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“Bless you,” Trent said.
Wendell blew his nose. “Summer cold. Nasty as hell, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. We can just talk here.” He stepped out of the house and sat on the porch swing, the only available spot to sit.
As much as Amanda didn’t like towering above people, it couldn’t be helped.
“Why do you—” A nasty cough ripped from his lungs. It had his eyes bulging and tears forming.
Amanda and Trent moved back.
Wendell cleared his throat. “Why do you want to talk about Naomi? Didn’t she die in a home robbery?”
It was rather convenient he had gone right there. Possibly a way of trying to nip this conversation before it got started. “Let’s just say, we’re revisiting the case. You may know that her killer was never caught.”
“Really? She was murdered ages ago.”
“Fifteen years ago, to be precise,” Amanda said.
Wendell shrugged and mumbled, “Ages ago.”
“What was your relationship like with Naomi Chapman?” Trent intercepted.
“Relationship? That’s pushing it. She loathed me. Heck, she looked down her nose at everyone. Truthfully, she was a horrible human being.” He coughed some more.
Amanda found him horrible for passing such a judgment when Naomi Chapman couldn’t defend herself. Once he got his coughing under control, she said, “We heard she wasn’t shy about letting others know about her wealth.”
“She rubbed it in any chance she got. You’d think it was something she’d accomplished. Meanwhile, it was her Daddy Dearest with the money. It wouldn’t surprise me if he paid Mr. McCormick to promote her. She wasn’t the smartest tool in the shed.”
Technically, it was sharpest tool… But her focus was more on what made Wendell say what he had. “Why did you make that suggestion… that her promotion was bought?”
“Oh, just that she had her father wrapped around her little finger. She got everything she ever wanted in life. All she had to do was ask for it and—poof!—it would appear.”
Whether Wendell was guilty or not, he probably wasn’t alone in suspecting Chapman’s promotion had been bought. “Well, you ended up benefiting from her death, Mr. Barrett. You got that promotion in the end.” If Wendell picked up on her implication—not well veiled—he never indicated in any way.
“I would have rather beat her out fair and square. Getting promoted after everything that happened with Naomi was rotten. The interns had no respect for me and questioned my right to advance. But my life turned out all right. I’m a literary agent and have a firm of my own. Now if only I can shake this blasted cold.”
On that note, Amanda took another step back, as a further precaution.
“Were you transferred to Garrison & Marrow when they acquired Between the Pages?” Trent asked.
He nodded. “For a few months, but I didn’t enjoy being a number in a big house. That’s why I branched out on my own.”
“You mentioned Naomi rubbed the fact she was wealthy in your faces. Did she ever mention anything specific that she had of value?”
Wendell’s face blanked. “Where to start? Her BMW, her designer clothes and handbags, her diamond earrings from Tiffany’s… Probably more that I’ve forgotten by this point.”
There was a detectable bitter undercurrent, but was it strong enough to propel him to murder three women? He knew about the forty-thousand-dollar earrings and that meant the other interns may have too. “What about a ruby brooch or onyx cufflinks?” She wasn’t saying these were among the stolen items, so she felt okay about asking this.
“Never heard of those. Doesn’t mean she didn’t brag about them when I wasn’t around.”
That it didn’t… “Where were you the night of the robbery?”
“That was fifteen years ago. How do you expect me to remember that?” Wendell laughed, but his expression turned serious just seconds before he set off in another coughing fit. After it settled this time, he popped a lozenge in his mouth. “Are you seriously suspecting me of killing her?”
“Did you?” she countered.
“If you think one of us interns did this to her, I’d start with Kurt Archer.” He was talking around the hard candy, and it clicked against his teeth.
What were the chances there was more than one Kurt? Edmond McCormick told them he was the one worthy of the promotion, but he was gone. “We’ve heard of Kurt, but we were told he moved on before Naomi got the promotion.”
