Seams Like Murder (21 page)

I didn’t have any more time to think about Evan or Delaney. The bookstore was busy, and we had two groups meeting there that day. At noon, it was open mic for the poetry group. They were an emotional bunch who didn’t take criticism well, so I had to be there to referee. The romance readers were meeting as well, but they were easy, since they were just about love.

I spent the rest of the afternoon making sure everything was up to date for Yarn University. Mason and I had been in touch during the day. He wanted to make sure I was coming by that evening. I was still dealing with his suggestion that I stop investigating Delaney Tanner’s death. He hadn’t said it, but I knew it was because he was worried about what I might turn up about Tony. I understood that Mason’s job was solely to defend Tony, but I needed to know what had really happened. And I thought dealing with Brooklyn scowling at me and Jaimee staying there was a problem!

Eventually, I tried to put all my conflicted feelings in the back of my mind, convinced everything would work out. Once he didn’t have the scooter and the two women were gone, things would be different. And I
had
been the one to call him to help Tony. Life was just a bumpy ride.

It was just getting dark when I drove over there. As I walked to the front door and took out my key, I mentally prepared myself to face his sullen daughter and over-the-top ex-wife. I opened the door, and Spike came running into the foyer, barking to announce my arrival. Something smelled delicious. Mason came scooting down the hall to greet me and was upbeat and energetic as he gave me a welcome kiss. “I just want to thank you again for giving me the push I needed to get my life back by throwing a client at me.” He let out a satisfied sigh. “Brooklyn has been helping me all day.”

I sagged at the mention of her name, but Mason continued. “I told her to take the evening off. She went off with her sister somewhere. And Jaimee is gone, too. I didn’t ask for details—all I know is she isn’t here.”

We’d reached the den, where his favorite detective was on the screen in freeze-frame mode. “Enough of his shenanigans,” Mason said. “It’s back to real life.” He used the remote to turn it off.

“Dinner’s waiting.” He took my hand and scooted alongside me as we went to the dining room. No food containers and paper plates this time. Instead the table was set and the food was actually in serving dishes. My mouth watered from the smell of garlic from the Caesar salad.

“It’s from Fabrocini’s, isn’t it?” I looked over the array of items from our favorite spot for Italian food. The stuffed mushrooms looked delicious. There was ravioli with marinara sauce, a platter of grilled vegetables and flatbread with tomatoes and cheese.

“We’ve got cheesecake with strawberries as well,” Mason said. “Brooklyn went and got it, and I did the rest.” He did a mock bow as he gestured for me to sit. “It’s just the two of us for the rest of the evening. I won’t need this much longer.” He gave the scooter bell a slow pull, and the bell barely rang before he pushed it off to the side and hopped into a chair adjacent to me. We started to pass the plates of food around. “Soon life will go back to normal, and in the meantime we can make some plans.” He turned to me with a happy smile. “How does that sound?”

I put a mound of Caesar salad on my plate and added a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper. “That sounds wonderful. So, tell me again about money laundering.”

“What?” he said with a chuckle. “I thought we’d talk about us. The first day I’m done with this scooter, we’re going to the beach. We’ll pick up cappuccinos and watch the sunset.” He looked at me for a reaction and saw that I was serious about my request.

“I can’t believe we’re going to waste our evening alone talking about money laundering.” He sighed in resignation. “What do you want to know?”

“How to do it.”

Mason’s face broke into a big grin. “Are you planning on starting on a new venture?”

“Very funny,” I said. “Just tell me how it works.”

It was such a relief to see the Mason I’d come to love make an appearance as he began to talk. “It’s all about taking money, usually cash from some nefarious activity, and passing it along as money from a legitimate business.” He stopped to collect his thoughts. “It’s better if I give you an example, like from that show I was watching. The PI was depositing cash in an account for a chain of Laundromats.” Mason rolled his eyes at the cliché before he continued. “As
long as the deposits were small enough, the bank accepted them without any question. It makes perfect sense—if you have a business that deals with a lot of cash, you will be making lots of deposits. Once the money is in the bank account, it can be used to pay for anything—a boat, a house, big credit card bills. You could even send it to someone else. The big thing is just getting rid of all those dollar bills.” Mason stopped to take a sip of water. “I hope this is just curiosity on your part and not something you’re investigating because of Delaney Tanner’s death?”

I had been hoping he wouldn’t say something like that, so I was contemplating how to answer when the doorbell rang.

“We could ignore it,” Mason said in a playful voice, clearly having no idea I was unhappy with what he’d said. But the words were barely out of his mouth when the chimes sounded again, so Mason got off the chair and onto the scooter, and I trailed behind as we went to the front door. “I hope it’s a Girl Scout selling cookies. We can buy some and get rid of them in a hurry.” He opened the door, but there were no cookies or girls in green uniforms, just Jaimee’s ex.

“Todd, if you’re looking for Jaimee, she’s not here,” Mason said.

“I know. I thought you might be able to help,” Todd said. Mason hesitated, then sighed and told Todd to come in.

Mason leaned toward me and spoke under his breath. “Anything to get them back together and get her out of here.”

Todd seemed really upset as Mason took him in the den. The two men sat down, and I wasn’t sure what I should do, so I basically hovered at the back of the room and tried to pretend I was looking at the pool.

“I took your advice and tried to woo her, and it’s not working. She won’t even pick up my calls. Has she met someone else?”

Mason shook his head and chuckled to himself. “It’s really weird for me to be trying to help you mend fences with my ex. I have to ask—why? You’re a young guy, an athlete. There must be other women you give tennis lessons to who would love to be your—” Mason hesitated, and I knew he was trying to find the right term. “Uh, your girlfriend,” he said finally. “Why Jaimee?”

Todd took a moment. “Everybody has different turn-ons. For me it’s a woman a few years older than me. Jaimee and I had something special. You should see the rackets she had made for me.” He glanced around the room. “She didn’t bring my stuff here, did she?”

“I think she said she put everything in storage while her house is being redone,” Mason said. Todd hung his head, and when I saw his profile, I had a feeling of déjà vu. He must have held his head that way last time he was there.

I thought Mason was going to choke when Todd started going on about how sharp and clever Jaimee was and how much he missed her.

“She felt neglected by you,” Mason said. “She told me you had something else going on.” The way Mason said it, it was clear that he thought the
something else
was another girlfriend, one probably richer and younger than Jaimee.

“Is that what Jaimee thinks?” Todd asked, clearly getting Mason’s implication. “I don’t know what to do to convince her that she’s wrong.”

I had been staying in the background, but I wanted them to get back together, and the sooner, the better, so I jumped in. “Maybe I can help you. Give you a woman’s perspective. I heard what Jaimee said, and I think she was the most hurt that you didn’t invite her to stay with you while her house was fixed up.”

“I just have a small place,” he explained.

“Just call it cozy,” I suggested. “If you want her back, that’s what you need to do.” He seemed to be mulling it over.

“If that’s what it takes,” Todd said. “I’ll do it, but don’t say anything to her. I want it to be a surprise.”

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t do anything to mess it up. So, then, the problem is solved,” Mason said, easing himself back onto the scooter to show Todd to the door. Jaimee’s boy toy seemed more optimistic as he followed Mason.

When Mason returned, we tried to enjoy the rest of the evening, but the mood never really bounced back after Todd left. The worst part was that after Mason’s comments about me investigating, I couldn’t even discuss what I’d found out.

The greeting committee was waiting when I got home, so I took care of all their needs then made myself a cup of rose tea and sat down at my kitchen table. I had a lot on my mind as I stared out at the dark yard. It was one of those times when I really wanted to talk to someone. Dinah must have been having the same sort of feeling, because a moment later she called and invited herself over.

She was knocking at my back door just as I finished putting together a mug for her. She dropped her coat in the kitchen, and the scent of roses surrounded us as we took our drinks into the living room. Dinah was already unloading before we even sat down on the couches.

“After listening to Adele talking about wedding dresses, bouquets, fancy manicures . . .” Dinah looked at me. “I’m leaning toward saying ‘no’ again. I don’t know if I’m up for all that fuss.”

“No one is saying you have to make the same big deal out of it that Adele is. I’m sure Commander would be fine if you didn’t have flowers on your nails.” I chuckled at the idea of my friend having an elaborate manicure, since I’d never seen her wear any polish. But the mention of manicures made me
think of what had happened after we’d left the nail salon earlier that day.

I told her about my trip to the bank and following Evan Willis afterward. “He got away before I could see exactly where he went, but I’m sure he went in the back door of the nail salon.”

Dinah set her mug on the coffee table. “Well, I can see why they might be keeping it quiet. From everything you’ve told me about his wife and how she thinks she’s one step above everybody . . . well, owning a nail salon doesn’t quite go with that image, even if Emily did tell me the other day after class that there are three of them.”

“But that’s not really the issue,” I said. “Twice I’ve seen him at the bank depositing a lot of cash. A whole bag of cash.”

“I hear you,” Dinah said. “And we know the nail salon doesn’t seem to be open much. Even when they are, they don’t have much business.” She stopped to think for a moment. “So when Emily said the owner had been in there getting his nails done, it must have been Evan.” Dinah started to say something, but she stopped herself. “Oops—can’t say anything bad about men getting their nails done. Commander gets manicures. Though no polish,” she added quickly.

“So what do bags of cash for a business that doesn’t seem to be doing well say to you?”

“He’s got money coming from somewhere else and he wants it to look like it’s coming from the nail salon.” Dinah picked up the cup and put it down again. “And it’s a pretty sure bet that it isn’t something legal.”

“Exactly,” I said. “And Delaney handled most of the transactions. Everybody I talked to said she took the friendliness a little too far. Suppose she started to ask questions and figured out the same thing that we just did.” I backtracked to the note on Tony’s business card. “I didn’t realize it at first, but that note wasn’t about a rendezvous with Tony; it was for the
Willises’ party. The teller I talked to confirmed that Delaney had said she was invited to a party.”

Dinah had forgotten all about her wedding worries and was caught up in our Sherlock Holmes game. I was pretty caught up in it myself. “Here’s what I think happened,” I said. “Delaney went to the party and was given a drink with something in it. When she got all woozy, somebody took her to CeeCee’s guest apartment. I remember now that there was some dirt on the front of her shoes, as if she’d been ‘helped’ through the back part of the yard and her feet had dragged. The somebody could have turned on the heat and then stuffed something in the vent after they left.”

There was something rattling in my brain that wouldn’t quite come together. “The vest,” I said loudly. “It was wool. Babs’s daughter-in-law said somebody at the party had a reaction to wool. She said something about how if people were allergic to wool they ought to know better than to put their arms around it. If somebody was helping a half-passed-out Delaney, they would have had their arms all over that vest.” I was on a roll now.

“And remember at the nail salon, when Adele asked about the lambskin pad? The manicurist said it was fake because the customer she’d just had, which Emily told us was the owner, was allergic to wool.

“It’s Evan, I’m sure.” I had remembered something else. “Kelsey returned that cream because she said it had lanolin in it. Lanolin comes from sheep, and if you’re allergic to wool, you’re allergic to lanolin as well.”

Dinah was nodding along excitedly, and I felt sure we’d really made a breakthrough. Now, what to do with that information?

It was chilly the next morning, so I put on a multicolored wool infinity scarf and wound it around a few times as I got ready for work. I was still thinking about what to do with what I had figured out. Dinah had suggested I call Barry and tell him about Evan Willis and the bags of cash and how I thought it was connected to Delaney Tanner’s death. But I had two concerns. When I went over it all in my head again, I thought it might sound a little crazy, and also like I was just trying to get the heat off Tony. And I thought Barry might take it all as just an excuse to call him. No—before I told him anything, I had to be sure.

I thought I had put it all on the back burner of my mind, but as I started to drive to the bookstore, I felt a sudden desire to take a detour. I turned in the opposite direction and drove to the street behind CeeCee’s property. I pulled to the curb and looked at the wall of greenery along the back
of her place. I could tell by the dip in the curb where the gate was, which was almost directly across from the Willises’ house, though that didn’t really prove anything, especially since Babs had found out that the gate was common knowledge.

As I was staring at the fence, I saw the gate across the driveway opening as a car waited to pull out. Inside the yard, Evan, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, was crossing toward the house, bouncing a small ball.

I didn’t stop to think but rather just seized the moment and rushed across the street. The car pulled out and cleared the driveway, and I slipped in just before the gate shut.

A voice in my head screamed,
What are you doing? Get out of there while you can!
But I couldn’t stop now, though I did pause to compose a text message to Barry, just in case I got in over my head. It had happened before. But my tote bag swung forward, and I must have hit the phone, because the partial message seemed to have disappeared. There was no time to fuss with my phone to find it. Besides, I had just come up with a plan.

I got to the front door and was going to knock, but it pushed open easily when I touched it. “Yoo-hoo,” I called as I went in. I added a few more
hellos
but got no response. Nobody was in the living room, and the soft soles of my shoes didn’t make a sound on the terra-cotta pavers in the hallway. As I got closer to the kitchen, I heard water splashing.

I called out another
yoo-hoo
as I went into the room and put on a friendly smile. Evan was standing at the sink—the noise of the running water must have covered up my greeting. He jumped when he saw me.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

“Oh, I’m sorry if I scared you,” I said in a breezy voice.
“The gate was open and I wanted to show something to Kelsey. It’s about the baby shower.” I held up the tote bag.

“She’s not here,” he said, coming across the kitchen in an obvious attempt to guide me out of there.

“Well, then, you can help me,” I said. I barely stopped to breathe, continuing to talk, doing my best impression of Babs. “You must be in shock about Tony being arrested for Delaney Tanner’s murder. I know you said you didn’t know who she was, but I’m sure by now you realize she was the teller at the bank. And of course you know about the back gate at CeeCee’s.”

He had been nodding noncommittally as I went on, but he finally interrupted. “Until the other night, I didn’t know anything about that gate. How about you just get to the reason why you’re here?” He sounded annoyed.

“I know you own the nail salon,” I said. His face registered surprise and displeasure.

“It’s nail salons, plural,” he said with an edge. “What’s your point? That it doesn’t have the same prestige of my former job?” he asked. He was clearly getting impatient and irritated—not a good combination in a possible murderer. “I’m busy now. Why don’t you come back when Kelsey is here?”

“I know more than that,” I said. “I know what really happened to Delaney Tanner.”

Evan didn’t lose an ounce of his calm. “And so do the cops. They arrested Tony Bonnard.”

He had taken my arm and was walking me to the door. I only had moments left to get any evidence against him. “Okay, then,” I said, stopping. “The real reason I came here was to show Kelsey a sample of this.” I reached in my bag, feeling around for a project. “I wanted to make sure she thought it was soft enough.” All I came up with was the cowl
I was making for Samuel. Bamboo yarn wouldn’t do any good. I needed wool. We were almost to the door when I remembered my scarf. I grabbed the longer loop of it and rubbed it against his cheek. “It’s one hundred percent wool,” I said. I took a step back and waited for the fireworks to start.