NAILED (23 page)

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

I had the same problem with Delilah Sanjari that I had with Maddi and Brian. I could see why she would kill her brother, but why attack his friend? And what was with Victor paying for everything? The guy must have been raking in the bucks with his illegal workers scheme. Maybe I could expand
Always Prepared
:
We’ll find you temps even if we have to go the Serbia to do it
!

So far my best bet for both the murder and the attack on Gary was Gail Hachmeister. She had a reason to want Victor out of the picture once and for all, plus, with her ten-year anniversary coming up soon, there was more than enough motive to get rid of Gary as well. But the main reason I found Gail to be a compelling suspect was one that I hadn’t even thought of until now. Gail had a key to the building in which
Connecticut Custom Homes
was located. At least I assumed she would have a key to the building housing her own company. If the attacker wasn’t Gail, then how did the person who hit Gary over the head get in? I couldn’t believe that a beautiful office building like that would just leave their doors open at all hours. As a matter of fact, I was certain I had seen a black panel for a key card by the front door of the building.

After my treatment, I had said good-bye to my mother and was now back in my office. Millie went to get some sandwiches for lunch, and while I waited for her to return maybe I could find out about the security at
Connecticut Custom Homes
. I opened up the bottom drawer of my desk and took out my bag. I rummaged through some receipts I had shoved in there until I found the business card for Gary Hachmeister. I was just about to dial the number when I heard the front door of the agency open. I put the receiver down and went out to the lobby.

“Suzette, what a coincidence. I was just about to call you.”

Suzette looked worried. “Is something wrong? Have you changed your mind about bringing me on?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that. As a matter of fact, we’re thrilled you’ll be joining us. Your test scores were the highest we’ve seen in a while and we have the perfect position coming up for you.”

“Millie called me this morning and told me all about it. She asked if I would be interested. Of course I am. I’m so excited!”

“You sound it. The job won’t start for two weeks and then it’s only a three-month assignment, but I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to keep you busy.”

“I gave my notice this morning. Gary had a fit. He even offered me a lot more money, but I’m ready for a change and my husband is thrilled that I’ll be able to pick and choose my assignments. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t thank me. I think you’re going to be a wonderful asset to
Always Prepared
.”

“I hate to rush, but I’m on my lunch hour. Millie said that she had some papers for me to fill out.”

I walked over to Millie’s desk and found an envelope with Suzette’s name on it.

“Here you go. Suzette, the reason I was going to call you was that I wanted to know what kind of security system your office building has. Do you need to use a card to get in?”

“Only before seven in the morning and after six in the evening. The doors remain open during the day. Everyone who works in the building has a card that we can use after hours if we need to come in.”

“Suzette, I haven’t been totally forthcoming with you. I’ve actually been looking into Victor’s murder for a couple of reasons. I won’t take up your time with that now, but did Victor Sanjari have a card for the building?”

Suzette smiled. “I thought you were asking a lot of questions about him, and then I remembered where I had seen your name before. You were in the papers a few months back.”

“I was. And now I’m looking into Victor’s murder because, well, this one hit a bit too close to home, and then I got wrapped up in some other stuff.”

Suzette put up her hand. “You don’t need to explain. I understand. I like a good mystery as well. But to answer your question, yes, Victor had a card. Gary gave it to him several years ago. Victor used to come by a lot after work, and he and Gary would sit around and shoot the breeze. They were friends for a long time. Does this have something to do with Gary getting attacked over the weekend?”

“It does. I was wondering how the person who attacked him would have gotten into the building?”

“Unfortunately it’s not that hard. People coming in let others in behind them. You know how that goes.”

“But would there have been a lot of people coming and going on a Saturday night? Gary got hit pretty late.”

“Yes, that’s what he told me. But the person who attacked him could have come in earlier when there were more people around, and just waited in the restroom or storage room or something. The doors are locked all weekend. Anyone coming in then would definitely need their key card unless someone lets them in. One of the companies in the building is open on Saturday so they have a lot of traffic.”

“One more thing, and then I won’t take up any more of your time. What do you think of Gail Hachmeister?”

Suzette’s lips pursed. “To be truthful, I’ve never much cared for her. It’s not that big a deal because she doesn’t come around very often. Over the years, I really haven’t had a lot of interaction with her. Don’t get me wrong, I doubt Gary is an easy man to live with, and he does have a wandering eye, not that I’ve ever noticed him acting on it, but Gail just kind of turns me off. Can’t put my finger on it, exactly, but I just always thought she was sneaky.” Suzette glanced at her watch. “Look, I really have to get back. I’ve got someone coming in to interview for my job. She used to work for us and is now back in the job market, so it might turn out to be an easy transition.”

“Okay. Thanks for coming by to get these. We could have mailed them to you. And if you can’t find a good candidate for your current job, let me know and we can help Gary find someone.”

I watched Suzette go down the walkway and get into her car and drive away, and then I returned to my office, all the while wondering what happened to the key card that Gary Hachmeister gave to Victor Sanjari.

“I’ll have to ask John about the key card,” I said to Millie and Sam.

We were seated in my office eating sandwiches and drinking large iced teas that Millie had picked up. We had all the office windows opened and a cool sea breeze wafted through. Nothing like a summer storm to cool things down and clean the air.

“Will John give you any information? He hates when you get involved in his murders.” Millie peered at me over the rim of her new glasses. She usually wore contacts, changing the colors of them to match whatever she was wearing, but had recently decided that glasses made her look more sophisticated. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head and held with a large clip. She wore an adorable sundress in bright colors and a pair of diamond studs at her ears.

“He usually hates when I get involved, but he’s cutting me a lot more slack this time,” I said.

“Yeah, well, he probably feels guilty about the way he treated me. I’m surprised he didn’t have the office surrounded and a SWAT team out front. The man owes me big time. I’m just saying.”

I smiled at my sister. “Think of it this way: now you can check
Getting Arrested
off your bucket list. Done.”

“Humph.”

“Truthfully, he really is letting me stick my nose in on this one. He hasn’t told me once to stay out of it. I even shared what I’ve learned so far with him.”

Sam and Millie stopped eating and stared at me.

“Okay. Not everything, but almost everything,” I said, and then remembered that what I didn’t share with John was my recent visit to Kate Cavanaugh’s office and the fact that she and Michael were seen together in Branford. I also had no plans to share that information with the two women in my office so I changed the subject quickly.

“Suzette is right about Gail Hachmeister being sneaky. The woman scared the living daylights out of me last night. I never heard her come in and then a flash of lightning and bam! There she was. Standing right there.” I pointed to the doorway. “Creepy. Very creepy.”

“If she could sneak up on you, she could probably sneak up on her husband in a darkened hallway,” Millie said. “What did she want?”

“She basically wants me to spy on her husband for her. She wants to know if I uncover any proof of him having an affair. Said as long as I was on the case, it would be better for me to feed her information rather than hiring a private investigator and risk all that dirty laundry being aired in high society.”

“Are you going to do it?” Millie asked.

“I guess. But I’ve talked to the man several times and I have no reason to think he’s cheating on his wife. Looking at women’s breasts, yes, but having an affair? I have no idea and I don’t plan on making a point of looking into his private life.” I took a bite of my salami and cheese sandwich and mulled this over.

My sister nudged me. “Hey, what are you thinking about? You got all quiet all of a sudden.”

“I was just wondering if Gail could actually shoot Victor with a nail gun. She looks so refined. And then nailing his hands to the wall. I mean there had to be a lot of blood involved what with him full of all those holes. Geesh. Who does that?”

Millie wiped her chin. “Someone who really wanted the guy dead.”

“I should really speak with the people Victor worked with. I need to find a reason why someone wanted both Victor and Gary dead. It must have something to do with their work. Right now the only person I have is Gail, and I’m not even sure how badly she wanted Victor out of the way. He was an annoyance, but you don’t kill over an annoyance.”

“If that annoyance is causing your business to lose money and get a bad reputation, one might be so inclined.” My sister gave me a knowing look. “Maybe she felt Victor was leading her husband astray and if he, Victor, was out of the picture, Gary’s attentions would be hers again. Women do crazy things when they think their husbands might be cheating. Well, I better get back to work.” Sam gathered up her napkin and sandwich wrapper and dropped them in the trash bin by my desk. She grabbed her iced tea and left.

“Me, too. I have someone coming in for testing in half an hour.”

Millie left and I was alone with my thoughts. Sam and Millie had everything under control at the office. I thought there was no better time than right now to go and have a chat with Victor’s co-workers.

I easily found the building inspectors’ office where Victor had worked. It was several blocks from the New Haven Green. I circled the block a couple of times looking for a parking space before I gave up and pulled into a lot. Once in the building I checked the directory and made my way up to the fifth floor.

“Good afternoon. I was wondering if I could speak with someone who worked with Victor Sanjari?” I asked of the woman busily typing away on her computer at the front desk.

“May I ask your name?”

I told her and waited while she phoned someone and talked in a low voice.

“Mrs. Reyes will be with you shortly. Please have a seat.”

I was just about to take out my Kindle when a door opened and a woman somewhere in her forties walked over to me.

“Hi, I’m Selena Reyes. You wanted to speak with me about Victor Sanjari?”

“Yes, that’s right. Is there somewhere private we can talk?” I asked, noticing that the woman at the front desk was all ears.

“Of course. Come on back to my office.”

I followed her down a long corridor and then we turned right and continued our journey down another long corridor. Government buildings were all alike. Long corridors with minimal lighting. It felt more like I was following her to the gallows than her office.

“Here we are. Please, have a seat. Can I get you anything?”

“No, I’m fine. Thank you for seeing me. I wanted to speak to you about Mr. Sanjari.”

Selena Reyes held up her hand. “Ms. Harris—”

“Alex, please.”

“Okay, Alex. Whatever your concerns are with Mr. Sanjari, I have to apologize. I promise you that we will look into your complaint and get to the bottom of things as soon as possible, but I have some rather disturbing news. Mr. Sanjari was killed last week, and—”

“Mrs. Reyes, I know all that. I think you misunderstood. I’m not here to complain about Mr. Sanjari. I’m looking into his murder.”

“I’m sorry. Charlene didn’t tell me you were with the police when she asked me to come to the lobby.”

I took a deep breath. “I’m not.” I gave Mrs. Reyes the short version of why I was looking into Victor’s death and waited for her to ask me to leave. “You’re of course under no obligation to speak with me, but I have been involved in helping the police before.”

Okay,
helping
may have been stretching the truth a bit, but the fact is I did solve several murders in my little town, and whether the police were happy or not with my help was irrelevant. The cases were now closed. I gave Mrs. Reyes a bit of my resume and she nodded her head when I was done.

“Okay, I know you. I live in Pirates Cove and I remember reading about some of those murders, especially the last one. So that was you, huh? Does your husband get mad and tell you to keep your nose out of his business?” she asked with a mischievous smile.

“On more than one occasion, yes. Things can get pretty lively around our dinner table.”

“Well, okay, then. How can I help you?”

“Why did you think I was here because of some sort of complaint against Victor?”

Selena Reyes clasped her hands in front of her and rocked gently back and forth in her chair. “You wouldn’t be the first one. Some days it seemed all I did was listen to complaints about that man. Truth is things have been a lot better this last year and a half since we installed trackers on all the inspectors’ cars.”

“There are trackers on the cars?”

“There are now. We had a lot of problems with inspectors not showing up for appointments or showing up late, so we decided to keep tabs on everyone. Productivity is a lot better now, and I’m not spending my day trying to placate irate home owners and builders.”