chips.
“Perfect.” Barry slaps his hands together. “Now we’ve got her alone. Ask her what she knows, Lottie. If I had to guess who poisoned Hannah, I’d point the finger at her competitor, which just so happens to be this girl right here. It makes sense.”
I nod because it sort of does.
Reese leads me a few feet over to a wooden table and hands me a water bottle.
“You’re really good out there. You must have some serious pent-up rage inside of you.”
“Yes, well, you would, too, if someone was trying to run you out of town.”
Barry motions for me to get on with it. “Ask her about Hannah.”
“Hey, Reese? You wouldn’t happen to know if anyone was trying to run Hannah out of town, do you?”
“Ha!” she belts it out loud and sharp. “That would be me.”
Barry claps so long and loud, I’d swear three different people just looked our way.
“She just admitted it, Lottie,” he spits it out with a smidge of glee. “Now get that boyfriend of yours over here and let’s hogtie her with cuffs and shove her in the back of a sheriff’s cruiser.”
I shoot him a look. If only it were that easy.
Reese shrugs. “Look, I didn’t kill Hannah. And believe me, I know I’m the easy target for the sheriff’s department. I mean, I hated the woman. She heartlessly stole all of my clients even when I told her to stop. She would come into my gym and tack up posters that advertised her early morning booty lift classes and undercut my prices. I was bleeding customers by the day. She was going to cost me my gym. I’ve got a one-year lease that still has six months to go. It’s not like I have spare change lying around to pay that loan off without any clients—not to mention paying the rent to keep a roof over my head. So, of course, I crumpled up her silly poster and told her to take a hike. Trust me, Britney wasn’t all that thrilled with her either.”
“Do you think Britney could have done this?” My muscles freeze at the thought of pinning Noah’s ex with a homicide, especially one that I volunteered to clear her of.
She shakes her head. “Nah. If Britney was going to off someone, she would never think to do it with a pie. She’d probably strangle them with a jump rope or something. Britney, unlike Hannah, is the real deal.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I look to Barry, and he shrugs.
Reese leans in as a tiny giggle escapes her. “Hot Hannah was nothing more than a nip and tuck beauty. She’s a socialite who had her credit cards revoked a few years back. You ever hear of the show Real Estate Kings? Her father was one of the regulars.”
A breath hitches in my throat. “I have heard of it. That’s a huge reality show. I used to watch it all the time about five years ago.”
“That’s when it was at its peak. Her dad was kicked off before the show fizzled, but basically that’s when the endorsements and appearances dried up for him. He was so overleveraged he had to file for bankruptcy. At the time, Hannah wasn’t doing anything but taking pictures of herself in exotic locations and living off his bank account. Once Daddy’s money ran out, she was left to her own devices.”
“Which were?” The crowd goes wild, and I glance over to Noah and Everett as the moderator who is filling in for Reese announces a tie, and just like that, they’re at it again.
Reese shrugs. “She was desperate to fill the cash gap. She tried everything from selling racy pictures, to dating billionaires, but she finally found her niche, bilking hard-working women out of their hard-earned money. I had a fitness class I was teaching in Fallbrook, and Hannah was one of my students. She saw me raking in money hand over fist and decided she could build a better fitness mousetrap. No sooner did I move to Honey Hollow than she followed suit a few months later. I couldn’t believe her transformation. That butt of hers that she claimed she got by way of squatting her way into a booty-ful body? She bought it.” Her eyes roll to the sky. “It was a combination of lipo and a butt lift. And that pie she was eating as she bit the big one? It wasn’t a one-off. Hannah was a notorious carb junkie. Have you ever heard of