“Did you have anything specific in mind?”
“You can start by telling us about her performance with this agency. Was she a good manager?”
Gary nodded. “Absolutely.”
“So you had no problems with her?” David asked.
Gary shook his head. “Not one.”
“How about the rest of the employees here?” David asked. “Did they all get along with her?”
Gary’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute. You don’t think that someone at this agency might be responsible for Angela going missing, do you?”
“I would like to be able to rule out that possibility. In order to do that, I need to know if she was in good standing with everyone here.”
Gary grimaced.
“What’s the matter?” David asked. “Was she having problems with someone?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Who?”
“Ryan Knapp.”
“What sort of problems are we talking about?”
Gary exhaled. “Angela was transferred here from the Oak Ridge Branch to fill a vacant management position.”
“Let me guess. Ryan Knapp believed that he should have gotten that position?” David asked.
“Correct.”
“There’s motive for you,” David said. “Has he been hostile to Angela since her arrival?”
Gary nodded. “On a number of occasions.”
David scratched his chin. “Interesting.” He bit his lip. “Now, let’s get hypothetical for a moment. In the tragic event that Angela is never found, that management position would need to be filled again. Would Ryan be the best fit?”
“Not if he did something to Angela,” Gary said.
“Say he had nothing to do with Angela’s disappearance,” David replied. “Would he get the promotion?”
Gary nodded.
“That’s what I figured,” David said.
Gary grimaced. “Wait a minute. Are you really suggesting that Ryan might be responsible for Angela going missing?”
“I’ll say this. Someone is certainly behind her disappearance. And Ryan had a lot to gain from Angela being out of the picture,” David replied.
Gary took a deep breath.
David continued. “I know it’s difficult to think about.”
“It’s more than that,” Gary said. “I can’t believe Ryan would do something like that.”
“You’d be surprised what people are capable of.”
Gary broke eye contact and looked down at the ground. “That’s depressing.”
“I’m just being honest. I’ve seen people killed over less.”
“I really hope Ryan isn’t responsible for this.”
“We’ll find out. But first, I need some more information from you.”
Gary’s nose crinkled. “What more do you want to know?”
“Is there anyone else at this agency who was having problems with Angela?” David asked.
Gary became pensive. “No. Not that I can think of.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“As sure as I can be.”
“All right,” David said. “In that case, I just have one more thing to ask you.”
“What’s that?” Gary said.
“Is Ryan here today?” David asked.
Gary nodded. “Do you want me to call him in here?”
“Very much so,” David said.
Gary leaned forward and pressed a button on his phone. “Lisa, will you have Ryan come to my office immediately?”
Lisa replied over the phone’s intercom a few seconds later. “Sure thing.”
Chapter Fourteen
A minute later, Ryan Knapp entered the office. He was tall and athletic thirty-nine-year-old. There was a distinct swagger to him as he spoke.
“You wanted to see me?” Ryan asked.
“Yes. Come on in,” Gary said.
Ryan nose scrunched as he saw David and me staring at him. “What’s going on?”
“This is Detective David Carlson with the Treasure Cove Police Department,” Gary said.
Ryan’s eyes widened. He replied before I had the chance to introduce myself. “What’s a detective doing here?”
Gary looked at David. “Do you want to take it from here?”
“I sure do.” David got up from his chair and turned to Ryan. “Mr. Knapp, why don’t you take a seat?”
Ryan shook his head. “That’s okay. I’m fine right here. Now what’s this about?”
“I just have a few questions for you.”
“About what?”
“To start, how was your morning?” David asked.
Ryan squinted. “What an odd question.”
David eyebrows knitted. “What makes you say that? It seems pretty normal to me.”
“Yeah? Well to me, it’s pretty unusual for a police detective to show up at my workplace and ask me how my morning was,” Ryan said.
“Fair enough. That said, you still haven’t answered my question,” David replied.
“I could say the same thing about you. Although, clearly something terrible has occurred,” Ryan replied.
“What makes you say that?” David said.
“If everything was going well, you wouldn’t be here. So what brought you to this agency?”
David folded his arms. “Mr. Knapp, I’m the one asking the questions here. Why are you being so difficult?”
“Fine. It has been a pretty unremarkable Thursday,” Ryan said. “Now why don’t you tell me what you’re really doing here?”
“Angela Hummel has gone missing,” David said.
Ryan’s eyes bulged. “No way—”
“In addition, we understand that you’ve been having problems with her,” I said.
Ryan stared Gary down. “Did you tell him that?”
David spoke up before Gary had a chance to reply. “Mr. Knapp. Where we got that information from is not important.”
“It is to me,” Ryan said.
“Your difficulties with Angela aren’t exactly a secret,” David said.
Ryan became very defensive. “I wouldn’t say we were having difficulties.”
“What would you call them?” David asked.
“Before this conversation goes any further, I just want to say I’m really shocked about the news. I had no idea that Angela was missing. I hope you find her very soon,” Ryan replied.
“I can’t help but notice that you keep avoiding my questions. Why are you being so evasive?” David asked.
“I assure you, that isn’t my intent,” Ryan said.
“That would be a lot easier to believe if you would just answer me,” David said. “Now back to these difficulties you were having with Angela.”
Ryan held his hand out. “Let me stop you right there. I didn’t have anything to do with Angela’s disappearance.”
“I never said you did,” David replied.
“You were going in that direction, though, weren’t you?” Ryan asked.
“Mr. Knapp, you have made this discussion far more complicated than it needs to be,” David said.
“How can I convince you that I had nothing to do with Angela going missing?” Ryan asked.
“Why don’t you tell us where you were this morning?” David asked.
“I was at home,” Ryan said.
“All morning?”
Ryan nodded. “Until I came here.”
“Is there anyone who can verify that?”
“Like who?”
“Do you happen to have a roommate? Or a live-in girlfriend?” David asked.
“I was at home, all right?” Ryan said.
“I guess that means you were alone.”
“Yes,” Ryan said. “But for the last time, I had nothing to do with Angela’s disappearance.”
“Mr. Knapp, your story is only as believable as my ability to verify it.”
“Can you prove I’m lying?”
David shook his head.
“All right. In that case, can I get
back to work?” Ryan asked.
David held his pointer finger up. “You seem to be in a hurry to get out of here.”
“I have a lot of work to do.”
David stared him down. “Or maybe it’s something else.”
Ryan threw out his arms. “This is ridiculous.”
“No. It’s deadly serious,” David said.
“I meant it’s ridiculous that you’re talking to me this way,” Ryan said. “Here’s a question for you. If I did something horrible to Angela this morning, then why would I be here right now, just going about my day as normal?”
“Because not showing up at work would look highly suspicious. A smart criminal would act like things were business as usual and try to fly under the radar of suspicion.”
Ryan narrowed his eyes. “You’re throwing around a lot of accusations, but can you prove I did anything wrong?”
David shook his head. “Not at the moment.”
“In that case, I have a pitch meeting to prepare for,” Ryan said.
Chapter Fifteen
That exchange got far more heated than I expected. It certainly didn’t make Ryan look innocent of any wrongdoing. But just because Ryan was argumentative didn’t mean he was guilty of anything. Since we had no way of knowing if he was lying, we had very little choice but to move on.
But we didn’t leave the agency. Instead, we headed back to the front lobby and spoke with Lisa at the reception desk.
“Is there something else I can do for you?” Lisa asked.
David nodded.
“Who would you like me to page this time?” she asked.
“Actually, we’d like to speak with you for a minute,” David said.
Lisa’s eyebrows rose. “Me?”
“Is that a problem?” David asked.
Lisa shook her head. “No. I just don’t understand what you want with me.”
A pained look was on her face as she spoke. In addition, her breath shortened as she finished her reply.
“Calm down,” David said. “We just need to ask you a few questions.”
“About what?” she asked.
“It’s probably better if we have this discussion outside,” David said.
Her nose crinkled. “Do we have to?”
“Lisa, please don’t make this difficult,” David said.
She groaned. “Fine.”
***
Lisa called over an administrative assistant to cover the phones for her. She then exited the building and spoke with us in the parking lot.
“So what are these questions you need to ask me?” Lisa asked.
“We’re looking for as much information as we can get about Angela Hummel,” David said.
“I don’t know anything about her disappearance,” Lisa said.
“I never said that you did,” David replied.
Lisa’s eyebrows knitted. “Then I’m even more confused why you came to me.”
“I just told you. I’m looking for information.”
“But we weren’t friends.”
“Did you not like each other?” David asked.
“No. It’s not that at all,” Lisa said.
David squinted. “Then what is it?”
“We got along just fine. We just hung around in different circles. And we didn’t talk all that much.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t have some useful info,” I said.
Lisa’s forehead wrinkled. “I’m not following your logic.”
“Lisa, I’m friends with a number of receptionists in town, and each of them tells me the exact same thing. That all the office gossip makes its way back to them eventually, whether they want it to or not.”
“Maybe things run a little differently at this agency.”
“Are you saying you haven’t heard any gossip about Angela?” I asked.
Lisa opened her mouth to reply.
David spoke up before she had a chance to get a word out. “I just want to remind you that it’s a crime to lie to a police detective.”
She took a deep breath. “All right. What do you want to know exactly?”
David’s eyes widened. “So you have heard gossip about Angela then?”
“I assume you’re talking about how bothered Ryan was about getting passed up for that promotion,” Lisa said.
“Did he ever threaten her?” David asked.
Lisa shook her head. “No. Not to her face.”
“How about behind her back?”
“Look. He was angry. But I don’t think he would do anything to Angela. At least, I hope he wouldn’t,” Lisa said.
“Angela is missing. So clearly something terrible happened to her,” David said.
Lisa grimaced.
“Was Ryan the only one in the office who was having problems with her?” David asked.
Lisa didn’t answer.
David stared her down. “Lisa. If you know anything, it’s your responsibility to tell us.”
“If I tell you what I know, you have to promise to keep my name out of this. I don’t want any retaliation against me. Understand?” Lisa said.
“Yes. Now what do you know?” David said.
“You might want to talk to Eric Hollingsworth,” she said.
“Why him?” David asked.
“He’s had a huge crush on Angela ever since she started working here.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“To start, he asked her out,” Lisa said.
“And what did she say?” David asked.
“She shot him down,” Lisa said.
“When was this?”
“Shortly before she started dating Gavin.”
“That was months ago. Is there any chance he has moved on?” David asked.
“That’s doubtful. Eric has an obsessive personality. Which is good for work. But it’s not so helpful in other aspects of his life.”
“No. I’ll bet it isn’t,” David said.
“Can I go back to work now?” Lisa asked.
“Not quite,” David said. “Were Eric and Ryan the only two people at this company that Angela was having problems with?”
“As far as I know,” Lisa said.
“Thank you for your help. Now just one more thing. Where is Eric’s desk?” David asked.
Chapter Sixteen
It turned out Eric Hollingsworth’s desk was located almost directly outside of Angela’s office. Given the proximity between the two, David and I elected to try out a little experiment. Instead of heading directly to Eric’s desk, we decided to enter Angela’s office first.
As expected, the round-faced, black-haired, athletic forty-four-year-old kept his eyes on us the entire time.
If everything went according to plan, Eric would soon come to us.
In the meantime, we looked through Angela’s office for any clues that might help us with the case. The office was on the small side, yet strangely enough, it didn’t feel cramped. There was just enough room to get work done without feeling like the walls were closing in.
Surprisingly, it was very light on décor. A desk and two chairs were the only furnishings in the room. In addition, the walls were bare. Perhaps Angela was still trying to settle in. After all, she had only been here for a few months. The one bright spot was that the office had a large window with a view of the ocean outside.
I could have easily gotten lost in thought gazing out the window, but before my thoughts drifted off, I stared at Angela’s desk. There wasn’t much there. Just a computer, a stack of papers, and a framed photograph.
I stared at the photo. It was a nice shot of Angela and Gavin smiling.
Before I got too wrapped up looking at the photo, David spoke up.
“So this is where she worked,” David said.
I nodded. “Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot here that is of use to us.”
“Keep looking,” David said. “You never know what you might find.”
I picked up the stack of papers from the desk and started flippin
g through them. As I suspected, none of the paperwork helped with our investigation. It was just a bunch of advertising scripts and sketches.
For a moment, I was so busy scanning the papers that I forgot about Eric.
That changed when Eric got up from his desk and entered the doorway of the office.
“Excuse me. What are you doing?” Eric asked.
“Searching this office,” David said.
Eric’s eyebrows knitted. “What gives you the right to do that?”
David pulled out his police badge. “This does.”
Eric’s eyes widened.
“What’s the matter, Eric? Cat gone your tongue?” David asked.
“Wait a minute. How do you know my name?” Eric asked.
“Oh, I know a lot more than just your name.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you have some explaining to do.”
His nose scrunched. “What are you talking about?”
“You seem awfully tense. Have you had a stressful morning?”
“I’m not tense. I’m just confused. Why are you in Angela’s office? And why do you want to speak with me?”
“You haven’t heard the news about Angela going missing?” David asked.
Even though it was repetitive to ask every suspect that same question, it was important to do so, if only to see their reactions. Body language was often very telling.
David and I paid close attention to Eric as he processed the news.
It was safe to say he did not remain calm and collected. Instead, Eric’s jaw immediately dropped. “Are you serious?”
David nodded. “Unfortunately.”
“So you have no idea where she is? Or what happened to her?” Eric asked.
“Her whereabouts are currently a total mystery,” David said. “But we’re doing everything in our power to find her.”
Eric threw out his arms. “Well, shouldn’t you be out there looking for her then?”
“A number of deputies are doing that very thing.”
“I hope they find her. And soon.”
“That’s where you come in.”
Eric’s forehead wrinkled. “Me? But what do I have to do with this?”
“Mr. Hollingsworth, don’t act so surprised that we’ve come to talk to you.”
Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 41
