Walk Through the Valley (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (17 page)

He just sat for a moment, staring into her beautiful eyes. He really was the luckiest man in the entire world.

She put her hand on his arm. “So, what was all that about?”

He sighed and turned so he could lay on his side on the beach blanket. “Elisa is convinced that the trophy wife was afraid that her husband was going to leave her for a younger woman.”

“Trophy wife?” Traci asked.

“Oh, sorry. The dead guy’s wife is like half his age.”

“And I’m guessing she was wearing a really teeny, tiny bikini?”

“Pretty much.”

“And we’re sure she wasn’t the one looking to find someone new?”

“We’re not sure of anything at this point,” Mark said. “Not even what killed him, although I’m pretty sure it was his peanut allergy.”

“How tragic.”

“I know. It makes you grateful for what you have...and, really, don’t have. Tell you what, though, let’s put all that behind us before I start wishing that Geanie and Joseph were here and we were the ones in Paris.”

“Tahiti doesn’t exactly go well with their Phantom of the Opera themed wedding,” Traci said with a smile.

Mark leaned in toward her. “I don’t know.” He thought of the love song from the musical and he softly began to sing, twisting the lyrics slightly. “No more talk of murder, forget that dead man there.”

“We’re safe, nothing can harm us,” Traci chimed in.

“Our embrace will warm and soothe us.”

He folded her into his arms and kissed her, right there on the beach for all the world to see.

Cindy was standing in the hall just outside of Lisa’s hotel room when Detective Sanders arrived. She looked harried and Cindy sympathized.

“So, you think someone has searched your future sister-in-law’s hotel room?”

“Yes, I do,” Cindy said.

“What makes you so sure?”

Cindy unlocked the door and shoved it open then stepped aside. Detective Sanders took one step inside and whistled. “Yup, that will about do it.” She pulled a couple of pairs of disposable latex gloves out of her pocket and handed one set to Cindy.

“Did you touch anything?” she asked as she put on her gloves.

“Only the door. The moment I saw this I left the room and called you from my brother’s room,” Cindy said as she wriggled her fingers into the gloves.

“Smart. Then again, I’m not surprised.”

“Why is that?”

“I did my homework. Turns out this isn’t your first dance. Sounds like you’ve been at the center of some pretty nasty cases.”

“Just unlucky that way, I guess,” Cindy said, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Now, do you have any way of knowing what might be missing here, if anything?” Sanders asked as they stood looking around the room.

“Honestly, no. She just asked me to bring her jewelry and cell phone so those are the only things I would even know to look for.”

“Well, the cell phone’s over there,” the other woman said, pointing to the floor near one of the bedside tables. She walked over and picked it up.

“Lisa said she left it charging, so whoever searched her room must have unplugged it,” Cindy commented as she stepped closer.

“Oh, they did far more than that,” the detective said, her voice grim.

“What?”

The detective turned the phone so that Cindy could see it. A picture of a skull with a sunflower between its teeth stared back at her.

“They left her a message.”

14

“No way,” Cindy blurted out as she stared at the picture of the skull with the sunflower.

“This means something to you?” Detective Sanders asked.

“Yes. Lisa got a bunch of flower arrangements delivered to her in the hospital. I was reading the cards to her. There was one arrangement, sunflowers, that had a really morbid message about death on it and no sender name. She was so upset by it she had me stop looking at the arrangements and reading their cards to her.”

“Do you think she knows who sent them?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Cindy confessed.

“Is it possible they were targeting her instead of your brother?”

“I don’t know anything. Maybe. Or maybe one of his crazy fans wants her dead.”

“How well do you know her?”

“Not at all. We just met yesterday in the hospital for the first time. Kyle had told me a little bit about her a couple of months ago. I know she’s an interior designer. That’s about it really.”

The other woman looked at her skeptically.

“I told you, my brother and I aren’t as close as we could be,” Cindy snapped, feeling tired and frustrated and somewhat embarrassed that she didn’t know any more about his fiancée than that.

“Well, she and I are just going to have to have a little chat about all this. I’ll call in a team to go over this place
and see what we might have missed. Unfortunately I can’t spend more time doing it myself, but I only have so many hours in the day and Lisa isn’t going to be questioning herself.”

“Shouldn’t you have a partner?”

“Should. Don’t.”

“Why?” Cindy asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

“Because I shot and killed my last one. Makes it surprisingly hard to get a new one.”

Cindy started to smile, thinking it was a joke. Then she took a good look at the detective’s face and realized she was completely serious.

“Sorry,” Cindy muttered, unnerved by the revelation.

“Wasn’t your fault.”

She quickly changed the subject. She waved her hand to encompass the room. “What should I tell Lisa about all of this?”

“Nothing. I’ll talk to her. Hopefully between the two of us we can clear some things up.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. You’ve already done too much. Go back to the hospital and be with your brother and your folks. I’m guessing you’ve already been in his room here at the hotel?”

“Yes, nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Interesting. Like I said, head back to the hospital. I’ll be in touch if I need to ask you anything.”

Cindy felt completely deflated. Just when she felt like they were starting to get somewhere and she was actively doing something to help her brother the rug had been pulled out from under her. Given what Detective Sanders had told Cindy about her previous partner, she had no intention of pushing the woman for anything more.

“Bye,” the detective said pointedly.

“Bye,” Cindy murmured as she turned and left the room. A couple minutes later she was in another taxi headed back to the hospital. She had very little to show for her trip except for the knowledge that it was possible Lisa could have been the intended target and the fact that she knew pretty much nothing about her soon to be sister-in-law. Both things bugged her, refusing to let her mind rest.

When she finally made it back to the hospital she walked slowly into the observation room, miserable at the realization that there was nothing left she could do.

Her dad nodded at her, but didn’t say anything. Cindy got the distinct impression that he didn’t want to discuss her errand with her mom in the room. Cindy settled down in one of the chairs to wait. She lamented the fact that her phone was back in the hotel room where she had left it at Jeremiah’s direction. It may be bugged, but she could at least have surfed the internet for a while, maybe done some research on Lisa. Without it, though, she was stuck in an information vacuum.

She glanced at her parents and suddenly realized that maybe she could obtain some more information.

“Dad,” she said softly.

He turned away from the window where he was standing next to her mom and came to sit down next to Cindy.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I just realized that I know pretty much nothing about Lisa,” Cindy admitted, wincing slightly in using that name
in front of her parents. “You’ve spent some time with her, what can you tell me?”

“Well, she grew up here in Las Vegas. She went to school for design and has lived most of her adult life in different parts of California. She’s nice, generous, thoughtful.”

“She ever been married before?”

He shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard. I rather had the impression that she’s focused mostly on her career since graduating from college. The dedication has paid off, too. Kyle says she’s one of the most in demand designers in the nation.”

“That’s impressive,” Cindy said, struggling with sudden, unexpected feelings of inadequacy. Her job wasn’t that glamorous and she certainly hadn’t had to work herself to the bone to make it to the top of her field. She forced herself to take a deep breath. Life wasn’t a competition, not in that way. It was about being true to yourself. Besides, she had made a lot of valuable contributions to society in her own way.

“And what kind of work does she do?”

“All kinds. Everything from residential to corporate. She does a lot of high-end work. You know, one of the home design magazines ran an article on her this month. You might want to read it.”

“Really? Which one?”

“I can’t remember off the top of my head, but she’s the cover story and it has her picture on the front. They might even have a copy in the gift shop here.”

“You know, I think I’ll go see if they do,” Cindy said, eager for an excuse to escape the room of waiting. “Is there anything I can grab you?”

Her father shook his head.

Down in the hospital gift shop they had a number of books and magazines. As it turned out, the one she wanted was easy to spot because Lisa was indeed on the cover. She bought it and took it upstairs.

Once she had reclaimed her seat she opened the magazine and found the article. It was written by a woman named Majesty Starr and seemed to be a Q and A with Lisa. Curious, Cindy began to read.

Recently I sat down to chat up one of the hottest interior designers in the industry. Lisa Taggart got her start in her hometown of Las Vegas before moving to San Francisco and then finally on to Boston where she has designed for some of the most elite families in the country. She has since moved her business to Los Angeles where she caters to the rich and famous. Such A-listers as actor Jon Romeo have hired her to redo their homes.

M: Lisa, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview!

L: No problem, Majesty. I love talking about design.

M: And the design community loves talking about you! To what do you credit your success?

L: Two things. First, I have a very strong sense of what I think looks good and doesn’t and I bring that to every design project I work on. Second, I listen to the client, really listen. Sometimes they ask for things that you just know aren’t going to work for a space. What’s important is to listen for the underlying reasons behind their choices. Is there nostalgia at play or does a certain color make them feel a certain way or are they trying to replicate a look they’ve seen elsewhere? Once you understand what their larger, emotional goals are, you can help them create that even if you don’t use the exact pieces or colors that they thought they wanted. At the end of the day the client has to be happy with the space and so do I because it stands as a representation of me and my work. If I give them something they want that’s hideous other people are going to see that and they’re going to blame me for the choice even if it wasn’t mine. It might be my client’s home, but it’s my reputation which is why everyone needs to be happy with the outcome.

M: Wow, it sounds like you put a lot of psychology into your design work.

L: Yeah, I guess I do.

M: So, if I were to ask you to give me avocado green linoleum in my kitchen...

L: I’d find out what avocado green linoleum means to you and I’d find a different way to fulfill that need that still allowed your kitchen to be sleek and modern.

M: I guess that’s the difference between a designer and a contractor. It’s a contractor’s job to give you exactly what you ask for.

L: And it’s a designer’s job to give you exactly what you really need.

M: Okay, forgetting for the moment about my avocado green linoleum question, what is the craziest thing a client has ever asked you for?

L: I’ve been asked for some really crazy things. I had one client who wanted a life-size marble statue of himself in the middle of the living room. Another one asked me for a glow-in-the-dark room where everything, including the carpet, glowed. One client had an obsession with sunflowers and wanted the entire house done with sunflower print carpet. Only one of these three clients got exactly what they asked for, but all of them were happy with the results.

M: Wow, I’m busy trying to picture all those things right now and they’re all a bit overwhelming. Okay, getting myself back on track. Do you just do cosmetic work or do you actually restructure houses as well?

L: With the current obsession with open concept it seems like I’m always knocking down a wall somewhere or other. Honestly, clients ask me for a full range of services from just redoing the color palette of a single room to gutting an entire interior and rebuilding. Sometimes they want more rooms or extra space in the rooms they have. I’ve put in my share of panic rooms and safes as well.