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

  “Anyway,” Gladys said, taking control of the conversation again, “Maybellene said that someone had dressed Mr. Winthrop up as a scarecrow, and propped his body up on the front porch. The crime scene was also contaminated because someone threw up after they found his body.”

  “Do they have any idea how he died?” Roscoe wanted the gory details.

  “Gun shots.”

  “In the heart?” he said. “Come on, woman, don’t hold back.”

  “Well, Maybellene heard that poor Mr. Winthrop was shot several times. They aren’t sure yet which one was the fatal wound.”

  Roscoe whistled. “Someone didn’t like that man.”

  They all looked at me again.

  “That isn’t all,” Gladys said. “They’ve got the killer on video.”

  “No!” Iris said.

  Gladys nodded. “The video shows the scarecrow in the back of the truck, plain as day. The heartless killer stopped to gas up his truck after killing the poor man.”

  “But do they know who the killer is?” Roscoe asked.

  “Oh yes, they know. He’s sitting in jail right now.”

  “Ol’ Owen’s really on the ball with this one,” he said. “Glad to hear he got a crazy killer off the streets. So, who is it?”

  “They arrested Jake Mathias. I always knew that man was no good,” Gladys said smugly, proud that her prediction had come true.

  “Gladys Norwell, you are full of crap,” Maddie said. She was standing behind Gladys holding a pitcher of ice water.

  I thought Gladys was going to fall out of her chair. “I didn’t know you were standing there, Madelyn,” she replied. I had never heard anyone use Maddie’s Christian name before. “And I’m not lying. If you don’t believe me, ask her.” She pointed at me, and once again, everyone turned my way.

  “Well, Lizzie, is what she says true?” Maddie demanded. “Did Jake kill that man?”

  “I’m afraid he has been arrested,” I confirmed. Everyone started talking at once.

  “I still don’t believe it,” Maddie said stubbornly. “That man is as gentle as a lamb. He wouldn’t hurt, much less kill, anyone.”

  “She just confirmed he’s been arrested,” Gladys said, clearly exasperated with Maddie’s defense of Jake. “How much more proof do you need? Especially after that display he put on in the park yesterday morning. It’s obvious the man has a violent nature.”

  “Did anyone see him do it?” Maddie replied, her grip on the pitcher of water tightening.

  “Of course not,” Gladys scoffed. “Did you expect him to do it in the town square so everyone could see him do it? Really, Madelyn, you aren’t thinking very clearly. I realize you are fond of the man, but…”

  She was cut off by water being thrown in her face by Maddie herself this time. “Get out of my café, Gladys, and don’t come back until you can keep a civil tongue in your head.”

  “How dare you!” Gladys sputtered as she stood up. Ice cubes fell to the floor, and she grabbed a few napkins from the dispenser. “I wouldn’t come back in here if you paid me. You’re defending a killer, for crying out loud! He shot a man several times, front and back. Obviously, Mr. Winthrop tried to get away, but Jake kept after him. And why did he do it?” She stomped over to my table. “Because of her! Any woman who carries on with two men at the same time can’t be trusted. She can make a man do anything she wants them to. Did you see the look on her face as they tried to beat each other to death yesterday? I’ve never seen such a disgusting display of animalistic behavior in my life. And for what? What’s so special about her? Who would want her? I mean, look at her family tree. A cold, heartless man like Amos Gardner for a grandfather, and a crazy serial killer for an aunt.” She pointed her finger at me. “In fact, how do we know she didn’t kill Ethan Winthrop? She killed her aunt, didn’t she? I’d say that makes her a very viable suspect. In fact, I’d say that would make her the only suspect!”

  I slid out of the booth and stood in front of her. I never realized that I was a few inches taller than she was until this moment. “Gladys, you…are…an…idiot,” I said, deliberately saying each word slowly. “First of all, I killed Debra in self-defense. If I hadn’t killed her, she would have killed three innocent people. She shot me that night, or have you forgotten that?” She snorted. “And as for that fight yesterday morning, I didn’t make them do anything, nor did I enjoy it one bit, unlike the rest of you bloodthirsty lot in here. I have spent months not dating anyone. Jake and I dated in college, but right now, we’re just friends. He may be a royal pain in my butt, but I would rather have him in my corner than you any day of the week. He’s not a fair weather friend, and he’s there through the good and the bad. And you know why I broke up with T.J. For the last three weeks, I have walked around here on eggshells, because I was trying to deal with something that is very personal. And you have done your best to make me feel like some cheap floozy with your lies and innuendos about what is going on, instead of coming to me and asking for the truth.” I turned and scanned all the faces in the café. “Maybe it’s time you knew the truth.”

  Maddie came over to stand beside me. “Don’t do it, Lizzie. It’s none of their business,” she said, placing a gnarled hand on my arm.

  I smiled and patted her hand. “It’s okay, Maddie, really.” I took a deep breath. “At that fundraiser that Gladys mentioned a few days ago, the one where she said I made a fool of myself. I’m sure some of you heard what I said about that, especially if you were in here the last time we had this discussion. I was assaulted by Ethan Winthrop.” The front door opened, and there stood T.J., and behind him was Jake. “When Jake found out, he came to my defense and punched him. A week later, Ethan showed up in my office, and he assaulted me again.” I took off my jacket and pushed up my sleeves. “Remember these? Ethan did this to me. T.J. threatened to arrest him if he didn’t leave me alone. I’ve been hiding in my house because I can’t stand to be in my office, because I see him there, and I keep reliving what he tried to do to me. I don’t believe for a minute that Jake killed him, but if he did, I’d say he was justified.” I looked at Gladys. “This is something that no woman wants to make public, but you didn't leave me much of a choice, did you, Gladys? Now, does that satisfy your need to know every damn thing that goes on in this town? Or do you need more, you nasty old goat?”

  You could have heard a pin drop in the café as I stuffed my things into my bag, put my jacket back on, paid for my breakfast, and left with T.J. and Jake. “Feel better?” T.J. said, taking my bag from me.

  “It was a little therapeutic, but there is one other thing I wish I had done.”

  “What’s that?” Jake said.

  “Punched her in the face.”

  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 b
elieve 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.”