Keeping Mum (A Garden Society Mystery) (6 page)

“That’s next summer. I was in Milan, but I had a call from my brother to get back to the States. Why are you here?”

She was always a little terse, or at least she had been the times Cam had seen her before, though Cam knew those had been more formal events. Cam figured new wives within spitting distance of a daughter’s age could be that way, and Annie had probably never done anything to try to smooth the relationship. She talked like it was an investment not worth making, as her dad would probably trade her in for a new model soon. It was just how Annie talked, but Cam thought she believed it to some extent.

“There was . . . something happened with Dad tonight,” Annie said. “I came to see if there was an itinerary to call you.”

“My cell wouldn’t work?”

“Oh! Right. But I have a new cell, so I didn’t have your number in there . . .” Annie trailed off. Cam knew Annie was lying. There was no new cell, but there was also no reason Elle would know that.

“So?” Elle said.

“Dad was kidnapped.”

“He was
what
?”

“Big fund-raiser dinner. There was a murder, and the police think maybe Dad saw it. There was a sign of a struggle and he disappeared.”

“This happened tonight? A murder? And your father . . . kidnapped, you said?” Elle sounded panicked. “I thought he wasn’t running for anything.”

“He’s not. It was for Jared Koontz.”

“No!”

“Well I thought the same thing,” Annie said. “But . . . is there a reason
you’re
saying that?”

“Jared’s just sort of a punk. I’ve known him for years. Do people take him seriously?”

Annie didn’t have a response, and Elle just wore an expression that crossed confusion and disgust, so Cam butted in.

“Look, I’m sure the police will have more to tell you. Annie just thought you were gone and they wouldn’t know how to reach you, so we were looking for your information. We should go.”

“Right!” Annie said.

“If you must,” Elle said, though Cam thought she was glad to see them leave.

• • •

• • •

R
ob, fortunately, had not gone inside. It would have seemed like overkill to have three of them just to retrieve a phone number. They passed him where he stood listening from the porch. Without a word, they returned to their cars, turned around in the circle, then headed back to Cam’s.

“I
know
she wasn’t back when Dad left the house tonight,” Annie said once they were driving.

“How would you know that?” Cam asked.

“Dad was in too good of a mood. He loves her, but this time of year, she’s annoying—has an opinion about every political race, mostly ill-informed, or so he says, though you know
my
opinion on
his
political opinions—he’d just rather not deal with her. He would have been grouchier if she’d gotten home before he left for the fund-raiser.”

“You don’t think she had anything to do with this, do you?” Cam asked.

“Elle? Like what?” Annie said.

“I don’t know. I’ve just done this murder thing before and don’t believe in coincidences.”

“Okay, stop there. My dad was
not
murdered!”

“Geez, Annie,” Cam said. “I’m sorry! I totally didn’t mean to imply that. But there
was
a murder.”

Annie leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes. Cam knew she understood but was having trouble processing.

Jake met them as they arrived, and they all made their way into Cam’s apartment. Cam was significantly neater than Annie. In Annie’s apartment, the chance of finding a clear sitting surface for two wasn’t bad, but finding seating for four was out of the question. Between baking, photography, and computer geeking, Annie just had too many hobbies to add cleaning to the list, and each hobby had an array of toys to top it off.

Cam, on the other hand, was a little OCD. She wasn’t Felix Unger, but there was a really good chance you were safe following the five-second rule in her house. Every surface was washed at least weekly, which was far more often than every surface was used.

As they went in, Rob held Cam’s elbow.

“So Mrs. Schulz probably doesn’t know when Annie’s lying,” Rob whispered, “but I have this feeling that wasn’t the full story.”

“Not quite,” Cam said. “It was intended to be the cover for Jake. I was going to help Annie look for clues about anybody who had it in for her dad.”

Rob shook his head.

“Seriously. The police are going to look at the murder first. But what if it was a kidnapping first and the witness got killed?”

He stared, and for a moment, Cam felt some satisfaction that she’d been convincing, but then realized she had felt convinced, too, and she didn’t want Annie’s dad to be the real target. Especially if this was a crime worth killing over.

Cam and Rob joined Annie and Jake in Cam’s living room. Annie had found a bottle of wine and some glasses, and Jake was pulling the cork.

“So where’ve y’all been?” Jake asked. His tone was casual, but Cam knew he was smart enough to know it hadn’t been a snack run.

“I went to see if Cruella had left her itinerary,” Annie said. “I figured, as Dad’s wife, she deserved to know he was gone.”

“Uh-huh,” Jake said. Cam could tell he was certain that was only part of the story. Cam felt a little relieved he knew Annie that well, because she knew secrets always came out.

“She was
there
, though I could swear Dad said she would be gone all week, but there she was.”

Jake frowned. “Does that mean something?”

Annie stopped and looked at him for a long moment, then at Cam. “I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, I would like to think it means she’s a flake, but I’ve never thought that was one of her faults before. She said her brother called, but didn’t say what about. I really hope it’s not something bad.”

“What could it be?” Jake asked.

“Getting rid of my dad!” Annie shouted. Her tears returned.

Jake stepped in to hold her, but she pushed him back, letting Cam grab her instead.

“She wouldn’t hurt him,” Cam said. “She’d know she’d get caught. If she had anything to do with it, he’s okay.”

Annie sniffed into Cam’s chest. “You better be right, or I’ll have to unleash the flying monkeys.”

“Annie,” Rob said. “It is probably just that he saw something.”

“Freaking Derrick Windermere! Damn man probably deserved what he got. He put half this town out of business. Who’d hurt my dad over that?”

“Maybe they’ll let him go if they know he agrees with them,” Jake said.

“See, that’s the trouble,” Annie said. “Dad’s feeling was it was just capitalism at work. It’s the kind of thing he always shrugged his shoulders at.”

Jake hung his head.

“Maybe it’s somebody trying to hurt the party,” Rob suggested.

“Or take it over,” Cam countered. “Derrick and Senator Schulz were the party’s old blood. Maybe they want to be the new power.”

Though, strictly speaking, that wasn’t true. Derrick was just the party’s money. New or old had nothing to do with it.

“Can we please . . .” Annie said. “I can’t think about all this tonight. Can we not speculate until we know something?”

Cam hugged Annie again, then Annie finally let Jake hug her as well and take her upstairs.

When they were alone, Cam and Rob could finally talk more freely.

“You think this is politics?” Rob asked.

“I think money is more likely,” Cam said. “Windermere was a first-class ass. He really did reverse several fortunes.”

“So you think Annie’s dad is just a case of wrong place, wrong time?”

“I don’t know. I wish I felt more confident about that.”

“And this . . . Cruella?”

“Elle Chamberlain Schulz. Gold digger. I think Annie is her dad’s primary heir, so Elle is better off with Senator Schulz alive than dead.”

“Well, that’s helpful.”

“I hope so. I didn’t want to bring it up with Annie, since I figured a sentence that included ‘dead’ would be a downer, regardless.”

“I need to get this story in,” Rob said.

“I know you do. I’m fine.” Cam was familiar with newspaper deadlines by now, and understood Rob’s compulsion to advance his career. She would do the same if she were the reporter.

“You can do it here, yes?”

“I could.”

“You write and send. I’ll take a bath and try to relax.”

“Oh, right. Like I can write when you’re wet and naked in the next room.”

“Your incentive, hotshot, is if you finish in time, maybe we can go to sleep together. Your deadline is two?”

He nodded.

“Try to meet it an hour early.”

• • •

• • •

T
he warm water was soothing, but Cam’s brain was racing. She was trying to relive the party and all the encounters she’d seen with Derrick Windermere that implied bad blood. It was no small number. There was the man Annie said her dad couldn’t stand following around behind Derrick, and the man Derrick had sent off for offending Senator Schulz, or so it had appeared. The harem had looked rather angry, and Toni Howe had been annoyed with him, too. Cam had thought at least Toni’s situation had a reasonable solution on the horizon. Then there was what they had learned from Joel Jaimeson about him when they were planning the party—that Derrick had been milking fortunes from other people.

Nobody had displayed obvious bad blood toward Alden Schulz other than the man who’d been sent off and the other man, Melvin, whom Annie said her dad already disliked before the night began. Then again, Senator Schulz was a party patriarch, a person one didn’t confront directly.

She realized, though, in addition to political animosity, that the event was a perfect opportunity for someone who had a personal issue to take advantage of the setup. She had no idea who Derrick Windermere might have offended personally—surely dozens of people.

She was just glad she wasn’t stuck investigating this fiasco. She didn’t want to dig around in the sleazebag’s life. She would continue to help Annie, but that was about finding her dad. Being a murder witness was a “just in case” angle.

She faded off as she lay in the soothing water, and just before she fell asleep, it occurred to her that her father had been with someone who would have liked their event to end in tragedy. She hated to think it, but maybe he knew something.

• • •

• • •

R
ob woke her up. She wasn’t sure how much later it was, but the water was definitely tepid. He dried her and got her into bed, kissed her forehead, and that was the last she knew.

It was strange to wake up naked the next morning. It wasn’t normally her thing, but at least she felt rested. The bath had done that much.

As she showered to prepare for her day, she tried to think of a way to spin this event. She would do her best to describe it as a tragedy, but RGS would not benefit from being mentioned, so she would leave them out of it.

She was just drying off as her phone buzzed.

“Tunia?” she answered.

“Cam! Get over here!”

“Why? What happened?”

“They’re searching the van!”

“Slow down, Petunia. Who is?”

“The police!”

“The catering van? Why?”

“Somebody was kidnapped? They must think our van was used.”

“Okay, calm down. You and Nick didn’t kidnap Annie’s dad, did you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Then all looking in the van can do is clear you.”

“But we cleaned it.”

“Which is normal. You do use it to transport food. That’s a normal and perfectly explainable practice.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

Petunia seemed to breathe easier, but then gasped. “It was Annie’s dad?”

“It was.”

Petunia paused, and Cam thought she was wrestling with her dislike of public figures but fondness for Annie. “Tell her I’m sorry, okay?”

“I will. Thank you.”

They hung up. Petunia’s nerves were understandable. Six months earlier, Nick had been falsely accused of murder. Cam didn’t see any way they could be accused of this. The evidence would clear them. The search must just be a precaution because the van was known to have been on location.

She debated going to the office after that but decided to work from home. She emailed the Roanoke Garden Society board to let them know where she was and how to reach her.

Next she followed through on the idea swimming in her head when she’d fallen asleep the night before. She retrieved her phone.

“Daddy?”

“Hiya, sunshine!”

“Have the police . . .” she stalled. This was the third time she’d asked her dad this question, and it wasn’t getting any easier. For the first time, though, he seemed lost.

“Have the police what?”

“A couple of bad things happened last night. I’m surprised they haven’t reached you.”