Page 108 of Murder on Charity Lane

Usually she’d play along. “What’s wrong?”

She sighed. “There’s more evidence against CJ. I’ll tell you tonight.”

“Oh. Well, CJ doesn’t show up anywhere. I guess she’s lived the sort of blameless life that doesn’t involve local government.”

“Just a second,” Sophie said to someone in her office, before asking Nicholas, “Can you email Lily-Ann anything important? I’ve got to run. See you at home.”

“Love you,” he said to himself, since she’d already ended the call.

A few minutes later, he discovered that Helene and George Kagant had bought their current house ten years ago, for a small fortune—and half of what it was currently worth. Apparently there was good money in windshield wipers; Frank DeYoung must’ve made an extra fortune by funding their work.

“Last one,” he told himself, then searched for Sunny Wheeler.

He didn’t find much, considering Wheeler was a thousand years old and had lived in Montecito for fifty of them. The only unusual real estate transaction was Wheeler’s purchase of a fifteen-acre property off Route 192. Wheeler had immediately transferred the title to VivX Inc., which was some sort of life-extension company.

Which checked out for Mr. Fake Funeral on My Birthday.

Nicholas dug around and discovered that VivX had gone bankrupt years later. Which was weird, considering the amount of money Wheeler had poured into it. He thought about getting back to work, but the last fifteen minutes of the day wasn’t enough time to get anything done. So he researched Frank and Karina DeYoung instead. Somewhat to his surprise, neither Karina nor Frank appeared in connection with any property other than their primary residence in Hope Ranch. Even more surprising: over the past few years, Karina had arranged for demolition permits and design reviews and CEQA documents, but she’d never followed through.

Which meant what?

That she’d paid for major renovation plans, presented them to Frank, and he’d vetoed them? You marry a guy, think you’re partners, then when you want to upgrade the house suddenly the money is all his? Was that enough to kill an old man for?

He heard Anthony’s voice in his head. “People have killed for less.”

51

SOPHIE

After we moved in together, I realized that whenever I tucked my feet under myself on a sofa, Nicholas gave me a smoldering look. Was it just him? Did other men have a thing for women on couches? I had no idea. That felt like the level of question the Murder Collective was qualified to answer, but sadly we were too busy with a murder investigation for me to ask.

Well, mostly we were waiting for CJ to join us, now that she was out of jail.

We had questions for her, by which I mean Lily-Ann had questions for her. Also, Ocean had … I didn’t know what. Second thoughts? Desperate hopes? Acute regrets? Mostly just insecurity for dating a woman accused of murder. Poor Ocean. She deserved love more than anyone, she was so generous with herself, with her strength and her kindness, yet she was starting to think her love life was cursed.

The rest of us mostly wanted to judge for ourselves if CJ was likely to flee to Mexico, dodging her court appearances, violating the property bond, and making us homeless.

While we waited, Lily-Ann talked us through our current priorities. All of us except Mrs. B, who was coming with CJ. Well, and Anthony, who was at work. So Nicholas, Ocean, and I made suggestions while Hamilton took notes on his whiteboard.

THE TINY QUESTIONS

1) Is there a secret from George and Helene’s (aka Beard and Bird) shared past with Frank that they need to keep hidden? Sophie wants a dark backstory.

2) How much did Jane Sheffield’s personal success depend on Frank’s donations to World of Goods? Why didn’t he support her more with this Big Award she wanted?

3) Did Jane’s husbands die naturally?

“That doesn’t even rise to the level of an unimportant question,” Lily-Ann said when Hamilton added the last one himself. “She wasn’t married to Frank.”

“On the other hand,” Hamilton told her, “I am in charge of the whiteboard.”

“The first rule of brainstorming club,” Ocean told Lily-Ann, “is not to judge the brainstorming.”

“Because suspending judgment is such a productive approach.”

“Exactly,” Ocean said, ignoring her sarcasm. “Does anyone have anything about Pax the masseuse?”

Nicholas and I collaborated on the next one.