“Oh.” Noreen looked confused.
“Yeah, oh,” Kevin said.
Noreen touched Kevin’s arm. “Any news on Greta’s death, Detective?”
His eyes softened. “Nothing official.”
Noreen perked up. “But something.”
His tone softened. “Preliminary reports show she was poisoned.”
“By what?” I asked.
“Looks like something she ate.”
Noreen paled. “Poisoned?” Tears welled in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Kevin said.
207
She nodded, pulled open Growl’s door and disappeared inside.
“Autopsy results are being released to the media tomorrow.”
“Any suspects?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Why don’t you tell me? What’s with the accounting question?”
“Nothing.”
“Ever heard of obstruction?”
I shrugged. “I saw some accounting books in the Grabinsky house. Bill had been looking for them.”
“When did you see them? When you found Greta?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Before that. They weren’t there the day I found Greta.”
“You looked, then.”
“I thought it odd that Bill wanted the books back so badly, that Russ even brought them home in the first place.”
“What made you ask about Greta?”
How much did I want to tell him? All. All of it. I didn’t want to carry the weight of this around with me. I explained about Dale Hathaway and the blackmail. About Bill and the blackmail. About the one person who had the most to lose.
“Greta,” he said.
“Exactly.”
I could see him turning over the situation in his mind.
“Yet she’s dead.”
“Exactly.”
“I need those blackmail letters.”
“You’d have to ask Bill about that. Did you talk to Dale today? After I called you?”
“Yeah. Said he’d been blackmailed by Russ to drop the HOA lawsuit. He tried but wasn’t successful. He thought bluffing with Greta about having it dropped would get his pictures back.”
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Heather Webber
“Did he show you his letters?”
“Said he didn’t have them anymore. Had thrown them away.”
My eyebrow rose. I very much doubted that.
“Yeah,” Kevin said, “I don’t believe him either.”
The door opened behind us. Bill escorted the two men from the prosecutor’s office out of the restaurant. “Anything I can do, gentlemen,” he said.
The two looked at Kevin, nodded in that way men do when they greet each other. Their attention turned to me for a brief moment, but they continued on to their black Ford Taurus.
I had the feeling I’d be seeing them again soon.
I still hadn’t heard from Bobby’s cousin Josh. I thought maybe I should put a call in.
Kevin pulled Bill aside, but the summer breeze carried their voices.
“I’ve become aware that you’ve been blackmailed. I need to see those letters, Bill.”
