Girls' Night Out Murder (Ryli Sinclair 2)

by Jenna St James

  I looked down at the glass I’d picked up after slamming the door on the police officers. I think this was my fifth. I was definitely not pacing myself.

  “What about you, Debbie? You okay to drive home?”

  Debbie had been quietly sitting on the couch throughout the exchange. She’d already cried through four Kleenexes. “Yes, I’m fine to drive home. I’m just in shock. I can’t believe this!” She started sobbing again.

  Paige went over and sat on the couch next to her. “Is there anything we can do for you?”

  Shaking her head, Debbie wiped again at her eyes and nose. “No. I’m going to call Mark real quick and let him know what’s going on, and that I’ll be home shortly.”

  “Of course,” Paige said.

  Bea handed Susie a cup of coffee. “I hate the thought of you going home alone after all this,” Bea said.

  Susie blew on the coffee then took a tentative sip. “Oh, I won’t go home. I’ll go to the bakery. It’s where I’ve spent the last few nights, anyway. When I’m sad or worried, I just bake and bake. I can’t help it.”

  “I’m not sure that’s safe,” Aunt Shirley said. “Let me just remind you all that there’s a killer on the loose. He’s already killed two people.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Susie said quietly.

  “Maybe you should just stay here,” Paige urged.

  Susie stood up and handed her mug to Mom. “I appreciate the concern, but I’d feel safer at my bakery. Plus, I need to try and get ahold of Jolene. I haven’t spoken with her at all today. She keeps avoiding my texts. Besides,” Susie smiled at Paige, “I need to get started on a wedding cake.”

  “I just don’t know how I can think about a wedding at a time like this,” Paige said.

  “Oh, Paige,” her mom said, “Please don’t say that!”

  “It’s true, though,” Paige insisted.

  Knowing how tenderhearted Paige was, I knew she’d think something silly like that. “Paige, nothing is going to take the joy away from your wedding, you hear me?” I said. “Nothing. No matter what, you and Matt are going to be married on Sunday. No…matter…what.”

  Paige looked over and me and smiled. “I understand,” she said.

  I just wished she looked like she believed it.

  Chapter 19

  After Susie and Debbie left, we wasted no time cleaning up the mess and turning in. While Paige was getting ready for bed and brushing her teeth, I called Garrett to tell him about Julie’s murder.

  The bachelor party was still going strong, so Garrett had to take my call in a different room. I could tell he was worried, especially when I mentioned Chief Taggart demanding my presence at the police station in the morning.

  “I don’t understand. Why is he fixated on you?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” I said. “For some reason he thinks I either know something or had something to do with the murders. I don’t even know yet how Julie died. He just said she was brutally murdered.”

  Garrett sighed. “I wish I could head down with Matt and Nick tomorrow, but I honestly can’t get away right now. I’m lucky Officer Ryan is covering for me Sunday. It’s been crazy here.”

  “I understand,” I said. I learned a couple months back that a cop, especially a Chief, doesn’t have banker’s hours. I’ve learned to take what I can when I can.

  I heard the faucet shut off. “Paige is almost done getting ready for bed, and I don’t want to upset her anymore than she already is. I better turn in.”

  “I wish I was there right now to help you through this.”

  My heart leapt. “Me, too. Sunday can’t come fast enough.”

  “Call me tomorrow after you meet with Taggart.”

  “Will do. You about finished with your party?”

  Garrett chuckled. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Just be safe.”

  “Night, Sin.”

  I hung up and stared at my cell phone. I wasn’t sure I was ready to tackle Taggart in the morning, but I didn’t really have a choice.

  “So what are we thinking?” I asked Paige once we were snuggled in bed that night.

  Paige leaned up on her elbow to look at me. The nightlight from the bathroom illuminated our bedroom just enough for me to see her in the dark.

  “I’m thinking I’m scared,” she said. “I think someone is killing people we know, and we don’t have any idea who!”

  I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to tell her I had a few suspects in mind. I knew she’d just worrying about me, and what Aunt Shirley and I were planning on doing.

  “We’ve been best friends since elementary. I can tell you’re up to something. What gives?” she said.

  I guess I just thought I was going to keep my mouth shut. “I’m not exactly sure. Aunt Shirley and I have been—”

  Paige’s groan cut me off.

  “Well, you asked!” I exclaimed.

  “I know, I know. Go ahead.”

  I turned on my back, mulling over how much to say. “For some reason, that idiot Chief Taggart thinks I’m involved. I need to clear my name soon, before things get totally out of control.”

  “Do you think you should have Garrett come down sooner?” she asked.

  I sighed. “No, he’s busy in Granville. I just got off the phone with him. He’s just as confused as we are as to why Taggart thinks I’m involved. He said to call him after I get back from the police station tomorrow morning.”

  “So what are you and Aunt Shirley planning?”

  “I don’t exactly know yet. I think tomorrow morning you, Aunt Shirley, and I should go to the station. Afterward we will stop by the bakery and see how your cake is coming. And maybe…” I trailed off knowing she was going to have a fit.

  “What? Just say it.”

  I leaned up on my elbow. “I think we should stop by Julie’s house to see if we can find out something.”

  “What!” Paige exclaimed. “We can’t go inside her house. I’m sure it’s covered in police tape.”

  “I didn’t exactly say we’d go inside,” I said. “I’m thinking maybe look through the windows, something like that. I’ll pull her address up on Google Maps in the morning.”

  Paige plopped down on her back. “I don’t want to go to jail a day before my wedding, Ryli.”

  “You won’t…I promise! Look, we got one cop that’s such a zealot he can’t see the truth, and two more that are barely out of diapers. No way are they going to be able to solve this on their own.”

  Paige chuckled. “You’re beginning to sound more and more like Aunt Shirley every day!”

  I threw my pillow at her. “Don’t ever say that again!”

  * * *

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” my mom asked the next morning at breakfast. “I have no problem going and telling that Taggart man just what I think of him!”

  I laughed at my mom’s brevity. Bending down to kiss her head I said, “Thanks, but Aunt Shirley, Paige, and I can handle it. You stay here with the others and make sure the last of the food and wedding prep is done.”

  “I just got off the phone with Matt,” Paige announced as she bounced into the kitchen. “He and Nick are leaving around eleven this morning. Hopefully they’ll be here by three at the latest.”

  “I’m so happy, dear. It’s nice seeing you excited again,” Mom said.

  “I’ll be honest,” Paige said pouring milk into her cereal bowl. “I’ve struggled a lot with being excited and happy for the wedding, and feeling sad for the deaths of Jim and Julie. It’s like I don’t know how I’m supposed to act.”

  “It’s understandable,” Mom said. “But just remember, you’ve been dreaming of this moment pretty much your whole life. You are entitled to feel happy. Don’t think for one second you have to justify your feelings to us. Be happy, be excited, be in love.”

  Tears filled my eyes. My mom had such an amazing way with words. Which reminded me, “Have you finishe
d writing your vows?” I asked.

  Paige groaned. “Not yet. I have an idea of what I want to say, just nothing concrete yet.”

  “Are we about ready?” Aunt Shirley said as she walked into the kitchen. Megan started giggling. I looked over at Aunt Shirley and nearly fell out of my chair.

  “What on Earth are you wearing?” I demanded. “And why in the world do you even own a shirt like that?”

  “What?” Aunt Shirley said, pulling the sweatshirt out and looking at it as though she’d never seen it before.

  It was a bright pink sweatshirt that read: I wasn’t planning on going for a run today…but those cops came out of nowhere! Two girls were sprinting for their lives down the street.

  “I think it’s totally appropriate,” Aunt Shirley said.

  I was speechless. The fact she would actually own a shirt like that was crazy…the fact she’d actually packed a shirt like that to take on vacation was even crazier. Combined with her pink and purple hair…there was no hiding Aunt Shirley.

  “I think it’s a lovely shirt,” Mom said nonplussed.

  My head snapped to my mom. “You’re okay with her wearing that…to a police station?” I demanded.

  My mom stared back at me. “I am when it’s about something as ridiculous as my baby being accused of two murders.”

  Score one for Mom.

  “Fine,” I said to Aunt Shirley. “Just try not to antagonize anyone else today, okay.”

  Aunt Shirley grinned at me. “Who…me?”

  “Yes, you,” I said sternly.

  “No promises.”

  I sighed and looked at Paige. “You about ready?”

  “Yep.”

  “Let me get my coat,” Aunt Shirley said. “About time I was pulling it out.”

  I looked over at Mom. She shrugged.

  A few minutes later the three of us piled into the Falcon and headed for the police station. My stomach was in knots by the time I found a place to park and we all went inside.

  “Aunt Shirley, isn’t that coat a little excessive? I mean, it’s not like we’re in the tundra right now,” I said laughingly.

  Aunt Shirley pushed back the hood on her body-length, down-filled camouflage parka. I’d never seen anything so hideous—well, except for the see-through shirt she had on last night.

  “This baby is good for covert operations. I draw this hood around me, and no one knows who I am. I figure it might come in handy today. We need to do some serious investigating.”

  On one hand she was right…with the hood up, you couldn’t see any part of her. On the other hand…no one in the world owned that coat in camouflage I was pretty sure. So everyone would know who she was. I didn’t have the heart to tell her.

  The inside of the police station was like most stations, I’m sure. You step inside to a waiting-room type area. There were a couple chairs around the perimeter of the room. To the right of the room was a door that could only be opened by punching in a code. I assumed it led to the back where the police officers were, and directly in front of us was a large glass panel with a heavy-set woman behind it. Her overly bleach-blonde hair was teased to the ceiling.

  “Can I help you?” she whined.

  Aunt Shirley pushed her way to the front. “We’re here to see Taggart.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed at Aunt Shirley’s tone. “Chief Taggart is busy right now. Take a seat, and I’ll let him know you’re here.”

  I highly doubt that.

  The three of us moved to the empty chairs in the room. Paige picked up a magazine and began flipping through it. I got out my cell phone to text Garrett.

  At the police station now. Taggart is making us wait.

  Less than a minute later I got a reply from Garrett. Sounds like something he’d do. Text me when finished.

  Twenty minutes later we were still in the holding area waiting on Taggart. I looked at Aunt Shirley and rolled my eyes. She smiled sweetly at me then motioned her head for me to follow her. We both stood up and walked to the window.

  Speaking in an overly loud voice Aunt Shirley said, “How much longer is it going to be?”

  The processed blonde looked up from her solitaire game on the computer. “I have no idea,” she snapped. “Our Chief is very busy.”

  “Well,” Aunt Shirley practically shouted, “you tell your Chief we came down here like he asked at the time he said. If he can’t be bothered to talk with us, we’ll come back at a later time. You see, we’re busy people, too.”

  I gave the nasty blonde my best steely-eyed look. “Very busy,” I echoed.

  “C’mon, girls,” Aunt Shirley said. “Get your stuff…we’re outta here.”

  Immediately the locked door leading to the back area was thrown open. Chief Taggart stood there scowling at us.

  “Well, well,” my aunt said, “looks like you got unbusy real quick.”

  Chief Taggart snarled at Aunt Shirley. “All of you…in here, now!”

  I couldn’t help but grab the bull by the horns. I made a slow progression back to the chair to retrieve my purse and coat. I slowly set the magazine back on the table…taking time to straighten the magazines. By the time I walked back over to where Aunt Shirley, Paige, and Taggart were standing, I thought he was gonna burst a blood vessel. His face was red and his nostrils were flaring.

  I ignored his obvious anger. “I believe we’re all ready now, Chief. Thank you for seeing us so quickly.”

  Aunt Shirley and Paige snickered.

  Chief Taggart put his finger in my face. “Don’t tempt me, girlie. I’ll haul your ass off to jail faster than you can imagine.”

  I barely refrained from rolling my eyes. I’d been threatened a lot worse than that by Garrett.

  “You’ll do kindly to remove your finger from my niece’s face,” Aunt Shirley said. “We are here out of the goodness of our hearts. You keep threatening us, and we’ll have a lawyer down here so fast screaming police brutality you won’t know which end is up. Don’t think for one second I don’t know you bullied your way into our house last night.”

  Taggart hitched up his pants and turned on his heel without another word. We all looked at each other and followed him silently. Officer Clark and Officer Dillon were both sitting at their desks in the middle of the room. I gave them a little wave. They both waved back then quickly looked away.

  “In here,” Taggart said, opening a door to the right. It was a tiny interrogation room, just big enough to sit four people around a table. I never knew I was claustrophobic until I squeezed into the room.

  Taggart waited until we were seated before sitting down. He narrowed his eyes at Aunt Shirley’s sweatshirt but didn’t say anything.

  “Since none of you are under arrest at this time, there’s no need to separate you.”

  At this time? Did he seriously think we were all guilty now?

  “And really, it’s just you I’m interested in, Ms. Sinclair. You’re the one that keeps popping up unexpectedly in my investigation.”

  Wonderful!

  “Did you have an opportunity to question Larry Blackwell, Chief?” I asked.

  Taggart’s face was like granite. “I’ll do the askin’ of the questions. You, young lady, will do the answerin’. Do you understand how this will work?”

  I swallowed hard. “Yes. I was just curious—”

  “So, how well did you know Jim Cleary?”

  I took a deep breath. Obviously I’d be getting nowhere with Taggart. “I’ve known Jim for years. Ever since he built his house next to ours.”

  “And Julie Crider? How well did you know her?”

  “Again, I’ve know Julie since childhood. When we’d stay here during the summers with my grandparents, Paige, Julie, Susie, Whitney, Debbie, and a couple other girls would always run around together.”

  Taggart looked down at his notebook. “That would be Susie Shoeman, Debbie Lancaster, and Whitney Lark, correct?”

  “Yes.” I was beginning to get annoyed.

  “Let me just
get right to it. Were you in love with Jim Cleary?”

  The three of us laughed at that question.

  “Uh…no!” I said.

  Taggart narrowed his eyes at me. “Chief Kimble has assured me that I have the wrong girl…but I don’t think so. See, you claimed to have eavesdropped on a conversation outside Jim’s window the night he was murdered. You imply it was a woman, but you don’t know who the woman was and you didn’t see her leave.”

  “That’s correct,” I said tersely.

  “What if I think it was you he was fighting with, and it was you that picked up the drill in anger and ran the auger through his heart.”

  I could feel my palms start to sweat and my pulse race.

  “Then you’d be an even bigger idiot than I originally thought,” Aunt Shirley said.

  I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. Nervous laughter…it was my kryptonite.

  Taggart squinted at Aunt Shirley. “I’m not asking you. I’m asking your niece. Unless you helped her murder Jim.”

  Aunt Shirley laughed. “Please, if I killed a man, I wouldn’t leave the body out in the open where it would be discovered.”

  I groaned. Leave it to Aunt Shirley to get us arrested for something we didn’t do!

  “Hypothetically speaking, of course,” she added quickly.

  “Humph,” Taggart grunted. “See, I think you were so jealous of Jim and Julie’s new relationship that you drilled Jim through the heart, and you stabbed Julie with a knife through the heart. Notice how I keep coming back to the heart. This was definitely a crime of passion.”

  Paige started crying. “Is that how Julie died? Someone stabbed her through the heart?”

  “Stabbed her once through the stomach, and then again through the heart.”

  My mind whirled with this information. “Why me? Why would you pick me as the killer? I haven’t been here since summer. I had no idea Jim and Julie were dating. In fact, I’m dating Chief Kimble. I’m sure he told you that. Why aren’t you looking at someone who did know they were dating? Maybe a guy or girl that Jim was building a house for…or maybe someone Julie was selling a house to. Someone in the—”