A Grid For Murder (4 page)

Instead of answering, I handed him the autographed puzzle from my bag.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” I asked him as he studied the puzzle’s creator and matched it to the signature.

“It isn’t good,” he said as he kept staring at Joanne’s name.

“Should I call Jenny?” Jenny Blake was my former college roommate and now an attorney in Raleigh. She’d helped me out of a sticky situation before, and had promised to come to my rescue if I ever needed her sharp legal mind again. I’d protested that I hadn’t paid her for the last
services she’d so ably provided, but Jenny had claimed that the money I’d loaned her in college was serving to cover her bill with interest that had accumulated over the years. If I had to, Zach and I could cover the tab, though it would put us in a financial bind, but I might just ask my uncle, who happened to have more than he would ever need, and had offered any and all of it to me if I just asked.

Zach stroked his chin and finally broke his stare from the puzzle printed in the paper. “It’s not that bad. At least not yet.”

I looked around. There wasn’t a stick or a branch out of place. “The yard looks good.”

He surveyed the yard, and then nodded absently. “I should have just left it and gone with you to Asheville.”

“I don’t need a chaperone every time I go to the city,” I said.

His only reply was one raised eyebrow.

“Okay,” I said, “maybe this time it would have been nice, but we had no way of knowing what was going to happen.”

He put his arm around me, and I didn’t even mind the fact that he hadn’t showered yet. “Let’s go inside,” Zach said. “I’ll get cleaned up, and you can tell me everything that happened today.” He must have seen something in my expression, because he quietly added, “Don’t worry, Savannah. It’s going to be all right.”

“I love hearing you say that; I just wish that I could believe you,” I said.

“F
IRST THINGS FIRST,” ZACH SAID AFTER HE’D TAKEN THE
time to grab a shower and shave before joining me in the living room by the fire, “I need to hear all of the
details about your meeting with Joanne.” As he said it, my husband retrieved a little red notepad from his pocket, along with a pen. It was the identical type he used when he was investigating a case, and the notepad’s presence somehow eased my troubles a little bit.

“Okay. I went to the office supply store and faxed my puzzle to my editor. After that I shopped for a new fax machine. It’s in the car, by the way. Remind me later that I need to get it so I can set it up.”

“Savannah, did you run into Joanne at the office supply shop?”

“No, of course not,” I said.

“Then why are you telling me about your shopping trip, when the woman’s murder is what we’re interested in?”

“You said that I should tell you everything, Zach. I was just doing my best to follow your orders.”

He bit his lip, and after a few seconds, my husband said, “You’re right. That’s exactly what I said. Tell you what. Why don’t we fast-forward to when you saw Joanne.”

I nodded. “I can do that. I decided to have lunch outside, so I went to Café Noir, that cute little café downtown across from the obelisk. Do you know the one I mean?”

“I’ve been there with you, Savannah.”

“Right. I forgot. Well, I didn’t even see Joanne until I approached a table outside, and I tried to ignore her when she called out to me.”

“Why?”

“Come on, you knew her, too. She could rain on any parade with that sharp tongue of hers, and I didn’t want to wreck my good mood.”

“But she persisted,” Zach prodded gently.

“Oh yes. She joined me at my table.”

“But she was alone at that point?”

“As far as I could tell.”

Zach frowned. “Were there any plates or cups on the table where she was sitting when you arrived?”

“Just the teacup she was drinking from. There weren’t any other plates on the table, but that doesn’t really mean anything. Those waitresses there are fast.” I thought about the time I’d lost my salad after taking a quick restroom break. Worse yet, someone else was sitting at my table. I could have made a fuss, but I was mostly full anyway, so I paid my bill and left.

My husband nodded as he made another note on his pad. “We’ll assume that Joanne was alone at the time, until and unless we hear differently. Then what happened?”

“The second I sat down, she ordered me the most dreadful tea you can imagine. I took a polite sip as soon as the waitress brought it, but I never touched it again after that.”

Zach looked concerned. “You drank the same tea she had?”

“Yes, of course, that’s what I just said. Why, what’s wrong?” That’s when it hit me. “That’s how Joanne was poisoned, wasn’t it?”

He nodded somberly. “Luckily, one of the EMTs is taking a toxicology class at night school. She’s trying to get into Pharmacy School, and she spotted it right away.”

I felt queasy about the news. “But I’m fine. Mine had to be all right.”

“Apparently just one of the mugs at the table contained any poison,” Zach said. “But there were four of them on the table. Did you each get two?”

“No, of course not. Listen, you can ask more questions
and make me keep losing my train of thought, or you can save them all until I finish telling you what I know. It’s your choice.”

“I’m sorry, Savannah. Old habits die hard. Go ahead.”

I took a deep breath, and then said, “Joanne was in rare spirits, I must say. She was smug about something the entire time I was there, but I didn’t know why until the end.”

I saw that Zach wanted to interrupt, but he fought it back, and I continued. “Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. When she first sat down with me, I remarked how odd it was to find her in Asheville, and she admitted that she’d just spoken with Harry Pike before I’d come along. Joanne made a remark that implied the two of them were battling over something, but she didn’t give me any more details than that.”

Zach tried to fight his impulse to ask me something again, and I didn’t want him to strain anything. I shook my head and tried to hide my smile. “Go ahead. I know that you’re just dying to ask me something.”

The words came rushing out in a flood of release. “Do you know if he had any tea himself?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” I said. “A minute or two after I sat down, Laura Moon and Sandra Oliver joined us, at Joanne’s insistence. They didn’t look as though they wanted to be there any more than I did, but we all knew how sharp Joanne’s tongue could be. She forced them to get the same dreadful tea blend as well. Theirs had just been delivered when you called about me getting you more gloves.”

“Did you stay at the table while we talked?”

I frowned. “No, I didn’t want them to hear my side of the conversation. I walked onto the sidewalk and stared at the obelisk while we chatted.”

“Then what happened?” he asked as he jotted something else down in his notepad.

“Laura and Sandra went to the ladies’ room, and then they excused themselves as soon as they got back. I tried to make my own excuses, but Joanne insisted that I stay. I threatened to leave anyway, but she told me that she was coming by the house if we didn’t have that chat immediately, so I decided to save ourselves the grief of having to entertain her here.”

He grinned at me, despite the serious nature of our conversation. “Good call.”

“I thought you’d feel that way. Anyway, Joanne said something negative about both of the women, too, but you know how she could be. She was always stirring the pot to get people flustered and react to her goading.”

“I know,” Zach said. “Did you leave then, too?”

“I wanted to, but Joanne wasn’t finished with me yet. She wanted to show me her puzzle.”

Zach stared at it for a full minute before he said, “I can’t believe that she actually got this published.”

“It’s really not that bad,” I said. “Maybe a little rough around the edges, but she had potential.”

“I’ll bet she loved rubbing your face in this,” Zach said.

“She tried, but I wouldn’t let her. I decided to take the high road.” I tapped the newspaper with one finger. “I don’t know who she paid off or slept with to get this in the newspaper, but however she did it, it was more than I would have been willing to do.”

Zach frowned as he continued to stare at the puzzle.

“What is it?” I asked. “Why are you scowling?”

“I hate that you’re going to be dragged into this. Whoever ends up investigating is just going to see this as a
motive for you to have killed her. You realize that, don’t you?”

“Are you serious? She couldn’t hurt me with one puzzle, especially in this cheap little alternative paper in one city. My markets may all be secondary, but they are spread out all over the country.”

“We both know that, but whoever’s running the investigation might not realize how insignificant this is.”

“Then what should we do?”

Zach thought about it, rubbing his ear as he did so. After a full minute, he said, “We don’t have any choice. We need to go to Asheville.”

“I just left there,” I said. “Do you really need those gloves so badly? The yard looks fine to me.”

“This isn’t a shopping trip, Savannah. We need to find out who’s in charge and tell them everything you know before they find out from someone else.”

“Who would tell them?” I asked, and then quickly added, “Strike that. Laura and Sandra are probably already spreading it around town that I was there, too.”

“Maybe not. They’d have to admit that they were there as well. Still, it’s not a bad idea to get this out in the open as soon as we can.”

I grabbed my coat. “Okay, I’m convinced. We need to go to Asheville. Do you want to drive, or should I?”

“You can,” he said. “I need to make a few telephone calls while we’re on our way.”

I led the way back to my car, and then I remembered that I still had that boxed fax machine in the trunk. It looked like it was going to take another ride to Asheville and back before it ever made it into the house.

The second I pulled down our drive, Zach started working the telephone. It took him three tries and nearly
twenty minutes, but he finally got through to the mayor of Asheville herself.

“This is Zach Stone…No, I haven’t changed my mind. Have you found anyone to take the job yet?…Really.” He pulled out his notepad and started scribbling. “And when will she be taking over?…That soon?” He jotted something else down. “I’m on my way into town. Would you call her and give her a heads-up that I’m coming?…No, I’m not going to get involved myself, but there’s something I need to discuss with her as soon as possible. Thanks. Bye.”

I whistled once he was off the telephone. “Wow, mister, you must be important. You know the mayor and everything.”

“Don’t kid yourself. If I hadn’t met her at that fund-raiser last month, she wouldn’t have had any idea who I was.”

“From the sound of your side of the conversation, I’m guessing they’ve already got someone to take the sheriff’s place.”

“On a temporary basis only,” he said. “The state police are loaning them one of their investigators.”

“A woman, if I heard right.”

He laughed. “Savannah, I should have just put the call on speakerphone so you could hear both sides of the conversation.”

“There wasn’t any need to,” I said as I drove into downtown Asheville. The autumn colors were just fading away from the mountains, displaying a blanket filled with browns and grays, with spots of green left where the evergreens stood. I loved the changing color of the leaves, but the absence of tourists looking at them was welcome as well. Many of the city’s part-time residents were heading
back to their winter homes in Florida and Arizona, and Asheville would become a good deal less crowded once that happened. “Do you know this woman in charge?”

“No, I’ve never heard of her, but I’m willing to bet that she’s never heard of me, either.”

“It might make things more difficult for you to get information from her,” I said as I found a parking place near the sheriff’s office.

“We’re here to give her some information, not ask about any,” he said.

“Sure. Of course. I believe you.” I knew my husband better than that. For every item he told her, I was sure he’d glean a few things himself.

The police station looked imposing; there was no doubt about it. I’d been there with Zach a few times since we’d moved to Parson’s Valley. No matter where we visited, the first thing my husband did was check in with the local law enforcement and identify himself as the former chief of police for Charlotte.

“Do you really think she’ll talk to you?”

He shrugged. “I’ve got the mayor vouching for me, and that can’t hurt. We’ll see what happens.”

We got out, and I asked, “Do you think she’ll let you stay with me when I tell her what happened today?”

“I can’t make any promises, but I don’t see why not.”

Knowing he felt that way helped, at least a little.

After Zach identified himself at the front desk, we were told to wait in some chairs near the door. It was less than five minutes later when a pretty but severe-looking woman in her thirties walked out to greet us. She was tall, at least six inches taller than I was, and her blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun. She wore a state trooper’s uniform, and from the way she moved, I could tell that she was
confident in her ability to handle the world. I wouldn’t want to cross her, and hoped that I didn’t have to.

“Chief Stone?” she asked.

Zach smiled and offered his hand, which she took. “You can call me Zach,” he said.

“I’m Captain North,” she said, ignoring his offer of pleasantries. “I appreciate you stopping by, but I’m sure you’ll understand that I don’t have time for social visits. I’ve been here less than eight hours and I’ve already got a homicide and a carjacking to deal with.”

“I can appreciate that,” Zach said. If her brusque tone bothered him, he didn’t show it. “My wife is a material witness in the murder case you’re working on, so we thought you might like to interview her while the events of today are still fresh in her mind.”

That caused a raised eyebrow as she looked at me with those hard eyes. “You’re Savannah Stone?”