Read MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) Online

Authors: Kassandra Lamb

Tags: #Suspense, #Mystery, #Psychological, #female sleuth

MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (5 page)

BOOK: MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1)
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“How are you doing, Kate?” He sounded choked up.

Did something else happen to Liz?
she wondered numbly.

“How touching,” the other guy said.

Rob ignored him but Mac stepped forward. “Get the hell outta my office,” he growled at the man. The guy didn’t leave but he did step back to the doorway.

Thinking about what might have happened to Liz was opening cracks in the numbness. Kate sensed some horrible truth was lurking, about to overwhelm her.

“I can’t think about Liz.”

“What did you say, dear?” Rob asked.

She hadn’t realized she’d said the words out loud. Again she whispered, “I can’t think about Liz.”

Then she lifted her tear-stained face to him. “Rob, I can’t! I just can’t think about Liz.”

The dam inside her chest broke. She started sobbing as she rocked back and forth on the couch.

Rob wrapped his arms tightly around her and rocked with her. “It’s okay, sweetheart. You don’t have to think about anything right now.”

~~~~~~~

They’d forgotten that Detective Phillips existed.

He was taking it all in, especially the endearments–
dear
and
sweetheart.
This wasn’t a man comforting a grieving friend. He was looking at two lovers, who’d plotted to kill their spouses.

I can’t think about Liz.

Sure sounded like guilt to him. Then again, her grief seemed genuine. She couldn’t be that good an actress. But she wouldn’t be the first woman who murdered her husband, then realized with horror that she still cared for him.

Phillips slipped out of the room. Better not let them see the grin spreading across his face. Now that he knew what had happened, all he had to do was prove it.

He leaned against the wall in the back hallway of the restaurant and waited.

A few minutes later, Franklin led Mrs. Huntington down the hall. Phillips straightened and opened his mouth.

Franklin cut him off. “I’m taking Mrs. Huntington home–”

“Her husband’s been murdered. I have to question her.”

“I’m taking her home now.” Franklin’s tone was curt. “You may question her later, at her house. Call first.” He half led, half carried the stumbling woman out the back door of the restaurant.

The scruffy little guy, the restaurant owner, held the door for them. He patted Mrs. Huntington on the shoulder as they went past.

~~~~~~~~

Rob helped Kate into the passenger seat of his car. He was still trying to figure out what the hell Liz had to do with any of this. But now was not the time for questions.

He went around to the driver’s side and got in. He was buckling the seatbelt around her when Kate turned to him, wide-eyed. “Murdered?”

Rob’s chest tightened. His eyes stung. For a moment he wasn’t sure he could hold it together.

Before he’d started yelling at Phillips, the detective had told him that Ed’s car had blown up, with Ed in it. But Kate wasn’t ready to deal with that gruesome image, or the thought of Ed’s last moments alive.

He was barely dealing with it himself.

“We’ll find out the details later, sweetheart. Right now, I’m taking you home.”

 

Detective Phillips didn’t call first before showing up at Kate’s door an hour later. He had a female uniformed officer in tow. Rob begrudgingly let them in.

The uniform’s nametag read
Hernandez
. “I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am,” she said to Kate, who sat mutely on the sofa clutching her stomach.

The young woman gave Rob a slight nod, sympathy in her brown eyes. She took out a small notepad and stood unobtrusively in a corner.

Rob sat down beside Kate and put his arm around her shoulders. He waved Phillips toward an armchair.

During the last hour, the detective seemed to have dredged up a modicum of humanity. Leaving out most of the graphic details, he told them what had happened. Ed had left his office at eleven-ten, gone to the parking garage nearby, started his car, and it had exploded. A passerby called 911, but by the time the fire engines arrived, the car had been completely engulfed in flames.

“He was probably gone as soon as the explosion occurred,” Phillips said in a voice that sounded almost sympathetic. “He never knew what happened, never felt any pain.”

Rob knew damn well that probably wasn’t true. But he had to give Phillips credit for the kind lie. It was what loved ones would worry about. Did the person suffer? Did they have time to know they were dying?

Kate was shaking. He tightened his arm around her.

The detective said, “Mrs. Huntington, I need to speak with you alone.”

She turned to Rob, horror on her face.

“I’m the family attorney, Detective,” he said in the firm tone he used in court. “I’m not leaving the room.”

Phillips narrowed his eyes at him, but then he shrugged. “Mrs. Huntington, do you know why your husband left his office at that time? It was a bit early for lunch.”

“He was going to get tires,” Kate choked out. Fresh tears streamed down her cheeks.

“He was probably going to buy the tires, then go get lunch while they were being mounted,” Rob said.

“I wasn’t asking you, Mr. Franklin.”

Rob’s jaw tightened. “Too bad, ’cause I answered. The woman just lost her husband and you want a dissertation from her?”

Phillips didn’t respond right away. Then he asked, “Who else, besides Mr. Franklin here, might want your husband dead?”

Red hot rage exploded in Rob’s chest. Fists clenched, he jumped to his feet. “How dare you, you son of a bitch! Ed was my friend….” His voice broke. He struggled to suppress the sob threatening to escape his throat.

Kate reached out toward him. Rob took her hand, not sure who was comforting who at the moment.

Phillips stood and made a mock bow in his direction. “I’ll rephrase the question, Counselor. Mrs. Huntington, did your husband have any enemies?”

Rob turned his back on the detective and lowered himself down beside Kate again.

After a brief pause, she said, “No. Eddie’s a very sweet man.”

“Perhaps at work? Everybody makes at least some enemies at work, office politics and all.” Phillips also resumed his seat.

“He’s an accountant,” she said. “Accountants lead very boring lives, at least at work.”

Pain stabbed Rob’s heart. She was using the present tense.

“Maybe he was embezzling?” Phillips asked.

Kate just frowned at him, her eyes narrowed.

Rob took a deep breath to calm himself, then said, “Since he’s co-owner of the firm, he’d be stealing from himself.”

An awkward silence. Then the detective asked more questions. How did Ed and his partner get along? What were his habits? Did he come home on time? Could he have been having an affair?

Kate glared at him. “You’ve got to be kidding, Detective.”

“I have to ask,” Phillips said to her as he gave Rob a defiant look.

Ignoring the detective, Rob turned to Kate. He cupped his hand around the side of her face and swiped the tears from her cheek with his thumb. What he’d give to spare her the next few moments.

Quietly, he said, “Detective, it wasn’t Ed’s car. It was Kate’s.”

She clutched her stomach and sobbed. He pulled her against him. Tucking her head under his chin, he stroked her hair.

“Who would want you dead, Mrs. Huntington?” Phillips asked.

She shook her head against Rob’s chest.

“I think that’s enough for now, Detective.” He wrapped his arms more tightly around her. “Sh, sh. It’s okay, dear. It’s okay,” he whispered into her hair.

Kate sobbed against his shirt for a couple minutes. Then she pulled back and looked up at him, her eyes full of pain.

He shook his head slightly.

What a dumb thing to say. Of course it’s not okay.

CHAPTER FIVE

 

For Kate, the next few days went by in a numb fog, punctuated by moments of excruciating reality.

At Liz’s insistence, she’d spent the first night in the Franklins’ guest bedroom, staring at the ceiling. Rob had borrowed her cell phone and called her family. Then he’d tracked down Eddie’s parents, who were traveling in Europe.

Kate was relieved she hadn’t had to tell the Huntingtons that their only child was dead. Then she’d felt guilty for feeling relieved.

The next morning, Rob drove her home. He promised to come back once he’d taken care of a few essentials at his office and cleared his schedule for the rest of the day.

“You gonna be okay for a little while?” he asked, ambivalence in his voice. “Your family should start showing up soon.”

She nodded. “I need to take a shower.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She’d be alive when he got back. She wasn’t the suicidal type. But that was the highest level of okay she thought she could manage today.

She sat down on her living room sofa, thinking she’d get up in a moment and change out of yesterday’s clothes. She was still sitting there a half hour later when the doorbell rang.

It was her oldest brother and his wife, Phyllis, who lived in Silver Spring near Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, Kate wasn’t very close to them. She and Michael were six years apart and had little in common.

Phyllis headed for the kitchen to make coffee while Michael stood around looking uncomfortable. When his wife suggested he go pick up the incoming family members at the airport, he hustled out the door.

Miraculously, Kate’s younger sister, Mary, was the next to arrive. She’d left her husband in charge of their nine and seven-year-old girls and had camped out at the San Francisco airport the night before until she could get on a red-eye. Michael dropped her off, then turned around to go back to Baltimore-Washington International Airport to get their parents and brother, Jack, due in from Florida and Chicago respectively over the next couple hours.

Kate and Mary were only twenty months apart. Mary was an inch or two shorter, with a slightly more hourglass figure and a tinge of red in her dark curly hair, but her blue eyes matched her older sister’s.

Kate was much closer to her sister than to her brothers. The sight of her unleashed a round of tears. Mary sat down on the sofa and wrapped her in her arms. They hugged, rocking back and forth, until the surge of pain passed and the numbness returned.

Then Kate watched as her baby sister quietly took charge. Arrangements were made with Phyllis for the rest of the family to stay with them in Silver Spring. Then Mary carried her own suitcase up the stairs to the guest bedroom.

~~~~~~~~

Rob put the car in park. Leaning his forehead on the steering wheel, he groped blindly for Liz’s hand. “I almost said to sit tight while I got Ed to help with the wheelchair,” he choked out. They clung to each other for a minute. Then Rob carried first the empty wheelchair, then his wife, up the porch steps.

Inside, he transferred Liz from the wheelchair to the sofa next to Kate. He carefully lifted his wife’s legs onto an ottoman. Liz took Kate’s hand.

The streaked makeup and disheveled hair told Rob the shower had never happened, but Kate was wearing fresh clothes. Mary’s doing, no doubt.

Kate’s parents and Jack arrived. Mac showed up a few minutes later. He was unusually quiet. After patting Kate awkwardly on the shoulder, he took off with Michael and Jack for the closest bar.

Rob declined the invitation to join them. Sitting in the armchair across from Kate and Liz, he stared sightlessly at the rug, and grieved for his friend.

~~~~~~~~

The second day after Eddie’s death, the roller coaster of emotions was worse. Kate retreated into the numbing fog, wrapping it around her like a thick blanket whenever the pain threatened to overwhelm her.

Phyllis brought Jack and their parents over in the morning. Michael had gone to work, for which Kate was grateful. One less person milling around trying to figure out what to say to her. Having her family here was good, made it more bearable. But Kate had no desire to talk to anyone.

Bridget O’Donnell, a shy woman by nature, seemed to understand. She sat quietly beside her daughter most of the day. Kate’s father sat in the armchair across from them, eyes red-rimmed, big hands on his knees. “Kin I get ya anythin’, lass?” he would ask periodically, his slight Irish brogue thickened by emotion.

Not trusting her voice, she shook her head.

Throughout the day, her mind kept going back to the evening of their anniversary. Tears slid down her cheeks as she relived the conversation over dinner. As usual, they’d talked about the renovations they were making on their old house. Having turned the small dark rooms of the first two floors into the bright, airy living spaces they preferred, they’d wondered what to tackle next. The tiny rooms under the eaves on the third floor or the front porch?

They’d decided on the porch. A friendly debate had ensued regarding how to furnish it once it was scraped, sanded and repainted. Kate had voted for wicker rockers.

“I don’t know,” Eddie had said. “I like those wooden chairs that you can never get out of because the seat’s so low and the back tilts way back.”

“I think you’re talking about Adirondack chairs.”

“Why the heck are they called that?”

“I have no clue,” Kate had admitted with a laugh.

Eddie had then brought up their other most common topic of conversation. “Of course, if you do happen to get pregnant soon, we’ll need to think about where to put a nursery.” They’d rehashed the possibility of fertility treatments for a few minutes before dropping the subject for lighter conversation over dessert.

She couldn’t get the image out of her head of Eddie licking the last of the chocolate mousse off his spoon and pretending to swoon. The idea that she would never see him sitting across the table again, that he would never again reach over to hold her hand, was unfathomable.

But there would be no more anniversaries, and no babies with Eddie’s sweet smile.

Kate swiped at her wet cheeks with the back of her hand and struggled to wrap the blanket of fog around her once more.

~~~~~~~~

Midday, the phone rang. Mary answered it and was informed that the coroner’s office was releasing the body. She contacted a funeral home and plans were made for a viewing and memorial service.

BOOK: MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1)
5.15Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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