NAILED (26 page)

“Suzette, sorry to bother you again, but does Mrs. Hachmeister know where you keep the key cards? And if so, does she know how to activate them to make them work at the doors?”

“No and no. They’re locked in a safe and only I have the key. I keep it on my key ring and it’s always with me. She was never trained on the software, plus you need a password to get in.”

“Okay, but everyone in the building has to have a card, so is there a master card key keeper? Someone who could have made her a card if asked?”

Silence on the other end.

“The property managers. It’s their system after all, and each office suite gets a password so that they can activate and deactivate cards as needed without having to go through the property managers.”

“So she could have asked them to make a card for her?”

“Technically, yes, but then it would show up in our system. And when I just checked for Victor’s card, there were no new cards added to our system.”

“Maybe they put it under their own master system,” I suggested.

“Yes, that could have happened, but why would she do that? If you’re suggesting that Mrs. Hachmeister is the guilty party, asking someone to make her a new card would only draw suspicion to herself, right?”

“I guess.”

“Let me put you on hold.”

I was suddenly listening to music. As hold music went, this wasn’t all that bad. A couple of minutes later, Suzette came back on the line.

“I talked to our property manager and made up a story about Mrs. Hachmeister losing her card. I told them that I hadn’t gotten around to it and before I did, I wanted to make sure she didn’t ask them first. They said no, she never asked. And I checked Gary’s while I was at it. He used his card on Saturday morning to come into the building, so she didn’t somehow have his.”

“Thanks, Suzette. You’ve been more than thorough. I knew you’d be a great fit with our firm.”

So if Gail attacked her husband, she had to have used Victor’s card. And if she used Victor’s card, she could only get it one way. I sat there pondering this for a moment and then realized with a jolt that all of this meant nothing. I was no further than when this information fell into my lap an hour ago except for two things. The first was that I now knew for certain I was looking for one person and not two for both crimes, and the second was a gut feeling that told me Gail didn’t do it.

If I was going to follow my gut instinct about Gail, then I was back at the same place I was before. All of my suspects wanted Victor dead, but not one of them had any problems with Gary Hachmeister. So did that mean the killer was someone on one of Gary’s construction crews? Perhaps Gary and Victor were running a scam with one of the foremen and something went awry. If that was the case, I would never find the killer. I couldn’t start showing up on construction sites. I would get thrown off immediately; or worse, I would get tangled up in the illegal immigrant scheme and I had a feeling whoever was at the head of that, would not take my involvement lightly.

I had to find a connection between one of my current suspects and Gary Hachmeister. I felt certain I could leave off Mary McCarthy, Brian Jankowski, Elizabeth Applegate, and Kate Cavanaugh. They may have all had beefs with Victor for one reason or another, but I didn’t think any of them knew Gary with the exception of Kate.

So who did that leave me with? Ruth and Delilah Sanjari and Maddi Wickersham. I could pare that list down by getting rid of Ruth. Could the woman stay sober long enough to put an elaborate plan into place? And what was her gripe with Gary? She was a mom and maybe she never liked Victor’s choice in friends. It sounded flimsy to me, so I moved on to Delilah. She was actually heard threatening her brother shortly before he died, and if Victor and Gary had been friends since childhood, Delilah obviously knew Gary Hachmeister well. Same with Maddi. Her sister was married to Victor, and Maddi could have come across the Gary on many occasions.

My sister and Marla were at a meeting. I grabbed my bag and told Millie I had a few appointments. My first stop was Delilah Sanjari’s apartment. I parked in front of the bike shop. I could see Mr. Annunzio inside with a customer, so I made my way around to the back. Delilah was just coming down the stairs with what looked like a bag of trash.

“More questions? Give it up. Let the police figure it out.” Delilah walked to a large trash bin behind the shop. She lifted the heavy lid and tossed the bag in. “Come on up. I got nothing else to do.”

I followed her upstairs into a very tiny space. There was a small kitchenette directly in front of the door. To the right was a living room with two recliner chairs with a table between them. On the opposite wall was a flat screen TV. There was a window that looked over the front of the bike shop. There was also a door next to the TV, which I assumed led to a bedroom and bathroom. I couldn’t imagine another person living here, but the place was spotless and for just Delilah, I thought it was rather cozy.

“Have a seat. Can I get you something? Coffee, a glass of water? I don’t have any alcohol. Don’t want to keep any temptations around for my mother, and besides, I’m like my brother. Neither one of us drinks. Or drank, I guess I should say for him. When you grow up with an alcoholic parent, it turns you off liquor, let me tell you. Or you become one yourself, I guess, but that didn’t happen with us.”

For the first time I saw actual sorrow on her face at the mention of her brother.

“Do you miss him?” I asked.

Delilah sat down next to me on the other recliner and looked out the window. She turned back to me and her eyes were wet.

“Yeah, I guess I do. We fought all the time, but that was just us, you know. We were both yellers. He ah, well, he was a good brother. He didn’t have to take care of me, but he did. I don’t know what happened to me. I had a lot of potential when I was in school. I think I just wanted to rebel against my mom, and then it just got out of hand and I never amounted to much. But Victor always helped me out. Yelled every step of the way about it,” Delilah laughed, “but he paid the rent here like clockwork.”

“Tell me about your relationship with Gary?”

Delilah gave me a funny look. “Gary? Gary Hachmeister? Why would you want to know about him?”

“Because he was attacked on Saturday night. It looks like someone tried to kill him.”

Delilah’s hand went to her heart. “Are you kidding me? What the hell is going on? It’s got to be someone they both work with.”

“Or someone they both knew really well,” I said.

It only took a couple of seconds for Delilah’s eyes to grow wide and the yelling to start. “Oh, now you wait a minute. Why on earth would I kill my brother and then go after Gary? I know you think I killed Victor because of the trust, and yeah, I was pretty mad that he was making me take my mother back in. Do you see a place for her around here? Huh? But we would have worked something out. I was already looking into a bigger apartment. I’m sure you can tell I don’t have a lot going on. My brother was worth a lot more to me alive than dead.”

Delilah burst into tears and I reached out and touched her arm.

“I’m sorry. I’m trying to find a killer and maybe keep Gary from getting murdered.”

Delilah sniffled and reached for a tissue from a box on the window ledge. “Do you really think he’s in danger?”

I shrugged. “Well, someone went to the trouble of killing your brother and taking his key card to Gary’s office. They snuck in there on Saturday night and attacked him. Luckily, there was someone else working in the building and they came running. So, yeah, I think someone wants Gary dead. There’s got to be a connection somewhere. Do you know of anyone who would have a gripe with both your brother and Gary, other than one of the construction workers?”

“Who knows,” Delilah said. Today she was wearing a pair of baggy brown linen pants and an over-sized blouse. She had on another crocheted vest, this one in autumn tones, and a pair of clogs on her feet. “They were always up to something and it usually was no good. Always had a scheme going on. I had a real crush on Gary when I was younger. We dated a bit but he always had higher aspirations. Liked the ladies with money. That’s why he and Vic went to Rhode Island. Gary followed some rich hottie there, and he and Vic got jobs. They came back here after several years. I know they got into some kind of trouble, but I never asked. By then I was well on my way to being a New-age hippie and Gary had no interest in me at all. Victor met Jenna and then Gary met Gail.”

Delilah turned her gaze to the window again and then snapped her fingers and looked at me. “You know who might be able to tell you more about Gary? Check with Maddi Wickersham.”

“Maddi? Are you sure? She didn’t seem like she knew a lot about him.”

“I don’t know where you heard that, but she had the hots for Gary way back when Jenna first met Victor, but Gary didn’t even notice her. He only had eyes for Jenna. You ask me, he was always in love with Jenna and I think it pissed Maddi off.”

What the heck hell? I tried to remember what Maddi told me about Gary when I asked her about him. Not much. As a matter of fact, now that I thought about it, she seemed to change the subject rather quickly.

Now, I admit to having a very overactive imagination. Always have had, but where it was taking me right now was into downright crazy land. Could Maddi’s feelings for Gary have been so strong that she harbored resentment, maybe even hate, all these years towards her sister and Gary? Could she have been the one to push Jenna over the cliff and then gone after Gary?

I pulled my car over to the side of the road. I was headed to Maddi Wickersham’s house but I needed to sort this out first and I couldn’t do it while trying to be a safe driver.

These thoughts were absurd. Surely Victor would have seen his sister-in-law creeping up on his wife and then pushing her over a cliff. But maybe they did it together. Maybe Victor and Maddi were upset all these years over some hot romance that Jenna and Gary had had. Really? By all accounts Jenna Sanjari was a beautiful, lovely woman, but Gary Hachmeister? He didn’t strike me as a red hot lover some woman wouldn’t be able to forget.

I gave myself a mental slap. I was losing it. Maddi did not kill her sister, though I still had her firmly on my list of suspects for Victor’s death. And then the connection hit me. Gary must have known somehow that Maddi killed Victor. Maybe he was the person Victor was meeting. Gary must have driven out to the construction site for some reason and witnessed the murder and then started to blackmail her. It sounded plausible. So how did I prove it?

I pulled back onto the road and in a few minutes I was parked under the large tree in front of the Wickersham home. Maddi and a man I assumed was her husband were out in front packing up their car.

“Alex, hey. This is my husband, Hal. Hal, this is Alex Harris, the woman I told you about. She’s helping to find Victor’s killer.”

Hal Wickersham was a nice-looking man in a nerdy sort of way. He was tall and thin, and wore a pair of glasses that made his blue eyes look huge. His graying hair needed a cut or maybe he just liked it long and shaggy. He gave me a firm handshake and then excused himself to go help the girls finish packing.

“So what’s going on? Are you going someplace?” I asked.

“We’re taking the girls to see Hal’s parents on Block Island. They rent a house there every year. We thought it would be good to get away and give Moshi a change of scenery. We’ll leave them there for a week and Hal and I will come back on Friday night. So, what brings you here? Do you have some news?” Maddi asked hopefully.

“Did you hear what happened to Gary?”

Maddi stopped arranging suitcases and looked at me. “No. What? Is he dead, too? Let’s go inside.”

I followed her through the garage and we entered into a laundry room and then on into the kitchen. I could hear Hal’s voice upstairs encouraging the girls to get their stuff ready.

Maddi placed a tea in front of me. It was becoming our routine. I took a sip and then got straight to the point.

“Did you and Gary have a thing?”

Maddi focused her smoky eyes on me and then burst out laughing. “Oh, my gosh. How did you know that? Gee, that was ages ago.”

“So it’s true?”

“It’s true that I had a crush on the guy for, like, a minute. We even went out a couple of times, but he liked Jenna. She was the pretty one.”

I thought Maddi was a very attractive woman. Jenna must have been spectacular if she was the pretty one.

“And then I met Hal and that was that. Gary was more flash and Hal is, well, Hal’s always been a bit of a nerdy kind of guy, but he’s my nerd. It takes a special man to live and thrive in a house full of females. I lucked out.” Maddi smiled and then took a sip of tea.

It seemed liked I had hit another brick wall and then Hal came into the kitchen with a couple of throw blankets in his arms.

“What do you think? It can get pretty chilly at night right on the water and I don’t know if my parents will have enough.”

Maddi reached up and kissed Hal on the mouth.

“What was that for?” Hal asked as he blushed slightly.

“Nothing. Just for not being Gary Hachmeister.”

“Huh?”

Four young girls came running into the kitchen, each with a backpack. Moshi looked up at me.

“Tell Kendall I’ll call her when I get home.”

“Will do. Have a good time.”

“Go put those in the back of the car and take these blankets, too,” Hal said to the girls while handing the blankets to the oldest.

“Honey, go with them,” Maddi said to her husband. “They’ll just throw everything in there and smash all the snacks I have for the drive.”

“Moshi looks happy,” I said.

“She’ll be fine. She’ll never stop missing her mother, but we’ll be here to help her along the way.”

I told Maddi I had to go, but would hopefully have some news for her very shortly. And with any luck I would, because that thing in the back of my head that had been eluding me was finally making an entrance.