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Looking perplexed, Beau said, “No. She’s been Collins for fifteen years. Her PhD is under her married name. She’s always been proud of that. Dr. Collins. I didn’t even get my doctorate!”
While he was still caught off guard, Josie asked, “Do you play golf?”
He looked to Noah for guidance. When none was forthcoming, he said, “Not regularly, no.”
“Would you excuse me?” said Josie.
Without waiting for an answer, she left the room. In the great room, Mettner was already at his computer, typing away. “You done with Bowers and Collins?” he asked.
“Bowers,” she said, booting up her own computer so she could get a photo from the newly minted Claudia Collins murder file to show Beau. “Still going with Collins. Where are you?”
“LPRs didn’t turn up anything. I’m going to go get these warrants for the geo-fence and phone records signed. I talked with Beau Collins’s assistant.”
“What’d you get?”
Mettner recapped Margot Huff’s statement which lined up exactly with what both Beau Collins and Eve Bowers had already told them. “How about you?”
Josie told him what they had learned so far from both Eve and Beau. Mettner gave a low whistle. “This guy was in and out of there quick.”
“Violence does not require a great deal of time,” Josie sighed. “Sometimes all it takes is seconds and then a person is gone forever.”
She sent the photo to the printer. Across the room, it whirred lazily to life.
Mettner said, “He took big risks, too. That house should have been filled with people.”
“It’s awfully coincidental that none of the people who were supposed to be there were actually there,” Josie said. “Beau was the one who set things in motion so that he, Margot, and the video crew were not there between five thirty and six. We should verify both Beau’s and Margot’s whereabouts prior to the 911 call.”
“You think he had something to do with this? What about Eve? You just said she was having some kind of personal crisis over being single. I doubt Beau knew that. What he definitely would have known was that she was supposed to be at the house at five thirty.”
Josie walked over to the printer and plucked the photo from its tray. “I don’t know what to think at this point. This guy seems genuinely horrified by what happened. Also, from what he’s told us, it doesn’t benefit him at all for Claudia to be killed. They just signed a contract for the show to be broadcast nationally. They were in talks to write more books.”
“Right,” said Mettner. “Why sabotage all that? Yet, you’re not entirely convinced that he’s innocent in all this, are you?”
Josie sighed. “Like I said, Mett. I don’t know what to think, but something about this case stinks to high heaven.”
TWELVE
Josie slid the photo of the gift box across the table toward Beau. He leaned in to study it, the worry line on his forehead deepening. She said, “This is a gift box of some kind. Do you remember seeing it when you went inside the house to see Claudia’s body for yourself?”
Horror stretched across Beau’s face. “Wait. This was there? Is that—is that Claudia’s hand? She was holding it?”
“Yes,” said Josie. “You didn’t see it?”
“I didn’t—no, I didn’t see. I was so focused on Claudia and the blood. I was just—”
“It’s okay,” Noah assured him. “In a highly emotional and adrenalized situation like that, it’s not uncommon for a person to completely miss certain details. But yes, this was found in your wife’s hand. Does that mean anything to you?”
Beau’s brow furrowed. “Well, yes. It’s a puzzle box. It’s a tool we use in our practice and on our show. You can buy these on our website. It looks like it can’t be opened, and it can’t be, in a traditional way. A magnet actually holds it together inside. You have to hit it in the correct spot, with just the right amount of force to get it to open. The metaphor is that your partner is like this puzzle box—the puzzle box representing their most intimate inner self. If you can figure out how to open that, there is a gift inside. That gift is them.”
Josie asked, “Can you think of any reason the killer would leave this in Claudia’s hand?”
He shook his head vehemently. “No. Absolutely not. I don’t understand what’s happening here.”
Noah said, “What’s in the puzzle box when you use it in demonstrations?”
“Nothing,” Beau said, his voice small. “That’s the point. It’s intangible. Your partner—”
Josie cut him off. “Who would do this? Who would want to hurt Claudia?”
