Part 5 (1/2)
”I'm afraid it's not going to be a short list, is it? We need to write this down so we can keep track of everyone we suspect.”
I reached into my bag for paper and a pen, but he shook his head when he saw me do it. ”We'll use one of my chalkboards. Every now and then I run specials, and these come in handy to announce them to my customers.”
He put a board on a narrow lip on the wall behind his desk and started writing. I felt better already, knowing that I had called on reinforcements to help with my search. I had Zach working with the police, and Rob and I were going to tackle things, too.
It was a good start, but I knew that we had a lot of work to do if we were going to find a killer.
AS ROB WROTE JOANNE'S NAME AT THE top of the board, I said, ”If it helps, Barbara Brewster told me that there were seven people that she knew of who wouldn't mind seeing Joanne dead.”
”You already spoke with Barbara about this?” Rob asked me as one eyebrow arched skyward.
”I thought she might have an idea about where to start. She seems to have her finger on the pulse of life around here. Barbara has to hear things in her line of work.”
Rob nodded reluctantly. ”It's a good idea. Did she happen to mention any of the people who made her cut?”
I didn't want to answer him, but it was a fair question, and he had a right to know. ”To be honest with you, I wouldn't let her tell me.”
”Now you've got my curiosity going full steam ahead,” he said. ”Savannah, if you asked the woman for help, why did you refuse it when she offered it to you? I'm betting Barbara didn't take kindly to that.”
”It upset her, but it couldn't be helped. She wanted me to swear that I wouldn't tell anyone what she told me.”
”On the face of it, that sounds like a reasonable request,” he said.
”It included Zach. That's when I walked out on her.”
Rob laughed when he heard that. ”Now I understand. I would have loved to see her reaction when you left. She must have been madder than a wet cat when you walked away from her. She probably threatened you as she left, knowing that woman.”
”I don't know if you could consider anything Barbara said to me a threat. She wasn't happy with me, that was clear enough, but I never really gave her the chance to say much before I was gone.”
”Then that was worth the price of admission alone, I'd say. Seven is as good a place to start as any. Let's see if we can match folks around town with the numbers on her list.” Rob wrote down the names Sandra Oliver, Laura Moon, and then Harry Pike. After a moment or two, he added Greg Lincoln and Hannah Reed as well.
”Why them?” I asked.
”That's why you came to me second, right? Because of my knowledge of the town?”
I had never meant to hurt his feelings. ”Rob, I was downtown, and when I saw Barbara's coffee shop, I didn't think twice about asking her for help. It was no intended slight on you. I promise you that.”
If he had harbored any hurt because of it, it appeared to vanish with my apology. ”Don't think another thing about it. I'm just glad you thought of me at all.” He tapped the last two names on the board with the piece of chalk in his hand, and explained, ”Greg and Joanne used to date, not that they ever let anyone in town know about it.”
”If they were being so secretive, how did you find out?”
Rob shrugged. ”It was purely by accident. I couldn't sleep one night last week, so I decided to take a walk around town. Joanne was sitting by herself on a park bench, and I was about to greet her when I heard a man's voice nearby. I recognized it as Greg's immediately. He's got a distinctive way of talking, and there's no doubt in my mind it was him. What surprised me was the intensity of their conversation. That's putting it mildly. They weren't chatting; they were arguing about something, and he wasn't happy when he left.”
”Did either one of them see you?”
Rob looked sheepish as he admitted, ”I was a little embarra.s.sed about eavesdropping on them, so I stepped back into a doorway so I'd be out of their line of sight. I thought about asking Greg what it was all about as he neared me, but he stormed past me before I could say a word.”
That was interesting news. ”Were you able to hear anything specifically that either one of them said?”
Reluctantly, Rob said, ”I wasn't trying to listen in on their private conversation, but I couldn't help hearing the last thing he said to her. Knowing what I know now, it really sends a chill down my spine whenever I think about it.”
”What did he say?”
”He told her, 'You'll live to regret it. I can promise you that.' You know Greg; he's usually full of harmless bl.u.s.ter, but he didn't sound harmless that night. It might bear looking into.”
”Sounds good. I'll talk to him first,” I said.
”Hang on a second, Savannah. I'm not sending you out into the world with this information to confront someone who might be a killer. You need to tell your husband and let him handle it.”
”I can question Greg myself,” I said. Sometimes Rob had the idea that women were delicate flowers, and I did everything in my power to dissuade him of that belief whenever I could. I was a grown woman, perfectly capable of handling just about anything that came my way.
”At least take him with you,” my friend insisted. ”I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you because of what I said.”
”Rob, are we going to have to have that conversation again?”
”Woman, I'm not kidding here,” he said, his face screwed into a frown. ”If Greg did get rid of Joanne, facing him alone would be the worst thing in the world that you could do. If you won't ask your husband to speak with him, or even go with you, then I'm begging you to at least take me. Between the two of us, we might be able to handle him if things go wrong.”
I was tired of being sheltered. It was time to deflect Rob's attention to something else. ”He wasn't even in Asheville today,” I said.
”That you know of. The very least we need to do is get an alibi for the man. If we can cross him off the list, so much the better.”
I bit my upper lip. ”I see your point, but we can't exactly walk up to him and ask him, can we?”
Rob smiled. ”We can do just that, if we handle it properly. In the meantime, let's get back to the list.”
I studied the last name he'd written there. ”What could Hannah Reed have against Joanne? I've never even heard the woman raise her voice in public, so it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that she could possibly commit murder.”
”From the books I've read on the subject, there are times when the least likely suspect is the one guilty of the crime.”
”Are we talking fiction or nonfiction?” I asked. ”I'm not sure mysteries should count as true research on how the criminal mind works.”
”And why not? Many of the novels I've read are closer to the way the world actually works than the best true crime books.”
I wasn't about to argue the point with him. ”Okay, but that still doesn't give Hannah a reason to kill Joanne.”
”There is a good one. I just haven't told you what it is yet.”
I waited for him to provide the missing information, but when he wasn't forthcoming, I asked, ”Are you going to tell me at some point, or do I just have to keep guessing until I stumble across Hannah's motive on my own?”
”I honestly don't know if I should share this with anyone, including you,” he said. ”Before I say one more word, I'm going to have to get someone else's permission.”
”Not Hannah's, I hope.”
He shrugged without committing to an answer one way or the other. ”Let's just leave her name up there for now. If I can get the go-ahead, I'll tell you her motive later.”
I scowled at him. ”How am I supposed to figure out if she killed Joanne or not if I don't know what her motive could be?”
Rob said softly, ”Easy there, Savannah. I realize that you're under a lot of strain at the moment, but we don't need the motive for now; not if she's lacking the opportunity.”
It was time to give up that particular line of reasoning, since it wasn't likely that I would get anything more out of Rob about Hannah.