Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series) (15 page)

They told me she had left already for lunch and a dentist appointment. I got in my car and headed back to Indian Cove. Nadine had lost a good chance at another job because Maria wouldn’t go to bat for her and then had done a lot of work for Maria’s new venture only to be turned away again. It sounded more and more like Nadine Davis had an ax to grind.

After I stopped off at a coffee shop for a bowl of soup and a small salad, I headed over to the office Maria used for her business. There were two cars parked out front and I pulled into a space between them.

The tiny office space was full of boxes. It looked like someone was moving. I heard voices and a moment later Nadine and Ryan stepped into the front office. So much for a dentist appointment.

“Can I help—oh, wait. You’re Alex, right? The detective Ellery hired?” Ryan Reynolds asked me. He set a box down on the counter and came around it to where I stood.

“Yes, that’s right. It looks like you’re moving.”

Ryan turned around and looked at all the boxes. “No. Not yet, at least. We have another two months on the lease and then we’ll have to figure something out. These,” Ryan said taking in the mess, are some of the products we ordered. They just arrived and once I unpack them the Vegan View will be open for business.”

“That’s right,” Nadine said. “I still need to photograph everything, get it up on the Web site, and organize the pricing. Hopefully in another couple of weeks everything will be up and running.”

“So you’re still working here?” I asked Nadine.

She looked at Ryan and then back at me. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” She turned to Ryan. “I gotta get back to work. I’ll come back tonight.” Nadine grabbed her purse and turned to me. “He’s such a gentleman. He does all the heavy lifting and unpacking and all I have to do is catalogue everything.” She turned and left leaving Ryan and I standing there.

“So the police have officially ruled Maria’s death a murder. They were here earlier this morning.” Ryan started to stack boxes in the corner. “And I talked with Sergei. He doesn’t care what we do with the product line but he wants the offending blogs taken down, which is fine with me, and once his lawyer goes through everything he’s going to sell us the name to the company, the Vegan View, and of course he wants the money back that Maria invested. We’ll know more in a month or so.”

“You keep saying
we
. Does that mean Nadine is back in the picture?” I took a step over to one of the boxes and glanced at the label. I couldn’t tell what was in it, but on the front was a red stamp like the one Millie used to date stamp our mail.

“Maria had a problem with Nadine. I never did.”

“But you said she was lazy.”

Ryan kept piling boxes, keeping his back to me. “We had a talk about that. I told her it was just the two of us now and if we were going to keep Maria’s dream going and make this thing work we had to stay together. We both have full time jobs so it’s weekends and nights until we can start bringing in some money. My job is pretty flexible. I’m trying to do both plus I have the series on TV coming up.”

I really wanted to talk with Nadine but it didn’t sound like she was coming back until much later and I didn’t feel like driving out to the university again and dealing with parking. New Haven was closer. I said good-bye to Ryan and left.

Back in my car I pulled out my cell and called Millie. The TV station Ryan had his deal with had never been our client but I did work with someone over there on a charity event once. I forgot the man’s name but Millie logged into our database and read me off a list of people working there until I recognized the man from the event.

The station was in a two-story building not far from the center of town. I walked up a flight of stairs and asked to speak with Brian Whatley.

“Alex Harris! Is it that time of year again?” Brian Whatley was the community liaison director at the TV station and I had thoroughly enjoyed working with him on the charity event.

I laughed. “I hope not. I’ve got too much on my plate right now to help organize another authors lunch.” I explained to Brian about how I was helping the Kravec family and then I asked about Ryan Reynolds.

“This Ryan Reynolds has a good reputation in health circles. He’s done a couple of marathons, used to coach some kids in track events, knows a lot about healthy eating, vitamins, exercise, the whole bit. Quite a salesman. As a matter of fact, I think that’s what his day job is—a salesman for some company here in town. Anyway, the station, as part of our community service responsibilities, is trying to promote a healthier lifestyle to kids and their parents. Obesity is out of control.” Brian shook his head of extremely thick brown hair. “As these things happen, Ryan knew someone who knew someone here at the station. He’s got a lot of ambition and when he brought the idea about a couple of fifteen-minute segments each week to us the timing was just perfect. Then he hooked up with Mrs. Kravec and it all tied in.”

“So when will these segments be airing?” I asked.

“It’s in our budget for the new year. We wanted to start them right after the holidays when everybody wants to get back into shape.”

“But?” I asked hearing some hesitation in Brian’s voice.

“The Vegan View. Have you seen their blogs?” I nodded. “She was a bit out there. We want to have a nice little show. Give out some good advice, recommend their site as a place to find various products and ideas and recipes, etc. We could do it here but the truth is we don’t have the resources to keep a site like that going. So we promote their site, they promote our station, the segments, and some other shows we have. It’s all good. But that blog was mean. We didn’t want to be associated with that. We told Ryan if he could get her to change the tone of the blogs, make them more informative and uplifting before December, everything was a go.”

“And what did he say?” I asked.

“He said no problem. Lights, camera, action!”

It seemed at every turn I gathered more suspects. I went from who would want to kill sweet Mrs. Kravec to who didn’t want their turn at doing the woman in.

After I left the station I checked in with John. He had another couple of hours of work . I felt restless and knew what I needed. An hour later I hopped off the treadmill at the Indian Cove Health Club and felt much better. I spent another twenty minutes doing some weights and then cleaned up and went home.

After all the pasta and meatballs I had eaten yesterday, my body needed a healthy salad. Marla had given me a handful of Swiss chard and some kale. I knew I should love these two vitamin-packed greens and the chard was okay, but NASA could use kale leaves as panels on their space craft. The things were just so darned tough. But my body really did need some food with substance so I chopped both of them up and made a salad large enough so that John could have some when he got home. I took a sizable bowl over to the kitchen table and sorted through the mail I had finally remembered to get out of the box. Now that I paid most everything online, I didn’t get a whole lot of mail, but sometimes it’s nice to just sit and look through all the junk just to see what great bargains I’m missing. The drug store in the shopping center where Ellery and I had walked the other night was having a two-for-one sale on vitamins and the craft store was having a sale on fleece. I popped a piece of tomato in my mouth contemplating whether I needed vitamins and what could I possibly do with a bunch of fleece when I heard a tap on the glass in my back door.

“Ellery, come on in,” I said. “I was just having a salad. Can I get you a bowl?”

“No. I’m waiting for my dad and then we’re going out to dinner.”

“So he hasn’t been arrested?” I asked as she sat down across from me.

Ellery sighed. “Not yet. But they keep questioning him. He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t. Are you any closer to finding out anything?” Ellery looked at me with pleading eyes.

“Well, as a matter of fact—“

“You found the killer?” Ellery shouted.

I winced at her high-pitched scream. “Not exactly. But there are definitely some other people who might, I said
might
, have a reason. I’m looking into it. But I’m glad you’re here. I need to ask you a few things.”

“Sure. Whatever I can do.” Ellery pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees.

“Did your mother ever say anything about her blog?”

“Like what?”

“Well, did she ever express any remorse over the stuff she wrote or did she happen to tell you she planned to give it up?”

Ellery shook her head of dark curls. “No and no. I never asked her, though. I mean I wasn’t happy with what she wrote about my dad, and I told her so, but she just said, ‘Trust me, he deserves it.’ Look,” Ellery stretched her long legs out and leaned forward, arms resting on the table. “My mom had, well, she had a mean streak. You probably figured that out by now. I’m a lot closer to my dad. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my mother.” Ellery started to cry softly. “I did. I loved her so much. But she was difficult. Is that a terrible thing to say?”

I reached over and touched her hand. “No. Moms and daughters argue. It happens to everyone. Listen, if your dad was going to get even with your mom over the blogs, what do you think he would do?”

Ellery thought about this for a moment then shook her head. “Nothing. He’s not like that. My dad’s not petty or vindictive. He likes to yell and I could see him yelling at my mom and telling her to knock it off, but that’s as far as it would go. He’s all bluster but then really sweet underneath. Why? Did someone say something? Tell me.”

“I talked with Nena and she said your dad told her that he’d fix your mom good.”

Ellery was on her feet. “You should have let me strangle her the other night! My dad would never say something like that and certainly not to
that
woman!
I’ll
fix her good if she doesn’t leave my dad alone and stay away from us.”

“I’m sure it was just said in the heat of the moment, if at all,” I said, wishing I’d never brought up Nena Connick.

 Ellery calmed herself with some deep breaths and then sat back down. “So, tell me what you found out so far. Don’t leave anything out.”

I told Ellery about the Corliss family and their restaurant and how Mr. Corliss met with Maria and asked her to stop. I tried to reassure her that whatever happened between Nena and Sergei was over. I told Ellery about her uncle and how the only house he had ever lived in was being taken away. And I told her about Nadine and Ryan.

Ellery was quiet for quite some time and then she looked up, her blue eyes wet. “She really wasn’t very nice, was she?”

“I think she was angry. Very angry. I think in the last month or so she was so upset about something and she was just lashing out through her blog.”

“But what was she worried about? She always knew how my father is? She had her own business. Things seemed to be going well.”

I thought of something. “You said you mother wanted to borrow money?”

“Yes. I told her not without showing me her books. That’s what we argued about. And then she died. I should have just written her a check.”

“So your mother wanted to borrow money from you; she planned to sell the house her brother lives in. And didn’t you say she also inherited some money and had a pension plan? So where’s all the money?”

Ellery left a few minutes later when she heard her father drive up. I really needed to talk with Sergei, but I thought I would go by the butcher shop tomorrow instead. John came home, ate the salad and then retired to the bedroom with a thriller he was currently reading.

I felt restless and sat in the den with a cup of herbal tea and my iPad. Using the password Ellery had given me I logged into Maria’s private email account again. This time I opened up the
sent
folder and took a look around. I found the ones Maria had sent her brother and a few innocuous ones to Ellery. There was one to a man named Bob Spangler at a company called JBD Investments. I opened it up and read.

Mr. Spangler, you don’t know me but I think we should meet and the sooner the better. I have information for you of a sensitive nature that I think you need to hear. Please contact me either via email or my cell.

Maria had added her cell phone number at the bottom of the email. I next searched for a reply from Mr. Spangler but there was nothing else. I checked the date on the email Maria had sent to him and it was dated several weeks before she died. I next Googled JBD Investments. They were located in Stamford and I made note of the address. Maybe Maria needed money for something she was investing in or the new business though from the tone of her email, it sounded like she had information for Mr. Spangler, not the other way around.

Suddenly I was very tired. Just thinking about all the stops I had to make tomorrow not to mention all the work that was piling up at my office, was making my head spin. Maria Kravec was up to something, I could feel it. Now I just had to figure out what that something was.

It seemed like days since I had last been in my office when in fact it was yesterday morning. John had left very early to go to the club before heading off to the station and I figured I might as well come in and get some work done. I had two appointments this morning and if I could clear up the paperwork on my desk before those meetings then I could sneak out right after and head over to Stamford to talk with Bob Spangler, whoever he was. He had never answered Maria’s email but maybe he called her instead. On my way back to Indian Cove I also wanted to stop by Sergei’s butcher shop, which, by the way was called Sergei’s Butcher Shop.

An hour and a half later I held reign over the paperwork and decided to reward myself with a little break. I pulled up a blank Word document on my computer and typed out my thoughts as they came to me. First, I typed up a list of suspects which included Sergei, Ellery, Nadine, Ryan, Nena, George, and Frank Corliss. I didn’t need to worry about alibis because the killer didn’t need to be anywhere near Maria Kravec when she went into shock from the poison ivy-laced smoke. Next, I thought about the epinephrine. Who had access to the house? Certainly Ellery and Sergei, but according to Ellery the house was locked sometimes and unlocked others. So conceivably anyone could have access, plus the killer might just stop by for a chat and empty the pens while Maria was in the bathroom or something, though I didn’t really see Frank Corliss stopping by for a chat and he most likely would assume the house was locked when no one was home. So, unless he was a master lock picker, I didn’t think he had the opportunity to empty the pens but maybe the murder and the empty pens had nothing to do with each other. Then I thought about motive. Sergei and Maria were clearly having problems. It seemed to be a way of life with them but with the nasty blog thrown into the mix and the loss of customers, maybe Sergei had had enough. Ellery and her mother clashed on more than one occasion but was that a motive to kill? I didn’t think so but perhaps the breakup with the boyfriend was. Next I thought about Nadine and Ryan. Both were ambitious and in Nadine’s case, Maria had been a stumbling block to her career path. I hadn’t had a chance yet to confront Nadine on her problems with Maria and hopefully, I could make it out to the university after I talked with Sergei. Ryan Reynolds was hoping for a career on TV. A morning spot out of New Haven wasn’t exactly the big time but everyone had to start somewhere. If he couldn’t get Maria to stop with the offending blogs, he could kiss that dream good-bye. George Shruder at first seemed in the clear but now with the potential loss of the house he was firmly on my list. Nena Connick and Frank Corliss were the wild cards. Frank had lied about meeting with Maria and he had also listened to her interview and knew about her allergies. And what about Nena? She also knew about the allergies from Sergei. Had she finally had enough of waiting for him and when her ultimatum didn’t work she turned her sights on Maria?