by K. M. Morgan
Gwen wasn’t the only person in the Stringer family with a motive. Of all the suspects, Gwen’s father Steele Stringer had hated Blaze the longest. Their feud had gone on for over twenty years. Even after all that time, no love was lost between them. If anything, judging by what Daisy saw, their rivalry was burning hotter than ever. First there was the constant musical one-upmanship. On top of that, Steele loathed the idea of becoming in-laws with Blaze if their children married.
The one thing that stood out to Daisy more than ever at the gala last night though was how fired up he got about Blaze’s alleged attraction to Steele’s wife Lillian. The way Steele described it, Blaze had apparently held a flame for Lillian a while now. The question became, just how angry was Steele about it, and was it enough to throw Steele over the edge?
Last but not least, there was Steel’s wife and Gwen’s mother Lillian Stringer. Like Steele, Daisy had a suspicion that something fishy was going on between Lillian and Blaze. If they were having an affair, it opened up all kinds of possibilities for this case. Maybe Blaze wanted to come forward with his love for Lillian, but she was willing to do anything to keep their trysts under wraps—even if it meant murder.
Who knows? One thing was clear. Daisy had a busy day of sleuthing ahead of her. Luckily, she had brought a delicious double fudge cupcake to keep her company.
Chapter Fourteen
Daisy went to question Vikki Valentine first. Strangely enough, Vikki wasn’t at home, but rather at Bloomfield’s Boutique on Main Street. That was an interesting first move to make after finding out her ex-husband had been murdered. Apparently in Vikki’s mind, it was the perfect time for a shopping spree. Curious.
Even more peculiar was the fact that Vikki was so desperate to shop until she dropped that she posted about being at Bloomfield’s on social media so she could get a twenty-five percent off coupon as part of one of the store’s promotions. Daisy was happy that Vikki had a zeal for savings—it made it much easier for her to track her down.
Daisy parked in front of the boutique and waited for Vikki to come out. Apparently Vikki had gone shopping wild. She left the store with three big bags.
This was Daisy’s chance. She planned to question Vikki as she walked back to her car. Daisy had to approach this interaction gingerly. Vikki had been really stand-offish with Detective Stickler, and he had a badge. Daisy just had her intuition to work with.
“Vikki Valentine,” Daisy said.
Vikki gave her a brief look, then kept walking. “Yes. Do I know you?”
Apparently Vikki didn’t recognize Daisy at all. Good. That was just the way Daisy liked it.
“No. I just wanted to say I’m really sorry about what happened to your husband,” Daisy remarked.
Vikki scoffed as she kept walking to her car. “He was my ex-husband. And you obviously didn’t know him very well.”
Daisy preferred to ease her way into the meat of the conversation when questioning suspects, but Vikki was seriously booking it to her car—which was not a small accomplishment given the high heels she was wearing.
In this case, Daisy knew she had little time to work with. She had to say something to stop Vikki in her tracks.
Daisy thought she knew just the thing. “I know he wrote a lot of songs about you. Songs you think you deserve royalties for.”
Vikki came to a complete halt. Daisy had her attention now. She also had incurred Vikki’s wrath.
“I don’t know who you think you are, but I’d advise you to mind your own business,” Vikki said.
“Why, do you have something to hide?”
Vikki glared. “You have a lot of nerve.”
“So do you. I mean here you are, the day after your ex-husbands murder, out on a shopping spree,” Daisy said.
“We all deal with grief in our own way.”
Daisy called her out. “Are you feeling any grief?”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you. I don’t even know who you are.”
Vikki then continued walking to her car.
Daisy was pushing Vikki’s buttons alright, just none of the right ones. She made one last effort as Vikki reached her car.
“I’ll tell you who am I. I’m someone who knows what it’s like to be cheated on. To give your heart to a man, only to have him break it,” Daisy revealed.
If Daisy was ever going to get Vikki to drop her icy exterior, this was her chance. Unfortunately, Vikki threw her for a loop.
“I wish I could say it was surprising, but I don’t know any woman who hasn’t been cheated on in this day and age,” Vikki replied.
Daisy couldn’t believe it. She usually didn’t have this many problems getting someone to open up. Was she rusty, or was Vikki just extra-guarded? Vikki seemed to be an emotional Fort Knox, with her heart sealed off behind lock and key.
Was it because the divorce had made her jaded beyond belief, or because she was hiding something? Daisy was determined to find out which it was.
“Still, it must have been particularly awful for you. I had enough trouble getting over my ex, and he just cheated on me with a weathergirl. Yours cheated with your nanny. Now there’s a betrayal. If that happened to me, I’d be crazed,” Daisy explained.
Finally, Daisy saw a drop of humanity in Vikki. She was doing her best to hide it, but Daisy could see the hurt in Vikki’s eyes. Outwardly though, Vikki kept up her cold, dismissive demeanor.
“I don’t want to think about that,” Vikki said.
Daisy sensed an opening and took it. “Of course you don’t want to think about it. Something like that can make you crazy. I mean, how do you get over that? Can you even? On top of that, it just burns so much more knowing men always love cheating with a younger woman.”
Vikki scowled. “Are you trying to get a rise out of me?”
“No. I’m just saying, you had a lot of reasons to want your ex-husband dead, and he just happened to be murdered last night.”
Daisy stared deep into Vikki’s eyes.
Vikki was a real spitfire and didn’t give an inch. “I gave the police my story already. I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing worry about.”
This time, Vikki went on the offensive. She had heard enough from Daisy. “I’m going to warn you again to mind your own business.”
Daisy was taken back by how defiant Vikki was being. “Is that a threat?”
Vikki got in her car, all too ready to put this conversation behind her. “I’m out of here.”
Vikki then rolled up her window and sped off before Daisy had a chance to say another word.
Chapter Fifteen
Daisy could only hope things would go smoother with the next suspect she questioned. They certainly couldn’t get much worse. Vikki Valentine was about as welcoming as a porcupine that had been woken up in the middle of a nap.
Daisy decided to take a different tact with Blaze’s widow Olivia Billick. Hopefully by now, Olivia would have sobered up. Although Daisy wasn’t convinced that Olivia was ever as drunk as she pretended to be. It made for a convenient story telling the police she didn’t remember anything from last night.
Daisy had been tipsy a number of times in her life, but never so much that she completely blacked out the entire evening. She had a number of ways to test just how much Olivia truly remembered. With this questioning, Daisy was going to go with a softer hands approach. There was always some trickery involved with getting a suspect to reveal information they didn’t want to.
Daisy rang Olivia’s doorbell and waited for an answer. As the front door to the house opened, Daisy could see that Olivia had at least run a brush through her hair—something she had not done when Detective Stickler was questioning her.
Daisy waited a moment to see if Olivia recognized her at all. The blank stare on Olivia’s face made Daisy believe the answer was no. That was a good sign. It meant Daisy could go along with her ruse.
Daisy’s goal was to play on Olivia’s para
noia. That shouldn’t be difficult. Olivia was all too open about her fears about Blaze’s infidelity.
“Olivia Billick,” Daisy said.
Olivia replied timidly. “Yes. Who are you?”
Daisy decided to put on a serious ruse to test Olivia’s memory. Olivia told the police she didn’t remember anything from last night. There was an easy way to test that.
“Don’t you remember me from last night?” Daisy asked.
Olivia stared at Daisy, but couldn’t place her.
“I’m Daisy. The interior decorator. You talked about hiring me to redecorate your house.”
Again, Olivia gave Daisy a blank stare.
“I’m sorry. I don’t remember that. And it really isn’t a good time to talk about decorating,” Olivia said.
“I understand. I don’t mean to bother you. I just wanted to extend my sympathies for your loss,” Daisy said.
“Oh. Well thanks. It’s a really trying time for me.”
Strangely enough, Olivia was completely robotic as she said that. Like a machine. Just going through the motions. It was rare to hear words ring so hollow. Was she just bottling up her emotions, or did she really not feel a great loss from losing her husband?
Daisy decided to put her emotions to the test. “I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to lose your husband.”
Daisy looked for remorse in Olivia’s face as she answered. Surprisingly, she found none. Instead, she just got another hollow, robotic reply.
“Yeah.”
Olivia could see Daisy staring at her. It obviously unsettled her, because Olivia suddenly couldn’t wait to bring the conversation to an end.”
“Anyway, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’d really like some privacy right now. There’s a lot of emotions I’m working through,” Olivia said.
What an ironic statement, considering how Olivia couldn’t look less emotional.
Daisy called her on it. “Really? You seem anything but emotional, considering your husband was just murdered.”
Olivia was taken aback by Daisy’s bluntness.
Olivia got hot and bothered. “What did you just say?”
Daisy pressed on. “Is it because he was cheating on you?
Olivia gave her a nasty glare. “How did you know he was cheating on me?”
“Are you kidding? You told everyone in earshot that you thought Blaze was unfaithful. It must have made you so mad to find out your husband was sleeping with another woman.”
Olivia was equal parts angry, frustrated, and confused.
Daisy pressed on. “The great irony of it all is that he cheated on his first wife to be with you in the first place, only to turn around and cheat on you years later.”
Olivia became irate. “How dare you come here and talk to me like this. I want you to leave right now.”
“An amazing thing happens when a woman finds out her the man in her life has been cheating on her. She has the tendency to do some crazy things.”
“I told you to stop. I want you off my property right now.”
“Then of course there are the perks of your husband dying. Now you have this house all to yourself. Not to mention a pretty fantastic inheritance I’ll bet. And of course you don’t have to deal with a philandering husband anymore. Yeah, I’d say things worked out pretty nice for someone who just used to be the family nanny,” Daisy said.
Olivia wanted to slam the door in Daisy’s face. At the same time, she was curious to find out how Daisy knew she used to be the family nanny.
“How did you know that?” Olivia asked.
“I already told you. We met at the gala last night. Come on Olivia. Do you really not remember me?”
Olivia stared at Daisy long and hard. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in her head. “Wait a minute. It’s coming back to me. You’re Addison McDare’s friend.”
“Her cousin actually,” Daisy corrected.
“Right. Now I remember.” Olivia put her hands on her hips. “Apparently sass runs in the McDare family, huh?”
Olivia was so focused on Daisy’s aggressive questioning that she failed to realize she’d blown her cover story. Daisy immediately jumped on the fact that Olivia’s memory seemed to have magically returned.
“So you do remember things about last night then? Interesting,” Daisy said.
Olivia tensed up. She clearly wished she could take her last statement back. She rushed to change the subject. “I asked you to leave. Don’t make me call the police.”
“It would actually be funny if you did call the police. Especially since you told them you didn’t remember anything about last night.”
“Look, this is none of your business.”
“I guess you just have selective memory loss. Whatever benefits you most at the time.”
Olivia began to panic and stammered as she replied. “My memory is still plenty foggy.”
Daisy called her bluff. “I’m not so sure about that. On second thought, why don’t you call the police? I’m sure the detective would be interested to hear your memory isn’t so bad after all. No doubt there’s a few more questions he’d like to ask you.”
“I already answered his questions.”
“What’s the matter, do you have something to hide?
“I didn’t do anything.”
Daisy had her on the ropes. She couldn’t let up now. “The jury is still out on that one.”
Olivia scrambled. “That’s it. This conversation is over.”
Olivia then slammed the door.
Daisy wanted to get in one last response however. “You can’t outrun the truth. It will always catch up with you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Things got a little more complicated for Daisy as she ran down the list of suspects. Her usual line of questioning was not yielding the results she expected. She decided to really ramp things up as she prepared to head over to the Stringer residence.
When Daisy saw how Blaze Billick looked at Lillian Stringer at the gala last night, she had a hunch there was something going on between them. Daisy fully intended to put her theory to the test. She knew just the way to do it. On the way over to the Stringer residence, Daisy made a quick pit stop at Oscar’s Orchids, the local floral shop in town. While Oscar wrapped up a bouquet, Daisy put the finishing touches on her plan.
Daisy had no idea if both Lillian and her husband Steele would be at home when she arrived at their place. The beauty was, Daisy’s plan worked just fine either way. Daisy approached the front door to the Stringer residence with the bouquet of flowers in hand, she prepared herself for the possibility that either Lillian or Steele could answer.
“Delivery,” Daisy said.
After a moment, Lillian Stringer answered the door. “Yes.”
Daisy leaned in and whispered to her. “Quick question--is your husband here?
Lillian looked at the bouquet of flowers, then gave Daisy the once over.
Lillian became suspicious in a hurry and folded her arms. “Why? Who are you?”
“I know what you’re probably thinking, and no—your husband is not cheating on you…at least not with me that is,” Daisy explained.
Lillian was beside herself suddenly. “Excuse you?”
Daisy knew it was important to keep up the ruse. She had to push Lillian out of her comfort zone if she wanted answers. So far, Lillian was taking the bait, just as Daisy had planned.
“I’m sorry, sometimes I trip over my words. What I meant to say is, my name is Daphne, and I have a flower delivery for you.”
The complexion of Lillian’s face changed. She went from defensive to intrigued. “Oh. They’re beautiful.”
“Yeah. The person that bought them had some really good taste.”
Lillian then started looking over the bouquet with confusion. “Who sent these? There doesn’t appear to be a card.”
“There’s actually a really good reason for that,” Daisy explained.
“Which is?”
“My boss told me discretion w
as a necessity with this delivery, in case your husband Steele answered.”
Lillian was confused. “Discretion, but why?”
Daisy darted her eyes around. “Before I answer that, is your husband here?”
“No. He’s at a radio interview.”
Daisy breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”
By this point, Lillian’s patience was wearing thin. “Would you mind tell me what’s going on?”
“Of course. The reason I was being so cagey is because these flowers were ordered by Blaze Billick,” Daisy revealed.
Lillian’s face went white. Whatever suspicions Daisy had about Lillian and Blaze having an affair before were immediately confirmed when she saw the look on Lillian’s face. Suddenly, Daisy had Lillian right where she wanted her.
“You must be really broken up about his murder,” Daisy added.
Lillian fidgeted nervously. She played dumb. “What do you mean?”
“My boss had me memorize the note that Blaze wanted to send you with the flowers. I could recite it to you if you’d like.”
“No, that’s ok.”
“Are you sure? By the sound of it, you two had something very torrid going on.”
Lillian muttered to herself. “He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. This was just supposed to stay a secret.”
“Look. Don’t worry, this is just between you and me. My lips are sealed. The company I work for prides itself on discretion,” Daisy said.
Lillian clutched her chest, relieved. “Well thank you.”
Daisy had been able to establish that Lillian and Blaze were having an affair. She needed more to go on however. The question was, how much more information could she get out of Lillian?
Daisy pressed on. “Of course. I can only imagine what would happen if your husband found out that you were cheating on him, with Blaze Billick of all people.”
Lillian started to squirm. She tried to make a quick exit from the conversation. “I should probably be getting back inside.”