Chapter Fifteen
The elevator dinged and Zach stepped off, walking toward the door with the placard that read, Archibald Phillips, Financial Services.
The luxurious office he stepped into was empty except for a receptionist sitting behind a wide stone reception desk.
Soft music played through overhead speakers.
and a massive fish tank took up a wall on the opposite side of the room, the sound of the bubbling water adding to the peaceful ambiance. “Hello, sir, may I help you?”
“I’m here to see Mr. Phillips.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
Zach unclipped his badge and flashed it at the young woman with a black pixie cut, and eye makeup that swooped upward at the corners, so she appeared catlike. “Detective Copeland. And no, I don’t have an appointment. But I’m hoping he can make time for me. It’s important.”
The woman, who seemed flustered, stood quickly. “Of course. I’ll just let him know you’re here.”
Zach gave her a tight smile and moved away from the desk as the woman’s heels sounded in the hallway beyond.
He heard murmured voices and took the moment to look at the wall hangings.
A diploma from UC, a few licenses related to financial planning.
Zach turned when the heels sounded in the hallway again, this time accompanied by a second set of footsteps.
“Detective Copeland?” Archibald Phillips was a brawny man with broad shoulders and a high forehead.
His hair was slicked back, and when he offered Zach a smile, his teeth were large and obviously capped.
Zach disliked him on sight. He had shyster written all over him.
Plus, he’d harassed Josie. “A detective with the CPD? This is a surprise. What can I help you with?”
“Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Archibald’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “Of course. Follow me.”
Zach followed the man down the hallway and into a large office near the end.
It’d been raining off and on all afternoon, and raindrops still stuck to the large window that offered a view of downtown Cincinnati.
Archibald Phillips indicated a chair across from his desk and then took a seat in the swivel chair behind it, rocking slightly, appearing impatient. Or maybe it was nerves.
Zach pulled back the chair next to the one Archibald Phillips had indicated, taking his time to sit before removing a card and placing it down on the desk in front of him. “Mr. Phillips, can I ask where you were last night? About ten p.m.?”
Archibald’s low brows got even lower. He really was quite the Cro-Magnon-looking dude. “Why do you need to know?”
“It’s in relation to a crime.”
“A crime? What sort of crime?”
“Burglary.”
“Burglary? I have no idea—”
“Mr. Phillips, if you could answer my question about your whereabouts last night, we might be able to clear this whole thing up.”
Archibald Phillips looked annoyed, even hostile, as he sat back in his chair. “I was home alone. Working.”
“I see. Would you have anything that might corroborate that? An email with a timestamp, perhaps? A saved file?”
“No. I was working on some correspondence in a Word document. I didn’t finish until well after midnight, which is when I last saved the file. Now, Detective, if you’ll forgive me, I’m a busy man, and I need to get back to work, so unless you have something—”
“I hear you’re interested in purchasing the property your mother left to your cousin.”
At that, Archibald Phillips seemed taken aback. “Who told you that? Josie?”
Zach didn’t answer.
“That woman has issues, Detective. It’s true that I made an offer on the property, but only because I feel sorry for her.
Do you know who my cousin is?” He lowered his voice as though what he was about to say was almost unspeakable.
“She’s the woman who was held prisoner by that sicko nine years ago.
The one who chained her up and raped her for a year.
She had his baby. How disgusting is that? ”
Zach’s vision turned red, a slow simmering anger boiling through his blood.
He detested Archibald Phillips. He’d known guys like him all his life.
He was mean and self-centered, and he used his size to intimidate, to bully.
But the minute you came for him with any kind of fight, he’d become the victim.
Zach would have disliked him in any scenario, but the fact that he was adding to Josie’s stress at the very least, and the idea that he might have broken into her home and placed a bloody, dead rat on her kitchen table, made him feel violent.
“I’m aware of the crime perpetrated against Josie Stratton,” he said slowly, his words controlled.
“Then you understand why she has the mental problems she does. And a woman alone trying to fix up that ramshackle old place?” He made a disbelieving hissing sound. “She doesn’t stand a chance. She’ll be bankrupt and out on her ass in no time. I was simply trying to do her a favor.”
Zach forced his lips upward. “How benevolent of you.”
Archibald narrowed his eyes, assessing Zach and obviously realizing Zach wasn’t buying what he was selling.
“What’d you offer her?”
“A fair price.”
“Really? Half a million dollars? Because that’s what it’s worth.
Acreage like that in the area she’s in. I looked it up.
But I think you already knew what it was worth, didn’t you, Cousin Archie?
And my guess is that you lowballed the hell out of her.
Tell me, did it make you angry when she refused? ”
Anger clouded his expression, answering for him. “If I lowballed her, it’s only because she manipulated my mother into leaving that property to her in the first place. A vulnerable old woman with dementia. How’s that for benevolent?”
“So the way you see it, that property should be yours?”
“Damn straight. I told Josie I was considering getting the courts involved, and I meant it.”
“I bet. But if she decides she doesn’t feel safe there, decides to take you up on your offer after all and head out of town, it would save you the hassle and the lawyer’s fees for a case that you’re not likely to win.
” Zach held up his hand when Archibald opened his mouth.
“That’s okay, it was a rhetorical question.
Do you still have a key to Josie’s house? ”
“No.” Archibald schooled his expression quickly, but Zach had seen the flash of something in his face that made Zach believe he was lying. Archibald glanced pointedly at the large watch on his wrist. “Will that be all, Detective? I have a call with a client in ten minutes.”
“How’s business, Mr. Phillips? I couldn’t help noticing your reception area was empty.”
Anger simmered just behind Archibald Phillip’s eyes, but his thick lips turned upward in the semblance of a smile. “I do the majority of my business on the phone and on the computer, Detective. I see clients when need be, of course, but the office is often quiet. It’s a nice perk, honestly.”
“So if I checked into your financials, I’d find that everything was fine and dandy?”
Archibald’s face darkened. “My business ebbs and flows,” he gritted. “Just like many businesses. Now”—he stood—“I’m going to have to ask again if that’ll be all. I’m a busy man.”
Zach took his time coming to his feet, and as Archibald began to pass him, he stuck his foot out, so the big man tripped.
Zach swung his arm out as if he might steady him but pushed him backward instead.
Archibald slammed against his desk with a whumf, papers flying out around him.
Zach leaned over him. “Oops.” His lips turned upward in the mockery of a smile.
“I’d suggest staying away from your cousin, Mr. Phillips.
Because if I find out you’ve done anything to even so much as annoy her, I’ll nail your ass to the wall.
” He grabbed the front of the man’s suit and yanked him to his feet.
“Try to be more careful where you step.” He smiled, a real one, as he headed for the door.
* * *
What a prick.
Zach pulled out of the parking lot where Cousin Archie’s office was located.
A nice area of town, rent was probably high.
And Zach suspected business wasn’t great.
He probably needed cash, was bitter that his mother hadn’t left a property worth half a million dollars to him instead of his cousin.
He figured he’d lowball her, turn it for a good profit, and use the cash to bail himself out of whatever financial fix he was in.
Was it possible that in believing Josie to be emotionally fragile and mentally unstable, Archie had set out to spook her by leaving a dead rat in her kitchen so she’d change her mind about selling to him?
As angry as the suspected scenario made Zach, it also brought relief.
It seemed likely her cousin had either used his key to enter Josie’s house the night before or hired someone to do it.
It wasn’t the dangerous copycat who had been in her home but a disgruntled relative.
Or at least there was a very good chance that was the case.
Which was good, because he and Jimmy had some leads to follow up on after Zach’s meeting with the roommate.
A secret boyfriend…a possible pregnancy that Aria had terminated.
Daisy. The flower possibly symbolized her unborn child, and she’d tattooed it on her ankle?
Something about that…left a sort of sour taste in his mouth.
It wasn’t his job to judge Aria’s alleged actions, though; it was up to him to bring her justice.
And frankly, for whatever poor choices Aria may have made, she suffered greatly for them.
They needed to find out who this secret boyfriend had been, why they’d broken up, and where that man had been when she disappeared, even if it had ended six to eight months before. It was a lead, somewhere to go.
Zach dialed Jimmy using the hands-free option. Jimmy’s voice boomed into the interior of the vehicle. “Yo.”
“How’s it going there?”
“Not bad. Put on a garage sale, loaded some furniture. You know, all in a day’s work.”
Despite the stab at humor, Jimmy’s tone was serious, tinged with something Zach wasn’t sure what to call. But before he could ask about it, Jimmy said, “Give me the update from your end.”
Zach did, telling him about the interview with Aria’s roommate, Tessa. Jimmy grunted. “That’s something. You think this ex could have held a grudge all that time that she’d aborted his baby and then abducted and tortured her?”
“Either that, or he was angry that she broke up with him. I don’t know, but it’s more than we had before.”
Zach described his meeting with Archibald Phillips, his bitterness at Josie, the likelihood of financial issues.
“Sounds like he very well could be the one who left that rat. He wouldn’t have even had to break in.”
“My thoughts too. Hey, Jimmy, the boss is calling in. I’m headed your way. Be there soon.”
“See ya.”
Zach clicked over to the other line, greeting his sergeant. “Where are you, Copeland?” His boss’s voice was low, tone dead serious.
“I’m headed to Oxford. It looks likely that Josie Stratton’s cousin—”
“Turn around. We got another DOA. Girl, chained, starved to death, carving in leg.”
Ice hit Zach’s core. He muttered a curse, swerving to the side of the road to a bevy of horn blasts. He swung his vehicle around. “On my way.”