The Begonia Bribe (9 page)

“The police are here already? I only just found it twenty minutes ago.”

“Found what?”

“Lauren’s shredded dress.”

“Oh. No. I’m here because a witness saw you arguing loudly with Telly Stevens yesterday morning.”

“Oh!” Mindy’s pale face lost another few shades. Cam thought if she turned a light off, Mindy might glow.

“Do you need me to leave?” Cam asked. She didn’t want to, but felt it was probably most appropriate.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” Jake said, which was his polite way of telling her to scram.

But at the same time, Mindy shrieked, “No!” She grabbed Cam’s wrist. Her eyes looked scared and a little desperate.

“Can I stay, Jake? It sounds like Mindy would prefer . . .”

Jake rolled his eyes. Cam read his meaning. She got entangled in these messes far too easily, but Mindy wanted a friend near. And if Cam was honest, she was dying to know what was going on. It seemed so unlikely, but Cam knew the argument was suspected of being related to the murder.

“Can you tell me what you and Mr. Stevens argued about, Mrs. Blankenship?”

“He was a horrible man,” she said.

“So you confront all horrible men? Just out of habit? Or had he done some specific horrible thing to you?”

Mindy sniffed and looked up, then turned to look at Cam. She seemed to find courage.

“Telly Stevens was also a judge last year . . . Lauren was a local finalist then, too. I . . . he . . . It was important she win . . . we needed the scholarship. I saw him at the bar one night, about two drinks too late, and said something to that effect. He suggested I might earn my daughter an advantage . . .”

Cam felt her eyes bulge and couldn’t seem to call her lids back down. She did, however, manage to keep from shrieking or gasping.

“Let’s put it this way,” Mindy said through a clenched jaw, “I followed through and he didn’t.”

Cam had to cover her mouth.

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “I see. And so yesterday?”

“I just told him he was a bastard and that I couldn’t believe he’d show his face near this year’s pageant.”

“And the man wound up dead.”

“Officer, if this is how this man behaves, then probably half the moms here have a motive. I didn’t kill him. I thought he had a heart attack until now.”

“And what do you know about gardening?”

“What? Not very much, why?”

“Just answer the question.”

“I did a special study with Cam’s mom when I was in high school, but that was mostly so I could get a science credit without taking physics.”

Cam frowned. She hadn’t known that. It was always a little bit of a shock to realize her parents had led lives she didn’t know about. Especially her mom, who had passed on more than three years earlier.

Jake didn’t know anything about Cam’s discomfort and continued his questioning. “And so you would know which plants are edible and which are poison?”

“Was he poisoned? By a plant?”

“I’m just trying to assess what you know.”

“I know a few flowers make for a lovely salad—nasturtiums and violets. And I was warned about a few when I had small children. That is something you see in parenting magazines. So I know foxglove and I watch for nightshade. I haven’t worried about it, though, other than to watch my girls.”

“I’ll need you to give an accounting of your whereabouts that morning and the day before . . . and who was with you.”

“I was driving to Roanoke that morning—with my girls! We had errands to run and the hotel to check into. The day before, we were in Lynchburg. What could I have done from Lynchburg?”

Cam felt bad for Mindy. She hated the idea of the girls being questioned, but knew it would have to happen—they were their mom’s only alibi.

When Jake left, Cam hugged Mindy and promised Jake was a good guy who was just trying to get to the bottom of this.

“What you must think of me!” Mindy said. “Cheating on my husband for a stupid . . .”

“I’m not judging,” Cam said.

“I would. At least until recently. But the truth is my marriage was over before that. Barry left me eighteen months ago and spent the first nine months or so trying to get out of paying any child support at all. So when the pageant happened, I was feeling desperate about that scholarship money. Now Barry’s changed his mind and is trying to act like a superdad. I think he wants to take the girls from me.”

She broke into tears and Cam hugged her again as a pair of girls hustled in, grabbed props, and hustled back out. By the end of the talent night, Cam felt a little lost about the pageant process, but very glad for the next day. There would be no public show, so the girls could work on their coordinated routines.

C
am slept in a little the next day and then had a surprisingly smooth morning until she got an urgent call from Dylan about an hour after lunch.

“Cam, I need to leave my post. I’m just guarding. Can you call Benny? And maybe cover watching while I’m gone?”

“Of course. I’ll be right down.”

She called Benny as she rode down the elevator, covering her ear to the piano music from the bar as she walked through the lobby. Benny agreed to be there in a half hour, so Cam resigned herself to standing on the lawn in her pumps until he got there. The heat had returned, so she took off her jacket as she came outside. Jake was talking to Dylan.

“Is there a problem, Jake?” she asked as she approached.

“I don’t think you need to worry, Cam.” He wouldn’t meet her eye, which reversed the meaning of his words. “We just have some questions for Mr. Stevens.”

Stevens.
She had never heard that as Dylan’s last name.

“Dylan, you’re not . . .”

“Stevens? No. My last name is Markham.”

“Then why . . .”

“He never married my mother.” He left it at that. “I’ll call you or Benny when I can get back to my schedule.” He walked away with Jake and didn’t look back.

Cam wondered how small a town Roanoke really was that a pseudo thug could be son of one of its most famous members. It made her wonder who Dylan’s mother was, though given Dylan’s looks, she was probably very pretty—just the type Telly Stevens had seemed to take advantage of.

As Cam waited for Benny, her cell phone rang. It was Mindy, nearly in tears.

“Cam, Barry called! He wants to take the girls for the afternoon, but I’m really worried if he takes them, I won’t get them back! Please! Do you know somewhere to hide us? I can’t take our car. I’m worried he’ll tap into our GPS tracker. It’s how he found out where we’re staying.”

“There’s no . . . court order, is there? To let him, I mean?” Cam was worried about breaking the law. This domain could be so touchy.

“No! He never wanted to talk custody until recently. We’re not even divorced, but I’m scared.” Her voice quivered and Cam gave in.

“You’re only about eight blocks from Sweet Surprise—Annie’s store. Go there as soon as rehearsals are over and I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.” She relayed the address and gave directions, then hung up, thinking the day couldn’t get any more complicated.

“And this was supposed to be my easy day,” she grumbled.

“Talking to yourself might make people think you’re unstable, Miz Harris.”

“Benny! Thank goodness!” She almost spilled the beans about Dylan being the son of the dead man, but decided that if Dylan wanted people to know, he would tell them. “Are you okay with a longer shift?”

“Scooter’s coming soon. I got it covered. Then I’ll be back for six to midnight. Don’t you worry.”

Benny’s reassurances didn’t help. She needed to call Annie and get to the cupcake shop before someone, namely Annie, blew a gasket about the unexpected guests.

She rushed back to the office to tell Evangeline she’d be available on her cell, only to find Barry Blankenship, culprit of the hour, hovering outside the elevator.

“Oh! Hello!”

“I wondered . . . my daughters are in the pageant . . .”

“You’re the man who asked about Evangeline the other night,” Cam said. She didn’t want to let on how much she actually knew about him.

“I am.” He didn’t look thrilled to be remembered that way.

“Are you also the one who’s been calling Evangeline?”

“What? Well, maybe a few times.”

Cam almost called him by name, but caught herself. “If your name is on the forms, I can share information with you. Otherwise, it violates the legal agreement we have with the contestants. Who are your daughters?”

“Are there a lot of sisters?”

“Sir, for all I know, your daughters are by different mamas and have nothing to do with the other besides you. You said plural, so I said plural. If it’s just one, it’s easier.”

“I think you know who I am.”

“And I think you know the law is on my side.”

Evangeline walked out then and stared down Barry.

“I blocked your number, so now you turn up here?” she said.

“I want to see my daughters.”

“I explained that, legally, his name has to be on the documents,” Cam said.

Her phone buzzed. She looked at both Evangeline and Barry, as if daring them to stop her from answering.

“Cam Harris,” she answered, her neck prickling from the uncomfortable conversation.

“What the hell did you send them here for?” Annie snarled.

“I don’t know. My afternoon is swamped, but I’ll see what I can do,” Cam said, hoping Annie would take the hint.

“You owe me!”

“Oh, thank goodness. As soon as I can, then.” She hung up.

“Barry, I’ll get a restraining order if I have to,” Evangeline said.

“Did you want to give me a card or something?” Cam said, hoping to defuse the standoff. “I can check the lists. Your daughters’ names would help, too.”

Barry glared and got on the elevator without sharing a card or any names.

Evangeline looked at Cam curiously. “So you know the story with his daughters?”

“I think so. He left the mom . . . completely for about nine months, but now seems to want custody of his daughters again. My guess is a lawyer told him how much a rich son-of-a-gun has to pay in child support if he’s not the custodial parent.”

“That sounds about right. And your phone call?”

“Personal obligation this afternoon.” Cam didn’t want to put Evangeline in an awkward position legally or ethically. “I’ll have my phone and computer. You okay here?”

“You’ve put out the fires this week. I suppose it’s my turn.”

* * *

C
am made her way to Sweet Surprise, only to ask Annie another favor. She needed Annie’s car to take Mindy and the girls to her house so they’d be more comfortable for the afternoon and evening. They could do the research there for the Green Project, which both were scheduled for.

When she arrived at Sweet Surprise, she whispered to Annie that the deadbeat dad was trying to change his mind about custody and they were stuck. She looked up at Lauren frosting cupcakes and Lizzie adding sprinkles, her mermaid book off to the side like a security blanket. Cam figured the only real tension was with Mindy, who was surely eating crow after accepting Annie’s help. Annie could act as irritable as she wanted. She’d won the battle of “who has a better life.” Still, a little bribery could never hurt. Cam offered to buy Annie a six-pack of the finest microbrew and a bottle of Mexican vanilla, and then they might call it even.

“You girls ready to go relax for a bit?” Cam asked.

“No!” Lizzie yelled. “It’s fun here!”

“I have it on good authority that Annie has to clean up next. Do you want to scrub the floor?”

“No, thank you.” She frowned very seriously.

“I’ll tell you what. For supper, we’ll order some pizzas and Annie can come over. Does that sound okay?”

“Yes!” both girls shouted together.

Cam went over and hugged Annie, shoving a twenty in her pocket. “Buy whatever beer you need to make this bearable. Pizza is on us.”

“Can the boys come?” Annie asked.

“Yeah, that’s probably best.”

“Tell Rob to bring the beer for you and him. I can’t be seen buying that stuff. I have a reputation to uphold.”

It was a jab, to be sure, but one Cam was familiar with. Annie liked locally brewed, strong beer. “If you can see through it, why bother?” was her motto. Cam and Rob tended to go with lower-calorie options. Cam could take the teasing. What she couldn’t seem to take was the alcohol content in the strong stuff. She was a lightweight.

* * *

D
avy Jones, the neighborhood stray, greeted them outside and it took some effort to convince the girls he didn’t really need to be invited in. Cam watched Mindy’s face as they entered the lower level of the split house Cam shared with Annie. She could see Mindy examining the little house, probably fighting her snobbery, but the girls jumped onto her futon in the front room and Cam turned on the Disney Channel.

She looked back at Mindy, who was biting her finger and looking distraught.

“What is it?”

“I’m just mad at myself—buying into all that ‘stuff matters’ and marrying for security without learning to create my own.” She sniffed heavily and sat at Cam’s kitchen table, out of view of her daughters.

Cam wasn’t sure how to respond. “Do you want some tea? Wine?”

“Tea’s good.”

Mindy was crying openly now. Cam decided just to listen if Mindy needed to talk. She filled the teapot and put it on the burner, then occupied herself putting teabags in a bowl, then sugar and cream. When she had the pieces assembled, she put them all onto a tray.

Mindy continued to whimper about choices wasted and never having had to support herself before.

“I mean, what can I do? The last job I had, I was twenty-three and living with my parents.”

“I’m sure you have plenty of skills. What was your degree in?”

Mindy sniffed. “French. And I haven’t spoken it since Barry and I honeymooned in Quebec.”

“The girls seem well-adjusted. You’ve been a good mother. That’s important.”

“Lauren blames me for their dad leaving, and I don’t even understand Lizzie. She’s like some foreign thing.”

Cam frowned. At least Mindy and Lizzie were on the same page about their relationship. That was something.

Cam excused herself for a little while to make the calls she needed to double-check everything, then she called Rob and explained the situation. Mindy thumbed through a gardening magazine, but Cam was sure she didn’t really see anything. Cam took the girls to and from an afternoon rehearsal, feeling Mindy needed the downtime. When they returned, the girls took turns at the computer for an hour, then Lauren got back to television and Lizzie curled up on a chair with her book. Mindy was still in a funk and couldn’t even help Lauren sort through a tiered compost bin she was trying to design. Cam wished she could help, but as pageant staff, she felt it would be cheating. Instead, she gave Lauren some websites to check.

The girls giggled in the other room and Cam went out to talk to them. “What kind of pizza do you girls eat?”

Mindy spoke behind her. “Just cheese—that’s normal, right?”

Cam suspected pepperoni was more common, but since she planned on veggie for her and Rob—a choice she knew Annie could live with if they got a side of jalapeños—she just shrugged and ordered one of each. Jake, the lone meat-eater, would have to cope somehow.

* * *

A
nnie and Rob arrived together, coming through the back door. Since Cam had borrowed Annie’s car, she’d asked Rob to swing by and pick up Annie on his way over. Each of them carried in a six-pack of beer and stuck them in Cam’s fridge.

“We won’t insist you partake,” Annie said to Mindy.

Cam made a face at Annie, hoping Mindy wouldn’t hear it for the rudeness it was.

“When’s Jake getting here?” Cam asked.

“His shift ended at four, but he’s got the paperwork piece after that, and . . .”

“Yeah . . . I know murder investigations make for a busy day.”

Mindy’s expression changed, then changed again. She finally found some resolve and went into the front room to see her daughters. When Lizzie heard Annie’s name, though, she shrieked and ran back to the kitchen, hugging her.

“Hey, squirt. What are you watching?”

Lizzie shrugged and took Annie’s hand, leading her back to the television.

“You hear anything?” Rob asked.

Cam shook her head, though that wasn’t strictly true. “You?”

He made a disgruntled face. He hadn’t, either.

“Guess at the moment this mystery rests with Jake,” Cam said.

“Unfortunately, I think he feels burned by the last time,” Rob said. “He hasn’t shared nearly as much.”

Cam and Rob had both gotten a lot of information from Jake the last time there’d been a murder. And both had done a fair bit of investigating on their own, which Jake didn’t like. “I think we should pool what we know, even if it isn’t much, so he will trade with us.”

Cam smiled and hugged him. It was nice that Rob could be a little devious in the same way she was. Neither of them would ever withhold anything from the police that would keep a crime from being solved. But they both had some skill maneuvering facts so they could obtain as much extra information as was available.

They liked Jake, but as a cop, Jake’s job was to keep quiet as much as possible. Cam, under the heading of damage control, needed better information than that. Rob, a newspaper reporter, needed as much as he could possibly get.

* * *

J
ake arrived about fifteen minutes after the pizza.

They all met in the front room. Cam noticed Jake looking strangely at Mindy and she remembered the questioning he’d given her. At the moment, though, it seemed like Mindy’s fear for her kids was more important to Mindy than any residual awkwardness from the questioning, so she didn’t seem to mind Jake was there. After they ate, Cam surveyed the leftovers and her companions and said, “Look at the time! You two girls need to be up early. One more slice of pizza and then Rob will give you a ride back to your hotel.”

They started to complain, but when Lizzie yawned, they gave in.

“Thank you so much for having us here. I couldn’t have faced Barry tonight—not after that questioning,” Mindy whispered just out of earshot of her children.

“I’m sure there were several of those arguments,” Cam tried to reassure her. “Telly seemed to make a lot of people mad.”

“Maybe. But I’m sure I was the only one stupid enough to be seen. Even if there were lots of arguments, since mine was the only one witnessed, they wouldn’t believe every other mother here had probably had the exact same argument with him. He was a horrible man.”

Mindy saw Rob pull out a notebook and gasped. “You’re not reporting on this, are you?”

“It’s a good story.”

“You can’t write that! I didn’t kill him!”

“They thought you did it?” Rob looked at Cam. She could have died. They hadn’t gotten around to Mindy being questioned yet. Dylan, either, for that matter. She’d been saving her news for later, or so she had told herself.