Weapons of Mass Distraction (23 page)

The only problem was, while I could guess plenty, I couldn’t hear a thing, much less  question anyone. Pulling away from my little peephole, I leaned against the fence and texted Lily,
Where are you?

Seconds later, my screen flashed.
Coming out
, it read.
Meet you out front.

I took one last peep, assuring myself there was nothing more to see, and speed walked around to the front to meet Lily. I didn’t have to wait long before she joined me on the sidewalk. “I had to come get you,” she said, grabbing my arm. “I found that Carter guy and his wife, Mrs. Carter… “Ohmygosh! Mrs. Carter! He’s married to Beyoncé?” Lily squealed. “Oh, the look on your face, Lexi! I’m joking. I know she’s not Beyoncé. Their house would be way bigger if she was.”

“I’m not surprised you found them. It’s their house. I just saw them on the patio.”

“Yeah, but they came inside when I was looking at one of their paintings and I think they’re having an argument.”

“What about?”

“I don’t know. He had her arm and they went into the study.” Lily stared at the house thoughtfully. “I think this way,” she said, grabbing my hand and tugging me around the other side of the house. This side bordered with a neighbor’s and there was a narrow, paved, service path leading to the garden gates. “The study is on this side of the house and they shut the door, but I went in there earlier when I was looking for the powder room and there’s a window. We should go listen.”

I brightened. Maybe this wasn’t a wasted trip after all. “Okay,” I agreed, following Lily as we hurried along the service path, my heart beating faster when a light came on in the neighboring house. We paused, and froze mid-step. After a moment, a shadow of a figure passed by a window, then the light went off.

“There’s the window,” whispered Lily, pointing to a rectangular opening just above our heads, a few paces away. Then she pointed down at the pebble bed, spread a foot from the house. I nodded, showing I understood her warning not to step on it.

“Let’s go.” We snuck in closer, then pressed our upper bodies against the wall, careful to keep our feet on the path, all the while listening intently. With the party concentrated in the backyard, and rear of the house, this side of the house was much quieter and the two voices were easily  overheard.

“Honey, I told you. It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“But Carter, I still don’t understand. I got the ring made just like the picture you gave me. They looked exactly alike. I didn’t know there was an engraving inside.”

“It’s a simple mistake. Let’s just enjoy the party.”

“Kelly doesn’t think it’s a simple mistake.”

“Just stay out of it.”

“What if she finds out you asked me to make a new one?”

“I think she already figured out it’s a new one,” Simons replied, obviously agitated the more his wife persisted. “Let’s go back to the party.”

“What if Kelly brings it up?” Mrs. Simons persisted.

“Who’s Kelly?” whispered Lily.

“Carter Simons’ wife.”

“I thought that was Julia?”

“No, the other Simons. Senior.”

“Oh, right.” Lily nodded, turning away again. We froze as Lily’s foot crunched on the pebble bed between the path and the house, the bed we were so carefully avoiding standing on until now.

“Shhh,” Junior hissed and we all quieted, including his wife.

“What is it?” Mrs. Simons asked after a moment or two. I could imagine them both standing very still inside, as Junior listened.

“I thought I heard something,” he said and Lily winced.

“It’s probably the party,” Mrs. Simons said. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Wait here.” There were footsteps, then a door opened, and I heard Mrs. Simons say, “Huh?”

“We need to go,” I mouthed to Lily. She nodded quickly, as she extracted her foot and let the pebbles slip back into place before edging past me, eager to get away. We hurried in tandem along the service path and ran straight into Junior. His surprised expression turned into extreme annoyance in a matter of seconds.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, his voice rising as he struggled not to shout.

“Who are you?” said Lily, all innocence. “Is this Tony’s house?”

“I should be asking you that!” he snapped.

“Why? Are you looking for Tony’s house too?” she asked.

“Don’t play dumb with me.” Junior took a step towards her, and to Lily’s credit, she didn’t move one bit even though he towered over her by several inches. “I know who you are. You’re both from the Solomon Agency and you’re snooping.”

“I am not from the Solomon Agency,” said Lily. “I have a proper job. I inebriate people!”

“I should call the cops on you two. What were you doing back there?” He looked past us, and while I was sure he knew the study was located there, I could only hope he hadn’t realized yet that the window was open and we were listening to his private conversation. “What did you think you would find?”

“Tony’s house,” Lily quipped, persisting in her lie. I just hoped it was enough to get us out of this before Junior drew unwanted attention.

“Cut the bullshit. I want you two out of here now.” He pointed off the property, taking me right back to the moment he threw Solomon and me out of Simonstech. He was clearly big on the pointy gestures. I suspected he must’ve taken a management seminar on them. “Get out of here!”

“What’s going on?” asked a female voice. When Junior whirled around, I caught sight of the woman I guessed earlier was his wife. She was much prettier up close. “Carter? Who are these people?”

“No one,” he said. “They were looking for another house. I was just giving them directions.” He turned again and speared both of us with a very threatening look. “They were just leaving.”

“Why are you on our service path?” Mrs. Simons wanted to know, just as Joseph O’Keefe stepped around the corner, a small medicine bottle in his hand.

“Forgot my Warfarin medication, Julia, thanks for reminding me. Got to keep this old heart in good working…” he started to say, before seeing Lily and me. “What…?”

“It’s nothing, Joe, these women took a wrong turn,” said Junior, staring at us. “Julia, go inside.”

“Wrong turn,” I agreed, finding my voice as we edged past them both.

“Who were they, Carter?” Mrs. Simons asked as we walked away. “Don’t give me the directions thing. Was that her? Carter? Answer me? Was that her? Why was she at…” The rest of her questions were lost to us as we were beyond earshot of their voices, leaving the Simons to their argument and a confused-looking Joseph O’Keefe behind us.

Our heels weren’t made for jogging, but we beat a fast pace to my car and climbed in. I hit the lock button and exhaled my relief. Even when I pulled my seatbelt around me, my heart was pounding.

“Here,” said Lily, passing me a small, tissue-wrapped parcel.

“What’s this?”

“Birthday cake.”

“You stole cake from the Simons? Lily!”

“Not just any cake. Birthday cake. Mmm, delicious!” she exclaimed between bites. “Plus, I really thought it through. I’m sure there are absolutely no laws on stealing birthday cake. None whatsoever.”

“Oh, screw my life!” I wailed, leaning my head against the steering wheel. As Lily made appreciative noises over the cake, I thought about what we’d overheard. It could have been nothing, but Junior tried his best to brush off his wife’s concerns about a ring. Then she seemed to think one of us might have been "her". But who was that? Did Junior have a mistress? Junior was a good looking man, had a lovely wife and a great life. Would he risk it all to have an affair? Did our victims know about it?

“Hey.” Lily patted my back. With her other hand, she pulled back the tissue to reveal the triple layer slice. I hated to admit, but it smelled divine as I took it from her, peeling back the last layer of tissue and noticing the iced butterfly pattern. The tissue paper had butterflies on it too, I realized as I looked closely. The Simons seemed to have a thing about the pretty winged creatures and it seemed to nudge something in my memory. Something I had seen on the whiteboard at the agency. The strange mark on Lorena's forehead... its pair of triangles could be a tiny butterfly, the same size as the one I'd seen on Junior's cufflinks. “That worked out a lot better than my wedding store stakeout. At least, we got
something
out of this!”

"A lot more than just a slice of cake," I agreed.

Chapter Fifteen

I arrived on my doorstep, dejected, an hour later. After dropping Lily at her temporary residence, I drove home to my bungalow and pulled onto the dark driveway. Sure, I had good memories in abundance of the dinner, but the crumb-filled tissue crumpled on the passenger seat was a reminder that anytime now, Carter Simons Junior could be informing someone of Lily’s and my excursion, uninvited, onto his property. I did not look forward to having to explain it to Solomon when he called me out on it, especially when we didn’t even discover anything really useful. Lily’s photos were blurry, except for a couple of cake shots, and one of the powder room wallpaper, and the conversation we overheard was more perplexing than pertinent. And the mark... it could have been anything, I reasoned. Maybe I just wanted it to be a butterfly.

Grabbing the napkin, I threw it in the trash on my way to my front door. The path was dark and I pulled a face at the lamp, which failed to turn on, then nearly tripped over something large and heavy in my way. I squealed when something thumped my foot.

“Barney! What the hell?” I said loudly, looking down at my neighbor’s assistance dog, currently sprawled on my doorstep. His tail thumped my foot again.

“Ruff,” said Barney, scrambling to his feet and thrusting his nose first into my palm, then into my jacket pockets. When he didn’t find anything, a little stream of drool fell from his mouth.

“No food for you,” I told him, grabbing his collar. “You’re going home and you’re going to be quiet all night so I can sleep in peace. No horror movies, no howling, no nothing.” I continued telling him exactly what he couldn’t do all the way to his own door. I pushed the doorbell, and it rang loudly and flashed too, just in case Aidan wasn’t wearing his hearing aids. I waited while Aidan appeared.

“Hey,” he said opening the door a crack, then wider when he saw whom it was. He had a TV remote in one hand and a tub of popcorn in the other. I pointed down. “How did he get out? And where did you find him?” he asked, tossing a piece of popcorn into his mouth.

“On my doorstep.”

“Aww. He went to visit you. Sweet.”

“Delightful,” I said, sounding anything but. “We’ve had a talk and he’s going to behave all night.”

Aidan made a rude noise, which summed up the probability of that as Barney strolled past him and flopped across his hall carpet. “I came by earlier to see if you wanted dinner, but I guess you went out. You look pretty.” He ran his eyes over me in appreciation. I knew he’d inquired after my relationship status once, but I never viewed him that way. It was hard to when my mind was full of Solomon, and nowhere near my mind when I had a handful of... well, never mind. He was nice though, had a charming face, and was extra helpful about the house. I would have been happy to introduce him to my single friends; unfortunately I was short on the single friend front.

“Thanks. My brother and best friend are getting married and I was at their rehearsal dinner.”

“Got a date?”

I pulled a face, heaved a breath, and rolled my eyes.

“That’s girl-speak for ‘no,’ isn’t it? I’ll be your standby,” he offered. “I look great in a tux. Want to watch the rest of
Predator
with me?”

“Thanks and no thanks. ‘Night, Aidan. Goodnight, Barney,” I said, waving at the dog. He raised his head, gave me a doggy grin and laid it on his paws again.

“Later, Lexi. Hey, I noticed your porch light is out. I’ll come by tomorrow and fix it.”

I gave him the thumbs up as I left, glad of the offer even if it was just so I didn’t get surprised by Barney again, and the door banged shut behind me.

Back home, I locked my front door and flipped on the lights, going through the motions of closing the drapes and making myself a hot chocolate. I was wondering if I should get a pet to keep me company on lonely nights. As I passed by the fridge, I gave the magazine cutout I held up with a magnet there a stroke. It was a fluffy white cat that looked ridiculously high maintenance. Stroking the picture was the closest I got toward looking after an animal. That, and talking to Barney whenever he visited. Once, barely a week after I moved in, I arrived home to find him asleep on my couch! I still don’t know how he got in.

I went around checking all the window catches before I retired to my guest bedroom, and changed into my pajamas. I read a book for a while, and made a few case notes. I thought about Solomon not making it to the dinner, even though the meeting had clearly been cut short. I wondered if he would be my date for the wedding, or if I should accept Aidan’s back-up offer. I worried if I should have been clearer in what I wanted from Solomon, and not expected him to just know. I window-shopped on my cell phone’s browser before the calendar reminded me of my appointment with Garrett to go to the shooting range. Hopping out of bed, I retrieved my gun from its safety box and checked it over, just to make sure it was in good working order. I noticed I’d forgotten to unload it. I set the safety, and placed it on my nightstand so I wouldn’t forget it the next day before switching off the lamp.

Amidst the stillness, and gentle creaks of the house going to sleep, I heard a single bark from Barney before I fell fast asleep.

~

I don’t know what woke me, but all of a sudden my mind was on. My body, however, lagged a few steps behind. Looking through my lashes, I could see shadows cast around the room, and the dark chink between the curtains told me it was still the dead of night. The world that was Bonneville Avenue in the early hours of the morning was still. No vehicles moved. No dogs barked. The kids a few doors away were quiet. But in my bedroom, a floorboard creaked and I knew I wasn’t alone.