At the back of the house, there was a grove of oak trees, surrounded by wide-open space on either side. In the distance, I heard the sound of a moped starting. I hurried toward the trees, but when I arrived at the back of the thicket, I didn’t see anyone. Had I imagined the sound of a motorbike? I didn’t think I had. There was a dirt road leading away from the trees, heading toward the main road, but it appeared to be empty. Feeling frustrated, I turned around and headed back to the house.
“Did you see anyone driving away?” I yelled, approaching them.
Janelle and Max were standing on the porch. Janelle leaned on the front railing, looking frail.
“No,” Janelle called out.
“Me neither,” Maxwell said.
“Damn,” I growled, raking a hand through my hair.
“Did you see her though, Sheriff?” She gritted her teeth.
“No.”
She wailed, “I swear I saw her! I promise she was in my room.”
I held out my hand in a placating motion. “Calm down. I believe you, Janelle.”
“You do?” She sounded surprised but relieved.
“Yes.”
I addressed Max, “Can we talk alone for a minute?”
He nodded and followed me down the steps. I led him to my car, and leaning against it, he said, “Do you really believe Janelle?”
“Yes. I’ve been doing a lot of digging into the person whose print we found on the high heel.”
“You’ve identified that person?”
“We did. It belonged to a woman named Geraldine Grayson. She was engaged to Archie, who was calling himself Kevin Smith back then. She supposedly died in a car wreck ten years ago.”
He squinted at me. “What in the world?”
“Yeah. It’s confusing. From what I can gather, Archie might have been involved in murder or insurance fraud. Maybe both. He benefited financially from Kimora’s accidental death. Maybe he did the same thing with Geraldine. I suspect Janelle was going to be the third victim, but of what, I’m not sure.”
“But… if Geraldine was murdered for money, how did her print end up on that shoe?”
“I don’t know if Geraldine was in on some kind of insurance scam with Archie or if he tried to kill her for the money, but she somehow survived.” I sighed. “To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on. I only know that Archie is dead, and Geraldine seems to be alive.”
Maxwell glanced back toward Janelle. “What do we do about the fact that someone was in Janelle’s bedroom? It was bad enough when this person watched from afar, but going inside the house…”
“I think this person is extremely desperate.” I sighed. “I should probably talk to Janelle’s parents. Not that they’ll want to talk to me, but they need to up their security.”
“Her parents aren’t here. They’re in Dallas at some fundraiser.”
“I see.” I frowned. “I’m not comfortable leaving Janelle here alone.”
“Me neither.”
“Let’s go figure this out.” I walked up the porch toward a very nervous-looking Janelle. “I think it would be best if you weren’t alone right now.”
She hugged herself. “Okay. I… I’ll see if Polly can come stay with me.”
“Yes. Arrange that if possible. We’ll stay here while you set that up.” I gave her a reassuring smile. “Also, do you have security? I’m curious how someone got inside your home.”
Gritting her teeth, she said, “We have an alarm, but I didn’t have it on because it’s daytime. We also have a company that drives by the perimeter of the grounds every half hour or so. Mom hates having people hovering, so she didn’t want people patrolling inside the gates.”
