Death by Fountain

by Jennifer S. Alderson

  Lana nodded in agreement. “That was my initial reaction, as well. But the more I think about it, the more I wonder if Heather is capable of murdering someone in such a personal way.”

  “She tried to kill Rachel before.”

  “Tampering with a guide’s equipment is vastly different than drowning someone—the latter is much more hands on. Is Heather truly vicious enough to have attacked her like that? And is she strong enough? Heather is far more petite than Rachel was.”

  Alex opened his mouth to respond, but Lana’s phone began ringing. “It’s Jeremy. I better take this.”

  She answered and immediately put the call on speaker. “Hey, there. I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon.”

  “Lana! What I found out can’t wait. That Jake Segers guy sounds pretty nasty. Are he and Randy really friends?”

  Lana’s ears perked up as Alex moved in closer. “What kind of guy is he?”

  “The kind that likes to hit women. He was kicked out of college because he pushed his girlfriend down a flight of stairs during a university party. She broke her arm and leg.”

  Lana sank onto the bed, and Alex followed suit.

  “She pressed charges but dropped them after he was kicked out of college,” Jeremy explained. “Her parents did win a civil court case against him, so he had to pay for her medical expenses. After that, he moved away from Oregon and worked a bunch of odd jobs. He didn’t attend college again, but was arrested and convicted for two counts of assault and battery—first in Illinois and later in South Carolina.”

  “Oh, lordy. Did your reporters find out any of the details?”

  “In Chicago, he was working as security at a nightclub and got grabby with a female patron. When she slapped him with her purse, he punched her in the jaw and broke it in two places. The second incident happened in Charleston; his date refused his advances, so he smashed a wine bottle over her head. And in a crowded restaurant, to boot.”

  “That is sickening. He seems so normal, I can hardly believe it.” Chills went up Lana’s spine. She would have never guessed from his behavior on this trip that Jake was capable of harming others so easily.

  “He was ordered by a court to attend alcohol abuse and anger management therapy classes after the second incident. My reporters couldn’t find any more references to him being in legal trouble after that. Which makes sense, given the three-strikes law.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow at her.

  “That’s right—the three-strikes-you’re-out rule means if he gets arrested again, the next sentence would automatically be life imprisonment,” Lana replied, for Alex’s sake. “That is definitely a good reason to stay out of trouble.”

  “Does he come across as hot-tempered now? That last incident was four years ago. Maybe he has learned to control his anger,” Jeremy mused.

  Lana thought on Craig and Jake’s squabbling. When Craig had degraded and belittled him, Jake had kept his cool and hadn’t responded verbally or physically.

  “He’s fairly zen, actually. Maybe the classes did help,” Lana responded as she mulled this information over. “Thanks, Jeremy. It is definitely worth talking to him about all of this and seeing what he has to say for himself.”

  “Lana, this guy sounds volatile. Maybe he has changed, but it still scares me, you being there with him. Especially if he knows you are trying to figure out who really killed Rachel. If he is involved with her death, he might lash out at you. Promise me you won’t confront him alone.”

  “Don’t you worry—the last thing I want to do is get cornered by a killer.” She smiled up at her boyfriend, who was watching her closely as he listened in to their conversation. “Alex just arrived from Portugal. I’ll make sure he goes with me.”

  “And I’m happy to do so,” Alex said as he squeezed her shoulder.

  “Great to hear your voice, Alex,” Jeremy said. “I hope this information helps you two get Randy released.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Hey, before I go, there’s something else you two need to know,” Jeremy said.

  “Okay, shoot,” Lana said.

  “I asked one of my crime reporters to check out Rachel Merriweather, as well. Your friend Randy was right to be scared.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She looked into that restraining order and found out why it was requested and issued. There is a long list of things that Rachel did to Randy, including breaking into his apartment, keying his car, and puncturing his tires. She was also removed by police officers on two separate occasions from the hospital where he was recovering from his fall off that ladder.”

  Alex paled as Lana gulped. “Randy’s friends were not exaggerating—Rachel did make his life a living nightmare.”

  “I didn’t know about her breaking into his apartment,” Alex whispered. “That’s freaky.”

  “I thought you should know. It sure doesn’t make his case look any better—if anything, it might give Randy more motive, in the eyes of the Italian police.”

  Jeremy was right. If they were going to get Randy to the altar on time, they had to find the real killer—and fast.

  29 A Simple Gold Band

  When Alex knocked on Jake’s hotel room door, Lana noticed his fists were flexing open and closed. She took his hand and squeezed, wrapping her fingers through his as they waited for Jake to answer.

  When he finally did, Jake had a towel around his waist. He pushed his disheveled hair out of his bleary eyes. “Hey, Alex—great to see you. Come on in, you two.”

  He stepped back and opened the door further, allowing them inside.

  Alex nodded but didn’t offer a hand as he walked by Jake. When Lana passed him, she couldn’t help but notice how Jake stank like a bottle of whiskey.

  Jake blushed as he closed the door behind them, only then seeming to notice his lack of clothing. “I was just about to jump in the shower. Let me pull on a bathrobe. I’ll be right back.”

  Lana hoped he hurried—she could tell by the way Alex was bouncing on his heels that he was growing increasingly agitated.

  Seconds later, Jake returned, covered in white terry cloth. “What can I do for you?”

  “We know about your prior arrests for assault and that you were following Rachel the night she was killed,” Alex growled. “Did you hit or harm her in any way?”

  Jake groaned as he sank back against the wall. “What? No! I swear I didn’t hurt Rachel. It’s true, I had a lot of pent-up anger and a drinking problem when I was younger, but I got help for both and am a changed man.”

  Lana sniffed loudly. “You sure about that?”

  “I haven’t punch Craig yet, have I? And he sure deserves it.” He turned to Lana, looking at her imploringly. “It’s been a tough few days, and I had too much to drink last night. But I didn’t hit anyone or anything. I just needed to forget about Rachel and Randy for a few hours, so I went to a bar around the corner and drowned my sorrows. When they were closing up, the owner sold me a bottle to go.”

  “Why did Rachel’s death affect you so badly?” Alex asked.

  “I was in love with her and wanted to spend my life with her,” Jake cried. He opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a small box. Lana’s eyes widened as she realized what was inside.

  Jake opened it, revealing a simple gold band. “I was going to propose to her on the last day of our trip. We didn’t know each other long, but it felt so right being with her.” He looked up to Alex. “So why would I have hurt her? I wanted to marry her.”

  “Because she said no,” Lana offered. Katherine’s assertion that Rachel laughed off her previous boyfriends’ proposals went through her mind. Despite claiming to be a changed man, if Rachel had rejected his proposal, he may have hit her in response.

  “I never got the chance to ask. I lost sight of her and Randy and gave up. If I had known he was going to the train station, I would have headed there. I figured I would ask Randy at dinner what was going on between him and Rachel, but he never showed.”
r />   “Why did you tell her about the wedding?” Alex asked.

  “Like I told Lana, I didn’t know they knew each other. Randy never mentioned the name of his stalker, and Rachel lied about how she knew him. How could I have known that she was the reason for all this secrecy?”

  “I don’t care—when Randy invited you, he made quite clear that you were not to tell anyone where the wedding was being held.”

  “Rachel was my plus one—I didn’t think it would be a problem,” Jake insisted.

  Alex puffed out his chest. “If you hadn’t told Rachel, Randy would be at the vineyard with Gloria right now, not stuck in a jail cell. I am uninviting you to the wedding.”

  Jake mimicked Alex’s gesture, locking eyes with him as he moved closer. “Hey, that’s not your call to make.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow at the younger man. “Your anger issues are under control, are they?”

  Jake backed down immediately.

  “I am going to tell Randy what you did. I don’t want to see you anywhere near my brother or his fiancée ever again!” Alex yelled, then stormed out of the room.

  Lana started to follow, then turned back to Jake. As angry as Alex was, she understood that Jake hadn’t told Rachel about the wedding to be malicious. It sounded like he had seen this trip as a romantic adventure and an excuse to propose to her. This week had not gone as anyone had hoped it would.

  “Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

  Jake looked so dejected. “Yeah, I guess. Lana, could you tell Randy that I’m sorry?”

  The sadness in his voice surprised her. “I will. He’ll be sorry to hear you can’t make it to his wedding,” Lana agreed. And about your betrayal, she added in her mind.

  When she turned to leave, he cleared his throat. “I know I’m in no position to ask a favor, but would you mind not telling the others about my plans to propose to Rachel? I feel like a fool for thinking she would have said yes.”

  With one hand on the door, Lana nodded, then exited, wondering whether any man would have been a suitable partner for Rachel.

  30 Who Did This?

  “Who did this?” Alex raged. He was in quite the funk since their talks with Heather and Jake. Lana shared his pain and frustration. Nobody in their group had a strong motive for killing Rachel.

  “It must have been one of them, so someone must be lying about their movements on the night of the murder—but who?”

  “Katherine, Bruce, and Craig all have photographs proving they were on the other side of town when the murder happened,” Lana replied, knowing there was no point in trying to comfort him. Alex would only find solace in learning the name of Rachel’s killer.

  “So that leaves Heather and Jake,” Alex said.

  “Who both deny having spoken to Rachel after she left our hotel,” Lana reasoned. As much as Lana distrusted Jake for lying to her and the police, it didn’t mean he was Rachel’s killer. And though Heather had sabotaged that ladder in the hopes of harming Rachel, Lana couldn’t see the young woman viciously drowning her.

  “Unless we can find proof that one of them did, it’s a moot issue.” He dropped into a chair placed next to a small table in their hotel room, then buried his face in his hands. “I can’t take this much longer. We can’t let Randy down.”

  Lana sank to her knees and kissed the top of his head. “Don’t give up yet, Alex Wright. We’ll get your brother to his wedding on time.”

  “But how?” was the muffled response.

  Lana knew they needed to take action, even if it was futile, if only to help Alex cope. She quickly considered their options, settling on the only one she considered viable. “Well, Jake and Heather both claim that they lost sight of Randy and Rachel right before they would have passed the fountain. What if we go back to the Piazza di Trevi and ask the shopkeepers if they remember seeing them that night?”

  “The police already did that.”

  “They only showed Rachel’s photo to the shopkeepers, not pictures of Jake or Heather. Maybe someone will recognize one of them or the Straight Up Climbs jackets. It’s worth a shot.”

  Alex considered her words before nodding vigorously. “You’re right—those jackets are so loose-fitting that it could be either of them.”

  “And even if they weren’t caught on camera, maybe one of the shopkeepers will remember something that can help us determine which one of them did it.”

  “Let’s do it! In two days, we are supposed to be traveling to Florence for Randy’s wedding. I want to see him onboard that train. We have to figure out a way to convince the police that he is innocent.”

  “And that means finding proof that someone else could have done this,” Lana agreed. Talking with the shopkeepers was a long shot, to say the least, but as she saw it, they had no other options.

  31 Mischievous Tourists

  “So what did Gloria tell you about the video evidence the police found implicating Randy?” Alex asked as he pulled on his windbreaker and headed towards the hotel room door.

  “The surveillance footage was grainy, but the Straight Up Climbs jacket made it easy for the police to track him,” she replied as they exited and began descending the staircase leading to the lobby.

  “They also spotted Rachel following Randy towards the Trevi, but lost sight of both of them right before they would have reached the fountain. They did find footage of her ducking under a hotel’s awning when it began to rain. It’s the Hotel Roma, one of the boutique hotels around the corner from the Piazza di Trevi.”

  “That’s the little square in front of the fountain, right?”

  “It is. The police claim a person wearing a Straight Up jacket grabbed Rachel’s arm and pulled her in the direction of the fountain. But the camera was hanging off a café to the left of the hotel, and the rain made it impossible for them to get a good look at the person’s face.”

  “It sounds like we should start there.”

  “I agree completely. But how do you want to play this? The police must have talked to all of the business owners in that vicinity, if only to find out if they had video surveillance. What can we do that the police haven’t already done, other than show them the photos of Jake and Heather?”

  “That’s already a good start. Plus, I’m not a cop—maybe they will be more willing to talk to me. If I can explain to them, face to face, that it’s my brother’s life at stake, they might tell us something new that could shed light on who really harmed Rachel.”

  “It was a windy and wet night; please don’t get your hopes up,” Lana said, trying to interject rationality into his thought process.

  “You mentioned that already. I’ll try to temper my expectations,” he said before opening the hotel’s front door for Lana.

  They headed over to the fountain, preferring to speed walk than sightsee. Alex was almost running, he was moving so fast. It took them a few minutes to find the hotel awning the police saw Rachel duck under. Hotel Roma occupied a tiny building sandwiched in between two cafés with large terraces. A short, red carpet marked the entrance, which was covered by a narrow yet deep awning made of diffused glass. Hanging above the door was a security camera, its red light indicating that it was in working order.

  When they walked inside, a young man sat behind the reception desk watching the telephone in his hand. He barely looked up when they entered, but did slide a slip of paper and a pen towards them. Lana noticed it was a form to check in.

  “Hi, we aren’t here to check in to the hotel. We have a question about a friend of ours—a tourist who got into some trouble here two nights ago.”

  The young man looked up at them sharply. “What kind of trouble?”

  Lana pulled out the photos of Rachel, Heather, and Jake that she had downloaded from their respective social media accounts. It was disconcerting to see Jake giving a thumbs up from the top of a rock wall and Heather smiling and waving at the camera. Most disturbing was seeing Rachel striking a pose on a dance floor somewhere in Seattle.

 
“Did you see any of these people walking by two nights ago at around nine in the evening? There was a storm passing through right about then,” Lana added, hoping to prompt his memory.

  The man shrugged without even glancing at the photos. “It was raining so badly that night, I couldn’t see out of the windows. Anyone could have walked by and I probably wouldn’t have noticed them.”

  Lana could feel her mouth drop open. Why wouldn’t he look at the photographs? Does he expect money, she wondered, or does he simply not want to get involved?

  She pointed to the entrance of the hotel, hoping to appeal to the man’s empathy. “She was assaulted right there under your awning. Are you telling me that someone could have a fight outside your door and you wouldn’t notice?”

  The young man smiled up at her sheepishly. “Tourists get up to all sorts of mischief, especially when they’ve been drinking. It’s better to stay out of such matters,” he said, steadfastly refusing to cast his glance downward at the images spread across his reception desk. “Besides, I’m not chained to this desk. I do have to use the bathroom sometimes or assist guests on the upper floors.”

  What is wrong with this guy? Lana thought. The receptionist’s flippant attitude was making her blood boil.

  Alex, too, had apparently reached his breaking point. He picked up Rachel’s photo and thrust it into the younger man’s face. “The police think my brother assaulted this woman outside of your hotel, but I know he didn’t do it! Please help us.”

  His impassioned plea caused the man’s expression to soften. The receptionist took the photograph and examined it closely. “Bella,” he whispered.

  Suddenly, the door behind the reception desk opened, and an older man strode out. His name tag stated that he was the manager. “What is the meaning of this? Who are you—the police?”

  “No, sir,” Alex said. “We are trying to find out if anyone working here saw this woman two nights ago.” He pointed to Rachel’s image. “She was murdered soon after passing through this street, and we hoped someone had more information about the incident. We noticed your video surveillance and hoped you might have caught the assailant on tape.”