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“I THINK WE SHOULD CHECK out Paula’s house,” Zoe announced that night at dinner.
“What?” Lauren stared at her cousin.
“Brrt?” Annie sat next to Lauren at the kitchen table.
“It makes total sense,” Zoe said. “What if the hair dryer used to kill Paula was Rhonda’s expensive one?”
“Wouldn’t the police have discovered that by now?” Lauren asked.
“Then Rhonda would have been arrested, wouldn’t she? Not telling us how Paula practically stole her hair dryer. So if we go to Paula’s house, we can see if she has a hair dryer. If she does, and it’s a good brand, then we can surmise that Rhonda didn’t kill Paula – or at least use her own hair dryer to do it.”
“That’s breaking and entering.” Lauren sounded shocked.
“Not if we can find a key,” Zoe replied. “I bet she has a spare key under a rock or something. Ooh, inside a fake rock.”
“That still doesn’t make it right,” Lauren told her.
“What if she has some plants that need watering?” Zoe countered. “We could be saving their lives. I bet no one is looking after her house, since it sounds like she made enemies wherever she went.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Lauren shook her head. “Why don’t you tell the detective about Rhonda lending her expensive hair dryer to Paula?”
“I already did,” Zoe admitted. “Before we closed, when you were mixing up cupcake batter for the morning. He didn’t seem to be impressed with my info.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So.” Zoe scraped back her chair. “I’m going to snoop around Paula’s house tonight. You can come with me, or stay home. I’ll understand if you don’t want to go.”
“Brrt?” Annie asked.
“I don’t think Lauren would let you come with me,” Zoe explained.
“That’s for sure.” Lauren made her voice firm. “You can mind the cottage for us – if I decide to go with Zoe.” She turned to Annie.
“Brrt.” Annie’s lower lip pushed out slightly.
***
A FEW HOURS LATER, Lauren found herself accompanying her cousin. It was a dark night, with very few stars out, and the moon was only a quarter sliver.
“I must be mad,” she grumbled as she parked the car a few houses down from Paula’s. “How do you know where she lived, anyway?”
“I overheard Rhonda and Jeff when we left them to their coffee this afternoon,” Zoe said. “I wasn’t even trying to eavesdrop – it just happened. Jeff said he didn’t know what was going to happen to the house, even though Paula got it in the divorce. Apparently she was an only child, and her parents moved to Costa Rica when they retired so their social security would go further.”
“Is he going to contact them?” Lauren asked.
“He told Rhonda the police were handling all that.”
“So her parents couldn’t be the killers,” Lauren assumed.
“Not unless they zipped over here and zipped straight back. But there would be a record of their flight details and their passports,” Zoe said.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lauren glanced down at her outfit. Black sweater, black pants, even a black beret that Zoe had found in her closet. Blue disposable gloves and white sneakers ruined the monochromatic sleuthing attire.
“Yes,” Zoe insisted, glancing down at her own onyx outfit of jeans, sweater, sneakers, and beanie. “I think our snooping makes a difference. We’ve helped catch four murderers so far.”
“And nearly got hurt ourselves,” Lauren said ruefully.
“This time will be different,” Zoe told her. “All we have to do is sneak into Paula’s house, check for hair dryers, and sneak back out.”
“Only if we find a key,” Lauren cautioned. “We are not breaking and entering.”
“Okay.” Zoe sighed. “I guess if we did that, it might put a crimp in your relationship with Mitch.”
“Maybe.” She hadn’t even thought of that. What would Mitch’s reaction be if she was locked up in jail? Would he bail her out? Or deny knowing her? Even as that last thought flitted through her mind, she knew Mitch would never do that. He would definitely bail her out. But after that? She hoped their relationship would never have to go there.
They climbed out of the car and walked down the street. Lights winked from some of the houses. Others were in complete darkness.
“People must go to bed early around here,” Zoe murmured.
“It’s nearly eleven.” Lauren glanced at her watch.
“It won’t take long,” Zoe assured her. “In and out.”
“Were you a cat burglar in a previous life?”
“No, but it’s an intriguing thought.” Zoe grinned. Lauren made out her features under the streetlamp they’d just passed.
“Here.” Zoe tapped her arm a few seconds later. She led the way up the driveway until they were at the side of the small Victorian house. “She might have had a key for the back door.”
“What about for the front door?”
“We might look conspicuous,” Zoe whispered.
Lauren raised an eyebrow, but followed her cousin’s lead, looking around for a rock that could be covering up a key.
Zoe dug out her phone and turned on the flashlight app.
“Look!” She pointed to a brown rock. Turning it over, she groaned with disappointment. “No.”
“Wouldn’t the key be near the back door? Not along the side of the house?”
“You look there, then. I’ll keep checking for one here.” Zoe waved a hand toward the rear.
Lauren tiptoed along the drive, feeling a mite silly. Were they really doing the right thing by checking out Paula’s house? Or: entering Paula’s house without permission? But when Zoe had an impulse, it could be hard to dissuade her. And Zoe’s theory had made Lauren curious – had Paula been strangled by Rhonda’s expensive hair dryer? Or by someone else’s?
Lauren turned over a rock near the back door. Nothing. Then she froze. A faint jingle sounded from it. Her eyes widened. Had Zoe been correct when she’d surmised that Paula might have a spare key hidden in a faux stone?
Lauren picked it up and studied it. She shook it. Jingle. She aimed the flashlight on her phone at the rock and turned it over. There was white plastic backing on it.
She pulled it open, and shook out the key into her palm.
“Zoe!” she hissed. “I’ve found it!”
“What?” Zoe raced over. Her voice was the only sound apart from a faint car engine in the distance.
Lauren held out the house key.
“Yes!” Zoe charged toward the back door.
“Shh!”
Lauren watched her cousin insert the key into the lock. The door opened.
“Come on!” Zoe beckoned to Lauren.
“What about an alarm?” Lauren asked.
“Pooh.” Zoe grimaced. “I didn’t think of that.” She glanced around. “But nothing’s gone off.”
“What if it’s a silent one?”
“Then we should hurry!”
Against her better judgment, Lauren followed her cousin into the house. They found Paula’s bedroom at the front of the dwelling. Zoe crossed to the windows and pulled the drapes.
“Turn on the light,” she ordered.
Lauren did so. The décor was cream and gold with a few fancy pink cushions on the bed. “I hope no one can see us in here.”
“The hair dryer might be in the bathroom.” Zoe rifled through a dresser drawer. “Nope, not in here.” She took out a photo frame and studied it. “Look.”
“What is it?” Lauren peered over her shoulder. “A picture of Jeff and Paula.”
“Look at how Paula is smiling.” Zoe tapped a gloved finger at the dead woman’s face. “And she’s holding out her hand. Oh, she’s showing off her wedding ring – and her engagement ring.”
Lauren stared at the photo. Jeff and Paula stood in a garden, surrounded by roses. Paula’s outstretched hand showed a large diamond ring and a gleaming gold band. She wore a fancy cream dress, while Jeff wore a smart suit.
“Do you think that’s their wedding photo?”
“Could be. But look at the expression on his face,” Zoe observed. “He’s staring into the distance and has that how did this happen expression on his face that men have sometimes.”
“Like he has no idea how he came to be married to Paula,” Lauren murmured.
“Exactly. Paula must have trapped him into marriage.”
“Trapped him?” Lauren looked at her cousin. “How would she do that?”
“The usual ways,” Zoe told her.
“Which are?”
“You know.” Zoe mimed a baby bump.
“But they don’t have kids. Do they?”
“No.” Zoe shook her head. “Because surely Jeff would have mentioned it at the café – or Paula’s friends would have said something about her child straight after her death.” She tapped her cheek. “Maybe we’d better find out for sure that they were childless.”
“Good idea.”
“Or maybe she seduced him,” Zoe pondered. “I bet if Paula put her mind to it, Jeff wouldn’t have known what had hit him – until it was too late. Yeah, I bet that was it.” She replaced the photo in the drawer.
“What if that gives him a motive for murder?” Lauren suggested. “He realized too late he was stuck in a marriage he didn’t want. He said at the café that it was a bitter divorce. Maybe he got fed up with the whole thing and killed her.”
“But wouldn’t he have killed her before the divorce? That way he would have gotten everything.”
“Maybe he hoped it would be amicable? And realized too late it wasn’t going to be. And if he killed Paula in the middle of it, he would be the prime suspect.”
“Good point.” Zoe pointed at her. “That makes a lot of sense.”
“Thanks.”
Zoe opened another drawer. “No hair dryer in here, either.”
“What about the closet?” Lauren opened the door and stared at the racks of shirts, skirts, and jeans. She looked down at the floor. “No.”
“You keep searching in here and I’ll check out the bathroom.” Zoe hurried out of the room.
Lauren had a sinking feeling she shouldn’t have agreed to this – in fact, she should have talked her cousin out of the idea. What if they got caught? Who would look after Annie if they were in jail?
She turned off the bedroom light, drew back the drapes, and went to find Zoe, ready to tell her they needed to get out of there now, with or without finding the hair dryer, when she heard a muffled shriek.
“Found it!”
Zoe stood in the bathroom doorway, brandishing a large, black hair dryer. “Rhonda was right, it is expensive. I was looking at these online a few months ago but I didn’t want to pay so much.”
“So Rhonda didn’t strangle Paula.” Now they could get out of there.
“Not with this thing, anyway.”
“Put it back and let’s go,” Lauren ordered.
Zoe raised her eyebrows at the bossy tone, but obeyed.
“Good thing we wore gloves,” Zoe said in satisfaction as she followed Lauren down the hall and toward the back door. “No fingerprints.”
“Maybe you really were a cat burglar in a previous life,” Lauren murmured.
“Yeah.”
They returned the key to the fake rock and walked back down the driveway.
“Act natural,” Zoe instructed. “We’re just on a night-time stroll.”
“Wearing these?” Lauren held out her blue gloved hand.
“Take them off.” Zoe halted and pulled off her black gloves, stuffing them into her pocket. “There. Now we are completely innocent and natural.”
“Mm-hm,” Lauren murmured skeptically, copying her cousin’s movements.
They were only a few steps away from the car when a vehicle drove past them, stopped, then parked a few feet away.
Lauren and Zoe looked at each other. What—?
“Lauren.” Mitch swiftly exited the car and strode toward her and Zoe. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” Zoe countered, standing tall. “We’re just out for an evening walk.”
Lauren stared at her boyfriend, all thought fleeing. It looked like their relationship had just gone “there”, or closer to “there” than she would have liked.
“Lauren?” Mitch prompted.
She was sure she looked like a deer in the headlights – or an apprentice to Zoe’s cat burglar but without a clue.
“You wouldn’t be visiting Paula’s house, would you?” he asked.
“I ... I thought you weren’t working the case,” Lauren managed.
“I’m not. But this case is being discussed a lot in the office.”
“If you’re not on the case, what are you doing here?” Zoe challenged Mitch.
“I was driving home from a buddy’s place, minding my own business,” he countered, frowning, “when I saw my girlfriend and her cousin near the victim’s house late at night.”
“Huh,” Zoe muttered.
“We’re going home,” Lauren managed.
“Good.” Mitch nodded. “I’ll follow you.”
“Good.” Lauren smiled tentatively.
She got into the car, her hands shaking as she clenched the steering wheel.
“It’s okay,” Zoe told her. “He didn’t suspect a thing – well, okay, he did. But I’m sure we didn’t commit a crime – we found the spare key – and we didn’t steal anything.”
“We are never going to do something like this again,” Lauren said tightly.
After a moment, Zoe sighed. “O-kay.”