A Deadly Promotion

by Melanie Jones Brownrigg

  “Paul Williams?” he questioned, checking a folder he had brought with him.

  “Yes, that’s what I heard him telling one of the paramedics.”

  “You didn’t know him before the incident?” Detective Sutton asked.

  “No. If he worked in the same building as me, I don’t recall ever seeing him before.”

  I had briefly noticed him in the ambulance. He had dark brown hair and matching eyes. I remembered him being good-looking. Although, Detective Sutton had dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes and was ever so handsome. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me because seeing two handsome men in close succession with similar features seemed unlikely. But then again, Detective Andrews was more of a fatherly figure. So maybe I was seeing well enough. Even so, things were still blurry.

  “Let’s go back in time a bit,” Detective Sutton carried on, leaning back in his chair and continuing to scan his notes. “Tell me what was going on immediately prior to leaving work.”

  I shrugged. “Nothing. Everyone was shutting down their computers and gathering their personal items. We were all anxious to leave. I was ready before Julie and went to her office to wait for her. She was bent over in her chair and looking through a bottom desk drawer when she looked up and saw me. She told me she’d be ready in a moment and then she turned off her computer and we left together.”

  “Did she leave with anything … like a briefcase or a handful of files?”

  “No, she had only her purse.” I remembered her handbag was lying beside her body. I assumed the police collected it.

  “What about you? Were you carrying anything?”

  “Yes, my purse. Paul had it with him in the ambulance.”

  Detective Sutton scowled. “He shouldn’t have taken it. It’s considered evidence. He needs to turn it over to us. The contents need to be inspected, as well as performing a search history on your phone and any other electronic devices you had on you.”

  “The nurse already looked for it. It’s not in my room. Hopefully, Paul still has it.”

  “Are you certain you don’t know Paul?” Detective Andrews rehashed. “It seems odd he would have taken your purse, rode with you in the ambulance, and you’re already on a first name basis. Perhaps he disposed of some vital evidence on your behalf,” he accused, looking hard at me and I felt myself squirm under his scrutiny.

  “No, I’d never seen him before. He must’ve had some knight-in-shining-armor complex and felt obligated to stay with me,” I proposed. “And I haven’t heard from him since,” I added when neither detective appeared to believe me.

  I hoped Paul would eventually bring me my handbag. Without my phone, I couldn’t call Amy about canceling our shopping trip planned for tomorrow, and I needed to notify my parents to let them know what happened. There was a phone glaring at me from my bedside table … but you know what? I didn’t know anyone’s phone number. With my contacts stored in my phone, all I ever did was mash a connect button.

  Detective Sutton nodded in relinquishment and moved on. “Do you recall who all remained in the office once you two left?”

  “David Ross for sure,” I answered. “It’s not unusual for him to stay late if he still has some work.” David had the least demanding of all the jobs in the financial department, yet he arrived early and worked late, like it was an all-consuming effort to complete his tasks. Everyone considered him to be … different. He kept to himself, rarely talking to anyone. Unfortunately, his desk was right next to mine, and sometimes it seemed as if he was staring at me.

  “And who else?” Detective Andrews prompted, looking up from his pad of paper.

  “Umm, possibly Lidia Gentry. I seem to recall her still seated at her desk.”

  “Anyone else you can remember?” Detective Sutton posed.

  “No. I believe everyone else had gone before Julie was ready to leave.” I knew he was going through the steps, but wasn’t the goal to ultimately find out who did this? And wouldn’t it simply be the man with the bat? “Yesterday when I was carted out, I saw a man in a side hallway carrying a bat. Do you know if this was relayed to anyone within your department?”

  “Yes, it was,” he quickly confirmed. “Mr. Williams called with the information. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone found carrying any type of possible weapon.” He paused for a moment and then leaned in a bit. “Your doctor … he mentioned you might be suffering from hallucinations.”

  “No, I’m not,” I vehemently protested, a scowl taking over my facial expression. “And someone came into my room last night and tried to kill me.”

  His face took on a skeptical look and he immediately referred once again to his file. “Nancy Carson, the night nurse responding to your call, made a note in your chart indicating she didn’t encounter anyone in the hallway.”

  “He must’ve slipped out before she could get to my room. But he was here,” I expressed firmly.

  I caught a blurry glimpse of Detective Andrews rolling his eyes at me. “So, you think it was a he?” he questioned.

  “Yes, I think so. The shadow was outlined by my bed-curtain and it seemed too large to have been a woman.”

  “How did he try to kill you?” Detective Sutton posed.

  “He was going to kill me. But I woke up and told him I was calling for help. I must have thwarted his attempt.”

  “Okay,” he said in a doubtful tone, indicating he wasn’t buying my story for one second, but was merely placating me. “I have a copy of the nurse’s notes.” He pulled them out of his file and took a closer look. “The nurse’s notes indicate that the door was closed. Do you recall the door opening and closing when this man slipped out?” His inflection sounded so condescending.

  “No, I don’t recall. But it must have.” In the back of my mind, I remembered the figure was there one moment and then it simply melted away. Did I imagine someone being there? Maybe it was even a dream? Neither alternative resonated as true to me. He was there, I firmly continued to believe.

  “Let’s move on.” In other words, he’d heard enough about my imaginary man. “Tell me about Harrington Oil & Gas.”

  “It’s a small, privately owned company with Walter Harrington at the helm. There are only two Board of Director members, comprised of himself and his wife. There’s not even a Human Resource Department as he prefers to handle all matters himself in conjunction with the various management-level officers. He’s very hands on and knows every employee within the company.”

  “Describe your position in the firm,” he voiced after making a few notes.

  “I work in the Accounting Department. My job description includes payment of certain on-going company expenditures, like the fuel bills, field supplies, replacement equipment and other related costs to keep the business going. I also handle large purchases, like machinery and other equipment.” I went into specifics about what my job entailed while Detective Andrews made copious notes as I carried on.

  “Tell me about each of the other employees within your department,” Detective Sutton inquired.

  “Okay. I’ve already mentioned David Ross. He deals with reimbursements.” After waiting for Detective Andrews to look up from his notes, I continued. “Penny Mathis deals with royalties and bonuses. Lisa Harris works in payroll. James Pierce is assigned to drilling operations and equipment rentals. Carter Hughes specializes in investment packages and leases. Lidia Gentry works in oil and gas revenues.” I provided him with a description of what each position required.

  “What about Julie Mitchell?” he asked once I had detailed the jobs of each employee.

  “Julie was the Chief Financial Officer. She was responsible for the company’s past and present financial situation. She kept up with the financial reportage which ultimately helped Mr. Harrington decide where he should invest the company’s funds. She oversaw the capital structure of the company and determined the best mix of debt to equity ratios. Because we’re a smaller company, she also oversaw everyone’s job and double-checked the data to ma
ke sure everything balanced. She made sure all entries were appropriately recorded within the various departments and verified all finances were ticked and tied. As the CFO, she, and Mr. Harrington, are the only two people who know the full worth of the company on a day-to-day basis.” I paused to take a sip of water. “Even though Mr. Harrington’s wife is on the Board of Directors, she rarely has much to do with the company, and certainly not on a daily basis,” I clarified.

  He leaned back in his chair and stared at me for a long while, making me excruciatingly apprehensive. “I’ve spoken with a few of your fellow employees. From my understanding, Ethel Johnson was the previous CFO, but after a recent debilitating car accident she could no longer perform her job, ultimately making the position available.”

  “Yes,” I answered. “It’s my understanding she’s having trouble with her motor skills. Lidia, her daughter, has her in rehab and actually I thought she was improving.”

  “You applied for the position … didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” I answered. “It would’ve been a huge increase in salary for me.” I paused, almost seeing where his thoughts were going. Julie got the position over me … and now she was dead. “It never occurred to me that I’d actually get the promotion,” I emphasized. “You see, Lidia Gentry is Ethel Johnson’s daughter. Ethel had been grooming Lidia to take over as CFO for years. When Ethel realized she wouldn’t be able to return to work, everyone assumed Lidia would step into her mother’s position. And she did for at least a month. Then suddenly, Mr. Harrington announced he was opening the position. It was a huge shock when Mr. Harrington told Julie she was the new CFO.” I thought about it for a moment. “You know, Lidia was still at work when we left. Considering how enraged she was about not getting the advancement, I’ll bet she was the one who pushed us in the stairwell. Have you talked to her?”

  “Yes, we’ve spoken with her,” he responded in a slow voice. “She said she headed for home shortly after you and Julie left.” He looked at me and didn’t blink. “Lidia didn’t take the stairs. While there aren’t any cameras within the stairwell, there is a camera on every floor. From the time you and Julie entered, until the time you crawled out on the eleventh floor, from every floor in that forty-story building, no one entered the stairwell … no one, except for you and Julie.”

  Chapter Six

  He paused, waiting for me to say something, but my mouth had become a vice. And frankly, I found it unbelievable for no one else to have been recorded going into the stairwell. Someone must have. Otherwise, how was I at the mid-point landing, and Julie had ended up being at the bottom? Even if one of us fell, it didn’t explain the vast separation.

  “Did you look at the video prior to the time we left?” I suggested. “Maybe someone was hiding in there long before we entered.”

  “We had a team inspect the videos. Short of a few people entering from the fifth floor down, no one was in the stairwell from four o’clock on … other than you and Julie,” Detective Sutton once again accentuated.

  “You’re wrong,” I disagreed. “Someone was in there. You need to make sure all the cameras are working properly … or nothing was erased … or something wasn’t looped over. You must be missing something because I remember hearing a noise just before it happened.”

  “What kind of noise?” Detective Andrews humored.

  “Like a grunt I suppose. Like someone put their weight into shoving me. I think I hit the wall first. Then they got after Julie.”

  “Did you scream?” Detective Andrews asked from his chair several feet away, making him a blurry blob.

  “No, I didn’t see anything coming.”

  Detective Sutton narrowed his eyes. “If you didn’t see anyone coming up behind you, don’t you think it’s odd for you to have been hit in the back of your head? If you were going down the steps and someone pushed you into the wall, wouldn’t you have hit your forehead? How is it possible for you to have been facing your attacker and yet you didn’t see anyone?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I really don’t remember much.”

  “Do you remember if Julie screamed?” Detective Sutton added to Detective Andrews’ previous question.

  “I don’t recall. I must have been knocked out.”

  Detective Sutton shook his head. “Look, we’ll take another look at the recordings to make sure nothing has been deleted or recorded over. But the way it stands right now, there’s no video to show anyone but you and Julie. You wanted that prestigious position, didn’t you?” Detective Sutton continued. “You were jealous of Julie beating you out, weren’t you? It left you in the common area, with all those desks in a row … with you seated right next to David Ross, whom, according to your coworkers, you weren’t too fond of.” His penetrating brown eyes never left mine. “Julie ended up in a nice corner office with a closing door, and she received that big raise you wanted for yourself. It burned inside your gut didn’t it?” He stared a hole through me. “I think you thought you should’ve trumped Julie, and you confronted her about it in the stairwell. The two of you got into a big argument. Did she push you first? Or did you get the upper hand? Maybe it was just an accident. Perhaps you didn’t mean to push her as hard as you did. It just happened.” He leaned up next to me as if he were about to draw a confession from me. “Tell me what happened. We can work something out.”

  “No,” I barked. “You have it all wrong. I was happy for Julie to get the promotion. Julie was my friend. Good for her. It was certainly better than Lidia getting it.”

  “Why not Lidia?” he jumped on immediately, drawing back in his chair to return a little distance between us.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. She just rubs me the wrong way.”

  “How so?” he pushed.

  “She thinks she’s better than everyone else. And with her mother having been the previous CFO and Lidia being well-acquainted with the position, she just thought she had it in the bag. Honestly, I was glad when Julie got the advancement over me because it was Julie who had to endure Lidia’s snide comments about Julie getting the job over her. Lidia was all the time making catty remarks about Julie receiving an undeserved position. She accused her of having slept with Mr. Harrington, or bribed him, or had something to hold over him to get the job.”

  “Tell me this, Paige,” he began, “why haven’t you asked how your good friend Julie died? Or is it because you know you two were in an argument and you ended up shoving her down those stairs, to the point she broke her neck and died?”

  I felt my face screw into a tight knot and my cheeks take on an enraged burn. “I didn’t have to ask. I saw her at the bottom of the stairs with her head contorted around. I knew what happened to her. But it doesn’t mean I did it … because I didn’t.”

  “So I’m supposed to believe that someone – who doesn’t show up on any video recordings – came into the stairwell, shoved your head into the wall while you had to be facing them, and then pushed Julie down the remaining stairs, and all this happened without you seeing them, and neither of you even screamed.”

  I shifted uncomfortably in my bed and pulled the linens up to my neck, suddenly aware of the thin fabric of my hospital gown. “Yes, you need take another look at the security footage because that has to be what happened.” It sounded so far-fetched, yet it seemed to be the only possibility. I watched as Detective Andrews made a few more notes on his pad, resisting the urge to climb out of my bed and rip them to smithereens.

  “Well, Paige, let me ask you another question,” Detective Sutton went on. “Why did Julie have defensive wounds on her hands, and your DNA was found under her fingernails? And only yours,” he added, giving me a smug look.

  I racked my tortured brain, trying to recall what happened and hoping to come up with any plausible explanation. “When someone hit Julie, she must’ve grabbed at me to keep from falling. She must’ve dug her nails into my skin when it happened.”

  He smirked, his handsome features tightening. “Earlier you imagined your
self as being hit first. If so, you would’ve already been down and Julie wouldn’t have been able to grab hold of you, which doesn’t explain why your DNA was under her nails.”

  “Maybe I was hit first, and Julie tried to save me. It could’ve happened that way.”

  At this point, the detectives looped through their questions again, going over the same material as previously asked. Their echoing probe went on for another hour and half. And mind you, I had barely slept during the night. I was completely exhausted, feeling weary of the repetitious questions being posed time and time again. It was a relief when a medical technician came in and said they needed to take me in for some testing.

  “Can you give us one minute?” Detective Sutton asked the technician, holding up an index finger in the process.

  “One minute,” the young worker agreed with a disgruntled expression.

  As soon as the medical personnel stepped outside, Detective Sutton stood from his chair and peered down at me. “Paige Davis, you’re under arrest for the murder of Julie Mitchell.” He read me my Miranda Warnings and then added, “Obviously we’re not taking you to jail under these extenuating circumstances. And because of your need to be tested and begin rehabilitation processes, we’re not going to handcuff you to the bed. But, Ms. Davis, don’t be doing any disappearing acts from the hospital. You’ll be in big trouble if you leave against medical advice.”

  Chapter Seven

  Arrested! Me! If only those detectives truly knew me. I was such a goody two-shoes. When everyone else was out clubbing, I was home with a book. Whenever it came to office events, I was the one who brought in the supplies, decorated and organized the whole shebang. If anyone ever needed a helping hand, I was there for them. I was honest, hardworking and dedicated. Sensible. Reliable. Trustworthy. That was me. And I wasn’t the jealous type. It didn’t bother me for Julie to have received the position over me. And, for God’s sake, I certainly didn’t kill her.