She gave me a look. “Mr. Pace isn’t exactly lighting the work world on fire. I don’t think we need to worry about that.”
And we didn’t. Gavin Pace came out to the reception area to meet us. He didn’t look very happy to see us. “I already answered your questions,” he said. “I don’t have anything else to tell you.”
“Would you like me to tell you what your ex-wife said about you, young man?” Rose asked. “I’ll give you a hint. She called you something that rhymes with ‘glass bowl.’ And that was the nicest thing she said.”
I stifled a smile at her use of an expression Avery started using when Liz got after her to clean up her language.
“Could you please keep it down?” he said, looking around. The young woman at the reception desk was watching us, not even trying to hide her interest.
“Maybe we should talk somewhere a little more private,” Liz suggested.
“Fine,” he said. “Come back to my office.”
The office was even more cluttered than our previous visit. Pace didn’t make a move to clear off the chairs but we weren’t going to be there very long so it didn’t matter that we had nowhere to sit down.
Liz didn’t waste any time. “You lied to me,” she said. “I don’t like that.”
“I didn’t lie,” he said but his eyes slid off her face as he said the words.
“You said you hadn’t seen Gina in months when in fact you were caught by the police watering someone’s rhododendrons in her neighborhood the night she died. Then you told a touching story of how she inspired you to stop drinking, which, judging by the contents of your bottom-left desk drawer was also a lie. Would you like to go three for three?”
“Fine,” he said. “I saw Gina the day she died, but I didn’t kill her.” He pulled a hand back through his hair a couple of times. “She ruined my life. I lost my job. Molly wouldn’t take me back. And Gina? Nothing happened to her. People were falling all over themselves to help poor little Gina.” His voice had turned mocking and mean. “So yeah, I told her how she’d ruined my life and how I hoped she’d rot in hell. Then I had a couple of drinks—just to relax and the next thing I know the cops are hassling me.”
Rose’s phone had given a low buzz while Gavin was talking. Someone had sent her a text. She slid the phone out of her pocket, checked the screen and then silently handed it to me. Nick. Based on the estimated time of death for Gina Pearson Pace is not your killer. He was still locked up.
Somehow I’d known that all along. I looked at Gavin Pace. Rose was right about the weak chin and the rest of him matched it.
Liz, meanwhile, had reached her limit for listening to his complaining. She took a couple of steps forward so she was right in his face.
“You, young man, are a bum,” she said, punctuating her words with one pointing finger. “Gina Pearson didn’t ruin your life. Your problems are your own and unlike her, you still have lots of time to fix them. So get a haircut, lose the attitude, clean up this office, get to a meeting and stop bellyaching!”
She turned and stalked out of the office as only Elizabeth Emmerson Kiley French can. Rose and I trailed after her, leaving Gavin Pace standing in his office with his mouth hanging open.
“I feel a little like the man who walks behind the elephant,” Rose confided.
We caught up with Liz at the main entrance. “Are we ready to go?” I asked.
“I am,” she said. She looked at Rose. “Are you?”
“We may as well,” Rose said, settling her purse over her arm. “I don’t imagine we’ll get any more information out of Mr. Pace now. And he’s not our killer.” She showed Nick’s text to Liz.
“I suppose you think I should have kept quiet,” Liz said. She patted her blond hair. Not a single one was out of place.
“Do you think your little outburst is actually going to make anything better?” Rose asked.
Liz smiled. “It made me feel better,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter 15
We were about five minutes away from Second Chance when Liz’s cell phone rang. I saw her frown at the screen before she took the call. I had no idea what was going on from the one side of the call I could hear but from the way her expression changed I could see she wasn’t happy.
“Is everything all right?” Rose asked from the backseat after Liz ended the call.
“Not for some people,” Liz said darkly.
Avery was just coming down the sidewalk as we pulled into the parking lot. Greg Pearson was with her. Avery was talking and I could tell by how animatedly her hands were moving that it was about something important to her. Greg nodded from time to time but wasn’t saying anything. He liked her, I realized. I hoped she felt the same way. I didn’t want to see him get hurt.
We got out of the car. Liz stood by the front fender. Rose nudged me with her elbow. “I think I know which people are in trouble.”
Avery stopped in front of her grandmother. She reminded me so much of Liz in the way she stood with her feet apart and her chin lifted. Whatever she’d done, she didn’t seem very sorry.
“You pretended to be your mother to get out of a field trip?” Liz said.
Avery shrugged. “Yeah, I can sound just like her. Not that the school would know what she sounds like anyway. It’s not like she ever talks to them.”
Avery and her parents had a difficult relationship. That was why she’d come to live with Liz.
“Field trips are part of the reason you’re going to this school,” Liz said. “They expand your horizons.”
“Oh, c’mon, Nonna, that’s a load of crap and you know it. How is ballet going to expand my horizons? It’s so boring. And the reason I’m going to this school is because I got kicked out of two others.”
“And are you going for the hat trick?” Liz retorted.
“It’s not Avery’s fault, Mrs. French,” Greg said, shoving his hair off his face.
Avery gave him a look. “Don’t,” she said.
Liz held up a hand. “No, please, young man, explain how Avery lying to the vice principal, her teacher and me is your fault. I’d like to hear that.”
“I know that Mallory asked you and your friends to help get our dad out of jail.”
“How did you know?” Rose said.
Greg looked over at her. “I heard her arguing about it with my mom’s friend.” That had to be Katy. “I wanted to help. I went back to where we used to live. Avery came with me. That’s why we ditched the field trip. It was my only chance without Mallory or anyone else knowing what I was doing.” He picked at the strap of his backpack. “She’d just tell me to stay out of it.”
“And if I’d told you what I was doing you would have made me go to the stupid ballet,” Avery added.
“We’ll never know because you didn’t give me the chance to say yes or no,” Liz said. Her stance had softened a little and so had her voice.
“Alfred and I were in that neighborhood this morning,” Rose said. She walked around the front of the car. “We didn’t see you.”
“We saw you first,” Avery said. “We just waited at that little playground around the corner until you were gone.”
“Well, did you find out anything?” Rose asked. Liz glared at her.
“We went all around the neighborhood and the only person who remembers seeing my dad is Mr. Halloran, who was our next-door neighbor,” Greg said. “Could he just be wrong because he’s old? Maybe he needs glasses or something.”
“We already checked,” Liz said. “He doesn’t need glasses, not for seeing things at a distance.”
Avery shoved her hands in the pockets of her red hoodie. “If you’re waiting for me to say I’m sorry, Nonna, it’s not going to happen. Ballet is lame.”