Murder for Choir (5 page)

Until this moment, I hadn’t realized the detective was so big. His shoulders were massive, and I was guessing that under the white shirt and gray sports jacket, the guy was all muscle. And if the narrowing of his dark brown eyes was any clue, the man was ticked off.

“If I’d known you were going to screw with my witness, I wouldn’t have let you see him.” His voice was low pitched and dangerously calm. My dad used that same tone when I was a kid. Afterward, I wouldn’t be able to sit comfortably for a week.

Instinctively, I edged up against the wall. “Eric is a minor.” Unless he’d been held back a grade.

“Mr. DeWeese was willing to act as his guardian.”

“Mr. DeWeese is the reason the poor kid is here in the first place.”

“Which is one of the many reasons I called him when I brought in Eric Metz. I wanted to look into the coincidence.”

Oops. “How was I supposed to know that?”

The detective sighed and raked a hand through his curly dark hair. “You weren’t. In fact, you aren’t supposed to be here at all.”

“Well, Detective Kaiser, you’re lucky I am. A defense attorney worth his retainer would get a judge to throw out any information you got from this interview. You don’t strike me as the type who’d appreciate having a murder suspect walk on a technicality.”

“Call me Mike.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

My witty repartee made him smile. “My name is Mike. I figure if we’re going to yell at each other, we should do it on a first-name basis.”

That made sense. I held out my hand. “Nice to meet you, Mike. I’m Paige.” Miss Manners had nothing on me.

For a moment the detective just stared at my hand. Finally, he relented and shook it. His hand was large and the skin a bit rough. The hand reflected the man.

Formalities over, I asked, “Where’s Larry? I figured he’d be back by now.”

“He was hungry. I told him I wouldn’t start questioning the kid until he returned.”

Good plan. “Did you get a chance to talk to anyone else who witnessed our run-in with Greg yesterday?”

The detective smiled. “The home economics teacher, Felicia Frederickson, backed up your story.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Makes me wonder why Mr. DeWeese’s version of events was different.”

“Did you ask him?”

He hooked his thumb into his belt loop. “I did.”

I waited. The detective just looked at me. “And?”

“Your boss said you were new to the show choir community and he was so focused on your reactions that he must have missed the victim taking verbal shots at him. Your boss thinks you’re the overly sensitive type.”

“You don’t?”

He laughed. “Anyone who can discover a dead body, be accused of murder by her boss, and show up at the police station ready to do battle for a student she barely knows is more likely a thorn than a wilting flower.”

I was pretty sure I’d just been insulted, but I decided to let it pass. The guy had a gun. Enough said.

The two of us looked at each other, waiting for the other to say something. Huh. Guess the conversation had run out of possibilities.

“My work here is done. Call me if you get the urge to question Eric. I can be here in fifteen minutes.” Ten if I let Aunt Millie drive.

Detective Kaiser grinned. “I don’t think that will be necessary. But I do want you to call me if you hear anything you think I should know.” He pulled a card out of his jacket pocket and held it out.

“Like what?”

“Mr. DeWeese was right about one thing. You’re new. You don’t have any preconceived ideas about the parties involved so you might hear something important that other people might shrug off.” His smile remained, but his eyes were serious. Mike was in cop mode. “Humor me.”

What the hell. I took the card and shoved it into my purse. With a jaunty wave, I trucked down the hallway toward to the front door. Happy to be free, I gave the door a shove and promptly set off the alarm. A minute later, Mike and ten of his friends came running. Do I know how to get a guy’s attention or what?

“He might have a point.”

“Who?” I’d just finished giving Aunt Millie the details
of my police department foray, leaving out the part where I set off the security alarm. It was my story. I was allowed to edit.

“The detective.” My aunt shifted on the living room couch for a better view of her toes. Grabbing the bottle of nail polish off the oak end table, Millie set to work turning the ends of her toes shocking pink. “As an outsider you have a fresh perspective. Ask a few questions and see what happens. If you play your cards right, you could bust this case wide open.”

Aunt Millie looked ecstatic.

I was horrified.

“I just want to keep my job.” For now. I was still hoping a better gig would come along. One that didn’t include a body count. “Larry was annoyed I showed up at the police station. How do you think he’d feel if I started asking people for show choir gossip?”

“That man needs karma to give him a swift kick in the ass.” Aunt Millie put down the bottle of polish with a thud, causing Killer to look up from his perch on the floor. He glared at me as though his being awakened was my fault. Millie didn’t notice. “Does Larry have a birthday coming up? I have a hair removal cream that was recalled last year. It’s been known to cause rashes in some rather unmentionable areas.”

Just mentioning Larry’s unmentionables had me breaking out into a rash. Yuck.

My face must have said no, because Aunt Millie sighed. “Okay, no rashes. But let me ask you one thing. Do you think that Eric kid is a murderer?”

I’d only known the kid for three days, but I couldn’t picture Eric doing anything more rebellious than toilet papering someone’s house, and I told Millie so.

“That’s what I thought. Which means a murderer is roaming around free.” Aunt Millie patted Killer on the head, causing him to make throaty sounds of delight.

“Which is why I should stay out of it.” Hunting down a murderer sounded like a good way to get killed.

Swinging her legs onto the floor, Aunt Millie gingerly stood up. “I’m not talking about playing Nancy Drew. I’m just saying it wouldn’t hurt to keep your ears open and ask a few questions. No one would think twice. You’re the new girl. You’re supposed to ask questions. It’s the only way you get to know people.”

With that pronouncement, Aunt Millie hobbled on her heels out of the room, Killer trotting happily behind her. Leaving me to wonder if Aunt Millie wasn’t on to something. I might not want this job, but I had it. My pride wanted to prove I could not only coach show choir but excel at it. To do that, I needed the kids to trust me.

I looked down at my watch. It was only eight o’clock, which gave me time to ask a few questions tonight. Getting Eric off the hook would go a long way toward convincing the rest of the students to give me a chance. And unbeknownst to Eric, he had given me the perfect place to start.

“What do you want?” Chessie Bock’s eyes narrowed to unattractive little slits as she glared at me from the open doorway.

“Eric wanted me to tell you that he’s okay.” I watched Chessie’s face go from suspicious to concerned to pissed in a flash.

“Why didn’t he call me instead of you?” Her lips pursed together, and her nostrils flared. Jealously wasn’t an attractive look for Chessie.

“He didn’t call me. I saw him at the police station. He’s trying to get a hold of his parents.”

She chewed on her bottom lip and nodded. “They’re in Maine. Eric was supposed to go with them.”

“But he wanted to come to camp. He told me.”

“I wanted him to come to camp,” Chessie corrected. “Eric wanted to go fishing with his dad. This is my senior year. I want to do better than place fifth. Eric’s a great singer, but he has some trouble dancing. He needs all the help he can get.”

Yikes. The guy was sitting in jail, and his girlfriend was dissing his moves. Not cool.

Chessie seemed to read my mind. “Someone like you wouldn’t understand.” She gave me a hard stare. “Our choir has to be way better than the others even to have a shot at winning. If it weren’t for Mr. DeWeese, we would have won last year. He doesn’t know how to play the game.”

“What game?”

Chessie brushed a lock of dark hair out of her face and let out a frustrated sigh. “Look, Mr. DeWeese is a nice guy and a pretty good teacher, but he doesn’t do the things he needs to do to get us to the top. Mr. Lucas might have been a creep, but he was on the Regional Performance Choir Board. He made a point of knowing the judges. He got his team an advantage by any means possible.”

I wasn’t sure what was creepier—Greg Lucas hitting on Chessie or her admiration for his schmoozing skills.

“It sounds like you know a lot about Mr. Lucas.”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

“Could you tell me about him?” Her eyes filled with suspicion, and I rushed to say, “I guess I feel bad that I don’t even know if he has a wife or kids. After all, I was the one who found him dead. You know?”

Chessie’s mouth formed a surprised circle. Clearly, she didn’t know. After a moment, she said, “He got divorced last year. Everyone on the competition circuit was talking about it. His wife said he was having an affair. I’m betting it was with one of the judges from the Midwest Invitational. His choir had huge pitch issues, and they still took first. Now that he’s dead, we might actually have a shot at winning.” She sighed. “Too bad.”

“Too bad what?”

“We could win if we had a real coach.” She gave me a
saccharine smile. “Instead, we’re stuck with you.” With that, she flounced back into the house and slammed the door behind her.

With no camp the next day, I was free to rethink my strategy for getting the kids on my side. Chessie hadn’t been impressed by my willingness to help her boyfriend. Maybe once he was sprung, she’d feel differently.

I got dressed and headed down to the kitchen, hoping to find Aunt Millie. Otherwise, I might not eat. The last two days, Millie had left the house before I headed for sustenance. Both days, I’d found Killer sitting in front of the refrigerator. The minute I tried to go for the milk, he growled and snapped. Food wasn’t worth losing an arm for. Especially not Aunt Millie’s food.

Thank goodness my aunt was in the kitchen. Killer was nowhere in sight. Aunt Millie turned her perfectly lacquered head and smiled over her coffee cup.

I poured myself a large mug of coffee, snagged a bagel from the cupboard, and sat down at the counter. “I took your advice.”

“That’s wonderful.” Millie’s eyes gleamed. “Jackie Mitchell swears you’ll meet the man of your dreams if you just give the service a chance.”

I groaned. “Not that advice.” Aunt Millie had been happily unmarried all of her life, but that didn’t dampen her enthusiasm for matchmaking.

“Oh. You’re getting highlights.”

“No. My student, Eric Metz, asked me to tell his girlfriend that he was okay. I did and decided to ask her some questions about the murdered director.”

“Did you learn anything?”

“Turns out Greg Lucas had an affair and got divorced.” I took a swig of coffee to fortify myself and added, “My star performer also thinks my presence sabotages any chance the team has at winning this year.”

Millie put her cup on the counter with a thud. “Your student clearly doesn’t know who she’s dealing with.”