A Palette for Murder

by Sybil Johnson

  “That won’t help. Hers had a sun, mine a moon. Otherwise, they’re identical. The police will say I had a sun on mine too. After all these years, I have no proof the bracelets were different.”

  “I’m confused. Didn’t you notice it on Willow’s wrist? Every time I saw her, she had it on.”

  “She never wore it to my class or any other time I saw her. I guess she was afraid I would recognize it before she was ready to tell me who she was.”

  “What happened the night she died?” Rory asked.

  “We had that argument during the software test. You were there. She wanted me to forgive her, to come back into my life.”

  “So what you told me about the argument was a lie then? How do you expect me to help you if you lie?”

  “I’m sorry about that. I just couldn’t tell you.”

  “Why after so many years did she want to come back into your life now?”

  “I have no idea. But I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.”

  Rory nodded in understanding. If her own birth parents were alive, she didn’t think she could forgive them after everything they had done.

  “She called me and left a message. Said she was going to contact my brother. Offered me money to spend time with her. Bribing me to spend time with her! I was so mad I went to see her later that night. I pounded on the front door, but she didn’t answer. There was music playing inside so I knew she was home.”

  “A neighbor saw you.”

  “That’s right. Then I went around to the back like I told you before and found her like…that.” Dawn looked at Rory pleadingly. “I may have hated her, but I didn’t kill her. You have to believe me.”

  “That’s why you didn’t want to give your DNA to the police.”

  Dawn nodded. “I was afraid they would find out we were related. I already had so many marks against me.”

  Rory reviewed them in her mind: the argument earlier in the day, how Dawn had been seen at Willow’s house visibly upset and how she’d found the body and not told the police.

  “I thought if I didn’t give them my DNA, no one would find out she was my mother.”

  “How did they, then?”

  “Her will. She named me and my brother in it, said I was her daughter. I didn’t know she had a will or even that she had money for anyone to inherit.”

  Rory leaned forward and set her arms on the table. “Now the police think you killed her for her money. How much are we talking about?”

  “Half a million.”

  Rory whistled. “That’s a lot. Does anyone else inherit?”

  “Her business partner gets Beach Healing, plus the building it’s in, and her boyfriend, Lance, gets a small bequest, but the bulk goes to me and my brother. I could use the money, believe me, but I didn’t kill her for it.”

  “You’ve told my dad all this?”

  “He knows. I wanted you to know too, so you would understand why I lied to you.” Dawn reached out for Rory’s hand. “Will you help me prove I didn’t do it?”

  “My dad’s on your case now. He’ll do everything he can.”

  “I’m not sure it’ll be enough.”

  Rory stood up. “I’ll think about it.”

  When she exited the room, she found her father waiting for her.

  “Can you get her out on bail?” she said.

  “I’ll do my best, but chances are they won’t let her out.”

  “We have to help her.”

  “We? Your mother told me Dawn asked you to investigate. It’s not a good idea.” Swan looked at his daughter, a stern expression on his face. “I know she helped out when your mother was sick, but it’s too dangerous. Let the police do their job.”

  “I have to.”

  He studied her. “I know better than to argue with you. Too bad I can’t ground you anymore.” He looked at Detective Green, who was standing off to one side. “Look out for her.”

  The detective nodded and didn’t speak until Swan had walked away. “He just wants what every father wants, to keep his daughter safe.”

  “I know.”

  “Come with me,” he said. “I need your help.”

  Chapter 21

  Five girls filed into the room behind the glass, all teens, all wearing similar clothes, all fitting the description Rory had given to the police of the girl she saw running from her mother’s store.

  “Take your time,” Detective Green said to Rory as she studied each one, all of them staring straight ahead with blank, almost bored, expressions on their faces.

  Her gaze zeroed in on the one in the center. “Number three,” she said.

  When the detective asked the girl to step forward, her expression turned from one of boredom to fright.

  Rory stepped closer to the glass and studied her. “Could I see her arms?”

  At the detective’s direction, number three pushed up the sleeves on her hoodie, revealing a long scar on her right forearm.

  “Is it her?” he asked.

  Rory nodded. “I’m positive. It’s number three. She’s the one I chased and one of the two I saw at Willow’s house.”

  Detective Green dismissed the rest of the lineup. Rory and her mother, who had walked into the police station moments before, studied the black and white monitor as an officer escorted the girl Rory had identified into the interrogation room. The sweatshirt and jeans the teen was wearing hung loosely on her body. She appeared thin, too thin, almost emaciated.

  “She’s just a baby,” Arika said.

  “How old do you think she is?” Rory asked her mother.

  “Fourteen, fifteen. I doubt she’s any older than that.”

  They watched as the detective poked his head in the door of the interrogation room. “You hungry?”

  The girl looked up and nodded.

  A short time later, he returned with a sandwich, a banana and a can of soda. “Sorry, this is all we have. I can get you something else if you want.”

  The girl’s eyes lit up at the sight of the food. “No, this is okay.” She eagerly reached for the sandwich and started wolfing it down as if she hadn’t eaten for a week.

  He waited patiently for her to finish. When she pushed the empty plate across the table and thanked him, he opened a file folder and consulted the papers inside.

  “Can you tell me your name?” he asked. “I’d like to know what to call you.”

  She stared at him for a moment as if deciding whether to trust him. “Lexie,” the girl finally said.

  “You live around here, Lexie?”

  She shrugged, curled one leg under the other and began swinging her free leg back and forth.

  “What about your family? They must be looking for you.”

  Lexie set both legs on the floor, pushed her shoulders back and sat up straight. “I’m eighteen.”

  “Eighteen?” The doubt was evident in the detective’s voice. He tapped his finger on a piece of paper in the folder. “It says here you’re fifteen and you have a habit of running away from foster homes.”

  She crossed her arms and slumped back in her chair. “If you know that, why’d you bother to ask? Is that why I’m here? Because I ran away? They don’t want me anymore.”

  “Did they do that to you?” He gestured toward the mark on her arm.

  She pulled her sleeve down until it covered the scar. “I’m not going back.”

  Detective Green cocked his head and studied her before continuing. “Do you like art? I went to the chalk festival yesterday. It was pretty interesting. Did you get a chance to see it?”

  Her eyes lit up for a moment at the mention of the festival. “I wanted to go, but my friend wouldn’t let me after—I couldn’t go.” A dullness crept back into her eyes.

  “I have a friend who’s an artist. Her mother owns Arika’s Scrap ’n Paint on Main Street. D
o you know it?”

  Lexie turned pale and bowed her head. “I’m sorry. I’ll give the paint back. I promise.”

  “So you admit you took it?” the detective said in his most comforting voice.

  She stared down at the floor and began to swing one of her legs back and forth again.

  “She’s scared,” Rory whispered to her mother.

  “Wouldn’t you be?” Arika whispered back.

  “I like to draw and paint. It’s my favorite thing to do in the whole world,” Lexie finally said.

  “I see. So that’s why you took the bottles of paint.” He nodded his head in understanding. “What about the SD card? The one you took from a house on Seagull Lane.”

  “Wasn’t me.” She looked up at him and shook her head vehemently. “I don’t know anything about any camera.”

  “I didn’t say what the card was from. How did you know it came from a camera?” He leaned back in his chair.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It wasn’t me!”

  “I have a witness who identified you as being in the house. You were with someone. Who was it?” the detective continued.

  She crossed her arms tighter and slumped farther down in her seat. “I didn’t take anything.”

  “Did you know a woman was killed there? In that house.”

  Lexie gave him a startled look. “They never said—”

  “They? Did someone hire you to steal that card?”

  She studied him for a moment, then nodded her head. “Someone hired Pe—my friend to get it. Gave him enough money so we could get a room for the night and promised more. Never said anything about a murder.”

  “Did they tell you why they wanted the card?”

  She shook her head. “Didn’t ask. Said the place would be empty. Gave us a key. Told us where to find the camera and to go there at night, but Pe—my friend—didn’t want to do it then. So we went earlier. There was someone else there. We heard them, but I didn’t get a good look. We got out of there as fast as we could.”

  “What were you supposed to do with the card?”

  “Put it in a plastic bag and drop it in a trashcan not far from that hotel downtown, the fancy new one. I was on my way there when I saw the art supplies.”

  “You took the card on Wednesday, but didn’t drop it off until Friday. That’s two days. Why didn’t you deliver it earlier?”

  “They gave us time in case we couldn’t get in the house right away. And they wanted to do the exchange some place where it was crowded. My friend was supposed to handle it, but he wouldn’t do it. Got scared when someone saw us at the house, I guess.”

  “Where is this friend now?”

  “Don’t know. He took off somewhere this morning and left me behind.”

  “What about the key?”

  “He took it with him. Probably threw it away.”

  “You keep on saying they. Did more than one person hire you?” Detective Green asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it.”

  “Then how were you hired?”

  “We were near that bar on Main that has karaoke, seeing if someone would give us their change. I was by the front entrance, my friend was near the back. Somebody walks up to my friend and asks if he wants to make some money. I mean, real money. It was more than we’d seen in a long time so Pete went for it. When he told me, I didn’t see any harm in it. No one was going to get hurt. It was only a camera card. That’s all I know.”

  He placed a photo on the table.

  “Do you remember seeing him there?”

  Lexie leaned forward and studied the picture. “I don’t know. There were a lot of people.” She looked at her hands. “Can I go now?”

  “You’ve been a big help, Lexie, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait here. Someone from Social Services will be in to talk with you soon.” He stood up and walked toward the door.

  “Do I have to go back to my last home? They’re bad people.”

  His hand on the doorknob, Detective Green turned and looked at her sympathetically. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll talk to your case worker.”

  As he closed the door to the interrogation room, Rory looked at her mother. “Why would she do that, steal the paint when she already had stolen property on her? It just drew attention to herself.”

  “She’s young. Kids her age don’t always make the best choices,” Arika said.

  As soon as the detective joined them, Arika turned to him. “I’m not pressing any charges against her. It was only a few bottles of paint, hardly worth anything.”

  Rory nodded toward the girl waiting in the interrogation room. “What’s going to happen to her?”

  “We’ll probably let her walk on stealing the card. There’s nothing more to be learned there. Social Services will find her a new home, but she’s run away so many times, chances are she’ll be back on the streets again soon.”

  “Was that Lance’s picture you showed her?”

  He nodded. “I’ll question him again, but without a witness I probably won’t get anywhere.”

  On her way home, Rory thought about Lexie and what she said about the person who’d hired them. She still thought it was Lance, but without a description, they needed proof. As soon as she pulled into her driveway, Rory phoned Liz. “You up for some karaoke tonight?”

  Chapter 22

  “I thought you said there was going to be karaoke.” A disappointed look on her face, Liz stared at the stage where a local band was setting up. “I was looking forward to showing off our version of ‘I Got You Babe’ for the guys. I even practiced in the car on the way over.”

  “I know, I was there. We’ll save it for some other time.” Rory pointed to a table in the middle of the room. “There they are.”

  The two wended their way through the tables to where Tripp and Doug sat talking over bottles of beer. Tripp pulled out a chair for Rory. Liz frowned at Doug when she had to pull out her own. While the two men went to the bar to get their drinks, Rory looked around at the Sunday evening crowd celebrating the end of the summer festival.

  “They must be band groupies.” Liz pointed to a table next to the stage filled with men and women wearing t-shirts with the band’s logo on them. “The ones who are setting up, they won the Battle of the Bands today. I only caught the tail end. Wouldn’t have been able to do that if class hadn’t been shortened. When do you think Dawn’s going to reschedule it for?”

  “I don’t know if she’ll be able to reschedule at all. Dad’s going to try and get her out on bail, but I don’t know if it’s possible since they arrested her for murder.” Rory nodded toward a group of women on the far side of the bar. “Speaking of fans. Those are some of the women I saw at the gym who were watching Lance. That’s Marcia on the left and Evelyn next to her. If they’re here, maybe he frequents the place too.”

  “They go wherever he goes? That seems a little too stalkerish to me.” Liz leaned closer to Rory and spoke in a hushed tone. “Do you think it was Lance who hired that girl to get the SD card?”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out. See if anyone saw him here last Monday.”

  “Even if those women know something, how are we going to get the information out of them?” Liz’s eyes opened wide. “I know! We’ll get one of the guys to go over and charm them.”

  Tripp placed a glass of Pinot Grigio in front of Rory. “What are you two whispering about?”

  “Men, of course.” Liz smiled as Doug placed an apple martini in front of her.

  When Doug sat down, he reached toward the floor and placed a small cardboard box on the table. “Okay, everyone, I’m declaring this a no-cell-phone night. No calls, no texts, no surfing the web while we’re here. Put your phone in the box and be sure to turn it off first.”

  Rory looked at him in surprise. “You
two are doctors. Don’t you have to be near a phone at all times?”

  “Neither of us are on call tonight,” Tripp said.

  Liz hugged her purse to her chest. “No phone? What if I have a client emergency?”

  “You sell real estate. Your clients will survive.” Rory turned her phone off and placed it in the box. “Come on, it’s just for a few hours. You can handle that.”

  Liz reluctantly took her phone out of her purse and added it to the others. “If I have withdrawal symptoms it’s all your fault.”

  Once everyone’s phone was turned off and in the box, Doug called a waitress over and asked her to put it somewhere for safekeeping. The woman wrote his name on the side and took it away as if she got the request all the time.

  “That way no one’s tempted,” he said to the group.

  After they talked for a while, Liz laid a hand on Doug’s arm and gave him her brightest smile. “Could you do me a teeny tiny favor? See that group of women over there?” She nodded toward Lance’s fans. “Could you go over and see if they’ve ever seen Lance here?”

  He glanced over at the group. “You two still looking into him?”

  Tripp frowned. “That’s the boyfriend of the woman who died, right? The one who was murdered near Rory’s place. Is that why we’re here? Are you two still investigating? I thought they arrested someone for that.”

  “I’m not convinced Dawn did it, and I don’t like seeing innocent people being accused of crimes they didn’t commit.” Rory looked down at her glass of wine. “I know what that feels like.” She told the two men about someone hiring a couple homeless teens to get the SD card from the camera in Willow’s house.

  “You think Lance paid them?” Tripp sipped his beer and studied her for a moment. “What is it you want to know?”

  “If Lance ever comes here, and if he does, if he was here last Monday. And if they saw him with anyone.”

  “And the kids. Did they see the kids outside and did they see him with the boy?” Liz added. “Don’t forget that.”

  “Got it. Here I go into the belly of the beast. Wish me luck.” Tripp took a swallow of his beer and headed toward the gaggle of women.