Chapter Fifteen
“I may have a lead on my cold case—or actually yours now…” Mason said over the phone.
Campbell, who was still at his desk, responded attentively, “Okay, what do you have?”
Without elaborating, his father said flatly, “Can you meet me at Sedwick’s Greenhouse and Nursery on Bledton Road in Wally Ridge?”
“Yeah, sure,” Campbell told him. “I can be there in about twenty minutes.”
“See you then.”
Campbell heard the phone disconnect. He finished up some paperwork and headed out of the building, stepping into the sunshine, while more than curious as to where this was headed.
Not too surprisingly, his father had taken an active interest in the unofficial reopening of the Lynda Boxleitner homicide.
Had he made a breakthrough?
Campbell was just as keen to solve the decades-old murder.
Especially if it was connected to the two current drug-related deaths he was investigating.
After getting into his SUV, he sent Stefanie a quick text to say that he was thinking about her—and often.
A return text came back from her, stating the same was true from her end.
It brought a smile to his face as he realized how good it felt to have someone like her that enjoyed his company and wanted more of it.
He drove off to the rural town in Eckerslin County—about halfway between Reston Hills and Fallon’s Creek. Spotting his father’s Land Rover Range Rover in the parking lot of Sedwick’s Greenhouse and Nursery, Campbell parked alongside him.
After climbing into the passenger side of his father’s luxury SUV, he said, “Hey.”
“Hey.” Mason, wearing his cowboy hat, turned to face Campbell. “I’ve been going through my old files, hoping to find something…anything that might catch my eye…” He drew a breath. “Something did click. I came across info on one of the original suspects in Lynda’s murder… His name’s Sidney Sedwick—”
Campbell strained his mind to recall the name through his own perusal of the cold case files. He seemed to remember that Sedwick was barely mentioned, with the focus being almost entirely on Wendell Braison.
“I remember the name Sidney Sedwick,” Campbell said, leaving it at that for now.
“Sedwick was employed at the time as a gardener by Stuart Reston,” Mason pointed out, piquing Campbell’s interest with the mention of Bella Reston’s late father. “A witness reported seeing Lynda riding with Sedwick in his Ford F-150 pickup just days before her body was found in the park.”
“Hmm…” Campbell muttered thoughtfully. “Where was Sedwick—or where was he supposed to be—when she was killed?”
“According to witnesses, he spent the entire night before Founder’s Day into the early morning hours working on preparations for the event, apparently giving him no time to poison Lynda.
Beyond that, Stuart came to Sedwick’s defense—insisting that he was a stand-up guy, incapable of doing anyone harm. ”
Campbell eyed his father. “What made you think—or reconsider—otherwise?”
Mason ran a hand across his mouth. “Well, although Sedwick came back clean in a criminal background check, the fact that he was a gardener and may have been able to get his hands on the pesticide used to fatally poison Lynda just stuck out with me this time around.”
“What about his alibi?” Campbell asked as he weighed this.
“Yeah, there is that,” Mason admitted. “But from my own volunteering for past Founder’s Day planning, I know firsthand that it can be chaotic. People come and go without anyone truly being the wiser—but would swear that someone never left their sight.”
Campbell cocked a brow. “So, you think that Sedwick could have slipped away, poisoned Lynda, dumped her in Reston Hills Park and returned to the Founder’s Day preparations unnoticed?”
“Maybe.” Mason sighed. “Guess I’d like to hear what Sedwick has to say about it twenty years later—if he’ll talk to us… I did some digging, made some phone calls and learned that he now owns this greenhouse and nursery.”
Campbell nodded. “Well, let’s go see if we can find him.”
“Okay.”
They walked inside the greenhouse and, after asking to see Sidney Sedwick, were directed toward the perennials department. A medium-sized man in his early sixties with a silver Viking haircut and a Balbo beard was getting his hands dirty on some shrubs when they approached him.
Flashing his badge, Campbell took the initial lead. “I’m Detective Sawyer, Reston Hills Police Department.”
Mason said evenly in a throwback, “I’m Detective Sawyer, too, and his father. Are you Sidney Sedwick?”
His shoulders slouched and his brown eyes narrowed while responding, “Yeah, that’s me.”
“We’ve spoken before,” Mason told him matter-of-factly. “Twenty years ago…about the murder of Lynda Boxleitner—”
Sidney nodded. “I remember. How could I not?”
Campbell told him straightforwardly, “The case has been reopened… We’d like to ask you a few questions about it…” Even then, he was sizing up the suspect, wondering if he could be responsible as well for the deaths of Jasmine and Mia. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Sidney took a breath and replied, “Yeah—my office…”
They followed him back through the greenhouse and into a small windowless office with a standing desk workstation, wooden square table and two leather chairs.
Mason peered at the suspect and asked point-blank, “Is there something you’d like to get off your chest after all these years? Did you kill Lynda Boxleitner?”
Sidney stared at the question for a long moment. He sighed, then said levelly, “No, I did not kill Lynda… Had an alibi. And I could never have done that—”
“But she was in your truck days before her death,” Mason said tersely.
Sidney freely admitted, “Yeah, I gave her a lift…”
Campbell sensed that he was holding back, prompting him to ask, “Do you know who could have poisoned her to death?”
Before he could respond, Mason put forth stridently, “As a gardener, you might have had knowledge of and access to thallium sulfate—the banned pesticide someone used to fatally poison Lynda. Maybe you chose to use it on her, for whatever reason…?” Mason glared at him and said, “Maybe you’re at it again? ”
Sidney’s head snapped back as if he had been punched. He paused, then said thoughtfully, “There are some things I need to get off my chest. I’ve wanted to for a long time. Guess I was just waiting for you to show up—” he eyed Mason “—to say what should have been said twenty years ago…”
Campbell exchanged a curious glance with his father, both wondering, no doubt, if Sidney Sedwick was about to have second thoughts and confess to the murder of Lynda Boxleitner, for starters…
Sidney sucked in a deep breath, jutted his chin and said, “I was able to obtain some thallium sulfate from abroad… But not for myself. I got it for Stuart Reston.”
“Stuart—” Mason lifted a brow with surprise. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Mr. Reston asked me to order it…said he thought the pesticide might be more effective in dealing with a pest problem that was getting out of control on the property than what we were using.”
Campbell contemplated this, then asked the obvious question, “Did Stuart Reston know Lynda Boxleitner?”
“Yeah, he knew her,” Sidney said without hesitating.
“How well did he know her?” Mason asked pointedly.
“They were having an affair.” Sidney’s voice rose an octave.
“Mr. Reston was sleeping with Lynda right under the nose of his wife, Eloise Reston, and their daughter, Bella. Or maybe not so much. You see, Mr. Reston often had me pick up and drive Lynda to various meeting places behind Mrs. Reston’s and Bella’s back.
Sometimes he and Lynda even got together at my cottage.
But from what I’d heard, Lynda wanted more than what he was offering her in their arrangement—I don’t know, maybe to become the next Mrs. Reston—to keep her from letting the whole world know about their illicit affair.
Mr. Reston, with too much to lose in this town, would have none of it. ”
Campbell narrowed his eyes as he digested this. “Are you saying that it was Reston who killed her—his lover?”
Sidney licked his lips and responded, “He never came right out and confessed to it—though I asked him if he used the thallium sulfate to kill her—but sidestepped it, saying it was better if I didn’t know.
He paid me to keep quiet, which I did. Knowing it was in my best interests not to cross him, I’ve stayed silent till this day… ”
Mason cast him a firm look. “If you’re leveling with us, you really believe neither Eloise nor Bella had a clue that Stuart was fooling around with Lynda…?”
“I never got that impression,” Sidney claimed, “from when I was around them—which wasn’t very often. I think that, being as clever as he was, Mr. Reston was able to pull the wool over their eyes about this.”
Campbell took a step closer and asked pensively, “Do you recall how Reston felt about Lynda being a member of the Braison Family?”
“Yeah, I remember. He wasn’t that thrilled about it, but it was her life.
” Sidney pulled on his beard. “Mr. Reston didn’t care much for the cult—believing they were simply brainwashing gullible followers.
Including Lynda. I guess he was happy to have her whenever he could—which wasn’t as often as he would have liked, given his other obligations. ”
Mason set his jaw. “Since Stuart Reston is no longer around to defend himself from your insinuation and you admit to being the one to illegally bring thallium sulfate into this country, why should we believe Reston used the poison to kill Lynda—and not you—the so-called alibi notwithstanding…?”