Deadly Notions - By Elizabeth Lynn Casey Page 0,37
thought of it.” Leona ran her hands down the pale pink material that draped across her thighs. “Then again, doing that would have backfired as we saw, yes?”
Backfired . . .
“She acted as if he knew what room she was in.”
Leona’s hands stilled. “Did he?”
“He said he didn’t.” She heard the sadness in her voice but could do nothing to stop it. She’d held it at bay through the circle’s entire breakfast meeting and simply couldn’t do it any longer.
“Do you believe him?”
“I want to. I really do. It’s just that—” She stopped, swallowed, then continued on, her voice adopting a raspy quality. “Well, I wanted to believe Jeff was true, too.”
“I know, dear.”
She sat up tall on the bench. “Wait. I can’t say that. I believe him. I do. Milo is nothing like Jeff.”
Leona squeezed her hand. “Let’s assume he is telling the truth then, shall we?”
“He is,” she insisted.
“Then we have another question to consider.”
She looked at her friend. “What’s that?”
“Why she’d insinuate otherwise.”
Tori’s shoulders slumped. “I wondered that all night while I tossed and turned in my bed.”
“And?” Leona prompted.
“And I came up with nothing because I just don’t get it.”
“I do.”
“Tell me.”
“She’s trying to get under your skin.”
“She’s trying to get under my skin?” she repeated. “But why?”
“To cause trouble.”
“For whom?”
“You and Milo.”
“For what purpose?” Though the second the question left her lips, she knew the answer as clearly as if she’d dreamed it up all on her own.
“To break you up, dear.”
Closing her eyes, she thought back over their meeting at the bakery. She thought about the designs. She thought about the conversation. She thought about the way every male in the room stopped to stare at Milo’s former girlfriend.
“He called me when he got home. He apologized for running out.”
“As he should.”
Her heart twisted under Leona’s words. “He did the right thing, Leona. He really did. What would have happened if whoever it was had tried again?”
“She wouldn’t be an issue any longer, dear.”
Tori couldn’t help it, she laughed. But as the sound subsided, she cocked an eyebrow at the deadpan face Leona sported. “You were kidding, right?”
“Perhaps. But one thing can’t be ignored any longer.”
“What’s that?”
“You have a problem on your hands. A blonde, blue-eyed problem.”
“Maybe it was an isolated thing, Leona.”
“Perhaps. Though I suspect your problem just got a lot bigger the moment Milo ran to her aid.”
Chapter 14
“So let’s take it from the top again, shall we?”
Tori grabbed hold of her left shoulder with her right hand and kneaded the skin beneath her fingers. “Sure, if you want to, but really, nothing is going to change.”
They’d been at it for nearly an hour, Police Chief Dallas’s chat feeling a lot more like an interrogation minus the swinging overhead light and the two-way mirror with the overeager partner on the other side.
“So you’re saying you never actually said you’d strangle Mrs. Lawson, is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“We have a witness that would say otherwise.”
Dropping her hands to the top of her desk, she pulled a pencil from the wooden holder and twirled it between her fingers. “Regina Murphy heard a lot of people saying virtually the same thing. Did she say, specifically, that I threatened to strangle the victim?”
The chief’s eyes narrowed on hers. “She said everyone at the party threatened the victim in one way or another—with strangulation being the stated method of choice.”
“Well, everyone didn’t. All I did was make mention about the rope Milo tied to the tree not being a good idea to have in our sights.”
“And you don’t see that as a threatening thing to say?”
Her hand stilled around the pen. “No, I see it as a comment that was meant as a joke . . . whether appropriate or not.”
“And your friends who actually mentioned the desire to strangle Mrs. Lawson?”
She pushed her chair back from her desk and stood. “You’ll have to ask them, Chief Dallas. But, having been there at the party, I’m as certain as certain can be that they, too, were joking.”
“Do you find that people often grit their teeth while joking?”
“When they’ve been pushed to the brink and they’re trying to maintain their composure by lightening the atmosphere, yes. And that, Chief Dallas, is what these purported threats you’re referring to were all about. Nothing more, nothing less.”
He followed on her heels as she crossed her office to the closed door. “Mrs. Lawson is dead, Victoria.”
She grabbed hold of the doorknob and turned. “I realize that, Chief, and that is a shame.