After I dropped off Chaz and Harry, I drove straight home, parked my car, and turned it off. I’d had a rough few days and a long work day ahead of me the following morning – if the clients didn’t cancel their appointments when word got around that I was taken into the station for questioning. Fuck, I hoped not. I knew in my heart that Georgia did not mean what she said about destroying my business, so I hoped like hell that my salon didn’t turn out to be a victim like she did.
“YOU DOING OKAY, PARTNER?”
I looked up from the Beaumont case file I’d been studying intently and gave Adrian a questioning look. “Yeah, why?”
Adrian narrowed his eyes and raked them over my face and upper body, grinning when he took in my clenched fists. Fine, I wasn’t “okay” and I wouldn’t be until after I got the shit with Josh straight in my head. He wanted me. I wanted him. Why weren’t we seeing where this would take us? Damn, I must’ve been clenching my jaw just as tightly as my fists because it began to ache and I felt a nasty headache brewing.
“Uh huh.” Adrian reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen and tossed it to me. “You want to tell me what’s put that scowl on your face? And don’t bother telling me it’s the case either,” he rushed to amend, taking away the avenue I had planned to use.
I swallowed two tablets of ibuprofen with coffee that was cold as an evil witch’s heart. Yes, the Beaumont case bugged the hell out of me, but my condition had to do with one frustratingly beautiful and complicated man. I felt the way he responded to me the night before when we kissed. I saw all the signs of jealousy in his body language when he saw me with Kyle. I saw him stiffen out of the corner of my eye when Kyle reached over and touched my arm. Hell, I stiffened too. What the hell had that been about? It would’ve been awkwardwithoutJosh being there, but it was so much worse with him watching.
I wasn’t sure where Kyle had been heading with his touching and peering into my eyes bit. I suspected he was horny and looking to scratch an easy itch. That’s what weusedto be to one another after our breakup. The first time it had been awkward, but the few times after were very similar to any kind of hookup. We got our fuck on then went our separate ways. I didn’t want that with him anymore and I wasn’t really sure how to approach the subject – not that I would have in his reception area with Alyssa staring on. Kyle had once said she was the biggest gossip in town and I really didn’t want to have my personal life being discussed at The Brew or Edson and Emma’s Diner.
So, Iaccidentallylet go of Buddy’s leash and he didn’t let me down. He headed right for the one person I wanted to know better. I couldn’t resist taunting Josh a little when I retrieved my dog and was completely ecstatic when he took the bait. I listened to his spiel about how it wasn’t the day and I wasn’t the man he’d be willing to fight over. Blah. Blah. Blah. His eyes told me different so I called him on his bullshit and planted a fierce kiss on him. None of which, I’d be sharing with my partner.
Of course, when I looked back up at Adrian he wore a knowing smirk on his face. He knew the real source of my irritation. Luckily, he was a great friend and let it go. “What are you thinking?” he asked and then quickly added, “about the case.”
“Josh isn’t the killer. He has an alibi and the motive was pretty thin,” I told Adrian, trying to ignore the pinch in my heart when I thought about Josh’s alibi. “There was no sign of forced entry or that the lock had been tampered with, so the perpetrator had a key or she let them in.”
“Why would she let someone in and then climb in the bathtub with a glass of wine and a romance novel?” Adrian asked. “That, plus the time of death, implies intimacy. My wife loves her friends but she wouldn’t invite them over after midnight then climb into a bathtub. That leaves us with someone entering the premises with a key given to them by Georgia or someone else who had access to them.”
I rubbed the back of my neck while I listened to Adrian’s thoughts that mirrored my own. “I’ve heard that Georgia wasn’t a well-loved woman in the community, but that doesn’t usually give someone a motive to kill. The two likeliest suspects are each other’s alibis.”
“Rocky and Nadine,” Adrian said, nodding his head.
“Yep, unless there’s an heir to her estate that was eager for their inheritance,” I added. “That crime scene was clean – too clean. We won’t get reports back from the state lab in Columbus for weeks, or even months, but I’m not expecting any ‘smoking gun’ evidence when we lay eyes on them.”
He licked his bottom lip as he processed what I said. “Are you thinking someone hired it done?”
My theory sounded like some far-fetched TV drama, but in a way, it was the only thing that made sense to me. “Let’s have a chat with her housekeeper to see just how many people had keys to that home and make sure they’re all accounted for.”
“That would be Mrs. Honeycutt,” Adrian said as he rose to his feet and removed his jacket from the back of his chair. “She was my Sunday school teacher when I was a kid. I’m sure she’s witnessed a lot of things at the Beaumont house over the years. Let’s see what she has to say.”
Wanda Honeycutt was seventy, but looked much younger, and had worked for Georgia Beaumont for more than two decades. When we arrived at her small ranch home at eleven thirty she was still dressed in her bathrobe. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, as was the petite nose that rested above trembling lips.
“Adrian,” she said with a tearful voice. “It’s good to see you.” She turned to me and offered me a weak smile. “I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of meeting yet.” Wanda fell back on her good manners, regardless of how heartbroken she was over the loss of her long-time employer.
“Gabriel Wyatt,” I said, extending my hand to her. Wanda’s tiny hand trembled in mine when she shook my hand. It was obvious that Wanda was grieving over Georgia’s murder and I was grateful that she hadn’t been the one to find her. I was thankful that Josh hadn’t stumbled upon the scene either. He had been heading over to her house early that morning. What if he’d gone around back if Georgia hadn’t answered the front door? I decided Josh had seen his quota of dead bodies and pushed the thought out of my mind to concentrate on the woman in front of me.
Wanda showed us to her kitchen and insisted on pouring us both a cup of coffee. She took a lid off a cookie jar then placed cookies on a plate before putting it on the table between Adrian and me. Adrian didn’t hesitate to reach in for a cookie, but I held back a minute. I couldn’t so much as think about a chocolate chip cookie, let alone eat one, without thinking about Josh. Adrian nodded for me to take one, but I didn’t. I felt irritation rising inside myself for acting like a lovesick teenager rather than a grown-ass man. Was I going to permanently ban chocolate chip cookies unless they came from Josh? Hell would freeze over before he baked me another fucking cookie.Fuck it!I grabbed two cookies from the plate and took a big bite out of the first one. They were really good, but not in the same ballpark as Josh’s.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Mrs. Honeycutt,” Adrian said soothingly. “I know it must have been a terrible shock to you. If you don’t mind, Gabe and I have some questions for you.”
“Anything I can do to help you catch the despicable person who hurt Georgia. She was so good to…” Mrs. Honeycutt choked up and couldn’t finish her sentence. She wiped the new stream of tears that ran down pale cheeks with a wad of tissues. “Sorry,” she said once she composed herself again. “Ask me anything.”
I could see Adrian hesitate because he didn’t want to upset Mrs. Honeycutt anymore, but I knew we had to start somewhere or we’d be there all day. “How long did you work for Mrs. Beaumont?” I liked to start all interviews with easy questions that I already knew the answers to for a few reasons. In some cases, I did it to see how honest the person was going to be, but in that case I just wanted to ease her into the questions.
“It’s been twenty-five years,” she replied sadly. She looked down at a ring she wore on her right hand and began twisting it around her ring finger. “Georgia had just given me this ring in honor of all the years I worked for her.” Mrs. Honeycutt extended her hand and showed us a gold band with a small emerald surrounded by diamonds. “It’s my birthstone.”
“That’s very pretty,” I replied. “You must’ve been very special to her.”
Mrs. Honeycutt nodded silently for a few moments and then said, “She was misunderstood by most people, but of course, she didn’t do anything to change people’s opinion about her. It was almost as if she liked to be disliked, if that makes any sense.” It didn’t to me, but I had learned that people were complex and often didn’t make sense.
“Can you think of anyone who disliked her enough to kill her?” Adrian asked.
“Besides Rocky and Nadine?” The scorn that dripped off her tongue when she spoke their names was almost comical. “Those two assholes are the only ones who’d want to hurt her. Certainly not Josh Roman!” She pinned Adrian and then me with a hard glare. “Why in the world would you have that sweet boy brought in for questioning? He loved Georgia as much as I did.” She leaned forward, her complexion changing from pale to pink as she worked her ire up. “Do you know that Josh came to her home to do her hair when Georgia was too mortified to step out in public after Rocky’s affair was exposed? Hell, he was the one who convinced her to leave the house with her head held high and a ‘fuck them’ attitude.”
Adrian nearly choked on the sip of coffee he’d just taken and I suspected it was because of Mrs. Honeycutt’s bawdy language. I found it to be hilarious and couldn’t keep the grin off of my face.
