License to Shop (18 page)

I did as she asked, and we
found ourselves efficiently loaded up and on the road to the hotel
in under fifteen minutes. I was impressed at the “boys” and their
luggage-slinging ability. Not to mention the way they simply sat
where their mother told them and said absolutely nothing, to me, to
each other, or to their mother.

The vibe in the car
puzzled me. These people didn’t seem like the typical
grief-stricken family members I’d ever known before. They didn’t
ask me any questions, except for the obvious one—who had committed
the murder. It was as if they already knew most of the
answers.

They seemed…I tried to put
my finger on it. They were not so much angry, as determined. As if
they could do something about Robert’s death. Something besides
mourn him.

I suddenly wondered if
James Connery had told me everything. Was Robert Quartermaine
involved in the identity theft ring? He’d seemed like such a
likable young man.

“
I’m Molly,” I said, after
I’d turned onto the highway for the short drive to the hotel. “I
didn’t know Robert well, but I know he was well-liked on
campus.”

Instead of acknowledging
my statement, lame as it was, Mrs. Quartermaine commented, “I
expected Dr. Stubbs would be here to pick us up.”

“
She had an appointment
she couldn’t cancel, I’m afraid.” It sounded even fishier when I
said it than when Dr. Stubbs had said it. I really needed to make
sure James Connery knew about the strange way Dr. Stubbs had
avoided meeting Robert Quartermaine’s family. Not to mention the
strange way Robert’s family was acting.

As if she’d picked up on
my thinking about an FBI agent near her, Mrs. Quartermaine said, “I
hear the FBI is looking into who murdered Robert?”

“
I believe so.” I didn’t
want to sound too knowledgeable, because normally I wouldn’t have
known anything but what was common knowledge among the Admissions
staff. The spy stuff could really trip you up if you didn’t think
about what you were supposed to know versus what you actually knew.
I comforted myself with the thought that a good gossip had the same
problem.

Still acting like she knew
more about what was going on than it was possible to know, she
said, “I want to talk to them. Do you know who may be in
charge?”

I was about to lie, and
say, “No,” as we pulled under the awning at the entrance of the
hotel. And then I saw James Connery standing in the
entryway.

I pretended I was too busy
putting the car in gear and turning off the engine while I thought
about how to guide her to making the conclusion I wanted her to
make. I was almost surprised she didn’t already know.

Hitting upon the perfect
way, I said, “Do you think they may want to talk to
you?”

She seemed nonplussed for
about a micro second, and then she asked sharply, “Why would you
ask that?”

I pointed to Connery.
“Because that guy there looks like an FBI agent to me.”

One of Rob’s brothers
broke the silence of the brothers and said, “I think she’s right,
Ma. He definitely looks like a fed.”

James Connery pretended not to know me, but he
did approach the tiny woman to help her out of the SUV, and
introduce himself. “Mrs. Quartermaine? I’m Agent Connery from the
FBI. We’re investigating your son’s death, and I had some questions
for you and your sons, if you don’t mind.”

“
I have some questions for
you, too,” she said without skipping a beat.

His left eyebrow went up,
just a teensy bit. The green eyes took in the family, skipping
lightly over me. “I’ve taken the liberty of reserving the hotel
conference room. If you and your sons will join me there after
you’ve settled in, I would appreciate it.”

I went up to the front
desk, gave them the reservation information, and reassured them
that the university would be paying for the Quartermaine’s
stay.

“
I need a purchase order
number, then,” the clerk said sourly.

“
Of course.” I scanned the
information that Kecia had printed out for me, but didn’t see a PO
number on it. “Can you just get them into their rooms, please, and
I’ll call and get that order number for you.”

She sighed, as if I’d
asked her to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and then caught sight of the
very handsome trio of brothers. Suddenly, she was so busy flirting
that I suspected I could have walked out without giving her any
more information. Not that I would have done that.

I called the Admissions
office, hoping Kecia would be there to pick up. She was.

“
Kecia, I’ve delivered the
Quartermaines to the hotel, but the desk clerk needs a purchase
order number.”

“
I didn’t give you that?”
She sounded apologetic. “I’m so sorry.” She rattled off the number
to me, and I wrote it down, repeated it, and thanked
her.

“
Molly,”

“
Yes?”

“
Please let the
Quartermaines know that Dr. Stubbs has arranged to pick them up and
take them out to dinner. She’ll be there at five.”

“
Will do,” I said. “And
you let Dr. Stubbs know that the FBI is interviewing the family in
the hotel conference room, so they may be a little
late.”

“
The FBI?” Kecia sounded
shocked.

“
I guess they want to know
if his family has any information about why someone would kill
him,” I offered lamely. I kept forgetting that most people didn’t
even know about the identity-theft operation.

“
Right. Of course. I’ll
let Dr. Stubbs know.” She said, “And you don’t need to come back
in. It’s already past four. I’ll see you tomorrow
morning.”

“
Bright and early,” I
said, trying not to think of what this airport side trip has cost
me in terms of my competition with Penny, who had no doubt been
powering her way through her stack of files all
afternoon.

I hurried over to the
elevator to tell the Quartermaines about Dr. Stubb’s intentions for
dinner.

“
Excellent. I will speak
with her when I’m finished with him.” She indicated James Connery
with a tilt of her head.

“
Again, I’m so sorry. I’ll
see you tomorrow at the memorial service.”

“
Thank you, Molly. I
appreciate your candid nature.”

Candid? I guess she meant
the part about pointing out the FBI. How little she
realized.

As soon as the elevator
door closed upon the Quartermaines, James Connnery grabbed my
elbow. “Find anything for me yet, Molly?”

I thought of the envelope
of evidence that was sitting in my car, tucked into my lunch bag.
“Yes. Do you want it?”

He followed me out, trying
to look like we didn’t know each other. I gave him the bag of
evidence. “I don’t think it means anything, but your guys missed it
in their first sweep, so I thought you should have it.”

He smiled at me, the
patented charming smile I was learning to ignore. “Good girl,
Molly. Is there anything else?”

“
That family seems more
like they came to track down Robert Quartermaine’s killer than to
grieve his loss at a memorial service.” I hadn’t mentioned the
thumb drive. I would give that to him tomorrow, at the memorial
service.

His attention focused on
me, before he smiled again, this time the real smile, the one that
told me I’d noticed something he didn’t expect me to. “They have
some organized crime connections, through the dead Mr.
Quartermaine. Supposedly, though, the brothers are all out of the
family business.”

“
So you suspect Robert of
running the identity-theft ring?” I let my annoyance sound in my
voice. “I could have used that information yesterday, when I was
searching his office.”

“
Someone was running the
ring from the Admissions Office, we know that. But we don’t have
proof that it was Robert.”

“
Most of the staff is away
this week, but it could be any of them. Do you want me to look in
everyone’s office?” There was a good chance doing that would get me
in trouble, so I hoped he said no.

“
Not unless you see
something suspicious. The activity we were monitoring stopped as of
Robert Quartermaine’s death. That could mean it was him, or that
someone killed him so that we’d think it was him.”

“
Wouldn’t they have
planted evidence on his laptop, and left it, then?”

He laughed. “You watch too
many cop shows.”

I do, but I wasn’t going
to admit that to him. “When does Martie get back? She’d give me
better intel, so I can find what you’re looking for.”

“
You’re out of luck. She
won’t be back before we wrap this up.”

“
You sound pretty
confident, then, that it was Robert. Have you given up on Henriette
Stubbs?”

“
Investigating the
Quartermaines gave me some useful information. Apparently, Robert
wasn’t quite the happy superstar Henriette thought him. He was
planning to go to work for the family brokerage firm in the near
future.”

“
I wonder if she knew?” I
didn’t think so. “Maybe his death has nothing to do with the
identity-theft ring, and he just made Henriette angry when he told
her he was going to leave.”

I was certain I’d cracked
the murder, for about ten seconds. Then I shook my head. “No.
Henriette was at my mother’s presentation. We were all locked in
together.”

He shook his head. “That
doesn’t rule her out. Quartermaine was killed on his way to work.
The killer hid his body well enough, behind a dumpster, that he
wasn’t discovered until the dumpster was emptied.”

Too bad. I would have
liked to know I wasn’t working for a murderer. “So do you want me
to try to look into Henriette Stubbs’ office? She’s very neat. I
bet any clues would be all neat and tidy, too.” I was getting
frustrated. Nothing he told me helped me know where to look for
clues.

“
That’s a good idea. Maybe
check out the Assistant Director, too.”

“
He’s away, and his office
is locked, so that could be tricky.”

“
You can do it.” He spoke
with conviction, but I didn’t know what it was based
upon.

“
Do you want to give me a
few hints? Tell me what to look for?”

He shrugged. “Look for the
least likely connections, in the least likely places.”

He tucked the bag of
evidence I’d given him into his jacket pocket. “Who knows, maybe
you already found it, and the answer is in here.”

Or in the thumb drive I
still hadn’t given him. I looked toward the hotel entrance, so that
he couldn’t read the guilt in my face. “Good luck with her,” I
said. “She’s one tough cookie.”

He laughed, as if he
thought I had made a joke. “You really need to join up, Molly.
You’re good at this.”

I thought about his
partner Martie, off on family vacation. I wondered how many nights
of the week she ate dinner with her family. Maybe I’d ask her, when
she got back from vacation. Just in case the job in Admissions fell
through.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

Home Again,
Home Again, Jiggety Jig

I felt a little like a slacker in the real
employee department, coming home so early. But as it was the first
day of having Norma watch the kids, I wasn’t going to pass up the
opportunity to check in and see how things were going.

Things were going pretty
well at Norma’s, even though the volcano had not yet
erupted.

Norma didn’t seem all that
surprised to see me show up early. “We had a delay in the volcano
eruption schedule,” she explained.

“
Mom.” Anna ran over to
hug me. “I’m so glad you came back!” Her enthusiasm was a little
daunting, as it implied she had thought there was a possibility I
might not.

“
I’m so glad you missed
me,” I joked, squeezing her into a quick, thorough hug. Too soon, I
knew, these hugs would be rare.

She stepped back and
frowned. “I don’t want to go home yet. The volcano is going to
erupt in a few minutes.”

“
I wouldn’t dream of
taking you away from a volcano eruption,” I reassured
her.

“
You can watch, too,” she
cried as she ran back to the volcano preparation team, which was
doing I couldn’t tell what.

“
How was Ryan?” I asked
Norma, worried. I had hoped he’d have let himself be persuaded to
join Elliott, Anna, and the rest of Team Volcano, but apparently
not.

“
Fine. He walked back with
us after school, and we brought him a snack—homemade applesauce and
ginger raisin cookies—about a half an hour ago.”

I was glad the kale
smoothie idea had been nixed. “Thanks. I think I’ll go see if he
wants to witness the eruption.”

I let Anna stay, and
walked back over to our house to check on Ryan. He was playing a
video game, his headphones on, oblivious to my approach. He jumped
when I touched his shoulder.

He turned around to look
at me, shoving the headphones down to his neck. “You’re
early.”