Deadly Valentine (Special Releases)

by B. J Daniels

  That news startled him. Both seemed implausible. He’d gone to school with Peggy Kane. Knew her relationship with not only Oliver, but Mitzy. At least he thought he did. It seemed a number of things had changed since he’d been gone—and Peggy Kane had changed the most.

  This woman looked nothing like the one he remembered even if her face hadn’t been blue. Peggy Kane had lost a lot of weight, but it was more than that, he realized. It was the way she was dressed, the expensive jewelry, the hair, the whole look. It made him wonder what Oliver paid her.

  In River’s Edge, there were two classes of families. The ones with money who owned the condos, huge seasonal homes and the businesses that thrived because of them. And the ones who worked for the businesses. The Kane family fell into the latter group, just as the McAllisters had.

  Peggy had a piece of chocolate gripped in her right hand. It had melted down to just the nut. On closer inspection, in her other hand was what appeared to be a crumpled piece of white paper. He didn’t touch it and wondered if anyone else had noticed it.

  ‘‘I took down everyone’s statement, just as you instructed,’’ Dobson said. ‘‘I’m also the crime photographer. I shot the elevator, all of the rooms in the penthouse and the possible crime scene.’’ Standard procedure in a sudden death of this nature. ‘‘I’ve sent the photos to the lab. You should have them within the hour.’’

  ‘‘Good work,’’ Jack said, pushing himself to his feet again. He asked both deputies to remain at the elevator door and protect the scene until the coroner arrived to tell them whether or not a crime had actually been committed. Then bracing himself, he followed the irritating sound of Mitzy’s voice into the living room.

  Mitzy actually stopped talking when she saw him. Her mouth remained open, but thankfully nothing came out. Her husband, Oliver Sanders, was at the bar making drinks, his back to Jack. Jack caught his own reflection in the mirror over the bar, seeing himself the way Mitzy must. Older. His dark blond hair still thick although graying at the temples. His blue eyes faded like old denim and lined from the sun. Just seeing how life had weathered and aged him, he remembered with a jolt his real reason for coming back here.

  Oliver turned at the sudden quiet, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the new sheriff.

  ‘‘Well, I’ll be damned,’’ was all Oliver said, but he seemed to tense as if expecting a blow.

  Jack knew that one of the town councilmen had voted against hiring him as sheriff and figured it had been Oliver Sanders. He told himself that Oliver’s obvious anxiety at seeing him could be nothing more than having a dead woman in his foyer. Or it could be the past. Considering his and Jack’s past, it could easily have been that alone.

  ‘‘Jack?’’ Mitzy cried, finding her voice too soon. ‘‘Jack McAllister?’’

  She’d remembered his name. But he’d have hoped as much considering how...intimate they’d been for a short period of time during his junior year in high school—a time he would have just as soon forgotten.

  He reminded himself that she probably felt the same way, in fact, might have forgotten him and only remembered when she saw his photo in today’s paper. Then again, the story about the new sheriff moving into his office hadn’t gotten a lot of play in the resort town’s only newspaper—not like Oliver Sanders’s new expensive condo development.

  Mitzy pushed herself up from a plump velvet couch, but appeared uncertain what to do next. Running into his arms seemed somehow inappropriate, he thought. So did shaking hands, but he held his hand out to her.

  ‘‘Mrs. Sanders,’’ he said in his cop voice, amazed how much she looked like she had in high school. He’d almost forgotten how partial she was to pink. She wore a pale pink suit with matching high heels and a white silk blouse, all expensive and carefully chosen for effect rather than comfort, just like the decor of this place.

  Her sculpted blond hair curled at her suit jacket collar and framed her doll-adorable face, accenting her big baby blues in a way that told him it hadn’t been unwittingly. Her still very nicely rounded body had fitness center written all over it.

  She took his hand almost coyly, something Jack was sure Oliver hadn’t missed. Some things just didn’t change.

  ‘‘Oh, Jack,’’ Mitzy said in that breathy voice of hers. ‘‘Sheriff? In River’s Edge?’’ She seemed to find humor in that. Or pity. With Mitzy it was hard to tell.

  Jack’s gaze moved past Mitzy to the third person in the room.

  A slim woman stood silhouetted against the bank of windows looking out over the town and the mountains. It wasn’t until she turned that he realized he knew her. That is, had known her. He fought to hide his surprise as she moved toward him, hand outstretched, amusement in her dark eyes.

  ‘‘Tempest Bailey,’’ she said, as if he wouldn’t remember her.

  Not a chance. ‘‘Tempest,’’ he said, wondering what she was doing here.

  She nodded as if seeing him wondering. She didn’t miss much. ‘‘I’m The Riverside’s version of a house detective—at least temporarily,’’ she said, making him remember her voice. Soft and deep with a hint of humor. It was one of the sexy things about her, although she hid the rest well. She wore khakis, a white blouse under a navy-blue sweater and cross-trainers. Her hair was long and dark, pulled back into a braid that hung to the center of her back. She wore no makeup, her face lightly freckled. There was something about the privileged. No matter how much they dressed down, they couldn’t hide the fact that they’d come from money.

  He realized he was staring at her. ‘‘Temporarily?’’ he asked when her words finally registered.

  ‘‘I’ve been offered the undersheriff job,’’ she said, tilting her head a little, her eyes glinting.

  T. J. Bailey. My God, he’d never dreamed the T. J. Bailey, the applicant the town council had offered the undersheriff position to, was Tempest. He tried to think of something to say to cover his shock and discomfort, but it was impossible with his foot stuck in his mouth.

  ‘‘Congratulations,’’ he finally managed.

  She cocked her head. ‘‘It’s a little premature for that. I haven’t accepted.’’ She met his gaze, her eyes as dark as an abyss.

  ‘‘Jack!’’ Mitzy cried, reminding him she had to be the center of attention. ‘‘I have a dead woman in my foyer!’’

  ‘‘Yes.’’ It didn’t surprise him that she wouldn’t refer to Peggy Kane by name. ‘‘That’s why I’m here. I’ll need to get statements from all of you.’’

  ‘‘Statements?’’ Mitzy looked horrified. ‘‘She choked to death on one of my chocolates. What more is there to say?’’

  ‘‘We won’t know what killed her until the coroner—’’

  ‘‘Of course, she choked,’’ Mitzy interrupted. ‘‘What else could it have been? Unless it was a heart attack. She did carry a lot of weight for a lot of years.’’ She must have seen his expression. ‘‘I’m not speaking ill of the dead. You all know it’s the truth. She was huge.’’

  Jack pulled the tape recorder from his pocket as Oliver pushed a large martini into his wife’s hand.

  ‘‘I’d offer you a drink, Jack,’’ Oliver said, motioning to his own glass, ‘‘but you’re on duty, right? Just like Tempest here.’’

  ‘‘Why don’t we all sit,’’ Jack suggested as he took Mitzy’s drink from her hand and put it down on the glass coffee table out of her reach. ‘‘If you don’t mind.’’

  ‘‘I think he’d like to get your statement while you’re still halfway sober, my dear,’’ Oliver said to his wife. ‘‘Jack obviously knows you.’’

  The tension in the room jumped up a notch as Mitzy shot her husband a .357 point-blank, drop-dead look, but it didn’t even seem to wound him, making Jack wonder about their relationship.

  ‘‘You might want to slow down a little yourself,’’ Jack suggested to Oliver. ‘‘Just until I get your statement.’’

  Mitzy smiled at that, then sat on the couch, smoothing the pink fabric over her thighs
with both hands. ‘‘To think she choked to death on my chocolates.’’

  Jack didn’t correct her. For all he knew, she might be right. He met Tempest’s gaze across the expanse of glass coffee table as she took a chair opposite the couch. He got the distinct impression she didn’t think Peggy Kane had choked to death. At least not without help.

  He sat in the chair at the end of the coffee table between Mitzy and Tempest. Oliver continued to stand behind the couch, sipping his drink. It was just like him to refuse to sit. After all, he was a Sanders and they didn’t take orders from anyone in River’s Edge. Especially from some ex-high-school-jock from the wrong side of the tracks named Jack McAllister, even if he was the new sheriff.

  ‘‘Mitzy, why don’t you tell me exactly what you remember,’’ Jack said as he set the tape recorder on the table. ‘‘I’d appreciate it if no one interrupted her.’’ He glanced pointedly at Oliver, who bristled visibly.

  ‘‘I already told everything to that other cop,’’ Mitzy said irritably. ‘‘I don’t see why I have to go over it again. It’s just all so...ghastly.’’

  ‘‘I need to hear it for the record,’’ Jack said as he pushed the record button.

  Mitzy stared at the tape recorder, then at her drink for a moment, before she wet her lips and began speaking. ‘‘I came home at my usual time. I’m a Realtor, a very good one, in case you haven’t heard.’’ She directed the comment and a broad smile at Jack.

  ‘‘You came home at your usual time,’’ he prompted.

  ‘‘Yes, I was anxious to get home. It’s Valentine’s Day,’’ she said and looked from Jack to Tempest as if she doubted either was aware of that fact. ‘‘Anyway,’’ she sighed, ‘‘I got into the private elevator, started to insert my key for the penthouse when I noticed there was already a key in it.’’ She rolled her eyes. ‘‘I thought, damn Oliver! How many times have I told him not to leave his key in the elevator where anyone off the street can just walk right into our penthouse.’’

  ‘‘Oliver’s left his key in before?’’ Jack asked.

  ‘‘Only once or twice,’’ he said with obvious irritation. ‘‘The bellhop usually sees it and either brings it up or calls to let me know it’s at the desk. It really isn’t a big deal. I find the whole key thing to be a real nuisance.’’

  ‘‘Anyway,’’ Mitzy continued. ‘‘There was the key, so I just assumed Oliver had beat me home. I came up, excited to give him his gift. I bought him a new Rolex. Oh, sorry, dear,’’ she added quickly, glancing at her husband. ‘‘I guess it won’t be much of a surprise now.’’ Her gaze swung back to Jack. ‘‘But then my Valentine’s Day was ruined the moment I saw Peggy sprawled dead in the middle of my chocolates, wasn’t it?’’ She was completely ignoring Tempest. Nothing new here.

  ‘‘You were saying what happened when the elevator door opened,’’ Jack reminded her.

  She looked at him aghast. ‘‘What do you think happened? I saw Peggy and screamed.’’

  ‘‘Did you check for a pulse or see if you could help her?’’ Jack asked.

  Mitzy blinked. ‘‘I could see that she was dead. I wasn’t about to...touch her.’’

  Jack looked to Tempest. ‘‘So that’s when you came on the scene?’’

  She nodded. ‘‘I was on the floor below. I came right up.’’

  ‘‘By elevator?’’ he asked.

  ‘‘No, Mrs. Sanders had the elevator door blocked open with her bags. I took the emergency stairs off the fire escape and entered through the fire exit door.’’ Tempest seemed to read his mind. ‘‘I insisted Mrs. Sanders leave everything just as she’d found it—including the bags she’d used to block the elevator.’’

  The two shopping bags he’d noticed against the opposite wall from the body.

  He turned his attention back to Mitzy, trying not to think about the possibility of working with Tempest Bailey. With luck, she wouldn’t take the job. ‘‘Did you touch anything?’’ he asked Mitzy.

  ‘‘I just screamed and the next thing I knew—’’ she swung her gaze at Tempest ‘‘—she came through my house. It appears Oliver didn’t use the dead bolt on the fire escape exit.’’ Mitzy shook her head in disgust. ‘‘Then she called your office and ordered me to go back down to the lobby.’’

  Jack knew the answer to this one. ‘‘But you didn’t.’’

  ‘‘Of course not,’’ Mitzy said. ‘‘I couldn’t have a bunch of strangers up here unsupervised.’’ Tempest Bailey was far from a stranger to Mitzy even if Tempest hadn’t been the hotel detective. ‘‘There wasn’t any reason I couldn’t wait in the living room and just step around the body if I had to.’’

  He glanced at Tempest. She said nothing, but her expression told him everything he needed to know about her confrontation with Mitzy. ‘‘You called the sheriff’s department from your own cell phone?’’

  Tempest nodded. ‘‘I touched nothing nor did I let anyone else touch anything around the victim or the penthouse until I turned it over to the two deputies and it could be photographed and fingerprints taken. I have been here with both...witnesses the entire time.’’

  ‘‘Good work.’’

  ‘‘I was just doing my job.’’

  Mitzy looked as if she wanted to argue that.

  ‘‘How many keys are there to the penthouse?’’ he asked Tempest.

  ‘‘Four,’’ she answered without hesitation. ‘‘Mrs. Sanders and I each have one. Mr. Sanders has two.’’

  Jack shot Oliver a look.

  ‘‘I have a tendency to misplace mine,’’ he said.

  So it seemed. ‘‘May I see everyone’s key?’’ Jack asked.

  Tempest produced hers. Mitzy had to have her little pink bag brought in from the foyer. She dug around for a moment, then finally came up with it. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Oliver reach into the pocket of his suit pants, frown, then move to the bar where he began to mix himself another drink.

  ‘‘Don’t you have your keys?’’ Jack asked.

  ‘‘No, I guess I left mine at my office,’’ Oliver said after a moment, his back to everyone.

  ‘‘So whose key did Peggy have?’’ Jack asked as if he didn’t know the answer.

  Oliver turned slowly from the bar, another full drink in his hand. He stared down into the frothy liquid for a moment, then glanced at his wife, who’d swung around on the couch to look at him. He let out a long sigh. ‘‘I asked Peggy to drop off the presents I’d purchased for Mitzy. She offered and since she didn’t have any plans and I wanted everything here before Mitzy got home and I wasn’t sure what time I could get off work, I thought, why not?’’

  Oliver had rattled that off a little too quickly. Jack looked at him, wondering why the man would lie about something as innocuous as having Peggy drop off the gifts. Except for the fact that the woman was now dead in his foyer.

  ‘‘So you had already bought all the presents?’’ Jack asked, trying to pin down the lie. ‘‘When was that?’’

  ‘‘What does it matter?’’ Oliver snapped. Mitzy hadn’t said a word but she was still looking at her husband, a hard brittleness in her gaze.

  ‘‘It matters to me,’’ Jack said. And it appeared to matter to Mitzy as well. ‘‘When did you purchase the gifts? I’m sure you have the receipts or the clerks at the stores can substantiate your story.’’

  Oliver glared at him. ‘‘I had Peggy buy everything this afternoon.’’

  Mitzy turned back around, picked up her martini and drained half of it.

  ‘‘Where did Ms. Kane buy the chocolates?’’ Jack asked.

  Oliver seemed to hesitate as if he might be considering lying. ‘‘Sweet Things.’’

  ‘‘Her choice? Or yours?’’ Jack asked.

  ‘‘Mine. I’d called ahead so I got exactly what I wanted,’’ he said, glancing at his wife’s back, as if he thought that fact was going to save him. But Mitzy seemed more interested in her drink than her husband now. Jack could understand that.

  ‘�
�Cash? Or charge?’’ Jack asked.

  Again Oliver seemed to hesitate, then said, ‘‘Charge. I would imagine Peggy still has my credit card.’’ The realization definitely didn’t make him happy. ‘‘I should have known Peggy couldn’t handle this.’’ He didn’t seem torn up over his secretary’s death and that bothered Jack. But Oliver was upset over something and it had to be more than getting caught sending his secretary out to do his Valentine’s Day shopping.

  It also made Jack wonder how Peggy had gotten the job and why. ‘‘How long has Peggy been your secretary?’’

  ‘‘Too long,’’ Mitzy commented under her breath, then turned her baby blues on Jack. ‘‘Obviously, Oliver only hired her because he felt sorry for her and look where it’s gotten him.’’

  Where had it gotten him? Jack wondered.

  ‘‘Just a little over a year,’’ Oliver said as if Mitzy hadn’t spoken.

  ‘‘Are you saying she wasn’t a good secretary?’’

  ‘‘Adequate,’’ Oliver said and finished his drink.

  ‘‘But you kept her on,’’ Jack persisted.

  ‘‘Finding anyone who wants to work in River’s Edge is next to impossible,’’ Oliver said.

  Mitzy emptied her glass.

  ‘‘When did you arrive at the penthouse?’’ Jack asked Oliver.

  ‘‘Right after Mitzy.’’ Oliver glanced at Tempest as if he expected her to either corroborate his story—or contradict it. ‘‘I came up the back stairs.’’

  Jack lifted a brow.

  ‘‘The elevator was blocked, remember?’’ Oliver said. ‘‘I wasn’t even aware I didn’t have my key.’’

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE MISSING EXTRA KEY bothered Jack. But what bothered him more was the way Oliver had looked to Tempest.

  Jack glanced at her now. She said nothing, but from the set of her jaw, Jack guessed she wasn’t happy about something.

  ‘‘Excuse me, Sheriff,’’ Deputy Reed said from the living room doorway. ‘‘The coroner is in the lobby.’’

  ‘‘Bring him up,’’ Jack said, reaching over to turn off the tape recorder.