“Nah,” Carlotta says as she scoops up Pancake and Waffles. “They’ll probably chop you up into teeny tiny pieces first. What sense is it to toss you into an open grave if you’re just gonna crawl your way back out? Unless, of course, there’s duct tape involved. Then we’re talking about a game changer.”
“Mom”—Evie growls—“make her stop.”
“Carlotta,” Lottie snips.
“Fine, fine.” Carlotta lands a cat in Lottie’s lap. “I was just trying to cheer the poor kid up. I guess if you’re not gonna get a hacker to bust into Honey Communications, we might as well go to bed and hope to see our Evie Stevie come morning, safe and in one piece.”
“That’s what we need—a hacker,” Everett says with a mark of urgency in his voice. “Noah, who does the sheriff’s department use to do their dirty work?”
I shoot him a look. “No one. We follow the law, remember?”
Everett’s brows twitch. “I put away more than my fair share of hackers.”
“Call them,” Evie practically shoves her phone at him.
“I can’t.” Everett frowns. “They’re all doing time.”
Lottie glances back at Carlotta. “All right, Cadillac, do your thing.”
I shoot Carlotta a text with the IP address and the server information, and she gets straight to making a couple of calls. Evie takes off for the kitchen to stuff her face with chocolate cake and Everett offers to join her.
I put my arm around Lottie’s shoulders. “All right, let’s go over the suspects. Where should we start?”
“I don’t know. I guess there’s Sugar Hartley. She has a business on Main Street, the Head over Heels Bookshop. She’s the one that owned Teddy before Verity stole her from under the poor girl. Verity really was a bit of a bully.”
“So Sugar was bullied by her,” I say. “Verity stole her beloved pet.”
“And Verity all but shut down the grand opening of Sugar’s bookstore. Apparently, she lost quite a bit of cash in the process, too.”
“Sugar is looking like a solid suspect. What about Juliet? She’s got a shop on Main Street, and she had a relationship with the deceased.”
“That’s true. They were co-workers,” Lottie points out. “I don’t really know about a motive for murder, but I suppose she’s still on the board. And, of course, Bambi Bailey. Bambi and Verity were best friends right up until Bambi wouldn’t do Verity’s bidding anymore. And Verity made sure everyone knew that she was feeling harassed by Bambi the night she was killed when she threatened to slap her with a restraining order. Bambi herself told me that Verity was out to ruin her.”
“She could have very well done this.” I take a breath. “Bambi had a career to protect, her reputation. Verity was a loose cannon.”
“So was her boyfriend.” Lottie makes a face. “The night of the killing, he was heckling Verity in front of a room full of people. He did say Verity was trying to break things off with him. He also mentioned that it was the alcohol talking that night.”
My lips twitch in her direction. “He could easily blame the alcohol for killing her, too.”
“I got it!” Carlotta shouts as she runs into the room, and on her tail are Evie and Everett. “I got the address. It’s two, one, three, three Main Street. That’s the address where all this toil and trouble is coming from. Let’s go make an arrest, Foxy.”
Lottie types the address into her laptop before looking up at Everett and me.
“That’s the address of the Head over Heels Bookshop,” she says the words just above a whisper. “Noah, you have to arrest Sugar.”
“I can’t. We need to turn this over to Ivy, and she is not going to like how we came about this information.”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Noah,” Evie pants as if this new information has her blood boiling. I know it does mine. “I’m not afraid now that I know who’s behind this. And I promise I’ll stay far away from this Sugar person tomorrow night at the B&B.”
“Good.” I blow out a breath. “I’ll head to Ashford first thing in the morning and talk to Ivy.”
Evie hops up. “Don’t worry. I won’t say a word. I want that witch to be surprised when she’s handcuffed for tormenting me. Points if I’m there to document it for my Insta account.”
She takes off for her room, and Everett lands on the sofa.
“Tell him,” Lottie says as she looks his way. And judging by that look on her face, whatever it is he’s about to tell me isn’t all that great.
“I said no to the deal.” Everett glares my way as if it was all my fault, and he would be right.
“That’s great,” I say. “That means you’ve got a shot. Now, all we need to do is find a defense that will cast doubt in that jury.”
His jaw clenches as he lets out a sigh. “Let the good times roll.”
“They will,” I tell him.
I don’t know how, but I will lose sleep every night until I come up with something.
There’s no way I’m going to let Everett fry for my boneheaded move.
We call it a night, and I head off to bed.
True to my word, I don’t sleep a wink.
All I can think about is getting to Ashford in the morning to put the wheels into motion for the capture of the person who dared to threaten my niece.
And then there’s Everett, staring me down from the recesses of my mind.
He’s ticked, I get it. He’s not too thrilled with me at the moment. I’m not too thrilled with me either. I’d trade places with him if I could.
But there’s no chance of that happening.
He was spotted at the scene.
His face was captured on tape.
He confessed.
I lied to him last night when I told him he had a shot. Outside of a miracle, he doesn’t have a chance in hell putting doubt into that jury’s mind.
A miracle.
That’s exactly what he needs.
And if it’s one thing I’m not, it’s a miracle worker.
Sleep continues to elude me for the rest of the night. I get up and head for the fridge and pull out some milk.
And just like that, I think I found that miracle.
Lottie
My mother’s B&B has always held a quaint and homey appeal, but tonight, the Rendezvous Luxury Resort is a far cry from the pleasant environment my mother once cultivated here. It’s Valentine’s Day, and I’ve donned my best red dress and comfiest shoes I could find. I’m not quite sure which shoes I actually managed to squeeze my swollen feet into, but Everett assured me they were a match.
It’s wall-to-wall bodies inside the foyer, inside every main artery, and the staircase is filled with couples dripping over one another. Both the library and the dining room are filled to capacity, but the thick of the crowd is in the conservatory.
Raucous music is thumping out of the speakers, the lights are dim, those strange hot pink lights are swirling, and the scent of spiced cologne and sugary perfume clots up my senses. A giant sign reads Welcome to the Love Your Selfie Valentine’s Day Soiree! The only person you need is YOU!