That put Olivia on her heels. She gave a nonchalant answer that didn’t seem to match the anxiety that was in her eyes. “I overheard some customers talking about it at Lindsay’s Lattes this morning.”
That answer was neither incriminating nor exonerating. It was mundane enough to be true, but more importantly, impossible to verify. If I wanted more information, I’d have to take a different approach.
Kaitlin beat me to it. “Did you know that it’s not uncommon for a killer to return to the scene of the crime?”
Olivia furrowed her brow. “Why would they do that?”
“A number of reasons. Sometimes it’s because they are worried that they left something incriminating behind and want to cover their tracks. Occasionally they want to see how hot on their tail the police are. Other times, it’s just a guilty conscience that brings them back,” Kaitlin said.
“It’s none of the above for me. I told you already, I only drove by because I couldn’t believe it was really true.”
After making no dent with the softball questions, Kaitlin went into some harder ones. “Where were you this morning between midnight and twelve thirty?”
“I was asleep,” Olivia said.
Kaitlin followed up. “At your house?”
“Yes.”
“Were you alone?”
Olivia became more annoyed with each question. “That’s none of your business.”
Kaitlin narrowed her eyes at her. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
Olivia gave in. “Yes. Why? What does that matter?”
“Olivia, your story is only as believable as my ability to verify it.”
Olivia was offended. “I’m telling you the truth. I was asleep.”
Kaitlin seemed to have hit a brick wall with that line of questioning.
I took the conversation in a new direction. “We’d like to know the truth about something else. We know there was a fight at the reunion last night. What were you fighting about?”
“There was already plenty enough bad blood even before Sabrina Gable showed up looking to cause trouble. Suddenly, realizing that my ex-husband hadn’t just cheated on me, but that he’d had an illegitimate daughter, it was like having a brand-new wound open up right next to the old one. I had some choice words with Peter, stormed out, then drove home and cried myself to sleep,” Olivia said.
It was an interesting story, one that probably shared both a little bit of truth with a dash of fudging thrown in. We were in the unenviable position of having to figure out which was which. Before we did, something else about her story struck me.
There was a very noticeable absence in her tale. What I wondered was whether that was by choice or chance.
“Was Sid there at the reunion with you?” I said.
Olivia quickly replied, “No.”
Such a swift dismissal was clearly meant to get us to move on to the next question. Instead, it only raised deeper suspicion.
Kaitlin refused to break eye contact with Olivia, staring her down so hard that it made her squirm.
Kaitlin narrowed her eyes. “You realize how serious it is to lie to a police officer, don’t you?”
Just as quickly as she’d answered before, she now revised her story. “Okay, so yes, Sid was briefly there.”
That was just as I suspected. Now we were finally getting somewhere.
Kaitlin put the heat on. “With you?”
“No,” Olivia replied.
I smelled a lie, one that I couldn’t help but call her on. “Olivia, you’re going down a dangerous path. Tell us the truth. Are you saying that you two didn’t come together or even talk at all?”
“We didn’t come together. He spoke with me briefly before he left,” Olivia said.
There was something incredibly fishy about her story. I knew we weren’t getting the whole truth. She seemed to be cherry picking certain details that only matched her story and parceled them out as if that was all there was to it.
“What did you talk about?” I said.
“I told him that I didn’t think it was a good idea for him to be there,” Olivia replied.
I was tired of listening to her dance around the issue. Now was not the time for vagaries. Luckily, I knew something that might drag some details out of her. “Because you two had broken up?”
Instead of her canned, calculated answers, she replied from instinct. “No, because the private eye work he’d done was a sore spot with a number of people who were at that reunion.”
Suddenly, I could see her mind spinning.
Olivia went over my last sentence in her head again until she fixated on it. “Wait a minute. Broken up? Where would you ever get the impression that we’d even been together, much less broken up?”
Kaitlin’s patience had worn completely thin. She glared at her. “Why do you keep lying to us? We know you and Sid had a relationship.”
Olivia clammed up. Her tongue looked completely tied.
I piled on. “We also know that you had a fight a few days ago.”
Olivia’s eyes opened wide. “How did you know about that?”
“That’s not as important as this. What did you two fight about?” Kaitlin said.
Olivia deflected. “I don’t see how that is relevant.”
Kaitlin wasn’t about to accept that. “A few days ago, you had a fight with a man who has now been found murdered. Frankly, I can’t see how my question could be more relevant. Now, what’s the answer?”
Olivia took a deep breath and finally gave us an answer. “A little of this, a little of that.”
She was clearly content to be as vague as possible. I had to try and draw the truth out of her with some pointed questions.
“How did Sid and your daughter get along?” I said.
Olivia hesitated in replying. She looked like she was having trouble finding the right words. What she didn’t realize was that her prolonged silence was an answer of its own.
I called her on that. “That bad, huh?”
Olivia tried to soften what were clearly some rough edges. “Kids sometimes have trouble seeing their mother dating someone new.”
“Especially when their mother is dating the man who broke her parents’ marriage up,” I said.
She was quick to correct me. “Peter was the one to break our marriage up.”
“You see it that way, but does your daughter?” I asked.
Olivia glared at me. “I don’t like where you’re going with this.”
“A man has been murdered. I don’t care what you like. I just care about finding out the truth.”
Olivia snapped at me. “If you’re implying that my daughter could have had anything to do with this, you’re wrong.”
Talking about Olivia’s daughter was obviously a thorny path. Not that there was a rosy way to go about this, but I wanted to find a less treacherous angle.
Kaitlin was more concerned with getting a definitive answer to one of our previous questions. “You said that you and Sid argued about a little of this and a little of that, but there had to be a tipping point that led you to break up—a clear moment that threw you over the edge. What was it?”
Olivia tensed up again and didn’t seem to want to speak another word.
Kaitlin stared her down. “You can either tell us now, or we’ll find out by other means, but make no mistake, we will find out the truth.”
I tried prodding her along in my own way. “If you’re not guilty, you have nothing to hide.”
Olivia could see that we were more tenacious than rabid pit bulls and that she had no choice but to answer. “Sid and Jenna were at odds all the time. It created this unbelievable tension that finally made our relationship implode.”
Talking to Olivia was so frustrating. None of her answers were complete. There was always a missing piece that needed filling in.
I asked another leading question. “When you say they were at odds, was that because Jenna couldn’t stand that you were dating Sid?”
Olivia nodded bu
t did not elaborate further.
“Did she ever try to break you two up?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Kaitlin took over. “How did Sid react to all of that?”
After all the pushing and prodding, Olivia revealed the truth. “Sid said that I always took her side and never his. He told me she was too old to still be living at home. That at twenty-four-years-old, if she didn’t move out now, she might not ever do it. He kept pressuring me to force Jenna to get her own place.”
“Did you?” Kaitlin wondered.
Olivia sighed. “Reluctantly.”
“And?”
“Jenna struggled to get by on her own. Sid said it was because I’d coddled her for so long,” Olivia replied.
“Was he wrong? You seem awfully protective of your daughter,” Kaitlin said.
Olivia got chippy. “Every mother is protective of their daughter, especially after a divorce.”
I wanted to tackle another point. “Given the fact that Sid and your daughter were already at odds, I’ll bet when she found out that it was his idea to force her to get her own place, I’ll bet that made Jenna furious.”
For a moment, Olivia stopped making excuses for herself and threw all her energy at defending her daughter. “I already told you, if you’re implying that Jenna could have done this, you’re dead wrong.”
Kaitlin stayed cool, calm, and collected while replying. “I don’t know. Angry people have been known to do some crazy things.”
Olivia had heard enough. She snapped. “No. My daughter would never do something like this.”
Kaitlin refuted her point. “Mothers never believe their kids are capable of committing such horrible acts, yet murders occur each and every day in this country. So, you can see why I’m not going to take your word for it,” Kaitlin said.
Before the conversation devolved into a shouting match, I wanted to return to one of our previous points. “Let’s get back to you kicking your daughter out of the house. You said she struggled on her own. Did you reconsider letting her move back in?”
Olivia nodded. “I knew the reason she struggled on her own was because deep down, she just wasn’t ready yet. I wanted her to move back in, but when I told Sid, he said he couldn’t deal with all the drama anymore.”
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“That’s when he broke up with me,” Olivia revealed.
“Did you try to get him to reconsider?” I said.
“I’d been trying to, but…”
Olivia couldn’t seem to get the words out.
I finished the sentence for her. “You had no luck.”
Olivia averted her eyes and lowered her head.
Kaitlin picked up where I left off. “So, he broke your heart. You must have been absolutely devastated.”
We heard no answer from Olivia. She didn’t even lift her head up.
“You know, in the detective world, that’s what you call motive,” Kaitlin said.
Olivia was more outraged than ever. “For the last time, I didn’t do this. I’m here, telling you the truth, and you’re trying to use it against me.”
“It’s not my fault that the truth paints you in such a suspicious light,” Kaitlin replied.
Olivia lashed out. “You have a lot of nerve to stop my car and accuse both my daughter and me of possible murder, all without a single shred of proof.”
I had the perfect counter to her point. “You have no proof that you didn’t do it either.”
Olivia folded her arms, close to completely shutting down on us. “I have nothing else to say to you.”
Sure, we could keep pumping her for information in an effort to get her to keep talking, but it was clear that it would be fruitless. She wasn’t going to give us anything else to work with. So, until we dug up any other dirt on her, there was no reason to keep grilling her.
Kaitlin looked Olivia over closely then decided to let her go, with one caveat. “I’m going to have a squad car tail you. Don’t even think about leaving town, understand?”
Chapter Eleven
After finishing up with Olivia, Kaitlin and I decided to keep the questioning all in the family. Our next stop was Jenna Widmark’s rental townhome. It was a redbrick unit on Creekside Lane with a gable roof and a maple tree in the front yard. I briefly felt relieved when I saw a black sedan in the driveway, as it meant that Jenna was most likely home, until I saw that she was actually in the driver’s seat of her car and looked determined to back out of the driveway.
Just in time, Kaitlin pulled up in the driveway behind Jenna’s car, preventing her from leaving without ramming into Kaitlin’s squad car first. It would be interesting to see how things would proceed. There was the easy way of Kaitlin and me being able to just get out and approach Jenna’s window with our questions.
Jenna chose the hard way. The curly-black-haired, full-bodied twenty-four-year-old sprung out of her car with a full head of steam. I sighed, knowing that this could get nasty in a hurry.
Kaitlin wasn’t intimidated in the least. Then again, after the sordid things my daughter had seen since joining the force, intimidation wasn’t really a word in her vocabulary anymore. She got out of the squad car with a steely look in her eyes. Kaitlin soon got a mouthful from Jenna.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Jenna snapped.
I got out of the car and joined Kaitlin.
Even though Olivia and Jenna Widmark were mother and daughter respectively, it was uncanny at just how similar their temperaments were. As I saw how unhinged Jenna was, there was no doubt in my mind that she was her mother’s daughter.
Conversely, Kaitlin and I shared similar personality aspects of our own.
One of those was on full display as Kaitlin told Jenna off.
“Your family has a real attitude problem. I’m a police detective. You’re going to talk to me with respect,” Kaitlin demanded.
Jenna quieted down. Her defiance had not gone away, she just presented it at a lower voice volume. “What do you want?”
“We need to ask you some questions,” Kaitlin said.
Jenna folded her arms. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“We haven’t even told you what this is about,” Kaitlin replied.
“What is it about, then?” Jenna asked.
“The murder of Sid Harper,” Kaitlin revealed.
Jenna tried to deflect. “What would make you think I had anything to do with that?”
I was tired of dancing around the issue. “Don’t play dumb. Your mom already told us everything.”
Jenna lashed out. “Then why are you here?”
“We want to hear your version of the truth,” I replied.
Kaitlin added to my point. “Besides, maybe your mother was lying to deflect the blame off of herself.”
Jenna glared. “Are you calling my mother a liar?”
“That depends,” Kaitlin replied.
“On what?” Jenna asked.
“Your answers,” Kaitlin said.
“What’s the question?” Jenna wondered.
“To start, where were you last night between midnight and twelve thirty?” Kaitlin asked.
“I was in bed,” Jenna replied.
Kaitlin followed up. “Whose bed?”
“My bed. I was here at home.”
“Do you have anyone to verify that?”
With each new question, Jenna raised her voice a little more. “I just told you, I was here.”
My daughter had a fierce tenacity that was relentless in intensity. She went after Jenna again. “I heard you. What I didn’t hear was the answer to my question about whether you had anyone to verify your story.”
Finally, Jenna found the question too difficult to sidestep any longer. She groaned. “Okay. Yes, I was alone. But, I was asleep.”
Kaitlin furrowed her brow as she stared hard at Jenna. There was no way she was going to take Jenna’s words at face value.
“Let’s talk for a moment about your father,” Kaitl
in said.
Jenna seemed confused. “What about him?”
“Are you on good terms with your dad?” Kaitlin asked.
Jenna looked to be grappling with a mix of befuddlement and annoyance. “Yeah. Why? What does that have to do with anything?”
“You tell me. Isn’t your love for your father the main reason behind your hatred of your mother dating Sid?” Kaitlin wondered.
Jenna had been trying to throw us off the scent of the truth from the very first question we’d asked her, but her next statement was just patently ridiculous. “Who said I hated Sid?”
This conversation was becoming more unbelievable by the minute. Jenna could keep trying to pull the wool over our eyes all day, but it would do her no good.
Kaitlin scoffed. “Really? Are you going to try and play that game with us?”
Jenna tried playing dumb again. “What game?”
“Jenna, your own mother told us you hated Sid. Are you telling us she’s a liar?”
Kaitlin stared Jenna down until the eye contact became too much for her.
“All right, so we had our rough patches,” Jenna admitted.
Kaitlin could have laughed out loud at that moment. With each massive understatement, Kaitlin only went after Jenna harder.
“I’ll say. From what we hear, you hated his guts.”
“I think that’s a little harsh,” Jenna snapped.
Jenna was a horrible actress. Her emotions were right on her sleeve for anyone to see.
To me, they were as clear as day. I had a feeling she just needed to be pushed a little further before the truth spilled out of her. Thankfully, I thought I knew just the right nudge to go with. “Jenna, the man broke up your family.”
Jenna started seething. Now we were getting somewhere.
I kept going after her, seeing if I could push her to the edge. “I mean, of all the men she could have dated, she chose Sid. Every time you looked at him, you must have been reminded of how he’d caused your parents’ divorce.”
Jenna went quiet. I could tell she was trying to come up with words to refute my point, but she couldn’t think of any. What she failed to realize was that her lack of a reply was an answer in itself.
Meredith Potts Fourteen Book Cozy Mystery Set Page 80
