Warm Food Cold Body

by S. Y. Robins

  “He did hate me!” Daisy shot back. “And you know what? I hated him, too. He was a jerk and he hated Silas because he envied everything Silas had, and I honestly think he’s half the reason Silas is an alcoholic!”

  “So why on earth would you sleep with him?” Shannon waved her hands.

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “No! I don’t!”

  “Because he was honest about it, okay?” Daisy sighed and dropped her head into her hands. “No, that’s not even it. He was good at manipulating people. He told the truth like it was a dare. He came over to me one night and he said he hated me, like I’d been expecting him to, and then he said he wasn’t going to lie, he wanted me. I asked about Caroline and he said he wasn’t even going to pretend to be a good guy, and…he would throw it out there like a challenge, so you wanted to prove him wrong. I could see why she stayed with him. I hated him, but I still wanted him to be the man I knew he could be, don’t you see? He’s so good at it because he understands people. He can make them laugh, make them do anything, and it’s like it’s this big joke and you want to be in on it, even though you know it’s a terrible idea. Can’t you understand that?”

  “No,” Shannon said flatly. She turned away from Daisy’s pleading face. “God, I can’t believe you would be that stupid!”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Oh, come on, you even knew you were doing something stupid when you did it.”

  “I never said I didn’t, but that’s no excuse to call me stupid.”

  “Oh, for—stop being the little sister for once!”

  There was a moment of absolute silence.

  “What?” Daisy asked dangerously.

  “You know exactly what I mean,” Shannon said. Her lips felt numb, but she couldn’t stop talking. “You’ve always been impulsive like this. Even Silas was a terrible person to fall for. You knew he had problems when you started dating him. What, do you think you can save everyone?”

  “People believe weirder things,” Daisy snapped back. “And are you doing so much better? Tell me.”

  Shannon felt herself go cold all over. “That’s completely different. Jeffrey was—”

  “The bad boy,” Daisy said, jabbing her finger at Shannon. “You married him because you knew he was trouble. And it seemed fun when you were younger and you were goofing around together but then he started screwing around on you, too. You know what the difference is? You didn’t even have the awareness to realize you were making bad decisions.”

  “If you did, then why didn’t you, I don’t know, not make them?”

  “It’s my life! I get to do what I want!” Daisy threw the ladle away from herself and clenched her hands. “I don’t have to answer to you, especially after I bailed you out. I don’t have to answer to anyone.”

  “But you do!” Shannon cried. “Don’t you understand? You do.”

  “What?”

  “The police, Daisy. Goddammit, they already thought you did it and they haven’t even got a toxicology report. How do you think they’re going to react when they know you’re hiding things like this? Forget all that crap about saying that Noah had it out for you and playing this like it was revenge, you’re going to send yourself to jail if you don’t shape up.”

  Daisy went white. She shook her head jerkily. “So? What does it matter to you? You’d get to be free of me and my bad decisions.”

  “I don’t want to…” Shannon felt the tears start in her eyes. The words came out of her before she had time to think. She had marched in here furious, and all along she had been scared. “Daisy, I’m terrified to lose you. I don’t think you could possibly have done this, but they might. And if you go…if I lose you…”

  “What?” Daisy’s face lost its hard edge. “Shannon?”

  “You’re the only thing I have,” Shannon whispered. “I know it’s not fair to you. I know it’s not. But you’re the only person in the whole world who believed I was still a good person after the divorce. Yes, you were—Mom and Dad believed Jeffrey, too. And you never even wavered, and you believed I could climb my way out of it. You were the only person who didn’t doubt me. Hell, even I doubted me. But you didn’t. If you go away for something you didn’t do, it’ll be like the world only hurts innocent people. I can’t live with that, or with knowing you’re in jail.”

  “Hey.” Daisy came to take her hand and led her into the living room. “Sit. Listen to me. I’m not going to go to jail. I had nothing to do with his death and as you may know by now, Noah wasn’t a very nice guy. I’m hardly going to be the only suspect. I told the police I was sleeping with him. I just…well, I didn’t want you to think less of me.”

  “What?”

  “You saw how you were when you came into the house just now, right?” Daisy lifted an eyebrow. “And it was Silas’s friend, and someone I didn’t even respect. I was ashamed of myself, okay? I knew I shouldn’t have done it. I didn’t want to tell you. But I told them. Screw them if they think less of me.” She waved a hand, the ghost of her usual, carefree smile on her face. “I’m not going anywhere, Shannon. And whether I was here or not, you’d have climbed out of that divorce just fine, because that’s who you are. Under everything, you’re still stubborn as hell, you hear me? Maybe I’m helping, but you’re doing it yourself.”

  “You’re helping more than you know.” Shannon’s voice was choked. She reached out for her sister’s hand and ducked her head to hide her tears.

  “Hey. It’s going to be okay.” Daisy pulled her into a hug, then pushed herself back. “Wait, how exactly did you find out about Noah?”

  “I was…talking to people.”

  “Why?” Daisy’s voice was amused.

  “I was trying to solve the murder,” Shannon said, somewhat grumpily. She realized now just how ridiculous that was.

  “And why was that?” Daisy asked, grinning.

  “To clear your name! I knew you didn’t do it, so…well, I thought I should go talk to people.”

  “You are so sweet.” Daisy hugged her. “Who did you talk to?”

  “Harry Holt.”

  “Ugh, he’s a piece of work. Gruff as hell.”

  “And devoted to Caroline,” Shannon agreed.

  “Oh.” Daisy looked at her, eyes wide. “You think he…”

  “It’s possible, isn’t it? He said he was running the food truck by himself, he was almost proud of how many motives he had for wanting to do it. And he thinks Caroline is pretty much perfect, wouldn’t let me say a word against her.”

  “Yeah, he’s been in love with her forever,” Daisy said, her eyes fixed on the middle distance. “Wow. I never guessed it might be him.”

  “No?”

  “Frankly, I thought it would be one of the girls he slept with. Which I know doesn’t reflect well on me, but that’s not the point. I thought…well, maybe someone wanted to marry him or something. He was always so big on saying he didn’t want marriage that sometimes I even felt tempted to see if I could make him do it. It was ridiculous, but it’s the truth.”

  “Huh.” Shannon considered.

  “But Harry…you’re right, he has all the motive in the world. He realized that no matter what happened, Caroline was always going to be in love with Noah. Maybe he thought if he killed Noah, they’d be together. Or maybe he knew he’d go to jail, but he was willing to risk it.” Daisy grabbed her keys. “Come on.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Harry’s house. I know where he lives.”

  “Why?”

  “To see if we can find clues!” Daisy grinned. “I’m not going to let you have all the fun, you know.”

  6

  “We really shouldn’t be doing this, you know.” Shannon jabbed Daisy in the ribs.

  “Didn’t Mom ever teach you not to poke the person who’s driving?” Daisy stuck out her tongue. “And we really should. What if Harry doesn’t tell the police he was in love with Caroline? What if they don’t know Noah was stealing money from Harry’s broth
er?”

  “What?”

  “Actually, even Harry may not have known about that.” Daisy turned onto the street Harry lived on. “As cold as it sounds, I’m tempted to agree with Mr. Holt—Noah kind of had it coming. You can only screw over so many people before bad things happen to you.”

  “Not necessarily true. Look at most of Wall Street.”

  “Yes, yes.” Daisy pulled into the parking lot of an apartment building. “Okay, this is his building.”

  “So what’s your plan?” Shannon asked, crossing her arms and fixing Daisy with a look. “Sneak up to his door and lurk in the hallway, hoping no one will notice us?”

  “Something like that. Let me just check his address.” Daisy began searching through her phone.

  “Oh, for God’s sake. You’re not even sure which apartment is his?”

  “I don’t have to be.” Daisy’s voice took on an interesting note. “Looks like he’s going somewhere.”

  “That’s hardly suspicious in the middle of the day!” Shannon jabbed at Daisy’s leg. “He’s probably going where we should be right now—running a food truck!”

  “…Did I turn off the soup?” Daisy asked rhetorically.

  “Oh, God.”

  “I’m pretty sure I did. Buckle up, sis, we’re going to follow Harry.”

  “We’re—oh, you can’t be serious. Daisy, we are not cops!”

  “Thank goodness. We’d be terrible cops.” Daisy grinned and backed them out of their spot. “He’s in the teal car. Keep an eye on him.”

  “He’s turning right,” Shannon said grumpily. “And I can’t believe I’m helping you with this.”

  “No, I’m helping you. It’s your investigation, remember?” Daisy shifted gears and her old car obligingly gripped the snow to propel them down a side street.

  They followed Harry to one of the major roads that ran across town and followed him into a charming little residential neighborhood. Tiny, square houses had curving walkways and white picket fences, the remains of bushes and summer gardens. Daisy shook her head and muttered something under her breath.

  “What is it?

  “This is Noah’s neighborhood.”

  “Oh, God.” Shannon looked over at her. “It really was him.”

  “Maybe,” Daisy said in an attempt at fairness, but it was clear from her voice that she suspected the same thing. “Okay, duck down, I’m just making sure that he’s going where I think he’s going…yep. Okay, we’re going to park somewhere Caroline can’t see the car.”

  “I thought you said it was Noah’s neighborhood.”

  “They bought a house together a while back.” Daisy shrugged, a bit angrily, and tucked the keys into her pocket as they walked. “You know, I kind of hoped they’d find out it was her and she wouldn’t get the house or anything. I never liked her much.”

  “Why?” Shannon asked. She realized afterwards what a stupid question it was, and flushed.

  “Oh, it’s not that she was with Noah,” Daisy assured her. “I mean, I can see how you’d think that, but it wasn’t that. It was…she always cared a lot about how people saw her. And I don’t mean in a fake way, you know, like she was always taking selfies and then editing them or something. I mean, there was this hard edge to it. If you told her that she was wrong about something, she’d fight you on it. It didn’t matter what she thought of you—you had to think the right things about her. I just never liked it.”

  Shannon had a sudden, vivid memory of Caroline angrily mentioning that Harry had shamed her by mentioning the affairs. She wondered, now, if Harry had been called here for nothing more than a lecture. She felt a pang of sympathy for Caroline, who was likely going to be on the receiving end of a marriage offer shortly.

  They were almost at the gate when they heard shouting. With a look at one another, they eased the gate open and crept up the walk to lean close to the door. Caroline’s voice was raised, and then they heard Harry’s angry words.

  “How could you?” His voice was uncomprehending, as gruff as Shannon remembered it and yet oddly pleading.

  “You know my reasons. You know all of them.” Caroline’s voice was defiant. “I can’t believe that you, of all people, wouldn’t understand.”

  Why she stayed? Shannon mouthed at Daisy. Daisy only shook her head, frowning. Harry had pined for years in the shadows, and it occurred to them both, Shannon was fairly sure, that maybe Harry had still gotten a better deal than Caroline.

  “I know you hated him,” Caroline said, her voice softer.

  “Hated him? Hated him? No, that isn’t even close. I wanted to see him dead for what he was doing to you. I wanted to kill him myself. I imagined it every time he spoke about you.”

  Daisy pulled out her phone urgently and pressed record, her fingers clenched. Were they about to hear a confession? Shannon felt her breath coming shallow.

  “Caroline, the man was vain, he was a pathological liar, he used all of his own flaws to get women to sleep with him. I saw it time and again. I even tried to warn them off at the start. I thought you were telling me it wasn’t real because you couldn’t believe it, and then when I found out you actually did know…”

  “Of course I knew! I just had the sense to keep it quiet.”

  “But why?” Harry pleaded. “You should have turned everyone against him. They would have thought well of you. Everyone looked at you and thought, ‘I can’t believe he’s cheating on a woman like that.’”

  “No! Everyone looked at me and thought, ‘What is she like, that she can’t keep a man?’” Caroline’s voice was furious. “You ruined me! You ruined my reputation. You made me seem pathetic to everyone—to him!”

  “He didn’t deserve you,” Harry whispered.

  Oh, my God. Shannon held her breath, waiting. And then, the ground dropped out from under her:

  “How could you do this?” Harry whispered.

  Daisy and Shannon exchanged a look.

  “He was going to leave,” Caroline said, her voice ugly. “After everything, after all those years when I was the only woman who would stick by him, he was going to leave me. He didn’t even want to pretend to be with me anymore. Pretend! Like it wasn’t ever real! Like…like…”

  “Caroline…” Harry’s voice was breaking. “You could have let him go.”

  “And let everyone know that he could just leave me like that? No.” Her voice was panicked, now. “No, you don’t understand. You’ve never been there, chasing after someone like that.”

  “I was chasing after you!” His voice was a roar. “No matter how many times you went back, no matter how many times he told you he’d never be faithful and you took him back anyway, no matter how much money he took, I stayed. I even tried to make him into a friend for you! Because I knew it would make you happy. He made fun of me for it, but I stayed. I stayed the whole time. So, yes, I know.” His voice quieted, but went hard. “I never would have killed for you, though.”

  There was a silence.

  “Then maybe you don’t understand what it is to be in love,” Caroline said finally.

  “No.” Shannon could almost see him. “No, that’s not love. Caro, what I had for you wasn’t even love. None of this was about love.”

  “You didn’t love me? That’s how you’re going to play this?” Her voice got dangerous.

  “No. I’m sorry. I mean, I really thought I did. But I was chasing after something that wasn’t real.”

  Caroline said nothing, and Harry spoke gently,

  “Don’t you think, in a way, that was the same thing you were doing with Noah?”

  “Get out.”

  “Caroline.”

  “Get out. And don’t even think of going to the police. I have an alibi. I’m going to get out of this. You know you’re more of a suspect than me.”

  “Caroline—” He was frightened now, and Shannon heard the pound of footsteps.

  Only too late did she realize where they were headed. The next second, the door was wrenched open and she fo
und herself face to face with Caroline.

  7

  Shannon had no idea what to say first. ‘Hello’ seemed wrong, and ‘sorry,’ in light of their recent revelation, also seemed wrong. They had found the murderer—and while Daisy might have said she hoped it was Caroline, Shannon knew very well that her sister had never expected to be correct.

  “What are you doing here?” Caroline asked finally. She drew herself up smoothly, as if she had decided that they couldn’t possibly have heard her confession.

  Or as if she had decided that the world shouldn’t think she had killed Noah. Shannon felt a chill, and swallowed hard.

  “You did it?” It was Daisy who broke the silence. Her voice was low and dangerous. “You killed him? After everything he did, after the lies and the cheating and the stealing, you killed him when he tried to do the right thing for once?”

  “The right thing?” Caroline’s voice rose. “He was going to leave me! Me! I was loyal to him.”

  “That’s messed up!” Daisy’s voice matched hers. “Don’t you realize that? It’s messed up that you stayed through everything. It was clear you’d never leave, it was clear he was destroying you slowly. And then when he tried to do the right thing, even just once, you killed him?”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” Caroline spat.

  “No, I don’t! He was like…he was like…a vampire! He was sucking the life out of you. He thrived on his contempt of you. He laughed about you to me, Caroline. All you did was love him and he hated you for it. And when he finally decided to set you free, you wouldn’t take the offer. You wouldn’t even let him live.”

  “He had no right!” Caroline’s face was white.

  Daisy wrenched the screen door open and went after her, fingers spread like claws, pushing her phone into Shannon’s hand to keep recording.

  “So you poisoned him?” Daisy was screaming. “You let him think he could go and you poisoned him?”

  “Didn’t you hate him, too?”

  “Of course I hated him?” Daisy had Caroline up against a side wall. “But I don’t kill people I hate. You deserve—”