Deadly Notions (32 page)

“Well, for starters you’ve got the kind of looks that turn heads for miles.”

“Which is all well and good if you want the kind of guy that attracts. Substance attracts substance. I’ve learned that the hard way.”

She considered the woman’s words. “But why claim you drew those designs when Milo knew you weren’t artistic.”

“Because I was trying to earn
your
respect.”

“My respect?” she echoed.”

Beth nodded. “I wanted you to think I had it on the ball. That I was a . . .” The woman’s face turned crimson.

“A what?”

“A threat. Just like you were to me.”

“I was a threat? To what?”

Beth nodded again. “To any chance I had of getting Milo back.”

Silence fell between them as she worked to process everything she’d heard, the woman’s brutal honesty more than a little admirable.

“And so you stole those designs and claimed them as your own just to make me feel threatened?”

Beth’s eyes widened in horror. “Stole them? I didn’t steal them.”

She pushed off the stage and wandered over toward the center of the room. “Look, I know who drew them. And I know you have them. What else am I supposed to think?”

“That they were secured during a legitimate business deal?” Beth, too, stood and began clenching and unclenching her hands by her sides. “Ashley Lawson and I shook on that deal, right there in your friend’s bakery. I didn’t steal a thing.”

“But why would she give them to you? Didn’t she owe them to Pageant Creations?”

“Ashley created those particular designs on her own time, something not covered by her current contract with Pageant Creations. So she played it smart. She decided to shop them around. And, well, I figured out pretty fast what would turn the tide in my favor.”

“What was that?” she asked.

“The opportunity to name the entire collection after her daughter. The second I made that offer, she practically pushed the designs in my direction.”

Penelope’s Closet.

It made sense now.

“Most people in Ashley’s position would have hinged everything on money. But not Ashley.” Beth wandered over to the mural of Cinderella and stopped to study it. “She was far more concerned with finding a way to immortalize her daughter’s name. The bigger, the better was her motto.”

Shaking off the sense of déjà vu she couldn’t quite put her finger on, Tori dove into the one topic they’d managed to skirt thus far.

“So you’re saying that her murder less than twenty-four hours later had absolutely nothing to do with how you ended up with those designs? Designs you proceeded to tell me were your own?”

Beth spun around and stared at Tori. “You think
I
killed her?”

The horror in the woman’s eyes knocked her off-kilter. “I—I certainly
considered
it. You did, after all, have her designs—the same six Regina needed to secure her deal with Fredrique Mootally.”

Beth’s face drained of all color. “Fredrique Mootally wants my designs?”

She shrugged. “Near as I can figure, yes. Only the deal is off unless he can have all twelve.”

“I was supposed to get the other six. It was part of our deal. Only she didn’t have the actual drawings with her when we met, just photocopies. She said she’d get them to me the next day.” Beth slouched against the Fairy Godmother. “Wow. I can’t believe Fredrique Mootally wants my designs. I had no idea.”

She studied Beth closely. “He’s really that big?”

Beth snorted. “Big? Big doesn’t even do him justice. Try top in the business. And by top I mean T-O-P.” Pushing off the wall, Beth headed toward the door. “Maybe I shouldn’t have cried wolf so many times after all, huh?”

“What are you talking about?”

“People in my position would
kill
to have that kind of connection.”

She was still sitting in the children’s room, staring at the door, when her cell phone rang. With a quick glance at the unfamiliar number, she flipped the phone open and held it to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Victoria? This is Samantha. Samantha Smith. Mr. Wentworth over at the elementary school asked me to give you a call. He said you had a few questions for me?”

She wandered out of the room and into her office, her mind sifting through the mental list of questions she’d crafted when she still considered Beth Samuelson a suspect.

But that was no longer the case. Not anymore, anyway.

“I—I was wanting to check in and make sure that Kayla’s experiences at the library have improved.”

“Kayla’s experiences?”

“Um, yes. Ms. Dunn, one of our volunteers, told me about the—the incident in the children’s room a few weeks ago. And I want to assure you that we are taking steps to help minimize such an occurrence again.” She knew she sounded lame but it was the least she could do on such short notice. Especially after Milo held up his end of the bargain by asking the woman to call. “In fact, one of our upcoming kindergarten story time sessions is about bullying.”

“That’s wonderful. Though it’s not as needed as it once was. Rumor has it that the little girl who took great pride in being a bully might be moving out of state soon. But even if that doesn’t happen, she’s no longer being encouraged in the way she once was.”

She stood at the window overlooking the library grounds, her mouth traveling down a path completely independent of her conscious thought. “You really believe Ashley Lawson encouraged Penelope to be mean?”

“I do. Though I don’t think Ashley believed that’s what she was doing. I think she just wanted to elevate that little girl above all the rest. But by doing so, she was teaching the child that she was more important.”

It made sense. How many other kids had their name on a parking sign? How many kids had playgrounds renamed in their honor?

“Ashley just didn’t know when to stop. No party could ever be big enough, no outfit could ever be fancy enough, no friend could ever be good enough for her precious little Penelope.” Although Samantha continued speaking, it was a different voice and a different set of words that began playing in Tori’s mind, a similar yet juxtaposed sentiment that had her sharing her days’ old question aloud once again.

“What did she want? To have her daughter’s name in lights?”

Samantha laughed. “It sure seemed that way, didn’t it? First the parking spot where she worked, then the park, then who knows what was next.”

“Penelope’s Closet, that’s what.” Realizing her mistake, she started to recall her words only to swallow them again as Samantha’s voice filtered through her thoughts.

“It’s like I told Regina at Sally’s party that night. She’s better off without a woman like that working for her. I mean, really, do you think six designs are worth being affiliated with someone who doesn’t know the meaning of the word loyalty?”

Six designs.

A chill shot down her spine as the enormity of what she was hearing hit her with a one-two punch. “Regina knew that Ashley was taking her designs elsewhere?”

“Of course she did. I told her myself.”

“You—” She slapped a hand over her mouth as the pieces of the puzzle finally began to take shape. Regina knew Ashley had betrayed her. She knew the deal with Fredrique Mootally hinged on having all twelve designs.

But why kill her?

Because she could.

The moms at Sally’s party made that easy.

“Oh my God,” she whispered as she slammed the phone shut in her hand. It all made perfect sense. Regina had been at the party. She’d heard what Melissa and Beatrice and all the other moms had said, allowing her to point her bloody fingers in their direction.

A direction that kept the focus off her.

Nina’s voice emerged from the speaker beside her phone. “Miss Sinc—I mean, Tori? Milo is on line one.”

“Uh, okay.” She reached across the desk and hit the top button. “Milo?”

“Hey, beautiful. You’re never going to believe who just called me.”

“I—I have no idea.” Dropping into her desk chair, she raked a hand through her hair. “But Milo I think I figured out who—”

“Beth. She actually called to tell me someone is trying to run her off the road. Can you believe it? Like I’m going to jump in my car and—”

She sucked in her breath as yet another dose of reality rushed in. Regina had killed Ashley because of the last six designs—designs she still needed in order to forge a partnership with Fredrique Mootally.

Only there was one little problem.

Beth had them.

“Do it, Milo!” she screamed. “Find her! Now!”

His laughter echoed around the room. “C’mon, knock it off. A person can only cry wolf so many times before—”

Jumping to her feet, she ran toward her office door, the pounding of her heart drowning out the rest of his words. “Milo, please! This time there really
is
a wolf!”

They were all there—Leona, Margaret Louise, Rose, Melissa, Debbie, Beatrice, Georgina, and Dixie. All eight of her sewing sisters in the throes of what they did best.

“Can you imagine the gall of that woman?” Margaret Louise grumbled. “Standin’ there at my grandbaby’s party, givin’ us a piece of her mind, only to up and take our idea and try to give us credit for the outcome?”

“We were the perfect alibi.”

Melissa pinned Dixie with a disbelieving eye. “
We? We?
You were barely on Chief Dallas’s radar for longer than a minute. Beatrice and me? We still feel his breath on our necks, don’t we, Beatrice?”

The shy twenty-something nodded from her stool on the other side of the table. “But it’s okay now. And that’s all that really matters. Well, that and the fact that I get to stay on as Luke’s nanny.”

Leona pushed her teacup into the center of the table. “The most important thing is that Victoria has a bit more time on her hands. We’re going to need that to revisit some of our lessons.”

“We do? Why? I thought I was starting to get this southern thing down pretty well.”

Leona slowly shook her head. “The southern thing? Perhaps. Though there are times I still see a bit too much of your city ways for my taste.”

“My city ways?” she echoed.

“What else would you call this innate desire you have to corral criminals?” Leona’s chin rose into the air in defiance. “You most certainly didn’t learn that here.”

She had to laugh. “I didn’t? Really? Because the last time I checked all those criminals—as you call them—were corralled
here
, in Sweet Briar.”

Leona peered over the top of her glasses. “On the heels of your arrival from Chicago.”

Rose rolled her eyes.

Dixie shifted in her seat.

Georgina cracked a grin. “Are you saying that Victoria brought them here with her?”

“These things didn’t happen until she showed up, did they?”

“Oh, shut up, Twin.” Margaret Louise slid off her stool and came around the table to give Tori a hug. “I, for one, can’t imagine Victoria not being here. She’s brought a much needed breath of fresh air to both our sewing circle and Sweet Briar.”

“I second that,” said Rose.

“As do I.”

Tori met Beatrice’s timid smile with one of her own. “Thank you, ladies. It’s nice to know that at least some of you are glad I’m here.”

“I’m glad you’re here, dear. I never said otherwise. But I do think we need to go over a few things about Milo. Especially in light of that foolish move you made today.”

“Foolish move?” piped in Debbie. “You mean the one where she saved Beth’s life?”

“Saved Beth’s life by sending Milo to her rescue.”

“What did you want her to do, Leona?” Georgina challenged. “Stamp her feet and tell Milo he couldn’t go?”

“Milo didn’t
want
to go. Victoria
made
him go.”

“Because the woman’s life was in danger.” Dixie forked a piece of cake from her plate and brought it to her mouth. “I think that goes to show just how special Victoria is.”