Girls' Night Out Murder (Ryli Sinclair 2) (18 page)

“Thanks for coming with me,” I said to Aunt Shirley as we
piled into the Falcon and headed into town to pick up the flowers and help Susie
with the archway. We were actually way ahead of time.

I was glad to be getting out of the house. People were
starting to stress out with the ceremony only a few hours away. I’d just
finished taking pictures of Paige and Matt in the gazebo with the snow-covered
branches and crystalized lake in the background.

Most people are superstitious and don’t want to see the
bride or groom before the wedding—but Paige wanted stellar pictures. She had
her hair, makeup, and wedding dress on by ten o’clock ready to smile for the
camera. Matt looked dapper in his charcoal suit and pale pink tie to match my
bridesmaid dress.

The pictures didn’t take long, and before we’d left, Paige
was back in her sweats helping with last-minute food and drink preparations.

“I’m just glad everyone else decided to stay behind,” Aunt
Shirley said.

“Me, too. I need some time to clear my mind and figure out
our next move.”

“I think we should drive by Jim’s shop in town and just see
if Amber Leigh is there. I think it’s time to ask her if she knows anything
about the syringe. If she doesn’t, I say we cross her off the list for sure.”

“Today?” I asked incredulously. “If we’re late, Paige and
Mom will
kill
us!”

“Don’t worry, I have it all under control. Plus, we need to
take a little extra time…I’m dying to try out the Christmas present I bought
me. I’ve been surrounded by people all week…no alone time.”

I jerked my head in her direction. “Tell me you didn’t bring
the gun!”

Aunt Shirley squinted up her face disapprovingly. “No, I
didn’t bring the gun,” she said rolling her eyes. “I brought
this
instead!”

She whipped out a long, skinny tube and a small tackle box
from inside her camo parka.

“Is that some kind of fishing thing?” I asked. “It’s a
little cold to be fishing.”

Aunt Shirley snickered. “It’s a blowgun, you ninny.”

I broke out into a cold sweat at the mere mention of a dart.
I turned left and stopped in front of the flower shop. Their lights were off,
so I hunkered down to wait.

“Let me show you what she can do,” Aunt Shirley said
excitedly. She opened the car door and motioned for me to follow her.

Sighing, I turned off the Falcon and followed her down the
street to the city park. Not surprising, there wasn’t a single person in the
park.

“See that tree over there,” Aunt Shirley said, pointing to a
spot about twenty yards away. “I’m going to hit it with this dart.”

She put a tiny dart into the tube then lifted it to her
mouth. The dart flew out of the end of the tube…and landed with a
thwack
! on the bench next to the tree.

“Okay, so my aim’s a little off,” she said, jogging to
retrieve the dart.

“You know how much I hate anything related to darts after my
run in with Sharon. Why did you buy that?”

“Well, your Barney Fife boyfriend won’t stop busting my
balls about my gun…so I thought this might come in handy.”

“He’ll arrest you if he hears you call him Barney Fife,” I
said smugly, watching her put the tube and tackle box inside her camouflage
parka.

“Doesn’t look like the flower shop is going to open early.
How about you drive on out to Jim’s business? Let’s see if Amber Leigh is out
there.”

It didn’t take long to get to Jim’s place. We were lucky
enough to see Amber Leigh coming out of the office, stopping to lock the door. From
the look of things, she’d been packing up and moving.

“Hey, Amber Leigh,” I called from the Falcon.

Screaming, Amber Leigh whirled around. “You scared me!” she
yelled at us. “What do you want?”

“I just want to ask you a quick question. What are you
doing?”

“That’s your question?” she raged. “You want to know what
I’m doing?”

“Um…no. I have a different question. I was just being
friendly and asking what you were doing here on a Sunday morning moving out
boxes.” Okay, I probably could have said it a little nicer, but her attitude
was pissing me off.

Aunt Shirley and I got out and walked over to where she was
standing.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but Josh is still
wanting to finish the jobs. No way am I sticking around and working for a kid.”

Aunt Shirley peeked into the open box. “Still doesn’t
explain why you’re taking files out of the office.”

Amber Leigh glared at us. “None of your business. These are
my leads. Josh is on his own.”

“I don’t think legally you can take files out of a business
that isn’t yours. I believe they call that stealing.”

Amber Leigh huffed. “What do you want?”

“We came by to see if you have diabetes or take insulin?”

“What? Why?”

Thinking on the fly I said, “Because we found a bottle the
other day out here, and we figured it must be pretty expensive, so we wanted to
give it to the owner.” I thought it sounded plausible.

Amber Leigh shifted the box to her other hip, obviously
irritated. “No, I don’t have diabetes or take insulin shots. Happy now?”

Not until I solve this
murder and clear my name.

“Yes, thanks.”

We trekked back to the Falcon and headed back into town.

“Well, I guess that takes care of that. We can scratch her
off the list,” Aunt Shirley said. “I think I’ll call Josh and let him know
what’s going on over there.”

“You have his number?”

Aunt Shirley grinned. “I pocketed some of Jim’s business
cards the other day when we were inside. They also list Josh’s number.

Aunt Shirley dialed the number on the card and told Josh
what was going on.

“He’s on his way over. I hope she doesn’t take much,” my
aunt said as she dropped the phone into her purse.

The flower shop was open when we arrived. Two people were
inside answering the phone and taking orders. It was awful busy…which was
understandable seeing as how in one week there were two deaths.

The owner ran over to us. “We are breaking our rule about
not opening on Sundays. With this second murder, our orders for funeral flowers
are numerous. We’ll never get everything done if we don’t work today,” she said
politely.

“Have you heard anything more?” I asked, hoping she didn’t
say I was the number one suspect.

“Not really,” she said, biting her lip nervously. “We’re all
so scared that we decided to work in pairs today. No one is to be left alone in
the shop.”

“I’m sure you have nothing to worry about,” I assured her.

Suspicion had her giving me the eye. “Why do you say that?”
The store owner took a step backward and looked over her shoulder at the young
girl on the phone taking orders.

“No, no,” I said quickly. “I just mean it’s unlikely that…”
I trailed off. I didn’t know what to say without making me seem suspicious.

“Statistically speaking, the chances of another murder
happening are slim,” my aunt said.

The shop owner still looked uncertain. But I guess human
nature being what it is she didn’t want to ask too many questions for fear of
the answers.

The young girl on the phone taking orders hung up and stood
in front of us. She was your typical high school kid…long, flowing hair, thin
and curvy at the same time. She had beautiful green eyes with a few freckles
scattered across her nose.

“Hi, my name’s Annabel. I kind of eavesdropped on your
conversation. It’s so sad what’s happened,” she said. “I’ve talked to a lot of
my friends from school, and we’re all in shock.”

“How so?” Aunt Shirley asked.

Annabel chewed on her lower lip. “Well, a lot of kids are
saying that Josh is responsible. That he killed Jim and Julie.”

I could tell Annabel’s mom was not exactly happy we were
having this conversation with her daughter…but she didn’t stop us, either.

“Of course, I keep telling my friends Josh couldn’t have
done this. I mean, he’s so nice and cute.”

It took all my effort not to laugh. I didn’t want to insult
her. I also didn’t have the heart to crush her innocence by telling her being
cute wasn’t a good enough alibi for the police.

“I have heard, though, that he’s kinda taking over right now
since Jim’s dead. So maybe that’s why he did it?” Annabel shrugged.

“If he only wanted the business, there’d be no reason to
kill Julie,” Aunt Shirley informed Annabel.

“You’re right,” the girl said. “I don’t think Josh had anything to
do with it. I just hope the kids at school don’t harass him too much if the
killer isn’t caught by the time we get back to school.

Me, too. That’s the
last thing he needs.

“By the way,” Annabel said to Aunt Shirley, “Rocking the
hair!”

Aunt Shirley grinned and patted her colorful curls. She’d
decided to wear her hair curly for the wedding, which really made her colors
pop. “Thanks,” Aunt Shirley said.

It didn’t take long to load the flowers into the backseat of
the Falcon. I decided to text Garrett to see where he and Hank were.

Picked up the flowers. Heading to Susie’s house 2 get a surprise 4
Paige. Don’t tell her. Where R U?

Less than a minute later I got a reply text from Garrett.
Pulling into lake house right
now. Hurry home…missed u!

I felt a silly grin spread over my face.
Should be back at lake house in 15 minutes.
Missed U 2.

Feeling giddy, I slipped the phone back into my pocket and
steered the Falcon toward Susie’s house. I’d already pulled her address up on
Google Maps, so I knew where to go.

Unlike Julie, Susie bought a house closer to the lake. It
was definitely in a newer section of homes. If I remembered correctly, when we
were kids, this area used to be where the old hospital clinic was. We pulled
into a cul-de-sac. With only three houses on the street, it offered seclusion,
a private dock to the lake, and spectacular views.

A new home and a new business. Her parents must have had one
hell of a life insurance policy.

“How do you think she affords all this?” I asked Aunt
Shirley as we parked in the cobblestone driveway and got out of the Falcon. It
was almost identical to Whitney’s house. Brick, lots of windows, numerous
pitched roofs.

“Don’t know. I guess she’d have gotten money from both the
fire insurance and the life insurance policies.”

I suddenly felt guilty for envying Susie. No amount of money
would be worth losing my family over.

Aunt Shirley and I carefully made our way up the cobblestone
walkway toward the front of the house. I was just about to ring the bell when
the back gate opened and Susie popped her head out.

“Right on time, Ryli,” she called cheerfully. “Oh, hello
Aunt Shirley. I wasn’t expecting you, too.”

Aunt Shirley and I peered around the corner and waved.

“Come on back and help me load it if you don’t mind. I have
the cake already loaded up and ready to go. It looks fabulous!”

Aunt Shirley and I walked around the house and through the
fence. It was odd she’d put a fence up around the house, because now she had to
open it to go down to her private dock.

“I know it seems weird putting a fence up,” Susie said, as
though she’d read my mind, “but Jim talked me into putting a little shed back
here for my business. It’s temperature controlled and has electricity. Before I
set up shop downtown, this is where I baked and housed my goods. I felt I
needed some privacy because of the expensive items I had to have back here.”

Susie stopped talking when she came to the door of the beige
shed. “You didn’t tell me how things were going this morning. Is everyone ready
for the ceremony?” she asked.

“Yep. I took some pictures this morning of Paige and Matt in
their wedding attire. The natural lighting was perfect.”

“I love your hair up like that,” Susie said.

I patted my updo. I was ecstatic at how wonderful it came
out. “Thanks.”

Susie swung open the door and motioned Aunt Shirley and me to
go on in. “I’m so glad to hear everything’s ready. It seems to be coming
together on my end, too,” she said as she closed the door behind us.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the poorly lit room
and Dexter-like plastic all over the place definitely wasn’t it.

Aunt Shirley and I walked farther into the room. I let out a
yelp when I saw Jolene sprawled out on a metal table, obviously high as a kite,
a needle haphazardly next to her.

Aunt Shirley was just as shocked. “What the—”

She didn’t finish her sentence…instead, she crumpled to the
ground in a huge, camouflage heap. It’d happened so fast, I didn’t even see it
coming.

I dropped to the ground next to Aunt Shirley to check on her.
My hands were shaking as I pushed the hood back to see her face. Blood was
running down her head. I wasn’t sure if it was from the blow Susie gave her or from
hitting her head on the cement when she went down.

“That’s for talking shit about my healthy bread the other
day, you old cow. Get up, Ryli,” Susie ordered, waving around the gun she’d hit
Aunt Shirley with. “She’s fine. I just gave her a tap, that’s all.”

I looked up at Susie, so filled with rage I couldn’t see
straight. I guess she must have guessed my intent, because she jabbed the gun
against my forehead.

“I said get up!” Spittle flew from Susie’s mouth.

So…this is a new
twist.

I was trying to stay calm. I couldn’t get my body to comply
with her orders, so she yanked me up herself…the whole time keeping the gun
aimed at me.

“I don’t understand,” I said, hating the tremor in my voice.
I didn’t want her to know how scared I really was.

“Of course you don’t, Ryli,” she sneered, pushing me toward
the middle of the room. The clear plastic crunched beneath my feet as she led
me over to a workbench on the other side of the room. As I passed by Jolene, I
couldn’t help checking to see if she was still breathing.