Dead on Ice (9 page)

“Angie had a fractured skull. However, the ME said it wasn’t necessarily bad enough to have killed her. But it was serious enough to have knocked her out long enough to strap her into the front seat of her car and push it off a boat dock into the river. After being in the river for so long, it was difficult for the ME to say conclusively that she had drowned.”

Joshua said, “I’d like to have the ME take a second look at Angie Sullivan’s body. Forensics has come a long way since 1984. Maybe they can uncover more evidence to point to who killed her.”

“Are you thinking that whoever killed Cheryl Smith killed Angie?” Harry asked.

“It’s a possibility,” Cameron replied. “Cheryl did have over a dozen alibi witnesses.”

The retired detective sat forward. “I think it’s more likely that one of Angie’s friends killed Cheryl to deliver some frontier justice.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Joshua said, “A second look at Angie’s body could answer that question for us so we don’t have to speculate. Who was the last to see Angie alive?”

“Her fiancé,” Harry said, “Kyle Bostwick. They got engaged the very night she disappeared.” He sucked in a deep breath. “She still had the ring on her finger when her body was found.”

Chapter Six

“Cheryl Smith? Star? Of anything?” Kyle Bostwick pushed his glasses up on his nose and chuckled. “Are you serious?” He sighed and looked up from his feet to Detective Cameron Gates. “If you’re waiting for me to say I’m sorry she’s dead, you’ll have a long wait.”

Kyle Bostwick had been Chester born and raised. After earning his degree in computer programming, he opened a computer sales and repair shop on Carolina Avenue, one block from Joshua’s Chester office.

In addition to the prosecutor’s office down the river in New Cumberland, Joshua also had an office a few blocks from his house. Preferring to work remotely via his computer, he rarely used either office.

Being a hometown boy, who had taken good care of his widowed mother until her death, Kyle Bostwick had no trouble getting work installing and maintaining computer systems for homes and businesses in the tri-state area. A quick scan of his office indicated that he was all-business. Void of personal items, the shop area was filled with desktop and laptop computers, and other office equipment of every brand, size, and types.

Pale and slightly built, Kyle resembled the stereotype of a computer geek. All that was missing was the plastic pocket protector in the breast pocket of his plaid button-down shirt. His nerdy appearance was compounded by thick eyeglasses over beady eyes that peered out under heavy eyelids.

During their interview, he refused to look directly at Cameron. Instead, he’d look over her shoulder or at the floor. Usually, the detective found such manners during an interview suspicious. With this witness, however, she was relieved to not have Kyle look directly at her. His giant beady eyeballs gave her the creeps.

“You never married,” she noted.

“There was only one Angie Sullivan,” he said in a firm tone. “She was the love of my life. We were going to get married.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she replied. “I understand how difficult this can be for you to talk about, but can you tell me what happened that night at the skating rink?”

After adjusting his glasses, Kyle eyed the wall behind her. “I already went over this with the police a dozen times years ago. Everyone knows Cheryl killed Angie. I guess it’s some sort of twist of fate that the mob would finally give her the justice she deserved.”

“That’s not for me or you to decide,” Cameron said. “Good or bad, someone killed Cheryl Smith, and that someone could have killed a dozen people blowing up Gordon’s house to cover up her murder.”

“Excuse me if I’m not inclined to cooperate.” He plopped down behind his desk and interlocked his fingers together.

She leaned over his desk at him. “And you’ll excuse me if I take you over to the police station in Pennsylvania in the back of my cruiser with all of your friends and neighbors watching.

Staring through her, the corners of Kyle’s lips curled. “When they find out why, whose side do you think they’ll take?”

Touché. Cameron opted for another approach. “Cheryl Smith never had a day in court.”

“Because she ran off to Hollywood to do what she does best—sex and drugs with rock stars like Mick Jagger after dumping Angie in the river to rot.”

“She had an alibi.”

“From her low-life friends.”

“What if she didn’t kill Angie?” She waited for his response.

Kyle’s eyes finally met hers.

The sight of his enlarged eyeballs peering out at her from under the heavy eyelids caused a shiver to go down her spine. Under the pretense of examining a new model laptop, she turned away. “Can you think of anyone else who would have wanted to hurt Angie?”

“Everyone loved Angie—except Cheryl Smith.”

“What did Cheryl have against her?” Cameron asked.

“Jealousy,” Kyle replied. “She had beauty and class, and Cheryl didn’t.”

“How about Ned Carter?”

“What about Ned Carter?”

“I heard that Angie was sneaking around with Ned behind Cheryl’s back? That’s what the fight was about.”

Kyle’s pale face turned pink. “That’s a lie!” He almost jumped out of his seat.

The force of her demeanor and the look in her eye was enough to make him back down into his chair. “Then what were they fighting about?”

“I—I don’t know.”

Cameron was doubtful. “After all these years, you have no idea what Cheryl and Angie were fighting about?”

“It doesn’t matter. It was nothing.” He took off his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt tail. “I didn’t care. Whatever it was, it wasn’t important enough for her to take Angie away from me.” He put his glasses back on. “Doesn’t matter what it was about.”

Cameron felt a tug of sympathy in her heart. “How long were you with Angie after leaving the skating rink?”

He shifted in his seat.

“Tell me what happened after the fight.”

Kyle stared straight ahead while recounting. “Angie and I met at the Melody Lane Skating Rink when we were sophomores in high school. I went to Oak Glen High School—”

She made a mental note that was the same school Joshua’s son Donny was attending. Joshua and all of his children had graduated from Oak Glen.

“—Angie went to South Side High School in Hookstown.” He paused. “It was love at first sight. She was my first kiss—my first love. We had it all planned. We were going to West Virginia University in Morgantown. She was going to study nursing. I was going to study computer programming. After our first year, we would get married, and then move out of the dorms into our own apartment. After graduation, we would move back here to Chester, and she would get a job at East Liverpool City Hospital, and I would set up my own computer shop here.” He tapped the top of his desk.

“I love a man who knows how to plan.” Cameron fought to keep the edge of sarcasm out of her voice. She favored spontaneity, something that Joshua found he admired and feared in her.

“I saved for a year to buy her a diamond ring. I did yard work and mowed like every lawn between here and the state line. I was going to give it to her at the skating rink, where we had met, after the last slow skate, but when I found her, Cheryl and her friends were all over her. By the time I broke it up, the skate was over. So I decided to give it to her down by the river. We had a spot on a bench overlooking the river. We liked to sit and look at the lights and talk . . . and kiss.”

“That was where her car was found in the river.”

He nodded. “I couldn’t believe it when they found her there . . . of all places.”

“And you were the last one to see her alive.”

His eyes met hers. “Oh no, I wasn’t.”

“Who else was the last one with her?”

“Whoever killed her.” His eyes filled with tears. “We were going to get married. We even set a date.”

“What date?”

“July 7, 1979.”

“So you give her the ring, and she accepts your marriage proposal,” Cameron said. “Then what happened?”

His eyes were glassy. “We made love. It was glorious. Unbelievable.” He swallowed. “My first and only time. There could never be anyone after Angie.”

Cameron’s cheeks felt warm at his confession. “Did you see or hear anyone else around who may have seen you?”

“No,” he answered before shrugging. “Angie was my whole world. She was the only one in the universe as far as I was concerned.”

“What happened after that?”

“She took me home.”

She blinked. “
She
took
you
home.”

“I didn’t—”

“That’s right,” Cameron said more to herself than him, “it was her car that she was in.”

“I was saving all of my money for college. Since Angie had a car, I didn’t need one. If I needed a ride, she’d give me one or one of my other friends.”

“But then somehow she ended up back at the dock, and her car in the river.”

“It had to be Cheryl and her friends,” Kyle said. “They were down there at the First Street overlook, right next to the yacht club. They must have been following us.”

“Where was she going after taking you home?” Cameron asked.

“Home,” Kyle said.

“But she didn’t go home.”

“Cheryl’s scum-bag friends must have kidnapped her,” he said.

Opting to get off the merry-go-round she was on, Cameron shifted gears so sharply that she threw Kyle off track. “Did you see Cheryl Smith when she came back to town in 1985?”

“If I had, I would have called the police.”

Cameron cocked her head at him with a smile. “Not if you killed her.”

“In which case, I wouldn’t tell you if I had.”

“You worked at Davenport Winery when you first got out of college,” she said. “You set up their computer network.”

“So?” Kyle replied. “It takes a while to set up a business and get it running. Brianne Davenport was a friend. She helped me out by giving me a job. Davenport Winery is one of my biggest clients. When the Internet came about, I got them set up. I took them worldwide.”

“You were working for them in 1985.”

“So again?” he scoffed.

“That was when Cheryl came into the area and was killed.” Cameron leaned over his desk. “She had the number to Brianne Davenport’s direct line in her pocket. Are you sure she didn’t come by the winery, and you didn’t see her.”

“Positive.”

She stood up and sauntered to the door. “If I find out you’re lying, I’ll be back.” She turned to him. “If you think you don’t like me now, wait until you see me after I found out you’d lied to me.”

Cameron was huddled over her mini laptop behind Joshua’s desk in his study.

His huge body sprawled out across the Oriental rug, Admiral occupied the whole floor space in the middle of the room.

Irving had made himself at home stretched out across the front of the desk behind his mistress’s laptop. His head tilted back, his eyes half closed; he looked like he was meditating on the case while Cameron took notes.

“I saw your car out front.” Jan stepped over the canine’s sleeping body. “What are you doing here?”

In response to Irving’s sharp glare, Jan stopped to give him an obligatory scratch behind the ear. Satisfied with the attention tossed his way, he returned to meditating.

“Working.” Cameron continued studying the laptop. “Josh had meetings and asked me to stick around to make sure Donny came straight home to study for his science test.” She noticed Jan eying the thick manila envelope resting under Irving’s front paws.

“What makes him think you’d have any better luck getting Donny to study than he will?” Jan sat down on the sofa and slipped off her shoes.

“I can be very persuasive,” Cameron drawled. “I paid him twenty dollars.”

“Smart lady.”

“Either that or lazy,” she said. “I didn’t feel like arguing with the kid. He’s as strong-willed as his father.”

“The Thornton and MacMillan genes are tenacious.” Jan smiled while patting her tummy. “I did some research on the Internet about Cherry Pickens, aka Cheryl Smith.”

“So did I.”

“What if we compare notes?”

“What if we don’t?” Cameron refused to look up from the laptop.

Jan go up to move in closer. “What if I discovered something you’ve missed?”

“I’d doubt it if you did.”

“Are you sure about that?” she whispered into her ear.

Catching Jan attempting to read the monitor, Cameron shut the lid to the laptop. “You’re the media. That makes you the enemy when it comes to open murder cases.”

Placing her hands on her hips, Jan stood up. “Hey! I’ve been sitting on the story of the century without reporting any of it because of family loyalty. So don’t you go calling me the enemy. If I was the enemy, I would have reported that there’s reason to believe the lady in the freezer is Cheryl Smith as soon as Tad told me about it.”