Sarah Woods Mystery Series (Volume 3) (27 page)

Chapter 6

When I got back to my car, I noticed there was a new message on my phone from Brian.

Hey, mom
. Sorry, but I have classes all day so can’t do lunch. I can come home tomorrow night 4 dinner. Let me know, okay? Love you.

It had been months since I’d seen my son, and I was thrilled at the prospect of spending time with him; although I knew I shouldn’t get my hopes up. He was notorious for cancelling plans. I called him back and left a message on his voicemail.

Sounds great. I’ll take you out for pizza. See you then. Love you!

Next, I called Candice.

She seemed very eager to find out
about my talk with Gregory so she suggested we meet for lunch at her favorite place in town.

Molly’s turned out to be a quaint, self-serve, deli style restaurant
. I loaded up a tray of turkey sandwiches, potato salad and cups of fresh fruit. I found a private table near the back and waited for Candice to arrive while nibbling on cantaloupe cubes.

Ten minutes later she walked into the place and found me
. She looked frazzled.

“I’m so sorry I’m late.
” She sat across from me and leaned in, elbows resting on the table.

“No problem. I was hungry so I got us some lunch. Help yourself
.”

Candice ignored the food and got right down to business.
“Did you record the conversation with Gregory?”

I placed my cell phone on the table
. “He says some things about your mom that might upset you. So, just be prepared, okay?”

She
nodded anxiously.

I started the recording
. During the ten-minute conversation, Candice listened intently.

When the recording stopped, Candice stared at
me in disbelief.

“He’s lying. Mom wasn’t screwing around. She would’ve told me.”

“I know you two were very close,” I said “but maybe she was embarrassed to tell you. Maybe she thought you’d think less of her.”

Candice shook her head. “You don’t understand. My mom told me everything.”

“Are you sure?” I said, remembering what Shelly said about the abortions and promiscuity. “If she was having an affair that guy could be another potential suspect. It’s worth looking into.”

She didn’t seem convinced. “Okay, you can look into it, but what about Gregory?”

“Oh, I’m not done with Gregory. I’m just getting started with him. However, I could use your help with something.”

“Of course
. What do you need?”

“What can you tell me about Gregory? His family, friends, where he grew up, stuff like that.”

“Well, his parents are gone, but he has a brother. His name’s Ryan and I think he lives in Florida now. He hasn’t been around in a while.”

“Any other siblings?”

“No. There’s a cousin from his dad’s side named Jake. He’s been in Afghanistan for over a year.”

“How about friends?”

“He has some buddies over at the country club he belongs to, but his best friend is a guy he went to college with. His name is Charlie Cox.”

“Where does he live
?”

“
Connecticut. Why?”

I debated whether or not to tell her about my theory, but decided to go ahead. “If Jasmine didn’t poison the joint, then someone must have shown up at you’re mother’s office after Jasmine left. It wasn’t Gregory because he was out of the country, but he could have had help from a friend or a family member. Someone he trusted but, also, someone your mother knew.”

Candice nodded slowly. “Okay. So how will you find out?”

“Well, we’ll have to secure alibis for all of Gregory’s friends and family who were in the area on the night your mom died. I’d also like to go to your mom’s office and have a look around, unless you already cleared the space out.”

“The landlord said I didn’t have to move her things out until the lease expires at the end of this month. I can give you the key. The woman who leases the space next to her is Amy Chang. She and mom were friends. If she’s around, you should talk to her, too. She was there that night?”

“She was?”

“Yeah. When I discovered my mom’s body on the floor, I must have screamed, although I don’t remember doing that. Amy came over to see what happened. She was the one who called 911 as I was doing CPR.”

“Okay. Carter and I will go there first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to talk to Ms. Chang. I’ll be interested to find out if she remembers anyone coming or leaving the office after Jasmine left and, speaking of Jasmine, I’d like to go to the prison and talk to her. Any idea when
visiting hours are?”

“I think it is t
welve to three,” she said. “Monday through Saturday.”

“Thanks Candice
,” I said. “I should head home and get started looking through your mom’s laptop. Maybe something interesting will turn up there.”

Chapter 7

When I got back to my apartment, I called Carter to see how he made out with his research and I filled him in on my day. I told him about meeting Gregory Frazier.

“What’s your impression of the guy?” he asked.

“He was very polite and answered all my questions without hesitation, but he got a little defensive when I asked about his girlfriend.”

Carter asked, “Did he tell you her name?”

“No, and I didn’t ask. I don’t want him to think he’s a suspect. If he knows we’re looking into him, he might make things difficult. At any rate, can you do some research on Gregory’s brother, Ryan Frazier, and his best friend, Charlie Cox?”

“What do you know about them?”

“They both live out of state. According to Candice, the brother lives in Florida and Charlie lives in Connecticut. It would be nice to know if one of them just happened to be in Cambridge on the night of April third.”

“I’m on it,” he said.

“Also, I think we need to talk to Jasmine face to face, to get her version of what happened that night. Want to make a trip tomorrow with me to the Framingham Correctional Facility? Visiting hours start at noon. It takes two hours to get there.”

“Sure,” he said. “I’ll drive. Pick you up at ten?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Chapter 8

Later that evening, I made myself a sandwich and had a glass of wine for desert. I settled in on the sofa and searched through Melanie’s laptop.

There was a file called
Photos.
I clicked on it and found an album with hundreds of photographs, mostly of Candice at different ages. School pictures, prom, and high school graduation. Melanie was in a few of the photos, standing beside her daughter. I could tell they were close, just by the way they looked at each other with adoring smiles. Melanie had a youthful essence to her. She was trim and stylish; she’d clearly taken care of herself. I’m sure the money had helped in that department. She could have easily been mistaken for Candice’s older sister.

I also noticed that Gregory was absent from most of the photos. Perhaps he was always the one taking the shots.

There were a dozen emails in her inbox, some of which hadn’t been read. There were no e-mails from friends or potential lovers. In fact, there seemed to be no personal e-mails at all mostly solicitations. There were a handful of emails from Greta Stone whom, I surmised, had to be Melanie’s publishing agent. Greta was very concerned that Melanie hadn’t sent the first draft of the new book and, with each subsequent email, her anxiety seemed to increase.

I wondered about that. W
hy had Melanie struggled to write her autobiography? What did she plan to write about? Did it have anything to do with her unsavory past?

The next thing I found rather odd was the fact that all of the files in her Microsoft Word program were missing. Where was the manuscript in progress? Certainly there’d be notes or a rough draft at least. Even if she had saved her work to a hard drive, the files would still be present in the program unless she had deleted them on purpose. I made a note to remind myself to ask Candice about it later.

Next, I noticed there was a calendar application and, when I clicked on it, the month of April showed up on the screen. Melanie’s schedule. On Friday, April third, there were four entries.

9:00am C.H.

12:30pm Libby

7:00pm Jasmine

7:30pm Candice.

As I stared at the entries and scratched my head, I wondered who
C.H.
and
Libby
were.

Since it was only eight o’clock, I called Candice to see if she might know. She answered on the second ring.

“Sarah?” she asked. “Did you find something?”

“I was just going through your mother’s laptop and I have a few questions.”

“Sure,” she said, her voice hesitant. “What are they?”

“On the day of April third, your mom had a meeting at 9:00 with C H. Do those initials ring a bell to you?”

A slight pause. “C H? Nothing comes to mind.”

“How about twelve-thirty with Libby?”

“That one’s easy. Libby Lenore is my mom’s massage therapist. She has her own studio in Cambridge. A few blocks from my mom’s office.”

“Really?” I said. “I used to be a massage therapist before I became a private detective. How often did your mom see her?”

“She’s been going to mom for years. About twice a month, I think.”

I made note of that.

“Okay,” I said, moving along to the next topic. “The other question is about your mother’s work files. I expected to find a draft of the autobiography, but I could not find any files. Did she use a separate computer just for work?”

“I don’t think so,” Candice said. “I’ve looked all through my mom’s office for a USB storage file, but didn’t find anything like that.”

“Don’t you think it’s odd that her book files would just disappear?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I guess I just figured I’d come across them at some point.”

“Well, it’s getting late,” I said. “I won’t keep you. Carter and I are going to visit Jasmine tomorrow so I’ll give you a call after that.”

“Sure,” Candice said. “Thanks again for doing this, Sarah. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“I think I do,” I replied. “I understand what it feels like to lose a mother. My mom died of cancer years ago. She was too young to go.”

“Were you two close?” she asked.

“Very close. But I speak from experience when I say; the pain you’re feeling now will fade. You will always miss her but, trust me, time heals all things.”

“Thanks Sarah,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I’ll try to remember that.”

* * *

Around 9:45, I was getting ready for bed when Carter called back.

He said, “I got some information on Ryan Frazier and Charlie Cox.”

“That was fast. What did you find?”

“Gregory’s younger brother is forty-one, married and he and his wife moved back to Boston from Florida about six months ago.”

“Really?” I said. “What does he do for work?”

“He’s a bartender. Works at a night club called Cinderella.” Carter cleared his throat. “It’s a gay bar.”

“Is he married to a woman or a man?” I asked.

“A woman I presume. Her name is Heather. As far as I can tell, she’s unemployed at the moment. Neither of them has a criminal record.”

“Okay,” I said. “So Heather and Ryan Frazier moved back to Boston six months ago. Any idea why?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Maybe it’s not important,” I replied. “What about Charlie Cox?”

“He and Gregory were roomies at UConn in the late eighties
. He’s forty-six, lives in Connecticut. No wife. No kids. He works for a company called Aldridge Corporation. He’s been a salesman there for over ten years and he travels all over New England, mostly Boston and Manhattan. He has no criminal history but a few DWI’s. I just sent you an email with all the information and a few photos I found online. ”

It never ceased to amaze me how fast Carter could acquire information
. “This is a huge help,” I said. “Thanks.”

“I’m not done,” Carter said
. “I made a few calls and found out that Charles was in Boston from April second to the fourth.”

I paused to catch my breath
. “No shit. He was in town when Melanie died?”

Carter chuckled. “Yep.”

“A woman named Amy Chang leases an office next to Melanie’s. She was there on the night of April third. Let’s show her photos of Ryan and Charlie. Maybe she’ll remember seeing one of them that night.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Back on my laptop, I opened the email from Carter and clicked on the attachment. The first link led me to a Facebook page for Ryan Frazier. The profile picture showed a couple in their early forties. Ryan looked similar to Gregory but, unlike his older brother, he had a full head of brown hair neatly trimmed. He was handsome in an effeminate sort of way. His wife next to him or, rather, I assumed it was his wife,  had straight blonde hair and blue eyes. Both of them were very attractive. Ryan Frazier’s profile was set to private so I could not peruse any of his pictures. I clicked on his wife’s page and her photos were private as well. Too bad. I was intrigued by this couple and wanted to see more.

The next link brought me to Charlie Cox. He didn’t have a Facebook page but he did have a profile on LinkedIn. His photo surprised me. For a guy in his mid-forties, he looked much younger. He had red hair parted on the side and not a strand out of place, like it was all stuck together with Elmer’s glue. His skin was pale and freckly, and he wore wire-rimmed glasses.

I printed out photos of both Ryan and Charlie and tucked them into my bag. I decided I’d better get to bed. Tomorrow would be a long day.