Person of Interest (A Celeste Eagan Mystery) (12 page)

Had Muldoon come back after whatever call sent him running out of here the night before? Had he put some rookie on my house? As much as I wanted to bitch and moan, if watching me 24/7 kept someone away from me, then I’d keep my mouth shut. For now.

I didn’t see any unusual vehicles. Nothing stood out as obviously out of place, but I hadn’t memorized the cars my neighbors drove. Other than Mr. Grant’s bright orange Corvette, I don’t think I could tell you who drove what. Still, nothing struck me as off.

A hazelnut aroma wafted around me and I made my way back into the kitchen. By my second cup I felt almost human. I buttered a piece of toast and picked through my mail from Saturday. So much had happened over the weekend, I’d lost two whole days. By the time I’d finished eating and pawing through bills and junk, I went to grab the newspaper.

A very unflattering, grainy photo of me stood out. I was front page news. It was below the crease, which meant it wasn’t as important as the story about the warehouse fire on the edge of town, but still on the front page. I groaned and my headache came back with a vengeance. I poured one more cup of coffee before I could even read the article.

Coffee in one hand, article in the other, I cozied up in my chair. I took one long sip, sat down the cup and opened the paper. The article highlighted the car bombing, with speculations tying it to Kelsey’s and Chad’s deaths. Again, this time a direct quote from one Detective Shaw Muldoon, I was mentioned as a person of interest. I actually had little-to-no reaction to the news. I think the numbness of it all finally kicked in.

However numb I was, though, practicality seeped in. I made a game plan for my morning. I cleaned what little of the house had managed to get dirty again since the break-in. I even went through my closet and made a pile of clothes to take to the women’s shelter, all to keep busy, so I didn’t think too much about what had happened. At nine, I ran up to the bank. I had to dig up an old driver’s license to get a new debit card issued and pull out some cash. That killed just enough time for a certain office to open at ten.

* * *

“I want to retain your services.” Between Muldoon’s visit the night before and the newspaper article, I probably needed to cover my bases.

“Tell me what’s been said up to this point.”

I could hear Coz scribbling as I gave him a rundown of the past few days and the various interviews I’d had with the different departments and detectives. I neglected to include the bath escapades portion of the previous evening. He didn’t need to know the detective in charge saw me naked.

Censure filled his voice when he said, “You should have called me sooner.”

“I didn’t think I needed to.” I paced behind my sofa. “Before you agree, is this going to be a problem for you? With your aunt?” Colin’s mother had never outright banned the other members of her family from talking to me—at least not as far as I knew—but I didn’t want Coz to get excommunicated in the event she got wind of his new client.

“Nah.” He chuckled. “She and my mom never did see eye to eye on much. This is no different. You know I love Colin like a brother, but the man lost a good thing when he let you slip through his fingers.”

I scoffed but didn’t say anything to contradict him. I happened to agree. I wasn’t even surprised to hear him say it. We’d always gotten along from the moment we met at Thanksgiving when Colin and I started dating. Years later, he’d been the first—of not very many—of Colin’s family to call on me and make sure I was okay when they learned of the divorce. Once or twice, I entertained the idea of asking Coz out. But after so many years of knowing him, it felt a little weird. He was a good friend to have, though, and not just because his lawyerly advice had gotten me out of a jam or two.

“The next time you have any kind of run-in, with any police, you call me immediately.”

“I will. How much do you charge for a retainer?” I wasn’t familiar with the fees associated with being “person of interest,” but I didn’t think it would come cheap.

“Tell you what, send me a check for...” He rattled off a ridiculously small fee. I promised to pop that in the mail first thing so we’d be squared away.

My other line was beeping at me. The caller ID was listed as unknown. “Can you hang on one second?” I couldn’t imagine who’d be calling on a Monday morning when school was out.

I clicked over. “Speak of the devil,” I said to Muldoon when he identified himself. “What is it now?”

Without any preamble he said, “Will you come down to the station for a follow-up interview?”

I picked up a pen and tapped it in rhythm with my suddenly erratic heart rate. “If I say no?”

“I will be at your house with an officer to speak with you.”

The tension that had built behind my right eye throbbed harder than ever. “Name the time and I’ll be there.”

Muldoon offered a couple of blocks of time and abruptly said goodbye.

My fingers shook when I clicked the phone back over to Coz. “So, how about I give you the check in person?”

Chapter Eleven

“Why is Cooter’s lawyer with you?” Muldoon whispered as he scooted a chair out for me once we all entered the interview room.

I sat without comment. It was a different part of the jail than I had previously seen. I had seen plenty of it to date. Working backward, when Detective Bush had interviewed me after the bomb, we’d merely sat at his desk. When I’d come in with Coz to bail out Colin, it was the front reception area. And of course, I’d seen the holding cells.

The formal interview area had much more of an ominous feel with its beige walls and beige chairs. There was no large two-way mirror like I’d seen in just about every cop show. The only thing on the wall was a lone clock. I was staring at it as the men got settled. Right under the twelve was a little black dot. Strange. Stranger still was that that was where my mind wandered. I’d had a couple of hours at home to pace and think as I awaited my interview time. I’d been almost calm on the ride over. I’d like to think I’d managed to find a Zen moment, but I think the numbness I’d felt so many times this week was becoming my new norm.

Although the moment Muldoon situated his notebook and a stack of papers in front of him and grabbed a pen, the lack of any and all sensation was replaced with every fear and anxiety all at once. My knee bounced frantically under the table. Coz gave me a quick look of concern, then folded his hands atop the table. “Why has my client been called in yet again?”

“Client?” A mask came over Muldoon’s face as he sat across the table from us. “Mrs. Eagan, what was your relationship with Chad Jones?” His clipped cop-tone was as frustrating as it was a tad scary.

I glanced at Coz—he’d told me not to answer any questions unless he gave me the go-ahead. When he nodded, I said, “He was my boss.”

Muldoon raised his hand up in question. “And?”

“And nothing. He was my boss.” I tucked my hands into my lap. I didn’t want Muldoon to see my clinched fists.

“Were you two friends?” He scribbled a note on some papers in front of him.

“I wouldn’t call us friends.” I shook my head. “We spoke to each other if we passed in the hall.”

“You didn’t spend time alone with him?”

“Not on purpose.”

Coz nudged me under the table.

Muldoon’s gaze shot up from the paper he was looking at. “Why? Did you have something against the man?”

Chad’s unwanted and unreciprocated flirting a year after my divorce flashed through my mind. Once or twice he’d brush up against me, but I could never tell if it was deliberate or not. Regardless, I hadn’t been about to invite any of his advances. I hadn’t necessarily been avoiding him, but I hadn’t gone out of my way to seek him out. For anything. Not until Colin asked me to intercede on Naomi’s behalf. Damn it.

“I didn’t wish him any ill will, if that’s what you’re getting at.” My fists clenched tighter.

“Did you see him outside of school?”

I frowned. Didn’t we already establish we weren’t friends? “Absolutely not.” My knee stopped bouncing and every nerve cell in my body stilled. What was with the line of questions?

Muldoon looked at me, then to Coz and back to me. He took a deep breath. “We have a video of you and Mr. Jones.”

I blinked several times. “And?” The school had a surveillance system set on the perimeter to watch for people lurking around. I couldn’t recall a specific time coming in contact with Chad outside the school. He was typically the first person to arrive at school and the last to leave at night. Were it not for his empty parking space from time to time, I’d wondered if the man ever actually left the school. But that wasn’t what Muldoon was getting at. There was something more to it.

“Your line of questioning is fishing for something specific, Detective.” While Coz echoed my thoughts, his cool demeanor contradicted the screaming demands for answers in my head. “Either cut to the chase or we’re leaving.”

Muldoon shifted through the papers. I’d say he was nervous, if I knew him well enough. What, in those papers, could possibly make him so nervous? I didn’t have anything to hide. As I’d said all along, I’d done nothing, so why was he so hesitant to move forward with his questions?

Coz huffed and grabbed his briefcase. I wasn’t sure if it was a tactic or if we were really leaving. I settled my hands on the arm of the chair as if to stand when Muldoon glanced down at the papers one final time, then returned his gaze to mine. “Chad Jones had video equipment set up in his office.”

I leaned forward with my elbows on the edge of the table. “I beg your pardon. Where? I’ve never seen any before.”

“It was hidden.”

The lump that had been in my chest since the day Chad died tightened. I wondered if I should set up an appointment with my doctor to check it out. I’d bet I was prime candidate for angina. “Whatever for?”

Muldoon cleared his throat. “Was Jones blackmailing you?”

“What?” I half stood from my chair.

Coz settled his hand on my arm. “I think we’re done here, Detective.”

“I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, Celeste.” Muldoon dropped his pen and folded his hands together over the papers.

“What do you mean, blackmailing me?” I shoved Coz’s hand from my arm. “Why would he do that?”

“We have reason to believe Mr. Jones was blackmailing you. And possibly a few other members of the Peytonville Prep staff.”

My throat tightened. “Me?”

“Can you explain this email?” Muldoon unlinked his fingers then slid a piece of paper across the table.

Coz snatched it up, glanced over it and handed it to me. He leaned into me and whispered, “We need to talk.”

I took the paper from him. It was a copy of the email I’d sent Chad the night that he died. I frowned. “This is nothing.”

Muldoon picked up the pen in front of him and started tapping wildly on the table. “We’d like you to explain this.”

Coz shook his head. “Celeste, don’t say anything.”

“About what?” Confusion and fear swarmed through me. None of Muldoon’s lines of questioning made one lick of sense. Especially when he threw the email into the matter. “This has nothing to do with...”

“Celeste.” Coz shifted in his chair. “What do you have that would make you think Celeste is being blackmailed?”

Muldoon’s gaze never wavered from mine. He didn’t answer for a long moment and I started to think he wouldn’t. But finally he said, “Chad Jones had ‘relationships’ with staff members.”

Members? More than one? “I already told you, I didn’t have anything going on with him.”

“We have video evidence that Mr. Jones lured several staff members into compromising positions.”

And DVDs were taken from my home. But they weren’t anything, they were home movies. Kelsey had been killed and he’d asked about the DVDs. “Kelsey and Chad?” At Grind Effects, she’d told Muldoon she and Chad were dating.

“Yes.”

Why’d she tell him they were dating? “He was blackmailing her?”

“Yes.” He had become monosyllabic.

“What does this have to do with me? He and I never did
anything
. You have to believe me.” I didn’t mean for the desperate whine to eke out of my voice, but I had to make Muldoon understand there was nothing—never had been—going on with Chad.

“Jones had a pattern. He’d pick a target—”

Target? What the hell? Chad was a school principal, not some criminal mastermind.

“—assemble the situation and entrap the prey.”

Prey? I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

Muldoon looked down at the papers. “Jones picks a woman to target. He then starts a process. He would flirt. Make passes. Eventually he would force the woman into a compromising position and he’d blackmail her.”

He’d flirted with me, but nothing that could lead to blackmail. Hell, until I’d sent him the email, we’d barely had contact lately. “To?” I waved my hands. “Do what?”

“Have a sexual relationship with him.”

When my eyes widened, Muldoon looked away. What had Chad done? Why would he think he could get away with it? Worse, why would Muldoon think I’d been one of his victims? Chad had never even come close to getting me into anything remotely compromising. But something made Muldoon think I had been. The only evidence that related to me were the DVDs stolen from my house. It was the only thing that clicked into place. So I asked. “And you learned this from the DVDs?”

Muldoon’s gaze came up. His eyebrow rose. Like I’d admitted something.

“Detective, I’m not stupid. Your line of questions points the way. I just don’t know how this has anything to do with me. I have never—ever—had any kind of relationship with Chad. Sexual or otherwise. If you have DVDs as proof, then you should know. You won’t find me on any.”

Muldoon made a fist and released it, flexing his fingers. “He was grooming you. We just aren’t sure how far along his plans were with you.”

I blinked. His words weren’t making any sense. “What?”

“Jones had a pattern, a very elaborate pattern when he picked a woman. All of which he documented.”

It doesn’t explain how my email tied into anything. On the surface.

Chad, I’m appealing to you to be fair. The last few weeks have been really uncomfortable and I think if you’d just adjust your stance, things would flow much more smoothly.

Holy crap. Considering the allegations, the email could be misconstrued. It even sounded...dirty. “Let me explain the email.” The day I’d sent the email, the teachers had been discussing Chad’s decision to ban the book Naomi had assigned. He’d walked in to the teachers’ lounge and jumped in on the tail end of it all. He would know what I was talking about, but out of context... It sounded worse for me and my noninvolvement. “It’s not at all what you think.”

“No, Celeste.” Coz slammed his briefcase on the table and stood. “This interview is over. Let’s go. Now.”

I stood and followed Coz out of the interview room. He didn’t slow down his pace until we’d walked out of the building and into the lot. “Explain the email. To me,” he said as we weaved through the rows to his parked car.

A chill whooshed over me, but it wasn’t from the breeze messing my hair. “You don’t think...”

“Of course not.” We stopped at his Beemer. “But obviously it’s pretty damning considering the circumstance.”

I sighed. “Naomi.”

“What does she have to do with it?”

“Colin came to me the night Chad died. Naomi and Chad were butting heads over a book she’d assigned to her class. One of the school donors has a child in her class. Took exception to the assignment. The woman told Chad to make Naomi pull it. Naomi said no. The two had been arguing about it for a couple of weeks.”

“That doesn’t explain the email.”

“Colin asked me to talk to Chad on her behalf. Ask him to back off.” I ran my hand through my hair. “She has every right to assign what she wants. It’s on the approved list. But one donor gets a bug up her butt...” I shook my head. “All I was doing was pointing out how stupid it was for him to demand she pull the book.”

“It could be misconstrued as a plea.”

I frowned. “For what?”

“It’s just you and me here.” He leaned forward and set his hand on my arm. “Whatever you say to me is protected under privilege. Have you ever had relations of a sexual nature—” he scrunched up his face like he’d just tasted spoiled food “—with Chad Jones?”

I knocked his hand away. “Hell, no.”

He held his hand aloft in surrender. “Has anything happened recently that would make you think he was ‘grooming’ you, as the detective suggested?”

I bit my lower lip and looked up at the police station. Muldoon stood in the farthest window on the second floor. He had his hands shoved on his hips and he was watching us. “I’ve stayed away from him.”

“Because?”

I shifted my gaze back to Coz. “He’d been a little...too much. He’d always flirted. With all the females. When Colin and I got divorced, he took it as open season on me. He was relentless for a while.” But it had tamped down. “Kelsey started working there and he backed off. Geez, Coz. What the hell is going on?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“You know I didn’t do anything to Chad, right?”

He looked at me, head tilted to the side, eyes rolled up heavenward, mouth hung open just so—so similar to Colin’s give-me-a-break look. “You’re entitled to fair representation one way or the other. But if I thought you’d had anything to do with this, I’d pass you off to someone else in my firm.”

“Why, because you don’t like to lose?”

He took a step back and held his briefcase up in front of him like a shield. “No, because I’d be afraid of pissing you off.”

A little tension eased from my shoulders. But only a little. The more we learned of Chad’s death, the more questions that popped up. “If Kelsey was being blackmailed, she could have killed him, right?”

“It’s possible.”

“But then who killed her? His ex-wife wouldn’t have cared.”
Julia
. She’d acted all cold and distant at the funeral, not that we were bosom buddies, but we’d always been pleasant to one another. Did she know what Chad had been up to? If he’d been “grooming” me and she knew, then it could explain her reaction. But that still didn’t give me motive to kill the man when I knew nothing of it. “Muldoon knows I couldn’t have killed Kelsey. Not that I have motive.”

“But your dressing up and approaching her calls into question what you were doing.”

Was that going to come back and bite me on the ass? I’d meant well. “At first I was trying to prove Colin didn’t do anything wrong. Then I found out she lied about me to the police.”

“And I applaud you for the very misguided sense of loyalty. But he had a good alibi.”

I thrust my hands in the air. “I didn’t know that at the time.”

“Relax.” Coz opened the back passenger car door and tossed his briefcase inside, then opened the front passenger door for me. “Let’s go grab some coffee and go over what we know.”

* * *

Coz and I laid out a chronological list of what had happened since Colin came over and asked me to talk to Chad on Naomi’s behalf—which Coz thought was awful ballsy of him. We knew I didn’t have anything to do with Chad’s death, but still hadn’t found which item was the “see, right here we can prove it...” I didn’t have all the details of the crime itself. I knew what I saw when I found him and what was reported in the media. I’d discerned a tad more from being questioned. All that did was give me more pointed accusations and questions.