“That’s because I broke up with her after our second date because her mom tried to corner me in the bathroom. I thought it was just my imagination, but I still didn’t want to go over there ever again. OMG, I feel so violated.”
Angie gave her brother a hug. “That is creepy. I’m glad I didn’t know about her; I’d have drop-kicked that woman.”
“Thanks, Ange.” Al rested his head on his sister’s shoulder.
“I think I still want to drop-kick them,” Joe said.
“You can see why Elise’s book has blown the doors off the neighborhood,” Cassie said. “Reputations have been shredded, families maligned, friendships destroyed. It’s been bad, and Elise is loving every vengeful bit of it.”
“That could make for a whole lot of enemies,” Joe said. “I think I’m going to call Stan. We might want to have more than one officer watching over Elise.”
He rose from his seat and took his phone into Mel’s office. Four knocks sounded on the back door, and Oz hurried across the room to open the door for Officer Clark.
“What are you doing, Ruiz?” she snapped. She glared up at him. “I could have been the killer.”
“You knocked four times,” Oz said. “Wasn’t that the signal?”
“The killer could have knocked four times,” she said. She tossed her hair back.
“But it wasn’t the killer, it was you,” he argued. His voice was annoyed and Mel got the feeling he would have preferred it if it were the killer.
“You have to be more careful,” Officer Clark berated him. “Just because you aren’t considered to be high-risk anymore, doesn’t mean there’s no risk.”
She was winding up to continue her lecture on safety. Oz turned around and walked away. Officer Clark followed behind him, looking like a stray puppy who had attached itself to a person.
“I mean, what if the killer just happened to use four knocks and you opened the door, and they came in here and blew everyone away? How would you feel then?”
“Dead,” Oz said.
Al and Tony both turned away as if they couldn’t contain their laughter but didn’t want to offend Officer Clark by losing it in front of her. Marty just shook his head and Mel wasn’t sure if he was more boggled by Officer Clark or Oz.
“You’re intentionally missing my— Oh!”
Her words were abruptly cut off as Oz held up a cupcake in front of her. It was one of their Pucker Up ones, a lemon cake with a tart lemon buttercream frosting.
“Have a cupcake,” he said.
She glanced up at him. “Thank you.”
The smile she sent his way was a stunner and Mel glanced at Angie to see if she was getting this. Angie looked back at her with her eyebrows raised as well.
“Okay, then, I have work to do,” Oz said. He reached around Tate and scooped up the parchment paper with his fondant, which had begun to dry out, and then he pushed through the swinging doors into the front of the bakery.
Mel gave Officer Clark a side eye and noticed she was watching the door where Oz had disappeared with a speculative gleam in her eye. Huh.
Now that they knew their sister wasn’t a target, Tony and Al left, taking Marty with them. Tate and Angie followed shortly after. Mel knew that they were still processing the fact that their friend was gone, but she suspected their grief was less complicated now that they knew Blaise’s death had nothing to do with them.
Joe and Mel were ready to go, too. Mel said good night to Oz and told him not to stay up too late. Since he had moved into the apartment above the bakery, he’d taken to doing the midnight baking that Mel used to do. In fact, it was getting so that she relied upon him to start the baking day without her. She wondered if maybe it was time to give him a raise.
He locked the door after them and Joe and Mel walked Cassie to Officer Clark’s squad car. Clark opened the back door for her, but Cassie waved her off.
“I’m not sitting in the back,” she said. “I’ll have nightmares.”
“It’s pretty cramped up front with my computer taking up half the seat,” Clark said.
“I don’t care, Officer Clark,” Cassie said. “I refuse to look like a criminal when I arrive home.”
Mel had a feeling her brush with jail had been too close for comfort. She couldn’t really blame her.
“All right,” Clark said. She opened the front passenger door. “And since we’re going to be spending so much time together, Ms. Leighton, you might as well call me Hayley.”
“And you can call me Cassie, thank you,” Cassie said. Then she turned to Mel. “And thank you for all of your help tonight.” She gave Mel a quick hug and turned to get into the car. Before she sat down, however, she whipped around and looked at Mel in alarm. “Oh, no, Peanut! Who’s going to take care of Peanut?”
“Peanut?” Mel asked.
“Elise’s dog,” Cassie said. “We have to go get her. The poor thing will need food and water and a walk. Besides, what if the person who assaulted Elise goes to her place? Peanut could be in danger!”
Ten
“When she said ‘we,’ how did that turn into you and me taking care of the dog?” Joe asked as he followed Hayley’s squad car to the townhouse Elise had been renting for the month.
Mel shrugged. “Cassie is allergic.”
“Do we even know what kind of dog it is? It could be one of those tiny little yappers or a massive beast that leaves poop the size of watermelons in the backyard.”
Mel cringed. She had no idea what to expect. She just knew that she wasn’t going to leave a dog shut in a townhouse when they had no idea when Elise would be discharged from the hospital.
“Hayley called Uncle Stan and he said it was okay so long as we didn’t touch anything but the dog,” Mel said. “He’s going to try and meet us there.”
“He’s not going to meet us there,” Joe said. “Because he’s single and lives alone and he would be the most logical choice to take the dog. He won’t risk it.”
Mel had a sneaky suspicion Joe was right. “Maybe we could get my mom to take it.”
“I’m not doing that to Joyce,” Joe said. He gave a small smile. “I don’t want her ‘dear Joe’ to turn into ‘damn it, Joe.’”
Mel laughed. “Honestly, I’m just hoping that the dog is cat-friendly. I don’t want to traumatize Captain Jack. He’s had enough upheaval in his little life, being abandoned as a kitten and all. The last thing he needs is a dog making his life a misery.”
“Agreed,” Joe said. “Captain Jack has right of refusal on the dog.”
They parked next to Hayley’s squad car and followed Cassie towards the entrance to the townhouse. There was one main entrance to the luxury building, which led to a bank of elevators. Because of the late hour there wasn’t a person in sight. Cassie led the way, using a keycode to access the elevator.
As if sensing everyone’s questioning gaze, Cassie said, “She gave me the code to her townhouse so I could water the plants while she was on the book tour.”
“And I’m sure she’ll verify that if it’s needed,” Hayley said as they filed into the elevator. She crossed her arms over her chest and studied Cassie with a speculative glance.
Having been on the end of a few suspicious gazes in her time, Mel felt for the bookseller. It was not the best seat in the house, for sure.
“Yes, of course,” Cassie said.
She led the way out of the elevator into a narrow hallway on the seventh floor. The luxury apartments were built with a flair for mid-century modern and were mostly glass, metal, and lots of sharp angles, with starburst light fixtures as a nod to the atomic age.
“Peanut can be timid, so we should go in quietly so as not to cause her any stress,” Cassie said.
She unlocked the door and made her voice soft when she called out, “Hey, Peanut, it’s Aunt Cassie. Are you okay, baby girl?”
There was no answering bark. She reached inside the door and flipped on the light switch. She staggered back in horror and pressed her hand to her chest.
“Oh my god, the place has been ransacked! It must have been the killer. Ack, what if he harmed the dog? I can’t bear it!”
Hayley pushed past Cassie with her hand on her gun. Mel peered around the two women to see what sort of carnage had occurred. Joe grabbed her hand in his and did the same.
A feather floated towards them and Hayley batted it out of the air. The sound of nails scrabbling on wood sounded and Mel glanced into the room to see a chubby black dog with a pushed-in nose and pointy ears come careening around the sofa right at them. At the last second the dog turned, going back the way it came, and sent a spray of feathers up into the air in its wake.
Joe pushed past Hayley and reached down on the floor. He picked up the very empty, very limp cloth of what was formerly a throw pillow.
“I’m not sure the place was ransacked so much as dog-sacked,” he said.
Peanut came galloping past them again with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. She looked ridiculously happy. Then her back legs gave out and she did a big skid into the feathers like a pro ballplayer sliding into home base.
Mel laughed. The look of surprised delight on the dog’s face was hilarious.
“Peanut,” Cassie said. Her voice was full of admonishment, but it didn’t slow the dog down one bit. The feathers the puppy had kicked up fell like snow, and Cassie sneezed.
“I’m going to wait outside,” she said.
Hayley glanced from her to the dog and nodded. “Wait right in the doorway.”
Cassie’s response was a triple sneeze. Mel and Joe exchanged a look.
“You go that way,” Joe said. He pointed to the left. “And I’ll go the other. Let’s try and catch her in the middle.”
“Don’t touch anything but the dog,” Hayley said. “I’m going to check the rest of the apartment.”
She shuffled through the knee-deep feathers into the kitchen and then turned down the hallway to check the back rooms.
“Hey, Peanut,” Mel said. She hunkered low and tiptoed around the couch. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Making a mess,” Joe answered. He, too, was crouched with his arms out, as if getting ready to tackle the dog.
Feathers stuck to Mel’s clothes and drifted up towards her face. Peanut was on the other side of the couch, where the feathers were deeper. She had her butt in the air and was wagging her stumpy tail as if this was the greatest game ever.
Mel had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. In a cuteness competition, this dog would win hands down.
“It’s okay, Peanut, we’re not going to hurt you,” Mel said.
“That’s right, puppy, we’re the good guys,” Joe said.
Peanut’s head moved back and forth as she studied them. Mel got the feeling she was looking for the weak link. Sure enough, just when they were within grabbing range she sprang to her feet and bolted right between Mel’s legs, almost knocking her down as she went.
“Peanut, wait!” Mel cried.
She spun to chase her if the dog headed to the door, but Peanut was not about to give up her pile of feathers. Instead, she galloped around the back of the couch and plowed into them face-first, skidding across the throw rug and landing with her backside on Joe’s foot. Even Joe was charmed as he let out a belly laugh that made Peanut quiver with doggy joy from her snout to her feet.
“She’s insane,” Joe said to Mel.
“Happy, at any rate,” Mel said. She bent down to scoop Peanut up, but the dog wriggled out of her grasp and did two more loops around the couch, kicking up feathers, before she skidded to a stop between Mel’s feet. Not to be thwarted again, Mel bent over and snatched her up before she could get to her feet.
“Gotcha!” she cried. She felt as if she’d just won a hog-wrestling match. The wriggling bundle in her arms didn’t seem to mind being held, and with a snort of approval, a little pink tongue licked Mel’s chin.
“What the hell happened here?” Stan’s voice barked from the door.
Mel crossed over to the doorway. She held up the dog and said, “Peanut, meet Uncle Stan.”
The dog and the man studied each other as a feather drifted down and landed on Stan’s head. Mel heard Joe chuckle behind her as Stan glowered at the lot of them.
Mel ducked her head to keep from laughing out loud.
“The apartment is clear,” Hayley said. “No sign of anyone having been back there. I think our looter kept it to just the one pillow.”
“Good grief, it looks like the scene of a massacre,” Stan said.
Mel held the dog close. Peanut tried to lick her face again, but Mel was catching on and dodged her.
“We’ll need to get her food, leash, bowls, and a bed if she has one,” Joe said. “We are more of a cat house than a dog house at the moment.”
“I’ll gather her stuff,” Mel said. She thrust Peanut into Joe’s arms and then went into the kitchen. She had to open three cupboards before she found the garbage bags, but once she did she began to load the dog’s food bag from the pantry as well as her bowls from the floor. Cassie went and grabbed the dog bed from the other side of the room, sneezing as she held it out at arm’s length. Mel stuffed that into the big bag as well.
Stan cased the apartment, looking for anything that might give him a clue as to who had stabbed Elise and potentially killed the vendors associated with her book signing. Mel watched him confer with Hayley. They both looked pretty grim.
As she passed the kitchen counter, Mel saw a box of books. She glanced inside and noted that it was Elise’s author copies of The Palms. It had a snazzy pink-and-aqua cover, a nod to the heyday when the Palms was built. The mid-century modern development was built in the late fifties and early sixties and still had many of the prominent features of the time.
Mel snagged a copy and dropped it into her bag. She’d return it. She just wanted to give it a quick read and see if there was anything in it that might provide a clue as to who had the biggest grudge against Elise.
Mel and Joe drove home with Peanut in Mel’s lap, her head sticking out the passenger-side window while Mel held on to her leash. Joe glanced over at them every now and then and shook his head as if he couldn’t figure out exactly how this had happened.
“There is one thing I can’t let go of,” he said. He turned his car into their neighborhood and wound down the quiet street towards home.
“What’s that?”
“Cassie getting everything if anything should happen to Elise,” he said. “That’s just weird.”
“Cassie explained it. She is Elise’s best friend. Plus, Elise didn’t have anyone else.”
“Not even her dog?” Joe asked. He studied Peanut for a moment. “She wouldn’t have been the first crazy rich lady to leave her fortune to her dog.”
“Well, she’s not dead, so it doesn’t really matter who she would have left everything to. Besides, Cassie didn’t do it,” Mel said for what must have been the hundredth time.
“I know you believe that,” Joe said.
He turned into the driveway of the ranch house they shared in the Arcadia neighborhood. With Joe’s parents around the corner and Mel’s mother nearby, it felt as if they were coming home not just because they lived together, but because so many of their significant lifetime memories had happened in this neighborhood.
“It’s more than believing,” she said. “I know it.”
“How?” Joe asked.
This was one of the many reasons she loved him. He didn’t ask to be argumentative. He genuinely wanted to know how she could be so sure that Cassie was innocent.
“Because of the multiple murders. Think about it this way: As Elise’s main bookseller, how would the deaths of the people Cassie hired to work Elise’s book signing ben
efit her?” Mel asked. “It makes no sense. She uses those vendors all the time. If she murdered them, how would she get her events catered or photographed, etcetera? She’d be harming her own business.”
“I’ll give you that,” Joe said. “I can’t figure why she’d do that unless she had something greater to gain. If she got all of Elise’s money, she might have decided that retirement was in order. So who cared if she murdered off everyone involved in the release of the book, and used them to distract the police from herself?”
“No, Cassie loves her shop. She’d never leave it voluntarily,” Mel insisted. “It has to be someone else, like Hair Plugs Todd or Child Bride Mallory.”
“Statistically speaking, it usually is someone involved with the victim,” Joe said. “Which I’m sure Stan and Tara are looking into first.”
He parked in the garage and they climbed out of the car and entered the house through the laundry room. Mel carried Peanut into the house, hoping that she could facilitate the first meeting between Captain Jack and the dog. Joe gathered Peanut’s things and followed her.
“Okay, sweetie, this is your new home,” Mel said.
“Temporary home,” Joe corrected her. “You did see what she did to that pillow, right?”
“I’m sure she was just acting out because she was left alone all day.”
“Or she likes shredding things,” Joe said. “I think I’ll go hide all of my shoes.”
Mel set Peanut on the floor. She sat down and looked up at Mel as if waiting for something. Her tongue was hanging out and she was snort-breathing after the excitement of the car ride.
“Are you hungry?” Mel asked.
The dog blinked at her. She took it as a yes.
“Let’s go set your bowls up in the kitchen,” Mel said.
Peanut trotted along beside her as if she knew kitchen meant food. Mel rounded the corner and Peanut put on a sudden burst of speed. She didn’t stop until she slammed her face into Captain Jack’s bowl of dry cat food.
“Oh, hold up there, that’s not going to be—”
A hiss sounded from above and Mel glanced up to see Captain Jack sitting on the counter. His tail was swishing and the dark patch of fur over his eye looked particularly pirate-like. Mel snatched the bowl of food from Peanut and put it on the counter beside Captain Jack.
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