The Begonia Bribe (23 page)

Cam pretended not to see the irritation on Jake’s face. They hadn’t just run across all this at all. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything.

“You ever see this man, Dylan?” Jake pointed to Barry on the picture.

Dylan shook his head. “Not since he was kissing that cop last night. Tonight I only saw the lovely gorillas who took me and beat me up. That’s them, though.”

“And you’re pressing charges?”

“You bet I am!”

Cam was shocked Jake had no more questions about the murders. She felt like she had a million. Annie stayed behind to talk to Jake, and Benny ran ahead to fetch his pickup so Dylan didn’t have to walk as far. As Cam and Dylan walked out of the police building, Dylan with a borrowed set of crutches, Cam edged closer.

“So did you learn anything from all that?”

“Look through the peephole before opening the door?” Dylan said.

Cam rolled her eyes. “I mean about the murderer?”

“Well, when I was there, it was a bunch of insane talk about how I was helping Jessica frame Mindy, but that isn’t true. I mean, I like Jessica, but I don’t know her that well. I’d certainly never help her frame somebody innocent. But besides that, Jessica didn’t frame anybody. She was with Clancy Huggins until he dropped her off at a telethon the day the body was found. She was there another twelve hours and then went home to collapse.”

“There’s a maid who says she
did
frame Mindy, and . . .”

“No. It was part of a plan!”

“Do you know how stupid that sounds?”

“Cam, work with me. It was a plan
with
Mindy.”

Cam just nodded. She didn’t believe it for a minute.

“And look.” He shoved a piece of paper at her. It held a handwritten plan to frame Mindy to win back Barry.

“Dylan? This is longhand.”

“So?”

“So it could have been made this morning, after the fact.”

“I found it yesterday between the mattress and springs.”

Cam ignored that this meant he’d been alone in Jessica’s bedroom.

“Fine—made yesterday. Is still easily could have been made after the fact. It was probably meant for you to find.”

Dylan looked frustrated. “What constitutes proof, then?”

“Well, computer stuff at least has a time stamp, as does phone, text—anything like that.”

“Hell! I can’t use any of that.”

Cam felt sorry for him. “Look. If she were to get arrested, they will look at all that. If it clears her, they’ll use it.”

“But I don’t want her arrested.”

Cam sighed. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay.”

She was contemplating such a tight alibi. She was sure, though, she could figure out a way Jessica had gotten away for the time necessary to spike and deliver the bourbon.

“Thanks to you.” He grabbed her shoulder and spun her, an awkward motion with his crutches, and one of them fell, so he sort of toppled toward her. In that motion, he planted a kiss on her lips that sent a fire down her spine, but she pulled away and ducked to fetch his crutch.

“Dylan, I . . .”

“I know. We’re both taken. But I just took a pain pill and was pretty sure it was the only time I’d brave that, so I had to do it just once.”

“I find it hard to believe you’re shy about stealing kisses.”

“Maybe you bring out my inner gentleman. You have a lovely night, Miss Harris,” he said and hobbled toward the corner where Benny would pick him up.

* * *

“T
here you are!”

Rob ran at her as she climbed out of Annie’s car and he pulled her into a tight hug. “One step too late all night! It was the most frustrating thing. Griggs caught me on the way out to give me the bad news about the trial, and I never did seem to catch up. I got to the house after the police and they wouldn’t let me near—all of you hauled in! I couldn’t believe that! I waited awhile but they said it might be a long time.”

Griggs was Rob’s boss, so she could understand that holding Rob up, especially in relation to the murder case Rob had scooped a few months earlier.

“Yeah. Thankfully it wasn’t. It was nice of Jake to get Annie’s car from home while they sorted the questioning. So you said bad news about the trial?” Cam did her best to change subjects.

“District attorney dropped the case! He says ‘the other confession in the matter stands,’ so he claims the case won’t hold water. Griggs thinks somebody flexed some political muscle and practically dared me to figure out who and out them, but as of now, no trial.”

“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t be surprised. She’s connected.”

Cam felt sure she should be outraged about the injustice of it, but that wasn’t her biggest fear. It had been her investigation and suggestions that had prompted the police to make this particular arrest, and the woman was central to the Roanoke Garden Society. Cam hoped that this dropping of charges didn’t also mean a firing from her job. She was so close to her Mustang, too.

“Yeah. That’s bad.” Then it occurred to her why it was bad for Rob—she somehow had forgotten that his covering the pageant had been a trade for getting to cover the trial. “Maybe if you solve this other murder it will all balance. Would that make it up to you?”

Rob grinned. “It might.”

* * *

C
am and Rob talked late into the night about the things they knew, suspected, and doubted. Rob thought a confrontation with Jessica was definitely in order, as Cam had tried both Barry and Mindy and gotten nowhere. Mindy had blinders on. Jessica had to know the answers and seemed the person most likely to tell them, unless of course they implicated her in a murder.

It was too late to call, but they decided they’d track her down first thing the next day, no matter what it took.

J
essica had left town the day before. Cam was glad Evangeline knew that and had had Jessica’s phone number besides, as she would have hated to go to Dylan as a source. Lynchburg, though, wasn’t so far from Roanoke. Cam loaded a small cooler with icy-cold water, grapes, and a couple sandwiches.

Rob rolled his eyes. “It’s forty minutes from here. We’ll be back by lunch.”

“Not if we have trouble finding her.”

He sighed, but humored her.

The day promised to be a scorcher, hotter than even the worst of the pageant days, though in the last week of July, that was hardly surprising.

“Now what are we saying, exactly?” Cam asked. “Aside from ‘We know you’re a murdering psychopath.’”

“We’re presenting the evidence as we understand it and are going to give her a chance to give her side. We’re on a mission as
reporters
, Cam. Not rogue law enforcement.”

“Well, what good is that?”

“We get the truth. She really may
have
a story worth hearing.”

“She won’t admit what she did.”

“Not if she’s guilty, probably, but I’ve been trained to spot inconsistencies. And if we act like cops, she won’t talk one way or the other. As a reporter, she may see me as willing to weigh the angles—the facts—fairly, so she might be more likely to talk.”

Cam didn’t think Jessica really deserved that, but she couldn’t deny, at least short a squad of cops, that Rob’s approach had a better chance of getting results.

“She’ll see that you’re impressed with her huge . . . tracts of land,” Cam muttered.

“Oh, don’t go Python on me. You know I prefer my tracts of land by the handful.”

They reached Lynchburg at about ten, and Rob suggested a Starbucks stop, always a good idea. They parked on the street and went inside to order.

“You call,” Rob urged. “I don’t know her, but this is just an interview. Push the reporter angle.”

He left Cam at a table and went up to get them drinks, Cam eying the picture of what was surely Annie’s coconut mouthgasm. She knew Rob would bring her a skinny latte. It was what she always ordered for herself. Rob dutifully did what she requested, where Annie pushed her to try things out of her comfort zone. She was glad she had one of each.

Cam stared at her phone as Rob walked to the counter. She doubted Jessica was going to buy her cover story, even if—for Rob—it was the real story. Jessica was a smart woman. To Cam’s surprise, Jessica sounded as if she’d expected the call. She invited Cam and Rob to lunch at noon. Cam had barely had a chance to respond in the affirmative before Jessica hung up.

Rob brought Cam’s skinny iced latte and his own iced caramel macchiato and sat.

“She’s feeding us lunch,” Cam said.

“You ought to be a reporter. I never have sources agree so easily.”

“She may not really know what we’re there for—she knows you were covering the pageant and that I’m doing the P.R.”

“What did you say?” Rob frowned.

“That we wanted to talk to her—that was pretty much it.”

“Then she can hardly claim you misled her. And honestly, what is the biggest story of the week? She can’t be shocked we want to talk about that.”

“I guess you’re right there.”

Killing two hours in Lynchburg when eating and spending time outside were both off the list was a little bit challenging. Rob was relieved to hear that the Anne Spenser House and Garden Museum was unlikely to get them out of the heat. Cam loved the old place with its lush garden and fountain and all the flowering shrubs. She had been there before, though, so they didn’t have to go. Instead they found the Legacy Museum and ducked in there for a while to look at a collection on African-American art and culture.

At ten minutes before noon, they headed to Jessica’s house. Cam was hyperaware that it was also Mindy’s neighborhood.

The houses were large and ostentatious, all boasting columns to their second- and third-story roofs. The yards, in Cam’s opinion, were overly meticulous—shaped shrubs and perfectly edged lawns. It was a newer neighborhood; this was where new money and rich young families lived, not the local nobility. Cam thought they’d find a lot of engineers, bankers, and real estate folks, but nobody whose money had been inherited—unless it had been inherited elsewhere and people had relocated to Lynchburg.

Jessica’s yard had a round garden in the center, highlighted by a cherub bird bath and, of all non-surprises, a hearty section of oleander.

They parked in the driveway. Cam didn’t think Rob had spotted what she had. His eyes usually glazed over when she discussed plants, and though he’d probably looked up pictures recently, they gave no clues about the height, color variation, or ambiance of the evil that was oleander. She couldn’t take her own eyes off the plant as Rob led her up the walk and rang the doorbell.

Jessica opened the door formally and led them through to the back of the house where French doors looked out on what Cam would have called a Chinese garden. Hors d’oeuvres were on a table, as was sweet tea in tall glasses. Lack of condensation suggested Jessica had actually poured them as Cam and Rob were coming up the street. Acutely attentive. It was very detailed hostessing.

“Sit, please. The oven will buzz when I need to fetch the rest.”

Cam was impressed this wasn’t being done by a servant yet was attended with such care.

“So what was it y’all wanted to talk to me about?” She eagerly leaned forward, resting her chin on her fingers, looking for all the world like they were the best guests she could have hoped for.

Rob took a breath to begin, but Cam blurted, “How long have you been friends with the Blankenships?”

“What?” Jessica sat back again, her brow wrinkled. “Well, that’s not a question I expected.” She paused to think. “Mindy and I worked on a pageant together a long time ago. In fact, it might have been the one she was in.”

It was Cam’s turn to be surprised. It made sense, of course, that that had been the origin of this relationship, but all week they’d acted like they hadn’t known each other.

“So when you looked for a house . . .”

“Mindy introduced me to Barry, and I looked for one in their neighborhood. She spoke highly of it.”

“So why did you act like you didn’t know Barry when we asked? Why the charade and framing Mindy?”

“I
didn’t
try to frame her for murder. I helped her look like a victim to win Barry back. It was a scheme of hers, but don’t you dare tell him. And my act was because it was awkward, seeing Barry away from Mindy. But I thought if I played it cool, I could take information back to Mindy. Barry obviously also didn’t want to admit knowing me, with a girlfriend about.”

“You tampered with evidence?” Rob asked.

“Oh, I told the policeman—he knows. I have some silly fine for their trouble, but they didn’t pursue it. I told them as soon as I knew they were involved . . . Well, as soon as Barry fetched Mindy from the police station, anyway. That was the payoff.”

“Doesn’t that seem a little extreme?”

“It worked, didn’t it? I just love love.” At that, the buzzer went off. Jessica rose and went to the kitchen, returning with a homemade pizza topped with a garlic sauce, salmon, and capers. Cam’s mouth watered. It was elegant in spite of being a pizza. Jessica then retrieved a large salad of garden greens topped with walnuts, cherries, and goat cheese, along with a vinaigrette.

“This looks amazing,” Cam said.

They took a brief break from talking as Jessica served them, but Cam felt she had to dive back in.

“But Barry’s probably a murderer. Do you want her with a murderer?”

“Why would Barry murder either of those two?”

“Well, who do you think did it?”

“I have no idea, but not Barry—not when he just got his family back.”

Cam didn’t want to argue, but at the beginning he hadn’t had his family back. She decided not to focus there. “The next most logical suspects are you and Dylan.”

“And I know how that looks, but it isn’t either of us, either.”

“Why would Mindy tell us you’d been after a sugar daddy and saw Telly as the perfect opportunity?”

“Mindy said that?” Jessica’s hand fell to the table and she stared at Cam.

Rob and Cam both nodded.

Several expressions crossed Jessica’s face before she could bring herself to speak. Cam recognized hurt, anger, and fear. “I can’t believe that. I think you’re just saying that to get me to say something incriminating, but I don’t know anything incriminating to say.”

Rob pulled out a recorder. Cam was surprised he had it, as it was her own recording made by her cell phone when she’d talked to Mindy. She’d emailed it to Rob, but she hadn’t expected him to have it with him. He pushed Play and let it run through Mindy’s accusation.

Jessica sat with her mouth agape. “I can’t . . . She didn’t . . . why, that . . .”

Her turbulent emotions finally landed on anger. She stood and looked like she might storm over to the Blankenships’ house right then.

“I’m sure she’s not home yet. Her girls were staying with her mom last night,” Cam said.

“Well, that . . .”

“I think maybe we should go,” Rob said.

“Yes. I’m sorry we disturbed you so badly and put you to all this trouble. It was lovely,” Cam said.

Jessica didn’t try to stop them. She clearly wasn’t interested in hosting a lunch anymore. Jessica followed them as they walked toward the front door.

As Cam and Rob made their way along the sidewalk, Cam heard her name shouted by a small voice. She turned to look and saw Lizzie running toward them.

“Well, hi there.”

Timing couldn’t have been worse.

“What are you doing here?” Lizzie shrieked as she threw her arms around Cam’s waist.

“Er, Cam?” Rob said. “I think maybe we have a situation.”

Cam looked up from the top of Lizzie’s head to see Jessica marching furiously toward Mindy.

“Get back in your car!” Jessica roared. “Cam and Rob will watch the girls. You and I need to talk!”

Mindy’s eyes were wide. “Lauren, go over by your sister.”

Lauren dropped her suitcase and ran to Cam. “She has a gun!” Lauren cried as Mindy and Jessica tore out of the driveway.

“Uh-oh. This can’t end well,” Rob muttered. Cam hoped she was the only one who heard.

She dialed 9-1-1. Rob called Jake.

* * *

R
ob hung up a few minutes later. “They’re on it. Mindy’s car has a GPS. They will find them.”

“Did you believe Jessica?” Cam whispered. “She was so convincing as innocent. I mean, other than helping Mindy win Barry. It fit so well.”

“Yeah, though weren’t you the one who told me she wanted to act?”

“That’s true.” Cam tried to cling to the idea, but didn’t think anyone could spontaneously be that good of an actress.

The two of them pulled it together to help the girls. Lauren had a house key, so they went to the Blankenships to settle in until things were resolved. Rob retrieved the pizza from Jessica’s unlocked house, and they tried to get the girls to eat.

“Miss Jessica won’t hurt Mama, will she?” Lizzie asked, climbing onto Cam’s lap.

“I don’t think so, honey. I think they just had some important things to talk about.”

Lauren had hauled her suitcase upstairs, and Cam thought she was putting things away. She came down a short while later, though, and announced their dad was on his way.

Cam and Rob glanced at each other, knowing this only complicated things. Cam thought they should have anticipated it and headed it off, but it was done now.

“Don’t question him when he gets here,” Rob whispered. “If this is what it looks like, he may be volatile.”

Cam thought they needed some answers but conceded. She didn’t want him to get defensive with the girls there.

Rob had one call from Jake while they waited. He gave them an update before Barry arrived.

“They’re at a cave in the valley. It’s on somebody’s property, Jake gave me an address.” As he said it, they heard a car door slam.

Cam was surprised Barry had arrived so quickly; he must have been in town already.

He had a thousand questions, but Cam pretended she’d just been having a pageant-related lunch with Jessica and had no idea what had set her off. Barry reluctantly let them leave. Cam would have hesitated, but she was sure the man wouldn’t hurt his daughters. They would cause more trouble by staying than going.

* * *

A
s Rob climbed into the Jeep, he looked at Cam and said, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“We need to go to the cave?”

Rob grinned. “Here goes, then.”

They headed east and then north, following the directions from his GPS. Luckily, the property had a road back to the area with the caves. They drove back toward the rocky protrusion.

Mindy’s car sat abandoned, three police cars surrounding it. Jessica had apparently forced Mindy into one of the caves.

They knew they shouldn’t go in, but neither Cam nor Rob was inclined to sit and wait when there was a story unfolding.

They skirted the two officers who had stayed with the cars, walking in the sparse scrub. They heard, “Hey, you can’t . . .” as they ducked into the opening of the cave, but they kept going.

“Could use a flashlight,” Rob said.

Cam pulled out her keychain, which held a tiny penlight. “Better than nothing.”

“Barely,” Rob said.

Rob held Cam’s waist as she led the way. They didn’t have far to walk before they found the police and the two women. They stayed back in the shadows.

Jessica was being arrested.

“But I got her to admit it,” she argued. “Just listen to my phone!”

“Somebody’s a fast learner,” Cam whispered to Rob.

“You can’t take somebody at gunpoint, ma’am,” the officer said.

“I’m not saying don’t arrest me for that. I’m saying you have to arrest
her
for murder! She admitted it!”

Cam and Rob looked at each other as the pieces began to fall into place. An officer took the phone and put it on speaker. Everyone moved closer to listen.

“This is ridiculous!” Mindy said. “She had a gun pointed at me. She said to confess or she’d shoot me!”