Keeping Mum (A Garden Society Mystery) Read online

  “Oh, man! I hate it when a sleazebag has a really good idea,” Cam said.

  “A good idea that probably didn’t get him killed,” Jake said.

  When the conversation about the murder slowed down, Annie asked softly, “Any news about the kidnapping?”

  Jake looked sad and hugged her. “No, but maybe I should ask some political questions there, too. Cam, did you learn anything about Alden’s relationships?”

  “Yeah, but other than a few cases of annoyance where he was backing one candidate versus another, nothing bad. He isn’t running, so people treat him more like a father figure or adviser. They treat him respectfully.”

  “Some of those that want his support, though . . .” Annie said.

  “Yeah, there are several. Some who think they deserve it, others who are delusional,” Cam said, “At least according to Holden.”

  “But is that the kind of thing a person would be this extreme over? Kill the funder who won’t back you and kidnap the politician who won’t endorse you?” Annie asked.

  “It’s possible,” Jake said. “Cam, can you make a list?”

  “I can. In fact I did, for work notes. I’ll print it for you.” She opened her laptop.

  When they were done, Annie pleaded exhaustion, and she and Jake headed out.

  “Be careful not to be too nice or he’s going to get suspicious,” Rob whispered when Jake was already halfway up the stairs.

  Cam laughed as they left, then led Rob back to her laptop so they could get set up to listen to what had been transmitted from the bugs in the Schulz house.

  “Are you ready for a little excitement?” she asked.

  “Excitement is my middle name,” he said.

  “Robert Excitement Columbus. Works for me!”

  They sat and Cam tried to remember what Annie had showed her. The bugs had been nicked from Jake. Annie sort of figured minor theft with the goal of catching bad guys was almost her civic duty. But they were complicated gadgets, so Cam had to try a few things, remembering that Annie had said tutorials could be found online. With the help of YouTube, she found the file where the recordings had been stored.

  There was an audio image they could see on the screen, and places on the bar that were brighter indicated voice activity, so those were the places they clicked to listen.

  From one bug, presumably the phone in the study, they got only messages related to Senator Schulz. Elle didn’t tell anyone he was missing, only that he would call back when he could. One person even asked if he’d really been taken, and she said she had no comment.

  “Are the phone lines different in different parts of the house?” Rob asked.

  “They must be.”

  “Did Annie get her bedroom phone?”

  “Might have. Come to think of it, what we really need is her cell phone.”

  “I’m sure the police have that covered,” Rob said. “They definitely would have known how the kidnappers would try to reach her.”

  Annie burst in then.

  “Erm. Hello,” Cam said.

  “It’s Louise! She just called me. She said she had a chance to look today. Dad’s medication is all gone.”

  Cam and Rob looked at each other, then looked back at Annie.

  “That’s great, right? It means whoever has him doesn’t mean to harm him,” Cam said.

  “I guess. But it also means whoever has him knows him. That creeps me out.”

  “Yeah, I can see that side. But maybe this is just . . . some battle of wills or something. Annie, it’s good that they want to keep him healthy.”

  “I guess. I just had to share that.”

  “I’m glad you did,” Cam said.

  As soon as Annie had left again, Cam and Rob went back to browsing the bars on her computer screen for more voice moments.

  They were almost done with the bedroom phone before they heard anything else interesting, and even then, it was more confusing than important. It was, however, something to add to the mystery list.

  “Look, you gotta stop drivin’ by here. People will get suspicious. Besides, there’s not a falutin’ thing I can do right now about that stupid money you owe, so you’ll just have to keep your shorts on.”

  Cam noted Elle had the same Jersey accent Nick had, or maybe it was the Bronx. Either way, it was nothing compared with the man swearing at her. Unfortunately, swearing was about all he did besides some unclear ranting and telling her they needed to hurry and go. His words were hard to understand without the proper context. He didn’t seem to like that a meeting couldn’t be set up for whatever tryst he had in mind.

  “You kiss your mother with that mouth? Look, Sully. Nothing I can do. With Alden missing, I’m being watched.”

  She hung up on him then, cutting off still more swearing.

  Cam looked at Rob. “What do you make of that?”

  “She sure pissed somebody off, someone who isn’t her husband. And he wants both money and a meeting.”

  “What about ‘Sully’?”

  “Usually short for Sullivan, but we don’t know if it’s a first name, last name, or nickname.”

  “We should ask Annie to see if the name means anything to her,” Cam said as she was writing it down.

  The money issue nagged at her, but it nagged at her in a way she didn’t want to address. It had sounded to her like he had money trouble that might be related to gambling debt—an issue that tied back to a man she was trying not to think about, so she squashed the thought. They listened to a couple more calls, but the most condemning of them was that Elle seemed to be trying to rush a plastic surgery appointment of some sort.

  “Like those boobs could fall,” Cam said.

  “She’s worried about him leaving. Wants to at least touch up if she’s going to be single again.”

  “Repulsive, if you ask me,” Cam said.

  “I didn’t need to ask you. We share the same opinion. Real is better than fake any day,” Rob said.

  He ran his hand up her side as he said it, hoping to cop a feel, but Cam was too ticklish. She squirmed out of the way.

  “One more set of recordings. You ready?” She asked.

  “As I’ll ever be,” he sighed.

  The worst thing they heard, in fact the only thing other than a brief conversation between Elle and Louise and a talk show on the television, was what sounded like half a cell phone conversation.

  “You can’t call me here!”

  “I understand, but you’ll just have to wait!”

  “I know. Two, maybe three days, but believe me. Just wait for me to call you.”

  Elle snarled when she hung up. It might have been the same person she’d talked to earlier, but since they couldn’t hear the other person, they couldn’t be sure. Cam thought Elle at least had something fishy going on. It was too bad this wasn’t more of a lead than an indication to watch her. Something was going to happen, as soon as Elle thought the eyes weren’t looking in her direction.

  “While this all might be kidnapping or murder, I’m not completely convinced,” Rob said.

  Cam begrudgingly agreed, though she thought the case for an affair had a lot of merit.

  CHAPTER 8

  Cam slept poorly. She had way too much in her head. Tasks she couldn’t forget kept popping into her mind, even though she’d made a perfectly good list to keep track of them.

  Finally, about twenty minutes before her alarm made it mandatory, she climbed out of bed and turned on her coffeepot. She realized as she did so that the magical forty-eight hours had passed for Annie’s dad, but she tried to convince herself the missing medication was a good sign. Annie would be devastated if that wasn’t true, and Cam didn’t want to watch her friend go through that.

  Cam was on autopilot as she went through her morning routine. She poured coffee, took a shower, put in her contacts, then put on some makeup. But when she was done, she couldn’t remember having done any of it. In fact, when she pulled her car into a parking spot near the Patrick Henry, she d
idn’t even remember going out to her car. She was just suddenly there.

  At least this was her chance to talk to Evangeline, who usually arrived early, often before her husband. Cam thought she was too social to get very much done when other people were present, so this was a strategy to have some time when being social wasn’t an option. Cam felt a little guilty about stealing that time, until she got to Evangeline’s office and found she wasn’t there, but a light was on a few doors down.

  “Mr. Patrick?” Cam called.

  “Oh! Cammi. You startled me,” he said when she reached his office.

  She wondered if his hearing was going, as she hadn’t made any effort to be quiet when she got there.

  “Is Evangeline coming in this morning?”

  “I’m afraid not. She seems to be a little under the weather.”

  “Oh, no. Nothing too serious, I hope.”

  “No, I don’t think so. She can’t even really put her finger on the symptoms. She just doesn’t feel herself.”

  “Do you think she’s well enough for a visitor?”

  “She planned to sleep in, but if you waited until ten thirty or so, I’m sure she’d be delighted. She may even have slept off this . . . well . . . whatever it is.”

  He smiled and turned back to his paperwork, so Cam left him to it. She had a few tasks she could complete to kill the next hour and a half until she could go out to visit Evangeline, so she got to work, too.

  • • •

  • • •

  The day was rainy and miserable, and Cam drove carefully because the wind seemed to be blowing things about and she didn’t want them to scratch the finish on her car. She made it out to La Fontaine, the Patricks’ house, without incident, and hid her head under a jacket as she ran for the front door. Thankfully, the porch was covered.

  “Mademoiselle Harris!” Giselle, the housekeeper, greeted Cam with her faux French accent. “’ow lovely to see you.”

  “Sorry to just drop in, dripping even. I was hoping Evangeline felt well enough for a visitor?”

  “Oh, well I hope so, as she already has one. But he should be gone in the next fifteen or twenty minutes. Should I let her know you’re waiting?”

  “No, don’t disturb her. I’m not expected and don’t want to interrupt other business. It’s just . . . Mr. Patrick said she didn’t feel well.”

  “Yes, I suspect she led him to believe that. She is planning a surprise, I think. Of course I’m just guessing, based on the guest, but sometimes husbands and wives need to be a little bit sneaky to do things for each other.” She smiled.

  “I can just use my laptop in the study, if that’s okay,” Cam said.

  “Of course it is. You know your way around.”

  It was true. Cam had spent a lot of time there, not all of it pleasant. There’d been two murders at the home the previous year as part of a big event the Roanoke Garden Society was hosting. Still, the house had also been home base for the RGS for a while, so she was very comfortable there. And she had an ulterior motive she could act on, so long as she was going to be left alone in the study for a while.

  She went in the study and set up her laptop, then scanned the room for a spot where investment records might be hiding. She tried to tune her ears so she’d hear if anyone was coming, then carefully began opening file drawers.

  Somebody very meticulous—Evangeline, if Cam was to judge by the handwriting, had set up the system. It was very clear where files pertaining to home repair, purchases, charity, insurance, and pet care were. The absence of investments, given the organization, told Cam she was just in the wrong drawer, so she went to the next one.

  This drawer was full of various folders, and all of them indeed seemed investment related.

  “Bingo,” she whispered, and began thumbing through.

  There were prospectuses and quarterly reports, but the most important information she gleaned was that all of it seemed to be coordinated through a company called Entwhistle Investment, a large local firm Cam thought was run by the same Entwhistle who had been at the fund-raiser. She didn’t have time to look through everything, but she couldn’t see any part of the portfolio the company hadn’t handled.

  She slid the drawer shut and went out to fetch a cup of tea to drink while she worked. In the entryway before Cam ever reached the kitchen, Evangeline was saying good-bye to a man in a very expensive suit. He looked familiar. Cam squinted at him and knew he’d been at the fund-raiser, but it took a minute to realize who he was. Melvin, the man Senator Schulz didn’t care for.

  “Cam! How long have you been here?” Evangeline said when she turned around and spotted her.

  “Just about ten minutes. I hoped to talk to you, but I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  “Oh. Well, I appreciate that.” Evangeline wasn’t exactly terse, but it also wasn’t the friendly tone she usually used. It must have been a big surprise she was planning.

  “Was he at the fund-raiser the other night?” she asked as Evangeline shut the door.

  “He was. That’s Melvin Entwhistle.”

  “Oh! Now that I hear the name, I remember him being on the guest list.”

  It seemed auspicious that his name was also on the files Cam had just been looking at. The rule of three meant he had to be important in some way. So Evangeline had a project going that required her investment banker, and her husband didn’t know about it. She wondered if Evangeline was liquidating something so she had cash for a gift, or if she was making a surprise investment. She suspected the former, but realized it was none of her business, so she didn’t let on that she knew what the man’s field was.

  “So would you like tea while we talk?” Evangeline asked.

  “That would be perfect.”

  Evangeline took the time to let Giselle know what they wanted and then led Cam to the library.

  “Are you investigating murders again, Cam?” Evangeline teased.

  Cam felt a little guilty that that seemed to be the only time she came to visit with Evangeline, though of course that wasn’t true—they had work they did together often. But this scenario still felt strangely familiar.

  “I’m more interested in the kidnapping, honestly. But it’s possible the two are related.” Cam had told her employers earlier about the kidnapping and the importance for discretion.

  “I wondered. It seemed like too much for two big things to happen at the same time unless they were related.”

  “The police think maybe one of them was the target and the other an unfortunate witness.”

  Evangeline nodded.

  “And if Derrick Windermere was the target, there is a long list of investors who lost their shirts with him. Did you know Mr. Patrick was on that list?”

  “I did. Melvin was beside himself when he came to explain what had happened with that investment.”

  “Was he? Does Mr. Entwhistle handle other clients who lost a lot in that deal?”

  “I imagine so. He was quite persuasive when he asked us to invest—said it was a great opportunity. I doubt we’d be the only people he’d do that with.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Of course, Melvin’s very good at what he does. He always tells us to keep our portfolio diverse, so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been. And I think the loss was nothing compared to some of Derrick’s shadier deals. I mean, this was just an effort to get a green energy company off the ground. He has development projects that are much longer shots than that.”

  “But you haven’t been invested in any of those?”

  “No. With Neil’s age, Melvin strongly recommends we don’t take huge risks. He has younger clients who might, but we tend to want financial security.”

  “So do you think somebody who lost a lot on a Windermere project might have killed him?”

  “Money is a powerful motivator,” she said.

  Cam was thinking reputation might be even more powerful. Windermere had bilked a lot of rich people out of a lot of money, but he’d used Melvin E
ntwhistle, a trusted local investment banker who had formerly had an impeccable reputation, to do it. Griggs had seen an argument between Windermere and Entwhistle that night. But for Cam’s own interests, Entwhistle didn’t seem like the kind of man who would kidnap a former senator.

  Still, she liked it as a lead and decided to pass it on.

  “How well do you understand our local politics?”

  “Oh, there I’m only a pretender.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Actually, I’m a Democrat. So I just keep my mouth shut.”

  Cam laughed. She happened to be an independent, but could see why a Democrat would keep her opinion to herself in the social circles Evangeline circulated in.

  “Just from observation, can you see any reason, political or otherwise, for getting Alden Schulz out of the way for a while?”

  “The only political angle I can think of is removing support from Jared, and his primary rival is probably going to be Chad Phillips—I could see a motive there.”

  “Was he at the fund-raiser?”

  “Heavens, no. He couldn’t be seen promoting Jared when he plans to run. There were some Chad supporters there—Melvin, even, but I suspect they want to play nice on both sides so they aren’t stuck with no influence after the election.”

  That was one of the reasons Cam hated politics.

  “What about Vivian Macy?” she asked.

  “See, she can afford to be there. She knows there’s no overlap in support at all between Jared and herself. I think she was there to needle him.”

  “You may be right, there. I’ve heard Chad Phillips’s name, but hadn’t realized he was interested in the same seat.” That wasn’t strictly true, but Cam liked to let people she talked to feel like they were the experts.

  “And he would have loved Alden’s support, but I think Jared did an internship for Alden or something—there’s a personal connection.”

  “So Senator Schulz never would have supported Chad anyway?”

  “Probably not, at least not against Jared—unless of course, the man made some huge, scandalous mistake. But Chad may not know that. Alden supported him for county commissioner, after all. And Chad strikes me as the kind of man who doesn’t always do all his homework. Relies on charm, so he may not know Alden’s commitment to Jared.”