Hope Hadley Eight Book Cozy Mystery Set

by Meredith Potts

  “It’s not shaky. I was at home,” David said.

  “Right. You said you were at home alone. Where was your wife?” Joe replied.

  David tensed up.

  Joe pressed him further. “You kicked her out last night, didn’t you?”

  David hemmed and hawed, trying to think of a way to squirm his way out of answering the question.

  My brother applied more pressure on him. “That’s a yes, isn’t it?”

  David averted his eyes and let out a meek reply.

  “Yes,” he muttered.

  Before we had a chance to ask any follow-up questions, David jumped on the defensive.

  “That doesn’t mean I killed Luke,” he said.

  “No, but it does mean you were plenty angry about the affair. And, it turns out revenge is the most common motive of all,” Joe replied.

  “For the last time, I was here at the time of the murder,” David barked.

  David had meant that to be the last word on the subject, but there was still plenty of lingering doubt to go around.

  “I wish I could believe you, but you’ve already lied to us once. Who is to say you aren’t doing it right now?” I replied.

  “It’s not my fault if you refuse to believe the truth,” David snapped.

  Joe gave him a lengthy stare. “No. But it is your fault that we have a hard time believing you.”

  Seeing that he couldn’t talk his way out of this one, David pulled a complete one-eighty and shut down on us.

  “That’s it. We’re done,” David declared.

  “You don’t get to decide that,” Joe said.

  David folded his arms. “You can ask me all the questions you want, but I have nothing else to say to you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  David Conway may have gone silent on us, but we hoped to get more answers from his wife. The main danger with questioning spouses was that they had a tendency to team up and corroborate each other’s alibis. With the way David and Colleen were going after each other as we arrived, there seemed to be no danger of that happening.

  Colleen was a forty-four-year-old redhead with a lean frame, an angular face, and brown eyes. As I watched her file her nails nervously in front of us, I had a feeling that with the right amount of pressure, we could make some serious headway in this case.

  “I couldn’t help but notice the box of stuff on the lawn. Did your husband kick you out of the house?” I asked.

  Her answer would be fascinating, mostly because I already knew the truth. The question became, would she try to lie to us?

  “No. I was just going to put that box in our storage locker,” Colleen replied.

  It turned out that lying was one of the things Colleen and her husband had in common. Instead of immediately calling her out, I wanted to see how deep of a hole she was prepared to dig for herself.

  I gave her a critical eye. “Uh-huh.”

  “You don’t believe me?” Colleen asked.

  I shook my head. “Not at all.”

  Colleen narrowed her eyes at me. “You have a lot of nerve talking to me like that.”

  I fired back at her. “You have even more nerve lying to us.”

  Colleen opened her mouth to refute my point, but I stopped her.

  “Save your breath. Your husband already told us that he kicked you out,” I continued.

  Colleen quietly seethed.

  I tried to take advantage of the fact that she was back on her heels by cutting straight to the meat of the matter.

  “Now, let’s talk about Luke—” I started saying.

  Colleen immediately stopped filing her nails and interrupted me. “What makes you think I had anything to do with Luke’s murder?”

  Joe broke out into laughter. “Really? Do you take us for complete fools?”

  “No,” Colleen replied.

  “Then stop saying ridiculous things,” Joe insisted.

  “I didn’t say anything ridiculous,” Colleen replied.

  I grew frustrated with Colleen’s nonsense. My brother and I didn’t have time for this.

  I asked her another straightforward question and hoped that she didn’t lie to us again. “What were you arguing with your husband about when we arrived?”

  Colleen tried to downplay what we had seen. “That was nothing.”

  I fired back at her. “It didn’t look like nothing. You were arguing about the affair you were having with Luke, weren’t you?”

  She shook her head. “No. I wasn’t—”

  Joe cut her off. “Don’t even think about lying to us again.”

  Colleen’s lip curled up as she gritted her teeth. “My husband told you about the affair, didn’t he? I just knew he’d try to throw me under the bus.”

  “I was right, then? You were just arguing about your affair, weren’t you?” I asked.

  It was a yes or no question, but somehow, Colleen managed to use neither word in her answer. “So Luke and I were sleeping together. I’m not a killer.”

  “You don’t get to be the judge of that,” Joe replied.

  Colleen pleaded her innocence. “Look at me. Killing is not in my DNA.”

  My brother turned the heat up on her. “Did you know that most murders like this are committed by a significant other?”

  “Not this one,” Colleen said.

  “You were having an affair with one of your husband’s employees,” Joe replied.

  “That doesn’t prove anything,” Colleen said.

  “Not in itself, but when you combine that with the fact that your husband kicked you out of the house, it’s hard to deny that you didn’t pay a heavy price for your actions,” Joe replied.

  As the pressure mounted on her, Colleen got desperate. She tried to move the spotlight off of her.

  “Speaking of, if you’re looking for someone to blame, look at my husband,” she said.

  I couldn’t help but laugh at that statement.

  Colleen couldn’t figure out why. “What’s so funny?”

  “You were really quick to condemn your husband for throwing you under the bus, then you just did the same to him,” I said.

  “If he’s going to do it to me, I’m going to do it right back to him,” Colleen replied.

  “Only, he didn’t throw you under the bus,” Joe revealed.

  Colleen’s face went white. “Wait. What do you mean?”

  “Actually, it was Maureen Tomlin who told us about your affair with Luke,” Joe said.

  Colleen was in disbelief. “She did?”

  Joe nodded.

  Colleen narrowed her eyes and went into attack mode again. “I should have known. That woman is no good. You can’t listen to anything Maureen says.”

  “Why not?” Joe said.

  I piggybacked on my brother’s point. “Exactly. She was right about your affair.”

  Colleen dismissed Maureen outright. “She’s completely biased.”

  I called Colleen out. “And you’re not?”

  “This isn’t about me. It’s about Maureen. She looks at everything through a very skewed lens,” Colleen said.

  “Because you were cheating with her boyfriend?” I asked.

  Colleen shook her head. “No. Because she was jealous that Luke loved me more than her.”

  My brother wasn’t quite ready to board the gossip train yet. “Why should we believe you?”

  “Because, Luke broke up with Maureen to be with me. That’s why I had no reason to kill Luke. He chose me in the end,” Colleen explained.

  There were a lot of nuggets of information to sort through there. We went through each tidbit one by one.

  “When did Luke break up with Maureen?” I said.

  “Two days ago. You want a motive for murder? There’s one right there,” Colleen replied.

  “You’re just throwing the blame all over the place today, aren’t you?” Joe asked.

  “That’s because there’s plenty to go around,” Colleen insisted.

  “As long as the finger of blame
doesn’t point at you, right?” Joe asked.

  “For the last time, I had nothing to do with Luke’s murder,” Colleen said.

  “You keep saying that, but there’s only one way to prove your innocence,” Joe replied.

  “What’s that?” Colleen asked.

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

  I stopped her before she answered. “And don’t try to lie to us and tell us you were with your husband because he already gave us a different alibi.”

  Colleen averted her eyes. It didn’t look like she was going to answer.

  Joe hit her with the question again. “Where were you?”

  Colleen took a deep breath. “I was at my hotel room.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a hotel key card. “See, here’s my key card.”

  Handing my brother her key card didn’t exonerate her in the way she seemed to think it did.

  “This card just means that you have a room at the hotel. It doesn’t mean you were there at the time of the murder,” Joe said.

  “You have to believe me,” Colleen pleaded.

  I took a different approach. “Was anyone with you in the hotel room, or were you alone?”

  Colleen was losing all grip on her emotions. “I didn’t do this.”

  By contrast, I kept an even keel. “I’ll take that as a yes, you were alone.”

  She lowered her head.

  “Do you have anything else to say for yourself?” I asked.

  “No. I have nothing more to say,” she replied.

  Unfortunately, when it came to that point, Colleen was true to her word. She was done talking to us. My brother and I wanted to get a little more out of her but were unsuccessful in doing so. That being said, Colleen had given us a lot to think about.

  Chapter Thirteen

  After the tip that Colleen had given us about Maureen, Joe and I knew another round of questioning Luke’s girlfriend was in order. But just before we reached Maureen’s street, my brother got a call over his police radio. It was from Eric Sanders, one of his police deputies.

  “Detective, I have an interesting piece of news for you,” Eric said over the radio.

  Joe answered the radio. “What is it?”

  “We have been going through Luke’s cell phone back at the station and have just uncovered a threatening voice mail.”

  “Who is the voice mail from?” Joe asked.

  “Vince Rutherford, a local loan shark,” Eric replied.

  “What does the message say?”

  “Apparently, Luke owed Vince some money. Vince left him a message filled with colorful language demanding his money immediately,” Eric replied.

  “Good find, Sanders. Pull up an address on Vince. We’re going to swing by the station and grab Luke’s phone,” Joe said.

  Our second visit with Maureen Tomlin was suddenly put on the backburner. Instead, Joe and I headed over to the police station and gave the threatening voice mail a listen.

  As we listened to the recording, it turned out the deputy wasn’t kidding. This Vince Rutherford guy sounded like a man who wasn’t to be trifled with. Joe scribbled down the loan shark’s address. We then got back in the car and drove over to his place.

  As we pulled onto Sandy Shore Drive and into the driveway of Vince’s Spanish-style house, it was clear how lucrative the loan-shark business was. Before I got caught up admiring the lush landscaping leading to Vince’s front door, my focus immediately shifted when the loan shark answered my brother’s knocks.

  When I caught sight of Vince, I almost did a double take. He didn’t look like the kind of person who could afford to buy a house that was so nice. Instead, he looked like the kind of person who robbed nice places for a living.

  The thirty-eight-year-old wore a tank top and a pair of basketball shorts over his muscular frame. There were sleeves of tattoos covering almost every inch of his arms. What stood out to me the most, however, was Vince’s shaved head.

  Joe immediately held his police badge out. “Mr. Rutherford, we have to talk to you.”

  Vince’s deep voice sounded like the stuff of menacing nightmares.

  “About what?” he replied.

  “About the murder of Luke Murphy,” Joe said.

  Vince immediately denied any involvement. “I don’t know anything about a murder.”

  As expected, there was no remorse in his voice or on his face. Then again, I wasn’t sure if he was even capable of feeling remorse.

  My brother didn’t believe Vince’s answer in the least.

  “Oh, really?” Joe asked.

  Vince held firm. “Did I stutter before? No. I don’t know anything about a murder.”

  “Mr. Rutherford, you left a pretty incendiary voice mail on Luke’s phone yesterday,” Joe said.

  “I don’t see what that has to do with anything,” Vince replied.

  Joe held an evidence bag up that contained Luke’s phone inside it. “Really? Should we play it back for you?”

  Vince stared down at the bag then let out a sigh. “No. You don’t have to play it back.”

  “You left Luke that voice mail, yet you deny having anything to do with his murder? That’s hard to believe,” Joe replied.

  Vince explained himself. “Look, I gave him a pretty substantial loan. I just wanted my money back.”

  “When you say substantial, how much are we talking about?” I asked.

  “Fifteen thousand dollars.”

  My eyes lit up. “Do you know what he did with the money?”

  “Originally, he told me that he was going to start a yoga studio of his own,” Vince replied.

  “But you don’t believe he was really doing that?”

  Vince shook his head. “Not when I saw him blowing it at the racetrack. After he lost my money, I told him he had a month to get it all back.”

  “But, he didn’t?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Yet you insist that you don’t know anything about his murder?” I asked.

  “Look, that voice mail is just bad timing,” Vince replied.

  “At least, that’s what you’d like us to believe,” I said.

  “You have it all wrong. Why would I want to kill him?” Vince asked.

  “As far as I can tell, you had fifteen thousand reasons,” I said.

  Vince vehemently shook his head. “Nah. That’s crazy talk. I didn’t stand to gain anything from his death. If anything, I wanted him alive. Now that he’s dead, I’ll never see that money. That’s just bad business.”

  Joe took over the questioning. “You say that, but part of your business is based around there being consequences to not paying up. Maybe you killed Luke to set an example for some of your other clients who may be a little late paying back their loans.”

  Vince kept denying any involvement in Luke’s murder. “No.”

  Joe didn’t give up. “There’s one way to find out. Where were you this morning between eight and nine?”

  “I was at the gym,” Vince replied.

  “Which gym?” Joe asked.

  “The one on Breakview Boulevard,” Vince said.

  “Is there anyone who can verify that?” Joe replied.

  “Of course there is,” Vince said.

  “Who?”

  “Ask any of the employees there.”

  My brother kept the heat on. “Give me some names.”

  “To start, Kayla, the greeter. Anthony, the general manager. Then John, who works in the free-weight area. And if that isn’t enough, the gym has security cameras everywhere,” Vince replied.

  Joe stared him down. “If you’re telling the truth, it should be really easy to verify your story then.”

  “I am telling the truth,” Vince insisted.

  “We’ll see about that. In the meantime, don’t even think about leaving town,” Joe said.

  ***

  Vince’s alibi practically begged to be followed up on, so that’s exactly what we did. Joe and I headed over to the gy
m on Breakview Boulevard looking for some kind of clarity. Amazingly enough, we actually got it. My brother and I spoke to a number of the gym’s employees, who all verified that they had seen Vince that morning. If that wasn’t enough to solidify Vince’s alibi, the spiky-haired manager of the gym pulled the security tape from that morning and showed it to us.

  What I saw made my jaw drop. Clear as day on the security tape, there was footage of Vince working out at the exact time of the murder. So, as unbelievable as his story was to believe at first, Vince had no place on our list of suspects anymore.

  I couldn’t pretend like that wasn’t a blow. Vince had looked so guilty. That didn’t matter now. It would do Joe and me no good to belabor the point. There were still a number of other suspects out there. Not to mention another lead that required our attention.

  Before being sidetracked by this business with Vince, my brother and I had been heading over to Maureen Tomlin’s place. It was time to see if that lead still had legs.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As we arrived at Maureen’s house, Joe and I were curious what she would have to say for herself. We checked in with the officer that Joe had assigned to keep tabs on Maureen’s place. The officer told us that she hadn’t come or gone at all. The officer then drove off to grab some lunch for himself while Joe and I approached Maureen’s front door.

  This time, we were armed with some new questions for Maureen. As expected, she wasn’t happy to see us again. In addition, as she led us into her kitchen, she made it seem like we had made a wasted trip over to her bungalow.

  “I don’t know why you’re back here. I already told you everything I know,” Maureen said.

  My brother shook his head. “Don’t lie to us. We know you left a very important piece out the first time we interviewed you.”

  Maureen had a puzzled look on her face. “What are you talking about?”

  Joe cut through the lying. “Maureen, we know you and Luke broke up.”

  Maureen tensed up.

  She tried to deflect and point the finger of blame elsewhere.

  “Did you talk to Colleen? Because she’s the one you should be worrying about,” Maureen said.