I could have mentioned the investigation that was going nowhere fast, but that wasn’t what Kegan was talking about. Besides, the kid thought I was the goddess of private eyes. There was no use bursting his bubble. I put him in charge of gathering the ingredients Jim would need to make nachos.
Kegan hurried over to his workstation (he’d be making mozzarella sticks for the class that night) and set down his bag. While he grabbed an apron, I went over to our one and only kitchen window to look through the pots of herbs for the mint Jim would use in his mojitos. I found the pot and set it nearby so Jim could reach it easily when it came time to demonstrate how to make the drinks, and Kegan washed and then chopped tomatoes.
“I’ve been thinking about our case.” Kegan’s words so closely mirrorered what I’d just been mulling over, I turned and stared at him in wonder. He didn’t notice. He was too busy concentrating on the tomatoes. “Are you getting anywhere with it?”
I could have pointed out that it wasn’t our case. But technically speaking, it wasn’t my case, either. Kegan had as much right to know what was going on as anyone else did.
He looked up briefly. Maybe the way I shook my head told him everything he needed to know.
“That bad, huh?” He scooped the chopped tomatoes into a bowl and rinsed the cutting board. When he brought it back to Jim’s workstation so he could start on the scallions, Kegan’s expression was thoughtful. “You know what I was thinking? I mean…” He busied himself wiping off the cutting board and setting it in place. “Not that it’s any of my business, of course, but I have to admit, I’ve never been this close to a murder investigation, and it is pretty exciting. Just like on TV. I was thinking, that’s all. I mean, sort of pretending that I was the one in charge of the case instead of you. And wondering, you know, what I’d do next. If I were you.” Just as I expected they would, Kegan’s cheeks turned the color of the tomatoes in the bowl. “Not that I have any business telling you how to do things.”
“Maybe you do.” I pulled a tall stool up to the table where Kegan was working and plunked down on it. “Maybe you’re a genius, and you’re not giving yourself enough credit.”
I didn’t think it was possible for him to get any redder, but he did. “You think so? You mean, you think I might be a good detective, too?”
“Well, I can’t say. Not until you tell me what you’ve got planned. But I can say this, I’m getting nowhere on my own. It’s time for me to get a little outside input. So what do you think, Watson? What’s your theory?”
“My theory? Oh, my!” Kegan couldn’t contain a smile. “I’m honored you asked. I mean, I think it’s wonderful that a detective with your credentials would actually care…I mean…”
I got the picture, and before his flattery went to my head, I encouraged him to keep talking.
“Well, it’s like this.” Kegan grabbed a bunch of scallions and set them on the cutting board. “You’re not getting anywhere doing what you’re doing, right?”
I couldn’t deny it.
“So you should probably do what you haven’t been doing.”
This seemed right on, too. I propped my elbows on the table, my chin in my hands, and listened.
“I was thinking that if the answers you’re looking for aren’t with the women of WOW, then maybe they’re with Brad.”
“Only Brad’s dead.”
“But the way he lived isn’t.” Kegan wrinkled his nose. “I’m sorry, I’m not explaining this well. What I mean is that if you’re going to find out more about what happened to him, you need to find out more about Brad. It seems only logical that you’d check out the place he worked. And maybe the place he lived, too.”
I had thought of the work angle, of course, but as for snooping around Brad’s house, that was beyond the scope of Annie Capshaw, girl detective.
I was all set to explain this to Kegan when Eve walked into the kitchen.
“There you are!” I honestly didn’t think that she’d run off to some sunny island where there is no extradition agreement with this country, but a wave of relief shot through me, anyway. It was followed immediately by a shot of good ol’ why-have-you-been-avoiding-me. My phone was on the table, and I picked it up and waved it in the air. “Don’t you ever answer your calls these days?”
She set down a paper shopping bag that made a clinking sound, and I remembered that Eve had promised Jim she’d roll silverware in napkins for the luncheon that was scheduled for the next day. “I’ve been kind of busy,” she said.
“Kind of busy ignoring me?”
“No, silly.” Eve was wearing sunglasses, and she didn’t take them off. I wasn’t fooled. She might sound flip, but I knew she was still upset about her interview with Tyler the night before. I suspected her eyes were red and swollen. “Just…you know…busy.”
“We’re going to be busy, too.” Kegan was finished with the scallions. He put them in a bowl and hurried over to Eve’s side. “We’re going to start a new avenue of investigation. We’re going to take a look around Brad’s house.”
How things had gotten to the we stage was beyond me, but right about then, that was the least of my worries. At the first mention of Brad’s house, all the color drained out of Eve’s face, and she reached back to brace one hand against the sink. I didn’t have to be a detective to see that Kegan had hit on a nerve, and I knew I had to act fast, before Eve regained her composure.
I had to act fast before she fainted, too.
I jumped off the stool and hurried over to prop one hand under Eve’s left arm. Kegan already had ahold of her right. Between the two of us, we kept her on her feet. She pulled in a breath to steady herself. “Funny you should mention Brad’s house,” she said.
“Funny, huh?” Standing that close gave me the perfect chance to look up and try to catch Eve’s eye. I would have known if it worked if she took off her sunglasses. When she didn’t, I had no choice but to raise my chin and pin her with a look that I hoped was intimidating. “What have you been up to, Eve?”
She drew her arms to her sides and stepped away, her back to us. “Nothing. Really. Not…not recently, anyway.”
“But you were up to something.” I didn’t say this like it was a question, because there was no doubt in my mind that I was on to something. Guilt practically dripped from Eve’s words. “And that something that you were up to has something to do with Brad. With Brad’s house.” An idea struck, and a cold chill spread in the pit of my stomach. “Oh, Eve, you didn’t—”
“I couldn’t help it, Annie.” Eve turned and rushed toward me. She stripped off her sunglasses and tossed them down on the nearest table. Her eyes were red and swollen. New tears filled them. “It made so much sense at the time, don’t you see? And it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I never thought…” A tiny sob escaped her, and she pressed a finger to her lips. “I didn’t know someone was going to kill Brad. Now…Well, I think maybe…I mean, I’m afraid…Oh, Annie,” she wailed. “I think I really screwed up!”
Panic nibbled at my brain and soured my stomach. Still, I tried not to let it get the best of me. Easy to say. Not so easy to do. Especially when Eve was having a full-blown meltdown and Kegan was looking from one of us to the other, completely confused.
Dealing with him—and the logic of the situation—was easier than trying to figure out how to handle Eve’s overwrought emotions and the stampede of terrifying thoughts that pounded through my brain. The ones that told me that the situation wasn’t just bad, it was worse than bad and heading toward critical.
I kept my eyes on Kegan. It was better than watching Eve wring her hands, and maybe if I stuck to the facts, I wouldn’t be swallowed whole by the fear that threatened to knock me off my feet.
“Lesson number one,” I told him. “You want to be a detective, follow my train of thought. Here’s pretty much how it works. You mentioned Brad’s house. Eve got upset. I asked what she’s been up to. She said nothing—recently. That’s the key here. That one word: recently. Because remembe
r, Eve doesn’t have an alibi for the day Brad was killed. Not one she’s willing to talk about, anyway. Put it all together, Kegan. Think like a detective. What do you come up with?”
He tried. Thinking hard, Kegan squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he didn’t look any more enlightened. He shrugged. “Eve’s been up to something. That much is clear. But we still don’t know when and where.”
“Sure we do.” When I said this, I turned back to Eve so I could watch her closely. “You were at Brad’s house the day he died, weren’t you? That’s why you don’t want to tell Tyler where you were. You know it makes you look even guiltier.”
She sank down on the stool I had gotten up from just a few minutes before. “You think so, huh?” She sniffled. “I mean, about the guiltier thing?”
“I know so. Eve…” I closed in on her. Moving gave me a way to use up some of the energy that was building inside me and ready to burst. “What were you doing there? How—”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “That’s how he showed he was interested in me. Back when we still worked together. Brad sent me flowers and a note, telling me to stop by for dinner. He enclosed the key to his house. I meant to throw it out, I just never got around to it. When I found the key again, I thought…”
Eve’s voice faded. Just as well, since I probably wouldn’t have heard what she said because I gulped so loud. “Key? You have a key? You mean to tell me, you weren’t just there, taking a look at the house or watching to see when Brad left and where he went? You were inside? His house?”
“Well, I didn’t know that was the day somebody was going to kill him!” Eve jumped up from the stool, which was a good thing. My knees were mushy, and I sat right down. “I was just looking for evidence, you know, trying to find something the WOW sisters could use to prove that Brad was a creep. That was Monday morning. Just about the time he was killed. Then when I found out he was dead…” Enough said. She shrugged.
“That’s why you didn’t return my calls that day. You didn’t want me to know where you’d been. And you can’t tell Tyler…” I drew in a deep breath that did nothing to still the crazy beating of my heart. But I couldn’t control my curiosity. “Did you find anything?”
“Nothing useful.”
“Then we’re in big trouble here—”
“For nothing.”
“Or maybe not.”
At Kegan’s comment, I looked up. I was just in time to see him grimace as if he knew he’d crossed the line. Maybe so, but like I said, I was more than willing to listen to suggestions, especially now that things were looking worse than ever. With a nod, I encouraged him to keep talking.
“Well, it’s like this. Or at least this is how it looks to me.” Unsure of himself, Kegan clutched his hands together at his waist. “I mean, to me, this looks like the perfect opportunity for us to do a little sleuthing. Remember what we were talking about just a little while ago, Annie. We said it would be useful to take a look at Brad’s things, at his life. Now, we’ve got a key to his house! It’s a gift from the gods! We could go there and have a look around. We’re not going to take anything, so it wouldn’t be illegal. Not exactly, anyway,” he added this last bit quickly, apparently reading the objection I was all set to make. “We don’t even have to touch anything. We’ll just look. You know, for something that will tell us more about who might have killed him. The cops couldn’t be mad about that, could they?”
“Only if they find us.”
My sarcasm was lost on both Brad and Eve, who had decided he was right and was all set to buy into his plan.
She nodded so fast and so hard, she looked like one of those bobble-head dolls. “We could go at night so nobody sees us. And we could wear disguises.”
“Enough with the disguises!”
Do I need to point out that I am the one who injected reason into this little slice of insanity? Kegan was far more easily intimidated than Eve would ever be, so after I stared him down, I turned back to her.
“You’re not going,” I said, my words as firm as the look I gave her. “You’ve already taken a chance, and it’s too dangerous for you to be there again. We don’t need to make you look even more guilty than you already do.”
There are plenty of people who are fooled by Eve’s good looks and Southern girl charm. They underestimate her. I knew better, of course, and knowing what I know about her, I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. When they rolled to a stop and the truth dawned, her eyes went wide. “I’m not going. But you didn’t say you weren’t. Annie, are you telling me you’ll do it? You’re going to Brad’s to investigate?”
Call me crazy. Call me desperate. Call my anything but dishonest, because dishonest is something I am definitely not. Even when I tried to talk myself out of the plan, I knew I couldn’t. And I knew why, too. No matter which way I looked at the situation, I always saw the same thing: Eve in an orange prison jumpsuit. No way I was going to let that happen. Not if I could do anything about it.
“I’m going,” I said, and when I held my hand out, she knew what I wanted. She dug into her purse and handed me the key to Brad’s house. The next thing I did was push an order pad to her and hand her a pen. When she was done writing down Brad’s address, I folded the paper, put it in my pocket, and just so nobody got the wrong idea, I looked again from Kegan to Eve. “And I’m going alone.”
“But—”
Before she could say another word, I cut Eve off with a look.
“But—”
If I wasn’t going to cave in to Eve, I sure wasn’t going to give in to the pleading look in Kegan’s eyes, either.
“It’s too dangerous,” I told them at the same time I tried not to listen to my own advice. “I’m going alone.”
Before I had the chance to say another word, Eve locked me in a bear hug. “Annie,” she burbled. “You’re the best friend anybody ever had!”
I MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE BEST FRIEND ANYBODY EVER had, but I wasn’t stupid. No way I was going to tell Eve and Kegan more than I already had. Sure, they agreed to my plan. Sure, they saw the wisdom of me investigating at Brad’s on my own. Or at least they said they did.
But I knew Eve better than to think she’d give up without a fight. I didn’t know Kegan hardly at all, but I saw the ain’t-it-fun-to-investigate gleam that shone in his eyes every time we talked about Brad’s murder. I wasn’t going to take the chance of having to fend off both of them at the same time I worried that Brad’s neighbors (or—heaven forbid—the cops) might find me at his town house.
Before I could talk myself out of what I should have been smart enough not to talk myself into, I decided to get it over with. The next night, a Tuesday, I stopped at Bellywasher’s after work and tried to act normal and look unconcerned like a person would if she wasn’t planning on illegally entering the home of a recently murdered man in order to find something that might exonerate her best friend who was suspected of the crime.
Yes, in retrospect, it sounds crazy, but what choice did I have? I had to help Eve. And yes (again), getting my act together and acting like I had nothing up my sleeve, no flashlight in my purse, and that no one would notice that I’d deliberately dressed all in black that day (the better to blend in with the night) was nearly impossible, but I managed. Even though my insides were thrumming like a hive of bees, and my brain was buzzing along with them, I did all the things I usually do when I stop at the restaurant in the evening. I organized my office. I went through the day’s receipts. I prepared the bank deposit.
Oh yeah, and I slipped out of the restaurant just as the eight o’clock rush arrived, too.
No way Eve could follow me when she was busy seating all those customers.
Who could blame me for feeling mighty satisfied with myself? I timed my exit perfectly, and when I stepped outside, the coast was clear.
Or at least it should have been.
“I knew it!”
When Kegan stepped out of the shadows between Bellywasher’s and the buildi
ng next door and directly into my path, I screeched. He pointed an accusing finger in my direction. It might have been easier to be mad at him if he sounded annoyed rather than hurt. “I knew you were going to go to Brad’s tonight. I just knew it.”
Since I was pretty sure he couldn’t read my mind, I wasn’t about to fall for his blatant attempt at getting me to come clean. “I’m on my way home,” I told him.
“Uh-huh. That’s why you changed from your work shoes to your sneakers.”
I had changed into the sneakers I kept in my office for those days when my schedule was hectic and my feet couldn’t take another step in pumps, no matter how sensible. I was surprised Kegan noticed such an insignificant detail. Maybe he was more of a detective than I gave him credit for.
I kept walking. “It was a long day,” I said. “My feet hurt.”
“Yeah, and that explains why you grabbed that digital camera that Jim keeps in the kitchen, too.”
I had hoped no one noticed when I scooped up the camera during class the night before. I saw it peeking out of my purse and sighed. “You were supposed to be busy with your mozzarella sticks. Besides, I could be using the camera for anything. Pictures of Fi and the girls. Pictures of spring flowers. Pictures of—”
“Whatever it is we’re going to find at Brad’s.”
Another sigh. It was getting to be a bad habit. I stopped and turned to Kegan. “I can’t ask you to do this. It could be dangerous.”
“Only if we’re not prepared.”
“I am prepared. Prepared to do this on my own.”
“But I could help.”
Who was I to break the kid’s investigatin’ heart? While I tried to find the words to let him down softly, Kegan spoke up.
“I’ve got everything we need,” he said, and he lifted the paper shopping bag he had with him. I saw that it came from International Spy Museum.
I didn’t want to think what might be inside. “Thanks, Kegan. Really. I appreciate you wanting to help, but—”
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