by Molly Dox
“What if Lonnie did it?” Jocelyn’s eyes went wide.
“The last thing he’d want is a scandal. Anything that stands between him and the all might dollar is no friend of his,” she corrected.
“Well, we’d better start digging for clues and talking to some people or it may remain a mystery for longer than either of us would like. Who’s going to show up at a spa where a dead body was found? I’m going to need another job,” Jocelyn whined. “Business will be dead….aha, I just realized the pun.”
Andrea groaned.
***
Andrea pulled into the spa’s parking lot. Lonnie’s car was there. She knew he’d be ranting and blaming everybody in the world for what happened. He’d be slamming things around and in a lousy mood. Andrea clenched her jaw and inhaled deeply. She’d have to face him eventually. She cautiously headed toward the entrance, her stomach knotting. Lonnie was pacing back and forth, talking on his phone. She closed her eyes and refocused before opening the door. With her best smile pasted on, she entered. “Hey, Lonnie,” she mouthed as he looked over.
He nodded and went back to his phone conversation.
Andrea’s shoulders tensed. It was going to be a long day. And they had to act like nothing happened? They had clients coming in. This was going to be insane.
Lonnie hung up his phone and directed his attention to his receptionist. “Andrea, I’ve had someone move the appointments around this week. We’re going to be closing while the investigation is going on. The last thing I need is gossip about the police being here.”
“That means-”
“No pay. Sorry, sugar. No work, no pay. I expect you back here next Tuesday. We’ll be closed until then. I’ll be leaving after speaking with the others,” he finished. “I’m going to post on the website that we’re fixing a broken pipe or something to take the spotlight off of us. Nobody reads the news anymore, right?”
“Right,” she said. Her stomach twisted, realizing a week’s pay was more than she could afford to lose. Andrea turned around to leave. She grumbled something as Carmen was making her way in.
She could use the time to try to figure things out, but it would only pass time, not pay her bills. Jocelyn pulled up as Andrea was leaving. She waited for her friend. “It’s not good. He’s closing for a while.”
“I guess I can’t blame him. Darn, I can’t afford this.” Her chest tightened. She was close to falling behind as it was.
“I don’t think many of us can,” Andrea answered. “I looked for you this morning to see if you wanted a ride, but your car was gone.”
She smirked as if she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Jocelyn lowered her voice. “I stopped at the police station to get a copy of the police report. Those things are public record. The investigation is still ongoing, but I told the lady at the counter that I needed a copy of the report for the spa’s records and my own.”
“Was there anything interesting?” Her friend held her attention.
“Well, I know how she died. Let me go in and see Lon so he can tell me the news and chase me away for the day. I’ll meet you at home,” Jocelyn said.
Everything inside of Andrea danced with anxiety. Waiting would be a killer. She was dying to hear the details. The police hadn’t given them any information while questioning them the day before.
Chapter 3
After arriving at her friend’s apartment, Jocelyn settled on the sofa and cleared her voice. “There were bruises around her neck, and while her trachea wasn’t crushed, they feel that somebody may have tried to choke her before forcing her into the water. Official cause of death is drowning. Water in her lungs, and a few other notes, but we don’t need the grisly bits. Also, something I found interesting was that there was no forced entry found. That means somebody had access.”
“Wow, right. Okay, let’s start with the fact that our part-timers don’t get copies of the key. They wouldn’t have easy access. Lonnie of course does, and Monica too, and don’t forget Carmen. Stacy’s on vacation, though she does have a key. Of course, she’s on a cruise, so there’s that. I guess we can cross her off. There’s you and me, and we’ve already cleared our names. That leaves three people at the top, Monica, Carmen and Lonnie. I hate to even consider them as part of this. Who else would want her dead?” Andrea flipped her hands through her hair, pushing her bangs back. She couldn’t keep her hands out of her hair when she was nervous, frustrated, angry, or anything really. It soothed her for as long as she could remember.
“What about Jeanie’s family, anybody that knew her, her co-workers maybe? I mean, the lady could be a pistol at times, and that’s putting it politely. You’ve seen how she treats Carmen.” Jocelyn shook her head. “You don’t think…?”
“Carmen? No; she couldn’t, wouldn’t…I know Mrs. Chadwick was always weird with Carmen, but she seemed to take it in stride over time, sometimes even playing to the situation. She never came off angry and knew the woman was the issue. I would have loved to boot Jeanie when she did that stuff, but you know Lon would be fiercely apologizing and begging to bring her back. She brings a lot of business to the spa. And through the holidays, he was expecting her to buy a ton of gift certificates for her work team. I only know because he mentioned it one day.” Andrea closed her eyes. “Though, one time, I did hear Carmen say she’d had about enough…now, that doesn’t exactly make her a killer, but maybe she was holding more aggression than I realized. It’s hard to know what she’s thinking sometimes. What else does the report say?”
“An expensive watch was still on her body. They don’t believe it was about money, but that’s just their hunch. Maybe it was, but they left her watch to make it look like better. I wonder if her purse was around. She was obviously alive when she got there. They mentioned there may have been a struggle near the hot tub, as they found a clip-on pearl earring, though it didn’t match the victim’s. Could it be the suspects? Or was it there all along, and nobody noticed as they cleaned up?” Jocelyn hesitated before asking, “Doesn’t Carmen wear clip-ons?”
Andrea looked away. “She used to, but pearls aren’t really her style. She’s more into vibrant, bold jewelry. Besides, a lot of people wear clip-ons.”
“I don’t know anybody else that does, do you?” Jocelyn challenged.
“Fine, let’s circle her name. I’d hate to think she could be capable. She brings such good energy to work and has a great heart.” This wouldn’t be fun if it meant pinning a murder on a co-worker and friend. And yet, if she was capable of killing somebody, she did a great job hiding it. Nobody wanted to work with a killer!
Jocelyn snapped her fingers. “Do you want to go have lunch at the country club since we’re off? While we’re there, we could poke around and maybe talk to some of Mrs. Chadwick’s friends to see if anybody has heard from Cassie lately. Maybe somebody heard her talking about something.”
“Yes! That sounds fun…err, I mean that’s a good idea.” She blushed. “Is it bad that I kind of want to investigate? It’s just that if we don’t finger somebody, the tide may turn and point to us. I don’t want somebody innocent taking the blame; and I don’t want the spa to close from bad publicity. Maybe if we can figure out who did it and why, it will clear the spa’s name. I can’t afford to lose this job.”
“Not that I should be spending money, but I’m kind of excited to investigate, too. Nothing interesting ever happens around here. Though, I do feel bad somebody had to die for us to well… have an interesting new project.” It felt weird saying that aloud.
Andrea scoured over the police report after Jocelyn handed it to her. “It kind of makes you wonder, how much does somebody have to want you gone to actually do the crime? Intent is one thing, but to follow through? Yikes.”
“And why? Why do they want you gone? Why not just ignore the person.” Jocelyn jumped up and paced. “Unless Jeanie had something on someone and was blackmailing them!”
“Oh, good motive, but we don’t really know that. I don’t want to jump
to conclusions.” Andrea knew she’d have to hold the reigns. Jocelyn would go a mile a minute and bounce from one thing to the next. Slowling down and paying attention was important.
“Of course not, you’re right. Let’s start from the beginning. We know who was found and where she was found. After lunch, maybe we should head to the spa and check out the crime scene.” Jocelyn bounced on her toes, trying to uncage the adrenaline trapped inside.
“We better wait until we get the all clear,” Andrea added. “You know, so we don’t hinder the investigation.”
She pouted. “Yeah, though any good clues would probably be gone.”
“We do have a better chance of solving this crime with more clues, right? Okay, so maybe we just peek, but don’t touch anything? We’ve got the keys. We can go when everyone’s gone and the coast is clear.” Her tummy rattled. This was the real deal.
“Okay, well, let me get changed so I fit in better at the country club. You might want to do the same. Thankfully the restaurant is open to the public otherwise we’d be out of luck. Trendy is nice, but we might stand out.” Jocelyn nudged her friend to tone it down a notch.
***
The last person they expected to see at the Cranberry Creek Country Club was Brad Chadwick. His wife, Jeanette, was just found dead, and a day later he was laughing and talking to somebody over lunch? He certainly didn’t appear to be grieving. Brad was having a grand old time…too good of a time for a mourning husband.
Andrea got up from their table and went over to pay her respects and nose in. “Mr. Chadwick, I’m sorry to bother you. My name is Andrea Davenport and I work over at the spa…well, yeah. Anyway, I wanted to say how sorry I am to hear about the loss of your wife. She was a regular customer and we got to know her quite well over her visits.”
As if on cue, Brad Chadwick let the cheer fall from his face. His face drooped a bit as he relaxed his muscles. “Right, thank you. As you can imagine, I’m torn up over the events. Thankfully, a dear old friend of Jeanette’s and mine,” he turned toward his company, “is helping me forget reality for a bit and sharing some laughter to help me heal. It’s been quite a stress reliever.”
“I can imagine.” Andrea turned toward the woman beside him. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”
Walking away, she was certain she knew the woman’s face. She turned around before making it back to her own table. “Aren’t you-”
The woman stopped her mid-sentence. She brought her finger to her lips. “Shh, we don’t need everyone to know I’m here.”
“Right. Good day,” she said and went back to her table. “The woman he’s with. Do you know who that is?”
“She looks like…” Jocelyn started.
“Exactly. It’s her. I was about to ask, and she stopped me. I didn’t think she’d be at a place like this. I find it very interesting. How do the Chadwick’s know her? And what is Mr. Chadwick doing with Lonnie’s ex-wife? I almost didn’t recognize her. I haven’t seen her for a while, and she was a blonde last time I saw her, curly hair. This slick, straight, jet black with bangs thing threw me off.”
“I think when she became famous on her own right, she felt like she didn’t need him anymore. I mean, the woman can sing, but poor Lonnie’s broken heart.” Jocelyn thought back on the entire situation.
Andrea added to the conversation. “Well, he bounced back, so there’s that. And he’s still with Cathy, so happily ever after, right?”
“I guess so. Why are the two of them together? It looks suspicious if you ask me.” Jocelyn tossed and turned the idea around. “Do you think those two…and his wife was in the way? Look at the way he touches her hand when she speaks.”
“Oh, you think they’re lovers? They do seem awfully chummy, and he’s happy as a lark over there. There’s no proof. I should have scoped out her earrings. Do you think they’re clip-ons? Do you think he did it, or she did? She could have an old copy of the spa key.”
“I think we’re onto something. Let’s write this all down after lunch. The waiter’s on his way,” Jocelyn nodded toward the kitchen door. Not moments later, he delivered their meal. Fancy-pants gourmet burgers were delivered, which cost more than they should have, but were good none the less. The girls tried not to stare, but couldn’t help glancing over at the couple time to time.
Andrea nudged Jocelyn after finishing her meal. “Go ask Brad for Cassie’s address. Tell him that we’re working on having a class reunion. If I go back, I’m afraid he’ll call it harassment. I know she’s on some commune or something, but I’ve got no clue where it is.”
Jocelyn groaned. “You’re so much better with stuff like that.”
“Please? I don’t want to come off as weird. We might need to come back to the country club, and we don’t want to get banned for annoying the guests. I already went over once,” Andrea pleaded.
“Fine,” Jocelyn finally agreed. She pasted on a big, fake smile and walked over to Mr. Chadwick’s table. “Hi there, I don’t mean to be a bother, but aren’t you Cassandra’s father? We went to school with her, and the thing is, we’re putting together a reunion. We were hoping to send her an invite.”
Brad looked her up and down, trying to read the intruder. “She’s on a commune upstate. I’ve not a clue what the address is. I haven’t spoken to her in ages. Not that we didn’t do everything for her, but apparently she has her own way of doing things.”
“Oh, do you know anybody that might have her address or even her phone number?” Jocelyn feigned disappointment.
“Her mother probably had it somewhere, but, well, that’s pointless now, isn’t it? The commune is somewhere up near Kodiak Falls. You can try looking up that way.” He turned his attention back to his company, making it clear their conversation was over.
“Right, thank you,” Jocelyn said, taking the hint.
Before getting the check, Andrea quizzed her waiter, asking if anybody was talking about the incident and if he’d heard anything that might be have sounded suspicious. He had no answers and left the bill.
“Mr. Chadwick is somebody we’re going to need to look at closer. We can wait and follow him when he leaves. See if they’re more than friends, or if it matters. Maybe Lonnie’s wife had a grudge, and thought to kill two birds with one stone; take Mrs. Chadwick out of the picture while ruining the reputation of her ex-husband.”
“Which of the two would have done it, if you had to guess?” Jocelyn asked.
“To be honest, I don’t know. If there were marks around her neck, like a strangling, maybe she tried but wasn’t strong enough and she just held her down in the water. Then again, how would she have gotten her in there willingly? Well, unless her husband lured her in for a late night game of using the hot tub, and the two of them ganged up on her. Though, to be honest, they probably have their own.” Andrea figured it sort of made sense if those two were lovers and trying to hide something, but ‘sort of’ doesn’t solve crimes.
A man came over to join the couple of the hour. He leaned in and kissed Lonnie’s ex-wife. Rubbing her shoulders, it was more than obvious they were together, and Brad didn’t look the least bit jealous. Maybe the lover angle was out after all, but they still could have planned the murder and carried it out as a team effort. The girls would find a way to question him another day. They had a commune to go visit. Was Cassie even there, or had she taken off and come home to deal with her mother’s death?
“What are the rules of a commune? Can we just go on and visit? Is there like a security gate or something, or maybe a guard house?” Andrea shrugged. “This is a new one for me. Or is it just a big old farm and land where people linger around doing their own thing?”
“Not a clue. Let’s go find out!”
Chapter 4
After narrowing down where the commune was located after searching the web, the girls set out to find Cassie. It was probably foolish to go up there. She’d probably left to come home as soon as she heard the news. Of course, she wasn’t on the best terms with her
parents, so the question was would she go to her childhood home or somewhere else, like hide at a motel? It didn’t sound like she was staying with her father, but wouldn’t she and her dad be working out the funeral arrangements? With nothing better to do, the girls decided to go check out the commune.
The drive was pleasant enough, though it took longer than they expected. They’d allotted ninety minutes for the drive, but it was closer to two hours. They probably wouldn’t get back until late. Maybe they were biting off more than they should. The girls made small talk for the first hour and then listened to the radio lost in thought during the second hour.
Andrea almost missed the last turn, but a small wooden sign caught their attention just in time. Andrea swung the car to the side of the road and put it in park. Looking around, she pointed out a barn in the distance. “Do you think that’s it?”
“It’s got to be. There’s not a lot more going on around here. Over the other way doesn’t look like a commune.”
Andrea pulled the car back on the road and drove toward the barn. As they got closer, they saw a gravel and dirt lane. It led to a small parking area that seemed to be a makeshift farmer’s market. It wouldn’t win any awards for presentation. They got out after parking and looked around for somebody to talk to.
“Over there,” Jocelyn said, as she caught a glimpse of movement. She called out to the man, “Excuse me.”
A guy in his thirties, with an unkempt beard and well-worn jeans turned on hearing Jocelyn’s voice. “The farm market isn’t open until the weekend.”
Jocelyn cleared her throat. “We’re looking for a friend. Do you know somebody named Cassandra Chadwick?”
“Oh sure, Moon Flower, umm, I mean Cassandra stays in the wooden shack on the far side of the property. You can follow the dirt path. When it splits, go to the left. You’ll need to walk. We don’t allow cars past this point. It’s just over the hill. And don’t forget to come back on the weekend; we’ve got some great produce.”