Page 16 of The Beachside Cafe 2
“Yeah. I was. And I’m not sorry he’s gone, I’ll tell you that. He was awful. He was blackmailing me… because…” Martin’s jaw clenched and he leaned forward, speaking low as if the walls could hear and would judge him for what he was saying. “Years back when I was in college, I plagiarized one of my papers. It was a moment of shame in my life that I’ll never get over. I… I got a scholarship based on that paper. I took it from an obscure unknown source but somehow Doug found out about it and… well, he started demanding money. Most recently $50,000. I don’t have that kind of money anymore. I hope he never comes back. At least not alive.”
Martin hung his head, as if ashamed of what he’d just said.
But Jaymee didn’t blame him. She stood up, looking at Cameron. “I think we should go and stop bothering this man. I doubt he can tell us a whole lot about IDL. I don’t think he was very high up in the company, were you, Mr. Granger.”
Martin frowned. “I was high enough for some security clearance. I wasn’t a janitor, you know.”
Cameron snorted. “Don’t knock the janitors,” he said. “Those people and housekeepers have access to all parts, parts that other people in the company don’t have access, too. You scientists aren’t the ones doing the mopping and dusting, are you?”
“No. And you’re right. I take that back. I know a lot about the company. But probably not anything that could be helpful to you.”
Cameron pushed himself to his feet next to Jaymee. “Let me leave you with my business card. You call us if you think of anything you think we might need to know.”
“By the way, one last thing,” Jaymee said. “Where were you two weeks ago on Tuesday, the fifth?”
Martin blinked at her. “I was right here, neck deep in paperwork. I’m at the university now. Teaching biology. I was grading papers.”
“You’re sure?” Cameron asked.
Martin turned his eyes to him and said in an unwavering voice, “Of course. That’s what I always do on Tuesday nights. There is never a variation to my schedule. Unless I have unexpected visitors.”
Jaymee blushed and the two left quickly with a friendly goodbye.
TEN
On the way home, they’d decided they would put Martin at the bottom of the list of suspects until they checked out all the other people.
“He doesn’t seem like the type that would actually make a physical move against someone else. He would probably poison his victims.”
“But the drugs we found… he could have used that first one to paralyze Doug and get him out of the house.”
“That still leads me to believe he must have had an accomplice. And he’s got five of them to choose from.”
“We need to establish if there’s a relationship between all of the people on the list. Since they all work for IDL, they might know each other.”
Jaymee felt a chill pass over her skin. “Can you imagine if all of them were involved?” She shook her head. “That would be really something. All of the people being blackmailed getting together to kill their blackmailer.”
“I’m sure it’s happened plenty of times,” Cameron said.
They pulled up in front of Jaymee’s house just as the sun was beginning to dip behind the horizon. Jaymee was missing her restaurant but she knew her manager was in charge and making things run smoothly. She completely trusted him to do a good job.
She looked over at Cameron. “You want to stay for dinner?”
He smiled. “I would love to stay for dinner, Jaymee. What’s on the menu?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Any suggestions?”
Cameron thought about it for a moment. “How about lasagna?”
Jaymee grinned at him. “Any suggestions that don’t take all night and have ingredients I have in my pantry?”
He laughed. “How about we go out or order in?”
“Let’s order in. Cheyenne will want to eat, too.”
“We could all go out.”
Jaymee laughed. “Well, we have all kinds of options, don’t we? I’m not really in the mood to go out. Let’s order in.”
