“Thanks, it’s sweet of you to say so,” said Roxy. They smiled at each other for a long moment before Roxy started, her expression switching to deadly serious as a memory hit her. “That reminds me…murder. Dr. Jack called Sage and me down to the police station this morning. He asked us to investigate the case of Meredith’s shooting. He says the police think it’s him, but that they’ve got the wrong man. He maintains he’s innocent. Sage is working on her side of things, asking angels and spirits for help and whatnot. I agreed to look into it, too, but for information the police will accept as evidence.”
“Now that’s a dream team,” Sam said.
Roxy began pacing. It helped her thought process. “The people in the room with Meredith Romanoff when she died were George, Charles, Dr. Jack, a businessman called Royston Lamontagne, and an old childhood friend of Meredith’s.” Roxy looked at the plain wooden floorboards beneath her feet and counted the names of the people on her fingers. “Terah…Terah…I forget her last name. Jonas? Oh, I know, Jones! Terah Jones. And me. We were all in the room. Any of us could have done it.”
“You’re going to need to talk to them all.”
“Yeah,” said Roxy. “It’s a fine line to walk, you know? With Charles and George. They are devastated, understandably, and I absolutely can’t upset them further. If they’re innocent, that would be terrible. At the same time, they could easily be involved. One or both. I’m not quite sure how to handle it. Now, concerning the other two, Royston Lamontagne and Terah Jones, I have no such qualms, but getting them to talk to me will be the issue. The thing is…well, Lamontagne seems to be the kind of person who’s ‘too important’ to talk to likes of me. He’ll be easy to find, though, with a name like that. I’ll just Google him. Meredith said he was in the music business. I’ll Google Terah Jones, too, I guess.
“Give it a go now,” said Sam. “But wait here. I’ve got something to show you. One sec.”
Sam walked over to his toolbox at the other end of the loft. He began to rummage. Roxy, in the meantime, hit Google on her phone. As she expected, searching on Royston Lamontagne brought up hundreds of hits that all pointed to the same person. He appeared to run a company called Lamontagne Promotions. Terah Jones was more of a mixed bag, with results popping up from all over the country. She tried again. Terah Jones New Orleans was much more fruitful.
“Ooh!” said Roxy out loud. “She’s a dog walker! Terah Jones Dog Walking Services! And there’s a number right here. I can call her now. Great.”
Sam came back. “Now you can start getting somewhere. I’ve gotta get back to work myself, but I wanted to ask which floor stain do you like the best?” He held out some tiny samples. “I want to keep the original floorboards for the most part. I switched out the couple that had dry rot and aged them so that they fit in. But now you need to decide on a color. Cream White, Rich Pine, or Mahogany? Which do you think will be best?”
Roxy took a look around the room. She imagined the whole cathedral ceiling and all the walls painted in white, and the room flooded with daylight. “Okay, I know this sounds crazy, but a navy blue or forest green, even an aquamarine stain would give it so much more character, and provide an amazing start for the color scheme.”
Sam dropped his hands holding the rejected stain samples. “Genius! I’d never have thought of that. You’re a little wilder than you know, Rox.”
Roxy grinned. “Hardly, but thanks…I’ll take that as a compliment…I think?”
“It is definitely a compliment.”
“Well, on that note, I’m going to walk on the wild side and call Terah Jones right now. I’ll see if she can talk.”
“Great plan,” said Sam. “I’ll install the other window this afternoon.”
“Amazing, I can’t wait to see it.” Roxy hurried out. “See you later. Don’t forget what’s left of your po’ boy on the stairs. Watch out for chips underfoot. I’ll send Nat to vacuum them up!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HALF AN HOUR later, Roxy was at the waterfront waiting for Terah. The waters of the Mississippi sparkled in the early afternoon sun, creating a glare that made Roxy squint. When she had called Terah on the phone earlier, Meredith’s friend had confirmed that she was a dog walker, and she was about to take two dogs out for some exercise. Would Roxy like to join her? They’d arranged to meet by the river in Audubon Park, next to where the boat tours started.
The park was a little way from the Funky Cat Inn, so Roxy took a cab as far as she could. It was a lovely change of scenery, a truly serene setting. As she strolled across the park to the meeting place, Roxy was surrounded by towering trees and abundant stretches of green lawn. Flowers and shrubs bloomed everywhere. “I should come here more often,” she said to herself as she walked down to the waterfront.
“Hello, Roxy,” someone said behind her.
Roxy turned to find herself a few feet away from Terah. With her were two ferocious-looking German Shepherds who strained on their leashes, their teeth bared. Roxy jumped back in shock.
“Rex! Tyson! Down!” Terah commanded, but the dogs took no notice. “I’m sorry,” she said, backing away. “These boys are a little over the top.”
“You don’t say,” Roxy said, looking at the dogs warily. She was much more of a cat person.
“The look of relief on the owner’s face when she hands them over to me says it all,” Terah continued. “I’d stop walking them in a heartbeat, but she is by far my highest paying client, so I’m hanging on for as long as I can. They need some serious training.” She pulled again on the dog’s leashes as they strained against her. Despite the challenging and fearsome dogs, Terah seemed to Roxy to be more relaxed than she had been at the botanica the previous evening.
“Right,” said Roxy. “Great.” She blew out her cheeks. “Perhaps they can smell my cat.”
“I’ll put their muzzles on. Just give me a few moments and stand well back.” Terah tied the dogs’ leashes to a nearby bench and got to work. “I hate to see dogs muzzled,” Terah said. “But if they bite someone, we’ll all have bigger problems, so it’s the lesser of two evils.”
It was warm, and Terah was sweating. With a tissue, she wiped her forehead, then under her good eye. As she discreetly lifted her eye patch to wipe sweat from her cheekbone Roxy caught a glimpse of an eyelid that was closed, permanently, it looked like.
Terah saw her looking. “Car crash. Years ago now,” she explained simply. She pointed to the path ahead, “We can walk along, but you’ll need to keep some distance between you and the dogs. They obviously sense something. They were being quite good until they saw you.”
“I don’t know much about dogs, honestly,” said Roxy. “I’ve never had one. I have a cat, Nefertiti. She’s as soft as a snowflake.” They started to walk.
Terah smiled, although in the circumstances it looked more like a grimace. “I shouldn’t complain. As jobs go, dog walking is pretty cushy.”
“How did you get into it? Dog walking, I mean.” Roxy asked. The dogs were calming down a little now they were moving, but Terah was having to lean back to counteract the strong forward motion of the dogs. Her arms were outstretched and taut.
“I fell into it, really—and only recently. I used to work in human resources for a corporate in Dallas, but I started getting a lot of pain in my hands and back. Eventually, I was diagnosed with arthritis, probably a much-delayed consequence of my car wreck. The drugs didn’t work, and I don’t like taking them anyway, so I came here to see a holistic doctor, and his treatment worked! I rarely have an attack anymore. I mean, I’m pretty skeptical when it comes to these things, but if it works, it works, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“After a while, I felt much better, and I realized there was no way I wanted to go back to my old job,” she laughed. “I started this dog-walking gig by walking my doctor’s dog, would you believe? Word spread, and my books are full now.”
“That’s awesome,” said Roxy. “It sounds like you’ve come a long way.�
��
“Yes,” said Terah. “But,” her face darkened, “I just can’t believe what’s happened to Meredith.”
Terah and Roxy continued to walk through picturesque Audubon Park, Roxy a little way off to Terah’s left to avoid the attention of the German Shepherds. Terah shook her head. “I just find it so unbelievable that this Dr. Jack person would kill Meredith over a simple argument. There’s got to be a bigger backstory. Maybe they crossed in the past, and he finally got his revenge.”
“What makes you think that?” said Roxy.
“Well, no sane person would kill over a few angry words, would they? Maybe his sanity is the issue. Perhaps he’s insane. That might explain it.”
“Dr. Jack isn’t insane,” said Roxy. “I know him.”
“For how long?”
“Oh…well, a few months.”
“You see,” Terah said, as if she’d solved the case already. “You can’t really know someone in that short length of time. You only know the personality they’ve presented to you. The right person can easily put on an act. Some can keep it up for years.”
“I would agree with you, but my friend Sage has known him much longer. Many years.”
Terah shook her head. “Never trust a friend’s view of their friend, Roxy. They can’t see clearly, and they are biased. I’ve found that out to my peril more than once.”
“Oh?”
“Back in the day, Meredith and I had a mutual friend who swore to me that Meredith was utterly trustworthy. But Meredith, when she was younger, had a dark side. I sensed it was there but ignored my instincts and believed my friend’s judgment. The result was I let myself get close to Meredith, and she led me on a merry dance, that’s for sure.” Terah laughed.
Roxy frowned. “What happened exactly?”
“I knew Meredith forty years ago, and I knew her well, good and bad. I certainly didn’t see her through rose-tinted spectacles like those hordes of credulous fans she has now. The fame, the public image of Meredith Romanoff doesn’t affect or fool me. I believe it to be merely a façade. I doubt she has changed much since high school, and she made many enemies back then. Does that surprise you?”
Roxy thought for a moment, looking out over the trees. “Well, she does—did—have, well, an abrupt way about her. But…she could be charming, too.”
“Exactly!” Terah exclaimed. “Charming and abrupt, some would say rude. She was such a contradiction. Knowing her as I did, it was shocking to see her become so rich and famous with a public brand that presented her as an all-knowing, kind, beneficent actor. Her fans treated her like a goddess, almost like she was the second coming.
“So what was she like in high school?” Roxy asked.
Terah was in full flow now. “Well, I first knew Meredith by reputation only. We went to school together, a small Texas town. She was kind of a big deal in high school, but I wasn’t a friend of hers. She was a friend of my friend, Lizzie Jo. At the time, I had a boyfriend who was captain of the football team. He was the first guy at school with a motorbike, long, flicky brown hair, big shoulders, and dreamy eyes. You know the type. He was smart, too, the whole package. Very unusual.”
“Yes,” said Roxy. The type of boy she’d never gone anywhere near in high school. And who had never gone anywhere near her.
“I’m not sure why he liked me. I was into art, not cheerleading or anything like that. I was overweight, too, but back then, I did have this lovely long wavy blonde hair that all the girls envied, and he said he loved my eyes. Anyway, all the popular girls—including Meredith—were furious when he chose me over them. It made me something of an outcast but I didn’t mind too much. I wasn’t one to run with the cool girls.
“Meredith, however, she was known for her bragging and her big ideas as well as for taking over anything that she was involved in, no matter who was originally in charge or had the most expertise. She had a posse of mean girls around her. And even then, Meredith would say she could see ghosts and spirits and made out she had special powers.”
Roxy stayed quiet. Terah was running her mouth, and she didn’t want to stop her.
“Eventually, Meredith befriended me. I was into art and she would come to visit me during lunch and pretend she had this amazing newfound interest in urban art.” Roxy frowned. “That’s graffiti to most people. At the time, I didn’t realize how dangerous Meredith was, and I welcomed her into our tightly-knit high school artist community. I admit I was a little blinded by the lure of her street cred. She seemed exciting, and I was a little intoxicated by her. I introduced her to our art space and helped her settle in.
“She wasn’t very talented, but soon she started this huge project. She convinced the teachers to let us do a big mural on the side of the gymnasium. I was elated at first and came up with all kinds of designs. But pretty soon Meredith made it very, very clear that it was her project, and we had to do what she wanted. All my ideas were trounced in favor of hers, which were lame, in my opinion. Then she pursued my boyfriend, and he ended up dumping me to date her.” Terah shook her head. “I think he was her goal all along. So that was that. Art was poisoned for me, and I’d lost my boyfriend as well. All thanks to Meredith.”
“That must have been horrible,” said Roxy.
“It was at the time, but it was long ago. The pain of her betrayal faded, we all grew up and moved on, but I never forgot her.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“SO IF YOU’D had no contact with her in years, how did you reconnect?”
“Meredith contacted me a few weeks ago to say she was coming to the city. I suspect she looked me up on social media. I was surprised to hear from her, but she seemed nice enough and invited me to her reading. I was curious, to say the least. I mean, my memory of Meredith did not fit with the impression I had of a ‘medium and psychic healer,’ as she called herself. I thought those sorts of people were supposed to be earthy and kind. Meredith was not kind or earthy when I knew her. And I suppose I was skeptical of her reason for contacting me and felt I should be on my guard—a kind of ‘keep your enemies closer’ approach, if you will. I couldn’t tell if she was seeking to make up for her high school sins or if her motives were less benign, and there was something more suspect beneath the surface. I wanted to find out. I did not want to be taken for a fool like last time. So I went along to see what was what.”
Roxy nodded. “So what do you think now? Do you think she was genuine? Like, did she have actual psychic powers? Or was she just a quack making a quick buck?”
“Well, if she were a fake, it wouldn’t be for the money. At least I don’t think so,” said Terah. “Her husband Charles is rolling in cash. I think if she were cynically fooling people, it would be to bolster her ego, to exercise control. She loved having power over people. Back when we were teens, I would see her say this or that, or give someone a certain look, and then revel in how it made them behave. She was a master of manipulation. And, of course, she would love all the prestige and attention she got. Fame is a powerful drug.”
“Hmm, there’s also what one might think of mediums to consider,” Roxy said. “Some people say it’s all made up, and they’re fakers. Others really believe in them. They think mediums can contact the dead and have all manner of special gifts. I don’t know what to think about them, to be honest.”
“Me neither. I have an open mind about that. Irrespective of whether contacting the spirits is truly a thing or not, I really couldn’t say if Meredith was a good actress, or if she truly believed she could speak to the dead. I can say that, based on experience, either could be true.”
“I see what you mean,” said Roxy.
“Meredith was very convincing, but she was always a chameleon, you know? She could endear herself to anyone and be whatever someone wanted her to be so that she could wiggle her way under their skin. She certainly endeared herself to my high school boyfriend.” Terah laughed. “It all seems very silly now. I haven’t thought about it much over the years, only in passing, but it was painful
at the time.
“What else made you distrust her?”
“Well, back in the day, she was always starting something or other, always with her at the center of it, always with her as the queen and the rest of us as her adoring pawns. The mural was one such project, another was a synchronized swimming team. Then there was the tribute band for some girl group that was famous at the time. There was always something. And she acted like she loved you but it was just to suck you in. Then, once you were caught in her trap, she’d control you within an inch of your life—what you did, said, who you could hang out with. If you resisted, she’d tarnish your name throughout the whole school with something private she’d wriggled out of you earlier or some derogatory information she’d found out. As you can imagine, at that time that was a big deal.”
“Nasty,” said Roxy. “So did she…did she try that with you? Use threats to control you?”
“She tried,” said Terah. “She really did. But after she stole my boyfriend, I found out something about her that she didn’t want anyone to know about. I told her what I knew, and I also told her that if she tried to blackmail me like I’d seen her do to others, I’d expose her. From then on, we were like a pair of bulls, keeping our wary eyes on one another from a distance.”
“So what happened? What was this information she didn’t want anyone to know about?”
“She didn’t move to our high school until her junior year. I had an aunt who worked in the office at her old school, and she told me that Meredith was busted by the school for selling drugs. It was quite some scheme she was running, with passwords and secret drops, and a whole roster of clients only too willing to give her the money they made bussing tables or bagging groceries after school. She was lucky that she didn’t pick up a criminal record. The deal was that she had to switch high schools and she had to keep her nose clean. In exchange, no further action was taken regarding her drug dealing and her past actions were kept under wraps. I’m not proud of it, but I used this information as leverage. Once Meredith knew what I knew, we had an uneasy truce and went through the last year or so of high school at a brooding, respectful distance.”
3 Louisiana Lies Page 8
