Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
“I want to see if Sebastian is at home before we go.” Roz picked up her phone and cranked the car’s AC while they sat in the golf club parking lot. “I’d like to talk to Nicole and Sebastian together if possible.”
“For safety?” Alden asked.
“Just to—I mean, it’s not my business whether they talk to each other or not, but if they clear the air in front of us, it helps us, too.” She typed out a text.
“You mean if he confesses he got into the movie studio deal to further her career?”
“Right, because I don’t think she knows about that. And maybe she’ll tell us more about Wayne.”
A moment later, she got a text back from Sebastian. “He’s on a work site, unfortunately. I think we’ll have to face Nicole on her own. Possibly with small children.”
“I’m fine with killer mommy. It’s the kids that scare me.”
Roz laughed. Was Alden speaking in code? Was he scared of kids—of having kids? Oh, hell, she wasn’t too keen on the idea yet either. But never say never.
They reached the Esquivels’ Saturn Shores neighborhood within fifteen minutes. Construction was in progress next to the old gatehouse.
“I believe they’re rebuilding the guest gates,” she said. “I knew the HOA approved it, but there was nothing here yesterday.”
“Gates aren’t much help if you live with your killer,” Alden observed.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” She eased past the workers, exchanging courtesy waves with them.
The McMansions looked extra chunky in the bright light and shadow of midafternoon. The canals sparkled, the boats gleaming at their docks. Palm trees twinkled as the strong breeze angled their fronds to the sun. And then they were at the Esquivels’ ostentatious pile.
It was funny, Roz thought. They didn’t seem like pretentious people.
She was a busy mom trying to have a creative career on the side.
He was a dorky collector of baseball memorabilia who liked to fly when he wasn’t building more McMansions.
A builder couldn’t live in a cottage, she supposed. This house was a calling card.
They took the long walk around the front to the sheltered entrance.
“That’s some door,” Alden said as the doorbell that evoked cathedral bells pealed inside.
There was movement behind the dark doors’ leaded-glass circle. After a painful few seconds of Roz wondering whether they’d be left on the stoop like an unwanted newspaper, one half opened.
“Roz?” Nicole asked. Her blond hair was up again but falling out of the clip, blobs of something yellow stained her threadbare Green Day T-shirt, and she wore faded blue yoga pants and flip-flops. Kids yelled, and the TV blared in the background.
“Hey, Nicole. I wonder if we could chat for a minute? I texted Sebastian, but he said he was busy. Oh, and this is Alden Knox, another reporter at The Courier-Beacon.”
Nicole took a second to focus, then smiled up at Alden. It was hard not to. He was so darn handsome. But then her eyes flickered, wary.
“Very nice to meet you,” Alden said.
“Listen, this isn’t a great time,” Nicole said. “Mateo got home half an hour ago, and the kids got into my secret candy stash, and their heads are about to pop off.”
Alden exchanged a quick look with Roz. “I could entertain them while Roz talks with you for a minute, if that’s all right.”
Roz and Nicole both stared at him.
Nicole brightened. “OK, great!”
Roz wished she didn’t have to talk to Nicole, because she would really like to see Alden entertaining the three hellions. Though maybe it wasn’t fair to call the little one a hellion yet. Imp in training? She shot him an Are you sure? look, and he just smiled back.
OK. We’re doing this.
Nicole led them left through the house toward the open kitchen with its modern glass pendant lights and a bank of oversize stainless-steel appliances.
A wide, curving granite counter that doubled as an eating area marked the boundary between the kitchen and a spacious living space with a big television (showing Bluey) and comfy furniture.
It seemed the whole space was a play area, with colorful toys scattered everywhere.
“I’ll make coffee. Do you like coffee?” Nicole asked.
“If it’s not too much trouble,” Roz said.
“Is the Keurig all right? It’s easy.” As opposed to the huge chrome coffee contraption sitting by the stove. “What do you drink?”
“Oh, anything. Bean Me Up spoils me with mochas, but I’m good with whatever you have.” Roz didn’t need more coffee, but being friendly never hurt. And, really, she did always need more coffee.
“I have a chocolate-flavored coffee,” Nicole said, looking through a bin of various tiny cuplets.
“Sounds great.”
“I’m fine,” Alden said. “Do you want to introduce me to the kids?”
“Sure.” Nicole got the machine started, then called for the children’s attention. “Kids, this is Alden. Why don’t you show him a game while Ms. Roz and I talk?”
“Alden can be the horse!” Gabriela screamed.
“I’m the knight!” Mateo hollered. “He’s a bad horse!”
Roz had to bite her lip so she wouldn’t laugh.
Diego ignored them all and sucked on a giant Lego block while watching Bluey from a pillow on the floor.
Alden grinned at Roz, then walked over to the area in front of the TV.
“Get down, horse!” Gabriela ordered.
Alden groaned a little as he lowered himself to his hands and knees. “Like this?”
“I’ll get the sword!” Mateo exclaimed.
Roz gave in and laughed, then followed Nicole back into the kitchen area, where the coffee maker had finished hissing and spitting. Nicole handed the blue-glazed pottery mug to Roz, grabbed her own cup and beckoned to her to follow.
Alden neighed.
The women ended up on a covered back patio, complete with its own outdoor kitchen and fire table. Enclosed in a big screened cage, the patio and swimming pool overlooked the dock and lagoon.
“It’s like a resort,” Roz said. “Really nice.”
“It is. I wish I had more time to enjoy it. But I’m so busy with the kids.”
“And your writing.” Roz sat in a cushioned chair catty-corner to Nicole’s, in front of a coffee table topped with polished marble. “Sebastian told us you liked to write.”
“Oh my God. Sebastian.” Tears came to Nicole’s eyes. “I’m so glad you two are OK.”
So she wasn’t glad Sebastian was OK? Or maybe that was implied.
“It was scary, but he’s a good pilot,” Roz said. “We were fine.”
“You were asking him questions about the movie studio project?”
Who was interviewing who? “Yes, we were. And about his partner, Wayne Vandershell.”
Nicole’s blue eyes darkened. “That bastard.”
Roz sputtered on a sip of coffee. She swallowed. “Why do you say that?”
“Because he was ripping off Sebastian.” Whoa. Nicole was really angry.
Roz played dumb. “Ripping off?”
“Getting his sleazy lawyer to certify he’d paid into the escrow when he hadn’t.
Not matching Seb’s twenty-five million dollars.
Sticking Sebastian with the bills. And Sebastian is always so nice, he didn’t question anything until he was in it neck-deep.
It’s partly my fault. I never should have introduced them. ”
Twenty-five million! That wasn’t chump change.
Roz had a hunch. “Is there some other reason you’re angry with Wayne?”
Nicole leaned forward, set her mug on the coffee table and idly used one finger to spin it around by the handle. “I don’t know if I want to talk about this.”
“You’re worried about it going in the paper?”
Nicole startled as if she just realized she was talking to a reporter.
Then she sighed. “You know what? I don’t care.
He was an awful person. Wayne came on to me.
More than once. All while telling me he was going to produce my screenplay.
He asked me to invest tens of thousands of dollars in some promotional materials and told me not to tell Sebastian.
Said this was ‘just between us.’ Did he think I was an idiot? ”
Roz was on the verge of stunned. Nicole knew a lot more than Sebastian thought she did. And Wayne hit on her? Gross.
“You didn’t invest?” Roz slid her notebook out of her bag and started scribbling the high points.
“No, I did not! Why would I invest when Sebastian had already sunk so much money into the studio?”
Roz asked gently, “Why do you think he sunk so much money into the studio?”
Nicole pursed her lips. “He must’ve thought Wayne would produce my screenplay if he did. It’s just the sort of super nice thing Sebastian would do. But I wish he was a little more savvy sometimes.”
“Uh-huh.” Holy Tinseltown! “And Wayne didn’t make any progress on producing your screenplay?”
“No, he didn’t. And I don’t think that was just because I refused to sleep with him or give him my money.
I think it was by design. You know what?
I think Wayne was full of horse poop.” Nicole’s kid-friendly non-curse almost made Roz smile.
“I found out he talked to other people in the book club—you know, the one at Big Bang Books?—who were screenwriters, too. We have a little writing group there. He had them all going.”
“You mean they contributed to his screenplay scheme?”
“You know it’s a scheme, don’t you?” Nicole’s face had a look of satisfaction. “Yes, that’s what I mean.”
“How many of those writers was he talking to?”
“At least three or four.”
Wow. They needed to ask Mae about that. “What is your screenplay about?”
Nicole’s eyebrows scrunched together at the question. “It’s about a woman who goes on vacation to the beach with her girlfriends and realizes there’s more to life than her cranky husband and college-age kids, and she starts over. It’s kind of a dramedy.”
“So, no airplane stuff?”
“No.” Nicole seemed puzzled. “The friends drive to the beach town.”
What was Roz supposed to make of that? The story sounded a little like wish fulfillment—ditching the husband and starting over. Though Nicole said Sebastian was really nice. So maybe she didn’t want to kill him.
Perhaps more relevant, at least as Nicole told it, the script had nothing to do with sabotaging airplanes.
“Did you ever talk to Blake Burbage?” Roz asked.
Nicole’s face softened. “Oh, I’d sure like to. I loved him in Chain of Honor!”
“So did I!” Now they were bonding over a TV show. Nicole had good taste.
“Sebastian said Wayne was going to produce a movie at the studio starring Blake.” Nicole took another sip of her coffee and looked wistful.
“But now that the studio is on ice, I’ll probably never get a chance to meet him.
I should’ve talked to him during the signing, but I would feel weird introducing myself to a celebrity, you know? ”
So she hated Wayne and didn’t know Blake.
“Do you know Chuck Teague?” Roz asked.
Nicole hesitated. “He’s the plane mechanic, right? I’ve met him a couple of times. He seemed OK. A little rough around the edges.”
So Roz couldn’t rule out an acquaintance with Chuck. Alden seemed to like Chuck, but Chuck also knew how to sabotage airplanes. Would he have done it for Nicole? Or someone else?
There was one more thing she had to ask. “On Saturday, when you took the kids to the bookstore bathroom, you left them alone for a few minutes.”
Nicole froze with her coffee cup halfway to her mouth. “What is this? Are you accusing me of child neglect?”
“No! No, of course not. Mateo told me he was in charge.”
Nicole rolled her eyes and took a sip and set down her cup again. “He’s adorable, isn’t he? I was only gone a minute.”
“Did you happen to see Wayne, by chance?”
Nicole’s face shifted. The wariness returned to her eyes. “I didn’t hurt him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“What? I mean, what did you see? What did you say to him? Did you arrange to meet him?” She’d gone to see Wayne Vandershell!
“No! I—I was aware he was at the store and saw him heading to the back hallway. I knew he smoked. When I had to take the kids to the bathroom, I figured it gave me a chance to give him a piece of my mind. I went to the back door, but someone had beaten me to it. So I returned to the bathroom to deal with the kids, which took a while. And then after I took them back into the store, there was that scream, and I heard what happened.” Nicole shuddered.
“Wait a second.” Roz’s heart beat faster. “Someone had beaten you to it? Was Wayne dead?”
“No, of course not! Someone else was yelling at him. I figured I’d wait my turn. And then it was too late.”
Roz took a sip of coffee to ease her nerves and make sure she didn’t screw this up. Then she posed her question. “Someone else was yelling at him? Who?”
“Enolia Honeywood.”