Джанет Кантрелл - Fat Cat Takes The Cake

She trotted through the snowfall, increasing by the minute, the sting of her disappointment worse than the nip of the cold on her face. Before she got to the front door, she had a thought. Eddie could still be hunkyb. She herself had two e-mail addresses. She had one that she gave to merchants to get them off her back, but she rarely looked at it. She had another main address she actually used.

If he did use hunkyb, though, he wasn’t using it with her and she wasn’t going to be able to use that as evidence against him. She had all the information she was going to get. Now, how would she relay this to Detective Olson? Tanner didn’t want anyone knowing he had hacked Ron North’s account. Could she tell the detective what was found without telling him who found it? She would have to think of a better way.

Before she went inside the warm restaurant, she called Eddie.

“Where are you, Chase? What’s all that noise?”

“I guess it’s the wind. I’m outside.”

“Do you need some help?”

“No, I was wondering if you’d like to meet for a drink later tonight.”

“You got some place in mind?”

They settled on Amble Inn, a place she’d been to with Mike once. It wasn’t far from Julie’s law office, where they’d left her car. Julie lived in that neighborhood, too, so she would drop her off and meet Eddie. And try to get something from him, anything. Some indication that he was being blackmailed by Ron, or that he was ever called Hunky or Hulk.

She would be very careful.

She and Julie were both surprised when Bart Fender came to the table to take their orders.

“You work here?” Julie asked.

“School coaches don’t make as much money as lawyers.” He smiled when he said it and Chase and Julie both smiled back. The order pad was small in his big paws. “Some of us have to work two or three jobs.”

“Well, it’s a nice place to work, isn’t it?” Chase said, trying to soothe the fury that always seemed to simmer barely below Bart’s surface.

“I don’t know about that. But it’s close to the hospital. I can visit Dillon before and after work pretty easy.”

A pang of guilt stung Chase. For days, she hadn’t thought of poor Dillon, lying in a coma, unaware of the battle that raged between Bart and her parents about turning off her life support.

“She’s still there, then?” Julie said.

Chase wanted to kick her. She didn’t think they should talk about this and rile Bart up. He’d been so upset when they’d seen him there.

“For now. What do you want to drink?” His smile had disappeared.

After he left, Chase whispered to Julie, “Don’t talk about Dillon, okay? It upsets him.”

“Yah, I can see that. I wasn’t thinking. I won’t mention her again. You’re getting the Hawaiian, right?”

“And I suppose you’ll have your usual pepperoni with extra cheese.”

“I sure will.”

“Listen,” Chase said. “Eddie sent me a message, before I came in. It was from bhelthy.” She spelled it for Julie.

“Is the guy illiterate? Or is he being cute?”

“Whatever. But the message wasn’t from hunkyb.”

“So we still don’t know who that is and why Ron North was pestering him.”

“Only,” Chase said, “that hunkyb is likely to be the person who killed him.”

Bart slammed their beers on the table so hard the foam splashed out on both of them, then took their orders with a fierce frown. Maybe it was hard to set things down gently with all those muscles. Or maybe they should both keep their mouths shut.

She whispered to Julie again after he left. “He’s sure in a bad mood.”

“Sure is,” Julie agreed. “Let’s eat fast and get out of here.”

They ate and paid without incident and Chase dropped Julie at her office. Before Julie shut the car door, Chase said, “Wait.”

Julie ducked her head back into the car. “Yes?”

Should she tell her she was meeting Eddie? This wasn’t something she could do with Julie along. Julie would tell her not to do it, just in case he was a murderer. But they were meeting in a bar, one that was usually crowded at nine on a weeknight. No, she didn’t want Julie to talk her out of it. Or worse, to tell Anna and have her get on Chase’s case. The hearing was tomorrow. She had to do this.

“Nothing. I thought it looked like you left a glove on the seat.”

Julie wiggled her fingers. “Nope. Got ’em on, see?”

“Call me tomorrow before . . . you know.”

“If I can.” Julie’s teeth clamped on her lips and she left before she started crying.

How could Julie be so calm? She trusted her lawyer, but even so, if Chase had a hearing for criminal charges the next day, she would be fidgeting so bad she wouldn’t be able to drive. She saw Julie get into her own car and start it up. They both beeped and Julie drove away.

Chase sat with her car idling, planning her strategy. She would try to get Eddie Heath to tell her all his e-mail addresses. Failing that, she would probe to see if he had any history that he could be blackmailed about. She worked out a strategy, or at least a way to approach this.

If none of that worked, she was going to alert the detective anyway. She called Niles Olson’s cell number and it rang to voice mail. This was better than talking to him.

She spoke quickly. “I think I have a very good suspect. I’ll know more in about an hour and will call you when I get home. Need to tack down some details. There’s another page from Ron North’s notebook to consider. Quincy hid it and I just found it.”

There. She broke the connection, muted her phone, and headed toward the Amble Inn. She didn’t want the detective calling while she was with Eddie.

THIRTY-THREE

Eddie frowned as he studied the bar menu. Now that Chase thought about it, she was surprised he’d agreed to meet her here. The Amble Inn wasn’t a health-nut kind of place, simply a basic bar and grille.

“I don’t find anything that’s acceptable on this menu,” he said, laying it on the table. “How can people eat like this? No wonder—”

“Sorry. I assumed you had already eaten. I thought we were having a drink.”

“Oh sure, that’ll be fine. You don’t need to eat?”

“Just had . . . dinner . . . with Julie.” She had been about to say pizza, but thought that might get her a long lecture. How can people eat like this?

Eddie picked up the beer list. “Did you know that beer has quite a few beneficial properties?”

“Really?” That’s why he could meet her at a bar. Beer was good for you. As opposed to that toxic hard liquor, she supposed.

“It’s actually just as healthy for you as wine. Contains polyphenols that are antioxidant. Reduces the chances of getting kidney stones, too.”

“I was going to have wine, but I’d better have a brewski, then.” Chase smiled. At least there was one consumable they could agree on. Two, with wine and beer.

Eddie cross-examined the waiter about what was on tap and ordered a raspberry ale.

“That sounds awfully good,” Chase said. “I’ll have the same.”

“Peanuts and pretzels?” the waiter asked.

Chase said yes before Eddie could nix them.

“Peanuts are a good source of protein, but pretzels are pure salt and carbs,” he said after the waiter left. She’d been pretty sure that was what he would say. Thanks to her jumping in, they would get the salt and carbs as well as the protein. Did the guy have to measure and evaluate everything?

To her horror, she recognized the trio getting out of the booth across the room. She turned her face and tried to shrink to nothingness, to become invisible. It didn’t work.

“Chase! How nice to see you here.” Patrice made her way between the tables with a huge grin.