A Killer Column (10 page)

Jenny’s voice made it clear that she was skeptical about his selection as she looked out the window. “I usually don’t go to this section of town.”

“You’re with me,” he said. “You’ll be fine. I can’t find what we need on Edenton Street, you know?”

“Trust him,” I told Jenny. “He knows what he’s doing.”

Jenny nodded. “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

Zach glanced at me and said, “Thanks for that vote of confidence.”

“It isn’t misplaced, is it?”

He laughed. “Savannah, have I ever gotten you into so much trouble I couldn’t get you out of it again?”

I took longer to think about it than he clearly would have preferred, but I finally replied, “No, but you have to admit that we’ve had some close calls in the past.”

“Think about it. How many times was it because of me, and how many times were you the reason we were in the jam in the first place?”

“What can I say; I like life to be interesting.”

Zach parked the car in front of an older building on the outskirts of town, a dark redbrick façade with high windows and no real signage out front.

“Where exactly are we?” Jenny asked.

“If you have to ask, you won’t ever know.” He turned off the engine and handed the keys to me.

“What are these for?”

“You put them in the ignition,” he said with a grin, “and they make the car go.”

I gently slapped his arm. “Why are you giving them to me?”

“It might be better if I go in alone. If the three of us walk in together, we’re going to pay double what this guy is going to charge if it’s just me.”

I looked at the building, and then at Jenny. “I’m going to leave it up to you.”

She said softly, “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather wait out here.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” I turned to my husband and added, “Be careful.”

“It’s not dangerous. I promise.”

I kissed him on the cheek anyway, and he disappeared into the building after ringing a buzzer and waiting for a full minute to be let inside. I didn’t like the look of the place, but I had to trust that Zach knew what he was doing. Otherwise I would never be able to sleep at night.

While we waited, I asked Jenny, “So, what else have you been up to since we got together the last time? Any scandalous stories you feel like sharing?”

“No, I lead a pretty quiet life these days. You have more excitement than I do, I’ll bet.”

“Are you kidding me?” I asked as I looked around outside. “I mostly sit around the cottage making puzzles and trying to keep up with my garden. I’ve put raised beds in, and we’re growing all kinds of things, but it’s not exactly front-page news.”

“I don’t know, it sounds pretty exciting to me—” Jenny broke off what she was saying, and then grabbed my shoulder and said, “Duck.”

I didn’t even ask why as I slumped down in the front seat. “Why are we hiding?” I whispered.

“Do you remember Mason Glade, that partner I told you about from my firm just now?”

“The one you used to date?”

Jenny pointed to a man walking out of the building my husband had just entered. There were two heavy bags in his hands, and he wore a nice suit and shoes that gleamed from their shine as he walked away from our car.

“That’s him,” she said. “It’s Mason.”

I started to open my door, and Jenny protested, “Where do you think you are going?”

“I’m going to follow him,” I said. “I figured that much would be obvious.”

“Savannah, get back in here,” she called out, but it was too late. I wanted to catch Mason before he had a chance to get away, and a second later, I heard Jenny’s door shut behind me.

“If he sees me, I have no idea what I’m going to say,” Jenny said as we trailed the partner from her firm.

“We have as much right to be here as he does,” I said. “We don’t owe him any explanations.”

“You don’t know Mason. He’ll demand to know.”

“Then we’ll tell him you were showing a friend from out of town the big city,” I said. From the way Mason hurried down the street, I had a feeling we weren’t going to have to tell him anything. A herd of buffaloes could be following him and I doubted that he’d notice.

He turned the corner, and Jenny put a hand on my arm. “Hold back a second.”

“We’ll lose him if we do,” I answered, pulling free from her. As we turned the corner, my worst fears were confirmed. Mason was nowhere in sight.

“Where did he go?” Jenny asked as we both looked wildly around.

“Maybe he wasn’t as oblivious as we thought he was,” I said. “He must have spotted us following him and ditched us the first chance he got.”

“I can’t see Mason being able to do that, even if he noticed us, which I doubt.”

“Well, he’s not here, is he?”

Jenny shook her head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to lose him.”

“It’s okay. I would love to know what he bought in there, though.”

I turned around and headed back to the shop.

Jenny asked, “Are we going back to the car?”

“No, ma’am. We’re going into the shop and asking the owner what Mason bought from him.”

She looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “And what makes you think he’ll tell us?”

“We won’t know unless we ask,” I said.

Back in front of the shop, I looked for the buzzer that my husband had used to summon someone to the door. My finger was poised above it when, much to my surprise, the door opened.

It was Zach, and he had a bag that matched the pair we’d seen Mason carrying out of the shop.

“I thought you two were going to wait in the car?” Zach asked us.

“We were, but then we saw Jenny’s ex-boyfriend and fellow law partner walk out of the shop with two bags like those.”

Zach shook his head. “Don’t tell me. You decided to follow him.”

I admitted as much. “We lost him, though. That’s why we need to get inside. We have to ask the owner what he just sold Mason.”

“You can’t do that,” Zach said.

“Why not? What would it hurt?”

“You haven’t met Skinny Tony,” Zach said. “Not only would he not tell you what you want to know, but he could take it personally. Besides, it’s not important.”

“What do you mean, it’s not important,” I said. “This could have something to do with Jenny. We need to know what he just bought.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Tony won’t tell you, but I can. I saw him bag it all up.”

“Well, don’t keep me waiting. What did he buy?” I asked.

Zach looked around, and then said, “First we get into the car, then we start driving, and after that, we’ll have plenty of time to talk.”

I looked around, too. There were several men on the street, dressed in scruffy clothes and most of them needing a shave. “You’re not worried, are you?”

“Savannah, there are times when calculated risks make sense, and times when it’s just stupid to make yourself a target.”

“I’m convinced,” Jenny said as she hurried into the back of the rental car.

“Coming?” Zach asked.

“You know I am,” I said.

As we drove away, I noticed a few of the men watching us. Had they been paying such a close vigil while Jenny and I had been trailing Mason? I’d broken one of my husband’s cardinal rules. I hadn’t been aware of my surroundings at all times, and the people around me. If I was going to insist on investigating Derrick’s murder I was going to have to do better.

The tension in Zach’s shoulders eased considerably once we were on our way. He glanced at Jenny in the rearview mirror and asked, “What kind of work does Mason do for your firm?”

“Mostly he works our corporate accounts,” she said.

“No divorce cases?”

“No, nothing like that. We’re more of a boutique firm. We don’t handle anything that could be considered even a little bit lurid.”

Zach shook his head. “Then it doesn’t make sense.”

“Why? Don’t keep us in suspense. What did he buy?”

Zach studied Jenny for another few seconds, and then said, “He got some long-range listening devices. They’d be perfect for eavesdropping, but I don’t know why he’d need it if he’s just practicing corporate law.”

“I know,” I said. “He wants to hear what Jenny’s doing in her house.”

“Ew, that’s just creepy,” she said.

“Maybe so, but if he’s stalking you, he’s not exactly Prince Charming, now is he?”

“I just can’t believe Mason’s the one,” Jenny said.

“There are a hundred different reasons he could be buying that equipment, and only one of them concerns Jenny,” Zach said. “We need more information before we start trying to come to any conclusions.”

“And how exactly are we supposed to get that information?” Jenny asked.

“We use the cameras I just bought, and then we see if we can catch a glimpse of who’s after you. I have one thought,” he added, “but I’m willing to bet you aren’t going to like it.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“You two move into a hotel while I stay out there and watch your place.”

“Forget it,” Jenny said. “If I run, he wins. I’m staying right where I am.”

Zach glanced over at me. “Savannah, talk to her.”

“Okay.” I turned around in my seat and said, “Good for you.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Zach said.

“I know, but it’s the best I can do. She’s right, you know. If she leaves her own home, this loser wins.”

“There’s no use arguing with either one of you, is there?”

I looked at Jenny. “Not me. How about you?”

“My mind’s made up.”

Zach sighed, and then said, “Then I guess I’ll just have to do the best I can. Let’s get back to Jenny’s so I can install these cameras. Maybe they’ll show us something.”

Z
ACH HAD THE CAMERAS INSTALLED IN NO TIME, AND even though I knew where he’d placed them, they weren’t that easy to spot once he was finished.

“You did a good job, honey,” I said.

“I’ve done this a time or two in the past,” he said as he made a few adjustments. He called inside to Jenny, “Start the DVD player.”

“Got it,” she said.

We walked out to the sidewalk, and then Zach approached the porch from every possible direction.

I said, “Aren’t you worried about warning Charlie about what we’re doing? I know he doesn’t seem like that likely a suspect, but he calls her Jennifer.”

Zach shrugged. “I think we’re safe enough. His car’s not in the driveway. Didn’t you notice that as we drove up?”

“Of course I did,” I said, lying through my teeth. “I was just testing you, and you passed with flying colors.”

At that moment, we saw Charlie drive up, and as Zach waved to him, he said, “Testing time is over. Let’s go see what we’ve got.”

Once we were inside, Jenny hit the stop button on her DVD recorder, and after hitting play, we watched as Zach and I left the porch, and then he approached it from several different directions. “There’s a small gap from the motion detection to the taping, but unless you want to spend a great deal more money, it’s going to have to do.”

“It’s perfect,” Jenny said. “I feel better already.”

“You know this won’t stop anyone from coming up to your front porch. The only thing it does is give us a record of it.”

“That’s more than we had before.” Jenny reset the DVD player, and then she said, “Now that we’ve worked on my problem, what are we going to do about Derrick Duncan?”

“Let me make a few telephone calls,” Zach said. He got out his cell phone and as he began to dial, he walked back outside. I hated when he did that, since it meant that I couldn’t listen in to his side of the conversation, but he needed privacy when he talked so he could speak freely.

“There’s got to be something we can do in the meantime,” Jenny said.

“Don’t worry. If Zach runs into a dead end, I have a few ideas of my own.”

He came back inside three minutes later, scowling.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

“Zach, what happened? Talk to me.” My husband had a way of clamming up when news wasn’t to his liking, and I’d seen it enough in the past to be able to recognize it with no problem now.

“I checked our messages at home,” he finally admitted.

“What’s so bad about that?” A sudden, dark thought came to me. “Nothing happened to either one of my uncles, did it?”

He raised one eyebrow as he looked at me. “What? No, they’re fine, at least as far as I know.”

“Then what is it? Trust me, nothing you can say is going to be able to touch what my imagination can provide, and you know it.”

“That’s true enough. It’s about a job.”

I smiled at him. “What’s wrong with that? I thought you were eager to get another consulting job.”

“It’s not that kind of job,” he said. “Savannah, you remember Greg Starks, don’t you?”