by Judi Lynn
Alwin glared at Ruth, still hovering by the wall. “Have you asked her? She wasn’t even invited, but she snuck into the house to find RJ when he disappeared inside.”
Ruth’s jaw dropped. “You’re accusing me of pushing your sister?”
“Why not? All you did was spread ugly rumors about her. You were obsessed.”
Ruth’s happiness at seeing him turned to anger. “You’d know I was there, because so were you, even though your father swore you weren’t home, and you hid in your room so the detective wouldn’t see you.”
Jazzi turned on him. “Where were you when Jessica fell?”
Face flushed, he said, “In my room. I got sick of hearing everyone congratulating Jessica for being named valedictorian.”
Jazzi hadn’t expected him to admit that. “Did you look out your window and see anyone else? It faces the backyard, doesn’t it?”
“I can only see part of it from there. Jessica’s room had the best view. I didn’t look. I can’t tell you who was where.”
“What about you, Ruth? Where were you when Jessica fell?”
Ruth lifted her chin. “I’d started inside the front door when Lorraine rushed down the driveway to a car parked at the curb. I turned to watch her. It was that horrid sister of hers, the one married to the college professor. She doted on Jessica. They were so much alike.”
“Did anyone see you there?”
Ruth pressed her lips together. “No. From my vantage point, I could watch Lorraine and see into the house.”
She was spying on people. “So no one can vouch for you.”
“Why would I need someone to do that? I was only checking for my nephew.”
“Because,” Alwin pointed out, “the stairs are only a short distance from the front door. You could easily have waited until the coast was clear and zipped up them to push my sister.”
Ruth gaped. “I’m not a murderess. And besides, why would I kill another girl besides Jessica?”
Alwin sneered. He might wilt under pressure, but he gladly turned on others. “Maybe they turned down your precious nephew, and you took that as a family insult.”
Ruth’s face contorted with anger. “I never knew you could be such a vile person.” She turned on her heel and marched away.
Alwin returned his attention to the three of them. “My family left here to put Jessica’s death behind us. You’re stirring everything up again. We almost came apart at the seams when it happened. Please, leave us alone.”
Jazzi was unimpressed. “Damian had to leave Merlot, too, and he still has to live with the gossip and stares every time he returns home to visit his parents and family. He can’t put her death behind him either. People won’t let him. He asked us to help clear his name.”
Alwin blinked in surprise. “You know Damian? I liked him. But his best bet is to stay far away from Merlot. As long as Lila and Nadia live here, they’ll never leave him in peace.”
She couldn’t argue with that. Instead, she asked, “Did you hear any gossip about the blond cheerleader who died during Jessica’s senior year of high school?”
“The police questioned us about her, but none of us had seen anything. I’m not sure her death and Jessica’s are related.”
“Did you and your father ride to that out-of-town game together?”
His frown returned. “No, I had to drive straight to the game from college. I had a late test that day. I saw Dad in the stands, though.”
“Did you get together after the game?”
“For a little while. We went for a late supper at some local place. I had to go to the locker room with the team first, though, and couldn’t talk to him until they boarded the bus to go back to Merlot.”
“So he was alone after the game?” Jazzi pressed.
He shrugged. “There were a lot of people at every basketball game we played. Dad knew most of them. A lot of people came to the party, too. Again, no one saw anything.”
He wasn’t going to be any help. Jazzi waited for him to make the next move. Finally, he sighed. “I wish you’d leave the past alone, but you’re not going to, are you? My family’s going to be torn apart by this. I hope you’re happy.” He stalked to his car and drove away.
Ansel wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “That guy has some serious issues. So does the neighbor.”
“Like father, like son.”
They loaded their things into their vehicles and headed for home.
Chapter 35
On the drive home, they actually cracked their windows to let in fresh air. Once the sun set, the temperatures would dip, but at the moment, the crisp fall air felt good.
Ansel glanced at the houses they passed. The farther they got from town, the farther apart they spread. “All we have to do now is work on the basement at the Merlot place. We should start looking for our next fixer-upper.”
Jazzi had started thinking about that, too. She knew Jerod had been scouring Realtor books and online sites for a couple of weeks now. “I hope it’s in River Bluffs. It’s going to be cold soon, and the roads can get bad in December. I’d rather have somewhere closer to drive.”
He nodded. “There’s not much in the paper or online. If we see something, we’ll have to move fast. Houses don’t last long in this market.”
“We should start looking every day.” The basement at the Merlot house would take a decent amount of time to fix, but hopefully, they’d find something before they finished it. Jerod and Ansel had gone down to take a closer look at it while she finished painting the last ceiling. They’d decided to fix the moisture problem; they’d have to dig a trench around the outside edge of the entire house and install tiles to drain water away from the house. Time-consuming. But that was why the walls and floors were crumbling and needed a new coat of cement. On top of that, they had to replace the furnace and central air. They’d be lucky if they could put the house on the market before Thanksgiving.
They reached the highway and turned left toward home. Hillegas Road had been closed for repairs for the last two months, but it was finally open. They could take that to the north side of town. They passed the street that led southwest to her parents’ home but kept driving. Mom and Dad always went out with friends on Friday nights lately. Since she and Olivia had moved out, their social life had exploded. Mom hated to cook and loved people—one of the reasons her hair salon was so popular. They were always doing something or going somewhere.
Instead of passing Jefferson Point, Ansel turned in and stopped at Pier 1. “The kitchen and living room could use some fall touches,” he said.
George sat up on the back seat. He recognized the pet store next door, where they often stopped. People walked inside with dogs on leashes. Ansel shook his head. “We’d better let George find a new toy first.”
She’d buy something for Inky and Marmalade, too. Ansel attached George’s leash to his collar and lowered the pug to the pavement. George didn’t like to be carried into the store. It looked bad when all the other dogs trotted in on their own. He almost swaggered as he walked through the door.
Jazzi tried not to laugh. The pug didn’t have a problem with self-esteem. He padded straight to the dog toys and inspected them. When he stopped to stare at a stuffed animal with a long neck made out of rope, Ansel picked it up. Jazzi chose a cube that opened up with holes for cats to peek out of for her two furry friends. Then Ansel bought a bone for George to chew on while they shopped in Pier 1.
They found forest-green throw pillows for their butter-yellow living room grouping and gold throw pillows for her red-leather grouping, along with a myriad of decorations for the tables and fireplace mantel. Ansel even bought huge baskets of fake mums to place by the front and patio doors. Then they loaded up their purchases and hurried home.
“If we clean the house and decorate tonight, we can spend all day tomorrow cooking,” Jazzi said.
“I’m a whiz with a dust mop.” Ansel parked at the back patio so they could unload all their purchases. George wouldn’t give up his bone, so Ansel carried the pug into the house with it still gripped in his teeth. When the cats saw his new toy, they waited for Jazzi to take theirs out of its package and open it up. Then the fun began. They chased each other through the tunnels and pounced on each other when they popped their heads out any of the holes.
The pets happy, Ansel went to park the van in the garage, and she carried pillows to scatter on the sofas and chairs. Their living room was huge, with two leather furniture groupings—the butter yellow and the red. By the time Ansel came to see how the decorations looked, she’d put the cornucopia, spilling its bounty on the fireplace mantel, along with the tiers of red, gold, and dark green candles. The black runner with orange and gold leaves was on the farmhouse table. And hollow ceramic jack-o’-lanterns filled with candy corn were on the side tables.
He grinned. “Perfect.”
They didn’t bother to shower and change but began cleaning. It was after seven before they called for a pizza. They were waiting for it to be delivered when Lydia Jenkins called. “I thought you might like to know my sister Lorraine’s coming to stay with us for a week while the dust from her divorce settles. She needs some TLC. Lamar won’t stop arguing with her. He doesn’t want to give her a penny in the settlement. She’s hired a good lawyer, and he said he’d call her in Merlot if he needs anything, but he thought it was a good idea for her to get away from Lamar and block his calls.”
“Do you think she’d mind talking to us?” Jazzi asked.
“I’ll do my best to persuade her. She might not be up to it, though.”
Jazzi wouldn’t push her. She doubted if the poor woman could tell her where people were when Jessica fell anyway.
After the phone call, they settled at the kitchen stools to enjoy their supper. Jazzi sipped wine, and Ansel drank a beer. Jazzi let her gaze scan the large room. She didn’t think she’d ever get tired of its robin’s-egg-blue cabinets, stainless-steel countertops, and the island with its butcher-block top. And she knew she’d never regret paying extra for its fake tin ceiling, painted white.
George came to beg for pieces of pepperoni and bits of sausage, and Ansel tossed scraps to him. Jazzi got out two felt mice stuffed with catnip to throw for the cats, who batted them around the whole room.
At ten, satisfied with what they’d accomplished, they climbed the steps to shower and change into their pajamas. Jazzi was sliding between the sheets when her cell phone buzzed.
“Hello?”
“Have you checked the coat pockets yet?” Gran demanded.
“I haven’t found a coat yet.”
Gran sighed. “No worries. You will, and that will give you the answer you need. I’m going back to sleep now.” She hung up.
Jazzi stared at her phone. “Gran must have had a vision in her sleep.” She told Ansel about it.
He grinned. “I’d better never try to slip anything past you. Gran will know and tell on me.”
“Keep that in mind.”
They rolled to face the walls, their butts bumping, and drifted to sleep.
Chapter 36
They were sipping coffee, and Jazzi was writing out a grocery list, when a tall, lean man with hair graying at the temples knocked on their back door. When Jazzi answered it, he said, “I saw the lights on back here, so I thought I might have more luck coming to the kitchen door. I’m Jillian’s husband, Dexter. I got called in to the hospital today, and she told me to stop to talk to you on my way home.” He glanced inside and smiled. “Nice place.”
“Thank you.” Jazzi led him to the kitchen island. “Coffee?”
“I wouldn’t mind.” He took a stool a few spaces down from Ansel.
She glanced out the kitchen window and saw a silver Mercedes parked in the drive. The man wore an expensive watch. No wonder Jillian sported a big diamond on her finger. He wasn’t handsome, but he looked so pleasant, Jazzi immediately felt comfortable with him.
When she handed him his coffee mug, he said, “Thanks for making time for me. I always do what my wife tells me to do.”
“Are you a doctor?” At his nod, Jazzi tried to picture him with Jillian. He was tall. She was short. He looked serious. She came off as artsy, a little eccentric. They probably balanced each other. She poured more coffee for herself and took the stool beside Ansel’s. “Why did Jillian want you to stop by?”
He sighed. “I was at Jessica’s graduation party, too, and we were talking about it. I wasn’t with Jillian. She didn’t even know I was alive in high school, but I had a terrible crush on her. I wasn’t very sociable back then, but I knew Jillian would be there to celebrate with Jessica, so I went. And I was trying to build up the courage to ask her out.”
What a sweet man. “Did you do it?”
He pulled a face. “Finally. Glad I managed before Jessica was pushed. She said yes, and we kept dating every time we were back in Merlot after that. I really had to work at it, though.”
Jazzi smiled. “I’d say you both got lucky.”
“I would, too.” He stopped to drink his coffee, clearly trying to collect his thoughts. “That day, I mostly hung out on the patio. A few people I knew were out there. Jillian and I ran in different circles. I was in the chess and Latin club. She was in drama and art.”
“More coffee?” Ansel offered when his cup was empty.
He shook his head. “The thing is, I was standing with my back to the balcony, talking to Tilly in the food line. Jillian said you’d asked about her.”
Jazzi nodded. “Good. Thank you. I can mark her off the suspect list.”
“There’s more, though. Nadia and Lila were a little farther away. Nadia was badgering poor Molly Kroft, and Lila was getting bored, so she started asking me a lot of stupid questions, trying to flirt. I didn’t want to bother with her, but I didn’t want to leave where I was because I thought Jillian would eventually get in line for food, and I could talk to her again. But Lila kept annoying me. That girl always followed money, and my parents were well-off. All of a sudden, though, she stared up at the balcony and stopped talking. I was going to turn to see what she was looking at, but just then I heard Jessica scream. I jerked out of the way right before she hit the cement on the other side of me.” He squelched his eyes shut, as if blocking out what he’d seen.
Jazzi stared at him, horrified. “She died right next to you?”
“Right at my feet. It was awful. I watched her eyes go blank and the blood gush from her nose, mouth, and ears. When the police questioned me, that’s all I could think about. I completely forgot about Lila.”
A frisson of energy shot down Jazzi’s arms. Her stomach fluttered. “Do you think Lila saw who pushed Jessica?”
“I think she might have. I’d never have remembered if Jillian and I hadn’t been talking about who was where.”
Jazzi pushed her coffee cup aside. “We have to talk to Lila.”
He shook his head. “Jillian already tried. She’s out of town right now. She drove to visit her parents in Carolina.”
“Close to where the Hodgkills moved?”
He blinked and shook his head. “I don’t remember exactly where either of them are now. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Thank you so much for stopping to tell us this.” Disappointment warred with excitement. They might not be able to talk to Lila until she got back, but they had a new lead.
The man stood. “Thanks for seeing me so early on a Saturday morning. I wouldn’t have bothered you, but Jillian said it was important.”
“It is. Thank you.” Jazzi walked him to the door and waved him off. The minute she was back in the kitchen, she called Gaff and shared the news.
“She’s on a trip?” He sounded as frustrated as she was. “To Carolina? I’ll have to look into that. While I’m at
it, I think I’ll do some digging into Miss Mattock.”
“She’s still single?” Jazzi asked.
“Divorced. She took back her maiden name when she and her husband split.”
It must not have been a friendly parting, then. When she hung up with Gaff, she went for more coffee. Pulling the grocery list back to finish it, she bit her bottom lip. “I’ve lost my concentration.”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Ansel said. “If Jillian’s husband is right, Lila Mattock knows who pushed Jessica, and she’s never told anyone.”
“I wonder why.” Was Lila protecting a friend?
“With her, maybe she’d rather try to make Damian miserable. She probably wanted to reward whoever did it.”
That sounded about right. Jazzi turned her attention back to the groceries. If she didn’t have party food when everyone came tomorrow, she might as well wear sackcloth and paint her face with ashes.
They left a half hour later and returned after filling their cart, ladened with groceries. The cats loved it. More sacks to play in. Even George looked hopeful. That many bags had to hold something he’d like.
They spent the rest of the day cooking and prepping food. George was their official taster. He approved of the meatballs, not so much the sauce. He even liked nibbles of pumpkin bread. And he always begged for popcorn, even though he wasn’t fond of it as popcorn balls. Jazzi didn’t even bother trying to give him pumpkin soup. The pug had high standards, and soups without meat weren’t on his list of favorites. He did like the caramel sauce, though, just not the caramel apples.
When they were finishing up, Ansel said, “It’s going to be easy to do the rest in the morning. We’ve cooked enough, and you’ve been a good sport about the party. I want to take you out for supper tonight.”
He didn’t have to ask twice. They went upstairs to shower and change. Before getting dressed to go out, Jazzi said, “You’ve never tried on your prison garb. You should see how it fits.”
