Tart of Darkness

by Denise Swanson

  “I don’t mind.” Dani smiled reassuringly, hoping her exhaustion didn’t show. “Would you like something to eat while you wait? I have some sandwiches and fruit right here.”

  “Well…” Mrs. Carnet hesitated. “If it’s no bother. I was so upset after Mrs. Bourne called and fired me that I forgot to have lunch or dinner.”

  “No bother at all.” Dani reached behind her and grabbed an insulated bag and a couple bottles of water. “I like to have something available in case I’m starving after I finish cooking.”

  “I understand completely.” Mrs. Carnet made a face. “The Bournes never allowed me to eat until they were finished. They didn’t care that while I was serving them and cleaning up, I was hungry too.”

  “Isn’t that the truth?” Dani chuckled. “Anymore, whenever I have a meal at a normal time, it almost seems as if I’m doing something wrong.”

  As the women shared the food, Mrs. Carnet talked about working for the Bournes. She reminisced about all the years she’d been with them, then had to stop to wipe away a tear and compose herself.

  After taking a long drink of water, Mrs. Carnet sighed. “I came to them just after Mrs. Bourne had Miss Regina. I took care of her more often than her mother. I was the one who did the potty training, helped her with her homework, and taught her to drive.”

  “Why in the world did they let you go?” Dani asked softly. It seemed coldhearted to question the woman when she was so obviously distraught, but she really needed to know more about Regina and her family. “And to make you leave so quickly seems needlessly cruel.”

  “They blame me for Miss Regina’s death.” Mrs. Carnet peeled the label off the water bottle and Dani noticed her unpolished fingernails had been chewed to the quick. “The Bournes said that I should have never left her alone. But it was supposed to be my day off. I only stayed as long as I did as a favor to Miss Regina, to make sure everything was in place for her party.” Mrs. Carnet’s lips thinned. “It was my sister’s sixtieth birthday and I had to postpone seeing her, but I promised her that I’d drive up to Chicago, spend the night with her, and that we’d celebrate with a fancy Sunday brunch.”

  “It sounds to me as if you went above and beyond.” Dani frowned. “And Regina was certainly old enough to be left by herself overnight.” She wrinkled her brow, trying to recall if she’d seen Mrs. Carnet after the luau began. “What time did you leave the party?”

  “I headed into the city as soon as I finished getting the bartenders situated,” Mrs. Carnet answered. “It must have been a little before seven because I was at my sister’s for the nine thirty news.”

  “You were the one who found Regina, right?” Dani asked gently, hoping she wasn’t pushing the woman too far.

  “Yes. I’ll never forget the moment when I realized she was unconscious.” Mrs. Carnet patted her chest, then fanned herself. “My sister and I had an early brunch and I got home about one. When I saw that Miss Regina was lying by the pool, I didn’t think anything of it. She spent a lot of time sunbathing out there. But when I went out to tell her I was back, I could tell something was wrong.”

  “Oh?” Dani barely spoke, unwilling to interrupt Mrs. Carnet.

  “There were empty plates and food wrappers all around her.” Mrs. Carnet’s breath hitched. “Miss Regina was—” Mrs. Carnet slapped a hand over her mouth and the crepey skin on her neck reddened. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

  Dani, finally putting together everything she’d observed and heard about the girl, said slowly, “I noticed that she didn’t eat much at the party, but a lot of hostesses are too wound up to eat. Then when she directed me to put food in the refrigerator that was not to be served under any circumstances, I thought it was odd but didn’t put two and two together. Although now that you mention how you found her…” Dani trailed off, then said, “Regina was bulimic, right?”

  “Yes, she was.” Mrs. Carnet hung her head. “But Miss Regina hadn’t binged in quite a while, so I was surprised to see the mess.”

  “Or maybe she’d just gotten better at hiding it from you,” Dani suggested.

  “Maybe.” Mrs. Carnet bit her lip. “She’d had a couple of episodes where she was out of control and her parents threatened her with rehab.”

  “Out of control with her eating?” Dani asked. Had the Bournes been concerned with the manuscript issue and the identity theft? “Or was there something more? Other issues that involved Regina?”

  “There were a few things that concerned them,” Mrs. Carnet said under her breath. “But it doesn’t seem right to tell you about them.”

  Dani could only push the woman so far. She didn’t want to burn any bridges. Maybe later, after Mrs. Carnet had a chance to realize just how badly she’d been treated by the Bournes, she’d be more willing to discuss this further.

  “I understand.” Dani offered the woman a plastic baggie containing several chocolate chip cookies and waited while Mrs. Carnet selected one. “So once you noticed the food wrappers and such, what did you do?”

  “I started to speak to Miss Regina.” Mrs. Carnet shook her head. “To ask if she wanted me to clean up or get her anything, but then I really looked at her. She was flopped on the lounge chair like a rag doll. I called 911 right away. But it was too late. They were never able to revive her.”

  “I understand you found a syringe in the driveway. Have the police figured out yet how she died?” Dani asked, wondering if the insulin overdose that the detective mentioned was common knowledge.

  “No one has told me anything.” Mrs. Carnet bit angrily into her cookie, chewed, and swallowed, then said, “Everyone just keeps asking me questions. The police, the reporters, the Bournes’ friends. Was Miss Regina or anyone in the house diabetic? Was she depressed? Was there anyone who might want to harm her?”

  “What did you tell them?” Dani wasn’t sure how long the older woman would talk to her about Regina, but any little tidbit might lead to a clue that she could follow up on with Spencer or Frannie.

  “I told the police no one in the house used insulin and Miss Regina was far from depressed.” Mrs. Carnet ate another cookie, then added, “I didn’t mention that the list of people who didn’t like her was too long to write down. And I certainly didn’t discuss the matter with anyone else.” She crossed her arms. “The Bournes expect confidentiality, and until today, they had my loyalty.”

  “But maybe you gave a nice young reporter a little hint,” Dani guessed.

  “I might have passed along a few things that I overheard the police talking about, like who was the last to leave the party.” Mrs. Carnet shot Dani a pointed glance. “And the fact that after you saved the place from burning down, Miss Regina was rude to you.”

  “Oh.” Dani’s cheeks warmed. “So you know about that.”

  “Certainly. Miss Bliss told me all about the incident.”

  “It really wasn’t as big a deal as everyone is making it out to be. The fire was small and Regina’s blowup wasn’t that bad. She’d already paid me and I figured that in a few days, she’d get over it and move on to the next big drama in her life.”

  “Which she probably would have if someone hadn’t killed her.” Mrs. Carnet reached for the last cookie. “Too bad the murderer didn’t have your patience.”

  Chapter 16

  When Spencer woke up Thursday morning, his first impulse was to call Dani. His gut urged him to make sure her snooping hadn’t stirred up any hornet nests of vengeful cops or panicky killers. He also wanted to confirm her dickwad of an ex wasn’t harassing her. He grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand, unlocked it, and opened up his contact list.

  He’d grabbed Dani’s photo from her Chef-to-Go website and her pretty caramel eyes sparkled at him from the screen. The tiny dent in her cute, little chin tempted him, as did the memory of her lush hips and her heart-shaped ass. What would it feel like to hold her in his arms and taste
her soft, soft lips?

  As his finger hovered over the picture of her face, Hiram’s words stopped him from tapping the icon. Despite his attraction to her and his mentor’s encouragement, Spencer wasn’t ready for a relationship.

  Shoving away the image of Dani sprawled beneath him, Spencer jumped out of bed and headed into the shower. For once, he didn’t mind how long it took the icy water to get hot.

  After he was dressed and waiting for the coffee to brew, he texted Ivy to ask how things were going. His niece immediately answered that everything was same old, same old and that she and Dani were prepping the food for a football booster dinner that evening. Dani was excited since it was only her second catering gig and was driving them all crazy with her need for perfection.

  Now that he knew Dani and Ivy were safe, Spencer’s stomach settled and he could face the thought of eating breakfast. After quickly polishing off a bowl of cereal, he got into his truck and backed out of the garage. Noticing that the town house association’s overzealous gardener had pruned his azalea bushes to within an inch of their lives, he made a mental note to inform the landscape company that, in the future, he’d trim the shrubs himself. Better a little work on his part than the decimation of the bright-red blossoms.

  Puddles from last night’s rain studded the asphalt and Spencer deliberately steered through them. He’d always liked the sound of splashing water. Rolling his window down, Spencer enjoyed the cold front’s cooler temperatures. With the blazing sun, the thermometer would soon rise and he’d be stuck breathing stale, air-conditioned air.

  Driving toward his office, he recalled promising to stop by the mansion after his meeting with the police chief. Smiling, Spencer’s mind drifted and he daydreamed about taking Dani in his arms when he saw her. Pressing her soft curves against his hard length and inhaling the spicy yet sweet fragrance that seemed to wrap around her. Was it perfume or her natural scent?

  Shit! Spencer slammed on the brakes as an obviously suicidal pedestrian with a huge bullmastiff on a leash darted between two parked cars and directly into the path of his pickup. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Spencer ground his teeth. He had to stop thinking about Little Miss Cupcake. Nothing could come of it and the distraction was annoying. Too bad Dani was so damn adorable.

  His plan was to protect Ivy by figuring out who killed Regina Bourne and then step back into his role as the casual acquaintance who checked once a week on the girls. Ivy was his number one priority, but clearly anything bad that affected Dani had the possibility of spilling over onto his niece, so he had keep Dani safe as well.

  Satisfied with his rationalization, Spencer turned his attention to Dani’s ex. There was something off about the good doctor. Spencer didn’t believe his reason for wanting the missing book for one single minute, and he definitely needed to be the one to deliver it once Dani found the AWOL tome.

  After parking in his assigned spot, Spencer took the stairs to his office. His appointment with the police chief wasn’t until eleven thirty and he needed to get schedules and timesheets approved for his employees or the security staff wouldn’t get paid this week.

  While Spencer loved being out from undercover and working security rather than living with motorcycle gangs, he hated the administrative bookkeeping. But he had to do it and as he dealt with paperwork that he could complete in his sleep, his thoughts wandered to what he’d learned about the man Dani had fired. It hadn’t taken much in the way of detective skills to discover that Demetri Mitchell was Detective Mikeloff’s nephew. The real mystery was the circumstances of Mitchell’s dismissal.

  None of Spencer’s sources had been able to provide any light on what had gone on in Mitchell’s department at the insurance company and Dani continued to refuse to divulge any details. Spencer was afraid that her pigheadedness would get her arrested for a crime she didn’t commit.

  It had taken every ounce of self-control that he possessed not to order her to tell him the whole story. His gut told him that if he forced the information out of her, those tactics would backfire and she wouldn’t trust him with other important facts.

  But that was only one of the reasons that Spencer hadn’t persisted in trying to pry the details from Dani. Another was that if he angered her to the extent she shut him out of her investigations, he wouldn’t be able to keep her safe. So even if it meant biting his tongue and allowing her to keep secrets, he had given in and stopped trying to find out why Demetri Mitchell had been fired and instead concentrated on making sure the man’s uncle didn’t take revenge on Dani for the dismissal.

  Spencer thumped his head against the back of his desk chair and stared out the window at the white clouds dotting the morning sky. Why was his life always so damn complicated? What happened to minding his own business and keeping a low profile? Why did logic fly out the window and his carefully planned life go to hell the minute he got around Danielle Sloan?

  Tuesday night, when Spencer had stopped by the mansion to talk to Dani, he’d had every intention of telling her what he’d found out about Detective Mikeloff, warning her to be careful, and leaving. But the minute he saw Dr. Dipshit with his hands on her, Spencer had allowed his emotions to take over. And instead of delivering his information and taking off, he’d pulled up a chair, eaten her addictive pudding, and offered to help her find Regina’s killer.

  A year ago, Spencer would have said no effing way would he ever get involved with another woman. Hell, six months ago, his fondest desire was to put as much distance between him and any female that showed a hint of wanting more than a few hours of mutual satisfaction. Then he met Dani, and now she refused to get out of his thoughts.

  Spencer thumped his head against the back of his chair again. No woman had ever affected him this way. Not one of his girlfriends, and certainly not his ex-wife, had made him this crazy. Was it foolish to think that Dani might be what he’d always been looking for?

  Spencer reminded himself that neither one of them was anywhere near ready to begin a relationship nor was there any reason to rush into anything. Ivy had mentioned—okay, he’d asked her—that Dani wasn’t seeing anyone and that there weren’t any guys she talked about wanting to date.

  Which meant Spencer had time to think things through. He couldn’t allow his feelings to outweigh his common sense. Undercover, emotions got you killed, and in this situation, it could be almost as disastrous.

  Spencer took a deep breath, clicked the Send button for the file he’d completed, and got to his feet. This wasn’t getting him anywhere and it was almost time for his meeting with the police chief.

  Twenty minutes later, as Spencer steered his truck away from the university, he noticed the dense, green leaves of the trees that lined the road. During the summer semester, the campus quieted down. There were a lot fewer students in class, which meant activity around the college decreased.

  Instead of crowds, smaller groups wandered the sidewalks and hung out in the quad. Spencer’s goal had been to use this downtime for staff training and program development, and Regina’s murder didn’t change that plan. Although he might be looking into her death, his investigation couldn’t interfere with the job he was being paid to perform.

  Still, it was good that he had some flexibility and didn’t have to punch a clock. He’d just make sure that the college didn’t get shortchanged. The students’ safety would always come first.

  Driving downtown, Spencer tried to collect his thoughts and figure out a strategy for approaching the police chief. He’d never met Chief Cleary, having always dealt with the assistant chief of operations, and wasn’t sure what his reception would be. Police officers weren’t usually very happy with any outside interference in their investigations or questions about their staff.

  After parking in the public lot, Spencer walked across the street and entered the building. The police station was like most other stations he had been in—a rectangular, brick structure with absolute
ly no personality.

  The empty vestibule, bracketed by restrooms on either side, was painted a boring beige and smelled of heavy-duty cleaning products. But as he pushed through the heavy glass doors leading into the lobby the antiseptic odor faded and the stench of too many sweaty bodies crowded together took over.

  To Spencer’s right, the visitor seating section was overflowing. Several people sat on the floor, and one man wearing baggy jeans and a Hawaiian shirt was poking the man sprawled next to him.

  When the guy got his friend’s attention, he said, “Bro, I thought you weren’t planning on running today.”

  The man shrugged and said, “I wasn’t. But those damn cops came out of nowhere.”

  Spencer rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the people swarming the dispatch area.

  The uniformed woman behind the counter was shaking her head and repeating, “Please take a seat. An officer will be with you shortly.”

  Spencer assumed the mob was due to the massive pileup that had shut down Trouper Avenue. He had heard about the mess on the radio. A semi had flipped over making a turn and cars had rear-ended each other like a line of falling dominoes.

  Normalton was a small community, but due to the three colleges and the town’s vintage car and motorcycle collection, there was always a lot of traffic. This week, adding to the congestion was the symposium that Normalton University’s parapsychology department was hosting.

  NU was one of only a handful of schools that had a department the focused on the study of paranormal and psychic phenomena, and it made the university unique among its Midwestern peers. So far, Spencer hadn’t had any dealings with that part of NU, and he hoped that would continue to be true.

  Edging his way through the throng, he caught the woman’s attention and said, “Spencer Drake for Chief Cleary. I have an eleven thirty appointment.”