Mascara and Murder (Murder In Style Book 3)

by Gina LaManna

  Cooper watched him go with a smile on his face. “Are the others inside?”

  “Um, what others?”

  Cooper crossed the distance between us and swung his arm around my shoulders. “Haven’t I told you that I always know when you’re lying?”

  “I’m not lying. I just asked a simple question.”

  “Sure,” he said. “Is it safe to go in there? Does Ethel still have her shirt on?”

  I flinched. “Don’t tell me you’ve seen Ethel without her shirt.”

  “Let’s just say that I have to make sacrifices for this town.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s a weekly call at this point,” Cooper said. “Ethel Louise Schroeder missing from the nursing home. Harry the Hairy leaving the front door open at all hours of the night because he thinks we live in a safe town. Someone calling to complain about Rick smoking.”

  “Nobody can see Rick smoking.”

  “Doesn’t mean he wasn’t doing it,” Cooper said. “Right?”

  I wrinkled my nose but didn’t answer. “I’m not ratting any of the guys out.”

  He laughed and patted me gently on the shoulder. “I’ve come to an agreement with Mrs. Maybelle and Ken’s kids.”

  “What sort of agreement?”

  “We let them gather for an hour or two and play uninterrupted. Better we know where they’re escaping to than not. I just head to Harry’s house when he leaves and lock up. Then I come down here two hours later and tell them to get on home. I think Ethel likes having her game ‘busted up by the cops’ as she says. Gives her a little thrill. Who am I to deprive her of that?”

  “Maybe she just likes to look at you,” I said, digging an elbow coyly into Cooper’s ribs. “She doesn’t get out much.”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised,” Cooper said. “She gets out more than I do.”

  “True. Well, carry on. Don’t mean to interrupt your game-busting-up duties. Do you have to kick a door down or something?”

  “Is that what gets you going?”

  I shrugged. “I dunno. Never dated a cop before, but it’s cool in the movies.”

  He laughed and grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the door. He let go once we got there and winked.

  “Official police business.”

  “I understand,” I said. “What a thrilling life we lead.”

  Still grinning, Cooper let himself into the bingo hall. He surveyed the room, but there wasn’t much to survey. Rick stood at the table, gathering up his winnings. His cigar was nowhere to be seen, though there was a cloud of smoke around him, and the scent was a little more than obvious. Ethel and Harry were locked in one another’s gazes. Kyle had vanished.

  “Good evening, ladies and gents,” Cooper said. “It’s that time.”

  “Closing time already?” Ethel tore her eyes from Harry to look at Cooper. “Jiminy Cricket, you two sure do make a cute couple.”

  Cooper looked over at me. He raised his eyebrows.

  “Uh, thanks,” I said. “Ethel, can I walk you home?”

  “You should go home with your sweetie, and I’ll go home with mine.”

  “Ethel, you know the deal,” Cooper said. “Let me take you home.”

  “While I appreciate the offer from a strapping young gentleman like yourself, I’ll let Jenna walk me home.”

  “Suit yourself,” Cooper said. “Just so long as you get there before Mrs. Maybelle calls me for a second time. You know she worries about you.”

  “She’s a spoilsport,” Ethel grumbled, but she looked quite happy about the idea that someone was worried about her.

  “Same with you, Harry.” Cooper walked across the room and dropped a set of keys in the man’s hand. “Looks like you forgot these.”

  “I didn’t forget them.” Harry accepted the keys like this was part of the natural routine with Cooper. “I’m telling you, Coop. This town is safe. I haven’t locked my door since 1924.”

  “That was the year you were born, Harry.”

  “Don’t I know it.” Harry flipped the keys around in his hand. “Well, my dear, here is where I leave you. Until next time.”

  Ethel and Harry squeezed one another’s hands. Rick packed up his things. I looked in his direction, wondering where Kyle had gotten to, but Rick didn’t seem to want to offer any explanation, and I wondered if he was keeping Kyle’s involvement a secret on purpose or if he just wasn’t in the habit of tattling on his friends.

  Rick left first, followed by Harry. I walked side by side with Ethel as she cruised out of the bingo hall. Cooper locked up behind us, and I wondered if he had the keys to this building for that very reason.

  Then I walked beside Ethel as we cruised our way down Main Street. It wasn’t until a minute or two later that I realized Cooper was trailing behind us in his truck.

  “Look at that,” Ethel said. “A police escort. I always thought I’d do something to need a police escort.”

  “Are you gonna follow us the whole way home?” I called over to Cooper.

  Cooper nodded. His window was open, and light tunes filtered out over the night sky, accompanying me as I walked next to Ethel. “Last time you were supposed to grab dinner and go home, I found you at a covert poker game.”

  “Covert.” Ethel shivered as if that was just the coolest thing on the face of the earth. “Me and Harry have a real-life covert relationship. Stuff of movies. Movies where, you know, I’m the director, and I don’t have to listen to that Kyle.”

  Now that I thought about it, Kyle and Ethel had barely said two words to one another after the initial pleasantries. It seemed Ethel’s liberties with the script to the film were still causing tension between the two of them.

  Eventually, we made it to the nursing home. I returned Ethel to where she belonged. I saw Cooper wave at a window. When I followed his gaze, I found Mrs. Maybelle waiting up, peering through the window. Instead of returning his wave, she frowned and flicked her light off. The windows went dark.

  “She’ll never say it, but she loves that woman like her own mother,” Cooper said. “That’s why she calls me thirteen times a week.”

  “That’s sweet.”

  “Now, it’s your turn.”

  “My turn?”

  “Would you like to hop in?” I glanced around as if I’d find a better option somewhere else. When my car didn’t magically appear, I gave a shrug. “Might as well.”

  “Love the enthusiasm.”

  I climbed into the truck. “Am I going to get a lecture?”

  “Why would I lecture you?” Cooper swung the vehicle around and cruised toward my house. “You can make your own choices. I’m not mad at you. Just a concerned chief giving his citizen a ride home.”

  “What about a concerned boyfriend?”

  “That too,” Cooper said, leaning over at the next stoplight to kiss me on the forehead. “But I wasn’t all that concerned. I knew where you were. I just thought I’d give you some time with your friends.”

  “Great. Now you’re treating me like your ninety-year-old grandmother.”

  Cooper laughed, but when he looked at me, the look on his face was more than amused. “Believe me, Jenna. I don’t look at you like my grandmother.”

  “Well, that’s something.”

  He gave a snort. We rode the short distance to my house in comfortable silence. As we turned the corner to view my driveway, Cooper looked over at me. “You know—”

  My gasp cut him off mid-sentence. It would’ve been interesting to watch, the way he flipped from boyfriend-Cooper to Chief-Cooper, if I wasn’t so focused on my house. His lips smoothed from a smile to a thin, tight line. His jaw set. Fingers gripped the steering wheel.

  “Well, that’s not good,” I said.

  “No,” Cooper said. “I don’t think that’s a good sign at all.”

  Something had been thrown through my front window, leaving the glass completely shattered. The large, picture-style window was now missing most of the pane of glass, save for the
jagged edges around a hole.

  Cooper pulled to a stop in my driveway. By the time I got out of the car, Matt was walking over from next door.

  “Hey,” I said as he approached. “What’re you still doing up?”

  “I was having a beer and watching the game,” Matt said. “A few minutes ago, I heard a noise. Glass shattering, a loud car engine. I came over to see if everything was okay.”

  “This just happened?” I gestured toward my front window.

  Matt followed my gaze. “I’m assuming so. If that’s the noise I heard, and I can’t imagine it wasn’t.”

  Cooper returned from his initial examination of the window from the outside. He nodded to Matt. My neighbor recounted his story and Cooper thanked him.

  “Someone threw a sizeable rock through your window,” Cooper told me. “From what it looks like on the outside, there might be a note attached to the stone. Want to go in and take a look?”

  I nodded. Then I glanced at Matt. “Thanks for coming by. I really appreciate it.”

  Matt hesitated. “I don’t feel right leaving. If someone’s throwing rocks through your window...”

  “She has a place to stay if she wants,” Cooper offered, his eyes locked on me. “I recommend it. Not as a policeman but as someone who cares about you.”

  I looked over toward Matt.

  “I don’t think you should stay in your house,” Matt said. “You know you always have a spot on my couch.”

  “Thanks.” I reached over and squeezed Matt’s shoulder. “I know I do, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. But you should head home and get some rest. Keep an eye out. I’ll figure things out here with Cooper.”

  Before Matt left, he offered to help Cooper temporarily board up the window. Cooper took him up on it, and within a few minutes, they had something rigged up that would keep it blocked for the night. Then Matt bid us goodbye, and we watched him walk toward his house.

  “You can stay on his couch,” Cooper said, breaking the silence. “If that’s what you want, you’re welcome to. I trust you. I know you guys are friends.”

  I leaned up and kissed him. “That means a lot to me. But is the offer of takeout still open at your place?”

  Cooper slid his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. “I can do you one better than that.”

  Chapter 23

  An hour later, I found myself freshly showered and sitting on Cooper’s couch, legs curled beneath me. I’d made Cooper stand sentry at the front door of my house while I’d run upstairs to shower and change and pack a small bag. Cooper had been more than happy to play watchdog for me and my broken window.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “Why would someone throw a rock through my window?”

  “It’s obviously a warning shot,” Cooper said. “The note attached warned you to stay away from the movie set.”

  “I mean, I work there.”

  “It doesn’t seem like it was a well-thought-out plan,” Cooper said, grabbing a bottle of wine from the kitchen, along with two glasses. “Seems to me like someone’s getting nervous, and they made a rash decision to send you a message.”

  “Literally.”

  Cooper gave a short laugh. “There’s no chance you ruffled some feathers today asking around about the murder, is there?”

  “Seems like a trick question,” I mused. “I mean, there’s a definite chance.”

  “You’ve been poking around on the case,” Cooper said. “Which probably means you’re getting close. Who’d you talk to today? Specifically, who’d you talk to in regards to Tennison’s murder?”

  I hesitated, feeling a little funny combining an evening with my boyfriend and a murder investigation, but on the flip side it was nice to have someone to discuss everything with. Someone I trusted wholeheartedly. And someone who could actually do something about it.

  “Kyle, the director, was at the poker game tonight,” I said finally. “He disappeared before you arrived. I don’t know if he didn’t want to get in trouble or...”

  “Or if you said something that tipped him off, and he headed out early so he could throw a rock through your window.”

  “I don’t think he would’ve done that. It seems so childish.” I frowned. “Then again, I’m having a hard time figuring why anyone would throw a rock through my window. Nobody has the money to fix stuff like that.”

  “Insurance does,” Cooper said mildly.

  “Well, nobody wants to deal with insurance, either,” I said. “So annoying.”

  Cooper grinned and poured us two glasses of wine. “What’d you learn about Kyle?”

  “What do you know?”

  “You go first,” Cooper said. “That’s how this works—for now.”

  I filled him in. Cooper didn’t look extremely surprised. Apparently, we’d done detective work side by side without knowing it.

  “I’m going to take a better look at your place in the morning,” Cooper said with a sigh once I finished my story. “I’ll check in with Angela Dewey and see if she saw anything, but I’m not holding my breath.”

  I nodded.

  “In the meantime, I’d prefer if you stayed here until we catch whoever’s behind all this. I have a feeling that things are only going to escalate until we do.”

  I fell silent, thanking my lucky stars that I had a wineglass to sip. It kept my hands busy and gave me a good excuse to not talk for a minute as I gathered my thoughts.

  “It doesn’t have to be here,” Cooper said quietly. “If you’d prefer to stay with your mother or May or...” He gave a bigger sigh. “Or Matt, I would understand.”

  “It’s not that.” I set my wineglass down on the end table and ran my fingers listlessly over the couch. “I’ve just made some mistakes in the past that I don’t care to repeat.”

  “You don’t have to explain. We can go at your pace.”

  I snuggled closer to Cooper. “I appreciate you understanding. More than you know.”

  “The only reason I’m inviting you to stay with me is to keep you safe.” He put an arm around me. “I’ll even sleep on the couch if that’s what it takes. Don’t forget, you’re missing a window.”

  “Yeah,” I said with a coy glance at him. “It’d probably be pretty chilly in my house with that busted window. It’d be much warmer here.”

  “Absolutely.”

  I tipped my face up and met Cooper’s lips. “I suppose one teensy, tiny sleepover couldn’t hurt.”

  Cooper grinned back at me. “Just one?”

  “Let’s take it day by day.” I stood and grabbed his hand. “I’m pretty tired. What about you?”

  “Okay.”

  I laughed. “That’s not an answer.”

  “I thought—”

  “There’ll be plenty of time to figure out who’s throwing rocks at my window tomorrow morning.”

  Cooper stood and scooped me up into a tight embrace, lifting me right off the ground. He kissed me hard on the lips, then set me down, and led me away from the living room. “I can’t agree more.”

  THE NEXT MORNING SEEMED more cheerful than any other before it. As I lay in Cooper’s bed, I saw he’d thrown the window open nearest us. A cool breeze filtered through, bringing with it the smell of the blossoming flowers and the happy chirping of the birds.

  Cooper rolled over and faced me. “Morning, princess.”

  “Good morning,” I said, cracking one eye open.

  “How do you feel?”

  I sighed, then pulled Cooper’s comforter over me. It was warm and cozy and plush, and it smelled like crisp laundry detergent. The coolness of the outside air mixed with the warmth of my body pressed against Cooper’s was pure bliss.

  Looking into his eyes, I couldn’t help but smile. “I’m happy.”

  Cooper dipped his head to give me a kiss. “I’m glad to hear it. Me too.”

  “I really hate to move from here,” I said, snuggling against him. “But I have to get to work, and I know you do, too.”

  �
��I can be a little late,” he said. “After all, my first stop is your house.”

  I winced as the memory of last night returned. Thoughts of insurance companies and rocks flying through windows made me squirm.

  “Why don’t you take a nice, hot shower? I’ll make us some breakfast.”

  “I can do that,” I said. “Thank you.”

  I did as Cooper suggested and took a nice long rinse. I used his soap and shampoo which all smelled comfortably familiar. After toweling off and getting dressed for the day, I shuffled into the kitchen to the smell of syrup and pancakes and hot coffee.

  “I’ll take all of it,” I said. “All of it. I hope you’re making more.”

  Cooper laughed. “Dig in. But while we eat, I need to ask you a favor.”

  “Uh-oh,” I said. “Here you are plying me with pancakes before you ask me to give you a kidney. I’ll tell you right now, it depends how good the pancakes are.”

  “Not exactly what I had in mind, but I’m glad to know your loyalty to me depends on how successful I am at making breakfast.”

  “What can I say? I’m a pancake connoisseur.”

  Cooper smiled as he pushed utensils toward me, and we both dug in. “I know you’re going to say no, but I have to ask.”

  “Okay, then.”

  “Would you consider resigning from the set of that movie?” Cooper raised his hands. “I know you like the work. I don’t know what they’re paying you, but I hope it’s a fair rate. I understand all that. But is it really worth your safety?”

  “You’re right; my answer is going to be a negative.” I took a bite of pancake and sighed at the taste of the fluffy buttermilk patties that’d been doused in real bourbon maple syrup. “Though I have to admit your pancakes are definitely worth a kidney.”

  “Jenna, someone out there is a murderer. They left you a warning last night in very obvious terms.”

  “I’m probably safest on set,” I said. “I share a trailer with Cassidy. I’m almost always working with an actor, and I’m rarely alone with anyone. Plus, you said it better than I did. This won’t end until whoever’s responsible faces the music. With me in the middle of it all, we have a better chance of finding out who’s responsible. I need to keep one ear to the ground.”