The Root of All Trouble (15 page)

He was having an affair with Honey Miller.

Chapter Thirteen

K
evin lurched off the bench and stormed toward the lovebirds.

"
Where's he going?" I asked Ana, hearing the distress in my own voice.

"
To confront them, I guess." She grabbed my arm and tugged. "Come on, I want to hear this."

"
Doesn't he need backup or something?"

Ana pulled me along.
"Jean-Claude is a lover, not a fighter, remember?"

"
I was more worried about Honey going after Kevin."

"
Those shoes could definitely be used as a dangerous weapon, but those are Louboutins. No way is she getting blood on them. Kevin will be fine."

"
I meant that she'd start groping him. It wouldn't be the first time."

Ana
's eyebrows shot up. "He is single..."

"
Yes he is," I snapped. I just didn't know if I could go down that path again.

"
Spinster," she whispered as we crept up behind Kevin, who stood at the edge of the overlook platform, seemingly to wait for a break in the action before he barged in on the rendezvous.

Jean-Claude and Honey were happily oblivious to the approaching storm as they mauled each other. A mother walking past covered her young son
's eyes and shot the lovey-dovey duo an angry stare.

"
I'm starting to feel queasy," I whispered.

"
Are they even breathing?" Ana asked.

Kevin glanced over his shoulder at us.
"You two should go back to the car."

We shook our heads and stayed put.

He should have called for police backup—he was outnumbered by us. Apparently realizing that arguing with us was pointless, he took a step toward the couple and cleared his throat loudly.

"
The slurping noise," Ana said, clapping her hands over her ears. "I can't take it!"

I hadn
't been kidding about feeling queasy. Between the slurping and Jean-Claude's tongue practically bathing Honey's face, I'd seen more than enough.

"
Jean-Claude Reaux!" I shouted in my best angry stepmother tone. It was rusty—I hadn't had to use it on Riley in a while—but it did the job. Jean-Claude jumped back, a guilty flush creeping up his neck.

Honey blinked, momentarily stunned by the loss of Jean-Claude
's tongue. Then clarity came into her eyes as she took in the surroundings. Me, jabbing Jean-Claude with my index finger. Kevin, wearing his crankiest cop look. Ana, looking like she wanted to hurl.

Honey
's hand went to her mouth, and her eyes widened. She let the moment sink in, let out a soft sigh, and cocked a hip.

Jean-Claude said,
"This isn't what it looks like."

All four of us stared at him.

"Okay," he amended, "it is what it looks like, but let me explain."

"
Please," Kevin said. "Go on."

"
It's like this," Jean-Claude said, stepping up next to Honey and taking her hand. "We're in love."

His eyes were filled with such earnestness that I could only shake my head.

"How long has this love fest been going on?" Kevin asked, looking between the two.

"
A month," Jean-Claude said. "We met when Honey dropped Joey off at the Reaux Construction offices one day. I accidentally backed my car into hers."

Ana scoffed.
"Accidentally. Right." Ana not only had first-hand knowledge of Jean-Claude's sneakiness but also the way Reaux men wooed women—she had once dated Jean-Claude's brother.

It had been one of her shortest-lived affairs. The Reaux men weren
't known for monogamy. Even though Ana had known so going in, sometimes the Reaux sex appeal could cloud the best of judgments.

Glancing at Honey, I wondered if that was what happened to her, too. She
'd been a newlywed of two months when she met him.

"
We went for coffee," Honey said, "to sort out insurance information."

"
Things escalated from there," Jean-Claude said, shrugging. "You can't fight love."

Ana and I groaned.

Jean-Claude glared. "You can't!"

Kevin zeroed in on Honey.
"How did Joey feel about all this love?"

She shifted, cocking her other hip.
"Why not ask Delphine about that? I'm sure he told her all about it."

He didn
't take her bait. "I want to hear it from you."

Bright pink lips pursed.
"As far as I know, he wasn't aware. He was too busy boffing every skirt in town."

"
Why stay with him then?" Ana asked.

Kevin glanced at her over his shoulder.
"I've got this." He turned back to Honey. "Why stay with him?"

She blinked prettily.
"I didn't feel safe leaving."

Tensing, Kevin said,
"What does that mean?"

Jean-Claude wrapped his arm around Honey.
"Joey said that he'd kill her if she left."

"
I didn't really want to die, so I stayed. I figured he'd grow bored of me eventually and leave. I could wait him out."

According to Delphine he
'd planned on leaving, but was that true?

I shot a look at Kevin.
"Did Joey have a history of violence?"

Honey beat him to the answer.
"You name it, he'd been suspected of it." She pressed a hand to the breasts spilling out of her tube top. "Of course, I didn't know that when I married him. He had me fooled."

"
He's been a murder suspect?" I asked. This could offer a whole new spin on this case.

Kevin said,
"Vehicular homicide. It was an incident that happened about ten years ago in Michigan. His record has been clean for the last couple of years except a DUI six months ago."

"
He may have cleaned up his act," Honey narrowed her eyes, "but a tiger can't change its stripes."

Ana said,
"Was he involved in illegal dealings? With Reaux Construction?"

Honey twirled a lock of hair around her finger.
"He always double deals. Whether he's skimming off the books, scamming on his freelance jobs, or taking shortcuts on the jobsites, he was finding a way to get an extra cut. Bottom line is there's only one person Joey cared about most. Himself."

This made perfect sense to me. He
'd obviously tried to con Perry. And if he'd tried it on Perry, then there were probably others out there, too. It was another lead to follow. If Joey had been scamming homeowners, then maybe one of them came after him to get the ultimate revenge.

Then I remembered.
You love her, don't you?

This case had nothing to do with fraud.

"How'd you meet Joey anyway?" I asked.

Honey looked at Kevin as though asking if she had to answer that. He said,
"I'd like to know, too."

"
At a bar downtown. I was new to town and he showed me around. Before I knew it, we'd flown off to Vegas to elope." Crocodile tears filled her eyes. "It was the biggest mistake of my life."

"
It's okay, baby," Jean-Claude soothed.

The sky overhead had turned the color of a bruise, deep purples and dark blues. The thick air hung heavy with the threat of rain. I glanced at Honey as she was being comforted by Jean-Claude. Something was off about her. She looked the part of a tramp, but there was intelligence in her eyes that couldn
't be hidden. She wanted us to believe that she was easily swayed by a slimeball, and that she didn't know his character when she married him...but I'd bet a roll of cookie dough she knew exactly what she was getting into when she married him.

Although
why she went through with it was beyond me.

Kevin said,
"Where were you both on Wednesday between three forty-five and five p.m.?"

"
Together," they said in unison.

Jean-Claude looked at me.
"That's why I know Delphine wasn't the last one to see Joey alive.
I
saw him while waiting for Honey to get home from work—we had plans to go out— I saw him pass by the window once or twice. I obviously couldn't come out and tell you that since I didn't want you to know about Honey and me."

Obviously.

I couldn't even believe the hubris needed to pick up your lover in front of the home she shared with her husband.

A rain
drop hit Kevin square in the forehead. He flicked it away. "What time was that?"

"
About quarter 'til four. I was there early to get Honey, and she got home at four."

Three forty-five. When the call from the pay phone came in.

Kevin's face was unreadable. "Did you see Joey go out around that time?"

"
Or anyone else?" I added.

His ponytail swayed as he shook his head.
"No."

Kevin switched tactics.
"Did Joey tell you if he had any visitors that afternoon, Honey?"

Rain
drops had started splashing down all around us giving the concrete a polka-dotted pattern as Honey said, "That's the strange thing. By the time I got home at four, Joey was gone. His phone and wallet were there, but he wasn't. I figured he went off with Delphine, which was fine by me. I didn't have to lie to him about going out with the girls." She crinkled her nose. "I really don't like lying."

Ana made a strangling noise as she held in a laugh. Honey didn
't mind cheating but lying was off-limits?

"
I didn't see Joey leave," Jean-Claude said, "so he must have gone out the back door."

"
Where were you parked?" Kevin asked Jean-Claude.

"
In the gas station parking lot across the street. The store probably has footage—you can double-check."

What had happened in those fifteen minutes between Joey receiving that call from a pay phone and Honey returning home? Did Joey leave by his own free will? Or had someone taken him out by force?

Kevin didn't mention that he'd already seen that footage. Instead, he said, "What time did you get home that night, Honey?"

"
Midnight. And there was still no sign of Joey. I went to bed. The next day I got up, went to work, came home. Delphine and Plum had called several times and left messages looking for Joey. That's when I realized something was wrong and called the police to report him missing."

"
Why not think he just ran off?" Ana asked.

That would have been my first instinct, too.

"Easy. The money in the bank account was still there. He never would have willingly left it—he worked too hard to fleece it."

Drawing in a deep breath, Kevin said,
"Can anyone account for you two from four to five?"

"
The video footage should show Honey getting into my car at four ten or so. It took fifteen minutes to drive to my place. Then my brother Michel can vouch for us at four thirty," Jean-Claude said.

Apparently, whoever watched the footage and related its contents to Kevin hadn
't mentioned that part about Honey getting into Jean-Claude's car.

"
And the pizza delivery guy," Honey added. "At five. We were starving, so we ate early."

"
And we went for late-night ice cream, too. The workers there might remember us."

"
I am kind of unforgettable," Honey said, fluffing her hair.

"
Gag me," Ana mumbled under her breath.

Me, too.

Jean-Claude finally let go of Honey. "We didn't have anything to do with what happened to Joey. Not me, not Honey, not Delphine."

"
Who did?" Kevin asked.

I was impressed he didn
't say anything about the blood evidence. It was irrefutable.
If
someone hadn't planted it.

Jean-Claude shook his head.
"I don't know. I really don't know."

"
Do you?" Kevin asked Honey.

One of her fake eyelashes had worked itself loose, and made it look a caterpillar was perched on the corner of her eye.
"Anyone. Everyone."

That narrowed it down.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Dark clouds rolled across the sky, wisps of gray dipping low to the ground. Right now it was only sprinkling, but I could smell the storm in the air—it was going to be a doozy.

Kevin shot a look upward at the skies. He said,
"You two are going to need to come in to the station, answer some more questions."