by Sarah Kelly
“We baked together,” he said, almost laughing, “then watched the usual Star Trek, then went to bed. Oh, and you watched movies in your room. What’s there to talk about that?”
India frowned, confused. “But don’t you remember when I got that call? And I went outside?”
“Yes,” he said, really laughing by then. “Your mom called you. And then you came back in a couple minutes later. What about it?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing.”
You don’t have to thank me, Luis sent to her, pretending to be indignant. Last night was kinda my fault, I don’t know what happened with the teleporting stuff. But I figured I’d fix it for you.
Thanks, India sent back, not feeling all that much better about it. She looked across at Xavier, who was still smiling at her in a bemused sort of way. “Hey, sorry,” she said, shaking her head and managing to laugh a little. “Think I must have dreamed something.”
“It’s okay, crazy girl,” he said affectionately. He took a bite of his donut. “Look at me, stereotypical cop, even when I’m not on duty.”
India was sipping her coffee and coughed it back laughing. “Hey, you’re gonna kill me!”
He banged her on the back as she coughed.
“I’m all right,” she said eventually. “Anyways, any ideas on the case?”
He screwed up his face. “Nah, not really. Maurice still looks like the most likely, but I just can’t picture him doing it. Rodney, I guess, just because of how he acts, but what motive would he have?”
“Yeah,” India said. “He wouldn’t inherit, ‘cause his mom’s still alive.” Her eyes brightened. “Unless he was the one trying to kill her on the beach. And then once she was dead, he could make out like he was some poor guy, with both parents murdered. Scoop up the inheritance money, then move out of state for his ‘own safety’.”
Xavier got up to pour himself more coffee from the machine. “You really might be onto something there, In.”
“I wish we could find some way to make him talk. Or make Anita talk about him. He doesn’t have any friends you know of, does he?”
Xavier shook his head. “I’ve never seen any. Usually he stayed inside. I think he plays a lot of computer games, so maybe he has friends online.”
“Figures,” India said. “I wonder if the police will search his computer.”
They were silent for a while, while Xavier added cream and sugar to his coffee. “Another donut?” he asked.
India groaned. “I can’t resist. I’m going on a serious exercise program when we get back to Florida.”
When Xavier came back to the table, he drew his chair closer up, next to India. “You know…” he began.
But an idea had just sprung up in India’s mind. “I don’t mean anything by this, Zave, but you don’t think Eric might have done it, do you?”
Xavier shook his head. “I don’t see what motive he would have. Why, though?”
“Well, Anita said it was a man who attacked her. If it’s not you, or your dad, or Maurice, or Rodney – of course it could still be either of those two – then, unless it’s someone totally different, it’s got to be Eric.”
“Or Joey,” Xavier reminded her.
“Yeah, but I don’t think so. He’s new to town, with nothing against the guy. He’d have to be like… a psychopath, who enjoys killing or something. I don’t see that happening.”
“Yeah,” Xavier said. “Neither me. Now I really don’t think it was Eric, but we could casually ask Demetria where he was a couple nights ago.”
India nodded. “Good idea.”
“Now,” he said, suddenly looking a little awkward and nervous. “I wanted to talk to you about something different.” When his big brown eyes looked up at her, they were uncertain.
“What is it?” she asked gently, hoping Luis’ charm hadn’t worn off, and he was about to ask her where she’d disappeared to.
“Well,” he said, looking down in his lap, then back up at her again. “Since we’ve been here, I’ve been thinking… you know, about us.”
India laughed. “You’re not breaking up with me, are you?”
“No,” he said, with a quick smile. “I just… seeing you with my family, I just see that, well, you fit in so well. I… I see us being together a long time. Well, forever, really.”
India couldn’t stop a grin spreading all over her face. She grabbed him, one hand either side of his face, and planted a kiss on his lips. “Sounds good to me.”
He breathed out, looking immensely relieved, then took her hands in his. “I’ve got somewhere I want to take you.”
She jumped up from the table. “Let’s go.”
***
“Is there… is there something you want to ask me before we go in here?” India said, sounding nervous. Her eyes flickered over the front of the jewelry store, where mini spotlights beamed down onto the rings and bracelets and pendants, making them flash in the light, as she shifted her weight in the passenger seat of the car. He had been talking so seriously back at the kitchen table, that when they had pulled up to the store, engagement had immediately sounded in her mind like a siren.
Xavier twisted his mouth to the side, looking nervous. “Well, maybe not yet. Maybe some other time.”
India nodded, swallowing. She was glad. For all that she loved Xavier, she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to be married. For one thing, she wanted to make a transition from her lifeguard job into being a full time private investigator, ideally in a team with Xavier. Second, she had to work out how on earth she could keep her witchy secret from him without going out of her mind. Third, she just wasn’t sure it was the right time. Picturing Xavier kneeling on the floor in front of her, his eyes wide, waiting for her answer, she knew her heart would be torn.
“I thought… I thought maybe I could get you something nice,” he said. “To commemorate this trip.” Then he hurried to add, “Not the murder part, I mean, but, you know, meeting my family, and us… well…”
“I know what you mean,” India said. It really seemed that since arriving, they’d taken a next step. Somehow, in the couple days since arriving, she felt their relationship had deepened and strengthened. She smiled. “That would be really nice, Zave.”
That was the first time he’d given her a relaxed smile in quite a while. He fixed his skewed parking, then they stepped inside, linking arms.
“Ooh,” India said, as soon as they were in the door. She’d never been one to obsess over jewelry, but ever since she’d conjured her emerald cocktail ring, she found herself keeping an eye out for interesting pieces people wore, especially in bold, unusual colors.
They scanned the glass cases together. India’s eyes danced over diamond rings – which she never thought she’d pick, even if they were to be engaged – and garnet and ruby pendants nestled in gold casing, and gold necklace and bracelet chains, from almost as fine as a hair, to thick and chunky. Almost immediately, she found herself gravitating toward a bracelet. It would take up about two inches of her arm, it was so wide, its gold swirling into eternity symbols of different sizes, fitting in with each other perfectly. Clear, glistening stones studded the symbols, and India hoped against hope they weren’t diamonds, or it would be way out of reach for Xavier’s cop salary. In the loops of the eternity symbols were large, creamy white stones.
“I like that one,” Xavier said, pointing to the exact thing she was looking at.
India grinned, trying not to get too attached. “Bet it costs three times my rent.”
“Can I help you, sir?” a young woman asked from behind them. When they turned, she said, “Oh, Xavier. I didn’t recognize you there. This your girlfriend?”
Xavier made the introductions between Sam, the short assistant with generous brown curls, who he knew from high school, and India, a proud smile on his face, then asked, “How much is this one?”
“$525.”
India was about to protest, but Xavier was already saying, “We’ll take it.”
As Sa
m wrapped the item carefully in reams of tissue paper, she looked up at him, her brow creased. “Don’t you live on the same street? You know, to where that… that guy was killed?”
“Yes,” Xavier said. “Unfortunately.”
“I hate to think there’s a murderer on the loose.” Sam looked between India and Xavier with a guarded look. “These days I get my dad to pick me up when I finish work, even though it’s only six at night. I just don’t want to be the face on the front of the Cherrytown Gazette next week, if you get my drift.”
“I don’t think it’s too much to worry about,” India said. “We think it’s probably someone who knew him. Someone who had a grudge against him. It’s unlikely to be a random attack. Murders very rarely are.”
Sam nodded. “Let’s hope so.” Just as she was about to place the wrapped up bracelet in a bag, she paused, and let out a long, deep sigh. “It’s just so strange. You see someone alive as anything, and then a few days later, they… well, they just don’t exist.”
“So did you see him, then?”
“Yes. He came in here.” She sighed again. “So full of life.”
India felt herself frowning. Jim Quinn certainly wasn’t the type to wear jewelry himself, and she doubted he’d buy his wife anything. “What was he looking for?”
Sam glanced around, like there might be reporters or town gossips lurking in the shadows. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything, he asked me not to, but now he’s… gone… I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
“Yes?” said Xavier, somewhat impatiently.
“He was looking for an engagement ring. He said something about… I think it was… the last wish he hadn’t fulfilled? Something like that.”
As soon as India and Xavier got into the car, they burst into chatter.
“I’ve got a theory,” India said.
“Me too. You first.”
“Jim was seeing a woman on the side. Came here to get an engagement ring, and he was going to break it up with his wife eventually, or maybe just string this new woman along for ages. Then Anita finds out about it, and pushes him off the balcony in a fit of passion.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Xavier said. “But that still leaves us with a mystery, because who was the mystery man that tried to kill Anita on the beach? Unless…”
“What?”
“Unless Anita killed Jim, and the person who came to kill her was trying to avenge him?”
India nodded. “That makes sense. Or Rodney killed his father, and then tried to kill his mother. Or maybe Rodney was the one trying to kill Anita to avenge his father, because she killed Jim. Argh, there are so many possibilities.”
Xavier cranked the Ford up. “You got that right. One thing we know for sure is that Jim Quinn was looking for an engagement ring. I guess the next thing to find out is who it was for.”
India nodded. She delved into the bag and unwrapped the bracelet. Slipping it onto her tanned arm, she said, “Xavier, this is beautiful.”
“You like it?” he asked, joy all over his face.
“You bet.” India could have sat staring, admiring it all day. As she gazed down at its beauty, and began to trace the infinity symbols with her fingertip, an idea popped into her head. “It could be Becky Goddard, couldn’t it?”
“Yes,” he said, so quickly that she knew his mind was lingering on the same question.
“After all, Anita did say they were always together, inside his office.” India’s mind went back to the inside of the Quinn mansion. She remembered the office with the charged energy, in hues of bright red and intense green and sludgy pink, and wondered what secrets they held.
CHAPTER 8
It was Saturday, and since the weather had perked up, the sun searing the sidewalks, Valerie had decided to lay out a table of goodies and lemonade outside. “Everyone needs some cheering up,” she’d said, bustling around with paper plates and floral cake stands. Nadine had even tied gingham bunting up on the porch, and the whole thing oozed Southern hospitality.
India and Xavier sat in the shade of the porch, drinking cool lemonade and savoring every last bite of the chocolate cupcakes. India looked around at everyone enjoying themselves, at the creamy blue sky and the cotton puff clouds, at the vibrant flower bushes brightening up the front yard, at the afternoon tea spread laid out in the shade of the house, and felt deeply content. The air was warm around her, she was wearing her beautiful new bracelet, and she couldn’t keep a smile off her face. “This is the life,” she said to Xavier, kicking off her ballet pump shoes and pressing her bare feet against the warm wooden boards.
“You bet,” he said, his mouth half full of chocolate cake.
At that moment, Maurice swung into the street in his sky-blue convertible. Unsurprisingly, a gorgeous woman with a silky sheet of chestnut colored hair swept over her shoulder sat in the passenger seat. Shades covered her eyes, and she looked the epitome of cool nonchalance, but when she saw the tea party she squeaked with excitement, and pushed her shades on top of her head. “Stop the car! Stop the car!” she said to Maurice.
He didn’t look best pleased, but pulled up at the kerb with a slightly forced smile.
“Morning!” Valerie called out to them, though it was getting on for noon by then. “Help yourselves. We have all kinds of sandwiches and cakes and cookies.”
In a whirlwind of excited chattering, paper plates, and gushing, “This is sooo good,” Maurice’s companion made quite an impression on everybody. He hung back, his hand grazing the small of her back, as he nibbled at a cookie.
“You really think he could have done it?” India whispered to Xavier, dragging her rocking chair over next to his spot on the swing seat.
Xavier shrugged, taking a bite of a cucumber sandwich. “I just don’t know, In. I mean, he looks pretty carefree, but you never know how far people bury their true feelings, do you?”
“Yeah, I guess. I feel more confused than when we started looking into this. I’ve got no idea who killed Jim Quinn.”
“Me either.”
Soon Maurice and his companion had returned to the car and made their way down the street to his home. “I wonder if she knows he’ll probably have three more women in there this week,” India thought out loud.
“That’s Maurice for ya,” Xavier said. “When I was little, I thought all the women were his sisters, or visiting cousins or something.”
“Ha!”
“Yeah, he’s been at it a long time. I doubt he’ll ever settle down.”
India was silent for a long moment. “What cake flavor did Rodney say was his favorite again? It’s on the tip of my tongue.”
Xavier wrinkled up his nose, bemused. “Why?”
“A good excuse to go round there, right? Act like the doting neighbors, and weasel out information.”
Xavier nodded, and looked out over the street. “Classy.”
India giggled. “Just what investigators with no badges have to do.” Then she couldn’t resist adding, “You’re still thinking about what I said right? About us teaming up full time?” She grinned. “Or are you still fretting about your 401k?”
“Darn right I am,” he said. “Can you imagine me hobbling around as an eighty year old guy, trying to catch criminals with my walking stick so I can pay to put the heating on in winter?”
“You’ll earn heaps more than you would on the force,” India insisted. “You can just put it in a high rate savings account. Or invest in property and sell when it comes to retirement. We’ll work it out.”
Xavier nodded. “We will. In due time.”
India wanted to get started right away. In fact, she’d wanted to for a couple of years. It was maddening that he was too cautious to take the plunge.
. “It was carrot, by the way,” Xavier said.
“Huh?”
“Rodney likes carrot cake.”
***
Later that evening, the carrot cake was well on its way to completion. India stood in the kitchen with Nadine, while everyon
e else lounged around in the living room. For once, Star Trek was nowhere to be found, and some millions of years ago episode of Friends had everyone smiling.
Xavier, Mark and Eric were all on the floor, leaning up on stacks of pillows against the couches, while Valerie was curled up under a thin blanket on the chaise longue, more for coziness than warmth, and Demetria sat back in the big armchair. India kept glancing up at them between fulfilling the instructions Nadine set her – first for the cake batter, then for the cream cheese frosting, that India couldn’t resist taking tiny pinky finger portions of now and then. She noticed Eric and Demetria kept sharing covert glances across the room, and if she judged it right, it was worry in their eyes. That set alarm bells ringing in her head immediately.
Soon her imagination was running away with her, but she quickly asked herself what motive they would have had to kill Jim Quinn. It could have been the tourism and land issue, but was that really bad enough to kill? Plus, she still hadn’t established where Eric had been on Thursday night, when Anita was attacked.
Friends went on a break, to a commercial for pizza delivery, and Mark muted the TV, then got up to get a beer out of the fridge.
“Oh yeah, Dad,” Xavier said. “What was this feud you and Jim had years ago? I keep meaning to ask you.”
“Oh, boy,” Mark said, popping the beer open. “Eric, want one? Zave? Anyone?”
Everyone shook their head except Nadine. “I wouldn’t say no.”
Mark passed her a beer and clinked his on hers. “Looks like it’s just you and me, girl. Cheers.”
“Cheers, Daddy.”
He let out a long sigh as he came back to his stack of cushions. “It’s a long time ago now, over fifteen years, I think. He lived clear across town then. We both had two trucks each, and there was a contract with the local government that I was favored for. I could have expanded my fleet up to around fifteen trucks, and had a lot of money coming in. But he wanted it so bad he slandered my name all over town. Put all kind of lies out there about me.”
