Read Online Their Seductress [The Hot Millionaires #1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Zara Chase - Free Book Online Page A

list.”
    “Ellie and Lana get along really well,” Paige said. “Ellie might have had business differences with Mike, but I can’t see him killing her over them. Frankly, he doesn’t strike me as having the balls for murder.”
    “If all murderers looked like murderers,” Nick said.
    “Quite.” The lieutenant accepted another bottle of beer from Nick and cleared his throat. “Our second suspect is Melanie Crowther.”
    “You think a woman could have done this?” Paige’s tone expressed surprise.
    “Sure.” The lieutenant shrugged. “Ms. Carter was tiny, and she was seated at the time of an attack she wasn’t expecting.”
    “I see.”
    “Melanie Crowther is communications director,” Isaac said.
    “And had a relationship with Ellie,” Nick added. “She came back here a few times.”
    The lieutenant didn’t ask what that proved. Presumably he knew about the recording devices dotted about the house but hadn’t asked to look at the tapes yet. If he did and they were taken downtown, they’d never stay private for long. It would be in the mayor’s best interests not to let that happen.
    “Miss Crowther is seen on CCTV dashing from the building immediately after the directors’ meeting. She says she has an alibi but won’t say where she went.”
    “Perhaps another woman,” Paige suggested. “A married one.”
    The lieutenant shrugged. “Possibly.”
    “Did you get her on camera coming back to the office?” Isaac asked.
    “No. She says she came back through the garage. She didn’t go out in her car but said she came back that way because it’s quicker.”
    “It is,” Isaac said. “A lot of us with garage passes do it. You can get straight on the elevator and go directly to the floor you want. The cameras down there are not well situated and easy to avoid, especially if you know where they are and don’t want to be seen.”
    “Why would she not want to be caught on camera if she’s innocent?” Paige asked.
    The lieutenant shook his head. “You’ve got me there.”
    “Can you press her to say where she went?” Nick asked.
    “She lawyered up. Swore on the Bible that she liked Ms. Carter, supported her plans for the future of the company, and had no reason to kill her.”
    “Who’s the third suspect?” Isaac asked.
    “Peter Talbot.”
    “Ah,” said Paige and Isaac together.
    “The advertising director was another of Ms. Carter’s greatest detractors,” Isaac explained in response to Nick’s quizzical look.
    “I gather he felt his creative talent was being stifled or some such crap,” the lieutenant said.
    “I’ve only met him twice, but to be frank, he makes my skin crawl,” Paige said. “The way he looked at me. He thinks he’s the real deal.”
    “He says he had lunch in the restaurant at the top of the building alone, but no one can remember seeing him there, or anywhere else, until after the body was found.” He shrugged. “Strange .”
    “Did you question the waiting staff?”
    “They can’t be sure. As you know, that restaurant is used by all the companies in the building. Carter employees simply swipe a card through a machine at checkout, and the cost of their food goes on the company’s account. Unfortunately the machine just registers the company name, not the name of the person using the card.”
    “Presumably he wasn’t caught on tape leaving the building,” Isaac remarked.
    “Nope.”
    “He’s my prime suspect,” Paige said. “Ellie threatened not to renew his contract a while back.”
    “Really?” The lieutenant leaned toward Paige. “No one else has mentioned that. How did you come to know?”
    “Ellie mentioned something about it in passing.”
    “Do you know why?”
    “No, sorry, she didn’t say, but they most definitely didn’t get along.”
    “Presumably there’ll be something on his file,” Nick said.
    “Doubt it,” Isaac said. “Ellie didn’t operate that way.”
    “Well, thanks for sharing, Lieutenant,” Paige said.