Phew.
That was a close one. It took a few moments, but I was finally able to get my emotions under control. With my pulse no longer racing, I stared out into the distance to clear my head. When I had restored my focus, I approached Melissa’s townhome.
Before I knocked on the door, I positioned myself on the edge of her doorstep so she wouldn’t be able to see me through her living room window. In order to discover my identity, she would need to actually open the door. If she didn’t answer my initial knock, I had a plan to disguise my voice by impersonating someone with a deeper, raspier delivery. I had also concocted a ruse that I was willing to enact if necessary.
Finally, I was ready to knock. As expected, Melissa didn’t answer. I knew she was home. Her car was in the driveway. It was time to put my plan into action. I knocked again, this time using the deeper voice.
“Ms. Wilcox, I have a flower delivery here for you,” I said.
A few moments later, I heard footsteps coming from inside her house. This was it. I knew that I only had a small window to work with, so I had to be prepared. In order to maximize my time, I pulled my phone out and loaded the photo of Melissa and Jake kissing.
I put my foot out in anticipation that the minute Melissa spotted me, she would try to close the door in my face. My instincts had been spot on. Melissa opened the door, saw that I wasn’t really from a flower delivery service, and tried to put an end to the conversation before it even had a chance to begin.
For the moment, my foot was enough to stop her door from slamming. I was less successful at keeping her from going nuclear. She was so upset with me that veins were nearly popping in her forehead.
“You have a lot of nerve showing up here again!” Melissa barked.
“I have a very good reason for coming back—” I started to say.
She interrupted me. “I don’t care.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to care about this.”
I held up my phone.
Melissa saw the photo of her and Jake kissing, which only made her angrier. “Were you spying on us?”
Really? That was the part she was concerned about? Not what the actual photo showed, but how I had gotten the image.
I tried to set her priorities straight. “It doesn’t matter how I got the picture.”
“It does to me.”
Fine. She wanted to hammer this point. I would give her a dose of her own medicine. “If you were trying to keep your relationship a secret, you did a very poor job. You two were right out in the open, in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Anyone could have seen you. I just happen to be the one to know the significance of your relationship.”
Her outrage continued. “So you were spying. How dare you?”
I tried to nudge the conversation back toward the core of the issue.
“That is the least of your worries,” I said.
“Don’t try to change the subject.”
I ignored her demand. “You are romantically linked to someone who desperately wanted to buy Andrew’s business. A man who stood to benefit a great deal from Andrew’s death. To me, that’s the only subject that matters.”
Melissa narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you trying to get me to throw Jake under the bus?”
“I’m trying to figure out the truth. That’s all.”
She snarled. “You sure have an interesting way of going about it.”
“I’m asking you simple questions. You are the one who is making things complicated.”
“Because I don’t like people being up in my business.”
“Just answer me, and I’ll be out of your hair in no time,” I said.
“How about you just get out of my hair right now?” she replied.
I shook my head in disbelief. “There you go, making things difficult again.” It was a good thing I had a backup plan. “You keep wanting me to leave. Fine. How would you like to explain all this to the police detective who is investigating Andrew’s murder? If he heard you and Jake were together, I’ll tell you what he’d think. That you two might have plotted to kill Andrew together.”
She was vehement in her denial. “No. That’s not true.”
I held my hands up. “You have no way of proving that.”
Desperation came to her voice. “You’re really pushing it.”
“Am I? Did Andrew know that you Jake were romantically involved?”
“No—” she started saying.
She stopped talking when she saw how intensely I was staring her down.
“It’s funny,” I replied. “I asked Jake that same question. I can’t say that his answer was the same as yours.”
She hemmed and hawed but finally replied. “Fine. Andrew knew about Jake and me.”
“I’m sure Andrew wasn’t happy to find out that you were sleeping with him and Jake at the same time.”
“None of this proves anything.”
“One of your sexual partners was an angry business owner,” I said. “The other was a greedy investor determined to force the other to sell his business. And there you were, right in the middle of the action. You have to admit, this doesn’t look good for you.”
“It doesn’t matter how it looks. I didn’t do anything.”
“Did Jake try to get you to convince Andrew to sell the chocolate shop?”
“I don’t like where you are going with this,” she said.
“Your efforts to convince Andrew clearly didn’t go well. Did that force you to go to extreme measures?” I asked.
“You’re crazy.”
“You are awfully defensive. If my allegations are really so nuts, they shouldn’t bother you. So why are you getting so worked up?” I asked.
As I stared into her eyes, she had the look of an animal that had been backed into a corner. Her fight-or-flight instinct was enabled.
Unfortunately, she chose flight. “We’re done here.”
I pulled out the only card I had up my sleeve. “I’ll tell the police everything I know.”
“Go ahead. Tell them. I didn’t kill Andrew.”
With her adrenaline pumping, she put all of her weight on the door. She managed to muster more strength than I anticipated. With the door closing on my foot, I suddenly had no choice. If I didn’t move my foot, she’d crush it with the door. Reluctantly, I pulled my foot back. That was when, for the second time that afternoon, I had a door slammed in my face.
Chapter Thirty
If you were wondering, having a door slammed in my face didn’t get any easier to shrug off the second time around. My nerves were rattled as I walked back to my car. It was rare that my emotions were so raw. Part of that was just that my frustrations had hit peak levels. The case had done such a number on my patience that this latest door slamming was just the fitting end to a maddening day. In addition, I didn’t know where to go from there. I had run out of suspects, chased down all the leads I had, and was now staring down a huge question mark.
Before I was able to spend too much time inside my head, I spotted a police car parked behind my sedan on the street. I knew the odds were low of me being able to go through this entire investigation without the police catching wind of my activities, but the timing of this encounter with the boys in blue was especially poor.
There was no doubt that my luck had run out. What other explanation was there for me to be faced with an inevitable confrontation just as I was feeling wildly agitated and in no mood to make conversation? I needed to put on a good face. After all, there was no scenario where this wouldn’t be bad news for me. Even if it was my boyfriend behind the wheel of the police car, finding out that I had been meddling in his investigation would not fill him with joy.
If another officer of the law was sitting in the driver’s seat, I would find myself in even deeper trouble. Faced with two unappealing possibilities, I should have been relieved when I spotted David getting out of his car to approach me. That comfort was quickly replaced by a general sense of uneasiness when I saw the disappointed l
ook on my boyfriend’s face.
I was not looking forward to this. If I could think of a way to wriggle my way out of it, I would have slunk away. Unfortunately, that was not an option. Instead, anticipating that this would be a rocky discussion, I prepared myself for the worst.
Since I was already back on my heels, I decided to let David break the ice to see what kind of a tone he struck with me. As I expected, he was stern with me, but he didn’t blow up.
He made it clear that my investigative activities had not gone unnoticed. “Looks like you’ve been keeping busy.”
David was a master of the deadpan understatement. Even so, as I peered into his eyes, I could tell that he wanted to give me a serious talking to. Were I not his girlfriend, he would have probably given me an earful. That said, even though we were a couple, it wasn’t like he was going to let my actions slide.
David just realized that there was a fine line that needed to be walked. If he was too harsh with me, his words would bleed over to the rest of our relationship. Striking the right tone was key—both for him and for me.
I made an attempt to charm him with a smile and a positive attitude. “David. It’s so good to see you. What are you doing on this side of town?”
“Don’t try to butter me up.”
David wasn’t seeing the entire picture. Obviously, I wanted him to warm up to me, but there was more at play than that. Not only was it good to see him, but I wasn’t clear why, of all the places he could approach me, he had decided to do so outside of Melissa’s home.
“What brings you to Melissa Wilcox’s street? Do you have a new lead on her?” I asked.
David didn’t even address my question. He was determined to dictate the topic of the conversation.
My boyfriend let out a sigh that was filled with frustration. “Let’s not make this any harder than it already is. Sabrina, I know what you have been up to.”
So much for smoothing over the rough edges. It looked like things were about to get very prickly.
“I can explain—”
David interrupted me. “What were you thinking?”
“Andrew’s killer is still out there—”
“Exactly,” David replied. “There’s a killer on the loose, and you’ve been out there snooping around on your own. Do you have any idea how much danger you put yourself in today?”
I became defensive. “I have been very careful.”
“We are dealing with a murderer here. They have already killed one person. Who is to say that they won’t strike again?”
I tried to interject.
David did not let me get a word in. “If the guilty party did kill again, who would make a more fitting victim than someone who has been sticking their head where it doesn’t belong?”
“I knew the risks going into this.”
David looked more baffled than ever. “Yet you still decided to play amateur sleuth?”
“Andrew’s killer needs to be found. I couldn’t bear if this case went unsolved,” I said.
David wasn’t the only one who needed to walk a fine line because we were in a relationship. It was just as important that I tried not to trample his feelings—or his ego. Investigating crimes was his line of work. Although it had not been my intention, there was the possibility that he could view my sleuthing as an indictment of his skills as a detective.
He stared me down. “You seem to be forgetting that it’s my job to solve this.”
While I hated seeing his ego bruised, at that moment, I felt that it was more important to get to the core of the matter.
“How close are you to solving this?” I asked.
David was suddenly back on his heels. “I’m still working on it.”
“Do you have a hunch who the killer is?”
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Are you any further along than you were before?” I asked.
“I’m working on some things.”
That hardly inspired confidence in me. If anything, it only made me feel better that I had jumped in. To me, it was clear that he needed my help.
In order to prove it, I fed him one of the juicy details I had uncovered. “You may disagree with my methods, but they have worked. I have gotten some leads. For example, did you know Jake Williamson and Melissa Wilcox are romantically involved?”
The blank look on his face spoke volumes. “Really?”
I nodded. “That’s not all. How about that fact that Leah Stewart had been cheating on her husband with Patrick Doherty?”
“Wow.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
He took a moment to process what I had divulged. Surprisingly, after all I had just given him, he still didn’t warm up to me.
“Don’t get me wrong,” David replied. “I’m very appreciative that you got that information. It’s more about how you did it.”
“It’s not like I wanted to run around town questioning murder suspects. I would have much rather stayed at home. But I just can’t rest until the killer is brought to justice.”
The worry still weighed down his face. “I understand what you’re saying, and I sympathize with where you are coming from.”
I knew there was more that he wanted to say. He just seemed to be having trouble letting the words spill out.
“But—” I started saying.
“It doesn’t change the fact that you have no investigative experience. Meanwhile, I’m a trained detective. Please just let me handle this,” he replied.
One of our strong points as a couple was that we rarely argued. When it came to this topic, however, we just didn’t see eye to eye. So as much as I hated locking horns with him, my stance wasn’t about to change.
It pained me to do it, but I broke the bad news to him. “I know you want me to step aside, but I can’t.”
It wasn’t often that he got emotional with me when talking about professional matters, but he made a rare exception right then.
David poured his heart out to me. “Sabrina, I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you. The thought of you being hurt, or worse…”
He trailed off as the prospect of finishing his sentence made him get choked up.
As I gazed deep into his eyes, it quickly became apparent just how worried he was about me. I had never seen him so concerned about me before.
It was impossible not to be touched by his show of emotions. While that still wasn’t enough to get me to drop this case, I was more than happy to meet him in the middle.
“Why don’t we investigate this case together?” I asked.
David became very quiet. My question just hung in the air, uncomfortably waiting for an answer. When his silence stretched longer than I expected, I tried to help him along.
“So what do you say?” I added.
Even after I’d put him on the spot, he didn’t reply. Instead, he stared deep into my eyes.
When I opened my mouth to prod him again, he finally spoke up.
“There’s nothing I can say that will make you quit investigating this case, is there?” David replied.
It troubled me not to be able to give him the answer that he wanted. Unfortunately, he’d have to settle for the truth.
I shook my head. “I’m not giving up until the killer has been found.”
David took a deep breath then replied, “If you’re going to insist on being that stubborn, I want to be by your side in case things turn violent.”
It was an inauspicious start to our partnership, but I would take it. Anything was preferable to being thrown off of this case. With the issue of my investigating the case having been finally settled, David and I could move on to more pressing issues. Namely, where to go from there.
David had an idea about what our next step should be.
Chapter Thirty-One
I knew it was my first murder investigation, but it seemed peculiar to me that David felt our best course of action right then was to grab a bite to eat. To me, that was a clear sign that his stomach was c
alling the shots, rather than his mind. But, being new to sleuthing, and experiencing a hunger pang of my own, I gladly took a drive over to my friend Shannon’s sandwich shop for what could be best described as a business dinner. By then, Shannon had gone home for the night, no doubt to try to come up with a solution for her love triangle.
Luckily, she had trained her employees well. The quality of the sandwiches remained high, no matter who was working any given shift. As David and I sat at in a cushiony booth, I took a bite of a deliciously gooey grilled sandwich while my boyfriend made quick work of a scrumptious Philly cheesesteak sandwich.
David had clearly been combating low blood sugar levels, as his mood improved with each bite he took into his sandwich. Unlike my boyfriend, I took my time chowing down on my meal, treating each bite like it was something to be savored.
Pace of eating aside, with delicious food in our stomachs, our hunger subsided, allowing the case to take center stage again. As we began to go over the substantive details of the investigation, much to my delight, even though I had no investigative experience, the detective and I shared a number of the same hunches—as well as frustrations.
One particular observation proved too difficult for me to keep bottled up. “It’s crazy how guilty each of the suspects looks.”
“The mixture of motive and a lack of a verifiable alibi will do that,” he said.
“I just figured that by now one would stand out more than the rest.”
“Why do you think I haven’t arrested anyone for the crime yet?” David asked.
“I do have an especially bad feeling about Melissa, though.”
“I can’t disagree with that. At the same time, is there anyone you don’t have a bad feeling about?”
My boyfriend had a good point. When I went through the suspects in my head, the appearance of innocence was hard to come by.
Meredith Potts Fourteen Book Cozy Mystery Set Page 99
