Christy Barritt - Squeaky Clean 07 - Mucky Streak (25 page)

CHAPTER 32

“Mr. Newport.” I took a step back. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk.” His words sounded clipped, tight.

“This isn’t a great time.”

“Please. It’s important.” He stepped inside the house. I tried to push the door closed, but it was no use. His foot was there. His shoulders were wedged in the opening. “I know you’re investigating me.”

I tried to remain calm.
“Why would you think that?”

He
suddenly released his hands as if the handle had caught fire. He raised his arms in the air. “Look, I’m not trying to hurt you. I just want to talk. Please.”

“How’d you know where I was?”

His face pinched. “I know you followed me last night.”

I stared at him, contemplating his sincerity. I didn’t trust him in the house, so I shook my head.

“We talk here. You on the porch, me and my girls inside the house.” I held up my phone. “With 911 on speed dial.”

“Fine.” He wiped his brow.

I
considered slamming the door and locking it. The other part of me wanted to hear what he had to say. I pulled the door open so that Holly and Jamie could hear—and to let him know that I wasn’t alone.

“I
didn’t kill the Mercer family,” Vic Newport started.

“I didn’t think you did.”

His breathing slowed for a moment. “You didn’t?”

I shook my head. “No, I think you possibly hired someone to do the deed for you.”

His face reddened again. “You’ve got to believe me. I’m innocent.”

“Prove it. Because right now you’ve got the motive, the means, and the opportunity.”

“It’s true that I did think he was having an affair with my wife. But he wasn’t. I thought about going to the house that evening. I thought about confronting him and demanding that he tell me the truth.”

“Did you?”

He shook his head. “No, I felt like I was coming unhinged. I was trying to get a grip, so I drove around some. I decided to swing by the cabin the Mercers owned. I figured that would be a given rendezvous spot. My wife was out for the night, and I thought she and Edward could be together.”

“The cabin?”
I questioned.

He
nodded. “I pulled up and saw two cars there. I crept closer, hoping to catch them in the act. Instead, I saw my daughter and Garrett Mercer there. They were arguing.”

“Because Olivia was
pregnant.”

He nodded and rubbed his forehead again. “That’s right. I thought it would be one bombshell and it was another. I decided to go to my favorite bar and drink away my troubles instead.
”

I wasn’t buying his story that easily.
“Did you ever think about confronting Garrett?”

“Absolutely. But then
his family died and Olivia lost the baby.”

“
She told you she lost the baby?” I’d figured she’d kept it all quiet.

He shook his head. “By all definitions, I suppose she had a miscarriage. But I found her in the bathroom. She’d taken some drugs. A lot of drugs. She’s never told me, but I knew she did it to end the pregnancy. I rushed her to the hospital. We never told Garrett that part. There was never a need to. He already had enough going on.”

I believed him. But while he was here, I had some other questions for him. “Where’d you go last night?”

“I thought I was going to get fired. I went to talk to Smith. The conversation didn’t go well, so I drove around afterward. That’s the truth. I promise.”

“Fired over what?”

He let out a long breath.
“Smith Wimbledon is a figurehead. He knows nothing about business. In a moment of weakness, I told him that. I regretted it afterward. I knew I could get fired, and I didn’t want that to happen. I’ve been at the company for a long time.”

Maybe that was the tension I’d felt between the two of them at the meeting that day.

“Who is the woman in this picture?” Jamie shoved her laptop his way. The online photo of him giving the strange look to the woman beside him.

He studied the picture a moment. “Her? That’s Winnie Wimbledon. Smith’s sister.”

“Why are you giving her such a strange look?” I asked.

“
She’s different. Just kind of off beat. She made some kind of comment before the photo was taken, and I remember thinking about how strange she was. Of course, you have to act like you like her because she’s the boss’s sister.”

“Does she work for Wimbledon
Pharmaceuticals?” Holly asked.

“She’s in and out. She’s been mostly out of town lately.
Probably having more plastic surgeries.”

“Has she had a lot?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t even recognize her. She has a different nose. She’s lost weight, has different hair, different style. What does this have to do with anything?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure yet.
If I have any more questions, can I contact you?”

“Please do. I want to find this murderer just as much as anyone else.”
He started to walk away but stopped. “There is one other thing that could be worth mentioning.”

“What’s that?”

“Another P.I. called me the other day. It’s probably nothing, but it seems a little strange.”

“What did he say?”

“His name was Bradley Perkins. He was asking about one of the drugs that we discontinued before it went on the market.”

***

I headed over to the penthouse where Garrett was staying, hoping if the two of us put our heads together, we might figure out some answers. Holly and Jamie wanted to come, but I knew Garrett and I couldn’t speak freely if they were there. I promised to give them updates as soon as I knew something.

As I drove, I chewed on what Vic Newport had told me. Bradley Perkins had been asking him about a drug they’d almost released at Wimbledon, but pulled off the market at the last minute.
I also reflected on Smith Wimbledon’s disappearance, Vic Newport’s late night trip, and Reginald Wimbledon’s nephew being the Watcher. Put all of this together, and what did it mean? I wish I knew.

I picked up some
Chinese food. Garrett looked tired when he met me at the door. Had something else happened?

“What’s going on?” I slid past him and set the food on the table.

“No one has talked to Lyndsey since yesterday.” He leaned against the breakfast bar, his arms crossed.

“
She didn’t make it back to Norfolk?”

He
let out a sigh. “No one there has seen her. Someone at the company called this morning to say she hadn’t come in. I made some calls, and she’s gone.”

I sucked in a breath as a chill rushed down my spine. “You think the person who killed the Watcher got to Lyndsey
, too.”

He nodded. “He did say that no one around me was safe.”

“Maybe she’s just taking some time off. She did work this weekend.”

“
She’s usually very dependable. I’m hoping she’s just having an irresponsible moment and that this psycho hasn’t somehow gotten ahold of her.” He shook his head. “I probably sound paranoid, but there are just too many crazy things happening lately.”

“Crazy’s one way to put it. Did you call the police?”
I started doling out food onto some paper plates I’d picked up at the restaurant.

“I did. A Detective Adams is supposed to be looking into it.”

I shoved some plasticware into the mounds of fried rice and pushed a plate toward Garrett. “I know Adams. He’s a good guy. If anyone can get to the bottom of this, it’s Adams.”

“That’s reassuring.
” He let out another sigh before picking up his fork, only to immediately put it back down. “Anything new on your end?”

I
gave him an update on my visit with Vic Newport, ending with the information about Perkins calling to inquire about a certain drug.

“Does that drug thing ring any bells?”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t know. My dad didn’t talk about it. I didn’t ask.” He finally took a half-hearted bite of his lunch.

“That has to be why Perkins died.”

“I can’t disagree, but I don’t have any answers for you. Your phone call to Perkins must have triggered something in him. He followed up, and …” Garrett shook his head. “I don’t like where this is all going.”

His gaze looked especially heavy. Was it just this case? I decided to ask.
“Is something else wrong?”

He
shoved his fork into his rice and leaned back. “My problems seem to be mounting. I also found out this morning that one of our competitors is releasing a proprietary coffee flavor that we’ve worked on developing. They’re hitting us a week before our big debut.”

“Coffee flavors can be proprietary?” I muttered, before shaking my head. “Never mind. I guess
, even for a company that’s globally minded, this is a big deal.”

“Without good business sense, we can’t make as big of an impact with our charities. We’ve got to make the money in order to spend it on building the wells in third world countries.”

I nodded. “I see. How did this happen?”

“Someone got a hand on one of our formulas.
They’re beating us to the punch.”

“But people who like your coffee are still going to buy it. Right?”

He stared at me. “This is a big deal, Gabby. We’re going to lose money. A lot of money.”

I hardly heard him. My mind started racing. I stood, pacing to keep up with my thoughts.

Garrett stopped talking. That’s when I realized that he had still been talking. “What is it, Gabby?”

“I know why your father was killed.” I closed my eyes as more facts began coming together. Everything was finally making sense.
“And why he had that cash and the passports stored away.”

“Please share then.”

I kept pacing with my eyes closed, pinching the skin between them as I sorted out my thoughts. I remembered his dad’s resume. I remembered my suspicions about the pharmaceutical company being the source of this somehow.

“Gabby, please. The suspense is killing me.”

I held up a finger. I just needed one more minute to make sure this made sense before I spouted off my theory.

I had it, I realized. I knew what had happened.

I paused, swallowed and looked at Garrett. “Your dad was a corporate spy.”

His eyes widened. “What?”

I nodded. “That would explain why his resume was the way it was. Your dad was desperate to be on top. I’d bet you anything that his former company was paying him, off the books, for him to give them the scoop on what was being developed at this company.”

Garret
t nodded as he considered my words. “Pharmaceuticals are a highly competitive field. But there are clauses, papers that you sign before you start working there.”

“That won’t stop some people. Your dad was probably making a lot of money from the deal. Maybe enough that he finally felt like he could compete with the money your mom already had from her upbringing. You said your dad was a proud man. He didn’t want his wife to have more money than he did. It took away from his manhood. That’s why he worked so hard. It was one of the reasons, at least.”

Garrett stood now and looked into the distance. “I suppose that would explain why we moved so suddenly when my dad had seemed so happy at his former company. He also asked us not to talk about that job. I always thought it was because it ended poorly or something. But maybe he just didn’t want anyone to know that he’d worked there.”

“I think someone figured out what he was doing. I think they confronted him.
Wimbledon Pharmaceuticals probably stood to lose millions of dollars.”

He shook his head. “But there are patents and processes. I’m not sure how easy it would have been.”

“But if one company doesn’t dominate the market, then the prices have to be competitive. Garrett, you have to admit that it would be reason enough for some people to murder.”

“Then who?
Vic Newport?” he asked.

I shook my head.
“I don’t think so. But it was someone inside the company who was angry with your father. Someone knew he was the traitor. Just like someone at your company is a traitor now. I don’t think that is a coincidence, either.”

“You think
I unknowingly hired a corporate spy?”

“What makes them a spy is the fact that they’re so good at what they do.
They’re slick. They’re sly. They’re not obvious.”

He shook his head. “I can’t imagine anyone under me doing this.”

“You need to keep thinking then.” I sucked in a deep breath as more clues clicked in my mind. “How could I not have seen this before?”