A Secondhand Murder (6 page)

“
So? My son likes Green label. He brought it over.” Cory sounded defensive.

Alex was dancing around something. What? Why not simply ask? So I did.

“
Excuse me, but I'm missing something here. Is Cory the person who hired you to track down information on Valerie?”

Alex didn't reply, only flashed an infuriatingly enigmatic smile.

I turned my attention to Cory. “Why would you need a PI to investigate your friend?”

Cory jumped to her feet and pointed an accusing finger. “Get out of here, you two. I don't want you in my house ever again.”

Madeleine grabbed my hand and pulled me off the lounge.

“
Fine, fine. We'll leave.” We walked out of the pool area and entered the house, grabbing the consignment clothes off the couch on our way through the library, or great room, or whatever the current lingo is in ostentatious living.

I didn't make it far. “Leave those right there. I've changed my mind about consigning with you.” Cory followed us to the door and slammed it behind us.

“
Nice work,” Madeleine said. “We found out nothing, and we no longer have her clothes to sell. Did you see that suit and those pants?” She continued muttering indistinctly as she headed toward the van.

“
If I'd known she had Johnnie Green, I would have insisted on that drink. I love Green,” I said, turning left at the end of the sidewalk and strolling up the bluestone pathway toward the back of the house.

Madeleine was still heading toward our vehicle. When she realized I was no longer behind her, she turned around and ran after me. “What do you think you're doing?”

“
I want to hear what they're saying. You go back to the van and drive off. That way they'll think we left. I'll meet you at the corner as soon as I get what I need.”

“
What do you need?”

“
To find out who Alex is working for and how my husband is involved in all of this.”

“
You're going to spy on them?”

“
Get going or they'll know we're still here.” I made a dismissive gesture and proceeded up the walkway. In front of me was the gate to the garden area. The lighting on the grounds was just bright enough to give the plantings a romantic ambience, but dim enough to allow me some cover. I reached out and pushed open the gate.

Once inside the garden, I was able to hear the voices ahead of me, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I'd have to get closer. Sneaking from behind one tree to another near the pool, I was able to hide myself in the shadows and plants.

“
The investment project?” she was saying.

Valerie's project? I had to know what was involved and how Jerry figured in all this. Alex lowered his voice, making it impossible for me to discern what he was saying. I spied a bougainvillea whose branches and flowers spread over the lawn and flowed toward the deep end of the pool. Beneath its shadowy cover loomed low-growing lantana, and unless I tried to crawl on my stomach across that area, I'd be out in the open. I needed cover.

If Jerry was involved in Valerie's scheme to get rich again, he might be implicated in her death. I didn't love the jerk any longer, but I still had a soft spot for him. Slinking around like this was typical of the things I'd had to do to rescue Jerry from himself. The story of our relationship: he got into trouble. I got him out.

I sighed in resignation, got down on my stomach and made like Rambo, crawling along the ground, using my elbows to pull me forward. Hard work. The lantana was woody, but if I tried to avoid the sharp branches by getting up on my knees, the thorns from the bougainvillea would grab my shirt. I had gone only a few feet when a voice from overhead asked, “May I help you?”

I
looked up into a chiseled face—a jaw like Dudley Do Right and a head of sweeping hair like Donald Trump. He was dressed in white trousers and a blue blazer, an apricot ascot tied at his neck. I could hardly believe my eyes. He was a snapshot taken at the races, and I don't mean the Indy 500.

I twisted myself around to face him and offered my hand. “You must be Randolph Burnside. I'm Eve Appel, one of your wife's, er … friends.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. On my stomach, I hadn't been able to gauge his height. Once standing, however, I saw that I towered over him. The man had never seen five feet. I could have stomped on him like a pesky cockroach, but this was his property, and I was a trespasser, so I had to make nice.

He seemed unworried about the differences in our heights and unmoved by the presence of a giant woman crawling through his lawn. If anything, he appeared amused and curious.

“
Cory usually has better manners than this. I'm surprised she left a friend to crawl around in the hibiscus and creeping myrtle. Please, come on in for a drink.”

He started up the path toward the pool and beckoned me to follow. When I didn't, he turned and smiled. “I wouldn't want to believe that you're actually a burglar or a stalker.”

Okay, so he wasn't quite as oblivious to my creeping around as I had first assumed. What the hell. I had little choice. I worked on my excuse as we entered the pool area.

To my relief, Cory and Alex were gone. Perhaps they'd moved inside to continue their talk elsewhere, but the poolside room was also empty. Their meeting had to be business. Although I wasn't certain that I liked Alex as much as I originally wanted to, I also didn't want to believe that he and Cory were having a more intimate liaison. He didn't seem like the type who was into processed women.

Randolph gestured toward the lounge I'd sat in before. I slid back into it.

“
Your pleasure?” He gestured at the bar cart.

“
Hmm?” I had been thinking of my PI, not listening.

“
What would you like to drink?”

“
Johnnie Green, double, rocks.”

He stopped abruptly, spun on his heel and walked back toward me.

Oops, I'd goofed. Green wasn't something many people stocked in their bars. So how could I have been so certain that he had it?

“
Now I know you. You were my son's date at our luau last spring.”

At this moment, Cory appeared at the library door, the expression on her face hard, unpleasant. “I don't think so, dear. You're confusing Eve with Serena. They're both tall and willowy.”

Gosh. I'd never been called “willowy” before. “Thin,” “angular,” maybe, but the tree reference hadn't been used to describe me. If I had to use a plant descriptor, saguaro cactus sprang to mind.

“
I found your friend in the garden.” Randolph took her hand and placed a kiss on one of her smooth cheeks. I was surprised his lips didn't slide off the Botoxed surface.

“
Well, you see, I'm from the Northeast originally, and I was admiring your landscaping. I'm not familiar with all these plants.” I swept my hand outward to indicate the area.

“
She was on her hands and knees.” Randolph's eyes danced, perhaps an indication that he found that position preferable to my standing over him.

“
I fell. I think I tripped over the roots of that big tree. What is that, anyway?”

“
A banyan,” said Cory.

“
From the Northeast, you say? We used to have a place there. Where do you live now?”

“
West of here.” I made it sound like it was blocks, maybe a few miles, not several counties away.

“
She has a small place near Sabal Bay.” Cory might just as well have said “the city dump.”

“
Never been that far west,” Randolph said. “Just to the polo matches in Port Mayaca. Ever been there? It's about as far west as I like to go. Saw some gators on the lake there that must have reached over fifteen feet.” He filled a heavy crystal glass with liquor, dropped in an ice cube and handed me the tumbler.

The doorbell sounded. Randolph gave Cory a confused look. “Is Marcia here?”

“
No. I gave her the night off. I'll get it.” Cory hustled from the pool area toward the front of the house.

Randolph continued standing at the end of the lounge, rocking back and forth on his heels and toes, looking me up and down.

“
How tall are you, anyway?”

“
How tall are you?” I shot back.

He tossed his head back, the wave of abundant hair barely moving, and guffawed. “That's a good one.” Was it sprayed in place to cover a bald spot? He removed the handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his eyes. “A good one.”

I could hear voices issuing from inside the house. Familiar voices. One was Madeleine's. The others belonged to Alex, Frida, and Timble.

“
Oh, boy. Now that everyone's here, we can have a party.” I raised my glass in a salute to the newcomers and looked over the rim of it at Cory. “I told you the cops would be coming around soon.”

Frida gave me a look of disgust. “I found this one,” she pointed to Madeleine, “at the corner, and this one,” Alex smiled, “was leaving by a door at the back of the house. You're wrong, Eve. This is no party. I have a few questions I need answered.”

So did I. I settled back into the lounge with my drink and tried to hide my look of gleeful curiosity.

Frida walked over to the lounge, reached down and took the glass from my hand. “The two of you can leave.” She nodded her head at Madeleine and me. “Let's see,” she consulted her notebook. “PI Montgomery, I'll be in touch. Soon.”

“
Don't you want to tell him not to leave town?” I reluctantly rose from the chaise and shot PI Alex a sharp look. Madeleine grabbed my arm and tried to hurry me out. I was waiting for Alex.

“
He knows the script.” Frida gave him one of her best police smiles—lips slightly curved upwards, no teeth, no amusement in her eyes.

“
Let me walk you out.” Randolph placed his hand in the small of my back and guided me toward the door. I moved away from Randolph's presumptuous gesture and stepped ahead of him.

“
Don't leave me here with these, these police people,” said Cory, but Randolph was already walking toward the front entrance.

Alex pulled the door open and gestured to Madeleine and me. “Ladies.”

Impulsively, I grabbed Alex's arm and smiled into his face. If I couldn't be in on Frida's investigation of the Burnsides, I could at least grill Alex about his surprising appearance at the house. I wasn't about to let him get away once we hit the street.

“
You've got quite a grip,” Alex whispered in my ear. “We weren't on such good terms when you left the restaurant this morning. Change of heart?”

I tightened my hand around his arm—his yummy, muscular, warm, sexy arm—and felt his hand on my rear. I jumped away from him, about to slap that smug, sexy, yummy—never mind. He looked surprised at my movement, and I realized the hand on my ass wasn't his. It was Randolph's. The gremlin was coming on to me!

“
Please come back. Soon. Anytime.” Randolph gave me a wink. “Bring your tiny friend, too.” He gave Madeleine a look of dwarfish lust.

A threesome? As if reading my mind, Randolph shrugged his shoulders and pursed his lips. I didn't want to imagine what he had in mind, but I couldn't help it. An unpleasant vision of Cory interrupting a naked Randolph as he pursued Madeleine and me around the pool almost caused me to lose my Johnnie Green into a bed of azaleas.

“
You don't look very well.” Madeleine reached out and put her hand on my arm. “Are you okay?”

“
You need to sit down?” Alex took my other arm.

“
I could use a stiff drink.”

“
You just had one. Back there.” Madeleine gestured with her head toward the house.

“
I didn't get to finish it. You up for a drink, PI Montgomery?” I gave him my best flirty look. I even batted my eyelashes.

“
You got something in your eye?” Madeleine was just being mean.

I rode in Alex's car, afraid that if I let him take off by himself, he'd bolt. He had to have known that I was up to something. He wasn't a total idiot. Madeleine was driving behind us and I kept sneaking glances of her in the rearview mirror. She looked as if she was having an argument with herself. I hoped her better side—the one telling her to drive home and leave me to flirt—wouldn't win.

Once we were all safely in the bar, I grabbed his hand again. He had questions to answer.

“
You can let go now,” said Alex. The three of us had selected a booth at the rear of the bar. “I think the circulation in my arm has been cut off for so long that it'll have to be amputated.”

“
I'll give your arm back if you answer my question.”

“
I can't promise anything, but for you, I'll try.” He mimicked my eyelash batting and gave me a sarcastic smile.

“
Fine. Point taken. Let's get down to business.” Thank goodness. Another eyelash bat and my lids would fall off.

The bartender came out from behind the bar. “We got no table service here. You'll have to order at the bar.”