Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Leona gasped. “Not darling Minnie!”
Bitty piped up. “As my cousin Princess Diana used to say, ‘In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.’ ”
Rosario glanced up from the cards in her hand, confusion drawing her slim eyebrows together. “Wasn’t that Sir Francis Bacon?”
“It was,” Carmen confirmed with a regal nod.
Bitty’s voice took on an acerbic tone. “He was probably quoting dear Diana.”
“Bacon died in the seventeenth century,” Carmen pointed out, her words positively caustic. “Are you suggesting he was a time-traveling quote thief?”
“What exactly do you mean?” I jumped in, directing the question at Rosario in hopes of stopping the brewing argument in its tracks.
I really didn’t feel like sitting there listening to the women bicker all day, especially now that Rosario had dangled that potentially tasty tidbit of information in front of me.
Fortunately, Bitty simply huffed before studying her cards. Carmen flicked her eyes heavenward and then did the same with her own cards.
“Oh,” Rosario began as she and the other ladies each passed three cards to the player on their right. “She bottles up her feelings until they explode out of her.”
“Like the time she smashed her former neighbor’s sunglasses after he left the dryer full of lint for the seventh time in a row,” Bitty said.
Rosario nodded as she rearranged the cards in her hand. “Exactly. I tried to give her a healthier way to release her emotions, particularly as they related to Freddie.”
“Okay, but what sort of feelings did she have about Freddie and why?” I asked.
“You know Minnie’s an artist,” Carmen said before asking, “Who’s got the two of clubs?”
“That’s me,” Leona announced, placing the card face up in the middle of the table.
“Right. I’ve seen some of her work,” I said.
“We were all at Shanahan’s Suds one evening last week,” Carmen continued, referring to a pub located a couple of blocks away. “Freddie had a few drinks in him.”
Bitty played a card. “When didn’t he?”
“He started ridiculing Minnie’s work,” Rosario said. “Loudly. Everyone in the pub heard him.”
Leona gave a dramatic shudder. “It was ghastly!”
“Was Minnie there?” I asked.
“Oh, yes,” Carmen replied.
Rosario clicked her tongue. “Poor thing. She sort of shrank into herself, and her face turned red. I got her out of there, but she was already so humiliated and angry by that point.”
I felt a pang of sympathy for Minnie, until I reminded myself that she might have killed Freddie. “So how did you help her release her emotions?” And did it involve a croquet mallet? I added silently.
“We played a game of darts.” Rosario selected a card from her hand and added it to the small pile in the middle of the table. “With Freddie’s face as the board.”
Bitty sighed and drew the trick—which contained the queen of spades—toward her.
Rosario made a note on the scoresheet. “Minnie drew a great likeness of Freddie, and we pinned it to the dartboard. You should have seen her hurtling the darts. She got him right in the eyes.”
That explained the hole-riddled portrait. But had Rosario enjoyed the game as much as Minnie? Had she found that she still had some simmering anger that the darts hadn’t cooled?
Checking on Rosario’s alibi really needed to be my next task.
Now I had to add Minnie’s name to my suspect list. Maybe throwing darts at Freddie’s portrait didn’t give her enough of a release. Maybe her anger had bubbled over later or had been reawakened by further comments from Freddie.
In my mind’s eye, I saw a furious Minnie grab Mr. Nagy’s confiscated croquet mallet from Freddie’s office and swing it at the super’s head.
I winced.
Minnie wasn’t a tall woman, but she probably could have reached Freddie’s head with the mallet. The angle of the blow might give the police an idea of the assailant’s height, but I didn’t have that kind of evidence to work with.
I stood up from my seat. “Thanks for talking with me, ladies. Enjoy the rest of your game.”
They all called out their goodbyes as I left. I’d made it only a few steps down the hall before Rosario called my name. I turned back to see her rushing after me.
“Emersyn,” she whispered when she reached me, “did you have a specific reason for asking if Freddie had a woman in his life?”
“Oh…” I tried to think of a way of answering without letting on that I’d been in his apartment.
Rosario solved the problem by not giving me a chance to respond. “It’s just…I’m hoping you and your colleague can be discreet.”
“You and Freddie were…?”
Rosario’s cheeks flushed. “It wasn’t serious or anything, and it didn’t last long because he was a jerk about my snakes, but I’d rather the other ladies didn’t know.”
I couldn’t blame her for that, especially after Leona’s comments.
“Did you lose a false eyelash recently?” I asked.
The question took her by surprise. “Yes, actually. I did have one go missing.”
“I don’t think there’s any need for the other residents to know about you and Freddie.”
She relaxed with relief. “Oh, thank you, Emersyn.”
Leona called out Rosario’s name from inside the apartment.
She glanced that way. “I’d better get back to the game.”
“Rosario,” I said to stop her from leaving. “Which vet clinic do you use?” When I saw her puzzled expression, I quickly added, “I’m thinking of getting Livy a pet.”
She smiled. “South Paws. All the doctors there are fabulous. I hope you find the killer soon!” She hurried back into her unit.
Did she really want me to find the murderer?
Only if she wasn’t the culprit.
With a plan taking shape in my head, I pulled out my phone on my way to the elevator.
A notification alerted me to a new text message.
From Wyatt.
Ready to compare notes?
I stopped in the middle of the hallway, staring at the message, my thumb hovering over it.
No, I typed out.
Then I deleted that and wrote, Yes.
My thumb hovered over the Send button.
Then I deleted that word too.
I shoved my phone back into my pocket.
Clearly, my brain wasn’t up to the onerous task of responding to a simple text message.
Although maybe the real problem was that nothing to do with Wyatt felt simple.
Not that anything in my life felt simple at the moment.
Once seated on my couch, I took out my phone again, but this time to search for the address for the South Paws Veterinary Clinic.
It was located within walking distance of the Mirage.
Ignoring Wyatt’s message—which seemed to call to me like a siren singing to a doomed sailor—I sent a text to Theo instead.
Then I killed some time by looking at online job boards, which didn’t exactly help to boost my mood, and by doing some actual cleaning rather than just the rushed tidying I’d done before my parents had brought Livy home the day before.
As I put away the cleaning supplies and stretched out my back, my thoughts threatened to stray into dangerous territory again. I scrunched my eyes shut and forced the thoughts, and all their accompanying feelings, into a dark corner. I’d become quite good at that over the past year or so.
The door buzzer sounded, putting me instantly on edge. Had my mother decided to show up unexpectedly in the hope of gaining an edge?
I pressed the intercom button. “Yes?”
“Package for Emersyn Gray,” a man said.
With relief, I buzzed him into the building.
I opened the door to wait for him, wondering what could be in the package. I didn’t recall ordering anything recently. It wasn’t like I had money to spend on any extras lately.
I darted back inside to check my phone. Nope. No emails about orders being shipped.
The delivery guy appeared in the open doorway, so I set aside my phone.
“Emersyn?” he asked as he approached.
I smiled. “That’s me.”
“Sign here, please.” He held out his e-signature device.
I signed with my finger, and he jutted his chin at a box leaning against the wall next to the door. “It’s all yours.”
I peeked around the doorframe and saw how big the box was. “But—”
The delivery guy disappeared into the stairwell at a jog.
“What the…” I stepped out into the hall and stood staring at the box that had to be five feet wide and nearly four feet tall. The package was probably only four inches deep, but still. I hadn’t ordered anything recently and certainly not something the size of…whatever this was.
I checked the shipping label. Sure enough, it had my name and address on it.
With a few grunts and a colorful word or two, I maneuvered the cumbersome package into my apartment and sliced it open with a box cutter.
There was no note inside telling me who’d sent the parcel, but I didn’t need one.
As soon as I saw the large whiteboard and the accompanying markers and magnets, I knew exactly what it was meant to be:
A murder board.
I sighed as one name came to mind:
Theo.