Assault and Batter (7 page)

“I’m not out peddling donuts door to door,” I said with a smile. “I’d like to talk to you about Jude Williams.”

“What about him?” she said as she started to hint at a frown. “We’re just friends, no matter what anybody else says. He helped me clean out my attic last month, and we struck up a conversation. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

Grace stepped forward and asked, “Lisa, you haven’t heard about what happened to Jude yet, have you?”

“What are you talking about? The police chief didn’t arrest him for doing something silly, did he? Did it have something to do with me?” She started to go back inside. “I’ll straighten this all out. I’m sure that it’s just a harmless misunderstanding.”

“Lisa, Jude is dead,” I said softly.

“What! He can’t be dead!”.

“I’m afraid it’s true,” Grace added. “I’m sorry. We just assumed that you knew.”

“How did it happen?” she asked me.

“From what we’ve heard, he was hit in the back of the head with an iron bar last night.”

Lisa didn’t want to believe it; that much was clear. I thought it odd that she glanced back inside her house for a second before she spoke again. She was fighting back tears, but she still managed to keep most of her cool. “If you’re telling me the truth, then why are you here?”

“We found this in his room when we searched it a few minutes ago,” I said as I held the book up.

“Let me see that,” she snapped as she tried to grab it out of my hands.

I was ready for her, though, so I pulled it back just in time. “If you don’t mind, we’re going to hold onto that. What we want to know is what it was doing on Jude’s nightstand.”

“I loaned it to him,” she said uncertainly, as though she wasn’t sure that was the final story she was going to stick to. “I want it back now, though. It’s mine.”

“You’ll have to ask Chief Martin for it,” I said. “We were on our way to deliver it to him, but we thought we’d stop by here first and give you a chance to explain its presence yourself.”

“I already told you. Jude and I were friends. There was nothing more to it than that.”

“That doesn’t explain the picture on his cellphone we found,” Grace said. I turned to look at her in shock. Not only hadn’t I found any photos of Lisa or anyone else, I hadn’t even seen his phone.

I turned back to her to explain when I saw her brave face start to crumble. “He told me that he erased all of those,” she said, her voice ragged with tears.

I wanted to assure her that he might have, but Grace stepped forward again. “They were hard to find, so maybe nobody else will see them. How long had you two been having an affair?”

“Just a month, but I broke it off two days ago.”

“Is there anyone else who can confirm that?” Grace asked.

“I didn’t exactly tell anyone when it started, so why would I tell them when I ended it?” Lisa said. “And keep your voice down, would you? My husband’s in the living room taking a nap.”

“We’ll do our best,” I said. “Lisa, did Frank have any idea about what you were up to?” I asked softly.

She looked shocked by the very idea of it. “Are you crazy? If he even suspected, things would have gone horribly wrong for Jude and me both.” The realization that something had indeed happened to Jude hit her at that moment. “No. No. I don’t believe it. Frank would never do it.”

“Never do what?” a sleepy gruff man’s voice asked from the house.

Lisa was at a loss for an explanation, but Grace stepped right up. “We thought you ordered three dozen donuts. They’re back in Suzanne’s Jeep. Should we go on and bring them in?”

I hoped he didn’t say yes, since we didn’t even have a donut hole on us at the time.

“I never ordered any donuts,” he said roughly. “What are you trying to pull here?”

“Nothing at all,” I said. “My mistake.” How were we going to get out of this in one piece?

Grace tapped my shoulder, and as I turned toward her, she pulled a small pad from her purse as she said, “Look, these are for an address in Union Square. It was just a mix-up all along.”

I pretended to study her grocery list for a moment before I said, “You’re right. Sorry to bother you both.”

“Hang on a second,” Frank said ominously, and I waited for one of his meaty paws to descend on my shoulder.

“Yes?” I asked.

“What kind of donuts are we talking about here?”

This one I could answer myself. “They’re special order, so I’m afraid they aren’t for sale. Sorry again to trouble you both.”

“Whatever,” he said as he went back into the house.

“Thank you,” Lisa said softly.

“Frank’s going to find out sooner or later,” I said. “You really should tell us everything you can about who might have wanted to kill Jude.”

“Do you mean besides his crazy old aunt, Gabby Williams?”

“Besides her,” I said. I doubted that Gabby had done it, but even if she had, I wasn’t going to leave it at that. “Who else might have wanted to harm him, Lisa?”

“You really should talk to Reggie Nance. He’s been gunning for Jude since I’ve known him.”

That was the second time I’d heard Reggie’s name mentioned that day linked to Jude. “You mean about his daughter?” I asked.

“You’d better believe it. That man was crazy. He even threatened to kill Jude right in front of me,” she said.

“I already had his name on my list,” I said. “Surely there has to be someone else.”

Lisa seemed to think about it for a moment. “The only other person I can think of is Peter Hickman.”

Hearing her say the name of Max’s best man really threw me. He’d been the last name I’d expected to hear from Lisa as a possible suspect. “What does Peter have to do with it?” I asked.

“He’s the one who beat Jude up yesterday. He wasn’t the only one to score a few punches, though. Peter got messed up himself. You know what? You should really talk to—”

From the other room, we all heard Frank call out, “Lisa? What are you still doing out there?”

“I’ve got to go,” she said breathlessly, but before she left, she hesitated for a moment. “Poor Jude. What a sad waste. How big was the bar that killed him?”

That was an unusual question, one I didn’t have the answer to. “I’m not sure, but I doubt that it was light. Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” she said quickly, and then Lisa darted back inside, closing the door hard behind her.

“That was interesting,” Grace said.

“What made you lie about his cellphone?” I asked her as we walked back to my Jeep. “Saying we had a donut delivery was really clever of you, but talking about pictures that we couldn’t have seen was something else entirely.”

“I’m sorry, Suzanne. I could tell that she was holding something back, and that she was afraid of something. It seemed like the next logical step to me.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said. “I wouldn’t have thought about bluffing like that in a million years.”

“I can’t tell,” Grace said with a slight smile. “Are you congratulating me on using initiative, or are you scolding me for stepping over the line?”

“Why can’t it be a little bit of both?” I asked.

“I suppose that it can,” Grace said. “You’re right, though. I probably shouldn’t have said that last bit.”

“I just worry that if Lisa is innocent, you’ve given her some sleepless nights ahead of her. You might have struck gold this time, but I really don’t like lying to the people we question, at least not about something as serious as that. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said somberly. “I’ll watch my step in the future.”

“Just don’t give anybody nightmares if you can help it,” I said with a smile.

“Except the killer, of course,” she added.

“You can do whatever you’d like to the murderer. I’ll even help if I get the chance.”

“Fair enough. Where should we go now?”

I didn’t even have to think about it. “I’ve never been a big fan of Peter Hickman’s, but we need to go to Max’s to see him next. I suspected that he got into a fight with someone after what Emily told me yesterday, and after what Lisa just said, it was clearly Jude. What I want to know is who started it, who finished it, and what was it all about in the first place?”

“Those are all good questions,” Grace said. “Should I ask him myself?”

I was surprised by the offer. “Thanks, but I can handle him just fine.”

“I wasn’t trying to overstep,” Grace said. “I just know that you two have a long history of disliking each other, so if I can make it go smoother, I’m happy to step in.”

“Let me lead off, and if I need you, feel free to jump in,” I said.

“I’d be delighted.”

“Only try not to go so far off script this time, okay?”

“I promise,” she said.

I knew that Grace had meant well, and this time she’d actually struck gold with her assumptions, but I didn’t like running an investigation that way. We were on the hunt for a killer, and I knew that I couldn’t afford to be squeamish about the tactics we used, but I also had to live with most of these folks long after the murder had been solved, and I didn’t want to make any enemies that I didn’t have to in the process of tracking down the killer. Besides, I wanted to be able to sleep at night myself, and I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to do it if I started accusing folks of all kinds of unacceptable behavior without a lick of proof to back any of it up. I might not be as successful operating that way, but if that was the biggest consequence of my actions, I could live with it.

The only problem was that Peter was nowhere to be found.

To make matters worse, Max was gone as well. Peter had to be staying with my ex-husband, so I was disappointed when no one answered the door when we knocked.

I turned to say something to Grace when I spotted a car starting up and driving away from the way that we’d just come. “Who was that?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. Should we follow them?”

“Come on. Jump into the Jeep.”

We started after the car, and I caught one glimpse of the man driving before he lost me.

It was Reggie Nance.

Why would he be staking out Max’s house? Was he after my ex, or Peter? Why would he want to have words with either one of them? After all, the man he’d threatened to kill was already dead. Was Reggie taking care of all of his old grudges, and did that mean that he’d started with Jude and was about to move on to the next name on his list?

“We lost him,” Grace said.

“That’s okay,” I said as I stopped and turned around in someone’s driveway.

“Why are you taking this so calmly?” she asked me.

“Because I saw who it was,” I said as I drove at easier pace.

“Don’t keep it a secret from me. Who was it?”

“Reggie Nance,” I said.

“What would Reggie want with Max or Peter?”

“I can’t figure that, either, but wouldn’t you like to ask him for yourself?”

“So, that’s where we’re going now,” Grace said.

“Unless you have any objections,” I answered.

“No, ma’am. You’re in the driver’s seat for this thing, and I mean that literally.”

We pulled up in front of Reggie Nance’s house, and I was surprised to see that his car was pulled up in front. If I hadn’t seen him myself, I might have believed that he’d been there all along.

“Suzanne, how sure are you that it was Reggie that you saw?”

“I’m pretty sure,” I said as I parked the Jeep behind his car and got out. I put a hand on his car hood, and it was hot to the touch. “Feel that,” I said to Grace.

She did as I asked then pulled her hand quickly away. “Wow, he must have raced straight over here. Let’s go see where the fire was.”

“Let’s take this one easy, okay?” I asked her.

“Okay by me. You lead, and I’ll follow.” Grace paused, looked around the overgrown lawn and the house with its chipped paint, and then she added, “He’s really let this place go downhill, hasn’t he?”

“You should have seen it when Debbie was alive. She made it into a showplace for her father, but I guess he just lost the heart to keep it up.”

“It’s tragic all the way around, isn’t it?” Grace asked sadly.

“It is.” I knocked on the door, and Reggie answered, toweling off his hair. It was clear that he was trying to make it look as though he’d just gotten out of the shower, but I knew better. There was no way he would have time to do that since we’d seen him racing away in his car.

“What can I do for you, Suzanne?”

“First, you can drop the act,” I said.

“What are you talking about?”

“We saw you in front of Max’s place three minutes ago. You barely had time to wash your hands, let alone take a shower.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been here all afternoon,” he said as he finished drying his hair and threw the towel over his shoulder. I would have liked to wrap it around his neck. I hated being lied to.

“Then why is the hood of your car hot enough to fry eggs on?” Grace asked.

“The sun must be warmer than it feels,” Reggie insisted.

“Are you really going to try to play it that way?” I asked. Grace had just asked the question I’d been about to ask myself, so I couldn’t exactly get mad at her for jumping on it.

“Like I said, you lost me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got things to do.”

He closed the door on us, not quite slamming it in our faces, but it was close enough.

“He’s lying to us,” Grace said.

“I’m just glad that you believe me. If I hadn’t felt his car hood, I’d be having doubts myself.”

“Suzanne, I trust your word over anyone I know. If you say it was Reggie at Max’s place, then it was Reggie. Besides, that hood was hot!”

“Thanks for believing me,” I said. I decided that there was nothing that we could do now, so I turned and started back to my Jeep.

“Are we just going to give up and go away?” Grace asked as she stood firmly on the porch.

“No, but this angle of attack clearly didn’t work. We’re going to have to be a little craftier if we’re going to learn anything from Reggie Nance.”

“Ooh, I love crafty,” she said. “Just as long as you mean sneaky by it.”

“That’s what I mean. I’m just not sure I know how to go about it.”

“Don’t worry,” Grace said. “I’m sure that your devious mind will come up with something.”