“The daughter,” Donovan stated unnecessarily. “So they don’t get along, huh? What’s her story?”
“Chloe saves manatees in Florida. She’s a widow. Her husband died in a boating accident five years ago.” Milla picked at the yarn. “She and my sister are, were, total opposites. Chloe’s a bit of a hippie. She likes baggy T-shirts, living on the beach, wears her hair long and loose, and is passionate about animal rights.”
“Bet she wasn’t happy to see her mama’s fur coat,” Jackson murmured lowly, but Donovan obviously heard and exchanged a quick, predatory glance with Lucy.
“Lucky for us she wasn’t wearing it,” Milla grinned briefly at her fiancé and then continued. “Louise, Wheezie, is our oldest sister. She lives in Natchez, Mississippi. That’s our home town. She and Paulette haven’t seen each other for a really long time, so things were a little strained between them.” Milla held out her hands plaintively. “You know how that can be.”
“It sounds like things were a little uncomfortable,” Lucy suggested.
Milla nodded in agreement. “Paulette started nagging Chloe about spending all her money on useless sea cows, and the poor girl started crying. Wheezie tried to stick up for Chloe, and Chase told her to mind her own business. Considering Wheezie’s his aunt, he should have shown her more respect.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s why I joined the ruckus. Wheezie deserves better than to hear fresh talk from that spoiled, arrogant boy.”
“Were any threats made at this time?” Donovan inquired hopefully. “You might as well tell me now, because we’re headin’ right over to the Holiday Inn after we’re done here.”
Milla’s face grew stormy. “There were arguments and that’s all. The kind that happen between related folks all the time. I doubt anyone went back to their hotel room after lunch and started building a bomb or loadin’ a gun!” She threw her yarn forcefully into a basket near her feet. “Now I want to know what killed my sister and I’m not going to say another word until you answer me in plain talk.”
“We don’t know,” Lucy replied softly. “The test results won’t be-”
“Don’t you give me the run around, Lucy Hanover!” Milla pointed an angry finger at the deputies. “I can tell Patty didn’t just lie down, close her eyes, and die-not with the questions you’ve been asking. You wouldn’t be sniffing for a trail if there wasn’t somethin’ wrong with how she passed. So what was wrong with how y’all found her? Tell me please. She was my sister!” Milla’s voice broke and she pressed a tissue over her eyes.
It pained James to hear her plead this way. He stared at Lucy, willing her to respond to Milla, but she avoided eye contact while Donovan studied the three of them with the smug posture of someone reveling in his position of authority.
“You’re not going to answer me, are you? In that case, I guess I need to call Chase and tell him to get a hotshot lawyer from his firm to fly down here.” Milla rose to her feet. “I don’t see why we should spill our guts and get nothing in return.” She directed her anger at Donovan.
“It’s possible that we’re dealing with a case of poisoning,” Lucy said in a nearly inaudible voice.
As Milla sank back into the chair Donovan hissed, “Shut your mouth, Hanover,” through clenched teeth.
“But that’s all the information we have until the medical examiner’s report is complete. Even then, we need to wait for the lab results,” Lucy continued as if she hadn’t heard her partner speak. “And I have to ask for your word that you won’t mention that fact to anyone outside this room.” She looked at each of them in turn. As Donovan spluttered in indignation, James, Jackson, and Milla all promised to keep the information to themselves. And despite the red-headed deputy’s attempt to bully more detail from Milla, she refused to talk to him anymore.
“I guess I can’t lay her to rest then,” was her only remark, and this was confirmed by Lucy’s regretful frown.
James walked the deputies to the door, noting that the sky had turned an ominous gray and a strong wind was battering the barren trees. Dried leaves skipped across the lawn and as Lucy pulled on her leather gloves, it began to rain. She gestured for Donovan to go on ahead and then said, “Maybe we shouldn’t think about dating until this case is done.”
“Or at all,” James whispered, stung by her suggestion. “I remember how you acted when Gillian was under suspicion at the barbecue festival. You were loyal to your job first and your friends second. Is this going to be a repeat of that experience? Now that Milla and her family are on your radar, all your other relationships are insignificant?”
“I’m not trying to hurt you.” Lucy reached out for his arm, but James yanked it out of her reach. “But I swore an oath to uphold the law, James. Would you respect me if I wasn’t true to my word?”
“No,” he admitted, his tone softening. “But I’ll always come second with you. The law will be the forefront of your life. Before your husband or children. Isn’t that right?”
“Who said anything about children?” Lucy folded her arms across her chest, squinting as rain ricocheted off the open screen door and onto the exposed skin of her cheeks. “Can we talk about this later? It’s cold and Donovan’s going to filet me when I get in the car.”
Feeling that there wasn’t much else to say, James nodded anyway. “Sure. After the case.”
Crossing through the inside of the house, James walked into the dining room, parted the curtains, and watched as the cruiser disappeared down the gravel drive. He stood there for a long time, a familiar ache of loss blooming within his chest. Finally, when the rain eased into a downpour, obscuring his view of the ridged pine trunks surrounding their house, he turned away and headed upstairs. As he had done so often throughout his lifetime, he searched for solace in the one place he knew it awaited him: within the pages of a book.
The rain persisted overnight and then ceased as if a spigot had been abruptly turned off, leaving a wake of sodden, frost-tipped ground and a cold mist that seeped into every porous surface.
The weather befit James’s mood. He had fallen asleep reading the day before, to wake to yet another casserole. Milla and Jackson were feigning an interest in a wildlife program on turtles. During a particularly long commercial break, Milla informed him that the rest of her family had been interviewed all afternoon and instead of going out for dinner, each one of them escaped to their individual hotel rooms with cartons of takeout from a nearby Chinese restaurant.
Even his supper club friends were of no comfort. Bennett spent the evening with Jade Jones, who had driven up from southern Virginia in order to eat at Dolly’s Diner and play the role of Alex Trebek while her dinner companion answered dozens of trivia questions correctly. Gillian was having her business partners Beau Livingstone and Willy Kendrick over for a meal, and Lindy didn’t answer her phone at all, which meant she was probably having a long-distance date with Luis.
Scott and Francis, bundled up against the cold in bright orange ski parkas, barely acknowledged James’s presence when he arrived at the library that morning.
“Is that today’s Star ?” he asked them.
Francis nodded. “I guess you already know about the Diva of Dough. Sorry to hear about her passing, Professor.”
Glancing at the cover story, it didn’t take James long to figure out that Murphy was unaware that Paulette’s death was being viewed as suspicious by the Sheriff’s Department. The article focused on the Diva’s celebrity status and hinted that the deputies interviewed had been less than forthcoming, but promised to deliver more information after the late cake maker’s family members and New York staff were interviewed.