by Sophie Sharp
“Ever see any rats in her stuff?” Molly asked. Asil’s picture could be all Veronica’s work. She might not have needed help from anyone, including Danika. And why would Danika speak so freely if she had been involved? Veronica clearly had her eyes set on Opal May’s real estate long before she started pestering the Harrisons to sell to her. That strategic strumpet. Molly was so pissed off about Veronica’s long-term bad intentions to destroy Molly’s friends’ livelihoods, she didn’t even care that she was thinking ill of the dead. That woman reaped what she sowed.
“Rats?” Danika asked. “What’s wrong with you? No rats. But those precious lions and stuff? She’d put herself in a camo bikini with one of her kills, like it made her look sexy or something. Grossed me out. I’m glad she left my class. I had to grade those pictures.” Danika shuddered.
Deep breath. Keep it cool. “So,” Molly asked, “how can you tell when a picture has been Photoshopped? For example, if someone wanted to put a rat somewhere in my van in a photo, how would I prove the photo was a fake?”
Danika frowned at Molly. “What’s with you and rats?” She looked around nervously. “You got some?”
Molly had to giggle at Danika’s reaction. “No, of course not. Just curious how you can tell a fake photo from a real one.”
“You should take my class. It’s easy once you know how. You know Tabitha from the cafe? She’s my best student yet. It’s almost impossible to tell when she has doctored a photo. A real natural. One of those rare cases of the student becoming the teacher.”
Oh, no. Tabitha? That put her on the necklace list and meant she had the ability to blackmail the truckies. Ben’s concern from the night before came back to her. He’d said, “Someone needs to look into Tabitha. She’s out to get my coffee truck. I’m her biggest competitor.”
“What do you mean?” Molly asked Danika.
“She could teach me a thing or two about people and photos. That woman can place a person or animal in a picture and make it almost impossible to tell it’s not a natural photo.”
“Can you give me an example?”
“Sure.” Danika looked around Glam Van while Molly paused with her scissors. “Take Mia’s jewelry for example. If Tabitha had a picture of you with your hands in your pockets, she could place you next to Mia’s jewelry stand, make it look empty, and imply you’d stuffed all her work in your pockets. She could even place some earrings or necklaces around like you dropped one. Same thing with Doug’s biscotti. She could make it look like they are all poking out of your pockets. I’ll show you how when we finish my hair.”
Molly felt sick to her stomach. Things were getting complicated. Maybe Ben was right. Maybe there were two separate crimes happening here. Veronica’s murder could have something to do with the blackmail or be totally separate. Maybe in the beginning, someone like Tabitha had teamed up with Veronica because they both had something to gain. Veronica had wanted the lot without too much trouble, and Tabitha may have wanted to put a competitor out of business. Was Tabitha, a woman who’d lost her only daughter in a tragic gun accident, capable of wiping out a sweet man’s livelihood just to make her coffee shop the most successful in town? And was she capable of murder? But why on both counts?
Why would she feel threatened by Ben’s business? Was she broke? Tabitha’s Café often had a line out the door on weekend mornings and was filled to the brim with customers all week long. Molly supposed she could be a horrible money manager. Or what if Tabitha had become an obsessive hoarder, shopaholic, or gambler after her daughter died, just to feel alive?
But then, after getting what they both wanted, why would Tabitha need to get rid of Veronica? Could Veronica have double-crossed Tabitha somehow? So many questions with no answers.
Mia was going to ask Tabitha about the necklace. Molly prayed Tabitha had that necklace on her.
“By the way, Molly.” Danika raised a brow. “Haven’t you noticed anything different about me?” She batted her eyelashes.
Molly paused. “Why, yes. You’re not wearing your cat eye glasses. Did you get contacts?” Normally Molly would notice something like this immediately. She was just so obsessed with this murder.
“No more eye glasses for this girl,” Danika said, clapping her hands beneath the cape. “I got Lasik yesterday morning.”
Well, Danika couldn’t have killed Veronica if she’d been having eye surgery. What a flipping relief. She liked Danika too much to help put her behind bars. But could she still have helped Veronica with false photos? Hopefully there was a logical excuse for Tabitha too.
Once Danika’s hair was blown out and swished from side to side as shook her head, she took off the cape, grabbed another biscotti, and pulled her laptop out of her bag.
Molly would have to sweep up biscotti crumbs and hair today.
“Okay, now let me show you a few tricks of the trade. These are some of the homework assignments sent to me. I’ll show you how you can tell when they’re fake.” She pulled up a few photos, stacking them on top of each other on her laptop screen.
Moving the pointer around, she pulled up one of Veronica’s old photos. “See this one? She’s so skinny in her pink camo clothes? She put this on her Facebook page. But if you zoom in”—Danika toggled to keys and zoomed into the wood floors underneath Veronica’s feet—“see how the lines of the wood warp? Veronica made herself skinny but was too lazy to fix the background. As soon as she thinned her pink butt out, it warped the lines of the floorboard.
“And here’s another example.” Now Danika closed Veronica’s photo and opened one of a fluffy dog surrounded by kittens. “Notice anything funny about those kittens?”
“No,” Molly said. “Only that there are hundreds of them and they kind of look alike.”
“That’s right. It’s a repeated pattern,” Danika said. She used her long fingernails to circle different batches of the same kittens. “The picture of the dog is real, but all of these patterns of kittens were just copied and put in multiple times to show thousands of kittens. Look for repeating patterns.
“And see this?” She opened another image. She zoomed in on a woman leaning against a tree. “There’s a yellow halo around her. Her picture was actually taken against a yellow wall or something and then the student put her in the green and brown forest. What the student should have done was find another yellow background to put her against. Like the sunset, or a field of yellow flowers.”
Danika switched to a blond guy with the ocean behind him. She enlarged his head and hair until you could practically see his split ends. “And this. It’s next to impossible to crop hair because it’s so thin and pointed. See here? All the ends are rounded.”
Like the rat hair.
“And finally.” Danika pulled up a picture of a couple having dinner with a Jurassic Park–like jungle behind them. “Everything shouldn’t be focused in a real picture. A lens cannot create the same focus in the far background as it can on an up-close object. If the jungle in the far back, or background, is as clear as an object right up close, such as this couple, it means more than one picture has been combined. You know what I mean? You see it?”
Molly did see what she meant. “Yes, I think I do.”
“That enough info for you? You should come take my class if you’re really interested. Mia too. You could make some fun marketing materials for Glam Van.”
Hmm. Not a bad idea.
“Wait. What about a printed picture? These are all digital. How can I tell on a hard copy?” Molly was sure this was too much, and Danika was eventually going to ask her what was up with all the questions.
Danika pursed her lips. “Little trickier because you can’t zoom in, and it will depend on the quality of the printer, but just get a good magnifying glass and you should see most of what I mention above. And in fact, you might see blurred pixels too.”
Whatever a pixel might be. Sometimes, Molly felt like a dope with ever-changing technology. “This is great, Danika. Thank you. So, do your students work on a
project? Was Veronica’s project her social media pictures?”
Danika nodded.
“And what about Tabitha’s, what’s her final project?”
“Not sure. It isn’t due for a few weeks. Tell me, why all these questions? You working on something special?” Danika asked, narrowing her eyes at Molly.
Something like that. Molly said, “Um, it’s a surprise.”
As Danika left, Molly had just enough time between Danika’s appointment and her next three appointments to see if Anthony would share his blackmail photo with her.
Then she needed to find a damn good magnifying glass to look at the truckies’ photos in the safety of her home tonight. Maybe Carl of Lake’s Cleaners truck had a good eye glass for his tailoring repairs.
The line at Tabitha’s Café was to the door, as usual for a Saturday. Through the window, Mia could see Tabitha ping-ponging back and forth along the counter, taking orders and grabbing pastries, smiling and sharing a word or a laugh with her customers. She didn’t look like a woman who had just murdered her arch enemy. But Tabitha Hendricks was the queen of showing the world the face she wanted them to see. It had been three years since Tabitha had lost her only daughter, Audrey, in a shooting accident, and yet she looked strong and capable, willing to forgive the unforgivable, but never able to forget.
Tabitha had opened Tabitha’s Café two years ago, after she and her husband divorced, their marriage another causality of a senseless crime. She had taken over the near-legendary Big Al’s Coffee and Donuts, stripped out the old vinyl flooring, booths, and Formica tabletops and replaced them with oak floors, bookcases, cozy tables, and comfy armchairs. She served up rich, strong coffee and homemade pastries with vegan and gluten-free options alongside the sticky, full-fat, full-sugar offerings. And when Mia had approached her with an idea to post pictures and “dating” profiles for adoptable animals at San Cosmas Humane Society, Tabitha had put up a huge cork board and offered free coffee for life to anyone who adopted. Mia had been posting a success story—a photo of her yoga instructor, Sahara, and her two adopted chihuahuas, Yin and Yang—when she’d met Damion.
Damion wouldn’t be at the cafe this morning. She’d asked if she could see him later, but he said he had plans. Plans! Again. Though she wanted to see him, she was glad he wasn’t working this morning. She was on a mission.
Damion thought the world of Tabitha and he’d be furious if he knew Mia considered her a suspect until Tabitha could show her mermaid necklace. Mia reminded herself that really Tabitha was in no way, shape, or form a suspect. She hadn’t been at Opal May’s funeral, but everyone knew that already. She just had to eliminate her from the missing necklace list.
Mia checked her phone again. Nothing. The second Uncle Doug had dropped her off, she’d texted Aunt Molly with the information she’d learned from Moat about Veronica’s time of death, but Aunt Molly hadn’t responded. Mia had a fleeting thought that she’d sent Aunt Molly into the hands of a killer. But Aunt Molly had been doing Danika’s hair for years. If Danika had any dark secrets, surely Aunt Molly would have picked up on that. Mia hoped she was right.
As soon as there was a lull in customers, Mia caught Tabitha’s attention. “Do you have a second?”
Tabitha practically sighed with relief. “Yes,” she said. “I’ve been dying for a breath of fresh air.” She grabbed two mismatched mugs and filled them with coffee, adding a splash of almond milk to Mia’s and a spoonful of sugar to her own, and followed Mia out to the small patio table in back.
“How did the …” Mia wasn’t sure what to call an anniversary of the death of someone’s daughter. Death anniversary didn’t sound right. “How did Audrey’s day go?” Mia asked.
Tabitha gave her a small smile. “It gets easier every year and harder at the same time. Audrey would have graduated high school this past year. It’s those milestones that really bring it home, you know?”
Mia made a little noise of agreement, although, of course she couldn’t possibly know, and she hoped she never would. “What did you do to commemorate?” she asked as casually as she could. “I’m glad you decided to keep the cafe closed for the morning and have Damion open up in time for lunch. It was like a ghost town with everyone at Opal May’s funeral. Oh gosh, I’m sorry, Tabitha. I didn’t mean ghost …”
“Sweetie.” Tabitha smiled and reached for her hand. “You’re fine. You can’t worry about everything you say to me. I drove along the coast. I went to Carmel and Monterey. Audrey always loved the beaches there. There’s a little place by the water that’s so peaceful. Just me and my thoughts.”
“You left yesterday morning?”
It happened so quickly, Mia might have imagined it, but had Tabitha’s eyes just narrowed?
“The night before, actually. After I closed the cafe for the night. I just couldn’t stand the idea of waiting at home all night.”
“I suppose you heard about Veronica Corsello,” Mia said.
Tabitha pulled a face as if she’d just sucked on a lemon. “You know I would never wish anything bad on anyone, but I have to tell you, Mia, I’m finding it hard to feel anything for that woman.”
“I’m hearing that a lot,” Mia said.
“I heard you were the one who found her.”
“Jeez. News travels fast around here.”
“I see a lot of people at the cafe. They like to talk.”
With a population of 15,000, San Cosmas was a big small town, but Mia never ceased to be amazed at how fast gossip spread and how quickly it became twisted. By now, everyone would know that she had been the one to discover Veronica Corsello’s body, and that she’d been found with the alleged weapon in her hand.
“Audrey worked for her, you know,” Tabitha said. “The summer before she was killed. She’d planned to go to college to study business and she interned at Corsello Development. Unpaid, of course, and Veronica wrung every second from her that she could legally get away with.” Tabitha shook her head and took an angry slug of coffee. “But Audrey thought it was the best thing ever.
“Then, one day, she came home and said she’d quit. Wouldn’t say why. She just said that when she was CEO of her own company, she would hold herself to the highest standards of ethics. I asked her what had happened, but she wouldn’t say. She just said that Veronica hadn’t done anything to her personally or anything illegal, but having worked for her for a month, she’d seen the kind of person Veronica Corsello was, and she didn’t want to be associated with her any more. Those were her words.” Tabitha laughed. “She was fifteen going on fifty.”
“Any motherly intuition?” Mia asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think maybe she overheard a conversation. Veronica being Veronica, she had a way of getting what she wanted from people and it wasn’t always nice.”
“Was it business or personal?” Mia asked.
“Who knows?” said Tabitha. “The lines between the two were pretty blurry for her.”
Tabitha went quiet. Mia had only come to ask about the necklace, not to talk about Veronica, but she suddenly got the feeling if she let Tabitha talk, she might get some unexpected information. She wished Audrey had said who Veronica was mistreating that day. Maybe that person had decided to get revenge.
“You know, after Audrey died, some of her school friends organized a rally, calling for better gun control. Those kids, I tell you, they tapped every major figure in town for support. Even Ken Woodley from the outdoor sports shop came out and spoke about there being a place for guns and the need to stop the wrong guns getting into the wrong hands. But Veronica Corsello? She refused to get involved. She knew Audrey personally, and she wouldn’t even so much as put up a poster in her office window. Said it was bad for business. I was so upset, honestly, Mia.” Tabitha shook her head. “I’m not going to lie that I had some terrible thoughts about Veronica Corsello that day. She could bring out the worst in a person, but after what I went through with Audrey, I wouldn’t wish harm on anyone, not even her. Someone wou
ld, though.”
“Any ideas who?” Mia asked.
“If you’re asking me who would have good reason to want her out of the way, I could make you a list that included half of San Cosmas. If you’re asking who would actually do it? I don’t think anyone would be capable of that. Must have been someone from out of town.”
Mia was about to ask Tabitha why she’d say that, but Tabitha changed the subject.
“Anyway, that’s probably not what you came to talk about. How can I help you?” Tabitha asked.
“I was wondering if you could loan me the necklace you bought. I’m putting together a new website and I need better photos. I’d just need it for an hour or two and I’ll get it right back to you.” Mia hated lying to her friend, but Tabitha wouldn’t be a friend for much longer if Mia told her the real reason for wanting to see the necklace.
Tabitha hesitated for a second, then said, “Sure. When do you need it?”
Mia was so relieved. She knew Tabitha would have the necklace. Mia glanced at the metal staircase leading up to the second-floor apartment where Tabitha lived. “Any chance I could take it now? I can bring it back this evening.”
“Oh, you know what?” said Tabitha. “I totally forgot. I lent it a friend. Let me call her later and arrange to get it back. Is that okay?”
Mia nodded, but inside, her stomach twisted because suddenly she didn’t believe Tabitha was telling the whole truth. The “friend” sounded like a very lame and convenient excuse. Either that or a way to buy some time. But for what?
“That’d be great,” said Mia, trying to sound like it was no big deal. “If you could get it to me tomorrow or Monday maybe?”
“Yep. No problem,” said Tabitha, her voice tight. She hopped up from the table and gathered the mugs, which were still half full. “Sorry to rush you, Mia, sweetie, but I need to get back to my caffeine-deprived customers.” She laughed nervously.
“See you tomorrow, then,” said Mia.
“Tomorrow?”
“The necklace?”