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“He might have more than one car.” Jo whirled around to her monitor and attacked her keyboard. But there were only two cars registered to Chris Alexander—his SUV, and Naomie’s champagne Lexus. She sagged back against her chair. “Dammit.”
But almost immediately, another thought hit her. “Maybe, since Chris had to travel to his insurance calls, his job provided him with a car?”
Arnett swiveled back to his monitor and pulled up the insurance company’s information. After several phone transfers, he found the person he needed—who told him the company routinely provided cars to the employees. There was a fleet of three that the employees shared as needed—one of which was a black Toyota Camry.
“Okay, I’m listening,” Arnett said. “But I’m still struggling with the notion he’d kill both his unborn child as well as his wife because she was a spendthrift.”
“No, I agree, that doesn’t feel right. If there was a problem in their marriage, Julia would know.” She snatched up her phone, but Julia’s line went directly to voice mail. “Either she’s with a client or she’s ducking us. I’ll try Chelsea.”
The phone rang several times. Just when Jo thought it would go to voice mail, Chelsea picked up. “Hello?”
“Chelsea, I don’t have time to explain, but I need to ask you about Naomie and Chris’s relationship. Were they having problems?”
“Problems? I don’t think problems exactly,” Chelsea said. “No relationship is perfect.”
Jo mentally gritted her teeth. “What wasn’t perfect about theirs?”
“Well, I mean, there was always going to be some tension, wasn’t there? When one person comes from money and the other doesn’t. And he’s one of those men who gets his nose all out of joint if he’s not the main provider for his family.”
Jo nodded. “So they fought over money?”
“I mean, notfightexactly, at least not that I know of. But when we’d be out shopping, Naomie would always say things like how she’d better not buy such and such because Chris would lose it if she did. Like when we were at Maman et Bebé, they hadthemost amazing crib, and Naomie loved it so much she was actually stroking it. I told her she should get it, and she waved me off and laughed. She said Chris would have a fit, and she had to pick her battles because he was freaking out about how much a baby was going to cost.”
Jo met Arnett’s eyes. “But Chris was happy about having a baby, right?”
“I mean, I’m sure hewas. But it’s always an adjustment, isn’t it? Like when David found out. He wasnothappy.”
Jo clenched her hands into fists, trying not to let Chelsea’s cluelessness rip through her self-control. “So you don’t know how Chris felt about the pregnancy?”
“I mean, I never talked directly to him about it. When I was over there, he stayed in the other room playing video games or whatever. But Naomie told us a couple of things, like that he’d become distant and grumpier since they found out.”
“Did that upset her?” Jo asked.
“A little. But she also said he went through something like that about a year ago and it passed eventually, so she figured the same thing would happen this time.”
“How did the two of them interact?”
“From the little I saw, he was sweet. But he gave us our space and hung out in the other room like I said, so I didn’t really see them interact much.”
Jo thanked her for her help and hung up, then stood and grabbed her blazer. “If Chris wasn’t happy about impending fatherhood, that’s a definite motive. We need to find him as soon as possible.”
CHAPTERFIFTY
Chris’s car was nowhere to be seen when Jo and Arnett pulled up to the Alexander house. Hoping it was parked in the garage, they strode to the door and rang the bell. Nobody answered, and they couldn’t hear any sounds coming from the inside. Their luck was no better when they tried his workplace—his boss informed them he was out on bereavement leave and wasn’t expected in until the following week.
“Maybe we should just call him?” Arnett asked.
Jo grimaced, her mouth a tense line. “I think the element of surprise is going to be crucial for this. He’s not stupid, and if we say we need to talk to him in person, that’ll tip him off to our suspicions. I want to be able to see his face when he makes that connection.”
Arnett nodded. “Makes sense. So stake out his house until he comes home?”
“Let’s try his in-laws. If he’s taking care of the funeral arrangements, it makes sense he’d be there.”
But he wasn’t there, either.
“He was here, but he’s gone now.” Cecile Gagnon’s dark-brown eyes were puffy, and she looked like she hadn’t slept. “He left about an hour and a half ago to deal with some issues at the mortuary.”
“Do you expect him back?” Jo asked.
