“Is that true?”
Melanie shook her head. “Not specifically, no. I didn’t want to get involved because I wasn’t sure the deal was going to work. I know what kind of a student he was and that his first business failed.”
“You didn’t think that he’d changed,” I said.
“I just wasn’t convinced he had what it took to run a successful business.” She looked away again.
“You admitted you knew Wallace. Why wouldn’t you say the two of you went to college together?”
“Lew asked me to keep that quiet. He said most people didn’t care if you had a business that went under. It happens all the time. But he said that anytime someone found out that he’d been suspected of cheating back in college they got antsy, even though he was cleared. Two other students were expelled; one for using the stolen answers and one for stealing them.” She sighed softly. “I agreed, partly because all those years ago, with that cheating business, I was questioned, too. I had nothing to do with any of it and no one ever said I did, but I want to move up in this company. Maybe I was overreacting, but I know how people think: Where there’s smoke there’s fire. So I said yes.”
I believed her.
She got to her feet. “For what it’s worth, I know it was stupid of me in the first place to keep the fact that Lew and I knew each other in college a secret. And I just made things worse when I didn’t say anything after he was killed.” Her gaze slid away from mine again.
I believed her as far as her explanation went but I also knew she wasn’t telling me everything. That much was clear from the way she had trouble keeping eye contact. But the conversation seemed to have gone as far as it was going to for the moment. I thanked her for talking to me and headed back toward the lobby.
I was almost to the front entrance when I remembered that I had downloaded a photo of Zach Redmond onto my phone because I’d intended to ask Melanie if any of the staff might have seen him the night Lewis Wallace died. Should I go back to her office? Before I could decide I bumped into someone. My phone landed on the floor. “I’m sorry,” the young man said. Then he smiled. “Hey, Ms. Paulson.”
I smiled back. “Hi, Levi.” Levi Ericson worked part-time as a waiter at the St. James. He was a voracious reader, at the library at least once and often twice a week.
Levi bent down and picked up my phone, automatically glancing at the screen as he did. “Hey, is this guy a friend of yours?” he asked.
“Sort of,” I said as he handed my cell back to me.
“That is so great. See, the thing is, he was in here last week wearing a 1987 Guns N’ Roses T-shirt for their Appetite for Destruction European tour. That shirt is a collector’s item worth more than a thousand dollars. I’d kinda like to know where he got it.”
“He was here?” I pointed at my phone screen. “This man? You’re sure?”
Levi nodded. “Oh yeah. Like I said, collectors would spend a lot for that shirt.”
“Do you remember what day it was?” Mentally I crossed my fingers.
“Well, it could only be last Saturday night because that’s the only time I worked last week.”
Last Saturday night. The night of the murder.
I realized Levi was looking at me, a frown knotting between his eyebrows. “He’s a . . . a friend of a friend,” I said. “But I’ll ask about the shirt if I get the chance.”
Levi thanked me and headed for the back of the hotel.
I still had more questions than answers. I did think Melanie had told me the truth. I just didn’t think she’d told me all of it. And now I knew that Zach had been at the hotel the night of the murder. I’d gone from no suspects to possibly two. Now what?
chapter 14
My mind was racing and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to sleep for a while. I couldn’t think of anything I could do with respect to what I’d learned about Zach, or the fact that I still believed Melanie was hiding something, but I could do more digging into Lewis Wallace.
I sat in the middle of my bed and read the last article from the third of Burtis’s magazines. It was a follow-up to the piece they had done on a group of freshman players four years earlier. I didn’t learn anything new from the few paragraphs about Lewis Wallace but there was a photo of twenty-two-year-old Wallace and his Canadian fiancée, Julie Kendall.
Hercules had wandered in at one point and was sprawled out on my shoe.
I remembered that Melanie had mentioned Lewis Wallace might have been married briefly during his CFL playing days. “Would Julie Kendall have any reason to want her ex-husband dead?” I asked the cat.
His whiskers twitched. “Merow,” he said.
Maybe.
I stood up, stretched and headed for the bathroom to brush my teeth. Hercules followed me.
“What is Melanie still hiding?” I asked him around a mouth of toothpaste. “Whatever it is has to be connected to her and Wallace’s college days. Do you think they could have been mixed up in that cheating business somehow?” It seemed like a weak reason to kill someone.
I yawned and the cat did as well. “I don’t know,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe I’m wrong thinking Melanie did anything. Maybe it’s Zach. Maybe it was a Romulan.”
It was a busy Wednesday at the library and I didn’t really have any time to think about Melanie, Zach or rogue Romulans. Ethan and the guys were going to a concert at the high school that evening at the invitation of Ruby.
“I didn’t know you liked band music,” I said to Ethan. I had a feeling the music wasn’t the reason they were going.
“They have a jazz band,” Ethan said. “Your friend Ruby said I should definitely hear the drummer.”
Derek smirked. “And Milo thinks your friend Ruby is cute.”
That pretty much explained everything.
One of Marcus’s former colleagues on the police force was in town and some of the guys were going out with him. Marcus was going to be the designated driver. He stopped in on his way out to The Brick.
“I feel like I’ve barely seen you in the last week between this case and the one that’s on trial, plus all the extra hockey practices.” The high school girl’s hockey team had advanced to the state final. He wrapped his arms around me as we stood in the porch.
“I know,” I said. “I’m so happy to have had all this time with Ethan and I’m going to miss him like crazy when he leaves, but I do miss seeing you.” I kissed him and over his shoulder Owen winked into view on the bench where Hercules usually sat.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he said as he let me go and turned around. He started at the sight of Owen, sitting there with his head cocked to one side in seemingly innocent curiosity, looking at me.
“I walked right by Owen and didn’t even see him.” He gave his head a shake. “I think I really should get my eyes checked.”
“Maybe when this case is over,” I said. That seemed to be my answer to a lot of things.
Owen continued to eye me even after Marcus was gone.
“I’m going to tell him,” I said, a little more sharply than I’d intended.
Owen gave what sounded like a snort of derision and disappeared again.
The house seemed too quiet and I was at loose ends. I took some muffins out of the freezer. I brushed off my boots. I vacuumed cat hair off the stairs. Finally, I got out my laptop and sat on the sofa in the living room.
Zach Redmond was everywhere on social media. He liked action movies, spicy Buffalo wings and rock climbing if the pictures he posted were any indication. And he was working.
I could drive up to The Brick, I realized. I could talk to him. I could get some answers.
The place was quiet when I got there. Zach looked up and smiled as I approached the bar. I ordered ginger ale and a plate of onion rings. The rings were almost as good as the fries.