Brownies & Betrayal (Sweet Bites Mysteries, Book 1) (19 page)

“Right.”

“If she’s got student loans and all these expenses, how does she afford the designer clothes and fancy car?” I scribbled in my notebook, hoping it would make more sense once it was on paper.

“And childcare—you have no idea what that costs. It’s unreal, even if Dahlia is only in daycare for a few hours a day after school, and I’d bet with Valerie’s ambition, Dahlia was there a lot.”

“Lidia did mention that Valerie had Dahlia in daycare almost all the time. So how do we check into that?” I tapped my fingers on the tabletop.

Honey stood, sliding her purse strap over her shoulder again. “Maybe we need to talk to Lidia.”

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, slightly whipped

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1-3.4 oz package vanilla pudding (4-serving size)  

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup raw Spanish peanuts

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup caramel bits (you can buy them in bits in some stores, but if you can’t find it, you can chop up caramels into pea-sized pieces)

Grease and flour a 9x13 pan; I like to use spray oil like Pam and then flour the pan. Mix butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla, mix. Add one cup of the flour along with the salt, baking soda and vanilla pudding. Mix well and add the rest of the flour. Mix in peanuts and chocolate chips and press into prepared 9x13 pan.  Press the caramel bits into the top of the pan. Bake for about 35 minutes or until slightly brown on the edges.

We found Lidia and Dahlia on the playground of Valerie’s apartment complex.

“Hi, Lidia,” Honey greeted her. “How are things going?”

“Could be better.” She sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Sorry, I know you both like it here, but it drives me crazy. I need theaters and a Nordstrom, not Paul’s Burger Shack and the dollar store. I need to go home. It’s been a tough week.”

“No problem, we’re not offended. It can take some adjusting. Do you have any idea how irritating it is that I’ll either have to special order or travel almost an hour to Phoenix for some of my baking supplies? And the equipment . . . it’s going to drive me nuts.” I looked down at my designer jeans. “Okay, and I’m going to miss the shops too, but I’ll deal with that.” I was exaggerating a little. I figured Honey would forgive me if it got us more answers.

“You didn’t say you didn’t like it here.” Honey looked a bit wounded.

“I love it here—it’s just . . . not the city.” How was that for a massive understatement?

“I can’t argue with that.” Despite her words, Honey still appeared a little disappointed. She turned back to Lidia. “Anyway, that’s not why we came to see you. First, if you’d like, I’d be glad to have Dahlia over to play with my daughter when school gets out this afternoon. Dahlia’s about the same age as Madison, and I know they’d have fun together.”

“I’d like that. Thanks. I’m sure she’ll enjoy it.”

“You can probably stand a break after so many days of full-time childcare,” I said, seeing the exhaustion in her eyes.

“I love Dahlia, and I’m totally excited to have her come live with me, but it’s going to be a major adjustment, you know? And it’s not so much the childcare as that on top of everything else I have to do.”

“I understand Tad and Analesa have offered to, um, lend a hand with Dahlia.” I watched her for a response, saw her jaws tighten, her lips firm.

“Yeah. I know Dahlia’s more familiar with them than with me, but it seems so strange, them offering to take her on. Especially since they’re newlyweds. And while Tad’s very gung ho about it, I don’t think Analesa’s quite so enthusiastic.”

I wasn’t going to tell her that she was right. “Analesa can be a bit standoffish,” I said instead. “And keeping Dahlia with family is important, don’t you think?”

“Absolutely. I’m Valerie’s sister, so I’m the closest family Dahlia has. She belongs with me.” Though she nodded as if it was settled, she still looked worried.

It seemed almost wrong to badger Lidia about Valerie’s finances and other problems when she was already tired and a little broken down, but we didn’t have time to spare. Everyone would be allowed to go home soon, and unless Detective Tingey found more evidence against Millie than just possessing the necklace, I was still in prime position to be charged with murder. I took a seat across the picnic table from Lidia. “We wondered if you could tell us anything else about Valerie. Anything that might explain why someone would kill her.”

“I’ve been over this so many times. I know she tended to, um, tick people off a lot. I mean, she was pretty self-absorbed and inconsiderate. Honestly,” she lowered her voice, looking across the playground at Dahlia. “I didn’t think she’d keep Dahlia. I mean, she’s more the type to get an abortion, or give her child up for adoption rather than taking on the responsibility. No one was more surprised than me when she brought Dahlia home.”

“That must have been difficult as a single parent with a demanding career,” Honey said. “It’s hard for me working part-time, and I have a husband and in-laws who help out a lot.”

“I’m sure there were compensations, though. Dahlia’s a sweetheart.” I watched her as she swung higher, her face turned to the sun, filled with determination as she pumped her legs.

Lidia picked at her fingernail. “I know Tad wants to help, but I look at Analesa and know I can’t leave Dahlia in her hands. Not if she doesn’t love my niece. She and Valerie are a little too similar for that.”

“Childcare must have been really expensive.” I brought the conversation back around to what we needed to know.

“I’m not sure how that all worked out,” Lidia said.

“It’s obvious Valerie liked to spend big, but Jeff said she probably didn’t make much as a grunt at the law firm,” Honey said.

Lidia tugged on her jacket, smoothing the wrinkles and, sliding her pink Prada clutch under her arm “No matter how big she talked, she was a glorified law clerk with plenty of bills. The win against Jeff last month was pretty huge for her. A few more wins like that, and she would be moving up the ranks pretty fast.” She pushed the hair back from her face, strain showing around her eyes and mouth.

“But if she didn’t make that much, and childcare is expensive, where did she get the money for designer suits and fancy jewelry? Did she have massive amounts of debt?” Honey asked. “That’ll be a mess to untangle.”

Lidia shrugged and looked a little mystified.

“Where do you start with something like that?” I asked.

Though she appeared for a long moment to wonder if she should speak, Lidia eventually opened up. “This morning I had a friend who does home loans pull Valerie’s credit for me so I could see what her debts look like,” she admitted. “The sooner I can start working to straighten that out, the better, but she doesn’t have much debt. She loves designer everything, but she also had a thing about not having anyone own her—including the credit card companies. She used to say that the only way to live was to own someone else.”

“Own someone else?” I played that back through my head and tried to figure out how to ask without making Lidia defensive. “Did she mean like having a sugar daddy who helped pay the bills?”

Lidia stood and picked up a twig from the ground, twirling it in her fingers. “I don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me. She was good at manipulating people, and she always had a way with men.”

“It would explain a lot.” Honey stood as well, and I joined them as we began walking the sidewalk around the playground, always staying where Lidia could keep Dahlia in sight. “We’ll have to ask Analesa if she knew anything.”

“Do you have access to her bank account?” I asked. Seeing the pattern of deposits and her spending habits would give a pretty good indication. There had to be more than one account if the statement Honey had found in the hotel room was typical for that account. Once we knew that, we could decide whether this was an angle worth pursuing. Yes, we had her account numbers, and I knew someone who could hack in, but I didn’t want to push my luck if there was a better option.

Lidia shook her head. “Not yet. The paperwork takes ages.”

“I know someone who might be able to help us.” I pulled out my cell phone and grabbed the information Honey had written down when we’d gone through Valerie’s hotel room.

“I don’t know,” Lidia said. “Maybe we shouldn’t, I mean, it’s Valerie’s privacy we’re talking about here.”

“It’s murder we’re talking about here,” I reminded her. As I found the number I needed in my contacts list, I walked far enough away that Lidia wouldn’t be able to overhear the conversation.

“Hey, Lenny,” I greeted him when he answered his cell. “What are you up to?”

“Not much. I have tonight off. How are you doing? The rumor is you caught the boss with Karen and kicked him to the curb.” As he had been my assistant until I quit, he was well informed on all hotel gossip. I’m surprised he hadn’t heard the jerk was cheating before I found out. If Lenny had known though, he would have said something.

I heard a thud through the phone, and could imagine him sitting back on his sofa and propping his booted feet on the table. The image made me smile, even though I felt uncomfortable about the subject of my defunct engagement. “Yeah. The idiot showed up here a few days back. Do you think you can cause a problem so he’ll have to rush back there and take care of it?”

His laugh was deep and throaty—the result of too much smoking for too many years, despite the fact that he was only twenty-eight. “I’ll see what I can do.” He added a few comments about Bronson that were unrepeatable and more than a little on the salty side. For once, I didn’t argue, or try to defend Bronson.

“I do have a real favor to ask, though. I need some info about a couple of bank accounts. Do you think you could use your special skills?” I knew he’d gotten into hacking as a teen, and spent some time in juvie. He swore his time “on the inside” was for boosting cars, and any hacking was all for fun. I wasn’t sure “for fun” rather than “for mischief” made it any better, but I decided to ignore that detail for the moment.  I filled him in on what we needed and rattled off the account numbers and banks they went with.

“You gonna tell me what this is all about?” he asked when he had time to write it all down.

“Ever heard of plausible deniability?” I tried.

“Yeah. Pretty sure it doesn’t fit here, though, since I’m the one committing the felony for you. Can you do better?”

“You’re not going to get caught if you help me out, will you?”

“Nah, I have some crazy wicked safeguards. I’m the best.”

I hesitated, afraid he’d leak it to others at the restaurant. But he was pretty good with secrets. “Between you and me only, okay?”

“Fine.”

So I filled him in, giving him the extremely abbreviated version, aware of Honey and Lidia standing nearby, even if they were out of earshot.

He whistled. “That sounds interesting. You sure you’re in that Po-dunk town and not somewhere with more people than cows?”

“Come on, Lenny. Will you do it?”

“Sure. Give me some time and I’ll email you what you need.”

“You’re the best!”

“Of course I am.” He hung up.

“With any luck we should have answers this afternoon, the evening at the latest. You want to meet back at my place?” I asked Lidia. “It’ll give you some time to get things together.”

“I’ll be there.”