Nigel smiled. “How come you want to see the Randalls again?
“Something has been nagging at me.”
“What’s that?” Nigel checked his rear-view mirror.
“Safes.”
“What?”
“You know, wall safes. The kind you find in hotel rooms and houses. Safe places for valuables. How come the safe in the Randalls’ home wasn’t opened? Andrew Pierce buys cars for cash. Cori Pierce buys jewellery in Mexico. It seems it’s all about stuff and the money to buy it with. Cash money. The kind of money found in a safe.” Lane watched the cloud of exhaust pumping out the back end of WIDE ASS. “Safes are a constant. I checked the reports. In every case there was a safe. And it appeared to be untouched. I want to know if the family remembers what was in their parents’ safe. Sometimes a second visit provides significant details, because they’ve had time to think, or they’ve noticed something is missing.”
“Melissa and David both know they’re not suspects, right?” Nigel turned off Crowchild Trail. They passed a mall, then a schoolyard. Nigel turned east, rolled past a park, and stopped in front of a new bungalow on a large lot in a neighbourhood of older houses. Its front drapes were open, and Lane saw Beth stand when she spotted the Chev. She turned to her left, calling out.
As they reached the top step, Beth opened the door. “Come in.”
Lane saw she wore a pair of furry black slippers with pink toenails, a red T-shirt, and black sweatpants. “They’re in the kitchen.” She waited for the detectives to take off their shoes, then led them through the living room and into a kitchen brightened with winter sunlight.
Lane noted the kitchen cabinets were birdseye maple. The taps, fixtures, and marble countertops were all top of the line. He looked at David Randall, who wore a pair of jeans and a blue flannel-lined shirt. Lane stepped forward, shaking hands.
David asked, “Want a cup of coffee?”
“That would be nice.” Lane turned to a brown-haired woman who was watching them warily.
“Oh, I forgot you haven’t met. This is my wife, Natalie.” David stood, moving to the counter. “Cappuccino okay?”
Nigel smiled, nodding in Lane’s direction. “You made his day.”
“Two?”
Nigel nodded. “Yes, please.”
Natalie wore a red top and black jeans. She took one hand away from her coffee cup, tucking a wayward strand of brown hair behind her ear. “Have a seat.”
Lane sat down next to Nigel. They heard coffee beans being ground. Lane watched as David set two cups under the nozzles of a chrome Pasquini espresso machine. Moments later, David set cups down in front of Lane and Nigel, then sat down himself.
David sipped from his mug, waiting.
Lane took a sip. “Very nice. Thank you.”
Nigel said, “You aren’t suspects. We checked your alibis, and you’re all in the clear.”
“What about my sister?” David asked.
“Her alibi checks out, too,” Lane said. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
“Why are you here, then?” Natalie asked.
Nigel hitched his thumb at Lane. “He wants to ask about the safe.”
“Why?” Natalie asked.
Now you’re the one being interrogated. For a moment, Lane fought the urge to wrestle back control of the interview. They aren’t suspects. They just want answers. “I can’t tell you everything, but it’s an anomaly in this case. Sometimes the answers to anomalies end up being things leading to the killer.” Lane turned to David. “What did your parents keep in the safe?”
“That’s not the question we have.” Natalie pointed at her daughter.
Lane waited. He could hear Nigel inhaling.
“A brooch and necklace are missing. Elizabeth promised them to Beth. She kept them in the safe.” Natalie kept her eyes on Lane.
“Either Aunt Peg took them or the killers did,” Beth said.
“Dad kept cash in there. It was a habit of his. He always had some on hand. It was gone when I checked. In fact, when you were at the house, I showed you the safe was empty except for a copy of their will. I was so distracted by Peg and everything else. I’ve only now begun to wonder what happened to the money.” David looked out the window at the sun sitting atop the snow-draped evergreens in Confederation Park.
Lane nodded.
Beth wiped at her eyes. “I mentioned it to Donna at Platinum. I said that everyone should keep start-over money. That’s what my grandfather called it.”
“Was there anyone around who could have overheard?” Lane asked.
“There’s always someone listening at a hair salon.” Natalie shrugged.
“Did I get them killed?” Beth asked.
Lane shook his head. “No.”
Nigel looked at Beth. “You are not responsible for what happened. We’re after the people who are.”
Lane looked at David. “How much would he keep in there?”
“Maybe three hundred thousand in cash and gold. Like Beth said, it was his start-over money.”
“There was more, actually.” Natalie set her cup down.
Everyone turned to look at her.
“Elizabeth planned to surprise everyone this weekend. It’s Beth’s birthday. She was going to go to a dealership with Beth and buy a car. Then she would tell Beth she could drive it after she got some lessons. Mom said she always wanted to go into a dealership and buy a car with cash. She’d been planning it for a year.”
Lane looked at Beth, who stared at the floor. “Do you have a description of the brooch and the necklace?”
David said, “We have pictures. Dad kept them for insurance.” He reached for an iPad.
Lane looked at Nigel, who leaned closer to see the images. The brooch and the necklace were a matched set made of a cluster of green jade stones set in rings of gold.
“Dad had them made for my mother,” David said.
“We don’t know where they went. They should have been in the safe, but…” Natalie shrugged. “We looked for them yesterday, when we went to the house.”
“Would you send us the image, please?” Nigel set down his business card, writing an e-mail address on the back.
David took the card. Then he began tapping the screen of his iPad. “Done.”
“There’s something else,” Natalie leaned forward. “I talked with Linda Sanders. Her parents were killed in Playa del Carmen. She said her mother sent her an e-mail the day before she was murdered. Her mother said she’d run into her hairdresser from home and had plans to meet her and her partner for dinner. She also told me she thought her parents were killed because they had cash and bonds stored in their room safe. They were going to invest in Mexico. Her father didn’t trust the banks down there. He thought there was too much corruption.”
Lane nodded, looking out the window. We’re close. “Did the mother mention the hairdresser by name?”
“No, but she went to the same salon as Elizabeth,” Natalie said.
Lane stood up, looking at Nigel, who looked back with an intensity Lane hadn’t seen before.
“Actually, there’s one thing we really need help with. David can’t sleep. He wakes at the smallest noise. He’s afraid the killers will come after us. Beth is the same.” Natalie looked at the detectives with tears brimming.
Nigel said, “You’ll be the first to know when we have the killers.”
In fifteen minutes the Chev was warming up and they were on their way back downtown. Nigel shifted into low as they started down a hill, preventing them from becoming a curling rock on a patch of black ice. Nigel looked in his rear-view mirror as they passed under the 16th Avenue Bridge, beginning the descent to the Bow River. “This could get real interesting.”
Lane heard the engine pick up speed. He turned, looking through a frost-framed gap in the rear window. A small grey car was doing a lazy series of circles behind them as it spun along the centre line of two lanes. “The driver is staring straight ahead. The cars behind him are slowing.”