Her Last Letter (30 page)

“I was just leaving.”

“Just leaving? It’s pitch black out. Why in the name of …?” He stopped, then shook his head. “We’ll talk about this at home.”

He followed me all the way back to the house, then inside, still hovering over me as we walked into the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, okay?” I said before he could start up again. “I didn’t do it on purpose. I made a mistake.”

“What were you doing there so late? I don’t know what made me think you’d be there. I get home, no one’s here, the lights are off. So I drive over there, and I find you alone in the house.”

“I’m sorry. Don’t flip out about it. I stayed longer than I realized. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“What were you doing?”

“
Nothing
. I was trying out some wallpaper samples. I planned to leave once the workers did, but I got involved and lost track of the time.”

“You said you wouldn’t go over there alone anymore.”

“I wasn’t alone. I just said that. Can we please change the subject?”

“Do you have any idea how I’d feel if something happened to you? Do you think I don’t worry that maybe that creep will come back here someday? He could. I don’t mean to scare you, Gwyn, but he could.”

“I know that.”

“Then why do you pull these stunts?”

“I’m not pulling any
stunts
. I stayed too long, that’s all. I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, and neither was your sister, or she might still be alive.”

It felt like a fist to the gut.

“It wasn’t Kelly’s fault.”

“No, not entirely, but she wasn’t exactly the world’s best judge of character or she wouldn’t have hung out with that creep.”

I eyed him, so very tempted to take this a little further, maybe mention that Craig wasn’t the only creep that Kelly hung around. Instead, I tried a different tack. “Did you call the hospital?”

“Yes, I did. They discharged Sylvia this morning.”

“No brain damage?”

“That’s not funny, Gwyn.”

“I didn’t mean it to be.”

“Well no, it appears she’s not … damaged,” he said, a hint of a grin appearing at the corner of his mouth. “She came through it okay. They took x-rays and a CAT-scan and there doesn’t seem to be-”

“So glad to hear it.”

He frowned. “Your buddy, Josh, he’d better hope she doesn’t sue his ass.”

“For what? Oh, come on. She wouldn’t really, would she?”

He shrugged. “You never know with Sylvia.”

“God.”

“Are you ready for this?” Sue asked as she breezed through the door of Caroline’s apartment. In one hand, she held her briefcase and in the other what looked to be an ordinary shopping bag.

“I guess,” I said, nervously swiping my hands across my jeans. I’d arrived a few minutes earlier and unlocked the apartment. Care had left a key for me under the doormat.

Sue looked around. “Thank Caroline for me. This saved me having to find a place. Mmm, I smell coffee.”

“Like a cup?”

“Sure would.” She dropped her bags and followed me into the kitchen.

I took an empty mug from the cabinet. “Care brewed the coffee. She left a plate of oatmeal raisin cookies for us too. Help yourself.”

“So where’s she at?”

“Over at her mom’s. Guess she owed her a visit.”

“Well, we shouldn’t be too long.”

Caroline had offered to vacate her place so Sue and I could have complete privacy with no interruptions. Care knew I’d feel more comfortable here. Once Sue left, Caroline would be back to sop up all the details. That is, if I decided to tell her any. Best friends or not, I might not be ready.

Today, Sue wore an auburn wig with gold highlights, and I wondered if Caroline’s sun-kissed hair had influenced her choice. The two shades were almost identical. Sue’s complexion appeared a milky white and her eyes a bright green, but I wasn’t sure if this was her natural color or just excellent makeup and a new pair of contact lenses. And it was impossible to tell.

I hadn’t yet found the nerve to ask which identity was the real Sue. And I wasn’t sure she’d tell me even if I did. So far, she hadn’t gotten all that chummy. I knew virtually nothing about her personal life.

“Would you like to do this in any particular order?” she asked as we settled onto the couch with our coffee.

“Do this?” I said, finding it difficult to swallow.

She smiled then, sympathetically, I thought. “It’s okay, Gwyn. There’s room for speculation in some of this. It’s not all cut and dried. What I meant was, who would you like to start with first?”

“Oh … well then, Craig. Have you found out anything about him?”

“Yes, I have, and unfortunately it’s both good and bad news. He’s been spotted recently. Here-in Glenwood. That information came from a couple of different sources.”

“He’s here?”

“Yes. So you need to be on the lookout. Also be very careful. Don’t try to do anything on your own if you spot him. Call the cops. Agreed?”

“Of course.”

“What I can’t figure out is why he’s back. Why would he chance coming back here? I don’t think he’s that stupid, certainly not if he’s eluded the police this long.” She stared at me, as if I might know the answer.

I shrugged. “So, what’s the good news?”

“That if he sticks around, we’ll nail him.”

I wanted to tell Sue about my run-in with Craig, but I couldn’t. Sue would be after him, possibly ask me to help set a trap, and if Craig sensed the noose tightening even a little, he’d fly. I’d never find out who killed my sister. Craig was onto something, the initials T.D., the whereabouts of the box. My instincts told me to hold off.

Sue pulled a videotape from the shopping bag.

“And now, your husband.”

She leaned over to pop the video in.

“Sue-wait.”

“What?”

“Well, I want to see … and to hear it all, but before I do, I need to know, right now. Is he screwing Sylvia?”

“Unfortunately, that’s the part that’s not absolutely clear. I can’t prove anything yet.” She leaned toward me. “I thought it might be better to ease you in, let you see what I saw, so you can judge for yourself. I will say that in most of the cases of marital infidelity I’ve looked into, I’d be able to give you a definite yes or no by now. But something has happened. He’s cut off relations with her, if he was having them to begin with. The lunches and a lot of the meetings have stopped. And it looks like it started right after Sylvia’s trip to the hospital, after the snowmobile accident. Right after you hired me.”

“God.”

“Is it possible he knows you’ve hired a private detective?”

“No, how would he?”

“Maybe something you said? As clueless as some men are, others are incredibly good at reading women. Have you talked about Sylvia recently? Any fights in that vein?”

“Yes. I’ve mentioned her several times. And yes, we had a big fight in the car on the way home from Linda’s party. After Sylvia’s accident.”

Sue brought her fingers to her chin and looked thoughtful. “You may have scared him off. Could be he’s decided to cool things with her for a while, thinking you might check up on him. Maybe
they
had a fight. Maybe he’s even called it off for good. Whatever’s the case, if he’s still involved with her, eventually he’ll slip up. I assume you want me to continue surveillance.”

“Yes.”

“Are you ready for the tape now?”

I nodded.

The V.C.R. buzzed as she slipped the tape in. “This first shot is inside your husband’s office-after hours I might add. Everyone else has gone home.”

“What time is it?”

“About seven.”

I watched as Trevor walked across the small reception area toward the front door. Sylvia called to him from outside. “Trevor, open the door.”

He hesitated, then stepped forward. “I’m working, Sylvia. Seriously, I don’t have time for you right now.”

She jiggled the knob. “Open it. It’s not open yet.” Trevor released the lock and she marched in. “Since when do you lock the door on me? I told you I was coming.”

“And I told you not to. Sylvia, I need to get back to work. We can talk later. Okay?”

“No, and stop making excuses. It’s insulting.”

He threw up his arms. “Why do I even talk?”

She flew forward and grasped him in her arms, then laid her head to his chest. “I know you’re still mad at me. I’m sick about it. Please, don’t be. I can’t stand it when you’re cold to me like this. It scares me.”

He carefully removed her and pushed her back. “Sylvia,
go home.
“

“No. And don’t talk to me like that. I can’t take this, Trevor, waiting for you all the time, wondering when you’ll be able to see me. It’s driving me nuts. I need you. You have to leave her.”

“Sylvia, you are so used to getting your own way you don’t know when to quit. Now, I’ve got someone waiting for me to call back. Do you understand?”

“I don’t-”

“I know.
You don’t care
. But that’s because you have me and a truckload of others making sure you don’t have to care.”

“Are you coming by tonight or not?”

He gazed up toward the ceiling. “I’ll do what I can. Now let me work.”

She lifted her face to his.

Trevor, appearing as if he might actually kiss her, instead brought his lips to her forehead.

“Nice,” she spat out, then spun away. “Don’t stand me up. I won’t forget it this time.”

The tape dissolved to white space. Sue reached over and stopped it. She looked at me. “On the positive side, we tracked him and he never showed up at her apartment. She has a place in Glenwood she’s renting, though she’s not there most of the time. Appears to travel a lot on business. We don’t have one shot of your husband showing up there. He didn’t call her back that night either. But they have been meeting for lunch, like I said, at least until recently, sometimes alone, sometimes with another man, Robert Morris. We got that information from restaurant employees who know your husband, and notes on his daily calendar. We have snapshots of the most recent lunch with Sylvia, but none of it proves anything.”

“He didn’t kiss her, not a real kiss.”

“No, he didn’t. But could be he’s in the middle of breaking it off with her. Maybe she’s gotten too weird. Doing a
Fatal Attraction
. He can’t out and out dump her because he does business with her, plus she might go off the deep end and decide to take revenge, tip you off. Lots of women aren’t above doing that-the anonymous caller, note in the mailbox routine.”

I closed my eyes.
You have to leave her. You have to leave her.

“Gwyn?”

“What?”

She shook her head. “Where did you go? Are you okay?”

“I’m … no, I guess I’m not.”

“This stuff is never easy. Do you want to continue?”

“Yes.”

She pulled a large manila envelope from the shopping bag. “I have copies of recent emails between the two of them. Most of that is business related. You can look at them privately if you’d prefer. Also, I have his end of phone calls, the office, the cell, audiotapes and transcripts of everything, but I’ve only included the calls to and from Sylvia. Unfortunately, there’s nothing conclusive there either. You’ll see what I mean.”

“What about Kelly? Is there any chance Trevor was involved with her, that he killed her?”

“I did another background check on your husband, like you asked. It checks out, same as the other one, clean record, no priors. But we also checked the telephone records from his office on the night your sister died, and no calls went out. If he was there, there’s no evidence of it. In a few days, we’ll have the numbers he called from his cell, but I don’t expect to find anything. The cops would have checked that out too. We’re also checking to see if anyone spotted him with her, either that night, or on other occasions, maybe at her place, or the local motels. Some motels run a hidden camera of who goes in and out, in case they get robbed. Of course, your husband may have rented a place, wouldn’t be too difficult. We’re still looking into that.”

I looked down, my heart pounding so hard I was sure she’d hear it.

“To tell you the truth,” she said, “I’m more worried about your sister.”

“Linda? Why?”

“Her husband beats her up.”

“Oh God. I knew it.”

“We found out he’s put her in the hospital at least two other times, other than the time you told me about. Could be he’s the one that was involved with your sister Kelly. Appears he doesn’t mind sleeping around. That doesn’t mean he killed her, of course, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t. I plan to go deeper into his background-with your permission. Try to tie some things together.”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Listen, if it looks like he’s about to hurt her, we could bring in the cops. Stop it. Right there. Haul his ass to jail. It’s up to you. I’ve got someone listening in every minute.”

“Yes,
please
make sure she’s protected. If he knows about the surveillance, then he knows. I don’t care if Linda hates me either. That
scum
.”

“Sure is.” She eyed me. I’d started to shiver. I crossed my arms and held them tight to my body in an effort to stop it.

“Maybe we should take a breather,” she said. “Finish this later.”

“No. Please. Go ahead.”

“Okay, about your friend Josh. Though the police never seriously saw him as a suspect, I do find it odd that he left so soon after your sister’s death. That always raises a red flag in my book. He left the States for two months. We traced him to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he rented office space with attached living quarters. Did he ever mention to you why he was there?”

“No, I never got a chance to talk to him after we broke up. He wouldn’t see me. I’ve only talked to him recently.”

“Well, we’re doing some checking in that direction.” She stopped, reached for her coffee. “Is there anything you’d like to ask me? Maybe something you’d like to tell me? I know all of this has come at you pretty fast.”

“I don’t know. No. Not right now.”

“Well, probably you’ll have questions later.”

“Yes.”

“There’s more to look at on the tapes, but no more declarations from Sylvia toward your husband, just more business talk, and some other stuff that’s open to misinterpretation. Don’t take much stock in it. I also have the tape from inside Linda’s home, of Wolfgang threatening her, and one fight that came close to escalating. I have tapes of the more mundane stuff too, if you’re interested. Each is labeled. Also lots of photos, transcripts of emails, audiotapes. You’ll be busy for a while. I wouldn’t keep any of this at home for obvious reasons, unless you have an incredibly good hiding place. Maybe a safe.”