| |
The Elbow Room’s parking lot was empty except for Joyelle’s car. This was a good thing as the lot was problematically small. The restaurant had given a second life to an old abandoned shoe factory. Sandra had always wondered where all those workers had parked. Had they all walked to work back them?
As she walked to the door, she realized her excitement was unreasonable. Why was she so hyped up? Because she had a new friend? She really did like Joyelle. It would be very cool to be her friend. Or was she excited to get the scoop? Or was it simply the garlic bread?
The hostess smiled and welcomed her, and Sandra explained she was meeting someone.
“Right this way.” She led her to a cozy table in the corner, where Joyelle was stabbing at her phone screen.
“Everything okay?” Sandra said, sensing her frustration.
“Oh yes.” She smiled brightly and put her phone down. “I was just killing some zombies while I waited.”
“Oh.”
The hostess laid a menu atop the cloth napkin in front of her and left.
“Thanks for meeting me.” Joyelle folded her hands in front of her. “I’ll let you spend some time with the menu before I bend your ear.”
“That’s all right. I already know what I want.”
“Really? I’m impressed. Takes me forever to make decisions like that. I’m always afraid I’ll miss something.” She tittered.
“So, what’s going on?”
“Well, I don’t really know how to ask this, so I’m just going to come right out with it.” She took a big breath. “I know that you’re only taking the adult class so you can figure out who killed Jazmyn.” She leaned back a little. “At least, I think that.”
Sandra didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. How had Joyelle figured her out so easily? If she hadn’t had such success going undercover on the soccer field, she would think she was an undercover fail. Of course, that success had gotten her shoved into a trunk and flung off a cliff, so maybe success wasn’t the right word. She let out a long breath. “Something like that, yes.” She hurried to add, “But I do enjoy the class and am grateful for the opportunity.”
Joyelle nodded quickly as if she didn’t believe a word Sandra was saying. “The thing is ...” She looked around furtively and then leaned in closer. “I’ve never been this close to a murder investigation before, and I had no idea it would be like this.”
When she didn’t elaborate, Sandra said, “Like what?”
Joyelle’s eyes widened a little, and Sandra realized she was wearing fake eyelashes. “Like all these people coming out of the woodwork to try to solve the case! I didn’t know there were so many Miss Marples in the world!”
That was the second time someone had called Sandra Miss Marple. She tried not to be offended.
Joyelle held up a hand. “Not calling you Miss Marple, sorry. But there’s this crazy Gertrude woman. Who is she? And then now there’s Ivan Clark, who’s even crazier than Gertrude—”
“Who?”
Joyelle’s eyes fell shut, and she took a deep breath. “Ivan Clark is a local man, and one of the weirdest people on the planet. He was obsessed with Jazmyn. I don’t know much about him other than he’s creepy and he hangs around the studio all the time, and he’s at all our events. He followed us to Washington D.C. for a competition. Can you believe that? I couldn’t!”
Was this the same guy who’d followed her? “Does he drive a beat-up cream-colored car and wear dark glasses?”
Joyelle nodded emphatically. “Yes! Do you know him?”
“No, but I saw him on Tuesday when I came out of the studio. He left after Mandi did. I wondered if he was following her—”
“Oh, so do you know Mandi?”
“No, I heard her introduce herself to Gertrude.”
Joyelle winced.
“Anyway, then this morning, he was following me down my street.” Sandra told her the whole story, finishing with the statement that Ivan Clark was now in police custody, though, admittedly, probably not for long.
“Maybe a little jail time will smarten him up. Did you find your cat?”
Sandra smiled. “I did. She came home on her own while I was out looking for her. She was sitting on the porch looking annoyed that no one was home to let her in.”
Joyelle chuckled knowingly. “That sounds about right. Anyway, I really want this whole thing to be over. Jazmyn was a pain in my backside the whole time I knew her, and now that she’s gone, she’s even more of a pain. I’ve got three hobby detectives interfering with my life.” She paused. “No offense.”
“None taken.” And there’s four, Sandra thought. Hadn’t Joyelle prayed for help? And God had sent a slew of it!
“If I’m going to have my life disturbed, I’d like the duration of this disturbing to be as short as possible. You are, by far, the least offensive of the hobby sleuths, so I’d love to help you figure this thing out.”
Uh-oh. Bob wasn’t going to like this. There was such a thing as too many cooks in the kitchen. There was probably also such a thing as too many snoops in the murder mystery.
“I don’t mean I’m going to chase anyone around or carry a gun or anything,” Joyelle clarified. “But I thought maybe if we put our heads together, this could all be over sooner.”
Sandra nodded. “Sure. That makes sense.”
The server returned to take their orders, and both women conveyed their requests quickly, eager to get back to the task at hand.
Joyelle held her arms out to her sides. “So, what do you want to know? I don’t know much about Jazmyn, but I’ll tell you anything and everything I can.”
“Was she from around here?”
Joyelle nodded. “She said she grew up up north. Why do you ask?”
Sandra shrugged and took a sip of her water. “Not sure. She just didn’t look like she was from around here.”
“That is true.”
Sandra couldn’t think of anything else to ask about Jazmyn. “Did you know that Ivan knew about this lunch of ours?”
Joyelle looked horrified. “What?”
“Yes, he told the police that he overheard you talking on the phone with me.”
Her horror visibly grew.
“Do you remember where you were when you were talking to me?”
She nodded, and her face had grown paler. “I was in my backyard, sitting in a lawn chair watching the birds.”
Yikes. “Anywhere in your backyard a creepy hobby detective could have hidden?”
She nodded again. “Lots of places. Guess I’ll make my calls from inside the house from now on.”
