Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (10 page)

Chapter 14

I went to work after that lovely scene. Jake and T.J. said they had things to take care of, and promised to explain everything to me later. I was nervous about being at the newspaper; I guess I was afraid I was going to freak out. Definitely not a wise thing to do in front of your employees.

“Where have you been?” Ellen asked me as I dropped my bag on top of the desk next to hers. “And where’s Jake? We were supposed to have a meeting this morning, but he didn’t show up.”

“It’s…complicated.”

She handed me a piece of paper. “As complicated as that?”

It was an unofficial police report about Ethan Winthrop’s death. I glanced at it before tossing it on top of the desk. “Maybe.”

Leaning back in her chair, she studied my face for a minute, looking for some answers. “That report is seriously whitewashed, Lizzie. You were there the other night; what happened?”

“Off the record.” She gave me an annoyed look. “Off the record, or we sit here, working next to each other, in total silence.”

“You’re going to work right here? What about your office?”

“I thought I’d sit here and get a few pointers from you,” I replied.

“Uh huh,” Ellen said. I could tell she didn’t believe me at all. “Fine, off the record.”

It took a few minutes to explain what happened last night. “And they’ve already released Jake?”

“Apparently so. I saw him before I came here.”

“I think it stinks they won’t give you an explanation of how he got out.”

“I’ll find out soon enough.”

“Are you going to tell me when you do?”

“Probably not.”

“Party pooper. We need to write this up, you know. Ethan Winthrop’s murder is going to be big news, and I guarantee that the national press is going to be all over this town like fleas on a hound dog.”

“I think we should send out an email to all staff, and familiarize them with the phrase ‘no comment’,” I said. “I don’t want any of you talking to the press about this.”

“Is that to protect the story, or Jake? Or is there someone else you are covering up for?”

“Who says I’m covering up for anyone?”

Ellen shook her head. “Work on your poker face, Lizzie. It sucks.”

I didn’t have a comment for that, so I dug out the stories I was working on, and showed them to her. The rest of the day was spent working, and avoiding as many phone calls from the local news stations and rival newspapers as possible. By the time 5 p.m. rolled around, I was extremely stressed out. There was a bubble bath calling my name, and I planned to answer the call as soon as I got home.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, the best laid plans, etc. etc…

Jake and T.J. were in my living room, eating sub sandwiches and watching a replay of a hockey game. “Please, make yourselves at home,” I snidely remarked as I put my things down. “Can I get you anything?”

“Yeah, I could use some napkins,” Jake said between bites. When he realized I wasn’t moving toward the kitchen, he looked up. “What? You asked!”

“I was being sarcastic. What are the two of you doing in my house?”

Jake jerked his head at T.J. “Ask him; it was his idea.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, well, I was told to make sure he kept a low profile today.”

“You should have gone to the hotel,” I replied. “Does Owen even know you’re here?”

“Maybe…”

“It was his idea, wasn’t it?” I held up my hand. “Don’t answer that. I really don’t want to know. What I do want to know is how he’s out of jail already.”

Banging on the front door interrupted us before I could hear their explanation. I opened the front door, and was immediately enveloped up in a huge hug by Trixie. “Oh my gosh, are you all right? Why didn’t you call me?” She spotted T.J. and Jake sitting on the couch. “Why didn’t you two idiots protect her? How did you let this happen? And why do you have matching bruises and broken noses?”

T.J. stood up. “Now hold on a minute. For starters, the broken noses are from a fight. Second of all, she handled herself just fine; do you really think she wanted us following her around 24/7?”

She went over and punched T.J. in the arm. “Yes! Why didn’t you call me?”

“What are you hitting me for?” T.J. said, rubbing his arm. “Go talk to your brother! He didn’t tell you, either.”

“I’ve already taken care of him. He’s the one that told me where to find you.”

“Then I’m sure he told you what happened.”

She shook her head. “Not a word. He said I needed to talk to Lizzie. You got another one of those sandwiches? I’m starving.” She went back to the front door and grabbed something off the front porch. “I brought cherry cheesecake and chocolate chip ice cream. Start talking, woman.”

An hour later, half of the cheesecake was gone, and Trixie was shaking her head. “You should have called me.”

“There wasn’t anything you could do, Trix,” I told her.

“That’s besides the point, and you know it.” I just nodded. “So now what?”

“He tells us how he got out of jail so quickly,” I replied, looking at Jake. “I know Steve is good, but he’s not that good…or is he?”

“Let’s just say he did something that I wish he hadn’t to secure my release,” Jake said, “and let’s leave it at that.”

“What did he do?” I said. “I want to know.”

“He talked to the one person who could provide me with an alibi.”

“And who was that?”

“My father.”

“Whoa,” I said, sitting back in my chair. “Your dad is your alibi? I don’t understand. Isn’t he at home in Virginia?”

“There was a board meeting yesterday afternoon that I needed to attend. I wasn’t about to leave here with everything going on, so I attended the meeting via video feed.”

“The video from the convenience store shows the truck was there at 5:15. The board meeting wasn’t over until 6:30. There’s no way Jake could have been driving the truck,” T.J. explained.

“So was it his truck in the video?” Trixie said.

“When they checked his truck, they didn’t find any forensic evidence that Winthrop’s body had been in the back. And the license plates didn’t belong to the truck.”

“So, somebody is going to a lot of trouble to frame Jake,” I said.

“That’s what it looks like,” T.J. confirmed.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but why are they trying to frame him?” I said. “I’m the one who has had problems with Ethan recently. Wouldn’t it make more sense to frame me instead of him?”

“She’s got a point,” Jake agreed. “Why go after me?”

“Gladys said there were several wounds, front and back. One person couldn’t have done all that damage. Ethan was a big, strong man. Would you just stand there and let someone shoot you repeatedly without putting up a fight?” I said.

“Definitely not,” T.J. replied. “So whoever it was caught him totally offguard.”

“Have you seen the M.E.’s report yet?”

“Not the official one. Unofficially, he died of multiple gunshot wounds, but I don’t think Doc Endicott has found the fatal one yet.”

“I’m assigning this story to Ellen. But that is going to mean telling her everything.”

“Sweetie, after what you did in the café this morning, the details are probably all over town by now,” T.J. pointed out.

“What did you do this morning?” Trixie said. “Did you go off on Gladys again? Dang it, I missed it!”

“I think what she did took a lot of courage,” Jake said.

“Jake, didn’t you say you were doing some research on Ethan’s past?” I said, quickly changing the subject.

“I found some very interesting things,” he replied. “He’s left more than one girl in every city. His family has holdings in most of the major U.S. cities. Every time Ethan wore his welcome out in one place, his father moved him somewhere else. Dallas was just his latest stop.”

“How many women are we talking about here?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

“Too many,” Jake replied.

I sighed and rubbed my face with my left hand. “Where does the investigation go from here, T.J.?”

“Down the same road that Jake has already covered. They were going to get a search warrant for his penthouse, his cars, place of business, and any other places he had any kind of connection to.  I haven’t checked in with Owen lately to see how things are going. I thought I would wait until tomorrow.”

“This is personal; it doesn’t have anything to do with the family business,” I said. They looked at me. “Oh, come on, I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. This was payback. I’m telling you, it’s going to be one of his victims.”

“Or several of them,” Jake blithely said.

“We need to look at that list of yours,” I told him.

“It’s in my bag.”

“Then let’s get busy. I’m not going to wait around for them to try and pin this on me next.”

“You don’t think my brother would do that to you, do you?” Trixie asked.

“Do you?” I replied.

“Only if he’s pressured to do it.”

“Well, the Winthrops have money. How long do you think it will be before they start pressuring him to make an arrest?”

“Not long,” I replied. “Get that list, Jake.”

Chapter 15

“I don’t think this was a good idea,” I said for the fifth time since we started out.

“A wee bit late now, don’t you think?” Jake replied as he knocked on the door.

“We can still walk away,” I said, tugging on his arm.

The door opened, and a bleary eyed blonde peeked out at us. “Do you have any idea what time it is?” she snapped. “You’d better have a good reason for waking me up at this ungodly hour.”

I checked the time. “It’s just 11 a.m., ma’am,” I told her, although I was pretty sure she was asking us a rhetorical question.”

“Oh my god, get out of here! I never get up before two. Come back later.” She started to close the door, but Jake stuck his foot out to stop her. “Knock that off, and go away,” she said, trying to shove Jake out of the way.

“We need to talk to you about Ethan Winthrop,” he said.

That got her attention. “Where is that deadbeat? He’s been gone for two days. We were supposed to go to a dinner for the governor last night, and he never showed up. I had to go by myself, and I was never so embarrassed in my life.”

“You’re Barbara, right?” I said.

She looked at me, at least I think she did. “Yeah, I’m Barbara. What’s it to you?”

I held out my hand. “I’m Elizabeth Crenshaw. We met a couple of weeks ago at the fundraiser. But weren’t you a brunette that night?”

“It was a wig. Oh wait, I recognize you. You’re the one who was complaining that Ethan attacked you on the patio.” She glanced at Jake, ignoring my outstretched hand. “And you’re the one who punched him. It ruined the night for me. He was so mad after you left, we ended up leaving, too. We went back to his place, where he drank a whole bottle of scotch by himself. I don’t have anything to say to you two, and when you see Ethan, tell him I expect diamonds for an apology this time.”

“He’s dead,” I blurted out before she could close the door.

“Excuse me?” she said, opening the door all the way. “What do you mean he’s dead?”

“He was found dead three nights ago in a small town south of here.”

“That rotten…leaving me in the lurch when my rent is due!”

I felt my mouth drop open when she said that. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” Jake said as he reached over, put his finger under my chin, and closed my mouth. “When was the last time you saw him?”

“What’s it to you?” she said suspiciously. “Why are you here?”

“I’m a reporter with the
Brookdale News
,” I said, taking my press pass out of my bag and showing it to her. “We’re doing a story about Mr. Winthrop, and we’d like to ask you a few questions about him, if you can spare us a few minutes.”

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Barbara said. She stepped back and opened the door wider. “Please, come in. Give me a few minutes to make myself presentable.”

She disappeared down the hall as Jake closed the front door. “Since when are we doing an article on Ethan?” he whispered as we walked into the apartment.

“It got us in the door, didn’t it?” I replied.

The apartment was quite nice. Plush beige carpet sat under a dark rust couch and love seat. A coffee table with a glass top sat in front of the couch, with various magazines fanned out on either side of silk flowers in a short white vase. The kitchen was to the left, and a chest high, built-in bar served as a divider between it and the dining room. A large sliding glass door led to a patio, where a small table and two chairs occupied one corner. “I wonder what she does for a living,” Jake said. He flipped through a few bills that were on the bar. “Lots of credit card bills here.

“My guess is she doesn’t work, if Ethan pays her rent.”

“Have you thought about what you’re going to ask her?”

“I thought I might lead with ‘Did you have any reason to kill Ethan?’ and just go from there.”

“What kind of question is that?” Barbara said angrily as she came into the room. She had changed into a pair of black leggings, a royal blue silk blouse, and a pair of knee high black boots. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she had put on a little make up. Truth be told, she had a natural beauty that didn’t need a lot of make up. Yeah, I was jealous. Sue me.

“A very awkward one,” Jake said as he walked over to her. “Why don’t we sit down?”

The look on her face said that she’d rather throw us out, but she allowed Jake to lead her over to the loveseat. I sat down on the couch and pulled out my notepad. If I was supposed to be doing an interview, I might as well make it look legit. “How long have you known Mr. Winthrop?”

“About four months.”

And he was already paying for her apartment? “Where did you meet him?”

“A friend introduced us at a bachelor auction last spring. I didn’t have enough money to bid on him, but he kept smiling at me the whole time he was on the block. I don’t even remember who won the bidding, but I was the one he went home with that night,” she said proudly.

I wondered if he ever went on his date with the winner. “But you didn’t officially start dating until July?”

“Right,” she nodded. “He was seeing someone else at the time, so I had to wait until he broke it off with her. I moved in here the day she left.”

“You’re joking, right?” Jake said.

“Nope,” Barbara replied. “You should have seen this place before I redecorated it. Totally tacky. She decorated it in shabby chic. I think they should drop the word ‘chic’, because it was just shabby. Ethan loved the changes I made to the place.”

“And you didn’t have a problem moving into an apartment that belonged to his last girlfriend?” he said.

“Of course not. Ethan wasn’t really serious about her anyway. They were only together for a month or so. He said she was too needy.”

“How were things between the two of you?” I asked her. “Did you have a strong relationship?”

“Absolutely! We were talking about getting married.”

Jake looked shocked. “Really? Are you sure?”

She nodded. “We looked at engagement rings last week. He wanted to make sure he got the perfect ring for me, so he was planning to fly to New York this weekend to look at Tiffany’s.”

Somehow, I didn’t believe her for a minute. If Ethan was planning to fly to New York, he was probably taking another woman with him. “Do you know if Ethan was having problems with any of his ex-girlfriends?”

“Not that I know of, but then again, I didn’t really pay that much attention to things like that. I mean, why should I worry about the past, when we were making plans for our future? Oh wait, he did seem upset about something a few days ago, something about a restraining order or something. He called his lawyer and told him to make it go away, or he would fire the guy. Apparently the lawyer made it disappear, because two hours later, Ethan was in a great mood. He took me to the Galleria and bought me a pair of diamond earrings.”

“How generous,” I said. Frankly, I wanted to throw up. One of the endless gifts that had appeared at my house was a pair of diamond earrings. When I had looked up the store online, they listed a location at the Galleria.

Jake must have noticed the look on my face, because he asked the next question. “Do you know what Ethan’s plans were three days ago?”

“Let me check,” Barbara said, getting up and going over to the bar. She pulled out a spiral day planner and flipped through the pages. “We had dinner with his father that night.”

“His father? Are you sure?” Jake said.

“I’m positive. He called Ethan that morning and said he was flying in on his private jet. Ethan seemed a bit nervous about his father being here, but he didn’t show it when we met him for dinner.”

“What did they talk about?”

“Just business stuff, I guess. I didn’t pay that much attention. That kind of talk bores me to tears, so I always zone out. Usually, I look around the room and critique what the women are wearing. If I see something I like, then I make a note of it so I can get one in my size later.”

“Do you have these notes?” I said.

“No, silly, I keep my notes up here,” she said, tapping the side of her head. If that’s where she kept them, then she was definitely screwed, because she didn’t seem like the brightest bulb in the box. “It did get kind of weird at one point. His dad told him to ‘make this mess go away, because I’m tired of cleaning up after you.’ Ethan’s face turned red, and I thought he was going to punch him. But he just said ‘yes, sir’, and that was the end of it.”

“Do you know what mess his father was referring to?” Jake asked.

“Not a clue.”

“You said you didn’t care to talk about his past,” I said, “but did Ethan ever mention anything to you about it?”

“Why are you asking all these questions? Weird questions to be asking. Don’t you want to know about the charities he supported, or all of the good work he did?”

“Everybody is writing stories like that,” I replied quickly, “but we wanted to do a more personal story. The man behind the public persona.”

Barbara seemed to buy it. “Well, there was one thing. It was a couple of weeks ago. I overheard him on the phone to a florist, placing an order for a dozen red roses to be delivered to a cemetery in Virginia.”

I noticed Jake stiffen a bit. “Were the flowers for a family member?”

She shook her head. “I asked him about it when he got off the phone. He said they were for his first love, some girl who died when they were in high school. He wouldn’t say anything else about her. I guess she must have died tragically, you know, kind of like that girl who was in love with a boy, but their families didn’t want them to be together?”

“You mean
Romeo and Juliet
?” I said.

“Yeah, that’s it. But in this case, it was just Juliet that died. Isn’t that the saddest thing you’ve ever heard?” Before I could answer, her phone rang. “Excuse me a minute,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

As soon as she left the room, I looked at Jake. “What’s wrong?”

“The anniversary of Jessica’s death was two weeks ago,” he replied through clenched teeth. “I can’t believe he had the nerve to send flowers to her grave.”

I moved to the other end of the couch, so I was sitting near him. “I’m sorry, Jake,” I said, putting my hand on his arm.

“Not your fault.”

“What do you think of Barbara?”

“I think she’s a few cards short of a full deck, if you ask me. She’s not the most shallow person I’ve ever met, but she’s pretty close.”

“I’m not sure,” I replied. “I think she knows more than she’s letting on.”

“Get serious!” he snorted. “I know what kind of girl she is. She’s the type of girl who wants to be taken care of by a sugar daddy. Now that Ethan is dead, I guarantee you she’ll start working on finding someone else to take care of her. By the end of the week, she’ll have some poor sucker on the line, and she’ll be in a new apartment.”

Somehow, I knew he was right about that. But there was something about her that bothered me, I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was just yet.

Barbara came out of the bedroom five minutes later. I closed the magazine I had been thumbing through. “So, where were we?” I said, picking up my pad and pen off the table.

“Actually, that was my friend Phoebe. She wants to meet for lunch in a little while, so I’ve got to go. Do you have everything you need for your article?”

“I think we have enough,” I said reluctantly. “Do you have a number where I can reach you, just in case I have any other questions?”

“Sure,” she replied. I handed her my pad and pen, and she wrote down her name and number. “Just leave a message and I’ll call you back if I don’t answer right away.” She led the way to the door and opened it for us. “I do have one question.”

“What’s that?” I said, turning back to look at her.

“Do you know when the reading of the will is going to be? Ethan said he wrote a new will, and that I was included in it. I just want to make sure I get what’s coming to me.”

“No, I don’t,” I replied, not believing what I had just heard. “But I’m sure the lawyer knows how get in touch with you.”

“I have him on speed dial,” she smiled. “I’ll just give him a call while I wait for Phoebe.”

As we walked to the car, I asked Jake, “So, do you still believe she’s a few cards short of a full deck?”

“What I truly think cannot be repeated in present company,” Jake replied.