Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (5 page)

“Watch your head,” T.J. said, bending Winthrop over before shoving him into the limo.

Jake made sure Winthrop’s feet were inside the limo. “Thanks for stopping by, and don’t come back, Ethan. Don’t think I won’t call your father about this, so I suggest you stay away from all of us.” He slammed the door shut and stepped back.

The limo driver came over to me. “You’ve got some good friends, ma’am,” he said. “Don’t worry, I won’t bring him back here, and I’ll make sure the other drivers know to stay away as well. I can do that much, but he does have his own car, so watch yourself. Once he gets his mind set on something, there’s no stopping him.”

“Thank you for the advice. I appreciate it.”

“Yes, ma’am, you’re welcome. Gentlemen,” he said, nodding at T.J. and Jake before getting into the limo and driving away.

Chapter 6

We went back to the office. I sat down in my chair, put my elbows on the desk with my head in my hands, and massaged my forehead. Jake put a cold Dr Pepper in front of me. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied. “Are you sure you’re all right?” I nodded. “Want to tell me what was going on?”

We told him what happened. Jake shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Lizzie. I don’t know how he found out you worked here.”

“Background check probably,” T.J. replied.

“The Winthrops always have one or two private detectives on their payroll,” Jake said. “Have you noticed anyone following you this past week?”

“I’ve been too busy working,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think I got home before ten every night last week.”

T.J.’s phone rang, and he stepped into the hallway to take the call. Jake came around and knelt beside me. “Lizzie, I am so sorry I wasn’t here when he came in,” he said quietly. He noticed the bruises on my wrist and winced. “Did he do this?”

“Some of it was my fault. I tried to jerk my arm free.”

He shook his head. “I meant to be here earlier, but I was upset about Dale leaving you the majority shares of the newspaper. I didn’t come sooner because I was mad at you.”

“I understand. I want you to know I didn’t ask him for this. Frankly, I thought he was going to sell it to you.”

“Me too,” he said ruefully. “But once I stopped being mad, I thought about his reasons, and I realized he was right. I don’t have the sensitivity to do what you do. But I’ll do what I can to keep the money coming in.” He held out his hand. “Partners?”

“Partners,” I agreed, shaking his hand.

T.J. came back into the office, and Jake moved back to the other side of the desk. “That has got to be the world’s speed record for getting through to someone in charge at the FBI office,” he said, sitting down. “Hopkins called to warn me that someone had called to complain about a retired agent throwing his weight around and assaulting him.”

“How much trouble are you in?” I said.

“I don’t know yet, but I doubt I will be once I explain everything to them. Did you really record what happened?”

“To be honest with you, I don’t know,” I admitted, picking up my phone. “I’ve never used the recording app on my phone before.”

“Let me see it.” I gave it to him. He pushed a few buttons, and then I heard Winthrop’s voice come through the small speaker. We listened to the whole conversation.

“This is great,” he said, pulling out his own phone. “We can use it to get that restraining order. What even made you think to record the conversation?” he asked as a loud banging came from the front door. “You want me to get that?”

I got up, walked to the doorway of my office, and saw Owen peering through the window. “Uh oh, it’s Owen, and he doesn’t look very happy.”

When I unlocked the door, Owen pushed past me and said, “Why is there an arrogant rich man with a bloody nose standing in my office, demanding that I arrest you, T.J. and Jake?”

I led him back to the office, where we played the recording for him, and I showed him the bruises on my upper arms and wrist. “What are you going to do, Owen?” I said.

“Right now, I’m going to resist the urge to go back to my office and give him two black eyes to go with that broken nose. We need to get some pictures of those bruises for the report.”

“Do we have enough to file for a temporary restraining order?”

Owen scratched his beard. “We might, but the problem is going to be that recording. You did do it without his consent, although you did tell him about it, and he technically didn’t tell you to stop.”

“I can call Stephen Henderson,” Jake said. He a friend of Jake’s who had defended Gladys when she was accused of killing her husband during the county fair. “He probably knows a judge he can call to get a TRO.”

“Good idea,” Owen nodded. “Let’s get some good pictures of your arms. And maybe you should go to the hospital or to your doctor, let them check you out. Just to make sure nothing is broken.”

“He just twisted my wrist pretty good, and grabbed my arms. I don’t need to see a doctor for that,” I protested.

“Owen wants you to file assault charges, Lizzie,” T.J. said, looking over at Owen for confirmation. “It will also strengthen your chances of getting a TRO.”

“I think we should do our own background check on Mr. Winthrop,” Owen replied. “He’s your friend, Jake. Has he done things like this in the past?”

“A few times,” Jake admitted. “His father took care of things whenever there was a problem.”

“Well, he’s not going to be able to sweep this one under the rug,” I said. “I can’t be bought.”

Jake looked at me funny, as if he knew about Debra’s will and all the money she had left me. “I’ll drive her to the doctor,” he said. “I’m sure you two will have your hands full dealing with Ethan.”

“I’ll call Hopkins back,” T.J. said, “and see what we can dig up on your friend.”

“And I’ll let Winthrop think we’re taking his claims seriously. I’ll ask him to give me a day or two to investigate. That will give us time to gather everything we need to take to a judge.”

I followed them to the front door. “Don’t go anywhere by yourself for a couple of days,” Owen warned me. “I have a feeling Winthrop isn’t going to give up.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m sorry I’m causing you so much trouble.”

He put his big right hand gently on my shoulder. “Lizzie, this is one time when you’re actually not causing me any trouble at all. I’m proud of the way you stood up for yourself. You handled things the right way. When this is over, we should sign you up for a self-defense course, just to sharpen your skills. And your mother would be proud of you, too.” He squeezed my shoulder before he moved his hand. “I’ll call Trixie and…”

I shook my head. “I’ll call her later. I don’t want her to worry about me while she’s out of town.”

“She’s going to be ticked if I don’t call her.”

“Please.”

“Your funeral. Make sure the doctor writes up a report for me.” He got into his patrol car and drove away.

T.J. gave me a hug. “I’ll come by tonight after I get off work. What would you like to eat? I’ll stop and get something.”

“Surprise me.”

“You got it.” He gave me a kiss. “Thanks, Jake,” he said, shaking his hand. “Stay with her until I get to the house.”

“I will.”

T.J. put his hand on my cheek for a moment before he got into his truck and left. “That man really loves you,” Jake said as he watched T.J. drive off.

“I know.”

“Are you happy?”

“I’m working on it. The trust isn’t totally there yet, but we’re working on it.”

“It will come back,” he said, leading me back inside and locking the door. “Why don’t we sign the paperwork before we leave? I’ll call Dale and let him know they’re ready for him to pick up. I’ve got some ideas for our paper that I want to start working on.”

I followed him to the office, we finished reading over the papers, and then we signed them. We were the new owners of
The Brookdale News
.

Oh, boy, what did I just get myself into?

And what was I going to do about Ethan Winthrop?

Chapter 7

The trip to the doctor earned us a lot of glances from people in the waiting room. Most of them were dirty looks for Jake; they assumed that he was the reason for the now very visible bruising on my upper arms and wrist. There was no way we could explain to everyone what had happened, because we didn’t want it spreading across town like wildfire.

The nurse showed us to a room, made a few notes in my chart, gave Jake a disapproving glare, and left. “You realize what people are going to say, don’t you?” he said.

“You’ve never cared what anyone thought before, why start now?”

“Because this is the one thing that I would prefer not to be associated with, thank you very much.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I do appreciate you coming with me.”

He grunted in response as Dr. Christopher Adams came into the room. In his mid-40s, with salt and pepper hair, he was wearing his usual rumpled lab coat over green scrubs. “Well, I haven’t seen you in a while,” he said as he read the chart before putting it on the counter. He shook hands with Jake before pulling his stool over and sitting down in front of me. “These are some nasty looking bruises you’ve got here, Lizzie.” He glanced at Jake, who scowled back at him.

“It wasn’t Jake, Dr. A,” I told him, and explained what happened. “There are witnesses.”

“Sounds like this man needs to be thrown in jail.”

“That’s why we need an examination and some pictures,” I said. “Owen says he’d like it to be an official report.”

“Of course, I can do that. I apologize, Mr. Mathias, for what I was thinking.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m sure that was a rather unpleasant experience, sitting out there with everyone treating you like I did.” Jake shrugged. “Obviously you care very much for your girlfriend.”

“We’re not dating, Doc, just friends,” Jake told him.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Positive,” I told him.

“Mmmm hmmm,” Dr. Adams said, clearly not believing us. He picked my right wrist, turning it over to look at the other side. “This is going to hurt, I’m afraid.” As he squeezed my wrist, checking for a broken bone, I bit my lip to keep from crying. “It doesn’t feel like anything is broken, but let’s get an x-ray anyway. There’s not much I can do about the bruising on your upper arms. They’ll probably be sore for a few days, and the bruises will last a couple of weeks minimum.” He stood up and pushed the stool back in the corner. “I’ll send the nurse in to take you for the x-ray. Can I at least tell her what’s going on?”

“That’s fine,” I said. “It’s not a big secret, but it’s just not something I want to talk about, not yet anyway.”

“Lizzie, you don’t have anything to be ashamed of, nothing at all. It sounds to me that you did the right thing both times. I wish more young women would stand up for themselves. You might think about talking to a support group.”

“But, I wasn’t…”

“He did assault you, and I think we both know what could have happened if you hadn’t defended yourself, and if your friends hadn’t been there at the right time. Your story could make a difference to someone else who doesn’t know how to fight back like you. Just think about it.”

After he left the room, I looked over at Jake. “What do you think?”

“About what?” he said. He was texting furiously on his phone.

I resisted the urge to yank the phone out of his hand. “About the support group.”

“I think he’s right.”

“Seriously?”

He put down his phone. “Look, you’re one of the strongest women I know, but even the strongest women would have a hard time going through something like this. You’ve been manhandled by the same jerk twice in less than two weeks. Women go from thinking ‘This can’t happen to me,’ and then it does. ‘This won’t happen to me again’ is their next train of thought, and half of the time, it doesn’t. But then you have men like Ethan, who have an inflated self-sense of worth. Blame his father; he always bought his way out of any trouble his son got into. Since he was raised that way as a kid, he thinks that’s the way to handle things now. I’ll bet money he starts showering you with gifts and flowers, trying to buy your forgiveness.”

“As if,” I snorted.

“And I’m sure you’ll make that clear to him in one way or another. But he’s not going to stop, Lizzie. The only way he’s ever going to stop is if he’s dead, and that’s a fact.”

I heard a gasp, and looked up to see the nurse. She was standing there with her mouth hanging open. She quickly closed it and took me down the hall to the x-ray room, put my arm on a table, and lit me up with enough radiation that I could be my own Christmas tree lights. Twenty minutes later, Dr. Adams came in a digital camera. “No break, but the bruising is deep. Nothing you haven’t dealt with before. Let’s get some pictures, and I’ll send them to Owen.” He took a few pictures, and took a business card out of his pocket. “This is the support group I told you about. There are other groups in the area if you don’t want to go to a local one. Some women are more comfortable going to a group where people don’t know them. There’s a website listed on the card.” He watched me stick the card in the back pocket of my jeans. “I’m not saying you’re a victim, Lizzie. But it sounds like you’ve been through a heck of a rough time this week. It’s going to catch up to you eventually.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, Dr. A. Thanks.”

He looked at me skeptically, like he knew I wasn’t going to follow up with the support group. “You know where to find me if you need anything,” he replied, handing me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and a mild pain medication.

As we walked out, there was a new crowd in the waiting room, and Jake got more dirty looks. “Judgmental lot,” he muttered as he held the door open for me.

“It’s a close community, Jake,” I said. “And I grew up here, remember?”

“Yeah, and I’m the carpetbagger.”

“Sort of,” I laughed. “Sorry. If they knew the truth, they wouldn’t judge you so harshly.”

“So, what do we do now?” Jake said.

“I’d love some pie.”

“Of course you would.” He looked at his watch. “It’s 3:30 now. Let’s stop by the office and pick up your laptop. I’ve got a couple of things to do. Why don’t you find out from T.J. what time he’s planning on stopping by your place?”

“I can do that,” I said, pulling out my phone.

“Besides,” he added, “I want to know where you got the money to buy the paper.” He slammed the car door shut.

Twenty minutes later, we walked into the Eat it or Starve Café. As soon as we did, everyone stopped talking and looked at us. Maddie Reynolds, owner of the café, came out from the kitchen carrying a tray of food. “Lizzie, Jake, good to see you. Grab a booth. I’ll be right with you.”

“Thanks, Maddie,” Jake replied, leading me to our favorite back booth.

I noticed Gladys Norwell, my nemesis, sitting with Charlene Sims, who runs the beauty parlor in the square. They eyed me as we walked by their table, and then Charlene leaned in close and whispered something to Gladys, who shook her head. I sighed. I was pretty sure I’d find out what they were talking about before too long.

Maddie came over to their table as Jake set up his laptop. “So, I haven’t seen you two in a while,” she said. “Avoiding me or something?”

Jake slid out of the booth, and gave Maddie a hug. “I would never avoid my favorite girl, you know that,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek before sitting down again.

She smiled and blushed. “What’s your excuse, Lizzie?” she said, turning her attention to me. I saw her eyes rest briefly on my wrist, before sliding up my arm to the bruises on my upper arms. If it wasn’t so warm in the café, I wouldn’t have taken off my jacket, and then no one would have been able to see them. “You okay there?” I nodded. She gave me a look that said she knew better, but she wisely said nothing. “I take it you want your pie, and Jake? Apple for you?” She didn’t wait for us to answer; she just wrote it down on her pad as she walked off.

I pulled out some files I picked up when we stopped to get the laptop. “We need to write a story about the change of ownership,” I told Jake.

“I agree. We should also get Dale to write something, a final goodbye to the folks of Brookdale.”

“Definitely,” I replied, trying to write it down. “It’s bloody impossible to when my wrist is so sore.” Jake reached over, took the pen and a piece of paper, and wrote down “Dale, farewell article”, and handed it back to me. “I don’t plan on shaking up the staff, although I might expand Bruce’s role. We also should look at a webmaster to handle the website.”

“That’s a good idea. Do you have anyone in mind?”

“No, not yet. I thought I would do some checking around, maybe contact a couple of other newspapers and see who they use or if they can recommend someone.”

We stopped talking when Maddie brought out our pies. She also brought some glasses of sweet tea. “What’s the good word, young lady?” Jake asked her as she placed everything on the table.

She looked around before sliding into the booth next to Jake. “There’s a couple of rumors going around. One has you and Jake getting into it, which is why you had to go to the doctor today. The other rumor is that you two made fools of yourselves at that big shindig in Dallas last weekend. Someone said you two got into a fight with Ethan Winthrop.”

Jake and I glanced at each other. “And what do you think happened, Maddie?” I said.

“I know what happened. I have a friend who was the caterer for that function. The wait staff was talking about while they were cleaning up after the party. Sounds like Mr. Winthrop got what was coming to him, if you ask me. Is that why your wrist looks so swollen and bruised?”

“No,” I shook my head, “something different.”

She jerked her head in Gladys’ direction. “Watch out for Gladys. She has been here all week, waiting to pounce on you. Apparently, one of Charlene’s clients was also there that night, and her story was less than kind. She said your attack on him was totally unprovoked.”

“Maddie!” someone called out from the kitchen. “Order up!”

She stood up. “Whatever happened, I’m sure you two did what you thought was right. From what my friend said, you did.” She looked over at Gladys. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s going through a rough time right now.”

Maddie walked away and I glanced in Gladys’ direction. She narrowed her eyes at me, tapped Charlene on the arm, and pointed at us. Since her husband Harold’s death by poisoning at the county fair three weeks ago, Gladys had alternated between mourning and being just flat out nasty to everyone around her. Despite the fact that we had helped keep her out of jail, she had actually been crueler to me than usual. It was one of the reasons I had been avoiding the café.

“So, Charlene, have you heard any good gossip at your beauty parlor lately?” Gladys said rather loudly. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

“You want to leave?” Jake said.

“I’m not going to let her chase me out of here.”

“Good girl.”

“As a matter of fact,” Charlene replied, “I heard some really juicy gossip earlier this week.”

“Do tell! I haven’t heard a good scandalous story in quite a while.”

“Well,” Charlene said, taking a drink of her tea before starting her story, “you remember that big fundraiser they had at that fancy hotel in downtown Dallas about a week ago?”

“You mean the one where it was $5,000 per plate for people to get in?”

I looked at Jake. “It cost you $10,000 for us to go to that thing?”

“It was for a good cause,” Jake shrugged.

“That’s the one,” Charlene said. “It was hosted by Ethan Winthrop. Miriam and Wesley Calhoun were two of the attendees. I know this because I did her hair that afternoon. Anyway, she came into see me on Thursday, and she had a very juicy story to tell. It seems that a certain young lady managed to talk her way into the fundraiser, and made a fool of herself. Several people said she was throwing herself at that handsome Mr. Winthrop, even though she had gone there with someone else.”

“The nerve! This younger generation just has absolutely no manners whatsoever,” Gladys replied, looking directly at me.

“Isn’t that the truth?” Charlene agreed. “Anyway, at some point, they ended up on one of the patios that were around the ballroom, and she…well, I just can’t bring myself to mention all the scandalous details of what she tried to do to him. When Mr. Winthrop came back inside trying to get away from her, she accused him of attacking her. Her date punched the poor gentleman, knocking him to the ground.”

“Considering how influential and rich Mr. Winthrop is, she was probably trying to get an exclusive interview with him, or trying to talk him into making a donation to her failing business. I wouldn’t put it past her.”

“Me either,” Charlene replied, shaking her head sadly. “It’s just a shame that today’s young people weren’t raised to have better manners.”

“Well, this is what happens when certain people act so shamelessly in public. Carrying on with two men at the same time? I mean, really, what do you expect from someone like that? She’s nothing but a shameless hussy, and a disgrace to her poor mother.”

Gasps were heard all over the café, and everyone turned in our direction. I had crumbled up the piece of paper under my hand as the two of them had talked, and I’m pretty sure my face was red. “Let it go, Lizzie,” Jake warned me. “Don’t say anything that is going to jeopardize your chances of getting a TRO or bringing charges against Ethan.”