Missy had no idea where this was going. But whatever Connie did, it must have been lucrative. This was a nice house and she apparently owned it by herself.
Connie said, “Adult entertainment.”
Missy nearly dropped her glass of water. If Connie had given her one thousand guesses, Missy wouldn’t have guessed that.
Connie laughed. “Typical reaction.”
“You mean…porn?” Missy couldn’t believe it. Connie was very pretty, actually she was beautiful with her blond hair and nice jawline and blue eyes. But she was also significantly overweight.
Then again, plenty of guys were into that. She’d met a couple self-styled “chubby chasers” in her years.
“It’s not what you’re thinking.” Connie got out of her seat. “Would you like to see?”
“Uh…”
Connie put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t mean my videos. I just mean my room.”
“I’m really confused.”
Cody got up and wagged her tail. At least the dog was comfortable around Connie.
“I don’t have sex with anyone. It’s just me on a webcam. Do you understand?”
It took Missy a moment to get it. “Voyeurs?”
Connie nodded. “It’s pretty exhilarating actually.”
Missy shuddered at the thought of random, anonymous guys watching her undress and…do other things. “No offense, but it sounds pretty horrible to me. It’s difficult enough having one man see me without any clothes on…”
Connie laughed. “It’s easier than you think. You don’t see the guys. It doesn’t bother me.”
Missy hadn’t expected such a bizarre turn of events. When it came to men and sex, Karen had been kind of a prude also…Missy couldn’t fathom these two being friends. Unless it was a case of opposites attracting.
“How could it not bother you?”
Connie shrugged. “It helps to be a lesbian.”
***
Missy had listened for a few minutes while Connie explained the business, how she’d gotten into it, how she managed her website, how it was a great way to make money for real or even just on the side. The whole time she basically encouraged Missy to give it a try, without coming and saying it.
“So how are you feeling?” Missy asked, hoping to steer the conversation back to Karen.
Connie put her glass of water down. “If we’re going to talk about this, I need something stronger to drink. Are you sure I can’t get you some wine?”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Missy said.
Connie went into the kitchen. “One minute I’m fine, the next I’m in tears.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Missy said.
Connie returned with a glass of white wine that was filled to the brim. She sat back down on the couch across from Missy. For a moment they sat in silence as Connie’s eyes fastened on Missy.
Finally, Connie said, “Okay, we might as well get it out in the open. What did Karen tell you?”
Missy almost told her the truth, that Karen hadn’t told her anything about Connie. But she realized that might not get her anywhere.
“Everything,” Missy said.
Connie nodded. “I’m surprised. But hats off to you. You really acted like you didn’t know what was going on.”
Missy couldn’t believe what she was going to say next. “How long were you two together?”
Connie took a big gulp of wine. “Off and on ever since she and Ron broke up.”
Missy almost choked on her water. She’d always thought she was close to Karen, but apparently not. Her friend had kept this from her for that long?
“It was difficult for her,” Connie said. “Karen struggled with her sexual identity.”
“You mean she was in the closet?”
Connie put her wine down on a coaster. “Missy, she didn’t even know there was a closet for her at first.”
Missy saw she had the perfect segue. All along she’d been planning on using Ron as her excuse for coming over.
“And what about Ron?”
Connie grew serious. “Don’t get me started on that man.”
“Too late.” Missy smiled. “I already did.”
“I don’t want to talk about him, Missy. Okay?”
Missy knew she should let it go and decided to. Temporarily. “Sorry. I just never knew much about him till today.”
“What do you mean?” Connie picked up her wine and tried to act naturally, but Missy could tell she was hiding something.
“He broke up with her. I didn’t know that.”
“He told you that?”
Missy sat forward. “Was he lying?”
Connie sipped her wine. “So he told you half the story.”
“What’s the other half?” Missy was intrigued. She couldn’t help but feel she was onto something here, even though it still didn’t make sense that Ron would infect his ex-fiancee with tape worms.
Connie leaned back against the couch, glass of wine in her hand. “Yes, he broke off the engagement. But he never broke off the relationship.”
Now Missy was really confused. “They still saw each other.”
“No.” Connie squeezed her eye shut and rubbed her eyebrows, like she was getting a headache. “But the relationship never ended. They kept talking.”
“Connie, she was my friend too,” Missy said. “I’m just trying to understand what happened.”
“What happened is she died from tape worms.” Connie made a disgusted face.
“That’s like only telling half the story,” Missy said, throwing Connie’s expression back at her.
Connie frowned. “Why are you here?”
“I told you.”
“You told me, but I think you lied.”
Missy knew she was a bad liar, and now that Connie had her defenses up Missy knew this conversation was almost over.
“I don’t believe for one second that Karen gave herself tape worms.”
She watched Connie’s expression shift from neutral, to ponderous, to guarded. “You think somebody gave her tape worms?”
“That’s exactly what I think. And right now you’re telling me that Ron was still in her life. I know they had jealousy issues.”
Connie gave her a rueful smirk. “They did.”
Missy was about to ask her next question, but Connie’s last answer threw her for a loop. “They both did?”
Connie tilted her head to the side. “I don’t know about him.”
Missy paused. All along she’d been thinking that Ron had been the jealous type. But remembering what Karen had always said, now she wasn’t so sure.
Karen had always said they had jealousy issues. Had she been obscuring the fact that it was her jealousy issue and not Ron’s?
Missy stared at Connie, willing her to open up. “How about you two? You had obviously broken up before she died.”
“Obviously?”
“I saw you arguing at the Diet Club. Now I know why.”
“You think I gave her tape worms because we broke up?”
“Who did the breaking up?”
“Me.” Connie said, very quickly.
“I don’t believe you. You said Karen was struggling with her sexuality, which means she was the more likely to break it off.”
Connie shook her head. “Exactly the opposite. I’ve been a lesbian for awhile, so I know that life is too short to wait around and see if someone is going to finally declare themselves a homosexual. I couldn’t wait forever.”
“So you tossed her aside?” Missy asked. “Then what was your argument about?”
Connie stood. Conversation over. “I’d like you to leave now.”
“Answer my question.”
Connie moved quickly and pinched Missy’s shoulder. A shock wave of pain jolted down her arm and into her neck.
“Self-defense classes.”
Cody started growling and Missy knew the dog was about to spring.
“No, Cody!” Missy commanded through clenched teeth.
Cody stopped growling, but her hair was still standing up on end. Connie realized the dog was closing to ripping her arm off, so she let Missy go.
“Get out of my house before I call the police.”
Missy didn’t need to be told twice. Paul Johnson of the Templeton police department would probably throw the book at her for intruding on Connie like this.
“Come on, Cody.”
The dog relaxed and came to her side.
“I don’t want to ever see you again,” Connie said. “Karen was right about you.”
Missy was halfway across the room when Connie’s last words stopped her cold.
“What?”
Connie peered at her but kept her distance. “She said you’d never understand. That’s why she never told you.”
Missy was so angry she was seeing red. “Connie, if you did this to her, I’m going to find out. Mark my words.”
She left before Connie said anything else.
Chapter Eleven
T he next day Missy was at work, puzzling over next steps in the investigation. All the revelations from yesterday just had her more confused than ever.
Ron had called off the engagement with Karen, who had then started seeing Connie. From the sound of it, it was Karen’s first homosexual relationship. It saddened Missy to think Karen hadn’t been comfortable enough to share this part about herself with Missy. Apparently, Ron hadn’t been the jealous one. Instead, that had been Karen. And while Karen had dated Connie, Ron and Karen had kept in touch. Was that why Connie had broken up with Karen, because she was literally or figuratively cheating on her with her ex-fiance, Ron?
Missy’s head was spinning with all the details.
After a slow morning, her boss Brett excused himself for an early lunch, leaving Missy all alone in the store. They had tidied the shelves already this morning and there were no customers in the store, so Missy had nothing to do but think. She was about to call her mother, but her phone rang unexpectedly, causing her to shriek.
Laughing nervously, she checked the caller ID and saw who it was. She steeled herself for what could an unpleasant conversation.
“Hi, Mrs. Butterworth.”
“Hello, Melissa. I got your message. I’m just returning your call.”
Missy hadn’t been expecting to hear back from the older woman. She hadn’t given this conversation enough thought or planning.
“Hello?” Mrs. Butterworth said impatiently. “What can I help you with, Missy?”
“My friend just died, lady,” Missy said. “I’m only asking for a few minutes of your time.”
“Your friend. Yes.” Her voice was icy cold, which confirmed Missy’s fear.
“It was Karen, wasn’t it?” Missy asked.
Mrs. Butterworth drew in a deep breath. “I believe so, but now we’ll never know.”
Missy closed her eyes. She’d been hoping to hear the opposite because she wanted to start ruling suspects out. But this new information just complicated her investigation.
“Why do you think Karen was the one who broke trust and revealed the identity of a member of your Diet Club?” Missy asked.
“I don’t know you from Eve,” Mrs. Butterworth said.
Missy thought back to the night of the meeting. The older woman had asked for the guilty person to stand up and accept responsibility for breaking one of the rules of the club. That had been at the beginning of the meeting, and as far as Missy knew the only person not in the room at the time had been Karen.
Missy didn’t think Mrs. Butterworth had infected Karen with tape worms as part of some revenge scheme, because it was overkill. Mrs. Butterworth could have just expelled her from the club. Looking at it another way, if Mrs. Butterworth had been crazy enough to infect Karen with tape worms, she would not have admitted later to knowing Karen had spilled the beans on somebody. It would have been admitting to having a motive.
“Mrs. Butterworth, I don’t know why Karen did whatever she did—”
“Don’t act like it was nothing, Melissa. I spent many years building up that club and establishing trust between the women. That was the worst thing she could have done.”
“No it wasn’t,” Missy snapped back. “The worst thing she could have done would have been to infect someone with tape worms.”
Mrs. Butterworth was silent for a stretch. “The police think this?”
“I don’t care what the police think,” Missy said. “I knew Karen.” Was that really true? Missy wasn’t so sure anymore. “I know she’d never do that to herself. She was really affected by her weight, but she’d never. Someone gave her those tape worms.”
Mrs. Butterworth sighed. “Someone in my club, you mean.”
“That’s just a guess, but it’s a logical one.”
“I can’t give you any more details,” Mrs. Butterworth said. “That would be breaking trust.”
“But—”
The older woman spoke right over top of her. “What I can tell you is that it should be obvious to you.”
“What should be obvious to me?”
“Karen was friends with almost everybody in the club. But not everybody.”
The light bulb went off in Missy’s mind. God, she was so thick sometimes. And it made perfect sense. She was already considering the attorney, Abella, a suspect. If Karen had let it be known at the office, for example, that Little Miss Perfect Abella was actually a member of this super secret Diet Club, that revelation would be very embarrassing for her.
“Thank you for your time, Mrs. Butterworth.”
When Brett got back, Missy went on her lunch break. She had a little bit of a drive, so she asked her boss if she could take a little more than an hour today.
Chapter Twelve
M issy had no game plan, and that was making her really nervous. She was about to question a highly-skilled, extremely confident attorney who made a living out of asking questions herself, carefully dodging questions, and expertly spinning facts to make her argument all the more compelling.
When she was still five minutes from the offices of Pringle, Quinto, and Pringle, Missy’s insides were practically liquid. She needed advice. The person that could be most helpful here was Tyler Brock. He’d been a cop ever since he’d graduated from college and had been a detective many years in Philadelphia. He knew how to question people, even tough cookies like Abella.
Against her better judgment, Missy called him at the office. The female desk sergeant took her name and asked what was the purpose of her call.
“I need his advice.” Missy didn’t know what else to say.
Tyler got on the line ten seconds later. “Hi, Melissa. How are you holding up?”
“Good.” She shook her head. “Actually, not so good.”
“I saw you at the funeral,” he said. “But you didn’t look like you were in the mood to talk to anybody.”
Tyler Brock had been at the funeral? How had she missed him? Her first love, her high school sweetheart, it seemed impossible that she could have not noticed him.
“You were there?”
“I got there late,” he said. “There must have been three hundred people there.”
“Forgive me for asking, Tyler, but why you were there?”
He laughed. “This is going to sound silly, but Karen was the first girl I ever kissed.”
“What?” Why did she feel jealous?
Tyler was still laughing. “We were eight years old. It was after the third period in second grade. She’d been crying about something and…I don’t even know what came over me, but when I saw her crying I just wanted to make her feel better. I guess I’d seen my parents kiss, so that’s what I thought to do.”
Missy smiled. Yet another thing she’d never known about Karen. How was it possible to be that close to someone and at the same time have so many gaps?
“She never told me.”
“It was my first kiss,” he said. “It probably wasn’t very good.”
Now Missy was laughing. This was t
he Tyler she knew: open, honest, caring. Every once in awhile he took off the mask his job forced him to wear.
“What can I help you with?” Tyler asked.
Somebody laid on a car horn behind her. She’d been stopped at a traffic light and realized the light had been green for a little while.
Missy pulled through the intersection. “Okay, don’t be mad, alright?”
“Oh boy,” he said.
“I have reason to believe that Karen was murdered.”
“What?”
“It’s a long story, and I don’t really have time to explain right now. But I’m on my way to question a suspect—”
“Missy, do you hear yourself right now?”
She ignored the comment. “—and I need some pointers.”
He was quiet for a moment. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”
The words would have been harsh, but she could hear the smile in his voice. “Can you help me?”
“Did they close the case in Templeton?” Tyler asked.
“Yes, it’s closed,” Missy said. “They think she died of an infection.”
“But you think she was murdered?”
“That’s right. Like I said, I don’t have time to explain this really, but I have reason to believe somebody purposely infected her.”
“Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
She couldn’t help but feel a little hurt. When she’d shared her theory with Aaron, he’d been nothing but supportive. Tyler, on the other hand, the man who should by now have given her the benefit of the doubt when it came to murder investigations, was incredibly skeptical. Yet another reason why she should give Aaron a chance…
“Miss?”
He’d obviously said something else but she’d been too busy comparing him to Aaron and vice versa. But there really was no time to think about any of that. Missy was about to confront Abella, Super Attorney. And, in fairness to Tyler, she’d told Aaron the whole story, walking him through her theory and sharing all the facts. She hadn’t done that with Tyler. Maybe he would have reacted differently if she had.
“Missy,” he said again, “I really think we should meet to discuss this. It was one thing when you were investigating Albert Switzer’s death last year because that happened here, in Grove City, where I could watch your back.”
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