A Grid For Murder Part 5

"I'm afraid it's not going to be a short list, is it? We need to write this down so we can keep track of everyone we suspect."

I reached into my bag for paper and a pen, but he shook his head when he saw me do it. "We'll use one of my chalkboards. Every now and then I run specials, and these come in handy to announce them to my customers."

He put a board on a narrow lip on the wall behind his desk and started writing. I felt better already, knowing that I had called on reinforcements to help with my search. I had Zach working with the police, and Rob and I were going to tackle things, too.

It was a good start, but I knew that we had a lot of work to do if we were going to find a killer.

AS ROB WROTE JOANNE'S NAME AT THE top of the board, I said, "If it helps, Barbara Brewster told me that there were seven people that she knew of who wouldn't mind seeing Joanne dead."

"You already spoke with Barbara about this?" Rob asked me as one eyebrow arched skyward.

"I thought she might have an idea about where to start. She seems to have her finger on the pulse of life around here. Barbara has to hear things in her line of work."

Rob nodded reluctantly. "It's a good idea. Did she happen to mention any of the people who made her cut?"

I didn't want to answer him, but it was a fair question, and he had a right to know. "To be honest with you, I wouldn't let her tell me."

"Now you've got my curiosity going full steam ahead," he said. "Savannah, if you asked the woman for help, why did you refuse it when she offered it to you? I'm betting Barbara didn't take kindly to that."

"It upset her, but it couldn't be helped. She wanted me to swear that I wouldn't tell anyone what she told me."

"On the face of it, that sounds like a reasonable request," he said.

"It included Zach. That's when I walked out on her."

Rob laughed when he heard that. "Now I understand. I would have loved to see her reaction when you left. She must have been madder than a wet cat when you walked away from her. She probably threatened you as she left, knowing that woman."

"I don't know if you could consider anything Barbara said to me a threat. She wasn't happy with me, that was clear enough, but I never really gave her the chance to say much before I was gone."

"Then that was worth the price of admission alone, I'd say. Seven is as good a place to start as any. Let's see if we can match folks around town with the numbers on her list." Rob wrote down the names Sandra Oliver, Laura Moon, and then Harry Pike. After a moment or two, he added Greg Lincoln and Hannah Reed as well.

"Why them?" I asked.

"That's why you came to me second, right? Because of my knowledge of the town?"

I had never meant to hurt his feelings. "Rob, I was downtown, and when I saw Barbara's coffee shop, I didn't think twice about asking her for help. It was no intended slight on you. I promise you that."

If he had harbored any hurt because of it, it appeared to vanish with my apology. "Don't think another thing about it. I'm just glad you thought of me at all." He tapped the last two names on the board with the piece of chalk in his hand, and explained, "Greg and Joanne used to date, not that they ever let anyone in town know about it."

"If they were being so secretive, how did you find out?"

Rob shrugged. "It was purely by accident. I couldn't sleep one night last week, so I decided to take a walk around town. Joanne was sitting by herself on a park bench, and I was about to greet her when I heard a man's voice nearby. I recognized it as Greg's immediately. He's got a distinctive way of talking, and there's no doubt in my mind it was him. What surprised me was the intensity of their conversation. That's putting it mildly. They weren't chatting; they were arguing about something, and he wasn't happy when he left."

"Did either one of them see you?"

Rob looked sheepish as he admitted, "I was a little embarra.s.sed about eavesdropping on them, so I stepped back into a doorway so I'd be out of their line of sight. I thought about asking Greg what it was all about as he neared me, but he stormed past me before I could say a word."

That was interesting news. "Were you able to hear anything specifically that either one of them said?"

Reluctantly, Rob said, "I wasn't trying to listen in on their private conversation, but I couldn't help hearing the last thing he said to her. Knowing what I know now, it really sends a chill down my spine whenever I think about it."

"What did he say?"

"He told her, 'You'll live to regret it. I can promise you that.' You know Greg; he's usually full of harmless bl.u.s.ter, but he didn't sound harmless that night. It might bear looking into."

"Sounds good. I'll talk to him first," I said.

"Hang on a second, Savannah. I'm not sending you out into the world with this information to confront someone who might be a killer. You need to tell your husband and let him handle it."

"I can question Greg myself," I said. Sometimes Rob had the idea that women were delicate flowers, and I did everything in my power to dissuade him of that belief whenever I could. I was a grown woman, perfectly capable of handling just about anything that came my way.

"At least take him with you," my friend insisted. "I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you because of what I said."

"Rob, are we going to have to have that conversation again?"

"Woman, I'm not kidding here," he said, his face screwed into a frown. "If Greg did get rid of Joanne, facing him alone would be the worst thing in the world that you could do. If you won't ask your husband to speak with him, or even go with you, then I'm begging you to at least take me. Between the two of us, we might be able to handle him if things go wrong."

I was tired of being sheltered. It was time to deflect Rob's attention to something else. "He wasn't even in Asheville today," I said.

"That you know of. The very least we need to do is get an alibi for the man. If we can cross him off the list, so much the better."

I bit my upper lip. "I see your point, but we can't exactly walk up to him and ask him, can we?"

Rob smiled. "We can do just that, if we handle it properly. In the meantime, let's get back to the list."

I studied the last name he'd written there. "What could Hannah Reed have against Joanne? I've never even heard the woman raise her voice in public, so it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that she could possibly commit murder."

"From the books I've read on the subject, there are times when the least likely suspect is the one guilty of the crime."

"Are we talking fiction or nonfiction?" I asked. "I'm not sure mysteries should count as true research on how the criminal mind works."

"And why not? Many of the novels I've read are closer to the way the world actually works than the best true crime books."

I wasn't about to argue the point with him. "Okay, but that still doesn't give Hannah a reason to kill Joanne."

"There is a good one. I just haven't told you what it is yet."

I waited for him to provide the missing information, but when he wasn't forthcoming, I asked, "Are you going to tell me at some point, or do I just have to keep guessing until I stumble across Hannah's motive on my own?"

"I honestly don't know if I should share this with anyone, including you," he said. "Before I say one more word, I'm going to have to get someone else's permission."

"Not Hannah's, I hope."

He shrugged without committing to an answer one way or the other. "Let's just leave her name up there for now. If I can get the go-ahead, I'll tell you her motive later."

I scowled at him. "How am I supposed to figure out if she killed Joanne or not if I don't know what her motive could be?"

Rob said softly, "Easy there, Savannah. I realize that you're under a lot of strain at the moment, but we don't need the motive for now; not if she's lacking the opportunity."

It was time to give up that particular line of reasoning, since it wasn't likely that I would get anything more out of Rob about Hannah.

I stared at the list, and then asked him, "Is that it?"

"Off the top of my head, I'd say yes. I have to do a little digging, so I'm not ready to say that the list is finished by any stretch of the imagination."

"There's one other name that's not up there," I said somberly.

"I know you didn't kill her," Rob said, the closest his voice had ever gotten to angry in my presence before.

"It's not my name I'm talking about," I said.

"Then I'm waiting to be enlightened."

"I'll tell you, but you might not believe me."

He handed me the chalk as he said, "I don't need to believe you; at least not yet. Just knowing that it's possible is enough for me for the moment."

I took the piece of chalk from him and wrote down a name.

He looked at it, and then stared at me. "Is that some kind of joke, Savannah?"

"No, I actually think it's possible," I answered.

"Explain yourself," he said. "There were a great many things Joanne Clayton was capable of doing, but I wouldn't think poisoning herself was one of them. She wasn't the suicide type."

"IT'S POSSIBLE," I SAID AS I PUT THE chalk back on the desk after writing the murder victim's name on the board. "She had access to her tea when she was by herself. I haven't heard what she was poisoned with, but it could be something she was able to get ahold of."

"That doesn't mean she killed herself," Rob said.

"No, but when we were together at the cafe, Joanne knocked my bag over and spilled everything onto the ground. I thought it was odd at the time that she didn't help me pick anything up, especially since she was the one who'd made the mess in the first place, but when I sat back up, I noticed my tea cup was askew."

"Are you implying that she was trying to poison you, and mixed up the cups by accident? That's a little far-fetched, wouldn't you say?"

"Rob," I said, "I can't think of a reason in the world she would want to kill me."

"Is that true? Are you saying that there was no motive for her to get rid of you?"

I thought about the puzzle Joanne had published, and the unlikely idea that she'd tried to eliminate her compet.i.tion, but I found it too ludicrous to voice. "I'm just saying she could have nudged it when she was poisoning her own tea."

He shook his head. "It's entirely more likely that she'd poison the three of you for spite before she'd ever dream of killing herself."

"Fine. I just thought I'd throw it out there."

I started to erase her name when he said, "Hold on. There's no reason to be rash about it. I'll ask around about that, too."

"You can't do everything by yourself," I said. "This is my investigation, and I'm not about to sit back and let you do all of the work."

"Funny, I thought the police were running an inquiry of their own," he said, a twinkle in his eye.

"They can do what they want, but I'm going to ask questions, too," I said flatly. I wasn't going to let him try to charm me out of doing some digging on my own. I wasn't wired that way. When something needed to be done, I did it, with no apologies and no excuses.

"You ask the questions," he agreed, "but there's a good chance that unless I go with you, no one's going to answer any of them."

I knew he was right, though I didn't want to admit it. "When can we get started?"

He looked at the clock on the wall. "We close in ten minutes. Can you wait that long?"

"I suppose I can," I answered.

"Good enough."

As he got up, I asked, "Is there anything I can do right now while you're waiting around to close?"

"Savannah, if a broom fits your hand, I wouldn't mind you sweeping up around the place," he said.

I thought he was most likely kidding, but I decided that would be exactly what I would do. I knew myself well enough to know that otherwise I'd just sit there and fret, so why not do something productive in the meantime?

When I grabbed a broom once we were out front, it clearly confused Lee. "Hey, boss, is she working here now, too?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask her," Rob said, as dead serious as he could be.

"Well, are you?" Lee asked me pointedly.

"For the moment," I said.

He apparently didn't like my answer. "What does that mean? I'm still the senior clerk around here."

Was he seriously concerned about sharing a works.p.a.ce with me? I looked at the clock over the register and saw that we had three minutes to go before Rob locked up. "Tell you what. I'll leave when you do."

"That's fine, because I'm not going anywhere," he said, the resolve strong in his voice.

"Not even at six?" I asked.

"Do you mean today?"

I smiled as brightly as I could at him. "That's right. I'm what you'd call a temporary, seasonal, part-time employee."

He caught my smile, and then said, "Well, that's all right then. I understand now."

"Do you?" Rob asked. "Then would you mind explaining it to me?"

That just served to confuse the young man even more. "Is there a joke going on here that I'm not getting?"

"If there is, it probably isn't very funny," I said. "I'm just pitching in for a minute today, and then I'm finished and off the payroll. As far as I'm concerned, your job here is safe."

"It's not up to you though, is it?" he asked with a grin.

"You can come back tomorrow, Lee," Rob said. "After that, we'll see."