Deadly Sweet Dreams

by Connie Shelton

  And she’d told Danny he was imagining things—seriously?

  Sam turned to the messages for S. That little romance began about five minutes after Danny left Texas and moved to Taos. One thing about it—the tone of the lovey-dovey talk was so similar among all three of the lovers that Lila could just dash off a message without a lot of worry about who was receiving it.

  To her timeline Sam added the major points: Lila told Richard she was pregnant in January, and she’d said the same thing to this S guy in early March. Had she pulled the same trick on Danny? He hadn’t said so. Sam made a note to ask him about that.

  Then there was the money—Richard had shipped out to the west coast for a training camp in late January, and she had asked for the money before he went. A month or so later was when she first asked Danny for cash, but he had refused. A month later, she’d found a way to take it from his account. That was shortly after Richard had deployed for a year’s tour in Afghanistan. And what about S? A couple of the texts within the past month were discussing a large amount of cash with him, too, but Sam didn’t find a reply where the man had agreed or refused. What had come of that?

  Lila had told each man she needed to cover the expenses of having his baby—but there was no baby. So, what did she want the money for?

  Sam stared at her timeline. She had to give Lila credit for managing an intricate balancing act; stringing along three guys couldn’t have been easy. She remembered things Danny had told her, about Lila’s tone and her ways of manipulating him and making him feel as though he was going crazy. Was she doing the same with all of them?

  Sam stared at the notes. She had to consider that all she had to go on were the written texts; she had no way to know what was discussed during calls or in person. An idea came to her. She glanced at the time—it was nearly eight o’clock, not quite nine in Texas. She picked up her phone and found the number for a Richard and Donna Potter in Nuevo Laredo. Another new fact: Richard of the text messages must be a Junior. A woman answered warily—it was too late for telemarketers.

  Sam quickly identified herself and asked if the Richard Potter who dated Lila Contreras was related to them. Donna Potter confirmed.

  “Yes, such a sweet girl,” she said, “so classy, her choices of clothes and everything. Richie is quite taken with her. And of course we’re all so excited about the baby.”

  Uh-oh. She doesn’t know. Sam felt her heart sink. She had hoped to ask about the relationship between Richard and Lila, whether he’d said anything about feeling manipulated. Now it was taking a different tack.

  “Mrs. Potter, I don’t know how to say this. I assumed you knew …” She took a deep breath and came out with it. “Lila is dead.”

  There was complete silence at the other end.

  “I feel so badly about telling you over the phone. Really … I assumed the word had already reached you.” She debated about saying there had never been a grandchild, but what was the point? They would know it was lost to them now.

  She went into a little detail about the where and when. There was no gentle way to say that their grandbaby-mommy had been murdered, so she gave as little information as possible about that.

  “I’m so, so sorry,” Sam said.

  Finally, Donna found her voice. “Richie doesn’t know. I’m sure he would have told us.”

  “Probably not.” Evidently, Lila had kept each of her lovers compartmentalized in ways that the extended families didn’t know each other, or else Patsy or Danny’s parents would have been in touch with the Potters.

  “His dad and I chat with him on Facetime now and then. I’ll have to tell him …” Her voice broke, more for the fact of her son’s heartbreak, it seemed, than for a love of Lila. “He wanted to be in his baby’s life, and he planned to marry her next time he came home on leave.”

  Sam made some more soothing noises, glancing toward the living room where Beau’s attention was elsewhere. She was tempted to get back to asking what Donna Potter had thought of Lila, but this wasn’t the time.

  Donna wasn’t quite finished. “It’s early morning over there right now. I suppose this is as good a time as any to try and reach my son. I’m not going to get any sleep until I’ve spoken with him.” She ended the call abruptly.

  Sam sat back in her chair, rubbing her temples. What a mess. Lila had ripped up more lives than just Danny’s.

  She got up, feeling her own creaky joints from sitting so long, and made her way to the kitchen for a cup of tea. While the kettle heated, she paced the room, considering everything she’d learned. She didn’t feel any closer to figuring out who actually killed Lila.

  She brewed an herbal tea for herself and made a cup of hot cocoa for Beau, carried them into the living room, and settled on the couch. Taking her mind completely off the case by staring at basketball players on the screen might free the tangle of her thoughts and allow her mind to rest enough to come up with fresh ideas.

  It was nearly ten o’clock when her phone rang. She saw that it was the same number she’d mostly recently dialed.

  “Mrs. Potter—how can I help you?”

  “I’ve spoken with Richie—we’ve been talking for nearly an hour now. He took the news surprisingly well.”

  “Really? I mean, that’s probably a good thing.”

  “I think so. I also learned quite a lot more about Lila.” Her voice had lost the emotional tenor from earlier. “It seems Richard was trying to break things off with her, just before she informed him about the baby. He told me some things about the way she treated him.”

  Oh boy, Danny’s story all over again.

  “Well, anyway … He admitted he had given her a large sum of money.”

  Sam had seen the request, but didn’t know he’d actually handed it over.

  “So, as we talked … we’re both wondering what happened to that money? Did Lila spend it so quickly? Or is it sitting in an account somewhere? At any rate, Richie would like to have it back.”

  “I can certainly understand that,” Sam said, talking as she carried empty mugs to the kitchen. “but I’m afraid I have no idea. I’d suggest you get in touch with the San Antonio police and ask for an investigation.”

  “I suppose that’s what we’ll need to do. How complicated this has become.”

  “Yes, it seems Lila was fairly expert at leaving complications in her wake.” Sam set the mugs in the kitchen sink. “Oh—could I ask you one other question? We’re trying to track down others who had recent contact with Lila, in hopes of identifying her killer.”

  Donna seemed agreeable to that.

  “Do you know anyone in your son’s circle of friends, a male with the first initial S?”

  “S—heavens, I don’t know … Let me think … I believe Lila once mentioned someone named Sergio. But I don’t recall Richie ever talking about him. I’ll give it some thought and call you back if I think of someone.”

  Sam probably thanked her, but her mind was reeling. Sergio. Could it be? Surely not Danny’s best friend.

  Chapter 39

  “I can’t believe I never connected S with Sergio,” Sam said the next morning. She looked around the attic room at Kelly’s. “It just seems so unthinkable that Danny’s best friend would have taken up with Lila, and at the same time.” The guy doesn’t even set mousetraps.

  Eliza, sensing Sam’s upset, jumped up to the table and rubbed against her hand.

  “Mom, those things happen in the real world.”

  “I know … I just …” She picked up a plum that was sitting on the big table, next to the book of runes, and squeezed it gently to see if it was ripe. “Serg impressed me as so honest and open. And so caring about Danny and wanting to help us.”

  “So, it’s probably not him. Can’t be. There are a zillion names that start with S—you have two of them, yourself.”

  Sam relaxed and smiled. “Well, at least I can absolutely swear that I’m not the one Lila was texting with.”

  Kelly fingered the leather cover of the old
book. “Maybe we could just come up with a magical fix for this whole thing.”

  “A love potion—no, an anti-love potion—got us into this. What do you suggest to get us out of it?”

  “Oh, I don’t know … maybe we find a spell that gives you the all-seeing-eye. Whenever you look at someone you’ll instantly know if they are guilty or innocent. It could make you the darling of every police department in the country.”

  Eliza meowed in agreement.

  “And an outcast among all my friends.”

  “Hey, you never know—it could become a second career.” Kelly was flipping the pages of the old book.

  “Um, Kel, I just sold a business and am spending precisely as much time as I want to with the other. I don’t want a second career.”

  “Okay, then, it’s your loss.”

  “Yep. My loss.” Sam closed the book on Kelly’s finger, and Eliza laid her white paw on the cover. “For now, I need to talk to Danny again. Surely, if his friend was getting too close with his girlfriend, he would have had a clue.” She called the detention center and asked if she could get an appointment. As it turned out this afternoon was one of the designated visitor days and she scheduled the two of them to go.

  * * *

  “For me, this is all the reason I need to stay on the straight and narrow,” Kelly murmured as they followed a guard down the corridor to the visitation room.

  They were escorted to a table and told to wait for inmate Flores.

  “It’s fairly new and it’s clean and all that,” she continued, “but wow—what a creepy feeling to know if you walk that hallway on the wrong side of the law, they’ll slam the door and throw away the key.”

  Sam met her daughter’s stare. “I hardly think they throw away the key, especially in a county detention center. Still, I’m happy to know I won’t ever be visiting you here.” She looked up. “Shh, here comes Danny.”

  As before, he arrived in handcuffs which were clipped to a ring in the table, on the other side of a plexiglass sheet just high enough for them to speak over. He seemed pleased to see both Sam and Kelly.

  “We don’t have much time, and I’ve got some difficult questions, Danny.” Sam folded her hands, mimicking the serious tone the lawyer often took.

  “First off, we’ve discovered that Lila was corresponding with two other men when she first met you, and that at least one of those affairs was going on while you were dating her. Have you heard the name Richard Potter, or Richie?”

  He shook his head. She noticed he didn’t seem especially shocked at the news.

  “She told Richie Potter that she was pregnant, and she produced a test stick showing a positive for that.”

  “And she was pushing him to marry her, too?” he asked.

  “No, it doesn’t seem that way. But she did ask for money for the doctor and hospital expenses. Sound familiar?”

  He slumped forward, pressing his forehead to his cuffed hands, until a guard warned him to sit straight. When he looked back at Sam and Kelly his eyes were weary.

  “It does. She also showed me a pregnancy test and claimed I was the father.”

  “When was this?”

  “When she got here, to Taos. She came to the casita one night and presented this as if it were a done deal—that I would marry her as soon as I knew.”

  “Gosh, Danny, what did you say?” Kelly asked.

  “Well, she goofed up when she told me. She said she was six weeks along and I could either marry her or she would have an abortion. She knew how I felt about family, that killing my own child would be unthinkable, so this was her way of forcing the marriage.”

  “But you didn’t agree, did you?”

  “No. Quick math in my head and I knew she was lying. I’d been away from her more than two months at that point. It couldn’t have been mine.”

  “And that’s why you weren’t surprised just now when I told you about Richard Potter.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Okay. Well, I’m glad to know that you weren’t fooled by her claim. But what happened? Did you two fight about it?”

  He shook his head. “Not about that.”

  Sam stayed quiet and let him think.

  “It was about my grandmother’s ring—I’ve told you that part. I refused to marry her and she threw out the idea that I’d given her the ring.”

  “Okay. Yeah, I remember.” Sam picked at a cuticle for a second. “Danny, there’s more. I mentioned she was with two other men … Well, she refers to the second one just by the initial S.”

  No reaction.

  “Someone tossed out the idea that it might have been Sergio.”

  “No way. Serg and me, we’re best buds since grade school. If she came on to him, he’d have told me.”

  Kelly reached forward, then realized she couldn’t touch Danny’s hands through the plexiglass. “Sometimes sex does strange things. Secretive things, unforgivable things …”

  “Danny, if it means getting you out of here, I’d recommend we at least tell the sheriff Serg is a possible other suspect. He can have the San Antonio police question him, just to be sure he’s in the clear.”

  “No! I’m serious. I won’t throw my friend under the bus.” His expression was slightly wild, his eyes growing moist. “I won’t …” He let the thought drift.

  “Okay, then. I won’t give out his name. The sheriff has the evidence that implicates this S, whoever that is. They’ll track it down and figure it out. And we’ll all just hope it’s someone else.” She knew she didn’t sound very confident about this last part.

  Danny changed the subject, asking about his family, whether Sam had talked with any of them recently. The separation was eating away at him, she could tell. She promised to call Patsy and see how his parents were coping.

  “Just downplay all this with my grandmother,” he begged as their time was nearly over. “I don’t want her coming down here and seeing me. Not Tia Pauline either. They’re both so religious.” He turned his palms up and gave a tug at the handcuffs. Seeing him this way would be hard on them.

  “Do you want me to give them a message?”

  “Call them, if you get the chance. Just tell them I’m doing fine, the food is great, and I’m getting lots of fresh air. Do it on the phone and don’t let abuela see your face. She can spot a lie instantly.” He gave an ironic chuckle.

  The guard declared the end of visiting hours at that moment, and the ladies had to go.

  “What will you tell his family?” Kelly asked, once they’d exited the building and were getting into Sam’s car.

  “Just what he wants me to—for Faustina’s benefit. But I’m still going to call Patsy and get her take on Sergio and whether the local police should talk to him. Clearly, Danny will stand up for his best friend, even if it means losing his own freedom.”

  Chapter 40

  She placed the call when they got back to Kelly’s place. Scott and Ana were whipping up some kind of science experiment in the kitchen. The attic room was empty and quiet but for Eliza, who crawled onto the window seat and curled into a contented ball in the sunshine.

  Patsy answered on the first ring.

  “Do you have a couple minutes?” Sam asked.

  “Sure. I’m cramming for a big test tomorrow and my brain is fuzzy. I can use the break.”

  Sam asked about the parents, how everyone was holding up, and passed along Danny’s blatant lie about the conditions in jail, attempting to make it sound like the gospel truth.

  “Patsy, a question has come up, a tricky one. Those two phones you sent—they’re providing evidence that Lila was involved with two other men, one of whom she refers to as S. The idea came to mind that it might have been Sergio. Danny completely rej—”

  “No way. Sorry, but I reject that idea too. Serg is as loyal to Danny as a cocker spaniel. Or maybe I should say a pit bull. He’d never go behind my brother’s back.”

  “Okay. Okay.” A pit bull, huh. The kind that would kill to protect someone?
<
br />   Sam put that thought out of her head and brought up the subject of the money. Again, Patsy’s reaction was swift.

  “There’s no way Serg could put his hands on twenty thousand dollars. Just no way. I doubt anyone in his family has ever seen that kind of money in one place, Sam. They’re simple working-class people. And Lila would have known that. She wouldn’t see him as a possible source of that kind of cash.”

  “That brings up another question. What would Lila need that much money for? You knew her pretty well. Did you get any feeling about her financial situation?”

  Patsy was quiet for a few seconds. “You know, not really. She had expensive tastes—loved an elegant meal out, that kind of thing, but to need twenty grand—huh-uh. I never saw anything on that scale.”

  Sam didn’t mention that the twenty thousand was only part of Lila’s big plan. When Patsy began sounding restless to get back to her studies, Sam again sent well wishes to the family and then ended the call.

  “So, what do you think?” she asked, turning to Kelly. “I don’t get the feeling it’s worth siccing the cops on Sergio.”

  Kelly shrugged. “Your call. You know Danny and Patsy aren’t exactly impartial about this.”

  “I do. But she also made a valid point about the money. Where would Sergio get that much?”

  “Um, Mom … Maybe it’s not honest money. You think all crooks look like the ones in the movies? Drug dealers, money launderers …”

  Sam sighed. “You’re right. Appearances can be completely tricky. But Sergio? A guy’s closest friends would know.” Probably.

  “Let’s look at why Lila might think she needed all that money, enough to try and finagle it from three different guys.” Kelly had opened the leather-bound book and was paging through it slowly.

  “You think we’ll find the answer in there?” Sam joked.

  “You never know …”

  “Okay, why does a twenty-five year old need a huge amount of cash all at once? To make a down payment on a house … to buy a new car …”