Briar Reef Murder Mystery

Chapter 10

Detective Sparks made her way up the stairs and heard the children at play. She cleared her throat to announce her presence and the other woman looked up at her entrance. The young nanny looked just as she'd expected, a brown haired Irish lass with light green eyes.

"Hello!" Her Irish accent was thick, her smile charming and Detective Sparks wondered at the folly of women who hire women like that to live in their house with their husbands and children.

Not that she thought all pretty young girls had ulterior motives, but just one look and she was already picking up on the fact that this one at least, was a lot more than she seemed.

Maybe it was the New Yorker in her that made her so cynical but whatever it was, her senses were already on high alert. All the same, she knew better than to pass judgment on someone just based on gut instinct alone.

"Hello, Bridgette, I'm Detective Sparks I'm here to ask you some questions about Mrs. Davis." The nanny looked down at the children, a boy of about six and two girls four and two or almost two. "May we step outside please?"

Detective Sparks stepped aside to the let the other woman pass and followed her across the hall to what turned out to be the nanny's room. The room was bare and about what you'd expect someone who was living and working in someone else's house to be.

There was one lone picture on the nightstand of Bridgette and an older man and woman, probably her parents. On the bureau there was a comb and brush set, a few hair baubles and some bottles of perfume. The room was neat, nothing out of place and she was dressed in a light green skirt that came down below her knees and a white peasant blouse.

Nothing too revealing, but then she didn't need much to enhance her beauty. "You say you're here about Mrs. Davis, such a horrible thing. The poor little ones, I don't think they quite understand, maybe Junior a little bit, but his sisters"

Her voice tapered off as she sat on the edge of her bed. "I don't know what I can tell you, I wasn't privy to Mrs. Davis' private life."

"How long have you worked for the family?"

"Let's see, I came when Junior was about two, just before little Teresa was born,"

"And who took care of Junior before that?"

"Why Nettie of course. But Mrs. Davis thought she was too old to take care of two children and so they hired me."

"And how did you hear about the job?"

"They advertised in the paper of course."

"And where did you live before that?"

"I came over from Ireland, this was my first time in America."

"Do you have family here, know anyone else other than the Davises?"

She reddened and clasped her hands between her knees. "Well there is Riley and his wife." Detective Sparks looked at her when she mentioned his name, it was the way she said it, the secret little smile on her face.

"And how well do you know the O'Rourkes?"

"Not that well I guess, I just see them when they're here. He's very nice, he comes more often than she does; he likes to be with the children." Odd but not necessarily suspicious!

"How often would you say he came to the house without his wife?" Bridgette shrugged her shoulders and rested back on her palms, pressing her breasts taut against the cotton of her shirt and revealing the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Maybe twice a week, sometimes more. He likes to play with the children."

"And what was their relationship like? Mrs. Davis and Mr. O'Rourke I mean."

"He's a very handsome man don't you think?"

Yes, yes I do! She didn't say the words out loud of course, just left the question hanging in the air between them. "Well?"

"They were friends, very close friends. She was always happiest when Mr. Riley was around."

"And her husband? How was she with him?"

"Normal I guess, like any other couple. They had their fights just like anyone."

"About what?"

"You know, the usual, about the children, life, they were always arguing about something lately."

"What about specifically do you know?"

"I guess it was about the way she'd disappear without telling anyone where she was running off to." Detective Sparks made note of that, but vividly remembered Niall Davis saying that his wife would never leave the house for any length of time without first letting him know.

Now here was the housekeeper and the nanny both claiming different. Could it be that he didn't know, that he had no ideabut wait, she just said they'd argued about it.

"Where did she go do you know?"

"No idea, but it was very suspicious. I think he suspected her of having an affair."

"Did you hear him say that?"

"Not in so many words, no, but it was easy to read between the lines."

Her mind was already going in that direction but she needed more to go on. Seems to be the theme of the day. "Would you know of any places she liked to hang out? Did she go out late at night?"

"Not usually no, and not without him. He kept a very close watch on her when he was home. I don't think they went out much, and it was always with the O'Rourke s when they did."

Again the way she said this was very leading and Detective Sparks wondered if she was trying to tell her something in a roundabout way. "And where were you this morning between the hours of eight and nine?"

"I was here of course. I get up at six every morning with the kids."

"And Mrs. Davis, what time did she get up?" Bridgette twisted her brow and gave the question some thought.

"I'd have to say just a bit after seven, yes, Mr. Niall had just gone out the door when she came down. I was getting the children's breakfast ready."

"And what did she do when she came down?"

"She asked Nettie for her morning coffee and then the phone rang."

"Which phone, the house phone or her cell?"

"No it wasn't a ring, I remember now, it was a text message."

The victim's phone had been found in her jeans pocket and was down at the station in the evidence room waiting for tech to go through it. It was pass coded so Detective Sparks hadn't been able to go through it as yet. But this information was very helpful.

They'd gone through her car but there was nothing there of any use to the investigation. Nothing to point them in the direction of who, she might have met. "So what happened after she got the text? Did she answer do you know?"

"I'm not sure, I just know she ran back up the stairs and took a quick shower before running out the door."

"So she got a text not long after her husband left but you don't know from whom."

"No, I don't know. Maybe you should ask Mr. and Mrs. O'Rourke , they were very close." Again with the innuendos!

"Okay, thank you for your time, I won't keep you away from the kids any longer. Here's my card, give me a call if you think of anything else." She left her to go back to the kids who were busy playing with their toys and headed back downstairs to the den where she found Mr. Davis sitting alone with his head hanging down.

"Oh Mr. Davis, where did the O'Rourke s go? I need to talk to them."

"Valerie was very upset so she asked Riley to take her home. They were very close you know, they went to school together."

He took a sip from his glass and rested back in the chair. She thought in that moment that she'd be very surprised if he had anything to do with his wife's death, he looked like a very broken man.

"Okay then, I guess I'll head out to the farm."

"Have you found anything? Anything at all you can tell me?"

"Not as yet sir, we're still gathering all the evidence. Is there someone you can call to come"

"No, there's no one, no one now."

She said her goodbyes and headed out the door and into the cooling evening. The sun was already going down in the late summer sky as she made her way back to the car. She put a call in to officer Bailey to see if he'd learned anything helpful.

"What have you got for me Pete?"

"Well, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack isn't it. You'd be surprised how many people buy this stuff. I've got all the credit card purchases from the last month, and some of the stores had working cameras but not all. I'm collecting all the information now and heading back that way."

"Go home once you've logged it in."

"What about you?"

"Me, I have one more stop to make and then I'm packing it in unless something else comes up."

"Okay, did you get anything?"

"Not as yet no, I'll go back over my notes tonight."

She hung up and put a call in to tech to see if they were getting anywhere with the phone. "It's encrypted, I don't know many people who do this with their personal phones but there you have it. I'll crack it yet don't you worry."

"Let me know as soon as." She hung up the phone and pulled out onto the street. She should've known it wouldn't be that easy, but she was sure that text was the answer to the whole thing. Whoever had been on the other end of it, had to know something about where Mrs. Davis was going when she left the house this morning.

She went over all that she'd learned so far and tried to get a picture in her head. She gets a text, takes a rushed shower and leave less than an hour after her husband went off to work.

She went to the woods, the isolated woods. A place where not that many people go any longer!

Was it an assignation? Had she been there before? There was nothing there to suggest it, but why the woods?

Did she think someone was in trouble? If so who? There were too many variables, too many angles. She needed more for that picture to become clearer.

What was she wearing? Had she been dressed for a romantic tryst? Jeans and some kind of tank top she was certain but couldn't swear to it because the acid had eaten away most of it along with the victim's chest.

She closed her eyes for a quick second when she came to a red light and brought the crime scene back into focus. She'd still been wearing her wedding ring. Do women wear their wedding rings when going to meet their lover?

And the clown, why was it there? She believed too that that had to play a very big part in the whole mess. But why? Sure there'd been a spate of clown sightings all over the country in the last year. Some sort of promotion for an upcoming horror film she was told. But nothing like that had ever happened here until now.

On a whim she picked up her phone and called Mr. Davis. He answered on the third ring, his voice thick with unshed tears. "Yes, hello, who is this?"

"Sir, this is Detective Sparks, sorry to bother you.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I was wondering sir, did your wife like clowns?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just something that would help with the investigation.

"I don't see how no, no she didn't. In fact, she was terrified of them." Her heart tripped in the way it always does when she'd found something, something important.

"And who else knew this sir, apart from you?"

"Well, I'm not very sure; I don't think she went around advertising it. What is this about?"

"Thank you very much for your time sir. I'll be in touch." She rung off and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she made the turn that would take her off of the main road and onto the track that lead out to the O'Rourke farm.