Girls' Night Out Murder (Ryli Sinclair 2) (13 page)

“Do you think you’ll be able to drive home tonight?” Mindy
said chewing her lip nervously.

Susie smiled at her. “Thanks for worrying about me. I’ve
actually only had two glasses the whole night. I knew I had to drive home, so I
was pacing myself.”

I looked down at the glass I’d picked up after slamming the
door on the police officers. I
think
this was my fifth. I was definitely not pacing myself.

“What about you, Debbie? You okay to drive home?”

Debbie had been quietly sitting on the couch throughout the
exchange. She’d already cried through four Kleenexes. “Yes, I’m fine to drive
home. I’m just in shock. I can’t believe this!” She started sobbing again.

Paige went over and sat on the couch next to her. “Is there
anything we can do for you?”

Shaking her head, Debbie wiped again at her eyes and nose.
“No. I’m going to call Mark real quick and let him know what’s going on, and
that I’ll be home shortly.”

“Of course,” Paige said.

Bea handed Susie a cup of coffee. “I hate the thought of you
going home alone after all this,” Bea said.

Susie blew on the coffee then took a tentative sip. “Oh, I
won’t go home. I’ll go to the bakery. It’s where I’ve spent the last few
nights, anyway. When I’m sad or worried, I just bake and bake. I can’t help
it.”

“I’m not sure that’s safe,” Aunt Shirley said. “Let me just
remind you all that there’s a killer on the loose. He’s already killed two
people.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Susie said quietly.

“Maybe you should just stay here,” Paige urged.

Susie stood up and handed her mug to Mom. “I appreciate the
concern, but I’d feel safer at my bakery. Plus, I need to try and get ahold of
Jolene. I haven’t spoken with her at all today. She keeps avoiding my texts.
Besides,” Susie smiled at Paige, “I need to get started on a wedding cake.”

“I just don’t know how I can think about a wedding at a time
like this,” Paige said.

“Oh, Paige,” her mom said, “Please don’t say that!”

“It’s true, though,” Paige insisted.

Knowing how tenderhearted Paige was, I knew she’d think
something silly like that. “Paige, nothing is going to take the joy away from
your wedding, you hear me?” I said. “Nothing. No matter what, you and Matt are
going to be married on Sunday. No…matter…what.”

Paige looked over and me and smiled. “I understand,” she said.

I just wished she looked like she believed it.

After Susie and Debbie left, we wasted no time cleaning up
the mess and turning in. While Paige was getting ready for bed and brushing her
teeth, I called Garrett to tell him about Julie’s murder.

The bachelor party was still going strong, so Garrett had to
take my call in a different room. I could tell he was worried, especially when
I mentioned Chief Taggart demanding my presence at the police station in the
morning.

“I don’t understand. Why is he fixated on you?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I said. “For some reason he thinks
I either know something or had something to do with the murders. I don’t even
know yet how Julie died. He just said she was brutally murdered.”

Garrett sighed. “I wish I could head down with Matt and Nick
tomorrow, but I honestly can’t get away right now. I’m lucky Officer Ryan is
covering for me Sunday. It’s been crazy here.”

“I understand,” I said. I learned a couple months back that
a cop, especially a Chief, doesn’t have banker’s hours. I’ve learned to take
what I can when I can.

I heard the faucet shut off. “Paige is almost done getting
ready for bed, and I don’t want to upset her anymore than she already is. I
better turn in.”

“I wish I was there right now to help you through this.”

My heart leapt. “Me, too. Sunday can’t come fast enough.”

“Call me tomorrow after you meet with Taggart.”

“Will do. You about finished with your party?”

Garrett chuckled. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Just be safe.”

“Night, Sin.”

I hung up and stared at my cell phone. I wasn’t sure I was
ready to tackle Taggart in the morning, but I didn’t really have a choice.

“So what are we thinking?” I asked Paige once we were snuggled
in bed that night.

Paige leaned up on her elbow to look at me. The nightlight
from the bathroom illuminated our bedroom just enough for me to see her in the
dark.

“I’m thinking I’m scared,” she said. “I think someone is
killing people we know, and we don’t have any idea who!”

I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to tell her I had a few
suspects in mind. I knew she’d just worrying about me, and what Aunt Shirley
and I were planning on doing.

“We’ve been best friends since elementary. I can tell you’re
up to something. What gives?” she said.

I guess I just thought I was going to keep my mouth shut.
“I’m not exactly sure. Aunt Shirley and I have been—”

Paige’s groan cut me off.

“Well, you asked!” I exclaimed.

“I know, I know. Go ahead.”

I turned on my back, mulling over how much to say. “For some
reason, that idiot Chief Taggart thinks I’m involved. I need to clear my name
soon, before things get totally out of control.”

“Do you think you should have Garrett come down sooner?” she
asked.

I sighed. “No, he’s busy in Granville. I just got off the
phone with him. He’s just as confused as we are as to why Taggart thinks I’m
involved. He said to call him after I get back from the police station tomorrow
morning.”

“So what are you and Aunt Shirley planning?”

“I don’t exactly know yet. I think tomorrow morning you,
Aunt Shirley, and I should go to the station. Afterward we will stop by the
bakery and see how your cake is coming. And maybe…” I trailed off knowing she
was going to have a fit.

“What? Just say it.”

I leaned up on my elbow. “I think we should stop by Julie’s
house to see if we can find out something.”

“What!” Paige exclaimed. “We can’t go inside her house. I’m
sure it’s covered in police tape.”

“I didn’t exactly say we’d go inside,” I said. “I’m thinking
maybe look through the windows, something like that. I’ll pull her address up
on Google Maps in the morning.”

Paige plopped down on her back. “I don’t want to go to jail
a day before my wedding, Ryli.”

“You won’t…I promise! Look, we got one cop that’s such a
zealot he can’t see the truth, and two more that are barely out of diapers. No
way are they going to be able to solve this on their own.”

Paige chuckled. “You’re beginning to sound more and more
like Aunt Shirley every day!”

I threw my pillow at her. “Don’t ever say that again!”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” my mom
asked the next morning at breakfast. “I have no problem going and telling that
Taggart man just what I think of him!”

I laughed at my mom’s brevity. Bending down to kiss her head
I said, “Thanks, but Aunt Shirley, Paige, and I can handle it. You stay here
with the others and make sure the last of the food and wedding prep is done.”

“I just got off the phone with Matt,” Paige announced as she
bounced into the kitchen. “He and Nick are leaving around eleven this morning.
Hopefully they’ll be here by three at the latest.”

“I’m so happy, dear. It’s nice seeing you excited again,”
Mom said.

“I’ll be honest,” Paige said pouring milk into her cereal
bowl. “I’ve struggled a lot with being excited and happy for the wedding, and
feeling sad for the deaths of Jim and Julie. It’s like I don’t know how I’m
supposed to act.”

“It’s understandable,” Mom said. “But just remember, you’ve
been dreaming of this moment pretty much your whole life. You are entitled to
feel happy. Don’t think for one second you have to justify your feelings to us.
Be happy, be excited, be in love.”

Tears filled my eyes. My mom had such an amazing way with
words. Which reminded me, “Have you finished writing your vows?” I asked.

Paige groaned. “Not yet. I have an idea of what I want to
say, just nothing concrete yet.”

“Are we about ready?” Aunt Shirley said as she walked into
the kitchen. Megan started giggling. I looked over at Aunt Shirley and nearly
fell out of my chair.

“What on Earth are you wearing?” I demanded. “And why in the
world do you even own a shirt like that?”

“What?” Aunt Shirley said, pulling the sweatshirt out and
looking at it as though she’d never seen it before.

It was a bright pink sweatshirt that read:
I
wasn’t planning on going for a run today…but those cops came out of nowhere!
Two
girls were sprinting for their lives down the street.

“I think it’s totally appropriate,” Aunt Shirley said.

I was speechless. The fact she would actually own a shirt
like that was crazy…the fact she’d actually
packed
a shirt like that to take on vacation was even crazier. Combined with her pink
and purple hair…there was no hiding Aunt Shirley.

“I think it’s a lovely shirt,” Mom said nonplussed.

My head snapped to my mom. “You’re okay with her wearing
that…to a
police station?
” I
demanded.

My mom stared back at me. “I am when it’s about something as
ridiculous as my baby being accused of two murders.”

Score one for Mom.

“Fine,” I said to Aunt Shirley. “Just try not to antagonize
anyone else today, okay.”

Aunt Shirley grinned at me. “Who…me?”

“Yes, you,” I said sternly.

“No promises.”

I sighed and looked at Paige. “You about ready?”

“Yep.”

“Let me get my coat,” Aunt Shirley said. “About time I was
pulling it out.”

I looked over at Mom. She shrugged.

A few minutes later the three of us piled into the Falcon
and headed for the police station. My stomach was in knots by the time I found
a place to park and we all went inside.

“Aunt Shirley, isn’t that coat a little excessive? I mean,
it’s not like we’re in the tundra right now,” I said laughingly.

Aunt Shirley pushed back the hood on her body-length,
down-filled camouflage parka. I’d never seen anything so hideous—well, except
for the see-through shirt she had on last night.

“This baby is good for covert operations. I draw this hood
around me, and no one knows who I am. I figure it might come in handy today. We
need to do some serious investigating.”

On one hand she was right…with the hood up, you couldn’t see
any part of her. On the other hand…no one in the world owned that coat in
camouflage I was pretty sure. So everyone would know who she was. I didn’t have
the heart to tell her.

The inside of the police station was like most stations, I’m
sure. You step inside to a waiting-room type area. There were a couple chairs
around the perimeter of the room. To the right of the room was a door that
could only be opened by punching in a code. I assumed it led to the back where
the police officers were, and directly in front of us was a large glass panel
with a heavy-set woman behind it. Her overly bleach-blonde hair was teased to
the ceiling.

“Can I help you?” she whined.

Aunt Shirley pushed her way to the front. “We’re here to see
Taggart.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed at Aunt Shirley’s tone. “
Chief
Taggart is busy right now. Take a
seat, and I’ll let him know you’re here.”

I highly doubt that.

The three of us moved to the empty chairs in the room. Paige
picked up a magazine and began flipping through it. I got out my cell phone to
text Garrett.

At the police station now. Taggart is making us wait.

Less than a minute later I got a reply from Garrett.
Sounds like something he’d do.
Text me when finished.

Twenty minutes later we were still in the holding area
waiting on Taggart. I looked at Aunt Shirley and rolled my eyes. She smiled
sweetly at me then motioned her head for me to follow her. We both stood up and
walked to the window.

Speaking in an overly loud voice Aunt Shirley said, “How
much longer is it going to be?”

The processed blonde looked up from her solitaire game on
the computer. “I have no idea,” she snapped. “Our Chief is very busy.”

“Well,” Aunt Shirley practically shouted, “you tell your
Chief we came down here like he asked at the time he said. If he can’t be
bothered to talk with us, we’ll come back at a later time. You see, we’re busy
people, too.”

I gave the nasty blonde my best steely-eyed look. “Very
busy,” I echoed.

“C’mon, girls,” Aunt Shirley said. “Get your stuff…we’re
outta here.”

Immediately the locked door leading to the back area was
thrown open. Chief Taggart stood there scowling at us.

“Well, well,” my aunt said, “looks like you got unbusy real
quick.”

Chief Taggart snarled at Aunt Shirley. “All of you…in here,
now!”

I couldn’t help but grab the bull by the horns. I made a
slow progression back to the chair to retrieve my purse and coat. I slowly set
the magazine back on the table…taking time to straighten the magazines. By the
time I walked back over to where Aunt Shirley, Paige, and Taggart were
standing, I thought he was gonna burst a blood vessel. His face was red and his
nostrils were flaring.

I ignored his obvious anger. “I believe we’re all ready now,
Chief. Thank you for seeing us so quickly.”

Aunt Shirley and Paige snickered.

Chief Taggart put his finger in my face. “Don’t tempt me,
girlie. I’ll haul your ass off to jail faster than you can imagine.”

I barely refrained from rolling my eyes. I’d been threatened
a lot worse than that by Garrett.

“You’ll do kindly to remove your finger from my niece’s
face,” Aunt Shirley said. “We are here out of the goodness of our hearts. You
keep threatening us, and we’ll have a lawyer down here so fast screaming police
brutality you won’t know which end is up. Don’t think for one second I don’t
know you bullied your way into our house last night.”

Taggart hitched up his pants and turned on his heel without
another word. We all looked at each other and followed him silently. Officer
Clark and Officer Dillon were both sitting at their desks in the middle of the
room. I gave them a little wave. They both waved back then quickly looked away.

“In here,” Taggart said, opening a door to the right. It was
a tiny interrogation room, just big enough to sit four people around a table. I
never knew I was claustrophobic until I squeezed into the room.

Taggart waited until we were seated before sitting down. He
narrowed his eyes at Aunt Shirley’s sweatshirt but didn’t say anything.

“Since none of you are under arrest at this time, there’s no
need to separate you.”

At this time? Did he
seriously think we were all guilty now?

“And really, it’s just you I’m interested in, Ms. Sinclair.
You’re the one that keeps popping up unexpectedly in my investigation.”

Wonderful!

“Did you have an opportunity to question Larry Blackwell,
Chief?” I asked.

Taggart’s face was like granite. “I’ll do the askin’ of the
questions. You, young lady, will do the answerin’. Do you understand how this
will work?”

I swallowed hard. “Yes. I was just curious—”

“So, how well did you know Jim Cleary?”

I took a deep breath. Obviously I’d be getting nowhere with
Taggart. “I’ve known Jim for years. Ever since he built his house next to
ours.”

“And Julie Crider? How well did you know her?”

“Again, I’ve know Julie since childhood. When we’d stay here
during the summers with my grandparents, Paige, Julie, Susie, Whitney, Debbie, and
a couple other girls would always run around together.”

Taggart looked down at his notebook. “That would be Susie Shoeman,
Debbie Lancaster, and Whitney Lark, correct?”

“Yes.” I was beginning to get annoyed.

“Let me just get right to it. Were you in love with Jim Cleary?”

The three of us laughed at that question.

“Uh…no!” I said.

Taggart narrowed his eyes at me. “Chief Kimble has assured
me that I have the wrong girl…but I don’t think so. See, you claimed to have
eavesdropped on a conversation outside Jim’s window the night he was murdered.
You imply it was a woman, but you don’t know who the woman was and you didn’t
see her leave.”

“That’s correct,” I said tersely.

“What if I think it was
you
he was fighting with, and it was
you
that picked up the drill in anger and ran the auger through his heart.”

I could feel my palms start to sweat and my pulse race.

“Then you’d be an even bigger idiot than I originally
thought,” Aunt Shirley said.

I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. Nervous laughter…it
was my kryptonite.

Taggart squinted at Aunt Shirley. “I’m not asking you. I’m
asking your niece. Unless you helped her murder Jim.”

Aunt Shirley laughed. “Please, if I killed a man, I wouldn’t
leave the body out in the open where it would be discovered.”

I groaned. Leave it to Aunt Shirley to get us arrested for
something we didn’t do!

“Hypothetically speaking, of course,” she added quickly.

“Humph,” Taggart grunted. “See, I think you were so jealous
of Jim and Julie’s new relationship that you drilled Jim through the heart, and
you stabbed Julie with a knife through the heart. Notice how I keep coming back
to the heart. This was definitely a crime of passion.”

Paige started crying. “Is that how Julie died? Someone
stabbed her through the heart?”

“Stabbed her once through the stomach, and then again
through the heart.”

My mind whirled with this information. “Why me? Why would
you pick me as the killer? I haven’t been here since summer. I had no idea Jim
and Julie were dating. In fact, I’m dating Chief Kimble. I’m sure he told you
that. Why aren’t you looking at someone who did know they were dating? Maybe a
guy or girl that Jim was building a house for…or maybe someone Julie was selling
a house to. Someone in the—”

I cut myself off and looked quickly at Aunt Shirley. I was
going to say someone in the real estate business. Someone who was jealous of
Jim and Julie…someone who dealt with them both…and that person was Whitney!

Could Whitney have done something like this?

“I think we’ve answered all your questions. Now, if you
aren’t going to arrest us, we’d like to leave,” Aunt Shirley said.

Chief Taggart slowly looked at each of us. “I’m not
arresting you right now because I know you’re staying in town for a couple more
days. Just know, I plan on making an arrest soon.”

My heart dropped to my stomach. I could think of a handful
of people the Chief should be looking at...why was he so adamant on pinning
these murders on me? Was he seriously that lazy in his duties?

The three of us got up to go. I have to admit, I was moving
much faster now. I just wanted out of the station as quick as possible.

The sunshine hitting the white snow hurt my eyes as we
walked out of the police station. It must have been a lot darker inside the
station than I realized. Squinting against the sun—wishing I’d brought
sunglasses—I got behind the wheel of the Falcon. Instead of starting her up, I
laid my head against the steering wheel.

“Don’t worry, Ryli, Matt will be here in a few hours, and
Garrett will be here tomorrow. They will figure out what to do,” Paige said.

I lifted my head off the steering wheel. “This is my mess,
Paige. I appreciate you trying to encourage me, but this is my fight. I want to
solve this case on my own, not run to Garrett and Matt because someone is being
mean to me.”

“Atta girl!” Aunt Shirley said, slapping me on my shoulder.
“This isn’t anything we can’t solve. Granted, there’s a whole town full of
people that may have wanted those two dead, but I’m thinking it’s someone close
to them. You know what they say…most victims know their killers. And Taggart
was right about one thing…it may have been a crime of passion.”

“Right,” I said, starting the car and heading toward Susie’s
bakery. “I think it’s time to push Susie a little harder. I want to know what
Taggart asked her.”