Hippity Hoppity Homicide

by Kathi Daley

  “We did get married and have babies,” I confirmed. “Ellie married Levi Denton and has a son, Eli, and I married Zak Zimmerman and we have a daughter, Catherine.”

  Della raised a brow. “You married Zak Zimmerman? I thought you loathed him.” Della drew out the word as she said it. “In fact, I can specifically remember you saying he was the most annoying person you’d ever met.”

  I shrugged. “What can I say? He grew on me.”

  Della laughed with delight. “Oh, that is just precious. I can’t believe how the years have flown by. It seems like yesterday we were drinking sweet wine and skinny-dipping in Miller’s Pond.”

  Skinny-dipping in Miller’s Pond was a subject I’d just as soon not discuss in the produce aisle of the market, so I changed the subject. “How’s your sister Janet? Is she married? Does she have children?”

  “She is married and she has two children.” Della’s smile faded and her eyes grew hard. I guess after what Della had said about her struggle to find true love that hadn’t been the smartest question to ask. “Not to change the subject,” she continued, her smile returning as if she didn’t have a care in the world, “I ran into one of the women who goes to the same gym I do, and she told me that her sister has a friend who has a friend who told her Will Danner is dead. Is that true? Have you heard?”

  I nodded. “It’s true. Did you know Will?”

  Della shook her head. “Not well. He dated Ali Colter for a while. You remember Ali?”

  I frowned. “Actually, I don’t. Did she go to our school?”

  Della’s blond hair fell over her shoulder as she shook her head from side to side. “No, but I introduced her to you at the zombie run six years ago, when I was in Ashton Falls for homecoming.”

  I tried to remember Della being home six years ago. I had been at the zombie run, but I’d been the one to organize it, so I imagine I’d been busy and hadn’t stopped to chat.

  “Here.” Della opened her purse and took out her phone. She thumbed through her photos until she found the one she was looking for and then handed the phone to me. It was a photo of me standing next to Della. Standing on the other side of her was a tall woman with long blond hair.

  “I do kind of remember this. I was working the run that day, so I was pretty busy, and we didn’t really talk, but you wanted a photo, so I paused to take one with you. I’m afraid everything happened so fast, I barely remembered the incident, and I certainly didn’t recall the name of the woman you were with.”

  “Her name is Alyssa. Ali is a nickname.”

  My gaze narrowed. Alyssa was the name of the woman Will had dated recently. I decided to play dumb to see what I could find out. “You said Will and Alyssa dated?”

  “Yes. Poor Alyssa. She was so in to him, but I guess he wasn’t looking for anything serious. When he broke it off with her she was devastated. When I heard he’d been murdered I thought for a moment she might have done what she kept threatening to do when we spoke on Saturday night. But when I found out he died on Sunday night, I knew she couldn’t have.”

  “And why was that?”

  “Because she was with me, getting totally wasted. Men! Right?” Della’s face grew hard again. Her blue eyes seemed to grow red with anger. It was obvious some man—or perhaps a bunch of men—had done her wrong. And then just like that, her smile returned and her expression lightened. She chuckled. “That dang Y chromosome does tend to create a package so contrary that hard as you try, you can’t live with them, but dang if it doesn’t suck to live without them.”

  “I hear ya!” I said, although I didn’t necessarily agree. It just seemed appropriate to show empathy for the heartache she’d obviously suffered. “Can you think of anyone else who might have been mad enough at Will to kill him?”

  Ellie hadn’t joined the conversation, but she’d maneuvered herself closer to where Della and I were chatting. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed she was frowning at me. I know she thought I was breaking my promise to Zak not to go off sleuthing on my own, but I wasn’t. Not really. I just happened to have run into an old friend at the market and we’d struck up a friendly conversation. Was it my fault she’d brought up the subject of Will’s death?

  Della tilted her head and lifted a shoulder. “Will seemed like a nice guy, but it was obvious he’d suffered some great pain in his life that prevented him from committing to a relationship. If you ask me, I don’t think Alyssa was the first woman to fall in love with him only to find out he was emotionally unavailable.” I noticed Della’s eyes had grown dark again. “So how did the idiot die anyway?”

  “He was shot.”

  “Seems about right.” Della’s eyes softened a bit. “It seems to me that he had a long history of ripping the still-beating heart out of whichever woman was foolish enough to fall in love with him.”

  “I guess it might seem that way.” It was true Will enjoyed dating, but it also seemed he was still in love with his dead wife and therefore not emotionally available. I could see how he could completely devastate a young woman. It seemed as if Alyssa had an alibi, though, which meant someone else had shot him. “I know you said you didn’t know Will well, but if you’re friends with Alyssa, she must have spoken to you about him. Did she ever mention anyone with a specific beef against him?”

  Della tapped her chin with her index finger. “I heard Clarissa Holton dated him for a while. I guess you can talk to her. She wasn’t as strung out on him as Alyssa, so I have no reason to believe she’d kill him, but she does have a temper. I heard she got into a bar fight with the guy she used to date in high school a while back.”

  I remembered that too now that Della brought it up. She’d hit the guy over the head with an empty beer bottle when he showed up at her birthday party with the girl who’d been her rival all through school.

  “Anyway, like I said, I sort of doubt she was the one to take out her aggravation on the guy, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to chat her up a bit.” Della looked at the phone she still held in her hand. “Look at the time. I really need to git. We should do lunch sometime.”

  “That would be nice,” I said, although I sincerely doubted I would call her.

  After we left the grocery store I headed off Ellie’s anticipated reprimand for sleuthing with an explanation. “I wasn’t sleuthing. I didn’t break my promise to Zak. You saw what happened. She came up to me. It would have been rude not to speak to her.”

  Ellie rolled her eyes.

  “Though I do want to call Salinger and tell him about Clarissa, and that Alyssa has an alibi, if you don’t mind driving.”

  “I don’t mind a bit. But be sure to tell him that you ran into Della at the store. Ever since he found out you were pregnant he’s become almost as protective of you as Zak.”

  I turned and looked at Ellie. “Did you ever in a million years think Salinger and I would end up being friends? When we first met, he arrested Levi, and then he got me fired from my job. And now we’re buddies, through thick and thin.”

  “The two of you have had an interesting relationship,” Ellie agreed.

  I smiled as my heart filled with gratitude for the partnership we’d built over time. Salinger had bailed me out of impossible situations, and I knew I’d helped him as well. I guess our friendship was proof that occasionally, oil and water mixed just fine.

  Chapter 7

  I felt a sense of contentment float across my consciousness as the sky darkened and the moon rose over the distant mountain. The sunset had been a brilliant display of reds and oranges that reflected off the surface of the lake, creating the illusion that the sky and water were burning in a brilliant display of heat and energy. I loved my life at the lake, where the seasons flowed one into the next, each different, but each as spectacular as the others. Initially, when the idea of a BBQ had come to me I’d planned to cook outdoors but eat inside, but it had been such a mild day that Zak had pulled out the heaters. Not only did we BBQ on the deck overlooking the water but we dined outside as well.
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  I’d suggested to Alex that we might want to invite Diego to dinner as a thank you for all he’d done to save Zak’s life. Surprisingly, she’d agreed. We decided to invite Scooter’s best friend, Tucker, as well, and as soon as dinner was over all four kids headed to the pool, which my mother’s father had designed when he’d built the house and had an indoor/outdoor feature. The ceiling, as well as the walls around the pool, were glass, providing warmth in the winter while maintaining an outdoor feel. During the summer the walls retracted into the exterior walls of the house, creating an outdoor area with easy access to the indoor bath and shower.

  I glanced at the kids as they splashed in the water on the other side of the glass. Diego and Alex seemed to be getting along a lot better than they had in the past. I was happy to see that because I really liked him, but I couldn’t help but notice that Zak seemed a bit less thrilled with the awakening friendship. In fact, he was glaring at them as they jumped off the diving board together with such a look of fervor that I was afraid he’d bolt out of his lawn chair, march into the house, and demand that they stop having so much fun together.

  “Before you go all papa bear with Diego, you might want to consider that he may very well be the reason you’re sitting here enjoying this beautiful evening with your family and friends.”

  Zak’s scowl deepened. “Claudia wasn’t going to kill me.”

  “Maybe she would have and maybe she wouldn’t. I guess we may never know what would have happened if I’d failed to complete the tasks she gave me. What I do know is that we’d never have gotten through all the tests without Diego’s help, and I’m grateful to him for it.”

  Zak didn’t say anything.

  “Diego’s a good kid. He’s smart and confident and, quite frankly, he reminds me a lot of you.”

  Zak turned and looked at me. “He does?”

  I placed my hand on Zak’s. “He absolutely does. He’s not only brilliant but he’s arrogant and cocky, which I think are the traits that initially caused Alex to dislike him. But he’s proven to me, and I imagine to Alex too, that he’s not only cool and calm in a crisis but he has a good heart and cares about others enough to put himself on the line for them. He didn’t have to put his life on hold and help us with Claudia, but he did. And he did it with courage and grace despite the fact that it was very intense at times. He proved to me that he’s on his way to becoming a good man. A man who can retain his composure in a crisis. The sort of man I hope both my daughters end up with.”

  “So now you’re marrying Alex and Diego off?”

  I laughed. “Hardly. They’re kids. But they’re bright and capable kids, and I think they complement each other. Diego’s good for Alex. She respects him, even though she really didn’t like him before Claudia appeared on the scene. Diego understands how she thinks. He knows how to keep her centered when things get tough.”

  Zak looked back toward the group in the pool. “He does have an exceptional mind. I’d have to say he has more potential than anyone else at the Academy, except Alex, of course.”

  “So you’ll back off and not get in the middle of their friendship?”

  He furrowed his brow as he continued to study the kids in the pool. I could see he was struggling with his need to protect Alex from anyone with a Y chromosome who might even glance in her direction. But I knew he wanted what was best for her. “I’ll back off for now, but I’ll be watching them.”

  That was probably the best I could hope for. I leaned over and kissed Zak on the cheek, then turned my attention to Ellie and Levi. “So, about Sunday. Are you still up for a party with the kids?”

  “We are,” Ellie answered. “I can’t wait for Eli’s first Easter. Will your parents be back?”

  I nodded. “They’ll be home on Friday. I invited them and Harper, and Jeremy, Jessica, and their two children.” Jeremy Fisher was the manager at Zoe’s Zoo, the wild and domestic animal rescue and rehabilitation shelter I owned. “Hazel and Grandpa too. They’re both anxious to spend time with Catherine on her first Easter. And after all the help they were in the past few days, I think I’ll invite Phyllis and Ethan as well.”

  “I checked the weather forecast and it’s supposed to be warm and sunny,” Ellie informed me. “We should do the egg hunt on the patio. It’ll be cold early in the day, but unless things change it’s forecasted to be downright balmy by early afternoon.”

  “That sounds like fun,” I agreed. “Catherine is much too young to care about Easter eggs, but I think she’ll get a kick out of having so many kids here. She already loves to watch Eli toddling around. I’m not sure she understands that he’s a baby like her and not just one of the dogs, but I’ve noticed her watching him when he’s in the room.”

  “He is the cutest eleven-month-old in town.” Ellie chuckled.

  I turned back toward Zak. “What do you think? Should we plan an outdoor Easter celebration?”

  “If it’s warm it should be fine as long as the wind doesn’t come up. I’ll pull out some additional lawn furniture. I considered doing that anyway. Unless there’s a storm lurking in the shadows I think we’re in for an early summer this year.”

  “That’d be okay with me,” I replied. “I’ve been dying to spend some time on the lake. I pretty much missed ski season this year between being pregnant and the lack of snow. If I can’t snow ski I may as well waterski.”

  “I’ll see about getting the boat out of storage early this year.” Zak looked at his watch. “I told Salinger I’d call him at eight. I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

  “Did you find anything?” I asked. Zak had spent most of the afternoon on the computer pulling phone and banking records for Will as well as doing background searches on each of our suspects.

  “Maybe. It’s early to know for sure, but I did stumble across a few things Salinger will be interested in.” Zak stood up. “Do I need to give Diego a ride home? This could take a while.”

  “I’ll give him a ride,” Levi volunteered.

  After Zak went into the house Ellie and I did the dishes while Levi and Eli joined the kids in the pool. Eli was too young to swim, but he loved floating around in his little toddler tube. Levi kept one hand on the tube just in case, while Eli laughed and kicked his feet in the warm water. I supposed Catherine would be old enough for her own tube in the summer. As a new mother, I couldn’t wait to experience all the firsts in her life, although in a way I wanted time to slow down so I could really enjoy each stage of her development. I glanced at Alex and Scooter and thought about how much they’d changed since they’d come to live with us. I adored the teenagers they’d become, but at times I missed the sweetness of the children they’d been. Life was a journey that ensured that each moment wasn’t stagnant, things constantly changing. I supposed that was a good thing even when they changed a bit too fast for my taste.

  ******

  Later that evening, Zak and I cuddled on our bed with Catherine laying between us. We were both on our sides with our heads resting on our hands, while our elbows rested on the mattress. Catherine kicked her legs and smiled as she cooed about something she probably believed we understood. I loved this time of the day, between dinner and bedtime. Most often it was spent enjoying the fascinating new human who had come into our lives. I’d missed our daughter and our bedtime ritual while I’d been rushing around trying to save her daddy, so the fact that she seemed extra-alert and wanted to play was fine with me.

  Charlie was on the bed between Zak and me just below where Catherine was resting. He watched her with what looked to be a smile on his face. I loved my friends and my extended family, but I found I most cherished these moments when it was just the four of us. Zak put a finger near Catherine’s hand. She grabbed it and let out a little scream of delight.

  “I think she’s happy to have you home,” I said as I chuckled at her antics.

  “And I’m happy to be here.” Zak continued to let Catherine hold his finger, but he turned his gaze to me. “I’m so sorry you had to go t
hrough all that. I can’t imagine how truly horrific it must have been.”

  “It wasn’t my favorite time, that’s for sure.” A single tear slid down my cheek. “With each new test I was presented I had no idea if I would find a way to solve it or if I’d fail and you’d die.”

  Zak leaned forward and kissed the tear from my cheek. He paused and looked deeply into my eyes while Catherine lay tented between us. “I knew from the moment Claudia explained her sick game to me that she was going to send you to hell and back. I felt so helpless and I knew that no matter how badly I wanted to help you there was absolutely nothing I could do.” Zak leaned back and put some distance between us.

  “Did she ever explain why she did it?” I asked.

  “No. As I said, when she first kidnapped me I thought she wanted something from me, but when she told me her actual plan, I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. I wasn’t worried about me, but I knew that if you failed and I died you would never be able to live with yourself, and that was something I just couldn’t live with.”

  “The tests were hard. Some of them were really hard, but luckily, we have smart, talented friends who helped me.” I stroked Catherine’s head with my finger. “Why do you think she went to the lengths she did? If her file from the NSA was really what she was after why didn’t she just kidnap you and force you to steal it for her? It must have taken her hours to set up all the challenges she provided to me.”

  “I don’t know for certain, but I think she enjoyed playing with you. Playing with us. She reminded me of a cat with a mouse she keeps batting around rather than having some mercy on the poor thing and killing it. I was alone much of the time, but there were a few occasions when she came into the room where she was holding me and it seemed like she was having the best time. She actually chuckled.”