Smoldering Flames and Secrets

by Anne R. Tan

  No can do. Busy all day.

  See you tonight at dinner.

  Her phone vibrated underneath her hand before the message got sent. It was an incoming message from Blue again.

  I can’t make it tonight.

  Too much work before the wedding.

  Raina raised an eyebrow at the text message. She could swing by his office, but she didn’t want to give off the impression that she was still available at his beck and call.

  Before she could make up her mind, her phone vibrated again. She sighed and opened the message app.

  I need to talk to you about the murder.

  The drive to Blue Diamond Construction was uneventful. Po Po complained about missing her weapons of mass destruction. Her arsenal of spy gear was in the condo at Gold Springs. The “murder kit” only had a magnifying glass, a notebook, and pepper-spray.

  Po Po snorted in disgust and tossed everything back into the drawstring bag. “It’s cheap junk. My high school kids could get us something better than this. It’s just too bad they’re on vacation or out of town. I hate summer break. Kids these days need to hit the books harder, not slack off for months.”

  Her grandma sponsored a math and science club at the high school in their town. The sole goal of this club was to create gadgets for her grandma in exchange for a college scholarship. In reality, the club provided a haven for talented but troubled kids. And Raina was often roped into providing snacks for this ravenous pack.

  Raina kept her eyes on the road. “I guess we’ll have do this the old-fashioned way. Maybe it was Colonel Mustard in the vineyard with the revolver.” She pressed her lips together to keep the laughter from escaping.

  “Uh-huh. You think this is funny? Wait until you’re in a tight spot, then you’ll wish the kids were still in school.” Po Po slipped the murder kit into Raina’s purse. “Here you go, Sherlock.”

  Raina pulled off the main road and onto the side street that led to the industrial park in South San Francisco. The concrete tilt-up buildings with wide roll-up doors and loading docks were islands in a sea of asphalt. The endless asphalt pavement was broken up by perimeter fencing. Vegetation was limited to a hedge and an anemic tree by the front door of each building to welcome customers pulling into the parking spots.

  When Raina and Po Po walked into the building, the receptionist was filing her nails and streaming a movie on the computer screen. Mrs. Santos had worked at the construction office for over thirty years. Her husband sold the business to Blue and promptly passed away. She showed up one morning to help out and stayed ever since. Raina didn’t know if Mrs. Santos was even collecting a paycheck.

  Mrs. Santos was a fading Hispanic woman of average height. She was probably the same age as Po Po. Her face looked like an apple-head doll at the county fair and was surrounded by a thinning halo of fluffy white hair. She had a thick shawl around her thin shoulders even though it was the middle of summer. What Mrs. Santos lacked in physical presence, she made up for with her broad smile and booming voice.

  Raina gave her grandma a sideways glance. Even in her little old lady disguise—Po Po even wore a shawl much like Mrs. Santos—her grandma didn’t give off the same frail vibe. Interesting. It must be the exercise classes from the senior center.

  “Rainy! I’m so glad to see you again. What can I do for you?” Mrs. Santos said.

  “Is Blue available? He’s expecting me to drop by,” Raina said.

  Mrs. Santos waved Raina toward the inner office. “I don’t know if he’s in a conference call, so knock first before going in.” She returned to filing her nails.

  “Why don’t I wait for you here?” Po Po said, pulling up a chair next to Mrs. Santos.

  “I’m sure whatever he has to say, could be said in front of you,” Raina replied.

  “I know, but I want to watch the show,” Po Po said, blinking a Morse code with her eyes.

  Raina couldn’t interpret the message, but it was a good idea for them to split up. Her grandma might get information from the receptionist. “Okay, see you in a bit. Just don’t teach Mrs. Santos anything naughty.”

  Mrs. Santos smirked. “Oh, please. I was a hot-blooded Latina once. I could show your granny a move or two.”

  Po Po beamed and leaned forward. “I would like to see the moves.”

  Raina turned away from the two retired women and rolled her eyes. Great. Her grandma didn’t need any more help in the naughty department.

  She strolled down the short hallway and passed the conference room, the small break area, and restroom. Blue’s office was in the rear of the building next to the warehouse area with the loading dock. He stored the building materials back there until he needed to move them onto the job site. Blue wasn’t in the office, so Raina strolled through the double doors into the warehouse. There was no sign of movement.

  “Anybody here? I’m looking for Blue,” Raina called out.

  “Back here,” Blue said.

  Raina headed in the direction of his voice. When she rounded a bank of metal shelves, she saw Blue pulling open the lid off a shipping crate with a crowbar. The muscles on his arms rippled with the movement. He had on a faded white T-shirt and blue jeans. His long black hair was tied back into a ponytail. His work attire made the tuxedo version that much more appealing.

  He set the crowbar on the shelf next to him and pulled off the lid. Nestled inside the Styrofoam was a refrigerator. She couldn’t tell what brand it was, but from the way it was packaged, she knew it was expensive. Probably custom made.

  “Twenty thousand dollars,” Blue said, glancing over at her.

  Raina whistled. “Kitchen remodel?”

  He nodded and leaned the lid against the crate. “Some people have more money than sense.”

  “So you want to talk about the murder?” She didn’t bother hiding the skepticism in her voice.

  Blue studied her for a long moment. He hooked his thumbs on the pockets of his jeans. From all outward appearance, he looked relaxed. But she knew him well enough to notice the tension in his hazel eyes.

  She softened her voice. After all, at one point, she cared for this man. “How can I help?”

  “The victim is Arianna Cobb. She’s an Angel for small businesses,” Blue said.

  Raina nodded. This wasn’t new information to her. She knew from experience it was better to let people talk at their own pace.

  “She’s my Angel.” Blue swallowed. “And right before her death, she called in her loan.”

  4

  In the Arms of an Angel

  Raina’s eyes widened. Did this make him a murder suspect? This couldn’t come at a worse time. “Is there a repayment plan on the contract with her?”

  “There’s no contract, but the term sheet I signed gave her a thirty percent stake in Blue Diamond Construction until I can pay off the initial loan plus the ten percent interest.”

  “I still don’t understand. It sounds like there is a repayment plan. She shouldn’t be able to call in the loan.”

  “The terms said that I either pay her back for the loan, or she could sell the shares of the company. Apparently, she needed the money now because she was planning to divorce her husband first before he mentioned divorce. He’s having an affair.”

  Raina’s jaw dropped. Whoa, she didn’t see this coming. If Blue weren’t on the police suspect list already, he would be soon, along with the husband and the lover. A business deal gone wrong or a crime of passion? Her grandma will love this. “Do you know who the lover is?”

  Blue shook his head. “Do you think the lover killed Arianna to run off with the husband and her money?”

  “Too early to tell. Was Arianna your friend? Most people don’t reveal information like this in a business deal.”

  He shrugged. “She didn’t say that exactly. I deduced this from the little tidbits she revealed during our interactions.”

  Raina averted her gaze. So now he was playing Sherlock, too? “How many times did the two of you meet to discuss this loan re
payment?”

  “Twice. Once here in the office, and once at a Starbucks.”

  “What did she say the first time you met?”

  “She said she wanted me to pay back the loan, or she would sell her shares of the company. I asked her why, and she said she needed the cash for her lawyer. So I jokingly asked if she was getting sued. That’s when she said she was getting a divorce.” He swiped a hand over his face. “I couldn’t have her sell the shares to a stranger. I worked hard to buy this business from Mr. Santos.”

  “Did she forgive the interest?” Raina asked, hoping to distract him from thoughts that weren’t helping the situation.

  “She was willing to take her initial investment, which is fifty thousand dollars.”

  “So what happened during the second meeting?

  Blue scratched his jaw. “Here’s the bizarre part. She came in after her yoga class and wanted to order wheatgrass. She seemed out of it. I thought she was high at first or maybe drunk.”

  Raina frowned. Wasn’t Arianna found in her yoga outfit? “Do you think she was drugged?”

  “She could have been.”

  “Did you see how she got to Starbucks? Her car was found outside the yoga studio at the time of her disappearance.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “It’s on the web.”

  Blue shook his head. “I wasn’t paying attention. I was practicing my speech about how I can’t pay her back on such a short notice. Even if I sell some of my equipment, I still can’t raise the cash without a few months to settle things. I would have to call off the wedding. It would be better to lose the deposits than to put the balances on the credit cards.”

  “You could ask Jung-yee to borrow the money.”

  He returned the cover to the crate, lined it up, and kicked it shut with his steel toe boots. “No, that’s not an option. My new father-in-law already thinks I’m marrying your cousin for money.”

  It never occurred to Raina that he would marry for money. “So what happened during the meeting at Starbucks?”

  “She asked for the money back again, but she seemed distracted, glancing around like someone was after her.”

  “I don’t understand. So Arianna was both drugged and distracted? Did she seem afraid to you?”

  “Could be. I thought it was whatever she was on. I just wanted to get out of the meeting.”

  “Did you hear from her again after this?”

  He shook his head. “And I didn’t contact her either. I was hoping she would change her mind.”

  “You’ll look bad when the press connects her death to you and your business.”

  “Tell me about it.” He jammed his hands into his jeans pocket and hunched his shoulders. “My new father-in-law will use this as an excuse to postpone the wedding. He’ll probably say it would reflect badly on his restaurants.”

  “Does it matter if you get married now or a little later?”

  “And give him time to break us up? No, I don’t want to postpone the wedding.”

  “You love her that much, huh?” She didn’t bother keeping the skepticism from her voice. He had jumped into another relationship almost immediately after they had broken up.

  “I’m not marrying her to get back at you.”

  Raina raised an eyebrow. Was that a hint of defensiveness in his voice?

  “It didn’t work out between the two of us. But through you, I got more remodeling jobs from your family. And somehow I got invited to your family events. I think they felt sorry for me because I don’t have any family here.”

  Raina nodded. This sounded about right. Her family tended to collect strays. “And this naturally threw you and Jung-yee together. But I still don’t see how this murder has anything to do with me. I’m already doing the two of you a big favor by filling in for the wedding planner and wearing a hideous bridesmaid dress. I don’t know how, but I bet a picture of me in that dress will pop up once a year for the rest of my life.”

  “You have to help me, Rainy. I’m trying to raise the money for the loan, but I need you to look into this murder. Please don’t let me lose the love of my life. Jung-yee means everything to me.”

  At the familiar pleading look in his eyes, Raina’s heart melted. Why did he think she could help him? She was just an amateur. “Maybe you should ask Lucy to look into this. She is a professional private investigator.”

  He shook his head. “First, Lucy is in training to be a private investigator. She doesn’t have a license yet. Second, she’s virtually a stranger. I don’t want her digging into my business. I trust you. I know whatever you find, you will always have my best interest at heart. You will want me to be happy.”

  Raina’s swallowed. No wonder she was once in love with this guy. How could she say no? But how could she explain this to Matthew? “Do you have any way of getting in touch with Arianna’s husband? We have to talk to him.”

  “I’ll call him to ask about renegotiating the repayment terms. I’ll pretend to be ignorant about Arianna’s death.”

  “So you’re skipping the family dinner tonight?”

  He gave her a crooked smile. “Of course not. The family is planning to do the tea ceremony. I only said it to get you to come here.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “And it worked.”

  “And you couldn’t tell me this tonight?”

  “Too many people. And I would be too busy pretending to be the perfect son-in-law.”

  Raina narrowed her eyes at him, recalling the way he watched Matthew like a starving man. “What else are you hiding?”

  Blue squinted at her and pretended to leer. “If I tell you all my deep dark secrets, I would have to kill you.”

  Raina knew he was joking, but there was a twinge of something in his voice. He was hiding something all right. Everyone was allowed to have their secrets, except when it involved her fiancé. If Blue had something on Matthew, she wanted to know what it was. And this murder investigation might be her ticket to get Blue to squeal like a pig on a stick. No one was messing with her man while she was on the watch.

  Raina pressed the remote on her key fob and unlocked the car doors. “Did you have a good chat with Mrs. Santos?”

  “We made a lunch date for Wednesday. She’s gonna take me to her pole class, and then we’ll have a nice lunch afterward. I think she could be my new bosom buddy,” Po Po said, reaching for her seatbelt.

  Raina raised an eyebrow. Sometimes she wished she had the knack of being everyone’s best friend. “Don’t forget to pump her for information. She probably knows more about Blue’s business than he does.”

  “Maybe I should do yoga for the next few days. I wouldn’t want to pull a groin muscle or something on Wednesday.”

  Raina’s lips twitched, and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. If these two retired ladies want to show their wares in a class full of twenty-somethings, then it wasn’t her place to comment. What she wouldn’t give to leak this information to the rest of the Wong family. It would be hilarious, except her Uncle Anthony, the patriarch, would probably forbid it. And this would result in an argument between Po Po and her eldest son. Nope, it was better to enjoy the amusement by herself.

  An hour later, Raina pulled into the parking lot next to the building that looked like a country estate home on the outside but functioned as an event center on the inside for the winery. Traffic was bumper to bumper. It seemed to get worse every time she visited the Bay Area. The winery owner’s home was a mile away, but the walk would give them a chance to wander through the grapevines and inspect the crime scene.

  Po Po slammed the passenger door shut. “What is Bridget doing here?” She pointed at the white minivan with the business logo on the side parked in the row behind them.

  Raina glanced at the vehicle and the event center. The double doors were propped open with chairs. “We better find out. If she removed any of the decorations stored in the conference room, Jung-yee will have another nervous breakdown.” They’d paid the rental fee for
the decorations and equipment separate from the contract with Bridget Harker, the wedding planner.

  They trotted to the front door. The foyer with the glass chandelier was empty. They made a left toward the small sitting rooms that the owner had converted into conference rooms. The one assigned to the wedding was unlocked and emptied.

  The artificial flower arrangements for the centerpieces were heaped in their cardboard boxes. Only the bouquets and boutonnieres would have real flowers in them. Another cardboard box held the souvenir bags with heart-shaped crystals and chocolates. They were a little cheesy for Raina’s taste, but her cousin hadn’t asked her opinion.

  The red tablecloths were piled neatly on top of the conference table. The venue only supplied white tablecloths. Since Uncle Sain, Jung-yee’s father, was a stickler for Chinese traditions, he rounded up the red tablecloths from his restaurants. White was the traditional color for death and red the color for luck and celebration. There would be enough red in this wedding to confuse a charging bull or rival a whore’s boudoir.

  Po Po counted the pillars for the flower arrangements and checked the other boxes. “Everything seems to be here.”

  They left the room, and Raina locked it. Someone might wander in and take items for their event. “Let’s go see if Bridget is outside,” she said. They returned to the foyer and exited a set of French doors on the opposite wall. “Maybe she’s back on the job for Jung-yee’s wedding.”

  “I don’t think so. Someone would have sent us a message,” Po Po said.

  Across the grass lawn and grapevines, Raina saw movement at the foot of the hill, but she couldn’t make out what was going on. The owner had dug out two aging caves into the hillside for the wine. Double barn-style doors sealed them from the elements. One of the caves’s doors was open.

  Raina glanced at her grandma. “It’s probably a two-mile walk.”

  Po Po pulled out her birdwatching binoculars from her purse. A few seconds later, she put them away. “I can’t see the inside of the cave. We’ll have to do a look-see. If nothing else, it would get us closer to the crime scene.” She handed the binoculars to Raina. “Why don’t you add this to the murder kit? You never know when they might come in handy.”