Derby Divas (Zoe Donovan Mystery) (18 page)

Ellie frowned. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“I know I said to concentrate on meeting a nice guy and not make having a baby the
most
important thing, but in this case I think the question is relevant. I’d hate to see you fall for this guy only to find out his view of babies is been there, done that. Just think about it.”

“Yeah, I will. And thanks.”

“So was there a reason you were looking for me, or did you just want to say hi?” I asked.

“Actually
, I wanted to tell you what I’d heard about Jaqui. I was in the kitchen slicing fruit for the punch when I overheard two men talking. I didn’t recognize either man, so I don’t think they were involved in the derby, but it sounded like they were participating in the classic car show. Anyway, one of the men mentioned to the other that he had seen Jaqui messing around with Pandora’s car the night before the race.”

I frowned. I didn’t know Jaqui well
, but she seemed the type who
could
rig a car to crash. She certainly had the skill to do so, and based on her outward demeanor, she seemed to have the personality to do it as well.

“Did they say anything else?”

“No, that’s all I heard. I don’t even know for certain which car she was seen messing around with, but given the circumstances . . .”

It was true that Pandora had two cars, one for the derby and one to parade around
in. Her derby car seemed to run fine, so chances were it was the car that crashed that Jaqui was seen tampering with. I supposed it couldn’t hurt to snoop around to see if I could find out anything more.

“Can you describe the men you overheard?” I asked.

“Not really. I peeked out the door, but I didn’t want them to know I was listening to them. I’d hoped they’d say more. Both men were about six feet tall, give or take a couple of inches, and both had brown hair. I didn’t get a good look at their faces, but one of them had on a pink polo shirt. A very pink shirt,” Ellie emphasized.

I was pretty sure I knew who she was referring to. I didn’t know his name
, but I remembered the pink shirt from the parade. He was driving a blue Cadillac.

“Anything else?” I asked.

“Sorry. I really only caught the tail end of their conversation. They came in from the outside and were talking as they walked. I heard the comment about Jaqui, peeked out the door, and then they turned and walked away.”

“
Thanks for telling me what you heard. I’ll see if I can dig up additional information.”

“Did you ever track down Pepper?” Ellie asked
as I turned to leave.

“Sort of.
”

I looked around. The kitchen was empty
at the moment, although people had been coming in and out, bringing in empty trays to refill.

“I can’t talk here
, but if you get a break, we can take a walk and I’ll fill you in.”

“I can take a break when I finish this. Maybe twenty minutes?”

“I’ll let Zak know what we’re doing, so just come and find me.”

After I left the kitchen
, I went in search of Zak. The community center was filled with guys who all sort of looked the same with their slicked-back hair, white T-shirts, and jeans. Of course, Zak was taller than most of the men, so I looked for his slicked-back blond hair. I noticed Scott and Tiffany dancing, so Zak had obviously moved on from him. My dad was twirling my mom around in a circle as several other couples twisted around them. It looked like everyone was having a good time.

“You seen Pandora?” Rizo walked up and asked me. She didn’t have on a costume
, but she did have her hair in pigtails and was smacking her bubblegum like there was no tomorrow.

“I don’t think she was planning to
come,” I informed her. “She’s had a really hard couple of days with everything that’s happened.”

“She seemed okay at the derby. Did anything happen?”

“No, she just said she was tired.”

“Boomer here?”
Rizo blew a huge bubble that I was afraid would become a permanent part of her hairdo.

“No, I believe he opted out as well.”

Rizo shrugged. “’Kay, just wanted to say ’bye. Guess I’m gonna take off.”

“The awards ceremonies are tomorrow,” I pointed out.

“Got knocked out of the derby and doubt I won any of the best contests, so I figured I’d blow out early.”

The best contest
s Rizo was referring to were best overall, best modified, best original, best muscle car, and about twenty others. Rizo was probably correct in believing her low-dollar car wouldn’t be competitive in any of the categories.

“Okay, well
, thanks for participating and I hope to see you next year.”

“Toodles
.” She waved as she skipped away.

I went back to searching for Zak. He didn’t seem to be anywhere I could see. Perhaps he’d gone outside. I decided to take a quick look before Ellie came
hunting for me.

The patio area was mostly deserted
, except for one man who was smoking a cigarette. Luck must have been with me because I was certain he was the man with the pink shirt Ellie had been referring to.

“Nice evening,” I said.

“Yeah. It’s a lot cooler out here than it is inside that sauna.”

“
It had gotten a little stuffy with all those dancing bodies. How’d you do in the competition?”

I didn’t really care
, but I needed to buy some time until I could figure out a way to bring up Jaqui and the night before the race.

“Pretty sure I nailed at least two of the categories. If I win
, I’m going to sell the money pit and start over with something new.”

“Wouldn’t starting over be even more expensive?” I asked.

The man took a long draw of his cigarette and slowly blew the smoke into my face.

Ew
.

I tried not to cough as I waited for his reply.

“Yeah,” he finally drawled. “More expensive, but a lot more fun.”

He inhaled once again. There was no way I was going to stick around
for another lungful of secondhand smoke.

“You seen Jaqui?” I asked
, hoping to segue into a question about her presence in the garage some of the cars had been kept in after I’d got him talking about the woman.

“Yeah, she just walked by.”

“She did?”

Funny
; I hadn’t seen her all night.

“What did she have on?”
I asked.

The man described the exact outfit Rizo was wearing.

“That wasn’t Jaqui; that was Rizo.”

The man laughed. “I always get those two dames mixed up. Anyway
, she went that way.”

He pointed toward the garage.

“Okay, thanks. Have a nice evening.”

Even as I walked toward the garage
, I knew I needed more of a plan than flat out asking Rizo if she’d tampered with Pandora’s car. I really should stop to get Zak, but I hated to lose Rizo, and she had said she was going to leave, so I texted him and told him what I was doing. I just hoped he wasn’t too preoccupied to check his messages. The last thing I wanted to do was end up almost dead
again.

“It looks like we
’re done here,” Rizo was saying to a figure wearing dark pants and a dark hooded sweatshirt. The face of the person in black was shielded by the hood, and he or she blended into the dimness of the dark garage.

“I hope everything worked out as planned,” Rizo added.

I couldn’t hear what the hooded figure said as Rizo was handed a dark gym bag. Rizo unzipped it and peeked inside. She must have been satisfied since she tossed the bag into her car before opening the driver’s side door and sliding inside.

She leaned out the
window after starting her car. “If you ever need anything else, you know where to find me.”

Rizo waved as she exited the garage and
sped off down the street.

The person in black
faded into the darkness. By the time it occurred to me that I ought to follow him or her, the figure had disappeared into the night.

After another late night, I was not doing well. I’d called Salinger to fill him in, which earned me the reward of spending most of the evening in his office. When was I ever going to learn to stay out of things? He put out an APB on Rizo, but so far he hadn’t been able to track her down. Out of all the possible suspects, Rizo had been the one I’d suspected the least of being the mastermind behind the accident and Isabelle’s death. She was such a ditz! Though, when I thought about it, acting like a ditz was the perfect cover.

I had to wonder who the
figure in black was and why this person wanted Isabelle dead. And did this person even know that Dezee was Isabelle? I also wondered if Pepper’s kidnapping was related or simply a coincidence. There were still a lot of unanswered questions, and to be honest, the whole thing was making me nuts.

The clock was nearing the 2
a.m. mark when Salinger finally got the call he’d been waiting for. I could tell by his frown that we weren’t in for a satisfying end to our late-night marathon.

“You’re kidding?” H
e put his head down on his desk after hanging up the phone.

“What?” I asked.
We’d been waiting for a call from one of Salinger’s deputies regarding a possible Rizo sighting, and I figured that even if they hadn’t been able to track her down as we hoped, Salinger wouldn’t have been that upset by it.

“
It wasn’t my men calling about Rizo. It was a friend of mine who confirmed that Stella Worthington’s father paid the twenty-million-dollar ransom the kidnappers asked for. When he showed up at the location the kidnappers indicated, Stella was supposed to be waiting for him, but there was no one there.”

“You’re kiddin
g?” I repeated. “Who called you?”

“A
friend of mine who’s a PI in New York. He’s been keeping an unofficial eye on the situation. The Worthingtons didn’t want police interference, but I couldn’t quite make myself walk away completely.”

“Why
New York?”

“That
’s where the Worthingtons live. My contact was able to tap into a phone line and has been listening from the sidelines.”

I had to admit I was surprised that Salinger cared enough to follow up on the kidnapping. When I
’d talked to him earlier, he’d seemed happy to wash his hands of the whole thing. I found that his concern for Pepper and her family made me like him a little bit more. Not that having warm feelings for Salinger was sitting well with me. I’d disliked him too intensely for too long to make the leap from resentment to friendship in one giant step, but little by little, as we continued to work together, I found my heart warming up to the toad.

“So what now?” I asked.

“I’m not sure there is anything we can do. Mr. Worthington still hasn’t requested police help, and for all we know, Ms. Worthington isn’t even in the state any longer.”

Talk about frustrating.

“Did you get a hold of Isabelle’s dad?”

“I did. He
’s on his way to identify the body. Not that there’s much to identify, but he might know something we don’t. All we can do now is wait. You’re free to go.”

I stood up. “You’ll call if you hear anything?”

“I will.”

The only bright spot in my day was that the events scheduled for Sunday started much later and ended much earlier than the other days. I was totally exhausted as I made my way to the awards ceremony in the park, but at least I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still hadn’t heard anything from Salinger, but truth be told, I was almost too tired to care.

Levi and I were scheduled to present the trophy for the derby
, while my dad and Paul were to present the awards for all the best categories. Pandora and Boomer looked as tired as I felt. After I’d found out that Pepper hadn’t been released by her kidnappers, I’d texted Pandora and filled her in on the turn of events. I could see that she was upset about her friend, but like me, she didn’t have any idea what she could do to help.

“The trophies for first and second place are displayed on the table behind the microphone
,” Hazel informed me.

I yawned.

“If you aren’t up to it, I can ask someone else to present.” Hazel looked worried. Not that I blamed her. I must look a mess.

“It’s okay
. I can handle it.”

“Levi has already taken his seat
, so we can start as soon as Paul gets here. Hopefully it won’t take too long. You look like you’ve been through the ringer.”

“It’s been a long night,” I confirmed.

I made my way over to the bandstand and took my seat next to Levi. I was concentrating on staying awake when I noticed someone lingering on the edge of the area that had been cordoned off for the crowd. The spectator had on black pants and a black hoodie, not really appropriate attire for a summer day.