Evil Eclairs (23 page)

CHAPTER 17

“What’s this story idea you’re pitching, Suzanne?” Ray asked the second I said hello. “Did something happen to George Morris? I just left the hospital and there wasn’t any change in his condition.”

“I haven’t heard anything new about him, either,” I said. “Do you have a minute?”

“I’m in my office, so if you can get here in five minutes, I can give you twenty if you need it.”

“We’ll be right there,” I said, and started to hang up.

“Hold on. Who is included in this ‘we’? Is Jake Bishop with you? I’ve been hounding him for a quote all day, and all he’ll say is ‘no comment.’”

“No, it’s Grace Gauge,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll talk to her, too,” he said.

“We’ll be right there.”

We found a spot in front of the newspaper office, and Ray answered on the first knock. “Come in,” he said as he looked up and down the street.

“Who are you looking for?” I asked.

“You can never be too cautious,” he said.

“Paranoid much?” Grace asked softly, but Ray must have caught it.

“Someone’s been following me around; I can feel it. I just haven’t been able to spot them yet. Don’t worry, though, I will.”

Once he was safely behind his desk, Ray started to open up. “The note you left was cryptic, Suzanne. Did you do that on purpose?”

“I wanted to get your attention,” I admitted.

“Well, it worked. What do you have for me?”

“I hate to admit it, but right now, I’ve got more questions than answers,” I said.

His face clouded a little. “I thought you said there was a story angle in it for me. You didn’t lie, did you?”

“If we get the right answers, we’ll let you know what we come up with,” I said, hoping that I wasn’t promising too much.

“Sorry, but that’s the best we can do right now,” Grace added.

It seemed to work, though.

“Fire away,” he said as he leaned back.

“What do you know about Lester Moorefield’s murder that you’re not writing about in the paper?” I asked. That was an easy first question, and it could open the floodgates if Ray felt like sharing what he’d been able to find out.

“More than you or your boyfriend know,” Ray said.

For some reason, he was on the defensive. Maybe sharing didn’t come easily for him. “I’m here asking for your help. You’re sitting on something you think might be big. Do I have to even mention that George felt the same way, and decided not to share his information with me? You don’t want something to happen to you, too, do you?”

At least that made him think.

“You’ve got a point. What I’m going to say here is in confidence, however. If you repeat it, or attribute it to me in any way, shape, or form, I’ll call you both liars to your faces. Do we understand each other?”

“Perfectly,” I said, and Grace nodded in agreement, as well.

“Good. Here’s what I’ve got so far. Lacy Newman looks to be my number one suspect. I can’t prove it, but I believe she killed Lester.”

“I don’t get why she’s even a suspect,” I said.

“Are you kidding me? She’d do anything to protect her husband’s memory. Arthur Newman killed himself. You knew that, didn’t you?”

“I heard it was heart failure,” Grace said.

Ray shrugged. “Isn’t that what kills all of us, after all? It’s a pretty sweeping cause of death, and this time, it covered up a suicide. From what I’ve heard, he overdosed on sleeping pills when he heard there was going to be an investigation into his accounts at the bank, and he couldn’t face the disgrace. Old Doc Mooney signed the death certificate the way he did out of respect for Lacy.”

“We can’t exactly ask him, can we?” I asked, since Mooney had died years ago.

“No, but I found his nurse living in Sarasota. She wouldn’t testify to it, but she said there was something odd about the way the whole thing was handled.”

“But why does it matter, after all these years?” Grace asked.

“Think about it,” I said. “Lacy’s memory of her husband is all she’s got left of him, besides that garden they grew together.”

“She wouldn’t kill anyone just to keep a secret,” Grace said firmly.

Ray rubbed a hand through his thinning hair. “You’d be surprised how powerful that can be as motivation.”

“Who else have you been looking at?” I asked.

“Isn’t there anything you can give me?” he asked.

He had a point. I had to give him something. “We’ve got folks from all walks of life, and our suspect list is pretty broad right now. I’d give you more, but I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything until I’ve got more evidence.”

“But when you do, you’ll share with me, right?”

“You can count on it.”

Ray nodded. “I suppose that’s all I can ask. The other suspect I have is pretty powerful around here.”

He was actually trying to tease me with something I already knew.

“Cam Hamilton,” I said.

Ray looked startled by the name. “Where did you get that?”

“We spoke with Cara Lassiter. She gave us a list of people Lester went after, and our mayor was pretty high on the list. When we spoke with him about it, he was dismissive, and then he got a little defensive when we pursued it further.”

“Wouldn’t that reaction make sense if he were innocent?” Grace asked.

“Somebody killed Lester Moorefield,” I said.

“I personally think his wife did it,” Grace said.

That got Ray’s attention. “He was married?”

“To a woman in Union Square,” I said.

Ray grabbed a pencil. “That’s more like it. What’s her name?”

Grace was about to tell him when I said, “Not yet. You’ll get her name later.”

“I deserve at least that much now,” he said.

I wasn’t excited about turning one of our suspects over to Ray, but he had been forthcoming with us. What could it hurt? “I’ll tell you. In twenty-four hours.” That should give us time to speak with her again before we loosed the press on the woman.

“Make it twelve and we’ve got a deal,” Ray said.

“Keep pushing, and it will be forty-eight,” Grace said, getting into the spirit of the negotiation.

“Okay, okay, it’s one full day.”

“Do you have anything else?” I asked him.

Ray scanned a list in front of him. “No one like Lacy and Cam. Then again, I didn’t know Lester was married. Let’s see, I’ve been looking at Sherry Lance and Cara, too. Can you imagine having to work with that man every day?”

I wasn’t about to tell him that we’d eliminated Sherry from our list.

Before I could respond, Grace said, “It’s not much of a motive for murder. How hard is it to get another job?”

“As a matter of fact, Cara already found a new program there to produce,” I said. “Is that all you have?”

“Come on, I think that’s a lot.”

“It is,” I said as Grace and I started to leave.

“Don’t forget your promise,” Ray called out.

“Which one?”

“Both of them. You’re going to give me Lester’s wife tomorrow, and then when you figure it out, I get the scoop.”

Out on the sidewalk, I looked at Grace. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“What, that a cheeseburger from the Boxcar would be great about now?”

I laughed at my friend. “We’ll pick up a bite on the way to Union Square. We need to see if we can wring anything more out of Nancy Patton before we give her name to Ray.”

“You’re right. There’s not much chance she’ll talk to us after we do that,” Grace answered.

We grabbed sandwiches at a place along the way that couldn’t touch Trisha’s fare at the Boxcar, but it was quick, and not too pricey. When we got to Nancy’s shop, I wasn’t sure at first that she was even there. The bell over the door that announced us didn’t stir up any signs of life.

“Hello?” Grace called out.

“Shh,” I said. “Let’s see if we can surprise her.”

We walked through the shop to the back room, and I was surprised to hear the sound of someone crying.

“Nancy?” I asked softly as I tapped on the doorjamb. “Are you all right?”

She dabbed at her eyes with an antique lace handkerchief. “I didn’t hear you come in. I’m sorry.”

“We didn’t mean to interrupt,” I said. “What happened?”

“Men,” she said, and then began to cry again.

Grace moved past me and touched her shoulder lightly. “They can be real prizes, can’t they?”

“I know there are good ones out there,” Nancy said, “but I never seem able to find any of them.”

“Are you talking about Lester?” I asked gently.

“What?” She looked startled by the suggestion. “No, we were finished a long time ago. The only reason he wanted to stay married was so he could use it as an excuse if someone got too close to him. I didn’t mind, it wasn’t inconveniencing me in any way. At least not until Frank came into the picture.”

“Your alibi,” I said.

“He’s more than that,” Nancy admitted. “I thought we were in love, but that was before I knew that he was digging into my life.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just found out he thinks I killed Lester!” she said, and then started crying again.

After she composed herself, I asked, “Did he actually accuse you of it?”

She shook her head. “Not in so many words, but he might as well have. He’s been going around April Springs in disguise trying to find out what really happened.”

I knew I’d seen the man before, and something finally clicked. “He was dressed as a clown, wasn’t he?”

“How could you possibly have known that? It’s Frank’s favorite disguise.”

“I threw him out of the donut shop,” I admitted.

“Good for you. I wish I’d had the nerve to throw him out of my life.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Grace said. “It happens.”

“Too often to me,” she said. “None of this would have happened if Frank hadn’t asked me to marry him. The worst part of it is, he has to know I didn’t do it. He was proposing to me about the time someone killed Lester, but he won’t listen to reason.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I think he’s using the murder as an excuse to back out of it, especially now that I’m free to marry him.”

“It sounds as though you’re better off without him,” Grace said.

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re right, but it’s too soon to tell. It doesn’t matter. He’s gone. He didn’t even have the nerve to tell me to my face. All I got was a note.”

She pointed to a crumpled note on her desk that appeared too brief to be a good-bye.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said, when I could think of nothing else to say.

As we left, Grace said, “I feel bad about turning her over to Ray. She deserves better from us, don’t you think?”

“If she’s telling the truth,” I said as I got out my cell phone.

Grace put a hand on mine to stop me from dialing. “What do you mean?”

“It seems awfully convenient that her alibi left town so suddenly. All we have is her word that she didn’t kill her husband.”

“Is that why you’re calling Jake?”

I looked at her, startled by the idea. “I’m letting Ray know her name early. He might be able to get something else out of her.”

“We weren’t going to tell him until tomorrow.”

“What can I say? Plans change.” I dialed Ray’s number and gave him Nancy’s name and location, told him about Frank Wheeler, too, and the newspaper publisher promised to be in Union Square in half an hour.

Grace was frowning at me when I hung up.

I took a deep breath, and then said, “I’m sorry you don’t approve.”

“I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

“Grace, this is murder we’re talking about here. If she killed her husband, it has to come out. Ray is better than you think. He might get something out of her that we couldn’t manage to.”

“And if he can’t?” she asked.

“Then she gets her tears out of the way in one day, instead of stretching it out into two. It’s the best we can do. I need for things to be resolved, and sooner rather than later.”

“You’re fighting for your business,” Grace said. “I can understand that.”

“It’s more important than that. I need to protect my reputation. I haven’t said anything to you about it, but Lester’s murder is slowly killing my business.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“Enough people have stopped coming in to turn my black ink red, and I don’t have that much in reserve. The pot has to be stirred, whether we like what that leads to or not.”

Grace seemed to think about that, and then nodded. “You’re right. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I must be getting soft.”

“Lacy’s involvement can’t be easy on you,” I said.

“It shouldn’t matter, if she’s the killer. Who’s next on our list?”

“I want to go to the hospital and check on George,” I said. “I can’t believe we haven’t heard anything new.”

Grace glanced at her watch. “Okay. I should have time.”

“Is there somewhere you need to be?”

She admitted, “I’ve got a conference call with my boss, but I could probably put it off until tomorrow.”

“Are you crazy? Your job has to come first. I can drop you off on the way to the hospital.”

As I started driving back, she said, “I hate to feel like I’m bailing out on you, Suzanne.”

I smiled at her briefly. “Are you kidding me? You’re the most supportive person I’ve ever known in my life.”

“I’m telling your mother that you said that,” Grace answered with a grin of her own.

“Go ahead. I’ll just deny it.”

“You would, wouldn’t you?”

Our conversation was interrupted by my cell phone. Was this the news I’d been waiting for?

It was almost as good. After I found out who it was, I said, “Hi, Jake.”

“Hello, sunshine. How are you?”

“Pretty good. How about you?”

“I’m okay. I’m just running a little behind again,” he said.

“Care to tell me why?” It was worth asking the question.

“I would if I could,” he said, and then hung up.

“What was that all about?” Grace asked me.

“I’d tell you if I had the slightest clue,” I admitted.

I dropped Grace off at her car, and then started toward the hospital. As I drove, I noticed that Cara Lassiter was walking in that direction. I pulled over and honked my horn, but she didn’t look at me.

“Cara, it’s Suzanne,” I said.

She turned then, and smiled at me. “I thought you were another hound trying to get my attention. What’s happening to our quaint little town?”