by Ivy Smoak
“Well, he’s going to school on Monday right? I can pick you up in the morning once he’s gone and we can head to the pet store together to find a suitable replacement.”
“Monday?” I bit the inside of my lip. How was I supposed to distract Zeke for the rest of the weekend? But I also didn’t see a better option unless I wanted to sneak out of the house when Zeke was sleeping. I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I shook my head, feeling ridiculous that I didn’t see the very obvious solution right in front of me. “Thanks, but I’ll just go on Monday by myself.” I turned to Zeke. “It’s time to go, Zeke!” I’d keep pretending that his pet was lost in the house. Maybe I could do some much needed cleaning while I was pretending to search for Lizardopolous. Not that any more house guests would be stopping by. Six years seemed like a good amount of time between visitors.
“I’m only asking for five minutes of your time, Violet. Let’s get an early lunch right now with Zeke too. My treat.”
I plastered a fake smile to my face. “I appreciate it, I do. But you’re better off not talking to me. Just ask your partner.”
Zeke came running over to us. “Mr. Reed, have you ever used your gun? How does the database of wanted criminals work? Have you ever caught a bad guy?”
“Time to go, little dude.” I lifted him up even though he was way too heavy for me. I had a feeling that he’d refuse to leave if I didn’t literally carry him out.
“But I have a bazillion questions,” Zeke protested. “I want to know how to catch a bad guy.”
“Then we’ll just watch a show about it when we get home, okay?”
Zeke’s turned his attention back to me. “Does that mean I can keep Hulu?”
“Sure.” Watching some shows this weekend might be just the distraction he needed from the disappearance of Lizardopolous.
“Violet,” Detective Reed said.
I glanced over my shoulder once at him. He looked hurt. And it wasn’t fair for him to put that emotion on me. If he was actually pursuing me, there was something clearly wrong with him. No one would like me if they weren’t broken themselves. And I could barely keep up with my own problems, I didn’t have time to fix him when I couldn’t even fix myself. I pushed through the door without responding and headed outside so I could breathe again.
Chapter 14
Tucker
My nights had been lonely since my split. But my days off had been lonelier. I had no one and nothing in this town. It wasn’t just loneliness that made my thoughts keep drifting back to Violet, though. There were plenty of things I could do to fill my time that didn’t involve her. I kept thinking about her because she was alluring. Smart, sensitive, feisty, drop-dead gorgeous, and off limits. A man could only be told to stay away so many times. I had to respect her decision even though a simple explanation could fix everything. Maybe. I wasn’t sure at this point if she’d ever believe me. But no matter how many times I told myself to let it go, I couldn’t. Thoughts of her consumed me.
I grabbed my phone as I headed outside. There were a few texts from Damien, most likely nagging me to go out with him tonight. But I saw enough of him on my days at work. I slid the phone into my pocket as I climbed into my car.
Today I was working on my side project and I had a meeting with the neighborhood gossip, Sally Bennet. After talking to her I could hopefully put any suspicions I had of Violet completely to rest. If I thought she was innocent, it would be a hell of a lot easier trying to explain why I had looked around. I shook my head as I put the car in reverse. There wouldn’t be an explanation. Violet would never allow one. And a part of me understood that. If someone had looked through a bunch of my personal belongings, I’d be pissed too. But I hadn’t done that.
By the time I reached Sally’s house, I had thought a lot more about my apology to Violet than the case. I put my car in park outside Sally’s. It was only a few doors down from the house that exploded. I climbed out of my car and stared down the street. All that remained was rubble and caution tape. I didn’t know how far along the FBI was on the case. For all I knew, it was closed. My big break was slipping through my fingers while I was hung up on a woman that wanted nothing to do with me.
Before I even reached the front door, it flung open. Sally was standing there with a big smile on her face, clearly excited about everything she was about to learn from me instead of the other way around.
“Come in, come in,” she said. “I just put a tea kettle on the stove. And I made some cookies. I hope you like chocolate chip.”
“Yeah, that sounds great.” I walked into her house. It was pretty much exactly what I’d expected. The walls of the foyer were covered in flowered wallpaper. I glanced into the living room to one side. Nope, not just the walls of the foyer. The hideous wallpaper was everywhere. There were also strange little collectibles on every available surface. They ranged from little dolls to what looked like glass animals of all varieties. There was even a penguin that was at least three feet tall by the fireplace. All of it was odd, but I found that placement particularly weird. Penguins didn’t like fire.
“Right this way.” She led me into her kitchen. The wallpaper continued in here, but fortunately the collectibles stopped.
I sat down in the kitchen chair she gestured to. It squeaked underneath me so I stayed unnervingly still. I could have asked her a bunch of personal questions to make this more natural. Like how long she’d lived in town. And whether or not she had a husband. But I honestly didn’t want to be in here any longer than I needed to. It was stuffy. I felt as if the flowers in the wallpaper were leaning toward me, staring at me.
I cleared my throat as she busied herself with the tea. “Sally, how long did you know Adeline Bell?” I studied her face as she turned around.
“As long as she lived in this neighborhood, which wasn’t for very long. I’m always the first neighbor to welcome new homeowners on this street. I was over with a plate of these same cookies the minute she pulled up.” Sally placed the plate of cookies in front of me as well as a cup of tea and a stack of napkins with kittens printed on them.
I ignored the cookies and tea and stared directly at her. “When she pulled up? I thought you said she was married?”
“Yes, she was married. But I never saw her husband. He traveled constantly. A housewife with no husband to care for every night? The poor thing must have been bored out of her mind. I mean…maybe not such a poor thing if she burned her house down.” She stared at me expectantly.
I wasn’t playing this game of give and take with her. “Did she have any friends in the neighborhood?”
“Besides me? Hmm. Well, there are a few other women the same age as her in the neighborhood. Charlotte, Rosie, and Phoenix. But I never got the sense that Adeline particularly liked them.”
“And why would you say that?”
“I’m good at reading people, Detective Reed.”
“So what did Adeline do that led you to believe she disliked these women?”
“Well, on several occasions I literally saw her hide from them. Or she wouldn’t answer the door when I knew for a fact that she was inside. She rarely ever came to the civic association meetings. And there’s a neighborhood book club that she refused to attend as well.”
“Did she like you?”
“Of course. Everyone likes me. Cookie?” She slid the plate toward me.
I lifted one off the plate so she’d focus. “And you mentioned the first night we met that Adeline had blonde hair.”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes? Why, what color does everyone else think it is?”
“I thought maybe it was more of a brown.”
She stared at me. “You’re mistaken, Detective Reed. She was a natural blonde. A beauty. That’s how she got that wonderful, sweet, handsome gardener to enter a scandalous affair with her. Speaking of Ben Jones…how is he doing? No one around here has heard a word. We’re worried sick.”
I didn’t bother correcting her. T
he detective’s name was Benjamin Harlow, but he had been undercover here. It was bad enough I had told her his real name once. I didn’t need to do that again. I was trying to keep this whole thing as under wraps as possible. The last thing I needed was Sally showing up at the hospital with a bouquet of roses for a Ben Harlow instead of a Ben Jones. And she was derailing the topic. Ben was a dead end. I wasn’t here to talk about him. “He’s unresponsive.”
She gasped and put her hand over her mouth.
I was as upset as her. If I could just talk to him, I could piece a few things together. As it was, I was stuck with Sally.
“Then why haven’t they let me visit him? I go almost every day but no one will let me see him.”
“They transported him to DC.”
“Why on earth would they transport him there? This is where he lives. You must know something.”
Something that she can tell everyone in town? But the woman truly did look upset. “He was placed in a medically induced coma. No one knows for sure if he’ll recover.”
“Dear me.” She shook her head. “You should eat your cookie. It will make you feel better about all the terrible things that keep happening here.”
I took a bite as she started to talk and then stopped mid-chew. Terrible things? Plural? I swallowed, ignoring the jagged corners I hadn’t fully chewed. “What other terrible things?”
She leaned forward slightly like she was about to tell me something top secret. “Someone’s been stealing my lawn gnomes.”
For the love of God. “Did you file an official complaint at the police station?”
“Of course. But they won’t even put a patrol car outside my house. It’s rubbish.”
“Sally, if I could ask you a few more questions about Adeline. Were her eyes green by any chance?”
“No.” She shook her head. She looked disturbed by my sudden change of topic.
“I have a few other questions about someone I hope you know. Violet Clark.”
Sally raised her eyebrow at me. “Brown hair. Green eyes. Ah. You’re not asking about Adeline at all. You’re asking about Violet.”
“Is there any chance that they’re the same person?”
She shook her head like I was an idiot. “Dear, I knew both women. They aren’t the same. At all, really. When Violet was little she was so full of life. A sweet little thing. Life’s been hard on her. But Adeline? She was always very cold.”
“How has life been hard on Violet?
Sally lifted her teacup and took a sip. For a moment, I thought she was going to keep her lips sealed for once in her life. But then she grabbed one of the cat napkins and dabbed her bottom lip. She leaned forward like she was about to launch into the story of all stories.
“I used to babysit Violet when she was little. Like I said, she was so full of life and a wonderful little girl. Nothing at all wrong with her. Her father died a few years after they moved here, and you know how the death of a parent at such a young age can be detrimental to the mind? Well, she seemed okay. Not good, but as you’d expect after such a loss. Like she was putting on a brave face. I still babysat her on occasion. But looking back on it now, maybe she was more distressed than I realized. Kids are smarter than you think. I still wonder if there’s something I could have done to help…” her voice trailed off and she shook her head, lost in her own story.
“When her mother remarried shortly after…Violet started to grow more sullen. I thought it had just taken her a while to process the fact that her father was gone. Like that brave face was suddenly just gone. I tried to talk to her mother, but she barely ever answered the door. And whenever she did…she called me nosy. I never got to babysit the little girl again. But I’d see her around the neighborhood. She seemed okay. Her smiles were rare, but still there occasionally. I thought she was good. Until suddenly she wasn’t anymore.”
The chair beneath me squeaked. I realized I had practically scooted to the end of it. I waited, but Sally seemed like she was done with her story.
She started humming as she lifted her cup back up.
“What about between when you thought she was good and when she wasn’t anymore?”
“I stopped babysitting her when she was ten years old. I couldn’t tell you for sure what happened to Violet. Only things I’ve heard.”
“Well, what things have you heard?” I never realized how hard it was to prod a gossiper into gossiping.
“Hmm.” She placed her tea cup back down. “I’ve heard a lot of things. People can be cruel.”
If Damien wasn’t such an asshole I’d already know about all the rumors. But he was adamant about me dropping the case. After Violet had shown up at the precinct he had gotten even worse. I couldn’t even glance at my phone without him looking at it over my shoulder. “Do you mind telling me what people have said?”
“Well, take it with a grain of salt. You know how rumors are.”
Was she seriously warning me about rumors? She was the queen of them. “Of course.”
“Let’s see. Some people think that her odd behavior started when she failed the SAT’s and didn’t get into the college of her dreams. Some think it’s because her boyfriend dumped her and moved across the country. Or that her nervous ticks drove him away. Or that it happened after her mother and stepfather died, but I know that’s not true because she moved out to the woods before that happened. And those are just the kind rumors.”
“Her mother and stepfather died too?” Poor Violet. She was surrounded by death and tragedy. I tried to ignore that Sally was referring to Violet’s OCD as odd behavior. Plenty of people had that. It wasn’t a big deal at all, and I barely noticed it when I was with her.
“They passed away shortly after they retired out of state. Tragic. The poor girl lost her boyfriend and family all in the same year she found out she was with child.”
It was tragic. She had no one to help her. She must have felt so alone. “Do you know who Zeke’s father is?”
Sally shook her head. “I’m assuming it was her ex-boyfriend. What a jerk for leaving her all alone to fend for that child. But I swear I only see Violet in Zeke. He looks just like she did at that age. Without the dreadlocks of course.” She smiled and shook her head.
An awkward silence settled around us.
I placed my hand around my cup of tea, suddenly cold. “You said those were the kind rumors. What about the ones that aren’t kind?”
Sally sighed. “That she murdered her boyfriend, stepfather, and mother in cold blood and has been hiding out in that dilapidated house ever since, biding her time until she strikes again. Or possibly hiding out there to help prevent herself from killing again. Regardless of the reason, rumor has it that all her victims are buried underneath the floorboards. Maybe there’s even more bodies than just the three.”
I waited for her to laugh. Or…something. The officer I had talked to the other day had said the same kind of thing. All the warnings from Damien. Is that really what most people thought? How? How could they possibly think that? No wonder she wanted to escape from all the prying eyes. Violet wasn’t a murderer. Despite the fact that she tried to be strong for her son, she seemed as delicate as her name. A violet lost in a sea of cruelty. “You don’t believe that?”
“She’s disturbed. No one would live out in the woods if they were right in the head.”
“She doesn’t live out in the woods. She has a house.”
“One that doesn’t belong to her. That house has been falling apart out there ever since I was a child. I’m telling you, she fled her house and ran off to the woods just as fast as Adeline Bell did. If Adeline Bell is guilty of something, I believe Violet is too.”
My blood felt cold as I listened to her. “You knew her when she was little. What do you really think is true?”
“I think something happened in her childhood home that no one knows but her. Something that caused her smiles to disappear at a young age. Something that caused her to eventually lose it. Something terrible.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what happened. But as I said, terrible things happen in this neighborhood. Speaking of which, can I file another complaint with you about my missing gnomes?”
I took a slow, deep breath. This woman couldn’t be trusted. I shouldn’t listen to anything she said. But her words were jarring. “You have to wait to hear back from the county.” I placed my cup down on the table and stood up. I was done talking to this woman. I wasn’t going to listen to lies. I was going to get to the bottom of all of this and put everyone in their place. Violet deserved someone in her corner. “Which house did Violet grow up in?”
“Oh, I figured you knew. It was the house that blew up.”
I knew this was all related! I could feel my heart racing. I was so close to solving this thing.
Sally started laughing. “I’m sorry, I’m just kidding, Detective. You should have seen your face! We’re sharing ghost stories, and I thought it would be funny.”
Damn it. I tried to keep a straight face. Honestly, it was kind of funny. What were the odds of that happening? “Which house did Violet grow up in, Sally?”
“Right next door. Rosie’s house. I mentioned her earlier. She’s one of the women that Adeline was definitely not friends with.”
“Thanks for your help, Sally.”
“Any time. And Detective?”
I turned back toward her.
“Take these for the road.” She shoved the plate of cookies in my hand.
I had no idea when she had the chance to put plastic wrap on them. She was like a housewife ninja.