Ava thought a moment. “She wasn’t close to her siblings, since there was quite an age gap between them. Of course, her father and I knew some of her boyfriends—Dietrich Myers was especially sweet on her when they were growing up—but she hadn’t mentioned any recently.”
“I need to tell you something, but you might want to sit down first.” I had a feeling that news of Margo’s pregnancy would come as a serious shock to Ava.
Her face blanched and she sank into the chair. “Did you find something in her room?”
“I did. It was something she had taken pains to hide. A pregnancy test.”
Ava’s fingers locked over the armrests like talons and she leaned forward. Her horrified look told me she’d guessed what I was going to say next.
“It was positive,” I confirmed.
Chapter 14
Detective Watson wasn’t in when I visited the police station again, so I dropped off the pregnancy test and the church bulletin and scrawled a hasty note, telling the detective I suspected Father Jesse Woods had left the message in Margo’s bulletin. I left him my cell phone number so he could call for more details.
When I got back to my carriage house, I kicked off my shoes and said a hasty hello to Rasputin, who seemed a little slithery and restless. I grabbed a handful of peanuts to quell my growling stomach, then donned my cleaning gloves and got to work.
Once I wrapped up the cleaning, I took a little break for a quick cup of coffee. After that, I cut up root vegetables for roasting, then washed and tore lettuce for a Caesar salad. I’d made sure to pick up some almond croissants for dessert, so that was one thing I didn’t have to worry about.
As I applied the pecan crust to the salmon, my mouth started watering. Even if Stone was feeling miffed tonight because of the questions I’d asked about his job, I determined that I was going to enjoy this meal, if for no other reason than the salmon and pecans hadn’t been cheap.
By the time I’d changed to a flowing skirt and sweater, I was swimming in nervousness. Unlike a dog, Rasputin didn’t seem to sense my mood and he continued slithering back and forth in his cage, almost like he was pacing. Maybe he was already hungry again? I’d have to call Reginald tonight and ask.
Stone’s now-familiar knock sounded and I opened the door. He wasn’t smiling, which made his dark good looks all the more spectacular. He could play the Count of Monte Cristo or the Scarlet Pimpernel in movies.
“Thank you for coming,” I said, waving him inside.
He trailed behind me, gently kicking his shoes off inside the door. Thankfully, his presence wasn’t intimidating in the least; in fact, I seemed to relax the closer I got to his proximity. I tried to imagine him getting pulled over for driving drunk, but I was literally unable to do it.
“Have a seat,” I continued, motioning him toward the small pine table Katrina had given me. It was a quaint antique, scuffed and dinged by many who had gone before me. He settled into the chair and finally spoke.
“How’d it go at the Fentons’?”
I was ready for his question. I began to arrange the rosemary root vegetables on a platter as I answered. “I found a note written on a church bulletin. It was from the Episcopal church we visited.” I shared what it said.
He steepled his long fingers, thoughtful. “Definitely sounds like something a secret love interest would say. You think it’s Father Jesse?”
“I do. I mean, who else fits the bill?” I froze, realizing I’d referred to Margo’s hidden pregnancy without thinking. Trying to cover my slip, I turned to the fridge for the Caesar salad.
But my comment hadn’t gone unnoticed. “What do you mean, ‘fits the bill’? Do you have some other hint as to who Margo’s lover was?”
It still felt wrong to share about Margo’s pregnancy. I supposed I had some misplaced notion about protecting her honor, even in death.
“I just meant that he struck me as someone she would have confided in, and it was a church bulletin, after all.”
“Hmm.” He sounded doubtful of my reasoning, but he didn’t push it. His gaze slid to the snake’s cage. “When does the snake go home for good?”
“Next Sunday. His owner swears he’ll never leave him for that long again. He’s having snake withdrawal.” I laughed. “I’ve had to text him photos of his little buddy so he knows he’s doing okay. I can’t say he’s the most photogenic ball python on the block, either. Sometimes, I have to send a photo of a tail sticking out of a flowerpot.”
“I wouldn’t call that thing little,” Stone said. “After all, I’ve seen how it stretched around your body that first day we met.”
“So awkward.” I opened two bottles of sparkling water and sat down to serve our food, but Stone began to do that for me.
“You’ve had a long day,” he said, placing a huge hunk of salmon on my plate. “The least I can do is dish up the food for you. It looks delicious, by the way.”
A man who served me food was hard to resist. “Sure. Thank you.”
Our conversation drifted to random topics like TV shows and books. Stone turned out to be an avid mystery reader, which really shocked me. His knowledge of Agatha Christie books fell somewhat short of my own, but the very fact he knew who Parker Pyne was blew my mind. Many Agatha readers had never heard of him, yet Parker Pyne Investigates was one of my favorite books.
I was discovering that Stone and I had more than a few things in common, which probably explained why I felt so comfortable around him. Had Margo ever felt the same way? What had made her throw Stone over? From what Stone had said, it sounded like she’d set her sights on someone else.
I stood to fix decaf coffee to go with our almond croissants, and Stone took that as his cue to clear the table. I was surprised that a rich boy who had hired help in the kitchen knew how to pitch in with cleanup duties.
“Have you ever lived on your own?” The question sprang from my tongue with no regard for how it sounded.
Stone didn’t seem offended. He scrubbed at a plate as he answered. “I did live in Manhattan for a while. Spreading my wings and all that. I actually worked as an investment banker for a while, but I hated the hours. About that time, Dad’s hedge fund business was taking off, so I ditched banking and started working from home. Saves money, and as you might’ve noticed, my parents’ house is huge. It’s like I have my own apartment anyway.”
He was right, of course, but I wondered if Margo had been looking for someone more independent, someone with a house of his own. Someone not so beholden to his parents in nearly every way.
I leaned against the counter, listening to the comforting sound of coffee brewing. “So, did you have a car in the city?” I rushed on, giving him a chance to formulate an answer. “I didn’t, and now I regret it. I really need a car here.”
“Parking in the city isn’t worth it. I just took the subway or buses like everyone else when I lived there. But you’re right, in Greenwich you need a car.” He accepted the cup of coffee and added caramel creamer to it.
He hadn’t answered the real question I’d been asking, so I tried a different angle. “I saw you lusting after that red Lamborghini. Couldn’t you buy yourself one? Then you wouldn’t have to hitch rides with Red. Though don’t get me wrong—he’s a great driver and a nice guy.”
I must’ve hit the magic button, because Stone’s face did something extraordinary. It literally crumpled.
He took a bite of almond croissant, chewing on it so long I feared he’d soon chomp into his tongue instead of the disintegrated pastry.
After taking several swallows of coffee, he finally spoke. “Belinda, I need to be up-front with you. I should’ve told you earlier, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s honestly the most humiliating thing in the world. I have a Lamborghini—it’s yellow, actually. But I haven’t been driving it because it has a Breathalyzer installed in it. Basically, if I’ve had any alcohol,
it won’t start.”
I feigned shock, hoping I wasn’t overdoing it. “But why?”
“I was driving drunk. It was stupid. I really hadn’t had much to drink, but I hadn’t eaten yet, so it must’ve filtered right into my system. I ran a red light and there was a cop parked nearby.”
“I’m so sorry.”
I was glad for his sudden honesty, but what if I hadn’t known to ask those questions? Stone hadn’t been forthcoming about a lot of things.
Unable to sit down, I walked over to my back window, the one overlooking the flowerbeds. Stone seemed to sense why I was drawn there, and he came and joined me.
“Hard to believe she’s gone,” he said.
“Hard to believe how she died,” I added. I glanced back out and stiffened. “What’s that?”
I pointed to a small light that was bobbing in the darkness. It was definitely moving around, and rather rapidly, as if someone was afraid of being caught.
Stone wheeled around and strode to the door. “Someone’s out there. I’ll check on it. Do you have a light on that patio?”
I nodded.
“Okay. I’m going to sneak out the front door. As I round the corner, I want you to throw that light on so I can catch the person. I doubt they’ll try to jump the stone wall, so the only way they could get out is through me.”
It seemed like a plan fraught with hazards. What if the intruder had a gun, for instance? But Stone was already heading outside. I peeped out my front door, and as he rounded the darkened corner of my house, I hit the back patio’s light switch.
There was a brief shout, followed by loud talking. The intruder sounded like a man. I edged back into the house, unsure what to do next. If Stone thought he was in mortal danger, surely he’d yell for me to call the cops?
Just as I was pushing the door shut, a light knock sounded on it. Stone’s voice rumbled through the crack in the door. “Belinda, it was Val. It’s okay. Open up, because he has some explaining to do.”
I opened the door, trusting that Stone had Val in hand. What was he doing, creeping around in the flowerbed?
Val looked apologetic as he walked in, wearing jeans and a leather jacket in place of his security uniform.
“Were you doing some kind of undercover security tonight?” I asked.
He dipped his head. “No. I’m sorry to scare you like that, miss. I was looking for something I’d lost.”
I frowned. “At night? In the dark?”
Stone motioned Val to a kitchen chair, then took a seat next to him. I leaned against the kitchen counter, uneasy about getting any closer.
“Walk me through what you were doing back there again,” Stone said, in a tone that implied he wouldn’t accept any shenanigans.
Val gave us a beseeching look. “Like I said, I’d lost one of my security badges.”
“In the flowerbed,” Stone said.
“Yes,” Val confirmed.
I butted in. “And how did it come to be there?”
Val looked from me to Stone, then back to me. “I’m going to tell you the truth, because Stone here is a great boss and his family has done right by me all these years. What happened was that Miss Margo spoke to me that night she came to the billiards party. I let her in the gate, you see. She was all jumpy and such and I asked her what was up. She said, ‘I can’t talk about it now, but I’ll meet you around eleven here at the booth so we can talk.’ So I was waiting at the Security booth at eleven—past my shift, but I told Rick to come in later that night.”
His voice cracked and he took a deep breath. I decided to have mercy on him, because he did seem to be telling us the truth.
“Would you like a glass of water?” I asked.
He nodded appreciatively. “Yes, please.”
Once he’d drunk a few sips and gotten a second wind, Val launched back into his tale.
“To tell the truth, I was hoping she wanted to meet me since the Monday before, I’d finally worked up the courage to ask her on a date. She had never responded. But when she said she wanted to meet at eleven to talk, I hoped she was going to agree to go out with me.”
Stone’s face expressed shock and disbelief, and Val noticed.
“I know I’m not in her class,” Val said. “She was like an angel, you know? Always friendly, not stuck up like some of them.” He looked at me. “Kinda like you.”
I ignored that remark, which seemed honest but a little creepy, especially if Val had killed Margo. “So did she show at eleven?”
His eyes darkened. “No, and when I think that all the time I was sitting there waiting in the booth, she could’ve been screaming for help out here...I can’t stand it.”
I’d thought of that, too—that if I’d been here that night, instead of babysitting Rasputin in Manhattan, I might’ve heard Margo’s cries. Then again, something told me she didn’t even have time to cry out. The person who’d killed her had been close to her, I was sure. It hadn’t looked like she’d put up much of a fight and the police must not have found any DNA under her nails, or they’d have arrested someone by now.
Val looked so genuinely distraught, I was finding it hard to believe he would’ve killed Margo. Then again, maybe he was the type that became so infatuated, they couldn’t deal with it when their feelings weren’t reciprocated.
“But what does this have to do with the security badge?” Stone asked.
“Oh, that,” Val said. “I’d taken a permanent marker and written my cell number on my badge. I gave it to Margo that night and told her to give me a call when she was heading my way. She never called.”
“Did you find the badge out there?” I asked.
“No. I figure the cops never found it, either. I didn’t see them pick it up that day they were crawling all over the place, and if they had, they would’ve contacted me by now. I couldn’t stop thinking about it—what would happen if they came back and found that badge—so I thought I’d try to find it.”
Stone frowned.
Val rushed on. “I swear, I wasn’t trying to cover anything up. I didn’t kill Margo. But I knew the cops would go down the wrong rabbit trail if they found the badge, wasting time looking at me when there’s a real killer running around.” He squeezed his fingers into a fist.
Val’s story seemed to hold water, and on top of that, the man definitely seemed protective of Margo. I took a moment to try to picture the wealthy rich girl dating a security guard who was twice her age, and I was shocked to find that I could. Cleaning Margo’s room had offered me a narrow glimpse into her head, and what I’d seen seemed to indicate she was anything but the stereotypical socialite.
Val had gulped down his entire glass of water, so I refilled it. As he accepted it, his eyes slid over to the snake’s cage for the first time. The glass tottered in his hand and he brought up his other hand to steady it.
“Is that what I think it is?” he asked.
I finally sat down at the table. “Yes, it’s a snake. A ball python, to be exact.”
Val inhaled. “You gotta be kidding—”
Stone interrupted. “That’ll be all, Val.”
I could hear the dismissal in his tone, and I knew Val could, too. I felt the urge to smooth things over for the earnest security guard, because Stone hadn’t even tried to mask his rejection.
And being rejected by Stone was a terrible thing, I suddenly realized.
Chapter 15
Our date night fizzled as soon as Val walked out the door. Stone seemed lost in thought, probably shocked his loyal security guard had kept things from him.
As for me, I was disappointed our relationship seemed to be going nowhere. And how could it, when Stone had deliberately hidden things from me, like his interest in Margo and his drunk driving episode?
I walked him to my door and he launched into an awkward goodbye.
“I’ll te
xt you if something comes up,” he said.
Text. Not call, which would indicate he actually wanted to talk with me—would miss me, even.
I swallowed my dejection. “Sure. And I’ll text if I think of anything. Hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving.” And I hope Lani doesn’t serve alcohol.
He waved and walked out into the small circle of light cast by my porch light. Then he blended into the darkness of his lawn.
Had Margo walked through that same darkness on the night she died? Had she made her way to my little carriage house to meet someone?
I did some quick thinking and realized it would’ve been the dark of the moon that night, so there would’ve been no moonlight and the yard would’ve been even darker than it was tonight. Although the manor house had plenty of stylish lampposts surrounding the house itself, the huge lawn was like a sea of darkness.
I shivered as I took my analogy a step further. Like a small rowboat bobbing in the ocean, my little place was stranded too far from the giant ship of the manor house for anyone to hear if someone tried to break in.
Or kill me.
I strode past Rasputin’s cage, strangely thankful for the snake’s company, which was precious little company at all. He peered up at me, but seemed a bit more lackadaisical than he did earlier. I decided to call Reginald, just to check in and have someone to talk to.
Reginald picked up on the first ring. I could hear children cavorting in the background, which I figured annoyed him to no end. I wouldn’t peg Reginald for a doting uncle type.
He sounded harried. “Belinda? Everything okay?”
“It is. Rasputin’s doing fine. I was just wondering—do you think he’d be hungry so soon after he shed?”
“It’s possible, sure. Is he at your place or mine?”
“I have him in Greenwich with me—we’re heading up to my parents’ tomorrow.”
Reginald sighed. “I wish I could be back by then. Believe me, I do. Hang on.” He put the phone down and I could hear him shouting at kids in the background. The noise died down a bit, but not for long. He picked up again. “I don’t know why I put myself through this. My brother has this huge place in Chicago, but his kids are wild. Absolutely wild. If my mom didn’t come in for this, I swear I wouldn’t show up.”
Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass Page 9