Paint the Town Dead

by Sybil Johnson

  “Right there.” Rory pointed at the phone’s display. “She has one now.”

  “Let’s go back and see if we can spot where it came from,” Detective Green said.

  Stella backed up the footage until they saw the moment the woman picked up the glass off the signing table. She paused the video at the spot.

  “Rewind some more. See who put it there,” the detective directed.

  Rory’s mouth dropped open when she saw her own hand place the glass on the table. “That was my glass.”

  Detective Green stared at the frame, then at Rory. “Why did you put it on the table? Were you putting it there for Viveca to take? That is where she sat during most of the event.”

  Rory shook her head vigorously. “No. I just didn’t want alcohol that early in the day so I set it down and went to get a glass of sparkling cider instead.” She stared in horror at the man. “It was meant for me, wasn’t it? The GHB.”

  “Certainly looks that way.” He motioned to Stella. “Back it up a bit more. Let’s see if we can see where Rory got that glass.”

  As they watched that section of the video again, Rory looked for the moment when she first held the glass in her hand. While they could see when she had it in her hand, they couldn’t tell where she’d gotten it from.

  “Do you remember where you got it?” Detective Green asked.

  Rory replayed the moment in her mind. “Someone handed it to me.” She looked him straight in the eyes. “But I don’t remember who.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Rory said, her voice becoming fainter as the implications of the revelation finally sunk in. “There were too many people around.”

  As Stella played the last clip, Rory’s mind wasn’t on the actions in the video, but on what would have happened if she’d drunk from the glass. Someone wanted her dead ran over and over in her mind. Jasmine’s murderer might not have liked her investigating. Or maybe Oscar Carlton had sent someone to drug her in retaliation for her foiling his blackmail scheme.

  After all the footage had been reviewed, Detective Green thanked Stella for her time. Before the woman left she said to Rory, “Could you take me to the airport tomorrow afternoon? I have a flight from LAX.”

  After agreeing on a time to meet in the lobby, Stella went on her way.

  As soon as the woman was out of earshot, the detective said, “What have you been up to that someone would want you dead? Have you done something you haven’t told me about?”

  It must have something to do with her investigation into Jasmine’s death, Rory thought. She remained silent, unsure what to say.

  Detective Green studied her for a moment, then stood up. “Let me know if you think of anything.” He stuffed his notepad and the newspaper articles in his pocket and, without looking back, walked out the front door of the hotel.

  As the automatic doors closed behind him, all Rory wanted to do was run to her parents’ house and feel her mother’s comforting arms around her.

  When Liz walked into the lobby, tote bag full of painting supplies slung over one shoulder, and carrying a box of extra wood pieces that hadn’t been used in her class, she sank down on the couch next to Rory. She took one look at her friend and said, “What happened?”

  In halting words, Rory told Liz what she’d discovered about Viveca, the accident, how Jasmine was in the car, and how Mel’s cousin was in the other car and had been killed.

  “I didn’t intend to tell him. I really didn’t. I would never have shown him those articles unless I knew, for sure, that Mel had killed Viveca. I tried to hide them from him,” Rory insisted. “He was angry. I mean, really, really angry.”

  “He’ll get over it.”

  But will his girlfriend? Rory wondered. She hadn’t intended to hurt the woman. “I don’t think he believed me when I said I didn’t remember where the glass that had the GHB in it came from, either.”

  When Liz looked confused, Rory explained what they’d discovered from the video Stella had taken of the event about the glass Viveca drank from.

  Liz curled her feet under her. “Wow. Certainly sounds like you were the target. Maybe we should take you to a hypnotist. They can help people remember things they didn’t realize they knew.”

  “I don’t think that would work. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see anything.”

  “Pretty sure is not definite.”

  Rory glanced at the time on her cell phone. “We don’t have time for it now. We’d better get going. Brandy’s waiting for us to pick her up for dinner. We can talk about this later.”

  As they headed to the car, Rory vowed to buy some of those test coasters the college student had told her about. From now on, she intended to test every liquid she drank in a public place before taking a single sip.

  Chapter 28

  After picking up Brandy, the three young women stopped off at a local Chinese takeout place and bought their dinner.

  When Rory pulled into her driveway, Brandy peered through the window of the car at the single-story stucco house. “This is where you live?” she said, a note of dismay in her voice.

  “What did you expect?” Rory asked.

  “I’m not sure. When you said you inherited a house from your grandmother, I thought it would be...Never mind, I don’t know what I was thinking, to be honest.”

  “It’s a nice place. I really love it. Very Goldilocks. Not too big, not too small. Just the right size for me.”

  Brandy looked at Rory, an apology in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m just not thinking these days, you know.”

  “Let’s go in the front door so Brandy can get the full effect,” Rory said to the two other women.

  Liz got out of the car and headed toward the porch, carrying the bags of food. Instead of following her, Brandy walked across the lawn and stood in front of the window that had been replaced. Rory went over to join her friend.

  “Is this it?” Brandy said. “The one that was damaged?”

  “That’s right. How did you know?”

  Brandy gestured toward the bush obscuring the bottom inch or two of the glass. “Some of the branches are broken. I just figured.”

  After they studied the window for a few minutes, Rory said, “Let’s go inside. The food’s getting cold.”

  Brandy took a last lingering look at the area before heading over to the front door.

  The three of them trooped inside and settled down in the living room with their food. Rory sat in a chair while the other two young women shared the couch. Balancing plates on their laps, they served themselves from containers filled with kung pao chicken, beef with broccoli, sweet and sour chicken, and vegetable eggrolls. During dinner, the three of them talked about the convention and Brandy’s plans for the future.

  After she finished eating, Liz walked over to study the window that had been replaced. “The glass people did a nice job. Doesn’t even look like you need to paint. You’ll have to give me their name so I can recommend them to my clients.” She returned to the living room and curled up on the sofa next to Brandy. “Have the police found out who threw the rock yet?”

  Rory set her empty plate on the coffee table and picked up her water glass. “No. I doubt they ever will. The guy I saw outside the Akaw handing out flyers denied that his protest group had anything to do with it.”

  “He’s right,” Brandy said. “We’re better than that. And any warning messages we’d give out wouldn’t be printed on pink paper.”

  Rory peered at her friend over her glass, studied her face for a minute, then carefully placed the glass down on the coffee table. “What did you say?”

  “The note. It was stupid.”

  Rory did her best to channel Detective Green’s steely gaze as she stared at her friend. “How do you know the note was printed, not written, on pink paper?”

  “It was in the newspaper.” Brandy looked from Liz’s open mouth to Rory’s hard gaze. “Wasn’t it?” she finally squeaked out.

  “N
o, it wasn’t. So how did you know?” Rory said.

  “Lucky guess?”

  Rory thought back to junior high and the games of softball she’d endured during P.E. class. Brandy had thrown a ball farther and faster than anyone else, even then. “You threw it, didn’t you? You’re the one who broke my window.”

  “I didn’t know it was your house, honest. I didn’t even know the address of the place we hit. The driver just stopped the car and pointed at your house, told me I should throw the rock through that window. Then I got back in the car and we drove off as fast as we could.”

  “So when I asked you about it in the hotel room, you were lying. When you found out a rock went through my window, you must have known it was my house you hit.”

  “No.” Brandy vehemently shook her head. “I thought someone else in the group had thrown the rock through your window. A bunch of us went out in pairs, a driver and a thrower, I guess you’d call it. We each had a house to hit, all over town, at the same time. I figured I’d hit someone else’s.”

  “That’s just what you wanted to believe,” Liz said.

  “The man I saw passing out the flyers outside the hotel denied his group did the egging or the rock throwing. He was very adamant about it,” Rory said.

  “Did he have a goatee and tattoo here?” Brandy touched the right side of her neck.

  “That’s right.”

  “He wasn’t lying.”

  Rory threw up her hands in frustration. “What are you talking about? You can’t have it both ways. Either the group threw the eggs and the rocks or they didn’t. Unless...” She cocked her head. “...are we talking two groups?”

  “That’s right. Brian, that’s the name of the guy with the tattoo, wanted to be all sit-in and peaceful protest. We had a hard time convincing him to plant the stink bomb. He finally agreed when we told him they’d stunk up our lives, so we should stink up theirs. He liked the way that sounded. Anyway, a group of us decided to...branch out.”

  “Like a rogue element?” Liz asked.

  “That’s right.”

  “Whose idea was that?” Rory asked.

  Brandy took a deep breath. “Jasmine’s.”

  Rory blinked several times, not quite believing what she’d just heard. “Our Jasmine?”

  Brandy nodded.

  Rory put her head in her hands. She was having trouble keeping everything straight in her mind. She couldn’t keep track of what was a lie and what was the truth. She sat up and looked into Brandy’s eyes. “So everything you told me in the hotel room about Jasmine and how she followed you because she thought you and Peter were having an affair was a lie?”

  “Not everything. She really did think we were having an affair, which we weren’t, but that wasn’t the reason she was in the room.”

  “Tell it to me once again,” Rory said. “From the beginning. Don’t leave anything out. The whole truth this time.”

  Brandy stared at the wall opposite her, gathering her thoughts. She took a deep breath before launching into her explanation. “Okay. Where should I start? Jasmine knew about my involvement with the protesters from the beginning. She wanted to support me, so she attended one of our meetings. She understood my concerns better than anyone else about my aunt’s health problems. Anyway, when Brian shot down some of our more...aggressive ideas, she suggested branching off.”

  When Brandy paused for breath, Rory said, “But that still doesn’t explain why Jasmine was in the hotel room.”

  “I’m getting to that. She knew I booked the room for the group so I’d have some place to change after planting the stink bomb. She volunteered her own room, but I didn’t want her to be implicated if something went wrong. The alarm wasn’t part of the plan, so after the all-clear was given, she came up to the room to see if I knew anything about it. And I didn’t, honestly. Then, I assume, she went to class.”

  Rory mulled over what she’d learned. If Jasmine was involved with this rogue element of the protesters, maybe it had been a factor in her death. One of the group had come into the store during the event, trying to pass out flyers. Maybe she’d planted the GHB in Rory’s drink before getting kicked out. And maybe she’d put the Xyrem in Jasmine’s soda. Rory didn’t remember seeing the woman with white blonde hair in the hotel, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. Though how the woman had gotten access to the medicine, Rory didn’t know.

  “There was a woman handing out flyers at the meet and greet earlier today. Do you know who that was? White blonde hair, glasses.”

  “That sounds like Always.”

  “Always?” Rory raised an eyebrow.

  “Don’t ask. Hippie parents.”

  “Is she part of your splinter group?” Liz asked.

  “That’s right. Why, what do you think she did?”

  “She could have spiked my drink,” Rory said.

  “But why?”

  “That’s what I want to find out.” Rory studied her friend, who squirmed under her steady gaze. “We’re going to infiltrate the protesters, and you’re going to help us.”

  “I can’t do that.” Brandy seemed horror-stricken at the idea. “They’d never allow you in. Besides, they targeted you. Everyone knows who you are.”

  “Who’s this ‘they’ you’re talking about?” Liz said. “You’re the one who threw the rock through Rory’s window.”

  Brandy had the grace to blush. “I already told you both, I didn’t know it was your house. No one told me you were involved, either. I’d never have done it otherwise.”

  “You shouldn’t have been throwing rocks in the first place.” Rory waved her hand as if dismissing the subject. “Doesn’t matter now. Anyway, I’m not the one who’ll be attending the meeting. She will.” She nodded toward Liz, who grinned when the news sunk in.

  “How soon can you get her in?” Rory asked.

  “There’s a meeting tonight,” Brandy reluctantly admitted.

  “Good,” Rory said. “Liz will go to the meeting and I’ll listen in on the discussion.”

  “How?” Brandy asked. “You can’t hide in the shrubs. The neighbors will notice.”

  “Don’t need to do that.” Rory held up her cell. “Liz will dial my number right before you two go inside and leave the phone on.”

  “But what do you hope to learn? Do you think the protesters had something to do with Viveca’s death? Or Jasmine’s?”

  Rory leaned forward. “I think it’s a possibility. Now, let’s talk strategy.”

  A couple hours later, the three of them drove back to the Akaw. Liz picked up her car and drove herself and Brandy to the meeting at a house three blocks from the hotel. Rory parked her own car on the street down the block. She moved her seat back as far as it would go, pushed the recline lever, and settled in for a long evening.

  She’d just made herself comfortable when her cell phone rang. She put the call on speaker and set the phone on her lap.

  “Are you there?” Liz whispered.

  “I’m here.”

  “We’re going in now. I’m putting the phone in my pocket. I hope this works.”

  Me too, Rory thought.

  Rory relaxed into the seat and closed her eyes, listening to the sound of a door opening and introductions being made. Then came a period where she imagined the group was settling down in the living room or wherever they were conducting the meeting. For a while, all she could hear was the faint rustle from the phone and the regular sound of her own breathing. She was dozing off when someone clapped their hands, startling her awake, and called the meeting to order.

  The leader asked the new members to introduce themselves. Liz explained how she was a real estate agent in the city and, after hearing about the problems with selling houses in the affected neighborhood, she became concerned about how little responsibility the owner of the hotel was taking for them.

  “Hear, hear,” someone said.

  Rory’s stomach growled. She picked up a candy bar she’d brought with her. When she tried to open the wrapp
er, the chocolate bar slipped out of her fingers and fell onto the floor. She groped around for it, swearing when she couldn’t immediately lay her hand on her snack.

  “What was that?” the leader said.

  “Sounded like swearing,” someone else said.

  Rory froze. To her horror, she realized she’d forgotten to mute her phone and the group on the other end of the line could hear everything she did and said. After hastily correcting the problem, she anxiously waited to hear if Liz had been discovered.

  After a minute or two, the group resumed their conversation, making no more references to the mysterious noise.

  Rory relaxed and continued to listen to the meeting.

  At one point, the leader chastised Brandy for failing to plant the second stink bomb. When she explained she’d been discovered, everyone murmured their concern. Rory thought for a minute Brandy was going to mention Rory’s name, but her friend told them someone from the hotel staff had interrupted her and, after some fast talking, she’d managed to get away.

  The meeting droned on and on. For a splinter group, they’re pretty boring, Rory thought.

  She was wondering if the battery on her cell would hold out when the meeting finally ended. She despaired of learning anything useful when she heard Liz say, “Didn’t I see you at the event at Arika’s Scrap ’n Paint today?”

  She must be talking to the woman who was handing out the flyers.

  “That’s right. The harpy who owns the store kicked me out. I’m Always, by the way.”

  Rory fought the urge to leap out of her car, run down the block, and burst in on the meeting so she could punch Always in the mouth for the name the woman had called her mother. Instead, she took a couple deep breaths and calmed herself down.

  “You missed all the excitement. The guest of honor collapsed.”

  “That really tall woman? Looks like a model?”