Killerfind (10 page)

s Rhetta
and Ricky
wandered
among the guests, Rhetta commented that someone was missing.

“Where’s Jeremy?” she asked, feigning ignorance
about knowing exactly where Jeremy was. What she didn’t understand was why he
hadn’t yet joined his girlfriend and his guests. She smiled, thinking maybe he
was too sore to walk around. Maybe she could escape before he showed up, thus
avoiding any awkwardness.

Ricky glanced at her watch and frowned. “He had an
appointment with a client, but he should be here by now.” Then she smiled. “I’m
sure he’ll be along in time to wolf down a steak.”

Rhetta glanced at her friend. Ricky was stunning in
a pair of green shorts with matching tank top, her long red locks held back
with a simple scrunchie that matched her top. She needed to tell her about Jeremy.
She didn’t need to know whether they were a couple or not to do the right
thing.

“Listen, Ricky, I….” Before she could finish, Jeremy
materialized at Ricky’s side. He leaned in and kissed her, cutting his eyes
toward Rhetta with a cold stare. She glared back. She wanted to stick out her
tongue.

Ricky threaded her arm through Jeremy’s. “There you
are. We were wondering where you’d gotten to.”

Rhetta raised an eyebrow. She’d been practicing that
one-eyebrow raising thing that Woody did so well. She discovered it came in
really handy. That Jeremy had changed into tan chinos from his white shorts was
not lost on her. She smiled.

Anjanette joined them. “Jeremy, darling, would you
be a dear and check in with the chef to be sure he has enough steaks for all of
our guests?”

“Of course. Come with me, Ricky,” he added, steering
her toward the patio. He leaned in and whispered something and Ricky giggled.

Oh, crap, she has it bad.

“Don’t they make a lovely couple?” Anjanette asked.
“I’m so glad that we called Ricky when we were looking for someone to list our
lots out in the new subdivision.”

So, that’s how they met.

“Yes, lovely.”

Anjanette took Rhetta’s arm and walked her away from
the guests until they stood alone in the foyer. Rhetta wondered what the woman
wanted.

“Such an unfortunate incident at the barn,” she
began.
Unfortunate incident? Yes, indeed, finding a body was quite
unfortunate—especially for the dead guy.

“I’m told that your husband is a former judge. I was
hoping he would be here with you today.”

Huh?
“Well, actually, Randolph—”
Before she could finish, Anjanette interrupted, laying her slim hand on
Rhetta’s arm. Each of her fingers bore heavy jeweled rings as though to
camouflage the age spots and rather gnarly fingers.

“I so want to be able to move quickly past this
incident and continue the project. This is such an inconvenience. I imagine the
deceased is some derelict who chose to die in that barn. Now we must put our
project on hold. I was so hoping Judge McCarter could help us with this.”

Holy crap. This woman is nuts. I
guess the derelict buried himself there, too. Doesn’t she get it?

“I understand only the barn is off limits for now,
until the investigation is over,” Rhetta said. “What’s so critical about the
barn?”

“The barn needs to be taken down immediately so that
we can pour a slab there for the tennis courts.”

“I see. That’s critical, all right.” She
deliberately tried to sound sarcastic.

Clearly, it went over her hostess’ head. Anjanette
tossed her superbly coiffed head back and laughed. “Well, not just the tennis
courts, of course, but the pool and the clubhouse will all be in that area. We
must have those amenities in place to lure builders to build the type of homes
Jeremy is planning for the lots. So, you see, it is critical to get the barn
removed as soon as possible.”

Rhetta just shook her head. While she was hoping for
several mortgage loans from the subdivision, she couldn’t fathom this woman’s
coldness about the “derelict” who chose to die in the barn. This conversation
was totally off the wall.

To get away from the Ice Queen, as Rhetta now
thought of her, she asked,” Is there a bathroom nearby?”

Anjanette motioned toward the hall with her
jewelry-laden hand. “Down there. Second door on the right.” As Rhetta moved
away, Anjanette returned to her guests.

Rhetta meandered down the hallway, peeking into the
first door on the right. Inside was a beautifully appointed office. She scoped
the hallway and finding no one around, eased open the door and entered. She
closed the door softly behind her. Against one wall was a large oak roll-top
desk, modernized to hold a computer and all the peripherals, like a printer and
scanner.

A polished oak gun cabinet stood against the
opposite wall. Alongside the cabinet, the wall was decorated with framed
awards. She tiptoed to the glass-fronted cabinet and spied several cleaned and
blued rifles lined up like sentries in their slots inside. When she glanced at
the awards she was surprised to learn that Anjanette Spears was an expert shot.
This was definitely not the bathroom.

She sidled to the desk where she marveled at the
sleek flat-screen monitor, wireless keyboard and accessories. The computer
itself was out of sight. Curious about the type of computer, Rhetta began
looking for the unit. It had to be pretty small to be concealed inside this
desk. She wondered what brand it was. She needed a new one at the office and
would love to have a small CPU, or one that was altogether with the monitor.
She glanced around the top of the desk without spotting it, so she opened a few
of the doors.

One side door opened to a series of drawers behind
it. She pulled the top drawer but it stuck. She tugged it harder, and the
drawer sailed out. When she knelt to retrieve the contents that had spilled on
to the carpeted floor, she was eye level with the empty space where the drawer
had been. She peered into the cavity. Something was lodged at the back,
probably the reason the drawer was sticking. She reached for it.

She stared at a handwritten envelope bearing an old
postmark. Even with squinting, she couldn’t make out the date. She fished out
her glasses from her purse and tried again. If she wasn’t misreading it, this
envelope was postmarked nearly sixteen years ago.

Using her thumb, she opened the flap on the envelope
open and withdrew the letter.

“To my dearest Anjie,” it began. What followed was
obviously a love letter. As Rhetta scanned to the bottom, she thought how sweet
it was that Mrs. Spears had kept this letter sent to her by her late husband,
probably when he was away on a trip. She felt guilty for invading the woman’s
privacy.

Then, she spotted the signature line: “All my love,
Malcom.”

hetta
blinked in surprise
and then re-read it. Malcom? Malcom Griffith, Willard Spears’ partner? Had
Anjanette Spears been having an affair with Malcom Griffith at the time of his
disappearance? If that was so, then who was the exotic pole dancer everyone
talked about?

The ramifications of what she held in her hand hit
her squarely between the eyes in an instant headache that shot outward to her
temples. She dropped the letter back into the envelope, and tucked it into the
drawer with the rest of the contents. She pushed it to go back in place, but it
resisted. She shoved harder, wanting desperately to leave the office that she’d
carelessly entered to investigate.

As she struggled with the desk, she heard two people
talking as they walked down the hall, their voices growing louder as they
neared the office. She slammed both palms into the drawer, and this time it
yielded, and slid into place. Her headache pounded as the voices got closer.
She closed the door that concealed the drawers, then jumped as it clicked
loudly when it latched. She desperately prayed that the two people, who sounded
like they’d stopped in front of the office door, didn’t hear it.  Frantically,
she eyeballed the room for a place to hide. The voices grew louder as they
disagreed. Rhetta couldn’t quite make out their words, but she could tell a man
and a woman were arguing. She spotted a closet and streaked for it, tugged open
the door and shot inside, only to discover that instead of a regular closet
containing articles of clothing or coats, she thudded against steel filing
cabinets. More noise. Her heart hammered as she turned around, sucked in a
breath and pulled the door closed. She could barely fit.

In her hasty retreat, she’d forgotten to turn off
the light. She began to sweat.

Her hiding place had louvered doors, which allowed
her to peer through the slats. Had a light been on inside the closet, she would
have been seen. Luckily, that side of the room was dim—the vertical blinds at
the window were still closed. She prayed she wouldn’t be spotted. Her heart thudded
so loudly that not only was she afraid they’d hear it, but also that they’d
feel the vibration all the way across the room, like a 6.2 earthquake on the
Richter scale. She’d managed her escape just in time to watch Jeremy and
Anjanette enter the office and stop in front of the desk in the exact spot she
had just vacated.

Anjanette’s pleasant disposition had disappeared.
When she spoke, she fairly hissed. Rhetta saw her face contort in anger.

His response was caustic. “All right,
Mother,
”
he said, with a dripping dose of sarcasm on the word
mother
. “I’ll make
sure this situation gets cleared up.”

“See to it that you do, or there might be
consequences.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Consequences?
Of course there’s going to be consequences. The first of which will be that we
won’t be able to build anything there anytime soon.” He sidled over to an
elegant stuffed chair, one of a pair that faced each other across a marble top
coffee table. He dropped into the chair and draped a leg lazily over one of the
arms.

Anjanette sat primly at the edge of the leather desk
chair, pulled open a middle drawer that Rhetta had not previously noticed and
withdrew a business checkbook. She scribbled quickly, tore out a check, then
stood and handed it to Jeremy.

“This needs to last you a while. I don’t know how
much more I can give you.”

He leapt to his feet and in one stride stood
directly in her face. “I,” he said, poking her in the chest with his index
finger, “will be the one to decide that.” His voice dropped in pitch, and
sounded like a snarl as he snatched the check from her, then strode toward the
door.

Rhetta’s hand flew over her mouth.
Oh, God, how
am I ever going to get Ricky away from this slime bucket? And what the heck was
going on? Why was Anjanette giving money to Jeremy?
From what she saw of
his books, he was getting plenty from his investors.

After he closed the door, Anjanette slumped into the
desk chair, buried her head in her arms and began weeping.

Lordy, she’ll be here awhile.
I’ll be stiff as a board smashed in this closet.
Rhetta needed to move, to change
positions. Her butt muscles began to cramp, then her legs. She dared not move
and risk exposure. She was a fast talker, but she’d never be able to convince
Anjanette Spears that she got lost looking for the bathroom and wound up in a
closet. A muscle spasm vibrated down the back of her leg, followed by a searing
pain from a sciatic nerve as she continued cramping. She wanted to whimper. She
stuffed her fist into her mouth. Tears from the pain began to trickle down her
cheek. She tried to take deep breaths, but was terrified of being discovered,
so she sucked in jerky little gasps instead.

Anjanette reached for a tissue and dabbed her eyes,
then rose, closed the checkbook and held it to her chest. She glanced around
the room, then took the checkbook with her and went through a doorway that must
have led into the bathroom. Rhetta heard water run.

Rhetta slid open the louvered door, and stumbled for
the doorway leading to the hall. She snatched it open.

And stood face-to-face with Jeremy.

Jeremy paled when he saw her. He grabbed her by the
shoulders. “What were you doing in the office?”

“Take your hands off me, and right now,” she said,
stage whispering into his ear and totally ignoring his question. She shrugged
emphatically as he released his grip. She sidestepped him without answering,
and trotted briskly down the hall to rejoin the guests. Let him figure out
what, if anything, she was doing in there.

Her stomach had turned to jelly, and her hands began
to shake. Perspiration covered her forehead, and dripped down her nose. Now she
really had to use the bathroom. As soon as he could get herself together, she
had to find Ricky.