Euphoria Lane (20 page)

“Sure,” Meg shot back. “The whole neighborhood knows.”

“Well, I need your help,” she said. “I want to confide in you about this case, but you have to
promise
to keep this a secret. Can you do that?”

“I promise. And Roxie’s not going to remember any of this in the morning.”

Luke’s gaze locked on hers. “I think you should drop the case. Let the professionals handle it.”

“The
professional
is busy at the moment and needs my help,” Andi said.

Why would this Lenny character, who owned the detective agency, let a schoolteacher do his job? Interviews were one thing; detective work was another.

Andi leaned closer to her friends. “Meg, Roxie, you are both plugged into the gossips of Euphoria Lane. I need your help. We all know Tess is missing.”

“Yeah. I hope she’s okay,” Meg answered. “I’m really worried about her.”

“Her husband is concerned, too,” Andi shared. “He hired my boss to find Tess.”

Luke’s stomach sank. Andi’s involvement in the case kept growing. She was bound to end up on the killer’s radar.

“And you want me to help?” Meg bounced on the couch. “That’s awesome! Do I get a badge?”

“Nothing like that.” A smile tugged at Andi’s lips. “Well, a bit like that. I need your opinion. Did Tess appear depressed and . . . a bit off balance to you?”

Roxie leaned back against the sofa, rubbing her forehead as if erasing a headache. “Loony is more like it.”

“She had loony eyes. I kept telling her to wear eyeliner.” Meg reached for a partially burned photo protruding from the rubble. She held on to one corner. “This is the picnic at the pool. Look at her eyes.” She pointed to Tess seated at a table with her husband, Reverend Nichols, Helen, the cowboy, and Roxie.

“Okay . . .” Andi peered closely at Tess. Her eyes appeared glassy, almost lifeless. “I see what you mean.” She tucked the photo into her pocket, just in case she ever needed a picture of the major suspects in the case.

“Tess never looks directly at you,” Meg said.

“She is shy,” Roxie interrupted.

“She could be depressed,” Meg said. “I never really thought about it before, but I’ve seen mental patients with those vacant eyes. You don’t think Tess is the killer, do you?”

Luke leaned against the bar at the edge of the kitchen. “No motive. Bernice was her friend.”

“Friends can have a falling out.” Andi raised her brows at him. “Just like couples.”

Meg bit her lip, then glanced at Andi as if she wasn’t sure she should speak. “I saw Tess coming out of Reverend Nichols’s condo several times. I asked her what was up. She wouldn’t answer. What if they were having an affair?”

“If Tess fell in love with Reverend Nichols, Bernice would have disapproved because she wanted him to go back to the church. Sounds like motive to me,” Andi concluded.

“True,” Meg agreed. “Tess could have gotten rid of Bernice and then wanted Helen out of the way. But why try to kill Harry?”

Roxie shrugged. “Why not?”

Andi had slipped away from her condo after Luke escorted her home. She was convinced Tess had been the person in black they had seen running away from the fire. But an hour of combing the property, hiding behind bushes and trees, had turned up nothing. Not one clue to help her investigation. She returned home, exhausted and discouraged.

Jessie trudged in the door looking just as tired. Dark circles shadowed her smudged eyeliner. She tossed her purse onto the kitchen counter. “Let’s trade the cars out now, before I fall on my face.”

“I don’t want you driving into the garage door,” Andi said. “Go change, and I’ll move the cars.”

Jess yawned while dropping the keys into her open palm. “Thanks. You’re a good kid.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Andi hated when her older sisters called her “kid,” but she never said anything, fearing it would become her new nickname. She watched Jessie shuffle back to her bedroom and then headed outside.

She backed her sister’s charcoal-colored SUV out of the driveway and parked it next to the curb across the street. She then proceeded to shift her own Mustang in reverse. The rules in the association made no provisions for a single person swapping two vehicles, so no matter where Andi parked during this switch, she’d break a rule. At three o’clock in the morning, she figured the odds were against getting caught.

After parking the Mustang in the fire lane in front of her condo, she reminded herself it would be there only a minute. Keeping her focus on the back wall, she eased her sister’s SUV into the garage. Finally she jumped out, climbed behind the wheel of her own vehicle, and parked it in the driveway behind her sister’s SUV. Done.

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered to herself, staring at the long line of empty spaces in guest parking down the street. “I had more freedom at the apartment complex.”

Back inside the kitchen, she found her sister pouring a glass of milk. Andi had been debating over the right time to tell Jessie about the flyers.

No time like the present.
She would be too tired to do anything about it and a good night’s sleep would give her time to calm down.

“Did you put your gun away?” Andi asked.

“Yeah, why?” Jessie grabbed a gingerbread cookie from the plate on the counter and bit off the head.

Andi handed Jessie the flyer with the picture of her in a plunging neckline and a man handing her money. “Harry paid someone to leave these on all the windshields in the library parking lot. At least we’re ninety-nine percent sure that’s how they got there.”

“What a creep!” Jessie studied the photo. “He must have hired someone to take this. I would have noticed him if he’d shown up wearing his dollar-store toupee.”

“Is this going to compromise your case?”

Jessie shrugged. “Can’t say for sure.” She tossed the flyer onto the counter. “There’s always the possibility he might have helped solidify my undercover persona. I look super sexy there.” She lifted the cookie, ready to take another bite. “But I feel sorry for you. You’ll be known as the sister of
that fallen woman
.”

“I’m not worried about myself. All I care about is your safety. As long as your case hasn’t been compromised, we can deal with the neighborhood fallout. You’re a nun compared to Harry and Valerie.”

Jessie bit off the gingerbread man’s leg with her front teeth. She barely chewed before swallowing. “The only other problem I can see is if anyone recognizes me from a previous bust. I don’t think I’ve arrested anyone around here, but I haven’t met everyone either.” She tapped the picture with her pinkie. “On the up side, I’m wearing a ton of makeup. What you
can
see of my face doesn’t look like me.”

Andi noticed how the photographer had zoomed in on her sister’s cleavage. “I doubt any man will be looking at your face.”

Jessie grinned. “I’ll talk to the detective in charge and see what he thinks. In the meantime, I’m going to shoot Harry where it counts.”

“Get in line. He rigged the sprinklers to hit Roxie’s bedroom window. If she doesn’t get any sleep tonight, she might gut him.”

A scraping sound at the door made Andi jump.

Who would be outside my condo in the middle of the night?

With her heart racing, she exchanged a worried glance with her sister.

“Wait here.” Jessie opened the coat closet and retrieved her Glock. She eased over to the kitchen blinds, listened, and then peered outside.

Harry had better not be lurking in the bushes
, Andi thought.
If Jessie spots him now, she just might make good on her threat to shoot him.

“Whoever was outside left in a hurry,” Jessie said, sounding disappointed. She closed the blinds and then opened the door.

Andi stepped around her sister and snatched up the manila envelope leaning against the building. It had to be from Harry.

“You’re right, the chicken ran off!” Yelling into the night made her feel better—even if it meant waking up her neighbors. “Coward!”

A moment later, she dumped the contents of the envelope onto the dining room table. Along with two violation letters, each fining her a hundred dollars for continuing to break the parking rules, she found pictures of her sister’s SUV parked in guest parking and her own car parked in the fire lane, taken not more than five minutes earlier.

Jessie stepped back inside. “Doesn’t that toad ever sleep?”

“I looked around before I swapped the cars. I didn’t see anyone.” Andi marched toward the door and leaned her head out. “Chicken! Get back here and I’ll tell you what I think of your stinking rules.” Her anger boiled in her veins. She held her hand out to her sister, palm up. “Give me that gun. I’ll shoot his toupee off.”

“He isn’t worth the trouble.” Jessie waited for her to move before closing the door. “But I
do
think it’s time to hit him where it counts. I’m going to do some digging into Harry’s past.” A mischievous smile flitted across her face. “This creep could be jeopardizing my undercover assignment by handing out these flyers. And, since he managed to get a picture of me, his involvement with the owner of the diner may be more than what we had previously thought. He needs to be taken in for questioning.”

Andi grinned. If her sister could make Harry’s life miserable for even a minute, she would consider it a huge victory.

“Come to think of it, he told Valerie he’s rich.
He
could be a drug dealer. That would explain why he used to hang out at the diner on a regular basis. You should look into this, Jessie.”

She tapped her chin with her pointer finger as a new plan spun into formation in her mind. “Drug dealers don’t usually file tax returns. I wonder if Harry does. Are you still friendly with that IRS investigator?”

Jessie gave a sly nod. “And she owes me a favor.”

The next day, Luke was just wrapping up his weekly inspection of the property when he spotted Andi walking toward her Mustang with her purse strap hanging over one shoulder. She opened her car door and then pushed her sunglasses into place.

Memories of long drives they had taken together caught him off guard. While sitting next to him in the passenger seat, she used to run her hand over his arm, maintaining physical contact throughout the ride. Her touch made him feel wanted, connected, loved.

He was beginning to think he had made a terrible mistake when he broke up with Andi.

Isn’t true love supposed to conquer all obstacles? What if I had tried harder back then?

Once his hidden camera proved Harry was vandalizing Andi’s property and the situation with the homeowners’ association was resolved, he would be in a position to ask for another chance.

His thoughts wandered to the root cause of their problems: Andi’s insistence on keeping him in the dark where her family was concerned. Knowing Jessie was working undercover could work in his favor. Once Andi saw that he could keep her sister’s secret, she would know she could trust him to keep others as well. It would all work out. He covered the ground between guest parking and her driveway with long strides and renewed hope.

When he was almost upon her, he noticed the car was rejecting her efforts to turn over the engine. Her Mustang sounded like a hacking smoker. He pictured Roxie blowing perfect smoke rings and destroying them with her gravely coughing.

Andi twisted the key and then pushed open the door with too much force. Realizing Luke was standing near her trunk took her by surprise for only a second or two. “That jerk messed with my car!”

“You might just be having car problems.”

What were the odds Harry was responsible for everything that went wrong in Euphoria?

“I know he vandalized my car, and I need it today.” Her hair fell forward in soft waves as she bent forward to check her tailpipe.

“I trust your instincts.” It was his experience that she was right more often than wrong. “After you get it towed, I can chauffeur you around. I didn’t have anything important planned for today anyway.”

She stood, hesitating. “Thanks,” she said, finally giving in. “I’ll take you up on that offer for a ride. My father can take a look at the car.” She opened the passenger’s side and reached in for her purse. “I’ll pay you back with dinner.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He sat on the driver’s side of her Mustang, leaving one leg hanging out the door. “By the way, when did you learn how to cook? I know you bake, but I didn’t know you can prepare an actual meal.”

She glared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment. “I
choose
not to cook. There’s a difference. As for dinner, don’t worry—it won’t come from a packaged meal with ‘hamburger’ in the title. We both had enough of that in college.”

Afraid he might put his foot in his mouth again, he silently nodded his agreement. She called her father while he tested the Mustang’s engine. It sounded like a huge, old, dying animal. He should have placed a camera in the front of the condo. Somehow he had to catch Harry and stop this war before Andi lost every cent she owned. He felt somewhat responsible.

It’s my job to help the community’s affairs run smoothly, and I can’t even find a way to remove Harry from the board. At least not yet.

“Dad is on his way over. He requested I not be here to get in his way.” Before Luke could respond, she added, “And I don’t care if fixing your car on the property is against the rules.”

“I didn’t say a word.” When they reached his silver Chevy, Luke waited for her to buckle up before pressing the gas pedal.

“You’re going over the seven-point-five-miles-per-hour speed limit,” she warned.

“I don’t live here.” He regretted the words the moment they tumbled out of his mouth.

“The Lancaster is up the street on your right,” Andi said.

If she wanted to hide out, she would pick a small motel away from the major streets. One known for being discreet. No credit card or identification necessary if paying cash.

Luke braked at a traffic light. “Why are we going to The Lancaster?”

“I’m searching for the vet’s wife.” Andi reached into her purse and revealed the picture of Tess at the neighborhood picnic. “I have reason to believe she is still in town, but not staying at home. The Lancaster is the closet low-cost motel on my list.”