Chapter 18

“I don’t think we agree on the definition of ‘lucky,’” Jaye said as she and Sierra trailed behind the Newirths. “And by the way—you nearly gave me heart failure with that Betsy Dugan setup.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Sierra said, sounding properly contrite. “It occurred to me when she came into the bakery yesterday. You know, to cover our butts if we got caught.”

“You told her what we were doing?” Jaye asked, forgetting to keep her voice low. Up ahead, Kelly turned to look over her shoulder at them. For a moment Jaye thought she might have heard the remark, but she just smiled and called, “Come on, slowpokes.” Jaye smiled back and gave herself a mental flogging for the lapse.

“Give me some credit,” Sierra murmured. “I told her it was part of a prank.”

“From now on I expect to be kept in the loop.”

“I swear I don’t know how I forgot to mention it. I guess I was a lot more anxious about all this than I thought.”

“You still owe me big-time.”

“Put it on my tab.”

The Newirths had opened their door and were waiting at the threshold. Pasting good-neighbor smiles on their faces, Jaye and Sierra followed the slate path to their door and stepped inside. The house was similar in layout to Peggy’s, but the walls between the kitchen, dining room and living room had been removed to create an airy, open space. The decor was contemporary and understated. Instead of ceramic tile, there were hardwood floors that gleamed in the sunlight coming through the oversized windows. The earth tone palette of the walls and furnishings was easy on the eyes—soothing after the hodgepodge of Peggy’s house. There was a large, comfy-looking dog bed in one corner in a cocoa brown that blended nicely with the rest of the room and a plastic bin filled with dog toys tucked under a cherrywood and chrome desk. Juicy punches of orange and purple in the throw pillows and other accessories kept the space from drowning in a sea of neutrals.

Kelly invited them to sit on the leather sectional, and she took one of the armchairs facing them. From where they were seated they could see Jeremy bustling around the kitchen.

“My husband’s in charge of making the coffee,” she explained. “Jer, make sure you use the new measuring scoop.”

“Got it,” he called back.

“He really doesn’t have to fuss,” Jaye told her. “We had coffee earlier.”

Kelly waved off her concern. “Oh, he doesn’t mind. He’s off today anyway. . . . Jer, be careful about how much water you use, or it’ll be too weak.”

“Your home is beautiful,” Jaye said to start the conversation ball rolling. “Did you do it all yourselves?”

“A contractor took down the walls and redid the kitchen, but we designed and decorated it all. Well, to be more accurate, I did. Of course, Jeremy was a big help.”

Jaye could see that the flattery had hit its mark. Kelly actually seemed to be sitting a bit taller. If she’d been a bird, she would have thrust out her chest and started preening. Instead, she told them that she’d always wanted to become an interior decorator, but her mother had convinced her teaching made more sense. “You know, all the perks—summers off, the possibility of working part-time as a substitute once I had a family. My mother has a really strong personality. It was her way or the highway, as the saying goes.” Kelly shook her head. “I guess she just wore me down. You have no idea how hard it was to live with someone like that.”

Jeremy might have a pretty good sense of it, Jaye thought, amazed that Kelly couldn’t see how much like her mother she’d turned out to be.

“I see you have a dog,” Sierra said, hoping to hijack the conversation and head it in a more productive direction. “And by the size of that bed, I’m betting it’s not a Chihuahua.”

Kelly flinched as if she’d been blindsided. “We had a dog.” In an instant her tone had gone from chatty to an intense mixture of anger and grief. “A chocolate Lab named Hershey,” she said, her voice cracking on his name.

“I’m so sorry,” Jaye said, as if this were the first time she’d heard about it. “Do you mind if I ask what happened to him?”

“Peggy happened to him. She was always complaining about Hershey jumping the wall into her yard and leaving a mess for her to clean up. We told her more than once that all she had to do was call us to come over and clean it up, but she had to go make a federal case out of it.”

“How do you mean?” Sierra asked

“She filed a complaint with the police. And then she threatened us. She actually came over here and threatened us.” Kelly sounded as if she still couldn’t grasp Peggy’s audacity. “She said if we couldn’t keep our dog off her property, she’d take care of the problem herself.”

Sierra shook her head in sympathy. “Are you saying she actually did that?”

“One day when Hershey was outside, someone snuck over here and opened the gate to our yard. Who else would have done that? We haven’t seen him since. For all we know, he was hit by a car or picked up by someone who intends to sell him.”

“Does he have an ID tag?” Jaye asked.

“A tag and a chip. But that only helps if someone wants to find his owner.” Tears had gathered on Kelly’s lower lids and were beginning to wobble down her cheeks.

“That’s awful,” Jaye murmured, “just awful.” Although they needed to find Peggy’s killer, she felt more than a twinge of guilt for having reopened such an obviously painful wound. “Did you report it to the police?”

Kelly scrubbed away her tears. “Yes, we filed a report, but the police said they couldn’t do much about it since we didn’t actually see her open the gate and there was no evidence she was ever there.”

Jaye had suspected as much. “Is there anyone else who might have left it open accidentally?” she asked as delicately as possible. “Like a gardener or—”

“We don’t have a gardener,” Kelly snapped, “and there’s no reason for anyone to go into our backyard without our knowledge.”

At that moment Jeremy came out of the kitchen carrying a tray with four steaming coffee mugs and the fixings. His appearance broke the tension in the room as effectively as the bell ending a round of boxing. He set the tray on the low glass table between the couch and armchairs and invited Jaye and Sierra to help themselves.

“You forgot the napkins,” Kelly said. She was still sniffling, but her anger seemed to have been swept beneath a carpet of civility.

Without a word, Jeremy went back to the kitchen. Sierra drank her coffee black, but Jaye took her time adding cream and sugar to hers in the interest of giving Kelly enough time to regain her composure and hopefully realize she had no cause to be irritated with them.

Jeremy returned with the napkins and handed one to each of them. “It’s just so hard for us to understand how someone could put an animal’s life in jeopardy,” Jeremy said, bewilderment pinching his eyebrows together. “My Kelly can’t even kill a moth.”

Jaye wanted to ask if “his Kelly” felt the same way about people, particularly people who’d done wrong by an animal. But since such a question was likely to bring their visit to an abrupt and unpleasant conclusion, she kept herself busy sipping coffee.

Before the silence could grow awkward, Sierra tried a different tack. “I don’t know about you guys, but we’ve been interviewed by the police a few times already, and it’s definitely not an experience I want to keep repeating.”

“I know. We’ve had enough of them too,” Kelly said, sounding less annoyed and more like a comrade in arms.

“I guess finding a murder victim makes you a suspect the same way living next door to one does,” Jeremy observed as he added another splash of cream to his coffee.

Jaye sighed. “I just wish they’d catch the killer, so I can finally get a good night’s rest.”

“Do either of you have any thoughts about who did it?” Sierra asked.

Kelly shook her head. “Believe me, if I did, I’d go straight to the police. This whole investigation can’t be over soon enough for me.”

Jaye glanced at Jeremy to see if he had anything to add, but he was staring into his coffee mug as if it could help him divine the answer. “Not a clue,” he said finally without looking up.

An hour passed before they were able to extricate themselves from the company of their neighbors-who-would-never-be. Once the conversation moved past the topic of Peggy and Hershey, it limped along with all the excitement of watching cement set.

“I wonder if they have any friends,” Sierra said when they got back into the car. “It was like they didn’t want to let us out of their clutches.”

“Do you think they killed Peggy?” Jaye asked as she pulled away from the curb and headed back to the bakery.

“Let me put it this way: if Kelly did it, I’m sure Jeremy helped. And if Jeremy did it, it was because he was following orders.”

“My thoughts exactly. I wouldn’t be surprised if she makes him put the toothpaste on her brush.”

Sierra didn’t comment. She was biting her lower lip, clearly lost in thought. “We have to talk to Jeremy alone,” she said finally.

“I know; I didn’t like the way he avoided eye contact when he answered your question.”

“Didn’t he say he teaches science at the high school?”

“Yes,” Jaye said, “but I think she teaches there too. And even if you knew when and where to find him alone, you can’t just walk into a school these days. Columbine changed that forever.” Jaye felt a familiar flash of misgiving shimmy up her spine. “Please tell me you understand that we can’t help our case by sneaking into a school,” she begged. “We should have learned a lesson from today’s near disaster.”

“There has to be some way to go about it,” Sierra said. “We’ve just got to think it through. I mean, really—how hard could it be?”