Murder among the Palms

by Jade Astor

  “It wasn’t a love triangle, if that’s what you’re implying. Most likely a misunderstanding. Rikki was working late more often than usual, but only because of the party. Now that it’s over, I’m sure they would have worked it out. They’ve been together a long time.”

  Tap, tap, tap went the pen. “Exactly,” said Lanislaw.

  Darian wanted to fall through the floor and curl up in a hole. Everything he said was making things worse. Why wasn’t Argo saying anything? He rubbed his face in frustration. “I’m done answering questions. Are you charging me with something? Because otherwise I want to go.”

  “All right. You and Sheriff Sullivan are free to go. You can take your mom home too.”

  “You’re letting her go?” Darian jumped up, relieved. Lanislaw winced and held up a hand.

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t clear. You can take Rikki home. Angela is going to stay with us a little longer.”

  “Why?” he demanded. “You can’t charge her with anything.”

  Finally, Argo spoke up. “Darian has a point there,” he told Lanislaw in the calm, easy voice that always made Darian feel better. This time was no exception. “You have no proof she was on the beach, and when your officers brought her back from the car, there wasn’t a speck of blood on her. I checked, as I’m sure you did as well. How could she have attacked Gabrielle with a knife? Seems to me you have a serious lack of probable cause to detain her or search her car.”

  “As her lawyer will also soon tell you,” Darian put in. He knew he sounded a bit smug, but hopefully Argo would forgive him.

  For a few moments, Lanislaw seemed lost in thought. Then he leaned back, crossing his arms over that pale turquoise jacket.

  “I’m going to come clean with you both, even though this isn’t common knowledge yet. I’m cutting you this break because you’re fellow law enforcement, but also because I’ve checked your alibis, and you couldn’t have been on the beach when the attack took place. So here’s the interesting thing, and I’m asking you to keep it to yourselves for the time being. Gabrielle Duval wasn’t killed with the knife we found near her body. It came from the hotel, all right, but it wasn’t the murder weapon. My forensics people tell me there wasn’t a single stab wound on her. As you just pointed out, a blade like that…well, it wouldn’t leave a subtle wound.”

  “Ah,” Argo said.

  At the same time, Darian blurted, “Then how…?”

  “Ligature strangulation.” Grimly, Lanislaw mimicked using both hands to pull a cord tight around his own neck. “Old-fashioned but efficient. And so far, there’s no sign of the real murder weapon.”

  “I still can’t believe this is real,” Rikki lamented as she drove the two of them home in her car. One seat remained conspicuously empty. Darian could only hope Ange would be waiting for them at the house, complete with an apology from the cops for hassling her without cause. Sadly, he doubted that would be the case. “This is all my fault.”

  He couldn’t bring himself to contradict Rikki, because as far as he was concerned, it really kind of was. Instead, he sighed in exasperation. “This is a mess, all right. What were you thinking, getting involved with Gabrielle like that? You couldn’t have set Mom up better if you’d tried. You think those cops are going to look any further than her for a suspect?”

  “Darian,” Argo warned from the back seat.

  Rikki shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about Lanislaw. I’ve seen him around, if you know what I mean. He’s tough, but fair, and he’s not out to get us.”

  Darian started, but he heard Argo grunt in amusement. Apparently, he’d picked up on something Darian hadn’t. Granted, Darian had been a bit distracted worrying about Ange, and Argo was a detective. Still, it stung to have misread the situation so badly. What else had he got wrong over the course of that endless evening?

  “Okay, Mom. This is awkward, but I’m just going to come out with it. Tell us the truth, here and now. Were you having an affair with Gabrielle? Kyle says everyone in the hotel knew it. And Ange knew it, too—or least she suspected.”

  “She suspected it, yes. There’s no point in denying that.”

  “Well?” Darian pressed. “Was she right?”

  When Rikki hesitated, Argo leaned forward.

  “When we saw you in the lobby, you said you had something to tell Ange and then us. You couldn’t find her, though.”

  “I wanted to explain the whole situation,” Rikki admitted. “I didn’t get the chance.”

  “So do it now,” Darian said. “I know you wanted to tell Mom first, but circumstances have changed. We need the truth now.”

  They rode in silence a while. Finally, when they swung into their own driveway, Rikki came to decision.

  “Okay,” she said as she put the car in park. “Come into the house and I’ll tell you.”

  Chapter 8

  Inside, Rikki went directly to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of wine. “Mind if I have a drink? I abstained all through the party, but I think I deserve one. Care to join me?”

  “You go ahead.” Argo took a seat at the kitchen table. “I want to keep my mind clear.”

  “Same,” Darian said, settling in beside Argo.

  Rikki shrugged and brought over both the bottle and a tall glass, which didn’t stay empty for long. Argo folded his hands on the table, watching her.

  “Tell us everything.”

  “Okay.” Rikki took a long swallow of wine and sighed. Darian could tell she was ratcheting up her courage to get the words out. How bad would this be? “So what everyone’s been observing at the hotel was true. I welcomed Gabrielle’s attention because I wanted to get close to her. But not for the reason people seem to think.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Darian demanded.

  “It means I was trying to uncover evidence against her.”

  Argo’s face registered surprise. “Evidence?”

  Rikki nodded and poured more wine. “I started to suspect something wasn’t right almost as soon as Gabi—Gabrielle—took over for her late husband. He’d been mostly an absentee owner, hiring people to run the day-to-day operations. Gabrielle was totally different, though. She involved herself in every aspect of the place, from the thread count of the sheets in the room to the brand of the mints housekeeping left on the pillows. It seemed like too much, too fast—and I thought it was also intended to obscure her unusual focus on the accounting department, too.”

  “So you think she was embezzling from the hotel,” Argo guessed. “Or maybe just putting herself in a position to do so?”

  “Embezzlement crossed my mind. So did some even less savory possibilities. Money laundering. Drug shipments. Human trafficking. I really had no idea.”

  Darian listened intently, but something didn’t add up. “That’s a pretty big jump, Mom. Being an overbearing boss doesn’t mean someone’s into shady stuff. What are you leaving out?”

  “I was afraid you’d pick up on that. So this is the part I hesitate to say too much about.” Rikki closed her eyes and massaged her forehead in frustration. “Just before Gabi promoted me, I got a phone call. The voice on the other end said some things that…well, let’s just say they gave me a very different perspective by the time I hung up.”

  Darian scowled. “This is all too mysterious.”

  “I know how it must sound. I wish I could fill in the gaps, but I can’t right now. Even telling you this much is a betrayal of a promise I made. But given what happened tonight….”

  “Promise? A promise to whom?”

  Rikki smiled at the last word. “The best part of being grilled by an English teacher is that every question is grammatically correct. Glad Ange and I are getting our money’s worth for all your years of education.”

  “Don’t change the subject!”

  Argo leaned forward and placed a hand on Darian’s wrist. “I think what your mom is trying to say is that for the last few months, she wasn’t working only for Mermaid Towers. She had a second set of duties t
o fulfill. Am I right, Rikki?”

  “Yes. But it wasn’t for money, so I can’t call it a job in that sense. It was more out of concern for the hotel’s future—and to see justice done for the people hurt by Gabrielle’s schemes. The idea was for me to get her to trust me. That way, we figured, she would talk openly to me. We hoped she would invite me to join her in whatever she was up to. And things were going according to plan. She promoted me, started to confide in me. And when she expressed another sort of interest, I saw an advantage.”

  “So you went along with her attraction to you,” Darian surmised with relief.

  “Yes. I hated it and I felt guilty every single day. You have no idea how I wanted to tell Ange—and you—the truth, but I couldn’t risk your safety. I was told this was serious business and lives could be at stake. That turned out to be more true than I ever imagined.”

  The three of them sat in silence for a while, digesting the information. Rikki drank another glass of wine, and Darian began to wish he had asked for a glass, too. Then Argo asked the obvious question.

  “Does Lanislaw know about this?”

  “I told him as much as I could. That didn’t take long, as you can imagine, because at this point I still don’t have anything but innuendo to go on. Still, he said he’d pass along the details to a colleague at the fraud division. Not much point, or we could have done that in the first place. I’m worried. Are you sure we can trust him?”

  “He’s tough, but fair. That doesn’t mean he’ll be able to exonerate Ange. He has a job to do, and for all I know he does think Ange killed her. The way things look, a jury might very well believe it, too.” Darian started to object, but Argo held up a hand. “Hold on. Lanislaw has barely started his investigation. I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”

  “Are we?” Darian asked. “Isn’t forty-eight hours the target deadline to bring charges? Lanislaw seems like the type who’d want to hurry things along. He’s probably worried about missing his next hair appointment.”

  “If Ange is facing prison because of my behavior, I’ll never forgive myself.” Rikki wiped away tears. “Oh, why was I so stupid? I should have just told her the truth and sworn her to secrecy. Or I could have just quit the hotel. You were right all along, Darian. No job would ever be worth losing Ange over.”

  “You did what you thought was right at the time,” Darian soothed, hoping Rikki wouldn’t notice he was trying to convince himself as much as her.

  “As if I would ever be interested in anyone else,” she went on, barely listening. “I can’t even remember a time when she wasn’t everything to me. The day we got married…it was like a dream we never thought would come true. Finally, it was legal and official. No one could ever split us up—or so I thought. Now this!”

  “Ange is only answering some questions,” Argo said. “And as we heard—several times—she won’t even do that much without legal representation. It’s too soon to run worst-case scenarios.”

  “I wonder. I just have this awful feeling…Ange was in a vulnerable emotional state. She’d had too much to drink. She really thought I might leave her for Gabrielle.”

  “Wait a minute, Mom. You can’t possibly be suggesting what it seems like.”

  “I know it sounds insane. And I don’t want to imagine it, even for a moment. Still, when I found out what happened….”

  From the next room came a faint rustle and a click. Argo perked up, apparently having heard it too. Rikki, topping off her glass, didn’t react.

  “Rikki,” Argo cautioned, but she ignored him.

  “I’m just saying, what if she just lost control? Who knows what she might do?”

  While she was still speaking, Ange walked into the kitchen. She stood staring at them as if she didn’t quite recognize either the place or the people seated at the table.

  “Mom!” Darian exclaimed, jumping up from his chair. Argo got to his feet more slowly, while Rikki froze with her half-drained wineglass in her hands. “We weren’t expecting you back here so soon.”

  “That’s obvious,” Ange said.

  “Who drove you?” Rikki asked. “Lanislaw said he impounded the car.”

  “He did, along with my phone in the glove compartment, though hopefully not for long or I’ll haul his delicately permed locks into court to get it back. But either way, he released me. He offered me a ride with one of the cops, but no way would I fall. Patrol cars are bugged, you know. The cops pretend to make casual conversation while they drive, trick you into blurting stuff out, and then edit the recordings so they can use them against you.”

  Darian saw Argo start to protest, but thankfully Rikki cut him off.

  “Why didn’t you call us? We’d have picked you up.”

  “No need. What Maurice said at the party stuck in my head, so I called an Uber. I made it in one piece, as you can see.”

  “So they didn’t…uh…charge you with anything?” Darian asked hesitantly.

  “Nope. No arrest, no charges, though Lanislaw made it clear I’m still a suspect. The prime suspect, I suppose. They hinted I should prepare to be arrested. How does anyone do that, exactly? Unless they just meant I shouldn’t run for the border. In which case, they shouldn’t have put the idea into my mind.”

  “That won’t happen if Argo and I can help it,” Darian said.

  “I’m glad to hear someone in this house believes in me.”

  Rikki got up slowly. “I blame myself for most of this. Ange, things with Gabrielle weren’t the way they seemed. I was never the least bit interested in her—not for a minute. I never would have cheated on you.”

  “I didn’t want to believe you would, though it might have helped if you’d made some effort to deny it.”

  “If I had, would you have taken me at my word?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Ange shrugged. “Whatever the truth might be, you let me think you were leaving me. Do you know what that did to me?”

  “I can only imagine,” Rikki said quietly. “All I can tell you is that there were…reasons. I couldn’t reveal them because I wanted to protect you, Ange.”

  “Did you? That kind of frightens me, considering how it all worked out. And now you’re entertaining the possibility that I’m guilty.”

  “No one thinks you did this, Mom,” Darian leaped into the fray before Rikki made things worse. “We’re all worried that Lanislaw might jump to that conclusion.”

  “It’s all right. If the roles were reversed, I might have entertained the very same suspicions. Still, I won’t ask you for an alibi, Rikki. I’ll let Lanislaw do that, and then you can experience for yourself what I’m going through. And now it’s time I got some sleep. Don’t bother me for the next few hours.” She pinned Rikki with an angry glare. “Any of you.”

  Turning, she tore through the kitchen and down the hall to the bedrooms. Presently they heard a door close firmly. At least it didn’t rise to the level of a slam.

  “Didn’t go too well, did it?” Rikki pushed away the wine bottle, now nearly empty. “Looks like I’ll be back in the guest room tonight.”

  “Let her rest a while,” Darian suggested. “We can talk about this in the morning, when we’ll all feel refreshed and can think more clearly.”

  “I guess you’re right. And Ange is right about one thing, too—it’s way past time to crash.” Moving stiffly, as though experiencing physical pain, Rikki placed the wine bottle and glass in the sink and started to leave the kitchen.

  “Wait, Rikki,” Argo called, stopping her. “You never told us who called you at the hotel. Who put you up to spying on Gabrielle?”

  “Oh, didn’t I mention? I’m sorry. With everything going on, I guess I lost track of my thoughts. Anyway, it was Maizi Duval. Gabrielle’s stepdaughter. She’d expected to inherit the hotel herself. I suppose she thought by getting Gabrielle out of the way, she might have a shot at taking it over after all. So we have a possible conflict of interest to consider.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Goodnight. We
can continue this discussion in the morning.”

  Though he also felt a wave of exhaustion dragging him toward much-needed sleep, Darian couldn’t force himself to move. Gratefully he leaned into the embrace Argo offered him and to his horror found himself fighting back tears of his own.

  “Things will smooth over,” Argo said. “Being questioned by the cops is hard for anyone to deal with. Ange is just lashing out.”

  “I know,” Darian whispered. He’d envisioned Ange’s release and homecoming as a moment of warm celebration, with his moms falling into each other’s arms. But now it seemed they were angrier than ever. Or at least Ange was. Worse, Darian couldn’t entirely blame her.

  “Well, we made the morning paper,” Ange said when Darian entered the kitchen early the next morning. She was reading it at the table, dressed in a t-shirt and yoga pants, with a cup of coffee close at hand. Her voice conveyed a level of excitement appropriate to a noteworthy book review. “Oatmeal’s on the stove, if you want some.”

  “Thanks. Rikki up yet?”

  “I couldn’t tell you. What about Argo?”

  “Showering. He should be out soon.” Darian thought it best not to mention that Argo was already on the phone, setting up a meeting with Lanislaw for later. Instead, he played along with his mother’s charade of an ordinary morning routine. Ange continued to study the paper while he helped himself to both a bowl of hot cereal and a mug of coffee—hazelnut, to judge by the aroma. Carrying his breakfast over to the table, Darian stole a glance over her shoulder. The murder on the beach was, of course, headline news, complete with a photo of the hotel entrance and a corporate-style headshot of Gabrielle Duval. “Um…what does it say?”

  “They didn’t mention me by name,” Ange said, folding the page over. “Just said that a person of interest had been questioned and released. They quoted Rikki about what a tragic loss this was for Mermaid Towers, what a dedicated professional she was, blah blah blah. Almost like the fluff pieces my students write for the campus rag. Still, they tried. Probably hard to come up with anything positive about Gabrielle on such short notice.”