Pampered to Death

by Diana Orgain

  “Sonya, right?” I asked. “Yeah, I met her – lovely girl. I’m sure you were frustrated about what happened to your family.”

  “Frustrated, yes,” she said. “But, it’s in the past, I assure you, Kate.”

  Yeah, I was so not buying it.

  Mrs. Lozano was starting to get ever so slightly flustered, and I could tell. She was a good liar, I’ll give her that. Obviously, tip toeing around it wasn’t doing it. I decided to go head on. “So, you figured you could just kill two birds with one stone, right? You and your daughter plotted to get rid of Kelly. It’s obvious you didn’t want her around; you told me yourself you wanted yours son to marry someone else. You told me you couldn’t stand Kelly. Having Kelly die at Jane’s spa would hurt her business, so you would get your revenge for the way she treated your family while they were sick. And, you had Sonya switch out the Stevia and prompted Kelly to have a coffee.”

  Mrs. Lozano looked at me with this hideously angry face. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t I? Are you sure about that, Mrs. Lozano?” I asked. “I guess you knew the cameras were down since your daughter works in the salon next door, huh? Well, guess what, one camera was still working the day Kelly died. Guess which one?”

  Mrs. Lozano turned pale and for a moment I thought she was going to faint.

  “Which one was working?” she whispered, and I could see her perfectly manicured nails tapping the side of her leg in anticipation.

  “The one right in front of the storage room,” I said. “And guess who goes in there with a box of Stevia?” I crossed my arms and leaned on the handles of Laurie’s stroller. “Sonya.”

  Okay, so now I was fibbing a bit. There was no way the police could identify Sonya in that video, but it certainly was not Mrs. Lozano – I just wanted her to think that I had them.

  Mrs. Lozano clenched her fists at her side. “You think you’re so smart,” she spat. “You’re not even a real PI. My daughter may have switched out the box of Stevia, but I was the one who knew how to work the sauna. How’s your mother doing, by the way? I never asked if I managed to kill her or not. I saw them drive you both off in an ambulance that day.”

  The jab at my mother nearly put me over the edge. But hey, I’m a professional. I can’t run off the field just because someone insults my mommy.

  Besides, I knew she was just trying to get under my skin.

  “So,” I said. “You had Sonya switch out the Stevia, and you had her help you drag the containers to the sauna. But, you were the one who hooked the carbon monoxide up to the sauna, right?”

  “And in doing so, I took out Kelly and have tainted Jane’s reputation enough to appease me,” she said with a look of devilish satisfaction.

  I could hardly believe this woman.

  Kelly seemed like such a wonderful person; I could hardly imagine the type of person Mrs. Lozano was to so willingly cast a life like Kelly’s aside for a revenge scheme.

  Sure, her brother-in-law and sister had been done wrong by Jane, but it certainly wasn’t murder worthy.

  Mrs. Lozano smiled again, baring her teeth at me. “With everything that’s happened, Jane’s going to have to close down shop. If my sister’s business is going down, then so is hers.”

  My smile widened, and I could tell that made her uncomfortable. “Thanks,” I said and reached into Laurie’s stroller. “Thanks for holding that for me, sweetie,” I said, flashing my phone that was still currently recording our conversation.

  Mrs. Lozano’s face was quite priceless.

  She paused, contemplating the repercussions. Then she lunged in my direction, and I pulled my arm back to keep her from snatching the phone.

  That wasn’t what she was going for, though. She grabbed the handle of the stroller and pushed with such ferocity that it made my stomach drop.

  Laurie squealed excitedly, but my head exploded in panic as I watched the stroller zip down a slight slope into the parking lot.

  I bolted after her, my heart racing. When I spun around on my heels, Mrs. Lozano snagged my cell phone and ran in the opposite direction toward her car.

  At that moment, I couldn’t care less about my phone. I chased down the stroller before Laurie could ram into a parked car – or worse – behind one that was backing up.

  I’m sure her stroller only rolled down that slight slope for less than four seconds before I caught up to her, but it felt like I was chasing her for an eternity.

  I looked into the stroller, and Laurie laughed like it was a game. “

  Thank goodness,” I said, and I looked back in time to see Mrs. Lozano whipping her car out of the parking lot.

  I grabbed Laurie out of the stroller and gave her a proper hug and kiss.

  My poor baby!

  I think this was the angriest I’ve ever been in my life. I couldn’t believe that woman had actually pushed my baby.

  She was going to regret this. I was mama bear on fire now!

  I raced into the coffee shop, and saw a number of patrons standing up and staring in my direction; they had evidently witnessed the confrontation with Mrs. Lozano pushing Laurie.

  “Oh, gosh, there was a baby in that stroller!” one woman shrieked. “Are you okay? Why would she do that?”

  “I need a cell phone – now,” I said, and a young man handed his over quickly.

  I was seething – nothing like how Laurie was cooing and waving at all the people in the coffee shop who were staring at her like she had just survived a nuclear blast.

  I took a breath, but that did not calm me down even a little bit.

  I was outraged.

  Mrs. Lozano was going to see the inside of a prison cell if it killed me.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  I thanked the kid for loaning me his phone, and my first call was to Galigani.

  “Kate!” his voice boomed into the phone. “How’s the case going?”

  “Mrs. Lozano is our perp. She just shoved Laurie through a parking lot. She bolted. I need you to call the police and tell them I saw her heading toward the salon. She’s driving a silver SUV. I’ll go inform Jane North. Would you also call Jim for me and let him know what’s going on?”

  “Absolutely, I’ll call the police and Jim for you. Now listen. Stay away from the salon. If you have to go by the spa, fine, but do no confront Lozano on your own, understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” I said.

  As if I have any intentions of confronting her again after she shoved Laurie’s stroller down a slope!

  “And, listen, she has my cell phone. If she bolts, let the police know they can track it. I recorded her confession, but she snagged the phone from me while I ran after Laurie’s stroller.”

  “Geez!” he snarled. He sounded as I angry as I felt and I was overcome with gratitude that he cared about Laurie and me.

  “I got to go warn Jane,” I said. “For all I know, Lozano might try to go after her.”

  “Watch your back,” he said.

  “Will do,” I hang up, and returned the cell phone to the kid who’d been kind enough to let me borrow it, my hand shaking.

  “Are the police coming here?” one of the barista’s asked, obviously having listened in on the conversation I’d just had.

  “No, I sent them toward the woman’s salon,” I said. “But, if she’s got half a brain, that’s not where she went.” I took a deep breath and thanked the bystanders for their moral support before heading out.

  Honestly, I had no idea where Mrs. Lozano was heading. I assumed she head to the salon to snatch her daughter.

  My intentions were to let Jane know what had happened so that she could get be on the lookout in the event Mrs. Lozano was foolish enough to return to the scene of the crime as well as to wait to meet the police that Galigani was sending out my way.

  I put Laurie in her car seat, and she started babbling at me a little like she was telling me all about the crazy woman who had just pushed her.

  “I know, right? Mean old
lady,” I said, and Laurie grinned.

  Frankly, I was still fuming by the time I got behind the wheel of my car. I gripped the wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.

  I’ve never contemplated hurting another person, but at this moment I felt I could literally kill that woman.

  Mama fury was a whole new level of fury.

  Pushing Laurie through a parking lot!

  Honestly!

  I pulled out into the street and sped across the road into the parking lot of the shopping complex where both the spa and the salon was located. Mrs. Lozano’s car was parked in the lot; the engine running, and the doors wide open.

  I stared trying to figure out where she was, taking my eye off the road for a split second, then disaster hit.

  Someone ran in front of my car, and I slammed the brakes. But I was too slow. The person thudded onto my windshield cracking it with a loud splintering crash.

  I screamed, and I swear, my heart physically jumped up into my throat. I swallow several times before that knot disappeared.

  I was in shock.

  Oh my lord. I’d just rammed into a pedrastian.

  My brain replayed the image for me in slow motion.

  I had rammed Sonya down – unintentionally, of course.

  “Sonya!” Mrs. Lozano screamed, darting out of the nail salon.

  In front my car, Sonya got to her feet. She looked surprised and seemingly unharmed, albeit a bit wobbly.

  I’m not really an eye for an eye type person, but a small part of me was glad Mrs. Lozano had seen that. Even though it had been unintentional, she didn’t know that.

  Push my daughter’s stroller through a parking lot, and I’ll ram yours down with a soccer mom van.

  Mrs. Lozano was fighting mad, and she zipped around the side of my van with the intentions of probably coming right up to my door. I’ve never gotten into a cat fight, but Mrs. Lozano looked like she was ready to claw my eyes out. So, to avoid that, as she rounded the front of my car, I flung my door open nailing her with it.

  Surprised at my own strength, I could hardly believe how Mrs. Lozano hurled backwards into the air and landed on the pavement. Sonya wasn’t going anywhere despite managing to stand up; she looked like she would fall over from the shock.

  “Don’t move,” I warned Mrs. Lozano, and she nodded and cringed like she’d pulled something from the fall. A tiny bit of blood trickled down her face from her forehead.

  Dang, I really hit her good with that door.

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw none other than Officer McNearny standing a few yards back with his gun drawn and a slight smirk on his face. A second patrol car whipped into the parking lot behind him as he made his way toward me and the Lozano’s.

  “Nice,” McNearny said to me as he knelt down by Mrs. Lozano, checking for weapons while another officer did the same with the distraught Sonya.

  “Was that a compliment?” I questioned.

  “A little bit,” he said as he pulled Mrs. Lozano to her feet.

  “That woman assaulted us!” Mrs. Lozano pointed a finger in my direction.

  “You sure?” McNearny asked. “Because from my angle it looked like that woman ran out in front this car and then you got in the way when she opened her door.”

  “You’re not going to do anything?” Mrs. Lozano questioned.

  “I’m going to arrest you for murder,” he said, tossing me my cell phone. “I’m guessing this one is yours since it’s got a picture of your baby on the phone case. Play the recording if she hasn’t deleted it.”

  I smiled. She hadn’t had time to delete it yet.

  Mrs. Lozano had gone straight from the coffee shop to the salon to snag her daughter, and the plan had probably been to quickly get out of town before I mowed down Sonya.

  I pressed play, and Mrs. Lozano’s voice rang out for McNearny and the other officer’s present to hear, “You think you’re so smart,” she spat. “You’re not even a real PI. My daughter may have switched out the box of Stevia, but I was the one who knew how to work the sauna. How’s your mother doing, by the way? I never asked if I managed to kill her or not. I saw them drive you both off in an ambulance that day.”

  And then Mrs. Lozano’s outright confession played out for all to hear.

  Sonya’s eyes widened as she and her mother were both slapped with cuffs. The young woman started crying.

  “Ryan is going to hate me!” she sobbed.

  Mrs. Lozano was a lot less traumatized. She just rolled her eyes as though Sonya’s crying was embarrassing her.

  The two women were shoved into the back of a patrol car. Then Galigani’s car pull up, and he hopped out along with my mom and with Jim.

  Evidently, Galigani had rounded up the entire gang before coming here.

  “Everything all right?” Galigani asked, approaching McNearny and me.

  “She managed to get a confession on tape, and she took out both suspects while toting her baby around,” McNearny said and almost smiled at me. “I’m impressed.”

  Jim looked pale. “You did what?” he asked.

  “Laurie was in the car,” I said, but I know that didn’t make it sound better. “I hit one of them with the van... and then I flung my door open and smacked Mrs. Lozano.”

  “For crying out loud, Kate!” Jim exclaimed, wrapping an arm around me. He hurried over to the back door and opened it up to see Laurie happy as ever in her car seat. “I’m glad you’re both okay!”

  “I told you this woman knew what she was doing,” Galigani said to McNearny, but McNearny only huffed in response.

  He wasn’t the type of guy to admit he was wrong, but I would take the half-hearted compliments he had given me before Galigani’s arrival.

  That was pretty good for McNearny.

  The nail salon employees and the spa employees emptying out into the parking lot, probably every last one of them wondering why a group of police officers were gathered outside.

  I spotted Jane North among the crowd and gave her a thumbs up. I let Jim get Laurie out of the car seat and deal with her for a moment while I headed over to Jane.

  “What happened!” she exclaimed.

  “I got Mrs. Lozano’s confession on tape,” I said. “Case officially solved.”

  “You’re kidding!” she cried.

  “Nope!” I said, and she smiled happily at me.

  I could hardly believe it. My case was solved, and I’d physically taken out both perks using my soccer mom van!

  Chapter Twenty Three

  It was only a few days after my run in with Mrs. Lozano and Sonya that I found myself cringing as a doctor rubbed some cold goop on my stomach.

  It was too early for a sonogram, but they were checking for baby number two’s heartbeat. Jim had taken off work since this was my first official appointment. I was a bit further along than I thought, but we weren’t entirely sure how far along because I had failed to write down my cycle.

  Jim held Laurie; she’d fallen asleep during the ride over to the doctor, so she was fast asleep and drooling all over his shoulder.

  “You two made a very cute baby there,” Dr. Greene said. “I’m glad you’re having another one!”

  “Thanks,” I said, as we listened for the fluttering sound that was the baby’s heartbeat.

  We all gasped when we heard it, and Dr. Greene smiled.

  “I love my job,” she said.

  I smiled back at her. “I love my job too. Both of them.”

  Dr. Greene nodded not really understanding my joke, but Jim squeezed my hand.

  “Is it a boy or girl?” Jim asked.

  “It’s a boy or girl,” Dr. Green confirmed, and we laughed.

  “It’s too soon to know,” she said. “But so far so good.”

  We made the next appointment and then headed out to our car.

  “Glad you took off work to hear that sound?” I asked.

  “I am,” he said and kissed my forehead. “Lunch?”

  “Lunch sounds lovely,” I s
aid. “I’m starving.”

  Jim placed Laurie in her car seat. He looked quite satisfied with himself once she was all hooked in and still fast asleep.

  “Good job, Daddy,” I said with a wink as he hopped into the driver’s seat.

  “I try,” he said softly.

  “Why don’t you just hit up a drive through on the way home so that we don’t stir her any more than we already have?” I suggested, and he nodded in agreement.

  We drove for a moment in silence as I read over the paperwork from my first appointment, feeling the new pregnancy jitters as I looked ahead for the future months.

  “So,” Jim said, breaking the silence as we pulled up to a long line in a drive through. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “I hired a nanny,” he said.

  I sat upright, and frankly I was a little mad. That’s certainly something I wanted to weigh in on – it had been on my to-do list for days, and if someone was going to be watching Laurie I wanted to green light it.

  “Excuse me?” I questioned.

  “This week Laurie could have gotten really hurt,” he began. “I don’t want you taking her on any more trips like that. Your job can be dangerous at times, you know?”

  “I know,” I said. “But—”

  He interrupted and reached across the car to touch my stomach. “And, it’s bad enough that this one is going to have to come with you when you do stuff like this. I didn’t realize how dangerous this job could be.”

  I held Jim’s hand. “I agree that we need a nanny for when I have to run out unexpected on a lead, but you shouldn’t have just hired someone without talking to me first. That’s something we should have done together.”

  “I hired Kenny,” he said.

  I laughed. “Kenny!”

  “Yeah, Kenny,” he said, referring to my currently purple haired teenaged neighbor.

  “He’s a kid,” I said.

  “He’s smart.”

  “He’s a charming punk teenager at best,” I said.

  “When I told him I was considering him for a nanny position, he outlined an early learning curriculum for Laurie,” Jim said.