Burning Justice (8 page)

I
was still staring
at the card when Lexy grabbed my elbow and steered me toward the door.

“Did you find anything out?” she asked.

I nodded. “I got a couple good leads, what did you find?”

“Nothing. These people are shut up tighter than a drum. This is nothing like when I used to investigate. I used to get all kinds of good information back in the day. And the refreshments … Pfft.” She waved her hand in the air dismissively. “Not worth coming at all.”

I hid my smile from her as we walked toward the door. Even though she was disappointed, I’d gotten more than I bargained for and was anxious to start digging into my new clues. I had to wait until I could meet with Suzanne before I dig into what was going on at Barrows Investments, but I could start trying to prove exactly where Nathan really was the night of the fire right away. Now that David had mentioned Nathan wasn’t at the cabin, I knew I was on to something.

I opened the oak door for Lexy and we spilled out onto the steps just in time to see Sgt. Hale and Det. Royce crossing the parking lot. What would
they
be doing here? There was only one reason for them to attend—they were starting to realize Evangeline’s death was not an accident.

I altered my course so as to intercept them and we met in the middle of the lot. I could tell by the look on Hale’s face that he didn’t like running into me.

“What are you doing here, Justice?” Hale scowled at me, then flicked his eyes toward Lexy.

Lexy gave Hale a defiant look. “Cal is with me. She took me here so I could pay my respects.”

Hale’s eyes flicked back to my face and I nodded. “That’s right, we were just paying our respects. What are
you
doing here? The police don’t usually attend wakes, or has that changed?”

“I see you still have your father’s sarcastic tongue,” Hale said.

I bristled at his comment. There was a time when I would have been proud to be compared to my father, but not anymore. I bit back my nasty reply. I figured it wouldn’t get me anywhere to piss Hale off.

I turned to Tony, figuring I might get more information from him. “Did you guys look at that evidence I sent in? You’re starting to think this wasn’t just an accident, right?”

“We really can’t say. But you might be onto something.” Tony glanced at Hale as if asking permission to continue further.

Hale rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go inside. Don’t tell her too much. She shouldn’t be butting into this case. There could be more going on than she’s aware of.” Hale looked directly at me. “I suggest you take my advice and find something else to work on. You could be playing with fire.”

He turned on his heel and we watched him walk away. His play on words wasn’t lost on me, but I almost got the feeling that he really didn’t want me to get burned.

“Is he always so dramatic?” Lexy asked.

Tony laughed. “Hale’s not that bad.” His face turned grim and he zeroed in on me. “But he’s right. There could be more to this. I didn’t realize you were still investigating it. Are you?”

I shrugged. “Not really, but Evangeline came to me and told me she suspected Nathan was the killer. I feel responsible and guilty that I didn't take her seriously. I figured the least I could do was come to her wake. But I would appreciate knowing that justice is being served.”

Tony nodded. “I can understand that. We have been looking into it. I can’t get into the details, but let’s just say there are a few things that are a little suspicious. But the CSIs didn’t come up with much because the whole crime scene was incinerated. And we talked to almost all the neighbors, none of whom saw anything.”

“Almost
all the neighbors?”

“There was one neighbor who wasn’t home when we canvassed the area. George Grindley. He’s an avid fisherman. In fact, he was out on the lake fishing when we went to talk to him. His wife said he goes out real early in the morning. She’s usually sleep and she couldn’t remember, but he might have been on the lake the night the boat burned.”

I made a mental note to talk to George Grindley. If he was on the lake, he might have seen something.

I decided to give Tony another clue. Maybe the cops would do some of the legwork for me. “I just talked to David and he says Nathan wasn’t at the cabin that night.”

Tony looked surprised. “Really? How would he know that?”

“David said the neighbor was checking out her door quite frequently. Apparently, she was expecting a delivery.”

Tony’s brow furrowed. “I thought Hale followed up with the neighbor. He didn’t mention anything about that.”

“That’s odd.” Was Hale lying? It seemed like he hadn’t wanted to investigate in the first place and I wondered if he had a reason for that other than sheer laziness. Maybe there really
was
more going on here.

“I’ll have to double check on that.” Tony glanced over at the funeral parlor. “I need to get going inside, but I wanted to talk to you about something else.”

He leaned toward me conspiratorially and my left brow ticked up. What the heck was he getting at? “Oh?”

“Hale mentioned that he thought you were looking into your mom’s death. That you weren’t satisfied with the investigation.” Tony paused as if he was feeling me out.

“Yeah…”

“Well, I know he wasn’t forthcoming with information, but I stumbled across something that might interest you.”

My eyes narrowed. “And why would you give me police evidence? I’m sure Hale wouldn’t like it if he knew. Why be so nice?”

Tony looked away, his eyes clouding. “My mom was murdered, too. I know how it feels.”

My suspicions melted into sympathies. His mom had met a similar fate? Was it related? I didn’t know much about my own mother’s death. I’d started to investigate it in my spare time, but the feelings were still too raw and I hadn’t worked on it in a while. Artemis had actually been the one that suggested I take a break from it after seeing how it affected me and who could argue with a computer? But if something was going to fall right into my lap, I could hardly refuse it.

“I’m not really actively looking into it, but I’d be curious to see anything that you have.”

Tony started backing away from me. “Okay. I gotta go, but I’ll see what I can do. I’ll give you a call.”

“Okay.”

He turned and jogged off toward the building, leaving me staring after him. I had to admit he looked pretty good jogging. His long legs ate up the pavement quickly and he carried himself well. Lexy caught me looking and snickered.

“What?”

“Oh, I think I see a little romance budding.” Lexy’s eyes sparkled.

I pulled a face. “What? No. I’m not in the market for romance.”

“Lots of times, romance happens when you’re not in the market for it. Besides, that young man is a hunk. Not as cute as my Jack was, but I’d take him up on it.”

“Take him up on what? All he did was offer to give me some information on my mom’s death. Although it does make me kind of suspicious as to why he would do that.”

Lexy snorted even louder. “Sheesh, Cal, you really are naive. I’ll tell you why he would do it. It’s obvious. He’s trying to get into your Levi’s.”

W
hen I got back
to my condo, I found Artemis lounging on the couch watching soap operas.

“You do an awful lot of lounging for a robot. Do robots really need to relax that much?” I asked.

Artemis looked hurt. “As a matter fact, I’m programmed to mimic human behavior. I think I’m doing a pretty good job.”

I laughed. “I can’t argue with that.”

He turned the TV off and sat up straight on the couch, angling himself to face me. “So, how did it go?”

I threw my tote bag on the floor and sunk into the chair. I was eager to share my news with Artemis and his face took on a look of excitement when I told him what David had said about the neighbors at the cabin, but when I got to the part about meeting up with Suzanne, his face darkened.

“I don’t have any Suzanne St. James in my database of contacts for you,” he said.

“That’s because I knew her back in PI school. I didn’t know you then.” Why did I feel like I needed to explain myself to him?

Artemis bristled. “Well, I think you need to tell me all the people you know so I can have a proper database of it.”

“Okay, I didn’t really think about it. I mean, I can’t remember
all
the people I've ever known.”

His face relaxed. “I guess you can’t. Sorry. I just like to do a thorough job.”

“Right. I wasn’t saying you didn’t do a good job. I wouldn’t expect you to know about people I knew before you.”

“Okay. I have entered her. Is there anyone else?”

“I can’t think of anyone now, but I’ll try to come up with a list later.”

Artemis seemed appeased with this and he smiled that lopsided smile that tweaked my heart and made me forget he was really just a computer. He reached over and put his hand on mine. It was so soft and warm and human-like. “I just want to make sure that I can give you the best information to do your job and keep you safe.”

“Thanks.” My heart melted. After all, that wasn’t even in his job description. He was just a computerized domestic helper, although he did seem to have some extra programs that made him much more useful.

“Did you find out anything else? How was Nathan? Was he acting appropriately bereaved.”

“He was. He seemed genuinely upset, which worries me. Honestly, I don’t get a ‘I’m a murderer’ vibe from him. Then again I got the vibe from Evangeline that she was lying and I was wrong about that, so I guess I can’t trust my instincts anymore,” I said. “I did find out another interesting thing, though.”

“Oh?”

“As we were leaving, I ran into the police. Hale and Royce.”

Artemis frowned. “Royce? Who is that?”

Artemis knew about my run-ins with Sgt. Hale but I hadn’t yet mentioned Tony Royce to him. “He’s a new detective that works with Hale. Tony Royce. Anyway, Hale was his usual jerky self, but Royce gave me some interesting information about this case. And he said he had something about my mother’s case, too.”

Artemis jerked up straighter. “Your mother’s case? I thought you weren’t looking into that anymore.”

I shrugged. “I’m not actively right now, but I might pick it up again someday. He said he had something I might be interested in and I figured I might as well take a look.”

“I guess that makes sense. Hold on a minute while I check out this Tony Royce guy.” Artemis's face contorted into a series of expressions as he accessed his database. When he was done, his face was stuck in a frown expression. “I don’t know about this Royce character. I think you should proceed cautiously when it comes to him. Especially since I get the distinct vibe you may be interested in him.”

“Interested? I’m interested in the information he has on my mother’s case.” Was I giving off some sort of a vibe that I was interested in some other way? Artemis had a way of interpreting my inner feelings, knowing what I was thinking sometimes even when I didn’t. He must have some sort of a intuition program installed.

Artemis's left brow ticked up. “Really? You don’t need to make up stories with me, Cal.”

“I’m not making up a story.” I wasn’t going to sit here and argue with my computer over whether I had romantic feelings for someone. It was weird. It almost seemed to be like Artemis was a little jealous. But that was crazy. He was just a computer. I decided to change the subject. “Anyway, I discovered two interesting things regarding Evangeline’s case. Tony said that Hale talked to the neighbors of the cabin and they didn’t mention anything about being sure Nathan wasn’t there. Or at least Hale didn’t tell Tony. Tony was going to check into it and there was one other thing I can check into myself.”

“And what is that?”

“The police talked to all the neighbors and no one saw anything. But one neighbor was not available that day. George Grindley. He was out on his fishing boat where he spends most of his time.”

Artemis’s face lit up. “And if he was out on his fishing boat the night of the murder, he may have seen something happening on the Barrows's boat.”

“Bingo. I think I need to have a little talk with George Grindley.”

“Absolutely. Do you need me to come with you?”

“Thanks, but I’m perfectly capable of doing that on my own. However, I could use your help getting the address … And one other thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Tony Royce said his mother had been murdered. I was suspicious about why he’d want to give me information and he gave that as the reason, saying that he sympathized with me. I was wondering if you could search the database and see if you can find out anything about the circumstances of his mother’s death.”

Artemis nodded. “Coming right up.”

I pushed up from the chair and went in the kitchen to get a snack. The refrigerator section of the Meal-A-Tron was practically empty, but I managed to pull out a plump, red tomato which had been a late harvest from our rooftop garden.

My mouth watered as I cut it open, exposing the juicy flesh inside. There was nothing like homegrown tomatoes. The store-bought tasted like soft plastic and I was loath to eat them, especially since most foods were genetically modified and came in strange shapes. I was especially suspicious of the tomatoes that were shaped like cats and dogs which were grown that way specifically to get kids to eat them.

When I came back into the living room, Artemis had a curious look on his face.

“What is it?”

I got the address for George Grindley and programmed it into Agatha for you already.” Artemis had a wireless link to the GPS system in my PTV. “But I wasn’t as successful with Tony Royce’s mother.”

My brows mashed together. “Oh, no? What did you find?”

“Well that’s just the thing. I couldn’t really find anything about Tony’s parents. He joined the police force eight years ago, but he did some work with the intelligence agency, so there is a block on all his background information. I can’t find a thing about his mother.”

“That’s interesting. There’s usually only a block for people on secret assignment … like my parents.”

“Exactly.” Concern flickered in Artemis’s eyes. “This seems a little fishy to me. You need to proceed with caution.”

I nodded. “I always do. And anyway, I’m just going to take the information he has for me and set it aside. I don’t have any plans to dig into the information … or Tony Royce … any further. Besides, I have much bigger fish to fry right now.”