by Louise Lynn
Hazel swallowed a lump in her throat and took a long sip of Esther’s delicious lemonade. “Whoever did it wanted it to look like an accident. Maybe they didn’t want it to seem like Dominic had been murdered.”
Esther stabbed her salad, frowning. “You said something about a contract? Well, if this whole thing is about money, why kill him when the festival has a clear behavior clause.”
Hazel’s swallowed her bite. “The festival has a behavior clause?”
Esther gave her that stern look. “Yes. It’s in the bylaws. And you signed the contract, didn’t you? Every vendor and actor has to, in order to avoid a public scandal.”
Hazel had signed a contract, but she hadn’t read it as well as she should have. “What’s in it?”
Esther rearranged the food on her plate. “Didn’t you listen to dad’s business advice about never signing a contract you didn’t read?”
“I did read it. Just not well. Are you going to tell me about it or not?” Hazel said and gave her sister a sheepish grin.
Esther sighed. “Fine. It says everyone has to hold to a certain behavior standard. Anything that breaks the standards of the festival, such as lewd behavior, can get the person kicked out without compensation.”
Hazel nodded slowly. “You’re right. If Christopher Allen did this for money, he could have had Dominic kicked out for drinking too much and hitting on every woman he encountered. But then he’d lose his star performer too. It’s a lose-lose situation all around.”
Esther pursed her lips. “And the bylaws aren’t that clear. If he got into fights due to drinking, I think they could have booted him. But otherwise, I’m not sure. Why don’t you ask his wife?”
Hazel snorted and took a bite of her sandwich. “Angela Dane hates me. Now that I think about it, so does Sophia Allen. And I didn’t do anything to either of them.”
Esther’s lips drew into a line. “I haven’t had any firsthand experience with Angela Dane, but Sophia Allen gave me an ugly glare on more than one occasion. And I heard her tell someone that my lemonade was store bought and not homemade. That was after Dominic Dane made me feel like I needed to take a shower,” she said and gave an exaggerated shudder.
A Stellar jay hopped at the end of their blanket and squawked at them, but Hazel ignored it. “What did he do to you?”
“Oh, he wanted to know if I baked wearing only an apron, which is completely inappropriate to say to anyone, but even more so to a stranger. Then he wanted to know if any of my cupcakes had brandy in them,” Esther said and stabbed her salad again.
Hazel grabbed her sister’s arm gently. “Are you pretending that’s Dominic? “
Esther speared an olive with her fork and narrowed her eyes at it. “I’d lose my appetite if I thought that. But I did feel like stepping on his toes. Or kicking him somewhere… delicate.”
Hazel bit back the desire to laugh. Esther never got violent. And she couldn’t imagine her sister lashing out unless it involved Ruth’s immediate safety. Still, Dominic Dane had ruffled a lot of feathers, and he’d only been alive at the festival for one day.
This was the third case of Dominic Dane being inappropriate around someone that Hazel knew so far. She had a feeling his exploits went far and wide.
That reminded her of the photos. Slowly, she removed them from her pocket and showed them to Esther.
Esther dabbed her lips. “What are these?”
“Pictures I found in Dominic Dane’s dressing tent. Don’t worry, I had permission to be there, but I wasn’t supposed to take anything. I need to ask Violet about this,” Hazel said and pointed at the picture of Violet. “And I saw these other girls at the festival talking to mom this morning.”
Esther stared at the photos, and her brows furrowed. “Why did Dominic Dane have pictures of different young women in his dressing tent? That’s downright creepy, especially considering one is only fifteen! This could have gotten him kicked out, if someone else found them.”
A pit opened in Hazel’s stomach, and she nodded. “I hope there’s an innocent explanation for it. I just wanted to ask Violet. Then I’m going to bring them to Sheriff Cross.”
Esther’s brows shot up at that, and she pushed her braid over her shoulder. “You haven’t told Colton yet? Are you trying to get into a fight with him?”
Hazel shrugged. “No, but if I showed them to Colton, he’d get rightfully upset. And he and Violet are already having problems as it is. I figured I can get her side of the story first.”
It seemed like a good idea earlier that day, but with the look Esther was giving her, perhaps it wasn’t.
Esther shook her head and pulled out a Tupperware that had two cupcakes. Hazel felt her mouth water just looking at them. “Okay, I see where you’re coming from, even if I don’t think it’s a great idea. Having to be the mediator between Violet and the sheriff also kind of sucks. Is he any closer to finding a house?”
Hazel took the last bite of her sandwich. “Last I heard, he was narrowing it down to a few properties that just came on the market. But then this happened, so he’s going to be busy again.”
Esther nodded and Ruth barreled up to the blanket, scaring away the Stellar jay that had been hanging around waiting for crumbs. It left in a ruckus of squawks and bright blue feathers, and Ruth spun in a circle. “Can I have dessert now? And why is Violet crying?”
Esther flipped over the photos of the girls and shuffled them into Hazel’s hand, like she was performing some sort of card trick. “Yes, you can have dessert, and where is Violet?”
Ruth worried her bottom lip. “On the pier. And some boy was hanging around too. He wasn’t talking to her, but he kept looking at her, and I asked him what he wanted and he told me to go away. He had a big rock in his hands,” Ruth said with a pout.
“You didn’t kick him, did you?” Esther said with a heavy sigh.
Hazel bit back the desire to laugh, stood up and dusted off her leggings. “I’ll go have a word with her, but don’t eat my cupcake while I’m gone.”
Esther shook her head. “There are plenty more where that came from.”
At least Ruth had the good sense to stick behind with her mom, though Hazel heard her loudly complaining about never getting to do anything fun, like run on the pier.
Then Esther said running on the pier was never fun because Ruth could trip, fall, and drown, which was the most Esther-like thing to say.
Hazel expected Violet to be alone, like Ruth had said, but instead the girl stood at the end of the pier with Darcy next to her. He didn’t have a rock now, but a cloth bag hung from his hands, and he was leaning into Violet and talking in a hushed whisper so Hazel couldn’t hear what he said.
The cold waters of Lake Celeste slapped against the pilings as Hazel climbed the steps. Neither teenager turned around, and Hazel was torn between clearing her throat to let them know she was there or trying to eavesdrop on them.
However, she didn’t get to make a decision in the matter, because Violet turned toward Darcy and shook her head. “I said to get away from me. I don’t care what you say, just leave me alone!” she shouted.
Darcy shook his head. “You’ll be sorry you said that.” Then he tossed the bag into the water.
“I’m not going to be sorry if you go away!”
Darcy turned, and his eyes widened when he noticed Hazel. He dropped his chin to his chest and scurried off the pier like a rat who had just been caught by Anthony Ray.
Hazel was about to chastise him for littering, but thought the better of it.
“Violet, can we talk?” Hazel said and glanced over the edge at the water below. Darcy must have put the rock in the bag, because it had already sunk to the bottom.
Violet started at the sound of her name, and Hazel stepped closer. She saw the streaks of tears on Violet’s cheeks and her bloodshot eyes. “I don’t know why he won’t leave me alone.”
“I told him to stop bothering you yesterday. Do you want me to tell your uncle?”
Violet�
�s hands were balled into fists at her sides. “No. It’s just, this is really stupid. I thought if I kept busy, I’d be okay but–”
Hazel slung an arm over Violet’s shoulder and squeezed. “Grief doesn’t have to make sense. Take all the time you need. What was Darcy bothering you about this time?”
Violet rolled her eyes. “Same old thing. He told me I was pretty and that he wanted to watch the next performance of Mac—the Scottish play—with me. I told him no. I—I don’t want to watch the play again at all.”
Hazel wrinkled her nose. Yep. The boy could not take a hint. “Did he tell you what was in the bag he just tossed into the lake?”
Violet wouldn’t meet Hazel’s eyes. She shrugged. “Uh, no. He just wanted to tell me that he didn’t think I actually killed Dominic Dane. As if I could!”
Hazel blinked. “What? Why would he think that?”
“How am I supposed to know? He’s crazy. If someone killed Dominic, it was probably Darcy,” she said and scrubbed her cheeks. Her bottom lip wobbled, and Hazel sighed.
“Do you really believe that? If something happened and you’re keeping it a secret—”
Violet shook her head and her eyes met Hazel’s, pleading. “I—I didn’t see anything. Not really.”
Hazel turned and grabbed both of Violet’s shoulders. “Did he have a reason to want Dominic Dane dead?”
Violet glanced at the lake and licked her lips. “If I tell you, will you promise not to tell Uncle Colton?”
Hazel smiled sadly. “You know I can’t do that. If you know something about this case, you need to tell me or your uncle. We’re trying to catch a killer, Violet.”
Violet nodded stiffly and sucked in a deep breath. The spring sunshine sparkled over the surface of Lake Celeste, jewel-like and pristine. “I sort of snuck out at night and went to the welcoming party for the cast on Sunday night. You and Uncle Colton were at dinner, so nobody noticed, and I was back before ten, but—”
Hazel closed her eyes, much like Sheriff Cross did when he was trying to compose himself for the worst. “What happened?”
Violet’s bottom lip wobbled. “Nothing! I mean, I didn’t do anything bad. I didn’t even drink, even though Dominic did offer me a beer, but I said no. Okay? I just—I wanted to see what a grown-up party was actually like. And it was sort of boring. Lots of wine drinking and complaining.”
“If that’s all that happened, why do you think Darcy killed Dominic?” Hazel asked and wondered when and how she could break this information to Colton. He wouldn’t like it one bit.
Violet’s cheeks went pale. “After Dominic gave me the beer, Darcy got really mad. He threatened Dominic, and said if the guy went near me again, he’d be dead.”
Hazel pinched her lips together. “Did anyone else see this happen?”
Violet tugged at the end of her dark hair. “No. We were at the edge of the stage, near Dominic’s tent, and I was on the way to the bathroom when it happened. Dominic pushed Darcy down and laughed at him. Darcy got mud on his shirt, and I walked with him to the bathroom because I felt bad about the whole thing, but… If Uncle Colton finds out he’ll send me back to Santa Rosa!”
Hazel shook her head. “He won’t. Probably. But you have to tell him. What you saw could be important to the investigation. Promise me you’ll tell him. Soon.”
Violet nodded and wrapped her arms around her middle. “I promise. I just—I wish I didn’t see that side of Dominic before he died. I thought he was perfect, and now I know he wasn’t.”
Hazel pulled Violet into a hug. “No one is perfect.” She decided not to mention that the man was a disgusting piece of work. “Actually, I needed to talk to you about something else about Dominic Dane.”
She felt Violet stiffen under her arm, but the girl didn’t pull away. “What about?”
Hazel took the pictures from her pocket and held them for Violet to see. “I found these in his dressing room, and I was hoping you could explain why a dead man has a picture of you hidden in a secret drawer?”
Violet stared at the picture of herself. After a long moment, she drew in a shaky breath. “I don’t know why he has that picture.” She flipped it over and read the back. “I never gave it to him, and I didn’t write this. But it’s a selfie I took a couple of weeks ago in the school library. I have it on my phone. Here. Look!”
Violet fiddled with her phone and pulled up her Instagram account. The photo was there, dated around the time she’d said.
Hazel let out a sigh of relief, even if she didn’t quite know what she was relieved about. “You promise that’s the whole truth?”
Violet nodded. “Yes! I never gave that man my picture. And that note—Wait! I did write that, only not on a photo. Hold on,” she said, and her forehead lined with determination as she brought up a new app. “I joined Dominic’s fan club on Facebook a while ago, and that’s what I wrote on the page. But I hardly ever check it because Facebook is for old people. No offense.”
Hazel snorted. “None taken. I’m not a huge social media person myself,” she said and read the page Violet showed her. Sure enough, the message was there and dated before Violet even moved to Cedar Valley. That gave her an idea. “If someone took a photo of you and printed it, I think these other girls may have had the same thing happen to them. Could you find them for me?”
Violet’s eyes got that spark of interest that Hazel hadn’t seen in days. “Yeah. You know, Google has a crazy good face recognition thing build in.”
She ran the pictures through Google, and came up with matches for each one. Like Hazel suspected, each girl was also on Instagram and in Dominic’s fan group.
But what did that mean? Either he printed the photos, or someone else did.
A chill ran up her spine.
If Dominic Dane hadn’t done it, then it was probably the person who killed him.
Chapter 14
“I thought I told you not to take anything,” Sheriff Cross said around a beleaguered sigh that Hazel was all too familiar with.
Violet wasn’t there, however. Hazel left the girl in Esther’s care, with the cupcakes, and went in search of Sheriff Cross on her own. She thought it was best since she knew Colton’s reaction to the pictures wouldn’t be great.
By the time she found him—after a brief stop at her photo booth to help her father and Michael, and to feed Anthony Ray before he got tetchy—a few hours had passed.
The sun dipped into the west, casting a sheen of golden light over the cool blue waters of Lake Celeste. They stood on the pier where Hazel had shown Violet the pictures first off, and she hoped the light was good enough for them to see by. The sheriff’s handsome face was already beset with shadows, and the chill from the lake seeped into Hazel’s bones, despite her sweater.
Plus, the bag Darcy Allen had tried to dispose of was ten feet under water, just below them. So Hazel thought it was as good a place as any for this.
“I know. It was an executive decision. I needed to see what Violet said before I showed them to you. I can show you where I found them. Plus, Darcy Allen surprised me, and I didn’t want him to see them either.” That explanation would have to do, because she didn’t have a better one.
Sheriff Cross sighed again and flipped through the pictures, his jaw tightening with each one. “And you’re saying she didn’t know Dominic Dane had these pictures?”
Hazel nodded. “She was really shaken up by it. And I have a feeling the other girls will say the same thing. Violet said it was a selfie she took in the library a couple of weeks ago, and she showed me the picture on her phone. It was date stamped. She wasn’t lying.”
Sheriff Cross’s shoulders slumped and he looked ready to sit down on the edge of the pier. Instead, he shuffled the pictures again and carefully tucked them into his breast pocket. “Okay. I believe her, but that doesn’t make this any better. How would Dominic Dane have access to Violet’s Facebook? You said she posted there, right?”
“Instagram, actually. She said Facebook was fo
r old people.”
The shadow of a smirk tugged at the corner of the sheriff’s mouth, and Hazel’s heart warmed at the sight. At least he wasn’t going to stay mad at her. “Old people. Right. Okay. I think this will give us some new leads.”
Hazel watched Anthony Ray creep closer to the edge of the pier and look at the water. She hoped he didn’t try to jump in. Knowing him, if he saw a fish, he’d think he could catch it. “You don’t think one of these girls did it, do you? I noticed a few of them at the festival yesterday morning, but I haven’t seen them since. I’m going to guess they didn’t know about the photos either.”
“Then the question is, who did? Besides Dominic Dane, of course.”
Of course. They were in his drawer, which stood to reason he was the one who put them there. Though, something about it bothered Hazel. “It was in a secret compartment, and unless he had the vanity shipped here to put in his tent, how would he know about the compartment?”
Sheriff Cross blinked, and flung an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. His lips pressed into the side of her head, and Hazel felt the heat rise to her cheeks. Though, not in an uncomfortable way. More that it was all too comfortable. After the last few days, she could melt into his arms and sleep forever. “I gotta say, I love the way you think. But are you implying someone else put the photos there? Someone planted them for some reason?”
Hazel shrugged because she honestly didn’t know what she was implying. Only that it didn’t make sense. “Well, I guess we have to find out if he knew about the hiding place or not, and that’s going to be difficult.”
“Yeah. Not too easy to question a corpse. Oh, I got the financials. You were right. Dominic Dane got a pretty pay off for signing up for this festival. A lot more than I would’ve thought Christopher Allen could afford.”
Hazel raised her eyebrows and glanced at Sheriff Cross’s face. Being that close, she saw the dark stubble on his cheeks and smiled. “How much?”
“Half a million,” he said and sounded impressed.
Hazel whistled. That was a lot of money. “Enough money to kill over.”