Chapter 16
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Doreen made herself a sandwich for dinner and was just sitting here, staring out into the backyard, when Mugs started to bark with joy. She smiled at him and nodded. “At least it’s the right kind of barking this time.”
Sure enough, she opened her front door and saw Mack, just getting out of his truck, looking tired and worn out. “Hey,” she greeted him. “It seems you’re having a run of tough days.”
“It’s been a hard month,” he admitted. “Lots of cases, lots of trials, lots of headaches.”
She nodded. “And that just means that you really need the holiday, whenever we can get away.”
“Yes, I absolutely do,” he agreed, “but we’ve got cases to work on right now.”
“I know, and I kind of got into trouble over one of them today.”
He stopped in place, then looked at her and asked, “Is it the kind of trouble that I’m likely to hear about?”
She nodded. “Maybe. Nan was more than a little upset, but I don’t know whether she was upset for my sake or just worried about Mugs.”
As Mack came inside and realized she was just having a sandwich to eat, he headed to the fridge and pulled out the makings and made himself a couple big ones.
“I wasn’t sure if you were coming tonight.”
“That’s all right,” he said, with a shrug. “It’s food, and, right now, I’m too tired to care.”
He listened as she explained what had happened. “Why do you think Mugs reacted the way he did?”
She really appreciated that because, out of everything she had told him, that was the one thing that concerned her the most. “I’ve been thinking about it.
As a matter of fact, I’ve spent a fair bit of time searching online for info on that character, wondering what about him would have set off Mugs so instantly. ”
“Is it literally just because Mugs didn’t like him?”
“It’s absolutely possible. Although Mugs has this tendency to get along with everybody, until somebody hurts me.”
“That’s why I was asking. I’m just wondering if something was there that we hadn’t picked up on.”
“Have you interviewed him?”
“Of course. He was home alone while his wife was at work.”
“So, he has no alibi,” she stated.
“Nope, no alibi. As far as he’s concerned, that has nothing to do with it. At least he claims to have nothing to do with it.”
“How come nobody ever has an alibi when they need it?” she pointed out. “Seems if someone needed an alibi, they would have made sure they had one. Pretty arrogant not to. It almost makes him look guiltier.”
He looked at her in surprise and then chuckled. “I don’t know about guilty or guiltier, but he’s certainly not off the hook as far as we’re concerned.”
“Yet would he have killed both of them?”
“That’s the rest of the challenge,” he noted, with a nod.
“What did the fiancée have to say?”
“Not much, she’s still pretty shocked and traumatized.”
Doreen didn’t say anything to that. “What about Uncle Zev?”
“He’s been cooperative.”
“Alibi for the murder?”
“He was with his niece.”
“Ah.” Then she winced.
“You don’t like that,” Mack noted, as he took another bite, checking out her expression intently. His gaze held an amusing note.
“It just means that they alibi each other.”
He nodded. “Don’t worry. We’ve thought of that.”
“Of course you have,” she muttered, chuckling. “So, it’s a matter of forensics then. Have you gotten anything helpful?”
“We don’t have the full lab report yet, but there weren’t any fingerprints found on the knife that killed Alice.”
“Which means the killer wore gloves.”
“Yes, but it’s a kitchen setting, and they have plenty of plastic gloves available.”
“Of course,” she muttered. “Not exactly what I was thinking, but, yeah, you’re right.”
“That’s because you’re thinking of the horror movies, where they come into the restaurant with black gloves on, and all you ever hear is the music before the knife raises and comes down, taking somebody out.”
She smiled at his description. “A little more graphic than that most of the time—something that I’ll have to remember—but, yeah, … the same idea.”
He smiled, but it was obvious he was preoccupied.
“Are you worried that there might be another murder?”
He turned to her and nodded. “That is definitely a concern.”
“Which is why you haven’t had any rest in the last little while.”
“When you’ve got a case, you’ve got a case.”
She sighed. “I haven’t gotten very far. I went downtown and checked out the restaurants.”
“So, what did you learn?”
“Everybody’s having financial difficulty.
COVID was very hard on them, and the aftereffects are still being felt.
You do have the option for insurance to a certain extent on some of these places,” she shared, “but I don’t know that it would be enough to kill over.
Everybody says the young man who died was really nice, and potentially he could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. ”
“Meaning?”
“I guess I’m wondering if his death was a case of mistaken identity. Both Barry and Alice had long hair, which was pulled back in a ponytail.”
He eyed her as he continued to munch, then nodded. “That’s possible. Barry was tall, but so was Alice. Although you would think the killer would confirm it was the right person first, before killing them.”
“Depends on whether it was a crime of passion or not,” she pointed out.
Together, they wrangled over the details, looking for any answers, and he finally said, “This isn’t looking very promising.”
“No cameras, no street cameras, no security alarm?” she asked.
“No cameras inside that were on, not in the kitchen area anyway. There are some in the restaurant.”
“What about where the fiancée was hit in the hallway?”
He frowned at her. “She was attacked somewhere around the ladies’ bathroom. She was just outside the prep room.”
“And, of course, no cameras are there,” she grumbled.
“Exactly,” he said, as he nodded.
“That almost seems as if somebody knew exactly what they were doing and could place where everybody was.”
“Yeah, it’s sure a good possibility,” he admitted. “We have taken into consideration how no cameras were in the kitchen. So we don’t have any way to know exactly what happened and how.” He sighed. “That’s always one of the challenges in a case like this.”
“You know that it won’t be a stranger murderer though.”
“And your reasoning is what?” he asked, as he continued to eat.
Realizing this was as much about Mack testing out her theories and seeing what she was thinking, she replied, “In order for it to be in a restaurant, with an exit and an entrance, and, because they likely used a weapon on hand, I can’t see it being somebody who didn’t know their target would be there. ”
She leaned forward, just warming up. “Now, it could have been a robbery that went wrong because they weren’t expecting anybody to be there in the kitchen.
However, if that were the case, they would have killed them both, regardless of where they were.
Even if they didn’t hear her music playing in the bathroom, if she had returned to the kitchen and had been surprised by the attacker, she would remember that before being conked on the head—or just killed right then.
Or somebody had to be there, seeing her go to the bathroom, and chose that moment to make his move,” she suggested, thinking about it slowly.
“This was not a spur-of-the-moment killing. This was someone who planned to kill someone that night. Otherwise it leaves too much to chance to think that scenario happened. Barry had no defensive wounds, did he?”
“I don’t have the full autopsy report yet,” he noted. “When most people confront a killer with a weapon, they’re willing to fight pretty hard to save their own life. He was young, and he was pretty healthy.”
“And, if he had no defensive wounds,” she pointed out, “it’s because he was surprised, since he was attacked from behind.”
He smiled and nodded. “You got that right. Still, we don’t know that he doesn’t have defensive wounds yet.”
“Also, you have to look a whole lot closer. Particularly at the jerk I was talking to today, and then potentially at any other family members who may have been at the restaurant that we don’t even know about.
Because somebody got close enough to take out Barry, and, chances are, Barry knew his killer and likely knew him well. ”
“Like who?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but they had other employees.”
“We’ve talked to them all. No one seemed to know that the prep kitchen was open and staffed at that time. They really are separate areas. It was just these two, who were working on the catering job for the next day.”
She nodded. “But somebody knew they were there, and that meant Jillian’s Aunt Alice must have known they were there because she was their boss.”
He stared at her and asked, “You’re not thinking that Alice killed Barry, are you?”
“Even if she did, somebody came along and took her out soon afterward—so maybe not,” she muttered.
“I don’t know. Nothing much makes any sense right now.
In cases like this, you start to wonder if you’re automatically jumping ahead and thinking you know what’s happening because you’ve seen it so many times before. ”
He smiled, reached out his hand, and covered hers, then nodded. “Now you’re starting to sound like a real cop.” She looked at him in delight, and he chuckled. “And, no, that’s not an invitation to work on my current cases.”
“You do know that I already am.”
“I know you are,” he confirmed. “We were just discussing it, but you seem to have forgotten that the murders of Barry and Alice are both current cases.”
She stared at him and sagged. “Uh-oh, I got completely lured into thinking you weren’t trying to trick me.”
“I wasn’t trying to trick you,” he stated. “I did want to see what your thoughts were in this case. Yet, while we have an agreement between us, I can also see that you didn’t adhere to it.”
She winced and then nodded glumly. “Nope, I didn’t.”
“And yet you have absolutely nothing on your cold case from Alberta.”