For His Name's Sake (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (12 page)

Joseph smiled. “I’d heard they were trying to raise money for new choir robes. I contacted the director and offered to buy him new robes in exchange for the serenading. Plus, everyone got fed, so it seemed like a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“That’s amazing,” Charlotte breathed, still glassy-eyed.

“Yeah, those people are coming to the wedding, but we promised them that this time they could just be part of the audience and not the entertainment,” Geanie said with a laugh.

“I think they were actually a little disappointed by that,” Joseph joked.

Jeremiah actually smiled. “I don’t think anyone could have topped that,” he said.

“You definitely set the bar,” Geanie said with a smile.

The phone rang and Geanie hopped up to answer it.

She returned a minute later. “That’s the wedding planner. She wants to come over in an hour to discuss some more things.”

“Am I going to be part of this discussion?” Joseph asked, “or is this more of your secret stuff?”

“No, you can be part of it.”

“I really should get cleaned up.”

“You heard Mark. Not until tomorrow,” Jeremiah said. “I, on the other hand, am heading upstairs to do exactly that.”

“I hate you right now,” Joseph lamented.

Mark had a bad feeling about the rose that he dropped off with forensics. He warned them to check for poison on the thorns, just in case. Then he met up with Liam who looked grim.

“What do you have?” he asked.

“I called a friend who called a friend who called an uncle who was able to help out with some information.”

“Okay.”

Liam handed him four pictures. “He could find references to that particular poison being used by four different professionals. One Russian, two Middle Eastern, and one American.”

“Unless whoever has a grudge against Joseph has connections overseas, let’s assume that the American is our man.”

“Our woman, actually,” Liam said, bringing one of the pictures to the top. “Sonja, no last name.”

The picture was unbelievably blurry, but showed a woman with short dark hair and sunglasses.

“This is it? This is what we have to work with?”

“I know, it’s not much, but apparently she specializes in revenge killings, usually ex-husbands.”

Mark sighed. “It’s past time that we visited Joseph’s crush girl. Maybe she sent this woman after him.”

“I’m free now,” Liam said.

“Great, let’s do this.”

As it turned out, Amanda lived almost half an hour outside Pine Springs, halfway between it and Los Angeles proper. Her house had a for sale sign on the front lawn with a large SOLD sticker placed across it.

Fortunately, she was home. She answered the door, a kerchief covering her blonde hair. Her fingers had two inch long fingernails, three of which looked to have snapped off recently.

“House is already sold,” she snapped.

“That’s not why we’re here,” Mark said, pulling out his badge.

“Oh,” she said, looking startled and falling back a step.

“May we come in?” Liam asked.

She glanced behind her, eyes seeming to dart around. “This really isn’t a good time.”

“That’s okay, this will just take a few minutes,” Mark said, forcing a friendly smile across his face.

“Um, okay, but it’s got to be fast. I’m, uh, expecting company,” she said, stepping back to let them in.

“Thank you. We’ll be out of your hair before you know it,” Mark said.

They stepped into the house which was piled everywhere with boxes.

“Congratulations on the house sale. It just happened?” Liam asked.

“No, it closed last week. My stupid realtor wanted to keep the sign up as long as possible, though. Apparently it’s good for his business.”

“You closed, but haven’t had to move out yet?” Mark asked.

“Nah, it was in the contract. Buyers knew I needed an extra few weeks to pack up all my stuff. It’s just me, I don’t have anyone to help do that,” she said, leading them into a living room. There was a door at the far end that she hastened over and closed.

Mark and Liam exchanged a glance.

“Bathroom’s a mess,” she said, turning around with cheeks flushed. She kept her eyes on the ground as she walked back over. “Have a seat,” she said, waving to the couch.

“We’re fine,” Liam said.

“We wanted to ask you a few questions about Joseph Coulter,” Mark began.

She jumped as though he had hit her. “Wh-what about him?” she asked.

“What was the nature of your relationship with him?”

“We were...friends,” she said the word as though it were loathsome to her. She folded her arms over her chest, her body language clearly suggesting that she was hiding something.

“Were the two of you romantically involved while you worked at the charity?”

“We were,” she bit her lip, fidgeted from foot to foot, “there was a lot of flirting, but we weren’t a couple.”

“Were you aware that he’s getting married in a week?”

“Yes!” she hissed, and pure rage crossed her face. Mark forced himself not to take a step back or otherwise acknowledge her outburst.

“Look, what is this about? I’m very busy, and you’ll have to go,” she said.

Mark took a deep breath. “Actually, we were wondering if you knew a woman named Michaela, dark hair, she worked at the charity at the same time you did. She made a lot of threats against Joseph at the time, and we were hoping you might have witnessed some of them.”

“Threats against Joseph?” she asked, her face draining of color. “Who would dare?”

“So, you didn’t witness her threatening to kill him?”

“No! I wouldn’t have just stood by if I had. Who is this woman? What’s her last name?” she demanded.

“Unfortunately I can’t say more than that at the moment.” Mark pulled a card out of his pocket. “If you think of anything, please give me a call. We have reason to believe that she’s trying to kill Joseph and we really need to find her.”

She crushed the card in her fist. “Believe me, I’ll keep an eye out for her,” she said.

“Thanks, we appreciate the help,” Mark said.

He was almost at the door when he turned back. “Is your new house as nice as this one?” he asked conversationally.

“No, I’m moving to an apartment,” she said absently, staring off into space.

He turned and he and Liam left.

Once in the car Liam whistled low. “She is a piece of work. Just so I’m clear, there is no Michaela, right?”

“Right. I wanted to see how she’d react to a perceived threat to Joseph.”

“You mean, other than from her?”

“Exactly. I’m pretty certain we can blame her for the attacks against Geanie, but I don’t think she wants to hurt Joseph.”

“Then how do you explain what happened with the tailors?” Liam asked.

“I can’t explain it, at least, not yet. Hopefully something will come to me, though. One thing, at least, is clear.”

“What’s that?”

“We need to do some more digging on Amanda. I want you to pull up her financials and I’m going to put in a warrant to search her house. She’s hiding something.

“Behind that closed door?”

“Exactly. And I plan to find out what it is.”

They headed back toward the police station. Once inside they separated, hoping to get things moving on both tasks as quickly as possible. Before Mark could fill out the paperwork for the warrant, though, his phone rang.

“We’ve got a problem,” Taylor, one of the other officers, told him. The man sounded out of breath.

Mark swore under his breath as he lurched up out of his chair. “Something happen up at the house?”

“No. It’s about one of the bridesmaids.”

Forty-five minutes later Mark arrived outside a condo in Los Angeles to find a frustrated Taylor. “What’s going on?” he asked.

The man jerked his thumb at the front door. “Melissa, one of the bridesmaids, won’t even let me in there. She flat out refused to come with me, said she won’t leave the city for a whole week in case she gets calls for work. Apparently she’s an aspiring actress.”

“This is ridiculous,” Mark said. He pounded on the door and it opened a crack. He held up his badge. “We’re taking you into protective custody now,” he said. “You’ve got ten minutes to grab whatever you need and then we’re out of here.”

“No,” she said.

“Don’t think I won’t kick down this door and drag you out,” he threatened, using his most menacing voice.

“You wouldn’t dare!” she squeaked.

“Try me. The last thing I need with a killer running around is one more person exposed.”

“I can’t. I won’t. What if I get a call?”

“
If
you get a call, we can cross that bridge when we get to it. I very much doubt it’s going to be an issue, though. If you have a day job I can talk to your manager for you, explain what’s happening here.”

She shook her head furiously. “I-I didn’t sign up for this...this drama.”

He bit back a snide comment about how by trying to be an actress she had, indeed, signed up for drama. He took a deep breath. “Look, I need all the bridal party together where I can protect you.”

“Then, count me out!”

“Of what?”

“Of the wedding!”

She slammed the door and Mark resisted the urge to kick it in just on principle.

“Some friend she is,” he muttered to Taylor before pulling out his phone. He took a moment to try and calm himself down. He had thought telling Geanie that someone was trying to hurt her was hard. Telling her that one of her bridesmaids was abandoning her at the eleventh hour was going to be a thousand times worse. He toyed with calling Cindy and letting her be the one to break the bad news, but he knew that was the coward’s way out.

Geanie picked up right away. “Detective, what is it?” she asked, her voice fearful.

“I have a bit of a situation here with your bridesmaid, Melissa.”

“She doesn’t want to come with you?” Geanie guessed.

“She refuses, actually. In fact, she seems to want out of the wedding altogether.”

There was a moment of silence and then Geanie said, “Give her the phone,” in a voice that he had never heard before.

He pounded on the door.

“Go away!”

“Phone, for you,” Mark said.

The door opened and Melissa took the phone.

Mark wished he could just grab her and haul her off to the car, but despite his threats, he couldn’t actually force her to go with him. She wasn’t a suspect, nor a witness, and
without an actual threat against her personally he couldn’t even justify protective custody.

“Hello?” Melissa said.

He couldn’t hear what Geanie said, but the hostility in her voice made even him wince.

“I can’t be part of your crazy world with your whackadoodle friends and people trying to kill you. I have my own life, my own career to think about. You’re asking too much of anyone.”

There was another torrent from Geanie.

“No, I’m out. I’m not going to be a bridesmaid, and that’s final,” Melissa said.

Mark heard Geanie’s next words crystal clear. “I won’t forget this.”

Melissa handed the phone back to Mark. Geanie had already hung up.

“There, you can leave me alone now,” Melissa said defiantly.

“It’s a shame,” Mark said, pocketing his phone. “For someone obsessed with her career, you just made a big mistake.”

“How do you figure?” she sneered.

Mark shook his head. “Clearly you’re trying to make it on your looks and not your brains. Geanie is marrying a guy with more money than you could ever dream of who sits on the boards of some of the biggest charities in southern California alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood. If you had played nice, he probably could have gotten you a starring role in any movie you wanted. Too bad you chose to throw that away,” Mark said.

He turned and walked away.

When they reached the parking lot Taylor turned to him. “That was cold.”

“It was also the truth. She pissed me off, especially that whole ‘you’re asking too much of anyone’. When you have a good friend, you go the extra mile for them and you never even worry about what’s in it for you or what it might cost.”

More times than he could count Paul had been there for him, going the extra mile. Whoever Paul had been, Mark knew without a shadow of a doubt, that the friendship had been real. Sometimes he just needed to stop and remind himself of that.

He turned with a sigh to Taylor. “Tell you what, go home. I’ll pick up the other one.”

“Are you sure?” Taylor asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got this. I’m just hoping she’s less of a pain than this one.”

Mark got into his car and typed Veronica’s address into his GPS. She also lived in L.A., but on the outskirts headed toward Pine Springs.

He hit the road and a minute later Traci called.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

“Crazy day,” he said with a sigh.

“Any chance you’ll take one day off this week?” she asked.

“It’s not looking good. Why, what did you have in mind?” he asked.

“I just wanted to spend some time with my incredibly handsome husband.”

He smiled. “I am so looking forward to that vacation you and I are going to be taking soon.”

“You sound more stressed than you did this morning.”

“One of Geanie’s bridesmaids refused to come with us and stay at Joseph’s for the next week. She actually told Geanie she wouldn’t be a bridesmaid any more.”

“A week before the wedding?” Traci gasped.

“I know, how terrible is that? I mean, you would not have believed how psycho this girl was.”

“Poor Geanie, she must be freaking out.”

“Yeah, to find out your friend isn’t your friend that way is harsh.”

“And it creates a logistical nightmare for the wedding.”

“How so?”

“Because now the bridesmaids and the groomsmen will be unequal.”

Mark shook his head. He wouldn’t have even thought about that. Then again, all he remembered of their wedding was how amazing Traci had looked and how her eyes had sparkled all night. He had been a babbling idiot, so excited and terrified half the time he couldn’t even talk straight.

The GPS directed him off the freeway.

“Hon, I got to go. I’m about to get the other bridesmaid. Hopefully this one will be more cooperative,” he said.

“Good luck.”

“Thanks, I could use some of that right about now,” he admitted.

Ten minutes later he was knocking on Veronica’s door, hoping she was ready. He’d called both bridesmaids ahead of time and he was hoping this one hadn’t also decided to change her mind.

The door opened and Veronica smiled at him. With her black circled eyes and black lipstick she reminded him strangely of the black rose. “I’m all set,” she said.

“Great.”

“I’ve got a lot of bags, though,” she said, opening the door wide.

She had six of them to be exact. It took both of them two trips to get it all into his car. Then they headed off.

“This is so exciting,” she gushed. “I’m part of a real, live murder investigation.”

Mark wanted to slam his head into the steering wheel. A death-obsessed groupie was the last thing he needed.

“Exciting isn’t the word I would choose,” he said carefully.

“Maybe not, it’s just, nothing cool ever happens to me. Geanie has told me so many stories about her roommate and I’ve always just wished I could be her, you know.”

“Well, I’m sure Cindy would gladly trade places with you,” he said.

His mind drifted back to the black rose. Cindy had been clear that the intruder who likely left it was a man. Maybe Sonja, the American assassin, wasn’t the one they should be looking for. Then again, whoever the assassin was they’d already used at least two other people to do some of their dirty work so it was possible the black rose guy had just been another tool.

“What do you think?” Veronica asked.

“Sorry, about what?” Mark asked.

“Is law enforcement a good career choice?”

“It can be,” he said, taking a deep breath. It was going to be a long car ride.

Jeremiah was back on the couch in the living room after having showered, shaved, and gotten dressed in clean
clothes. He felt immeasurably better even if it did irritate him that he was being forced to lay on the couch while there were things that needed to be done.

Joseph had fallen asleep after eating and the others had all scattered to different parts of the mansion. The wedding planner had arrived, but Joseph had already been asleep so Cindy and Geanie had taken the woman upstairs to talk. He didn’t know where Geanie’s family had gone, but he suspected it was to their rooms. He could get up, but wasn’t sure where he’d go. He couldn’t leave, and he wasn’t in any mood to just go to his room.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the black rose. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen one like that. Of course, the last time he’d seen one had been almost ten years before, in that other life, the one he could never share with Cindy.

He chafed with frustration. He had information, information that could help solve this case, but he couldn’t share it with anyone, least of all Mark. Of course, even if he could tell him, it wouldn’t matter. Pine Springs police, as good as they were, were no match for what was coming.

He had to do everything he could to rest up and prepare. He was going to need to make it back to his house for just a few minutes soon to get some supplies. Unless, of course, Joseph had an armory he hadn’t bothered touring him through. There was no way for him to be able to effectively go on the offensive. So, instead he was just going to have to watch and wait, being even more vigilant than he normally was. He was getting tired of having to go it alone on so many things, though. Just once it would be nice to share with someone.

As if on cue Captain wandered into the room. The dog whined and licked his face. Jeremiah scratched behind his
ears and smiled. “You missed me, even with all these friends to play with and having this huge place to roam?”

The dog licked him again before jumping up on the couch and settling down at Jeremiah’s feet. He had no idea what Joseph’s policy was about dogs on the furniture, but given how the other man doted on his own Jeremiah guessed it would be fine.

Cindy was relieved that Geanie was in a better mood than she had been after the call with Melissa. The wedding planner’s stress over everything being ‘unbalanced’ hadn’t helped. She was gone now, though, and it was just the two of them talking some more about Geanie’s secret plans for the wedding.

“You guys love your secrets,” Cindy finally teased.

“Yes, and no. Joseph and I tell each other everything. But, we both love surprises. Of course, sometimes even good surprises can cause a bit of stress.”

“Still don’t know where you’re going on your honeymoon?” Cindy guessed.

“No, Joseph is being very cagey about that. He won’t give up the secret.”

“I think the two of you are trying to outdo each other with surprises,” Cindy said with a smile.

“Yeah, it’s just, his makes it hard to figure out how to pack.”

“I think I can help with that one,” Cindy said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve got you covered. I can tell you exactly what you should pack.”

“Shoot.”

“Lingerie.”