Black Beans & Vice (38 page)

James nodded, recalling how uncannily quiet the campus of
William and Mary could be during finals week. "How did Murphy
ever get inside information from an employee in the rehab center?"

A wry smile spread across Lucy's face. "She never did tell me
the whole story there. All she would say was there was a young orderly working there who's real dream was to be a writer. Apparently, he's now a Star employee."

"You see!" Gillian's voice was triumphant. "She made a personal sacrifice to come to our aid. Without her help, Quincy's Gap
might never have been rid of Kenneth Cooper."

Bennett grudgingly agreed. "I suppose she's made amends."

Satisfied that her faith in Murphy's goodness had been proved
true, Gillian put a hand over Jane's. "Are you completely restored
after your ordeal last week? I will never be able to look at my herbal
teas in the same light!"

Jane laughed. "Don't give up on chamomile and peppermint
because of me. Your teas aren't mixed with pure thunder god vine
root. I'm fine, really. James saved me. He's my Superman."

"Speaking of the bad guys, are you getting closer to catching
them?" Scott asked as he trotted over to the table and gulped down
half his drink in one swallow. "Yum! I love going green!"

All eyes fixed on Lucy. "Roslyn and Lennon have not been apprehended." James could tell that the admission caused her a great
deal of displeasure. "We've chased down dozens and dozens of
false leads. Now that Tia's parents have offered a fifty thousand
dollar reward, the phone calls and emails have been flooding in at
a ridiculous rate. Even with other law enforcement agencies helping, it's taking all our manpower to sift through them. Despite the
monetary incentive, we haven't received a single useful clue."

Lucy went on to give examples of the most preposterous tips
the Sheriff's Department had received, including a caller who
swore mother and son had been abducted by aliens and another
who claimed to have seen the pair, disguised as Elvis impersonators, dining on Grand Slams at Denny's.

When the laughter died down, Lucy glanced down at the table
and began to toy with the ivy wrapped around her napkin. "Sheriff Huckabee's been breathing down my neck like a dragon. Sullie
and I don't do anything but work. This is my first real break in a
week." She glanced apologetically at James and Jane. "I've read the case files until I start seeing double, but when I lie down to sleep
at night, I still feel like I've let everyone down. Even my dreams are
focused on this case."

Gillian reached over and put an arm around Lucy's shoulders.
"You're only human. Have faith in yourself. Someone will experience an unexpected moment of clarity and an answer will be re"
vealed."

I can't stop until I've set things right. You see, I made a mistake," Lucy looked at Gillian's kind face. "When I looked in the
pasts of those working at the Wellness Village, I wasn't thorough
enough. If I had been, I would have discovered that Lennon had
changed his name at age eighteen. After making sure he didn't
have a juvenile record I concentrated on his adult years, calling
former employers and stuff like that. He didn't go to college and
has worked a series of maintenance jobs. No one had a bad word
to say about him. I found no financial red flags. In my mind, he
was low on the suspect list! Yet he was the killer!"

"You were researching backgrounds on dozens of people,"
James said. "What you did was logical"

The assembly agreed, soothing Lucy with their words and sympathetic looks.

"You're gonna get them, Lucy even if they're out there, pre-
parin' a new scheme and sniffin' around for fresh victims to blackmail." Bennett's dark eyes flashed with righteous anger. "You're
gonna make it right."

That being said, Gillian and Bennett excused themselves to
prepare the food. The partygoers agreed not to talk about the case
anymore and, after another round of Zen cocktails, they became
quite jolly. Most of the company enjoyed Gillian's dinner of black bean burgers, fruit salad, and edamame. Bennett, Lucy, and the
Fitzgerald brothers opted for traditional burgers and for once,
Gillian didn't chastise them for being unwilling to explore new
tastes. Later, Willow and Fern served dessert: chilled white chocolate mousse embellished with a white chocolate dove. It was rich,
creamy, and utterly decadent.

"We girls wanted to contribute in some way," Willow said,
smiling shyly.

Fern handed Jane a square package wrapped in brown paper.
"And here's the rest of our joint gift."

Jane opened the package, revealing the photograph of the purple rhododendron flower James had planned to buy for his wife.
"It's beautiful!" Jane exclaimed.

Gillian and Bennett gave them a gift certificate for a couples
massage, Lindy made them a stunning pottery fruit bowl, and
Lucy presented them with a generous gift certificate to Dolly's
Diner. The Fitzgeralds waited until all the other gifts and greeting
cards had been opened before handing James a shoebox wrapped
in the funny pages.

"Did you give them each a single shoe?" Bennett teased.

The box was stuffed with tissue paper and did not contain
footwear. Nestled at the bottom of the box was a glossy brochure
featuring a cruise ship. Inside the folded brochure were two tickets
for a five-day cruise from Norfolk to Bermuda on a massive ship
called Grandeur of the Seas.

James was flabbergasted. "You got us a cruise? To Bermuda?"

The twins bobbed their heads enthusiastically.

"This is too much!" Jane protested and James quickly agreed.
"Scott, Francis. We are really touched, but-"

"Non-refundable, Professor!" Scott announced with delight.

Francis gestured at Jackson and Milla. "We've lined up the
dates with your babysitting service here and worked it out on the
library staff vacation calendar too."

"We also called your department head to see when your summer semester would start, Mrs. Henry." Francis wore a mischievous grin. "He says to tell you, `Bon Voyage."'

"I don't know what to say..." James broke off, too moved to
continue. He and Jane bent their heads over the brochure, excitedly pointing at photographs of pink beaches. They then embraced the Fitzgerald several times until the younger men finally
pulled away.

"Seriously, we're not going to be late on our rent because of
this. See, we finally got our check from the gaming company,"
Francis explained. "It was big. Scott and I bought a pair of awesome mountain bikes for some off-road adventuring, a killer flatscreen, and two new computers with more gigs than the Pentagon's entire database." He and Scott exchanged high-fives. They
waited for their boss to respond, but his eyes had turned distant.
"Professor?"

Something Francis had said triggered James' memory. Suddenly, he gripped Scott by the sleeve. "Do you have a map of area
mountain bike trails?"

"There's one online," the startled twin answered. "Why?"

James turned to Gillian. "Can we use your computer?"

The Fitzgerald brothers followed their boss inside and spent
several seconds arguing over which site was best, but Francis finally won out and began typing. A map of Virginia covered by
green bicycle symbols appeared onscreen.

"Can you zoom in on our area?" James asked and Francis
quickly complied.

James read the names of the trails until he saw the one he recognized. "That's it!" he shouted. "Brandywine Lake!" Leaving the
befuddled Fitzgerald twins staring at the computer screen, James
raced outside. He found Lucy at the beanbag toss, engaged in an
intense match with Fern.

"Brandywine Lake!" He shouted again, grabbing her elbow.

Lucy scowled. "Hey, you're throwing off my aim!"

"Lennon loved to mountain bike. Skye told me he went every
weekend without fail. It's what he lives for. I had a short conversation with him in which he invited me along one day. He said it's
what he does to relieve stress and his favorite trail is Brandywine
Lake."

Lucy squeezed the beanbag in her hand, her eyes glinting with
excitement. "We need to circulate his photo around every trail in
the region. We have a new composite showing him with and without the dreadlocks, so even if he's changed his looks another rider
might still recognize him." Her face shone. "Good work, James.
This might be that obscure clue that ends up with me slapping
handcuffs on those two fiends!"

Pausing briefly to thank Gillian for a lovely evening, Lucy jogged
around the side of the house and disappeared from view. James returned to the table and explained what had transpired to the rest of
the ensemble.

"There's something I don't understand," Jane said to him as everyone broke into animated chatter. "Why was Roslyn so anxious
during the food festival if she was the one blackmailing Ned?"

James mulled over her question. "I don't know. Maybe Ned refused to pay her any more, forcing Lennon to get involved." He
could see Roslyn's panicked face in his mind. "Could she have actually cared about Ned? Perhaps murder had never been part of
her original plan."

Jane considered this theory. "Tia also looked scared when we
saw her at the Apple Blossom Festival. If Lennon caused her to run
away like that, then she would have been too frightened of him to
let him in her house later on. So what happened? Tia found Roslyn
standing on the doorstep and invited her in with Lennon nearby
hiding in the bushes?"

"Again, maybe Roslyn was trying to get money out of Tia without harming her. Tia would have viewed Roslyn as a potential
friend-a vegetarian and animal rights' sympathizer. She would
have let the older woman into her home without having any idea
that Roslyn was Lennon's mom. Nobody knew. After all, they don't
look alike and they have different last names."

The couple fell silent, sipping the decaf coffee Gillian had
brought to the table. They watched Lindy, Willow, and Fern play
croquet while Eliot and the Fitzgerald twins chased after fireflies.
Milla and Jackson said their goodnights and headed home. Jackson gave his son a brief hug and told him that he was still busy
creating the couple's wedding gift. Thrilled over the thought of
receiving one of his father's masterpieces, James teased, "You'd
better get some rest then. I've got a blank wall in the living room
that could do with a classy painting by Virginia's premier country
artist."

James and Jane carried dishes into Gillian's kitchen but she immediately shooed them away. "We are not going to waste this heavenly evening washing dishes. Out! Out into the night with you!"

So it was that they found themselves in a pair of wicker rockers
on the back porch. Laughter floated up from the lawn; Eliot's high
notes mingled with the low timbre of Scott, and Francis' voices.
The three women smacked mallets against croquet balls, their
comfortable prattle circling lazily upward where it caught in the
tree branches.

Reaching for Jane's hand, James lifted his eyes to the indigo sky
and sighed. His exhalation was filled with contentment. "Gillian
was right. This is heaven."

IT TOOK TWO WEEKS for a rider on the Elizabeth Furnace Trail
southeast of Strasburg to phone the tip line, saying that he believed he'd seen the man in the photograph he'd been given by
a park ranger the week before. The man was unloading his bike
from the rack of a dark green Jeep Compass.

"If it's your guy," the cyclist said to the officer fielding calls
from the tip line, "you can catch him when he comes back out.
It's a grueling, thirteen-mile trail. Even the most experienced riders have to stop for a water break, so you've got time. He might go
for a dip in the reservoir too. It's a great way to clean the sweat off
before pumping the pedals again. Just be careful, because if other
riders see a bunch of cops hanging in the parking lot, they might
warn your guy. Not because they think murder suspects are cool,"
the cyclist added defensively. "But because in general, they don't
care for authority figures."

Lucy heard about the tip and within minutes, she and Sullie
were in his Camaro heading north. "It's him. I can feel it in my
gut," Lucy said, twisting her hands in anticipation.

"You're so sexy when you're on a manhunt," Sullie answered
and then focused on speeding around any vehicle, the magnetic
siren on his roof screaming out a warning.

Arriving at the trail entrance slightly breathless and pumped
up with a surge of adrenaline, Lucy and Sullie had a quick conference with the local deputies and together, came up with a strategy
to ensure that the wanted man wouldn't slip from their grasp.

Later, Lucy would tell the supper club members how Lennon
had dismounted in the parking lot, his young face flushed and full
of satisfaction. He'd clearly had an amazing ride. The lawmen almost felt sorry for him, for it would be the last time he'd experience the sweet, invigorating taste of freedom for many years to
come.

His head was completely shaved, leaving only a hint of light
brown stubble bleached gold by the sun, and he wore a pair of
mirrored sunglasses. A sheen of sweat glistened on his smooth
skin and when Lucy and Sullie stepped up to meet him, he bolted.
A dozen local deputies and police officers were waiting at the ready
for the suspect to flee, and he was quickly flattened by a young
deputy who'd been a track star in college. His glasses flew off in
the scuffle and his eyes glimmered with rage.