Engaged in Murder (Perfect Proposals Mystery)

by Nancy J. Parra

I noted that she blushed. From the look in Daniel’s eye, there was definitely something going on between them. “Do you two always fly together?”

  “We are Warren’s flight crew. The thought was that eventually there would be enough traffic to get a second crew and more planes, but for now, it’s only us.”

  “Oh, wait, do you have a job today? Am I interrupting?” I did my best innocent act, tilting my head and batting my lashes. It never worked on my mom and dad, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t work on somebody else.

  “Oh, no, no,” Laura reassured me. “We were supposed to take a client to Denver, but he had a last-minute meeting and canceled. That’s what happens with these high-powered players.”

  “He canceled?”

  “More like rescheduled,” Daniel said. “It’s a pain because we have to come back tomorrow and go through the preflight and everything again.”

  “Oh, that’s terrible.”

  “It’s part of the business.” Daniel shrugged.

  “In fact, I’m only here because I left my gear in the stowaway compartment. I debated leaving it, but thought better. I came back in to get it.”

  “There’s a stowaway compartment? On the plane?”

  “Oh, gosh yes,” Laura said.

  “You called it a stowaway compartment. Have you ever stowed people?” I had to ask. When she glanced at me funny, I thought I covered myself well. “I’m looking for places to stash my videographer besides the bathroom.”

  “Oh, no, no,” Laura said with what looked like relief on her face. “This is to stow away our gear.” She opened a thin cupboard in the tiny pantry area. “It would be nearly impossible to put a human being in here, see?”

  She opened it up and stuck her arm inside. The cupboard was tall but thin and about eighteen inches deep.

  “Maybe if they stood sideways,” I said and climbed inside to demonstrate. It was a very tight fit, but I was thin and straight. I stepped out. “Yes, I suppose that wouldn’t do to hide Cesar in.”

  “I think you’re stuck with the restroom,” Daniel said.

  “What about the luggage compartment?” I asked. They both looked at me as if I were speaking a different language. “You know where you put the luggage . . .” Still only quizzical looks. “That area with the door for authorized personnel only,” I pushed. “That’s the luggage compartment, right?”

  “Right,” Daniel finally said.

  “There is no way you could put a person in there. It’s not pressurized and they would freeze,” Laura said. Her voice held a strange tremor.

  “Or suffocate,” Daniel added. “Not a good idea at all.”

  “Okay, well, then that clears that up.” I turned and continued to sketch dimensions as if I had no idea what had frightened them.

  I did indeed have an idea. The way I saw it, they were having a secret affair. Randy, who was always strapped for cash, had found out about it. I mean, they weren’t good at hiding it. I found out about it. So a man who was always around cleaning offices and such would have easily known.

  If Randy knew, he could have blackmailed them both. I glanced over to see that Laura had gotten her bag and left. Daniel stood by the doorway watching me. I sent him a smile. “I hope I’m not keeping you from your work.”

  “Oh, you’re not,” he said, his gaze serious. “I’m trying to figure out what you’re thinking.”

  “Excuse me?” I froze.

  “Your perfect proposal plan for the airplane,” he said and crossed his arms. “I’m curious as to what more you can do than you did for Warren.”

  “Oh.” I laughed with relief. “That’s the thing. Warren said I could use the plane—in fact, he encouraged me to use it—but he also said I couldn’t duplicate what I did for him and my sister.” I waved my hand at the now austere interior. “It’s why I had to come back and get dimensions and such.” I lifted my sketch book. “I purchased this great little program for the computer where you simply put the dimensions of the space in and then you can move things about.”

  “Interesting,” he said.

  “Well, I think I have everything that I need for now,” I said. “It was good to see you again, Daniel.”

  “Take care of yourself, Pepper,” he said as I brushed by him to leave the plane. “I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt.”

  I paused at the bottom of the steps and looked back at him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

  “I said take care of you,” he replied. “It’s hard when you find a dead person. Harder still to come back to the place where it happened. Don’t let it get to you.”

  I drew my eyebrows together. “I won’t . . . thanks.”

  I left the building a lot faster than I had entered it. Climbing into my car, I settled my things on the seat beside me. Laura and Jeb were each other’s alibis. Was that the plan? Time of death was never exact. Had Laura sought out Jeb to ensure she had an alibi that didn’t include Daniel? Daniel had the flight log as his alibi, but logs could be faked. Still that explanation didn’t fit with what I knew of Laura and Daniel.

  As far as I could see, the two were threatened by Randy, but neither seemed to be the killer type—if there was such a thing. Still, they may have hired a professional. Yes, that made more sense. That way it was no muss, no fuss. They could have flown him in and established their alibis while he did the deed. Then they could have hid him in the plane and flown him back out with no one the wiser.

  Now all I had to do was prove it. Maybe there was a way for me to get a look inside the luggage compartment. I could ask Warren if what they said about pressurization and such was true or not. He would know. Wouldn’t he?

  I frowned. But then I would have to tell him why I was asking and I didn’t want to do that yet. I didn’t want Warren to worry about me.

  And unfortunately, I couldn’t take my suspicions to Detective Murphy without some kind of concrete proof. Not if a video wasn’t proof enough for him. I sighed.

  Then I spotted movement in my rearview mirror. A closer look told me it was Laura. She was talking to someone. I ducked down out of sight far enough that she couldn’t see me but I could see her in my side mirror. It was Daniel she spoke to. They kissed and then separated.

  Laura turned and got into a gray Toyota. When she pulled out, I started up my car and followed. It was difficult to be inconspicuous. Old blue stood out in a sea of cars as much as I did in a sea of people. It had never been a problem before. Now when I wanted to tail someone, it was nearly impossible to be incognito.

  Thankfully Jimmy stopped me at the gate. “Hey, Pepper, learn anything new for me to report to Jeb?”

  “No, nothing new. I did, however, get some dimensions of the plane for my next jet proposal. Thanks for that. Tell Jeb I will keep him posted.”

  “Okay, will do.” Jimmy opened the gate and let me out. I could make out Laura’s gray Toyota in the distance. Since Jimmy had stopped me, there was no way for her to suspect I was following her.

  I did my best to keep three cars behind her. When she turned down a side street, I kept going, turning onto the next street. I went around three blocks then doubled back.

  Laura had parked her car in front of a brick row house. I made a sudden decision and pulled up to the curb. Maybe, just maybe, if I confronted her like the reporters did sometimes on television, I could surprise a confession out of her.

  “Pepper, what are you doing?” Laura asked as I got out of the car.

  “I followed you,” I admitted. “Well, then I went around the block a couple of times.” Okay, I was an awkward interviewer. Good thing I wasn’t trying out for the local investigative news.

  “Why?”

  “I have to know, are you and Daniel having an affair?”

  Laura’s head snapped back as if I had slapped her. “What? What gave you that idea?”

  “I saw you kis
sing good-bye. Aren’t you both married to other people?”

  “I’m not having an affair with Daniel,” she protested and put her hand on her chest, flashing her wedding ring. “I’m married.”

  “So is he, but I saw you kissing,” I pointed out. “And I know that you both had motive to get rid of Randy. All told, that seems pretty suspicious to me, Laura, I’m not going to lie.” I put my hands on my hips.

  “What’s suspicious?” Laura glanced around. “Wait! Are you thinking we had something to do with Randy’s murder?”

  “You and Daniel have pretty tight alibis. Too tight, if you ask me. Most people don’t know where they were at any exact time of day, let alone ensuring they were with someone,” I said. “Most are like Warren; they go about their day not worried about alibis. And I know that Warren Evans didn’t do it.”

  “How do you know? Are you Warren’s alibi?” she asked, drawing her brows together in a frown.

  “No,” I said. “I know Warren and he wouldn’t kill anyone. I need to prove that for my sister’s sake. It makes a difference to Warren’s case if you two are having an affair and plotting alibies. Don’t you think that’s the tiniest bit suspicious?”

  She took me by the arm and drew me toward her house. “Please come inside. I don’t want to talk about this where my neighbors can hear.”

  I followed her into the home.

  “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “Sure,” I said.

  “Ice tea okay?”

  “That would be wonderful.” She left toward what I assumed was the kitchen. The inside of the brick row house was warmly decorated with tan paint on the walls and blue accent colors. It had been remodeled recently, and white crown molding gave the room a rich look. There were several pieces of art including original oil paintings.

  “Wow, these are beautiful,” I said as I stared at the pictures. “They look like originals.”

  “Yes, Frank loves his art.” She set a tray of ice tea glasses, sugar, and a bowl of lemon wedges down on the dark cherry coffee table. “My husband does very well for himself.”

  “But he’s gone a great deal, isn’t he?” I added a slice of lemon to my tea.

  “I want you to know that Daniel and I are good friends,” Laura said. “But we would never alibi each other. I can’t afford to lie and have my husband find out.”

  “Why is that?”

  She sat up with concern on her face. “Frank would divorce me in a second.” She looked down at her hands in embarrassment. “You see, I have a gambling addiction.”

  “Wait, what?” I leaned forward. “I thought Randy had a gambling addiction.”

  “I don’t know if Randy had an addiction or not.” She shrugged and sipped her tea. “But I do know that I have a problem. I’ve driven my family to the brink of bankruptcy twice. It got really bad. I kept lying about it until the bank calls and the credit reports couldn’t be hidden. Both times, Frank managed to bail us out.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “If he even suspects I’m lying about something, I’m gone.”

  “And Daniel?”

  “We’re friends,” she insisted.

  I sipped my tea. “How many people know about your money problems?”

  “Only a few.” She leaned back. “Why?”

  “It would make it very easy to blackmail you,” I pointed out. I searched her face for any telltale sign of distress. I noted that her left eye ticked a bit, but her expression seemed frozen. In a second she smiled brightly . . . too brightly.

  “Oh, no one would blackmail me. I work with the best people.” She laughed but it held a fake tone. “Imagine anyone trying to blackmail me. They all know I have no money. I’m working two jobs for goodness’ sake.”

  I leaned back and tried to hide my frown. “Of course, of course, everyone knows you have no money. I do have one last question . . .”

  “All right, I’m an open book.”

  “Who was in the back of the plane?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I want to prove Warren didn’t do it. The only way to prove it to the police is to be able to point out who was in the hangar at the time of the murder. I saw you talking to someone that day. I’m thinking they were behind the authorized-personnel door. Do you remember who that was?”

  She frowned in thought. “As far as I know, there was no one behind that door. Are you sure you remember me talking to someone?”

  “I’m pretty sure . . . but I suppose I could be mistaken.”

  “Maybe you’re thinking of when I put the luggage near the compartment. Daniel loaded it on the plane, not me.”

  “And you don’t remember talking to anyone near there?”

  “Oh, gosh, no. I don’t remember even seeing anyone back there. But I’ll let you know the minute I think of it. Is that okay?”

  “Thanks, you’ve been a big help.”

  “Well, I’m certainly glad you followed me home and we got this straightened out,” Laura said a bit too cheerily. “I would hate to have you following clues that simply aren’t there. It would be like a dog chasing her tail. Don’t you think?”

  “I suppose.” I blew out a long sigh. “I’m positive Warren is being framed.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that.” She wiggled back into her couch. “They have to be pretty certain before they arrest someone. Especially someone as socially connected as Warren Evans.”

  “Mistakes happen all the time.” I looked her in the eye and put my glass down. “Someone framed Warren. They want to throw the cops off their trail and they’re using Warren to do it. I intend to find out who that is and get the detectives back on the right track and away from Warren.”

  “Good luck with that,” Laura said. “And good luck with your new business.”

  “Thanks.” I stood and handed her one of my business cards. “If you know anyone who wants a special event for their engagement, please pass my card on to them. Especially if they want a plane event. That way I can drum up extra work for you and Daniel.”

  She rose and took my card. “Thanks, I will.” We walked to the door. “Can I give you a word of advice?”

  I turned in the door frame. “Sure.”

  “Let the police investigate Randy’s murder. The system is pretty good, you know. If Warren is innocent, then he’ll be fine. If not, then the right person has already been arrested and Randy is avenged.”

  I said nothing but smiled at her and went back to my car. It was warm inside old blue and I noted that Laura watched me like a hawk. Time to go. I’d think things through later.

  I pulled away from the curb and gave her a little wave. She waved back, but stayed at her door. I turned back onto the highway.

  Her explanation made sense . . . so why did I still think she was hiding something?

  Maybe it was her poor acting skills. Or maybe I was really barking up the wrong tree. There was one way to find out for sure—talk to Daniel. I could usually tell when a man was lying—well, except for Bobby. It was a family trait that my mother had passed down to me.

  It was why Warren’s lie of omission bothered me so much. I should have known right away.

  I wove through traffic. Maybe my sense of right and wrong was messed up, or maybe, just maybe, there was more going on at that little airport than I had ever imagined.

  Chapter 25

  “Bobby, what are you doing here?” I stepped up to find him hanging around my apartment door. He loomed large in the antique white-painted hallway.

  “Hi, Pepper.” He straightened. “How have you been?”

  “I’m fine. What do you want?” I had my keys in my hand but didn’t want to open my door. I didn’t want Bobby back in my apartment ever. It’s not that I was angry with him. It was simply that we had been together so long it would be easy to fall back into the habit of having him in my
life.

  After seeing how happy Felicity was with Warren, I didn’t want to settle for habit. I wanted a real relationship with a man who cared about me. A man who listened to me. A man who wanted to help me. A man who would go to the ends of the earth to make me happy.

  Looking at Bobby, I knew he was not that man. He’d had years to prove otherwise.

  “I miss you, Pepper,” he said and shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. He wore a jacket with a dark T-shirt under it.

  “Oh, I don’t think it’s me you miss, Bobby,” I said softly. “I think it’s the habit of having me around.”

  “You’re wrong,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry I smarted off the other night. I should have given you a real proposal . . . like that Warren guy did.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered.” I put my hand on his biceps. “We aren’t in love.”

  “How can you say that?” he asked, his brown eyes sad as a puppy. I bit the inside of my check to keep from falling for his sadness. “We spent years together. You are my one true love.”

  “No, Bobby.” I crossed my arms. “I’m your first date, not your true love. It’s a habit is all. Why don’t you go out and meet another girl. One whom you are crazy about.”

  “That’s just it. I’m crazy about you, Pepper.” He took my hand in both of his. “What can I do to prove it to you?”

  “Too late. If you were truly crazy about me, you wouldn’t have been cheating on me with Cindy Anderson. Men in love do not cheat.”

  “She didn’t mean anything to me.”

  I tilted my head and looked at him closely. “Bobby, there simply aren’t any fireworks between us. Do you even remember what I was talking about before you said, and I quote, ‘I suppose this means you expect me to propose to you’?”

  He winced at his own words. “Listen, I was drunk.”

  “That’s not exactly a good thing, is it?” I frowned. “You get drunk a lot, Bobby. It makes you so unhappy.”

  “I am unhappy.” He shrugged. “I’m miserable without you in my life.”

  “You were miserable with me in your life. Go home, Bobby,” I said. “Take care of yourself. Figure out what makes you happy and then go get it.” I patted his arm. “See you around.”