Seeds of Suspicion (Lack of Luxury Cozy Mystery #1)

Chapter 16

“Deanna Andretti was paying her husband alimony,” Gloria guessed.

“Nope. The exact opposite. Eric Andretti was paying her to the tune of a couple thousand dollars a month.”

“Floyd mentioned something along those lines. Not about the alimony, but about the couple divorcing not long after they sold a bunch of assets.” Liz began pacing. “While still married, Deanna somehow persuaded Eric to give her the money to buy a building in downtown Green Springs and put it in her name only. They divorced, and she was collecting alimony.”

“In a nutshell. ”

“Which brings up another question,” Margaret said. “What did Eric Andretti do with his share of the proceeds?”

“Perhaps they knew their marriage was in trouble and the couple reached some sort of agreement. Deanna got a building. Eric took his share and invested it in something else.”

“An investment which made enough money that when they finally divorced, he was forced to pay her alimony,” Dot added.

Ruth motioned to Gloria’s printer. “I want to print off the legal findings.”

“Hang on.” Gloria checked the printer’s paper tray. “There’s plenty of paper.”

“Let me do a copy and paste.” Ruth made quick work of assembling what she wanted, pasted them in a notepad, and pressed the print button.

“You’re getting pretty high tech there,” Margaret teased .

“I’m getting smarter and streamlining my investigative skills.” The printer whirred, and Ruth snatched up the single sheet of paper. She skimmed the contents and handed it to Liz. “We need to find out more about Deanna’s colleagues, face-to-face.”

“I’m out,” Liz said. “They’ve met me.”

“Ditto for me,” Gloria said.

“Well, Lucy?” Ruth tapped Lucy’s arm. “You and Margaret are the reno experts. Do you think you can come up with an acceptable reason to show up on Designer Diva’s doorstep and do some snooping around?”

“Ditto for Becky Kiefer’s business,” Liz said. “For all we know, Designer Diva is closed now that Deanna is dead.”

“If Eric Andretti or even Tammi O’Toole have some sort of vested interest in the business, I’m going to take a wild guess they’ll want to keep the doors open,” Gloria said .

“There’s an easy way to find out.” Margaret grabbed her cell phone. “I found the number. The line is ringing.” She held up a finger. “Hello, my name is Margaret Hansen. My friend and I own a property investment company. We’re working on a potential project and would like to discuss it with you.”

Margaret paused, waiting for the person on the other end of the line to reply. “Let me check with my partner. Can you hold? Thank you.”

She covered the phone with her hand. “She has an opening this afternoon, around two.”

Lucy gave her a thumbs up.

Margaret returned to the call. “Yes. Two this afternoon will work. You’re in downtown Green Springs, on Main Street? My name is Margaret Hansen and what was your name? Tammi O’Toole. Great. We’ll see you then.” She ended the call and waved the phone in the air. “What about the other gal, Becky? We’ll be in town. Might as well kill two birds with one stone. ”

“She owns Hometown Designs. I have her number.” Liz scrolled through her cell phone’s recent list of contacts and pulled up Becky’s number. “Let me know when you’re ready.”

“I’m ready.” Margaret tapped in the number Liz rattled off and, once again, went through the spiel about being in the market for some design ideas. Unfortunately, Becky was booked for the rest of the day.

Margaret thanked her and promised to call back before hanging up. “We’ll start with Designer Diva. If we’re still on the hunt for clues, we’ll call her back to schedule an appointment.”

“I feel guilty about dragging you into my mess,” Liz said.

“Dragging us into it?” Ruth arched a brow. “We love this kind of stuff.”

“Ruth’s right,” Gloria said.

“Maybe I’m stressed, but I’m not getting a good vibe.” Liz pressed a light hand to her forehead. “ What if someone is trying to set Floyd or me up? Either way, I’m almost certain one of those women who worked with Deanna knows more than they’re letting on.”

“We still have very little information about Carol Wright,” Dot reminded them.

“Let me take a quick peek to see what I can find.” Ruth began tapping the keys. “I have some good news and some bad news.”

“Good news first,” Liz said.

“I found Carol Wright.”

“What’s the bad news?” Lucy asked.

“I found Carol Wrights, as in multiple people in this area with the same name.”

“Crud.” Liz blew air through thinned lips. “Can you narrow them down by county?”

“I can’t, but I’m sure Leonard has a few tricks up his sleeve. I’ll call him later to see if he has any suggestions.” Ruth logged off the super-secret websites, shoved her chair back and stood. “I hate to spy and run, but I need to head home to see if the part for my new yard surveillance project delivered. I paid for expedited delivery and it was supposed to arrive by noon.”

Liz, along with Duchess, trailed behind Ruth and followed her to the spymobile. “You’re still selling yard surveillance stuff?”

“Yep. It’s a more lucrative business venture than I ever imagined. Business was booming right around Christmas. People were ordering my nutcracker, Cornelius, left and right, gearing up for when the porch pirates came out in full force.” Ruth made a diving motion with her hand. “As soon as January rolled around, orders tanked, although it gave me time to tinker with a new project. Summer is right around the corner and customers are thinking about protecting their property from rude neighbors who let their dogs poo in their yard and don’t clean up, kids doing the ding-dong doorbell pranks, you name it. ”

“I might be interested in purchasing a piece or two,” Liz said. “Do you have any in stock?”

Ruth perked up. “You’re looking for a cash-and-carry transaction?”

“Yeah. Cash-and-carry. If you have something ready to go, I’m interested in purchasing it for the new property.”

The other women wandered out of the house, curious to find out what Ruth and Liz were discussing.

“I thought you were hot to get out of here,” Lucy said.

“I’m in the middle of a business transaction,” Ruth said. “Liz might be interested in purchasing some yard surveillance.”

Gloria laughed. “Are you going to spy on Christi Kravitz?”

“I’m going to keep an eye on our investment and find out what the nosy neighbor is up to when we’re not around,” Liz said. “The woman spends almost as much time on my property as she does on her own. If she can watch what we’re doing, I have no qualms about returning the favor.”

“My spring collection sold out. All I have left is the prototype of an Easter bunny.” Ruth flung the spymobile’s rear door open and pulled a rabbit out.

“Good grief.” Margaret curled her lip. “I thought you put Sunny the evil bunny to rest.”

“I haven’t been able to find a good home for him.” Ruth eased the rabbit onto the ground and shifted him so that he faced the others. “I only have one, but if you take him now, I can start tinkering with a replacement.”

“One that won’t give small children nightmares?” Dot teased.

Ruth rattled off a reasonable price. “The cost of supplies has gone up, although it’s still a bargain. This thing will monitor your front yard, the mailbox, all the way over to your neighbor’s house. ”

Liz inched forward, studying the rabbit’s glittery green eyes. His heart-shaped lips turned up at the corners, creating an evil smirk. She tapped the end of his pointed nose. “That might hurt.”

“Only if you ran into it.”

Duchess pawed at Liz’s blouse, eager to put some distance between them and the evil bunny.

“I’ll take it. In fact, if you have extra batteries, I’ll buy those from you too.” Liz ran inside to grab her purse. She filled out a blank check and handed it to Ruth. “Are there any special instructions?”

“You’ll need the app. Give me your phone.” Ruth uploaded the yard art surveillance app and showed her how to use it. “All you need to do is click on the rabbit icon to pull up the camera. It’s live 24/7 unless you turn it off.” She took a step back and waved her hand in front of Sunny’s eyes.

Ting…tingle. Liz’s phone chimed.

“It’s motion sensitive. If something or someone passes in front of it, the app will chime. ”

“Sweet.” Liz tapped the button. A live feed captioned “Sunny” popped up. “This is slick. Thank you. I love it.”

“I have one small piece of advice. Try not to stare into his eyes. There’s something about the beam. It makes me see double if I stare into them for too long.”

“Duly noted.” With Ruth’s assistance, Liz loaded the rabbit into the back of her SUV. She thanked the women for their help and Margaret and Lucy promised to catch up with her after they met with Tammi O’Toole.

Liz gave them a cheery wave and steered onto the road, feeling much more optimistic about the investigation now that the Garden Girls were officially on the case.

And she was looking forward to finding out exactly what Christi Kravitz was up to when she and Floyd weren’t around.