“Mimi, got a sec?” Piper tapped my shoulder lightly.
“What’s up?”
“I need to use the restroom, and someone took a dump in the downstairs bathroom that smells so bad even air freshener can’t smother it. I’m trying to get into the upstairs bathroom, but the door seems to be stuck.”
Great, when did I become the party gopher? “Is it locked?” I said, asking the obvious question.
Piper gave me an “I’m not stupid” look and said, “I don’t know. It won’t open, which is why I came to ask you. It’s either locked or stuck.”
“Fine. I’ll be right back.” I went up the foyer stairs to check the bathroom.
Piper called after me. “Hurry, I really have to pee.”
The bathroom was right at the top of the stairs, and I couldn’t imagine what would be wrong. I flipped on the hall light and approached the door.
Piper was right, it was stuck. The door wasn’t shut all the way, but it wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t think of what could have fallen that would block it. I wouldn’t put it past Charles to have locked this bathroom, but there was no way he could block it on the inside, from the outside.
I looked down at my attire, slipped out of my shoes, and used all of my body weight to shove the door open. It was at that moment that I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Chapter 5
Yep, that put a damper on Charles’s party. I have to give him credit though; he was the first person to climb the stairs. He flew up so fast you’d think he had vampire blood in his veins.
When I’d pushed the door open, a head rolled into view, eyes wide open. In the dim light, I saw a knife blade sticking out of the woman’s abdomen and a huge puddle of blood on the floor.
That’s when I screamed. You’d scream, too. Don’t judge me. But I’d pulled myself together by the time Charles reached me.
I calmly closed the bathroom door and said, “We need Nick up here now.”
Patronizing as always, Charles patted me on the back and said, “Just tell me what’s going on.”
“Simone is dead,” I said.
“What?” Charles jumped back.
“Piper said something was blocking the door up here, so I came up to check. When I shoved at the door, Simone’s head rolled into view. That’s when I screamed.” I was shaking now.
Charles went into military mode. “Go tell Anthony to make sure all of the doors and windows are locked. Set the alarm. Put Cortnie at the front door and Jackie at the back. No one leaves.”
I tried to shake off the image in my head. On auto-pilot, I went down the stairs to see a group had gathered. I looked past them to Nick.
“Everyone just stay downstairs.” I yelled over the murmurs to Nick. “Charles needs you up here, please.”
I descended the rest of the way down the stairs and made my way through the group. There were several comments, “What’s going on?” “Are you okay?” “Is there something we can do?” I ignored all of them and looked for my friends and employees.
Jackie stood at the back of the crowd with her date and Cortnie. I approached them, finally breaking down in tears.
Jackie seemed giddy. “Sweetie, I want you to meet my friend, Willis Grant.”
I smiled and saw my hand trembling as I raised it to shake Willis’. He gripped my hand, thankfully ending the shakiness for the moment.
When he released my hand, Jackie moved in and hugged me. “Hon, what’s going on?”
I sniffled and said, “There’s been a murder.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said, stepping out of the hug. “Why is it that ever since Esme’s murder, you seem to attract dead bodies like shit attracts flies?”
I let the remark pass, because there was no response. It was true. I’d seen the victims of three murders in the last year.
When I was a Secret Service Agent, I never saw any dead bodies. If I had, that would have been very bad, since my detail was to protect a former First Lady.
As a private detective, I never expected to see anyone murdered, either. Granted, I did spy on cheating spouses and then turned the evidence over to the spouse who was being cheated on, but I hadn’t had a murder yet. A few divorces were in order, but no murders.
“We need to make sure all of the doors and windows are locked. Charles wants the security system engaged, and for Cortnie to stand guard at the front door,” I said to the group standing there. To Jackie, I said, “I need you to watch the back door. No one is to leave until everyone has been questioned.”
I turned around to see Piper flying up the stairs. The next thing I heard was a muffled cry.
Knowing Cortnie and Jackie would take care of things downstairs, I headed back up. I didn’t want to see Simone again, but it was my property, and I needed to know what was going on. When I got to the top of the stairs, Nick was coming out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
“Should I call the police?” I asked.
Nick looked perplexed. “We are the police. Homicide, in fact.”
Piper said, “I want to be with her,” and pushed toward the bathroom door.
Nick blocked her. “No Piper. We need to gather evidence, and I can’t have you in there.” Nick looked at Charles and me, and then he looked at Piper again. “Was everything okay between you two?”
Piper shoved Nick away. “You think I killed my partner?” She spun around and flew down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, I heard her scream, “Fuck you, Nick Christianson.”
Well, he did have that coming. I mean, it’s not always the lover who is the murderer.
I stepped closer to him, “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I have a mess on my hands.”
“Well, no shit, Sherlock.”
“I have a dead body in the bathroom, a pissed off partner whose life partner is dead, and a house full of suspects. Lucky me.” Nick rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger.
“You need to do something. This party has come to a standstill,” Charles whined.
“Charles.” I was flabbergasted at his attitude. “What is wrong with you?”
“What is wrong with me? This dead body and whoever murdered her just ruined my party.”
I couldn’t believe he was being so selfish. It was just a stupid New Year’s Eve party, so he could impress his friends. “Think of it this way: everyone will be talking about this for months.” I assured him.
“When it’s all said and done, I’m sure you’ll be the talk of the town.” Nick flipped open his notepad and scribbled in it.
“You keep that in your tux?” Charles asked.
“I always keep it with me.” He tucked it back in his pocket.
“What can I do to help?” I was anxious to get Simone’s body out of the bathroom.
“Since Charles is the host, I think he needs to sit everyone down and tell them what happened, and explain why no one is going to be able to leave for the time being.”
Charles sighed.
“Mimi, I want you to mingle, listen to conversation, get people talking and find out who hated Simone enough to kill her.” He leaned against the wall. “For now, I’m going to stay with her body.”
Charles and I went downstairs together. When he was four steps from the bottom, he said, “Listen up, everyone. I have an announcement. Please, everyone, gather around.”
Chapter 6
An audible gasp could be heard amongst the guests when Charles made his announcement. No one screamed or cried; they just stood there with their mouths agape.
“So, I hope you understand that no one is to leave until we have narrowed down the suspects and determined that the killer is or isn’t among us.”
Murmurs from everyone. Then someone asked, “Can we have our phones back then?”
Charles snapped, “No!”
“But we may be here all night,” another guest said. “I’ll have to call my babysitter.”
Charles looked pointedly at the man. “Mason, y
ou don’t even have kids.”
Laughter erupted. A woman was stabbed to death upstairs and these people were laughing. Personally, I wanted to cry. What a mess, and in my house, or business, whatever.
Charles made his way down the rest of the stairs and through the guests. I stopped at the bottom and said, “No one is to go upstairs. There’s nothing to see. Detective Christianson is taking care of this matter, and he’s watching the body.”
Just then, I was sure I heard voices upstairs. I strained to listen, but couldn’t hear anything. Once again, my imagination was running wild.
Charles stood by the buffet, talking to Anthony who looked more amused than upset. Their conversation became more intimate as they moved closer together. I was hoping Charles was informing him of our strategy.
As I moved towards them, I heard voices again, but this time they were downstairs, around the corner from the stairs. I looked through the banister to see who was talking.
There was a group of five, speaking in low voices. I knew Darcy and Clayton Summerall; they owned an art gallery in Monterey.
Charles and I had met them when we were working on an insurance fraud case. They were able to help us recover a fairly rare Eugene Garin seascape after the owner had said it was stolen and tried to collect the insurance money. Darcy’s contacts in the art world let us know that the owner of the Garin had a gambling problem and had used the painting as leverage against what he owed. Then the man had staged a robbery and the only thing stolen from his collection was the Garin. The insurance company thought this was odd and hired us to investigate.
Clayton and Charles went to a brunch one Sunday and there was the Garin, prominently place on the wall of a local businessman. Clayton casually asked him about the painting, and the owner of the restaurant admitted he’d won it in a poker game.
We collected our fee, and Darcy and Clayton invited us to gallery showings and dinner, and soon we were great friends.
“Can you believe this?” Darcy gestured toward the stairs.
When she did, she looked up and saw me. “Mimi, what’s going on?”
I stepped down to join their group. “I’m not sure how much I can say at this point.”
Clayton leaned in close. “Can you at least tell us who the victim is?”
I thought I was safe in revealing that information. “It was Simone Brouchard.”
The group exchanged looks. And Darcy said, “See, I told you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
I could see a glance between Darcy and Clayton. It was that look that married people give that no one else gets.
“Fine,” Clayton sighed. “When Darcy and I arrived, we were surprised that Charles had invited Simone to a party that Dollie and Guy Amagost were attending.”
Dollie and Guy were friends of Charles’ who I didn’t know very well. I knew Guy was a real estate investor who had lost a lot of money when the market turned. As far as I knew, they were still quite wealthy.
“What do Dollie and Guy have to do with anything?”
Darcy put her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Simone lost them a fortune.”
Great, murder over money? “What happened?”
“Remember the waterfront deal? There was supposed to be a minimum of ten condos constructed.”
I had no idea what they were talking about. Even though Monterey was only twenty miles away, I didn’t have much interest in the city. “Yes,” I lied.
A person whose name I didn’t know said, “Simone sucked Guy in for a cool two million, then the project went belly up.”
“So Simone is a real estate broker?” Until tonight, I’d never really thought about what Piper’s partner did for a living.
“And still is, even though people are leery of working with her. She’s doing more small deals these days,” Darcy said.
I looked around the room, wanting to ask Charles why he’d invited these people to the same party. The whole thing didn’t make sense. He was meticulous about his guest list, wanting everyone to have a great time.
Guy added, “No one in business real estate will even return her calls anymore.”
The other person in the group said, “There won’t be any calls to return now.”
“Thanks for the information. It’s interesting.” I sounded perplexed, even to myself, as I walked away. I turned back, “Please drink up and enjoy the champagne, so the night won’t seem so long.”
I decided to sneak through my office to get to the kitchen. I wanted to take a moment to take a deep breath and get the din of the party noise out of my head.
I opened the door and saw a silhouette of a woman sitting in one of the chairs in front of my desk. I flipped on the light to see it was Piper.
“Please turn it back off,” she said quietly.
I did. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“No. I just need to be alone.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Not one to take a hint, I sat in the chair next to hers. “I’m really sorry for your loss. But this is a murder, and there needs to be an investigation.”
I heard her suck in a deep breath before speaking. “I can’t investigate. I’m too close.” Then she turned to look at me. “You don’t think I could do something like this, do you?”
How the hell should I know? I barely knew the woman. We’d worked together on one of the previous murders I mentioned, but it’s not like she and I were friends, or like she and Simone had been invited to double date with Nick and me.
Nick really liked having Piper as a partner, but it was strictly business. They didn’t hang out when they were off duty. Outside of the police department, they lived very different lives. Piper and Simone traveled in the circles Charles traveled in; wealthy, prominent and snotty. Nick was just a blue collar guy, working his job and getting by.
“I’m not one to jump to any conclusions, but I want to point out that you were the last person upstairs before the body was discovered.”
Piper put her face in her hands. “Why would I have you go to that bathroom to check the door if I killed her? Don’t you think I’d wait? Then at the end of the party, when I was ready to leave, I’d ask, ‘Has anyone seen Simone?’”
She did have a point.
“Was there anyone here who had a grudge against Simone?” I wanted to see if she’d tell me about the Amogasts.
“Well, there’s that chick she just slammed up against the wall.” She sounded as if she was ticking off points. “The Amogasts.” A pause. “And I don’t know if Charles told you, but Simone had a run in with his caterer.”
It was as if Charles had been picking a fight when he made his guest list.
“Did he know you were bringing Simone tonight?” I was hoping Charles didn’t know Simone would be here.
“Sure. Simone and I have been out to dinner with Charles and Anthony plenty of times. Anthony and Simone get on quite swimmingly. To tell you the truth, I think the invitation said Simone Brouchard and Guest.” There was a hitch in Piper’s voice when she asked, “Why?”
I was done here. I’d been heading to the kitchen anyway, so now I’d ask the caterer a few questions. “No reason. Just stay in here as long as you like. I have to work the party and do some snooping.”
I stood to leave, and then I had a thought. “Did you ever see April come back into the house after Charles kicked her out?”
There was a beat before Piper answered. “No, why?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure it’s just my imagination, but when Nick and I went outside to get some sparkling cider, I swore I saw movement at the kitchen door. Like someone was sneaking in the house.” It was in my peripheral vision, so I couldn’t be sure I saw anything, but it was worth asking if Piper had seen April.
“I’m not sure being humiliated at a party is grounds for killing,” Piper said.
She was right. I left my office via the door to the kitchen and saw Jackie sitting at the table with the caterer, Selena Geisinger.
; Selena had owned It’s So Good Catering for two years. She’d purchased it from the previous owner when he retired. As far as I knew, the business had been flourishing under her watch. She’d certainly done a fantastic job on this party.
Selena and Jackie had been in deep conversation until I walked in the room. Then suddenly the talk stopped and both women looked up at me as if I’d caught them naked.
“Don’t stop on my account.” I grabbed a bottle of the real champagne from the refrigerator, snagged a towel off the counter, and popped the cork. I didn’t even bother with a glass. I drank straight from the bottle. I was going to have a hangover in the morning anyway, so why not enjoy getting there.
“Oh, we were done,” Jackie said.
There were plates of food in front of both women, and Jackie began picking at her food. Selena stood and started fussing with something in the oven.
“Selena, is there anything you need to attend to in here right away?” I had come in to talk to her, but now, seeing her and Jackie zip their lips when I walked in, I wanted to talk to Jackie more, and I wanted Selena out of my kitchen.
“No. The desserts won’t be ready for another fifteen minutes.” She stood close to the oven, like she was afraid I was going to smack her.
“Good, then I need you to leave me alone with Jackie.”
I’d barely finished the sentence before Selena was out the door, headed back toward the party goers.
I sat in the seat Selena had vacated. “So, is your date enjoying the party?”
Jackie shook her head. “You know that’s not why we are sitting here. But since you asked, he’s been really good about this whole thing.”
“Good. So what were you two hens pecking about?”
Jackie took a bite of the food on her plate. “Selena is probably going to file bankruptcy.”
I felt my heart sink. Bankruptcy was one of my biggest fears. When you grow up poor, or on the verge of being poor, you never want to go back to that. One of the reasons I worked up to a hundred hours a week and kept my staff to a minimum was that fear. “Why?”
Tagged, You're It (a novelette) (Gotcha Detective Agency Mysteries) Page 3