by Sharon Pape
“Did she at least say where the rift is this time?” Jaye liked to be prepared, and all this vagueness was troubling to her.
Daniel shook his head, stifling a yawn, and for the first time since he’d arrived, Jaye noticed how worn-out he looked.
“Then there’s no way to avoid it,” she said, thinking aloud.
“I’ve decided to look at it like lightning,” Daniel said. “When there’s a storm, you don’t know where lightning will strike until it does.”
“Is there a way to close the rift?”
“According to Doli Joe, it has to mend by itself. Think about it, Jaye—the physics of this thing are beyond anyone’s knowledge or experience. Meddling with the process could be disastrous. Doli Joe made it perfectly clear that we can’t let anything about this get out. She gave me permission to tell you and Sierra, but even that took more arguing and pleading than you can imagine. It felt like she was entrusting me with the button to a nuclear arsenal or something.”
“But—”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any more answers. I’ve told you everything she told me.”
Which wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. “What do we do now?”
“Until we know more, I guess life goes on as usual,” Daniel said, standing. “All we can do is pray the rift closes, and soon. I hate to just drop this on you and leave, but I never get much sleep when I stay with my grandmother and I still have to stop by Sierra’s. Are you okay?”
Jaye nodded. “I will be. It’s just a lot to absorb.” She walked him downstairs, a small part of her wishing he wouldn’t go. But she was no longer a little girl afraid of the dark. Or at least she shouldn’t be. They said good night at the front door, and for a moment Jaye thought he was going to kiss her. But the moment passed, leaving her oddly disappointed.
“Lock up,” he said as he stepped outside.
He turned back to give her a thumbs-up before folding himself into his car. Jaye armed the security system before heading upstairs. Inside the apartment, she closed and locked that door as well. She looked at Raffles asleep on the couch and wondered if she was locking trouble in or out.
***
“Did we somehow fall down a rabbit hole when we weren’t paying attention?” Sierra asked as she and Jaye frosted a batch of piña colada cupcakes. “Because I’m seriously thinking of changing my name to Alice.”
“Okay. I’ll change mine to Dorothy, rename the not-a-cat Toto and we can all skip off to the Emerald City and the Mad Hatter’s tea party.” She took a big bite out of the cupcake she’d just frosted. “Sorry,” she said, “but I really needed that.”
Sierra started licking the icing off the one in her hand. “Mmmm. I know what you mean.” They spent the next few minutes eating their cupcakes in silence.
“You still haven’t heard anything from Jeremy?” Sierra asked after swallowing the last of hers. “I thought for sure he’d call after our little ambush in the parking lot, either to confess or tell us to take a hike.” She picked up the pastry bag and went back to work.
“I think I’ll give him a call later,” Jaye said. “Maybe I can convince him confession is good for the soul.”
“What happens if Kelly answers?”
“I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
***
“What do you want?” Kelly demanded when she recognized Jaye’s voice. If they had been in a comic strip, there would have been icicles hanging from her words. There was clearly no point in starting with the social pleasantries. In fact, the odds were good that Jeremy had told his bride and handler all about their little tête-à-tête. Although Jaye had been confident she’d think of something to say if Kelly answered the phone, now that push had come to shove, clever remarks were nowhere to be found.
“I just wanted to see how my future neighbors were doing,” she said lamely as the awkward seconds ticked by.
“Yeah, right.” There was no mistaking the pure malice in Kelly’s tone. “Jeremy has nothing to say to you and neither do I.” Which was odd, because a torrent of words followed that remark. “You have some nerve lying in wait for my husband, trying to get him to turn on me. Who do you people think you are? We invite you into our home, and then you try to use our grief against us? It’s . . . it’s—” She slammed the phone down, effectively interrupting herself.
“Do you think that means they’re guilty?” Sierra asked when Jaye told her what had happened.
“My first thought was ‘Wow, with a reaction that strong, it really could be them.’ Then I realized it might just be Kelly protecting her turf.”
“And the merry-go-round keeps right on spinning.”
Chapter 30
City Attorney Neal Doyle was once again seated behind his desk with Jaye and Sierra across from him. “I’m sure you’re anxious to learn the results of the DNA test,” he said, “so I won’t prolong the agony.” Jaye sent him a silent blessing. From the moment his secretary had called earlier that morning, her stomach had been doing enough backflips and somersaults to qualify for a gymnastics team. “According to the report,” he went on, “there wasn’t a single strand of American Eskimo in the fur sample taken from evidence.” He smiled and leaned across his desk to hand them each a copy of the report.
Sierra’s bottled-up breath left her lungs in a whoosh of relief, and Jaye’s body went limp as if fear and worry had been supporting her tissue instead of bone and muscle. They were by no means home free, but they’d succeeded in refuting potentially damning evidence. Every little victory counted.
“That being said,” Doyle went on, “you’ll see there were quite a few breeds present in the sample.”
The women thanked him for his help, and as they were leaving Sierra promised him a basket of goodies from her shop. “That’s very gracious of you,” Doyle said, “but I can’t accept compensation of any kind from you. I’m the one who’ll be prosecuting the case against Peggy Krueger’s killer, so I’m sure you can appreciate my position. I should also make it clear that I didn’t request the DNA test to help you prove your innocence. I did it solely for the purposes of a just trial and a conviction that won’t be overturned on faulty evidence.”
Sierra’s face flushed with embarrassment, and she stumbled over an apology for her faux pas. Jaye had never seen her unflappable friend quite so unglued before. Fortunately, Doyle was enough of a gentleman to assure her he knew it was an innocent mistake, one he would never hold against her.
Once they were alone out in the parking lot, Jaye put her hand on Sierra’s shoulder and said with the solemn air of a minister, “Bribery isn’t the answer. It will only lead to a cycle of crime.”
Sierra wheeled on her, but before she could say anything, Jaye started laughing. Not a giggle in the throat kind of laugh, but a full-blown, doubled-over, Three Stooges–type laugh. “Wait until Daniel hears that you nearly got locked up for trying to bribe a city official with baked goods,” she sputtered. In spite of herself, Sierra quickly dissolved into laughter too. By the time the two of them ran out of steam, their stomachs were aching and tears were trickling down their cheeks.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt like such a fool,” Sierra said breathlessly. “I guess I should be glad no one was around just now to witness this hysterical little meltdown.”
“About that,” Jaye said, trying hard not to relapse into laughter, “I’m pretty sure we’re being taped.” She pointed out the security cameras trained on the parking lot.
Sierra groaned. “We’re going to wind up on YouTube.”
By the time they were in Sierra’s car and all buckled up, they’d both recovered enough to have a sensible conversation. “Okay,” Jaye said, “who do we know with a long-haired, white dog?”
Sierra shook her head. “No one I can think of offhand, certainly none of our suspects. Quinn has a black mutt. I don’t thi
nk Adam even has a dog, and Jeremy and Kelly are dogless now too.” She started the engine and backed out of the spot. “Wait—doesn’t Elaine have one of those small, designer dogs?”
“You’re right,” Jaye said, recalling the mop of white curled up in the little doggy bed near the register. “I think she called it a Maltipoo.”
“A Maltese and poodle mix . . . I think they found both of those breeds in the sample.”
Jaye pulled the report out of her handbag and looked for the breakdown. “Yup, it’s right here. But even if Elaine wanted Peggy out of the way so she could have another chance with Adam, why kill her after Adam dumped her too?”
“Great,” Sierra said, turning out of the parking lot and merging with the traffic that was headed in the direction of Crystal Clear. “The only one with the right kind of dog is our least likely suspect.”
“Then I won’t even mention the fact that there must be dozens of other white dogs in the Sedona area, belonging to any number of other suspects that we haven’t even considered yet.”
“Thanks for not mentioning that,” Sierra said wryly, “because it would have been a real downer.”
“Look, before we go crazy canvassing the whole town for people with white, long-haired dogs and possible motives, I think we should work with the suspects we already have. If nothing pans out, then we’ll look elsewhere.”
“I can live with that,” Sierra said. “But if we’re concentrating only on our present suspects and none of them has the right kind of dog, where did the killer get the fur to plant on the body?” They were caught in the usual traffic snarl at Tlaquepaque. Sierra braked to let a car exit the mall and pull in front of her.
“I think we can assume the killer didn’t know DNA testing for dogs was widely available,” Jaye said . “So they were probably out to grab any basic long, white fur they could find.”
“Where would I go if I was in the market for a handful of fur?” Sierra mused as they inched forward. “Pet stores would have lots of different breeds, presumably some that are white.”
“Dog groomers and doggie day care places would too,” Jaye added.
Sierra turned to her and smiled. “I think I’ve just hatched us a plan.”
***
The two women and their pets were waiting in Jaye’s living room when Daniel arrived. He’d brought the pizza: half sausage, a quarter mushroom and a quarter pineapple.
Sierra and Jaye had recoiled the first time they’d opened the box and seen pineapple sitting on an otherwise yummy-looking pie. “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” he’d said defensively. As it turned out, Raffles was the only other mammal in the group who enjoyed her pizza no matter what was on it. When they’d offered it to Frosty, he’d taken it as eagerly as ever, but then had spit out the offending fruit with such force that it had landed in Jaye’s lap. Since then they’d all made peace with each other’s peculiarities of taste.
Daniel set the pizza box on the coffee table. Jaye had already stacked napkins, paper plates, cups and a large bottle of cola on the end tables beside the love seats. Not for the first time, she found herself wishing for a larger apartment with space for an actual dining room table. If her profit margin remained steady, she’d have to look into it. But that was a job for a future time when prison accommodations were no longer a grim alternative.
After they’d each taken a slice with their preferred topping, and the dog and not-a-cat had positioned themselves for optimal begging, they started eating and brainstorming. “I did an Internet search for groomers, pet stores, doggie day cares, etc., in the Sedona/Flagstaff area,” Jaye said, using a napkin to blot the grease on her mouth. “It’s quite a list. We’ll all have to work on this, or we’ll never get through it fast enough.” Their mouths too full to speak, Daniel and Sierra bobbed their heads in agreement.
“I think you’re forgetting something,” Daniel said after swallowing and taking a gulp of soda. “We’re going to need pictures of our suspects. I doubt any of these places is going to tell us who’s on their client list just because we ask nicely. We stand a much better chance if we walk in casual-like with a few photos of our suspects and ask the workers if they’ve seen any of them in there before.”
“Good thinking,” Sierra said. Raffles, who’d been sitting at Jaye’s feet, tugged at her pants leg as if to say, “Hey, where’s mine?” Jaye tore off a piece from her slice, complete with a disk of sausage. Seeing her success, Frosty whined with enough pathos to receive pieces from both Daniel and Sierra.
Jaye poured herself a cup of soda. “Now we just have to figure out how to take pictures of our suspects without raising their suspicions.”
“If we divide them up, we’re less likely to appear on anyone’s radar,” Daniel said. “I’ll take Adam for starters.” Jaye looked at him pointedly, but he met her eyes without flinching. “I think he’s still a danger to you after that date you had.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said. “It’s not like I would sneak into his house to get the picture.”
“I have to side with Daniel on this one,” Sierra put in. “Nothing’s changed in that regard, and we need to eliminate risk whenever we can. At least this one is an easy fix. I’ll tackle Jeremy and Kelly. If I’m lucky, maybe I can get two Newirths with one stone.”
“I guess that leaves me with Quinn and our newest suspect, Elaine,” Jaye said. “But for the record, I really wish you two would stop treating me like a child. Just because I grew up without parents doesn’t mean I need a set now.”
Daniel handed Frosty and Raffles the last two bites of his crust. “Noted,” he said as he helped himself to another slice.
***
Jaye decided to start with Quinn. Whenever she saw the jovial restaurateur, he seemed to be smiling and camera-ready. She drove into Uptown Sedona midmorning, when he and Luisa would be prepping for the lunch crowd. Figuring they were probably in the kitchen, she walked around to the rear of the building and rapped on the back door. Quinn opened it, wiping his hands on an apron already sporting a color wheel of stains. When he saw her standing there, he looked perplexed, his famous smile nowhere in evidence. “Hi,” he said tentatively. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”
Jaye supplied a smile big enough for both of them. Nope—nothing wrong here. In the background she could see Luisa, who’d paused in the middle of chopping vegetables to hear what she had to say. Jaye waved to her, and she waved back. “I’m sorry to bother you both,” she said. “I have a silly little request.”
Quinn’s face relaxed into its familiar meet-and-greet expression. “Fire away.”
“I was telling my friend back East how much I love the food you serve. She’s in marketing, and when I mentioned the restaurant’s name was Finnegan’s Fajitas, she begged me for a picture of you with the sign.”
“Well, sure. Happy to oblige,” Quinn said, beaming like a proud papa. “Give me a minute, and I’ll meet you out front.”
Jaye retraced her steps around the building, and true to his word, a minute later Quinn came through the front door. His apron was gone, and his red hair was neatly combed. He had Luisa with him. “It’s a family business—my wife belongs in the picture,” he said, not leaving any room for debate. Luisa had also doffed her apron and was applying some dark red lipstick as he spoke.
When Jaye started to position them, she quickly realized that the only way to get them into the frame along with the sign above the door was to stand quite a distance back. That was fine for her mythical friend back East, but not so great for her real purpose. It was a good thing she’d brought along her digital camera instead of just relying on her cell phone. Cropping and enlarging the picture later would be a simple matter. In the end the whole affair took fifteen minutes, and her subject was none the wiser. One down, one to go.
Chapter 31
Elaine was going to be harder. She�
�d been suspicious about all of Jaye’s questions the first time they’d spoken about Peggy’s death, and in spite of Jaye’s attempt to smooth things over, they’d parted company under less than ideal circumstances. Dropping by for a friendly chat was probably not on the menu. Neither was shopping for another gift there. Tourists frequented kitschy shops like Elaine’s. Locals, for the most part, patronized regular stores. Given these constraints, Jaye decided to go with a tale that was similar to the one she’d fed Quinn.
She made her way into town the next day around opening time. Camera in hand, jaunty demeanor dialed way up, she breezed through the door to the ringing of chimes and the barking of Mayhem the Maltipoo. Elaine emerged from the rear of the shop with a welcoming smile and tiny bits of foam packing sprinkled through her hair. When she saw that Jaye was the only one there, she dropped the smile, apparently saving it for a worthier arrival. Jaye ignored the snub and greeted her with a pleasant hello that wasn’t returned.
“Is there something I can do for you?” Elaine asked, so coolly that it sounded more like a dare than a question.
“Actually, there is,” Jaye said, taken aback by her attitude. As far as she could remember, their parting hadn't been that frosty. But regardless of what had transformed Elaine into an ice queen, Jaye intended to forge ahead. The plan wouldn’t work if they didn’t secure photos of all their suspects. As though she hadn’t noticed that anything was amiss, she went on to recount the brief story about her friend back East, editing it for Elaine’s consumption. “She’s heard me talk about all the cute shops in Sedona so often that she wants me to send her pictures of the shopkeepers in front of their stores.”
Elaine seemed taken by surprise. “Oh,” she said, her hand automatically going up to survey the general state of her hair while she weighed the request. Jaye considered telling her about the white speckles nesting there, but decided to wait until she’d heard Elaine’s decision before providing that information.
