“How did—”
“Rose said something about her stepdad’s money, and that he was running the business into the ground anyway,” Lorea said. “I remembered how Drago got accused, and it all made sense. Rose pretty much confessed to me before you got here.”
“Will Lorea have to testify?” I asked Tony.
“If Lily found a paper trail. I’m sure we’ll find it,” he answered. “Lorea, why in the world did you come here?”
Lorea looked down at her hands. “I wanted to warn Phil. I thought he was in danger.”
“What kind of danger? You couldn’t have guessed Rose would be here.”
“No, I thought it was Vickie.” She looked over at me and frowned. “After I talked to you, I kept thinking how strange her behavior was today, and how possessive she was of Tim. I thought maybe she and Tim were working together to get all of the life insurance money. With Phil out of the way, Tim was the next in line to receive the payout on at least one of the policies.”
“And you knew this how?” I asked.
“Terese.” Lorea’s voice was small. “I never would have come if I thought I’d be in danger. While I was talking to Phil, we heard a door slam and Rose came storming into the office talking about Phil stealing her money.”
Tony closed his eyes. “You could have been killed.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. It all made sense in my head.” Lorea sank back into the couch. “It was really stupid.”
My head was feeling less like a throbbing watermelon, so I slowly sat up and leaned back against the sofa. “It wasn’t my fault this time.” I looked over at Lorea, and she pulled her bottom lip through her teeth.
“You’re a bad influence, Miss Pyper,” Tony said in his official cop voice. “Luring innocent civilians into your amateur detective business.”
“Hey, I didn’t lure anyone. She ran headlong into trouble trying to prove that Tim was guilty.” I poked Lorea in the ribs.
She rolled her eyes. “I heard that.”
“Heard what?” Tony looked from her to me.
“She was saying I told you so,” Lorea said. “It was practically vibrating off her.”
I laughed. “Okay, but I did tell you so.”
“Yeah, next time I’ll listen,” she said.
Tony cleared his throat. “Um, ladies. There won’t be a next time, right?”
Lorea turned to me and arched an eyebrow. I smiled and stood slowly. “I think I need some water if we’re finished here.”
“Yes. Finished as in final, no more investigating,” Tony said.
I patted his arm. “You’re a good cop. Now quit being bossy and go take care of your girlfriend.”
Tony smirked. “I’m afraid that you both have a lot more explaining to do, statements to fill out—you know, all that fun stuff.”
Lorea and I both groaned.
PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE GRAHAM CRACKERS (STRESS RELIEF)
Spread peanut butter on a graham cracker. Sprinkle with chocolate chips or chunks of your favorite dark chocolate. Enjoy with a glass of cold milk.
Courtesy of www.mashedpotatoesandcrafts.com
It was nearly ten thirty before we got the okay to go home. I’d had a moment to call my parents and fill them in on what was going on, and then I’d called Luke. He was on his way over now.
“How are we going to function tomorrow at the festival?” Lorea whined. She rubbed her wrists, which were red and chafed from the ropes.
“Wes and Jenna said they could take a shift in the morning for us.” Even though the thought of my brother in a craft booth was pretty scary, I planned on accepting his offer. My entire body felt shaky. Someone had offered me an orange juice to sip, and that helped a little, but right now I needed sleep.
“Are you sure you don’t want someone to drive you home?” Tony asked.
“That’s why I came.” Luke stepped into the office and knelt by the sofa. “Are you okay?”
I couldn’t answer, because seeing him there undid me. All I wanted was Luke. I wanted to feel his strong arms around me, to hold me up in the chaos surrounding us. I shook my head.
“Oh, Adri, you scared me to death.” Luke held out his hand and helped me up. He wrapped his arms around me, and I melted into his embrace.
“These girls are a lot of trouble,” Tony said.
Lorea pouted. “Hey, I just solved your case for you.”
“Yeah, and it’s a good thing I love you, or else I would arrest you.” He touched his fingers to his lips, then pressed them against Lorea’s cheek.
She stood on her tiptoes and boldly kissed him. “I don’t care if you’re on duty. I love you.”
Tony hugged her. “Let’s get you home.” He looked at Luke and me. “Text me when you get home.”
I saluted him. “Yes, sir.” I turned and gave Lorea a hug. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yes. Tony said they’ll have a few more questions for me tomorrow.” Lorea squeezed my arm. “And for the record, I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you.”
“It’s okay. I understand.”
“Good. I’ll get there as soon as I can in the morning,” she said.
“Don’t worry about setup. We’ll handle it. Get some rest, please.”
Luke helped me into his pickup. “I’ll come back with your dad and get your car after I drop you off, okay?”
I nodded.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked as he pulled out onto the road.
“Just a little woozy from all the adrenaline.”
“I can’t believe it was Rose.” He shook his head. “It changes everything.”
“That’s right. The custody case. What will happen to Jasmine?”
“It might be sticky, because the judge ruled in Rose’s favor. There will be some hang-ups depending on who she has that might want to take care of Jasmine. Javier may still have to appeal, but hopefully they’ll grant him full custody now.”
“That poor little girl.”
Luke pulled up to my house and cut the engine. “Do you want me to come in for a minute?”
“Yes, please.” I grasped his hand. He grinned and jumped out of his pickup, trotting around to open my door. “We’ll have to keep it down, but hopefully the kids are asleep,” I whispered.
Luke nodded, and we walked through my house quietly.
My parents both came in from the kitchen and scooped me into a bear hug as soon as they heard the door click shut. “Adri, are you okay?” Mom’s voice was muffled against my shoulder.
“Yes, everything’s okay.”
“You ever thought about moving back home to Rupert? ‘Cause it’s a lot safer there,” Dad said.
I smiled. “I’m glad you guys are here. Is everyone else asleep?”
“Yes, the kids were restless, so Wes and Jenna had to lie down with them. But honey, we’ve been worried sick,” Mom said. “Are you hungry?”
“No. I’m thirsty, though.”
“Let me get you some ice water.” Mom hurried into the kitchen, flicking on the light.
Luke approached me, and his eyes widened. “Did you get hurt?” He motioned to my chest.
I looked down, and jumped at the sight of blood spattered across the front of my green shirt. Why hadn’t Tony mentioned it? The red speckles were small and infrequent, so maybe he thought it would freak me out even more. Lorea must have noticed too. “Wait, is it on my skin?” I rubbed my hand along my neck and shivered.
“No, just those few small spots on your shirt. What happened?” Luke asked.
I looked from my parents to Luke. “Let me go change, and then I’ll tell you the whole story.”
“Okay. Do you want me to make you a cup of tea or something?” Mom grabbed my tea kettle before I could answer.
“Actually, that would be nice. There’s a honey chamomile in the cupboard above the sink.”
I heard Luke speaking softly while my mom filled the tea kettle as I hurried down the hall into my bedroom. I tossed my shirt in th
e trash. It was ruined. Even if the blood came out, I didn’t want to remember that squelching sound when the metal spike impaled Rose’s shoulder. I shuddered and tried to think of something else as I pulled one of my running shirts over my head, smoothing down the silky hot-pink fabric.
Tux bumped up against my ankles and I scooped him into my arms, his purrs reverberating against my chest. For some reason, he made me think of Tim and that visit to his office only a couple weeks earlier. I had believed in his innocence, and I had been right. I only hoped that his practice wouldn’t suffer because of the investigation, his arrest, and everything related to Lily’s death.
When I returned to the kitchen, Luke was sitting in a chair at the kitchen table, spreading peanut butter on a graham cracker while talking to my dad. “What’s that?” I asked.
“Stress relief, if you have some chocolate chips,” he answered with a smile.
I grabbed the bag out of my pantry and dropped it on the table. “I could definitely use some stress relief.”
“Me too,” my mom said.
Luke finished spreading a thick layer of peanut butter on the cracker and then dotted it with chocolate chips. He slid it onto a plate and pushed it toward me. “I like to have mine with milk.”
I moved to get up, but my mom beat me to it. She grabbed the carton from the fridge and four glasses. My dad poured the milk while Luke finished smothering the next graham cracker. The kitchen felt cozy as I sat next to him, his presence filling the room with a security that I craved, especially after the evening’s scary end to the murder investigation.
I bit into the treat, and the crunch of the cracker mixed with the creamy peanut butter and chocolate was delicious. “Wow, you need to patent this. It’s better than I thought.”
Luke swigged some milk as the teapot began to whistle.
“I’ll get that.” Mom jumped up again and bustled around by the sink.
I finished off my cracker while the tea steeped, and brushed a few stray crumbs onto my plate. “Mmm, this tastes so good for some reason.”
“Adrenaline letdown. Everything sweet tastes good,” Luke said.
“Are you going to tell us what happened?” my dad asked between bites of graham cracker. “Or do we have to wait until morning?”
“Nope. It’s quite the story.” I told them about Lorea’s cryptic clues and hunches, and how I figured out something different than she had. Luke and my parents listened, and then I sipped the soothing chamomile tea as we talked about the craziness that was Rose Benavidez.
“I probably better let you get home,” I said to Luke after we had all discussed theories of Rose’s motive for murder—killing her sister to hide embezzling didn’t seem like enough, unless the sum she’d stolen was even larger than the life insurance.
“I’m going with him to pick up your car,” Dad asked. “Do you have your keys?”
“On the table by the door, but you can wait until tomorrow if you want.”
“No, it won’t take long. I’ll go now,” Dad said.
Luke nodded. “Good idea. We don’t want it stuck there when the police seal everything off.” He stood and I did too, because I really wanted another hug, and maybe a kiss. He took my hand as he walked toward my front door.
“Thanks for being here,” I said.
“I want to be here. Please, don’t ever hesitate to call me.” He squeezed my hand and ran his fingers up my arm. “I would have felt so bad to find out all of this tomorrow. I’m glad I could help.”
My parents were still in the kitchen, so I leaned toward him and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” I murmured.
He turned his head and kissed me on the mouth, then once on each side of my lips. “I’m glad you’re safe. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I touched his cheek, resting my eyes on his for a moment. “Good night.”
After he and my dad left, I found my mom in the kitchen scrubbing my stove. “Mom, it’s midnight. Stop cleaning my kitchen.”
She turned and waved her rag at me. “I can’t sleep. Not after seeing you kiss Luke. Now tell me all about him.”
I smiled, not even caring that they knew I was head over heels in love with Luke Stetson.
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Courtesy of www.mashedpotatoesandcrafts.com
It took superhuman effort, but with my family’s help we survived the Ketchum Art Festival’s Saturday crowd. We received word that Gladys was recovering, after the surprising revelation that she was allergic to one of the perfumes she had used to mix up bath salts. I was relieved to find out it had nothing to do with me or Vickie. She’d never used the scent before, and what I had witnessed was an extreme allergic reaction. I made a note to visit Gladys soon and purchase some bath salts to make up for her loss at the festival.
Luke came for lunch and helped get rid of our empty boxes and trash. He stayed for a little over an hour, and then left to go into his office for a couple hours to catch up on a few things.
Tony stopped by when we were packing things up for the night. He was off duty, but he had a couple questions to ask Lorea and me.
After he questioned us, I had one of my own for him. “I thought you said Rose had an alibi for the whole day on the day of Lily’s murder.” I put my hand on my hip.
Tony lifted his chin. “She did, but that’s because she had a temp worker take her place at the design event in Boise. She was instructed to introduce herself to everyone as Rose Benavidez, and since the event was out of town, no one was the wiser.”
“Wow, so this really was premeditated,” I said.
“Yes,” Tony said. “And I’m glad Rose went ahead and confessed.”
“It’s official, then?”
“Yep,” Lorea chimed in. “So I don’t have to testify.”
“That is a very good thing,” I said, nodding sagely.
“She took more than half a million dollars from Phil over the past five years, and somehow Lily found out,” Tony said. “We’re studying all of the files that were on Lily’s computer even though Rose thought she’d cleaned it up. We found a hidden file with the evidence of how Rose had embezzled right under her stepdad’s nose.”
“Tim did say Lily was incredibly smart with numbers,” I said. “I’m glad that he can have some closure.”
“Are we still on for tonight?” Tony asked, bringing my attention back to the grassy field where we stood.
“Yes, we’re meeting at seven on the dot for dinner,” I said. “And there won’t be any distractions tonight.” We were all gathering for dinner before Wes and Jenna left home. Tony had already double-checked with me twice; he must have been anxious to catch up with Wes and celebrate the successful resolution of his investigation.
When we closed the flaps of the tent that evening, my mom was bursting with excitement over how many items she’d sold with still one day left of the festival. “I think we should do this again next year,” she said.
“Minus the murder investigation,” my dad said, pointing at Lorea and me.
“Hey, I’m not taking any responsibility for this one.” I put my arm around Lorea. “It’s so nice of you to take the heat.”
She chuckled. “That’ll be the last mystery I try to solve.”
“It’s still a pretty good twist that Rose was involved in all the rumors we heard about,” I said.
Tony nodded. “I couldn’t believe it when we confirmed that Rose’s name was listed as the second beneficiary on Lily’s life insurance policy. Tim’s name was only under condition of marriage. He won’t get any of the life insurance money, after all.”
“So that syringe was meant for Phil?” I asked. “Rose didn’t have enough money
from embezzling, so she was going to kill him too?”
Lorea nodded. “I think Phil figured it out, because one minute he was sitting there listening to Rose talk and the next minute he went after her. She slammed his head into the desk. Maybe she thought she killed him.” Lorea paused and shuddered.
“And that way she could use the euthanizing agent on you,” I said, completing her thought. “Hey, how did she get access to the poison?”
Tony lifted his eyebrows up and down. “That’s another mystery that we just solved today, but I can only share what’ll be released to the press.”
I groaned. “It wasn’t Rose?”
“Wait, it was Vickie, wasn’t it?” Lorea jumped up and down. “I knew it! I knew it was a partnership of some kind.”
I watched the exchange with a half-smile. “Vickie was working with Rose?”
Tony nodded. “She claims she didn’t know what Rose was going to do with the poison, but I have a source who says Vickie was madly in love with Dr. Esplin and hated Lily for stealing him from her.”
“So she helped Rose kill Lily to get to Tim?” I shook my head. “Then why would she frame him?”
“How’s that saying go?” Tony asked. “Nothing burns as hot as a woman scorned?”
Lorea and I both laughed. “Something like that.” Lorea patted his cheek.
“Whatever. Anyway, if she couldn’t have him, then no one could,” Tony said. “It’s sick. I’m not sure of Vickie’s mental state, but she’ll do time for this.”
“That’s an accomplice to murder, isn’t it?” Lorea asked.
Tony nodded. “Rose rolled over on Vickie, and we arrested her outside of town in a cabin this morning.”
“Wow,” I said. “That is nuts. But if she took the euthanizing agent, then why did you think it was Tim?”
“Vickie was pretty smart. She took the first dose from a bottle in their locked supply so Tim would be accountable. Vickie’s alibi was solid, although she’s always been a suspect. We discovered that for some time now she’s been gathering the empty bottles and extracting the bit of poison left inside after Tim euthanized animals.”
Proposals and Poison Page 22
