by Emmie Lyn
“You found a body in the house?” AJ frowned at me—no hello, what happened, or are you okay—preceded his blunt question.
“I think so,” I replied.
AJ’s jaw tensed, as did both hands visibly tightening into fists.
“We found a shoe inside a rolled up Persian rug,” I added, assuming that would clear up the matter.
“A shoe?” he said, each word dripping with disbelief. “Every emergency person and vehicle from Misty Harbor is here because you found a shoe?” He slapped the hood of Sue Ellen’s car.
Sue Ellen squeaked as if he’d made a direct hit on her person.
In an attempt to clear up the matter, Lily explained. “And we heard a phone ringing inside the rug.”
Sue Ellen slid out of her car, landing on AJ’s foot. She brushed off any possible injury to the detective with a wave of her hand and absent-minded, “Oh, sorry.” Clearly, she had more important things on her mind than taking down Misty Harbor’s finest. “I’ve been calling Judith,” she said urgently. “I’ve so much to do before the auction starts. She hasn’t answered. Did she lose her phone?”
Sue Ellen then seemed to notice all the activity. “I don’t think we need all this help just to find her phone.”
“Of course not.” I found my voice and my common sense. I pointed toward the house. “Something strange happened inside. Once that shoe ended up in my hand, well, that’s as far as we unrolled the rug.” I turned my focus to AJ. “You need to do the rest, Detective Crenshaw.” I shivered, imagining what he might find. “You can discover what else is rolled up in the rug, but my suspicion is that you’ll find Judith Manning.”
He answered my assessment with a sneer. “Give me a break, Dani. You heard a phone ring, then you found a shoe and you jumped to the conclusion that there’s a body wrapped in a rug?”
“And a foot. A foot was sticking out, too,” I added wondering why on earth I hadn’t mentioned the most important detail first.
Detective Crenshaw stormed away with an assortment of people in uniform tagging along. He shouted over his shoulder at us, “Don’t leave.”
“As if we could get out of here if we wanted to,” I mumbled as I looked at all the vehicles blocking us in.
Lily elbowed me and nodded toward Sue Ellen. She stood frozen, supported by her enormous car. With her mouth hanging open and her eyes the only part moving as she blinked over and over, her phone croaked like a frog. Too dumbstruck I guess to answer it, the ringtone did bring her back to earth. “A foot?” she asked, directing the question toward me. “You said a foot was sticking out of the rug?”
Then, without warning, all five feet two inches of the ruby red clad Sue Ellen slumped to the side and into my arms.
“I think reality hit her,” I said as I pushed the limp woman back onto the car seat.
“Finally,” Lily added. She moved between Sue Ellen and me, fanning her hand and patting Sue Ellen’s cheeks. “Sue Ellen! This is no time to faint.”
Sue Ellen’s eyes fluttered. “I think I must have been daydreaming.” She shook her head like she was trying to loosen a giant cobweb. “You didn’t say there was a foot sticking out of the rug, did you?”
Her eyes, dark and focused now, bore into me.
I placed my hand on Sue Ellen’s arm and softly consoled her. “You heard that correctly. I’m so sorry.”
“But it can’t be Judith. I need her by my side for this auction. She knows all the little details that I can never seem to remember. She whispers names that I forget of people who made sizable donations to the library and should get a special thank you. Stuff like that.” Tears trickled down Sue Ellen’s cheek. “What am I going to do?”
I shifted my gaze sideways at Lily, hoping she could help me with this awkward situation.
“Sue Ellen?” Lily paused, giving her a moment to wipe away her tears. “We aren’t one hundred percent sure who it is, but regardless, I think you’ll have to cancel the auction.”
Sue Ellen’s phone croaked again. She looked at it as if she had no clue what the device was for but did manage to lift it to her ear. “Hello?” she said weakly.
Several seconds of silence passed, during which Sue Ellen ignored us, leaving us in the dark about her conversation.
Finally she said, “It’s not a good time now,” in a somewhat snappish voice and I knew Sue Ellen was on her way to recovering from her ordeal. She hung up and announced, “That was Rudy. We were supposed to meet here. I didn’t tell him what happened. I couldn’t. Will you stay here and help me with this?”
Why did I think it was more of a command than a request?
“Of course,” Lily said, soothing Sue Ellen with her calm voice. She pulled a bottle of water from her bag and handed it to Sue Ellen. “Take a sip,” she ordered kindly. “You’ve had quite a shock.”
I moved away from Sue Ellen’s car. Lily’s voice faded in the background as I surveyed the surroundings. Looking for what? This was a disaster on so many levels. Who would kill Judith and why? I couldn’t see any neighboring homes through the surrounding dense foliage and landscaping, but someone may have seen something.
Detective Crenshaw brought me out of my sleuthing mentality as he approached me in his no-nonsense stride.
I flashed him my best welcoming smile, then withered under his intense glare.
Chapter Five
“A few questions, Dani.”
Detective Crenshaw took the position—hands on his hips, sunglasses covering his eyes, and his mouth set in a tight line. Was he trying to intimidate me?
I waited for his queries to come at me like he’d shot them from an assault rifle. Fast and hard. I shuffled from one foot to the other. A car pulled into the neighbor’s driveway, arriving home too late to have seen the action. Too bad.
My friend AJ, or maybe my former friend, judging by his stance, said, “You were right about the body. It was Judith Manning inside the rug. One question. Why did you suspect her in the first place?”
He might have had me under a spotlight, from his determined gaze. I tried to make it short and sweet. “Okay,” I said, gathering my thoughts for clarity. “Here’s everything I know. Lily and I arrived to deliver all the desserts for the auction tonight. We saw the champagne delivery driver from Misty Harbor Spirits, zooming down the driveway, almost running us into the bushes.”
AJ held up his hand to silence me. “First things first, the auction won’t be happening. Now continue. So, you arrived with the desserts. What happened next?” AJ had his notebook open and his pencil poised for taking notes.
“Right off the bat, we saw Judith’s car parked right there.” I pointed it out in case he’d missed it. “You can see for yourself, it’s still there. We assumed she was checking all the last-minute stuff like she was supposed to.”
I closed my eyes, picturing the enormous kitchen as it was when we arrived. “After we carried all the boxes of desserts inside, we couldn’t find any serving platters. Lily suggested we look for Judith. As we entered the main room where the reception was going to be held, we heard a door slam somewhere else in the house. Since Judith wasn’t around, I thought she left to get help.”
I turned my head to the mansion and shivered at the memory.
AJ jotted in his notebook. “Help for what?”
“The quilt. It was all tangled on the floor. It was supposed to be the star of the show. You know, it’s being auctioned off to raise money for the library. You must have seen the signs all over town.”
He mumbled something so I guessed he knew what I meant. “But there was no quilt on the floor.” He scrunched his brows together letting me know I’d better get my story straight before he put me in cuffs.
“It’s on the Queen Anne chair in the living room. Lily and I carefully folded it while we waited for Judith to return,” I explained. “Well, we thought she was going to return. Before … you know …”
“Let me get this straight. You two just ambled into this fancy room, looking for Judith.
Why?”
I liked AJ, most of the time. We went way back. But sometimes I had to wonder how he made it to detective. I bit my tongue before I snapped out, aren’t you listening? Instead, I politely reminded him, “I told you. We needed serving trays for the desserts. Judith was the detail person for this event, and it seemed logical that she would know where they were. I didn’t want to just start poking around in Sue Ellen’s cupboards.”
I heard the annoyance creep into my voice but what did AJ expect? He was seriously treating me like he thought I’d murdered Judith.
When he said, “Calm down, Dani,” I took a deep breath and put on my best friendly smile. AJ said, “Look, I just want to understand every detail. So, you two are in this big fancy room, a quilt is on the floor. Why did you begin to unroll one of the rugs? It was obvious that Sue Ellen was moving the furniture and rugs out of the way. Why unroll one of them?”
I knew I was repeating myself, but I went over it anyway. I called up every ounce of patience and said, “We heard a phone ringing. We kept walking around to find the phone and as we got closer, we just knew it was coming from inside the rug.”
I shuddered at the memory. “At the time, it made sense to find the phone.” To myself I thought, at the time it might have made sense but in hindsight, I wished I’d left the desserts in the kitchen for someone else to deal with and just snagged Lily and driven home.
I turned my head at the sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel behind me. Now what?
“What are you doing here?” Annoyance dripped from AJ’s words like melted chocolate—slow and thick—as he glowered at Maggie Marshall. “I’m working.”
Without skipping a beat, Maggie’s lips parted into a stellar smile, her ice blue t-shirt setting off her trim curves honed at some trendy fitness gym, I was sure. “Oh, come on AJ, I’m only in town for the weekend. By the looks of all these vehicles here, something must be going on. Let me help. I’ll put my expert investigative skills to work.” She winked and rewarded AJ with her killer smile. “No charge, but only for you.”
I hadn’t seen Maggie since the previous month when she visited Lily. According to what Lily told me, bumping into AJ was the best thing that had happen to Maggie and what brought her back to Misty Harbor. I had a sneaky suspicion that AJ didn’t share her view. And if I didn’t think this was turning out to be one of the worst days I’d had this century, finding myself in the middle of a confrontation between these two was the topper.
To keep AJ’s temperament cordial so he’d act halfway civil to me, I looped my arm through Maggie’s well-toned one. “How about we let AJ do his job. It looks like he needs some time to digest your generous offer.” Then I deftly turned her around and led her back to Sue Ellen’s Escalade. As soon as AJ and the crew were out of earshot, I said, “Let me fill you in on what little I know while AJ comes around to your offer.” Or not.
Maggie quickly displayed the type of petulant behavior that might, now I can’t be sure of this, but just might, put a guy like AJ off. She turned up her whine and asked, “Why wouldn’t he want my help?” like a spoiled little girl who was used to always getting her way.
Right now, I spoke calmly and serenely, not my normal style by a long shot, as I explained, “He’s a detective, Maggie. He has to follow the rules. You’re a private investigator and you might … circumvent some rules. But the bigger problem is probably his ego. Want some advice?”
Maggie rolled her eyes. Why was I not surprised? “Not really,” she said, “but I’ve got a feeling that wasn’t really a question that could have a no answer.”
“Never mind.” I shrugged. “Figure it out yourself, then.” I dropped her arm and walked over to Lily and Sue Ellen. Now that I was all calm and serene, I figured I was in the right mood to help Lily calm Sue Ellen down.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I heard. Maggie jogged to catch up to me. “A little touchy?”
“Not at all. You either want my advice or you don’t and either way is fine with me.” I stared at Maggie knowing that she knew how badly she’d misjudged me with her cutesy-pie answer.
I saw the look of defeat as she said, “Okay, I’m all ears. Ever since I was last in town, I haven’t been able to get AJ out of my head. What’s your advice?”
I sized up Maggie—attractive but her dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail gave her an intimidating look. I let her sweat for a moment while she wondered if I would give her advice or not.
When I decided I had tortured her enough, I said, “If you’re serious about listening to what I have to offer, here it is—back off. AJ likes to control situations, so if you have a problem with that, you might as well climb in your Explorer and leave right now.”
I tipped my head to one side and raised my brows before I added my last bit of advice. “Or, at least, let him think he’s in control. Can you do that?”
A toothy grin met my eyes. “I’ll have to.” She nodded to all the cars in the driveway. “So, what’s going on here?”
I nodded my head at Sue Ellen, speaking gently. “AJ just confirmed our worst fears. We found Judith Manning murdered in Sue Ellen’s house.”
Now, it was Maggie who raised her eyebrows as her jaw dropped. “A murder? No wonder AJ bit my head off.”
As I studied Sue Ellen, I could see she had pulled herself together. And even though Maggie and I had kept our voices low, Sue Ellen had overheard us. She walked away from Lily to join us and fixed Maggie with a determined stare. “Apparently, someone killed my best friend,” she said with new steel in her voice. “And whoever did it, will now have to deal with me.”
Maggie popped her eyes open, apparently not expecting the dynamo who stood poised and ready for a fight. She held her hand out to Sue Ellen. “I’ve come to the right place at the right time, then,” she said. “Maggie Marshall, Private Investigator.”
Sue Ellen’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she considered Maggie, then she switched her gaze to me. “You know her, Dani? She seems a bit too full of herself for my liking.”
I bit back a laugh. Apparently, it didn’t take Sue Ellen long to size someone up. “She’s all good, Sue Ellen,” I said.
“Okay, then, Ms. Maggie Marshall, Private Investigator. You’re hired.”
Maggie rubbed her hands together. “This will be interesting.”
I had to agree, but I suspected it wouldn’t be interesting in the ways Maggie imagined.
Chapter Six
Detective AJ Crenshaw approached us—Sue Ellen, Lily, Maggie, and me—where we were gathered next to Sue Ellen’s Escalade. He snapped his fingers and said, “Time to move along ladies, everyone except Sue Ellen. You come with me.”
Sue Ellen’s face fell. “Um, why me, detective?” In the blink of an eye, AJ’s harsh glare melted her composure from moments ago.
“Is this your home, Sue Ellen?” AJ pointed to the estate behind them. A bit snarky I thought, but then I realized he was running a murder investigation and that took a level of efficiency that I didn’t always consider.
Sue Ellen nodded meekly.
“That’s why. I need your help inside.”
The color in Sue Ellen’s face drained away. “Will I—”
AJ put his hand on Sue Ellen’s arm and seemed to remember he was dealing with someone’s feelings. His kindness returned and with a gentle voice told her, “You won’t have to see Judith.”
“Okay, then.” She tried to suppress it, but a sob burst forth when she said, “I don’t think I’m ready for that, yet.”
Lily hugged Sue Ellen. “Call when you’re done, and we’ll help with anything.”
“Thank you. I feel like … well … like I’m moving through a nightmare.” She swiped a tear off her cheek. “Any minute I expect to wake up and find my life is back to normal instead of this … this horror.”
“You three can leave for now,” AJ said. “I have Dani’s statement.” He took Sue Ellen’s elbow and guided her away from her car and suggested, “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
As they walked toward the house, their voices faded, but I heard AJ’s words. “It’s important to know if this was a violent break-in and robbery or something else.” Then, they disappeared inside the house.
“Did you hear what AJ said?” Lily asked me as we walked back to my car. “I never thought of that. Maybe someone planned to break into Sue Ellen’s estate and Judith just happened to be there.”
“But now?” I said, dismissing that idea. “Hours before a big event? Who would think that’s a smart plan?”
Maggie chuckled but it didn’t have any mirth behind it. “I hate to be the person to break this to you Dani, but criminals aren’t always the sharpest knife in the kitchen.” She paused with her finger raised to make a suggestion. “Here’s an idea. With delivery people in and out of Sue Ellen’s house, someone could have hung back to case the place. Just from looking at the outside of this mansion, I’d assume she has plenty of valuables inside. Someone got sticky fingers, and it went horribly wrong for the victim when she got in the way.”
I considered that and gave her a reluctant nod. “I suppose that’s possible. We saw evidence that delivery people had come to the house sometime today. By the time we arrived to deliver the desserts, the flowers already decorated the room for the auction, and someone had stacked cases of champagne in the kitchen.”
Maggie gave me an I-told-you-so smirk. “AJ will get details about who let them in the house from Sue Ellen. Did she leave a key for them, or leave the door unlocked, or was Judith there the whole time?” She seemed to have her eye on everything as she surveyed the surroundings. “It’s time to talk to the neighbors,” she said, and headed down the driveway. From her determined stride, she was not a woman to waste time.
“Wait.” I jogged to catch up. “Where are we starting?”
The question needed no answer when Lily chimed in, “There’s Sue Ellen’s neighbor getting his mail. A stroke of luck.” She leaned close to me. “He’s Judith’s husband.”