Murder Before Marriage Page 16

  “Unless she’s a murderess,” Rose said, quietly.

  “Wait, what?” Coreen looked from Rowen to Rose then back again. “You think she’s a murderer? You think she killed all those guys she used to date?”

  Rowen shook her head. “I don’t know what to think yet.” She remembered the reflection of her father she had seen in the scrying mirror. “But I think Kyle was murdered. And I think it was either her or…”

  “Or?” prompted Coreen.

  “Our father,” Rowen concluded.

  “What?” Coreen stood. It was as if she could no longer stand to sit. “Why would you think that? What reason would he even have to murder Kyle?”

  “Your mother does have bad luck with men,” Rose said again. “If she and Gaby have the same luck and they both were involved with Desmond…”

  “But what reason would our father have to murder Kyle?” Coreen asked again. She had walked in front of the desk. She leaned forward onto it, hands gripping the sides.

  “What reason would Gaby have to murder Kyle?” Rowen shot back. She wasn’t sure why she was defending the woman. It wasn’t like she had any great love for her.

  Coreen frowned, her forehead wrinkling as her brows drew together. She opened her mouth to say something but suddenly a phone rang. All three girls looked up. It took a moment to place the ringtone as Rose’s. She stood from her seat and jogged into her office.

  “I hate all of this as much as you do,” Rowen said to her sister once they were alone.

  Coreen’s expression softened a little. “Look,” she said with a sigh. “I get annoyed with Desmond as much as you do, but I don’t think he’s a murderer.”

  “You haven’t met some of the guys Mom brings home. They seem fine at first, but… Almost all of them have been messed up in one way or another.”

  “Almost all,” Coreen said, latching on to her phrasing. “So even you admit it’s not always the case.”

  “That’s not—”

  “We both know Desmond isn’t a great guy. There’s plenty wrong with him. Murder doesn’t have to be part of the equation.”

  “I’m not saying it’s him. I just think it’s an angle worth considering. I’m not willing to strike it as a possibility.”

  “Hey, um.” Rose emerged from her office. When Rowen turned to look back at her, she raised her phone above her head and wiggled it. “So, the police finally gave their statement.”

  “Yeah?” Rowen felt her heart speed up in her chest. “Did they give a cause of death?”

  Rose nodded. “They did.” She lowered her phone and looked down at it for a moment. She was mulling over what to say next. “They, ah, said it was natural causes.”

  “What?” Rowen asked. Behind her Coreen breathed an audible sigh of relief. “How do they figure that?”

  “How they figure anything out post-mortem I suppose,” said Rose. “His heart failed.”

  “His heart failed?” Rowen repeated, incredulous. “He was too young for that.”

  “You’re never too young for it. These things happen. Apparently, he had some heart trouble that had gone undiagnosed for quite some time. I guess it’s a good thing he quit football. He probably wouldn’t have lived this long if he hadn’t.”

  Rowen dropped her gaze to the floor. Her mind was buzzing with thoughts, so full of them that it felt like her skull might burst. No, no, no, they were saying. This wasn’t right. Someone had made a mistake.

  “What’s wrong with you?” asked Coreen. “You should be relieved. I mean, I hate to say it with someone dead and all, but it’s still good news. He wasn’t murdered. You don’t have anything to worry about. We can just go on with our lives.”

  “This isn’t right,” Rowen said, her eyes still on the floor.

  “What do you mean this isn’t right?” Coreen sounded almost angry. “You heard her. The police released their statement. Come on. If we get to work now, there’s a chance we’ll still get home before midnight.”

  “What’s wrong, Rowen?” Rose was no doubt eager to get back to work as well. She knew better, though. She knew from experience that it was better to listen to Rose’s gut feelings when she had them.

  “Kyle was murdered.” Rowen looked up, resolute in the matter.

  “He wasn’t, though.” Coreen was exasperated. She looked to Rose for backup but received none. With a growl of frustration, she turned back to her sister. “Why do you think that?”

  “I don’t think it. I know it.”

  “Then how do you know it?”

  “I just do!” Rowen snapped. She reached for her phone and stood, calling Ben as she did so.

  Ben answered on the first ring. “Now really isn’t a good time. I’m—”

  “You just finished giving your statement. I know.” Rowen spoke quickly. She didn’t want him hanging up on her before she could say and ask what she needed to. “You’re wrong. Kyle was murdered.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. Rowen heard Ben’s breath fade away as he lowered the phone from his mouth. “I’m sorry. You’ll have to excuse me for a moment.” Muffled words were exchanged. There were footsteps and then the sound of a door closing. “Okay. I’m back in my office. Now what are you talking about?”

  “Kyle was murdered.”

  “How? By who?”

  Rowen winced. “I don’t… I don’t know. My father? Gaby maybe.” She ignored Coreen throwing up her hands dramatically. “I don’t know how they did it… But one of them did.”

  “Okay,” Ben said slowly. “And why do you think that?”

  Rowen didn’t want to admit that she was lost in all of this, that she had nothing to go on. “What was in Kyle’s car?” she asked instead.

  Ben sighed. He sounded tired, but he answered her question anyway. “It was a rental car. There wasn’t a whole lot to see. There was a laptop, a suitcase, some cookies—”

  “Cookies?” Rowen repeated.

  “From a vegan bakery in Tarricville. She—”

  “Right.” Rowen suddenly remembered Gaby mentioning those. “She was sending Kyle to get more of them. That’s why he had them in the car.” The pieces began assembling themselves in her mind. “That’s it! It was the cookies. They were poisoned!”

  “He didn’t eat any of them,” Ben pointed out. “Can’t see why anyone would eat those things, myself. She sent us a case of the things after the investigation started.”

  “No.” Rowen felt sure of herself. “Kyle didn’t eat any. He was the one who poisoned them. He got sloppy and screwed it up somehow, got some on himself while he was handling it. That’s why he came to me and why he hung around in front of the library. He was in debt and needed money. Gaby was paying him to poison the cookies. He’d already agreed, but he was having second thoughts. Do you still have those cookies? The ones taken from the car, I mean?”

  “They’re still in evidence unless someone threw them out. They might have. They’re perishable—But never mind that. Who do you think it was he was trying to kill?”

  Realization hit Rowen like a slap to the face. “I’ll have to call you back.” Rowen hung up the phone and found Miranda’s number. She dialed it.

  Miranda answered with a sigh after a few rings. “I told you I’d call you back.”

  “This isn’t about that.” Rowen was standing, already grabbing for her keys. “Where are you right now?”

  “What?”

  “Just answer the question!” Rowen knew that Coreen and Rose were both looking at her like she’d gone mad. She didn’t care.

  Miranda gave a little huff. She obviously didn’t appreciate being yelled at. “I’m at the laundromat.”

  Rowen felt relief swell in her heart. “So you haven’t done your errands yet?”

  “No, I have. This is the last one. I’m just getting to the laundromat now.” Miranda sighed. “I feel stupid. If I’d had any common sense I would have had you help me with one of the errands.

  “And which one was that?”

&nbs
p; “Ms. May wanted me to send some cookies to your mom. I ended up having to go all the way down to that old house of yours myself. It—”

  Rowen hung up and ran for the door. “Where are you going?!” Coreen yelled after her.

  “To the Greensmith house!” Rowen shouted back, throwing the door open. “Gaby’s trying to murder Mom!”

  “What?!”

  Rowen ignored the question. She got to her car, flung open the door, and climbed inside. She started the engine and was beginning to pull away when the passenger side door open. Coreen scrambled in. She was lucky Rowen didn’t run over one or both of her feet in the process.

  “I’m coming with you,” Coreen announced, closing the door and reaching for her seatbelt. Rowen wasn’t going to argue with her. Coreen had no choice but to come with her now. Rowen wasn’t slowing down for anything. “What’s going on?” Coreen demanded, her voice firm.

  “I think this Gaby is a woman scorned you don’t want to cross.” Rowen ignored the blaring horn of an oncoming car as she pulled out onto the road. “It’s the cookies. She had Kyle poison the cookies.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “It doesn’t matter now.” Rowen threw her own phone at Coreen. “Find Ben’s number in there. Call him. Tell him where we’re going. Tell him to call poison control just in case we’re too late.”

  “What?” Coreen’s face had gone pale.

  “Just do it!”

  ***

  Rowen turned off the main road so fast her tires squealed. Her car roared up the driveway to her old house. It was a relief to find her mother’s RV parked out front, but it was a relief that didn’t last long. She threw open the car door and jumped out, leaving the engine idling as she ran to the RV. She climbed the two flimsy steps up and pounded on the door.

  There was no answer at first. Rowen felt lightheaded, like she might fall right off the steps and into unconsciousness she was so scared. She pounded her fist on the door again.

  “Hang on!” It was a man’s voice. It was Desmond’s voice.

  Rowen didn’t wait. She tried the door. The knob turned in her hand and she didn’t hesitate. She pushed her way inside. Her eyes were assaulted by the sight of her father, reaching for his pants. He bellowed. Right behind him, Tiffany shrieked. She was on the RV’s pullout couch, pulling a throw blanket up to cover herself.

  “Where are the cookies?” Rowen demanded, averting her eyes but not retreating.

  “What?” asked Tiffany.

  “Where are the cookies?!” Rowen spun around, wild-eyed, searching.

  “Over, over there,” stammered Tiffany. “On the counter. Near the sink.”

  Rowen’s eyes landed on the clear plastic box. She hurried over to it and finally felt her fear begin to recede. Not a single cookie was missing.

  “What in the world is going on?” Desmond demanded. He was wearing his pants now. He stood at the window facing the road. Flashing lights were visible through the slats in the blinds.

  Tiffany just stared at her daughter, still clutching the blanket tight. “Sweetie, if you wanted those cookies so much, you could have just asked.”

  Epilogue

  The cookies were poisoned. More accurately, one of the cookies had been poisoned. This was true for both boxes, the one in evidence and the one taken from the RV. Gaby had a history of hiring desperate people it seemed. Not that Miranda had been one of them, not one she trusted enough to follow through where Kyle had failed.

  Rowen wondered what sort of end goal Gaby had been hoping for. Did she want Tiffany out of the way? Did she want the police to suspect foul play? Would she have cared if Desmond had been the one to eat the cookie by mistake? Given the variety of things that had happened to her past lovers, it probably didn’t matter to her. The end goal was revenge. That’s what the mirror had been trying to show her. Desmond was the intended target of whatever form Gaby’s revenge took.

  Desmond had taken the news in stride. Too in stride maybe. He was giving a lot of interviews and, according to Coreen, he was talking about some kind of book deal with someone from out of state, someone also covering Jacob Steiner’s case. Given what had happened in Lainswich, quite a few questions were raised about the murders and deaths in Gaby’s past.

  The Stenson family was also taking the news as well as could be expected. They were hurt, of course. It was hard to swallow the idea that your son had made a mess of his life, so much so that he had almost become a murderer because of it. They seemed to take some solace in the fact that he hadn’t followed through. His conscience had given him plenty of pause, and that had saved some lives.

  Lainswich was a little less forgiving. Rowen heard the gossip and saw the Channel 2 special. People talked about Kyle’s debt and wondered at the sort of parents who raised people like that. Maybe that was why the Stensons had been so quick to agree to dinner when Aunt Lydia asked them over.

  It did them good to get out of the house, Rowen thought, looking at them from across the table. They knew about their daughter’s relationship now. Peony said it had been awkward, but Rowen saw no hint of that awkwardness now. Ernie and Kitty were smiling. They would be all right. Their hearts would heal as much as time could ever heal the loss of a child. They still had Tina. More than that, they had the Greensmiths now as well. Their family had grown exponentially.