Sealed with a Hiss

by Addison Moore

  No sooner do we get to the car in front of us than I spot Tiger looking no worse for wear with another blonde dangling from his arm, and now I’m wondering if he was with my sister at all.

  “There he is.” I point his way. “I’m heading in.”

  “I’ll meet you there.” Jasper nods to the bar to our left. “I’m in desperate need of a disinfectant.”

  We part ways, and I thread my way through the bopping crowd until I come upon the untamable tiger himself.

  “Hello,” I say as he laughs at something the blonde just said to him. Normally, I wouldn’t interrupt what looks to be an intimate moment, but considering the fact I’m still convinced that was Macy he was entertaining minutes ago, I don’t mind busting up the party. “I’m Huxley’s sister, Bizzy.”

  Tiger does a double take in my direction. “Bizzy? It’s good to meet someone in the same unique name club. Tiger has garnered me more than a few odd looks.” He laughs as we shake hands. “Hux is one of my favorite people.” And my favorite clients. He’s swept so many attorneys my way, I pulled my advertising last month, and now I’m saving a bundle.

  The blonde in his arms whispers something into his ear before slinking toward the bar.

  “Well, Hux is one of my favorite brothers. My only brother,” I tease. One I never want to kiss on the mouth again for as long as we both shall live. Here’s hoping I can get over the trauma. I’m sure I’ll be kissing Jasper with my eyes open for the next solid year just to keep my mind from playing cruel and unnecessary tricks on me. “And Macy is my favorite sister.” I shoot him a sharp look. “Blonde, yea high.” I hold up my hand an inch taller than myself. “I believe you’ve met?”

  He winces. “That’s right. You walked into the room. My apologies. That was not only highly unprofessional, it was something I’ve never done before.” That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

  Any trace of a smile quickly dissipates from my face. “I run the Country Cottage Inn,” I tell him, choosing to avoid the fact I recently inherited it. I’m sure he’d see me as nothing more than a money grab.

  “The inn?” He takes a partial step back as he examines me in this new light. “I was there the other night. Tragic, wasn’t it?”

  “That’s an understatement. Did you know the Buckinghams?”

  Nothing like a little litmus test to start the interrogation off. Let’s see how he fares.

  “I did.” He gives a long blink. “Chip and I were friends.” Right up until we weren’t. “He was a good guy.” When he wasn’t blowing his money on superfluous things—or people.

  “Did you manage his money?”

  I wonder what he means by superfluous people?

  “Oh yeah.” All fifteen cents’ worth. “It wasn’t much. I mean, you would think he and Bobbie were worth a lot, but the truth is, they were just getting started. But she’ll be fine now. Chip had a huge life insurance policy. That was the one solid piece of advice he took from me.”

  “That must be a relief for Bobbie. I mean, on top of losing her husband, she doesn’t have to worry about losing her home.” Plus, she can pay off Diane.

  But something doesn’t make sense.

  “So you’re saying you did take care of Chip’s financial investments?” I ask. “As in you handled his portfolio?”

  His chest expands a moment. “Something like that.” I’ve never had it in me to lie to anyone, let alone the pretty sister of a friend.

  But if he wasn’t managing Chip’s funds, why lie about it at all? Unless, of course, the money was supposed to be flowing in his direction and—Chip was diverting it elsewhere? Where could that be…

  “How about you?” He studies me a moment. “Are you looking to park your money anywhere?”

  “Actually, I just got married.”

  The words hardly leave my lips just as Jasper pops up holding a glass with a finger length of brown liquor in it.

  “Jasper Wilder.” Jasper quickly shakes the man’s hand. “Great party. I’m Huxley’s brother-in-law.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Tiger looks genuinely intrigued. “I was just asking your wife if she was looking to invest.”

  “We might be.” Jasper nods. “Hux speaks highly of you.”

  I nod. “Tiger knew the Buckinghams. He was good friends with Chip.”

  More like a good piggybank to Chip. Tiger frowns a moment. I thought we were friends right up until the guy started to treat me like an ATM. Of course, I bought into it, gave him what he wanted, and it nearly bankrupted me. And as soon as I realized the guy wasn’t good for it, he came to a rather abrupt end.

  His lips curve with a malevolent smile, and my blood runs cold just watching.

  Suddenly, it feels as if there’s a very real possibility Tiger Caldwell pulled that trigger.

  Jasper flashes a pained grimace. “Sorry about your loss. I’m actually the lead homicide detective on the case.”

  My lips twist with his announcement, although I don’t suppose there’s a point in hiding the fact since he’ll probably need to haul him in for formal questioning.

  Sorry, Bizzy. Jasper glides an arm around my waist. There was no way out of it. If he gives us a vital piece of information, I can’t afford to have his legal team keep it off the case because I wasn’t being honest with him from the get-go.

  I nod because I fully understand.

  Tiger ticks his head. “It’s good to meet you. Any leads on who could have done this?”

  “Nothing worth mentioning.” Jasper swills his drink. And how I hate that it’s true. “How about you? Any piece of information at all on the couple that might help crack this case wide open?”

  Tiger’s eyes widen a moment. “I wasn’t close to the two of them as a couple.” He blows out a quick breath. “All right, I’ll tell you something, but if you bring it up in the light of day, I just might deny it.” He gives a quick look around. “Bobbie and Chip were having troubles. Not only was Chip stepping out on her, but she made a few aggressive moves in my direction one time too many.” He examines us both a moment. “After the first incident I said no thank you, I thought for sure it wouldn’t happen again, but she gave it another shot. And after that, I made sure we were never alone in the room together again.”

  Wow.

  Jasper and I exchange a quick look.

  “Wait a minute.” I lean in a notch. “You said he was stepping out on her?” I bet that’s where the money he was supposed to be investing went. But how much could an affair possibly set him back? “Chip had a girlfriend?”

  Tiger nods with a gleam in his eye as if he were still entertained by the idea.

  “Who was she?” Jasper wastes no time in asking.

  “I don’t know.” Tiger shakes his head. “He protected her identity more than he protected his money, that’s for sure.”

  My lips part as a thought comes to mind.

  “She was a kept woman, wasn’t she?”

  A smile glides up his face. “You’re a smart one. That she was. Unfortunately for Bobbie, I think Chip got off on pulling something like that over her eyes.”

  “I’m guessing Bobbie gave him money to invest and he invested it right into his mistress.”

  Tiger backs up a notch. “Boy, you’re good. I mean, in his defense, that money was more or less an allowance Bobbie gave him. She didn’t necessarily expect him to invest it all, but that’s the truth he was feeding her. Or more to the point, the lie.” He shakes his head at the two of us. “It wasn’t pretty.” He ticks his head toward the crowd. “I’d better mingle. After all, it is my party. If you want me to create a portfolio for you, I’d be more than happy to. In fact, I’ll work at a discount.” He points to Jasper. “You know where to find me if you need anything else.”

  “Actually”—Jasper lifts his drink a notch—“just for kicks, if you had to guess, who do you think would have done something like this to him?”

  A part of me wonders if he’ll say Keegan. I’m starting to think that cuddling malarkey was a
cover for a very special hug she was sharing with Chip Buckingham.

  “I don’t know.” Tiger gives the back of his head a scratch. “But I’d talk to Lacey if I were you. She popped up a few years back, and everything just blew up from there. Bobbie and Lacey became an overnight sensation. She knew the Buckinghams better than anyone on this planet. She always seems to have the answers. Cheers,” he says as he dissolves into the crowd.

  “I guess it’s back to the beginning,” I say. “Lacey Lovelace.”

  Jasper nods. “We’ll get to her soon enough.” He knocks back the rest of his drink and sets the glass down on the nearest table. “Right now, I’ve got another woman on my mind.”

  We come across Georgie as she regales a man with a monocle and she toasts us as we pass them by.

  Jasper leads me all the way back to the caboose, and we find a tiny little corner of this traveling circus to call our own—and we do just that, make it our own.

  I kiss him with my eyes open until this runaway ride comes to a rather abrupt conclusion.

  Here’s hoping this case comes to a rather abrupt conclusion as well.

  And Lacey Lovelace just might be our only hope of that happening.

  Chapter 12

  The Country Cottage Café sits all but barren this evening. The ratio of pets to people is just about even, and five of those pets belong to the four of us seated at this table.

  It’s the very next night after that train fiasco, and Jasper, Leo, Emmie, and I just polished off a large pizza for dinner and, at the moment, we’re plowing our way through a platter of those red velvet cookies. Sugar and Fish are curled up together on the seat next to mine, and Sherlock, Gatsby, and Cinnamon are chasing after one another, rabble-rousing for the heck of it.

  It was Jasper’s idea to dig into Chip Buckingham’s social media tonight, and that’s exactly what we’re doing now.

  “Look at this.” Emmie flashes her phone our way, and we’re treated to a picture of Chip tossing up a peace sign while sticking his tongue out at the camera. “The guy sticks his tongue out in just about every picture.”

  Fish lifts her head lazily. I don’t trust people who stick their tongues out.

  Sugar mewls, Chip did it all the time. It drove Bobbie crazy. Come to think of it, everything he did drove her crazy.

  “Check these out.” Jasper turns his laptop around, and we see a montage of about a dozen pictures, all featuring the victim. “The guy can’t keep a straight face.”

  “Eh.” Leo shrugs. “It lets us know he had a playful side.”

  “I don’t know,” I say. “He seems a little too glib. Sugar said that everything he did drove Bobbie crazy. Maybe he had Peter Pan syndrome?”

  “Or cheaters syndrome,” Em says, taking another bite from her cookie.

  Jasper and I filled Leo and Emmie in on everything we’ve gleaned so far, highlighting the fact Chip was not only running around on Bobbie, but that he was somehow funding his mistress.

  Leo takes a breath. “The guy was cheating on his wife, which is bad enough, but what was he funneling cash to his mistress for? Do you really think he was paying her rent? The guy had to take money from his wife to do it. That takes some serious cookies to take the allowance your wife is giving you, and handing it over to your side piece.”

  Emmie grunts, “I’d hang you by your cookies if you ever even thought about getting a side piece. And my bestie reads minds. You can’t go hiding things like that.”

  Leo chuckles. “It’s not happening. Besides, Bobbie didn’t hang him by his cookies. She shot him.” He looks to Jasper. “What does forensics have to say about it?”

  “It’s true.” Jasper leans back in his seat and glowers at his laptop as he considers this. “The bullet that killed Chip was fired from the gun Bobbie was holding. She was cradling the gun in her hand when we found her.”

  “What about the bullet that hit her?” I can still see them both lying there, with blood pooling around them. It was horrible. Something I’d love to forget, and yet each night when I go to bed they pop up in my mind’s eye as if they were tattooed on the inside of my eyelids. “Bobbie says she didn’t shoot herself—that she didn’t shoot anybody.”

  Jasper nods. “But the bullet says otherwise. Forensics confirmed the gun was fired twice, and it was her prints—and hers alone—that were on the weapon.”

  I reach over and give his hand a squeeze. “And that knock on her head?”

  “The doctor said she must have hit her head on the way down.”

  Leo pulls Jasper’s laptop his way. “All right. Something’s not adding up. Let’s study the security footage from that night one more time. There has got to be a clue here somewhere.”

  Jasper has already run the footage multiple times—that from the inn and from the security camera that sits on our porch. But as it turns out, Bobbie and Chip were too far from the inn, and just out of range from the camera at our cottage.

  Jasper cues up the security footage once again, and both he and Leo crouch around the laptop with all the intensity they can afford.

  Heads-up, Bizzy. Sherlock barks. Uncle Huxley is headed this way.

  A smile crests my lips. First, because I think it’s adorable that Sherlock has taken to calling my brother by the rather formal moniker. And second, my brother is here.

  Hux pops up in a suit and tie, looking a bit bedraggled, and the entire lot of us extends a friendly greeting his way.

  “Long day at the office?” I ask, pulling up a seat for him, and he plops down without hesitation.

  “You can say that.” He snatches a handful of cookies off the platter. “I’m in the middle of three different divorces, and each one is ten times more bitter than the next. Nobody believes in civil dissolutions anymore. Marriages should come with a warning label.” He takes an angry bite out of a cookie. “So it got me thinking, I’m about to get married in a just a couple days... What the hell am I thinking? I’ve already been divorced three times.” He says that last bit in a rather animated fashion.

  Jasper doesn’t waste any time frowning over at my brother. “What’s the matter, sweetheart? Getting cold feet?”

  “I’ve got ice blocks.” Hux chomps down on another cookie, and Emmie gives me a wide-eyed look.

  This is your chance, Bizzy. She hitches her head his way. If you really don’t want Mackenzie Woods as your new sister-in-law, then say something to steer Hux and those ice blocks he calls feet away from the frozen tundra that he’s about to get lost in. You know you want to.

  She’s right. I definitely want to. But should I?

  Yes, Mack pushed me into a whiskey barrel filled with water and held me under until my lungs threatened to burst. But she confessed a few months back that Huxley was the one that dared her to do it. And sure, she stole all of my boyfriends from under me in high school, but if they were so eager to cheat, did I really want them to begin with? What do I care if Huxley believes that Mackenzie is the one for him? I mean, if that thorny thistle makes his heart sing, who am I to judge?

  Sherlock, Gatsby, and Cinnamon all nudge Huxley at once in a not-so subtle plea for attention until he’s scratching each one of them on the back.

  “Maybe I just need a dog?” Hux says as he pats Gatsby on the back.

  “Goldens are great,” Leo says, his gaze still transfixed on Jasper’s laptop.

  “Labradoodles are great,” Emmie says, running her hand through Cinnamon’s curly fur.

  “Get a mutt from the pound,” Jasper adds his two cents while his fingers fly over his keyboard and I give a dreamy sigh.

  “I married him because he’s wise,” I say. “Hux, let’s get real. You live at your office. You don’t have time for a dog.”

  “Do I have time for a wife?”

  I take a deep breath. “Hux, Mackenzie is the mayor of Cider Cove. She hardly has time for a husband, but she’s willing to take you on. Do you love her?”

  “Yes,” he says it with conviction and looks stumped that I even had to ask.
“Of course, I love her. I loved all my wives before we got married.”

  Emmie shakes her head. “And then what happened?”

  “I don’t know.” His eyes bug out a moment. “Things just petered out, I guess. I thought Mack and I would be different. She’s not like the others. She’s feisty, and opinionated, and she demands that I be the best version of myself every damn day.”

  “Wow,” I muse, albeit with a sarcastic bent. “She sounds like the perfect cheerleader.”

  He makes a face. “She’s less cheerleader, more drill sergeant.”

  “Drill sergeant?” I bite my lip to keep from laughing. “At least she’s showing you her true colors.”

  “Don’t knock it.” Leo winks at Emmie. “Some men like to have their woman run rickshaw over them. I’m one of them.” He mouths those last few words at Em.

  “Don’t listen to him.” Emmie tosses a cookie at him and Leo catches it. “I’m an angel—unless, of course, you turn the living room into a trash heap because you can’t be bothered to take your dirty dishes to the sink, or your myriad of wrappers, or your dirty napkin vortex to the trash.”

  “Don’t forget leaving the seat up,” I tell her.

  “It happened once.” Jasper looks up wild-eyed. “Exactly how many apologies should I give before they take effect?”

  “See this?” Hux jabs his thumb at the table. “This is why I’m wondering if I’m walking into another legal debacle. Believe me, it’s no fun wondering if you’re going to make it before you ever get down the aisle.”

  I pat my hand over his. “If it makes you feel better, there probably isn’t going to be an aisle. You’re essentially getting married at halftime in the middle of what equates to a high school dance at the gym.”

  His dark brows furrow. “That actually does make me feel a little better.”

  “I’ll be standing right there next to you,” I tell him. “And oddly, so will Dad. Look, if Mackenzie makes you happy, if you think you can see yourself spending the rest of your life with her, then go for it. Make all of your drill sergeant dreams come true. And if things start to fall apart one day for Mack and you, don’t run. Maybe try some therapy for a change. Sometimes the good things in life are hard, but they’re also worth the effort.”