“Shirley, I need to tell you something,” Rarity went on to tell her about Caleb and his last visit. As she was finishing up, Jonathon came out of the back room with his laptop.
“Rarity, I checked the back door, and someone had unlocked it. I don’t know if they were just going out to smoke or something, but I relocked the door. You may want to think about that during your next club meeting. At least with the high school group. They were a little hard to corral. You may need several people to help on club days.”
Chapter 20
On Sunday, when Malia joined Holly and Rarity at the house, Rarity brought up the issue she was having with the teen book club. “Shirley and I need help with our high school book club. I’ll pay you for the two hours and buy the book for you if you want to read it, but mostly we just need chaperones to make sure the participants stay in the discussion area and to monitor the store and back room.”
Holly raised her hand. “I love reading YA. Pick me.”
Malia elbowed her friend as they sat outside on the deck. “I’ll come too, as long as I don’t have a shift at the Garnet. It’s from ten to noon on the third Saturday, right?”
“Exactly. And I could use both of you.” Rarity loved her group of friends. She knew she could count on them for help when she needed it. Even with this specific request. “Remind me to give you next month’s book on Tuesday at book club. Are both of you going to be there?”
“Of course. I’ve got some dirt on Caleb. Apparently, he has a habit of stalking coeds on campus. One of my friends said he followed her around until she had a classmate tell him they were dating and to buzz off. All she did was be nice to him in class once, and she couldn’t get rid of him.” Malia dipped her chip into her salsa. They each had their own bowls of chips and salsa since Holly insisted that Malia often double-dipped, which Malia disputed.
“Interesting. Except, apparently, Caleb had the wrong place and time of death when he confessed to shooting at Janey. Even so, I think he’s going to be staying at the psychiatric hospital for a while. They found pictures in his apartment of Janey and other girls. And he had his own darkroom. I guess he didn’t like digital pictures.” Rarity sipped her beer. She’d already swum today, so now all she needed to do was fold laundry and relax. The rest of the chores could wait. And with Archer temporarily living here with her, he took care of a lot of cleaning chores during the week. The guy was pretty close to perfect as a boyfriend.
They were having a taco bar for lunch, but they’d been waiting for Malia to finish with her study date or one o’clock, whichever came first.
“Speaking of guys at school, was that Dane O’Conner who just dropped you off in front of Rarity’s?” Holly asked.
Malia flushed, and Holly laughed.
“I knew it. I saw you two talking at the game yesterday. He’s a cutie.”
Malia shook her head. “He’s my partner for a sociology class project. Nothing more.”
Holly held up her hand. “Fine, and I didn’t see the two of you kiss anyway. What good is a secret romance if you’re not even going to kiss?”
“Let’s change the subject.” Rarity was happy for Malia. The girl had kept herself closed off for so long, worried that the cancer would come back. Now she had a chance at love. She deserved it. “So Caleb probably didn’t kill Janey. Who do you think did?”
“Her sister.” Holly set her beer on the table. “She’s entitled and wanted the rest of the trust money. She’s probably already spent her inheritance and now needs her sister’s money. ‘What’s yours is mine’ kind of thing.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking Trish too.” Rarity picked up her last chip and dug out the rest of the salsa to go with it. She thought better as she ate. “She’s just not a nice person.”
“That doesn’t mean she killed anyone. What about that lawyer who was at the funeral. He looked like a potential murderer,” Malia suggested.
“He’s too wimpy-looking to kill anyone, even Janey,” Holly offered, but then she looked up and noticed Rarity and Malia watching her. “What? Don’t tell me you weren’t saying the same thing when you saw him.”
“He doesn’t look like he has any kind of workout routine,” Rarity admitted. “But have we totally ruled out Marcus? I know Sam would hate me right now, but we don’t have evidence to prove he didn’t do it.”
“His timeline. The coroner said Janey died at one thirty or after. He was on a Zoom call with his team during that time.” Malia reminded them of how Sam had explained his whereabouts.
“One thirty California time or Arizona time?” Holly challenged.
“Is there a difference?” Rarity was confused. Time zones did that to her, especially when she was trying to catch a plane when she traveled. Well, when she had traveled when she’d been a marketing consultant. Once, she’d missed a meeting because she thought it was an hour earlier than it was where she landed.
“I’ll check it out.” Holly glanced at her watch. “Can we start lunch? I need to be at work at five.”
Malia nodded. “I’ll stay until Archer gets back. We all need to sign up for one of his hikes next week.”
“I work graveyard,” Holly grumbled as they moved into the kitchen to make the ingredients for the taco bar.
“Then we’ll do it early so it will be right after you’re off work. You’ll sleep great that day,” Malia suggested. “Are we making homemade tortillas? They’re the best.”
* * * *
After the others had left and Archer was in the shower, Rarity pulled out her murder notebook. She’d had a few suspects listed, and as she reviewed the names, she felt like she could cross off most of them, except Trish.
Would a sister kill her own twin? She knew now that Trish hadn’t been in Flagstaff getting her hair done. So where had she been? And this lawyer still bothered Rarity. He seemed way too familiar, at least with Trish. Had he been in on the murder too?
But if the lawyer had been in on it, that killed Trish’s motive because he would have known that Janey had drained her trust. Unless he thought she hadn’t made a new will. It was almost seven and too late to call Catherine to see if she’d talked to Allen Holbart about Janey’s new will. He was helping Trish sue Cara. Would Catherine talk anyway? Or would that be attorney-client privilege? Would she need to tell the other attorney he wasn’t doing her work anymore?
Rarity sighed and put the book away in her tote. Maybe Jonathon would know more about what an attorney would do in this situation. And why. She’d talk to him in the morning before he got involved in his writing.