CHAPTER
twenty-one 
AS I’D EXPECTED once I’d seen her Hollywood zip code, everything at Lauren’s mansion appeared over-the-top. I’d gone midway up the long winding drive to her house when an attendant flagged me down and asked if I wanted to use the car elevator. I didn’t know how such a thing even functioned, so I declined.
Instead, I parked on the side, near some sculpted yew trees. On the front steps, I spotted a male figure waiting. Mr. Dalton stood with a roller suitcase propped near his feet.
I strode up to him and said, “Hello again. I’m Mimi Lee, and this is my cat Marshmallow.”
Seeing his confusion, I added, “We met last night at the PetTwin fundraiser, remember?”
“Oh, right.” He rubbed the top of his bald head and said, “I can never keep track of the faces and names from the charity events my wife makes me attend.”
“Lauren forces you to go?”
“Sometimes. But it’s an even trade. I also ask her to go to my press events once in a while.”
I imagined the glitz and glamour of those parties. “Those must be exciting.”
“Not to her. She bailed on my last one after twenty minutes, but at least she shows her face to humor me.”
Sounded like a double standard. As evidenced by last night, Lauren required her husband to attend the entirety of a charity extravaganza but had bailed on his press event after putting in a brief appearance. Unless she’d had a good reason to leave.
Mr. Dalton glanced at his phone and continued, “My chauffeur is so slow. I may need to replace him.”
That gave me more time to find out about Lauren’s character. “Did she feel ill at your last event?”
“Bored, more like.” He gripped the handle of his suitcase. “Lauren even dragged her assistant there to accompany her. The poor girl had a prior engagement scheduled for that evening and almost missed it.”
I saw his limo snaking its way over. “When was your shindig?”
He gave me a date—the same day as Russ Nolan’s murder. My heartbeat raced, and I heard internal thrumming in my ears.
The car pulled up, and Mr. Dalton nodded at me before getting into the limo.
I walked up the front steps and stood for a few moments, staring at the giant pair of carved oak doors at the entrance. Why had Lauren left the party early? If she had stayed, she’d have a solid alibi.
Taking a deep breath, I pressed the doorbell. Lauren opened the door and greeted me with kisses on both of my cheeks. Inside the entryway, I noticed a monstrosity of a sparkling chandelier with knifelike crystal shards.
After I’d said hello, she led me and Marshmallow through her maze of a house. I realized that every light fixture in the home, not just in the foyer, was a draping crystal chandelier.
Her huge kitchen seemed more utilitarian than fancy. It had multiple marble islands for meal prep. Gleaming pots and pans hung from an overhead rack.
Nicola stood at a table slicing apples. She paused for a moment and waved at me.
Lauren touched my arm. “I told Nicola you’d be coming over to return something to her. What’d she leave behind again?”
I coughed, giving myself time to think, and tapped my purse. “An engraved pen. I’ll give it to her later. She looks busy.”
Nicola maneuvered to a fridge located about twenty feet away from us. From its pull handle, I realized it was a walk-in unit. She wandered into the large refrigerator and came back carrying a robust bunch of kale.
Marshmallow yawned and curled up in a sunny spot in the kitchen under a large skylight. “It’s too early for me.” He groaned and closed his eyes.
I leaned against the empty island where Lauren stood, her polished nails resting against its cold marble surface.
“I saw Mr. Dalton outside,” I said. “He looked like he was going on a trip.”
She drummed her fingers, making a tap-tapping beat. “Needs to be on location for a film.”
“He must go to some amazing places. How often do you travel with him?”
“Never, nowadays. He says I’m a distraction on the set. Plus, I learned early on that we never got to sightsee because he has to work such long hours.” Loneliness. Could that be the reason she’d visited Russ Nolan?
She stopped drumming her fingers. “It’s been like this for years.”
“Sounds like you two have also developed a system for attending public activities. He goes to your charities, and you go to his press events.”
She splayed her polished nails and examined the immaculate curved tips. “I hate those things. All flash without purpose. Not like my charities, which actually help those in need.”
“Media extravaganzas do seem superficial when compared to your fundraisers. Are you ever able to leave a press event early?”
“Actually, I did the last time.”
“Ooh, where’d you go when you played hooky?”
“Nowhere exciting. I had to run an errand.”
“In the evening?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, in a louder tone, she addressed Nicola. “Use only the leaves. I don’t want even the hint of a stem in my smoothie.”
Lauren didn’t want to talk about her marriage anymore. But perhaps her assistant could provide me with some extra info. “I think Nicola might need my help,” I said.
Lauren nodded and lowered her voice, “Yes, please. You can make sure she does it right.”
I crossed the expansive kitchen to arrive at Nicola’s side and helped her separate the kale leaves from the stalks. Then Nicola retrieved the cutting board she had used for the apples along with a wicked-looking chef’s knife.
“Is working in the house normal for your position?” I asked.
She grunted at me. With strong thwacks, she chopped the kale into small green pieces.
I looked over at Lauren, who’d pulled out her phone and was staring at it, mesmerized.
Lowering my voice, I said, “Is this a happy home?”
Nicola dumped the apples and kale into a blender. Then she retrieved a jar of local organic honey and plopped in a few teaspoonfuls.
When she plugged in the blender, I realized it’d be a great time to ask her more pointed questions under the noise of the whirring. She’d probably tell me the ugly truth. After all, there was no love lost between Nicola and her employer.
Nicola hit the start button. As I watched the ingredients mixing, I asked, “How’s their marriage?”
“I’m not paid to involve myself with their couple dynamics.”
I tried a different tack. “As her assistant, you must be familiar with Lauren’s jewelry. Last night she mentioned this bracelet she loves with a dog bone pendant on it.”
Nicola bit her lip.
“I think I saw it,” I said.
“You did?” Nicola’s eyes grew wide. “Mrs. Dalton said she misplaced it, but I thought it might have been stolen. Did you find it being hawked on eBay?”
I shook my head.
“Well, where did you—”
Lauren called for her breakfast smoothie, so Nicola had to fill up a glass of gleaming green and bring it over to her boss.
Lauren placed her phone down and sipped. She sucked her teeth. “A tad too sweet. Did you use the green apples?”
Nicola twisted her hands together. “You ran out of those. I had to substitute with Galas.”
“I see.” Lauren raised her eyebrows at her assistant. “Guess this will have to do.”
Nicola returned and placed an arm around my shoulder. “Mimi wanted to check out your costume closet. I mentioned your wonderful Rey outfit to her during Sterling’s last grooming appointment. May I show it to her?”
Lauren smiled at me, specks of green dotting her teeth. “I can tell you about all the fascinating details of my wonderful collection.”
Nicola shook her head. “Please finish your smoothie, Mrs. Dalton. You know, time is tight this morning with the acupuncture appointment coming up.”
“You’re right. I’ll catch you two in a little bit,” Lauren said, waving us off.
As Nicola marched me through the intricate hallways, I asked, “Do you happen to know where Lauren went the night of Mr. Dalton’s last press event? She had to leave early.”
“That’s easy enough to find out. I have her calendar on my phone.” Nicola stopped walking and looked straight into my eyes. “If I tell you where she went, you’ll give me more details about the jewelry, right?”
I nodded.
She checked her phone and said, “Looks like Mrs. Dalton met up with a friend. Somebody with the initials ‘A.D.M.’ is listed for that night.”
Those three letters in combination meant something entirely different to me. Not a person, but a company’s name. I knew I’d have to follow up with them later.
We continued walking and finally reached the costume arena—because it wasn’t what I would call a closet. The size of half my apartment, the room was surrounded by glass on all but one side. Only the back wall was opaque, because it held three sections filled with items: shoes, clothes, and accessories.
I spun around, feeling like I was stuck in a giant fishbowl. Seeing me scrutinize the glass, Nicola said, “I picked this place so we could talk without being surprised by Mrs. Dalton.”
Even though I hadn’t really wanted a clothing tour, I got distracted by the extensive rear wall and gaped at the amazing display there.
Nicola snapped her fingers. “Now can you tell me more about the bracelet?”
I turned my attention back to her. “Sorry—it’s such a huge collection.”
“Please describe the bracelet you saw.” She cleared her throat. “Of course, Mrs. Dalton will be so relieved to hear you located it.”
“The piece looked heavy, maybe 24K gold. And, of course, it had a bone charm.”
She nodded. “Yes, that sure sounds like it.”
I stepped over to the clothes and touched the Rey outfit with its long robe. Would Lauren wear this costume only once? What an extravagance. And all her jewelry reflected her rich taste as well. “Do you think Lauren might have left the bracelet at Russ Nolan’s?”
Nicola frowned at me. “But she never even met the man.”
“Well, I heard Russ had a lady guest over one night. That, combined with the bracelet . . .”
“You think that he and—” Nicola clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Yes, Russ and Lauren must have met up,” I said.
She shook her head, hard. “You’ve got it all backward. Russ was interested in someone—me. We set up a time to go stargazing. I actually borrowed the dog bone bracelet for that night.”
I crinkled my nose. “You did?”
“But it went missing. Only I didn’t realize until the next day.” She searched my face. “Are you sure Russ didn’t sell the bracelet?”
“I don’t think so. The last I saw, it was on the wrist of his neighbor.”
“The old lady who wears the YouTube sweaters and big pants?”
“That’s right,” I said, though I knew Shirl wouldn’t have appreciated Nicola’s description.
Nicola reached into her pocket and pulled out a box of orange Tic Tacs. “Excuse me. I chomp on these to calm down.” She popped one in her mouth.
I smelled citrus. Aha. The bright-colored candies explained the scent the dogs had noticed that night and confirmed Nicola’s date story.
“Tell me about your stargazing night,” I said.
She crunched the Tic Tac in her mouth. “In one word, horrible. Shirl interrupted our start of a romantic evening. She came over to complain about the barking.”
That sounded like Shirl’s MO. But why hadn’t the neighbor told me about Nicola being there? Instead, she’d thrown me under the bus and gotten Detective Brown to search my entire apartment.
Nicola rubbed her wrist and said, “I borrowed Mrs. Dalton’s bracelet that night, but its clasp was loose. Russ commented on how the bracelet kept coming undone. I knew I should’ve picked something else, but it was super cute.”
Sounded like Nicola had taken Lauren’s jewelry, just as she’d done with the three-layered diamond necklace. “Maybe it fell off your wrist by accident, and Shirl picked it up,” I said.
Nicola swallowed hard. “Russ really didn’t take it? I thought maybe his invitation to watch the stars had been a ruse in the end to steal the jewelry. He had previously complimented me on my fine taste.”
“Did you witness anything odd that night?”
In a pinched voice, Nicola said, “Russ did get a strange call. He sounded downright secretive over the phone, and I started suspecting he might have been two-timing me.”
“Why’d you think that?” Although I was surprised Russ Nolan had anyone, including Nicola, clamoring for him.
“I heard him say her name.”
“Do you remember it?”
“Like I’d forget. Kell.”
“Huh.” I stepped closer to Nicola. “Think back. What were his exact words on the phone?”
Her breath quickened. “I only heard the snippet from his side. ‘This is not a good time, Kell.’”
She looked so defeated. “Perhaps that meant something different than what you think it does,” I said, squeezing her hand.
Her eyes misted. “Are you saying he wasn’t seeing someone else at the same time? That maybe he had been attracted to me?”
Love was strange. Who knew which people would hit it off? Guilt washed over me as I recalled how I’d sprung the news of Russ’s death to the small group of women after doga class. If I’d known about Nicola’s relationship with Russ back then, I would’ve broached the topic with more gentleness.
All of a sudden, Nicola swiped at her eyes with her sleeve. She sprang over to the wall and grabbed Rey’s staff. Then she started swinging it around in practiced slashes.
I heard clapping from behind me. Turning, I saw Lauren standing in the doorway with Sterling. “What a wonderful demonstration. Nicola does take regular shaolin classes, and it shows.”
Nicola wielded the staff like a kung fu master. Watching her deadly swinging, a new suspicion surfaced. Could Nicola have delivered the fatal blow to Russ Nolan? She had thought he’d been two-timing her that night. Might the murder have been a crime of passion?
Lauren stepped over to me and air-kissed my cheeks. “I have to take Sterling to his acupuncturist now, but I wanted to say bye before I left.”
I looked down at her little dog. “He does look a lot better.”
“Those needles are pure magic, I tell you. Anyway, gotta run. Nicola, please show Mimi out.”
As Lauren exited with her puppy, Nicola put away the staff. Then we returned to the kitchen, where I prodded Marshmallow awake.
“Already?” he said, stretching.
“Yep, and we’ve got things to do.”
The first item on my to-do list was to see why Lauren had gone to an appointment at ADM after she left the press event. I tried calling the office to save me driving time.
Nobody picked up, and I couldn’t leave a message in their full voice mailbox. I figured I could swing by the headquarters before opening up shop.
I made my way over to ADM and found the same volunteer lounging at the scarred desk. A cold slice of pizza sagged in his hand. Pepperoni for breakfast?
“My bosses are doing a staff meeting over coffee,” he said. This business certainly didn’t run a tight ship. On the other hand, I didn’t blame the supervisors for wanting to get out of the stuffy garage-like atmosphere. Or for needing a caffeine pick-me-up this early in the day.
“Okay, so you can help me,” I said. “A friend of mine visited here, and I need to know more about that evening.”
He gave me a blank stare.
The situation felt similar to guiding a lazy dog in obedience class. “Could you take a look at the appointment calendar?” I asked.
He chewed his pizza with his mouth open, and I watched red sauce splatter his chin. This human trainee lacked the cuteness of a pup, though. “We don’t have a planner or anything like that.”
“I just need to figure out what time she came by that night and how long she stayed for. She needs the timing to, er, expense her mileage for tax purposes.” I hoped the kid didn’t know anything about the IRS. “Don’t you keep some type of record?”
“Nope.” He finished up his slice of pizza.
I pointed over his shoulder at the closed-circuit TV monitoring the outside premises. “What about that camera? Doesn’t it record images? There should be videos available.”
He swiveled to the monitor. “Maybe I can find some footage, but what’s in it for me?”
With irritation, I slid a twenty onto the worktable next to him. American Dog Makers should be paying me as I trained this youth in customer service. However, the teen seemed willing to help after receiving my hard-earned money. He pulled up some videos on the computer.
When we found the right footage, I examined its time stamp. Lauren had entered the building at eight thirty in the evening and left at nine thirty.
“That’s pretty late to have an appointment,” I said.
“I recognize that lady,” the volunteer said. “She’s some hotshot producer’s wife, so the top brass made an exception for her. She wanted to file a written complaint about the breeder of her new puppy.”
Now I remembered the formal document with a scrawled signature I’d seen in Russ Nolan’s folder. What the fellow dog show competitor had said also floated back to me, about how somebody with pull had threatened to give ADM bad publicity. The facts matched. Lauren Dalton had used her connections to take membership away from Russ Nolan.
But if Lauren had been at ADM headquarters for an hour during that time frame—and Detective Brown had said the death occurred between eight and ten—she wouldn’t have been able to travel all the way to Russ Nolan’s house to commit the murder. I scratched her off my suspects list.
I reflected on the phone conversation Nicola had overheard. Who had Russ Nolan gotten the call from? Someone named Kell.
Or perhaps he hadn’t been saying “Not a good time, Kell,” but “Not a good time. Kale . . .” Instead of talking to someone named Kell, maybe he’d been referencing another name during his conversation.
In Russ Nolan’s circle of friends, how many people had one of those unisex names? Or rather, how many dogs were called that? I knew where to find Kale’s owner, because she was the local elementary school’s PTA president. All I needed to do was peek at the school calendar to find her next scheduled meeting.
I arrived late to the PTA meeting and hid in the back. Sitting at the rear of Armstrong Academy’s cafeteria reminded me of my elementary school days.
The wooden sectional tables with wheels were pushed off to the side, jammed against walls filled with student artwork. The smell of microwaved pizza wafted in the air.
Marshmallow sat under my folding chair, scrunched down in my Hello Kitty bag. Nevertheless, his protruding fur tickled my ankles. I shifted my feet as I listened to the meeting.
Onstage, Tammy stood addressing the dozen or so folks who had shown up. Everyone else besides me sat in the first two rows to pay better attention to her speech.
Despite Tammy’s glittery short-sleeved top, she had a serious expression on her face. I tuned in to the last half of her sentence. “. . . a new fundraiser,” she said, lifting up a cardboard box.
A man with a bald patch on the back of his head spoke up in a loud bellow. “Is that candy we’re selling?”
“It’s chocolate,” Tammy said. “Rich in antioxidants.”
A woman gasped. “But not dark chocolate—it’s milk. What’s the cacao content?”
Tammy shrugged. “This is what I could get on the fly.”
Another woman waved her maroon-manicured hand in the air, and Tammy called on her. “I don’t understand. I thought we were doing a dog show fundraiser. My kids were ecstatic about your original idea.”
Tammy shuffled some index cards in her hands before speaking. “We ran into some difficulty securing the right kind of performance dogs.”
“Didn’t you say you could rent some cute Chihuahuas and have them trained in no time?” Maroon Nails said.
Tammy fanned her face with the index cards. “No time left for any more questions. Sorry, we have to go over our budget this evening, so I’m turning the stage over to our treasurer.”
A lady wearing a peach chiffon dress and pearls stepped onto the stage and swapped places with Tammy. I didn’t bother listening to the numbers and percentages she spouted.
My mind remained on the school fundraiser Tammy had mentioned. The old one involving dogs. Had Tammy wanted to use Russ Nolan’s pups for it?
After the meeting adjourned, I waited for all the parents to leave before heading over to Tammy. She continued to look down at the index cards in her hands. I wasn’t sure if she was analyzing the speech she’d given or merely avoiding an onslaught of questions from upset PTA parents.
I tapped her on the shoulder. “Hi, Tammy.”
She startled. “Mimi? What are you doing here?”
I thought of the first school-related thing I knew and babbled. “Um, my sister’s a teacher. But she’s at a different place . . . er, for now.”
Her eyes focused on me. “I see. She needs a job.”
“Well, she did just get a pink slip.” My thoughts strayed to my sister. Poor Alice. She loved her job. And although I wanted to help her fight to keep her position at Roosevelt Elementary, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a reserve plan.
“Sometimes the school will retract those . . . but I’m besties with the principal here. Your sister can mention my name as a reference.”
It’d be a great backup for Alice. “That would be a lifesaver. Thank you so much.”
Then I refocused on the murder case. I took a deep breath and gambled on my next words. “One more thing. I happened to be talking with Lauren’s assistant. She mentioned you had a phone conversation with Russ Nolan about Kale.”
She crinkled the card in her hand. “Well, that’s not surprising. I complained to him about Kale’s health.”
I gestured to the stage where she’d spoken during the meeting. “Were you working with him for that doggie fundraiser you spoke of?”
Tammy sighed and slipped the index cards into her distinctive metal-studded bag. “I tried to, and it would have been the event of the year. Kids and puppies—what could be better? Russ Nolan promised me top-notch dogs and even sold me on the idea by showing me Kale, who seemed in prime health at the time . . .”
“So did you confront Russ about your dog’s medical condition?”
“Yes.” She stood up and folded her chair with a snap. “I even asked whether I could return Kale.”
I collapsed a nearby chair. “What did he say?”
“No refunds.”
We took the chairs to the back and placed them in the storage rack. “That’s rough,” I said.
“I canceled the dog show when I discovered Kale’s poor health. Even if I couldn’t give the puppy back, I thought Russ Nolan would help with some of the medical bills at least.”
“And he wouldn’t?”
We put away more chairs.
“Didn’t do a single thing for me. So I filed a lawsuit to get him to pay up.” Tammy’s eyes clouded. “I actually went over to his house to tell him . . .”
“Oh. The day we met.” I remembered her showing up in her sleek SUV as I stared at the police-sealed house.
She cast her gaze at the floor. “Sadly, it was too late by then. And, of course, now I’ll never get a penny to help pay for the surgery.”
“Sorry, Tammy.”
“No matter. I will rise up.” She flung her metal-studded bag over her shoulder and held out a box of chocolates to me. “Want a bar? It’s to better kids’ education.”
“Okay.” I paid for two dollars’ worth of charity.
Tammy strode out the door, her chin lifted high.
“Poor Tammy and Kale,” I said to Marshmallow. “And she sure needs that surgery.”
“She was in a lot of pain,” Marshmallow said. “Told me about it when I met her in the shop that first time.” I remembered their back-and-forth barking and meowing.
“I hope she gets better soon.”
We walked back to the Prius, and Marshmallow paused near my car’s rear tire. He looked up at me. “I believe Kale’s feeling a little better. Through the doggie grapevine at the pool party, I heard that Tammy gave her special shots to numb the pain.”
I shook my head. “Will that really be enough to fix the leg problem?” Poor Kale—and the rest of her siblings. They all deserved better than to deal with bad health problems caused by an unscrupulous breeder.