Vanilla Vices Read online

  “Not from his office, anyway. There’s something we forgot to check while we were at Aunt Teeks,” she said.

  “There are probably quite a few things we didn’t check,” I said. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Not that it matters now, but what if the envelope was taken from a box that was already at the junk shop? That note could have been a spur-of-the-moment act, and that envelope was the closest piece of blank paper within reach.”

  “That’s a good point,” I said. “If we ever get back in, we need to look around and see if you’re right. In the meantime, we need to move on to our next suspect.”

  “Who did you have in mind? We’ve still got Benny Flint, William Jecks, and Belinda Carson on our list of suspects.”

  “Benny might be hard to track down, and Belinda isn’t going to be happy about seeing us at all. Let’s find William Jecks.”

  “At least he should be easier to locate,” Grace said. “He’s probably still at his own place. Feel like taking a drive to Maple Hollow?”

  “Why not?” I asked. “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

  “I don’t even want to think about the possibilities,” Grace said, and I readily agreed. Ultimately it didn’t matter, though; it was time to corner another suspect and see what he had to say for himself.

  I hadn’t been back to Maple Hollow for quite a while, but surprisingly, not much had changed. We found the antique shop easily enough, but the lights were off and the door was locked when we got there. Printed with a computer’s ornate script, a note announced that the shop would be closed for a week, beginning that very day. There was no explanation given, and I had to wonder just what William Jecks was up to. Was he out of town on legitimate business, or was he a cold-blooded killer, even now fleeing from the law?

  “That drive turned out to be for nothing,” Grace said as I pulled out my cellphone. “Who are you calling? You don’t have his number, do you?”

  “No, but I’m going to let Inspector Black know what we’ve found.”

  Grace put a hand on mine. “Do we really want to do that? She was kind of stern with us before when we tried to share information with her.”

  “I know, but this goes beyond that. It might be important, and we don’t have the resources to track down the antique dealer ourselves. That’s an advantage she has over us.”

  “Fine. Call her. But know that you’re going to get a good scolding when you reach her.”

  “I think I can take it,” I said with a wry grin.

  It didn’t matter.

  She wasn’t in Jake’s office, and no one knew where she was. On a hunch, I tried dialing Aunt Teeks, but it went to Dan’s recording immediately. There was some scratchiness to the message, and I had to wonder if it was an old-fashioned tape recorder instead of the newer digital voicemail. When I was prompted, I said, “Inspector Black, give me a call when and if you get this. I may have some information that’s helpful to your investigation.” After that, I left my cellphone number and hung up.

  Grace asked, “What are the odds she’s going to be happy hearing from us again so soon?”

  “Not very good,” I said, “but I stand by what I did. We can always tell her that we were looking for Jecks so we could discuss the possibility that he might know something helpful to us about the antique business.”

  “She’d be hard pressed to dispute that. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with the consequences when they happen. So what do we do now, drive back to April Springs and look for our last two suspects?”

  I shrugged. “As far as I can see, it’s the best choice we’ve got.”

  “I’m not sure I fully agree with that, but I don’t have anything better to suggest myself, so let’s go.”

  Chapter 13

  “So, how are we going to handle this?” Grace asked me as we drove up to Belinda Carson’s place. “Should I go in with you this time, or is it still a solo interview?”

  “I’m not trying to exclude you, but I don’t think she’ll talk if there are two of us.”

  “I get it,” she answered. “Of course you need to go in alone. Should I duck down in my seat, or maybe even get your keys and drive around the block?”

  “Do you honestly want to drive my Jeep?”

  “Not in a million years,” she said.

  “Grace, it’s still a car. I don’t even have a stick shift, so it runs just like your fancy company vehicles do.”

  “I highly doubt that. Regardless, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather just sit here and wait for you.”

  “Thanks,” I said as I drove a bit past Belinda’s place.

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  “I don’t want her looking out her front window and seeing you,” I said.

  “Suzanne, you’re not ashamed of me, are you?” she asked with a hint of laughter in her voice.

  “Of course not, but there’s no reason to rub her nose in the fact that I’m going to tell you everything she says to me the moment we’re finished.”

  “I get it,” she said. “While you’re gone, I’m going to make a few phone calls.”

  “About the case?”

  “Believe it or not, I have other things occupying my mind right now.”

  “If you need to work, it’s okay with me if you take off.”

  “Why would I do that when I can telecommute right here?” she asked with a smile.

  “I don’t think that’s what it means,” I said.

  “It does if I say it does,” she answered, and I couldn’t dispute her claim. Grace had a unique situation at work where if the people under her were being productive, she could get away with just about anything. If I missed a day at the donut shop and Emma wasn’t scheduled to take over for me, folks would howl about it soon enough.

  “I’ll be back soon,” I said as I got out.

  “Take your time. Get everything out of her that you can.”

  “Belinda, we need to talk again,” I told her the moment she answered her front door.

  “Suzanne, there’s really nothing more to say.” Not only didn’t she invite me in, she stood in the partially open doorway to bar me from attempting to brush past her, not that I would have done that. Well, maybe not.

  “I thought you wanted to help me solve Dan’s murder.” There was nothing like making her feel guilty. I didn’t necessarily want to play on her emotions, but what choice did I have?

  “Of course I do, but there’s nothing I can add to what I’ve already told you.”

  “I’m not so sure about that.” Then I remembered that Grace was the only one of us who had the image of the photo she’d found. “Give me one second.” I took my phone out and texted Grace. “Send me the photo you discovered at Dan’s.”

  “If you need to make a call, there are things I have to do inside,” Belinda said impatiently.

  I wasn’t going to make it that easy for her. “Nonsense. I’ve got something that you need to see.”

  “What is it?” she asked. I had the distinct impression that Belinda was a little annoyed with me for just showing up out of the blue. That was just too bad.

  I held up my phone and squinted at it, though I could see the image perfectly fine. “It’s a little too sunny out here. We need to step inside so I can show you a photograph. It could be important.” Not only was I stalling for time, but I also wanted to get a look inside her place. Was she just being reluctant to talk to me, or was there something deeper she was hiding inside, like another boyfriend? I knew that I had no foundation to suspect that she’d been dating more than one man at a time, but sometimes my mind just worked that way.

  “Very well,” she said with an air of resignation.

  I stepped into the house, expecting to find a pair of men’s shoes under the couch or a tie hanging haphazardly from an overhead light, but the place was just as
neat as Belinda herself was. If a man was there, he was doing a good job of hiding, and without looking under the beds and behind the drapes, I wasn’t going to find him.

  “Much better,” I said, stalling a little to give Grace time to get my message and respond to it. At least I had a photo of the note already on my phone, as well as the back of the envelope, for all the good that faint image would do me.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got,” she said.

  I brought up the photo of the note and handed it to her. As she read it, I watched her expression, waiting for some kind of crack in her armor. Belinda’s eyes widened a little as she read it, and I wondered if it was because this was the first time she was seeing it or because she hadn’t realized that anyone would find her handiwork. “Do you know anything about this?”

  “It appears to be written with a permanent marker on the back of a business-sized envelope,” she said succinctly.

  “We already know that,” I said. “What I want to know is if you have any idea who wrote it, or what it might mean?”

  “It could mean a number of things, I suppose, but I don’t have a clue as to who might have written it.”

  “Are you certain about that?” I asked her.

  She got it then. “Suzanne, are you asking me if I wrote that? Why would I? Don’t bother answering that. You think I wrote it, don’t you? What does it even mean? ‘YOU JUST LOST YOUR LAST CHANCE WITH ME!’ I didn’t break up with Dan, so why would I write something like that?”

  “Look at it from my point of view. We just have your word about the details of your relationship. What if things weren’t as blissful as you’ve been leading me to believe?”

  “Now you’re calling me a liar, is that it? I think you should leave!”

  “I didn’t say that at all,” I answered, backpedaling as fast as I could. “Belinda, someone killed Dan. You had to know that you’d be on the list of suspects because of your relationship with him.”

  “You wouldn’t have even known about it if I hadn’t told you myself!” She was definitely losing her cool.

  Did I want to keep pushing her, or should I back off a little? I made a quick decision; it was time to take a step back, especially if I wanted to get a reaction from her about the torn photo Grace had found. “I know, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that,” I said. “Would you give me your opinion about one more thing?”

  “I suppose so, but I can’t do this all evening. I have things I have to take care of, Suzanne. As sad as I am about Dan’s passing, life must go on.”

  That was quite a change from earlier, but I wasn’t about to point that out to her. Where was Grace, though? Had she answered my request yet? “I understand. If you’ll bear with me, this will just take a second.” I dialed Grace’s number, but it went straight to voicemail, meaning that she was talking to someone else. I left a message, and then I turned back to Belinda. “It won’t be a minute.”

  “I’m sorry, but you really must go right now.”

  I couldn’t exactly plop down on her couch and refuse to leave until Grace answered me, so I let her walk me out. “I’ll be back later with that other image.”

  “I really wish you wouldn’t,” Belinda said. “All of this disturbs me too much to deal with. I just want to mourn alone in peace. I’m sure you understand.”

  “I’m sorry, but this is more important than your grieving.”

  She didn’t like that at all. “Perhaps in your opinion, but not in mine.” Belinda practically slammed the door in my face, and I knew that my opportunity to ask her any more questions had most likely vanished once and for all.

  When I got back to the Jeep, Grace was chatting with one of her sales reps on the phone. The moment she saw me, she said, “That should do it. Send your report to me when you get finished, ASAP. Bye.” After she hung up, she asked, “How did it go? Strike that. From the expression on your face, it didn’t go smoothly. What happened? Did she clam up on you?”

  “She denied writing the note, but I didn’t have the photo of the torn picture to show her,” I said.

  “You should have texted me. I could have sent it to you on the spot,” Grace said as she scanned her phone. “Strike that, too. You did. Sorry. I missed it. I can send it to you right now, if it helps. There, it’s on its way. It’s kind of too little too late, though, isn’t it?”

  “It’s not your fault. I should have had you send it to my phone before I walked up the steps to her door, not that it would have done me any good. By the time I got around to talking about the photo, she was already in the process of throwing me out.”

  “Was it honestly that bad?”

  “Things started off tense and then went downhill quickly from there. I have a feeling she regrets ever telling me that she and Dan were dating. Now she’s flatly refused to help us anymore.”

  “Did you at least have a chance to show her that note?”

  “Yes, and then I practically accused her of writing it.”

  “I’ll bet that went over well,” Grace said sarcastically.

  “Let’s face it, Grace. I blew it,” I said.

  “Suzanne, you can’t beat yourself up about it. We walk a fine line between asking questions and conducting full-scale interrogations. It’s impossible not to go too far every now and then.”

  “Apparently I did more than cross the line this time, though. She’s finished cooperating.”

  “Then we’ll find another way. Let’s go hunt Benny down.”

  “You make it sound as though he’s our target.”

  “He is, isn’t he?” Grace asked. “He’s admitted to having a volatile relationship with Dan. How hard is it to imagine him picking up an iron and hitting Dan on the back of the head out of anger?”

  “Evidently they fought verbally all of the time, but it never devolved into physical confrontations, did it?”

  “Actually, we have no way of knowing that unless someone comes forward as an eyewitness,” I said. “Of the two people that might know for sure, one is dead, and the other has no reason to answer the question truthfully if he’s lied about it before.”

  “The question is, where might Benny be?”

  I didn’t have an answer, and after a futile search of some of the places he might have been but wasn’t, I was ready to give up the hunt, at least for the moment.

  “What now?” Grace asked in frustration when we finally realized that it was a lost cause.

  “I’m not sure,” I said as I glanced at my watch. It was fast approaching dinnertime, and Jake and I had plans to grill a pair of steaks at the cottage. Knowing him, though, he was probably out looking for Linda Harold. Still, I knew that I should call him to at least check in. “Could you give me a minute?” I asked as I pulled out my phone.

  “Sure. I need to call Stephen, too. Tell Jake I said hello.”

  “How can you be so sure that I’m calling my husband?” I asked her with a smile.

  “Suzanne, you only know three people worth talking to. I’m here, and you just spoke to your mother, so that leaves Jake.”

  “I know a great many more people than that.”

  “Fine. Should I apologize, or should you go ahead and call your husband?” she asked me.

  My response was less than adult, but then again, so was our relationship. I made a face at her, and then I said, “You win. Phone your boyfriend, and I’ll call my husband.”

  Grace didn’t gloat when she found out that she’d been right, and I had to give her credit for that. “That sounds like a plan to me.”

  Chapter 14

  “Where are you?” I asked Jake as he picked up on the second ring.

  “I’m at the cottage. Where are you?”

  “What? Why are you there? I thought you were in on the big hunt for Linda Harold. It’s not like you to walk away from something like that.”

  �
��Haven’t you had your radio on?” he asked me. “She turned up in New Orleans an hour ago.”

  “Was she abducted?”

  “No, apparently she just decided that she’d had enough of her life, and she needed a break. She claimed that she left a note for her husband, but he says that he didn’t find it.”

  “That’s a relief,” I said.

  “For everyone but him, it sounds like,” Jake agreed. “I’m just glad that she’s okay. Evidently he’s not, though. She’s moving back home with her folks until the baby comes, and who knows what’s going to happen after that.”

  “The story could have ended in much worse ways than that,” I said. “That leaves you without anything to do, though.”

  “I don’t know about that. April Springs is turning out to be a handful, even for a semiretired ex-state police investigator like me.”

  Jake was trying to be overly cheerful, but I knew there was some pain beneath the surface of his words. “Jake, are you all right? Be honest with me.”

  “Suzanne, I’m fine. Look at it this way. Linda’s okay, even though her marriage might not be, and the state police are looking into Dan’s murder. Would I rather be investigating it myself? Of course I would, but I overruled plenty of local law enforcement when I was the state police, so it’s kind of poetic justice that it’s happening to me now. How’s your investigation going? Have you had any clashes with Karina Black yet?”

  “Oh, yes,” I said. “Does this mean that you’re free for dinner?”

  “I am, but I just assumed that you’d be tied up.”

  “Grace and I have just about decided to take the rest of the night off,” I answered. “Crank up the grill and get those steaks cooking.”

  “Suzanne, you’re not skipping out on your investigation because of me, are you?”

  “No, we ran out of current leads before I called you. If you don’t believe me, you can check with Grace.”

  He laughed. “No, I trust you. Sorry if it sounded as though I was complaining. I love seeing you any chance I get, so come on home.”