“Is there anything I can help with?” Clarissa asked, a sense of relief coming over her.
“Thanks, but I think it’s basically under control.” He turned Clarissa around so she was facing the receptionist. “This is my girlfriend,” he announced proudly. “Her name is Clarissa Spencer. If she ever stops by or calls, drop everything to let me know.”
“Even if you’ve told me to hold your calls, Mr. Tweed?” the receptionist asked.
“Yes,” Parker smiled. “Clarissa is the exception to the rule.”
“Yes Mr. Tweed, I’ll make a note of it,” the receptionist replied. Then she gathered up a stack of papers and tottered off to the photocopier with them.
“That’s an awfully short skirt,” Clarissa muttered under her breath.
“Huh?” Parker asked, looking genuinely puzzled.
“Your new receptionist,” Clarissa clarified. “Her skirt is awfully short, isn’t it?”
“Oh,” he said. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Oh,” she replied, feeling foolish. Why had she ever doubted her boyfriend? He was honest and kind and had eyes only for her. She should have known that. Actually, she did know that. She vowed not to let her insecurities get the best of her again. Jealousy wasn’t a good look on her.
“I’ve missed you. How are you?” Parker asked.
“I’m better now, I think,” Clarissa replied. She was feeling a lot better, though she still had questions. “How are you? I started to get a little bit worried when you didn’t answer your phone or reply to my voicemails.”
An expression of confusion came over Parker’s face. “That’s weird,” he said. “I didn’t hear my phone ring.” He reached into his pockets and came up empty-handed. “Huh,” he murmured in surprise. “I must have left my phone in my car. I was so busy doing damage control that I didn’t even notice – and I completely lost track of the time. Sorry! I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“It’s okay,” Clarissa assured him, her relief overwhelming. Then she added, “I’m sorry too.”
“What could you possibly have to be sorry about?” he asked affectionately.
She made a face. She really didn’t want to remind him. But she wanted to clear the air – and assure Parker she wasn’t as crazy as she sometimes seemed. “I accidentally made my entire town think we were engaged,” she grimaced.
He burst out laughing. “Oh yeah, that’s right. That will keep the town gossips occupied for a few days, huh?” he winked. “I bet they’re in their glory right now, chatting up a storm about when the big day might be and what your dress will look like!”
Clarissa just gawked at him. “You’re not upset?” she asked in disbelief.
“Upset? Why would I be upset?” Parker asked. “That’s my Clarissa: always keeping life interesting! Without you, Sugarcomb Lake would probably be a boring place. But thanks to your misadventures, it’s the most fascinating small town I’ve ever been to!”
Clarissa’s expression of shock slowly melted away. She smiled, and then she began to snicker. “Barbara Norman and Patricia Porter have probably started going door-to-door by now,” she joked. “They’re going to be so embarrassed when they find out the rumors they’re spreading about us are completely false!”
“Serves them right for being such busybodies,” Parker snorted.
“Excuse me, Mr. Tweed?” the receptionist interrupted.
Parker barely glanced at his beautiful, short-skirted employee. He was way too preoccupied gazing into Clarissa’s eyes. “Not now,” he replied in a kind yet professional tone. “No more work today. I’m leaving for the day.”
“But Mr. Tweed, it’s –”
“It’s something that can wait until tomorrow,” he said firmly. “Thank you.”
He reached for Clarissa’s hand and led her out of the building.
She felt like she was walking on air.
Clarissa felt silly for feeling threatened by the receptionist. Sure, she was gorgeous…but that didn’t matter. The way Parker had proudly introduced Clarissa spoke volumes. She never should have doubted her sweet boyfriend’s feelings for her.
She had been acting like…
“A jealous, insecure girlfriend,” Clarissa murmured to herself.
“Pardon me?” Parker asked, straining to hear what she had said.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, startled. “Never mind, I was just thinking aloud.”
“A penny for your thoughts,” Parker smiled.
Clarissa smiled back. “I was just…”
She trailed off then as she was reminded of her conversation with Penny. The information she had learned was all rather interesting. It had been a lot to take in. In fact, Clarissa wasn’t sure everything had sunk in…until now.
“Alimony stops when the person paying it dies, right?” she asked Parker.
“Should I be alarmed by that question?” he wisecracked.
“No.” Clarissa met his gaze. “Tara Benton wouldn’t have killed her ex-husband,” she announced excitedly. “It wouldn’t have made sense for her to kill Donnie…not when he was paying her alimony!”
“Hmm, that’s a good point,” Parker agreed. “Unless she acted in a fit of rage, that is.”
“I don’t think she’d do that,” Clarissa replied. “She has a temper, no doubt about it. But I think her bark is a lot worse than her bite. I think underneath all that anger is a sad, hurt woman trying to heal. She’s not a killer.”
“So you think Justin’s your guy? Poor kid…”
“No,” Clarissa said.
“No? You don’t even have a shred of sympathy for him? Look, I know Justin gets on your nerves, but he really is just a kid,” Parker said. “As much of a menace as he can be to the residence of Sugarcomb Lake, you’ve gotta feel for him…don’t you?”
“No,” Clarissa clarified. “I mean I don’t think Justin did it.”
“If it wasn’t him, then who do you think it was?”
The wheels in Clarissa’s head were turning. She thought long and hard about the conversation she’d had with Penny – and the unflattering information she had learned about Donnie Davis. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
“There’s one more person I need to interview!” Clarissa exclaimed.
“I’m coming with you,” Parker told her.
There was no time to argue. They raced to his car, both eager to solve the case.
Chapter 17
“Take me to Green City Inn!” Clarissa demanded.
Parker couldn’t hide his surprise. “Clarissa!” he teased, feigning horror.
“No!” she blushed. “That’s not what I meant. Oh, there’s no time to explain. Drive!”
When she and Parker arrived at the inn, which was really more a mansion-sized, looming hotel, Clarissa leapt out of the car before it had even stopped moving. She raced inside and rushed toward the front desk, out of breath and panting.
“Can I help you?” the woman behind the desk asked, looking at Clarissa curiously.
“Yes!” Clarissa exclaimed, her breathing still ragged. “I’m looking for the manager!”
“I’m the manager.”
Clarissa lit up at that. Then she crossed her fingers that there hadn’t been a change in management. “Are you Ava?” she asked hopefully.
“No.”
“Ida?” Clarissa tried again, feeling her optimism begin to fade.
“Ada,” the woman corrected her.
“Yes!” Clarissa exclaimed triumphantly.
The woman raised an eyebrow. “What is this about?” she asked guardedly.
“Did you know Donnie Davis?” Clarissa blurted out, getting right to the point.
Ada’s face fell. She took a step back from the counter as though she expected Clarissa to attack her. “Look,” she said, “I didn’t know he was married, okay? So before you get all preachy with me, remember that he lied to me, too.”
“Huh?”
Ada looked as confused as Clarissa felt. She ran a hand though her long chestnut-co
lored hair and pursed her lips. “You’re probably one of Donnie’s exes, right?” she asked. “You’re here to accuse me of being the other woman? Because I swear that isn’t how it happened.”
“No!” Clarissa exclaimed right as Parker rushed into the hotel lobby. “This is my boyfriend,” she said proudly. “I wasn’t dating Donnie. I’m actually investigating his death. Er, you did hear that he passed away, right?” she added, cringing.
Much to Clarissa’s relief, Ada nodded. “But I don’t understand why you’re here,” she said. “I haven’t spoken to Donnie since I found out he was married. I blocked his number when he started calling me again.”
“When did he call you?”
Ada shrugged. “A few months after I ended things, he sent me flowers. I threw them in the trash. He had some nerve, trying to get me back after what he put me through! When we met, he told me he was divorced,” she recalled with a touch of bitterness in his voice. “He lied.”
“He was a bit of a womanizer?” Clarissa asked knowingly.
“He was a total scumbag,” Ada replied with disgust. “When I learned the truth, I ended things with him immediately. I heard his wife eventually left him, too. Good for her!”
“How did you find out you were the other woman?” Clarissa asked.
Ada grimaced. “That’s the worst part,” she said, lowering her voice. “Donnie’s wife got suspicious, went through his phone and found out about me. She turned up here at my work to confront me! It was humiliating.”
Clarissa winced. “That does sound bad.”
Parker nodded in agreement.
“She was distraught. But I can’t blame her,” Ada sighed. “I blame Donnie!”
“He sounds like a real piece of work,” Clarissa said sympathetically.
“I don’t understand guys like him,” Parker remarked with a shake of his head.
“Not long ago, some other woman called me at work,” Ada revealed. “She was asking me about Donnie. She seemed convinced I must be seeing him again. It was so stressful! Being harassed at work like that could jeopardize my career.”
“Who was the woman?” Clarissa demanded immediately.
“I don’t know if she ever told me her name. I didn’t really give her a chance to say much at all,” Ada admitted. “I just told her to stop calling me and hung up on her. Thankfully, I haven’t heard from her since.”
Clarissa and Parker exchanged a look.
“Thanks for your time,” Clarissa said to Ada. “You’ve been really helpful. We’ve gotta go!”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Parker asked as he and Clarissa raced to the car.
She nodded. Then she suddenly announced, “I have to pee.”
Parker looked at Clarissa like she had sprouted a second head. “Um, can it wait?” he asked. “We’re trying to catch a killer here,” he reminded her, just in case she had somehow forgotten.
“I know.” She looked at Parker pointedly. “Would you want to catch a killer with a full bladder? No? That’s what I thought. I’m going to run inside and use the washroom. I won’t be long. You wait here.”
Well aware that her boyfriend thought she was insane (and perhaps incontinent), Clarissa raced back into the hotel lobby. She made a beeline for the bathroom located just beyond the front desk. There, she locked herself in a stall – and then called her aunt.
“Oh hello,” Matilda said. “What’s a better color to wear on a first date, red or –”
“Matilda, there’s no time!” Clarissa blurted out. “I need your help!”
“What is it?” Matilda asked.
“I’ve been looking through the book of potions you gave me. The other day I noticed a spell near the very back that I need to use. But I think it’s probably too advanced for me. Can you do it for me? Please? It’s important,” Clarissa pleaded.
“You said the spell is near the back of the book? Those are the spells for expert witches. You know I only get to use so much magic at a time, right?” Matilda asked, sounding unenthused. “If I perform an advanced spell, I’ll need to go cold turkey for a while so I can recover.”
“Is that a problem?” Clarissa asked.
“I wanted to cast a love spell on my blind date this weekend,” Matilda grumbled.
“Matilda, please! This is important,” Clarissa begged.
“Okay, fine. What spell is it?” Matilda sighed.
“I need you to find out where a woman named Gigi Prescott is,” Clarissa said. “Can you do that thing where you conjure up an image of her? You know – the ‘show me Gigi Prescott’ spell? Pretty please?” she asked sweetly.
“Why don’t I just fly over her house and see if she’s there?” Matilda suggested.
“I – I suppose that would work too,” Clarissa agreed. “But hurry!”
“I’m grabbing my broom right now. You said her last name is Prescott?”
“Yes.”
“And she lives in Sugarcomb Lake?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, I’ll look her address up. I’ll call you in a few minutes,” Matilda promised.
“Thank you!” Clarissa exclaimed gratefully. Then she hurried back to Parker.
“Ready?” he asked when she got into the car.
“Yes.”
“Do you really think Gigi Prescott killed her own boyfriend?” Parker asked as he began to drive. “She put a peanut into his muffin when he wasn’t looking and then acted distraught when he stopped breathing?”
“What’s so far-fetched about that?”
“It’s so cold-hearted, so calculated. I can’t even imagine doing what she did.”
Clarissa barely resisted the urge to reach out and wrap her arms around her boyfriend. He was so kind-hearted and sweet that sometimes he just couldn’t seem to wrap his head around ugly concepts. She loved that about him. He was an optimist through and through.
But Clarissa was a realist. Maybe she was even a cynic.
“Gigi was angry. My guess is she caught Donnie doing what he always did: cheating. And if that’s the case, then I can absolutely see her tampering with his food.”
“You can?” Parker snuck a glance at her. “Should I be worried?” he joked.
“No. I’m not a killer and you’re not a cheater,” Clarissa pointed out.
“That’s true,” Parker agreed. “But still…Gigi’s a killer? That blows my mind.”
“But the writing is on the wall.”
“Until you started asking the hotel manager questions about Gigi, I was in the dark,” Parker admitted. He looked at Clarissa with an expression of awed admiration on his face. “What made it click for you?”
“Gigi’s co-worker said she used to be obsessive about checking in on Donnie. I think she was worried he was cheating – and clearly she had cause for concern. Once she found proof of Donnie’s infidelity, the obsessive checking in stopped.”
“And the plotting started,” Parker nodded.
“Yes. Now that I think about it, everything makes sense. The day we went to see Gigi, she had packed up a box full of Donnie’s things,” Clarissa recalled. “She said it was too hard to look at stuff that reminded her of him.”
“But she was probably hauling all that stuff out to the trash,” Parker theorized.
“Exactly,” Clarissa nodded. “Now I just need to prove it.”
“How do you intend to do that?” Parker asked curiously.
“I don’t know,” Clarissa admitted right as her phone began ringing.
She lunged for it.
“Matilda?”
“Hi. I saw a woman at Gigi’ Prescott’s address,” Matilda said, sounding breathless. “In her twenties, slight build, dark hair, tattoos on her arms? Does that sound like her?”
“Yes!” Clarissa exclaimed triumphantly. “Oh thank you! Thank you! I owe you one!”
“She got in her car and left about five minutes ago,” Matilda interrupted.
“Wait, what?” Clarissa demanded, dumbstruck.
“I’m following her.”
“I thought you weren’t going to use your phone while you…” Clarissa trailed off then and looked over at Parker. Remembering he was listening, she caught herself before she said anything that would arouse suspicion.
“Yes, yes, I said I wasn’t going to use my phone while I’m flying,” Matilda said impatiently. “I forgot, okay? Now do you want to know where Gigi is or not?”
“Yes!”
“Okay then. She’s driving toward…um…aha! She just pulled into the grocery store parking lot,” Matilda advised. Then she let out a horrifying, strangled screech that made it sound as though she was on the brink of death.
“What is it?!” Clarissa gasped in alarm.
“I swallowed a fly,” Matilda managed to choke out. “I need to hang up!”
Parker glanced over at Clarissa as she hung up the phone.
“You sounded awfully concerned there. Is your aunt okay?” he asked.
“She’s uh…she’s Matilda,” Clarissa replied, giving him a smile. “Oh, and change of plans. We’re not going to Gigi’s house,” she informed her boyfriend matter-of-factly. “We’re heading to the grocery store.”
“What? Why?”
Clarissa tried to think up a little white lie. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come up with a good explanation. So she opted for the truth – or a watered down version of the truth, anyway.
“I sent Matilda to stake out Gigi’s house. She said Gigi drove to the grocery store.”
“Ah,” Parker nodded. “Good thinking.”
Clarissa let out a sigh of relief. Having to constantly fib to her boyfriend to keep him from finding out about her and Matilda’s magic powers was exhausting! Sometimes it was nice to just be able to tell the truth. Well, the truth minus the flying broomstick bit, anyway.
Chapter 18
“There she is!” Clarissa whispered excitedly.
She and Parker were perusing the produce section of Sugarcomb Lake’s sole grocery store. But they weren’t in the market for crisp green apples or juicy sweet berries. No, they were on a mission to find Gigi Prescott, suspected boyfriend murderer. And Clarissa had spotted her.
“What now?” Parker asked, taking a step toward Gigi, who was examining a peach.
A Whisper of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 5) Page 11
