Too Near the Edge (25 page)

“Right. She had some concerns about Horace
and she nosed around in his stuff until she ran across a letter I’d
written him about some money we inherited after Dad died. My
address was still the same so she was able to find me right away.
She had begun to realize there was a lot she didn’t know about him,
so she came up here to get some information.”

“What kind of concerns did she have?”

Harry shrugged in a what-can-you-expect sort
of way. “No big surprise. She had inherited some money from her
grandfather that she had in an account of her own, and Horace had
forged her name and withdrawn most of it. When she found out and
confronted him, he blew up—denied that he’d done it, accused her of
being crazy, told her if she didn’t trust him, he didn’t want to
have anything to do with her. I guess that was kind of the last
straw for her, given some other stuff he’d done—like lying to her,
writing bad checks on their joint account, and running up huge
credit card debts that he couldn’t or wouldn’t pay.”

“What did you tell her?”

“Pretty much what I’ve told you today. It was
mostly a surprise to her, although she had once found some papers
with Amber’s name and asked Horace about her. He got mad, refused
to answer any questions, told her to stay out of his business. She
had clearly begun to suspect that Horace had lied to her about
himself, but she didn’t have any facts to back up her doubts.”
Harry made a sour face. I wouldn’t have told her all this if she
hadn’t asked, but she did, and I didn’t want to see her end up like
Amber.”

“But she did end up like Amber,” I said.
“Well, not exactly the same, but they both died young.” The
parallels were hitting me smack in the face by then. So I took the
risk and asked the nasty question. “Are you saying that you think
Erik is responsible for both of their deaths?”

Harry flinched, but only slightly. “In
different ways, yes. As far as Amber goes, he just set the wheels
in motion. But with Jenny, I’d say there’s a strong possibility
that Horace made sure that inhaler wasn’t available. She knew too
much about him, and she was tired of putting up with his shit.”

Clearly Harry had given Jenny’s death some
serious thought. Why hadn’t he gone to the police with his
suspicions? It was sticky, but I had to ask. “If you think that,
why didn’t you report it to the police when Jenny died?”

He stared down at the table for a moment and
shook his head. “No point. No one will ever prove it. Horace is too
slick.”

I decided to go for the gold. “What about
Sharon’s husband, Adam? Do you think Horace killed him too?”

Harry shrugged. “He could have if he wanted
the guy dead. You said it was a few months ago?”

“April.”

“I know he needed money then, because he came
up here to try to convince me to invest in his latest project. A
bunch of nutritional products. What a laugh! Horace knows about as
much about nutrition as a pig knows about philosophy.”

“So I’m guessing you passed on the investment
opportunity?”

“As usual. But come to think of it, it was
April when he was here. We were having a big celebration for our
fifth anniversary of the restaurant. I’m not sure why, but I sent
him an invitation. Every now and then, my brain goes soft or
something, and I start thinking of Horace as the cute little
brother l loved years ago. Anyway, he showed up, and then we
couldn’t get rid of him. Loretta’s never liked him, wasn’t happy
having him at the house. But he didn’t want to leave without
getting me to invest in his business.”

“Do you know the exact dates of when he was
here?”

“Well, the celebration was on the anniversary
of our opening, April 17th. That was a Thursday. Horace actually
showed up before it started—surprised the hell out of me. I never
thought he’d come. He even brought a gift. Now that’s so like him.
When he was a kid, he’d often give me something when he wanted
something. Of course what he wanted was always much bigger than
what he gave. But he’s smart that way—knows how to soften people
up.”

I surreptitiously glanced at my watch. It was
after 5:00. I didn’t want to be rude, but I needed to get out of
there, and I needed to find out exactly when Erik was in
Minneapolis last April. Just as I was about to interrupt Harry by
repeating my question, the hostess came over with a complicated
question about some reservations for that evening.

Harry excused himself, got up and walked over
to the hostess desk with her. They examined the reservation book,
discussing the problem at length. Harry came back over to the
table, but didn’t sit down. “I have to get back to work now to get
ready for the dinner crowd. Feel free to sit there and finish the
wine if you want.”

“Thanks, but I have to get to the airport.
But it would help a lot if I knew exactly when Erik was here in
April.”

“Okay, let’s see. I know he stayed a week,
because Loretta kept telling me that seven days was as long as
she’d put up with having him. And I finally had to kick him out
after a week. He blew up, swore at me, accused me of being a
selfish egotistical asshole who wouldn’t even help his own brother
when he was down.” Harry laughed. “More like he was describing
himself. I was glad to see the back of him. Anyway, the day I threw
him out was a Wednesday. I remember because I come in early on
Wednesdays to do inventory, just like I did today. So if he’d been
here a week by Wednesday, he must have come on the 16th and left
the 23rd.”

“Thanks, Harry, for taking time and telling
me all this. And thanks for the wine and mushrooms—delish! If I
ever get back here, I’ll be sure to come for a whole meal.” I
grabbed my purse and slid out of the booth.

“I’d just as soon you don’t mention this trip
to Horace,” Harry said, following along behind me toward the front
door. “He wouldn’t like me telling you about his past, and I don’t
need any more of his retaliation.”

“Sure, no problem. And thanks again.”

In the taxi on the way to the airport, I
thought about the gifts Erik had given Nathan. Did that mean he
wanted something from Sharon? And if so, what? And come to think of
it, he’d given me a gift as well. Interesting.

I felt sad for Jenny. I could understand how
she could have been easily seduced by Erik’s looks, charm, and
persistence. He wanted her, he got her, and then he tossed her
away—apparently without even minor pangs of conscience.

Now Erik was a prime candidate on my list of
suspects for pushing Adam over the edge. Elisa had said she
remembered that Adam died on April 15, because she was taking her
taxes to the post office when she heard. If Erik followed Adam to
the Grand Canyon and pushed him off the edge, he could have easily
made it to Minneapolis by the next day, and used the
visiting-his-brother story as a cover if he needed to explain why
he was out of town.

On my return flight to Denver I mulled over
the list of people who might have had reasons to get rid of Adam
and who could have been at the Grand Canyon on April 15. I didn’t
know of a specific reason why Erik would want to kill Adam, but
with all I’d just found out about him, I figured there were plenty
of possibilities. Maybe Adam had found out some of Erik’s secrets,
like his real identity and his shady business dealings. Maybe Erik
had said something that led Adam to suspect Jenny’s death wasn’t an
accident. If Adam had confronted Erik with any of this, he was
doomed for sure. And Erik could have surprised him on that trail
that day.

Then there was Joel. He seemed like a nice
enough guy to me, but my radar wasn’t working that well lately, so
I couldn’t trust my gut. Joel was jealous of Adam raising Nathan,
and he wanted Sharon back. In April he was living in Flagstaff
about 80 miles from the Grand Canyon, and he’d been a guide for
whitewater rafting trips down the Colorado River in the canyon.

And Sharon’s father, Donald Waycroft was in
Las Vegas, which is farther—nearly 300 miles from the canyon’s
South Rim—but doable, especially for a clever, disciplined fellow
like him. It was no secret he didn’t like Adam, but it was a
stretch to see that as a reason to murder his daughter’s
husband.

To me, Dr. Ahmed seemed to have the most
likely motive. If Adam was onto his fraudulent business, he would
have surely wanted him gone. I had no way of knowing where he’d
been on April 15. Could have been at the canyon. Or, he might well
have connections with hit men who could have handled it for him.
But how to get the police to look into this possibility when they
were so convinced Adam’s death was an accident?

Less likely, but still possible was Narmada,
who hated Adam, even though hate is a toxic emotion that surely had
a negative effect on her energy connections. She’d called Adam an
asshole and said he spread lies about her all over town. And what
had she been doing with Adam’s computer? Of course I had no idea
where she’d been on April 15th and no obvious way to find out.
Maybe I could come up with some acceptable reason to ask her some
questions about her schedule last spring.

Leaving aside my grim musings, my flight was
uneventful. But the Colorado weather on arrival matched my ominous
mood. By the time I got to my car the entire Denver-Boulder area
was under a severe thunderstorm warning, with a possibility of hail
and strong winds. I made it almost to Boulder before the storm
hit—sheets of driving rain mixed with hail battering my car. I
could barely see, but couldn’t stop in the traffic, so I gritted my
teeth and kept going. No good options in these severe storms.

In town, traffic was slow as cars forged
through the deep water. At Arapahoe and 28th, a long line was
stopped at the light. I didn’t want to sit in the swirling stream.
So I stayed back—then gunned the motor and charged through when the
line started to move again ahead.

I was exhausted by the time I pulled into my
driveway at about

9:30 p.m. To top it off, I got soaked running
just the few feet from my car into the house. In the kitchen, the
ceiling was leaking, so I had to mop the floor. By the time I had
stripped off my wet clothes, put on a robe and fixed myself a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it was almost 11:00.

I sat at my kitchen table in a daze
contemplating the power a hailstorm unleashes. It’s too much, too
fast, too forceful—can do a lot of damage in a short time.
Hmmm…nature could be a lot like Erik—pleasant, seductive, then
suddenly violent, stopping for nothing until it’s ready to
stop.

“Yo, Cleo. You’re full on this case. But if
it gets wild, you need to kick out so you don’t get sucked into the
falls.”

“Tyler!” He was perched on my kitchen
counter. “Did Erik take Jenny’s inhaler out when they went camping
so she would die if she had an asthma attack?”

“Chill, Cleo. Stay in the zone. It’s about
Sharon, not Jenny. Erik thinks he’s all that, but he’s a
chickenhead.” “So I’m supposed to just let Erik get away with
killing his wife and running who knows how many scams?”

“Watch where you are. When a wave crashes
over your head, it can seem like you’re in deep water, but it may
be only two feet.”

“Whatever, Tyler. I’m too tired to make sense
of this. Either tell me something straight or go.”

And he went. I dragged myself off to bed and
slept until my alarm jolted me awake at 7:00 a.m.

As soon as I was awake enough to think, it
hit me that Sharon and Nathan were camping with Erik. His camping
record wasn’t so good, and with all I’d heard from Harry, I was
terrified for them. But I didn’t know exactly where they were or
how to find them. Rocky Mountain National Park is huge, with five
large campgrounds, some many miles away from others. Cell phones
rarely work there, and there are no land phones other than at the
ranger stations.

I had just jumped into the shower when I
realized Sharon might have told Joel what campground they were
going to. I hustled myself out and ran dripping wet to the bedroom
to grab my cell where Joel’s number was programmed in from the time
he’d left me a message after the horrible newspaper story. He
answered on the first ring, but he didn’t know any more than I did.
He did want to know why I wanted to find Sharon.

“I forgot to ask her when she’s coming back,
and I need to know when we can meet tomorrow,” I said in an
admittedly feeble attempt to explain.

“So you were going to drive an hour up to
Rocky Mountain National Park and look for them at a campground just
to find out when they were coming home?” Joel asked incredulously.
“Come on, Cleo. What’s up?”

I didn’t want to tell him about Harry, but I
knew I had to say something convincing enough to get him off the
phone so I could try something else. “Okay, here’s the thing. My
boyfriend’s a detective with the Longmont Police. He did some
checking and found out a few things about Erik that got me a little
worried about Sharon and Nathan being out there alone with
him.”

“Like what?” Joel sounded so upset I began to
regret calling him.

“Look Joel, I just want to find them. You
don’t know any more about where they are than I do, so just forget
about it—okay?”

“No way! I’m going up there right now to find
them. Do you want to come or not?”

I felt like I had unleashed a tornado. “Wait
a minute, Joel. Let’s see if we can find out where they are first.
Sharon told me Erik had reserved a camping space, so someone must
have a record of it. I need to get to my office, because I have
clients I really can’t cancel. Can you meet me there in twenty
minutes and we’ll decide what to do?”

After a little more convincing, he agreed.
With the bad publicity I’d had lately, I didn’t dare cancel any
more clients. I didn’t have anyone scheduled until 11:00 and I
hoped we could somehow get this handled by then.