Fireworks in Paradise Read online

  “What if he was looking for something damaging about Harper?” Kyle suggested. “Something he could use to blackmail him.”

  “That actually makes sense,” Frannie said. “Harold was definitely leading the charge in opposition to the development. What if Bristow heard something damaging about him but didn’t have any proof, so he came into the library to look at these old books? And he found what he was looking for and told Harold that if he wanted to keep his secret he’d have to support his project. Harold might have come here to confirm what Bristow had told him.”

  “There’s only one problem: how would that lead to Judge Harper’s death?” I asked. “If Bristow had something damaging on him, he wouldn’t need to kill him.”

  “True,” Frannie admitted.

  “Frannie’s theory could still be correct if Bristow wasn’t the one who killed Judge Harper,” Kyle pointed out.

  The room fell silent as everyone paused to consider the situation. There really did seem to be so many variables at work. It was hard to focus on any one thing.

  “Maybe Bristow was looking for something else,” Frannie eventually said. “Something having to do with the mall he wants to build, but not the ownership of the land specifically.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  Frannie paused. “I agree with Kyle that if he was looking for deeds or other questions having to do with land ownership, he would look online or perhaps go to the county. I also agree that if he was looking for something to blackmail Judge Harper with and it worked, he wouldn’t need to kill him. I suppose he could have found something he believed would be of use in convincing Judge Harper to change his vote, but in the end Judge Harper stuck to his principles. Or…”

  “Or?” I asked when Frannie trailed off.

  “Judge Harper had been citing a building code which prohibits certain types of commercial development within the town limits as the main reason behind his objection to the project. I don’t think anyone has questioned the fact that such a statute exists, but what if Bristow found out something that no one else seems to know?”

  I waited for Frannie to finish her thought. A look of understanding crossed Kyle’s face, but I still wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

  “I don’t know this for a fact, and it may not even be true, but some prior town council could have already changed the code or at least opened the door to changing it, and no one remembers. The statute that Judge Harper has been quoting was part of the initial town charter. It’s been more than seventy years since it was written, and Bristow can’t be the first person to want to build a multi-level commercial property.”

  I knew there was one other commercial property in town which had six units. I also knew there was a lot of controversy at the time it was built, but it was a modest professional building and not a retail outlet so it managed to squeak through the permit process. Bristow wanted to build a strip mall with a large box store as an anchor and at least ten smaller retail outlets.

  “If Bristow found a precedent set by a previous town council, that could sway the vote,” Kyle admitted. “It’s pretty much fifty-fifty at this point anyway, so it wouldn’t take much.”

  “But there aren’t any large commercial centers in town,” I argued.

  “True. But what if one was approved but never built for another reason, such as funding?” Kyle asked. He looked at Frannie. “Do you remember seeing minutes or anything to do with town council meetings in the book?”

  Frannie shook her head. “Not specifically, but I wasn’t looking for them at the time. I suppose there could very well be something in the book relating to a historical town council meeting.”

  “I know you don’t usually check these books out, but do you think Kyle and I could borrow it?” I asked Frannie after considering the situation for a few minutes. “Just for a couple of days. We really need to get going right now, but we can look through it later and maybe find a document having to do with building codes. Even if we don’t, maybe something will come up in the investigation that helps the whole thing make more sense. It would be good to have the book for reference.”

  “I’ll keep it locked up in my office,” Kyle promised. “It’ll be safe.”

  Frannie paused. She had a frown on her face that made her look older. I could see she was taking Judge Harper’s death harder than most—the two had been friends for a very long time. “Under the circumstances, that will be fine. But do let me know if you figure this out. I don’t know if Bristow killed Harold, but I have a feeling he’s up to something. I’d like to know what it is.”

  Chapter 12

  We left the library and went to Kyle’s house to drop the book off. We still had a few hours before we needed to get back to the resort, so we decided to order pizza and have our first date. Sure, it was a lunch date and we were working, but I found the need to get a first date of any variety out of the way, and if referring to what we were doing as a date would accomplish that, I was all for it.

  “Where do you want to start?” Kyle asked as we nibbled pizza and sipped the microbrew he had on hand.

  “I’ve pretty much narrowed my list down to three suspects, not that there couldn’t be others.”

  “What do you have?”

  I set my slice back onto my plate and picked up my notepad. “Striker Bristow, Sam Wilson, and whoever killed Jennifer Reinhold if her husband turns out not to be guilty. In my mind, Striker Bristow is probably our best suspect, but for the purpose of this conversation I’m going to suggest we start with the Jennifer Reinhold case and circle back to Bristow.”

  Kyle picked up the large envelope that contained the files and other papers from the judge’s safe. “I have everything on Reinhold Roy sent me, but it isn’t the complete file. What we really need is the original sheriff’s file. What we’re talking about is trying to prove or disprove that Steven Reinhold killed his wife. If he did, I don’t see how Harper’s decision to take a second look at the case could have led to his death, but if he didn’t, someone else did, and that person, it would seem, would have a vested interest in making sure Steven was never proven innocent.”

  “Let’s look at what we have after we finish eating. If we need more—and I suspect we will—I’ll call Roy to see what I can work out. He wants us to keep a low profile, but he also wants Judge Harper’s killer found. Roy knew the judge most of his life. Kate might be a by-the-book sort of person, but for Roy it’s personal.”

  “If I remember correctly, Reinhold’s wife was found dead in a shallow grave behind her house almost eight years ago. It’s possible that if Steven didn’t kill her whoever did has long since moved on.”

  “Do you remember where the couple lived?”

  “Just a couple of streets over from Judge Harper,” Kyle answered. “In fact, I believe the main reason Clarissa Halloran, the woman who’s trying to clear Steven now, went to Harper with her theories in the first place was because they met at some sort of neighborhood block party.”

  I sat back in order to give Kyle my full attention. “Okay, walk me through what you remember.”

  “Hang on. Let me get the file so I can refer to it.”

  I checked the messages on my phone while Kyle went for the file. There was one from Jenna, letting me know she and Dennis were talking about the Fourth of July festivities and asking if we wanted to attend the fireworks together, and another from Gracie, asking if I was coming back to the resort. I answered yes to both.

  “Okay. Let’s see what we have.” Kyle set the folder on the table and opened it after he sat back down. “Steven and Jennifer Reinhold moved into the neighborhood where Judge Harper lived shortly after they were married in 1998. According to statements from the couple’s closest neighbors, they had a rocky marriage and loud arguments were commonly overheard coming from their home. Eight years ago, Reinhold made a 911 call, reporting that his wife had been missing for three wee
ks. The deputy who responded asked why he had waited so long to call, and Reinhold reported that his wife frequently took off for short periods of time after they’d had one of their noisy fights.”

  “Does it give the deputy’s name?” I wondered.

  Kyle glanced at the file and then looked up at me. “Clark Leighton.”

  “Clark retired shortly before you came to Paradise Lake. Last I heard, he’s been living in Florida. He was a good guy and a good cop, so if he was the one who investigated the case we can trust his report.”

  “It’s hard to say if he was the official investigator,” Kyle responded. “We’ll need to try to get the original file.”

  “Yeah, we will. Go on.”

  Kyle glanced back down at the file. “After Reinhold reported his wife missing there was an extensive search for her. Not only had she not come home, she hadn’t used her credit cards, accessed her bank account, or called any of her friends. Cadaver dogs found her body buried behind the house, and Reinhold, who had a history of spousal abuse, was immediately considered a suspect. The parts of the file sent to me don’t outline the details of the investigation; they only show that he was eventually arrested and convicted of killing his wife.”

  I frowned. “So he’d been in prison for almost eight years, and all of a sudden his neighbor decided he was innocent and asked Judge Harper to look into it. Why then?”

  “I’m not sure. As I remembered, Clarissa Halloran did meet Judge Harper at a block party, which seemed to facilitate her asking him to take a second look, but she must already have believed in Reinhold’s innocence. I don’t know why she didn’t take the initiative to have the case reinvestigated sooner, but she still lives in the same house, so I guess we could ask her.”

  “I remember Roy saying he was going to talk to her after we discussed this case the first time. I’ll need to talk to him and see where he’s at with it.”

  “Judge Harper’s notes list a bunch of people, which should give us a starting point if we decide to pursue this,” Kyle informed me.

  I pushed my plate into the middle of the table. “I’m pretty much done eating. I think I’ll call Roy now to see if he spoke to Clarissa, and if he can show us the original file.”

  “I’ll put the leftovers away and head to the computer room. I want to check into a few things relating to Bristow that have come to mind since our conversation with Frannie. Why don’t you join me there when you’re ready?”

  I smiled at Kyle as I got up and headed out to the patio overlooking the lake to make my call. Kyle had a great house in a terrific spot, perched on the shoreline of Heavenly Bay, an isolated cove at the far north end of Paradise Lake accessible by a narrow channel. Kyle had built a dock and a boathouse after he inherited the property, making for a peaceful and romantic place to while away a summer afternoon.

  “Hey, Roy, it’s Tj,” I greeted him when he answered his cell. “Is this a good time? Can you talk?”

  “Yeah, I’m at home. What’s up?”

  “Kyle and I have been chatting about a strategy for our very private and unofficial investigation into Judge Harper’s death, and I wanted to ask you if you ever had the chance to pull the original file regarding Jennifer Reinhold’s murder.”

  “Yeah, I downloaded it. It’s saved on my home computer. I can forward it to Kyle as long as you promise to be careful and continue to keep a low profile.”

  “I promise we’ll do our best to do both. Did you have a chance to look at the file?”

  Roy paused before he answered. “I browsed it. Clark Leighton headed up the investigation. I was out on medical leave with a broken leg at the time, so I wasn’t in the loop to the extent that I would have been otherwise. You can read the specifics for yourself, but it seems the prosecution made their case based on several pieces of evidence, all circumstantial.”

  “Like what?”

  “For one thing, there were several domestic disturbance calls made about the Reinholds by neighbors just prior to the wife’s disappearance and death. The prosecution argued that the fact that local law enforcement had been dispatched to the house on several occasions set a precedent indicating there was violence in the marriage. Reinhold’s defense lawyer argued that all the calls were placed by neighbors reacting to the loud yelling and breaking glass they overheard. At no point had the wife called the sheriff or accused him of domestic violence. Additionally, there weren’t any reports of injury to the wife. Reinhold claimed the two were a passionate couple who tended to be loud and throw things when they argued.”

  “He had a good argument if that was true, but the tendency to throw things could be indicative of a predisposition toward violent outbursts. What else?”

  “Bloody sheets were found balled up in the back of Mrs. Reinhold’s closet, indicating she was murdered in the house. The investigators could find no evidence of alarm tampering or forced entry, so it was assumed she was killed by someone with access to the house.”

  I paused to consider this. “If Reinhold didn’t kill his wife, whoever did must have changed the bedding. Doesn’t it stand to reason he would have noticed that?”

  Roy cleared his throat before answering. “He was asked that after the sheets were found. He reminded the investigators that at the time he’d had no idea his wife was dead, so he had no reason to suspect anything. He couldn’t specifically remember if he realized there were fresh sheets on the bed, but a maid service came in every week and changed the bedding, so it wasn’t unusual for him to come home to clean sheets.”

  Okay, I could see how it might have happened that way. “What about the lack of forced entry? Other than the Reinholds, who had access to the house?”

  “The maid service had a key and the alarm code, as did Jennifer Reinhold’s sister and a couple of her friends. Reinhold said the couple had recently done some remodeling and he’d given keys to several people, including the general contractor, the painter, and the man who built the cabinets. He said he got all the keys back but didn’t change any of the locks, so it was possible someone could have made a copy.”

  “And the alarm code?”

  “They hadn’t changed it. He said that because there were people like his wife’s sister and friends who had access to the house, it was too big a hassle to change the locks or alarm code every time they had someone in to work on the house unless they felt they had a reason to.”

  I glanced out over the lake. I wasn’t sure how effective it was to have an alarm if you ended up giving the code to a lot of different people but didn’t say as much. “Okay, go on. What other sort of evidence did they find?”

  I heard rustling in the background, as if Roy were shuffling papers. “According to the report, Clark also found a pair of gloves with Mrs. Reinhold’s blood on them stashed in the bottom of a clothes hamper containing her clothing. Reinhold admitted the gloves were his, but he had no idea how his wife’s blood got on them. He said he used them to work in the yard and kept them in his garden shed. Anyone could have stolen them. And investigators found some muddy clothes discarded in a plastic bag in the garage. The prosecution insisted Reinhold had worn them when he dug his wife’s grave. He admitted they belonged to him but denied digging the grave or wearing them to do it. He insisted that if he’d been the one to dig the grave and had gotten his clothes muddy in the process, he would simply have washed the clothes. He certainly wouldn’t have stored the clothes in his own garage, where anyone could have found them.”

  “He had a point. It would be illogical not to wash the clothes. Maybe he was set up.”

  “He maintained throughout the trial that’s what happened, but the fact that he waited three weeks to say his wife was missing is what seemed to sway at least some of the jurors.”

  “Did Clark ever find the murder weapon?”

  “No,” Roy answered. “It was determined that Mrs. Reinhold was stabbed to death, but the weapon used was nev
er found.”

  “You mentioned you were going to speak to Clarissa Halloran. Did you ever have the opportunity to do it?”

  “No. She didn’t answer my call when I first tried, and then I got busy and never followed up. With all the tourists in town, we’ve had a rash of accidents, drunk and disorderly complaints, and petty theft calls. And I didn’t want to mention the file to Kate. She’d wonder where I got it.”

  “Kyle and I will see if we can track Halloran down tomorrow. If you’re as busy as you say, Kate shouldn’t have time to keep tabs on us. Although, to be honest, it’s not like we’re doing anything illegal.”

  “I know. I just don’t want to rock the boat if I don’t have to. I’ll send Kyle the files.”

  “Do you know if Kate has narrowed in on any suspects we haven’t discussed?”

  Roy paused before answering. “I’m not sure exactly what Kate’s working on. She’s been really secretive lately, and that worries me. It’s possible she doesn’t want to share what she knows with me because she assumes I’ll turn around and share it with you, but I sense there’s more to her overall approach to the investigation. I’m being cautious where she’s concerned.”

  “Well, thanks for the help. I’ll call you if we find anything.”

  After I hung up, I headed into the house. I found Kyle intently studying something on his computer screen.

  “Is that the file Roy just sent?”

  “Yeah. It came through a few minutes ago. I’ll make copies for each of us.”

  I sat down at the desk next to Kyle. He handed me the file he’d just printed out. It was thick, with a lot of witness statements and professional testimony. Just familiarizing ourselves with the case was going to be a huge task, and the possible real murderer of Mrs. Reinhold was only one of three suspects on my list.