Slippery Solicitors: A Piece of Cake Mystery (Piece of Cake Mysteries Book 4)

by A. R. Winters

  My stomach turned a little. I had always suspected that Liam had cheated on me, but I’d never asked him.

  My expression must’ve changed, because immediately, Liam said, “Except for you, Mindy. I never cheated on you. I really did care about you. I thought you could have been the one—that’s why I kept asking you to wear those dresses I thought looked better on you than jeans. You said I was controlling, but I really thought you could have been the one. I would’ve married you and been with you for the rest of my life. I would have treated you really well.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that. On the one hand, I didn’t want to believe Liam. But on the other hand, he had no reason to lie to me after all these years. And I wanted to believe that our relationship, no matter how horribly it had ended, wasn’t just an example of my stupidity and blind faith in people.

  “Well, I guess things didn’t work out,” I said finally. “And that was obviously for the best. We can both enjoy our lives now.”

  Liam shook his head. “I always did admire you, Mindy.”

  “Um… thank you,” I said.

  I didn’t feel like rehashing the past, so instead, I said, “You didn’t get any threatening messages, did you? Did anyone try to kill you again?”

  Liam laughed and shook his head. “No, nobody’s tried to kill me. But it would be hard to try to kill me, given that I’ve been indoors all day.”

  “And nobody slipped any threatening messages under the door?”

  “No.”

  I must’ve looked disappointed, because Liam said, “But that’s a good thing. Perhaps whoever tried to run me over was just an angry driver. Perhaps we got worried for no reason.”

  I shook my head. “No, the woman’s still out there. And we’re going to find her.”

  Chapter 22

  Beth and I went back home, where we discussed the case over dinner. Afterward, we changed into workout clothes and drove back to Liam’s place, pushed the car seats back, and settled down for a long night of surveillance in Beth’s car.

  We were just about to pull out our smartphones and start playing games when a blue-and-white drove up to Liam’s house. Beth and I ducked low, and thankfully, the two detectives walked into Liam’s condo without noticing us.

  “That was close,” said Beth. “I hope they don’t notice us on the way out.”

  “One of them was Sam Knott,” I said. “The other guy must’ve been Andy Thanh. Liam must’ve told them about almost getting killed.”

  “I guess he did the right thing,” Beth said. “It would be worse if he didn’t report it.”

  “Yeah,” I grumbled, “But now we’ve gotta stay crouched down like this till they leave. And what do we say if they see us?”

  “Shh!”

  We heard footsteps approaching, and Beth and I tried to make ourselves invisible. I held my breath, but it was no use—there was a loud rap on the window, and I looked up to see my old high-school buddy, Sam.

  As I sat up and rolled down the window, I forced myself to grin. “Hey, Sam,” I said, still grinning like a maniac. “What’s up? It’s been a while!”

  “Yeah,” he said, looking at me suspiciously and then glancing at Beth, who had also sat up straighter. “Hey, Beth. What’re you two doing here?”

  Beth and I exchanged a glance, but both us seemed to have lost our tongues.

  I managed to say, “Umm… uh…,” but that was it. I couldn’t think of what to say after that.

  “Aren’t you two PIs?” said the other detective. “Looks like you two are on a stakeout here.”

  I glanced down at our iPods and the energy bar I had ready on my lap. “Umm…”

  Sam looked at me sternly. “Who are you staking out? You’re not interfering with our work, are you?”

  “Umm…”

  There was a few seconds of awkward silence, and then Beth said, “It’s not really a stakeout, it’s market research.”

  Sam frowned. “What research?”

  “I’m thinking of opening a bakery nearby,” said Beth. “I wanted to see if people here like to pop out to the shops or not.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” said Sam.

  “She’s thinking of tempting the joggers,” I said, suddenly struck by inspiration. “Lots of people go jogging in the morning, and she’ll have her shop open for them to stop by after their run. We need to see where people like to run.”

  Sam looked at me, his annoyance replaced by confusion. “That still doesn’t make sense.”

  “Sure, it does,” I said brightly. “Beth wants to open a store here, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Why didn’t you just come by in the morning?” said Sam.

  “Mindy’s always sleeping in,” said Beth. “I tried to make her come by the last two days, but she wouldn’t wake up. So I told her we’d sleep right here.”

  Sam shook his head. “You two are nuts.”

  “I know, right?” I said brightly. Better to be nuts than to be interfering in a police investigation. “I tried to tell Beth, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”

  Sam shook his head disapprovingly. “Well, don’t bother the neighbors,” he said.

  He looked at Andy, and the two exchanged a confused, exasperated look and walked off, mumbling to themselves.

  When they were gone, Beth said, “That was close.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Good idea coming up with that bakery stuff.”

  She gave me a funny look but didn’t say anything. We decided it was time to do some light smartphone game-playing, and when nothing interesting happened after a few hours, we took turns sleeping. I didn’t bother to tell Liam what we were up to, and a little before six, Beth woke me up.

  “It’s almost time,” she said.

  The sky was still dark, and the streetlights were on. I looked around—we seemed to be the only ones in the street. Nobody had seemed to notice us parked out here, and I rubbed my eyes to wipe the sleep away from them.

  Slowly, the sky began to lighten, and a pinkish hue spread along the horizon to the east. At around 6:30, we watched Liam leave his house and begin to jog down the street. We gave him a few minutes’ head start, and then we left the car and jogged after him.

  There were a few other runners on the streets by now, and the darkness of the night had long since dissipated.

  Liam had his earphones in as he ran steadily down the street, and he didn’t seem to pay much attention to anyone around him. I didn’t think this was wise for someone who had almost been run over just the day before, but it made our job much easier. He didn’t notice Beth and me, especially since we gave him a wide berth.

  As we ran, Beth said, “See how much fun running is? We can work up an appetite for breakfast now.”

  “You’ll never convince me that running is fun,” I said. “I much prefer yoga. It’s so easy and relaxing. And—I almost forgot. My instructor’s going to run a yoga retreat at the Harriett Hotel next week. She sent me a link to a contest—it’s a drawing for a free yoga retreat package, which comes with spa treatments and a fancy suite. If I win, I’ll get to take a friend along with me.”

  “That does sound like fun, actually,” said Beth. “Are you going to ask Ethan along?”

  I shook my head. “Ethan already told me that he hates yoga. Besides, I think it’s too early in our relationship to go to a spa retreat. We’re not even officially dating yet. Nobody knows about us.”

  “Kinda like Felicity and Josh,” joked Beth.

  I frowned. I didn’t want to think that I was behaving like Felicity.

  “You know my thing with Ethan is completely different,” I said. “We’re not telling anyone because we’re not really sure what we’re doing. And if anyone found out, they’d tell us we’re making a mistake getting back together again.”

  “I know,” said Beth soothingly. “You already told me. You guys had such a hard time getting over each other last time you broke up, that you don’t want to do this to him again.”

/>   I nodded. “Exactly.”

  “But maybe it will work this time,” said Beth. “After all, you’re both living in Santa Verona now.”

  “I guess,” I said. “But I haven’t entirely decided what to do with my life. I’m not sure that I can be a private investigator forever.”

  “Well, maybe you could start some kind of business here in Santa Verona. There’s so much tourism here, any business would do well. I’m thinking of taking my online business and starting up an actual physical store—that’s how I came up with the bakery idea last night. I think it would be nice to have walk-in traffic.”

  I looked at Beth in surprise. “That’s a great idea! It would mean a lot more business for you. But how would you help out with our private investigator work?”

  “I would need to hire people for the store,” said Beth. “There’s no way I could run a shop like that by myself.”

  “Well, as long as we can still work together, this sounds like an interesting idea. And we could get to eat the bakery leftovers every day.”

  “I’m not sure we should be eating so many cakes every day,” said Beth. “I was going to give them away to a homeless shelter.”

  “I guess that’s a better idea,” I said begrudgingly. “But anyway, back to the spa retreat. If I win the package, would you like to come with me? I know you keep saying that you don’t like yoga, but you never even tried it.”

  “I’m not about to turn down a free spa retreat,” said Beth. “And I guess I could give yoga a try.”

  “Well, I hope I win it, then!”

  By now, Liam had turned around and was heading back home. I was slightly out of breath, and I hoped that if anyone attacked Liam, I would be able to protect him and find out who the attacker was.

  But he got home safely, with no new attacks. It was kind of disappointing for me, but I reminded myself that perhaps the attacker would try to strike again the next day.

  Beth and I went home, exhausted and unwilling to accept defeat. We caught up on some sleep, and then we decided to head back to Lana’s office again. It was time to pull out all the stops.

  Chapter 23

  When we got to Lana’s office, we found that Alice had moved her desk to be in front of Rita’s office.

  “Are you guys still working on the case?” she said. “I’m glad you believed me yesterday.”

  I shrugged. “I guess it’s not really up to us. We’ll hand over whatever we find to the police, and then there’s probably going to be a trial.”

  “Is that your way of saying that you don’t really believe me?” said Alice. “I told you, I’ve got nothing to do with it.”

  I nodded, just to appease her. “It’s okay. We’re actually here today because I was thinking I should talk to Lana’s clients. I’ve talked to everybody else, and nothing much has come up. Perhaps one of her former clients can help us out.”

  “Okay,” said Alice. “That sounds like a good idea, but I’m not sure I can just give you a list like that.”

  “I’m sure we’d appreciate it,” Beth said.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” said Alice slowly. She must’ve been thinking about the fact that we hadn’t yet told anyone that she was the one who’d blackmailed Lana. She typed away at the computer, and after a while, she said, “I’ve sent a list of her clients to be printed. Hang on while I go get it.”

  She headed to wherever the printer was located, and a few minutes later, she came back with a pile of papers. “These are all the clients you want to look at,” she said. “They’re ordered by date.”

  “That’s a lot of clients,” said Beth.

  Alice nodded. “Lana dealt with many people. Heaps of people need wills.”

  The door to Rita’s office was closed, and I wondered if we should say hello to her before we left.

  “Is Rita with a client now?” I said. “Maybe we could ask her if any of Lana’s clients might have been annoyed with her.”

  As if on cue, the door to Rita’s office opened, and Teresa walked out, followed closely by Rita.

  They both seemed surprised to see us, and we explained that we were planning to talk to Lana’s clients.

  “Well, it’s lucky that Teresa’s here, then,” said Rita. “You might as well talk to her if she’s got a free moment.”

  I looked at Teresa hopefully, and she nodded. “Sure, why not? I only met Lana once, but I’ll try to help you guys out.”

  “Great,” I said. “We’ve only got a few questions to ask, and we can walk you to your car.”

  “That sounds good,” said Teresa as we headed toward the elevator. “It’s such a shame about Lana. I didn’t even get a chance to meet her on Friday.”

  “Yes,” said Beth. “You had an appointment to see her at eleven o’clock, but you canceled it.”

  Teresa nodded. “I wasn’t feeling too well. So I said I’d try to come by on Monday.”

  “And when did you see Lana before that?” I asked.

  “It would have been a week before.” We stepped out of the elevator with Teresa and headed toward the building exit.

  “What did you come to see Lana for?” said Beth.

  “My uncle had been terminally ill for a while. He’d made me executor of his estate, so I wanted to have a chat with them about what I needed to do.”

  “But he hadn’t passed away then, had he?” said Beth.

  “He was placed in an induced coma,” said Teresa as we walked down the street toward her car. “It was only a matter of time. And I want to get things sorted out as soon as I could, so I could head back home and be with my family again.”

  “You don’t live in Santa Verona?” I said.

  “No, I work in Arkansas at the moment. I grew up in California, which is why I don’t have a Southern accent.”

  We had gotten to Teresa’s car by now. It was a white Toyota, and there was a high-pitched beep as she unlocked the doors.

  “So your car is a rental,” I said thoughtfully.

  Teresa smiled. “Yes, given that I don’t live here.”

  Beth and I exchanged a glance. A shiver ran down my spine, and I looked at Teresa carefully. She was calm and efficient, a woman who knew how to get things done.

  “Is it okay if I have a look at your driver’s license?” I said.

  Teresa gave me a bemused look. “Sure, why not? Though I’m not sure how this will help.”

  She opened her large handbag, pulled out her wallet, and then handed me her license. It had all her details on it, and a photograph of herself.

  I handed the license back to her, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was hiding something from us.

  “How are things going with executing the will?” said Beth.

  “Really well,” said Teresa. “It should be all finished soon. It’s quite straightforward.”

  “Did your uncle have many beneficiaries?” I said, trying to think up more questions to ask. I couldn’t really come straight out and ask if she had tried to kill me, or if she’d purchased a stolen gun or driver’s license.

  “Just a few,” said Teresa. “But you know how these things are.”

  I nodded, even though I didn’t really know. “Are you the main beneficiary?”

  “Yes,” she said. “My uncle and I were close, and he didn’t have children of his own. It’s just me, and a few of his other nieces and nephews, and then some money to charity.”

  Beth said, “Have you been driving this car the whole time you’ve been in Santa Verona?”

  Teresa smiled, but her lips seemed to have grown thinner. “I think so.”

  “How can you think so?” said Beth. “Either it’s been the same car, or you’ve had to change cars.”

  “You’re right,” said Teresa. “I actually had to change cars a couple of times.”

  “And why was that?” said Beth.

  Teresa shrugged. “It seems like you can get better deals by renting for shorter amounts of time.”

  “What was your last car?” I asked.
/>   Teresa took a few seconds to think. “It was a red Chevrolet.”

  “Really? Who did you rent from?”

  “You’re asking a bunch of strange questions,” said Teresa, smiling. “I don’t really remember. Maybe it was Hertz?”

  I decided to take a wild stab in the dark. “I don’t think your last car was a red Chevrolet. I think it was a black Honda that you rented from Santa Verona Super Cheap Cars. I’m sure that if we showed them your photo, they would recognize you, and you might even appear on the security cameras.”

  Teresa smiled, a smug, satisfied smile. “Okay,” she said. “You can show them my photograph. But I’m sure they’ve never seen me before.”

  I was convinced that Teresa had rented the black Honda—maybe she’d worn a wig, or some kind of disguise, when she’d gone in to rent it. She’d probably tried to make herself look more like the woman in the driver’s license which she’d used.

  “Maybe they won’t recognize you,” I said. “But we’ve been talking to the police about this case. It turns out they found a hair trapped in Lana’s keyboard, and they can use that to run DNA tests. The detective on the case told me that it was a long, black hair.”

  Teresa and I locked eyes.

  She crossed her arms. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell me.”

  “I’m trying to say that you won’t get away with killing Lana. I’ll tell the detectives my suspicions, and once they stop by to match your DNA with what they found, I’m sure you’ll be convicted easily.”

  Teresa looked uncertainly from me to Beth. “You’re lying. You can’t match DNA from a hair. You need blood or something.”

  I shrugged and smiled, satisfied with the response I’d gotten from Teresa. “You can believe what you want, but these new DNA testing methods are really efficient. Besides, ballistics can always match your gun with the one used to kill Lana. And that will definitely be a match, won’t it?”

  Teresa stared at us for a minute. Finally, she said, “You’re bluffing. You don’t have anything on me. I’ve always been careful.”