Acquainted With the Night (17 page)

Chris sighed. “Not much new there. The interview with our district attorney wasn’t helpful, although he did try very hard to convince us he was romantically involved with some other woman, Sue something or other, and therefore was no longer interested in getting rid of St. Clair or getting back together with his ex-wife.”

“Well, that would be nice,” Alex said dryly. “I think he’s been trying to convince me to marry him again since the judge signed on the final dissolution decree. God knows why. He thinks it would be good for his career, I guess. What does this Sue something or other do for a living?”

“Investments, I think Bradford told us.”

“Oh, good,” Alex said. “He’d like that, a woman as worried about money as he is. Have you checked on his whereabouts for the two dates last year?”

“Yes. He was at some local political rally on the Fourth of July, about three hundred people saw him there all afternoon. He was actually at the office on March sixteenth last year, waiting with some of his staff for the jury to come back on the pizza delivery murder case. Alibis all round.”

“And you haven’t turned up anything on Stephanie Morrow?”

“Nothing other than a case filed with the Division of Real Estate a couple of years ago. Some client complained about her, a dispute about an escrow account. They didn’t jerk her license or anything. There was a…what did they call it?”

“Settlement?” Alex suggested. “Stipulation?”

“Stipulation, that was it. She paid the client some money, basically. That’s it. No criminal record or arrests on her, just some traffic stuff. There’s obviously no criminal record on our district attorney.”

Alex smiled. “You actually checked him out?”

“Hell yes, I did. And I can’t find any arrest record on Laurel Halliday, either, here or in Georgia.”

Alex folded her hands on her desk and asked, “How did your search for someone from my past arrests go?”

Chris pulled a face. “Okay, so not one of my better ideas,” she sighed in resignation. “There’s nobody who just got out last year after a long sentence from your days on patrol or as a detective, and the people you’ve arrested in the last three years or so are all either in prison, jail, or dead. Have you thought of anybody else who might have a particular grudge against you?”

“Honestly? No one.” Alex swiveled her chair and looked out the window, thinking.

“What is it, Captain?” Chris asked after a moment.

“Just before all hell broke loose with Roger, I had a thought. I want to know what your reaction to it is.”

“Of course.”

Alex summarized her theory that the driver in March, and the shooters in July, had been hired to go after her. “If I’m right about that,” she concluded, “the alibis on our suspects don’t mean much.”

“I agree,” Chris said. “But it does sort of limit the pool of candidates. It’s hard to think of Stephanie Morrow knowing some punk who would boost a car and take a friend along to shoot at your family.”

“Yes,” Alex agreed, remembering that CJ had made the identical argument. “But it’s not too far-fetched to imagine Tony finding somebody, now is it?”

Chris digested that for a moment. “I see your point,” she said at length. “Do you really think your ex-husband is behind all of this?”

Alex sighed. “I can’t believe he is,” she admitted. “He’s always been self-centered, and God knows he really hated CJ. But murder? I lived with the man for two years and it’s hard for me to believe he’s capable of that. Of course,” she added wryly, “I didn’t know him nearly as well as I should have. Or maybe it was myself I didn’t know.”

Abruptly Chris said, “You don’t think Fullerton had anything to do with this, do you?”

Startled, Alex said, “Why, do you?”

“No, not really. The timing is all wrong. It’s just weird that you have all these people lining up to try to kill you.”

Alex smiled ruefully. “Must be my charming personality.”

Chris laughed. Alex asked, “When are you going back to see Stephanie?”

“I could go this afternoon. Want to ride along?” she suggested. “Just having you in the room might make the follow-up interview more interesting.”

“That,” Alex replied thoughtfully, “is a very good idea.”

* * *

On the way to Stephanie Morrow’s office that afternoon, Alex’s cell phone rang. Since Chris was driving, Alex took the call.

“Hey,
chica
,” Rod Chavez said. “How’s it goin’?”

“Rod, good to hear from you,” Alex said, with a tiny stab of guilt. She should have called CJ’s oldest friend from the Roosevelt sheriff’s office after she found the note sent to CJ.

“Glad to hear you soundin’ so chipper,” he responded. “You didn’t get a call from her, did you?”

“No. But I have a lot more information than I did a week ago,” Alex explained.

“Yeah? Can you share?”

She took a brief sideways glance at Chris, then said, “Let me give you the condensed version.”

When she’d finished, she heard him give a low whistle. “Damn it, Alex,” he said. “I knew it had to be somethin’ like that! CJ would never have just taken off. We should have figured this out sooner.”

Alex, remembering her last session with Elaine Wheeler, said, “In a way, I always knew she left for a good reason. It was just hard to see, when…”

She stopped, still very aware of Chris in the car, but Rod finished for her, “When you were hurting. I get it. Now, what can I do to help?”

The offer touched her. He had been very protective of her while CJ was gone, calling her every week.

“If I think of something, you’ll be the first one I call,” she promised him. “But you tell Ana I’m expecting the best welcome home party she’s ever thrown when we get this guy and CJ can come home again.”

“Yeah,” he said, and she realized that he was a little choked up. It made her tear up a bit too.

“Hey, knock it off, tough guy,” she said. “I’ll call you when I know something, all right?”

“Alex, you take care.”

On the first visit, Frank and Chris had simply shown up at Stephanie’s office, but this time Chris had made an actual appointment. Both methods worked, for different reasons. Surprise could be useful, not letting a suspect prepare for the interview, but letting a person worry about the upcoming meeting was effective, too.

Stephanie’s assistant was a drop-dead gorgeous woman who looked to Alex to be about seventeen and a new graduate of some modeling school, but she was probably in her mid-twenties. The nameplate on her desk read Judy Soames.

She actually ushered them into Stephanie’s office, decorated in what Alex supposed was Swedish modern, all sleek, light wood. Stephanie was on the phone, but waved them in as she continued to harass some appraiser about his report.

When she hung up, she said to them, “I hope this harassment session is going to be short, Captain Ryan. I’ve got a closing tomorrow that’s going south, and an idiot who apparently can’t write a report in the English language.”

Alex saw something in her face. Distress? Apprehension? Resignation?

“Ms. Morrow,” Chris said. “I’m sure you remember me, Detective Andersen. I believe you’ve met my boss.”

Stephanie looked from one to the other and said, “Yes, we’ve met. So fucking wonderful to see you again.” She looked less polished today than she had at the cocktail party when Alex first met her. Her hair and makeup were still perfect, but her expression was harried and the lines around her mouth were tightly drawn. Alex could see for the first time how she would look in twenty-five years or so, when she turned sixty.
She’s going to need that face-lift
, Alex thought wryly.

Alex suppressed her natural tendency to take control of the interview, and sat back to let Chris work.

“Ms. Morrow, we just came back by to see if you could remember anything else that would help us with our case,” Chris said, deliberately casual.

“As I have been telling your boss here for a year or so,” Stephanie snapped, “I don’t know anything about the stupid accident, and I don’t know what the hell happened to CJ. I’m running out of different ways to say I had nothing to do with any of it.”

Unmoved, Chris opened her notebook, and seemed to be reading her notes. “You stated that you hadn’t seen Ms. St. Clair for more than four years when you met her again at the party on March sixteenth last year,” she said.

“That’s right.”

“And you also stated that you had no idea that she’d been married in the interim,” Chris continued, her tone ignoring the fact that the other party to the marriage was seated next to her.

“Detective, how would I know anything about what she was doing? I said I hadn’t seen her.”

Chris said mildly, “That doesn’t mean you weren’t making yourself aware of her activities.”

“What the fuck are you—” Stephanie glared at Chris a moment, then suddenly looked at Alex and seemed to slump in defeat. “Oh, the hell with it.” She picked up her phone, jabbed a button and said, “Judy, will you come in here a minute?”

A moment later the blond and elegant Ms. Soames came into the office. “Yes, Stephanie?”

Stephanie gestured toward the two detectives. “Judy, this is Captain Ryan and Detective Andersen. They’re from the police.”

Judy blinked bright blue eyes at both of them.

Alex asked calmly, “Why is Ms. Soames here, Steph?”

Her use of the nickname was deliberate, invoking CJ into the room with them. Stephanie met Alex’s eyes.

Quietly, Stephanie said, “Tell them what we talked about last night.”

“What?” Judy looked startled.

“I’ll explain it to you later. Just tell them, okay?”

“Oh. Um. She—Steph—asked me to move in with her.” She blinked again and added, “I said yes, of course.”

Chris made a little sound in her throat, then cleared it, and said, “You’re dating?”

Judy said, “We’ve been in a relationship since last summer.” She turned a flirtatious look Stephanie’s way and added, “She’s awesome.”

Alex turned back to Stephanie and said mildly, “This doesn’t necessarily let you off our suspect list.”

“Suspected of what?” Judy demanded. “Steph, what are they talking about?”

“I said I’d tell you later,” Stephanie said wearily. “Look,” she was addressing only Alex this time, “check out anything you want. I’ve moved on, okay? I don’t care who CJ is sleeping with, or what she does. I didn’t try to kill you, or get her away from you.

“Why would I want to when I’ve got her in bed with me every night?” She gestured at Judy, who preened happily.

Beside her, Alex actually felt Chris shudder a little. Abruptly, Chris stood up and said, “We’ll be in touch, Ms. Morrow.”

They were halfway back to the office, driving in silence, when Alex said, “So. My sense is that she’s telling the truth. What’s your take on it?”

Chris said nothing for a moment, then responded, “You know there was a time, not that long ago, when I would have spent quite a bit of time trying to get her into bed.”

Surprised, Alex asked, “Who? Judy or Stephanie?”

Chris made a face. “Either one, frankly.” She glanced at Alex and blew out a breath. “Any woman I saw who might be interested.”

Alex knew Chris was thinking about Chris’s unsuccessful effort to seduce her just after Chris was promoted to detective two years ago. In a calm tone, Alex said, “Are you over that?”

“It’s weird,” Chris mused. “It’s like I can look, and enjoy the scenery, but I don’t really want to touch anymore. I just want to go home to Beth, and be with her. I never, ever, in a billion years, thought I would turn into one of those fully domesticated lesbians.”

Gently amused, and reminded of Vivien, Alex said, “It’s not so bad, now is it?”

Chris glanced at her again and said, “Don’t tell anybody, especially Frank, but it’s pretty goddamned wonderful. And to answer your first question, I do actually think Morrow is telling the truth. But I’m going to check out Judy Soames anyway, make sure this wasn’t some kind of setup. This case has got me thinking. I don’t trust anybody.”

Alex said dryly, “That’s actually a good quality to have on the job, Detective.”

Chapter Sixteen

Alex glanced at her clock and noticed it was after two p.m., which explained why her stomach was complaining that it hadn’t had any lunch yet. The sensation of actually wanting to eat on a regular basis was still surprising. She was considering whether to go out or order something from the deli across the street to pick up, when her office phone rang.

“This is Roger Edgarton,” her caller said in his basso profondo. “I have some of the information you requested about Laurel Halliday I hope you will find useful.”

Alex picked up her fountain pen. “I’m ready.”

“Miss Halliday left her position at Oglethorpe University for a very interesting reason,” he began. “She originally came from a middle-class family, and had a brother, four years younger. You may have heard of him. His name was Jackson Monroe Halliday.”

The name sounded vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“He dropped his last name when he submitted his book to his publisher,” Edgarton prompted her.

Jackson Monroe.

“Oh, my God,” Alex remembered. “
Foe without Hate
. The biography of Robert E. Lee. It was on the
New York Times
best-seller list, right?”

“Several best-seller lists, and the book won a Pulitzer for its author. Posthumously.”

“I remember now,” Alex said. “Monroe shot himself before the book was published.”

“Yes. The rights to the book had been sold to a Hollywood studio as well, so his estate was worth several million dollars. And that estate went to his only relative, his sister. When she received word of the inheritance, she simply quit her job and walked away.”

Alex was scrambling to put this piece into place. A copy of the book was in CJ’s bookshelf at home, next in line to be read. Did she know Laurel’s brother had written it?

Alex said, “So the question is: where is she now?”

“That’s apparently not a simple question,” Edgarton rumbled. “She did make a few appearances in and around Georgia, publicizing the book. There was one interview early last year in California and one in New York. She still has an apartment in Atlanta but she’s apparently gone often, traveling extensively now that she can afford to do so. So I suppose the answer is: she’s around here in Georgia somewhere.”