Late in the afternoon she went upstairs to the shared copy room, making copies of marketing materials for an upcoming presentation. She didn’t know how long she was up there, but it must have been a few hours because she had quite a bit of contracts and brochures to print and collate. When she returned, she said, her outer office was dark and a light was on in Lucas’s office, but the door was almost closed. So, she grabbed her purse and called out that she was leaving, assuming he heard her. She said she figured he was working on something and didn’t want to be disturbed, having his door nearly shut. She said she went out the back door because her car was parked closest to that entrance.”
“So there actually was no way to know what time any of this took place or if she’s telling the truth, is there?” Colin asked.
“Not really, except that Josh says he heard her coming down and he hid under the stairs. He said he waited for her to pass by and go into her office before he came out the front door, and we know he left at six thirty-seven, so that would have been about the time she came down from the copy room. But that doesn’t prove when she left.”
“And it doesn’t confirm she didn’t talk to Lucas or prove she didn’t see him lying on the floor,” Colin pointed out.
“No, you’re right,” Ernie said, nodding his agreement.
“Lucas actually could have come to, then they argued about something, and she could have killed him,” Colin supposed. “She could have smashed him on the head with the paperweight and took it with her, disposing of it somewhere we’ll probably never find.”
“Anything’s possible, but why would she stick around? You’d think if she murdered the guy she would have packed up and left town by now.”
“Hmmm.” Colin scratched his head. “You have a point. Maybe there’s something she’s waiting for. Maybe she can’t get at the money yet or something like that.”
“Back to the timeline,” Ernie said, moving again to the board. “Gloria Wakefield is shown entering at six forty-six, then Emily and Maggie at six fifty-five,” he muttered, following the notations with his thick pointer finger.
“What time did the nine-one-one call come in?”
Ernie searched through the file and pressed a sturdy finger on the page. “Six fifty-five.”
“Exactly when Emily and Maggie entered?” Colin asked.
“Looks that way, which makes sense because Emily said Mrs. Wakefield was on the phone calling the police when they walked in.”
“I wonder what she was doing there for nine minutes.” Colin pushed off the corner of the desk and stepped up to the whiteboard.
“I tried to question her that night, but she’d had a heart attack, probably from the strain of finding her son murdered. You should have seen her, she was pasty white and sweaty with blood on the front of her clothes. Emily said Mrs. Wakefield told her she’d tried to revive her son, but when she realized he was gone, she just held him for a while. She was sitting in a chair calling the police when Emily and Maggie walked in. It’s a good thing the ambulance was already there when she went into cardiac arrest.”
“Did you ever question her?” Colin asked.
“Yeah, I went to the hospital the next day, but the doctor wouldn’t let me talk to her for long. She told me pretty much what Emily told me.”
“Hmmm.” Colin pressed his lips together as he rubbed his chin, his eyes studying the whiteboard. “That back door is killing us, Ernie.”
“Anyone could have come in and out of it unseen. It could be someone who isn’t even on this timeline,” Ernie commented. “Maybe someone who invested in the resort found out they’d been duped out of a ton of money.”
“My guess is this wasn’t Lucas’s first rodeo. It might even have been some mark from a previous scheme that found out where he was and came to make him pay.”
“You really think so?” Ernie asked, arching his eyebrows.
“Anything’s possible, Ern,” Colin surmised, clapping his friend on the back. “Anything’s possible.” Colin collected his jacket off one of the chairs and headed to the door. “I promised Emily I’d fill her in, so I better get going.”
“Thanks for helping me talk this thing through,” Ernie said, turning away from the whiteboard.
“You’re welcome.” Colin paused in the doorway and turned back to face his friend. “I only wish it got us somewhere. Seems like