4 Arch Enemy of Murder

by Vanessa Gray Bartal

  “I think you blew that when they caught you in that closet eating the glazed doughnuts you supposedly bought for them.”

  “I only ate a couple,” Lacy grumbled.

  They reached her house but he made no move to get out. “Do you mind if I come back in a while? I’m too tired to try and deal with your sister today.”

  “I’m sorry she’s so…Riley.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll come back in an hour and we’ll grab supper.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” she said. She jogged to the house. Now that she was so close to being clean and well-pressed again, she couldn’t wait.

  When she emerged a while later transformed, she saw Riley, Travis and Jason in the living room. The gathering was so unusual that she stopped short. “What’s going on?”

  “Travis wanted to stop by and say hello,” Jason said. “I gave him a ride.” His tone was full of chagrin. Lacy read between the lines. Travis had probably cornered Jason and dragged him along to help ease his nerves. Now he stood fidgeting at the edge of the room while Riley flirted with Jason in the center.

  “Oh, how are you?” Lacy asked. She searched Jason’s face for any signs of recent sleep, but didn’t find them.

  “Fine. How are you? Did you get any sleep?”

  “Does falling asleep at my desk count?” she asked.

  “If it does, then I slept, too,” he said.

  “Well, this is stilted and awkward,” Riley said.

  Lacy tried hard to ignore her and focused on Travis again. “Hey, Travis, how are you?”

  He mumbled something unintelligible and nodded his head. Riley caught Lacy’s glance and crossed her eyes. Ignoring her sister was getting harder to do, especially because she was hungry. She advanced into the kitchen and began rummaging for the chocolate cupcakes she had set aside. She couldn’t find them. The last place she had eaten one was in the living room. Though she didn’t think it was possible that she had left them in there, she walked around the couch and did a frantic search of the empty coffee table, even stooping to look under the couch in case they had somehow ended up there.

  “What are you looking for?” Riley asked.

  “Grandma’s cupcakes. Have you seen them?”

  “I threw them out.”

  Lacy whirled to face her. “Uh, oh,” Jason muttered as he took a step closer, inserting himself between the sisters.

  “You did what?” Lacy asked.

  “I threw them out,” Riley said, enunciating the words. She put her hands on her hips. “They were a calorie-laden temptation, and I didn’t want them around. So I threw them in the trash. One by one, I mushed them into the can, and then I shoved a bunch of stuff on top of them until they were flat.”

  Lacy whimpered at the mental image of her precious cupcakes having the life and filling squeezed from them. “I was saving those cupcakes. You had no right to throw them out.”

  “I was saving you from yourself,” Riley said. “You might say thank you. Oh, and I found your hidden stash of chocolate in the back of the cupboard and threw that out, too.”

  Jason grabbed Travis by the arm and shoved him in front of Riley. “If you like the way her face looks, you’d better stand in front of it,” he said just as Lacy hurdled over the couch, her arms outstretched toward Riley. Jason caught her, and together they toppled to the ground.

  “Maybe we should take a walk outside,” Travis suggested.

  “I’m not afraid of her,” Riley said.

  “I am,” Travis said. “Let’s go.”

  Jason and Lacy lay on the ground, struggling to regain their wind after the impact knocked their breath away. “Red, do you think it’s possible you may have over reacted?”

  “Possibly,” Lacy conceded. Her head lay on his chest as she tried not to cry. “But she threw away my cupcakes.”

  “I know that’s a capital offense in your mind, but they’re just cupcakes. I’m fairly certain your grandmother would be happy to bake more.” His left hand ran soothingly down her back and she resisted the urge to nestle.

  “I suppose,” Lacy agreed again. “But, Jason, she’s making me crazy. I don’t know how much longer I can take this.” She sat up and looked down at him. He brushed her hair away from her face and let his hand linger on her cheek.

  “So move out. Get some space.”

  “Where would I go?”

  “Barbara Blake’s place or the Stakely building?” he suggested.

  “The Stakely building would have to be remodeled, and I’m not sure I have the energy for that.”

  “Barbara’s place then,” he said.

  “I guess. I don’t want to leave Grandma. I want her to leave.”

  “If you say ‘I was here first,’ then I’m going to shake you. Snap out of it, woman. You’re letting your sister get under your skin. You’re not fifteen anymore; she shouldn’t be able to get to you this way.”

  “When did you get so good at talking me down off the ledge?” She asked. She rested her elbows on his shoulders and smiled.

  He returned her smile but dodged the question. “Why don’t you get some space tonight at my house? I’ll cook for you.” He must have read something in her expression because he lost his smile. “You have other plans.”

  “Nothing major. Tosh and I had already agreed to have supper, and then we’re going to…” she trailed off as she realized that she couldn’t tell him what else they planned to do. It didn’t matter, though, because he upended her as he rolled from beneath her.

  “Fine. I have to go rescue Travis from your sister, anyway. Who knows what damage she’s doing to his psyche out there?”

  He was taking the Tosh situation well. Maybe that meant he would make plans with Cindy instead. Or maybe Cindy had already said no and Lacy was his backup. She hauled herself off the floor and dusted her pants. Jason paused by the door. “Don’t attack your sister again,” he warned.

  “Or what? You’ll arrest me?”

  “What do you think?” he asked. He winked and slipped out the door only to be replaced by Tosh a few minutes later.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She took a step and winced.

  “What happened?”

  “I think I re-injured my arches,” she said.

  “Did you go for a run again?” he asked.

  “No, I leapt over the couch when I was trying to choke Riley.”

  “What does it say about your sister that I find nothing abnormal in that statement?”

  “Is it possible to pull the muscles in the bottoms of your feet?” Lacy asked.

  “For normal people, probably not. For you, nothing is outside the realm of possibility.” He linked his arm through hers to offer support as she hobbled to his car.

  “I’m never going to be able to wear stilettos again,” she said.

  “And that’s going to radically alter your life here how?” Tosh asked.

  “Not much, but I wore them a lot in New York.” She gave a thoughtful pause. “I don’t miss that, surprisingly.”

  “Must be a girl thing because I can’t imagine why anyone would miss walking around in stilts.”

  “There’s nothing to make you feel pretty like putting on a dress and a killer pair of shoes,” she said.

  “I thought you didn’t miss it.”

  “I like to do it sometimes. The difference is that in New York I did it every day. Here it’s okay to save it for special occasions. I think I prefer it that way.”

  A couple of blocks from her grandmother’s house, they passed Riley and Travis walking together on the sidewalk, Jason a few steps behind like some sort of Victorian chaperone.

  “Was that…” Tosh started.

  “Yes,” Lacy said.

  “Weird,” he said.

  “Yes,” she agreed, resisting the urge to turn around and look again.

  Tosh cleared his throat. “Are you two still, uh, fighting?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Lacy said.

 
“It’s just that we’re friends, and obviously something is bothering you. We should be able to talk about it.” Talking about Jason with Tosh or vice versa was weird, mostly because of their intense jealousy of each other. If she thought either of them capable of having a reasonable discussion about the other, then maybe she would. They might be able to clear a lot of things up. Tosh was making the effort because he felt guilty about their dustup from the night before, but he didn’t mean it. He didn’t actually want to hear about her problems with Jason, especially when he was one of the main sources of tension between them.

  Tosh gave Lacy her choice of restaurants, and she decided on the taco place. They took the food to go and ate in the car on the short drive to Pearl’s house. As they sat in the driveway to finish up, Lacy tried and failed to see any hints of Pearl’s personality in the house. It looked like any other on the block—small, tidy, and simple. They were probably attracting a lot of attention from the neighbors by hovering in the driveway. The neighborhood was old and well-settled, just like Barbara Blake’s neighborhood around the corner.

  “I expected Pearl’s house to be pink or purple or have a bunch of scary lawn decorations,” Lacy said.

  “She rents,” Tosh explained. “I think her landlord is fairly strict about what she can do on the outside. Speaking of which, why don’t you rent Barbara Blake’s house? It’s just sitting empty.”

  “I should. I’ve been so consumed with opening the Stakely building that I haven’t had time or energy to think about it. But after the opening, you’re right; I need to do something. Oh, by the way, Riley’s throwing a grand opening party.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “For a fee.”

  “That’s less nice, but still a good idea, I think.”

  Lacy shrugged. She still didn’t see the need for a party, but it was a moot point, so she might as well get on board.

  “Ready?” Tosh asked.

  “Yes.” She got out of the car and followed him to the front porch. “What are we looking for?”

  “Anything that might clear Pearl or point to someone else,” Tosh said. “Anything out of the ordinary.” He opened the door and they stepped inside. Lacy tensed and hugged the doorframe. Thousands upon thousands of sets of eyes stared back at them.

  “How will we know if anything is out of the ordinary?” Lacy asked.

  “She said she collected dolls, but this is a bit more than what I expected,” Tosh said.

  Dolls were everywhere. They lined the shelves, chairs, stairs, mantels, and bookcases. They weren’t cloth dolls. Instead they were porcelain, and they looked real, like hundreds of tiny children who had been frozen in time. Some were dressed as clowns.

  “If we’re going to search, then we should probably move away from the door,” Tosh said, although he sounded as reluctant as she felt. “Is that clown holding a scythe?”

  “I don’t know; I don’t want to look directly at it,” Lacy said.

  “C’mon,” Tosh said. He held out his hand to her and she clasped it. He pulled her close so that their arms were glued together as they shuffled down the hall, past the rows upon rows of observing dolls. “Why do I feel like they can hear us?” Tosh whispered.

  “Is Pearl into taxidermy? Because some of these look too real to be fake,” Lacy said. They entered the kitchen and breathed a sigh of relief. There were no dolls. There were, however, unicorns. “I’ve never seen a unicorn-themed kitchen before.”

  “Do you think each room has its own theme?” Tosh asked.

  “They make unicorn bread knives,” Lacy said as she held one up to inspect it. The body was the handle while the horn was the knife.

  “We’re becoming distracted and losing focus,” Tosh said. He held out a pair of unicorn corn holders for her inspection.

  “Of course we are; we’ve landed in a Beatles song from their LSD years,” Lacy said.

  “Let’s move on,” Tosh said. “The bright mix of colors in here is making me feel like I’m going to have a seizure.”

  They left the kitchen and moved to a small office. It was perfectly normal with a boring desk and generic lamp. “I never want to leave this room,” Tosh said.

  They made quick work of searching the office and came up empty handed, but still they paused before heading into the living room. “I’m scared,” Tosh admitted.

  “It can’t be worse than the dolls or unicorns,” Lacy said, but she was wrong. They entered the living room and turned in a slow circle, staring at the many stuffed animals. Not stuffed animals like teddy bears, but real stuffed animals. Except instead of the ubiquitous deer heads, pheasants and ducks, they all seemed to be members of the weasel family. Lacy counted four minks, three weasels, two skunks, two martins, and a stoat—the last three she knew only because they were labeled.

  “Oh, sweet mercy,” Tosh muttered. Lacy tried to see the room through Jason’s eyes and knew it would take a miracle to get Pearl out of jail.

  “She likes hunting,” Lacy said.

  “That doesn’t mean she killed anyone,” Tosh said.

  “But it does prove that she’s good with guns,” Lacy said.

  “She already admitted that,” Tosh said.

  “She admitted almost everything,” Lacy said.

  “It’s the almost that gets me. If Pearl said she didn’t do it, then I believe her.”

  Lacy didn’t point out the obvious—that Pearl was delusional in the least or downright psychotic at the most. “I guess we should go up to the bedroom now.”

  Tosh agreed, but still they dawdled, daring each other to go first with their eyes. Tosh finally sighed and squared his shoulders. “How bad could it be after the weasel room?”

  “Let’s not ask any more questions like that,” Lacy suggested. She nudged him and he went first up the stairs. He was the first to arrive and say, “Oh.” His tone was neutral, and he blocked the entryway, so she wasn’t sure if it was a good sound or bad. She squeezed in under his arm and stopped short, adding her own, “Oh.”

  The room wasn’t creepy, at least not for an eight-year-old girl. It was a princess theme, from the pink and purple color scheme to the crudely shaped wooden Cinderella pumpkin cutout being used as a headboard. “This room is kind of sad,” Lacy said.

  Tosh gave her a look. “The weasel room wasn’t sad for you?”

  “It’s just that women hope their men will make them feel like a princess. Pearl apparently gave up on that and decided to make herself feel like a princess.”

  “That is sad, and also a fascinating glimpse into the female psyche. Speak more wisdom, friend.”

  Lacy gave his arm a shove. “Let’s search.”

  They made quick work of the room and turned up nothing that would either incriminate or clear Pearl. “This is hopeless,” Lacy declared.

  “Let’s talk to the neighbors,” Tosh suggested and then paused at the top of the stairs.

  “What?” Lacy asked.

  “I don’t want to walk through the dolls again.”

  “Neither do I,” she agreed.

  He took her hand and held it firmly in his. “Let’s do this.”

  She nodded and together they ran as fast as they could down the stairs, through the hall of dolls, and out the door.

  Chapter 10

  By the time they reached the porch, Lacy was hobbling again. The neighbors had nothing helpful to say. None knew Pearl. No one remembered hearing or seeing anything on the night of the murder, and everyone was incensed that they were being questioned again after the police had already made their rounds.

  “Where do we go from here?” Tosh asked after they talked to all the neighbors who would open their doors.

  “To bed. I have court in the morning, and I’m exhausted,” Lacy said. He dropped her at home and once again declined to come inside. Lacy wondered if he would always wait outside for as long as Riley was home. “Will you be there in the morning?”

  “I can’t. No one is allowed in the courtroom but you, the judge, Pearl
, and the prosecutor.”

  Lacy supposed that was for the best. Even though she could have used the moral support, there would be fewer people to witness what was sure to be a humiliating failure. She had no idea what to do, and she was trying hard not to think about it so she didn’t become nervous and stay awake fretting.

  She said a breezy hello to her grandparents as she passed through the kitchen. She should probably knock on Riley’s door and apologize for trying to kill her over the cupcakes, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she double-checked her alarm and fell into an exhausted sleep.