Movie Night Murder

by Leslie Langtry

  "Well, Rex will think it's suspicious. He knows you left for the airport after the ceremony."

  He feigned innocence. "What? You think he won't believe that I wanted to spend a little more time with my goddaughter?"

  I shook my head. "No one is going to believe that."

  The doorbell rang, and Riley walked out of the kitchen. He returned minutes later with two bags. The aroma was ridiculous, and I started salivating. In spite of my righteous fury, I pulled two plates out of the cupboard, and we opened the cartons. Riley handed me a set of chop sticks, and we started eating.

  Oh wow. I've had Ming's many times, but it was always so good. Especially the sweet and sour sauce. That was my favorite. In fact, the crab rangoons and chicken were only there to sop up the yummy sauce.

  Philby jumped up onto the counter and sat, waiting. I knew what this was about. This cat had a thing for meat. Any kind of meat. And she relied on the gross out factor to get it. She really was conniving. Once, she walked slowly across a plate full of bacon, then sat staring at me, willing me to stop eating. I didn't. Because…bacon.

  But Riley might be different. He was a health nut. Having a cat interrupt his dinner by touching it might actually work on him. I wasn't going to stop Philby. Riley deserved it. I waited for the cat to make her move. Riley had a huge plate of Mongolian beef.

  The cat did nothing. Nothing. She didn't even approach Riley. She just sat there, watching us eat. What was going on?

  "Here, Philby." Riley tore off a piece of meat and handed it to the pink cat.

  So that was her end game. Very clever of her to use the subtle approach on Riley. Or she had finally given up on me since I never gave her food.

  We finished eating after Riley dispensed a few more "treats." I put the dishes in the sink and turned back to him.

  "Your time is up." I pointed at him.

  Riley wiped his mouth with a napkin veeeeerrrrry sloooowwwllly.

  "Alright. I'll tell you what I know."

  I folded my arms and waited for him to tell me something I already knew. I'd have to act surprised. I could do that convincingly for civilians. But would Riley buy it?

  "Evelyn Trout was actually Vanessa Vanderhook."

  My eyebrows shot up. I didn't know this part. But I didn't speak. I was saving the act for the big news. I was impressed that Riley had a higher security clearance than Maria.

  "So? Who is Vanessa Vanderhook?" I prodded. Come on. Any time now.

  Riley sighed. "She was with the CIA."

  There it was. I gasped appropriately. This was all I needed to know.

  Wait…he said "was." Was?

  "Did you say she was with the CIA?"

  Maybe he just meant "was" because she was dead now. It didn't seem that way though.

  Riley nodded. "She was one of our best assassins."

  My jaw dropped. That frumpy, dowdy, middle-aged woman was an assassin?

  "Until she went rogue and dropped off the grid. The Company disavowed her. No one has seen or heard from her until she dropped dead at your sleepover."

  "Movie night lock-in," I said absently. "But that's not entirely true. I'd seen her—in fact I'd shared a hotel room with her."

  I brought my hand up to my mouth in horror. "I had a rogue assassin staying with my troop! You can never, never, never tell Kelly about this." And then I covered my mouth again. I'd just given him the ammo he needed to get me to help him. Dammit.

  "I won't…if you help me." Riley grinned like a shark, circling.

  "You met her in DC!" I tried to redirect. "Why didn't you say something?"

  He shook his head. "I'd never heard of the woman until this week."

  Did I believe him? I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't sure. He seemed to be telling the truth.

  "I'm still not helping you," I said.

  "We'll see," Riley said as he pulled out his cell and started pressing things on the screen.

  "You wouldn't!" I reached for the phone, but he held me off.

  Riley hit the speaker, and I heard the phone ringing. The top of the screen said "Kel."

  Kel? What, he had a pet name for her? Oh, Kelly and I were going to have to talk about this.

  I swung wide and Riley automatically brought his arm up defensively. He thought I was going for his nose again. But I wasn't. Instead, I hit his forearm hard, hitting the sweet spot that made him drop his phone. It fell to the floor, and I snagged it before he did, ending the call.

  "I told you I'd think about it, and I have," I said. "I'm not going to help you. And not only that, I'm not going to lie to Rex if he asks."

  Riley just stood there, grinning.

  "What?" I challenged. "I said I'm not going to help you. Use your charms elsewhere."

  "It's nothing." He waved me off.

  "That's right," I said. "You have nothing. Nothing you can use against me."

  "That's not entirely true." He cocked his head to the side. "I haven't told you everything."

  "Whatever…you should go pack up now. I highly recommend the Radisson. You've stayed there before." I sounded confident. But something bothered me. Stupid curiosity. It gets me every time.

  "Fine," I finally said. I have the patience of a gnat. "What is it you haven't told me that will make me go along with your stupid plan?"

  Riley looked right into my eyes. "Vanessa Vanderhook left something behind."

  "And?" I was tired. I needed this over so I could climb into bed with my pink cat and her kittens.

  "A letter she faxed to the Agency the day she was murdered."

  I threw up my hands. "So the woman can write? What of it?"

  "The letter said that if something happened to her, Merry Wrath, aka Finn Czrygy, would be the one who murdered her." Riley leaned back against the wall with his arms over his chest.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  "She may have said that, but it's not proof I killed her."

  But if Evelyn were alive and standing here right now, I definitely would murder her. Most likely a manner with a lot of pain. Pain and pliers.

  Riley sighed. "It's enough to make you the number one suspect."

  I was so sick of this. My life since I'd left the CIA was nothing but one stupid murder after another, and I'd been framed more than once. Who'd think living in the middle of Iowa could be so dangerous?

  "I don't even have a great alibi," I admitted. "Kelly was with me most of the time, but I'd waited for the pizza guy on my own for at least twenty minutes."

  "So, establish an alibi for tonight, then sneak off and help me grab the body," Riley said.

  "What kind of alibi could I have? You will claim you were never here, and I don't think they'll take Philby's word for it."

  I really needed to start having someone with me at all times. Maybe I could hire an assistant who did nothing but give me an alibi. She could just follow me around twenty-four seven and say I was with her at that time. The idea did have some merit. I'd have to look into that.

  But at this point, my head was spinning. It was too late to discuss this any further.

  "If I help you, we're not doing it tonight," I finally said. "I need to sleep on it. You should too."

  Maybe in the morning, Riley would see that this was a very stupid plan.

  "I can't overstate the importance of doing this tonight," Riley said.

  I silenced him. "No. I'm going to bed. There will be no discussion until tomorrow. The only one who'll listen to you tonight is Philby—and I doubt that she can help carry a body."

  Pushing past him, I headed to my bedroom. Three sleepy kittens and their neon pink momma were curled up in the middle of the bed. After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I joined them.

  And just in case Riley had some new pill to turn me into a zombie slave that would do whatever he wanted (you couldn't put anything past the CIA), I locked my bedroom door.

  I awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs, and to the sound of my meat-obsessed cat pawing frantically at the door. I let her out, deciding not to wa
rn Riley of Philby's little walking on bacon act. After a quick shower, I got dressed and made my way to the kitchen.

  Riley was frowning at a plate of bacon. Philby sat a few inches away, tapping her tail on the counter.

  "Your cat just walked across the bacon!" Riley seemed shocked.

  Good girl! I picked up a piece and ate it. He looked a little green around the gills.

  "She does that. Make sure you don't hold a burger too close to her either."

  "Wow. Philby's pretty diabolical." Riley shoved the plate toward me and took out a fresh one, presumably for the rest of the bacon.

  "When it comes to bacon, the Taliban has nothing on my cat." I sat at the breakfast bar and dug in.

  Riley had made scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon. Or as I called it—the perfect meal. It was nice of him. But it was a trick. And an old one. Buttering me up with breakfast was not going to shake my resolve. I wasn't some stupid mark. I was a trained operative.

  "So," he said as he turned the bacon on the griddle. "Have you decided that you're going to help me yet?"

  "You're awfully confident." It was irritating that he thought I'd be so easy to manipulate. "No, I'm not going to help you steal Evelyn. That's a road I don't want to go down. I'm too established here. And because I want to continue living here without being constantly tailed by the police, I've decided that your plan won't work."

  "Wrath, I…" He started to protest as he put out a plate with the last of the bacon.

  I held up my hand to stop him. "I'm not changing my mind. I'll come up with some way to deal with this, and you can help me if you want to, but it has to be legit."

  Philby was on her feet and trotting over to the bacon. I lifted the plate into the air before she could stomp across it. She was not amused. With an angry glare, she jumped off the counter and sat at my feet. She was counting on me dropping food, and she was out of luck. I never, ever dropped bacon.

  "Do you have a plan?"

  "No. But I think we have to tell Rex everything," I said.

  "You're joking." Riley studied my expression. "That defeats the whole purpose of sneaking away with the body!"

  I shook my head. "For the last year and a half, every time something like this has come up, I've lied to Rex. And he's tolerated it…but barely. I don't want to run the risk of him dumping me."

  Riley didn't say anything. He collected up the dirty dishes and started washing them. I had no idea what he was thinking. My former handler and I had dated once. And I suspected there were still some feelings in there somewhere for me. But enough was enough. I wasn't going to lose Rex because of Riley.

  "Okay," he said as he put the last dish in the drying rack. "Let's go see Rex."

  I shoved Riley out the door as fast as I could so he wouldn't have time to change his mind. Even if he did, I wouldn't. I was going to tell Rex everything, no matter what. And the CIA couldn't do anything about it.

  Okay, so they could do something. Like kill me or worse. But I didn't think it likely. At least, I hoped it wasn't likely.

  We pulled in at the station and Rex was waiting for us. I'd texted him to make sure he'd be there. Apparently that merited curbside service. He greeted me with a grin and I called him Detective like he'd asked me to when at work. It was kind of cute and a little sexy—like a role-playing game—the detective and the Girl Scout leader. Maybe spy would be better. If he was surprised about my former boss's presence, he didn't show it. He shook Riley's hand and led us into his office.

  I closed the door behind us before sitting down.

  "What's going on?" Rex asked.

  "The CIA wants to steal Evelyn's body," I said as I folded my arms over my chest and glared at Riley.

  I didn't wait for Riley to change his mind or edit the facts. I told Rex everything. About Evelyn being a rogue assassin. Everything I knew, at least. If Riley knew more, he wasn't saying.

  Rex looked from me, to Riley, and back again. I didn't think it would be hard for him to believe this. My boyfriend already knew about my past. And I didn't care what he did with this information, because I'd done my job. This was over as far as I was concerned.

  Any minute now, he was going to let Riley have it just for thinking of stealing the body.

  "So." Rex tapped a pencil on his desk and looked at me. "You let a trained assassin accompany your troop to our nation's capital?"

  Okay, so I didn't think he'd see it like that.

  "Well—" I hesitated. "When you say it like that, it does sound bad."

  Riley had a flicker of amusement cross his features. He said nothing. Didn't even come to my defense. The bastard.

  "And you." Rex turned on Riley. "You were going to steal the body and take it back to Spook Central?"

  A little late…but there it was.

  Riley nodded. He'd been a spy for so long he probably didn't see this as a bad thing. In fact, the CIA thought very little of the local authorities. To Riley, this was probably something Rex should give up as professional courtesy.

  Rex buried his face in his hands. I knew this wasn't going to be the greatest moment. I just thought he'd be a little proud of me for being so responsible. I made a mental note to tell Kelly how responsible I was being, without letting her know about Evelyn's true background.

  Rex sighed. "Well, at least for the first time since I met you—you're being up front with me from the start."

  Okay, that stung a little. But he was right. And I was hoping to change my ways.

  "So, what do we do now?" Rex asked.

  "You could hand Vanessa's remains to me," Riley answered.

  "Vanessa? Oh. Right. You mean Evelyn." Rex ran his hands through his hair. "I can't do this unless you step in, officially taking over the case. Which you can do. But for some reason, I don't think you want to do that."

  Riley shook his head. "No. This is off the books. The Agency won't acknowledge it."

  "Why don't you involve us in the investigation?" I asked. "Keep it all quiet, and when the case is wrapped, send the corpse with Riley?"

  Riley nodded. "I could live with that—as long as it doesn't get out into the media."

  What were the odds of that happening? I wondered. By now, ten little girls and their mothers also knew about the dead woman. I didn't think this case was quiet to begin with. My troop would at least brag to other kids about having a dead body at their lock-in. I had to admit that would be tough for any other eight-year-old kid to top.

  "I can try…but only from here on out," Rex said. "We have a lot of witnesses, and half of them are underage." He looked at me. "I can't promise you that this isn't already out there."

  Riley looked like he was going to object. But maybe he realized he was beaten. I had to give him credit—the man knew when to give in.

  "Fine. We'll do it your way."

  Yay! I shouldn't be happy, but getting these two to agree when I really had no master plan at all really was a coup.

  Rex stood up. "You two might as well come with me. I'm heading to the morgue. The coroner has completed her autopsy." It might be the fastest that's ever been done in Who's There history.

  We gave Rex a ride over to the hospital. The morgue was in the basement there, because they had the best facilities outside of Des Moines. Dr. Body was waiting for us when we arrived. I introduced them while trying not to trip her or throw her to the ground. This was proof of my amazing self-control.

  "Nice to meet you, Riley," Soo Jin Body said, her mouth curved into a seductive smile.

  Was this woman really trying to seduce him, or did she just always come off that way?

  She led us into her office. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't see the corpse, but oh well.

  "Drug induced heart attack," Dr. Body told us. "Acetylene. It was introduced by hypodermic. A huge dose—more than was necessary."

  Great. It really was a murder. I'd hoped it would've been natural causes. No such luck. Someone had actually murdered Evelyn Trout, aka Vanessa Vanderhook. And that someone
had tried to implicate me.

  I was about to say something when I noticed that Riley and Dr. Body had sparks flying between them. I could actually see the sexual tension. And for some reason, it bothered me. Was I jealous? I should be happy that she's not flirting with Rex.

  "Where was the injection site?" Rex asked, oblivious to the rarefied air around Riley and Soo Jin.

  "On the back of her neck," the coroner said. "No defensive wounds or injuries. I'm pretty sure she never saw it coming."

  "How soon before the drug took effect?" I asked.

  "Almost immediately with that dose. Only a fraction of that would've been necessary to kill the woman." Her perfect, Cupid's bow lips curled into an impossibly seductive smile as she looked from Rex to Riley. Oh, how I hated her.

  I pulled my thoughts back to the investigation. "No DNA? No strange hairs or fingerprints?" Could you even have fingerprints on a body? I wasn't sure.

  Dr. Body shook her head. "Nothing like that. And even if we did have a strange hair, it would be nearly impossible to trace it. This isn't a TV show."

  Rex and Riley laughed, and I felt like I'd just been set up. Was this woman after both men? I definitely had something to say about that. I knew how to kill her without leaving any evidence behind. And it wouldn't be acetylene either. Something bizarre, like a shark in her bathtub or a herd of runaway elephants.

  "Thanks, Soo…" Rex glanced at me. "Dr. Body. We'll get in touch with you on what to do with the remains."

  The coroner looked confused. "But the family has already claimed the body. I thought you knew that."

  Wait…what?

  Rex's jaw dropped open. "What are you talking about? I never cleared the release of the body."

  Soo Jin looked on her desk and then handed him a sheet of paper.

  "You authorized them to pick her up. They were here this morning."

  Rex shook his head. "I never authorized this." That vein that throbbed in his neck—the one I thought was so sexy when we were snuggled on the sofa—was putting on a show now.

  Dr. Body spoke up, "This is the right form, and there's your signature." She pointed a long, slender finger at the paper.