It's Just a Little Crush

by Caroline Fardig

  The last party attendee on my list is Hannah’s best friend, Jessica Hanson. They must have been close, because Hannah talked about her all the time. I also happen to know that she’s a great source of gossip, because every once in a while Hannah would tell us that Jessica gave her a lead on a story.

  At Jessica’s house, another young boy greets me at the door. I hope he doesn’t tell me his mommy is in the shower, too. The boy says his mom is out by the pool, and he will go ask her if I can come in. He slams the door, and I can hear his feet thumping the floor as he yells, “Mo-om!” After a minute or so, Jessica answers the door in a stunning bathing suit with a towel wrapped around her waist.

  “Hey, you’re Hannah’s friend, right?” she asks me kindly, her sad eyes betraying her smile. “Come on out back. I’ll freeze inside in the air conditioning.” Jessica leads me out the back door to a beautiful pool area. I wish this had been a social call—I could sure use a dip in the pool to cool me off after running around all evening in the heat.

  “I can’t believe Hannah is gone. I’m absolutely devastated,” she sniffs, motioning for me to sit down in a chaise lounge next to hers. “I’m sure you are too.”

  “Yes, I’m…numb. I don’t know how we’re all going to get through the next couple of days.”

  “I was hoping a swim would clear my head, but no such luck.” She smiles sadly, one tear rolling down her cheek. “So, what brings you here, Lizzie?”

  “Oh, right. I brought your order from Hannah’s party.” I hand her the bag.

  Jessica accepts the bag, shaking her head. “We had a good time that night.”

  “Yeah. My favorite thing about these parties is the girl time, and, of course, the gossip.” I’m hoping to steer the conversation around to my little investigation.

  “There was plenty of gossip being shared that night,” she laughs.

  I smile and wait, hoping maybe she’ll spill a little gossip tonight.

  She gets up from her chaise. “Thanks for bringing my stuff over.”

  Uh-oh. That means, “I’m done with you, and you can leave now.” One more chance!

  I get up and follow her to the door. “Yes, you’re welcome. I only have one more stop left, to see Jed about what he wants to do with Hannah’s hostess items.”

  “Oh, right. Jed,” she says, her voice hardening.

  Maybe I’ll get something out of her after all. “I really hate to have to go and see him right now, but I wouldn’t feel right about keeping her stuff. I hope I won’t catch him at a bad time.” Hoping she could take that last statement more than one way, I wait again for her response.

  “I don’t think you’ll find him crying in his beer, if that’s what you mean,” she mutters under her breath.

  I turn and face her. Here goes. “So you know what was going on, too.”

  “Of course! I was her best friend. She told me everything—from his cheating to her cheating to get back at him. She filed for divorce last week, you know.”

  I’m stuck back on “her cheating to get back at him.” Sweet Hannah? I can’t see her cheating, although revenge-cheating hardly compares to cheating-cheating. “She cheated back?” I ask.

  “Well, I suppose it’s no secret now. You know with whom.”

  “I do?” How would I know with whom?

  “Only the most eligible bachelor in town—Blake Morgan. You work with both of them and didn’t know?”

  I shake my head in disbelief.

  “She had a great time with him at first, but then she started feeling so guilty about it that she broke it off between them within a week. She had planned to throw it in Jed’s face, but afterward she was just so ashamed, she didn’t.”

  My mouth is hanging open. Hannah and Blake hooked up. I have no words.

  “Well, good luck at the jerk’s house. Tell him I didn’t say hello.”

  I’m standing alone on Jessica’s front porch, still speechless from the bomb she just dropped. I don’t even think I said goodbye. Trudging back to my car, I think my head is going to explode from all the thoughts racing through it. I slide into the driver’s seat and scramble for my notepad.

  These are the things I know:

  1. Beth Campbell knew that Jed and his former secretary, Audra, were having an affair. Beth kept their secret because she was friends with Audra. Audra broke up with Jed a couple of months ago, and he fired her. Audra is now dead, and according to Brittany from Fascination, the ‘boyfriend’ Audra had broken up with had gone psycho on her.

  2. About a month ago, Beth found Jed and his new secretary in flagrante and couldn’t keep quiet any longer. She told Hannah about both affairs.

  3. About three weeks ago, Karen Fraley said Hannah was missing a lot of yoga class, and had been preoccupied a lot lately.

  4. After confronting Jed about his affairs, Hannah seemed better for a while (maybe a week?).

  5. According to Jessica Hanson, Hannah was hooking up with Blake Morgan for almost a week (in which she was happy—see #4, and #3, possibly getting her workout elsewhere), then broke it off with him because she felt guilty about cheating.

  6. Blake and Hannah were fighting at the fair. She told him to quit bringing up what had happened between them. He wanted her to let him help her with what she was going through, sounding like he had feelings for her. That makes a lot more sense now that I know they had been together.

  7. Hannah told Jed just last week that she was divorcing him.

  So, in a nutshell, Jed is cheating on Hannah with Audra, she breaks up with him, and he gets mad and fires her. Jed hires a new secretary and starts seeing her. Hannah finds out about both affairs and confronts him. Then, she decides to cheat on him for revenge. She snags Blake, but then breaks it off suddenly. She decides to divorce Jed and seems to be depressed about the whole situation. Audra is found strangled, which upsets Hannah very much. Hannah gets into an argument with Blake at the fair. Hours later she turns up dead. Blake starts acting really strangely after we find Hannah’s body. He also starts popping up wherever I go, first eavesdropping on me at the fairgrounds, then accosting me at dinner, wanting to talk about what I know about Hannah’s death.

  Like Julia said, murder is always about either love or money. Sounds like Blake and Jed had a similar motive to kill Hannah—both were dumped by her within the last few weeks, one of whom could stand to lose his shirt in divorce court. (Check me out using professional words like motive and stuff!) Both Jed and Hannah had a reason to consider killing Audra—Jed got dumped, and Hannah could have been jealous. Hannah is a long shot on this one, but she did have a strong motive. However, I can’t see sweet Hannah killing anyone, even someone who was helping her husband cheat on her. Jed seems to be the common denominator here. You do the math. If these two deaths are connected, this puts a whole new spin on my upcoming visit to Jed’s house.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I am completely freaked out about going to Jed’s house alone. It’s just barely starting to get dark now, so I’m going to want to make this quick. I wonder if he’s the kind of person who would only kill if he thought it was necessary, or if he’s one of those people who would kill you just for looking at him funny. Having been an accountant for years, maybe he crunched one more number and just…snapped! They do that, right?

  When I reach the Stewart house, nestled in the perfectly manicured golf course community of Freedom Hills, nothing seems amiss. The lights are on, a welcome sign is swinging in the breeze, the flowers are all watered and healthy, and the grass is freshly mowed. I guess, as Jessica said, that Jed is not in fact sitting around crying in his beer. That thought only causes me to become increasingly apprehensive as I near the front door. I knock, and Jed answers the door, casually but sharply dressed and clean shaven, quite the opposite of how I would think a newly widowed husband would look.

  He smiles at me. “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, Jed, I’m Lizzie Hart. I…worked with Hannah,” I falter.

  “Oh, yes. I remember you.”
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  “I—I just came by to give you the hostess items she got from the Cutie Paws party she had a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Thank you,” he says flatly as I hand him the bag. His eyes narrow. “Weren’t you the one who found my wife at the fair?”

  Oh, snap. “Um…yes.”

  “Right. I was hoping to talk to you about that. Would you come in for a while?”

  I freeze. Go into the house, alone, with Jed? No thanks! I might have been stupid enough to go and talk to Samuel Harper when I thought he might be the killer, but that was in broad daylight and in public. No way in hell am I going into Jed’s house after dark and by myself, especially when I think he’s a strong candidate for the murderer. Jed doesn’t know he’s last on my delivery list. I’ll just tell him I have a lot of stops left to make. Yes, that ought to do it.

  “Oh…sorry. I—I, um, have some more deliveries to make,” I stutter, turning back down the sidewalk toward my car.

  I know I must seem crazy to him, but better safe than sorry. But as I glance down the street I notice a familiar car parked down the block. Blake’s black Porsche. No one else in this town owns a Porsche, much less a brand-new, shiny black one. Is he following me again? If I wasn’t creeped out before, now I really am. So, I could get in my car and most likely be followed home by my stalker, Blake, who is now on my list as Suspect Number Two. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep if I thought someone was outside my house watching me. Or, I could go into the home of Suspect Number One, Jed, hoping that Suspect Number Two will get bored and leave. Then, with any luck I can go home in peace and actually get some sleep tonight. I choose Suspect Number One.

  I turn back around to Jed. “On second thought, I guess I have time to talk for a few minutes. I’m meeting my friend Julia for a late dinner in half an hour,” I lie.

  At least now he’ll think twice about killing me since I made it clear that someone will be expecting me soon. I glance around to see if anyone is watching me go inside the house, but none of Jed’s neighbors are outside. I’m also wondering where Blake is and what he’s doing, considering his car is empty. I take a deep breath and follow Jed into the house.

  The interior of Jed’s house is just as impeccable as the outside, exactly like it was at Hannah’s Cutie Paws party. There is not one thing out of place in here, and again, nothing to signal that a spouse has recently died—no piles of used tissues on the coffee table, no empty alcohol bottles or empty tubs of ice cream anywhere, no old photos scattered around. Well, at least if it had been me, that’s what you would have found at my house. I would cry, get drunk, gorge on ice cream, look through old photos, repeat. Frankly, I find it rather disturbing that Jed is NOT engaging in at least one of those activities.

  Jed smiles, gesturing to a chair in his living room. “Here. Have a seat.”

  What is this—some kind of social call? Oh, yeah, I guess it kind of is from his perspective. After all, he doesn’t know I suspect him of murder. I sit down, and he stares at me intently. He’s a nice enough looking man, but at the moment he kind of strikes me as a creeper. Do killers normally invite you in and make small talk before they hack you to pieces with a machete? Hell if I know, and I surely don’t want to find out. I’d better get this conversation started so I can get it over with faster.

  I nervously clear my throat and shift in my seat. “So what did you want to talk about?” My voice is shaking. I am such a freakin’ pansy.

  “I wanted to know if you had any information that the police neglected to give me about the night my wife died.”

  “Like what?” I squeak, my voice leaping up at least an octave. Shouldn’t he already know what happened if he did it?

  “Let’s start from the beginning. Who was working at the booth with her? You? Anyone else?”

  “Yes, I worked with her, and also…um…another co-worker.”

  I wonder if he knows about Blake. Like knows about Blake…and Hannah…and their affair. Hold on! I really hadn’t thought about this before, but what if Jed really did know about Blake and Hannah and killed her for cheating on him? That would be about the biggest case of hypocrisy EVER, considering the consensus around here is that Jed is a cheating jackass.

  “Was it that Blake Morgan guy?” Jed asks, narrowing his eyes.

  “Yes?” That came out more like a question than an answer. I really need to get hold of myself.

  “He was with you when you found her.”

  I clear my throat again. The more I can shift this conversation away from me, the better. “Yes.”

  “What do you know about him?” Jed asks, his eyes boring into me.

  Okay, I’m starting to sweat now. I’m not covering for Blake, but is it really my place to tell Jed that Blake had been having relations with his wife? Especially if Jed may be a killer? I’m so not above throwing Blake under the bus, but I don’t want Jed shooting the messenger, either. That’s it—I’m playing dumb.

  “I really don’t know him that well. He just moved here.”

  “Hmm. Who did Hannah talk to that night?” He seems quite interested in everything that happened, but not in the way I expected.

  “Everyone who stopped at our booth. There were tons of people at the fair.”

  “Anyone in particular?” Is Jed aware that I’m not, in fact, Hannah’s keeper? Come on!

  I shake my head slowly. “I don’t know where you’re going with this. Can you give me a name?”

  Jed stiffens at my question, pausing before he replies, “Uh, did any conversations she had strike you as odd?”

  I don’t recall a single conversation I had or heard at the fair that you wouldn’t call odd. That was one of the weirdest nights I’ve ever spent. I guess if I told him about Samuel Harper he might go off on that tangent and leave me alone. Not that I want Jed to turn his murderous fury on Samuel, but I think Samuel could take Jed in a fair fight.

  “She had words with Samuel Harper about a story she was doing on him, and he evidently waved his cattle prod at her and ordered her out of the barn. But, that’s normal. Every time she tried to talk to him, he ended up yelling at her. I didn’t hear the conversation—Hannah just told me about it after it was over.”

  “Hmm.”

  Hmm? Isn’t this what he wanted? Here I just gave him someone threatening his wife with a cattle prod, and all he says is “Hmm”? He knows something, and I would really like to get it out of him, but I’ve had enough creepy possible murderer for the evening.

  I start to get up out of my chair, but Jed holds up a hand to stop me. “I have a few more questions for you, if you don’t mind.” His tone has an edge to it—one I don’t particularly like. Cold washes over me, and I slowly return to a sitting position. He continues, “Why was Hannah in the barn in the first place?”

  I take a deep breath. “She wanted to see her niece’s rabbits.”

  “Yes, right. Now. When you found her body, did you see anyone else around her? Was there anyone running away or lurking about?”

  I close my eyes and picture the scene again in my mind. I wish he hadn’t brought that up. I was just getting to where the image of poor lifeless Hannah wasn’t seared into the back of my eyelids, and now it’s back with a vengeance. I put my head in my hands and let out a soft, tearless sob. “Honestly, I don’t know. Finding her was so surreal. I…I don’t remember what was going on around me.”

  Oblivious to my emotions, Jed keeps hammering the questions at me. “What about afterward? Did you see the police question anyone?”

  Seriously? I’m close to breaking down here, and he’s still rapid-firing at me? I’m her co-worker (not even a close friend), and I’m about ready to lose it, but her husband is only interested in more gory details?

  I sigh. “The police took my statement and Blake’s. I heard they questioned Samuel Harper but got nowhere.”

  “Did she see this Samuel Harper person a lot outside of work?”

  “What?” What the hell is he getting at now?

  “Did they h
ave a relationship?”

  I’m getting too tired for this shit. I give Jed a withering look. “Seriously? Did I not make it clear that they hated each other?!?”

  Jed’s coming off halfway between jealous spouse and detective—not even close to grieving widower. I can’t figure him out, and his lack of woe is doing nothing to take him off the top of my most wanted list.

  Jed studies me, observing, “You look a little flushed. Let me get you some water.”

  Hell yeah, I’m flushed. I’ve been sweating bullets since I walked through the door, buddy!

  “Thanks,” I say warily, sinking back into my chair, exhausted.

  Jed returns with two glasses of water. Oh. I was kind of hoping for a bottle so I could take it and bolt out of here. I’m going to have to sit here longer to drink out of an actual glass. Also, let’s not forget the whole he-could-be-a-murderer thing. It’s hard to tamper with a bottle, but a glass? He might just take this perfect opportunity to slip me a mickey and stick me in his trunk or something. I think I’ll just pretend to drink it.

  I thank Jed as he passes me my glass, getting ready to take a convincing pretend drink. But, before I can get it to my lips, a loud crash pierces the silence. Jed jumps up and runs down a nearby hallway. I follow behind, finding Jed in his bedroom standing over a pile of shattered window glass and a rock the size of a softball.

  “What the hell?” Jed roars.

  He looks out the broken window into the darkness. The golf course butts up against his backyard, so there’s nothing but dark and more dark to see out there. Anyone could have thrown that rock and easily disappeared into the shadows. Jed is muttering and cursing as he paces around, glancing from the rock to the window and back again. Who would have done this to a man who has just lost his wife? Granted, he doesn’t seem too torn up about her, but still. I don’t envision a little neighborhood kid using a rock that big. Then who? Blake.