VEILED MIRROR (10 page)

“You softy,” Anne said, laughing.

“It’s too hot out there for her,” Tom explained.

Inside the office was a delicate miniature mare, barely thirty inches tall.

“Polly!” Beth said and held out her hand to the little horse. Her delight was genuine. She’d cared for a few of these miniatures in the past, and loved them. And with this little lady she wouldn’t be expected to ride and give herself away with her poor equestrian skills.

Polly came forward and nuzzled Beth’s hand, then shied away.

“Well that’s odd,” Anne said. “Come on girl. This is Ellie. You remember her.”

I don’t smell right
. “Must be the new sunblock I’m wearing.”

Jason squatted and held out a hand. Polly cautiously sniffed and then let him smooth a hand down her neck. “Hey, little girl. You’re a beauty, aren’t you?” Polly tossed her head as if agreeing with him, and they all laughed.

“A female who knows her worth,” Jason said.

Beth was afraid to look at him, afraid he might be wondering why a tiny little horse that supposedly knew her was so skittish with her, and not with him.

Anne tugged on Polly’s halter. “Come on. Say hello to Ellie, too.”

“Let’s not force it,” Beth said. “Besides, we should be going. Thanks again for the casserole, Anne.”

Anne let go of Polly’s halter. “You’re more than welcome. I’m sorry about Polly. I can’t imagine what got into her.”

They walked back to the car, chatting about the weather and how badly they needed the rain the monsoons were bringing. Finally they were beside the Taurus.

“If there’s anything we can do, you call us,” Anne commanded.

Beth nodded and let Anne hug her again.

“You sure you don’t want to stay and have some lemonade?”

“No thanks. We really have to going.”

“Let us know when the service will be, won’t you? We want to pay our respects.”

Beth tried to hide her desire to get in and speed away. She was tired of running the gauntlet of pretending to be Ellie to these people. She liked Anne’s comforting, motherly manner, and it rubbed against the grain to deceive her. And every time she opened her mouth was a mistake waiting to happen.

“I will.”

Anne had to hug Jason too, before they could leave.

A minute later Jason was driving them down the long gravel drive.

Beth blew out a deep breath. That had been hard. In fact this whole impersonation was more difficult than she expected. Part of the fun of doing this when they were kids was having to scramble to cover their lapses. But this wasn’t kids’ play, and it wasn’t fun. She was lying to nice people. It was for a very good reason, but she wondered if any of them would forgive her, once they knew the truth.

Would Jason? She glanced over at him. He’d been sweet with Anne and she liked him even better for it. Maybe she could tell him. Once he knew why she was pretending to be Ellie, he might understand.

Beth closed her eyes. He might understand. He might even forgive. But he was a lawyer, an officer of the court, even if that court was in Texas. He’d have to tell. He was too honest to let her commit fraud even in a good cause. Then everything would fall apart. No one would talk to her. She’d never find Ellie’s killer.

If there is a killer
. Beth rubbed her forehead, wishing for a way out of this mess. An inspiration struck and she dropped her hand.
I could hire him. Then everything would be covered by attorney-client privilege.

“Well that was revealing,” he said.

Revealing?
Beth’s eyes flew open and her breath caught in her throat. He’d noticed Polly’s reaction after all, and all her other mistakes. He’d finally put two and two together.

“Jason, I’d like to hire you.”

He cast her an astonished look. “What? You don’t need to do that. Chris was my friend. I want to help.”

“I know. It’s just that …” Beth twisted the ring on her finger. She didn’t know what to say.

Jason stopped the car and looked at her more carefully. “Are you in some kind of trouble? I mean aside from the obvious.”

“No. Not yet.”

“Not yet. You think the sheriff is going to be looking at you as the murderer, don’t you?”

She grabbed at the ready-made excuse. “He might.”

Jason snorted. “For about ten seconds, if he’s having a real slow day. If you were the murderer, you’d be happy as a clam that he thinks Chris’s death is an accident. You wouldn’t be pushing for a homicide investigation.”

“So you won’t be my lawyer?”

“I’ll be your friend, and I’ll advise you, but if you really need an attorney, Chris has a whole crew on retainer. You don’t need me.”

“But I don’t know any of them. I want
you
.”
If he only knew how much
.

Jason shook his head. His expression was rueful, but unyielding. “I’ll help you as much as I can, Ell, but I’m not licensed to practice in Arizona.”

So that was the end of it. Beth looked away. “Oh, okay. Nevermind, then”

She couldn’t tell him. Even if he forgave her deception—and that was a big
‘if’
—he’d have to tell. And if his friendship kept him from telling, it could cost him his career. She wouldn’t put him in that position. He might be a jerk, but she wouldn’t do that to him.

Jason took her hand. “It’s going to be all right, Ellie. In fact it’s possible we’ve already found our man.”

She looked back at him, eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

Jason’s eyes gleamed like a dog’s on the hunt. “Tom’s reaction. He’s obviously hiding something.”

B
eth left Jason in the library trying to tease Chris’s financial data out of the laptop, and went to Ellie’s bedroom. What was she going to do? On the way home, Jason had suggested going to the bank tomorrow, to get more info on that seven hundred thousand. She’d probably have to sign things with Ellie’s name to get it. She wasn’t worried about being able to forge Ellie’s signature, she knew she could do that. But up to this point she hadn’t done anything actually illegal. If she signed those papers at the bank she really would be guilty of fraud.When she’d started this, she hadn’t thought about things like that. Hell, she just hadn’t thought.

It wasn’t too late. She could still come clean, tell Jason and the sheriff the truth.

And then what? All their attention would be on her deception and not even a little bit on Ellie and Chris’s murders. She had to see this through. Even now, it still seemed like the only way to get any answers. She just wished she didn’t have to screw up her life to get them.

As long as I’m wishing, why don’t I just wish that Ellie and Chris weren’t dead?

She looked in the mirror. “Ellie, are you there?”

She looked into the glass, searching its depths, but all she saw was her own reflection and the room behind her.

“Ell, I need some answers. I need to know about Hendricks. I need to know if he owed Chris any money, or if Chris owed him, and why he’s so angry.” She stared into her own eyes, feeling foolish for talking to herself. “I need you.”

The mirror remained empty.

Beth flopped back on the bed and winced at the pain from her bruises. She covered her eyes with one arm. In all her life she’d never felt so alone. Ellie had always been there, no more than a phone call away, and she’d always had a plan. Even if it was a plan for getting into some kind of trouble.

Tears stung the corners of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
I don’t need help getting into trouble any more. I’m doing just fine on my own.
Maybe that was why her sister hadn’t answered.

Or maybe Ell had gone to wherever it was that spirits passed on to.

Ollie’s nails clicked on the tile floor and then he was beside her, snuggling his black and white body close to hers. Beth moved her arm and looked at him. He avoided her gaze, the knowledge that he wasn’t allowed up on the bed without express permission clear in his eyes, but that didn’t stop him from giving her hand a tentative lick.

Beth rolled over, ignoring the twinge of pain from her chest, and put an arm around him. She couldn’t discipline him when she needed the comfort he offered so much. “You miss her too, don’t you, baby? Miss them both.”

Ollie breathed a deep sigh.

They lay together for a while, and then Beth drifted to sleep.

The next thing Beth knew, she was being jolted awake by Ollie launching himself off the bed, sounding an alert bark. He stood on his hind legs to look out the window. A car door slammed.

Beth blinked, trying to clear her head and calm her hammering heart. Ollie barked again, then disappeared out the bedroom door toward the front of the house.
Damn. Another visitor.

For a moment she considered hiding in here and letting Maria and Jason do the honors, but she couldn’t do it. She needed to talk to as many people as possible. Jason might think that Tom Hendricks was their guy, but she wasn’t so sure. And who knew where the next clue would come from?

She stood up and stretched carefully. And then she stopped. She’d been asleep and Ellie hadn’t come to her. Her sister had come in her dreams every time she’d slept since the accident, but not this time. Was there a limit to how long Ell could linger before going on? Had she passed it?

Beth’s heart pounded. She felt lost and alone in a too familiar and lightless place. What if Ell never came back, like their mother? What if she was gone forever?

Maria’s footsteps tapped her approach on the hallway tiles. “The sheriff is here. He wishes to see you.”

Jason reached the formal
parlor where the sheriff was waiting at the same time Ellie did. Her eyes were red. She’d been crying again. He almost envied her that release as he swallowed the ache in his throat.

He stopped her with a touch on the arm before she went in. “I can do this for you, if you want,” he said in a soft voice.

Ellie gave him a lopsided smile. “I’m fine. Besides, we don’t even know what
this
is. But thanks for the moral support.”

Ellie made the introductions and Jason shook Sheriff Connor’s hand. The man didn’t try to establish his dominance with a crushing grip. His grasp was warm and dry and firm, with just the right amount of pressure to convey confidence.

“How’re you holding up, Ellie?” Connor asked.

She shrugged. “About as well as can be expected, I guess. Have a seat.”

The sheriff waited for Ellie to sit on the couch before he perched on the edge of one of the chairs opposite her. Jason chose a seat where he could see both their faces. Something must be up if the sheriff had driven all the way out here himself, instead of calling or sending a deputy. Or maybe he was just showing respect for the Pontifore money.

Connor leaned forward and let his hat dangle from his fingers between his knees. “We got the preliminary autopsy report back on Beth.” He paused and waited for Ellie to encourage him with a nod. “Cause of death was exsanguination due to trauma.”

Jason winced.
She bled to death
. He’d guessed as much, but it wasn’t easy to hear, even dressed up in technical jargon. He glanced at Ellie; her jaw was tight.

“I know. I was there.”

“Did you also know she was pregnant?”

Jason felt like he’d taken a sucker punch to the gut.
Pregnant.
Beth was pregnant. Was it his? He’d used protection, but there was a what, three percent failure rate? Had he been about to be a father? He wasn’t ready for that. Like he’d told Beth, his life was too unsettled. He couldn’t offer stability to a lover, let alone a child. Was that why she hadn’t told him? She should have anyway. He had a right to know.

The noisy thoughts chattering in his head almost drowned out Ell’s answer.

“Yes I knew.”

“You did?” Jason wished the words back as soon as he said them. “You, uh, didn’t say anything.”

Ellie shook her head and wouldn’t meet his eyes.

The sheriff took out a notepad. If he was surprised by Jason’s outburst, his expression didn’t give him away. “Do you know who the father was?”

“No. She wouldn’t tell me. I don’t think she’d told him yet.”

Beth wouldn’t tell her? That’s odd.

“Was she afraid to tell him?”

“No! I—she wouldn’t sleep with someone she was afraid of. She was smarter than that.”The sheriff nodded. “She was only a few weeks along. Maybe she was just waiting for the right time. Was she happy about it?”

A few weeks
. Jason sucked in a deep breath. The baby wasn’t his, then. It wasn’t his responsibility. So why did he feel like he’d just been slugged again?
So what if she was intimate with someone?
What did he expect? That she’d become a nun when he’d told her there was no future for them?

Ellie bit her lips and looked down at her hands. She was twisting her wedding band again. Then she clenched her fists and straightened her spine. “We thought it was cool that the cousins would be so close in age.”

“It didn’t bother her that she was going to be a single mother? Or would the father have stepped up?”

A wave of anger washed over Jason.
What kind of bastard would abandon someone like Beth?

“Since I don’t know who he is, or even if he knew about the baby, I can hardly answer that.” Ellie’s voice was rather sharp. Jason couldn’t blame her.

Connor changed the subject. “What kind of driver was she?”

Ellie’s smile was bitter. “Better than me. That’s why she offered to drive. She was always nagging me to slow down.”

“So she wasn’t going too fast?”

“No!” Ellie bit her lip. “Well, maybe a little. But that’s not what caused the wreck.”

“Was she sad or depressed?”

“No. Not at all. Or at least only about Chris.”

“And she wouldn’t have hurt herself?”

Ellie just stared.

Jason exploded out of his seat, outraged, heedless of the pain in his shoulder. “You think she tried to kill herself? With Ellie in the car? Are you nuts?”

The sheriff stood and glowered at him. “People can do some strange things when they’re depressed. They can’t see all their options, and sometimes they make bad decisions. I have to investigate all the possibilities.”

“What about the tire marks?” Jason challenged. “They don’t support suicide. Do they?”

The sheriff shook his head. “They’re inconclusive. Between the rain and the bad road surface it’s hard to tell what happened when. The wheel could have jerked when the tire blew, or the tire could have blown when she jerked the wheel.”

Ellie surged to her feet too. “But I told Toby what happened! She wasn’t depressed. The tire blew and she was braking!”

“I have your statement,” Connor said carefully. “It probably was just bad luck. But she also might have changed her mind at the last moment. I’ll need the names and contact information for her friends and work associates, if you have them.”

“This is your idea of an investigation?” Her voice was shrill. “First the insurance agent thinks Chris was a suicide and now you’re pointing a finger at my sister. Is that the best you can do? Do you even
know
how to investigate a murder? Is that why you want to call it an accident or a suicide? Because you’re too incompetent to do anything else?”

Jason put a hand on her shoulder. He didn’t like what Connor was saying any better than she did, but she’d gone a little too far. “Ellie—”

Maria came into the room carrying a tray laden with a pitcher of lemonade, glasses, and a plate of gingersnap cookies. They all stood silently as she put the tray down on the glass-topped coffee table and poured the lemonade. As if oblivious to the tension straining between the three of them, Maria handed a glass to the sheriff.

He accepted it automatically. “Thanks.”

Ellie resumed her seat as she took the glass Maria gave her. “Maybe I should hire that private investigator after all, or tell the neighbors to stop shielding me from the press and grant an interview or two.”

Jason hoped the sheriff had a thick skin, and understood that victims’ families often spoke without thinking. Or maybe that was what he was counting on. Maybe he was looking at Ellie as a suspect and wanted to see what he could provoke her into saying.
Idiot.

Connor sat down too. His face was stiff, his voice controlled and deliberately civil. “You do whatever you want, Mrs. Pontifore. It won’t change how I conduct this investigation. But if it will set your mind at ease, I’ll call for an inquest. Then you can hear all the evidence we’ve collected, and a judge will decide if there’s sufficient cause to suspect a homicide. Will that satisfy you?”

“How long will I have to wait? Weeks? Months?”

“Will next Tuesday do?” He pulled out his pocket calendar. “I’ll have to check with Judge Crenshaw about the time, but he can usually work things into his schedule. Shall we say ten o’clock? I’ll let you know if that changes.”

Jason saw the shock on Ellie’s face; he was feeling a little of his own. Apparently court dates could be scheduled pretty fast and loose out in these small Arizona counties.

Ellie looked sharply at the sheriff. “Will I be able to ask questions, too?”

Connor nodded. “If you want.”

Ellie shrugged her agreement. “Thank you.”

The sheriff took a sip of Maria’s lemonade, put the glass back on the tray and stood. “Delicious as always, Maria.”

Beth winced as Jason
accompanied the sheriff to the door.

She didn’t usually lose it like that. What had come over her? But she couldn’t feel too badly about it. She had acted just like Ell would have and it had felt … great. For once she wasn’t being the nice quiet one, and it had gotten results. Now the sheriff would have to put all the pieces together, and she could make sure he didn’t ignore any inconvenient facts. Maybe then he would admit that Chris might have been murdered and start investigating this for real. And then she could go back to living her own life.

Her eye fell on Jason’s glass, sweating on the table. What must he think, now that he thought she’d been pregnant? She shook her head. It didn’t matter. They weren’t a couple, and never would be.

“I will not lie for you,” Maria said softly.

Beth blinked. It took her a moment to realize what the housekeeper was saying.

“But you gave me two weeks! I need your help.”

“I will not lie for you,” she repeated. “Not to a judge. Not if I must swear to speak the truth on the Holy Bible.”

And Maria would certainly be called to testify. They might not ask a question that would require a lie, but she couldn’t count on that.

“No, of course not. I won’t ask you to.”

A cold whisper of panic shivered down her spine. She had a bigger problem than what Jason thought about Beth’s supposed pregnancy. Maria had given her two weeks to find out if someone had killed Chris and Ellie and their baby. Now she had five days.