Brownies & Betrayal (Sweet Bites Mysteries, Book 1) (29 page)

When I hung up, I realized the only way we knew Lidia had been in California the previous weekend was because Tad said he’d called her at home. But if she’d forwarded her home calls to her cell as I did . . . I pulled back onto the road. I had no idea how I was going to discover if Lidia was in Silver Springs on Friday night, but I’d figure it out.

Of course I found Honey at home, pounding away on someone’s website while the kids ran amok around her.

“How do you get anything done?” I asked as I lifted my arms to prevent them from being taken off by Chance and one of his friends as they zipped around me in a game of tag.

“I mostly do this at night, but I have a deadline. George is supposed to be here to corral them, but he got called down to the store on a bottled water emergency.” She rolled her eyes, giving the impression that he responded to a lot of emergency calls from work. The joys of running a business.

“There are emergencies about bottled water?” I was amused, despite my brimming excitement.

“Apparently.” She hit a couple more buttons, then slid away from the computer desk and looked up at me. “So what did Tad say?”

I pulled over the soft, cushy ottoman that matched the sofa and sat on it. When Zoey toddled over, I scooped her up, covered her face in kisses, then released her to run off again. During this, I filled Honey in on all the details.

“So you think Lidia came up Friday and killed her sister that night, then holed up somewhere and waited to be notified of her sister’s death?” Honey scribbled notes on a piece of paper—she’d always done that, claiming it helped her process information.

“That’s what I think. She probably headed for either Prescott or Phoenix, though the second choice would be smarter, since she’d have less chance of running into someone she knew. The problem is proving she wasn’t in California when they called her.” What did I know? Maybe I was headed in the wrong direction. Millie had the jewelry—maybe she did kill Valerie. Would Lidia really kill her own sister?

“You should tell Detective Tingey. He can subpoena cell phone records and stuff.”

“True.” I sighed. The detective would have a fit when I told him I was still digging. At least I’d be able to diffuse things somewhat, telling him that I was voluntarily turning over what I knew. I pulled out my cell phone and asked him to meet me back at my apartment, and said goodnight to Honey.

It wasn’t long before the detective showed up, though he wore blue jeans and a T-shirt with the Phoenix Suns logo on it instead of his usual dark suit. “What can I do for you, Miss Crawford? You do realize we’ve caught the murderer, so you don’t have to keep calling me anymore.”

In that case, I was surprised he’d bothered to see me instead of taking the information over the phone. I let him into my apartment and we took seats, then I threaded my fingers together on my lap. “I wasn’t sure if you knew and decided I needed to tell you, just in case. Lidia is actually Dahlia’s mother.”

His brows lifted. “That’s an interesting tidbit. How do you know that?”

“I’ll tell you, but you have to promise you’ll keep Dahlia’s parentage secret unless it’s important to your case.”

He gave me a look that asked if I was for real, and who did I think I was fooling, anyway? He was a detective, I was a peon. A peon who had information he hadn’t gathered himself. “Demanding an awful lot, aren’t you?” he asked. “Do you know the consequences for impeding a murder investigation?”

“I’m not trying to get in your way.” I paused to scowl at him when he snorted in response. “Look, Valerie, Lidia and the father went to a lot of trouble to keep this a secret. If it’s important to the case, that’s fine, but if it’s irrelevant, I don’t want to mess up all their lives. It may come out anyway, but that should be their choice.”

He nodded. “I understand, and I promise to be discreet.” His notebook appeared almost out of thin air and he poised a pen on a page, looking at me for the news.

I nodded and filled him in on what I’d learned in my conversation with Tad, and on my conjectures about Lidia.

“That’s a nice thought, and it would tie it all up in a nice bow. She’s sick of paying child support—and I use that term loosely since it’s more like extortion—and wants to raise her own kid, so she offs the sister, who’s in the way. No one’s looking at her because she’s in another state, and she ends up with custody, clearing the way for her to introduce her husband to Dahlia.” He tucked the notebook back in his pocket without writing anything on it. “There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“We didn’t call Lidia to tell her about Valerie. We sent a couple of uniforms to her house to tell her instead. She was in Long Beach.”

My heart sank. “What time was that?”

“You didn’t even find the body until after ten, and it was a good hour or more after that before we sent someone to tell Lidia. So eleven o’clock our time.”

I tried to figure out how she could have done it, my mind racing through the options. “That’s ten hours after Valerie died, plenty of time for Lidia to hurry back to her home in Long Beach before the police arrived.”

He gave me a disbelieving look. “I think you’re stretching, but I’ll look into it.” He stood. “Now, if you don’t have anything else to tell me, I have to get back to my family.”

He didn’t believe me. He thought I was ‘stretching.’ Apparently nothing I’d told him so far had been worth consideration—well, except for Millie having the jewelry, which was purely circumstantial. “No, that was it.”

“Fine. Try to stay out of trouble, will you? You’ve had enough problems the past week without digging even deeper into this.” He crossed the room to my door.

“Yeah. Okay,” I lied. There was no way I’d leave it to him, not when he didn’t believe me.

The bland expression on his face said he saw the lie. “Sure, you’ll totally stay out of things. Because you’re smart like that.” He walked out, pulling the door shut behind him.

I retrieved my cell phone and called Honey to fill her in while I double-checked the doors and windows. The chances of being bothered again tonight were slim, but I wasn’t going to take a chance.

“Do you know how far it is to Long Beach from here?” she asked when I told her everything.

“No. I guess I could check.”

“Give me a minute.” There was silence on the line for a long moment, and Honey came back. “The online mapping program says six and a half hours.”

“So she could easily have gotten back home again.” This was my strongest lead so far.

“Yes, but can you believe she’d do this? She seems so nice.”

I had to agree that it was hard to believe, “But, the jails are full of people who seemed way too nice to be pedophiles and serial killers.”

“I know.” Honey sighed. “I hate that we’ve been suspecting everyone we know of being murderers.”

“Not everyone we know,” I suggested. “I don’t think George had anything to do with it.”

“Give me a break.”

“Sorry. Hopefully it won’t be a problem much longer.” I grabbed some crackers from the cupboard to soothe my hungry stomach, then paused with one halfway to my mouth. I had an image of the oil change sticker in Lidia’s windshield. What had it said? “I have an idea. I need to go check something on Lidia’s car. I may have proof that she’s made the trip twice.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Honey asked.

“Doubtful. I’ll call when I get back.” I grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the fridge and headed out the door with my snack.

When I reached Prescott, I went straight to Valerie’s building. I found Lidia’s car in the parking lot and immediately located the window cling I’d remembered from my ride with her. My eyes practically crossed as I stared at the backwards numbers written on the oil change reminder. Didn’t they date those three months out? I smiled as I realized my memory was correct and her oil had been changed on Thursday—the day before the wedding rehearsal. Unfortunately, the car had a digital odometer so I couldn’t see how many miles she’d driven, but maybe with the information I had, Detective Tingey could check on it. I reached for my cell phone.

I heard a voice call my name and looked over, finding Lidia sitting on her doorstep in the dusk. I couldn’t walk away now. I waved and approached, trying to pretend nothing was wrong.

Lidia was drinking a glass of soda with ice while Dahlia snuggled a doll beside her on the sidewalk, talking to it. Dahlia looked up and grinned at me. “Hi, Miss Tess. How are you?”

“I’m fine, kiddo. What’s your baby’s name?” I did my best to be nonchalant.

“Her name’s Vanessa,” Dahlia answered. “It starts with a V, like my mommy’s name.”

I glanced at Lidia out of the corner of my eye and saw her knuckles go white on the glass. I wondered how it must have felt for her, having her daughter refer to someone else as her mommy. The fact that she wanted children and hadn’t been able to conceive with her husband must have been painful. “Yes, that’s a pretty name. How long have you had Vanessa?”

“Two days. Auntie Lidia said she is going to be my new mommy and we’re moving to the ocean. She said I can call her Mommy if I want.”

“That sounds like fun. I love the ocean.”

“What brings you here tonight?” Lidia asked. “I heard they arrested Millie.”

“Yeah, who knew she had such a vicious streak? It’s crazy.” I had to stop my hands from fluttering at my side. “I was feeling restless, I guess. Went for a ride and realized how close I was to you, so I popped by. How is the packing going?”

“It’s coming along. I hope to have everything worth keeping either in storage or shipped by Wednesday so we can go home to Long Beach.”

I would take whatever opening I could get, so I could read her response. “I hear you’ve made that trip a few times. You must be getting used to it.”

Her eyes grew sharp, assessing. “Why do you say that?”

I leaned back against the porch railing. “No reason—Tad just mentioned you’d been here to visit your sister. That’s quite a drive, but the way should be familiar by now.”

Her wary gaze softened, as if trying to dispel any idea I might have that her question had meant anything. “Of course. You’ve been talking to Tad?”

“Yes. He said you’ve been friends for years. Six or more. I had no idea you’d known each other before last weekend.”

“Sounds like he’s been very forthcoming.” Her voice was even, but her eyes grew sharp.

I shrugged. “Yes and no. Unfortunately, he still has no idea who might have—” My eyes cut to Dahlia, then back, “—visited your sister that night. It doesn’t seem like Millie’s nature to do something like that for a few baubles, but I don’t really know her—and she does have the necklace.”

“That’s true, but if it’s not her, my bet’s on Tad. Who else had the opportunity?”

Strange how I hadn’t mentioned before that Tad had seen Valerie that night, and yet, Lidia took it as if she’d already known. I remembered that all the entrances to the hotel had cameras on them, unless there was a secret entrance through the kitchens that they didn’t bother to film. And if Lidia had thought to use that way . . . Now that Deputy Tingey knew who to look for, maybe he’d be able to prove Lidia had been in the hotel after all. That, coupled with the odometer readings, might be enough to get Millie free and Lidia where she belonged.