Chapter 25
25
7:01 p.m. Saturday, November 2
“ A hem.”
The headphones she’d donned to block out the pile of dogs snoring at her feet weren’t quite powerful enough to handle insistent throat clearing.
“AHEM!”
On a sigh, Riley took off her headphones and looked up. “Yes, Mrs. Penny?”
Somehow between nearly getting arrested and shot for breaking and entering, and early-bird meat-loaf dinner that day, Mrs. Penny had made good on her threat to turn Riley’s office into a coworking space. She’d pushed a folding table against the front of Riley’s desk, then added a few of her old gaming monitors and her BarcaLounger office chair.
Now whenever Riley looked up, it was at Mrs. Penny’s expectant face. It gave her a jolt every time.
“What do you think the boys are up to?” her new office partner asked.
Riley had a sudden glimpse of sparkle that shifted into a dangerous metallic gleam. A queasy feeling spread through her intestines. “Uh. I don’t know.”
She picked up her phone, scrolled to the tracking app, and zoomed in on Nick’s location. He was at the jewelry store. That at least explained the sparkle.
“Why aren’t we out running down clues and chasing bad guys?” Mrs. Penny asked, swinging her feet up on her makeshift desk with a meaty thump.
“Because we’re in here running down the identity of Ingram’s ex-girlfriend so we can return her dogs and ask her if she thinks her ex is capable of hiring hit men to murder someone who embarrassed him,” Riley explained for the third time.
“Why don’t you just ask Gentry what her name is?”
“I did. He didn’t remember. So I’m tracking her down the old-fashioned internet stalking way.”
“Boring! I’m gonna go make a drinky drink,” Mrs. Penny grumbled.
“Hang on,” Riley said, clicking on a photo to enlarge it. “I think I’ve got something.”
“Lemme see.” Mrs. Penny pried her feet off the desk and toddled around to Riley’s side.
“This is from the local paper about a fundraising dinner for an animal rescue last spring. It’s Ingram and his date, Laurel Shellen.”
“She looks like she’s thirty years younger than him,” Mrs. Penny said, squinting through her bifocals.
Riley typed Laurel’s name into the social media search engine. “Aha! Here she is. She lives in Harrisburg, and look at her profile picture.”
“Huh. Girl’s got some big teeth,” Mrs. Penny noted.
“Not her perfectly normal-size teeth. Her dogs ,” Riley said, tapping her screen.
Mrs. Penny studied the picture, then examined the puddle of dogs under the desk. “Well, I’ll be damned! Let’s go interrogate a witness!”
“We’re not interrogating?—”
The doorbell rang, and a tidal wave of barking dogs shoved Riley and her chair back from the desk.
“You gonna get that?” Mrs. Penny asked.
Rubbing her abused shins, Riley followed the dogs to the front door and opened it. “Mom?”
Riley’s mother and sister were standing on the front porch. Blossom had that unnaturally shiny, perky look on her face that meant she was upset about something.
“Hi, sweetie! Your sister and I were just in the neighborhood,” Blossom said, bustling into the foyer. “We thought we’d come over and see if you needed any help organizing your kitchen or maybe mulching your flower beds for winter. Oooh! Or we could watch a movie. Who’s up for Bridges of Madison County ?”
Wander glided inside after their mother. Fighting, she mouthed to Riley.
“Ah.”
When Riley’s parents had their one big blowup fight every three or four years, Blossom pretended everything was wonderful while coolly ignoring Roger. She would show up on a daughter’s doorstep with a demand for quality time, and if that daughter didn’t immediately comply, she’d drop the Blossom Basil-Thorn guilt trip.
“Of course, I’ll understand if you’re too busy to spend time with your discarded old crone of a mother.” Blossom sank to the floor to greet the dogs that scrabbled at her wide-legged corduroy pants. “At least you love your grandma, don’t you, Burtie boy? And who are your friends?”
“You have more dogs than usual,” Wander observed as she trailed Riley a few feet away for a whispered sister conference.
“I’m about to return them to their rightful owner. What are they fighting about this time?” Riley asked. The last fight had been over GPS directions. Blossom had moved in with Wander for almost a week.
“From what I could discern when I dropped the girls off with Dad, it’s the chickens. One of them pecked Daisy too aggressively according to Dad.”
Riley had a lightning-quick vision of her father standing between his cow and the advancing chickens, yelling, “Beak-faced bullies!”
“Oh boy.”
“I hate to do this to you when you already have a full house of characters, but not it,” Wander said, bringing her finger to her nose. “I can’t survive Mom staying with me for another week of pretend quality time. We just kicked off Gratitude Month at the yoga studio, River has basketball, Rain is hosting her Ruth Bader Ginsberg Dissent Club dinner this week, and Janet has three birthday parties.”
Wander took a deep breath, then winced. Riley guessed it was probably the lingering psychic scent of murder victim tickling at her nostrils.
This was as panicked as her yogic breathing sister got.
“I bet you three like chickens, don’t you?” Blossom cooed, squishing Burt’s face between her hands.
The two little dogs yapped excitedly.
Riley sighed. At this point, she and Nick were practically running a fifty-five-plus community for the unhinged. What was one more? “Say no more. It’s my turn for any overnights.”
“Maybe we can put things back together tonight before we start moving her in,” Wander offered.
“I just had the best idea,” Blossom announced. “Girls’ trip to the commune! We’ll can applesauce and take that yarn dyeing class we’ve always talked about.”
None of them had ever mentioned a yarn dyeing class.
“Actually, I was wondering if you and Wander wanted to come do some exciting investigative work with me tonight?” Riley asked with the feigned brightness inherited directly from her mother.
“Laurel’s not here,” announced the roommate dressed in a hot-pink onesie. She was wearing a green face mask and had a bowl of ice cream in one hand.
Riley, Blossom, and Wander stood on the front porch of a three-story town house in one of those developments that was laid out like a miniature town. Three dog faces poked out of the passenger window of Wander’s minivan at the curb.
By the time they were ready to leave, Mrs. Penny had—thankfully—fallen asleep in her desk chair, allowing Riley to make the executive decision to leave her behind. After all, they weren’t running down leads. They were just handing over some dogs and confirming from another source that Ingram Theodoric III was a terrible person.
“Well, this was fun. Who wants to make our own organic hair dye and color our hair? I’ve always wanted to go pink,” Blossom said.
“Do you know where Laurel went or when she’ll be back?” Riley asked, ignoring her mother.
The roommate shrugged. “She’s at her support group. They meet in the Wegmans café. Dunno when she’ll be back. I gotta go. If I leave this face mask on for too long, it turns my skin green.”
The door shut in their faces.
“Everybody back in the van,” Riley said, ushering her mother and sister off the stoop.
“Don’t you think it’s a little unethical to crash a support group meeting?” Wander asked.
“I don’t think. I know it is. But maybe we can just wait outside for her,” Riley said. “Unless you want pink hair.”
“Let’s go invade a woman’s privacy,” Wander said and hit the unlock button on her key fob.
Waiting in the grocery store parking lot turned out not to be a viable option. Apparently everyone in Silver Spring Township did their Wegmans shopping on Saturday night. Laurel’s dogs’ incessant yapping was the final nail in the coffin.
“Okay. We’re going inside. This is who we’re looking for,” Riley said, passing her phone up to the front seat to show her mother and sister a photo of Laurel.
“She’s a cutie. Do you think I could pull off bangs like that?” Blossom wondered.
“Focus, Mom,” Riley said. “She’s part of an active investigation. She just doesn’t know it yet, so I don’t want to scare her off.”
“Is she dangerous?” Blossom asked hopefully.
“Just her taste in men. She dated one of our suspects and slept with Griffin.”
“I don’t know what women see in that little weasel,” Blossom said. “No offense, sweetie.”
The terrier launched itself at Riley and licked her face between migraine-inducing yaps. “None taken. Let’s go.”
Wegmans was known for their café and alcohol sections. A hungry shopper could come in for milk and eggs and leave with freshly made sushi, hot chicken parm, and a six-pack of blueberry lager. Riley led the way past the hot food buffets and beer coolers to the cavernous community room full of tables.
“Did you hear about the jewelry store robbery?” Riley heard a cashier ask her shopper. Something inside her pinged.
The shopper with a toddler and a twelve-pack of spiked seltzers gasped. “No! What happened?”
“I heard three hot guys?—”
“Look! I got us a snack,” Blossom said, holding up a to-go container of vegetable korma.
“Mom, we don’t have time for snacks,” Riley said as she pawed through her bag for her phone.
“Isn’t that Laurel?” Wander pointed toward a group of women standing around a pink balloon arch with an easel sign that said GGS Support Group .
“Let me get a closer look,” Blossom said and scooted toward the far end of the room.
“Damn it,” Riley muttered. Fishing her phone free, she opened the tracker app and saw Nick was still at the jewelry store in Lemoyne, which should have closed almost an hour ago.
Riley : Everything okay? You didn’t get involved with some kind of robbery, did you?
“Are you all right?” Wander asked her.
“Fine. I just hope Nick and Gabe are?—”
“I lost sight of her,” Blossom announced, returning with a fork stuck in the open container of korma.
Riley’s phone buzzed.
Nick : Long story. All good. I’m totally heroic. Call you when I can.
That was definitely not a no .
Brow furrowed, Wander held up her phone so Riley could see the screen.
Gabriel : We have just thwarted an armed robbery. Nick is taking us for ice cream after the police finish questioning us.
“Well, at least it sounds like they’re all alive,” Riley said. “Come on. Let’s go find Laurel.”
They had just made it under the balloon arch when a woman in leather pants and one of those short haircuts only someone with great cheekbones could pull off clapped her hands. “Ladies, thank you so much for joining us tonight. The GGS Support Group has meant so much to so many over the years, and I’m delighted but also saddened to see so many new faces. Please, have a seat, and we’ll get started.”
She gestured at a long dining table. Riley spotted Laurel taking a seat near the head and motored off in that direction. Laurel sat between two women who were both beautiful and on the youngish side. In fact, everyone at the table was gorgeous.
The organizer gestured for Riley to take the chair across from Laurel. Riley sat and watched her mother and sister take places toward the opposite end of the table.
“Thank you for joining us,” the organizer said, standing at the head. “I’m Kiki.”
“Hi, Kiki,” the women around the table echoed.
“Five years ago, I had my GGS experience. Like so many of you, I felt so alone. But now, looking at all your faces, I know that together, none of us are alone,” Kiki continued.
Riley was wondering if she was going to have to sit through the entire meeting for this mystery ailment before she got a chance to talk to Laurel when she felt a nudge of the psychic variety. She locked eyes with Wander down the table.
Her sister held up her cocktail napkin with a mix of uneasiness and amusement sparkling in her eyes.
Riley glanced down at her own. Griffin Gentry Sucks.
Well, shit.
“Who would like to begin?” Kiki asked.
A curvy woman with jet-black hair and cat’s-eye glasses raised her hand. “I’m Li-Mei.”
“Hi, Li-Mei,” everyone said.
The woman took a shaky breath. “I met Griffin six months ago at a spa. He was charming and attentive. Handsome. I didn’t realize how short he was until the esthetician called my name and he stood up to walk me to the door like a gentleman.”
It took every ounce of willpower Riley had not to roll her eyes.
“I knew he was seeing Bella Goodshine. I even asked him about her,” Li-Mei continued. “But he insisted it was just for ratings. They weren’t actually together.” She looked around the table, her eyes teary. “Normally I wouldn’t fall for that. I have a master’s degree. I’m not an idiot. But I guess understanding seventeenth-century English literature doesn’t protect you from being taken advantage of.”
The women gathered around the table all nodded over shared experiences.
“We had been dating for a month when he canceled our dinner plans. He said he was sick. He sounded so sincere, so sorry. I believed him. I thought I was being nice when I made a pot of chicken soup and took it over to his house to surprise him.”
Riley winced in secondhand embarrassment, knowing what came next.
“He wasn’t sick. He was naked. In the hot tub. And it wasn’t with Bella either. It was with another woman.” Li-Mei burst into tears.
A stunning young woman with waist-length blond hair shot to her feet. “It was me. I was in the hot tub,” she said with what to Riley’s untrained ear sounded like a Russian accent. “I met him at a remote broadcast from a car dealer earlier that week.” Her jaw jutted forward.
“We were both yelling at him when Bella came home. He made both of us hide from her in the bushes,” Li-Mei pressed on. A tear slid down her cheek. “I was humiliated.”
“I was mad. I did a poop in his driveway when I left,” the blond announced proudly.
The woman next to the blond jumped to her feet. She was scowling. “My name is Rose, and I didn’t sleep with Griffin Gentry, but he still screwed me. I’m an interior designer, and he hired me to decorate his office at Channel 50. It was some of my best work. I spent months on it, and then the asshole refused to pay. I got lawyers involved until it got too expensive. Then the studio blew up, and now I’m out twenty thousand dollars in design fees plus another ten grand in legal fees. I wish he would have blown up with that custom leather ottoman,” she snarled.
“Okay, well, thank you all for sharing,” Kiki said. “What do we say to our sisters?”
“We’re sorry Griffin Gentry sucks,” everyone said in unison.
“Thank you,” Li-Mei whispered.
The blond high-fived Rose.
“Ohhhhhh! Griffin Gentry sucks. Now I get it. I’m up to speed,” Blossom said a few chairs down.
“A new member, how lovely,” Kiki said. “We’d love it if you would share your Griffin Gentry story.”
Riley sank lower in her chair. “Oh no.”
“Well, it’s not really my story so much as my daughter’s,” Blossom said, rising from her chair and waving her hand in Riley’s direction. “That’s her. My daughter Riley.”
“Hi, Riley,” everyone around the table said.
Riley managed a weak wave and wished she had an armed robbery to thwart right now.
“That’s my other daughter, Wander. And I’m Blossom.”
“Hi, Wander. Hi, Blossom.”
“Hello. Hi. So nice to be here,” Blossom said, preening under the attention.
“What brings you and your daughters to our group tonight?” Kiki asked magnanimously.
“Oh, well, Riley was married to Griffin a few years back,” Blossom began. The collective gasp egged her on. “I know, right? I mean, I’m sorry, sweetie, but what were you thinking? Actually, what were any of us thinking? I mean who decided the construct of marriage was a good idea? You’re just going to pick a stranger, decide to start a life and maybe a family with them, then before you know it, you’re arguing over whose farm animals are more problematic.”
Wander hid her face in her hands.
“The cards say you’re going to be just fine, Laurel,” Blossom said as she gathered up her tarot deck. “You just need to remember, self-worth comes from within, not without. Now who’s next?”
“Laurel, right?” Riley asked when the teary-eyed brunette got up from the table. She looked like a fitness influencer in her mulberry workout tights and matching cropped sweatshirt. Her long hair was slicked back from her face in a low ponytail.
“Yeah. Your mom is amazing,” she said, digging a tissue out of her bag and dabbing at her eyes. “I’ve just been in such a dark place the past few months. I have the worst taste in men, and it cost me my dogs.”
“About that…” Riley began.
“How did it go?” Wander asked when Riley returned from the parking lot. Her sister had procured a matcha latte from the coffee stand and was watching from a safe distance while Blossom finished up a tarot reading for a pair of sisters who both had the misfortune of falling under Griffin’s spell.
“Good. The yappers are—thank you, universe—back with their mom, who was so grateful, she confirmed that there’s nothing Theodoric wouldn’t do to get revenge for a wrong. She said in high school, he ran his own cousin off the road after he scored higher on his SATs than Theodoric did.”
Riley believed her. From what she was able to read through Laurel, Ingram was exactly the kind of person who would do something like hire a contract killer.
Wander grimaced. “He sounds like a challenging personality.”
A throat cleared gently behind them. They turned to find Kiki holding a pink balloon. “Riley, is it?”
“Uh, yes. That’s me.”
“Here. New members get a balloon on their first visit,” Kiki said and thrust the balloon at her.
“Thanks.”
“I’m going to go check on Mom,” Wander said, wisely reading the situation and floating off.
“So you were actually married to Griffin Gentry?” Kiki asked with a sympathetic smile.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Riley admitted.
“I bet you have your share of stories,” Kiki ventured.
“I guess we all do.” Riley gestured around at the women still gathered.
“I just want you to know that I’m here for you. If you ever need someone to listen, someone to show up with a tarp, a shovel, and no questions, or anything in between, you can count on me,” Kiki offered. “We’re a full-service support group, if you know what I mean.”
Oh boy. “Um, thanks?”
Kiki grinned. “I’m totally joking.” Then she shook her head and mouthed, No, I’m not, before waving at another one of the group members. “Joy! Wait up. I have an update for you.” With a wink at Riley, she disappeared into the crowd.
Riley found her way back to her mother and sister. Blossom was packing up her tarot deck.
“This couldn’t have been an easy evening for you,” Wander predicted.
Riley shrugged. “I’ve been through worse.” For instance, that time she’d gotten shot by the murderous mayor during a foot race through downtown Harrisburg…or that time she married Griffin. The evening had made her feel both better about herself for not being the only one to fall for the slippery eel of a man and sad that Griffin was still causing pain everywhere he went.
“You know, after listening to all those women’s stories, it made me think that maybe your father isn’t a complete jerk with no empathy whatsoever,” Blossom admitted.
“Let’s go get a drink. And not some spiked homemade kombucha,” Riley said before her mother could suggest it.
Blossom slung her arms over both daughters’ shoulders and pulled them in. “Yay! Girls’ night with my girls.”