Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series) (28 page)

I sat back in my chair and looked over at the picture of our honeymoon and smiled. Going to Europe had been a dream come true and this picture of the two of us standing on the Grand Place was one of my favorites. I continued looking at the picture, though not really seeing it because something else was coming to the front of my thoughts. And then I had it. I was pretty sure I knew who had killed both Maria Kravek and Nena Connick.

I Googled Sergei’s butcher shop, found the number and picked up my phone and dialed.

“Good afternoon, I was wondering if you could tell me if Sergei Kravec is in today?”

“Yes, he’s here. He’s with a customer right now. Do you want to hold?”

I thought about this for a moment. Did I really want to do this over the phone? “Can you tell me if he’s been there all day?”

“Sure. We got here at the same time.”

“And what time was that?”

“May I ask who this is?”

I couldn’t blame the young woman for not wanting to give me more information. I probably sounded like a stalker. “This is his neighbor and friend, Alex Harris. I’m helping him with something and just needed to know what time he came in this morning.”

“Oh, sure, I remember you. I saw you here talking with him. I brought you a cup of tea.”

“Yes. That was me.”

 “Well, let’s see, I got in at about nine, so it was nine. Like I said, we arrived at the same time.”

“And he never left? He’s been there all morning?”

“Yes, he’s been here all day. Thanksgiving’s coming up and then Christmas. It’s a very busy time of year for us. He’s been working the counter ever since he came in. He even pitched in taking orders. That’s how busy we are. Can I give him a message?”

“No. That’s fine. I’ll catch him tonight at home.” I thanked her and hung up. This was exactly what I wanted to hear. Hopefully, he hadn’t had time to make any phone calls either.

I sat there trying to piece everything together before I ran out and made some wild accusations that got me arrested or maybe even killed. I had the email, I had the picture and I had some vague references the killer had made about things that shouldn’t be known unless someone else had mentioned them and that someone had to be Sergei. I also had a chance meeting that unfortunately led to Nena Connick’s murder. It was easy enough for me to find out where Nena lived so the killer would have had no problem. I didn’t think my guilt over that would ever go away, but the truth was, it had been out of my control. No one could have predicted it.

I looked at my watch; almost an hour had gone by since everyone left for lunch. Should I just leave and put a sticky note on my sister’s desk telling her where I had gone? She would kill me for sure, going off to confront yet another killer but I didn’t want to wait. As soon as Sergei had a free minute he would make a phone call or worse yet, go there himself and then I wasn’t sure what would happen. I didn’t want to be responsible for another murder. The truth was, it was Sergei all along. He had put everything into play and had finally figured that out this morning when we talked, I was sure of it. Maybe he knew or at least suspected but didn’t want to admit it or maybe he was totally clueless. Or maybe I was wrong. He could have simply run out this morning because he knew the store would be packed with customers planning their menus for the holidays.

Eventually everything would come out and then I had to wonder what the legal implications for Sergei would be? John could sort out all those details; I wanted to believe Sergei Kravec was clueless and things had gotten out of hand. But his reckless behavior had caused two murders. Somehow he had to pay for that.

I heard the front door open and heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe I could make it to my destination after all well ahead of Sergei.

“Hey, are you guys back,” I called out.

I heard nothing and then a few seconds later someone walked into my office.

“Hi, Alex. I wasn’t sure if you would be in or not but I had a few more things to drop off if you have a minute.”

I took a deep breath and tried to keep myself from visibly shaking. “Sure. No problem. Have a seat,” I said to the killer of Maria Kravec and Nena Connick.

I should have just listened to my grandmother from the very beginning. What was it she said? Look for the
other
, other woman. If Sergei was going to get involved in a serious way, Meme told me, it would be with a classy intelligent woman and here she was, right in front of me, which I guess, in a way, she had been all the time.

It’s funny how the mind works. You really do see what you want to see and I had all these other suspects with great motives that I couldn’t see the one person who had the strongest motive of all: love. Or was it obsession? I couldn’t put too much blame on my shoulders, though. I had never seen the two of them together, neither one mentioned the other, and no one else seemed to know anything about it. But there were signs. Two pretty big ones, actually. And Sergei had been no help. I remember asking him point blank if there was another woman besides Nena and he told me two women were enough for any man. And he was right. It was the third woman in his life that ruined everything.

“I feel like I’m taking advantage of you,” Deanna Moffet said. “But you did such a great job getting two of our students jobs so quickly that I just had to press my luck and bring you a couple more files.” Deanna smiled her bright smile at me. Again, she wore a pencil skirt, muted blouse, the pearls and shoulder-length hair. She also had manners any mother would be proud of. A classy, intelligent woman.

“Alex? I’m sorry. Did I overstep?”

I needed to get a grip or she would be able to tell I had it all figured out and then what? Did she have another one of those pens in her purse full of epinephrine? I strained to hear anyone out in the reception area, but no sounds came forth.

“Deanna, I’m sorry. I have some things on my mind. Just family stuff,” I waved my hand. “Of course I would be happy to take a look and see what I can do.” I reached for the files and was aware of my shaking hands. I just hoped Deanna hadn’t noticed.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Was it my imagination or had Deanna’s tone just changed? And then I saw her looking at my hands.

“I’m fine. Thanks. It’s chilly in here. Let me turn the heat up.” I got up and moved to the thermostat on the wall and moved it a bit. “There. That should help.” I sat back down and picked up a file folder and made a pretense of reading it over, stalling for time. “These look good. I’ll take them home with me tonight and look them over again, but I’m sure I can help find something.” I gathered the files and reached down and placed them in my bag, turning on the record app on my iPad at the same time. “Sorry. I keep far too much stuff in my bag. There’s never any room.” I gave a small laugh while I made a pretense of rummaging for room. Before I turned back to Deanna, I gave a quick glance at my watch. I made a mental note to speak with my staff about maintaining an hour for lunch. They had to be back soon, if I could just keep the charade going for a little while longer.

“So when did you figure it all out?” Deanna asked then, killing any hope I had of being surrounded by witnesses when I died.

“Pardon? Figure what out?” My voice came out in a high-pitched squeak.

“Are we really going to play this game? You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

On the off chance we weren’t talking about the same thing, I decided to call her bluff. “Then why don’t you explain it all to me so I can fully understand.”

Deanna looked down and picked an imaginary speck off her blouse and then she looked up at me. “I killed both of them and you must have figured it out because I’ve never seen you so nervous before.”

Did she just admit she killed both of them? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I hoped to hell my app was working. Maybe I should get her to say the names out loud for the sake of the recorder. “You killed both of them? What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Maria and Nena. Thank you, by the way. Or I should say thank you to Ellery for tipping me off about Nena. I had no idea about her.”

“You’re not going to get away with it, Deanna.”

“No. I suspect not.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Why else. Love. I trusted him when he said he would get divorced and we could be together.”

Damn that Sergei Kravec and his cheating heart.

“So. Really, how did you figure it out? I’d like to know where I went wrong.”

As long as I kept her talking or listening she couldn’t kill me. “Okay. Maria sent an email to a man named Bob Spangler. By a stroke of luck for you he never got it. If he had, maybe none of this would have ever happened.”

“How did you know Bob is my husband?”

“You keep a picture of him on your desk. I didn’t recognize him at first. He has a baseball cap on in the picture. As a matter of fact, I just figured it out today, who he was. Of course, I wondered why he didn’t recognize Maria’s name when I went to see him but then Ellery told me her mother used her maiden name at work. ”

“True. Plus Bob and Maria never met and I tend not to talk about my work at home. I doubt he would know her no matter what name she used. What else?”

“Little things you said, like Maria putting all her money into the business. You told me you hadn’t spoken to her since she left the university. How would you know what she was up to with her business except for Sergei.”

“He likes to talk after sex.”

“And it always bothered me I couldn’t find a connection with any of my suspects to Nena. None. No one knew her. And I knew there was only one killer so how did that person know about Nena Connick? The answer was you didn’t. Not until that unfortunate run-in with Ellery right here in my office. Up until then you knew nothing about her. Why did you have to kill her?”

“Because Sergei was trying to break things off with me and I figured it was because he found someone else. Then there was Ellery giving me the woman’s name on a silver platter.”

“He wasn’t seeing her. He broke up with her months ago. He wanted to break it off with you because he only ever loved Maria. So tell me, when did your affair start? Tell me everything.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear anymore to be truthful, but I also didn’t want to die. I had to keep her talking until the others got back and someone could call the police.

“It all started about a year ago. I met him at a university staff party. We had an attraction right away,” Deanna said in a dreamy voice.

I didn’t think now was the time to tell her Sergei had an attraction with just about every woman he ever met. “So you two started to see each other,” I prompted.

“Yes. It lasted about four months and then I got a case of the guilts and ended it. I tried to make it work with Bob but that spark just wasn’t there. So, I called Sergei and we started up again a few months ago.”

“And that’s when you confronted Maria.”

“My, you are good at this.” Deanna shifted in her chair crossing one leg over the other. “I went over there on the pretext of just stopping by on my way home. I knew Sergei was at the shop because I called him first. I knew Maria kept epinephrine in the kitchen because she mentioned it once and while she used the powder room I switched out the pens. That was really the reason I stopped by. Once that was done, I told her about Sergei and me and she went ballistic, but I didn’t care. I was tired of waiting for him to make a move. Of course she kicked me out and I left. And then I waited and Sergei never mentioned my visit. I had hoped Maria would ask him for a divorce but she didn’t. Instead she started the blog. So, I switched to plan B. I had already switched the pens so the hard part was done. Then I snuck in through the woods one night and left the ivy. I knew it was just a matter of time before she burned the pile and to my delight she did it while Sergei was away leaving him with an alibi.”

I sat there dumbstruck at Deanna’s calm way of telling me how she murdered someone. “So you didn’t plan on killing her at first?”

Deanna shook her head. “Oh, no. But just in case, I left the pens. I knew I wouldn’t get another chance to be in the house once Maria knew of the affair. I really hoped she would just give him a divorce, but she planned to torture him instead with the blogs. I never realized how devious she was.”

“And Nena? How did you manage that?”

“She was easy. By time I got to her apartment she had had a few too many glasses of wine. I told her I was a good friend of Sergei’s and he wanted me to talk with her. Once I was in, it was easy enough to jab her what with her in an inebriated state. Then I turned up that horrible music so no one would hear me leave or drive off and that was that.”

“And this whole thing with getting my help for the students?”

“Oh, that was real, but it also gave me a chance to keep in connect with you and see if you were getting too close. Just a nice little bonus.”

And if I had gotten too close, like I was now? What? I suddenly felt very trapped sitting behind my desk. And then I heard the sound of people coming in and a moment later my sister, Millie and Marla stood in my doorway.

Deanna turned and saw the three women. “Well, I see you’re busy, Alex, so I won’t keep you any longer. Please have a look at the files and let me know your thoughts.” She said good-bye to everyone and left.

I waited until I heard the front door close and then I took a deep breath. “Oh my God. She just confessed to killing both women. I have it all here.” I pulled out my iPad and checked to see if the recording had worked. The sound of Deanna’s voice filled the room. It sounded more chilling hearing it the second time.

“Why did you let her go?” Sam asked when the recording was over.

“What? Did you want to duct tape her to the chair? What if she had another pen in her purse and jabbed one of us? I couldn’t take that chance. She won’t get far. I’m calling John right now.”