Murder Is Elementary (9 page)

Chapter 28

“But, Mike, there’s no plausible explanation as to why Vicky’s purse was in the closet. Either Hayley or Antonio has to be responsible for Vicky’s murder.”

“There you go with your overactive imagination again. Maybe it wasn’t even Vicky’s purse,” said Mike.

“Then why were Vicky’s wallet and Epi-pen inside?” asked Susan.

“Well, maybe Vicky
borrowed
the purse from Hayley and returned it, forgetting her things were still inside.”

“Now who has an overactive imagination? Vicky would have checked inside before returning it,” said Susan.

“Let’s get some sleep. You can discuss this with Lynette in the morning.” Mike nudged Ludwig off the bedspread and climbed under the covers.

Susan was anxious to tell Lynette, even though it meant admitting she’d been snooping. It wasn’t intentional snooping though. It truly was an accident, or maybe karma, that she wound up in that closet. Finding out that Antonio was in all likelihood
boy toy
or
macho man
by driving to the Omni and the Hilton and showing Vicky’s picture around under false pretenses–that was a different story.

She tossed and turned all night long. The blue walls weren’t helping tonight. What if Westbrook Elementary was being led by a cold blooded killer? It was bad enough that he was a cheater. Poor Hayley––pregnant with his child, holding things together at home while her husband was out gallivanting. Susan got out of bed and turned down the temperature. Maybe that would help her fall asleep. 2am, 3am….the red light of the clock radio was a constant source of stress, reminding her of how few hours of sleep she was getting. Thank God she didn’t have to go to work in the morning. Maybe she should ask her doctor about a prescription for Ambien in case this happened again. Her friend Maggie swore by it. No, maybe that wasn’t such a great idea. She remembered seeing a segment on Dr. Phil about this lady who took Ambien and started cooking and eating pasta in the middle of the night. She kept gaining weight and didn’t understand why because she had no recollection of doing this. Her husband was going to leave her because he thought she’d become a prescription pill addict, and because she’d gained thirty pounds. Dr. Phil had to patch things up for them. Susan decided to make herself a cup of chamomile tea.

Susan was relieved to see the first hint of sunlight through the window.

“Lynette, I have some important information for you.” Susan called Lynette’s cell even before getting out of bed. Mike was still sound asleep beside her. “I found Vicky’s purse in Antonio and Hayley’s closet last night. Don’t ask. I think you need to go over there and get it. The Epi-pen was still in it.”

“Vicky’s purse in Hayley’s closet. How much sleep did you get last night, Mom?”

“I’m serious. This is really important.”

“What on earth were you doing in her closet?” asked Lynette.

“I was looking for the restroom. That house is so big, I’m sure I’m not the first person to have gotten lost in there,” said Susan.

“Uh huh. We’ll go with that,” said Lynette. “How do you even know it was Vicky’s?”

“I checked the wallet,” said Susan.

“This really sounds crazy, Mom,” said Lynette. “I wish you would just keep your nose out of trouble.”

“But Lynette…this is an important clue. You should be thanking me for this information.”

“Yeah, okay, Mom. I’ll check it out. It’s Sunday so it might take a while to get a search warrant.”

“I have one more piece of information for you. I don’t want any lectures about snooping though,” said Susan

“Just tell me.”

“I took a little ride to the Omni and the Hilton the other day. The waitress at the Hilton recognized Vicky and Antonio and remembered seeing them together on a few occasions. I’ll bet he’s one of the cryptic contacts that were on Vicky’s phone.”

“Mom, I told you Jackson and I are going to look into that. You have to be patient. Just because Vicky and Antonio were involved with each other doesn’t mean he killed her.”

“I know, but it could be a piece of the puzzle,” said Susan.

“But this isn’t your puzzle, Mom. Let me go and get busy securing a warrant. Go work on your scrapbook. I’ll talk to you later,” said Lynette.

Chapter 29
    

It had taken several hours, but Lynette had the search warrant in hand.

“Come on, let’s get over to the Petrocelli household,” said Lynette. Jackson followed her into the cruiser. He looked like a bird that had just swallowed a canary.

“Okay, Jackson. I know you’re dying to tell me something.”

“I called Theresa Rizzo last night,” said Jackson.

“Wow, I’m proud of you. What did you say?”

“I told her I thought she was really pretty and nice and I wanted to go out with her,” said Jackson.

“That sounds a little sketchy,” said Lynette.

“I guess it was. She said she was really busy with work right now but maybe sometime. Sounds like a blow off to me,” said Jackson.

“Well, don’t lose hope. Next time we’ll do a little role playing before you call.”

Jackson raised his eyebrows and tilted his head.

“Relax. Not that kind of role playing,” said Lynette.

Just then, they pulled into Antonio’s driveway. Jackson knocked on the door.

“Can I help you?” Antonio answered the door wearing a thermal undershirt and pajama bottoms. He had yet to comb his hair. “What can I do for you, officers?”

“Good morning, Sir. Sorry to bother you so early in the morning but we have a warrant to search your premises,” said Jackson.

Antonio unfolded the paper, rubbed his eyes, and read it. Twice.”

“Please get your family together and wait here in the living room,” said Lynette.

Antonio looked thoroughly puzzled. ”A search warrant? For our house?”

“Yes, Sir. We’ll start upstairs,” said Lynette.

Just then, Hayley entered the living room wearing a satin robe and carrying the baby. Tony followed behind her like a baby duckling.

“What’s this about?” she asked.

“They have a search warrant,” said Antonio. “I can’t imagine what they’d be looking for.” They sat on the sofa. “This is totally insane. They’ll realize that when they don’t find anything. Let them waste their time.”

Jackson and Lynette headed up the stairs. “This way, Jackson. Mom said the purse was in the closet in the master bedroom.”

“And your mom knows that because…”

“Never mind. In here.” Lynette led him to the closet and turned on the light. Sure enough, there was a gold purse on the floor. Lynette put on gloves, although she knew this evidence had already been compromised. She would most likely have to explain how her mom’s prints got on the purse. Lynette opened it and took out the wallet. Sure enough, there was Vicky’s driver’s license and credit cards. It was Vicky’s.

“Now what?” asked Jackson.

“I think we should continue with a thorough search,” said Lynette. “Let’s go through the rest of the bedroom. I’ll check under the bed. Why don’t you check the dresser drawers?”

Jackson carefully emptied each of the dresser drawers.

“Nothing unusual here,” he said.

“Nothing under the bed either, except for a few Matchbox cars. Let’s check the other upstairs rooms and then go downstairs into the study,” said Lynette. They searched through Tony’s room, the baby’s room, and the guest room but found nothing alarming.
The baby’s room is adorable
, thought Lynette.
If I ever do have a baby, I’ll borrow that idea of painting a forest mural on the wall opposite the crib.

“I didn’t find anything unusual up here,” said Jackson. “Why don’t we try downstairs?” Lynette followed him down the steps and back through the living room where Hayley was giving the baby a bottle and watching a DVD with Tony.

“The study is over here,” said Jackson. Lynette followed him into the tastefully decorated study. It definitely had the look of a man cave with its dark leather recliner, big screen TV, and masculine-looking desk.

“Let’s box up all these files and desk contents. Grab the laptop too,” said Lynette. By this time, another pair of officers had arrived to help with the search. Hours later, Lynette sent the other officers back to the station with the boxes of potential evidence.

“Let’s go question our suspects,” said Jackson. They went into the living room. Hayley put the baby in the playpen and sent Tony to his room to play. Antonio came in from the kitchen munching on a bagel.

“We found Vicky’s purse in your closet. How did it get there?” asked Jackson.

“I’ve never seen it before,” said Antonio

“Me neither,” said Hayley. “I cleaned thoroughly the day before the party. I would have noticed that if it had been in my closet.”

“Stop playing games. Which one of you took it from Vicky’s office the night of the murder? We know you both were there that night,” said Lynette.

“So was half the town,” shouted Antonio. “Hayley, does your Dad have a good lawyer he can recommend?”

“No need for that yet. You’re not under arrest. We’re just having a conversation.” Jackson hooked his thumbs on his pockets. “You were among the first people who arrived in Vicky’s office after she was found dead.”

“Well, then someone would have noticed if one of us was holding Vicky’s purse,” said Hayley. Lynette detected more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“We’re just going around in circles. We’re going to go through the items we took from the house and we’ll get back to you,” said Lynette.

Antonio showed them out and slammed he door behind them.

Lynette and Jackson went back to the station and anxiously began going through the laptop and files from Antonio’s office. They sent the purse and its contents to the lab. Lynette hoped they’d find fingerprints other than her mom’s. “Hey, look at this card,” said Lynette. “It’s addressed to
boy toy
.”

“Well, that means Antonio sent the threatening text we found on Vicky’s phone,” said Jackson.

“Yes but it was just a threat. Unless we get fingerprints on the purse or some other tangible evidence, we won’t have enough to charge him” said Lynette.

“The purse was in his closet. Either he or Hayley had to have put it there. They both knew about the peanut allergy––everyone did. Vicky got the job because of her allergy. Westbrook is a magnet school and they thought Vicky would be the perfect choice since she’d be able to relate.”

“My money is on Antonio since he had a stronger motive. I’m sure he didn’t want it to be public knowledge that he and Vicky were having an affair,” said Lynette.

“But if Hayley found out about the affair she may have been angry enough to kill. She’s more likely to have baked cupcakes than Antonio,” said Jackson.

“But Antonio had more access. He could have given the cupcake to Vicky any time that day.”

“I think we have some more investigating to do,” said Jackson.

Chapter 30

Susan was leafing through her new cookbook––
Easy Vegan Meals
. She and Mike were not vegan but she did want to learn some new healthy recipes.
Hmm,
she thought,
this one requires sun-dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, and something called seitan
.
Too many weird ingredients.
She flipped to another one.
Hmmm, dice the garlic, chop the bok-choy, and mince the onion. Mince? Too much work. Okay, this one looks good,
she thought as she flipped through a few more pages. Pulse in a food processor…Are you kidding? Any recipe requiring a food processor shouldn’t be in a cookbook with the word
easy
in its title. The ring of her cell phone was a welcome interruption.

“Hello.”

“Mrs. W, this is Carolina.” She was speaking in a quick, high pitched voice.

“What’s wrong? Catch your breath and tell me.”

“The Department of Children and Families was just here. They wanted to see who was acting as my guardian. Since I’m only sixteen, they said it was against the law for me to be living here alone. I told them the housekeeper stayed here but that wasn’t good enough for them. The said they were going to find me a foster family to live with until my dad is able to take care of me.” Susan could tell that she was crying.

“Okay, calm down. I’ll take you myself if I have to.”

“No, they said they had families that were cleared and licensed to take foster children. I said I would get in touch with my grandparents. I don’t have any grandparents who are able to do that but I figured it would buy me some time.”

“I know a social worker. She works at Westbrook. I’ll talk to her about this.”

“Thanks, Mrs. W. I don’t want to live with strangers.”

“Don’t worry, that isn’t going to happen.” As soon as she hung up with Carolina, Susan looked up Jody Decker’s number and immediately entered it into her phone.

“Hi, Jody. This is Susan Wiles, we met at the Petrocelli’s party on Saturday night.”

“Yes, I remember. What can I do for you?”

“Vicky Rogers’s daughter, Carolina, just got a visit from the Department of Children and Families. They want to put her in a foster home because she’s underage and living on her own. They do have a live-in housekeeper. Her Dad’s in rehab trying to get sober. He may be there for several months.”

“I’ll make some phone calls. They do have grounds to place her in foster care but we can try to delay things. Does she have any other relatives who could take her in?”

“I don’t think so. Javier’s parents are in Columbia. Vicky’s mom is dead and her father is in a nursing home.”

“Any aunts, uncles, cousins?” asked Jody.

“I don’t think so, but I’ll check with Carolina,” said Susan.

“I’ll make some calls and meanwhile, try to locate a relative. That would be the simplest answer,” said Jody.

“Thank you so much. We both appreciate it,” replied Susan.

“I’m happy to help,” said Jody.

Susan felt a little better. Her head was beginning to hurt so she grabbed some pain killers and a glass of water from the kitchen before calling Carolina back.

“Carolina, I spoke to the social worker I was telling you about. Do you have any relatives who could step in and assume temporary custody while your dad recovers?”

“Not any that I know. Wait, I think my Mom had a sister. She was much younger and I don’t think they were close or I would have heard about her. I’ll go through her papers again and see if I can find anything.”

“Okay. Hang in there. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Susan hung up and realized that Mike would be back any minute. She hadn’t figured out dinner yet and started foraging through the cabinets and fridge.
Well,
she thought.
Pizza it is
. She picked up the phone and called Dominos.