“Brady Strong!” I announced as I walked into the offices of Bugged Out. Several faces looked up at me as I made my entrance. Brady rubbed his head as he tried to place me. A slight whiff of chemicals stood stagnant in the air, and I spotted boxes marked “Round-Up” stashed in the corner.
“Uh, Pepper?” He shot a quick sidelong glance at his co-workers.
“I have questions about your relationship with the Sunhaven HOA.”
“Oh, uh, I think maybe we should go somewhere a little more quiet.” It was perfectly quiet where we were, as everybody was staring at us, but I let him usher me into an office.
The door closed behind him with a loud click, and young, helpful Brady Strong, Bug Guy, leaned against the door with his arms folded, suddenly not appearing so wide-eyed and helpful.
We stood, facing each other. I’ve never been intimidated by muscly men; everybody has their weaknesses, and one huge weakness with men like this was underestimating me.
“Now, what can I do for you?” His voice was low, measured, on edge.
“I should take a minute to introduce myself to you for real. I’m Kate Warner, on Special Assignment with the Palm Hills PD, investigating the murder of Angela Beech.” The lies were coming fast and furious now. I no longer cared if anybody caught me in one.
Several emotions passed over Brady Strong’s face—confusion, incredulity, anger at being tricked. “I thought you’d already arrested the manager for the murder.”
“We’re still investigating all leads. First, I was hoping for a little help from you. When you take a job for an HOA, you only deal with the management companies, is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“But Angela Beech wanted to meet with you at her house.”
He frowned. “We’ve already been over that. She wanted to go over pricing.”
“Do you ever work with the HOA Presidents and not the managers?”
“No. This was the first time. I thought that was unusual, but I was happy to oblige.” He shrugged. “I figured Ms. Beech and her manager were having some issues. No skin off my nose.”
I pulled up a photo on my phone and showed it to him. “Do you recognize this woman?
He took the phone and made the photo larger. A shadow crossed his face. "Nope."
He was definitely lying.
"Okay, well, I thought I'd try." I shut my phone off with a single click and stuffed it back into my purse.
“Anyway, as I was saying, we have reason to believe you were the last person to see Angela alive.”
“That’s not true! I was there in the afternoon, and I read the manager was there after me!” His raised his voice. He was starting to lose the measured control he’d shown a few minutes ago.
“Yes, but what you didn’t take into account was the security camera at Angela’s front door. We have images that show quite clearly a man of your size waiting across the street until Felyne O’Shea leaves and then sneaking around to the back, where the killer let himself into her house.”
“There’s no way you saw that, because I didn’t do that!”
“Just admit it, Mr. Strong. Your sweet deal with the Sunhaven HOA was coming to an end, no more fake visits for wasp nests.”
“That’s not—”
“What did Angela say to you? Did she threaten to expose you if you didn’t go quietly?”
“No!”
“It wasn’t just your deal with Sunhaven at risk, was it? If Angela went public, you’d lose your contracts with all of the other HOA’s, too.”
“You’re crazy!”
“And what about your employers? Do they know about all your deals? They could fire you!”
“GET OUT!”
“I can leave, but more detectives will be here, Mr. Strong. They’ll have a lot of questions. You might as well just confess now, and I’ll see if I can get you a good deal for cooperating.”
“NOW! GET OUT NOW!!!”
Brady puffed up his chest and stepped towards me, arms up as if to shoo me towards the door. His breath came fast with the effort of not physically pushing me, or worse, as he held the door open for me. Several sets of eyes watched in astonishment as he escorted me through the office and out the front door.
As I stepped outside, I turned to face him. “The Palm Hills PD will be back with warrants!”
“My LAWYER will be waiting for them!” He slammed the door shut.
I sat in my car a couple blocks away, my heart racing, hopped up on adrenaline. That was probably dumb, but it sure made me feel better. Unfortunately, I hadn’t learned anything, and Javi would have my head if he found out. Was impersonating an officer a crime? I was pretty sure it was a crime.
Come on, Kate. What were you expecting? You’re usually a lot more subtle than this. All you did was put him on the defensive and warn him to get a lawyer.
I’d hoped for a confession of some sort, or even a hint of guilty knowledge. But I couldn’t read anything into his reaction. He knew he was guilty of fraud, and now I’d closed the door on any openings to see if there might be more there.
Except….
I pulled the phone out of my pocket with the photo of Beatrice Gransby still up. He had definitely recognized her.