Casey Mayes - A Killer Column

He pulled back from the hug and frowned at me.

“What did I say?” I asked.

“Savannah, we’ll make this decision together, and we’ll both live with the consequences. I’m not going to shoulder it alone. Do you understand?”

“Of course I do. I was just trying to help.”

“Well, you’re not, at least not by giving in. I need us to hammer this out together. We’re a team, remember?”

“Got it.”

I noticed that Jenny had come out of the bedroom. “If this is a bad time, I can give you two some privacy.”

I was about to answer when Zach beat me to it. “Everything’s fine. That was fast.”

“I believe in getting the best, and my copier is no exception.”

Zach took the original, while Jenny handed the copied pages to me. I saw that the penciled notations were now crisper than they’d been on the original documents.

“Hang on a second, this one stuck to my copy.” I looked at the lime green note and saw in printed block letters, THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING.

“Did you see where this was in the planner?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t even notice it as I was making copies,” Jenny said. After she and Zach read it, she asked, “Was he threatening someone?”

“Maybe,” Zach said. “Or somebody was threatening him.” He scratched his chin, and then added, “But I have to admit, I have no idea what it means.”

“What should we do now?”

“Before we start digging into all of this, we need to figure out how to get it back to Kelsey without her knowing we had it.”

“That’s going to be tough,” I said. “She knows it’s gone, so I can’t exactly slip it back under the cushion of her chair.”

“No, but you could leave it at the desk for her.”

Jenny asked, “Wouldn’t she ask who dropped it off? We don’t want to implicate Savannah in the theft.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll find someone to do it for us.”

“How are you going to do that?” I asked.

He grinned at us both. “Leave that to me.”

I started flipping through the pages Jenny had copied for us. “A lot of these notes are for Kelsey.”

Zach scanned as well, as Jenny asked, “Are they orders?”

“Most of them. There are a couple he hadn’t delivered yet stuck to the back of the planner,” Zach said. “Here’s something odd. Jenny, did you happen to tear one of the notes while you were making the copies?”

“No, I’m sure of it. Why?”

“This one says, ‘Fire,’ but the rest of it is missing.”

“That’s no mystery,” I explained. “He fired Brady and Sylvia after I got there for my meeting, so it could have easily been for one, or even both of them.”

“True,” Zach said as he kept looking at the planner. “He had to be a tough man to work for.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I said.

Zach grinned at me. “I’m not talking about you. How do you think Kelsey managed to put up with it?”

“She wasn’t with him very long,” I said. “Who knows how long she would have lasted.”

“Well, she certainly ended up all right, didn’t she?”

“What do you mean?” Jenny asked.

“I keep thinking about who had something concrete to gain by his death, not just having a contract saved.”

“Hey, it’s a bigger deal than you think. Losing your source of income and not being able to get another job for five years is huge.”

“So is murder,” Zach said. “But we shouldn’t forget that Cary is the one who really benefits. I’m sure Kelsey wasn’t expecting to take over for him, and I doubt Sylvia or Brady knew their firings would be canceled with his murder. What could Mindi have gained? She lost her meal ticket. That leaves Cary.”

“There are more reasons for murder than money,” I said. “Love is another factor.”

Jenny nodded. “If Derrick was dumping Mindi, she had a motive.”

He countered, “And if he was dumping Cary for Mindi, she’d have an emotional and financial motive to want to see him dead, too.”

“So, are you saying we forget all about the others and focus on Cary Duncan?”

He shook his head as he walked to the window. “No, we still need to see if Sylvia actually met with Derrick after you left, but you have to admit, Cary has some good reasons to want Derrick dead. It makes her the prime suspect, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Hey,” I said, “as long as it’s not me, I’m fine with it. Jenny?”

“It’s something to consider,” she said. “I don’t want us to forget Frank Lassiter. He lost a great deal of money, and while he wasn’t going to get any of it back, he could have killed Derrick as a way of getting revenge.”

Zach threw his hands into the air. “That’s the problem with this situation. We have reasons to suspect everyone who ever came into Derrick Duncan’s life, but that’s not getting us any closer to finding the killer.”

I nodded. “I know it’s frustrating, not being able to officially question our suspects or check out alibis, but we have to do whatever we can to figure this out.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice.” He looked at us in turn, and then asked, “Do either of you masterminds have an idea how we can start eliminating suspects?”

Jenny just shrugged, but I had an idea. “Why don’t we use the same approach we tried on Frank Lassiter?”

“Tell him we’re on his side?” Zach asked. “That was a tough sale, remember?”

“No offense,” I said, “but you have a way of intimidating people and not realizing it. Why don’t you let me try?”

“On your own? Out of the question,” he snapped. “Besides, you’re the one who aggravated him the first time we spoke.”

“Zach, it’s my neck on the line. Let me handle this my way.”

“I could go with her when she talks to them,” Jenny volunteered.

“You need to keep a low profile with the police, remember?”

She picked up the planner. “They couldn’t even find this, could they? I don’t think you’re getting a fair shake. I’m in, all the way.”

“Great,” I said.

Zach just scowled. “What am I supposed to be doing in the meantime while you two are out interrogating witnesses?”

“Sweetheart, there are other ways you can help.” I hugged him, which he resisted at first, but then allowed. After I pulled away, I added, “You can find out who Jenny’s stalker is. That’s as important to us as finding Derrick’s killer.”

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” he said.

“Give us one day. We’ll brace our suspects tomorrow and try to enlist them openly in our cause. If any of them refuse, we’ll keep them on our suspect list, but who knows, someone might volunteer some information just to get us off their backs.”

“Will you both at least be careful?”

“I promise we will,” I said, just as the front doorbell rang.

ARE YOU EXPECTING ANYONE?” ZACH ASKED AS HE MOVED toward the door.

“Not really. Why?” Jenny asked as her face went pale. “Do you think it’s my stalker?”

“If it is, he picked the wrong night to show himself,” Zach replied. I moved toward him, and he said, “Savannah, you and Jenny need to wait for me in the back bedroom.”

“No,” we both said as the doorbell rang again.

“Stop arguing and do it.”

Jenny started to move, but I stood fast. “I’m not going. Now, are you going to answer the door, or should I?”

“Woman, you’re pushing me too far.”

“Then answer the door.”

I wasn’t sure who was there, but I wasn’t about to let my husband face them alone.

I certainly wasn’t expecting the visitor we got.

Detective Murphy was standing there when Zach carefully opened the door, and from the grim look on his face, he wasn’t there to bring us good news.