Chapter 17

Myrtle calledas we were exiting the interstate to enter NOLA, and I quickly put her on speaker.

“Good Lord, girl!” she said as soon as I answered. “Next time warn me before you send me into the mouth of madness.”

“I take it you met our problem.”

“Met her, got roped into a long conversation with her, and now I need a bottle of whiskey and therapy to clear everything out. I’m not sure what’s going on, so I don’t know where to start.”

“Just start at the beginning. Anything might be important at this point. We’re in gathering stage.”

“Okay, so I arrived at the sheriff’s department and Gavin looked like someone had wound him up tighter than Celia’s panties when she catches sight of Gertie’s bird. I told him Carter had asked me to come in and handle some old files if I had the time and I was going to use the extra cash for a new fishing rod.”

“Good call.” No one questioned working overtime when things like a new fishing rod were at the end of the rainbow.

“Then he tells me that Deputy Breaux has locked himself in the bathroom and the lock broke, so I won’t be able to use the facilities.”

“It’s a sliding dead bolt—on the inside of the door.”

“Apparently, Gavin doesn’t remember that. Or he doesn’t lock the door when he’s using the facilities. I thought it was strange, but I kept going. When I stepped into the interview room, I saw this young lady lounging in one of his visitor chairs. One look at her told me she was the reason you’d asked me to head down there and get a handle on things.

“So I do the polite greeting and ask if I can help her with anything,” Myrtle continued. “She says she’s waiting on Carter to return, and I ask if there’s anyone else who can help her because he’s on a call and will be a while. That cheeky thing says, and I quote, ‘No one else is as cute as him.’”

I groaned. It was worse than I’d even imagined.

“That was exactly my reaction,” Myrtle said, “and then I understood why Deputy Breaux had suddenly forgotten how to use a dead bolt. So I agreed that Carter was an attractive man but he was also a very attached one. So she says, she didn’t see a wedding band and until he Beyoncé’d somebody, he was available.”

“Oh, Lord!” Gertie said. “Don’t tell Carter that or he’ll be ring shopping this afternoon.”

“I’m not one to rush people and their romantic entanglements,” Myrtle said, “but if it got rid of that girl, I might consider it. Maybe you could fake a wedding.”

“In Sinful?” I asked. “I could more easily fake my death. Did you at least manage to get her out of the sheriff’s department?”

“Yes and no. I kept trying to convince her that Carter would be at a crime scene most of the day and that unless she had information about that crime, he wouldn’t have time to speak to her, so she should just go home. She said she took an Uber here and she’d wait for Carter so he could give her a ride home. That way, they could get to know each other better.”

“Good God,” Ida Belle said.

“I also suggested that she rethink her pursuit as I had known Carter all my life and was absolutely certain he cared for no one but his current girlfriend and never would. She just said ‘we’ll see.’ I was just about to march her out of there like the petulant child she was when her brother showed up. I assumed you wanted me to see what I could overhear, so I excused myself and left them in the interview room and went next door and turned on the speakers.”

“I owe you a fifth of Crown,” I said.

“And a box of Ally’s cookies. That girl was a lot of work. Anyway, her brother asked her what the heck she was doing, and she tried to sound all ‘I’m just seeing about the investigation’ but he wasn’t buying it. He said what everyone else has said which is the sheriff has no jurisdiction over that case. Then he started talking low and I couldn’t make out exactly what he said but it was something like ‘if you do this again’ and then I definitely heard ‘lock you up.’”

“Interesting. Did she leave after that threat?”

“Oh yeah. She must have bolted from the room because by the time I peeked out, she was barreling out the front door, her brother hot on her heels. I saw him drive off in a white BMW, and she was sitting in the passenger seat, pouting like a grade-schooler. What the heck is wrong with her?”

“I’m not sure exactly, but I appreciate you getting that information.”

“Mark my words, this is not the first time she’s caused trouble. Her brother didn’t look remotely surprised when he stomped in there. Just angry and a tiny bit frightened. Does she stalk men? Is that what’s up?”

“She definitely has a history of stalking a man she was attracted to. I’m trying to figure out if she killed the man’s girlfriend.”

“Heaven help! You’re kidding me?”

“I wish I was, especially since the girlfriend was her sister.”

“Fortune, you have got to keep her away from Carter.”

“That’s why I called her brother and told him what she was doing. I wanted to see if he’d ignore it or bolt over there to get her out of sight. Thanks again, Myrtle.”

Ida Belle shook her head as I disconnected. “This is much worse than we thought, but now I understand your play.”

I nodded. “And Jared confirmed what I suspected—that he was well aware of Holly’s obsessions with men and he’s afraid of what she might do.”

“You think Jared was threatening to put her in a mental institution?”

“Sure sounded like it,” I said. “And the fact that she bolted right after he mentioned it makes me think she’s probably been there before.”

“Wouldn’t people know?” Gertie asked. “You can’t just disappear from a prominent family without people wondering where you’ve gotten off to.”

“She had private tutors, remember? And I imagine the staff all know better than to talk, except among themselves.”

Ida Belle nodded. “And they’re wealthy. They could have told the staff she was studying abroad or visiting family or feeding pigeons in Paris. They would have known better but they wouldn’t have proof, and even if they did, what would it get them?”

Gertie frowned. “It’s looking more and more like she did it, isn’t it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But it would explain why her father didn’t push for an investigation.”

“And why Jared isn’t perturbed by your declaration of Ryan’s innocence. He either firmly believes you’re wrong and Kelsey is lying, or he already knows who the real killer is.”

I nodded. I agreed with everything she’d said. I just wished I knew which one it was.

* * *

Kelsey must have been staringout the window of her house when we pulled up because she had the front door open before we ever exited the SUV. The house was in the Garden District, but instead of the mansion I expected, the house was small and neat. She stepped out as we walked up, and her anxiety was so apparent I could almost feel it rolling off her.

“Beautiful house,” Gertie said. “Your roses are coming in nicely.”

She nodded. “Thanks. Brett picked it out, of course.”

“That surprises me,” I said. “I figured he’d go for a penthouse or one of the huge mansions in the neighborhood.”

Kelsey shook her head. “That’s one of the few things we agreed on. Neither of us is flashy—I always joke that Devin has enough flash for all three of us, but it’s true. One of the reasons I didn’t catch on to Brett being from a wealthy family is that he didn’t look the part. He dressed like any other normal college student and drove a late-model Toyota. Neither one of us has ever owned a luxury vehicle. Even Devin was basic back then, but the older he gets, the more he indulges. Whatever makes you happy, right?”

I nodded as we walked inside. “Is Brett still living here now?”

The home was beautiful but like most older homes, had small rooms with lots of division.

“It seems like a small amount of square footage given the two of you aren’t getting along,” I explained.

She sighed. “Brett moved into an apartment in the French Quarter yesterday. Things were just too weird between us. I’m trying to figure out a way to explain it to Ben.”

“Is he home?”

“No. Brett took him to a baseball game—Ben’s team—or the team Ben used to play on when he could. He still likes to go to the games and cheer them on.”

We followed her inside and back to the kitchen. “I just made tea and I can put on a pot of coffee.”

“I’ll find everything to serve the tea,” Gertie said. “You sit before you fall over. When is the last time you slept?”

She plopped into a chair at the breakfast table and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m not sure. This is Saturday, right?”

I sat down in front of the exhausted woman and looked her straight in the eye. “Let me start with saying that Ryan is absolutely in for everything—the DNA test, the kidney—all of it.”

Her entire body slumped with relief, and she started to cry. “I’ve been so afraid. All this time I knew it was possible that Ryan was Ben’s biological father, but I deliberately closed my mind to it. If I had faced my own issues sooner and tried to find Ryan, then maybe he would never have gone to prison, much less had ten years of his life wasted there.”

“You can’t think like that,” Gertie said as she placed the glasses of iced tea on the table. “This is not your fault. Someone deliberately framed that poor boy, and it couldn’t have had anything to do with you because you didn’t even know him before that night.”

She sniffed and nodded. “I know, but I can’t stop wondering how differently things might have turned out if I’d just gone looking sooner.”

“I think any of us would think that way,” I said. “But as soon as you knew, you moved to do something about it. When you ran into issues with the cops, you hired me. You’re doing everything you can.”

“But I have an ulterior motive.”

“So you’re saying that if Ben wasn’t sick, and you’d decided for other reasons to do a DNA test and attempt to hunt Ryan down, you wouldn’t have pushed the issue of his innocence?”

“Of course I would have!” She gave me a small smile. “I guess that makes your point, doesn’t it?”

“Ryan told me that he thought you were a good person. That even though he was still in love with Lindsay when the two of you spent the night together, that he’d always remembered you, and not just because of Lindsay’s murder. He said he liked you. I like you too. And I’m a pretty good judge of character. From where I’m sitting, the only mistake I can see that you’ve made was marrying Brett. But we don’t all make the best decisions when we’re young, and you were pregnant and hadn’t established a career yet. All those things weigh in.”

“I knew it was a mistake…marrying him. I knew it when I said yes to his proposal. And on my wedding day, I remember standing at the back of the church, harnessing every ounce of resolve that I had to keep from running. I keep asking myself why I didn’t. Or why I stayed.”

“And what did you decide?” Gertie asked.

She shrugged. “The easy answer is Ben, of course, but that’s not all of it. There’s a part of me that loved Brett, probably left over from before I really knew him. And he is a great father. I worried about that, given that his parents seem so uninvolved and distant—not just in physical form but emotionally—but I’ve never once questioned his love for Ben.”

“I could see the toll this is taking on him when we spoke,” I said. “But you don’t have to be his wife in order for Ben to be his son.”

“Yeah. I wish I’d come to that conclusion sooner. But here we are, and my marriage is the least of my worries. What happens next?”

“I’ve already spoken to my attorney friend, and he’s going to represent Ryan. He’s got a plan in place for dealing with the warden. The first thing we’ve got to do is establish that Ryan is the father. He sent me the information for a testing center that he’ll use. I’ll send that to you, and you just need to get Ben in for a quick mouth swab. Nothing invasive. That way, he’s already on file when we get Ryan’s sample.”

“What about Ryan? Is there anything I can do for him?”

“You’ve already done it—you hired me. But I have some questions for you. There’s a lot of overlap between your life and Ryan’s. I don’t like coincidences, especially when they’re all revolving around a murder.”

“I’ll tell you anything I know. Anything to help Ryan.”

“Did Brett ever mention one of his employees making a mistake that cost him a client?”

“No. But he almost never talked about work with me. He knew I wasn’t interested, and I assumed there was confidentiality stuff as well.”

“And you never attended work functions—parties and the like?”

“I did way back in the beginning of our relationship but after we married and had Ben, I had the perfect excuse to get out of them. That wasn’t me—the pretty, complacent wife of the boss. And I’m an introvert. I know kitchens have employees and they’re loud, but those are my people, you know? The place I fit. The whole nail, hair, expensive dress you only wear once thing wasn’t me.”

I nodded. I’d figured that was what she’d say.

“Is this about Lindsay? Was she the one who cost the firm a client?”

“Yes. At least that’s the story I’ve gotten, but I’m going to speak to the client and make sure I’ve been given the correct information.”

Kelsey sucked in a breath. “You don’t think—no, Brett is a lot of things, but he’s not a killer. Besides, it’s just one client. I’m sure others have made mistakes before.”

“Yes, but I’ve been told this one client transferred over a hundred million to Lindsay’s father’s firm. Millions of lost fees for Brett, plus the damage to Spalding’s reputation. That’s a pretty big motive, especially if he believed she’d done it intentionally.”

Kelsey’s eyes widened. “You think she was using her job to poach clients for her father?”

“I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean Brett didn’t feel that way. Did you ever talk to any of the other employees back when you used to attend the events?”

“Briefly, probably, but I couldn’t tell you a single name or conversation. Well, except Devin, of course, but he and Brett were friends since high school, so I’ve known him for years.”

“I didn’t realize they’d known each other that long.”

She nodded. “They both went to St. Marks. Devin’s parents moved to Sicily after he graduated. They owned wineries over there. Devin attended Oxford, but he and Brett always stayed in touch. After graduation, Devin moved back here and went to work for the Spaldings.”

“But his parents are still in Sicily?” I asked.

“Yes. He’s got an aunt who lives here—a hospital nurse. I think she’s the only family that Devin has here anymore.”

“Why wouldn’t he stay over there with his family?”

“It’s complicated, I think. They’re not close. According to Brett, Devin’s parents were even worse than his own. I think Devin was mostly raised by the household staff—I don’t think Brett’s ever even met them. They were never at home. And since Brett and Devin were both only children, I think their childhoods were pretty lonely.”

“So they bonded over similar childhoods and lousy parents. That’s unfortunate, but it makes sense.”

She nodded. “Ever since I’ve known him, Devin has been Brett’s beck-and-call boy. I think they consider each other family more than they do their own blood.”

“So aside from Devin, you never spoke to any of the other employees, beyond pleasantries, I mean?”

“No.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I’ll explain, but you can’t repeat this. It could cause major problems with the investigation, and if things he’s told me are exposed to certain parties, Ryan might renege on his agreement to help Ben.”

“Of course! I won’t say a word.”

“Ryan said Brett was harassing Lindsay—suggesting she exchange ‘favors’ for promotions.”

Kelsey’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Good God. Do you think it’s true?”

“Unless I can figure out a reason why she or Ryan made it up, then I have to assume it is. But it’s something I’m looking into. I just thought you might have heard whispers of similar issues with other female employees, given that you’ve been around so long.”

She blew out a breath. “Now I wish I would have gone to those damned parties. If Brett had anything to do with her death, it would kill Ben. Jesus! That’s a poor choice of words.”

“I don’t know anything for certain,” I said. “It’s always possible that she made it up to cover for costing them the client. Maybe she was afraid she’d be fired and needed an excuse because she didn’t want to admit to Ryan that she’d made a mistake and lost a big client.”

“Ryan didn’t know about it?”

“No. But it’s also possible the mistake happened after they were separated.”

Kelsey shook her head. “I don’t understand any of this. It’s all such a tangled ball. I don’t want to believe Brett is capable of killing someone or harassing employees, but I can’t see any reason for her to lie about it either.”

“What about Brett’s parents? I know you said they were uninvolved parents, but what were they like?”

She pursed her lips, thinking about my question for a moment. “His parents are hard people to read. They wear poker faces 24/7, even the handful of times they were around Ben. Who’s guarded around a child? I mean, I know they hear everything and can repeat it because they don’t know any better, but they were that way when he was a baby. Like they couldn’t let the mask slip, ever, or they might not be able to get it back in place. I never liked them. And not because they didn’t like me.”

“You thought they were fake?” Gertie asked.

“I’m certain they were,” Kelsey said. “Not fake as in pretending to be rich or successful. That much was obviously true, but fake as in caring about anything other than themselves. They were cold to everyone, even Brett. I got the impression he was an accident. They certainly never seemed to care that they had a son or a grandson.”

She sighed. “I think part of the reason I’ve stayed with him is because I felt sorry for him. With me and Ben, he had something he’d never had with his own parents. He was pretty much raised by nannies. And as soon as his parents were able, they dumped the business on him and left. They haven’t been back here in years and they never ask Brett to visit.”

“They didn’t come back when they heard about Ben’s condition?” I asked.

“No. Brett tried to cover for them and say they were having problems getting out of some obscure country they’d gone to, under the pretense of making economic investments into the local population, but I don’t buy it. They were probably sitting in their villa sipping expensive wine. I’m pretty sure they avoid coming back to the States because then they’d be forced to visit us.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t quite sure I agreed with her completely. I had no doubt she was right about the Spaldings’ blood running ice cold, but I didn’t think they were avoiding the US only because they didn’t care about anyone else. They were also avoiding the US because of the FBI.