Page 19

At thirty minutes on the dot, Annie entered my office, her expression one of worry as she made her way toward me. I suggested we take a seat on the sofa, and we did.

“This entire thing is such a mess,” she blurted. “I don’t know what to make of it.”

“You don’t know what to make of what?”

“After you left the tennis club, Clark pulled us all aside. He told us you’d been hired to investigate Noelle’s murder. Then he said he didn’t want us talking to you.”

And yet, she was here, doing what she’d been asked not to do.

“Clark can’t tell any of you who to talk to or not talk to,” I said. “You’re here, and I’m assuming it’s because there’s something you need to get off your chest.”

“I’m here because I don’t have a choice. When you came to my place of work, asking for me by name, I figured if you didn’t talk to me there, you’d find another way to do it.”

“Do you know why I asked to see you?”

Annie leaned back, crossing her arms. “I think so, yes, though if you know what I think you do, it means Noelle spoke of the private conversation we had with someone else. What I told her was in confidence, to a friend I thought I could trust.”

“From everything I’ve learned about Noelle, she was worthy of your trust. I believe she spoke to a friend because she was seeking advice on what to do with the information you gave her.”

“Still, I don’t like it. Things have a way of getting around in this town. What did this friend tell you about my conversation with Noelle?”

I thought about whether it would be best to divulge the conversation, as it had been relayed to me, or whether it would be best to feed her bits and pieces first to gauge her response.

“I should start by saying Noelle’s friend is the person who hired me,” I said. “A few weeks before Noelle died, she had lunch with this friend, and she mentioned a woman at Royal Palms had come to her and shared some sensitive information. The woman believed a man working at the club had been committing fraud. I’m going to get right to the point. You suspected someone at Royal Palms was committing fraud, correct?”

Annie pressed her hands together. “Do I have to answer the question?”

“You don’t have to do anything, though it would make my job a lot easier if you did. You should know, I’m good at my job. The truth will come out, one way or another.”

She huffed an irritated, “Fine. I’ve been carrying the weight of what I suspect is going on at the club for months now. I tried to keep it to myself, and for a while, I did. Then I got to a point where the weight of it was so heavy, I thought if I didn’t talk about it to someone, I’d have a complete meltdown.”

“It makes sense. Keeping a secret like the one you’ve been keeping is never easy. Why did you decide to confide in Noelle?”

“She was my closest friend at the club, and I figured she’d offer me some good advice. I just didn’t expect her to be so upset about what I told her. She’d always been so levelheaded. When she reacted the way she did, part of me regretted saying something. If it all came out, and I was wrong about my suspicions, I would have lost my job.”

“You can always get another job. And hey, you’re still alive. The same can’t be said for Noelle.”

Annie bowed her head, voice lowered as she said, “Do you think it’s possible someone at the club murdered Noelle?”

“I don’t know yet. I don’t even know whether she was killed by a male or a female. But I will figure out what happened to her and why.”

Given Annie had strong-looking hands, she was an easy suspect. She’d also been harboring a secret, one she was worried might come out before she was ready to reveal it. Seemed like a motive for murder to me.

Upon hearing me say I suspected the killer could be of either gender, Annie gasped. “You think a woman could have murdered Noelle?”

“I’m open to the possibility.”

“Huh, I wouldn’t think a woman would strangle a person to death, not when there are so many easier ways to kill someone.”

It was such a peculiar thing to say.

“What method would you consider easy ?” I asked.

She gave the question some thought, shrugged, and said, “Poison, I guess.”

She was right and she was wrong at the same time.

Poisoning as a murder method was used by women in 4% of their cases and by men in just 1%, accounting for only 0.5% of all murders overall.

“In Noelle’s case, it isn’t how she was murdered that matters,” I said. “I care more about statistics. In women, murder is often personal. Over 75% are killed by someone they know.”

“Wow, I had no idea. You said you don’t know who did it, but do you have any suspects yet?”

She was getting ahead of herself, making me feel like I was being steered in another direction, one where she spared herself from telling me what she’d told Noelle. I wasn’t about to let that happen.

“I have a few suspects,” I said, “which brings me back to the tennis club.”

“I must admit, I’ve been fraught with worry, wondering if something I shared with Noelle in confidence could in some way be related to her death.”

“I think you should assume it could be, which is why I need to know everything. If someone is stealing money from the club and that person found out Noelle knew about it, she could have been killed to keep the truth from coming out.”

Annie went silent, her hands shaking. “What if he did find out she knew, and what if he finds out the information came from me? It’s enough to make me want to forget this whole business, forget I know anything about it.”

“I know you're afraid,” I said. “And even though you might have some regrets about telling Noelle, something inside you knew you needed to do it, that it was the right thing to do.”

“I thought I could confide in her, and she’d keep my secret until I could prove it. Seems that’s not what happened.”

“What did happen?”

There was a long pause. “Oh, all right. I suppose there’s no getting out of it now, is there? Here’s what I know. A little over a year ago, a man who’d worked in accounting for over twenty years decided to retire. Clark started interviewing potential replacements, and then out of nowhere, he hired Owen Beaumont, a guy who’d been working in client services.”

“Did Owen have any experience in finance?”

“He said he went to school for accounting, but I’m not sure Clark ever took the time to check and see whether he was telling the truth or not.”

“Clark strikes me as a guy who would vet a person, even if that person already worked there.”

“You’re right. Here’s the catch. Owen’s uncle is the biggest shareholder of the tennis club, meaning, what he says goes. He made it clear to Clark that he wanted Owen moved to a position where he could earn more money. Once Owen had the new job, it wasn’t long before Clark noticed Owen was overwhelmed, but he knew he’d face backlash over removing Owen from the position. That’s where I came in.”

“How long did Owen work in accounting before you were hired?”

“About nine months. I was brought on to be his part-time assistant, even though I could do in two hours what he couldn’t do in eight.”

“What’s it like, working with Owen?”

“We got off on the wrong foot, for starters. He didn’t want me there, and he wasn’t happy when Clark decided he needed help. I tried to build a bridge between us. I was nice; I brought in cookies. It didn’t matter. Owen wanted nothing to do with me.”

“How did he behave toward you?”

“Owen was distant and secretive. He’d give me menial tasks, never anything too big or too personal. He oversaw most of the financial transactions and handled all the banking. I process employee paychecks and take care of client dues.”

“Tell me how you came to suspect he was mismanaging money.”

Annie closed her eyes, nodding. “It started with me worrying Owen wasn’t doing his job. If Clark was out of the office for the day, Owen would show up late for work, or he’d leave early. He was on salary, and given the power his uncle had, he must have thought no one would tattle, and he was right. No one dared say a thing.”

“Were you doing any of his work for him during that time?”

“He told me not to, but I couldn’t help myself. One day, I decided to have a wee look-see at his bookkeeping to make sure things weren’t getting behind. My concern was that Owen would point the finger at me for any issues about the books.”

“When you looked through things, what did you find out?”

“Well,” she said, leaning toward me, “the books were a mess. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the deposits. Nothing added up, no matter how many times I tried to balance it all.”

“Did you say anything to him?”

“Given he’d forbidden me from looking at the books, I was afraid to ask him about it.”

“Was Clark aware Owen kept you from certain aspects of the job?”

“If he was, he never said anything to me, and given I’m one of the newer hires, I didn’t know if I could trust him with that information.”

Annie’s stomach grumbled, and I turned, looking out the window. I hadn’t realized how dark it had gotten in the time we’d been chatting. I was sure she was on the verge of a bombshell confession, and I didn’t want her to leave—not yet.