Candy Canes & Corpses

by Abby L. Vandiver

  Tears filled DeeDee’s eyes. “I just thought it was one of the celebrity guests who didn’t want anyone to see them drunk,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “How was I to know it was something more than that?”

  The chief’s face softened. “You couldn’t, Mrs. Wilson, but we have to ask.”

  DeeDee nodded. “I understand. Are you going to tell me what happened?”

  “Dana Donnelly was killed by a knife wound to the heart. The coroner puts the time of death somewhere in the hour before 1:45 a.m., which was when her husband found her by the pool house. She’d told him she was going to check and make sure the pool house doors were locked, and he went to look for her when she didn’t return. It’s likely she knew her killer, judging by the fact that she was facing her attacker when she died. The coroner can tell by the angle of entry of the knife that killed her.”

  “I see,” DeeDee said, getting up from her chair. Her legs felt wobbly, and she put her hand on the nearby wall to steady herself.

  Chief Hewson stood up as well, with a look of concern. “Are you all right, Mrs. Wilson?”

  DeeDee cleared her throat. “There’s something else,” she said, her voice quivering. “I found a note attached to the windshield of my car this morning. It all makes sense now.”

  Chief Hewson followed her to the table in the hallway where she’d left the note. She handed to him, watching in silence while he read it. Looking back up at her, his face was grim.

  “Seems like you saw the killer last night, Mrs. Wilson, and they think you can identify them.”

  DeeDee’s face crumpled. She didn’t want to cry in front of these men, but she felt that was a distinct possibility. “But I really didn’t see them,” DeeDee said weakly. “What am I going to do?”

  Chief Hewson put an arm around her shoulders and helped her back to the armchair. “We need to keep you safe until this is sorted out,” he said.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” DeeDee muttered.

  The Chief chose to ignore her comment. “As I recall, aren’t you dating Jake Rogers, the private investigator? I suggest you call him immediately. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be able to protect you.”

  “Jake and I are no longer seeing one another,” DeeDee replied. “Guess I’m out of luck, then.”

  Chief Hewson frowned. “Do you have a gun?” he asked her.

  DeeDee nodded. “Jake got me one a while back.”

  “Keep it with you at all times,” he instructed her. “And don’t be afraid to use it. I’m going to give you my direct line in case you need to reach me in a hurry. If anything happens that concerns you, and I mean anything at all Mrs. Wilson, I want you to call me immediately. Is that clear?”

  DeeDee accepted the business card he handed her, and looked at it dumbly. Her vision was blurred with tears, and she couldn’t clearly read it, but she assumed it contained his contact details as promised. “Yes,” she nodded. “Crystal clear.” She wondered if there was a spare jail cell at the police station she could use, in which case she would happily move in then and there.

  “Good. I’m going to take this note and give it to forensics, okay?”

  “Sure,” DeeDee said. What with hers and the chief’s fingerprints already on it, she hoped they would find a third set that would help identify whoever had written it, but she doubted that was going to happen.

  “Thanks for your time, Mrs. Wilson, don’t get up,” he said, nodding to his deputy. “We can see ourselves out.”

  DeeDee heard their footsteps in the hallway before the front door clicked open and then shut again.

  “Looks like it’s just me and you, kiddo,” she said, reaching down to feel Balto’s warm fur at her feet. “What do you say we go for a walk, and then come back and start making a list of the people who were at the party?”

  Balto leaped up, and ran over to the door.

  DeeDee’s gaze followed him, and despite her predicament, she managed a smile. “Hold on, Balto. I’ll be there in a moment. Who says I need a man in my life? I just need to find my gun.”

  Chapter Four

  Dino Argyros dove for the ringing telephone on his office desk and pressed the speakerphone button.

  “Your wife is on the line, sir.”

  Dino paused. “Please tell her I’m busy, Myrtle. Have you had any luck reaching Mrs. Donnelly?”

  “Not yet.” Myrtle’s tone was disapproving. “But I’ll keep trying.”

  “Make sure you do,” Dino said, staring at the framed photograph on the opposite wall. “And don’t put any other calls through unless it’s Mrs. Donnelly. Got it?”

  “Yes, Mr. Argyros. Of course, sir.”

  Dino released the button on the phone and limped over to look at the photo. Staring back at him was a younger version of himself, dressed in a tuxedo. His tan face was lit up by laughter, his grin stretching from ear to ear. His thick, wavy, dark hair had just started to gray, with faint traces of salt and pepper visible on close inspection. On Dino’s right stood his wife Gia, and on his left was another couple, their neighbors on Bainbridge Island, Dana Donnelly and her husband Mickey.

  It was Dana whom Dino’s gaze homed in on now, as if he didn’t remember every line on her face, every curve on her body. The way her eyes creased when she smiled, the feel of her warm skin next to his. When he closed his eyes, he could imagine the smell of her perfume. The photo had been taken at a TV awards show on the night he’d fallen in love with her, and the precious stolen moments they’d shared together in the four years since would forever be etched in his consciousness.

  Dino’s cell phone buzzed from where it was laying on the table by the window, and he hurried across the room, his eagerness to speak to his lover hindered only by the twinge of pain that shot through his knee, courtesy of a football injury sustained during an extended misspent youth. He’d been putting off the reconstructive surgery on his cruciate ligament because of the time constraints imposed from running his billion-dollar shipping business and his obsession with carving out all the time he possibly could to spend with Dana. The swelling in his knee joint and the pain when he placed weight on it was his forty-five-year-old body’s way of telling him he couldn’t wait much longer to get some medical help.

  He stared despondently at the name on the screen of his phone, and let it ring without answering. The call was routed to his voicemail service, and a few moments later he listened to the recorded message. A familiar voice filled the room when he played the message.

  “Dino? Don’t think I don’t know you’re there, you heartless pig.” His wife Gia’s Greek accented voice was spitting venom. “At least I know you’re not with her.” The words, delivered in a deep rasp, stabbed Dino in the chest. “Her car is in the driveway next door. She’s with her husband right now, Dino,” Gia said, taunting him with a hollow laugh. “You know, the man she’s married to?”

  Dino’s ears closed off for the rest of Gia’s rant. He was used to it by now. There was nothing he could do to please the woman, no matter how hard he tried, and goodness knows he’d done nothing else for many years.

  Looking at the view of downtown Seattle from the 54th floor of the Columbia Center, where his company had taken over several floors of temporary office space during construction of their new waterfront offices, he blocked out the sound of Gia’s voice. In its place, he replayed in his mind the soft strains of Dana’s whispers to him earlier that day.

  “I must leave you, my darling,” Dana had said, kissing his neck as they lay in bed after making love for what he now knew was the last time. Despite her telling him for the past few weeks they could no longer see one another, each time he’d succeeded in wearing down her defenses until she relented. But earlier that afternoon, in the suite he kept at the Four Seasons for their trysts, she was insistent that she was giving her marriage another go.

  “I promised Mickey,” Dana went on, staring up into his eyes with tears coursing down her face, “that I would give him one last chance. He’s stood by m
e in the past, and now it’s payback time.”

  Dino stroked Dana’s hair, inhaling the scent of her, wishing they could stay like this forever. “Those are the words I never wanted to hear, my love,” he murmured. “Isn’t there anything I can do to change your mind? You seem so…resolute. It makes me very sad.”

  Dana pulled away from him and sat up in bed. “You’re never going to leave Gia, are you?”

  Dino’s eyes fell. “You know I’d do anything for you, Dana,” he said quietly, “except that. It’s not possible, for the reasons I’ve told you many times before. I made a promise to her father, without whom I would be nothing. But my heart, my soul, belongs to you, Dana, I swear it.”

  Dana stood up and pulled the sheet around her. “And I made a promise to Mickey. So, I guess that’s it.”

  “Please, Dana,” Dino implored her. “Reconsider. I know you love me. The situation we are both in…it’s not perfect, but what is?”

  Dana’s shoulders sagged. “Don’t make this harder than it already is.” Her voice was barely audible. “Mickey needs me more than you do. My children deserve their father, and I’m the only one that can help him. Otherwise, I dread to think what the outcome will be. I can’t have that on my conscience, Dino, I just can’t.”

  “Is it money?” Dino said in desperation. “Because if you’re in financial trouble, I’ll give you whatever you need, no questions asked. Call it a loan if you like, to tide you guys over.”

  Dana’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t insult me,” she said, dropping the sheet that had been covering her to the floor. She quickly began to dress, garments flying as she threw items of Dino’s clothing about the room in the search for her own things.

  Dino stumbled out of bed, trying to calm her, but Dana was inconsolable. “Get away from me,” she screamed, beating her hands on his bare chest when he reached out to hold her. It was the kick to his knee that floored him long enough for her to grab her shoes and for him to watch her run out the door of the hotel room.

  ****

  Gia Argyros sat on the patio of their waterfront home on Bainbridge Island, watching her husband park his Bugatti Chiron and shuffle up the driveway. Glancing up and seeing her, he made a detour across the garden to the wooden dock where his cigarette boat, or rum runner, as they were now called, was tied up, and started to tinker with the engine.

  “You love that boat more than you love me,” Gia used to moan at him. “The Argyrosm—what a dumb name for a boat. I suppose that’s the nearest thing you get to ecstasy these days.” She was referring to the celibate nature of their relationship, ever since she’d moved into a separate bedroom after a petty argument. When she’d moved, she expected Dino to beg her to move back and share the marital bed with him, or even better, kick down her door and have his wicked way with her. Instead, he’d never mentioned it again. After several months had passed, not only had Dino’s general mood improved, but he was being a lot nicer to her and spending more time at home. It didn’t take Gia long to figure out that Dino was playing somewhere, and she was certain that somewhere was just beyond the garden fence.

  She’d tried many times to confront her husband about the friendship he’d struck up with Dana Donnelly, but he always evaded the topic. Gia had since resorted to taunting him with the sordid gossip peddled about Dana in the press.

  “I see our neighbor’s been playing around with the help,” Gia once said when there was a picture of Dana splashed across the front page of the National Enquirer in a compromising position with the Donnelly’s pool boy. Or there was the time when she’d said, “I see Dana D’s been at it again. This time she was pictured sunbathing topless in St. Tropez with Leonardo DiCaprio.” Dino’s eye had lingered on that photo far too long for Gia’s liking.

  For a strong woman such as Gia, it was painful watching the man she adored act like a lovesick puppy around Dana, who flirted with anything in pants if she thought it would get her some column inches in the press. Even more so now, since Dino was implicated in one of the recent stories.

  “You’re getting careless,” she declared, when Dino finally left the boat and dragged his damaged leg across the grass towards where she sat on the patio.

  “Gia, I’m not in the mood,” Dino warned her, clutching a chair and easing himself into it. His face twisted as he bent his leg. “I think I’m going to have to make an appointment for surgery.”

  “Did you get my message earlier?” Gia asked, not wanting to antagonize Dino further. She saw the pain etched on his face, and it seemed like more than just his knee was bothering him.

  “Yes,” Dino said nodding. “I was on another call. Sorry about that.” He didn’t meet her eyes, staring instead across the glistening expanse of water that began at the end of the garden and stretched for miles across the Sound.

  “You made Page Six, you know the celebrity gossip column in the paper,” Gia said flatly. “I thought you might like to know. Dana will be pleased, at least.”

  “Excuse me?” Dino turned and glared at Gia, his eyes blazing.

  “Let’s see, I’ve got it here,” Gia said smoothly, reaching for her iPad. “Now then… ‘Which Daytime Emmy award winner is spending quality seasonal time in a room with a view overlooking Elliott Bay? Maybe her ship just came in.’ Hmm, I wonder who that could be? You wouldn’t happen to know anyone in the shipping business who keeps a room at the Four Seasons Hotel, would you?”

  Dino’s face fell. “Gia, I…”

  Gia, her face red with anger, raised a finger to her husband. “Quiet, Dino, it’s my turn to speak. Hear me out, and show me some respect for a change, will you please?” She was glad to see Dino appear meek, as he silently looked over at her.

  “Dino, we have been married for twenty years, and I have tried my best to be a good wife and mother. I birthed your three healthy sons, who will inherit our business. And let me repeat that in case you didn’t get it. Our business, Dino, the one you and I own together under the community property laws of this state. You know, the business that my father’s money started, remember? Do you think I don’t know why you married me?”

  Gia watched as Dino rubbed his chin and looked down at the patio beneath his chair. “I know I’m not a beautiful woman, but I am a decent woman who honors her husband,” she continued, with dignity. “You know I came to Seattle from Greece against my wishes, because you and my father both insisted this was the best place to be in order to access the rich Asian shipping trade. I have done everything to support you and our family while you build our business. I ask one thing of you, Dino, and one thing only.”

  Dino cleared his throat. “Go ahead.”

  “If you cannot respect me, then have respect for yourself and our sons. Do not drag our name through the mud anymore and be made a fool of by some floozie who cares nothing for you.”

  A flash of pain flashed across Dino’s eyes.

  “She loves her husband, Dino, can’t you see that?” Gia implored him. “Everything she does is to make him jealous. It’s obvious to everyone else but you.”

  “Is that it?” Dino asked her, struggling to stand.

  “No,” Gia fumed. She lifted the stiff embossed invitation laying in front of her on the patio table, and started waving it in front of him. “She’s invited us to a little party she and her husband are hosting on New Year’s Eve. If you think I’m going, you are mistaken. I will send our apologies.”

  “You will do no such thing,” Dino retorted, reaching for the card and glancing at it, his eyes lighting up. “Of course we must go. It would be rude not to. And thank you for your concern, Gia, I’ll think about what you said. Go ahead and eat without me, if you don’t mind.”

  “I already did,” Gia muttered, hardened to Dino’s pain as he hobbled away. There was no getting through to her husband. As long as Dana Donnelly was around, his heart would belong to her, not Gia. There was only one solution that she could think of, which was to get rid of Dana. For good.

  Dino can have it his way and we will go t
o the party, she thought, and I will make sure it’s the last one that witch next door ever hosts.

  Chapter Five

  “Have you seen Page Six?” Jerry McGee scowled at his publicist, Laura Danner. “Is that the best you can do?”

  “I thought you’d be pleased, Jerry,” Laura said, looking up from the iPhone that seemed like it was permanently glued to her right hand. “You told me to plant a story to put Dana Donnelly in a bad light, and I did. It’s not hard to figure out she’s the celebrity they’re referring to who’s meeting her shipping magnate lover at The Four Seasons every day after her morning show.” She yawned and raised a hand to her mouth. “Sorry, late one last night at The Pink Door hanging out with Ben Affleck.”

  Jerry reached across and pulled the rose-colored jewel-encrusted device out of the young woman’s hand. “Will you put that darn thing down when I’m talking to you?” He slammed it on top of the low coffee table where they were sitting in the hotel’s lobby. “I don’t give a rat’s you-know-what about which Hollywood slime balls are in town, got it? The only thing I care about right now is how you’re going to fix the damage that woman has done to my reputation, and how you’re going to ruin hers.”

  Laura glared at Jerry as she inspected her phone to make sure it hadn’t been damaged. Slowly placing it in her purse, she folded her arms and sucked in her cheeks.

  “I’m not sure I like your attitude, young lady,” Jerry railed, before she could speak. “Look at you. You’re nothing but a short skirt and lipstick. There’s just no substance in young people these days.” He raised his eyes upward. “Why I ever hired you is beyond me. I’m not sure you realize who you’re dealing with, missy. Do you have any experience working with A-listers like me?”

  Laura gave him a slow, lazy smile. “Patience, Jerry. My contact at the Four Seasons is trying to get compromising photos of Dana in a clinch with Dino Argyros. The tide will turn against her soon enough, you’ll see. She’s a married woman with four young children, and her lover boy is married too. No one likes home wreckers. If she keeps carrying on like this, she’ll probably be fired from her TV show, never work again, and we could get a six-figure sum for the photos if they’re juicy enough. Will that make you happy?”