them into complacency. “Sure it does. Because Vickie said she was going to cooking classes, too. Fact is, she was going to Swallows every Tuesday night instead. Another fact is, when the cops asked you about it, you said Vickie always had an excuse. You told the police that on one Tuesday, Vickie said she had a headache and couldn’t make it to class. On another, you told the cops, Vickie said both her kids were sick and she had to stay home with them. A third fact . . .” I cut to the chase. “What you never bothered to mention was that if there was a cooking class and if Vickie was in it, you never would have known, anyway. None of you. Because you were—you are—doing exactly what Vickie was doing every Tuesday night. You’re all going out on the town.”
Celia dropped back down on the bench.
Glynis sputtered.
Beth slapped one hand to her open mouth. Her eyes got big. Her face turned as white as the eyeballs of the teddy bears on her jumper. When she managed to choke out a few words, her voice was nearly lost beneath another sob. “Oh, my God, you’re a cop!”
I swear, I almost laughed. And maybe that would have been a good thing. Maybe it would have helped relieve some of the tension that built in the room like the heat must have done when the sauna was working.
I knew I’d lose my advantage if I was too easy on them, so I kept my expression blank and my voice firm. “I’m not a cop.” My inherently honest nature kicked in big time. I knew it would eventually. “I’m a private detective.”
“And you think we killed Vickie!” Where she got that idea, I didn’t know, but Beth was so convinced, tears welled in her eyes. “Oh, I knew this was going to happen. I told you.” She jumped off the bench so she could face her two friends. “I told you we’d get in trouble if we did what we were doing. But you wouldn’t listen.”
Celia tossed her head. Her inky hair moved like silk. “Nobody was in trouble. Not until Vickie decided to go back to the same place, over and over again. Not until she decided—”
Beth folded her arms over her chest. The teddy bears on her jumper peeked out over her forearms. “She didn’t decide anything. It just happened.”
Glynis stuck out her lower lip. “That’s not what we were there for,” she told Beth.
Beth’s glare was monumental. “Oh, yeah? Then what were we there for?”
Celia hopped back up on her feet. “It was supposed to just be fun. Maybe you forgot that.”
“Maybe you”—Beth pointed a finger at Celia’s nose—“maybe you forgot that feelings can’t be turned off and on like the switch on the side of your cappuccino maker. You can’t recognize that you have feelings for somebody, then just walk away. Vickie knew that. Vickie was honest and trusting.”
“Yeah.” Celia sneered. “And look where it got her.”
“At least she took a chance,” Beth sniffed and said. “At least she wasn’t afraid, not like you two.”
“Afraid?” It was Glynis’s turn to be outraged. “If Vickie had listened to us in the first place—”
“But she didn’t listen. She couldn’t listen,” Beth insisted. “She was too busy listening to her heart!”
“Oh, please!” Celia managed to turn the phrase into three syllables. “You must be reading too many corny greeting cards.”
Beth threw back her shoulders. “And you must be completely out of your mind. But then, you’ve always been a little ditzy.”
“Oh, yeah?” Celia screamed. It wasn’t a great come-back, but it must have been good enough because Beth echoed it with her own, “Oh, yeah.”
And I knew I had to do something—fast—before an ugly situation got even worse.
“Ladies!” I stepped between Beth and Celia. It got them to back off, but it didn’t do a thing to soften the glares they shot in each other’s direction. I kept my voice soft and even. Like I tried so hard to do when dealing with Fi’s kids. “This isn’t what I intended to happen,” I said, as truthful as can be. “I don’t want to see you guys fight. I’m just looking to find out what really happened to Vickie.”
“Vickie was stupid.” Celia dropped back down on the cedar bench.
“Vickie forgot that there were rules.” Glynis took a seat beside her.
That left Beth, and I turned to her. I wasn’t sure why she was defending Vickie when the other women weren’t,