Building Blocks of Murder (12 page)

The next morning, there were a few blissful moments when Lacy forgot everything. She woke and lay in bed, staring at her ceiling with a half smile, trying to get her sluggish brain to remember something important. Her phone rang, pulling her fully awake as she lunged for the nightstand. It was Tosh’s ringtone, but of course she didn’t expect Tosh to be on the other end of the phone, and he wasn’t.

“Tosh is worried about you,” were Keegan’s greeting words.

Lacy almost asked why, and then it all came rushing back. Jason had been arrested for the murder of Ed McNeil. “If he’s worried, then why didn’t he call me himself?”

“Who can understand the mind of Tosh? All I know is that he told me to call and check on you, to tell you, and I quote, ‘I don’t like the guy, but he wouldn’t kill anyone.’ I can only assume the cop in question is the same one who chased us out of your building.”

“Yes, that’s him.” Now that her memory had returned en force, she felt a little queasy over the thought of Jason still in jail. What was she going to do to get him out?

“No offense, Lacy, but he seemed really angry to me. Are you sure he didn’t kill anyone?”

“I’m positive. He’s one of the kindest and most caring people I know.”

“We’re talking about the guy who looked like he wanted to rip my head off, right? Muscular, grumpy, totally in love with you, that guy?”

“He’s not…grumpy,” Lacy finished lamely. What exactly had Tosh been telling Keegan about Jason to make him say such a thing?

Keegan chuckled. “Yeah, well Tosh is. I’ve never seen him this grumpy, and I’m beginning to understand why. You’ve got quite the little triangle going here.”

Lacy didn’t have time or energy for this today. “I should probably go; I have a lot to do.”

“Like what?” Keegan asked.

“Like figure out a way to get Jason out of jail.”

“I’ll help,” Keegan volunteered.

“That’s really nice of you,” she said, even though she didn’t really want his help. “But I don’t even know where to start; I don’t know what I’m going to be getting into.”

“Sounds perfect. I need a distraction.”

Distraction from what?
She wanted to ask, and at the same time she didn’t have the energy to care. Keegan was temporary and he was fun. Maybe he was the distraction
she
needed to keep from thinking about the sorry state of her life with one friend not talking to her and another in jail. “Okay. Meet me here in half an hour.”

“Too late, I’m on your porch.” She heard him knock, and then heard her grandmother open the door as they exchanged indistinguishable words.

“Be out in a minute,” Lacy called down the hall as she hopped out of bed and jumped in the shower.

By the time she emerged, her grandmother was feeding Keegan a full breakfast. He looked up at Lacy with a smile as she took a chair and filled a plate. Her grandmother bustled around the kitchen, refilling food, juice and coffee as needed. Keegan tried to tell her to sit down and not worry about him, but Lacy remained silent. Her grandmother was happiest when she was feeding someone. Lacy knew she was pleased about Keegan’s presence, taking it as a good sign that Lacy was meeting Tosh’s family. Her joy would probably dim if she realized Tosh was currently not speaking to her.

After breakfast, Keegan led the way to his rental car and held the door for her. Once he was inside, he leaned over the console and fastened Lacy with an intense gaze that caused her to freeze in sudden fear. Was he going to kiss her? Because that would be awkward.

“I found this on your door when I arrived,” he said, shoving an envelope into her fingers. She looked down at it, slowly pulling herself out of the little fantasy where Keegan was inappropriately kissing her. While she had worked up a speech about how she wanted to only be friends with him, she still felt a little disappointed, and that was just crazy.

Her name was printed in heavy block letters on the outside of the envelope. With shaking fingers she pulled out a folded piece of white paper. “Let the Stakely building go,” she read out loud.

“What does that mean?” Keegan asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. Who would care what she did with the Stakely building? Ed McNeil had put a stop-work order on it, but that was because of money, wasn’t it? And, if it wasn’t, then what had it been about? She was distracted by Keegan’s hand on her thigh. She looked up at him in alarm, only to realize that he was trying to tug something from beneath her.

“You’re sitting on the paper,” he explained. “I forgot to move it before you sat down. Sorry.” He pulled the paper free and held it out to her. “Can you imagine my surprise when I learned that my brother, who has never in his life cared about reading the newspaper, is suddenly a daily subscriber? And then I actually look at the paper and see that you wrote the main article today. And so I say that if you’re causing Tosh to actually take an interest in current events, then you’re a good influence on him. Good job, Lacy.”

She gave him a vague smile as she looked down at the paper in her hands and saw her name staring back at her. Even though their paper had a circulation of less than ten thousand people, Lacy always felt a little thrill at seeing her name in print. She skimmed her article for a second, making sure what she had written so hastily during her exhaustion the night before actually sounded okay. It was while she was skimming that she happened to see the article below hers, and it jumped out at her because it was about Jason.

“The trial of Joe Anton has been put on hold due to the fact that Anton’s council, Ed McNeil, was murdered yesterday and the arresting officer, Jason Cantor, was arrested for his murder,” Lacy read. She paused, looking at Keegan. “Doesn’t that seem odd to you that two people involved with that case have been taken out of the equation?”

Keegan shook his head. “In a town this small, I would find it odd if everything wasn’t connected. In fact, I’m surprised you aren’t all cousins.”

She smiled, her eyes traveling back to the article to skim some more, and then she did a double take, grabbing Keegan’s arm in surprise.

“What is it?” he asked, leaning over her to peruse the article. He smelled good, she noted absently.

“The murder, Joe Anton killing Susan Pendergast, it happened in the Stakely building. Don’t you think that’s weird? I mean, there’s this renewed murder investigation and then I get a warning note about the building. How could it not be connected?”

“How could it be connected?” Keegan said. “What would one have to do with the other? The murder was more than twenty years ago. It’s not like there’s going to be evidence in the building, and this Joe Anton guy was already convicted. He’s the only one who could profit by having his conviction overturned. Is it possible that he somehow sent you the threat?”

Lacy shook her head, remembering the sad sight of Joe Anton from the day she’d observed the trial. “He’s in jail, and he’s frail.”

“Frailty can be an illusion. His body might be frail, but his will strong. Look at Charles Manson—the man probably weighs a hundred pounds wringing wet, yet look at the power he wielded. Maybe someone is working for Joe Anton.”

“I guess that’s possible, but it doesn’t make sense.”

“I thought today was about getting some answers, so let’s go get some answers.” He faced forward and put his hand on the ignition before pausing to turn to her again. “How do we get answers? Where do we start?”

“I have no idea,” Lacy answered honestly. “I know I need to talk to Jason, but visiting hours aren’t for a couple of hours.”

“Maybe we could talk to someone who can give us more information about the Stakely building,” Keegan suggested.

Lacy brightened. “That’s an excellent idea.” She took out her phone and used it to look up an address. “We’ll talk to Shelia Whitaker. I don’t know if she’ll be home right now, but it’s worth a try.”

They drove to Sheila’s house in silence. Lacy didn’t notice the silence until they arrived because she was busy thinking, her mind running rampant in a hundred different directions as she tried to assemble basic facts and make sense of the senseless. But then they pulled in Sheila’s driveway, and she realized Keegan hadn’t said a word in twenty minutes. She put her arm on his to stop him from leaving the car.

“Keegan, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to be a part of this. You can drop me here, and I’ll walk to the jail. It’s not far, and I walk a lot.”

Keegan grinned, an irrepressible smile she was beginning to recognize. “Are you kidding me? This is the most fun and excitement I’ve had in ages. It’s just the distraction I’ve been searching for.”

That wasn’t the first time she’d heard him mention needing a distraction. She wanted to ask him why he needed a distraction, but she didn’t. Now wasn’t the time or place, and she didn’t know him enough to push him over something he wasn’t willing to talk about. Later, she promised herself, she would try to talk to him about what was bothering him because something clearly was.

“Ready?” Keegan asked.

“Ready,” Lacy said. Together they stood on the porch and rang Sheila Whitaker’s bell.

After ringing the bell three times, Lacy almost gave up hope, figuring that Sheila must not be home. Then the door was roughly jerked open and Sheila’s tall form filled the entryway and, by her red-rimmed eyes, it was obvious she had been crying.

“Hi,” Sheila said. Her voice was tremulous. She pressed a tissue-stuffed fist to her mouth and sniffed.

“Are you okay?”

Sheila nodded. “A very dear friend died,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Lacy said. “Now’s obviously not a good time to talk. We’ll come back.”

“No, wait,” Sheila said. Her hand shot out and grabbed Lacy’s arm in a death grip. “I would like to talk to you because you knew him, knew what a great man he was.”

Lacy had a sinking feeling, but she had to say the words anyway. “Who?”

“Ed McNeil,” Sheila said the name on a sob. She let go of Lacy’s arm to cover her eyes.

Lacy looked at Keegan, but of course he had no idea how shocking Sheila’s statement was because he hadn’t known Ed McNeil. But to hear the unsavory lawyer described as a good man was surprising to say the least. Despite her copious weeping, Sheila stood aside to grant access to her house. Lacy and Keegan awkwardly shuffled past her, stopping short when they reached the living room.

“Please sit down,” Sheila said, attempting to pull herself together.

Lacy and Keegan sat together on the couch while Sheila sat in a chair across from them and wiped her eyes once more. “I’m sorry, I’m just—it was such a shock. I appreciated your article this morning, Lacy. It was well written. I was sort of hoping you might consider writing a tribute to Ed for the paper, something that would tell what a wonderful man he was.”

“Uh,” Lacy said, shooting Keegan a desperate look. Keegan gave her a helpless look in return and she realized she was on her own. “I’m, um, not sure I’m the best person for that. I tend to stick to fact-based stories when I write.”

“But it would be fact,” Sheila said, her tone suddenly vehement. “Ed was one of the best…Did you know he was one of the biggest donors for the Society of American Downtowns?”

Lacy hadn’t known that, and it didn’t make any sense. “But, Sheila, he put a stop-work order on the Stakely building to try and stop me from fixing it.” Lacy tried to say it gently so as not to disillusion Sheila about the man, but she needn’t have bothered.

“I’m sure it was because he was making sure your motives were pure where the Stakely building was concerned,” Sheila said. “He was a staunch supporter of our cause, and he had been managing the property for the city.
 
He was such a good man.”

“You had been friends for a long time?” Keegan asked. His tone was gentle and laced with none of Lacy’s incredulity. He sounded like Tosh when he was in full pastor mode.

Sheila nodded, her eyes tearing up again. “He helped me through a very difficult time in my life. We were, um, very close for a while.”

Lacy didn’t need to use a lot of imagination to understand Sheila’s hidden meaning. Obviously Sheila and Ed had been more than friends at one point. Lacy had to hide her grimace of disgust.
Really, Sheila? Because you could have done better.
It was probably best to keep those thoughts to herself and not add to Sheila’s misery, but the thought of anyone finding Ed McNeil attractive was unbelievable.

Absently, she thought of
Pearl
and her devotion to Ed McNeil. What was it about the man that made the two women so blind to his faults? Lacy thought maybe it wasn’t coincidence that
Pearl
and Sheila shared more than a passing resemblance. Was Ed McNeil’s wife a large, masculine woman? If so, then he definitely had a type.

Sheila cleared her throat and tried to get her emotions under control. “I’m sorry. I thought I was all cried out, and then I saw the article this morning and I just…” She paused, clearing her throat again. “What did you want to speak to me about, dear?”

“It’s really not important,” Lacy said. “It can wait. Clearly this isn’t a good time for you.”

“To be honest, I would enjoy the distraction,” Sheila said.

Distraction was the word of the day, apparently, so Lacy plunged in. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’re something of an expert on the Stakely building. I was wondering if you could tell me a little more of its history, specifically around the time that it closed.”

“It closed because of a murder,” Sheila said. She leaned forward, clenching her hands in her lap. “Did you know that?”

Lacy nodded. “I just learned that this morning when I read it in the paper. You can imagine that it’s shocking to find out there was once a murder in a building I now own.” Although, technically she now owned two buildings where someone had been murdered if one were to count Barbara Blake’s house. Lacy pushed that unnerving thought aside for further inspection later.

“I can’t believe all this is being rehashed again,” Sheila said. She pinched the bridge of her nose, squinting. “Not now, when everything else is so…” She paused again, sucking oxygen the way Lacy’s yoga instructor had showed her to try and calm herself. In Sheila’s case it seemed to work because she sat back, slightly more subdued. “I’m not sure what more I can tell you than has already been reported. For so many years the case remained unsolved, and then Joe Anton was arrested and it was over. And now it’s open again.”