The Glass Road: A Marie Gardner Murder Mystery by Paula Schumacher

Author:Paula Schumacher [Schumacher, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UpMesa Publishing
Published: 2017-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

Flying to Arizona

Thursday morning, Marie made coffee in her hotel room and ate a granola bar for breakfast. She stared at her estrogen pill packet and thought about the night before. Were her emotions getting out of balance? Did she need a new prescription? Her body gave an involuntary shudder: she did not like going to the doctor’s office. Marie took a pill and sighed. She’d set up an appointment next week. As she dressed, she thought about the coffee shop a few blocks away. She didn’t think it would be open at 3:30 a.m. Still, a good cup of coffee to start the day would have been nice. She still felt full from the evening before. She packed quickly and went to the lobby to wait for Ann.

They boarded at 5:30 a.m., dozed as they flew the half hour to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, and began their work day there, where they had a three-and-a-half hour layover. They found a quiet corner in a coffee shop on the concourse. Marie decided an espresso was in order. The caffeine would be enough to clear the sleepiness from her mind. She mulled over having a scone with her coffee, then discarded the idea because the sugar might make her drowsy again—plus she had met her weekly limit on sweets. She got a cup of water to go with her coffee, then she went over her email and made phone calls. Miles had reviewed and approved her progress report. He had talked to Detective Vermeer about Professor Smythe’s laptop. He agreed to send an image of the hard drive to Heritage that morning. Miles also indicated the team hadn’t found a relationship between Rolland Bascus’ large cash deposits and any other suspect’s account withdrawals. It didn’t mean there wasn’t a connection, just that there was no discernable connection at this time. Marie told Ann it was probably a dead end.

Ann reported the warrant to open and read the sealed letter Smythe left for Bascus was complicated by geography—three different cities were involved—and the fact that it didn’t appear to be critical to solving the case.

The bad news continued. Ann told Marie they were not getting any results from the flyer with Smythe’s picture that they had sent to all the post offices in Chicago. It had been a long shot, they agreed.

The only good news was with the security company that Smythe had hired. Their detailed records indicated they had installed the top-of-the-line system with annual updates for Smythe. He had declined to list valuables or to get additional homeowner insurance to cover them. Company notes indicated Smythe was in their “highly security conscious” customer group, which about three percent of their customer population fell into. The manager at the store had indicated these customers were often extremely sensitive about anyone knowing about their systems, so staff were trained not to pry. The Friday before his death, Smythe had called in and asked for an appointment. The changes he had discussed with the technician would have downgraded his system two levels.

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