by Libby Klein
“Oh, I don’t know. One was a foxy little brunette and the other was a white male with nearly invisible eyebrows and a very pink mouth. Is it important?”
“Probably not. I’m sure it’s fine. Hey, nice chatting with you. I gotta go.”
“Okay. ’Bye?”
I could have warned him that Olivander no longer needed to potty, but he was about to find out on his own. I took out my cell phone and dialed a number I knew by heart. “Hey. I need you. Meet me by the back door of Convention Hall. I want you to help me trap Shayla Rose. She may be working with a dirty cop to frame Amber.”
CHAPTER 49
“Final clearance. Everything must go.” The Lolly sheet mask lady shoved a coupon in my face when I stepped on the vendor floor. Everyone was having a sale. It was the final three hours of the Beauty Expo, and if you could sell it on the cheap, you wouldn’t have to carry it home with you.
I passed Aunt Ginny arguing with the guy at the CBD booth. “What do you mean, you’re out?! Well, do you have a store somewhere? How do you not have a store? You don’t have a website either? How will I find you to order more?”
Gia’s brothers were loitering around the booth. Probably waiting to take the espresso machine back to wherever it came from. I didn’t want to know. It was probably a Mafia hideout. I didn’t have time to ask. I had Shayla in my sights and I was closing in.
She saw me coming and took off just like I’d expected her to and disappeared around the back of the Rubinesque tent.
Leo and Jimmy tried to block me, and Sawyer popped out from the back of their booth. “Hey there, fellas. You are two good-looking guys. Do you work out?”
I gave her a grin as I passed.
Leo giggled. “Yeah, a little.”
This was my chance. I picked up the pace and ducked behind the Rubinesque tent. I flapped my way between the glass windows and the canvas wall until I found the door, and Shayla. Sitting on a bench on the boardwalk, wearing her North Carolina Tar Heels sweatshirt, and pouting over a cinnamon latte. Gia had her caught.
“You play dirty, bringing pretty boy into this with free coffee.”
I put my hand on Gia’s back. “He’s my secret weapon.”
He gave me an intense look that felt like an electric charge move between us, then winked and went inside.
I turned my full attention to Shayla. “You’ve been running away from me for days. We could have been friends. The fact that you were trapped by a latte is proof of that.”
“You know why I’ve been avoiding you. I’d rather not lie to your face.”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t tell the cops you were in Dr. Rubin’s tent the morning he was killed.”
“Because I didn’t kill him.”
“You threw me down trying to get out of there. Even covered in a hoodie and sweatpants, I still knew it was you. Your signature scent gave it away.”
Shayla looked out at the ocean. “I should have showered first. And I think Leo’s been using my perfume. That was his hoodie.” She scooted down on the bench for me to join her. “I was sure Lance Rubin had robbed me. I came early in the morning determined to get into his booth and steal my stuff back. I tried to sneak in the back door without security recording my arrival. When it was locked I almost went home. Then some skinny guy in glasses who worked for the Paleo Diva arrived. I grabbed an empty box and told the security guard we were together and he’d forgotten the muffins at the bakery. He let me in and I ran back here to search Lance’s office before anyone arrived.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Lance Rubin, dead and smoking under his own UV mask on one of his exam tables. I freaked out and was about to split when I saw two empty jars of Immortality on his counter in the middle of a bunch of other products. I was so angry that he’d taken my samples that I grabbed the containers and ran. Then I heard you calling for him and jumped behind that hanging door to wait for you to leave. I didn’t have time to find the rest of my jars, but I know he stole them.”
“To do what with them?”
“To have a biochemist break down the formula.”
“He didn’t have to steal them to do that. You were giving them out for free. And he already had two.”
She sat back against the bench and crossed her legs. “Well, that’s true.”
I knew it was. I also had the benefit of knowing Temarius stole the samples, but I was trying to get a confession, so I didn’t bring that up. “Do you know someone named Temarius Jackson?”
Her face was blank. “No. Should I?”
“How about Kieran Dunne?”
Her eyes squidged down. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Where do you make your antiaging cream?”
She quirked an eyebrow. “In my lab. In North Carolina.”
“You weren’t married to Lance Rubin, were you?”
Shayla’s face twisted in disgust. “Eww, no! Gross.”
“Believe me, it’s a fair question. You were spotted together after the Expo closed.”
“Did you hurt yourself jumping to that conclusion? He cornered me in my booth and suggested a merger with Rubinesque. He wanted me to be his new cosmetic chemist. I told him I already had my own company. He even promised I could keep my name on the products if I shared the secret of my Immortality cream.”
“How generous of him.”
“Right? I was like, ‘no way. I worked too hard to get my degree and research that jellyfish to hand it over to you.’ When he didn’t get what he wanted, he broke into my booth and stole my concentrate.”
“The antiaging concentrate that isn’t FDA approved for distribution and will probably get your license to make skin-care products revoked?”
Shayla frowned and looked away. “What do you want me to say? I effed up. It’s why I couldn’t go to the police. I should never have brought Immortality here before it was FDA approved. I just didn’t want to be scooped again.”
“You know it turns people blue? That can’t be a good selling point.”
Shayla cut me with a dry look. “It has a natural luminescence when it comes into contact with the skin, but the molecules can get hyperexcited if they’re exposed to UV rays.” She rolled her eyes. “And . . . then it can emit a bright-blue glow. It can be a real problem during firefly mating season. Look, I’d try to explain it, but you need to be a biochemist to understand.”
“I understand that no one wants to glow in the dark. How long have you known about that?”
She pulled out her cell phone. “I discovered it by accident. I was presenting before the American Board of Dermatology. The jars had been under the UV lights at the lab all week and they activated the luciferin in the jellyfish proteins. Someone turned the lights out for my PowerPoint and my face glowed in the dark.” She showed me a video of herself wearing a lab coat with her face lit up, and people were pointing at her and laughing. “It was so embarrassing. I went back to my lab and ran hundreds of tests on the formula. It smooths out wrinkles like your face has been ironed, but it becomes a problem if you don’t store it properly. That’s why it says right on the container to only wear it at night. As long as it’s kept in a cool, dark place, it’s fine.”
“I saw the Kefir lady at the Egg Hunt. It isn’t fine.”
“That’s because those idiots Leo and Jimmy drove up here in a flatbed and left some of the containers exposed for hours. I told them to keep the crates inside the cab in the dark with the air-conditioning on, but they didn’t want to take out their lacrosse gear. They didn’t tell me what they’d done until that lady charged into my booth screaming. Now she’s threatening to sue, and I’ve already gotten one reprimand from the FDA. I can’t afford another. I’ll never get investors. Thank God I only handed out a dozen samples before they were stolen. I just wish I could have found the rest of them in that office.”
“You really believe Dr. Rubin stole your Immortality samples?”
“I know he did.”
I
kinda know he didn’t.
“And my laptop. Which I found in the drawer of his desk under some contracts. He was using my research to run experiments on beauty products. You know what?” Shayla got up from the bench and grabbed my wrist. “Come with me. I’ll show you.”
She led me around to the front door. The Expo was starting to empty out. Many of the vendor booths were already broken down and gone, including La Dolce Vita. I felt so empty knowing Gia wasn’t there. Losing him would be a rough adjustment. If his plan didn’t work, I might have to get another cat. Or three. I could become that sad cat lady who lives alone that people talk about on the news.
Shayla marched me past both of her cousins, who were boxing up rose-scented exfoliant and vitamin serums. “Lance heard me speak on a cosmetic chemistry panel at Penn State a few months ago. He knew I was close to a breakthrough. That’s why he cornered me here after his ridiculous keynote brag.”
She pulled a laptop from her pink leather tote bag and placed it on the counter. “He managed to log in, although I have no idea how he got past my password.”
“Was it ‘password’? ’Cause I hear some people use that.”
“No, Tar Heels. It’s my college basketball team.”
I looked at her sweatshirt. “Yeah, that may not have been as hard to crack as you think.”
She opened the laptop, and there was a bright-pink Post-it Note next to the touch pad. “Don’t touch that. It might have his fingerprints on it. When I got my laptop back to my bed and breakfast, my research documents had been opened and he had highlighted these passages about luciferin and ultraviolet light. And he left this.”
I had no idea what this was. It sounded like something from a Star Trek science officer’s log. I added stronger UV power cells and combined the Immortal concentrate with the hyaluronic serum. Now to subject it to ultraviolet rays . . . “What am I looking at?”
“These are his notes. He made adjustments to his UV mask and was trying to get it to work with a layer of antiaging products. You can see here that he blended different acids, which is dangerous. And retinoids aren’t stable in UV light. That’s why the directions on my concentrate say ‘Keep in a dark place.’ Not everything that’s natural is safe. He was a doctor. He should have known better.”
He must have been desperate about that patent. “What would happen if you mixed Immortality with, say, discount-store cold cream?”
“Nothing. You’d destroy all the active ingredients in Immortality and clog your pores with petroleum. Why would anyone do that?”
“To make knockoff Immortality and sell it online.”
“It would be cheaper to just repackage the cold cream and tell people it was Immortality. But it would have to look the part if they’d seen Immortality advertised. And all my products smell like roses, so they’d have to copy that to make it look authentic.”
I thought about what I knew was sitting in the warehouse in Wildwood Crest, and how it was somehow tied to Shayla’s robbery, Temarius’s murder, and Amber being framed. Someone on the police force was at the center of it all. Only a cop would know Amber’s schedule on the rotation. And only a cop would be able to set her up to arrive at the victim’s house after some bogus gunshots that probably happened in the parking lot right before she arrived. But which cop would be involved in making knockoff wrinkle cream?
“What happened to your date the night your samples were stolen? Have you seen that guy again?”
Shayla wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I think he’s ghosting me.”
“It’s an odd coincidence that only you were robbed the night Convention Hall was broken into and you were on a date when it happened.”
She cocked her head to the side. “What are you saying?”
“Tell me again what you and Mr. Perfect talked about.”
“Uh . . . Pomskys, Indian food, biochemistry, Adele, working out . . .”
“Do you realize that you’ve posted about every one of those things on your Facebook page?”
“You looked me up on Facebook?”
“Mm-hmm. Did he ask you a lot of questions about your research?”
Shayla considered that. “Yeah. I thought he was really into me, but he hasn’t called once since we went out to dinner.”
“That’s another thing. Why come all the way up here from North Carolina to take you to Stone Harbor for dinner? Stone Harbor is thirty more minutes away. There are great restaurants right here.”
“He said the one in Stone Harbor was special.”
“I think it was special because he’d be less likely to be recognized there.”
“You think he was lying?”
“I think you were catfished. And I think the guy who catfished you had an accomplice who stole your samples while you were on that date.”
“Son of a biscuit!”
“Was he a little guy with dark hair and very blue eyes?”
“I don’t think he was that little. I’m kinda short, so it’s all relative. And now that you mention it, his eyes were blue. He also had dark hair and tortoiseshell glasses. He was really good-looking.”
“Do you have a picture?”
“He insisted we take all our pictures with his phone, so he had a reason to email them to me and get a second date.”
“And?”
She frowned and shook her head. “Wait. I can show you his profile picture.” She went to the Tinder website and signed in. She did some furious scrolling and muttering. “His profile has disappeared. He’s gone.”
CHAPTER 50
I sat in the car and tried Amber’s cell again. Still no answer. I was irritated that I couldn’t make the connection between Temarius and Dr. Rubin, but maybe there wasn’t one. It looked like Lance Rubin may have accidentally killed himself trying to turn that creepy light mask into something he could claim was his own invention. But I was still having heartburn over the power supply.
According to Tally, if it hadn’t been crushed, the mask would have turned off in twenty minutes. If Dr. Rubin had put the mask on himself, why didn’t he at some point think, hey, this is starting to burn, and I’ve been lying here a really long time. I wonder what time it is, and get up? Maybe I’d been involved in too many murders, but my feeling was that something nefarious was involved.
I was missing Gia and feeling a little lonely and sorry for myself. So I texted Sawyer.
Where r u?
Home. Why?
Just checking.
I pulled away from the curb and headed for her condo. I was going to show up and surprise her. Maybe we could watch a movie tonight. We’d been talking about The Breakfast Club for weeks.
My cell rang its new Dragnet ringtone and I snickered to myself. “I’ve been trying to reach you all day. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Amber’s voice was clipped. “I bonded out.”
“Oh good. I was worried . . .”
She cut me off. “The tox screen is back on Temarius. It wasn’t the chemical in glow sticks. It’s definitely luciferin from the face creams.”
I put her on Speaker. “Yeah, we figured.”
“Okay, you don’t always have to know everything.”
Where is this coming from? “I know.”
“One more thing. Kat told me something in confidence. I’m going to tell you, but you can’t repeat it, okay?”
“I won’t.”
“That blue stuff in the doctor’s mask and on his hands, that was the same stuff that was on Temarius.”
“Yeah, I . . . oh really? Isn’t that interesting.”
There was silence for a moment. “You already knew, didn’t you?”
“Well, I just confirmed it this afternoon. Shayla Rose has notes that the doctor was experimenting . . . it’s a long story, but it looks like that’s what killed him.”
“It isn’t entirely.”
“What do you mean?”
She had victory in her tone. “Postmortem on your plastic surgeon shows he had been bashed in the head. He had a skul
l fracture and a brain bleed. That incapacitated him enough for the blue goo to work on him for hours. Kat’s ruling it homicide by blunt force trauma and chemical burns.”
I nearly ran Bessie up on the curb. “What about the power supply?”
“She found carpet fibers in the power supply. Someone crushed it by stepping on it. Maybe intentionally, maybe during a struggle.”
I knew it.
“What did you have to tell me?”
“Remember that burner I found in Temarius’s couch?”
“Yeah?”
“When I called the contact Kieran Dunne answered.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
“I watched him do it. I was still in the police station.”
“Why would Kieran Dunne be Temarius’s handler? He’s from Trenton. He’s only in town to investigate me.”
“You don’t think it was his phone?”
“How did he answer it? Did he act sneaky? Was he surprised to be getting a call from someone who he thought was dead?”
“No, he just picked it up from the desk and said hello.”
“Either he has no idea it was Temarius’s, or he knew the call was coming from you and he was trying to throw you off. He’s very smart. It would be a mistake to underestimate him. But I wouldn’t rule him out either.”
“We know Temarius was killed by someone who knew you. Now we need to narrow the field. Kieran Dunne seems to have it in for you, and Prudence Crabtree and that pink little Simmons keep showing up every time you’re doing something you could be arrested for. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“I’d love to find out how they’re the only two to be dispatched every time the situation involves me.”
I couldn’t shake the smallest inkling of fear that one of the cops I had come to trust might be involved. Officers Birkwell and Consuelos gave me very different takes on Amber. How could two people have such different perspectives and both be right? “Is there anyone else I need to know about? Anyone who maybe questioned how you’ve been able to close so many cases lately?”
There was more silence; then her voice came in sharp. “Don’t worry about my record. Just worry about keeping your ears open. It’s the only reason I need you.”
