Auf'd (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book Two)

by Amy Saunders

  "That's it?" Belinda shook her head. "All that and I get one word on TV?"

  Kyle smirked. They panned back to the reporter who finished the segment, saying the police hadn't named any suspects. "That was useless," he said with a glob of ice cream on his tongue.

  Suffocated. She shivered. How did a woman just die backstage in all that chaos without anyone knowing?

  Chaos. The garment bag mess! Belinda leaned back on the couch. If April died backstage, it had to be then. Bennett was right. Something funny was definitely going on at that show.

  ~ * ~

  Despite the slew of questions in her mind, and the unsettled feeling gnawing at her that April was killed by someone she interacted with, Belinda still had to get going the next morning. The Cake Diva, her cupcake truck, officially opened for business the next Saturday. She and her cousin Mia, the Cake Diva's pro baker, chose that day because Belinda's runway show job would be over and she'd have just under two weeks for final preparations—or everything she'd simply put off because of the show.

  In theory.

  In practice, because of April's murder, the police had ordered everyone in town for the show not to leave Portside until notified otherwise. Mrs. Sykes somehow railroaded her into handling all the hotel arrangements for the designers, assistants, models, and anyone else working the runway. Portside hosted a lot of festivals and shows year-round, and participants of some food festival starting that weekend already inundated Portside. Some of the inns and hotels in town were booked and couldn't extend their reservations.

  Can you say nightmare?

  Even better, their contractor was just as surprised to find a hole in the side of their house as she was (and Kyle had not covered it up before he left for work). After a lengthy discussion with the contractor first thing that morning, and a lot of apologizing and calming down happening on the contractor's end, Belinda had to put it on the back burner while she addressed other demands.

  On top of everything else, Victoria had invited Belinda and Kori over for lunch that day. So instead of begging off, Belinda heaved her black organizer into the passenger's seat to work on the hotel situation and called Brooke over to join them. She figured the company would keep her from strangling anyone through the phone.

  Brooke typed away on a laptop with her cell nestled in her lap on Victoria's couch while Belinda sealed a deal with a local coffee shop to park the cupcake truck by their place the weekend after the opening.

  "Huzzah!" Belinda's arms shot into the air once she'd hung up. At least one thing was going right. Portside was welcoming the Cake Diva like an old friend.

  "They liked the idea?" Victoria said nearby in the kitchen, finishing up lunch. Kori was supposed to be there soon.

  "They loved the idea of partnering with us, and they're going to do a big online blitz about it. Oh, and he had some ideas about who else in town might want to team up."

  Victoria clapped. "Huzzah!"

  "Huzzah!" Belinda said again and did her version of a very non-Irish, Irish jig.

  "What are we huzzah-ing about?" Brooke bent her head back to see them from the couch.

  "Bels has one of the coffee shops on her side."

  "Cool! Well, Portside Inn is taken care of, too."

  Belinda gave thumbs-up, her mouth stuffed with a carrot. "Thank goodness for my mama's connections," she said after swallowing. "If I had known that Mrs. Sykes would virtually dump all the actual work on my head, I would've said I needed to wash my hair and wouldn't be available to help." Belinda popped a piece of cucumber into her mouth.

  "Wash your hair?" Victoria laughed.

  "Well, with the salt in the air and everything, it takes a few washings to get clean." Belinda winked. "How's the situation?" she said to Brooke.

  Brooke snorted. "Almost taken care of."

  "What's the 'situation'?" Victoria said.

  Belinda bit off more carrot. "We had to shuffle some people around due to reservation issues, and certain people complained about their view."

  Victoria raised her eyebrows.

  "I know," Belinda said with her palms raised. "It's ridiculous. But Mrs. Sykes has left me in charge of keeping everyone happy, and if it shuts them up, so be it."

  Brooke shut down her laptop and started stuffing things in her bag.

  "Staying for lunch?" Victoria asked Brooke from across the room.

  "Oh...thank you, no." Belinda and Victoria exchanged glances as she went into some sort of hyperdrive to get out. Brooke twisted her neck to see Victoria. "I have an appointment this afternoon. I really should get going." Brooke ran past Kori, who didn't even get a chance to knock, threw her things in the backseat, and drove off.

  Kori stood in the doorway with a pair of blinged-up sunglasses on her head, pulling a face. "She got a hot date?"

  "Late for an appointment." Belinda shrugged.

  "Some appointment." Kori swaggered into the kitchen and plopped her leather tote onto the counter. "So how's that fine piece of man meat, Detective Parker? I don't suppose he has any free time coming up?"

  Belinda put her to-do list away and tried to concentrate on Kori's question. Jonas. Well, Belinda couldn't blame her. He was attractive with those twinkly green eyes of his and tall, lean build. She hadn't given it much thought since they met, but now that Kori brought it up, Belinda felt certain that Jonas drew in the honeys. He just worked too much for it to show.

  "You know, I wouldn't get too hung up on that idea," Belinda said, knowing Jonas barely had time to sleep right then, let alone go on a date.

  Kori leaned back and appraised her as if searching for a double meaning in Belinda's words. "Because I'm a suspect."

  "No." The word just kind of flew out before Belinda gave it any real thought.

  Kori smiled in satisfaction. Belinda was going to amend her hasty response with "she didn't actually know if Kori was a suspect because that was confidential," but changed her mind and said, "Jonas is super busy right now. He may not have time while you're in town. Police work is pretty demanding."

  Kori lifted a shoulder indifferently. Belinda suspected, from the little time they'd spent together in recent history coupled with their less recent history, that Kori would get over the disappointment fast. She didn't seem like the type of woman to pine over lost men.

  Victoria served some sort of southwestern salad on the deck right off of the kitchen. While they caught up on the last ten years of gossip, Belinda tried to figure out how to ease into talking about the other people at the show. After all, Jonas ordered her to get dirt on these people.

  Kori, however, had other plans. "So, who's the stud?"

  Belinda's wisp of an idea of how to broach the subject of the show evaporated. "Who? Me?"

  "I don't think she's talking to the pregnant one," Victoria said, pointing her fork at herself.

  "Don't play dumb with me, Blondie." Kori snapped her napkin on her lap. "You know who I'm talking about."

  Victoria tilted her head in Belinda's direction, and Belinda could feel her face flush. "That...that was Bennett Tate."

  Victoria rolled her eyes dramatically and turned to Kori, waving off Belinda's sudden verbal constipation. "They met a month or so ago at a party." Belinda wanted to sigh in relief that she glossed over the exact details. Meeting Bennett was a little more complicated than that.

  "And here I was worried about you and Sawyer Gallen," Kori said. Oops. Victoria's eyes shifted back to Belinda. She would be explaining that remark later. "So...dish!"

  Belinda shrugged, embarrassed and excited at the same time. "He is a stud, isn't he?"

  Victoria and Kori laughed. "I'm glad you're finally admitting it," Victoria said. "She hemmed and hawed over his attractiveness level."

  "I did not!"

  "Yes, you did." Victoria turned back to Kori, all business. "Every time I mentioned he was cute or hot, she insisted she never said that."

  "Not true." Belinda set her palms on the table. "I object to that sweeping generalization. I admit, in
the beginning, I hesitated to say anything definite either way, but that was before I knew him at all, and now I have no trouble calling him a hunk."

  "He definitely thinks you're hot." Kori smiled as Belinda's eyes shot in her direction.

  "How do you know?" She knew Bennett liked her, but confirmation from an unbiased source never hurt.

  "Because he looked you over. It was fast, but not fast enough. I totally caught his vertical glance and lingering on certain assets."

  Belinda's eyes went wide. "Did he look happy...or disappointed?"

  "Believe me, he was happy." Kori tipped her glass at Belinda. "You picked the right dress that morning."

  Belinda sighed in relief. Another check on her list of things going her way. "Well, that's encouraging, especially considering everything else horrible that happened yesterday."

  Kori shivered. "It was a strange runway show, there's no arguing that. But never in my life could I have imagined what actually happened! I mean, I kind of started to expect a theft or something, after all of the weird garment swapping that went on. But a murder..." She leaned on her elbows, shaking her head, her mix of chestnut and mahogany ringlets bouncing around.

  "Did you know April well?" Victoria said, picking up on what Belinda might be after even though they hadn't had a chance to talk about yesterday's events in private.

  Kori was silent a moment. When she answered, her voice was steady, but her walnut-shaped eyes were pained. "We were friends once."

  Belinda reached across the table for Kori's arm. She'd never suspected Kori knew April that well, and felt bad for babbling on about Bennett. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea you were close."

  Kori shrugged. "Don't be. It was a long time ago. And we chose to pretend not to know each other."

  Belinda retracted her hand. "Why would you do that?"

  "April had a complicated past, and I respected her desire to leave it behind."

  "Including her friends?"

  Kori shifted uncomfortably in her seat, though she still tried to appear like she was lounging. "I could have been stubborn and refused to pretend, but we had parted ways no matter what. We understood each other, and I know she would have done the same for me in the same circumstances."

  "So what were the circumstances?" Belinda caught Victoria's eye for a brief second and she looked as intrigued as Belinda felt. "Why did she want to forget everything—and everyone?"

  "It goes back to when we were just leaving design school." Kori folded her hands in her lap. "Everybody knew her as April Moore then. We had big aspirations for the future and we were desperate to get started. But things don't always go as smoothly as you planned."

  Belinda could relate to that.

  "A few years passed by and we were both still struggling and constantly on the verge of homelessness," Kori said. "We shared an apartment, but even with the two of us it wasn't enough. I came home one afternoon after selling a piece of jewelry my mother had given me to put toward our rent and April was sky high. She had just landed a job at a major design house."

  Belinda was still digesting that Kori and April had been friends and what that meant in the grand scheme of things, so she was racing to keep up with the story. "That doesn't sound so bad."

  "By itself, no. It wasn't bad at all. I was just as excited as she was at first. Until...until I found out that she stole some of my designs to get the job."

  Belinda stopped eating.

  "I said we parted ways," Kori said. "Well, that's when it happened. I moved out and April kept on at her new job."

  "So is that it?" Belinda held out her palms like a question mark. "Is that why she changed her name and wanted you to ignore her?"

  Kori half-smiled like the question amused her. "She started the job on a lie and she had to keep going on one. I don't know who she pilfered off of after I left, but I do know that she kept it up for a while."

  Belinda's head spun. "Wait, wait, wait. So are you telling me that April Arteau, or whatever her name was, was a fraud?"

  Kori blew out air. She seemed weary of the whole topic. "I hadn't spoken to April in months when she came to me in a panic and told me she thought someone knew. After she calmed down, we realized they had no proof and that she could escape the situation with her career intact." She crossed her leg under the table, leaning to one side. "So she moved on to a new job to start again under a new name and wisely discontinued her former relationships."

  Belinda felt her head spin again, or maybe she was just hungry. Apparently, their lives had changed a lot since high school. "You don't mind saying all of this?"

  Kori didn't even look fazed. "I have no reason to at this point. I'm sure it would make its way out of the bag one way or another."

  "How can you be sure?" Belinda doubted April ran around announcing she stole stuff.

  "Because April and Sawyer had a fling and she spilled her entire story to him, theft and all."

  Belinda scooted back in her chair. So Kori thought Sawyer would happily tell all. Belinda just met him, and other than getting a playboy vibe, she had no way to know if Kori's assessment was accurate. Wow. That sentence sounded like Bennett. "Were any of the people backstage friends?"

  Kori twirled a curl around her finger. "I did pass Sawyer at some point and he was chatting it up with some petite, boobless thing with glasses." Kori flicked her eyes heavenward in disgust.

  Belinda felt bad thinking it, but it could be Brooke. "And that's it? No one else there was associated with April at all? Even remotely?"

  "How should I know?"

  "You were friends once." Belinda leaned on the table. "Other than Sawyer, did you recognize anybody there that loved or hated her?"

  Kori swung her head. "If you want to know that, I'd ask Caleb. I'm pretty sure they're surgically attached somehow." Kori sipped her iced tea, paying more attention to her food to signal that conversation was finished.

  Belinda wondered if any of that would be even remotely helpful. April's thieving ways did supply a motive for murder, but Jonas might have known that before they left the event site. If nothing else, at least Kori didn't describe her as a "petite, boobless thing." She could only hope that's not what Bennett thought of her either when he checked her out in her dress the day before.

  Chapter 4

  Once Kori left and Belinda helped Victoria clean up, she decided to go check on Caleb at the hospital. She'd gotten word he was admitted due to shock, and because he seemed to be alone now that April had died, she wanted to make sure he was okay. Victoria had students to attend to at the music school with the spring recital coming up, and then they had plans to go for a walk. So Belinda psyched herself up for a hospital visit, and found her way through the maze to Caleb's room.

  The balloon she'd picked up at the gift shop snagged on the door handle. Maybe not the best gift to bring a man, but Belinda felt funny going empty-handed and flowers were most certainly out of the question. She got the ribbon untangled and gave Caleb a small wave. Once she was in the room, visiting him alone no longer seemed like such a brilliant idea. What was she supposed to say? She barely knew him.

  "You look more lucid today," was her profound opening line while she struggled to knot the balloon around his bed frame as it flapped in her face. The stupid thing had easily knotted itself around the door handle. When she finished, loose hair electrified by the balloon stuck to the sides of her face.

  "I feel more lucid too." Caleb smiled weakly, his brown curls pushed into a faux-hawk on top of his head. "Were you the one with me when...when...?" He gestured to indicate the rest of his thought.

  Belinda picked up her end of the story. "You meandered on stage while I was giving my super boring thank-you speech."

  Caleb wiggled to sit up straighter, but slid right back down. "Oh...sorry. What I remember is kind of blurry."

  "Trust me, it was for the best." At this point, her nervousness during her speech was like a weird dream. She took a seat on the edge of the teal bedside chair. Couldn't hospitals have bet
ter color schemes in the rooms? "I'm sorry you had to find April."

  Caleb blinked a few times. "I liked her, you know. How often can you say that about a boss?"

  "Did you work for her long?"

  "Couple a years."

  "Were you apprenticing?"

  That seemed to catch him off guard, and he raised his eyebrows quizzically.

  "I mean, do you plan to go into fashion yourself?" she said.

  Caleb kind of laughed. It was the lightest expression she'd seen on his face. "I doubt I'll keep working in fashion now." Maybe this industry was too stressful for him. He didn't seem to handle it well. His face darkened again. "I wonder...I wonder if I could've prevented this."

  Belinda patted his wrist as his eyes zoned out. "Don't torture yourself. I know it's normal to think that way, but it only makes you crazy." And Belinda had experienced her share of that since her last year in high school. It wasn't worth it.

  "It's just...sometimes you know things and you don't think it matters in the long-term. But...but maybe it does matter." His face tensed and he clenched the bedsheet.

  Maybe it was time for a change of subject. "Did you get in touch with your family, or Riley?"

  Caleb came to again and he quirked his head. "Who?"

  "Riley." Belinda circled her hand in the air. "When we were waiting for the police, you told me you needed to talk to Riley. I thought maybe it was someone else at the show." Though she'd looked through her list of people backstage and didn't find any Riley. He could have been in the audience.

  "I did?" Caleb said with a little too much enthusiasm. "Wow. I must've been really out of it. I don't know any Riley." From the clarity in his eyes, Belinda knew he wasn't out of it right that moment, and he was hiding something. There was a Riley in his life somewhere. Why did he lie about it?

  "Well, you were in shock," she said. Maybe it caused you to make up people you need to talk to. Maybe.

  "I don't mean to be rude," Caleb said, leaning his head back, "but I do feel a little woozy still."

  "Of course." Belinda smiled and stood, squeezing his hand on the way up. He trembled. "Here's my number if you need anything. Don't hesitate to call." She whipped out a brand spanking new Cake Diva business card, scribbling her numbers on the back, and stuck it under his cell phone on the side table.