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“She asked about sending off for a copy, which was kind of strange. I told her if the license was filed recently and wasn’t in the filing cabinets, then we didn’t have it and that was that.”
“That’s odd,” Jada said.
“Not as much as you’d think,” Ophelia said. “You’ll understand later.”
Jada accepted that and looked at Violet. “Anything else happen?”
“She asked me to search again, and to look for your name, Jada Howarth. I did and I found a license that showed you as the bride. I made a copy for the woman and when she looked it over she seemed confused, then she paid me for the copy and left.”
“We have a copy of that license here,” Ophelia said, patting a manilla folder on the table. “Everything in this is for you to take with you, as you requested.”
Jada’s fingers itched to get hold of that smoking gun, but she repressed the urge. There’d be time for that later.
“When did the second person arrive?” she asked.
“Not too long after. Maybe a half hour,” Violet answered. “A young man.”
“What did he ask for?”
“He also wanted a copy of any marriage license which showed Ian Buckley had gotten married. I already knew there wasn’t one, of course, so I told him right away that we didn’t have what he wanted. He left looking pretty happy.”
Ian shifted in his seat again. “Didn’t he ask how you knew there was no license when you didn’t go look?”
“No,” Violet said.
Ian sighed.
Jada asked Violet one last important question. “Did you think about telling the young man that you’d found a marriage license with my name on it?”
“I did, but I decided it wasn’t my business to suggest what someone might be interested in. It’s my job to give them what they request, if I can, and nothing more or less.”
Jada maintained an air of approval while wishing Violet had been a less diligent employee and given Zeke the heads-up about the other license. If they’d had that, CGTV might have been stopped before breaking another false story. It was maddening.
She raised an eyebrow in Ian’s direction. He nodded. She turned back to Violet. “Is there anything else that happened which might pertain to this situation?”
“No. Nothing.”
“Then we don’t have any more questions, Violet. Thank you for being so helpful.”
After polite farewells, Jada settled in and prepared herself for round two. Mrs. Nell. Oh boy.
While Jada had been questioning Violet, Mrs. Nell had pulled out a pile of yarn and begun crocheting peacefully on whatever it was she was making, probably booties. All the older ladies loved their booties. And tea cozies. They made lots of tea cozies, even though no one under sixty had any idea what they might be used for.
Jada wanted to keep the questioning as clear-cut as possible. Mrs. Nell was still sharp, but she was over eighty years old, and allowances had to be made. “Mrs. Nell, did you work your usual hours last week?”
“Yes I did. I never miss a day,” she said, not looking up from her work, peering down through a pair of thick-lensed glasses. “Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’m always there from opening until lunch.”
“Except for last week,” Ophelia prodded. “Remember how last week was different?”
“I guess I do! I told you about it when you were asking me all those questions. My memory’s fine, young lady.”
Ophelia’s brows drew together. “I’m not impugning your memory, Grandma. I was—”
“There she goes with the big words. Im-pew-ning.” She glanced up at Jada and Ian and rolled her eyes. “Big shot lawyer, big shot words. But we love her anyway. Truth is, we’re pretty proud. First lawyer in the family. Needs to get herself a husband, but she’s doing okay. Women these days, I guess, they don’t need men the way we did.”
Jada struggled to keep from chuckling at Ophelia’s long-suffering expression.
The DA took a deep breath. “Grandma and I have already gone over everything this morning before you got here, so would it be okay if I give you a synopsis and you can ask Grandma to confirm that I got it right?”
Jada was relieved. She’d dreaded interrogating elderly Mrs. Nell. “Yes, that sounds perfect. Ian?”
“Agreed,” he said, settling back in his chair, his hands clasped loosely over his flat stomach, a portrait of relaxation.
Jada never got used to how handsome he was, his dark hair and strong jawline, his muscular arms and wide shoulders. The small room made him seem even larger than usual. She tingled at the thought of how he kissed her, how he took her in those powerful arms and ...
Well, she thought, how stupid was that? She pulled herself together and concentrated instead on how relaxed Ian was, considering the importance of this meeting. While she was glad he was enjoying himself, she hoped his attention didn’t falter.
Wait. The man ran a multi-billion-dollar empire. Of course he could look relaxed and still pay attention. He was probably deliberately putting everyone at ease, or had some other, Machiavellian reason for his position that Jada couldn’t comprehend.
Ophelia brought her back to the meeting by saying, “Grandma and I had a long conversation about everything, and I think we have some information that will be useful.”
“I should hope so,” Mrs. Nell said. “Been a lot of to-do about your wedding, young lady.”
“I can’t argue with you about that,” Jada said.
“And for the record,” Ophelia said, “without Sylvia here to corroborate what Grandma has told me, we can’t conclude anything for certain.”
“We understand,” Jada said. “What have you learned?”
“It started last Wednesday morning, not long before lunch. Grandma remembers a woman coming in and talking to Sylvia for a while.”
“Did she overhear anything they said?” Jada asked.
“Not much. She was busy with her work.” She eyeballed Mrs. Nell’s yarn pile, silently informing them that this undoubtedly was the work Mrs. Nell had been doing.
“Did she get a look at the woman? Can you describe her at all, Mrs. Nell?” Jada asked.
“She had on a big hat and sunglasses, kind of like you did when you came in,” Mrs. Nell answered. “And she was tall. I remember that. You don’t see many women that tall around here. We don’t grow ‘em that big.”
“Do you remember anything else about her? Hair color, what kind of clothes she wore, what the hat looked like, anything at all?”
“No, none of that,” Mrs. Nell said. “I was at my desk and she was all the way up front. I was wearing my close-up crocheting specs, not my looking-out-there ones.”
“That’s exactly what she told me earlier,” Ophelia confirmed. “The woman spoke with Sylvia for some time and Grandma believes they were talking about a marriage license because she heard the word wedding several times, and Sylvia kept studying the document the woman and she were discussing.”
Jackpot, Jada thought. If Mrs. Nell’s story was true, and Jada had no reason to doubt it, then Sylvia did know what was on that marriage license. Therefore, it made sense to conclude that there was more behind the bribe Sylvia accepted than merely calling CGTV with a tip, precisely as Jada and Marina had speculated.
“Grandma doesn’t remember how long they talked,” Ophelia continued. “Grandma definitely remembers that right before noon, when it was time for her leave for the day, Sylvia got a call from her son’s
school. There had been an accident on the playground and they wanted Sylvia to pick him up and take him to the doctor. Grandma agreed to stay late and watch the office while Sylvia was gone. Sylvia left and when she wasn’t able to return, Grandma stayed until closing. Did I get everything right, Grandma?”
“You did.”
Jada made notes on a pad. Knowing the details she had gotten from Marina about Sylvia’s meeting with the mystery woman, Jada didn’t want to forget any of Mrs. Nell’s recollections.
“You helped with Sylvia’s work, too. Isn’t that correct?” Ophelia asked Mrs. Nell.
“That’s right. I felt bad about her little boy, so I covered for the dear. That way she wouldn’t have so much to make up when she came back.”
“Make a note of that and we’ll return to it later,” Ophelia said, cryptically. “The next morning, Sylvia called and asked to use some leave time because she had to stay home with her injured son. She said she’d need Thursday and Friday off. Grandma agreed to come in and work all day Thursday and Friday.”
“Yes,” Mrs. Nell said. “I didn’t mind. And anyway, it was slow, and the girls in the city clerk’s office took turns coming down and helping me when I got busy.”
“Have you spoken to any of those helpers about what they saw?” Jada asked.
“I did,” Ophelia said. “They weren’t there when it happened.”
“When what happened?” Jada asked.
“From what I can tell, it was business as usual in records until late Friday afternoon. Grandma was alone in the office when another tall, thin woman arrived and asked Grandma what she had on Ian Buckley. Grandma didn’t actually remember Ian’s name when we first discussed this today, but she remembered it was a man’s name, and all things considered, you’ll see it had to have been Ian when you hear the rest.”
Jada and Ian shared a look.
“Could this woman have been the same one who came on Wednesday?” Jada asked.
“Huh,” Mrs. Nell said. “Let me think about that. I don’t know. Maybe. No, I don’t think so. This woman was loud and rude as anything, so I probably would have remembered that. Probably. Let me tell you, this skinny blonde was a real how-do-ya-do. I would have told her to get her nasty self on out of there, except I try to be a professional.”
