A Caffeine Conundrum

by Angela Ruth Strong

  “Of course he did. You yelled to me for help.” Connor shook her off, shooting her a warning glance. “I’m going to stop this before you get hurt, Marissa.”

  “No.” She scampered to stand in front of the bucket door. “I said ‘help’ so you would know I was helping him put the star on the tree.”

  Connor tilted his head in disbelief.

  “Okay, I was afraid at first, but that’s why I accidentally…” She scrunched her face at how her next words would sound. “…backed up over the edge.”

  Connor crossed his arms, the intensity in his stare making her heart burn. “You…” He apparently had as much trouble with the idea as she. “…Knocked yourself out of the bucket?”

  Marissa bit her lip. Not ever a conversation one wanted to have with an ex. It was better for old boyfriends to think that they were missing out, not dodging bullets. “Uh…yeah.”

  Connor glanced above her head to make eye contact with Randon. “Well, if you were that afraid, then you must have had reason to be afraid.”

  He’d let her off the hook, but he was still fishing. And he could be right. She’d certainly been afraid.

  That’s what she would tell the police. But she wouldn’t accuse Randon of pushing her.

  Tandy jogged over and grabbed Connor’s hand. “He didn’t push her, Connor.”

  Connor lowered his gaze and his defenses. “What do you mean?” He didn’t shake off Tandy’s hold the way he had Marissa’s.

  “I mean, while you were down here focusing on Marissa, I was watching Randon. He was in shock.” She motioned toward the man with her head. “Kind of like he is right now.”

  They all turned to stare at Randon.

  “Of course I’m in shock.” He backed up even more. “Why would I possibly want Marissa to steal the spotlight from me by toppling to her death?”

  Connor released Tandy’s hold to step forward. “I’ll put the spotlight back on you if you like.”

  Marissa held a hand to her heart. She was glad he’d let go of Tandy, but not so glad he was threatening Randon.

  “Stop.” Lukey pushed into their circle. “Why did you think Randon might want to hurt you, Marissa?”

  Marissa blew out a white puff of air. She was ready to tell all. Even to this kid she used to babysit. She wiped her numb fingertips down the side of her face and opened her mouth.

  “Marissa?” A sing-song voice interrupted her thoughts. A voice she recognized. A voice she hated. “I have something you might want.”

  Her guts churned, but she forced herself to look into the over animated face of Lavella Moon. Big eyes. Big lips. Big hair. She was practically the big, bad wolf. What could she possibly have that Marissa wanted? Besides the crown? And title? And oh yeah, the grace of a ballerina?

  Marissa secretly gritted her teeth before forcing a pained smile. Had Lavella seen her fall? Had she noticed that Connor was not her fiancé anymore? Was she currently giddy over the scratches on Marissa’s face that could potentially turn into hideous scars? “Miss Cincinnati, what a nice surprise.”

  Lavella tossed her hair. It slid perfectly into place. “It’s Miss Ohio now.”

  Marissa wouldn’t acknowledge the win. She tossed her own hair. A twig fell out. “Did you bring me a Christmas present?”

  Lavella shook her head slowly as if filled with great regret. “I would have if I’d known you were going to be here, but I can give you this.” She lifted up a red leather glove with a cashmere lining.

  Marissa took the traitorous glove then pressed her lips together to keep from losing her cool. Of all the people to find it for her, Lavella just happened to be in town and…

  What was Lavella doing in town anyway? She’d sabotaged Marissa’s goals once before. Was she here to do it again? Had she killed Virginia as an attempt to frame Marissa?

  “Great.” Lukey waved the other woman away. “Now that you’ve got your glove back, Marissa, you can tell me—”

  “Lavella,” Marissa called out, heart pounding. She wouldn’t let the other woman get away with it. Not this time.

  Lavella glanced over her shoulder, penciled eyebrow arching villainously. “What’s that, sweetie?”

  With that counterfeit endearment, Marissa took longer than she should have to mold her face into an innocent expression. “Will I see you again?” Yes. Yes, she would. But where? “What brought you to town?”

  “Joseph Cross invited me for the Christmas Cruise.”

  What the jingle bells? How did Mr. Cross still have a cruise if he didn’t own any boats? Marissa didn’t even try to control her reaction this time.

  Tandy adjusted her ponytail and wished for earmuffs. How long did they all have to stand around waiting for Marissa to catch up with her pageant pals before they could get back to business? She had a cracked rib, for Santa’s sake.

  “Can I put the star on the tree now?” Randon whined.

  “I’d love to help you see stars,” Connor offered.

  Tandy rolled her eyes. As much as she liked Connor, he was overdoing the protective detail. Of course, if he’d caught her the way he’d caught Marissa…

  “Somebody better tell me what’s going on before I throw you all in jail,” Deputy Griffin threatened.

  Fine. Tandy stepped forward. As far as she knew, she was the only one who couldn’t go to jail because she had a pet at home to take care of. Though Connor very well could have a dog waiting for him too. A big dog. Maybe a black lab. She’d ask later. “Marissa suspected Randon of killing Virginia because she wouldn’t sell him the art he wanted.”

  Randon raised his hands as if under arrest. “Are you kidding me?”

  Connor lifted his chin. “Do you see anybody laughing?”

  Marissa pealed with laughter. Fake laughter. The kind that scraped like a snow shovel against cement.

  They all turned to look at her. She faced the exquisite Miss Ohio. Had Marissa been crowned queen, her little stunt tonight would have landed her on national news. And she could still trend on Twitter if anybody in the community recorded the botched tree lighting ceremony.

  No wonder the woman was losing it. She probably would have rather been in a coma then have her fall posted on social media.

  Deputy Griffin raised his bullhorn. “All right, people. The ceremony is cancelled for this evening.”

  Murmurs of confusion rose around them. Marissa wiped at her eyes even as she laughed with her frenemy. If she’d wanted people to remember something other than the Miss Ohio pageant when they thought of her, she’d succeeded.

  Griffin lifted the bullhorn once again. “Don’t worry, Miss Alexander is fine. We ask you to head home for the evening. Mayor Kensington will announce changes to the annual festivities once new arrangements have been made.”

  Marissa remained focused on the conversation with Miss Ohio while fanning her face. Was she warm from blushing? Did she need oxygen? Was she trying to fly away? “You thought I’d be offended if you told me you were coming to town?” she over enunciated. “That’s hilarious.”

  Connor scratched his head, his gaze connecting with Tandy’s. They both knew there was nothing that could offend Marissa more than Miss Ohio coming to town.

  “Miss Graceless Springs,” the Deputy interrupted.

  Except maybe that. Marissa’s eyes glowed amber when she turned to face the deputy.

  “We need to talk. Would you like to do it now, or should I take you down to the station?”

  Miss Ohio made a mock cringing face. “Oops. I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

  “Don’t be absurd,” Marissa returned to her playful self, though her words spoke what Tandy knew she believed to be the absolute truth. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Miss Ohio wiggled her fingers and disappeared into the crowd.

  “’Bye, Miss Ohio,” Marissa called cheerfully before slipping beside Tandy and lowering her voice to murmur, “It was her. She did it.”

  Goodness and mercy. Was Marissa claiming the reigning Miss Ohio
had replaced Virginia’s coffee grinds with instant coffee? For what possible reason? Tandy dropped her hands to her sides in helplessness.

  “Was that Miss Ohio?” Randon’s voice lowered. “Had I known she was in town, I would have invited her to put the star on the tree with me. Since, you know, she doesn’t think I’m a murderer.”

  Marissa shook her head. “Oh, I don’t anymore.”

  Griffin’s eyebrows shot toward his prematurely receding hairline. “Did someone else tell you Randon was the killer? Did someone else try to scare you?”

  Marissa tugged off her remaining glove and tossed them both in the trash. Had they been ripped? Because those were some high-quality gloves. “You scared me, Lukey. You’re the one who suggested Virginia may have been killed. If that’s the case, how can I trust anyone?”

  Tandy huffed. They were supposed to be interrogating Randon here. “Randon, when was the last time you were in Virginia’s shop?”

  Griffin gave her a once over before turning toward Randon to wait for an answer.

  Randon pulled out his phone and flipped to a calendar app. “I went to her shop when I first moved here. I was decorating my bachelor pad. Nine out of ten bachelors wouldn’t go to an antique store to decorate, but I’m a little classier than most.” He tapped on his screen and turned the phone to face them. “October eighteenth. Ha-ha!”

  Like that proved anything. Even if he was an app engineer, he wouldn’t schedule a murder on his phone.

  “Was there a painting she wouldn’t—”

  “Miss Brandt.” Lukey scolded. He pulled out his own phone to take notes. The pair faced off over their devices. “Now, Mr. Evans. Was there a painting that Ms. Pierce wouldn’t sell you?”

  Randon made a face. The kind of face a person makes when pretending not to know what someone is talking about. “No.”

  Could Griffin not read through it? He suspected her easily enough, and Randon was almost as much of an outsider.

  Tandy dug deeper. “But you said in the newspaper—”

  “Miss Brandt.”

  Marissa stood by quietly, though with the way her eyes rolled about, she clearly had a lot of thoughts in her head. Was she purposely letting Tandy take the heat here? Marissa was the one who’d suspected Randon. She was the one who claimed he’d written a letter to the editor.

  Randon’s eyes twinkled in their know-it-all way. “I said there was a piece of art she wouldn’t sell me. But it wasn’t a painting. It was a vase.”

  Connor cringed. “Why would a man want a vase?”

  Tandy snapped and pointed at him. Exactly.

  Randon adjusted his glasses. A clear indicator he was about to bore them with his brilliance. “Connor, Connor, Connor. I wanted the vase because not only am I a man, I’m an art history major. I recognized the vase as being similar to one seized from Chinese royalty during the Second Opium War. I’m sure it’s worth more money than you’ve made in your entire life.”

  Connor glowered. The glower said he didn’t have a comeback, and he didn’t care.

  “I, personally, don’t need the money. I want to give the piece the care it deserves. Virginia had wheat it in at the time. Wheat.”

  “So you killed her in hopes of getting your hands on it by buying it from her daughter?” Connor asked for Tandy. She appreciated that they were on the same wavelength.

  Griffin however did not. “I ask the questions here,” the deputy growled before motioning for Randon to continue.

  Randon’s arrogance returned with enough force to ridicule them with a blank stare for questioning him. “If you knew anything about art collecting, you’d know that Virginia recently changed her will to donate everything in her store to the Historical Society.”

  Tandy’s lips parted. Her pulse thrummed in her ears, made particularly loud by the fact that everybody else had gone silent. Could this be a coincidence? Or was the recent jewel heist at the museum somehow related to Virginia’s death?

  Chapter Twelve

  Marissa barely caught Randon’s last statement. All Virginia’s antiques were to be donated to the Historical Society? If that had anything to do with the murder, then Lavella would have to be involved in it. What if Lavella’s plans were bigger than simply taking Marissa down? What if she wanted to take down the whole Alexander family to keep anybody from ever believing that she’d tripped Marissa on stage? If she had the diary, she could do that.

  As far as Marissa knew, the only people aware of the staged results of Grandmother’s win, besides Tandy, Cross, and Grandmother, were Virginia and Billie. Though if Virginia knew, she could have sold that information to anyone. And Lavella would have been top bidder.

  Hmm… Did Lavella somehow think Virginia had the diary in her possession? Had she gone looking for it, and Virginia lied, saying she’d donated it to the Historical Society? Then Lavella broke into the museum, stealing the jewels as a decoy? Marissa pictured her dressed in all black pulling off a ski mask with a triumphant cackle.

  The theory couldn’t be more farfetched than any other theory that included both robbery and murder. She already knew Lavella was a thief as she’d stolen Marissa’s crown by tripping Marissa. Unfortunately, it wasn’t likely that anybody else would believe that story. Even Tandy gave her a skeptical look. She’d have to keep investigating for herself.

  Lavella had probably only given Marissa a ticket to the Christmas Cruise to rub it in her face that she was the new Miss Ohio. The second ticket was to rub in the fact that Marissa was single and had nobody to share it with. But she’d consider both tickets an opportunity to spy on the queen of lies.

  All she had to do was convince Tandy to get Grandmother’s diary out of her glove box at police impound then talk Connor into being her date for the cruise. With the way he’d wanted to kiss her under the mistletoe earlier that really shouldn’t be too hard.

  Her toes curled in her boots.

  “Marissa.” The man in question planted himself directly in front of her.

  She smiled up at his smoldering gray eyes and clenched jaw. It would be fun to be his fake date. At least then he couldn’t go on any more fake dates with Tandy. Marissa was really a better partner for him anyway. They could sleuth together. Like Nancy Drew and Ned Nickerson.

  “No more sleuthing.”

  She frowned. Just because she’d been in a car accident and fallen out of a fireman’s bucket on the same day didn’t mean she should let Miss Ohio get away with stealing her crown—ahem—murder. “Connor…”

  He turned his back and strode away.

  She shook her head to clear her mind then looked around. Everybody was disbursing. Tandy jogged after Connor, probably going to ask for the ride he was sure to give. Lukey scanned their surroundings as he called someone on his phone—probably Officer Woodward. And Randon stopped a passerby to ask which way Miss Ohio had gone.

  Marissa’s ego twinged. Even Randon was abandoning her for someone else.

  She was going to stop Lavella. But first she had to stop Tandy. Because if Connor wasn’t going to help her, she needed Tandy’s help. And also, she had to protect the other woman from Connor’s destructive ways.

  She jogged through the snow to catch up.

  “What’s his name?” Tandy’s voice floated back as though she was completely oblivious to Marissa’s crunching and huffing behind them.

  “Ranger,” Connor responded.

  Ah. Connor’s dog. At least they were sharing small talk and not discussing anything important.

  Connor glanced over his shoulder at her. He stopped though he didn’t turn her way. “I think Marissa wants to offer you a ride home, Tandy.”

  How did he know? Did he think she was jealous?

  She narrowed her eyes. He probably couldn’t tell she was scowling in the dim light, but the scowl made her feel better. “I can…sure…if you need a ride, Tandy.” There. Take that. “But what I really want are my personal items out of your glove compartment. Do you think you could pick them up from police impound
tomorrow?”

  “Them?” Tandy shifted her weight to the other leg and clutched the side of her torso.

  “Yes.” Marissa would give Tandy the benefit of being testy because she was in pain. When she felt better, she’d realize Marissa didn’t want to talk about Grandmother’s diary in front of Connor after his no sleuthing decree. He wasn’t the boss of her, which is why she was simply going to avoid him altogether. “My feminine items,” she said as insurance he would tune out and never speak of this conversation again. It wasn’t really a lie. Diaries were kind of feminine.

  Tandy’s lips twitched. “I think the pharmacy carries feminine items if you need more.”

  Connor waved to Troy as the fire engine rumbled to life, and Marissa took the opportunity to bug her eyes at Tandy. “I’ve had a really hard day, you know.”

  “Oh, I know.” Tandy looked her up and down. “Did you realize it hasn’t been much fun for me either? Not only did I total my car, but I got the puffy face and cracked rib to prove it. And also, the deputy, who suspected me first of murder, now thinks even less of me because you didn’t back me up with your suspicions of Randon.”

  What? That didn’t even matter anymore. Lavella was in town. They needed to investigate her. And they couldn’t do it with Connor right there. “This isn’t about you, Tandy.”

  Okay, Connor could step in here if he wanted to. Defend Marissa. Protect Marissa. He always had before.

  Tandy stuffed her hands in her pockets. “If you’re not worried about me, I’ll get a ride home with Connor, though thanks for the offer.”

  Connor pressed his lips together as if to signify he wasn’t coming to Marissa’s rescue this time. Then both he and Tandy turned and walked away.

  Connor pulled into Tandy’s modern apartment complex.

  She pointed to the building across the parking lot above the empty stall where her Bug should have been parked. He could probably figure out her unit was the one with the giant lit-up Snoopy on the balcony.