Second wife it says here.”
“Is Landy short for Yolanda?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Riley replied, “Why?”
“Because,” Lich replied, “There was a note on the fridge that said-”
“-coffee with Landy at 10:00,” Mac finished it for him. “What was the date on that, Dick?”
“October 25th.”
“At lunch I’ll give Ms. Stephens a call and see if we can pay her a little visit.”
“Probably just a coincidence,” Rock added.
“Yeah, but so is this whole case,” Mac replied.
After lunch, they made their way over to the Stephens home, a sprawling two-story stucco mansion in the wealthy Highland Park neighborhood, close to the Mississippi River.
“My, we are jet setting today aren’t we?” Rock mused.
The house was set back a hundred feet from the street, and one could tell that, in the summer, it had numerous flower gardens in the front following a serpentine cobblestone sidewalk from the street. It looked like a home you would find in California, with off-white stucco, red tiles on the roof and tall, perfectly manicured shrubs framing the windows along the front.
A housekeeper answered the door. She welcomed them in and asked that they wait for Ms. Stephens in the foyer. Mac admired the winding staircase up to the second level and a couple of the art pieces on pedestals.
Mac recalled having seen a picture of Stephens. He wasn’t a homely guy by any stretch, just kind of an average Joe in his fifties. He had clearly overachieved in his second marriage. The second Ms. Stephens, who had answered the phone “Landy,” was a stunning beauty in, Mac guessed, her late thirties. She was tall, with strawberry-blond hair that fell stylishly to her shoulders. Two words came immediately to Mac’s mind-Trophy Wife. No reflection on her intelligence, just that he seriously doubted it was Stephens’s magnetism that drew this woman to him.
Landy was ever the polite hostess, seating everyone and offering coffee. She sounded almost excited to speak with them when Mac called. Now she was serving coffee and what not, and he got the feeling that she was happy to have company. He wondered if having the mansion and the money still had left her a little lonely. Stephens probably had her running with an older crowd. Now that he was gone, all she had was the house and the money.
“So, Ms. Stephens…” Mac asked.
“Landy,” she replied, smiling warmly at Mac.
“Okay, umm, Landy. As I mentioned when I called, we’re following up on some things from the Jamie Jones murder, and we noticed that she had met with you shortly before she died.”
“Oh, yes. I remember. Probably a week beforehand.”
“Were you and Ms. Jones friends?”
“Yes. I really liked Jamie, and so did James. She was really nice, and we kind of hit it off because we were the same age.”
“So, why did the two of you get together on the…” Mac looked down at his notes.
Lich finished for him. “… the 25th.”
“Oh. I had her meet me for coffee out at the Yacht Club. I had been up to our lake home, I guess
“Do you recall what was in the box?” Mac asked.
“No, I really don’t,” she replied and then looked thoughtfully towards the ceiling. “There was some sort of book, like for accounting I think.”
“A ledger book?” Rock added helpfully.
“Yes. That’s right. Thanks.” She shot him a warm smile. “A ledger book of some type.”
“Anything else?” Riley asked.
“Not that I can recall. Just papers, some folders, stuff like that. Most were in those brown file folders. I don’t know much about finance and, like I said, it was PTA related, so I gave it to Jamie.”
“After that day, did you talk to her again?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“When you gave the box to her, what did she say?”
“Nothing much. Thanks, maybe. She might have said, ‘I’ll look it over’ — that kind of thing. We were friends. Giving her the file was just an excuse to get together for coffee.”
“Did you discuss anything else?”
“We chatted about lots of things. Her work. What I was doing…”
“Ms. Stephens…”
“Landy.”
“Sorry,” Mac replied, “Landy, did you talk about anything else related to the box you gave her.”
She thought for a moment, then shook her head, “Not that I recall. We talked for an hour or so, said good-bye and that was that.”
“And the name on the box was Cross?”
“I think so. Cross. There was that ledger book and some other papers that all looked Greek to me. That was it.”
They went through it one more time, but nothing additional came to light. Mac worried that they were pushing it, but Landy never asked what their questions were all about.
They got up to leave, thanking her for her time. She walked them to the door, saying good-bye to each, with Mac being last. He left her a card and asked that she call if she remembered anything else. She promised she would, giving him a warm smile as he left.
Alt and Bouchard watched from a block and a half north, waiting for McRyan and Company to leave. Kraft and Hansen were in another van a half block behind, waiting for their cue. Alt had been on the phone with Lindsay. Finally, they had an idea of where the Cross documents might have come from.
“When they leave, you’ll talk to her?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When that’s done, call me. It’s time for us to put a stop to this little investigation of theirs.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alt hung up and turned his attention back to the house. The front door opened, and the cops filed out, McRyan being the last. They all got into the Explorer and drove down the driveway, took a right turn, in the opposite direction from Alt and Bouchard.
“Kraft. They’re yours.”
“Copy that.” He heard the engine start behind him and Kraft pulled by, settling in behind McRyan and company along Mississippi River Boulevard.
“Let’s go.”
Mac and company headed back downtown to the Pub. Mac called Sally to fill her in on what they had found.
“Is this enough to go after them?” he asked.
“No. You don’t even know what this Cross thing is. You have to know about that before we could go forward. Sounds like you’re on the right track though. You guys are finding things.”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure how long we can keep doing this until people start finding out.”
“Hopefully something will pop soon.”
