by Lee Hollis
Suddenly a shriek startled Poppy, who spun around to see Lara Harper standing in the doorway to the bedroom, eyes blazing. “What are you doing in my room?”
Before Poppy could come up with an answer, Lara was screaming for her father. Poppy heard Rod pounding down the hall from the kitchen, drawn to the commotion.
Lara Harper wasn’t the only one who had been caught red-handed today.
Chapter 43
Rod quickly appeared at his daughter’s side, his face ashen at the sight of Poppy in Lara’s bedroom, sitting in front of her laptop computer.
Lara, her eyes wild with fury, pointed an accusing finger at Poppy, who calmly stood up from the small desk. “I came home and found her snooping on my computer!”
“She’s right. I was,” Poppy said evenly. “It wasn’t difficult, either, once I guessed the password, which, not surprisingly, was just four letters. M-a-t-t. Matt.”
Rod turned to Lara, who was thrown off guard for just a second. “Is that true, Lara?”
“Yes, but I know a lot of Matts; I have a gay friend named Matt. It doesn’t refer to her friend Matt Flowers,”
Lara lied. “I’m not a stalker.”
Poppy knew that anyone who had to claim not to be a stalker more often than not turned out to be one.
Lara charged into the room, pushed past Poppy, and slammed her computer shut. “I would appreciate it if you got out of my room now!”
Poppy stood right where she was, never flinching. “You never went to Nepal to find yourself. We were right from the beginning. You were right here in the Coachella Valley the entire time with your boyfriend . . . Dominick Molina.”
Lara shot her father a worried look.
Rod was still processing what he had just heard. “Dominick. . . Tony’s boy?”
Lara glared at Poppy and seethed. “Why don’t you mind your own business? The last time I checked, I’m not missing anymore so you are no longer working for my father!”
Poppy ignored her and spoke directly to Rod. “I found some photos of the two of them on her computer that were taken recently during the time she claimed to be in Nepal.”
“What’s going on here, Lara?” Rod asked pointedly, stepping into the room.
“Why am I suddenly getting the third degree? She’s the one who snuck into my room and was sticking her nose into my personal business!” Lara shouted angrily. “Why aren’t you questioning her?”
“Because I’m talking to you, and I want you to tell me the truth for once. Are you involved with Dominick Molina? Is he the young man you were spotted around Palm Springs with when I was looking for you?”
“Okay, yes. I lied about Nepal. I was mad at you for trying to control my life, and I knew you didn’t like Tony Molina so I made up that story about traveling overseas. I was here hanging out with Dominick. He’s very sweet. If you gave him half a chance, I think you’d really like him.”
“How could I give him a chance? You ran away. I had no idea where you were or who you were with,” Rod said softly. “You had me so worried. . . .”
“And I’m sorry about that, Daddy, but I just needed some space, and we were fighting so much back in Beverly Hills. I wanted to put some distance between us, at least for a while, so I came out here because Dominick promised to help me with my singing career. His father has this state-of-the-art recording studio in his home and Tony was so nice. He agreed to let us use it to record my first album. Dominick wants to be a music producer. He’s also a very talented songwriter. He was helping me compose some of the songs.”
Poppy was having none of it. She was tired of Lara and her grating, spoiled personality. “Was this before or after he shot his stepmother?”
There was silence in the bedroom.
Rod glanced at Poppy, surprised by her directness.
Lara scowled and sighed. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“Really? Because right after Dominick murdered Tofu, you magically reappeared, claiming to be home from your world travels, ready to reconcile with your father and move right in here with him,” Poppy said.
“Dominick didn’t murder anyone! There isn’t a violent bone in his body!”
“Is that so? Because it happens to be public knowledge that he has already made a full confession,” Poppy snapped.
“You don’t know anything!” Lara huffed, before rushing out of the room. Rod warily followed after her, with Poppy on his heels, into the living room, where they found Lara by the front door, gripping the door handle. “Daddy, I’m serious, either she goes or I go. I don’t like the way she talks to me.”
“Poppy is a big part of my life now. She’s not going anywhere,” Rod said. “You’re going to have to accept that.”
Poppy wasn’t sure how she should take Rod’s proclamation, but she decided to ignore it, at least for the moment.
Lara shrugged. “I don’t have to accept anything! I’m out of here!”
Lara spun around and was about to fly out the front door when Poppy called after her. “You were there, weren’t you?”
Lara froze halfway in the threshold. She slowly turned around. It was the first time Poppy had actually seen her look scared.
The young woman’s mind seemed to race for a bit and then she settled on what to say next. “No I wasn’t!”
Another obvious lie.
Lara knew Poppy wasn’t buying it, and neither was her father.
“Come on, Lara . . . ,” Rod prodded, arms folded across his broad chest.
Lara threw her head back, exasperated. “Oh, all right! Yes, I was there! But I was in the other room! I only heard what happened!”
“What would drive Dominick to do such a thing?” Rod asked.
Lara shut the front door and slowly walked back into the living room. “It was an accident! It wasn’t Dominick’s fault! His creepy stepmother wouldn’t leave him alone! She was always showing up at the studio while we were working. She’d wear these really clingy, tight, low-cut dresses, trying to get his attention all the time. I mean, ewww, gross!”
Poppy was already aware that Tofu had a penchant for younger men given her past history, but she kept mum, waiting to hear the rest of what Lara had to say.
“Dominick told me that every time I left the room she would make passes at him. It made him so uncomfortable. He didn’t dare tell his father because he was afraid Tony wouldn’t believe him and he might kick us out before we finished the album, so he just put up with it,” Lara said. “How sleazy to be chasing after your own stepson! It was totally sick!”
“Go on,” Rod said quietly.
“Well, on that day, the day he shot her, I went out to get us some sandwiches for lunch, and when I came back, she was back again and had her hands all over him, and finally he couldn’t take it anymore. He pushed her away and told her to stay away from him. Well, that set her off and she got really mad and stormed off. A couple of hours later, she came back, stumbling drunk, waving a gun around, like she was going to shoot us both! I started crying and she came after me, pointing the gun, yelling that I had stolen Dominick away from her, and that’s when Dominick got in between us, trying to protect me, and he grabbed the gun, trying to wrestle it away from her! I ran out of the room, screaming for help, and that’s when I heard the gun go off. . . .”
Lara sniffed and blinked tears.
Rod seemed to melt. He rushed forward and embraced his daughter, holding her close and patting the back of her head, promising her it would be all right.
Poppy was utterly unimpressed with her performance.
Lara Harper was a consummate liar, and she gave Poppy no reason to believe she was telling the truth now.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Poppy asked pointedly.
“Because Dominick wouldn’t let me. He didn’t want me mixed up in any of it. He told me we had to protect my career at all costs. I had already called Daddy because I missed him and wanted to reconnect, and so Dominick told me to go home and let him handle everything!” Lara sobbed, finally
pulling out of her father’s arms.
“But he’s charged with murder!” Poppy cried. “You’re a witness. You could clear everything up by telling exactly what happened, that Dominick shot Tofu in self-defense.”
Lara shrugged. “I’m just doing what Dominick wants, and he wants me to stay out of it. He said if anybody can get him off, his father can.”
“Oh, I have seen ample evidence of that already firsthand,” Poppy said bitterly.
Rod looked completely lost as to what he should do. He glanced toward Poppy for guidance.
“You have to go to the police and tell them everything you know,” Poppy declared.
“I most certainly do not,” Lara sniped.
Poppy shook her head, disgusted. “So you’re willing to let Dominick rot in prison? The man you’re supposedly so head over heels in love with?”
Lara kept her mouth shut because she knew neither Poppy nor her father would like her answer to the question, that she didn’t care what happened to Dominick because she really only cared about herself and had already set her sights on a new man.
“I’m sure Tony will somehow take care of things,” Lara finally said. “Dominick will be fine.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Poppy said with a sad little laugh. She reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone.
Lara eyed her nervously. “Who are you calling?”
“Detective Lamar Jordan,” Poppy said. “Just because you refuse to do the right thing doesn’t mean I have to.”
Lara gave her father a pleading look, silently begging for him to do something to stop her, but Rod just stood next to her, looking numb, still reeling from the fusillade of lies that kept spilling out of his only daughter’s mouth.
Chapter 44
When Poppy hung up after placing a call to Detective Jordan, Rod pulled her aside as Lara pouted on the couch. “She’s very upset, Poppy. Do we have to do this now?”
“She is a key witness in a murder investigation. Either she comes with us to the police station to talk to Detective Jordan or he is going to drive over here and get her himself.”
Rod looked sadly over at Lara, who was now on her phone, furiously texting.
Poppy put a hand on Rod’s arm. “You have to stop coddling her.”
Rod stared grimly at his daughter. “I know, you’re right. I’m just so afraid of losing her again.”
Poppy didn’t necessarily believe that was such a bad thing, but she refrained from comment. Rod tentatively crossed over to where Lara was sitting, her fingers tapping madly on her phone screen. “We should go, Lara.”
“I don’t have to do what she says. She’s not my mother,” Lara hissed.
“But I’m your father and I’m telling you we should go,” Rod said solemnly.
Lara continued texting, not moving.
“I can do what I want. I’m twenty-two years old,” Lara said, not even bothering to look up from her phone.
“Well, you’re acting like a whiny ten-year-old,” Poppy heard herself saying. She couldn’t take it anymore. She crossed over to the couch, past Rod, and snatched the phone out of Lara’s hand.
“Give that back!” Lara roared.
Poppy glanced at the screen.
She was texting Matt.
Please, they’re making me go talk to the police. I’m scared. Meet me there. I need you for moral support.
Poppy showed Rod the text on the screen and then turned back to Lara. “I’m guessing this isn’t your gay friend Matt because I recognize the number. You’re texting Matt Flowers.”
“So what?” Lara spit out.
“I hate to break it to you, but he may not get this message because I already advised him to change his number,” Poppy said.
This got Lara’s attention. “You what?”
“It seemed to be the only way for him to stop receiving dozens of texts from you a day,” Poppy said, eyeing Rod, who seemed genuinely surprised by this revelation.
“Dozens?” Rod asked, eyes widened.
“Once you abandoned Dominick after things got too heated, you set your sights on Matt because you’re never happy unless you are in a relationship and have someone you can manipulate, but you never bothered consulting Matt to find out if he was even the least bit interested in you. You just decided he would be the next man in your life, whether he wanted to be or not,” Poppy said.
Lara jumped up from the couch and snatched her phone back from Poppy. “You know nothing about what Matt and I have together!”
“But I do, Lara. That’s the sad part. I know that he has zero interest in you and that you will never be a couple, and sooner or later you are going to have to grow up and accept that and get on with your life.”
Lara’s face flushed with rage and her hands started shaking as she stepped menacingly toward Poppy. “I’ll tell you what’s sad. You, trying to keep Matt and me apart, for the sake of your loser daughter, who will never be good enough for him!”
Poppy fought the urge to raise her hand and slap Lara Harper hard across the face. She never believed violence was the answer to any problem, and she was not about to engage in it now. But it took every ounce of self-restraint not to do it. She took a deep breath, and then turned to Rod, who was still stunned at what Lara had just said to Poppy.
“Rod, I think it would be best if I left now before I say or do anything I will regret. But I implore you, take your daughter to Detective Jordan and have her tell him what she knows about the Tofu murder. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Poppy, I’m so sorry—”
Poppy had no interest in hearing Rod apologize for his ghastly daughter ever again, so she quickly whirled around and marched out the door before he could say another word.
Chapter 45
Poppy wasn’t sure Rod had followed her advice until the next morning when Detective Jordan called and left a message that he wanted to see her at his office. Poppy wasted no time after a quick breakfast with Heather to drive straight over to the police station. The desk sergeant asked her to wait, and after twenty minutes, she was finally escorted down a hall to a small windowless office where Detective Jordan sat behind his desk, eating an Egg McMuffin and leafing through some paperwork.
“Thanks for stopping by, Poppy,” Detective Jordan said, using a napkin to wipe away some egg yolk dribbling down his chin.
“However I can help, Detective,” Poppy said, feeling emboldened that the detective, who had once dismissed her as a nuisance, was now calling her in for consultation.
She sat down across from him.
“Your boyfriend was in here yesterday with his daughter. . . .”
“Excuse me, boyfriend?”
“The actor. Rob Harper, the one who was on that TV show I watched when I was a kid where you played his secretary . . .”
“His name is Rod Harper, and he is not my boyfriend,” Poppy said sharply.
Detective Jordan seemed thoroughly confused. “Oh . . . he kind of gave me the impression that you two—”
“We’re not.”
Detective Jordan nodded. “Okay. Well, I listened to his daughter Lara’s story, about what happened at Tony Molina’s house with her boyfriend and Tofu, and although on the surface it sounds plausible, there are some details that don’t exactly add up.”
Poppy had expected this since Lara Harper seemed utterly incapable of telling the truth on just about any occasion.
Jordan picked up what was left of his Egg McMuffin and said, “To be frank, the young woman struck me as a little off. Possibly emotionally disturbed, if I’m being totally honest.”
“You will get no argument from me, Detective.”
Jordan stuffed the rest of his Egg McMuffin into his mouth and Poppy waited patiently as he loudly chewed and swallowed. Then he wiped his fingers with the napkin and dabbed at his chin again to make sure he didn’t literally have any egg on his face. Only then was he ready to resume the conversation. “The Harper girl told me she was not in the room when Dominic
k Molina accidentally shot his stepmother.”
“Yes, she told me and her father the same thing.”
“She claimed that when Dominick and Tofu started struggling for possession of the gun, she ran out of the room screaming.”
“Presumably to get help,” Poppy said, nodding.
“Right,” Jordan said, picking up a piece of bacon that had dropped out of the sandwich and onto the desk and popping it into his mouth. “The thing is, she mentioned that Tofu had been shot in the abdomen. How would she know that unless she was still in the room? When I called her on it, she said she must have read about that detail online or heard about it on TV.”
“I didn’t know Tofu had been shot in the abdomen,” Poppy said, leaning forward, intrigued.
“Of course you didn’t because that information was never released to the press. We’ve been keeping it under wraps while we’re still investigating, so there was no way Lara Harper could know that unless she was still in the room when the shooting occurred.”
Poppy sat back in her chair, gobsmacked. “Why would she lie about not being in the room? If she was in the room and saw what happened, that would only bolster her story that Dominick shot Tofu in self-defense. She would be an eyewitness.”
“Here’s the thing,” Jordan said. “When I questioned Dominick Molina, he basically told the same story as Lara, except when I asked him whereabouts he accidentally shot Tofu, he hesitated, like he didn’t know. When I asked if it was in the chest, he didn’t figure it was a test, and just agreed and said, ‘Yes, in the chest.’ If he had been the one struggling with Tofu, he would’ve known that when the gun fired, the bullet entered her abdomen.”
Poppy whispered, “It was her. . . . Lara was the one who shot Tofu.”
“And I believe her boyfriend, Dominick, is covering for her,” Jordan added. “He’s taking the blame in order to protect her.”
“He probably has no idea that she’s already moved on and is now chasing after someone else,” Poppy said disdainfully.
“When I suggested that scenario, Lara got real nervous and clammed up pretty quick. There was no way she was going to admit anything to me.”
