Red Velvet Revenge (25 page)

“Indeed,” Mel said.

“And then there’s Shelby.” Uncle Stan paused, and Mel could hear papers rustling in the background.

“Wild card?” she guessed.

“Yeah, helpful in a hand of poker, not so much in a person,” he said. “She’s had multiple arrests for driving under the influence, done time in rehab, stalked a Hollywood producer who she said was her boyfriend, although he denied it. She has been evicted from several apartments for disturbing the peace and non-payment of rent. Yeah, she’s a real gem.”

“So, bachelorette number three with the checkered past seems a likely suspect in the case of who stabbed Ty Stokes, given that she was seen with him right before he died and the fact that they were once involved,” Mel said.

“Seems likely,” Uncle Stan said. “Now, none of this proves anything, although it is interesting. I’ve already talked to Sheriff Dolan and let him know what I’ve found out.”

“How did you manage that without him thinking you were stomping all over his case?” she asked.

“I told him I knew the Hazards from way back,” he said.

“So, you lied.”

“Yeah, but it was out of respect for his jurisdiction,” Uncle Stan said. “Now, I expect you to uphold your end of our deal. The Shelby information is to help you keep Angie and Oz out of any more trouble by steering clear of her. As for the Hazard family history, that’s just a little extra. I’d have to do a lot more digging to see if there’s any relevance to what’s happening now, and that is Sheriff Dolan’s job.”

“Well, I appreciate the info, Uncle Stan, and I will make sure we all keep a minimum distance of fifty feet from Ms. Shelby.”

“That’s my girl,” Uncle Stan said. “Hey, I saw your boy last night at the retirement party for one of our detectives. He looked sad.”

“Good,” Mel said. Uncle Stan laughed.

“Call me if you need me,” he said. “Love ya, kid.”

“Love you, too,” Mel said, and ended the call.

She didn’t know what to make of all she’d learned but she’d bet dollars to doughnuts that Shelby Hazard was the killer.

A hoot of laughter sounded from the house, and Mel looked up in surprise. With Angie and Lily on their own, the last thing she’d expected to hear was the sound of merriment.

She hustled to the front door. She knocked but no one answered. She tried the knob. It turned, and she pushed it open. She supposed it was silly to be so concerned. Laughter was not indicative of Angie giving someone a smackdown.

Still, when she walked into the main room, she wasn’t really prepared to see Angie and Lily doubled up and laughing.

She glanced between them and asked, “Good joke?”

“You have to see Lily’s impression of Tate,” Angie said. “It’s spot-on.”

Mel sank into one of the squashy leather seats and watched as Lily walked into the room, holding her head at the same particular angle that Tate always did. Mel had always gotten the sense Tate was listening to some far-off music that only he could hear.

Then she blinked at them in the exact way Tate did when he was taken by surprise. Finally, she ran her right hand through her hair just like he did when he was feeling utterly exasperated by a situation.

Mel had to laugh. It really was perfect. She looked at Angie questioningly, wondering what had made her have a change of heart about Lily, but Angie was avoiding her gaze.

“I’m sorry Marty brought his gun back to the cupcake van,” Lily said. “I didn’t think he’d do that. I thought he’d keep it in his room until we could do some more target practice.”

“It’s fine,” Mel said. “I think he just got carried away.”

She glanced over Lily’s shoulder to the photos on the wall beyond her. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask Lily
why she’d lied about Hannah’s death. Then she thought about her promise to Uncle Stan and held her tongue. She was going to try to be good. Really, she was.

“We’d better get back to the cupcake van,” Angie said.

“Yeah, I’d better go check on my dad,” Lily said. “I’m worried he’s been overdoing it. Ty’s death really made the rodeo a PR nightmare for him, especially now that the media knows it wasn’t the bull.”

Angie was quiet for a second and then said, “I suppose it would have been better if I hadn’t found the murder weapon.”

“No, it’s better that you found it,” Lily said. “If there’s a murderer out there, they need to be caught.”

She was fretting her lower lip, and Mel could tell that she meant what she said and that she was clearly worried about who might be the murderer. In her place, Mel knew she’d feel the same.

Angie nodded. An awkward silence filled the room, and Mel rose from her seat, figuring they’d better go.

Angie followed her to the door, but before they left, Angie spun back and said, “Thanks for…you know.”

Lily smiled at her. She was a pretty girl to begin with, but when she smiled she was beautiful. Given that she’d been palling around with Tate for days, Mel was stunned that Angie didn’t want to run her through with a pitchfork herself.

As Angie closed the door behind them, Mel didn’t even wait until they’d moved away to ask, “What was that all about?”

Twenty-eight

“Lily and I came to an understanding.”

“So I gathered,” Mel said. “Care to share?”

“I don’t know that I can,” Angie said.

Together they walked back to the rodeo. Mel tried not to badger her friend—really, she did—but Angie looked very happy, which made Mel anxious.

They reached the road that led back to the rodeo when Mel couldn’t take it anymore.

“So, you’re really not going to tell me, your best friend, why Lily Hazard is suddenly your buddy?” Mel asked.

Angie looked at her regretfully. “I can’t. I promised.”

“Fine,” Mel said. She didn’t know why she was feeling so irritated, but suddenly she wanted to get away from
everyone and everything. “Listen, I’ve got some stuff to do. I’ll meet you back at the van.”

Angie raised her eyebrows in surprise, and Mel realized her tone had been a bit abrupt.

“I need to pick up a thank-you gift for my mom for watching Captain Jack,” she said.

“Oh,” Angie said. “All right. See you later, then?”

“Sure,” Mel said. She headed off in the direction of the vendors’ tent.

It was just as well she was irritated with her friends. She really had planned to get her mother something, since it had been awfully nice of her to take Captain Jack. Besides, although she hated shopping, she loved shopping for her mother.

Joyce was the world’s best gift receiver. She liked everything, because she took all gifts in the spirit that they were given, meaning that she was just tickled that anyone ever thought to buy her anything.

Mel still remembered the year her dad, Charlie, had tried to hide Joyce’s fifteenth wedding anniversary gift, tickets on a cruise to Greece, in a ceramic flamingo soap dispenser as a gag. Joyce had been delighted with the silly flamingo and proudly displayed it on the counter for all to see.

She had thought it was too charming for soap and refused to use it properly. Charlie had finally had to threaten to take it back if she didn’t put some damn soap in it. Finally, she gave in, and when she opened it, she couldn’t believe there was even more to her anniversary gift. Charlie had always said that giving Joyce gifts was one of the greatest
joys of his life, because she was genuinely touched by even the smallest gesture.

Mel circled the vendors’ tent and knew the perfect gift the minute she saw it. A pretty turquoise straw hat with a white flower tucked into the brim. Turquoise was Joyce’s favorite color, and Mel knew she’d love wearing this hat poolside with her friend Ginny.

“Really? A cowboy hat? How pedestrian of you,” a voice said behind Mel as she reached up to take the hat off the rack.

There was a mirror in front of her, and Mel used it to see whom the voice belonged to. It was Shelby. She was a bit surprised that Shelby wasn’t otherwise occupied, say, at the police station, but she didn’t say as much.

“Well, given that I’ve been walking everywhere since I got here, pedestrian is okay,” Mel said. “Where are all of your little friends?”

“They have lives; they couldn’t stay here all week,” Shelby said. She sounded defensive.

“And you can’t leave,” Mel said. She tried on the hat, since she and Joyce shared the same-sized head. It was a perfect fit. She signaled to the vendor that she’d take it.

Shelby was giving her a nasty look, but she shook it off and forced a smile. “How’s my little friend Oz?”

Mel knew she was only asking to get under Mel’s skin. It worked, but she wasn’t about to let it show.

“He’s fine,” she said. “Better, actually, now that he’s changed the company he was keeping.”

Shelby gave her pout. “I can’t help it if men of all ages simply adore me.”

“Sure you can,” Mel said. “You just don’t want to.”

She paid the vendor and took the hat, which he had put in a box, and tucked it under her arm. As she started to leave, Shelby fell into step beside her.

“I’m not evil, you know,” she said.

Mel didn’t say anything. She was trying to stick to her agreement with Uncle Stan, but it really wasn’t her fault that Shelby had found her and begun to talk.

“What do you mean?” she asked, knowing she shouldn’t but doing it anyway.

“I know what they’re saying about me,” she said. “Everyone thinks I killed Ty just because we had a fling once. I didn’t.”

“Who’s everyone?” Mel asked.

“Oh, you know, my dad, my wicked stepmother, and of course my perfect big sister,” she said. Her voice had the acidic bite of a lifetime of bitterness. Mel glanced at her and felt repulsion for the whiny little brat beside her. Was she really as narcissistic as she seemed?

“Your family seems awfully nice,” Mel said. “I find it hard to believe any of them would turn on you.”

“Ha! That shows how little you know,” Shelby sneered. “They’re all just greedy and selfish. They don’t care about me or my dreams. I could be a movie star if they’d just stop pulling me back here to live in this filth.”

Shelby kicked at the road with her platform sandal, and brown dust flew up into the air. Mel looked out across the grassy pasture land that surrounded the rodeo, and even farther out to the ponderosa pines that hugged the surrounding hills. She didn’t see how coming back to this gorgeous landscape once a year was a hardship.

Her thoughts drifted to Slim’s sister, the one who had
gone to California and died in childbirth. Had she felt the same way about the ranch as her niece Shelby, or had it been hard for her to leave her home?

“Is Slim the last one of his generation?” she asked. “Or are there more Hazards out there?”

“He’s it,” Shelby said. “I think that’s why Ty was trying to take the rodeo from him. With Lily and me as the only heirs, there really wouldn’t be anyone but Lily to fight Ty, since I don’t care. I’d have them buy me out, and I’d move to Hollywood and never look back.”

They were headed down the road toward the cupcake van, and Mel didn’t particularly want Shelby to get within one hundred feet of Oz. She slowed her pace, trying to think of a way to get rid of her.

“Didn’t Slim have any siblings or cousins?” Mel asked.

“He had a little sister named Hannah, but she died before I was born,” Shelby said. “I’ve been told I have her hair.”

“I think I saw a picture of her at the house,” Mel said. “She was a pretty girl. How did she die?”

Mel stopped breathing while she waited for Shelby’s answer. If she knew how her aunt had died, it would change everything.

“She was killed in a car crash on a trip to California,” Shelby said. “She was probably trying to escape.”

Mel studied her face to see if she was lying, but she didn’t see any sign that Shelby was telling her anything other than the truth. Frankly, Mel didn’t think she was a good enough actress to pull off a lie that big.

“I’m sorry,” Mel said. “That must have been very hard for Slim.”

“It was,” Shelby said. “From all of the stories I’ve heard, Dad doted on Hannah almost too much.”

Mel had to wonder if that was why neither Lily nor Shelby knew the truth. Was Slim still protecting Hannah and her memory?

“I guess big brothers are like that with little sisters,” Mel said.

“Well, it’s too bad fathers aren’t more like that with their daughters,” Shelby said. Her voice had resumed its whiny pitch, and Mel felt her temples throb.

“Really, Shelby? Can you honestly tell me you feel neglected by your father?” Mel asked.

“Don’t judge me,” Shelby snapped. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Fair enough,” Mel said. “But I do know that my dad died over ten years ago, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss him.”

Shelby turned her face away, and Mel knew she’d hit her mark. She didn’t waste her breath saying anything more but left Shelby where she stood as she crossed the dusty road and headed back to the cupcake van.

She knew she shouldn’t have said anything, and she felt bad about being so harsh, but honestly, Shelby’s mother was dead, and she was doing her level best to alienate her father and her sister. Where Mel came from, it was family first, even when they drove you bonkers, and she just couldn’t stand to see someone with a perfectly nice family disregard it. Then again, it really was none of her business, and she should learn to keep her mouth shut.