For Letter or Worse

by Vivian Conroy

  Mrs. Cassidy shook her head. “She breezed into town just ahead of them. Spent a few days at the Lodge, then got the job with them and moved into the villa.”

  “Not bad.” While the girl stayed at the Lodge, had she met Jonas, through a wildlife trip or something? He had seemed eager to help her.

  “Delta!” Hazel waved at her from the party tent’s entrance. “I’m set up.” She pointed at her watch. “We should be ready for guests.”

  “Coming!” Good thing she would be busy all afternoon.

  * * *

  “Pffff.” Hazel blew a lock of hair from her face. The small heater drove up the temperature in the tent’s limited space, and the chairs around the table were glaringly empty. It seemed Mrs. Drake’s high-profile friends weren’t interested in making any 3-D cards.

  Mrs. Cassidy had left a few minutes ago to see how the other tents were faring, and Delta stretched her shoulders and suppressed a yawn. “I had run through a couple of scenarios in my head, but nobody showing wasn’t one of them.”

  “The only good thing,” Hazel said, “is that we got paid already, simply for being here, so whether anybody turns up or not doesn’t matter. Still, this is awkward. I feel like that kid in school who’s last being chosen for gym teams.”

  “Hmmm. I know what you mean.” Delta yawned again. “I’m getting a serious lack of oxygen, standing around here. I’ll be back in a minute.” She walked outside and ran into Mrs. Cassidy, who gave her a rueful grin. “The nail studio is doing great, with women waiting outside. But the cupcake ladies are not having much luck either. The only participants who showed up there are two little girls who are throwing fondant at each other and covering everything in unicorn sprinkles.”

  Delta had to laugh despite her mood. “Maybe Lena Laroy misjudged her friends. They are probably here to sample the champagne and cake and catch up with each other, not wanting to do anything but chat. But like Hazel said, we do get paid simply for being here, so…we’d better enjoy it.”

  “Oh, look, she’s going to unwrap some gifts.” Mrs. Cassidy pointed at the gift table where a crowd was gathering. The few presents that had been on it before were now surrounded by many more gifts, all wrapped up in beautiful paper and with ribbons on top and tags attached. Delta followed Mrs. Cassidy to stand in the back of the group to watch the unwrapping for a bit. A woman in turquoise came up to the table, and Delta briefly believed it was their hostess until she got a better look and decided the woman’s hair wasn’t blond enough. She didn’t wear a single diamond pendant like Lena had, but a gem-studded double necklace with matching ring that caught the light as she lifted a hand to brush back her hair. Her dress was almost similar to Lena’s, though—long, smooth, and flowing—with silver shoes. Painful to appear at a party in a lookalike outfit… Lena Laroy appeared from the other side on the arm of a man in a neat gray suit and let herself be led to the table. She threw the woman in the similar dress a vicious look and then stood with a smile to address her guests. “I’m so happy you’re all here to celebrate my birthday. A milestone, well, we all know how that is. I’d rather not think of my actual age right now…”

  Laughter rang out, and the man by her side said, “You don’t look a day over thirty,” and pressed a kiss on her hand. “Let’s sing ‘Happy Birthday,’” he encouraged the crowd.

  The woman in the similar dress had taken her place among the guests. Looking her full in the face, Delta shivered under the intense expression in her eyes as she watched the hostess beam at the resounding “Happy Birthday” from all of her friends.

  Mrs. Cassidy poked Delta’s arm and said, loud enough to be heard through the singing, “That is Sally Drake, Calvin Drake’s sister.”

  “She doesn’t look very happy to be here.” Delta tried to identify the emotion flickering in the woman’s eyes. Resentment?

  Or jealousy?

  Was the similar dress not an unfortunate gaffe, but a conscious choice, to vie with the hostess?

  After the hooray, hooray had died down, Lena looked across the table and picked up a parcel wrapped in baby-blue. She clawed at the tape with her too-long nails and then handed it off to her companion, who opened it for her.

  “Who is the man beside Lena?” Delta asked Mrs. Cassidy.

  “I don’t know. Not Mr. Drake, in any case. I’ve seen him before, and he’s older.”

  Delta recalled that Calvin was out boating with Rosalyn and glanced in the direction of where the lake was hidden from sight by the forest. The birthday girl’s husband out for business… How odd when you came to think of it.

  Lena looked into the opened box and laughed. She lifted out a bookend in the shape of an elephant. “I do hope I will have more time to read now that I’m not that busy anymore.”

  More presents were opened, revealing chocolates, a set of crystal glasses, and a hairdryer in the shape of a flamingo with the hot air coming from its open beak. Delta decided it was about time for her to get back to the hot tent and poor Hazel when Lena gave a cry. She stared at something in her hands.

  Chapter Three

  Delta craned her neck to see what it was. It seemed to be a perfume bottle. Lena dropped it in the grass and walked away quickly. The man by her side gestured to the gathered people to back up, and they did, muttering and casting glances at the discarded bottle.

  Jonas closed in quickly—Delta had not even seen him near—and leaned down to study the perfume bottle in the grass. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and used it to pick it up carefully. Holding it a little away from him, he carried it off.

  People whispered among themselves, asking what he was doing and what for.

  Lena had halted at the steps to the villa. She held her hands to her face while the man who accompanied her talked to her. Then he gestured to waiters to bring champagne to the guests, and as they handed out bubbling glasses, the party mood returned, and laughter reverberated on the air.

  “What was that all about?” Delta asked Mrs. Cassidy.

  “I have no idea. Maybe she’s allergic to certain ingredients in perfumes?”

  “But the smell can’t get out through the bottle. She dropped it before she had even held it close to her face. Like it was a venomous snake or something. I’m going to look for Jonas and ask him what’s up.” He has to have expected something to happen. He was so tense and watchful before.

  Delta crossed the lawn in the direction Jonas had vanished. The two-story, whitewashed house looked even more impressive than it had from the front, with the second-floor balconies resting on stone arches built into the first-floor structure. Classic and modern at the same time. There was an open door leading into the house. Delta went through, hesitating a moment as she stepped onto the thick, dark-blue carpet covering the floor. The mysterious perfume bottle was really none of her business. With Jonas, a former policeman, it would be in good hands. But that was just it: Jonas, who hated parties, being on the scene when something sinister happened. He had to have known more beforehand, and she wanted to know what it might have been. Right. If anyone asks me what I’m doing here, I’ll just claim to be looking for the bathroom.

  She spied into the first room on her right and saw Jonas standing at an oak table. The bottle he had picked up from the grass rested on it, half in his handkerchief, and he was placing a phone call. She heard him say, “Yes, it’s better if you pick it up right away for analysis. I have no idea what it might be. Thanks.”

  He lowered the phone, looked at the door, and saw her standing there. His expression changed a moment from concerned to surprised. Then he said, “Nothing to see here, Delta.”

  “Come on.” Delta stepped into the room. “From the moment I saw you here I knew something was up. You don’t like parties. Especially not if you have to dress up for them. Are you here for a special reason? Is Mrs. Drake, I mean Lena Laroy, afraid of something?”

  Jonas seemed to want to sa
y something, then he exhaled and nodded at the table. At the bottle standing there.

  Delta came over and looked at it. It was a perfume bottle from the Lena Laroy brand, but the name DIVA had been changed into DEATH, and the woman’s face underneath was now a skull with hollow eye sockets.

  “Nice birthday present, huh,” Jonas said.

  Delta frowned, her thoughts racing to make sense of events up to now. “You expected something like this, or you wouldn’t have been here.”

  “When Mr. Drake went on a trip with me, he had hired me as his personal guide, so there were no others with us. I thought he didn’t want people talking and disturbing the animals, as often happens in groups, but he told me that he didn’t want to see deer at all, he was there to discuss his wife’s safety. He had heard I had worked for the police before I came here. I told him I wasn’t doing any such thing anymore, but he explained he didn’t want professional security, just someone with knowledge and a keen eye to attend the birthday party and tell him a thing or two. You see…”

  Jonas frowned, then continued. “I can’t tell you the details, as they are private of course, and I don’t want to betray his trust. But let’s say there is…tension, and he doesn’t know who he can trust.”

  “Has she received threats like this before?”

  “I can’t really discuss that with you, Delta. I’ve already said too much.” Jonas rubbed his face. “I should have told Drake ‘no’ the minute he asked me to do it. I should have known it would lead to trouble. But I was intrigued by his story and…why not? Just an afternoon at a birthday party, doing a bit of surveillance. I didn’t expect anything to happen really. I had concluded from Drake’s story he was…a touch paranoid. Something you see more often when people have a reputation and wealth to protect.”

  “I see.” Delta nodded. “But now there is a real threat.” She gestured at the perfume bottle’s skull with its eerily empty sockets.

  “I called the sheriff’s office so they can come handle this. Not that they seem to take it very seriously. That deputy asked me what he can do about a perfume bottle with a skull on it. Take fingerprints maybe? See if he can figure out who sent it?” Jonas gestured impatiently.

  “Come on.” Delta shook her head. “He knows just as well as you that if someone sent something like this as a serious threat, they’d take care not to leave prints on it. They would’ve handled it with gloves. Everyone has gloves lying around.”

  “Sure, but not every criminal is necessarily that smart. If it’s even a criminal, and not a disturbed fan or…someone who wants to give her a scare.”

  “You mentioned that Mr. Drake didn’t know whom he could trust. So, it could be someone close to Lena Laroy, trying to scare her. Is someone trying to gaslight the former model? But why would someone near her try to manipulate her? Does Drake have concrete suspicions about someone in their circle?”

  “I’m not saying one more word.” Jonas gave her a stern look. “I’m staying here with this bottle until the police come to pick it up, and then I’m done with the whole thing. I should never have agreed to Drake’s request.”

  But he had been unable to turn away from a chance to do his old job. He had loved it, and he still did. What on earth could have driven him away from the force? He had told her he had quit, but not why, and it had felt intrusive to ask. After all, there might be a very personal, painful reason for it, a traumatic event, like the violent death of a colleague. It couldn’t have been a lack of passion for his job. Jonas loved sleuthing. She had felt it in his every move when they were solving the murder case together. It had felt good to work as a team.

  “Who’s that guy who was with her? Not her husband, Mrs. Cassidy said.”

  “No, Calvin’s older. It’s her husband’s nephew, Randall Drake.”

  “Does he also work in Drake’s company? Hazel mentioned to me that Drake Design is doing very well.”

  “I don’t think so. I heard in passing he’s a software engineer. On vacation here.”

  “Oh.” Delta pursed her lips. “I don’t know, but he was acting like the master of the house, sort of directing everything. The crowd’s happy birthday song for Lena, then when they had to back away from the table, and later telling the waiters to hand out more champagne. He had this take-charge attitude, like it was natural he was telling everyone what to do. Odd if he’s here on vacation at his uncle’s house.” Had Drake left the house on purpose for the afternoon, so Jonas could see how his nephew acted around his wife? Did he suspect them of…an affair?

  “Delta!” Ray waved at her from the door. “Would you like a drink and a spin around the garden? It’s stuffy in here.” He ignored Jonas as if he wasn’t even there.

  “Sure.” Delta crossed to the door and accepted Ray’s arm. She wasn’t going to get any more from Jonas about the threats against Lena Laroy at this moment, and maybe Ray knew something about it.

  As he walked her back out onto the lawn, she said, “I heard that the dog walker the Drakes employ lived at the Lodge for a bit. Do you know her?”

  “Zara Kingsley, you mean? Nice girl.”

  Ray said it in a certain tone, and Delta glanced at him. “Did she like you?”

  “She did mention she knew I had played professional football and all. I guess she wanted to flirt. But she’s a bit young for me.” Ray leaned over and added, “I’m saying it before you do.”

  Delta flushed in annoyance. “It’s none of my business really who you hang out with, but it does seem remarkable that Zara came to town for sightseeing and then immediately landed this job with the Drakes.”

  “Who says she came to town for sightseeing? She stayed at the Lodge, yes, but maybe with the intention of scoring a job here, at one of the villas. She obviously wants to move up in the world.” Ray shrugged. “I got the impression it doesn’t matter much to her how she does it. Had I encouraged her, she would have thrown herself right at me. Then she did the same thing with Calvin Drake.”

  “Drake? He’s more than friendly with his wife’s dog walker?”

  “Well, let’s say I saw them at the Lodge together, and he put an arm around her shoulders. I couldn’t see much more, as they walked away.”

  “So, he hired a girl he’s been seeing at the Lodge to move into the villa?” Delta whistled softly. “I wonder if Lena knows about that.” She thought of the woman’s tone toward the dog walker earlier. “Maybe she does. But then why doesn’t she fire Zara and send her away? With her money, she must be able to hire a new dog walker in a heartbeat.”

  “She can send her away from the villa but not pack her out of town. Maybe she thinks it’s better to keep her close where she can see exactly what is happening.” Ray shrugged. “I’m surprised, though. Calvin Drake was rumored to be absolutely mad about Lena when he married her. Why would he suddenly go after a college girl? Oh, wait a sec. I see Lee Turner there. I have to ask him something. I’ll be back in a minute, okay? Hang tight.”

  Ray walked away from her to greet an elderly man. Delta accepted a glass of apple juice from a passing waiter and retreated a few paces to stand in the warmth of a red lamp attached to a tall oak tree. With those lamps everywhere, and the heaters in the party tents, it was perfectly possible to have a garden party in October. Clever. Expensive too, probably, but then the Drakes could afford such a thing.

  Delta glanced around her as she sipped her drink. She caught a glimpse of a woman in a turquoise dress disappearing into some brush. Lena Laroy? Had she overcome her shock over the sinister perfume bottle so quickly? Or was it the sister-in-law, Sally, who was dressed similarly?

  Too bad Jonas wasn’t here to see this. He was hired to keep his eyes open for mysterious stuff, but he was now inside, guarding the incriminating perfume bottle.

  Delta’s hand clutched the glass. What if the perfume bottle had been a distraction, to get Jonas away from the party scene, so whoever targeted Len
a could strike?

  She followed the woman and stood at the brush, peering in. On the other side, she heard voices. A man said, “I told you before I won’t let it go. You know what I want, and you give it to me. Tonight.”

  “I can’t.” The female voice was brittle and desperate. “Give me more time.”

  “I’m tired of your lousy excuses. It’s tonight or else.”

  Delta chewed her lip. She could barge into the brush and disturb the conversation, but then the aggressive-sounding man might do something to hurt the woman. And was it even Lena Laroy speaking?

  “You wandered off.” A hand landed on her shoulder, and she almost yelped. Spinning around, she was face-to-face with Ray. “You gave me a scare.”

  “Sorry. I thought you’d wait for me while I chatted with Turner. He might be able to get us a new piano for the Lodge at a good price. The old one is out of tune permanently. Rosalyn’s attached to it, but I’m not so sentimental. What are you looking at anyway?” He peered past her.

  Delta was certain the man and woman would have heard them and removed themselves. She exhaled. “Nothing. Just some air. Nice about that new piano.”

  “It’s not a done deal yet. He’ll call me later. Didn’t want to do business at a party.” Ray rolled his eyes.

  “Speaking of business,” Delta said, “I should really get back to Hazel and Mrs. Cassidy. I feel like I’m letting them down, wandering around like I’m here as a guest rather than a hired entertainer.”

  “I’ll walk with you.” Ray swung his arms as he walked by her side. Delta was tempted to ask him what he thought of Lena Laroy’s response to the perfume bottle, but as he had seen her briefly with Jonas and might have noticed the bottle on the table, it was better not to say anything. Else Ray might suspect Jonas of knowing more about the situation.