A Deadly Row (25 page)

“Hang on a second,” she said, and Samantha got up and went into the other room.

Here was my chance.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed at him.

“I’m conducting an official police investigation,” he said. “What does it look like?”

“Do you have to be so mean?”

He looked genuinely shocked by the question. “I have to be gruff and abrupt to let them know that I’m not kidding around here. Two people have been murdered, and for all we know, someone else is next on this murderer’s list. I don’t have time for niceties.”

“Does it really take all that much more time to be civil?”

“Savannah, let me handle this my way.”

I didn’t say anything in response, and we sat in silence until Samantha walked back into the room carrying a newspaper with her. She held it as if it were the Holy Grail.

“What’s that?” Zach asked, and I noticed his tone was just a little nicer. Truthfully, maybe it was just my imagination, but I liked to think I was making a difference.

“Nine days before she died, I was over at Cindy’s, and I saw her staring at a newspaper.”

“That one in particular?” Zach asked as he leaned forward.

“Let me tell this, okay?” Good for her. I was proud that she had some snap to her words.

“Sorry,” Zach said, though it was pretty clear the apology was tepid at best.

“Anyway, we were having breakfast in her kitchen, and I saw her looking at a photo in the
Charlotte Observer
. When I asked her about it, she said wistfully, ‘Isn’t he handsome?’

“Which one, I asked her, since there were two photographs on that particular page. In one of them, two men were standing on some kind of platform shaking hands. The other was a headshot of a businessman, at least that’s what he looked like to me from the suit he was wearing. Cindy suddenly looked at me as though she’d said too much, and before I could get a better look, she folded the paper, and threw it in the trash. Cindy is a . . . was a demon at recycling, and she never would have thrown that away if she hadn’t been hiding something.”

“So, you dug it out of her trash?”

“Don’t be disgusting. I bought a paper the second I left her, and I found the photos she was pointing out.”

“May I see that?” Zach asked.

Samantha nodded, and handed him the paper. I looked over his shoulder when he opened it, and I saw something that shook me to the core. The photo of the two men together showed Grady and Davis. The other photo showed Hank Tristan, and was accompanied by a story on a business he was building in Ballantyne.

Zach appeared too focused on the photo of Davis and Grady, so I tapped the headshot of Hank Tristan. He nodded, brushing me off, but I didn’t let it bother me. If I’d pointed it out to him first, he’d give me full credit for the discovery. There wasn’t an ounce of macho pride in my husband. He’d publicly thank a nine-year-old girl if she helped him solve a case. Results were all Zach cared about, and that was just one more reason why I loved him.

He started to hand the paper back to Samantha when I said, “Hold on a second.”

“What is it?” my husband asked me.

“Let me see that.”

He handed the paper to me, and as I looked at the photo of the two men, I saw another familiar face standing just behind them. I showed it to Zach and pointed it out. “That’s Steve Sanders, isn’t it?”

Zach studied it a second, and then said, “Yeah, but it’s not much of a photo of him.”

“It’s possible though, isn’t it?”

“I suppose. That was a good spot.” He glanced at the paper, and then at Samantha. “May I keep this?”

“If it helps you find out who killed Cindy, you can have everything I own.”

“Just the paper, at least for now,” Zach said, and offered her a gentle smile. Samantha responded to it with a smile of her own, and I wondered if telling my husband to be nicer to his interview subjects had been the best idea, especially when they were prettier, younger, and skinnier than I was.

Zach stood, and to his credit, my dear husband turned to me and asked, “Is there anything else you’d like to ask?”

“No, you covered everything perfectly.”

Samantha led us to the door, and she lingered there as we left. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know. I miss her so much.”

“I’m sure you do,” I said, my heart instantly softening to her. After all, who could blame her for returning one of my husband’s smiles? He was a good-looking guy, after all. “We’ll let you know if we think of anything else.”

As we headed back to the car, I said, “She liked you. You know that, don’t you?”

“What can I say? I’m a likeable guy.”

“Come on, you were a detective once upon a time. You had to notice the way she smiled at you.”

“Savannah, don’t be ridiculous. I’m an old married man. No woman in her twenties is going to be interested in me.”

“And if they were?”

“I’d tell them that my heart belongs to another.” Zach surprised me then by picking me up off my feet and hugging me.

“Put me down, you big lug,” I said, laughing with every word.

“Fine, but you know that I never cared about looking like a fool. I love my wife. Arrest me.”

“If they do, they’ll have to arrest me, too.”

He winked. “Maybe if we ask Davis nicely, he’ll put us in the same cell.”

“You’re in an awfully good mood all of a sudden,” I said.

“I know I shouldn’t be; this is serious business. But I can’t let it kill my spirit, can I? We’re narrowing things down, Savannah. I don’t like the direction the investigation’s taking, but I have to admit it; I enjoy it when the puzzle pieces start to fit together.”

“Did I miss something? Which pieces are you talking about?”

“Come on, it’s too big a coincidence that the first murder victim was tied to Hank, Davis, and Grady.”

“And Steve,” I added.

“And Steve,” he agreed. “Let’s play with some possibilities. If Cindy was having an affair with Hank, it could explain why she was murdered, and it would tie the two homicides in together.”

“What if she was seeing Grady before he admitted to dating her? Remember, the photos in the newspaper appeared at least a week before they met, according to Grady. How about Davis? It’s easy to see how he or Steve would be attracted to her. Cindy was a pretty girl.” In one of the photographs I’d seen of her, she’d looked so full of spirit, so alive, that it was hard for me to believe that she was dead.

“Then she could have been killed out of jealousy, and Hank saw something or knew something that got him killed.”

“All of those lives are so tangled together; I don’t know how you’re ever going to straighten it all out. How are you handling all of the things you’re learning?”

Zach frowned. “I hate that three of my friends are involved in this mess, but if one of them is a murderer, I’ll see him hang for it.”

“I know you will. It’s what you do.”

“It’s more than that, Savannah. It’s who I am. I’m tough on the bad guys, and if any of my friends are involved, I’m going to be even harder on them.”

 

WHEN WE GOT BACK TO POLICE HEADQUARTERS, I
was still happy about Zach’s rare public display of affection.

But the second we got off the elevator, that happiness vanished in an instant.

Something bad was happening in front of the task force room, and I wasn’t sure if even my husband was going to be able to fix it.

“STEP OUT OF THE WAY OR I’LL HAVE YOU THROWN OFF
the force,” Davis was yelling when we hurried to him. Steve Sanders was standing his ground, and so far neither one of them had seen us.

“The Chief said that no one goes inside without him.”

“I’m the only chief of police around here,” Davis roared.

“What’s going on?” Zach asked. He hadn’t shouted, but there was an edge to his words that neither man could ignore. My husband might not have still been the acting chief, but he hadn’t lost that edge of authority in his voice.

“Good, you’re here,” Davis said, much calmer than he had spoken before. “You need to let me in this room, and I mean right now. I don’t know how you got Sanders to defy me, but I’ll see that he pays for it.”

“You told me I could have any assistant I wanted,” Zach said. “I chose Steve. Nobody can have two bosses, Davis. You can’t just overrule me like this, not after giving me autonomy on this case.”

“You work for me, too. Remember?”

“If you’re going to act like this, maybe that’s not such a good idea anymore.” Zach turned to me. “Come on, Savannah. We’re going home.”

“Back to the hotel?”

“No, to Parson’s Valley. It appears that I’ve just been fired.”

“You quit,” Davis said, his voice a whine now.

“Call it what you will. But I won’t have you trying to impede my active investigation.”

We were at the elevator when Davis came to us. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

“What was that?” Zach asked.

“I said I was sorry,” Davis repeated, clearly not at all happy about having to do it. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”

“Are you saying that it’s my investigation? No matter what happens?”

He shrugged. “That’s what we hired you to do.”

“Then I need to interview you,” Zach said.

“About what?”

“The murders.”

 

“THAT’S NOT FUNNY, ZACH,” DAVIS SAID
.

“Do I look like I’m laughing? We can do this now, or I can wait until you take the time to get an attorney.”

Davis shook his head. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Completely.”

“I don’t need an attorney. Ask away.”

“Not out here.”

We headed toward the task force room, and I saw that Steve Sanders was grinning, though I wasn’t sure the other men saw it.

“Go downstairs until I call you,” Zach told him, and Steve looked disappointed as he started for the elevator. With all that my husband had on his mind, he’d still seen that grin.

In a softer voice, he said, “Savannah, you shouldn’t be here, either.”

I was about to protest when Davis said, “I don’t have anything to hide. She can stay.”

Zach shrugged, and I took it as an engraved invitation.

Once we were inside, Zach and Davis took seats at one of the tables, and I found a spot where I could watch them both and hear everything that was said, but still be out of the line of fire.

Zach pulled out his notebook, scanned it for a few moments, and then dove right in. “How well did you know Hank Tristan?”

“We had several mutual friends in the community,” Davis said.

Zach pushed his chair away and stood. “If you’re not going to be completely honest with me, there’s no need for us to have this conversation.”

“What are you talking about?” Davis looked clearly puzzled by my husband’s behavior.

“You were more than acquaintances,” Zach said. “You were business partners.”

“How did you hear about that?” Davis asked.

“That’s not important right now. What matters is whether it’s true or not. Don’t hold out on me, Davis. I mean it.”

The new chief seemed to take it all in, and after a moment, he seemed to sink into his chair. “We were investors in a deal to develop some mountain land. I wasn’t the only cop in on it. Sanders had a stake in it, too.”

“But I’m willing to bet that it wasn’t anywhere near the amount you lost.”

Davis looked a little pale. “I sunk everything but my pension into it. When the planned resort went to Tennessee instead, I lost it all.”

“You must have been mad enough to kill someone,” Zach said softly.

“It was a blow, but we all took a beating on it. Sometimes in life you have to take a chance. I thought it was a sure thing, but I turned out to be wrong. A lot of people lost money on that deal.”

“Even Hank? I heard he protected himself somehow.”

Davis looked at my husband as though he had a crystal ball, or maybe even a Ouija board. “All I know is that he lost money, too. Not as much as I did, but he still felt it.”

Zach shrugged, and then made a note in his book. “How well did you know Cindy Glass?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t know her at all.”

“Come on, Davis.”

Zach waited, and finally, the new police chief said, “I don’t care who you have as a source. I didn’t know the young lady.”

Zach nodded, made another note, and then asked, “Why did you want to get into this room? What was so important?”

“I’m getting a lot of pressure from high up. I wanted to see if you’d made any progress yet.”

“Who’s pressuring you? Grady?”

“You play things close to the vest, so I can, too.” He stood. “Are we finished here?”

“For now.”

Davis clearly didn’t like that answer, and it looked as though he was going to say something, but he thought better of it and left.