A Day Tea Die For

by Elle Dalton

  She looked down at my left hand. “So it’s true.”

  “What’s true?” I asked.

  “That you and Ervin are getting married.” Fresh tears filled her eyes.

  “Yes, we’re engaged. But why should that upset you? You promised me that you were over Ervin.”

  “I am!” she nearly shouted. “I’m just… I’m worried about you.”

  “What?” I scoffed. “What are you talking about?”

  “Diana, you don’t know what kind of man you’re marrying.”

  “Actually, I think I do, thanks.” I refused to get sucked up in her drama, so I turned to walk away.

  She grabbed my wrist to stop me.

  “Ervin came to my room last night,” she said in a loud whisper. “He was drunk and banged on my door. He wanted to spend the night with me.” She sucked in a breath. “I asked why he wasn’t spending the night with you. He said you were too frigid to let him sleep in your bed. I—”

  “What are you trying to say?” I pushed the words through my tight throat. “That you slept with my fiancé?”

  “No, of course not. I never let him in. I slammed the door in his face. I’m telling you the truth, Diana. I’m over him. I want nothing to do with a pig of a man who would cheat on a woman he’s engaged to. I just thought you should know.”

  I shook my head. “This is unbelievable.”

  Chloe gripped my hand. “I’m sorry, I can’t imagine what you’re going through. If you need anything…”

  I jerked my hand away. “No, I meant to say, you are unbelievable. Don’t think for a second that I actually buy this nonsense.”

  A dark shadow crossed Chloe’s face. “Look, I’m just trying to help you. You don’t have to believe me. You’ll find out the truth soon enough.”

  “I have things to do, Chloe. I don’t have time for this.” I turned to walk away. I was not in the mood for her drama.

  “I’m not the bad guy, Diana. I’m not the one you should be worried about. Not when you have people around you capable of doing so much harm… maybe even capable of murder.”

  I turned to face her one last time to catch a knowing gleam in her eye. I parted my lips to say something, but changed my mind and kept walking. She didn’t deserve any more of my time.

  Chapter 8

  Later that night, I tried to call Ervin to get some answers, but he wouldn’t pick up. not that I doubted him. Chloe didn’t have that kind of power over me. But I still wanted to hear his side of the story, and to find out what she had said to him outside of the elevator.

  It wasn’t until the next morning that he showed up in my room again.

  “Hey, fiancé, where were you last night?” I asked after he kissed me good morning. “I tried calling you.”

  His brows drew together. “You did?”

  “Yes, a couple of times. Didn’t you see the missed calls on your phone?”

  He shook his head. “I guess I didn’t notice the notifications. I’m sorry, I went to bed early last night. I was absolutely exhausted. I tried to find you for lunch, but I heard your aunt threw you a celebratory brunch. I take it you told her about our engagement?”

  “I did, yes.” I leaned into him, resting my head against his chest. “My aunt, Karen, and my mom now know. I would’ve invited you to the brunch, but it was supposed to be a girls’ thing, apparently.”

  He grinned. “Don’t even worry about that.”

  I waited for him to bring up the topic of Chloe cornering him for a conversation, but when he didn’t, I pulled away to look into his eyes.

  “I ran into Chloe yesterday,” I said.

  He narrowed his eyes. “You did?”

  I nodded. “She told me that you went banging on her door the night before last. Apparently, you wanted to spend the night with her.”

  “What the hell!” Ervin’s eyes filled with rage. “She really said that?”

  “Yep, that’s what she told me.”

  “You don’t believe her, do you? Diana, I would never do that to you. I love you. You are the only woman for me. You know that, don’t you?”

  I took his hand and pulled him toward the bed. “Ervin, relax. I know it’s all lies. It’s Chloe, after all.”

  He let out a deep sigh and sat down next to me. “I just can’t believe she’d tell such a bald-faced lie. You know, she tried to talk to me yesterday too. She asked me to break off the engagement and claimed I was the one she really loved.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I asked.

  Ervin raked a hand through his hair. “I just didn’t want to hurt you after everything else that was going on. You were also trying to be nice to Chloe, to give her a chance. I didn’t want that to fall apart so soon. I figured I could tell you in a few days.” His hand moved from his hair to rub the side of his stubbled face. “I didn’t think she could do much damage in a few days. Apparently I was wrong.”

  “You were. I definitely have to fire her.” I paused. “I was a fool to believe she has changed.”

  “I’m sorry, babe. You can’t trust that woman. She’ll do anything to get into your head.”

  In a small way, she had. I didn’t believe Ervin had been unfaithful, of course. But her words were still echoing in my mind.

  Someone around me was capable of murder.

  Did she know something we didn’t? If she did, she was truly evil for keeping it to herself, instead of going to the police.

  I was on Karen’s side now. I didn’t know if Chloe was capable of murder, but she was an unstable individual. Who knew exactly what she was capable of, or how far she would go to get what she wanted?

  “When are you going to do it?” Ervin asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  “I don’t know. The next time I see her, I guess. I’ll figure it out later. I have other things on my mind.”

  “Diana?” my mom called from the other side of the door, then she opened it without knocking.

  Some people needed their mothers when they were going through a hard time. I only felt anxiety brought on by the fear that she would rub salt into my wounds.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Am I interrupting?” She gazed from me to Ervin. Her hand still rested on the door handle.

  “What do you need, Mom?” I asked.

  “I just wanted to speak to you. Do you have a moment?”

  Ervin glanced at me, as if to ask whether he should leave or stay. I gave him a quick nod to let him know he was free to go.

  “Sure, come on in,” I said to my mom.

  I’d much rather be hanging out with Ervin, but if my mom wanted to speak to me, I wouldn’t be able to get rid of her easily. It was best to get it out of the way.

  She perched on the edge of the bed. “Your bed is a little messy, isn’t it?” She motioned to the blankets.

  “I just woke up,” I said between clenched teeth.

  She ignored me and whispered, “I think it’s time we have the talk.”

  “Mother, I’m an adult woman. We had the talk when I was a teen…”

  “No, not that.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean the talk about your career.”

  “Not this again,” I mumbled.

  “I think it’s clear now, Diana. This hotel business isn’t going to work out for you. It’s tragedy after tragedy. It’s time to return to New York.”

  “I don’t want to do that, Mom. I haven’t given up yet, not even close. Especially not now that I’m engaged to Ervin. I want to start a life with him in Shadow Creek.”

  My mom’s eyes narrowed to glowing flints. “Are you kidding? An engagement is an even bigger reason to return to New York. If you want to settle down, you can’t do it with a failing business. Why not bring Ervin with you? There are plenty of job opportunities for him in New York.”

  “Ervin doesn’t want to live in New York. We want to live in the town we grew up in. This is where we both belong.”

  “You’re being absolutely ridiculous. There are signs everywhere telling you to get out of here
.” With each word, mom’s arms flailed in the air, causing her purse to topple over.

  Since the purse wasn’t zipped up, the contents spilled onto the carpet. She slid to the floor to try and gather them up quickly, but I still caught sight of the small bottle of liquor among her belongings. It was half empty.

  My stomach dropped.

  I knew my mom liked an occasional drink, but I didn’t think she was the type who needed to carry a mini bottle of alcohol wherever she went. Only someone with an alcohol problem would do that.

  She looked up and our eyes met. She knew I’d seen it.

  “I have to go.” She got to her feet and shuffled out of my room, clearly embarrassed.

  I was still too shaken to respond. Was she really an alcoholic? How could she keep it a secret in the world of gossip magazines?

  It suddenly hit me that I didn’t know much about her life right at all.

  I grabbed my computer and searched online for her name. I wasn’t expecting to find much outside of the usual links to her agency. But what popped out stunned me.

  There were multiple articles about me leaving my mom’s agency, about how the agency was rumored to have been in trouble, leading to several high-profile models also leaving. Several articles made it appear that my mother’s agency was on a downward spiral.

  No wonder she was drinking and growing more desperate for me to return to New York.

  A sinking feeling overtook me when I finally understood. Desperation can lead people to do crazy things, especially if money and alcohol were involved.

  Was there a chance my own mom could be the one cooperating with murderers at the hotel?

  The thought came out of nowhere, and it was crazy. My mom was many things, but she wasn’t a murderer. She would never do something like that.

  Or would she?

  If anyone had a motive to destroy the reputation of the hotel, it was her. In fact, she was the only person who had a motive at all. Most staff members would be in big trouble if the hotel went under. They would be out of jobs.

  I didn’t want to believe my own mother was capable of murder, but I couldn’t control my thoughts.

  It was shocking how oblivious I’d been to the life my mom was leading. After our last fight, we didn’t speak for months. I would occasionally ask Aunt Jolene about her, but my mom was not speaking to her either, and she ignored most of her calls. Then one day, a few weeks ago before the party, she called both of us out the blue.

  It would make sense. Why would my mother insist on attending the hotel reopening? She hated the Ivory Rose. I would have expected that the grand reopening would have driven her crazy, but instead she acted supportive. Was she only supportive because she knew for certain that the night was going to take a tragic turn? A turn that would, of course, send me running back to New York City.

  I couldn’t rule out the possibility. As sick as it made me to think of my mother harming Donny, I had to consider all potential suspects. That was the only way I could conduct a thorough investigation, the kind of investigation that would have made my father proud.

  I wished he was still alive. My mom was so different when he was. She barely drank, not even a glass of wine with dinner. She was attentive, loving, and seemed as though she felt at home in Shadow Creek.

  Prior to her helping me begin a modeling career, we used to be so close. My father’s death tore her apart. She was never the same after that.

  As overbearing as she was, we still had those good memories. I didn’t want it to be her. I didn’t want the beautiful times we had in my childhood to be tainted by such evil.

  If I ever discovered that she committed murder just to get me back to New York, our relationship would be completely destroyed. I’d never be able to look at her the same way again.

  Chapter 9

  After my mom left, I went to Ervin’s room.

  I didn’t bother knocking. I didn’t think I had to. But when I entered, Ervin jolted and stuffed something under his mattress.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “What was what?” he replied.

  I stared at him for a moment, then I decided to drop it. I had more important things on my mind.

  “I talked to my mom,” I said. “She wants me to come back to New York to be a model again.”

  “Well, that’s no surprise, right? She’s always tried to convince you to return to modeling.”

  “No, that wasn’t surprising. But finding out that she carries a bottle of vodka in her purse sure was.”

  Ervin’s eyes widened. “What are you saying?”

  “She dropped her purse and a miniature bottle of vodka fell out. I thought she was an occasional drinker, not--.”

  “An alcoholic?” Ervin asked.

  “Yes,” I whispered. “I think I know why she’s drinking. Her agency is in trouble. A lot of high-end models left. Most of them had many negative things to say about how my mom was representing them.”

  “So that’s why she wants you back in New York so bad?” Ervin asked.

  I sat in a chair tucked in the corner of the room.

  “Definitely. But it got me thinking… What if my mom has something to do with all this?”

  Ervin laughed out loud, then he waited for me to tell him I was joking. When I just stared at him, his face fell. “Come on, babe, I know you and your mom don’t get along, but she’s no murderer.”

  “How do you know that? How do any of us know? I don’t think any of the staff members seem like murderers, and yet here we are.”

  “She’s your mother, Diana. She’s still the woman who gave birth to you. I refuse to believe the woman who raised you harbors that kind of evil in her. I mean, I remember how she was when we were little. She isn’t capable of such insane crimes. She’s just a little selfish.”

  I scoffed. “A little?”

  “Okay, a lot. But selfish and homicidal don’t always go hand in hand.”

  “I guess you’re right. It’s just that she’s the only one around here with a real motive. There’s no reason for any staff member to go around killing our hotel guests.”

  Ervin shrugged. “Maybe there’s a sociopath in our midst.”

  “Who? Who do you think could possibly be a sociopath?”

  Ervin groaned. “I don’t know. Maybe we’re wrong and it’s not a staff member at all. The point is, it’s not your mother. We know it isn’t.”

  I still wasn’t convinced. I wanted to be, of course. I didn’t want to keep thinking of my mom this way.

  “Why don’t you go talk to your aunt?” Ervin asked.

  “Why? Am I bothering you?”

  “Absolutely not. I’m always here to help you through anything, you know that.” He came to kiss my forehead. “But I can tell that you aren’t going to take my word for it, and I don’t blame you. The thing is, I don’t know your mother that well, but your aunt does. She will be able to advise you a little better.”

  “You’re right,” I stood up. “I’ll go talk to her right now.”

  I found Aunt Jolene in her hotel room, curled up in the reading nook by the window. Clover purred in her lap.

  “Is everything all right, dear?” she asked when I entered.

  “No really.” I sat on the bench that stood in front of the bay window.

  The room had remained untouched during the renovations because I knew how much Aunt Jolene loved it. I even kept the carpet the same. It wasn’t as if anyone except Aunt Jolene used the room. It was permanently reserved for her.

  “What’s wrong?” She kept her eyes on me as she lowered her book on the dresser next to her.

  “It’s my mom.”

  “What has my sister done now?”

  “She wants me back in New York. I found out that her agency isn’t doing so well and…” I contemplated whether to tell Jolene the next part. She would be so worried.

  “And?” she asked.

  I decided to be honest. “And I found a bottle of vodka in her purse. I think she might have a d
rinking problem.”

  Aunt Jolene sighed. “Oh, my. I did suspect this the other night when she finished an entire bottle of wine to herself. Her luxuries are very important to her. I would not be surprised if her failing business caused her to turn to alcohol.”

  “She really is desperate for me to go back to New York. Do you think maybe… Maybe she could be responsible for what happened to Donny?”

  Aunt Jolene gasped. “What? Heavens, no! Darling, how could you even think that?”

  “I don’t want to.” I defended myself. “But she’s so eager for me to give up on the Ivory Rose and go back to New York with her. What wouldn’t she do to get her career back on track? You said it yourself, her luxuries are important to her.”

  “Not more important than a life, Diana. My sister is eccentric, but she’s not a killer. Honey, I think all of this stress is getting to your head.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, it is. But what else can I do? I have to get to the bottom of this.”

  “You don’t,” she said in an authoritative tone. “That’s the job of the police, Diana. I know Donny was your friend. It’s only natural that you would want to do something to help find the person responsible for his death. But the fact that you knew him personally is exactly why you shouldn’t trouble yourself with this case. You aren’t in the right headspace.”

  What she said made sense, but I wasn’t going to listen. Nothing would stop me from finding out the truth. Maybe it wasn’t healthy and, yes, perhaps my mind was getting carried away. Still, I was going to out Donny’s killer.

  I didn’t want to argue with my aunt, though.

  “Thank you, Aunt Jolene,” I went to hug her. “You always know how to make me feel better.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief and patted my back. “I’m so glad you feel better. Now, please, get some rest. You very much need it.”

  “I will,” I lied.

  There was no time to rest. Ervin was wrong. Aunt Jolene hadn’t been able to convince me of my mother’s innocence.

  I had to prove her innocence myself.

  Chapter 10