A Fatal Romance Read online

  Chapter 21

  Eve had been gone much too long. I called her. Apprehension slammed to the surface when she didn’t answer by the third ring. She picked up on the fourth.

  “You’re still with Mom?” I asked.

  “I left there twenty minutes ago. I’m shopping at The Craft Store. Do you need anything?”

  “Not from there. What are you getting?”

  “Sketch pads, drawing pens, other art supplies. Just looking around. I don’t have anything I’d need to paint with at your house, and I miss my hobby. With these, I’ll have some kind of release.”

  The type of release she preferred wasn’t going to happen. No men would come around her until all threats were dissolved. “Don’t talk to anyone. And don’t be long.”

  “Yes, Mother.” She clicked off.

  When she finally arrived at my house, I’d prepared a quick meal of her favorite, shrimp creole.

  “Yum.” She entered the house sniffing toward the stove, hands holding different-sized bags. “I might move in forever so you can feed me.”

  “But with no guys.” I nodded toward her purchases. “It looks like you bought enough to sketch for months.”

  “Since I’ve never done any art work without paints and canvases, I had no idea what I might like best.” She showed me inside one bag, which held pads and colored and charcoal pencils.

  “Good. What happened with Mom? I’m sure she knew it was you.”

  Eve plucked the cover off one pot. Inhaling, she closed her eyes and wore a smile of appreciation. “I was hoping I’d catch her in her room for a change, but she was sitting in the foyer with her ladies.”

  As my eyebrows lifted and my mouth opened into an O with concern, she raised a hand.

  “Don’t worry. She smiled when she saw me coming, but before she could say my name, I gripped her face with both hands and leaned in for a kiss on the cheek and whispered in her ear that she shouldn’t mention who I was. She didn’t.”

  “So none of the ladies knew it was you?” I asked, relieved.

  “Miss Grace asked which one of the twins I was, so I said, ‘You know I look prettier than Eve.’”

  I grinned. “Then she never figured that you are Eve.”

  “Nope. I got to hold Mom’s hand and let her know I was doing well. Of course she’d heard gossip about things that happened, so my visit reassured her.”

  “I know that pleased Mom.”

  “She’d like to see you soon, too.”

  “I’ll get there.”

  Eve fixed a salad while I cooked rice I’d bought. We both sipped Chablis. Supper gave us a chance to visit with another glass of wine along with a nice meal and great conversation, which mainly consisted of her telling me how wonderful Nicole looked with her big belly and sharing lots of pictures of the same. She showed me Nicole and Randy, the soon to be Mom and Dad, and the baby’s room done up in yellow and white stripes, not frilly yet not masculine either. They didn’t want to know whether they’d have a boy or a girl but were sure to welcome one or the other fairly soon.

  “I can’t wait,” Eve said.

  I lifted a glass and clicked it with hers. “To the soon-to-be grandma.”

  “Isn’t that hard to imagine?” she asked, and I had to agree.

  After cleaning dishes together and putting them away, we watched a relaxing comedy on TV and then chose to get to bed early, neither of us mentioning what remained foremost on my mind and surely on hers.

  I hugged her and held on an extra moment. “Let me know if you need anything, Sis.”

  She nodded. Her concerned eyes and half smile assured me what she needed was peace from all threats.

  Concern kept me turning in bed. Morning came without me feeling refreshed. The cheer in her voice didn’t dispel my notice of her new lines of weariness. Her lip corners and outer edges of her eyes turned down until she noticed me entering the kitchen. She seemed to force both up.

  “Good morning. I was looking for a place to set up my drawing material.” She held up a bulging bag.

  “How about the dining room table? That’s a large space I never use.”

  “Great. Thanks.” She took her things there. I fixed grits in one pot and in a skillet, smothered onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms and poured seasoned scrambled eggs over them. As I added cheddar cheese while this cooked, she dumped the bag on the table, sorting materials she’d use. She sat in front of it all and did nothing.

  After the toast popped up, I walked in to tell her breakfast was ready. Eve was still staring at a large blank sheet of a sketchpad. She joined me in the kitchen to eat. Unlike the previous night, we spoke little except her telling me she enjoyed this meal.

  “Did you call some people from your line dance class,” I asked while we cleared the table, “to see if you could learn anything about Zane and Lillian having a thing together?”

  Her head shake and deep intake of breath let me know that working on solving crimes also remained utmost in her thoughts. “I realized I don’t know that many people from our class, but I jotted the names of a few.”

  “Grab your list and get busy.” I handed her a phone book and pointed down the hall toward the bedroom where she’d have the list and more privacy. Hoping the people she knew had landlines and were home, I figured she’d feel more useful trying to discover a way to protect herself than looking at a blank sheet of paper without inspiration to put anything on it.

  A little before nine-thirty, I peeked through the open doorway into her room. She sat on a brocade chair she’d pulled next to the bed. Her phone and notepad sat on the bedspread. “Any luck?”

  She shook her head. “Some of them aren’t home. A couple of women I talked to knew Zane, but only that he wasn’t very good at learning even the easiest dances like The Freeze. One woman said she met a person in class named Lillian, but doesn’t know anything about her except she can do the Macarena real well. I’m going to call a couple of others and the instructor, but she works during the day, so I’ll try her later.”

  “Great. We might get somewhere with at least one person from the class.”

  Eve’s eyes shifted to the purse on my arm. “Where are you going?”

  Before I could mumble a lie, the phone inside my purse rang. I grabbed it, hoping it wasn’t the man Eve thought of as her soul mate cancelling our meeting. “Hello,” I said, not mentioning our company’s name as before.

  “Is this Twin Sisters’ Remodeling and Repair?”

  “Yes! It is.” My cheerful voice gained interest of my sister who kept watching me. I couldn’t wait to tell her about the new job we were about to get.

  “This is Marsha Ellis. I talked to Eve about y’all possibly remodeling my kitchen,” she said, making my smile stretch wider. “Tell her I changed my mind. I won’t need any of that work done.”

  I swallowed, my smile leaving. “Thanks for letting me know.”

  Eve’s continued stare made me feel she could intercept my thoughts, as sometimes we’d seemed to do in the past. I slid my gaze toward my purse where I deposited my phone. She didn’t need any new concerns or disappointments.

  “Somebody saying you won a trip or thousands of dollars?”

  “Something like that. I need to run some errands. In case I’m not back at lunchtime, help yourself to something from the fridge.”

  “I know where you keep food. Thanks.”

  A short drive took me to Midtown Coffee Shop. I swept my glance across the three round metal tables topped by blue and white striped umbrellas out front. The rich aroma of mocha and cinnamon pastries greeted me the second I opened the door. I looked beyond the few customers seated inside, keying in on the man who made my breath catch. He looked at me, his closed lips pulling into a partial smile, drawing my body toward his. Who was this person with such appeal?

  His smile widened while I approached.

  “Thanks for meeting me,” I said, unable to stop my own lips from smiling.<
br />
  “No problem.” He stood and pulled out a chair beside his.

  Seated, I thought a little small talk might be best to ease into the questions I planned to ask him. “I’m surprised you had this time of day free.”

  “I just needed to change a couple of things around, but that’s fine. What can I get you? Breakfast? This espresso is excellent.” He tilted his head toward the cup in front of him.

  “I had breakfast, thanks,” I said, biting off with my sister—that almost spilled out my mouth. “A large cappuccino, please. Nothing else in it.”

  While he went for my coffee, I struggled with questions I planned to ask and my feelings about him. Yes, darn it, the man I watched standing at the counter with wide shoulders and nice buns looked good, although his appeal seemed to come more from somewhere inside. When the barista made a machine churn, Dave glanced over his shoulder. Renewed eye contact with him made my cheeks burn. The rest of my body also heated.

  “Maybe it’s cooler outside,” I said when he returned and set a cup in front of me.

  He looked toward the door. “It was almost ninety degrees this morning, and the air conditioner is on in here. But if you want to, we can move out there.”

  “No, that’s fine. I just had a little warm spell.”

  “Is it something you get often?” He lowered himself beside me.

  I shook my head. Only when you’re close. “Thanks. So I hear that you have a sister.”

  “Yes, the same as you.” His satisfied smile expressed his pleasure. “We’re the only two.”

  My lips squeezed together with the grim thought of the one we’d lost. “We had another sister. She died when we were young.” Anger flared inside. “Some stupid person drove past our house when we were outside and for entertainment, I guess, shot her.” My shoulders felt the trembles first. Tremors worked themselves down to my chest where they vibrated and regurgitated in “Silent Night.” I squelched the song and the tremor of my body with Dave’s arms warm around me, holding me close, keeping my head tight against his.

  “I am so sorry,” he said near my ear. “Sunny, I’m truly, truly sorry.” He gave me a squeeze.

  I sucked in a deep breath and drew back. “Thank you.”

  He shook his head, a sorrowful look tugging down the outer corners of his eyes. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”

  I sighed. “It’s been so hard to lose her.” I peered at the table, then up at him. “That’s when the idiotic singing began. I was alone with Crystal when it happened, and I was so scared and I wouldn’t let myself cry because I’d never stop, and instead, I sang. The only songs I knew—Christmas carols.” My voice came stronger and louder. “So I don’t have an older sister any longer, and any time I get scared, I still sing them.”

  He watched my face, his eyebrows lowered. Dave placed a hand over mine.

  “I tried to get help, some counseling,” I continued, unable to stop this sad story of my life, “but not much helped.” Spent. My body and mind and word bank had exhausted themselves. How could I have told all those things to him? The only one I’d said this to was the professional who said little and didn’t help. Pressing back in my chair, I felt my hand slip away from Dave’s.

  He sat straighter, giving me the courage to do the same. “You are a strong woman, Sunny. I admire your courage in all you’ve had to face.”

  I nodded, silent at first. “Thank you.”

  Just then, I noticed the older couple at the next table. Their eyes turned down the minute I looked at them. So they heard. No matter.

  “Now we need happier talk. Tell me about your sister.” I stirred and sipped my cooling drink, trying to divert attention away from myself and allowing him time to speak and me to move my thoughts in a different direction.

  “Ah, she’s a sweetheart.” He took a swallow of his coffee. “In fact, Penny has never been married, and now she’s engaged to a man your twin divorced.”

  When he stopped talking, I didn’t respond, again stirring in my cup, not giving away whether I already knew what he told.

  “I think Eve’s divorced more than one man,” he said. “This one, I believe, might be her first? Stan Legendre.”

  “He was her second husband.”

  “Anyway, he seems like a really great guy, and my little sister’s nuts about him. That’s all that matters to me.”

  Peering out the corner of my eye, I wouldn’t look directly at Dave. What would he or his sister think if they knew Stan slept at Eve’s house the night before Dave showed up there to talk about installing an alarm? Yes, she’d said they didn’t sleep together, but was that a fib?

  “You seem to like your sister a lot.” I dabbed at my lips with a napkin he’d brought.

  “What’s not to love? She’s kind and considerate and always calling her big brother from her place in Shreveport to check on him.” His gave his head a brief shake. “And I’m the one who really should be checking on her.”

  Did his adorable sister know her fiancée had given my sister expensive jewelry and other fine gifts since their marriage ended? “She sounds really sweet.”

  “She certainly is, even while being confined to a wheelchair.”

  My hand jerk made coffee splash on the table. I’d been bringing my cup to my lips when he told me this surprising information. “A wheelchair?”

  His lips went into a tight line. “A car accident two years ago. Some drunk guy ran into her while she was driving. Since then she lost her job and doesn’t have much of anything left. Except hope.”

  I shook my head, sympathy oozing out to this unseen young woman.

  “Being in love with Stan has given her the main joy in her life since the accident.”

  Dave’s words sent my mind and emotions swirling as though in a tornado. She owns little, but does have this big brother. She may know about Stan’s previous wife, my sister, who has much, and he’s given much more. Suppose she wanted her big brother, seated beside me, to crash into my sister’s house and grab all those things of value that Stan gave her. WHERE IS WHAT’S HIS? Could that be what was meant?

  “What’s wrong?” Dave stared at me, forehead crinkled. He set his cup down.

  I shook my head. “Nothing.” With a napkin, I wiped off the coffee I’d spilled. Lowering my uptight shoulders, I tried to relax the tension in my forehead and chin. My attempt mustn’t have been too convincing because he leaned his upper body toward me, concern gripping his face.

  “Why exactly did you want me to meet you here today?”

  My mind skipped through thoughts, trying to pick one. I wanted to learn more about your sister and Eve’s ex. I wanted to be around you. And I certainly didn’t want anyone connected to you to be a potential threat to my sister.

  He looked at my hands, which I’d tucked together near my chest without thinking. His gaze made me realize I’d also drawn back from his nearness.

  “Hello, Eve.” A man’s words made me twist around. She came in here? We’d be seen together, a potential major problem.

  I didn’t see Eve, but a young man wearing a suit, tie, and pleased expression, stepped up to me.

  “I’m not Eve. She’s my twin.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know she had a twin. You two are identical.” The grin he gave me had seduction written around the edges, making me shiver and wonder if he was considering that I might have moles in the same hidden places she did.

  “Yes. Well, we’re not quite identical.” I turned my back on him.

  Dave kept hard eyes trained on the man standing behind me. After a beat, the man’s footsteps moved on. Dave’s gaze lowered toward mine. “Is Eve around? I haven’t seen any sign of her.”

  “She’s fine. And her alarm system is working fine, too,” I said, evading his question.

  “Good.”

  I wet my throat with a small sip of the cooled cappuccino. “I wanted to apologize for all the commotion I caused by saying your alarm didn’t funct
ion properly when actually I was the one who didn’t work it right.”

  “That’s fine. No harm was done.”

  “So thank you for the coffee. I can repay you for both of these.” I pointed to my cup and his.

  “No way. But that’s all you wanted? To apologize again?”

  And sort my feelings, which were now even more scrambled. “Yes. Thank you for the drink.” I lifted my purse.

  He leaned and touched a kiss to my cheek.

  With a small tremble, I stood. No smile came to my lips before or after I strode away. This man my twin thought of as her potential forever mate might actually have been the person who broke into her house, ruined her paintings, and wrote on her wall once he couldn’t get into the rest of the house to steal valuables. He’d have done it for his younger handicapped sister he seemed to adore. Disappointment roared through my system with the thought that the only man who appealed to me since early in my marriage might be proving what I had known—that no man was ever meant for me.

  Chapter 22

  The other threat to my sister came to mind while I slid into my truck. Someone shot at her. I couldn’t imagine Dave in any circumstances firing a gun at Eve or anyone else. And why didn’t I want him to be involved? Again I wondered if there could possibly have been two people, one who smashed the glass door and got inside, and another one for some different reason later trying to kill her?

  My humming about winter wonderlands let me know I didn’t want to stay with that thought. I turned my radio full blast to a country music station, ripping away my hums and pictures of a dead sister.

  What about Daria and Zane? I still believed she killed him, but who killed her? And why? I wondered when the first song stopped.

  I needed to brush all this detecting off my shoulders. I wanted to rush to solve Eve’s problems but couldn’t connect all of these recent tragic events. Surely the police had much more information than I did. Maybe, even at this moment, they were closing in on a killer.