Rose Hill (9 page)

Scott didn’t mind the floorshow, and he couldn’t deny it had a pleasurable effect, but he was anxious to get moving on this case, and was relieved when Knox finally opened his door and beckoned for him to come in.

Knox Rodefeffer was a tall, ungainly man, and so unnaturally tan for this time of the year that he had an almost orange glow about him. His dark toupee was expensive but not fooling anyone, and his capped teeth were so white Scott thought they probably glowed in the dark. He clothed his pronounced gut and collection of chins in the good old boy uniform of blue oxford button down shirt, red tie, navy blazer, and khaki pants, all of which seemed to cut off his circulation and caused him to sweat profusely.

Scott n
oted he still chose to wear multiple pieces of what Maggie referred to snidely as “man jewelry.” He had on a big gold watch with diamonds on the face, diamond cuff links, a diamond tiepin, a diamond and gold wedding band, and an insignia ring on one pinky.

Knox may have impressed some people, but they had gone to grade school together, and to Scott he would always be the big crybaby who bullied smaller kids, bragged about himself all the time, and lied at the drop of a hat. There was really no point in asking him anything, because whatever he told you was bound to be at least fifty percent bullshit. Still, Delia said he knew coins.

He seemed particularly interested in the photos Scott showed him, and examined them through a magnifying glass.

“Thrace,” he said. “Lysimachos, 323-281 BC.”

“Pardon me?” Scott asked, but Knox continued to study the photos, ignoring him.

“This side features the head of Alexander the Great, wearing the royal diadem and the Horn of Ammon. On the other side is Athena, Goddess of War, holding up Nike, Goddess of Victory. Lysimachos created it after Alexander’s death, when he ruled Thrace.”

“So I’m guessing you’ve seen it before.”

“Where did you get this coin?” Knox demanded, looking up from his magnifying glass.

“Not telling,” Scott said, and enjoyed the angry flush that spread over Knox’s face at being talked to that way. No matter how old they got, or how much money Knox accumulated, it was always recess on the playground, and Scott was bigger and stronger.

“It could be worth anywhere from two to four thousand dollars,” Knox said. “I used to have one in my collection.”

“What happened to yours?” Scott asked, and Knox hesitated before he answered.

“It was stolen.”

“So this might be your coin?”

“Hmmm, could be,” said Knox. “I made an insurance claim on my coin, you see, which makes it a tad awkward for me to say.”

“Right,” Scott said. “I get it.”

Scott held out his hand for the photos and Knox reluctantly gave them back.

“What will happen to it now? To the coin, I mean.”

“It’s evidence in an investigation.”

“Theo’s murder?” Knox asked.

“I’m not going to say.”

“Well, if it ever gets released from custody I’d be willing to buy it.”

“I’ll let someone know,” promised Scott. “Were you involved in any business dealings with Theo?”

“Theo kept a small account here, for his convenience,” Knox said, with a curled lip. “But I believe most of his banking business took place in Pittsburgh.”

“Was there any personal business between you two?” Scott asked. “Investments, real estate deals, that sort of thing?”

“Certainly not,” Knox said. “Theo Eldridge was not someone with whom I would lower myself to do business. I believe my brother may have worked with him in the past, but you would have to ask him about that.”

“I’ll certainly do that,” Scott said. “Sounds like there was some bad blood between you and Theo. Would you care to enlighten me?”

“It’s common knowledge that Theo swindled my grandfather out of the glassworks property. He took advantage of a senile old man and stole it right out from under us.”

“That sounds a lot like a motive for revenge,” Scott said. “Tell me, Knox, where were you
on Saturday night?”

Knox smirked at Scott and replied, “In DC with Senator Bayard. I’m doing some consulting for his office and he invited me to a dinner with some very senior White House officials.”

Scott was not impressed with anyone who kissed political ass and called it work. He thanked Knox for his time and left the office, catching Courtenay applying fresh gloss to her pouty red lips.

“Don’t be a stranger,” she told him, and waggled her gloss applicator at him as he hurried past.

Scott went to the bookstore to see Maggie, but she was out. He figured she was at her parents’ house giving her father and grandfather some lunch, so he headed down toward the river, to their modest two-story house on Marigold Avenue. Scott let himself in when no one answered his light knock at the front door. Maggie’s maternal grandfather, Tim MacGregor, was sound asleep in his recliner in the living room, but her father’s recliner was empty. Scott assumed he was in the bathroom, because King Fitz only ever sat on one throne or the other.

Fitz’s big shaggy red dog
, Laddie, also known as “Lazy Ass Laddie,” was sprawled out on the floor in front of the heater, snoring. He didn’t wake up when Scott came in. Duke, the vet’s cat, was curled up in Grandpa Tim’s lap. Duke opened one eye and regarded Scott but did not move.

“Hey Duke,” Scott said as he shut the front door behind him. “You better not let Bonnie catch you in her house.”

Duke just resettled himself and closed his eye, as if he was not a bit worried about something that wouldn’t happen for a few hours yet. Grandpa Tim snored loudly, his teeth in a glass on a TV tray next to the recliner.

Maggie was in the kitchen with her Aunt Delia and Hannah, watching a home improvement program on a small television while they ate some delicious smelling vegetable soup. Delia jumped up when Scott came in and offered him soup and tea.

He declined the soup, saying, “Tea would be great, though.”

Scott was amused to see Maggie’s and Hannah’s eyes were riveted to the television, where a muscular man in a tight t-shirt was helping a clueless couple build a deck on the back of their house.

“What are you watching?” he asked them.

“Shhhh,” Maggie said.

Delia said, “They’re watching a good looking man working on a home improvement project without being nagged into it.”

“It’s like our porn,” Hannah said, and Delia swatted her with a kitchen towel.

Scott sipped tea and conversed in low tones with Delia until the show ended, and Maggie turned off the television.

“That man is too handsome to be real,” Hannah declared.

“Your man isn’t exactly an eyesore,” Delia admonished her.

“Your pretty easy on the eye yourself, Scott,” Hannah said. “Don’t you think so, Maggie?”

Maggie ignored her.

“How’s the case going?” Maggie asked Scott. “I saw Miss Albright in town earlier.”

Hannah said something under her breath that made Maggie laugh but Scott didn’t catch it. He had found it was often better not to know.

“You know Scott can’t discuss the case with you,” Delia said, putting on her coat, preparing to depart. Maggie hugged Delia and thanked her for bringing lunch.

“Now you can tell us,” Maggie said as soon as the back door shut behind her aunt, but Scott shook his head.

“Nope, I’ve been too lax already, and you two cannot be trusted.”

“C’mon,” whined Hannah. “We can help you, Scott. I have direct connections to several key scanner grannies, and they will tell me anything I want to know.”

“Don’t let Sarah beat you to it,” Maggie coaxed. “We can help you find out who killed Theo before she does.”

Despite his earlier insistence that they stay out of the case, Scott planned to ask for their help, but it was nice to be begged. He liked the tiny amount of power it gave him, however briefly. Scott didn’t want to show both of them the photocopy of the threat card in case Maggie might be more forthcoming about her brother Sean when alone, so he showed them the coin photo and told them what Knox said about it. What he could remember, that is.

“How did Knox’s coin get in Theo’s bedroom?” Hannah asked.

“They were lovers?” Maggie suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Scott said. “Have you seen Knox’s secretary?”

“You mean his latest condom application specialist,” Hannah said. “The gossip on those lovebirds is smokin’ hot. They have a lot of ‘strategic planning meetings’ behind closed doors, and the cleaning lady has found some mighty interesting things in Knox’s trash can afterward.”

“Unless Theo was involved somehow, I don’t want to know,” Scott said.

“She could be the thief,” Maggie said. “Maybe she stole the coin from Knox and gave it to Theo.”

“Or Knox sold it to Theo,” Hannah said, “and reported it stolen to get the insurance money.”

“Or traded it for drugs,” Maggie said.

They all nodded in agreement, but then Hannah asked, “Wait a minute, what about Knox’s wife, Anne Marie? Maybe she gave it to Theo as a little token of her love.”

“I don’t think so,” Maggie said. “The gossip among the students who work for me is that Anne Marie is sleeping with a tennis player at the college; she likes ‘em young.”

“But who likes ‘em Theo-style?” Hannah asked, grimacing. “He was so gross.”

“Phyllis Davis,” Maggie said.

Hannah nodded, saying, “Oh yeah, I forgot about ole Phyllis.”

“What?” Scott asked, clueless.

“Phyllis Davis, waitress at the diner,” Hannah told him. “Theo has been known to frequent her trailer many a night, late at night.”

“And early in the morning,” Maggie said.

“How do you know that?” Scott asked.

“They have noisy fights and noisy make up sex, and Mandy lives next door.”

“Why didn’t I know about that?” Scott asked them.

“Because you don’t listen to evil gossip,” Hannah said. “Plus, you’re the police.”

“Yeah,” Maggie said. “You’re the heat.”

“The long arm of the law.”

“The fuzz.”

“The pigs.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Scott said. “I guess I need to talk to Phyllis.”

Scott spent a few minutes visiting with Maggie’s father Fitz, who seemed a little vague, and was slurring his words. Scott knew Fitz took strong pain medication and also drank a bit to ease the pain of his back injury, and thinking he must be in a lot of pain, he didn’t linger.

Phyllis was still off sick from the diner, and her mother Pauline was too busy picking up the slack for questions about Theo’s fight with Ed. Scott stopped in at the station to ask Frank to follow up with Phyllis and Pauline, and to find out if Skip had found any clue as to Willy Neff’s whereabouts. Skip had come up empty so far. The last anyone had seen of Willy was when he left Hannah’s place with Theo around 12:30 the night of the murder.

No one they interviewed had heard the break-in at the veterinary clinic, although all the neighbors in the area heard the party in the insurance building going on until well after 2:00 in the morning. A couple of neighbors remembered being awakened by their dogs barking in the night. Scott wished people in real life were more like people on television programs, and could report something happened at “12:07 exactly” instead of “sometime after midnight.”

Scott consulted his notes and then asked Frank to follow up with Trick on the sale of the glassworks, and
with Gail Godwin, who cleaned Theo’s house, to see if she knew who had stood up Theo for dinner. He asked Skip to call in at every business in town to see where Theo went during his last day, and whom he harassed. Both officers had been putting in a lot of extra time, so Scott told them they could expect overtime wages, which made them happy. Scott really appreciated his team, and knew Frank’s family could use the extra money. He would worry about balancing the station budget later.

Scott did an electronic background check on veterinarian Drew Rosen, which came up clean, and then called the emergency vet clinic where he used to work. His former supervisor only had good things to say about him, and the office manager said there had been no malpractice claims made about his work.

“We miss him,” the office manager said. “We keep hoping he’ll come back.”

Scott spent some time updating his notes and crossing things off his many lists, and then looked over the evidence again. The photo of him and his friends as teenagers, along with the threatening note, had him stumped. He knew he shouldn’t involve Ed, but he needed to ask him who had access to photos he took as a teenager.

Scott found Ed at work, the knot on his head a little less swollen but still a lurid purple and yellow. Ed was on the phone, and did not look glad to see his best friend. It felt awkward in a way that pained Scott, but until this case was solved his visits to Ed, no matter now well intentioned, would always seem official.

Scott waited to speak until Ed hung up the phone.