Book Club Killer (10 page)

The expression on Eve’s face
remained indifferent, but her hands began to twitch slightly. Even though I
didn’t know her well, I’d spent enough time in her company to know that the
tick was related to anxiety. She’d demonstrated it once telling a very
distressing story about a childhood accident involving her and two siblings.
And I’d seen it another time when she talked about the difficulty her family
experienced during a turbulent flight from New York to Rome.

“But I’ve got a hair appointment
after this,” Eve spluttered, glancing anxiously from Brock Truscott’s wife to
Sonja’s brother.

Detective Ford frowned. “I’m afraid
you’ll need to reschedule that,” he said. “Now, the two officers over there
will be happy to escort you to—”

Brock Truscott’s wife suddenly
lurched from the booth. “It was all her idea!” she shrieked, pointing at Eve.
“When I told her about my husband’s plan to change his will, that witch told me
that we—”

“Don’t listen to a word she’s
saying!” Eve shouted. “She’s delusional from all of the pills she gobbles all
day long!”

Warren cringed. “Can I leave now?”
he asked Ford. “These freaks are making me nauseous.”

The detective shook his head. “I’d
like you to come down to the station,” he said. “I need to ask you some
questions as well.”

Eve and Grace began cursing and
hurling insults at one another. With the sudden increase in volume and the
wildly flailing arms, our little corner of the club had become the center of
attention. The bartender grabbed a baseball bat and headed our way while the
people at the closest tables began cheering and clapping their hands.

“But I didn’t
do
anything!” Warren
protested. “When Carter introduced me to these two crazies, I was desperate for
cash. They said I could earn a cool hundred bucks just by—”

Grace Truscott staggered forward,
both hands reaching for Warren’s throat. “You little snake!” she hissed. “I
told Eve that we were making a mistake to involve such a lowlife moron.”

“Don’t blame
me
!” jeered
Eve. “I told Carter that Sonja’s sister was in the book club the second he
mentioned Warren’s name.”

“How did you know he was my
brother?” Sonja blurted.

Eve scowled. “Because I have money,
honey!” she said. “And money buys private detectives. And private detectives
can—”

“That’s enough!” Ford announced,
turning toward the uniformed offices that had moved closer. “Officers, please
escort these three to the station for questioning.”

Sonja and I stepped aside as the
cops escorted Grace, Eve and Warren out of Rusty Red’s River Boat. When the
trio was gone and the crowd had returned to their drinks, Detective Ford walked
up and thanked us for staying above the fray.

“I know you’re both pretty upset
about your friend’s death,” he said. “And I know you’ve probably just had
another shock today.”

Sonja frowned. “Another shock?”

“Yes,” Ford replied. “Discovering
that your brother and a member of your book group are prime suspects in the
murder of Rosemary Swanson.”

“But I don’t think my brother
realized what he was doing,” Sonja protested. “They paid him a hundred dollars
to deliver a paper bag.”

Ford nodded solemnly. “It sounds
that way, but he’s an accessory to murder if all of that is true.”

Sonja slumped into a chair. “It was
Eve Walker,” she murmured. “And Grace Truscott. They’re behind the plot to kill
Rosemary.”

“Except I suspect Mrs. Truscott’s
husband was the real target,” said Ford.

I put one hand on Sonja’s shoulder.
“Come on,” I said calmly. “Why don’t we go back to my house? I’ll fix you a
nice cup of chamomile tea. We can relax and process everything that just
happened.”

Sonja looked up. Her eyes were wet
with tears and her forehead was creased with worry. “But my brother…” she said
again. “He didn’t know what he was doing.”

After Detective Ford briefly
described the next steps in his investigation, we walked outside to the parking
lot. Promising to keep us informed, he climbed into his car and headed for the
police station.

“This is a nightmare,” Sonja said
sorrowfully. “What am I going to do about my brother?”

I dropped my arm around her
shoulders. “Why don’t we wait to hear from the detective?” I said, pulling her
in for a little hug. “There’s nothing that you can do now except give Warren support
and compassion. He’s an adult. He made choices. The rest will probably be up to
the district attorney.”

Chapter 20

Hours later, after Sonja and I
talked in my kitchen over cups of tea and slices of my Aunt Lulu’s Luscious
Lemon Cake, I was fixing dinner when my husband walked through the door. He was
holding a bottle of my favorite wine along with a carryout package from a
restaurant around the corner from the house.

“How are you, hon?” He gave me a
kiss and put the wine and food on the counter.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “What’s all
this?”

“We’re celebrating!” Ben said. “We
closed the deal with Brock Truscott. And I know you’ve been pretty distressed
about Rosemary. So I decided to pickup dinner and the pinot that you like.”

“But I’ve got dinner started
already.”

He gently took me by the shoulders,
guided me to the table and pulled out a chair.

“Let me put all of that away,” he
said. “Whatever you were planning will keep until tomorrow.”

“I suppose,” I said, feeling the
knots along my neck slowly loosen. “What about the boys? Did you pick them up
at soccer practice?”

He shook his head. “They’re at
Jake’s for a cookout. Tonight it’s just me and you, babe!”

I watched in disbelief and joy as
he put the salad greens and vegetables that I’d been chopping into storage containers.
Then he poured us both a glass of the pinot noir, put the carryout meal in the
oven to keep warm and invited me to sit on the back patio.

“Isn’t this nice?” he asked.

I smiled and sipped my wine. “The
best kind of surprise,” I said. “Thank you for being such a good husband.”

“You make it easy,” Ben said. “I
mean, who could resist your angelic face and loving smile?”

I’d caught a glimpse of myself in
the mirror just before I started working in the kitchen. I knew that my hair
was tousled and the bags under my eyes were the size of steamer trunks. But I
thanked him for the compliment anyway.

“What’s the latest on the
situation?” he asked.

“You mean finding Rosemary’s
killer?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but I didn’t want
to put it that way.”

“It’s okay,” I said, rubbing his
arm. “Detective Ford called about an hour ago. He spent most of the afternoon
interviewing Grace Truscott, Eve Walker and Sonja’s brother.”

Ben’s eyes went wide with surprise.
“Grace Truscott?” he blurted. “You mean Brock’s wife?”

“One and the same,” I answered.
“According to the detective, Eve and Grace have been friends for years. When
Brock filed for divorce and Grace learned she’d be removed from his life
insurance policy and will, she got the harebrained idea to kill him. Although
it just proves what an imbecile she is—thinking that she could get away with
something so obvious. Apparently, she tried sending anonymous notes that
somehow linked the divorce to his business deals, but Truscott wasn’t about to
withdraw the divorce papers. I guess his wife figured that the proceeds from his
life insurance would still be hers along with the rest of his estate. As you
can imagine, that would be a pretty big chunk of change.”

Ben nodded. “It’d be millions,” he
said. “Probably twenty or thirty.”

“More like fifty million,” I told
him. “Detective Ford shared that with Sonja and I on a conference call. Under
normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have been so forthcoming but he knew that
we’d been devastated by what happened.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Ben
said. “The poor woman was poisoned here in our home.”

“And Sonja’s brother was directly
involved,” I added.

“What about Eve?” he asked. “What
was all that about her suspecting Rosemary of having an affair with her
husband?”

I shrugged. “I think that’s all in
her head,” I said. “Once Detective Ford got the confession from Grace Truscott,
he decided her hateful remarks about Rosemary were more wishful thinking.”

Ben frowned. “Wishful thinking?”

“Yes,” I said. “Apparently, Eve’s
husband wasn’t having an affair; he was spending more time away from home than
usual on business matters. I guess Eve’s self-confidence is so paper-thin that
she somehow assumed he was cheating on her. And they ran into Rosemary at some
social function and Eve thought her husband was flirting with her. As if
Rosemary would ever step out on Ed! That’s just plain ridiculous.”

“Sounds like it,” Ben agreed.
“Anyone who knows Rosemary and Ed realizes that they’re very much in love.”

“They were,” I said as another wave
of sadness crested in my heart. “I can’t imagine how he’s going to get over the
shock of losing his wife.”

We sat quietly enjoying our wine
and the beautiful evening. After a few minutes, Ben got up, kissed the top of
my tousled head and went into the kitchen.

Later, after a delicious meal of
roasted chicken and potatoes, we refilled our wine glasses and sat under a wide
canopy of glimmering stars.

“Are you feeling better?” asked
Ben.

I smiled. “Much,” I said quietly.
“It’s been a crazy few days, but I hope things will slowly return to normal
now.”

“Did you reschedule the book club
meeting?”

“We’re skipping this month,” I
answered. “We set a new date for three weeks from next Saturday.”

“Are you doing it here?” my husband
asked.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m going to make
all of Rosemary’s favorite things, and we’re going to discuss one of her
favorite books.”

Ben nodded. “That’s nice,” he said.
“A fitting tribute to your friend.”

As the sky darkened and the stars
flickered above, I leaned back in my lounge chair and thought about Rosemary.
Losing her in such a tragic and sudden way would always be a painful memory,
but we’d shared so much laughter and joy as friends that I silently promised
her to focus on those remembrances instead of the difficult ones.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Ben said
after a long stretch of quiet.

“Just thinking,” I said. “I still
can’t believe it all happened.”

“Yeah, it was truly shocking,” my
husband agreed. “We’ll have to do our best to support Ed and the kids as time
passes.”

“Rosemary would expect nothing
less,” I said. “She’s always been good to us, and that’s what friends do.”

Another lull of quiet lingered
before I heard the front door slam.

“Sounds like the boys are home,”
Ben said.

“So much for peace and
tranquility,” I agreed. “We should go inside and hear all about their wild
adventure tonight.”

Ben got up from his chair and took
my hand. “After you, babe,” he said, opening the sliding door into the kitchen.

“Thanks, sweetie,” I offered as our
sons raced into the room on a wave of laughter and excited chattering. “And
thank you for making tonight so special.”

Also by Mary Maxwell

Murder by the
Slice (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

Lavender
Lipstick Lies

Favorite Recipes from Book
Club Members

Triple Chocolate Almond
Treasures

Ingredients

8 ounces of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of almond extract

Cocoa powder

2 ounces white chocolate, chopped into small pieces

Finely chopped almonds

1.
     
Bring
the whipping cream to a simmer in a small saucepan.

2.
     
Pour
cream over chocolate pieces in a separate bowl.

3.
     
Add
vanilla and stir until smooth.

4.
     
Cool
briefly before placing in refrigerator for 90 minutes. Scoop chocolate from
bowl with teaspoon, roll into balls and place on a baking sheet lined with
parchment paper.

5.
     
Refrigerator
for six hours.

6.
     
Roll
in cocoa powder, white chocolate pieces and chopped nuts.

7.
     
Refrigerator
for 30 minutes and serve.

Aunt Lulu’s Luscious Lemon
Cake

Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup grated lemon zest

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze

2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

1.
     
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two loaf pans.

2.
     
Cream
butter and 2 cups granulated sugar.

3.
     
Stir
in lemon zest and eggs.

4.
     
Sift
flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in one bowl. In second bowl, combine
buttermilk, 1/4 cup lemon juice and vanilla extract.

5.
     
Add
flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter. Divide the batter
between loaf pans.

6.
     
Bake
for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Test center of each loaf with toothpick or knife to
make sure the center is thoroughly cooked.

7.
     
For
the glaze, combine confectioners sugar and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.

8.
     
When
the cakes are done, cool for 15 minutes. Remove from loaf pans and set on a rack
inside a tray or sheet pan.

9.
     
Gently
spoon the lemon glaze over the top.