t here—and our lovebirds are up in their room. Well, more accurately, David is in their room, and Arlene is in the shower.”

  Danielle nodded to the parlor. “Let’s talk in there.”

  “I think I found out something about your lovebirds,” Walt said after Danielle shut the parlor door. He took a seat on the sofa and watched as Danielle sat in the chair acros
s from him.

  “What’s that?”

  “First, I don’t believe they’re lovebirds. I don’t even believe they’re close friends.”

  “Really?”

  “One thing they do share: they both hated Peter Morris and they both want to see Earthbound Spirits taken down.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me, considering Hilton’s family. And we already know Arlene has some sort of personal relationship with the killer.”

  “She may be involved with the murder, but I don’t think David is. One thing I do know, if either of them had something to do with the murder, they’re keeping that fact from each other.”

  “Why do you think that?” Danielle asked.

  “When I was listening to them, David kept reiterating how they weren’t involved in the murder, while Arlene kept asking him if they could go home now. She does not want to be here.”

  “Why are they here? Innocent or guilty, I expected them to check out early.”

  Walt glanced up to the ceiling. “According to David, they’re supposed to meet someone. That’s why they’re still here.”

  “Meet who?”

  Walt shrugged. “They didn’t mention his name. Only that they were waiting for his phone call. David seemed to think it was more important to meet him now that Morris was dead, while Arlene seemed to think now that Morris was dead, there was no reason to meet him.”

  “I suppose if—” Danielle stopped talking when she heard the doorbell.

  Before answering the door, she peeked outside the parlor window. “It’s the chief. He’s with Joe and Brian.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Why didn’t David listen to me? Arlene asked herself. If he had, she wouldn’t be sitting alone with Police Chief MacDonald in Marlow House’s library. Combing her fingers through her damp hair, Arlene wished she had used her blow dryer before coming downstairs to get a cup of hot tea. Finding the three police officers standing in Marlow House’s entry didn’t surprise her, considering what had happened the day before. What did surprise her was finding herself alone in the library with the police chief, while David was in another room with the other two officers.