Person of Interest (A Celeste Eagan Mystery) (3 page)

“Yes.” Anger clogged my throat. He had the coordinating rich-brown-and-mint-green comforter with matching curtains. He even had little throw pillows for accent. I turned to leave the room and gasped. “And he has the matching dresser
and
armoire.” The room looked like it was the page from the catalog.

“Oh, sweets. I’m so sorry.”

“‘We just sleep there,’ he said. ‘Who needs to spend that kind of money on someplace you stay with your eyes closed?’” A scream built. For years I tried to talk him into investing in real furniture rather than the pieced-together cheap crap we’d collected. Once he was gone, I couldn’t afford to upgrade more than a piece every here and there. It would take years before I had the house the way I’d like to. “I can’t believe him.”

“Calm down, sweets.” Levi broke through my self-pity. “What’s that, Paige?” My daughter’s answer was muffled. “Um, Paige says Naomi urged him to buy it.”

“Absolutely freaking figures, doesn’t it? Tell me again why I married him?”

“Stupidity?” Levi chuckled but stopped abruptly. “Focus.”

The police were looking for Colin, and his damn girlfriend, to question them about God knows what to do with Chad’s death and I was pissed about furniture. I ran my hand down the cool wooden dresser. It was beautiful furniture.

“Celeste?”

“I’m here. I need to check his bathroom.” Between my little outburst and the conversation with Levi, if anyone was in the house, they’d surely know I was there, now, too. No point in stealth or being quiet. “Bathroom, empty. Closet, empty. What now?”

“Garage?”

“Good idea.” The carpet muted my steps back through the house. Just for gripe’s sake, I knocked a stack of newspapers off the coffee table and onto the floor. And maybe a magazine or two. “Oops.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. Why would you think I did something? Shame on you.” The garage was off the kitchen, two closets and the laundry room narrowing down the last door being the garage. Colin’s truck sat inside. I walked around the Chevy and saw no sign of the owner. “His truck’s here. Hood’s cool.”

“So he hasn’t driven it in the last few hours. That doesn’t tell us much.”

“I could push the OnStar button and see if they logged his GPS whereabouts.”

“You’d do that?”

I twisted up my mouth in disgust, not that Levi could see me, but the sentiment was just the same. “Like hell. They might tell him
I was here
.” I ran my fingers through my hair and retraced my steps. “I’m at a loss. Him being a no-show for work is weird enough. But it looks like he just fell off the face of the earth.”

It was time to bite the bullet and call his mom. I could have Paige do it. She has a decent relationship with her grandmother. At the very least the woman didn’t loathe her as she does me.

“I’m going to have to call Big Bertha.” Her name was really Babette, but that name was far too genial for the woman who never approved of me. So I hit her son with a car and he fell maddeningly in love with me. Then I divorced him. Was that a reason to hold a steady grudge for nearly fifteen years?

I glanced at Colin’s house phone across the room. Big Bertha was more likely to answer if the caller ID came from his number rather than mine. It was amazing how often she wasn’t at home when I called for Paige.

As I passed the front door headed for the phone, a heavy knock resounded. I sucked in a deep breath and froze in place. “Someone’s at the door. What do I do?”

“Answer it.”

“Yeah, no. I’m not supposed to be here, remember?”

“You have a key. It’s not like you shimmied down the chimney or something.”

The visitor knocked again.

On my tiptoes, I peered out the peephole. “Crap. Stay on the line, Levi.” I dropped my phone to my side and opened the door. “Detective Muldoon. What brings you here?”

Chapter Three

The detective looked down at the notebook in his hand, to the number on the door, the notebook again then at me. “Mrs. Eagan?”

“Hiya. How are you doing?” If it sounded overbright and false to him, he didn’t show it. He never showed much emotion at all.

He removed his sunglasses and hooked them on the front of his white button-down shirt. “What are you doing here? Is Colin here?”

“Nope.” I rocked back on my heels and tilted my head up to look at him. The man was taller than I remembered. Then again pretty much everyone was taller than me. I came up to maybe his chin, if I had my heels on. “Just me.”

“Does he often let you hang out at his house?”

“I, uh...” I bit my lower lip. “I have a key.” Shirtless Justin hung off my forefinger.

Muldoon’s dark eyebrows rose up. “I took you more for a Liam Hemsworth gal.”

I don’t know what shocked me more, that he knew who Justin and Liam were or that he would joke about it. “Funny.” I pasted on a smile. “Were you needing something, Detective?”

“To speak with Colin Eagan.”

“He’s not here.”

He tucked the little notebook in the pocket of his sports coat. “You’ll have to understand if I don’t take your word for it.”

“Come on in and see for yourself.” I stepped aside and let him enter the house. I really wasn’t sure of protocol when you invited a policeman into your ex’s home. Should I offer him coffee—assuming Colin has any in his cupboards—and give him the grand tour? Did I keep my lips sealed and trail behind him just to observe? Play coy and hop from door to door like Bugs Bunny, saying, “No, officer, he isn’t in this closet.” Which I supposed only worked had I truly been hiding someone. Still, I didn’t know what to do.

After much debate, I hung back as Muldoon went from room to room. He finally came back to the living room and shoved his hands on his hips and stared at the mess on the floor.

“I did that.” I shrugged when he turned and looked at me. “Tripped.”

“Tell me where he is.” He took a step toward me.

“You don’t mince words, do you?”

“Not when I’m on duty.”

My throat suddenly dried. “I don’t know.”

He took in a long, deep breath. “You and Cooter.” The frown faded from the corners of his mouth.

“What? Who?” I shook my head.

“Cooter Eagan. That was Colin’s nickname when we were in high school.”

Laughter built. “Why Cooter?”

“He got a lot of...” Muldoon’s frown zipped back and his gaze dropped to his feet.

“Tail? You can say it. The man likes women. Doesn’t hurt my feelings.” At least not anymore. “Some things don’t change, I guess.” Colin’d never overtly cheated on me, but I’d had suspicions once or twice while we were married. Coupled with the number of women that I knew of since the divorce, it was a fitting nickname. “You never did say why you’re here.”

“Cooter, um, Colin, is a person of interest in my investigation.”

That was cop-speak for a suspect that they didn’t have a hold of yet. I watched
Law and Order
and all that. “You can’t possibly think he had something do with Chad’s death.”

“Just a person of interest.”

I crossed my arms and did my best stare-down-while-craning-my-neck-back intimidation stare. Yeah, he looked oh so scared. Still, I was a little emboldened. I had snuck into Colin’s townhome after all. I was, maybe not successfully, staring down a seasoned police detective. I might as well go for broke. I voiced my concerned opinion—as my daughter’s father, the last thing I wanted was for him to be messed up in a suspicious death investigation. “Which essentially means you consider him a suspect.”

“It means we need to speak with him.” He mimicked my pose, turned up the badass cop routine—and was winning. “Why are you here, Mrs. Eagan? Celeste.”

I will not admit what hearing him say my name did to my insides. I had to be three kinds a fool, and too long since a decent date, for him to elicit goose bumps up and down my arms. I tightened my stance to ward off any shivers that might try to break loose.

With the open phone still in my hand, I could hear Levi asking question after question. I’d completely forgotten about him. “I’ll call you back.” I hung up on Levi and dialed Colin’s number. “I need to speak with him, too. About our daughter.”

ESPN’s
Sports Center
theme echoed through the house. “Weird.”

I ended the call and the ditty stopped. I retried Colin’s number and again I heard the light music wafting from the kitchen. As I took a step in the direction of the kitchen, Detective Muldoon grabbed my elbow and held me in place. I’d like to say I didn’t feel the little spark of electricity. I’d also like to say I listened when he said, “I’ll go first.”

But I didn’t.

I pulled my elbow free and race-walked ahead of him. Under an ad for a local sporting-goods store, Colin’s cell phone sat ringing.

Muldoon snatched it up off the counter.

“Hey.” I grabbed for it, but the man was fast. “Give me that.”

He completely ignored me, of course, and pulled out a plastic bag. He dropped the phone into it and tucked it into his pocket.

“Don’t you need a warrant for that?”

“Not when I’m granted access.” He took a deep breath. “You let me in. Remember?”

“I don’t have any right to give you access to this house.”

“You’re inside.”

“But I shouldn’t be. Colin didn’t give
me
permission.” Oops. Only after that slipped out did it strike me what I’d just admitted. “That means the phone is fruit from the poisoned vine or something? You can’t take it.” I grabbed for the edge of the plastic bag sticking out of his pocket but missed as he turned away from me. “Give it back.” I shoved at the detective’s beefy biceps. Too late I realized I’d gone too far. Maybe it was when the frown pulled down those luscious lips—Rachel was right, the man was decidedly hot—or maybe it was when he pinned me up against the wall, frisked and cuffed me.

* * *

“Mrs. Eagan?” A young woman in a dark blue Peytonville police uniform spoke to me through the cell bars.

“Yes?”

Keys jangled as she unlocked the door. “Follow me, please.”

We walked the short hall from the holding cells to a desk. She motioned for me to sit. Who was I to argue? I sat. Folding my hands in my lap, I tried to look as dejected as possible. It wasn’t really a far stretch. I’d never once been handcuffed, fingerprinted and locked away in a jail cell. I was already going stir-crazy. Even if it’d only been about an hour since I was thrown into the pokey.

A couple of minutes later Detective Muldoon entered the room and took the chair across the desk from me. “I still haven’t been able to contact Colin Eagan, so I have no one to press unlawful entry charges against you.”

“I told you I don’t know where—”

His sharp gaze cut off my retort. “I’m going to drop the assault charges I could file against you and let you go with a warning.” He eyed me for a long moment then handed me a little brown bag with my belongings. “If you do hear from your ex, please let me know.” He again handed me his card. “I’ll have an officer drive you back to your car.”

Not trusting what might or might not come out of my mouth, I simply nodded and stood. I’d held myself together pretty well at the police station and then in the squad car back to my car still at Colin’s house. But halfway home, I had to pull off to the side of the road when my hands shook too hard to keep driving. Ten minutes was all I allowed myself, then I sucked it up, took a deep breath and continued home. I’d already called Levi and he’d driven Paige back to the house and promised to have dinner waiting.

“I’m home.” The door separating the garage and kitchen shoved back at me. “What are you—”

“Don’t come in here,” Levi shouted. “Paige got a wee bit hurt.”

My heart beat hard against my ribs. “What’s going on?”

Levi might be a lot of things, but stronger than me where my daughter’s concerned, not even close. I shoved at the door with my shoulder and pushed through. “Paige?”

I stumbled over my feet but righted myself quickly. Paige sat on the butcher block in the middle of the kitchen with Levi rapidly wrapping her hand. A dark red stain blossomed from her palm.

“Oh, Lord have mercy.” I swayed on my feet. I might have failed to mention my extreme aversion to the sight of bloo...

* * *

“Celeste. Sweets. Wake up, hon.”

I tried to shake the woolliness from my head. “Stop slapping me.” My cheek burned. I swatted away my friend’s hands. I was prone and a little uncomfortable. My eyes fluttered open, but didn’t focus on anything in particular.

Levi hooked me under the arms and sat me up. It was none too ladylike, let me tell you. But that was what best friends were for, right? To help you in your most unladylike moments.

“How’d I get on the floor?” I looked from my friend to my daughter and back.

“Mom?” Paige squatted in front of me, her right hand bandaged.

“You called me
Mom
. That’s twice in one day.” I smiled and ran my hand over my precious child’s head. She rolled her eyes and stood.

I zeroed in on her bandage. “What happened, sweet pea?”

“She dropped a glass in the sink and grabbed at it before I could stop her. She’s fine. It wasn’t too deep. Just bled like hell.” Levi grabbed my elbow. “Can you stand on your own?”

“Yes.” Despite my affirmation, he helped me back to my feet. “Sorry, guys.” It had been a long time since the sight of blood undid me, but seeing my child bleed, yeah, there wasn’t enough therapy in the world apparently to help that reaction. “Are you okay, hon, really?”

“I’m fine.” Paige tilted her head back and looked down her nose and through her glasses at me. “I asked you not to get caught.”

“By Daddy. And I didn’t.” I snagged her ear and looked inside.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for the manufacture’s date in here, because I know you can’t possibly be ten years old.”

She giggled. “We made dinner. You hungry?”

“Famished. Doing hard time can take its toll.”

“You were in there for one hour,” Levi said as I set the table.

“That’s an hour longer than you’ve ever been in jail.” We all took our seats and Levi filled our plates with his famous beef stroganoff. My tummy was still a little squooshy after my faint, but hunger outweighed queasy. “I don’t get it. His truck is there. His phone is there. But the man himself is just gone. Poof.”

“Did you check his luggage?” Paige twirled her fork through the noodles.

“He has luggage?”

Paige nodded. “He and Naomi bought a matching set a couple of months ago.”

The little pang of jealousy had no business niggling at me. We were divorced for good reason. If he’d managed to pick up and start over, bully for him. Me, I didn’t want the man back, but I hadn’t made the same leap back into the dating world yet.

“I didn’t even notice it. But I wasn’t really looking for it either.”

“What did the detective find?” Levi picked up his glass of wine and held my gaze over the rim as he took a drink.

I shrugged. “Dunno. He took Colin’s cell phone. And called him a ‘person of interest.’”

Paige’s head shot up. “As in, Colin is somehow responsible for Principal Jones’s death? Puh-leeze. What’s his motivation? He’s got none.”

“Calm down.
We
know your dad didn’t have anything to do with it. But it does look weird with him and Naomi gone. I’m sure he has a logical, not-guilty-at-all reason for missing school and cutting out like he did.”

“You could sweet-talk that detective and see if he might give you some info they haven’t released to the media yet.” Levi waggled his eyebrows.

“And risk further incarceration? Yeah. No, thank you.” I plopped a small cube of beef into my mouth and mulled over the options I had. I still hadn’t called Colin’s mom. And that was all I could think of. “I got nothing.”

We all ate in silence, all lost to our own thoughts. Levi snapped his fingers. “I just remembered. You got two interesting phone calls today.” He held my gaze.

The look—that you’ve-been-holding-out-on-me stare—combined with the prolonged silence didn’t bode well.

“Are you going to tell me who called?” I pushed a noodle around on my plate.

“Annabelle called.”

Annabelle Paulk was the owner of the Peytonville Playhouse. My stalling was quickly coming to an end. She’d called me twice this week already to hire me on as a full-time actor and, as of the last call, she’d sweetened the pot to include a theater co-manager position. A friend of a friend of hers and I were in summer stock together years ago. They’d given me high praise so over the years Annabelle had hired me for minor roles, as much as time would allow with my teaching schedule.

When the co-manager position became available, I was the first person she’d asked.

That meant quitting my teaching position. My comfort zone. I really wanted the job, but it was a scary proposition to give up a career where I’d spent a decade and a half.

Levi knew I was going to take the job, or so he kept saying. But I’d been dragging my heels on actually doing it. I needed to talk to Colin about it, but really what could he say. For me not to take my dream job? He knew I’d been an aspiring actress when I met him. At the time, the jobs weren’t coming so I settled.

It ended up being a good settled as I did enjoy teaching. But it was time to move on to something I loved more.

Levi lowered his voice. “Annabelle said she needs an answer by the fifteenth. She needs to audition someone else if you say no. Which would be a huge waste of your talent, if you ask me.”

“Which I haven’t.” I gathered up the plates from the table and took them to the sink.

“You need to shit or get off the pot. The potential for this—”

“I know. It’s a great opportunity. As you’ve mentioned forty bajillion times.” I took a deep breath. “The other call?”

“Your mother.”

Paige and I rolled our eyes simultaneously. “And?”

“Just wanted to say hi and remind you that you
do
have a mother and her phone is working just fine,
thankyouverymuch
. But you wouldn’t know it since her one and only child never calls. And...” Levi leaned against the kitchen counter as I stored the leftovers in a plastic bowl and shoved it into the fridge.