"A Murder In Milburn", Book 4: Death By Ice Cream (17 page)

“I didn’t,” Joe said. “I swear, I didn’t. I could never harm my own blood.”

“If you didn’t, who did?” Harvey asked. “There’s you, there’s Dillon, there’s Chase, and there’s me. We all have motive, but only you and I had the opportunity. I know I didn’t do it. It all boils down to the keys - only you could have gotten them. Then there’s the way she was killed. Men like Dillon or Chase would kill her with a gun or a knife, or strangle her. They wouldn’t know enough to get the ammonia and inject her with it. For that matter, they wouldn’t have access to sleeping pills.”

“The sleeping pills were Tiffany’s,” Joe said. “She told me she took them sometimes when she was anxious. She had some shady doctor prescribe them for her. I didn’t approve, but what could I do?”

“Plenty more, I feel,” Harvey said, standing up. “Look, daylight’s getting low. Let’s call Sean now, Nora.”

“Wait, before you do,” Joe said. “There’s something upstairs that you might be interested in.”

“What’s that?”

“A safe,” Joe said. “A secret safe where she hid her belongings. I know where it is.”

“All right,” Harvey said, looking doubtful. “But no fancy moves, Joe. I’m watching you.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said.

Joe led the way upstairs, talking as he did. “She’d fall of the wagon every once in awhile, but when she was sober, my Tiffany was working very hard at flipping this house around. She told me that her secret dream was to have her entire family living in it.
 

“I wish I could have done more for her. She idolized me, you know? When I was good to her, her face would light up like a little toddler who has been given candy. I think that’s what she wanted most in life, parents who loved her. Yet growing up, she never had that.”

Harvey nodded. “Poor girl.”

“You know, it’s all clear to me, except for one thing,” Nora said. “Why did Sergio keep asking for you? How did he even know you? If you were her father, why did he care? He can’t possibly have been jealous.”

Joe shrugged. “Beats me.”
 

They rounded the corner on the stairs, and entered the master bedroom. With a sudden scream, Joe turned around, and flung himself on Harvey.

*****

Chapter 20

Instinctively, Harvey pushed him away, and uttered a yell of wrath. “What’s the matter with you!”

Joe was trembling, biting his nails. He pointed to a pool of blood flowing out from under the bed. Nora’s stomach gave a lurch. Under the bed lay a dead body. Even though it was face down, she instantly knew whose it was.

“It’s Dillon, isn’t it?” Nora asked.
 

Mutely, Joe nodded.

“We’d better call the police, Harvey,” Nora said. “Sean really needs to know.”

“Wait,” Joe said, as Harvey dialed Sean. “The safe, I have to show you the safe.”

“Save it for when the police get here,” Harvey said.

“No. Now,” Joe said. He walked into the bathroom, and walked out with a bottle of Clorox.

“What is this?” Harvey looked very annoyed now. “Have you lost your mind, Joe?”

But Joe shook his head. “You can buy this off Amazon. It’s a dorm room safe, disguised as a bottle of Clorox. You need a key to open it, but I’m betting the lock isn’t very strong. A bobby pin would open it just as well.”

Nora handed him one, and watched as he fiddled around. With a click, the bottom of the bottle suddenly popped out. Joe moved to a desk, unscrewed it, and a roll of papers fell out.

“These are just mementos,” Harvey said. “Her most personal possessions. Nothing to incriminate the killer.”

There were photos of Tiffany as a youngster, photos of the house as it had been back then. There were even photos of Tiffany and Sergio together as a couple. Then, there was a picture of Sergio, Tiffany, and their baby boy. Nora felt tears well in her eyes as she looked at them. Harvey moved away, to call Sean. Beside her, Joe sniffed too, as he clutched that photo. There was also a birth certificate in there. Nora looked at it, and suddenly gave out a gasp.

“Of course!” she exclaimed. “I was a fool not to see it before! We all were…
of course!
”

“What is it?” Harvey rushed back into the room. “Are you all right?”

“Sean,” Nora said. “When will Sean be here?”

“He was very angry, but he told me he’d be there in five minutes. Also said if I touched anything, he’d personally lock me up for tampering with the evidence,” Harvey said.

“I don’t think he will,” Nora said. “If I’m right, then there’s only one person Sean will want to lock up when this is all over.”

“Who?” Harvey asked. “Am I missing something?”

“Look at this.” Nora thrust out the birth certificate at him. “Now, now do you see?”
 

Harvey took it, and looked up at Joe, and then Nora. “If I’m reading it right, this means we’ve found our murderer, doesn’t it?”

Joe nodded. “It does.”

“There’s only one question more,” Harvey said. “Why didn’t you tell Sean about the safe earlier, Joe?”

“I did,” Joe said. “He just never believed me because they didn’t find anything at the house she rented. Today… I followed you all day,” he said. “That’s something I didn’t have the guts to tell you even earlier. But I’ve been following you since you got that call from Dillon, Nora. I don’t know what I thought I would do. I just wanted to do something.
 

“Tell you the truth, I’ve been blaming Dillon for her death for a while. I wanted to… maybe I wanted to kill him myself. I saw you go into the bar, I saw Chase follow you in, and nearly came to your rescue, only you handled yourself well. Then later, I saw you and Harvey talk to Sean. I followed you when you went to Tiffany’s rental house, expecting a dead end. Then, you tore off in a hurry, and here you were, it suddenly clicked for me, where Tiffany probably stashed her safe.”

“Makes sense,” Harvey said.

Twilight ebbed, and darkness took hold of the world, just as screaming sirens shot up Oasis Street.

Bursting into the house, Sean asked, “Where is it? Where’s the body?”

“Upstairs. I’ll lead you to it,” Harvey said. “Afterwards, I think we can lead you to the murderer, too.”

*****

Chapter 21

Simone and Bernard were in the backyard, sipping on some wine. Will was already tucked into bed, and the two of them were looking forward to watching a movie together on the TV, when they heard the sirens.

“The police! What do you think they want now?” Simone asked, looking bothered.
 

“Hopefully, they’re just here to tell us they’ve caught the killer,” Bernard said. “I don’t think I’ll get to have a moment’s rest until they do.”

Sean entered, his hat in his hand, Deputy Ellerton next to him. Behind him, Harvey and Nora walked in too. Joe came in last.

“What is this?” Bernard gasped. “Why are you all here?”

“We’re here to arrest you,” Sean said. “Bernard Cabot, you’re under arrest for the murder of Tiffany Jones. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...” As he completed the miranda, Sean cuffed him.

“No!” Simone screamed. “No! How can you!”

“You’re under arrest too, Simone,” Sean said, moving to cuff her as well.

“Hush, Simone,” Bernard said. “Sean, leave her out of it. I’m the one you want.”

“Are you?” Sean asked. “I don’t see how you could have done it all without her knowing.”

“Actually, I just want my lawyer,” Bernard said. “Let me make a quick phone call.”
 

“Sure, buddy.” Sean smiled. “Lawyer up, that’s just fine. You can’t talk your way out of this.”

“You can’t prove it’s me,” Bernard said.
 

“Actually, I think there’s a lot of things linking you to her murder,” Nora said. “You were actually the obvious choice, though you tried framing Harvey. You owned the factory. You had access to the keys. It makes no sense, if Harvey had wanted to kill Tiffany, for him to steal your keys, drug her at his house, drive her all the way to the factory,
then
inject her with ammonia, and then drop the keys and run?

“No, I always knew it wasn’t Harvey. Partly because I loved him, and partly because that just didn’t make much sense. So then, it was either you or Joe. Joe was the obvious suspect because I’d heard Sergio talk about wanting to find him even that first day at the diner,” Nora said. “Speaking of which, that first day at the diner, Sergio had a fake gun. That always confused me. Why a fake gun? He could surely get a real one.”

“Why?” Sean asked. “That one confused me too.”

“It was a present for the son he hadn’t seen in years,” Nora said. “The son that Tiffany named after her
real
father, Joe. That son is still alive. Only you chose to name him Will. Sergio came here when he saw a photo of Will and Tiffany together at the ribbon cutting function. He recognized him at once, because Will looks exactly like Sergio did at that age. I know, because Tiffany had kept photos of young Sergio with her.”

Bernard bit his lip. “No,” he groaned. “This isn’t happening.”

“You killed Dillon, too, didn’t you?” Nora said. “You destroyed all the photos in Tiffany’s house, because some of them had Will in them. Dillon might have seen, and pieced it all together. So you killed him.”

Bernard didn’t say a thing.

“Why kill Tiffany, though?” Nora asked. “Is it because she was trying to blackmail you? Or is it because she wanted her son back?”

“I’m a little confused,” Deputy Ellerton said. “How did her son end up with Bernard and Simone anyway?”

“Bernard bought him from Tiffany,” Nora said. “Sean checked the hospital records. Tiffany had come back here briefly when she wanted to give birth. At the time, she was a mess. Simone was pregnant too. Only her child was stillborn, while Tiffany gave birth to a healthy baby boy. I think Bernard, knowing how desperate Tiffany was, offered her a large sum of money to swap the boys.

“They might have bribed a nurse, and everyone might have been convinced it was the right thing to do. Take away the drug addict’s child and give him to a couple who would appreciate him. Of course, I should have guessed Will wasn’t biologically theirs a long time ago. Both Simone and Bernard have blue eyes, while Will has his mother’s chocolate brown eyes.”

“It
was
the right thing to do!” Bernard screamed, unable to take it any more. “It was! I love Simone, and I love Will. I was ready to do whatever it took to save them both from heartache. I still am. Sean, arrest me. But don’t hurt my wife. She had no part in this. She never had any idea.”

“Bernard.” Simone sounded heartbroken. “How could you!”

“It’s no use, Simone. I have to confess. Once the DNA results come out, everyone will know Will isn’t ours.” Bernard sighed. “But I’m his real father, and Simone is his real mother. We’ve given him a lot more love than Tiffany or Sergio ever could have. So what if they produced him. We’re the ones who love Will.”

Simone nodded. “I love Will, but oh Bernard, I would never murder an innocent woman!”

“She wasn’t so innocent - she was a devil in disguise!” Bernard exclaimed. “As soon as Tiffany came back to town, I knew it would eventually lead to her death.” Bernard sighed. “I gave her a job at the factory because she blackmailed me into it. I never dreamed that Joe was her father. I thought they were having an affair, like everyone else did.
 

“I was hoping she’d die via overdose, so I told Dillon to seduce her, and to start feeding her drugs. I told him that I’d pay him whatever it took. Only Dillon ended up falling in love with her, and trying to get her clean. The thing is, she started borrowing money to get high, and ended up blackmailing me all the time.
 

“I knew I couldn’t let this keep happening - sooner or later someone would find out. Then I found out Harvey had paid her money. I overheard Harvey talking to her on the phone the night we invited you over. I panicked. I messaged her, asking her to come meet me at the factory.
 

In the meanwhile, Sean came and told us that Sergio had escaped. I was so glad. I thought that this was a golden opportunity. I slipped a sleeping pill into Simone’s drink, and put her to bed before slipping out.
 

“I was determined to kill Tiffany, to get rid of her once and for all. I was thinking, if she dies tonight, everyone will blame Sergio. How was I to know that Harvey would shoot Sergio and kill him that very night?

I sneaked in through the backdoor. She came to meet me at the factory. She told me that very soon, Harvey would know everything, unless I paid her a million dollars. I let her talk. I let her drink the whiskey I’d drugged. Then, I injected her with ammonia, and carefully wiped down my office. I dragged her outside.
 

“My plan was to tow her car behind mine, and drive her somewhere far away and dump the car there. Before I could, though, I heard the guards coming. I panicked. I dropped the key and the syringe, dumped her body in the nearest barrel, and ran. I towed her car far away and dumped it in the woods.”

“I wondered about that,” Sean said. “I wondered how Tiffany had come to the factory in the first place. Makes sense.”