Throw a Monkey Wrench (an Emma Cassidy Mystery Book 1)

by Karen Chester

  There were no houses or gas stations nearby, which accounted for the lack of witnesses. Fields and orchards stretched on both sides of the road. Tamarisk thickets and ox-eye daisies flourished on the road shoulder, watered by the run off. Leaning over a clump of tamarisk shrubs, she peered through the foliage, looking for anything unusual.

  The sun warmed the top of her head. Insects chirped in the grass nearby. She was so engrossed in her search that it took her a while to register the sound of an approaching car. The engine suddenly revved, and she glanced over her shoulder in time to see a black vehicle gunning straight for her. Her heart stopped in disbelief. With barely seconds to react, she threw herself to one side, gasping as her chest hit the dirt and forced the air from her lungs.

  The tires of the vehicle spun past her, spitting out clouds of dust. Then the car roared away, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. Emma laid stock still on the ground, not daring to move until the dust had settled and quiet descended once more. Gingerly she hauled herself to her feet and glared after the vehicle. By now it was little more than a black dot in the distance. She wasn’t sure if it was an SUV or a pickup truck. She wasn’t even sure if it was black, dark blue, or dark green. It had all happened so quickly. It could have been an accident, but what if she’d been deliberately targeted? What if she was getting too close to the real killer?

  A bright blue car passed by, then screeched to a halt before slowly backing up. Emma, her heart still pounding, looked over to see Madison peering at her with some concern.

  “Emma, I thought it was you. Are you okay?”

  “Um, yeah.” She flicked at her dusty jeans and crumpled white top. “Just had a close encounter with some jerk driving too fast. You didn’t happen to see it, did you?”

  “No, sorry. Must have been one of those college jocks. They’ve been causing some trouble lately.”

  A college jock? Maybe, but somehow she didn’t believe that. The near miss had felt far more menacing than a bored boy driving too carelessly.

  Madison was still eyeing her with a worried expression. “You look shaken up. Come back to my place and have some lunch.”

  She was feeling a little frazzled, Emma realized. Her hands were shaking, and her insides were all knotted. It hit her that, in the process of investigating a hit-and-run, she’d almost met the same fate.

  “Thanks.” She smiled at Madison. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  She followed Madison to the Whites’ mansion, which was only a ten-minute drive away. Madison’s parents were out, and for that Emma breathed a sigh of relief, as she wasn’t feeling up to dealing with the tension that always seemed to appear between Cynthia and Howard.

  Madison led her through to the conservatory at the rear of the house, where the housekeeper served them chicken Caesar salad. The meal was delicious, but Emma couldn’t do justice to it as she ruminated who might want to scare her off. Madison seemed equally preoccupied, picking listlessly at her salad and sipping nervously on her mineral water.

  “Sean wants to cancel the wedding,” Madison suddenly blurted out after a long silence.

  “I see.” Emma set down her fork. She’d been expecting this, but still it was disheartening to hear.

  “But I don’t want to. I know it sounds crazy, but I can’t give up on our dreams. I just can’t. It’s the only thing keeping me sane at the moment.” The young woman’s shoulders slumped as she pushed away her barely eaten salad. “Sean says he can’t afford a wedding now. He’ll need all his money for his legal bills.”

  “He’s right, you know,” Emma murmured.

  Madison’s lips trembled. “This is so awful,” she whispered. “A few days ago we were picking out appetizers, and now our whole lives are turned upside down, and Sean is—” she gulped convulsively “—facing a murder charge. I just can’t believe it.”

  Moved, Emma reached across the table and squeezed Madison’s hand. “Sean’s name will be cleared, and maybe he won’t even have to go to trial, so he won’t have an enormous legal bill, and you two will still get married. You’ll see. Everything will work out fine.”

  Perhaps she shouldn’t be giving the distressed woman false hope, but what else was she supposed to do? She couldn’t just sit there and let Madison fall to pieces.

  Madison sniffed and nodded, looking somewhat comforted. “I’m not cancelling the wedding just yet. Oh, I know my mom’s been calling all her guests and telling them it’s off, but I don’t care. We’ll just have a smaller wedding with only the friends who really care about us. Is that possible?”

  “Well, yes.” Emma’s mind raced as she went through all the logistics of downsizing the wedding. “How many guests were you thinking of?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe only twenty or so? That won’t be a problem, right?”

  “I don’t believe so.” No party too big or too small, that was A Perfect Party’s motto. “I’ll talk to the venue operator and the caterers and get back to you.”

  Madison nodded absentmindedly. Clearly she didn’t have much idea of the work involved. But that was precisely why she’d hired an event planner, and Emma wasn’t going to bombard her with sticky details.

  Resting her chin in one hand, Madison breathed out a sigh. “Sean and I are meant to be together, I just know it. We’re going to get married and live happily ever after.”

  Ah, young love. After Steven, Emma couldn’t help a little cynicism of her own, but she wasn’t going to spoil Madison’s fairytale. Maybe Madison and Sean were meant to be together, and this current disaster would only bring them closer.

  “One thing’s for sure.” Madison straightened, a frown clouding her brow. “I am never going to suffer the same marriage as my parents. I don’t know why they’re still together when they hate each other so much.”

  “Hate? That’s a strong word.”

  “The only reason they tolerate each other is because they’d both hate the messiness of a divorce. My father would have to move out of this house because it belongs to my mother, and he’d hate that. And my mother would suddenly find herself single, and she’d hate that, too.”

  A lot of hate, then. Emma kept her silence, figuring that Madison needed to vent, not advice.

  Madison stabbed her fork at a piece of lettuce. “You know my mom had an affair a while back?” Emma raised startled eyebrows, and Madison continued, “Yes, hard to believe that my ice queen mother could have actual blood running in her veins, but it’s true. She had a lover for about three months, and she kept it a secret from Dad, but I knew all along. She thought I was too busy with college to notice, but I wasn’t. I knew when she was sneaking out to meet her lover.”

  “Who was it?” Emma couldn’t help asking.

  “I don’t know. I never found out. Mom was careful. She’d only meet the guy when Dad was away for the night. Once, I followed her, because I couldn’t believe what I suspected was going on. She drove down to a wharf on the lake, and got onto a boat. It was dark, so I couldn’t see much, but it was a speedboat, and there was a man in it, and when she got into the boat, he kissed her. Ugh.” Madison paused to shudder. “They went off somewhere, and I came home, sick to the stomach.”

  “So how did it end?”

  “My dad found out. Or maybe my mom wanted him to find out, because one night she came down to dinner wearing a necklace that my dad obviously hadn’t bought her because when he saw it he went ballistic, and the two of them had the mother of all arguments. I might as well not have been there because they said the most awful things to each other, things I wish I could forget.” Shivering, Madison took a quick gulp of water. “I tiptoed out of the dining room, but they didn’t even notice I was gone. I went out and stayed overnight at a friend’s place. When I got home the next morning, I was expecting to see smashed plates and packed suitcases, but it was as if it never happened. My dad went off to golf, and my mom went to the hair salon. She didn’t see her lover again, and I never saw her wear that necklace again either, so I suppose she must have give
n it back to him.”

  There was a short pause as Madison stared off into the distance, reliving that fraught period. An uncomfortable idea had wedged in Emma’s mind and wouldn’t be dislodged. She knew she had to ask the question.

  “What kind of necklace was it?”

  Madison glanced at her in surprise. “A pearl necklace. Not really my kind of thing, but it was stunning and very expensive. A real eye catcher. My mom could never have worn it without my dad noticing, which is why I’m sure she did it on purpose. She wanted to goad him into a reaction, maybe. Anyway, it seemed to do the trick. He paid her more attention, but after a while it all seemed to go sour again, and they’ve been like that ever since.”

  By this time, Emma was barely listening to Madison, her mind too preoccupied by what she had learned. So the ice queen Cynthia White had had an affair with the brash Tony Barnet, and Tony had given her a stunning pearl necklace which Cynthia had worn to taunt her husband. Had Cynthia used Tony? Maybe Tony had genuinely thought they were in love, which was why he’d given her the pearls. And afterward? Had Cynthia flung the necklace back at him in scorn? Or maybe Howard, the enraged husband, had delivered the necklace back to Tony. Maybe Howard had never forgiven Tony for making a cuckold out of him and had finally taken his revenge, two years after the fact.

  A sudden tapping on glass roused her from her troubled thoughts. Both she and Madison glanced up to see the figure of a man on the other side of the French doors that led outside.

  With a gasp Madison leaped to her feet. “Kyle!”

  ***

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  Madison’s suppressed voice drifted back into the conservatory where Emma still sat. Upon seeing the man, Madison had rushed to the French doors, but instead of inviting him in, she leaned halfway out of the room, speaking in a low tone that conveyed dismay and uncertainty.

  “Oh, come on, sweetie. I had to see you.” With a cocky smile, the young man traced his fingers down Madison’s bare arm. “Come for a drive with me.”

  “I can’t. I’ve got company.”

  The man’s gaze flicked dismissively over Emma. “I’ll keep you company.”

  Emma pressed her lips together. It had taken all of two seconds for her to recognize the unexpected visitor. He was the same man she’d seen with Madison in the garden two days ago. And the same man who’d been threatened by that thug at the Rainbow Casino.

  “I think you should leave,” Madison said. Her hunched shoulders and tight voice indicated that she was trying hard to appear firm, but the man she’d called Kyle seemed not to take the hint.

  “Can’t we talk?” he urged, clasping her hand and not letting go when she went to free her fingers. “I really need to see you. You’re the only one I can turn to.”

  Emma had had enough. She pushed to her feet and marched over to the French door.

  “Madison, is there a problem?” she asked, directing her attention to the young woman.

  “No one asked you.” The man’s hostile eyes swept over her, leaving her with the impression that he knew to the dollar how much she’d spent on her outfit.

  She pointedly ignored him. “Madison?”

  “Uh, Emma, this is Kyle, a—a friend of mine.” Madison glanced at Kyle. “Kyle, this is Emma, my wedding planner.” Her voice seemed to drop on the last two words.

  The corner of Kyle’s mouth curled. “Wedding planner? Jeez, what do you need that for? Haven’t you already cancelled the whole thing?”

  “No, I have not.” With some force Madison pulled her hand free of his grasp.

  “What? Don’t tell me you want to marry a jailbird? I was there at the workshop when he threatened to kill my father.”

  Indignation flushed Madison’s cheeks. “Sean is innocent!”

  “Oh, yeah, yeah.” Perhaps realizing he wasn’t endearing himself to her, he held up both hands, palms facing. “Hey, you must be going through hell. And I’m here for you, a shoulder to cry on whenever you need. Let’s go for a drive and we’ll talk.”

  Stepping closer, Emma retorted, “Madison doesn’t want you here, so please leave.”

  A furious glare was her reward. “Butt out. This is between me and Madison.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere.” Madison shook her head. At his mulish look, she added, “I’ll call you later. Please leave, Kyle.”

  Several seconds ticked by before he finally decided to retreat. With a final nod to Madison and another black scowl at Emma, he turned and left, strolling casually through the gardens as if he had every right to be there.

  Madison waited until he’d disappeared before she turned and sank back into her chair at the table. Emma took her seat opposite her and waited.

  “Well?” she prompted when it became clear Madison wasn’t going to talk first. “If I’m not mistaken, that was Kyle Barnet, Tony Barnet’s son from his first marriage.”

  Madison gave a defeated flutter of her fingers. “Yes, that’s him.”

  “I saw him the other day out there.” Emma pointed at the garden outside the French doors. “You were with him, and it looked like you were more than just acquaintances.”

  A guilty flush rushed over Madison’s cheeks as she met Emma’s eyes. “There’s nothing going on between us anymore.”

  “Anymore? So there was something before?”

  Madison fidgeted in her chair, her fingers obsessively twirling a piece of hair. Her fingernails, Emma observed, had always been impeccably French-manicured, but now they looked ragged and bitten.

  “I met Kyle about a year ago, and we sort of hit it off,” she eventually confessed. “But I knew my parents didn’t like his father, and I wasn’t very serious about him. To be honest, I always thought Kyle was too self-centered, but I was feeling a bit lost at the time, and it was better hanging out with Kyle than having my parents on my case twenty-four seven. After a couple of months, I broke it off with Kyle. He could be nice, but other times he could be wild, even nasty.”

  Nasty? Emma sat up straighter. Was Kyle nasty enough to kill?

  “He was always short of money.” Madison continued, the flood gates wide open now. “His dad gave him an allowance and so did his mom, but it was never enough. He always seemed to be in debt. Once, he even tried to borrow money off me. When his dad brought his girlfriend to Shamrock Lake, Kyle was angry. Said his dad was wasting all his money buying her fancy cars and building her that huge house across the bay. A couple of months ago he blamed her when his dad refused to pay any more of his overdue bills.”

  “He sounds like a total charmer. Why did you meet him in secret two days ago?”

  “After his dad was killed, he called me, sounding so broken up. I had to comfort him, even though Sean was arrested.” She gnawed at the edge of a fingernail. “He came to the house, but my mom was home, so I met him out in the garden. We spoke for a bit, but then I told him he should leave, so he did.”

  “And that’s all?”

  Madison stared down at her bitten fingernail as if it held all the answers. “Well, he did suggest we get back together again, but of course I refused. He was a bit upset when he left. I didn’t think he’d turn up again today.” She lifted doleful eyes to Emma. “You won’t tell Sean, will you? He doesn’t think much of Kyle.”

  “Why? Because he’s your ex-boyfriend?”

  “He’s repaired Kyle’s cars a few times, and Kyle’s treats him like he’s just a grease monkey. But Sean needs the business, so he’s always bit his tongue.”

  “I won’t say anything to anyone.”

  “Thanks.” Madison gave a brief smile of relief, then shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I seem to have a weakness for bad boys. But Sean’s not a bad boy, not really. Underneath it all, he has a heart of gold.”

  “Yes,” Emma murmured, but she was preoccupied by the information Madison had given her. So Kyle would have gone to Sean’s workshop several times, enough times to see where his tools were kept. Kyle had overheard Sean having a
blistering argument with Tony. Kyle was short of cash and owed that hoodlum at the casino money. Kyle could have gone to his dad’s house and waited until Sean had left. He might have asked his dad for the money one more time, and when Tony had refused, killed him in a fit of rage.

  The number of suspects with means, opportunity, and motive was starting to pile up.

  ***

  Fifteen minutes later, Emma left the Whites’ mansion. She was just about to climb into her car when she froze and stared in disbelief at the scratch mark stretching the length of her hatchback. What the hell! Someone had done this on purpose, deliberately using a stone or a car key to vandalize her car. Someone like Kyle Barnet.

  While she had no proof, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was responsible. He was sending her a message, Stay out of my business or you’ll get hurt. Well, she wasn’t going to let a smarmy jerk like him frighten her off. With the car already not worth peanuts, the additional damage didn’t amount to much financially, but scratching her car was a sly, hostile thing that showed the pettiness of the culprit. Fuming, she got into her car and slammed the door shut. Anger beat in her veins, but her hands on the steering wheel weren’t as steady as she would have liked.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Morning sunshine streamed through the conservatory, turning it into a bowl of golden warmth. Pausing at the entrance, Emma breathed in the organic freshness of the potted ferns and ornamental trees that dotted the slate floor. For a moment she forgot her errand as she walked toward the windows, drawn to the view. This morning the lake was a sheet of blue glass, placid beneath the windless skies. A flock of birds dipped and swooped over the water.

  “Can I help you?” a man spoke from behind.

  She spun around to find Howard White standing a few feet away, impeccably dressed as always in tailored pants, snowy white shirt, and silk tie. A financial journal was tucked under one arm.

  “Oh, good morning, Mr. White,” Emma said, trying to suppress the feeling that she’d been sprung.

  “Madison’s not here and neither is my wife,” he said before she could explain her presence, his lifted eyebrow expressive.