Building Blocks of Murder (13 page)

There was something in her tone, something that made Lacy think she was well-acquainted with the case. “Do you think Joe Anton is guilty of the murder?”

“I did believe that, but Ed was so certain that he was innocent. Ed has always believed in his innocence, from the very beginning. He was devastated when he lost the case the first time. He was positive he was going to be able to overturn the conviction this time. Now I don’t know what to believe. I can’t believe this is happening. All the old wounds are opening again, and now Ed is gone.”

“Sheila, I’m sorry to be so blunt, but I think I’m missing something. You seem to be somehow connected to the original murder case. Was Susan Pendergast a friend of yours?”

“No, Susan was my sister,” Sheila said.

Lacy had to let that information assimilate a few beats, so she was glad when Keegan asked the question she was thinking. “Didn’t it bother you that Ed McNeil defended the man who supposedly killed your sister?”

“Ed believed strongly that everyone was innocent until proven guilty,” Sheila said. “He truly believed Joe Anton was innocent, and he wanted to find Susan’s true killer.”

Lacy couldn’t wrap her mind around the two versions of Ed McNeil, the one she had met who seemed to care about nothing more than the almighty dollar, and the one Sheila Whitaker described, the one who was a defender of the weak and downtrodden. Whichever was the true man didn’t matter right now because Lacy’s sorrow for Sheila was genuine. Not only had she lost a friend, but now her sister’s case was being reopened. That seemed a little too coincidental to Lacy.

“Do you think the two cases are connected?” she blurted.

Sheila’s mouth hardened into a thin, angry line. “Yes, they’re definitely connected. The person who arrested Joe Anton is the same person who killed Ed McNeil.”

So much for believing in innocent until proven guilty. “Sheila, Jason Cantor is a good friend of mine and an excellent officer. There is no way he killed Ed McNeil, and there is no way he manipulated evidence to arrest Joe Anton. He’s one of the best and most honest men I’ve ever met.”

Sheila looked dubious. “With the kind of family life he had growing up? How could any good come out of that?”

Those were fighting words. Lacy could feel the cap on her temper flip open, but before she could blast Sheila with whatever was about to come out of her mouth without first being run through her brain, Keegan grabbed her arm and pulled her to a standing position.

“Thank you so much for your time, Miss Whitaker. I’m sorry things are painful for you right now. You’ve been helpful and informative.” He shook her hand with the one that wasn’t holding on to Lacy, and then he turned and marched Lacy toward the door, not letting her go until they reached his car.

Once they were safely in his car, Keegan turned to her and spoke. “She’s grieving, and not just the loss of her friend, but also the renewed loss of her sister. Of course she’s going to say stupid things. It’s probably easier for her to blame your officer than to find any other outlet for her emotions.”

Lacy took a breath and allowed her anger to drain away as she exhaled. “Tosh does that, diffuses my anger that way. Must be a family trait.”

“It’s a gift,” Keegan said, grinning as he started the car. “Where to, Miss Marple?”

“I’m sorry, did you really just make an Agatha Christie reference? When did you turn into an eighty-year-old woman?”

“What can I say? I enjoy the classics.” There was a pause in conversation while he drove through their town’s only coffee shop, ordering a coffee for Lacy to take to Travis.

Lacy resumed making fun of him once they were back on the road. “Do you have lace antimacassars covering your overstuffed armchairs? Do you knit one, purl two?”

“And if I did, would you hold it against me?” He turned to smile at her in a heart-stopping way. He really was very handsome. So handsome, in fact, that Lacy had to go over her mental list of why she wasn’t interested in him as more than a friend.

“Then it would simply be a blip in your otherwise perfection. Seriously, Keegan, how is it that you don’t have a girlfriend?”

His smile dimmed as he faced forward again. “I’ve been busy. How is it that you don’t have a boyfriend? Oh, wait, that’s right. You’ve got too many to choose from.”

“They’re…”

“If you try and insist they’re just friends one more time, I will swerve this car into a tree. Wake up and smell the testosterone; you’re way more than friends with both of them. Let me tell you that, from an outsider’s point of view, it’s as painful to watch you try and vacillate between them as it is to see them pining for you.”

“No one is pining,” she insisted. “They both know where I stand, and I’m not vacillating. I’m not ready for a relationship. Why are we talking about me? I thought we were talking about you.”

“Did you?” he smiled at her again and she knew the conversation was over, not least of which because they had arrived at the jail.

“You don’t have to wait here,” Lacy said. “I can call my grandfather for a ride.” In truth, she didn’t want him to go in with her, knowing that it wouldn’t go over well with Jason. He would keep up his guard and refrain from telling her anything.

“I’ll wait,” Keegan said. “Out here,” he added as if he could read her mind. “I brought a book.” He reached to the back seat and pulled out a backpack, stuffed to overflowing with books.

“Agatha Christie?” she guessed.

He held up the title for her to read. ”
Orthodoxy,
by G.K. Chesterton. Wow, that’s some light reading. Enjoy.” She escaped the car, his chuckle echoing behind her as she closed the door and walked to the jail.

“How long have you been here?” Lacy asked Travis as she handed over his coffee.

“What day is it?” he asked, and she wasn’t sure he was kidding. “Two more hours, and I’m free. Free to go home and sleep, that is. You know what other twenty-one-year olds are doing right now, Lacy? Not delousing people, that’s for sure.”

Lacy winced, not just for Travis who was obviously exhausted, but for Jason, too. “Jason didn’t have to be deloused, did he?”

Travis wouldn’t quite meet her gaze. “It’s procedure. It wasn’t any fun for us, either, though.”

“I know,” Lacy said. “I’m sorry, sorry about all if it.”

He shook his head. “I’ve never wanted anything more than to walk into my sergeant’s office and hand in my resignation when they brought Jason in. This is just such a load.”

“You’ll feel better after you get some sleep,” Lacy said. “And this Jason thing isn’t going to last. We both know he didn’t do it. This is only temporary until the ballistics test clears his name.”

Travis didn’t reply as he buzzed her through. She walked to the now familiar visitation room where she sat waiting for Jason. There was a moment of trepidation as Lacy wondered if he might not come. She couldn’t help but remember when she had visited her grandmother for the first time, and her grandmother had refused to see her. Her connection to Jason was even more tenuous and emotionally charged.

After a few minutes of waiting, the heavy metal door buzzed open and Jason walked through. He looked grim as he sat and picked up the phone. Lacy picked up her phone, waiting to see what he would say. Would he tell her how bad he was obviously feeling about everything?

“You’re using the fact that Len wants you to write about this as an excuse to investigate, aren’t you?” were his first words, and Lacy realized Jason wasn’t grim because of his ordeal but because he was irritated with her. Again. Or maybe still. She wasn’t sure how to respond, but he didn’t give her much of a chance. “So are you here in an official capacity to interview me? Let’s go, Miss Steele, what do you want to know?”

“I think it’s uncanny the amount of connections between this current case and the Joe Anton case,” Lacy said, hoping to shock him out of his grumpiness.

“What?” he said, gripping the phone tighter. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m not. Ed McNeil was his attorney then. You were the arresting officer.” She took another breath to tell him about the Stakely building, but couldn’t bring herself to tell him about the ominous note she had received that morning, knowing he would worry himself to death. “There are a lot of connections,” she finished lamely.

“There are two connections, and it’s just coincidence, Lacy. The Joe Anton case was a slam dunk, so much so that I can’t believe it took the detective division so long to figure it out. The signs were all there, and I went where they led. The case was airtight. Ed McNeil defended a lot of people, and I’ve arrested a lot of people. Cases are bound to overlap in a small town.” He took a breath and consciously relaxed his grip on the phone. “I know it’s hard for you to wait around and do nothing, but I’m asking you to back off and wait for the ballistics to clear me. The test is failsafe, and it will prove the bullet didn’t come from my gun. We simply have to sit tight and wait for that to happen.”

“If you didn’t kill Ed McNeil, then who do you think did?” Lacy asked, her heated tone revealing her frustration.
Sit tight. Back off.
As if. Lacy knew if the situation were reversed, Jason would be turning over every rock to clear her name. How could he expect any less from her?

“I have no idea,” Jason said. “But there were tons of people with motive, his client list for a beginning. He often defended the lowest of the low, people who didn’t exactly stick to any sort of code of honor. I don’t know for sure, but there have been rumors swirling about him for years. If the rumors were true, then Ed wasn’t exactly the upstanding citizen he claimed to be.”

“Who saw him as an upstanding citizen?” Lacy asked.

“Everyone he wanted to. He was a game player, a big campaign contributor, and involved in several civic activities. He fooled a lot of people into thinking he was a great guy.”

“Sheila Whitaker certainly seemed to think so.”

Jason frowned. “How do you know Sheila Whitaker?” His eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. “Did you talk to her? Did you go to see her?”

“I did,” Lacy admitted. “But…” before she could tell him about the Stakely building, he interrupted.

“Lacy, what do I have to do to get you to stay out of this?”

“Get out of jail,” Lacy said. “Get out from under these charges. Until that happens, I’m not going to let it go, Jason.” With effort, she ignored his glower and pressed forward. “I think Sheila was in love with him, but wasn’t Ed McNeil married?”

“If the rumors were true, Ed was also a real ladies’ man.”

“Seriously? He was so…ew.”

Jason chuckled. “I’m not going to disagree. I didn’t get it, either. I assumed the rumors were untrue because, well, ew.”

They shared a smile as they stared at each other, the thick glass partition between them. “You want to know something crazy?” Lacy asked.

“What?” Jason prompted.

“You make that jumpsuit look good.” It was uncanny.
No one
looked good in cheap fluorescent cotton, and yet somehow Jason did.

He laughed and Lacy watched as some of the tension eased from his face. He shook his head, disbelieving. “I’m serious,” Lacy continued. “I hope I never get arrested because can you imagine my hair with that orange? Talk about a sickening combination.”

“Red, if you get arrested, believe me when I tell you that how you look will be the last of your worries.”

“How bad has it been?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Awkward, but not awful. The guys are doing their best to make it bearable.”

“I’m sorry this is happening, Jason,” Lacy said.

“It is what it is,” Jason said, which she interpreted to mean he was done talking about it. “I don’t suppose I could ask you one more time to let this go and leave it alone.”

“You could ask,” Lacy said.

“At least promise me you’ll be careful,” Jason said.

“I promise,” Lacy said.

“I don’t believe you,” Jason said, “because even though you try and avoid it, trouble has a way of finding you.”

“Keegan is with me; he’s helping me.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? You and the pastor’s beefy brother spending truckloads of time together?”

“Did you just call another man ‘beefy’?”

He laughed and she watched a little more of the tension drain out of him. “You’re an expert at changing the subject. The fact is that I’m worried about you.”

“And I’m worried about you,” she said. “I’ve watched television; I know what happens to cops in jail.”

He laughed again. “Lacy, geez, what goes on in that head of yours? I’m in the safest place in the world, guarded by all of my coworkers, while you’re out there with a murderer, one you are actively trying to pursue, and you’re worried about
me.
Is it any wonder you make me crazy? I stay up nights just wondering what you’re going to get into next.”

“You stay up nights because you work the midnight shift.”

“Not anymore,” he said, the grim lines returning to his mouth.

“You will. This is all going to get cleared up and be a bad memory soon,” Lacy said.

“If you tell me that someday we’ll laugh about this, I’m not sure I’ll believe you.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but we’ll look back on it with a sense of relief that it’s over and that it didn’t last too long. I promise.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever made me a promise before,” Jason said. He pressed his index finger to the glass.

Lacy reached up and pressed her finger on the other side. “Now the pressure is on to make sure I keep it.”

“Lacy,” he began, disapproval lacing his tone, but she didn’t allow him to admonish her again.

“I should go. I’ll come back tomorrow, unless this is all over and you’re not here.”

“I’ll see you here tomorrow,” Jason said. Lacy hated the resigned tone in his voice. As he finished speaking, another woman shuffled behind Lacy, her tiny tank top stretched tight over her ample bosom while her skirt barely reached her thigh. Jason and Lacy paused to watch while she wiggled to the empty space beside them, tottering precariously on her too-high heels.

“Would it make you feel better if I wore something like that when I come back tomorrow?” Lacy asked, turning to face Jason once the woman was finally seated.