Riverstar (3) (20 page)

“I’ll get it,” said Bella.

Annie had beat Bella to the door. It was Linus. He was wearing one of his blue silk suits and a red tie. “Good morning, ladies.”

“Linus, what’re you doing here?” Annie had a towel in her hand and was still wearing her apron, which was smeared with pancake batter and blackberry syrup.

Linus slipped off his coat and placed it carefully on the bench near the door before turning to Annie with his hands on his hips. “Oh, sweetie, why are you wearing an apron at home? You should be running around here in that negligée I got you for your wedding. Do you girls never listen?”

“Linus, your expectations for my sexiness are way too high. I have a house full of people, and, in case you don’t remember, a ten-year-old boy living here.”

“That’s absolutely no excuse.” Linus turned to greet Bella, giving
her air kisses on each cheek. “You look gorgeous.” He pursed his
lips and cocked his head to the side. “Falling in love agrees with you.”

Bella shook her head, trying not to let the tears flood her eyes. Linus being kind to her might send her over the crying precipice. And she was done crying over Benjamin Fleck. At least for the next
hour.
Damn you
, she cursed him again silently. “He’s already dumped me,” she said in a whisper.

“That isn’t true,” said Annie, matching Bella’s whisper. “He’s
just acting crazy because of this whole thing with the police.”

Linus glanced toward the front room. “Is he here now?”

Annie nodded. “And Ellen.”

“She says she has something she wanted to discuss about the police,” said Bella.

“I have an idea I want to run by the gang too,” said Linus. “But we have to wait. Lee and Tommy are on their way over as well. And Mike and Sharon. Everyone’s concerned about Ben and we want to
get on the same page on this thing. Make sure we’re all in this
together to figure out the real killer.”

Bella smiled, squeezing Annie’s hand. “Your gang of misfits
always comes through when it counts.”

“You know it,” she said as they went into the living room.

Annie made more coffee while Drake found a white board. Bella took Peter into Drake’s office. “The whole gang’s on their way over. They all want to help.” She said it almost apologetically but there was no need.

“Good. The more people we have on this thing the better.”

She left Peter to set up the whiteboard on an easel and went to fetch another cup of coffee. Lee and Tommy must have arrived because Alder was in the kitchen holding their toddler, Ellie-Rose, on his lap and feeding her small bites of pancake. “She needs tiny bites so she doesn’t choke,” he said. Her heart twisted, remembering doing the same with her little niece.
Don’t think of it now
, she told herself.
Just focus in the moment.

Ellie-Rose, a smaller version of her pretty redheaded mother,
grinned at Bella. “’Pakes.” She raised her arms in the air. “Yay.”

“Pakes are yay.” Bella poured more coffee into her cup and
added cream that Annie had placed out for the guests.

“They banished us to the kitchen. I’m too young to hear all the grizzly details, which totally sucks because I’m a great detective,” said Alder.

“I’ll fill you in later,” she promised, with her hand on his sweet head. “Just without the R-rated parts.”

“But Bella, those are all the badass parts.”

“I know. But you’re too young for badass parts yet. Give it a couple more years.”

She was almost to the door when he called out to her. “Bella?”

“Yep?”

“Ben’s not going to jail, is he?”

“Absolutely not. He didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, but sometimes innocent people go to jail. Look at what happened in
To Kill a Mockingbird
.”

“No way this gang will let that happen.”

“More ‘pakes,” said Ellie-Rose, tugging on Adler’s arm.

He fed the baby another piece and kissed her forehead. “Bella, I know Ben’s acting like a jerk but that’s just what men do when they’re afraid.”

She chuckled. “I know, honey.” She paused. “But thanks for
saying that.”

“Badass,” said Ellie-Rose, crystal clear. Bella couldn’t help but laugh. She couldn’t say
pancake
but
badass
came out as though
spoken by a classically trained actress.

“Oh no,” said Alder, grimacing. “I’m in so much trouble.”

Bella continued to laugh. “You better teach her a new word
before her parents come back in here. Seriously.”

Alder made a clicking noise with his tongue and shook his head sadly. “Why are people so worried over conventions?”

“You better start worrying about them or your mother’s going to have you banished to your room until Thanksgiving.”

“Oh, Bella, I’m not made for this world.”

“Badass,” said Ellie-Rose, grinning.

***

In the living room, Mike and Sharon had arrived and were
sitting together on one of the couches next to Tommy, Lee, and Ellen. Ben was talking quietly with Drake and Linus near the fireplace. Annie
was pouring coffee for everyone and had somehow produced
pastries.
There was a never-ending supply of food in this house, thought Bella. Such a shame she felt like road kill. She hated to waste good
pastries.

Ben and Linus took seats as Annie settled next to Drake on the loveseat closest to the stone fireplace. Bella stood in the corner of the room, feeling awkward. Why couldn’t her place be by Ben? Why did he have to act like such a fool and ruin everything between them? Finally, she opted for the chair nearest Peter.

Ben cleared his throat and looked around the room. “Listen, I just wanted to say thanks for rallying behind me. You all have no reason to believe I’m innocent but I’m grateful you do. I hope this all blows over but, I don’t know, I have a bad feeling. The way those cops interrogated me the other day I feel like they want to pin this on me just to meet the demands of the public. Anyway, thank you.”

“We take care of our own here,” said Mike. “Always have, always will.”

“That’s right,” said Tommy.

“And all this because you did the right thing for that poor girl. Just shameful,” said Ellen.

Peter, using the whiteboard, charted out what they knew thus far. “Ben arrived with a drunk Tiffany at eleven and left at midnight. The clerk at the front desk substantiated this. We also were able to see him arrive and leave from the security cameras.”

Ellen, looking up from her pad, raised her hand. “Were there any other people in or out of the lobby on the security cameras?”

“No,” said Peter. “Which tells me one thing.”

“That it was done by someone staying in the lodge?” asked Lee, sitting forward on the couch, her intelligent eyes snapping.

“Exactly,” said Peter. He twirled the pen between his fingers like a baton and gazed at the white board. “The problem with this case is
there are too many suspects.” He went on to tell them about Graham Rouse admitting to an affair with Tiffany and the two men in suits
who had followed Tiffany that night, along with the blackmail scheme.

“So this Jocelyn Zinn
—
she could have hired someone to do it,
right, Peter?” asked Tommy. “Those two men could be working for her?”

Peter nodded. “Yes. Only problem is we can’t seem to find them.
It’s like they disappeared into thin air. But we know they exist
because the bartender at Lefty’s corroborated what Ben told us.”

Mike’s brow was furrowed, like he was thinking hard. “I’ve followed this Zinn thing in the news and that woman’s not
somebody to mess with. Her client list, it’s assumed by the press anyway, has everyone from men in the mob to elected public officials, all with deep motivation to keep their names out of the paper.”

“Any of them could’ve hired someone to kill Tiffany if they thought she was blackmailing them,” said Tommy. “Don’t you
think, Peter?”

“Absolutely. If she was blackmailing them, which I’m not totally convinced of. From what her sister says and what we know of her personality it seems unlikely,” said Peter.

Ellen raised her hand again.

“Ellen, you don’t have to raise your hand,” teased Tommy. “This isn’t your classroom.”

Ellen slapped him on the knee. “Good thing for you it isn’t. I’d have you in detention so fast it’d make your head swim.”

“Detention?” Tommy’s eyes went wide. “I’ve never been in
detention or anything close to it in my life.”

“Goodie-two-shoes,” said Bella. “That’s totally obvious.”

Drake, from where he and Annie sat on a loveseat near the
fireplace, laughed. “Let’s tell them how many times you’ve been in detention, Bella.”

She blushed and shot him a dirty look. “Keep quiet, smart boy. Shouldn’t you be in the front row with the other nerds?”

“Front row’s where all the best students sit,” said Drake. “Right, Lee?”

Lee, with a prim smile, pushed a strand of her strawberry-blond hair behind her ear. “It’s where I always was, yes.”

Linus pointed at Tommy with his half-eaten croissant. “Tommy
wasn’t in detention, he was wherever the ladies were, probably
reciting poetry to them and telling them where to meet him after
school.”

Tommy laughed. “Well, I did have a way with the ladies.”

“Still do,” said Annie.

“I only have eyes for my wife now. Right, honey?” Tommy
looked over at Lee. She was writing something in her notebook. “Um, hello, Lee, they’re talking about my charming ways.”

She glanced up with a blank expression. “What’s that?”

Tommy, with his characteristic grin, shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Never mind. The honeymoon’s over.”

“Of course it is, sweetheart. Don’t be silly.” Lee went back to her notebook.

“Oh, that hurt,” said Tommy. “I’m not writing any more love songs about you.”

“I doubt that,” said Lee, smacking his knee. “Now focus on what we’re doing here.”

“You can’t distract the best student in class by flirting with her,” said Drake.

Annie kissed Drake on the cheek and put her finger through one of the curls by his ear. “You sure about that?”

“No, I’m not, now you put it that way.” He leaned over and kissed her on the mouth.

“Oh my God, get a room, you two,” said Linus. “You breeders are so inappropriate.”

Ellen waved her pen in the air. “Laser-like focus, people. We have a murder to solve here. If any of you were in my class you’d all get a D minus for effort.” She turned her gaze to Peter. “I have something I want to propose, Peter, as a possible angle to this case.”

Peter’s eyes were amused but he kept his face straight. “Do tell.”

“I think the cops on this case are crooked.”

“I agree but what makes you think so?” he asked, all amusement gone from his eyes.

Ellen tapped her pencil on the palm of her hand. “Because I had that red-headed cop in class years ago and he was nothing short of a liar. His brother was a big athlete and good student—went off to Yale or Harvard, can’t remember which now—and now he’s a big shot in the Los Angeles attorney’s office. Gale and Rawley Hough.”

“Gale’s the local cop, right?” asked Peter.

“Right. Gale was always trying to prove he was as smart as Rawley but he wasn’t even close. And then there was the problem of his name. Gale? A name that’s also a girl’s name plus red hair, the kid was doomed. Anyway, let’s just say this Gale has an agenda. He wants to solve this case and look like a big shot. But he’s lazy. Plagiarized a paper in my American Literature class when he was a junior. Cried like a baby when I confronted him, begged me to give
him another chance, which I did and probably shouldn’t have because he needed to learn his lesson. Anyhow, this shows his
character. Once
a cheater and a liar, always a cheater and a liar. And, no offence,
Peter, but there’s a fine line between those who choose the criminal life and those who choose the life in law enforcement.”

“Unfortunately, that’s true,” said Peter. “Ellen, do their parents still live here in town?”

She shook her head no. “There was no father that I can
remember and their mother’s dead. Died ten years ago in a house fire.”

Lee raised her hand, seemingly without realizing she was doing it. Just like her grandmother, thought Bella, smiling behind her hand.

 “What’re you thinking, Lee?” asked Peter.

“I remember both of the brothers from school. I’d forgotten
about them, honestly, like I have so much of my childhood until Momo just brought them up. Gale was in my grade and not the brightest kid,
for sure, and was constantly picked on. I remember thinking to
myself, just fly under the radar like I did, despite my red hair.”

Tommy interrupted. “Your hair is beautiful. Poor Gale’s is the color of carrots.”

She smiled at Tommy before continuing. “I didn’t know Gale
that well but he always seemed shifty to me. But the older one, Rawley, who was the smart one—there were rumors about him, you know, stuff I overheard from the lunch room and all, since I didn’t really have any friends.”

“Like what kind of things?” asked Tommy. His voice was soft, almost coaxing: He was in the habit of getting his shy wife to speak, thought Bella.

“That he was somewhat of a sexual deviant.”

“What do you mean exactly?” asked Tommy.

Lee’s alabaster skin was flushed. “Like he forced himself on several girls. I mean, I don’t really know exactly.” She looked down at the notebook in her lap. “And now I don’t even know why I’m bringing this up. It has no relevance to his brother or the case. It just popped into my mind, that’s all. I didn’t know he was a big time attorney.” She looked over at Mike. “Do you remember them? Were they friends with your son?”

“No, and I can’t say I remember the brothers much except when the older one got into Yale.” He glanced at Ellen. “I believe it was
Yale, not Harvard. Made the front page of our newspaper that
spring. They weren’t friends with Zac that I know of but I was busy those days running the sawmill so didn’t keep up on things like I do now.”