Wedding Cake Killer (18 page)

Chapter 28

J
an stood
up, and so did Phyllis. “Pete, take it easy,” Jan said. “We were just talking—”

“No, you weren’t,” he said. “She was asking you all sorts of questions, wasn’t she? Just like the other day when they came out here snooping!”

“We just came out here that day to get Eve’s things—,” Phyllis began.

Pete took a step toward her. “And you took advantage of me not being here to meddle in things that are none of your business. The men from the sheriff’s department warned us not to talk to anybody about what happened, but my wife just can’t keep her big mouth shut!”

“Pete!” Jan said. “Stop it!”

“No, I won’t. This old woman’s just trying to play detective and get us in trouble. She’ll do anything to help her friend, even if it means blaming somebody else for that murder, somebody who didn’t have anything to do with it!”

Sam had followed Pete into the kitchen. He put a hand on Pete’s shoulder and said, “Hey, amigo, you’d better settle down there—”

Pete jerked away from him and turned quickly, and for a second Phyllis thought he was going to throw a punch at Sam. From the way Sam tensed and got ready to meet the attack, he thought the same thing.

But Pete kept his clenched fists at his sides and went on, “And you, trying to act like my friend! Helping me out by taking a look at my well, when all you really wanted to do was get me out of here so this old biddy could ask her meddling questions!”

“Pete, that’s enough!” Jan said. “I won’t have you talking to our guests that way.”

“They’re not guests,” he said. “They’re detectives! Or at least in their deluded minds they think they are.”

“Sam, I think we should go,” Phyllis said.

Pete sneered at her. “I think you should go, too. In fact, get the hell out of here!”

“By God, mister—,” Sam said. He moved toward Pete, and now he was the one who looked like he was going to start swinging.

Phyllis stepped quickly around Pete to intercept Sam. She grasped his arm and said, “Let’s go.”

She steered him around Pete, who stood there with his feet planted and an angry glare on his face. Jan stood by looking embarrassed and upset. She wasn’t wringing her hands, but she might as well have been.

She started to follow Phyllis and Sam toward the front of the house as she said, “I’m so sorry about this—”

Pete grabbed her arm and jerked her to a halt, startling a little cry from her. “Just let them go,” he said. “You’ve done enough damage already.”

Sam opened the door and let them out. Phyllis glanced back over her shoulder and saw Jan’s stricken face staring after them. Then Pete stomped up and slammed the door behind them.

They didn’t say anything until they were back in the pickup. Then Phyllis said, “Well, he’s certainly not as nice a man as I thought he was the first time I met him.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell about folks from the first impression they make,” Sam said. “I think it’s safe to say, though, that ol’ Pete’s the sort who flies off the handle pretty easy.”

“You think he could lose his temper enough to stab somebody with a letter opener?”

“I wouldn’t rule it out,” Sam said as he sent the pickup back along the driveway toward the county road.

“The problem is that Jan claimed he didn’t know Roy made that pass at her.”

“Maybe he knew and she just didn’t know it.”

Phyllis nodded. “I thought about that. It’s certainly possible. Not to change the subject, but Ingrid Pitt is gone.”

“Yeah. If she came here to kill Roy, there was no reason for her to stay, was there?”

“But she didn’t want to leave right after the murder because she was afraid that might make her look guilty. Assuming, of course, that she is guilty, which we don’t know at all.”

“We don’t know she’s not,” Sam said. “If she did kill him, I think she missed a bet. She could’ve left right away, and I don’t reckon anybody would have ever thought anything about it. After all, who wants to stay in a house where a murder’s been committed?”

Phyllis nodded. “You’re right. No one would have been suspicious of that.” She paused. “I wonder if Tess has come up with anything on those other three women.”

“Roy’s previous victims, you mean?”

“That’s right.”

“You can call her and ask her.”

“I will, later,” Phyllis said. “If I haven’t heard from her by then.”

Eve and Carolyn were still gone when they got back to the house, so Sam went out to the garage to do some work while Phyllis got on the computer and searched for any record of Pete Delaney being in trouble for losing his temper in the past. Bar fights, assaults, anything along those lines.

There was nothing, of course. She had searched for such things before, with no luck. Pete might be the type to lose his temper easily, but evidently he had kept it under control enough that he’d never landed in the newspapers because of it.

If things were different, she thought, she could ask Mike to check and find out if Pete had ever been arrested. Under the current circumstances, that wasn’t going to happen.

Tess Coburn called a little before noon. “I’ve spoken to Becky Tuttle, Samantha Hogan, and Mary McLaren,” she said. “All three of them claim they haven’t been anywhere near Texas.”

“Can they prove that?” Phyllis asked.

Tess hesitated, then said, “I’m not really in a position where I can ask them for alibis, Phyllis. They were clients, and now the job is over, and they don’t even have to talk to me if they don’t want to.”

“I know that. But I thought maybe you’d be able to work around to the subject . . .”

Tess laughed and said, “Give me a little credit. That’s exactly what I did. Becky and Samantha talked about the things they’d been doing with their families, so I think we can be pretty sure they weren’t flying down here to murder Roy Porter. The things they told me would be too easy to check. It’s a little more difficult with Mary, since she’s not married and lives alone. I just had to take her word for it.”

“Did any of them seem suspicious that you were calling?” Phyllis asked. “Like you said, they’re not really your clients anymore . . .”

“No, they’re not, but we became friends, too, while I was working for them. It’s hard not to form some sort of bond when these women are telling you everything they went through because of that man, all the emotional turmoil.”

Phyllis heard Tess pause and take a deep breath.

“You know, one of my clients was actually the daughter of one of Roy’s marks. The victim herself couldn’t hire me because she was dead. She’d been a widow for a number of years when she met Roy. According to her daughter, it wasn’t really the money he stole from her that was so devastating; it was the broken heart. The poor woman thought she’d never fall in love again, and then she did, and it all turned out to be a lie. She took a bottle of sleeping pills and killed herself.” Tess sighed. “If you ask me, that’s almost the same thing as murder right there. Roy Porter killed that poor woman, just as surely as if he’d poured those pills down her throat.”

“I agree,” Phyllis said, shaken a little by what Tess had just told her. But shaken or not, her brain was still working. “What about the daughter?”

“What?”

“The daughter of the woman who killed herself. Is it possible
she
could have wanted revenge on Roy?”

“Well, sure. Wouldn’t you? But it’s a long way from, say, wishing somebody would drop dead to actually making it happen. The other problem with considering her a suspect is that I never told her where Roy was.”

“Oh.” Phyllis tried not to feel too deflated. For a moment there, she’d thought they might be on the trail of another lead. It was looking more and more like they weren’t going to be able to find the real killer. They had plenty of theories but absolutely no proof. The only real evidence was still the murder weapon itself, and that pointed only to Eve.

“Don’t get too discouraged,” Tess said. “We still have several suspects, and I’m not through digging. I’m just sorry this isn’t going fast enough to keep Eve from having to go through the arraignment.”

“You’re doing your best,” Phyllis said. “I know that. And at least we have something for Juliette to work with during the trial, if it comes down to that.”

With a note of heartiness in her voice, Tess said, “We won’t let it come to that. Hey, we’re like Miss Marple and Kinsey Millhone. We’ll find the truth.”

“I hope you’re right,” Phyllis said.

After she was off the phone with Tess, she started making tuna sandwiches for lunch. Since she didn’t know exactly when Carolyn and Eve would be back, those would be good to put in the refrigerator so there would be something for them to eat whenever they got there.

Sam came into the kitchen from the garage. “I heard the phone ring a while ago,” he said. “Good news?”

“Not really. It was Tess, all right, but she didn’t have anything to report except that we can probably cross off two of those other women from our list of suspects.”

“What about the third one?”

“She claims not to have been down here in Texas, but she’s not married and she lives alone, so Tess was less inclined to accept what she said at face value. It would have been easier for her to lie.”

“So we’re left with Eve, Ingrid Pitt, and the Delaneys as viable suspects?”

Phyllis nodded. “That’s the way it seems to me.”

“Well, maybe that’ll be enough for an acquittal.”

“I don’t
want
an acquittal,” Phyllis said.

Sam nodded. “I know. You want Eve’s name cleared, once and for all. But this may be one case where we have to take what we can get, and havin’ her not be in prison is a whole heck of a lot better than the alternative.”

“She might not go to prison even if she was convicted,” Phyllis said. “When you consider her age and the fact that Roy was planning to swindle her, a jury might easily decide to give her probation . . .”

Phyllis’s voice trailed off as she realized what she was saying. She shouldn’t even be considering the possibility that Eve would be found guilty, she told herself, let alone trying to figure out what a jury might do when it came time for passing sentence.

But Sam was right. It might come to that. And if it did, they would just have to hope for the best.

Right now, though, Phyllis felt as helpless as she ever had in her life.

And she didn’t like that feeling. Not one bit.

Chapter 29

T
he rest of the day passed quietly on Saturday. Carolyn and Eve came back to the house in the early afternoon after their shopping trip. Eve had quite a few bags with her, while Carolyn didn’t have any. That wasn’t unusual. Eve had always been the most extravagant shopper among them. Phyllis supposed that was natural enough, since Eve had all those millions in the bank that none of them had known about. Right now, though, Phyllis considered it a good sign that Eve felt like going out and spending money again.

Sunday was equally uneventful. The only thing that really changed was that the wind turned around to the south and the cold snap broke. The temperature warmed well above freezing, and the forecast predicted that Monday would be even nicer . . . at least where the weather was concerned.

Phyllis didn’t think there was anything nice about Eve having to go to court.

Juliette called that evening to remind them to be at the courthouse at eight thirty the next morning, as if they would forget anything that important, Phyllis thought. Maybe after the arraignment she could sit down with the lawyer and fill her in on everything that she and Tess had found out. Juliette needed the information about the other possible suspects in order to start formulating a defense for Eve.

* * *

Even though the weather had improved, there was still a chilly wind blowing as the four of them climbed the courthouse steps the next morning shortly before eight thirty. Juliette was waiting for them just inside the lobby, looking as trim and efficient as ever.

“Let’s sit down,” she said as she nodded toward a couple of benches along one wall. “I’ll go over everything that’s going to happen this morning.”

Eve sat next to Juliette, with Carolyn on her other side. Phyllis and Sam took the other bench, which was close enough for them to hear everything Juliette said.

“There are a number of cases being arraigned this morning, but yours should be one of the first. It wouldn’t surprise me if Sullivan managed to get it first in line. He won’t want the press sitting around getting bored with the tedium of going through other cases. And trust me, it
is
tedious.”

Carolyn said, “I still don’t understand how the man thinks that persecuting someone like Eve will help him get reelected.”

“A murder conviction is a murder conviction, no matter who the defendant is,” Juliette said. “And by next November, a lot of the voters won’t remember the details of the case. They’ll just remember that Sullivan won. That’s what he’s counting on, anyway.”

It would certainly be nice to mess up those plans of District Attorney Sullivan’s, Phyllis thought.

“The proceedings this morning shouldn’t take long,” Juliette went on. “The clerk will read the charge, and the judge will ask how you plead.”

“Not guilty, of course,” Eve said.

Juliette nodded. “That’s right. The clerk will enter your plea, and the judge will bind the case over for a grand jury hearing next month. Sullivan will want to get to this one as soon as he can.” She paused. “There’s one more thing. It’s possible he’ll ask the judge to revoke bail. I think the odds of him doing that are small, and even if he does, the odds of the judge granting the request are even smaller. But I don’t want you to be surprised if it does happen.”

“I haven’t gone on the lam so far,” Eve said. “I don’t think I’m likely to now.”

Juliette smiled. “If it comes up, I may ask you to repeat that for the judge.”

“Will it be the same one who did the bail hearing?”

“No, we’ll be in Judge Schumacher’s court this morning. She can be pretty tough, but she follows the law.”

“She?” Carolyn said.

“Don’t think that’ll make any difference in how she rules,” Juliette warned.

“But being a woman, she might understand what sort of man Roy really was,” Carolyn persisted.

Juliette shook her head. “I wouldn’t even play the gender card. Trust me on this.”

“I do, dear,” Eve said. “My fate is in your hands.”

“No pressure there,” Sam said.

“It’s going to be all right,” Juliette said. “We’ll just take everything one step at a time.”

It was close enough now to nine o’clock to go upstairs. They took the elevator to the second floor this time, and Juliette led them down the hall to the courtroom. The corridor was fairly crowded. For the most part, it was easy to separate the lawyers in their conservative suits from the more casually dressed defendants they were there to represent.

There were also several reporters on hand. When they started toward Eve, Juliette shook her head, held up a hand, and said, “No comment.” She ushered Eve past them through the doors of the courtroom.

When they went inside, Phyllis saw that Timothy Sullivan was already at the prosecution table with one of his assistants. There was no way he was going to let an underling handle any of this case, she thought. That was an indication that Eve’s case would be the first on the docket.

Phyllis would have been willing to bet that Sullivan hadn’t told the reporters, “No comment,” when they asked him about the case.

Phyllis, Sam, and Carolyn took seats in the second row of spectator benches while Eve and Juliette went to the defense table. Juliette gave Sullivan a polite smile and a perfunctory nod. He returned the nod but not the smile. Eve didn’t look at him.

Phyllis expected Judge Schumacher to be a few minutes late, as Judge Hemmerson had been at the bail hearing. However, when the clock on the wall indicated that it was exactly nine o’clock, a door at the side of the room opened and the clerk came in, followed by the bailiff. The bailiff looked back over his shoulder as if checking to make sure he should go ahead, then told those in the courtroom, “All rise.”

The judge was a middle-aged woman with graying blond hair. When she had taken her seat behind the bench, the bailiff told everyone else to be seated, too. When the hubbub from that had quieted down, Judge Schumacher said, “Good morning. The clerk will read the first case.”

From her desk, the clerk gave a case number, then said, “The State of Texas versus Eve Porter.”

“Is Eve Porter here?” the judge asked . . . even though she probably knew good and well who Eve was and could see her there at the defense table a dozen feet away, Phyllis thought.

Eve and Juliette both stood up. “Juliette Yorke representing Mrs. Porter, Your Honor.”

Judge Schumacher nodded to the clerk and said, “Read the charge.”

The clerk said, “In the matter of the State of Texas versus Eve Porter, the defendant is charged with murder in the second degree, a felony.”

“How do you plead to this charge, Mrs. Porter?” the judge asked.

Phyllis saw that Eve’s hands were trembling just a little. It must have been quite an ordeal for her, having to stand up there and listen to the clerk read the charge. Juliette must have noticed the trembling, too. She put a hand lightly on Eve’s arm.

Then Eve lifted her head, squared her shoulders, and said in the same sort of loud, clear voice she had used for years in her classroom, “Not guilty, Your Honor.”

At that moment, Phyllis was extremely proud of her.

“Very well,” the judge said. “Your plea will be entered, and your case will go before the grand jury in its next scheduled session. Mr. Sullivan, do you have anything?”

This was the moment where things might take a bad turn, Phyllis recalled. The district attorney could ask that Eve’s bail be revoked, and even though Juliette thought that was unlikely, the mere possibility of it was enough to make Phyllis worry. The way Carolyn had her hands clasped tightly together in her lap told Phyllis that she was worried, too. Even Sam’s customary nonchalant demeanor had vanished as he sat stiff and straight on the hard wooden bench.

Sullivan took his time getting to his feet. He had to know that all eyes in the room were on him, and he probably enjoyed the feeling. He leaned slightly forward, rested his fingertips on the table, and shook his head.

“Nothing, Your Honor.”

Schumacher nodded. “Very well. We’ll move on to the next case.”

Phyllis managed not to heave an audible sigh of relief. Eve was still free on bail, and that wasn’t going to change. She could continue living at the house while Phyllis, Sam, and Tess Coburn continued working to clear her name. Even though this court appearance hadn’t been pleasant, it hadn’t been too bad, either, and now some of the pressure was off for a while.

As much as the pressure could be off while Eve was still facing a murder charge, Phyllis reminded herself.

Eve and Juliette left the defense table and came through the gate in the railing to join them as Phyllis, Sam, and Carolyn got to their feet.

“Is that it?” Carolyn asked.

“That’s it,” Juliette said. “We can all go now.”

They left the courtroom and stepped out into the crowded hallway. “Now what?” Eve asked.

“Now we keep working on your defense,” Juliette said. “There’s a chance the grand jury will decline to indict you on the charge, but I seriously doubt that’s going to happen unless we can come up with some new evidence between now and then.”

That was where she came in, Phyllis told herself, because the authorities certainly weren’t going to continue investigating. They had already done their job, at least to their way of thinking.

Once again telling the reporters that she and her client had no comment, Juliette began leading the way through the crowd. It thinned out the farther away they got from the courtroom. They headed for the elevators, which were beyond the landing where the staircase with its brass banisters led up from the first floor.

A couple of sheriff’s deputies stood near that landing, blocking their path, and as the group approached, Timothy Sullivan appeared from somewhere and joined the deputies. Phyllis frowned as she saw Sullivan speak to the deputies and nod toward them.

Neither of the uniformed men looked happy about being here, and that made the concern Phyllis suddenly felt increase even more. Then Sullivan stepped out in front of the deputies to confront Phyllis and the others as they came to a stop.

“What’s going on here?” Juliette asked.

Sullivan ignored her. He said, “Mrs. Newsom, I have to ask you to go with these officers.”

Phyllis’s heart thudded heavily in her chest, and she seemed to hear the blood roaring in her head. Despite that, she was able to maintain a calm tone as she asked, “Why should I do that?”

The district attorney couldn’t keep a smile off his face as he said, “Because you’re under arrest.”