“It looks like she didn’t want to give up the Windermere influence, but she wasn’t willing to just stay a Windermere in spite of . . . how did Samantha put it? Marrying a nobody? I agree with you that there’s some sort of power struggle.”
Rob grinned. “I like it when you buy my conspiracy theories.”
Cam rolled her eyes. She had been doing that a lot more since she’d found herself investigating the occasional murder.
• • •
• • •
Cam texted Annie when they were approaching Roanoke, so when she got home, she found her best friend pacing her living room and cursing her dad.
“I can’t believe he’d worry me like that.”
“It was lousy of him, but at least he’s okay.”
Annie came over and hugged her. “Thank you so much for finding him. Man, if I can find a curse for Elle . . . A voodoo doll! That’s what I need.”
“Now, don’t quote me later. She’s still Cruella and all. But I think she was desperate to save her marriage. She’d been helping her brother in secret, and your dad thought she was sneaking around having an affair and wouldn’t let her explain. She was trying to get him alone so he had to listen.”
Annie scowled. “Sounds like a stupid idea I’d have.”
Cam smiled, glad she hadn’t had to be the one to point that out.
“So where’s Jake?”
“He got a call when we were still in Newport News—new lead on the murder, so they let us come back last night.”
“New lead is good.”
Annie shrugged. “He’s being sort of a butt about it. He won’t tell me anything.”
“Rob will get it out of him.”
She had dropped off Rob at his apartment before she came home, so she called him to alert him that Jake was following a new lead. When she hung up, she grinned at Annie.
“We’ll know soon.”
• • •
• • •
“Soon” was overly optimistic. In fact, Rob wasn’t the one to tell them what it was at all. As suppertime approached, Cam’s dad called and invited her over.
“Annie’s here, too . . .” she began.
“Bring her. The more brains we have on this, the better.”
That worried her. Her dad needed something solved, and his issues, at least the sort he wanted both Cam and Annie in on, were never easy ones.
“So . . . your dad hasn’t had problems for a while,” Annie said as they drove to his house.
“I was thinking the same. I’m not looking forward to it, but he’s been a real trooper for all of us lately.”
“Especially me,” Annie said quietly, “and he’s not even officially mine.”
“Sure he is. He thinks of you as his. And sometimes that degree removed is helpful. I sure prefer you counseling him on his love life.”
Annie giggled. “Oh, and that’s a good set of stories!”
Cam covered one ear. She would have covered both if she hadn’t been driving. “I don’t want to know.”
“Oh, don’t be stuffy.”
“Annie, he’s my dad! Do you want to know about your dad?”
“Yeah, no . . . Okay. I’ll keep his secrets. My dad is all uptight, though.”
“He’s married to a woman who is less than forty. I suspect he has something going on . . .”
“Power,” Annie interrupted.
“Well, maybe. But . . . would you marry a much older man if there wasn’t . . . you know . . .”
“No, but you forget who you’re talking to. I find all that power stuff irritating. It’s like there’s some third person . . . or . . . maybe it’s a committee . . . in the relationship with you. If you aren’t the person with the power, then you don’t have any . . . um . . . power. But if you are the person with power, you have no idea if they care about you or if it’s all about the power. See?”
“I get it. Or I get how you see it. I don’t think, say . . . with Evangeline and Mr. Patrick it’s that way. She said she was tired of all the stupid games men her age played. She wanted someone past that.”
“Yeah, I bet Mr. Patrick is a tiger in the sack, too.”
Cam snorted at that. It wasn’t something she wanted to think about one of her employers, but he was such a darned cute little old man that it was also a funny thing to imagine. Just not in a lot of detail.
Cam’s dad’s house was unassuming, but a decent size. Its only real decadence was a very well-attended garden. It was something her mother, the woman who had taught Cam her love of gardening, had developed over decades and Cam now helped her dad maintain. Currently it hosted the cheery asters her mom had always favored, along with the fabulous gold and orange hearts of the crimson glory, which was climbing a trellis her dad had built. Additionally, on the porch was a very strange flowering plant that looked like a cross between an orchid and a dragon.
“Nice,” Annie said as they passed it.
“Yeah. I don’t know what that’s about. It appeared about a week ago, but it’s definitely looking worse for its time here.”
“You should ask him. Make sure it’s not a sign of dementia,” Annie said.
Cam punched her softly. Her dad was not remotely near dementia.
“My girls!” he said when they went in. He hugged first Cam, then Annie. “Come see what I made!”
He led them to the dining room. There was a pan in the center filled with cannoli.
“Are we having dinner first or just dessert?” Cam asked.
“I made minestrone, too, but that isn’t as impressive.”
Annie nodded. “And it’s best to be warned not to eat too much dinner when there’s such a killer dessert waiting.”
Cam thought her dad would have laughed at that, but instead his face fell.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Let me get the soup. I’ll tell you while we eat.”
Cam helped him bring out the bowls of soup and a sliced baguette, along with a bottle of Chianti.
“When did we become Italian?” Cam asked.
“Vivian has been teaching me.”
“She’s Italian?”
“No, but it’s fun to cook.” Then his face darkened again, so as soon as they’d all sat down, Cam looked at him intently.
“Spill,” she said.
“I was at Vivian’s earlier. She and I made the cannoli together, actually. And . . . well, the police came by. And they questioned her for a long time. And they asked her to come to the station tomorrow . . . said she should plan on spending the day. They had a ton of questions.”
“About what?”
“I guess Derrick Windermere. They found a lot of files on his computer that looked like he’d been harassing her. Threatening letters. Obscene emails. He was being horrible.”
“That’s awful. Why would he do that?”
“He was trying to convince her not to run. She has a lot of ideas for cracking down on fraud. That’s what she said was his reason. You know her degree was in tax law, so she knows a lot of tricks those cheaters use.”
“So the police think she might have been trying to stop him?”
“Something like that. I mean, they know where she was. She was the center of attention that whole time at the party. But they think maybe she could have hired someone.”
“Well that stinks.”
“See, sunshine . . . the trouble is . . . I know she didn’t do it. But I know it looks bad. And . . .” he paused.
“You really like her, don’t you?” Annie said.
“I do. I know I go out on dates a lot. But it’s been a long time since I’ve had this much fun. I just really enjoy her company and I hate to see her facing this alone.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Cam asked.
“Maybe just work a little of that magic like you did the time Annie got accused. Or last time, with that friend of yours . . .”
“You’ll notice that didn’t go so well,” Cam said.
“But you figured
out the truth.”
Cam sipped at her soup, wondering how she’d somehow ended up being thought of as a private investigator by the people in her life—even her dad. She could see it was important to him, so she thought she could try.
“Do you know if Vivian knows Mike Sullivan?”
“Who?”
“He was Derrick Windermere’s son-in-law and he’s dead now, too.”
“What?”
“If I’m going to look into this, Mike Sullivan’s murder might be the easiest way to cancel Vivian out. Because I can’t imagine the two murders aren’t connected, so if she doesn’t have anything to do with Mike . . .”
“We can sure ask her. She’s never mentioned him to me.”
“Is she home tonight?”
“She is. I could invite her over here to join us for the cannoli. I just wanted to talk to you about it first.”
“That’s a good idea. Call her, and I’ll see if I can think of anything else.”
Her dad left the table to call Vivian, and Annie frowned. “Why would she be coming out as a suspect this far after the fact?”
Cam shrugged. “Dad said the police were looking at Derrick’s computer.”
“Shouldn’t they have started there?”
“Maybe it was encrypted or something, so they needed a hacker or expert.”
“I think there must be another reason.”
“You want to ask Jake about it?”
“Oh, that’ll be popular . . . right after Rob has been grilling him about . . . oh wait . . . this must be it . . . the clue he was following up on. Call Rob!”
Cam shook her head, wondering why it had taken the cogs so long to fall into place.
Her dad came back. “She’ll be here in half an hour.”
Cam debated whether she should find out what information Rob had before or after talking to Vivian, but she finally decided to wait. She didn’t want to risk setting Jake off if Rob and Jake were currently working together. She helped clean up the soup bowls and tried to be supportive of her dad while they waited.
When she finished with the dishes, she came out of the kitchen to find Annie and her dad playing Boggle. They played so dirty words counted twice, which was pretty funny.
“So, Dad, what’s with the dragon plant on your porch?”
“Oh! I was going to ask you about that. It’s Vivian’s and it’s having some trouble. I told her you could give it a look and nurse it back to health.”
“It’s tropical—Asian, I think. I’ve never seen one before.”
“But you have that fancy degree . . .”
“If I was giving a guess, it probably doesn’t want to be outside in the winter. It’s used to tropical climates. Maybe I should see if the Patricks could keep it in the summer greenhouse while we figure it out. Or maybe Henry knows something. He has a lot of eccentric clients. Maybe he’s cared for them before.”
“Oh, now there’s a good idea! She’ll be glad. She really likes it. Her daughter sent it to her, so it has sentimental value. I guess they took a trip to Nepal several years ago and this reminded them both of that.”
“I guess I can see that. Nepal, I think, means it wants a lot of moisture—super humid. But the summer greenhouse should do it. I’ll take it over there tomorrow, but for now we should probably bring it in. It won’t like these near-freezing temperatures.”
As they were moving the plant into the house, Vivian arrived. It seemed strange to see her in jeans and a T-shirt, but as it was Sunday evening, it shouldn’t have. It was just that the councilwoman was nearly always dressed like a professional.
“Cam, so good to see you,” she said.
“And you remember Hello Kitty,” Cam gestured at Annie, who punched her in the arm.
“Ha! Any word on your father?” Vivian asked.
“Yes, actually,” Cam said. “Turns out his wife kidnapped him so he’d hear her out about an affair she wasn’t having.”
“What a clever girl. Could have let you in on it though, I imagine,” she said to Annie.
“Yeah. No kidding,” Annie mumbled.
Vivian reached out and touched Annie’s shoulder in sympathy. Cam had noticed she was a touchy lady and wondered if that helped people feel close to her. It probably did. Cam wasn’t particularly touchy, but she could see how it might work, especially for a political candidate.
“Should we get that cannoli on?” Cam said. “It looks amazing!”
They all followed her back to the table and Cam fetched coffee. The plates, forks, and cannoli were already waiting on the table.
Vivian touched the fan of forks. “Cannoli are for fingers. We won’t need any of these.”
“There’s caramel sauce in there, too,” her dad said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
Cam gave a shocked expression. “What, like a real restaurant?”
“It is, actually,” Vivian said. “I met a couple last winter while I was vacationing, and they run a restaurant in New York City. They gave me the recipe if I swore I’d never open my own restaurant.”
“I had to swear, too, before Vi would teach me,” her dad said.
Cam spotted Annie giving her dad a thumbs-up, signaling her approval that the two were well matched, and if Cam were honest, they were. Cam could think of women he’d dated who’d been significantly more annoying. She also liked the idea that Vivian had been friends with her mom. She would respect their history and could share memories of her mom with him.
She had to yank herself out of her thoughts before she had them married off or something. If this woman was under investigation for murder, things could actually go very wrong.
“Vivian, do you know someone called Mike Sullivan?”
She frowned. “I know two Mike Sullivans. I assume you mean the local one?”
“Yes.”
“He volunteered for my campaign last summer. I had to fire him because he was trying to embezzle money from me.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh, what?”
“Well . . . Mike was found dead yesterday.”
Vivian’s hand fell to her lap. “Dead? Where? How?”
“We don’t know the how, but we were trying to track down Senator Schulz on a boat in Newport News. Annie and Jake—her boyfriend, who also happens to be a police officer—were the ones who found him.”
“How awful! Oh, honey, what a miserable thing to see.”
Annie was unusually solemn, and Cam thought again how disturbing it must have been for her.
“You saw something about how he was killed, didn’t you, Annie?” Cam asked gently.
“There was blood, so Jake turned me around and told me not to look. I didn’t mind cooperating for a change. He called the police to come check instead of checking himself, but I think he got hit in the head with a boat anchor or something.”
Vivian sucked in her breath.
Cam looked at her dad, who seemed to be very uncomfortable. She tried to scramble for a line of questioning that would lead to some other angle to investigate.
“How did you end up . . . with him working for you in the first place?”
“I get volunteers all the time. There’s a skills assessment, and when people have expertise in certain areas, my staff manager asks them to do their volunteering in that domain.”
“What did he have in his background that would lead you to put him in contact with money?”
“He claimed to be an investment banker. My staff manager confirmed employment at a local firm. It turns out he was actually in a more routine job—a midlevel administration person. But all she confirmed was where. Believe me—we won’t be doing that again.”
“I bet it was Windermere’s company,” Annie said. “If you had a daughter married to someone like that, you might try to give him a respectable job for her sake.”
Vivian frowned. “He was Derrick Windermere’s son-in-law? That rat! He may have been trying to infiltrate my campaign for more than just money!”
“He was probabl
y trying to get information for Derrick and the money was his own little side idea,” Cam said. “It seems he has a gambling problem. Had,” she corrected. “Had a gambling problem.”
So much for proving Vivian had no motive for murder number two. Both of these men had made her life miserable, one of them for quite a while, apparently.
“Why did they have it in for you? Both of them?”
“Derrick and I have butted heads for several years over his lack of ethics. I tried to convince him to fly right, but never seemed to get anywhere. He really didn’t savor seeing me in government. I think at a city level he wasn’t too worried, but at the state level, I can go after people like him. I have my doubts, now that you mention gambling, that the issue with Mike was personal—it would make sense if he were working for Derrick.”
“I guess maybe that’s enough for me to start with,” Cam said. It was a lie—it seemed like almost nothing, at least nothing good, but she didn’t want to panic anyone.
“Start? Start what?”
“Um . . . er . . .”
“Cam has solved a couple of murders recently,” Annie said. “She just looks into some of the angles the police ignore.”
“Oh. Well, I don’t know if that sounds safe,” Vivian said.
“We’ll be really careful,” Cam said.
“You do that, sunshine,” her dad added. He came over and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then Cam and Annie headed to Cam’s car.
“You’ve got nothing, don’t you?” Annie asked once they were driving.
“Nothing at all.”
“It’s too bad. She’s a nice lady.”
Cam nodded.
“And your dad really likes her.”
Cam let out a sigh. “Why do these things happen to us?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure there are other people who wanted to be rid of both of those guys.”
“I have to think Vera Windermere-Sullivan is the linchpin,” Cam added. “I wonder how we get to her.”
• • •
• • •
The senator and his wife were due home that night, so Annie headed to his house to give him a tongue-thrashing about worrying her so badly. Undoubtedly, she hoped some of the thrashing would land on Elle, too, though more indirectly. Cam waited for Rob. She wanted to share details with him because the two of them worked off each other well. She’d just traded shoes for fuzzy slippers when he arrived.
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