"What a crazy, stupid week." Gilda filled another small bag with ice, clutched it to her aching face, then sprawled on the couch, eyes closed. As soon as she had relaxed and drifted off to sleep, her phone rang.
"You busy?" Mick asked. "I need you to meet me at the school."
"Right now? Why?" She wiped drool off her cheek.
"Now, Gilda." He hung up without waiting for an answer.
Unwilling to get off the couch, she groaned. Her whole body hurt. She grumbled about giving up karate and threw the ice pack in the freezer, then grabbed a water bottle and shuffled to the karate school. The door was unlocked, and the lights were all on. So far, so good.
"Fine, I'm here." She called out. "What do you want?"
Around the corner, Mick, Erik, Xavier, and Razi sat in Mick's office. All four appeared somber, yet anxious, and avoided looking her in the eye.
Her stomach did three cartwheels. "This looks like some kind of intervention."
"In a way, it is." Mick cleared his throat and motioned to an empty chair. "We're all worried about you playing Gilda Wright, P.I."
Her heart sank as she sat. "Did Jade call you? Honestly, I didn't mean to be rude to her in Happy's. She makes me nervous, and I babble and say the wrong things."
Concerned glances darted across the room, and then they all shook their heads in weird, prerehearsed unison.
"Actually, Mrs. Watson called," Mick said. "Her grandson saw someone lurking around the karate school late last night and called the cops. Thayer admitted he caught you."
"I wasn't lurking." Skulking maybe. "I wanted to see if there was another way in or out of the school. People saw Mick leave that day but never saw anyone else come or go until I arrived."
Erik sneered. "Did you find a top secret entrance?"
"No secrets. Just the back entrance that looks like someone tried to pry it open, and a cat who jumped down out of nowhere," she said. "Is there an opening to a vent or anything up there?"
"Nothing I know of." Mick flinched. "The door's old news. Some kids tried to break in last winter. I fixed the worst of the damage, but it's still warped where they tried to get in."
Xavier took her hand. "Look, honey, we all like you, and none of us wants to see you get hurt. Do us all a favor and leave the detective work to that sorry excuse for a cop."
"Who?" she asked.
"Thayer." Mick studied the desk top. "Has he interviewed all of you yet?"
Razi nodded. "Yes."
"Unfortunately." Erik rolled his eyes. "The guy has rocks for brains. At least he's got a good partner."
Gilda wasn't about to argue, since she held the same opinion.
"Twice," Xavier said. "Once about Walter, and once about the dent in my bumper."
She recalled the damage to the pole out back and the chips of silver paint. "Do you always park in back?"
Xavier's face reddened. "Have you been talking to Thayer? That's exactly what he asked. I told him Erik parks there more than I do."
"You told him that?" Erik asked. "Man, he said he had some hokey evidence I was guilty. He made it sound like he had a video tape of me smashing into a sign and taking down half the bloody building."
Gilda tried to make her explanation sound as innocent as possible. "He and I saw the same scraped post and thought one of you hit it."
Erik's nostrils flared. "So you think I killed Walter, ran out the backdoor, then hit the post before I left."
"It's possible," she said.
"Well, I didn't hit anything. That scrape came from a black car that backed into me at the grocery store," Erik said. "Xavier's car has a dent and scrape in the side too, you know. I know for a fact he hit something in the back lot. I saw it happen."
Mick stood. "Let's go take a look. You can tell us what you saw."
"Forget it. I need to go." Erik groaned. "I have other things to attend to."
"We all do." Mick's nostrils flared. "We're going to check out the post and help Gilda get over this need to solve a murder without serious help."
"Mental or police?" Erik asked.
Mick pressed his lips together but didn't answer.
Gilda scowled. "If you mean I should work with Thayer, forget it." When the others raised eyebrows, her face burned. "It's no secret he and I used to date. He's a jerk."
"You're not helping yourself here, Sherlock." Mick led them all to the alley via the back door. "Show us what you found?"
Gilda crouched in front of the post near the corner of the building. "This one. There's a gouge and flecks of silver paint in it."
"Should we call CSI?" Xavier asked. "I'm sure they can prove by the angle of the gouge, the color of the paint, and the phase of the moon that my car hit that sign when I pulled in, then hit this post right after I killed Walter Levy."
"Sounds right," Erik said.
Gilda didn't bother to mention the dent in the sign. "Knock it off."
"Hey," Xavier went on. "If they weigh my car, I'll bet they can even prove I lost three pounds training Tuesday night and had Jimmy Hoffa's body in the trunk. Do you think they can figure out where I buried him?"
Mick stepped between them. "That's enough, both of you. We're not here to accuse anyone. Right, Gilda?"
She winced. Not without proof and reinforcements, anyway. "You're right. It's all speculation."
Razi paused to examine the door, then seemed to shrug the damage off and headed back inside without a word.
"I gotta go, kids," Erik said. "This was fun. Let's do this again sometime. Maybe next time we can bring booze and dates and make it a party."
Xavier glared at Gilda then stormed down the alley out of sight.
Gilda closed her eyes. She'd suffered a stomach ache for at least a week before Walter died. Had Xavier tried to poison her more than once in preparation for Walter's demise? "I know he's mad, but what if I'm right?"
Mick draped his arm across her shoulders. He smelled like coffee. "Then I think you'd better sleep with one eye open."
"Great." She pushed him away and headed back into the school.
Inside, Razi stood next to her desk while Marion paced and spun a half turn at each end of the lobby while gnawing on her thumbnail. When she saw Gilda, she caught her in a hug and dragged her halfway across the room. "I should have said something sooner. Now I don't know what to do."
Gilda frowned. "About what? What's going on?"
"Remember the day Walter died?" Marion asked. "I think I saw his killer."
Gilda gasped and stared, wide-eyed. "You couldn't have. You were in your office when I called 9-1-1."
"I mean before that when I was on my way to work." Marion clutched Gilda's shoulders. "I drove past the school. When I saw Sensei Mick come out, I had to stare. I mean, what's not to like, right?"
"What else did you see?"
Marion blushed. "I followed Mick for two blocks then realized I was going the wrong way, so I turned around. That's when I saw the killer go inside the school."
Mick lunged toward them. "Who?"
"Walter's wife." Marion's eyes widened.
Gilda gulped. "Jade? That would make her the last person to see her husband alive, but she's so little. Is she strong enough?"
"Oh yeah." Mick's face reddened.
"I do not speak gossip." Razi bowed his head.
Gilda pulled out of Marion's grip. "What do you guys know?"
Mick pressed his lips shut and motioned for Marion to leave.
"Oh no. I want to know what's going on." She folded her arms across her ample chest. "If Gilda's staying, so am I."
"There's enough gossip going around town already," Mick said. "Go home."
Taller than Mick, Marion folded her arms across her chest. "Make me."
When Razi moved toward her, Marion squeaked, threw her hands in the air, and left the building. He locked the door behind her.
Gilda stared at Mick, her mouth agape. "Start talking."
He bowed his head. "Walter told us stories, locker room kind of, but nobody believed him. Then I went to tell Jade about Walter and Chloe, and she…she's a wild cat."
"Enough to tear the changing room apart?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah." Razi nodded.
"You too? Eww. I need a vat of hand sanitizer." Gilda cringed. She sat behind her desk and covered her face with both hands.
"From what I hear, martial artists get her mojo all worked up." Mick leaned on her desk. "I don't think Xavier or Erik are really her type though. You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you? Especially not Marion."
"What would I say that wouldn't make Jade look bad?" Gilda asked.
He stared at the floor. "If she had wild, crazy monkey sex with Walter first, she could've easily skewered him with a katana. The guy wouldn't be able to move."
"Way too much information," Gilda said.
Razi leaned on the desk. "What if she only came into the school to let someone else in the back door?"
"An accomplice?" Her stomach ached. The man in the yellow robe. "It's possible. Maybe she has a lover."
"Unless it's a woman," Mick said. "Walter had some issues of his own with being faithful. Maybe a jealous wife wanted payback."
"Why kill Walter, not Jade?" she asked.
"Maybe they wanted her to suffer." Mick sat in the seat beside her. "You heard Walter had been a high school teacher and Jade was his student."
"I heard." She stared at her computer screen. "Did you know all along you had a child molester teaching children in your school?"
Mick sighed. "Gilda, he fell in love with her and—"
"I cannot listen to this nonsense," Razi said.
Mick made a face. "We've been over this. He was never unsupervised."
"He was always unsupervised," Razi insisted.
He shook his head. "Gilda was here."
"Don't put that on me," she said. "I had nothing to do with what Walter did. You let him teach. You should have been here."
Mick's nostrils flared. "Of course everything's on me. I didn't have any control over any of this either, lady. You, Walter, Yoshida, Erik, Chloe, you can all just go jump in the lake." He stormed out the front door, leaving Razi and Gilda to stare at each other in stunned silence.
"I think our meeting is over." Razi locked the door then walked her home. "I hope you will not repeat what you heard. It could be very embarrassing."
"Our students would all cancel their memberships if they found out."
He nodded. "They would also not like the way Yoshida acted in class the other night. Particularly toward you."
She would have to do some serious damage control before things got worse. Maybe it was time to listen to the gossip. "So what happened after I went home that night? Did he kick you out too?"
"I went home," Razi said. "All I can say is that things did not go the way Sensei Mick planned."
"What do you mean?" she asked. "Did he tell you what happened?"
"Good night, Miss Wright." He left her at her front gate, alone in the dark, and walked away without giving her an answer.