“Five who live here,” Chloe said and then stopped again. “Four,” she amended, her voice wobbling when she mentally took Zadie off her list. “The housekeeper and cook, Veronica Baskar. My assistant, Sunny. My brother, Dr. Franklin Voss, and then me. We also have a groundskeeper part-time—Buddy Jenkins—but he doesn’t live here.”
They would need to speak to all of them, but for now, she needed the basics. “What’s Sunny’s surname?” Livvy asked.
“Covington,” Chloe replied as if the answer was obvious. “She’s, uh, Zadie’s sister.”
Ethan and Livvy exchanged a glance, and it was Ethan who voiced what they needed. “If she’s here, we have to talk to hernow.” A sister was far more likely than a boss to know personal details that could have led to Zadie’s murder.
Chloe nodded and then reached over and pressed a button on a discreet-looking intercom on the end table. “Sunny, could you please come to the front parlor? The police are here.”
“Yes” was the woman’s barely audible reply.
“Uh, please go easy on her,” Chloe whispered. “Sunny and Zadie were very close.”
She’d barely gotten out the last word when there was the sound of rushing footsteps. Someone was flat-out running toward the room, and it put Livvy and Ethan on full alert. They adjusted their positions so it’d be easier to get to their weapons. They soon realized it wasn’t a threat.
But it was a shock.
The woman who ran into the room had a tear-streaked face with identical features to Zadie’s.
Livvy choked back a gasp, barely, but she couldn’t stop the flashbacks of seeing a dead Zadie in that tub. So much like her nightmare with that blond hair and pale skin. Sunny was blonde and pale, too, but this living, breathing woman wasn’t identical to the one from Livvy’s dreams. Close but not a perfect match.
“I forgot to mention that Sunny and Zadie are identical twins,” Chloe said, obviously noticing Livvy’s reaction. “It must have startled you to see Sunny.”
“It did,” she admitted.
“Is Zadie really dead?” Sunny asked. “I mean, I know what the cops told Mom, but is she really dead?”
“Yes,” Livvy verified.
“Sit down, Sunny,” Chloe coaxed, taking her by the hand and easing Sunny onto the sofa next to her. “These are deputies from Renegade Canyon, and they have some questions for you. They need to find out who hurt your sister.”
Hurt. That was a mild way of putting it, but Livvy didn’t correct her. Sunny looked as if she was barely hanging on by a thread, and it was best to make this fast and as gentle as possible. It certainly wouldn’t help if she knew the bloody details of her sister’s murder.
“When’s the last time you saw your sister?” Livvy started.
Sunny pulled in a long, trembling breath. “Last night…around seven or so. She came to my suite to borrow some nail polish remover. I was working on budget reports, and I didn’t even really talk to her other than to tell her to help herself to the polish remover. She didn’t say anything about going out,” she added in a mutter.
But she had done exactly that. Maybe not voluntarily though. “Do you have any idea when and why your sister left New Hope?” Livvy asked.
“No,” Sunny was quick to say, and she looked at her boss. “Did you tell them about Anthony?”
Chloe nodded. “I’m sure they’ll talk to him.”
“Talk to him and arrest him,” Sunny spat out, some of her grief and shock replaced by anger. “Because he did this.”
All right. This Anthony was now top priority, and he’d need to be brought in for questioning.
“Tell me about Anthony,” Livvy prompted. “And about their breakup.”
Sunny took a couple of moments, clearly fighting to keep hold of her composure. “I think he was some kind of con artist. I caught him in a couple of lies. Nothing major, but I thought if he’d lie about little things, he’d probably lie about bigger ones, too.”
“For instance?” Ethan pressed.
“Like saying he’d never been here to New Hope, but he knew about the old root cellar. He made a joke about it. And he mentioned the house used to be a different color.” Sunny lifted her shoulder. “Little things,” she repeated in a mutter and then fell silent.
Livvy didn’t answer right away. Her mind was already racing, latching onto every detail. Little things. That was what predators got caught on—details they didn’t mean to drop, slips they didn’t think mattered.
But they mattered to Livvy.
