Chapter 10

“That was an interesting conversation. She surely painted a completely different picture of our calm Mrs. Dupree. Her son, well, we both figured him to have a temper,” Jones said.

“Yes, very interesting. And so far, she’s the only one who thought Effridge was a good guy. Maybe we need to look at Dupree and her son again. And I can’t wait to talk to McKenzie Sims.”

No sooner had I finished my sentence than Jones’ phone rang.

“Jones here.” He listened to the caller for what seemed like several minutes before he spoke again. When he did, he told the person on the other end that we were on our way.

“That was Ms. Sims returning my call. Seems she has a few minutes to talk to us right now,” he relayed.

“Let’s go.” We buckled our seat belts and headed off to visit with our fourth person of interest. I couldn’t wait until we could refer to someone as a bona fide suspect.

I tried to make sense out of all the conversations we’d had so far. I hadn’t realized it, until Jones chimed in with some of his own observations, that my comments were being verbalized out loud. We continued to mull over the details we knew up to this point for the rest of the drive. When I pulled up to the curb and parked, we both just looked at each other.

“Someone has to give us something. Maybe Sims is a vital key. Everyone who saw Effridge on that day swears he was alive when they left. Someone killed him,” I said.

“That’s the truth. Let’s go see what she has to say.”

We exited the car and approached the woman with dark reddish-brown hair we suspected was Sims. She was sitting at an outside table at the soft-serve ice cream joint. Her body language looked relaxed. Her cell phone was sitting on the table beside her cup of ice cream.

I couldn’t help but wonder if her hair color was the red we were looking for, or if we needed a more vibrant, true red.

“McKenzie Sims?” I asked to make sure we were talking to the correct person.

“Yes, that’s me. Are you Detective Jones?”

“This is my partner, Detective Jones. I’m Detective Oliver.” I inhaled deeply and then exhaled. Three women on the suspect list and none of them had blonde or naturally red hair. Even Calhoun didn’t have blonde hair.

She smiled her greeting. “Please, you guys can sit down.”

We both sat. We had agreed I’d ask most of the questions, that way she wouldn’t seem bombarded by both of us. But I knew if Jones had a question, he wasn’t going to hold it in. I hoped he wouldn’t.

“Ms. Sims, we have a few questions for you.”

“Please, call me McKenzie. I’ll help as much as I can, but I don’t really know much.”

“How did you know Mr. Effridge?”

“I met him at a photo shoot. Carlotta was there and he came by to talk to her one day. She introduced us.”

“What kind of relationship did you have with him?”

“There was no relationship between us. I have a boyfriend.”

“Had you ever gone out with him?”

“On a date with Mr. Effridge? No. Not anything I’d call a date. We just went to dinner twice.”

“And you don’t consider either time to be a date?”

“No. I told you already, I have a boyfriend, so it was just a friendly get-together.”

“Did your boyfriend know you were going to get together with Mr. Effridge?”

“No way. He’d kill me, or kill him.”

“That’s a pretty strong reaction. And yet, now, we have a dead man. And it happens to be the man you got together with twice,” Jones said.

“Look, don’t start insinuating that things were happening between us!” She crossed her arms over her chest and squinted her eyes at him. “There was nothing between us like that.”

“Help us understand why you went out with him. The husband of your boss.” I watched her fingers slide up and down the phone case, then made their way over the keys. She seemed nervous, or irritated.

“You don’t get it. You’re reading more into this than there was. Chase was a really friendly guy. He said he wanted to see some of my pictures. I took my portfolio with me and we had a great time talking while he looked at my work.”

“Why would he need to see your portfolio? He was a college professor, and you already had the job. His wife had already hired you. Am I missing something?” I asked.

“What types of pictures do you have in your book?” Jones asked.

“I have a variety. Most are fashion shots, but I do have a few tasteful nude shots. Not full-on naked, but like the waist up.” Her cheeks flushed a healthy shade of pink.

“What was the reason he gave you for wanting to see your portfolio? Did he know about the nude shots?” I asked.

“Tasteful nudes,” she muttered.

He eyes were anywhere except on us. I got the feeling she wasn’t being completely truthful. Somehow, I think Effridge knew about those photos, and I think our little Ms. Sims wanted to show him.

“Did he try to make an advance on you?” I asked.

“Yeah, he tried. A lot of guys do. But I told him I wasn’t interested, and I wasn’t going to cheat on Billy.”

“Then why on earth would you go out with him a second time? Isn’t that sending mixed signals?”

“Billy and I got into an argument earlier on that day. Chase was standing nearby and overheard him belittling me. When Chase called later and asked if I wanted to go grab a bite to eat, I said yes. I just wanted to get out of the house for a couple hours and let Billy cool down.”

“And was he cooled down when you got back home?”

“No, he was still furious.”

“Did he ask where you had been?”

“Yeah, he asked, and I told him. I didn’t lie.”

“How did he react?”

She slumped her shoulders and lowered her eyes. “His face got red. He grabbed me tight by my arm and asked me if I was cheating on him. I told him no, because I wasn’t, but I don’t think he believed me. He told me if I ever cheated on him …”

“What? What did he threaten?”

“He swore he’d kill me and the prick I cheated with.”

“Do you think there’s any way he didn’t believe what you said? Maybe he killed Mr. Effridge?”

“No. I can’t believe Billy could do something so horrible. And I’ve never given him a reason to not trust me. I think he just wanted to scare me. I’ve gone out with plenty of male friends before.”

“But were they male friends who were knowingly trying to pick you up?” I raised my eyebrow.

“I don’t have to talk to you anymore, you know.”

“No, you don’t.”

We sat in silence for a couple more minutes.

“I guess I liked the attention I was getting from Chase. He was a gorgeous man, and he was really nice. I knew it was wrong. Especially since it was my boss’ husband and all, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say no. Billy just takes me for granted. I hate that. I just liked feeling special, even if I knew deep down I’d never leave Billy. Going to dinner, having someone buy Champagne for me, it just made me feel …” she stopped talking and sighed. She shook her head, “just special, that’s all. I didn’t mean anything else by it. I swear, that’s the truth.”

“When was the last time you saw Mr. Effridge?”

“I talked to him on the morning he was murdered. On the phone. He called me right after Carlotta left. He had to get off the phone because someone was at the door. He asked me if I’d go to dinner with him that night.”

“Do you happen to remember the time?”

“It was just before seven-thirty I think,” she said.

“Did anyone hear you on the phone?”

“Yeah.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Billy walked into the room and heard me.”

“I’m guessing he wasn’t too happy.”

“Not at all. He told me we’d talk later. I had a photo shoot to get ready for. He knows if I’m upset, I take really shitty pictures.”

“Did you two ever have that talk?”

“No. He never said anything.”

“Do you think Billy might have confronted Effridge?”

“I don’t know when he would have had time. He drove to the photo shoot with me, and he was the photographer. He never left. As a matter of fact, he watched me like a hawk the entire time because he thought Effridge might show up, again.”

“Thank you for your time. We may need to ask a few more questions, but we appreciate you taking time out of your day to talk to us.”

Jones and I left and headed back to the precinct.

“You’re really doing a good job questioning everyone. You’re coming into your own quite nicely, kid,” Jones said.