EIGHT
“JAMES, YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS,” DARLA MUTTERED IN her store manager’s ear, casually drawing him aside from the others still inside the bookshop.
She waited until they were near the front door, and softly added, “You know the driver of the van that killed Valerie Baylor?
It turns out she is that same crazy woman who wrote the letter I showed you.”
“You mean, Mrs.
Bobby Jennings of the Lord’s Blessing Church?
You actually talked to her?”
James stared at her, one eyebrow raised .
.
.
for him, an indication of extreme surprise.
She nodded.
“The highway patrol officer brought her over to me.
He was taking her statement about the accident, and she told him that she knew me.”
Darla went on to relate her mercifully brief encounter with Marnie and the other congregation members a few minutes earlier.
With their church van impounded by the police, they were stranded, at least for the night.
For a single awful moment, Darla had feared that the woman was going to ask if she and her church posse could stay with her.
Relief had swept her when Marnie had told her they had already been in contact with a local church who’d agreed to put them up until their van was returned to them.
“And thank God for that,” Darla finished, the words as heartfelt as any prayer of Marnie’s.
“You should have heard the things she was saying about hellfire and damnation.
I was serious when I told you she was a crazy woman.”
“So do the police think this was a deliberate attack on her part?”
“Surely not, or they would have arrested her .
.
.
or at least held her longer for questioning.”
Darla hesitated.
But, could it have been?
“No,” she repeated more firmly, “no way could she have known that Valerie would step out onto the street, and no way could she have timed it so exactly.
Heck, no one even realized the dead woman was Valerie at first, with all those girls and their black capes.
Awful as it is, I would guess Marnie’s not going to be charged with anything.”
Though Darla cynically wondered if all the nasty vibes Marnie and her gang had sent Valerie’s way could be considered a contributory factor in the tragedy.
Changing the subject, she asked, “So how are things going in here?”
“Your Detective Reese has already taken my statement, as well as those of Lizzie, Mary Ann, Mavis, Mr.
Foster, and Ms.
Gables.
Ms.
Baylor’s bodyguard is the last person waiting to be interviewed .
.
.
that is, besides you.”
Darla nodded.
She saw that Everest now sat with Reese at the signing table, while everyone else was gathered near the register, where someone had arranged a few of the chairs in an impromptu circle.
Mavis slumped desolately in one, flanked by Koji and Mary Ann, both of whom were murmuring words of consolation.
Lizzie sat slightly apart, her nose in a new paperback romance, while Hillary sat texting away on her phone.
The agent looked up as Darla and James approached.
“I don’t know why they’re bothering to take our statements,” she said with more than a hint of pique.
“We were all here inside when it happened.”
“Not necessarily,” was James’s smooth rejoinder.
“Busy as we all were, I venture to say that no one was taking attendance.
Besides which, almost everyone in the store with the exception of myself and those two gentlemen”—he gestured at Everest and then Koji—“was wearing a black cape, making it difficult to know who was where, and when.”
“And what the hell does that mean?”
Hillary snapped back.
“Yes, what does that mean?”
Lizzie echoed, a quaver in her voice as she looked up from her novel.
“Are you saying one of us might have followed her outside?”
“I am merely pointing out that the police are obliged to check out all possibilities when someone is killed.
But it does seem apparent that what happened to Ms.
Baylor was, in fact, nothing more than a tragic accident.”
“Are you certain about that, James?”
This came from Mary Ann, who had left Mavis’s side and now was busy wrapping the uneaten food.
As all eyes turned her way, she calmly went on, “I heard there was some girl who was causing trouble out there on the street.
In fact, I overheard Officer Reese say that she might have pushed Valerie into traffic on purpose.”
“It’s Detective Reese, ma’am,” the man in question corrected as he approached the group.
“And all I said was that one of the witnesses claimed she saw what she believed to be a deliberate push.
We don’t know for certain yet exactly what happened tonight.”
“But are you saying that maybe it
was
murder?”
Lizzie’s quaver had morphed into a squeak, while her fingers fluttered at the ties that held her black cape around her throat.
Reese shook his head.
“That’s not my call.
Unless we come up with some hard evidence that points to criminal intent, it’s up to the medical examiner to decide if Ms.
Baylor’s death was an accident or not.
So it would help me out”—his sharp blue gaze swept the whole group—“if all of you kept that kind of talk under your hats until after we have a formal ruling.”
He paused.
“But you’re all free to go now, all except for Ms.
Pettistone.
I still need her statement.
We’ll let you know if we need anything more from any of you.
Oh, and sir—er, ma’am,” he added as Mavis began scooping up Valerie’s purse and cigarettes, “if those belonged to Ms.
Baylor, leave them here.
We’ll see that her property gets couriered over to her family in the morning.”
Mavis stared blankly at him for a moment and looked as if she’d protest, but then nodded.
Gathering up the oversized makeup bag, the assistant joined Hillary and Koji as Darla—after assuring Reese that she would be right back—walked the somber group to the door and waited with them on the outer steps.
Everest had walked on ahead to retrieve the limo parked farther down the block.
Darla glanced down the street and was relieved to see that the last police car was pulling away from the scene.
The crews from the satellite trucks emblazoned with various local news station logos were packing up their equipment.
Very soon, traffic would be back to its usual late-Sunday-night pattern, with no sign that a death had occurred there on the pavement a few hours earlier.
“There goes the rest of the tour,” Hillary said with a sharp sigh as she tapped her foot on the concrete step with ill-concealed impatience.
Indeed, to Darla, she now sounded less grief stricken and more aggrieved when it came to her recently deceased client.
She’d shed the earlier reticent air that had hung about her as she had catered to Valerie and now seemed snappishly capable in manner.
Perhaps the subdued version of Hillary had been but an act she’d put on for the author’s benefit.
“What about Valerie’s family?”
Darla asked, knowing only what she’d told Jake, that the author supposedly lived on the family estate in the Hamptons.
“Did she have a husband, or any children?”
“No kids,” Hillary confirmed, “just an ex-husband who’s been out of her life for the last twenty years or so.
But she’s got parents and a brother who still live in the area.
Koji drew the short straw, so he gets to ride out there with the cops to let them know what happened.”
Darla gave a puzzled frown.
Somehow, she would have expected Valerie’s agent to have taken on that particular duty.
But Darla saw that the same officer that Jake had called Harry was signaling the publicist to join him.
Koji nodded and then turned to Darla.
“Good-bye, Ms.
Pettistone,” he told her in a glum tone as he held out a hand.
“It was a pleasure meeting you.
And I will be sure to inform everyone at Ibizan Books that your arrangements here tonight had no bearing on this tragedy.”
Not sure if a “thank you” was an appropriate response to that last, Darla merely nodded.
Hillary waited until he was just out of earshot and then snorted.
“He is
so
fired tomorrow, I guarantee you.”
“Oh no!
Surely the publisher won’t blame him?”
Hillary gave her a pitying look, and Darla hurriedly changed the subject.
“I’m guessing the burial will be private?”
“God, can you imagine the circus if it isn’t?
Ibizan Books is sure to sponsor some sort of public memorial for her fans later on, but I can guarantee the actual service will be just relatives and the important people in the business.”
She went on to tick off the names of current and past
New York Times
bestselling authors and their respective publishers, and then dropped a few Hollywood names as well.
“Since they’re still casting the movie version of
Haunted High
,” she explained.
“We’re hoping to get Miley to play Lani, but we’ve got a couple of backups in case she goes Lindsay on us.”
She paused and gave Darla a shrewd look.
“I’ll do what I can to get you a seat at the service, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I’d like to pay my respects, that’s all,” she replied, trying not to sound offended.
“I can’t help but feel somehow responsible for what happened.”
Everest pulled up in the limo just then, so she followed the remainder of Valerie’s entourage as they trouped down the steps to where he was holding open the car door.
Before slipping inside, Hillary paused to give Darla a quick air kiss.
“If I do get you in, promise me you won’t tell anyone who you are.
You think Koji’s butt is in the fire?
Just wait until you get introduced to the CEO of Ibizan as the person who killed off their golden goose.”
While Darla pictured that last unpleasant scenario and Hillary settled herself in the limo, a red-eyed Mavis extended a large pale hand in Darla’s direction.
“I appreciate your kindness tonight,” he said in a tone so low that she barely made out the words.
“And ignore Hillary.
Don’t worry, no one blames you for any of this.”
“Thanks, Mavis.
I appreciate it,” she replied, most sincerely.
By then, however, he already had folded himself into the limo, dragging his wheeled makeup kit in next to him.
Everest gave her a polite “Ma’am,” and after closing the rear door, took his seat behind the wheel.
She heard the soft purr of the stretch vehicle’s engine, and then the limo made a smooth merge into the late-night traffic.
Its twin red taillights gleaming in the darkness reminded her of Hamlet.
“Oh my God, Hamlet!”
So saying, Darla rushed over to where the blue sawhorses that earlier extended down the sidewalk had now been gathered into several neat stacks for the barricade guy to retrieve come morning.
Jake had just finished chaining the lot together against theft in the interim, padlocking the final length of chain to the wrought-iron railing in front of her basement apartment.
She was brushing her palms against her black-denim-clad hips to knock off the worst of the grime as a breathless Darla joined her.
“I forgot about Hamlet,” she hurried to explain.
“Valerie said he was out in the courtyard with her the first time she took a smoke break.
He was probably still there the second time she went out, too.
Damn it, and she left the gate wide open.
I need to make sure that he didn’t wander out after her.
He’s never left the courtyard before .
.
.
but then, the gate has never been left open for him, either.”
“Go ahead,” Jake told her.
“I’ll take a look out here, just in case he snuck around the front.
Reese can take your statement later, if need be.
It’s not like we don’t know where to find you.”
With a quick word of thanks, Darla took off at a run toward the store.
With luck, Hamlet would be lounging in a darkened corner of the courtyard prepared to treat her with lordly disdain once she found him and fawned over him in relief.
That, or she’d find him skulking about the alley looking for something furred or feathered he could chomp on.
She didn’t want to think about him wandering the streets of Brooklyn, where chances were he’d meet Valerie’s same fate beneath some vehicle’s tires.
“Gotta find the cat,” she told James and Lizzie as she scrambled beneath the counter for a flashlight.
“Back in a minute.”