“I’ll let you know,” she promised.
“Hey.” He cupped her chin in his hand and his eyes were serious when they met hers. “Be careful. Stan and I discovered that the sash used to kill Mariel had Lupe’s prints on it because she wore that one to a group photo shoot. The sashes were kept in the green room, so anyone had access to them. Whoever strangled Mariel is still at large and we have no idea what their agenda is.”
“Noted,” she said.
Mel watched him leave and turned back to help Angie unload the last of the cupcakes.
“So, that was nice,” Angie said. She gave Mel a sidelong glance and Mel knew she was trying to determine what the status of Mel and Manny’s relationship might be without actually asking.
“Yeah, he’s a good guy,” Mel said. “He’ll make someone a fine husband someday.” Angie’s eyebrows rose up and Mel grinned. “And by ‘someone’ I do not mean me.”
Angie opened her mouth to fire questions at Mel, but Mel held up her hand.
“I need to go talk to Ji, the cosmetic consultant,” Mel said. “Olivia gave me an idea and I think Ji might have the answer. I promise I’ll be right back.”
She left before Angie could respond, but she heard Angie shout, “Fine!” Which, of course, meant it wasn’t.
Mel searched the first floor of the resort, looking for the petite Asian woman. There was no sign of her. She was making her third lap when Lydia the hotel manager stopped her.
“Can I help you find something?” she asked.
Mel paused. “I’m looking for Ji Lily.”
“The pageant’s beauty consultant,” Lydia said with a nod. “I just saw her going over someone’s foundation.”
“Remember where?” Mel asked.
“Follow me,” Lydia said. “I think they were in one of the break rooms.”
Mel fell into step beside the dark-haired beauty. She wondered how much Lydia knew about the investigation into Mariel’s murder.
“Pretty stressful event, huh?” Mel said.
Lydia shrugged. “You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff that goes on in hotels. I thought the two o’clock in the morning drunken skinny-dippers were bad, but I’d take them over a murder any day.”
“So, have the police said anything about who they think might be involved?” Mel asked, hoping she sounded casual.
“Not to me,” she said. “But I know they were looking pretty hard at one of the contestants after she had a tiff with the judge over her score.”
“She’s innocent,” Mel said. Then she realized she sounded a bit strident and added, “Or so I heard.”
Lydia gave her a long look, and Mel smiled.
“Your cupcake boy has a relationship with that girl,” Lydia said.
“They’re friends,” Mel said. “Although they’re possibly more than that now that he’s noticed she’s a girl. How did you know?”
“It’s my job to watch people and anticipate what they need,” Lydia said. “They seem like good kids. If you tell anyone I said this, I’ll deny it, as the resort can’t be perceived as being partial, but I’m hoping she wins.”
“Me, too,” Mel said.
Lydia led the way down a short hallway. She knocked gently and when a voice answered, she pushed open the door. Inside Ji was consulting with Sarah Hendricks, the unpleasant redheaded young woman Mel had tangled with before, and her mother.
“Lipstick for redheads—” Ji began but the girl interrupted her.
“Auburn, my hair is auburn. Surely, you should know the difference,” the girl snapped. Her nostrils were flaring.
Ji studied her for a moment. She reached into her cosmetic case and handed the girl a tube of lipstick. “I’d try this if I were you.”
The girl snatched the lipstick out of Ji’s hand and hurried over to a nearby mirror. She applied the bright red lipstick, pouting at herself in the mirror.
“Well, you finally got it right,” she said. She fluffed her hair and turned to face them.
“You like it?” Ji asked.
“It’s fabulous!” the girl declared. “So much better than that horrible nude color you were suggesting. Come, Mother, the cupcake testing is going to start soon.”
The girl sauntered past them without acknowledgment or even a thank-you for Ji. Her mother hurried behind her, sending them an apologetic smile.
Mel watched the door shut behind them, turned to Lydia and Ji, and said, “She is a horror.”
Ji and Lydia exchanged a glance, and Ji said, “You have no idea.”
“If you two will excuse me,” Lydia said. “I’d better get back.”
Mel waited until after Lydia had left before she spoke.
“Ji, I was wondering if I could ask you some questions,” Mel said.
Ji glanced at the slim watch on her wrist. “Only if you can walk and talk. I have two more contestants to consult with. My redheaded princess refused to meet in the green room with the others, so I’m on my way back there now.”
“I can do that,” Mel said.
Ji closed up her cosmetic suitcase and put it on the ground. A handle came out of the top of it and she dragged it behind her like a small carry-on.
They made their way out into the hallway and Ji asked, “Is this about Lupe? Is she worried about her makeup? She shouldn’t be. She’s nailed it with the more natural look. It really suits her.”
“No, it’s something else,” Mel said.
“Oh?” Ji glanced at her as they rounded the corner and entered another room.
“The other cupcake baker mentioned to me that Dr. Richards has offered her a free eye tuck if Destiny’s cupcakes win this afternoon’s competition.”
Ji stopped walking. “Really?”
Mel nodded. “And it got me to thinking that maybe he had made similar offers elsewhere.”
“You mean to me?” Ji asked. She frowned and Mel knew she had offended her.
“Actually, I was wondering if he had made the offer to Mariel,” Mel said.
“Because that would explain why Lupe’s score was so much lower than Destiny’s,” Ji said. She tapped her index finger against her lips as she pondered the possibility.
“Who would know for certain?” Mel asked.
“I would,” Anka said as she joined them. “When Mariel was chosen to be the head judge and I was not invited, she called me to gloat about how this was just the beginning. She was launching a nail polish line with Ji and she was going to get nipped and tucked into being a contender in the pageant circuit again.”
“Do you suppose that was her deal then?” Mel asked. “If she made sure Destiny won, then the good doctor would youthanize her?”
Ji and Anka both gave her startled looks.
“Sorry, I meant y-o-u-t-h-anize her, not the other, although—”
“Somebody did exactly that,” Anka said.
Mel studied the two women before her. There was no question that they both had a motive to want Mariel gone. Ji because if Mariel did owe her a large sum of money, then their business venture was in jeopardy of not being launched, and Anka because she was always second to Mariel, and if there was no Mariel . . .
“Stop looking at us like that,” Ji said.
“Like what?” Mel asked.
“Like we murdered Mariel,” Anka said. “We didn’t.”
“Really? Because it seems to me like you both had solid motives. Didn’t she owe you a lot of money for the nail polish line you two were working on?” Mel asked Ji.
Ji looked angry. “I don’t have to answer that, but since I’ve already told the police all of this I will. Yes, she paid half up front and she owed me the rest upon completion of the line. When I was almost done, I asked her for it and she said she was talking to her investor.”
“She had an investor?” Mel asked.
“Yes,
which was why I went into business with her in the first place,” Ji said. “I figured with an investor and her connections in the pageant world, we were guaranteed at least a modest success, which would give me a stepping-off place to bigger and better things. Didn’t that gamble bite me on the butt?”
“Who was the investor?” Mel asked.
“I have no idea,” Ji said. “She never gave me a name and no one has come forward since she died.”
“How are you going to launch the line now?” Mel asked. “Won’t that be a huge hit for your company?”
“I have been fortunate enough to find a new investor,” Ji said.
There was something about the way they didn’t look at each other that made Mel get it immediately. She looked at Anka and said, “You’re the new investor.”
“So?” Anka asked. She put her hands on her hips and tossed her hair in a defiant gesture.
“So you don’t think it looks the least bit suspicious that Mariel’s longtime rival is taking over her business venture upon her death?” Mel asked.
“It was just good business,” Anka said. “Why should all of Ji’s hard work go to waste? Besides, we’re marketing some of the polishes as memorial items for Mariel.”
Mel stared at them.
“We didn’t kill her,” Anka said.
“We would have been arrested by now,” Ji said. “I was at work in my lab that night and have my assistant as a witness to put me there.”
“And I was at a party for the Barrett Jackson car auction with my husband, who can testify that I was with him the whole time,” Anka said. “We’re no more to blame for Mariel’s death than your little friend Lupe.”
“Fine,” Mel said. “Then who killed her? Another contestant who didn’t like their low score?”
“Maybe. Or perhaps it was another pageant insider? Do you think Richards made the same surgery offer to Cici?” Ji asked.
“No!” Anka shook her blond head. “Like me, she’s had about all the surgery her face can tolerate. Besides, it couldn’t have been her. She’s too tiny.”
“What about your thuggish cupcake boy?” Ji asked. “He looks like he could snap a person’s neck with his fingers.”
“Oz?” Mel asked. “No! He could never—”
“It could have been a crime of passion to defend his girlfriend,” Anka said.
Both Ji and Anka were staring at her and Mel could tell they were thinking that she was deluded.
“I’m telling you it wasn’t him,” Mel said.
The other two exchanged a look that said louder than words that they thought Oz was the most likely candidate to have killed Mariel. Mel felt a hot surge of temper erupt through her core like hot lava.
“If you slander him in any way . . .” Mel growled. She took a step toward Anka, who scuttled behind Ji. “I will make it my mission to bring down this pageant with my bare hands if I have to.”
“Mel, uh, Mel?” A voice called her name and Mel turned around to find Angie standing there, looking alarmed. “They’re going to start judging the cupcakes. We’re needed out front. And they’re looking for you, too, Anka.”
Mel glanced down at where her hands were clenched into fists. She shook her fingers loose and glanced at Ji and Anka.
“Okay, I think I made my point,” she said and turned on her heel and strode away from the room, with Angie hurrying to keep up with her.
Once in the hallway, Angie grabbed her arm, “Were you channeling me in there? What the hell was that?”
Thirty-one
“Walk and talk,” Mel said. She wanted to put distance between them and the others. When they turned a corner, she paused and lowered her voice. “Anka and Ji think Oz is the one who killed Mariel.”
“What?” Angie cried. “That’s mental.”
“Agreed, but they think because Oz and Lupe are obviously involved—”
“But that just happened,” Angie protested.
“Yeah, we know that, but from outside looking in, and with Oz staking Lupe in the competition, not to mention arranging her talent act, he seems a likely suspect,” Mel said. “It doesn’t help that he looks like he eats small kittens for breakfast.”
“What can we do?” Angie asked.
“As soon as the cupcake tasting thing is over, I’m going to find Uncle Stan and see if Oz is on his radar,” Mel said.
“Can I help?” Angie asked.
“No, I’ve got it.”
Angie frowned and Mel wondered if she was feeling left out.
“Don’t worry,” Mel said. “As soon as I know what’s going on, I’ll clue you in.”
“Promise?” Angie asked. “Cause your track record for full disclosure sucks.”
Mel turned so that she and Angie were facing each other. “Look, I’m sorry that I kept what was going on with me and Joe a secret. I really am. I just wasn’t ready for a lot of the emotional stuff that came with it. Can you forgive me?”
Angie met her gaze, and then she slowly nodded. “Forgiven and forgotten.”
Mel hugged her pal close. “Thanks. Now come on, I do not want to miss the judges’ faces when they have to eat that Red Hot monstrosity of Olivia’s.”
Mel hooked her arm through Angie’s and pulled her into the lobby at the front of the resort. The contestants who were participating in the cupcake recipe event were all there.
A twenty-something male reporter was interviewing Lupe, and Mel noted that Oz was standing nearby. It was good that he was looking out for Lupe, but she couldn’t discount what Ji and Anka had said about him looking a bit mean and scary, and that was without his usual piercings. She knew he probably didn’t mean to be looming over the reporter, but still she noticed the reporter glancing nervously at him before asking his next question.
“I’ll be right back,” Mel said to Angie. She jerked her head in Oz’s direction and Angie nodded in understanding.
“I’ll keep an eye on the cupcakes,” Angie said and she pointed at the display tower where Olivia was watching the goings-on.
Mel nodded, circled the crowd that was gathering, and squeezed in beside Oz.
“Hi, guys,” she said with a chirpiness usually reserved for cheerleaders and soccer moms. “Isn’t this exciting?”
Oz looked at her suspiciously while Lupe gave her a distracted smile and the reporter looked relieved.
“A word, Oz?” Mel asked and then she yanked him away as if he’d said yes.
“Where were you when Mariel was killed?” she asked.
“What?” Oz asked. He was looking over her head at Lupe and the reporter as if he were getting ready to do battle if the reporter said anything he didn’t like.
Mel snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Focus, Oz, we have a situation.”
Oz reluctantly pulled his gaze from Lupe and looked at Mel. “What situation? I don’t want to leave her. What if that brick was meant to harm her? She needs protection.”
Mel felt her heart soften as she looked at the anxiety on her young friend’s face. “We’re in a crowded room. She’ll be okay. Listen, since your status with Lupe has changed, people have taken notice of you and some are speculating that you might have done Mariel in to give your girlfriend a clearer shot at winning the pageant.”
“But we weren’t even a couple until after the talent show when she kissed me, and I’m not even sure what that means,” Oz said. His handsome face flushed with color.
“I know that and you know that, but given that you paid her entrance fee, it looks like your relationship was established before the pageant,” Mel said. “So do you know where you were?”
Oz frowned. “You don’t really think Stan and Manny will believe I had anything to do with it, do you?”
“They have to run down all leads,” Mel said. “And if people are starting to point to you . . .”
She he
ard the crowd begin to murmur, and glanced over to see Anka taking her seat at the judging table. The reporter left Lupe, and Mel felt Oz shift his feet as if he wanted to race right back to her side. Fortunately, Joyce arrived and stood with Lupe.
“My mom is with her,” Mel said. “Now, do you remember where you were?”
“I don’t know. It was days ago,” Oz said. He dug his hands into his slicked-back hair and Mel wondered if the large amount of product used would make his fingers adhere to his head. He blew out a breath and released his head. His hair fell down over his face, making him look even more fearsome. “I don’t know, I think I was with Marty at the bakery.”
“You think or you know?” Mel asked.
“I think,” he said. “Maybe I was at school. I’m not sure.”
“Well, you’d better get sure,” Mel said.
“Hey, a lot of stuff has happened to me this week,” Oz protested. “I can’t even remember my life before Lupe kissed me. It was like a punch to the head or something and now I can’t even remember my name.”
“Aw,” Mel gushed. “That’s so sweet.”
“Argh.” Oz shook his head as if he could rattle the memory of where he’d been loose. He blinked at Mel. “I’ve got nothing.”
“Text Marty,” she said. “Maybe he remembers where you were. Now try to keep a low profile. I’ll keep an eye on Lupe.”
“No offense, Mel, but that is not as reassuring as you might think,” Oz said while his thumbs zipped across the front of his cell phone, typing a message faster than Mel could say it. “Trouble finds you before you even get out of bed in the morning.”
“I resemble that remark,” Mel said. She was trying to make a joke out of it, but she had to admit she felt the sting of truth in his words. “Just text Marty and then go help Angie with the cupcake tower. She’s keeping guard to make sure Olivia doesn’t get up to her usual tricks.”
“On it,” Oz said. He cast one more moony look at Lupe before skirting the crowd to go stand by Angie.
Mel pushed through the throng to stand by Joyce and Lupe.
“How are you doing?” she asked Lupe.
“Nervous,” Lupe said. She gave Mel a worried smile.
Sugar and Iced (Cupcake Bakery Mystery) Page 19