Caramel Canvas

by Jessica Beck

  “That’s the thing,” I said softly. “Nobody seems to know exactly when it happened. There’s something like a three-hour window where nobody saw or spoke with Annabeth. When she locked herself in her studio, she cut herself off from the rest of the world.”

  “We know she saw her killer,” Trish corrected me. After a moment of thought, she asked, “Is there any other time we can check on that might lead us to the murderer?”

  There was only one possible time that might pin down her murderer, though the two events might not have been related, and I realized that I would have to use that to discover any alibis my list of suspects might have. “Last Tuesday night at ten p.m. behind the library in Union Square, Annabeth was meeting someone. It was in her datebook, and it’s the only thing I can come up with that might have something to do with what happened to her. Then again, it might not be related at all. At this point, there’s no way to find out.”

  “Then that’s where you need to start. If you can tie the killer in both ways, so much the better, but if it’s unrelated, it’s going to be good to know that, too. Besides, a three-hour window on the day she was murdered might provide something. If I were you, I’d ask everyone about both.”

  It was solid reasoning, there was no doubt about that. “Thanks. We’re planning to look into both time frames.” I touched her shoulder lightly. “I’m sorry you lost such a good friend. I’ve been so focused on my own loss that I haven’t been thinking about anyone else and how they must be feeling right now.”

  “Hey, you find out who killed her. That’s all that matters to anyone who knew and loved Annabeth right now.”

  I hugged Trish, and to my surprise, she held the embrace longer than I did. When I stepped back, I saw that there were a few customers waiting to pay, but they’d been respecting our moment of grief, and they’d held back.

  I nodded. “I’d better go. You’ve got work to do.”

  “So do you,” Trish said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “Find whoever did this, Suzanne.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I said.

  Momma and Phillip were outside of the diner, standing in front of Momma’s luxury car. “How did that get here?” I asked them.

  “We had to get to the donut shop some way,” Momma said. “I thought I might drive us during our investigation.”

  “What’s wrong with my Jeep?” I asked.

  “Suzanne, everyone in seven counties knows that Jeep. I thought an element of surprise might be nice as a change of pace.”

  “Besides, this way nobody has to crawl into the back,” Phillip said with a smile. “You take shotgun, Suzanne. I like having Dot drive me around.”

  Momma shook her head. “Just for that, I should make you drive.”

  “Hey, it’s a win/win for me,” he said, trying to suppress his grin. “I’m happy either way.”

  “Just get in back, Phillip,” Momma said.

  So it was settled. I wasn’t in the mood to fight her about it, and besides, my stepfather was right. It might be nice having my mother drive me around for a change.

  After we were all settled in, she started off.

  “Where are we going?” I asked her curiously.

  “You said you wanted to speak with Alyssa,” Momma answered apologetically. “I’m sorry. I should have waited for your instructions.”

  Momma started to pull over into a parking lot when I said, “No, you’re absolutely right. Let’s head there first.”

  When we got there, I noticed that Alyssa’s car was gone. “I can’t imagine where she must be,” I said.

  “We can always come back later,” Momma said.

  “Since we’re here, I’d like to see the studio,” Phillip said from the back seat.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the key right now,” I answered.

  “I can still look in through the windows, can’t I? It might help me to visualize the scene.”

  “Why not?” I asked as I opened my door. “I don’t see what it could possibly hurt.” Momma and Phillip followed me, and we walked around the side of the house to the studio.

  To my surprise, someone else was already there, though.

  “Bonnie, you can’t be serious,” I said as I confronted Bonnie Small standing in front of the studio’s door with a brick in her hands. “Were you really about to break into Annabeth’s studio?”

  “What? No! Of course not!”

  “What’s with the brick in your hand, then?” Phillip asked her in his cop voice.

  “This? I found it on the ground,” she said as she dropped it as though it were suddenly radioactive. The brick fell from her hand and happened to land on her right foot. “Come on,” she said in anger. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Bonnie, I’m going to call the police,” I told her as I pulled out my phone.

  “Why would you do that? I haven’t done anything. See for yourself. The door hasn’t even been touched!”

  “You’re still trespassing,” Momma said sternly.

  “So are you,” she countered.

  As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point.

  “Why are you so intent on getting to those paintings?” I asked.

  “I’m representing Annabeth’s work,” Bonnie said dismissively. “It’s my job to see that they are placed with buyers who can appreciate her work.”

  “Correction: you used to be her agent. We both know that your contract ended the moment she died,” I said.

  “How could you possibly know that?” Bonnie asked, the fear obvious in her voice.

  “Alyssa let Grace read the contract, and there’s no way she’s ever going to sign a rider to allow you to continue on as her daughter’s agent. Face it. It’s over.”

  “Fine,” she said, her disgust with the situation now obviously out in the open. “I’m finished, anyway. Not only have I lost Annabeth, but Galen and Christopho have fired me as well. I think I’ll go back to Des Moines and try something else. I was happy there once upon a time.”

  “You’re not going to keep being an artistic agent, are you?” I asked her.

  “No, I’m finished with temperamental artists and tight-fisted gallery owners. I’m getting out of the business altogether. Maybe I’ll become a literary agent instead. I understand that all you have to do is say you are one to start working.”

  I had heard that there were decent literary agents out there, but I’d never met one, and if Bonnie Small was any indication, they might be few and far between. “Before you leave town, I have a few questions I’d like to ask you.”

  “No, thanks,” she said as she started to brush past me. “I don’t have to talk to you anymore. There’s nothing I can get out of it.”

  “Maybe not, but you still have to talk to her,” Phillip said as he pulled out his badge that he’d used when he’d been the police chief.

  What was he doing? I couldn’t let him risk his integrity just to help me out on a case. “Bonnie, he’s retired,” I said. Phillip gave me a look, but Momma nodded in agreement. If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.

  “That doesn’t mean that I can’t make a citizen’s arrest,” Phillip said.

  “You don’t have any evidence against me about anything,” Bonnie answered.

  “I have enough to keep you locked up for a few days,” he replied. “Who do you think the acting chiefs in town are going to believe, you or me?”

  Bonnie seemed to consider the odds of her getting out of town quickly, and she finally shrugged. “Fine. I don’t know anything, but I’ll answer your questions truthfully if I can.”

  I couldn’t be certain that the woman wouldn’t lie to me, but for the moment, I had to take what I could get. “Where were you last Tuesday night at ten p.m., and then again from noon to three on the day Annabeth died?”

  “I am home in be
d, alone, on Tuesday and every other day at ten. I can’t seem to stay awake past nine these days. As for the day Annabeth died, why do you want to know?” She didn’t even wait for an answer. “Is that what this is all about? Do you think someone actually killed her? Are you talking about me?”

  “I’m eliminating suspects right now. Until I learn otherwise, everyone involved in Annabeth’s life is on my list.”

  “I suppose I deserve that,” Bonnie said. “As it so happens, I can tell you exactly where I was. Martin Lancaster and I were going toe to toe about Galen’s next exhibit at his gallery. He was demanding a larger percentage of her sales, and I knew that if I took the deal, she’d fire me on the spot. We fought back and forth from a little before eleven until sometime after five when he got a call about Annabeth. As much as I’d love to figure out a way to pin it on him, I’m afraid I’m his alibi.”

  “And he is yours,” Momma said. She then turned to me. “How convenient. Suzanne, is there any way they conspired with each other to protect themselves by supplying mutual alibis?”

  “Hey, I’m standing right here,” Bonnie protested, clearly annoyed with my mother ignoring her presence.

  “You need to hush,” Momma said sternly as she turned to the agent for a moment. To my surprise, and Bonnie’s as well, she decided to follow the advice and keep quiet.

  “No,” I said. “Those two hate each other. I can’t imagine it.”

  “We weren’t alone at his gallery,” Bonnie said testily. “His assistant was there as well, except for the twenty minutes she left the office to get us lunch, and neither one of us could have driven to April Springs, pushed Annabeth off that ladder, and made it back. Shoot, you can’t even drive between Maple Hollow and April Springs one way in that amount of time.”

  It was true enough, and the alibi was easy enough to check. I doubted Lancaster’s assistant would lie to protect him. From my earlier, albeit brief, encounter with her, she’d seemed to have no love for the man at all.

  “We’re going to check that out, so I hope you’re telling the truth,” Phillip said sternly.

  “I have no reason to lie to you,” she said. “Now I’m leaving. You’d better have a set of handcuffs on you if you plan on trying to stop me.”

  Phillip looked at me, and I shook my head. We’d clearly gotten everything we were going to get out of Bonnie Small, and I didn’t want to push it any further.

  “That’s fine,” Phillip said, “but I wouldn’t leave town if I were you.”

  “Then it’s a good thing you’re not me,” Bonnie Small said as she stormed off. I hadn’t seen her car when we’d driven up, but evidently she’d parked on the street behind Alyssa’s house, and she’d cut through someone’s yard to get there unnoticed. If that didn’t tell me she was up to no good, then I wasn’t sure what would. She wasn’t a good agent, or even a decent person, but that didn’t make her a killer. Still, I had an alibi to check. I called Marcast gallery, and to my relief, I got the assistant, not the owner. She quickly confirmed the alibi once I reminded her who I was, and when I hung up, Phillip and Momma were staring at me.

  “What happened? Did she confirm it?” Phillip asked me.

  “She did,” I said. “That’s two names we can take off our list.”

  “Unless she’s covering for her boss,” Phillip said. “I know what you said earlier, but it could all be an act.”

  “Trust me, you weren’t there. The hate she feels for her boss practically radiated off that girl,” I answered.

  “Why would she continue to work there if she felt that way?” Momma asked, clearly perplexed by the situation.

  “Maybe she doesn’t feel as though she has any choice,” I said.

  “Suzanne, there is always a choice.”

  “Maybe between starving and not starving,” I said. “I certainly wasn’t expecting to have two of my suspects eliminated so quickly today.”

  “That’s what happens when you work with such an outstanding team of investigators,” Phillip said with a slight smile.

  “Settle down, Chief,” Momma said. “What was that all about, anyway?”

  “I thought we might be able to use my former status as leverage,” Phillip admitted reluctantly.

  “Are you going to do it again?” my mother asked her husband.

  He wasn’t stupid. “No.”

  “No what?”

  “No, ma’am?” he asked, grinning a bit.

  She couldn’t keep up her stern expression. “You’ll be the death of me someday. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Maybe, but let’s hope that it’s not for a very long time,” he said as he kissed my mother easily.

  The man was good for her, something that I’d hated to admit early on, but it was so obvious now to anyone who knew her before they’d started their courtship and subsequent marriage.

  The sweet little scene was interrupted by the sound of someone approaching. I was beginning to think that if we stayed right where we were, sooner or later everyone we wanted to talk to would come by.

  Chapter 19

  It was Alyssa, which shouldn’t have surprised me.

  “Sorry I wasn’t here earlier,” she explained. “I wasn’t sure what time you were coming by, and I had a few errands I couldn’t put off any longer.”

  “You don’t owe me an explanation,” I said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I asked Momma and Phillip to join us.”

  “I’m happy to see you all,” she said as she addressed them directly. “Let’s go inside, shall we?” she asked as she shivered slightly looking at Annabeth’s studio. “I can put on a kettle, and we can have some tea.”

  “That sounds lovely,” Momma said smoothly. “I’ll help.”

  I was sure that Alyssa was perfectly capable of making a pot of tea by herself, but she looked pleased to have Momma’s company nonetheless.

  As Phillip and I waited for them in the living room, he said, “I’m sorry if I pushed the line before.”

  “And I’m sorry I called you on it,” I responded.

  “No, you were right to do it. I’m not sure what I was thinking, claiming to be the acting chief of police.”

  “You never said that, though it was certainly implied by the way you pulled out your old badge, but I know that you were just trying to help,” I said as I patted his hand.

  Momma and Alyssa soon appeared with a full tea service on a tray. “How are you two getting on in here?” Momma asked, noting her husband’s and my expressions.

  “Like gangbusters,” Phillip said, smiling at his wife and our hostess.

  After we were all served tea, with a few cookies thrown into the mix as well, Alyssa asked, “How is your investigation going? Where is Grace, by the way?”

  “She had to leave town suddenly, but we’re helping out,” Momma said before turning to me. “Suzanne, would you like to bring her up to date?”

  I started to recap what we’d been doing, but I hesitated before I told her about eliminating Bonnie Small and Martin Lancaster as primary suspects. It wasn’t that I was going to hold the information back. I just wasn’t sure how to word it.

  “Tell her everything, dear,” Momma prompted me gently.

  “I’m just trying to figure out how to put it,” I said.

  “Lancaster and Bonnie Small alibi each other at the time of your daughter’s death,” Phillip said. I could have been that blunt myself, but I’d been trying to come up with wording that didn’t mention Annabeth’s murder. It might have seemed to be an odd thing to do, but the woman was hurting, and I didn’t want to add anything to her pain if I could help it.

  “Forgive my husband’s bluntness,” Momma said, giving him a mildly reproachful look.

  It was clear from his puzzled expression that Phillip had no idea what he’d just done wrong.

  “Honestly, he’s a breath of fresh air,�
�� Alyssa said. “I’m so tired of everyone tiptoeing around me that I could scream. Thank you for your candor, Phillip.”

  He didn’t quite crow at the praise, but it was just as clear that he was pleased by her appreciation of his direct approach.

  “What’s next?” Alyssa asked me.

  “We’re going to push our last three suspects as hard as we dare,” I said, being as blunt as my stepfather had been. Maybe the old dog could still teach me a trick or two after all.

  “Are you certain one of them killed my baby?” Alyssa asked. She nearly broke down when she said the word baby, but somehow she managed to keep it together.

  “They are clearly the most obvious candidates,” I said. “Don’t worry, Alyssa. With any luck, this will all be over soon.”

  “Forgive me for saying so, but I somehow doubt that,” she said sadly.

  “My daughter might not be a professional detective, but she certainly has a talent for solving these kinds of cases,” Momma said gently.

  “I don’t doubt Suzanne’s abilities,” Alyssa said hastily. “I just don’t believe that it will ever actually be over. After all, as much as I want to see whoever did this brought to justice, I will take this loss with me to my grave.”

  The three of us sat in silence for a prolonged pause, and then Alyssa seemed to snap herself out of it. “More tea, anyone?”

  “I’d love some,” Phillip said as he gulped down whatever was still in his cup.

  Alyssa nodded, and as she poured, I nodded my thanks to Phillip. I wasn’t saying it was a good thing that Grace had been called away so unexpectedly, but I’d certainly found two good substitutes to take her place until Jake could get home.

  After we left Alyssa’s place, Momma patted her husband’s shoulder. “You’re a good man. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Sure, but I like being reminded that you know, too, every now and then,” he said with a grin. “What exactly did I do to merit praise this time?”

  “Just being yourself,” she said as she returned his smile.