Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series) Read online

  “Why was it weird?” my mother asked.

  “In the email she said she had some information he really needed to hear. He claims he never received the email and he had no idea who Maria was or why she would be writing to him.”

  “Do you believe him?” Sam asked.

  “Well, he claims the email probably went into a spam account, which makes sense because it was a business account and they usually have a lot of filters. And he did seem to be truly bewildered. He wanted me to let him know if I found out anything, which sounded a little odd, but I guess I would be curious, too.” Who was I kidding? A strange woman says she has info for me and then gets murdered? Of course I would want to know more. “So I guess that’s it for suspects,” I concluded.

  “No. You forgot someone,” Meme said. “That girlfriend with the big hair.”

  Right. A woman who loved Sergei and thought they were getting married issues him an ultimatum and probably starts to realize he had no intention of leaving the wife. Maybe she fixed it so the wife would leave permanently.

  Chapter Forty

  The next day I spent all morning at my office. I really did need to catch up on things plus Deanna Moffet was stopping by in the afternoon on her way home and I wanted to have some firm leads ready for her. There were job fairs and resources through the university but sometimes having connections was more help and I did know a lot of people.

  Millie, Sam, and Marla converged on my office about eleven-thirty but as they were bearing food, I let them stay.

  “When’s the big move?” I asked Millie.

  “This weekend. I can’t wait. Reuben and I have been doing some shopping and you know, it’s going to be fun having my own home.”

  “You seem to have gotten over your hesitations.”

  “I did, Alex, thanks to you and my mom and Gran. They’re so happy for me. Gran is making curtains for the kitchen and my mother is reupholstering an old chair Reuben has. Poor guy doesn’t know what hit him.”

  “You have to train them from the get-go, Millie,” Marla said. “From the get-go. Greg didn’t know what hit him either. Once we were married both my mother and his descended on us like ants at a picnic and turned our shabby little apartment into a palace. So, ladies, what’s everyone doing for the weekend?” Marla asked.

  “On Saturday we’re getting tattoos just like Alex,” Sam said, and Millie and Marla turned to look at me.”

  “You did not! Let’s see,” Marla squealed with delight.

  I pulled up my gray slacks and showed them. “By the way, it’s fake. I didn’t want to say anything last night because teasing Mom was just too much fun.”

  “Fake? Okay, now I have to have one, too.”

  “Well, come with us, Marla. You, too, Millie, then we’ll help you move,” I said.

  Everyone left my office and I grabbed the newspaper Marla had left on my desk. News always seemed to be bad so I tried to adhere to the belief that what I didn’t know wouldn’t hurt me, but something caught my eye. I continued to read the article about an area land developer and a certain section of New Haven that he had his eye on. As I continued to read it became abundantly clear this was the area in which George Shruder lived. I glanced at my watch. I had several hours before my meeting with Deanna. I grabbed my bag and car keys and told Millie I’d be back shortly.

  It was the middle of the day so I figured I had a good chance of catching George at home. How many people needed a violin player in the afternoon? I thought back to the email exchange George had with his sister over the course of a couple of weeks. He went from being very upset with the prospect of her selling the place to begging her to sell it to him. Had George known about the developer? Did he find out just in time and decided he could buy it from his sister and then turn it around for a tidy profit or did he just not want to have to move from the family home. The article said the developer, a Mr. Terrell Cotswall, was having a difficult time with the city planners. While the area wasn’t designated as a historical part of town the houses were old and there would be a lot of opposition to tearing down these beautiful homes along with the beautiful trees that lined all the streets for whatever Mr. Cotswall had in mind. Did George really think it would go through? And even if it did, how long would it take?

  I pulled up in front of the house and made my way to the front door. I rang the bell and heard nothing. I rang it once more and getting no response I made my way around to the side. The gate was locked and I wasn’t about to climb over it. I went back to my car and sat for a few minutes deciding what to do. A car approached from the other end of the block and pulled into the drive. George Shruder got out and I called out to him.

  “Again.” George shook his bird-like head. “What can I do for you today?”

  I followed him into the house. “I wanted to ask you if you knew about Terrell Cotswall before or after your sister died?”

  “Terrell who?” George asked though I saw a flicker of recognition in his eyes.

  “You know exactly who I’m talking about.”

  George put up his hands in a surrender fashion. “Fine. You got me. So I wanted the house so I could sell it to Mr. Cotswall but before you go accusing me of killing my sister again, it seems highly unlikely he will be able to pull off his latest development scheme. Hardly anyone around here wants to sell except me and the city will never push it through no matter how “connected” Terrell thinks he is. New Englanders are so protective of their heritage.”

  “But you didn’t know that at the time. And you lied to me when you said this house meant so much to you. Obviously, it doesn’t. You just wanted to sell it for a nice profit to a developer.”

  “You’re right. At the time of my sister’s death I didn’t know the deal most likely would fall through, but it doesn’t really matter. This house is a wonderful investment with or without Terrell Cotswall and it is my home.” George stopped talking and looked around the room. I could swear I saw his eyes become misty. “And while I admit I would have sold I’m almost glad I don’t have to because I do love it here. I’m not sure where I would have gone if it sold.”

  “Forgive me for asking, but even inheriting the house, there must be a lot of costs involved like taxes and upkeep. Are you going to be able to manage all that?”

  George thought about this for a few moments. “I should be fine. I didn’t have to use any of my savings to buy it outright so what I saved there will cover the taxes.”

  I sat in my car a few minutes later wondering what I had just learned. Nothing. A big fat nothing. George was correct; with or without selling to Terrell Cotswall, the house was worth every penny—pennies that George Shruder, in the end, never had to part with because his sister was kind enough to die before he had to come up with the money.

  Chapter Forty-One

  I drove back to the office feeling let down. What? Did I think the man was just going to confess he killed his sister so he could sell the house and turn a big profit? George Shruder was still on my list of likely candidates for murder. I just didn’t have any proof. Yet.

  I got back to the office in time for my three o’clock interview. After that I had just enough time to make a cup of tea before Millie poked her head in to say Deanna Moffet had arrived.

  Like the other day at the university, Deanna was dressed simply but with elegance. She still had the small nautical earrings but today she wore a gray pencil skirt with a pale pink blouse.

  She took a seat and put her briefcase down. “I love your offices. Very cozy. Thanks for seeing me today. I live in Westport so this is on my way home. Can you tell I’m anxious to get things moving?”

  Deanna was a bit more animated today but that was probably because I wasn’t interrogating her like I had on Monday. At least not yet. I still had some questions for her.

  We spent the next forty minutes going over the files she had brought and the companies I had contacted. I would work with Millie to get the graduates in for testing and then hopefully we could start placing them in t
he temp positions I had managed to secure so far.

  “Deanna, if you have a few minutes I’d like to ask you a few more questions.”

  “About Maria? Of course. What do you need to know?”

  “No, not Maria. Do you think Nadine could be violent?”

  “Nadine?” Deanna looked bewildered and then her eyes grew wide like a thought had just hit her. “Do you think Nadine may have killed Maria over the job? Gosh, I never thought about that and the truth is Nadine never struck me as violent. Pushy, yes. Ambitious. Maybe. But I believe I told you Nadine is lazy. Ambition can only carry you so far. After that you have to put in the work.”

  “What did you think of the two of them working together on Maria’s business?”

  “Quite frankly, I couldn’t believe Maria would give up her position at the university to start a Web site business, but she saw an opportunity there and went for it. Sunk a ton of money into it. As far as working with Nadine went, there again, that was just Maria using her. I didn’t see it as a long-term partnership. But I see where you’re going with this. If Nadine looked at it that way and felt slighted by Maria once again, well, I have no idea what she would do. Since Nadine moved over to the main building I haven’t spoken to her other than a wave now and then. I’m afraid I can’t speak to her current state of mind.”

  A commotion out front caught my attention and a second later Ellery Kravec burst into my office.

  “Sorry, Alex, but you have to do something. That Nena Connick just won’t leave my dad alone!”

  Millie rushed in and took Ellery into the kitchen while I finished up with Deanna.

  “I’m so sorry about that.”

  “Was that Ellery? Maria’s daughter?” Deanna asked as she gathered up her things.

  “You know her?”

  “We met a couple of times when she would stop by to visit her mom. That poor girl.”

  I showed Deanna out promising to get the files back to her and then went into the kitchen.

  “Ellery, what on earth happened?”

  “That stupid woman won’t leave my dad alone. She went over to his shop. Can you believe that? I went over on my lunch today to get a sandwich and talk to my dad and in she came. Caused a big scene until my dad could get her into the back room. Can you do something?”

  “Me? Like what?”

  “Tell her my dad isn’t interested. Tell her she was nothing but a piece of—. Just tell her to stay away. She’ll listen to you. Because if she shows up again, it’ll be the last thing she does!”

  Ellery left and Millie and Sam came into my office.

  “Alex, I’m so sorry. She just rushed right by before I even had a chance to get out of my chair.”

  “It’s okay, Millie. She’s distraught. Her mother dies, her father’s girlfriend shows up, her dad might be on his way to prison.” I shook my head.

  “Well, you need to find the killer before the cops cart him off. What would we do without his turkeys for Thanksgiving and his prime rib at Christmas?”

  I wasn’t sure my sister was kidding. She took her food very seriously, but she did have a point. I really needed to get a handle on this entire situation because if I didn’t Ellery and her dad just might be sharing a cell.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  A lamp was shining through the living room window of the Corliss home when I drove up. I didn’t see any movement in the living room but maybe they were in the kitchen having dinner. I probably should have considered the hour when I left my office, but I didn’t and now I was here.

  As soon as Millie and Sam had left my office I started thinking. I had a lot of really good suspects. They all had good motives—at least to their way of thinking—and I didn’t need to worry about alibis. I couldn’t seem to find any actual proof of anything so I figured maybe I should start by eliminating suspects. Frank Corliss seemed like a good candidate to be moved to the other column on my mental list.

  “Ms. Harris. Come on in. I’m sorry but my wife isn’t home right now. She’s working late. Taking as much overtime as she can get.”

  “As a matter of fact, it’s you I came to see.”

  “I don’t know what else I can tell you. You caught me on that lie, but I promise that’s all I was lying about. I just didn’t want Carol to know I talked to the woman. It would have upset her more and then she might have started to think I actually killed Mrs. Kravec.”

  “And did you?”

  Frank Corliss looked at me with his pale eyes. “You’re a brave one. You either don’t think I killed her or you’ve got a gun in your purse or a bunch of cops outside waiting.” He walked over to the window and looked out onto the dark street. “I don’t see any cops and you don’t look like a person with a gun.” He sat down on a foot stool and leaned forward, elbows on his knees and fingers laced together.

  “I’m not a killer. I don’t think I could ever kill anyone unless they were hurting my kids. So, no, I didn’t kill Maria Kravec. She was just some lady writing a blog trying to round up some controversy to get attention for that Farmaceuticals site of hers. It didn’t matter if it was my restaurant or some other schmuck’s.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “I think we’ve gotten to the point in our friendship where you can feel free to ask me anything,” he said with a smile, showing that despite everything, Frank had a sense of humor and the Corliss family would survive.

  “Do you think the failure of your restaurant was due solely to Maria’s blog?”

  Mr. Corliss ran a hand over the stubble on his chin. “It was Carol’s idea. I’m not blaming her. It sounded like a good plan at the time, having our own business. Building something for our family. I don’t know if it takes a lot of college education or a lot of luck or what, but for whatever reason the stars were not aligned for us. We’re hard working people but what do we know about running a restaurant except my wife is a great cook. It was easy to blame the blog; a good way to save face with our friends, but things never went the way we hoped from the very beginning. Restaurants are a tricky business. Truth is, I’m kind of glad we’re done with it. I was just so darned tired all the time.”

  “But your wife told me things were going well, that you got a good review in the paper.”

  “We did and for a time people did start coming, but this was after over a year of being in business. And when I say people started coming I’m not talking about a stampede. Sure, business picked up, then it kind of leveled off and then the blogs started going round. I guess we’ll never know for sure if we could have made a go or not, but like I said, it was all so much work. We never had any time for anything not even our kids and I didn’t like that. It’s better now with two regular jobs and Carol is thinking of taking on some catering jobs on the weekend. She really does love to cook and the catering will make her feel like she has her own little business again.”

  I thanked Frank Corliss confident I could cross him off my list of suspects for good. I headed home and was surprised and happy to see John’s car in the driveway. I hadn’t given a second thought to dinner but we had the bread and meats and cheese from Sergei’s shop and I had some leftover soup in the freezer I could heat up.

  John wrapped his arms around me the minute I walked in the door and then I went upstairs and changed into sweats. I returned to the kitchen where John had set the table with the stuff from Sergei’s shop and two steaming bowls of tortilla soup.

  “This is good. I didn’t realize how hungry I was,” I said reaching for a piece of gouda cheese and another chunk of bread.

  “Why were you late? Busy at work?” John asked.

  I leaned back in my chair and brought my right leg up onto the seat. “I stopped by the Corliss home. Do you want to hear this? I know we agreed to not talk about the case.”

  “I’m at a point where a new perspective on things might help,” John sighed.

  “You, too, huh? Well, I think you can take Frank and Carol Corliss off the list of suspects. Frank pretty much admitted
their restaurant was doomed even before Maria’s blog. They needed someone to blame but they’re both back to work and rebuilding their savings. I just can’t see them killing her.”

  “What are your thoughts on Nadine Davis and Ryan Reynolds?”

  “Ryan, I haven’t quite figured out yet but Nadine was at the top of my list, though now I’m not so sure.”

  John got up and refilled his soup bowl. “Want a little more?” I passed him my bowl. John came back to the table and asked, “What’s giving you hesitation on Nadine?”

  “I talked with her yesterday and with Maria dead, she’s re-thinking the whole Web site business. I figured she killed Maria because Maria fired her and refused to give her any part of the business, but now she acts like she really doesn’t care.”

  “She may have killed her for that exact reason and then changed her mind. Tell me the truth, does this blog and vegan products thing sound like a sound business opportunity to you?” John asked.

  I took a bite of the roast beef sandwich I had put together and thought this over a bit. “No, I guess not and from what Ellery told me Maria used up all her savings on developing new products and buying others and as far as I can tell neither Ryan nor Nadine have any money.”

  “So where are they? The products, I mean. There’s nothing on the site except Maria’s blogs and a page saying that the Farmaceuticals line is coming soon.

  “The stuff arrived. I saw the boxes the other day. Speaking of boxes, what’s that one over on the counter?’

  “Ellery dropped it off. Said there were some things from Maria’s home office that you might want to look at.”

  “Hmmm. I’ll get to it later.” I turned and looked directly at John and pulled up the leg of my sweats. “Right now there’s something I’d like to show you.”