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After Henry discovered the garrote in her VW’s trunk, the three of us had adjourned to the stock room at the back of the shop. Not sure how long this was going to take, I’d hurried to the front of the store to lock the door and put the “be back at” sign in the window, then waddled back to the cramped space where the police chief had decided to continue his investigation.
“Then what was it doing in your trunk?” he asked, a reasonable enough question.
“I don’t know,” she said, worry and bewilderment clear in her expression. “But if someone was able to get into my Airbnb without my noticing, then that same person might have been able to get into my car and plant evidence, don’t you think?”
Henry’s face had never looked sourer. “It’s possible,” he said grudgingly. “But it’s also possible that there wasn’t any sign of forced entry because you’re the one who killed Jack Speros. Afterward, you hid the murder weapon in the trunk of your vehicle, thinking you’d have plenty of time to dispose of it, especially since neither I nor my deputies looked in there the night of the murder. That’s really why you moved your car, isn’t it? You thought you’d be able to toss the garrote in the dumpster behind the building here and that no one would ever find it.”
True, there was a dumpster out back; Victoria and Archie and I split the cost of the disposal service three ways, since none of us generated enough trash to merit having one for each of our businesses. However, I doubted Chloe even knew it was there, because she simply hadn’t been working at the store long enough to take a load of junk out to the dumpster.
I tried to tell Henry as much, and he only lifted an eyebrow as though he couldn’t believe I was that naïve.
“You really think she showed up on your doorstep the other day without doing some research first?”
“I did,” Chloe said, now sounding justifiably indignant. “I’d never been in Globe before Monday afternoon, and I certainly wasn’t driving around looking for dumpsters to throw out hypothetical murder weapons. Like I told you, someone planted that thing in my trunk.”
“Maybe so,” Henry responded. “Or maybe not. I suppose that’s for someone other than me to decide.” He paused there, hand resting on the handcuffs that hung from his belt under his sport coat. “In the meantime, though, I’ll have to arrest you for the murder of Jack Speros.”
Idly, I had to wonder if the Globe police had any plans to place a plaque on the wall behind this particular chair in the station’s waiting room. I’d spent enough time there over the past couple of years that I thought it deserved some kind of commemoration.
I wasn’t alone in the waiting room, of course — Calvin had come as soon as I called him, and my mother and Tom had hurried over as well. And although I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Chloe directly, I’d heard from Loretta Stillman, the deputy who worked at the reception desk in the station, that Chloe had called her parents in California and that they were flying out to Globe as we spoke.
Well, flying to Phoenix, where they’d have to rent a car. The drive from the airport would probably take longer than the flight itself.
And even though maintaining Chloe’s innocence was paramount in my mind, I couldn’t help wondering how a meeting between the Fairfields and my mother was going to go. More than thirty years might have passed since she met Jordan in that club in Reseda, but some situations were just awkward no matter how long ago they might have occurred.
Right now, we were waiting to hear what kind of bail the judge was going to require. I had to believe he would let Chloe out on bail, just because — well, as far as I knew, anyway — she didn’t have any priors and, while Henry might have found a garrote in her trunk, that evidence was still circumstantial unless they were able to find actual physical telltales on the wire to prove that it had been used to murder Jack Speros.
Still, we were talking about murder here, so I doubted the judge would ask for a ten-thousand-dollar bond and call it a day. Not that it mattered, because I knew I’d pay whatever it took to ensure that my sister wasn’t stuck behind bars while awaiting trial.
In fact, Loretta got a phone call, nodded, and then came over to the waiting area. “The judge agreed to bail,” she said. “It’s $500,000.”
My mother might have flinched a little, while both Tom and Calvin remained impassive. Everyone knew I could handle that amount without any problem, but still, it was a chunk of change…especially since I’d be posting bail for a girl I hadn’t even met before a few days ago.
The whole time, Loretta had been looking at me, since she knew I’d be the one putting up the money, just as I had for Calvin and Archie when they’d gotten accused of murders they had nothing to do with. Most likely, Tom could have posted Chloe’s bail as well — I never pried into his and my mother’s finances, but since they’d paid cash for the big Victorian mansion at the edge of town and I knew he pitched in for his kids’ high-flying lifestyles, they were probably sitting on millions as well.
Not that I would ever ask them to help out with my half-sister’s bail. My mother had been remarkably cool about the situation, and yet I guessed that might have been crossing a line.
I moved to get up from my seat, and Calvin was immediately there, a helping hand under one elbow. “I’ll go with you,” he said.
Of course he’d always be there for me. I sent him a smile, and the two of us went over to the cashier’s window. Luckily, the amount of money I kept in my various accounts meant I didn’t have to worry about getting a bondsman to put up the majority of the cash. No, I just got my checkbook out of my purse, and with a certain air of inevitability, wrote out a check for the entire half-million.
“Thanks,” Loretta said, since she often did double duty at the station, both working at reception and accepting payment for whatever fines and fees the citizens of Globe might have incurred with the police department.
Somehow I doubted she would ever see bigger checks than the ones I’d written in the recent past.
With that business handled, though, it meant Calvin and I needed to go back and wait with my mother and Tom, since there was still paperwork for Chloe that needed to be processed. With some effort, I lowered myself back to the chair where I’d been sitting previously, and my mother looked at me with concerned eyes.
“How are you doing, Selena?”
“I’m fine,” I assured her, while Calvin sat down next to me. “My passenger has been kicking up a storm lately, but I haven’t seen any signs that he or she intends to make an early appearance.”
“Good,” she murmured, although she still appeared worried.
Well, I couldn’t really blame her. Having your only daughter expecting her first child was a momentous enough event without having to factor in an unforeseen murder everyone expected her to solve.
Or at least, I assumed that was what most people who’d heard of Jack Speros’s death must be thinking. And even though I guessed Chloe would never come right out and ask me to help, I knew we didn’t have any real alternatives. Relying on Henry didn’t seem like a wise idea, because the bare facts of history already told me I had a better chance of fixing this than he did.
Of course, it would have helped if I had a single lead to go on. From what Chloe had told me, it didn’t sound as if Jack had any real enemies.
