Murder is Secondary: A Susan Wiles Schoolhouse Mystery Read online

  “What did your daughter do at the twin towers?”

  “She worked in the daycare. She had gotten her license and was looking for a teaching job, but meanwhile she was supporting herself by teaching a preschool class there. She loved being with the kids. She was great with kids.”

  “Again, what a terrible loss, so senseless. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I should be going.” Susan got up and walked toward the door.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help. I hope you find your friend safe and sound.”

  “Me too.”

  Chapter 42

  As soon as she was on the road, Susan called Lynette to tell her what she’d learned. Lynette was as shocked as she was. Lynette agreed that it may have been possible for Kaitlyn to allow herself to be assumed dead and to steal Julie’s identity if she happened to be working in the towers at the time of the explosion.

  “Mom, I will have to confirm that Kaitlyn was working in the twin towers on 911. Even if she was there that day and managed to escape, it still leaves me to wonder how she would have had access to Julie’s identity. After all, Kaitlyn couldn’t simply have applied for a driver’s license or a copy of Julie’s teaching certificate without proper identification.”

  “I’ll have to think about that one,” said Susan. “The other thing is Joey. If he attended the preschool, wouldn’t he have, in all probability, died along with the real Julie? They would have been at the same place. Even if he had survived, how would Kaitlyn possibly have gotten to him in all the chaos and confusion?”

  “Remember, this is all conjecture. There are lots of unanswered questions. First things first. I’ll call you back when I confirm that Kaitlyn was working in the twin towers during that time.”

  “Okay, Lynette. Get some rest and take care of my grandbaby.”

  “Will do, Deputy Mom.”

  Susan decided to stop off and see Dalia on her way home. After all, Dalia had no one here in Westbrook. She was stuck here waiting for Zach’s body to be released and was probably going crazy waiting. Grieving is hard enough. She ached every day, missing her mom. But to grieve with no family or friends around? That must be unbearable. She pulled into Rocking Horse Ranch, took the elevator to Dalia’s floor, and made her way to the room. As she was about to knock, she heard voices. Dalia was talking to someone. They were laughing, actually. Dalia didn’t seem to be grieving at all.

  “Come home with me. I miss you.” It was a man’s voice.

  “Phillip, are you nuts? I’m supposed to be a grieving widow. It will look fishy if I leave Zach in Westbrook while I go back to New Jersey with my dead husband’s business partner. We have to be smart about this.” Susan realized that it was Zach’s business partner (and obviously, Dalia’s lover) who Dalia was talking to. Just when she was convincing herself that Julie…she meant Kaitlyn…was the murderer, Dalia was sounding awfully suspicious.

  “I know you’re right, but it’s been hard waiting like this. I want us to be a family––me, you, and our baby.” It could have even been Phillip, thought Susan. Oh wait, he supposedly had an alibi. How careful had the police been in confirming that?

  Susan was startled by the sound of a door slamming shut down the hall. She rummaged through her purse, pretending to look for her keycard while one of the legitimate hotel guests passed by. Then, back to the task at hand. She pressed her ear right up against the door.

  “We will be together, but we need to be careful,” said Dalia. “Go on back home to the office and keep the business afloat while we wait this out.”

  Susan jumped as she heard the cleaning cart being wheeled down the hallway. She quickly extricated her ear from the door and walked toward the elevator as if she was a guest going downstairs for a bite to eat. She wanted to go back and hear more of the conversation, but in reality she’d gotten the gist of things. She wanted to tell Lynette right away how happy they’d seemed, but was worried. Lynette had been surprisingly willing to let her talk to Julie’s family, but knowing her mom was eavesdropping––again––might try Lynette’s patience. Besides, Lynette had this thing about Susan putting herself into dangerous situations. Susan had almost gotten killed last winter while solving the Vicky Roger’s murder case, but heck, she was like her cats Ludwig and Johann––she had nine lives. She had solved the case and come out of it unscathed.

  Chapter 43

  Boy, sleuthing makes me hungry, thought Susan. She could go straight home and make herself a salad, or she could take a detour through the McDonald’s drive-thru. All that anxiety about being caught outside Dalia’s door surely had burned some serious calories.

  Susan had no sooner changed into comfortable clothes and planted herself in front of the Dr. Oz show, when Lynette called to confirm that Kaitlyn had been working for a legal firm in the twin towers during 2001. Her son Joey had been registered with the daycare. It seemed unlikely that Kaitlyn had had anything to do with Julie’s death. It looked as if she’d simply seized an opportunity. Susan ran through the state of the investigation. Dalia was being abused by Zach, was pregnant, and was involved with Zach’s business partner, Phillip. She could have smothered Zach with a pillow or put antifreeze in his Gatorade any given day. Why would she choose to murder Zach at the baby shower where she’d risk being seen?

  Phillip had motive to kill Zach because he wanted to be with Dalia and if Zach were dead, he and Dalia would own the company. Then there was the life insurance––like on Dateline. Surely Dalia was the beneficiary of that life insurance policy. He and Dalia would be set financially––unless another wife or a son turned up. Phillip had an alibi though. He was at the Chamber of Commerce banquet in New Jersey, presenting one of the awards the night of the murder.

  Julie, of course, wanted to protect herself and her son from the dangerous husband she’d escaped from fifteen years ago. Joey, whose temper and strength Susan had witnessed with her own eyes, had just found out that his father was alive, and that he had tried to kill his mother. To top it off, his newly discovered father had killed Amber, an innocent girl, because he mistook her for his mom. Either he or his mother could have killed in a fit of rage that night. They both had been at the shower. They both had had the opportunity.

  Then there was Mr. Bernstein. Zach had killed his daughter because he had mistaken her for Julie. Mr. Bernstein surely had motive, but he was a lawyer and had just uncovered evidence that would have had Zach locked up in jail for the remainder of his life. He was an intelligent man and Susan was inclined to think that he was too rational to have killed Zach in a rage. He did admit to being at the scene though. And he had just discovered that Zach was his daughter’s killer hours earlier.

  And no one had even considered Mrs. Bernstein. She acted very confused when Susan and Lynette ran into the Bernsteins outside of Babies and Such. She had appeared to have been heavily drugged. Could she have followed her husband to our house that night and killed Zach after learning from him that Zach was her daughter’s killer? Drugs could mess with rational thinking. So could having your daughter murdered.

  Susan needed to clear her head. She had never completely finished cleaning up the yard after the baby shower. The wind had been strong the past few days and there were fragments of streamers and deflated balloons all the way in the neighbors’ back yard. Susan grabbed a Hefty garbage bag and began crisscrossing the yard, picking up remnants of shower decorations. She started close to the Jacuzzi, although the crime scene investigators seemed to have done quite a thorough job. The area closest to the Jacuzzi was still blocked with yellow crime scene tape. When she had worked her way outward onto the neighbor’s property, she bent down to grab a piece of pink streamer and next to it found a weathered paper that appeared to be some sort of receipt. I wonder what this is from? she thought.

  She examined the receipt, thinking it had most likely dropped out of the neighbor’s purse. It was stiffer than an ordinary receipt, and had what appeared to be the name of a business, and a series of numbers. She stuc
k it into the pocket of her sweat jacket, finished her canvas of the extended crime scene, and went back inside. Mike would be coming home soon. Maybe he’d recognize the name of the company.

  Chapter 44

  No sooner had Susan locked the sliding glass door behind her than she heard Mike’s car in the driveway.

  “Hey, Hon. How was your day?” asked Susan. She was anxious to show him the receipt.

  “Pretty quiet. I’m starving. What’s for dinner?”

  “I was going to broil some seasoned chicken breasts and toss a salad.”

  “What did you do today?” asked Mike.

  “I was busy. I spent some time with Lynette. I’m helping her with the murder case.” Mike raised an eyebrow. “No, really. I found the real Julie Martin’s mother. Get this, her daughter was killed during the twin towers’ attack. She worked at the daycare. Kaitlyn––that’s the woman we’ve been calling Julie––was working there as a paralegal in a law office. They had to have known each other.”

  “Run that by me again? On second thought, never mind. If they worked on different floors, how could Kaitlyn have known that Julie died? And if Julie had been killed in the explosion, how is it that her purse wouldn’t have been destroyed?”

  “You know, Joey had been enrolled in the daycare. That has to be the connection. Somehow these pieces must fit together.” Susan suddenly remembered the receipt she had found outside. “Mike, I found this in the yard.”

  Mike took the receipt and looked it over carefully. “Starlight Express. You know, I’ve heard of that. I think it’s a valet company. They park cars during events. Why would it have been in our yard? We certainly didn’t have valet parking the night of the shower and I didn’t notice our neighbors throwing any big bashes lately––or ever come to think of it.”

  “A valet company? It had to have dropped out of someone’s pocket.”

  Mike looked at the ticket again. “It’s dated the same night as the shower. It doesn’t have a city on it though. You should run this by Lynette.”

  “I’ll take it over to her first thing in the morning.”

  Chapter 45

  Susan knew that Lynette had asked Jackson to go back and re-interview all the guests who’d attended the shower. He had found witnesses who were able to confirm that Zach was still alive when both Julie and Dalia left the patio. Even though Dalia and Zach had taken separate cars to the shower, Susan still thought it was a little strange how Dalia didn’t notice that Zach never came home from the shower. Then again, according to Julie, Zach was a psychopath and Susan herself had seen how poorly he treated Dalia. Maybe they weren’t in the habit of spending their nights together anymore. Besides, Dalia was pregnant. Susan remembered how tired she’d been during her pregnancies, so maybe Dalia had just fallen into a deep sleep.

  “Come on,” said Mike. “Get out of bed and let’s go on our walk. Pretty soon it will be too cold in the mornings.”

  “Okay, I’m coming.” Susan nudged Ludwig so she could get out of bed, then threw on a pair of sweats. It was refreshingly chilly outside.

  “Do you think they’re closing in on Zach’s murderer?” asked Mike.

  “Well, they’ve pretty much cleared Julie and Dalia. Phillip, Zach’s business partner, has an alibi. He was presenting at an awards ceremony in New Jersey that night. That leaves Joey and Amber’s father––or her mother. Joey had his hand bandaged the other day at school. It wasn’t wrapped up the night of the party. Do you think he might have injured it pushing Zach into the Jacuzzi?”

  “No, it wouldn’t have taken a lot of force if Zach was caught off-guard at the edge of the Jacuzzi. Besides, Lynette said there was no sign of a struggle. Did you ask him what happened? ”

  “I did, but he kind of made a joke out of it. We could take a careful look around the patio. If he injured it at the shower maybe there are traces of blood.”

  Mike reminded her that the police had gone over the area with a fine-toothed comb. It was unlikely that they would have missed blood. Of course, Susan wouldn’t be satisfied until she looked for herself. After all, they had missed the valet ticket.

  “Susan, I just had a thought. Of all the suspects you’ve mentioned, who would most likely have used valet parking?”

  “I’d say Zach’s business partner, but he had witnesses who saw him at the ceremony.”

  “Just suppose he left the ceremony early. It’s possible that he could have driven up from New Jersey. It’s not that far.”

  “I don’t know. How long do you think it takes to drive from there to here?”

  “I’d say he could do it in under two hours.”

  “How about if I spend the day researching the event and after work, you and I can take a little field trip. We could even stop for dinner on the way back. We’ll drive right by Amici’s.”

  “I know there’s no point in arguing. Yes, let’s do it. I’ll try to leave work a little early,” said Mike. “Wear that sexy black number of yours. And don’t forget your Pandora bracelet with the sleuth charm that I gave you for your birthday. On second thought, how about you wear only the Pandora bracelet?”

  “You got it, big guy.” Sleuthing was more and more fun all the time.

  After Mike left for work, Susan began researching business award ceremonies and after a bit of surfing, she found one that had taken place the night of the murder. That ceremony had started at seven pm. She found a program on-line. Phillip had been the very first presenter. But there were witnesses who placed him there thought Susan. She wrote down the name of the hotel and used MapQuest to get directions. This way they’d be ready to go as soon as Mike got home.

  Then she took a long, relaxing shower and wiggled into the black dress Mike was talking about. It felt tighter than last time she’d worn it. How was that possible? After all, she’d been dieting and exercising for a few months already. Well, she’d spent more than a few afternoons watching movies and eating ice cream over at Lynette’s. She looked at herself in the mirror. So this is what they mean by batwings, she thought. I think I’ll grab my black sweater. After all, it will probably be cold in the restaurant.

  “Hey, I’m home,” called Mike. He took a few minutes to change and they were on their way. “Write down our start time,” he said when they got into the car. Susan read the directions as he drove. Mike didn’t officially speed, but he tried to hustle since he knew Phillip would have been in a rush. They arrived at the hotel one hour and forty minutes later.

  “Well, it’s possible that he could have presented the award, collected his car from valet parking, and gotten to the baby shower in time to kill Zach,” said Susan.

  “What do you think his motive would have been?”

  “Mike, he was carrying on with Zach’s wife and she’s expecting a baby. It could very well be his baby. He probably knew that Zach was an abusive husband. And then there’s the fact that Zach was driving the business into the toilet.”

  “That could be it.”

  “Now, if we could only prove that he left the ceremony early. She scanned the parking lot. Hmmm, that looks like valet parking over at that entrance. And look, it’s the same company––Starlight. I’ll bet the hotel uses the same service for all its events. What do you say we talk to the guys doing the parking?”

  “That’s a stretch. I don’t know…”

  “Come on. We’re here. We might as well try. Drive over there.” Susan got out of the car and started talking to the valet before Mike had even turned off the car. The attendant walked around to the driver’s side to get the keys.

  “No thank you, sir,” said Susan. “We’re not staying. We were just wondering if you would help us out with something. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” The attendant shrugged his shoulders. Susan took this as an invitation to proceed. “Were you working here the night of October 22?”

  “Miss, how do you expect me to remember? My schedule changes every week. I can barely remember what I ate for lunch––or if I even ate lunch.”
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br />   “Please try. It’s important. Our son told his wife that he was here at an awards ceremony that night. She thinks he was having a tryst with his secretary. Their marriage depends on proving that he was really here that night. And they’re expecting a baby. You don’t want to see some poor innocent baby be born into a broken family, now do you?” Thank you creative muse, thought Susan. Mike gave her a look and shook his head. Just then, another valet walked back from parking a Porsche. He had overheard the conversation.

  “Miss, are you talking about the Chamber of Commerce awards? I was working that night. I only remember because I was supposed to be off, but my girlfriend had this Halloween party she wanted to go to so I switched days with my buddy Mario.”

  “Oh, please tell me you can help me. Did you notice anyone leaving soon after the event began? Someone who may have been in a hurry? Think hard.” Susan’s heart started beating faster.

  The valet took a few minutes to think before answering. “I can’t believe I remember this, but yes, one guy came out right after the event started. I had just parked his vintage Mercedes and now he wanted me to retrieve it. Seemed to be in a big hurry. He peeled out of here as soon as I brought it to him.”

  “What did he look like? Was he in his forties, brown hair, tall and thin?”

  “That sounds like him. Must have been a smoker. That beautiful car smelled like a bar on steroids.”

  “Thank you so much,” said Susan. As soon as they had the car to themselves, Susan shrieked, “We did it. We solved the case. It must have been Phillip who killed Zach.”

  Mike gave her a high five. “This isn’t definitive proof, although that parking attendant blows a hole in Phillip’s alibi. Let’s call Lynette right away.”

  “Well, not right away. She’s probably asleep anyway. Don’t we have a dinner date?” She pulled down the V-necked dress to show a little more cleavage.”