Girls' Night Out Murder (Ryli Sinclair 2) (16 page)

Paige pulled up directions on how to get to Debbie’s house.
She was outside the city limits—almost to a neighboring town across the lake.

I turned off the blacktop road and onto a gravel road. A few
minutes later a modest two-story house appeared on the left. There were
numerous snow-covered plastic toys in the front yard, along with a large,
wooden swing set and slide off the side of the house.

“I’d say this is it,” I said. I pulled the Falcon into the
driveway and shut off the car.

The front door was immediately opened and Debbie stepped
out, a toe-headed baby jiggling on her hip. “C’mon in ladies. I’m so glad you
could stop by.” Her voice broke and she wiped away a tear.

Debbie led us through a messy living room—where two young
girls were dancing along with a video on the TV—and into an even messier
kitchen.

The kitchen overlooked the lake. Debbie’s house seemed to be
nestled in a small channel off the main portion of the lake. It was nice and
cozy.

“Sorry about the mess. With all three kids home on Christmas
vacation, it’s nearly impossible to keep the house clean.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Paige said. “I’m sure in a few years
I’ll be saying the same thing.”

My heart pitched. Paige’s constant reminder that her life
would soon change was still hard for me to process fully. It scared me to think
my best friend was starting a new chapter in her life—and this time it didn’t
fully include me.

Aunt Shirley whistled and walked over to the bay window
where the kitchen table sat. “That’s a nice boat.”

Debbie laughed. “Hazards of a husband who sells boats for a
living. Mark loves his Sea Ray.”

To me it looked like a large, white boat with a lot of room
in the front to sit people. I’m sure to people who know boats it was a lot more
than that. Mostly it reeked of money.

“How’re you doing?” Paige asked.

Debbie blinked back tears. “I just don’t understand this. I
mean, I just spoke with Julie the other day. Everything was fine. I don’t
understand why someone would want to kill her.”

I exchanged a silent look with Aunt Shirley. I wasn’t sure
how much we should tell Debbie. No sense dragging her into the mess, but maybe
she’d have insight to Whitney and Jolene’s relationship and we could narrow
down our suspects even more.

At this point I was willing to scratch Blackwell’s name off
the list. I couldn’t give a motive as to why he would want to kill both Jim and
Julie.

“Momma, can we have some goldfish crackers?” A brown haired
girl came running into the room wearing a purple tutu. Her hair was pulled up
into two pigtails and she was missing a front tooth.

“This is my oldest, Sarah. Sarah, can you say hi to
everyone?”

The little girl tucked her chin down to her chest and
scuffed her ballet slippers on the floor. “Hi,” she mumbled shyly.

Another little girl with blonde pigtails and sporting a pink
tutu came barreling into the kitchen. “Goldfish, goldfish,” she chanted as she
effortlessly leapt into the air repeatedly.

Debbie handed the baby off to Sarah. “Take your brother with
you in the other room while I talk.” The little girl made a face but didn’t say
anything. Debbie then shoved a gigantic bag of goldfish to the smaller, dancing
one. “Don’t drop these all over the floor, Tia. And please don’t let your
brother mash them into the carpet.”

The little girl stopped jumping and stared at her mom. “No
promises.”

Aunt Shirley laughed. “I like her.”

The little girl skipped over to Aunt Shirley. Something told
me she never walked anywhere. “I like your hair,” she said.

Aunt Shirley dropped into a chair at the kitchen table. The
little girl leapt into Aunt Shirley’s lap and began playing with Aunt Shirley’s
hair.

“Pretty colors,” she said, repeatedly running her fingers
through Aunt Shirley’s hair. She giggled as the bright colors now stood up in
spikes around my aunt’s head.

“I want some, Mommy,” the little girl demanded.

Debbie rolled her eyes. “I need you to go into the living
room with your sister and brother. Mommy needs to talk with the grown ups right
now.”

This didn’t phase the girl in the least. She crossed her
arms and stared her mother down. “I want pretty hair.”

Debbie sighed. “Your daddy would kill me if I did that to
your hair.” Debbie quickly added, “No offense, Aunt Shirley.”

Aunt Shirley smiled. “None taken. And you, Missy,” Aunt
Shirley said, jiggling her knees and smiling as the little girl threw her arms
in the air and squealed in delight, “have to be older to have awesome hair like
this.”

Tia stopped smiling and crossed her arms again. “Then I want
to be older now.”

Just when I was thinking the kid was a huge pain, Aunt
Shirley declared, “I
really
like this
kid. Reminds me a lot of myself.”

Oh, boy!

Panic flashed in Debbie’s eyes. Guess she didn’t much like
the sound of that declaration, either. “Tia, Mommy needs you to go into the
living room now.” I guess Tia knew that tone because she quickly hopped down
from Aunt Shirley’s lap.

“Goldfish, goldfish, goldfish,” she chanted as she threw her
hands in the air and leapt out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Debbie sighed. “That one will be the death of me.” She
turned toward the coffee pot. “Can I get anyone some coffee, water?”

“How about some coffee,” Aunt Shirley said, setting Debbie
at ease.

Debbie busied herself with the coffee. She set the pot on a
flat, silicone potholder in front of us on the table. Next she set out cream
and sugar. With nothing else to do, she sat down. The poor woman looked dead on
her feet.

“I just keep running this through my mind,” she said as she
stirred some cream and sugar into her coffee. “I don’t know who would do this
to both Julie and Jim. It makes no sense. At first I thought maybe it was a
robbery or something at Jim’s place, but now I don’t know what to think.”

No one said anything while we fixed our coffee.

“What can you tell me about Whitney and Jolene?” Aunt Shirley
asked.

Just jump right in
there, Aunt Shirley.

Debbie tilted her head. “Like are they friends? Do they hang
out? No, I don’t believe so.”

Aunt Shirley tried again. “Do they like each other?”

Debbie grunted. “Not hardly. But then again, Jolene doesn’t
seem to like any of us. It’s like she blames us for taking Susie in, watching
over her, when everything went to hell.”

“Do you think Jolene could’ve killed Jim and Julie?” I
asked.

You could have heard a pin drop in the kitchen. We all
waited with baited breath as Debbie mulled it over. “How?” she asked. “I mean,
she’s usually so strung out on whatever drug she’s doing that she can hardly
function. She’d have to get the upper hand on both Jim and Julie. I just don’t
see that happening.”

I did. Drugs could make a person have superhuman strength.
I’ve watched those videos on Facebook and YouTube. I’ve seen some crazy shit people
do when drugged up.

“What’s Whitney’s deal? I get why she doesn’t like Jolene.
But why did she hate Julie?” Aunt Shirley asked.

Debbie said nothing, stirring her coffee. “When the fire first
happened and Susie didn’t have anywhere to go, all of us girls wanted to take
her in. But the truth was, most of us couldn’t. Even our parents wanted to, but
it just wasn’t feasible. Except Julie. Her parents could afford it. So that’s
where Susie went. It wasn’t a big deal, we were just glad we got to stay
together. But Whitney was so jealous. You know how she always wanted to be
something she wasn’t. And the fact Julie was able to take her in just ate at
Whitney. She really started making Julie’s life miserable.” Debbie took a
drink. “I mean, Susie always made Whitney stop, but when Susie wasn’t around,
Whitney was horrible to Julie.”

“So it wouldn’t be a leap for Whitney to finally snap if the
man she wanted went for Julie?” I asked as innocuously as I could.

Debbie’s coffee cup landed with a heavy thud on the table.
“Oh, my God…do you think that’s what’s happened? Whitney killed Jim and Julie?”
Tears fell from her eyes.

“Now, we aren’t saying that,” Aunt Shirley said. The sternness
in her voice had Debbie nodding. “We’re just asking questions is all.”

 
Aunt Shirley may not
be saying it, but as far as I was concerned, Whitney just moved to suspect
number one in my book…incorrect needle size or not.

The rest of the ride home was silent. We were all lost in
our own thoughts. I was trying to put all the pieces together, but I needed to
see it on paper. I glanced in the rearview mirror and met Paige’s eye.

“I’m thinking we don’t mention any of this to Matt, okay?”
Paige said.

I grinned at her. “Duh! He finds out what we do on the side,
he’ll have a coronary. That means he’ll die, and I’ll never have nieces and
nephews to spoil.”

I was happy to hear Paige chuckle. I was worried what all
this was doing to her nerves. She was getting married in twenty-four hours, and
instead of primping and relaxing, she was being a lookout for a B&E and
running from a drugged-out rapist.

Not our best day…but not our worst day, either.

Pulling into the driveway to the lake house, I couldn’t help
but look over at Jim’s house. On those rare times when we shared a beer
together, I’d really gotten to know and like him. Now I’d never have those
times again.

“Hurry, hurry,” Paige chanted behind me. “I see the guys are
here. I really need to see Matt right now.”

Coming to a stop in front of the house, Paige flung open the
car door and jumped out. Matt must have been watching for us, because he’d
already bounded down the stairs before Paige even closed the car door.

I tried to tune out their mushy hello. Mainly because I was
jealous. I really missed Garrett. I’d started to become more and more dependent
upon him over the months. I was so impulsive that I needed his grounding.
Watching Matt and Paige together just left me lonely.

Aunt Shirley patted me on the arm. “C’mon, let’s go inside
and get a drink. I can’t take much more of these two lovebirds necking.”

Following my nose I walked into the kitchen…only to see my
mom canoodling with Doc Powell. Doc was our local veterinarian. When all the
stuff went down with the murders a few months back, I honestly thought Doc
might be involved. But it seems the “big secret” he was keeping wasn’t he was a
murderer…it was he was seeing my mom. The fact he saved Miss Molly’s life when
Sharon poisoned her just made him perfect in my eyes.

“Doc,” I cried, giving him a long hug. “I’m glad you’re
here.”

Doc hugged me back. “I wouldn’t miss it. I was able to get
away from the clinic and decided to ride down with Matt and Nick. Did you girls
have fun this week, all things considered?”

Not counting the two murders, dealings with sexist pigs, breaking
and entering, and handling a druggie octopus man…sure!

“Yep.”

I snagged a stuffed mushroom. “Hey, not too many,” Mom
scolded. “Those are for after the rehearsal tonight.”

I’d almost forgotten about the wedding rehearsal! The preacher
at the church we occasionally attend while staying at the lake house agreed to
marry Paige and Matt. Nick and I were the only ones standing up with Matt and
Paige, so I didn’t figure the rehearsal would take too long.

“Just making sure they’re good enough to serve,” I laughed.

Mom narrowed her eyes. “Did everything go okay in town?” she
asked.

I quickly popped one more mushroom in my mouth, keeping me
from saying something I shouldn’t. She’s good at catching me in lies. Realizing
I couldn’t stall forever, I slowly swallowed the mushroom. “Everything went
fine. Chief Taggart mainly asked for our alibis. Also why we thought someone
would want to murder both Jim and Julie.”

I could tell by her skepticism she didn’t exactly believe
me. “Did he say who he thought committed the murders?” Mom asked, staring me
down.

I was glad I wasn’t sitting down or I’d be squirming in my
chair. “Well,” I hedged, “he said he had someone in mind…and that an arrest
would be coming soon.” I grabbed one more mushroom and shove it in my mouth,
grinning at her.

“I’m sorry to hear about your friends,” Doc said.

I swallowed the mushroom past the sudden lump in my throat.
“Thanks. It’s been a rough week, that’s for sure.”

“Go get freshened up. The preacher should be here in a
couple hours. Afterward we’ll have some finger foods.”

Jogging down the stairs to my bedroom, I pulled out my phone
and called Garrett. I was curious how the burglary ring was going. It went
straight to voicemail. I left a message telling him to call me whenever he got
the chance. I wanted to tell him about my interview at the police station.

Grabbing clean clothes to change into for the rehearsal, I headed
for the shower. I wanted to wash the stench of the trailer and the would-be
rapist from my body.

Thirty minutes later I was feeling like a new woman.
Changing into a long-sleeve gray and black maxi dress, I left my hair to dry
naturally. A quick swipe of mascara and lipstick and I was ready for the
rehearsal.

“How’d it go?” Megan said, startling me as I walked out the
bathroom door.

“Fine. I think the Chief still thinks I’m involved. I don’t
want Mom to worry though,” I said.

“I could tell she was a little worried this morning, but she
totally tried not to let on.” Megan shifted her clothes in her hands. “Well,
I’m going to jump in the shower if you’re done. We finished everything upstairs
for tonight and tomorrow. We scattered to go get ready.”

I knew how hard they’d all been working to make this so
perfect for Paige. On impulse I reached out and hugged her. “Thanks for
everything you’ve done for Paige,” I said.

Megan smiled. “She’s my cousin and I love her. I’d do
anything for her. I just wish things could’ve gone a little better for her this
week.”

“Me, too.”

“Okay, out of my way…I wanna look extra good tonight. That
Nick is a cutie.” She winked at me and walked into the bathroom.

I laughed and couldn’t have agreed more.

I opened my bedroom door and nearly gagged. “Get a room, you
two!” Paige and Matt were snuggled up on her twin bed acting like they hadn’t
seen each other in years instead of a few days.

“Go away, brat,” Matt said between kisses.

“Mom catches you down here and she’ll skin you alive,” I taunted.
They both threw pillows at me…never once coming up for air.

Deciding to bow out gracefully, I headed upstairs to bounce
around a few theories with Aunt Shirley. I knocked on her door. I knew better
than to just walk in…sometimes every day is naked day for Aunt Shirley. Take my
word on it. An image I’ll never get out of my head.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s me,” I whispered through the door. I didn’t want Mom
or Bea to overhear. “Do you have time to go over some theories?”

The door swung open. I was glad to see she was dressed in a bathrobe.
She’d obviously washed the vile from her body, too. “Only if you go get me a
drink. We drank all the tequila the other night, and your mom’s being a pain in
the ass and won’t let me have anything before the rehearsal!”

Smart thinking on Mom’s part. It’s hard enough to predict
Aunt Shirley when she’s sober…nobody wanted to see a drunk Aunt Shirley at the wedding
rehearsal.

“I’ll go see what I can do. Grab paper and pen for when I
get back.”

I walked into the near-empty kitchen. It was the first time
I’d seen it that way since we arrived. On the island sat veggies, dips, and
other yummy-looking appetizers. Mindy sat at the table sipping hot tea.

“Everything looks wonderful,” I said, sitting down across
from her at the table.

She lowered her cup and smiled. “Thanks. We just finished
up. It’s been fun doing girl time with your mom and Bea. I can’t remember when
I’ve enjoyed myself so much. I’m almost sad to see it end.”

“Me, too. Although I have to admit, I kinda miss the guys.”

“Speaking of which,” Mindy said smiling, “Hank said you
better have something about the murders for him when he gets here tomorrow.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Maybe I spoke too soon.”

I got up from the table and snagged a bottle of red wine and
two glasses. I knew Aunt Shirley would be pissed I got her wine instead of
tequila, but she was gonna have to live with it.

I opened her bedroom door and gently shut it behind me. I
didn’t want to alert too many people in the house as to what we were doing.
Aunt Shirley was sitting on her bed still in her bathrobe.

“You wanna get dressed?” I asked, hoping she’d take the
hint.

“Nope. Hand over the drink.” She thrust her hand in my
direction and I pulled the wine up for her to see.

Aunt Shirley recoiled…hitting her head on the wall. “What
the
hell
is
that
? I don’t want no
red
wine
.”

I rolled my eyes. “Emphasizing every word? Really?”

“Well,
obviously
you
didn’t understand me when I said I wanted a drink.
Tequila
is a drink. Red wine is something you have when all the
tequila is gone, and I know there’s some out there.”

I shoved the glass in her hand. “Deal with it.”

She took a tiny sip and shuddered.

God, give me strength!

“Okay, let’s brainstorm what we have so far,” she said.

“We have a syringe, which is used by both Whitney and Jolene,
found at the crime scene,” I said.

“Okay. But which one has the most to gain from the murders?”
Aunt Shirley asked.

“Neither one,” I said. “Jim was making Whitney a lot of
money with his houses. She outsold Julie by a landslide. Killing Jim hurts her
financially.”

“Yes, but sometimes the heart does funny things. If she
couldn’t have him—and we all heard her say she didn’t think Julie should have
him—then she could have made sure no one had him.”

“What about Jolene?” I asked. “I mean as far as I can see,
she gains nothing.”

“Oh, but she has the best motive—revenge. Julie, herself,
admitted Jolene hated and blamed her for some reason. And then when Julie’s
family took in Susie, I’d say Jolene totally lost it. She spent years in a
psychiatric hospital just trying to deal with everything,” Aunt Shirley said.
“Jealousy and hatred…both are motives to kill.”

“But why would Jolene kill Jim?”

“To make sure Julie hurt before she died?” Aunt Shirley
mused. “Something along those line.”

I took another gulp of my wine thinking about what she said.
I knew from my previous dealings with psycho killers that pretty much anything
could set them off to kill.

Aunt Shirley and I hashed out our theories a little longer, but
we really didn’t seem to be any closer to capturing the killer. We did,
however, finish off the bottle of wine.

“Don’t tell Mom I let you drink…she didn’t want you drinking
before the rehearsal,” I informed her.

“Don’t worry,” Aunt Shirley said, finishing off the last of
her wine. “She’ll never know.”

I wasn’t near as confident as she was.

I was heading downstairs to fix my hair when my phone rang. I
looked at the caller and my heart lurched.

“Hey, Garrett.”

“Hey, Sin. Got your call. Good news on our end, we caught
the guys doing the robberies late last night at a house in Granville. We
finally got the last one to confess this afternoon.”

Relief flooded me. Even though I know it’s his job, I still
get nervous when Garrett’s on the job. And seeing as how he’s the Chief, he’s
always on the job. “That’s great! I was beginning to get worried they’d never
be caught. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, babe. What about you? How’d it go down at the
station today?”

I felt my eyes fill up with tears. I didn’t want to be such
a sissy, but I was really getting scared I’d be arrested soon. “Not good.
Taggart really has it in for me. He all but said he’d be arresting me soon!”

I heard my breath catch on a sob and I wanted to kick myself.
I didn’t want Garrett to worry. “Do you want me to drive down tonight? Now that
we’ve caught the bad guys, I can let Officer Ryan finish up.”

“No, no, don’t be silly. You need to sleep,” I said. “And
the thing is, Taggart has no proof. It’s not like he can get anything to stick
to me…because I haven’t done anything!”

I bit my lip, wondering if I should tell Garrett what we’d
done today at Julie’s house and Jolene’s trailer. Garrett usually hated it when
I poked my nose into police business…even though it’s what brought us together
a couple months ago.

“What did you do,” Garrett sighed.

“What do you mean? How do you know I did anything?”

Garrett laughed. “You hesitated. What’s up?”

I told him about going to Julie’s house, which resulted in a
lot of curse words. Then I told him about finding a syringe inside Julie’s
house…which resulted in even
more
curse
words and shouts of “contaminating the crime scene,” and “tampering with
evidence.” By the time I got to being at Jolene’s trailer, I could hear him
practically hyperventilating.

“You’re going to get your butt thrown in jail for more than
just multiple murders if you don’t stop breaking the law!”

I sighed. I don’t know why I ever thought he’d take me seriously.
I proved I could do it a couple months ago with Sharon. It’s like he’s totally
forgotten what I did.

“What Aunt Shirley and I discovered,” I continued like I
hadn’t heard his hissy fit, “is that both Whitney and Jolene use syringes.”

Silence.

“Maybe I’ll drive down tonight,” Garrett said. “See if Hank
can leave in a few hours.”

Even though I wanted him here with me, I knew it wasn’t
fair. “No, just wait until tomorrow. Go get some sleep. Besides, I’m sure Hank
will be busy at the paper tonight anyway.”

“Sin, please don’t do anything crazy before I get there
tomorrow.”

I laughed. “I won’t. I’m just going to town to get the
flowers and a surprise for Paige and Matt,” I assured him.

I heard a low chuckle. “Every time I turn around you seem to
be in trouble.”

I let out an exasperated breath. “That’s not fair.”

“Hey…I miss you, Sin.”

I smiled. Even though he wanted to strangle me…he still
missed me. That had to be a good sign.

“I miss you, too. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”