Chapter 29
Chapter twenty-nine
We drove to the Blue Moon and knocked on the back door. I’d texted Harper to make sure she expected us. I assumed Pamela would rather not take the front entrance and be either swarmed by people curious about her plans or stuck chatting about her cousin.
Privacy didn’t hurt.
Harper took us to a small, semi-private room. It was rarely used but perfect for a conversation and a drink without having to go upstairs to their private quarters.
To my surprise, Ange was also there.
"I’m taking a break from work," she confessed. "My creative juices aren’t flowing at the moment. Maybe a little bit of time off coming up with cute designs for hand blown glass art will sort that out."
She smiled at Pamela. "It’s lovely to see you again. Not the circumstances, but—you know what I mean?"
"Thanks. I wish it would have been different." Pamela accepted a small whiskey.
I stuck to soda and signaled to Harper before joining Pamela.
She knocked her drink back in one gulp. "So, the cat's out of the bag," she muttered. "I wouldn’t have been able to keep it quiet much longer under the circumstances anyway, I guess."
"Most likely not," I said. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me, but encouragement didn’t hurt.
"I thought I’d been so careful. We’d been so careful."
“There’s always someone in a small town who's watching.” Even if it was just a cat through a window, spotting a masked stranger, I thought.
"I pretended I’d gone on a cruise because I didn’t want anyone to know that I had work done.” She touched her jawline.
"Cosmetic surgery?" I asked. "It looks great."
"Only, no real surgery—just a few tweaks. But yeah. I had to have my face bandaged and stay out of the sun for a little while, and Jake had agreed to look after me."
"But you had a fight, didn’t you?"
"How do you know that?" she asked me.
I gave her an enigmatic smile. It had only been a hunch, but a correct one.
"We had a small disagreement,” Pamela admitted.
"About what?" Harper asked.
"I told him that sometimes, not saying something was the better way."
"I don’t understand," I said.
"He thought I should go to the board of my company and tell them that my boss was being ageist and sexist and—" She glanced at us.
"I was passed over for a job that had been promised to me because I was looking too old and not appealing enough to clients.
My superior preferred a younger woman to be the front of the business. "
"That’s absurd," I protested.
"That’s what Jake said. But he doesn’t know what it means to be a woman of a certain age.
I decided to get a few tweaks done. And I will always be grateful to him for looking after me.
" She sighed. "He picked me up in the middle of the night.
He attempted to be as stealthy as possible, the dear man.
" She smiled weakly. "We almost got busted straight away when that woman came out of the Reiki practice.”
Then she frowned. Now it was obvious that her skin was smoother than it should have been. To me, she looked great. I assumed she already would have looked great before, but I knew only too well that for women, there was a certain best-before date. And we had both passed that a while ago.
"Go on," I said.
"That’s strange," she said. "I thought he was stressed because I was almost seen after he tried so hard to arrange everything so I could lay low. But looking back: maybe it was because of her."
"The woman?"
"I don’t know," she said. "I only know that Jake was less than happy."
"The Reiki guy, huh?" Harper whistled through her teeth. "You’re talking about Willowmere’s most eligible bachelor. So why should Jake be displeased about seeing a woman leave the place?"
"What time was it?" I asked.
"About 1:00 AM. A bit later," Pamela said.
"Well, well, well!” Ange said. “That’s not the time of night you usually leave your Reiki therapist. Or even a lover. Unless you have a very good reason not to stay overnight."
"We all know there’ve been tons of women after him," Harper said.
"And he wasn’t interested in any of them," Ange added. "Maybe this mystery woman had something to do with it."
"Or she didn’t want anybody to know she was getting treatment," I suggested. "There are enough people who scoff at the idea of healing energy and touching to balance your chakras or whatever it does."
"Good point," Harper admitted.
"When did you leave Jake’s place?" I asked Pamela.
"A few days before he passed away. Just after the gigantic dust-up with the kid about the car." She paused. "You don’t think I had anything to do with his death, do you?" she asked, her voice tight.
I paused a little too long.
"Not anymore. Oh, my goodness," she said.
"I'm sorry, but you've got to admit—it looked pretty strange, with you lying and…" I faltered.
"I didn't mean to, but word spreads like wildfire. How was I supposed to know he’d get murdered only a few days after I left, while I was still trying to protect my privacy. Don't you think if I had anything to do with it, I would have faked pictures of me on the cruise?"
"I guess so. I'm sorry. You lost your cousin. I lost my aunt. And with you out of the picture, I don’t think the police are any closer to catching the culprit."
"No. It's all a mess."
"At least you're in the clear. That's something," Harper said to Pamela.
"I wonder if I should stick around for a while. I was only dropping in to arrange a few things, and, of course, the funeral."
"Do you have a date yet?" Harper asked.
"In a week or so. The body was released today," Pamela said. "I only want this over and done with."
"Where do you live?" I asked.
"Seattle."
"Then you could go back home and return for the day?"
"I could. Honestly, I don't know what to do. I so want there to be justice, but I'm not sure I can handle staying in that house until then." Pamela twirled her empty brandy glass.
"No, I get that. How about you tell us what you need done, and we'll keep you posted?
" I suggested. I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.
"I was on the detective's radar for a New York minute too, until he found out I was too far away to have anything to do with the murders. I guess we're in the same boat.”
She sighed. "We are. Are you really sure you wouldn’t mind crossing off a few things? Because I could always ask Jimmy—"
"No, it’s ok, I’ve got free time and I'm in the perfect place for it. Plus, when I’m in doubt there's always Louisa. She knows everything anyway."
"She does," Pamela admitted. "She wouldn't have been the source, would she? The person who blabbed about my stay at Jake's?"
"It's confidential. You've got to trust me."
She nodded.
"Another drink?" Harper asked.
"Not if I want to drive today." Pamela promised to send me a list of tasks to do as soon as she had figured it all out.
I took her back to Jake's and gave her a quick hug. “I'll see you soon," I said. "And you make sure you get that promotion."
"I will."
Deep in thought, I drove home.
I climbed up to my living room.
Cosmo glared at me. "That took you long enough."
"I can't always take you with me. It looks weird," I said. "Unless you've got an invisibility spell."
"Very amusing."
His voice softened to a sound that was almost a purr. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine a handsome, suave tenor standing in my room. Maybe that was another one of his superpowers.
"Going by your glum look, Pamela is off the hook?" he asked.
"One hundred percent," I said. "Which means we've got to take a much, much closer look at everyone else. If only we could leave Aunt Violet’s murder out of the equation. Jake had more than enough people who wanted to see him gone."