by Raven Snow
“Even though Tina says she saw her dead?” Rowen asked.
Peter took a deep breath at that. “Tina is a good worker, but she can be a little overdramatic; I think we both know that. I believe that she believes she saw something. I think she’s convinced herself it was more than it actually was.”
Rowen hadn’t heard Peter suggest that yet. “How so?”
“Your eyes can play tricks on you. It was dark and late and stormy. Maybe she saw one thing and mistook it for another,” suggested Peter.
Rowen considered that. “Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Peter admitted. “I just find it hard to believe that there would be a murder without a proper crime scene.”
“So you think what? That Jeana was kidnapped?” asked Rowen. That wouldn’t be the first time someone had suggested as much.
“She could have been,” conceded Peter. “Honestly, I don’t know what happened to her. It’s something that keeps me up nights. I hope and pray she returns to us safely. Until then, I really don’t have any new information for anyone.”
Rowen followed up with a few minor questions. She asked about Jeana’s personality and habits. She pressed about Peter’s last time seeing her and what she had been doing at work for the night she had gone missing.
None of the answers Rowen got were very interesting. It was all rather mundane. Jeana liked books and movies. She ate at the same sandwich shop for lunch every day. The last time Peter claimed he had seen her was the day she had gone missing. He had told her to enter some books into the system which was what she had been doing the night when she went missing. He said he still felt guilty about asking her to work late that night.
“Well, I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us,” Rowen said, switching her recorder off and standing.
“It was my pleasure,” said Peter, which was an obvious lie.
Rowen couldn’t imagine that he was anything but relieved to see them leave. She waved goodbye to Tina as they headed for the door. “Swing by for dinner, if you want,” said Rowen. “We’re having company already, so the more the merrier, right?”
“I’ll be there,” Tina assured them, smiling.
“Isn’t your family going through, like, a thing right now?” asked Eric, once they were outside and could speak freely.
“What do you mean?” asked Rowen.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the whole Norman ordeal? Did you forget already?” Eric led the way to the car, throwing Rowen an incredulous look as he went.
“Yeah, well, we always have something going on,” said Rowen with a shrug. “I guess I really didn’t see a difference between this and any other day.”
Eric just shook his head. “The Greensmiths really are a handful.” He waited until she was in the car and both the doors were closed to change the subject. “So, what sort of impression did you get from Peter?”
“He’s definitely hiding something.” Rowen thought back to their conversation. She considered his mannerisms and the energy she had been reading from him. “I think he had a thing for her. It’s hard to tell exactly. I’m not sure if they were romantic or just having a fling. It could be either, but I think something was there.”
“Does it matter?” asked Eric. “Would that make a difference?”
“It would in crimes of passion,” said Rowen.
“You mean, like, he saw that Norman was back in town and that set him off?” Eric leaned back in his seat and looked off into the distance. “He doesn’t strike me as the jealous rage type.”
“I don’t know,” said Rowen, still reviewing their conversation in her mind’s eye. “There’s something there. He’s not as buttoned-down as he’s letting on.”
“Well, he could have fooled me,” said Eric. “Where to now?”
“Now, we head home. I need to have a word with Norman,” said Rowen. “Also there’s this whole wedding cake thing I was supposed to swing by for.” Rowen groaned. She didn’t want to deal with wedding stuff. She just wanted to solve mysteries.
Chapter Six
Aunt Lydia had been baking away for the last couple of days. Rowen came inside after calling Ben and was immediately hit with the smell. It was absolutely mouthwatering. Say what you will about Aunt Lydia but that woman could bake a mean cake. Rowen was going to have to do something nice for her once this was all over.
The cakes were laid out on the bar in the kitchen. They were all small, just for tasting which Rowen saw someone was already doing. Rowen was a little shocked to find Aunt Lydia watching Tiffany and Roland testing the samplers. They were taking turns dipping their forks into a rich-looking red velvet cake right now ‘Mmm-ing’ the whole while.
“What’s all this?” asked Rowen, feeling slightly betrayed. “I thought Eric and I were supposed to do the taste testing. I’m not even sure why Roland’s here.”
“You invited me over for dinner,” Roland pointed out.
“It’s not nearly time for dinner,” said Rowen. “You know what time we normally eat dinner. You come over here all the time.”
Roland shrugged helplessly.
“I’m glad he’s here,” said Tiffany, moving on to the next cake in line. “It’s nice to have a second opinion.”
“We were supposed to be the first and second opinion,” complained Rowen, indicating herself and Eric. “You still haven’t explained why you didn’t wait for us.”
“It just smelled so good,” Tiffany complained, her fork hovering over the white frosting of the next cake.
“It is good,” said Roland. “It’s the best cake I’ve ever had. All of them are.”
“I was just looking forward to compliments,” said Aunt Lydia. “I couldn’t wait. Sorry, Dears.”
“Just leave us some to try,” said Rowen, rolling her eyes. “Where’s Norman?”
“He’s in the den,” said Aunt Lydia. The smile faded from her face, and her expression darkened a bit.
“And Margo?” asked Rowen.
“Out in the trailer with David,” said Lydia. “She’s just fine. Stressed out, but fine.”
Rowen left her mother and Roland to the cakes, Eric following along behind her as she headed to the den.
Norman was there. He was seated on the sofa, watching a sitcom. He was slouched against the arm of the sofa, not looking terribly concerned with the events of the day.
“You’ve been busy,” said Rowen, coming around to sit in the chair across from him.
Norman straightened up just a bit. “Hey, Rowen,” he said. He glanced at Eric as Eric moved to sit near Rowen. “And Eric.”
Eric nodded back.
“Margo blew it out of proportion,” said Norman. “I’m not sure what you heard, but everything is fine. I’m not in any kind of legal trouble. The police didn’t even have anything to hold me on. I wasn’t under arrest or anything.”
“Then why did you try to run?” asked Rowen.
Norman frowned at that. “Well, I didn’t know what they were coming to get me on, did I?”
Eric smirked. “Plenty they could arrest you on, I take it?”
Norman just shrugged. Of course there was more that they could arrest him on. Before he had fled to Europe, he had made himself a tidy sum living as a conman.
“It’s a bigger deal than you think,” said Rowen. “I don’t know how much you remember about Lainswich, but this town isn’t full of Greensmith fans. They distrust us by default here. We’ve made a little bit of progress, I think, but there are still plenty of people out there that don’t like us”
Eric made a noncommittal noise at that, like he was uncertain they hadn’t done more harm than good as far as their reputation went.
Rowen gave him a stern look. She didn’t need to argue about this. It was beside the point. “Either way, the point is that people here don’t trust us. Regardless of whether or not you were involved with Jeana’s disappearance, it looks bad.”
Norman’s eyes went back to the television. If this concerned him, he wasn’t lett
ing it show. That was annoying, to say the least.
Rowen decided to come right out with it. Norman clearly wasn’t going to open up to her on his own. “Did you see Jeana before she disappeared?” she asked. She was sure it was the question the entire family had been wondering, but had kept to themselves. Maybe they just didn’t want to know the answer. Rowen wasn’t sure she wanted to know either, but at this point, she needed to know.
Norman’s chest rose and fell with a deep breath. The answer was clear already. He had to know there was no way he could lie to his own family—not about something like this. “I saw her,” he admitted.
“I figured,” said Rowen. She would have liked to say she was surprised, but she wasn’t. “What happened?” she asked. “Tell me everything.”
Norman reached for the remote then set it back down after turning the television up a smidge. He didn’t want anyone to overhear their conversation, but apparently, it wasn’t private enough for him to ask them all to step outside for a minute. “There’s not a lot to tell,” he said. “I didn’t come back to the states for her or anything. As soon as I got here, I looked her up, of course. How could I not? I loved that girl.”
“You didn’t visit your family first,” Rowen pointed out. “Don’t you love us, too? What about Margo?”
“You lot hate me,” Norman said.
“We don’t hate you,” Rowen corrected immediately. “You’re just slightly lower in popularity than my mother…which is saying something. It hardly means we hate you.”
“Don’t like me then,” said Norman. “You don’t like me.” That was hard to argue with. He continued. “I was going to see you guys. I just wanted to see if I could crash with Jeana first. That would have been better for everyone.”
“Not Jeana,” Rowen muttered.
Norman frowned at her, but continued without commenting on that sleight. “I guess she shared your opinion on that. We had a fun night together. I spent some time at her place. We had some drinks. One thing led to another and, well…”
“You can spare me those details,” Rowen said quickly. She didn’t need to hear about her uncle’s sexual escapades. “I take it you had sex.”
“Several times,” said Norman, smiling. “But she wanted me out right after. She wasn’t really receptive to me staying there.”
“So, it was just a one-time booty call?” asked Rowen.
“That wasn’t what it was supposed to be,” said Norman. His smile faded a bit, like that part bothered him. “She wanted to see me again. We talked the next day. I had plans to meet her that night. Of course, that’s the night she went missing. I didn’t hear from her after that.”
Rowen looked over at Eric, trying to see what he thought of this story. Eric raised his eyebrows at her, indicating that he wasn’t sure what to make of it either. Rowen looked back at her uncle. “Was she involved with anyone else?”
“It didn’t really come up,” admitted Norman, his gaze going distant like he was thinking back on their time together. “Maybe,” he said.
“That’s not exactly helpful,” Rowen said with a sigh.
“Which is why I didn’t come forward to the police,” Norman snapped. “I didn’t have anything worth telling them.”
Rowen would have bet that he had heard something worth telling the police, but that he just hadn’t been paying attention. Norman had a tendency to tune out anything that didn’t benefit or involve him in some way.
“What now?” asked Eric.
Rowen wasn’t quite sure where to go from here. “We need someone who might know more,” she said. There were questions that should have had obvious answers. Surely, someone knew. Of course, the police would have likely found them by now if that was the case. Still, they couldn’t read people quite like Rowen could. It was worth a shot.
“Well, she has a sister,” said Norman, cringing.
“Oh.” Rowen had forgotten, or maybe, she had just blocked it out. Debra McCormick had swung by their offices more than once. That woman loved attention. She didn’t know much, but she liked to act like she did. In truth, she and her sister really hadn’t been all that close. “I doubt she knows anything.”
“But she might,” said Norman. “I do remember that Jeana was complaining about having lunch with her recently. They probably talked some then.”
“She would have said something, surely,” said Rowen.
“Unless she doesn’t know that she knows,” said Eric.
Rowen gave her fiancé a puzzled look. “What are you talking about?”
“Maybe you just have to ask the right questions?” Eric ventured, sounding like he was just suggesting that because it sounded like something he should say. That didn’t mean he was wrong… Unfortunately.
Rowen sighed. “You’re right. I should have one last talk with her just in case. I’ll get around to it tomorrow.” She stood to head back to the kitchen. In the meantime, she wanted to try some of that cake before her mother and Roland ate it all.
Chapter Seven
At least Margo was in better spirits the next morning. She was seated at the bar, sipping coffee and smiling patiently as David went on about his theories.
“It’s always the boyfriend,” said David knowingly. “Not Norman, of course. Norman is just a red herring.” Whether or not he actually thought that part was vague. He could very well just be trying to stay on Margo’s good side. “I have my money on that Peter guy. Something isn’t right about him. He did it. I bet you anything he’s the murderer.”
“We don’t know it was murder,” Rowen said for the umpteenth time.
“Whatever,” said David. “It was him. It’s obvious.”
“He would know,” said Eric, entering the kitchen with a yawn and a smirk. “He’s a detective now. He’s writing a book.”
David glared at his brother.
“How is that coming?” asked Rose, giving David a supportive smile of her own. The family had warmed up to David again. He was a flighty guy, but Margo was a flighty woman. They made a decent match, and regardless, he was about to be part of the family soon with Eric marrying Rowen.
“Fantastic! Thank you for asking,” said David. He gave his brother a look that seemed to imply he should think to ask more.
“And how much have you actually written?” asked Eric.
“I’m still in the researching phase,” said David, taking on a somewhat defensive tone. “There’s a lot of research to do, but it’s going well.”
Eric snorted. “How can there be a lot of research? You were there.”
“The book is more involved than that, and you know it,” said David, scowling as he returned to sipping at his coffee.
“It is coming along well, I think,” said Margo. “Of course, I guess I really wouldn’t know. I haven’t written a book before or anything, but It’s exciting being part of the process.”
“I’m not sure ‘exciting’ is the right word for it,” Rowen said under her breath, earning a smile from Eric. He always approved of her giving his brother a hard time.
Rose played the peace keeper in the conversation. “Hopefully, you’ll have something new to write about after Jeana is found,” she said. “Did you already get in contact with Debra?”
“I shot her an e-mail last night,” said Rowen. “It was, like, midnight when I e-mailed her. She answered back in less than ten minutes.”
“Well, that’s nice,” said Rose.
“I guess.” Rowen wasn’t so sure. It made her a little nervous, honestly. Debra came off as so desperate for attention that she seemed more than a little unstable. “I’m meeting her for brunch.”
“Oh, brunch,” said Margo. “Fun.”
“You’re welcome to come,” said Rowen. She knew Eric had to go get his suit for the wedding tailored. That meant she was stuck seeing Debra alone.
“I’ll come,” Margo said immediately.
David frowned. “I thought you were going to help me outline the first chapter today?”
“You ca
n manage that on your own, right?” asked Margo with a sheepish smile. “This is important. Rowen needs me; don’t you, Rowen?”
“I’d appreciate the company,” said Rowen. She knew Margo was just using her to get out of work, but she really didn’t want to be alone with Debra.
“It’s settled, then,” said Margo.
David looked a little put out, but he didn’t complain. They all finished eating and headed out on their separate ways. Rose headed for work. Willow and Peony would follow her shortly after. They had had a long night with Tina. She had come over for dinner and stayed after for an undisclosed amount of time. Rowen knew she had heard them still chatting away down in their bedroom when she had finally gone to bed.