by Raven Snow
Jessi frowned in Margo’s direction. “Haven’t you been married, like, twice?”
“No,” snapped Margo, glaring at Rowen when she failed to stifle a laugh. Margo had been married once, but she had cheated on guys before. It had been hypocritical of her to judge Jessi.
“Why do you say Trish and Tilda are in unhappy marriages?” asked Rowen, getting things back on track.
Jessi shrugged. “Well, you saw Trish today, so you tell me.” She had a point there. It was rather obvious that the honeymoon was over in that relationship. “And Tilda… Well, I don’t know. Tilda’s marriage is kind of an odd case. He’s never really around.”
Rowen remembered visiting Tilda’s home. She remembered the pictures of Tilda and her husband in far off locales. “They don’t travel together a lot?”
“They did for a while.” Jessi fished out a big glob of cookie dough with the edge of her spoon. “Like, I meet with some of the ladies, right?”
Rowen nodded. She wasn’t sure what ladies Jessi was talking about, but she could sense that Jessi wanted her to respond in some way. She wanted her to act like she was engaged in the conversation they were having like they were old friends or something.
“It’s supposed to be a book club, but we just eat and drink and gossip. We’re so bad. Anyway, some of the girls say—And this is only when Trish and Tilda aren’t there, you know. I mean, we’re not evil or anything. We don’t talk about them when they’re right there. Teaghan used to go to some of these get together things too but mostly just in the beginning. She didn’t like it when she wasn’t organizing them, I think. When she didn’t go, Trish and Tilda usually didn’t go either. But yeah, so anyway, a couple of the girls that go to book club say that Tilda has an open marriage.” Jessi raised her eyebrows and watched Rowen and Margo like she was waiting for a reaction. When that didn’t earn the shock she seemed to be looking for, she continued with a sigh. “So, yeah. Supposedly, her husband sees people while he’s away and she does the same here.”
“How do they know?” asked Rowen. “Whoever said that, I mean. How do they know that she sleeps with people while he’s away?”
“Walks of shame they’ve seen guys take from her house. Don’t tell Tilda that I told you what my friend told me, but I hear it’s hard to miss when you’re sipping your morning coffee and some guy or another comes out and gets in a car not normally in her driveway.”
“When was the last time this happened?” Rowen was sitting up a little straighter now. Things were finally coming together for her.
Jessi paused, spoon halfway to her mouth. “I don’t know. A while. Why?” She had gotten so into the swing of gossiping she seemed to have forgotten that the things they were talking about were of the utmost importance.
Rowen didn’t answer Jessi. She turned to Margo. “We need to go.”
Margo nodded and stood as Rowen did. Jessi put her ice cream aside and did the same. “Where are you going? What happened? Is it something I said?” Her blue eyes went huge again. “Am I still in trouble?”
“You were never in trouble,” Rowen assured her. “Thanks for the help.”
“I helped?” Jessi followed them to the front door, sticking a little too close for comfort. “Does that mean you solved this thing? Who did it? Will you tell me? Tell me. I won’t say a word to anyone.”
“I’m working with the police right now, so I’m not really at liberty to discuss the case with you right now,” Rowen said, heading outside. Jessi was still following her as she went down the stairs. “Tell you what, though, I’ll make sure that you get mentioned in the article we write once this whole thing is over and done with.”
That put a smile on Jessi’s face. It didn’t last long, though. Rowen could see it was faltering, like she wasn’t sure if she had done a good or a bad thing by talking with the Greensmiths. She watched them from the front porch as they got into the car they had arrived in.
Rowen raised a hand in a wave as she backed out. “Bye!” she called. “Thanks for the help!”
Jessi waved back halfheartedly. She was still standing on the front porch as she shrank into the distance. Hopefully, she wasn’t going to call anyone after the conversation they had had. Rowen would have told her specifically not to, but that seemed like a sure way to get her to spread the news.
“Did you really figure out who did it?” asked Margo, her eyes on the rearview mirror.
Rowen nodded. “I think so.”
“What now then?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Rowen had an idea of where she was going now. She just wasn’t sure whether or not it would work out.
Chapter Eleven
“You’re sure this was where you wanted to go?” asked Margo as Rowen took her keys from the ignition.
They were in the police station parking lot. Rowen had called to make sure Ben was at his office and came straight there. “No, I’m not,” Rowen admitted. “But, if you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”
“We could look into the theory you have ourselves. That’s what you usually do, isn’t it?”
“Sutton could be watching,” Rowen reasoned. “Better to at least try and go through official channels this time. I don’t like the idea of Sutton throwing the book at us because he caught us creeping around, looking for clues… I mean, I guess we can still do that if this doesn’t work out.” Rowen got out of the car and headed inside.
The station was fairly empty, though there were quite a few cars outside. “Everyone is in a meeting,” said the receptionist, getting the words out in a hurry as soon as she looked up and registered who it was coming through the doors. Rowen had a habit of just strolling on in like she owned the place.
Rowen considered going to Ben’s office anyway but fought the urge. “Can you tell Ben I’m here?”
The receptionist frowned. “He’s in a meeting,” she said again, slower this time. “He’ll be at least another half hour or so.”
Rowen sighed and took her phone from her purse. She called Ben herself and waited. No one answered. Rowen was about to sit down and, God forbid, wait when she heard a door open. Ben emerged, sans cane. If Rose had been present, she would have laid into her husband for that. No doubt Ben didn’t want to use it all the time around here. That was probably doubly true in a meeting.
Rowen began to approach Ben but paused. He had stopped right outside the door he had emerged from. He was looking back in, a frown on his face. It looked like he was exchanging words with someone. It wasn’t difficult to guess who.
Sutton stepped from the room mere moments after Ben did. He looked toward Rowen and Margo, not looking surprised in the least when his gaze landed on them. Ben motioned Rowen and Margo on back.
It was with no small degree of trepidation that Rowen went to Ben. She paused a few feet away, looking from Ben to Sutton. Was he going to be there while she told Ben everything she had learned? She certainly hoped not.
“Detective Sutton here will talk with you in interrogation room A,” Ben said, like Rowen was anyone with information and not part of his family.
“What?” Rowen looked at Sutton. The man had a scowl on his face and his arms crossed. Did he ever give that gruff exterior of his a rest? “Why can’t we just talk to you? We won’t take long. You’ll want to hear what we found out.”
“I can be the judge of that.” Sutton headed for the interrogation rooms, motioning Rowen and Margo along. “Ben has other business to attend to.”
“Other business?” Rowen raised an eyebrow at Ben, wanting him to elaborate.
“I was going to have Sutton lead this meeting, but then the two of you arrived. Realizing it was the two of you, Sutton, rightly, suggested it would be better for everyone if he conducted the interview.” The way Ben said all that made it seem like he had hoped to speak with Rowen and Margo without Sutton noticing. Sutton had been put in charge of the meeting because Rowen and Margo had been on their way.
Rowen sighed. It didn’t look like there was any
way around this. Reluctantly, she followed Sutton. Maybe it would be fine. Maybe Sutton had lightened up a bit since Margo had confronted him.
“No magic tricks,” Sutton said, as soon as the doors had closed and everyone was seated at the cold metal table. “If you’re here just to waste everyone’s time, know that I won’t take kindly to that.”
“That’s understandable,” Margo said, coolly. She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms and legs. “We don’t take kindly to threats, ourselves.”
Sutton’s dark eyes narrowed. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to.”
“What’s that?” asked Margo, still perfectly calm.
“You were trying to meet with the Chief of Police behind everyone’s back. You two were trying to set something up so you could further both of your reputations. You both catch the bad guy, and you keep your psychic reputation. The Chief of Police keeps that near perfect track record of his.”
Rowen heard herself groan. She couldn’t help it. “Is that really what you think is going on here? Do you really have so little respect for Ben? I mean, I understand that you don’t trust us, but Ben is your boss.”
“I’m not here to answer your questions.” Sutton left the matter at that. “You came here with something to tell me, right? Go ahead.”
“We came here with something to tell Ben,” Rowen corrected. “But, fine. You’ll do, I guess.” She wasn’t so sure of that. They really might be better off doing what Margo had said and doing the rest of the legwork themselves. It felt too late to turn back now, though. “I know who killed Teaghan.”
Sutton’s expression didn’t change one bit. He regarded both Rowen and Margo with an incredulous look. “Really?”
“Yes. Really.” Rowen took a deep breath to try and push down her anger before she continued. “I have it between a few people anyway. I’ll need to talk to them. If you can bring them here and really put them on the spot, I’m sure I could figure out who did it.”
“So you don’t know who did it?”
“Like I said, I have it narrowed down.”
“Right, right. Sure. We have it narrowed down too, you know. That’s how we police usually handle business. I’m not sure if you knew that. I’m not sure how things normally go around here. Probably not by the book, I’m guessing.”
This would have been a lot easier with Ben. Rowen had gotten used to handling Ben’s particular brand of annoying. This was an entirely different level of frustrating. “Look, I think it was Tilda,” she blurted, laying her hand out there. “I really do. I just have to… narrow things down a little before that can be conclusive.”
“I see.” Sutton still didn’t look impressed. “So what makes you so sure it was Tilda?”
“I didn’t say I was sure. I said I needed to do a little more questioning to be certain. If we could do that here—”
“So now, what? You think you’re a detective, a member of the police force? You’re a psychic. You don’t get to question people.”
The longer she talked to Sutton, the less certain she was feeling about all of this. Her heart pounded in her chest. She had felt so confident before. She always trusted her gut when it came to these matters. This guy, though? He was making her nervous. He was making her have second thoughts.
“Look, do you want to hear what we have to say or not?” Margo asked, speaking up and doing so loudly. “The way I see it, it can’t hurt to hear us out. Either tell us to get out or shut up so my cousin can explain. If you pick the former, I imagine you’re going to have to explain yourself to Ben. It won’t be because of any kind of nepotism either. It’ll be because you turned away potential evidence… and nepotism.”
Sutton looked at Margo. His expression suggested he had plenty to say back to her, but he remained silent. He motioned to Rowen instead, as if entreating her to continue. Rowen wasn’t sure how she felt about that. It was a lot of pressure.
“Okay, so…” Rowen took a deep breath, willing her racing heart to still. It had been a long time since anyone had made her feel self-conscious about what she was. “First off, I figured this stuff out through the process of elimination. There wasn’t any psychic business involved.” That was a bit of a lie. She was still going with her gut here, and her gut had a higher success rate than the instincts of most other people. It was hard not to draw some kind of correlation between the witchcraft and her “guesses.” “See, Teaghan was never much good at monogamy. What she was good at was stirring up drama. She lived for the stuff. Despite being with Dave romantically since high school, she has cheated on him with no less than…” Rowen held up a finger. She actually needed a moment to count. “At least three other people?”
“At least four,” Margo corrected. “I once saw her make out with Jimmy Huntz behind the bleachers.”
“Jimmy? Really? That kid that played the tuba?”
“What? He was a cute tuba player. She had good taste.”
“Okay, fine. Four. She was with at least four other people.”
Sutton raised an eyebrow. “And who were these people?” he asked. “Aside from the tuba player.”
Some of the tension left Rowen’s shoulders. Sutton wanted to know those other names. She could hear it in his voice even if he was still trying to play the whole thing off like they were wasting his time.
“Jessi, Richie, and… Tina.” Rowen hated to include Tina in all of this, but it seemed impossible to avoid now that she had gotten started.
“Tina?” Sutton reached into his jacket and pulled out a pad of paper. He flipped through it. “Tina… Isn’t she one of your friends?”
“She was one of Teaghan’s close friends back in high school.”
“So, all of this happened back in high school?” Sutton’s tone had grown a little skeptical, like he didn’t know why that mattered.
“The affair with Richie didn’t happen back in high school. That was a recent thing.”
“Really?” Sutton reached back into his jacket and pulled out a pen this time. He scribbled something down. “And what makes you think that?”
“He basically told me as much.”
“Let me guess, this happened the last time you were there, the time they complained to me about you.”
“It’s still true,” Rowen insisted. “And you can ask Tina and Jessi themselves whether or not they were seeing Teaghan on the sly. They’ll tell you the truth… At least, I think they will.”
“All of that was back in high school,” Sutton pointed out.
“So what? Do you have any idea how stuck those people still are in their high school years? I mean, all of this happened at a school reunion for crying out loud! There wouldn’t be a more perfect time to act on an old grudge!”
“Don’t shout,” Sutton warned, tossing his pad of paper on the table. His attention was waning.
“So, according to Jessi, Tilda got drunk. She spent at least part of the night drawing attention to some of these less than savory things Teaghan had done.”
“She wasn’t drunk.”
“What?”
“She wasn’t drunk,” Sutton repeated. “I spoke to Tilda myself the night all of this happened. Maybe she’d had one or two drinks, but I didn’t hear anything about her being so inebriated she made a scene. Aside from being distraught over her friend’s death, she was rather lucid during the time we spoke.”
Rowen nodded. “Exactly. She hadn’t drank so much that she didn’t know what she was doing when she said all those things. The alcohol just emboldened her. See, what happened was—”
A knock on the door cut Rowen off. Everyone turned their heads just as it cracked open. “Sorry to bother you,” said the receptionist. She was whispering, like that made some kind of difference. “But I’ve got someone here who say she knows what happened to that poor Teaghan girl.”
Sutton snorted and glanced back at the Greensmith girls before him. “Tell them to get in line.”
“Sir?” The receptionist didn’t look like she knew what to do
with that bit of direction. She looked around the room as if only now realizing something. “Sorry, I thought the Chief was in here. Should I get him?”
“Who is it?” asked Rowen. “Who’s here saying they know what happened?”
“She says her name is Tilda. She..oh.” The poor receptionist jumped as she caught a warning look from Sutton. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Um… well, either way, she’s in the waiting room.”
With a heavy sigh, Sutton stood, pushing his chair back from the table as he did so. “If you’ll excuse me, ladies,” he said, making his way toward the door.
Rowen and Margo exchanged a single look before hurrying after him. No way they were going to miss whatever was about to happen. “You should get Ben,” Rowen hissed to the receptionist as they passed, just in case that wasn’t her plan already. Rowen had a feeling they were going to need him. Trying to get to the truth with Sutton wasn’t doing a lot of good.
Tilda was indeed in the waiting room. She was pacing back and forth, several tissues clutched in her hands. She was making a big show of sobbing into them. To her credit, it did look like she had been crying for quite some time. If this was an act, it was a convincing one.
“Ma’am?” said Sutton. “You wanted to speak to someone?”
Tilda stopped her pacing and looked up. She nodded. “I- I do.” She swallowed. “Detective Sutton, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Even Sutton’s professional voice edged on hostile. He clearly didn’t hold the same contempt for Tilda that he did for the Greensmiths.
Tilda looked past Sutton for a moment, her eyes landing on Rowen, registering that she was there. The change in her demeanor was immediate but fleeting. Rowen saw her jaw clenched, her hands tighten into fists so that her nails dug into her palms. “Can we go somewhere private?”
Sutton glanced back at Margo and Rowen. At least he hadn’t forgotten that they were there. It actually looked like he was on the fence about agreeing to Tilda’s request. As well he should have been. They had been there first. He looked back to Tilda, his mouth opening to give her his answer.
