“It’s getting bad out there. You sure you don’t need me to help you get this stuff out to the car?”

“No need,” Tonya Jericho hefted the paper bags, one in each arm, and headed for the door. She stopped short and turned around, “Oh, and don’t forget to tell Lauren to order more of that delicious cheese you let me try today. I believe I’ll serve that at my next dinner party.”

“Yes, ma’am, I certainly will.”

Tonya moved forward and the automatic doors swept open. Rain was sheeting down out past the awning, and, for a moment, she almost turned back around.

“Oh, just get on with it.” Tonya said to herself. She stepped out into the rain and scurried as quickly as she could to her vehicle, but she was still completely drenched by the time she put the bags in the back seat and finally slid behind the wheel.

“Ugh,” she exclaimed. She grabbed a tissue out of the middle compartment and used it to dab at her face and hair, “Of course it would have to rain like this on today, of all days.”

She started the car and drove out of the small lot, thinking about the possibility that some of her guests were probably not going to make it to her dinner party, “Such a shame, really.” she sniffed. She’d waited so very long for this moment, and was so excited to have everyone over so that she could share her news.

The roads were awful, and despite that wipers going at full speed, Tonya could barely see as she drove through the streets of Hudson Cove. When she pulled into her driveway and parked, she realized that her knuckles were white from being clenched so tightly around the steering wheel. She glanced down at her watch and winced. Her errands had taken longer than she would have liked.

Once inside, Tonya swiftly emptied the bags, and hurried to the shower. If she were quick, she would still have plenty of time to put together the fancy charcuterie boards that would serve as dinner for her guests.

As the warm water washed the chill from her skin, Tonya reached for her body wash, lifting it to her nose to inhale its delightful scent. A noise from somewhere outside of the bathroom gave her pause and she stood still and listened. There it was again.

“What in the world?” Tonya whispered, as she shut the shower off and stepped out. She pulled the towel from the rack and wrapped it around herself. Maybe the storm outside had caused a rafter to come off its hinge. She opened the bathroom door and immediately saw the figure coming at her with a huge knife clenched in their fist. Tonya screamed and tried to slam the door closed, but it was too late.

**********************************************************************

Rodney Remus was dry heaving as he stepped out of the bathroom. Luanna smirked just a tiny bit, enjoying her assistant detective’s obvious discomfort. Of course, the death scene itself, brought her no joy.

“Detective Luanna Finwith?”

She turned around, confronting the young man, “Chief Detective Finwith,” she corrected him, “And, yes?”

“I’m Garrett Sunderland. I … I’m the one who found … found Tonya.”

The guy was probably going to need a sedative, Luanna thought, as she noticed his shaking hands and tear filled eyes, “Let’s step into the kitchen,” she suggested, figuring it wouldn’t do her any good to interview him right next to the body, “This way,” she started leading him to the bedroom door, but stopped short, “Oh, and, Remus, when you’ve gathered yourself I want her phone records for the past week, please.”

Rodney grunted in answer. He was still bent over at the waist, staring at the pale blue carpet.

“So, Mr. Sunderland, can you tell me how you came to find Tonya Jericho’s body?” Luanna asked, as she led Garrett into the kitchen.

“I offered to help her with the dinner party,” Garrett answered, as new tears threatened to spill down his cheeks, “She was so excited, too. I … I can’t believe she’s dead. I just can’t believe it. Who would do such a thing?”

“How did you know Tonya?”

“She was my coworker at Quill and Ink …”

Luanna raised a brow.

“It’s a stationery store over on Monroe Avenue.”

“So, did she give you a key, or …”

“Oh, no the door was ajar when I got here. Tonya told me to get here around 4:00 p.m. so I could help her. We were going to make charcuterie boards for her dinner party. So, when I noticed the door ajar, I just called out to let her know I was here and came on in. I, I figured she was already starting without me, but she wasn’t in the kitchen and it was so quiet, so quiet …”

“So you went looking for her?” Luanna prodded him, as her eyes swept the kitchen, taking note of the folded paper bags on the counter, along with jars of fig jam and mustard, sleeves of fancy crackers, and plastic bags of grapes and apricots.

Garrett nodded, “Yes. I, we knew each other well. I’ve been here before. We were friends. Good friends. And when I didn’t find her in the kitchen, I figured she was having a time trying to figure out what to wear, so I went down the hall to her bedroom planning to offer her my opinion and that’s when I, uh …”

His face had grown quite pale, Luanna saw, as she prompted him, “You found the knife?”

“Yes,” Garrett nodded vigorously, “It was laying on the carpet right outside of the bathroom. It was … it was covered in blood, and I …”

Luanna didn’t see how his face could grow any more ashen, but it had, and she finally decided to take pity on him, “I think that’s all I need from you right now, Mr. Sunderland,” she spotted an officer on his way out the door and called him over, “Tom, why don’t you take down Mr. Sunderland’s information and then he’s free to go. We’ll be in touch if we need anything more from you.”

She waited until Garrett left and then she meandered over to the counter. She picked up one of the folded paper bags; it was from Nick and Lauren’s, a specialty food shop out on Old Port Road.

***********************************************************************

“Tonya Jericho? Yeah, she was in today. She bought some things for a dinner party she’s having,” Elijah frowned, “Can I ask why you’re asking?”

Luanna ignored his question, “Were you the one that helped her?”

Elijah nodded, “I offered to help her carry her things out to her car. It was pouring out. She turned me down, though. Wait, did she get into an accident?”

“No, but she was murdered,” Luanna informed him, “You said she was having a dinner party. Did she mention what the occasion was?”

“She did,” Elijah leaned over the counter and spoke softly, “She mentioned that she’d been left an inheritance and had finally figured out what to do with it.”

Well, Luanna thought, this certainly made things more interesting. She pushed away from the counter and took a look around the store. It was small, but elegantly appointed. The specialty cheeses alone probably cost more than a weeks worth of wages, not to mention the specialty meats flown all the way from Italy, France, or Spain. She spotted a blonde haired woman through the small windows in the door that led to a back room, “Who is that?” she asked Elijah.

“Oh, that’s Lauren, my boss.”

“Lauren, as in Nick and Lauren’s?”

“Yep. Nick is her husband.”

“Was she here when Tonya came in?”

“She was in back handling a delivery, I believe.”

Luanna nodded, absently. She took her cell phone out as she headed for the door, “Thank you, I’ll be in touch if we need anything else.” she called over her shoulder.

************************************************************************

“Here’s the guest list,” Rodney dropped the sheet of paper on the desk in front of Luanna, “Garrett thinks that’s everyone, but he can’t be sure that Tonya Jericho didn’t invite anyone else last minute.”

Luanna sat her egg salad sandwich down and scanned the short list, “Five people,” she glanced up at Rodney, who was still looming over her desk, “Hardly worth the effort, if you ask me.”

“Some people will use any occasion as a chance to throw a party. You should try it sometime.” he quipped.

Luanna stared at him until his eyes broke away and he slinked off to his own desk. What, exactly, was he insinuating? That she didn’t know how to have a good time? Hah!

“I’ve already called them, you know,” Rodney said, from across the room, “As it turns out, Leah Hanford and Tracy Smits are Tonya Jericho’s nieces. William Vanguard is an ex boyfriend, and Marc Lawson is a friend. They all had alibis.”

With a shrug, Luanna picked up the phone, “I’m still talking to them.” she told him.

************************************************************************

Leah Hanford’s house, with its arched gables, mullioned windows, and classic stone facade, seemed torn out of a magazine. Luanna parked her car next to a Mercedes and got out. Leah was already standing outside the heavy wooden door waiting for her. She looked like she could have stepped out of a magazine as well, Luanna thought.

“This better be quick,” Leah snapped, as she ushered Luanna inside. The foyer, itself, was large enough to park a car in, “I have a tennis game at the club.”

Luanna’s eyes fell on the tennis rackets sticking out of a silk duffel bag that sat on a mahogany bench next to the door. She waited for the woman to lead them into the living room, but after several tense seconds passed with no movement from Leah, save for planting an impatient hand on her hip, Luanna finally figured out that the interview was supposed to happen right there. Well, alrighty then.

“I’m detective Luanna …”

“Yes, yes, I know who you are,” Leah waved dismissively, “Just ask me what you need to know.”

“Fine. Where were you yesterday afternoon?”

“As I already told Detective Remus, I was at the salon, having my hair done,” Leah pulled a business card out of her purse, “Here. That’s Lana’s card. She’ll vouch for me. Now, I’m sorry, but I really have to go now.”

***********************************************************************

A little, yappy dog prowled the chain link fence as Luanna opened the gate. She walked up a short concrete path and stepped onto the small porch. There was an old, stained couch resting up against the chipped brick wall. Next to it was a rusted metal table with a plant on it that obviously hadn’t had a drink of water in months.

Luanna tapped on the screen door.

“Get back, Rufus,” a woman bellowed, as a dog barked loudly, “Get the fuck back NOW, you damn dog!”

The dog barked again. It was obviously a very large dog. Luanna started backing away as the door sprung open and a woman appeared. She was a small woman, and it was obvious that she was having a hell of a time restraining the Rottweiler that kept lunging towards the door.

“Tracy Smits?”

“Yeah.”

“Detective Finworth, Hudson Cove Police.”

Rufus let loose with a series of aggressive barks, and Luanna almost turned to make a run for the fence, but Tracy finally shoved him back and closed the door. She stepped out onto the porch, “Sorry about that. He’s my boyfriend’s dog. Can’t really stand him, but what can I do, right?”

Luanna gave what she hoped was a sympathetic shrug, “So, I know that you’ve already talked to my assistant detective, but could you tell me what you were doing yesterday afternoon, before your aunt’s dinner party was scheduled to take place?”

Tears suddenly sprung up in Tracy’s eyes and Luanna realized that she should have probably have paid her condolences before springing the alibi question on her.

“I still can’t believe Aunt Tonya is gone,” Tracy sniffled, as tears ran down her cheeks, “And so soon after losing Uncle Leonard, too.”

“Uncle Leonard?”

“He’s … was, I guess, my cousin, Leah’s, dad,” Tracy explained, as she swiped her black mascara further down her cheeks, “My uncle.”

“And your aunt, Tonya, how was she related to him?”

“Oh, she was his sister. Uncle Leonard had two sisters. The other one was my mom, Lois. She’s gone. I lost her when I was seventeen.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Luanna offered, remembering her manners, “I was told that Tonya’s dinner party was because she wanted to announce that she’d been left an inheritance. Care to fill me in?”

Tracy snorted, “Yeah, that. That was something, I’ll tell you. Leah was livid. Absolutely livid. I don’t know why. She had to have known that she wasn’t going to get shit from her dad.”

“And why is that?”

“Because she hadn’t talked to him for probably a good fifteen years. Ever since she took up with Wyatt, that’s her husband, and decided that she didn’t need her daddy’s money any more.”

“So why would your aunt have a dinner party to announce an inheritance if you and your cousin already knew about it?”

“Personally, I think she felt bad about Uncle Leonard leaving her with most of his money and she was probably hoping to make amends with Leah.”

So Leah had a motive, that much was certain, Luanna thought, as she tried to ignore Rufus’s loud barks and scratches at the door, “And you, did he leave you anything?” she asked Tracy.

“He did. He left me $25,000 and my grandma’s sapphire ring.”

From the sounds of it, Rufus was now throwing himself at the flimsy door with gusto. Luanna decided it was time to take her leave, “I think I have enough for now. I’ll be in touch if I have any other questions.”

“Sounds good.” Tracy moved aside so that Luanna could step off the porch.

Luanna was half way down the small path when she stopped and turned back, “Oh, I forgot to ask, how much did Leah get?”

Tracy chuckled, “She got $5,000 and our grandma’s ruby earrings. That’s it. You should have seen her face when the lawyer read the will. I’ll never forget it.”

“What was the name of the lawyer, Tracy?”

Tracy stiffened ever so slightly, “That would be John Brockman, over on Ohio Street.”

**********************************************************************

“Mr. Brockman, I won’t need much of your time, but could you tell me about the reading of the will for Leonard …”

“Leonard Jericho?” John Brockman shook his head as he smiled, wryly, “That was an interesting reading, I’ll tell you that much.”

Luanna took a seat, “So tell me.”

“Apparently, the daughter had had a falling out with him and he left her a paltry amount. I can’t remember the exact amount …”

“$5,000 and a pair of earrings.” Luanna informed him, as he sifted through his file cabinet.

“That’s right,” John pulled out the file and sat it on his desk. He opened it and lifted out a sheet of paper, “The sister, a Ms. Tonya Jericho, received the bulk of the estate, and the niece, a Ms. Tracy Smits, received …”

“How much did Tonya get, exactly?” Luanna interrupted him.

John whistled low, “Well now, it’s a fair amount.”

Luanna scowled at him, impatiently.

“A cool half a million.”

Now it was Luanna’s turn to whistle. She’d had no idea.

“All right, so you read the will that day, and Leah got next to nothing, and her cousin, Tracy, didn’t get much more. The bulk of the estate went to Tonya. What happened next?”

John Brockman shrugged, “Nothing. Though, a few weeks later, Tonya did come in to ask me to draw up a will for herself.”

Luanna perked up, “Mind if I ask who she was leaving it to?”

Brockman slid an opened folder her way.

Luanna looked down. The bulk of the sum was to be split between Leah Hanford, and Tracy Smits, with other, smaller sums going to William Vanguard, Marc Lawson, and Garrett Sunderland.

********************************************************************

Rodney placed a cup of coffee down in front of Luanna. So, he was going to be a suck-up today then. She shrugged. Fine. She was prepared to deal with that.

“William Vanguard says he knew nothing about Tonya getting an inheritance, or, for that matter, that she had left him anything. He claims that they broke up a year and a half ago, but that they remained friends on account of sharing Lulu, a beagle. His alibi was that he was at work all day, and many people have vouched for him. As for Marc Lawson, he said that he and Tonya have known each other since grade school. They never dated, and, yes, he did know about the inheritance …”

“Alibi?”

Rodney rubbed his eyes, and, for the first time, Luanna noticed that he looked tired. Too many late nights at the clubs, probably.

“Tight. He was teaching a drama class over at the community college.”

***********************************************************************

HCCC, short for Hudson Cove Community College, was familiar to Luanna. She’d taken numerous courses there over the years, most just refresher courses on police work, but, occasionally, she’d been known to take a class on lamp making, or pottery.

She made her way over to the drama block and stopped outside the door, peering in at a class that was acting out a scene on the stage. A young woman watching the play from the spectator seats spotted her and she came over, “Are you looking for someone?” she asked.

“Actually, I need to talk to Marc Lawson.”

“Mr. Lawson? Sure. Hold on, I’ll go get him.”

She returned with a bespectacled man in tow. The man offered his hand and Luanna gave it a brief shake.

“I’m Marc Lawson,” he said, “Are you thinking about joining our class?”

Luanna snorted inelegantly, “Uh, no. Actually, I’m Luanna Finwith, chief detective with Hudson Cove Police. I have a few questions for you.”

Marc nodded slowly, “All right. How can I help?”

“You and Tonya Jericho were friends?”

“Yes,” he closed his eyes and grimaced, “I’ve known her since since kindergarten. I can’t believe she’s gone, honestly. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. She was my best friend. She was always there for me …”

“Mr. Lawson, I understand that Tonya told you about an inheritance that she received.”

“She did. She felt horrible about it, actually. That’s why she wanted the girls …”

“The girls?”

“Leah and Tracy, her nieces.”

“Go on.”

“Tonya planned on leaving most of the money to them when she died. Of course, she didn’t realize that that was going to happen so soon,” Marc looked devastated as he continued, “She had no real use for the money.”

“So, if she didn’t want the money, and she thought it was unfair that it had been left to her, why didn’t she just give it to them, then,” Luanna asked the question that had been on her mind since she’d first heard of it, “Why sit on it until after death?”

“No, I hear you on that,” Marc nodded briskly, “That was my thought too, but, apparently Tonya decided that it would be better for them to have it later, when they were older. See, she thought Leah’s husband would use it to pay off his debts, and Tracy would just squander it.”

Putting it that way gave Luanna even more reason to suspect Tracy or Leah, “But they didn’t know that she was leaving them money, because the dinner party never took place.” she mused, out loud.

Marc’s face suddenly looked ashen, “Actually, Leah did. I ran into her at an art gala last week. We made small talk and of course I gave her my condolences on losing her father. She started bad talking Tonya, which frankly, kind of pissed me off, and I told her that she had no right to talk bad about Tonya because she wasn’t planning on spending any of the inheritance that Leah’s father had left her, and that, in fact, she was going to leave it to her and Tracy.”

Well now, that certainly changed things, Luanna thought, “Thanks for your time,” she told Marc, “I’ll get in touch if I need anything else.”

***********************************************************************

“What do you want?” Leah Hanford snarled.

“I have a few questions.” Luanna snarled back.

“I’ve already told you where I was when Aunt Tonya died.” Leah made to close the door but Luanna blocked it with her foot.

“You and your husband have a pretty nice lifestyle, huh?”

Leah shrugged.

“I mean, what does a car like that go for? And this house?”

“What are you getting at?” Leah hissed.

“I bet it takes thousands a year just to have that guy there mow your lawn.” Luanna gestured to the lawn care man that was zooming around the huge, manicured lawn on a zero turn mower.

“My husband makes a very good living.”

Luanna whistled, appreciatively, “He must. Or, maybe you carry a lot of debt. Debt that could keep a man, or woman, up at night.”

“I didn’t kill Tonya.”

“You knew about her will, Leah, the one that lists you as a beneficiary of a significant amount of money. That money could go a long way in paying off debt.”

“I said that I didn’t kill her.”

“You realize that I can subpoena your bank accounts in order to find out why you might have wanted to hurry along your aunt’s demise?”

“You can do whatever the hell you want.” Leah kicked Luanna’s foot back and slammed the door in her face.

*********************************************************************

“She didn’t do it,” Luanna drummed her nails on her desk, “I know she didn’t do it.”

“It’s good that you have these feelings,” Rodney drawled, “But, honestly, all of the pieces of the puzzle says that she did.”

“What did the salon owner say again?”

“She said that her books showed that Leah had been scheduled for a cut and color on the day that Tonya Jericho was murdered, but she was positive that she’d only done a quick trim on her bangs because the dye that Leah used hadn’t been delivered in time,” Rodney leaned forward, “That would have given Leah plenty of time to do it, and, she has a motive.”

Luanna leaned back in her chair. Her gut was telling her that Leah Hanford, despite having both opportunity and reason, had not killed Tonya Jericho. There was another angle here. She just hadn’t discovered it yet.

“I think we should bring her in. Maybe a few hours under question would loosen her lips.”

Luanna shook her head, decisively, “Let’s sit on it for a bit. I’m going for a drive. I need to clear my head.”

Rodney shrugged, obviously insulted, “It’s your call, boss.”

**********************************************************************

As she drove through the streets of Hudson Cove, Luanna let her mind wander. As thoughts drifted in and out, she sifted through them lackadaisically, until one finally stood out.

Luanna sat upright as the memory formed fully under her attention; she was seeing Tonya’s kitchen. Jars of jams and mustards on the counter, but something else, too. A vase of flowers had been sitting further back on the counter. Red roses. There had been a note attached. It had read: To my love, from Nicky.

Nicky. Who the hell was Nicky? No one had mentioned a Nicky. Why not? Suddenly, Luanna screeched enthusiastically, and slammed her hand down on her steering wheel. She took the next turn into a parking lot and pulled to a stop. She grabbed her phone, “Hey, Remus, I need you to shoot me a pic of the Jericho murder weapon.” That done, Luanna whipped the car around and headed back the way she’d came, this time with a destination in mind.

************************************************************************

“Hello, can I help you with anything?” Elijah asked her, the moment she stepped foot inside the shop.

“Is your boss here?” Luanna asked, striding right past him towards the door that led to the back.

“Well, Nick is in, I think.” Elijah tried to catch her. He didn’t think he was supposed to allow her to just go in the back room without permission.

Luanna flung the door open. A man wearing an apron tied over his slacks was wrapping hunks of cheese that he’d just cut from an enormous wheel.

“Nicky?” she asked him.

The man closed his eyes and slumped over the counter as his shoulders started shaking. It took a moment before Luanna realized that he was sobbing. She reached out and patted him on the shoulder, waiting for him to get a handle on his emotions. Finally, he raised up, wiped the tears from his eyes and took a few steadying breaths.

“How did you find out?” he asked her.

“The roses. I remembered the roses. You left a note.”

“Ah.”

“How long had the affair been going on?”

“Not long. Three months. One night, just before closing, Tonya came in. I was here alone. We talked about cheese at first, and then we talked about everything,” he smiled and started to cry again, “I can’t believe she was taken from me like .. like th-that.”

“Did your wife know about you and Tonya, Nick?”

Nick’s face screwed up in denial, “No. No, I don’t see how she would. We, we were careful not to get caught. We were just seeing where things were going, taking our time.”

Luanna picked up the long, sturdy looking knife that he’d been using. Her phone pinged and she sat it back down and opened her messages. Remus had sent her the picture of the murder weapon. As expected, it was an exact match to the knife right in front of her.

“Where is your wife?” she asked Nick.

“She’s at home. She had a headache. Said she’d be in later.”

************************************************************************

“Yes?”

“Lauren Sanders?” Luanna held her badge out and watched as Lauren’s stiff demeanor seemed to collapse right in front of her. She stepped aside, leaving the door ajar so that Luanna could come in.

“I know why you’re here.” Lauren said, as she slumped to the marble floor like a rag doll.

Of course Luanna hadn’t known what to expect, one never did when they were going to apprehend a suspected murderer, but this was most definitely not how she’d been expecting it to go, Luanna mused, as she stood over Lauren’s slumped figure, uncertainly.

“Nick and I normally take turns closing the store. One night, about a month, month and a half ago, I decided on a whim to pick up a pint of our favorite ice cream and surprise him with it,” Lauren raised her face to look at Luanna. There were purple smudges beneath her eyes, like she hadn’t slept in days, “We had been going through a rough patch,” she shrugged, “You know how it can be. We just weren’t on the same wave length anymore, so I was trying to get us back on track. Anyway, I took the ice cream back to the store, but the front doors were locked so I went around back and went in. It was quiet and dark, but I still saw them, making love right there where we package the food. I died, you know? I died that night.”

“What happened next, Lauren?” Luanna asked, as the door opened and Remus and a police officer stepped inside.

“I went outside and waited. I followed her to her house. For weeks after I found out about the affair, I tried to reason with myself, I tried to tell myself that it would end and Nick and I would get back on track, but, but that damn bitch was stealing him away from me. I could feel it. I could tell that Nick was falling in love with her, and that the only way I could win was if she was dead and buried, so I did it. I killed her and I’m glad. I’m glad she’s dead because now Nick can’t be happy. He doesn’t deserve to be happy.”

Luanna sighed. She glanced at Remus. He looked like an eager puppy. She would let him have this one. She nodded and stepped back as Remus stepped forward. He knelt down with the cuffs and said, “I’m arresting you for the murder of Tonya Jericho. You have the right to remain silent …”