Софи Райан - No Escape Claws

“Yes, he did,” Nick said. “Because he was drunk. Not because he was homeless. They threw him in a cell until he sobered up. Because it was so close to Christmas they didn’t charge him with anything.”

“But you know his name. We can talk to him.”

Nick swiped a hand over his chin. “You already did. It was Gavin Pace.”

Charlotte and I just stared at each other. I hadn’t expected Nick to say that.

Rose was nodding. “I told you that young man had a weak chin.”

“And a taste for pickle vodka apparently,” I said, sotto voce, to Nick.

The phone rang then. Charlotte touched my arm. “I’ll get that,” she said.

“I’ll call Liz,” Rose said, patting her pockets in search of her cell phone. She spotted it over on the cash desk and started toward it. “Sarah, are you coming with us?” she called over her shoulder.

Nick swiped a hand over his mouth again and hissed, “It’s go or probably have to post their bail.”

“I’m coming,” I said.

Rose grabbed her phone and turned to look at Nick. “What about you, Nicolas? Would you like to come along?”

He smiled. “Thank you, but I have to go to work.”

It registered then that he was wearing his work clothes, a knit shirt and dark pants with a multitude of pockets.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You really should thank Michelle. She’s the one who looked up the report.”

“I didn’t know she was back.”

“Last night.” He hesitated. “I told her what’s going on. I hope that’s okay.”

I nodded. “It is. I don’t like keeping this kind of a secret from her. And she’d find out anyway.” I gestured at his mom and Rose. “They’re not exactly subtle.”

Nick followed my gaze. “Try to keep them out of trouble.”

“Hey, this is not my first rodeo,” I said.

“I take it that means you have rope and know how to make a lasso.”

I grinned at him. “Yes on both counts.”

“Let me know how it works out,” he said. He stopped to give his mother a kiss and he was gone.

Liz arrived about a half hour later. “I thought you had places to go and people to see,” I said.

“I’ve gone and I’ve seen,” she said. “And you have entirely too much time on your hands.”

“Do we have an appointment?” I asked as she tossed me the car keys.

“We don’t need an appointment,” she said.

“What if he isn’t there?”

She gave me a look. “Mr. Pace isn’t exactly lighting the work world on fire. I don’t think we need to worry about that.”

And we didn’t. Gavin Pace came out to the reception area to meet us. He didn’t look very happy to see us. “I already answered your questions,” he said. “I don’t have anything else to tell you.”

“Would you like me to tell you what your ex-wife said about you, young man?” Rose asked. “I’ll give you a hint. She called you something that rhymes with ‘glass bowl.’ And that was the nicest thing she said.”

I stifled a smile at her use of an expression Avery started using when Liz got after her to clean up her language.

“Could you please keep it down?” he said, looking around. The young woman at the reception desk was watching us, not even trying to hide her interest.

“Maybe we should talk somewhere a little more private,” Liz suggested.

“Fine,” he said. “Come back to my office.”

The office was even more cluttered than our previous visit. Pace didn’t make a move to clear off the chairs but we weren’t going to be there very long so it didn’t matter that we had nowhere to sit down.

Liz didn’t waste any time. “You lied to me,” she said. “I don’t like that.”

“I didn’t lie,” he said but his eyes slid off her face as he said the words.

“You said you hadn’t seen Gina in months when in fact you were caught by the police watering someone’s rhododendrons in her neighborhood the night she died. Then you told a touching story of how she inspired you to stop drinking, which, judging by the contents of your bottom-left desk drawer was also a lie. Would you like to go three for three?”

“Fine,” he said. “I saw Gina the day she died, but I didn’t kill her.” He pulled a hand back through his hair a couple of times. “She ruined my life. I lost my job. Molly wouldn’t take me back. And Gina? Nothing happened to her. People were falling all over themselves to help poor little Gina.” His voice had turned mocking and mean. “So yeah, I told her how she’d ruined my life and how I hoped she’d rot in hell. Then I had a couple of drinks—just to relax and the next thing I know the cops are hassling me.”

Rose’s phone had given a low buzz while Gavin was talking. Someone had sent her a text. She slid the phone out of her pocket, checked the screen and then silently handed it to me. Nick. Based on the estimated time of death for Gina Pearson Pace is not your killer. He was still locked up .

Somehow I’d known that all along. I looked at Gavin Pace. Rose was right about the weak chin and the rest of him matched it.

Liz, meanwhile, had reached her limit for listening to his complaining. She took a couple of steps forward so she was right in his face.

“You, young man, are a bum,” she said, punctuating her words with one pointing finger. “Gina Pearson didn’t ruin your life. Your problems are your own and unlike her, you still have lots of time to fix them. So get a haircut, lose the attitude, clean up this office, get to a meeting and stop bellyaching!”

She turned and stalked out of the office as only Elizabeth Emmerson Kiley French can. Rose and I trailed after her, leaving Gavin Pace standing in his office with his mouth hanging open.

“I feel a little like the man who walks behind the elephant,” Rose confided.

We caught up with Liz at the main entrance. “Are we ready to go?” I asked.

“I am,” she said. She looked at Rose. “Are you?”

“We may as well,” Rose said, settling her purse over her arm. “I don’t imagine we’ll get any more information out of Mr. Pace now. And he’s not our killer.” She showed Nick’s text to Liz.

“I suppose you think I should have kept quiet,” Liz said. She patted her blond hair. Not a single one was out of place.

“Do you think your little outburst is actually going to make anything better?” Rose asked.

Liz smiled. “It made me feel better,” she said. “Let’s go home.”

Chapter 15

We were about five minutes away from Second Chance when Liz’s cell phone rang. I saw her frown at the screen before she took the call. I had no idea what was going on from the one side of the call I could hear but from the way her expression changed I could see she wasn’t happy.

“Is everything all right?” Rose asked from the backseat after Liz ended the call.

“Not for some people,” Liz said darkly.

Avery was just coming down the sidewalk as we pulled into the parking lot. Greg Pearson was with her. Avery was talking and I could tell by how animatedly her hands were moving that it was about something important to her. Greg nodded from time to time but wasn’t saying anything. He liked her, I realized. I hoped she felt the same way. I didn’t want to see him get hurt.

We got out of the car. Liz stood by the front fender. Rose nudged me with her elbow. “I think I know which people are in trouble.”

Avery stopped in front of her grandmother. She reminded me so much of Liz in the way she stood with her feet apart and her chin lifted. Whatever she’d done, she didn’t seem very sorry.

“You pretended to be your mother to get out of a field trip?” Liz said.

Avery shrugged. “Yeah, I can sound just like her. Not that the school would know what she sounds like anyway. It’s not like she ever talks to them.”