by Rose Pressey
“That is most unfortunate,” Charlotte said. “But if you do the crime, then you have to pay the price.”
“Have you seen the police watching you?” I asked.
“I spotted that detective you’re dating across from my shop.”
“We’re not necessarily dating. . . .” I felt my face grow warm.
She frowned.
“But that’s neither here nor there,” I said, sensing her irritation. “Just because he was across from your place doesn’t mean he’s spying on you.”
“No, it doesn’t, but I know that he is,” she said.
“Ask her more questions,” Sam urged.
“How do you know someone left it in your shop?” I asked.
She looked at me as if I had just asked the dumbest question ever. “How am I supposed to know? The fact that I didn’t have it leads me to only one other option, someone else left it there.”
Charlotte leaned against the counter but didn’t take her eyes off Brooke. “She does have a point, I guess.”
“Who do you think left it there?” I asked.
Brooke folded her arms in front of her waist. “I wish I knew. Who would do something like this to me?” she asked.
We stood in silence for a moment while we contemplated the thought.
“We have to think of who would have had access to the shoe and then been in your shop.”
Her face dropped. “Meaghan had access to the shoes and she has been at my shop.”
“Are you friends with her?” I asked.
“I guess you could call us friends. I only met her recently. You know after Melanie asked me to work on the show.”
“Can you ask her about the shoe?” It was a long shot, but I thought I’d give it a try.
“I don’t know. . . .” Brooke gestured toward the door. “I’d better go. Just keep me out of this thing? Okay? . . . Or else.”
“That sounds like a threat to me,” Sam said.
“She can’t get away with that,” Charlotte said.
I’d just let the threat go for now. What else could I do? If Brooke was involved with the murder, then I didn’t want to anger her even more.
“I have one more question if you don’t mind,” I said.
She looked at me for a moment, then said, “What is it?”
“There’s this bracelet that I found and I wonder if you saw someone with it?”
“Why would I know if someone had a bracelet?” she asked.
“I’m just asking everyone who was at the show. It belonged to Melanie.”
She stared for a moment, then said, “What does the bracelet look like?” Her frustration was evident on her face.
I held up my finger. “Hold on and I’ll show you.” I pulled the bracelet out of my bag and showed it to her. She looked down at my outstretched hand. The silver bracelet with the charms sparkled under the overhead light.
“I saw Meaghan wearing that bracelet. I remember because I commented on how pretty it was,” she said.
“That isn’t a good sign,” Sam said.
“Interesting development,” Charlotte said.
She could say that again. Brooke’s answer didn’t explain how the bracelet’s charm had ended up on Shandra’s floor though. Meaghan must have lost the bracelet at the concert. It did point me in a direction. I had a lot more questions to find the answers to.
“Does the bracelet have something to do with the murder?” Brooke asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I plan on finding out.”
“I’m sorry for everything that happened. I just did what I thought was best,” I said.
She shrugged. “Fine. But just keep the police away from me.”
“See I knew she had a past. Why else would she be so concerned with the police? I can’t believe you apologized to her,” Charlotte said.
Charlotte knew that it was the polite thing to do. She was just being stubborn.
Brooke marched out the door. That hadn’t gone as well as I’d hoped, but it could have been worse. At least I had some clarification on the bracelet.
Chapter 21
Cookie’s Savvy Vintage-Clothing Shopping Tip
For storage of your vintage items, you can
wrap them in acid-free tissue paper and
keep them in plastic storage boxes.
It was probably a crazy idea to go back to see Shandra. But how else would I ask her about the bracelet? I still wanted to find out who Rita Riggs was too. Charlotte and Sam didn’t help either. They knew it was a risky move, yet they encouraged me to go anyway. At least I had no problem finding her place this time. Getting past the gatekeeper was an entirely different thing though. I was probably way off to think that a little Southern charm would get the assistant to let me see Shandra. It was all I had though. Charlotte was better at that kind of thing though.
Unfortunately, the woman wouldn’t be able to hear Charlotte when Charlotte spoke to her. I parked the car and then entered the building. My anxiety increased as I made it to Shandra’s door. I opened it and eased into the space. It was just as messy as the last time I was here. Not that I had expected anything to be different. The assistant was nowhere in sight again. This time, though, Christy popped up from behind the desk right away. Her face scrunched up and she narrowed her eyes.
“You!” she yelled. “No way are you coming in here.”
This was not starting off well.
“I am calling the police.” She picked up the phone.
“No, please. I just need to speak with Shandra.”
“She doesn’t want to speak with you.” She placed the phone to her ear.
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to talk her out of calling the police,” Charlotte said.
“Maybe you should leave before the police arrive,” Sam said.
“If you don’t want to get handcuffed and stuffed into the back of a police car, I would suggest that,” Charlotte added. “It doesn’t look as if she is backing down.”
“Okay. I am leaving. Can you just tell Shandra that I need to talk with her? Have her call me. My name is Cookie Chanel.”
“She knows your name and so will the police,” she yelled as I rushed out the door.
As I proceeded down the hallway and toward the stairs, Charlotte asked, “What are you going to do now?”
“That’s a good question.” I made it down the first flight of stairs.
“I think we should wait for her,” Sam said.
“Where . . . in her office? I don’t think that will happen with the bodyguard standing in front of the door.”
“No, downstairs in the parking lot. When you see her coming you can talk to her.”
“So you want me to stalk her?” I asked when I made it to the next set of stairs.
“Well, it’s not stalking per se,” Sam said.
“I don’t know any other term for it,” I said.
“Call it seizing the moment,” Charlotte said.
“I think the police will be looking for me.”
Sam tugged on his overcoat. “I’ve seen that trick a million times. She didn’t call the police. As soon as you left she put the phone down.”
“You think?” I asked.
He crooked an eyebrow. “I’m certain of it.”
“Well, I guess I don’t have any other options,” I said as I walked toward the Buick. “We’ll wait in the car until we see her.”
I got in the car and closed the door behind me.
“Aw, just like the good old days when I used to stake out.” Sam sat in the middle of the backseat.
“Help me be on the lookout, okay?” I peered in the side-view mirror.
“I hope we don’t have to wait too long,” Charlotte said. “Of course, it’s not like I have anything else to do.”
Thirty minutes had passed and I already was tired of this gig. Sam had been right though. The police hadn’t shown up. That might change though if I confronted Shandra. Especially if her assistant saw me.
Another couple of minutes went by, then Sam said, “There she is getting out of her car.”
I looked in my rearview mirror and spotted Shandra getting out of a silver Lexus. My heart rate sped up.
“Okay, let’s do this.” I opened the door and rushed across the parking lot.
Shandra was headed toward the building, but so far she hadn’t seen me. When I was just a few steps away, she finally spotted me.
Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed together. “Get away from me. Are you crazy?”
“Ms. Johnson, I just need to ask you a quick question.” I hurried my steps.
Now I would have to explain that I had taken the charm from her office. If she hadn’t called the police to have me arrested before, I knew she would now. What would Dylan say? Would Ken help get me out and the charges dropped? I had to get ahold of myself. I was acting as if I was already headed for prison.
“I need to ask about this bracelet.” I pulled it from my pocket and shoved it toward her.
She kept walking but did look over at it. “What about it?” she asked.
“Have you seen this before? Did you happen to see Meaghan wearing it?”
She took a quick glance at the bracelet again and then met my stare. I hoped that she would answer.
She sighed. “As a matter of fact, yes, I saw her with it on. Why do you ask?”
Maybe I wouldn’t have to tell her I had found the bracelet charm in her office after all. What if she had been the one wearing it and I had just given her an out? I would hear it from Charlotte and Sam for making that mistake.
“This bracelet belonged to Melanie.”
Her eyes widened.
“I just wanted to make sure that Meaghan had been seen wearing it.”
Her full lips trembled. “I really don’t want to get involved.”
“Have you talked with Meaghan? Are you friends with her?” I probed.
“We aren’t friends. She came to me to discuss the fact that Melanie had stolen her designs too.”
“She was mad about that?” I asked.
“Of course, she was livid. But what could she do? I had already decided that I was going to get what was coming to me after what Melanie did.” Shandra’s face turned red just saying Melanie’s name.
She said she didn’t want to be involved, but it looked as if she was already in it deep.
“Now, if that is all you have to ask, I have to go to work.” She stared at me.
“Yes, that’s all.” I didn’t dare ask anything else after the glare she’d given me. “Thanks,” I said.
“Don’t thank her for being rude,” Charlotte retorted.
“Ask her about the lawsuit,” Sam pushed. “What else can she do? Give you another dirty look?”
He did have a point. I suppose she could call the police like I had originally feared. But one more quick question wouldn’t hurt. Well, it might hurt if Shandra punched me, but I digress.
Shandra had just turned to walk in the door when I called out. “Just one more thing, Ms. Johnson. About your designs. Melanie had taken your designs too. You said you were going to take care of that? What were you going to do?” I asked.
She whipped around to face me. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
No, it probably wasn’t any of my business, but that hadn’t stopped me from asking.
“I am just trying to figure out what Meaghan had planned. Did she tell you? Were you going to do something together?”
“The more you talk the worse it gets,” Charlotte said.
“You’re putting your foot in your mouth, Cookie,” Sam said.
“She’s dug such a big hole it’ll take a crane to get her out,” Charlotte added.
Shandra glared at me. “What is that supposed to mean? You think Meaghan and I teamed up to kill Melanie?”
My eyes widened. “No, I didn’t mean any such thing.”
“I think I have answered all the questions I need to. Why don’t you go talk with Meaghan?” she asked.
“Oh, she intends to,” Sam said.
I did? I didn’t know about that. I had already gotten in enough trouble.
Shandra gave me one last glare and then turned and walked through the door.
“Well, that went well,” Charlotte said. “That woman has an ugly disposition. She may be pretty on the outside, but inside she is all kinds of messed up. You know what they say, beauty is only skin deep, ugly goes all the way to the bone.”
“At least I did confirm that Meaghan had been wearing the bracelet,” I said.
“So she claims. Can you trust what she or Brooke say?” Sam said.
I turned and headed for my car.
“You do really need to speak with Meaghan about that bracelet,” he said.
“Yes, I suppose I do. That doesn’t mean I want to.”
“Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do,” Charlotte said.
That seemed like a lot of the time lately. “It wasn’t like she would admit that she had taken Melanie’s bracelet.”
“Probably not, but you have to try anyway,” Charlotte said.
I glanced back to see if Shandra was watching me. She was nowhere in sight. I halfway expected to see her assistant coming after me once she found out I had confronted Shandra in the parking lot. The best thing I could do right now was to go back to the shop and forget about this for a while. That would be the last thing Charlotte and Sam wanted to do though. I wouldn’t tell them where we were going. They’d figure it out soon enough.
I climbed back into my car and turned the ignition.
“Where are we going now?” Charlotte asked.
That hadn’t taken long. I glanced in the rearview mirror. Sam was watching me expectantly.
I pulled out onto the street. “I figured we’d go back to Sugar Creek and think about things for a while.”
“That’s her way of saying we’re not doing anything,” Charlotte said.
She had me there. That was my way of putting it to them gently.
“Okay, but we should strike while the iron is hot,” Sam said.
“The iron isn’t hot at all. In fact, it’s very cold,” I said.
Chapter 22
Sam’s Surefire Sleuthing Pointer
Remember to follow the laws.
Entering a home can be risky.
You can be charged with a felony.
Be prepared for the outcome.
It was the next day and I had agreed to yet another trip. With the ghosts in the car, I punched the gas and headed toward the county jail. I never imagined I would spend so much time in the jail. I was just glad that I was allowed to leave after a while, unlike Hannah. She would be surprised to see me again. I suppose she had no idea that I had been working on finding out if she was really the killer. Wouldn’t I feel stupid if I found out she really was the killer and the police were right all along. I knew Dylan had to wonder why I questioned his detective skills.
That wasn’t the case though. I just had to find out the truth for myself. Plus the little fact that the ghosts were pushing me to do it too. I pulled into the parking lot and Charlotte and Sam followed me into the building. Sam reached up to remove his hat, but yet again forgot that it didn’t exist.
“May I help you?” the female officer asked.
“I need to see Hannah again,” I said, trying to act as if I knew what I was doing.
She was the same officer who had taken me back to see Hannah the first time. I waited in the lobby for a few moments before she finally came around and got me. She led me back to the room where I’d wait for Hannah.
“I hope this doesn’t take long. I’m anxious to hear what she has to say,” Charlotte said.
After a couple more minutes, the door opened and Hannah emerged. She stepped into the room. When she saw me she frowned. She wore the same orange jail uniform that I’d seen her in on my last visit.
“She looks like hell,” Charlotte said.
I wouldn’t share
that with Hannah. She probably felt as bad as she looked. She kept her eyes on me the whole time as she crossed the room and sat in front of the partition. The officer waited at the door. I wondered if she would tell Dylan that I was here. Would she tell him what was said in the room?
I picked up the phone receiver and motioned for Hannah to do the same. She reluctantly picked up the receiver.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I came to talk to you about the murder.”
Her face dropped even more. I hadn’t thought she could look any sadder. “There’s nothing left to say. They’re going to find me guilty and I will go to prison for life.”
“Well, isn’t she just full of positivity and sunshine,” Charlotte said. “Don’t surround yourself with that kind of bad vibes, honey.” Charlotte spoke to Hannah as if she could hear.
“That’s why I’m here. I’ve been looking into some things and I wanted to discuss them with you.”
“Are you working with my lawyer?” Her expression perked up.
“I wish,” Charlotte quipped.
Sam leaned back in the chair and listened. He was making me nervous because I felt like I had to ask all the right questions.
Hannah shrugged. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“I found out that Melanie had stolen designs from two different people. Who knows, maybe there are even more.”
She sat up a little straighter. “Are you serious? What does this mean?”
“It means they have a motive to kill her,” I said.
Her shoulders slumped again. “Yeah, according to the police, so do I.”
“There she goes with the negative again,” Charlotte said.
“Well, she is in jail for murder, so I guess I can somewhat understand it,” Sam said.
“Who are these people?” Hannah asked.
I glanced over at the officer to see if she was listening. She was staring straight ahead, but I was sure she was listening. I had no choice but to talk in front of her though. I leaned to the left as if that would stop her from overhearing.
“One is Melanie’s assistant, Meaghan.”
Hannah’s eyes widened. “I overheard them fighting.”
