“Perfect,” I said, then turned to point to a small tent at the far end of the party area. “I’ve got a table and chairs set up over there so that she can receive her guests in comfort.”
“Nice,” he said. “You walk her out and I’ll fix a plate for her.”
I nodded and headed to the family room to fetch Julia.
I came up short when I saw how radiant she looked, dressed in a sheer persimmon blouse—which made her skin and eyes pop—with a black camisole and a black, shimmery full skirt that fell to her feet. Draped around her neck was an absolutely giant round black gemstone nested in a ring of diamonds and gold.
“Oh, my God,” I said breathlessly. “Julia! You are resplendent!”
Julia batted her eyes at me. “Thank you, dear. As are you!”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling that familiar blush touch my cheeks.
“Come over here and take a picture with me,” she said, holding out her phone. I took it and shouldered up next to her to take a selfie of the two of us.
“Would you text that to Willem and Chanel for me, Catherine? I seem to have forgotten my glasses.”
“Of course,” I said, then sent the photo to Willem and then sneaked in an extra text of the photo to myself.
“How is it out there?” she asked when I handed her phone back to her.
“It’s perfect, Julia. All the guests on your wish list are here.”
“And the suspect pool?”
I grinned. “Nearly all of them showed.”
“Good,” she said, an eagerness in her eyes.
Pointing to the crowd outside I said, “Two of the suspects I’ve questioned so far would like a private audience with you.”
“Which two?”
“Brad Bosch and Ike Chipperfield.”
“The news anchor?”
“Yes.”
“I never did care for his style,” she said. “He’s so fake.”
I nodded in agreement.
Julia sighed. “I can feign interest for the evening, though, not to worry. Who’s the other one?”
“Brad Bosch. He used to play for the Giants, and he’s just confessed to me that he plans to run for the First District’s House seat.”
Julia puffed out a laugh. “Good luck in that race,” she said. “Our congressman is very popular around here.”
“Bosch believes that your endorsement could make the difference, and if you feign interest, I’m pretty sure you can get him to talk about his relationship with Yelena. She wasn’t well liked by any of the men I spoke to.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Julia agreed. “Anyone else I should hold a private audience with?”
“Gilley took Tucker McAllen, Liam Leahy, and Joel Goldberg. I’m not sure where he ended up with them. We haven’t had a chance to talk.”
“I definitely want to have a go at Goldberg,” she said, fingering the gem at her neck.
I pointed to it. “His creation?”
“Yes,” she said. “And he made it on short notice too. I told him I wanted the darkest sapphire he had, and he came through.”
“That’s a sapphire?” I asked. It had to be ten carats.
“It is,” she said, smiling proudly. “I love it, so I hope he doesn’t end up the killer.”
I laughed. “Fingers crossed,” I said. Then I offered her my arm. “Shall we?”
She took it and said, “We shall, but walk slowly, dear. I’m not as nimble as I appear.”
I laughed again, and we made our way to the patio door. Julia paused to look out at the crowd of people, a few of whom had noticed her in the doorway and were looking very excited to see her.
“What a lovely setting, Catherine,” she said in approval.
“Thank you,” I replied. “Gilley and I worked very hard to make it special for you.”
“And it shows,” she said. Then she handed me the phone again. “Take another picture and send it to Willem. I want him to see the magic you’ve rendered.”
I did as she asked, and then we proceeded forward. The crowd parted as we moved along, all eyes on Julia, and I felt so proud to be the chosen one to escort her to her table and chair.
After seating her, I realized that a couple had already sat down in the chairs opposite her. “Margot! Daniel!” she said with delight. “I’m so happy you could make it!”
I backed away from the table to leave them to each other’s company and bumped into a body. Turning, I saw Marcus, holding a plate and champagne glass above my head.
“That was close,” he said, motioning to the plate.
“Oh, Marcus! I’m so sorry!”
“Not to worry,” he told me. “Nothing spilled.” He then moved around me to discreetly set down the plate and a set of silverware for Julia, along with the glass of bubbly.
He then turned to me and whispered, “Want to fill me in so far?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’ve made some progress, and there are a few interesting details to tell you about.”
“Great,” he said, offering me his arm and nodding toward the dance floor. “Do you dance?”
“I do,” I said, taking his arm.
He guided me to the floor and twirled me around twice before bringing me close for our dance.
“You are good,” I said, moving with him and finding it effortless.
“At most things,” he said, bouncing his eyebrows.
I giggled but then turned to the business at hand and filled him in on every conversation I’d had and my impressions from all three men.
“Interesting,” Marcus said when I was done. We were into our second song by now, and I was enjoying myself, even though I was technically amateur sleuthing.
“How did Gilley make out?” he asked next.
“I don’t know,” I said, looking around for my bestie. I finally saw him with Liam Leahy, and it appeared the two were getting along well. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to him since we went our separate ways tonight, but I think he’s making some progress.”
Marcus glanced in the direction I was also looking. “Who’s he with?”
“Vice Admiral Leahy,” I said. “He also took Goldberg and he was also kind enough to take McAllen, who’s simply an insufferable cad!” I hadn’t forgotten McAllen’s treatment of the poor server at the restaurant.
Marcus grinned. “Goldberg’s the jeweler and the cad is the real estate developer?”
“Yes,” I said.
“It’ll be interesting to see if Gilley has the same experience with his three suspects,” Marcus said.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that it’s likely to be a similar vibe. Yelena ended every relationship on bad terms, as far as I can tell.”
“Yes,” Marcus said. “Including with me.”
“Julia wants to interview Goldberg herself, and she’s agreed to speak to both Bosch and Chipperfield.”
“I’ll make sure to be near her for those conversations. No one here knows me personally, so that’s a—”
“Pardon me,” someone behind me said. “May I have this dance?”
I froze. I knew that voice.
“You may, Detective,” Marcus said, twirling me in a half circle before releasing my hand. He then walked quickly away.
“Shepherd!” I said breathlessly. “What’re you doing here?” And then I looked him up and down and couldn’t believe how gorgeous he looked. His tux fit and flattered him, and he also wasn’t wearing a tie, but he’d paired the deep black jacket with a band-collar white shirt. His five-o’clock shadow gave him a ruggedly handsome, yet sophisticated look, and I was smitten at the sight of him.
“I was tasked with reconsidering my choice to abstain from the evening’s festivities,” he said, putting a bit of poshness in his voice.
“You were tasked? By whom?”
Shepherd took me in his arms and began to sway us back and forth. “Sunny,” he said.
“You spoke to her?”
“I went to see her,” he said. “I had planned to sta
y there tonight, but when Sunny asked me why I was avoiding spending the evening with you, I had to confess that we’d gotten in a huge fight. I kinda knew she’d take your side, but I didn’t count on the stern lecture and her insistence that I show up here to make things right.”
“Wow,” I said. “She must be feeling better.”
“She’s feeling feisty. She even gave Darius a hard time, and I’ve never seen Sunny give him so much as a glare.”
“How’d he take it?”
“Better than I thought. He offered to loan me his tux.”
“He did?”
“He did.” Shepherd tugged on the jacket’s lapel. “Tom Ford,” he said.
“It’s gorgeous on you.”
“Not nearly as gorgeous as that gown is on you, pretty lady.”
I smiled and blushed fully this time. “Thank you,” I said. “But back to Sunny. What was she giving Darius a hard time about? He’s been doting on her ever since she was checked into Stony Brook, right?”
“He has, but according to my sister, he hasn’t been keeping up with the housework, and when I left her to come here, she was busy scrubbing the kitchen and doing her fifth load of laundry.”
I laughed. “That sounds about right. My ex never did laundry. It would’ve piled up to the ceiling if I hadn’t stepped in to do it.”
“I suspect that’s just shy of where their laundry was piled up to,” Shepherd said. And then he looked at me meaningfully and said, “You are the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever known. Do you know that?”
I smiled, and my heart filled with love for him. “I love that you think so.”
“I do. Seriously, that dress is amazing, and you’re amazing in it.”
Another blush hit my cheeks, and I looked down bashfully. “Stop,” I said, unable to take in fully the compliment.
Shepherd bent his head to my neck and kissed me sweetly. “Stop what?” he whispered. After kissing me again, he added, “This? You want me to stop this?”
A different kind of heat filled my flesh, and I sighed and bent my head to expose more of my neck to him. “No. That you can continue.”
“Goody,” he said, then continued to nibble up and down my neck.
I twined my hands around his neck and felt so close to him, even though we were in the middle of a crowded dance floor. The feelings he was igniting were delicious.
“Steve!” I heard behind me. The sound made me jump.
Shepherd picked his head up abruptly and looked over my shoulder. “Sunny?” he said. “What’s wrong?”
I turned to look behind me and saw Sunny standing there, wearing a loose plaid shirt and sweatpants. The outfit made her stand out like a sore thumb. Her complexion was pale, and she’d obviously been crying, as her eyes were watery and her cheeks were wet.
“I need you to see something,” she whispered.
At that moment, Darius appeared. He looked out of breath, and Finley was asleep on his shoulder. “Sunny!” he began, reaching out with his free hand to grab her arm. “Don’t!”
She tugged out of his grip and held up a paper bag toward Shepherd. “I need you to look in here,” she said. “I can’t live with a lie. I can’t live with what I’ve done.”
A stream of tears poured out and flowed down her cheeks. Shepherd let go of me and took the paper bag, but Darius attempted to grab it away from him. Shepherd blocked the move and glared at his brother-in-law. “Don’t!” he growled.
Darius looked almost panicked. “Please,” he said. “Steve, don’t open that bag. If you love your sister, you’ll give it to me and forget we were ever here.”
Shepherd’s gaze flickered from Darius to Sunny, who was shaking her head and mouthing, Please, while pointing to the bag.
Shepherd opened the bag and looked inside. The color drained from his face, and I noticed that all the people around us had stopped to stare at the odd scene.
“What is this?” he asked Sunny.
“You know what it is,” she replied. “It was me, Steve. It was me.”
Shepherd let the bag drop to his waist; he seemed so stunned. I reached out and tugged on the bag. He let it go easily.
After opening it up, I peered inside and gasped at what was inside. It was the outfit that I’d seen Sunny wearing the day she’d gotten the tickets to Yelena’s show for me and Gilley. But the clothing was literally covered in dried blood. It was smeared on the blouse and the joggers she’d worn that day, and there was no mistaking whose blood it was.
In that moment, everything clicked: Sunny’s mysterious disappearance from the house right before Tiffany was going to put Finley in the tub, her equally mysterious return to change clothes and probably stuff the bloody clothing at the bottom of the laundry basket. And even the overdose of Ambien made sense. She had murdered Yelena and had felt so guilty that she’d tried to take her own life.
Still, it was an incredible shock to think that sweet, spiritual, gentle Sunny had committed a violent murder. The only thing I could think was that the Ambien tablet she’d initially taken had put her out of her conscious mind. That had to be the explanation, because anything else was unfathomable.
Shepherd finally recovered himself enough to take the bag from my hands and grab Sunny by the arm. “Inside,” he said stiffly.
Darius looked at him like he wanted to deck him, but he followed along behind his wife and brother-in-law.
“Darius!” I called.
He looked over his shoulder with a furrowed brow.
“You can tuck Finley into Mike’s bed upstairs. It butts up against the wall and there are extra pillows to hem him in while he sleeps. Third door on the left.”
He nodded, and his expression turned briefly grateful; then he hurried to catch up to Sunny and Shepherd.
Before they were even inside, Marcus appeared next to me. “What happened?”
“Sunny killed Yelena,” I said. I’d meant to speak softly, but my adrenaline got the best of me and my statement was a lot louder than I’d intended. In the crowd around us, several people gasped.
Murmurs began to spread through the crowd like undulating humming in a hive of bees, and Marcus took my hand and led me toward the patio doors Once we were inside, he closed the French doors and said, “Give me the details.”
I explained everything to him, and he listened without interruption.
“Catherine,” he said when I’d finished.
“Yes?”
“Do you have a dollar?”
I blinked. “Um, yes.”
“Can you give it to me?”
I couldn’t figure out what he wanted with a dollar, but I pointed toward the kitchen and led the way to the loose change jar on the counter.
Digging in the coins, I pulled out four quarters and handed them to him. “Sorry. I don’t have any small bills. Will that work?”
“It will,” he said, jingling the change. “You have just retained me to represent Sunny D’Angelo. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go where they are and stop any confession she might be making to Detective Shepherd.”
I pointed toward the stairs. “I believe they went that way.”
Marcus hurried toward the stairs and nearly sprinted up them. I was immediately filled with relief that he was here to take action.
Gilley then came running into the kitchen. “What’s going on?” he said breathlessly. “There’s a rumor going around that someone just confessed to killing Yelena.”
“You didn’t see?” I asked.
“See what? The last thing I saw was you and Shepherd dancing cheek to cheek.”
“Sunny showed up,” I said. “She confessed to murdering Yelena.”
Gilley sucked in a loud breath and put his hand over his heart. “She did not!”
“She did.”
“But . . . how? I mean, she was spaced out on Ambien that night. She couldn’t have murdered her.”
“She came here tonight with the clothing she’d worn that day. It was covered in blood. Like covered.”
Gilley’s hand traveled to his mouth, and he simply stared at me with huge, wide eyes. “What did Shepherd say?” he finally asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. He just took Sunny upstairs to have a talk.”
“Does Darius know?”
“He does. He tried to stop Sunny from confessing.”
Gilley looked around. “Where’s Marcus?” he asked. “We have to get Marcus to represent her!”
“He’s already on the case. He’s upstairs, stopping her confession.”
Gilley’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Thank God!” Then he turned toward the French doors leading to the patio. “What do we do about that?”
“I’m not sure,” I said.
Gilley waved for me to follow him. “Come on, sugar. Let’s go talk to Julia and see what she wants to do.”
Chapter 15
Julia already knew about Sunny’s confession. The murmurs had reached even her table. “We’ll end this here,” she said, taking my hand between both of hers. “Sunny is your dear friend, is she not?”
“She is,” I said as unbidden tears blurred my vision.
Julia patted my hand. “There, there, Catherine,” she said. “Marcus tells me he’s the best attorney in the Hamptons. Send him in to defend her, and I’m sure he’ll be able to stave off the worst-case scenario.”
I nodded but felt such dread in my heart. “I’m so sorry that your birthday celebration is getting cut short.”
“Pffft,” she said. “I’ve had eighty-three other birthdays. They were all special in their own way, as is this one. Sometimes it’s not about the length of the celebration, but the effort that went into making it memorable.”
I attempted to smile at her kindness, but I was sure it was more a grimace. “May I be allowed to throw your next party, Julia?” I asked. “I’d like to make up for this one.”
“Absolutely!” she said. “But we’ll have it at my home next time. That way you won’t be burdened with so much cleanup.”
I held out my arm to her, and she took it; then we made our way out of the tent and headed toward the French doors. Julia paused to thank many of her guests and apologized for the party getting cut short.
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