by Patti Larsen
I hesitated, blushed, grinned. “You just called me sweetheart.”
Crew’s lips parted, teeth flashing as he smiled back, eyes sparkling. “I guess I did.”
Insert warm, fuzzy, happy moment here.
It passed faster than I would have liked, but I did my best to cling to it as my boyfriend exhaled and dropped the pen he’d been assembling and disassembling in a steady twist of the barrel. “Turns out Mateo Marney’s alibi is good,” he said, sounding like he wished it was different. The designer’s blasé attitude about his sexual conquests really seemed to stir up something unhappy in Crew. “Jill found the maid he’d been with and she admitted she’d been indiscreet.” He sighed again. “Alicia said she has to fire her now. Sucks all the way around, poor kid.”
I was with him in judging the handsome Mateo for taking advantage of the girl, though in all honesty I’d known enough young ladies in my day who were more than happy to dally with exotic strangers I couldn’t be entirely sure the designer was totally at fault.
Wow, when had I turned into a prudish old lady? Oh yeah, when I’d moved into my grandmother’s bed and breakfast, adopted her fat, farting pug and chose to make Reading home.
“What about Kami Derham?” I chewed my bottom lip, replacing foot bobbing with that new abuse. “She was pretty quick to blabbermouth about everyone else and had zero qualms about gossiping. Maybe in an effort to shift blame from her to others? After all, Noel said she owned a stun gun.”
Crew mused over that a moment. “Worth chatting with her again,” he said, standing and grabbing his coat. “You heading home?”
I should have. I’d just been at the lodge, after all, and I really needed to go back to Petunia’s and get some work done. That’s why, logically, I found myself in the cab of Crew’s truck, driving back up the mountain with his big hand in mine. Because I wanted to be with him, though, right? Sure, that was the reason. Maybe my distracted mind had led me a bit astray earlier, but here I was, right back in the thick of the investigation, nose quivering with curiosity.
The only trouble, of course, was we weren’t the first ones to reach Kami with the information I thought only we’d uncovered.
That’s why it was so shocking to find Robert interrogating her, the model seated, shivering and wide-eyed, in a chair while my asshat cousin loomed over her, a bully through and through. Not that the bullying was shocking. Just the fact he’d managed to put two and two together and not get five.
“You’re just in time to watch me solve this case.” He jabbed his thumb in Kami’s direction, smirking at his boss, ignoring me completely. “I’m sure the council will love to hear of your continuing incompetence.”
I almost sighed and eye rolled. Took a massive effort on my part not to. Crew, on the other hand, merely looked down at Kami with kindness on his face and in his voice.
“I have a few questions for you, Miss Derham,” he said.
Robert’s snarl was audible as he spun on her as if to get the jump on Crew. “Where is it?” He snapped the question like she should know exactly what he was talking about. “Where is your stun gun?”
She gaped up at him, tears in her huge eyes, lips opening and closing but only squeaks emerging.
Crew turned to his deputy, face level and still, but that set to his shoulders that told me he wasn’t happy Robert had this information. Was he withholding from his staff now? How much pressure was my boyfriend under he couldn’t trust either of his deputies? But instead of saying anything against Robert as I expected him to, Crew instead addressed Kami while staring right at my cousin. “Please answer the question, Miss Derham.”
She blubbered a moment, shaking her head, her long hair hanging out of the tidy ponytail at the nape of her neck, pieces escaping as if she’d been disheveled in some way. If Robert was roughing her up Crew would have his ass on a plate.
“I don’t know,” she finally forced out, barely audible. “It’s missing.”
Robert didn’t wait for Crew to act, instead whipping out his phone and pushing it in her face. I caught the image of something on the screen, but wasn’t close enough to make out what it was. All good, he was about to tell me.
“I found a picture of you with it on your social media.” He sounded pretty damned proud of himself while he forced her to stare at the image he showed her. “And I matched the model to the one that stunned Faith before she was killed. What do you have to say about that, Miss Derham?”
Kami’s eyes met mine, hers overflowing with fear. “I didn’t do anything!” And then she buried her face in her hands and started to sob while Robert reached for his handcuffs.
“That’s all the proof I need.” He was closing in on her when Crew stepped between them. The sheriff didn’t say anything, just moved enough to block Robert from cuffing the model. For a long moment the two faced off, Crew silent, watchful, Robert blustering and huffing until he spoke again, resentment so obvious in his voice I wondered if he was burning up inside from it. “She doesn’t have an alibi. She’s guilty. Now get out of my way while I arrest my suspect.”
***
Chapter Twenty Eight
I fully expected my boyfriend to put Robert in his place. After all, that kind of attitude couldn’t be tolerated and I stood there in eager anticipation of the end of my cousin.
Instead, Crew frowned and motioned for his deputy to show him the image on his phone. When Robert sullenly complied, his thick mustache drooping at the edges while he glared like he was expecting the worse, Crew instead nodded and turned to the still weeping Kami.
“Good catch, deputy,” he said in his gruff voice, without a hint of actual emotion behind the words. It was, however, seemingly enough to puff Robert up to the level he required to allow Crew to do his job while I gaped and wanted to kick my boyfriend in the rear for feeding my cousin’s psychopathy. “Miss Derham, can you tell me the last time you had your stun gun in your possession?” He glanced at Robert. “Before you say you discovered it was stolen?”
Wait, did they just exchange a knowing look, cops being cops over a weeping suspect? They did not. My boyfriend, the love of my life and the one man in the world I respected as much as my dad (don’t judge me) couldn’t have just had a man moment with Robert.
Oooh. Boys.
Meanwhile, I knew there was no way in Reading’s recent history of murders and mayhem that Robert actually came up with this tidbit himself. This kind of snooping had Rose written all over it. But what was I to do with such information?
Blurt my own opinion, naturally.
“You could at least let her answer before you decide she’s guilty.” Whoa, where did that come from? Yup, I was steaming mad, you betcha, and from the arch of Crew’s eyebrow he knew it and would likely make that apparent in the next second or so if I didn’t stop. Which meant I couldn’t stop now. “Kami, who knew you had the stun gun?”
“Everyone.” She hiccupped her way through more tears. “I had a stalker guy last year and I got the stun gun for protection. He was arrested six months ago so I almost got rid of it, but you just never know in this business.” She rubbed her thin arms with both hands, eyes locked on mine as if she was too afraid to look at the sheriff and deputy, like that would welcome handcuffs and more accusations.
“I think it’s time you found somewhere else to be.” Robert tried to use his protruding belly to bump me out of the way, hands on his belt, scowl twisting that disgusting wad of hair on his upper lip into a wriggling caterpillar desperate to escape his face.
I waited a half second for Crew to defend me, caught him watching with narrowed eyes and felt, in that same instant of hurt and betrayal, the cold calculation of his choice. No, he wasn’t siding with Robert, that much was obvious from the flash of fury in his eyes. But he wasn’t above pretending and he expected me to just take it.
We’d see about that. I wasn’t playing his game.
But before I could call Crew on it, Robert whipped out a sheet of printer paper, holding it up and out of
my reach with that sneer of a grin on his face that always made me want to punch him hard enough to see if I could deflate his growing gut. And now that I’d had training? Surely one solid blow would knock the air out of it like collapsing a hideously distended balloon.
“According to this list,” he said, all arrogance and no substance, “you, Miss Derham, had an affair with Henry Ostler. And, that your on again, off again career was due to a pregnancy.” He leaned into her while her face flinched in response, a guilty look of sudden regret if ever I’d seen one. “A pregnancy you chose to end.”
I wasn’t interested in his opinions on abortion because, well. I just wasn’t. Besides, I now suspected it wasn’t the first time and that her gorging hunger in my kitchen had a demanding reason.
“Kami,” I said, trying to be kind, slipping around Robert to take her hand, “how far along are you?”
She cried again, clinging to me, and this time the choking sobs were heart wrenching. Enough so I sank down next to her and hugged her, tucking her head under my chin and rocking her while I glared at Robert and dared him to interfere without saying a word.
Smart man, though not usually something I attributed to him. He held his tongue. Crew, however, didn’t. At least my boyfriend’s tone was kind.
“Miss Derham,” he said, “is this true? Were you previously pregnant by Mr. Ostler? And are you again?”
Kami nodded against me, fighting for air, leaning into me and clinging on like she was going to fall through the floor and vanish if I didn’t keep her here. When she finally inhaled, a long and shaking gasp, she answered. “Faith knew.” She met my eyes, hers bloodshot and massive. “I was going to keep the baby this time.” Kami sagged further, sobs retreating, seeming to sink inside herself now. “Henry was furious.”
Crew gestured for me to let the young model go and for a moment I wanted to resist. But from his grim expression he was going to make an issue of it and I rathered he didn’t in front of Robert. I stood and let my boyfriend take her hand, guide Kami to her feet.
“I’m going to take you to the office for a bit,” he said, “and ask you more questions. Would you like a lawyer present?”
She blinked up at him, clinging to his arm as if he was her savior, not the man who planned to question her and try to wring a confession out of her. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Robert snorted but stayed quiet while Crew led Kami out of the room, following his boss with a scowl for me that was more teen boy getting his way than professional deputy making an arrest.
Whatever. I was done. Petunia’s was calling and Crew could handle Robert from here.
Just my luck, as I walked through the front door it was to the sight of Daisy and Rose facing off in my foyer. Right, because I needed this particular confrontation tonight. Not that my bestie took Rose’s side anymore these days, but she rarely spoke up against her half-sister, either, leaving me without backup and sick of the younger woman’s face.
“Interfering in police business again, Fiona?” Okay, she was next. Yes, if she showed up dead everyone in town would know I did it, but it would be worth it. Right? Right?
“Look who’s talking.” I crossed my arms over my chest, my pug trotting to my side to sit on my feet, snorting in Rose’s direction like she was waiting for the smack down and wanted popcorn for the show. “Don’t think I’m not aware that you dug up that information for Robert. So I’m not the only one who needs to mind her own business.”
Rose’s eyes narrowed, her pinched face aging her well past her late twenties into wicked old witch territory. “Someone has to get this investigation right,” she said, just as sullen as her boyfriend. “You and that so-called sheriff are bungling everything. It’s clear that floozy model did it. If she can get an abortion, she’s already committed murder.”
Daisy gasped while I clenched my teeth and exhaled to the count of ten before speaking.
“Get out of my place,” I said. “And never come back.”
She huffed and turned to Daisy who refused to meet her eyes. “Day. Do something.”
“Get out.” My bestie spun, back to her half-sister, lower lip trembling. “Just get out.”
Rose’s immediate reaction wasn’t what I expected. In fact, it was suddenly and frighteningly chilling in its flash of interest and ugly epiphany. What two and two did she just put together? Instead of pushing her sibling, she flounced past me with a head toss while Petunia, my quiet and sweet hearted pug, growled in her wake.
“Rose.” I stopped her with her name as she opened the door. “Where did you get your hands on Faith’s list?” That much I would have loved to know.
“Like I’d tell you.” She slammed the door and then it was just me and Daisy and my farting pug who groaned her contentment before panting up at me like this was the most fun ever.
Wait, was Daisy crying? I had thought she distanced herself enough from Rose since her father’s funeral that my bestie wasn’t so tied up in her half-sister’s crap to be this choked up about telling her to get lost. I took a step in her direction but she was already moving, heading for the kitchen, and I let her go, knowing when she was ready to talk to me she would.
Hell of a way to end my day.
***
Chapter Twenty Nine
Grumpy, who me? I slept badly and woke up on the wrong side of the bed to a text from Crew cancelling our morning run and a string of small disasters that really weren’t a big deal (ten minutes and a new hose and the washing machine was all fixed, not to mention the big dustpan and three brooms in eager hands got the pile of smashed plates off the dining room floor in short order, though the smoothie bullet explosion was my fault and took forever to scrape off Mom, the counter, the floor and every other surface in the kitchen). Thing was, you put enough small cuts together and you can bleed to death. Or something like that. I was sure that was a proverb or an old story or something, right?
Sigh. Just put me out of my misery already.
Thing was, I pondered the case as I made it through those missteps and mishaps, something irking me while I grew more and more out of sorts to the point my own mother, her red hair tucked under a kerchief to hide the remains of the smoothie she didn’t have time to wash out, gestured at the kitchen door with a spoon and said, “Fiona Fleming, out!”
Well, if you feel that way about it. And I was the grumpy one. I slouched into the garden to sit by the koi pond, kicking at rocks that tumbled into the water with little plops. As I did, one of my sneakers hit a wet patch and I slipped, almost falling into the water. Petunia stared up at me as I meeped and grasped for the bench, sitting quickly to catch myself from falling. The pug sat next to me and groaned, sinking to her belly and looking up at me with those sad pug eyes while Fat Benny surfaced at the edge of the pond, thinking the pebbles were food. He wasn’t called Fat Benny for nothing.
“The list.” I addressed the fish as I inhaled sharply, the moment of truth striking me tied to the body memory of sliding over the wet rock. When had I slipped a few days ago? Faith’s face surfaced. “Where did Rose get the list?”
Benny wriggled back under the water, but Petunia watched me with curiosity, triangle black ears perked.
“I’ll tell you where,” I poked the pugs nose to which she snorted. “She made it up, Petunia. Or, she got her hands on something that didn’t belong to her, something she had to have stolen from Faith’s possessions.” I settled back on the bench, grinning to myself. “Faith’s notebook.” Of course. Fee. What was wrong with me? The small pink notebook, the one that fell out of her purse, the one I tripped and slipped over the first time we met. The same one she seemed eager to keep private. I’d forgotten all about it until now.
Okay, so that didn’t prove Rose’s list was fake. She could have found the notebook and transferred the info to a document file and printed it off. But why bother? Why go to all that effort? To protect the original? No, that didn’t make sense. Rose wasn’t about making work for herself. She would have just handed
the notebook over to Robert. More than likely, she’d been doing her own digging, came up with a possible explanation for the murder, and was using that to give Robert information. And without the real list to work from, no one would be the wiser.
I had to call Crew. Though it remained that Rose had somehow deduced that Kami was pregnant. That meant she’d been lurking around the crime scene herself. What, was she trying to turn herself into a cop? I had a herky-jerky moment of understanding that made me slightly nauseated. No, she was trying to be me.
Though the me of this case had been pretty absentminded. If I’d been paying closer attention, maybe I would have put the whole thing together, too. So, if I was going to be honest here, I’d been holding back, not like me. But why? Because I wasn’t investigating this out of my own impetus. I was doing it because Vivian wanted me to.
Yikes. Was I really that shallow that a woman’s death meant less to me than my lingering anger at Vivian French? Or was I even more shallow and getting bored with solving murders? What did that make me?
I knew one thing, though. I wasn’t about to let Rose’s fake list get Kami in more trouble. Not when I now knew what to look for. And froze as I half stood, heart now in my throat. Wait, I’d sent someone else looking for the list, only now giving her a second thought.
Where was Mila Martin?
I retreated to the main house and my cell phone, dialing my sheriff boyfriend and getting his voicemail. I slipped out, heading for the office, only to find Melissa there alone and clueless as to where anyone had gone.
“I just don’t know.” She seemed close to tears, tossing her hands as she stared at the empty blotter in front of her, blinking light on the phone telling me she had messages she hadn’t retrieved yet and fully expecting her not to be sitting in that chair much longer. “No one tells me anything.”
