It wasn’t long before Iris came in, followed by another young woman. Her petite nose, wide mouth, and slim build were like her mother’s, but her hair was light brown with lots of highlights. I was happy to see Zoe already wore the spelled necklace Cookie had made. I called out a greeting and went back to ringing up two loaves of sourdough bread for one of our regular customers.
I’d told Lucy they would be stopping by on their way to Zoe’s dad’s house. As soon as she saw the young women, she hurried over and led them to the sofa, which she’d had the foresight to place the reserved sign by. Soon they were drinking the special herbal sweet tea I’d brewed and nibbling on rose-and-violet shortbread cookies.
The herbal goodness appeared to work its magic—literally—on both Iris and Zoe, as they visibly relaxed and even laughed a few times. After about ten minutes, I went over and introduced myself.
“Hi, Katie,” Zoe responded. “It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for letting Iris borrow your car.”
“No problem. I’m sorry about your mom.”
She gave a sad smile. “Thanks. I’m still taking it in.”
“Oh, hon. I can only imagine.” I picked up her empty glass. “Can I get you more tea?”
“No, thanks. I think we need to get going. As it is, Iris is going to miss her class this afternoon. If I’d realized—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Iris said. “Please.”
I frowned. “Your class isn’t until three thirty, is it?”
“Yeah,” Iris answered. “But I’d have to take the bus after I drop your car back here, and it would be half over by then. It’s no biggie.”
I thought for a moment. “Ben and Lucy can handle things here until closing. Would I be imposing if I came along? We can drop Zoe at her dad’s, and then I’ll drop you right at school, Iris. You’ll have lots of time that way.”
They looked at each other.
“I totally get it if you guys want more one-on-one time, though,” I said. “It was just a thought.” Also, it would be a good way for me to meet Leigh’s ex.
Zoe smiled. “I’m happy for the ride, and I don’t want Iris to miss class. Thank you so much.”
I looked at Iris, and she nodded enthusiastically. “That would be great, Katie. If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” I reached back to untie my apron strings. “I’ll just get my bag and we can go. Iris, did you park in the garage?”
“Found a spot right across the street.” She stood and gathered their dishes. “We’ll meet you out there.”
“Perfect,” I said, and hurried back to tell Lucy—and Mungo—I’d be gone for a while.
I followed Zoe’s directions to a newly built neighborhood on the edge of Midtown. After a couple of wrong turns, we stopped in front of a beige-gray two-story with a two-car garage and a flowering plum in the middle of the neatly trimmed front lawn.
“Sorry I had you turn a street too soon,” she said as she exited the passenger seat. “It was Juliette’s house, and I was already in college when they got married. I’ve only been here a couple of times.”
“No worries,” I said cheerfully. I was sure I couldn’t have found it again without feeding the address into GPS. All the houses looked the same, from the cookie-cutter architecture to the single tree planted in the front yard to the font of the house number spray-painted on the curb next to the driveways. Every garage door had the same window configuration, and every entry door had three poured-concrete steps leading to it. This neighborhood’s HOA had to be downright militant.
Iris unfolded herself from the back seat of the Bug and joined us on the sidewalk. I retrieved Zoe’s bag from the trunk, and we walked up the steps. Zoe seemed suddenly nervous, and she stopped without reaching for the doorbell.
“Your dad’s expecting you, isn’t he?” Iris asked, apparently picking up on the same thing I was.
Zoe nodded and opened her mouth to speak when the door flew open. Startled, she stood slack-jawed for a few moments before snapping her lips back together and narrowing her eyes.
“Juliette,” she said by way of greeting. Her tone wasn’t exactly friendly.
Neither was the response. “Saw you out here on my doorbell camera. Took you long enough to get here. Was your plane late or something?”
The speaker was a woman in her mid-forties who was about my height. She wore a sundress with a floral paisley pattern, and her wedge sandals boasted rhinestones while showing off bright pink toenails. The white-blond hair that fell to her shoulders looked dry and overprocessed, with flyaway strands that surrounded her head like a nimbus in the backlit doorway. Her skin had the tint of a not-great spray tan. But it was her eyelashes that made it hard not to stare—they were thick, a third of an inch long, and jet black. Combined with her blond hair, they made her look just a wee bit like a Muppet.
Unkind, but true. Plus, I didn’t like how she talked to Leigh’s daughter.
“No,” Zoe said. “My plane was on time. This is right about when I said I’d arrive.” She leaned to the side, trying to see around Juliette. “Dad texted and said he couldn’t come get me. Is he here?”
Juliette half smiled. “Nope.”
Zoe looked puzzled. “But he knew—”
“He’s over at Finkel, Bumgartner, and Tott.”
The skin tightened across Zoe’s face, and the color drained from her cheeks.
“What’s wrong?” I rested my fingertips lightly on her arm.
“Who’re you?” Juliette demanded, as if she suddenly realized Zoe hadn’t arrived alone.
“We’re friends of Zoe’s,” I said shortly and turned my attention back to the young woman beside me.
Zoe turned and looked at me full-on. “FBT is the law firm that handles my trust.”
I must have looked confused.
“My grandfather left money to me in the form of a trust that was administered by my mother until I’m twenty-one. I suppose my father will take over now.”
“Darn tootin’ he will,” Juliette said.
I felt my dislike of her blooming with every word that came out of her mouth.
Zoe looked at her with alarm, then her eyes hardened in suspicion.
Juliette smiled.
“He had to go today?” Zoe asked. “Instead of meeting me at the airport?”
“No time like the present and all that,” Juliette said with a wave of her hand. “You coming in or not? Walker made me make up the guest bedroom.”
I stared, stunned by this woman who had apparently taken the place of Leigh in Zoe’s father’s heart.
Unbelievable.
“Not.” Zoe said the word with quiet emphasis and turned back toward the Bug.
She marched down the steps, dragging her roller bag behind her. After one glance back at the startled woman in the doorway, Iris and I quickly followed. Without a word, I opened the trunk and tossed the bag back in, and by the time I got to the driver’s side, the other two were already pulling on their seat belts.
“Hey!” Juliette called. “You can’t do that! Your dad’s gonna be pretty mad.”
Zoe ignored her. I glanced over as we pulled away and saw her eyes were filled with tears and her jaw was clamped so tight the muscles stood out in her neck.
“You can come to my house,” Iris said. “I have an apartment, sort of, in my stepmother’s basement. It’s not very big, but you can stay as long as you want.”
“Zoe,” I said, before she could take Iris up on her offer, “you have an aunt in town, don’t you? Your mother’s sister?”
She swallowed and managed to unclench her jaw enough to say, “Yes. Aunt Calista lives in Grandpa’s old house.”
“Would you like me to take you there?”
A few seconds passed, and then she nodded. “I think so. I don’t know if she’ll want me, either, but I guess I can try.”
Her words broke my heart, and I sent out a prayer to the universe that Aunt Calista would welcome this grieving young woman with open arms.
“Thanks for offering, Iris. I might have to take you up on it. But if Calista will let me stay with her for a few days, she’s got tons of room. Besides, she’s family, and I feel like, well, you know . . .” She trailed off.
“Of course.” Iris reached forward from the back seat and put her hand on Zoe’s shoulder. “Why don’t you call her?”
Zoe blinked, then said, “Duh. My brain isn’t working very well.”
“Go easy on yourself,” I said.
She made the call, which was picked up immediately. When Zoe explained the situation and asked her aunt if she could stay with her, we could all hear the enthusiastic response on the other end.
I guess I don’t have to use the excuse of returning the scrimshaw bookmark to talk to Calista after all. I’ll have to remember to ask her if it’s hers.
However, I’d hoped to meet Leigh’s ex on this venture, and now I had no idea how to manage that.
Zoe was smiling when she hung up. “She’s kind of kooky, but I love her.”
“She’s got to be better than Juliette,” Iris muttered from behind us.
I shot her a look in the rearview mirror.
However, Zoe tipped her head to the side and looked thoughtful. “I don’t know Juliette very well, but I don’t think she likes the idea of sharing Dad with me. Honestly, I was pretty upset when they married so quickly after Mom and Dad got the divorce, didn’t want to go to the wedding or have anything to do with them. But I did go, and she seemed nice enough, and Dad seemed happy. I had to admit he wasn’t happy with Mom.” She fell quiet for a few seconds and then said, “He complained a lot about how she kept total control of her family’s money. I guess that’s not a problem anymore.” She sighed. “At least until I turn twenty-one in another year and a half.”
Iris and I exchanged a glance in the rearview mirror.
“What does your dad do for a living?” I asked.
“He manages things.”
That was what Iris had said. “What kinds of things?” I asked.
“He used to manage a bookstore, but was let go. Then he managed an appliance store until the owners decided to close it, and for a little while a restaurant, but then that went under. He’s looking for another position.” She sighed. “Or he might decide he just wants to manage my trust. It’s pretty big.”
The thought made my stomach turn. It didn’t sound like Walker Stokes was very good at managing things.
I changed the subject. “Did your mom have a boyfriend? Or whatever you’d call it. Was she seeing anyone?”
Zoe gave the tiniest of shrugs. “She didn’t say anything, but that was like her, even with me. I don’t think she’d talk about anyone she was involved with unless it got pretty serious. Mom was a very private person.”
I nodded and drove in silence for another block.
Suddenly Zoe said, “You know, I think there might have been someone.”
“Something she said?” Iris asked from the back seat.
“No . . .” her friend said, staring out the windshield as if looking at a memory. “It’s just that when I came home the Friday before Labor Day, she told me to come by the gallery when I got into town. I’d driven down from Atlanta with friends instead of flying like today,” Zoe explained. “Anyway, I went there, but no one answered. I don’t have a key to the gallery, so I went around to the back entrance. No answer there, either, so I went on to the house. She came home a little later—said she’d just missed me. But when I went around to the back of the gallery, I heard voices inside. A man’s and a woman’s. I didn’t hear much of what they were saying, but it sounded . . . intimate.” She swallowed. “That’s when I left. The last thing I wanted was to interrupt something like that.”
“Ugh,” Iris said.
Zoe made a face. “She had a right to see anyone she wanted, I guess. I hinted around the next day, but she never admitted to anything. I let it drop.”
A boyfriend would be on Quinn’s suspect list—if he knew about him. It didn’t seem like it would be that hard to find out who he was. Maybe it was about time I checked in with the detective.
We had to park a few doors down from the large house in the Victorian district where Zoe’s aunt lived. It was a beautiful structure with a huge bay window half hidden by overgrown lilacs, painted a creamy light yellow with decorative gingerbread trim in two shades of green, orange, and blue. A round turret rose from the second story on the right, and to the left, the deep porch, supported by wide columns, had been recently painted traditional haint blue. Comfortable outdoor furniture sprawled across the porch, and the far end was completely shadowed by a huge, twisting wisteria. The gardens near the house were messes of bright overgrown blooms and tangles of weeds, all thriving together in chaotic neglect. Clumps of weeds, mostly yellow nutsedge and purple blooming mallow, studded the small lawn, which was in desperate need of a mower. The place had an air of neglect, but with the tidy, inviting porch and sparkling birdbath, I could see it was a kind of curated neglect.
Some things were important to the inhabitant, but a lot of things simply weren’t.
As we approached, the front door flew open, and Calista Markes ran down the steps.
“Zoe! Honey!” She wrapped the young woman in a bear hug. I could feel the genuine love she felt for the girl, and some of my worry abated.
Zoe dropped her bag and returned the embrace, burying her face into her aunt’s shoulder and murmuring, “Hi, Calista,” in a muffled voice.
Suddenly, Calista pushed away and held her niece at arm’s length. “How are you holding up, honey?”
“I’m okay.” She sounded a little tentative, but I thought she really would be okay with time—and the help of her aunt.
Anger flared at her father, but I tried to tamp it down. I didn’t know the whole situation, and I wasn’t in a position to judge.
Honestly, I judged anyway.
So did Calista, apparently, because she said. “What the heck is the matter with your dad?”
Zoe opened her mouth to speak, but her aunt barreled on.
“And why did he have to pick now to be so hard-hearted? Though for all I know, he never stopped, you know? Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. He’s such a narcissist. I mean, your mama was, too, pretty self-involved, but at least she wasn’t cruel. But don’t you worry—” Her gaze fell on Iris and me standing there, and she stopped herself, realizing she had an audience. Her expression sharpened as she tried to place me.
I stepped forward and held out my hand. “Katie Lightfoot. I work at the Honeybee Bakery. And this is Iris Grant. She’s an old friend of Zoe’s and picked her up from the airport. She works at the bakery, too.”
Recognition flooded Calista’s face, and she stepped right past my outstretched hand to give me a big hug, and then did the same to a surprised Iris.
“Thank you so much, girls, for taking care of little Zoe here!”
Behind her, Zoe rolled her eyes.
“I guess you were friends of Leigh’s, too?” The last words came out as a question. She was wondering why I was there.
“We were acquainted with Leigh,” I clarified. “I came along to give Zoe a ride.”
Zoe’s hand rose, and she fingered the crystal beads on her new necklace. She seemed calm in spite of everything, and I silently thanked Cookie for her foresight in making the comfort amulet.
“I’ll call Dad later,” she said. “Calista, can we go inside? I’m melting out here.”
“Of course, honey. Let’s all go in. I have some fresh lemonade.”
Iris started to protest, but I spoke before she could. “We have a few minutes before we need to get you to class, don’t we?”
She followed my lead. “A few.”
“Okay, then. Come on inside,” Calista said.
The inside of Calista’s house had the same flavor as the outside—expensive antiques, worn carpet, a fine layer of dust on various knickknacks and picture frames, ornate woodwork carved more than a century before—all suffering from a kind of benign neglect. Beneath the scent of recently made toast, the air smelled like an old lady’s closet, a mix of mothballs and cedar and age.
We went through the living room to the dining room. The table was piled high with bolts of vinyl in bright patterns—zebra and leopard print, brilliant florals, paisleys, and various leaf prints. Among them were several completed head coverings, ranging from cutesy bow-laden versions to a design I could imagine Nefertiti wearing.
“What’s all this, Calista?” Zoe asked.
Her aunt stopped in the doorway of the kitchen and turned. “Oh, that’s my new business! Designer shower caps! They’re awesome.”
I walked over and picked up a finished cap. “This is beautiful.” Rather than the ruffle-edged type I’d seen before, this cap looked more like a turban, classy and fashionable. Mrs. Standish came to mind. “Seriously, I know people who would wear this as a hat.”
“Oh, thank you! I want them to be different, you know? To stand out, but still be practical.” She wrinkled her nose. “Of course, Leigh thought I was crazy, refused to invest in my business, or in me, but I’ll get the money anyway.” She made a wide gesture. “This old house is worth something, after all.”
“You sold Grandpa’s house?” Zoe asked, obviously aghast at the idea.
“It’s not his house now.” Calista sounded bitter. “I’m going to mortgage it. Leigh had some notion of trying to stop me, some legal maneuver, but I’m going ahead. Carpe diem, right? Oh, don’t look like that, hon! I’ll be able to pay off the family digs in no time, once my shower caps hit the market.”
Zoe looked sick, and I figured her confidence regarding her aunt’s business acumen matched her mother’s. Calista didn’t seem to notice. She blithely continued into the kitchen and started pulling glasses from the cupboard.
Soon we were all sitting around the enormous butcher block kitchen table, sipping lemonade and learning about the shower cap business. Calista assured us there was a market, and a very upscale one at that.
“Leigh just never believed in me,” she said with a sigh.
I wondered if Zoe was getting tired of her aunt complaining about her sister, so I bluntly changed the subject to the one we’d been talking about in the car.
“Was Leigh seeing anyone?” I asked.
Calista blinked, then looked at her niece. “I’d heard a rumor that she was seeing someone. Maybe someone she shouldn’t have been, as a matter of fact.”
Zoe lifted an eyebrow. “Are you saying my mother was involved with a married man?”
Her aunt shrugged. “Where there’s smoke there’s fire, you know.”
“That doesn’t exactly sound like her,” Zoe said, fingering her necklace. I was glad to see she didn’t appear upset.
Iris did, though. I could sense her discomfort as she rose. “I’m sorry. I need to be getting to class now.”
I stood up as well. “Right. Calista, it was nice chatting with you. Best of luck with your shower caps. Zoe, you give us a shout if you need anything, all right?”
Calista waved that away. “Don’t worry. Daddy’s old car is in the garage. She can drive that to her heart’s content.”
Zoe smiled at me, aware that I hadn’t just been talking about transportation. “Thanks. I will.”
As we showed ourselves out, I heard Calista say, “I have an Etsy shop for now, but I’m working on getting a manufacturing contract, and they’ll be everywhere! I call them Shower Chapeaus. They have PEVA linings, which is way better for the environment.”
At the door, I turned and went back to the kitchen. “Calista?”
They looked up from the table.
“We found a pretty fancy bookmark at the Honeybee after your meeting there. It’s scrimshaw on ivory, surrounded by red stone—ruby or garnet. Is it yours?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. That’s Jo’s. It’s a family heirloom.”
“I’ll get it back to her. What’s the best way to get a hold of her?”
Calista considered. “Most of the time, she’s at the gym she runs with her husband. Sterling Fitness. I think I have her number here somewhere, though.” She started to get up.
“No worries,” I said. “I’ll drop the bookmark by the gym. Thanks.”
Iris was waiting outside. “Are you sure it’s okay to leave Zoe here?”
I sighed. “For now. She knows she can call. I don’t think Calista means any harm. She’s just oblivious that her comments about Leigh might make Zoe uncomfortable.”
“Seems to run in that family,” Iris muttered.
Though I agreed, I kept silent. I also kept silent about the possible new murder motive we’d uncovered. Leigh had been going to throw a monkey wrench into Calista’s big Shower Chapeaus business plans.
Now she wouldn’t be a problem.