Kee Patterbee - Hannah Starvling 01 - The Chef at the Water's Edge (23 page)

“Yup.” Rogers moved to the front of the piece and squatted down. He opened the door. A small metal rod connected to the front was visible. “If you look inside, you’ll see a stone plate.” Both Hannah and Cate bent over to peer inside. There was a small rectangular stone mounted just inside the mouth of the oven.

Cate studied the device for a second. “Some kind of sparking device.”

“Clean. Precise. Simple,” Hannah judged. “Clever. This was intentional.”

Rogers rose. “No doubt. That girl is just lucky it didn’t blow the door off. But the way it’s designed, maybe that was the intention.”

Hannah’s face tightened. “What do you mean?”

Acting out the scene and gesturing, Rogers explained that the door acted as a kind of shield, protecting Jazlyn’s face. “Given her height in relation to the placement of the oven, she would have just gotten it open this far.” He indicated a distance of a few inches.

“So whoever did this didn’t want her dead. Just injured?”

Rogers thought for a second before committing. “Yes, in my opinion. They just didn’t foresee the apron catching on fire.”

“Thank you,” Hannah said.

Rogers and Hym stepped away as Hannah stood with Cate, both contemplating the information. After a short time, Hannah motioned to Cate. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

Cate crossed her arms in defiance, anticipating her friend’s suggestion.

“We have to consider Vera again.”

“You know she didn’t do this,” Cate answered in a cold, calculated voice.

“I can’t say that for sure. Can you?”

Cate huffed with displeasure and soured her face. “Why are you wavering on this girl? You’ve spent time with her. You’ve been around her. And yet now you accuse her again after dismissing her. What gives?”

Taken aback by Cate’s aggressive stance, Hannah found herself on the defensive. “I never accused her. I just said we have to consider her again. There is a difference, you know.”

“Is there? With you, I’m never sure.”

Gathering her thoughts, Hannah took a moment. She then looked at Cate straight. “Can you look me in the eyes and say one hundred percent she didn’t have a reason for revenge, which this is? If you can, I’ll back off. Right here. Right now. But is this about Vera? Or are you afraid of how it would hurt Louie were I right?” With that, Hannah turned and started toward the exit.

“Hannah. Wait,” Cate called out. She walked to where Hannah had stopped. “Look. I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m just a little too close at the moment. But isn’t there anyone else?”

One corner of Hannah’s mouth turned into a smile. “There are always possibilities.” She motioned with her head for Cate to look to a person sitting in a darkened part of the seating area.

Cate’s brow furrowed as she tried to make out the figure. “Xabiere? What’s he still doing here?”

“I think I’ll ask him,” Hannah said. “Do me a favor. Ask around. See what else you can find out. I’m going to see where I can get with him.”

Cate’s expression said she did not care for the idea of Hannah approaching the chef alone. But the protest was pointless, so she headed back to where she had earlier spied some members of the set crew. Meanwhile, Hannah headed toward Xabiere. Approaching the man, Hannah could see that he focused on what Hym and Rogers were doing. “Mr. Dauphin,” she said with a calm tone.

The sound of Hannah’s voice made Xabiere jump and straighten up in his chair. A flash of anger ran across his face. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

Xabiere’s eyes refocused on what was happening on the studio floor. He settled back down into his former position. “I was prevented from going to the hospital with her. I stayed to see if they found out who did this to Jazlyn.” Hannah watched him until the air between them became uncomfortable. “Is there something else?” he snapped, irritated.

“You were talking to Jazlyn the day Miller assaulted her.”

“So. What business is that of yours?”

“It was just an observation,” Hannah said. “I’m surprised to see you here at all, considering how she reacted to you.” Her statement caused Xabiere to bristle. His head lowered, and he glared ahead. Recognizing that she had hit a nerve, Hannah pressed on. “I can tell you this much. It was interesting to say the least. Her kicking you to the curb.” Xabiere’s brow began to twitch, and he was blinking fast. He clutched hard at the arms of the chair. Hannah leaned his way. “Was she sleeping with Miller, too?”

With that, Xabiere jumped from his chair and stepped toward Hannah. She took a defensive stance, fists ready, feet planted. He clenched one fist and pointed at her with the other. In a deep, emphatic, and paced loud voice he yelled, “You best be careful what you say, bitch!”

Hannah grinned. “Your accent’s slipping, country boy.” Xabiere’s eye’s flared, and he let out a growl of sorts. He slung his fist forward, making an awkward attempt to hit her. Hannah could tell that he was not a fighter. The move caused him to lose balance enough so that she could slam him once in the ribs. He let out a yowl of pain and fell back into his seat. “Just stay there,” she said.

Hannah heard the sound of several individuals footfalls approaching. Still, she did not take her eyes off of her opponent.

“Stand down!” Hym called out.

Xabiere gave a quick glance over before relaxing and letting his fists unfurl. In time, Hannah dropped her arms and eased her position. She glanced over to see Hym making his way up the stairs to where the two were facing off.

“You’re not supposed to be in here,” Hym said pointing to Xabiere.

Rising from his chair, Xabiere cracked his neck. “Neither is she,” he responded, holding his side.

“She’s here with my permission. You, sir, are not.” Hym looked to Hannah. “You all right?”

“Fine. Just a poor choice of words. That’s all.”

Hym’s eyes darted between the two as he sized up the situation. “I’ve got a lot to do, Mr. Dauphin. So that makes this your lucky night. I’m letting you go without incident. But you will leave, and you will leave now.”

Xabiere glared a moment more. He huffed and moved past Hannah. Doing so, he mumbled, “She’s mine. That’s all you need to know.” He stomped down the stairs as Rogers and two of his men escorted him out. Cate, who had come to the bottom of the stairs when she heard the commotion, made her way up. “You okay?”

After assurances that she was fine, Hannah gave a brief recounting of Xabiere’s explosion. She also confessed to her intentional goading. Hym asked, “And what did that accomplish?”

“Well, for one, we know he has a volatile temper now. And two, he’s willing to act on it.”

Scratching his chin, Hym thought for a second. “Okay. But don’t you think there are better ways to get at that information?”

“Name one.”

“You could have asked me to do it.”

Hannah looked him up and down. “Somehow I doubt he would have reacted the same way, big man.”

Her point being valid, Hym did not argue. He just hoped he would get the chance to talk to her about it soon. Glancing back toward the set, he saw the last of the firefighters exiting. The set crew that remained behind were gathering which he took to mean they were readying to leave. “Well, looks like things are about done here. Give me a moment to wrap up, and I’ll give you two a ride home.” He headed back down the stairs, onto the floor and toward the set crew.

“Well, while you were playing tough chick, I talked with one of the crew. She said Asa was in Jazlyn’s dressing room about an hour before show, and they had a huge fight.”

Interested, Hannah motioned for her to continue as both settled into seats.

“He demanded she stay away from Jack and Xabiere. He wanted her to break off all relationships, personal and business, with both men.”

“How’d she take that?”

“Not well. She refused, reminding him that she was not Julia. And that he did not own her, body and soul. She was just a face for his show, and that her personal affairs were just that. Period.”

“Anything else?”

“Toward the end, the girl said she heard Jazlyn crying. Then she told Asa that she could never have a real relationship because she could never be with the man she was in love with.”

The last bit of information puzzled Hannah. In the few days they had known her, she linked Jazlyn in a semi romantic way to at least four men. Jack Miller. Xabiere Dauphin. The unknown male at her apartment when Cate and she retrieved the safe contents. And last but not least, Buster. Jazlyn pursued, used, and discarded men on a near day-to-day basis. And she had shown true affection just toward one man. Hannah’s eyes grew wide with realization. “Uncle,” she blurted out.

Cate frowned. “It’s not like you to give up.”

“That’s not what I mean. Uncle. She just shows true emotion to one man.”

Her face twisted with disgust, Cate asked, “You don’t mean she and Asa were…”

“No, I don’t think so. But she wanted him. Maybe not in that way. In fact, all the other men are just surrogates for what she couldn’t bring herself to do. Be with him.”

“So when she said she could never be with the man she loved…“

“She couldn’t because Asa was her uncle. A relationship she could never consummate, even with Julia dead. A doomed, one sided, platonic love.”

The thought made Cate shudder. “I don’t know if I feel sorry for her or disturbed. I am going to take a long shower when I get home, though. See if I can wash that image away.”

A few moments later, Hym motioned for the two that he was ready to leave. Along the way home, the three discussed the case in full yet again, trying to center in on who had the most to lose and gain by the demise of Julia. There was no general consensus that the ebb and flow of information pointed in one way or another to all the suspects.

At present, all agreed on certain things. Passing through Zebulon on the way to Louie’s, Hym showed frustration. “Miller had covered up the ME’s report out of a misguided suspicion of death by suicide. Asa arranged and paid for it. Asa stood to lose half a fortune if Julia divorced him. He could have arranged for the alteration of reports after killing Julia. If he wanted to cover what he had done. But there was no evidence to prove that theory.

Hannah agreed and reminded him, “True. But Miller could have used Asa in a similar manner. Playing him for a fool while covering his own actions. Again, there was no evidence to support this.”

Cate blew out a breath of air. It was clear that the overwhelming possibilities frustrated her.

“We know Jazlyn was in love with Asa. But there was no physical or emotional involvement as such. She may have wanted her aunt dead. It would give her more access to her uncle. But it seems improbable, given that our source overheard her admit that she could never bring herself to be with the man.”

Hannah looked back and across at her two companions. “There is the fact that she didn’t have the physical strength to pull off the necessary trauma that killed Julia.”

“Neither did Vera,” Cate said with a smug tone. She then added, “Though she had as much motive as the others.

Hannah accepted Cate’s unstated apology for earlier getting testy and defensive. And in truth, she was glad at the observation. She was not about to bring up the fact that Vera had a previous relationship with Xabiere. Or that it had ended in some odd fashion that they had yet to determine. Hannah thought the strange air between Xabiere and Vera she observed could be something more. A tag team murder that resulted in a soured relationship.
But then again
, she assessed to herself,
Jazlyn herself could have teamed up with one or the other. Heck, anyone could team up with each other. What if they were all in cahoots together?

“Then there’s this Xabiere character,” Hym suggested. He was interrupting Hannah’s cascading thoughts, and she was grateful for it. The theories were mounting in her head faster than she could keep up with and, at present, she wanted to reduce that number.

Cate leaned forward between Hym and Hannah’s seats. “Well, let’s see. Asa and Julia fired him. He self-reported that he was in love with Jazlyn. But the word obsessed seemed more appropriate to me.”

Hannah swirled the information around in her mind. “With Julia out of the way, he might have been aiming to assist Jazlyn in her career.“

“Like some kind of sick love offering? Hmm,” Cate considered. “This is getting twisted.” Hym glanced over to the girls as he turned into Louie’s drive. “We need to get more on his guy.”

After all returned to the house, Louie invited Hym in to continue the conversation. Louie, Vera, and Buster were already there at the kitchen table, discussing the night’s events. Louie did his usual hosting duties, preparing “enough late night food fare for an army” as Cate put it. As everyone noshed, all information was once again circulated and pondered upon.

While they were deliberating, Hym’s cell rang. After looking at the caller ID, Hannah noticed that he answered as “Officer Miles.” She also observed that the information he heard struck him. As he hung up, Hannah expected it had to do with the case and she wasn’t wrong.

Noticing the perturbed look on the lawman’s face, Louie asked, “Something wrong?”

“Someone vandalized and/or robbed the Karas Museum.”

The news stunned everyone for a second. Momentarily, Vera managed, “What? When?”

Hym shrugged. “I got to go,” he said. “Sometime tonight. After the news of Jazlyn hit, if I were to venture a guess. But I’ll know more once I get there.”

“I’m coming too,” Hannah said, pushing herself away from the table. “You guys get some rest. I’ll let you know what we find out.” With that, she headed toward the front door, picked up her purse, and exited. Hym looked over to the others, mouth agape, unsure of what to say. “Bye,” he said and headed toward the front, calling out, “Now wait a minute. I’m the officer in charge here…” His voice faded with the slam of the door.

“What just happened?” Buster asked, shoving a piece of food in his mouth.

“Hym and her are about to have their first discussion on boundaries.” Buster guffawed. “He’s gonna lose that discussion.”