“Don’t worry. Everybody’s doing it.”
“Poor Bebe. Is she going to be okay?”
I looked at her and wondered how much I wanted to tell her. “You know what? I’m not really so sure she is. This has hit her so hard—I haven’t seen her stunned like this since Jimmy died.”
“Oh, I hate that! I just love her. People like that—only the best should happen to Bebe.”
“Exactly. Instead, she got whapped hard with bad luck and lousy timing.” I hesitated, then went on. “She’s over at the station right now, answering more questions. I just hope…”
“What?” Jill’s eyes were huge as she stared at me. “You don’t think they’re going to charge her or anything like that do you? Do you?”
Chapter Nine
I looked at Jill. She was my best friend. I could tell her anything. Right? And anyway, I needed to vent, needed to explore things. So she was going to have to play that part for me, at least for now. I had to tell her what I was really feeling.
I leaned closer and lowered my voice almost to a whisper. “She thinks…she’s convinced herself…she’s afraid she might have killed Starflower on purpose.”
Jill stared at me, horrified. “But she didn’t, did she? I mean, is there really any doubt?”
“Of course not. That’s just Bebe, ready to take responsibility for everything that happens. You know she would never hurt anyone on purpose.”
But my conscience was stirring. I couldn’t get over those questions about the cadaverous-looking man and Bebe’s not seeing the mirror. What was that all about, anyway? And wouldn’t that raise suspicions? I just hoped that she wasn’t letting them into too much of her thinking on these issues.
“The thing is, I can’t just let this go off on its own. I can’t just let this be an official investigation and take whatever results they think they’ve come up with.”
“No,” Jill said emphatically, on my side as always. “You’re absolutely right. You’ve got to get in there and see for yourself what’s what.”
I nodded slowly. I was beginning to think that was exactly what I was going to have to do.
“You’ve been through this a couple of times now,” Jill added. “Your instincts have been honed. You know what to look for.”
That might have been going a little far. “I do?”
“Sure you do.” She grabbed my hand and held it. “Get a couple of new notebooks and start writing down clues. Go to the library or the bookstore and get a book on investigating things.”
I sat up straighter. “You know, you’re right. If I get involved, I’ll feel like I have more control over the outcome here. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get railroaded. I’ll know if some of the facts get overlooked because that might be more convenient. I’ll know if her concerns are attended to.”
Jill grinned at me. “Go get ‘em, Mele. You’re the best!”
I smiled at her. That assessment was hardly accurate, but she was certainly a supportive companion.
I decided to walk to the library again. This time the sun was shining and people filled the streets. No worries. And while I walked, I mulled over things, such as magic.
Magic.
What was I going to do about that? Was magic a part of my destiny? No! I didn’t want that. Magic was scary. Somehow I knew, deep inside, that once you used magic, you would have to pay a price eventually, if not sooner. It didn’t seem worth it. I had free will, didn’t I? I was going to stay clear of magic.
But investigative work—that was another story. That I could do. At least, I thought I could.
The little town of North Destiny Bay was cute and clean and fun—now that the fog was gone. The shops all seemed busy and cars were driving by. I heard music and looked up at the dance studio, remembering the Strauss waltz I’d heard coming from there two nights before—and the angry voices. And then my mind flashed to Star when I’d been listening to her on the phone. She’d been humming that very same waltz. What a coincidence. Good grief. That piece was over a hundred years old, and here I’d heard it from two different sources in practically the same time period. Hmmm. Funny, huh?
The library was open this time. As I went up the stone steps, I felt rejuvenated—excited. Detective work. That was the ticket. It was fun to browse through the stacks for half an hour or so. I did find a book I thought would be helpful. I checked it out and started back, taking a side street this time, so that I would end up at the police station, in hopes that Bebe was finished.
No such luck. I sat down on the stone bench out front and began looking through the book I’d chosen. It didn’t take long for Roy to find me.
“It’s a crazy world, isn’t it?” he noted as he sat down beside me.
“You’re telling me.” I made a pouty face. “I’m just waiting to see what the next insane thing will be.”
“It seems like that sometimes.” He looked over at me as though he was concerned about me. That was nice. “You okay?”
“We’re surviving. So far.” I tried to smile. “Is Bebe about done?”
“For now,” he said. “I think the captain will want her to come back tomorrow.”
I sighed and decided to go ahead and complain. “Is this stuff going to go on and on? I mean, are you digging down into subconscious memories or something? Enough is enough.”
He seemed surprised that I was complaining. “We have to get to the facts.”
“What facts?” I decided to hold back my annoyance. There was no percentage in getting him mad. “Hey, is there something going on I don’t know about?”
He shook his head and smiled at me. “You know I couldn’t tell you if there was.”
“So is there?”
He looked at me, slightly exasperated. “I can’t tell you.”
“That means there is.” I pretended to move closer and flirt a little with my eyes. “Come on, handsome,” I teased. “You can tell me. Just one little fact. That’s all I need.”
He grinned at me. “Okay. Your powers of persuasion are just too much for me. Here’s something.”
“I’m ready.” I looked at him expectantly. “Shoot.”
He winced, but he told me anyway. “Here’s news. Someone tried to kill Star about six months ago. Using a very unusual method.”
“No!” News indeed!
He nodded. “Someone put a boxed bee hive on her back patio and left it there for her to find in the morning when she woke up.”
“Bees?” I didn’t get it. “Killer bees? What are you talking about?”
“She’s allergic to bee stings. She goes into anaphylactic shock and if she doesn’t get an antidote fast, she could die. She’d been stung before as a kid and had almost died. So whoever put that hive on her patio probably knew about that. They made sure the bees were riled up, too.”
“Did she get stung?”
“Yeah. Three stings, in fact. But she had an epi-pen to counteract the venom and her apprentices rushed her to the hospital. She was okay.”
“How awful!”
“It wasn’t a pleasant way to be almost murdered.”
I shook my head, trying to avoid thinking about how that must have felt. “Who did it?”
“We never could pin it down. It seemed an open and shut case against her sister and brother-in-law. After all, who knew better about her history with bees? But we couldn’t pin it on them. Not enough evidence.”
I mulled that over for a moment. “But they’re growers too, aren’t they? They would have beehives handy. It seems so very convenient, doesn’t it?”
“Exactly what the department felt at the time. But their hives didn’t match the one someone used against Starflower. A completely different style of hive.”
“How about Star? What did she say? Who did she think did it?”
“Star played dumb, which makes you think she knew very well who did it but didn’t want to pay them back in a public way. Something private, maybe. She was well-known for practical jokes. I’ll bet she took her revenge t
he old fashioned way—personally.”
I nodded slowly. “You know what? This just reaffirms my feeling that there is more to this so called accident than meets the eye.” I turned and looked at him more intently. “This whole situation doesn’t pass muster if you ask me.”
He raised a dark eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
“This whole thing. Bebe running into Star that way, out of the blue. There’s something wrong. There’s something off. I don’t know what it is, but I just feel….” My voice trailed off. I knew feelings weren’t enough and I knew he wasn’t going to go for it. But at least now my intuition had been brought up and maybe he could start preparing himself to deal with it.
He frowned, just like I knew he would. “Feelings aren’t evidence. They’re not even facts.”
I shook my head wishing I knew how to make him understand. “She’s giving you the best she can with all this questioning. Right now, she’s shell shocked.”
He grunted. “I think we all are.”
“You too?”
“Sure. This was a very odd thing to happen.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I know.”
He gave me a half grin and said, “Quit doing that.”
“What?” I was all innocence.
“That nose thing.” He shook his head. “You look so damn cute when you do it.”
I had to bite back my smile. “And that’s a problem?”
“For me. Yeah.”
“Why?”
He shook his head again and looked away. “It makes me want to kiss you,” he muttered.
I couldn’t help it. No matter how much I told myself not to fall for this guy, he kept saying things like that. I needed a keeper, someone to slap me around when I wavered. But I couldn’t resist.
“And that’s a problem?” I said again, softly.
He turned and looked at me and in that shining moment, I saw something I hadn’t realized before. He was trying to resist me just as much as I was pulling myself away. And neither one of us was going to succeed, at least not right now.
He kissed me. And I liked it! He tasted sweet and crisp, like a fresh green apple, but heat poured through me like spiked cider. Yeah, I liked it. But it only lasted a few seconds, then he pulled away and said, “There. I did it.”
That made me laugh. “Wow. Brave guy.”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he said looking cocky, but he didn’t follow that up with action. For one thing, a couple of officers were coming our way and as they passed they nodded to Roy. He nodded back, then tried to ignore the way they were grinning. Pretending complete interest in the book I was reading, he picked it up and looked at the title.
“’Sleuthing for the Clueless.’” That made him sit up and take notice. He gave me an incredulous look. “What is this? How to be a detective? Seriously?” Shaking his head, he handed it back. “I don’t believe it. You’re too cute.”
“I’m serious about this.” Now I was starting to get annoyed. “Don’t patronize me!”
“I’m not. Believe me, I’m not.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But you know, you’ve got to stop getting yourself involved in murders. It isn’t healthy.”
“This isn’t a murder,” I said defensively. “It’s an accident.”
“Really?” He shrugged. “Maybe.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. It got my hackles up. “What do you mean, maybe?”
He looked so cool and calm and sure of himself. “I never make the final call until all the evidence is in.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, one hand on his arm. I was remembering what Bebe had told me about her own doubts and hoping she hadn’t already been telling them to the police. “Are you suggesting that Bebe might have done this on purpose?”
His gaze was veiled and his chiseled chin rose, just a bit. “I said, all the evidence isn’t in.”
That sent me reeling. I could hardly believe it. “Don’t you dare go accusing her of…”
“Listen.” He stopped me. “We know there was a real war going on between them. And you know it too. We know what Star wanted to do to Bebe. She wanted to have her impeached—and barring that, make her life so miserable she would quit on her own. And we know that Bebe was pretty angry about it. People heard her say some pretty tough things. There have been some tips called in about it. I’ve talked to people who would swear Bebe aimed that car on purpose.”
I thought about Bebe’s note. Was it still stuck on the fridge? I needed to take care of that right away—and that only made me more adamant.
“Ridiculous. Lies!”
“You can’t just dismiss those things. People heard them. It’s all part of the whole.” He held his hands out as though holding the world there. “The big picture.”
“I’ll dismiss it,” I insisted. “I’ll dismiss it all day. It’s crazy. There is no way my aunt murdered Star. No way in hell.”
He shrugged, his eyes heavy-lidded. “Evidence is going to be coming in. All kinds of contradictory facts will come rolling in and we’ll have to consider everything and try to map out what belongs where and what’s serious and what’s irrelevant. We’ll piece it all together like a huge jig saw puzzle, and then we’ll have a better picture of what happened and what caused it to happen. And finally, we’ll get to the truth.”
I stared at him. He really believed that, didn’t he? Huh. Still, that was all very well, but I didn’t really care about the truth. I just wanted Bebe happy and out of this situation. It was tearing her apart and it was about to do the same to me.
“Listen Mele.” He reached out to touch my shoulder but I jerked it away from him.
He reared back. “Come on, Mele, cut it out. Don’t be like that. Be sensible.”
“I don’t want to be sensible. We’re talking about the only close blood relative I have left. The only thing I have left in this world.” My voice broke and I swore softly, wishing I could control these emotions better. Okay, so I was getting a little melodramatic. I was feeling that way too. This was important.
“The captain’s going to want a full statement from you, too, you know.”
I cringed, wanting to reject that. “Do I have to give it to him? Can’t you do it?”
“What’s the matter?”
“He hates me.”
His mouth twisted. Now he was losing patience with me. “Come on, Mele, toughen up. You know you can do it. He doesn’t hate you. He’s just focused on his job.”
Oh yeah? Fat chance.
“He as good as told me that I’m bad for this town. That I should go. He said it’s his responsibility to keep the town nice and safe for nice people to live in, and that I hinder his efforts.”
He groaned. “Oh come on. He didn’t say that.”
“Sure he did. And you know what? With him, no doubt about it, I think it’s personal.”
Reid and Bebe came out the double doors at that point and our conversation was over. We stood and each took a step away from the other. There was no doubt this argument was putting a barrier between the two of us.
“How did it go?” I asked, looking at Reid.
He gave me a smile and said, “Your aunt is getting to be a real trouper at this questioning routine. I think we made some headway. Don’t you?” he asked her.
She turned around and sent him a loving look before she gave him a hug. “Thanks to you,” she noted.
“You were great.” He patted her shoulder, but he was starting toward his car. It was obvious he was ready to go. He probably was thinking about Jennifer and those adorable kids he had waiting at home. I sighed, wishing my life was that simple.
Roy nodded and smiled at Bebe, gave me a questioning look, then headed on into the station. I could have gone after him to tell him I wasn’t really mad, but I didn’t. I had a feeling he already knew.
Bebe and I walked over to Mad for Mocha where I’d parked. She didn’t speak until we were back in my car and heading home.
“Oh Mele, when
will all this be over?” she said softly, staring out her window at the passing scene.
I wished I could actually tell her that. “You’re holding up fine, Bebe,” I said instead. “The worst must be behind you by now.”
There was no way I could know that, but I had to tell her something. If only I had something good to tell her. If only Sami had turned up. I sighed and shook myself, mentally. Buck up! I ordered, all to myself. I took a deep breath and tried to obey my own commands.
“How did it go, though?” I asked her. “Did you have any problem with the questions they were asking you?”
She hesitated. “Some of them,” she admitted. “I just couldn’t get beyond…” Her voice trailed off and I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.
“Did they get the autopsy results yet?”
She looked at me with alarm. “Autopsy? Are they doing an autopsy?”
I shrugged. “I would think so.”
“But there’s no question about what happened. Is there?”
I took a deep breath. “In my mind there certainly is. I know you think you hit her with your car, but something doesn’t jell for me with that explanation. What was she doing on the road? Why would you hit her? I just don’t get it and I’m hoping an autopsy will shed some light on what really happened.”
“Mele, I know what really happened. I was driving too fast and I came around that corner and hit Star and…and now she’s dead. What more do you need to know?”
I didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but I couldn’t just ignore the issue, so finally, I brought it up.
“Did you tell them about the undertaker-looking man?” I asked.
She set her lips. “No, I did not.”
I gritted my teeth. “Why not?”
She looked at me. “Because I think I made him up,” she said firmly. “And I don’t want them to think I’m crazy.”
I felt a shiver go down my back. Something told me she was going to have to face what she’d seen, and soon, if we had any hope of getting anywhere at all. But how was I going to get her to realize that?
“Okay then,” I said, and stuck to my driving from then on.
A Ghost in Time (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 3) Page 6