Chapter Fourteen
W e were preparing to leave to meet Pearl at her cottage on the Ellis estate, our heads still swirling from all the information we’d gathered last night, when Tottington waved to me.
“Miss Marty, just a quick update, if you will.”
“You can give me whatever you want, after that stuffed brioche French toast you made for breakfast with cinnamon maple bacon. Chef’s kiss, sir.”
He smiled, his cheeks turning the slightest shade of red. “’Twas my pleasure. Now, about that update. I admit, I’m quite invested in this particular mystery. Thus, I spent the better portion of last night watching security videos from the Ellis estate. I know I shall regret that come afternoon tea, but there you have it.”
I grinned at him. I loved that Tottington was fitting in so well. He’d become an integral part of the agency and our group, and we loved having him. “So what did you find?”
He gave me a knowing glance. “That’s just it, Miss. I found nothing . Absolutely zero hint that Mr. Ellis and the fair Zinnia were in any way involved in an affair.”
We’d already decided Ron was doing something out of whack, but we couldn’t figure out what or why. Why would he declare he was the father of Zinnia’s child? “How far back did you go?”
He yawned, giving me a flash of his white teeth. “Almost four months. There were moments I wasn’t certain my eyes wouldn’t fall right to the floor, but if and when he interacted with Zinnia, it was always aboveboard.”
I cupped his jaw, giving it a gentle pat. “You’re a valued member of this team, Tottington, and let me be the first to tell you, I treasure your input and most of all, you.”
He touched my hand briefly and gave me a nod. “And I all of you. Even our Dark Lord.”
I giggled. “She really loves you, my friend. It’s a valuable love to have. Believe me, I know. It makes up for all of her foul language and unfiltered thoughts.”
Tottington smiled again, warm and genuine, his whole face lighting up. “I have borne witness.”
“Thanks for the info, but I have to go before that very Dark Lord chews me a new one for making us late because I took the time to put on some lip gloss. Let me know if you find anything else.”’
His laughter followed me out of the castle and toward Keegan’s SUV, one he made me promise we wouldn’t let anyone knock into the lake with us still inside.
I slid into the backseat, my legs sore, my arms like noodles after a crappy night’s sleep. The human half of me was wiped out, and we were nearing the end of our list of suspects.
Wanda flipped up the visor, which she’d been using to fix her makeup. “Now that we’ve all slept, shall we discuss?”
“Now that two of you have slept, you mean. Greg’s off on business so I got about an hour before Charlie woke up.”
I reached forward and squeezed Nina’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. Had I heard her, I would have gotten up with her. I appreciate everything you’re doing for Charmaine and Rafe by letting them stay at the castle. Thank you.”
She reached back and squeezed my hand. “What’s mine is yours. Except for Tater Tot. Lay off him, Blondie,” she teased.
I clapped my hands on my lap, sitting back to get comfortable. “Okay, so let’s see where we’re at. One. We know Rafe is the father of Zinnia’s baby, but we don’t know why Ron is claiming he had an affair with her and it was his baby.”
Smoothing her hair into a subtle updo, Wanda agreed. “Yes. Two. Every Ellis except for Rafe and Eve thinks they killed Zinnia, but we know it couldn’t have been Rafe because his alibi checks out, and we’re going to check on Eve’s alibi with Pearl.”
“Three. Ron didn’t know Zinnia and Raf were in love, so he’s lying through his teeth and making an ass out of himself by claiming he was having an affair with her. He’s also pissed his wife right the hell off, and even if it turns out he didn’t kill Zinnia, their marriage might be over for putting her through this.”
Wanda turned around to look at me, holding her hands up in the air. “Four. Where the heck is Ron? Why would he do something so stupid like break out of jail if he wasn’t guilty? Because even if he isn’t guilty, he sure looks like he is now.”
Blowing out a breath, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I spoke to Eve this morning, and she hasn’t heard a word from him.”
Wanda rolled her eyes. “Neither has the tool, Stan.”
“Let’s forget about Ron for now and focus on what we do have. A kooky talisman that appeared and disappeared in the evidence photos, what seemed to be an argument between Pearl and Zinnia. At least to Richard’s ears. A guy who tried to plow me down at Pearl’s. Our attempted assassination, two confessions of murder. Not a hint of anything inappropriate between Zinnia and Ron, according to a review of video via Tottington. A bad dream Charmaine had about a red hair clip. A disagreement between Ron and Zinnia that occurred last week, according to Eve. And that’s about the size of it.”
“A hair clip she couldn’t have seen,” Wanda reminded. “I received a sworn statement from the council police from Harris Fowler, Ron’s assistant. He says Charmaine was with him when Zinnia was killed. We still need to verify, because, well, council police and their penchant for crappy detective work, but if she really wasn’t there, how did she know about the red hair clip on the floor?”
“Maybe Charmaine saw her earlier that morning, before she was killed?” Nina suggested.
Maybe… “Then how did she come up with the statue hitting Zinnia on the head and knocking the clip from her hair?”
“I wish I fucking knew. Nothing about this shit’s made any sense.”
“Do any of us still feel like Ron’s guilty?” Wanda asked. “Because I’m teetering. There’s no motive if he wasn’t having an affair with her and the baby wasn’t his, right?”
“Right,” I said with a stab in the air of my finger. “But that leaves us with…no one. Everyone has an alibi. Rafe was at school. Charmaine was with Harris, Eve with Pearl. Richard and Elroy were off duty, and Armand claims to have been in the bathroom. Though, I guess we don’t have proof of that. But why would he kill Zinnia?”
Crap, crap, crap.
“Can we talk about how weird Ron was yesterday before he escaped?” Wanda asked. “It felt like someone spoon-fed him that dialogue. ‘I don’t know. I don’t remember. I killed Zinnia.’ What is that about? His eyes actually glaze over anytime he’s asked a question about Zinnia. I noticed it a bit on our initial meeting, but it was really evident yesterday.”
Nina pulled off the highway and headed for the Ellis estate. “You know what it reminds me of?”
“What?” we asked in unison.
“Hypnotizing. You know, when you go to one of those Vegas shows where they grab you from the audience and hypnotize you with one word. So whenever they say the word, you bawk like a damn chicken?”
I sat with that for a minute as we pulled into the Ellis estate. “You know, would it be so far-fetched? I mean, who’da thunk a talisman could change your scent, but here we are.”
Wanda popped open the door. “Point. Now, let’s get this over with. I hate disturbing Pearl’s grief, but we have to do what’s necessary to figure out who killed Zinnia. For all concerned.”
Wanda’s somber tone hit me straight between the eyes. We didn’t have a whole lot in the way of viable suspects anymore. Something had to give.
Please, Universe. Let something give.
Pearl, a lovely woman with clear skin, a short bob of dark, curly hair, and sad green eyes, greeted us at the door of her cottage. She looked as though she’d lived a thousand lives. Her eyes were lined with worry, her face drawn and pale, her voice just above a whisper.
This wasn’t the Pearl I remembered. She’d been vivacious and vividly alive. Colorful, happy, always laughing. This woman was a shadow of her former self.
“Thank you for talking with us, Pearl. These are my friends, Wanda Jefferson and Nina Statleon. You may have met them at one function or another.”
She opened the door and welcomed us in. “I made tea,” she said softly, showing us to her small living room where she pointed to a place for us to sit.
“Oh, you didn’t have to go to any trouble, Pearl,” I assured her, taking a seat next to Wanda.
Her lower lip trembled. “It’s no trouble. It feels good to do something…something almost normal.”
“Of course. I know this is a silly question, but how are you? Is there anything we can get you?”
She looked down at her hands as she took a seat opposite us, and tears began to fall from her eyes, splashing against her hands. “I think I’m still in shock. I don’t know how…how I’ll keep going without my…my girl.”
I stood up and went to her immediately, pulling her into my embrace. “Oh, Pearl. I’m so sorry for your loss. I know those are empty words, but I want you to know, if you need anything , all you have to do is call.”
She took a deep breath. “Thank you, Mrs. Flaherty. You’ve always been so kind. That’s why I want to help you find who did this to my baby.”
I pulled away from her, sitting back on my haunches. “So, you don’t think Ron did this?”
Her entire body deflated, as though someone had let the air out of her tires. Pressing a fist to her mouth, she fought a sob. “No! He loved Zinnia. He gave me this job when she was just a baby, after her father left. He let me live here. He paid me well. He paid for Zinnia’s college tuition! Why on earth would he ever hurt Zinnia?”
The question of the day.
“What about his marriage to Eve?” Wanda asked, handing her some tissues. “Was everything okay?”
She looked at us with confused eyes. “As far as I know they were very happy. He was so in love with her, and she was mad about him.”
Good gravy, if I heard that everything was unicorns and swizzle sticks one more time, I was going to punch my way through a wall.
“What about where you were when Zinnia was… Were you really in the study with Eve, going over some upcoming events?”
She looked me right in the eye. “I was. If she told you that, it’s true. We were talking over the next month’s events. She hated parties and such, but part of her job as Mr. Ellis’s wife was to attend functions.”
I didn’t want to do it, but I had no choice. “Then I have a very sensitive question to ask you, so forgive me for possibly making things worse.”
She reached for my hand. “I said I’d help, and I will. Just say whatever you have to say. Please. ”
Gulping, I clenched her hand harder. “Did you know Zinnia was pregnant?”
Her shoulders bucked, and she collapsed with a wail. “Yes! She…she told me.”
“And did she tell you who the father was?”
But Pearl shook her head, her curls bouncing around her jaw. “No. She didn’t—but I knew it was Rafe. So I asked her. You couldn’t hide the way they looked at each other. She begged me to keep it to myself. She even gave me a letter he left her before he went back to school, for safekeeping.”
Nina pushed off from the wall. “So you don’t believe Ron was the father?”
Her eyes flew open wide her gasp sharp. “No! Why would I ever think that?”
“Because he’s been telling everyone he killed her and he fathered the child,” I said, my throat growing tight.
She reared up in her seat. “No, no, no ! That’s a lie, Mrs. Flaherty! Mr. Ellis would never, ever . He loves Mrs. Ellis and he respected Zinnia. Why would he say such a thing?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, Pearl.”
She twisted her fingers together in a ball, her shortly clipped nails digging into the backs of her hands. “And now he’s escaped? Poor Mr. Ellis! I can’t imagine what he must be going through. You have to find out how this happened, because I’ll never for a second believe it was Mr. Ellis!”
“Can you think of anyone who’d want to hurt Zinnia, Pearl? Did she have an argument with someone? Was anyone at school upset with her?”
“No! I can’t think of anyone who didn’t love Zinnia.”
Nina popped her lips. “Then why did one of the security guards hear her talkin’ to you about someone who was gonna kill her?”
She made a face through her tears. “ What ?” Then she paused. “Wait, whoever told you that obviously didn’t tell you the whole story. She wasn’t saying that because anyone actually wanted to kill her. She was talking about her thesis, and how she had to get to work on it or her professor would kill her. It didn’t have anything to do with Mr. Ellis.”
We all looked at each other over Pearl’s head. Another dead end.
Damn, damn, damn.
Who was left? No one.
I stood up, my knee aching, my heart bruised. I’m not one to give up, but damn it all, I was ready to throw in the towel. We were in a corner with nowhere to go.
But Wanda had one last question. “Do you know why Zinnia was in the vault room that day, Pearl?”
She shook her head. “I’ve asked myself that a thousand times. It’s not somewhere she went very often. None of us did. We knew how important Mr. Ellis’s job was, and we respected it and our elders’ history.”
The end.
Defeat settled into my soul, and I think my BFFs knew it. Wanda took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “We’ll let you rest now, Pearl. If you can think of anything that might help clear Mr. Ellis’s name, please call us.”
I turned to her as she rose to see us out. “Thank you, Pearl, for all your help. I have to pop over to the mansion to grab some things for Charmaine, and then we’ll be out of your hair. We’ll check in with you, but like Wanda said, please let us know if you need anything.” I drew her to me, giving her a hug, hating that we had no answers.
“Thank you, Mrs. Flaherty. I will. Please send Charmaine and Rafe my love. I hope they’re all right.”
As we left, I happened to see a picture of Pearl with the Ellises, smiling and laughing, all of them with their arms around each other, and I fought tears.
Two families completely ruined—and I couldn’t figure out who’d ripped them apart.