Silenced (Alaskan Courage Book #4) (9 page)

Natalie greeted Jake and Kayden with less enthusiasm than the last time they’d entered her shop, but she managed a level of politeness—even if it was remote.

“Back again?” She shifted her weight, rubbing her arms. “I hope the chalk tests came back okay?”

“We’re still waiting to get the samples to the lab,” Jake explained.

“Oh. So why are you here?”

“We need to confirm when Conrad bought his chalk.”

“I told you . . .” She leaned against the counter. “The day before his death.”

“We need you to be more specific.”

Her eyes narrowed. “As in . . . ?”

“What time of day.”

“Again,” she said, her tone becoming more clipped, “he came in after work.”

Kayden leaned against the counter beside her, propping her elbows on the countertop. “We’re trying to determine
which came first—Conrad’s buying the chalk here or visiting Brody’s gym for a climb.”

“But Brody won’t let you look at his books.” For supposedly being at odds, she seemed to know quite a lot about him. What was up with that?

“Not without a warrant, but we’ll have one soon enough,” Jake said. “What we need from you is the actual time Conrad was in your shop. Buying his chalk.”

“I don’t remember that precisely.”

“You must keep a record of purchases,” Kayden said. They did at Last Frontier Adventures.

“Yeah.” Natalie shrugged.

“So look up Conrad’s purchase.”

“All right. I suppose.” Natalie moved to her computer and shuffled through the day’s purchases, her countenance a 180 from yesterday. What had happened to shift her willingness to comply? Had Brody said something to her—told her they needed to stick together? Natalie scrolled down the screen and gestured for Jake to look at the screen. “Looks like he purchased the chalk at five-thirty.”

“Vivienne said Conrad left work early that day, so chances are he climbed first,” Kayden said.

But they’d still need to look at Brody’s book and get confirmation from Conrad’s secretary as to what time he actually left the office.

“Thanks, Natalie,” Jake said.

“Uh-huh.” She stepped from the computer, linking her arms across her chest.

Why was she so uneasy? Because they’d caught her climbing with Brody? Because they now had the time the chalk was
purchased? Because the results of the chalk weren’t in yet? What did she think they’d discover?

Jake pulled their rental car to a stop outside Patty Tate’s home. While waiting on the warrant, at least they had something useful to do in the meantime—interview Patty Tate—and Kayden was thankful for that. Brody had resurrected old feelings, memories. Not for him, in the least, but for the person she’d been before her mom’s death, before her mom’s illness had taken hold, ravaging her once-vibrant and healthy body. Kayden had been different then—more relaxed, fun, untarnished. She suddenly ached for those days, for what she’d lost, and most especially for her mom. It was amazing how the effects of loss lingered, even after so many years.

She glanced over at Jake, wondering if he’d been different before Becca’s death. Had he been more carefree? Carried less weight on his shoulders? How had his wife’s death changed him? And did he miss his wife as much as she missed her mom?

She sighed. The two of them made quite the broken pair, and strangely, there was something of beauty in that.

Getting no answer at Patty Tate’s front door, Jake guided Kayden around the rear of the home, where they found Patty at work in her greenhouse. The air inside smelled earthy and damp. Trays of baby seedlings up through full-grown plants sat on roughhewn tables made out of plywood and sawhorses.

Patty looked up at their approach. She was shorter than Kayden, but not by much, though far more muscular. Patty was of the climbing school of thought that big muscles meant
faster climbing times, whereas Kayden believed in overall health and graceful dexterity and strength. Patty’s curly dark-brown hair was pulled up in a lopsided bun, swirly strands sticking every which way. Her arms were covered with potting soil up to her elbows. She wore a loose-fitting geometric print T-shirt and tan capris. “Kayden McKenna.”

“How’s it going, Patty?”

“Can’t complain. Won the race up Mount Marathon. Surprised you weren’t there.”

“My brother’s getting married tomorrow. Didn’t want to schedule anything so close to the wedding.” Again she wished she’d been able to help out this last day before the wedding, but surely Bailey understood.

Patty shrugged. “Sucks to be you.”

Wow!
She was every bit the peach Kayden recalled her being.

Patty lifted her chin at Jake. “You must be the cop.”

“Deputy Cavanagh.”

“Brody said you two would be by.”

Of course he had. It appeared he was doing anything he could to make the investigation more difficult. Why was that?

“We’d like to ask you a few questions about your relationship with Conrad Humphries,” Jake began.

“What about it?” Patty brushed her hands off and came to stand with her back against the table in front of them.

“Mom, I dumped the latest in your workshop.” A young man, probably seventeen or eighteen, stood in the doorway. Tall, lean, dark hair like his mom, but green eyes instead of her blue.

“Thanks, Shane.”

Shane eyed the two of them.

Kayden tried to place where she’d just seen him.

“Didn’t know you had company,” he said.

Jake stepped toward him. “Didn’t we see you over at Brody’s gym?”

“Maybe.”

“Shane works there part time,” Patty said.

“That’s right.” Jake snapped his fingers. “Brody asked you to watch the counter while we spoke yesterday, and you were there again this morning.”

Shane remained silent.

“You like working there?” he asked.

Shane shrugged. “Pay’s okay, and I get to climb for free.”

“So you’re a climber like your mom?”

“Like a lot of people.”

“Ever climb outdoors?” Kayden asked.

“Yeah.” He expelled a huff. “I’m not just some gym monkey wannabe.”

“Cool.”

Patty glanced at her phone. “If you don’t hurry, you’re gonna be late for work.”

Shane slid on his sunglasses, lifted his longboard, and spun the wheels. “Later.”

“It’s nice both you and your son enjoy climbing,” Jake said to Patty once Shane was gone.

Kayden had watched him do the same thing with Vivienne Humphries, trying to find something nonthreatening to talk about, to establish a rapport.

“Been taking him with me since he was a toddler. It’s second nature to him.”

“That’s nice.”

“Look. I know you’re not here to talk about me and my
kid. Let’s just get this over with, so we can all get on with our day. All right?”

“Of course,” Jake said, moving straight to it. “We’ve heard you and Conrad were an item.”

Patty chuckled. “That’s one way to look at it.”

“How d’you look at it?” he asked, resting his boot on an overturned bucket.

“Conrad and I came from different worlds. When he first came in the gym a couple years back, he was this uptight type-A business dude. Even his climbing was tense. I told him he needed to learn to relax.”

“And did he?”

“We’d talk while we climbed, talking turned to flirting, and after a while . . .”

“You two ended up in bed.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know he was married?” Kayden asked.

“Yeah. Conrad was totally up front with me.” She grabbed a watering pot and carried it to the sink.

“Meaning?” Kayden pressed.

“He didn’t sugarcoat things, didn’t lie just to have his way. After years of marriage to a liar, it was refreshing to hear the truth for a change.”

How could she equate marital infidelity with truth?

Patty filled the watering can, shut off the faucet, and moved to the first row of seedlings.

“How long had you and Conrad been having an affair?” Jake asked.

“A couple years.”

“And it didn’t bother you that he remained married?” Kayden asked. “That he didn’t leave his wife?”

“Leave Vivienne?” She laughed. “He wasn’t going to leave Vivienne.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because she’d take him to the cleaners, because he liked the image of the perfect society family, because I think on some level he still loved her. He held on to feelings for a long time.”

“To your knowledge, was Vivienne faithful to Conrad?”

“I don’t know. When she confronted me at the festival—which I know you’ve heard about—she swore
she’d
never cheat. Said she still loved Conrad too much, but I had my suspicions.”

“Based on what?”

“Seems to me if you know your man is cheating and you plan on staying in the marriage, you’re going to find a way to have a little fun on the side. Payback, if you know what I mean. It’s what I’d do—if I chose to stay in the marriage, that is.”

Yep, Patty was a winner. “But you wouldn’t stay in the marriage?” Kayden said. She could see it. Patty wasn’t the sort to stick something out if she wasn’t happy.

“Uh-uh. No thank you.”

“If Vivienne strayed, any idea who she might stray with?” Spruce Harbor, like Yancey, was a small town. Word of affairs, of any gossip, spread like wildfire.

“Nuh-uh. I never heard of her being with anyone, and they had an all-female household staff. Conrad didn’t want Vivienne getting even with the lawn boy.”

“So he was worried she’d cheat?”

“No, not really. He just took preventive measures to ensure she didn’t.”

What kind of sick dynamic was this? “I’m sorry, but if he was cheating, why did he care if she strayed? If he was worried about her taking everything in a divorce, wouldn’t her cheating make that unlikely?”

“You’ve got to understand Conrad. He was all about control. Control of his environment. Control of his image.”

“Control and free-climbing appear at odds with one another,” Jake said.

“Nuh-uh.” She looked at Kayden. “Ask her, she’ll tell you. Free-climbing is about the ultimate control. Mastery over something you were never meant to do. Mastery over the odds. You master that and there’s nothing you can’t conquer.”

Jake looked at Kayden, studying her response.

She shifted the focus back to Patty. “So tell us about your confrontation with Vivienne at the festival.”

“Yeah . . .” Patty shrugged a shoulder. “First time Vivienne had seen us together—that’s all.”

“Vivienne says Conrad broke it off with you after that.”

“Yeah, right.”

“So you’re saying Conrad didn’t end things?”

“No, Conrad wasn’t going anywhere.”

“You have any idea who may have wanted to harm Conrad?”

“I’d put Vivienne at the top of that list. He humiliated her by showing up at the Spring Festival with me—making us public. She was furious. Said she’d kill him. If that’s not motive, I don’t know what is.”

“Let me guess,” Kayden said, climbing in their rental car. “Back to Vivienne’s?”

“Looks like it.” It was the next logical step, but Jake needed a bit of time to pull the puzzle pieces together before questioning Conrad’s widow again. “Why don’t we grab a bite to eat first. I’m starving.” It had been a long morning.

They settled in a front booth at Spruce Harbor Deli, a tiny establishment on Spruce Avenue—the main street running through the downtown district. A decent crowd bustled in and out, and Kayden swore they had the best breakfast burritos, served fresh all day.

The waitress started them off with water, and they both ordered a cup of coffee—black. It was Kayden’s one indulgence, if you considered one cup of black coffee a day an indulgence.

“Everything’s organic,” she said, handing Jake a menu.

No wonder she liked this place so much. Kayden was a health nut, running ten miles a day, eating nearly all organic foods and daily green smoothies. It was almost as if she be
lieved if she worked out enough and ate just right she could prevent . . .

He was an idiot. How had he missed such an obvious clue for so long? Kayden was so stringent about her health and everyone else’s because she was terrified of getting sick like her mom.

His heart ached for her. He knew she and her mom had been close, and had assumed her guardedness was tied to her mom’s death, but this opened up a side of Kayden he hadn’t seen before. Now he understood why she worked so hard to stay healthy. She feared getting rheumatoid arthritis like her mom.

“What’ll it be?” the waitress asked.

“Santa Fe burrito for me,” Kayden said.

“I’ll take the same,” he said without even bothering to open his menu, his thoughts on Kayden and the fear she must be struggling with.

Her brows pinched together. “Something wrong?”

“No.” He cleared his throat. “Not at all.” It certainly wasn’t something she would want to talk about—maybe never, but for sure not in the middle of a crowded restaurant. He lifted his coffee mug and took a sip.

“So who do you think is lying?”

He gurgled on his coffee, burning his hand in the process. “What?”

“Who do you think is lying about Conrad having broken off the affair, Patty or Vivienne?”

Oh. “May not be either.”

She nodded. “So, Conrad?”

“Could be he told Vivienne he was breaking it off to placate her.”

“But never said a word to Patty.”

Jake took a slower sip of coffee this time and nodded.

“What a sad existence.”

“Whose?” he asked over the rim of his cup.

“All of them! Patty and Vivienne were in a relationship with a man who didn’t care enough about his wife to be faithful or enough about his mistress to leave his wife, and they’re both just okay with that. I mean, who does that?”

“You’d be surprised.” Jake shifted as the waitress set down their plates.

“Can I get you anything else?”

When Kayden shook her head, Jake said, “We’re good. Thanks.” And as the waitress walked away, he asked, “Would you like me to pray?”

“That would be nice. Thanks.”

Jake lowered his head. “Father, we thank you for this meal, for your provision and guidance on this case, and for this time together. Amen.”

“Amen.” Kayden busied herself with laying her napkin across her lap. “So what did you mean when you said I’d be surprised?”

Jake swallowed his bite of burrito—scrambled eggs, diced potatoes, chorizo sausage, pepper jack cheese, and green chiles. It was outstanding. He swiped his mouth with a napkin. “I’ve just seen it before on cases.”

“Any of them stick in your mind?”

“A woman named Angela Markum, for one.”

“That name . . .” Recognition dawned. “The college president’s wife?”

Obviously she knew whom he was talking about. When Darcy filled the McKennas in on his past, she’d no doubt
told them about the case that had flipped his world upside down. “Yeah.”

“Her husband cheated on her with the co-ed he murdered?”

“Yes, Joel Markum. And he had affairs with a handful of others that we know of. But no other murders, as far as we know.”

“Did his wife know? I mean . . . all along?”

“She knew. Even stepped in and helped dispose of Candace Banner’s body after Joel killed her.”

“How could his wife do that? Why would she put up with it? And why would she cover for him?”

“She liked her life, liked the style to which she’d become accustomed, liked the image and prestige.”

“She was married to a monster.”

“A monster she nearly helped get away with murder.”

“Do you think someone is helping our killer in this case? I mean, do you think there’s an accomplice?”

“Could be. Just depends on the killer.”

“What do you mean?” She added Tabasco to her burrito.

“Well, let’s say, hypothetically, if Vivienne wanted Conrad dead for cheating on her, she would have had to enlist Stuart or someone else with climbing expertise to help her.”

“But if Stuart wanted Vivienne for himself, he could have easily acted alone. He doesn’t appear to possess the needed level of sophistication, but that could be an act.”

“Patty Tate also could have easily done it on her own.”

“Which brings up the question of motive.” Jake took the bottle of hot sauce from Kayden and added a few shakes to his burrito before folding it back up.

“Maybe Conrad really did break things off with Patty, like Vivienne claimed, and Patty didn’t take it so well.”

“Could be. We need to keep digging until we uncover the truth.”

“And what if we don’t?”

“Don’t solve the case?”

“Yeah. What if we never find the truth or the killer?” she asked.

It was a cop’s worst nightmare, not to mention the victim’s family. Unfortunately he’d experienced that as both a cop and a husband.