Merry Without Malice Read online

  “I found the phone a few feet away from the guy and thought I'd find out more info about him,” Kaitlyn said and then looked over Merry’s shoulder. “Hi, Dad.”

  Jeremy came to a stop next to Merry with a frown on his face. “Kaitlyn, that’s not your phone. You shouldn't be touching evidence.”

  “Sorry Dad, but I wanted to do all I could to help. The man was just killed and I figured what Gramma said was true and the guy who did it is probably still here in this crowd somewhere. I called the last few numbers that he dialed. The fourth one finally picked up. The man's name is Lonnie Klimt. He works at the grocery store in town. The guy who answered the phone said that he was here on a date.”

  And without further explanation, Jeremy pulled the victim's smartphone out of Kaitlyn's grip.

  Merry blinked and nodded. “Actually, come to think of it, the man does smell slightly of women's perfume.”

  “Where is his girlfriend, then?” Kaitlyn asked, looking down at the body with a frown. “And why didn't she call the police?”

  Merry shrugged. “Could be they weren't that close yet and they were separated when this happened.”

  “Or could be, she's the murderer,” Colin said, raising an eyebrow in much the same way as his father.

  Jeremy clenched his teeth. “Ma, I'd rather you took the kids out of here, but I might need your medical skills to help for the moment. Our coroner is out of town, and we don't have the time for a proxy to come down from Boulder. You’re probably right. The culprit is still in this crowd. I might need your help to find him.”

  Merry nodded.

  He stepped forward and leaned down over the body. Merry stayed close but eyed the kids in warning to keep them back. He unzipped the man's coat and pulled the jacket to the side. “He's been stabbed.

  “Dad, there's a knife sticking out of the plastic bag next to his body,” Colin said, pointing to the offending item.

  With a frown, Jeremy peered at them then looked back up at the kids. “At least turn around, okay guys? I’d feel better if you weren’t staring at a dead body.”

  Kaitlyn nodded and held her brother’s shoulders as they both turned around.

  Merry nodded in approval and knelt down, examining the injury her son had exposed. “It makes sense that they would use a plastic bag to keep the blood from splattering the murderer when he or she stabbed him. The blade was slid in horizontally, so that it would slip easily between the ribs. He was stabbed directly in the heart.”

  “So, the perp likely had some knowledge of human anatomy.”

  “Maybe,” Merry said, looking again at the knife wound. “But anyone could look it up online. It’s not too hard to find out. The interesting thing is that it seems the knife was slid in easily while the victim was already lying down. There’s no blood dripping down the front of the shirt by gravity, rather, it flowed to the side.”

  Jeremy’s eyes widened and then his eyebrows knit while he looked again at the body. “The body’s still fairly warm.”

  “Right. This had to have happened just a few minutes before the body was discovered. The kids and I were nearby, but we didn’t hear or see anything. The man didn’t even cry out. Maybe someone else saw something, or while they were recording video, caught some footage.”

  Jeremy's frown deepened. He stood slowly as two more uniformed officers stepped up. “Gather everyone into the tent area that you can. The Christmas show is over now, and there are too many people around. Get a hold of everyone's phone. Someone may have recorded the murder without even knowing it.”

  They nodded and started talking to the crowd.

  Jeremy turned toward the children. “I really hate that you both are having to stay here during all this, but I really can't have you guys stay in this crowd alone if there's a murderer in it. I'd rather you guys stay with me and your grandmother for now. Don't go anywhere, and don't touch anything, got it?”

  Chapter 3

  Before her sat more phones than Merry had ever seen in one place. Her son, her grandchildren, and she stood in the backstage area of the Christmas show tent, the phones spread out across the tops of four long tables. Each phone had a sticky note on the back of it, labeling the owner and address of the person who had the phone. One of the nice ladies from the cafe had heard about the incident and heard about the fact the crowd was being held and brought over several carafes and large beverage containers of hot cider. It helped to keep the crowd under control For now, the crowd murmured, but had yet to get out of hand.

  Jeremy groaned. “There has to be over a hundred phones here. How on earth will we check all of the videos and pictures taken in time to keep the crowd from going crazy.”

  Merry snapped her fingers. “Kaitlyn said that she'd called three numbers and gotten no answer before she'd gotten the fourth one to pick up. What if one of those numbers is the girlfriend?”

  Jeremy smiled. “That's a good idea.”

  He picked up the victim's phone and hit redial on the first of the numbers.

  Even though it had been her idea, Merry blinked in surprise when one of the phones on the tables started to ring. Jeremy stepped over and picked up the dark blue phone, flipping it over to read the label. He frowned. “This phone belongs to John Drake. That's not a woman's name.”

  Merry stepped forward. “That phone doesn't smell like the perfume on the body, either. It most likely didn't belong to the girlfriend.”

  Jeremy's eyebrows wrinkled closer together. He dialed the next number on the list. Another one of the phones on the tables rang. This one was pink and had a glitter shell. He flipped it over and read the label. “Clarice Brown.”

  Merry could already smell the perfume, even though she wasn't close. “That one definitely belonged to the same woman who'd been with the victim tonight.”

  Colin scrunched his nose at it. “It really does smell like perfume. Why would anyone put on that much perfume?”

  A smile tugged at Merry's lip. The situation was bringing out more words from her grandson in a string than she'd ever had the chance of hearing before. Too bad it had to be such a dire situation. “When women wear the same perfume all the time, they start to become desensitized to it. They don't smell it as much anymore. So, when they go out on a date or to an event like this, they often put on a little more and overdo it.” She peered at her granddaughter. “Be sure that you don't use too much perfume when you're older.”

  Kaitlyn crossed her arms over her chest. “I won't.”

  One of the other cell phones began to ring. It made Merry jump a little bit.

  “I knew it.” Jeremy picked up the third phone, a black one, and flipped it over to read the name on the back. “Lynn Reiner.”

  “You mean, all three people who didn't pick up their phones earlier were here at the lights display?” Merry asked, her heart seizing in her chest.

  “Yes, and chances are pretty good that one of them is the culprit.” Jeremy said with a smile. He handed the victim's phone to one of the detectives and they placed it in an evidence bag. “Check the footage on the rest of these phones and see if anything on them looks like evidence. Once we've gone through them, we'll release the crowd. For now, I'm going to take these three back here for questioning.”

  The officer nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  Merry stepped over toward the kids and pulled them to her. “Should we go out with the rest of the crowd?”

  Jeremy stopped mid-step and turned back toward them. “No. Stay here and listen in. You all have been super helpful so far with this case, and I'd like to get your input. Let me know if you catch something I don't. I'm going to start with the one we suspect is the girlfriend.” With a nod, he stepped under the tent flap and headed out into the crowd.

  “Gramma, do you want a cider? Can I go get one?” Colin asked.

  She nodded. “Yes, but we're all going to the beverage station. I don't want to let either of you out of my sight.”

  The three of them headed into the main crowd and found people millin
g in small groups. There as a bit of a line at the beverage station, but it wasn't long before the three of them had cups of warm, sweet liquid and had headed into the backstage area of the tent once more. The scent of the woman's perfume hit them the minute they opened the tent flap. Merry had been more than right about the way this woman wore her scent. It was overwhelming even when she held the cup of cider close to her face. The smells warred with each other.

  Clarice Brown wore a pink snow bunny outfit that nearly matched her phone in hue and tone. Her reddish-blond hair was set in unnaturally large curls that probably took almost as much gel as the amount of perfume that she wore. She sat across a small table that was set up in the area, with her back to the wall of the tent. Jeremy stood in front of her.

  “Did you know the man who was stabbed tonight?” he asked.

  The woman swallowed, her eyes darted around the area. For a moment she seemed to be considering whether to tell the truth or to lie about what she knew. Kaitlyn leaned in toward Merry. “She seems to be acting awfully guilty.”

  Merry whispered back, “Don't judge prematurely. Wait until you have all the facts.”

  Colin's fingers were wrapped around his Styrofoam cup as he watched the situation unfolding intently. His blue eyes were focused on the woman, just like they’d been focused on the video game he’d been playing earlier. Merry smiled. When she was younger, she used to watch different mysteries on television. Jeremy had watched them with her as he was growing up. She couldn’t help but wonder if they had influenced his choice of career.

  Now the grandchildren were finding this adventure more interesting than an electronic device. A small smile tugged at Merry’s lip as she returned her gaze to the woman who’d still not answered the question.

  Jeremy was playing it smart and patient by not saying a word.

  Finally, the woman let out a small sigh and looked down at the table. “Yes, I knew him.”

  Chapter 4

  “I knew him, but not well,” Clarice Brown said as she gripped her pink mittened hands together. “This was our first date, and I was getting the feeling that he was a bit of a player and had other issues. I wasn't planning on seeing him again.”

  “Your first date,” Jeremy said as he leaned on the table between them. “So why didn't you answer your phone when we dialed it?”

  Wrinkles appeared over the woman's forehead. “We'd gotten to our seats at the Christmas show when he suddenly said he needed to go to the bathroom. He said he'd be right back. But he missed the whole show. When it was over, he still hadn't returned. I was starting to feel like I'd been stood up. Then I stepped outside and saw the crowd milling about. I heard that someone had been stabbed. When I got a peek at who it was who'd been stabbed, I saw it was Lonnie. When my phone rang, I thought it might be the guy who killed him. I didn't want them coming after me, too, so I didn't answer.”

  Merry blinked. That was a strange reaction.

  Jeremy seemed to pick up on it as well. “Why would you think that whoever killed Lonnie would come after you next?”

  “Before he left to go to the bathroom, he got a sketchy phone call. He said something like, 'I'll get your money soon.' It's one of the reasons I said that I probably wouldn't go out with him again. He seemed like he was into things that I didn't want to be a part of. I don't know if the person who he owed money showed up tonight at the show and killed him… or what.”

  Jeremy glanced toward Merry. Merry shook her head slightly to indicate she wasn't sure if the woman was lying or not, either. Clarice seemed slightly angry in the way that she frowned and the tone of her voice. Her reactions were a little bit strange, in Merry's opinion.

  The woman looked around at everyone, her eyes suddenly growing wider. “You think I did it. You think I'm the one who stabbed him.” She shook her head. "No way. I have proof. I couldn't possibly have killed him. Give me my phone."

  Jeremy looked taken aback but handed the woman her phone.

  She swiped the screen a few times and then turned it back toward them. "See. I recorded the Christmas show. The whole thing from start to finish. I thought I'd only do the first part, because Lonnie would show up, and I didn't want him to get lost on the story. But he never came. You can even hear my voice in there occasionally, so you know it was me who recorded it."

  Jeremy pulled the phone from the woman's hand, and Merry watched the video from over his shoulder. Both the kids also crowded in to watch. The woman was telling the truth. The video showed what appeared to be that night's Christmas show, and occasionally, the woman would whisper to the screen, “I don't know where you are, but you better appreciate this,” or something like it. It definitely seemed that her story was aligning with what was shown on the video.

  Merry's shoulders fell a little.

  “It really would have been too easy if she'd been the murderer, though, right?” Kaitlin whispered to her.

  One of Merry's eyebrows lifted toward her granddaughter. Was the girl becoming a mystery buff? Maybe she'd grow up to be a detective like her father?

  After clearing his throat, Jeremy said, “We'll corroborate your story with your video and get this authenticated to be sure that it matches other videos on the phones tonight—to prove that the video was taken this evening. For now, you can return outside.”

  The woman huffed as she stood and crossed her arms over her chest. Then she left, pushing up the tent flap as she went.

  “If the video matches the rest of the crowd, it seems we'll be able to rule out Miss Brown as a suspect. I really hope one of these other two people prove to be more likely. I hate that there's a murderer in our town. I won't be able to sleep tonight knowing that I let him slip through my fingers.”

  “Or her,” Colin said, correcting his father.

  Jeremy nodded. “Or her.

  Lynn Reiner was a meek looking woman with dark hair pulled back in a bun and glasses, but something about her was a little bit pretty. She had a bit of that naughty librarian look that so many people on social media were trying to go for. She wore a green coat with red gloves, perfect for the Christmas fashion. She seemed to be in her late twenties and was a lot less flashy than the woman who’d sat in the same chair a moment before.

  “Did you know Lonnie, the man who was murdered tonight?” Jeremy asked, setting the black smartphone that belonged to the woman down on the table between them.

  Her eyes went wide. “It was Lonnie who was killed?” She blinked several times, her eyes remaining on her gloved hands. “I... He was my ex-boyfriend. We broke up two months ago.”

  Merry frowned. That was awfully recent. The man really did seem to be a bit of a player.

  Jeremy sat down in the chair across from the girl, his elbows on the table. “So, why didn't you answer his phone call tonight?”

  The girl frowned. “Lonnie has been trying to get back together with me for the past few weeks. He keeps calling and texting me about it. I was on a date tonight, so I shut my phone off.”

  “A date? He's here, too?” Jeremy asked, lifting a brow.

  “Yes.” She pulled her phone to her and pushed the button on her phone. There on the home screen was a picture of her in the same outfit she was wearing now, and a man with his arms around her shoulders and his head resting next to hers. The selfie seemed to be taken in the small cafe nearby.

  Was that picture taken tonight?” Merry asked. There was something a little bit different about the photo, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

  The woman nodded. “Yes.”

  “Did you know that Lonnie was going to be at the lights display tonight with his girlfriend?” Jeremy asked, drawing the woman's attention back to him.

  She shook her head. “We don't talk to each other. I had no idea.”

  Jeremy looked toward Merry once more.

  Merry nodded her head.

  “Where were you during the time of the murder?” Jeremy asked the suspect, who still hadn't taken her gaze away from her hands.

 
; She lifted her head. “I was with my boyfriend. He's a blogger and was videotaping the lights display to post on his blog. I'm an amateur, but decided to try to tape it as well, planning to upload to social media.”

  Lynn took hold of her phone and removed her left glove, swiping her finger across to get to the video and then showed it to Jeremy. Merry peered over his shoulder. There, on the screen were about ten minutes of footage of the lights display. Merry and the children walked across the screen, and it showed her rushing toward the crowd and asking them to step back. The video blurred for half a second, then Lynn's face appeared on the screen as she turned the phone around to face her.

  On the video, the woman's voice spoke clearly. “John, something's going on. Do you think we should check it out?”

  Jeremy frowned while watching the video, and then he turned his head toward the woman sitting at the table. “We will corroborate this video with the others that we have to make sure that everything checks out. You can go ahead and join the others.”

  The woman nodded, stood and started out the door. Jeremy sighed and ran a hand down his face. “This case is pretty convoluted. We have a couple on their first date, when one of them disappears on the way to the bathroom. Then there just happens to be both the ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend at the same event where the man was stabbed? I know the first date woman, Clarice Brown, said she thought it might be someone who he owed money, but the more I'm looking at this, it must be the new boyfriend, since both the girls have alibis.”

  Merry shook her head. “Jeremy, you're a detective now. You have to be fair and impartial. Don't jump to conclusions, and don't put aside any of the possibilities. If it is a creditor who stabbed the man, somehow we'll find evidence of that as well. Keep your chin up and keep going.”

  Cowed after his mother's scolding, Jeremy nodded. “You're right. I need to stay focused.”

  She pushed a cup of hot cider into his hands. “It's natural sugar, but I still think it will help. Sugar helps the brain to function better.”