Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Jamie

I was just parking my car when my cellphone rang. It was the precinct, and I took the call. It seemed too quick for it to be the results of the DNA test, but Dr. Karloff had told me he would make the test a priority and to expect the results today sometime, so I was optimistic with the call coming from the main switchboard rather than one of the team.

“Detective Del Rey,” I said, taking the call.

“Hi, Detective Del Rey. It’s Joan from the front desk. I have a rather odd message for you. A William Alden called in and asked me to tell you his wife is behaving strangely. He said you would know what it’s about.”

“I do. Thanks, Joan,” I said .

I ended the call and sat in my car for a couple of minutes. I obviously knew who the message was from and who it was about, but what the hell did William mean by saying his wife was acting strangely? And what was his agenda? Was he trying to push suspicion onto Carlotta now that we had taken a DNA sample from him?

It was just one more thing to file away in the strange events file for now. As soon as I got the results of the DNA test, if they proved William was the father of Candy’s baby, I would be going to see him. Now, I guess I would be going either way. And finding out what the hell his cryptic message was meant to mean while I was there.

For now, though, I had to focus on the task at hand, finding an employee willing to risk getting in trouble for talking shit about their boss behind his back.

I went into the building and asked at the desk for William’s secretary, Juliette. She seemed like the best place to start. I was directed to her desk. I introduced myself and asked her if we could talk. She went off to find someone to cover her and took me into William’s office.

“Mr. Alden is out sick after being hit by a car, so we won’t be bothered in here,” Juliette said. “Is this about Candy Xavier? Terrible business, all of that, isn’t it? Mind you, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. I barely knew the girl. But I’ll sure try.”

Maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as I had thought it would be. Juliette was a talker. I just had to convince her I was a friendly ear and she would likely spill every secret William had ever had.

“It is about Candy. And yes, it’s a terrible business,” I said. “So young, her whole life ahead of her. And now she’s gone, just like that. I can’t help but wonder how Mr. Alden is taking the news. I mean, he acted like he wasn’t upset, but I could see that he was a little shaken.”

“Why would Mr. Alden be upset about it? Candy didn’t work directly under him,” Juliette said.

She was testing the water, seeing how much I knew. I knew exactly how to play this now.

“Well, I thought with their being a thing, he might be a little upset,” I said, feigning surprise as though I believed Juliette didn’t know.

“What do you mean?” she said, wide-eyed and full of fake innocence.

“Oh, I’m sorry. God, I’ve really put my foot in it here, haven’t I? Mr. Alden mentioned something about him and Candy seeing each other, and I assumed with your being his secretary, you would know. But maybe he didn’t share stuff like that with you. Never mind. I’m sure I can get what I need from one of the other interns who knew Candy.”

I started to stand up, and Juliette reached out and touched my arm.

“Wait,” she said. “I knew about the fling. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I approved of it, but I knew about it.”

I sat back down.

“I would have been surprised if you didn’t,” I said. “And I suppose then that you knew about the others too? I think it would be best all-around if I got the information from you, Juliette. I can trust you to be discreet, right? Not like the interns running their mouths as they do.”

She gave a long-suffering smile.

“Oh, they like their gossip.” She laughed. “So, what do you need?”

“Well, we’re just looking to talk to the other girls William had affairs with. It’s just a formality, really. But when something like this happens, we have to cover all of our bases. We just want to make sure he treated his mistresses right, you know?”

“Then I’m not sure talking to the others he’s been seeing is the best way to do that, Detective,” Juliette said.

I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to go on. My tactic had worked. Implying that there was anything going on around here that Juliette didn’t know about had made her more than willing to show me exactly how much she did know.

“He wasn’t nice to them?” I asked.

Juliette shrugged. “Define nice. If by nice you mean using them to inflate his own sense of self-importance and then casting them aside, then sure, he was nice to them. First, there was Laura. She was young, barely looked sixteen, if you ask me. William made her feel special, and then he started trying to get her to do some weird sex stuff. When she said no, she was promptly ditched. The last I heard of her, she had gone to Hong Kong on some kind of exchange program, so maybe in some way, he did her a favor. Then there was Shanna. He didn’t actually get a chance to dump her. She did the dumping and quit promptly afterward after Mr. Alden began verbally abusing her. And then there was Candy.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Juliette beat me to it.

“No, wait. There was Melanie in between Shanna and Candy. She wasn’t actually involved with Mr. Alden, but he hit on her several times, and when she turned down his advances, she was fired. I mean, he came up with a reason, but it was flimsy at best. I think Melanie was just glad to get away from him. Otherwise, she would have had quite the case against him.”

“He sounds like quite a character,” I said. “How was he with you?”

“He was fine with me. I do my job and I do it well, and that’s all that’s expected of me. I’m a little too old for Mr. Alden’s tastes. As in I’m over twenty,” Juliette said. “Not that I’d be interested in him, anyway. Not the way he is with women. It’s his wife I feel sorry for. Poor thing stands by him, pretending she doesn’t know what he’s up to, but she does. I’ve heard it in her voice when she calls and I have to tell her Mr. Alden is with a client when really, he’s in here fucking some intern. And the way he speaks to her in public. If my husband tried that on me, Detective, we’d be meeting for a very different reason.”

Despite myself, I couldn’t help but laugh at the last part. Juliette flashed me a smile.

“Juliette, do you think you could get me some contact information for those girls you mentioned?” I said.

“Oh, no, Detective. Please don’t ask me to do that. I’ve said too much already,” Juliette said.

I gave her what I hoped was a persuasive smile.

“Look, I might need to talk to those girls. I can either get their information subtly from you and of course never tell a soul who gave the information to me. Or I can get a court order and get them. I really don’t want to go down that route. Mud sticks, doesn’t it? And the last thing I want is this tarnishing those girls’ reputations. Especially Candy’s. I mean, she’s not even here to defend herself, is she?”

“Well, when you put it like that, I suppose I could get them for you. I mean, you’re going to get them anyway, and Mr. Alden will never find out you got them from me. Right?” she said, needing me to confirm it one more time.

“Of course not, Juliette. As far as Mr. Alden will ever know, I went down the court order route.” I smiled.

Juliette nodded and stood up. She went to a large filing cabinet and pulled out two files. She copied down some details and came back to the desk and handed me a piece of paper with Shanna’ s and Melanie’s names written on it and contact numbers beside them.

“I can’t guarantee those are still their numbers, but it’s what we have for them,” she said. “And as I said, Laura went to Hong Kong, and needless to say, she didn’t leave a forwarding address here.”

“Thank you, Juliette,” I said. “You’ve been very helpful. And this will be our little secret.”

She smiled back, still looking a little nervous.

“Well, if that’s all, Detective, duty calls,” she said.

I nodded and thanked her again, and then I headed back down to my car. I didn’t have to even be a detective to know that William’s infidelity and his attitude toward women hadn’t been winning him any popularity contests in the office. In fact, I would have been willing to bet he had caused more trouble and resentment than enough. The company’s management were probably glad to have him on sick leave where he couldn’t cause any more trouble for them.

Right then, I didn’t even think I would need to call up either of the girls and talk to them. Juliette had painted a pretty clear picture of what had happened, but it was nice to have their details just in case something else came to light that I might need them for. If nothing else, they would make great witnesses for the prosecution if William ended up being the killer. They could show a pattern of behavior toward women that escalated into a murder.