Spin a Wicked Web (12 page)

Oh, dear. "Does that bother you?"

"Not at all. Much better than jumping into a marriage like he
did with Hannah. It would have been better for all concerned if
they'd found out ahead of time that they disliked each other so
much."

"Disliked? Then why did they get married in the first place?"

She snorted. "Lust. Pure lust."

I coughed. "I see."

"It happens to all of us, of course. The question is what do we
do with it?"

I couldn't believe I was having this conversation with Barr's
mother. "So you think living together is a good idea?"

"Sure. Especially if there's still all that lust. You can't make a
good decision about the rest of your lives if your brain's all clouded
with love chemicals."

"Ah," I said.

"And I don't think you're interested in my son because he's
loaded now. Right?"

"Uh, no. Of course not. I only found out about the inheritance
from his uncle yesterday. Was it your brother who passed away?"

"My oldest brother. He was a clever sort, played his cards right
in the oil fields."

"Well, I'm sorry for your loss. Barr didn't tell me."

"See, there you go. He's a knucklehead, thinking you wouldn't
be interested in knowing a relative had died. You're a nice girl, I
can tell."

"Urn," I said.

"Hannah isn't being too much of a pain, is she?"

"Well," I said.

"Because she's really a very nice girl, too, only you know, kind
of crazy."

"What?" Crazy? What kind of crazy?

"Not crazy crazy. Just, a bit unpredictable. Don't you worry.
She'll come on home here in no time. Barr will see to it."

Right. So far that hadn't worked so well, but I refrained from
mentioning that to Cassie Ambrose.

"Well, dear, I'm glad we had this talk. I sure feel better, and I
hope you do, too. The dudes are coming in from a ride and will be
wanting their dinner, so I'd better go light a fire under the kitchen
staff. You take care now, bye."

And just like that, she was gone.

Holy cow, I thought. So that was Barr's mother. I wondered
what his father was like. Probably quiet. How could he not be, if
that was any example of Cassie's conversational style?

Knuckles rapped on the frame of the front screen, and I looked
up to see Barr standing on the step.

"Your mommy called," I said, opening the door for him. "She
thinks you're a knucklehead."
"

Shaking his head, he glanced skyward as if invoking the heavens. "I told her not to."
"

I got the feeling that wouldn't make much difference," I said.

"Obviously."

I like her"

"Good, because you're stuck with me, and that means you're at
least partially stuck with her. Now, where's my grub, woman?"

I laughed and led him into the kitchen.

THE LAMB WAS RARE, the stuffed squash blossoms delicately crunchy
on the outside and creamy good on the inside, and the wilted lettuce
savory and sour and sweet and salty all at once.

Taking advantage of the warm weather-the rain would return
soon enough-we once again ate at the cedar picnic table in the
backyard. Erin was having dinner at her friend Zoe's house, so we
could talk freely about Ariel's murder.

"Chris told me she thought she had an alibi," I said. "She said
that Robin asked her about a specific time the night before the funeral when the murder probably happened."

Barr nodded. "I wish Robin hadn't given that away up front,
but yes, Chris says she was with at least two other people during
that time."

"You don't sound convinced," Meghan said.

"Well, at least one of them had a dislike of Ariel that bordered
on hatred, from what I can tell."

"Irene Nelson?" I asked.

"That's the one." He took a bite of squash blossom. "Say, these
are pretty good."

"But the other person was Ruth, right? She never seemed to
feel one way or the other about Ariel," I said.

"So it looks like Chris is clear," he said. "Especially because
there are two people who vouch for her, and not just one."

"What about Jake?"

"He was also at Chris' home that evening, but he left before
the time of the murder."

"Which was between eight and ten at night?"

He nodded. "See, you do find things out."

"Well, here's something else I found out. Ariel's roommate told
me today that a woman called the house and threatened Ariel, told
her to stay away from her husband."

"You think it was Chris?" Meghan asked.

"Probably. Daphne-that's the roommate-answered the
phone. The caller hung up as soon as she realized she wasn't talking
to Ariel."

Barr looked thoughtful. "Any idea when this might have been?"

I finished chewing a mouthful of wilted lettuce and swallowed. "Last week. I couldn't narrow it down further without
being obvious."

"That's good enough. Nice job"

Meghan grinned at me.

I tried not to fluff my feathers. "I'm going to La Conner to see
Ariel's brother."

Barr paused with a forkful of lamb halfway to his mouth. "I
don't know about that."

"CRAC has to do something with all her art. I might as well
take it up there. At least I assume he'd want it. I'll call first and find
out. But cross my heart and hope to die, I won't step on your toes
or do anything to hurt the investigation."

He rested his elbows on the table, long fingers dangling a goblet of wine. "Robin is going tomorrow. Can you wait a day?"

"Sure. I have to get all the canvases packed up anyway." I turned
to Meghan. "Come with me. We'll shop in all those kitschy little
shops along the waterfront. I'll buy you dinner."

"I have clients scheduled."
"

I have work, too. Rearrange some things."

"There's Erin."

"Bring her with."

"Math camp."

I still couldn't believe Erin was spending two weeks of her summer attending math camp on purpose. "Have her stay at Zoe's," I
said.

"Sophie Mae, I can't just pick up and leave like that."

I sighed. "Neither can I, usually. I really need to get away for a
little while."

Barr frowned. "Does that have anything to do with Hannah?"

"Honestly? I don't like her following me around town."

Meghan looked alarmed, and I hurried to reassure her. "Don't
worry. It was only one time, and she was probably just curious
about me. After all, I'm curious about her."

Next to me, Barr looked uncomfortable. "I don't know why
women are like that."

"Well, we are. And I bet in the same situation, you'd be like
that, too."

He shook his head. "She's probably already on her way out of
town. I called Horse Acres again after you said you'd seen her, and
she'd already checked out."

"Just because she's left the bed and breakfast doesn't mean
she's left town." I clamped my mouth shut, ashamed of how shrill
my voice had become.

Meghan, bless her heart, quickly changed the subject. "The
members of CRAG should put together something for Ariel's
brother. Maybe some nice flowers."
"

I like it. But how about a gift basket? I could give him some
toiletries, and ... oh, I don't know. Maybe he wouldn't want any of
that stuff."

Barr said, "He's married, you know. And has twin boys. They live
on a tulip farm outside of town. They seem more rural than arty."

"Do your parents like art?" I asked. "Or do they prefer to decorate with dead animal heads?"

"I don't think you want to know the answer to that question."

"Oh"

Meghan laughed.

"But yes," Barr said. "There is some very nice art in the lodge,
wedged in among the elk antlers and Indian blankets. Point made.
I'm sure Rocky Kaminski and his family would appreciate anything the CRAG crew wants to give them."

I laughed.

"What?" Meghan asked.

I shook my head. How could I explain the image of one of
Irene Nelson's menopausal ladies that had danced across my mental screen? No doubt Ariel's brother would just love one of those
sculptures.

Better to stick to soap and the most ubiquitous comfort offering of all: food.

I was fast asleep the next morning when my cell phone began blaring "Sympathy for the Devil" on my bedside table.

"That's it," I mumbled as I groped for the offending noise. "I'm
getting a mellower ring tone. Hello?"

"Get up, get out of bed. Get up, you sleepyhead," Barr sang into
the phone.

I peered at the clock. Seven a.m. "Don't you know it's impolite
to call before the civilized hour of nine a.m.?"

"That's why I didn't call the house phone. Besides, you're always up this early."

"Make a note: not always." I didn't mention that the evening
before I'd begun reading a mystery by Jane Isenberg and couldn't
go to sleep until I'd finished it.

"Okay, grumpus. You want me to call back later? Or do you
want to know what I found out about the nasty phone call Ariel's
roommate told you about?"

I pushed back the covers and swung my bare feet to the floor.
"You've already checked phone records?"

"Hey, the cadets have to have something to do during the
graveyard shift."

"What a resourceful man. So? Was it Chris?"

"No. She didn't call Ariel's cell phone, because we already
checked that. And she didn't call the house, either. At least not from
her cell or home."

"Hmm. Well, a negative isn't very useful."

"However, there was a call to the apartment last week which is
curious."

I perked up at that.

"And this is where you come in," he continued. "The call was
from Felicia Beagle's cell phone."

"Oh, wow. Ariel really got around. I suspected something was
going on from the way Jake acted."

"Maybe you're not the only one who suspected something was
going on. And maybe someone else at CRAG knows for sure.
You're going over there today to pack up Ariel's art, right?"

"I have to call some people, but that's the plan."

"Well, my dear, I will await your report."

"You know you're getting downright scary about asking me to
do your snooping, right?"

"We talked to Jake and Felicia, and got nothing. Complete
stonewall. A few rumors here and there never hurt a police investigation." His voice changed then. "I want this killer, Sophie Mae.
So does Robin."

I thought of Ariel, small and broken and lifeless. I didn't even
like her, and it turned out a lot of other people didn't either. But I
had to agree with Barr; I wanted her killer brought to justice, too.
No one deserved what had happened to her.

"I'll call if I find out anything."

I used to dream of traveling. I used to, at the very least, go hiking
in the Cascades a couple of days a month in the summer. Now, with my own business to run, there wasn't time. At some point
work had simply taken over my life.