A Reunion to Die For (A Joshua Thornton Mystery) (15 page)

“You tried. On paper, the relationship made total sense,” he explained. “You probably even questioned your own sanity for not being able to love him.”

“You’re talking like someone who has been there.”

“Yeah.”

“Have you started dating yet?”

The setting had all the trappings for romance, something that was not present in the past at the dinners he and Hank had shared after working late. Joshua had chosen the Ponderosa for their dinner that night. The diners in town were open, and even closer, but without thinking, he had taken her to the golf course and ordered a bottle of wine for them to share. “I don’t know.”

“We need to be careful.” She looked around the room. More than one pair of eyes was on them. “I haven’t read that article about you and your list of loves, but it is apparent that you are developing a reputation.”

“So I see.”

A couple across the room turned away when he returned their probing stare.

“You having dinner with an old friend will be yet another sexual conquest by morning,” Hank predicted. “If I go back to your place, even if I sleep in the guest room, tongues will be wagging.”

“I guess that means you’re going to have to stay elsewhere while you’re here. I have a good friend who would love to put you up.”

“Is it someone you can trust?”

“I’ve known Jan my whole life. She’d do anything for me.”

Chapter Twelve

“Figures Josh would have a woman lawyer.”

Tad stopped typing on his laptop with his fingers poised to resume as soon as he dismissed Jan and her jealousy of the woman who was now her houseguest. “Now you sound like everyone else. Need I remind you that Josh pulled you out from under a lawsuit not too long ago?”

Tad was disgusted, not just with Jan for barging in on his lunch of a sub and chips in his office while he was trying to complete overdue hospital reports, but also with his cousin. He had predicted this scene the previous night when Joshua told him about putting Hank up at Jan’s house. Joshua was one of the smartest men he knew, but when it came to women, he was one of the dumbest.

Giving up on eating any more of his lunch since her barging in, Tad threw the remaining three-fourths of his sub into the trashcan.

Jan rationalized her jealousy. “Cindy Rodgers told me that he made reservations for two for the reunion. He’s taking Hank. I don’t mind him having a woman lawyer as much as she has to be a pretty woman lawyer.” She blinked back the tears she felt coming to her eyes. “I never got asked to any of the formals or proms. I know Josh told me that he’d never feel for me the way I feel for him, but I hoped that maybe since he was back and the reunion was coming up—”

“That you two could go as friends.” Tad’s heart ached for her. “He is trying very hard not to send you mixed messages or give you any false hope.” He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know how he feels about this woman.”

“He looked at her the same way he used to look at Beth and Tricia.”

“Speaking of Tricia,” Tad opened up his valise and removed a folder yellowed with age. “I’ve got Doc Wilson’s autopsy report on her right here. Complete with pictures of her at the crime scene and in the morgue.”

She observed the folder. “Where did you find it?”

“I simply dug through all his old records until I found it.”

“What does it say?”

“Nothing we didn’t already know. It was a contact wound. The gun was pressed up against her chest when it was fired and the bullet went right through her heart.”

“Just like Grace’s murder. What kind of gun was it?”

“Forty-five caliber Colt revolver. It was left at the scene.” Tad removed color pictures from the envelope and held them up for her to see. He pointed to the picture of Tricia lying on the sofa where her mother had found her. The gun was visible in the picture at the opposite end of the sofa from where her head rested on a throw pillow. “Here’s something interesting.”

“She looks like she’s sleeping.” Jan tried not to betray the shudder that ran through her body at the sight of her late classmate.

“Doesn’t she?” he said. “Someone laid her out like that. Her hands are placed across her chest. If she shot herself she wouldn’t have fallen back onto the sofa in such a perfect position.”

“What if she was lying down like that and then pulled the trigger?”

“The gun is all the way at the other end of the couch.” Tad pointed at the revolver on the floor. “No, Tricia Wheeler’s death was no suicide, and these crime-scene pictures are all we need to have her death reclassified as a homicide.”

In his prosecutor’s office, Joshua was flipping through a stack of DVDs in search of a volume of law books for Hank when Tad arrived with three folders tucked under his arm. “Where have you been?”

“Treating my patients. I do have a full-time job, you know.”

Never failing to notice a pretty woman, Tad took in Hank, who was sitting on the edge of the desk.

Joshua apologized and plopped down behind his desk. “I just got off the phone with yet another reporter asking about my love life and my connection to the victims in this murder spree.”

Tad handed him two of the folders. “I finally got a copy of the report from the forensics lab on Rex Rollins’ and Bella Polk’s crime scenes.”

“And?” Joshua opened the top folder.

The doctor shook his head. “Nada. The gun used to kill Rollins traced back to some guy in East Liverpool, who had reported his gun stolen one week before. He’s legit. His house was broken into and some other stuff was stolen along with the gun.”

Joshua sat back in his chair to study the ceiling.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Hank thumbed through the folders.

“I was thinking about Margo Sweeney Connor, the common denominator of Tricia Wheeler, Gail Reynolds, Rex Rollins, and Bella Polk.”

“Is there any real connection between the old woman killed in the motel and this Margo?” she wondered.

“Haven’t you ever played the ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’?” Tad asked her.

“What’s that?”

Joshua answered, “It’s a bar game.”

“I don’t hang out in bars,” she told them.

“And you call yourself a sailor.” The prosecutor explained, “Name any actor and within a matter of six steps, or less, you can connect him to the actor Kevin Bacon. The object of the game is to use as few steps as possible. Now, let’s go back to the connection of Margo and Bella. If Rex’s landlady stole a copy of his book, which she had to have known about—”

“We have no proof that she knew about the book,” his cousin pointed out. “According to the motel and phone company, Bella only made local calls, all untraceable.”

“If she phoned Margo, the call would have been local and untraceable,” Joshua argued. “Even if we can’t prove Bella Polk knew about the book, we have the connection that she was Rex’s landlady and he worked for Margo.”

“Used to work for Margo,” Tad corrected him. “Past tense.”

Joshua continued, “Suppose Bella stole the book and tried to blackmail the antagonist, who turned out to be Margo. We’ve got the fatal connection between Margo and Bella.”

Tad shook his head. “Didn’t you tell me that Karl Connor was doing it with her in the apple orchards when Tricia was killed? That means Margo didn’t kill Trish, which means she has no motive for killing Gail for writing about the Wheeler murder. If anything, knowing Margo the way you and I do, she would have wanted her to write the book so that she could sue her.”

“Isn’t it ironic that both Margo and her daughter were having sex with someone at the time of their rivals’ murders?”

Hank interjected, “The nut never falls very far from the tree.”

“Do you seriously think Margo and Heather hired someone to do it for them, in both cases?” Tad squinted at Joshua. “What about her motive for killing Tricia? Not over Randy. How long did Margo and Randy last after she died? Was that love triangle important enough to warrant murder?”

“Some women, like men, just plain hate losing,” she suggested. “Maybe the motive for this murder was not so much love as pride.”

Joshua recalled, “I was there when Margo picked a fight with Tricia at noon, less than five hours before she was killed. On Friday, Margo and Gail get into a shouting match at a restaurant in which a witness hears her state that Gail was going to write that book over her dead body. Before the next sunrise, Gail is dead. That same night, Rex Rollins, who used to work for Margo, ends up with two bullets going through his head right after telling a barmaid that he wrote a book about the wicked witch of Chester.”

“But what about Bella?” Tad asked.

“Did you know her?” Joshua replied with a question. “What two words would you use to describe her?”

“Nosy and greedy.”

“Rex told anyone who would listen that he wrote a book that was going to make him rich and famous. Hearing him say that, how long do you think she waited after he left the rooming house that night before checking it out?”

Agreeing with a wide grin, Hank finished the theory, “And when her house was torched, she knew who did it when she found out that Rex was dead. Instead of using the book for justice, she used it for blackmail.”

Joshua concluded, “I’m willing to bet money that Bella’s copy of the book is long gone.”

Tad reminded them once more, “But Margo has an alibi for Tricia’s murder.”

“That’s why I want to take a closer look at the death of Dan Boyd.”

“Who is Dan Boyd?” Hank was having difficulty keeping track of all the players she had already heard about without adding another name to the mix.

Tad answered, “Margo’s first husband. He was killed while working late at his dental office.”

“If she didn’t kill Tricia, then what murder could Rex have been writing about?” Joshua laughed out loud. “I just remembered something. When I first mentioned murder to Karl, he said that Margo had her first husband killed.”

Tad said, “Margo had an airtight alibi for that murder, too. She was hosting a dinner party for about a dozen people. Her husband was killed by a junkie looking for drugs.”

“From a dentist? What were they looking for? Nitrous oxide?”

Mary threw open the door and ran in. Her expression was one of horror.

“Mary—” was all Joshua got out before Seth Cavanaugh strutted into the office.

“Counselor, I have a warrant here to bring you in for questioning by the special prosecutor in the murder of Gail Reynolds.” He waved a folded sheet of paper with blue backing. Deputies Carter and Hockenberry, who were with him, did not appear as cocky.

“You didn’t need to get a warrant.” Hank yanked the paper out of his hand and read it quickly. “Seth Cavanaugh, I presume.”

He observed her feminine figure. “And you are—?”

“Alana O’Henry. Mr. Thornton’s lawyer.”

Seth smiled at a victory. “Lawyered up, huh? I haven’t missed the fact that she’s a woman. Another one of your conquests? How long does she have before you kill her?”

While passing the warrant on to Joshua, Hank stepped between the two men. “You’re out of line, Cavanaugh. I suggest you leave.”

“Not without Thornton.” Seth ordered Carter, “Take him into custody.”

“You touch him and you’re going to find yourself wearing a cast on your arm and egg on your face.”

Joshua held up the warrant. “Did you bother reading this, Cavanaugh?” He explained, “It’s not a warrant to take me into custody. It’s to come in for questioning before the special prosecutor—which was completely unnecessary.”

“All you had to do was ask and say please,” Hank told the investigator. “The warrant says to be at the courthouse in Weirton at ten o’clock tomorrow morning. We’ll be there. If not, then you can put on your show of bringing in your man.”

Joshua sat down behind his desk. “Now, I am going to ask you to leave my office before I am forced to have my lawyer break both your legs.”

Seth turned to the deputies. “You heard that. He threatened me with bodily harm.”

Deputy Hockenberry responded, “I didn’t hear a thing. Did you, Carter?”

“Nope.”

The children’s first reaction to the news of the warrant was to be at the courthouse with their father. Joshua insisted that they would not be permitted in the courtroom during the questioning. Only Hank, the special prosecutor, his or her assistant, Joshua, and any prosecution witnesses would be permitted inside.

Joshua was grateful for the break in the tension during dinner when Tad knocked on the back door. He was accompanied by Sheriff Curt Sawyer. “They got a witness,” Tad whispered before leading them to the study.

Curt waited for Hank to close the study door before he announced, “A witness has come forward to say that she saw you and Gail together. Sally Powell. She lives next door to the Hendersons and claims that she saw the two of you arguing in the driveway.”

“Cavanaugh was there,” Joshua argued.

“Was he there the whole time you were with her in the driveway?” Hank asked.

“No. Gail was upsetting the Hendersons with this wild theory about a serial killer targeting cheerleaders. I took her outside and ordered him to stay inside to calm them down.”

“And after having a fight, you kissed and made up,” Curt finished.

“We didn’t kiss.”

“This witness says you did and it wasn’t a kiss between friends. She claims that it was a full-fledge lip-lock. She says you even patted Gail on the butt before she got in the car.”

“I guess this witness can also say what the argument was about,” Hank said.

“She says she overheard Josh threaten Gail if she did not stay away from his family, which backs up Cavanaugh’s theory that it was a secret relationship.”

She asked, “Where was this witness when she overheard this fight?”

Curt answered, “Inside the house. Upstairs bedroom. The window was open, which is how she says she could hear them.”

In his mind, Joshua replayed the scene with Gail in the driveway. He tried to visualize the woman claiming that she witnessed a lovers’ spat. The upstairs window. The van in the driveway. The bald man behind her. “Is there one witness or two?”

“Isn’t one bad enough?” Hank asked.

“Why aren’t there two witnesses?”

Tad told them, “Josh is asking why Sally Powell’s lover hasn’t come forward to back up her statement. To answer his question, it is because he’s married, too.”

“Does he work for Tender Lawn?” Joshua asked.

Tad nodded. “His van is parked in the Powell driveway Monday through Friday from eleven-thirty to one-thirty. Either the Powells have a serious problem with crabgrass or your witness is having an affair.”

Hank grinned. “That is very interesting.”

After Curt and Tad left, together Joshua and his lawyer went over the list of possible questions and rehearsed his answers.

“Why would Sally Powell lie?” Exhausted, he lay down on the sofa with his arm draped over his eyes to block out the light from the lamp. He hoped it would ease the headache he’d had since Seth served his warrant that afternoon.

“Do you know her?” Hank perched herself next to his feet, which had spilled up onto the arm of the sofa.

“Never met her.”

“Maybe she misunderstood.” She picked at a thread on his sock. “You said that you warned Gail to stay away from the Hendersons. That is what she heard, but then, when she read Gaston’s article, she filled in the blanks to understand that you warned her to stay away from your children when she tried to expose your affair.”

He laid his arm back to rest behind his head. “You know that I would never cheat on Valerie.”

She went to the desk. “I know that very well.”

Hank picked up the folder Sheriff Curt Sawyer had given them during his visit that evening. It consisted of everything pertaining to Gail Reynolds’s murder that he got from Seth Cavanaugh. She sorted through the information.

“There was a folder on Randy Fine in Gail’s research. Did you know that he had two sexual assault charges filed against him? They are still pending.” Hank turned around to face him. “Do you know what else was found in her papers?” She held up a single sheet of paper for him to see.

“What?”

“A letter from a Clarence Bostwick, attorney at law.” She clarified, “He’s Fine’s lawyer. He was responding to a letter that Gail had sent to Randy asking for an interview saying that if she so much as mentioned his name in her book, that he would sue her.”

“If Randy did nothing wrong,” Joshua wondered, “why did he lawyer up so quickly? He will be more forthcoming if he thinks that we are just another couple of old friends chewing the fat at that reunion.”

“I thought you didn’t do reunions.”

He didn’t do reunions. She knew him so well. “I need to question a lot of people from back then about Gail and Tricia. They will be looser with their lips if I’m one of the gang there to show how much weight I did not gain since I graduated.” He saw that she had returned to leafing through the files on his desk. The light from his desk lamp brought out the red in her hair.

“Plus, you still have all your hair.”

Joshua had crossed the room in time to catch her by the arms when she turned around to fire off her next question.

“What?” She did not object when he stepped up close to her.

“Why did you come here?”

“Because you needed me.”

“Is that all?”

She reached up to his cheek. “What else could there be?” She kissed his lips tenderly. “Maybe just enough of something else to make it interesting.”