Building Blocks of Murder (18 page)

“You’re probably right about all of that, too, but he was in a love triangle with Susan and Sheila all those years ago, and he was in charge of the Stakely building now. I think he’s hiding something. He seemed nervous.”

“Maybe he was nervous because you scared him. You’re like a red-headed tank when your mind is set on something.”

“Nonetheless, I think he’s worth checking out, quietly, of course.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, of course, because everyone knows it’s so easy to keep a secret in this town, especially when someone is investigating the mayor. I don’t see that costing me my job at all.”

She folded her hands in her lap, pinning him with a stare.

“You don’t give up, do you?” he asked after a minute of tense silence.

“No, not ever.”

He blew out a breath. “Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re here, and you said someone’s been making threats against you.”

“I have the license plate of the person who has been following me.”

“Give that to me, make a formal statement, and I’ll look into it. If that information in any way leads back to the mayor, then I’ll have a foundation for an investigation. But I have to be honest with you—as much as I don’t want to, I believe Jason is guilty.”

“If you’ll promise to keep an open mind while you look into things, then that’s all I could ask. But I have to be honest with you—unless your investigation clears Jason, then I plan to hire a private detective to look into both cases. There’s something I’m missing here, and I’m not going to stop until I figure out what it is.”

“That’s pretty much what I thought you would say.” He reached into his desk and pulled out a piece of paper. “Here’s a statement form. Fill out everything that has happened concerning the threats you’ve received, as well as any other witnesses we might be able to contact. Make sure and sign your name at the bottom and leave it with dispatch. I’ll let you know what I find.”

Lacy knew she was dismissed. She took the paper from his desk and turned to go, pausing in the doorway. “Thank you, detective,” she said, and this time she really meant it.

He nodded and dropped his gaze to his desk, resuming whatever he had been working on before she showed up.

Keegan was still waiting patiently in the lobby, a book in his hands.

“Thanks for waiting,” Lacy said.

He looked up at her with a heart-stopping smile and she wondered, not for the first time, what he was doing spending all his time with her this week. “No problem,” he said. “Learn anything useful?”

“No, but I made some amends, I suppose. I can check one enemy off my list.”

“Two because one got shot,” he pointed out.

She wrinkled her nose. “Thanks for reminding me.”

He laughed and rested his arm companionably on her shoulders. “What now?”

She checked her watch. “Now we go home and let grandma feed us. I know she’s worried. Prepare to eat a lot. You’re not diabetic, are you?”

“Not yet, but check back after I leave this week. How is it that you’re not five hundred pounds?”

“One of life’s little mysteries, and a whole lot of exercise.”

“What do you do?” he asked as he opened the passenger door of his rental car.

“I run, if you could call it that. Technically I think it’s more like a fast waddle.”

“Want to run with me? It might help clear your head.”

“I guess we could, but I have to warn you that it’s not pretty.”

“I find that really hard to believe, Lacy, because I haven’t seen anything you do that isn’t pretty.” When he added another smile, she was almost certain that he was flirting with her. Was that what this week was about? Was it some elaborate conquest for him? He was sweet in the same way that Tosh was sweet, but there was something else going on with him, and she didn’t know what. The not knowing was putting her on edge as she waited for the other shoe to drop. After spending so much time together the last few days, she wasn’t sure how forceful her protest would be if he tried to make a move on her. Did he know, and was he purposely breaking down her defenses? Or was she being paranoid?

Speaking of paranoid, “I think I made a kid and a grown man wet their respective pants this morning.”

“What?” he said, jerking the wheel slightly as he turned to look at her. He was already smiling in anticipation of the story to come, and when she told him how she had terrorized the driving student and his instructor, he bent over the steering wheel laughing. Thankfully, they were in her grandmother’s driveway at that point, so there was no chance of him wrecking.

“You are exactly what the doctor ordered,” he said.

“Keegan, what does that mean? I know we don’t know each other that well, but we’ve spent a lot of time together the last few days, and I can tell something is going on with you. If you want to talk about it, then I’m here. It’s important to me that you know that.”

“I appreciate that, Lacy, and I might take you up on it.” He reached over the seat and took her hand. “It’s a precarious situation with Tosh and our history, you know?”

She nodded, though she didn’t know. What was he talking about?

“It might help if I told you. Maybe after we run.” He gave her hand a squeeze.

She gave him a lame smile in return. Whatever it was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know anymore. “I wasn’t kidding before. I’m not a graceful runner.”

“Now I’m intrigued. Go get changed so I can see for myself.”

Lacy complied because if he was interested in her, there was no better way for his attraction to die then to see her in her workout gear.

“Wow, that was…something.”

Lacy would have responded, but she was still in that phase where she was bent over, tying to breathe.

“Did you ever think there might be something seriously wrong with you?”

She looked up enough to glare at him.

“I’m serious. That just wasn’t normal looking. Or sounding. Do you have asthma?”

She shook her head. “I’m not athletic, okay?”

“I’ve run with people who aren’t athletes before. It was never like that.”

Yes, any attraction on his part was definitely dead now. “C’mon, I need to shower,” she said, standing upright as they walked the last few feet to home.

“Okay, but if you feel dizzy or faint in the shower, then you should sit down. I’m pretty sure you were hyperventilating that last mile or so.”

While he, of course, hadn’t broken a sweat or wheezed once as he easily kept pace with her.

“Maybe you should join a gym, get a trainer—someone professional who is equipped to deal with your particular special needs,” he suggested.

She couldn’t reply with a snide comeback, both because she was still out of breath and because he sounded sincere. He wasn’t making fun of her; he was actually concerned for her wellbeing.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” she insisted. “I didn’t start running until later in life. Lots of people aren’t good at running.”

“I once saw a story about an army vet who lost both legs in the war, and he still ran better than you do,” Keegan said.

Now he was teasing her, and she shoved at him. He grabbed her around the neck in a loose chokehold.

“Shut it, Underwood. And don’t tell Tosh. Forget what you’ve seen here,” she said.

“If only I could, but I’m pretty sure the image is burned into my retinas for all of eternity. On my deathbed, I’ll probably see the vision of you trying to break a twelve minute mile.”

“Keep it up, and we can test that theory really soon,” she said, and he laughed. He waited in the kitchen talking to her grandmother while Lacy showered. He didn’t need a shower because he still looked and smelled as fresh as a daisy after their—slow, according to him—three mile run.

They ate supper with her grandparents. The meal and conversation was enjoyable, but something was missing, and Lacy knew what it was. Keegan was sweet, interesting, and fun, but he wasn’t Tosh. She missed Tosh; where was he?

After supper, Keegan and Lacy transitioned to the living room while her grandparents went out. They sat on the couch, and Keegan picked up her hand and stared at it while he spoke. “Lacy, earlier in the car, you said you wanted to hear what’s been on my mind.”

Lacy felt a cold pinprick of fear, the same one she felt whenever anyone of the male persuasion wanted to talk about his feelings.
Think of a way to stall.
“Wait,” she blurted, and he looked up at her in surprise. “I, um, was wondering if maybe we could go to the Stakely building and have a look around.”

“Now?” He glanced out the window at the setting sun.

“That’s what flashlights are for. It’s just that I saw the sketch from the Pendergast trial of where the shooting took place, and I want to try and pinpoint where it happened while it’s fresh in my mind.”

“Okay,” he drawled. “Let’s go to the Stakely building.”

His ready agreement made Lacy feel guilty. “Maybe we can talk later.” Maybe she would be ready by then to hear whatever it was he had to say.

He nodded and held the door for her, but his smile looked relieved, which increased her guilt. Obviously whatever he had to say was difficult for him, and she wasn’t making it any easier. She put her hand on his arm to stop him. “We can stay here. We can talk.”
I can act like a grownup and listen to what you have to say without focusing on myself.

“We’ll talk later,” he said. “I’m interested to see where the shooting took place. I have to admit that when I left
Chicago
, the last thing I expected was to get dragged into the middle of a murder investigation.”

“I’m sorry. I know this week hasn’t been what you envisioned.”

“What I envisioned was sitting around Tosh’s apartment, counting his show choir trophies, and wondering if he’s really my brother. This is so much better it’s off the scale.”

The ride to the Stakely building only took a couple of minutes. Lacy had grabbed her Grandpa Craig’s old flashlight from the shelf in the closet. It was huge, but powerful. There was some residual light from the outside, and if they hurried, they might be able to make it without needing to use the giant flashlight. She unlocked the door and led the way inside, stopping near a beam about a third of the way into the cavernous space.

“If I read the article correctly, then Susan’s store was right here. She was shot as she was leaving, so she would have been standing right here.” She pivoted so that she was facing Keegan, the beam to her right. “I’ve never been very good at physics or geometry or whatever you need to figure out trajectory. If the shooter was standing about where you are, where might the bullet have gone when it left her body?”

“So, I’m the shooter,” Keegan said. He raised his hands and pressed his index fingers together, pointing them at her like a gun. “If I were a bullet, where would I go?”

Lacy shuddered. It was darker in the building than she had imagined it would be and the junk lying haphazardly created a jumbled disarray of shadows. “This is sort of creepy. Maybe we should come back in the daytime.”

“You’re not turning chicken on me now, are you?” Keegan asked. He smiled and the shadows behind him seemed to take form and move. Lacy watched, horrified, as the butt of a gun emerged from the shadows and crashed down on his head. He slumped to the floor unconscious. Detective Brenner stepped over his inert body, palming his gun and turning it so that it was now facing Lacy.

“I own this building,” she said stupidly. “I’m not trespassing.”

“I know. You told me today. You remember, it was right about the time you said you weren’t going to stop digging until you found out the truth about the murders.”

“Are you saying that you killed Ed McNeil and Susan Pendergast?”

He didn’t respond, but she took the fact that he was still holding a gun on her as a yes.

“And you’re here now because you’re worried I’m going to find the bullet and it’s going to match the gun that was used to kill Ed McNeil?”

“No. That’s probably the stupidest proposition I’ve ever heard. What are the chances that you’re going to find that bullet? And, even if you do, the gun is long since gone. It’s not like we keep the same guns for twenty-something years.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

“Because I know you meant it when you said you won’t stop until you find some answers. If you had just let it lie, then everyone would have been happy.”

“Except for Jason who will rot in jail for a crime he didn’t commit,” she said.

He shrugged. “What judge won’t go easy on a kid like that? An overachiever with a sad childhood; he’ll have the jury eating out of his hand. He’ll basically get a slap on the wrist and be out in a few years.”

“So it was all an act, this seeming like and respect you have for him.”
Stall, stall, stall.
She had no idea why she was stalling since she had no plan of escape, but she felt the need to keep him talking nonetheless, and he seemed happy to comply.

“No. I do like Jason, and I meant what I said. He’s a good kid and a good officer.”

“What, then, you’re just jealous because he’s better at his job than you are?”

He gave a short, humorless chuckle. “You don’t think we all start out like Jason, all starry-eyed dreamers intent on saving the world? I was once like him, and then I killed a woman and everything changed.”

“Why did you kill her? What did she do to you?”

“Nothing. That’s the joke of it. I was here because, with all the drug activity, we were supposed to be keeping an eye on things. I was a fresh-faced wunderkind like your boyfriend, checking the building like a good little soldier, when Susan stepped out of her store and surprised me. I thought everyone had gone home, and I was startled. I didn’t even know I had my gun out until she dropped and I saw it in my hands. I panicked.”

“And you framed Joe Anton to take the fall?” Lacy asked.

“No. I called Ed McNeil and asked him to go with me as I turned myself in. It was Ed who told me not to do it. He said it wasn’t worth losing my career over. I thought he was doing me a favor, but it turned out that he was just finding leverage. Didn’t you ever wonder why he won so many cases when he wasn’t a very good lawyer or why I couldn’t have cared less about doing any real investigative work? It’s because the entire system is rigged by guys like Ed. Guilt, innocence, it doesn’t matter.”