Birthdays Can Be Deadly (13 page)

“Some,” Samantha nodded.

“And you really think I'm capable of murder?” Frank questioned. He sought Samantha's eyes intently.

“I think that anyone is capable of anything when they are pushed past their breaking point,” Samantha explained in return.

“Well, that may be, but there is no way you can prove that I killed James,” Frank said and offered a subtle smirk. “I'm innocent.”

“We have the wine bottle,” Samantha blurted out.

“Oh, do you?” Frank asked with fury in his eyes. “As if I didn't already know that.”

“Then you aren't denying what you did?” Eddy asked and slipped his hand into his pocket. He set his cell phone to record.

“What I did?” Frank repeated. “I bought my old friend, who I clearly forgave, a bottle of his favorite wine. What's so wrong with that?”

“You poisoned the wine,” Samantha accused.

“I did no such thing,” Frank argued. His eyes were wide with shock.

“If you didn't poison the wine then why did you sneak into James' room to steal the remainder of the bottle?” Eddy asked.

“I took my gift back,” Frank said with a slight shrug. “It wasn't really stealing. I knew that James wasn't going to finish the bottle if he was dead. It was an expensive bottle of wine. I'm not stupid. I was sure the staff around here would pick James' room clean of anything valuable. So, I went and got the bottle before anyone could take it. That wasn't really a crime.”

Eddy stared hard at the man before him. His heart was pounding. It was suddenly becoming very clear to him that Frank was going to get away with murder. Without the bottle to enter as evidence, there was only going to be one way to bring the man to justice. He would have to confess.

“You think you're really slick, don't you?” Eddy demanded as he pointedly stepped between Frank and Samantha again. Samantha watched Eddy's movements closely as she wondered exactly what he was up to.

“I think that you're really trying to play detective,” Frank replied with a faint smile on his lips. “You want to make this interesting, when it's not. It's a simple heart attack. James finally paid for all of his sins. Just because you want there to be a crime here, so that you can fill your boring endless days of retirement with something fun, that doesn't mean that there is actually a crime.”

“I know differently,” Eddy bit out his words. “I know what you have done, Frank, and I am not about to allow you to get away with it.”

“Oh? Tough one are you?” Frank shook his head. “You can't do anything to me that hasn't already been done.”

Eddy glanced briefly over at Samantha who was watching him closely. She seemed to be attempting to predict what his next move was going to be. Eddy knew what it would be, but he wasn't sure if Samantha would go along with it. It was a very risky move, but one that he had already decided had to happen.

“Let's find out,” Eddy said and crossed the distance between them.

“Watch it!” Frank growled and lunged for the back door of the villa. “I'll just be on my way.”

“I don't think so,” Eddy growled and grabbed Frank by the crook of his arm. He spun him back around to face him before he could get out through the back door.

“What do you think you're doing?” Frank shouted and glared into Eddy's eyes.

“Samantha, lock the door,” Eddy said sternly. Samantha was frozen as she watched the two men interact.  She had no idea how to react to such a dangerous and escalating situation.

“Sam!” Eddy said again in a more commanding tone. Samantha jumped and moved quickly to the back door. Her fingers trembled as she locked the door.

“Eddy,” she began to say when she turned back to face him.

“In here,” Eddy said and shoved Frank towards the small spare room in Samantha's villa. Samantha used it as office space for her writing. It was pretty bare aside from a wooden desk and chair as well as her desktop computer.

“Let go of me!” Frank demanded and struggled with Eddy. Eddy had handled enough criminals to defend himself. He easily shoved Frank into the room. Samantha started to follow him into the room. She was still uncertain of what exactly to do. Eddy took care of that uncertainty by closing the door behind him before she could enter.

“Eddy!” Samantha gasped and knocked on the door.

“We just need a few minutes, Sam,” Eddy said. She heard the lock click on the door. Samantha's eyes widened with fear. She wondered what Eddy was going to do to Frank in the room alone. As she started to panic she reached for her phone. Her fingers were still trembling as she dialed Walt's number.

“Hello?” Walt asked.

“Walt, I think Eddy has lost it,” Samantha said fearfully into the phone.

“What? Why?” Walt asked.

“He's got Frank locked in my office and he won't let me in,” Samantha gulped her words out. She was trying to keep her voice low as she didn't want Eddy to know that she was calling Walt.

“What was Frank doing at your place?” Walt asked with confusion.

“He just let himself in,” Samantha replied. “But now Eddy has him trapped, and I'm not sure what he's going to do to Frank.”

“Okay, okay, just take a deep breath, Samantha,” Walt instructed her. “Eddy might be acting like he's going to hurt Frank, but I doubt he really will. Remember, he's a professional.”

“He's retired, Walt!” Samantha reminded him impatiently. “What if he decides to cross the line?”

“This is all because the police aren’t going to use the wine bottle as evidence or as justification for further investigations,” Walt sighed. “Eddy must think that Frank is going to get away with murder. All right, I'll be right over,” he said before hanging up the phone. Samantha hung up the phone and shoved it back into her pocket. She began pacing back and forth outside the office door.

Eddy grabbed the wooden office chair and slid it across the laminate floor. He pushed it up against the wall of the room. Then he tugged down the shade until the room became dim.

“You are going to be arrested for this you know?” Frank demanded. “This is insane!”

In the shadows of the room it was quite clear that Eddy was an intimidating presence. He had the brim of his hat pulled down low to cast an even thicker shadow over his face. His eyes were narrowed sharply, the glint of his gaze shimmering in what little light existed in the small room.

“We're just going to continue our discussion,” Eddy explained.

“What are you thinking?” Frank demanded with increasing animosity. “You can't lock me in here. I haven't done anything wrong. You are going to pay for this!”

“I'm going to pay for it?” Eddy asked with a chuckle. “I don't think so, Frank. Why don't you just tell me, why did you kill James?”

“I didn't kill anyone,” Frank shot back and then glared at Eddy. “I don't care who you think you used to be, you can't hold me here like this. You're basically kidnapping me.”

“I'm having a conversation, Frank,” Eddy replied and lifted his hat off his head. He ran his hand back over his thinning brown hair and then smiled at Frank. “Just two neighbors, chatting it up a bit.”

“The door is locked,” Frank reminded him flatly. “Neighbors don't usually lock each other up.”

“Oh, that lock, Samantha has reported it to management a few times, but they haven't gotten around to fixing it yet. It's always acting up. Sometimes you can't lock it, sometimes you can't unlock it. So, to pass the time, we're just having a conversation.”

“I'm not having any conversation with you,” Frank shot back. “I don't know what you are thinking, but whatever it is you should know that you have the wrong man.”

“You know something, Frank, in my career as a detective I have to say that I was wrong many times. Sometimes I was wrong about the way I handled things. Sometimes I was wrong about the motive behind a crime. But one thing I never got wrong, was the suspect,” he narrowed his eyes. “I have never gotten the wrong man.”

“Then you must be getting rusty, because you got the wrong one this time,” Frank shot back and tried to stand up from the chair. Eddy easily pushed him back down.

“No, you're not going anywhere. I want to talk to you about the man you used to be,” Eddy explained.

“What?” Frank stared up at him with disbelief. “You don't know anything about me.”

“I think I know a lot more than you think I do,” Eddy corrected him. “I think once, you were a romantic.”

“A romantic?” Frank asked sharply. “Would you stop with this nonsense and let me go!”

“You fell in love. Not just with a woman, but with the love of your life. You married her, and you were ready to start the rest of your life with her. It never even entered your mind that your lovely lady wasn't as happy as she was pretending to be,” Eddy smirked arrogantly.

“No, that's not what happened,” Frank growled. “I was busy with work. I wanted to make enough so that we could buy the bigger house that she wanted. She didn't want to have any kids until we had a larger space. So, I took on extra hours and shifts to try to build up a solid savings account for us.”

“Very noble of you,” Eddy said with a slight nod.

“It's what a man does,” Frank said darkly. “It's what he does when he starts a family. He takes care of that family, he provides for that family.”

“That's all well and good, but it's not what every man does, is it?” Eddy asked and raised an eyebrow. “While you were out working so hard, your wife was sitting at home alone. She was wondering why she had even gotten married if her husband was only going to neglect her.”

“No!” Frank tried to stand up again. Eddy shoved him firmly back down into the chair.

“Sit,” he muttered. Frank was too lost in his emotion to even argue.

“Yes, I was working a lot, but she loved me for it. She would tell me how hard I worked, and what a good man I was,” Frank insisted. “At least, at first she would. Then James started coming around more often. I was working so hard, so when things needed to be fixed in the house, I would ask James if he could stop over and take a look at it for me.”

“James, your best friend,” Eddy said softly. “Sometimes friendship can be even stronger than having a brother.”

“James was my brother,” Frank admitted sadly. “In my mind anyway.”

“But your wife started to notice that your brother was around and interested in her,” Eddy suggested. He wanted to keep Frank bristled and on edge.

“No,” Frank growled again. “You're wrong. She loved me. But James had this way with women. He could get them to do anything he wanted. He seduced her.”

“You think he forced her?” Eddy asked with a slight laugh. “Trust me, Frank, a woman doesn't turn around and marry a man who attacks her.”

“I didn't say he forced her,” Frank said through gritted teeth. “I said he seduced her. He manipulated her and convinced her that she wanted to be with him, not with me.”

“I bet that was upsetting,” Eddy suggested in a murmur.

“It was!” Frank shouted. “Of course it was!”

“Even more upsetting was finding out that she never loved you in the first place, wasn't it, Frank?” Eddy asked with feigned sympathy. “What was it that set you off, Frank? After all these years? Did you finally realize that it was James she loved all along?”

“No, no, no,” Frank shook his head quickly. “It was all lies, all of it.”

“What did Elena tell you, Frank?” Eddy asked in a whisper. “How did she confess it?”

Frank squeezed his eyes shut tight and groaned. “I wish I'd never seen that damn letter.”

“What letter?” Eddy demanded. “What did the letter say, Frank?”

“Elena knew she was going to die. She was terminally ill. So, she thought she'd get right with the world before she passed. She wrote letters to everyone she thought she had wronged. She sent me one. It said that she had married me because she thought I would make a good husband and father, and that the passion would come later. But it never did. She only had passion for,” he growled and couldn't finish his sentence.

“For James,” Eddy supplied. “So, after all this time of believing that James had stolen her from you, you had to face the fact that she just had stronger feelings for James than you. Is that why you poisoned him, Frank?”

“When I saw him again,” Frank muttered without answering Eddy's question. “When I looked into his eyes and I realized that he was the man that had ruined my life, I couldn't believe it.”

“So, you knew that James lived here?” Eddy pressed.

“I didn't, not until after I moved in. I saw him walking by, he didn't see me. I started to think about the things I would do to him if I could,” Frank admitted. “He took everything from me. But they were just fantasies. I wasn't going to do anything.”

“Fantasies that led you to lacing a bottle of wine with poison?” Eddy prompted.

“It wasn't like that,” Frank moaned and hung his head. “It wasn't like I walked up to him and shot him. It wasn't murder.”

“How is killing a man, poisoning him, not murder?” Eddy demanded. “Don't lie to me, Frank!”

Frank stepped back from the sheer volume of Eddy's voice.

Outside the office, Samantha heard the shout. She cringed at the sound of it. Her front door swung open and Walt came walking in with a scowl.

“Is that Eddy I just heard?” he asked.

“Yes,” Samantha gasped out. “I don't know what he's doing in there, but I've never heard him so angry before.”

“He's yelling loud enough for the entire block to hear,” Walt said with concern.

“What do you think we should do?” Samantha asked. She was beside herself with worry. Her mind was spinning as she considered calling the police, but she didn't want Eddy to be punished for trying to do what they had all set out to do, capture a murderer.