Forgive and Forget: (A Geeks and Things Cozy Mystery Novella #2) (Geeks and Things Cozy Mysteries) (5 page)

CHAPTER NINE

Kalina stared open-mouthed as Jimmy repeated the information. She had no problem letting Chris think it was all Jimmy’s doing. After all, she’d said she would keep out of the investigation, not do their job for them.

“I understand. I’ll see you back at the station, Sir.” Jimmy ended the call and looked at Kalina. “Nadine’s lawyer boyfriend came back that night. Wonder why she didn’t say anything before?”

Kalina shrugged. “Maybe she didn’t know. If she really was drugged then she wouldn’t remember him coming in or out.”

Jimmy ran a hand over his hair. “Detective Harper wants me back at the station. Can I drop you somewhere?”

“The shop would be fine.” She really wanted him to take her to the motel but that would have looked suspicious. If Chris didn’t want Jimmy to pick up Adam from the motel for questioning, then Chris was likely getting the lawyer to the station under false pretenses. She might have some time to get to the motel first.

Five minutes later, Jimmy pulled up to the shop. AJ stood outside, arms crossed over his chest. He did not look happy. Kalina climbed out of the passenger side with the overnight bag in hand and waited for the squad car to pull away.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” her nephew asked with mock annoyance.

“Yeah, yeah. Come on. You wanted to know what’s been going on; well, it’s time I filled you in. I’m going to need your help anyway.”

They headed inside and AJ flipped the front sign to ‘Closed’. He pointed to the bag but Kalina tossed it aside.

“An old friend of mine’s father died two days ago. It looks like it was murder and Nadine is the prime suspect. There was some bad blood between her and her father but I’m not sure about the whole story. We just found out someone else was there the night her father died. Chris is investigating.”

“What do you need from me?”

“I need you to look up how to test if a person was pushed or fell from a high altitude.”

“You mean the ‘Push Jump Fall’ test.”

Kalina furrowed her brow. “Where’d you learn that?”

AJ grinned. “Heroes.”

Kalina let out a soft laugh. “Of course. Now, I need you to look up how to test it and see if you can find a dummy we can use.”

“I know just where to look.”

“You can’t tell anyone what you need it for. Chris can’t find out we’re doing this.”

AJ nodded. “So while I’m doing this, what are you doing?”

‘I’m going to the motel and, hopefully, I can get Nadine to fill in some of the blanks about her past. It might be the only way we can figure out what really happened to her father.”

“You can count on me, Aunt K.”

She pulled her nephew into a brief, one-armed hug. “I knew I could. Now, call me when you’ve got everything. And remember—”

“I know. Don’t tell anyone what we’re doing.”

Kalina picked up the overnight bag and headed out across town. She supposed she was lucky that Ellesworth was small enough to only have one motel. If anyone came to stay in the area, they usually stayed in Salem and drove down to the beaches here. She reached the parking lot some ten minutes later to find only one car there bearing a familiar license plate. Adam hadn’t left yet. What was Chris waiting for? She paid the front desk a quick visit to get the right room number and walked down three doors and stopped. She could hear voices coming from inside the room.

“I don’t understand why he wants to talk to you alone,” Nadine said.

“Don’t worry about it. Everything is going to be fine. I promise.”

“You’re hiding something. I can tell. What is it?”

“Nadine, just let me worry about it. I’m looking out for you.”

Kalina raised her hand to knock when the door flew inward and she nearly collided with Adam.

“Sorry!” she said and stepped out of his way.

“I didn’t see you there,” he said and headed for his car.

Nadine sat on one of the small twin beds with her knees drawn up to her chest. She looked paler than she had two days before when her father’s death was fresh in her mind. Her hair was damp and hung around her face in stringy clumps. Adam had probably gotten the call when she was still in the shower. Kalina stayed in the doorway for a moment longer to be sure Nadine registered her presence. Then she crossed the threshold and set the bag on the floor.

“Hey, how are you holding up?”

Nadine scrubbed at her face and let out a long sigh. “Honestly, I don’t know what to think anymore. Detective Harper just called Adam down to the station for some questions but he didn’t want me there. He wouldn’t say anything else.”

Kalina just nodded. She didn’t want to admit she’d overheard part of their conversation. Instead, she sat on the other bed and said, “I’m sure if either of them have anything to tell you, they will.” Should she say anything about Adam returning in the middle of the night?

“I wish I could remember something … anything.”

“Was there anything you didn’t tell Detective Harper in your interview?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. The reason your father drugged you all those years ago.”

“God, you think I did it! You think I had a motive.” Nadine jumped from the bed and took a defensive posture.

“No, of course I don’t.” Kalina held her hands up in front of her. “I am just trying to understand how the family I knew growing up could be torn apart so violently. What happened?”

Nadine turned to face Kalina, resting her chin in her hand. “I guess it started after I turned eighteen. My parents needed to redo their wills to get rid of the need for a guardian or something. They ended up waiting an extra year. I’m not sure why. I didn’t know the details but my dad got really upset that my mother was keeping the house only in her name and she was passing it to me when I turned 25. It was supposed to be held by the estate lawyer until then.”

“What’s so special about the house?”

She shrugged. “It’s been in the family for a long time. I think my mom wanted to keep it in her side of the family. They had a pretty big knockdown, drag out fight over it right after I got home from school for the semester in June. He insisted on going to the party on the fourth of July. My mother didn’t want to go. She didn’t tell me but I could tell he’d been drinking more often. He wasn’t the same. Always on edge and angry.” Tears shone in her eyes and she tried to blink them away. “I wish she’d just given him the damn house. Maybe then he wouldn’t have insisted on going to the stupid party.”

“So you blamed him for what happened to your mom.” It came out as more of a statement than a question.

“Maybe. I think I resented him for being so obsessed with the house. You know, that’s why he drugged me and had me committed.”

Kalina scratched her head, trying to follow the logic. “To get the house?”

“Yes. There was some legal loophole that said he could get control of the deed if I was declared legally incompetent. But he waited until after I turned 25 so it was legally in my name so he could force feed me whatever drugs he thought would help make his case.” Her tone turned bitter. “He gave me downers so that I spiraled into a massive depression and then he gave me psychotropic pills to make me look manic. He kept giving them to me until one day I just lost it and started hitting him. He called the police and they dragged me off to the psych ward at Salem Hospital. I rotted there for six months before Adam and one of his partners figured out what was going on and got me released.”

“You were able to prove it all?”

“I even tried to sue him but the judge wanted it settled out of court. He never came out and said it, but I think he felt it was just too messy. I got some restitution financially and a restraining order.”

“If you had a restraining order, why did you go to see him and have dinner?”

“I let it lapse about a year ago. Adam thought it might be good to reconcile, or at least try to put the past behind us. He said there was no point in letting it eat away at our happiness.”

Kalina did her best to stifle a bitter laugh of her own. “You know, I think maybe you were drugged this time, too.”

“So you believe me?”

“I found the teacup and the lab is running it. And there was someone else there in the house that night.”

“Someone else? How do you know that?”

It was time to spill the beans. “When I went to get your stuff from the house I ran into your neighbor, Mr. Beech. He was rather chatty. He said that that night, around two, he saw someone show up to the house and then leave a little while later.”

“Who?”

“Adam.”

“No, that can’t be.”

“Mr. Beech wrote down the license plate and Jimmy ran it. It belonged to Adam’s car. I think that’s why Chris wanted to talk to him alone.”

Nadine scooped up the room key and headed for the door. “We have to get there now. I need to know what’s happening!”

“Slow down, Nadine. We can’t do anything.”

“If he tells Detective Harper anything I deserve to know about it. I knew he was keeping something from me. I just didn’t know it was this.”

CHAPTER TEN

Nadine was out the door before Kalina could say anything else. They didn’t have a car so it was going to be a brisk walk to the station. On the way, Kalina checked her phone for any missed calls or texts from AJ. She couldn’t share that particular theory with her friend yet. She needed to process the fact that her boyfriend had been there and might have had something to do with her father’s death. Was he confessing to the crime as they raced to the station? He could have certainly had enough strength and force to push a grown man out a window.

“Come on,” Nadine urged as the station came into view up the street.

Kalina stowed her phone back in her pocket and trailed Nadine through the front doors. Neither of them bothered to acknowledge the officer at the front desk. Jimmy was nowhere in sight and the bull pen was empty. Chris’s desk was still a mess of files and paperwork. Speaking of Chris, she spotted him on the interrogation room monitor sitting across from Adam.

“Your vehicle was seen arriving at the Larrabee residence at two in the morning and leaving at two fifteen. Want to tell me what you were doing back there in the middle of the night?”

“What evidence do you have?”

“An eye witness who recorded your license plate. Now, I’ll ask you again. What were you doing back there?”

Adam let out a breath and unfolded his arms. “I didn’t like how we left things with Nadine’s father. I had a trial the next day but I should have insisted she come stay with me. The stories she told me were unsettling. The last time he was alone with her in that house, he purposely drugged her to get the deed to the house.”

Chris opened one of the files on the table and flipped through what appeared to be court documents. “And you know all of this because of the civil suit Nadine filed against her father.”

“Yes. I was part of the team that worked on her case and got her released from the hospital when it was determined she was not mentally impaired due to a disease.”

“So you went back to give Mr. Larrabee a piece of your mind then?”

“No. I went back to get Nadine to go with me. When I got there she was asleep. I tried to wake her up but she wouldn’t. I assumed he’d drugged her again.”

“So you left her there?”

“I went to confront Edwin.”

Kalina stood transfixed by the conversation. She hadn’t anticipated Adam admitting he’d confronted Mr. Larrabee about what had happened with Nadine. She hadn’t wanted the possibility that he was the killer to be true any more than she wanted that status to fall to her friend.

“He came back for me,” Nadine whispered. “I thought I dreamed that.”

“You remember him showing up?”

“A little, maybe. It honestly felt like a dream. That means the rest wasn’t a dream either.”

Kalina turned to look at her friend. “The rest of what?”

“I thought it was a dream. I went upstairs because I heard voices and loud noises. My father was tied to his office chair. He looked so scared. I think he told me to run but I had to untie him. Whatever else he’d done to me, he didn’t deserve to be tied down. I know what that’s like. Then I stumbled back down to my room. I guess Adam did wake me up.”

“Did you happen to see a clock at any point during that whole thing?”

“No. Why?”

“Well, if you went and untied your father after Adam left then that doesn’t make him a suspect anymore.”

“But it still doesn’t clear me. And why would Adam tie up my father? It was the middle of the night. I know he was drinking again but I don’t think he would have done anything to really hurt me.”

“I don’t know but Chris needs to know what you just told me.”

Nadine worried her lower lip and looked between the door to the interrogation room and the monitor. The conversation had died down. The station was eerily silent when Kalina’s phone sang out the opening bars to “Hooked on Feeling”—AJ’s ringtone.

“Sorry. I need to take this.” She stepped away and watched as Nadine headed for the interrogation room, her shoulders squared and her head held high. “Hey, kiddo. Tell me you got what we need.”

“Took longer than I thought it would but, yeah, I got it. So what’s next?”

Kalina pulled her phone away from her ear to check the time. It was already well after six. “Go wait for me at the shop, around back. I’ll pick you up and I’ll throw in pizza when we’re done.”

“Sweet. Did you find out anything else?”

“I’ll fill you in when I get there.”

“I’ll let Mom know I won’t be home for dinner.”

“I’ll see you soon,” she said and ended the call.

Nadine appeared on the monitor and took a seat beside Adam. Kalina couldn’t see Chris’s facial expression but, by Adam’s body language, at least one of them wasn’t pleased to see Nadine waltz right in and start talking. She couldn’t really blame them. If anything, it was usually the attorney barging in on the interrogation. She wanted to stay and hear what else was going on in the interrogation room but figuring out if Mr. Larrabee had been pushed or not was of more importance. She was so close to finding out what had really happened and, hopefully, clearing her friend’s name. The deeper she got into the fact, the more convinced she was becoming that Nadine just didn’t have it in her to kill her father, no matter what had transpired between them in the last decade. With one last glance back toward the monitor, she made the trek back to Geeks and Things.