The Azalea Assault

by Alyse Carlson

  “That makes sense, actually.” Cam remembered Annie’s comments about him. They suddenly seemed insightful, rather than snarky. Annie would never stoop to a con job. In fact, she hid her connections when they might actually open doors, embarrassed about any unearned privilege. “He really did take great pictures, though.”

  “That’s the thing about a con. It can go on only as long as you don’t get caught, and if you can’t follow through, you will get caught. If I didn’t know he was really good, I wouldn’t have had him come for our shoot.”

  As Cam contemplated that, Samantha sniffed and began mumbling about being to blame for Jean-Jacques’s death.

  “Samantha, it’s not your fault. He made a lot of people mad, and that wasn’t on you. They don’t have the right person yet, though. I’m sure they don’t. I was wondering if I could run some ideas by you.”

  “You mean you think I’m trustworthy?” She poured herself another drink and turned to look at Cam, a strange expression on her face.

  “Of course I do. You obviously wanted the best for Jean-Jacques, even if he screwed up a lot.”

  “That’s true. I loved him in spite of everything. Why don’t you think…” Samantha paused, then her eyes widened.

  “What?”

  Samantha looked momentarily mortified, then went on.

  “Joseph’s so sure it’s Annie… with Ian’s accusations… and then poisoning the brownies… She was there that morning, you know. And with Alden for a father—that couldn’t help.”

  Cam frowned. She thought Samantha had changed subjects, but the new one was interesting, too. Alden was Annie’s dad. Cam hadn’t known there was any controversy surrounding Senator Schulz, much less that Samantha was on a first-name basis with him. She took a breath for patience.

  “Okay, I helped bake the brownies, and they were fine. Chocolate is toxic to dogs, and Joseph looked sick all night—there is photographic proof, though I’d prefer you didn’t mention it to him; I just think it might offend him. And… I would think judging people based on their families would be something people would know better than to do.” Cam worried she’d just been rude again and considered gin might not be her wisest drink choice.

  Samantha blushed. “Oh, I do. Please don’t misunderstand, but with what Ian said… then Ian ending up dead…”

  “I am one hundred percent convinced Ian is dead because he planted the idea that Annie killed Jean-Jacques and the killer thought that was a smart way to go—to frame the person who’d been accused, so the police would stop searching elsewhere.”

  Samantha looked momentarily shocked, then recovered with a swig of gin. “Okay—so if not Annie, who do you think the killer is? And how do you think I can help you solve this?”

  “You remember, this morning we talked a little about Jean-Jacques, Evangeline… and Nick? But I’m also interested in what Evangeline and Jean-Jacques’s friendship was like—back when they were young.”

  “You don’t think… Evangeline?” She seemed deliciously scandalized.

  “No! I mean… I don’t think so. I’m just trying to get my bearings.”

  “Oh, I see. I think she thought of him like… her naughty friend—the one she could get in trouble with and not get caught. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time, but it’s true. I wouldn’t have told her parents. In fact, between you and me, I encouraged her to do the pageants so she’d be more careful about… keeping out of trouble. I knew she did some bad things, and I could see she enjoyed it more than was a good idea. But I also knew the lesson would stick better if it was her decision. Not a lecture.”

  “Really?” Cam would have been shocked had Evangeline not already mentioned her need to go a little wild after college, but it did raise the question of whether Evangeline was completely reformed.

  “I really liked her! Still do. I was thankful, too, since Johnnie was so unmanageable without her. I worried about his influence, though. I didn’t want her sneaking off to get high and getting arrested or worse… pregnant! She’s smart and so pretty! I guess I was trying to ensure her future.”

  “And it worked.”

  Samantha nodded sadly. “But it gave me false confidence in how much I could control. First I helped Margo—and I think I really did—she ended up with a full scholarship because of the opportunities I gave her. Then I helped Evangeline, at least… well, I thought I did. I thought I could help Johnnie, too.”

  “Do you think Benny’s in love with Evangeline?” Cam blurted, staring at the bottom of her gin and tonic glass.

  “Oh, I’d say so!” Samantha laughed, not recognizing, or maybe just relieved, that Cam had changed the conversational track; Cam thanked the gin.

  “For how long?”

  “I’m sure since she moved in. She’s very good with the help. Makes a game of the work but still treats them with dignity.”

  “Do you think Jean-Jacques had the same kind of crush?”

  “Same kind? No. I think he wished or hoped, but he wouldn’t have been devoted that way. Evangeline would have known that. I could swear they were never… what do kids say… friends with benefits? He was a ladies’ man with a lot of other attention and knew where he stood, so he didn’t pine. Just hoped.”

  “I think Benny might be our guy.”

  “Heavens! Why? I mean why think that? Isn’t he…”

  “Not the sharpest tool in the shed, that’s true. But that might lead him to certain faulty thinking.” Cam explained the pictures, though she left out her broader enlightenment on the misguided protective instincts of love-struck admirers. It wouldn’t do to have Samantha confronting Joseph.

  “It sounds plausible when you put it that way!”

  “I hope I can find some evidence.”

  “So do I, honey. So do I, though… poor Benny… poor Henry.” Samantha looked as if the idea appealed to her, though.

  Samantha refilled Cam’s glass as she said it. Cam was unprepared for another, even stronger drink, but it was sort of nice.

  Samantha turned the tables on her then, asking her if there was any other evidence and for whom. Other than discounting facts pointing at Nick or Annie, however, Cam didn’t have much to share. She wasn’t fool enough to offer her speculations about Samantha or Joseph.

  She finally tried to take back control of the conversation. “Can you think of anybody who has anything against Annie? Or… maybe her dad?”

  “Camellia, Annie’s father signed that commercial use act for that lot west of town that the Garden Society wanted designated as a preserve, remember? The whole Garden Society despises him. But we’re all adults, and his daughter is clearly not him.”

  Cam nodded, unhappy there was a large group of people who might see Annie as a revenge target. Samantha had also just been inconsistent—earlier she’d cited Alden as a reason to suspect Annie, and at the Patricks’, Samantha had defended Annie to Ian because she was the senator’s daughter. It seemed what she was saying now, under the influence of gin, might be the truest of the three reads.

  Cam began eating in earnest as she pondered. She wanted to be sure she could still drive. Besides, it wasn’t even supper time, and she also wanted a clearer head to expand her suspect options with Rob. She planned to go over all the clues with him at dinner. Maybe together they could figure something out.

  Cam drove to Annie’s shop, where Annie’s car had an all-day permit. She then walked the couple of blocks to meet Rob for Italian food at their agreed-upon destination.

  He looked at her suspiciously when she arrived, a half-eaten basket of bread and an almost empty glass of red wine in front of him.

  “Sorry. But… I’ve been productive.”

  “I hope so. The waiter has been shooting me voodoo eyes.”

  “Ooh! Effective!” Cam teased, feigning horror at Rob’s face. When he touched his face in automatic response, she laughed, then poked his ribs and kissed him. “We’ll tip him well. This is worth it.”

  The waiter came over, and Cam passed on wine f
or the time being. She was on a mission and needed to keep her wits about her.

  “So, my new BFF and big sister, Samantha, is a lovely hostess. I’ve been consuming gin and tonics and caviar,” she began.

  Rob raised an eyebrow. She wished it was in response to the big sister comment, but she knew Rob well enough to know he was reacting to the chat slang.

  “Annie is your BFF,” he countered with exaggerated slowness on the initials and looking at her like a child.

  “Okay, you’re ruining my story.”

  “The one fortified with alcohol?”

  “My big sister was only looking out for me! That’s what big sisters do.”

  “Have you ever poured liquor down Petunia’s throat?”

  Cam narrowed her eyes. “Do you know Petunia? She hardly needs encouraging.”

  “Exactly my point. Wild little sister. Big sister’s job is to keep them in line.”

  “Oh, don’t be stuffy!”

  Rob lectured her about driving when she was tipsy, though she insisted half of her behavior was just that she was excited. He began force-feeding Cam ravioli as soon as it arrived. He was eager to get some food into her so she would be more coherent and display fewer of Annie’s qualities—something she seemed to pick up when tipsy.

  Finally she pushed his hands away and said, “Done! I’m done! But I do feel more sober, so thank you. Now do you want to hear what I learned or not?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Okay, you’re the one who told me about the fingerprints on that camera from the Patricks’, right?” Cam explained that Evangeline had confirmed Benny had a crush on her. She then told him about the meetings with Samantha and reminded him about Annie’s pictures from the party.

  “Okay, you’re babbling.” He sounded irritated, and Cam hoped the quality of information would ease that.

  “But you weren’t writing it down. I’m reviewing. Plus, I learned more. Just listen.”

  He listened, pulling out a notebook, but he didn’t seem to find her as clever as she’d found herself, so he interrupted.

  “So you think these guys—Jean-Jacques and Ian—were connected before they came to town for this magazine spread?”

  “Maybe not, but maybe because of the shoot, they connected another way. It may have been true for Benny, too. Remember, Jean-Jacques and Benny owed the same bookie money.”

  “Okay, we need to get this all straight.” He made a grid on his notebook and pushed his linguine with clam sauce to the side. “Our suspects so far are… Nick and Annie…”

  “Who didn’t do it…”

  “Right, but we still need to have them on the list to keep track of clues.”

  Cam rolled her eyes.

  “Samantha, Evangeline… now Benny…”

  “Maybe Joseph—same reason as Benny, but for Samantha instead of Evangeline. And then Mr. Patrick—that argument and the address.”

  “Okay.” Rob wrote it down. “Anybody else?”

  “Not with Ian dead.”

  “Right. So let’s go over our clues.”

  “Benny found the body and had apparently been taking peep photos of Evangeline.”

  “Which is related to the murders how?” Rob asked.

  “Money maybe. He owes the same bookie as Jean-Jacques and was seen taking money from Ian—so money connects him to both dead guys. Or he could also have been trying to protect Evangeline—he is around a lot and may have heard Jean-Jacques harassing her.”

  “Okay, Nick?”

  “Didn’t do it.”

  “Fine. Go to Evangeline. There’s overlap.”

  “Evangeline got a call from Jean-Jacques that morning, and Jean-Jacques pulled her into framing Nick.”

  “And framing Nick is a pretty powerful motive,” Rob said.

  Cam scowled as Rob wrote down the details next to both Evangeline and Nick, but went on. “Evangeline and Jean-Jacques were friends as kids. They knew each other for years. And we just learned he never stopped pressing her for money. Say, what if he knew something embarrassing about her?”

  “He probably did, but think about what she had on him. She could have kept him quiet that way—he would have lost all his big clients if she went public with the fact that he’d framed someone for a crime he committed.”

  “I thought you liked Evangeline as a suspect.”

  “She’s okay. I like her enough that I want you to be careful around her, but she’s not my favorite.”

  “Who’s your favorite?” She regretted it as soon as the words were out. Nick would be the favorite for the first murder—Rob had not forgiven Nick for keeping his prison history a secret.

  “Samantha, maybe.” He surprised her. “What do we have on her?”

  Cam grinned. She’d much rather come up with clues that pointed to Samantha than to Nick. Still, she felt compelled to defend Samantha a little. “She was drugged while it happened.”

  Rob’s eyes glittered. “Ah, but was she?”

  “What do you know?” Her cheek twitched. This might be good news… in a bad way.

  “The tea was drugged, but none of that drug residue was on the side of the cup with the lipstick. The drug might have been added later.”

  “Did Jake tell you that?”

  “No, actually. He’s been a bit tight-lipped, so I found a source in the crime lab. He told me about the fingerprint, too.”

  “Why would Samantha do that?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “For an alibi?”

  “What?”

  “Look, this isn’t sure, but it looks like maybe she wanted it to appear she’d been drugged.”

  “Shoot!” Cam knew she’d given Samantha that idea, if it was the case. She didn’t say that to Rob, though.

  “So what else on Samantha?”

  Cam came at it with a vengeance now that she was feeling like a fool. “She didn’t show up that first morning—claimed to have slept, possibly because of the drug in her tea, but there are no witnesses.”

  “I thought—”

  “The maid was late for work. She lied about it so she wouldn’t be docked pay—she never knew it would matter. She didn’t actually get there until nine.” At Rob’s confused stare she added, “I just found out today,” and went on. “And then we already knew Jean-Jacques owed Samantha money—that was how she got him here. And then there was that fight we saw.”

  “Mr. Patrick?”

  “Husband-boyfriend angle, but confirmed with the reaming Giselle saw and that address, maybe. Mr. Patrick seemed to want Jean-Jacques farther away from his wife, at least.”

  “And you said Joseph?”

  “His crush on Samantha is weird—hovering. And he seems awfully eager to pin this on someone.”

  “Namely Annie.”

  “Yes, but he sounded eager to cast doubt on Evangeline or Benny, too.”

  “When you were asking him for ideas, basically begging for dirt on people?”

  She frowned. She didn’t think she’d been that bad.

  “So you like Benny for now?”

  Cam nodded.

  “You ever buy drugs?” Rob asked.

  “No.” She frowned. She had no clue where he was going with this.

  “I was just thinking, if I were growing… maybe pot… those greenhouses might be a convenient place to do it year-round.”

  Cam pondered that, disturbed at the idea. “That’s true, but wouldn’t Henry notice? Or Mr. Patrick or Evangeline?”

  “I’m not saying it happened. Just… if it was… that would explain a lot. Maybe Evangeline knows.”

  “I doubt that. She got into… wait a minute…” Cam almost argued about the pageants requiring good behavior, but Samantha had said she pointed Evangeline toward the pageants hoping to keep her out of trouble, and Evangeline admitted to rebelling the first chance she got after that. “I guess we check greenhouse number one, right?” Cam asked.

  “Why one?”

  “That’s the one where Joseph said Benny spent time, and it�
�s where the camera with the Evangeline photos was found. So that’s where I’d check.”

  “Where I’d check, you mean. Nobody in the house could fire me, and I could probably convince the paper it was necessary for the story, even if I got in legal trouble.”

  “But Benny is an employee, right? He could lose his job if we do find out he’s growing pot.”

  “Yeah, but isn’t his dad like… the best? What if he quit? They might let Benny stay to avoid that…”

  “…but only if there were no police.” Cam sat concentrating for quite a while. Finally it occurred to her that if she and Rob were caught snooping in the greenhouse, she could pretend to be looking for something of hers. It would be trespassing, but she doubted the Patricks would be angry if she used that excuse. She explained the plan to Rob. Thankfully, he seemed to think it made sense.

  Cam thought Rob was a little curious and a lot protective, but that was okay. She planned on having a triumphant glass of wine before they left the restaurant, and after her afternoon gin and tonics, it would probably be best if somebody else drove.

  Over wine and a subsequent cup of coffee, they discussed Annie’s best defense, though Cam could tell Rob was humoring her by offering up alternative killers. He rattled through each Garden Society member in turn, with Cam alternately defending or laughing at the suggestions. None, however, rang true. She realized she’d convinced herself Benny was the one.

  “Can you think of one reason someone might frame Annie?” she asked.

  Rob frowned.

  “A very small number of people might have some personal reason, though I doubt Ian committed suicide to frame her.”

  “Wouldn’t put it past him,” Cam muttered, but Rob ignored her.

  “Other than that, her dad is the only reason I can think of, but I see endless possibilities where he’s concerned.”

  “But she’s not her dad! She’s never even voted for him.”

  Rob’s eyes went wide in amazement. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. She disagrees with him politically.”