Halloween in Paradise (Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries Book 6) (10 page)

“Me?”

“Don’t worry. I told her she was totally off base. If anyone had a motive to kill that tease it was me, but I didn’t do it.”

“You?” Tj exclaimed.

“Everyone knows I had it bad for Holly when we were in high school. I was in love with her, but she treated me like a toy. The bitch used to get all sorts of pleasure out of leading me on and then shutting me down at the last minute. Did you know she even came to my house on occasion in skimpy outfits to
study
when my parents weren’t home? I should have told her to get lost, but I had it for her bad, so even though she teased me to within an inch of sanity, I followed her around like a little puppy. God, I was pathetic.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Brett said, patting him on the shoulder. “Holly liked to control people, and she was great at figuring out your weak spot. Once she did, she’d utilize it to manipulate you. She did it to Jessie all the time. I tried to tell Jessie what Holly was doing, but she wouldn’t hear it. I’m not sure who killed the witch, but I honestly think whoever it was did us all a favor.”

“That seems kind of harsh,” Tj commented.

Brett shrugged. “I’m just saying what everyone is thinking. That girl was a user who didn’t care who she hurt. Jessie and I probably wouldn’t be together if Holly hadn’t died.”

Tj had thought the same thing, but she was surprised Brett was admitting it himself. The fact that he seemed to be so open about his hatred most likely indicated that he was innocent of killing Holly, and probably Samantha Colton as well. On the other hand, openly stating something you know everyone is already thinking could be a clever tactic to divert suspicion if you really are guilty.

“Jessie is waving me over,” Brett said. “We’ll catch up later.” He walked away.

Tj looked at Dalton. “If you had to make a guess, who do you think killed Holly?”

Dalton furrowed his brow as he appeared to be considering the question. “We’re talking theoretically?” he finally asked.

“Yeah. Unless you do know who did it.”

“I don’t, but if I had to guess, I’d say Vicki Davis.”

Tj frowned. “Why Vicki?”

“Because she was dating Rodney Stone senior year and Holly was sleeping with him at the same time.”

“Really? How do you know?”

“I used to follow her around, if you remember. I probably knew more about what she did than anyone.”

Dalton did have a point. He had stalked her for most of the year prior to her death.

“You were both still at Brett’s party when I left,” Tj reminded him. “Was Holly still there when you did?”

“I was pretty wasted, but I’m pretty sure she’d gone upstairs with Jessie at some point. I know she wasn’t still downstairs when I decided to stumble home.”

After the decorating party Tj and Hunter met Kyle and her sisters at Rob’s Pizza. Dennis, Jenna, and their girls joined them shortly after. Kyle had informed Tj that they’d dropped Echo and Pumpkin off at the resort on their way to eat so Tj wouldn’t have to worry about picking them up later.

They ordered several family-size pizzas, and Tj gave the girls money for the video games, with instructions to behave and stay together. It really was too bad the main topic of conversation was going to be murder. Rob had gone all out to decorate for Halloween, and it would have been nice to be able to simply enjoy the company of her friends in a warm, inviting setting, without having to worry about the high school students in the next booth overhearing the details of the two deaths Tj was now determined to solve. Thankfully, the kids were almost done with their meal, and given the weather and the late hour, it was unlikely that anyone else would occupy the space after they left.

“I had a long conversation with Vicki this afternoon,” Jenna began. “Did you know Holly was sleeping with Rodney Stone while Vicki was dating him?”

Tj took a bite of her salad before she answered. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was starving.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but Dalton mentioned it to me when I spoke to him at the decorating party.”

“How did he know?” Jenna asked.

“He spent most of his time following Holly around. I should probably talk to him again at some point. The fact that he was stalking Holly could prove to be useful in figuring out who might have actually killed her.”

“Assuming Dalton isn’t the killer himself,” Dennis said.

“Yeah, assuming that,” Tj agreed.

“Has anyone talked to Rodney?” Dennis wondered. “If he was sleeping with Holly and things went south, he could have had a reason to want her dead.”

“I don’t remember him being at the party,” Tj said.

Dennis shrugged. “Just because he wasn’t at the party doesn’t mean he didn’t kill her. Anyone could have done it, even some random stranger just passing through town. We don’t really have any idea what happened.”

“Great.” Tj groaned. “That certainly narrows things down.”

“If solving Holly’s murder had been easy it would have been accomplished ten years ago,” Dennis pointed out. “Maybe we should focus on who sent Samantha Colton’s car over the side of the cliff.”

“Did you find out anything new from the autopsy report?” Tj asked Hunter.

“Maybe. We don’t have the full labs back, but we do know that she didn’t have any drugs or alcohol in her system. We’ve also eliminated death by natural causes such as heart attack or stroke. Based on her injuries, it seems likely she didn’t fall asleep at the wheel. Her injuries indicate that she braced herself for impact. My guess is that she became disoriented on an unfamiliar road during a downpour.”

“Roy told me there’s a suspicious dent on the left front fender of her car, but so far they don’t know if it’s connected to the accident,” Tj informed the others. “He said the crime scene guys are looking into it, but I think they’ve pretty much decided it was just an accident. Still, an unexplained dent could prove that someone ran into her and shoved her off the road.”

“Did they find skid marks at the scene?” Dennis asked.

“Only a single set that seemed to belong to Samantha’s car. If another vehicle intentionally rammed into her, the driver might not have applied the brakes.”

Dennis frowned. “Maybe. But chances are the car that did the ramming would have skidded out of control on impact unless it was going very slowly.”

“I’m beginning to think we should just drop this whole thing,” Jenna said. “Holly has been dead for ten years. The cops couldn’t figure out who killed her back then, so there’s really very little chance we can do it all these years later. And if there’s even a remote possibility that Samantha Colton wasn’t murdered and her death really was just an accident, do we really want to go digging around and stirring things up?”

“Jenna makes a good point,” Dennis said.

“It would make for a nicer reunion if we let sleeping dogs lie,” Hunter added. “It seems like Samantha Colton’s accusations have everyone pointing fingers at everyone else. When I spoke to Brett earlier he told me things were already tense between him and Jessie, and now they’re downright intolerable.”

“They seemed to be getting along okay at the decorating party,” Tj said.

“They were probably putting on a united front for the rest of us.”

“I guess we can let sleeping dogs lie,” Tj agreed. “We really don’t have anything to work with anyway.”

“I need to call Roy concerning the autopsy results,” Hunter announced. “I’ll tell him we’re taking a step back, given the fact that we really don’t have anything to go on.”

“I’ll check on the girls while you make your call,” Jenna announced.

“And I’ll get another pitcher of beer,” Kyle offered.

Tj was left alone at the table with Dennis while Hunter went outside to make his call.

“You were friends with Nathan in school,” Tj said.

“Yeah. We were good friends. Why?”

“Of all the suspects who have been identified, he’s the only one who hasn’t made an appearance. He didn’t come to the school this afternoon, but I know he’s staying at Bookman’s and has been for several days.”

“Nathan was always sort of a loner. Besides, he’s famous now and is probably busy,” Dennis pointed out. “I’m not surprised he didn’t want to waste his time hanging streamers.”

“Maybe. Has he called you or made arrangements to get together with you?”

“No, but I’ve been working. I’m sure he’ll be at the welcome reception tomorrow.”

Tj couldn’t help but wonder why he’d been part of the top ten on Colton’s list. Sure, he’d been seen with Jessie, but Tj didn’t know what that had to do with Holly or her murder.

“Did Nathan ever tell you that I caught him making out with Jessie the day before homecoming?” Tj asked.

Dennis frowned. “Jessie? Really?”

“I saw them with my own two eyes.”

“That’s odd. Nathan always told me that he loathed girls like Jessie. I kind of remember him being into Mackenzie, not that she gave any guy the time of day. But Jessie? It doesn’t fit.”

“I know. I remember that whenever he mentioned the cheerleaders in any of the newspaper articles he wrote he tended to put us down.”

“Are you sure you saw what you think you did?” Dennis asked.

“Total lip lock.”

“Who’s locking lips?” Jenna asked as she returned to the table.

“Nathan and Jessie,” Tj answered. “Not now,” she clarified. “Back in high school.”

“No way.”

“It’s true. I saw them,” Tj confirmed.

“How come you never said anything?” Jenna wondered.

Tj shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I figured it was none of my business.”

She looked up as Hunter came back into the restaurant and headed in their direction, looking down at his phone as he walked. Tj hoped he didn’t trip. The fact that she had a bruise on her face was bad enough; if they both ended up with bruises it was going to look like they’d had a boxing match.

“Roy is on his way over,” Hunter told them as he arrived at the table and sat down.

“I take it he isn’t a fan of dropping the whole thing,” Tj guessed.

“I actually didn’t get around to telling him that we intended to take a step back,” Hunter said. “Roy said he had news, and when I told him where we were he said he’d stop by. I took a minute after I spoke to him to check in with my service so he should be here any minute.”

“Let’s grab the booth behind us,” Jenna said. “We can have the girls sit there when the pizza arrives. Hopefully, Roy won’t have anything too gruesome to share. I’m starving, and I don’t want my appetite ruined by tales of blood and guts.”

“That’d make a fun Halloween special,” Tj realized.

Jenna frowned at her.

“It’d be easy. The pizza sauce could be the blood and the toppings could be the guts. Sausage comes immediately to mind, but I bet there are other gut-worthy toppings.”

“You’re a strange woman,” Jenna commented.

When Roy showed up the pizza had arrived and everyone had started eating. Tj offered him a slice, and by the time they got around to discussing his news they had all eaten their fill and the girls had returned to the video arcade.

“Samantha Colton was Holly Riverton’s half sister,” Roy announced.

“What?” Tj asked. “Samantha was black and Holly was white.”

“Apparently, Holly’s father had an affair with a black woman when Holly was just a baby. The letter asking
Second Look
to investigate Holly’s death was a fake. Ms. Colton wrote it herself, and when the program’s producers went in a different direction, she decided to investigate on her own.”

“But why now? It’s been ten years,” Jenna said.

“Ms. Colton didn’t know about Holly until after their father passed away six months ago. According to her roommate, she became obsessed with finding Holly’s killer after she found out about their connection. I imagine she came here this week because the reunion provided an opportunity to interview everyone,” Roy said. “I don’t know if Ms. Colton was murdered or if her accident really was an accident, but I do think she came up with some pretty interesting facts that seemed to give a whole lot of people reasons to want her out of the way.”

Hunter’s cell phone ringtone quacked. He looked at the caller ID and said, “I need to take this.”

He got up from the table to take the call while the others continued the conversation.

“We found out Ms. Colton received a phone call shortly before we estimate she would have had to have left town to be at the place where her car went off the road at the time it did,” Roy said.

“Maybe she was going to meet whoever called her,” Tj proposed.

“That’s my theory.”

1 box graham cracker crust (follow directions on box to make 9 x 13 pan)

4 pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1½ cups sugar

16 oz. pumpkin

¾ cup whipping cream

3 tbs. flour

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. ginger

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cloves

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. vanilla

6 eggs

Beat together cream cheese and sugar.  Add pumpkin, whipping cream, flour, spices, and vanilla. Mix. Add 4 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks.

Pour over prepared graham cracker crust. Bake at 325 degrees until toothpick comes out clean, about an hour. Refrigerate.

Topping:

½ cup sugar

2 cups whipping cream

½ cup powdered sugar

½ tsp. vanilla

Combine and spread over top of chilled cheesecake.

Refrigerate until served.