When we were there, Ruth spoke first. “Well, it looks like someone’s making sure they get their inheritance.”
“Sure does,” I murmured.
“Think she killed Zelda?” Alice asked.
Lemon had been suspect from the very beginning, lying to me and then going crazy when she realized that she had not, in fact, received the inheritance that she had planned on getting.
I felt my face dip into a sour expression. “I think there’s a very good chance she did. The only problem is—we have to prove it.”
Ruth’s jaw clenched. “Then that’s just what we’ll do.”
Chapter 20
We met up with Roan a few minutes later. “Any luck?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not on the Lucky front.”
“But on something else?”
“Yes.” I proceeded to tell him what we’d seen Lemon doing. “Stealing the valuables.”
“Because she’s not getting anything else,” he mused.
“Exactly,” Ruth said. “I don’t know how much more guiltyguiltycould be.”
Alice pondered that. “Well, I don’t know. Guilty looks pretty guilty sometimes. Very guilty, in fact. She could probably be even more guilty.”
I smacked my face. “Alice, it was just an expression.”
“I knew that,” she snapped. “I knew that Ruth just meant pretty much nothing by it.”
“Can we focus on the job at hand?” Ruth asked. “We’ve got to pull her out. Make Lemon admit what she did. Why else would she be stealing?”
“Maybe she’s out of silverware at her house,” Alice suggested.
“She’s not out of silverware. She killed her mother and realized that she’s not getting anything, so she’s taking whatever she can,” Ruth bit out. “It’s plain as the nose on your face.”
“I can’t see my nose without my glasses,” Alice mumbled.
“Ladies,” Roan said, regaining control of the situation, “let’s try to put everything together and kill several birds with one stone.”
I nibbled my bottom lip. “How do we do that, though? We need to pull my dad out but also get Lemon to admit her guilt. Any ideas on how to make that work?”
Roan snapped his fingers. “As much as I hate to say it—the helmet. But that’s only if you think it’s safe. We tell everyone that we’re going to call Zelda back, get her to reveal who killed her.”
“So not call Sable at all?” My stomach went queasy. “But then we’ve got a soul that my father can take.”
“Not if I’m there, he won’t.”
Lucky Strike’s voice filled the solarium. I whirled to see him lounging on a couch, one leg dangling over the other as he reclined on the cushion.
“I’m sorry about what I said to you earlier, Blissful. I’d hate to even think of hurting you like that.”
“Well, you had,” I replied harshly.
“It was my own insecurity doing it.” He sat up and lit a cigarette that drooped between his fingers. “But I hear that you’ve been looking for me, and I’m here to help in any way that I can.”
“Who’d you hear that from?” I asked.
