Into The Heat (Sandy Reid Mystery Series Book 6) (19 page)

“No doubt sticking close to home because you’re close to home. Sounds as if one is hard, prosecuting criminals and dealing with both culprits and the police. The other sounds soft.”

“Mel isn’t real hard, let’s call him
al dente
. And anyone who deals with Martin thinking he’s a softie had better keep their wits about them. Although one is obviously eager, I wouldn’t blame the other if he gave up all hope long ago.”

“You know all about men, do you? He hasn’t given up hope, believe me. Such a fire never goes out and your slightest encouragement will set him ablaze.”

“I’m not sure about your fire metaphor, the guy is very cool. The men are so different you wouldn’t think a choice would be difficult—assuming I want to start a relationship.”

“A relationship? I thought you were talking marriage. I don’t get it.”

She shook her head. “I’m not ready to get married. What gave you the marriage idea? I just want companionship, an intimate relationship I can count on without a bunch of nonsense. I don’t have time for meaningless… excursions.”

“Okay, but why all this preliminary planning, doubts and questioning of yourself, and judging of the two guys. Napoleon took less time planning the battle of Waterloo. For chrissake, flip a coin and go have sex with one or the other, or both. Who cares at the start, you‘ve already said you’d go to bed with either.”

“You’re right in a way. I simply want a nice committed relationship, and then we’ll see what happens. Sure, if it doesn’t work out, and the other is still available, then I’m a lucky girl to have a choice. I realize I don’t have to be absolutely certain at the start.”

“Stop right there, Sandy. I know you’re bright, clever and fearless, and could sell sand to an Arab, yet sometimes you act like a dolt. You know what you need?”

“Now he will explain sexual relationships to the dolt. Can I call you later if I have any questions?”

“You need to stop thinking and enjoy the ride as you did last night. It doesn’t have to be a serious relationship. Just take the first step. Date one and then the other and let it happen. After a little time passes, I believe your choice will be clear to you. I’m sure both of these fortunate guys understand the occasional sex concept. You’re golden—you make the rules. Sounds as if you already have a nice start with Mel. Do you want him to pick up where he left off?”

“Absolutely not. I want him to begin again from the very start—it was going pretty good.” Her smile faded after a moment, and she said, “Does that mean I’ve already chosen Mel as the one I want it to happen with?”

“Certainly, it would be better to decide who you want and go after him. But if you’re uncertain, then continue on as you are with your well-ordered life.”

“Ah, the easy way out—a decision to do nothing. I guess that’s what I had in mind until—just now. Talking with you about my love life has given me a new insight.” She turned on the couch to face him. “I'm going to change—even if slightly. I'll open up and let the intimacy happen. Thank you, Kyle.” She held his hand and spoke with a sisterly tone. “Your honesty makes it's easy to talk with you.”

“Perhaps there’s more heat in you than you realize, I can feel it over here.”

She laughed at him. “Do women really fall for that dumb line?”

He grinned. “It worked on you four years ago.”

She frowned for a second and then laughed. “Kyle, making it here with you tonight doesn’t satisfy my need for intimacy.”

“I satisfied your need for intimacy for over a year. We had sweet lovemaking, but since you’re afraid of that word, I’ll call it sweet sex making.”

“That was then. This is now. As much as I value the memory of our friendship, I don’t regret moving. You aren’t part of the equation down here.” She patted him on his knee.

“Are you thinking about me right now or those two other guys?”

“To be perfectly honest, I’m thinking about us dancing at that noisy bar in Brigantine that warm summer night. And you wanting to
take me
, on the dance floor.”

“I’ve gone back there—many times.”

“I don’t believe you! You went back to that bar in Brigantine?”

“In my mind. I’ve relived it all in my mind. Some memories are so special you add them to the story of your life.” He turned on the couch, boldly took the drink from her hand and set it on the coffee table. Then he enclosed her hand in his and pressed it to his chest. “Did you ever think about that night before I mentioned it just now?”

“I suppose,” she answered, not moving her hand away from him. “Everything vividly came back to me as soon as you brought it back to mind.” She had thought of him often during her first few months in Florida, but not until she was away could she look back and appreciate the feelings of intense intimacy she had discovered during their impassioned year together.

“And you’re still thinking about it,” his voice was cracking, “
I’m dying to hold you again, Sandy. There’s no one like you. I found that out.”

“Why don’t you take me right now?” she said quietly.

“What?”

“You don’t understand the question?”

He reached over, placed his hand behind her head and gathered her to him. Her lips came up to his without the slightest hesitancy.

When the lingering kiss finally broke, he whispered, “It’s a good thing we were never actually in love.”

“Yeah, come on.”

N
igel’s smiling face greeted Sandy when she arrived at the office late on the following morning. “You’ve had quite a few calls, including a TV reporter. The call slips are on your desk. Detective Jaworski stopped by to see you. We talked for a while—he’s really a cool guy, isn’t he? I didn’t know you’d be late coming in this morning. No problem, I took care of everything. Martin told me when we got here to not expect you until noon.”

She glanced at her watch, raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “Hey, we’re talking only two hours here.”

“I almost called you, but he told me not to. Said you no doubt were busy taking care of some old business.”

She smiled. “Martin is just too smart for words.”

She walked back to her office and sat at her desk amazed at the quietness in the office. Indeed, her entire world seemed quiet, untroubled and well-ordered. Yet something was amiss with her desktop—it shouldn’t be so neat and orderly. She suspected the fine hand of Nigel had been at work. Pencils were in line, the phone perfectly positioned, the files squared up with their edges in line. Open records were still open, as she had left them, except they were in a special stack at the side. A reference tome she’d left open was still open, but turned face down. Her entire desktop had been reorganized, yet she surprised herself by liking what he’d done.

She returned Eddy’s call. He told her, “We had a lot of manpower out searching for Leo. Thanks to you, that’s all done with. We’re still working on the Coleman murder case, of course, and the Charlene Faulk drive-by shooting.”

“Charlene Faulk! I thought that case was all over. I gave you the .45 I took away from Leo. Didn’t it check out?”

“Didn’t you hear? No match. Ballistics says the bullet that killed her didn’t come from Leo’s gun. We searched his hotel room and the burned-out wreckage. We don’t believe he had another gun.”

“Geez, and I assumed that case was all wrapped up. I’m sitting here rather relaxed, taking care of some personal business, congratulating myself and someone’s running around with a .45.”

“Plenty of those around. Might have been a random drive-by, but you wouldn’t expect it in that neighborhood.” The detective asked, “Did you hear about Bardner’s neighbor who heard the shots?”

“Mel said something about the guy next door hearing shots.”

“Well, the neighbor called the police. His front porch, security camera happens to point out in the direction of the Bardner driveway. It picked up part of the shooting on video. Of course, I got all excited and tore over there.”

“You must live right.”

“No such luck. I viewed the video. It does show Charlene getting out of her car and collapsing to the ground after being shot. At least, now we’re certain the shot came from the direction of the street. Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t positioned to view anything in the street. No one else is in the scene in the front yard. So it offers no clue as to who shot her.”

“Even so, it supports Lester Bardner saying he was inside the house. Sorry it turned out to be no help to you. That shooting seemed so simple when we thought Leo had done it. Okay, finding Charlene’s killer goes back to the top of my list. Hey, Eddy, I need to talk with Julia Bardner again.”

“Again? I realize you’ve been busy wiping out bad guys, but you promised we’d talk about what Julia has to say.” Eddy said, “So, let’s be fair. You bring me up to date on what’s going on,
and then
you can talk with Julia again.”

“The situation has changed, Eddy. She’s getting an attorney to protect her interests in the Coleman case and has decided to let him answer your questions on the Faulk shooting as well.”

“So I can’t talk to her about either case!” His voice sounded so strained, she guessed he was speaking through clenched teeth. “ Do I detect a Sandy Reid influence in all this? You screwing around with me on this one? You’re the one who is advising her, aren’t you? Why would you do something like this to me?”

“It’s not like that, Eddy. There are several angles to this. So much has happened so fast. I need to sit down with Martin and discuss how much I can tell you without jeopardizing our defense of Lester. After that, I can meet with you and share the info.”

“So where does that leave me? I’m working two criminal investigations, and you blew a hole through both of them.”

“I promise we’ll talk later, and I’ll make it all up to you. But, I need to go back to the hospital and talk with Julia right away.”

“Don’t ask me why I’m doing this, but okay. Go talk with her. Anyway, you’d better hurry. The nurse said she seemed better this morning. The hospital did a brief suicide predisposition check and is dropping the suicide watch. She’s being discharged right about now.”

“Geez, once she leaves the hospital, she could disappear or try to kill herself again. Eddy, I need a big favor.”

“Hello! I just did a big one for you five seconds ago.”

“Please call the hospital and tell them not to release Julia until I can get over there and talk with her again.”

“On what grounds.”

“Make something up.” Eddy hung up without saying goodbye. He was upset with her, but she knew he’d make the call to the hospital.

Nigel was at his front desk and Martin’s door was open when she walked up the hall. “It wasn’t Leo who shot Charlene after all,” she announced. “Gun doesn’t match. Leo told me he didn’t shoot anyone, but I didn’t believe him.”

Nigel said, “You mean now there’s someone new I’ll be hating for the rest of my life?”

“Damn it all.” Martin seldom used the word. “Does Eddy have a new suspect?”

“No, and here’s the new deal for us. Lester’s defense will have to go on the back burner—finding Charlene’s killer is more important. And we still don’t know about the connection between Charlene and Coleman.”

Nigel’s eyes widened. “Connection between Charlene and Coleman? What’s going on here?”

She and Martin exchanged glances. It had slipped out. She was ready to make up some cover story, when Martin shook his head at her. He said to Nigel, “Julia claims Charlene came into her office the day Coleman first came in. If it happened, then it’s an amazing coincidence and we have to examine it.”

“And you thought I couldn’t handle knowing about it. Thanks a lot guys.”

Martin said, “You were grieving… you didn’t need to hear about it just then.”

“I’m discussing it again with Julia today,” she said. “You two get your heads together and review all we know so far. Admittedly, it’s not much. Right now I’ve haven’t the slightest idea where to suggest you start. Nigel why don’t you run a background check on Julia Bardner for the file. We don’t know too much right now, do we?”

Martin said, “We do know Julia ended up with Coleman’s money and provoked Lester into killing him, but we don’t really know why.”

“We do know Charlene was killed in Lester’s front yard, and we can’t blame it on him or on dead Leo,” Nigel said.

She said, “We have nothing to suggest
anyone
wanted Charlene dead. I say we stick with the mistaken identity in the thunderstorm theory and assume Julia was the target.”

Nigel said, “If you need another coincidence to backup to your theory, I checked with the motor vehicle website—Julia has a white Mercedes and Charlene had a white Chevrolet.”

“So, the question is who would want Julia dead? If I can find out why Julia wanted Coleman dead, then maybe I’ll know why someone wanted Julia dead.”

W
ithin the hour, Sandy was back at the hospital. Julia had already admitted she had Coleman’s money. Even so, the idea that she provoked Lester into killing him to keep from giving back some money was just too simple. Some people would murder for money, but she didn’t think Julia Bardner was one of them. Something more significant than money was going on. She was certain that if she could find out the real reason Coleman had to be killed, she’d also learn how it was connected with Charlene being shot.

Julia was sitting on the edge of her hospital bed waiting, all dressed, hair combed and not looking too bad. Her jacket and a small package of personal items were beside her on the bed. She scowled at Sandy and then leaned back on the bed. “I want out of here. I want to go home. Lester was just here. He kept questioning me about why I tried to kill myself. I pretended to be out of it and didn’t discuss it with him. He finally left. The police said for some reason I can’t leave the hospital.”

“I can get you released, but I need some answers.”

“I don’t want to talk to anyone, least of all you. I know you’re helping Lester, but I just want to go home. Why do I have to I talk with you?”

“Because you need to get over a world of guilt feelings, you have some large problems and you’re depressed.”

“If I were dead I wouldn’t be depressed.”

With that statement, she was reminded her task included not just getting the truth out of Julia, but keeping her from another suicide attempt as well. She was usually good at getting to the truth, with suicide prevention she needed help. She didn’t want to get in over her head. “For starters, Julia, did the hospital have you see a psychiatrist to help you get beyond whatever you’re going through?”

“A man in a white coat was here this morning to talk with me before I could be released. He had a clipboard and was asking questions and checking them off on a form. I explained that I was upset about Charlene Faulk being killed, for one thing. He immediately wrote down that a death of a friend was the reason I tried to take my own life. Not even close—but I didn’t correct him. That seemed to satisfy him. He turned on his heels and left. The nurses were talking about it later—they were aware the shooting happened at my house. They asked if I knew her. I should have said, sure she was my husband’s mistress, so I had her killed.”

“You didn’t have her killed,” Sandy said hopefully.

“If I hadn’t screwed up and got Coleman killed, she might be alive.”

“You needed to get Coleman out of the way for some reason. And I don’t think the reason was to get the two hundred and fifty grand, although somehow you ended up with his money.” Sandy was still piecing together the rest of it. “I don’t think you’re evil enough to kill for money. You killed for something more important than money. How did you get yourself involved in such a shameful thing?”

“It didn't seem shameful, it seemed useful, practical—a simple answer. And that’s what I needed, a simple answer fast.”

“You didn't try to kill yourself over a simple answer.”

“It got complicated fast.”

“Tell me about Coleman.”

“He was a prospect up from Miami Beach looking for some sort of real estate opportunity. He came off as an unsophisticated and untrustworthy character, if you know what I mean. I had an old listing for a small strip mall owned by this elderly citrus grower I’d known for years. You know small time—beauty shop, nail place, consignment shop. Bottom-drawer stuff. Everyone forgot it was even on the market. So, I told Coleman he could steal it for two million if he acted fast. He got interested, thinking he was dealing with some small town yokels. I called the owner and told him I had someone interested. He said he wanted a million for it. He never expected to sell it anyway. The old guy had bought it way back when for peanuts.”

“And a million bucks seemed like all the money in the world.”

“You got it. Anyway, I happened to have dinner with Grant Keller that night, you know the lawyer. And we were laughing that the old guy would probably have a heart attack, if I handed him two million, when all he wanted was one. So, Grant says don’t tell him he can get two. What! I said. Grant says he’ll buy it himself for one million and then resell it to Coleman for two and pocket the million. At first, I thought he was kidding. I protested, but he said the old guy wasn’t expecting any more and had one foot in the grave anyway. And Coleman wouldn’t care as long as he got it for two million. Grant would split the million with me.”

“Finally, you get around to mentioning Grant Keller. That’s who your affair was really with.”

Julia covered her mouth with her hand, her expression was twisted.

“So you and Keller cooked up a real estate swindle. Coleman’s two hundred fifty grand was to seal the deal,” Sandy guessed. “The deposit was in cash, wasn’t it? Didn’t you think it was strange? Didn’t you suspect he was a criminal walking in with cash?”

“There are all sorts of reasons why people hoard cash. It used to be more frequent, like some rancher wants to buy the adjoining acreage and dumps the entire purchase price on my desk in cash. Coleman seemed the type who wouldn’t trust banks. Where it came from wasn’t any of my business. I stuck it in the office safe—it’s still there.” She took in a deep breath. “So I drew up one contract with Keller buying it for one million and took the contract to the old man. He says he has to go out of town and will sign it when he gets back. I draw up the second contract selling it to Coleman for two million and Coleman signs it and gives me the deposit.”

“Sounds like fraud to me.”

“That’s what I told Grant. I told him I couldn’t do all those things. He got angry and said just do it. He’d back me up if there was any problem. So, there we were with a contract to sell a property we didn’t even own. You don’t say no to Grant Keller.”

“So, in addition to selling a property you didn’t own, you two cheated the seller out of a million bucks.”

Julia covered her eyes with her hands for a full minute before continuing. “Then the worst happened. The entire scheme fell apart. The old guy tells me he’s decided not to sell after all. I panicked. Told him I’d sue for breach of contract and so forth. He said he was sorry, go ahead and sue. So I tell Coleman the deals off. He smells a rat. Wants his two hundred and fifty thousand back, of course, and says he intends to sue everyone in sight. Giving him the deposit back wasn’t a problem, but now there’s fraudulent paperwork floating around, and I’m in big trouble. If Coleman asks a lawyer about suing me, it’ll take the guy about five seconds to see through everything. So, I ran to Grant asking what to do. And you know what?”

Sandy guessed, “Suddenly, he didn’t want anything to do with you.”

“Not at that point. He said just take care of Coleman and our problems were over. He didn’t care how, just get rid of him. You see, Sandy, I got myself so screwed up there was no way out. I was thinking the money would make everything possible. If we could pocket the million, Grant promised—.” She looked away.

“Promised what? To marry you?”

She nodded. “I didn’t want to lose him. I’d be left with no one in my life. I totally lost it. I could lose my license and possibly go to jail for fraud. My life was over. Except I thought there was a way out. Since no one else knew about the deal, I could get rid of Ben Coleman. It was my way out, and it all made sense at the time. I could lose my license and my business, or I could get rid of Coleman. I could go to jail for fraud, or I could get rid of Coleman. And perhaps it wouldn’t come down to actually killing him. I’ve always been so ethical and straight laced. But, I felt trapped with no other choice.”

“If you could only get someone to kill the guy.”

“At least scare him off. In fact, I assumed I’d have to be the one to take care of him. That’s when I got out the pistol and loaded it. Holding that gun in my hand was terrifying. I was physically sick that night. There’s a big line between thinking murder and doing murder. I realized I couldn’t shoot anyone. I never considered having Lester do it for me, until the next night, when he came home late looking guilty. I knew he had been having an affair from the very first. I’d been disappointed in our marriage for a long time. I had gone along with his cheating, since it kept him away from me, and he was being discreet. I was mad at everything in the world to start with that night and somewhere in the middle of the yelling—.” She put her head down.

“You conned Lester into it.”

“He’s easy to control anyway. And with the closing date on the sale approaching, I had to do something. I confronted him about his affair and after some yelling and playacting, I lied and said I was also having an affair, and my lover wanted me to get a divorce. Lester insisted on knowing who my boyfriend was. The more I held off telling him, because I said he’d go after guy if he knew, the more he insisted on knowing. Finally, the idea got through to him. I pretended to relent and cleverly told him Ben Coleman was my lover. In my crazy way of thinking, I held out the hope that maybe Coleman would see this nutty husband running around with a gun, and figure it wasn’t worth the problems. I’d throw a scare into him and say, here’s your deposit back now get out of town.”

“So the argument was all a pretense. You wanted Lester to know all along, so he’d get Coleman out of your life and solve your problem with the fraud. Come on, you couldn’t have really believed a Miami Beach hood would be scared away by a pussycat like Lester. Guns scare people like you and me, Coleman probably teethed on one.”

“But remember, I wasn’t aware he was a criminal at that point, and Leo wasn’t on the scene yet. I believed he was just a flaky guy who was thinking he could strike it rich in real estate. Never dreamed he was dangerous.”

“Regardless, you expected Lester to kill him, didn’t you?”

She shook her head. “I thought it might somehow work without murder. I needed to get rid of him. I didn’t plan on all the complications.”

“Do you know what Lester did with the gun?”

“He brought it home and put it back on the kitchen table. I threw it off the bridge like on TV.” She glanced over at Sandy as if wondering how much to confess. “I held on to the belief that Lester wouldn’t have to kill him, and if he did, he wouldn’t be caught. But it didn’t work out that way.”

“Yeah, I noticed. Meanwhile, Keller is simply sitting back letting you solve the problem.”

“He said he couldn’t be brought into any of it. But we were still okay with each other until Coleman was shot and Lester was on the front page.”

“Now I see the role of Grant Keller in all this,” Sandy said. “When Lester was arrested, Keller got nervous and that’s when he tried to manage things. Am I right? He’s the one who came up with the cute coffee bar alibi for Lester. He’s the one who wanted to confuse everyone and throw the name of Charlene Faulk into the pot. He told you to hint that Charlene was involved somehow with Coleman’s murder. You lied to me about her coming into your office the same day as Coleman. She was never there.”

“I panicked. Keller was saying we were through, and he had to start covering his tracks as though our affair never happened.”

“Cover his tracks? What was he talking about?”

“I have no idea. We would go to a lodge in north county, but I was careful to never be seen. No one ever saw us together around this town. I asked what about me? He said he hadn’t signed either contract yet and would deny he knew anything about whatever crooked scheme I might be trying to pull off. Said he was too busy to talk about it and hung up. That tore me up. He was my last hope. I phoned back, but he wouldn’t take my call.”

“That’s when you gave up.”

“After it happened, I began to feel guilty over what I’d done to Lester, the death of Coleman, the loss of Grant, my ruined reputation, the humiliation if it became a rumor that I took up with some Miami Beach lowlife. I couldn’t handle it all. Just wanted to erase all that had happened. I was sitting on the edge of the bed in a strange hotel with the bottle of sleeping pills in my hand, trying to decide whether to end it—and then I heard the thunder coming down from the sky.” She shuddered and locked her arms across her chest thinking about it. “I can’t believe this is me. I’ve never chiseled anyone in business. My reputation was spotless.”

“Now answer me this, did Grant know you intended to solve your problem by killing Coleman?”

“I suppose not. He never said kill, just said give Coleman his money back and get rid of him.”

“You’ve nothing in writing or anything like that tying him in? What about copies of the fraudulent sales contract? What about the copies you gave Coleman.”

“I hadn’t delivered them to him yet. Grant told me to destroy all the copies, but the seller might still have his. Some old people don’t throw anything away.”

“So if it came right down to it, Grant would just say he scarcely knows you, had no knowledge of any scheme and is shocked and amazed that a business woman such as you would do something so drastic to solve some real estate business problem. I notice he’s not buzzing around the hospital here worried sick he might have lost you.”

“He’s a busy guy, or maybe he hasn’t heard.” She didn’t look as though she believed it. “So what happens now in my pitiful life—go home and think about things? Perhaps eventually, get up enough courage to take sleeping pills again.”

“Don’t you feel better now that you’ve told someone all this? You’ve confessed to me and I’m trying to understand.”