Girls' Night Out Murder (Ryli Sinclair 2) (11 page)

Seeing as how Josh lived on the same side of town as Julie’s
work, it didn’t take long to locate his house. There were about fifteen houses
in this newer subdivision. Each house led to a private dock. Josh’s parents’
house was a spacious, two-story brick home.

I was hoping his parents were
back
at work during the holiday week. I didn’t want to explain why we were here.
Pulling the Falcon into the driveway, the four of us hopped out and walked
toward the front door. I rang the bell and we waited for an answer.

The door was yanked open by a teenage girl, probably
sixteen, with long curly hair comprised of a shocking array of blues, greens,
and purples. She looked like Rainbow Brite. I absolutely loved it.

“Nice hair!”

“It’s like a bag of Skittles exploded in your hair!”

“Super cool!”

We oohed and aahhed over the girl’s hair. Aunt Shirley was
bold enough to touch it…wrapping a strand around her finger.

“I so need to do this to my hair,” Aunt Shirley said. “How
did you do it?”

“Kool-Aid,” the bubble-gum popping girl said. “I can do it
for you if you want.”

Aunt Shirley turned to Paige. “I’m gonna do this. I know you
have a wedding, but…”

Paige laughed. “I think it’s fabulous.”

“Sweet! C’mon in. My name is Brianna,” the girl said as she
led us into the house.

“We’re looking for Josh,” I said. “I’m friends with Jim, and
we wanted to check and see how he’s doing.”

“Aren’t you guys sweet,” the young girl said. “He’s totally
bummed. Go on into the kitchen and I’ll yell for him to come down.”

The four of us walked down the hallway toward the back of
the house.

“He said he’d be down in a second,” Brianna said as she
walked back into the kitchen. “Can I get you guys something to drink?”

“No thanks,” I said. “We just came from Susie’s bakery where
we had scones and coffee.”

“Oh, I love her store. She has the best stuff,” Brianna said
as she proceeded to mix various Kool-Aid packets with conditioner in small
bowls. “Of course, Josh likes it because Carrie works there on Saturday
mornings…but I like it because it’s yummy.”

“Who’s Carrie?” Aunt Shirley asked.

“Oh, Carrie is a senior, too. She’s worked for Susie since
she opened. She’s totally cool and popular,” Brianna said. “Josh really doesn’t
stand a chance…but he tries.”

“Shut up, brat,” Josh said good-naturedly, walking briskly
into the kitchen. He watched his sister mix for a few seconds before shaking
his head and grabbing a Coke out of the refrigerator. “Which one of you brave
ladies is gonna be her guinea pig today?”

Aunt Shirley’s hand shot up. “I am. I’m getting me some purple
and pink hair.”

“Your hair will really take the color, too,” Brianna assured
Aunt Shirley. “It’s already a light color.”

“I was hoping to talk to you about Jim,” I said to Josh,
hoping to ease into the conversation.

Twisting the lid off a Coke bottle, Josh took a long
drink…his eyes never leaving mine. “Why?” he asked when he was done drinking.

“I want to get a better feel for this whole murder. It just
doesn’t make sense. I was hoping you had some thoughts or ideas about who would
want to harm Jim.”

Josh’s eyes began to water, and I was afraid he was going to
lose it. Not wanting to embarrass him further, I pretended to be interested in
what Brianna was doing.

Brianna put a large towel over Aunt Shirley’s shoulders and
had Megan tearing off sections of aluminum foil. She showed Paige how to take a
small section of hair and add the purple to the top portion, then blend in the
pink at the bottom section, then wrap it in the foil.

“And how long does she keep these in her hair?” Paige asked.

“I’d say a couple hours. Why, were you going somewhere after
this?” Brianna asked.

“Nope,” Aunt Shirley said. “And even if I was, I’ve looked
crazier, so it’s no big deal.”

I heard Megan chuckle as she handed Brianna the last of the
foil she’d torn off the roll.

“Let’s sit down at the table,” Josh said quietly.

Pulling the chair out I sat and watched him move the cap from
his Coke across the table back and forth in front of him. “I’m not sure what I
can help you with,” he said. “I already told Chief Taggart everything I know,
too. And that is…obviously I don’t know as much as I thought I did about Jim, because
I never thought he could make someone mad enough to kill him. He was a really
nice guy, ya know?”

“You already talked with Chief Taggart?” I asked. I had to
admit, I was a little shocked. Taggart looked like he moved at a snail’s pace,
yet suddenly he was questioning the whole town…mainly about me and my motive to
kill.

Josh chewed on his lower lip. “Yes. He came to the house
yesterday morning to tell me what’d happened. He also told me you were the one
that discovered the body. He asked me lots of questions about you, but since
I’d just met you the one time, I couldn’t tell him anything.” Josh waved his
hand in front of him. “Not that I think you did anything. I honestly don’t.”

Well, you’d be the
only one in this town right now that thought that.

“See, I wasn’t supposed to meet up with Jim until about ten
that morning. He wanted me to sleep in and relax. It’s my Christmas vacation,
and Jim didn’t want me to work too hard.”

“That was awful nice of him, seeing as how half the town was
breathing down his neck,” my aunt said from her barstool in the kitchen.

Josh smiled half-heartedly. “That’s the thing about Jim. He
didn’t care. He went at his own pace, regardless of the amount of people
breathing down his neck. He always said quality work took quality time.”

Josh looked out the window. I saw him tear up again. I knew
I needed to redirect him or I’d never get anything pertinent out of him. “Do
you know Larry Blackwell?”

Josh nodded. “We are doing work—or I guess we
were
doing work for him. Now that Jim’s
dead, I don’t know what will happen to Jim’s business or the houses we were in
the middle of doing.”

“Well, I heard Jim arguing on the phone with Larry, and then
I witnessed Larry at Jim’s house the day I discovered his body. He was pounding
on Jim’s door, threatening him if Jim didn’t finish his job.” I watched Josh’s
body language very carefully. “Do you think Larry could have killed Jim? Could
he have gotten mad enough at Jim to take his life?”

Josh chuckled. “No way. Larry’s all talk. He’s always been a
little hotheaded like that…but I’ve never known him to be violent. Like I said,
I can’t imagine anyone doing this.”

While I envied his naivety, I knew he couldn’t be more
wrong. I once thought no one I knew could ever kill another person…until she
tried to kill me. As much as I hated to admit it, I wouldn’t be all that surprised
if it was Julie. Upset, yes…but not surprised.

“If you are looking at things like that…arguments and people
that might be mad at Jim, there was something that happened last Saturday.”

“Last Saturday, like right before Christmas?” I asked.

“Yeah. Jim and I stopped by Susie’s bakery,” Josh blushed.
“You know, because she has really good stuff.”

I smiled encouragingly at him, not wanting him to stop
because he was embarrassed. “Yes, they do.”

Josh’s eyes fell to the table then back at me. “Well, as Jim
and I were walking out the front door to go to Jim’s truck, we heard some
fighting in the alleyway.”

“Who was it?” Aunt Shirley called out.

I hadn’t been aware she was listening, but I guess I
shouldn’t be surprised. I looked over at her and tried not to laugh. She looked
like a silver octopus with the randomly placed foils popping out all over her
head.

“It was Whitney Lark and Jolene Shoeman. I’m not sure what
they were fighting about. I just heard Whitney tell Jolene that a person like
her didn’t need to be hanging around Susie, and that Jolene should have just
stayed away and never come back to town because everyone knew she was the one
that killed her parents in the fire.”

“How does Jim fit into this?” I asked.

Josh began tapping the Coke cap on the table…a ridiculously
annoying habit. I tried to let it go, but I couldn’t. Reaching over I placed my
hand over his bouncing hand. He smiled at me. “Sorry…nervous habit.”

“That’s okay. So how did this involve Jim?”

“Okay, so Jim motions me to follow him into the alley where
Whitney and Jolene were fighting. When they see us, they suddenly change.
Whitney gets all nice again, and Jolene tries to sneak off.”

This kid better hurry up
before I pull out my hair!

“So Jim walks up to them to see what’s going on, and Whitney
tried to pretend that we heard wrong…that they weren’t fighting. Jim told
Whitney he heard what she said to Jolene about her parents, and that—well, he
kinda got made at Whitney and told her she needed to grow up and mind her own
business. That the last thing Susie needed was for her customers to see two
grown women fighting in an alley. And that if Whitney was really Susie’s friend
she’d just keep her mouth shut.”

I smiled. Boy would I have loved to have seen that. “Well,
that is interesting,” I said, “but I’m not sure if that would cause either one
of them to kill Jim.”

Josh cleared his throat. “I haven’t finished,” he said. “So
after Jim told Whitney to grow up and keep her mouth shut, Whitney went all
crazy on Jim, telling him to mind his own business or she’d put him
out
of business. He should just run on
home to his…” Josh stopped talking and shifted in his seat. “He just needed to
run on home to his fat, unsuccessful girlfriend.”

I could tell he wasn’t saying something. “And?” I prompted.

“And the truth is…if anyone was going to be killing that
day, it would be Jim killing Whitney. He was so mad at her…I’d never seen him
so angry.”

Funny how Whitney left
that part out when she was talking about Jim in the bakery. Of course, that
also accounts for the evil eyes between Whitney and Jolene
.

“What about Jolene?”

Josh shuddered. “It was super gross. After Whitney and Jim
finished bickering, Jolene slides up to Jim and puts her arms around him.
Telling him if he ever gets tired of Julie that
she
could keep him warm at night.”

I crinkled my nose. “Gross,” I agreed.

Josh let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah, Jim all but threw her off
him and told her to go to hell. We practically took off running out of there.
It was super creepy and scary.”

I thought about what Josh told us. Even I had to admit it
was a huge stretch to think because of that incident one of them would kill
Jim. But, I wanted to keep my options open. So for now, Larry, Whitney, and Jolene
were all prime suspects…along with Julie.

“Okay, you’re done,” Brianna announced. “You can rinse your
hair tonight. It should be nice and bold by then.”

“Perfect. My Kool-Aid hair can match the jello shots I’m
serving tonight,” Aunt Shirley said.

“I think I’m gonna try calling Julie one more time,” I said
to Paige as I tossed down the magazine I’d been reading. It was mid-afternoon
and we were lounging on our beds trying to rest up for the party later.

Mom was still trying to calm down from her near heart attack
when she saw Aunt Shirley’s octopus-foiled hair. To say she was raging mad
might be an understatement. I hadn’t seen Aunt Shirley since she slunk to her
room to hide from Mom’s wrath.

“Good idea,” Paige said, putting her magazine down and
turning toward me.

I picked up my cell phone. I didn’t want to give up on
Julie. I wanted to believe there was a reason why she was ducking my calls.

“Hello?”

“Omigod, Julie? I’m so glad you picked up.”

Silence.

“Hey, Ryli. I wasn’t sure if I was going to or not,” she
admitted.

“How are you? I mean, I know that sounds lame, but we’ve
been so worried.”

Julie sighed. “I guess I’m okay. I mean, I’m totally shocked
and heartbroken, but…” I heard sobbing on the other end.

“Oh, Julie. Please don’t cry,” I murmured. “Come over
tonight. I really think you need to be with friends.”

Julie continued sniffling for a few seconds. “I don’t know,
Ryli. I just don’t know if I have the strength. I’ve spent most of the day at
the police station—”

“What?” I exclaimed. “Did that horrible Taggart haul you
in?”

Paige flung her legs over the side of her bed and leaned
forward to hear better. I pulled the phone away from my ear so she could listen
in.

“Yes. He made me go down to the station and drilled me for
about two hours. I really don’t know anything, Ryli. I swear.” More sobbing.

I put the phone closer to my ear. “Please come over tonight.
Even if it’s just to be surrounded by people that love you.”

More sniffling. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t know how much
fun I’ll be, but maybe I need to get out. I can hardly breathe here. I feel
like I’m suffocating.”

“Great! We’ll see you tonight. And Julie, don’t worry, we’ll
get this sorted out soon.”

“You both look beautiful,” Mom said as Paige and I walked up
the stairs and into the kitchen later that night.

Paige had on a black and white maxi skirt with an
off-the-shoulder black sweater. The sweater was tight and fit her curves
nicely. I had on my signature outfit of black stretch pants, oversized tunic,
and Michael Kors boots.

“Thanks,” I said, kissing her on the cheek, “so do you.” Mom
had on black dress pants and a long-sleeve, button down, hunter green blouse.
Her long, blonde hair was caught at the nape of her neck in a decorative
barrette.

Aunt Shirley walked into the room. “What about me?” she
demanded. I took in her new purple and pink hair, fuchsia pants, and
see-through white blouse and shuttered.

“Love the hair. But, seriously, what the hell are you
wearing?” I asked.

Aunt Shirley looked down at her top. I could see her
old-lady bra through the sheer material. Sadly, the bra barely encased her
saggy boobs. “What?” she said. “I was told it’s all the rage.”

“It’s all the rage for twenty-year-old girls with perky
boobs,” I said.

Paige grabbed me by the arm. “
Please
tell me you know
what she’s wearing to the wedding!”

Mom laughed. “Don’t worry, dear, I took care of it.”

Aunt Shirley huffed. “She’s got me in a nun outfit!”

“Oh, thank God,” Paige whispered.

“Aunt Shirley,” my mom admonished, “a black skirt paired
with a cream sweater is not a nun’s habit.”

“Yeah, well it ain’t my habit to wear, either!” Aunt Shirley
cackled, slapping her hands together gleefully.

I rolled my eyes at her sad joke. Okay, it was kind of
funny, but I didn’t want to give her a big head by admitting it.

Headlights flooded the dimly lit living room. “Someone’s
here,” I sang.

Paige and I rushed to the door to greet our first visitor. A
curvy woman carrying a party bag and two bottles of champagne stepped out of a
mini van. “I hear there’s a party going on!” she cried as she ran up the steps
and into our arms.

Debbie’s super-short, red spiky hair was sticking out in all
directions, and I’m pretty sure one of her spikes poked me in the eye. Her
heavy makeup failed to hide the dark circles underneath her eyes. I guess three
kids and a husband will do that to you.

“I heard you have three kids!” Paige exclaimed. We all
walked into the living room.

Debbie laughed. “Yep. Nine, six, and two. It’s been a crazy
ride. Want to see pictures?”

“Of course,” Paige said.

We all gathered around in the living room as Debbie showed
off her crew. They were a cute family with two girls and a boy.

“Now that we got the boy, we are done,” Debbie laughed.

“What’s Mark up to?” I asked.

Debbie put her pictures away. “He’s selling boats at Cavern
Beach Marine Motors. He makes a good enough living that I’m able to stay home
full time and take care of the kids.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Three
kids seemed ridiculously overwhelming.

“Both my girls are in dance and tumbling, so that keeps us
pretty busy most nights. And Trevor, the baby, just keeps me busy getting into
everything he can,” she laughed.

“It’s a great age,” my mom said as she set a tray of food
down on the coffee table in front of us.

Plop! Plop!

I looked at my cell phone. It was a message from Garrett.
How’s it going? You 3 sheets to the wind yet?

I laughed out loud and sent a text back
.
Nope. Just
starting. Miss u, can’t wait to see u.

Same here, Sin. Be safe tonight
.

You, too. Don’t let Matt do anything too crazy. I’ll call you
tomorrow. Tell Miss Molly I love her.

I put my cell phone back in my pocket. “Garrett’s getting
ready to go pick up Matt for his bachelor party.”

“Oh, boy. I’m not sure I want to know,” Paige said.

I rolled my eyes. “Please. A handful of guys staying in
Granville to drink. How much trouble can they get into?” I tried to sound
flippant, but I had to admit, a little part of me worried. I’ve heard some pretty
racy bachelor stories before.

“Speaking of drinking…what’re we having?” Aunt Shirley walked
over to the bar and started setting up glasses.

I looked at my watch. I figured Susie and Julie would start
arriving soon. I’d never heard back from Whitney, so who knew if she was
coming.

“I think I’ll start with a champagne spritzer,” Megan said.

“Perfect. I froze some moscato ice cubes yesterday. I’ll
just run and get them.”

Oh, boy. I’d hoped she’d forgotten about the penis ice cube
trays.

Aunt Shirley rushed back in a few minutes later with her
trays. “Look what I got!” she sang out.

The girls all squealed in excitement. When had I become the
stick in the mud? Wasn’t I just complaining about Paige needing to loosen up? But
in my defense, having to take care of Aunt Shirley will do that to you.

Aunt Shirley poured champagne and moscato into a glass, added
a moscato-iced penis, and topped it off with raspberries and strawberries. It
looked amazing. “I think I’ll have one, too,” I said.

“Me, too,” everyone else chimed in.

Aunt Shirley busied herself with pouring drinks, and I
couldn’t help but wonder if she was really going to wear that hideous blouse
all night. She caught me staring and said, “It’s for the stripper. I want him
to know I’m available.”

Paige spit the spritzer out her mouth and nose. “Shit, that
hurts!” She grabbed a napkin and wiped her face. “Please tell me she’s not
serious. You guys didn’t do something as vulgar as hire a stripper, did you?”

I laughed at her expression. “Not that I know of…but I can’t
say what Aunt Shirley did.”

Paige glared at Aunt Shirley.

Aunt Shirley pretended not to notice. “The night’s still
young!” Aunt Shirley sang.

The glare of headlights filling the room saved Aunt Shirley and
Paige from having words. I looked out the window and saw a car pull into the
circle drive. “I bet that’s either Susie or Julie,” I said, putting my drink
down on a nearby table.

Paige and I met Susie at the front door. She had her arms
full carrying a cupcake holder, a gift bag, and two plastic containers.
Figuring the containers had the bourbon balls in them, I snatched them up. I couldn’t
wait to try them.

“Susie, it’s so good to see you again,” Mom said as we set
the sweets on the kitchen counter.

The two women embraced. “Thanks, Mrs. Sinclair. I’m happy to
be here tonight. Takes my mind off of things.”

I felt a stab in my heart. I was horrified at the tears
welling up in my eyes. This was supposed to be a joyous occasion. “Have you
heard from Whitney or Julie?” I asked.

“Whitney said she’d be here after she finished showing a
house, but I never could get ahold of Julie,” Susie said.

“I finally got ahold of her around three o’clock today. She
said she was going to come. She needed to get out of the house.”

“Good!” Susie exclaimed. “I’ve been so worried about her.”

The beeping of the oven interrupted us. “That’s the spinach
dip,” Bea announced. “Why don’t you girls go into the living room and relax.”

“That’s quite a blouse you have there,” Susie said
diplomatically to Aunt Shirley.

Aunt Shirley beamed. “Thanks! I’m hoping to stand out when
the stripper gets here!”

Susie lifted an eyebrow at me. I shook my head. “There’s no
stripper,” I assured her.

“We’ll see,” Aunt Shirley said mysteriously.