“Let’s go.” He stood and picked up both wineglasses.
In the kitchen he poured us each a half glass of wine and filled two glasses with water.
“Thanks.” I gulped down half of the water, then pulled out the medium frying pan and set it on the stove for the spinach I’d be sautéing when the fish was ready.
Mac sat at the kitchen table and played with a joyful Robbie while I emptied the dishwasher.
“Okay, I’m ready for my first suspect,” I said.
Mac smiled, then nodded. “Go for it.”
“That would be Ricky.”
“Haven’t we eliminated him?”
“Well, yeah. But he was actually our main suspect until we got to know him a little better.”
He held up his hands. “Hey, for all we know, he could still be a stone-cold killer, just pulling the wool over our eyes.”
“Always possible.”
“So what’s his motive?” Mac asked.
“Hmm.” Even though I had considered him a suspect until a few hours ago, I had to give it some thought. “What if Jud was going to kick him out of his house because Ricky didn’t have any money for rent?”
He groaned. “That’s pitiful.”
“I know,” I said with a laugh. “But it’s real, right? Okay, how about this? Ricky is secretly still tight with his mother and she has promised to give him co-author credit on her new blockbuster novel about the Gables. Judson wants in on the deal but Ricky doesn’t want to share. So . . .” I frowned. “Wow. This one started out really strong in my mind, but it’s totally unraveling.”
“I like it. Keep going.” He grinned. “You have a real flair for the absurd.”
I choked out a laugh. “That is not a compliment.”
“No. Sorry,” Mac said unrepentantly. “So let’s come up with another suspect.”
“It’s your turn to name one.”
“Okay.” Mac seemed to ponder the possibilities, then said, “Rachel Powers.”
My eyes widened. “Oh, yes. A dark horse. Excellent. What’s her motive?”
“She was having an affair with Judson,” Mac said, “and he threw blood all over her.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s just cheap.”
He laughed. “I know. Okay, let me think about this. She really needs to have a good motive.”
“Why is she involved with this property?” I asked.
Mac shrugged. “She’s a key member of the development company.”
“But what else do we know about her?” I wondered, then added, “She’s beautiful. But I suppose we need to dig deeper.”
Mac frowned. “She knows everything there is to know about the Gables.”
“That’s . . . interesting.” I gazed at Mac. “What are you thinking?”
He shrugged and gave his wine a swirl. “She’s a little . . . neurotic. The day she gave me the tour, I saw her get all hyper and then kind of freak out and have a meltdown. It wasn’t quite that dramatic, but she can definitely swing up and down.”
“Sort of a drama queen?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Not a reason to suspect her, but hey, we’re just playing a game, right?”
I must’ve been getting a little neurotic myself because I was suddenly starting to feel sorry for the woman. And that was after feeling a tiny bit jealous of her that first day. “She did get blood thrown all over her so I can’t fault her for being dramatic.”
“It was fake blood.”
I shook my head. “Ricky said the same thing, and the fact that it was fake doesn’t matter. It was still traumatic.”
He held up his hand in semi-surrender. “I’ll give you that. But even before the bucket-of-blood incident, when she gave me the tour, she had a few drama queen moments.”
“But I thought you said she was savvy and knowledgeable about the whole project.”
“Oh, she was, definitely. That’s why I jumped on board. Well, that, and the fact that you and Jane were involved in the project.”
“So what did she flip out over?”
“Well, when she saw that the lock on Jane’s building had been tampered with, she got really angry.”
I pressed my hand to his leg. “Mac. Hold on. The lock was tampered with? You didn’t tell me that.”
He winced. “Sorry. There was so much going on, I guess I forgot.”
“No worries. But that’s not like you.”
“I know.” He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “Because I tell you everything.”
I broke into a big smile. “Stop trying to distract me.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Is it working?”
“Of course it’s working.”
“Good to know. The thing is, as soon as Rachel’s freak-out was over, she called Jane and told her about the broken lock. And Jane calmed her down, said it wasn’t a problem, no worries. You know how Jane is.”
“Yeah. And it probably wasn’t much of problem because none of our stuff was in there yet. Certainly nothing worth stealing.” But still, I wondered why Jane didn’t mention it to me. I would have to ask her next time I saw her.
“No doubt the lock was broken by Judson,” he said.
“Probably. Ricky was concerned that Jud was trying to find something incriminating. That’s why Ricky was sneaking around the day we first went up to the Gables and saw him.”
Mac stared pensively as he swirled his wine. “The tampered lock takes on a whole new meaning.”
“Sure does. And so does Rachel’s freak-out.”
“Do you think she was more angry or more worried?”
“Can’t say for sure,” he said.
“Maybe we need to get to know her.” I thought about it for a few seconds. “She was probably under a lot of stress with the upcoming groundbreaking. And she was meeting a very important investor, don’t forget.”
“Extremely important,” he said, chuckling.
I gazed at him, my eyes narrowing. “Do you think there might be some deeper connection between Rachel and the Gables? I mean, maybe she and Judson were really working together. And she flipped out over the lock because now she realized that he had gone inside the place without her.” I frowned. “Or is that lame, too?”
He considered it. “Not so lame. But more important, I like the idea that she might have a deeper connection to all of this.”
“Me, too.” I rubbed my stomach. “I think I’m ready to start dinner.”
“Good idea. I’m getting hungry.”
While Mac fired up the grill, I set the dining room table. Then I freshened Tiger’s and Robbie’s water bowls and gave them each a treat for being so well behaved and adorable.
“The grill will take ten minutes to heat up,” Mac said when he walked back into the kitchen.
“Okay. I just remembered something. I don’t know if it’s relevant, but when I was talking to Ricky, he indicated that throwing the blood was part of a plan.”
“Part of a plan,” Mac murmured. “What plan? Was she the target or not?”
“I think they hoped it looked that way, but Ricky said that Judson was aiming for something else and he got bumped.”
“He got bumped,” Mac mused.
“Oh my God,” I said, my eyes growing wide at the realization. “He got bumped by Prudence.”
Mac just stared at me in numb silence.
“Prudence,” I repeated. “Dr. Fairchild’s right-hand girl.”
Mac frowned. “She bumped into Judson and the blood went all over Rachel.”
“She bumped Judson and now he’s dead,” I whispered.
“And she’s the same person who walked out of urgent care wearing an arm brace after you were shoved over that brick wall.”
“I was shoved pretty hard. Is that enough to require an arm brace?”
“It’s possible,” Mac said. “She could’ve wrenched her elbow.”
“So that’s a whole bunch of coincidences.”
“No such thing,” he said through gritted teeth. “She’s next up on my suspect list.”
“Mine, too.” I sipped my wine and thought about it. “We need to ask Ricky about her. If she knows Fairchild well enough to carry her purse right after taking part in the protest, she’s tangled up in this.”
“I’ll talk to Ricky tonight at the pub.”
“Okay, I’m about to go off on another tangent.”
“Go for it.”
“Do you think Rachel and Judson were in cahoots against the doctor?”
Mac sat down at the kitchen table. “That’s a stretch. But it’s possible.”
“I know.” I lifted my shoulders lightly. “But that’s what we’re doing here, right?”
“For sure. But, except for Ricky mentioning a plan, we don’t know anything about Rachel.”
“She’s the developer of the Gables. How did she get that job?”
“You think she’s connected to the hospital?”
I grabbed the salt and pepper shakers. “What if she is, Mac? What if it’s true that she and Judson had a plan? If that much is true, wouldn’t that indicate that they had a history together?”
He exhaled heavily. “We’re working with a lot of suppositions.”
I smiled. “We’re just playing a game.”
He laughed. “I know, I know. But I keep forgetting the game part because we seem to be getting into it pretty deeply.”
“I know. I love it.”
He put his elbow on the table and held his chin in his hand. “Okay, Ace, I want to hear where you’re going with this.”
“Well, I’m just spitballing here, right?”
“I love when you talk in sports metaphors.”
I had to laugh. “So, do you remember that the message board talked about RP? And of course we figured that had to refer to Rachel Powers, right?”
“I think that’s a sure thing,” he said, then picked up the platter of fish. “Hold that thought. I’m putting these on the grill.”
He walked outside and Robbie toddled through the doggie door to join him because he recognized that grilling was a job for the men of the house.
A minute later, I grabbed my down vest off the back of the chair and joined them outside. The air was cold and clean and the fish on the grill smelled like heaven.
“I was about to come inside,” Mac said.
“I felt like changing my environment, for a few minutes anyway.”
“Well, have a seat. We can hold hands.”
“What a lovely idea.”
We sat on the chaise longue, held hands, and gazed up at the sky. It was early enough that there was still a touch of blue on the horizon and the stars were just beginning to show themselves.
“Nice,” Mac said. “You’ve got a beautiful place here, Irish.”
“I love it,” I said with a sigh. “Wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
“It’s pretty special,” he agreed.
We fell into a comfortable silence and just relaxed for a while. Less than ten minutes later, we brought the fish in and let it rest on the table.
I heated up the frying pan and added a touch of olive oil, then dropped the fresh spinach leaves into the pan and tossed them until they were all coated in oil. I turned off the heat and put the lid on to let the leaves steam. “This will be ready in a minute.”
“Great.”
Sure enough, a minute later, I tossed the steamed leaves with a touch of salt and pepper. Grabbing two plates from the cupboard, I filled them with salmon, rice, and spinach.
“This fish smells so good,” he said. “Everything does.”
“And it’s all so healthy,” I said.
“Probably a good idea after pigging out at the party last night.”
Mac refilled our wineglasses and while we ate, we picked up our conversation where we left off.
“When last we met,” Mac intoned, “we were talking about the message board referencing someone with the initials RP.”
“Right. We knew that it referred to Rachel Powers.” I held up my finger to make a point. “But the actual wording of the message said Find RP. So I’m going to make a giant leap and propose that what it really meant was that the group was supposed to find her in order to connect with her and possibly receive instructions from her.”
He put his fork down and reached for his wineglass. “You’re right. That’s a giant leap right into covert operations land.”
“Well, they don’t have to be part of an international spy ring, but as far as the Gables is concerned, it feels really sneaky and secretive.”
“And just what are these instructions she will be giving them?”
I shrugged, then gave him a shy smile. “I don’t know. How about Kill Dr. Fairchild?”
“Definitely a leap of giant proportions,” he said, laughing. “I like a woman with ambitious ideas.”
“Well then, hang on to your hat. There’s something else we should consider.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
I grinned. “Don’t be afraid. The thing is, there’s someone else whose name has the initials RP.”
He thought about it and then stared at me. “Ricky Patterson. Coincidence?”
“I know what you think of coincidences.”
“I don’t like them.”
“Me, either. It’s all so weird, isn’t it? Oh, and I have one more little twist to add.”
“Yeah? Well, don’t hold back. You’re on a roll.”
“The girl that Ricky Patterson thought was so pretty. The one who died. Do you remember her name?”
“Oh, man.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Oh, man. Regina Pomeroy. They called her Reggie.” Mac pushed his chair back, rounded the table, and kissed me thoroughly. “You are awesome. This is freaking great.” And he kissed me again.
I practically giggled, and then he slowed down and gave me a dozen kisses on my lips and all over my face and down my neck. The man truly did love to play the Scooby-Doo game.
“It might not mean anything,” I warned, when I could manage to speak in full sentences again.
“True, and then, it might mean everything.” He swung back around and sat down.
“So what do we do now?” I asked, and took a bite of fish. “By the way, you cooked this salmon perfectly. It’s tender and flavorful. Really delicious.”
“It’s not bad,” he admitted. “Everything is good. I love spinach. Have I ever told you that?”
“You might’ve mentioned it.”
“Okay, so what next?” He sipped his wine as he pondered our next step. “I think we need to ask Ricky about Reggie.”
“Yes. And we need to ask him if he knew Rachel Powers back when he was living at the Gables.”
He stared at the ceiling. “How old would you say Rachel is?”
“Maybe about forty,” I guessed.
“That’s close to Judson’s age.”
“What about Prudence?”
“Mid to late fifties, I’d guess.” He took a forkful of rice, piled it onto a bit of salmon, and ate it in one bite. Then he stared at me. “I wonder if we could find an old obituary for Regina Pomeroy.”
I shrugged. “Why not? She came from a very wealthy family. I’m pretty sure it was her father who single-handedly supported the Gables for the last ten years of its existence.”
“I’ll look into it,” Mac said. “That’s what I do all day. Research. I’m a mastermind at the Google.”
“I’m so impressed.” I took my last bite of spinach. “Think we should call Eric about this?”
He thought about it. “Not yet. It’s all making perfect sense t
o us, but we might be completely delusional.”
“That’s entirely possible,” I said. “But still.”
“Still,” he repeated. “I think we’re getting close to finding some answers, but we’re not there yet. So far, all we have are all these segmented parts and I’d rather not bring Eric into it until we’re ready to show him the whole big picture.”
“Okay, then let’s round up more segments. I’d really love it if you can find that obituary for Reggie Pomeroy.”
“And while I’m working on that, you’re going to look into Rachel Powers’s background.”
“I can do that, even if I’m not a mastermind.”
“Few are,” he said with a grin. “And in our spare time, we should check out some of the other protesters. They all must have some connection with the Gables.”
“Okay.” I took the last bite of salmon and put down my fork. “How about if we clean up and then walk to the pub?”
“Sounds good,” Mac said, picking up his empty plate. “It’s time we had another chat with Ricky Patterson.”
Chapter Fourteen
A half hour later Mac and I walked into the pub and found Eric and Chloe in a primo booth over by the window.
“Hey, you made it,” Chloe said with a wide grin. “Kind of late, but whatever. You want to join us?”
“We’ve already had dinner,” I explained. “We decided to take a walk and see if you were still here.”
“We’re still here.” She patted the seat next to her. “Want to sit down?”
“Sure.”
Mac and I exchanged a glance and he said, “You go ahead and sit down. I want to talk to someone over at the bar.”
I looked over toward the bar and saw Ricky sitting alone on the far side. “Okay. I’ll be here.”
I smiled at Chloe and Eric and scooted into the booth. “How’s it going, Chief?”
“Couldn’t be better. You?”
“Fantastic.”
“Great. Oh, hey,” Eric said, gazing over my shoulder. “There’s Tommy.” He turned to Chloe. “Mind if I go talk to him for a minute or two?”
“Not at all,” Chloe said, and the two of them kissed before he slid out of the booth and disappeared.
“I’m not going to turn around and look,” I said, “but is what’s-her-name here with Tommy?”
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