Wicked Women Whodunit

by Davidson, MaryJanice

  Tess headed to the checkout stand with the some chips and dip, soda, wine, and a bag of chocolate kisses. A tabloid caught her attention with the headline: Exclusive E-mail Reveals Ark Underwood’s Sexual Dysfunctions. Beneath it in smaller print read, Written by the same doctor that Ark Underwood and Fred Ranger fought over just minutes before the Sex Toy Murder of Ranger.

  Tess grew hot and sick. The race was due to start in just under two hours. Ark had to know about this. How the hell was he going to concentrate when the media was destroying him?

  By her e-mail.

  Tess had to fight the dizzy terror sweeping over her. What if Ark was too upset to drive and had an accident? Like her parents had after she upset them?

  “Ma’am?”

  She looked up to see the checker staring at her. She realized she was holding up the line and pulled herself together. She paid for her stuff and left, hurrying to her car. Once on Josie’s street, Tess saw that more media was gathering around the house. Her stomach cramped, and claustrophobia set in as they swarmed the car. She refused to look at them and used the clicker Josie had given her to open the garage. She slid her Honda in next to Josie’s car in the two-car garage and shut the garage door.

  She was safe from the reporters. But her e-mail was out. Still, her reasoning was returning. Ark was a professional driver. She didn’t think he’d lose his focus on the track. She opened the car door and got out, then turned and leaned back in to get the bag of food.

  “Dr. Collins, what is your comment on the e-mail regarding Ark Underwood?”

  Startled, Tess banged her head on the roof of the car. Her heart pounded in her chest. She left the bag in the car and stood up. A big man with thinning blond hair and blue eyes held out a microphone that must be connected to a tape recorder. A reporter. “You’re trespassing on private property.” She sized up her situation. The reporter had about five inches on her and probably sixty pounds. They were between the two cars in a confined space. She decided her best bet was to get inside the house. She shut the car door to get by.

  He clamped his hand around her left wrist, stopping her from leaving. “What’s your comment on the e-mail that appeared in the paper today?”

  Real fear was quickly edged out by adrenaline pouring into her veins. She looked down at his hand wrapped around her wrist, then back up to his face. She forced a deep breath to get control. This guy smelled like root beer and something else—something more bitter, like unchecked ambition. “Let go of my wrist.”

  He had a wide face that hardened. “Did you sell that e-mail to the paper? Did you kill Fred Ranger to keep him from selling the e-mail and getting the money? Why are you trying to destroy Ark Underwood?” He tightened his fingers around her wrist until it hurt.

  Anger washed through Tess, allowing her to ignore the pain. “I’m going to give you one chance. Let go and step back.” She knew to make her instructions clear, not panicked. She wasn’t panicked; she was pissed.

  He tightened his fingers into a painful vise.

  Tess grabbed his thumb that was wrapped around her wrist and yanked hard. As soon as he grunted in pain and instinctively let go, she turned and slammed her elbow hard into his stomach. He grunted and fell back against Josie’s car.

  Tess turned to run into the house.

  The reporter recovered and caught hold of her hair and yanked hard. Pain stung her scalp and made her eyes water. “Damn it.” She was furious. “Let go!”

  “Answer my questions.”

  “Let go of her. Now.” Josie’s voice boomed through the garage.

  Tess hadn’t even heard the door to the house open. Josie stormed down the steps, followed by Nikki and Gwen.

  The reporter let go.

  Gwen opened the garage door.

  The reporter started backing up toward the opening.

  Tess followed him. “Get out.” She was so mad, she wanted to hurt him. She wanted to kick him in the balls. But she had to get control of herself since he was leaving, and therefore effectively neutralized. He backed to the edge of the garage.

  Josie went around Tess’s car until she was even with the reporter at the opening of the garage. “Hey, asshole.”

  The reporter turned to her.

  Josie grabbed his shirt, yanking him toward her as she swung her knee up and into his balls.

  “Oofff!” He sank to the ground, then rolled to his side.

  Josie ignored him and walked up to Tess between the cars. “Are you okay?”

  “Jo, he could file a complaint against you.” After he got done retching. Ugh. He was writhing and making icky gagging sounds.

  Josie started pushing Tess toward the door to the house. “Nah, he accosted you in my garage, and besides, he’s twice my size. He doesn’t know I’m a black belt. He’d never admit to me taking him down.”

  Gwen closed the garage, Nikki got Tess’s purse and the bag of groceries from the car, and they all went into the house.

  “We already saw the tabloid,” Nikki said when she set the bag of groceries down on the kitchen table. “I bought it this morning.” She picked up her copy and handed it to Tess.

  Tess reached for it. “I saw it at the store.”

  Nikki snatched the tabloid back and dropped it on the table. “Tess, let me see your wrist.”

  Tess looked down. Her wrist was red and puffy. “It’s fine, Nik, probably just a bruise.”

  “Bastard. I should have kicked him again,” Josie said. She stomped over to the freezer and filled a Ziploc bag with ice.

  Gwen joined Nikki to examine Tess’s wrist.

  Tess swallowed down a stab of irritation. They cared about her. “It’s fine,” she said in a calm voice. “I’ve had worse in sparring.”

  “Not broken,” Nikki decided.

  “Needs ice,” Gwen agreed, and took the ice from Josie. “Let’s go in the living room to watch the prerace stuff. We can talk in there.”

  Tess let them lead her into the living room. She sat on the floor next to Nikki, holding the towel-covered bag of ice on her wrist. Josie brought her some coffee and a couple Advil.

  She rolled her eyes and looked at her friends. They were really worried about her. “I’m not going to break, guys. And I’m not going to let the killer get away with this. Someone, and I think it’s the killer, stole the e-mail from Fred and sold it to that tabloid.” She looked at the paper that one of girls brought with them into the living room. “I’m going to find out who it is.”

  Her cell phone rang before her friends could react to her statement. Gwen got up and retrieved the phone from Tess’s purse and handed it to her. Tess thanked her and answered it. “Hello?”

  “Tess, how are you?”

  Her heart kicked up. “Ark?” She hadn’t heard his voice on the phone before, but it was him. Why was he calling? He had to race in less than ninety minutes. But her gaze fell on the tabloid, and she knew. “I just saw the tabloid featuring my e-mail. I didn’t give it to them.” She said it quietly.

  “I didn’t think you did. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

  His voice stirred the memory of the night in bed when he’d pulled her into his arms and asked her if she was okay. But this was different. Everything had changed the next morning when Ark woke up and realized what was at stake. And saw that she was in the way. He’d been right, smart. “I’m fine. But shouldn’t you be getting ready to drive? You need to concentrate out on the track.” It was just over an hour to the start of the race.

  Silence. Then, “I’m worried about you, Tess. I’m trying to protect you, Doc. And all the people whose paychecks are dependant on me. You understand that, right?”

  His responsibilities weighed on him. It hit her how much Ark had to consider every action. How much she had misjudged him in her e-mail. And how much damage she was doing to him. “I understand, Ark. I told you I understood Friday morning.”

  “That’s another reason I’m calling. I want to see you, Tess. I’m off for the week after the race today.
Just hang in there.”

  She thought of the media outside, of all the ramifications. “No, Ark. You already pointed out that you need to protect all the people relying on you. We can’t see each other. Go out there today and concentrate on your driving. Bye.” She hung up.

  Her friends stared at her.

  “What?”

  Josie said, “He wants to see you?”

  Tess tilted her head to the tabloid. “Did you see this? Ark can’t be seen with me; it’ll make things worse. He told me to leave Friday morning as soon as he realized the damage I was doing to his career.”

  Gwen looked at her. “Tess, maybe he cares about you.”

  Tess shook her head. “He can’t afford to. But I’m done letting the killer and the media trap me in Josie’s house. It’s time I started fighting back.” She adjusted her position on the floor next to Nikki. “And I need you all to help me figure this out.” Tess started telling them the entire story, from the first minute she met up with Fred at the hotel Thursday afternoon, until she left Ark Friday morning.

  She hung up on him.

  Ark stood outside his motor home where his family was staying. He’d talked them into staying there where the media couldn’t get to them. He’d left the sponsors’ tent early to get a minute to call Tess. He was worried about her.

  She thought he’d called her because he believed she’d given the tabloid the e-mail. Ark didn’t believe that. He knew it had only been a matter of time before it got out. It was on Fred’s computer.

  Or Fred’s killer took it off his body.

  Tess had too much to lose by selling that e-mail ... like her entire career. And nothing about her suggested she was after money. Ark had seen enough of that to spot a gold digger. So why didn’t she want to see him?

  “Ark, you’d better get your ass to the drivers’ meeting.”

  He looked up to see Heidi striding toward him. Wonder who sent her to find me? All drivers were required to be at the drivers’ meeting held an hour before the race. “Right, what time is it?”

  “Time to go. Now. Your crew chief and Giles have been looking for you.” She reached out and wrapped her hand around his bicep.

  Ark shrugged her off. He was in a rotten mood, and Heidi’s clinging annoyed him. “I’m going.”

  “I’ll walk with you.” She fell into step beside him. “Missed you at the club the last couple nights.”

  “Been busy.”

  “Yeah, the whole murder thing. And now that e-mail in the tabloid. You should be more careful who you hang out with.”

  Ark stopped walking. Heidi wore a black tube top and white shorts cut up her ass. She was thin and tall, and stood with her chest thrust out and shoulders pushed back in a pose. But while Tess got his blood running hot, Heidi just made him tired. And if Heidi had seen the tabloid with the e-mail, then everyone had. He was worried what this was going to do to Tess. She had been so honest with him about her reasons for writing that e-mail; she didn’t deserve this. He said to Heidi, “Do you have a point?”

  She arched a thinly plucked brow. “I’m just saying that you don’t know what strangers want from you. You’re rich and famous, you should be more careful.”

  “Thanks for the tip.” He turned and walked away from her and into the drivers’ meeting.

  Tess finished describing everything to Josie, Gwen, and Nikki while the NASCAR race played in the background.

  “An erection enhancer in pink, interesting,” Josie said, lifting her coffee cup, but then she seemed to forget about the drink. “Whoever murdered Fred wanted him found like that. With the pink cock ring, the Viagra, and Ark’s condoms. There’s a message in that scene.”

  Tess agreed. This was Josie’s area of therapy, so she had valuable insight. “Plus they got close enough to kill him with the gun without a fight.”

  Josie nodded. “A woman.”

  Nikki agreed. “Had to be a woman. A pissed-off woman with a grudge, and axe to grind.”

  “The woman who killed Fred had to be angry at Ark, too. It can’t be a coincidence that the murder happened in his suite—not just his suite but his bedroom.” Tess tried not to think of what she and Ark had been doing while Fred lay dead in the bedroom. “I know Fred’s source was at the hotel because Fred told me that was who called him to say Ark was on his way down while we were in the sports bar.”

  Josie took a sip of her coffee, then set her cup down on the table. “The one that he told you helped him with his sex shop articles and had the pictures of Ark to blackmail him with?”

  Facts started clicking into place. “Yes. But Fred must have betrayed the source. Okay, let’s back up for a second.” It was hard to keep it all straight. “Fred had to have that room booked for a while. They fill up fast for the NASCAR races. So he had it before he got my accidental e-mail, right?”

  Josie, Gwen, and Nikki all nodded. Gwen said, “Makes sense. So he and his source might have had a plan. To what, though? Blackmail Ark together?”

  “I think so. Then once Ark paid, I bet Fred was going to write an exposé on it for The Breaking Buzz tabloid. But he got my e-mail about Ark and he had a better idea. He could use me to write an article now—getting what he wanted faster. A story that was so big, he could get into the TV entertainment journalist job that he wanted.”

  Josie caught on. “So Fred double-crossed his source. First he planned to use you to seduce Ark, but when you refused, he jumped on the chance of asking him those questions in the bar, trying to shock him into an admission of orgies and pictures.”

  Tess frowned at that. “But the source hadn’t even blackmailed him yet ... had they? So Fred jumped the gun by shouting those questions at Ark.”

  “You rattled him,” Gwen said. “Fred thought he had you cornered and you’d do what he wanted to save your career.”

  “Okay.” Tess nodded, thinking that fit with Fred’s ambition trait. He’d do whatever it took, obviously, to save or advance his career, so he had believed she would, too. “So then he’s screwed up, and he’s got nothing to show for it. So he breaks into Ark’s room. No wait, the room wasn’t broken into.”

  Gwen said, “Had to be an inside person at the hotel, like ... maids. Maids have a high turnover rate. With a big race, they’d hire on anybody in a pinch.”

  Tess agreed. “You’re right, and people tend not to even notice the maids. They can find out all kinds of stuff. But what happened? The source got a job as a maid? Then after Fred betrayed her, she killed him?”

  Josie sat up. “Wait, it can work. We agree the killer is a woman and most likely Fred’s source, correct?”

  Tess nodded. She’d been working on this for days in her head, but it was really coming together with her friends’ help.

  Josie’s blue eyes were almost violet as she thought. “She’s furious. She’s lost her ability to blackmail Ark since Fred already warned him about the pictures, and Ark didn’t seem to care. You don’t believe the pictures were real, right, Tess?”

  She shook her head. “No, Ark said he never ...” She blushed and realized she believed him totally. Did they think she was stupid? “He didn’t seem to be worried. And we all know people can use computer programs to make up photos like that.”

  Josie said, “Tess, I believe your take on Ark. We all do. The question is—what did he care about?”

  Tess felt sick. “The e-mail. But he left it, probably because he knew it was on Fred’s computer.”

  “Now the source has a new weapon. Not to blackmail Ark with but to sell to the papers.”

  “So she killed Fred for it. And the picture in Fred’s cell phone camera. Because those were real.”

  Josie nodded. “They probably knew you and Ark would be gone for a little bit. Fred’s beside himself with rage. The manager of the hotel has kicked his ass to the curb. The source, maybe dressed as a maid, lures him to Ark’s room for revenge. She tells him they’ll use the pictures in his cell phone with some new ones they’ll take in Ark’s room.”

 
Tess got it. “As a maid, she’d have the master key to the rooms. They have sex and she kills him. And then she steals the e-mail. I doubt the pictures in the cell phone survived the iced tea. But she sells the e-mail that showed up today in the tabloid.”

  Nikki said, “The police will have a tough time getting the tabloid to reveal their source.”

  Tess agreed. “We have to go after another angle. The connection is the sex shops in Fred’s articles. The source has to be connected to those shops since she worked with Fred on the articles about the sex shops.” She stared at the TV, automatically searching out Ark’s car.

  “We can split up and look,” Josie suggested.

  “No, this could get dangerous. You’ve already been a huge help.” She stopped talking when she caught the close-up of Ark’s car on TV. Her heart slammed into her throat. The race was down to the last ten laps. The Fontana Speedway was a D-shaped track, and turn three was known to be tricky. Giles was in first place, with Ark drafting behind him to gain momentum from the air currents that Giles’s car created. Behind them was a rookie looking for his chance to slingshot around them and win.

  Tess clenched her jaw so tight her head throbbed. The rookie had it in for Ark. The feud had started last season when the rookie tapped Ark and sent him into the wall and caused him to have a DNF or did not finish. When reporters had shoved a mike and camera in his face afterward, Ark had shrugged his shoulders and said, “Rookies. Some of them don’t learn very fast.” Two races later, Ark caught the rookie and spun him.

  The rookie had been waiting for his chance to pay Ark back.

  Giles came off turn three, and Ark followed close behind him. Tess couldn’t sit still. She stood up and walked closer to Josie’s TV. She knew Ark wanted to win this race. But Tess just prayed he kept his concentration and focus, and stayed alive.