5 Big Bunny Bump Off (7 page)

“Speaking of that
, here come Rob and Hannah now. Go have fun. There are extra swimsuits in the guest room, if you want to take Hannah swimming. I suppose she can just wear her diaper.”

“
That sounds like fun.”

“Why the serious face?” Levi asked me after Ellie
went off to greet Rob.

“Do you want kids?”

“Oh God, you’re pregnant.”

“No
, I’m not pregnant.”

“Ellie is pregnant.” Levi paled.

“No, as far as I know Ellie isn’t pregnant either. I was just curious whether you wanted kids. This is a baby shower, and babies
are
the main topic of conversation.”

“No,” Levi answered decisively. “I don’t want kids.”

“Ever?”

Levi paused. “I don’t know
. Ever is a long time, but I really can’t imagine myself with kids. How about you? Do you want kids?”

“Not anytime soon.”

“So why the intense look?”

I glanced at Ellie as she greeted Rob and picked up Hannah.

“Oh.” Levi sighed. “Are they . . . did she mention . . . do you think they’re getting serious?”

“Honestly
, I don’t know.” I turned to face my friend. “What I do know is that Ellie wants kids. My bet is that she wants a bunch, and she wants them soon. If you aren’t on the same page, you really need to move on to someone who is, even if she ends up single in the future. The two of you mean so much to me. I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”

“Yeah
.” Levi kissed the top of my head. “I hear you.”

“Zoe
!” Jeremy’s best friend, Spike, came up from behind us and hugged me. Spike is the lead singer in the heavy metal band Jeremy plays with. I actually have no idea what his real name is; everyone calls him Spike because of the spikes in his hair, the dog collar he wears, and the various parts of his body, which are really uncomfortable-looking piercings. “Killer party.”

“I’m glad you could come. I haven’t seen you around much lately.”

“Band had a gig. Jeremy had to drop out with all the hullabaloo with the twit and the kid, but I wanted to come by and show my support.” Spike spoke with a really bad British accent that tended to flow between British, American, and something totally indefinable, but I was pretty sure he was born and raised in New Jersey.

“Well
, I’m glad you were in town and could make it.” I hadn’t been aware that Jeremy had quit the band he’d been a part of ever since I’d known him, but they did travel quite a bit, so it made sense that he’d need to take a step back with the addition of a baby in his life.

“Been a bit of
an upset since we’ve been gone,” Spike commented.

“Upset?” I asked.

“Heard about the bloke who whacked the banker. Didn’t figure him for a killer.”

“Doug Barton?
” Half the time Spike’s tendency to speak in half sentences left me wondering exactly what he was talking about. “You know Doug Barton?”

“Did some business with the guy,” Spike confirmed.

“What kind of business?” I found myself asking.

“H
elped me invest a few pounds. Did a right nice job. Hate to see the guy rotting in a cell for something he didn’t do.”

“You think he’s innocent?”

“Dude wasn’t a bounder like his boss, although I guess he had a reason to whack the guy. Still, I don’t figure he has the stones to do it. My money is on the neighbor.”

“Neighbor?”

“Pansy with the lawsuit. Might want to check it out.”

“Did you mention this to Salinger?” I wondered.

“Don’t talk to coppers. Where is the loo in this pad?”

“Around the corner to the left.”

I watched as Spike walked away. He really was a strange man, but Jeremy seemed to like him. I wasn’t certain why he’d brought up the murder investigation to me, unless Jeremy had suggested he speak with me if he had information he wanted to share. He wasn’t wrong in assuming that Salinger wouldn’t give him the time of day. Maybe I’d ask Zak to do a little digging on the Internet to see if he could find out anything about this supposed lawsuit.

“That was some party,” I said to Zak after only the two of us remained. We were sitting in the hot tub, sharing a bottle of champagne.

“H
mm,” Zak agreed as he seared a trail of kisses across my neck.

“Do you want kids?”

Zak stopped kissing me and sat up straight. He looked me in the eye. “Kids?”

“Not now,
” I clarified.

Zak
let out the breath he’d been holding.

“There was just a lot of baby talk tonight
, and it hit me that a couple should be on the same page about something as important as kids. I almost feel like if the individuals who make up a couple aren’t on the same page, they might be better off not pursuing the relationship in the first place.”

“I see.” Zak ran a finger across my cheek. “Yes, I’d like to have kids. Someday. How about you?”

I maneuvered myself so that I sat on Zak’s lap facing him. I put my arms around his neck and looked him in the eye. “I think I might like to have
your
kids. Someday.”

“So we’re on the same page?”

“We are.”

“Thank God.” Zak locked his lips with mine and tightened his arms around me as we slid down into the bubbling water.

“Wake up, sleepyhead.” Zak kissed me awake.

“What time is it?” I groaned.

“Almost noon.”

I opened one eye and then closed it against the
lightness of the room. “It’s so bright.”

“It’s the middle of the day,” Zak teased.

“Just another hour,” I begged.

“I have breakfast,” Zak bribed. “Hot coffee,” he waved it under my nose, “strawberry crepes just the way you like them
, with sour cream.”

I leaned onto my elbows. “You made crepes?”

“I did.”

Zak handed me the coffee and I took a sip. Talk about heaven.

“Put some clothes on and we’ll eat on the deck. It’s a beautiful day.”

“Or we could eat in bed,” I suggested seductively.

“We could.” Zak kissed the tip of my nose. “But we have a lead and we need to be in town in just over an hour.”

“
A lead?”

“The case you bribed me into working on sometime after the chat about babies but before the second bottle of champagne.”

“You have a lead? Already?”

“I’ve been up for hours. Now get dressed before your breakfast gets cold.”

I quickly put on shorts, a tank top, and a sweatshirt. Then I pulled my long, curly hair into a ponytail and hurried downstairs, where Zak had crepes, sausages, coffee, and orange juice arranged nicely on the outdoor patio set. It really was a beautiful day. Charlie and Lambda were napping on the natural stone patio as the glassy lake just beyond the white-sand beach reflected the warm sun. I slipped off my sweatshirt as I sat down at the table. The sun on my shoulders felt like heaven after the long, long winter.

I shoveled the first of the four crepes Zak
had made for me into my mouth before I paused for air. “These are so good. Tell me again why I don’t let you make me breakfast every day.”

“Fear of commitment and a desire to maintain your autonomy and take things slowly,” Zak reminded me.

“Oh, yeah. So about this lead . . .”

“After I got back from my jog this morning
, I looked into the lawsuit Spike mentioned. It seems that Blakely’s neighbor, Truman Washington, was being sued by Blakely for an issue concerning the property line. It sounded like things had gotten ugly, so I did a little investigation while you were sleeping. Apparently, the person who built Washington’s million-dollar house made an error when he calculated the exact borders of the property. Blakely didn’t realize the mistake either, until he applied for a permit to build a pool house last summer and had the land surveyed. When the surveyor’s report disclosed that the neighbor’s house had been built four feet over the property line, Blakely demanded that the part of the structure on his property be demolished. It seems Washington offered to buy the sliver of land from Blakely, but he refused and instead took Washington to court, not only demanding that the house be removed from his property but that Washington pay him for the use of the land for the past six years.”

“The house was built six years ago and this is just coming out?”

“It might never have come out if Blakely hadn’t decided to expand.”

“So what happened?”

“The case is still in court and has cost both men tens of thousands of dollars. I don’t know if Washington was mad enough to kill over it, but those in the room at the time the story was told seemed to think he might be.”

“Can’t Washington take action against the contractor who made the original mistake?”

“He died several years ago and his business was dissolved.”

“So
do we follow up on this like Spike seemed to want me to?” I asked.

“I don’t know. What do you think
? Do you think Doug is guilty? Because if he is, we’d be wasting our time tracking down other leads.”

I thought about it. Salinger
had made some good points both about Doug’s motive and his ability to pull off the act, but it bothered me just a bit that everything was coming together so easily. Doug was an obvious suspect, which in my book actually made it less likely that he was guilty.

“I’m not quite as certain as Salinger,” I admitted. “And my guess is that Salinger is sitting in his office with his feet
up on his desk, celebrating another closed case. I guess after I finish this delicious breakfast we should go have a chat with Washington. It can’t hurt to see what he has to say.”

“I thought you might say that
, so I took the liberty of making an appointment with him, and also with the neighbors on either side of both men. I told them that I was creating a custom home-security system for a celebrity with a property similar to theirs and wondered if I might speak to them about what they liked and didn’t like about the systems they currently have. We’ll have to find a way to work in what we really want to talk about.”

Our first stop was at Truman Washington’s. He lived in a two-story house perched on the edge of a beautiful yet busy beach. My boathouse might be a tenth of the size, but I’d take the isolation of my little cove over Truman’s expansive estate any day of the week. A glance at the area that I assumed was the disputed land was blocked off with yellow caution tape. Four feet might not sound like a lot, but I could see that a good part of the structure would need to be torn down to accommodate the property line, as well as the set back. Depending on load-bearing walls and whatnot, the project could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as a whole lot of hassle and heartache.

“Mr. Washington,” Zak greeted as the door was opened. “I’m Zak Zimmerman
, and this is my friend, Zoe.”

“I know who you are
.” The man shook Zak’s hand. “Your reputation as a software genius precedes you.”

“I appreciate you
r taking the time to answer a few questions.”

“No problem at all. Come on in.”

The house wasn’t at all my style, but I’m sure to most it was breathtaking. Huge chandeliers hung from tall ceilings that created a feeling of spaciousness in spite of the dark, hardwood floors. The decoration was in a style I think of as upper-class snob, with sharp edges and harsh lines everywhere, but I had to admit that the open floor plan and huge rooms created an enviable space. Still, I’d take my comfy sofa with cushions you can sink into over Washington’s designer sofa, which looked as if it had never been sat on.

“Your home is beautiful,” I commented
politely.

“Thank you. This place is my baby. I handpicked every piece of granite for the countertops and molding for the trim.
The furnishings are all imported and every piece was chosen to complement the mood of each room.”

“It’s lovely,” I lied.

“Perhaps we can sit on the deck while we chat. It’s such a beautiful day.”

“Sounds perfect.”

Zak and I followed Washington out onto the huge deck. He really did have a fantastic view. The houses along this portion of the lake are situated along a busy stretch of beach, but the view of the water and the surrounding mountains is lovely all the same. I preferred my own secluded cove over Washington’s location on the south shore, but I suppose if you’re into people watching, the south shore is the place to be.

“It looks like you
’re doing an expansion,” I said innocently as we passed near the surveyor’s stakes.

“Not an expansion, I’m afraid.
” Washington launched into a heated retelling of the legal battle in which he’d been engaged with his neighbor. “Blakely was perfectly content with the property lines until he realized a mistake had been made. My attorney thought an offer to purchase the property would be an easy solution, but ol’ Blakely was having nothing to do with a peaceful or easy fix. He didn’t seem to care one bit about what his demands would do to my home. All he seemed to be interested in was making my life miserable. His lot is huge, and his house is set well to the other side. The four feet in question don’t impact him at all. He said he might use it to put in some shrubs. Can you imagine? The man was going to require me to tear down my house so he could plant shrubs.”

I looked across to Blakely’s home and landscaping.
I thought Washington was correct in his assessment that Blakely wouldn’t miss the land he didn’t even know he’d had in the first place.

“I’ve burned through so much money trying to fight his demands that I was beginning to lose hope that I’d be able to outlast him.
Even if I would have won in the end, I wouldn’t have had the resources left to actually buy him out.”

“And now
, with his death?”

“His daugh
ter is the heir to his estate. My attorney has been in contact with hers, and he assures me that she’s more than happy to have the property lines officially redrawn in exchange for fair-market value of the disputed property. I don’t know who killed the guy, but I sure would like to thank them.”

“I wasn’t aware that Blakely had a daughter.” As far as I knew
, the man wasn’t married.

“She
’s the product of a long-ago love affair and lives out of the area. I doubt she’s ever even seen the house she inherited. She plans to sell it as soon as she can work out the legalities.”

The conversation
turned to home-security systems, giving me a chance to observe Washington while Zak questioned him. He seemed to have an excellent motive to kill Blakely, but as the men discussed early warning systems and alarm choices, Washington mentioned that he’d just returned two days earlier from a month-long trip to Palm Springs, giving him an air-tight alibi. Still, there was something about the man that gave me pause. He might not have killed Blakely, but I had the feeling that he wasn’t being entirely honest with us either.

Our
next appointment was with the neighbor to Blakely’s right. As with all the homes in the neighborhood, it was large and beautiful, but with more of a mountain theme and less chrome, stone, and crystal. The man Zak had arranged to meet was someone with whom I’d been in contact when he adopted a dog from me the previous summer. I’d never been to his house, but I’d spoken to him on several occasions at the shelter, and he seemed like a nice guy who appeared to be much easier to get along with than either of his neighbors.

“Zoe
, it’s so good to see you,” he greeted me.

“It’s good to see you
, too, Mr. Ellery. How’s Goldie?”

“She’s just fine. I’m sure she’d love to say hi. She’s in the back with the grandkids
, if you want to go on back while your guy and I chat.”

I looked at Zak. I
would
like to say hi to Goldie, and I didn’t want to do anything that might seem odd, but I also wanted to be present for whatever discussion the two men might have.

“Go on out and we’ll meet you on the patio after we have our tour,” Zak encouraged.

“Okay, I’ll see you out there.”

Goldie was a small golden retriever who made an excellent pet for the elderly man and his young grandchildren. I hadn’t see
n her since she’d been adopted, so she almost jumped into my arms when I entered the backyard.

“Boy
, she really likes you,” an adorable little girl with long brown ringlets said.

“That’s because I’m the one who found her a wonderful home with your grandpa.”

“My name is Julia. What’s your name?”

“Zoe.”

“Do you want to play hide and seek with us?”

“Sure, what are the rules?”
The child was so adorable, I was willing to bet that people rarely said no to her.

“The boundaries are all the way from that fence
,” she pointed to a fence on the far side of her grandfather’s property, “to the edge of the tape,” she indicated the far side of Blakely’s yard, where it met Washington’s estate. “You hide and whoever is it has to find you.”

“Are
you sure it’s okay to go into Mr. Blakely’s yard?”

“Yeah
. Grandpa says the old coot is dead and won’t yell at us.”

I had to smile at the child’s use of the term
.

“Did he used to yell at you?”
I wondered.

“All the time.”

“And you don’t think the new owner will mind?”

“She said it was okay
, as long as we stayed away from the pool.”

“You spoke to her?” I asked.

“Yeah. Her name is Megan. She’s nice, not like her dad.”

Truman Washington
had indicated that Blakely’s daughter had most likely never seen the house. Why would he lie?

“Is she there now?”

“No, she was there, but she left a few days ago. She said she had to go to her other house.”

“How long did she visit before she left?”
I fished.

Julia seemed to be giving it quite a bit of thought. “I’m not sure
, but she was here for my birthday, which is on March 6. She gave me a princess castle that fits most of my dolls.”