Euphoria Lane (11 page)

“This is what I get for accepting the Euphoria account.” Luke held on to the windowsill as he lifted one leg inside. If Paul had paid more attention to his wife, she might not have reached out to Harry. If Harry had closed the window and blinds, Roxie wouldn’t have caught them. And if no one had screamed, the whole neighborhood wouldn’t be gathering in the common area. They were probably expecting to see another dead board member. Luke hoped not.

“Super hunk to the rescue!” Roxie announced.

“Knock it off!” Luke grabbed Paul’s upper arm, effectively breaking the hold on Harry’s neck.

Harry gasped for air, coughed, and rubbed at the red fingerprints left on his pale skin. The music ended abruptly and an eerie silence filled the air. They all exchanged angry glares, then Valerie’s husband pulled back his fist and punched the board president square in the nose.

Valerie screeched.

Andi, Meg, and Roxie stood outside the window with mouths agape.

Harry fell back against the mirrored closet door. It shook from the impact and the vibration caused his toupee to slide off his head and land on his shoulder. Harry reached for his nose just as crimson liquid began to ooze from his nostrils.

The scene exploded with one obscenity after another. Not only could Valerie’s husband cuss like a sailor, he could probably spell every one of the names he called his wife as well.

“I knew I shouldn’t have married you.” He pointed his skinny finger at her. “I want a divorce!”

“I . . .” Valerie bit her lip while tears slid down her cheeks. “I never slept with him,” she proclaimed to everyone—the group looked at her as if she had risen from the bowels of hell.

Keeping a safe distance from the outraged man, Harry followed Valerie out of the room, holding his nose while blood seeped between his fingers.

Valerie’s husband crawled back out the window a hopeless, dejected version of his former self.

Everyone waited for what would happen next. Still standing in the bedroom, Luke stuck his head out the window and stared at Roxie, Meg, and then Andi. “Are you happy now?”

Roxie propped her hands on her hips. “Don’t go getting your knickers in a knot, young man. No one here told those two to play kissy-face with the window wide open for all to see and hear. If you want to blame someone, blame
me
. I’m the one who spied on them, no one else. And I don’t care what you think of me. You don’t live here.”

Meg crossed her arms over her chest. “We also didn’t tell Valerie’s husband she was here. You know it was only a matter of time until he found out his wife is a . . . what her husband called her.”

He couldn’t believe they were rationalizing the situation.

“Paul would’ve killed Harry if we hadn’t been standing here to witness the murder,” Roxie added. “Not that I would have testified against him if he
did
kill him.”

“See, our being here was a good thing!” Meg said. “We kept Paul from killing Harry.”

“Good Samaritans, huh?” Luke shook his head. They all knew things had gotten out of hand, even if they didn’t want to admit it. He pointed to Andi. “Like I said—trouble.”

Andi had no sooner placed her belongings on the dining room table than there was a loud knock on the door.

Peering through the peephole, she saw Luke standing on her welcome mat. Embarrassment over the scene at Harry’s flooded over her. “What could he possibly want now?”

Taking a moment to gain her composure, she stood with her fingers on the knob, simply breathing. Finally ready to face him, she stiffened her spine and tugged the door open.

“We need to talk.” His stoic face revealed nothing congenial. Long strides took him through her dining area and into the living room, which was more presentable than the last time he’d been inside her home. Between interviewing the reverend and spying on the board, she’d still managed to find time to unpack a few boxes and toss them into the corners.

Luke sat on the new red accent chair next to the white linen sofa. He leaned forward, his elbow resting on his thighs, his hands clasped together. She remembered that look. He was contemplating his next words. She lowered herself onto the sofa and waited. This could take a while.

“Andi . . .”

“If you came over here to lecture me about the anti-board spying and how somehow this is all my fault—”

“No lecture.”

She waited for him to continue, certain whatever he had to say would turn into a lecture despite his assurances. In her defense, she hadn’t intended to spy. Meg called her over to the tree before she knew what Roxie was doing.

Okay, I had some clue what Roxie was doing, but still . . .

“I’m not one to gossip.” He stood and walked over to the sliding-glass door where she had left the blinds pulled back. Agitated, he faced her back porch while running a hand through his thick hair. “But I think you deserve to know why Harry tries to control the property as strictly as he does. I’m not asking you to feel sorry for him, just to understand.”

Oh, great! A lecture in disguise.

“I grant you he has gone off the deep end,” Luke said as he glanced in her direction. “But when I first met him he had a soft side. I saw it only a few times, but it was there. I’m hoping he might find it again now that Valerie is free to be with him.”

Andi stifled a string of sarcastic comments.

“Harry’s wife died of cancer a few years ago. That was when I first met him. I wasn’t the property manager back then, but I was helping an associate at the board meetings. Six months after that, the company he worked for merged with another, and he was forced into early retirement to make room for younger, less expensive employees. He became an angry man struggling to maintain some degree of control over his life. His biggest mistake was running for the board. Bernice was president when he joined, and unfortunately, a role model for those who don’t want to win friends and influence people in a positive way.”

Andi felt a twinge of guilt. Then her line of vision fell on the violation letters piling up on her table, and she snubbed out that guilt like an ugly cigarette butt. “I’m sorry he lost his wife, but he has no right to make the rest of the world miserable in an attempt to lighten his own pain.”

“True. I bring this up only because I’m thinking there’s a good chance he might soften up now.”

“Not in this lifetime.”

“I just saw Harry hauling Valerie’s clothes into his condo.”

“That was fast, don’t you think?”

“Not when you consider her husband was throwing them out of their bedroom window. Harry promised to buy her a ring in the morning. Between the attempt on his life and now having someone to share his second chance with, he might change.”

Andi grabbed the throw pillow beside her and held it close to her chest. It served as a barrier between her and Luke’s insistence that she soften her heart where Harry was concerned. “And how’s that going to turn our board president into a marshmallow?”

“He’s getting what he needs—a full-time companion.”

“Don’t bet my bank account on him becoming a changed man. I can’t afford any more fines.” She stood and walked to the sliding-glass door, where she peered out to the barren porch. She should be planting pansies in pots and baking cookies in the shape of tulips, not fighting Harry. “I’m not the only one he’s harming. These fines are placing a financial burden on this entire community.”

Luke placed his hand on her forearm. “I understand how you feel and why you started the anti-board.”

His touch sent a shiver down her spine that she tried to ignore. “
I
didn’t start the anti-board.”

“I stand corrected.” He withdrew his hand, letting it drop to his side. “Regardless, this has gone far enough. A marriage has ended. Can you please try to rein in Roxie until we see how Harry reacts to Valerie moving in with him?”

“No one can control Roxie. And you should probably know that Meg’s started a petition to have Harry removed from the board. I won’t discourage her.” Remembering the look on Paul’s face ate at her conscience. She had to take some responsibility for the fallout since she participated in the war. “I promise I won’t wave the petition under Harry’s nose.”

“That’s fair.” He glanced about the room. “I guess I should leave you to your unpacking.”

She nodded, even though the part of her who remembered how good they had been together wanted him to stay. Forcing her mind to switch tracks, she closed the blinds and turned to follow him to the foyer.

A forced smile appeared on his handsome face. “Despite everything, I’m glad our paths have crossed again. I hope one day soon we’ll get a chance to talk about something besides the homeowners’ association.” He paused, his gaze fixed on hers. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to get to know you again. You were an important part of my life. I miss our friendship.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

One cost of breaking up is losing your best friend. He should have thought about their long evenings watching old movies together, holding hands on long walks, and debates covering everything from politics to religion before he threw it all away.

She wanted to tell him all of that and more, but all she could say was, “You hurt me.”

“I know.” He reached up to sweep a stray strand of hair away from her face. “I’m hoping we can find a way to at least be friends again. I’ve thought about it a lot. I know it wouldn’t be easy at first, but I think that friendship is worth finding again. It was special. Maybe our mistake was taking our relationship to a level where it became serious and complicated.”

“Friends . . .”

Could my heart handle seeing him, getting closer to him, knowing we could be only friends?

She shrugged, but she knew better. Traveling that path would only break her heart.

Friday morning, Andi hit the snooze alarm and rolled back onto the bed. Remembering that the first day of spring break had finally arrived, she smiled and contemplated falling back to sleep. Instead, she stared up at the ceiling fan, allowing her thoughts to wander.

She planned to bake up a storm. The events of the previous day flickered through her mind, and she decided to leave a gift bag of chocolate chip cookies on Paul’s doorstep. If he threw it in the trash, she wouldn’t blame him, but she felt the need to do something. A sugar fix might make him feel better, even if for only a moment.

“That creep!” Jessie stormed into Andi’s bedroom, holding a cream-colored paper high in the air. “Harry taped another violation letter to the door last night.”

“For what?”

“He’s claiming there’s litter on the back porch.”

“No there’s not!” Andi threw back the covers and charged into the living room. “I looked outside last night. The porch was spotless. Luke is my witness.”

When Andi pushed back the blinds, she found an empty milk jug, juice carton, cookie and candy wrappers, tuna cans, and a mayonnaise jar strewn across the cement, along with used napkins, crumpled tissue, cereal bits, and coffee grounds. An empty white trash bag hung over the floral-print patio chair cushion, flapping in the breeze.

A typed note, taped to the trash bag, caught her attention. She slid the door open, stepped outside, and kicked the cereal box across the patio. The aroma of decaying food wafted to her nose. “Gross!”

She peeled the note away from the bag and read, “Here’s your housewarming gift. Since you live with trash, you should feel right at home.” She folded the note and palmed it before her sister joined her.

“Didn’t you say Luke thought Harry would be a better man now that he has Valerie?” Jessie stepped out onto the porch. “This doesn’t look like a happy man to me.”

“Valerie is the one who isn’t happy, and I’m willing to bet it has everything to do with her soiled reputation and nothing to do with her sunken marriage.”

“
She
acted like trash so her boyfriend is throwing it on
our
porch?” Jessie scowled. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

Andi squeezed the note tighter, making sure Jessie could never read the message. She didn’t want her sister worrying about Harry and what he might do next because he thought Jessie was a drug-dealing hooker. Her life could depend on her mind remaining focused on her undercover assignment. “Don’t expect that man to make sense.”

“I’m tempted to pistol-whip him and make him clean it up himself.” Jessie held up an empty cracker box with two fingers, then tossed it on top of a margarine tub.

Luke was wrong when he thought Harry might lighten up on the fines now that Valerie had moved in with him—not to mention because of his brush with death. Andi shook her head. Harry wasn’t about to lighten up on the fines for any reason. He wanted her to move out and take her sister with her. He wanted the anti-board, and anyone associated with it, to go away. “I can’t believe I felt sorry for him for two whole seconds last night. That baloney brain.”

“What did you call him?”

“Baloney brain.” She shrugged. “I heard one of the kids at school say it. It’s a lot better than what I want to call him.”

“Okay. Let’s find a way to make that baloney brain pay for his crimes.”

“Wait!” Andi ran to the garage to collect one of the smaller empty packing boxes. While standing beside her sister’s SUV, she scanned the wall until she found the metal fuse box. She hid the note inside, making a mental note to destroy it after Jessie left for work that night. She seized a cardboard box and closed the door to the garage behind her.

“I bet he left fingerprints on the trash bag,” Andi yelled from the kitchen where she stopped to grab a pair of tongs. By the time she reached the back door, she had the box assembled. “You have a fingerprint kit, don’t you?”

“At the agency.” Jessie, the new legal owner of Lenny’s Detective Agency, shifted her weight uncomfortably. “Even if there are prints, it wouldn’t stand up in court. We can’t prove someone else didn’t steal his trash bag out of the dumpster.”

“We don’t have to take him to court. We just need to scare him into thinking we can,” Andi explained, realizing she sounded a lot like their father.

“Just don’t―”