Chapter 7

FLYING BY WIRE

“It’s not mine!” Chloe protested. “I’ve never seen that thing before in my life!”

After Henry discovered the garrote in her VW’s trunk, the three of us had adjourned to the stock room at the back of the shop. Not sure how long this was going to take, I’d hurried to the front of the store to lock the door and put the “be back at” sign in the window, then waddled back to the cramped space where the police chief had decided to continue his investigation.

“Then what was it doing in your trunk?” he asked, a reasonable enough question.

“I don’t know,” she said, worry and bewilderment clear in her expression. “But if someone was able to get into my Airbnb without my noticing, then that same person might have been able to get into my car and plant evidence, don’t you think?”

Henry’s face had never looked sourer. “It’s possible,” he said grudgingly. “But it’s also possible that there wasn’t any sign of forced entry because you’re the one who killed Jack Speros. Afterward, you hid the murder weapon in the trunk of your vehicle, thinking you’d have plenty of time to dispose of it, especially since neither I nor my deputies looked in there the night of the murder. That’s really why you moved your car, isn’t it? You thought you’d be able to toss the garrote in the dumpster behind the building here and that no one would ever find it.”

True, there was a dumpster out back; Victoria and Archie and I split the cost of the disposal service three ways, since none of us generated enough trash to merit having one for each of our businesses. However, I doubted Chloe even knew it was there, because she simply hadn’t been working at the store long enough to take a load of junk out to the dumpster.

I tried to tell Henry as much, and he only lifted an eyebrow as though he couldn’t believe I was that na?ve.

“You really think she showed up on your doorstep the other day without doing some research first?”

“I did, ” Chloe said, now sounding justifiably indignant. “I’d never been in Globe before Monday afternoon, and I certainly wasn’t driving around looking for dumpsters to throw out hypothetical murder weapons. Like I told you, someone planted that thing in my trunk.”

“Maybe so,” Henry responded. “Or maybe not. I suppose that’s for someone other than me to decide.” He paused there, hand resting on the handcuffs that hung from his belt under his sport coat. “In the meantime, though, I’ll have to arrest you for the murder of Jack Speros.”

Idly, I had to wonder if the Globe police had any plans to place a plaque on the wall behind this particular chair in the station’s waiting room. I’d spent enough time there over the past couple of years that I thought it deserved some kind of commemoration.

I wasn’t alone in the waiting room, of course — Calvin had come as soon as I called him, and my mother and Tom had hurried over as well. And although I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Chloe directly, I’d heard from Loretta Stillman, the deputy who worked at the reception desk in the station, that Chloe had called her parents in California and that they were flying out to Globe as we spoke.

Well, flying to Phoenix, where they’d have to rent a car. The drive from the airport would probably take longer than the flight itself.

And even though maintaining Chloe’s innocence was paramount in my mind, I couldn’t help wondering how a meeting between the Fairfields and my mother was going to go. More than thirty years might have passed since she met Jordan in that club in Reseda, but some situations were just awkward no matter how long ago they might have occurred.

Right now, we were waiting to hear what kind of bail the judge was going to require. I had to believe he would let Chloe out on bail, just because — well, as far as I knew, anyway — she didn’t have any priors and, while Henry might have found a garrote in her trunk, that evidence was still circumstantial unless they were able to find actual physical telltales on the wire to prove that it had been used to murder Jack Speros.

Still, we were talking about murder here, so I doubted the judge would ask for a ten-thousand-dollar bond and call it a day. Not that it mattered, because I knew I’d pay whatever it took to ensure that my sister wasn’t stuck behind bars while awaiting trial.

In fact, Loretta got a phone call, nodded, and then came over to the waiting area. “The judge agreed to bail,” she said. “It’s $500,000.”

My mother might have flinched a little, while both Tom and Calvin remained impassive. Everyone knew I could handle that amount without any problem, but still, it was a chunk of change…especially since I’d be posting bail for a girl I hadn’t even met before a few days ago.

The whole time, Loretta had been looking at me, since she knew I’d be the one putting up the money, just as I had for Calvin and Archie when they’d gotten accused of murders they had nothing to do with. Most likely, Tom could have posted Chloe’s bail as well — I never pried into his and my mother’s finances, but since they’d paid cash for the big Victorian mansion at the edge of town and I knew he pitched in for his kids’ high-flying lifestyles, they were probably sitting on millions as well.

Not that I would ever ask them to help out with my half-sister’s bail. My mother had been remarkably cool about the situation, and yet I guessed that might have been crossing a line.

I moved to get up from my seat, and Calvin was immediately there, a helping hand under one elbow. “I’ll go with you,” he said.

Of course he’d always be there for me. I sent him a smile, and the two of us went over to the cashier’s window. Luckily, the amount of money I kept in my various accounts meant I didn’t have to worry about getting a bondsman to put up the majority of the cash. No, I just got my checkbook out of my purse, and with a certain air of inevitability, wrote out a check for the entire half-million.

“Thanks,” Loretta said, since she often did double duty at the station, both working at reception and accepting payment for whatever fines and fees the citizens of Globe might have incurred with the police department.

Somehow I doubted she would ever see bigger checks than the ones I’d written in the recent past.

With that business handled, though, it meant Calvin and I needed to go back and wait with my mother and Tom, since there was still paperwork for Chloe that needed to be processed. With some effort, I lowered myself back to the chair where I’d been sitting previously, and my mother looked at me with concerned eyes.

“How are you doing, Selena?”

“I’m fine,” I assured her, while Calvin sat down next to me. “My passenger has been kicking up a storm lately, but I haven’t seen any signs that he or she intends to make an early appearance.”

“Good,” she murmured, although she still appeared worried.

Well, I couldn’t really blame her. Having your only daughter expecting her first child was a momentous enough event without having to factor in an unforeseen murder everyone expected her to solve.

Or at least, I assumed that was what most people who’d heard of Jack Speros’s death must be thinking. And even though I guessed Chloe would never come right out and ask me to help, I knew we didn’t have any real alternatives. Relying on Henry didn’t seem like a wise idea, because the bare facts of history already told me I had a better chance of fixing this than he did.

Of course, it would have helped if I had a single lead to go on. From what Chloe had told me, it didn’t sound as if Jack had any real enemies.

So why would someone follow him to Globe and kill him in the Airbnb where his ex-girlfriend was staying?

I didn’t have a clue…literally.

Chloe emerged from the back of the station then, looking a little pale but otherwise composed. Loretta was with her, although she seemed cheerful enough as she said, “She needs to stay in Globe, but otherwise, the judge hasn’t put any restrictions on her movements.”

Some people might have said that having to stay in my adopted hometown with its population of barely seven thousand people was restrictive enough, but I thought I understood. If the judge had truly wanted to be a hard-ass, he could have given my little sister house arrest, either at my and Calvin’s place or at Hazel’s Airbnb.

Such harsh measures apparently hadn’t been necessary, though, which was something.

“Thanks, Loretta,” I said. “Then I think we’ll all head home.”

She nodded, and all of us got up from our seats — with Calvin steadying me once again — and headed out to our cars. Once we were in the parking lot, though, I looked over at Chloe.

“Do you know where your parents are heading?”

“To the Best Western,” she said. Her delicate features were still pale, but otherwise, she looked calm enough.

“That’s not a very good place for a meeting,” my mother put in, her tone firm. “We should all gather at Tom’s and my house.”

This invitation made me blink. “Are you sure?” I asked.

Meaning, Are you really okay with having my biological father and your husband in the same room?

It seemed she was, because she said, “Of course I’m sure. We’ll have the most space there. Also, it’s closer than your house.”

Well, that was true. The living room at the cozy adobe home I shared with Calvin was big enough for everyone, but we lived a good ten minutes farther outside town at the end of a gravel road that wasn’t exactly friendly to regular passenger cars. The Victorian mansion my mother and Tom used as a vacation home was also located at the edge of Globe, true, and yet it was still much easier to get to.

I glanced over at Chloe. “Do you think they’ll be okay with that?”

“Sure,” she said, although something at the edges of her voice seemed a bit shaky, as if the word was a little more emphatic than her actual view of the situation. However, she got her phone out of her purse, adding, “What’s the address?”

My mother supplied it to her, and Chloe typed out a quick text and waited for a moment.

Then her phone binged, and she said, sounding relieved, “They’re fine with meeting at Elizabeth and Tom’s house. My mom says they landed about fifteen minutes ago and just picked up their rental car, so they should be here in about an hour and a half.”

“Just in time for a late lunch,” my mother said. Her expression was far cheerier than it should have been, given the situation, but I had a feeling that was because she was just relieved to have something concrete to focus on, and throwing together an impromptu midday meal for seven people was exactly what she needed to distract her right then.

Which was fine by me. My quiet life might have been upended once again, but the baby I was carrying just wanted to make sure I kept both of us well-fed.

Henry hadn’t impounded Chloe’s VW — it seemed he’d realized he’d found the one piece of useful evidence in it, after searching the entire trunk and dusting it for fingerprints — so she reclaimed it from the parking lot behind the shop and then joined our little caravan, with Tom’s Porsche Cayenne in the lead, followed by Calvin and me in my Renegade, and the Bug bringing up the rear.

Tom pulled into the garage once we got to the property, while Calvin parked the Renegade off to one side in an open space nearby and Chloe did the same. Soon enough, we were all trooping into the house.

“I have lemonade and tea,” my mother said. “Do you think we should order from Olamendi’s or Cloud Coffee?”

“Cloud Coffee,” I replied promptly. “Sandwiches will probably last better if it turns out that Chloe’s parents run late, for whatever reason.”

My mother agreed that sounded like a good idea, and after consulting with Chloe as to her parents’ sandwich preferences and getting orders from the rest of us, she got her car keys out of her purse.

“I thought I’d go to Walmart and grab some fresh fruit and salads as well,” she said. “You all don’t mind if I leave you alone here for a bit, do you?”

Although it would probably be a little awkward to have her gone, I knew it made more sense for her to do the shopping. She could have given Tom a list, I supposed, but she had a much better idea of what was available at our local Super Walmart and could get the errand handled far more efficiently.

“No, we don’t mind,” Tom said, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “We’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone.”

She gave him a grateful smile, promised that she’d be as fast as she could, and then headed back out. Those of us left behind glanced around the group, suddenly awkward.

“Well, I can get all your drink orders while we’re waiting,” Tom said, clearly realizing he needed to play host. “Who wants lemonade, and who wants tea?”

Since I was doing my best to avoid caffeine, I asked for some lemonade, while both Chloe and Calvin requested tea. Tom headed off to the kitchen, and the three of us who remained went to settle ourselves in the sitting room.

“Is this seriously their house?” Chloe asked, looking around in awe. She’d seemed sort of tongue-tied when we first arrived, but now that Tom was safely in the kitchen, it appeared she was ready to talk again.

“One of their houses,” I said. “They bought it a few years ago for a vacation place. Usually, they’ll come to town a couple of times a year, but with the baby almost here, they’re planning on staying for a few months.”

My sister’s eyes were still practically owlish. “A house like this, and they barely live in it?”

About all I could do was shrug. “Tom’s work keeps him in California a lot, but they fell in love with the house and wanted to buy it anyway, even though it wasn’t going to be a full-time residence for them.”

This explanation seemed to satisfy Chloe’s curiosity, because she gave a nod, even as she continued to look around, taking in all the antiques and the meticulously preserved Victorian architecture. Although I had to admit it wasn’t really my style — I liked home decor that was much more easygoing and relaxed — the house was still gorgeous, with its shining wood floors, stained-glass windows, and magnificent staircase and elaborately carved balustrade. The furniture had come with the place, giving it the feeling of a residence that had been almost frozen in time.

Well, except for the kitchen, which had been updated recently and was state-of-the-art. However, you couldn’t see the kitchen from where we sat.

Tom came back a moment later with a silver tray laden with our various drinks. After parceling them out to everyone, he sat down at the edge of the prim couch that was a mate to the one where Calvin and I were sitting — Chloe had taken the armchair off to one side — and said, “I’m very sorry for your loss, Chloe.”

She appeared almost taken aback, as though she’d been so absorbed in dealing with her arrest and its aftermath that she’d almost forgotten the reason why she’d been taken into custody in the first place.

“Thank you,” she murmured after an awkward pause. “I guess I’m just trying to get my head wrapped around all this. It doesn’t feel real, you know?”

Tom nodded, although I wasn’t sure whether he really did know. The only time tragedy like this had intruded in his own life was when he’d come here to Globe and had it thrust upon him.

But even when paranormal investigator Brant Thoreau had died on the very staircase located a few yards away from where we currently sat, it wasn’t as though Tom had lost anyone close to him. It had been a tragedy, but once the murderer was discovered and everything had been wrapped up in a neat little bow, he’d been able to get on with his life without too much trouble.

Whereas Chloe had lost someone who’d been part of her world for two years. Yes, the two of them had split up, but still, the impact of Jack Speros’s loss was probably going to remain with her for a very long time.

Especially if I couldn’t figure out who in the world would have done such a terrible thing.

I sent her a sympathetic glance, although she wasn’t sitting close enough that I could reach over and give her hand a reassuring squeeze.

“It’s hard,” I said. “But we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“We will?” she responded, her voice quavering a bit on the second word.

Poor kid. It had been hard enough for me to handle being suspected of Lucien Dumond’s murder back in the day, when at least I’d been a grown adult managing on my own for years.

How would I have dealt with it if I’d only been barely more than a kid like my little sister?

I honestly couldn’t say. All things considered, I thought she was holding it together pretty well.

“Absolutely,” I said, my tone firm. Next to me, Calvin shifted in his seat just the tiniest bit, but I knew he wouldn’t speak up, not when it was someone related to me by blood who was now in trouble. Otherwise, he might have gently done his best to remind me that our first child was due to appear in less than two weeks and that maybe this was the sort of occasion where I should hang back and let the experts handle things. “We’ll wait for your parents to get here and talk everything over, but after that, I’ll try to gather whatever evidence I can.”

“But there isn’t any evidence,” Chloe said, her voice and expression both glum. “Or at least, nothing except that garrote thing that Chief Lewis found in my trunk. I still have no idea how it got there.”

“Well, that’s something we can work on together,” I told her, doing my best to sound confident and unruffled, even though I was anything but. “Just because it might look incriminating on the surface doesn’t mean there might not be a perfectly logical explanation for why that garrote ended up there.”

“Cars are easier to break into than a lot of people think,” Calvin put in, speaking for the first time. “Especially car trunks. It makes sense to me that someone got into yours specifically to put that incriminating evidence there. Did Henry find any fingerprints on the garrote’s handles?”

She shook her head. “No. Of course, he said I could have just been wearing gloves, but I think that’s part of the reason why the judge gave me bail — there’s circumstantial evidence and not a whole lot more.”

That new bit of information sounded encouraging. Lacking any real evidence, I doubted the county’s case against Chloe would hold up. Still, much better to get her exonerated long before any of this went to court.

“Did your parents say anything to you about an attorney?” Calvin asked then, and she shook her head.

“Not exactly. I mean, they said they’d need to hire someone local but they’d wait to talk to you since you’d have a much better idea of who to approach.”

Yes, choosing a defense attorney for your daughter wasn’t exactly the sort of thing you wanted to do on the fly with a simple Google search.

“It’s not a problem,” I told her. “We’ll be able to find someone for you…if it even comes to that.”

“I’m pretty sure Alec Scurlock will take it on,” Calvin said, and I felt my eyes widen slightly.

“I thought he only worked on cases connected with the tribe.”

“No,” my husband replied. “That is, work for the San Ramon Apache and our indigenous groups around the area makes up the bulk of his caseload, but he takes on outside cases if they’re interesting to him. I’ll give him a call after we talk to Chloe’s parents. I’d want them to sign off first before I reach out to him.”

That sounded like a sensible way to approach the problem. Chloe nodded, saying, “I’m sure they’ll be fine with whoever you choose. We don’t know anyone in the area.”

And that was one of the awful things about this whole mess. No, my little sister wasn’t on her own, not when she had Calvin and me and my mother and Tom to support her — not to mention her parents — but she was still in unfamiliar territory, wouldn’t be surrounded by the kind of support system she would have had if Jack’s murder had occurred in Southern California.

For all I knew, that was part of the reason the killing had taken place here.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I wanted to dismiss it. Why on earth would anyone need to make sure that Jack Speros was murdered specifically in Globe, of all places? It didn’t make any sense.

But then, none of this did.

Calvin talked a little more about Alec Scurlock, explaining how the attorney had defended him when he was a suspect in Dillon James’ tabloid-titillating death, and how he’d been on contract with the San Ramon Apache for almost ten years now. I could almost see my sister relaxing as my husband spoke, letting her know she’d be in very good hands…if her parents agreed that hiring Alec was the smartest thing to do.

I reached over and touched my husband’s hand, not much more than a brush of my thumb against his, letting him know how much I appreciated the way he was doing his best to reassure Chloe, to let her know we’d all be with her every step of the way. At the same time, though, I couldn’t quite keep my thoughts from rattling along, poking at the little I knew about Jack Speros’s death.

Why here? Why now? Was Chloe a mark, or an innocent bystander?

I needed to find out why someone would want to do such a thing to Jack…and, by extension, to her.

My mother returned then, laden with so many bags that I wondered if she planned to feed the entire gang dinner and breakfast as well. Tom excused himself to help her with her purchases, leaving Calvin and Chloe and me alone in the sitting room.

“I’m really sorry about all this,” Chloe said then, and I blinked at her.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” I said, fixing her with a steady gaze so she’d know I wasn’t going to allow her to argue with me about this. “We know you had nothing to do with Jack’s death, and we’re going to do whatever we must to prove that.”

Her lips parted as if she wanted to protest, but then she closed her mouth again, apparently realizing I was in no mood for arguments right then.

Just as well, because my mother and Tom came back in with the rest of her shopping bags, and there was some cheerful chaos for a while as she got the dining room set up for our group and Chloe and Calvin volunteered to go into the kitchen and cut up fruit and help with some other meal prep.

Leaving me alone in the sitting room, but that was fine. These days, I was used to being left to sit while the more mobile members of my party went on with their work.

Then the doorbell rang. Since I was much closer to the door than everyone else, I pushed myself to my feet and waddled over to open it.

Standing on the porch was a tall man in his fifties with graying dark hair, and at his side stood a woman I guessed was probably a few years younger, plump and pretty, blonde and with striking gray eyes nearly the same shade as her daughter’s.

Now that the moment had come, I found myself almost dizzy.

Or maybe I’d just stood up too quickly.

Despite my disorientation, I managed to find a smile and slap it on my face.

“Hi, there,” I said, marveling a little at how normal I sounded. “Come on in.”