‘Well, that’s a shame. I’ve never been too fond of the Athenas.’ M.J. shot me a conspiratorial half-smile.
The Athenas? What did he mean by that? Though he had his mom’s coffee-brown eyes, I could see his dad in his smile. It saddened me. I wondered how he was holding up. Should I offer my therapist’s name? She was really good. Unfortunately I didn’t have the strength to ask.
Marvin returned and they helped lift me into the wheelchair. Then he fed me some aspirin and water with a straw, picked up the dog’s leashes and we were off.
The room was dark, the thick curtains pulled tight as I returned to the land of the living. Someone was knocking softly. ‘Hang on,’ I mumbled, trying to untangle myself from the sheets, the dogs and my own blurry dream state.
Holding my head steady with one palm, I opened the door and squinted at Novia. Buddha stayed on the bed, but Petey was pushing against my leg to get pets from this new human. I’d have to work on his door manners.
‘Hola.’ She held up a bottle of aspirin and shook it, wincing as she saw my mouth. ‘Mr Marvin, he asked me to check on you. Give you more of dese and take care of dogs.’
My heart melted. I wondered if Marvin would adopt me. Was I too old to be adopted? Well, I wasn’t too old … or proud … to know I needed help, that’s for sure. ‘Thanks, Novia.’ I opened the door wider to let her in and went to get the dogs’ leashes. I saw my phone blinking on the table. The message was from Devon.
I listened to it as Novia retrieved a bottle of water from the mini-fridge.
‘Hey, Love. Just wanted to let you know I had a quick chat with Salma. She says Michael’s wife doesn’t believe he had a mistress. Selene said Breezy may very well have been in love with him but he wouldn’t cheat on her. He’s not that kind of man. So, no information on that front, sorry. Oh, also, Sven was not on the interview list. Salma said she’d ask Selene when he left the party. Anyway, I’m sure you’re in class now so I’ll give you a ring later.’
Class. Right. If he only knew.
‘Is from Mr Burke? Any news?’ Novia looked at me hopefully. She was clutching the water bottle in both hands like a lifeline.
I shook my head then gripped the table edge as the room tilted sideways. ‘Whooa.’
Novia grabbed my elbow and held me steady. ‘You need rest.’
As she helped me back into bed, I took her hand. ‘How is ’reezy? Have you talked to her?’ B’s were impossible with swollen lips.
‘No. But our madre has visited her. She’s very scared.’
I nodded. I couldn’t imagine visiting my daughter in prison, especially if she’d been accused of murder. Then I did imagine. If I had a daughter, I would do everything in the world to protect her. Did that include lying to the police to keep her out of prison? Is that what Selene did when she gave her daughter, Cali, an alibi?
‘We’re not giving u’ until we find out the truth. I ’romise.’ P’s were not much easier. I was gaining a new appreciation for my lips. I guess they were good for more than making out with hunky Irish detectives, though I was a big fan of that particular skill.
Apparently she understood me anyway because a sheen of tears appeared in her eyes. The hurt and fear were almost palpable. ‘Muchas gracias, Elle.’ She squeezed my hand and then went to retrieve the water and aspirin.
I felt bad. What I should’ve said was Devon would find out the truth. I would cheer him on from the safety of the sideline. But she didn’t need to know that – it would just make her feel bad for not paying him.
The bottle was hard to navigate. As I poured more of it down the front of my T-shirt than in my mouth, she cracked a smile. ‘Oh. I should maybe have brought you straw? I get you towel.’
‘Thanks.’ It hurt to smile back as she handed me the towel.
She clapped her hands and picked up their leashes. ‘OK, come on dogs. Vamos.’
Buddha slid halfway off the bed, stretched his back legs and then dropped them onto the floor. Petey was already turning circles at the door.
‘Thanks, Novia. Just let yourself in when you ’ring them ’ack.’
My next foray into consciousness was in the middle of the night, and I noticed I had an extra dog in bed. Along with Buddha stretched out along my right side and Petey pinning me down and snoring on my left, Angel was curled up at my feet. Great.
Most people would kill for a visit from their long-deceased childhood dog, and I did love seeing her and knowing she was still around in some sense. I just didn’t love what her visits meant: that there would be danger ahead for me. She always showed up to warn me when something was about to go very wrong in my life. She was a bit late this time, I mused. Her shining eyes met mine. ‘Hi, girl.’ I squinted in the dimly lit room. Was it my imagination or was she more solid than she’d been in the past?
NINE
The next morning Angel had gone and the band in my head had thankfully taken a break. The swelling had gone down some but my lips were still tender. I iced them until they were numb and then gingerly brushed my teeth. After a cold shower I texted Devon, explaining I’d busted my lip in an accident and it’d be easier to communicate by text than to call. He didn’t reply back. I pushed away the fear that something might’ve gone terribly wrong in their investigation. Or that he and Detective Vargas had to stay up all night on a stake-out, sharing fast food and old memories. Or maybe they were undercover at a fancy restaurant, sipping on expensive wine and laughing together. ‘Sto’ it.’ I scolded myself out loud, throwing my toothbrush into the sink. What is wrong with you? Sometimes I truly think my own mind is my worst enemy.
After I let the dogs play out in the still-squishy gardens for a bit I brought them back in, wiped down their wet legs and paws then walked them downstairs so I could check on the progress of the studio floors.
The French doors were closed and someone had marked through the ‘Classes will be held in the garden’ sign and written in black marker: ‘Class canceled until further notice.’ It was a reminder of how much money I was losing to this stupid … I stopped. Stupid what? Curse? Good grief, had I really started to believe it? Shaking my head, I peeked through the glass above the sign. Through the dust I could see two people in white jumpsuits and white masks working. Some kind of hum was coming from inside, too. Like a generator. I sighed. I wasn’t an expert in wood floor repair but that did not look good.
Since I wasn’t going to be able to work today, I took the dogs back to the suite for their breakfast. There were some extra treats in a bag on the table next to the two bowls of food, which had been prepared at Café Belle. Probably hormone-free, grass-fed, Harvard-educated free-range chicken. ‘Don’t get used to it,’ I said as I moved the bowls to the floor for the patiently waiting dogs. At least I’d been able to train Petey not to knock me over when I fed him. Trying not to knock me over at the door was next on the training list.
I would have killed for a cup of ginger tea. Instead I texted Hope while the dogs inhaled their food:
Need dress for Saturday night, got anything?
Yah! Girl fun, I need some. Wanna come over after class?
Class is canceled. Come pick me up; explain when you get here.
On my way.
I hung outside with Marvin for a few minutes as I waited. We talked about the coming cold front. Marvin apparently was looking forward to it. I glanced up at the dark clouds still blotting out the sun. To me, it seemed ominous. I’d take a sunny, choking-on-the-humidity summer day anytime over this. But maybe that was just what I was used to.
Hope’s Jaguar rounded the fountain. When I opened the door and slid in, she gasped.
‘Oh my God in heaven! What happened to your …’ She paused, fury pinking her cheeks. ‘Did Devon do that to you? Did he hit you? I knew that man was too good to be true!’
I stopped her protective tirade with a hand on her arm. ‘No. ’Etey, Devon’s dog, ’ulled me down.’
She eyed me suspiciously as her anger dissipated. ‘You wouldn’t lie to me,
would you?’
‘Uh uh.’ I tried to smile as I held up my pinky. ‘’Inky swear.’
She wrapped her pinky in mine. Pinky swear was sacred. Never to be used to cover a lie. ‘All right, then.’ She chuckled as she pulled away from the Pampered Pup. ‘You know women pay my husband thousands of dollars for lips like that.’
‘Ha ha.’
‘Do you think my ’om will do anything e’barrassing if I introduce her to Devon?’ I was contemplating a black satin dress in Hope’s full-length mirror. We’d already gone through half-a-dozen dresses and the stories of my recent string of bad luck. I even told her about Flavia thinking I’d been cursed by the evil eye, which she laughed off. Hope had always been the rational one in our dynamic duo.
‘Of course she will. She’s your mother.’ Hope cocked her head at me from her cross-legged perch on the king-sized bed. ‘Are you thinking about introducing them?’
I tugged at the black satin, trying to see if I could get it to cover more of my cleavage. ‘Do you have anything with more material on top?’ I unzipped the side zipper and wiggled out of the tight dress. ‘And yes. She’s been bugging me to ’eet him for weeks.’
Hope slid off the bed and sauntered off into her closet, which was big enough to park a camper in. She emerged from the cedar bowels of organizational heaven with two more black dresses – one a short taffeta cocktail number with spaghetti straps and a modest neckline, and a longer one with a slit up each leg to the top of the thigh. ‘Here, I forgot your legs are your best assets. One of these should work. Ira prefers me in the plunging neckline to show off his work. Sometimes I feel like a walking advertisement.’
I laughed and rolled my eyes as she puffed out her chest and strutted around the room. ‘You’re ridiculous.’ I slipped into the taffeta dress first. ‘Anyway, I need to go home to get ’y bike and some winter clothes anyway. So, I thought I’d ’ring Devon and get her off my ’ack.’
‘Riiight. What’s the worst that can happen?’
I glanced at Hope in the mirror. She was sitting on the edge of the bed now, swinging her legs and smirking at me.
‘I know what you’re thinking. Come zi’ me u’.’
‘What?’ Hope hopped off the bed. Her cool fingers zipped up the dress as she grinned at me in the mirror. ‘Surely she would not come stumbling out of the bedroom drunk and naked a second time.’ She couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
I whirled around. ‘As you’ll remember that was a ’ery traumatic time in my life so I don’t know why you ’ind it so ’unny.’ But I was starting to laugh, too. Gingerly. Was it possible I could really laugh at this? After all, I half blamed that incident for the reason Tommy Mathers went off and left me without looking back.
I did laugh then as I remembered that day, still so clearly etched in my psyche. Being so excited to introduce her to the love of my life. Calling to her that we were there. The horror as she stumbled out of her bedroom without a stitch of clothing.
The peals of laughter came from me in manic bursts and felt so good, like a release. Clutching my own stomach, I watched Hope wipe at her eyes and try to catch her breath.
I leaned against her dresser. ‘Oh, God. I’ll never ’orget the look on Tommy’s face. He was so horri’ied, so e’arrassed. He just ’olted out the door. I’m sure he ’robably still has nightmares.’
‘Wait, wait,’ Hope got out between her snorting laughs. She grabbed my hand. ‘Did you just say his name?’ Her eyes grew round in surprise. Or mock surprise, I’m not sure which.
‘Yeah, I guess I’m finally over him, huh? Only fifteen years later.’ It didn’t even hurt. Not one little bit. Interesting.
She squeezed me in a tight hug. ‘Oh my God. You really are in love!’
‘Oh, sto’ it,’ I laughed, trying to squirm out of her grip. ‘And ow, ow … watch ’y ’outh.’
‘I can’t believe it. We have to celebrate. I’m taking you to the mainland. You can’t work today anyway.’ She let me go, hopped away and then whirled back around. ‘Oh, and that’s definitely the dress.’
I hoped they had straws wherever she was about to drag me to. I turned and gave myself the once-over. Yep. This was the dress.
TEN
The next morning I shuffled the dogs out into the gardens and let them off their leashes in the fenced area to play. I wore my sunglasses, even though a blanket of heavy grey clouds with dark bellies still blotted out the sun. Turned out the place Hope took me last night did have straws … stuck in oversized, delicious frozen margaritas. Three of them. I was possibly feeling worse than I’ve ever felt in my life, except for the time the stomach flu hit me on the school bus and I had to jump out the back emergency exit at a stop light and camp out in a gas station bathroom for an hour before Hope’s dad could give me a ride home. That was a pretty bad day, too. My skull took another assault from the bowling ball rolling around inside it. I whimpered.
Someone, presumably Rita, had left a new note on the studio door that said indoor doga classes would resume on Friday morning. That note would be the bright spot of my day. I pressed a flip-flop harder into the grass. Water squished up. Yeah, there’d been no sun to dry out the ground. So what would I do with myself today?
Devon had texted me last night that he’d pick me up after my last Friday class. I felt kind of lost. I watched Petey run around, tossing up a tennis ball he’d found and trying to get Buddha to play with him. There was also an older Lab with a gray mask ambling around, sniffing the edges of the fence. A lady sat on the west side of the fence, busy on her cell phone. I assumed the Lab was hers. I rarely saw anyone bring their small dogs out here and let them run loose. Those lucky pups mostly rode around in golf carts, dressed in their cute little designer outfits that cost more than my whole wardrobe. Who was I kidding? The few clothes I owned didn’t qualify as a wardrobe.
Was there something I could do to help out with Breezy’s case without putting myself in danger? Probably not much in my condition. Thinking was even a challenge right now.
I decided a long nap was in order. Luckily, the dogs were always up for a nap.
Three hours later I woke up feeling much better. The monster headache had quieted to a tap now and again. I pulled the curtains open, feeling restless. As I stared out at the beautiful dark blue Gulf waters and the edge where they met the city of Clearwater, I held an ice pack on my mouth and thought about Michael’s death. I couldn’t not think about it. I wished I hadn’t been the one to find him. Then I could’ve remembered him as the happy-go-lucky guy I’d met instead of a blue-faced corpse hanging from the kitchen rafters.
Hope had asked me last night if I thought Breezy was innocent. I had said yes and meant it. So why was I just standing here freezing my face? There had to be something I could do. Whether I liked it or not, I was already involved. I just had to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid and bring myself to the attention of the real murderer. I could do that.
Grabbing my phone, I dropped the ice pack in the sink and texted Devon to ask if the police were still processing the Beckleys’ mansion. He responded fairly quickly with a yes.
Good! That meant that the Beckleys were still staying at the Pampered Pup. I really needed to meet Cali and get a sense of what kind of person she was. Contrary to how she acted on the night of his murder, was she devastated that her father’s dead? Or was she relieved? Does she feel guilt over their fight before he died? Or did she care at all?
Devon had texted me more information about what Selene had told Detective Farnsworth. Apparently Selene had been trying to get Cali to take her medication but Cali wanted Selene to confront her dad first so she wouldn’t take it. What exactly did she do to make her dad so angry that he was cutting her off from the family fortune? And I needed to find this out without being obvious about it and making anyone suspicious of my motives. Easy, right?
I washed my face and eyed my mouth. My lips were almost back to normal. Just that pesky cut inside from my teeth still s
marted. Pulling my auburn hair in a messy bun atop my head and then slipping into the well-worn black sundress I’d stuffed into my backpack, I kissed the dogs. ‘Don’t chew up anything while I’m gone.’
On my way down the hall, a new maid, who Rita had hired for the tourist season, was backing her cart out of one of the suites. She had a round, ruddy face under short cropped gray hair.
‘Hello.’ She nodded and smiled shyly at me.
‘Hi, we haven’t met yet.’ I held out my hand. ‘I’m Elle, the doga instructor here. Sorry, I forgot to hang the occupied sign on the door but my two dogs are in suite 306 if you’ll be going in there. They’re big but friendly.’
‘No problem.’ She shook my hand with her own, which was warm and dry. ‘Patsy.’ She chuckled. ‘Yeah, I heard about the doggie yoga here. That must be a fun job.’ Her accent held a hint of southern roots.
‘Most of the time,’ I answered, suddenly and happily aware I could make the M sound again. Thank the stars for small miracles. ‘Hey, there wasn’t a dog that got loose from one of the suites a couple of nights ago, was there?’
Her eyes widened a little and she glanced down the hall. ‘No, none got loose that I know of.’ Her expression shifted and brightened. ‘But Miss Rita did tell us she’s been getting complaints from guests hearing a dog barking in the hallway at night or scratching on their door. No one’s reported a dog missing, though. Did you hear something, too?’
I shrugged, trying to be casual. Teaching doga was enough weirdness; I didn’t want it to get around that I was hearing a non-existent dog scratching at my door. ‘No, just heard the rumors and wondered if you’d seen anything. Well, thanks. It was nice to meet you.’
I’d have to ask Rita more details about that later. Right now I was a girl on a mission.
I checked Café Belle first. I couldn’t actually afford to eat there more than once a month but it was a favorite hangout for the guests and regulars alike. Also, now that the hangover was receding, my stomach was letting me know it was ready for solid food. I tested the cut inside my lip. Tender but I could at least handle some soup. My stomach rumbled. I did not appreciate the direct access it had to my thoughts.
High Jinx Page 7