Powdered Peril (7 page)

“From what I could tell, it was all about money,” Grace admitted.

I kept waiting for her to add more, and after a minute of silence, she said, “When their grandfather died, Peter was the executor for the estate. Bryan claimed that Peter used that as an excuse to gut the inheritance of everything valuable, and then split the little bit that was left with him. It was supposed to be over two hundred thousand dollars when all was said and done.”

That kind of money would make a good motive for murder in a great many people’s eyes. “Was there any truth to it?”

Grace just shrugged. “Peter admitted to me later that he took more than his share, but only after his brother threatened to take him to court over a new truck their grandfather had just bought. Bryan thought Peter should pay it off, and then sign it over to him, but Peter wouldn’t do it.”

“Why would he, if it was part of the estate?”

“From the way it was explained to me, it didn’t make any sense to me, either, but that’s what Peter told me, and at the time, I believed him.”

I added Bryan Morgan’s name to our list, and put “Money and Bad Blood” after it.

“Who else should we add?” I asked.

“Honestly, Suzanne, there’s no one else I can think of,” she said as she drained her coffee. “I’m getting more. Would you like some?”

“No thanks, I’m good.”

Grace went up front to refill her mug, and I started thinking about motives folks had for murder in general. Unfortunately, I’d run across a few cases in the past, and it all seemed to boil down to a handful of reasons like love, greed, and envy. The list didn’t cover everything, but it was a good place to start.

When Grace came back into the kitchen, I asked, “I’ve been curious about something for quite a while. What exactly did Peter do for a living?”

“He said he was in investments, but I could never really pin him down beyond that. Whenever I tried, he always said that he liked to keep his business life separate from his personal life, and like a fool, I trusted him.”

That was interesting. “Did he work alone, or did he have a partner? I know he was out of town on business quite a bit lately.”

Grace looked as though she wanted to cry again, but she held back her tears, and I was proud of her for the way she was handling my line of questioning. I knew that it had to be tough on her, but I couldn’t pull any punches just because she was my friend. Especially not because of that.

“I’m beginning to wonder if that was true at all,” she finally admitted. “There’s a good chance he was just using it as an excuse to see someone else without having to constantly lie to me about what he was doing and where he was going. I’m beginning to wonder if there was anything he told me that was true.”

I hated being in a position to defend a man I hadn’t liked, but he hadn’t been completely rotten. “No matter what else he did, he clearly cared about you,” I said.

“Do you believe that?”

“I do,” I said. “Peter may not have been perfect, but he showed excellent taste when he started going out with you.”

“Why doesn’t that give me any comfort?” she asked.

“Give it time; it might offer you some somewhere down the road. Now, let’s focus on my last question. Did he have a business partner?”

“I’m not sure you could call him that, but Peter did talk to a man named Henry Lincoln quite a bit on the phone, and it always sounded like it was business to me.”

“Do you happen to know where he lives?” I asked as I jotted his name down on our list.

“Union Square, I think,” she said.

I looked over the three names we had listed, and realized that we had covered quite a bit of ground. There were three solid suspects we could interview, and there was no time like the present to get started. “Are you up for a little question-and-answer session with these folks?”

She nodded. “I’m ready.”

“Okay, but we need to clear something up first. You need to hold back and not say anything when I’m interviewing these people. I need for them to not suspect that I’m grilling them, and besides, you might be able to pick up on something I miss if you stay neutral.”

“I’m not going to do anything to rile anyone up,” she said.

“I hope not. Remember, if any one of them senses that we’re actively investigating Peter’s murder and not just being friendly and chatting with them about someone we all knew, we’re not going to get a thing out of them.” Grace frowned a little, so I added, “Are you sure that this isn’t going to be too tough on you?” The last thing I wanted to do was put my friend through something that might not be productive at all, and just end up causing her even more pain.

“I’m sure,” she said. “I hate the way that Peter was treating me behind my back, but I cared for him, maybe even loved him before I found out the truth. Suzanne, I need to figure out what happened to him, and why.” She hesitated for a moment, and then added, “To be honest with you, in a way, I feel responsible for what happened to him.”

I was shocked to hear her say that. “Just because you broke up with him? He was cheating on you, Grace. You need to remember that. Nothing that happened to that man was your fault.”

Grace shook her head, and then took a moment before she spoke. “If I’d handled things better with him he might not have gotten drunk and put himself in a position where he was vulnerable to being attacked.”

“You had every right to end your relationship with him,” I said, doing my best to reassure her. “You know that, don’t you?”

“On one level, I suppose I do. But in my heart, I can’t really be sure until I find out why Peter was murdered. If it’s not because of me, I can let it go.”

“And if we discover that your worst fears are true and it
was
directly related to your breakup? What happens then?”

She shivered for a few seconds, and then Grace said, “Then I’ll deal with it, and do my best to move on. At least then I’d know one way or the other. Sometimes I think it’s the mystery of it that’s tearing me up so bad.”

“Then let’s go find out who did it,” I said.

*   *   *

As we left Donut Hearts, I asked, “It’s your call. Who would you like to tackle first?”

She pointed down the street to the hardware store. “I know that neither one of us is a big fan of Burt Gentry, but there’s no use putting it off. We need to speak with Leah, and she just happens to be the closest one of our suspects.”

I looked around at the casual shoppers on Springs Drive and realized that though my work was finished for the day, quite a few shops were still open for business. It wouldn’t do to have too big an audience when Grace and I spoke with Leah, though. I didn’t want to have to censor my questions, and more important, I didn’t want Leah filtering her replies just because of who might be standing close by. Public opinion could turn on a dime sometimes in our little town, and if Leah was innocent, we would be putting her in a position where she’d have to defend herself to everyone who walked into the hardware store, whether she was the murderer or not.

“You know what? I’m worried that the hardware store might be crowded at this time of day. We could always wait outside for her to take her break,” I said.

Grace shook her head. “I understand why you’re worried, but honestly, if we delay this for even ten minutes, I might lose my nerve. Let’s go, Suzanne. We can worry about the consequences later.”

“If you’re sure, then I’m ready.”

“Lead on,” she said.

*   *   *

“Good afternoon,” Leah Gentry said automatically when we walked into the hardware store, even adding a smile as she said it. But that vanished quickly enough when she realized who we were. At least there weren’t too many customers nearby to listen in on our conversation.

“Got a second?” I asked, trying to be as upbeat as I could. I wanted to do my best to put her at ease. It might be the only way we’d get anything out of her.

Leah looked as though she wanted to turn and run away, but it was clear that she had a job to do, so she really didn’t have much of a choice. “Actually, I’m kind of busy right now,” she said.

I looked around and saw that the front was nearly empty. I decided not to point that out to her, though. “This won’t take long. We just want to speak with you about Peter Morgan.”

“Would you keep your voice down?” Leah asked, looking toward the back where her uncle’s office was located.

“Burt doesn’t know that you were seeing Peter Morgan, does he?” I asked. So far, Grace was keeping quiet. I just hoped she’d be able to stick to it and not butt in.

It was a direct hit. “My personal life isn’t anybody’s business but my own,” she said, a little too defiantly for my taste.

“It might have been before, but a man’s been murdered, one you were known to be seen with around town. I think your uncle might find that interesting in and of itself.”

I started for the office, but Leah put a hand on my arm. “You can’t do that.”

“Sure I can,” I answered, keeping my voice cheery. “Leah, there’s something you need to understand. I’m talking to someone here today. It’s your choice. Is it going to be you, or your uncle?”

“You need to focus on your friend there. She was the one dating him,” Leah said as she pointed to Grace.

“We’ve already discussed that,” Grace said. I could tell she wanted to say more, but she kept her cool, something I was very grateful for.

“Last chance,” I said as I pulled away from her and started for the back.

Leah glanced at the clock on the wall, and then said, “Meet me by your shop in ten minutes. I’m due for a break then, and we can talk in private.”

“You’re not trying to get rid of us, are you?” I asked.

She sounded frustrated as she explained, “I’ll talk to you both, but it’s going to be on my terms.”

I thought about pushing her a little harder, but then I decided that it wasn’t that important to me to win every battle. “You’ve got ten minutes. In eleven, I’m coming back here, and you won’t be happy with the way I act, trust me.”

She gave me a wicked look for a split second as Grace and I walked out, but I didn’t care. I’d gotten under her skin and had found a pressure point I could use to get her to talk to me, and I was going to make use of it. It might not make me popular with her, but I couldn’t worry about that at the moment.

Grace and I waited outside by Donut Hearts, and as I looked at my watch every thirty seconds, Grace said, “Don’t worry. She’ll be here.”

I was beginning to have second thoughts about leaving Leah at the hardware store, so Grace’s encouragement was welcome. “What makes you so sure?”

“She puts on a brave front, but she’s afraid of Burt, and I doubt she’d welcome any new source of irritation between them if she can help it.”

“What do you know about it?” I asked as I watched a handful of birds fly in and out of a nearby maple tree. Was there a nest there? From the air traffic, I wondered if there was more than one.

“Let’s just say that I’ve heard that he doesn’t approve of the way she conducts her personal life. I’m not exactly his biggest fan, but even I don’t blame the man. He’s worked hard to build up the family business, and he doesn’t want any scandals threatening it. I’m willing to bet that Leah’s going to do everything in her power to appease him now that her actions have bitten her on the tail.”

I looked at my watch again, and saw that Leah had one more minute left on my deadline.

I started walking toward the hardware store, and Grace looked perplexed. “Is her time really up?”

“She’s got one minute,” I explained, “but I plan to cross that threshold the second the clock runs out on her,” I said.

“Do you really think that Burt will be able to tell us anything if Leah won’t talk to us?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m not letting Leah get away with lying to me like that. If I have to take Burt’s abuse, so be it, but I meant what I said. Someone’s going to answer for her behavior. I demand satisfaction.”

“Get in line,” Grace said.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” I said, sorry for my choice of words. It had to be hard for Grace to do what we were doing, especially without complaint.

She shook her head briefly. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’ll try to keep quiet, but I can’t make any promises.”

“I don’t blame you a bit. Let’s keep poking around and see what we come up with.”

I took a deep breath, checked my watch one last time, and saw that Leah’s deadline had officially passed.

Was she still in the hardware store, or had she skipped out the back way to avoid us completely?

CHAPTER 6

Burt was at the register reading a magazine about guns when we walked into the hardware store, and he didn’t look all that surprised to see us.

“Where’s Leah?” I asked.

“Why do you want to see her?” Burt asked, not even trying to be cordial.

“We have some unfinished business to discuss,” I replied.

“Sorry, but she’s gone,” he said as he turned his attention back to the magazine. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t sorry about it at all.

“She was supposed to meet us in front of the donut shop twelve minutes ago,” I said. “Do you know if that’s where she’s headed?”

“Nope,” Burt answered.

What was going on here? Was she honestly leaving me to talk to her uncle? What did she have to hide that was so bad she’d incur Burt’s wrath and lecturing? “Does that mean you don’t know where she is, or are you saying that she’s not going to meet us?”

Burt finally put his magazine down. “Suzanne, she’s not here. That’s really all that matters when it comes down to it, isn’t it? Was there something else that I could help you with?”

I’d threatened to talk to Burt about his niece if she skipped out on me, but it had been an idle threat, or so I’d thought. I had no choice now, though. I had to follow through. “We’re looking into the murder of Peter Morgan,” I said, “and I just found out that your niece has been dating him in secret on the side.”

Burt shook his head. “It never was much of a real secret.” He glanced at Grace as he added, “I’m sorry about that, but I didn’t have anything to do with her stepping out with him.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Grace said.