The Secret Ingredient to Murder, page 16
While he waited, he dialed Marquetta.
“Well, what a nice surprise,” she chirped. “I’m hearing from my husband in the middle of the day. Don’t tell me you’ve solved the case already.”
“No such luck. I’m actually calling because I got a call from Miss Redmond.”
“Frankie? Why?” Marquetta sucked in a breath, and her tone quickly escalated to what sounded like panic. “Did something happen to Alex? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. But, the thing is, Miss Redmond says she gave Alex detention because she was being disruptive. Do you have any idea what she might be going through? Do you think it’s her relationship with Veronica?”
“I don’t know, Rick. I’m not so sure it’s Veronica. Lately, Alex has been concerned about Frankie. She wants to get her married. Alex might be trying to play matchmaker again.”
Rick groaned, the thought of Alex staging another of her operations causing a lump to form in his stomach. “Are you sure?”
“She hasn’t given me all the details. But she was asking some pointed questions. Do you want me to talk to her tonight?”
“Actually, I might want to do that on the way home from school. I have a feeling I’ll be asked to take her home.”
Marquetta chuckled. “You think Frankie’s going to release her into your custody?”
Rick felt another groan coming on. “Just what I need. A jailbird daughter.”
“I guess we’ll find out. Won’t we?”
“Yeah. We will. But right now, I have to get back to my surveillance.” He told her about the accident with Amy Kama and how Adam had asked him to see if he could find Penny Feeney.
”Adam really needs another deputy in addition to Amy,” Marquetta said.
“I know. But we all know the mayor won’t let that happen as long as she’s got me as a freebie.”
“You know Francine, Rick. She can be a tightwad when she wants to be.”
“Hey, I have to go. I might have just spotted our mystery woman.”
“Be careful. Don’t take any chances with her.”
“I know,” he said absently as he watched a woman climb the stairs to the second floor. She was attractive with cascading dark hair. There was a deceptive innocence about her. She was petite, yet she held a commanding presence. At the door to Room 207, she stopped and twirled a lock of hair as she surveyed the courtyard. Rick felt a sudden chill. Did that friendly smile of hers mask a life of crime and constant vigilance? He was about to find out.
He stepped through the open doorway and walked toward the stairs to the second floor.
32
Rick
Rick knocked on the door to Room 207, still unsure of what he would say when the door opened. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the drapes in the window next to it swished apart, and the dark-haired woman he’d spied from the laundry room peered out at him.
He smiled inwardly, recalling how Ethel Maynard had done the same thing. Age, in this case, didn’t matter. Cautious people were cautious. Something else he now knew about Penny Feeney. Since he didn’t have a badge or an officer standing next to him to make this official, subterfuge felt like the only option. He’d have to fall back on his old reporter’s skills of weaving stories to put subjects at ease.
The woman behind the window eyed him carefully, then spoke in a stern voice muffled slightly by the single-pane window. “Who are you?”
“Rick Atwood. Arthur at Bound to Please told me about you. I’d like to talk to you about buying the copy of The Sun Also Rises you purchased from him.”
“I’m not interested in selling,” she snapped, then slapped the drapes closed.
Rick knocked again, this time, more forcefully.
When she jerked open the door, she glared at him. “I said I’m not interested.”
Keeping his voice low and reassuring, he did his best to look slightly sheepish. “I’m sorry to bother you, but we share similar tastes in literature, and I’d had my eye on the book. I should have bought it when I had the chance, but I dawdled around.”
Penny Feeney was a contradiction, a mixture of strength and vulnerability. Her eyes were sharp, her posture defensive, but Rick picked up an undercurrent of fear. Standing opposite her, Rick averted his gaze from hers to avoid seeming too confident and focused on the threadbare carpet.
Though there was a hint of amusement in her voice, her arms remained crossed, and her body language, still closed off. “What do you expect to accomplish by coming to my motel room door and giving me a line like that?”
The sound of Rick’s chuckle echoed in the small room. “I like to keep people on their toes.”
She looked over her shoulder. Her gaze flicked past the dull and faded paint on the walls and seemed drawn to the book now lying on the scruffy bedspread. Despite their surroundings, there was a hint of curiosity in her expression.
“Well,” he continued, “if you’re not interested in selling it, I guess I’ll just have to come clean.”
Immediately, Penny was on guard. She stood straighter and scrutinized him. “Come clean about what?”
Taking a deep breath, Rick prepared to drop the bombshell. “I’m a reporter working for the San Ladron Times. I’m working on a story about the death of Gideon Styles.”
Penny blinked, but then her eyes widened with shock. It took Rick by surprise when she laughed. It was a harsh, bitter sound. “You’re joking, right? This is some kind of sick joke?”
Rick shook his head. He wasn’t sure how much he should reveal, but his instincts told him to play dumb. Let her be the one to create the narrative, then blow holes in it later. “I’m afraid it’s not a joke. Were you having an affair with Gideon Styles?”
Penny’s laughter died in her throat. She stared at Rick, her eyes hard. “You’re telling me you came here, pretended to be interested in some book I bought, so you could dig up dirt on me and Gideon?”
Excellent, Rick thought. She’d bought the lie. Rick pretended to wince. “It’s not like that, Penny—”
“But it is, isn’t it?” Penny interrupted, her voice rising. “You’re like all the rest. You don’t care about the truth. All you want is a juicy story.”
“That’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I told you, I’m working on a story about Gideon’s murder.”
“And you think I had something to do with it? Well, you’re wrong. I didn’t kill him.”
“I know that,” Rick lied. Good. They were past the ‘who are you’ stage, and she was fully invested in proving her innocence—whether she was or not. “All I want is the truth. That’s why I’m here.”
Penny watched him suspiciously, her brows furrowed. Finally, she ran a hand through her hair as though she were preparing to flirt her way out of this conversation.
Rick cut her off by stepping forward, which forced her to step back into the room. He kept his gaze steady. “How did you know Gideon Styles?”
“I didn’t. Not really.”
The blatant lie stopped Rick. Now what? He was obviously not going to get the truth out of this woman. He watched as she flicked a cascade of dark hair back over her shoulder. Rick cataloged the move as one of her possible tells. Hoping he had a way to tell if Penny was lying, he chose to play this subterfuge all the way through. “Multiple witnesses will put you in Gideon Styles’s room.”
“Fine!” She shook her head. “So I went into his room. Big deal. He propositioned me.”
“Gideon Styles propositioned you?”
“What? You think I’m not attractive enough to have men want me?”
It was nearly impossible to miss the hard edge in her voice, and Rick’s first thought was, vanity, oh vanity. He made a show of letting his eyes roam over her body. When he’d finished his overt assessment, he noted that she didn’t blush. “Actually, I was thinking exactly the opposite.”
A sly smile formed at the corner of her mouth, and she fingered her chin as she held his gaze. “That’s right, he did. And I thought, why not? A little fun never hurt anyone.”
Her direct attempt at flirtation caught Rick off guard, and, once again, he realized he’d underestimated Penny Feeney. He needed to ramp up his game if he was going to survive this round. “I see that you’re wearing an engagement ring. What about your fiancé?” Rick pressed, crossing his arms over his chest. “He was okay with this?”
Penny laughed, a hollow sound that echoed around the room. “My fiancé is a stick-in-the-mud. Always working. Never has time for me. He was supposed to come on this trip, but work took precedence. As always.”
“That doesn’t sound like someone who’d be okay with his fiancée having a fling.”
Penny’s smile faded, and her gaze drifted away from Rick's. “He’s not just a stick-in-the-mud. He’s jealous, too. Overbearing. He’s stalked me before. I’ve been scared, really scared. I filed charges against him once.”
Rick watched her closely, noting how her hands shook slightly as she spoke. Oh, he thought, she was good. Very good. This woman was a master of charm and persuasion. “And yet you’re still planning to marry him?”
“I don’t know,” Penny admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “We're taking a break.”
“Then why are you still wearing an engagement ring?”
“It keeps the riff-raff away,” she snapped. “Why do you care?”
Choosing to deflect rather than answer her question, Rick changed subjects. “Tell me more about Gideon. What did you know about him?”
Penny hesitated, her gaze flicking up to meet Rick’s. “What do you mean?”
“Like, what did he do for a living? Where was he from?” Rick asked, watching her reaction closely.
Penny faltered, then her eyes locked onto his, and the slight smile returned. “I don’t know. We didn’t have much time to talk.”
A rush of adrenaline coursed through Rick’s veins. His heart beat faster, his senses sharpened, and he now had a crystal clear picture of Penny Feeney. The momentary flush was as if he’d stepped into the eye of a storm, where everything around him moved in slow motion, yet he remained in control. It was time to exert some pressure and change the game slightly.
“If you and Gideon were having this impetuous affair, why weren’t you seen in public together?”
Penny laughed, a genuine, surprised laugh that lifted the tension and gave Rick a glimpse of the woman beneath the defenses. But then her laughter died away, and she was once again the guarded professional.
“Are you kidding? I couldn’t be seen with him. If word got back to my fiancé, he’d come after me.” She looked away, her hands clenching tight. “I had to be careful.”
“I see,” Rick said. The truth was probably that it wasn’t her fiancé who would come after her, but the police once they connected Styles to the break-in. He reached out to touch her shoulder. “Is your fiancé abusive?”
Penny recoiled, but her surprise was short-lived and quickly replaced by a determined look on her face. “Yes,” she said firmly. “But I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“What’s your fiance’s name?” he asked, wondering if it might actually be Gideon Styles.
She barked out another laugh, then said, “No comment. I am not giving you that information.”
“No problem. I can find it. I just thought you might want to save me some time. From what I understand, the police have a few suspects. At the top of the list is a man by the name of Tyler Winkle. Do you know him?”
Penny’s eyes widened. It was only the second time during this conversation he’d been able to surprise her, but dropping Tyler’s name had gotten a reaction. A big one.
“Well?” Rick pressed.
“No comment. This interview’s over.”
She reached up to grab the edge of the door as if she were going to slam it in Rick’s face. He pressed his hand against the room number on the door.
“I’ll go, for now. But this isn’t over. I have plenty more questions.” The door slammed as Rick walked away. He smiled to himself, confident that he’d gotten to Penny Feeney. The question was, if she’d killed Gideon, why was she still in town?
33
Alex
I’m sitting at a desk in the front row of Mrs. Wallaby’s classroom. I wanted to hide out in the back, but she made me sit where she could keep an eye on me. Not that she’s actually watching, she’s actually half asleep. Ever since she told me my dad was coming to pick me up, I’ve had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. He’s gonna be totally unhappy with me. While Mrs. Wallaby kinda drifts off again, all I can do is sit here, pretend to work on my homework, and wait.
When my dad comes into the classroom, his face is totally serious. Mrs. Wallaby jolts awake when she hears him, looks at the clock, then tells him he can take me home.
“Hey, Daddy.” It’s super hard not to sound like I’m all bummed out. Especially when I am.
“Alex,” he says. “I spoke to Miss Redmond. We need to talk.”
Oh, man. He’s super disappointed in me, and that makes me feel even worse.
“I can explain,” I blurt out, but I sound like one of those crooks on the witness stand in the old movies. I’m guilty, and we both know it.
He raises a hand, cutting me off. “Not here, kiddo. Let’s go home.” He doesn’t say a word on the ride back to the B&B. In fact, he hasn’t said a word since he bailed me out of detention jail.
When he turns off the engine, I say, “Daddy, I’m super sorry I disappointed you.”
All he says is, “Your mom and I would like to talk to you together. She’ll meet us in the kitchen.”
I lead the way, and when I see my mom, my heart breaks again. I never wanna disappoint Mom, and yet—I can see it on her face.
“Sit down, Alex,” my dad says.
He takes the stool across from mine and drums his fingers on the tabletop.
“Alex, I have to say that I was surprised when Miss Redmond called me.” He stops, takes a breath, then continues, “When I spoke to her at the school, she said you’ve been disruptive in class.”
I open my mouth to protest, but he holds up a hand. “She also said you’ve been asking her some personal questions. About whether she’s single.”
My face heats up, and I drop my gaze to the table. “I was just trying to help,” I mumble.
Mom leans forward and looks at me. “Sweetie, what did I tell you about playing matchmaker?”
“That it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Right.” She reaches out, puts her hand under my chin, and lifts it until I’m looking her in the eye. “I know how much you like Miss Redmond. But you need to focus on your schoolwork, not other people’s love lives.”
“And certainly not be disruptive in class,” my dad adds. “Which brings me to the big question. Kiddo, are you having trouble adjusting to the new baby? Are all the responsibilities of being a big sister getting to be too much?”
What? What’s Baby Jack got to do with…oh, they think I’ve gone mental.
Mom drops her hand to mine and squeezes. “Sweetie, if you need to talk because things are getting to be more than you can handle…”
All of a sudden, my face is hot, and I can feel the tears streaming down my cheeks. “I can’t believe you guys think I’ve gone crazy! No! It’s not Baby Jack. I was just—I thought that Miss Redmond and Mr. Rhymes would make such a perfect couple. They like so many of the same things.”
My dad looks totally lost. He looks at Mom, then at me. “What does our guest have to do with this?”
“Rick, I didn’t tell you because I talked to Alex and thought we’d worked it out.”
“Alex, you got lucky with me and Marquetta. I understand why you were trying to get us together.”
“What your dad’s trying to say, Sweetie, is that you had a personal stake in us forming a relationship. You’re not related to Miss Redmond. What you’re doing there is called meddling. And most people don’t appreciate other people meddling in their lives. Do you understand?”
“I messed up.” I hang my head, and a tear dribbles down my nose. Just before it drips off, I wipe it away. Now, Miss Redmond will never get together with Barrington Rhymes. And they’ll never see the cherry blossoms together or get to do anything else. I feel awful ‘cause I might have ruined everything. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
But if I’m the one who made the mess, I should fix it. Right?
My dad gets that look on his face he gets when he’s trying to make a hard decision. “Alex, I also want to talk to you about Veronica. From the beginning, I haven’t been comfortable with you having a friend who’s so much older. I’ll be talking to Adam about his request to have you spy on her and Tyler. Especially because I think he’s barking up the wrong tree.”
“You’re grounding me?” My jaw drops open. This is so not fair. “But Daddy!”
“No, Alex. I’m not grounding you. I just don’t want you around Veronica anymore. I’m convinced that having you around her is part of the problem.”
“Rick. We should talk about this.”
My dad shakes his head. “No, Marquetta. I have to put my foot down. Alex is my daughter, and I have to put a stop to this.”
“She’s my daughter, too!” Mom explodes.
Whoa. Mom’s face is super red, and she’s got a fire in her eyes that says my dad struck a nerve. I’ve never seen her lose her cool before, and it’s obvious she’s totally not backing down on this.
My dad’s face softens, and he reaches across the table to take her hand. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong. Of course, she’s your daughter. What I should have said was that we have another suspect, and it’s neither Tyler Winkle nor Veronica. There’s little to be gained because Tyler has lost all memory of the day when Veronica fell in the planter.”
Oh, wow. Nobody told me about the memory thing. Or another suspect. “He doesn’t remember anything about the murder?”
