by Holly Plum
As Joy wiped down the front counters, the light coming through the windows shone the same golden color as one of her browned croissants. Her thoughts turned, as they had so often done in the course of the day, to last night’s conversation with Noelle. It seemed preposterous to think that she had dated Landon Park for three years and had not told anyone about it. Then again, perhaps she'd wanted to get away from that part of her life. Joy rarely mentioned her own broken engagement, unless she was asked about it directly.
The fact that Landon and Noelle had once dated raised another distinct but troubling possibility. What if Landon Park had been responsible for the break-in at Noelle's house? A man of his influence would never break into a house on his own, but he could easily found others to do it for him. As far as she could tell, it was just a coincidence that he was there for the week, the place where his ex-girlfriend happened to have moved to the year before. And if he was somehow involved in the killing of Raquel Malley, that still left the question of why he would have wanted Raquel dead?
She was still agonizing over these questions when she was startled by a light knock on the window. Edith was standing on the sidewalk outside, her face pressed against the glass. Joy left her wet rag on the counter and hurried over to let her in.
“So,” Edith said, taking off her jacket and setting it down on a stool with an air of importance. “I’ve just been to the police station to meet with Detective Sugar.”
“And?”
“And, I told him about the break-in at Noelle’s house, and how Noelle once dated Landon Park," Edith answered. "I also told him why I think Landon might have been involved in the robbery and the murder.”
“How did he react?”
“Well, he didn’t seem to think much of the idea that Landon could be a killer.” Edith shook her head and sighed in exasperation as if to suggest that powerful men could get away with anything. “But he did seem keen to know more about the robbery. The detective said he might go down to the hospital and interview Noelle himself.”
“That might be to his benefit,” Joy commented. “If he could get her to stop talking about that cursed broach for ten seconds.”
“That’s not the best of it, though,” Edith went on. Her eyes lit up with excitement, and Joy could tell she had been saving this news for last. “I happened to overhear him tell one of the other officers that Landon Park has a criminal record.”
“Criminal record?” Joy said skeptically. Though she felt sure he was hiding something, it seemed unlikely that a man of his wealth could have gotten himself on the wrong side of the law. “What did they mean by that?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Edith said with a shrug. “Right as Detective Sugar said it, he closed the door. I struggled to listen through the wall because my hearing isn’t as good as it used to be.”
Edith flinched, as though expecting to be chastised for not hearing everything more. But Joy wasn’t disappointed. She looked vibrant as she said, “I think I might have some idea what they were talking about.”
“You do?” Edith said, her eyebrows slightly raised. “How?”
Joy told her about how she had met Tennyson Morris, and how she'd learned that he was an image consultant for a renowned PR firm. “He has a history of assisting famous people who have damaged their reputations somehow.” She reached under the counter and pulled out a basket of bread rolls, which she offered to Edith. “It’s entirely possible that Landon needed his image rehabilitated after committing some sort of crime.”
“Perhaps he has a history of theft?” Edith guessed, taking one of the rolls as a quick snack. “But if that’s the case, shouldn’t there be some record of it online?”
In lieu of an answer, Joy pulled out her phone and searched the internet. She scanned through lists of results but found no leads. She cleared her throat.
“Nothing,” she said. “If he’s committed any crimes, then they’ve been remarkably good at keeping it secret.”
“Surely there ought to be a record of it if he’s done anything illegal,” Edith continued.
“You would be surprised.” Joy took one of the rolls from the basket and began buttering it. “I’ve read that some celebrities are willing to pay top dollar to these image-consultant firms to get every trace of negative publicity scrubbed from search engines. They’re incredibly good at their job, and if they don’t want the world knowing about a crime in a client’s past, it’ll be like it never happened.”
Edith raised her brows in surprise. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it, but it seems like something of that nature should be illegal.”
“I know,” Joy replied. “On the other hand, we all have things in our past we’re ashamed of, and it would be nice to have them scrubbed from the internet.”
“Back in my day, there was no internet,” Edith commented with a resigned shrug. “There has to be a way to find out whether Landon or one of his employees broke into Noelle’s house. I suppose maybe we could ask him where he was last night?”
“That won’t do,” Joy said. “He probably paid someone."
They were both silent for a moment as they considered the various ways of getting Landon to admit to the robbery.
“Perhaps the burglar cut his hand while breaking Noelle's window,” Edith said, reaching for another roll. “I wonder if the police found any other blood splatters on the scene?"
Joy glanced up at Edith, looking startled. “Edith, I think you may have actually hit on something,” she said, setting her roll down on the counter. She felt herself glowing with inspiration. “The glass that cut Noelle was incredibly sharp. The person who broke her window might have also been injured. And if that’s the case—”
“Then they’ll be nursing a cut too,” Edith stated, looking thrilled to have helped out. There was an unspoken sense between them that they were within days or even hours of solving the mystery.
Flush with triumph, Joy picked up her phone and called Sara Beth.
“Hey, I don’t mean to bother you,” she said. “No, I’m not trying to talk you out of it. I just need to know one thing. Where are you and Landon going tonight? No, I’m not staging an intervention, I just need to know.”
A second later she set down the phone, looking distinctly ruffled. Edith gave her a quizzical stare.
Joy shoved the basket of rolls back under the counter and picked up her keys. “We had better get ready to go,” she said.
“Where are we headed?” Edith asked as she grabbed her jacket off of the stool.
“To the Diamond Shell Hotel,” Joy replied. “They’re going to be eating dinner on the highest balcony, with a perfect view of the sea.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“The biggest problem we’re going to have is getting past Landon's security detail,” Joy commented as they sped down Main Street. "Celebrities will go to any lengths to keep from being disturbed when they’re dining out in public. And by now he’s probably heard through the rumor mill that his ex-girlfriend is in the hospital.”
Edith stared out the window at the quiet shoreline. With her sunglasses and scarf, she looked like she belonged in a classic movie. “I think you’re forgetting one thing,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“He’s having dinner with Sara Beth," Edith replied. "She’s your best friend. Surely if she saw you approaching the table, she would let you come up and talk to him.”
Joy couldn’t help smiling at the absurdity of the suggestion. A few days ago she might have been able to depend on Sara Beth, but at this point that was out of the question. “Sara Beth and I aren't on the best of terms,” she said sadly. “I don’t think she’s too happy with me.”
As they pulled into the parking at the front of the Diamond Shell Hotel, Joy explained how Sara Beth had reacted when she suggested that maybe Landon was hiding something pertaining to the death of Raquel Malley.
Joy and Edith left the car and walked against the feisty wind through the doors of the hotel. In the lobby, they
found a crowd of reporters standing idly with their cameras around their necks, quietly chattering. Joy gathered from their general lack of movement that Landon and Sara Beth hadn’t arrived yet.
Edith, meanwhile, stood at the door leading into the banquet hall, her face pressed against the glass much as it had been when she first arrived at the bakery.
“Do you see anything?” Joy asked.
“Just a couple of security gentlemen,” Edith responded. She stepped aside so Joy could have a look. Tennyson Morris stood off to one side speaking into an earpiece, his eyes narrowed and watchful. Small though he looked, she knew from his handshake that he was uncommonly strong. Being reprimanded by him wouldn’t have been the most pleasant experience.
“We have to find a way around him.” Joy rapped her knuckle on the glass, pointing to Tennyson. “It’s not going to be easy because judging from the look on his face his senses are on high alert. There’s already been one murder here, and I don’t think he wants Landon to be the next one.”
“What are we going to do?” Edith asked with a look of concern.
“Well, we need to find a way of getting in without being seen and find out whether or not Landon has any cuts or bruises on his hands,” Joy replied. “I think we might need Sara Beth.”
“I think you may be right,” Edith agreed.
“If we play our cards just right, Sara Beth might introduce us. I want to text her, but it would help if I were in the hotel first. I think Sara Beth is more likely to invite me over to the table if she finds out I’m already inside. But that still raises the question of how we’re going to get past those security goons, Tennyson in particular.”
Edith stood quietly for a minute, her face pursed in a look of intense concentration. “When I was in high school we used to sneak into the principal’s office all the time and hide frogs under his desk.”
“You never got caught?”
Edith shook her head. “No, because a friend of mine would stage a distraction and I would wait for him to come out of his office. I only got suspended once.”
"I had no idea you were so rebellious, Edith." Joy couldn’t help but chuckle. Edith was the last person she’d ever have taken for a trouble-maker. “I think you’ve got the right idea, though. We need some sort of distraction. And you seem to be great at those.”
“I do have some experience in that area,” Edith said proudly.
“So I’m thinking you go in there and work your magic while I slip inside the restaurant and try to text Sara Beth from the women’s restroom.”
Edith drew in a deep breath and rubbed her arms bracingly. Her eyes strayed toward Tenny, as though weighing the risks of being caught by him. “As long as one of those men don't figure us out and tackle you."
“I know you can deliver an Oscar-worthy performance,” Joy replied. “Just walk a few paces into the room and do what feels natural.’”
“None of this feels natural,” Edith muttered.
“You could sing?" Joy suggested
"Don't be ridiculous." Edith shook her head.
“All I need is one minute tops.”
“If you say so,” Edith responded, closing her eyes and clearing her thoughts.
Joy took out her phone and checked the time. It was five minutes past seven. “But if we’re going to do it, we’d better do it quick. Landon and Sara Beth will be here any minute.”
Edith took another deep breath and slowly pushed open the door leading into the banquet hall. She hesitated for a moment, and at first Joy worried that she would panic and refuse to go through with it. But then, with remarkable composure, Edith began hopping on one foot and shouting that she was in terrible pain.
Tennyson and his men hesitated.
Edith rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. Joy couldn't believe her ears when she heard Edith break out into song. She looked ridiculous, but her singing worked. She had attracted the attention of everyone in the room. Tenny Morris stared gape-mouthed at the bizarre spectacle. Joy knew if she was ever going to sneak into the women’s restroom, this was her only chance.
As the photographers, eager for some excitement, poured out of the lobby and into the dining room, Joy allowed herself to be carried in with them. Once she had made her way inside, she turned right rather abruptly and headed for the elevator. She pushed the button to the top floor and waited eagerly for the doors to open. There she found the rooftop dining area, and way back at the edge of the restaurant were the restrooms.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Joy was relieved to find that the restroom empty as she entered. She crept into one of the stalls and waited for the tell-tale eruption of noise that would indicate Landon’s arrival.
When ten minutes passed away in silence, she emerged and pressed one ear to the door of the restroom. She wondered whether Edith had been escorted out or nudged away into another room once she had finished her song. The only sound Joy heard now was the faint and decorous murmur of conversation and the occasional clinking of glasses.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, the level of noise intensified. Throughout the room, she heard chairs scraping against the carpet and people talking excitedly. Landon Park must have arrived. Reaching into her purse, Joy began drafting a text to Sara Beth.
When she was satisfied with her message, Joy pressed send.
Sara Beth almost always had her phone on, and Joy felt sure she would respond within a minute or two. But after ten minutes with no response, she sent her one last text and crept out of the restroom in search of Landon's private table.
Joy found Landon and Sara Beth seated on the patio with a full view of the sunset washing the beach in hues of salmon and saffron. They were alone except for the couple of dark-suited security men that stood by them, one at each corner of the patio, both looking rather bored.
Sarah Beth was wearing a sleeveless blue dress that fell to her ankles. Joy saw no sign of her phone on the table, so she could only assume she'd left it in her purse. Landon appeared to be doing most of the talking, and from what Joy could hear he was telling Sara Beth about an exhausting experience he'd once had a Hollywood movie premiere.
“They had me in front of those cameras for hours,” she heard him say as she moved to conceal herself behind a large potted plant. “Those news people were like Landon this and Landon that. I never get a break when I go to those things. But I get so many invitations that it is hard to say no. I guess that's what it means to be in-demand.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Sara Beth said, who only seemed to be half-listening.
Joy waited until they were both looking at the menu, and then she darted out from behind the plant and ran to an adjoining table. Slowly she raised her head over the tabletop, hoping to catch a glimpse of Landon’s hands and wrists. But she was out of luck. The setting sun blinded her eyes, making it impossible to see any more than a vague outline.
Joy swore under her breath and had just begun looking around to see if there was a closer table when the phone in her purse buzzed. Thinking it might be important, she pulled it out. It was a text from Edith.
Where are you? What is going on?
Joy typed out a reply. I made it. Did you get thrown out of the hotel?
No, Edith's reply stated. They actually enjoyed my performance.
Joy began crafting a clever response when she was startled by a voice that called her name. Joy gulped and shoved her phone into her pocket.
“Joy?” Sara Beth said. “Joy, I know it’s you over there. What on earth are you doing here?”
Slowly, with a burning feeling of humiliation spreading from her head to her toes, Joy lifted her head over the tabletop.
“Oh, hi,” she said casually as if she just happened to be dining there.
Realizing she had been caught, Joy decided to play it off as casually as possible. There was no way to avoid being prodded for an explanation, but at least she would have the chance to examine Landon’s hands without being too obvious about it.
"Care to explain?"
Sara Beth muttered, wide-eyed.
“Sorry for intruding on your dinner date.” Joy walked awkwardly over and stood beside Sara Beth, raising one hand to her eyes to shield them from the sun. She directed her attention to Landon Park. “I was very disappointed that we didn’t get the chance to meet properly when you were at my bakery the other day. I said to myself that I had to find a way to meet you, even if I have to sneak over here." Joy laughed uncomfortably.
Landon grinned and told his security detail to stay back. He was wearing a grey-blue suit jacket that obscured his wrists. “Well, I can’t tell you how flattering that is,” he said. “It’s pretty impressive that you managed to sneak past my security. I guess I should feel relieved that you’re one of Sara’s friends.”
Sara Beth, however, had turned a neat shade of red. It was clear from the dark look she gave Joy that she didn’t believe her story for a minute.
“What kind of fool do you take me for?” Sara Beth responded through gritted teeth. “You've done nothing but try to avoid Landon since he arrived.” Joy placed a hand on her face and gave her a warning look, but Sara Beth was undeterred. “All I ever hear from you anymore is what an arrogant, incompetent moron Landon is. I know you, Joy Cooke, and I know you came up here for a reason, and it had nothing to do with wanting to get his autograph.”
Joy felt like she could have melted into the floor. Though she didn’t respect Landon, it was still mortifying to be called out like that in front of anyone, let alone the man who had been People’s runner-up for Sexiest Southern Gentleman three years in a row.
Landon, however, seemed to be having trouble following the conversation. As Sara Beth spoke, his eyes shifted back and forth from one woman to the other with a look of growing confusion.
