“Molly, don’t go,” Mason’s voice called from inside. Mason’s and my relationship had moved up a notch beyond just friends, but we didn’t really have strings on each other. There was nothing to stop him from seeing other women. This was too embarrassing. Mason came through the doorway and grabbed my arm leading me back to the house.
He must have seen the uncomfortable expression on my face and realized what I was thinking. “Molly, this is my ex-wife, Jaimee,” he said.
“Oh,” I said regarding Jaimee with new interest. Oops, Mason’s worlds had just collided. Mason might have wanted to take baby steps to let me in his life, but it looked like he’d just taken a giant step whether he wanted to or not.
“Come in, sunshine,” Mason said to me again. I thought Jaimee’s eyes would fall out of their sockets.
“Sunshine?” she said, stifling a laugh.
“Didn’t you say you had to go?” Mason said to her, but she shook her head.
Mason ushered me in and I could feel Jaimee’s eyes on me as we all walked back to the den. Since Mason had kept his family, which included Jaimee, separate from his social life, this was probably the first time she’d seen any woman in his life. We were both measuring ourselves against each other and I was pretty sure I came up short.
In the few minutes I’d seen her, I had already gotten a feeling about who she was. She reminded me of an older version of the women I’d met when I’d helped out at my sons’ elementary school. They were married to doctors and lawyers, all drove similar cars, had some shade of blond hair, manicured nails and houses that were far neater than mine. Jaimee was dressed in the high-end jeans of the moment with heels—a look I would never understand. She wore a white tee shirt with some kind of gauzy overshirt on top of it. It seemed a little much considering the heat, but her look was less about comfort and more about style. I suspected the purpose of the overshirt was to flow over any little lumps and bumps.
I could just imagine what she was thinking about me. I had changed when I got home and left behind my usual work clothes of khaki pants and a white shirt. No double layers for me. I had put on cargo-style capri pants with just a tee shirt, lumps and bumps be darned.
Jaimee was still holding the pink gift bag and said it was something I’d made for their daughter’s wedding. She tried to give it back to me, but Mason asked to see it. “This is awkward,” Jaimee said to me as she handed it over to him. “It really doesn’t go with Thursday’s dress. Why don’t you keep it for somebody else.”
Mason took the hankie from her and laid it on the coffee table. “Doesn’t go with Thursday’s dress? They’re both white.” He turned to me. “It’s beautiful, sunshine. I’m sure Thursday will treasure it.”
To put it mildly there was an awkward silence. Mason tried to break it by telling Jaimee about the Tarzana Hookers. She didn’t seem interested and began talking to Mason about the wedding present they needed to buy for Thursday.
“There’s a wonderful design studio in Santa Barbara where all the celebrities go,” she said. “They have all these fantastic pieces—the kinds of things that will make her living room look legendary.” When Mason seemed unmoved, she said something about taking care of it herself.
“You might want to look at Luxe,” I said, referring to the lifestyle store near the bookstore. “They have a lot of one-of-a-kind items.”
Jaimee glared at me as if I’d just suggested she go look in the broom closet.
We had reached another awkward moment. Mason looked at his watch. “I didn’t realize how late it was,” Mason said to his ex. She glanced from him to me and back to him before checking her watch.
“Mark worries about me if I’m out too late,” she said, explaining to me that he was her boyfriend. Mason just shook his head and rolled his eyes. Even so, she seemed reluctant to leave. Maybe she didn’t want Mason anymore, but she didn’t really want someone else to have him, either. Finally she made a move toward the door and Mason walked her out. I noticed she had knocked the shopping bag with the hankie onto the floor.
Mason returned a few moments later and when he saw I was still standing, he urged me to sit. I realized for the first time that Spike wasn’t around and asked Mason where he was. “Spike and Jaimee don’t get along,” he said before going to the service porch to let the dog in. I heard the clatter of claws as Spike charged into the room. The toy fox terrier sniffed the floor, looking indignant. He then ran straight to where Jaimee had been standing and started to bark. It took a few minutes of Mason telling his dog Jaimee was gone before Spike would calm down.
Mason put the hankie back into the bag and thanked me again, saying he would make sure his daughter got it. Then he sat down next to me on the soft leather couch.
“So, that’s your ex,” I said. I left it hanging, hoping he’d explain why she was there. Mason picked up on it and said she’d claimed to have found a location for the wedding and wanted a check for the deposit.
“But I wanted to see the place and talk to the manager,” he said, “so we both drove down in my car. Lucky that I did. Jaimee made it all sound perfect until we got there. They’re renovating the hotel. No wonder the room was available. It was stripped down to the studs.” Mason started to laugh. “The manager promised me they’d hang white tarps over the ripped out walls for the reception.” He shook his head a bunch of times like he was trying to make sense of something. “She argued all the way back here. Like somehow this mess is my fault.”
He leaned next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. “She’s nothing like you. You’re fun, an adventure to be around. Believe me, I never had to get her out of jail.”
“Is her boyfriend Mark coming to the wedding?” I asked.
I felt Mason stiffen. “We’re discussing it.” Before I could pry more, Mason reminded me that I’d asked him to find out anything he could about Dan Donahue.
“He’s a pretty blah guy,” Mason began. “No arrests or anything like that. The best I could find out was that he’s struggling with the store, but . . .” Mason stopped and leaned in a little closer. “He just got an influx of money.”
“How’d you learn that?” I asked.
Mason chuckled. “I’ve got contacts everywhere. I talked to the owner of the building. It seems Dan was consistently late on his rent until a month ago. He told the landlord he had a new investor.” Mason let the information sink in and then glanced at the empty coffee table. “What kind of host am I? What can I get you?” He paused for a moment then got an impish grin.
“Coffee, tea or me?”
CHAPTER 15
I ended up passing on all three of Mason’s offers. He’d wanted me to stay—overnight—but I put him off. I was not ready to walk in my house the next morning and have to pass Barry pouring a bowl of cereal, so I convinced Mason to wait until my house was my own again.
When I finally pulled into my driveway, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was relieved to find the backyard quiet and without so much as a stray paper plate to show what had gone on there before. The kitchen was empty when I walked in. The trash had been taken out and the counter wiped clean of pizza residue. No animals rushed out to greet me. I assumed they were all sacked out somewhere, worn out from all the earlier activity. I went to turn out the light and quietly go across the house. Okay, it was more like sneak across the house.
I had my hand on the light switch when I heard one of the bedroom doors open. “Oh, you’re home,” Barry said in what I’d call feigned surprise as he came into the kitchen. I did a little double take at his attire. He had on blue plaid pajama pants and a white tee shirt. I guess he was wearing clothes, but just barely. He noticed me noticing his outfit and smiled. “Hey, I see people at the grocery story like this, but it seems to be making you uncomfortable.” He went out of the room and reappeared a moment later with jeans on.
“Jeffrey’s asleep, but he wanted me to be sure to thank you for this evening. It meant a lot to him to have the drama group over.” Barry leaned against the c
ounter. “I’m sorry. I know I should have checked with you first. There isn’t any excuse for it. It all happened at the last minute.”
I could see that he really meant it and in the big scheme of things it wasn’t that big a deal, so I told him it was okay. I watched the tension go out of his expression. “Are you going to have tea, again?” Before I could answer he was already taking out a couple of mugs and looking through my tea stash. “How about some Constant Comment?”
“The tea is a good idea,” I said finally. “We need to talk about some things.”
“Uh-oh,” Barry said in a teasing voice. “I said I was sorry. It won’t ever happen again.” This time he made the tea. Not that it took much effort. All he had to do was drop a couple of tea bags in the mugs and fill them with water from the instant hot spigot. Immediately the air filled with the spicy orange scent.
Before I could even suggest we sit outside, he was on his way out the door carrying the mugs. “If what you want to talk about is Heather being here, I’m sorry for that, too. She realized how awkward it was.”
“It’s your life and you can do what you want,” I said setting my mug on the little glass table. The yard was so still, it almost didn’t feel like we were outside. I looked up at the night blue sky and saw some stars twinkling. Then I gathered my strength and turned toward him. “You seem okay and you’re back to work. If you moved back home, whatever you did and with whoever wouldn’t matter. What does your doctor say about you doing stairs?”
“I know you’re probably curious what’s going on with the investigation into your crochet friend’s murder. Heather talked about it a lot.” Barry let it hang in the air for a minute. I knew he was just trying to change the subject by dangling information in front of me. I wish I could say that I was strong and went right back to asking when he was going to leave, but all I could think about was sharing the information with the group the next day, and well, flaunting it in front of Adele. I’m not proud of it, but at least I was being honest.
“Did she say anything about finding the gun?” I said, doing my best not to notice that Barry’s lips had curved into a triumphant little smile. I told myself I could get back to trying to pin down when he was leaving later.
“That’s the problem, she hasn’t found the murder weapon,” Barry said. I didn’t bring up Adele’s golden triangle of guilt, but said I’d heard she’d found Dan Donahue’s gun.
“Oh, that gun,” Barry said. “Heather had it tested, and it hadn’t been fired. Not only that, Dan’s hands were swabbed and his clothing checked and there was no gunpowder residue, which should have been there if he’d fired a weapon. His gun is registered and legal, so she had to give it back to him. Even so, her gut tells her Dan killed his wife.”
Well, at least now I understood why Dan hadn’t been arrested. Adele wouldn’t be happy to hear that her golden triangle had just lost one of its corners. I asked Barry if Heather knew that something was missing from Kelly’s room. He said she had discounted it as being a robbery gone bad from the start. Then it was as if he realized exactly what I’d said.
“Are you saying you know something is missing from the room?” he said, and I nodded. This time it was my turn to have a little triumphant smile. “Well, are you going to tell me or what?” Barry said.
I explained our two trips to Kelly’s before she was killed. “Adele just about knocked over a lamp with a leaded glass shade. But when I went back there today, it was gone. Dan said he didn’t know anything about it.” Barry asked for more details about the lamp and I described what I remembered about the colors of the shade.
“Did Heather talk to Kelly’s brother, Stone?” I was going to mention that Stone thought Dan had done it, too, and might be able to help her, but Barry was already shaking his head.
“The surfer dude wasn’t even in town when it happened. Heather checked out his story about going to Denver to meet someone about his coconut energy drink. She talked to the person he’d met with in Denver and even looked at his boarding pass from Kahului Airport in Maui to Denver.”
“She thought he was a suspect?” I said surprised. “I don’t suppose you saw him. He’s adorable.”
Barry’s lips went into a straight line of consternation. “Adorable people can be murderers. Heather is very thorough. She thinks everybody is a suspect, including the neighbor woman who was trying to get Donahue to renege on letting the production use the backyard. Heather talked to the prop guys who’d been arranging all the plants, too. They said Kelly Donahue was alive when they left to go to lunch. Heather had no way to prove what they said was true, but she put them on the back burner of her suspect list. Where’s a motive?”
“Did they tell Heather they knew Kelly from before? She was a production assistant on a show they worked on.”
Barry appeared surprised. “They didn’t tell Heather about that. I’ll be sure and pass it along.” I was amazed at how much information Barry had shared and how much attention he had paid to what I’d said. It had never been like this when we were a couple.
He leaned closer and checked my expression. “You sounded kind of gushy when you talked about the surfer. Is there something going on between you two?”
I laughed. “What if there was? It’s none of your business. Remember we’re over and done with.”
“Somebody better tell Mason he’s got competition. And what was with that fake detective from L.A. 911? What was he doing coming home with you?”
I just glared at Barry. “Right,” he said. “It’s none of my business.”
“I know you were trying to change the subject when I asked when you’d be moving back home. If you can’t give me an exact date, how about a rough time frame?” Barry drank some of his tea and set the mug down. There was no triumphant smile this time.
“My doctor thinks I should avoid stairs for a few more weeks. And since we’re out of my place, it seemed like a good time to get the floors done, along with painting and a few odds and ends. You know workmen. They say it’ll take a few days and it turns into a few months.” I must have looked stricken because he said he was just joking. “I’m hoping we’ll be good to go in two weeks. If that’s okay.”
How could I say it wasn’t? So, I told him it was fine.
“This was very nice,” he said as we walked inside. “Just two friends having a cup of tea.” He was right we were two friends. But then I blurted out. “So what’s going on with you and Detective Heather?”
Barry laughed. “I’ll give you the same response you gave me when I asked about surfer dude. None of your business.”
CHAPTER 16
“Why don’t you suggest he move into Detective Heather’s place?” Dinah said. Though it was barely nine in the morning, it was already hot walking along Ventura Boulevard. Dinah and I had agreed to eat at Le Grande Fromage and I’d picked her up at her house and we were in the process of walking the couple of blocks to the neighborhood bistro.
I could have eaten at home, but now that Barry was back to work, it was just too weird to watch him come through the kitchen at 8:47 A.M. while I was nursing my morning coffee that he had made. Dressed in a suit and tie, he’d pour some of the coffee into a commuter mug, eat a bowl of cereal standing at the counter and head out.
I never knew how to act. Should I make conversation? Invite him to sit at the table? It was just awkward. He seemed to have adjusted to the situation and always wished me a good day on his way out. I wished him the same, but most of all I wished he was starting it from someplace else.
Jeffrey, like other boys his age, slept in. Barry had tried to talk him into going to day camp. Day camp for a fourteen-year-old? Instead, on his own, Jeffrey had found a summer acting program that he got to and from on his bicycle.
“I wouldn’t do that to Jeffrey,” I said in reference to Dinah’s suggestion. Having Jeffrey at my place was no problem. I had liked the kid from the day I’d met him. Maybe after bringing up two sons, I had a weakness for boys. When the end had come for Barry and
me, one of my regrets was losing Jeffrey in the process. Luckily, there was no awkwardness between us and he kept me posted on how much he missed his girlfriend Autumn, who was away at camp. “You should have seen Detective Heather trying to be motherly. If Barry and Heather do get together, I think Jeffrey is going to find that boarding school is in his future.”
We’d reached the small café and it was pleasant to walk into the cool interior. It was bright and airy inside and filled with plants. Almost all the tables were full with a combination of people stopping in after their morning exercise walk and the people who used the tables as their office. Dinah placed our order and I found a table.
Imagine my shock when I realized Adele was at the table behind us. She had her back to the room and was bent over, focusing on something. A mug and plate with a residue of breakfast sat across from her and I guessed she must have been eating with Eric. I tried to see what she was doing, but she had herself positioned so that whatever it was was completely hidden.
Dinah came to the table a moment later and I gestured toward Adele. Dinah was still standing and tried to look over the top of Adele’s head, but it didn’t work and my friend sat down.
The door whooshed open and I automatically looked up. Stone Thomasville came in with three men who had the same streaked hair and tanned skin and followed him like disciples. I admit that I stared at Stone for a moment. He had the kind of looks that made you do that.
“Should we invite them to sit with us?” Dinah asked, noting that all the tables were full.
“I do have to ask him about something,” I said. Adele heard us talking and turned around in her seat. She followed my gaze and saw who we were talking about, as Dinah went over to invite him to join us.
“What’s going on? Who’s he?” she asked quickly stuffing something in her tote bag. I told her he was Kelly’s brother and then asked what she was being so secretive about.
If Hooks Could Kill Page 11
