Person of Interest (A Celeste Eagan Mystery) (9 page)

I snatched up my purse and dug through my wallet until I found his card. He didn’t answer so I left a message.

I’d paced my living room floor twenty-four times—I counted—before Muldoon returned my call. And that was only to hear a brief, “I’m headed to your house. Sit tight.”

It took another four trips across the floor and back before my front bell rang. I let him in and while I didn’t know him all that well, the look on his face was indeed grim.

“What’s going on?” I hugged my arms to myself, trying not to let my wild imagination run rampant. Knowing another coworker was dead, I was more frightened than I had been in a long, long while.

Muldoon settled his hand in the middle of my back and guided me to the sofa. “Sit. We need to talk.”

“Gaw, you’re not going to accuse me of killing Kelsey now, too, are you?” I was being facetious; I didn’t know how or when she’d died. It could have been an accident or natural causes—if a twenty-something could die of natural causes. No reason to jump to all sorts of conclusions. Still, my legs were a little wobbly, so sitting was good. “It feels like every crime committed in the last few days is pointed at me and only me.”

Muldoon sat next to me, his knees snugged up next to mine. “We know you weren’t the one who killed her.”

“So she was murdered? Why? How?”

“I can’t really go into details.” He glanced down at his hands balled in his lap. “Her apartment was ransacked.”

“Like mine?”

He nodded.

What if I had been at home? Or Paige for that matter? Nausea aggravated the back of my throat. “I did notice something missing.”

Muldoon looked up at me with a frown. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m telling you now.”

He rolled his hand at me impatiently. “Well?”

“DVDs. When I’d righted the DVD case and put everything back, it wasn’t quite normal. I didn’t actually realize it until later this morning, but some of them are missing.”

“Which ones?”

“Home movies of Paige when she was little.”

“Were they labeled?”

“What difference does that make?”

“Answer the question.” He was using his cop voice again.

I stiffened my shoulders. “Yes, Detective, they were labeled. Sort of. They were in those plain cases you can see through, and had the years written on them.”

“Is that all? Not titles or names?”

“Just the years. We knew who was on them.” I gave him my best “duh” look. “Paige could have taken them with her to her dad’s.” The look on the detective’s face said otherwise. I slipped my cell from my pocket and lickety-split texted Colin and asked him to check with our daughter.

My brain went into overdrive. Why was Muldoon asking these questions? “What do my missing DVDs have to do with any of this?”

My cell vibrated. “Paige doesn’t have them.”

Muldoon nodded. “We found some DVDs at Kelsey’s apartment.”

“What was on them?”

He gave me a long look. “I can’t share that information.”

I scoffed and stood. “You won’t tell me this. You can’t tell me that. I am in this one way or another.”

His cell rang. He tucked it next to his ear, listened for a minute and answered, “Got it.” Then he pocketed it. “I have to go.” He got up and walked to the door. “Don’t know if I told you, Colin alibied out.”

“Yeah. You mentioned it this afternoon when you were tailing me.” Yes, I sounded a little testy. I had every right to be pissed. Some weird shit was going on, with my ass mixed up in the middle of it all. I had no clue how to protect myself. I didn’t know who or what I was protecting myself from. So I slammed the door on the detective as he walked out.

What, like he can arrest me for a noise violation or something? Let him try.

* * *

I went through every inch of the house again, hoping to find something else missing that would make sense. Why would someone, anyone, steal home movies? There was nothing special on them—well, to me they were, they were Paige.

Nothing made sense. And I had to make it make sense. I needed to grab last year’s yearbook. All the main characters were in the yearbook—well, those I knew of. I mean really there could be a world of people involved who I didn’t know, but if I thought about that, my head would explode. Now if I could only remember where I’d stashed it.

I dug through my closet and came up empty-handed. Then I ransacked the spare—formerly known as Colin’s—closet. I didn’t find last year’s yearbook but I did find a box of Colin’s from his high school days.

Out of curiosity, I grabbed his senior year from the pile and found the graduating class of 1996. I spotted my ex without even looking at the names. He’d beefed up some over the years but for the most part he still looked the part that his caption read:
Colin Eagan, football captain, most athletic, most handsome and most likely to cause a wedgie
.

“Some things don’t change.”

The senior class wasn’t very large, just over two hundred students. My senior class was closer to eight hundred—so easy to get lost in the crowd when you wanted to. I found the
M
s. There he was. Shaw Muldoon. Even at eighteen he had a presence about him. Strong. Brave. And no-nonsense. The caption under his picture read simply:
Valedictorian
.

A little shiver ran down my spine. “Sexy and smart.”

And so not the point.

The K-12 annual sat heavy in my lap when I remembered that Chad Jones started his teaching career at Peytonville Prep. He’d been there for a few years, moved around some, then came back to the school eight years earlier to take over as the principal. But I couldn’t remember when he started. I flipped to the back to the index to see if there were any pages with him. No Chad Jones. But another name—or rather six—caught my attention. Six Muldoons. I paged back and forth through the listed entries.

Looked like Detective Muldoon had a pretty large family—there was no mistaking the resemblance from one Muldoon to the other. All blue-eyed and raven-headed. He and his brother Finn, according to the class dates, were ten years apart and bookended four sisters: Regan, Darcy, Claire and Alana. From Shaw to Finn, the Muldoons aged backward by two years, the youngest, Finn, at eight years old with his gapped-tooth grin.

“Wow, four sisters and a brother.” I couldn’t imagine. I was an only child with only one cousin and it looked like Paige would be an only child—not that I dwelled on that fact, most days. Colin was also an only child. He had lots of cousins but it wasn’t the same thing.

All very interesting, but none of it pertinent to getting my ass out of the sling.

I set the book back among the others and shoved the box back into place. A little more digging in the closet netted no current books. Next, I went into Paige’s room. A pang of loneliness knocked though me again. She’d only been at her dad’s for a day and I missed the heck out of her.

Paige had to have looked through the book. Where would it be? I stood with my hands on my hips and scanned the room. If I were a ten-year-old, where would I put a school yearbook? I dropped to the floor and lifted the bedskirt. She might be a precocious child but tidy? Well, she’d gotten that—or lack thereof—from yours truly. One shoe, several dolls, a stash of books—she’d gotten into my romance novels again—and several articles of clothing cluttered under the bed. I pawed through it all until I hit pay dirt. Last year’s yearbook.

It wasn’t hard to figure out why she’d hidden it. A flower was pressed between the pages of the sixth grade class. A bright pink heart circled one Caleb Capps’s picture.

“Ah yes, the crush.”

While my little, sweet child was only ten, being in the seventh grade put her in the midst of much older kids. Boys specifically. I would be a little more worried if the boys were the least bit interested, but they barely liked the girls in their own grade—having the junior high and high school kids all together, most of the newly turned teens drooled over the almost-out-of-school girls. A Mensa candidate ten-year-old two grades ahead of her own peers wasn’t even on their radar. But that was an issue for another day...

Carefully, I thumbed through the book and went to my office. I pulled a notepad out from my desk and took both to the kitchen. I sat at the table with a pint of ice cream at my elbow. A spoon in one hand, my favorite purple felt-tip pen in the other, and the faculty section of the yearbook open in front of me, I let my brain kick in to sleuth mode. What were the connections?

What did I know? I took notes as I thought things through.

Chad Jones was murdered. But staged to look like suicide.

His office was broken into. At last mention, the police didn’t know what if anything was taken.

My home was broken into. First glance, nothing missing. Further searching, DVDs were gone.

Kelsey was murdered. DVDs found at her home.

Muldoon never said what was on the DVDs or what they had to do with mine. Hell, he didn’t even mention if they were mine. But with the questions he was asking they couldn’t be mine or he’d know what they looked like and what was written on them. Nor had he said how any of it tied into Chad’s murder.

Was I jumping to way too many conclusions here?

I scooped up a spoonful of frozen yummy and shoved the spoon in my mouth. Chad didn’t have a TV much less a DVD player in his office. The police had confiscated his laptop. That much I did learn from Coz when he’d finally called that morning. Apparently the police found an email Chad had started to send out to a couple of subs the school frequently used.

And I was involved all because of the email
I’d
sent on Naomi’s behalf. I shook my head. No good deed goes unpunished.

I pulled the spoon from my mouth, held it aloft. “May God strike me down if I ever lift a finger to help that woman again!”

“A little on the dramatic side, don’t you think?”

“Mother fu—” I leaped off the chair and almost three feet in the air. “Levi, what the hell is wrong with you, sneaking up on me like that?”

The man didn’t even have the decency to look the least bit sorry for scaring the ever-loving hell out of me.

“I knocked. Three times.” He took the spoon from me, dipped it into my ice cream and had the pint finished in a few bites. “My favorite, thanks.” He handed me the empty container and spoon.

I looked inside. Not even a single chunk of chocolate left. “Glad I could oblige.”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatchya working on?”

“Trying to figure out what’s going on. I made a list of what we know.” I passed him the notepad and tossed out the empty pint.

“Don’t forget your run-in with the two peeps up at the school,” he said when I returned.

“One of whom turns up dead.”

Levi’s eyes widened. He hadn’t heard the news so I told him what I knew.

I sat back down. “I’m not sure if I should be mad or scared.”

“The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” He leaned his hip against the table. “I’d be mad as hell if someone kept blaming me for crimes I didn’t commit. I’d be scared I couldn’t get out from under it. And scared that whatever caught up to your boss and Kelsey might catch me unawares.”

“Great, thanks. You always know just how to cheer me up, don’t ya?” I gave him a quick, wan smile.

“I’m just saying.” He tapped the pen onto the notepad. “Chad’s enemies?”

“I’ve no clue.” I shrugged.

“Ex-employees? Anyone holding a grudge?”

“No grudges that I know of.” I leaned my head back to look at the ceiling while I thought. “Mrs. Farris. But she retired. She was close to eighty.” Who else? I gnawed on my lip. “Bobbie Jacoby. She didn’t renew her contract at the end of last year.” I named off two other teachers who’d quit abruptly, which was weird. “Jerry Pullman.” I sat up straight. “He was fired.”

“Really. For?”

“Dunno.” I shrugged. “They just said he was ‘let go.’”

“The vaguest of the vague. Which helps us not.” He gave me a sideways glance. “So what do we do next?”

“We?”

“Yeah, duh. Have I not been outstandingly helpful up to this point?”

“I landed in jail.”

His eyebrows rose. “I didn’t tell you to run a light.”

“Twice.”

“Mere formalities.” He studied his nails. “None of which can be tied directly to me.”

I rolled my eyes. “That doesn’t make you any less culpable.”

Levi waved away my comment. “Anyhoo...what’s our next move?”

I sighed. That was the thing about best friends, they might egg you on to do stupid things—that wind your ass up in jail—but the really best friends will be right beside you planning the next adventure.

“Next move? Find something appropriate to wear to a funeral.”

Chapter Eight

“Which one is the widow?” Levi peered over the rim of his dark glasses then shoved them back up on his nose as he stood beside my car door.

I ran my hands down my black suit skirt when I got out of the car, then slid my arms into the three-quarter-sleeve jacket to cover my pale pink camisole. The cool morning air swept around us and lightly rustled the small copse of trees that lined the cemetery. I looked for police presence, seemed like I couldn’t go ten minutes outside without seeing a police officer or two lurking about. If they were at the funeral, though, I didn’t see them.

“Technically she’s not a widow but his ex-wife.” I scanned the small crowd. Fewer than half the staff were present at the cemetery, along with a handful of people I’d never seen before. Of the people I did know, most were looking at me and talking behind their hands—like our students do.

“What’s up with all the little looks and sniggles under their breaths?” Levi leaned in close, voicing my thoughts.

“Not a clue.” I tucked my clutch under my arm. It was getting to the point of unnerving, being the center of attention at someone else’s funeral, but I spotted Julia Jones and pushed aside all other thoughts. She wore a black sheath dress with some feathered neckline and looked appropriately solemn. The matching hat... It was a little over the top for a funeral. But who was I to judge? “There’s the ex. Black dress, dead bird on her head.”

“Is that what it is? I thought maybe her dress threw up.”

I guess there was a fine line between paying respect for the dead and sending off your ex-spouse with a proper
see you in hell
. Again, not my place to judge.

“Come on.” I tugged Levi’s sleeve and dragged him behind me.

“Julia.”

She turned toward me. An instant frown pulled down her mouth. A feather shook loose and fluttered between us to the ground. She didn’t so much as glance at it, just kept her haughty gaze pinned to mine. “Celeste.”

Her usual tanned complexion was waxy and a little too made up for morning. Her dark eyes showed no hint of tears or sadness, just resignation. A plucked-too-thin brown eyebrow arched up expectantly.

“I am so sorry for your loss.” I patted her arm, but she shied away from me so fast she almost tripped over her own feet. “Is something wrong?”

“It’s bad enough Chad is gone, but for you to be here...” She shook her head, and a few more feathers came loose. She then whispered to the woman next to her and left me standing with my mouth gaping open in confusion, looking like
I
was molting.

“What in the hell was that all about?”

I slammed my mouth shut and shrugged. Sure, I found the body and was questioned by the police, but she couldn’t possibly think I had anything to do with Chad’s death. Hell, how would she even know about the interviews? It was too ludicrous to consider that she saw me as a murderer. “Some days I think everyone around me has lost their ever-loving minds.”

“Present company excluded, of course.”

I waved at Levi. “Sure, whatever. Oh, there’s Colin and
her
.” I headed in their direction at a pretty good clip. “Hey. Where’s Paige?”

Naomi looked down her long pointy nose at me. She wore a tan wrap dress that matched her caramel highlights perfectly. She’d have been breathtaking if her five-inch heels weren’t sinking into the ground, making her wobble like a child playing dress-up. “This is hardly the place for a child,” she said as she tried to gracefully right herself.

I sighed and turned my attention to Colin. “I didn’t expect you to bring her here. But I am curious as to where
my
daughter is.”

Colin swallowed heavily. “At my mom’s.”

Should have known. There were plenty of Eagans who would jump at the chance to watch Paige for an afternoon. Colin would, of course, have to take her to the one Eagan who couldn’t stand me—the woman threw a party the day our divorce was finalized. I received a “you’re not invited, but...” announcement. What a peach.

Naomi nudged Colin in the ribs. Some not-so-subtle power struggle was going on.

I didn’t care, didn’t want to know. “Levi, let’s—”

“Um, Celeste?” Colin snagged a hold of my elbow. I waved Levi off as he stepped forward ready to drop-kick my ex if need be. “We need to talk.”

Uh-oh. The four most dreaded words every woman fears. But we were long since divorced. They had zero power over me anymore.

Colin walked the two of us off to the side, away from several staff members who were trying to look like they were not eavesdropping.

“Under the circumstances, Naomi and I...” Colin swallowed hard again. “Um, I think that it’s best if Paige stays with me for a little while.”

Oh, how wrong I was. The result of those four little words could tear a hole right through me in an instant. I fisted my hands at my sides. “I beg your damn pardon?”

Colin ran his hands though his hair, then settled his hands on his hips. “Look. We both want what’s best for Paige, right? With your house being broken into—”

I’d had to tell Colin what happened. After my cryptic email about the DVDs he’d been too curious to blow off.

“—and in light of all the allegations going on, I think keeping her with me for a little while is best.” He glanced down at his feet and back up at me. “I don’t want to be a dick about it, but if you force my hand, I am prepared to play hardball.”

I opened my mouth, shut it. Opened it again, but was at a complete loss as to what I wanted to say. Or do.

My first instinct was to punch Colin. How dare he threaten me with my child? But deep down a little niggle said that he was right. When it came down to it, Paige’s well-being far superseded anything and everything. “Okay.”

“I’m not trying to be... What? Okay? Just like that?”

“Give me some credit, Colin. Did you expect me to make a scene and tell you no?” I held in a sigh.

He shifted from one foot to the other and looked past me quickly before squaring his gaze back on mine.

“You did.” I glanced back over my shoulder to Naomi. Through gritted teeth, I said, “Paige comes first. Nothing else matters. I will always do what’s best for my child. And protect her.”

He tucked his hands in his pockets. “I knew that. I mean know that. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry this has happened.”

The minister called everyone over to begin the graveside service. With the tension in my shoulders threatening to strangle me, I decide it was time to hit the road. I was afraid I might just upchuck my morning lattes right then and there and frankly I wasn’t looking to give people anything else to talk about.

“Can I call her?”

“Of course you can. And stop by whenever you want.”

Naomi made some strange, choking sound at his offer.

“I’ll pack a few extra things for her and bring them by later tonight.” It took all my will to hold the tears at bay.

“That would be great. Thanks.” Colin patted my arm and turned back to Naomi. She waylaid him with all the reasons why that was a bad idea. Colin glanced back over his shoulder. “Seven thirty okay?”

Glad to know his balls were still firmly intact and hadn’t been forfeited to his new girl, I pasted on a weak smile. “See you then.”

I motioned for Levi to follow me and headed back to the parking lot.

“Funeral’s that way, sweets.”

There didn’t seem to be enough oxygen getting to my lungs. I took in a heavy breath. “Paying my respects has lost any appeal.”

“What happened with Colin? You turned about four shades of green.”

“You weren’t eavesdropping?”

He shrugged and waved his cell at me before tucking it in his suit jacket pocket. “I tried but I got a call on a prospective property.”

That’s the man I knew and adored. The only thing that would keep him from putting his nose in someone else’s business was making money.

He skipped along beside me, his breath huffing a little as he tried to keep pace. “Are you gonna tell me what happened? Or do I have to go over there and ask Colin?” He shuddered dramatically.

I sighed and slowed to a brisk my-life-is-so-screwed-up gait. “He’s going to keep Paige with him for a little longer.”

Levi frowned. “How much longer?”

“At the moment?” I stopped at my car, sat on the bumper, took several deep breaths and adjusted the heel strap of my shoe. “Indefinitely.”

Levi’s mouth worked open and shut. Little more than squeaks came out.

“Yeah, pretty much my first reaction, too.”

“He can’t do this.”

“He can and is.” And I wasn’t planning to fight him on it. There were too many variables still unknown in Chad’s case. And I had inadvertently—well, not really inadvertently since I was potentially being accused of his death—thrust myself into the investigation, as Muldoon reminded me at every turn.

He’d gone so far as to stalk me to see if I’d stay out of it all. My mind flashed to Annabelle. I needed to remember to call her and see how her date went. It had been so long since I’d got the first-date jitters I couldn’t even remember. It was easier to focus on her life rather than mine; hers seemed so much more manageable, if totally un-relatable.

I’d put off dating for so long since the divorce. Work and Paige took up most of my time. Work had gone to shit and Paige was with her dad, leaving me more alone than I had been in years. I could admit to myself, but not quite yet to Levi, that I seriously needed to rethink my no-dating policy.

Muldoon’s face popped forward. While the idea of him was very appealing, he was too dedicated to his job. I sighed and pushed it all from my mind. It was time to get back home and go over my notes again. I had nothing better to do between the funeral and school on Tuesday.

I reached for my purse to get my keys and knocked it loose from under my arm. It fell to the ground at my feet. With a heavy sigh, I bent to retrieve it. “I know you don’t want to hear this but I have to say I...” As my fingers seized the small black clutch, a little red blinking light under the car caught my attention. “Shit.”

“You shit? Metaphorically, right?” He took a step back.

I was frozen, could not get my brain synapses to fire. The breath stalled in my lungs and dizziness swept over me.

“Celeste, sweets. Are you okay?”

Not really. Not with a bomb strapped to the undercarriage of my car. I didn’t want to move. Weren’t bombs triggered by movement? Or was it ignitions? A scene from a movie popped into my head. A police detective was sitting on his toilet and found a bomb. If he moved...kablooey. Yeah, I wasn’t about to move. Without so much as twitching, I swiveled my head to the side to look up at him. “Phone?”

Levi frowned and stepped back another length. He pulled his cell from his pocket and waggled it at me. “Why?”

“Under my car.”

“What’s under your car? Sweets, you’re acting stranger than usual.” Levi bent and looked at what had captivated me so. His eyes grew larger and round. “Dialing 911.”

He chatted away with a police dispatcher, flailing his arms wildly as he explained the situation. “B.O.M.B. Under her car.” He paused and rolled his eyes heavenward. “I don’t know what kind. I’ve never seen one before.” He raked his hand over his face and dropped to the ground beside me. “I don’t know. It’s a little black box. Red blinking light. There’s a couple of wires and duct tape.” He nodded several times. “Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. A little green bubble-looking tube. Are you sure?” Levi’s voice creaked. “Sweets, whatever you do, do not move. Do you hear me?”

“Yes.” I tried to keep the hysteria out of my voice. I wanted to jump up and run as far away as I could. Out of the parking lot. Out of Peytonville—hell, out of Texas. My back was starting to cramp and my thighs were on fire. My body was not meant to stay half bent over for so long. Worse still, my nose was all atingle. I released my purse and rubbed at my nose, but the tingle built to a tickle. “Oh, sneeze.”

Levi shot to his feet. “You can
not
sneeze.”

Sirens echoed in the parking lot.

I squeezed my nose shut. Could not, would not sneeze.

“Sit tight, sweets, they’re coming.”

“Like I have a choice.” It came out all nasally and whiney. I hated that.

“Don’t bite my head off. I didn’t put that contraption under your car.” Levi’s pissiness pulled my attitude up short.

“I know. Sorry.”

I had no concept of time as all sorts of commotion surrounded me. At that moment, I was thankful I was bent in half and not able to see all the gawkers wondering what’s what. Levi moved farther away, replaced by someone resembling the Pillsbury Doughboy, but with my limited sightline, the entire town of Peytonville could be staring down my neck and I wouldn’t know. The Doughboy moved closer and held a long pole with a mirror on the end.

It eased under the rear of the car. I caught a glimpse of my reflection. Hanging upside down was not my friend. My cheeks were puffed up under my eyes. My chin morphed into jowls. And I could practically see my puny brain up my nose. Luckily, no one else could see me.

A pair of rubber-soled dress shoes eased into my line of sight. “Celeste?”

I was
not
hearing my name called by Detective Muldoon. I couldn’t be.

I closed my eyes and counted to ten. “Nope. Still there,” I said when I opened them again and saw the same pair of dark Rockports just on the edge of my periphery. I tilted my head ever so slightly. “Hi, Detective. How’s your day been? Mine? Just freaking peachy.”

“Detective, you need to get back,” someone called from the other side of the car.

Muldoon did not, however, listen and came up to the end of the car. He squatted next to me. His knee crackled slightly. “I heard the call over the radio. A potential bomb at the Jones funeral. I thought to myself, what are the chances it’s Celeste? But no. There’s no way she could get tangled up with a bomb at a funeral.” Humor and a wee bit of fear laced his words.

“I strive to be a challenge a minute.”

“And you have succeeded brilliantly.” He let out a deep breath. “Are you okay?”

Tears welled up in my eyes. “Not really.” I sniffed—my sinuses felt like they were going to explode. “How bad is it?”