The Diva Serves High Tea (17 page)

“That's how it's done these days, Beverly. You've been married so long that you don't know about the in scene. Things have changed, sweetheart.”

“I can tell you where they haven't changed.” Beverly looked like she might pounce on Patty.

What had I started?
Yikes!
I floundered for something to distract them. “Did you hear they're arresting someone for the murder of that young woman?”

Beverly clapped a hand against her chest. “Thank goodness for that. It's gotten to the point where I'm on the alert all the time. That could have been any one of us.”

“A bar date counts as a date!” Patty wasn't letting go.

I said good-bye and felt like a terrible weasel. Not only had I caused friction between friends, I hadn't learned a single helpful thing.

A larger group entered when Nina and I left. I was hopeful that business might pick up.

Nina and I were almost home when we saw a police car parked on our block. We broke into a jog. As we neared, it became obvious that it was outside of Natasha's house.

Dear Natasha,

My best friend forever is getting married. My mom and I are giving her a tea party bridal shower. Much as I love my friend, she has the worst taste in the world. Her color scheme is pinks. It's so pastel that I gag from the sugar rush. Please tell me that I can decorate for the party in grays and blacks.

—The Maid of Honor in Weddington, Arkansas

Dear Maid of Honor,

You owe it to your friend to decorate tastefully in grays and blacks. With any luck, she will learn from you and appreciate your effort to educate her.

—Natasha

Panting, we rushed toward Mars, who spoke with an officer.

“Did someone try to break in again? Is Natasha okay?” I asked.

Mars responded wryly, “Physically or mentally?”

I headed for the stairs.

“Not that way!” called Mars. He pointed to the gate that led to the backyard. “That way.”

Nina and I raced along the side of the house. When we reached the backyard, I stopped so abruptly that she bumped into me.

Natasha wore a glittery beaded bronze top under black leather overalls that were skin tight on her long legs. The spiky heels on her shoes made her stagger like a drunk as they pierced the ground and lodged in it. A dozen full-grown chickens pecked at the grass she didn't allow Daisy to step on, and she seemed to be trying to catch one of the birds.

A turquoise-blue chicken condo had appeared in the back corner of her lot.

A police officer appeared to be losing his patience with her. And in the middle of the chaos, Wanda flung handfuls of something at the policeman.

“Ma'am, will you
please
stop doing that?” He uttered it at Wanda tersely.

I scurried over to her. “Wanda, I think you're making him angry.”

“Then we're even, 'cause I'm hoppin' mad!” She leaned toward me and whispered, “It's to make him go away.”

The officer looked at Nina and me. “Do you live here, too?”

“No. We're just friends. Natasha, what's going on?”

Her thin lips tightened. “Do not steal this from me. You're much more believable as the country diva than I am, but I call dibs on this gig.”

“He wants to take away our chickens,” said Wanda.

Natasha was busy trying to scrape chicken poo off her shoe. Were those Louboutins?

“I'm pretty sure there must be ordinances about chickens.”

“Thank you,” shouted the officer, raising his arms in joy. “Two hundred feet. You cannot have chickens within two hundred feet of another dwelling.”

I wasn't the best judge of measurements but I had a hunch
Natasha's backyard wasn't even two hundred feet wide. “And where exactly would that line fall from the house on the side?”

“It would be across the street and over on the next lot somewhere. Which would tell most people”—his eyes got very big—“that even if there were two hundred feet from one side, there wouldn't be two hundred feet from the other side.”

The lots in Old Town were definitely narrow. Very few homes would meet the two-hundred-feet requirement. Maybe some of the mega-mansions, but those owners probably weren't particularly interested in raising chickens. “Natasha?”

“I told him to call Wolf. He always gets
you
out of trouble.”

“Ma'am, I told you before. Wolf is not going to come to the rescue. You have illegal chickens. I'm sorry, but if you don't remove them, I'll be forced to bring animal control out here.”

“Who complained?” I asked.

“Six neighbors! Will you stop throwing that stuff at me?”

I grabbed the bag from Wanda. The aroma of the contents wafted to me. I peered at it. “Is this dill?”

“Marjoram and dill.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “To ward off the evil man.”

I sealed the bag, noting that Mars looked on with amusement.

I debated who would be more sensible and appealed to Wanda. Grabbing her arm to get her attention, I said, “Wanda, there are laws against raising chickens here. Honey, look around. You know there's not enough room for livestock. If Natasha wants to be the country diva then she should live in the country. Maybe near Berrysville!” That should do it. Wanda would be thrilled if Natasha lived closer to her.

Natasha eyed me. Her chest heaved. “Oh no, you don't. I thought you were my friend, but I see what's going on.” Her gaze drifted to Mars.

“Sophie, that's a wonderful idea. I'll call Harvey
Gooch. Nat, I bet he'll keep your chickens while you move down to Berrysville.”

“Mom!”

Mars finally stepped in. “Nat, I'm sorry. Sophie is right. You had your photo shoot and now it's time to send the chickens someplace else. You would be the first person to complain if the neighbors kept pigs or cows in their backyards.”

“That's not the same at all. Those are big animals.”

“Natasha, you had a country house,” I said. “Remember? But you sold it to move here. Why did you want to live in Old Town?”

“For the same reason you do. It's so chic and elegant. I love walking the streets of Old Town. What a stupid question.” She bent to pick up a chicken that pecked near her shoe, slid, and fell face-first on the lawn. The officer helped her up. She wiped chicken poo off her leather overalls but evidently didn't know it was on her cheek as well. Holding her hands in the air, her fingers stiff with revulsion, she said, “Go ahead and call Harvey, Mom.” She shook a finger at the police officer. “But I want to be clear that I'm not doing this because of some stupid regulation. I just don't like a messy yard.” She strode toward the house holding her head high.

Wanda hurried after her.

“Is that satisfactory?” I asked the officer.

“Yeah. But I'm coming back in the morning. If the chickens are still here, animal control will remove them.”

Dusk was settling on Old Town when I returned home. I'd been in the house for less than one hour when Alex knocked on the kitchen door.

I opened the door, and he held up white bags. “I brought a peace offering.”

“Come on in!”

He set the bags on the kitchen counter. “Chinese okay?”

“Sounds great.” I fetched square white plates and set the table. “White wine?” I asked.

“Sure. I could use a drink.” He chuckled. “I'm starting to sound like Kevin.”

“He's such a funny little guy.”

“Did I tell you he's my godson? I'm almost sorry he won't be living with me for a while.”

“About that . . .” I said.

Alex winced. “Sophie, I wasn't keeping anything from you. I swear! Elise showed up and sprang it on me.” He leaned against the island while I poured the wine. “There isn't much I wouldn't do for Kevin, so when she asked if he could stay with me, I was surprised but willing. It never occurred to me that she wouldn't have discussed it with Rosey first. They're old friends. You know what that's like. You're surrounded by friends all the time.”

I could understand that. Kevin was a very special little kid. I'd have wanted to help him, too. “But what about the necklace and cozy family dinners?”

“Cozy family dinners?” Alex's brow furrowed. “I'm an idiot. I can see how it might have seemed that way, but it was nothing more than showing an old friend a nice time while she and my godson were in town. You'd have done the same.”

Reluctantly, I conceded that he was absolutely right. I would have.

“If the situation had been reversed, I probably would have come to the same conclusions. Although you should know me well enough to realize that I never would have spent the night with her and left Kevin by himself. And if he had been at my place, trust me, there wouldn't have been any hanky-panky.”

I couldn't help grinning. It
would
have been out of character for him. “She had us both going. Why were you friends with someone who was so deceptive?”

“I never saw that side of her before. Rosey insists it was there all along. He was married to her but didn't see the crazy, manipulative side for a few years. Apparently, some people warned him, including one of our professors, but he just didn't believe it.”

Alex brought containers of food to the table. “Kung-pao chicken, shrimp lo mein, moo-shu pork, garlic beans.”

“How many people were you planning to kiss up to?”

“I wasn't sure what you would like. Thought I'd just take
a chance. And Chinese leftovers are always good. Shall I light a fire?”

“That would be great.”

Alex lit kindling while I added candles to the table and dimmed the lights.

“Sophie?” Alex rose and faced me. “I didn't know you were at the tea auction. The truth is that I bid on the sapphire necklace as a surprise for you.”

“It was a surprise, all right! Kind of funny, though, that you were bidding against me.”

Alex wrapped me in his arms and kissed me.

I savored his kiss for a moment then pushed him away. “Hold everything! If you bought the necklace for me, then how did Elise end up with it?”

Alex groaned. “I guess she misunderstood. She was so excited about it and things were going so rotten for her because of the divorce and all that I didn't have the heart to take it away.”

“You're a big softie.” I didn't mention that I happened to find that a very attractive quality in a man, but he might have guessed by the lingering kiss that followed.

With our issues cleared up, we nestled in the banquette. The fire crackled and the warm glow made our world seem cozy and calm.

We ate with chopsticks, digging into the savory dishes. It was almost hard to remember that Elise had been murdered.

“How are things with Kevin's dad?” I asked eventually.

Alex drew a deep breath and sipped his wine. “It's been a rough day. Rosey was formally arrested for Elise's murder.”

“So I heard. Did you bail him out?”

“Working on it. The bail is high because of the grisly nature of the murder and the fact that he's not local. He's a flight risk. And his funds are a little complicated because of the pending divorce.”

“Kevin is with Rosey's parents?”

He nodded. “And now Elise's parents have arrived because they want him, too. It's all a big mess.”

I picked up lo mein with the chopsticks and took a bite of the warm noodles.

“I never thought I'd end up representing Rosey in a murder case. Funny, people always say to me that so-and-so couldn't have done it. And now I find myself thinking the very same thing. There's no way the Rosey I know would have killed Elise.” He studied the container of kung-pao chicken. “You know what a great kid Kevin is? He gets it from his dad. Rosey is a good egg. He
never
could have been violent toward Elise.”

Alex placed his chopsticks on his plate and looked at me. “Listen, I think they're going to base their case, at least in part, on what Elise said to you. Are you certain that she said
Rosey
?”

He stared at me with hopeful intensity.

I understood how much was riding on my correct memory of what she'd said. I tried to go back to that moment in my mind. Elise, laying on the ground in the dark, saying
Rosey
. Was there any possibility that Elise had said something else? “I'm sorry, Alex. It sounded like
Rosey
to me. Maybe there are other words that you could argue would make more sense? Mosey? Cozy?” Even as I said them I knew they didn't sound enough like Rosey. “Nina heard her, too.”

“I know. I already talked to Nina. She's even more sure than you seem to be.”

That sounded like Nina. “What about the police where they live? Didn't Rosey report Kevin missing? Can't they confirm that Rosey wasn't here when she was murdered?”

Alex sucked in a long breath. “He didn't go to the police. Both of them practice law, and Rosey didn't want their marital problems made more public. If they lose their clients, it will only exacerbate the situation.”

“Surely
someone
saw Rosey where he lives so you can prove he wasn't here in Old Town. What about his girlfriend?”

“The girlfriend has been in London on a business trip. But it's even worse than that.” Alex loosened his tie and slid
it off as though it was strangling him. “Rosey was driving all over creation looking for Elise and Kevin. He went to her mom's house, a cabin that a friend owns, her best friend's house. He's been sitting in his car staking out these places, hoping to spot Kevin.”

“He probably used his cell phone. Won't that show he wasn't anywhere near here?”

“Maybe. We're getting the records.” He didn't seem any happier.

To me, that seemed like it would solve the problem. Unless . . . “Some of those places were close to here, weren't they?”

Alex didn't respond.

“Close enough to drive in and kill Elise?”

He winced like I'd punched him in the stomach, but he nodded.

“But Rosey is a lawyer, right? Wouldn't he have been smart enough to set himself up with an alibi? Wouldn't he have planned it better?”

“You'd think so, wouldn't you? I think that speaks to his innocence. He didn't plan to murder Elise.”

Or he was so nuts about Elise stealing Kevin that he wasn't thinking straight. It didn't look good for Kevin's dad. “I know what I heard, Alex. But maybe she was slurring her words or unable to move her tongue or her lips. I thought that could be the case with Robert.”

Alex rested against the back cushion of the banquette. “I've been thinking about Robert. It's Rosey's only chance. I have to build a case linking their deaths to this other Rosie. Do you still have your copy of the notes?”

I fetched them and brought them to the table.

Alex pointed at the most dire message and read it aloud.