Murder in Death's Door County (10 page)

“Okay, here’s where I leave you. Just
have a seat on the other side of the desk,” said Michaels.

“By the mirror?” I asked nervously.

Michaels nodded. He told me a detective
would be in shortly for my questioning. Enigmatically, he added, “I’m sorry,”
as he shut the door behind him.

“Sorry for wha-?” I began. I sighed and
started gnawing on my lower lip. Michaels must not have heard me. I wondered
what he could be sorry about. I knew I had plenty to be sorry about, especially
after agreeing to take this book project.

M
Y NERVES INCREASED AS I
GOT
closer to being
questioned. Of course
I
knew I was innocent, but I had never been in
this predicament before. I had purposely lived my life in such a way to NOT
ever be questioned by the cops. I ran events through my head again. Ever since I
had accepted this disastrous book contract, I had felt weird. I had felt like
some unseen puppet master was controlling things from behind-the-scenes. Harry’s
murder did nothing to dispel that feeling. Humpf, I reasoned, the murder
actually strengthened that feeling tenfold.

“Miss?” A gruff, baritone voice
interrupted my thoughts. I looked up. And up. And up. A kind of giant with no
neck stood before me. The harsh light gleamed off his Mr. Clean-like head. His
beady eyes narrowed. “I’m Officer Chad Dupah and I’ll be taking your statement
regarding the death of Harry Scarpelli.”

“Yes,” I sighed. He had me state my
name, birthdate, and temporary and permanent addresses. Then he began the
interrogation.

“Okay, let’s get started.” He actually
rubbed his hands together.

I groaned in anticipation.

He scanned over the paperwork. “So, you
killed a guy, huh?”

I lifted my chin a notch. “Pardon?”

“Oh, Little Miss-Innocent-As-Pie doesn’t
have an answer to that, does she?” He slammed his hands on the desk in front of
me. His movement startled me and I jumped a little. His upper lip sneered in
amusement, “Where were you last night?”

Without even giving me a chance to
answer, he goaded me, “Don’t have an answer?”

“Of course, I have an answer. Number
one, I didn’t kill anyone. And number two, I went to dinner with my editor,
Harry Scarpelli. At the Lighthouse Inn. Do I need to get a lawyer for this?”

“No need, no need. Just answer the
questions and don’t get lippy. Who saw you leave?”

“Who saw
me
leave? I’m staying
there. Do you mean leave the dining room?”

“Don’t answer my question with a
question.”

“Okay. Kitty saw me leave the dining
room and I went straight to my room.”

“Well, I don’t mean to nitpick, but who’s
to say you didn’t sneak back up to Harry Scarpelli’s room the minute Kitty's
back was turned?” Chad threw up his hands in disgust. “I don’t know what game
you’re playing, Joanna Malone. How do you know Marcos Landrostassis?”

At Marcos’ name, I started. Why on earth
would this detective bring up Marcos? “Marcos? How does he figure into this?
Harry hired me, well Harry’s publishing company hired me to write Marcos’ book.”

“You know him well? Are you, ah, ‘working’
with him?” Chad ran his finger along my cheek. Between him touching me and
putting a weird emphasis on “working,” I threw up a little in my mouth. My
fingers itched to smack his big, giant chrome dome of a head. Someone knocked
on the door. “Have you ever met Tina Delvecchio?”

“Why did you kill Harry the Editor?”
Chad yelled into my face. The knocking became more insistent. “I know you di-“.
The knocking grew very loud. “Oh, for goodness sake. Hold on just a sec, Little-Miss-Perfect.”

I rolled my eyes when he turned to
answer the door.

“Whaddya want anyway?” Chad rudely asked
as he threw open the door.

A uniformed officer entered the room and
urgently whispered something in Chad’s ear. I longed to know what he said,
especially because of what followed.

Chad looked extremely agitated. The
officer stayed in the room, clearly waiting for Chad to do something.

Chad paced the room a few times, then
turned around and faced me, “You can go. But don’t leave town anytime soon!”

“What?”

“Apparently, you have some powerful
friends. Get out of here.”

I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed my jacket
and purse, and didn’t look back until my feet hit pavement. I took in several
gulps of crisp fall air. What the heck was all that about anyway? Is that how
routine questioning was conducted? Wasn’t that supposed to just be routine
questioning? And who was my powerful “friend”? I didn’t know very many people
up here. All these questions and more ran through my head.

“Don’t leave town.” The detective’s
words echoed through my head. Why couldn’t I leave town? From the mystery
novels that I’ve read, the plucky heroin (who I guess would be me?) is only
told to not leave town when she is a suspect! A suspect? Me? Moi? As far as I
could see, my only crime was asking Marcos the question, “Why?”

In a daze, I left the cop shop and
walked straight out into traffic. I only came to when I heard Lizzy honking
repeatedly at me.

“Hey!” Lizzy hung out her car window and
yelled, “Annie! Over here!”

“What?” I turned and started walking
towards her. A Jeep Wrangler almost clipped my hand as I turned. “Gosh, what
the what?!” Babying my injured hand, I made my way to Lizzy’s Honda CR-V.

“What’d they say? Who questioned you?”

“They told me I couldn’t leave town!”

“Really?” Lizzy scrunched up her nose, “that’s
crazy! Anyone would take one look at you and know you couldn’t kill anybody!”

“I know, right?! I don’t know what to
do.”

“Well... hop in. We’ll figure it out.”

“Where are we going anyway? I’m not sure
I can sit alone in my room right now.”

“Then you, my dear new friend, are in
luck.” Lizzy expertly pulled back into traffic, “I hope you don’t mind, I took
the liberty of getting us invited to Janie’s for the game, appetizers, and
adult beverages. Kitty is coming up too. Since the Lighthouse Inn has to be
closed, she figured we should at least enjoy our time off. And she figured you
needed a break.”

Glumly, I nodded.

Lizzy looked over at me and smiled a
little bit, “Hey, I know things look grim, but you have the truth on your side.
Too bad you didn’t have that hot Donovan guy as an alibi!”

Despite myself, I cracked a smile. One
of the best ways to recognize a friend for life is someone who can make you
smile even when the chips are down.

“He is crazy-hot, isn’t he?” I
whispered. Since I looked more like the sidekick than the heroine, guys tended
to overlook me. I couldn’t tell whether Donovan thought of me as a potential
friend, or more than that. I also couldn’t tell if I hoped he thought of me as
more than that. I did know that he messed up my frequency when he was nearby. I
shook my head to clear out any cobwebs.

“Do you need to let off some steam
tonight?”

“More than you know. I feel like I’ve
been through the wringer! Some Chad-jerk guy questioned me. Do you know him?”

“Bald?”

“Check.”

“Bad attitude?”

“Check.”

“Sneer?”

“Check.”

“You might say I know him. You might say
I used to date him.”

“You dated that Neanderthal? Why?”

“Youth and stupidity. Believe me, I
learned my lesson quickly.” Lizzy shook her head in amazement, “Wow—you got
stuck with Chadwick interviewing you? You’re lucky you got out of there in one
piece. Either he’s slipping or he has a soft spot for you!”

“That’s a soft spot? Ai yi yi, coulda
fooled me! I’d hate to see him with someone he didn’t like!”

Lizzy threw back her head and laughed, “Yeah,
that’s a long list. We’ll fill you in on his story at Janie’s. It’s a good one!”

I started to lighten up a little as we
drove up the highway to Janie’s townhouse in Fish Creek. The crisp fall air,
and listening to the start of the Packers game, did wonders for my mood. Plus,
since Lizzy drove, I got to really enjoy the gorgeous fall colors. On the way
down to the police station, I had been too nervous to enjoy the drive. I should
still be nervous, right? I had a sneaking suspicion that my nerves were more
affected by Donovan than I’d care to admit.

—
–

“So, is it true you actually found the
body, Annie?” Janie asked during a break in the game. I nodded and held up my
finger as I finished eating a chicken wing. When I was done chewing, I
exclaimed “Mmmmm, these are great! What’s your recipe?”

Janie delicately lifted an eyebrow, “Is
that your way of letting me know you don’t want to talk about…,” her voice
dropped to a whisper, “you know?”

Kitty and Lizzy stared at me, waiting
for my answer. I had a feeling that my new friendships hung a little in the
balance based on my answer. They needed me to trust them. And we hadn’t talked
about the “elephant in the room” yet. When Lizzy and I first got there, the
Packers game was in full swing so I got a bit of a reprieve (yes, in Wisconsin,
even women pay close attention to football games). Plus, Janie and Kitty had
put out quite a party buffet, so we were busy eating and drinking. I suspected
that Kitty had brought a lot of the food they had prepared for the Lighthouse
Inn’s now-defunct game party. Regardless of where the food came from, their
kindness and friendship touched me very deeply. What happened next might have
been the drinks or the emotional upheaval in my life, but it bonded the four of
us.

I looked up to find Janie looking at me.
She gave me an odd, searching look. I felt Janie’s dark brown eyes bore down
deep into my eyes. To be honest, it freaked me out a little bit. Although Janie
and Kitty didn’t look at all like sisters, I often found that they both seemed
to have the ability to see into a person’s soul. Right now, I felt like Janie saw
things that no one else could have seen. I found it disconcerting, yet oddly
soothing. However, it also brought everything I had felt in the last week very
close to the surface.

To my horror, I immediately burst into
tears. Sobs wracked my body, as I tried to talk, “I’m sorry... this
is-is-is-isn’t l-l-l-like m-me.” Immediately, I felt the wind shift in the room
as my new friends gathered around me.

I heard a chorus of “there, there” and “it’s
okay.”

With gratitude, I accepted a tissue and
glass of wine that Janie offered me. In one gulp, I downed the wine.

“Hmmm... you must have needed that,” Lizzy
said as she deftly took my empty glass. “Do you feel a little better?”

I nodded, “Yeah, I’ve just been through
a lot in the last week or so.” I blew my nose loudly. “Thanks, guys. I needed
that.”

“Well, you did find a dead body today,”
Kitty wryly observed as she nibbled on a chip loaded with artichoke dip. “Have
another glass, sweetie.” She filled up my glass again.

“That isn’t even the half of it,” cried
Lizzy. “Our poor Annie got interviewed by none other than Chadwick!”

“Oh no! Not Chad!”

“Tsk! Tsk! That’s too bad!”

While Kitty and Janie exclaimed over my
bad luck at finding Harry, then being interviewed by Chad, Lizzy brought me
another plate of wings and chips with dip. I thanked her as I accepted the
plate.

“And you guys know I didn’t kill Harry,
right?”

A chorus of “Of courses” echoed.

However, I didn’t miss the look that
Janie and Kitty shared with each other. I resolved to not let it bother me at
this point. They didn’t know me well—it was only natural that they were wary.

Besides, I was starting to formulate an
idea of my own. Since Lizzy and I had become such unusually fast friends, I
planned to talk to her the next day about us trying to find Harry’s killer. In
the meantime, the four of us enjoyed a resounding Packers win, then another
bottle of wine. With the additional wine, some of the courage I had recently
lacked came rushing back.

“So what can you guys tell me about this
Chad Dupah. His questioning technique really lacked subtlety.”

Lizzy nodded knowingly. “Even though I
was a couple years behind them in school, I remember Chad and his buddies being
terrors in high school. Of course, I had the misfortune of dating him until
Janie and Kitty helped me out of that jam. Janie, you were Chad’s year, weren’t
you?”

Janie’s eyes lit up as she warmed to her
topic. “Chad has always been a huge weasel. I’m really not surprised his
questioning methods lacked subtlety. That man doesn’t have a subtle bone in his
body.”

“Janie, tell Annie what happened to Chad
the summer of your senior year.” added Kitty.

 “What happened? I’m really curious. He
came across as such a jerk today.”

“Let me see if I remember it in the
correct sequence,” Janie said, tapping her chin. She took a big swig of wine to
“help.” “Okay, if I recall correctly, a bunch of us kids were at the beach, you
know, just hanging out and having fun. We stayed at the beach into the night.
Anyway, at about midnight a bunch of kids decided to go skinny-dipping (not me,
I might add, wink wink), but at the last minute they changed their mind because
the cops came. But Chad was the only one they forgot to tell. He had gotten in
the water before anyone else, and must have been swimming underwater when
people started to leave. Anyway, in the rush to leave, someone accidentally
grabbed his clothes, so he was left without any… ahem… covering, as it were.”