[Cutthroat Business 01.0 - 03.0] Boxed Set

by Jenna Bennett

  To Steven’s credit, he rose to the occasion. “Alexandra! Is something wrong, sweetheart?” And then he saw me, and a frown passed over his horsey face. “Savannah?”

  “Alexandra has something to tell you,” I said, and gave her a nudge. “Go on.”

  Alexandra took a breath and contrived to look her age: young, ashamed and vulnerable. The only thing missing was the lisp. “I’m sorry, daddy. I lied. I told you I was going to spend the night with Lynn, when what I wanted was to go to a party.”

  Steven looked confused, and Alexandra sent me a pleading glance.

  “Alexandra didn’t like the party,” I explained. “She called and asked me to come pick her up. Which I was happy to do.”

  No sense in mentioning Rafe. The fact that he’d been there too, didn’t make any difference to speak of, and although Steven didn’t actually know my mother, the fewer people who knew that I’d spent my Saturday evening with Rafe Collier, the better.

  Steven pulled himself together. “Come in. Both of you. Sit down. Savannah, can I get you something to drink?”

  I shook my head. “Thanks all the same. I was just on my way home from dinner when Alexandra called.”

  “And quite lovely you look, too.” He looked admiringly at me for a moment before his voice turned severe. “Now you, young lady,” he turned to Alexandra, “from the smell, you’ve had enough to drink.”

  Alexandra raised her eyes to his, big and guileless. “It wasn’t me, daddy. Someone just spilled beer on me, that’s all.” She folded her hands in her lap and endeavored to look demure. It wasn’t easy, considering the make-up, and the earrings, and the skirt and top and all the rest of it. Steven’s eyes narrowed.

  “Where was this party? Who was there?”

  “It was... um... at a friend’s house. In East Nashville. And I don’t think you’d know anyone who was there. They were mostly... um...” She tossed a panicked glance my way. I surmised that she had been about to say ‘his friends’, which would have been a dead giveaway.

  “Alexandra went there with a friend,” I explained. “The others were mostly friends of her friend. Nobody she usually associates with.” Alexandra nodded, looking grateful. Steven looked suspicious.

  “Who is this friend?”

  “Oh. Um... someone I met a couple of months ago. One night I was having pizza with Lynn and Heather.”

  “So Lynn and Heather know this person, too?” Alexandra nodded, crossing her fingers unobtrusively. It helped that her hands were already folded. “And what happened tonight?”

  “Oh,” Alexandra said. “Um...” She glanced at me. I lifted a shoulder. She turned back to her dad. “I just didn’t like it. They were drinking and smoking, and all of them were older than me, and when I asked if someone could take me home, they said no. I didn’t have cab fare, so I called Savannah.”

  She looked at me. I nodded. Steven looked from one to the other of us for a second before he said, “All right. Alexandra, why don’t you go get ready for bed. Take a shower and wash all that goop off your face. I want to talk to Savannah some more, and then I’ll be up to say good night.”

  Alexandra nodded. “Thanks, Savannah.” She gave me an awkward hug.

  I hugged her back. “You’re welcome. Give me a call sometime. We’ll talk.”

  She said she would, and headed for the stairs, her high heels clicking across the hardwood floor. Maybelle got to her feet. “I’ll just go up with her and see if she needs any help. Thanks, Miss Martin.” She smiled at me. I smiled back, but thought that she was assuming rather a lot if she thought Alexandra was ready for mothering just a week after losing Brenda.

  When they were gone, Steven turned to me. “Thank you, Savannah. I appreciate your help. Brenda’s death has been difficult for Alexandra.”

  I nodded. “I guess she probably just wanted to have some fun and forget about it for a while. When my dad died, I went through kind of a weird phase, too.” It had manifested itself in gluttonous reading and a refusal to venture outside, but there was no denying that it had been weird. I’d gotten a little bit of perspective since then, although I still missed my dad.

  Steven didn’t answer, and I added, “I wouldn’t worry too much about her. Nothing happened, and I think she probably learned her lesson.”

  Steven smiled. “If she grows up to be as mature and self possessed as you, I’ll be very happy. She admires you a lot, you know.”

  “Gee,” I said, “thanks, but...” I really didn’t feel mature and self possessed.

  Steven continued, “So did Brenda, of course.”

  “I beg your pardon?” If Brenda had felt anything but contempt for me, I surely hadn’t noticed.

  His eyes twinkled. “You were everything Brenda wasn’t, and everything she wanted Alexandra to be. Beautiful, well-educated, polished...”

  “My mother sent me to finishing school,” I blurted.

  Steven smiled. “See? Brenda was born in Bucksnort. All her life she wanted to be a Southern Belle, with everything she thought it entailed. The family mansion, the education, the social standing... All of it was beyond her, so she focused on the one thing she could do, and that was making enough money so that when Alexandra grew up, she would have everything Brenda hadn’t had, and become everything Brenda couldn’t be. I daresay my wife could have done a better job in some areas than maybe she did, but she meant well.”

  “I’m sure she did,” I said politely. “She — you both — did a good job with Alexandra. She’s a nice girl. And now that she’s settled at home, I guess maybe I should go. I’m sorry if we interrupted anything.”

  I got to my feet. Steven stood, too, just as Maybelle came back down the stairs. From the tiny wrinkle between her brows, I guessed that Alexandra had refused the motherly touches Maybelle wanted to administer. Steven didn’t seem to notice. “We appreciate you bringing her home, Savannah.”

  Maybelle went to his side and linked a proprietary hand through his arm. “Are you leaving already, Miss Martin? Where’s your car?” She glanced out the French doors to the empty driveway.

  “Actually,” I said, “my... um... date dropped us off. I’ll have to call a cab.”

  “Oh, nonsense! I’ll drive you.” She smiled up at Steven. “That way you can talk to Alexandra, and Miss Martin and I can become friends.” She transferred the smile to me, bright and hard. There wasn’t anything I could do but to accept, but I don’t mind telling you that the offer made me nervous. Maybelle’s single-minded devotion to Steven was more than a little creepy.

  I looked around surreptitiously when we got outside, hoping against hope that Rafe had changed his mind and come back to get me, but of course he hadn’t.

  “My car is parked across the street.” Maybelle headed for her own, smaller cottage. I trailed behind, keeping an eye on her back and wondering what she’d do if I refused to get into the car with her.

  Of all the people I had come across in connection with Brenda’s murder, Maybelle was the one who set my sensors to vibrating the fastest. She had the best reason of anyone for wanting Brenda out of the way. She wanted Brenda’s husband, Brenda’s children, Brenda’s house, Brenda’s life; and she had the kind of personality I could visualize murdering someone who stood in her way. Sweet as sugar on the outside and hiding bubbling cauldrons of malice inside.

  “Here we are.” She opened the passenger door to a silver Toyota Camry and gestured me in. I hesitated. “It’s perfectly clean, I assure you.” She smiled.

  “Of course. I didn’t mean...” I got in. There wasn’t anything else I could do. She closed the door and trotted around the car.

  “Fasten your seatbelt, dear.” She put the car into gear and backed out of the driveway. The doors locked automatically as the car started moving. I glanced at the door, then over at Maybelle. She was smiling beatifically.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was difficult to know what to say, especially since I was afraid of saying the wrong thing. To be safe, I waited for Maybelle to
speak. When she didn’t, I felt compelled to break the silence myself, with the most innocuous remark I could find. “I really appreciate your driving me home.”

  “It’s the least I can do after you brought Alexandra back home to us.” She smiled.

  “It was my pleasure,” I said, relieved. “She’s a nice girl.”

  “I’m glad you think so.” Maybelle said it complacently, as if she had had something to do with it. “No thanks to Brenda, of course. But things will be different from now on.”

  I didn’t doubt it. “I hear congratulations are in order.”

  She glanced over at me. “I beg your pardon?”

  “About you and Steven? The engagement? Congratulations.”

  She wrinkled her brows. “How did you hear about that?”

  “Alexandra told me,” I said. Her forehead cleared.

  “Of course. I’m sorry if I sounded ungracious. It’s just... it’s very soon, and we’ve decided to keep it quiet for a while. So as not to give anyone the wrong impression. You understand.”

  She smiled. I nodded. I understood perfectly. She didn’t want anyone to know that the murdered woman’s husband had gotten himself engaged to someone else the day after the funeral, and who could blame her? Not only was it in poor taste, but it might set tongues to wagging about the possibility that one or both of them had hastened Brenda’s demise.

  “Well, I hope you’ll be very happy,” I said politely. There was no sense trying to question Maybelle about where she and Steven had been the Saturday morning Brenda died, or on Thursday when Clarice supposedly cut her wrists. If they hadn’t been together, Maybelle would say they had. She’d probably consider it her sacred duty.

  She smiled. “Thank you, dear. I’m sure we will be, once everything goes back to normal. Steven needs a wife; someone who puts his needs and the needs of the family first. Not a career-woman like Brenda, who always had other places to go and other people to see.”

  Her voice was serene. I smiled politely, but once again found I had nothing to say. Although I sensed that Alexandra was in for a lot of cabbage rolls and unwanted mothering as Maybelle attempted to replace Brenda in the Puckett family unit.

  It’s not a very long drive from Winding Way to my apartment on East Main, and we drove the next few minutes in — mostly — companionable silence. Maybelle didn’t appear to have any plans of murdering me, which made me feel silly for my earlier fears, and she didn’t veer off course at all. It wasn’t until we were on the homestretch, heading down Main Street, that she spoke again. “Savannah, dear... you don’t mind if I call you Savannah, do you?”

  “Of course not,” I said.

  “It is really so sweet of you to take Alexandra under your wing, and to show her the world, not to mention help her acquire some polish...”

  She pulled up to the curb outside the gate, right where I had hoped — in vain — that Rafe would drop me off just an hour or two ago, “...and we’re so very grateful that you came to her rescue this evening, believe me...”

  I scooted a little closer to the door as her gentle voice hardened, “...but maybe it would be best if you didn’t come around again, dear. At least not for a little while. She’s still very young, and distraught by her mother’s death, and I’m not at all sure she should be subjected to the kind of life you lead. I saw you drive up through the window, and the young man who dropped you both off...! Well, I’m sure you understand, dear.”

  She unlocked the doors. I didn’t waste any time getting out of the car, and she didn’t waste any in driving away. Nothing more was said by either of us. She’d made her point and I was — frankly — too shocked to respond.

  It took a few seconds for the numbness to wear off and anger to kick in. But once there, it kicked with a vengeance. Who the hell did she think she was, to tell me to stay away from Alexandra? She wasn’t the girl’s mother, or even her stepmother, yet. And with her horribly ill-timed engagement, surely she didn’t imagine she had anything to teach me about good manners and proper behavior...?

  I had worked myself into a fine state of righteous indignation when I sensed — more than heard — a movement behind me. I swung around on my heel only to be confronted with a tall, dark figure, menacingly close.

  It took just a second for me to recognize him, but it was the longest second of my life. Visions of butcher knives and Brenda Puckett’s throat danced before my eyes. And when I did recognize him, it didn’t make me feel all that much better. “Dammit, Rafe.” My voice sounded weak and breathless. “One of these days you’ll scare me into a faint.”

  He grinned, teeth very white in the semi-darkness. “You didn’t think we were done for the night, did you?”

  Oh, God. “Um...” I said weakly, “I kind of hoped we were.“

  He chuckled. “It’s not that late. I thought maybe you’d wanna have a chat with Maurice Washington.”

  “Oh.” It took a few seconds for my thoughts to switch track from romance — or sexual assault — to murder. “Um... sure.”

  “Let’s go, then. Time’s a-wasting.” He gestured to the Town Car, which I now saw was parked at the curb a few car lengths away. I got in, trying to decide how I felt. I was relieved, of course — for a moment, I had thought he meant that we had unfinished business, between the two of us, and it was a relief to discover that this wasn’t the night when I’d be fighting off his advances — but I was also a little... was insulted the right word...?

  We were halfway to Reinhardt Street by the time I’d gotten over my little snit and had managed to convince myself that there were more important things at stake here than my ego. Especially as I didn’t even want to have anything to do with him. “I’ve been meaning to ask,” I said, “how you got into Brenda’s Stor-All unit on Thursday. Did you have a key?”

  He shot me a glance out of the corner of his eye. “Where’d I get a key?”

  “I thought maybe you’d looked through her purse on Saturday morning. Detective Grimaldi said someone did.”

  If the suggestion that he might have robbed a dead woman offended him, he didn’t show it. “Musta been someone else. I don’t need keys.”

  “You vaporize and slide through the key hole?”

  “Not really. I just finesse the lock.”

  “You’re a locksmith?”

  He smiled, amused. “It’s one of those useful skills you pick up along the way.”

  “I haven’t picked it up,” I said.

  “You and me prob’ly haven’t travelled in the same circles, darlin’.”

  No arguing with that. “It’s interesting, anyway.”

  “Glad to hear it. Why?”

  “Clarice Webb had a storage locker, too. In the same place as Brenda.”

  “No kidding.”

  “The receptionist said she was there just a few days ago. After Brenda’s murder, and just before she got dead herself.”

  “So?”

  “So I’m wondering if it had something to do with those papers that Heidi found in her desk. And the manila envelope she came back to pick up the night she died.”

  “You wanna explain that?” After I had, he thought for a moment. “So you’re thinking she went to the storage place to get the papers? And they had something to do with why she killed herself?”

  “Or why she was killed.”

  “She was killed?”

  I shrugged. “It’s easier for me to believe that someone else killed both of them, than to believe that Clarice killed Brenda. I knew her. But either way, I’m hoping that there’s something in that unit that can settle it one way or the other.”

  Rafe didn’t say anything for a minute. I assumed he was working on a counter-argument, but as it turned out, he wasn’t. “If she took the papers outta the storage unit,” he said instead, “they ain’t gonna be there no more.”

  “Not those papers. But as meticulous as Clarice was, she wouldn’t have neglected to make extra copies. All of Brenda’s paperwork was copied in triplicate: an office copy, a Br
enda copy, and a Clarice copy. She would never risk losing her last copy of something. There must be another somewhere, and it’s probably in the storage unit. Unless it was at her house, but then the police would have found it.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Rafe said. “So you’re asking if I’ll burgle Clarice’s locker for you.”

  I hesitated. “Not burgle it, exactly... Just open it so I can have a look around. See, I didn’t find a key to Clarice’s storage unit anywhere.”

  He looked at me for a second. “I can’t believe you’re asking me to break the law.”

  “Well, if you don’t want to...”

  “I didn’t say I didn’t want to. Depends on the incentive, don’t it?”

  “Truth, justice, and liberty for all?” I suggested.

  He grinned. “I had something a little different in mind.”

  “Somehow I knew that.” I was trying hard not to blush, but not succeeding very well. Good thing it was dark in the car.

  Rafe chuckled, and something about it made all the little hairs on my arms stand up. But before he could answer, the turnoff for Reinhardt Street appeared, and we rolled into the cul-de-sac again.

  Rafe turned off the engine. “You ready?”

  I swallowed. “I guess.”

  “Still got the check?”

  I nodded. It was crumpled up in my handbag, hurriedly stuffed out of sight so Steven wouldn’t notice it. “What if he doesn’t want to talk to us?”

  “I ain’t worried about that,” Rafe said and opened his door. “Let’s go.”

  Maurice’s house still looked much as it had earlier. Light was spilling out of the windows, music was throbbing, and several cars were parked in the driveway. A souped-up green Dodge was among them. “I think this is his,” I said, patting the hood on my way past. And I don’t know why I bothered to lower my voice, because the people inside wouldn’t have heard the sounds of a full-scale invasion.