Smoldering Flames and Secrets

by Anne R. Tan

  “I hope you’re paying him more than minimum wage,” Po Po said. “After all, he’s taking a big risk for you.”

  Bridget’s smile wobbled. “It was only a prank. I was angry because I thought Jung-yee was behind all the bad reviews. I’ll call her and apologize.”

  “No, there’s no need,” Raina said. Blue had wanted to hide the cardboard cutout from Jung-yee, and if the wedding planner called, the jig was up. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate your understanding of the situation,” Bridget said.

  Raina suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. The wedding planner was laying it on thick, thinking that Raina wouldn’t be able to see through her words. The stuff coming out of her mouth sounded good, but Raina didn’t believe they were sincere. “You’ve spent quite a bit of time at the winery in the last few days. Did you notice anything odd or out of place there?”

  “What do you mean? And why are you asking me questions about the win…" Bridget’s eyes widened. “Are you interested in the body found a few days ago?”

  “I’m not interested in the body. I want to know whether the winery will be open on Saturday for the wedding,” Raina said.

  “Hal said it would be.”

  Raina sighed inwardly. Great. Bridget’s response killed further questions about the murder investigation. She didn’t trust the wedding planner enough to reveal her interest in the matter. While she didn’t think Bridget was a murder suspect, the woman might inadvertently reveal Raina’s interest to the wrong person.

  She asked several more questions to diffuse her interest in the murder investigation, but they were unproductive. After a few minutes, she bid the wedding planner goodbye and said she would come back with the letter from her uncle.

  When they left the building, Po Po was still fuming. “That woman deserved every single bad review about her company.”

  “Agreed. So do we get Bridget the letter or not?” Raina asked.

  “My first reaction is no. Let her figure it out. But I also know that’s not the best decision,” Po Po said, sighing. “If we get her the letter, it gives us another chance to question her. Maybe she’ll remember something.”

  Raina nodded. “Let’s get the letter, but keep it as leverage until this case is over.”

  “I don’t understand why she wants to go after the negative reviewer. It’s like watching a train wreck about to happen. Any time something like this happens on social media, it stays there forever.”

  Raina thought over what she knew about the wedding planner. “I think Bridget has always relied on her looks to get her through life. And after her husband traded her in for someone younger, she is floundering with her identity.”

  “She’s only going to end up hurting herself.”

  “There’s a self-destructive streak in her. Maybe it makes her feel more alive. Maybe it’s a cry for help.”

  Po Po gave Raina doubtful look. “I don’t buy it. But karma will bite her in the butt.”

  As they headed back to her car, Raina’s cell phone chirped with an incoming text message. It was from Smith.

  Tomorrow 10 AM.

  Old stomping ground.

  13

  The Black Widower

  The next morning, as Raina drove out to the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park, she mentally rehearsed what to say to Smith. Should she try to see if he wanted to exchange information first, or come out with fists swinging over his personal relationship with Arianna?

  Win had driven Po Po to the garden an hour ago because she wanted to set up. Her younger brother was more than ready to call in sick. Somehow, Raina got the impression he’d felt left out from the sleuthing.

  She found a parking spot on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. As she strolled to the Japanese Tea Garden, her thoughts drifted to Smith and his tragic love life.

  Smith had proposed to his fiancée on Drum Bridge, the high arch bridge in the garden, but shortly afterward, she ended up the victim of a drive-by gang shooting. For the detective, this place was both a balm and a curse.

  Raina paid the entrance fee and made a left to the bridge. Smith was already on the peak, staring at everything and nothing. The tourists milled around him, a few even rubbing shoulders with him, but he ignored them. A silent pillar among all the jibber jabber and the clicking cameras.

  She casually glanced around, but couldn’t pick out her brother in the crowd. However, the woman with the black hair in the kimono posing by the pagoda had to be her grandma. A normal person didn’t walk around a garden in full Japanese period gear. And she must be wearing a wig. This meant the man with the mustache behind the camera was her brother. The two of them couldn’t be more obvious.

  Raina stepped behind the queue lining up at the abutment of the bridge and inched upward with the tourists. When she got within speaking distance, he glanced down at her. Raina was still a foot or two from the peak. Maybe part of the appeal was that only one person could stand at the peak at any given moment, so the other person would be standing at a lower point.

  “Are you sure this is a good place to talk?” Raina asked. “There are many ears around here.”

  “No one is paying any attention to us. What do you want to tell me?” Smith asked.

  Raina couldn’t gauge what mood the detective was in. His tone was flat and distant. Was he paying any attention to their conversation or reliving the memories of his past? Should she try the soft approach first—

  “I don’t have all day while you over-analyze your words,” Smith said.

  Raina flushed. Well, if he wanted to play hardball, so could she. “I called your office.” She didn’t. “Why is Internal Affairs investigating you?”

  The skin around his gray eyes tightened, and his voice became even more monotone. “Why am I here?”

  The hair on the back of Raina’s neck stiffened. She wasn’t afraid, but she was afraid for his sake. He sounded like a hunted man. From guilt for killing Arianna?

  Raina’s softened her tone. “Are the guys from IA investigating your relationship with Arianna Cobb? Because you’re her lover. Did you compromise the case?”

  Smith swayed and tightened his grip on the railings. “How did you know?” he whispered.

  “Lucky guess. If this case weren’t personal, you wouldn’t be looking into it while you’re on administrative leave. And I know Arianna Cobb had a lover. So I put two and two together.”

  “I got an offer from the FBI in Washington DC. She was planning to leave with me. But my dad had a heart attack three weeks ago, and when I came back on Saturday, she was gone.” Smith closed his eyes and held so still that Raina couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

  A part of her felt bad for the man, but the other part, the logical part, wondered how she could verify his story. “Does your dad live close by?”

  He ignored her for several long seconds. Raina glanced across the pond in front of them and didn’t see her grandma or brother. She had no doubt they were somewhere close by, probably spying on them with binoculars.

  Smith took a deep shaky breath and opened his eyes. “I was in Minnesota.” He pulled out his cell phone and tapped on it. He showed her the screen. It was a photograph of his boarding pass and luggage claim ticket. “Satisfied?”

  “Sorry,” Raina said. “I had to make sure we’re on the same team.”

  “There are days when I wish I were not.”

  Raina wasn’t surprised. There was only so much tragedy a person could take at any given time before wanting to give it up. “Maybe you should take this time to put your house in order. Detective Wise seems to be competent. You should let her do her job.”

  Smith gave her a sharp look. “I could say the same about you.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “But you’re not going to.”

  Raina shrugged. “Too much is at stake. I don’t want my future cousin-in-law linked to this case.”

  “If you’re talking about Blue, he’s not in the clear yet. N
o alibi, but plenty of motive.”

  “Really, Detective? Over a business loan?”

  “People have killed for far less. It’s all a matter of perspective.”

  “You mentioned Arianna was willing to leave her husband for you, but did you want her to?”

  Smith’s face turned ashen. “Yes. I was looking forward to it.” The last sentence came out in a croak.

  He turned away from her and stumbled down the opposite side of the bridge. As he strode with hunched shoulders further into the garden, Raina knew without a doubt Smith wasn’t the murderer.

  This left the husband as the prime suspect. Her grandma was right. It was always the spouse. Jason must have found out about Arianna’s plan to run off with Smith, and so he killed her.

  When Smith disappeared from view, Po Po and Win appeared at the foot of the high arch bridge. Her grandma was still wearing her kimono, and the geta peeked out from underneath the silk robes. Raina had no idea how her grandma could walk on the traditional Japanese wood sandals. She would be flat on her face in a minute.

  “Is it time to go?” Po Po called out.

  Raina made her way down the bridge. “Where did you get the outfit?"

  “In my closet.”

  Raina raised an eyebrow. Why did her grandma have a fancy kimono? There was probably a story behind this, but there wasn’t enough time for it at the moment. “Do you need to change before we leave?”

  Po Po thought for a moment and shook her head. “Nah. The tourists would want to take pictures with me. They probably think I’m a character.”

  Win chuckled. “I know it.”

  Raina’s lips twitched, and she focused on the wood sandals. “Do you need to get out of the geta?”

  “Nope. It's like walking on high heels. Tiny little steps. Besides, my outfit wouldn’t look right without them,” Po Po said.

  Win offered Po Po his arm. Maybe he was just as afraid as Raina that their grandma would twist her bad ankle again.

  The three of them made their way toward the entrance, stopping every few feet so the tourists could take pictures with Po Po. Every time they stopped, Raina glanced around, but she couldn't see Smith anywhere. She didn't think he’d left the park. There was only one entrance, and he would have to pass them to get out.

  “Excuse me, can we take a picture with you?” a woman said, holding up a camera.

  Po Po bowed and mumbled something that sounded like Japanese. The woman waved to her friends, and they arranged themselves for the photographs. Raina and her brother stood aside to get out of their way.

  Win leaned closer. “You are so lucky, Rainy. You get to have fun like this all the time.” He sounded glum.

  Raina thought about her brother’s enthusiasm this morning. As the only male in their branch of the family, there was a position on the executive board of the family’s international shipping company waiting for him in the future. Unlike her, his path was already laid out before him. She didn’t want to discourage him, but neither did she want to be his catalyst for throwing away his inheritance.

  “It’s not all fun and games,” she said slowly. “If you listen to Po Po, everything sounds like a grand adventure. I don’t get involved in murder investigations for the thrill.” Yes, she did, but she wasn’t going to tell him this part. “I get involved because I want to see justice done, and I want to help my friends and family.”

  “And you’re still having fun while you’re doing this.”

  Raina thought her brother had this image of the Lone Ranger fighting a battle to bring justice to the people. “If you want to pursue this, why don’t you ask Lucy if you can do an apprenticeship in her PI office?”

  She made a mental note to ask her foster cousin to give her brother all the mundane and boring tasks. The last thing she wanted was for her brother to end up getting hurt while he bumbled his way through a murder investigation. She was a hypocrite, but Win was her baby brother.

  Win brightened at the idea. “I might just do that. Maybe I can spend a few weeks there during winter break.”

  Po Po waved to the tourists, and they stepped through the exit. As they strolled to their parked cars, Raina filled them in on her conversation with Smith.

  “His fiancée died from a gang drive-by shooting at a tourist destination. His new lover disappeared and ended up executed at a vineyard." Po Po ticked the points off on her fingers. “He's a black widower.”

  “He'll need years of therapy after this,” Raina said.

  “Nah. He's a man. He’ll tough it out and make everyone around him miserable.”

  Raina laughed. Her grandma had a way of cutting right to the heart of things. At some level, she felt bad for Smith. She wondered what he did in his previous life to deserve his current one. “So his continued involvement seems to be from self-interest rather than anything nefarious.”

  “So after we scratch him off the suspect list, who do we have left?” Po Po asked.

  “The husband. Jason Cobb.”

  “Didn’t you get a bad vibe from him during the interview?”

  Raina nodded. “When he denied Arianna’s affair.”

  Po Po whipped out her cell phone from her robes. There must be a pocket in one of the silk layers. “You’ll need to make some cookies, Rainy. We’re having a special meeting this afternoon.”

  Win reached out for Po Po’s elbow. With their grandma texting and walking with the geta, she was an accident waiting to happen. He spoke for the first time since they left the Japanese Tea Garden. “Operation Napoleon turned out well. Don't you feel much safer, sis, with Po Po and me watching your back?”

  Raina pressed her lips together to hide her smile and hoped she sounded appreciative. “Yes, I did. If Smith turned out to be the bad guy, he could've knocked me over the head, and dragged me off. The two of you did good.”

  Win gave her a toothy grin. With her brother, every smile was a toothy one. The orthodontist had taken off Win’s braces a year ago. Po Po returned her cell phone to its hiding place. The two of them high-fived each other and recounted the blow-by-blow of what they did. Raina studied her shoes, hoping to hide her amusement. It would offend both of them if she were to burst into laughter.

  At the narrow part of the sidewalk, she fell a step behind them, letting the two lead the way back to her car. Her brother's car was only a few feet from the faded red Honda Accord. She hadn’t noticed it until he’d mentioned it.

  Her brother paused, but she was in mid-stride and too close to stop. She smacked her nose on his boney back. “Hey!”

  Both Po Po and Win stopped, and Raina couldn't see anything in front of her. She took a step to the right, peered over Po Po’s shoulder, and gasped. Someone had busted the headlights and spray-painted the hood of her car in bold black letters.

  Win started reading, “Stay the fu—”

  Raina could feel the wind rushing through her ears. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

  Po Po held onto Raina’s forearm and patted her on her cheek. “Rainy, snap out of it.”

  “Who would do this?” Raina wailed. “It’s my dad's car.”

  Win touched the paint. “It’s dried. This must have happened as soon as you left.”

  “There was no one around,” Raina said.

  “Did you steal someone’s parking spot?” Po Po asked.

  Raina shook her head. This had nothing to do with road rage. The killer was warning her off the case. She shivered at a sudden thought. And most frightening of all, he or she had been following her movements.

  14

  A Scary Cat

  While Po Po called a friend who owned an auto body shop nearby, Raina sat on the park bench next to her vandalized car. Win walked around the car, snapping photos. They had decided against calling the police. It would take several hours before someone would come to take the report. And probably nothing would come out of it.

  Raina was so upset that Po Po had to drive her car to the auto body shop. The owner promised to have the car back by the next d
ay, so this was more of a minor inconvenience than a showstopper.

  But inwardly, Raina was trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. After they dropped off her car, Win gave them a ride back to the Victorian and left to pick up cookies. Raina went upstairs to lie down for a moment, but she must have drifted off. The next thing she knew, her brother was pounding on the bedroom door.

  “Rainy, the meeting is about to start. We need you downstairs,” Win called out.

  She wanted to drift back to her nap. “Coming,” she said without much enthusiasm. Her brother’s footsteps faded down the hallway.

  Raina lumbered into the bathroom down the hall. She splashed cold water on her face, hoping it would displace her fear. It was one thing to play cat and mouse with the murderer, but it was another when she was the mouse. She worried there was a trap waiting for her. If the murderer had been following her around, then he or she would know her grandma and Win had been helping her out. What if the murderer decided to hurt her family?

  She couldn’t bear the thought of it. She would walk through hot coals to satisfy her curiosity and sense of justice, but she wasn’t willing to risk her grandma and her baby brother. But the outcome of this investigation would impact her cousin. Though she was no longer in love with Blue, he was still a friend and Matthew’s half-brother. What should she do? Call it quits and huddle under her blankets until Detective Wise caught the bad guy?

  Undoubtedly, there was a handful of senior citizens sitting around the kitchen table and munching on cookies, waiting for her downstairs. Why were they so willing to take direction from her? She was nobody special. Raina covered her face with her hands and bowed her head, praying for an answer. What should she do?

  Jason Cobb was a hulk of a man. He could snap the mahjong ladies like chicken bones and chew them for dinner. How could Raina keep these senior citizens safe?