Just His Luck

by B. J Daniels

  “Before Ariel came to school at Progressive, had you known her?” Lizzy asked.

  He nodded. “She was my first. I never got over her and she knew it and used it against me.”

  Even more motive for murder, she thought. “How about climbing into the back of her vehicle to wait for her?”

  He seemed surprised by the question. “I just told you I saw whoever killed her. It wasn’t me.”

  “You’ve been in the back of her car before, right?” She didn’t wait for an answer. She read it on his face. “What is the chance that she had some rope in her car?”

  He looked as if she’d slammed her fist into his chest and knocked the air out of him. “Rope? Is that what—?”

  “Ski rope. Is there any chance there was some in the back of her car that night?”

  “How would I know? Did I ever see ski rope in her car? No.” He put his head into his hands, his elbows resting on his knees.

  “You carry a pocketknife?”

  His head came up slowly. “You don’t really believe that I would kill her. I just told you, I loved her.”

  “You just told me that she used that love against you.” Lizzy got to her feet. “I’m serious about you not leaving town. I’d really like you to stay around.”

  He nodded. “Okay. Maybe Brad will put me up for a while.”

  “Are you coming to the reunion?” she asked.

  “Right. The reunion.” His laugh held no humor. “Sure, why not? Where else am I going to go?” He let out a curse. “Everyone will be talking about Ariel nonstop. Who wouldn’t enjoy that? But there will be plenty of free booze, though, right?”

  * * *

  OH, CHRISTOPHER, YOU poor fool. Being in love with me is such a waste. Haven’t you realized that by now? Or is it guilt you’re feeling? You said some terrible things to me that night at the party. Not that most of them weren’t true. But we’d just made love.

  Or at least that’s what you thought it was. You think I didn’t know that Nancy would catch us? You really are so naive. I wanted her to find us. I wanted her to know that you would always be mine. But you figured that out, didn’t you? Oh, you were so angry. You actually scared me. I’d just ruined your life with Nancy and I think you knew it even back then, even before she lost the baby and couldn’t have another one.

  Well, that’s what you get for sleeping with that cow. Were you trying to make me jealous? Look how that backfired on you.

  And yet, you still love me. And hate me. Two emotions so closely aligned that sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart. I loved you and hated you, as well. But you’re a drunk, Christopher, just like your father and will never amount to anything. I’m sure you know that. My telling you the night of the party probably didn’t help matters in retrospect.

  But at least you realized that night that you and I were over.

  Definitely makes you one of the top suspects in my murder, wouldn’t you say? I’m sure the sheriff would.

  But nice that you gave her the information about someone hiding in the back of my SUV. Another piece of the puzzle for you, Lizzy. Now all you have to do is find out who it was hiding back there, before holding a knife to my throat and telling me to drive to the pond.

  * * *

  SHADE HAD TOSSED and turned most of the night. This morning, he’d gotten up, showered and dressed, still shaken from everything that had happened yesterday. He called first to check on Lizzy. His call went straight to voice mail.

  “Just wanted to be sure you were all right after yesterday,” he said. “I know how hardheaded you are, so I figure you’re fine. Still...” He hung up, not sure what else there was to say since Hannah had shown up in his life again with a shocking announcement.

  He knew that, first thing, he had to find out if it was true. Hannah had lied to him before, but this... This would be a new low even for her if she was lying about something this important.

  A daughter. Was it possible he could have a two-year-old daughter he’d never laid eyes on?

  He called the number Hannah had left for him. She picked up on the fourth ring. He could hear a child crying in the background.

  “I’ll call you back,” she said, sounding harried, and disconnected.

  He stared at his phone, noticing again that he had a message he hadn’t checked yesterday. He assumed it was from Hannah, calling from another number, but it wasn’t.

  When the name Catherine Warner came up, it took him a moment to realize who she was. Ariel’s mother who’d remarried.

  After Ariel disappeared and her father went to prison, Catherine Matheson had a breakdown. She told friends she’d checked into a spa, but the rumor was that she’d spent some time in a mental rehabilitation ward. Friends packed up any personal items in her house since the government took all assets after her husband, Mark, was sentenced to twelve years for numerous criminal charges.

  In the blink of an eye, Catherine had gone from living in the lap of luxury as a prominent, respected wife of a politician to being penniless and a social pariah.

  Since then, she’d divorced her felonious husband, remarried and returned to the area about six months ago having reinvented herself. At least that’s what he’d heard. He’d kept track of her, hoping that when Ariel turned up, he’d know about it, the mystery of her disappearance would be solved, and he’d be exonerated once and for all.

  He listened to the message. “Shade, I found something that Ariel wanted you to have. Can you stop by?” Catherine left her address. “I’m home now if you have the time.”

  He had no idea when Hannah might call back, so he texted Catherine that he’d missed her message yesterday but that he could come by now. She texted back for him to come on over.

  Catherine and her new husband, Bob, a retired software manufacturer, lived in a large house overlooking Whitefish Lake. At Shade’s knock, the door was opened by a lithe woman wearing a bright-colored caftan. Catherine’s hair, which had been long and dark ten years ago, was now blond and bobbed. Her face had undergone some changes as well, but the blue eyes—so much like her daughter’s—were the same.

  “Shade,” Catherine Warner said and began to cry. She hugged him and led him into the massive living room. “It is so good to see you. Thank you for coming by.”

  “I was so sorry to hear about Ariel. My condolences, ma’am. It was good to hear from you. How are you holding up?”

  “It’s been such a shock. I still can’t believe it.” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “Who would do such a thing to my little girl?”

  “I wish I knew. You have no idea either?”

  Catherine shook her head. “It makes no sense. Everyone loved her. Our house was always full of her friends...” She met his gaze. “I thought at first that she did this on purpose because of her father, you know, that she’d killed herself.” With a sigh, she added, “Then I was told that she’d been murdered.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “What would make someone do that to her?”

  He’d wondered the same thing. “I want to find out who did this as much as you do,” he said and Catherine smiled through her tears.

  “That’s why I asked you to stop by,” she said. “Ariel loved you. She told me that you’d asked her to marry you.”

  That wasn’t true, but Ariel had never let the truth stop her. He waited, saying nothing. “You said she left something for me?”

  “I wasn’t around when everything was packed up at the house,” Catherine said, avoiding his gaze. “I didn’t go through her things that had been boxed up. I just assumed she would come back one day and...” Her voice broke. “But after she was found, I went down to the storage room. I thought there might be something in her things... I saw one of the boxes had been marked for you. It’s in Ariel’s handwriting. I have no idea what’s inside, but clearly she wanted you to have it. She must have put your name on it and taped up the package be
fore the graduation party. That’s odd, isn’t it?”

  Not, he thought, if Catherine knew that he and Ariel had broken up. He feared what his former girlfriend might have put in the package. Definitely not anything good given her mood the night of the party.

  “It’s in the storage room downstairs. I left it down there because I wasn’t sure when you’d be able to come by for it.”

  He followed her down carpeted steps to a daylight basement. Through a door in the wall, the storage room was a huge space under the garage. It didn’t take Catherine long to find the boxes marked ARIEL. On the outside of each was a notation about what was inside from CLOTHES to SHOES to STUFFED ANIMALS.

  “The sheriff took a lot of the boxes,” Catherine was saying. “I hadn’t found this one at the time. Not that I would have given it to her. Ariel wanted you to have this so I would have saved it for you.”

  She picked up a four-inch-thick package about ten by fourteen. She held it for a moment, before handing it over. “I wish...” She faltered. “I wouldn’t have minded having you for a son-in-law and now...” She shook her head as tears filled her eyes again. “But what if there is something in there that will help find her killer? You’re friends with Elizabeth Conners, the new sheriff?”

  He nodded, sorry that Ariel had lied to her mother. He’d always liked Catherine and thought she deserved better treatment than she got from her husband and her daughter. “And don’t worry. If anyone can find out who did this to your daughter, it’s Lizzy. If there is anything in here that might help,” he said, holding up the package, “I’ll make sure she sees it.”

  She nodded and patted his shoulder. “Thank you.” She walked him out to the front porch and stood hugging herself as he drove away.

  Shade knew he should call Lizzy and let her know about the package. But he had to know what Ariel had left him first. He’d already been blindsided by Hannah’s announcement. He couldn’t even imagine what a vindictive Ariel Matheson could have left him.

  He thought about those last few months with Ariel. They’d been pure hell. The more he’d pulled away, the more needy and demanding she’d been. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her so he’d let her manipulate him through guilt. Why had she told her mother that they were going to get married? Because she really was pregnant? He assumed it was a lie, certainly not something he’d put past her.

  It had been her idea not to announce their breakup until after the graduation party. He should have known she would make a scene at the party and break it off with him to save face. Or to embarrass him? Not that it mattered. He’d actually been fine with it. Let her have it her way. As long as he was free to date Lizzy, he hadn’t cared. Now, though, he realized it might have been much more complicated—if Ariel really was pregnant.

  But then Ariel had disappeared, leaving a dark cloud hanging over his head all these years.

  So when had she wrapped up this package for him? When had she been planning to give it to him? After their graduation party, apparently.

  Shade looked over at the package on the passenger seat. He didn’t expect it to blow up exactly. But he had no doubt that whatever was inside was explosive.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I HAD FORGOTTEN all about the package I’d left with Shade’s name on it. Oh well. I’d planned to give it to him myself a few days after the party. Kind of like my breakup gift to him. I hadn’t planned on getting murdered.

  More disturbing was seeing my mother. Catherine looked...happy. I had forgotten what happy looked like on my mother after what my father did to her. Maybe it was being underwater for ten long years and turning to little more than bones, but I wish I could remember being happy. I wish I hadn’t spent so much of my life being angry. And yet I’m still angry. Not even death can bring me peace.

  I try to remember happy moments. Like the day my father brought home my cute baby blue SUV. But even that felt bittersweet since I knew he was only trying to buy my silence. I knew what was going on with him. My mother didn’t know the whole story. But she knew enough to be angry with him.

  I called Lizzy to go riding with me to get out of the house because my parents had been screaming at each other. Did my friends know how troubled things were at my house? I hope not. I never wanted anyone to know what went on in that huge, beautiful, too-expensive house in my pretend picture-perfect life.

  But at least my mother is happy now. My father? Well, he has more years in prison. My daddy. In prison. It still breaks my heart. I wonder if prison could have changed him for the better. Would I have been able to repair my relationship with him, had I lived?

  I still hate to think of the horrible fight we had graduation night before I left for the party. I’d been so angry with him. Not for lying and cheating, but for getting caught and humiliating me and my mother. I said such hateful things. I wish I could take them back.

  I wish I could take a lot of things back.

  * * *

  BACK IN HER OFFICE, Lizzy spread the photographs out and began to go through them. Last night, after a few hours, her head aching along with her neck, she’d decided that whatever might be in the photographs, she wasn’t up to finding it. She’d given up and gone to bed, exhausted.

  Today wasn’t much better. Her head ached from her car accident. Not an accident, she reminded herself. Had the person driving really planned to kill her?

  She tried to focus. She’d promised the doctor she would rest, but she had to at least try to find out why someone had wanted these photographs so badly. Was the answer to Ariel’s murder in these somewhere?

  Lizzy tried to concentrate on the prints, telling herself that she had her deputies looking into the accident along with DCI. She picked up one photo of her and Ariel. Ariel had her arm around her and wasn’t looking at the camera but at her. The look made her shiver.

  There were two dozen photos of all of them. Most of them Ariel had made because she had a photo printer and she liked sharing them. They’d had such a small class, such an unusual school, so they spent a lot of time on field trips visiting museums and landmarks. There were photos on buses, photos near rivers and lakes, photos in Glacier Park with a carved wood grizzly at the center.

  She found one of Ariel and Jennifer. It made her pause for a moment. Jennifer was looking at her friend with such love in her eyes. Ariel was smiling back at her in a way that told Lizzy she’d known how devoted Jennifer was to her.

  Flipping through the rest, of high school kids mugging faces at the camera and being silly, she couldn’t imagine why anyone had gone to the trouble of breaking into the ranch for these. Not that she knew what she was looking for. She wasn’t even sure there was anything to find.

  Given the torn photo of Ariel, it was a pretty good guess that the burglar was one of their classmates. No one else would have known the photos were at the guest ranch.

  Her phone rang. She picked up, glad for the interruption. Even more glad when she heard that the lab had found fingerprints on the photographs that had been damaged and thrown on the floor.

  “That quickly?” She didn’t know if she was more surprised by how fast they’d gotten a hit or the fact that whoever had broken into the Sterlings’ lodge had been so careless as to leave their fingerprints.

  “Her prints were all over the photos, making it apparent that she was the last person to touch them.”

  “Her?”

  “There were numerous prints, but the ones on the top of the other prints—other than Deputy Turner’s—belong to a woman named Stephanie Curtis.”

  Her name before she married Eric Tanner. “Her prints were on file?” Lizzy asked in surprise.

  “A driving-under-the-influence arrest.”

  “When was that?” she asked.

  “Just over ten years ago.” He read off the date.

  The night of the graduation party? That was why it hadn’t been in the newspaper—Stephanie had been underage
at the time of her arrest.

  The night Ariel was murdered. Was this why Stephanie had been late getting to the cemetery to meet Ashley and Jennifer? It could explain why she hadn’t wanted to give Lizzy her alibi. Especially if Stephanie hadn’t been alone.

  “Was anyone else involved?” she asked.

  “Mark Matheson was in the car with her. It wasn’t clear who was driving, according to the officer’s report. Both refused Breathalyzer tests. Both were clearly intoxicated. Matheson called his lawyer and swore Stephanie was driving the car.”

  She’d bet he’d let her take the rap, knowing she was underage and it would get buried. What was Stephanie doing with Ariel’s dad at that time of night with them both being legally drunk?

  Lizzy’s head was swimming. Stephanie’s fingerprints were on the photos. Why would Stephanie break into the lodge and go through the snapshots? Could it have something to do with why she was with Ariel’s father the night of the graduation party?

  Maybe more baffling, why would she rip up photos of Ariel? Clearly, even the woman’s besties hadn’t been such good friends after all. Stephanie had been friends with Ariel from as far back as Lizzy could remember. The girl had practically lived at Ariel’s house—which could explain what she was doing with Mark Matheson that night.

  Lizzy thought about the person who’d killed Ariel. Had it been building up until graduation party night when the person couldn’t take it any longer? Had the person been planning Ariel’s death for days, weeks, even months?

  As she left her office on her way to her favorite judge’s home, she tried to imagine the petite blonde smashing the window at the lodge to reach in and open the door. Stephanie was at the reunion meeting so she would have known that Shade had taken the photos up to the lodge.