24. Another Suspect And A Great Breakfast

For once, Kathy was early for their meeting at Rosy’s. The sun was low in the sky, the air fresh and the streets quiet when she pulled into the lot. When she got home from Madeline’s house she had found a message from Sandy inviting her to breakfast. She was eager to share what she had learned.

Brampton walked in wearing a white shirt, blue blazer and tan slacks. Seated at their regular table, Kathy checked him out as he approached. She smiled encouragingly as he got closer. Her mind drifted to thoughts of the toned body beneath his clothes and the musky scent of his cologne rather than the reasons for their meeting. It was a pleasant diversion, but she snapped out of it as he slid into his seat. She drummed her fingers on the table to show she was ready for business, but couldn’t resist taking a deep breath to feel that musky cologne.

    “Good morning, Sandy, how are you?”

    “Just wonderful this fine morning, and how are you?” He was thinking she looked even better in the clear morning light and risked putting his hand close to hers. He tapped his own little bump-diddy-bump on the table between them.

She colored slightly. “I’m good, I’m great. Thanks for asking.”

Lucy approached and, seeing them focused on each other, took their orders quickly and left.

Brampton shook out his blue gingham cloth napkin, one of the reasons he frequented Rosy’s. He hated those stiff paper napkins that slide off your lap. He got straight to the point. “How did it go with Madeline? Did you learn anything that might be helpful?”

“It was interesting,” said Kathy. “She told me how a couple of years ago when her mother was dying, she learned about her biological father. She went looking for him but he was dead, which must have been awfully disappointing.” Brampton nodded and made a can you imagine face. “Then she found out she had a half-sister. Shaye, which must have been pretty exciting.” He thought about making another face, but decided to just nod.

“Did you get the feeling Shaye and her were friends, were they close? What do you think their relationship was?”

Kathy pondered. “She was kind of guarded about everything. Claims they were becoming good friends, best friends, but there was an edge to it. I’m not sure what I was expecting from her, but of course she was going to be broken up. If I learned about my long lost dad, then found he was dead, then found I had a sister, then she gets killed. I don’t mean to judge, but Madeline felt a little off to me.”

“Did she seem defensive or angry?”

    Kathy took a mental step back and thought. “Not exactly. Just guarded. She shed some tears, but that could have been fake.” She threw up her hands. “Oh, now I sound cynical.” She chewed on her thumbnail and looked up from under her lashes. “I stick with my impression she had her guard up, and she kept it up for most of the meeting.”

“Did she know about the inheritance?”

    “No,” said Kathy firmly. “She claims she knew nothing about it and I believe her. It was one of the few moments she seemed genuinely surprised.”

    “Surprised that you knew about it, or surprised that she was getting a windfall?”

    “Surprised that she was getting an inheritance. She was really taken aback. Sat back in the chair, started to cry, it was like she really let go for a minute and it looked genuine to me. Think about it, she found people, lost them, her husband’s all messed up and now she’s coming into money.” She shook her head slowly.

“Okay,” he said briskly. “What about her circumstances, would the money really be a motive?”

Kathy nodded and told him about the accident, the fight with the company, how she was working double shifts to make ends meet. “On the drive home, I realized she hadn’t asked how much money was involved.”

Brampton agreed that was strange. “Going back to her relationship with Shaye, what did she say about that?”

    Kathy recounted what she remembered about the shopping trips, the lunches and phone calls. “She admitted she was resentful that Shaye had known their dad, but I believe she was just glad to have some family, and she was sure Shaye was happy to have found her.”

“Right,” he banged the table making the salt and pepper jump. Kathy jumped, too. “What about your gut? Is she a suspect? Could she be a murderer?”

Kathy laughed. “If I could tell that kind of thing I’d be hiring myself out to your department for big bucks, not meeting you for free at 7:30 in the morning.” He laughed and Lucy, cleaning a table beside them, stole a glance and wished she could figure out just what was going on between them.

Kathy held her hands up and said, “Really, I do not know. She might be a good actor. My instinct is she’s hiding something. Until I find out what that is, I can’t know if she’s telling the whole truth about their friendship. For all we know she wanted Shaye dead and the tears are fake – or remorse.”