Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Carter practically ran through the shower and out of the house the next morning, anxious to get to work on tracking down Zion’s identity.
Since I hadn’t decided yet what was on the agenda that morning, I took my time over coffee and cooked up eggs and bacon that I shared with a grateful Merlin and Tiny.
I polished off the half pot that Carter had left me and decided to go for a second.
Despite my glee over our successful takedown of Calahan, I hadn’t slept well.
All the information I’d collected had whirled around in my mind all night and every time I’d drift off, I’d jolt back awake, thinking I’d figured something out but disappointed when it was all still as big a mess as before.
Ida Belle and Gertie wandered in about eight, Gertie still looking pleased with herself.
Not that I blamed her. As far as pranks went, the one she’d played on Calahan was one of the funniest and the most appropriate I’d ever seen, and I’d worked with CIA assassins.
We were creative and mercenary when it came to pranks.
“When I told Jeb about what I did to Calahan last night, he laughed so hard, he threw his back out again,” she said as they sat.
“Sexy time is definitely off the table this weekend, but Jeb said he wanted to do something special to reward my creativity, so he’s taking me to that new steakhouse in NOLA Saturday night. ”
“I heard reservations were booked six months out,” Ida Belle said.
“A childhood friend of his is the owner and they had a last-minute cancellation. So he bumped the next on the waiting list and slotted us in.”
“Nice,” Ida Belle said. “If it’s good, I might have to try to get Walter and me in for our anniversary next year.”
“Have you heard anything from Cassidy?” Gertie asked.
I nodded. “She texted this morning. She said to tell Carter she’d ordered the parts for the plumbing repair, but they couldn’t deliver until this afternoon.”
“Ha,” Gertie said. “Plumbing repair. Cassidy is one smart cookie.”
Ida Belle nodded. “All the information we needed and yet nothing that can blow back on her. So what’s on the agenda for today?”
“I don’t know.”
Ida Belle frowned. “It’s not like you to be without a plan.”
I sighed. “I know. And yet, here I am…planless. I mean, what is our objective anymore? Carter will run down Zion through law enforcement channels and hopefully get something to arrest him on.”
“Hopefully, before he bolts,” Gertie said.
“I suppose we could kidnap him and hold him hostage somewhere to prevent that from happening, but it seems problematic.”
Ida Belle snorted. “Understatement of the year.”
“The truth is, what do we have left to discover? We know Zion is shady and there’s no sense pursuing the Sister Britney angle because we got what we went for with that.”
“And we now know that he scammed Sapphire as well and had Kim dangling,” Gertie said.
I nodded. “But no matter how much unsavory stuff we uncover, we still come back to the same thing, and that’s the fact that Eleanor committed suicide.”
Ida Belle looked over at Gertie. “You’re absolutely positive there was no other way in that cabin?”
Gertie gave her an indignant look. “Why would I shoot open the door if there was another way in?”
“Because you like shooting stuff, especially in situations where you’re not normally supposed to?”
“That’s true, but in this case, there really wasn’t another way in. That door was dead-bolted from the inside. All the windows were locked.”
I frowned. “Let’s pretend for a minute that there was another way in. As a thought experiment. Who had opportunity to commit the crime?”
“Zion and Sapphire, of course,” Gertie said.
“Kim, potentially. She could have been coming from the cabin instead of going to. When I saw her she was stopped and looking at a flower, so we only have her word as to what she was doing. And I guess now that I think of it, anyone at the retreat could have gone through the woods to Eleanor’s cabin. ”
“Is there a trail?”
“No idea. But if it’s a thought experiment then I had to throw it out there.”
“Well, hell,” Ida Belle said, “Jack the Ripper could have strolled through the woods as well.”
“Okay,” I said, “So next step—who has the most to gain from Eleanor’s death?”
“Financially, Zion and Mildred,” Ida Belle said. “Emotionally, Sapphire, Kim, and taking into account the things Dorothy said, maybe Mildred as well.”
“But there was no way Mildred could have done it,” Gertie said. “Kim said Mildred was in her office doing tax stuff when she left to go get Eleanor and besides, it would have taken Mildred forever to get down there and back.”
I nodded. “So financially, Zion still has the strongest motive, assuming this questionable agreement holds up and Carter doesn’t find a reason to arrest him.
Those cabins would probably bring a good amount.
But on the emotional side, Sapphire was trying to save her marriage.
An effort in futility, but she’s young and clearly not all that bright when it comes to men. ”
“And she has a temper, as indicated by her treatment of guests, her argument with Zion, and her driving.”
I nodded. “And then there’s Kim, who was poised to be Zion’s newest target. Young, lonely, and probably still grieving her mother’s passing.”
“Just the way Zion likes them,” Gertie said, clearly disgusted.
“So the question is, what was the bigger motivator—money or love?”
Gertie shook her head. “I don’t think we can make that call as people have killed for both and often with even less at stake.”
“The drugs are still an angle that might narrow the suspect list down,” Ida Belle said. “If we can prove Zion or Sapphire gave Eleanor the drugs, then the ADA might be able to make a case for contribution to her death on their part.”
“But how do we prove it was one or the other?” I asked. “They both have motive.”
“My money is on Sapphire slipping Eleanor the drugs—probably in her water like you did Calahan with the laxative,” Ida Belle said. “Zion sounded sincere when he accused her of having them.”
“And with Zion being Eleanor’s business partner, I assume he had keys to the place,” Gertie said.
“Sapphire could have accessed them at some point and made a copy. The dead bolt to the cabin wouldn’t have been pulled when Eleanor and Zion were both conducting the class.
All Sapphire had to do was follow him to the retreat and then wait for Eleanor to clear out of the cabin. ”
“I agree the opportunity was there,” I said, “but what would Sapphire hope to accomplish by drugging Eleanor? She wasn’t supposed to know Zion was romancing Eleanor much less going to dump her.
And if that ‘breakup’—assuming that’s what happened—was the final straw that shifted Eleanor’s mental state to ending her own life, how would Sapphire have known to coordinate drugging Eleanor with Zion’s actions? ”
“They definitely weren’t in cahoots on it,” Ida Belle said. “Or he wouldn’t have been checking her car and accusing her of following him.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“Maybe Sapphire thought she’d given Eleanor enough to kill her,” Gertie said.
“Possible,” I agreed. “But then there’s the gun.
So Sapphire decides to drug Eleanor and leaves an untraceable gun in case the drugs don’t work?
Or did Zion just happen to provide Eleanor with an untraceable gun before breaking up with her, hoping to push her to suicide on the exact same afternoon as his wife drugged her? ”
“Yeah, that’s way too much coincidence,” Gertie said. “Even for me, and I love a good conspiracy.”
“And that’s what I wrestled with all night long. Plenty of motive. Plenty of opportunity, per se. But no way to pin it on one particular person. And the key players are too fragmented for me to believe any of them are working together.”
“Not to mention, their desired outcomes are somewhat at odds,” Ida Belle said.
“So where do we go from here?” Gertie asked.
I shook my head. “I wish I knew.”
My cell phone rang.
“It’s Purple,” I said as I answered.
“Fortune, I did some poking around on that shady Zion. Don’t worry, my story was that he’d approached me about an investment, but I didn’t get a good feeling and wanted some insider info.
Well, my network came through in glorious fashion and with a resounding ‘don’t you dare’ on going into business with him. ”
“That’s great. What did you get?”
“First off, Zion started putting feelers out about selling your client’s cabins on Tuesday.”
“The woman died on Monday!” Gertie yelled, clearly outraged.
“I know,” Purple said. “I hope you don’t mind but I checked into that whole thing. The police aren’t saying a lot, but I got enough basics to know that the body wasn’t even cold before he started making phone calls.”
“Good. God.” Even the normally stoic Ida Belle looked offended.
“But that’s not the worst of it,” Purple said.
“What’s worse than peddling someone’s belongings before the funeral?” Gertie asked.
“My attorney is friends with Sapphire’s attorney, and of course, this is all confidential and we shouldn’t know and he shouldn’t have said and blah, blah, blah, but the long and short is Sapphire is filing for divorce.”
“We figured that was coming,” I said.
“After seeing her expression when those cops showed up at dinner, so did I, but I figured he’d fight it tooth and nail to get every dime he could out of her.”
“You’re saying he’s not?”
“Nope. Sapphire offered him twenty thousand to go away and he agreed.”
“He’s panicking,” I said.
“Definitely panicking. Because Sapphire is worth a pretty penny. Given who her attorney is, I’m sure there was a great prenuptial, but they can all be worked around. Part of the reason I’ll never get married, but that’s another story.”
“So instead of sticking around to contest the prenuptial and potentially make out with way more money, Zion is taking a low payout,” I said. “He’s getting ready to pull a runner.”