by Dana Moss
Officer Peck and Lucy separated the two of them and disarmed Anya.
Cher had returned with the police and handed Veronica a kitchen towel to hold against the gash. It looked like it would require stitches and leave a nasty scar.
Then Macy wandered in looking for Cher and fainted when she saw Veronica’s blood everywhere. Cher ran over and propped her up against the large fridge doors.
Maria put cuffs on Anya and read her her rights, and once one of the paramedics had bandaged up Veronica enough to go to the hospital, Maria did the same to her.
Macy was coming around slowly. “What happened…?” she muttered.
“Nothing to worry your pretty little head about,” said Cher, stroking her chin.
From her stretcher, Taffy waved to get Maria’s attention and pointed at Cher. “Arrest her too.”
Cher’s smile for Macy turned into a shocked gape. “Taffy, no! I called Maria for you!”
Maria hadn’t heard what Taffy had said. “What’s wrong? Does Macy need medical attention?”
Taffy said clearly, “Cher helped Veronica and Anya with the murder.”
Cher’s eyes narrowed to slits. “You traitor. You stuck-up, spoiled rotten, conniving little—”
“She made sure the murder could take place, and she helped plant the evidence against Lorne, when things went wrong. Veronica paid her as an accomplice.”
Macy stared wide-eyed at Cher. “Is that true?”
Cher’s steely gaze crumbled when she looked at Macy. “I just wanted to get you away from Blake. He was horrible for you! I wanted us to be together. We needed money… And then when Anya—” She abruptly stopped explaining. “I want a lawyer.”
Maria started reading out her rights.
“You were supposed to fix all this, Taffy!” Cher ranted. “That’s what friends do. They stay loyal. They help each other!”
Taffy shared a brief look with Maria. She nodded.
Veronica, Anya, and Cher were taken away.
One of Taffy’s friends was going to jail after all. And another one, a better one, was going to put her there.
* * *
Macy walked beside Taffy as she was carried out of the kitchen on the stretcher.
“I’m sorry, Macy. I’m sorry you had to go through all of this.”
“How did you find out about Cher? I had no idea…”
“It was when I discovered your engagement ring in her suitcase.” She held up her hand, the ring still on her finger. “I think she really was trying to help you. I think she loved you. Maybe the same way Anya loved Veronica.”
Macy blinked incredulously. Then she dropped her gaze. “Once, Kyla suggested that. But I just brushed it off. I assumed Cher knew I’d never be interested.”
“I guess she believed you might eventually change your mind. And I suppose Veronica and Anya only stirred those embers.”
“How did you even know it was them? I really never had a clue.”
Taffy smiled. That’s how Macy always would be: without a clue. But she’d managed to survive this long. Maybe there was hope for her yet.
Macy then said, somewhat hesitantly, “Do you think I could have a look at the ring?”
Taffy slipped it from her finger and gave it to Macy. “I think Midnight wanted you to have it.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Taffy spent the next couple of days in the hospital. Ethan was with her the whole time. He’d been able to convince Nana that Taffy would pull through and she didn’t have to fly out just yet. She could wait for Maria’s wedding. But Nana called three times a day anyway.
“Why didn’t I die?” Taffy asked Ethan.
“Eve and the paramedics acted fast. Plus the syringe was cracked. It had leaked, so you must not have taken in much of the toxin. And you’re stronger than you think, Taffy.”
“But not as smart. It took me so long to see the truth about Anya.”
Ethan smiled gently. “But you saw things no one else could spot.”
“You’re always telling me I just see what I want to see.”
“Sometimes that’s the case, but part of what you’ve always wanted to see was the truth—about situations and other people, even yourself. And so eventually it’s revealed to you.”
“But not before I make a mess of things and get everyone into trouble.”
Ethan shrugged. “I can’t argue with you there.”
She socked him on the arm. “You’re supposed to be making me feel better!”
“Aren’t I?” He gave her a lopsided grin.
“I can think of some better ways…”
But she couldn’t just forget all the trouble she’d caused. She bit her lip. “I’m still so sorry about what happened in New York. Can you forgive me?”
He took her hands in his. “Seems we’re right back where we started, Taffy. And to me, that means we can begin again. If you want to.”
She squeezed his hands. “I do.” She promised herself she wouldn’t waste this second chance with Ethan.
Maria knocked on the door. “How’s the invalid?”
“She’s ingratiating herself to all who come to visit. I think you’re next.” Ethan got up. “I’ll get us all some weak, tepid, totally undrinkable coffee from the machine.”
He left, while Maria, looking relaxed and very pretty, took a seat on the edge of the bed. “You’re really okay?”
Taffy winked. “Reborn.”
“If we’d gotten there any later—”
“But you didn’t.”
“Thanks to Cher.”
Taffy frowned. “I feel so bad for getting her into trouble.”
“You were committed to finding out the truth, and you did, whatever it cost. But don’t worry, she’s hired a good lawyer who can argue she was an innocent who was duped by a couple of real criminals. And I’m making it clear in my reports that she was the one to finally turn on them. Her timing saved you.”
“But she wasn’t just getting drunk and making a fool of herself in Times Square. Her choices had awful consequences.”
“I hope she learns from them.”
Taffy did too. But Macy and Cher weren’t her problem anymore. Maria was more of a friend to Taffy, and now she was ready to focus on that friendship. She noticed now that Maria was wearing a colorful blouse and jeans. And her hair was curled into smooth waves.
“Hey, why aren’t you in your drab detective clothes? This isn’t a day off, is it?”
“Actually, it kind of is.” Maria forced a smile, but Taffy could tell something was off.
Maria shrugged and sighed. “The chief fired me.”
“What?!”
“He hasn’t been impressed with my procedures on the last couple of cases.”
“But we solved them! We caught actual killers!”
“Apparently the ‘we’ part of those facts is part of the problem.” Maria shrugged. “Maybe it’s better this way.”
“Of course it’s not! You love your job!”
“But now I can focus exclusively on the wedding. We’ll have fun. Waxing, threading, styling….” She glanced around the hospital room. “So, when do you get to blow this popsicle stand?”
“Anytime. I’ve just been hanging out for the food.”
* * *
Once the police reports were in, the insurance companies refused to pay out on either of Blake’s policies, and his estate was held in trust until another next of kin could be located. Sadly, it wouldn’t be Macy. But she was allowed to keep the ring. Apart from that, she was no better off than before, but she’d been cured of husband hunting for the time being.
“I can’t put my eggs in such an unpredictable basket. I’ll look for a job when I get home. I’ve always wanted to go to aesthetician’s school. I’d like to learn how to do those eyelash extensions.”
Taffy had a funny feeling Luke would find a way to distract her from that.
Taffy also found out that Cher wouldn’t have to serve prison time, but she was sentenced to community
service. After that, Taffy doubted she’d show her face in New York circles again.
Officer Peck hadn’t been able to find Einer at all. Taffy had heard through Maria that Veronica was trying all kinds of ways to implicate him, but he must have hopped on a slow boat to China, because he’d totally disappeared.
Mitch had followed up all the leads from Veronica’s little black phone and now he had a half dozen Russian money launderers ready to hang out to dry. Veronica would be going to jail for much more than aiding and abetting a murderer.
Chief Green had received word that prosecution of the case would take place in Portland and both Veronica and Anya would be moved to that city’s jail. Once Taffy had checked herself out of the hospital, she went down to the police station to have one last conversation with Anya.
Zoe snuck her back to the cell where she’d first picked up Cher.
Anya was subdued, and seemingly resigned to her fate, she had no hesitations in answering Taffy’s questions, all of which had already been taken down in her statements. She said she’d met Veronica two years before, when Blake had hired her to work on the boat. He and Veronica had already separated, but she came by the boat several times, because Blake had purchased it from an old friend of hers. Anya and Veronica had taken an interest in each other, become friends, and then soon, something more.
“By then I had tired of men. Veronica was so fun and vivacious, and she liked me. She understood me. She was definitely done with men like Blake too. We became friends first, lovers later. And when we started to fall in love, we broke off our friendship by pretending to have a fight, to distance ourselves from one another so we could begin plotting how we could have a private life together. She had ideas. I had ideas.
“She said Blake had wanted children while they were married, but she couldn’t have them, physically, herself. She starting looking into adoption, but Blake said no. We decided we would adopt a baby from Russia. Save at least one little Russian girl from the fate I had endured. It was all lined up. As soon as we had the house in Carmel, I would open up the catering company I always wanted. We were going to be a happy family.”
Anya sighed and wrung her hands. Ambidextrous hands, Taffy now knew.
“Such dreams take money. She used her adoption contacts to meet more business people who were interested in investing in California real estate.”
“The money laundering?”
Anya shrugged. “Money is always changing hands one way or another, legally or illegally. Through businesses or relationships… What do I care? Only those who get caught pay any kind of price.”
She seemed jaded by this fact, and how could Taffy blame her, she’d been a victim of such greed, exploitation, and opportunism. She wasn’t innocent, but she’d always wanted to live a normal, lawful life. She’d been aiming for that. The catering business dream had been her anchor.
“I thought I could escape my roots, but maybe no one can. And if those roots are rotten, they come back to poison you.” She shook her head in defeat. “I’ve had to maintain such control my whole life, to take abuse I didn’t deserve. I should have been able to ignore Blake’s selfish, inconsequential comments. But because I didn’t, I ruined everything I’d been working so hard for. I’ll never forgive myself for that.”
“So you both decided to kill Blake for the insurance money? And for what you believed was in the original will?”
“It was Veronica’s idea. But I did the deed. For us. For the baby. It was a simple plan that shouldn’t have gone wrong.”
“A lawyer could argue that you were coerced into the plan by Veronica. They might pin more of the blame on her.”
Anya gave a wry smile. “What does it matter now? It was my fault things went wrong. I have to pay.”
“Where did you get the tetrodotoxin? And how did you even know how to use it?”
“A decade ago I worked in a sushi restaurant with a chef who came directly from Japan. He opened two restaurants, one in California and recently one in New York. When we stopped in Monterey, I met Veronica secretly while I was out picking up supplies. She’d picked up the vials of tetrodotoxin from my chef friend Hiro and handed them off to me.”
“Does he normally traffic in such poisons?”
“His well-heeled and officially anonymous clients pay generously for their buzzy tastes of puffer fish. Hiro prepares them expertly, he knows what’s needed to kill and not kill. I asked him to prepare a killing serum… Wait, you won’t involve him, will you? He asked me no questions. He had no idea what I planned to do with the poison.”
“He still provided an illegal serum used for murder. He’ll likely be charged with something.”
Anya lowered her head. “I’ve ruined too many lives.”
“Veronica will go to jail for a long time too.”
“The same one as me?” She raised her eyes hopefully.
“Probably not.”
She sighed, and then a bemused smile took shape. “Maybe when we get out, we can find each other again.”
Even with killers, Taffy thought, it all boiled down to love. A misshapen love, but love nonetheless.
Before leaving the station, Taffy risked stopping by to see Chief Green. He sighed heavily when he saw her and said gruffly, “I’m pretty busy, Miss Belair. Can this wait?”
Taffy offered her most charming smile. “I just wanted to have a word about Maria.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Two Months Later
Once Chief Green had had a chance to cool off, he realized he’d made a mistake letting Maria go. He invited her back onto the force, and she was grateful for the callback, but during her time off she’d realized she was ready for more than just a change in her living situation. It was time to branch out and try something new for work as well.
She spoke to Taffy about it—because her new idea involved the two of them—but she made Taffy promise to keep it hush-hush, which was hard for Taffy to do. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, while Taffy walked around with a perpetual smile, stopping every so often to jot down notes in a little black book, Ethan had simply assumed she was an exceptionally excited maid of honor and Taffy didn’t bother to correct his assumption, because that also happened to be true.
* * *
The wedding ceremony took place at the small, one-hundred-year-old church in downtown Abandon. Maria wore her grandmother’s dress, elegantly redesigned, and Nana’s diamond tiara. The reception was held at the resort. After everything that had gone on, Chef Albert had convinced the manager to give them free rent and reduced catering fees. He left his buzzing kitchen briefly to attend the ceremony, where he cried like a baby at the exchange of vows. “It’s the onions,” he explained, though there were none to be found.
Not long after cutting the cake—covered with a ludicrous amount of sprinkles—Finn and Maria were preparing to say goodnight and head off on their tropical honeymoon. But there was one more thing left to do: the bride had to throw the bouquet.
Nana nudged Taffy to get out of her seat and join the other single girls on the floor. Taffy shook her head. “I’m not superstitious like that.”
“Oh, go on, it’s silly but fun. And you know what they say about catching the bouquet.”
“I’m in no hurry to marry, Nana. Why don’t you get out there? Don’t deny something’s been brewing with Atticus.” Taffy winked. Nana blushed. She tried to distract Taffy by pointing to Maria. “Look, I think she’s wondering where you are.”
“The magic doesn’t work if you throw it to someone specific.”
“Ah, so you are a believer.” Nana waggled a finger at her, but Taffy still refused to budge. Her feet were sore from dancing, and she claimed she still hadn’t fully recovered all her strength since taking down Veronica and Anya.
Maria turned her back to the assembled, supposedly unattached female guests and held the bouquet up high. Then she bent low, as if preparing for a softball pitch or an underhanded basketball foul shot. Taffy wasn’t surprised when she
put a bit more muscle into it than was needed. Maria tended to be stronger than she thought.
The bouquet sailed across the room and landed at the end of the head table. Right in front of Taffy.
Nana laughed and clapped her hands.
The ribbon-bound stems that made the handgrip had landed on Taffy’s half-eaten slice of cake. She delicately lifted it out and smiled shyly. Everyone looked from her to Ethan, of course. He was standing with Ted near the bar in mid-sip of a pint of beer. He gulped self-consciously. Ted grinned and swatted him on the back, making Ethan accidentally spit his just-taken sip back into his glass. He coughed and tried to compose himself. Lifting his glass to Taffy, he smiled, which was enough to make the guests roar with approval, but then he turned away and leaned—heavily it seemed—on the bar. Ted was laughing at him.
Taffy started fingering the icing off the bouquet stem and into her mouth.
From across the room, Maria caught Taffy’s eye. The bride was beaming as she mouthed the words, “Bull’s-eye.”
Maria looked radiant. And satisfied. And oh so happy as she slipped her arm through Finn’s.
A pang shot through Taffy’s chest. Love? Gratitude? Longing? Some combination of all three that seemed to crystallize into a profound feeling of friendship. Suddenly, she wanted to hug her friend tightly, to wish her well before she departed to begin this next phase of life, which might not appear all that different on the outside—apart from the tans they’d come back with after the honeymoon—but would make for a world of difference on everyone’s insides.
Taffy set the bouquet down and crossed the room quickly before the bride and groom could scoot out the door under a cloud of confetti.
She grabbed Maria. “Congratulations! I know it’s a dumb, overused word, but I’m honestly feeling speechless right now.”
Maria raised an eyebrow. “Taffy Belair at a loss for words? Never thought I’d see the day.”
“You’re gorgeous, Maria. And it’s not the dress—even though you were right about that—it’s you. It’s love.” She grabbed for Finn and hugged them both. “Take care of each other. Forever and a day.”
