Accessory to Murder (10 page)

“That's not good,” Josie said. The spinach was impossibly tender. The Roquefort was creamy-sharp. The avocado was perfectly ripe. But she was losing her appetite.

“I'll tell you what's bad,” Granby said. “He lied to the cops about it.”

“That was dumb,” Josie said. Her remark seemed to encourage Granby.

“You're telling me.” Granby leaned in. “First, Jake said he hardly knew Halley. The cops pressed him on it, but he kept denying it. He said she was a neighbor and he barely recognized her. Then the cops moved in for the kill. They said Halley's cell phone records showed the woman called him several times a day.”

“What did Jake say then?”

“There was this long silence. I thought he'd turned to stone.” Granby forgot he didn't listen at doors. He'd switched to a first-person account. “Jake tried to weasel out of it. He said, ‘You must have the wrong number. Halley must have called my wife, Alyce. They were on some committee together.'”

Josie was furious. That rat was trying to drag his wife into his mess.

“The police said Halley made only two calls to his home number and none to his wife's cell phone. They had him by the short and curlies.” Granby actually giggled.

Josie longed to run her fish fork through him. Lawyers were supposed to be careful, but Granby didn't mind backstabbing a colleague. Was he that self-absorbed? Well, yes. He was also a world-class braggart. Worst of all, his opinion of women was so low, he didn't think he had to worry about Josie. She was not important enough.

Josie had to reel in her resentment. This isn't about me, she thought. I'm supposed to get information for Alyce. Boy, am I getting information.

“Jake was still denying like crazy when the cops dropped the big bomb. They said he was on the hotel security tape with Halley the day she died. Nine in the morning. He kissed her in the lobby.”

“What kind of kiss? A friendly kiss on the cheek or a passionate one?” Josie asked.

“The cops didn't say. But a room service waiter saw Jake and her in the corporate suite.”

“Were they dressed?”

Granby was annoyed. He didn't like being questioned. “I don't know. I couldn't hear that part. But Jake was definitely in a hotel suite with Halley, and she's not a corporate client.”

“Amazing,” Josie said.

Granby smiled smugly, as if she meant him.

“I bet the office rumor mill is going crazy,” Josie prompted.

“There's supposed to be a big partners' meeting tomorrow, only Jake's not invited. Think he'll be forced to resign? There could be a Porsche in my future sooner than I thought.”

The naked greed in Granby's eyes sickened her. She wanted to get away from him.

“Dessert?” he said.

“No, thanks,” Josie said. “I've had enough.”

Jane was waiting up for Josie when she came home from her date. Josie felt sixteen again. It wasn't a good feeling.

“Well?” her mother said. “How was it?”

Josie saw the terrible hope in her mother's eyes. “Fine,” she lied. Awful, she thought. I'd rather have my wisdom teeth pulled. At least I'd get anesthetic.

Josie was grateful that Granby didn't kiss her good night. Of course, clutching her gut in the car home probably didn't give the man romantic thoughts. She wondered if Granby even had romantic thoughts. He didn't seem to have the slightest interest in her. To be fair, she didn't have any interest in him, either. She was using him. They were even.

“Are you going out with him again?” Jane asked. Her voice trembled slightly. It meant so much to her mother when Josie dated a “nice” man. It happened so rarely.

“Yes. We have a date.”

“When?”

“Next week sometime. He'll call me.”

Heaven only knew why Granby asked her out again. Maybe it was the hot dress and the killer heels. Maybe because she knew what a fish fork was.

Josie knew why she said yes. She might need more information for Alyce. It was at least seven days till her next date with Granby. A lot could happen in a week. The police could find Halley's killer and lose interest in Jake. Josie prayed that would happen. Otherwise, she was facing another endless evening with Granby. How could a fully dressed man expose so much naked ambition?

Jane sighed with happiness at the news. “I'm going up to bed,” she said.

“Good night, Mom,” Josie said. She forgot to thank her for watching Amelia, but Jane didn't notice. She floated upstairs, wrapped in new dreams and old cigarette smoke.

Josie threw open the kitchen window to air the place out, and realized she was hobbling. Those were killer heels, all right. She kicked off her shoes. Her toes were sore, red, and crunched. She had a blister on her little toe.

She wondered if her mind looked the same way after that date: blistered and festering with angry thoughts. She longed to tell Granby what a smug, self-satisfied bore he was. He had no loyalty. He was a weasel in a suit, except she was being unfair to weasels. They ate vermin. Granby was vermin.

Oh, heck. Granby wasn't the real issue, and she knew it. How was Josie going to tell Alyce that her husband was unfaithful? His affair was so cheap and dreary: meeting Halley in the firm's hotel suite, becoming the butt of snickers and giggles at the office.

Josie made a pot of coffee, poured herself a cup, and stared into it. She didn't want to tell Alyce. But she didn't want her friend wandering in the dark, either. Alyce had to protect herself and plan for her future. She had her child to consider.

Alyce couldn't even leave Jake and go home to her mother. Her parents were dead. She was alone, except for Jake and Josie. Her husband had betrayed her, Josie thought. As her best friend, what can I offer? A preview of a frightening future, where Alyce would be always short of cash and time, worried about getting to work, and wondering who would care for her child. Josie was used to living on a shoestring. Alyce had a long way to fall.

Josie glanced at the kitchen Kit-Cat clock with the rolling eyes and moving tail. It was two thirty in the morning. Maybe she'd have some answers after a few hours' sleep. She poured her coffee down the sink, cold and untouched, then shut the window.

On her way to bed, she stopped by Amelia's room. Her daughter had kicked off her blanket and lay sprawled across the bed, sleeping with abandoned innocence. Josie covered Amelia, tucked her in, and smoothed her silky dark hair. It was the same color as her father's, a richer shade than Josie's ordinary brown. Amelia had her father's long nose, too. She hated it, but Josie thought her daughter would soon be a dramatic beauty. She kissed Amelia on her smooth forehead. She never stirred.

Then Josie went to bed, where she tossed and turned for the next four hours, wondering how she would break the news to Alyce.

She woke up shivering at six thirty. She'd kicked off the covers during the night, but no one had tucked Josie in. She stumbled into her bathroom, hoping a hot shower would warm her. Josie dressed in her oldest clothes again for another day of Greta Burgers, but put on her good raincoat. She didn't want to embarrass Amelia at her school by wearing one of her down-at-heels mystery-shopping outfits.

By the time Josie had dropped her daughter off at Barrington, it was a golden morning, sunny and unusually warm for December. The weather was the only good thing about the day. Josie faced the prospect of eating Greta Burgers and delivering bad news.

Josie dreaded the call to Alyce so much, she ate six Greta Burgers before she got up the nerve to call her. Finally, at one o'clock, she speed-dialed Alyce's number, praying she wasn't home. Her friend answered on the first ring.

“I can't talk on the phone,” Alyce said. “You want to meet me somewhere?”

“I'm at the South County Greta Burger.”

“No, thanks,” Alyce said. “Just walking into that grease pit turns my stomach.”

“Mine, too,” Josie said. “And I get paid to eat them.”

“I've lost my appetite for the first time in my life,” Alyce said. “Maybe that's good. I could wind up a size two like all the other Wood Winds wives. Jake did me a favor.”

Josie didn't dare answer. Alyce didn't seem to expect one.

“If you're in South County,” Alyce said, “why don't we meet at the Laumeier Sculpture Park? I'll be there in twenty minutes. I can use the walk. Meet you by the big red steel sculpture,
The Way
.”

That was Josie's favorite. Most of the sculptures at Laumeier weren't pretty. Many looked downright industrial—vast hunks of metal sixty or more feet tall, a hundred or so feet wide. Some were sharply angled. Others were round as silos. Josie found the sculptures oddly peaceful. Maybe it was the hopeful way they enclosed space. They made Josie feel her troubles were finite.

Alyce looked small and lost beside the giant red metal sculpture. They walked along the paths in a silence that grew darker and heavier. Finally, Alyce burst out with, “I married a fool.”

Josie had never heard her friend talk that way about Jake, not even the first time Alyce suspected he was unfaithful. She kept silent while Alyce vented her fury.

“What's the first thing they teach you in law school? Get a lawyer if the cops talk to you. It's basic. Never, ever represent yourself. Especially in a murder. I heard that in class after class.”

Alyce wasn't a lawyer, but she'd helped put Jake through law school. She sat in on his early-morning classes and even took the tests, if it was a big class and nobody noticed her. Sometimes, Josie thought Alyce had more legal knowledge than the man with the law degree.

“I heard it, but it went right past Jake,” Alyce said. “My husband, the big-shot corporate lawyer, thought he could outwit two homicide detectives. After all, how much do they bill an hour? Jake also thought because they didn't read him his Miranda rights he wasn't the focus of the investigation. I told him again and again that Miranda was custodial. So did his professors. But he didn't listen to that, either. The cops weren't required to advise Jake of his Miranda rights if he wasn't in custody. So what did Jake do? Something even stupider than representing himself: He lied to the cops.”

“How did you find out?” Josie said.

“He finally confessed everything to me last night.”

“Everything?” Josie said.

“He told me about Halley.”

Josie was weak with relief. She wouldn't have to break the bad news to her friend.

“He swore they didn't have an affair,” Alyce said.

Liar, Josie thought. “Do you believe him?” she asked.

“Of course,” Alyce said.

It wouldn't be “of course” if he were my husband, Josie thought. He'd be taking a polygraph test.

Alyce must have seen the doubt in her eyes. “He swore to me on our son's life.”

“Then what was he doing with Halley in a hotel suite?” Josie asked.

“He said it was business,” Alyce said.

Monkey business, Josie thought. “Law firm business?” Josie said.

“Not quite,” Alyce said.

Well, he was telling the truth about that. Granby had said Halley wasn't a firm client.

Josie knew Alyce was upset. She hadn't asked about the date with Granby last night.

But Josie was equally lost. They'd passed Josie's second-favorite sculpture, a fat Botero bronze called
Roman Soldier
, and she hadn't stopped to study its menacing curves. They might as well be strolling in a parking garage. Acres of groomed lawns, gigantic sculptures, and bare-branched trees stretched before them, but they saw nothing.

“Jake said he couldn't tell me right now,” Alyce said, “but he would when the time was right. He promised to hire a criminal attorney. That's where he is now, talking to one. He should have called the man yesterday. He's going to be arrested anytime now, Josie. I know it. The police interviewed our nanny, Mrs. Palm. She was so upset at the questions, I was afraid she'd give her notice on the spot.”

“Were they bad?” Josie said.

“The worst. The police wanted to know if Jake had a girlfriend. Mrs. Palm said he didn't have any girlfriends that she knew about. Then they asked if he had a gun.”

“A gun?” Josie shouted in surprise. A woman walking a golden retriever stared at Josie.

Alyce lowered her voice. “He carries one in his car for protection. He works late and he has meetings in bad neighborhoods. It's a Glock 9, registered in his name. He hides it under the front seat.”

“Where's the gun now?” Josie asked.

“Jake doesn't know. As soon as I told him about the nanny, he went out to his car to check. The gun's gone.”

“Did he report it stolen?” Josie asked.

“He made a report, but there's no sign his car was broken into. He doesn't know if it was taken last night or last week.”

“Doesn't he lock his car?”

“Not when he's in Wood Winds. It's a gated community. We don't lock our doors.”

That again.

“So any of your neighbors—or any of the staff they employ—could have taken the gun out of your unlocked garage,” Josie said.

“Yes.”

Worse and worse. “Why were the police so interested in Jake's gun? Did they find the murder weapon?”

“I don't know,” Alyce said. “But I'm scared, Josie. You've got to help me save my husband.”

“Me? Jake can afford the best lawyers and private investigators. I'll just be in the way. I don't have any legal authority. I'm not a trained investigator. I don't even have a PI license.”

“You can talk to people,” Alyce said. “They like you. Jake will hire people like himself. They'll say the wrong things and no one will help him. I love my husband. I know how you feel about him—”

Josie started to protest, but Alyce said, “We've known each other too long for polite lies. Jake is a good man, Josie, and he's a good father, but I know he comes off as arrogant sometimes if you don't know him well. He's not. He's just shy. It makes him seem stiff and stand-offish.

“Jake already has three strikes against him: He's a rich, white lawyer. Cops love to put men like him in prison. Juries love to convict him. You've got to help me, Josie. Please.”

Alyce was begging.

“But I can't do anything,” Josie said. “I don't know anybody. I don't know anything.”

“Just talk to some of Halley's friends for me. Help me get some background on her. The police need to find other suspects besides my husband.”

“Aren't the police already doing that?” Josie said.

“No. Jake was dumb enough to lie. The police won't look for anyone else.”

“But how can they suspect Jake if the shooter was a young black male?”

“I don't know,” Alyce said miserably. “It doesn't make sense. But I think someone is trying to frame Jake for Halley's murder. I need to know who hates him enough to do this.”

“Alyce, can I play devil's advocate? Are you sure Jake isn't guilty of something?”

“Besides lying to the police about Halley?” Alyce said.

“How well did he know her?” Josie asked. She wanted to say, “In the biblical sense?”

“He told me he was
not
having an affair with Halley. I believe him.”

What had the sneery Granby called Alyce? The “little wifey” meant to be a martyr? Alyce must be the only person who believed Jake was innocent.

Josie knew the man was guilty of something: maybe murder, possibly adultery, certainly stupidity. What if Josie found out what really happened? Alyce wouldn't want to hear it.

The situation was hopeless. This was a lost cause.