Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (15 page)

Kassandra almost choked on her lettuce. “How can you seriously sit here and ask that question? You’ve got as much reason to want him dead as we do, Jake.”

“I’m well aware of that, Kass. But I have an alibi. Do you?”

“Of course I do.”

“How do you know? You don’t even know what day he was killed.”

“I just got back into town yesterday.”

Sage’s eyes bounced back and forth between Jake and Kassandra as she ate. I just sat there and listened, wondering if I should put a stop to it.

“Los Angeles.”

“Can you prove it?”

“You want to see the receipts?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Can anyone verify you were out there?”

“You mean besides Marc? There was a very handsome Swedish masseuse that gave me plenty of attention while Marc was attending to business. Do you want his name and number?”

“Definitely.”

They glared at each other. “Are you two through?” I said. “Did you really come here to blame your friends, Jake?”

Jake sat back in his chair and sighed. “Of course not.”

“Kass has always been able to push his buttons,” Sage said.

“Why are you here, Jake?” Kass said as she took another bite of her salad.

“I want to talk to people who knew Ethan, see if they could give us some information about him that might lead us to his killer.”

“You think his killer is from here?” Sage said, her eyes wide in surprise.

“I don’t know, Sage. Given the number of wounds, I’d say this was personal.”

“I thought you said he was shot,” Kass said.

“I did.”

“But you said wounds, plural. Just how many are we talking about?”

“Several,” I clarified. “In various spots all over his body.”

“The police believe there may have been more than one person involved,” Jake added.

Kass put her fork down and looked at us for a minute. “You think that some of his victims may have gotten together and decided to take him out, don’t you?”

“It might have crossed my mind,” Jake admitted.

Kass and Sage looked at each other, and Sage nodded. “What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this table,” Kass told them.

“You have our word,” Jake said.

“A few years ago, Ethan came back to town. He had been forced to leave New York to save face after he was accused of assaulting a banker’s daughter. He showed up at the Fourth of July dance at the country club, being his usual, charming self.”

I took a drink of my Dr Pepper, thinking about my first encounter with Ethan at the fundraiser. My hand was shaking so hard, the ice cubes were rattling against the glass. Jake reached over and put his hand on top of mine.

If Kass noticed, she didn’t say anything. “Sage was at the dance by herself; she and Cooper were to be married that October. Ethan asked to dance with the bride-to-be, and she said yes. He was a perfect gentleman while they danced, and he offered to get her something to drink. She doesn’t remember much after that, but the security cameras caught some of it. When Cooper and Sage’s brothers found out what happened, they went out to the Winthrop estate. He wasn’t there, but the maid let it slip that Ethan was at the log cabin. Needless to say, Ethan was taken to the proverbial woodshed.”

“I’m sure Edward Winthrop wasn’t happy about the beatdown,” Jake said.

“He wasn’t. He wanted Cooper and the others arrested for assault and battery. But the sheriff at that time, Charlie Bascomb, told Edward in no uncertain terms that if he arrested them, he was also going to arrest Ethan and close a bunch of old sexual assault cases.”

“Would he have really done that?” I said.

Jake nodded. “Oh yeah, Charlie would have. They might not have happened on his watch, but he would have arrested Ethan to get them off his desk.”

I looked at Sage, who was calmly eating her fried chicken. “So what happened?”

“Edward backed off, and offered me money to forget the whole thing. I took the money, put it in a savings account, and then set out to get even.”

“Excuse me?” I said. “You agreed to forget the whole thing.”

“I said forget. I didn’t say anything about forgive.”

“Ah.”

“So what was your plan to get even?” Jake asked Sage.

“I got in touch with several of Ethan’s victims. We decided the best way to stop him was to kill him.”

“How many women are we talking about here?”

“Eight.”

“And the plan was to what?”

“One of us would lure him to an isolated spot, and then the rest of us would come out of hiding and attack him. “Kass tried to talk us out of it, but we were determined to do it. Ethan had made our lives miserable for years, and he lived his life like nothing had ever happened.”

“So what stopped you from carrying out your plan?” Jake said.

“Cooper. Kass told him what we were planning to do. Cooper told me that he loved me, and that I shouldn’t let what Ethan did define who I was for the rest of my life. He said that planning to kill him was stooping to his level, and that I was better than that. His final comment was that if I went through with it, he wouldn’t marry me. It wasn’t worth losing Cooper over. So I talked to the other women, told them what he had said, and we decided to call it off.”

“He sounds like a wonderful man, Sage,” I said, thinking of T.J. back home.

“He is.”

“Are you sure that the others were okay with you calling things off?”

“They all seemed relieved, actually. I’m not sure how many of them would have shown up, had we decided to go through with it.”

“Is it possible that someone decided to resurrect the idea and carried it out?” Jake said.

Sage shrugged. “It’s possible, I suppose, although I’m not sure why any of them would.”

“You do realize how far-fetched this all sounds, don’t you?” I said. “I don’t understand why you would even think about killing him.”

“Because I knew what would happen. There used to be a support group that would meet at Mrs. Simpkins’ house twice a month. At the first meeting I went to, they told me about Ethan’s usual pattern of behavior. It would start with flowers and a note of apology. Then he would send flowers every day, followed by small gifts. After a month or so, he would ask you out on a date, thinking everything was forgiven. I didn’t want to go through that.”

That would explain why he complained about the gifts I had returned. He wasn’t used to someone standing up to him like that.

“What an ego that man had!” Kass said. “I accepted his dinner invitation, and when he came to pick me up, I gave him a knee to the jewels, followed by a vase to the back of his head when he doubled over. When he turned around to leave, I kicked him down the front steps. I never heard from him again.”

We all laughed. “Lizzie gave him the knee the first night they met. I gave him an upper cut to the jaw. We’ll probably never be allowed in that hotel again.”

“Fine by me,” I replied. “I don’t think I could go back there without remembering that night.”

“In time, it will get easier,” Kass assured me.

“Is it possible that someone in the group decided to carry out your plan after all this time?” Jake asked Sage.

“I guess, although I don’t know who it would be,” Sage said. “Three of them are married, and two of them moved away.”

“Do you know where they went?” I said.

Sage shook her head, but Kass apparently knew. “One moved to Albuquerque, and the other one moved to Dallas.”

“Maybe we should get in touch with the woman in Dallas,” I suggested. “She might know something.”

Kass shook her head. “I doubt she would talk to you, Lizzie. Ethan really did a number on her, and it took her a long time to get to the point where she could go out by herself. I was shocked when she moved so far away from her family. She insisted on it, saying she needed a fresh start.”

“Do you think she knew that Ethan had moved to Dallas, too?” Jake said.

“She’s lived there for two years. Dallas is a pretty big city. There’s no way they would have run into each other,” Kass replied.

“I think she would have known,” I said. “There was a big write up in all the local papers about the fundraiser, and his picture was featured in every article. There’s no way she could have missed seeing them, or even hearing about it from someone.”

“I’m sure Owen will want to talk to her,” Jake said, “considering her history with Ethan. He’ll want to rule her out as a suspect.”

“Her name is Marie Erickson,” Sage said, taking her phone out of her purse. “Here, this is her number.” She handed it to Jake, who entered the number into his phone. “Tell her I said it was okay to talk to you. She won’t talk to strangers, for obvious reasons.”

Kass looked at her watch. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment in about twenty minutes. It was nice meeting you, Lizzie,” she said, shaking my hand. “If you ever need to talk, give me a call.” She gave me her business card. “I’ll drop you off at your house on the way, Sage.”

Sage took one last bite of her chicken. “It was good to see you again, Jake. Don’t be a stranger! The kids would love to see you. Lizzie, take care of this lug.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I watched them leave. “Do you think they’re telling the truth?”

“Hard to say,” Jake shrugged. “Kass has always been a good liar.”

“And Sage?”

“She’s a follower. Whatever Kass said, Sage did. No questions asked.”

“We should talk to Owen.”

“I agree.” He signaled the waitress, who brought over the check. “Let’s go.”

Edward Winthrop was sitting at his desk, looking over some papers his lawyer had sent over, when his phone rang. “Winthrop.”

“You might have a problem,” a female voice told him.

“You’ll have to be more specific. Is this business or personal?”

“Ethan.”

“Oh, him. He’s hardly going to be a problem, darling. He’s a bit…under the weather at the moment.”

“What a crass and heartless thing to say about your own flesh and blood, Edward.”

“Don’t worry, my dear. I’m the perfect picture of a grieving father in public. But since it’s just the two of us, I hardly need to put on a pretense. We both hated him with equal venom.”

“Well, your façade may come crumbling down.”

“And why is that?”

“Because there are two people in town, asking questions, and they know more than you thought they did.”

“Mathias,” Edward growled.

“I’m afraid so, and Ethan’s latest victim is with him.”

“Elizabeth Crenshaw?”

“Jake calls her Lizzie.”

“Elizabeth, Lizzie, who cares? What do they know?”

It took a few minutes to tell Edward everything. “They also know about Marie.”

“How did they find out about that?”

“Sage gave them her contact information.”

Edward sighed. “Wonderful. I’m sure she thought she was being helpful.”

“Probably. What are we going to do?”

“
We
aren’t going to do anything. I will call Marie and tell her to disappear. Then I’ll deal with Jake and the Crenshaw woman.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure yet. Perhaps a face to face meeting is in order.”

“Is there anything you want me to do?”

“At the moment, no, Kassandra.”

“One more thing: they did talk to Ruthdale.”

“Lord, not her again.”

“She did tell them that Ethan had an alibi the night Jessica died.”

Edward threw his pen down. “That’s a complication I don’t need.”

“Do you think they will talk to Chief McDonald about it?”

“Knowing Jake, I would not be surprised, although right now, I imagine he’s trying to wrap his head around the fact that this alibi means Ethan didn’t kill that girl.”

“Things are unraveling a bit, don’t you think, Edward?” Kass replied.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, my dear. I’ll take care of things.”

“You aren’t going to…” she couldn’t bring herself to say what she was thinking.

“I’m not going to what? Kill them? Only if I have to…”

Chapter 20

After the discoveries at lunch, the rest of the afternoon was rather uneventful. We drove out to the cemetery, where Jake placed some red roses on Jessica’s grave. “Do you believe what Mrs. Simpkins told us?” I asked him as we stood there.

“About Ethan being with her the night Jessica was killed? Yes, I believe her. She’s not a liar.”

“I wonder if she told the police about his alibi.”

“I don’t think it would have mattered.”

“If it wasn’t Ethan, then who?”

Jake stared at the headstone for a minute, then turned around and started toward the SUV. “There’s only one person I can think of that would be callous enough to do it. But I can’t believe he would stoop that low to protect Ethan,” he said, opening the passenger door for me.

“Ethan’s father?”

He closed the door, and got in on his side before answering me. “Yeah. Edward had big plans for Ethan, and he did whatever he had to in order to protect his son’s future.”

“But murder, Jake?”

“He wouldn’t have done it himself, Lizzie. But he might have hired someone to do it. But again, that’s just crazy. I don’t think he would do that.” He started the SUV, and drove down the small cemetery road. “He just wouldn’t.”

“But we don’t know that for sure. Should we talk to the police about this?”

“And say what? That we think one of the town’s biggest benefactors might have killed a girl to protect his son? We can’t go to them without proof. And after all these years, I don’t know where to start.”

“Maybe T.J. could help.”

Jake snorted. “I’m not about to go to your boyfriend and ask him to dig around in a closed case.”

“It was just a thought.”

He reached over and squeezed my hand. “I appreciate it, Lizzie, really I do. But we don’t have anything to go on, just some hearsay. No one is going to re-open a case without solid proof.”

“Are we doing anything tonight?”

Jake shook his head. “Just a quiet night at home. I’m sure we can find a hockey game to watch. Let’s make some soup and sandwiches for supper, and we can eat while we watch the game.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men…

When I went to my room to change into some sweats, I found some packages on the bed, with a note from Jake’s mother.
I noticed that you didn’t have the appropriate clothes for the cold temperatures, so I did a little shopping this morning. I hope you don’t mind. Patricia

“Hey, Lizzie, there’s a pot of potato soup on the stove…what the heck is all this? Did Trixie send all this?”

“Your mother,” I said, handing him the note.

“Wow, she was busy this morning. It’s a good thing she did. It’s starting to snow.”

“I thought I saw some flakes falling when I came in.”

“It probably won’t be much, but we’re definitely in for the night. How about some grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the soup?”

“Sounds good to me. Let me grab my phone.” I reached into my purse, but instead of my phone, I pulled out a small gold box with a red ribbon wrapped around it. “How did you slip this into my bag without me knowing it?”

“I didn’t do it,” he said.

“Well, it wasn’t in there when we went out this morning.”

“Swear it wasn’t me.”

I had an overwhelming desire to chunk it out the window. Instead, I pulled the ribbon and let it drop to the floor. I looked at Jake before I opened the box. There was a small, folded note on top:
Just a little something to let you know I’m thinking of you. Ethan.
There was a necklace with a gold, heart-shaped charm under the note. “What the heck is going on? How am I still getting things from a dead man?!”

Jake took the box out of my hands, dropped it on the bed, and put his hands on my shoulders. “I don’t know, but I promise I will find out, okay? Trust me. I will find out,” he said, pulling me close to him.

“This nightmare is never going to end.”

“It will get better, but it will be something you’ll live with for the rest of your life. I wish I could make it all just disappear, but I can’t. And I could give you every cliché in the book, but it won’t help anything. You just have to take it one day at a time, Lizzie.” I didn’t say anything; I just let him hold me for a minute before he let me go. He picked up the box. “Why don’t you change into something more comfortable? I’m sure you’ve got those penguin pajama bottoms of yours around here somewhere. Put those on, and we’ll go downstairs to eat.”

“What are you going to do with that?” I said, pointing at the box.

“Find out where it came from, and who bought it.”

“What then?”

“Then I’m going to go knock their block off.”

An hour later, full of grilled cheese and soup, we settled on the couch to watch the Chicago Blackhawks at the Dallas Stars. Right in the middle of a fight between Toews and one of the Benn brothers, Garth showed up with a man in a police uniform. “Sorry to interrupt you, but Chief McDonald was rather insistent that he talk to you.”

“It’s fine, Garth,” Jake said, muting the TV as he stood up. “Greg, it’s been a while.”

“Yes it has, Jake,” Greg replied as they shook hands.

“This is a friend of mine, Lizzie Crenshaw.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking my hand.

“Have a seat,” Jake said as he sat back down on the couch. “What brings you out here on a night like this?”

“Well, I understand you had a conversation with Ruthdale Simpkins earlier today.”

“Yes, we did.”

“May I ask what you talked about?”

“General stuff,” Jake replied. “I was hoping she wouldn’t tell Lizzie any embarrassing stories about my high school years.”

“Anything else?”

“We might have talked about Ethan Winthrop. She was not aware that he was dead.”

“I don’t think many people are,” Greg said. “Edward has kept a pretty tight lid on it.”

“Why do you want to know all this?” I asked him.

“I got a 911 call from a concerned citizen this afternoon. They went by to see Ruthdale, but she didn’t come to the door. When they looked in the window, they saw her facedown on the living room floor, not moving. EMS and a couple of officers responded to the call, but when they got inside, Mrs. Simpkins was beyond help.”

“Oh dear Lord, that poor woman,” I said.

“Did she have a heart attack?” Jake asked him.

“Well, that’s up to the M.E. to determine, but I can honestly say if she suffered a heart attack, it was while someone was stabbing her to death.”

I gasped, and Jake put his hand on my arm. “So how did you end up here?”

“Annabeth mentioned that she had seen you talking to Mrs. Simpkins earlier today. I wanted to follow up, see what you talked about, find out if it had anything to do with her death. You said you talked about Ethan Winthrop. Anything in particular you discussed?”

Jake and I looked at each other. I shrugged. “Is this pertinent to the investigation?” Jake said.

“Is there some reason why you don’t want to tell me?” Greg replied.

“Well, there is a murder investigation going on back home,” he said. “Anything we might have learned could be important to that case.”

“Are you asking questions about Ethan on behalf of local law enforcement there?”

“We’re unofficially nosing around.”

“I don’t appreciate people nosing around in any kind of investigation.”

“Oh, would you two knock it off?” I said, shaking my head. “You’re acting like a couple of idiots.”

“At least one of you is being level headed,” Greg remarked.

“There’s no reason not to tell him, Jake. The worst he is going to do is tell us we’re idiots. What if he actually wants to hear what we think?”

Jake threw his hands in the air. “Fine, do whatever you want,” he said, sitting back on the couch with his arms crossed.

Greg looked at Jake, then at me. “I doubt I’ll say you’re idiots, Ms. Crenshaw, but anything that you tell me will be confidential.”

“We were talking to Mrs. Simpkins about Ethan, and she mentioned that he was not a very nice person, even back in high school. A young woman was murdered when Ethan and Jake were in high school.”

“Yes, I know about Jessica.”

“He should,” Jake snorted. “He’s married to Jessica’s older sister.”

“It’s a shame they were never able to prove that Ethan killed her,” Greg said. “Vicky always said she knew he did it.”

“But he didn’t,” I said quickly.

“Excuse me?” Greg replied.

Jake cleared his throat. “The night Jessica was killed, Ethan was in Mrs. Simpkins’ class. It was part of an agreement she made with Edward in order to make sure Ethan graduated on time.”

“Was she sure about this?”

“She was positive,” I told him.

“Wow,” Greg said quietly.

“Yeah,” Jake said. “I felt the same way when she told us that.”

“Does anyone else know about this?”

“Kassandra Sherwood and Sage Kingsley,” Jake said. “We had lunch with them right after we talked to Mrs. Simpkins.”

“I’ll talk to them tomorrow. What can you tell me about the investigation into Ethan’s murder?”

Between the two of us, we told him what we knew, leaving out the part that concerned me. He asked for Owen’s contact information, which I gave him. “Are you going to re-open Jessica’s case, Greg?” Jake asked him.

“I’ll pull out the file, see what it has to say. I’m not sure if they ever looked for any other suspects or not. Everyone was sure that it was Ethan. There just wasn’t any proof.”

“Surely he provided them with his alibi?” I said.

“Again, I don’t know,” Greg said. He looked at Jake. “Did you have an alibi for that night?”

“I was in the hospital having my appendix out.”

“That’s easy enough to prove, if you don’t mind giving me permission to look at your medical records.”

“Be my guest.”

“Just curious, but how can you be so sure about where you were?” Greg said.

“Because I was supposed to be with Jessica that night, studying for a history test. My appendix burst that morning, and I was in the hospital. You don’t forget something like that, no matter how many years go by.”

“You feel guilty,” Greg replied.

“Yes, I do. I always will,” Jake told him.

Greg looked at me. “What’s your stake in all this?”

“Personal.”

“This is a murder investigation, Ms. Crenshaw. Nothing is really personal.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Now who’s being an idiot?”

“Greg,” Jake said sharply.

I pulled up the sleeve of my shirt and showed him the bruises. “This is my stake in all this, Chief McDonald. He assaulted me twice. And even though the man is dead, someone is still sending me flowers and gifts with notes signed with his name. Someone is still terrorizing me in his name. So I’d say I have a pretty big stake in this, wouldn’t you?”

“I’d say it makes you a prime suspect, Ms. Crenshaw.”

“Good thing I’ve been cleared, Chief, and I certainly have no reason to kill Mrs. Simpkins.”

“Was anything stolen from her house?” Jake said.

The chief shook his head. “Not a thing. This was personal.”

“Do you think it’s because of what she told us? About Ethan having an alibi that night?” I asked him.

“I’d say that’s a strong possibility.”

“So who had the most to lose by Ethan’s alibi getting out?” Jake wondered.

“Whoever killed Jessica,” Greg said.

Garth came in again, this time holding a phone. “It’s a call for you,” he said, holding the phone out to Jake.

“Who is it?”

“Edward Winthrop.”

He arched an eyebrow as he took the phone from Garth. He held one finger up to his lips, telling us to be quiet, and put the phone on speaker. “Good evening, Edward.”

“Jake, I was wondering if you and Ms. Crenshaw would care to join me tomorrow at my cabin? I’m having a few people over for our annual winter get together. I know we’ve made other arrangements, but I’m sure Ms. Crenshaw would love to get a closer view of our lovely mountains. There will be plenty of food and people you know.”

“I’m curious about something. Why are you suddenly inviting me to your little shindig? You’ve never asked me before.”

“Good point. Very well, if you must know the truth, you and your friend were among the last few people to have seen my son before he died. I just want to talk to you, see what he was up to, make sure he was happy.”

I resisted the urge to snort. “You could just ask me over the phone,” Jake pointed out.

“Humor me,” Edward replied.

Jake looked at me, and I shrugged. “Fine, we’ll be there tomorrow.”

“Excellent. I can’t wait to see you, and you as well, Ms. Crenshaw.” He hung up chuckling.