Hope Hadley Eight Book Cozy Mystery Set

by Meredith Potts

  “See, you should be talking to Nathan,” David said.

  Joe put the spotlight back on David.

  “We will…when we’re done with you,” my brother said.

  David shrugged his shoulders. “What more do you need from me? I’ve already told you everything I know.”

  Joe stared David down. It was clear David wasn’t going to give us any more to work with. Since we hadn’t even talked to Nathan yet, it was too early in the investigation to detain David, even with the suspicions that we had about him.

  That being said, Joe made sure to issue David a warning before he let him go.

  “Don’t go leaving town on us, you hear?” Joe replied.

  Chapter Nine

  After getting the lead from David, Joe and I headed over to Nathan Drummond’s place to question him. We turned right onto Cherry Tree Road and parked in front of the charmless gray concrete apartment complex that Nathan called home.

  I stared at the brown paint that was chipping on his wooden front door as Joe and I waited for Nathan to open up. Luckily, he answered the door after our first set of knocks. Nathan was a portly man in his early seventies with freckles on his face and a particularly bad comb-over.

  “Yes?” Nathan said.

  Joe flashed his police badge. “Joe Hadley, Hollywood Police Department. We have to ask you some questions.”

  Nathan looked perplexed. “About what?”

  “The murder of Luke Murphy,” Joe revealed.

  Amazingly enough, Nathan didn’t seem surprised to hear the news, nor did he express any remorse over Luke’s death. In fact, he responded with just the opposite reaction than I expected.

  He smirked. “Someone got their revenge on him, huh?”

  I had never heard a murder suspect respond so brazenly to the news of a victim’s death. That took me by such a surprise that I had to take a minute to let his response sink in.

  My brother was not quite as thrown off. “I guess it is safe to say there was no love lost between you.”

  Nathan narrowed his eyes. “I hated him.”

  If Nathan’s feelings weren’t crystal clear before, they were now.

  “Don’t hold back any,” I deadpanned.

  “I won’t. Luke Murphy was a no-good heartless scumbag. I’m glad he got what was coming to him. My only regret is that someone beat me to it,” Nathan said.

  “Or maybe that’s just what you want us to believe,” I replied.

  “I didn’t kill him. But, like I said, I’m not broken up that he’s gone,” Nathan said.

  If Nathan thought I was just going to blindly believe him, he was crazy. Then again, judging by the way he was replying, it wasn’t a stretch to call him nuts.

  “If you didn’t kill him, you’ll have no problem answering this next question. Where were you between and eight and nine o’clock this morning?” I asked.

  Nathan became outraged. “What are you asking me that for? I just told you that I had nothing to do with this.”

  I called him out. “That’s a strange thing for you to say after everything that has come out of your mouth so far.”

  Nathan uttered one of the most contradictory-sounding statements that I had ever heard. “I hated the guy, but I didn’t kill him.”

  Joe tried to keep things on topic. “Why don’t you answer the question?”

  “I was here,” Nathan replied.

  “Was there anyone with you?” Joe said.

  Nathan shook his head. “No.”

  “So, you have no one to verify your story?” Joe asked.

  Nathan’s voice began cracking. “It’s not a story, it’s the truth.”

  I jumped back into the conversation. “At least, that’s what you say.”

  Nathan’s voice volume kept rising. “I just told you, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

  We were getting nowhere on that point. It was time to take a different approach.

  “I understand you had a big argument with Luke at the yoga studio a few days ago,” I said.

  Nathan tensed up. “Yes.”

  I followed up. “What was it about?”

  Nathan got choked up. “That day, it had been exactly one year since my daughter Tanya had committed suicide. I still can’t believe she took her life…especially over a guy like Luke. But, she loved him with all her heart, and he broke it beyond repair.”

  Nathan got so worked up that he had to stop his explanation. He took a few deep breaths as he tried to compose himself.

  Joe and I were walking a tightrope all of a sudden. We still needed answers from Nathan, but if we pushed too far, he could clam up on us.

  I treaded lightly. “I’m sorry about what happened to your daughter. I can see why you’d be so upset at Luke. At the same time, what did you hope to accomplish by picking a fight with him at the yoga studio that day?”

  “I just wanted to hear him say that he was sorry for what he did—for driving Tanya to suicide,” Nathan explained.

  “Did he?” I asked.

  Nathan vehemently shook his head. “No. That’s the problem. He took no responsibility for what he did. He acted like she was crazy for killing herself. The fact is, Tanya had never considered doing something so awful before he broke her heart. As I stood in the yoga studio that day, I realized that he’d just absolved himself of any blame and had just moved on with his life. In all my years, I have never met a man who was so heartless.”

  “You say something like that, yet you want us to believe you had nothing to do with his murder,” Joe replied.

  Nathan glared at my brother. “I didn’t.”

  “That’s practically the textbook definition of a motive,” Joe said.

  “Look at me. I’m not a killer. I’m just an old broken man,” Nathan replied.

  “I’d like to believe that—”

  Nathan interrupted my brother. “Then believe it, because it’s the truth. Now, I have answered all your question. I’d like to get back to my book.”

  Chapter Ten

  We peppered Nathan with a few more questions, but he refused to answer any of them. Realizing that we had hit a brick wall, my brother decided to cut his losses. He warned Nathan not to leave town then moved on.

  After all, Nathan was far from the last suspect on our list. Next, we paid Luke’s girlfriend, Maureen Tomlin, a visit. Apparently, we had arrived at Maureen’s place just in time. As we pulled into the driveway of the blue bungalow that she was renting, she was loading a large box into her red sedan.

  Joe and I quickly got out of our car to question her. As we approached her, I couldn’t help but notice that there were a number of boxes in the backseat of Maureen’s car.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Joe asked.

  Maureen turned to us and gave us a critical eye. “Who are you?”

  Maureen was a round-faced woman in her late twenties with black-rimmed glasses. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. A pair of jeans and a V-neck shirt hugged her slim figure.

  Joe pulled out his police badge. “Joe Hadley, Hollywood Police Department. Now, answer the question.”

  “I’m leaving town,” Maureen replied.

  “Fleeing town, you mean?” I asked.

  Maureen corrected me. “No. There’s just nothing left for me in this town.”

  “You have to admit, the timing seems pretty strange,” I said.

  Maureen gave me a quizzical look. “How do you figure?”

  “Your boyfriend was just murdered,” I said.

  Maureen lowered her head, visibly distraught. “I know. I still can’t believe someone killed him. At the same time, it gives me all the more reason to leave.”

  My brother was critical of her. “What do you mean?”

  “Staying here would just be too hard. When I think about living in this town without him, all I want to do is cry,” Maureen replied.

  Unlike with some of the previous suspects, Maureen was full of grief. She was really broken up about Luke’s de
ath, to the point where tears began streaming down her cheeks. As I watched her wipe her tears away, I felt like her mourning was more than just an act.

  At the same time, Joe and I had an investigation to conduct.

  I tried the soft-glove approach as I returned to the topic of Maureen leaving town. “That being said, the timing—”

  “You keep going back to the timing, but I was planning on leaving this town anyway. Now, after what happened to Luke, I have even less reason to stay here,” Maureen said.

  Joe couldn’t resist jumping in. “Why were you planning on leaving town anyway? And where were you going to go?”

  “It’s just not working out for me here. I have never really felt completely at home here, so I’m moving back to Orlando. That’s where I grew up. Both of my parents are having some health problems and want me to live closer to them,” Maureen said.

  “That could be the truth—” my brother started saying.

  Maureen interrupted him. “It is.”

  Joe was determined to finish his thought. “Or it could be a convenient story you just made up to get us off of your back.”

  “It’s not just a story. I have a job at the Regal Winter Haven Hotel all lined up. Just call and ask them,” Maureen insisted.

  “We will,” Joe said.

  “All right, now can I get back to my packing?” Maureen asked.

  Joe shook his head. “Ms. Tomlin, until this investigation is over, you’re not going anywhere.”

  “Why not?” Maureen replied.

  “Are you really going to make me say it?” Joe asked.

  “What are you getting at?” Maureen said.

  “Your boyfriend was just murdered. The killer is still at large. We need to find out who did this before anyone leaves town,” Joe replied.

  Maureen was incredulous. “But, you don’t think I could have done this, do you?”

  “We haven’t ruled anyone out,” Joe said.

  “If you’re looking for a killer, you’ve come to the wrong place,” Maureen insisted.

  Joe snickered. “That’s what all the suspects say, but there’s one way to know for sure.”

  “How?”

  “Where were you this morning between eight and nine o’clock?”

  “I was here,” Maureen replied.

  “Alone?” Joe asked.

  “Yes.”

  “So, you have no one to verify your story?”

  “I was packing,” Maureen said. “Look at my car. Those boxes didn’t pack themselves.”

  Joe had a differing theory. “You could have done this all last night.”

  She scoffed. “Who leaves all their valuables in their car overnight?”

  “It doesn’t change the fact that you have no one to corroborate your alibi.”

  My brother was getting nowhere with his line of questioning. It was time to take this interview in a new direction.

  I took the lead. “Wait a minute. Maureen, you said earlier that things weren’t working out for you here in town. Why is that?”

  Maureen tensed up. “I have just been really homesick. You know how it is.”

  She had been so genuine with her emotions earlier. Not this time. As I looked into her eyes, I knew Maureen was hiding something from us.

  I pushed her for more information. “Maureen, what aren’t you telling us?”

  She immediately deflected. “If you’re looking for someone suspicious, talk to the Conways.”

  I made sure to keep things from going off point. “Don’t try to change the subject.”

  “I’m not. Colleen Conway was having an affair with Luke. If you’re looking for someone suspicious, talk to her,” Maureen said.

  Wow. What a bombshell. The question became, was it true?

  “If you’re making this up—” Joe began to say.

  Maureen interrupted him. “I wish I was, but I’m not. My boyfriend was cheating on me with his boss’s wife.”

  She thought she was pointing the suspicion completely elsewhere, but she failed to realize one thing.

  I went right after her. “So what you’re saying is, that you weren’t just leaving town because you were homesick. You were also leaving town because you found out your boyfriend was cheating on you.”

  Maureen grimaced. “I don’t want to keep talking about this. It’s so heartbreaking.”

  Joe didn’t hesitate in turning the heat up on her. “You say you had nothing to do with the murder, but there’s a motive right there.”

  “I didn’t do this,” Maureen declared.

  Joe turned the tables back on her. “You say that, but you have an unconfirmed alibi.”

  “I already told you I didn’t kill Luke,” Maureen said.

  “Proving your innocence is not as simple as that,” Joe replied.

  “It is to me. I have nothing else to say to you.”

  “Well, you’re not going anywhere until you answer our questions.”

  Maureen folded her arms. “You’ll be waiting a long time because I’m done talking to you.”

  She wasn’t kidding. Joe and I threw some more questions her way, but Maureen remained tight-lipped. As with the previous suspects, we had plenty of suspicions but no concrete evidence against her. Given that, Joe warned her not to leave town then assigned a patrol car to watch Maureen’s place in case she decided to make any sudden moves.

  Chapter Eleven

  Joe and I headed over to David and Colleen’s two-story light-brown stucco house next. Much to our surprise, as we pulled into the driveway, David and Colleen were arguing like crazy on the front lawn. A box of miscellaneous items was in the grass at her feet as they tore into each other. So much for the slow build. This situation was already at fever pitch.

  I wondered if anything could stop them from arguing. Apparently, our prying eyes were enough to quiet them. The moment they spotted us, they both tensed up. As an act, they slapped on some weak smiles, but they couldn’t fool us.

  “Did we come at a bad time?” Joe asked.

  Colleen tried to pretend that we hadn’t just seen her nearly at her husband’s throat.

  “No. Of course not. What can we do for you?” Colleen asked.

  David had a much different reaction to our presence. He looked at us with a seething suspicion on his face. “What are you doing here?”

  “We have to ask you a few more questions about Luke’s murder,” Joe said.

  Before David or Colleen had a chance to reply, my brother finished his point.

  “Separately,” he continued.

  ***

  It was important to talk to David and Colleen separately. Getting useful information out of one suspect was hard enough to do. When two suspects were questioned together, they could team up and jointly lie about their alibis and distort the truth in all different manner of topics.

  When the suspects were separated, however, they could be played against one another. That’s what my brother and I hoped would happen with David. It didn’t look like Mr. Conway was eager to comply.

  David did not hide his displeasure at seeing us again.

  “What’s this all about? You already asked me a bunch of questions,” David said.

  “We did,” Joe replied.

  “Then why are you here?” David snapped.

  “Because you lied to us.”

  David tried to play dumb. “What are you talking about?”

  I called him out. “You told us that you and Luke got along great.”

  David kept up his lie. “We did.”

  “You mean, except for the affair he was having with your wife?” I asked.

  Even after his lie had been exposed, David refused to admit the truth. “I don’t know where you heard that from.”

  He kept trying to fool us but had no success.

  Joe stared him down to make sure David knew that he meant business.

  “It doesn’t matter who told us. What matters is that it’s the truth,” my brother declared.

  David tried t
o shut down on us. “I don’t have to answer any more of your questions.”

  Joe didn’t skip a beat. He actually turned that into a positive. “Fine. We’ll do the talking.” My brother turned to me. “Hope, doesn’t it seem odd that Mr. Conway is insisting that he got along well with Luke?”

  “Especially because Luke was having an affair with his wife,” I said.

  “Don’t forget the fact that we just caught Mr. Conway having a huge argument with his wife only a few minutes ago,” Joe added.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Mr. Conway’s behavior has been very suspicious.”

  We had set the bait for David, but he didn’t take it. Instead, he remained quiet.

  My brother wasn’t about to give up that easily. Joe continued throwing around speculation with me. “I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty big hunch that Mr. and Mrs. Conway were just arguing about that aforementioned affair.”

  I concurred. “There’s no doubt in my mind. Which makes Mr. Conway’s statement that he had no motive for committing murder completely unbelievable.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Joe said.

  My brother then turned to David again.

  “Mr. Conway, do you have anything to say for yourself?” Joe asked.

  David tried to resist taking the bait, but his temper got the best of him.

  “I had nothing to do with Luke’s murder,” David barked.

  “You say that, but you have already lied to us once. Then you add in the fact that you won’t even admit what you were arguing with your wife about—” Joe began to say.

  David interrupted him. “That was just about business stuff.”

  Joe pressed him further. “The business of Luke having had an affair with your wife?”

  “No. Money stuff pertaining to the yoga studio,” David replied.

  I stared David down, not believing a word he had just said. He didn’t alter his point in the least.

  We were getting nowhere on this topic. Thankfully, there were other questions to hit him with.

  “Mr. Conway, are you still going with the same shaky alibi for the time of the murder?” Joe asked.