Dawn Stewardson - Close Neighbors

“When you say this guy called you, you mean that you answered the phone and he didn’t ask for Rachel? He just went ahead and laid his story on you?”

“No, I mean he specifically called me. I’ve got a separate line in my office and that’s the one he used, not the house number.”

“And what about his voice? I don’t suppose it sounded even slightly familiar?”

“No. Actually, it barely sounded real. It had a strange, metallic tone.”

“As if he was using some sort of electronic device?”

“Exactly. So even if he was someone I know, I wouldn’t have realized it. But the immediate question’s not, who is he? It’s, what do I do about him? Because he said he’d call back in a couple of days. And if I don’t have the money for him, he’s going to plant the gun someplace that will incriminate Rachel.”

Fleetingly, Anne wondered what sort of place he had in mind, then told herself that wasn’t important and said, “Chase, a lowlife can make any threats he wants. But as long as her fingerprints aren’t on the gun it can’t incriminate her.”

“That’s exactly what I told him.”

“And he said?”

“He…said they are on it.”

“Oh?”

The word came out far less casually than she’d intended, but Chase barely seemed to notice. He just gave her a shrug, then elaborated.

“His version of what happened wasn’t quite the same as Rachel’s. According to him, after Graham pushed her he pulled his gun. She got up and made a grab for it. And while they both had hold of it, it went off. Graham was shot and she ran—leaving the gun lying on the ground. Which is how this jerk claims he ended up with it.”

“Ah.” When no subtle way of wording her next question came to her, Anne simply said, “You’re sure things couldn’t have played out that way? That the gun didn’t accidentally go off, and Rachel’s just too frightened to admit—”

“No. After Graham pushed her, she got up and left. Period. She’d never lie to me about something that important. Whereas this guy wants money from me, so he had to concoct a story he could threaten to tell the police.”

“But…Chase, I know I’m repeating myself, but his claiming Rachel’s fingerprints are on the gun doesn’t make it true. And as long as they really aren’t—”

“That’s what we kept telling ourselves last night. Then we realized it might not matter. I mean, what if nobody’s prints are on it by this point? What if he’s wiped it clean? And then he does plant it? Wouldn’t those detectives figure Rachel was the one who’d wiped off the prints? Because some of them were hers?”

“Not if you tell them about this guy. Not if they’re expecting the gun to turn up someplace that—”

“There’s more,” Chase interrupted.

She looked at him, certain that whatever the “more” was, it wasn’t good.

“He didn’t only talk about planting the gun. He said he’d know, right away, if I told the cops he’d called me. And that if I did, it would be game over. That he had a whole bag of tricks up his sleeve.”

“Chase, regardless of what threats he made it still doesn’t mean—”

“I know. Rationally, both Rachel and I are aware that what you’re saying is right.”

“Then…I guess that gets me back to the question of why you didn’t contact the police.”

He wearily shook his head. “Because when I told her about the call she went into total panic. And by the time we’d finished discussing things I wasn’t sure what the hell to do. We…would you like to hear where we ended up?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well, the longer we thought about it, the more logical it seemed that this guy’s the real killer. Our best scenario was that he went to the park looking for someone to mug and just happened to come across Rachel and Graham.

“Then, after Rachel left, he decided Graham would make as good a victim as anyone. But instead of cooperating, Graham pulled his gun. And that’s where the story came from about a struggle and the gun going off and…what do you think?”

“I…it’s certainly possible.”

Rapidly, Anne began evaluating just how possible that scenario might be. Assuming Rachel’s version of events was accurate, a mugger theory held water. And, one way or another, the killer could have learned her identity. But beyond what had happened while Rachel was with Graham, they were into pure speculation.

Looking at Chase again, she said, “Was Graham robbed? Was his wallet missing when his body was discovered?”

“I don’t know. The detectives didn’t say anything about that, and we’ve heard nothing on the news. But if it was, then the rest falls neatly into place, doesn’t it? We’ve got some creep lurking in the park, with robbery on his mind, who kills Graham. Then he has the idea of going after serious money with a little extortion.

“And now, assuming he actually can make Rachel appear guilty, that’s exactly what he’ll do if I cross him up. Because if the cops charged her they sure wouldn’t be looking for him. So…well, we just didn’t want to call them and come to regret it.”

Pushing her hair back from her face, Anne tried to consider a hundred different things at once.

“So? What do you think?” Chase asked again.

She hesitated, then said, “You might hate me for this, but I still think you should have talked to the police last night.”

“I just didn’t feel I could,” he said, shaking his head. “Aside from anything else, I wasn’t sure they’d believe me.”

“Why not?”

“Well, we got to thinking they might figure I’d only made up the extortionist story—as a way of throwing suspicion off Rachel.

“Don’t look so skeptical,” he added before Anne even realized she was. “When the detectives interviewed her, they asked if she’d seen anyone near the clearing. And she said she hadn’t. So for me to tell them there was someone there, and that he’d phoned me with his threat…”

“Chase, Rachel and Graham were having a heated argument. It’s hardly going to surprise the cops if she didn’t notice someone hiding in the trees.”

“Even so…well, at this point it doesn’t matter. It turns out I’ve got a witness to the guy’s call. Julie overheard me talking to him. But she didn’t tell me she had until after she came over here this morning.

“And, last night, Rachel…I guess what really had her so terrified was not knowing exactly how much this guy might be capable of, or what he had in mind when he talked about having a whole bag of tricks up his sleeve.”

“That’s what intimidation’s all about,” Anne said gently.

“I know. I just hadn’t realized how effective it can be.”

She let the silence grow for a few moments, then said, “You could still call the police now.”

Chase didn’t reply, just stared silently across the pool. Finally, he turned and caught her gaze.

He was clearly both exhausted and troubled, the picture of a man who’d lain awake all night, wrestling with a problem far greater than his coping ability.

She felt badly for him and wished she could do a lot more to help than merely pressing him to call the police.

“What if I phone them and it makes things worse for Rachel?” he said at last. “Even after I explain everything, won’t they suspect I had some other reason for waiting so long? Wonder if she actually does have something to hide? Figure we might have spent last night and this morning trying to decide if we’d be better off keeping quiet?”

Anne didn’t reply, but he was raising a valid concern. It lessened her certainty that calling the cops was the right way to go.

“Hell, maybe they’d even wonder if Julie really did overhear that call,” he was saying. “They might suspect we just told her we needed her help, and coached her about what to say.”