Raspberry Tart Terror (Murder in the Mix Book 30)

by Unknown

  “It’s my honor.” My body bucks as I do my best to keep my emotions in check.

  Noah comes back and sets a feast down on the table before us with coffee, cookies, brownies, cake and all.

  “Did you hear that?” Noah’s dimples dig in as he sheds a wide grin. “That was our kid up there.”

  I bite down on a smile. “That’s her. Our girl is gold.”

  “She’s the best.” Everett holds out a hand and Noah slaps him five. “You guys are the best, too.”

  I watch as Evie gets settled at a table up front with Dash, Conner, and Kyle, along with about a dozen of their other friends from school. I plan on keeping an eye on her for the rest of the night. She’s right, I can be as sweet as I can be tough, but that’s only because I care deeply about her emotional and physical safety.

  The baby in my belly offers up a swift kick, and my hand quickly rises to greet it. I certainly care about you, too, Sugar Cookie.

  The room breaks out into another spontaneous applause, and this time we see the exact person we were expecting tonight. Bambi Bailey stands tall, clad in black, with a pink scarf around her neck. Her red hair is teased into a beehive, and her lips shine a juicy shade of ruby. The outline of her lantern jaw is highlighted at this angle with the lights shining down over her, and there’s a warmth about her—something that screams this is a person you’d want as a friend.

  She motions for the crowd to quiet down while laughing.

  “Well, I’m glad to see you, too. I’m Bambi Bailey and I had something else planned to read to you, but our community lost one of our own last week so tonight all my words are for her.”

  The room quiets down a notch.

  “Gossip, blabber, blather,” she breathes the words into the microphone. “It’s been my bread and butter, it runs through my blood. My eyes and ears pick up what you do, and don’t think for a minute that I won’t share it with the world. But I know how to be a friend. I know where to draw the line. I know how to make you smile. I know how to make you mad. Verity Prescott, you were the one that told me I could do whatever my heart was into, and you were right, and I did it. Verity Prescott, you were the girl everyone wanted to be even before you became you. You held a veil up to the world and let them see what you wanted, but you never wore that veil with me, not in the beginning. But as time went on, we were a new creation, you and I. As our stars began to rise, you eclipsed me, shining brighter than the noonday sun. They came out to worship you. You became their queen. You had the masses singing your name, laying their time and their dimes at your feet. You filled a void and told them how to look, act, and dress. You held the key to their tomorrow, and if you smiled, you warmed their lives right through the lens of your camera.”

  She pauses as she studies the crowd a moment. “And then, there was a dark side to your love,” she continues. “The other side of the moon. We bared it all. You showed me that, too. You let me see the beauty, but you let me see the beast. There was no hiding the fact that under that crown there were horns, and you pointed them at me. You said jump. I asked how high. You said shoot. I asked where to point the gun. You said strangle them for all to see, and I wrapped my proverbial hands around their neck. I killed careers. I killed relationships. I killed egos, and finances. You said touch this, and I touched it. You said destroy, and I was your destroying angel. I was your most ardent servant. We were closer than sisters. We were closer than my very next breath.”

  She nods to the crowd before going on. “Then a season of night arrived, so dark, so black, so very cold without your face to shine down over me anymore. It was over as swift as it began. You cut the ground from underneath me, and I fell without ceasing. I tumbled, and fumbled, and clawed to hold on, but what I didn’t realize was that the snake I thought I was charming had been charming me all along. I was bit, the venom deadly. But life and death, in all of their ironies, took you instead. You used your breath in your final hour to point the finger my way. Forever the martyr you wore that mask upon your exit. You said I’ll take you down one more time before I walk out that door—you fired your final shot at me. And then it was over, your body went limp. They questioned me, and I gave all I had, but those secrets we shared are still safe with me.”

  Bambi bows her head a moment before leaning into the mic once again. “Gossip, blabber, blather. It’s been my bread and butter, it runs through my blood. My eyes and ears pick up what you do—and don’t think for a minute that I won’t share it with the world. But I know how to be a friend. I know where to draw the line. I know how to make you smile. I know how to make you mad. Verity Prescott, you were the one that told me I could do whatever my heart desired, and you were right, and I did it. Verity Prescott, until the very end, I will never betray you.”

  A moment of stunned silence clots up the air before the room explodes with applause.

  I exchange a look with Noah and Everett as Teddy chortles up a storm.

  “That was wonderful!” the tiny bear trills. “Hear that? Bambi is still holding onto Verity’s secrets even though she’s gone on to the grave.”

  I nod to her as the crowd lights up the place with deafening screams.

  Everett leans my way. “She’s getting off the stage.” He slips me a bill. “How about getting yourself another slice of cake? We’ll have one hell of a midnight snack. I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  I take the bill and reward him with a kiss. “I knew you were a wise man.”

  Noah leans in. “She’s stepping over to the bar. Raise your hand if you need backup. I’ll be there in a hot second.”

  “Come on, Lot.” Carlotta pulls me along just as a young man takes the stage and the room quiets down again. “We gotta get a move on before she gets mobbed.”

  “Onward and forward.” Teddy glides on ahead. “Come now, Carlotta. It’s time for you to shine!”

  I make a face at this older version of me as we thread our way to the front.

  “Let me do the talking,” I tell her. “That perky poltergeist can believe what she wants, but this is my investigation.”

  Carlotta takes a breath. “Sometimes the lies we tell ourselves are the sweetest.”

  I shake my head at that one just as Carlotta and I carefully steer clear of Evie as we come upon the counter.

  Bambi steps back and bumps into my arm while doing so.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she says, landing her hand over her mouth as soon as she spots my beach ball of a belly.

  “No worries,” I say, shoving the bill Everett just handed me to Carlotta. “Decaf and cake, please.” I force a bright smile at the suspect at hand as we step off to the side. “That was quite some poetry. You were phenomenal.”

  “Ah, thanks.” She laughs while doing her best to shrug it off. “It’s something that I’ve done ever since I was a kid. You know, I didn’t have anything handed to me. I had to fight for everything I’ve got. So I come upon it honestly—pouring my heart out.”

  “I can tell that you miss Verity very much even if you weren’t as close as you had hoped toward the end.”

  She closes her eyes a moment. “I’d like to think if Verity knew that it was her last night on this planet she would have—we would have had one final heart-to-heart.” Tears glitter in her eyes and she quickly bats them away. “Who are we kidding? If Verity knew that was her last night on the planet, she would have told me off twice as hard.” Her chest bounces as she laughs. “She could be a cold-hearted witch when she wanted to.”

  Teddy floats over with her mouth agape. “What in the world is going on here? Lottie, you can’t just hog the suspect while you force Carlotta to do your dirty work. That’s exactly what she says is happening here.”

  I give a tiny shake of my head in the gullible ghost’s direction. This is not the time or the place for Carlotta’s ridiculous shenanigans.

  “Bambi?” I lean in. “Can I ask about that dark night you were alluding to? The way you wove your words, it was as if you were painting a picture. You really pulled me in.�
�� Typically, greasing a suspect’s ego is a tried-and-true tactic, but at the moment, I happen to mean these words. She was that good.

  She blows out a breath. “She iced me out. I suspect it had something to do with the fact she wanted me to take down one of her exes. She was notorious for collecting do-nothing cheaters who loved to mooch off of her. Verity always had a cash flow going. She was a hard-working thief, I used to call her.” She winks my way. “Her latest boyfriend was no different. Of course, Chad has a job. A chef or a magician or something like that. And I think he sings, too. I don’t really care for Chad all that much, so I’ve never put much energy into learning more about him.”

  Teddy scoffs. “A singing chef and a magician? Verity always did like the go-getters even if they didn’t actually get anything. Oh dear, Carlotta is missing all of the good stuff. I wish you wouldn’t press ahead without her, Lottie. I have a feeling things will go terribly wrong if we don’t wait for our commander in chief to arrive.”

  I roll my eyes and Bambi laughs.

  “I thought the same thing, honey. A chef and a magician? Verity was probably blowing smoke up my skirt. She liked to do that toward the end. Let’s just say she needed to be in the driver seat of our friendship, and when the boat started to rock, she threw me overboard without hesitation. But like I said, I don’t really care about Chad. He’s a freaking lunatic just like the rest of the guys she attracted. Verity sure did seem to have it all together.” She nods to the crowd. “Especially to these guys, but she was a fractured mirror, long before I ever met her. And believe me, she cut everyone who dared get too close.”

  “Oh dear.” Teddy shivers as a sprinkling of silver stars peppers to the floor. “Verity certainly was a walking piece of broken glass. I couldn’t have said it better myself. She said she’d claw her way to the top. She vowed she’d have enough money so that she wouldn’t have to rely on anyone.”

  Interesting.

  I lean toward Bambi. “So I take it Verity didn’t come from much.”

  “Are you kidding? She was scraping and stealing from the waste bin just to keep herself fed as a kid. She was a dumpster diver before dumpster diving was cool.”

  “Oh yes.” Teddy sighs. “Those were some of my best memories. Verity often said that’s why she needed me. I was able to winnow all the way down to the bottom of those steely, stinky wonders. And we always found treasures. Burgers and fries, and even the branch of a eucalyptus on occasion. We made a great team, Verity and me. That is, when she was in a good mood.”

  “But I bet she was moody,” I say to Bambi with a nod. “You don’t get to be a genius like that without a few emotions.”

  “You can say that again. She was a tempest in a teacup. She had to be just to survive.”

  I nod. “And I bet that secret you’re holding for her had to do with her need to survive.”

  Her eyes sharpen over mine a moment. “You can bet your bottom dollar it did. In fact, Verity’s bottom dollar often relied on it.”

  The barista motions to Bambi, and without hesitation, I step in front of her.

  “Bambi, who do you think could have done something like this to Verity? The poor thing died a horrible death.”

  She sighs as she stares off past me, her eyes quickly growing vacant.

  “She wanted to ruin me. I can only guess she wanted to ruin other people, too. Verity was a very powerful woman. But the sin that did her in was the fact she forgot what it felt like to be hungry. She thought nothing of stealing the food from someone else’s mouth when she herself once knew the pain that hunger could bring. She had evolved into a monster.” Her eyes grow dark. “Anyway.” She takes a breath. “That bonehead she was dating was closer to her toward the end than I was. Maybe he knows who had it in for Verity the most. All I know is I survived her tyranny, and I’m still standing on the right side of the soil. Excuse me.” She gives a little wink, picks up her drink, and melts into the murky darkness.

  “Wait!” I call out. “I didn’t get that secret—”

  Carlotta scurries up and shoves a cup of coffee my way.

  “Well, Lot? Did she do it?”

  “She had motive.”

  “Carlotta!” Teddy belts out a growl of frustration. “Lottie was relentless. I tried to get her to wait. You were right. The girl is stubborn as a hurricane.”

  “Stubborn as a hurricane?” I smack my lips as I look to the one who bore me.

  “What?” Carlotta squawks. “Would I say something like that?”

  The crowd breaks out into a quick applause, and the emcee of the night steps on stage and asks if anyone from the audience would like to volunteer.

  “Right here!” Carlotta calls out, and before I know it, I’m standing on a pedestal with a microphone less than a foot from my mouth.

  Well played, Carlotta, Well played.

  “Mom,” Evie wails. “What the heck are you doing here?” she hisses. “Don’t answer that. That’s my mom, everyone!” She starts to clap and the rest of the room follows suit.

  I blink out at the white fog blinding me as I struggle to find a familiar face, but it seems everyone is lost in shadows and light.

  “Um, I’m Lottie. Evie’s mom, Hot Baker,” I say that last part in less than a whisper, but the applause is still carrying on from the fact I’m Evie’s mother.

  “Let’s hear it, Mom!” Evie calls out. “It can be short and sweet, just so long as it’s from the heart.”

  “From the heart.” My hands rub over my belly as I lean into the microphone. From the heart… All those years I spent as Bear Fisher’s girlfriend come to mind, then the louse I almost married from my time in New York. Two cheaters. At the time that’s all I thought I would ever attract.

  I clear my throat into the mic. “There was a time where love eluded me, where I wet my pillow with my tears, where loyalty was scarce and my fragile heart was fractured, broken glass under the heel of the shoe of the one I had entrusted it to. But then, I met two very special men.” I bite down on my lip as I look in their direction and I see them, Noah and Everett. “Hot Cop, Hot Judge, and all was right with the world again. Evie came into our lives, and no matter how complicated things were already, she made everything perfect. And now there’s this little sugar cookie,” I say, patting my belly. “Who knew perfection could grow? Life is complicated, but it can be perfect, too. Remember to always love deeply.” I give a little shrug as I step down from the stage and the room lights up with applause.

  “Mom!” Evie pulls me into a tight embrace. “I’m, like, so proud of you.”

  “I’m so proud of you. And I’m glad I didn’t miss it even though I didn’t have a clue about any of it.”

  She shrugs. “It must be fate.”

  “It must be.”

  Noah and Everett show up and offer their congratulations to both Evie and me and we share a group hug for the ages.

  Love.

  It might be the month the world chooses to celebrate it, but with a family like my own, every moment is forever cherished, every month of the year.

  Evie dots my cheek with a kiss. “I gotta run. I’ll be home early tonight. I promise.” She takes off and Noah nods my way.

  “How’d it go with Bambi?”

  “It was interesting, to say the least.” I blow out a breath. “I’ll tell you everything in the car.”

  “Good,” Everett says. “I need to make a pit stop before we hit that chicken stand.”

  Carlotta runs over with a giant bag in hand.

  “Don’t worry, Lot Lot. I boxed up all the goodies to go.”

  “Perfect,” I say. “Everett was just about to tell us where we’re headed to next.”

  Carlotta juts her head forward. “Where to, Sexy?”

  “Down the street to Red Satin.” His eyes land over mine and he doesn’t say another word.

  He doesn’t have to. I have a feeling I know exactly what’s about to go down at that nefarious club, and it has very little to do with women prancing around with next to
nothing on.

  I might be eager to make sure Verity Prescott’s killer gets their just desserts, but I have a feeling someone just as nefarious is about to try to do the same with my handsome husband.

  Over my dead body, I say.

  Let’s just hope the Grim Reaper sides with me on this one.

  Everett

  I debated coming here alone tonight—keeping Lemon in the dark.

  But since keeping things from her last December, when I was busy trying to surprise her with the plans for our new home almost cost me my marriage, I’ve thought better of it.

  It’s probably best this way, with Lemon and Noah here to witness my demise. And well, let’s not forget Carlotta. I don’t see why she shouldn’t witness the carnage either. But unfortunately, or rather fortunately for the three of them, they’re going to have to witness it from afar. I want to hear what Jimmy has to say on my own. This talk is going down man-to-man.

  Red Satin Gentlemen’s Club is cloistered with bodies, some of which are scantily dressed, the other of which are three sheets to the wind, and tonight, at this late hour, there doesn’t seem to be much of an in-between.

  The walls, the carpet, and the stage that bleeds out into the center of the room, all share the nefarious hue that’s embedded in the name. The lighting is dim and it smells like sex and greasy food, a combination I’m no stranger to.

  “Lottie?” Meg does a double take as she looks our way and she belts out a laugh. Her dark hair is in a knot, and she’s just about the only woman here who looks as if she could step outside of this establishment and not get arrested for public nudity. “Let me guess. You hauled your boys out for a peep show because you’re too tired to host your own?”

  “Very funny.” Lemon ticks her head back a notch. “Everett is here for a meeting.”

  Meg’s mouth opens wide with surprise. “As if life wasn’t bad enough already, Judge Baxter.”

  “That’s right.” Carlotta slaps me on the back. “Not only is he staring down the prospect of playing catch the soap, but now he’s gotta crawl over broken glass while Jimmy arranges to have his kneecaps busted.”