PENITENCE: An Andi Comstock Supernatural Mystery, Book 2 (95,893 words) (28 page)

“Davis couldn’t see straight, he was so ga-ga over that damned piece of property she owned next to the infill parcel.” Helen sneered. “My husband never could keep business separate from pleasure.”

Denise owned the property adjacent to the land she and Davis feuded over? And Davis had been hot to trot for Denise? That was news to Andi. Clem had been pretty insistent that Davis had been a thorn in Denise’s side. Did that have to do with more than the battle over the infill project? “Are you sure she owns that property?”

“Of course, I’m sure. The bitch inherited it from her parents, along with a lot of other odd properties around the city.”

“You and Davis were good friends with the Naylors before all of the acrimony cropped up over the infill.”

“We were, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Clem said he met with you, trying to figure out a way to mend the fences between Denise and Davis.”

“I suppose you could say that.”

“And yet you refer to Denise as a bitch. Isn’t it difficult to be friends with someone you dislike so much you call her names?”

“
Andi—
” Jack said again from the sidelines, but Helen cut him off.

“I didn’t always dislike her. That started when she came on to Davis.”

Andi didn’t want to hear more of Helen’s dogged insistence to blame Denise. “Was there some other reason you met with Clem behind Denise and Davis’s backs?”

“No, of course not.”

“
Andi—
”

“Weren’t you trying seduce him?”

The side of her mouth curved up in a triumphant smile. “I didn’t just try. If Davis hadn’t come home unexpectedly that day, it would have been a
fait accompli
.”

“Clem said you took off for the store and your husband picked up where you left off.”

Helen’s features turned to stone. “The Naylors are nothing but liars. They were trying to steal Davis away from me.”

Andi sneaked a look at Jack. He had a frown on his face, but he was scribbling madly in his notebook, so something Helen had to say interested him. “How so?”

“Davis told me Clem came on to him after I left. He said Clem suggested he come over to his house and they could do Denise together.”

“That’s not true.”

Helen snickered. “Right. You know because you were there, hiding in a corner, watching them.”

“Well, no, but Clem told me what happened. He and Davis had a drink and your husband told him he was tired of feuding with Denise. He wanted it to end, especially because he’d located some documents that substantiated her claims opposing the proposed project.”

Helen remained mute, though her moue of distaste spoke for itself.

“Clem said Davis started to cry. He didn’t know what to do, so he man-hugged him and Davis started rubbing his back and he got a…well, he had an anatomical response when Davis began kissing him. Clem admitted to kissing him back and feeling all mixed up. He put Davis off and went straight home to Denise. Later he made a decision he’d rather remain loyal to his wife than choose the path Davis was badgering him to take.”

Helen uttered a snide laugh. “Poor, gullible you. Both of them were practically throwing themselves at my husband, begging us to take them back into our swapping group.”

“Did you know Davis was bi-sexual?”

“I’m telling you, he wasn’t!”

“
Andi!
”

“Yes, he was.”

“
No!
” Helen screamed. “How could he have been when all he could talk about was fucking that whore Clem was married to?”

“You do know the meaning of
bi
-sexual, right? He went both ways?”

Helen lunged at Andi. “You are so vanilla.”

Jack restrained Helen’s arms from behind before she could rake those lethal fingernails of hers down Andi’s face.

What did that mean? That she was
so vanilla
? “Why are you lying about what happened the night of my car crash?” Andi demanded, her voice raised as she tried to get her labored breathing under control.

“Step back, Andi,” Jack said.

Step back? Helen had rushed
her
. “Were you driving the car that ran me off the road?”

“No, and I
saw
no one run you off the road,” Helen insisted. Her lips curved into a thin smile of victory that completely obliterated her beauty. “You are such a liar, in every way.”

Andi was not a violent person, but she really felt like smacking Helen right across her smirking lips. Not only did the woman’s phoniness surpass Jupiter in mass, but the ugliness inside her had reared its venomous head, going in for the kill.

And what about Jack? He was a cop who was supposed to be trained in recognizing liars, not playing Sir Galahad when liars feigned distress.

Step back, my ass, Andi fumed silently.

Jack parked  Hele
n
on the settee and escorted Andi to the front door, grasping her arm none too gently. “I’m too pissed to have a rational discussion with you right now,” he said. “Go home and think about how you’ve screwed this up, maybe beyond repair.” He opened the door and shoved her across the threshold. “Jesus, Andi, don’t you have a goddamned lick of sense?”

“But—”

He closed the door in her face before she had a chance to respond. Andi knew that once he cooled down, he’d revisit her questions and Helen’s responses and understand what a liar Helen was.

Or maybe, he was right and she’d harangued Helen for nothing and she
didn’t
have a lick of sense. Maybe it was Clem who’d been doing all the lying. And Denise. Maybe Andi was being played for a fool by a dead guy and his widow.

She climbed into her rental car and wove her way through the neighborhood, thinking. Steaming, actually. She thought about backtracking to Vaughn’s house. He had a level head on his shoulders. Perhaps he could help her work this out.

Then she considered going down to St. Gemma’s to talk to Father Riley, whose head was on even straighter than Vaughn’s. She discarded that possibility when she remembered that the priest had told her he was conducting a funeral mass right after lunch. He didn’t need to be saddled in advance of that with Andi’s problems.

What she needed was a conversation with Clem. If only she could see him in person, everything might be resolved. Face-to-face, Andi was a pretty good judge of character. Face-to-face, she could tell if a person was being sincere or lying. But with Clem, face-to-face would never be an option. With him, all she had to go on were the intonations and inflections of his voice.

Aside from that insurmountable hurdle, she had another problem, too. She’d called in sick, so she couldn’t very well go down to Orion’s Belt, or anywhere on the block, for that matter, to summon Clem for another conversation.

Either she had to wait a day, or she could bundle up and go sit in the parking lot that evening after the Belt had emptied and hope he’d answer an urgent summons.

Frustrated and fighting a headache, Andi pointed her car in the direction of home. Something nagged at her brain, but when she tried to pin it down, the only thing that popped into her head was
ET, phone home.
Why that particular phrase surfaced, or how it was relevant, she had no idea.

By the time she climbed the stairs to her apartment, she felt overwhelmed by exhaustion. No surprise there. She’d stayed up late, waiting for a phone call about Denise, slept fitfully after that, and gotten up early to head down to EPD. Maybe a nap would do her some good.

She decided to snuggle in on the sofa with a blanket and some soft instrumental music playing in the background. She also turned on the fireplace. In broad daylight, it produced no ambiance, but it did make the living room nice and toasty.

Andi didn’t know how long she dozed before a knock sounded at her door. Groggy because she didn’t normally take naps, she considered ignoring it, but figured it was probably Jack and decided to answer. Just to be sure, she peered through the peep hole. No Jack, no anybody.

With visions of chainsaws and masked figures dancing through her head, she debated opening the door. Her common sense won that battle. Instead, she beelined to the patio door, opened it, and stepped out onto the deck overlooking the parking lot. Jack’s police-issue sedan was nowhere to be seen, nor was his truck. So, not Jack at her door.

Beneath the parking portico, a vehicle fired up. Andi waited to see who was backing out, but didn’t recognize the car as belonging to one of her neighbors. She reached back inside and grabbed for binoculars she used for bird-watching.

Even though the vehicle left the lot in a hurry, she still managed to get the license plate number in focus, along with the make and model of the car. She jotted the information down as soon as she got back inside.

Wide awake by then, she couldn’t decide what to do next. Her headache had intensified, giving her one suggestion, and her stomach rumbled, compounding her indecision. The headache prevailed and she went in search of the ibuprofen.

Back in the kitchen, the pills downed with water, she glanced at the clock, surprised to find that she’d been asleep for three hours. Her tummy growled again. No wonder she was hungry. All she’d had since rising was the double-espresso latté. Just what everyone needed on an empty stomach that was about to receive a dose of pain meds. A leftover mega-caffeine jolt and not a darned thing else of substance. The fridge held nothing more than it had the night before, so she settled on scrambled eggs, two slices of toast, and a glass of orange juice.

While she ate, Andi mentally recapped the conversation with Helen MacLeary. Half an hour later, she rinsed her dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher, debating her next step.

“Is there really more than one option?” she muttered.

Her internal voice answered,
No
.

She reached for her smartphone and dialed Denise. With greetings exchanged, Andi asked, “Did you ever get the impression that Davis was sniffing around you for a one-on-one sexual encounter?”

“Good God, no! Who told you that?”

If Denise was appalled by her abrupt, somewhat crude question, she didn’t show it. “Helen.”

“Oh, brother.” After a brief pause that sounded like she was hitting the wine bottle again, she went on. “You know, Helen and Clem had that genetic exaggeration thing in common.”

Andi made a quick, internal analysis of what a
genetic exaggeration thing
might be, but came up blank. “What does that mean?”

“Genetics, DNA, relatives.” When Andi remained silent, she went on. “You do know that Clem and Helen are related, right? I told you that, didn’t I?”

Andi rolled her eyes. She was beginning to feel like she was living in a real-life, LSD-induced Peyton Place, where secrets and deceit abounded like ants on a pile of sugar, and no one ever played straight with her. “No, you never mentioned it.”

“Really? I thought I did. Hunh. Maybe it was Stacy I told.”

Andi worked hard to control her exasperation. “How are Helen and Clem related?”

“Clem’s mom was the youngest of seven kids. Helen’s dad was the oldest. They’re cousins.”

“First cousins and she wanted to do some swapping with him?”

“I know, gross, isn’t it?” More sipping. “Yeah, I know she’s probably more fit than I am, and she has big boobs, but for God’s sake, she’s sixteen years older than Clem, and she’s still his cousin.”

“Sixteen years!” Andi had guessed Helen was older than Davis, but not by that much. “How old is she?”

“Fifty-nine.”

“Wow.” That explained the silver hair. “To give her credit, she looks like she’s about forty.”

“Tell me about it, and she’s never had one bit of plastic surgery, either. She must have hit the anti-aging jackpot of gene pools.”

“Was Clem tempted?”

“Are you kidding?”

“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have asked.” Andi debated whether or not to fill Denise in on Clem’s admitted almost-cheating moment with Helen and decided not to mention it.

“Well, he wasn’t. Trust me. Clem and I didn’t need anyone but each other in that department.”

Andi rushed on before Denise had a chance to expound. “Think hard. Is there anything else you haven’t mentioned that I should know?”

After a slight hesitation, Denise said, “Andi, I know you’re the one talking to Clem, but aren’t the cops in charge of this investigation?”

Andi vented her frustration by blowing out a big puff of air. Now was a fine time for Denise to start questioning her involvement. She’d probably been discussing it with her in-laws. “Yes, they are, but as I’m the one the dead keep speaking to, I feel compelled to try and assimilate the related facts on my own.”

After a moment of what might have been contemplative silence, Denise said, “I suppose that makes sense.”

The doubt in her voice made Andi grind her teeth. “How did Helen and Davis get together?” she asked, hoping Denise would stop thinking about whether or not she should share any further information with her.

“Clem and Davis went to college together. Believe it or not, before the swapping incident, they used to be BFFs. When Davis was playing happy-go-lucky bachelor, he hung out at our house. One year, Helen came for Clem’s birthday. You’ve seen her, so you know she’s attractive, but back then, she was a knockout. Davis didn’t care about the age difference. He fell head over heels for her and pursued her until she finally agreed to marry him.”

Andi’s mind conjured the old idiom,
love is blind.

Denise’s heavy sigh practically rattled the phone line. “We had no idea they were into wife-swapping until they invited us to a swapper party. To tell you the truth, we were not only shocked, but appalled by their lifestyle. I hate to admit it, but that’s probably why I went after Davis so hard on the infill project.”

“So, it had nothing to do with the fact that you owned property adjacent to the land in question in your dispute with him?”

“You
have
been talking to Helen!”

“She was quite willing to skewer you.”

“I’ll just bet she was! To answer your question, though, owning the adjacent property didn’t enter to it at all.”

“Did you cut off all ties with them after being invited to the swap party?”

“Yep. No more family dinners, no more invites to the kids’ birthdays, no nothing.”

“I discovered last night that Helen was a witness to my car crash.”

“You’re kidding!”

“No, but she hadn’t given her witness statement yet, so Stacy gave the okay for me to meet Jack at her place for the interview. She blamed the whole thing on me, said no other car hit me.”

“That doesn’t sound like Helen. I’ve never known her to be a liar.”

“Not ever? Not even after what I just told you about the property dispute?”

“I guess it just goes to prove you never really know someone. What else did she have to say?”

Andi hesitated for all of two seconds. “She said that it was Clem pursuing a relationship with Davis.”

Following a shocked gasp, Denise said, “That’s ridiculous. What is
wrong
with her?”

“I have no idea. This was the first time I’ve met her.”

“God, not only does she have an unquenchable sexual appetite, but now she’s a liar, too? This is frigging ridiculous!”

Andi didn’t like to think how that unquenchable sexual appetite might have progressed after she’d left Jack and Helen alone. Jack she trusted, Helen, she did not. “I can’t fathom her motivation. Would you have any ideas in that regard?”

“No, none. You should ask Clem.”

“I called in sick today, so I want to stay away from work. I guess this evening, I’ll go down and see if your beloved will answer when I call.”

“My beloved. He was that, even though he could be a shit sometimes.”

Just that quickly, Andi was reminded of how she’d left things with Jack. He might have been a shit to her earlier, but no doubt, he’d thought the same of her, finagling her way into his interview. “Have you heard if anything resulted from the search warrants?”

“Oh, I should have said right away. Yes, they located a second set of books at Giustina’s house and some paperwork at Benz’s place that the forensic accountant says looks incriminating. Something about a land deal in Dubai.”

“The Deacons had just returned from there. I wonder if it’s the same deal.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“You know, Denise, Clem said that he told you everything about the business because he thought you might need the information some day.”

“I always did think Clem talked too much,” Denise said, her tone dry. “In this case, I think he may have exaggerated slightly. If you’ll recall, I told you he didn’t bring home personnel issues.” She blew out a
tsk
and added, “Unless, of course, it was juicy. I’m not sure my husband ever fully realized that my mind’s like a steel trap when it comes to that damned business or he might have even told me all the boring parts.”

Andi shook her head. Did everyone involved in this Clem thing have to lie, if even by omission? “He did mention that he didn’t think you got what he was telling you.”

Denise actually laughed about that. “That’s my Clem, underestimating me, as usual. By the way, I’m meeting with the forensic accountant this afternoon to go over what they’ve found. Would you like to sit in on it?”

“Thanks for asking, but I think I’ll pass. You’ll let me know if you find anything relevant, won’t you?”

“For you, Andi, to make up for all the grief Clem and I have caused you, I’ll tell you everything I can, even if the cops tell me to keep my mouth shut.”

Andi hadn’t considered the police would be involved so soon, but if Clem’s partners had been embezzling, or embarking on whatever schemes land developers embarked upon, of course, they would be. Especially now that they were now attempting to take Denise to the cleaners, her attorney and accountant would make sure of it. “Thanks. I appreciate it, but don’t go getting yourself into trouble over it.”