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Knock, knock, knock. Blake stood on the porch of the Langs’ two-story brick Tudor and waited to see if Sabrina was going to answer her front door. Even though Todd had moved out after the divorce and into his own place, he still spent an odd amount of time at Sabrina’s.
If the rumors around town weren’t enough to confirm that, her sister-in-law was. Blake turned around and looked across Sabrina’s sculpted hedges and manicured lawn to Ryan and Rachel’s sage-green Craftsman. Probably a good thing her brother was at work, or he would be marching over to see what the heck she was doing at Sabrina’s.
Just when Blake had assumed that Sabrina either wasn’t home or just wasn’t answering, the door opened. “What are you doing here?” came the clipped tone.
Blake almost dropped her jaw when she saw Sabrina standing in the crack of the door. The blonde’s long hair was knotted on top of her head, she wore no makeup, and her eyes were puffy and swollen.
“Uh... sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you. I stopped at Café Muerte, but they said—”
“I don’t care. What do you want, Blake?”
Nice to know her attitude hadn’t changed. She’d known Sabrina wasn’t going to be thrilled to see her, but she’d thought she could suck it up if it meant talking to Todd and getting some questions answered. “I actually need to talk to Todd. They wouldn’t tell me what his new address was, so I thought that maybe you could—”
“He’s not there. He hasn’t been home in days.” Sabrina’s eyes started to well up, and she backed into the house, leaving the door open.
Blake wasn’t sure if that was an invitation to follow, but she figured if Sabrina wanted her to leave, she wouldn’t have had any trouble slamming the door in her face. The door creaked as Blake pushed it open to let herself in. Sabrina had retreated into the elegant living room to the left of the large foyer and was sniffling into a tissue.
For as many troubles as the two of them had had, Blake didn’t think she’d ever seen Sabrina so upset. “I can go. Really. I’ll leave Todd a message or something.” She started to back up, when Sabrina swung around.
“Just come in and ask your damn questions.” Sabrina perched on a formal blue loveseat with a rich floral pattern.
Blake tentatively walked into the living room but didn’t sit down. “What makes you think I have questions?”
Sabrina barked out a laugh. “I listen to the rumors. I know you think you saw a murder. Something about a clown. And your mind went right to us, didn’t it? Not surprising after last spring, I guess.” She sighed and leaned back against the couch. “It’s easier if you just ask now then go away rather than continue to hound us. So just say what you need to.”
“Okay.” Blake shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I’m trying to figure out who has access to the apartment above Sliced, and I heard Todd seemed to have information about how the apartment was laid out. I also know he was at Ozark Management the day the place was rented. So I’m trying to figure out the connection.”
Sabrina looked at her hands, which were thoroughly shredding a tissue. “He looked at the place. He actually looked at a few of the lofts downtown after he...” Her voice shook, and she cleared her throat before continuing. “After he moved out.”
For a moment, the façade Sabrina normally kept in place faded away, and a stark vulnerability shone on her face. She didn’t look elegant or superior or put-together. She looked sad, defeated. And despite everything Sabrina had done to her, Blake felt her heart go out to the woman sitting in front of her.
“Okay, so he looked at the place, but he didn’t rent it?” That would explain how he knew about the attic, but surely there was more to his involvement. When it came to Todd or Sabrina, nothing was ever that simple. “Did he end up renting one of the lofts?”
Sabrina shook her head. “He rented a bungalow over on Melrose.” Something between a smile and a grimace crossed her face. “He said it had more privacy than the lofts. I guess he didn’t want the whole town to see all the bimbos he paraded in and out.”
Unsure of how to respond, Blake just nodded. She felt bad for intruding, especially since it looked like Todd didn’t have anything to do with the downtown loft. “Sorry, Sabrina. I’ll get out of your hair.” She started to walk to the door, telling herself it was none of her business. But she knew Sabrina’s pride. She knew that her rival wouldn’t want anyone to see her look weak, even her husband.
Blake swung back to face Sabrina. “You know if you love him, you should go to him. Fight for him.”
Sabrina looked up, her eyes filled with the pain of unreciprocated feelings. “He knows how I feel, Blake. He doesn’t care.”
She blew out a breath. “I find that hard to believe. I mean Todd has made some mistakes, but he loves you.”
“Relationships aren’t always sunshine and roses.”
Roses. “Hey, before I forget, did you get any roses delivered to Café Muerte?” If all of the business owners were receiving flowers, maybe Sabrina had too.
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “I’ve barely been there lately. Besides, why would Todd send me roses?”
“No, not Todd. I—”
“Look, maybe relationships are perfect in your world, but they’re not in mine. Husbands cheat, they do horrible things, and sometimes love isn’t enough.” Her voice shook on those last words. “I should just let him go. I shouldn’t care if the Phantom hits on women more than half his age.”
Blake’s heart stuttered in her chest. “What did you say?”
“I said he can have all the women he wants. I shouldn’t let it bother me.”
“No, you said the Phantom.” Blake’s voice shook. “W-w-what do you mean the Phantom?”
“The Phantom of the Opera. That was Todd’s costume at the Halloween party. The night he was all over that blond girl—jailbait, I’m sure.”
The room seemed to spin. When Sabrina had spoken of Todd that night, she’d gestured in the direction of the snack table, where a few men had been standing. But only two of them had had their faces obscured by masks. “I thought Todd was dressed as Spider-Man?”
Sabrina’s brows knitted together. “Spider-Man? Please, Todd doesn’t like superheroes. What would make you think that?”
There was only one person at the party dressed up as the Phantom, and that was Silas. He had been the one hitting on Red’s granddaughter, not Todd. But Blake remembered how upset Sabrina had been that night.
“Sabrina, you spoke with Todd at the party, didn’t you? Are you sure he was dressed as the Phantom?”
“He was the Phantom,” she said bitterly. “He came into Café Muerte before the party started. He told me he had a meeting downtown and that he would meet me at the party. Julie from Kabloom next door had come into Café Muerte and said Todd had ordered a bouquet of daisies, my favorite flowers. I was actually excited. I thought he wanted to—” She shook her head. “I don’t know what I thought. I walked up to the roof the night of the party and saw him all over some girl. So I left. His stupid plan was probably just to make me jealous.”
Oh God. Daisies? The scene in the loft flashed through her head, and she vividly remembered the bouquet of fresh daisies lying on the table when the clown had attacked the Phantom. Her mind spun. If Todd had had a meeting downtown a few hours before the party, the timeline worked. He could have been the one in the loft apartment that night. “And you haven’t seen him or talked to him since then?”
“No, but just wait ’til I do. The gutless wonder didn’t have the nerve to show up at the café yesterday. I went by his house this morning, and he hadn’t picked up the mail, which usually means he’s out of town on business. I don’t know where he went, though. The spineless jerk won’t return my calls.”
The puzzle pieces started to fall into place. “Sabrina, you didn’t see Todd at the party. You saw Silas. He was dressed as the Phantom. He was the one all over Lizzie Montgomery.”
Confusion followed by mortification crossed Sabrina’s face. She sat ramrod straight on the couch. “Blake, are you sure?”
She nodded vigorously.
Sabrina opened her mouth then closed it again. She thought for a moment before she finally spoke. “That doesn’t make sense. If that wasn’t him, then that means he asked me to meet him at the party and didn’t show up. Why would he do that? And why hasn’t he returned any of my calls?” The woman frowned, obviously trying to work things out in her head.
Blake closed her eyes briefly. She could tell Sabrina what she suspected, but she really didn’t want to upset the woman more if she was wrong. “Sabrina, I have to go.”
Sabrina stood up. “But—”
“I’m sorry.” She ran to her car as fast as she could. Once there, she rummaged through her purse, searching for her phone. When she couldn’t find it, she dumped the entire contents of her purse out on the passenger seat. She plucked the phone out of the mess and called Kyle.
When her sister’s voice mail picked up, Blake’s words came out in a rush. “Kyle, I know you’re in training, but you have to get back here. Call me as soon as you get this.” She took a deep breath and blew it out as her eyes traveled back up to Sabrina’s house.
“Kyle, I know who was murdered.”