Foiled (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book Seven)

by Amy Saunders

  Bennett sat down in one of the living room chairs, taking a breath. “The mood wasn’t right. We were tense over what was going on.” Though, despite that, he had thought about it. Seriously at first. But then…well, he didn’t like that they weren’t really acting like themselves. It made it feel less real somehow.

  Victoria curled up on the couch, pulling her feet to the side. With two people in the house–and four hands at their disposal–Belinda’s cats crawled out of hiding, each choosing one of them. “Just as a warning,” Victoria said, patting Poseidon, “I think she’s slightly suspicious you’re planning something.”

  Bennett shrugged, not surprised. “She knows I want to marry her. And she’s observant, so I’m not shocked. Besides, I was on the verge of proposing at the fundraiser when we got interrupted. I’m sure she knew what I was up to by that point.” He sighed as Aria dug her claws into his legs. The interruption at the fundraiser still irritated him. That woman couldn’t have shown up after he proposed? Or, better yet, this whole mess couldn’t have waited to crash in on them later–or never?

  “There’s nothing you can do about that,” Victoria said, breaking into his thoughts. “What’s done is done, and we all know Bels can’t resist these sorts of adventures. It will be over one way or another. Just plan something else. Who knows? Maybe she will be surprised because it took so long.” Victoria smirked as Bennett lifted his eyes to hers.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Bennett paused a moment, then said, “You know we’re suspects now, right?”

  Victoria stroked Poseidon’s head thoughtfully, glancing down. “Bels sort of told me, though not in so many words. But I guessed.”

  Bennett figured as much. Belinda didn’t seem too keen to tell everyone what had happened to them in Southwood. “I don’t think she wanted to tell Kyle either. But it sounded like he forced it out of her.”

  Victoria suppressed a smile. “I could have done the same if I’d wanted to. But I was able to put the pieces together without taking that measure.” She sighed. “She can be stubborn sometimes. I hope this gets sorted fast.”

  Bennett wasn’t sure fast was in the nature of that case. Though an actual murder might move the investigating along. Of course, so far, the investigating had moved things right into their backyards. If the Southwood police remained stuck on the two of them, the case would take longer to solve.

  But he knew Belinda would never back down enough for them to be cleared of all suspicion. So that meant sticking to their best bets in the investigation. And avoiding drawing attention to themselves, which was not always Belinda’s strong suit.

  “I don’t know about that,” he finally said. “But her stubbornness tends to pay off. Once that happens, and this is all squared away, I can–”

  The side door swung open as Bennett got out the last part of his sentence. Belinda backed in, balancing a tray of coffees and her bag. Bennett hopped up to help, grabbing the tray as it bent precariously in one hand. Belinda dropped her bag on the nearby bench, smiling. “Thanks,” she said, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Sorry I didn’t text back, but I was indisposed. I didn’t know if you’d want something, so I grabbed your usual.” She emphasized usual, cajoling two coffees out of the tray as Bennett held it down on the kitchen counter.

  Belinda carried Victoria’s coffee to her on the couch, taking a seat next to her. “So, what were guys up to while I was out?” Belinda said.

  “Just talking,” Victoria said, then sipped some sort of concoction with whipped cream on top.

  “About what?”

  Bennett came back in behind them from the side kitchen entrance, avoiding Victoria’s eyes as he sat down. “The case.”

  Belinda wrinkled her nose. “That’s boring.”

  “Says the amateur detective.” Victoria aimed her coffee at Belinda.

  Bennett smiled slightly, a little surprised Belinda didn’t come back with some retort. “Still,” Belinda said, shrugging, “I’m surprised you talked business without me.”

  “It was nothing you don’t already know,” Bennett said, hoping to switch topics. He could tell she really wanted to ferret out what they were actually discussing, but it wasn’t going to work. Besides, he and Victoria had talked about the investigation too.

  “What will you do next?” Victoria propped her coffee on her leg, apparently also wanting to change topics.

  Belinda gave him a knowing glance, a hint of annoyance in the gold flecks swirling in her brown eyes. “Bennett wants to follow Ginny.”

  Victoria arched an eyebrow. “And you?”

  “I don’t disagree,” Belinda said, even though Bennett knew this was the part where she disagreed with him. “But I think we should search Henry Lawson’s house first. I tried to when we were there, but it ended up being too difficult to slip away. There was a whole private part of the upstairs that I think might hold some answers.” Once she finished, Belinda held out a hand toward Bennett for him to counter.

  “I think that could be a waste of time.”

  “Could be,” Belinda emphasized.

  “For at least a couple of reasons,” Bennett continued. “For one, they were clearing that house out at rapid speed. I can’t imagine Henry’s personal quarters were left untouched. In fact, from what you said about that one room you saw, those rooms may have been done first. Second, it will be tougher to sneak in and out now that there’s an actual murder investigation surrounding the house.”

  Belinda’s eyes twinkled, a mischievous smile slowly forming. Bennett knew that look. “You’ve got an idea, don’t you?” he said.

  The smile spread. She did enjoy when she thought she’d come up with something he hadn’t thought of. “I’ve got an idea. A good one.” She sat up straighter. “I have Caroline’s phone number, and she seemed to like me. I think I could convince her to let us in, off hours so we wouldn’t be seen.”

  “You don’t think she’d know who we really are by now?” Bennett sat back, scenarios swirling in his head. Most of them involving the police. “Rumors spread fast. And they seemed to spread even faster in that house.”

  Belinda shrugged. “I could feel her out first. I figured I’d just say I left something behind and wanted to know if she’d let me pick it up.”

  Bennett drummed his fingers on the chair arm. “So, you’d be doing this alone.”

  Belinda wriggled in her seat. “I couldn’t figure out how to justify bringing my work colleague to pick something up. But you could follow me.”

  Bennett frowned. Belinda working with him rarely went well, never mind when she worked on her own.

  “Or,” Belinda chimed before he could shut her plan down, “we could borrow the van again like we were working. So you’d have to be with me.”

  That was slightly better, but it still left Belinda searching the house by herself. “You don’t think this girl will just follow you inside while you ‘find’ what you left there? She seemed chatty.”

  Belinda pursed her lips, her eyes moving to the ceiling. Clearly, she hadn’t thought about that. “I might be able to shake her off. You never know, she might not want to come with me.”

  “That’s a big if. And might be a big waste of time if she doesn’t leave you alone.”

  “I could just explain what we’re actually doing.” Belinda shrugged a shoulder. “I think she might be cooperative.”

  Bennett’s frown deepened. “Absolutely not.”

  “Bu–”

  “No,” Bennett said flatly. “We’re in enough hot water. If you get her involved, she may end up in it too. Not to mention she may just decide to tell the police what we’re doing.”

  “It’s kind of risky,” Victoria added, ignoring that she wasn’t supposed to know much about the police being on their case. “And it does sound unlikely that they would’ve left anything important behind.”

  Belinda huffed, giving Victoria a look. “You’re not supposed to take his side.”

  Victoria g
lanced between them. “I’m not taking sides. I’m being honest. You spent a few days cleaning out rooms and sheds in that place and the only important find was a body. Somebody was wiping his house clean. You should wriggle close to the granddaughter. She might know something.”

  “Alex thought they were close,” Bennett said, riding on Victoria’s argument. “If that was true, then maybe Lawson told his granddaughter something. Or, at the least, she may have information because of observation or eavesdropping. We follow her, get some leverage, then talk to her.”

  “Okay…” Belinda said slowly. “But I don’t want to completely rule out searching the house. There might be another way we could get in safely.”

  Bennett highly doubted that, but he nodded anyway. “We’ll keep it on the backburner, alright?” He really wanted to light it up and burn it down, but he’d let it slide in hopes she’d just let it go eventually. Especially if they made headway following Ginny.

  Belinda acquiesced, though Bennett could tell she wasn’t quite done with the house topic, which worried him. He’d have to tread carefully, so she didn’t run off alone and get arrested…or worse.

  Much worse.

  Chapter 18

  They’d tracked Ginny down that afternoon and Belinda and Victoria had kept an eye on her in downtown as she shopped. Belinda followed Ginny home, and since they didn’t have a convenient twenty-four-hour surveillance team to rely on, Belinda went home shortly thereafter.

  But she and Bennett returned that night. Bennett didn’t even raise an eyebrow when she pulled out a pastry box. He was finally used to the fact that she brought food–and he never objected to helping her eat it.

  “Ginny just did normal stuff earlier?” Bennett said, choosing his poison as she held the box open for him.

  “She was just shopping.” Belinda stared into the box, not really seeing the pastries, as good as they smelled. “I never even saw her check her phone or anything.”

  “Huh,” was all Bennett said as he took more interest in his dessert.

  Belinda watched him a moment as he wiped confectioner’s sugar from his chin, wondering again what he and Victoria had really talked about while she was out that afternoon. Not that Belinda didn’t believe what they told her. But she didn’t believe that was all there was to it.

  “Maybe she snuck out of the fundraiser because she had to be there,” Bennett said, interrupting her thoughts. “She’s relatively young–maybe she had somewhere else she wanted to be that night but was under obligation to make an appearance. Have you ever done that?”

  Bennett waited for her answer as if she was the ultimate authority on society life. Belinda started to respond that she’d never done that when her memory betrayed her. “Well…maybe I have.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Belinda picked at a lemon square. “I don’t remember all the details now…it was years ago. But I know I slipped out of some obligatory events.”

  “Some?” Bennett stopped eating, a smirk on his face.

  “So?”

  “So, we just went from ‘maybe but I don’t really remember’ to ‘I snuck out of some events.’”

  Belinda set the lemon square down in dismay. She’d just accidentally talked herself into a corner. And Bennett never let her escape these moments. “I said I don’t really remember clearly.”

  “It kinda sounds like you do.” Bennett watched her wriggle, a smile on his lips. “Come on,” he said when she wasn’t immediately forthcoming. “Let’s hear what Belinda did back in her bad girl days.”

  Belinda gave him a look but admitted defeat internally. She could never hide from him. “All I ever did was leave early with my friends, or go to meet them. It wasn’t very exciting. We went to the movies and stuff. It’s not like I ran riot around Portside afterward. And I know I didn’t sneak out that many times.” She did know Kyle left early every time, plans or no, but she usually felt bad about it and stayed.

  “You’d meet Victoria?” He said it casually enough, but Belinda detected something in his tone that wasn’t so chill. She guessed he wanted to dig up her romantic history…well, he wasn’t getting all of it. Especially now.

  “Sometimes. I know we went to the beach once.”

  Bennett nodded slowly. Not the information he wanted, but it was all he was getting.

  “What about you?” Belinda asked. “I can’t picture you hanging around for events like that either.”

  Bennett shrugged. “I didn’t have to go to things like that growing up.”

  Not that she didn’t know that, but sometimes she temporarily forgot they had different upbringings. Partially because he’d slid into her world with no problems. “Well, what if you had? Would you have stayed?”

  “I guess that depends.”

  “On what?”

  He turned to meet her eyes. “On whether or not I knew you.”

  She leaned closer. “Would you have wanted to sneak off with me?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “And if I’d stayed…would you have?”

  Bennett kissed the tip of her nose. “Absolutely.”

  Then he really kissed her until she felt the pastry box slipping off her legs. She snatched it before it flipped over, confectioner’s sugar puffing in a cloud around the box.

  Belinda grimaced. “I guess you’ll have to vacuum now.”

  Bennett shrugged a shoulder, aiming his chin at the house. “I think Ginny’s on the move.”

  Belinda looked up, spotting Ginny’s car backing out of the short driveway. It was only about ten, which wasn’t that late. But it was a little late to leave your house during the week. “Emergency food run?”

  “Guess we’ll find out.” Bennett waited until Ginny drove down the street, then started the truck and followed while Belinda fought to get the pastry top back in place. They used pastry boxes for Cake Diva, but she still had to wrangle them into submission.

  After weaving away from where Ginny’s mother lived, and it seemed where Ginny lived also, she took off out of Portside entirely. Bennett managed to keep a distance but still keep her in sight, which wasn’t easy at night. Or as they got stuck at lights and behind other cars. Soon, they found themselves on the highway heading away from Portside.

  “Is she going back to Southwood?” Belinda kept her eyes on Ginny’s car just ahead of them as they neared the bridge.

  “Could be. That is where her grandfather lived. Maybe she’s going back to his house for some reason.”

  “And doesn’t want to be seen, I take it. I doubt anyone would be there right now.”

  Bennett glanced over. “She probably has a key.”

  They came up to the Southwood exit and Belinda held her breath as Ginny veered right to go that way. Bennett followed suit, tailing Ginny to the right once they exited off. “It looks like we’re going back to Henry’s house,” Belinda said, almost to herself. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it, despite wanting to snoop around inside unhindered. But it was creepy enough during the day. She didn’t know if she wanted to see it at night.

  But instead of taking the route they had to get to Lawson’s home, Ginny ducked around residential side streets, to the point that Belinda wondered if Ginny knew she was being followed. Finally, though, she parked next to a sidewalk. Bennett pulled over just a street away, where they could still see her. Ginny got out and went up to one of the apartments. Belinda squinted into the dark. “That looks like…”

  “I think it is.” Bennett peered out the windshield. “It certainly looks like the place where Alex lives.”

  Belinda sat back in her seat, checking her information from Caroline. According to the map on her phone, they were right near Alex. “So, if they know each other, that would explain why Alex knew Ginny was close to her grandfather.”

  “You know,”–Bennett turned in a cockeyed position to see her as he talked–“Alex claimed she had a roommate, and honestly, she seemed like she didn’t want us to meet.”

  Belinda w
rinkled her nose. “We know Ginny’s living with her mother.” She glanced around. “And I don’t think she’d end up here coming from that kind of money.”

  “I’m not saying she lives here. But it certainly seemed like Alex had some connection to Lawson. Maybe Ginny knows about it.”

  “It could be that Ginny’s blackmailing her for it. Or, it could be Ginny’s using Alex to know what’s going on in the house. After all, no one in the family seemed to have anything to do with Lawson’s stuff after his death. And it almost looked like they weren’t getting anything.”

  Bennett frowned. “The part of the house we saw was less…private. And you said he had other rooms. The family may very well have received everything from that section of his home.”

  Belinda shifted her gaze to him. “Well, if we looked around inside sometime, we might have a better idea about all of that.”

  Bennett ignored her, but it was worth throwing out there. “Truthfully, it seems everything to do with his death was nice and tidy and quick.”

  “Which makes it more suspicious.”

  “Or it could mean he was just very specific in his instructions. And he had someone, Elizabeth Hall, who followed them to the letter.”

  Belinda twirled a piece of hair, staring out at Alex’ apartment. “Until she was killed. That wasn’t very tidy–or nice. If we’re right about the Warden’s death being tied to Henry’s, do you think her killer just lost it and killed her unintentionally?”

  Bennett scratched his forehead, leaning his arm on the window. “She was killed in a hidden part of the house. What does that look like to you?”

  Belinda dropped her lock of hair, folding her arms. “It looks like a planned attack. Maybe with the intent of the Warden not being found at all.” If she hadn’t been paying attention, Belinda would never have found that secret door. But if she’d worked there a while… “Don’t you think some of the employees know about the secret passages, though?”

  “Oh, I’m sure they do. But hiding a body can at least buy time. The longer it takes to find them, the harder the investigating becomes.”