by Dana Moss
“Want to grab a coffee? I’ve got about a half an hour to kill.”
“Why not,” Taffy said, feeling girlishly excited to have been chosen by Cara to be her friend. So often Taffy had been the snobby one, the one to selectively choose her friends, but Cara had an aura of the elite about her, possibly leftover from her pro golfing days, when she must have been the hot “it” girl out on the links. Compared to goofy Ellie and tough nut Maria, Cara was the epitome of elegance and an echo of home.
Taffy couldn’t help smiling as they made their way to a chain coffee shop in the mall. She didn’t know why her emotions were so keyed up these days. Intensely jealous of Melanie one instant and then utterly smitten with Cara the next. It was as if Taffy had regressed to some uncool teen version of herself. Because she had been breathtakingly cool back in high school. Or so she remembered. But this version of herself was so gawky and geeky and needy and insecure. It didn’t make sense. Did something strange come over her when she was involved in an unsolved case? And Ethan was right, she’d definitely gotten herself involved. She told herself she’d make an effort to be more mature. She certainly shouldn’t be leaving arachnid surprises in innocent vehicles. She felt mortified realizing what she’d done. Maybe she should go back. Hadn’t there been a window opened just a crack? Maybe Mr. Spider crawled out by himself. Her antics hadn’t been fair to him either.
“What can I get for you?” Taffy said, approaching the counter ahead of Cara.
“I’ll have iced tea, thanks.”
Taffy ordered herself a latte, feeling just a little guilty for buying coffee at a place other than Ethan’s Magpie Brewing Company. When the drinks were ready, Taffy joined Cara in a booth.
“How are you and Noel holding up?”
“He’s so sad, and more preoccupied than usual. I hardly know what to do for him. He and Shannon are working on a memorial for Tyler. Todd said he’d help.”
“He arrived today, didn’t he? What’s he like?”
“You can meet him if you want. I’m waiting for him to finish buying a pair of shoes.”
“How long is he staying with you?”
“I guess as long as he likes. He’s practically family.”
“Tyler and Todd, two peas in a pod.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“Shannon mentioned it this morning. Over at the B and B.”
Cara nodded and took a sip of her iced tea. “I always thought Todd was a good influence on Tyler. Whenever Todd visited, Tyler was nicer to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I already told you he’d never been that nice to me. He used to do things like take cash from my purse. Once, he hacked into my online bank statements. Can you believe it? And sometimes he’d steal my credit card and charge meals or concert tickets to it. Occasionally he’d buy stuff and resell it for the cash. I wanted to report him as a thief, but Noel would just laugh and say ‘boys will be boys.’
“If I was on my own at home he’d never follow my rules or give me correct information. He’d tell me he was coming home at a certain time but then wouldn’t show up and I’d be all worried. If Todd was visiting, he’d tell me the right time. Mostly, I think Tyler wanted to make sure I knew that his father cared more about him than me. That if push came to shove, Noel would choose him over me. And I never wanted to put Noel in that position, of choosing between us.” She looked down into her glass for a second. “Maybe I was afraid Tyler was right.”
“Noel seems to love you a lot.”
Cara nodded. “He seems to. I think he does. But he’s always been pretty attached to Shannon and Tyler. I didn’t realize how much until after I married him. I don’t know if anything could break those bonds. I wish I knew.” She seemed to catch herself. “Not break them exactly. I mean, just loosen them, to make more room for me. For a while, I thought that if I had a baby, if we had a child together, that would balance things out.”
“But you had both decided not to have children.”
She looked up and smiled. “At the beginning, I thought Tyler would be enough, that he’d accept me as a second mom. But…”
Then Cara looked past Taffy and waved at someone else. Taffy turned to see a young man who looked strikingly similar to a photo she’d seen of Tyler. He wore a leather jacket and brand new Converse sneakers. Approaching the table, he posed for Cara.
“What do you think? Like the color?”
Cara gave him a thumbs up. Taffy thought they looked a bit like the ones Tyler had been wearing in the canoe. She supposed all teens got caught up in the same fashion trends. Taffy was not immune to it herself.
Todd set a bag on the seat. “Got you a pair of golf socks, too.”
Cara looked almost embarrassed. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to.” He sat down next to her in the booth.
Cara, donning a mock-frown, turned to Taffy and said, “Just because I took him onto the green once, he’s never let me forget it.”
He hooked his arm through her elbow. “I really think we should go golfing together again sometime.” With a charming smile, he added, “I think I showed real potential.”
Cara cleared her throat and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Todd, this is Taffy Belair. She’s friends with the detective investigating Tyler’s death.”
Todd’s open, happy, handsome face seemed to crumple with restrained emotion. He held out his hand to Taffy.
“He was my best friend.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe he’s gone.” He looked down at his hands for a second and then met Taffy’s gaze. “Noel said the detective, your friend, wants to ask me some questions.”
“She’s talking to everyone who knew Tyler. We’re trying to understand his state of mind before he died.”
Todd glanced at Cara. “Did you tell them about Rex?”
“What’s to tell?” Cara said. “I didn’t really know him.”
“You mean Rex Gifford, the mayor’s grandson?” Taffy said. “What about him?”
“Tyler seemed kind of mad at him lately.”
“Did you know Rex at all?”
“Yeah, I met him a few times. Pretty cocky guy. The school’s star athlete, everyone looking up to him…”
“And Tyler’s rival.”
“Right, because of Jenny.”
“We know he got in a fight with Rex the night he died, but apparently that was earlier at the campsite, and Tyler walked away after.”
“Tyler used to say Rex was so privileged he practically got away with murder in this town.”
“Interesting choice of words.”
He flushed slightly and looked toward Cara. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was a terrible choice of words.”
“Is that what the police think?” Cara said, leaning forward. “That it could be murder?” Her already pale features seemed to grow paler. “I thought it was an accident, or maybe …”
“Maybe what?” Todd looked between Taffy and Cara as they shared a look.
“You don’t mean…” Todd, his eyebrows raised, looked at Taffy. “Suicide?”
She looked back at him. “They haven’t ruled anything out yet. Whatever happened, we’re pretty sure drugs were involved.”
Cara closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
Taffy said, “Does it bother you to talk about this? We don’t have to.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s the only way we’ll find out the truth.”
“Everyone seems to think Tyler was clean, just drank a bit sometimes. But you were his best friend, Todd. You out of anyone would probably know what was going through his head.”
“I don’t know. The last couple times I came to visit… He just seemed to want to party with his friends more in the last month or so. I wasn’t as into it. We had no hard feelings or anything. But I was starting to worry he might be getting into some bad stuff …”
“Drugs?”
He glanced at Cara.
She said, “You can
tell the truth, Todd. No one’s going to be mad.”
Todd turned back to Taffy. “He never wanted Cara or Noel to find out. I wasn’t going to say anything. He’d never been interested in drugs before. I figured it was just a phase.”
“Apparently, he’d taken something the night he died,” Taffy said. “We’re not sure what exactly yet.”
Todd nodded, seeming to have a hard time letting it all sink in.
Taffy leaned forward. “Do you know if Tyler had any suicidal thoughts in the past few weeks?”
“Don’t we all kind of go there in our heads sometimes? It doesn’t necessarily mean we—”
“I know. You’re right. Maria’s just looking at all angles.”
Todd looked down at his hands. Then he shoved the heels of his hands against his eyes. Pushing back a threat of tears? He took a deep breath.
“I just can’t imagine my friend doing that.”
Taffy felt bad for bringing it up. She shouldn’t even be talking about the case so much without Maria around.
“Detective Salinas will want to talk to you.”
“Of course. I’ll be here. Has she questioned Rex yet?”
“Tomorrow, I think.”
“What if he lies? What if his friends lie for him? Or his family?”
Cara reached out and laid her hand calmly on his clenched fist. “Because his grandfather’s the mayor?”
Taffy shook her head. “Mayor Gifford wouldn’t do anything to get in the way of an investigation.”
Cara withdrew her hand and swirled her iced tea. “But maybe other people wouldn’t want to point fingers?”
Taffy thought about what she’d overheard that girl saying in the school bathroom. Something about “protecting Rex.” Taffy wished she could be sure whether that had been Monica or not.
Cara leaned her head back against the booth’s cushioned headrest and sighed. “All this has just been so stressful. One minute everything seems normal, and the next you remember that the world’s been turned upside down. I’m so tired from all this, but I just don’t know how to relax.”
Taffy wished there was something more she could do to help. Then she had an idea. “Maybe you’d like to come to a yoga class with me? Lula teaches classes in her garage. Not quite what we’d be used to back in New York or LA, but it still feels really good.”
Cara smiled. “That would be nice.”
“You should do that, Cara,” said Todd, patting her arm and then squeezing her hand. “You’ve got to take care of yourself at a time like this.”
Taffy and Cara exchanged phone numbers and agreed to go to Lula’s class on Saturday morning.
On the way out of the mall, Taffy received her first call on her new device.
“This is Taffy Belair’s brand spankin’ new cell phone.”
“Good golly,” Maria wailed. “Let me turn down my volume.”
Taffy heard the rustle of her adjustments and made a few of her own. When Maria came back on the line, it sounded like she was at the bottom of a hundred-foot hole.
“What?! I can’t hear you!” Taffy yelled. Then the call was disconnected. Taffy thought there might be something faulty with her new phone and had turned around to take it back to the shop when she heard it emit a pinging noise. A text.
You practically blew up my eardrum. Meet me at the Magpie in fifteen.
Maybe the phone wasn’t faulty. Maybe it was Taffy.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
At the Magpie Brewing Company, Maria told Taffy that when she went to question Jenny at home, her mother explained that she’d gone out of town.
“Gone on holiday with her cousins, she said.” Maria blew across the rim of her hot latte.
She and Taffy sat in the carved wooden booth at the back of the Magpie Brewing Company, the local coffee shop that Ethan had taken over as a side business a few months ago. It was late afternoon, and a handful of high school students trickled in for a caffeine hit. Maria had wanted Taffy to keep an eye out to see if she recognized any other students who’d been at the campground last Sunday night. So far, no one looked familiar.
“So close to the end of the school term? Seems rather odd.”
“Mrs. Hughes claimed she spoke with the principal about it first. Said it was the only time her brother and his wife could take their family trip to Hawaii.”
“Wonder if she’ll be back in time for the memorial?”
“What memorial?”
“I just saw Cara at the mall. She said Noel and Shannon are planning one for Sunday.”
Maria raised an eyebrow. “You’re not befriending the victim’s stepmother, are you?”
Taffy scooped up a spoonful of cappuccino milk froth and lifted it to her lips. Even though she’d just had a coffee with Cara, she was indulging in another. “What if I am?”
Maria shrugged and sipped her coffee. Had Taffy heard a tinge of jealousy in Maria’s voice? Maybe she shouldn’t mention the yoga class plans just now.
“Her alibi checked out, by the way. ”
“You still suspect her? I can tell you she’s not—”
Maria held up a hand. “No need to defend her. I was just letting you know that her alibi checked out. She was at the Halcyon health spa during the days she said she was there. They had her booked in Tuesday to Tuesday but they told me she checked out early to come home before her stay was complete.”
Taffy nodded and stirred her coffee. “I met Todd, Tyler’s friend from Eugene. He was with Cara at the mall. He said some stuff about Rex not getting along with Tyler.”
“Jenny’s mom didn’t have anything good to say about him either. Said Tyler was a much nicer boyfriend, but Rex had been having a hard time letting go.”
“And he was at the campground that night.”
“He’s next on my list to talk to. The baseball team arrives home late tonight. I’ve arranged with Mr. Ainsley to conduct more interviews at the school tomorrow.”
“Find out if there’s any connection between him and Monica.”
“That girl from the B and B? We spoke to her once already. She didn’t seem to know anything.”
“I’ve got a hunch she’s hiding something.”
Maria raised an eyebrow. “Another Taffy Belair hunch?”
“I’m not totally sure, but I think it was her I overheard her in the girl’s bathroom the other day. She said something about protecting Rex. I think that’s what she said anyway.”
“So you’re not sure it was her? Or you’re not sure what was said?”
Taffy frowned. “At least it’s a small lead.”
“Hunches aren’t leads.”
A group of preteens came into the coffee shop giggling and squealing over something one of them had said outside. Their mirth didn’t die down upon entering the Magpie, and the handful of quietly chatting patrons looked up, including Taffy and Maria.
Maria got up to get them two biscotti from the front counter. Taffy listened to the preteens gossiping in the corner. They were speaking in hushed but dramatic tones, and she only strained a little to overhear.
One of them whispered loudly. “Are you going to try it, Carlie?”
“I can’t. Monny would kill me.” She must have meant “mommy” but Taffy couldn’t hear clearly.
“But she’ll never know,” said another girl in the group. “It’s supposed to make you feel out-of-this-world happy. I think we should do it this weekend. Who’s in?” They all seemed to be agreeing on their plans for this weekend. Even the girl named Carlie finally acquiesced.
The door to the coffee shop opened, and Taffy heard Maria greet the arrival. “Hey, Mel, great sleuthing last night.”
“Really?”
Taffy turned away from the table of girls and saw backwoods bimbo Melanie smile gratefully at Maria. Was Maria really giving this newbie investigating credit? After sifting through garbage? Taffy glared. Melanie looked her way, saw the glare, and gulped.
Maria saw the exchange, laughed and said, “She’s harmless. A
bit hung over after last night. She didn’t mean to be so rude.”
Melanie waved tentatively in her direction. Taffy frowned and looked down at her nearly empty coffee cup. The double dose of caffeine was beginning to make her feel jittery.
Maria came back with the cookies. “Here, have some sweet to balance out your bitter. Really, Taffy, you’re being childish. You should apologize for last night.”
Taffy knew she should. While Melanie placed her order at the counter, Taffy mustered her resolve. As she approached the counter, the barista, Kyle, set two takeaway cups on the counter in front of Melanie and said, “One flat white and Mr. McCoy’s usual.”
Mr. McCoy? Taffy looked past Melanie, out the window, and saw the Blue Bear sitting out front. Ethan appeared to be on the phone.
“You’re here with Ethan?” Taffy was glaring again. The caffeine rush fed a surge of adrenaline.
Melanie, holding the two cups, cowered in front of her. “We’ve been out at the lumber yard picking up supplies. He told me to run in and get us coffees. That’s all.”
“That’s all?”
Melanie was backing toward the door now. Ethan saw her coming and smiled and waved, but Taffy was standing farther back from the door and couldn’t be properly seen through the reflecting windows. She stepped back even farther so she could watch them. Melanie skittered to the truck, glancing back once. Ethan held the door open for her, took his coffee, and laughed at something she said. Had it been something about Taffy? Were they laughing at her? She assessed her situation: Foaming-at-the-mouth girlfriend painfully on the edge of bitchily berating potentially innocent boyfriend.
With an exasperated growl, she spun on her heel and went back to her table.
She dropped back into the booth across from Maria, who said, “I see that apology went well.” She dipped her biscotti in her coffee.
Taffy picked up her cookie from the plate and snapped it in two. “She knows Ethan likes a caramel macchiato with a dollop of cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.”
