Deadly Reunion (26 page)

“That’s the real reason you wanted the ledger, isn’t it? Sam wasn’t murdered. That was just your excuse, to get us to search for those notes?”

“No! Sam was murdered. I didn’t lie to you about that. And I didn’t need you to find the notes. I already have them. They were part of the deal Crystal and I struck with each other. She promised to hand over the notes during the reunion, along with the evidence of Sam’s murder. She changed her mind on telling me who killed Sam, but she still handed over Sam’s notes. I was right, too. She didn’t have anything. It was just gibberish. So, you see, I didn’t kill her. I didn’t have to and I can prove it, too. I still have the notes, and you can see them for yourself.”

Grace bit her lower lip, considering. She wanted to believe
him. If he were telling the truth, why would he have killed Crystal? And if he wasn’t telling the truth, why hire them to look for her killer? There was still one piece of the puzzle missing. “If you and Sam were working on a screenplay together, then you must have been seeing a lot of each other.”

“Yeah, a little bit.”

“I’ve been hearing rumors that Sam was seeing someone besides Crystal. Is that true?”

“I have no idea. Even if he was, so what?”

“Whoever that person is, they might know something. Like, why was Sam so upset the days before graduation? Why was Sam leaving town in such a hurry? Did she know he was planning to leave her? If so, how did she feel about that?”

“
He was leaving town?”

“
He wasn’t even going to stay for the graduation ceremony. Here’s a few more questions our mystery woman could help us with. What in the world was he doing on the bell tower? The place had been locked up and condemned. Students weren’t allowed up there, so why was he there? And most importantly, if he didn’t love Crystal, why was he keeping his affair a secret? What was he afraid of?”

“Why? Because
, Crystal loved him. She would’ve killed—”

“Would she have? Crystal and he had date
d, for what, five months by then. For the previous five years all Crystal wanted was Tom. The moment Sam dies, she’s latched onto Tom again. Face it. She was just killing time until she could finally sink her claws into Tom Lake.”

“
Wait a second . . . you’re right,” Adam said slowly, “Crystal wouldn’t have cared, would she? She was just using Sam to try to get close to Tom.”

“Did you ever see
Sam with another girl?”

“Nooo,” he answered slowly, “but . . . I wonder . . . Grace, did you happen to see that memorial picture show they had at the reunion?”

“I saw bits and pieces, why?”

“I think I mig
ht know who he was seeing. I need to hang up—”

“Wait! Adam
, what are you up to?”

“I need to talk to someone. In fact, if I’m right, I may know who
can answer all of your questions.” His voice rose in excitement. “I think you’ve solved it, Grace. I’ve had everything all mixed up. I was looking at this the wrong way.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve got to make a call. Once I know for certain—”

“Adam, don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m not,” he said excitedly. “I’m just going to make a call. I promise. I’ll call you right back. Ten minutes, tops. I promise.”

The line went dead.

Grace snapped the phone shut.

Kyle laid back down.
“What do you think Adam meant when he said, he ‘was looking at it the wrong way’?”

Grace shrugged. “I don’t know. He was talking about the slideshow.”

“The one on the stolen flash drive? I mentioned that days ago.” Kyle pulled a pillow over his head. “I overheard Crystal say something about a picture during the reunion. Maybe he’s on to something. What do you think? Should we call Bellamy?”

“No.
Not yet. Let’s wait until Adam calls back.”

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

G
race opened her
cell phone and scrolled through the missed calls.

“Any news?
” Kyle asked.

Grace shook her head and closed her phone. Two days had passed since they had spoken with Adam. “I wish he would call. I’m worried
, Kyle.”

“Don’t be. I’m sure he’s fine
. He’s probably holed up somewhere, sitting in front of a fire, sipping cognac.”

“He said he was going to make a phone call
, not go skiing.”

“Whatever. Now come here and
hold Abry,” he demanded, thrusting the bunny in her arms and leading her to the old, creaky green motel chair. “I will be right back.”

Grace lifted Abry up, nuzzling her face into his soft fur. “Who’s a good bunny?” she asked
, softly petting the rabbit.

A sudden shout and banging sound from the tiny closet caused Abry to leap out of her hands and hop under the bed. “It’s ok
ay, baby,” she said, dropping to her knees and looking under the bed.

“Ow, no
, it’s not okay. The top of the closet fell on my head.”

Grace sat back on her knees and smiled at Kyle, who was gingerly touching his head and peering at his reflection in the mirror, “I wasn’t talking to you. Are you ok
ay?”

“Yeah, I don’t think it will scar.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” she said, walking over and taking his head in her hands. She ran her fingers though his thick hair, momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to be checking for damage.

Deciding he was going to survive, she turned her attention to the three dry erase boards he had pulled out of the closet. “What’s this?” she asked
, picking up one of the boards.

“I read in one of those books that we should organize our thoughts, so I bought these boards.”

“That’s great.” Looking at the empty board, she said, “I think this pretty much sums up what we know.”

Kyle smiled and picked up a pack of brightly colored pens. “We know more than that. Here, I’ll do the writing,” he said
, placing the boards on top of the dresser.

Grace watched as Kyle labeled one board SUSPECTS FOR CRYSTAL’S MURDER, one SUSPECTS FOR SAM’S
MURDER, and one TIMELINE.

“A
ll right, I’ll play,” she said, hopping onto Kyle’s bed and leaning back against the headboard. “Let’s see, we’ll start with Crystal’s murder. Our first suspect should be Tom. Police always suspect the spouse first, and we know that things weren’t exactly happy between them.”

“Then there’s Adam,” he said
, writing Adam’s name down.

“You mean our client?” Grace felt compelled to point out. “I
still don’t think Adam should be a suspect.”

“Honestly, I think anyone who has ever met Crystal
should be considered a suspect,” Kyle said. “But he does have a motive. She
was
blackmailing him. And let’s not forget, he hasn’t brought us those notes. The ones that are supposed to prove that he no longer had any reason to kill her.”

“
He will,” Grace said a little less confidently. “There’s also, your new friend, Melodie.”

“You mean our other client,” Kyle asked
, adding her name to the board.

“She was clearly angry with her sister the night of the reunion
. She may have decided not to share Larry’s life insurance money with her.”

Kyle finished w
riting and looked at the board. “Who else was angry at Crystal?”

“Her
Aunt Diana. Crystal was trying to come between Diana and Eric. I can’t imagine Diana would have killed her over that, but who knows.”

“
There’s also the chance that Melodie and Diana compared notes. Diana may have figured out it was Crystal that blackmailed her over the affair she had,” he said, dutifully adding her name to the board.

Grace looked up at the ceiling.
“Let’s see . . . we also have Steve Mattingly. Supposedly, he tried to kill David Hart. If that’s true, I’m sure Crystal would have blackmailed him, as well.”

“
According to David Hart, it was Melodie. There’s something strange about the whole thing. If it was Steve, and Crystal was blackmailing people, then why, when she was passing everyone’s secrets off to Adam, didn’t she mention it to him?”

Grace pulled back her long
red hair into a ponytail. “You know, we really only have Melodie’s word that Crystal even said that. She could be lying to protect herself.”

Kyle shrugged. “
I can’t see Melodie pushing someone down a flight of stairs. Can you?”

Grace shook her head. “Not really
, but I could see Larry doing it. He had a horrible temper and was extremely jealous. If he found out that someone had hit Melodie, I could see him going after the guy. But then again, I could see Steve doing it, too.”

“
Who’s next?”

Grace looked at the list of names. All of them had a reason for killing Crystal. “I think we’re forgetting someone.
James Simpson. Maybe he was afraid Crystal would talk to Tom about who his biological father really was.”

“
Maybe.”

“You might
as well put an X down. If Adam was right and Crystal knew who killed Sam, then that person would have the best motive for killing her.”

Using a red marker, Kyle
wrote
Mr./Ms. X
in the center of the board.

Grace looked over the board. “Well, that’s it.”

“There’s one more,” Kyle said, adding one more name to the board.

“Take my sister’s name off the board!”
Grace sputtered.

“No, it’s my board, get your own,” he said, looking proudly at his creation. “Well
, what do you think?”

“It’s very pretty and colorful,” she said
, looking at the list of suspects, each written out in a different neon color. “It doesn’t really tell us who the killer is.”

“If the same person who killed
Crystal, also killed Sam, maybe we can find a connection,” he said, moving to Sam’s board.

Grace watched as he began filling out the board.

“I think we can put Tom down again.” Kyle said, adding Tom’s name to the board.

“
I think Adam is wrong about that. Why would Tom kill Sam? I just don’t believe Tom would have killed him over Crystal. He wouldn’t have had to. Sam was leaving town, alone. And I don’t care what Adam, Diana, Eric or Beth thought, if Tom had shown the slightest interest in Crystal, she would have happily left Sam in the dust.”

“What if Hope was the mystery woman Sam was having an affair with?”

Grace scoffed. “Hope wasn’t interested in Sam.”

“Are you sure?” Kyle countered. “What was she doing on top of the
bell tower, right before graduation?”

“
I’m still trying to figure out what Sam was doing there, right before graduation. The bell tower had been condemned. No one was allowed to go up there.”

“Even if she isn’t Sam’s mystery woman, my theory still holds up. Tom did see her and Sam on the tower that day. He knows Sam was seeing someone in secret and wouldn’t tell him who. He sees Hope and Sam in an embrace.
Platonic or not, Tom doesn’t know that.”

“So, he goes crazy and kills Sam?”

“Then to punish Hope, he marries her rival,” Kyle said, picking up a green marker and circling Tom’s name. “It would explain why he married Crystal on the day he and Hope were to be married.”

“Our birthday, too.”

“Then he went on the honeymoon Hope had planned.”

“Don’t forget, he also bought the house Hope had wanted.” Grace sighed. “Very cruel.”

“They definitely went out of their way to hurt Hope.”

Grace had to admit it was possible. “But why kill Crystal? Why now?”

“She was tired of the way he was treating her, so she contacted Adam. She was going to ditch Tom for his father and let Tom swing.”

Grace wasn’t convinced.
“Who else do we have?”

Kyle looked between the two boards trying to find a connection.
“What about Diana? We know Sam witnessed Sarah Collins death. If Diana did kill Sarah, then Sam had to have seen it.”

“But why wouldn’t he have said something?”

“Maybe he felt sorry for her. Maybe she paid him a lot of money to keep quiet.” Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know. Sam may have had second thoughts and wanted to confess, so Diana killed him. Crystal somehow finds out and covers for her . . .”

“But years go by
. . . Crystal’s desperate for money and calls Adam.”

“Diana freaks out and kills her.”

“It’s possible,” Grace said. “She hated Sarah Collins. Eric, too. Who else is a suspect?”

“Well
, we can add Adam in again, since he stole Sam’s idea for a screenplay. I can’t believe anyone would kill for that story. Did you see it? It was absolutely the most boring film I have ever seen in my life. Which is strange, I usually love movies about mimes.”

Grace made a mental note to never let Kyle pick out any movies they watch in the future.
“The only problem with Adam as a suspect is, why would he hire us? Why would he tell us about Sam? We wouldn’t even be looking at his death if it weren’t for Adam. If all he wanted was for us to find the binder he could have made up any story.”

“
He may have told us that just to confuse us.”

“He’s done a good job, then.”

Kyle shook his head. “I’m serious. He could have killed Crystal and then made up this story about Sam.”

“You mean send us on a false trail.”

Kyle nodded. “There is a chance that Sam really did commit suicide.”

“
It’s possible. Any other suspects?”

“
What about Crystal?” Kyle asked. “She has a motive, too.”

“Crystal?”

“We can't really let her go. She was dating Sam. If she found out that he was cheating and planning on leaving her, she may have decided to kill him.”

“
I truly, don’t think she would have cared.”

“
Melodie was about to break up with David Hart when she found him in bed with another woman. She still cared enough to slap him and possibly push him down the stairs. Crystal sounds like she was just as vindictive. Even if she didn’t want Sam, she may not have wanted anyone else to have him.”

“If Crystal killed Sam, then who killed her?”

Kyle pointed to the other board. “Any of those people could have murdered her. They all had motives. Or maybe it was someone who loved Sam and had just found out Crystal had killed him. She may have killed Crystal out of revenge. If so, we’re back to Ms. X.”

Grace shook her head and crawled closer to the end of the bed. “Crystal was a blackmailer, not a murderer. She found something out about someone
, and she squeezed. That's why she died. If this
is
related to Sam's death, then we can assume she knew who killed him and was blackmailing them for it.”

“Or they thought she was going to talk.”

“Right. We just need to find out who wanted Sam dead. If it's not related, then we're back to square one.”

“I’m sti
ll putting her down.” Kyle stood back and examined the boards. “If the two murders are related, then I guess that lets James Simpson, Steve Mattingly, and Melodie Baker off the hook. They’re the only ones without a motive for killing Sam. Can you think of anyone else?”

“
And we’re back to Ms. X,” Grace added. “Adam seemed pretty sure he knew who it was when we spoke to him the other day.”

Kyle looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, he was going to call back, too. It’s been more than ten minutes.”

“You may have been right about the flash drive. It could be connected to Crystal’s death. I wish I had paid more attention to it.” Grace sighed. “The picture had to have been of Sam and our Ms. X. Otherwise, why would Adam have gotten so excited?”

“I think he struck out
, and that’s why he hasn’t called.”

“He did say
that he had it all wrong. What could he have meant?”

Kyle shrugged. “He
suspected Diana had killed Sarah Collins and then killed Sam.”

“He also suspected Tom, too.” Grace bit her lower lip. “Let’s say
, Harper and Hope were right. Sam was seeing someone in secret, for whatever reason. But Sam suddenly decides he doesn’t want to be with her anymore. He tells her, he’s leaving her. She may have gotten so angry that she pushed him from the tower. Although, she may have done it accidentally, too. The tower wasn’t safe. One kid went up there in our freshman year and fell down the stairs. He broke both of his legs. They locked it up tight after that.”