Chapter 8

After Doreen's call to Reggie, Mathew's man of affairs, she sent off an update in a text to Corey. There was just so much to digest. She sat here at the river, her notebook in hand, writing down the gist of that conversation. She picked up several sticks and threw them for Mugs. He half-heartedly retrieved them, only to get sidelined by a squirrel, dashing into the water. At least that made him happy. She smiled at the dog's antics, as he splashed himself and everybody else around him.

When he raced to her, she braced herself. Sure enough, he stopped right beside her and shook all the water droplets onto her. She protested, hugging the notebook to her chest, but Mugs ignored her and shook again and again.

Groaning, she smiled as she cuddled him, looking down at her soaked shirt. "What made you think I needed that?" Of course he didn't seem to care. But then why would he? She was many things, but definitely not somebody who cared about getting wet, or had to dress a certain way, or always had to be perfect.

As a matter of fact, she was very comfortable with who she was now, and that was a very strange feeling. Also a very good thing and a definite improvement. She absolutely loved the sense of discovery she felt, as she figured out who this new Doreen person was. The personal freedom she had slowly recovered with Mathew out of her life had gradually changed her. His death, while unfortunate, made that process complete in a way, and she was feeling quite overwhelmed. She felt a glimmer of joy at the start of what would appear to be a completely joyful experience.

As Nan had pointed out, Doreen should do one thing, and that was put this all to rest. With her phone out, she quickly looked up the name of Mathew's newest private detective. Seeing the contact info and the guy's photo, she added his name and number to her notepad. She was tempted to call him, but she figured Corey would do that. Then she phoned Mack.

When he answered, his tone was very calm, quiet, and gentle. "Are you okay, Doreen?"

"I'm fine," she replied briskly. "Look. I talked to Reggie. He is the man of affairs for Mathew, and apparently Mathew had sent a private detective up here, who tracked down where I was likely to be. I'll text you his name and number. Now, whether he was following me or whether he accidentally saw me, I don't know, but it seems to be one huge coincidence about Mathew being at the Chinese food place. He may have been there for me."

"What?"

"I also spoke to Reggie in regard to anything going on in Mathew's world, and Reggie indicated that Mathew had gotten himself into trouble, and he was reconsidering his options with me. Reggie doesn't think it was a coincidence that Mathew was here that day. The fact that he didn't fully sign the divorce papers was most likely intentional because he knew that, if he didn't have to liquidate his assets for me, he could probably get out of the trouble he was in." With all that rushing out in a blur, she took a deep breath and relaxed a little bit.

After a few moments of silence, she continued. "You should also talk to the accountant who handled Mathew's books," she noted, then followed up with the contact information. "His man of affairs is Reggie, who I just spoke to…" Then she gave him the phone number as well as the name of the private eye he'd sent to Kelowna.

"Wow," Mack said briskly. "Apparently you've woken up."

"Woken up and realized that, whether Mathew intended it or not, he has given me a huge gift."

"And what is that?" Mack asked.

"The gift of his no longer being an issue for me," she stated, with a note of humor. "I get that's probably not the nicest thing I could say, but the perfect way for me to move on from this is to have it all go by the wayside once and for all."

"I would really like that very much."

"You're doing okay with this?"

"Yes."

"I'm not happy to hear that he could have solved this problem by the divorce not happening."

"Yet, either way, if he's dealing with those kind of people, he was probably in way too far, and nothing would have fixed it for very long. Once those guys get their hooks into someone, they have a way of hanging on."

She added, "It was also very enlightening to hear from Reggie that he had fought on my behalf after"—she struggled to get it out—"after Mathew hit me. Reggie didn't know about all of it. He just knew about a couple times, and apparently he went to bat for me, which was nice to find out that I had a benevolent uncle looking after me, or trying to."

"Of course," Mack agreed. "This is really good information, Doreen. We'll contact Reggie and Mathew's PI and Mathew's attorney too, get their statements."

"Absolutely," she confirmed, with a smile. "Now there were other people in Mathew's world than just these three."

"We know of a couple because of Robin's case."

"Exactly. I also need to contact the lawyer, Roger. I'm hoping that Reggie has been taken care of in Mathew's will. Otherwise I'm not sure Reggie has enough to live on either. He's at an age where finding a job will be almost impossible."

"Will you let us handle it, please?" Mack stated, not asking for her permission.

She snorted. "Sure."

"Doreen," he said, with a note of warning.

"You think I don't know that the new detective doesn't care about me?" she argued. "I'm just a case. I'm just a name, a number, and, if she can close it and make herself look good, she won't be particularly bothered as to whether she finds the true killer. She's looking to pin it all on me and carry on."

"That's not fair," he protested.

"Maybe not, but I did not get a vote of confidence from her. I've become quite used to working with your department and hadn't realized to what extent I had become so comfortable," she shared. "I can see it's a problem."

"A problem in what way?" he asked in alarm.

"Just that I trusted it, the system, you know? I trusted that things would be okay and that people would have my back. I guess that's one of the first laws of business, or life really, that nobody has your back but you."

"No, that's not true," Mack argued. "You're supposed to be surrounded by people you trust."

"That's all fine and dandy, until something shifts, and then you're taken off the case, and they put a stranger on it."

"That's different. You can't blame the captain for that, and you know it. I didn't like being taken off the case, but I do understand it. It does no good to arrest someone for murder if some slick lawyer will set them free because I was part of the investigation."

"Are you really a suspect?" she asked.

"No. I've got an alibi for the time of death now, approximately two hours before you found him."

"Interesting," she murmured.

"You don't have an alibi, do you?"

"Of course not," she snapped. "I talked to Nan that morning, but I could have been calling from anywhere. I was at home with the animals, as always. Now Mugs can do a great job at trying to talk, but he's not that good a conversationist."

"No, he sure isn't, but Thaddeus certainly can talk."

"I know, but we weren't there at Mr. Woo's at the time of Mathew's death. We were at home," she declared.

"And I suppose you never spoke to Richard or nobody came by or anything, right?"

"No, and I wasn't down at Nan's, and Nan wasn't up here with me," she added. "It was a nice, calm, relaxing day—until it wasn't. You were coming for lunch, and I walked out to get Chinese as a treat."

"Which I very much appreciate," he noted, with a heavy sigh.

"Apparently I'm not supposed to do things like that. Look what kind of trouble it got us into. Two hours, huh? So at least you have an alibi."

"Luckily I do. I was at work with everybody else, so I'm more or less off the hook at this point."

"More or less?"

"There's always the suspicion that I hired somebody," he shared on a dry note.

"Oh, good Lord. Absolutely no way that would happen. As I told your brother, if you had killed Mathew, it would be more of a bare-knuckle affair, since it would be all about what Mathew did to me. You would never hire anybody else to do your dirty work."

An odd silence followed on the other end, before he finally spoke. "Thank you, I think?"

She burst out laughing. "No, it's definitely a thank-you moment," she declared. "Now we just have to clear me, and the only way to do that is to find out who decided to take out my dearly beloved ex, and the answer to that won't be quite so clear-cut. He's got way more enemies than anybody deserves to have."

"Seems he earned them, to be honest."

"Yes, he was often a very tough businessman, and, because of that alone, we'll find no shortage of people who didn't appreciate his methods, or the fact that he had money and they didn't."

"He also didn't care about who had money and who didn't, as long as it involved something he wanted. Such as you."

"Exactly, and the fact that he was reconsidering his options in that regard doesn't mean that he would have succeeded. Remember that," she murmured.

"Hey, I didn't say that."

"That's good, but I don't want you thinking it either."

"Deal," he said, now laughing. "You're right. We will get to the bottom of this. Just go easy on your detective work, will you?"

"Sure," she snapped, with a sniff. "If she stays away from me, we'll get along just fine."

"You're the prime murder suspect. Remember that?" he asked, deepening his tone.

At that, she snorted. "Which means she's not doing her job. I won't even deign to listen to that nonsense. I've got things to do that are far more productive."

"Wait, wait, wait," he wailed.

However, she ended the call then, with a big fat smile on her face. Now she was starting to feel better. She was starting to feel like herself. Hopping to her feet, she walked up to the house, calling the animals, "Come on, guys. It's time to start shaking up this town a little bit. Somebody is trying to make it look like we did something wrong, and that'll never go over well. Particularly when it comes to my ex."