The Diva Digs up the Dirt (29 page)

“She has a stash of expensive shoes hidden in the guesthouse,” I explained.

“What is it with women and shoes? Natasha has an entire closet devoted to shoes and purses.”

“Sorry, but I’m not buying it.” I said. “If Roscoe wanted to be rid of Mindy, he could divorce her and be done with it. Erase his name, Nina. He might be a crafty old fellow, but I can’t see him overdosing on his own meds just to make himself appear innocent. And if he had poisoned Mindy’s scotch, he wouldn’t have had a drink or offered it to us.”

“Wouldn’t it be even more ironic if Mindy were trying to kill Audie, and Audie were trying to kill Mindy?” asked Nina.

“Our speculation omits the fact that someone is trying to kill Roscoe and that Heath must fit into this equation somehow.” Mars stood up. “It’s late, and we’ve lost focus. I’m going home to bed. At least Mindy is safe from her poisoner in the hospital, and everyone else is safe from Mindy as long as she’s there.”

Nina accompanied him to the kitchen door and opened it. “Let’s hope so. Who knows what else she might have poisoned?”

I walked out with them so Daisy could do her business. Mars and Nina headed to their respective homes. Daisy wagged her tail like crazy, and Wolf stepped out of the shadows.

“Wolf! You know, that’s getting really creepy. Why are you always hanging around outside my house?”

“I’m not sleeping well. It’s not that I’m hanging around. I just happened to be walking by.” Wolf crouched to pet Daisy, who apparently didn’t feel creeped out at all because she licked his face. “Maybe it’s a good thing. You’re spending a lot of time with Mars.”

I couldn’t help myself. I had to say it. “There’s a lot of stuff going on”—I stopped dead. I couldn’t say Roscoe’s name without Wolf making a stink—“that you don’t know about.”

“Like what?”

“Now you know how I feel when you say that to me.”

He stood up and kicked a pebble into the street. “Sophie, I don’t like to talk about Anne
at all
because it’s so painful. Right now, it’s even worse because all the old stuff is being dredged back up, and I’m reliving the nightmare again, over and over a million times a day trying to remember any little insignificant detail. And then there’s the awkwardness of it all. Talking to you about Anne is like talking to my mom about sex. There’s just something distasteful about it.”

Distasteful or not, I wanted information. “Wolf, I don’t exactly know where we stand. I think chances are pretty good that we may never know what happened to Anne. It breaks my heart for you, and for her parents.” I remembered Kenner’s devotion to her and added, “For everyone who loved her. As much as I might want to, I can’t change that. I know you’re hurting, but if you mean to have a relationship with me, then you owe it to me to talk about Anne. I think I deserve that much.”

Wolf looked away and said nothing.

I gave it a shot. “Kenner didn’t seem to know anything about the embezzlement.”

“Aw, Sophie!” he sputtered. “You told him about that?”

“I just asked if he knew anything about Anne having money problems.”

Wolf huffed. “Roscoe never reported the embezzlement to the police. I couldn’t get to his corporate records because it’s a private company. Anne’s employer was elated that
Roscoe put a lid on the whole thing, because it would have damaged his reputation and put him out of business.”

“So there’s no way of knowing the truth. But Overton, her boss, didn’t have any reason to lie.”

“I still don’t think Anne would ever have done that. But what was I supposed to do? If I made it public, and she was alive, I might be putting her in jail. If I made it public, and she was dead, I was just besmirching her reputation. No one would give me access to the documents to prove anything. I will never believe that Anne embezzled from anyone.” He gripped my wrist. “It was as out of character for her to embezzle as it would be for
you
to steal millions. I just can’t prove it.”

I didn’t need to press him anymore. I’d managed to ferret out the thing he didn’t want me to know about Anne. I could understand why he didn’t believe it, especially since he wasn’t privy to the records. In his shoes, I might have reacted the same way. He didn’t want people thinking ill of Anne. Even now, he protected her in death as he had in life.

But there was one more thing I wanted to know. When he said good-night and strolled on, I hurried to lock my house, then Daisy and I followed him.

He walked toward Natasha and Mars’s house, passed their front steps, and rounded the corner to the left. Daisy and I jogged to catch up. We stopped at the corner of Natasha and Mars’s house and peered around it. Wolf ambled on down the sidewalk, evidently unaware that he was being tailed. And then, in one second, he was gone. He vanished into thin air.

Daisy and I walked faster than I really wanted, but I hoped Daisy might wag her tail or bark if she smelled him hiding somewhere. Sniffing with her nose close to the sidewalk, she wanted to turn left into the alley. “No, Daisy,” I hissed. Duke or some other dog had probably walked that way earlier.

And then a door shut with a little snap. Not a car door, a door in a house. The lights in Bernie’s apartment over Natasha and Mars’s garage went on—and I knew. I waited
a moment, watching the window that faced the side street. Wolf drew the curtains closed. He was staying at Bernie’s,

During the night, some kind of weather front moved in, shoving out the humidity and blistering heat. It left a glorious summer morning, the air slightly crisp but not cold. Energy coursed through me. Maybe we were right about Mindy. Maybe the Greene family’s problems had come to an end. I threw on a khaki skirt and matching Keds, and found a sleeveless coral top that I’d forgotten I had. I took that as a good sign.

In the kitchen, I skipped coffee, but Mochie head-butted me just in case I’d forgotten about him. I hadn’t. “Salmon and chicken, okay?” He purred. I spooned half a can of it into his bowl, grabbed Daisy’s leash, and ran next door to Francie’s house.

Her front door was open, and Duke was halfway out. Francie held his leash.

“Any word on Audie?” I asked.

“He had a good night. Did you talk to Kenner about Mindy?”

A car whipped by us, much too fast for Old Town.

Francie frowned. “Was that Mars? He knows better than to drive so fast around here.”

We walked Daisy and Duke along our street, calling out “Good morning” to neighbors taking in their newspapers.

I filled her in on the details of our meeting with Kenner. “He intimated there could be two people trying to poison the Greenes.”

“But they’re such good, decent people!” Francie protested. “Who else would take in a grouch like Violet?”

“So what’s the story there?”

“It’s an old, familiar tale. I’m afraid it’s not very exciting. Violet’s husband emptied their bank accounts and ran off with another woman. Nothing new about that. It happens to a lot of people. She located him, but he’d wasted the money gambling on horse racing, so she found herself with
nothing. Nowhere to go, nowhere to live, and not many skills to speak of. It was about a month after Audie was born, so she stayed with Roscoe and Olive to help out with the new baby and the house, and she became a fixture. She’s part of the family.”

I held Duke’s leash while Francie bought coffees and caramel banana muffins at Big Daddy’s Bakery. She handed me a muffin topped with banana slices and ooey-gooey caramel. “So it will blow your diet. You look fine to me.”

If she only knew how many ways I’d blown my diet in the past week! I thanked her, hoping I wouldn’t be like Daisy and start drooling before I could eat it. We drank our coffees and ate our sinfully delicious treats sitting by a fountain at Market Square, watching Old Town wake up. I was finally beginning to feel like I was on a little staycation.

We strolled back, stopping to window-shop in the cute stores.

Francie came to a halt outside of Café Olé. “Cricket?” said Francie.

Cricket raised her eyes from the grande coffee she carried out the door. “Francie, Sophie.” She sniffed and hugged Francie. “I’m devastated. It’s all so horrible.”

Blue rings under her eyes gave them a hollow appearance. Her makeup had smeared, and so had some of her glamour. She wore washed-out scrubs, white satin high heels, a pearl necklace, and dangling pearl earrings.

“I must look a mess. I’m dead on my feet. I stayed over at Audie’s bedside last night. One of the nurses took pity on me in my wedding dress. Can you imagine what a scene that was? She scrounged up these scrubs for me.”

“Let me buy you breakfast, dear,” said Francie.

“That’s so kind of you, but I have to go home and change and then get to the office. Audie insists that a Greene has to be there to break the news. I’m not a Greene yet, but I’m the only one who can do it!” She held her fingers over her mouth. “Have you talked to Olive? I know she must be distraught.”

“Olive was planning to spend the day taking care of
Audie,” said Francie. “We just can’t believe anyone would want to hurt poor, sweet Audie.”

“I’m so glad he’ll be okay,” I said.

“He’ll be fine, but—” An incredulous expression came over Cricket’s weary face. “Oh my gosh! You haven’t heard. Roscoe died at home last night.”

The color washed out of Francie’s complexion. I swung my arm around her lest she fall.

“I’m so sorry,” said Cricket. “I thought you knew.”

Francie seemed in a daze. Her chest heaved with each breath as though she couldn’t inhale enough air. “Would you drive me over to Roscoe’s, Sophie?”

“Of course. Why don’t you wait in the cool bakery? You can sit at one of their tables. I’ll take the dogs home and be back in a flash to pick you up.”

She nodded. I took Duke’s leash from her and watched to be sure she made it into the bakery safely. I knew the owner. He would look out for her.

Cricket stifled a yawn. “Sorry. I haven’t pulled an all-nighter since college. I remember it being much easier then.”

I said good-bye to Cricket and hurried home. Natasha wouldn’t be pleased to see two dogs when she invaded my house, but I didn’t care. Duke was a great fellow, a typically friendly Golden Retriever, and most importantly, he got along well with Mochie. Daisy and Duke settled on the kitchen floor, panting.

I scooped the other half of Mochie’s food into his bowl, checked to be sure the water bowl was full, and locked up. I drove Wolf’s car to Big Daddy’s Bakery. Naturally, there was no place to park. I was about to drive on, but Francie charged out of Big Daddy’s yelling my name. Traffic waited behind me while she climbed into the car.

We wound through the morning traffic flooding into Old Town and headed to Roscoe’s.

“Did you call Olive?” I asked.

“They have enough commotion on their hands without people adding to it by phoning. I need to help Olive, not make more work for her.”

Mars’s car was parked in the driveway when we arrived. No wonder he’d been driving so fast this morning.

Francie chugged up the porch steps. I reached out to ring the bell, but she turned the handle and walked right in.

The house lay still and cool. The faint sound of crying and a hushed voice drifted to us. Francie hustled through the living room to Roscoe’s den, and I followed.

Olive slouched in the cushy leather chair, holding a tissue in her hand. Her eyes were closed tightly. She looked like she was having a tough time holding herself together.

Francie cried, “Olive!” and held out her arms.

Olive opened her eyes, rushed into Francie’s arms, and sobbed hysterically.

Mars stood beside Roscoe’s desk observing them.

I drifted over to him. “What happened?”

“Kenner arrived early this morning. When Violet brought him in here, they found Roscoe slumped over at his desk. She phoned me right away. He must have had a coronary. They think his heart went, since Roscoe refused to take his medication. They’ll know more when they do a postmortem.”

“But they’ll check for poisoning, right?”

“Given the trouble with poisoning around here, I’m sure they’ll run tests for foxglove and monkshood, just to be sure.”

“Where’s Violet?”

“On the side porch.”

I left him with Olive and Francie and returned to the front porch. Tiptoeing around the side, I spotted Violet, rocking in a chair and looking darker and angrier than ever. Although I had a feeling she would only snap at me, I felt compelled to say something to her.

Walking softly, I approached her and kneeled next to the rocking chair. “Violet, I’m so sorry. I know how much Roscoe meant to you.”