The Victim's Wife Read online

  Winston must have picked up on my annoyance because he continued. “The last time we met, I brought to your attention the partner who was murdered. I looked into that, and it turns out the police are confident that the murderer doesn’t look anything like our guy Mason. There was security camera footage that caught a glimpse of the murderer from the back as he left the partner’s property.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You talked to the cops on this one?”

  Ever since he had left the department, Winston had been no fan of the local police. He was loath to interact with them, but it happened from time to time.

  “I still have a couple of friends over there who are sometimes willing to do me favors.”

  “Did you see the security cam footage yourself?”

  “No, but my source snapped a picture of the suspect with her phone from the footage.” Winston opened up his bag, pulled out a binder, and then slid a photograph over to me. “It’s not the best picture. As you can see, this does not look like Mason at all. Also, please keep this to yourself. I like having this source.”

  I nodded. “At least we’re not going to have to deal with two murder trials at once. That’s good, right?”

  Winston gave me a mirthless grin as he leaned forward. “I wish I had more for you, but that’s pretty much it. It is a little strange that Vivian was with Ronald but is now with Frank.” He shrugged. “I don’t see any relationship between that and Mason and Max, or Max’s death.”

  I leaned back and put my hands behind my head. “There’s another angle I want you to research. I want you to learn everything you can about the victim’s wife; her name is Penny Moyer.”

  Winston jotted down a note. “How much time do you want me to spend on this?”

  “Let’s keep it at five hours, for now, just do a peripheral investigation, see if she has any relationship to anybody else mixed up in this. Partners. High-level executives. Anybody. I don’t mind if you want to follow her for a couple of hours if you feel like it’s gonna get something fruitful.”

  Winston arched an eyebrow. “You know something you’re not telling me?”

  “More like I’m guessing at something I’m not saying.”

  After Winston left my office, I leaned back in my chair and cursed aloud. “Why on earth did I ever let Penny convince me to put my nose into this case? Why did I go to Mason’s house and give him false hope that there was something more I could do for him?”

  My instincts usually turned out to be good. But in this case, it looked like they had gone haywire.

  25

  “I’ll give you twenty-five to life,” Cindy said after taking a bite of her sandwich and swallowing it before following it up with a swig of Coke. “That’s my best.”

  “This is not first-degree murder,” I said, “the man got worked up and the environmental factors played against him.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Cindy said, giving me a smile that I recognized as one I had found irresistible back in the day. I had a sense she was trying a good cop/bad cop thing on me. She had not brought up her former ultimatum and was acting as if nothing had happened. “I think you’re misguided. You know your guy did it, and you’re grasping at straws.”

  “Not grasping at straws,” I gave her my most confident smile, “not by a long shot.”

  Cindy shrugged. “I’m looking forward to taking this to trial. I view it as an opportunity to hone my skills, work on the places I’m weak, you know?” She gave me that smile again, and for a moment, I had a hard time remembering why I had ever broken up with her.

  “I will pass it on to my client. We’ll have to see what he says. When do you need to hear back from us?”

  “I’ll give you two more weeks because I’m feeling generous.”

  I refrained from commenting on her last ultimatum. Cindy had tried. I had just ignored it. And she was back again.

  “I’ll let him know.”

  The rest of our lunch went by without a problem. I received a text message from Barbara right at the end. As I took a second to respond, Cindy frowned at my phone, guessing who it was but not calling attention to it.

  To me, at least, it had almost felt like right before Cindy and I had started dating.

  The text message brought me back to reality.

  Barbara. That’s right, Barbara.

  The last time she and I had met, she had wanted to talk about the future again, and I had not been prepared to do it. This had been difficult for her to hear. I figured that it would be some time before she brought it up again. Which was good in a way, but also presented a problem. I was starting to feel like I’d made a mistake by letting the conversation get this far.

  She and I had a good thing going, I thought, why on earth did I have to ruin it by letting us talk about long-term possibilities?

  26

  I walked back from lunch with a lot on my mind, almost wandering aimlessly as I made my way. It was difficult for me to wrap my mind around my feelings for Barbara, especially after lunch with Cindy.

  It was almost like my subconscious knew something that I wasn’t yet willing to admit consciously.

  Am I not in love with Barbara? I wondered as I walked past an alley, looking down it and remembering a time when I had successfully stopped a mugging. A smile crossed my face as I thought of how I had diffused that situation and helped a woman hang on to her wedding ring.

  Good memory.

  That was part of the reason why I had gone into criminal defense. I wanted to help people. That night I had been able to help in a unique way.

  I had not only helped the woman who was the intended victim, but I had also done my best to influence the misguided young mugger.

  I had often wondered since that night what had happened to that kid. I hoped he never walked into my office one day looking for representation. Perhaps it had just been a one-time thing for him and he had learned his lesson.

  I turned my thoughts back to Barbara.

  Am I ready to settle down?

  Isn’t the fact that I have second thoughts evidence enough that I need to reconsider this idea?

  I shook my head, wondering if I also had a fear of commitment. Something has to be wrong if I’m looking at Cindy and wondering if I made a mistake dumping her all those years ago.

  Through all the intervening years, I had never once thought that there might still be the potential for something there, yet both of the last times I’d met with her, that thought had crossed my mind. Perhaps it was because she was now more confident and appeared to have finally gotten over me.

  Or maybe it was just because I was having second thoughts about my relationship with Barbara.

  When I got back into my office with the door shut behind me, I sat at my computer and tried to work but found I could not.

  It was a hot day outside and the walk had me worked up.

  It wasn’t just the meeting with Cindy or the text from Barbara that had me on edge. There was something about Mason Harwood’s case that was nagging at me.

  I was prepared to take Cindy’s offer to Mason and was even planning to recommend he give it serious thought after we got the number down to an acceptable level, yet there was still something that just did not seem right.

  Is it Penny?

  Is that the loose thread I cannot resolve?

  I had a hard time forgetting how she had shown up in my office and had been so adamant that Vivian had been behind the murder that she was willing to pay double my fees just to prove it.

  She had been convinced Vivian had something to do with it, but I had found no evidence to support her theory.

  Winston still had not yet got back to me with his most recent investigation into Penny, so I didn’t have much more to go on. This was a wild goose chase from the beginning.

  Had Penny been hoping to use me in some unobvious way?

  If so, why?

  I shook my head and started to pace, rather than working behind my computer as I had intended.

 
Half an hour later, I looked at my watch and realized that I had just wasted time that could’ve been billable. I looked at my computer, but I just couldn’t do it. Not today. I went out to my car, giving Ellie a reason for my departure that I couldn’t remember the moment after I gave it.

  I got in and just drove.

  Perhaps my subconscious was driving me, but it was not long before I found myself outside Max’s home.

  Penny’s house.

  I had not spoken with Penny in quite some time. She had left a message that I had not returned, so she might be offended to get a surprise visit.

  I had to know if there was a reason, a valid basis for her belief that Vivian had orchestrated the murder.

  I needed to know if there was something more to it than just a vengeful desire. Penny was in her late forties, Vivian was in her early thirties. It wasn’t hard to imagine Penny envying Vivian and even going so far as to feel like they were competing against one another.

  Was that what this was about?

  Was it nothing more than a bout of jealousy driven by anger at her husband’s premature death?

  Penny and Max’s home was nice, far more prominent than Mason’s. While I did not yet have Winston’s report on Max’s financial worth at the time of his death, I assumed Mason was worth more because he owned more of the company. Penny’s neighborhood was more upscale, though, but I could still drive right up to the house without having to enter through a gate.

  I hesitated for a second as I parked, but I soon found myself on her front step, ringing the doorbell.

  A minute passed, and then two.

  I was just turning away when the door finally opened.

  “You’re the last person I expected to see this afternoon,” Penny said, her eyebrows rising when she answered the door. “What are you doing here?”

  “Can we talk?” I asked, motioning with my head toward the inside of her home.

  “Are you sure? Aren’t you afraid I’m going to ruin your representation of Mason somehow?” Penny leaned forward and whispered. “You don’t want to slip up and give me confidential information, now do you?”

  So she is still bitter about that, I thought.

  “Obviously, I cannot reveal to you anything confidential. Perhaps I didn’t explain myself well enough—”

  “I understand your restrictions perfectly. The letter you sent made that clear.” She started to shut the door. “Goodbye, Mr. Turner.”

  I thought fast. “I’m not here for Mason, not really. I’m here for your husband.”

  Penny stopped with the door halfway shut. “How’s that? Don’t you have an ethical responsibility....”

  She did not finish her thought.

  “I have multiple ethical responsibilities; one of those is to seek out the truth. When you came to my office, you expressed a desire to see that the right person went to prison for the death of your husband.” I paused to emphasize my next point, “are you still intent on seeing that happen?”

  “Do you have a way to guarantee that Vivian’s going to jail for this?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t. That’s why I’m here. That’s why we must talk.”

  Penny stared at me, her eyes appearing to unfocus as if she had seen something far away.

  “I’m glad you are representing Mason. I’m just disappointed that I have to be kept in the dark, especially since I was the one that turned you on to the possibility of becoming his attorney.”

  “We can go over that again. I went to meet with Mason, intent on learning from him what I could, so I could assess whether or not I was going represent you—”

  “I understand how things happened, and I certainly won’t report you to the bar if that is your concern.”

  “I did nothing unethical.”

  Penny hesitated, then shook her head. She started to shut the door again.

  “Perhaps I can enlighten you on a couple of things,” I said, wondering if there might be a way that I could give her something without revealing anything confidential going on with the case.

  “You better not be just playing games with me,” Penny said as she hesitated before finally opening the door. “You shunted me to the side the moment you took Mason’s case.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just an artifact of my duty to him.”

  “Come on in,” she stepped out of the way to give me room to enter before shutting the door behind me.

  My first impression of the inside of her home was that it was clean. There was a hint of Pine-Sol in the air. I glanced around and wasn’t surprised to see a speck of dust anywhere in the entry. The floor was immaculately clean as well.

  There was a grand staircase that went up on the left and a room to the right. Penny pointed in there.

  “This is where we will meet. Please find a seat and make yourself comfortable.”

  After she had shown me into the room, I was struck by its size.

  The outside of the house was deceptive, hiding the overall square footage of the inside. I had not even given it much thought as I had approached the home, but I now realized that this was one of the nicest homes I had ever been in.

  No wonder she was willing to pay me double. She is way out of my league, at least in understanding how this world works. I thought of all the contention between my partners about money and couldn’t shake the feeling that in this world, people hardly even thought about the type of concerns I faced daily.

  What would that be like?

  It wasn’t that I worried about money exactly, I always had enough for what I needed, but this type of life was altogether at a different level.

  It was a far more ostentatious display of wealth than Mason’s home, which was humble by comparison.

  Max had liked to live large, that was obvious.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” Penny asked as she walked past me, heading toward an exit of the back of the room, motioning at a row of overstuffed chairs. “Coke, coffee, water?”

  “I’ll take a can of Coke. That sounds great.”

  “Be right back.” She disappeared through the exit.

  As I looked around the room, I was surprised to see that it appeared several pictures had recently been taken down. There were still nails on the wall where the photos had been, but I didn’t see any of the missing pictures nearby.

  Redecorating?

  One or two pictures would not have been remarkable, but there were more than ten different places where a frame had been.

  I smiled when I noticed dust on a side table beside a sofa. It’s not perfectly clean after all. By the positioning of the dust, I could tell that there used to be a picture there too.

  It’s as if she wanted to remove a memory from her life, I thought, studying the only remaining picture in the room. It was of Penny—alone—with a backdrop of a waterfall.

  Had all the other pictures been removed because Max had been in them? Was this just her grieving because she could not stand the sight of seeing the pictures of somebody she had loved and lost?

  Or is she relieved to finally take them down?

  I heard Penny’s soft footsteps returning on the hardwood floor, so I sat in my chair and acted as if I had not noticed missing pictures.

  If she felt like she had something to hide, she wouldn’t have brought me here.

  Or is she flaunting something, assuming I’m not gonna figure it out?

  A guilty mind could be fascinating.

  I gave Penny a calm smile when she entered, but she appeared not to notice as she handed me a Dr Pepper along with a glass that had ice cubes.

  “Sorry, it’s not cold. Max was the Dr Pepper drinker.”

  “That’s perfect,” I said, opening the can and carefully pouring it into the ice to avoid defizzing the drink. I noticed a coaster on the coffee table in front of me and set my drink down there, using another coaster for the empty can.

  “I haven’t heard much about the case,” Penny said after a scrutinizing glance to make sure that I wasn’t allowin
g any condensation to slip onto her table. “I keep reading the news, hoping there’s going to be some update, but there’s nothing.” Penny folded her arms and gave me a hard look. “Anything you could tell me would be useful.”

  Honey and flies, I thought, giving her a warm smile, honey and flies.

  “The case is progressing like it does for my other clients.” I figured that an apology was in order, at least if I wanted to make any headway. “I apologize again for the miscommunication.”

  “I understand that the law ties your hands,” Penny said, ignoring my apology, “I’m asking for a favor. I just need to know something about what’s happening. I want to make sure my husband’s actual murderer is going to pay, not the patsy she manipulated into killing him.”

  I nodded, refraining from looking around the room at the empty spots on the wall.

  How do I know it was Vivian who provoked Mason and not Penny?

  “What makes you so sure Vivian is behind it?” I asked, taking a sip without moving my eyes from Penny, watching her expression. “Is this just your instinct, or do you have evidence to back up your theory?”

  “Evidence?” Penny sputtered. “I have years and years of evidence. I have been watching Vivian. I know how she works. She is like a spider hiding in the shadows, pulling the webs she has spun to make the people around her dance.”

  “Can you prove she has manipulated other people?”

  Penny stared at me with hard eyes. “If I could, don’t you think I would’ve gone to the police?”

  “I’m not talking about this instance. I’m talking about past instances.”

  “She is too good. She doesn’t even leave prints as she passes. The people she manipulates don’t even know it. She’s like a ghost walking among them, manipulating them, and laughing while she does.”

  I wasn’t getting anywhere.

  “I understand how you can know something without being able to prove it. I worked as a prosecutor. I’ve dealt with people that I was convinced were guilty, but unable to send prison because I could not prove it.”