Chapter 3
“What the hell was that?” I asked in a totally reasonable high-pitched voice. Who could blame a girl for freaking out when she almost died?
Cars buzzed past us on the busy street. Reed’s shoulder relaxed, and he turned back in the direction we’d been heading. “Must be construction noise or someone at the docks somewhere.”
I wanted to argue, but no one else had reacted to the loud noise, almost as if they were used to them. We kept walking to our original destination, but Reed scanned the surrounding area a little more on guard than earlier.
A few minutes into our continued walk, he rubbed at his left shoulder. “Sorry, I’m jumpy today. Don’t want to screw this up. Right?”
“I guess me too.” Considering I jumped at least two feet. Thankfully, Reed was standing between me and the road, or I might have ended up in it.
Blocks later, his gaze traveled upward toward a round hanging sign from the top of a storefront. “This seems like the place.”
The sign said Treylor Park and underneath Double Wide with a clip art image of a trailer. It was… different. But apparently good from the line of people waiting outside. “I’ll peek in and see if he’s here.”
Delaney had attached an image of the reporter for this meeting to the case file, and let’s just say, he had a memorable face. I squeezed past a group waiting at the door and held up a “just wait” finger for the hostess as she tried to stop me.
A shorter man with graying hair and a mole the size of my thumb sticking out from his forehead sat at a two-person table along the left wall directly across from the bar seats. Yup, that’s the guy. I stuck my head out and waved at Reed.
“Our party is already here,” I said to the hostess when she tried to stop me again. This was my first real chance to get something done and prove my investigation skills. She was not messing this up. I rubbed my hands together as I approached the reporter.
People packed themselves into the long narrow restaurant space, and I had to lift my elbows to make it past a few tables. James J. Jones—it had to be a stage name—lifted his head as I approached. “James from station WJCL?”
He nodded. “You must be Delaney from Death Finds You First?”
I pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. “Actually, I’m Elenore. Delaney had a family emergency, but I have all her questions. Are you okay if I use a recorder?”
He eyed the small black device as I pulled it from my pocket. “Of course, but these are discovery questions only and not my official answers. Correct?”
That seemed like a weird question to ask, but I didn’t have enough knowledge to call him on it. Maybe that’s how these interviews worked.
Reed, who stood beside our table, completely blocking the walkway, leaned toward me after the second waitress hit him as she walked past. “Will you be okay if I stand along the wall?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it,” I said with a hand wave and waited till he found a spot under the sign for the bathroom.
“You’re here to solve Lisa Boyd’s murder case?” James asked.
I shook my head quickly. “Definitely not. I’m just gathering resources for the team.
” I hit the red button on the recorder and stuck it on the table between us, moving his untouched glass of water a little to the left.
The table was small, and he had a coffee mug and a plate that looked like it had once had eggs on it, barely giving me enough room to open my folder of notes.
“What do you remember about the case while you reported on it?” I asked, reading off the first question from Delaney’s notes.
He sighed and eyed his coffee but didn’t grab it.
“Everyone thought they knew who did it, but in reality, it was all speculation. Facebook had the entire state debating on everything from the position of the moon to her last social media photo. They even tried to get some famous TikTok guy involved. None of it came to anything useful.”
I asked three additional questions from Delaney’s list and received the same kind of answer. The next one made his eyes light up. “Do you agree with the robbery motive put forth by police?”
He snorted. “They said robbery from day one but never backed it up with much. No one recovered her missing ruby ring. The police searched pawn shops in three states and sent out notices to five more beyond that. Whoever murdered Lisa did it in a semi-busy restaurant at the end of a rush. It’s not the best time or place to rob someone. ”
James had a point.
I asked the rest of Delaney’s questions, but found myself wanting to know one more piece before I finished up the interview. “You had a front-row seat to the investigation. Who do you think did it?”
James’s eyes lit up like Christmas morning as he leaned in excitedly. “No one ever asks us that. I have a detailed theory about her son. I brought a copy with me if you want to review the facts.”
He had it with him? He’d come prepared.
“Sure.” My eyes widened as he pulled out a stack of papers at least two inches thick. “Wow, you’ve done your work.”
His forehead mole moved up and down as he nodded. “I’ve included my contact information at the end of the report. In case you have questions.”
This man had some free time on his hands. I thumbed through the pages, letting them fan over my fingers. “I’ll review this tonight and let you know if I need anything else. Thanks.”
“You good?” Reed asked as he met me at the table, and we headed out of the restaurant. The place had slowed a little, but still had a steady stream of people coming through the front doors when tables became available.
“This is the only interview for today. Delaney said the other network isn’t available until later in the week. But…” I waved the stack of papers between us. “I want to review this theory from James.”
“We can make that happen,” Reed said, holding open the door for me as we stepped out onto Bay Street.
* * *
Three hours later, the pen wobbled on the table, shaking as Reed opened the home’s front door and then closed it. I did my best to tilt my head and only see him from the corner of my eye. He’d be less likely to notice me ogling him that way.
“Have a good run?” I asked as he removed white earbuds and stuck them in the case.
A ribbon of sweat beaded down his forehead, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand.
It wasn’t that hot in Savannah yet, so the run must have been…
exhilarating. He took off his shirt, and I bit my bottom lip.
I did my best not to drool as he stretched out along the row of windows, putting his back on full display.
It’s not like I could look away. I didn’t have the willpower.
“A band is performing in the grassy area by those new condos. That has to annoy the residents.”
I laughed, except to my horror, it sounded more like a snort.
“Did you find anything good in James’s theory?” he asked, leaning over the table to stare at the notes I had stacked and sorted over the open spaces.
“Not really.” I tapped the paperwork from James with the tip of my blue pen. “Basically, he says her son Casey wanted money, but he is an only child and was going to get everything, anyway.”
His theory seemed flimsy. Even if it took him forty-two pages to make his point.
Casey refused to participate in a research interview for the podcast, but Delaney said that was pretty normal. Especially for a death as recently as the last year. He’d never have rented the place out for the week if he knew why we were really here. I absolutely needed to talk to him. But how?
Being sneaky wasn’t exactly my forte. I also sucked at lying. The one time I told my mother I was going to a friend’s house but actually snuck out with a boy, I confessed first thing the next morning. I hadn’t been able to sleep with the lie hanging over my head.
“You’ll figure it out, eventually,” Reed said, cutting into my random thoughts of the ex-boyfriend who dumped me before senior prom. “My buddy wants to meet for pizza. Are you up for taking a break?”
I dropped the pen on the table and pushed back my chair. “Sure.”
“Let me grab a quick shower and we’ll get an Uber,” he said, already walking toward the main bathroom.
The buzz of my phone pulled me away from watching the way his back muscles moved as he walked.
MOM: You didn’t tell me there were so many boxes, Elenore.