Sunflower Street (Rose Hill Mysteries Book 8)

by Pamela Grandstaff

  “Someone did, a couple days ago.”

  “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” Ingrid said. “I tried to talk her out of it, even promised to let her work up into a partnership here, but all she could see were dollar signs. She still worked for me occasionally, but now she’s got some rich boyfriend and she’s quit for good.”

  “Maybe she’ll come back,” Maggie said. “She’s young; she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

  “She does know,” Ingrid said. “That’s just it. I’m fond of her, she’s smart and a hard worker, but I’d never put her in charge of the petty cash, if you know what I mean. Life has made her hard, and I don’t think me being kind to her has changed that at all. She just thinks I’m a fool for being so soft-hearted. She can’t imagine anyone would be kind to her without an agenda.”

  “Yet you still helped her.”

  Ingrid shrugged.

  “She says if she can get money out of old men by selling them booze and shaking her behind, she’s going to do it while she’s got a good behind to shake. She only has contempt for the customers, but she loves that money. She thinks being rich will solve all her problems.”

  “I wish I could find out if that’s true,” Maggie said. “It seems to me that money might solve many of my problems.”

  “I guess there’s some truth to that,” Ingrid said. “I just hate to think what it’s doing to her soul.”

  They were silent for a few moments, lost in their own thoughts.

  “Anyway,” Ingrid said, as she turned off the heat under the now perfectly caramelized onions. “I hate to lose her. She’s not good with clients but she’s an awesome event manager. The other kids are scared to death of her so there are no shenanigans.”

  “Speaking of events,” Maggie said. “I understand you catered the luncheon at Gigi O’Hare’s the day she died.”

  “Nothing I served, I promise,” Ingrid said. “She was dead before the food got there.”

  “Did Amber work that event?”

  “She was in charge, yes. Why?”

  “I just wondered if she saw anything unusual that day,” Maggie said. “Gigi was a good friend of Claire’s and she’s really down about her death.”

  “Amber and Chloe were in the house earlier, doing prep work,” Ingrid said. “Amber didn’t want to talk about it but Chloe’s a big talker. I could give her your number. She’d probably love to tell it all again to someone. I warn you, you probably won’t be able to get her to shut up about it.”

  “It might help Claire get past it,” Maggie said, and gave Ingrid her business card.

  “All the more reason we should make her party the best one she’s ever had,” Ingrid said. “Let’s start with the guest list.”

  Chloe called Maggie later that afternoon, and agreed to come to the bookstore to meet her. She was a very young girl, Maggie thought probably sixteen or seventeen, with big, pale blue eyes, long blonde hair, and fair skin. She wore a tight white T-shirt and low-rise, midriff-baring jeans with platform sandals. The bookstore customers couldn’t seem to take their eyes off of her, but she seemed oblivious to the attention.

  Maggie offered her anything she wanted from the café side, gratis, and with wide, excited eyes, Chloe chose a chocolate croissant and a mocha iced latte.

  “I’ll have to work this off in the gym tomorrow,” she said as she bit into the croissant. “O.M.G., this is, like, so good!”

  Maggie sipped her tea and wondered if she could recruit Chloe to work in the bookstore. She would certainly attract the students from Eldridge, who were her bread-and-butter customers nine months of the year, as well as the seasonal tourists. Chloe had that bright, young enthusiasm that was irritating as hell but good for business.

  Maggie liked Ingrid, but business was business.

  “Ing said you wanted to know about the event when the lady died,” Chloe said.

  “I understand you and Amber were there earlier?”

  “Are you, like, investigating her death?”

  “Sort of,” Maggie said. “She was a good friend of my family.”

  “Nobody from the police, like, even called me,” Chloe said. “I was dying to tell them what happened, but Amber said we’d better stay out of it.”

  “What’s Amber like?”

  “Um, not very nice, like, kind of a bitch,” Chloe said. “I don’t mind, like, working with her on events but we could never be friends. She tried to get me to do stripping, but I could never! My mom and dad would kill me! She showed me this roll of hundred dollar bills she had? It was amazing. But I’d be too embarrassed. She showed me some moves, though, and my boyfriend really enjoyed me showing them to him.”

  She didn’t even blush, as fair as she was. Maggie marveled at the shamelessness of the young people she met these days. It made her feel like an old, cranky prude. Worse, it made her feel like her mother.

  “What happened that morning?”

  Chloe leaned across the table, and spoke in a low, excited whisper.

  “We got there at eleven, and like, the front door was open, so when nobody answered the bell we went in. We carried in the equipment and set it up in the kitchen. We could hear people arguing in the back yard, and I, like, opened the back door a little bit so I could hear what they were saying? Amber listened, too.”

  “Men or women?”

  “The old lady, I mean, Mrs. O’Hare, and she was giving this guy hell. She kept saying how disappointed she was?”

  “Young man or old man?”

  “An old guy? Like forty?”

  Maggie, who was turning forty in the fall, let that pass without so much as an eye roll.

  “What did they say?”

  “Mrs. O’Hare was like, ‘I’m cutting you out of the will,’ and he was like, ‘I don’t need your money,’ and she goes, ‘Your uncle would be so disappointed in you,’ and he goes, ‘I didn’t ask you for anything.’ She was just really, like, mad at him? And he was all, like, ‘I don’t care.’ She even cried? It was just, like, something on a reality show, you know?”

  “Was anything else said that you can remember?”

  “Just more fighting, and, like, mean stuff. He seemed like kind of a brat, like those spoiled rich kids at school. Their parents give them everything and they don’t respect them for it. They just feel like they deserve it, you know?”

  “Not like your parents?”

  “No way! If I want to go to college, I have to save up half, you know? Then my parents will match that. That’s why I’m working so much? I hardly have, like, any time for my boyfriend.”

  “That’s smart of them.”

  Chloe shrugged.

  “What happened after that?’

  “Well, the guy left, and Mrs. O’Hare came inside. She’d been crying, and I think she was, like, embarrassed we saw her upset. She yelled at us for coming into the house without her knowing. Amber, was all like, ‘You can’t talk to us that way, we’re just doing our jobs,’ and Mrs. O’Hare was like, ‘Don’t you speak to me in that tone, young lady, I’ll call your employer’ and Amber was like, ‘Fine. Call her. See if I care.’ So, she, like, threw us out of the house! I was scared to death but Amber just, like, laughed about it.”

  “What happened then?”

  “We went outside and sat on the wall by the driveway, waited for the catering van to get there, you know?”

  “Did you see anyone else go into the house?”

  Chloe hesitated.

  “What?” Maggie asked.

  “She’ll kill me if I tell.”

  “Amber?”

  Chloe nodded.

  “She went back into the house?”

  Chloe nodded again, her eyes wide.

  “Did she say why?”

  “She said she left her keys in there.”

  “How did she get in?”

  Chloe shrugged.

  “She went around to the back of the house. Maybe, like, the back door was still open? I don’t know. I was afraid she would get caught and we’d
both be in trouble.”

  “How long was she in there?”

  “I don’t know,” Chloe said. “Like five minutes?”

  “What did she say when she came back out?”

  “She didn’t say much,” Chloe said.

  She wouldn’t look Maggie in the eye.

  “What is it?” Maggie asked her. “What did she do?”

  Chloe sighed.

  “You don’t know Amber,” she said. “After we found out the old lady died, Amber said if I told anybody about her going back into the house she’d slit my throat. I’ve seen her scare big guys, like, three times her size. She wasn’t kidding around.”

  “Do you think she killed Mrs. O’Hare?”

  “Why would she do that? She didn’t even know her.”

  “Then what did she do?”

  Chloe paused.

  “C’mon, Chloe,” Maggie said. “I’m not going to tell Amber you told me. I don’t even know her, and she sounds like somebody I don’t want to know.”

  “She stole some stuff,” Chloe whispered. “Some perfume, some cash, and jewelry.”

  “She showed it to you?”

  “Yeah, she thought it was funny, like, ‘To hell with her, who does she think she is, talking to me like that. I showed her,’ you know?”

  “Was that the first time you saw her steal something from a client?”

  Chloe shook her head.

  “Nah, she’s done it before.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “She put the stuff in her purse, and then her old boss came up the driveway to talk to her. He’s gross, like, a real skeevy perv, so I went down the hill to wait for the van.”

  “Was Amber friendly with him?”

  “At first it was okay, but he was, like, really gross to me? So, I went down the hill. She cussed him out for hitting on me and they fought. I couldn’t hear all of it, but as he came back down the driveway he told her he was going to give someone a call, and show him some movies. Amber came down the driveway after him. She said if he did she would kill him, and was like, ‘Don’t think I won’t.’ He just laughed at her. She was so mad! She said she wished she had her gun with her, because she would shoot him.”

  “Did she tell you what he meant by movies?”

  “I knew what he meant. Like, porn movies?”

  “She does those?”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her.”

  “Does she have sex with men for money?”

  “Listen,” Chloe said. “Amber will do anything for money. That’s, like, all she cares about. She’d kill me for a nickel.”

  “What happened next?”

  “Some lady drove up in an Escalade and went into the house. She came right back out, though, and the little dogs came out with her. She was trying to catch them when the other ladies came.”

  “Could you identify her if you had to?”

  “Sure,” Chloe said. “It cracked us up watching her try to catch those dogs. We were sitting in Amber’s car watching.”

  “Then what?”

  “More people came. The catering van came, so we walked up the hill to help carry stuff. The dog catcher came and let us all in. We were getting the food ready when the lady who found the body screamed.”

  “Was the one who found the body the same one who came to the house earlier?”

  “Nope,” Amber said. “It was the other one.”

  “What color hair?”

  “Dark,” she said. “She had a diamond on her finger that was, like, as big as her knuckle. She drives an Escalade, I mean, she’s got to be rich, right?”

  “Did you catch any names?”

  “After they came downstairs, the one who found the body took the one who was in the house earlier into the dining room. They were whispering but I heard one say, ‘what are we going to do now, Candy?’ ”

  “Candy was the one you’d seen go in earlier?”

  “I guess.”

  “Do you think she knew you saw her go into the house before they found the body?”

  “Nah, we were in Amber’s car, down on the main road. I don’t think she knew we were there,” Chloe said.

  Her eyes widened.

  “I thought the old lady had a heart attack or something. Do you think somebody killed her?”

  “We won’t know until the autopsy results are back,” Maggie said. “Until then, Chloe, I think you shouldn’t hang out with Amber, or go anywhere alone.”

  “O.M.G.! Are you for real?”

  “You really should talk to the police,” Maggie said. “You could be a witness to a crime, and that’s dangerous.”

  “I never thought of that,” she said. “This is totes for real scary!”

  “Would you talk to the police? I think it might help them solve the case, and they could protect you.”

  “I don’t want to talk to the police,” Chloe said. “I’m, like, really scared.”

  Chloe’s eyes filled with tears and Maggie handed her a napkin.

  Scott came in the bookstore at the agreed upon time, and Maggie waved him over. As she requested, he wasn’t in uniform. She introduced him to Chloe as “her husband, Scott,” and asked him to sit down. He shook Chloe’s hand and gave Maggie a curious look.

  “Chloe was working at Mrs. O’Hare’s house the day she died, and she saw some things she’s worried about,” Maggie said. “I told her she should talk to the police, but she’s afraid to.”

  “That’s understandable,” Scott said. “The police on TV are kind of scary, aren’t they?”

  He smiled at Chloe and she smiled back, although she sniffled.

  “I don’t seem scary, though, do I?” he asked her.

  She shook her head.

  “You seem nice,” she said.

  “Well, I work for the police department, and you can tell me what happened, and you don’t have to go down to the station or anything.”

  Chloe looked at Maggie.

  “Do I have to?”

  “You’re just helping me solve a puzzle,” Scott said. “Mrs. O’Hare probably had a heart attack or something, but we need to know everything that happened that day.”

  “Scott won’t let anything bad happen to you,” Maggie said. “Don’t worry.”

  “Okay,” Chloe said, but she didn’t sound confident.

  “Can we borrow your office?” Scott asked Maggie.

  “You go, too!” Chloe said, and grabbed Maggie’s hand.

  “How old are you?” Scott asked.

  “Eighteen,” Chloe said. “Well, next month, anyway.”

  “I need one of your parents to be here with you,” he said.

  “My dad,” Chloe said. “My mom would freak.”

  “Let’s go back to Maggie’s office and call your dad,” Scott said. “We’ll just talk about what happened and I promise it won’t be scary at all.”

  After Chloe and her father left the bookstore, Scott hugged Maggie.

  “I don’t know whether to kiss you or put you in a jail cell,” he said. “I may just kiss you in a jail cell.”

  “You would never have found her without me,” Maggie said.

  “I know,” he said into her neck. “It just scares me to think of you out there meddling in something so dangerous.”

  “Who do you think killed her?”

  “We don’t know for sure it was murder,” Scott said.

  “Oh, it was murder, and you know it as well as I do. Amber would kill for Chip, I’m sure. Chloe didn’t know he was Amber’s boyfriend. Amber heard Gigi threaten to disinherit him.”

  “Jillian might have done it for the same reason,” Scott said.

  “Jillian may have told Gigi about the affair, thinking Gigi would threaten him, and then he’d drop Amber.”

  “If she did that, it backfired.”

  “Maybe her back-up plan was to kill Gigi.”

  “What could she have given her, though, that wouldn’t kill her right away?”

  “I don’t know,” Maggie said. �
��Chloe said her face was puffy and red, but she thought it was from crying. Maybe it was because she had already had contact with something she was allergic to.”

  Maggie told Scott about Claire’s perfume theory.

  “I don’t remember any perfume on the inventory list,” Scott said. “I’ll have to look again to be sure.”

  “Claire saw her put the perfume on that morning.”

  “I don’t know enough about the chemistry involved to know how quickly anaphylactic shock sets in.”

  “I need to talk to an allergist.”

  “I know this won’t do any good, but is there any way I can convince you to stay out of it?”

  “Eugene has an allergist; we can call him.”

  “Are you even listening to me?”

  “Sure, honey, you’ve been a big help.”

  Scott sighed.

  “Please be careful.”

  “I will,” Maggie said. “I need to call Hannah.”

  “No way, Nancy Drew,” he said. “We have a date night tonight.”

  “Please,” she said. “Give me five minutes on the phone with Hannah and then we’ll go.”

  “Fine,” he said. “While you call Hannah, I’ll call Sarah.”

  “Why does she have to be involved?”

  “Because it’s her case and I’m just assisting with inquiries.”

  “Can’t you leave her in the dark just a little bit longer? Cats love the dark.”

  “It’s my job,” he said. “Now, we can have date night up in Glencora at the Lamplight Inn, or down here in a cell at the station.”

  They had just pulled into the parking lot of the Lamplight Inn when Hannah called back.

  “There’s something called Stevens-Johnson syndrome,” Hannah said. “The person can be exposed to something and not have a reaction right away. They might feel sick, but not have a dangerous reaction until hours later.”

  “What can cause it?”

  “The doctor said it could be an allergen, a medication, or an infection,” Hannah said.

  “We need to find out if Gigi ever had this happen before,” Maggie said.

  “Can’t,” Hannah said. “HIPAA laws prohibit the release of medical information. I asked her.”