Page 54 of Murder on Charity Lane

No one answered the front door. He rang again and one of the gardeners pointed around the side of the house. He called, “Gracias,” then followed a path to where he found Karina DeYoung in a one-piece bathing suit lounging by the pool, which was not what he’d expected from the grieving widow. She was sitting on a chaise in the shade of a big umbrella, flipping through a leather-bound book. She’d struck him as mousy on first sight, but her swimsuit revealed a tidy body. Well, except for the sun damage that had left moles and age spots on her skin.

“Ms. DeYoung,” he said.

“Missus,” she corrected him, before raising her gaze. “Oh, Officer … um, I’ve forgotten your name.”

“Detective Enible. I have a few questions, if you don’t mind.”

She closed the book with manicured fingers. “I hate to imagine what you think, finding me at the pool. But this was our spot, listening to the surf. Frank read the LA Times here every morning. He refused to subscribe online, he liked the feel of paper in his hands.”

As he sat, he realized her book was a photo album. So he asked her about it, and she showed him pictures of her life with Frank. Then she said, “Everyone thinks—you think—that I married him for his money. And y’know what? It didn’t hurt. He used to laugh when I’d say that. It shocked everyone, and he liked that. But he’s the first man who really courted me. You wouldn’t understand. He was a good man. That’s rare.”

“You think CJ Moore pushed him down the stairs.”

She closed the photo album with a gunshot snap. “I don’t think it, Detective, I know it. I saw her.”

“Why did she do it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. She thought they were closer than they were, which was sad and deluded. He must’ve done something to piss her off. Like try to establish healthy boundaries.”

“She lives here?” he asked.

“She did. Rent free. For years. Not anymore.” Karina cleared her throat. “Why haven’t you arrested her?”

“She says she reached for your husband to catch him when he stumbled.”

“There’s a difference between catching and pushing.”

“Nobody else reported that, ma’am.”

“I know what I saw, just like I know how you see me. As a trophy wife, and not even a good one.”

“I don’t know enough trophy wives to judge.”

She gave a quick laugh. “A cop with a sense of humor?”

“I’m a special case,” he told her. “Did you see anyone with that Amaretto bottle that broke?”

“No, though CJ usually mixed them for him.”

He asked about the other guests, then said, “What do you know about Sophie Gilman and Nicholas Perez?”

“Who? Oh, right, no, I’d never met them before. I certainly wasn’t expecting them. I suppose they were CJ’s guests. Oh!” She sat up straighter, and the sunlight painted a stripe across her shoulder. “You think they helped her.”

“No, ma’am,” he told her. “I’m not suggesting anything of the kind.”

Even as he said the words, he wondered if they had conspired with CJ Moore. He didn’t trust anyone at Marigold Cottages. Well, he’d trust them to babysit a child or return a wallet, just not to follow the law. They’d played games with the murders on the property earlier in the year, and now two of them appeared at another crime scene? That raised questions.

So as Karina kept insisting that she’d seen CJ push her husband down the stairs, he wondered what might connect Nicholas and Sophie to this death. Some not-entirely-legal sense of justice or morality, probably. Protecting the charity money? That sounded like them.

“I’m not wrong, Detective,” Karina was telling him. “Frank loved me. He loved me and I loved him, and we didn’t have much time left. We knew that.” Her smile looked sadder than her tears had. “He was slowing down, but he was still him. And CJ stole those final years from us. She stole our trips to Monaco and Aspen. She stole a thousand mornings sitting here, around the pool, listening to the surf.”

He gave her a moment, then said, “Do you have any family who can stay with you for the next few weeks?”

“No.”

“How about friends?”

“Well, Helene and George will stop by. They stayed with Frank for a few years so they’re completely at home here.”