Balmy Darlings and Deaths: A Chinese Cozy Mystery (A Raina Sun Mystery Book 4) (6 page)

A
s they approached the table
, Taylor stood, and Eden closed the notebook in front of her. The two of them shook hands like polite strangers, and he left. Raina and Po Po sank onto empty chairs. Their eyes met above the menus, and Po Po gave her the eye wiggle.

Raina cleared her throat. “I thought the two of you were taking a break from the relationship.”

“We are, but I need to apologize for my behavior…” Eden’s voice trailed off.

Raina turned, following her friend’s gaze. Dale Sprint stood next to the hostess podium. His angry gaze swept the room and focused on Eden. He stalked over and stood in front of them.

“Problems in the newspaper office?” Eden asked. She looked nonplussed, even managing to sip from a glass of water without spilling any on herself.

Dale slapped a newspaper on the table. “What is the meaning of this?” He stabbed a finger at the front page. On it was a large photograph of Eden with the headline: Local Reporter Murder Suspect. The byline had her name on it.

Raina wanted to grab her friend and shake her. Eden couldn’t possibly be this stupid? The police would have to thoroughly investigate her now.

Eden gripped the tablecloth over her lap, but the angle hid this from Dale’s view. She shrugged. “It’s an expose. I interviewed myself.”

Dale stared at her like she’d grown another head. “I always knew you weren’t qualified for the Assistant EIC position, but I didn’t know you were the village idiot. You’re turning the paper into a tabloid? Does Phil know you’re putting this trash above the fold?”

Raina sneaked a sideways glance around her. Several diners watched them with vivid interest. As the only two reporters, Dale and Eden were minor celebrities in their small town.

Eden leaned forward, whispering, “This isn’t the time or place for this conversation. People are listening to us.”

“Setting yourself up as a murder suspect to sell ad space is lunacy,” Dale said.

“I’m doing what the boss wanted. Before Phil left for his vacation, he asked me to come up with something so we could do more special editions.”

Dale leaned back, resting his folded hands on his paunchy stomach. “Look, kiddo, nothing is worth this kind of sacrifice. You’ve still got to show your face around town.”

Eden stood, scraping back her chair. “We need to talk outside.” She stalked out of the restaurant, ignoring all the open stares. Her long weave swung back and forth behind her back with a jaunty wave.

Dale stood before them trembling with some great emotion.

“Please be gentle with her,” Raina whispered.

Dale flicked a glance at her, and his lips tightened into a grim line. He marched after his supervisor.

Raina and Po Po stared at each other, neither one of them knowing what to say. A waitress asked for their orders, and they gave them. Raina ordered for herself and for Eden, knowing full well her friend would want something high-calorie like cheese ravioli after a confrontation with Dale out in the parking lot.

Things were going from bad to worse for her friend. Raina had no idea how much of it was self-induced. Could her friend be desperate enough to kill LaShawna to generate news?

“Eden is going to get herself into a lot of trouble,” Po Po finally said. “And I’m not sure how we can help her.”

“She’s not going to listen to our advice. You know how pigheaded she can be,” Raina said.

“And she has the finesse of a monkey in a tea shop,” Po Po said.

“What we can do is to solve this case expediently. The longer this drags out, the more I see Eden milking the limelight.”

“It’s really a small world out there. In Gold Springs, it’s an even tinier bubble.”

Raina nodded, dread settling in her stomach. She had to stop her friend from making the biggest mistake of her life. If she kept this up, her reputation would be in tatters and all everyone would remember was how she acted after LaShawna’s death. And then there was the possibility of jail time.

As the waitress slid the plates of food on the table, Eden returned.

“What took you so long? Diarrhea?” Po Po asked.

“How many times have I told you body functions aren’t dinner conversation material,” Raina said, smiling to let her grandma know how much she appreciated her attempt to lighten the mood.

“At my age, everything is dinner conversation material.”

“What did you find out today?” Raina asked as a way to introduce the investigation on neutral terms even though the question of what happened outside hung in the air.

Eden scraped the creamy white sauce off the ravioli. “Not much more than what we already know. Hung around the Venus Café and spoke with a few regulars there. No one saw anything since they were so busy focusing on the car accident. Had a chat with my source down at the police station. I got confirmation that LaShawna died during the car accident. That’s about it.”

“What’s this special edition?” Po Po asked. “Is it coming out tomorrow morning? I need to make sure I grab the Senior Center’s copy before Smelly Tally gets to it.”

Raina busied herself with removing the croutons from her salad. She groaned inwardly at Mrs. Tally’s new nickname.

“Nothing much to it. I printed a few…um…interviews. Did you notice I got one page full of ads for this run? If I could do another special this week, we would more than double our revenue for the month.”

“Why this sudden focus on revenue?” Raina asked. “Phil had always subsidized the paper with his personal assets.”

“He’s talking about how it doesn’t make financial sense to keep an unprofitable business. He might be thinking of closing up shop at the end of the year to spend more time at home. If I can show him that we are breaking even, maybe it would influence his decision.”

“What prompted this decision now? It wasn’t like he didn’t have this option before,” Raina asked.

Eden shrugged.

“What did you say to Dale outside?” Raina asked.

“The truth. If we don’t do something, both of us will be out of a job. He said he would help me.”

“He did?”

“The paper might not pay much, but with his freelancing and his wife’s salary, they get by. But he said it would only be in the background. He wasn’t willing to put his name on it.”

“So you get to take the fall if it doesn’t work out,” Po Po said.

“I’m sorry,” Raina said. “Are you sure this is the route you want to take? Putting yourself out there like this, pointing the spotlight at yourself as a potential murder suspect. The police might think you need an incentive to confess to the crime.”

“I have to use what’s available to me. It’s not like I would sue myself for slander,” Eden said. “Don’t worry about it. It will all work out fine.”

“As long as you know what you’re doing.” Raina took a deep breath and dismissed her sense of foreboding. She told them about discovering Denise Robertson in the treatment room. “How did you know Denise, Eden? What do you know about LaShawna’s unlicensed beauty salon?”

Po Po’s eyes lit up, leaning forward eagerly. “Maybe I should go undercover. I could use a trim.” She touched one of the silver braids on her head.

Eden bit into another ravioli and chewed a tad too enthusiastically. She stuffed another ravioli in without breaking for a breath.

Raina held up her glass of ice water. She wasn’t waiting for her friend to finish the entire meal before she got answers. “Do I need to be the bad guy to get you to share information with us?” She held the glass over Eden’s lap.

“Dooo it,” Po Po said.

Raina laughed, wriggling the glass.

“Put the glass down, Miss Klutz. I’m just embarrassed. I can’t afford the prices at the other beauty parlors in town, so I go to LaShawna’s,” Eden said, and crossed her arms, daring them to laugh at her.

Po Po made a slicing motion with a finger under her neck. “You’re brave. I would be afraid her hands might slip.”

Raina gave her grandma a sideways glance. “You’re thinking of a barber shop. Eden isn’t going to LaShawna for a shave.”

“We don’t know that. How do we know she doesn’t have excessive facial hair? I have to tweeze my chin every day or I’ll look like a werewolf,” Po Po said.

Eden burst out laughing, and the tension disappeared from her posture. “A werewolf? Po Po, where do you get this stuff?”

“From our book club. It’s how us seniors get our freak on.”

Raina covered her ears. “La-la-la. I don’t hear this.“

Po Po and Eden exchanged a look and said, “Party pooper” at the same time.

Raina’s lips twitched, but she kept her laughter inside. She had to keep them on track. “Back to business.” She glanced pointedly at Eden. “So how were you able to have LaShawna do your hair when you were dating her ex?”

“Denise does my hair. She works there on the weekends once in a while for extra cash. It caters mostly to young black women from the college.” Eden patted her silky chestnut weave. “Something like this would cost me three hundred dollars, but I can get it done for a hundred at LaShawna’s.”

“A hundred dollars a month is not bad,” Po Po said.

“Then, there’s the weekly shampoo. I have to sit under the dryer for an hour and a half to get the braids underneath the weave fully dried. So that’s another hundred,” Eden said.

Raina’s jaw dropped. No wonder her curly hair looked like a dog’s daybed. No way would she spend her grocery money on its maintenance.

“That’s a lot of sitting at a beauty parlor,” Po Po said. “I’m not sure I have the patience for it.”

“It’s not bad. I read a magazine or play with my phone while Denise braids and sews on the weave,” Eden said.

“How do you pay for this?” Raina said.

“With cash,” Eden said.

“Do you know Indian women collect hair from the villagers every morning to ship them to America for weaves?” Po Po said.

“How do you know this?” Eden asked.

“It’s one of the micro-loans I fund on Kiva.org. Twenty-five bucks, and I get to play Santa all year long to these poor families.”

Raina gave her grandma a sideways glance. “So that’s why you finally bought your own laptop.”

Her grandma had taken a computer class at the senior center a year ago and learned to charge into the front line of the technological revolution with a smarty pants phone and a social media presence that would make a teen jealous. She had been able to do much of this with the phone, but got herself a duped up—her words—laptop last Christmas.

“Do you know if Denise plans to operate this side business? I’m assuming she has a job,” Raina said. “Is this business profitable enough to kill for?”

“But it’s her own twin,” Po Po said. “Impossible. Don’t they have a special bond or something? Wouldn’t it be like chopping off your own arm?”

Eden frowned, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. LaShawna got child support and welfare. This was spare cash for her. It’s not like Denise would inherit a legit business, and whatever LaShawna owned would go toward her son. I had to beg Denise for an appointment to fix my weave this weekend, so I don’t think she’s interested in keeping this side business going.”

Raina did some mental calculations. “This is not spare cash. Think about it. If you spend four hundred dollars a month at the place, and even if she only had another four clients, that’s twelve hundred dollars cash a month.”

Po Po whistled. “That’s mortgage money. And all untaxed.”

Raina leaned back on her chair. An unlicensed business like this depended on the relationship of the owner with the clientele. With LaShawna out of the picture, Denise might not have the connections to keep this beauty salon going. “What was the relationship like between Taylor and LaShawna? She called you a home-wrecker. This sounds like she might’ve still had some pretty strong feelings for him.”

Eden shook her head. “The fight had nothing to do with Taylor. She was just mad because I did an expose on welfare moms and their creative ways of making cash under the table for a magazine. I didn’t put her name in it, but I certainly used her situation.”

“I didn’t know you wrote for anyone else,” Po Po said.

Eden patted her full stomach, throwing a crumpled napkin onto the plate. “I had to expand my options. I couldn’t live on peanuts forever. So what’s our plan, Sherlock?”

“Why don’t you call for an appointment tomorrow, Po Po?” Raina said. “Say you want to dye it for the young man in your life.” Her grandma’s long locks gleamed silvery white in the dim lighting.

Eden mocked a growl, curling her hand like a paw next to her face. “Po Po, you go, girl.”

Po Po beamed. “Maybe I should go with the full treatment. I do have a date with a younger man tomorrow night. We’re going to the drive-in.” She winked. “I’m sure we’ll miss half the movie.”

As Raina covered her ears, Eden gave a full-belly chuckle. The rest of the meal spiraled to the gutter with Eden and Po Po sharing details about their past dates. Raina joined in on the laughter when expected, but her mind worked at the murder investigation. She worried about saving her friend’s reputation and saving her grandma from killing her BFF in a fit of cabin fever. And why had Eden not explained what Taylor was doing at the restaurant?

R
aina spent
the night tossing and turning and called it quits when the sky held a tinge of purple. She threw on some clothes and went for a run around Hook Park to clear the cobwebs. She made a strong cup of hazelnut coffee and walked to the day spa. The first hour was spent cleaning the beauty salon before the stylists and makeup artists arrived for the Rodriquez bridal party.

When she was done, she returned to the receptionist area and Myra Jo handed her a printout. Raina glanced at the list of names. Cold-calling people wasn’t her forte, but at least this time she would get paid for the task, unlike last time when she’d gotten volunteered for it by the history department head. And money wasn’t something she could sneeze at.

“Make sure to tell the customers the appointment slots fill up fast with wedding season around the corner.  And if they are still not interested, tell them there is a twenty percent grand reopening discount,” Myra Jo said.

Raina nodded. “You’re the boss.”

The bell above the front door chimed. Myra Jo turned with a smile, ready to greet the client coming into the Inner Beauty Salon and Spa. She greeted the last minute bridal party like the cash cow they were. When the party closed in on the bride to discuss last minute details, Myra Jo pointed at the tray of cucumber water in glass tumblers and finger sandwiches.

Raina dropped the phone back into the cradle and made herself useful. Why wasn’t Walt here to help with such a large booking? Was he getting paid time off for providing a false alibi for the boss? She grabbed the tray and followed the women into the lounge area, a small alcove next to the treatment room.

The bride and mother got the full works—massage, body wrap, hair, and makeup. After bridesmaids got their mini-treatments, they left to do their various preparations before the wedding in the afternoon.

It was an hour later before Raina returned to the receptionist’s desk to finish her calls. To her horror, the printout of the client list Myra Jo had given her was barely legible. Someone had knocked over a coffee cup, and it soaked everything on the desk.

Her hands curled in frustration. It was probably the irritating woman who kept Raina running for extra cucumber water three times until she brought in an entire pitcher. Some people enjoyed the power bestowed on them in the name of customer service. She went into the back room and got paper towels to clean up the mess. The ink on the printout was no longer legible on most of the pages.

Raina tapped on the monitor to see if she could make another print out. The third icon she clicked on opened a pdf of a client list with names, phone numbers, and addresses. Some kind of frequent buyers list? She compared it to the soggy sheets in her hands and hit print.

Myra Jo came up just as Raina straightened from grabbing the sheets from the printer underneath that desk. “What are you doing?”

“Printing out another list.” Raina pointed at the soggy mess in the trashcan. “Someone from the bridal party got coffee on everything.” She held up the sheets from the printer. “But don’t worry, I found the file and made another printout.”

Myra Jo’s face didn’t change, but the vein on the side of her head pulsed.

Raina took a step back and held the papers in front of her like a shield. “Did I do something wrong?”

Her boss swallowed, obviously trying to calm down. “Can you show me how you got the list of names?”

Raina demonstrated and her finger hovered over the print icon. “Do you want me to print the file again?”

“No, this is sufficient,” Myra Jo said. By this time, her cheeks had become an alarming shade of purple. “So this was how LaShawna was able to poach my clients.”

Raina’s eyes widened, but she kept silent, hoping the spa owner would continue to talk.

“Do you know how to check who created this file?” Myra Jo asked stiffly.

“Probably,” Raina tapped at the screen to look at properties for the file, keeping half an eye on the spa owner. “I take it you didn’t create this.”

“No. The client list is password-protected. Walt could add to the list from an input screen, but he couldn’t see who is in it.”

Raina hoped she sounded sufficiently confused. “But I thought LaShawna only did weaves in her shed.”

“She also sold makeup and other beauty products at a fraction of what it would cost here. I don’t know where she got her supplies, but I can’t afford to sell it at wholesale prices.”

Raina glanced at the screen again, frowning at the information. “I guess Walt knows your password, huh?”

Myra Jo closed her eyes, keeping perfectly still. A hair dryer went off in the next room, and someone laughed off-key in the treatment room. “Thank you, Raina. We’re closing early today. Apparently, I need to kick his gay as—”

The bells above the front door jingled, and Detective Sokol came in with Officer Joanna Hopper a step behind him.

* * *

R
aina tried to linger
, but the three of them turned and stared at her until it became obvious no one would speak until she cleared out of the room. She went through the beaded curtain and lingered in the lounge, straightening out magazines like her life depended on it, and strained her ears.

“…relationship with LaShawna?” Detective Sokol asked.

“…mother of my nephew…good,” Myra Jo answered.

“…where…time of death…”

Raina lost interest when it became clear the police were covering information everyone already knew. They probably had no new leads and were covering old ground to see if something would shake loose. She didn’t think they would get the alibi snafu between Myra Jo and Walt though. This wasn’t good. Shouldn’t they be looking into the beauty salon LaShawna ran out of the shed in her backyard?

Should Raina volunteer the small tidbit of information she’d gathered from interacting with the suspects? She snorted.
Right, like the police would really be interested in her hunches…

She went into the back room and got her purse from the locker. When she came back to the receptionist area, the three of them were no longer there.

She texted her grandma.

A reply came back before she even got to her car.

Po Po was already waiting for her outside the senior condo complex. Between the big white hat and Jackie-O sunglasses, all Raina saw was her grandma’s chin. The Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts completed the outfit, except the closest beach was at least two hours west, and even then it was too cold for a tropical outfit. Her grandma never quite got that a disguise was meant to blend in with her surroundings.

Raina sighed. At least she didn’t have to wear a matching outfit.

Her grandma hopped into the car and pulled out a fake lei from the big straw beach bag. “Here, Rainy, I got you something for your disguise.”

Raina eyed the plastic orchids. “I don’t know. It doesn’t match my outfit.” She had on wrinkled capris and a T-shirt. The ability to look put together in all situations bypassed her. Her curly black hair wasn’t the only thing she got from her dad’s side of the family.

Po Po dropped the lei on her lap and rooted around in her bag. “Maybe I have something else in here.”

Raina pulled out and circled back to the parking lot at the day spa. Sure enough, Myra Jo’s car was still next to the police cruiser. She drove past the day spa and pulled into a parking spot a block away next to the bank. From this vantage point, she could easily make a left or right depending on which direction Myra Jo went.

Po Po pulled out a Hawaiian sundress. “Look what I got on clearance. Just your size. Come on, honey, put it on.”

“I can’t wear that,” Raina said. Good heavens, she could get a citation for soliciting in that dress. It was a hand towel with spaghetti straps and a slit that stopped at her underwear line. “Nope, sorry. I have on my granny panties.” She shook her head and added for emphasis, “It has holes in it, and the seam is unraveling.”

Po Po sat back, pulling out her lower lip. “You should have told me. I got some lacey purple thongs for you, too. They’re sitting in my closet.”

“Next time, Po Po. I’m sure we can find another situation for this disguise,” Raina said. Maybe she could wear it to a Halloween party and win a prize for the sluttiest costume. “What else do you have in that bag you call a purse?”

“Not much. Binoculars, my bird book, a paintball gun—”

“Why are you carrying a paintball gun?”

Po Po shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like I am licensed to carry a real gun.”

Raina shook her head. She couldn’t even imagine the havoc her grandma might get into with a real gun. She told her grandma about the client list incident.

Po Po sat back in astonishment. “Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.”

“Did you get a chance to play nice with Mrs. Tally?” Raina asked.

Po Po pressed a hand to her forehead, knocking the hat off angle. “You don’t know what I have to do to get on her good side. I had to grovel, on my knees, on top of crushed glass. I even had to volunteer to man a booth for the Spring Craft Fair. What am I supposed to do with a knitting needle? Stick it in Janice’s good eye?”

“It would be better if you stick it in Mrs. Tally’s bad eye. But did you find out anything about Walt?”

“Nothing other than her obsession with finding a girl for her precious boy. She wants to see him married.” Po Po shook her head. “Talk about being blind. Anyone could see the boy didn’t like girls. And now I have Janice lording over me at the senior center like she’s become Prom Queen.” Her grandma crossed her arms. “I hope you’re happy, Rainy. Her cranky—”

“Thank you,” Raina said before her grandma launched into a full-scale attack on her arch nemesis. A flash of motion caught her eye, and she glanced at the rear-view mirror to see Myra Jo’s car approaching. “We got take off.”

She followed Myra Jo, keeping half a block between the two of them. The spa owner blew through stop signs like they were suggestions that didn’t apply to her. Obviously, she was on a mission and wouldn’t have noticed a faded red Honda until it sat on her bumper. 

They turned into a neighborhood fifteen minutes away. The beige-colored homes with a square patches of green grass blended together until Raina would have to ask for directions to leave the subdivision. The state was in a drought, but these folks needed their small patch of nature.

The apartment complex had the look of one of those affordable housing requirements the developer threw together to get the permit for the more affluent subdivision. It was three stories tall with a staircase running straight down the middle. There might be an elevator somewhere, but Raina didn’t see it from her angle. Myra Jo pulled into a guest spot and trotted up the stairs. Raina parked on the third row, hoping Myra Jo would be too preoccupied to recognize her car.

Po Po whipped out a set of binoculars and followed the spa owner’s laborious progress up the stairs. “I don’t mean to judge, but she needs to work out more.”

Myra Jo paused on the second floor, catching her breath, before pounding up the last flight of stairs.

“She’s pounding on the door, but Walt isn’t answering.” Her grandma narrated every action as if Raina couldn’t see Myra Jo above the rails of the third floor. “She’s talking to a neighbor who looks annoyed with the racket. Check out the tattoos on the neighbor. Now she’s yelling at the neighbor. And the neighbor is yelling back. Oh, this will be good.” Her grandma grinned as if she were watching a soap opera unfold in front of her. “The neighbor’s husband or boyfriend came out from their unit. It looks like Myra Jo is standing down. Okay she’s coming back down the stairs.”

As Myra Jo stalked back to her car on the other side of the building, Raina and Po Po ducked underneath the dashboard. After another thirty minutes of watching the apartment, her grandma threw down the binoculars in disgust.

“I can’t believe I wasted my tourist disguise for this,” Po Po said. “Let’s go get a snack. My treat.”

As Raina pulled out from the parking lot, she glanced at the rear-view mirror. Walt stood outside his apartment, smoking a joint and watching them leave.