Chapter Ten
I tried to get Bebe to eat something, since we’d skipped lunch, but it was no go. She decided to rest in her room and I left her to it. But I caught Ginny as she was running by and asked her to keep an eye out for Sami. She said she would, then asked me if I’d heard that Star’s ex-husband was in town.
“No. I didn’t even know she had one.”
“Oh yeah. It was quite a spectacular blowup when that marriage headed over the cliff. So to speak.” She winced and I waved away her apologetic look. “He was a jerk, and so was she, so you can imagine the fireworks that lit the sky at the time.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Oh—almost ten years ago now. Wow. Time just melts away, doesn’t it?”
“Where’s he been?”
“From what I heard, he’s been up in Alaska, working on the oil rigs or something. Good pay, lousy working conditions. Maybe all that time in the wilderness has calmed him down a bit. He was quite the wild one. Jason Moon is his name. Maybe you’ll run into him, since you’re involved and all.”
“Maybe.” I waved her goodbye and went back in the house to mull that over. So…Star’s ex-husband was in town. Star and Moon—they should both be run over on principle. Had he just shown up because of her death? Who knew? And what did he hope to gain?
It was kind of depressing always looking for motives in everyone’s actions. But that was pretty much the name of the game for me these days. Detective work was a real drag in a way. But at the same time, it definitely gave me a direction and a purpose. And that was sort of cool.
I went to my room and read for awhile. “Sleuthing for the Clueless” was jam-packed with methods and madness. I couldn’t really tell how much was tongue-in-cheek nonsense and how much was serious sleuthing advice. I was going to have to play it by ear.
I went out back to check on the parrot and the yard. Aunty Jane was there, staring at me dolefully. I could tell she still held it against me that I didn’t want to learn magic.
“It’s just not me,” I told her. “I can’t do things that go against every fiber of my being.”
“I don’t care nothin’ ’bout your fibers,” she said. “I care ’bout Bebe. I thought you did, too.”
I groaned and went back in. I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich with the new little hand-held toasted sandwich maker—replica of a 1949 original-that Bebe had found on the internet.
Delicious! Crisped just right.
But all the time I was thinking about how I really needed to go to the scene of the crime—er..accident—and take a look. I needed to start asking people questions, too. If I was going to do this thing, it was time I went ahead and started.
I went out back to ask Aunty Jane to keep an eye on Bebe while I was gone, but she wasn’t there and I just stirred the parrot up. He began a string of foul language at me. I couldn’t tell what the words were, but I could certainly tell they were bad.
“You goofball,” I told him. “You can yell all you want. I won’t be here to hear it.”
It wasn’t dark yet. I grabbed a black sweater to pull on. That, with my jeans, should be dark enough, in case I got a chance to skulk around a bit. And then I was off, heading for Starflower’s house.
It was only a few minutes away. I turned up the winding road and took it at about forty, what Bebe estimated she was doing at the time, just to see. Sure enough, there was the mirror. I could plainly see the coming road around the bend, as well as the three little roadside lights that lit the way. There would have been plenty of time to jam on the brakes. Or to swerve. How could Bebe have missed it? Even if she’d come around the bend too fast, she surely would have seen Star in time to do something. It didn’t make any sense.
Yellow crime scene tape still marked the area, and showed where Star’s body ended up. That gave me the shivers, but only for a second or two. It did seem she’d been standing awfully close to where the road curved in. What in the world had she been doing there?
I turned off the road and pulled over behind some eucalyptus trees, turning off the engine. And then I sat and watched. The sun was setting over the ocean. The sky lit up like some sort of heavenly fire was painting it red, then gradually faded to a pastel pink as the sun slipped away. I watched the hillside, but nothing stirred.
Star’s house was dark and still. Maybe I could go up and look in through the windows. But why? Did I really think I was going to find out anything new? I would think the police had been all over everything by this time. But maybe I could get an idea of the lay of the land at the time of the accident. Anything to jog my thinking and give me an idea of why that accident had happened the way it had.
I didn’t know what I was looking for and I started to feel a little foolish. What was I doing there? Maybe I should just go. With a sigh, I reached for the ignition.
But then something moved. Something was out there on that hillside. I stared hard, and suddenly, I realized what it was. A black cat.
“Sami,” I said aloud, a little leap in my heart rate. But I knew that was a long shot. We were miles from Bebe’s, and who knew how many black cats lived between here and there? Still…
I slipped out of the car and followed the cat, up the hill and around the driveway. It stopped and looked at me. I made the little clicking kitty-call noise I always made with him, but he didn’t seem to care. Turning, he ran up through the low brushy area and onto the manicured lawn that swept up to Star’s house.
“Sami!” I called when I got close enough. “Sami! Come here, kitty.”
The cat didn’t turn. He ran to the house and scrambled up a wood fence and over. I glanced at the house. There was no sign that anyone was inside, so I ran up to the gate and followed the cat into the backyard.
“Sami?”
It was quite an impressive back yard, set up like something from a home improvement show, with a huge barbecue pit and modular seating and a waterfall. It was getting dark now, but muted lights brightened my way. Still, I couldn’t find the cat.
Then I heard him. He’d gone out on the other side and headed toward a canyon. I got the side gate opened and followed right behind him.
Off to the left were the lights of the golf course, but the fairway was empty now. It was a little too late in the day for golf. Down below a bit, I could see a walled in two-story unit in golden stucco. I knew that was where the apprentices lived. And that place was blazing with light. I wondered if I ought to go talk to them. Where had they been when the accident happened? What had they been doing?
But not yet. Right now, I was following a cat. Was it Sami? I had my doubts. It didn’t seem interested in getting a scratch under the chin or a cuddle, like Sami did. And I couldn’t get close enough to know for sure.
I went down the hill into the canyon, slipping and sliding on loose rocks. “Hey, Sami,” I said, just in case. “I’m not sure this is worth breaking a leg over. What do you think?”
He didn’t answer, of course. They never do, do they? But he stopped at something that had the look of a small storage shed, the sort of place workers might use to store their tools and other supplies on a hot work day in the fields. A sort of tall, skinny cubbyhole.
“Hmm.”
It had a padlock but whoever had used it last hadn’t closed it properly and I had no problem getting it open. Inside there were work gloves, a couple of water bottles, and various hand tools. There was also a little cupboard door. The sign said, “Private”, but there was no lock, so I opened it. Nothing. It looked empty. But it reminded me of an opening in a tree when I was young that my best friend and I used to pass notes and secrets back and forth. It looked empty, but if you reached in and pushed it just right….
I tried it and sure enough. The false back popped off, revealing a stash of three letters in envelopes, all addressed to Star. I spent about fifteen seconds mulling over the ethics of the situation. I knew it wasn’t right. But Star was dead and Bebe was alive and I had to do everything I could to help her. I reached
in and took them. Something told me I was going to learn something here. My heart actually started beating harder.
And I guess that little jolt of adrenalin was a good thing, because just as I took the letters and thrust them down into my shirt for safekeeping, I heard someone up above at Star’s house.
Looking up, I could see the beam from a flashlight. And then someone was coming my way.
Now my heart was really in my throat. I had a choice to make—go out to meet the intruder and act like I had a right to be here—or run. After all, I was now carrying someone else’s letters. I opted to run.
I headed down to where an outcropping of boulders lay across the mouth of the canyon. I slipped in behind a big one and caught my breath, then looked out to see what was going on back up the hill.
He was coming right toward me—a tall man, dressed in black. For some reason, this sent my adrenalin sky high.
Could this be Bebe’s undertaker?
I couldn’t run for my car without going out in the open. My only choice in hiding places was further down into the next canyon—or the building where the apprentices lived.
Right now the bright lights and sounds of people coming from the building were mighty appealing. I slipped around to the other side of the boulders and made a quick run for it. I reached the front porch and slid to a stop in front of the door. That flashlight was coming down the hill. My pulse surged. I didn’t have time to knock. Besides, if I just went on in, maybe he would decide I was one of the apprentices and give up on me.
Reaching out with a quick prayer, I grabbed the door handle. It opened to my touch, and the next thing I knew, I was inside, slamming the door and leaning on it, and facing three startled apprentices.
Chapter Eleven
“Hi,” I said, breathing hard and trying to smile.
“What the hell?” the lone male said, rising to his feet and looking fierce.
The two females merely stared. They obviously recognized me, but I had a feeling they might remember all those times they’d seen me with Roy the best. And that was okay.
I’d never actually met these people, so it was no wonder they were a bit surprised when I burst in on them. Still, I did know their names—Danny Ortega was the male. He was good looking in a dark, sullen way that teenaged girls often fell for. The others were Leah Poole and Francie Lake, two pretty blondes who looked so much alike, I hadn’t even tried to differentiate them yet. They all looked like your average teenagers, hanging out on an evening, dressed in jeans and t-shirts.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, as soon as I could talk without gasping. “There’s a man following me. I…I’m not sure why, but I got really scared and your place was the only refuge I could find so I…”
“Yeah, we can see what you did,” Danny said cynically. “But why are you sneaking around here, anyway? Were you up at Star’s house?”
I shrugged helplessly. “I…sort of. But only in the yard,” I hastened to add.
“And the guy following you?”
“I don’t know. He seemed to come from the direction of the house but … .”
“No. There’s no one staying at the house.”
He said it as though that settled the matter and I must be a liar if I claimed anything else.
“Well, he definitely came out of the yard,” I said stoutly. “I was down the hill at the edge of the canyon and all of a sudden he came out as though he was after something. I didn’t want to stay to find out what that might be.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No. He didn’t get that close.”
Danny opened the door and peered out into the gloom. “I don’t see anybody.”
“He can’t be gone,” I said. “He was just coming down the hill after me.”
One of the girls turned on the young man, her eyes wide. “Danny! Go out there and find out what he wants.”
Danny looked startled. “Me? Why me?”
“Because you’re the man.”
He looked thoroughly disgusted. “Oh, cool. You two are always yammering about equal treatment and stuff, but the moment something hard or dangerous pops up, it’s ‘Danny, you do it!’”
Both women rolled their eyes in unison. It looked like something they did a lot. Danny sighed, grabbed a big long flashlight and went out into the night.
One of the blondes, the one with cute modern-looking glasses, turned to me and said, “Okay, now that he’s out of the room, we can be perfectly frank. Whatever it is that you’re here to complain about, Danny did it. No doubt about it.”
The other one gave her a sideways glance and came close, grabbing my arm and saying conspiratorially, “Don’t listen to Leah. If you want to get the truth, we’d better go into the kitchen where we won’t be overheard.”
I began to wonder why I’d ever had the idea in my head that these three were a close-knit, loving group. “Listen, I’m not here complaining about anything. I’m just here because of the accident last night. I wanted to look around and talk to you apprentices and get a better idea of how it happened.”
Leah threw out her hands. “Don’t ask us. We weren’t even here. We were all at the country club already, hosting the party and waiting for Star to show up.”
“Yeah,” Francie chimed in. “And she made us go up there an hour ahead of time to do so-called decorating. With absolutely no supplies provided, I might add.”
I gave her a sympathetic smile. “Do you have any idea what made Star go all the way down onto the lower driveway like that? It doesn’t seem like a natural place for her to be walking around. It’s pretty steep around there.”
“You know, I’ve had the same thought,” Leah said, adjusting her glasses so she could see me better. “I didn’t get it either. She wasn’t the type to go wandering around in the middle of the road like that anyway. And she was supposed to be at the party. What the heck was she doing down there?”
Francie hesitated, then blurted out, “You know what she was doing down there. She called and told us she was going to be late because….”
Leah rose, shaking her head and looking worried. “No, Francie. I don’t think you ought to tell her. Bebe’s her aunt.”
Francie wavered. I stared at her, mouth open, but not talking yet, because I was only beginning to understand that there was something here I needed to know. She glanced at me, made a face at Leah, and went ahead with it.
“Look, she was really mad at your aunt. The point of the whole party was to get her impeached. And then when Bebe refused to come, it was ruining all Star’s plans. So Star called and told us to carry on with the party…”
“Oh Francie,” Leah said, furious. “You’re an idiot.”
“…and that she knew things she could use to make Bebe so mad, she would have to come over to Star’s house, and once she got there, she would make her come to the party. So she was down there on the road to ambush Bebe, to scare her. She loved doing things like that to people. And once she made her into a complete wreck, she was going to force her to come to the country club to face the music. That’s all.”
I was speechless, but Francie wasn’t.
“Poor Star,” she added, looking pleased with herself. “In the end, she was hoisted on her own petard, don’t you think?”
I swallowed and nodded my agreement with that assessment. “That all seems to fit in with what we know,” I noted. “But it still doesn’t explain why Bebe didn’t see the mirror.”
“Blinded by rage?” Leah offered sarcastically.
But I didn’t buy that.
“Listen come on in and sit down. I’ll get you a chair from the other room. Funniest thing happened. We had a wooden chair we kept out on the front porch and somebody stole it. Can you imagine? An old chair like that? What is wrong with people anyway.”
She produced a perfectly fine chair but I didn’t want to sit. I was too edgy for that. I thanked her and then ignored it, shifting my weight back and forth.
And then Danny was back. He came in and
as I turned to watch him, the letters I’d stashed in my shirt shifted, reminding me I was going to have to be careful or they’d fall out and I’d be caught, guilty of tampering with the mail. Well, maybe it was a little late for that, but I’d be caught out anyway, and I desperately didn’t want that to happen. I tried to shove them back surreptitiously and I was lucky because all eyes were on Danny.
He shut the door and smirked as he took off his jacket.
“Did you find him?”
He shrugged. “I caught a glimpse of a car, but it took off and I didn’t see enough to identify it. Looked like a regular late model RAV or a CRV, one of those small SUVs. But he’s gone now.”
That was a relief. I could walk to my own car without worrying about being jumped.
“Okay. Thanks for checking that out,” I said it with a smile, hoping to seem friendly. “So you three are all cut flower grower apprentices, huh?”
Danny gave me a worried look, then scanned the others. “So, whatever these two have been telling you, forget it. They live in la la-land. If you want the real story, you’ll have to talk to me.”
“Crabs in a barrel,” I murmured to myself.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Why do you all seem so suspicious of each other? Here I thought you all were Star’s eager gang of protectors, three musketeers, a one-for-all and all-for-one sort of deal.”
“Hah!” Leah flopped down on the couch and made a face. “You’d be cynical too if you had the rug pulled out from under you like we did.”
“You mean, Star’s death?”
“More than that, finding out she didn’t set up to leave us the ranch the way she’d been promising for a year,” she claimed with dramatic Valley Girl emphasis. “She hadn’t paid us anything since Halloween. Now we’re high and dry with no place to go. We thought we were building a life here, a business, only to find out she was lying to us all that time.”
I looked at them, amazed. “You really thought she was leaving you her ranch? The three of you?”
Danny nodded. “That was what she said. We signed papers and everything. She said she wanted to go live in the Caribbean on a yacht. We were supposed to keep this place going and send her monthly checks for the rest of her life. But the ownership of the ranch would be split three ways.” He grunted. “So we already found out that isn’t happening. She never put through the final paperwork. We’re out of luck.”
A Ghost in Time (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 3) Page 7
