Burning Justice (11 page)

B
y the time
I got home, my thoughts had turned to the evidence that Tony Royce had on my mother’s case. He’d given me no clue as to what it could be. I had collected very little on her case. Would this be helpful?

Did I even want to delve into it any further?

The emotional scarring of her death and my father’s betrayal was finally starting to heal. Would investigating open the wound again? Maybe it was better to let sleeping dogs lie—no matter what I discovered, it would not bring my mother back.

Artemis opened the door for me, beaming with pride. “I’ve discovered something you will find very useful.”

“Great. Wait. How did you know to open the door for me?” Did he have a tracking device on me or something? How would he know the exact second I was at the door?

He looked at me like I was an imbecile. “Math. I get the data from Agatha’s system, so I know the exact location of your PTV. Then I know it takes you precisely four minutes to get out of the car and walk to the condo. It’s easy.”

“Oh.” I was relieved it wasn’t the tracking device. “So did you find something in David’s purchases?”

Artemis dragged me into the living room and pushed me down on the couch. “No. He didn’t buy anything except some foot powder, a blender, men’s hair coloring, two toy slot cars, a remote control plane, cat food and fifteen packs of gum.”

“You thought I'd find that useful?”

"No. It’s what I found after that is useful.”

“What?”

“Watch.” Artemis looked rather pleased with himself as he plugged his index finger into the entertainment center. A grainy, sepia-toned image popped up on the projection wall. It was from the air, taken from something in flight. I squinted my eyes to see better. A house came into view, and then a package landed on the porch.

“What is that?”

“It’s a delivery drone,” Artemis said. “When it turned out David’s purchases were a bust, I got to thinking about the drone delivery system. I mean how do they know where to drop the packages? Drones have a GPS system much like Agatha.”

I raised my brows. If the GPS systems were ‘like’ Agatha, that explained why the drones were always acting so persnickety. “Okay, so why is this package important.”

“It’s not.”

I sighed, tapping my fingers on my leg. What was he getting at? Time was wasting and he was fiddling around with a drone video.

Artemis must have noticed my impatience. “So, anyway. I figured out that the drones have cameras. They use image recognition software to pick out places for delivery drops. So they can identify where the porch or deck or driveway is.”

Artemis glanced over at me and I nodded. That explained why it felt like the delivery drones were looking at us. Creepy. I didn’t voice my opinion about the quality of the image recognition software—it couldn’t be that good if the drones were always flinging their packages straight at us. Then again, maybe the software had been programmed by some maniacal software engineer who thought that would be funny.

I motioned for him to continue. Surely, there must be more to his presentation?

“Okay, here’s the kicker. The drones keep a video of everything they see on their route. All the cars, people and so on.”

I got it now. Artemis
was
brilliant! “So you figured we could look at the drone videos and see exactly what happened to Evangeline that night!”

Artemis frowned and shook his head. “That
would
have been perfect. Unfortunately, the drones don’t deliver after dark.”

“Oh.” My shoulders sagged. Then why was he putting on this big show … and how did he get these videos, anyway? “So anyone can look at these videos?”

Artemis’s face pinched. “Not exactly. I kind of had to hack into the delivery system database.”

“Hack in? How can you do that? Is that legal?”

“It’s not hard for me to figure out the passwords to any database. Sometimes it takes time. The delivery drones were easy.”

I noticed he didn’t answer my question about legalities. Maybe it was better that I didn’t now. “I still don’t get how this helps me with the Barrows case.”

“Ah!” Artemis snapped his fingers. “I knew we couldn’t get any videos at night. But the drones start up at four in the morning. So, I searched the database for the drone service areas and isolated the drones that deliver between Nathan Barrows’s house and his cabin. I have analyzed every microsecond of video from those drones.”

“And?”

With a flourish, Artemis pointed to the screen. The video showed a road, taken from about ten feet above. A car came into view. Suddenly, the drone swooped down, causing my stomach to lurch along with it. I got a clear view into the car … the driver was Nathan Barrows.

“This video was taken at five a.m. on Tuesday—the morning of Evangeline Barrows’s death.” He twisted his finger and the video rewound then zoomed out. “This is route 89. The car is heading south—see the Moose River bridge there?” He pointed to the screen.

“Wait a minute. If he was on that section of 89 at five, there’s no way he could have been at his house when Evangeline was killed. That’s four hours away.”

“That’s right.” Artemis beamed.

“But he didn’t necessarily have to be there, because we already determined that somehow the boat was blown up remotely.”

“Blown up?” Artemis cocked a brow at me. “That’s what the police thought, but remember how you thought it was suspicious that no one heard an explosion.”

“That’s right. So someone could have set the fire and then run off.”

“Right. And it couldn’t have been Nathan unless the cops are wrong about the time.”

He was right, but I wasn’t going to get too excited yet. Jenny could have started the fire, or someone else if there was a third person. By the way things were turning out, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone involved had been in on it.

“And that’s not all.” Artemis scrunched up his face and the video fast-forwarded at breakneck speed. Suddenly, he slowed it down. The same car appeared and Nathan was driving. Artemis zoomed out and the video was taken at about the same spot—probably the drone’s regular route—but this time, the car was heading north. “This video was taken at seven p.m. the night before.”

I squinted at the video. “But George Grindley said he saw Nathan drunk and going to the boat at midnight. And in this, he’s heading north. He would have had to turn around right then and rush back home in order to get drunk and stumble out to the boat. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Right. Why would he go all the way up, turn around, race back, get drunk, go to the boat with Evangeline, set it on fire, then race back up to the cabin, only to turn around and go home?”

My eyes narrowed. My brain felt like it was stuck in mud, slowly trying to piece things together. It all came to the same astonishing conclusion. “He couldn’t have. Nathan Barrows was nowhere near Evangeline the night she died.”

I
f Nathan wasn’t
near the house that night, then
who
was the man with Evangeline and Jenny? Could it have been David Barrows? He’d lied about the neighbors near the cabin, but why? Suzanne had said he was the one stealing money from the company and not Nathan. But then where did Jenny fit in? And was Nathan innocent or in on it with them?

“I know what you are thinking,” Artemis said.

My brows arched. “You do?” I was half afraid he could actually read my mind.

Artemis laughed. “Don’t be afraid. I can’t read your mind, but I’m good at logic. And I bet you’re wondering if David, Nathan and Jenny were working together.”

“Yes, but the question is were they after the same thing or are there two different things going on here. Evangeline had suspected an affair between Jenny and Nathan, so why would Jenny have been with David and Evangeline the night of the fire? And why would David want to get involved in killing Evangeline.”

“Did Jenny even know David?”

“She easily could have. He was Nathan’s brother and was probably at the house a lot. Although David did say that he didn’t know her well.”

“But we can’t trust anything he says now, can we?” Artemis’s brow wrinkled.

“No. And Nathan’s attempted suicide throws me off. I’ve seen a lot of cases where men try to kill their wives so they can be with their mistresses but I’ve never heard of one where the husband suddenly has a bout of regret severe enough to attempt suicide.”

“Maybe his suicide was about more than just killing Evangeline. Didn’t Royce say his note said something about ‘other things’?”

“He did. Maybe those other things had to do with the finances. Evangeline heard him on the phone talking about finances and something to do with the company. If he was in a bad way financially, that would explain why he would be stealing money from Barrows Investment.” I pressed my lips together and scrunched up my face. “But Suzanne had said Nathan wasn’t the one stealing from the company.”

Artemis shrugged. “This whole case is full of clever maneuverings. Maybe Nathan is smarter than we think and he manipulated it to
look
like David was the one stealing the money. After all, Evangeline did overhear his conversation, so it’s a pretty good bet Nathan was up to something and if it’s all going to come out like Suzanne told you, he might want to do away with himself rather than face prison.”

“Good point. He could be very crafty. He sure did seem like a good actor. If he was having financial troubles that badly it would probably show up in his personal finances, wouldn’t it?”

Artemis’s lips cracked into a crafty smile. “Yep. And I can find out exactly what his personal finances are.”

I pulled out my tablet, brought up my brainstorming application and entered the new information I’d learned since the last time I used it. I now knew that Jenny, Evangeline and an unknown man—possibly David—walked to the boat that night and that Nathan had been at the cabin when the boat caught on fire. I also knew that Jenny had taken off from Boston and possibly turned right around and come back to town. But no matter how I entered the information and moved it around, I still didn’t come up with any answers.

“There is one big question here that sticks out to me. And that is Jenny’s role in this whole thing. Nathan claimed that Jenny and Evangeline were friends, but Evangeline had said that Nathan and Jenny were having an affair. That doesn’t sit right with me. It’s too weird. But why would either one of them lie?”

“Why? Plenty of women screw around with their friends’ husbands,” Artemis said matter-of-factly.

“True. But the scorned wife doesn’t usually keep hanging around with them and paying for their anti-aging treatments.”

“Right. But maybe she had stopped hanging around with her by then. Didn’t you say that woman in her apartment building saw them fighting in the hallway.”

“She did, but the fight was recent. And besides, Jenny hadn’t even been working for the Barrows that long. Would a year and a half be enough time for them to become such good of friends and also for Evangeline to start suspecting the affair?”

“Maybe they were friends before Jenny worked there?” Artemis suggested. “I know we discovered that Jenny’s past is shady, but what about Evangeline? We didn’t look into her.”

“Right, because Evangeline is the
victim
. But I see what you are saying. Maybe she did know her from somewhere else. Maybe she hired her because of that, and that’s why the betrayal would’ve hurt her so much.”

“I can look into that along with the Barrows’s finances.”

“That’ll be great. I think Jenny has more to do with this than I first imagined.” I pointed to the screen of my tablet, tapping on each of the information cards on Jenny in turn. “She was friends with Evangeline and seen fighting with her. She was on the boat the night Evangeline died. The next day, she hightailed it out of town, and David claimed he’d seen her at Nathan’s house later on.”

“And just where has Jenny been all this time? If she was back in town, wouldn’t she have gone to the wake?”

I shrugged. “You'd think she would have. If she’s the killer, maybe she couldn't bring herself to go. But if she is back in town, that begs the question
where
has she been and
what
has she been doing?”

I
figured
that if Jenny was in town, she’d be at her apartment and I knew just who to call to find out if she’d been there. Gerta Beavers. Artemis dialed the number for me.

“Hello?”

“Gerta, this is Callie Justice. Remember, we met the other day?”

“Huh? Speak up. Did you say you were from the Department of Justice?”

“No. Callie Justice. I was there asking about your neighbor Jenny Sparks,” I yelled.

“Oh. Right. You don’t have to yell. Of course I remember you, I’m not senile. As a matter of fact, I was just rummaging in my credenza for your card.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. You said to call you if I found anything of interest and I was sorting through my stacks of mail when I realized some of Jenny’s mail had gotten into my pile. You know those darn mail delivery drones just drop the mail in a haphazard manner. Anyway, I thought there might be something in here that would interest you … there are some bills, junk mail and letters.”

That piqued my interest. I was surprised and delighted that Jenny still got paper bills. Most people didn’t. I’d learned that you could find out a lot about a person by checking out their bills. “So Jenny hasn’t been home, then? What are you doing right now? I’d love to come over and take a look.”

“She hasn’t been home and I’m not doing a thing. I’ll put on a pot of tea.”

I hung up and jumped into Agatha. She must’ve been in a good mood because she didn’t argue. She knew right where I was going and drove me straight there. As I exited the car, she said, “Be careful, petal.”

I opened the outer glass door and my body tensed imagining an epic battle with the security system, but it must have been my lucky day because Gerta was there waiting at the door and she opened it to let me in.

“Thanks. And thanks for planning on calling me. I really appreciate that,” I said.

Gerta waved her hand in the air as she walked toward the elevator. “Don’t think a thing of it. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

The mail was neatly arranged in a stack in the middle of her dining room table. I sat down and accepted her offer of tea in a delicate, pink chintz cup.

Gerta watched me intently as I sorted through the pile. Jenny had a subscription to
Cosmopolitan
and
International Health
magazine. I set the magazines aside. No clues there.

There was an electric bill, a rent due notice, and a bill from a credit card company. I set those aside in a pile. I was interested to see what her credit card purchases might be, but opening someone else’s mail was a federal offense.

The other mail consisted of small, card-sized flyers from local restaurants advertising their specials and an appointment reminder card from Dr. Richfeld. I was amused to see that the doctor still used old-fashioned cards with handwriting on them to boot. He even still used whiteout, which I saw up in the corner where they had made a mistake on her patient profile number.

“So is there anything interesting in there?” Gerta eyed me over the rim of her teacup.

I picked up the bills, tapping the edges against the table. “I’d like to see what’s in here, but it’s against the law to open this mail.”

Gerta's brows snapped together. “You don’t say? Why, those mail delivery drones mangle the mail all the time. I see open letters all over the lobby floor.”

She slid her eyes over to the bills, then snatched her hand out and grabbed them. Using a fingernail, she expertly slit them open, turned them upside down so the bills inside slid out and dropped them on the table. “There. I’m pretty sure these were open and in this condition when I found them. It’s not against the law to glance at the mail while you’re putting it back in the envelope, is it?”

I laughed. “I guess not.” I glanced through the bills looking for any kind of a purchase that might have been used in Evangeline’s death. Something that could set off a remote spark, or anything that could be used as an accelerant. Unfortunately, I came up empty.

“There’s nothing good there, is there?” Gerta sounded just as disappointed as I felt.

“Not really. It’s all just regular purchases. Are you sure she hasn’t been home?”

“Sure as shootin’. I've been keeping an extra-special eye out for her.” Gerta took a sip of her tea and then leaned forward. “So how is the investigation going? I heard on the scanner that an ambulance was dispatched to the Barrows house.”

“Nathan tried to commit suicide.”

“Oh, Lordy. Well then that means he’s not the killer?”

My brows mashed together. “Why do you say that?”

“Why would he go to all that trouble of this complicated murder, burning up his boat and all and then kill himself. Doesn’t make any sense.”

I shrugged. “There’s a lot about this case that doesn’t make sense.” I slipped another card out of my tote bag. “I’d really appreciate it if you’d give me a call if you see any sign of Jenny. It would be a huge help to the case.”

She reached her gnarled hand out and slid the card over in front of her. “You betcha. If I see even so much as an ant going toward her place, you’ll be the first one I’ll call.”