“Do you know how Stripes and Creamsicle are doing?” she asked.
“I saw Tanya in the yard with them yesterday. Her mom lets her take them outside to romp in the sun. Then they return them to the house. Both mom and daughter are loving them, Caprice, so you don’t have to worry.”
She lifted her chin. “I’m not worrying.”
“The hell you aren’t,” he said with a wry smile.
Just like her family, Grant seemed to think he knew her. Did he?
Suddenly there was a sound from inside the house. Then a male voice called, “Hello?”
Caprice knew that voice. Rushing forward, she reached the porch just as Seth emerged from the back door, a pastel envelope in his hand.
She ran up the stairs to greet him. “You got here!”
He grinned at her. “I know I’m a little late. Tough last patient. But I made sure no one else was headed in because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.”
In a polo shirt and chinos, Seth looked as if he might have jogged from his car. His hair was windswept, his face a little ruddy.
“You can relax now. Have hors d’oeuvres and punch until Mom and Dad—”
On the porch, Caprice heard the phone inside the house ring.
“Do you need to answer that?” Seth asked.
She pulled her cell phone from her pocket. Nothing more from her dad. “No, I’ll let the machine take it. I don’t want to be on the phone when they arrive.”
The phone had just finished its third and last ring when they heard noise inside the house and her mom’s, dad’s, and Nana’s voices. She’d know them anywhere.
To her surprise, Seth grabbed her hand and leaned close to her ear. His breath fanned her cheek as he suggested, “C’mon. Let’s crowd with everyone else so your parents don’t see us on the porch.”
Of course, he was right. She let him tug her down the two steps, and they hurried to stand beside Nikki, who gave her a wink. Bella’s smile was knowing too, and Caprice felt herself blushing.
That was crazy! She did not blush.
Behind her, in a tone everyone could hear, Vince said, “When the screen door opens, I’ll count to three. Then everybody shout ‘Surprise!’”
Her dad and Nana must have been stalling their mom a little—maybe they stopped to pet Sophia—because it seemed to take forever for the screen door to open.
Vince counted down and everyone called, “Surprise! Happy birthday!”
Caprice thought her mom might faint. She looked that shocked.
Still holding Seth’s hand, Caprice let go and stepped forward with her sisters and Vince.
Bella explained, “We wanted to give you a birthday to remember. You always do so much for us. Happy birthday, Mom.”
Everyone else formed a circle around Fran, offering loving words and kisses and hugs.
Breathless and beaming, she hugged each guest, squealed like a teenager when she spotted her college roommate, and thanked everyone for being there.
After the rush of good wishes died down a bit, Caprice introduced Seth.
“So this is your doctor!”
Okay, so she was blushing. “Mom—” she cautioned under her breath.
Seth simply laughed and joked back. “I’d have no problem being Caprice’s doctor. Happy birthday, Mrs. De Luca.” He handed her the card. “Not very original, but I’ve heard a spa day at Green Tea Haven can reduce stress. Since you’re a teacher, I thought you might appreciate that.”
Never standing on ceremony, appreciative and excited about the gift, her mom gave Seth a hug. “Thank you so much! I’ve always wanted to make an appointment for a massage there and just never have. Now I get a whole day. Wonderful. You don’t have to return to the clinic tonight, do you?”
“I’m always on call if I’m needed. But this is my evening off.”
“Then why don’t you and Caprice get something to eat? After I greet everyone, I’ll join you.”
As Caprice and Seth headed for the buffet table, she said to him, “You know how to make a woman happy.”
“I try.” His sexy smile was absolutely toe-curling.
Although Caprice helped Nikki and Bella keep the food warmers and trays filled, generally making sure the party was proceeding smoothly, she managed to spend a good bit of time with Seth. He was a great conversationalist and seemed to be able to talk to anyone.
Anyone . . . but Grant. Grant was keeping his distance.
At one point during the celebration, all of the guests were seated at the same time enjoying ice cream and cake. Seated across from Bella, Caprice noticed her sister looked gaunt and wan.
Earlier she’d seen Bella sampling Nikki’s sausage and pepperoni balls. Now Bella took a spoonful of vanilla ice cream . . . and turned green. Pushing back her chair, she stood and rushed into the house.
Caprice was almost on her feet, ready to follow, when Joe said to Vince, “Keep an eye on the kids, will you?”
Nikki murmured, “Uh oh. I think the cat’s about to leap out of the bag.”
No way did Bella want to tell Joe about her pregnancy here at the party before the presents were opened. Caprice didn’t know whether to stay out of it or make sure Bella was okay.
Seth’s elbow grazed hers as he asked, “Would you like me to check on her?”
Caprice shook her head. “She doesn’t need a doctor, at least not to tell her what’s wrong.”
Leaning closer to her, his shoulder brushing hers, Seth asked, “Is she pregnant?”
“I’m sworn to secrecy.”
At the other end of the table, Grant pushed his chair back, stopped briefly by Fran, and said a few words to her. Then he gave Caprice a very long look, holding her gaze long enough to make her forget ice cream was melting on her plate, raised a hand in a good-bye gesture to everyone else, then climbed the porch steps.
Caprice tapped Seth’s arm. “I’ll be right back.” Maybe she could catch Grant to say good-bye and check on Bella at the same time.
As she passed Nana, her grandmother caught her hand and warned in a low voice, “A man’s jealousy can make him sullen.”
Grant, jealous? She doubted that.
After giving Nana a quick kiss on the cheek, Caprice went inside. She would have hurried through the living room to catch Grant—she heard the front door close—but raised voices suddenly erupted from her downstairs powder room.
Bella’s voice was shrill and unintelligible.
Joe’s response was angry as he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you knew?”
Caprice took a step forward, then a step back. Should she join the fray? Shouldn’t husband and wife work this out on their own?
She didn’t have to make a decision because seconds later Bella shot out of the bathroom into the living room and ran by her out the front door.
Joe followed her but stopped when he saw Caprice. “Did you know?”
Caprice kept silent.
Obviously frustrated and more than a little angry, he said to the ceiling, “Of course, you knew! Nikki too probably. Maybe your whole family. When is she going to realize I should come first?”
So Joe was worried about himself and his pride, not Bella and her condition. Although she should keep her mouth shut, Caprice just couldn’t. “You do come first, Joe. That’s why she didn’t tell you. She’s upset and scared and needs reassurance.”
As Caprice had guessed, none of what she said helped. “Stay out of it, Caprice. And Nikki too. This is for me and Bella to settle.” He brushed by her and left the house, letting the front screen door slam.
Caprice called after him, “I’ll watch Megan and Timmy.”
Bella and Joe were definitely a couple in crisis. Caprice just hoped their children could be protected from the fallout.
Nikki stood at the back door when Caprice crossed from the living room through the dining room into the kitchen. “Is everything all right?”
“I don’t know. Are Megan and Timmy occupied?”
“Timmy
and Vince are playing catch. Megan is coloring. I’ll keep an eye on them.” She opened the door and handed Caprice the sugar bowl. “Can you fill this? Everyone must have used it in their coffee. By the way, I think your doctor is a catch.”
“He’s not my doctor!”
“He could be,” Nikki disagreed with a sly glance as she disappeared off the porch into the yard.
Caprice wanted to get back to Seth, but she was also concerned about why Grant had left so abruptly.
When she went to the canister on the counter for sugar, she noticed the message light blinking on the phone. She might as well check to see who had called.
Playing the message, what she heard gave her pause for a moment. She jabbed at the button to play the message again. Several puzzle pieces clicked into place in her head.
Why hadn’t Roz told her—
Maybe because Roz had no idea what was really going on. As Caprice reconsidered what she’d thought was an innocuous legend attached to the stolen dagger, the clues she had uncovered suddenly all made sense. After all, there were no coincidences with murder, were there?
She just might know who’d killed Ted Winslow.
The following evening Caprice sat in her car at the curb of a one-story house in a quiet neighborhood. Around seven P.M., with the sun sinking lower, she was nervous . . . but not over-the-top nervous. She’d be taking precautions. She just hoped she was right about her deductions. She just hoped this worked. She just hoped the man she’d muted on her phone in mid-conversation would have her back if things got dicey.
A black SUV cruised down the street and pulled into the driveway. Exiting her car, Caprice made sure her phone was still on speaker. After patting the other pocket in her gauzy maxi-skirt for her pepper-spray gun, she took a few deep breaths.
The man she suspected of murdering Ted Winslow climbed out of his SUV, waved at her, then met her at his front door.
“I’m glad you called to schedule this appointment,” he said with a smile. “I’m eager to get started.”
She bet he was. He wanted a life with Roz. Had he simply waited for his chance to make it happen? Or had he planned the murder all along?
After he unlocked the door, he motioned her to precede him inside.
Caprice stepped into Dave Harding’s living room, repeating the mantra in her head that she had to remain calm. When she’d heard his voice on the answering machine, she’d realized why the man who’d warned her to stop asking questions—though his voice was somewhat disguised—sounded familiar. Besides that—
She was here for a confession, that was all. If not a confession, some admission that the police could use to close in on the murderer.
If she was wrong? She’d leave, looking foolish.
Dave’s living room was a mishmash of conflicting styles. It looked as if he’d bought one piece of furniture here, one there, not much caring how the room looked. She imagined the rest of the house would be furnished in the same way.
He looked a bit embarrassed as he motioned to the flat-screen television, the brown corduroy recliner, the gray-patterned sofa. “Drab, I know. That’s why I need to spruce it up. Maybe paint? Some curtains?”
Right now, a lopsided blind hung across the front plate-glass window, half up, half down.
“Have you lived here long?” Her voice wasn’t quivering just a bit, was it?
“Since the store started turning a profit. About six years.”
“Why did you decide to redecorate now?” she asked in what she hoped was an ingenuous manner.
He gave a small shrug. “I’d like it redesigned for a couple. I’m hoping not to be a bachelor much longer.”
Their gazes met and held.
The legend attached to Ted’s dagger should have alerted her sooner to what had happened to him. That dagger out of all his collector’s items had been stolen. The legend accompanying the dagger stated, “Whosoever owns this dagger will own his heart’s desire.”
When she’d heard Dave’s message for Roz on her answering machine yesterday, she’d had one of those “ah-hah” moments. Dave had said, “I really enjoyed our lunch together, and I believe you did too. Whenever you need a listening ear, I’m here. Maybe we can find our hearts’ desires. Call me and we’ll do it again soon.”
Chills had raced down Caprice’s spine when she’d heard the phrase “hearts’ desires.” Could it be a coincidence that the phrase was used in the legend? She didn’t think so. Dave wanted to be more than friends with Roz. Caprice suspected Dave had wanted Roz to be his since high school. He’d lost her once. He wasn’t going to lose her again. And she’d recognized the cadence of his voice. He was the one who’d phoned her and warned her to stop asking questions. Anyone could get her cell-phone number because it was printed on her business cards. She’d handed out quite a few at the Winslow open house.
Dave broke eye contact and crossed to a single-drawer occasional table beside the recliner. He glanced at it, then back at Caprice. “I’m hoping you can incorporate ruby red into your design for this room. It’s her favorite color. Ruby is her birthstone.”
Silence dropped over the room, and Caprice knew she had to take hold of and direct the flow of the conversation. One of her hands lay over her pocket, feeling the solidity of her phone. The other brushed over the pepper-spray gun. How long would it take for her to pull it from her pocket? She should have practiced.
However, maybe this was just a man in love and he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Red’s a color trend right now and should be easy to work in.”
“You know I want Roz to move in here with me, don’t you?”
“I guessed. You liked her a lot in high school.”
“I loved her in high school.” The vehemence in his voice revealed the intensity underlying his declaration.
“A first love is hard to forget,” she empathized, thinking of hers and how she’d felt when Craig had walked away.
“I don’t want to forget. If her mom hadn’t gotten sick—”
“That was a difficult time for Roz.”
“I wanted to help her through it. But she stopped dating while her mom was going through treatment. Then Roz ran off to flight attendant’s school, started flying everywhere, and met Winslow. I couldn’t believe she fell for someone slick like him.” His voice had deepened, the expression on his face growing dark and fierce.
“Ted was rich and could give Roz everything she wanted.” Caprice understood she was goading him. She just hoped the man on the other end of the call could hear.
Dave slashed his hand through the air. “She didn’t care about his money. She just wanted his love, and he was the kind of man who couldn’t give it.”
“You heard things about him?” Caprice prompted, searching for even more motivation for murder.
“My sister has her hair done at Curls R Us. Valerie Swanson is her stylist. One night after an appointment—she was Valerie’s last one for the night—she saw them kissing out back. Everyone knew Winslow on sight. His picture was in the paper often enough—donating to charity, getting promoted to senior vice president at PA Pharm, flying off to third-world countries on PR trips because the company donated medicine. But he was a class-A, unfaithful jerk!”
Dave seemed to be on a roll now. He was definitely passionate about the subject. Maybe she should just go for the confession if he was ready to spill the whole story.
“I think Ted did love Roz,” she theorized. “I think that because of the dagger that was stolen.”
“I heard about that,” Dave muttered. “It had jewels in the handle.”
Caprice had caught him now. The police still hadn’t released the information that a collectible had been stolen, let alone a description of it. “I can’t remember what kind of jewels decorated it,” she said.
Automatically, Dave responded. “Rubies, diamonds, and emeralds.”
Now she had him. Going for broke, she hurried on. “I found out that Ted bought it through an auction. Isaac Hobbs t
old me Ted had looked for something like it for Roz for a long time. When Ted saw the legend attached, he had to have it . . . for Roz. Whosoever owns this dagger will own his heart’s desire.”
Almost as in a Jekyl and Hyde nightmare, Dave’s face contorted with anger. “He wanted to own her. Like a possession.” He spat out the word as if it were a profanity. “I met with him that night in his sword room. We’d set it up at the open house. I convinced him I wanted to know more about his damn collection when what I intended to confront him about were his feelings for Roz. He said Roz would never divorce him. He showed me that dagger and patted it into his palm. He told me the legend. When I brought up Valerie and what I knew about that, he said Valerie was just a playmate to let off steam with. He said he loved Roz and she loved him. He said he had his heart’s desire and he’d never let her go.”
Trying to be as sympathetic as possible, Caprice urged Dave on. “I imagine you tried to reason with him because you wanted Roz to have better than him . . . to be happy!”
“I thought we could talk man to man. I thought he’d let go of her if he didn’t really love her. But he showed me that dagger on purpose. He wanted to rub salt in my old wound. He was so arrogant . . . acting like he owned the world and everything in it. And when he turned around to put the dagger away—”
“That’s when you took the dagger from its scabbard and stabbed him.”
“He deserved it! It was so satisfying to jab that dagger into him—”
Dave had been lost in his passion, his old hurts, his story. And he still was. Until the realization that Caprice had guessed exactly what had happened splashed over him.
He went for the drawer at the recliner, and Caprice panicked that he might have a gun. Her fingers fumbled in the folds of her skirt until she finally plunged her hand into her pocket for the pepper spray.
But Dave was quicker. He didn’t have a gun in his hand, but he brandished the ruby and emerald–embedded dagger. Extracting the blade from its gold sheath, he came at her. Quickly she sidestepped him, finally closing her fingers around the pepper spray.
When he slashed at her, she remembered a defensive move, eluded him, and knocked over his poor excuse for a pole lamp. He tripped over it and fell. With Dave on the floor, she closed her eyes and brought her foot down on his wrist just as the front door burst open. Chief of Police Mack Powalski, along with Detective Jones and two other officers, charged in.
Staged to Death (A Caprice De Luca Mystery) Page 24
