Murder Close to Home (7 page)

“I have to hear more about this.” Marty almost crashing into the salon? That had to be the beginning of an excellent story.

Vivienne winced. “He was arguing with Orla Gomez outside. Amelia and I were keeping tabs on that during her appointment, to make sure it didn’t get out of hand. Orla’s got a stubborn streak.”

“Stubbornness isn’t violence,” I said. I was waiting for the part where the car came in. Did Marty want to run Orla over? Did he need to get his eyes checked?

“We couldn’t hear what they were fighting about. It looked serious, though. I was applying the last of the dye to Amelia’s hair when they stormed off. Orla drove away and Marty was parked right in front of the building. I watched him adjust his mirrors and he must have forgotten to put it in reverse because the car jumped forward. He corrected his mistake and drove away.” Vivienne pulled a mirror out of her purse to check her lipstick. “I tell Amelia every time that it’s a good thing she left him. He’s a strange one, he is.”

“Strange, indeed.” I spotted Orla talking with Taryn and Rita. As I made my way over to them, I was stopped by Allen.

“It’s great to have an event where I’m not the entertainment. Between The Parrot Tree and my juggling knives act, I’m swamped with work,” said Allen. “Tomorrow’s my day off. I’m going to lay out an action plan. I’ve got to get to Hollywood.”

“You can do it. If you’ll excuse me...” I wanted to get to Orla before Corey’s dance crew performed. They were scheduled to go on in ten minutes... Hold on, why was Corey still at the table with Jade? He should be getting ready.

I switched directions and swung by the table. “What’s going on? You need to be warming up.”

Corey looked up from his phone. “I’ve got a guy who’s running late. He’ll be here in five minutes, though, so we should be good. Let me know when he comes in.” He rushed off to the back to join his crew members.

“Jade,” I said, “Orla had an argument with Marty yesterday. If we can talk with Orla, then —”

Jade interrupted me. “Then you’ll solve the crime. Did you consider what I’ve found out?”

“No, what is it?” I was excited for Jade’s information. The more pieces of the puzzle we had, the closer we’d be to solving it.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” I asked, nonplussed. “Why mention it, then?”

“Because you’re not letting me help!” Jade shook her head in frustration. “I’m right here, sitting alone. What can I do? I want to be involved.”

“Last night, you didn’t seem interested,” I said. She must have changed her mind.

Jade took a deep breath. “I know, and I’m sorry. I do want to be part of this. I think I realized that when I saw the progress you were making without me.”

I saw the missing dance crew member walk in the door. “How about you find out from Orla what went on? That would be huge.”

Jade perked up. “I’ll go do that.”

I let Logan know we were starting the performance in ten minutes, made sure the crew was getting ready, and stood by the light switch to be ready to flick them on and off when the dance started.

Jade and Orla were talking when the time came. I flicked the lights, the music came on, and Corey and crew took center stage. That was when Jade left the building in a hurry. She wouldn’t have missed Corey’s dance unless it was important.

I ran after her. “Jade!” I caught up to her at the alley next to Ruby’s Gem.

Jade had a look I’d only seen a couple of times. The first time had been when she was failing a class in college because the teacher wouldn’t let her make up the work she had missed. She had come down with a nasty flu that had lasted a couple of weeks. She already wasn’t doing well in anthropology, and the flu scratched her chances. I tutored her every night for the rest of the year and she managed to pass.

The other time had been when her family’s dog got loose and they couldn’t find him for a week. It was a mixture of anger, fear, frustration, and a complete sense of not knowing what to do next that Jade was feeling.

“She wouldn’t talk to me.” Jade refused to make eye contact.

“I don’t understand. You’re great at talking with people,” I said.

“Not this time.”

I waited for Jade to tell me what was really going on.

She did a minute later. “People here think that you solved the stabber case! Don’t they realize that I was part of it? That’s why no one talks to me. They don’t trust me and I’ve lived here longer than you have! This is like everything you do. I try and try and I barely make it. Then you come along and make whatever I was trying to do a million times better with no effort. And after that, you have to do something else to completely top my efforts!”

I was taken aback. “I don’t mean to.” I’d had no idea that I was doing that at all. I felt horrible that I was causing her to think that — and horrible that I’d been doing it without realizing it. “I am so, so sorry.”

Jade had run out of steam. “I didn’t mean for this to sound so harsh. It built up and it built up and then I... I exploded.”

I hugged her. “I’d rather you explode with me than keep it inside. You know that you can always come to me with anything you’re feeling. Even if it’s tough.”

After everyone left, I grabbed a broom and swept the fallen confetti off the floor. Logan was taking his time with putting his equipment away. I wasn’t concerned; I had nowhere to be, so I didn’t have to worry about getting him out on time.

“I’ll call you when I’ve got another job ready,” I told him.

“Thanks.” He winked. “I’ll be waiting for the call.”

He put away the last of his stuff and came back to tell me that he had everything. He lingered instead of leaving right away. “I hear you’re trying to solve the mystery.”

“Yeah. Jade and I are trying to,” I responded. “She’s upset with me, though, because people aren’t taking her seriously. It makes no sense. Why would people do that?”

“I think you come on strong and warm at the same time. People instinctively know they can trust you. Jade’s great too, but she’s more distant. Once you get to know her, she’s more friendly, but right off the bat, she’s... not cold, but not exactly warm. Something like that.”

“Hmm. I never thought of it like that.”

“If you want, she can ask me if I know anything about the case,” Logan offered.

“Do you know anything?”

“Nope! But I’ll tell her that happily.”

I laughed. “If you see her, feel free to do so.”

“Some friendships are like ocean waves,” Logan said. “They come on strong, take a breather, and then they come right back. Maybe you’re in a breather cycle.”

“Maybe. We’re probably in the foam part right now, if that makes any sense. We’re in between everything. I think it’s just growing pains. We’re acclimating to being back together after a while apart.”

“Hey, that makes sense! You’re in the ‘coming back strong’ section. That’s good news,” said Logan.

“I hope it stays this way. I’ve got to think of some way to make it stay like this.”

“If you communicate and take time for each other, I don’t see why it wouldn’t stay good. Also, I think it’s pretty cool what you’re doing. If you ever need another amateur detective, let me know. I’d be happy to be on the case with you guys.”

“I’ll let you know.” I grinned. That sounded like fun.

The next day, I found Jade scooping ice cream at Scoop. From the other side of the glass, I told her my suspicions, dodging customers as they ordered their frozen desserts.

“Someone called in sick today,” Jade explained. “I can’t really talk.”

“This is important,” I said. “I think I figured it out — Amelia committed suicide.”

Jade stopped scooping. “What?” She quickly regained her composure and handed a teenager her cone. There was a lull in the line, so she said to me in a low voice, “I didn’t see that one coming. Why would she be yelling at Taryn in her last minutes of life? That doesn’t seem very suicide friendly.”

“Think about it,” I said. “Amelia knew about Marty stalking Ellen and couldn’t do anything to change that. She couldn’t take it anymore, so she decided to end her life. She’d been through a rough time for a while and I think this was the last straw. When she heard about the photographs that Marty took while he was under the restraining order, she knew that it would keep happening. She couldn’t fix things, so she wanted to take herself out of the picture.”

“And that would solve everything. With Amelia out of the picture, Marty could move on,” finished Jade. “That makes sense, but the timing is still driving me crazy. It doesn’t seem like a place to die — on purpose.”

“She downed the snake venom, disguised in a strong drink. She wanted to make it look like an accident, or she wanted to be with her friends. I don’t know. Also, Marty said his wife liked nature documentaries. He could have been referring to Amelia, who would have died by black mamba venom because it was on her mind. I remember seeing a snake program on last week when I was flipping through channels. If she likes snakes, then she’ll have no problem using them to kill herself. Also, I think when she saw Taryn, she couldn’t stop herself from going to talk to her. She hadn’t had the chance to tell her what she was feeling and that was her opportunity.”

Jade sighed. “Her last opportunity.”

“She did it the night before Taryn’s party in order to not ruin it. And she did it the night before and not the night after to keep the whole nemesis thing going. Amelia made sure that she was going to be the talk of the party. And she was.”

Taryn came by for a peppermint cone as we were discussing my theory. I shared my idea with Taryn and she laughed in spite of herself. “I remember this one time when Amelia and I were at a zoo. I don’t know why we were there. It was just the two of us on a hot summer day. There must not have been anything else to do. I don’t remember. Anyway, we were near the snake exhibit and there was a part of the glass that looked like it was shattered. Amelia started freaking out because she thought a snake must have gotten loose. You should have seen her! She hightailed it back to the car in no time.” Taryn’s mirth faded. “And then she died by snake venom. Irony at its finest.”

“Snake venom, not by being bitten by a snake,” I said. “Could it have been the first poison she thought of, or just the one she got her hands on?”

“No,” said Taryn. “Amelia wouldn’t have willingly touched anything to do with a snake. There’s no way that she would have killed herself with venom. I can’t believe she killed herself. Anything’s possible and all that, but it doesn’t fall in line with her personality. She took things head-on. She didn’t shy away from a challenge. This is the woman who left her husband in the middle of the night in a car packed with her belongings. She did what she had to and kept going. She could do anything when she put her mind to it.”

I asked her about more about the house Amelia had mentioned.

“The reason the house was having so many problems was because one of the people living in it was having problems. Marty’s not all there psychologically. I don’t know if anything’s specifically ‘wrong’ with him, or if he’s just got issues he never worked out. The vacation house that he and Amelia bought began having problems when he and Amelia started having problems. Marty was fixated on her friend, and Amelia didn’t like to see him that way. She wanted him to get help because he would leave and not come home for days. When he did come home, he would be out of it and just wasn’t himself. He became paranoid, and he hated living there. He was too afraid of crushing Amelia’s dreams, though, so he took a more...creative approach. Amelia loved the house, you see. It was things like leaky faucets and creaky doors that he started with. The night Amelia left him, knives were strewn on the floor. She was afraid for her safety.”

“You said that she blamed you for this,” I said. “That doesn’t make sense. Where do you come into play?”

“I owned the house before.” Taryn shrugged. “I think she wanted someone to blame. It was my idea for them to buy the house. If they hadn’t bought it, none of the problems would have started. Amelia associated the demise of her marriage with that house, and I had encouraged her to move there.”

I realized what had happened. “She didn’t get over it. She got away, but her problems didn’t end.”

“She blamed herself for what Marty was doing to Ellen. I don’t know how many times she talked with him to try to convince him to get help, to stop following her, to make a change. It was more than once a day for a long time. Obviously, it didn’t work and she had to let it go. It was up to him to work on himself.”