Necklaces & Nooses Read online

  “Interesting that neither Sheila nor James ever mentioned that.”

  “I know, right? It seems like something worth mentioning. And, to make matters worse, Sheila had been pregnant by James when this happened.” I loved the look of shock on his face. As much as I had declared I wanted no part of investigating a crime, I got a great sense of smug satisfaction that I knew something he didn’t. It was the competitive part of me.

  “So, let me get this straight. Sheila was pregnant by James, and he left his pregnant girlfriend for her sister?”

  “Yes, but Solange didn’t know about the pregnancy; no one outside James, Sheila, and Lorraine knew. And then James thought Sheila lost it. He just found out that he has a daughter.”

  “How?”

  “Because the daughter, Amber, went looking for her birth parents and found Solange thinking she was her mother. Oh, and to make this even better, Solange is Lorraine’s real daughter.” I watched as he spit out the sip of coffee he had been drinking.

  “How in the hell did you find this out?”

  “I told you. Lorraine. She must have decided to confide in me, because she told me all the family secrets, or at least most of them anyways.”

  “So who knew about that?”

  “No one until recently”

  “You’re going to have to tell me all the details, and I’m going to have to talk to Lorraine. I can’t believe she withheld this information from the police. This could be considered obstructing justice. It’s no wonder Sheila didn’t like Solange. Even blood sisters would hate each other for that.”

  “Don’t be too hard on Lorraine. I bet it didn’t even occur to her that these facts could be related to Solange’s murder. Solange being adopted probably just made it worse for Sheila. Then the grandfather dividing his money equally just fueled her anger even more.”

  “I have more on that, Pres. I was digging through old records for the Smiths, and it seems Sheila filed a lawsuit filed against Solange shortly after the old man died. Asking that as an adopted child, she should be removed from the will of both the grandfather and father.”

  “Is that even legal?”

  “Not according to the judge who heard the case. He said since both wills were legally binding and the adoption was legal, there was no basis for her case.”

  “I bet that didn’t make Shelia too happy.”

  “No, I’m sure it didn’t. But would it make her unhappy enough to commit murder?”

  “You’re the one who said money is a great motivator for wrongdoing.”

  “Yes, I did, which is why I am running a check on her financials to see if anything out of the ordinary pops up. She would have had to pay someone to kill Solange. That takes a lot of money, and it’s hard to have it not leave a trail of some sort.”

  “I hope for Lorraine’s sake it’s not Sheila. That would be a horrible thing for her to have to deal with.”

  Chapter 22

  So the plot thickens.”

  Willie had called to ask if he could stop over on his way home from the gym. My condo was on his way home, lucky for me.

  “Really? Please tell,” I said setting a glass of water in front of him.

  “Thanks,” he said then took a long drink.

  “I may not exercise, but I know that when you do you must stay hydrated. Now, tell me. What did you find out?”

  “James and Sheila may have renewed their affair.”

  “What?!” I was so startled at this news I spilled his water and began wiping it up with my sleeve.

  “We’ve had the police department in Crivitz stop by and check on James, and according to the cars and people the police reported, there have been a lot of comings and goings between him and Sheila.”

  “You mean she has actually been driving to Wisconsin to see him?”

  “Yes,” Willie said. “That’s what makes this thing reek of an affair. Surely, they wouldn’t go to these lengths to see each other. Sheila doesn’t seem like the type who would drive the five hours to Crivitz, to a cabin in the woods, if there wasn’t something in it for her.”

  “What makes you think this might be anything besides tasteless, to jump into another relationship right after your wife and sister was found murdered?”

  “You’ve got a point there.”

  “So what’s next?” I asked Willie. “Are you going to question her about this? Or James? How do you even know what path to pursue?”

  “Process of elimination. I’m running out of other reasonable trails. You have to follow all leads and hunches until they prove to be completely the wrong avenue.”

  “So what does this mean?”

  “Maybe nothing, maybe a lot”

  “Is that precise detective work?”

  “Exactly. It’s the frustrating part about my job, one of them anyway. You can have all these seemingly unrelated pieces, and you have to figure out how they fit together. Or not. We don’t know if Solange knew about this or if there was anything prior to her death, and I want to ask James.”

  “Sheila would be able to tell you if she knew.”

  “I’m not ready to reveal to her I know yet.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Nothing specific. Just a gut thing”

  “Ahhh. Another one of those precise detective feelings”

  “Exactly.”

  Chapter 23

  I was at the boutique, and it was a few minutes after six. Willie and I were going to grab a bite to eat. He had taken to stopping by the boutique nightly to make sure I got everything closed up safely, and to make sure I didn’t get anymore unexpected visitors harassing me. So I was expecting him to arrive any second. I heard a knock at the door and looked up. I had finally gotten in the habit of locking the door any time we weren’t open for business. It was Willie, and my heart jumped a little.

  “Hey, you,” I said, unlocking the door and letting him in. I could tell he was excited about something. It was all over his face. “What did you find out?” I assumed it had to be something related to the case. Or some case he was working.

  “I finally was able to find a direct link between Peter and Solange and smuggling.”

  “I assume James or Steven are involved somehow?” I would almost put my money on James, as he was much greedier than Steven. Or at least it seemed.

  “No. That’s the part that was stumping me ’cause there wasn’t a connection there. It took a while, but I finally found it. The connection is Sheila.”

  “Sheila? But, how?”

  “When I went through her financials, I found two payments of fifty thousand dollars made out to an offshore company. I had to dig through a few layers to find the trail, but it ended up in the account of Oak Hill Trust owned by, you guessed it, one Mr. Peter Green.

  “So you think Sheila hired Peter to get Solange in trouble for smuggling? All because of what? She hated her, and now that the daughter was trying to have a relationship, she decided after all these years to make Solange pay?”

  “That’s pretty much how I was thinking it played out. Sheila might just be a very vindictive person.”

  “It seems so long to carry a grudge that you finally act on. And how did Solange end up dead? Was it intentional or an accident? Surely Sheila wouldn’t have wanted that.”

  “Things like this rarely make sense. In fact, sometimes when they make sense I know I am probably wrong. Who knows, what finally was the catalyst to make Sheila take this kind of action against her half sister? But I am going to find out. It’s time I brought Sheila back in for questioning. In fact, I’m headed over to her house now. Will you be okay here closing up if I go now?”

  “Of course. Anyone watching this place knows the police are in and out constantly. I’m good.”

  “Okay. Call you after. Maybe we can still grab a drink. I’m afraid we’ll have to take a rain check on dinner.”

  “I understand, but don’t think I won’t hold you to the rain check.”

  He smiled. “No problem. Talk to you late
r.” He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek then left.

  I was really starting to dig him. I was thinking about Cooper less and feeling that I might be willing to see how things progressed with Willie. I surveyed the store and estimated I had about fifteen minutes of work left to complete before I could leave and have a nice relaxing night at home. Something I hadn’t had in forever. And if I wasn’t going to be able to spend the evening with Willie, then I would relax and enjoy the evening alone.

  I had my head down as I calculated the day’s sales, when I heard the door chime. Willie must have forgotten something. I looked up. It wasn’t Willie. It was Sheila. What was she doing here? I mentally cursed myself for forgetting to lock the door after Willie left. She was not someone I wanted to deal with. Besides, what was she doing here? Willie was on his way to meet her.

  “I knew I would find you here,” Sheila said.

  “Is there something I can help you with?”

  “You can stop your meddling in family business.”

  “Sheila, I—”

  “Oh, stop the innocent act. I know you talked to my mother, and God knows why she decided to tell you everything. But I’m telling you to stay away from her, from James, from Steven. Everyone.”

  “I didn’t ask her to tell me Sheila. She just told me. So, if you have an issue with that, take it up with her.” I hated throwing Lorraine under the bus that way, but this was her daughter, and I was sure she had a lot of practice over the years in dealing with her.

  “This is your last warning. Just stay away!” With that she stormed out of the store. I hurried to the door and locked it behind her and breathed a sigh of relief. She was a piece of work. I wished Willie luck in talking to her.

  My quiet evening at home was hijacked by Jared and Anna, but they had brought wine and sushi, so I wasn’t that upset. And I was still in my comfy pajamas and refused to change, although Jared had harassed me about my juvenile pj’s, saying I would scare a man away if I brought him back to my apartment and showed up for bed in these. I told him to shove it, that I hadn’t been expecting company, and I liked my Scooby Doo nightwear.

  Too busy digging into the sushi, we didn’t say much. Finally all that was left were a few scraps, and we were all stuffed. We sat back with our wine, and the questions, or rather interrogation, started as I knew it would.

  Jared cut right to the chase. “Spill it. What’s going on with you and that handsome cop of yours?”

  “We’ve been hitting it off. Having a few dates and enjoying each other’s company.”

  “So do you think he’s boyfriend material?” Anna asked.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far yet. There’s a lot going on right now, and it’s not the best timing.”

  Jared said, “How close is he to solving the murder? Any good leads?”

  “You’re as bad as everyone else who keep wanting the gory details, Jared.”

  “I just want this to be solved and over with, for many reasons,” he said. “Reasons that are all for your benefit, I might add.”

  “Right now Willie is trying to get a hold of James to talk to him about Amy. You know, the one I told you about, that has some sort of stalkerish crush on James.”

  “Did he go somewhere?” Anna asked.

  “Wisconsin. They have a cabin in the woods in some remote location where cell phones don’t always work.”

  “Why is he there?”

  “I don’t know, Jared. I imagine because he wanted to get away.”

  “I say we drive to Wisconsin and find out what exactly is going on,” Jared said.

  “Are you crazy? I already got bitched out by Sheila once. Now you want me to follow her five hours away to another state, and you think it will turn out okay, and they’ll tell us exactly what is going on? Not to mention how Willie would react?”

  Chapter 24

  I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

  Letting Jared and Anna talk me into driving us all to Wisconsin was probably one of the dumbest things I had ever done. If only Cooper could see me now, I’m sure this would amaze even him. Amaze him at my stupidity. Still, I knew this might be the best way, if not the only way, to get the information we needed. To find out why Sheila was making these clandestine trips to the cabin James was hiding at would tell us a lot about what was going on. I just felt it in my gut, and my gut usually wasn’t wrong, although it wasn’t usually faced with issues of this magnitude.

  “Oh, quit complaining,” Jared said. “You know this is going to tell you what you want to know, and it’s not like you’re going by yourself.”

  “I still think she should tell Willie,” said Anna.

  “No!” both Jared and I yelled.

  “Anna, he is like Cooper and would tell me not to go, that he wouldn’t allow it, or some such crap. It would start an argument and then he would be even more angry when I went anyways.”

  “But you said Willie had people there watching James. He’s going to know you’re there.”

  “Yes, he will, but by then it will be too late. I’ll already be there. Now, go get changed.” We had all been in pajamas hanging out ready to have what I thought was a relaxing night in, but then Jared insisted we go to Wisconsin and see for ourselves what Sheila and James were up to. At first I joked with him about the possibilities. Then I realized he wasn’t joking when he got out of his seat and put down his wine, telling us to put real clothes on. Jared’s apartment was on the way to I-94 East, that would take us out of Chicago and on our way to Wisconsin, but Anna’s was way out in the other direction, so she was just going to borrow something of mine.

  While we were getting dressed, Jared looked up Crivitz, the town where we were headed.

  “It’s about a five-hour drive from here, so we will get there about two in the morning,” he yelled through the door.

  “We better be stopping for some Red Bull,” I said. “You do realize all three of us will have to call in sick tomorrow, and I may not have a job after James finds out we drove up to spy on him. So I hope you are ready to loan me the money to pay my bills when he cans me.”

  “Whatever. He won’t fire you. He needs you too much. None of the other girls can run that place, and he wouldn’t find someone off the street he could trust. Face it, that place is yours to run until you change your mind.”

  “Lucky me,” I said, walking out of the bedroom in my comfy Gap jeans and soft fitted gray tank. “I guess it’s good job security.”

  “Take what you can get. It’s better than your last job. At least you don’t have someone sexually harassing you.”

  “Good point. Hurry up, Anna. She is so slow,” I said to Jared.

  “I heard that!”

  “I meant you to hear it. Come on already. Jared, you have the directions?”

  “Yep. Downloaded on my phone”

  “Great.” We piled in my black Kia and made a stop to fill up with gas and grab some snacks for our road trip. We finally made it to I-94 and were on our way. Even though I was a little—okay a lot—apprehensive about where we were headed and what would happen once we got to our destination, I enjoyed driving trips, especially with my friends. The first couple hours on the road, we were on a Red Bull high, channel surfing on the radio, singing along to anything we knew, or thought we knew, and many we didn’t know but thought we did. It had been a long time since I had the chance to just hang out with Jared and Anna like this. We all had such busy lives. No matter what happened at the end of this trip, I was happy with this part of it.

  “Turn it up, it’s the new Britney!” Jared said.

  As I was obliging him, Anna said she needed a bathroom break, and I was there myself. Plus I was getting tired and needed some coffee to refuel.

  “Next exit we can stop, Anna.”

  “Okay. Hey, your phone is ringing again.”

  “Who is calling me now? It’s almost midnight; I should be sleeping.” I giggled. “Look at it.”

  Anna fished in my purse that was at her
knees and finally found the phone. It had stopped by then. “Willie.”

  I felt a small twinge of guilt that I hadn’t told him where I was going.

  She looked at me, eyes wide. “And he’s called five times. We must have had the radio up too loud to hear. Why do you suppose he called that many times?”

  “I have no idea. We didn’t have plans to talk tonight, and he surely couldn’t have any inkling of where I am headed. Or could he?” I got a little nervous at the thought, but he wasn’t clairvoyant, so how could he possible know?