Annabelle Archer BoxSet, page 107
part #1 of Annabelle Archer Series
We reached the entrance to the forest and found Richard bent over with his hands on his knees next to a small Balinese man dressed in a traditional black-and-white checked shirt. Thankfully, there was no sign of the baby monkey or its mother.
Richard looked up as we approached, his face flushed red. “Where were you all while I was being terrorized by a rabid ape?”
“You ran past us,” Kate said, “but you were going too fast for us to do anything.”
Richard jerked a thumb in the direction of the man next to him as he gasped for breath. “If this gentleman hadn’t waved his slingshot, I would have been monkey food.”
The man smiled at us and nodded, holding up his wooden slingshot. “Scares them off.”
Fern sidled up next to the man in his identical black-and white-checked shirt and red sash. The only difference was Fern’s white sweater tied jauntily over his shoulders and his pristine Bermuda shorts. The man did a bit of a double take, then smiled widely at Fern’s outfit.
“You know what?” Fern untied his sweater. “I think this would look fabulous on you. May I?”
The man nodded and continued smiling as Fern knotted the white sweater around his shoulders.
Fern took a step back to admire his handiwork. “Just as I thought. The sweater really does make the outfit.”
“Can we please go?” Richard asked, straightening up. “I think I’ve had my fill of nature for the year.” He thanked the slingshot man again as we left. The man waved and bowed at Fern.
“So where did you go inside the monkey forest?” I asked Richard as we walked toward the row of vintage buggies, the bundles of balloons tied to their front bumpers moving in the breeze. Kate, Fern, and Alan had walked ahead of us, and I knew Richard was walking deliberately slow to put more distance between them and us. “We looked for you everywhere.”
“I was with Carol Ann, Kelly, and Dahlia. They’re all quite lovely, you know, and poor Carol Ann is just sick over these murders.” Richard put a hand on my arm. “Dahlia is trying to hold everything together for Carol Ann, but I’m not sure if she’s up to it. She’s a little blonde, if you know what I mean.”
“Do you mean ditzy?”
“Maybe,” Richard scratched his chin “Sometimes I think she’s a little spacey, but other times she seems very focused. I do know that the stress of the murders and having to manage her boss is giving her an eye twitch.”
“That’s not a good sign.” I could only imagine how much pressure the girl must be under since this was her first job out of college.
“I’ll tell you one thing. It may be the retro glasses influencing me, but that Kelly seems very mature for an intern.”
“The glasses do make me think she’s older,” I agreed. “Is there anything we can do to help them?”
“I know one thing we shouldn’t do.” Richard leaned against the top of the nearest red Jeep. “Muddle up the investigation.”
“That reminds me, has Carol Ann heard anything from the police about Dina’s cause of death?”
Richard sighed. “Did you not hear the words that just left my mouth, Annabelle?”
I waved away his concerns. “I have no intention of meddling. I was merely curious. Can’t a person be curious?”
Richard rapped his fingers along the black convertible top of the car. “Fine. Apparently, the cause of the death was the same for Dina as for Veronica.”
“So just like we thought,” I said, dropping my voice as other planners began emerging from the monkey forest and heading for the buggies. “They were both poisoned. Does Carol Ann know that the drink that probably poisoned Dina was supposedly a gift from her?”
Richard opened the car door on his side. “Since I didn’t want her to have a nervous breakdown in the monkey forest, I thought it best not to bring that up. But traces of antifreeze were found around her water bottle as well as the martini glass.”
“The water bottle?” I thought back to the pink Sigg bottle I’d noticed in her beach bag. “So she’d been drinking poison the whole time she worked out without knowing it? How is that possible?”
“Carol Ann told me it was common knowledge Dina put flavor drops in her water. Never went anywhere without them. Couldn’t stand the taste of plain water.”
“Common knowledge to anyone who knew her from Inspire,” I said. “We didn’t know.”
“I guess you can cross us off your suspect list then,” Richard said.
“Ha ha.” I tapped my chin while I thought. “If the poison was in the water, then the poisoned drink was either backup or used to frame Carol Ann or both. If Carol Ann had wanted to kill Dina, she wouldn’t have implicated herself like that.”
“Unless that was part of the ruse,” Richard said.
I stared at Richard. “Do you really think Carol Ann could have pulled that off?”
“Of course not. I was just playing devil’s advocate.”
I stepped up onto the running board and leaned over the top of the car. “Did you know that Jeremy Johns was part of the same Inspire clique as Veronica and Dina, but they dropped him after they were all involved in some sort of scandal?”
“What kind of a scandal?”
I looked around me to see if anyone was within earshot. I spotted Alan waving at me from further down the row as he got into a green Jeep with Kate and Fern, so I waved back then turned my attention back to Richard. “Some kind of sex scandal, I think.”
Richard wrinkled his nose. “With Jeremy?”
“I know it’s not pretty to think about,” I said. “But from what Sasha said, they dropped him from the group and he was furious. And we’ve all seen what Jeremy’s like when he loses his temper.”
“You think he killed them?” Richard asked, then stamped one foot on the ground. “Wait, why am I even debating this with you? I’m supposed to be keeping you from poking around in the case. I promised to keep you out of this.”
I held up a hand. “You promised? Who did you promise?” I narrowed my eyes at him as his cheeks flushed red and his eyes darted away from mine. “Have you been talking to Reese behind my back?”
15
“I take the fifth,” Richard said, opening the car door and popping out the second it came to a stop alongside the road.
I followed him out of the Jeep. “And that’s the fifth time you’ve said that since I asked you if you’ve been talking to Detective Reese behind my back.”
We’d only been riding in the vintage buggies for a few minutes since leaving the monkey forest, but our driver had announced that we’d arrived at the rice paddy overlook where we were having lunch. I concluded that we must still be near the town of Ubud since we’d only driven a few miles, and I knew Ubud was renowned for its terraced rice paddies.
I waited for a stream of cars to pass before I could cross the road to follow Richard, coughing a bit from the exhaust fumes. Ubud had more traffic than I expected, by foot and by car, and I dodged a group of women carrying yoga mats once I’d reached the other side of the road. One thing that Bali did not seem to have was people honking their car horns. No matter the traffic jam, Balinese drivers didn’t touch their horns. I considered this a mark in the win column for the island.
I walked a few steps down, following the wooden signs for the restaurant and the disappearing form of Richard. As I turned and stepped out onto a wooden platform covered by a thatched roof, I forgot about chasing down my friend and took a moment to take in the breathtaking vista.
The restaurant overlooked a wide hill sloping toward us in a series of terraces cut into the soil, making it look like a verdant staircase. The top of the hill was covered in thick vegetation with tall palm trees springing up from the base. The terraces undulated around the curves of the hill, the stalks of the growing rice creating a carpet of bright green as far as I could see. Where the terraced steps weren’t green, they were soaked with water, tiny shoots of rice plants barely breaking the surface. I breathed in the moist air, wondering if it would soon rain.
“You made it!” Buster’s rumbling voice jerked me out of my moment’s peace.
I jerked my head to the left and saw him standing with Mack next to a long rectangular table that stretched from one end of the covered platform to the other. The platform itself jutted out over the terraced rice fields, giving me the sensation of floating above them. The table had been draped in a white-linen cloth that reached the floor and was surrounded by rattan chairs. A low wooden trough of moss extended down the middle of the table and was dotted with white orchids. In front of each chair lay a place mat woven out of green palm fronds, and on top of that sat a square white basket covered with a lid and tied with a white tag. I bent over one of the tags and read a name in gold swirling calligraphy that shimmered in the sunlight.
“Did you do all of this?” I asked, straightening up and giving them both a quick peck on the cheek. Both men wore their usual black leather pants, but white Balinese shirts with short sleeves, Nehru collars, and brown buttons had replaced their vests with chains. It was a jolting combination.
Mack held up his hands. “I might have gotten carpal tunnel syndrome from all the weaving.”
“We kept the decor low since the view is the main attraction,” Buster said.
I glanced again at the sweeping rice terraces. “I can see what you mean. You don’t want anything to block this vista.”
Mack leaned close to whisper in my ear. “The seats are assigned, but we were able to switch you around so you aren’t sitting anywhere near Jeremy or Sasha again.”
“Thanks,” I said, although I wouldn’t have minded getting a chance to question Jeremy about just how vengeful he’d felt toward the two murder victims.
I looked down the row of chairs to where Richard had taken his spot next to Chatty Cathy, nodding as she talked to him. He must really want to avoid my questions about Reese if he was voluntarily subjecting himself to her verbal onslaught. I decided to drop my questioning for the moment and enjoy the lunch and the surroundings. The last thing I wanted to do was to miss experiencing Bali because I was obsessed with the murder investigation and Jeremy Johns.
“You’re over here, Annabelle,” Kate called from the far end of the table, motioning to a seat between her and Brett that faced the overlook.
When I reached the chair, Brett patted it. “I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to you since yesterday. Are you okay?”
I nodded as I sat down next to him. “I’d rather not find any more dead bodies, but I’m fine.”
“You and me both.” Brett winked at me, the skin around his eyes crinkling, and I noticed for the first time how blue his eyes were. Combined with his blond hair and tan, they made him quintessentially Californian.
“Did you know that Dina only drank flavored water?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light.
“Sure,” he said, untying the ribbon around his box. “She even carried those little squeeze bottles of flavor drops in her purse. Like one of those people who carries around their own salad dressing.”
“So it was common knowledge?”
Brett laughed. “I think anyone who ever shared a meal with her would have noticed.”
So much for narrowing down the field.
Kate took the seat next to me, and Fern waved from across the table where he sat next to a woman I didn’t recognize with feathery brown hair. I tried to catch Richard’s eye, but he seemed unable to escape his conversation with Cathy. Jacob and Katherine were together again, and I spotted Alan sitting next to Kristina. He pointed to the silver flask peaking out of his shirt pocket as he raised his eyebrows at me. I smiled and shook my head, although the idea of a spiked drink was appealing. Although it might be nice to take the edge off interacting with some people, I wanted to keep my head clear as I pondered potential suspects.
A hand reached around me, unfurling my napkin and draping it across my lap. I twisted around and couldn’t help being surprised when I recognized one of the waiters from our resort. I turned all the way around and realized that all of the waiters were from our resort.
“They bussed them in,” Brett said when he noticed my expression.
“Our waiters followed us to Ubud?” Kate asked, following my gaze at the row of waiters standing behind us in white Nehru jackets and black pants.
Like Buster’s and Mack’s outfits minus the leather, I thought.
“Have you looked inside your box?” Brett asked me.
I wiggled the cover off the square basket and set it to the side. Inside was an artfully arranged box lunch with sealed containers of salad, cold noodles, and French macarons in a range of pastels. “Was the food transported here with the waiters?”
“I think so.” Brett popped open the plastic lid to his noodles.
Kate nudged me in the side. “That’s him.”
“That’s who?”
Kate pointed to a waiter standing against the wall. “That’s the waiter who delivered the drink to Dina yesterday.”
I studied the Balinese man with shiny black hair parted neatly to one side. “Are you sure?”
Kate narrowed her eyes. “Pretty sure. He was also one of the bartenders at the welcome dinner.”
“So he’s been at the scenes of both murders?”
“Yes,” Kate said. “But so have a lot of people in this room, including us.”
I pushed my chair back from the table. “Touché.”
“You’re going to talk to him now?” Kate asked, glancing around as people began eating.
“No time like the present.”
I walked around the table to where the man stood, his hands clasped in front of him.
“Can I help you with something?” he asked.
“I hope so,” I said, trying to keep my voice low so it couldn’t be overheard. “You were serving drinks yesterday at the beach, right.”
He nodded, but looked wary.
“You were told to deliver a drink to the woman who died, right?”
His face paled. “I already talked to the police.”
“I know. I just wanted to know who asked you to deliver it. Do you remember what they looked like?”
He shook his head. “The request was written out on hotel letterhead and was sitting on a tray with the drink when I came back to the service station. It looked official to me.”
“And you didn’t see anyone put it there?”
Another shake of the head. It was clear from the man’s face that he knew nothing. I thanked him and returned to my seat.
Kate looked at my expression. “No luck?”
“The delivery request was written on hotel letterhead. He didn’t see the person who left it or the drink.”
Kate tapped her bamboo fork against the side of her basket. “That does tell us one thing. It wasn’t a crime of passion. The killer is good at planning.”
I looked up and down the long table. “So that narrows our suspect list down to everyone.”
16
“Not everyone,” Kate said. “For one thing, we know it wasn’t any of our team. And I doubt Carol Ann would sabotage her own trip.”
“And the guys from Insider Weddings wouldn’t sponsor a trip just to go on a killing spree,” I added. “Plus, they’re way too sophisticated and charming to be murderers.”
“So we’re looking for an unsophisticated, ill-mannered rube among a group of world-renowned wedding planners?” Kate asked. “That should be easy.”
Kate made a good point. No one on this trip fit the mold of serial killer. I removed my box of macarons, setting them to the side as I peered down the length of the table. Everyone from our group had taken a seat, and I spotted Jeremy at the other end of the table next to Dahlia. The blond assistant did not look thrilled to be beside him, and even from this distance I noticed her left eye twitch.
“Has Carol Ann’s assistant ever been to Inspire?” I asked, turning in my seat to face Brett.
Brett scanned the table until he spotted Dahlia, then shook his head. “The blonde who looks perpetually overwhelmed? Nope. I don’t think she’s worked for Carol Ann for more than a year tops, and this is her first job. Why?”
“She doesn’t look happy to be next to Jeremy. I wondered if she’d met him before or if her dislike was new to this trip.”
Brett stirred his noodles with his bamboo fork. “That guy? I don’t think anyone is happy to be stuck talking to him whether they’ve met him before or not. Luckily, I knew to steer clear after knowing him at Inspire.”
“But you didn’t hang out with his group?” I asked, waiting for Brett to swallow his bite before he could answer.
He shook his head. “Not by a long shot. Any group whose sole purpose is to hook up and convince other people to do the same is not for me.”
I cringed. “Is that what their big sex scandal was about?”
“Which one? I feel like they caused a scandal just about every year. Usually by themselves, but sometimes they liked to play matchmaker.”
I opened my square plastic container of salad then hunted around the bottom of my box for the fork. “Do you remember why the other people in the group decided to ostracize Jeremy?”
Brett shifted in his seat. “Did they? I guess I wasn’t hooked in enough to know the details.”
“It just seems coincidental that two of the women Jeremy used to pal around with turn up dead after they stop being friends with him.”
“Don’t get me wrong,“ Brett said, “I’m not a fan of Jeremy’s, but do you think he would kill two people over a spat at a wedding conference?”
I thought Jeremy Johns would kill someone for stealing his parking space, but I didn’t say that to Brett. I took a bite of mixed greens tossed in coconut vinaigrette and marveled at how crisp the leaves were. Had they packed these boxes in ice? As I took another bite of the refreshing salad, I looked down the table and noticed that Dahlia had left her seat.
“I’ll be right back,” I said to Kate.
“Where are you going now?”
“I want to talk to Jeremy. I think he has more of a motive than he’s been letting on.”
