by Cindi Myers
She bit her lip, as if reluctant to get Parker—the man she loved—into trouble. Then she nodded. She had to do the right thing, even if it cost her her future happiness. “I think Parker was embezzling money from his family’s company,” she said. “He put the proceeds into that secret account. But Gini Elgin, the chief financial officer, must have noticed something was off. I overheard her confronting him on the factory floor one day. I caught the words ‘the money isn’t right.’ That night, Parker was so furious. He wouldn’t tell me why, but he did say that Gini was poking her nose where it didn’t belong. The next day, I caught him in the herb garden.”
“The herb garden?” Laura was wearing her annoyed look again. Merry wanted to laugh.
“It’s a garden in front of the Stroud plant, with examples of all the plants Evangeline Stroud, the company founder, used in her original herbal remedies. There are paths and a gazebo and little markers identifying everything. I helped with some of the plantings, since I have a green thumb.”
“What was the significance of Parker being in the garden?” Jace asked.
“First of all, he never went there,” Merry said. “He used to tease me about my interest in gardening. But he was there that day, so I paid closer attention, to see what he was doing. That’s when I noticed he was standing right next to the castor plant. You know about castor plants, right?”
“Ricin is derived from castor beans,” Laura said.
Merry nodded. “That didn’t register with me until much later, but I think now he poisoned those tablets in order to kill Gini without anyone suspecting him. As plant manager, he had plenty of opportunity to slip the poison into the pills and substitute that bottle for the one she always kept in her desk. Everyone knew she took the Stomach Soothers all the time.”
“This is really important,” Jace said. “Do you know if Parker has any more ricin? Or more contaminated pills?”
Why hadn’t she thought of this? The idea scared her a little. “I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t seen any in his home or office.”
“When did you start blackmailing him?” Jace asked, just as smooth as if he’d been asking how she took her coffee.
But Merry didn’t even blink. “Blackmail?” she asked.
“You went to Parker, told him what you knew, and he paid you $50,000 a week,” Laura said.
Merry laughed. “I wish. But seriously, I didn’t need to blackmail Parker. We were going to get married. He’s so generous, buying me anything I want, and everything he had was going to be mine.”
“You’re using the past tense,” Jace said. “Is the wedding off?”
Tears stung her eyes. She was really good at this acting stuff, wasn’t she? “I can’t marry a man who murdered six people,” she said. “I love Parker, but he needs help. And what if my life is in danger because I told you?” She jumped up and turned as if to leave.
Jace took her arm. Not roughly, but there was muscle behind his grip. “Calm down,” he said. “Sit down and tell us what you know about the bombs.”
She sat, taking the opportunity to regroup. “I don’t know anything about the bombs,” she said.
“Do you think Parker set them?” Laura asked.
“I don’t know what to think.” She stared at her lap, then lifted her head to meet Laura’s gaze. “I would have said Parker would never do something like that, but he and Leo have been friends for years, and then when that bomb exploded at my house...”
“You thought Parker was trying to kill you?” Jace asked.
“I thought maybe he saw me the day he was in the garden, and he was afraid I’d tell someone.” She buried her face in her hands. “Now I’m terrified. You have to do something.” This time when she stood, no one tried to stop her.
“We can take you into protective custody,” Laura said. “Keep you safe.”
“No. I don’t want that!” She softened her voice. “I’ll be okay. Just keep me posted, okay?” She paused at the door. “And I promise not to tell anybody you’re agents,” she said.
“We will be in touch.” Laura put her hand over Merry’s on the doorknob. “We’ll be checking and if we find out you blackmailed Parker, we will arrest you.”
Merry glared, then shoved past Laura and out the door. Let them look. Parker wasn’t the only one with a secret account, and even if the feds found that bank, Merry had already moved the funds to an even more secure location. Tomorrow she’d be on her way to Brazil, out of their reach forever.
Chapter Eighteen
Sunday morning, Laura felt more like herself again, dressed in her own clothes. She patted her chignon, every hair in place, and buttoned the middle button of her suit jacket, then went to meet Jace in the living room of the trailer. With luck, by this time tomorrow they’d both be back in their own apartments in Knoxville.
Jace had donned a suit for this occasion as well, though he had yet to put on the jacket. His gaze swept over her as she entered the room, and she wondered if he was comparing her current look to the clothing she had worn while posing as a struggling newlywed.
Or maybe he was just remembering how she looked naked.
“Are you ready to do this?” he asked.
“I’ve been looking forward to it.”
Driving to arrest someone in a beat-up mustard-colored pickup didn’t have the same panache as arriving in a black sedan, but at least Parker Stroud wouldn’t be overly alarmed when he saw them pull up to his house.
The two police cruisers and Ramirez and Rogers’s sedan might set off a few alarm bells, of course, but, since they would have the house surrounded, Laura wasn’t expecting Parker to give them much trouble.
As it was, they had to wait on the front steps of his house for several minutes and ring the bell three times before Parker, hobbling on crutches, answered the door. “What are you doing here?” he demanded, scowling.
Laura opened the folder with her credentials and held them at eye level. “Parker Stroud, I’m arresting you for the murders of Virginia Elgin, Herbert Baker, Gail Benito...” She read off all the names of the people who had died after ingesting the tainted Stomach Soothers. She might have added the names of those who had died in the bombings—including Parker’s own father—but the team was still building that case.
As she spoke, Parker’s jaw went slack and all color drained from his face. When she had finished reciting the charges, Jace stepped forward. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” he said, relieving Parker of his crutches and steadying him as he did so.
“There must be some mistake.” Parker’s voice was thin and reedy, more frightened boy than murderous man.
“Turn around, Mr. Stroud.” Jace continued to steady him, alert for any attempt to fight back.
He turned, but looked back at Laura as Jace cuffed him. “I want my lawyer,” he said.
“You can contact him when we get to the station.” Local police would process and hold Parker until he could be transported to a federal facility. “You have the right to remain silent...”
She recited the Miranda warning, but she doubted if much was registering. Two police cars, along with Ramirez and Rogers, had arrived before Parker snapped out of his daze. “Hey!” he called as Laura was moving away, having handed him over to two officers for transport to the station. “What are you doing arresting me? You’re my secretary.”
“I have a lot of talents,” she said, and walked back to the truck.
Jace fell into step beside her. “That’s you,” he said. “Multitalented.” Somehow, he managed to imbue the words with a sexy heat that melted a few synapses. She shot him a stern look, which he met with a wicked grin that turned up the heat another notch.
While the local cops processed Parker, Laura and Ramirez joined Rogers in searching Parker’s home. The four-bedroom, five-bath home featured a media room, billiard table, walk-in closets, and a pool an
d spa. One of the bedrooms was being used as a home office and they started the search there, donning gloves and methodically combing through every drawer, opening every book, and feeling behind every painting.
Laura found the flash drive, tucked in the toe of a pair of dress shoes at the back of the master bedroom closet. She connected it to the laptop from the office and smiled as rows of figures populated the screen.
“What are we looking at?” Jace leaned over her shoulder and studied the images.
“I’m pretty sure these are the missing financials from Stroud Pharmaceuticals,” she said. She pointed to a column of red figures. “These are all the places the income and expenses don’t match up. My guess is Gini Elgin spotted these and connected the missing money to Parker. That’s probably what they were arguing about that day on the factory floor, and why he decided to kill her.”
“Why keep these files?” he asked. “Why not destroy them?”
“Sooner or later, the company would be due for an audit. Missing data gets flagged and that would be a real problem. So I think he planned to use this file as a basis for reconstructing the data to paint a more favorable financial picture. Especially if he planned to partner with a competitor, or even sell the business outright.”
“Steve Stroud was telling the truth,” Jace said. “Even if no one believed him.”
“Maybe that’s why Parker planted that bomb in his dad’s office,” she said. “He couldn’t risk someone—like the FBI—finally paying attention to Steve.”
“He took a big risk, following his father into the building,” Jace said.
“Maybe he thought doing so would remove suspicion from him.” Laura removed the drive from the computer and slipped it into an evidence bag. “It almost worked.”
Ramirez and Rogers joined them in the office. “We’ve been through the whole house,” Rogers said. “No medication, though we found a container of castor beans in the back of the pantry.”
“We’ll get a team out here tomorrow to start looking in the walls and floors,” Ramirez said. “Let’s go talk to Parker and see what he has to say for himself.”
* * *
PARKER REMINDED JACE of a life-sized balloon figure that had sprung a leak. Everything about him sagged, from his shoulders to his face. He didn’t even look up when Jace and Laura entered the room. They had decided they would question him first, and depending on the progress they made, Ramirez and Rogers would follow up.
A handsome older man with a luxurious white moustache stood to greet the two agents and introduced himself as Gerald Kirkbaum. “I commend you on your dedication to finding the person responsible for these tragic deaths,” he said. “But there’s been some terrible mistake. Mr. Stroud had nothing to do with those deaths. He had no reason to do such a horrible thing.”
Parker didn’t look innocent to Jace. In fact, he had never seen anyone who looked guiltier. “We think he did have a reason,” Laura said.
She pulled out a chair and sat. Parker still hadn’t looked at her. Mr. Kirkbaum remained standing, as did Jace. “You have no evidence—” Kirkbaum began.
“We have evidence,” Laura said, speaking to Parker. “We have a witness who presented us with a bank book, showing the secret account where you’ve been stashing the money you embezzled from Stroud Pharmaceuticals.” She leaned toward him, addressing the top of his bowed head. “This same witness saw you arguing with Gini Elgin when she confronted you about the missing money. And she will testify that she saw you in the garden with the castor bean plants. Castor beans are the source of ricin. But you know that, don’t you? We found the castor beans in your pantry.”
“Merry is a liar,” he said, still not raising his head. “She’s upset because I won’t marry her, so she told these lies.”
“I’ve seen the financials, and the bank account, and the castor beans,” Laura said. “She isn’t lying.” She leaned toward him, lowering her voice. “How much did you pay Leo Elgin for those bombs? Did you think if you killed your mother and father you’d finally inherit the family business? You could run it the way you saw fit, even sell it if you liked? After all, you’d already killed six people. What were a few more? And hey, your dad was already half-gone, so what did it matter if you killed him?”
“I had nothing to do with that!” Parker’s head came up and he straightened, like a puppet come to life.
Jace stepped forward. “Tell us where the other bombs are,” he said. “How many did Leo make for you? Six? Or more?”
“No. I had nothing to do with that.”
“I’ve met some heartless people in this job,” Jace said. “But a man who would kill his own father, and try to kill his mother—that’s lower than low.”
“I didn’t do it!” His shout echoed in the small room.
“We need to stop this questioning now,” Kirkbaum said. “Parker, don’t say another word.”
But Parker was weeping, tears streaming down his face. He held out his cuffed hands to Laura, pleading. “I only meant to kill Gini. I didn’t want to, but she’d found out about the money and threatened to tell my mother. I couldn’t let them find out. My dad had already retired and I thought if I kept working on my mother, she’d eventually relent and turn everything over to me. Then no one would have to know.”
“You’re saying you put the ricin in the Stomach Soother tablets for the purpose of killing Virginia Elgin?” Jace said.
“Yes.” The words were barely audible since Parker had buried his head in his hands.
“Parker, you need to shut up now.” Kirkbaum leaned over his client. “You’re not helping yourself.”
“I didn’t kill my father,” Parker said, raising his head again. “And I didn’t try to kill my mother. I never bought any bombs from Leo.”
“Tell us more about the ricin,” Laura said. “How did you know how to make it?”
“I looked on the internet,” he said. “I knew about the castor bean plant because Merry had pointed it out to me. She was really into gardening and knew a lot about plants. I liked that I could make the poison myself, without having to buy anything that might be traced. I had to be careful, but it wasn’t really that hard.”
“How many bottles did you put the ricin in?” Jace asked.
“A whole tray. Twelve. It was the quickest way, slipping it in as they passed the filler mechanism. I went in one night after everything shut down and ran the machinery myself. I shut off all the security cameras. Then I took the whole lot out before it reached shipping.” He frowned. “But I must have missed a few bottles that got slipped into the distribution stream. I put one of the bottles in Gini’s desk, to replace the bottle she always kept there. But the next thing I know, all these other people were dying.” He covered his face with his hands. “I never meant for that to happen.”
Parker was probably hoping they would feel as sorry for him as he felt for himself, but all Jace’s compassion was reserved for the six people the man had murdered. “What did you do with the rest of the bottles you pulled off the line?” he asked.
“I buried them.”
“Where did you bury them?” Laura asked.
“In my mother’s backyard. By the barbecue pit. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Jace glanced toward the observation window. Ramirez or Rogers would send someone to the Stroud home to collect that dangerous buried treasure pronto.
“When did Merry find out about what you’d done?” Laura asked.
“She saw me in the garden at the plant that day, and she saw me arguing with Gini before that. I guess after she heard how Gini died, she put everything together.”
“She was blackmailing you,” Laura said.
Parker nodded. “She came to me a couple of days after Gini died.”
“She wanted $50,000?” Laura asked.
“That’s the thing. She didn’t ask for the money at first. Sh
e said if we got married right away, she wouldn’t be able to testify against me.”
No one bothered to point out that this wasn’t how spousal privilege worked. “But you didn’t marry her,” Jace said.
“I couldn’t. My parents would have stroked out at the idea. There was no way my mom would have turned over the business to me if I even got engaged to Merry. And I had to get control of the business. So I made a deal to pay her the $50,000 a week and I’d marry her as soon as my mom signed the paperwork to put me in charge.”
“How did she react to that?” Laura asked.
“She didn’t like it, but I persuaded her it was the only way. She really wanted to be Mrs. Parker Stroud.”
“She loved you that much?” Jace tried to keep the doubt from his voice.
“She didn’t love me as much as she loved the idea of living in a big house and having everyone in town and most of the state fall over themselves to be her best friend. Or at least, that’s how she saw it. I tried to tell her it wouldn’t be like that, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“So Merry knew what you had done, at least since two days after Gini Elgin died,” Laura said. “But she told us she didn’t figure it out until a few days ago.”
“If you know about my bank account, then you saw the payments I made to her,” Parker said. “I made the first one on the fourth.”
That matched up with the entries in the bank register Merry had given them. “Why did Merry lie to us?” Laura asked. “Did the two of you have an argument?”
“She was getting impatient. She told me I needed to stand up to my mother and insist on taking over the business and marrying her. I tried to tell her that my father had just died—this wasn’t the right time, but she wouldn’t listen. She said she had waited long enough. But I never thought she’d turn me in.”
Laura leaned toward him. “So your agreement with Merry was that when you got control of Stroud Pharmaceuticals, you’d marry her.”
“Yes.”
