Euphoria Lane (24 page)

“Someone left me a note telling me to stop investigating. Nothing to worry about.”

“I beg to differ. If you received a note, Tess wrote it. I’m sure of it.” His facial features twisted in disgust and, possibly, fear for Andi. “I knew it wasn’t a good idea to involve you. Where is Lenny? Why isn’t he handling my case?”

“Lenny is out of town, but I assure you he’s getting a lot done on his laptop.”

“I’m not paying him to play games on his computer,” he snapped.

“He isn’t playing games,” Luke added with obvious annoyance. Andi was placing her life in danger to help this man. He had no right to make ungrounded assumptions. He placed his hand on Andi’s back, reminding her he was there if she needed him.

“Lenny has checked every hotel, motel, and bed-and-breakfast in the valley,” she said, “but so far he hasn’t found her.”

“I could have done that much.”

“Lenny can persuade people to talk,” she retorted. “And he’s thorough. He’ll be back in town soon, but he wanted me to ask you a few more questions before he returns to the office and takes over completely.”

“You’re stepping down?”

“Yes,” she answered, regretfully.

“I’m not so sure I want Lenny working the case either. Tess is dangerous.”

Andi pressed her notebook against her chest. “The choice is yours, but I assure you, Lenny is not afraid of your wife.”

“He ought to be. The whole world should be afraid of that crazy woman.” Doctor Owens ran his thumb over his five o’clock shadow. “What do you want to know?”

Andi stepped inside the foyer. “Could Tess have an accomplice?”

His eyes narrowed as an angry scowl emerged. “You mean a boyfriend?”

“Or just a friend?” Her qualification did nothing to alter his expression.

Doctor Owens sighed and then headed toward the living room. Andi nudged Luke in the same direction as the vet lowered himself dejectedly down onto a floral ottoman.

The doctor rubbed his temples. “I didn’t want to admit Tess might be having an affair. I guess it’s time for me to face the facts.”

Luke studied the spotless condo, remembering what the former neighbor had said about the doctor’s expectations. “So you think there might be someone else?”

“I saw a man in a black sedan parked outside the hotel when I gave Tess the money she demanded,” Doctor Owens said, wearing a bewildered expression.

Judging by the man’s ego, Luke suspected the doctor couldn’t fathom the fact that his wife would want to cheat on him.

Andi jotted down a note. “What did he look like?”

“Short, dark hair.”

That didn’t help much. The mailman had short, dark hair. Ninety percent of the men in Euphoria had short, dark hair.

The loud, shrill ringing of the phone took the vet out of the room.

Andi peered up at Luke. “Let’s check out the garage.”

“Why?”

“Just follow me.”

He grabbed her arm. “I don’t think we should do this, Andi.”

“You said you want to help, so help already.” She quickly walked down the hall and slipped into a room dimly lit by the sun peeking through the cracks between the metal garage door and the outside wall. Luke followed her inside.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

“Frost.” She lifted the lid of the freezer and peered down into its depths. Digging around, she reached the bottom of the stack of meat and pulled out a package of sausages.

The door swung open. “What are you doing out here?” Doctor Owens stepped onto the cement floor.

“Proving my theory,” Andi said. “When did you buy this meat?” She held the sausage links high enough for him to see.

“I don’t know, maybe a few months ago.”

“There should be a layer of frost on these packages,” she said smugly.

The vet narrowed his eyes. “Have you lost your mind? What does frost have to do with finding my wife?”

“I believe Tess ran off because she killed Bernice. She stashed the president of the HOA in here, and then later that night, sneaked the body into Bernice’s home when you were asleep.”

“She’s not strong enough to . . .” The man looked stricken. “Oh . . . you think she had the boyfriend
before
she left me.”

“I spoke to your old neighbor,” Andi managed to keep a neutral tone. “She said Tess swore she’d get even with you.”

“I lost my temper
one
time.” He shook his pointer finger to help emphasize the word. “Just once. I felt horrible. I promised I would never lay a hand on her again. And I didn’t. I swear.”

In Luke’s opinion, a man should never hit his wife, not even once, but he kept his thoughts to himself for the sake of Andi’s investigation. “You might want to take a vacation,” Luke suggested. “We’re convinced Tess is our killer, and she did threaten to get even with you.”

“I’ll leave town if Andi and Lenny promise to drop the case,” Doctor Owens said. “Let the police find her.”

No matter what she said in response to the doctor’s statement, Luke knew she wouldn’t give up the investigation. She would work to prove the reverend’s innocence. She wasn’t about to let him fry for a crime he didn’t commit.

“I’ll tell Lenny his services are no longer required,” Andi promised.

“It’s for the best.” Doctor Owens escorted them to the door. “I don’t want to find you dead on your driveway.”

At ten the next morning, Andi crept out of the condo to meet Meg. Jessie had come home during the middle of the night and gone straight to bed after they had taken a moment or two to discuss the flyers Harry had left on the cars in the library parking lot. So far, there hadn’t been any fallout at the diner where Jessie was working undercover.

Not wanting to wake her sister, Andi closed the door quietly and stepped out to the front of the building. On her way to Meg’s condo, she spotted a squad car entering the property. It turned in the opposite direction. Too curious to ignore the situation, she rushed to follow.

The police officers parked in front of Reverend Nichols’s condo.

What now?

She walked closer, not sure what to do. At this point, he was still their client.

Should I wake Jessie? What would I say? I really don’t have any information to report. The officers might just have returned to ask the reverend more questions.

Scanning the front of his condo, she spotted an open window. Did she dare? Was it illegal to spy on the police? Her curiosity getting the better of her, she crept closer, and then sunk down to the wet grass. Wet pants were a small price to pay for information.

The voices of the officers carried through the crisp, morning air loud and clear.

“But I didn’t do anything,” The reverend spoke softly, but still loud enough for her to hear.

“Reverend Nichols, a bag of peanuts was found in a bush near the professor’s condo. It has your fingerprints on it. We are placing you under arrest for the attempted murder of Helen Matthews.”

“No. I would never harm Helen. You have to believe me."

The officer the deeper voice read him his rights.

Andi heard the front door open. Not wanting the officers to catch her eavesdropping, she jumped to her feet and strolled around front.

The reverend stepped off the porch with his head hung low and his hands cuffed behind his back. Nearing the street, he spotted her. “Andi, I swear I’m innocent. Tell Lenny to meet me at the police station.”

A lump formed in her throat.
What now?

Lenny couldn’t meet him anywhere. The officers led him to the squad car. She recognized her sister’s friend Joe. He ignored her as he opened the backseat of the cruiser.

A sense of urgency gripped her. “Don’t talk. Call your lawyer!”

Reverend Nichols nodded his answer just before climbing inside.

The officer with dark hair and a mustache, one she had never met before, glared at her as he slammed the back door shut. Joe shook his head at her. He would have a talk with Jessie, who would have a talk with her. Joe clearly didn’t know Jessie had already bought the agency or that the reverend was her client.

Andi stood helplessly by as Reverend Nichols stared at her through the window with sad, defeated eyes, pleading for her to save him. As soon as the police cruiser left Euphoria, she ran home as fast as her feet would carry her. Pushing open the front door, she gasped for breath. First thing in the morning, she vowed, she would start jogging again. Despite the sharp pain in her side, she hurried to her sister’s room.

“Jessie, the police arrested Reverend Nichols!” Andi shoved her sister’s shoulder to wake her, but got no response. “They think he tried to kill Helen.” Still not getting a response, Andi yanked the covers off the bed. “Jessie, wake up!”

“I heard you,” she mumbled, turning over and pulling the pillow on her head.

“You have to do something. He’s innocent. Tess tried to kill Helen,
not
Reverend Nichols.”

Jessie opened one lid. “The evidence says otherwise. The guys are just doing their job. If he’s innocent, the truth will come out. Now let me sleep.”

Andi bounced on the end of the bed to keep her sister from falling back to sleep. “Come on Jess, you thought he was innocent, you said so yourself. And we both know it would have been simple for Tess to break into his condo and steal a bag of peanuts. She’s framing him.”

“There is no evidence pointing to Tess.”

“You need to do something, Jessie. I promised the reverend I would call Lenny for him.”

Now fully awake, her sister tossed the pillow to the other side of the bed and sat straight up. Her disheveled blonde hair, smeared dark-blue eyeliner, and worn garnet-colored lipstick gave her a crazed-hooker look. “You promised to stop playing detective!”

“He made me promise him. I couldn’t say no.”

“He
made
you promise? Did he hold a gun on you?”

“Ah, come on, Jess. Have you ever seen puppy dog eyes on a grown man? It’s pitiful. It’s a million times worse if the man is a minister. You
have
to help him. And since you are working undercover,
I
have to help him, too.”

Jessie threw off the covers. “Andi, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I
know
Tess is involved in this case. She didn’t just run off with a boyfriend. I feel it in my gut.”

Andi tried the puppy-dog look on her sister, but Jessie only rolled her eyes.

“What about the fires?” Andi tossed out. “Tess burned down her previous residence and someone set fire to pictures in Helen’s condo. She has a thing for fire.”

Jessie yawned. “The arson investigator said a lit candle caused the fire that burned the house down. As for the fire in Helen’s living room, the only prints there were Helen’s and yours—along with your cohorts in chaos.”

“We had permission to be there. Helen asked Roxie to pack up her belongings for her.”

“I know.” Jessie wiggled into a pair of red, fluffy slippers. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve decided to continue working for Doctor Owens. The detectives are not overly motivated to find Tess since they think it’s a domestic dispute. I asked Dad to give the man a call, pretending to be Lenny. Doctor Owens is convinced Tess is going to show up in the middle of the night with a baseball bat. Dad promised him that we would find Tess, so the doctor kept us on the case.”

But Jessie was still working undercover. That meant she still needed Andi’s help. “What do you want me to do first?”

“Nothing. Dad will continue to play the role of Lenny.”

“What?!”
Could Jessie dig the knife any deeper?
“I handed you that case.”

“And Dad told me he never went to the mall with you to interview Reverend Nichols. You conducted the interview by yourself—after I told you I wanted Dad there to protect you.”

“The reverend wouldn’t go to the mall,” Andi mumbled. So much time had passed, she thought for sure she had gotten away with conducting the interview in the reverend’s condo-monastery.

Jessie shook her head and then shuffled across the bedroom toward the hall. “You’re lucky he wanted our help and wasn’t out to kill you.”

“He’s not the killer.”

“The police think otherwise. Now, stay away from the reverend and Doctor Owens. The situation is too dangerous for you to handle.” She held onto the frame of the door and looked at Andi with regret. “You were the one that said Tess planned to get even with her husband. Dad is a former solider. He is better equipped to take over. He convinced Doctor Owens to get a restraining order. And Dad will call the process server to deliver that order if Tess shows up on the property.”

“Dad is going to stake out Doctor Owens’s condo?” Betrayal hit Andi like a bullet.

“Yes.” Jessie pressed her lips into a flat line. “If she refuses to leave or shows up again, after receiving the restraining order, he will call the police and have her thrown in jail.”

Andi stared at her sister, dumbfounded. After all of her efforts, she had been pushed aside.

Jessie angled her head. “Don’t look at me that way, Andi.”

“Like what?”

“Like I just arrested your kitten and threw it in the slammer with Jack the Ripper.” Jessie continued to shuffle down the hall toward the bathroom.

Andi suppressed a grin. Her sister felt guilty. That could work to her advantage. She didn’t say a word; allowing the guilty feelings to simmer.

“This is for the best. You’ll see.” Jessie stood in the doorframe of the bathroom. “Dad will scare off Tess, and her husband can go on with his life.”

Andi watched her sister grab her electric toothbrush and apply toothpaste, still waiting for the guilt to take hold.

“I’ll make sure the reverend gets a decent lawyer,” Jessie continued.

Andi remained silent.

Jessie looked at her in the refection in the mirror. “Come on! What else do you want from me?”

“Let me work for Reverend Nichols. I want to ask him why Tess was seen coming out of his condo on several occasions. And if she could have taken the peanut bag with his fingerprints out of his condo.”

“What?” Jessie spit out the toothpaste and spun around on her slippers to glare at her. “Tess was frequenting Reverend Nichols’s condo, and you didn’t tell me?”