Authors: Casey Mayes
A Killer Column (9 page)
I wanted to get back to my husband and my best friend and see what the two of them had come up with.
“It’s taken care of,” I said as I rejoined them.
“That was quick,” Zach said.
“I know everyone wants more complex puzzles, and I love this job too much to disappoint them lightly, but I’ve got to focus on this right now. As soon as things settle down, I’ll give everyone some real brainteasers. Now, what do you two evil geniuses have in mind?”
“We’re going to go buy a little surveillance equipment,” Jenny said.
“Excellent. Who exactly are we going to spy on?”
Zach explained, “Jenny’s stalker is getting bolder, and I think that’s going to be his downfall. There’s a place in town where I can get some small cameras, and we’re going to hook them up to Jenny’s DVD player and record what happens. I’ve got a feeling we’ll catch this guy in twenty-four hours.”
“I hope so,” Jenny said. “This is getting creepier by the minute. I’m really glad you two are staying with me for a while.”
“We’ll hang around as long as you need us,” I said.
“At least one of us, anyway,” Zach added.
“She needs us,” I said. “That takes precedence over everything else.”
“Not everything,” Zach said. “We still have to go after Derrick’s murderer, and I’m not going to let myself be distracted completely from that.”
“Zachary Stone, I thought you didn’t like it when people interfered with police business.”
My husband grinned at me. “That was when I was on the force. As things stand now, I believe Murphy could use a little nudge, and I’m not afraid to be the one to give it to him.”
“We’re going to work on both cases,” I said firmly. “They’re equally important.”
Zach nodded. “Let’s take care of the cameras, and then we’ll start interviewing suspects for Derrick’s murder. It’s going to all work out in the end.”
I wasn’t sure if he actually believed it or not, but just hearing him say it was enough for me.
When my telephone rang three minutes later, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
That didn’t make things any easier when I heard who was on the other end of the line.
Chapter 7
“
H
ELLO, KELSEY,” I SAID.
H
ELLO, KELSEY,” I SAID.
“Hello, Savannah. There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Trying to keep my temper in check, I said, “I still don’t think it was necessary. It’s impossible to get new people to try my puzzles if I don’t throw in an easy one every now and then. If they’re all too hard to solve, nobody’s going to want to work them, and then where will we be?”
There was a pause on the other end, and then she said, “You know what? You’re right.”
“I’m sorry, there must be something wrong with our connection. What did you just say?”
“I said you were right, and you heard me the first time. Listen, I’m sorry about the way I acted earlier. I thought I had to do business the way Derrick did, and I might have gotten a little carried away.”
“Might have?” I asked.
She laughed fully that time. “Okay, I admit it; I got carried away. The whole thing about power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely has a ring of truth to it, doesn’t it?”
“It certainly can.”
“Don’t think for one second that I didn’t realize your little snippet was aimed directly at me. I nearly called you and demanded another puzzle, but then I realized that you were probably right.”
“So, I can keep doing easy puzzles?”
“As long as there is a healthy mix with harder ones,” she said. “I’ll keep your first submission here, and we’ll go with that one next time. We both need to find a balance here, Savannah.”
Kelsey was making sense, and she had given some real ground, so it was time for me to be a little more gracious than I’d been so far. “I’m more than happy to work with you until we do,” I said.
After I hung up, Zach asked, “What was that all about?”
“Apparently I was wrong about Kelsey,” I said. “She apologized after reading my snippet. We might just be able to work things out after all.”
“Some harmony in your work might not be a bad thing,” Zach said.
Jenny stood and clapped her hands. “Now that we’ve settled all that, why don’t we go get these cameras Zach keeps raving about?”
“I’m ready,” he said.
As we walked out and locked the front door, I glanced over to see if Charlie was still standing guard, but he was nowhere to be seen. That could explain how the stranger had slipped onto Jenny’s porch to make his deposit without Charlie seeing him. Apparently the man wasn’t there every minute of every day, which was actually something of a relief.
As we walked to Zach’s rental car, I had a sudden thought. “We should go next door.”
“Why?”
“Jenny has a neighbor who likes to watch what’s happening on the street, especially over here. Maybe he’s seen something.”
Jenny said, “Trust me, Charlie keeps me apprised of all the neighborhood happenings, like who’s walking their dog and who doesn’t mow their lawn often enough.”
“Maybe Savannah’s right,” Zach said. “It wouldn’t hurt to talk with him before we go.”
I pretended to clean out my ears. “Did I actually hear you say that?”
“Hey, I admit it all the time when you’re right.”
“Rarely,” I said with a smile.
Jenny put a hand on Zach’s arm. “Maybe Savannah and I should talk to him without you.”
“Why? I’ll be civil.”
Jenny looked at him. “I know you think so, but there’s a lot of cop left in you, no matter how the circumstances may have changed. You’re likely to scare the poor man half to death. Why don’t you wait in the car? We can handle Charlie ourselves.”
“Okay,” Zach said grudgingly, “but if you need help, remember, I’m just a shout away.”
As we walked up Charlie’s front steps, I said, “You handled that quite well. Almost as good as I could have.”
“I get paid to make people see my point of view, remember? I didn’t want to say anything so direct to Zach, but he can be intimidating, whether he knows it or not.”
“You don’t have to tell me, I married the guy.” As we glanced up toward Charlie’s house, I thought I saw the curtains move on the second floor. “Do you think he’ll come out?”
“With just us out here? I’d have to believe so. We’re not nearly as imposing as your husband.”
“No, our talents lie in other directions. Should I let you do the talking?”
Jenny thought about that for a moment or two, and then she nodded. “It might be for the best. Do you mind?”
“Of course not, but I’m not promising I won’t jump in if I think of something.”
She laughed, a sound I missed when we were apart. “Savannah, you wouldn’t be you if you did.”
Jenny barely had to knock on the front door before Charlie threw it open. “I happened to glance out the window, and I saw you coming. Is there something I can do for you, Jennifer, I mean Jenny?”
“I’ve told you a thousand times, Charlie, it’s Jenny.”
“I know. I’m trying, really I am.”
“There are only three men in the world who have ever called me Jennifer, but I’ll let it slide.”
“Who are the other two?” Charlie asked, clearly interested in her answer.
She started to tell him, I could see it in her eyes, and then she waved her hand in the air. “It’s not important. What really matters is whether you’ve seen someone leave something by my front door lately.”
“The UPS man came by two days ago,” Charlie volunteered. “Didn’t you get the package he left?”
“Yes, it was an autographed book I ordered from Poisoned Pen in Arizona,” she admitted. “Have you seen anyone else hanging around the place?”
“No, no one who didn’t belong,” he said. “I’m assuming you don’t mean your friend here, or the man staying with you now.”
He hadn’t missed that much. “I’m Savannah Stone,” I said as I offered my hand, “and that man is my husband, Zach.”
Did Charlie seem a little relieved to know that Zach was with me? I couldn’t really tell, and I’d been looking for a reaction.
“Sorry, I forgot to introduce you,” Jenny said.
“You work too hard,” Charlie said.
“How could you possibly know that?” I asked.
“I see lights coming on late at night when she gets home,” he explained. Realizing how that must have sounded, he quickly added, “My TV room faces Jenny’s front porch. I can’t help noticing when the lights come on.”
“It’s fine, Charlie. If you see something odd, would you do me a favor and call me? You’ve got my cell phone number, don’t you?”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out a business card, and then scrawled her number on the back of it. “There you go.”
I added, “But just call if it’s suspicious.”
Jenny must have realized what she might be letting herself in for. “That’s right. You know me, I’m working all of the time.”
“Don’t worry about a thing. You can trust me. I’ll be your eyes here,” he said. Inside, we could hear his telephone ringing.
“We should be going,” I said.
Charlie answered quickly, “It’s fine. The machine can get it.”
Jenny said, “We do really need to be going. Thanks, Charlie.”
“What are neighbors for?” he asked.
As we were leaving, I said, “That was odd.”
“Charlie’s a bit of an acquired taste,” Jenny said. “But he’s not that bad once you get to know him.”
“I’m not talking about his behavior,” I said. “He kept calling you Jennifer. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”
“Of course I noticed. He’s been doing it since I first moved in. It’s just his way.”
“Who are the other two men who call you Jennifer?”
She frowned, and then said, “I should learn when to keep my mouth shut, shouldn’t I?”
“It wouldn’t be a bad trait for a lawyer to have,” I admitted. “Who are they?”
“You’ve met one of them,” she said. “Shawn always used to call me Jennifer before we broke up.”
“And who was the other man?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said abruptly. “It didn’t end well.”
“All the more reason to tell me,” I said.
“If you must know, it’s another lawyer from the firm. We dated a few times just before I went out with Shawn, but nothing ever developed between us. He wasn’t exactly thrilled when I turned him down.”
“I need to meet this man.”
“Honestly, Savannah, just let it go.”
“I can’t do that, and you know it,” I said as we got in Zach’s car, an oversized SUV.
“What are you two talking about?”
Jenny started to tell him when I beat her to it. “There are three men in her life who call her Jennifer, but she doesn’t think that it’s significant, even given the notes she’s been getting.”
“It could be the most important clue we’ve gotten so far. I need names,” Zach said as he took out the small notebook he always carried with him.
“I really don’t think any of them are involved.”
“Be that as it may, we’re not going anywhere until I get those names.”
She sighed, and then finally said, “Shawn Murphy’s one of them, Charlie’s another, and Mason Glade is the third.”
Zach nodded. “I know the first two, at least indirectly. Who’s the last one you mentioned?”
“He’s from the office. He’s a partner in the firm where I work.”
“A man she used to date,” I added.
“I was getting around to that,” she admitted.
“It’s so much more efficient this way though, isn’t it?”
Zach frowned, and then instead of starting the car, he opened his door and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Before either one of us could stop him, he started up Charlie’s steps. I wondered if the man would even open the door when my husband approached, but he did. After a brief conversation, Zach came back, scowling about something.
“He had a cake in the oven,” Zach said. “I’ll have to speak with him later.”
Jenny put a hand on his arm. “Zach, trust me. He’s harmless.”
“He could be,” my husband said. “But seven women thought the same thing about the Slasher, and look where it got them, all on slabs at the morgue.”
“Fine, I won’t try to stop you, but in the meantime, can we go get these security cameras so we can get on with our lives?” I asked.
“We’re on our way,” Zach said as he started the car and drove off.
I wasn’t sure which side of the argument I agreed with, and no one asked. Until I had more evidence, I was going to assume that everyone we talked to was up to something. It might not be the healthiest way to look at the world, but it was the only way I was going to find a killer and now, a stalker, too.
“
W
HERE EXACTLY IS IT THAT WE ARE GOING, ZACH?” Jenny asked as we drove into Raleigh.
W
HERE EXACTLY IS IT THAT WE ARE GOING, ZACH?” Jenny asked as we drove into Raleigh.
“I know a place where we can get what we need.”
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