The Begonia Bribe

by Alyse Carlson

  “Well, you shout when you know.”

  “I’ll tell Jake when we know. We want the person arrested, not beat up by thugs.”

  “Thugs? Miz Harris, I’m crushed.”

  Cam rolled her eyes. “And you call me if anything weird happens.”

  “Of course. You’re my queen of weird.”

  Annie snorted and gave Benny a thumbs-up as they left. Cam punched her again.

  “What? He got that right.”

  “This is you calling me weird?”

  “Hey, I’m eccentric across the board. You’re weird here and there, which is weird.”

  Cam shook her head as they headed for home. Annie dropped her off and promised to be back after she handled some Sweet Surprise business.

  CHAPTER 19

  Cam spent the afternoon trying to get her press releases in order. Ideally, they’d be sent before six so the pageant could be included in Monday’s Living Section along with Rob’s interviews, but it was tricky business, with the chaos the event had seen. The side piece about the gardening competition had been far easier—what with Nell coming through with not only the extra scholarship, but donating so many flowers to make the grounds gorgeous. But that wouldn’t be featured until Tuesday, regardless, when the paper ran its gardening feature.

  Still, she knew what the pageant committee wanted for the main press release. She decided to keep it sweet and light, and offer her name if anyone had any questions. She was sure they would, but she could stall those until the next afternoon, and so by the time the extended story came out, those with a personal interest in the pageant would have gone on to other things.

  Just as she was attaching the last accompanying documents to an email that would be sent to dozens of papers, her phone buzzed.

  “Benny?” she answered.

  “Remember that ‘if you see something strange’ thing?”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, I’ve been sort of eying that new girlfriend of Dylan’s all week.”

  “Girlfriend?” Cam hated that the idea turned her stomach.

  “I don’t know. I mean they’ve been spending a lot of time together . . .”

  “Jessica Benchly?”

  “Busty brunette? Hotter ’n a firecracker?”

  “That’s her.” Cam sighed.

  “Anyway. I sorta noticed who she was friends with and who she wasn’t. But today she meets this other chick—the one you been hanging out with.”

  “Mindy? Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. They’re both pretty. Guy like me notices a couple pretty dames.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Why not?”

  “No, I mean it makes sense that you notice. It doesn’t make sense that they are hanging out together.”

  “You said call if I see something strange. If it wasn’t strange, I wouldn’t have called.”

  Cam scratched her head. “What did they look like together? I mean . . . were they just talking, or maybe arguing, or . . . ?”

  “Their heads were close. I thought maybe they were sharing secrets. Not arguing, anyway.”

  Cam managed to say something incoherent and hung up. She couldn’t see any way this fit. At the moment, Jessica was the most logical suspect and Mindy had been framed. What would they have to say to each other?

  Then she remembered the Jessica-Barry connection and decided Barry might be using Jessica to set Mindy up once and for all. Or would he be using Mindy to set Jessica up? Either way, these two women with their heads together, in Cam’s opinion, pointed to a Barry Blankenship who was surely evil.

  * * *

  Annie didn’t return until almost four, but she’d brought Frappuccinos as a peace offering, and Cam hadn’t noticed Annie was late until she hung up with Benny at 3:40.

  “Coconut mouthgasm,” Annie announced as she set the drinks down.

  “It is not called that,” Cam said.

  “Well, not to the public, no, but I know people.”

  Cam took a sip. It was indeed fabulous. When she sat back, Annie opened her laptop and plugged in the cable from her tiny little camera. Cam hadn’t even realized she had it with her when they were at Barry’s earlier.

  “Well, duh! I’m not the speed-reader you are. Besides, better to be able to check later.”

  “Not admissible in court,” Cam said.

  “Court schmort. What are we? Police? And look at”—she clicked a few folders until a document popped up—“this.”

  It was an agreement with a woman named Jessica, but Cam thought Annie was mistaken until she pulled up a credit form that had other names on it. It was Jessica Benchly, and she’d bought a house through Barry Blankenship. It wouldn’t have seemed strange, except Barry said he only knew her through Olivia.

  Cam jotted the address and frowned. “This looks fairly normal to me.”

  Annie shrugged. “I only had five minutes. It proves Barry and Jessica knew each other before Olivia—if he is telling the truth about when he met Olivia, anyway.”

  “I guess so.”

  “And then I copied both their email folders, but I need to figure out passwords to open them.” She set a thumb drive on the table.

  Cam didn’t think the pieces made sense. It looked like Jessica knew Barry, Mindy, and Olivia, and she seemed to be the lynchpin in the puzzle, but Cam couldn’t figure out how. She decided maybe Evangeline was the best person to help her sort at least part of it, so she called her.

  * * *

  “Oh, hon. Come on out. What’s a week with murder but no mojitos?”

  “Do you mind if Annie comes? She’s my ride.”

  “Of course she can. Three heads are better than two.”

  So Cam and Annie got in the Bug and drove out Blue Ridge Parkway to La Fontaine, the Patricks’ house. Cam admired a field of sunflowers as they went, though mostly they passed immaculately manicured large yards in front of impressive houses, not least of which was La Fontaine. Giselle, the housekeeper, led them to the covered patio, where a fan blew a virtual monsoon to keep the air at a comfortable temperature. The hibiscuses danced happily in the breeze.

  The patio was covered by the deck above, but Evangeline sat with her long legs out in the sun, a book perched in one hand, and a cocktail on the table next to her.

  Cam admired several pots of ripening tomatoes she thought must have been returned to their normal spot after the meeting here several weeks earlier. The plump fruit gave off an aroma that made her mouth water.

  “Oh, hello, girls. Sun or shade?”

  Cam said shade as Annie said sun, and so Evangeline pointed to a chair sitting in each.

  “Mojitos okay with both of you?”

  Cam’s memories of her last gin experience weren’t that great, but she didn’t want to be argumentative, and Annie said, “Perfect,” so fast that Cam just nodded.

  “Ooh! Nummy!” Annie said once Giselle had brought their drinks. “How do you make them?”

  “Well, Giselle does it, but the trick is to soak the mint and sugar in the rum overnight first, I think.”

  Rum. So much for Cam’s cocktail knowledge. Hopefully rum was better, but Cam was still planning on pacing herself. She took a small sip.

  “So what’s on y’all’s mind? You sounded like you had a bee in your bonnet, Cam.”

  “It’s all these former Misses who seem to know each other. You told me about Jessica and Olivia being rivals, but here they pop up as friends. This morning, Benny saw Jessica and Mindy with their heads together.”

  “Well, I think Jessica’s their neighbor.”

  “Whose neighbor?”

  “The Blankenships . . . well, before the separation. I don’t know exactly, but they’re on the same street in Lynchburg.”

  “This street?” Cam pulled out the address she had for the property Jessica had bought with Barry Blankenship’s help.

  Evangeline looked at it. “That looks right. I didn’t notice until I started to pull thank-you letters together, b
ut—wait a minute . . .”

  Evangeline went inside and returned with a list and reading glasses, scanning the list over the rims. Evangeline looked unfairly beautiful, considering she was several years older than Cam. But Cam was relieved to see the small sign of aging, even if the glasses looked great on her.

  “Yes—only twenty apart in address—either neighbors, or almost.”

  “And if Barry sold her the house?”

  “Probably hand-picked as a neighbor—you don’t try to sell next door to people you don’t want to see a lot.”

  “So Mindy really does know her?” Cam asked.

  “This says 2006 is when she bought it.” Annie held out her laptop and spun it. “But that doesn’t eliminate an affair and a framing.”

  “That’s true,” Cam said.

  “What about this Jessica-Olivia rivalry?” Annie asked, looking at Evangeline.

  “Ongoing since they met. They hated each other. Finally, maybe two years ago, Jessica went out of her way to make peace and they’ve been friends since then.”

  Cam doubted the motive after so long. It seemed likely Jessica had put a plan in motion. If only Cam could figure out what it was.

  * * *

  As they drove from Evangeline’s, Cam called Rob.

  “Could you and Jake maybe meet Annie and me?” she asked.

  “I’ve got another two hours to try to make the most of this feature. You can ask Jake, but you really can’t count on me for a few hours.”

  Cam didn’t like it, but she passed on the message to Annie, who called Jake as soon as they pulled in their driveway.

  When Annie hung up, she looked at Cam. “Half hour, Macado’s.”

  “Sounds good. Showers, then we leave?” Cam said. She was feeling overstressed and overheated and a shower seemed a good way to resolve both.

  “Perfect. When did you get so smart?” Annie asked.

  “I’ve been smart. It’s you recognizing it as smart that’s been slow in coming.”

  “That could be. Your intelligence is very subtle. Most people wouldn’t notice it at all.”

  Cam reached for Annie to flick her, but Annie escaped for her shower.

  * * *

  Cam felt considerably cooler as she and Annie headed to Macado’s in the Bug. The air had lost a little of its humidity to a warm wind, so though it was still uncomfortably warm, there was a breeze and less moisture to cope with.

  They arrived about ten minutes after they’d told Jake they’d be there, but Cam was sure Jake was familiar with Annie-time. Annie could keep a schedule professionally, but socially, she had internalized the idea that “On time looks desperate,” a belief Cam had never shared.

  As expected, Jake was waiting at a dimly lit side table, a pitcher of beer in front of him. Macado’s was laid out like an old-fashioned pub, so most of the activity centered around the U-shaped bar that came out into the center of the room. They would have at least a fair amount of privacy where they sat.

  “Not on duty?” Cam asked.

  Annie poured herself a beer as Jake answered.

  “Today was my ninth day in a row, so I think they’re okay with a six-hour shift.”

  “Ouch. But what happens if we break your case?” Annie said.

  “I can share information after a beer. I just can’t go chasing bad guys. Beer and guns are a bad combo.”

  “Yeah, I can see how that would be.” Cam flagged over a waitress to order her own, more see-through variety of beer.

  “Oy! You shame me!” Annie pretended to faint against Jake. Cam thought maybe in the dimmer light, he copped a feel. She couldn’t be sure but Annie sat back up, grinning, which supported the theory.

  “So how are you breaking my already solved case?” Jake asked.

  “We learned today that Jessica Benchly is a neighbor of Barry and Mindy Blankenship.”

  “And?”

  “And she had a long-term rivalry with Olivia Quinn, which she only ended two years ago.”

  “So grudges die hard,” Jake said.

  “What if it never died? What if she decided on revenge instead?” Annie asked.

  “Revenge?” Jake rolled his eyes. “That is what you wanted to share?”

  “There’s more,” Cam said defensively.

  When he sat back, he looked a little more content. Cam thought Annie’s hand was on his thigh.

  “So she made nice in order to wait for the chance for revenge?” Jake said.

  “It sounds so far-fetched when you say it that way.” Annie pouted. Cam knew she was goofing around, but Jake looked a little confused.

  “She saw her opportunity this year when . . . erm . . . well . . . we’re not sure . . . either Barry wanted to frame his wife or to play hero to his wife—either way, Mindy needed to be accused of murder.”

  “Why kill Telly Stevens?”

  “All those witnesses to Mindy arguing with him.”

  “But then his wife turned up dead.”

  Cam frowned. It was true that piece was a lot harder to fit into this puzzle. She began a half-dozen different scenarios, but could shut down each of her own ideas before any of them made it all the way out.

  “Decoy?” Annie finally offered.

  “Yeah, like last time,” Cam said. The second murder in the spring had been to throw off the investigation. The victim had been killed largely to throw off investigators and frame Annie.

  “Do you know the odds of that?” Jake asked, an eyebrow raised.

  “Okay, so we have some puzzle solving to do.”

  “Cam, this matter is going just fine in police hands.”

  “Right. And you still think Dylan is your guy?” Cam asked.

  “I’m not doing this,” Jake said.

  “Right. You want our plausible details, but it doesn’t go the other way,” Cam said.

  “Cam, he is the cop.”

  “Et tu, Annie? I never would have thought it.” Cam sat back and stared.

  “Oh, geez. You know I’d never put authority over you. I’d never hold back. But you have to see why Jake does.”

  Cam did, but she didn’t want to, so she took a large sip of beer and walked out on both Jake and Annie. She hoped maybe Annie would be guilted into probing Jake after she left.

  * * *

  She hadn’t planned ahead, of course, which was a problem for a girl with no car. She didn’t know what she wanted to do, but letting herself be strung up on technicalities wasn’t on the list.

  She would have liked to go talk to Dylan. She wasn’t sure why she felt this would help, except that she thought the new information about Jessica Benchly suggested Dylan might be in danger, or that he was at least being used. He seemed to have let Jessica into his life, so he needed to be warned.

  She wandered toward Elmwood Park, hoping to trigger her memory. As she got close, she could see the trees that still had the tissue dogwoods in them. She would need to coordinate getting those removed. Benny would help, which pushed the nagging feeling about Dylan toward the front of her mind again. Before she knew it, she called him.

  “Cam?”

  “Hi, Dylan. I just wanted to check and see how you were.”

  “I’ll be okay eventually, though . . . erm . . . did the pageant have any liability insurance? I won’t be able to work for a month, probably.”

  “We do, and if it doesn’t cover this, I’m sure the Patricks won’t leave you hanging. They’re good people.”

  “Well, then, I’m pretty good—that was my main worry.”

  “Listen. I think you have another one.”

  “What’s that?” She thought she heard amusement in his voice.

  “Jessica Benchly. She’s neighbors with Barry and Mindy, and I think Barry and Jessica framed Mindy and you both—I think she’s after Telly’s money.”

  “Cam, that’s ridiculous. I’ve gotten to know her. She has her own money. Look, I’ll tell you what. Just because you’re so concerned about my safety, I’ll poke around a little and find proof.�
�

  “You do that. Poke around. I really hope you’re right . . . And be careful.”

  “Always am . . .”

  CHAPTER 20

  Cam stood up from the short wall she’d been sitting on and debated heading home. She couldn’t think of another angle to approach this from. Her cell phone buzzed, and she looked at the display. Mindy. She’d really hoped to have concrete evidence as to what was going on before she talked to Mindy again. She answered anyway.

  “Cam, you and I really need to talk.”

  “Okay?”

  “I thought maybe we’d go to supper. The girls are with my mom for the night before we drive back tomorrow, and Barry has an obligation, so just us?”

  “Sure. I’d like that.”

  “Let’s meet at Table 50 in a half hour.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  It was only a short walk, and she didn’t have time to go home, but she could drop into the office and check her email for questions about the press releases. It seemed strange that normal things like newspapers were continuing forward when everything else was so out of whack.

  She was glad she’d taken the time when she checked. The Virginia Beach reporter had a half-dozen questions. Their representative was first runner-up, but apparently she was also a childhood cancer survivor, something Cam wished she’d known sooner, though it sounded like the girl had kept it quiet in order to avoid favoritism. Portfolio Weekly was doing a large feature on her now that it was over, and the reporter wanted many more contest details.

  By the time Cam left again, she was running late. She called Mindy on the elevator to let her know, but lost track of her thoughts when she walked through the lobby and saw Barry in the bar talking to a rather unsavory pair of men. She stood behind a plant and snapped a picture with her phone and then sent it to herself via email. She had no clue who they were, but she couldn’t imagine them doing anything good.

  She walked the four blocks to Table 50 and found Mindy waiting. She wasn’t sure what Mindy would have to say, but she clicked the record button on her phone as she walked to meet the woman. If anything important happened, she would be able to refer to it later. Mindy let Cam order a drink before diving in.

  “Cam, I don’t know why you want to go stirring up trouble for Barry and me. He wants to reconcile, and I really don’t see why you’d try to block my happiness.”