Wrapped up in murder, p.9
Wrapped Up in Murder, page 9
I was quiet for a long moment. I hadn’t realized any of that. “That doesn’t exactly make this look better for Talia.”
Amery sent me a half-smile and small shrug. “It is what it is. I’m not saying that means she did kill him. From what you’ve found, I’m not sure I would blame her for snapping.”
Quin shifted away from them, and they chuckled, putting a hand on his thigh. “Just saying. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I don’t even own a skillet.”
“That doesn’t make me feel a ton better,” he said, but he smiled. I was glad to see that things seemed to be going so well for them. Someone should be happy at least.
Amery shoved his shoulder then kissed his cheek, and I was sure the tips of his ears turned red. It was kind of cute really. I had to turn away.
“Douglas didn’t have a lot to tell me,” I said. “Just confirmed he had reason to fire Victor, and that Victor hadn’t been happy about it. He did point me toward Jãco as well, but I still haven’t been able to talk to zem yet. I don’t know that we’re really any farther than we were. And nothing helps move the investigation away from Talia.”
“Maybe it won’t,” Mika put in. “Maybe she really did do it. Your sister could be wrong.”
I really hoped that wasn’t the case. Telling Cailyn that she was wrong had never gone over well. “What if she isn’t?” I asked. “What if someone else did kill him? The police don’t seem to care to find that out, and if she is innocent, she shouldn’t have to sit in that jail cell.”
I looked at Deke, and he nodded. He’d been in that same position just a few months earlier. “We’ll figure it out,” he said. “Maybe I can talk to this Jãco person, say we’re doing a story for the paper.”
“What does your uncle think about you using the paper for something like this?”
“If it brings him a story, what does it matter?”
I glanced back at the board, at all the information that didn’t add up to any answers, and hoped this was worth it.
~
“Are you sure it’s okay if I come along with you?” I asked Deke the next afternoon as we pulled up outside of the large office building.
He shot me a sideways look. “You’re the one who has questions to ask,” he said. “I’m just the one getting you in there.”
Something still didn’t feel right. I knew I needed to talk to this person if I wanted some answers about Victor’s death. I’d tried calling Douglas Vaz, but he still wasn’t returning my messages. Apparently those five minutes in the library were really all he would grant me. Talia had spent nearly a week in a cell. That really wasn’t right. Not if she didn’t kill Victor.
What if she had?
I tried to shake away my doubts. Cailyn was adamant that Talia was innocent. Cailyn wasn’t often wrong about someone. Until I had definitive proof that she had fooled my sister, I was going under the assumption that she hadn’t done this.
Who had? I still wasn’t sure about that. Maybe after I talked to Jãco.
Deke led the way into an office. Everything about it was sparse. Blank walls, no artwork, no decorations. About five desks, with barebones computers. Nothing that told me anything about the people who worked here. And made me glad I’d never held an office job. Even just the clacking of keyboards and the ringing of a phone was already getting to me.
The thought of being in a place like this eight hours a day, five days a week sent a shudder through me. I only had to be here long enough to speak to one person. I could certainly do that.
Deke leaned against a desk, talking to the person behind it. Long hair pulled back in a tail, full make-up and the shadow of a beard around a square chin. Deke gestured me forward.
“Lou, this is Jãco Carrico. Ze runs this place.”
“You can call me Jack,” ze said, zyr voice softer than I had been expecting.
“Why would I do that?” I asked. “It’s not your name.”
“Most people around here have trouble with it.”
“Yeah, people have had trouble getting my name and pronouns right, and it’s not even a difficult one. That’s their problem, not mine. It’s good to meet you, Jãco.” I hoped I didn’t butcher the name after all that.
There was a small smile on Jãco’s face as ze asked, “So, are you a reporter as well?” Ze looked me up and down, a considering look on zyr face. “It doesn’t seem like either of you came prepared for an interview.”
“Oh,” Deke said. “I’m always prepared. If you tell me anything worthwhile, I will definitely write a story. But, Lou’s the one with the questions.”
Jãco turned to look at me then, but ze seemed more guarded now. “You aren’t from the paper I take it?”
I shook my head. “I run Jax of All Trade, it’s a handyperson business. I do little jobs for people, sometimes bigger ones if they need it.”
“I’m not sure what that has to do with me. Unless you’re looking to hire people. I have a few clients who are looking for work, but we have a process of vetting enterprises.”
“No,” I said. “I’m good there. I actually wanted to talk to you about your relationship with Victor Cox.”
Zyr face almost completely shut down at that. “I do not know what people are saying, but I did not have a relationship with that man.”
“But, you did know him?” I asked.
Zyr mouth curled up at one corner. I definitely would not call that a smile. “It would be hard not to know him when he kept threatening to have us shut down. As if a small town is the last place my clients should come to. He claimed we should have stuck to working in the city, as if that’s the only place people like me belong.”
“Is that where you were before?” I asked.
I wasn’t sure ze would answer me. Not like I had a way to pressure zem to, if I would do that anyway. I wanted to know how ze fit into all of this. “Yes,” ze finally said. “When my daughter was born early this year, my partner and I decided that was not where we wanted to raise her. Not all immigrants want to be locked into life in a city. My parents settled into a community much like this before I was born. I wanted to raise my daughter in something similar.”
“Victor had a problem with you setting up shop here? Seems like this is a good addition to a community.”
“It would be, but he threatened to have me sent back to where I came from. Which is Ohio, by the way, so it’s not like I’d be going far.”
A laugh burst out of me at that, and this time when Jãco’s lip curled, I thought it might actually be a smile. “What did he think he could do?”
“I never figured that out. I have everything in order to work, and to get work and homes for my clients. Honestly, I think he was just full of hot air.”
“You didn’t see him again after he threatened you?”
Jãco shook zyr head. “And I am grateful for that. I’m just glad I won’t have to worry about his threats again.”
~
“What do you think?” Deke asked, when we were back at my house. “I like zem.”
“Are you going to tell Shea that?”
I laughed as Deke flicked the end of his scarf at me. “Not like that. Ze’s got a partner and a baby, and that is definitely not my thing. I’ll do more research on zyr organization, but from what I’ve already seen, it’s on the up-and-up. I don’t know what Victor thought he was going to do.”
“Maybe it was like Jãco said, and Victor was full of hot air. Maybe he thought threatening Jãco would be enough. That ze wouldn’t want to risk deportation, if Victor didn’t realize he was a citizen.” The more I learned, the more Victor seemed like your run-of-the-mill bully. Like so many of those, he hadn’t outgrown the need to make others feel smaller than him.
“That’s something I don’t think people like Victor care about,” Deke said. “All he would see is Jãco’s brown skin and slight accent, and assume he knew all he needed to.”
I sent a glance over Deke’s fairly pale skin and red hair, and he laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m about as white as they get, doesn’t mean I can’t see beyond my own privilege. And I’ve run into enough people like Victor. I went to school with a whole bunch of them.”
I shuddered. I really didn’t need to be reminded of any of them. I tried to focus on the current case instead of letting one we’d already solved derail my thoughts. “That could give zem a pretty good motive for getting rid of Victor, right?” I looked at the notes I’d written so far and adding what we’d found out today. “Even if Victor couldn’t do anything, having to deal with the threat hanging over zyr head would make it harder to do zyr work.”
“I suppose,” Deke said. “It seems a bit weak, though.”
“What if Jãco thought Victor didn’t pose a problem to zem, but to one or mor of zyr clients? They wouldn’t have the same protections of citizenship as Jãco did, right?”
Deke nodded slowly, as if thinking over that. “It’s definitely stronger as far as motivation goes. Like I said, I’ll look more into the organization. Maybe I can talk to some of the people it’s helped and see if any of them have faced that kind of backlash. What about the other suspects?”
Before I could get into that, Zio started barking and raced toward the front door. I sighed and set the marker back down. It would make more sense to wait until everyone else was here.
It took a little while for everyone to gather in the living room. “What do we have so far?” Cord asked.
I started to go over the details we knew so far. I hoped laying it all out, even if some of it went over familiar ground, would help us. “Chantal didn’t like her stepbrother. She had nothing nice to say about him. She gave the money to Talia for the farm. She was also the one who gave me Douglas’s name and contact info.”
“Like she pointed you specifically in that direction?” Quin asked. “And away from her?”
I had considered that, but I couldn’t be sure. It’s not like no one I’d talked to during one of these cases hadn’t done the same thing. I wrote ‘misdirection’ under her name. “I don’t see what her motive would be. Not getting along with a sibling certainly couldn’t be enough for murder.”
“If so, I’d be an only child,” Cord said.
“Maybe Sarah,” I said, “but Jared’s a sweetheart.”
“You never had to live with him,” she said, but I could see her lips twitching.
“Anyway.” I moved on to the next person I’d talked to, “on the other end of the sibling spectrum, I very much would believe that Dorothy Abrams would burn the world down for her sister.”
“What about their brothers?” Deke asked.
I tilted my head as I looked back at him. “What do you mean? I didn’t know they had other family in town.”
Deke opened the messenger bag at his side and pulled out a thick folder. “I found my notes from that interview I did back when she bought the farm. I skimmed through them before we left earlier, but I do remember mention of brothers. I just need to find it again.”
While he did that, I drew a line between Talia and Dorothy’s names on the list and wrote ‘brothers’. I didn’t know if they would have anything to add to this, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to find out where they’d been when Victor had died. Even if they weren’t local, they could give us some insight into the sisters, and if Talia would have been capable of killing her husband.
“Ah, here it is,” Deke said. “Jerome and Cavan Abrams. Jerome lives in Philadelphia and Cavan is in… Hawaii. Wow, that’s a big difference. She said they didn’t grow up together, they’re actually her half-brothers and lived with their mom, so they only saw the boys occasionally. Not close by the sounds of it.”
So that didn’t leave us any closer to answers. “She really seemed to despise Victor. Her kid said something about him as well. Maybe I should talk to both of them again.” For the moment, I wrote down the bits they had told me.”
I moved on to Douglas. “He never answered my messages, but when I ran into him at the library, he told me a little. Not much more than the termination was deserved, and Victor wasn’t getting the job back. I don’t know if he tried to, though.” I glanced over at Cord. “He was married to Nikki Hughes. Remember her?”
Cord’s mouth tipped up. “Oh, I remember. How’s she doing?”
“She had three kids with Douglas, and seems to be content on her own now. I ran into him when I replaced some flooring in her bathroom, which is the only reason I knew it was him at the library.”
“He did get a card for his kid,” Jody said. “Jaydon. Who told me she has two older sisters. And her mom is seeing someone.”
I made a connection to Nikki, though I didn’t know that she would have had anything to do with it. As long as that someone hadn’t been Victor. I’d seen her the day after the murder, and she hadn’t been upset about his death. So, I doubted that could be it.
“I’ve tried to contact him again, but he hasn’t returned my calls. I’d really like to know more about why he was fired.”
“Maybe someone higher up than him convinced him to keep his mouth shut,” Deke said. “It happens more than you’d think. I’ve had leads dry up for that reason more than a few times.”
“Which would make one think this comes back to the family business,” Cord said, “and not whatever problems he and Talia were having.”
I made a note of that and moved on to Kerr. “He was, or still is, I suppose, Talia’s therapist. And he came to me.”
“I looked them up,” Quin said. “Kerr Ferguson specializes in working with queer people who have faced trauma, especially those who are having trouble coming to terms with it. Or working to come out because not everything is cut and dry, and sometimes you realize you’re in a box that doesn’t actually fit who you are.”
I paused in writing that. And looked back at Quin over my shoulder. “Is that why Talia was talking to them?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “I can’t tell you that. All I know is what was on his website. You’d have to ask her. Or maybe your sister. She might have talked to a friend about it.”
Especially if that friend was Cailyn. “Okay. I don’t know if that will even be relevant. Except the picture I’ve gotten of Victor was that he was not exactly an ally.”
Which could once again turn the focus back to Talia. I really didn’t like that. I’d rather focus on the business angle. There was still one more thing. “Jãco Carrico,” I said. “I spoke to zem earlier today. Victor threatened zyr agency.” I ran through what we’d learned from Jãco, putting a few key details on the board. I took a step back, studying what we knew so far.
There were a lot of details there, but I didn’t see how those helped get us closer to an answer. I would have to talk to all of these people again, and press a little harder to get Douglas to speak to me.
Zio barked again and raced toward the door, his tail wagging even as his barks got deeper, almost turning to growls. I capped the marker and set it down, walking slowly toward the door, a little apprehensive. I knew that bark. He only got that worked up for one person. Despite the fact he had spoken to me in the diner earlier, I didn’t think having Matt come to my door could be a good sign. Especially when he had to see my friends were all here, and he had to know what that meant.
I nudged Zio to the side and opened the door, trying to block Zio from running out and tackling Matt. “Well, well, Officer.” I leaned against the door frame even as Zio pushed against the back of my legs. “Fancy seeing you here. What can I do for you tonight?”
Chapter 14
Matt rolled his eyes at me. My humor was apparently not appreciated right now. Well, I didn’t like how he ignored me until he found it convenient to speak to me again. I knew his job was important, but that didn’t diminish my worth.
“Am I allowed to come inside?” he asked. “Or are you going to sic your vicious guard dog on me?”
A laugh escaped at that. “I do believe we’ve been over this. Unless you melt under dog slobber, he’s about as dangerous as a butter knife.”
“You never know what can be done with one of those.”
My lips twitched, but I tried to keep a smile from my face. “What are you doing here, Matt? I swear I’m not doing anything wrong. Unless having my friends over is now against some town regulation.”
“You know it isn’t,” he said. “We both know that isn’t all you are doing in there. Even if your friends are scurrying to hide your murder board while you keep me out here.”
No way could he see what they were doing in the living room. Not from that angle. When I looked over my shoulder, Quin poked his head out giving me a thumbs up. Now, I rolled my eyes. What a bunch of dorks.
Sweet cheese, but I loved them.
I turned back to Matt. And I could see the snow was falling harder than it had been earlier. I sighed and took a step back, letting the door open a little further. “You should come in before you get buried by snow.”
His lips curled up at that. “Is that the only reason you’re letting me in?”
“You are talking to me now, so I guess I can at least see what you have to say.”
Matt opened his mouth, but I started back down the hallways. I almost stepped into the living room, hoping that having my friends around would soften whatever blow Matt had come here to deliver.
I turned into the kitchen instead. Privacy would be better. If he was here to officially end things with me, I wasn’t so sure I wanted witnesses for that.
When we were in the kitchen, alone except for Zio, who looked at me like he hoped to finally be fed, even though he had food in his dish, I allowed myself to look at Matt again. He took off his hat, leaving his hair sticking up at random angles. His coat came next, revealing a soft sweatshirt. Certainly not his uniform.
