I recognized one of them, Chris, from the day Joel was killed. “Hey, Alyson! You joining in?”
He had a spare placard. I grabbed it and kind of joined the line, halfheartedly joining in a chant that said that teachers needed to get paid more. I wondered where the picket line was for artists to get paid more.
“I need to speak to you about Joel,” I said, having to yell at Chris in order to be heard.
“What?” he shouted back.
I handed my placard to J and pulled him aside. J dropped the sign and shook her head at me. She didn’t want the strike to end any time soon.
“You were there that day,” I said to Chris. I lowered my voice now we were away from the chanting. “I know that Joel…knew something,” I said and watched Chris’s face change. I took a deep breath. “And I think that I know the same thing.” I gave him a meaningful look. “Chris, did Joel know that Troy was being poisoned by his VP?”
All the color drained from Chris’s face. He tried to get away from me, but I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back. “Alyson, you should stay out of this,” he said. “Joel paid the ultimate price and you will too.” He glanced at the crowd, then back at me. “I tried to warn that podcaster not to say anything either, but he’s going to reveal it in episode three.” Oh gosh. Chris put his hands up. “If something happens to him, well, I tried to warn him. It won’t be on me.”
“Chris, why didn’t you tell anyone this?”
He looked scared. Terrified. I guessed that was my answer.
So, Joel had found out what Stephanie was up to. And he’d paid the ultimate price.
I had to stop her before she killed again. Before she finished off Troy.
“Hey, I thought we were going to get ice cream!” J cried out as I dragged her away from the crowd.
“You can get ice cream,” I said as I hurried to Captain Eightball’s to drop her of with Matt. “But there will be no ice cream for me today, J.”
17
Claire
“Do you think she really has feelings for him?” Alyson asked me as we walked down the hall of the second floor of the Flower of Life Hotel.
I shot her a strange look. “Umm, probably not if what you are saying is correct and she has been slowly poisoning him for months.”
Alyson sighed. “You’re probably right.”
If that wasn’t enough to convince her, I wasn’t sure what was. “Do you really have feelings for him?” I asked her.
She almost lost her footing on the plush carpet. “What a ridiculous thing to ask. I am just worried he is about to die.” She practically raced to his door, knocking frantically.
Troy opened the door with Alyson’s hand suspended in the air mid-knock. “Claire.” He stopped and looked me straight in the eye. He barely even acknowledged Alyson standing right there in front of him. I could feel the heat of her staring at me. What is going on? she was silently asking me.
“If you’ve come here because you have changed your mind, then it’s too late,” he said and tried to close the door on me.
“Changed your mind about what?” Alyson asked, stepping forward so that the door couldn’t be closed.
He started to cough. He did not look well. Kinda sweaty and feverish. “I offered your friend here an amazing deal. Was going to let her lease a store front in my new mall.”
Alyson’s mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding me…”
“But I turned it down!” I said, trying to make her listen. “Even though it actually would have made good business sense.”
Troy tried to close the door on us again. Alyson didn’t let him. “Is Stephanie here?” she asked, trying to poke her head inside.
Troy looked slightly amused. “No. She’ll be here later. Why do you ask, Alyson?”
She blushed a little. “You can’t trust that woman, Troy,” Alyson said. “She is poisoning you, Troy. I saw her put something in your drink!”
He looked at her with an absurd expression for a moment or two before he could finally speak. “I don’t know what part of your scheme this is, Alyson, but you are starting to sound as crazy as other people are making out.”
Uh-oh. He had heard the podcast. I could see the flash of hurt across her face, even though she did her best to quickly hide it, to correct her expression. She may not have been ready to admit it, but she did like him. I could tell. And she did care what he thought about her.
“Well, good luck with dying then!” Alyson said, before he slammed the door shut on us.
“What are we going to do now?” Alyson asked as we backed away and walked down the hallway. She looked a little pale and shaken. I placed my arm around her shoulders for a moment and told her we’d come up with something.
I sighed and sat down on the plush carpet, exhausted. “I suppose we should tell the cops what we know.”
Alyson was still standing. She shook her head. “No. They’ve probably had their minds poisoned by this podcast as well. They won’t listen to me.”
“At least that third episode never aired,” I said. Thank goodness for small blessings. The podcast had been scheduled to be uploaded that day, but there had been a note from Justin St. Clair saying that for legal reasons, it had been delayed.
Alyson managed a small laugh. “Yeah, except I’d kind of love to know what was going to be on it. Chris told me that Justin was going to reveal what he knew about Stephanie. I suppose he was afraid of airing it.”
“Hang on,” I said, standing up. I looked around the hallway and realized where we were. “This is the same hotel that Justin St. Clair is staying in. This is where he moved after we made all that noise that night.”
Alyson nodded. She got what I was saying. “If we could just get our hands on episode three, and get Troy to listen to it, then he might believe us.”
It was a great plan. There was only one problem. Justin St. Clair hated us even more than Troy did.
So how were we going to get inside his hotel room?
Luckily, J had the day off school again, and she was always keen to take part in a scheme. “Right. Let’s see how this goes.” I passed her the notebook and got her to repeat the plan back to me.
“I tell him I am a big fan of his show and then ask him for his autograph,” J said. She shrugged. “Is that right?”
I nodded and told her she was doing a great job. “It’s just like when you ask people for signatures for the petition,” Alyson chimed in.
“But is he gonna believe that I am a fan of his…ah…whatever this is…”
“Podcast,” I said. “Yes. Believe me. This guy just wants to be flattered. He won’t question it.”
For a moment, I thought that J was going to back out or falter, and we could hardly force an eight-year-old to do our dirty work for us. Could we? But then she shot us a little grin and a shrug. “This is gonna be fun!” she said and started to knock on the door before we were even ready.
“Whoa, whoa,” Alyson cried out as she and I quickly ran around the corner. We were just a foot away, close enough to grab her if we needed to, but we didn’t want Justin to know that J was with us. Or that she knew us at all. Without her scooter, I hoped that he wouldn’t recognize her from the other night.
He was actually quite sweet to her. “Hey there. Are you lost?”
J shook her head and extended the notebook in his direction. “I collect autographs,” she said. “I’ve already got Serena Williams, and Andy Murray's,” she said proudly. I hadn’t realized she was such a big tennis fan.
He laughed a little and looked slightly embarrassed. “I am not a celebrity, though,” he said, looking around as if he was possibly being punked. If he took a step outside the door, he might see that well, actually, he was.
“But I love your show!” J said, bouncing up and down on the heels of her sneakers.
Justin looked slightly alarmed. “Oh, I didn’t realized kids were listening to the show…” He took the notebook of her and started to sign his name slowly. “Do you get parental permi
ssion to listen to it?”
I glanced over at Alyson. “Well, does she?” I whispered.
“She doesn’t actually listen to the show!”
Oh. Right.
I turned my attention back to J. We’d given her a pretty big task, a lot of things to memorize. I held my breath a little and hoped she would remember what she was supposed to say. I heard a beep beside me and realized that Alyson was on her phone, frantically texting someone.
“Who are you texting right now that is more important than this?”
She hesitated for a moment, looking guilty like she had been caught. Then she showed me the screen. “Troy?” I asked in disbelief.
“I know, I know.” She put her phone away and we listened in on J, but I could tell that she was still distracted. She wanted to go and see Troy. I shook my head.
J pouted a little. “I was waiting, so excited for yesterday’s episode…and it never appeared.”
“Sorry about that,” Justin said, sounding like he meant it. “I never want to let down any fans.” He paused for a second and then kept talking. J just kept staring up at him with this same beaming and expectant look on her face while he explained himself. “But there are some legal reasons why the show couldn’t air. Do you know what that means?”
J rolled her eyes a little. We hadn’t told her to do that. I was still glad she had done it. “I am eight years old. I know what the word legal means.”
Justin smiled at her. “Sure. You’re a smart kid. Anyway, I had to keep this one off the air. For my own safety.”
“Aww, but can’t I take a listen to it?” J asked. She waggled the notebook in front of him again. “I am the very biggest fan of the show, after all.”
“Well, I dunno. I have the file on USB actually.” He fumbled around in his pocket for a moment and pulled out the small drive, looked at it, then paused. He finally handed it over to her.
Alyson’s phone buzzed again. “Can’t you put that on silent?” I whispered.
“Troy wants to see me.”
I shook my head. “Wait!” We needed the evidence first, but she picked up the phone anyway. She was boy crazy, this one. She spoke into the phone far too loudly, and Justin St. Clair heard us.
“Hello?” he asked, stepping out of his door. His eyes opened wide as he spotted us hiding around the corner.
“You two?” He started to come after us. “Hey, I still need my money.”
It was only too late that he put two and two together and realized that J was with us. But Alyson had already run up to them and grabbed the USB from him.
And we all ran.
We needed to tell Troy everything, but we couldn’t do it at the Flower of Life. “Do you think that he will meet us here?” Alyson asked nervously, looking around Captain Eightball’s. She was still trying to figure out how to word the text she was about to send. Seriously, she was acting like she was in high school. “It just doesn’t seem like the kind of place he usually hangs out. Even though he met Stephanie here the other night.”
Matt pulled me aside while I was waiting for Troy to arrive. He had finished his shift and told me he was heading out to catch a wave before it got dark. He was going to take J with him, but only because of what was taking place in the cafe. “I know what’s been going on, Claire.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We just had to do this.”
He stared off into the distance for a moment like he was not going to let this go. But then he exhaled and looked back at me, shaking his head a little. He was starting to smile. “I know how much you hate being told what to do. I should have tried reverse psychology, hey?”
I shook my head and laughed. “Nah. I would have just seen right through it.”
“Just take care of Alyson, okay?”
I watched him leave and felt bad, even though he had lightened up a bit toward the end, and even managed to tease me. Why did it bother me so much when he was disappointed in me?
Troy finally walked in. Actually, he strode in and headed straight for the booth where Alyson was sitting. “Okay, let’s see what you’ve got for me,” he said.
“Stephanie is not on your side,” Alyson said. “She has been poisoning you. And we can prove it.”
Troy opened his mouth to say something, then shut it. He looked at her in a kind of strange way, and I started to wonder if maybe the attraction was mutual. Huh. Very interesting.
“Stephanie has been working for me for six years,” he explained patiently, not willing to entertain what we were telling him at all. “She started out as my assistant and now she is the vice president of Emerald Development. I trust her completely. What you are saying is absurd.”
Alyson looked at me for help.
I sat down in the booth. “I met Stephanie in a shop a few days ago. She didn’t know who I was, she thought I was just a stranger. An Eden Bay local. She told me that she is not happy at Emerald Development and, Troy, she did not speak very highly of you.” It clearly pained him to hear this. He looked like he was about to stand up and walk out.
Alyson was still giving me a pleading look. Like I could somehow magically change his mind, convince him.
I had a thought that might work. “She’s the vice president. You are the president.” I paused, sort of for dramatic effect. I wanted him to take it in. “What happens if you die?”
Troy didn’t give me an answer then and there, but I could only assume it was the obvious and we were all thinking the same thing. With Troy dead, Stephanie could take over the company.
“Where’s the proof?” Troy said. A statement, as though this proof could not possibly exist.
“I do have proof actually,” Alyson said, fetching the USB out of her purse. She waved it like a wand. “It’s an unaired episode of the Eden Bay Mystery Podcast.”
Troy’s face was blank. “And that is?”
“A podcast about all the mysteries that have been going on in Eden Bay recently,” Alyson said. “I know you’ve listened to it, Troy. You gave that away before when you insinuated I’m crazy.” He looked down at the table for a moment, ashamed. “Anyway. Joel figured out what Stephanie was doing. And he wasn’t the only one. So did Justin St. Clair. So, she had Joel killed. And she’s threatened Justin. And, Troy, you are in danger.”
“Well,” Troy said, standing up. “I suppose we should all take a listen to this. And find out just who is telling the truth.”
18
Alyson
I didn’t think that Troy Emerald would ever be in my apartment. Certainly not like this. I supposed I had imagined it in a slightly different way, us sharing a bottle of wine, maybe a few laughs. Sitting on the sofa. But I hadn’t entertained it in a serious way, of course. Just that it had briefly crossed my mind. Briefly. He asked me if he needed to take his shoes off. I just laughed and said of course not and pointed out that I had a dog—newly acquired—and an eight-year-old, and that this was no Flower of Life hotel. He nodded.
“It’ll take me a minute to get it set up,” I mumbled as I opened my lap top and tried to stick the flash drive in the side. I couldn’t get it in the first time. “Can I get you a cup of tea or something?”
Claire had gone to wash up in the bathroom, so it was just the two of us. Troy shook his head and said he was fine for tea, then took a look around the apartment. “This is where you live?”
I stood up and felt a little defensive of my little apartment by the sea. Yes, there were cracks in the wall. And yes, there was just one room divided by room dividers. And yes, my brother was trying to convince me to move in with him in his nice three-bedroom brick home. But it was my little home. “What’s wrong with it?”
Troy shook his head and shrugged. “No, it looks perfectly…adequate.”
He and Claire would actually make a pretty good pair.
I shrugged it off and loaded the file.
“I suppose it’s just too bad you couldn’t trust me without listening to the recording.” I straightened up with my finger hovering above the
space bar, about to hit play as soon as Claire rejoined us.
“I didn’t become the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company by taking things at face value, Alyson.”
Claire nodded at me. We were ready.
It took a while to get into episode three. Justin took care of some housekeeping at the start of the episode, then explained that episode three was going to take a different turn than intended. Rather than discuss the crazy locals (me), he was going to reveal a shocking fact about an employee of Emerald Development. Then we heard the sound of J’s scooter in the background, and Claire and I both stifled a giggle. It was at that point that Justin paused the recording. Or at least he attempted to. But it seemed as though he had gotten confused about which bits were recording and which weren’t. We heard him clearing his throat and coughing, like he thought he’d pressed pause but was really still recording.
“I suppose this is a little unedited…” I said apologetically. I tried to figure out how to skip ahead when we heard something interesting.
The phone rang over the recording.
“Hey, babe,” we heard Justin say nervously. “Let me put you on speaker, I’m trying to work over here.”
“Sorry,” we heard a female voice say. “I’ll only be a minute.”
I glanced up at Claire and Troy and saw they had the same uneasy look on their faces. Did they recognize this voice?
“Look,” the female voice said sternly. “I don’t like what you’re up to.”
Justin laughed bitterly. “Oh, so it’s okay for you to spend months slowly killing someone for your own gain, but it’s not okay for me to do it quickly, and painlessly I might add, for my own gain? That’s a bit hypocritical, don’t you think?”
I looked back up at Claire and Troy and noticed that Troy had gone completely white. This was Stephanie on the other line. And now Troy knew the truth.
“You’re being reckless!” Stephanie yelled. “You’re going to get us both caught! And why? So you can be some podcast celebrity? Don’t you think that’s pretty stupid?! You killed an innocent man just so you have a story to talk about!”
Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 18
