The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  “I can’t ask that,” Nora said. “I won’t!”

  “I understand,” Dr. Kurt said. “But the thing is, Tiffany isn’t the only person who died last night, is she? Sergio died too. To be more exact, Sergio was killed.”

  “Sergio was killed,” Nora said. “He was killed while he held a knife to my throat. Excuse me for not blaming Harvey!”

  Dr. Kurt sighed. “Say what you like, Nora, but the town’s opinion is turning against him. I admire your loyalty, but surely, by now, you have your doubts?”

  “I don’t,” Nora said. “Harvey didn’t do this, and I’m going to prove him innocent.”

  “No, you won’t.” The bell above the door tinkled as Harvey walked in. “Nora. Come on. You promised me you’d stay out of this.”

  Dr. Kurt looked very uncomfortable. Hurriedly taking a last sip of coffee, he put a few dollars on the counter and walked out.

  “You have a good day, Doctor!” Harvey called out behind him. The Doctor didn’t turn back or answer.

  The few people left in the diner seemed to shrink in their seats as Harvey walked in. Nora watched him - he could see the effect he had on the people around him, and she knew it hurt. Until yesterday, the town had considered him a very respectable citizen. He’d been greeted with smiles and waves wherever he went. Today, she knew, people had turned their faces when he walked up to them.

  Still, there were some who were loyal - Sam and Tina for one. Tina’s husband walked in too, and he clapped a hand on Harvey’s back.

  “So, I hear you’re accused of murdering someone?” he said, as loud as possible. “Did you do it, Harv?”

  “You know I didn’t, Sam.”

  “Sure I do,” Sam said with a smile. “I know it, and now everyone in this diner knows it. I’ve known you for quite a few years now, Harvey, and as far as I’m concerned, you’ve never once lied to me before.”

  Other customers slowly started paying their bills and exiting.

  Tina sighed. “I think we should close down for the day, Nora. What do you think?”

  “Stay open,” Sam said. “Business will pick up again, as soon as people hear Harvey’s here, they’ll come to watch the circus.”

  “I don’t much like being the circus freak,” Harvey said, his voice mild but bitter.

  “I feel ya.” Sam sighed. “Let’s go to my place and have a beer, what d’ya say?”

  “Actually, I’d rather get some hot black coffee,” Harvey said. “The stuff they gave me in prison is little more than muddy water.”

  Nora couldn’t bear it any more. With a small sob, she fell into his arms. “I’m so sorry, Harvey! This must be horrible for you.”

  “Horrible? It’ll pass soon.” Harvey kissed her on the forehead, then gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “As long as you’re with me, there’s nothing on earth that can make me unhappy, Nora.”

  “You’re a brave man,” Nora said. “But even you aren’t that brave, Harvey. I know how unhappy you’re feeling right now. But I am with you, and so are Sam and Tina. That’s a start. We’ll figure it out.”

  “Oh, speaking of which, may I introduce you to my lawyer?” Harvey smiled and gestured to the man next to him. “This is Thomas Pineridge. He works in Jackson, but I’ve retained him as counsel. He’ll be making a lot of trips to town over the coming days, I think.”

  “Pleased to meet you.” Thomas shook hands with Nora. “I’ve heard about some of your exploits before, Ms. Newberry.”

  “From Harvey?” Nora smiled.

  “From the papers,” Thomas said.

  “I wouldn’t call them exploits,” Harvey said. “Nora’s got a habit of putting herself in danger without a thought to the consequences.”

  “Harvey’s got a habit of acting like he never needs any help,” Nora shot back.

  The two of them glared at each other, none willing to take their eyes away first.

  “Wow.” Tina gave a whistle. “Save it for the bedroom, guys. This is a family friendly place.”

  “I’ve already told you not to mess about in this,” Harvey said. “Then I hear that you’ve been to the ice-cream factory today. Seriously Nora? Why would you do that?”

  “It’s not very wise, definitely,” Thomas Pineridge agreed. “We want all the evidence gathered to be police-work. If you contaminated some of it, it could actually prove detrimental to Harvey’s case.”

  “There, see? Stay out of it for both our goods,” Harvey said.

  “I’m betting you paid him to say that,” Nora replied. “I’m not backing down from this, Harvey, and you can’t make me.”

  “Can we go somewhere private?” Harvey said, looking around. “We really do need to talk.”

  *****

  Chapter 12

  “What is it?” Nora asked, as he pulled her into the storeroom.

  “Nora, are you really serious about not giving up?” Harvey asked.

  “I am,” she said.

  “Fine,” Harvey said. “Then if you can’t promise me you won’t stop looking for answers, at least promise me you’ll do everything to keep yourself safe.”

  “Of course, I will,” Nora said. “I know what you think, Harvey, but I don’t ever intentionally put myself in danger.”

  He held up a hand. “I’m going to give you something. It’s an unusual gift to give a girlfriend, but then again, I have an unusual girlfriend.” He handed her a cardboard box wrapped with an old newspaper. “Sorry about the bad wrapping.” He smiled. “I didn’t have much time after I got out.”

  “It’s all right,” Nora said. “You know.. I expected a fight, not a gift when you took me aside. Thank you for being such a wonderful boyfriend. It means a lot to me that you understand why I need to do this.”

  “I don’t.” Harvey sighed. “I’m the man. I’m supposed to protect you, and you’re supposed to sit there and look pretty.”

  “Sometimes, I feel like you walked right out of a cave,” Nora said with a shake of the head. With no further comment, she ripped open the box, excited to see what was inside. “It’s a… what is it?” She looked at the odd metal rectangle, and then gasped. “Harvey, did you buy me a gun? A pink gun?”

  “A taser,” he said, taking it out to demonstrate. He pressed a button and a little line of blue electricity shot across it, accompanied by an evil crackle. “Like it?”

  “I love it!” Nora exclaimed. “Now if you irritate me too much, I can try it on you.”

  Harvey laughed. “Don’t even think about it. I wish there was something else I could give you, Nora, but this is the best I can do right now.” He had a haunted look on his face again. “The truth is, I’d rather be giving you a ring.”

  With an ache in her heart, Nora remembered Harvey’s habit of teasing her, telling her that someday he’d propose in a grand manner. Now, with his future in doubt, he surely wouldn’t.

  Harvey always thought of her before he thought of himself, and he wouldn’t want her name linked to his if he was convicted. He might even leave town if he was let off, but didn’t quite clear his name.

  It redoubled Nora’s determination to find the true killer.

  “Harvey, you have to tell me about Tiffany,” she said. “Please tell me what she was doing at your house.”

  “All right.” He sighed. “I’ll tell you everything.”

  “She was the one calling you that night, wasn’t she?”

  “Yes,” Harvey said. “Look, Nora, I met Tiffany a few months ago. Do you remember when I had that very public feud with Sean?”

  “You seem to have one every month.” Nora sighed.

  “Well, it was at the town meeting. I opposed some silly ordinance that Sean is for, and we exchanged a few heated words,” Harvey said. “A day later, Tiffany came into my office.”

  Nora noted how his face changed as he said her name. Harvey seemed to almost hate saying it, as if he were afraid of it. “What then?”

  “I asked her what she wanted. I was rather rude, in fact. Tiffany
didn’t seem like a very nice person to me. I had an idea that she was trying to use her feminine wiles on me.”

  “Feminine wiles?” Nora laughed.

  “Fine. I thought she was straight up trying to seduce me,” Harvey said. “She beat around the bush, asking me the price of this house or that, and finally, when I point blank told her that some of the houses were out of her budget, she asked me what price they’d be if they helped me take down Sean.”

  Nora gaped at him. “What?”

  “That’s right,” Harvey said. “She told me that she had information that would prove Sean was crooked, that he’d made a deal with someone in the town who was really influential.”

  “Do you think she was lying?” Nora asked. “I simply can’t believe Sean is capable of something like that.” Then again, a year ago, she had not believed that Sean was capable of having an affair with a married woman - all right, separated - yet that’s exactly what he had done. Who could truly tell what lay in the depths of a man’s soul?

  Harvey took a long pause before he answered. “Did I think that Sean had killed someone? No. Of course not. Did I think it was possible he’d taken some money from unscrupulous contractors, or looked the other way when drugs were being dealt? Perfectly possible.”

  “No. No way. That’s not the kind of man Sean is.”

  “This is the same man who’s arrested me. Unjustly in the past,” Harvey said. “Sure he has evidence against me now, but is he really trying hard to prove who murdered Tiffany, or is he just focussed on gathering more evidence against me so that he can convict me?”

  Nora didn’t have the answer to this. Was Sean trying his hardest to get Harvey a life sentence? If it was true, she felt a red anger inside her. If it was true, Sean would have no worse enemy than her.

  Harvey gave a satisfied smile. “You know, that’s the first time I’ve seen you so angry at Sean. I quite like it.”

  “So what then?” Nora asked. “What did Tiffany tell you?”

  “Well, I asked her what it was that Sean was doing, but she suddenly started playing coy. She told me she had to take a taxi back home because the bus was uncomfortable and her car was in the garage. She gave me a big sob story. Finally, she came out and said, Give me a hundred dollars, and I’ll give you proof.”

  “Ah,” Nora said.

  “Yes. Ah.” Harvey laughed. “Just a scamster, right? That’s what I thought, at least. I could tell by the bags around her eyes and the twitchy way she moved that she probably had some substance abuse problems. Yet… what’s a hundred dollars to me? I thought it was a worthwhile investment.”

  “Oh, Harvey!” Nora said. “What did you get yourself mixed up in?”

  “I don’t know,” Harvey said grimly. “The next few times I saw Tiffany, it was the same deal. She’d call me, and tell me she had proof, that this time, she had definite proof. Then she’d meet me and tantalize me by telling me how scandalized the town would be if the truth came out, how valuable it would be for me to know her secrets. Each time, she’d leave before telling me the truth, and each time she’d ask me for money. I gave it to her each time.”

  “You got scammed,” Nora said definitely.

  “I know you think so,” Harvey said. “But I’ll tell you this, as a man who’s done his fair share of negotiations, I’ve learnt how to read body language. Tiffany wasn’t a very upright citizen. I wouldn’t trust her with a dollar. But when she told me that she had something on Sean, she wasn’t lying. I’m sure of it, Nora. She was telling me the truth.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “I absolutely believe it,” Harvey said. “She wasn’t smart enough to be scamming me. She wasn’t smart enough to lie that effectively. I paid her a few hundred dollars because I believed she’d come through.”

  “So that night… when we went to Simone and Bernard’s?”

  “That night, I wanted to just unplug and relax,” Harvey said. “I didn’t want to think about her. I only wanted to spend time with you. But she kept calling me.”

  “What then?”

  “Eventually, I got sick of ignoring her calls. I decided that enough was enough, so I called her and told her that I was sick of her. She told me… she told me she was waiting outside my house, and if I didn’t come to see her, she’d make sure I regretted it.”

  Nora paled. “Then what?”

  “I went home immediately,” Harvey said. “Truth is, I was mad. I wanted her out of my life. I was beginning to see that bringing down Sean wasn’t worth the hassle of having her around. When I reached home, she was desperate for a drink. She helped herself to some of my best whiskey while I had a bottle of beer.”

  “Wow. All the time I was at Simone and Bernard’s thinking you were working.” Nora shook her head. “I can’t believe you lied to me this way, Harvey.”

  “I didn’t lie,” Harvey said. “It was work. Bringing down Sean is something I’ve worked very hard on, for a very long time.”

  “It’s despicable, the depths to which you’ve fallen,” Nora said. “Associating with a woman like that. Lying to me.”

  “I know what it looks like, believe me,” Harvey said. “I know what it’ll look like to a judge, too. I’m in a real big pile of trouble here. I can’t even tell Sean why she was at my house. I refused to talk, and so now he believes I was cheating on you. That seems like the obvious explanation to him, and I can’t tell him the real reason.”

  Nora sighed. “That’s what happens when-”

  “Please, Nora. The last thing I need is a lecture,” Harvey said. “I know I messed up, but how could I know what would happen?”

  “All right, continue,” Nora said. “What happened next?”

  “She had her whiskey, and then she began her usual spiel. How she hated this town, and how she needed money. How she knew a secret that could tear apart some very important people. How I could get back at Sean if I knew what she knew…” Harvey shook his head. “At that point, I was just sick of it. I told her I’d changed my mind about wanting to bring Sean down. I told her that I’d had enough of her. I asked her to get out and told her that if she ever came near me or you again, she’d regret it.”

  “Did she back off?”

  “On the contrary, she got very angry,” Harvey said. “She was furious at me. She began to spit and curse. She called me names. She even called you names.” He sighed. “That’s when I saw red. I grabbed her by the elbow and tried to force her out. She scratched me.” He pointed to the now healing scar on his cheek. “It stung, but I managed to throw her out of the house. She kept screaming at me for a while, until I told her I was calling the police.”

  “Wow,” Nora said.

  “Yep.” Harvey nodded. “In between screaming at me about how much she hated me, she was screaming about how she needed money, needed it real bad. In all probability, she wanted to do drugs. This time, she asked me for a few thousand. I laughed at her and told her to go away.”

  “Then what?” Nora asked.

  “Well, believe it or not, she went away,” Harvey said. “She got into this rusty blue Honda, and left.”

  Nora considered this. “She got into her car and left. You know, I heard Sergio say something similar that day.”

  “So you believe me, then?”

  “Well, I do have a question,” Nora said. “Dr. Kurt Neil mentioned that you washed the glass she drank out of, though you did it badly enough that there were some fingerprints remaining.”

  Harvey shrugged. “I was just washing the glass, not looking to scrub it clean.”

  “But why? I remember there was a bottle of beer on the table when I entered your house. Clearly you didn’t care so much about cleaning up your house that late at night. So why wash the glass?”

  Harvey blushed. “Well, the thing is… she drank out of the glass, and left some of her lipstick on the rim.”

  “Ah.” Nora nodded. “You didn’t want me to see that, and so you washed it immediately. Is that it?”

  Harvey
nodded.

  “Harvey, I know you think that you were doing nothing wrong, but I’m really disappointed in the way you lied to me,” Nora said. “Before you say it wasn’t a lie, yes, it was. You know it was. That’s why you’re so ashamed of it.”

  “I just… I didn’t want to get into a fight with you,” Harvey said. “I had no intention of cheating on you. I would never do that.”

  “Lying is never acceptable, though,” Nora said. “The foundation of our relationship is trust, and even the smallest of white lies can keep building over the years and destroy it all.”

  Harvey hung his head. “I’m sorry.”

  She glared at him. “Are you really?”

  “I am,” he said. “Really. I know I was lying to you. I was lying because every time the topic of Sean came up, you and I would have a massive fight. I just wanted what I always want. Peace and good times. But I was very wrong to lie, and even though everything else is horrible right now, I’m sort of glad that my lie got caught- it gave me the chance to tell you I’m sorry, and if you accept it, maybe we can start over on a clean slate.”

  She could tell he was sincere. He was looking at her with true sorrow in his eyes.

  “Okay, I’m letting it go right now, but only because there’s so much more happening,” she said, then grinned. “And because you got me this lovely taser I can use on you if you ever tell lies again.” She waved it about playfully, and Harvey leaned back.

  “Watch it,” he said. “Those things are dangerous.”

  Nora smiled. “Just one more thing,” she said.

  “Anything, as long as you put that taser away,” Harvey said.

  Nora put it away. “Harvey, do you have any idea who Joe is? Sergio was looking for a “Joe”. He seemed to believe you knew where Joe was.”

  “Joe?” Harvey frowned. “I know a few Joes, but I don’t think they’re people Tiffany would know. One is a senator, and the other is a pastor. Then there’s a college roommate of mine who’s a computer engineer now.”

  “So why did Sergio think that you knew him?” Nora asked.