by L A Dobbs
Julie snorted. "I’ll say. You ask me, she was just a rebound girl for Noah. She doesn’t have a lot of self-confidence, always clutching at him and crowding him. I don’t expect that to last long. But… well… that has nothing to do with what happened to Lynn, right?" Julie looked as if she might’ve wanted to say more but held off. Maybe the realization that Sam and Jo were doing a little bit more than just taking a statement had her nervous that she’d said too much already.
"So you think Noah was going to break things off with Amber?" Sam asked. "Maybe Amber caught wind of that. Maybe Amber thought Noah was going to go back to Lynn. Maybe Amber tried to make sure that wouldn’t happen."
Julie gasped. "You don’t think Amber would kill Lynn? Over that?"
"Someone killed her. We’re trying to figure out the motive. Do you know why anyone would want her dead?"
Julie shook her head. "I told you before. No idea."
"What about the breakup with Noah? How did that affect the company? Is that when the company started failing?"
"No. I don’t think that had anything to do with it. We’re all professionals. Sure, at first it was kind of awkward, but after a while, that all passed." Julie shrugged. "Anyway, that was almost a year ago."
"And they still wanted to have equal shares in the company? Seems like that might be problematic eventually," Sam said.
"I wouldn’t know anything about that," Julie said.
"Maybe one of them was trying to phase the other one out to get control of the company before this new game was released," Jo suggested.
"What are you saying? That Noah killed Lynn to get control of the company? Noah wouldn’t do that, and besides, wouldn’t her share go to her family or something?"
"Actually, no," Sam said. "When they started the company, they agreed to leave each other controlling shares. Of course, they probably didn’t think they would be breaking up when they agreed to that. Maybe Noah wanted to make sure she didn’t have a chance to change the agreement."
"Noah wouldn’t do something like that!"
Julie seemed adamant, but Jo wasn’t so sure.
"Where were you that night around 2:30 a.m.?" Sam asked.
"Now you’re accusing me?" Julie straightened in the chair, causing it to tip to the left. "Do I need a lawyer?"
Sam held his palms up. "We’re not accusing you. We’re just trying to get a timeline. We need to piece together the events of the night to see if anyone saw anything that might help us find her killer."
Julie crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I didn’t see a thing. I was in my tent."
"What about earlier that day?" Jo asked. "Amber seemed to think Lynn had some kind of an appointment."
Julie frowned. "Appointment? For what?"
"We don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to find out. Amber said Lynn was the one that wanted to come camping here in White Rock. Said she was very insistent."
Julie’s gaze drifted out the window. "Yeah, actually, she did. I think she came here on vacation as a kid or something. Or maybe she had some friends here."
That caught Jo’s attention. Maybe Lynn had an old score to settle and her death had nothing to do with her breakup with Noah or the company. "Friends? Who?"
Julie shook her head. "I don’t know."
"So what happened that day? You all came to town for groceries and decided to do some shopping," Sam prompted.
Julie nodded. "That’s right. We always do our grocery shopping together after we get to our destination. We’d arrived late the night before and gotten fast food on the way. So we headed into town." Julie frowned. "Now that I think about it, Lynn was acting a little anxious."
"What did she do when you got to town?"
"Whenever we go camping, we like to poke around in the local shops. Lynn collects marbles and wanted to check out the antiques store. The guys wanted to check out that Irish pub in the square there." Julie pointed out the window to O’Malley’s. "We got to town just before noon and gave ourselves one hour. Then we would meet back at the pub then get groceries."
"And Lynn acted anxious?"
Julie shifted position, causing the chair to rock forward. "Sort of. Tara, Amber, and I decided to check out the secondhand store, Del’s. Lynn acted kind of strange and, instead of coming with us, went to the antiques store."
"Why was that so strange?"
"Usually, we kind of hang together, but I guess Lynn was more interested in getting to the antiques store. We only had an hour."
"And you met up after you finished in the secondhand shop."
Julie’s mouth twisted. "Not really. Tara isn’t into used goods, and the woman in Del’s told her about a boutique a few streets over, so she headed there. Amber went to get her nails done, if you can believe that. I looked for Lynn but couldn’t find her. We had twenty minutes left, so I poked around in a few of the other shops until it was time to meet everyone."
"So the next time you saw Lynn was in front of O’Malley’s?"
"Yes. She never said anything about any appointment. Are you sure about that?"
Jo wasn’t sure. She glanced out the window, trying to picture the group. The antiques store was at the north end of the street. Lynn would’ve walked that way. The pub was across the green, and the men would’ve headed that way. The high-end shops were two streets over, so after they left Del’s secondhand store, Tara would’ve gone down the side street to get to those. Amber would’ve gone right next door to get her nails done, and Julie would’ve been in and out of the other stores on the street. None of that told her much.
"I don’t really see how any of this has anything to do with Lynn being killed. Honestly, I think you’re wasting time here. No one in my group of friends would’ve killed her."
"That may be. But we need to establish timelines and get everyone’s statement in order to determine who really did kill her. If it wasn’t one of your group, then telling us everything you remember about that day will help us figure out who it was." Sam leaned across the desk toward Julie. "Is there anything else you can think of that you haven’t told us?"
Julie’s gaze flicked from Sam to Jo and back to Sam. The chair rocked slightly. She shook her head. "No. I think that’s it."
"Okay, then you can go."
She left, and Sam looked at Jo.
"I don’t think she’s right about her friends. I think one of them is a killer," Sam said. "None of the other campers have any connection to Lynn, and there seems to be some good motives brewing here."
"Yeah. Jealousy. Greed. Maybe even revenge."
"Right. Maybe Lynn was jealous of Noah and Amber and she was killed by accident in a passionate fight with Noah."
"Or maybe Amber didn’t want Noah to take up with Lynn again. Maybe Julie was right and Noah was about to get rid of Amber. If she thought he was going back to Lynn, she might have thought that making sure Lynn had a little accident would prevent that from happening."
Sam leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. "Maybe Julie doesn’t know everything. Friends often hide things from each other. Maybe Noah and Lynn’s breakup wasn’t as amicable as he said it was. Maybe they argued about the company. Maybe Lynn’s appointment had something to do with her making sure she was going to get complete control."
As usual, Jo was in sync with Sam’s line of thinking. "And maybe Noah found out and wanted to stop her."
Chapter Twenty-Five
They interviewed Dean Winters next. He was a quiet guy. Tall and handsome with that geeky computer-software look that girls sometimes went for. He was wearing shorts and sandals with white socks. It was way too early in the season for sandals up north, but Sam didn’t bother to tell him that.
"Truth be told, it was a little stressful at work," Dean said in response to Sam’s question about the company problems. "Money was tight, and Tara was really clamping down on spending."
Sam consulted his paperwork. "That’s Tara Barrett, the chief financial officer of the company, right?"
"Yep. Tara can wring blood out of a stone. That’s why she was great at the job. She could source the things we needed at half the cost." Dean shrugged. "But I guess that wasn’t enough. We were really counting on this new release."
"Tell me about the problems between Lynn and Noah," Sam said.
"There really weren’t any problems. Not that I saw. Things were a little tense after they broke up, and we were all on edge with the downturn in sales, but heck, we all went camping together, right, so how many problems could there have been between them?"
"The night Lynn died. Did you see anything unusual at the campsite?"
"No." He answered way too fast, and Sam glanced at Jo. She’d noticed too.
"Are you sure? We’ll find out if anything happened, and if you knew about it…" Sam let the unspoken threat hang in the air.
Dean fidgeted, and the chair wobbled back and forth. "Well, I was pretty drunk that night. I can’t really say for sure what I saw. My memory’s a bit fuzzy."
"Did you see someone fighting with Lynn at the party?"
"No. I actually wasn’t at the campsite most of the night. There was this girl a few campsites over, and, well…" Dean shrugged. "I spent most of the night there but skedaddled out of there way before sunup. I don’t know what time it was, but when I was sneaking into my tent, I’m pretty sure I saw someone else at the other end of the campsite."
"At the other end? Whose tent was at the other end?" Jo asked.
"Noah and Amber." Dean hurried on. "But I don’t know who it was that I saw or even what time it was. It was just a shadow in between the tents. Could have been someone coming back from a trip to the bathroom. Heck, it could’ve been a bear, for all I know. It was dark, and I was still drunk. I wanted to get into my tent quickly before anyone saw me because I didn’t want a lot of teasing the next day." He looked at them sheepishly. "I hope I’m not getting anyone into trouble, because I honestly can’t say for sure what I saw."
"Don’t worry. We’ll take your condition into consideration. You’ve been very helpful." Sam dismissed him, and they both watched the door as he shut it.
Jo turned to Sam. "The plot thickens."
Joshua Moore was next. Since Joshua and Tara were the only other couple in the room, Jo and Sam hoped maybe they’d drunk less than the others and would have more reliable testimony.
Jo soon found out that wasn’t the case.
Joshua’s large frame sat slumped in the chair. He wore black cargo pants, and a white long-sleeved jersey stretched across his broad chest. He absently scratched a large welt on his neck. Mosquitos and black flies tended to love certain people, and apparently, Josh was one of them. He had several bites on his neck and arms.
"Man, I don’t know what to tell you. I was pretty drunk. I passed out pretty early that night."
"So you didn’t see Lynn fighting with anyone? Maybe earlier when you were in the bar?" Sam asked.
"I know Amber and Lynn got into it a little bit." Josh shrugged. "Makes sense, right? Tara would be pissed if we broke up and I showed up with another girl. But it wasn’t that way with Lynn and Noah because Lynn had broken up with him. But Amber is not part of our group. She’s a little different. More high strung. I guess maybe she didn’t trust Noah or something. I’ve seen her and Lynn get into it a few other times, but it usually just blows over."
"What about Noah and Lynn? Did they argue?"
Josh shook his head. "Nope. It was a little awkward at work when they first broke up, but they seemed to have smoothed everything over. I didn’t see any animosity between them. Honestly, man, none of us could have killed her. You don’t think it was Noah or Amber, do you?"
Sam answered his question with one of his own. "What about that day when you went into town? Can you tell me what happened then?"
Josh’s eyes narrowed. "Nothing happened. We went to that Irish pub over there and had a few beers. We played a game of pool. That’s when we saw the other bar—that one in the church—and decided to come back later on. It looked kind of quirky, and we wanted to check it out."
"Holy Spirits?"
Josh laughed. "Yeah. That’s the one. Great name."
"What did the girls do while you were playing pool?"
Josh made a face. "Heck if I know. They all went off shopping, I suppose. I know Tara came back with a bunch of stuff. She usually does."
"So you, Noah, and Dean played pool in O’Malley’s, and the girls went shopping, then you met up and got groceries?"
"Yeah. Well, not exactly. Me and Dean played pool. We played against two locals. Won a hundred fifty bucks, too. But not Noah. He just sat at the bar."
"So he was at the bar the whole time you were playing?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. I mean, he was there when we went into the back where the pool tables are."
"Was he there when you came out?"
"We lost track of time and played past the time we were supposed to meet everyone. Julie came in to get us. So Noah was already outside with everyone, and then Tara came running over from the shop with her bags. For once, her usual lateness worked in our favor since it didn’t make us look so bad for playing pool past the meeting time."
Jo shifted in her seat and asked, "Did Lynn mention an appointment that day?"
Josh’s brow furrowed. "Appointment? No."
"So then you bought the groceries, went to the campsite, and then came back later that night to Spirits?" Jo asked.
"Yep. Well, we started drinking at the campsite then came to town." Josh’s eyes widened as he realized what he’d said. "But we didn’t drink and drive. Noah didn’t start drinking until we got back to camp. He was the designated driver."
"At the campsite, where is your tent in relation to Noah and Amber’s?" Sam asked.
"It’s the next one over. Tara and I have the big one you can stand up in. Bought it new for this trip."
"After you went to bed, did you hear Noah or Amber get up?" Jo asked.
Josh made a face. "Nah. I was pretty wasted. I passed out, and I don’t remember hearing a thing until some damn bird woke me up that next morning."
Sam stretched in the chair, his neck cracking, while he waited for Tara Barrett to make her way into the room. Under his desk, Lucy snored lazily. They’d have to take a break and let her outside to do her business soon. Maybe Jo could go to the diner and get her some of that pot roast Lucy seemed to like for lunch. Sam could use a plate of it himself. They’d been interviewing straight through for a few hours now, and he was glad Tara was the last one. Too bad he still had a lot of unanswered questions.
Tara perched on the edge the chair, a pink Gucci purse balanced on her lap. Her outfit was a little trendier, less woodsy than the rest. Her pants were more formfitting, and her V-neck hot-pink tee shirt dipped low, revealing just a hint of lacy bra. She wore full makeup, and her red hair was pulled up in a waterfall style on top of her head.
Sam went through the usual questions. Tara’s answers matched with everyone else’s. Yes, they partied the night before. No, she didn’t think anyone in the group would’ve killed Lynn. Of course she knew the company was in financial trouble— she was the CFO. But she felt fully confident the new release would bring them back to profitability. Everyone did, so there was no reason to kill Lynn over that. She had no idea why anyone would want her dead.
But when he got to the part about what they had done the day before when they came to town, Tara’s demeanor stumbled.
"As far as I know, the boys went to that pub, and the girls went shopping." She patted her purse. "I got this. You have a great shop on Vine Street. That’s where I picked this up."
Sam knew the shop, though he’d only been in there once with his daughters. "Fern’s, right?"
"Yeah, I think that’s what it is."
"And Lynn went to the antiques store right at the end of Main Street, right?" Jo nodded out the window toward the main street of town.
Tara fidgeted in her seat, the chair pitching forward slightly as she followed Jo�
�s gaze. "Is that what the others said?"
"Some of them. But some others think she might have had an appointment." Jo leaned toward her. "Would you happen to know anything about that?"
Tara’s eyes flashed. "An appointment? I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to talk about Lynn now that she’s… she’s… well, you know."
Sam pushed up from his seat and came around the desk, leaning his hip on the edge so he could look down at her. "Tara. This is important. We’re investigating a murder. I don’t think Lynn is going to mind you talking about her if it helps us find her killer."
"Fine." Tara sighed. "I’m not sure if Lynn went to the antiques store. And I don’t think she had an appointment. Not like you mean. Because I saw her meeting with someone. And that explains why she wanted to borrow my bra."
"Your bra?" Jo asked.
Sam’s eyes flicked from Tara’s lacey cleavage to the photos of Lynn’s belongings spread across his desk. Now he knew what had bugged him about that. The bra found in her clothing pile in the woods was a fancy red lacey number, but the bras in her duffel bag were utilitarian. White cotton with a little tiny pink bow in the center. Plain Jane style, in fact, was the name of the maker.
"We borrowed each other’s clothes sometimes. We were the same size." Tara’s eyes filled up. "When she asked to borrow a fancy bra, I just figured she was hoping to get lucky later that night. I never suspected what she was really doing."
"What was she really doing?" Jo asked.
"Lynn might have had an appointment like you said, but it wasn’t a business appointment." Tara’s eyes drifted out the window. "That afternoon, I saw her meeting someone in that secluded alley near the Irish pub."
"In the alley?" Sam said. "Why would she be meeting someone there?"
Tara’s eyes came back from the window to look straight at Sam. "Because she didn’t want to be seen. She was meeting Noah. A real friendly meeting. And I don’t think they were discussing business, if you get my drift."
Chapter Twenty-Six
