Can't Keep a Brunette Down (17 page)

"Great." She pushed him away and headed back into the school.

Inside, Razi stood next to her desk while Marion paced and spun a half turn at each end of the lobby while gnawing on her thumbnail. When she saw Gilda, she caught her in a hug and dragged her halfway across the room. "I should have said something sooner. Now I don't know what to do."

Gilda frowned. "About what? What's going on?"

"Remember the day Walter died?" Marion asked. "I think I saw his killer."

Gilda gasped and stared, wide-eyed. "You couldn't have. You were in your office when I called 9-1-1."

"I mean before that when I was on my way to work." Marion clutched Gilda's shoulders. "I drove past the school. When I saw Sensei Mick come out, I had to stare. I mean, what's not to like, right?"

"What else did you see?"

Marion blushed. "I followed Mick for two blocks then realized I was going the wrong way, so I turned around. That's when I saw the killer go inside the school."

Mick lunged toward them. "Who?"

"Walter's wife." Marion's eyes widened.

Gilda gulped. "Jade? That would make her the last person to see her husband alive, but she's so little. Is she strong enough?"

"Oh yeah." Mick's face reddened.

"I do not speak gossip." Razi bowed his head.

Gilda pulled out of Marion's grip. "What do you guys know?"

Mick pressed his lips shut and motioned for Marion to leave.

"Oh no. I want to know what's going on." She folded her arms across her ample chest. "If Gilda's staying, so am I."

"There's enough gossip going around town already," Mick said. "Go home."

Taller than Mick, Marion folded her arms across her chest. "Make me."

When Razi moved toward her, Marion squeaked, threw her hands in the air, and left the building. He locked the door behind her.

Gilda stared at Mick, her mouth agape. "Start talking."

He bowed his head. "Walter told us stories, locker room kind of, but nobody believed him. Then I went to tell Jade about Walter and Chloe, and she…she's a wild cat."

"Enough to tear the changing room apart?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah." Razi nodded.

"You too? Eww. I need a vat of hand sanitizer." Gilda cringed. She sat behind her desk and covered her face with both hands.

"From what I hear, martial artists get her mojo all worked up." Mick leaned on her desk. "I don't think Xavier or Erik are really her type though. You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you? Especially not Marion."

"What would I say that wouldn't make Jade look bad?" Gilda asked.

He stared at the floor. "If she had wild, crazy monkey sex with Walter first, she could've easily skewered him with a katana. The guy wouldn't be able to move."

"Way too much information," Gilda said.

Razi leaned on the desk. "What if she only came into the school to let someone else in the back door?"

"An accomplice?" Her stomach ached. The man in the yellow robe. "It's possible. Maybe she has a lover."

"Unless it's a woman," Mick said. "Walter had some issues of his own with being faithful. Maybe a jealous wife wanted payback."

"Why kill Walter, not Jade?" she asked.

"Maybe they wanted her to suffer." Mick sat in the seat beside her. "You heard Walter had been a high school teacher and Jade was his student."

"I heard." She stared at her computer screen. "Did you know all along you had a child molester teaching children in your school?"

Mick sighed. "Gilda, he fell in love with her and—"

"I cannot listen to this nonsense," Razi said.

Mick made a face. "We've been over this. He was never unsupervised."

"He was always unsupervised," Razi insisted.

He shook his head. "Gilda was here."

"Don't put that on me," she said. "I had nothing to do with what Walter did. You let him teach. You should have been here."

Mick's nostrils flared. "Of course everything's on me. I didn't have any control over any of this either, lady. You, Walter, Yoshida, Erik, Chloe, you can all just go jump in the lake." He stormed out the front door, leaving Razi and Gilda to stare at each other in stunned silence.

"I think our meeting is over." Razi locked the door then walked her home. "I hope you will not repeat what you heard. It could be very embarrassing."

"Our students would all cancel their memberships if they found out."

He nodded. "They would also not like the way Yoshida acted in class the other night. Particularly toward you."

She would have to do some serious damage control before things got worse. Maybe it was time to listen to the gossip. "So what happened after I went home that night? Did he kick you out too?"

"I went home," Razi said. "All I can say is that things did not go the way Sensei Mick planned."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Did he tell you what happened?"

"Good night, Miss Wright." He left her at her front gate, alone in the dark, and walked away without giving her an answer.

 

Gilda walked up her front sidewalk in the semidarkness with a vague, uneasy feeling. She hadn't noticed Gary or his car along the street, yet the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as though something was out of place.

Ahead on the front porch, someone moved, and a flame flared to life. Chloe lit a cigarette, took a long drag, and blew a stream of smoke toward Gilda before she doused the lighter. "About time you got home. I've been sitting here half an hour. I always thought you could do better than dating Razi."

Gilda started to apologize, then reconsidered. "What do you want?"

"You don't have to sound so hostile." She shifted in the lumpy wicker chair and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "You really need better furniture. You get this at a garage sale or something?"

"It was my grandmother's." Gilda climbed the steps and waited.

Chloe took another drag and blew out the smoke. "I know you and Mick hang out a lot, but don't get too familiar. He's mine."

"I heard you guys broke up."

"You're a good secretary, but that's where his adoration ends. I'm the one with the looks, the brains, and the money." The cigarette glowed before Chloe released a long breath. "I used to be a bikini model. I'm a trophy. You're nothing."

Gilda, self-esteem at a new all-time low, pulled out her keys. "I'm going to bed, so I'd appreciate it if you left."

"Oh, I will," Chloe said. "Right after I warn you to stay away from my father too."

"Your father?" Her entire body tensed.

Chloe stood and teetered in her four-inch spike heels. Without the heels, she was Gilda's height. "I've heard rumors you and my father are having a fling, and I want it to stop. I won't have you ruining his good name."

"Are you serious?" Gilda gagged as smoke wafted into her face. Gary del Garda had established his "good name" long before she was ever born. "I am not having, nor would I ever have, an affair with your dad. I do have some standards."

"What's wrong with my dad?" Chloe asked.

He's twice my age. He's a criminal. He's stalking me. Take your pick.
Gilda sighed. "Nothing. He's a nice guy, but he's not my type."

"Good." She gazed toward the street and tapped her toe on the porch.

Gilda shifted her weight, longing for an ice pack. "Is there something else bothering you, or can I go about my business?"

"Yeah," she said. "Tell that old Japanese dude to stay away from me."

"Yoshida?"

"Yeah. Him. Every time he's in town, Mick insists we take him to dinner. I usually get out of it, but lately he's been hanging around town a lot more. The other day, I bumped into him in the grocery store of, all places."

Gilda frowned. "What was he doing there?"

"Probably getting food while he was in town. That's why I was there." Chloe took one last puff on her cigarette then buried the butt in the planter full of marigolds. She walked down the front path and to the left around the corner. Seconds later, the Ferrari's engine roared to life and faded into the night.

"Stay away from Mick and Gary, and keep Yoshida away from Chloe." Gilda unlocked the front door. "Sounds easy enough."

 

With more thoughts rolling through her head the next morning than flowers in her garden, Gilda gave up forcing her focus on paperwork. She changed clothes and wandered among the peonies and daylilies out front. Between the funeral and playing detective, her yard had been neglected due to all the interruptions over the past few days, and pulling weeds would help clear her mind and relax her.

The guys were right. She needed to let Thayer do his job since that was why the town paid him. At least hiding in her garden would keep her away from Gary and Mick, like Chloe asked. From somewhere beyond the white picket fence, a car door closed and footsteps drew closer. She cringed, wanting to be left alone.

Thayer leaned on the gate without bothering to push up his sunglasses. "Do you have a few minutes to chat?"

She dropped her attention back to the marigolds and bachelor buttons. "I'm busy."

"So am I." He opened the gate and walked to the front steps. He sat on the third step, his face drawn and hair rumpled. "But I could use your help to solve the murder of your coworker."

"No, you want me to rat out my friends." She sat back on her heels and took a stern look at him. Dark circles surrounded his eyes, and his skin seemed more sallow than usual. She sighed and allowed an inkling of sympathy to emerge. "When's the last time you slept?"

"Which day was Walter killed?" He bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "Sorry. What's going on with everyone at the karate place?"

Her jaw tightened. "It's a school, and I'm not one to gossip."

"That's good, because I want the truth," he said. "I was in Café Beanz earlier and heard all the gossip I can stomach and even more that I couldn't. I just want the real story."

A trickle of sweat slid down Gilda's spine like a cold finger. "What kind of gossip?"

"I thought you didn't like to gossip?"

She scowled. "Look, Thayer, you and I have one common goal. To sort fact from fiction and figure out who killed Walter. If you want my help, you need to tell me what you know."

He rested his forearms on his knees. "Since that's not going to happen, you have to tell me what you know about Walter."

"He was a karate instructor, worked at the cheese factory, had a wife, three kids, and grandkids, and everyone loved him as a teacher."

"Everyone?" Thayer rubbed his bloodshot left eye. "You do know how he met Jade, don't you?"

She clamped her lips together and looked away.

He pulled out his handcuffs and lunged toward her. "Stop being childish. I know to you this is all a game. You just want to see how frustrated I'll get."

"No, I—"

Thayer stood in front of her with his hands on his hips. "Let's make this clear. If you don't tell me what you know, I'll take you to the station and lock you up. If Mick wants you back, he'll have to bail you out."

"And you'd arrest me for what exactly?" she asked.

"Interfering in an ongoing investigation. Withholding information. Being a pain in the ass. Take your pick." The handcuffs dangled at his side and gleamed in the sunshine as they swayed.

She folded her arms across her chest. "Fine. I get the point. Walter was a high school teacher who fell in love with one of his students. He left his wife, three kids, and his teaching career to marry Jade, and then
they
had three kids and moved here. Last I heard, he worked full time as a foreman at the goat cheese factory and part time at Yoshida's."

"Better." Thayer's shoulders relaxed. "Who taught his classes when he wasn't there?"

"No one," she said, wishing Gary would choose now to make an appearance. "Walter's rarely ever taken a sick day while I've worked there. He's hardly ever missed a class, except when his oldest daughter got married last fall. Then Mick looked after his classes."

Thayer's jaw tightened. Was he jealous, or was there more to his reaction? "Did Walter and Mick get along?"

"Mick ran the business, Walter looked after classes, and I kept them both on the same page. Most of the time they only saw each other in passing." The other black belts had ample opportunity, though.

Thayer nodded. "What time do you start work?"

"Eleven." She frowned, not wanting him to pester her there either.

"You'd better get moving, or you'll be late. If you hurry, I'll even escort you."

"Great. Thanks." She dragged her feet getting into the house and closed the door in the hopes Thayer would take the hint and leave.

He wandered inside and studied her locks. "You may want a better lock on your front door. Someone could break into your house just by sneezing on the door."

Gilda scowled. "Could you please wait outside? I don't like you invading my space."

"That's ironic." Thayer winced. "We'd once planned to share a space. We probably would've bought a much nicer place than this. Something in the newer part of town with a large fireplace and a big backyard with a pool."

"Yeah, well, that was before you decided to fool around with the girl at Café Beanz." Gilda waved a hand. "I know the story, and I don't care, especially now I know about all the other women. I kicked you to the curb and moved on. Get over it."

Thayer turned away. "I'll wait outside."

"Good idea." She locked the door behind him and waited for a couple minutes, in case he actually sneezed on the lock and kicked the door down just to make his point.

All the kids' classes were full to capacity that night. Either everyone truly missed training, or they just wanted to see the murder scene and catch up on the latest news. Most parents stayed to watch their children, gawk, and eavesdrop.

"It's great to see everyone here again." Marion leaned against Gilda's desk.

She smiled. "I was afraid they'd never return. It's been a long week."

"Especially you," one of the moms said. "It will be very different for all of us with Walter gone, but it's nice to have Sensei Mick teaching classes again. He's a much better teacher than Walter ever was and a lot easier on the eyes. I haven't seen him and Chloe together in ages. Is he still seeing her?"