Mattress Mart Murder (7 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Just as Chloe was ready to leave the crime scene, she got a phone call from her friend. 

“Kristina, I didn’t expect to hear from you this soon,” Chloe said, into the phone.

“Time is not exactly on my side,” Kristina replied. 

“So, how has the internet been treating you?”

“Very well.”

“That’s nice to hear.  You must have caught it on a good day.”

“By the way, when this is over, remind me to delete my social media accounts.”

“Any particular reason why?” Chloe asked. 

“Looking back, I can’t believe some of the things I’ve posted,” Kristina replied. 

Chloe laughed.  “If it makes you feel any better, you’re not the first person to ever say that.”

“I’m serious.  The internet knows too much about me.”

“Kristina, you’re supposed to be digging up dirt on the other suspects.”

“I’ve been doing that as well.  It turns out the internet knows even more about those suspects, and now so do I.”

“What do you have for me?” Chloe asked. 

“To start, the address of Jason Diamond’s apartment,” Kristina revealed. 

While Kristina was talking, Chloe heard arguing coming from the mattress mart. 

Chloe put her phone conversation on hold and focused on what was going on at the mattress mart.  She saw Marty’s mistress, Jennifer Carter, rush out the front door looking completely outraged.  Following closely behind her was Marty’s wife, Delia Diamond. 

Delia scolded Jennifer.   

“That’s right, who got the better of who now?” Delia asked. 

Jennifer then turned around and glared at Delia. 

“You’re an even bigger witch than Marty said you were.  No wonder he was so happy when I came into his life,” Jennifer taunted. 

Delia blew her top.  “Get out of here, and don’t ever come back.”

“Fire me all you want.  I’ll take you to court for wrongful termination,” Jennifer insisted. 

“Do that and I’ll crush you.  No one gets the best of Delia Diamond.”

Jennifer then huffed away to her car.   

Delia stared daggers into Jennifer’s back the entire time.

Meanwhile, back in the parking lot, Chloe whispered into her phone.  “Text me Walter’s address.”

“Why don’t you just write it down now?” Kristina asked, over the phone.

“Because I have Delia Diamond in my sights,” Chloe answered. 

“Give her the business,” Kristina insisted.

***

With Delia Diamond so focused on glaring at Jennifer Carter, it gave Chloe the perfect opportunity to catch her off guard.  Delia didn’t even notice Chloe approaching. 

“Mrs. Diamond,” Chloe said. 

Delia clutched her chest, completely startled. 

“What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?  You scared me half to death.”

“I’m sorry about that.  There’s been enough death in your family recently.”

Delia was very combative.  “What do you know about that?”

“I just wanted to share my condolences.  I’m very sorry for your loss.”

Delia’s mood didn’t soften in the least.  She was short with Chloe again.  “Who are you?  More importantly, how did you know my husband?”

With all that happened at the barbecue yesterday, she apparently didn’t see Chloe.  That could work to Chloe’s advantage. 

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t sleeping with your husband.  It seemed like Jennifer Carter had the market cornered on that,” Chloe said. 

Delia went into a rage.  “Why would you bring that up?” 

The reason was simple. People tended to get careless with their words the more emotional they became.  So if Chloe was able to push Delia to the emotional brink, maybe Delia would let something slip out. 

There was a flip side to that coin however.  Intentionally pushing people’s buttons could lead to explosive and possibly dangerous results.  Delia was a murder suspect after all.  If she had killed her husband, who was to say she wouldn’t do the same again?  Chloe had to take that chance. 

Chloe steamrolled right by Delia’s question.

“I can’t help but notice how quickly you fired Jennifer,” Chloe said. 

“It’s my company.  I can do what I want,” Delia barked. 

“That’s right.  With your husband dead, you inherit his company.”

“His company?  I was there with him every step of the way, through the good, bad, and very ugly.  The company has always been just as much mine.”

Chloe managed to rile Delia up even more than she expected.  Delia practically flew off the handle.  Things were getting explosive.  Maybe a little too much so.  Delia was full of rage.  Chloe would have to proceed with caution. 

At the same time, it turned out Delia wasn’t quite done yet.  “How dare you come to my business and insult me.  I should…”

She stopped herself before going completely off the deep end. 

Chloe tried to egg her on.  “You should what?”

Delia flipped the script.  “You should be going.  I have work to do.” 

Delia turned around to go back into the building. 

Chloe saw her chance slipping away.  She had to do something. 

“Don’t you have something better to do than work on a day like this?  Like maybe planning your husband’s funeral arrangements?”

That got Delia’s attention like never before.  She whirled around in a rage.  “Who do you think you are?”

“I’m just a woman who is trying to find your husband’s killer.”

Delia looked closer at Chloe.  “Wait a minute.  You were part of the lineup this morning.”

Chloe nodded.  “I’m the only one with a verifiable alibi, unlike you.  Not only is your alibi flimsy, but have plenty of motive for wanting your husband dead.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I didn’t kill him.”

“That’s right.  You were at home.  What did you do all night?”

“I answered the police’s questions.  I don’t have to answer yours,” Delia insisted. 

“You should though,” Chloe reasoned. 

Delia folded her arms.  “Why?”

“Your answers weren’t enough for the police to take you off their list of suspects.  If you truly didn’t do it, you should help me bring the killer to justice.”

“I’m going to leave this to the professionals.”

“There’s no reason to be this evasive, unless you have something to hide.  And let me tell you, secrets have a way of coming out eventually,” Chloe said. 

“If you want to find the killer, you should be talking to Jennifer Carter right now,” Delia suggested. 

“What makes you so sure of that?”

“Some people are just bad apples, and she’s rotten to the core.”

That kind of statement begged for a follow up. 

Just as Chloe opened her mouth to reply, Delia shut her down. 

“I have to get back to work now,” Delia said. 

Delia then closed the front door of the mattress mart and locked it before Chloe was able to get a sentence out. 

Chloe sighed and vented to herself.  “That could have gone much better.”

Chapter Seventeen

Chloe decided to go after Jennifer Carter next.  Not only had Delia Diamond thrown her under the bus, but after being recently fired, Jennifer was most likely an emotional mess.  That made it the perfect time to try and wring information out of her.

Chloe was hoping she wouldn’t have to confront Jennifer at home.  That was the worst case scenario.  So many things could go wrong.  First, Jennifer could just refuse to answer her door.  Even if she did open up, at the first sign of trouble she could slam the door in Chloe’s face. 

Luckily, Kristina Miller was able to track down on social media that Jennifer was at her favorite java joint in Dennis Port.  This was a perfect set up for Chloe.  A public place was ideal to question Jennifer.  Even more, it would allow Chloe to sneak up on Jennifer. 

When Chloe arrived at Java Jake’s, she did a quick scan of the place.  It was hopping.  Almost every table was full. Most of the customers were busy sipping their lattes with their heads buried in their smartphones or laptops.  Everyone was busy talking, just to their electronic devices instead of each other.   

Jennifer was no different.  She was so focused on her laptop that she didn’t notice Chloe coming up behind her.  Chloe peeked over Jennifer’s shoulder and saw a job site open on her laptop.  As she looked at the other tabs on Jennifer’s internet browser, she saw one for a law office, as well as her social media profile page. 

“Looking for a job, huh?” Chloe asked.

Jennifer slammed her laptop closed and turned to Chloe. 

“Were you just looking at my screen?” Jennifer snapped. 

“What’s the matter?  Do you have something to hide?” Chloe asked. 

Jennifer glared.  “How rude.” 

“This is a public place.  If you don’t want things to be seen, you should hide them better.”

“I didn’t expect anyone to be poking around in my stuff.”  Jennifer stared closer.  Suddenly, a look of recognition came to her face.  “The least of which you.”

“You’re a murder suspect--”

“So are you.  I saw you at the lineup today,” Jennifer said. 

“Then you know I have a verifiable alibi, which is more than I can say for you,” Chloe replied. 

“What are you trying to pull here?”

“I’m just trying to find Marty Diamond’s killer.”

“Then you came to the wrong place.”

Jennifer put her phone back in her purse and grabbed her laptop, eager to make a quick exit. 

“In a hurry?” Chloe asked. 

“I can’t wait to get away from you.”

“Just so you know, it doesn’t matter where you go.  As a murder suspect, you should expect every aspect of your life to be under intense scrutiny from now on,” Chloe insisted. 

“Keep your advice to yourself, and stay out of my life,” Jennifer declared. 

Jennifer then walked away. 

Chloe wasn’t about to give up that easily.  She followed Jennifer out of the coffee shop.

Once outside, Chloe called out.  “Why are you running?  It only makes you look guilty.”

Jennifer kept walking, but yelled back as she moved.  “I don’t have to talk to you.  You’re not a police officer.”

“Don’t you want to hear what Delia Diamond said about you?”

Jennifer stopped dead in your tracks all of a sudden. 

“What’s the matter, did I touch a nerve?”

Jennifer turned around.  “You shouldn’t listen to anything that woman tells you.”

“Even if she said that to find her husband’s killer, you’d be the person to talk to?” Chloe asked. 

Jennifer let her hatred for Delia Diamond get the best of her.  Chloe was able to catch up with her as Jennifer went nuclear.

“I can’t believe she said that about me,” Jennifer replied. 

“Why not?  You were sleeping with her husband.”

“Why would I want to kill Marty?  I loved him…more than she did.”

“Maybe that’s the problem.  You loved him, but Marty loved money more than anything.  Definitely more than you.  And we all know what can happen when love goes wrong.”

“How dare you accuse me or murder?  The fact is, it’s Delia that you should be after.”

Chloe laughed. 

Jennifer became more outraged.  “What’s so funny?”

“How quickly you threw each other under the bus.  Just because you want her to be guilty, doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“Delia doesn’t exactly have a rock solid alibi.”

“Neither do you.  Especially now,” Chloe said. 

Jennifer was confused.  “What are you talking about?”

“For someone who supposedly was asleep at ten o’clock last night, you sure have some serious bags under your eyes.  And when you throw in that jumbo-sized java you had at the coffee shop, it looks like you went to sleep really late rather than really early.”

“I put in a lot of late nights lately.  Last night, I tried making up for it.  Guess it wasn’t enough to make the bags go away.”

“Really, you’re going to try to fool a cosmetics saleswoman with that story?  Why don’t you tell me what you were really doing at the time of the murder?” Chloe asked. 

“I already told the police I was sleeping.  Why don’t you go back to selling makeup and get out of my life?” Jennifer suggested. 

With that, Jennifer got in her car and drive away. 

Chloe sighed. 

Even though she didn’t get the answers, she wanted knew it could be worse.  At least she didn’t have a door slammed in her face this time.   

Chapter Eighteen

Walter Gold would make for an interesting interrogation.  Part of that was because Chloe would be confronting him at his job.  The other part was the fact that Walter decided to show up to work in the first place.  There was an added wrinkle as well.  With the news breaking overnight of Walter’s illegitimate daughter, he was juggling more things at once than the average murder suspect. 

When Chloe arrived at the Gold Family Mattress Emporium, she didn’t quite know what to expect.  She wouldn’t be surprised to find a mob of angry townsfolk with pitchforks in hand ready to storm the castle, metaphorically of course. 

Chloe pulled into the parking lot and saw the opposite was the case.  The place looked like a ghost town.  Chloe appeared to be the only customer in sight, and she didn’t even come to buy anything, the least of which a set of lies. 

The showroom wasn’t any better.  The place was completely dead.  Chloe didn’t see a single soul, employee or otherwise.  If the front door wasn’t unlocked, Chloe would have thought the place was closed. 

Then, cutting through the silence, was the sound of yelling coming from the back room.  One voice was unmistakable—it belonged to Walter Gold.  The other voice was female, and judging by the content of their conversation, it sounded like his wife. 

Chloe crept up as close to the back room as she could get so she could listen in on the argument without being spotted.  The back room had a door leading to it with a porthole window that allowed Chloe to watch Walter and his wife go at it.  Walter’s wife was a blonde woman in her mid-fifties with a full figure. 

What a blistering fight they were having. 

“I don’t want to hear your excuses anymore,” Walter’s Wife yelled. 

“I made a mistake,” Walter argued.

His wife wouldn’t let him get in the rest of his thought.   “This was more than just a mistake.  It changes everything.”

“I’m sorry.  Tell me what I can do to make this right and I’ll do it.”

“You can get out of my life.  There’s no fixing this,” Walter’s Wife declared. 

“Come on.  It happened over twenty years ago,” Walter insisted. 

“And we’re still paying for it.  That was our money you were using to pay her off with.  I want it back, as well as half of everything else.  I’ll see you in court, you scumbag.”

“But--”

Walter tried to reason with his wife, but it was no use.  The woman stormed out the back door. 

Walter stood alone for a moment, then burst into a fit of rage and kicked the wall.  Things couldn’t seem worse for him.  He was a murder suspect, his marriage was imploding, and his reputation as a family man had been forever smeared.  His wife was determined to take half of everything, but it was unclear how much money would be left. 

This scandal was pure poison for the emporium. The Gold Mattress Emporium prided itself on being a family business.  Walter painted himself in commercials as a family man.  The revelation that Walter had an affair that results in an illegitimate kid all but killed the image that he was a man who put family values first. 

Back in the showroom, Chloe started wondering if maybe she’d come at the wrong time.  She was happier than ever to have taken self-defense classes in the past.  Still, she was still hoping she wouldn’t have to use them.  Given Walter’s mood, she couldn’t be sure. 

***

After Walter’s outburst, he stormed out the back door as well.  Chloe decided to leave the show room and confront Walter at the back of the building.  When Chloe caught up with him, Walter was smoking a cigarette beside the back door. 

“It’s been a rough couple of days for you,” Chloe said. 

Seeing how irritable Walter was, Chloe kept a safe distance. 

“Were you just listening in on my conversation?” Walter barked. 

“Anyone standing in that showroom could hear everything you and your wife were arguing about.  I just happened to be the only one in there at the time.”

“Why did you come here, just to stir up trouble?”

“By the looks of it, trouble went and boiled over without me.  I’m just trying to figure out what you’re doing showing up to work today, pretending like everything is business as usual.  The only person you’re fooling is yourself,” Chloe insisted. 

Walter threw his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out.  “I don’t have to take this.  I have customers to get back to.”

“Really?  I was just in there, and customers are in short supply. Face it, Marty Diamond killer your business.  The question is, did you kill him to return the favor?”

Walter glared.  “You have a lot of nerve.”

“And you have a gap in your story,” Chloe pointed out.

“What are you talking about?” he snapped. 

The more out of control Walter’s emotions got, the calmer Chloe tried to stay.  She was hoping cooler heads truly did prevail. 

“At first you lied to the police and told them you were at home with your wife at the time of the murder.  When pressed, you finally told the truth, that you stayed at your rental property last night,” Chloe said. 

“So?” Walter asked. 

“So the only reason you would have stayed at the rental property was because your wife kicked you out of the house.  The story about your illegitimate daughter didn’t come out in the news until this morning though.  So according to your own alibi, your wife must have found out about the illegitimate daughter sometime before ten o’clock.  There’s no way you were the one to tell your wife the news, which means Marty must have told her after the barbecue.”

“None of this proves anything,” Walter insisted. 

Chloe pressed on.  “Except that it means at some point last night you were driving around livid after being kicked out of your house, all because Marty Diamond revealed your darkest secret to your wife.  And you expect me to believe that you didn’t swing by Marty’s Mattress Mart and get your revenge on him?”

Walter gave Chloe a death stare, then threatened her. 

“Get off my property or I’m going to call the police.”

Chloe shook her head.  “No you won’t.  The last thing you want is for the police is to show up.”

“We’re done here,” Walter declared.

Walter then stormed back into the mattress emporium and locked the door.

When Chloe went around the front, she saw that he’d locked that door as well.  It was clear Chloe wasn’t going to get any more information out of Walter, so she decided to move on to the next suspect.