Domestic Affairs (Tiara Investigations Mystery) (17 page)

“Which makes it that much more important to figure out who was prompting her to say it.”
 
Tara looked out her side mirror.

“Something else has been bothering me. Is it just me or did Bryn Marie seem to know what was written before we told her?” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
  

“Don’t go getting all J. Edgar Hoover on us,” Victoria said.

“I know what you mean, Leigh. It didn’t look like it took her by surprise.” Tara was clicking away on the keyboard of her phone. “But only Thomas Chestnut and the three of us saw it.”

“His killer would have seen it. I understood from Bryn Marie that it was Asher Charles who told her about the napkin.”

Victoria put up her stop sign hand. “No, we asked if it was a good looking guy and she agreed. His name wasn’t mentioned.”

“She did say someone from Homeland Security had been around and she said he’d been there on Sunday night.” I pulled Abby into my lap. “We said it was a note. I’ll send her an email and confirm it was him.”

“Leigh, do you mind if I take my computer in with me to work on this?”

“Not at all. You really don’t have to stay.”
 

That was a nonstarter, so instead of answering Tara changed the subject. “We forgot to eat! I’ll phone in a takeout order at Cracker Barrel.”
 

Vic handed her cell phone over. “It’s on speed dial and I’m not ashamed to admit it.”

Tara took care of that matter of business, and then her own phone rang again. “It’s Asher. I’ll ask if he’s had any luck finding Janice Marshall, since we talked last.”

“What do you mean you still can’t find her?! Leigh Googled her name and found one in Boston.” Then to us, “He still can’t find Janice Marshall.”

Victoria signaled to turn into the hospital parking lot.
 
“We got it. Can’t they put out a dragnet?”

Tara giggled. “He said to tell you, no. And they can’t find Car 54 either.” Then she texted Paul to come out and take Abby from us.
 

As we ate our dinners on our laps, I emailed Bryn Marie.
Homeland Security agent told you about the intermittent denial of service note, right?

I put Abby’s leash on her and handed it to Paul.
  
She stood up on her back legs and nestled her face into my legs. I gave her a hug and ran my hand down her back. It felt warm and I wanted to stay like that, but my phone signaled a new message.
 

Right.
 
It was from Bryn Marie.
 

Was his name Asher Charles?
I wrote back.

Yes. Or maybe Charles Asher.

CHAPTER 18

Continuation of statement by Leigh Reed.
 
Aunt Thelma and Aunt Gussie let us relieve them and we were even able to talk Aunt Opal and Aunt Mary into waiting until the morning for their shifts to begin.
 
Their news was that Dr. Gale and the consulting neurologist, who was smart, but not as smart as Victoria’s husband, and tall, but not as tall as Victoria’s husband, had said the MRI confirmed what he’d told me earlier. Being numb put me beyond the reach of this latest blow.
 

I walked into the hallway. Shorty was standing at the nurses’ station. When he saw me, he walked up and put his hand on my shoulder. “Did you get the report from the neurologist?”

I nodded.

“Do you understand?”

I nodded that I understood, as much of it as I was able to, that is. “What will happen next?” From some place at a distance, I watched myself asking this question.

“I can’t give you a time frame. She may become unresponsive if the bleed progresses.”

“What does that mean?”

“She will probably stop speaking. She may develop further neurological impairment.”
  

I thanked him and went back to her bed.
 

The reason older people have such amazing blue eyes is so you can’t stop looking at them. I looked in my mother’s eyes and I thought, thank you for everything.

Her eyes said, “No thanks are necessary. Thank you for everything.”

“No thanks are necessary. I’m sorry for everything.”

“No apology is necessary. I’m sorry for everything.”

“No apology is necessary.” The one chair in the room was pulled up to her bedside. I sat down and rested my head on her arm. I don’t really know how long I was there.
 

When I came out, the hospital had calmed down to rest for the night. In our little waiting room, Victoria looked up from her computer. Tara’s head jerked up too.
 
Together they said, “It’s Asher Charles’ voice!”
 

“You figured it out at the same time.” I had to chuckle at that.
 
“Asher Charles, huh?”

“Yeah?”
 

I froze in the doorway. “Is he right behind me?” Vic and Tara nodded. Slowly I turned to face a man that might or might not be a killer. What the hell, I was in a hospital. How bad could it get? “How did you know Thomas Chestnut had written
Buford Dam,
 
Intermittent denial of service, First step
on a napkin?”

“I didn’t.” He looked wide-eyed with adoration at Tara.
 

“You repeated it to Bryn Marie Leandro from the Army Corps of Engineers.” I moved into the waiting room because when someone is that good looking you shouldn’t stand too close. It would be like looking directly into the sun.

Tara stood. “But you knew the lines because they originally came from you. You told Janice Marshall to say them on the phone to Thomas Chestnut, didn’t you?
 
How do you know Janice Marshall?”
 

“She’s my former girlfriend.”

I did not see that coming. How could someone who dated her, later be interested in someone who looked like Tara? And acted like Tara? “Her? She’s so tiny.
 
She’s like a runt.”

“I’m standing right here, you know.”

And so she was. That was awkward. She moved to the side and glared at Tara, even though I was the one who had just called her a runt. It was like getting away with murder.
 

Victoria stood up. “Tara, ear muffs!” She yanked her UGA ear muffs off.

“I’m looking for Leigh Reed. I believe her mother is a patient here.” The sonorous voice of Detective Kent floated our way from down the hall.

“Look here, visiting hours are way past.” The young nurse tried to sound authoritative, but the pleading tone was still there.

He leaned over the counter and smiled at her. “It’s okay.”

“Jerry! You’re being bad!” Paige Ford was standing beside
Jerry
and giggling. She wore strappy sandals with three inch heels and tight jeans cuffed just above the ankle.
 
Polished toe nails + calling him Jerry = Mrs. Ford had slept with Detective Kent. He walked and she wobbled to our little home away from home.

Tara leaned out to see who was talking. “If you can’t walk ‘em, don’t rock ‘em.”

“Leigh, how is your mother?”
 

I didn’t trust my voice, so I sidestepped Detective Kent’s question. “Did you take care of Mr. Chestnut’s gun?”

“Yeah, but not before we took out the dishwasher.”
 

Paige giggled and came up on her toes. “I jumped right into his arms!”

“I’ll bet you did.” Victoria sat on the arm of the sofa next to where Tara stood. Asher moved to stand at Tara’s other side.

“Silly….” Paige Ford giggled for two seconds before deciphering the look on my face and thinking better of it.
 
I was not in the mood. She needed to say what she had to say, then leave. “My father didn’t modify the gun himself. Someone he knew did.”

“Who?” Hadn’t she referred to her dad’s reconfiguration? Had we misinterpreted what she said, or had she deliberately mislead us?

“A friend of his.”
  

“Do you have a name?” Victoria knew where I was going with this and so did Detective Kent. He’d been looking at Tara and jerked his head back to me.

“No, but I think he knew him from CDC,” Paige said.
 

“That’s the opposite of what you told us earlier. Ms. Marshall?”
 
It took a second to get her attention because she was glaring at Asher and Tara. “What’s the name of the guy in the office next to yours, who was fired?”

“Beats me.”

“Dr. Charles, why didn’t you say you knew Thomas Chestnut on Friday when you saw his body?” I had never heard that tone in Victoria’s voice. I was glad I wasn’t Asher.
 

 
“We’d talked on the phone and emailed, but I’d never seen him before.”

“We said his name right in front of you, and you must have heard it fifty times in the days since.” I stretched my arms toward him, both palms up.
 

“To use your words, it was awkward.” He couldn’t meet my eyes.
  

All of a sudden I was sick of them. I was sick of it all. I turned on Asher. “Your little Janice Marshall isn’t innocent! She was involved in stealing Thomas Chestnut’s body. I’m guessing to get that chip back.”

“Please. Do I look like I could pick up a dead body?”

“The two guys I walked in on did the heavy lifting.”
 
Literally and figuratively.

“Why did you need the chip? To keep it from being traced back to you or to whom?”

She gave me a pout that said
for me to know and you to find out
.
 

I turned to face Detective Kent. “You need to take them in. All three have a lot of questions to answer.”

“Yes, they do. The chip was contaminated with atropine. That’s what killed him.” He reached for his mobile phone attached to his belt.
 

“Asher, do-o-o something. I was only trying to help.”
 

“Did she say hyelp?” Tara looked at Victoria then me.
 

“It sounded like hylep to me.” Victoria could be so funny, and she wasn’t as mad as she had been.

“Who? Who were you trying to help?” That was still me, sounding like a Sergeant Major.

“Him.” Janice pointed at Asher. “I moved here about a month ago to be with him. And I introduced him to Thomas Chestnut. How was I supposed to know he would go get himself killed?”
 

“So inconsiderate,” I said.

“Jerry, can’t we come in later this morning? You have my word.
 
We
will
be there.”
 

Detective Kent put his phone away. What the hell?
 
I was going to say what I had to say and then get back in to see my mother. I pointed at Ms. Marshall.
 
“You and Paige need to leave.
 
Wait for them in the lobby.”
 

Paige drew herself up to her full height, indignant at being summarily dismissed. Didn’t care. I didn’t care!
  
Janice Marshall took one last look at Asher and stormed off.
 

“I’ll catch up with you in a few.” Detective Kent spoke to Paige but didn’t look her in the eye.

“Wait, Paige. What does your husband think of you staying out all night?”

“Nothing. He’s in jail.”

I looked at Detective Kent. “For?”

“Al Ford was arrested for planting and detonating the explosive device at the Porsche dealership.”

“Which he learned how to do when he worked on SCIFs,” Paige said. “In the design phase, the mockups had to be tested to see if they were bomb proof. So he had access to bomb making material.”

“Let him go.” All eyes shot to me when I said that.
 
You would have thought I said, “Let him go.”

“Why?” screeched Al’s loving wife.

“He didn’t do it. We know he keyed Tara’s car, but he didn’t plant the bomb.” I wasn’t about to explain the rest in front of those losers.
 

Tara came and stood next to me. “Why would he scratch my car the way he did?”
  

Detective Kent leaned down and took her shoulders.
 
“Because he thought it was my car.”

“That’s even more stupid. You’re a police detective.
 
Sorry, no offense,” I said.

“None taken.”
 
For the first time I noticed that when Detective Kent smiles his eyes have a little twinkle.
 
Don’t take me wrong now, I still hate him.

“And why would he think it was your car?” As I was talking I heard Paige’s shoes on the floor behind me and turned to see her backing away. “You told your husband the Porsche belonged to Detective Kent, didn’t you?”

“I may have.” She tried to twirl around but was thwarted by the shoes, so she just stomped off to join Janice Marshall.
 

One woman wanted to keep a man, one woman wanted to get rid of hers.

I turned back to Detective Kent.
 
His hands were still on Tara’s shoulders, but she was looking at the floor.
 

“So Al Ford wrote ‘mine’ on Tara’s car out of jealousy?” I shook my head.
 
“You’ve got yourself a real winner there.”
 

Victoria stood on the other side of Tara.
 
“Detective Kent, have a seat.”
 
 

He removed his hands and did as he was told.
 

I was on to Asher Charles. “I see you found her.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tara told you about your girlfriend’s aliases….”

“Once she masqueraded as a personal trainer to get into Leigh’s house.” Victoria pointed a finger at him. Then she jabbed three times. “I. Might. Add.”

I needed to keep going. “…and we asked you to look for her.
 
You said you couldn’t locate anyone by that name.”

“I didn’t know why you were asking about her….”
 
His voice trailed off, leaving me wondering about all the lies he had told last week. Did he think we were that stupid?
 
“I didn’t want Tara to know about her.”

 
Tara pointed at him. “When you told Janice Marshall to call Thomas Chestnut and say that stuff about Buford Dam, were you talking about a plan to sabotage the dam?
 
Was it some kind of threat?”

“No!” He made a move to stand, but the look on Tara’s face made him think better of it.

“I agreed with him that cyber security should be more of a funding priority for infrastructure like Buford Dam and I was trying to help him present a case.”

“Then why not call him yourself instead of having your girlfriend do the talking?” I asked.

“That’d be wrong! I’m a federal government employee,” said the poster child for situational ethics.
 

“She is too! She worked at CDC until last Friday, the day of the mur….the day Thomas Chestnut died.”
 
When I said this, Detective Kent’s neck twitched.
 

Kent shook his head, then ran his hand through his hair. Then he made a swatting motion. “I’ll see you and Janice Marshall at 10 o’clock, in my office.”
 

“You’re letting them go?” I was feeling stupid from fatigue, and knew I didn’t have the energy to stop this.
 
I thought
I can’t win this war.

“Yes.” He was trying to meet my eye, but I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.

Victoria stepped to the side and Asher walked out.
 
“You can go now, but don’t leave town.”

Detective Kent did a double take. “For the love of Pete.
 
Give ‘em an inch.”