Everett flashes a short-lived smile. “You heard the woman, Detective. It’s time to gear up for a double homicide.”
A couple of blonde bimbos bound their way over and I sigh.
“Speaking of double homicides,” I say before giving Serena the side-eye. “Make that a triple.”
Before I can issue another threat, both Cormack and Cressida latch onto Noah and Everett respectively and I’m left stumbling to regain my balance on my own as they’re both dragged deep into the crowd.
If I didn’t know better, it almost looked as if they were willing parties.
Alex hasn’t taken his gaze off Naomi. And who could blame him? She doesn’t need to cast a hex in order to keep a man’s attention.
“I’ll be back,” Alex says, puffing his chest out and stalking off in their direction.
I take a step toward the wicked witch.
“It doesn’t feel good, does it, Serena?” I offer a quick smirk. “Watching your man stalk off to be with someone else.”
She averts her eyes. “If I wanted him, he’d still be standing here.” She chuckles in his direction as we watch Naomi bat her long fake lashes at both my half-brother, Finn, and Alex. “And he’ll be mine again. All in due time.” She takes a breath as she looks to the crowd behind her where Noah and Everett seem to be locked in what looks to be a serious conversation with Cormack and Cressida.
“Everett and Noah are probably reprimanding them,” I say. “Most likely for fraternizing with the likes of you. I’ve got news for you, Serena. I’m this close to pinning those necrotic cookie threats on you. And once I do, you’ll be going away for a very long time.”
She blows a breath over her glossy red nails and buffs them over her dress.
“No, I won’t. You’re the one who’s cursed, Lottie. Not me.” She gives a sly wink before disappearing into the crowd.
“Ugh, that woman.” I spin on my heels, only to see Leslie Troy talking to Perry of all people over by the refreshment table. I glance behind me, but Noah and Everett are nowhere to be seen at the moment.
Stupid curse. I’m genuinely starting to believe in it.
Why else would Noah and Everett willingly take off with those women?
Maybe I should head to the refreshment table and say hello to Leslie and Perry.
No sooner do I make my way over than Rex beats me to them.
He lets out a ferocious growl. “Which one should I eat first, Lottie? I’m suddenly craving humans.”
I shake my head at him ever so slightly.
“Have you tried the chocolate cake?” I ask, trying to sound light and cheery, despite the fact I think they both might have killed poor Tim.
Leslie might have wanted him dead because he kept their house, and perhaps because he trashed Perry and was trying his best to control her every move by ruining the people she slept with.
And Perry could have wanted to avenge the way Tim chose to tear down his reputation—albeit Perry’s behavior sort of deserved it.
But poisoning? And in such a public venue. A crime symposium of all places. It’s so very in your face. Odd, since the deceased wouldn’t be around to consider the irony. Unless…
“Lottie!” Leslie laughs as she holds up a slice of my devil’s food cake. “I beat you to the punch. Or should I say cake?”
Rex snarls, “She’s trying to poison you, Lottie. Anyone can see that.”
Perry holds up his own slice. “This isn’t devilish at all. It’s a slice of paradise.”
Rex snorts, “And he’s trying to sweet talk you to the back before he tries to clobber you. I’d best take care of them now.”
I motion for him to stand down.
Leslie spots something in the distance and tenses up. “I’m on in five. Wish me luck.”
Perry leans in. “Good luck. You’re going to need it.”
“What’s going on?” I ask, trying not to sound as hungry for answers as I really am.
Rex lets out a few sharp barks. “She’s going to make a run for it. Don’t worry, Lottie. I like the thrill of the chase.”
Leslie twitches her lips at someone in the crowd. “Let’s just say I’m trying to work up the nerve to get out of something I wish I was never a part of.” She shrugs my way. “Boy trouble,” she mouths as she ducks into the crowd.
“Boy trouble?” I pick up a slice of my own cake as I step close to Perry. “It sounds as if Leslie is about to break hearts.”
“Just one.” Perry takes a bite out of his cake. “Not mine, thankfully.” He chuckles as he shovels another bite into his mouth.
Rex slumps onto his belly as if giving up on ever finding the killer. “Wake me when things get interesting.”
But my mind is still on Leslie’s cryptic words.
“Break a heart? Oh, Nelson Gilmore.” I nod. “She told me.” Okay, so she didn’t tell me anything, but Perry doesn’t have to know that.
Perry’s eyes enlarge as if he knew that was information I shouldn’t be privy to.
And then, just like that, he shrugs as if acquiescing to the idea.
“They never belonged together. The only reason Nelson took her on was to get back at me.”
“At you? Do I sense an old PI rivalry?” I try to make light of it, but a part of me wants to grab him by the suit and shake him.
“Nah, it has more to do with the fact he went belly under in a real estate venture and I wouldn’t buy out his inventory.” He nods to someone in the crowd and excuses himself before taking off.
Real estate venture? Could this be the same building Jimmy Canelli said Nelson owned?
I head to the kitchen and pull out my phone, doing a quick Google search of the Fallbrook downtown area where Everett said the building was located. I look for a bright pink building on the corner across the street from a bunch of strip malls, and sure enough I find it. I jot down the address. Seven fifty-two, Front Street.
No sooner do I type it into my phone than a bunch of bankruptcy notices proliferate the page. An odd footnote at the bottom of an article catches my eye.
Healthy Body Vitamin Shop goes under.
Vitamin shop?
I click into the article, and it shows a picture of the very same building with a picture of a couple of men boarding up the windows. One of them has a familiar barrel-chested frame—familiar thinning hair and double chin. I zoom in, and it sure looks like Nelson doing the grunt work.
I bet he lost the building because such a big anchor store like the vitamin shop was no longer able to pay the rent.
I bet Nelson got stuck with all that inventory.
Inventory from a health store.
My gaze bounces right back to the crowd in the ballroom.
I think I’d better find Noah.
Chapter 22
Could he be another suspect?
The room is thick with bodies as the lights begin to dim and couples move to the dance floor.
Rex barks and snarls by my side as if he’s ready to tear everyone in this room up. But try as I might, I can’t spot a single soul I recognize.
Most of the men in this room are clad in their deputy uniforms, tan shirts and dark pants, along with their weapons strapped to their side.
I should feel safe.
In fact, with Rex by my side, I should feel supernaturally protected.
But for some reason, I can’t shake this feeling that something very wicked is afoot.
The room seems to grow more congested by the minute as I try to ease my way through the crowd.
“Rex—find Nelson Gilmore,” I say without hesitation, and soon I’m doing my best to follow along with the charging menace. “Whoa,” I say as he threads us past the entry into the foyer, to a closed conference room down the hall.
The sound of voices picking up in volume comes from the other side—one male one female—and I can hear them arguing.
I pull my phone out and send a group text to Noah and Everett.
In front. I think Nelson and Leslie are argu—
>
Before I can hit send, my phone goes flying as a body runs out of the room and bumps into me.
“Lottie?” Leslie looks flustered as she stumbles in an attempt to garner her balance. “What are you doing here?” She looks back and I see Nelson glaring at me from inside the room. “Are you spying on us?”
Rex belts out a series of barks as he does his best to ward them off.
“No.” I shake my head. “Actually, I was looking for”—I spot a metal cart on casters and straighten—“for that. I need it to transport my desserts.” I stride on into the empty cavernous room full of metal chairs and an elongated table as I head right for the cart in question. “Here it is. I’ll just be on my way.”
I grab the cart and start heading out of the room just as Leslie takes off and closes the door behind her.
“Wait,” I say as I hurry that way.
Nelson falls into a seat and stares blankly at the wall in front of him.
Rex snarls, “Should I follow the girl?”
I shake my head at him.
Nelson pumps a dry laugh. “Leslie doesn’t wait for anyone. I’ll get the door in a second. I just need to take a minute to process what just transpired.”
“Can I ask what happened?” I’m almost afraid to because I happen to think I know exactly what went down in here.
Nelson slumps in his seat. “She cut me loose.”
“Leslie broke up with you?”
“And it’s for good this time.” He wipes down his brows.
“I think I’ll go find someone for you to talk to.”
“Noah?” He takes a step in closer to me and I slowly roll the metal cart between us.
“Yes. I’ll make sure he knows where to find you.”
Nelson squints over at me. Perspiration is building on his upper lip and forehead, and I can tell he’s both physically and emotionally taxed.
“I’m out of shape.” He wipes his arm over his forehead. “Would you believe I used to be a bodybuilder?”
“Really?” My chest trembles with a laugh as I glance to the exit. The room is narrow, yet long, with no windows and only one escape for me. The back wall is corrugated and runs on a rail that lets me know this is part of a larger room. “A bodybuilder, wow. That’s right. Noah mentioned that you used to own a fitness shop. You sold vitamins, right?” I try to walk the cart toward the door and he stops it cold as he steps in front of me.
“Wait a minute.” He leans in, his gaze narrowed as he inspects me with suspicion. “I never told Noah any of that. Is Noah investigating me?”
“No.” I hold a hand up as Rex begins to growl and bark. “Noah doesn’t know anything about it. I actually, ugh, come to think of it—I think Perry mentioned it.” Okay, so maybe bringing up his rival wasn’t my best move.
“Perry?” A dull chuckle bounces from him.
Rex roars at him as if he were a lion. “I don’t like that wicked look in his eye, Lottie.”
“Me either,” I whisper.
“What’s that?” Nelson rolls the cart toward me and forces me to back up a few paces. “I think you’ve been doing a little digging around, haven’t you?”
My mouth falls open. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He shakes his head and winks. “I think you do. In fact, I’ve been doing a little digging around on you as well. Noah is right. It turns out you’re quite the amateur sleuth. You’ve brought down more killers than just about every homicide division in Vermont.”
I suck in a quick breath.
Okay, confession: just hearing that gives me a tiny prickling of pride.
I know. It’s horrible—and very ill-timed.
Nelson chuckles to himself. “Do you know what that tells me?”
“That you’d better hope you can run, because it’s game over for you—isn’t it, Nelson?”
A deep, bellied laugh belts from him as he moves the cart toward me, forcing me deeper into the room—farther from the exit.
“You killed Tim Troy,” I pant out the words. “You were hoping to pin it on Perry, but that didn’t exactly go as planned, did it?”
His cheek flinches. Beads of perspiration begin running down his temples.
“It would have worked,” he says. “I just needed time. In fact, I think it could still work. The only obstacle in my way would be you. Isn’t that right?”
“Noah knows everything,” I blurt out the lie.
Nelson shakes his head. “No, he doesn’t. Noah is a good detective, and he knows the law. He would have been obligated to arrest me if he knew everything. That leads me to believe Noah knows nothing.”
Rex begins snapping and barking, jumping on his hind legs. “Can I kill him, Lottie? Can I?”
I’m about to give him the go-ahead to do just that when Nelson pulls a handgun out from a holster strapped to his chest.
“Don’t move,” he says, and both Rex and I freeze solid.
“Tell me why you did it,” I whisper. “I mean, if I’m going to die, I at least want to know why. I’m thinking you killed Tim because you wanted Leslie all to yourself. But Perry thinks it was because you wanted to get back at him for not helping you with some cash. You lost that building in Fallbrook. Your finances were a mess. And you thought, what better way to get back at Perry than to steal his woman. But why kill Tim?” A thought comes to me and I gasp. “Oh my God, you killed the wrong person.”
Nelson gives a dark chuckle. “You’re good, Lottie. I’ll give you that.”
My breathing grows erratic as I take a careful step backward. “And I bet your plan to kill Perry is still in the works, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he says matter-of-factly. “You see, I had just enough caffeine in the cup I gave Noah, myself, and Leslie to make us uncomfortable. But I had a fatal dose in Perry’s cup. I was about to reach across the table and give it to him, but Tim swiped it right out of my hand and chugged it. He said he needed it to wash down all that delicious devil’s food cake. So you see, Lottie—technically, it was you who caused Tim Troy’s death.”
He wags the gun at me. “How does that make you feel, little lady?”
“No.” I can hardly catch my breath. “You killed Tim Troy. And I’d bet good money if you killed Perry first, like you wanted, you would have gone back to kill Tim.”
A laugh rumbles from him. “It’s almost as if you know me.”
“You did it for vengeance and possessive love, a toxic combination if ever there was one. Leslie knew.” I nod as I say it. “She knew it was powdered caffeine. She told me so herself. That information hadn’t been leaked to anyone but Noah and me up until that point. Did she call you out on it? Or did she find the bottle?”
He swallows hard and his Adam’s apple rises and falls. “Leslie’s a darn good detective herself. Let’s just say you hang out with the PI crowd long enough, you start to pick up some tricks yourself. She found the bottle in the back of my gun safe. Do you want to know what she was really looking for? A ring.” He gives a slight wink as he says it. “She was too in love with me to turn me in. But not crazy enough to keep me.”
I’m not sure if I should feel sorry for Leslie or if I want to wrap my hands around her neck. If she had turned Nelson in, we wouldn’t be standing here right now.
“But why at the crime symposium? Why not do it some other way? You could have broken into their homes, poisoned their milk, their food, anything.”
“Death by poisoning can be quite theatrical. I didn’t have it in me to miss out on that one. And unfortunately for the others at the symposium, it was the only venue where we were all slated to be. I needed a crowd, a buffer.”
“So you could cower behind them.”
Rex whimpers, “Oh, Lottie. A man like this won’t take too kindly to that word.”
“Did you just call me a coward?” An incredulous huff pumps from Nelson. “Oh, honey. I was going to go easy on you and knock you out, drag you out back, and snap your neck before tossing you down on some slippery ice. I’ve been watching you
run in and out of the facility all night bringing in those delicious deadly cakes of yours. But since you’ve decided to resort to name-calling, I’m afraid I’m going to have to snap your neck right now. I’ll try to be quick about it and get it right on the first try.”
He lunges for me and I jump back.
“Rex, now!” I howl as Rex hops up and knocks Nelson down to the floor just as the gun goes off and the walls rattle with the horrific sound of the detonation.
“What the hell—” Nelson does his best to fight Rex off, but he’s already torn Nelson’s shirt open and clawed his chest, his face, his legs.
It can only mean one thing when the spirit that comes back to help me aids in fighting a suspect like this—Rex has less than a minute before he evaporates altogether and is sent back to paradise.
The gun glides across the floor and I dive over it and spring right back to my feet, pointing it at them as Rex sinks his fangs into the side of Nelson’s neck as if he were part vampire.
The door to the room bursts open and a flood of sheriff’s deputies pour in, weapons drawn—all of them shouting freeze.
Noah sails for me. “Lottie, drop your weapon.”
I carefully lower it to the floor. Noah wraps his arms around me and pulls me out of the way.
“He confessed!” I shout. “Nelson killed Tim Troy. He meant to kill Perry Rosin,” I blurt it out just as Perry himself enters the room. “You would have been next,” I pant.
A few of the deputies call out for a medic as they assess Nelson in his bloodied state.
“She’s a witch,” Nelson shouts as he squirms on the ground. “She commanded some wicked spirit to attack me and she just watched!”
Noah’s chest bounces with a laugh. “I guess you’re off the hook for hurting him.”
I wrinkle my nose up at him. “Rex did it.”
Noah winces. “I think we’ll tell them he tripped over that cart.”
A laugh trembles in my chest. “You always know the right thing to say.”
He wipes the hair from my forehead. “Lottie Lemon, I love you.”
“Like I said, you always know the right thing to say. I love you, too, Noah.” I hike up on my tiptoes, landing a lingering kiss to his lips, and a few of the deputies break out into a spontaneous applause.
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