by Marla Cooper
I grabbed a dry-erase marker and wiped the board clean. I was about to add a fresh new header at the top, something innocuous like “To-Do List,” when my phone rang. Danielle Turpin’s face was staring up at me from the caller ID display.
No wonder. I’d never returned her call and she was probably still dying to get the scoop on Stefan. I wasn’t entirely in the mood to be grilled, but then again—she made it her business to keep her finger on the pulse of the wedding-planning community. Maybe she could prove to be useful.
I clicked on the screen to connect. “Hi, Danielle.”
“Kelsey! I just got a call from that nice couple, Haley and Christopher. Thank you so much for sending them my way!”
Oh, right. She wasn’t calling to gossip; she was calling about the list I’d had Laurel send to the couple. They must have called her right away.
“No problem! They’re great, and I’m thrilled you’re going to be able to help them.” Although in this case it was bittersweet, I loved playing matchmaker and was happy to have one less thing to feel guilty about. “I’ll send you over their files, or you can come by and get them if you want.”
“Or if you have time, we could meet up for lunch. My treat?”
I checked my calendar and saw that my next appointment wasn’t until two o’clock. “That would be great. We’d talked about having lunch anyway, so this gives us a good excuse.”
“How about that sushi place over on Stockton? Say twelve-thirty?”
“That’s perfect.” I’d be able to assuage my guilt about not being there for Haley and Christopher, enjoy some spicy tuna rolls, and maybe even pick Danielle’s brain a little bit. I love multitasking—especially when it’s served with wasabi and pickled ginger.
Hama Sushi was starting to fill up, so I grabbed us a table by the window and took the liberty of ordering us some edamame. When Danielle arrived, her face lit up and she rushed over and greeted me with a hug. She took off her coat, draped it over the chair, and sat across from me, smoothing her long blond hair behind her ears.
The waiter arrived with a steaming pot of jasmine-scented green tea, and we placed our order.
“Oh, and one spider roll,” Danielle said before he had a chance to escape.
“Hold the actual spiders,” I said.
Danielle giggled and laid her hand on my arm. “Oh, Kelsey, you’re so funny.” She turned to the waiter. “Do you think we ordered enough?”
He shot her an incredulous look; after all, we’d ordered half the menu. “One origami roll, two spicy tunas, a rainbow roll, a dragon mega maki roll, and a spider roll? Should be more than enough.”
“So,” she began, after he grabbed our menus and darted away. “Thanks again for the referral. Lucas called me already and we set up a site visit so he can show me around. I haven’t been up there in years, so I’m excited to see what they’ve done with the place. Anything I should know before I go?”
I pulled a flash drive and a folder from my bag and set them on the table. “Everything you need is in here. We’ve got most of it all set up, although you might have to follow up on a couple of rentals.”
“Oh! I meant, is there anything I should know about the couple?”
“Not really. They’re nice kids. You’ll really like them.”
“But?”
“‘But’ what? They’re nice. Should be a piece of cake.”
“Then why are you passing them on? C’mon, give me the dirt.”
Ahhh, that. I didn’t know how much she knew, but I wasn’t going to fall for her fishing expedition. “It’s complicated.”
“Come on,” she said with a knowing smile. “I sense a story, and I won’t rest until you tell me!”
“Really, Danielle, it’s nothing. Nothing that I can talk about, anyway. Client confidentiality, you know.” I shrugged as if to say, Whatcha gonna do?
She waggled her finger at me. “You and I both know that’s not a thing, and besides, they’re my clients now, so it would automatically transfer to me.”
“Nope, you can bribe me with all the sashimi in the world, but I’m not spilling the beans—or the edamame, as the case may be.”
“Okay, fine,” she pouted. “At least tell me they’re not crazy. Or horrible. Or total you-know-what holes.”
I thought about Haley’s dad. He did have a temper, but with Danielle’s limited involvement, she was unlikely to press any of his buttons. I believed him when he said he wouldn’t have hurt Babs, although I wasn’t as sure he wouldn’t have hurt Stefan. Still, he’d had an airtight alibi for the time period in question—so airtight, in fact, that he was taking it to the police—which as far as I was concerned meant that he was all spittle and no chomp.
I shook my head and smiled. “You’re fine. It was just a weird thing that came up that won’t affect you at all.”
“If you say so. I do appreciate the job, so I’ll drop it.”
“Thank you, Danielle.”
“But if you change your mind…” She held up her hand and made the universal mime signal for “call me.”
The waiter returned, bearing a platter of sushi that would have made a sumo wrestler blush. As we dug in, I talked her through everything she’d find in the Bennett-Riegert dossier.
“Wow, thanks for being so organized,” she said. “You’re sure making it easy.”
I plucked a bite of spider roll from my bamboo-green plate and dunked it into my soy sauce, thinking about how right she was and how lucky that made her. “A heck of a lot easier than Stefan made it for me,” I muttered without really thinking about what I was saying.
“Oooh, tell me more.”
I popped the spider roll into my mouth, then pointed at it as I chewed. That would buy me a few seconds of not speaking.
It was tempting to tell her everything Stefan had done and let her spread it around to whoever she wanted, but that seemed tantamount to standing on the table and screaming, Hey, everybody, I had a motive to hurt Stefan! Besides, the memory of him lying there in the hospital bed had softened my feelings toward him. Karma was a bitch, and I was pretty sure it had turned around and bitten him in the rear. With everything that had happened to him, I didn’t much feel like piling on.
“Oh, nothing.” I took a sip of tea to wash down the roll and set the tiny cup gently back on the table. “I visited him a couple of days ago, you know.”
Danielle’s face flickered with surprise. “Oh, how is he? Do you know if he got the flowers I sent him? I’ve been meaning to go for a visit.”
“He’s still out of it, but I’m sure he’ll enjoy seeing some flowers when he wakes up.”
“I hope so.” She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “Such a shame what happened. I do hope Haley and Christopher aren’t planning on using the wine cave, since it’s clearly not safe.”
Danielle seemed to be watching for my response. What was she getting at? “No need to worry. They’re out on the terrace.”
“I’m just saying…” Danielle picked at a piece of edamame, pressing one of the soybeans back and forth in its pod. “Don’t you think it’s weird that Stefan got hurt after what happened to Babs?”
“Well, sure, but…” Danielle fixed me with a stare as my sentence trailed off. The mood at the table had changed. Why did I have a feeling she was trying to trap me into saying something?
“Okay, I don’t mean to be rude,” Danielle said in a perfect imitation of people right before they say something rude, “but Stefan accused you of killing Babs and now he’s unconscious.” She waved her hand in the air, inviting me to draw my own conclusion.
“C’mon, Danielle, you know me better than that.” What kind of sushi ambush was this?
Danielle reached across the table and took my hand in a conciliatory gesture. “I don’t really think you’d do something like that, but I guess I need to hear it straight from your mouth.”
“I promise you. Cross my heart and hope to—well, I promise.”
Danielle nodded, apparently satisfied t
hat I’d told the truth, and gave my hand a squeeze before releasing it. “Don’t worry, Kelsey. I’ve always been in your corner. I tell everyone who asks that there’s no way you had anything to do with Babs’ death.”
I felt my cheeks grow hot. “People are asking? Who’s asking?”
“No one who matters, just people. Forget it; it’s nothing.”
Fuming, I mixed some more wasabi in with my soy sauce, then dunked a bite of spicy tuna roll in it. Who cared if the glob of spicy horseradish paste burned my sinuses? I popped the bite into my mouth and chewed. It’s not sushi if it doesn’t burn a little.
Danielle pushed her untouched glass of ice water across the table toward me with a concerned expression. “You’re turning red. You might need this.”
I swallowed and took a gulp of the cool water, then settled back in my chair. Worth it.
“Oh, Kelsey, I’m sorry. This must be really hard. I meant it when I said I didn’t think you’d done anything to hurt Babs.”
“But what about Stefan? Do you think I hurt him?”
“You said you didn’t, and I believe you.”
“Thanks, Danielle. I appreciate it. You wouldn’t mind spreading that around, would you?”
We both burst out laughing, the tension broken.
“Besides,” she said, “it’s not like you were the only person he didn’t get along with.”
I sat up in my chair. “Oh, yeah?”
She leaned in conspiratorially. “You didn’t hear this from me.”
“Okay, I didn’t hear it from you.”
“No, I’m serious, Kelsey. I haven’t told anyone this.” I kind of doubted it, but I wasn’t going to refuse the information on a technicality.
“I swear. Mum’s the word.”
“Stefan told me that he had some major dirt on Lucas Higgins.”
My eyes grew wide. “Really. Tell me more.”
“I don’t know what it was. I begged him to tell me, but he wouldn’t say. He just said that it was something really big and he was thinking about going public with it.”
“I wonder what it could be!” Lucas had such a polished public image; I couldn’t imagine him doing anything to jeopardize that.
“I don’t know, word on the street was that he and Lucas Higgins were—how to put this delicately?—an item.”
“What?! But Lucas is straight!”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? He has to maintain a certain profile, though, so if it’s true, he’d have to keep things on the down-low. After all, he gets a lot of mileage from charming wealthy older women right down to their pocketbooks.”
Laurel would be devastated that her make-believe boyfriend was pretending to be straight. Oh, the fake betrayal!
“But what’s the big deal? I mean, if Stefan outed him, either no one would believe him or no one would care.”
“I don’t think that was the big news he was threatening to tell. I’m just saying that if it’s true, then Stefan would have access to Lucas’ secrets. And maybe he really did learn something worth killing over.” She dropped her napkin in her lap and held up her hands. “Now I’m not saying he did it, okay? I’m just saying that … well, there’s no telling.”
“Danielle, have you told the police this?” This definitely seemed like intel they should have.
“There’s nothing to tell, really. It’s all just gossip. I don’t have any proof at all.”
“But he got hurt on Higgins property! They might really be interested to hear all this.”
Danielle chewed her lip as she considered the scenario. “Let me think about it, okay? I get that it’s important, but it’s nothing more than whispers. And in the meantime,” she said, giving me an apologetic look, “I can’t exactly go and mess things up with Higgins right before I do my first wedding there, especially if I’m not even sure he did it.”
I sighed in resignation. “I guess you’re right.”
“If I hear anything else, I’ll let you know. Thanks to you, I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time up there the next few days.”
“Okay, but be careful, okay? If Lucas did have anything to do with all this—”
“Then I’ll be perfectly fine, because he doesn’t know that I know anything at all.”
I suddenly pictured Miles’ angry face when he’d found me in the cave. What kind of viper pit was I throwing her into? I hoped I wasn’t putting her in danger. “There’s one other thing.”
“Oh, no. What?”
The waiter picked that moment to bus our dishes and drop the check in a slim black folder, so I waited until he was gone, then lowered my voice even lower than the sotto voce we’d employed for most of the conversation. “You should also watch out for Miles.”
“The slobby one? Why?”
I explained his whole history with wedding planners, giving Danielle just enough detail that she’d be cautious around him. “I just get a bad vibe, okay?”
“All right, thanks for the warning.” She dropped a credit card into the folder and placed it on the edge of the table. “I’m just going to go in, do my job in an orderly fashion, and stay far, far away from the wine cave.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine.” I said, feeling much better about the situation. “Thanks for lunch.”
“Don’t mention it. It’s the least I could do.”
I laughed. “I’m glad you still think so.”
We hugged goodbye, and I walked up the hill to my car. I still had a couple of appointments, but after that I planned to go home, take a bubble bath, and forget all about Higgins Estate for a while.
As I was unlocking my car, my cell rang from a number I didn’t recognize, so I climbed into the front seat and shut the door behind me.
“Hello?”
“Kelsey? It’s Corey.” His voice sounded strange and it immediately put me on high alert.
“Is everything okay? Where are you?”
“I’m at the hospital. Stefan’s awake. And he wants to talk to you.”
CHAPTER 30
“Corey, that’s great!”
Not only was Stefan awake and alert, he wanted to talk. He’d be able to tell me what happened, and I’d be able to get on with my life.
“I’m in my car. I’ll drive up right now.” I turned the key in the ignition and put my seat belt on.
“Wait!” Corey said. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“What? Why not? I’m so ready to put this behind me, and I was running out of ideas.” My money was still on Miles, but luckily, I wouldn’t have to worry about it much longer.
“Kelsey, Stefan doesn’t really remember what happened, but he’s convinced that you were there!”
“What?! I was there, but I’m the one who saved his stupid life!”
“I know, but he seems to have the timeline all mixed up. I told him he’s got it all wrong, but he doesn’t believe me.”
I resisted the urge to bang my head repeatedly against the steering wheel in frustration. No need to give myself a concussion on top of everything else. “Didn’t he see the peace plant I brought him? It’s a peace plant, for cripes’ sake.”
“He gave it to one of the nurses and told her to take it to the parking lot and set it on fire.”
“Oh, that’s real mature. Everyone knows you can’t burn a live plant.”
“Not really the point here.”
“You’re right.” I was so dazed, I turned the car back off and just stared out the front windshield. What I really wanted to do was drive up there and tell Stefan he was wrong, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you can’t argue with crazy. “So … what now?”
“I don’t know. He wanted to talk to you before he called the police.”
“The police?”
“Yeah, he’s ready to press charges—but don’t worry, I’ll stall him.”
“How are you going to do that?” I really didn’t want to have another visit from the SFPD or the Napa PD or any other PD for that matter. But
if Stefan called the police on me again, I had a feeling this time neither of them was going to play good cop.
“I’ll tell him you’re out of town or something. That’ll buy you some time.”
“Some time for what exactly?”
“To prove that it wasn’t you.”
After we hung up, I sat behind the wheel of my car, pondering my next move. I had the irrational urge to just start driving. Just take off with nothing but my credit cards, my cell phone, and the clothes on my back and Thelma and Louise it across the United States. Maybe I’d even grab my passport on the way out of town and just vanish. Later they’d find my abandoned car at the airport in Phoenix or something and I’d be sipping drinks on a beach on a Caribbean island and cranking out all-inclusive, cookie-cutter weddings for some upscale resort.
Nah, I sunburn too easily and I’d be bored in a week.
Instead of fleeing, I did the next best thing: I called an emergency meeting.
Laurel, Brody, and I made plans to meet at Brody’s house an hour later—partly because the police were less likely to come looking for me there and also because he had better snacks.
After we assembled in his mid-century modern living room, I filled them in on everything Corey had told me. “Which means I have to figure out what happened before he talks to the police.”
Laurel jumped in immediately to reassure me. “I’m sure they’ll know you didn’t do it.”
I cut her off before she went any further. “I’m not so sure anymore. And I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to make me feel better, but right now the only thing that’s going to make me feel better is getting some answers.”
“So what’s the plan?” Brody asked. “It seems like we’re running out of options.”
I thought about it for a second. “I can’t help but feel like Higgins Estate is the key. Babs and Stefan were both working there, and in Stefan’s case, it was literally the scene of the crime.”
“So you think Miles did it?” Brody said.
I thought back to what Danielle had told me. “Either Miles or Lucas.”
Laurel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Lucas? What did he ever do to anybody? Besides be adorable.”