Mattress Mart Murder (6 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Chloe’s conversation with the detective brought a new sense of urgency to the case.  This was no longer just about Marty Diamond being murdered.  It was much more personal now.  Kristina’s freedom was at stake.   

The clock was ticking.  It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Kristina was arrested.  Unfortunately, Chloe found that it was impossible to talk sense into the detective.  Todd Thicke appeared determined to send the wrong person to jail for the murder. 

Chloe couldn’t let that happen. At the same time, she had another fire to put out.  Kristina was a total basket case.  Chloe went over to comfort her.  She pulled her friend aside and tried to stop her from shaking.   

“What am I going to do now?” Kristina asked.

“You can start by calming down,” Chloe said. 

“How can I possibly do that?  Did you hear the detective?  He thinks I did this.”

Chloe sighed.  “He sure does.”

“I didn’t kill Marty,” Kristina insisted. 

“I know you didn’t.”

Kristina looked deep into Chloe’s eyes. “Seriously, I need you to know I didn’t do this.  I could never murder anyone.”

“I know.  But here’s the thing, you don’t have to convince me.  You need to convince the detective,” Chloe said.     

Kristina put her head in her hands.  “How am I supposed to do that?”

Chloe bit the corner of her lip.  “I’m not quite sure right now.  What I know is you didn’t do yourself any favors by coming here last night.  What were you thinking, coming here?”

“Look, I didn’t know Marty was going to be murdered after I left.”

“I know, but why would you come here in the middle of the night?”

“I wanted to give myself some time to cool off after the barbecue.  More importantly, I wanted to give him some time too.  Besides, at night was the only time I could catch him alone.  During the day, he’s always so frantic.”

“So, what happened when you talked to him?” Chloe asked. 

“I asked for my job back.  I pleaded with him.”

“And what did he say?”

“No.”

“Then what did you do?” Chloe wondered. 

“I left,” Kristina said. 

“That’s it?” Chloe asked. 

Kristina nodded. 

Chloe groaned.  “This is a mess.” 

“Tell me about it.  Before this morning, I’d never talked to a police detective in my entire life.  Now one thinks that I committed murder.”

“I’ll get you through this,” Chloe insisted. 

“How?”

That was much harder to answer.   At that moment, Kristina didn’t need more harsh realities.  She was due for a glimmer of hope, however dim. 

“I’ll find a way,” Chloe said. 

Kristina could see that Chloe was keeping something from her.  She had to know what it was. 

“Chloe, what are you thinking?” Kristina asked. 

“We can’t rely on the police to solve this case,” Chloe revealed. 

“If not the police, then who is going to find the real killer?”

Chloe got a fire in her eyes.  “We’ll have to take things into our own hands.”

“Wait a minute.  Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Chloe stared deep into her friend’s eyes with a new sense of resolve.  “I’m going to find the real killer.”

“You?”

Chloe nodded.  “I’m not going to let you go to jail for a crime you didn’t commit.  The only way to prove your innocence is to find out who really murdered Marty Diamond.”

“Ok, but how are you going to do that?”

“I’m still working on that part.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Go home.  Dig up everything you can on the suspects.  Blogs, social media, internet searches--spare no expense.  Find anything and everything that might help solve this case,” Chloe explained.   

“What are you going to do in the meantime?” Kristina wondered.

“Put my thoughts in order,” Chloe said. 

Chapter Fourteen

Chloe grabbed a nice, filling lunch to get enough energy to carry her through the day.  She needed all the help she could get.  A bowl of clam chowder with a few warm, buttery biscuits hit the spot.  After that, she head to Pie Paradise for a quick desert and to settle her thoughts.  

Shannon McGraw, Chloe’s friend and the owner of Pie Paradise, had plenty of thoughts on the events of the morning.  

“I can’t believe there was a murder in town,” Shannon said, from behind the counter. 

“You obviously never got to see Marty Diamond’s uncanny ability to send people into a murderous rage,” Chloe replied. 

“No, the only Marty Diamond I know is the smooth-talking huckster from TV with the embarrassingly low budget commercials.”

“I wish the only Marty I knew was that walking punchline.  Unfortunately, this situation is no laughing matter.”

“It’s still crazy to me that a murder has taken place in the Cape.  We’re a peaceful beach town.  We’ve worked hard building that quaint little reputation.  Something like this could scare the tourists away faster than a shark attack,” Shannon said. 

“What’s worse is that the killer is still on the loose,” Chloe replied. 

“And of all people, you’ve made it your mission to find them.”

“I know it’s not every day that you hear about cosmetics saleswomen cracking murder cases.”

Shannon interrupted.  “Every day?  Try every lifetime.  You’re in completely uncharted territory here, like a makeup-selling Magellan.”

“I have to try.  Every time I think about Kristina possibly being put behind bars, my stomach turns.”

“I get queasy as well, but how exactly are you planning on solving this case?”

“I’ve read a lot of mystery books in my life, so I know the general layout of an investigation,” Chloe explained. 

“Really?  I read a lot of medical dramas, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to try performing brain surgery anytime soon,” Shannon joked. 

Chloe pretended she didn’t hear that last remark and got right into the case.

“We both know if the killer was smart, they would have worn gloves, or wiped the prints off the knife before they tossed it into the dumpster.”

Shannon smiled.  “You really have read a lot of mystery novels, haven’t you?”

Chloe pressed on with her train of thought.  “That means there’s only one other surefire way to guarantee a conviction.  By getting a confession out of the killer.”

“Let’s say you’re right.  How are you going to get someone to confess to murder?”

“The detective said it himself, people say the craziest things when they’re backed into a corner.”

“Tell me about it.  One of my ex-boyfriend’s admitted that he wet the bed until he was twelve after being backed into a corner,” Shannon said. 

Chloe grimaced.  “That’s too much information.”

Shannon smiled through her teeth.  “Way too much, even now.  The point is, backing people into a corner can have all kinds of interesting results.  But be careful, things can get hairy when you confront people.”

“I’m a sales woman.  I can talk my way into and out of almost anything.”

“What if this time you can’t?”

“Then those self-defense classes I took a few years ago will come in awfully handy.”

“You’re prepared for everything, aren’t you?” Shannon asked. 

“I hope so.”

“Want some pie for the road?”

“You sure know my weakness.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Shannon said. 

“One thing is for sure.  When this case is over, there will be a very unpleasant date with my treadmill in my future,” Chloe replied. 

***

As she got ready to dive into the case, Chloe knew she had her hands full.  Finding the killer would take some serious sleuthing.  There was a lot working against her.  For one, she was at best a gumshoe.  In addition, thus far the killer had outsmarted professional detectives. 

Despite that, Chloe had to crack this case.  No matter how long the odds were, she needed to find a way.  She couldn’t let her friend go to jail for a crime she didn’t commit. 

It was time to buckle down.  Before she did any investigating, she had to straighten things up in her mind.  There were so many suspects to juggle, all with equally strong reasons to want Marty out of the picture. 

Chloe went through them one by one.  She started with Delia Diamond.  Marty’s wife had a number of motives for wanting him dead.  The obvious one was that he was a lying cheater that threw away over twenty years of marriage to jump into bed with a receptionist half his age.  If that wasn’t enough, when Delia threatened divorce, Marty promised a long, contentious battle in divorce court.  Now that her husband was dead, Delia stood to inherit the lion’s share of his fortune.  If anything, it seemed like Delia’s life was better with her husband out of the picture.  But was Delia the beneficiary of someone else’s dirty work, or was she Marty’s real killer? 

Next on the list of suspects was Marty’s son Stewart Diamond.  Stewart had plenty of motive as well.  To start, when Stewart found out about his father’s affair, he immediately went to comfort his mother while giving his father a glaring look of disapproval. In addition, his father had put him in a no-win situation when it came to his relationship.   Either Stewart dumped his girlfriend Lucy, or his father would take him out of his will.  With Marty out of the picture however, Stewart would be able to keep both his girlfriend and his inheritance.  Was that motive enough to kill for?

Stewart’s girlfriend Lucy Lemke was next on the list.  Lucy had also been put into a no-win situation as well.  Thanks to Marty’s ultimatum, she could find herself dumped in favor of her boyfriend looking to hold onto his inheritance.  There was more though.  Lucy’s father Patrick had a history with Marty.  When a pile of mattresses fell on Patrick in the mattress mart warehouse, Patrick tried to sue for fair compensation.  Marty’s lawyer made sure Patrick go the lowest settlement possible.  Patrick and Lucy Lemke had been holding a grudge ever since.  Was that grudge bitter enough to drive Lucy to commit murder?    

Then there was Jennifer Carter.  Jennifer wasn’t just Marty’s receptionist at the mattress mart, she was also his scorned mistress.  Jennifer had the look of a woman that had designs on sleeping her way to the top.  But after their affair came out at the barbecue yesterday, it became clear that Jennifer had serious feelings for Marty.  So much so that when Marty told his wife he wanted to try and make their marriage work for business reasons, Jennifer went into a rage.  The question is, how far did that anger take her?

Speaking of a rage, Walter Gold had plenty of it to spare.  To start, Walter was Marty’s chief rival in the mattress game.  When it came to selling the most mattresses, there was no love lost between them.  There was a deeper hatred that fueled their rivalry however.  Walter was the one to expose the affair between Marty and Jennifer to Marty’s wife.  In retaliation, Marty threatened to release the Candice McDowell story to the papers.  With the scandal of Walter’s illegitimate daughter splashed all over the news, clearly Marty had followed up on his threat.  Marty ruined Walter’s marriage and reputation with the story.  Did Walter kill Marty to retaliate?

Finally, there was the mystery man, Jason Diamond.  Jason was the wild card in this case. Chloe found out yesterday that he was Marty’s nephew.  Then this morning, Chloe discovered Jason was an ex-convict.  Jason did not have a clear motive for wanting Marty dead.  What he did have was a rap sheet.  Chloe knew that if someone had committed a crime in the past, it wasn’t too much of a leap to assume that they could commit another crime if given the chance.  Did it happen this time?

Chloe had plenty of questions, but very few answers.  By the end of the day, she was hoping that would change.  In the meantime, there was plenty of work to do. 

Chapter Fifteen

Chloe’s first stop was the scene of the crime.  She wanted to see if maybe the police missed something during their investigation.  Any clues Chloe could find were welcome at this point.  Chloe had no idea what, if anything, she’d be able to turn up at the crime scene, but she had to try. 

As Chloe pulled up to the parking lot of Marty Mattress Mart, the police were gone.  The question was, had anything important been left behind?  Before she had a chance to poke around, she saw Jason Diamond, the mystery man and ex-convict, on the other side of the parking lot. 

Jason was rooting through the dumpster that was adjacent to the back door of the mattress mart.  How curious to find one of the murder suspects back at the scene of the crime skulking around.  All kinds of red flags went off in Chloe’s mind.  This was highly suspicious.  Not to mention quite bold. 

Chloe had plenty of questions for Jason to begin with.  Suddenly she had even more.  She also had an unexpected opportunity here.  If she played her cards right, she could sneak up behind him and corner him. 

Chloe did her best to keep as quiet as possible as she approached Jason on the other end of the parking lot.  All her efforts ended up being for not however, as Jason suddenly started looking around, as paranoid as could be.

With that, Chloe’s element of surprise was gone.  The moment Jason spotted her, his eyes opened wide.

There was no cornering him now.  Chloe had to try and make her words count. 

“Funny running into you here.  Did you leave something behind last night?” she asked. 

Instead of answering, Jason made a break for it, fleeing from the scene.   

That was not the response she’d anticipated.  She expected him to at least say something.  Jason meanwhile seemed content to let his feet do the talking for him. 

Chloe said the first thing that came to her mind.  “Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

It was incredible.  All of a sudden, Jason couldn’t wait to put as much distance between himself and the scene of the crime as possible.  The man went into a full-on sprint.

Chloe began to run after him, shouting at him as she tailed him. 

“I’m talking to you.  You can run but you can’t hide.”

Chloe was no match for Jason’s speed.  Even if she had running shoes on, it wouldn’t be enough to catch up with him.  Realizing how fruitless her pursuit was, she decided to return to the crime scene, and resolved to catch up with him later. 

***

When she got back to the parking lot, Chloe headed directly for the dumpster.  Talk about a strange moment in her life.  Never before had Chloe been in such a hurry to get to a dumpster.  Ah, the things she did to exonerate her friend from a murder charge. 

Unfortunately, after five minutes of rooting around, she didn’t find anything. What a raw deal.  There she was, literally rummaging around in trash, and she had nothing to show for it. Chloe wasn’t sure if that was because Jason had found what he was looking for and pocketed it before he fled the scene.  There was also the possibility that the police had dug up every shred of evidence available from the crime scene.  The last option was that there was nothing of value left to find in that dumpster in the first place.  Chloe had no idea which was the truth. 

The rest of the parking lot provided no answers either.  Despite nearly twenty minutes of scouring, Chloe ended up completely empty-handed.  Yikes.  This was not the best start to her sleuthing career.