Thrilled To Death

by Jennifer Apodaca

  A muscle along Vance’s jaw twitched. “Someone has killed Shane Masters. Do you know who it is?”

  I blurted out, “Shane’s been killed?”

  Vance ignored me. “Mr. Webb?” he said to Grandpa.

  “No, I don’t know.”

  Vance came right back with, “But you were trying to find out for Masters?”

  Grandpa shook his head. “Sam and I saw Shane yesterday, and he was trying to blackmail me into using my connections to find out if a magician had put a hit out on him. I was trying, but not for Shane. I just needed to know.”

  I slid my hand down Grandpa’s arm and took his hand in mine.

  Vance cut his gaze to me and then down to the thin scab on the back of my hand. “Guess you forgot to mention that little detail yesterday.”

  My stomach flipped over.

  He turned back to Grandpa. “Did the fake thumb Masters showed you today mean anything?”

  Grandpa’s hand tightened on mine. “I’m not sure, Detective, because it’s a common prop most magicians have. However, last night at my house Bo Kelly was doing some close-up magic with one just like it. When Bo left, it was in his pocket.”

  “Who is Bo Kelly?”

  I let Grandpa answer that while I looked around. Where were Gabe and Cal? Could Vance have had them taken down to the police station? Had Gabe found Shane murdered? Why was the animal control unit there? Vance was writing something down and I said, “Where are Shane’s dogs? Were they hurt?”

  Vance zeroed in on my face. “Why do you ask?”

  I’d hit on something. I could see it from Vance’s carefully schooled face. But I had no idea what I’d hit on. “Well, the animal control van is here, and they let the van through the police barricade. I can’t hear the dogs. . . .” I trailed off, realizing the dogs could have been killed too. I wasn’t a big fan of those dogs, but I didn’t want them dead. Where was Gabe?

  Vance sighed. “The dogs are alive, but it looks like they have been tranquilized or poisoned. They are both out cold.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t know what to make of that.

  Vance turned back to Grandpa. “Where were you Monday night?”

  That got my attention. Was this about the hit man he found dead?

  Grandpa said, “I was with a friend.”

  Lola jumped in. “He was with me. He was helping me figure out where to get a job.”

  “With you?” I was stunned. But then I started thinking. How had Grandpa known where Shane was staying when he went to see him Tuesday? Lola had told him. And now it made sense why he wouldn’t tell Vance where he was Monday night—he was protecting Lola. She had already told me that Shane had them all sign contracts to keep his shows a secret. Besides, Lola had seemed really afraid of Shane. Grandpa was exactly the kind of man who would protect her.

  Vance studied Lola. “How long have you lived in Lake Elsinore? What is the nature of your relationship with Mr. Webb?”

  Lola brushed her long wavy hair back. “I’m one of Shane’s assistants. He wasn’t planning to keep me on after the show on Saturday. I decided to stay here in Elsinore because I grew up here. And Barney is just being a friend. He didn’t tell you about me because if Shane found out, he would have fired me instantly instead of after the Saturday show.”

  “How did you and Mr. Webb meet exactly? Did you know him when you lived here?”

  She shook her head. “I met him on the Internet. Magicians’ assistants have an e-mail loop where we chat and stuff. Barney was a guest one night for a chat. We started privately e-mailing after that.”

  Vance wrote down some notes. After he was finished, he lifted his head to look at me speculatively, then looked back at Lola. “And it was just a coincidence that you happened to go to Heart Mates and sign up?”

  For the first time, Lola looked uncomfortable. “Not exactly.”

  “Explain.”

  I jumped a couple inches at Vance’s sharp voice. He was getting really mad.

  Lola swallowed and said, “I left my husband a few years back and I wanted to reconcile with him. Since he works at Heart Mates, it seemed like a good idea . . . .” She trailed off and looked at me.

  I was in enough trouble. For once, I kept my mouth shut.

  “Who is your husband?” Vance asked in a perfectly reasonable voice.

  “Blaine Newport.”

  Vance turned his gaze on me, and this time his stare stuck.

  I was instantly defensive. “I only found out this morning!”

  Vance turned and waved a uniform over. Once the cop trotted over, Vance gestured toward Grandpa and Lola. “Escort these two over to where the two witnesses are sitting. Make sure they don’t talk.”

  The policeman was young and very courteous. “If you’ll come with me please,” he said, and walked with them toward the police barricade. I heard him say, “I can get you some water or coffee.”

  I watched them walk away and tried not to acknowledge Vance staring at me. But finally I had to turn and meet his flat brown eyes. “The other witnesses—are they Gabe and Cal?”

  He scissored his jaw for about ten seconds, then said, “Yes. Pulizzi found Shane. He called it in, and the call was patched through to me in my car.”

  I lifted my chin. “I want to see Gabe.” Was he okay?

  “I called you yesterday for help, Shaw. Now Shane Masters has been murdered in my town. Any idea how much heat is going to come down on me?”

  My throat tightened. “I didn’t know. . . . I had a client, I was just trying to—”

  He took a step closer. “You are not a professional. You are a soccer mom! When are you going to understand that you can trust me?” His voice dropped.

  “I’m sorry. But damn it, Vance, you suspected my grandfather. How did I know I could trust you? Shane threatened to set him up! He swore he could make him look guilty of hiring a hit man. I just wanted to talk to Gabe, then I was going to tell you everything I knew. And it wasn’t much!”

  He leaned in. “Who are you working for now? This client that you have, who is it?”

  I didn’t hesitate. “Nikki Eden and her grandmother, Rosy Malone.” I took a breath. “Nikki is a rising magician who currently has a show in Las Vegas. She came into town yesterday. She had an affair with Shane that ended badly, and she was afraid he was going to spoil her show this weekend. She hired me to try and find out.”

  “Did you find out if it was her show?”

  I shook my head. “I went to the stadium today to see if I could talk to a few people, maybe spot some props. See, Nikki does high-concept, or sometimes called high-cost, illusions like riding onto the stage on a motorcycle, then vanishing the bike while riding it. Her illusions have large props, so I thought maybe someone would have seen something.”

  Vance wrote more notes and clenched his jaw so tight I wondered if his eyes hurt. His whole body was rigid as a boulder. Finally he said, “Let’s recap: A famous magician comes to my town and someone tries to kill him. And just by coincidence, Shane’s employee, whom he is firing, signs on with your dating service and has secret meetings with your grandfather and a secret marriage with your office assistant. Then two magicians just happen to show up in Elsinore and have reason to see you.”

  He paused to suck in air to feed his tirade, and it popped into my head that three magicians had come to town, not two. But Fletch was helping Grandpa and had nothing to do with either the hit man or killing Shane. There was no reason to piss Vance off more by mentioning him. Besides, Fletch was skydiving today, so he had a rock-solid alibi.

  Vance continued, “First is Bo Kelly, who has a possible contract for a cartoon character and may have attempted to break into one of Shane’s prop trailers to see if Shane was spoiling his show and his chances for the cartoon. Then Shane’s ex-lover, who had a bad breakup with him, hired you to see if he was going to spoil her magic show Saturday night. On top of all that, your grandfather was being blackmailed by the murdered magician. Did I get that all correct, Shaw?” />
  “Uh, yeah.” He managed to summarize the last two days into a paragraph. Guess that’s why he made detective.

  But he wasn’t done. “All the suspects who had reason to kill Shane Masters are hooked up with you. Which you never bothered to tell me. And,” he leaned an inch closer, “the magician has now been murdered in my town!”

  Uh-oh. “It wasn’t like that!”

  He narrowed his gaze. “You and all your cohorts can explain exactly what it was like in formal statements down at the station.”

  It was dark by the time Gabe and I left the police station. Grandpa, Lola, and Cal had escaped first since they had less complicated stories. Gabe and I had been kept separate, but as a guess, I assumed he was put through a bit more because he found Shane dead.

  Needless to say, Vance was a little pissed off. Murdered famous people in his town ruined his day. So he made sure to ruin ours, which in retrospect seemed like a fair trade-off. Vance was really angry at me. The only thing that mollified him was that I had called him after Shane left our house. He believed Grandpa and I were going to tell him all that we knew.

  And I truly hadn’t known much yesterday at lunch.

  Gabe took my arm as we went out of the building into the parking lot. I didn’t have my car since Grandpa and I had been using his Jeep, and once Vance was finished with him, he had taken the Jeep home. As we walked to where Gabe’s truck was parked, I said, “Are you all right? That had to be awful to find Shane.”

  He didn’t miss a step and just said, “Fine.”

  I had so many emotions rushing through me I couldn’t keep them all straight. One of them was guilt over being the reason Gabe went to Shane’s and found him murdered. “If only you hadn’t run off to Shane’s like that.”

  He came to a sudden stop at the back bumper of his truck. “What?”

  I looked up into his face. We stood under one of those amber-colored lights that cast a glow over the hard-edged planes of Gabe’s face. His anger practically glimmered in the light. “You wouldn’t listen to me. If you hadn’t gone there, you wouldn’t have found him and you wouldn’t have had to go through all this.” It wasn’t a hard concept.

  He asked softly, “So you think I should let a man knock you around? Is that it, Sam? Or are you mad because you had already called Vance to rescue you?”

  I tried to yank my arm from his grasp, but he held on firmly. “I didn’t need to be rescued! I tried to tell you that, but you were so busy being the hotshot hero, you just sprang into action.” Bone-deep fatigue and raw anger mixed to a dangerous potion. “But God forbid I should try to help you. You cut me out of your family problems and refuse to tell me what’s really bothering you about our new arrangement, and I’m the one that’s got the problem?”

  He dropped my arm. “Now you’re pissed because I’m not eating bonbons and sharing my feelings? Pissed enough to go running to Vance?”

  “I never ran to Vance! I called him after Shane attacked me because he’s a cop. That’s rational, Pulizzi. Your running off to beat the shit out of Shane is not rational.” My anger and anxiety shoved out my tiredness. My deepest fears shot right up from the dark places inside of me. “I didn’t ask you to go on Dr. Phil and split open a vein. I asked you to tell me when you have a problem. I’m supposed to be your partner, but you are shutting me out.” I hated the pain wrapping around my insides, and I practically yelled, “Do you think I’m so stupid I can’t see you are having regrets?”

  Gabe leaned into me. “As it happens, sugar, I’ve been a little busy for teatime chats. I’ve been working my ass off on the construction to save you money. I’ve had to juggle my clients, and then Cal managed to fuck up his life, really cutting into the time I usually reserve for your daily crises and the self-esteem feeding you require every three hours!”

  I stepped back, feeling like I’d been God-smacked with the truth. I was a drain on him. Scalding tears burned my eyes and clogged my throat. Embarrassment, anger, and hurt roiled up, and I said, “You go take care of your family and I’ll take care of mine!” Shaking with emotion I didn’t want to name, I added, “And why don’t you pull that old wall out from up your ass, then put it back up between our businesses. Then you won’t have to worry about me or my self-esteem ever again.” I turned around and stormed off toward the doors of the police station.

  “Goddamn it, Sam. Get back here!” Gabe yelled at me. I ignored him and pulled my phone out of my purse. Who did I call? My best friend Angel was out of town on a buying trip. Blaine was mad as hell at me, and he had been staying with the boys while Grandpa and I were at the police station. I had never felt so alone. I stared at my phone through my tears and called the last person I ever imagined I would. “Mom?”

  “Samantha, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m at the police station. Can you come get me?” I waited, knowing she would launch into a lecture with a thousand questions. I kept my stare on the sidewalk at my feet.

  “I’m over at Cocoa’s; I can be there in five minutes.” She hung up.

  Shocked, I hung up. I guess she heard my tears in my voice.

  Gabe touched my shoulder.

  I turned around. “Don’t touch me. I’m such a huge problem for you? Then I’ll solve it. I’ll pay you back and I’ll be out of your life.”

  His face drained of everything. All he said was, “Don’t leave this parking lot. Wait for your mom.” Then he strode across the parking lot, got into his truck, and roared off.

  “Don’t cry over a man, Samantha. They aren’t worth it.” My mom pulled out of the police station. She had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. “What happened to your face?”

  “Shane.” I was just too tired and depressed. Gabe’s expression when I’d told him I’d be out of his life was imprinted on my brain. But what did he want from me?

  “And now he’s been murdered. Did Gabe kill him?”

  “What?” I sat up. “No. Gabe didn’t kill him.”

  She pulled her mouth tight. “He’s going to hurt you. Better to be done with him now.”

  He’d already hurt me. “Mom, I told him it was over, okay?” But I didn’t want it to be over. I wanted to fix that horrible look on his face. Had I been wrong? Was I being unfair?

  Mom took a deep breath. “Then you’re stronger and smarter than I ever was.”

  I gaped at my mom’s profile in the dark. Into her fifties, she was still an attractive woman. Her neck was getting a little looser, and there were lines around her eyes and mouth, but men still looked at my mom. They always had. So what did her comment mean? “You always had boyfriends.” Each one had become the center of her universe while he lasted.

  She didn’t look at me but concentrated on driving. “Getting them is easy. Keeping them isn’t. And men call us fickle. But at least you didn’t wait around for Gabe to break your heart.”

  It hit me so hard, I lost my breath. That was exactly what I had done. For days, the fear that Gabe didn’t want me anymore had been building. And when it finally bubbled to a confrontation, when he said something that I could seize on as proof, I struck first. I hurt him, just in case he suddenly morphed into the cheating worm my dead husband had been.

  Regret pressed down on me and mixed with a sick feeling of self-disgust. I didn’t give Gabe a chance. I didn’t let him tell me exactly what he felt. What his worries, burdens, and fears were.

  “How long is your lease on the building for Heart Mates, Samantha?”

  I blinked and tried to follow along. “I just signed another year.”

  “Okay, we can work the lease into selling the business, I think. Give me your landlord’s name.”

  I sat up straight. We were almost to the house. “Mom, I’m not selling Heart Mates. Not now and not ever.”

  She pulled into the dirt lot in front of the house and stopped, leaving the car idling. “You’ll work next to Gabe even if you’ve broken up? I’ll pay to have that wall replaced, then we will—”

  “No.” My head throb
bed, my eye ached, and I felt like the worst kind of failure. But Heart Mates was mine. I was building it step by step. And right now, we had bigger problems with Shane’s murder. I knew Grandpa was not going to stop until he found the magician who killed Shane.

  Even if it was Bo Kelly.

  I was going to set my problems and worries aside to be there for Grandpa and help him. I also had to talk to Nikki and Rosy. I had failed to find out what they wanted, and I’d had to tell Vance about Nikki and Shane’s affair. I needed to talk to them.

  “Mom, thank you for picking me up and giving me a ride home. But I have to sort things out for myself.” Before she could answer, I got out of the car and slammed the door.

  She watched me through the window with a tight expression, then she drove away.

  My mom drove me crazy, but she had come when I’d needed her, and I loved her for it. I just wished that I could have told her that. But we weren’t a huggy-feely mother and daughter.

  I turned to go into the house when the sound of a truck caught my attention. My heart leaped, but when I looked, it was a small truck pulling in just as my mom left—the truck that Fletch had rented.

  I went up on the porch and waited for Fletch. In the pool of amber given off by the porch light, his skin look pale, making his freckles stand out. “Hey, you okay?” I asked as I reached past him to open the door.

  He flashed a toothy grin. “Yeah. I went for my parachuting lesson.” We both walked in the house. The boys were eating pizza at the table with Grandpa. No sign of Blaine, so he must have gone home. I supposed he was still mad at me over Lola.

  “There’s plenty of pizza,” Grandpa said.

  Fletch groaned. “I think I’ll just have some water.”

  I followed him into the kitchen. A little worry about him crowded in among all my other feelings. I paused to kiss TJ and Joel and pat Ali. “No pizza for her,” I reminded the boys. Then I went to the fridge to pull out a beer and handed Fletch a bottle of water. Under the fluorescent light, he had an almost green tint to his skin. “Your jump didn’t go well?”