High Stakes and Hazelnut Cupcakes in Las Vegas

by A. R. Winters

  Chapter 4

  My mother had invited Ian and me over for lunch, so once we were done talking with Ryan, I drove my battered old Honda Accord up north, till we were at the new house that my parents had purchased once Nanna and Wes had announced their engagement.

  The place had a private in-law suite at the back, which meant that Nanna and Wes could live in comfort and not even need to talk to my parents when they were in Vegas. Of course, Wes got along well with both my mom and my dad, and Nanna could never stop interfering in other people’s lives, so they didn’t really take advantage of all the privacy offered by their suite.

  After their wedding, Nanna and Wes had decided to split their time between Vegas and Indiana, where Wes’s family was based, and Wes had already flown back there. Nanna was going to stay in Vegas for a few more days and then join him there for a few months. I hated whenever Nanna left Vegas, but I did admire how happy she and Wes seemed to be.

  “You could’ve brought Ryan along to this,” said Ian as we pulled up in front of my parents’ house. “He has to meet the family at some point.”

  “At some point,” I repeated. “But you know how crazy my mother and Nanna will get. I just want to delay that as much as possible.”

  “When was the last time you introduced any of your boyfriends to your parents?”

  I shook my head. “It’s been a while. And can you blame me?”

  Ian shrugged. “If you’re serious about someone, you should introduce them. And your parents aren’t that bad. They liked Stone.”

  “That was because Stone and I were just friends. And now that Stone is in trouble with the CIA, my mom doesn’t seem to like him.”

  Ian nodded sagely. “I just think you should introduce your boyfriend to your parents when you get serious.”

  “I don’t know how serious we are.”

  “Really? I thought you two were getting along so well.”

  “We are, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s serious.”

  I valued my relationship with Ryan—he was a really great guy, and like Ian said, we did get along so well. But I couldn’t shake the tiny morsel of doubt that had planted itself in my mind, the feeling that perhaps, someday, Stone and I were meant to be together.

  My mother ushered us all into the dining room when Ian and I arrived, but she refused any offers of help to bring out the meal.

  “The chicken’s still in the oven,” she said vaguely.

  I looked at Nanna, who was sitting opposite me and Ian with a bored expression on her face, her bright white hair perfectly coiffed. Her blue eyes revealed nothing, and she shrugged in response to my questioning glance.

  It wasn’t like my mother not to have the entire meal prepared and perfectly ready by the time we got there, so I looked at my dad quizzically, wondering if something was up. But of course, he had even less of a clue than Nanna, and he seemed to be reading something on his phone.

  “Perhaps we can start bringing in the salad and sides,” I said. “Ian and I can’t stay very long. We’re working on a case.”

  “What case?” said Nanna, who always loved hearing about my work.

  Ian and I filled her in quickly, and Nanna frowned thoughtfully. “I’d bet it was that boyfriend who had something to do with it. He’s a rich, powerful guy, and he’s probably used to always getting what he wants.”

  “He seems to have an alibi,” I reminded her.

  Nanna shrugged and made a dismissive noise. “A rich man like that? He could easily get someone to do his dirty work for him.”

  Ian and I exchanged a glance, and I nodded in silent agreement. “That would complicate things. But it’s certainly possible.”

  “And what about your love life?” said my mother. “You’re always working, always talking about work. When are you going to meet a nice man in the middle of all this? All I want is to see you be happy, and I know that the right person would make you happy.”

  Ian coughed suspiciously, and I glared at him. “I’m working on it,” I told my mother. “I don’t need your help or anything.”

  My mother frowned and made an annoyed clicking noise with her tongue. “I’m your mother, it’s my duty to help you out. Not that that’s gotten me anywhere. Look what you’ve done to that nice young man Pearce. After I went to all the trouble of inviting him over for lunch.”

  “Pearce showed up at my work,” I reminded her. “He could have gotten me fired.”

  “He was probably being enthusiastic,” said my mother. “I don’t know why you two had to make a big deal of it. I tried to invite him over to lunch or dinner again, but he just wouldn’t have it. Which is so unusual for him.”

  I laughed shortly. Pearce was a four-hundred-pound unemployed man who lived in his mother’s basement and made a career out of mooching free food off other people. At our first meeting, he told me that he wanted a girlfriend who could pay his rent and keep a clean house for him.

  “I guess it just wasn’t meant to be between me and Pearce,” I said lightly to my mother.

  But she wasn’t about to give up. “What did you do to the poor man? He claims you introduced him to some kind of scammer who tried to steal his money.”

  “That’s not what happened,” I said.

  “But that’s what he said happened.”

  “Pearce tried to steal my girlfriend,” said Ian, chiming in. “He met her and told her he had a huge trust fund and took her out on a date. She broke up with me, and then when she found out Pearce doesn’t have a trust fund after all, she broke up with him.”

  My mother looked at Ian in surprise. Obviously, this was the first she was hearing about this.

  Before she could say anything, there was a loud knock on the door, and I looked at Nanna and raised my eyebrows. She shrugged, in a “don’t look at me” kind of way, and my mother jumped out of her chair enthusiastically.

  “I’ll go get that,” she said, beaming at me happily.

  “I don’t know anything about this,” said Nanna as soon as my mother was out of earshot.

  I looked at my father, who glanced up from his phone and said, “Your mother thinks you need to meet more new people.”

  “I don’t mind meeting new people,” I said. “But I’m tired of meeting these men she tries to set me up with. They all turn out to be so horrible.”

  “Maybe she would stop trying to set you up,” said Ian, “if you brought a boyfriend along.”

  My dad raised one eyebrow and looked at me inquisitively. “You’ve got a boyfriend?”

  I glared at Ian and shook my head quickly. “Ian’s being hypothetical,” I assured him.

  My mother showed up again, grinning from ear to ear, followed by a slightly built man with brown hair.

  “Everyone,” my mother announced, “this is Carl. Carl, this is everyone—my husband, my mother, Tiffany’s neighbor Ian, and my daughter, Tiffany.”

  Hellos were said all around, and my mother insisted that Ian switch seats so that Carl could sit next to me. I rolled my eyes, and Carl gave me a sympathetic smile, which made me warm towards him. So far, Carl seemed like a normal, reasonably nice young man.

  When my mother disappeared into the kitchen to bring the food out—refusing my offer of help—I turned to Carl and said in a low voice, “So, how did she rope you into this?”

  Carl laughed softly. “I’m here to visit my parents. I guess you mother knows them, and my mother made me promise to come over…”

  “I understand,” I said. “And I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” said Carl. “It’s nice to get out of the casinos sometimes.”

  I ignored my mother’s happy smile as she continued to bring the food out, and chatted with Carl about his life in Chicago.

  It turned out that he worked in marketing for a pharmaceuticals company, and he liked hiking on weekends. Overall, he seemed like a regular guy—not one of those crazy freaks that my mother insisted on setting me up with. We chatted throughout the meal, and everyone lingered afte
r dessert, sipping coffees and enjoying the post-meal warmth.

  It was past three by the time we all said our goodbyes, and my mother forced Carl to take some leftovers home.

  I didn’t mind when Carl insisted on walking me out to my car. Ian stepped into the passenger side, but just before I got inside, he said, “So, will I be seeing you again?”

  I smiled and shook my head. “No. It was nice to meet you, but I’ve got a boyfriend.”

  “I don’t believe you,” said Carl, his perfectly polite smile suddenly turning into a leer. “If you had a boyfriend, your mother wouldn’t be trying to set you up.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business. But I’m not interested in seeing you again, anyway.”

  “I don’t think you mean that,” he said. “A girl like you—pretty average-looking, getting kind of old. You must be desperate for some action.”

  He waggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively, and I opened the car door, ready to drive off without answering him.

  “Okay,” he said, “I can see you’re going to be shy about it. Why don’t I pick you up from work one day? We can head back to your place and get right down to it.”

  I glared at him. “Don’t you dare come by my work! You could get me fired.”

  “Fine, then I’ll come straight over to your apartment. Saves time anyway.”

  I pursed my lips and shook my head. “No.”

  “Then I guess I’ll just have to come by your casino.”

  “If you do that, I’ll make sure you get thrown out.”

  Before he could answer, I slammed the door shut and drove off, wondering why the seemingly nice guys had to turn into jerks at the last moment.

  Chapter 5

  “I want to talk to both Richard and Ruby as soon as possible,” I said to Ian as we drove along. “I figured we might as well start with Ruby. If Richard’s been questioned as the main suspect, he’ll probably be defensive. Whereas Ruby seems… I don’t know, but it sounds like she’ll be easier to talk to.”

  Ian nodded. “I don’t like the sound of this Richard guy. Rich and powerful dudes don’t usually cooperate.”

  I had to agree with him. “I called Ruby when I excused myself from the table at lunch and let her know we’d come along. I called Richard too and left a message with his housekeeper, but I’m not sure that we’ll be able to see him today.”

  We pulled up in front of Ruby’s apartment, and I found an empty spot in the parking lot. The building was an old-style two-story brick thing, boring and unexciting.

  Ruby had told me she lived on the ground floor, and when I knocked on the door, it was opened by a petite, slim woman with a generous dusting of freckles on her nose and orangish-red hair that was cut to just below her shoulders. Her face was bare of makeup, her green eyes stood out against her pale skin, and she wore shorts and a green T-shirt that set off her eyes.

  “You must be Tiffany and Ian,” she said, ushering us inside. “It’s so terrible what happened.”

  Ruby’s apartment was plain and no-frills inside. The floor was covered with an old-looking gray carpet, and the small living room had a kitchenette attached on one side. An open door led to a dark hallway, which I presumed led to two bedrooms and a bathroom.

  The living room was furnished with a sofa set that I guessed Ruby had purchased secondhand; the upholstery was a faded green-and-white checked print, and when Ian and I sat down, we sank into the soft cushions.

  A large print of colorful flowers hung on one wall, and there was a bookshelf in one corner of the room, displaying paperback novels, a framed photo of Ruby with some people I assumed were her family, and a tiny statue of a cat.

  Ruby sat down opposite us. “What did you want to know? I’d love to help out, but the cops didn’t seem to find anything.”

  I nodded and glanced at Ian, who seemed to be on his best behavior. Ruby was quite pretty, and Ian has a habit of instantly falling in love with every girl he sees. But his recent experience with the stalker must’ve taught him a lesson, because he sat quietly instead of trying to flirt with Ruby or impress her.

  “Why don’t we start at the beginning?” I said. “How long have you known April?”

  “I put an ad up looking for a roommate, and she contacted me before she moved to Vegas. My old roommate was moving out two weeks after I put up the ad, and the timing worked out. I met April after she moved to Vegas, and she moved in three days later. That was just to give my old roommate time to move out. But we clicked the very first time we met—she seemed so normal, after all those strange people I’d been interviewing to be my roommate. I know it doesn’t sound like high praise, but sometimes, all you want is someone normal.”

  I nodded, thinking about Carl. “I understand. And she moved in immediately?”

  “Yes. She was the best roommate. She was always clean, kept to herself, didn’t have friends or guys over. Well, later, Richard would come over once in a while, but they weren’t disruptive. She kept the place clean. Whenever she cooked, she’d make me some extra food, and she always cleaned the kitchen afterward.” Ruby’s voice cracked a little. “I miss her.”

  “And you haven’t gotten yourself a new roommate?”

  Ruby shook her head. “I just—I guess at first I didn’t know what to do. I’ve been processing it. And I don’t want to get a roommate now, not after… I’d move out right now, if I could afford to, but I can’t. Luckily, my lease runs out in a few weeks, and I’m going to move out. I hate living in this place.” She looked around and shuddered, as though she could see ghosts haunting her home.

  “Of course,” I said, looking at Ruby sympathetically. “It must be terrible having to live in the same place where April was killed.”

  Ruby blinked rapidly, as though holding back tears. “It’s not just that. Apparently, someone might have broken in when April was all alone and killed her. I hate to think of somebody breaking into my apartment—I made the landlord change the locks as soon as I found out that might have happened, but I still don’t feel safe. Some nights, I can barely sleep.”

  I glanced at Ian, who was watching Ruby intently. For once, his expression was unreadable, and I wondered if he was just confused, or trying to hide his sympathy.

  I felt sorry for Ruby, but I reminded myself that we hadn’t ruled her out as a suspect in April’s death. Perhaps she was just a good actress, and faking all the fear and sorrow that she felt about April’s death. “What makes you say that someone might have broken in when April was all alone?”

  Ruby wiped one eye with the back of her hand and turned around to face me again. She took a deep breath before speaking. “I think one of the detectives might have mentioned it. Or maybe April went out by herself, after Richard left… I want to believe that’s what happened, instead of thinking that poor April was killed here.”

  I frowned for a moment, remembering something that Ryan hadn’t mentioned to me. “The cops never said anything about April being killed in this apartment. I guess the place didn’t—I mean, there wasn’t any blood or anything in here?”

  Ruby shook her head. “No.”

  I looked around the place—the living room was carpeted, and the tiny kitchenette area had a linoleum floor. I assumed that the bedrooms were carpeted, and the bathroom had a tile or linoleum floor. If April had been killed in this apartment, her blood would have soaked into the carpet and been unmissable—unless she had been killed in the kitchen or bathroom, and the floors had then been scrubbed down.

  My frown intensified; even if April had been killed in the kitchen or the bathroom, the killer would have had to scrub down the floors, and transport her body away, before Ruby came back home from her walk—which didn’t seem like too much time. All this meant that April must’ve been taken away somewhere before she was killed.

  “Let’s start from the beginning,” I said. “I know this must be difficult for you, but can you tell me what happened the evening that April died?”

  Ruby nodded.
“Sure, I’ve already told this to the cops a couple of times. I didn’t have a shift at the hospital that night, so I was home. I was in my bedroom, reading, when I heard Richard come into the apartment.

  “After a while, I heard raised voices, and I realized he and April were having an argument. I could hear them quite clearly too—Richard was saying he wanted April to move in with him, and April was saying she wasn’t ready, and that she didn’t want to move in with a guy who wasn’t going to marry her. Richard said they hadn’t been together long enough to get married, and that he didn’t see her enough, and if they lived together, things would be easier.

  “It was all pretty intense, and I didn’t like overhearing their private conversation, so I decided to go out for a walk. I said goodbye to them, and when I stepped out, I ran into Mr. Danvers from upstairs. I walked about half an hour over to the Café Allegro, and I had a cup of coffee, and then I walked back home. I must’ve been gone for a bit over an hour, maybe an hour and a half.

  “When I got back, neither Richard nor April were here. I figured they must’ve made up and gone over to Richard’s place, and I didn’t think about it anymore.”

  “What time would this be?”

  “A bit before eight,” said Ruby. “Anyway, I didn’t even think about it; I didn’t even consider that something might be wrong. I just made myself some dinner, then I went into my bedroom, finished reading the book I had started, and went to bed.

  “The next morning, I was at my shift at the hospital when the cops showed up, asking me all these questions about April.” Ruby glanced from me to Ian, and then back at me again. She shrugged. “At first I couldn’t believe them, but it was true.”

  Ian said, “The police report said that you thought Richard had killed April.”

  Ruby looked at Ian, a hint of confusion flooding over her face. “Did I say that? I don’t remember.”

  “So you didn’t think Richard killed April?”

  Ruby shook her head, as if she was trying to shake off the confusion. “I might have thought that at first. I mean, they were having a fight when I left, and when I came back they were both gone. And then I learned that April had been killed—and that was the first place my mind jumped to. I thought maybe the fight had gotten worse and then Richard had killed her.”