Curl Up and Die

by Sophie Sharp

  Molly all but dragged Mia away from Nell’s gate to stop her from rushing in to scream, “Busted, Damion!” Molly pulled on Mia’s waist and walked her a short distance away. “Mia, look at me. I know you’re upset, and I don’t blame you. But now is not the time to confront Damion. Something is happening here, and we need to find out what exactly. I need to talk to Nell. Alone.”

  “What if he doesn’t leave? Huh, Aunt Molly? They’re probably undressed on the porch by now. Nell was the one getting the surprise date, not me. I knew it was some cougar calling him! We should forget talking to them and throw them both under the bus with Mean Goat.”

  Molly gripped Mia’s shoulders and stared her straight in the eyes. “Earth to Mia.” She was itching to get in there and defend her niece, but they could blow the whole investigation if they weren’t careful. “We can’t be a hundred percent sure what’s going on and you’re winding yourself up. Cool your jets, please. You must focus. They could be working on a … political project together. Yes, that’s possible.” Doubtful since she didn’t even know Nell knew Damion, but Molly was desperate to get Mia away. She was having scary flashbacks of the first time Lacy fell in (unrequited) love on a set with an older man who was, of course, seeing other women. Lacy’s green-eyed monster was a dramatic, ugly one and Molly wasn’t ready to see her adult niece’s version.

  Mia gave a very un-Mia-like snort and pointed down the street. “Yeah, it’s called Project Birds and Bees.” Mia made a face. “You saw it too.”

  “We don’t know what we saw. That’s my point. I will find out, but you have officially gone bonkers. This is jealousy talking. You will regret anything you say to him right now. Trust me. You need to go.”

  Mia pursed her lips and pointed toward Nell’s house. “I saw … that. And don’t pretend you aren’t as shocked as I am. She’s like twice his age.”

  “Not quite, but okay, okay, sweetie. I am shocked. But we’re talking about Nell here. We have to find out more. And you can’t help me do that right now.”

  “But I deserve to know what he’s been doing behind my back,” Mia said. “He’s my boyfriend.” And two seconds later. “And Nell’s, apparently. I can’t wait to send everything we know to Detective Moat.”

  Molly almost smiled. Lacy would be proud of Mia’s flare for drama right now. “Of course you deserve to know. Just not right this second. Not in the heat of the moment.”

  And just like that Mia started to cry. “I always pick the wrong men.”

  Molly pulled her close. “You’re only twenty-one. You haven’t lived long enough or dated enough to only pick wrong men. Get a Lyft ride home. Uncle Doug’s next cake is out of the oven by now. You can always talk to Damion tomorrow. Give me tonight to talk to Nell first. Tell your uncle I ran into a friend and that I’ll be home soon.”

  “Some friend,” Mia mumbled dejectedly.

  As soon as Mia was down the hill and at the bus stop where she could safely order a car, Molly hid behind a tree across the street, praying to every praline in the world that Damion would not be the cheating jerk Mia thought he was and that he’d leave Nell’s soon. And as for Nell, well … Molly could be happy for Nell if she met someone, any adult male, really, if only it wasn’t the man her niece was in love with.

  And Nell knew that Damion was Mia’s boyfriend—Mia had said so at the van while Nell was getting her hair done. Molly tried to remember if Nell had reacted strange at all during that convo, but it was hard to remember given they’d all been in shock over Veronica’s murder. If something was going on, something like an affair, Molly might need to seriously mess up Nell’s perfect hair in the future.

  She was only partway through an imaginary nightmare makeover for Nell when Nell stepped back and closed the door gently. Damion jogged away from the porch with a big smile on his face. He jumped into his car and did a U-turn to go down the hill. Please, oh please, do not cross paths with Mia. But there was nothing she could do about Mia now.

  As soon as his taillights were out of sight, Molly raced to Nell’s and rang the doorbell.

  “What did you forget, sweetie?” Nell said before turning the color of an eggplant when she saw Molly.

  “I didn’t forget anything, sweetie.” Molly couldn’t help but show a bit of loyalty to Mia. “Aren’t you going to invite me in, Nell?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Mia walked back to the bus stop where she and Aunt Molly had rested. She needed to clear her head. Despite Aunt Molly’s warnings to keep her mouth shut, Mia had to know. She combed over all the details a million times and, despite her gut insisting there was no way Damion had a thing going on with Nell, everything pointed to the fact that there was something shady happening. That embrace! The second woman in only a few days with Damion in her clutches.

  Mia weighed her options. She could do as Aunt Molly said and request a ride home to cool off. Or, she could walk down to Damion’s right now, wait for him to get back, and find out from him what on earth was going on.

  “I’m just going to ask him what’s going on, that’s all,” she told herself. “I’m not going to accuse. I’m not going to get hysterical. I’m just going to ask.”

  She pulled out a small mirror and applied a quick layer of lip-gloss, aptly named Truth or Dare and peered at herself in the mirror.

  “You are cool, calm, and in control,” she said, giving herself a firm nod of encouragement. “Cool, calm, and in control.”

  So why did she feel hot, flustered, and about to blow a gasket?

  She took in a deep breath through her nose, just as Sahara had taught her, and breathed it out. She did not feel better for it, but she did know that Aunt Molly was right. If she acted on her instincts and ran down to point the finger at Damion, she could blow everything. Not just her relationship, but a murder investigation too.

  Cool, calm, and in control would have her go home, eat some of Uncle Doug’s cake, and say nothing.

  She pulled out her phone and tapped on the Lyft app, putting in her destination as “Home.” The app pinged back that her driver would be there in one minute. Quickest pick-up ever, she thought. It was a sign that she’d made the right decision. A moment later she heard an approaching vehicle and checked the app to make sure she didn’t get into the wrong car with a complete stranger. Her ride was a silver Subaru and her driver’s name, it said, was Damion.

  By the time Mia realized what had happened—that Damion had left Nell’s and decided to pick up a few rides for the evening, and that of course he would be her closest driver—it was too late. Damion pulled to the curb and leaned across to open the doors.

  “What are you doing up here?” he asked. “I saw your name on the request and was shocked.”

  Mia gaped. Was Damion really grilling her about her actions? Damion, who had fought with her about keeping secrets. Damion, who was probably having an affair, and with Nell, of all people. She felt her anger rise, but she bit it back down.

  Cool, calm, and in control.

  It took Mia only three or four seconds to move from the bench to the passenger seat of Damion’s Subaru, but it was just long enough for her to fabricate a story. She hoped it didn’t sound too much like the big fat lie it was.

  “I was just out for a walk with Aunt Molly,” she said. “She ran into a friend, who invited us in for a drink, but I didn’t really know her, so I decided to just go home.” She smiled pathetically and hoped she sounded convincing.

  “What friend?” asked Damion, poking at his phone to start the ride to Mia’s.

  “Some woman, a very old woman, I think. She lives up there somewhere,” Mia said, waving her hand at the houses up the hill from Nell’s. “Kelly or Katie or something. Didn’t catch her name.”

  “Right,” said Damion, putting the vehicle in gear and pulling out. “Hey, I’m sorry about the other night. That whole ‘jealous woman’ comment was out of line,” he said.

  Mia said nothing, but the inside of her head was pounding with questions. She forced her tongue
between her front teeth and willed herself to say nothing.

  Cool, calm, and in control.

  Her grandmother had always told her, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

  Lacy, always eager for good gossip, had made up her own version: “If you can’t say anything nice, come and sit next to me.”

  Mia thought now was a great time to heed her grandmother’s warning.

  They drove all the way home in silence, Mia determined not to do anything stupid. But as soon as Damion pulled up outside Aunt Molly and Uncle Doug’s, her mouth got the better of her.

  “Can we talk?” she asked, already hearing a quiver in her voice. Cool, calm, and in control? Riiight.

  Damion shrugged and turned off his rideshare light. “Sure. I guess we need to.”

  Mia took a breath. “I’ve been trying to give you space, trying not to get in your way, not be clingy.”

  “I know,” he said. “I love that about you. You don’t usually stress over where I am every second of every day.”

  “Right,” she said, “and I don’t ever want to be that way.”

  “Good.”

  He smiled. That smile. This was so hard.

  “But there’ve been a couple of things lately, little things, that have been a bit, you know, strange.”

  “Okay. Like the woman I was hugging the other day?”

  Yeah, she thought, and the woman you were hugging tonight and the “Mama Bear” who isn’t your mom. She continued on. “I just need to ask you about them, and I need you to be honest with me and then I won’t mention them again.”

  He started to look worried and Mia was afraid she wasn’t going to like his honest answers. “Okay.”

  “Okay,” she said, bracing herself. “Have you been seeing someone else?”

  “What? No. Why would you even think that?”

  “Then who’s Mama Bear?”

  He hesitated. Even in the dim light, Mia could see his face turn red. “Have you been snooping around my stuff?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Then why did you ask that?”

  “I saw it on your phone.”

  “So you were snooping.”

  This wasn’t going at all as planned. She had promised herself not to hurl accusations, but now Damion was accusing her. She mentally backpedaled, trying to regain control of the situation. Before she could stop herself, she blurted. “What’s going on with you and Nell? And who was that woman the other day?”

  Damion’s face froze. “Nell?”

  Mia’s confidence came flooding back as she realized she’d regained the upper hand. “You and Nell were spotted together. In … in a clinch.”

  “A clinch?”

  “Yes, a clinch,” she said. “You were seen in a very intimate clinch.”

  Damion’s lips twitched as if he was chewing on words and trying to find the right one to spit back at Mia. “Who told you that?”

  “So, you don’t deny it.”

  Damion huffed.

  “She’s old enough to be your mother,” said Mia, her voice rising.

  “She is,” Damion yelled, then pulled himself together. He took a breath and leveled his gaze at her. “She is old enough to be my mother, which is one of the many, many reasons that there is nothing going on between us. And whoever told you that sort of gossip is sick.”

  Mia’s eyes stung. He was lying. She had seen him, but she couldn’t tell him. He’d think she’d been spying on him, which she actually hadn’t meant to. She blinked away the tears that threatened and tried again.

  “Damion, someone saw you coming out of Nell’s house. They saw you hugging her and to them it looked like an intimate hug. Maybe that last bit was their interpretation, but they have no reason to make up the rest. So, were you at Nell’s?”

  Damion sighed. “I was.”

  Mia gulped.

  “But it wasn’t like that. There isn’t a thing. She … I’m helping her with something, with a project, a social media thing. I’m doing it for free; she’s grateful. That’s all.”

  He reached for Mia, but she pulled away. It sounded like he had made the excuse up on the spot.

  “Fine,” said Damion, throwing up his hands. “You can believe whatever you want to believe, Mia. I can’t tell you about this project because it’s confidential and I’ve been trusted not to say anything. The second I can tell you, I will. But until that point, I need you to stop hassling me about it. Okay?”

  Mia’s body shook with rage. Hassling him? She sucked down the words she wanted to hurl at him. Even if Damion was telling her the truth, which she highly doubted, then maybe Aunt Molly was right about it being a political project. If that was the case, though, was it possible their “project” had something to do with Veronica Corsello’s murder? Suddenly she remembered the necklace and the one she’d sold to the mystery man to replace the one his sister had supposedly lost.

  “One more question and then I won’t mention it again. That man I saw you with in town. The man and woman I saw you hugging outside the wine bar? Are they part of the project too?”

  Damion nodded.

  “It’s a very huggy project, this project.”

  “Come on,” he said, reaching for her.

  But Mia pulled away. She didn’t know what was going on, but there were way too many unknowns in this story of Damion’s. If Nell was their only suspect, perhaps Damion was somehow involved. In which case, she was sitting alone in a car with a murderer, or an accomplice at the very least.

  She wanted to go inside, to be with Uncle Doug. Their house was starting to be the only place she really felt safe.

  “I should go,” she said.

  “Mia.”

  “I will try to believe you, Damion, because that’s all I can do, but I don’t like this secrecy. It makes me uncomfortable.”

  She turned to get out of the car, determined to walk away. As she caught a last glimpse of Damion’s face, he looked utterly crestfallen. It was so tempting to turn back and fling her arms around him, but she had to be strong. If he really had nothing to hide, they’d figure it out, but if anyone was going to end up looking like a fool in this relationship, there was no way it was going to be her.

  She got out and hurried up the driveway to the main house. All of a sudden, she didn’t want to be alone in her studio, far away from the house. It wasn’t that she was afraid of Damion, not exactly, but if there was something sinister going on, she didn’t want to take any chances. If anyone else was going to turn up dead in San Cosmas because they got in the way of some “project,” she didn’t want it to be her.

  Mia crashed through the front door, relieved to be in the safety of the house. It wasn’t until Uncle Doug poked his head around the kitchen door, his apron streaked with lavender-colored frosting, that Mia realized she wasn’t out of danger yet.

  It was sort of ironic that Mia had been so mad at Damion for his deception, but now, here she was, about to tell Uncle Doug another whopper because she and Aunt Molly just couldn’t keep their noses out of other people’s business. Mia hated lying. Then again, she didn’t hate it as much as being suspected of a crime she didn’t commit. No matter what Detective Moat said, she wouldn’t rest easy that she was off the hook until the real culprit was hung on it in her place.

  “Good walk?” asked Uncle Doug, wiping his hands on his apron. He frowned. “Where’s Moll?”

  Inside her jacket pocket, Mia crossed her fingers. “She ran into someone she knows. You know Aunt Molly; she can’t go anywhere without running into someone.”

  “True,” Uncle Doug said. “So, where is she?”

  “Up the hill. The woman invited her in for a glass of wine. I wasn’t in the mood, so I came home.”

  “Alone?”

  “I caught a Lyft.”

  Uncle Doug scrutinized her. “You look upset. Are you okay?”

  Mia wrinkled her nose. She wasn’t okay. And she wanted more than anything to tell Uncle Doug everything.
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  When she was young and Lacy was working, her most frequent babysitter had been their vast library of DVDs. She had access to all the latest movies, but Mia always chose the old black and whites. She loved Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, and Spencer Tracy, and never more than when they played handsome, adoring fathers who would do anything to protect their little girls. Mia wasn’t a little girl anymore, but she could really use some fatherly advice right about now.

  “Is the new cake up for grabs?” she asked instead.

  Uncle Doug’s face lit up. “Just finished it. Do you want the first slice?”

  Mia nodded and followed Uncle Doug into the kitchen. She hopped up on a high stool by the breakfast bar, so that her legs swung below her, and watched as Uncle Doug expertly cut through his beautiful cake. He slid out a slice and pushed it toward her on a white china plate along with a delicate silver cake fork.

  “Uncle Doug?” she asked. “Do you think I did the right thing moving here to San Cosmas?”

  “What? Of course. We love having you here. Are you having regrets?”

  “No. I love it here, too, and I love having you and Aunt Molly close by.”

  “Then what’s the problemo?”

  “I seem to be making such a big mess of everything.”

  “Is this about the thing with Veronica Corsello? Because that wasn’t your fault. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Detective Moat is an excellent investigator. As soon as he gets all the evidence together, he’ll catch his man. He already knows you had nothing to do with it.”

  Mia felt a pang of guilt. If she’d given the detective the necklace list right away, maybe he’d already have caught the killer. First thing tomorrow, she was handing the list over, as promised.

  Uncle Doug studied her as he poked his finger into the frosting, pulling back a giant blob that he stuck in his mouth. “Has something else happened?” he asked. “Have you and your aunt got yourself mixed up in this even more?” He raised his eyebrow like he was a sleuth himself.