Catastrophe Cliff Read online

  “I’ve met Fiona. I don’t get the impression she likes me much.”

  “Why wouldn’t she like you?”

  “She figured out I had feelings for Jen. She thought I was trying to break up Jen and Kyle. I couldn’t help how I felt, but I would never try to ruin anyone’s relationship with someone else. I don’t think Fiona can believe that about me.” Joel lifted his hands palm side up. “I cared about Jen. I wished her only the best.”

  “Did Jennifer know how you felt about her?” Nell asked.

  “I’m pretty sure she knew. I never came out and told her, but I suppose it became obvious over time.”

  “Did Kyle know you liked Jennifer?”

  Joel shook his head. “That’s what I mean about Kyle. He doesn’t notice things because he’s so absorbed with himself. I don’t think he realized I had feelings for Jen. Over time, I convinced myself to let my feelings go and look for someone I could have a relationship with.”

  Nell used a caring, gentle, non-accusatory tone when she asked, “What happened to your hands and face?”

  Before shaking his head, Joel lifted his hands and gave them a quick look. “I fell. I was running on the road and my toe caught in a sewer grate. I went flying. I felt like an idiot.”

  Nell smiled. “I’ve fallen while running, too. There were a lot of people around when it happened. I was so embarrassed.”

  Peter cleared his throat and addressed his question to Joel. “Can you think of anyone who might have wanted Jennifer dead?”

  Joel’s face lost its color and his breathing rate increased. “What? Of course, not. Wait a minute. Wasn’t Jen’s fall an accident? You aren’t thinking this was deliberate, are you?” Joel went on not waiting for Peter’s answer. “You think someone might have killed Jen?” He moved a hand to his stomach as his eyes flashed around the room. “Who? Who would want her dead? Why would someone kill her? It can’t be. No, not Jen. She must have slipped. Didn’t she?”

  “We’re still trying to determine the cause of the fall,” Peter said gently.

  Joel sat very still trying to digest the information, then he stood abruptly and gripped his stomach. “Excuse me,” he said softly as he hurried from the room.

  Peter looked over at Nell. “I wonder if Joel is a member of the school’s drama club. Did we just witness an award-winning performance, or is he really that upset?”

  A golden-yellow color had swirled around the man as he fled the room.

  What did the color mean? Deceit? Shock?

  Something else?

  10

  Twenty-seven-year-old Carrie Flint was five-feet-five-inches tall with chin-length blond hair and blue eyes. A nurse practitioner, she had a friendly expression and an energetic manner. She met Peter and Nell in the hospital cafeteria and they sat off to the side in a quiet corner.

  “Poor Jen. I can’t believe she’s gone.” Carrie’s expression turned to one of sadness as she gripped her hands together. “Do you know what happened that morning? Do you know what caused her to fall?” The woman seemed close to tears.

  “We’re still investigating,” Peter told the woman.

  “You knew Jennifer for some time?” Nell asked.

  “About three years. We met here at work and hit it off right away.” A smile returned to Carrie’s lips as she recalled her friendship with the deceased young woman. “She was fun, happy, positive. We’d go to dinner, meet for lunch, go to the beach together, take walks. Jen was a good listener. When I was going through a health problem, she was right there by my side.” Carrie shook her head. “Such a stupid, freak accident. Such a waste of a wonderful life.”

  “Prior to the accident, had Jennifer seemed her usual self?” Peter questioned.

  “Yeah, she did.”

  “Was she having any trouble with anyone?”

  Carrie tilted her head to the side.

  Nell clarified, “Any arguments, any disagreements, any altercations with anyone?”

  “No, everything was the same as usual as far as I know.”

  “We’ve heard that Jennifer might have been having second thoughts about getting married,” Nell told the woman.

  Carrie looked surprised. “Someone told you that?”

  Nell nodded. “Is it true?”

  Hesitating for a few moments, the nurse practitioner spoke in a soft voice. “It’s true. Since Jen and Kyle had been living together, Jen had begun to see another side to him. He didn’t pull his weight in the relationship. Jen did most everything around the house and in the yard. She worked a full day and when she got home, everything fell on her. If she mentioned the imbalance in their domestic chores, Kyle would get angry and silent. He wasn’t kicking in half of the budget either. Jen was getting fed up with having to pay so much of the monthly budget herself. Kyle could be oblivious and anytime Jen wanted to discuss her concerns, he’d clam up and get very angry. I really don’t think Kyle was mature enough to be in a marriage.”

  “Do you think Jennifer would have called off the wedding?”

  “I think she would have. I think she was getting close to doing it.”

  “You don’t think she’d talked to Kyle about it?”

  “I can’t be sure if she brought it up with Kyle or not. She didn’t tell me she had. She didn’t mention a discussion or a fight with him,” Carrie said, “so I don’t think she’d brought it up with him yet.”

  “Was Jennifer feeling depressed about the situation?” Nell asked.

  “She felt down about it, disappointed that it wasn’t going to work out with Kyle. She was also disappointed in herself for not being better at choosing a partner. I told her that was silly. It takes time to get to know someone and at the beginning of a relationship, I think we’re excited about the new love interest and we gloss over things we find annoying or concerning about the person. We hope it will work out so we ignore the little signs that it might not be the right match for us.”

  “You’re right,” Nell said. “Jennifer was smart to be thinking of ending the relationship if she felt it wasn’t the right match for her.”

  Peter asked, “Did you ever go hiking with Jennifer?”

  “No.” A frown formed on Carrie’s face. “That’s not my idea of a good time. Bugs, heat, humidity, poison ivy, sweating, going up hills. No thanks. You know that cliff is nicknamed Catastrophe Cliff by some of the locals? Because a number of people have lost their lives there over the years. I avoid that place. I rarely go to the state park. I prefer going to the beach, sailing, or taking a walk around town. Jen was the athletic type. She ran, biked, competed in events. She encouraged me to join her, but that stuff’s not for me.”

  “Did you know Jennifer’s sister, Mari?”

  “Fantastic athlete. She almost made it to the Olympics. Mari is a natural athlete. Jen always felt badly that she wasn’t up to Mari’s level.” Carrie’s eyebrows furrowed. “I think Mari loved to hold it over Jen’s head. Mari loved to flaunt that she was the successful athlete, and too bad Jen was such a disappointment. Mari implied things like that to Jen. It made me angry. They were sisters, for heaven’s sake. They should be supportive of each other.”

  “Do you think Jennifer felt close to her sister?”

  “That’s a good question,” Carrie said. “I think she probably did on a certain level, but there were lots of times she felt annoyed with Mari, hurt by one of her comments, tired of Mari’s obsessive need to exercise and prove she was the best. Sometimes Jen seemed exhausted by her sister.”

  “Did they spend a lot of time together?”

  “I think they did once upon a time. Not so much the past year though. I think Jen was pulling away a little to be in charge of her own life away from Mari’s influence.”

  “I wonder how Mari felt about that,” Nell said.

  “I’m sure she didn’t like it,” Carrie said. “Mari is bossy. She likes to freely share her opinions. I don’t think she’d like it if her little sister was trying to become more independent. There are like ten or el
even years between them. Mari has always been the one in charge.”

  “What changed this past year to make Jennifer want to be more independent?” Peter asked.

  “I don’t know if there was any one thing that triggered it. Jen started to realize that she needed to assert herself more, otherwise people would walk all over her. She wanted to make her own decisions and not be treated like a kid anymore.”

  “Can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Jennifer?” Peter questioned.

  “Gosh, no.” Carrie looked shocked by the inquiry and then something else passed over her face. “Why are you asking me that? Are you thinking Jen’s fall wasn’t the result of an accident?”

  Peter asked, “Did Jennifer do drugs of any kind?”

  “What? Drugs? Are you kidding me? Absolutely not.”

  “Was Jennifer feeling so low about ending her relationship with Kyle that she might decide to take her life?” Peter asked.

  “That’s absurd. Did someone suggest that? If they did, they’re flat out wrong. Jen would never do that. Never.” Carrie looked annoyed by the line of questioning. “Why are you asking these questions?”

  “We’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened to your friend,” Peter told her.

  Carrie looked warily from Nell to Peter. “Jen didn’t slip and fall?”

  “Maybe not,” Peter said noncommittally.

  “Did someone hurt Jen? Did someone push her?”

  “We aren’t certain about anything just yet,” Peter said.

  “This is horrible.” Carrie’s eyes welled up. “Was Jen murdered? Is that what you think happened that morning? Gosh, I can’t believe what’s going on. Who would want to kill her?”

  “Can you think of someone who would want to hurt her?”

  “No. No one.” A thought came into Carrie’s mind. “Wait a minute. Did Jen tell Kyle she wanted to end the relationship? Did he get so angry that he decided to push her off that cliff?”

  When Nell went home, she went straight to the gallery-studio to talk to Violet and tell her about the interview with Carrie.

  After greeting the dogs, Nell sat down at her work desk in the studio at the back of their shop. “Carrie made a lot of thoughtful and careful observations about Jennifer and the people around her. She didn’t believe it was possible for Jennifer to take her own life. She adamantly denied that Jennifer was into drugs. She was articulate about Jennifer’s probable decision to end the relationship with Kyle. Carrie made good points about Mari always butting into the young woman’s life, being overbearing, and giving Jennifer a hard time for being less of an athlete than she thought her sister should be.”

  “Mari sounds like a real pain.” Violet sat at her desk sketching some new jewelry designs. “Maybe Mari had her sister’s well-being in mind, but gee, imagine being constantly berated for not being good enough? At something you didn’t care all that much about.” Looking up from her sketch pad, she added, “And remember, Mari held a life insurance policy on Jennifer.”

  “That point worries me,” Nell said. “Jennifer was pulling away trying to press for her independence. Mari had always been the boss and she might not have appreciated the fact that Jennifer didn’t want much advice from her anymore. Mari could have decided to get rid of her sister … for two reasons … she didn’t like being pushed away by her sister and she held the policy on her sister which would provide a sizeable and handsome payout.”

  “This case is chilling,” Violet said. “It could easily have been Kyle who pushed his fiancée off the cliff. He had a policy on Jennifer’s life, he was tired of her nagging about household chores, and the relationship was under stress.”

  Nell began to work on a nearly-completed painting of a seascape. “Then we have Joel who had a sizeable crush on Jennifer and who was probably very annoyed and hurt when he was rejected by her. And there’s also Lindsey. She seems to be very careful about her appearance, but the other day, she had two broken fingernails on her manicured hand. How did she break her fingernails? We also heard that Lindsey has a very large crush on Kyle. Would Lindsey hurt Jennifer to get rid of her so she could make a move on Kyle?”

  Violet stopped working for a few seconds and looked over at her sister. “There are a number of people who had motivation to kill. Those people should be placed on a suspect list and watched very closely.”

  Although she was feeling overwhelmed by the many possibilities of the case, Nell nodded her agreement. She was of the opinion that Jennifer must have known her killer.

  But who was it?

  11

  The afternoon was sunny and hot as Peter, Nell, and Kyle McLeod began their hike on the lower trails of the state park.

  “We entered the trail from here in the gravel parking lot,” Kyle said. The man was not thrilled to be traipsing through the woods with a detective and his assistant and he let them know his feelings by being surly and curt in his responses.

  Peter stopped and turned to the young man. “You know we’re only trying to find out what happened to Jennifer. Going through the trails with you might result in you recalling something you’d forgotten.”

  “I know that.” Kyle kicked at some gravel on the trail. “But it’s upsetting.”

  “We understand,” Nell said kindly. She could see the aura of angry red coming off of Kyle. “We wouldn’t ask you to do this if there wasn’t a chance of finding some clues.”

  “Clues to what? Jen suffered an accidental fall.”

  Peter cleared his throat. “As we discussed earlier, there is a chance your fiancée was pushed from the cliff.”

  “I don’t believe it.” Kyle stared at the ground.

  Peter explained for a second time how Jennifer’s hands did not sustain injuries consistent with an accidental fall.

  “How does the medical examiner know that?” Kyle demanded.

  “Because of his education and experience,” Peter told the man. “Why don’t we continue and see what we can find out.”

  Kyle took a long breath and started along the trail. “We hiked on this trail until it branched off to the south side of the park. Jen liked the fields in that area. There are lots of birds and in the spring the meadows are full of wildflowers.” It almost sounded like Kyle’s voice a hitched a little from emotion.

  The three of them hiked to the spot where the trail branched off and they arrived there in a little more than an hour and a half. If they’d hiked the direct path from the parking lot to the cliff trails, they’d have arrived in twenty minutes, but Peter wanted to follow the trails that Jennifer and Kyle had taken on that fateful morning.

  “We went this way.” Kyle pointed. “Wait. Yeah, I think that’s right. We hiked here a lot. I’m not sure I’m remembering everything from that morning.”

  “Let’s head in that direction then,” Peter said. “Do you remember where you were when you took the pictures of Jennifer?”

  “There’s a small pond down this way,” Kyle said. “I took a couple of photos of Jen by the pond.”

  When they reached the water, Nell noticed the front of Kyle’s t-shirt was wet with sweat and beads of perspiration were showing on his forehead. His eyes seemed to dart around the area.

  Peter had copies on his own phone of the pictures Kyle had taken and he referred to them as they stood by the woodsy pond. “It looks like Jennifer was standing over by the weeping willow trees.”

  “That sounds right,” Kyle said wiping at the sweat with the back of his hand.

  When Peter was done comparing the photos to the actual place, he handed the phone to Nell to look at. Several times, she lifted her eyes from the phone to the woods and the pond. Pale, light yellow particles flowed in a circle around the ground near the water sparkling in the sunlight that was filtering in through the tree branches and leaves.

  Nell took a glance at Kyle. He appeared distracted and antsy, and when he walked over to the pond’s edge, the yellow particles swirled in the air and the man gave off a yellow aura that st
artled Nell. Narrowing her eyes, she watched as Kyle turned yellow from the top of his head down to his boots.

  Nell knew that the color yellow could stand for happiness, but that wasn’t what it represented in this case. Yellow also could stand for deceit.

  A rush of adrenaline raced through Nell’s veins.

  “Okay,” Peter’s voice made Nell jump. “Let’s go to the spot where you and Jennifer parted ways.”

  Kyle’s muscles looked tense as he led the way to the three-way split in the trail. In thirty minutes, they’d reached the break in the paths.

  “Here it is,” Kyle said. “Jen went that way to the cliffs and I hiked down to the duck pond. This is where we said we’d meet at the kettle pond in forty-five minutes.”

  “Did you run into anyone hiking when you were on your way to this part of the trail?” Peter asked.

  “No one. We didn’t see anyone.”

  “How about when you headed to the duck pond? Did you see anyone on your way down to the water?”

  Kyle shook his head. “I didn’t see anybody.”

  “Tell us again what happened after you got to the kettle pond,” Peter requested.

  Kyle let out a long breath of air. “I expected to see Jen there because I was a little later than we’d planned to be. I waited for a while, then I texted her, but she didn’t answer. I waited a little longer and then texted her a couple of more times. When she didn’t show up, I hiked back to the parking lot.”

  “Were you concerned that Jennifer wasn’t answering?” Nell asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Did you think about maybe heading to the cliffs to see if she was there?”

  “No. I figured she went to the car.”

  “If she was fine and went to the car, why wouldn’t she answer her texts?” Nell pressed, feeling her blood beginning to boil.

  “I don’t know. Maybe she put her phone in the car and was looking around.”

  “Did she have a key to the car?”

  “Yeah.”