Random Acts of Murder: A Holly Anna Paladin Mystery, Book 1 (Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries) (3 page)

BOOK: Random Acts of Murder: A Holly Anna Paladin Mystery, Book 1 (Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries)
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Chase and my mom were already gone, though I could hear their voices floating through the air, probably from the sunroom, if I had to guess. My mom laughed as if Chase were hysterical. Chase’s voice rose, like he was telling a great story.

Too bad Chase wasn’t born into this family.

I sighed. Maybe that title of “Most Optimistic” didn’t fit me at all. At least when it came to my family and Chase Dexter.

I dropped my purse by the front door and kicked off my shoes.

My etiquette guide—one I’d found at a thrift store that was copyright 1955, a real treasure that had made me smile for weeks—would instruct me to go and be social. I just didn’t feel up to it, though. Instead, I
went upstairs and changed into a clean dress, another one that I’d found at the thrift store. I loved searching there for finds from eras past.

After I cleaned up, I
made a quick stop in my favorite room in the house—the study. Ceiling-to-floor bookcases and cozy chairs just beckoned someone to sit in them and relax. Which is exactly what I did. This had been Dad’s favorite room also.

I reached over and pulled out my favorite Ella Fitzgerald album, stuck it on the antique record player, and let the soft strands of “Y
ou’d Be So Easy to Love” float through the room.

I laid my head against the back of the chair and closed my eyes, trying to block out today. Crazy, crazy today.

Crazy, crazy last night.

And now my mom and Chase were catching up. Wasn’t that just peachy?

My mom had gotten to know Chase when she chaired the prestigious Newhart Family Scholarship Fund. The fund offered a full-ride scholarship to someone in the community who’d risen above a hard upbringing and overcome challenges to excel in both academics and community service.

The committee had weeded out applicants from all over the city before choosing Chase Dexter as their man. My mom had nothing but good things to say about him after reading his application and sitting through an interview with him. “This boy,” she would
insist, totally oblivious to the fact that he’d made my high school years miserable. “He’s someone to watch for. He’s taken life by the horns.”

Chase’s mom had passed away when he was six.
As soon as my mom found out about that, she began inviting Chase over for dinner. As in, all the time. I always tried to disappear, however. Chase and I went to high school together and—

“That is so awesome.” Chase’s voice rang through the room. “I’ve always loved this about your house.”

I pulled one eye open. This could not be happening. But it was. My mom and Chase stepped into the room from behind a swiveling bookcase that offered a secret passageway from this room into the living room.

My dad had been a regular handyman, and when he redid the house, he added all kinds of quirky features, including a couple of secret passageways. One of the bookcases in this room could turn and
become the bookcase in the family room.

My mother gawked when she spotted me in the chair. “Holly!
I didn’t realize you were in here. Especially since we have a guest over.” Her voice subtly rose in pitch, her polite way of reprimanding me.

My mom still thought I was eight. Some things would never change. Nor would
anything ever change how disappointed she was that I was . . . well, me.

“She had a long day. We had a run
-in with a shooter, and she hit her head,” Chase said.

“I just needed a minute,” I told her.

“A shooter?” My mom gasped.

“It’s a lo
ng story,” I insisted. “But the good news is that I’m okay. No harm done, unless you count my dress.”

Chase looked at me and then back at my mom. Why did it seem like he had some insight into our relationship that most people didn’t?

Finally, he nodded toward my mom. “Well, I need to get to work. It was a pleasure seeing you, Mrs. Paladin. You too, Holly.”

I fluttered my fingers in the air. “Bye, Chase.”
Good riddance.

Man, I was not in a good mood, was I
? I had to be more gracious. It was what God would want me to do. To be forgiving and loving and accepting.

Besides, I was limited on time. So why live out my final days with a grudge?

I reminded myself that this was probably the last time I would see Chase Dexter in a long time. Sure, I might run into him on the job once in a while, but I would just keep it professional. Now that I knew he was back in town, I could prepare myself to deal with him more effectively.

“Thanks for everything, Chase,” I muttered, glad to put this encounter behind me.

“Don’t forget about your car,” he called over his shoulder. “You don’t want to leave it on the street overnight.”

“I’ll call the repair shop now.”

Then I’d borrow my dad’s old Ford F-150, grab a bite to eat, get back to work, and hopefully see what kind of information I could find out about the dead man at Katrina’s house.

So much for staying home for the rest of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER
5

I met Jamie at some
gluten-free pizza joint after I finished up work for the day. The place was located in an area of town appropriately called Mount Healthy. Jamie knew where all of the local organic restaurants were, but they were scattered all over the city. It didn’t matter to her; she’d traverse deserts and climb mountains to get good food that fit her diet.

I wasn’t
going to eat there—no, my mom had cooked something, and I’d promised her I’d be home. I tried to honor her nightly ritual of eating together whenever possible. That was when there wasn’t a fund-raising dinner or some other philanthropic activity going on. The scent of bubbly cheese and roasting vegetables from the wood-fire oven against the back wall made me question my commitment to eat at home, though.

“The police knocked down your door yet?” Jamie asked, taking a bite of her veggie pizza. She’d turned her life around two years ago and lost a hundred pounds. Ever since then, she was a health food nut.

The two of us had met in English class on our first day at the University of Cincinnati. We’d been inseparable since then. Her family had moved to the area only a few years ago from Pittsburgh, much to Jamie’s dismay. She claimed they’d followed her here, afraid their only baby girl would get in trouble. They claimed that her father, a musician, had been offered a gig he just couldn’t refuse.

I shook my head. “Not yet, but I’ve been watching over my shoulder all day.”

“I thought you’d like to know that I did hear something over the police scanner this morning. Then I used my contacts at the newspaper to find out some more information.”

I leaned closer
, pressing my arms into the thick wooden tabletop. “Okay. You’re leaving me in suspense here. I tried to find out stuff all day on my job, and everyone was tight lipped. I couldn’t press too hard or people would get suspicious.”

She put her pizza back on the plate and leaned closer, as well.
“The guy was apparently shot three times. He had traces of some kind of drug in his system—not surprising. So many crimes in this area are, in some way, because of drugs.”

“Was he related to Katrina?”

She shrugged and leaned back, picking a mushroom from the gooey cheese. “That, I haven’t been able to find out. I did hear that a neighbor called the police. He saw the front door was open and got suspicious.”

Oops. That would have been my fault. At least my mistake had meant I hadn’t had to report the crime myself.
It had also meant that the police now had my cleaning supplies.

How long did it take to run fingerprints and DNA through the system? My sister probably knew. I just had to think of a creative way to ask her.

Jamie raised her pizza again. “The bad news is that there was a suspicious van reported fleeing the scene.”

The blood drained from my face
as “Jailhouse Rock” began blaring through the overhead. “Are you serious?”

She nodded. “Dead.”

“Oh, Jamie. I had no idea.” I bit back a frown.

“I willingly went w
ith you, so the blame’s on me. Still, I really don’t want to have to explain all of this to the police.”

“I’m going to make this all better, Jamie. I promise.”

“It’s going to be hard to do that from jail.”

My jaw dropped open.

She waved her hand in the air in that sassy, sarcastic manner I should have been accustomed to by now. “I’m just kidding, girl. You keep quiet. They’ll never discover you.”

“You are not making me feel better.”

“I’m giving you a dose of reality.” She pulled out a bottle of vinegar from her purse and put a squirt in her water.

I tried not to turn my nose up. She insisted that vinegar in her water helped to keep her thin. I’d just keep drinking my lemon water, thank you very much.

I closed my eyes, fixating again on my problems instead of Jamie’s vinegar water. “What am I going to do?”

“You can’t do anything except wait . . . or turn yourself in.”
She took a long sip of her drink.

Guilt pounded harder. I struggled with guilt over small things, like bugs that flew into my windshield or the snake that accidentally got caught under the lawn mower. Those
moments of guilt seemed gnat sized compared to the mountains of culpability I faced now. “If the police show up at your door, I’ll explain everything, Jamie. I’ll take the blame and make it clear that you had nothing to do with this.”

She cocked her head to the side.
“And if they don’t believe you that you didn’t murder anyone, why would they believe you when you say I had nothing to do with it?”

“Good point.” I buried my face in the table.
“I’ve made a huge mess, Jamie.”

She
patted my hand. “Yes, you have.”

I sighed
and pulled my head up. “I guess it’s not your job to make me feel better.”

“Most of the time, I’d say yes. But this one is all over my head, girlfriend. I don’t even know what to tell you.” She shook her head. “Why don’t we change the subject? Anything else new?”

I frowned. The only other “thing” new that I could think of wasn’t a happy thing. It was . . . “Chase Dexter is back in town.”

My friend raised her skinny little eyebrow. “Who is Chase Dexter?”

“The guy I had a major crush on in high school.”

Her eyebrow crept higher. “The one who looks like
that actor who plays Thor?”

I frowned again. “Yeah, he’s the one. He’s on the police force here.
I hope I don’t end up working with him anymore.”


Would it be that awful?”

I shrugged. “
Yes. Why would I want to work with someone who rejected me publicly?”

“Define ‘rejected you publicly.’”

“He started dating this girl named Darcy Fitzgerald. Darcy announced to everyone in our calculus class that poor, pitiful little Holly Anna actually thought she had a chance with Chase.”

“It doesn’t sound like he publicly rejected you. It sounds like his girlfriend did.”

“He had to tell her. Otherwise, how would she have known?”

“Not
necessarily. Girls pick up on stuff like that.”


Well, he just laughed when she said it and looked at me with pure pity in his eyes. Either way, I don’t want to work with him. He’s always been arrogant and sure of himself and cocky—”

“After all of these years, he still gets to you.”
She shook her head, an amused look in her eyes.

“I just don’t have any pleasant memories. That’s all.”

Her amused expression only strengthened. “Well, there’s always Brian.”

Brian
Bieber . . . the guy everyone wanted me to date. Everyone in my family, at least. I supposed he was responsible with a steady job and a good reputation. Despite his unfortunate last name, there could be worse people to date. The only thing was that I didn’t feel that spark with him. I wanted a spark. I wanted what I called a “Great Love,” not just a mediocre imitation.

Despite that, I thought we could probably be happy together. We were
most likely compatible. And, my impression was that Brian was interested. Okay, it was more than an impression. He often asked me to go with him as a date to various events around town. Whenever he tried to turn the conversation to something more serious, I quickly changed the subject.

Just as I would now.
“Moving on . . .”

Jamie took a long sip of her drink
just as the waitress walked by with some garlic knots. My stomach grumbled. I was getting hungry now. Great. I had to be home in an hour to eat. I hoped I could wait that long.

“How are you feeling lately?”

As if possibly being arrested for murder, running into my arch nemesis, and talking about rejection wasn’t enough, the question of how I was feeling sobered me even more. I shrugged. “Mostly I’m doing okay.”

Jamie rais
ed her pizza and glanced over the top of it. “When are you going to tell your family?”

“The special election is
only a couple of weeks away, and my sister’s wedding is eight weeks away. When both of those are over, I’ll tell them my news.”

Three months ago, I’d been diagnosed with a
v
ery rare cancer called subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma. It was an aggressive, fast-moving disease that meant I only had around a year to live. I could have treatments, but they’d only extend my life for a few months, plus they’d make me extremely sick in the process. I decided I wanted quality over quantity.

“I really
think you should tell your family sooner.”

We’d had this conversation before. “I know. But I’m waiting, and I feel okay about it. It’s what I should do.”

“Okay, you should get a second opinion, then.”

“Two different labs looked at my blood
work. Plus, my doctor said that so little is known about this disease that there are no specialists. I don’t want to live in denial or fighting the inevitable.”

“But the
CT scan didn’t show anything!”

“The doctor said this was n
ormal with this type of cancer. The good news is that I feel great.”

“Which is suspicious in itself.”
Jamie frowned.

I squeezed my friend’s hand. “You worry too much.”

“You don’t worry enough.”

“I’m not going to add any amount of quality to my life by worrying. Nor am I going to add anything to the life of my family by making them worry. What will be will be.”
And that was a great segue for me to leave. “Speaking of family, I’ve got to run.”

I stood and grabbed my purse.

“Uh-huh,” Jamie muttered. “No more random acts of kindness. Not without my approval. Do you understand?”

I smiled over my shoulder. “I hear you.”

 

***

 

I pulled up at home and saw a truck in the driveway. Great. Who had my mom invited over for dinner now? She was always having some board member or city council representative over.

As I walked toward the front door, Mrs. Signet waved to me from her porch. She was a small woman with faded blonde hair that formed a poof around her face. It seemed like she’d been old for as long as I’d known her, but she hadn’t slowed down any. Right now, she swept her porch.

“Did you hear about that
skunkball?”

I paused, bracing myself for another urban legend. “Skunkball?”

She nodded, totally serious. “I got two emails about it. I forwarded one to you. Make sure you read it. These teens today. They’re taking rags soaked in gasoline, lighting them up, and throwing them into cars stopped at red lights. Keep your eyes open.”

One of the worst decisions I’d ever made was giving her my email address. She sent me
virus-filled emails daily. “Yes, Mrs. Signet. Thanks for the warning.”

She had a new
urban legend every day, and in case I missed her email, she always made sure to mention them to me, as well. I tried to explain to her that most weren’t real. I showed her websites that verified the inaccuracies of the emails. It didn’t matter. She believed each one as if it were the Bible.

I pulled a hair behind my ear, ready to put on my presentable self and not embarrass my mother. I walked inside,
inhaling a savory scent that only intensified my hunger, and plastered a grin across my face. As soon as I walked into the kitchen, my grin disappeared. Quickly.

Chase Dexter. What was he doing here?

He grinned, standing from his seat at the breakfast table. “Holly! Good to see you again.” His voice rolled through the air, just as smoothly as ever.

“I’m glad you could make it.” My mom worked at the kitchen counter, scraping the mashed potatoes into a cheerful bowl
. “I’m just about to slice up some of that roast beef you love so much.”

I dropped my bag
on the bookshelf and resigned myself to sitting at the breakfast nook beside Chase. If I left, it would only look suspicious, and I’d end up making a bigger deal of things. Besides, my rules of etiquette instructed me to stay.

I looked at Chase. “This is quite the surprise.”

“Your mom insisted I come over and catch up.”

“Isn’t it
wonderful that he’s back in town?” my mom called over her shoulder.

“Wonderful
.” I should have tried to muster more enthusiasm, but I just couldn’t do it. Instead, I nodded forcefully.

“Before I forget, some woman called for you today,
Holly,” my mom said. “She didn’t leave a message, just said she’d call back. Pleasant woman.”

“Thanks.” It was probably the nurse at my oncologist’s office. They wanted me to keep having checkups, but why? I already knew the outcome.

BOOK: Random Acts of Murder: A Holly Anna Paladin Mystery, Book 1 (Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries)
4.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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