Chapter 35
Erwin Residence
“Quantum Leap?” Erwin sat on the sofa in her eclectic living area and seemed to contemplate the question.
“I recall hearing Lena talk about it, but I can’t tell you a whole lot about the organization.
I know it’s focused on like the betterment of mankind.
What does that mean? I have no idea. It was Lena who got involved, and Thomas bankrolled whatever his wife wanted. That’s all I can tell you.”
Bent had apparently gotten a text, since he was doing something on his phone. So Vera moved on with the questions.
“But the donations stopped, and Quantum Leap was taken out of the will after Lena died.”
Erwin stared blankly at her as if she didn’t see any reason to respond.
Vera gave it another go. “If this particular group was so important to the woman he loved—so good for mankind—why did Thomas suddenly end support?”
“Like I said,” Erwin stated flatly, “Lena was the one who started it. She never talked to me about it directly.”
“Started it? Who else was involved?”
A half-hearted shrug lifted one shoulder. “I can’t remember his name. Some guy.”
Vera took a chance. “Is this the man Thomas suspected was having an affair with his wife?”
Erwin’s eyes flared to saucers. “I . . . I don’t know.”
“But she was having an affair? You should know,” Vera pressed. “You seemed to know a good deal about Alicia’s indiscretions.”
Erwin sat up straighter and looked directly at Vera then.
“Yeah, okay. It was a shock to everyone, but yeah, Lena was having an affair. Thomas was devastated. They fought—privately. I don’t think anyone outside the house ever knew.
He found out, and then the next thing we knew, she had that terrible accident.
” She made a whatever face. “It was sad, but you’d think if she was such a big-deal champion, she could have stayed in the saddle. ”
That was the thing about a narcissist—they could never help themselves when it came to belittling others. “Meaning what?”
“Just that when she took her crazy-expensive horse for a ride that last time, she got thrown.”
This part was in the autopsy. “Had this happened before?”
Erwin shook her head. “Don’t think so.”
Vera wasn’t schooled in horseback riding, but she did understand that a well-trained horse didn’t just throw off its rider for no reason. “Did anyone figure out what caused the animal to throw her off?”
Erwin squinted as if trying to remember. “Something about saddle panels. I guess she wasn’t keeping her gear properly maintained.”
Or, Vera countered, someone wanted it to look that way. “Was anyone on staff having trouble with Lena?”
Erwin laughed. “Are you kidding? Everyone loved Lena.” She rolled her eyes. “She was a saint.”
“To everyone except you, obviously.”
Erwin seemed to catch herself. “Well, she was cheating, and Thomas was devastated. But he would have forgiven her anything.” She shrugged. “Then she ended up dead.”
Vera glanced at Bent, who was still on the phone. “During the autopsy, it was discovered that she was pregnant.”
“Yeah.” Erwin studied her cuticles. “He was really torn up about that.”
“How strange,” Vera suggested, “that now his second wife is seriously injured, and she’s pregnant. I would almost be worried about his desire to have children, except he’s dead.”
Erwin stared at Vera as if she didn’t see her point, then she blinked. “Did you find out about the property appraisal?”
Oh yes, there was definitely far more to learn about this woman’s interest in the wives of her employer.
Vera decided to turn Erwin’s question around on her.
“When we looked at the property appraisal, you said you had no idea why Mr. Wilton would have requested an appraisal. Have you given more thought to this and come up with any ideas?”
Erwin kept her face blank now. “Well, I did do some thinking about that, and I recall once or twice overhearing Alicia say that life on the West Coast would be so much better. I really think she wanted to make that happen.” She made a squinched face.
“I may have heard Thomas discussing a sale on a phone call about three weeks ago. Of course I’m sure everyone saw the surveyors and the others tramping around all over the place.
We all suspected something was going on. ”
Of course they did. “Any idea who he was talking to?”
She shook her head. “Sorry no.”
Okay, so Wilton was undeniably on the precipice of selling.
“How did you and the other members of his staff feel about the potential move?”
Erwin shrugged. “I have no idea how the others felt or if they even knew about it. I mean I assume they did, since they had to have seen what I saw. We haven’t ever really interacted beyond what was necessary.”
“You didn’t say how you felt?” Vera wasn’t letting her off the hook.
“I expected I would be going with him. He would need a personal assistant wherever he was.”
Just another revelation that didn’t surprise Vera one bit. This case seemed to have more cropping up every day. Too bad none got them closer to nailing down the actual killer.
“Larry Parson was found dead in his room at the Regency Inn.” As Vera made this announcement, Bent rejoined the conversation.
“Oh my God.” Erwin adopted a look of horror. “He’s the one I think attacked us.” She looked to Vera. “I remember the aftershave.”
“Brut,” Vera told her. “I checked.”
“That’s it! My college counselor wore it. I hated it. He kept it in his desk. Green bottle, right?” She shuddered. “I swear that man was a closet porn addict.”
“Brut aftershave comes in a green bottle, yes.” Vera didn’t bother explaining to the woman that Larry Parson could not have attacked them because he hadn’t even arrived in Tennessee when the event occurred. At least that was the theory she was sticking with for now.
“Did you find anything else? I’m certain he’s the one who attacked us.”
Her anticipation was palpable. “What makes you think there was anything else to find?” Bent settled next to Vera on the small sofa. “Surely a smart perp would dispose of whatever he used while committing a crime.”
Erwin looked entirely deflated. “Guess so.”
“Someone visited him at the motel just before I found him,” Vera told her. “He called me about his visitor.”
Something along the order of fear flashed in Erwin’s eyes and on her face before she could school the reaction.
Vera gritted her teeth to hold back an accusation. Too soon. She couldn’t be sure. “He was poisoned, we think. But I got to his room just before he died.” Might as well give her something to sweat about, as Bent would say.
Erwin shook her head. “That’s too bad. But you know the old saying: ‘Live by the sword, die by the sword.’”
Vera clenched her jaw to hold back a snarky retort. Then she thought about her call with Mrs. Childers. “Have you ever taken anxiety medication? Like Xanax?”
Erwin made a face. “No way. That stuff is for people who can’t deal with real life. That is not me.” Her mouth suddenly formed an O, and she made a sound of surprise. “But you know, my roommate, Nola, took Xanax. She had way more problems than anyone knew. Really, really sad story.”
Yeah, and Vera was looking at the poor girl’s biggest one.
“If we have more questions, I’ll let you know,” Bent announced as he stood.
Vera followed suit. Evidently his call was something that wouldn’t wait. Didn’t matter. She wanted Erwin to stew for a while. “Thanks for your time, Valeri.”
As they left the building, the woman in the downstairs apartment with the children was coming in.
“Nice to see you again.” Vera smiled at the children, who quickly lined up against their mother’s legs.
The woman offered a hesitant smile that wasn’t much of a smile at all.
Vera gestured to the man at her side. “This is Sheriff Gray Benton.”
Bent gave her a nod. “Nice to meet you, Ms. . . . ?”
“Johnson,” the woman said finally. “Kayla Johnson.”
The two little boys hiding behind their mother peeked out, and Bent smiled at them.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t much help the other day.” Johnson looked from her children to Vera. “I had just lost my grandmother, and I was having a really bad day.”
Vera nodded. “I understand. I’m very sorry for your loss.”
Johnson thanked her, then herded her children into her apartment. Vera was glad to know it wasn’t just her less-than-award-winning personality that had made their previous meeting so uncomfortable.
As they exited the building, Vera remembered another thread she needed to follow up on. “Did we learn anything from the other downstairs neighbor? Sam Scott?”
“He was out of town all weekend.” Bent glanced at her. “Sorry, I thought I told you.”
“No problem. It’s been that kind of week.” It was hard to believe tomorrow was Saturday, and they were no closer to nailing down their killer or killers. Damn, it had been a long four days.
“I have another meeting at the office.” Bent paused at Vera’s SUV. “The mayor and the chief of police want to go over the case again.”
Damn, and they’d just had a press conference. But that was the way of things at the top. They wanted results. Fast. No matter the situation. The trouble was, closing a homicide case was rarely fast.
“I’m going home,” Vera admitted. “Where are we tonight?” She hesitated on the sidewalk next to him. “Did I ask you this already?” Her brain just wasn’t keeping up today.
“My place.” He gave her a quick hug. “I’ll cook.”
A grin stretched across her face. “I’m in. See you later.” She hesitated. “Wait, I forgot to ask how that press conference went?”
He gave his head a little shake. “About like you’d expect, considering we still don’t have anything to offer as progress. Nolan Baker was front and center. He wanted to know why you weren’t there.”
She made a face. “Sorry. I’m sure that was unpleasant.”
“Most press conferences are.”
“Look, I think I’ll call Eric for help on getting more information on Quantum Leap, since Erwin didn’t give us anything.
I did some googling after I spoke with the attorney, but I got basically nothing.
We could waste a lot more hours searching and still find nothing.
He has the resources to find what we need far more quickly. ”
“You’re right.” Bent nodded. “Do it.”
Vera glanced back at the second floor of the building Thomas Wilton had bought for his assistant. The curtains on the living room window moved. She’d been watching.
“I can’t get past the idea,” she said to Bent, “that Erwin is hiding something, maybe a lot of somethings.”
“She’s back on top of my list,” he agreed. “How about yours?”
“Right next to Carter, Hernandez, and Martinez,” Vera admitted. “It’s a damned four-way tie.”
“By the way,” he said, “that rental—the Airbnb in Park City that Carter mentioned—was a bust. It took Myra about a dozen calls to track down the owner, and he sent her to a service who handles the rentals. The service refuses to give out any information without a warrant. They did say there were no cameras in or around the property. With what we know now, I’m not so sure it’s worth the hassle. ”
“Don’t bother,” Vera agreed. “I think we can pretty much rule out Alicia based on the statements from Parson and Lancaster. The knife being found under her was clearly a setup. As for the others, I can’t think of one reason to rule even one of them out.
They all have motive. They all had means and opportunity. The only trouble is proving it.”
“All four disliked Alicia,” Bent reminded her. “All four felt she made things worse. Their boss. Their working environment. Their lives.”
Vera nodded. “True. Maybe Erwin not so much. She just announced she expected to go with Wilton if he moved to California. But I can’t get the story about the first wife she just told me out of my head. There’s something there too.”
“Could be,” Bent admitted. “What we need is for one of them to break.”
“Right.” Vera doubted Erwin would be the one to break. More likely Martinez or Hernandez. Analyzing people was her specialty, but she was a little off her game this week.
Bent cocked his head. “I say we play a little game with our top four.”
Vera grinned. “I like the sound of that.”
“We’ll bring all four in and put them in a room together and let them stew for a while, then we’ll question them—together.”
“Erwin and Carter will go head-to-head.” Vera was sure of it. “Sparks will fly.”
“Maybe accusations will be thrown, and we’ll learn something we don’t already know.”
“Good plan.”
He gave her a little two-fingered salute. “See you at home.”
She waved, then wandered to her SUV. Home. Where exactly was home now? She watched him drive past. With Bent, she decided. Wherever he was . . . was home.
As Vera pulled onto the street, she made the call to her old friend. Eric promised to have something as quickly as possible for her on Quantum Leap. She thanked him and ended the call. Another call immediately buzzed in. Luna. Her face flashed on the dashboard screen of Vera’s SUV.
She steeled herself and accepted the call. “Hey, Luna. Everything okay?”
“I’m sitting in the parking lot at the hardware store.”
The news sent a new shot of adrenaline through Vera’s chest. “Luna, you—”
“I can’t live with this anymore. I need to tell Jerome, and I just can’t until I talk to Mr. Potter. That receipt has to be wrong.”
“Give me time to get there, and I’ll go in with you.” Vera pressed harder on the accelerator. “Please, Luna, don’t do anything until I get there. I’m on my way.”
She hoped like hell there was some sort of explanation for Luna’s timeline that morning . . . otherwise this situation was going to hell in a hurry.