A Palette for Murder

by Sybil Johnson

  “Wouldn’t be the first time. But if you say someone pushed you, I believe you.” Liz stood up. “Come on, I’ll help you get dressed.”

  “I can’t wear that dress. It’s too hard to get into.”

  “We’ll find something else. Come on. You need to eat. I bet you didn’t get lunch.”

  After looking through the closet, Liz selected dress pants and a short-sleeved blouse, topping it off with the turquoise necklace Rory had bought herself as a present. On the way to dinner, Liz pulled into a parking spot in a residential area of the city.

  Rory peered through the side window of the car. “This is my parents’ house. What are we doing here?”

  “I’m dropping off some flyers for a friend of theirs that’s looking for a house here in town. I thought it would be nice to invite your parents to dinner with us since you missed lunch.” Liz grabbed a stack of papers from behind her seat.

  The two walked up the path to the front door of the Andersons’ home. Rory opened the door and stepped into a house that seemed unnaturally dark and quiet. Even though the sun hadn’t yet set, with all the blinds closed, the house was dark enough that when Liz dropped her flyers, it was hard to see them on the wood floor.

  Liz gathered up as many of the scattered papers as she could and squinted in the low light. “I think one of them landed over there, but it’s so dark it’s hard to tell. Go and turn the lights on for me, would you?”

  “Mom? Dad?” Rory called out as she stepped from the entryway into the living room and fumbled for the light switch on the wall.

  When the overhead lights came on, a chorus of voices shouted “Surprise!” and confetti flew through the air toward her.

  Rory blinked in the bright light and took a step back, then a smile slowly spread across her face. A banner with “Happy Birthday Rory” on it stretched across one wall of the living room. Balloons were tied to chairs that were scattered around the floor. In front of her stood a group of her friends, many of them people she met through painting and her mother’s store as well as others from church. Tripp smiled at her from the back of the group.

  “Happy Birthday, dear.” Her mother stepped forward and gave her a hug, followed closely by her father, who echoed the sentiment and bent down to kiss his daughter on the cheek.

  “You should have seen your face.” Liz grinned.

  “You dumped those flyers on purpose, didn’t you?”

  Liz shrugged while everyone crowded around Rory and wished her a happy birthday.

  Moments later, Arika clapped her hands. The chatter of voices stopped, and all of the guests directed their attention to Rory’s mother. “There’s a buffet on the dining room table. Grab a plate and help yourself. Birthday girl goes first, of course.”

  Tripp piled Rory’s favorite foods on a plate and carried it into the living room for her. The two claimed a spot on the sofa and quietly talked.

  When the doorbell rang a few minutes later, she answered it, surprised to find Detective Green standing on the porch with a colorfully wrapped package in his hands.

  “Sorry I’m late. Happy birthday.” He handed her the package and she invited him inside. “How’s the shoulder?”

  “It hurts, but nothing a little rest won’t heal. Did you find out anything more?”

  He shook his head. “No one saw anything. My best guess is it was an accident.”

  “Thanks for looking into it. Can I open this now?” Rory nodded at the box.

  “Go ahead.”

  She tore the wrapping off the package to find a flat box of Frango mint chocolates. She looked up in surprise. “I love these! How did you know?”

  “Your mother helped me pick them out. Sorry I couldn’t get the hexagonal box. I guess you can only get that in Seattle. The only one I could get online is this one.”

  “The packaging doesn’t matter. This is perfect. Thank you.” She leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek, then thought better of it and gave him a one-handed hug instead.

  Rory pointed him toward the food and settled back down in her spot on the couch, Liz sitting on one side of her, Tripp on the other. Music quietly played in the background through the speakers placed throughout the house. The crowd spilled out into all the downstairs rooms and out onto the patio. After she ate, Rory took selfies with a number of her friends who posted the pics on social media. At one point, she glanced across the room and noticed Detective Green talking with her father. She smiled at the two of them, their heads close together so they could hear each other above the chatter.

  “Okay, everyone, it’s time to dance!” Liz turned up the music and began swaying in time to it. She grabbed Rory’s good arm and pulled her into the entryway, the nearest open space in the house. Soon they were joined by others. When the music slowed down, Tripp asked Rory to dance. As he held her in his arms, he said, “I have something for you.”

  He pulled a colorful envelope out of his pocket. She opened it to find a gift card to the skate rental place where they’d had their second date. “I thought we could do it again some time.”

  “I love it, thanks.” Rory was kissing him on the cheek when her mother clapped her hands and said, “It’s time to cut the cake. The birthday girl is needed in the dining room.”

  As they were walking through the living room, Tripp’s cell phone rang. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this. Go ahead. I’ll be right there.”

  Rory headed into the dining room where a cake, at least three layers tall, sat on the table with her name written on the icing.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said. “Did you bake this, Mom?”

  “Teresa took care of it. It’s from that new bakery downtown, Ingersoll’s.”

  Rory turned to the wedding planner, who stood to one side, a sly grin on her face.

  “That’s why you insisted I come with you to taste those wedding cakes. There was no client, was there? It was all a ploy to get me to pick out my favorite flavor.”

  “There was a client, all right, but I figured I could kill two birds with one stone.”

  Everyone gathered around the table while Swan lit the candles. After all the guests sang “Happy Birthday,” Rory held her long hair back and closed her eyes to make a wish. She was about to blow out the candles when she heard a voice behind her say, “What did I miss?” Rory turned and spotted Candy standing at the edge of the crowd. She waved, then returned her attention to the cake, her long hair falling in front of her face.

  The next thing she knew her face felt hot and a foul smell assaulted her nostrils. Everyone shouted and someone shoved the cake aside and patted her hair between their hands.

  After the excitement was over, Rory stared into the concerned eyes of Detective Green. “What happened?” she said.

  “You’re not having a good day. Your hair got a little too close to the flames,” he said. “Sorry for being so rough, but I needed to put it out. Are you all right?”

  “My hair was on fire?” She looked around the room and everyone nodded in agreement. “I had no idea. I didn’t really feel anything. My face got a little hot, but that’s all. Then there was this awful smell.” Rory touched the right side of her head, bringing a strand of her hair to her nose, and sniffed. The horrible smell still clung to it.

  “It was good you were so close,” Tripp said to the detective. He turned to Rory. “That was an urgent call from the clinic. Someone didn’t show up for work so I need to take a shift. I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave. Walk me to the door?” When he opened the front door, he paused with his hand on the doorknob. “Sorry I wasn’t there when you set your hair on fire and that detective came to the rescue.”

  “Jealous?” she said.

  “Maybe.” He grinned and kissed her on top of the head. “Duty calls. Get back to your party. I’ll call you later.”

  “Thanks for coming and for the present,” Rory said and s
hut the door.

  When she got back to the dining room, her mother took charge.

  “We’ve got to get that smell out. Swan, why don’t you cut the cake while I help Rory with her hair,” Arika said. She ushered her daughter into an upstairs bathroom and a little shampoo later, the smell of burning hair was gone. Rory studied her face in the mirror. Her hair on the right side of her head was noticeably shorter and its edges had a ratty look to them.

  Arika stood behind her daughter and patted her on the shoulder. “It’s easily fixed. I’ll make an appointment with my hairdresser for tomorrow.”

  “I didn’t think she worked on Sundays.”

  “She’ll do it. It’s an emergency.”

  “Maybe it’s a sign I should cut my hair. Liz will be pleased. She’s been trying to get me to make a change for months now.”

  “It could have been worse. You’re lucky Martin acted so quickly. Let’s get you back to the party. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

  When they returned to the celebration, Liz walked up to Rory and whispered, “Did someone push you into the cake?”

  “No, this time it was all me. I got distracted and forgot about my hair.”

  “Why don’t you take Martin a slice of cake. I think I saw him going into the backyard. It’s the least you can do,” Arika said.

  Rory found him alone on the patio sitting in one of the wicker chairs, shoulders hunched forward, staring at something in his hands.

  “Martin? I brought you some cake.” She set the plate on the table next to his chair. “For my knight in shining armor. Thanks for…you know.” She gestured toward her freshly washed hair.

  He looked up and smiled. “Always glad to help a damsel in distress.”

  Rory settled down on the chair beside him and took a bite of the chocolate cake with raspberry filling.

  “That’s nice.” He pointed with his fork to the tear-shaped necklace she was wearing. “New? I don’t remember seeing it before.”

  “It was a birthday present.”

  “Tripp?”

  “No, I bought it for myself.”

  “I thought maybe he’d give you a ring.”

  “Like an engagement ring? Lord, no. We’ve barely started dating.”

  “But I saw you tasting wedding cakes the other day…”

  “That’s what you’ve been thinking all this time?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “There is such a thing as love at first sight. And I didn’t see you much when I was dating Mel. I have no idea who you’ve been seeing.”

  Rory nodded toward the photo he still held in his hands. “Who is that?”

  He tilted it so she could see. A smiling Detective Green had his arms around an attractive woman about his age. “My wife.”

  “She’s beautiful. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Thanks.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Mel told you?”

  “She didn’t give me any details. Just that you lost her a while back.”

  He carefully put the photo in his wallet, picked up the cake and took a bite. “This party reminded me of her. We had one right before I lost her.”

  “What happened? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  He sat back in the patio chair and stared at the plants on the other side of the yard. “Do you know anything about the job I had before Chief Marshall hired me?”

  “I’ve heard rumors.” Rory remembered Liz telling her when they first met the detective about how the police department he’d formerly belonged to had been corrupt and that he’d helped bring the problems out into the open.

  “The police department I was a part of lost its way. Not everyone, mind you, but enough. Bribes, letting evidence ‘get lost’ in certain cases…that kind of thing. My wife got caught in the middle.”

  “Oh, no,” Rory said in a hushed tone of voice.

  “My partner was one of those who’d been taking bribes. He didn’t appreciate my helping to bring the problems to light. He tried to kill me, but he ended up shooting my wife instead.” He looked down at his half empty plate.

  A tear trickled down her cheek. She rested her hand on his arm in sympathy. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine what that was like. Was it his parole hearing yesterday? Is that why you didn’t go to Kit’s funeral?”

  “He didn’t get it.” He smiled sadly at her. “Sorry to be such a downer on your birthday.”

  “Don’t worry about it, I understand.”

  “Rory,” her mother’s voice called from the doorway. “Some of the guests are leaving. They want to say goodbye to you.”

  Rory wiped another tear from the corner of her eye. “I’m coming,” she said and hurried into the house, leaving Detective Green to finish his cake in peace.

  Chapter 32

  The next day brought cool temperatures and overcast skies to the residents of Vista Beach. The heat wave that had consumed everyone’s thoughts for over two weeks had now become a distant memory.

  After church and her emergency hair appointment, Rory settled down for a little quiet time. With Sekhmet curled up next to her on the sofa, she picked up the copy of The Phantom Tollbooth she’d found in Kit’s belongings, a story she remembered reading as a kid. She immersed herself in the tale of a young boy named Milo and his magic tollbooth. She got so caught up in the story, she soon forgot all about Kit’s death and Willow’s murder.

  When she turned the last page a couple hours later, she noticed a piece of paper sticking out from between the endpaper and back cover of the hardback. She carefully pulled away the paper from the inside cover to find a letter Kit had written to his wife, dated after she passed away. She was going to put it back where she found it when Angel’s name caught her eye. In the letter, Kit asked why Zoe had killed herself and vowed to make Angel pay for providing his wife the means to do it.

  Rory tucked the letter back inside the book, set it down on her lap and thought about what she had read. Now that she knew Kit had a reason for wanting Willow dead, or at least punished, she reviewed everything she’d learned about him and his relationship with the herbal healer. How he’d been seen in her backyard twice and had a physical confrontation with her in the alley the morning of her death. Rory slowly put the pieces together in her mind.

  When Mrs. Griswold saw him at Willow’s house two weeks before, he was probably trying to talk with her. Willow must have finally agreed to see him, picking the alley as an out-of-the-way spot. When she couldn’t reason with him, she hit him to shut him up. That must have been the last straw for Kit. When he recovered enough, he left the hospital, went back to her house to confront her once more and grabbed the knife off the counter and killed her. When Mrs. Quakenbush saw him, that must have been when he was dumping her purse in the bushes, trying to make it look like an intruder had broken into the house.

  Rory Facetimed Liz to run over the scenario with her to see if she thought it made sense.

  After Liz gave the new hairdo her seal of approval, she said, “You look worried. What’s going on?”

  Rory read the letter to her.

  “I can see why you think Kit killed her. Are you going to give it to the police?”

  “I have to, but Martin won’t be happy after what he said to me the other day.”

  “You didn’t break in somewhere and find it. It was in a book you happened to be reading.”

  “Kit had motive and opportunity. Mrs. Quakenbush saw him in Willow’s backyard that night. And the means was right there on the kitchen counter. In the letter, he sounds mad at Willow for giving his wife something to end her suffering. They probably argued and he grabbed the knife in anger. I’m not sure there’s enough proof though.”

  “You need to give it to Dashing D, anyway. It might convince the police to drop the charges against Dawn. Reasonable doubt and all that.”

  “I know
. But before I do, I’m going to check Willow’s backyard one last time. See if the police missed anything. And I want to break the news to Tripp. He and Kit might not have been that close, but this does involve his sister. I don’t want him to hear about it from the police.”

  A short time later, Rory slipped through the gate into Willow’s backyard. Her gaze swept the area from the grass to the plants surrounding the house to the steps up to the back deck and the French doors leading inside. She ignored the lawn, figuring anything left on the grass would have been noticed long ago, and searched the plants, starting with the one she’d found the credit card under. She separated its leaves and stared down at the ground, but all she saw were weeds and dirt. In a neighboring azalea, a glint of gold on the ground caught her eye. She reached down and brushed away spent blooms that had fallen off the plant. Underneath them, she found a tiny gold chain attached to a red rabbit’s foot.

  For a moment, she couldn’t remember why the good-luck charm seemed familiar. Her heart broke when she realized where she’d seen it before. She retracted her hand as if the plant were on fire and stepped back.

  Rory sat down on the steps and buried her head in her hands. Everything made sense now. She knew who had killed Willow, but she wasn’t sure the charm was enough for the police. She needed to find more evidence to prove to them and herself that what she suspected was actually true.

  A little while later, Rory drove her car into the church parking lot, easing into a spot in the far corner away from the dozen cars that were already there. She made her way into the church complex, pausing when she heard a chorus of voices raised in song coming from the direction of the sanctuary.

  She checked the time on her cell phone. Choir practice was halfway over. She had at most half an hour for her search. As quietly as possible, she walked down the hallway toward Tripp’s room and knocked on the door, prepared to make an excuse for visiting if he was inside. When no one answered, she opened the door and cautiously peered into a deserted room.

  She slipped inside, eased the door shut behind her and turned on the light. A bedside lamp illuminated the small space, just large enough to accommodate a twin-size bed, three-drawer dresser and nightstand. A door on the far side of the room led into a tiny bathroom.